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PROSE WORKS 



JOHN MILTON; 
i 

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY REVIEW, 



ROBERT FLETCHER. 



LONDON : 

WESTLEY AND DAVIS, STATIONERS' COURT. 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. R. AND C. CHILDS, BUNGAY. 
MDCCCXXXIV. 



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"5y Trp-nafe* 



AN 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 



The name of Milton is his monument. It is venerable, national, and sacred ; and yet, 
with whatever glory invested, it is inscribed, and not unworthily, upon this volume. 

To her great poet England has done justice. His renown equals his transcendent 
merits. His name is a synonyme for vastness of attainment, sublimity of conception, 
and splendour of expression. A people profess to be his readers. His poetry is in all 
hands. It is in truth a fountain of living waters in the very heart of civilization. Its 
tendency is even more magnificent than its composition. Combining all that is lovely in 
religion, with all that in reason is grand and beautiful, it creates, while it gratifies, and at 
the same time purines, those tastes and powers that refine and exalt humanity. It is almost 
of itself, not less by the invigorating nature of its moral than of its intellectual qualities, 
sufficient to perpetuate the stability of an empire. Constituting a most glorious portion 
of our best inheritance, his poetical writings are, emphatically, national works; and as 
such, long may they be revered and esteemed amongst us ! " They are of power," to use 
his own words, " to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue and public 
civility." They will be lost, only with our language : — the tide of his song will cease to 
flow, only with that of time. Having won, he wears, the brightest laurels ; and by the ac- 
clamations of ages, rather than the testimony of individuals, his seat is with Homer and 
Shakespeare on the poetic mount. To apply again his own language to his own achieve- 
ments, he has sung his " elaborate song ;" — he has performed the covenant of his youth, 
" to offer at high strains in new and lofty measures ;" — his devout prayer to that Eternal 
Spirit, " who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim 
with the hallowed fire of his altar to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases," has 
been heard and answered ! 

" Oh ! what great men hast thou not produced, England ! my country !" might we ex- 
claim with one of the first of modern poets and philosophers, when contemplating these and 
similar works. And a thorough Englishman this great poet was ! Prelates, and tithes, 
and kings, were not the burthen of his song, and therefore the poetry can be praised even 
by those whose souls are wrapped up in these things. While he soared away " in the 
high reason of his fancies," and meddled not with the practical affairs of life, his enemies 
can be complimentary, and undertake to bow him into immortality. They would fain 
suppress all other monuments of this Englishman : — it remains for us to appreciate them. 
Let us never think of John Milton as a poet merely, however in that capacity he may have 
adorned our language, and benefited, by ennobling, his species. He was a citizen also, 
with whom patriotism was as heroic al a passion, prompting him to do his country service, 
as was that " inward prompting" of poesy, by which he did his country honour. He was 
alive to all that was due from man to man in all the relations of life. He was invested 



ii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

with a power to mould the mind of a nation, and to lead the people into " the glorious ways 
of truth, and prosperous virtue." The poet has long eclipsed the man ; — he has been 
imprisoned even in the temple of the muses ; and the very splendour of the bard seems 
to be our title to pass " an act of oblivion" on the share he bore in the events and discus- 
sions of the momentous times in which he lived. Ought not rather his wide renown, in 
this capacity, to lead us to the contemplation and study of the whole of his character and 
his works ? Sworn by a father, who knew what persecution was, at the first altar to 
freedom erected in this land ; he, a student of the finest temperament, bent on grasping 
all sciences and professing none, and burning with intense ambition for distinction — for- 
sook his harp, " and the quiet and still air of delightful studies ;" and devoted the energies 
of earliest and mature st manhood, to be aiding in the grandest crisis of the first of human 
causes : and he became the most conspicuous literary actor in the dreadful yet glorious 
drama of the Great Rebellion. He beheld tyranny and intolerance trampling upon the 
most sacred prerogatives of God and man, and he w r as compelled by the nobility of his 
nature, by the obligations of virtue, by the loud summons of beleagured truth, in short, by 
his patriotism as well as his piety, to lay down the lyre, whose earliest tones are yet so 
fascinating ; to " doff his garland and singing robes," and to adventure within the circle 
of peril and glory : and, buckling on the controversial panoply, he threw it off, only when 
the various works of this volume, surpassed by none in any sort of eloquence, became the 
record and trophy of his achievements, and the worthy forerunners of those poems, which 
a whole people " will not willingly let die." 

The summit of fame is occupied by the poet, but the base of the vast elevation may 
justly be said to rest on these Prose Works ; and w T e invite his admirers to descend from 
the former, and survey the region that lies round about the latter, — a less explored, but not 
less magnificent, domain. 

The recovery of a good book is a sure and certain resurrection. The envious deluge of 
oblivion cannot long settle over such works as these. The rainbow springs up, and we see 
it on the tempestuous aspect of these times, — a sign of the storm, and a signal of peace ! 

We are not now employed on ruins. John Milton's works have been long buried, but 
they are not consumed ; — long neglected, but they are not injured. Many of them certainly 
have to do with the interests of time, but all of them are impregnated with thoughts which, 
springing from the depths, shall partake of the immortality of the spirit, and outlive the 
world in which they were uttered. Though temporal they are not temporary. There is a 
breadth and grandeur of aim in them, which embraces the well-being of man both here and 
hereafter, and renders them interminably precious. " Books," says their author, " are 
not absolutely dead things," — " they contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as 
that soul whose progeny they are," — " the precious life-blood of a master-spirit embalmed 
and treasured up to a life beyond life." — " They preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and 
extraction of that living intellect that bred them." It is astonishing that these books should 
not in our time have been appreciated by the people, and it is greatly to be regretted, not 
merely for the sake of their author, but for the general interests of truth, and the cultivation 
of learning, eloquence, and taste amongst us, that they should be so little read. Had they 
been lost, — had his enemies succeeded in their diabolical project of mutilating, or of annihi- 
lating the chief of them, — had other priests than those " in the neighbourhood of Leeds," met 
in other places, over sacerdotal beer, to " sacrifice them to the flames,"* how we should have 
lamented over our irreparable loss ! Having his poems, we should have learned that they 
sprung up out of the ashes of controversy ; — we should then " imitate the careful search that 
Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris !" We should have remembered the era in which 
he lived, and we should have felt our loss as deeply as w r e sympathized with his party, 
* See Richard Baron's note, in this edition, to his preface to the Iconoclastes. 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. iii 

who with such strong hands and dauntless hearts, wrought out for us our political salva- 
tion. Possessing them, we might have said, that we should have known more of one of the 
greatest of men, and have been admitted into the presence-chamber of his every-day soul. — 
We should have had his opinions on the cardinal points of human and divine controversy, 
and have heard him, who in immortal accents dictated the " Paradise Lost," debate, and 
reason, and argue, as an orator, and a politician ! Believing, with Coleridge, that poetry 
is the blossom and fragrancy of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, 
emotions, language, — and that no man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the 
same time a profound philosopher — we should certainly, reasoning from verse to prose, cl 
priori, have said, that such a mind as Milton's, so sober and yet so fiery, so full and yet so 
strong, so replete with wisdom and so stored with learning, with such a mastery in the 
execution of all its movements, must, if roused and excited, and roused and excited it would 
undoubtedly be by any theme or cause in which the rights of man or the honour of God were 
concerned, have been equally splendid in any undertaking; and that even in the very different 
forms of prose and verse, or controversy and poetry, his efforts would be distinguished by 
the identical attributes of power and beauty ; — that the image and superscription upon each 
would be the same ; — that with very little variation where it was possible, (for no one un- 
derstood decorum better than Milton,) the very same terms in which a critic of his poetry 
would speak of that, especially of his didactic poetry, would be applicable to his prose; 
that probably the mannerism of the one would mark the other, and that there would be 
so striking a resemblance and analogy between them, that you might safely assert that the 
author of the one must be the author of the other. We should learn from one of his ex- 
quisite sonnets, that the utter loss of sight followed, and that he knew that it would follow, 
his exertions in composing a " Defence of the People of England" against Salmasius, 

" overplv'd 
In Liberty's defence, my noble task, 
Of which all Europe rings from side to side." 

How anxious should we have been to have examined and pored over that production, which 
the world had obtained from the magnanimous poet at such a price ! If such had been our 
anticipations and regrets, what would be our rapture, to have rescued a fragment from 
the grasp of time, and have unrolled it ? 

That were indeed a bursting forth 
Of genius from the dust ! 

In the teeth of these imaginary regrets, the fact is indisputable, that these works of John 
Milton (and in this respect they share the same fate with those of Jeremy Taylor and 
others of the same age, and of equal merit) are by the vast majority of his countrymen 
comparatively neglected — that tens of thousands of readers, and diligent ones too, in 
modern novelties, have never heard of Milton as aught else than as one of the powers of 
song. How is it that the world will do justice, (nominally at least,) to the minstrel, and 
not to the man, — thrill with his poetry, and neglect his prose ? Is it sheer ignorance, or is it 
neglect ? If the latter, there is not an equal instance of unworthy neglect on record. It is 
ultimately traceable to the elevated character of the writings themselves. John Milton 
was a teacher, and this world does not like to be taught. His " fit audience," in the world, 
will always be " few." The world's taste is but the handmaid and servant of a sterner 
and stronger power, whose empire lies in the passions of the depraved heart ; which, while 
unrenewed, never can and never will cease to treat both the highest poetry and the 
divinest philosophy with mingled hatred and contempt. The world will still slay the pro- 
phet, and then piously build his sepulchre. Whether they who profess to be the patrons 



iv INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

of Christian literature, have joined the world in this good work, is another and a wider 
question. 

It may not be amiss to advert to some accidental circumstances which may account for, 
though they cannot justify, the very general indifference with which these and similar works 
have been treated. We shall not allude to the ponderous and expensive form in which 
they have hitherto appeared : an impediment however of no mean importance. 

Now that the prejudices against the regicides, under which opprobrious term are included 
all who bore part against King Charles I. in what is yet termed the " Great Rebellion," 
are wearing away, they need not be classed among the obstacles referred to. The prin- 
ciples of civil and religious liberty, which Milton and his compatriots contended for, have 
become part and parcel of the law of the land. The people feel, that the British Constitu- 
tion, by the Revolution of 1688, is based upon the fragment of the Rebellion, and that the 
doctrines of the one are settled by the other. Tyranny, absolute — Charles the 1st — 
tyranny, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is impossible. A few shadows and semblances of 
it may remain — but spectres are out of date — 

the sun is on the orient wave, 
Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave ! 

We have the happiness to live under a limited monarchy, with republican institutions — a 
mild aristocracy, a temperate but powerful democracy. But to whom are we indebted for 
these blessings ? Extremes meet. When men are secure they are ungrateful ; and when 
they enjoy those rights for which their ancestors fought, they forget the peril and toil of 
the achievement. We must also remember that multitudes in this country are too busy 
with the present, to bestow much attention on the past or future, whether near or less re- 
mote. This is the case with many, too many, who are not destitute of liberal curiosity, or 
incapable of relishing the pleasures of taste, and cherishing the liveliest emotions of 
gratitude to their benefactors. They cannot, while under the perpetual pressure of the in- 
exorable daily duties or pleasures of life, be either affected or attracted by any thing else. — 
These are causes which have been, and will always be, in action, and unless jealously 
watched, will dwarf us into a nation of pigmy " toutos cosmites." 

We shall find too, in the literary injustice with which these works have been treated, and 
in the influence which the parties chargeable with it, have exercised over the public mind, 
another extrinsic cause of the neglect that has been poured upon them. The critics of 
Milton have hitherto confined, with one or two exceptions, their labours to his poetry, — a 
quarry which they have not yet exhausted. And as they seldom have entered very deeply 
into the art itself, employing, as it must, in its evolution the language of real life, or prose, 
many, instead of being led by the one down to the other, are apt to conclude, that sur- 
passing excellence in the higher department of literature is incompatible with success in 
the lower ; overlooking or forgetting the well-known fact, that the best writers in prose 
have ever been the poets ; that energy of thought or common sense is a characteristic of all 
genius ; and that universality is the prerogative of the highest. Milton's moral and intel- 
lectual character has, for a long while, been tacitly placed under the guardianship of his 
most bitter antagonists. It unfortunately happens that the most popular of his biographers 
is his most malignant traducer. Dr. Johnson's treatment of Milton is, in every possible 
point of view, bad ; 

" Unmanly, ignominious, infamous!" 

The poetry is beyond the reach, though within the scope, of his " mighty malice ;" and his 
meagre and contemptuous references in the life of their author, to his Prose Works, are as 
discreditable to his taste and insight as a philosopher, as his creed is disgraceful to him as 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. v 

an English politician, With an eye for no beauty, an ear for no music, a heart for no 
ecstasies, a soul in no unison with the sympathies of humanity, Dr. Johnson was fitly 
doomed to be the giant drudge of the Delia Cruscan school ; a thunderer, and yet his own 
Cyclops, whose task it was to forge the bolts of destruction, and whose glory to hurl them. 
Who that (and what numbers !) have formed their estimate of these Prose Works from his 
account of them, would have any idea of their real merits ? If his report be fair and true, 
well might we exclaim with Manoah in the Samson Agonistes, 

Oh ! miserable change ! Is this the man, 
That invincible Samson, far renowned, 
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength 
Equivalent to angels walked their streets, 
None offering fight ; who, single combatant, 
Duell'd their armies, ranked in proud array, 
Himself an army : now unequal match 
To save himself against a coward armed 
At one spear's length ! 

Johnson's life of Milton is a most disingenuous production. It is the trail of a serpent 
over all Milton's works. Nothing escaped the fang of detraction. Nothing in purity of 
manners and magnanimity of conduct, nothing in the sanctity of the bard, in the noble 
works, and yet nobler life, of the man, could shield his immeasurable superior from cowardly 
and almost savage malignity. He has treated his very ashes with indignity. He made 
himself merry with the mighty dead. He trampled, upon his memory and his grave. 
And who can deny that the traducer knew full well, that the heart of his countryman, 
then mouldering in the dust of death, had ever beaten high with the sublimest emotions 
of love to his country and to his God, and that the then powerless hand of our mightiest 
minstrel, could not be convicted of having ever penned a line which did not equally 
attest the purity of his motives and the splendour of his genius. But Johnson's misrepre- 
sentations and calumnies, and that heartless faction of which he was certainly an eminent 
representative, have had their day : and inconceivably injurious though they have been 
to the honour of John Milton, sure we are that the time is fast approaching, yea now is, 
when the man as well as the poet shall be redeemed from obloquy — not by any in- 
terpretation of his opinions however honest, or estimate of his character however cor- 
rect, nor even by the panegyric of his admirers however eloquent (and some of sur- 
passing merit have lately been pronounced) ; but the great achievement shall be won 
by himself, and by himself alone. With his own strong axe shall he hew down, not 
merely his adversaries, but their errors. Let him but be heard. The charges against 
him are in all hands; here, in this one volume, is to be found their triumphant, but 
neglected, refutation. 

It is not generally known, that in the Dictionary Dr. Johnson takes a few examples 
of meanings of words from two only of these Prose Works, (the Tract on Education 
and the Areopagitica,) both of which do not occupy many pages of this edition, while 
the rest, teeming with illustrations equally interesting and appropriate, are not, we believe, 
once appealed to. In the Inaugural Discourse delivered by Henry Brougham, Esq. on 
being installed Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, is it not remarkable, that, when 
upon the very topic of eloquence, and that the eloquence of the English masters, and when 
urgently advising his young auditory to meditate on their beauties, there is not the slightest 
allusion to John Milton by name. " Addison," says Brougham, (this cannot be an enu- 
meration of all the favourites ?) " may have been pure and elegant ; Dryden airy and 
nervous ; Taylor witty and fanciful (! !) ; Hooker weighty and various ;" but the young 
disciple hears not once mentioned the name of John Milton, whose writings are most 



ri INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

deeply imbued with the spirit of that literature, to promote the study of which was the main 
object of this very discourse. Milton's profound acquaintance with the Greek authors, was 
equalled only by his enthusiastic admiration of them. The following testimony, taken 
from the first letter to Leonard Philara, the Athenian, might surely have given additional 
weight to the authority of the Lord Rector. " To the writings of those illustrious men 
which your city has produced, in the perusal of which I have been occupied from my 
youth, it is with pleasure I confess that I am indebted for all my proficiency in literature." 

This is literary injustice. We cannot but regret that the illustrious individual we refer 
to, who has given an impulse to the mind of his age, favoured not his numerous disciples, 
and more numerous admirers, with a criticism upon the " Areopagitica " of the greatest 
" schoolmaster " the world ever produced ! 

Certain parties in the state, who cannot endure any appeal to the criteria of experience, have 
set up a cry, " The wisdom of our ancestors !" The formidable phrase holds principally in 
politics, (and in this point of view it is a dangerous one,) but like a parasitical weed it has 
begun to clasp round the literature of our forefathers, and should be rooted up. We are 
firm believers in the capabilities of modems, and credit not the notion of necessary de- 
generacy ; yet we must profess, that we hold in profoundest veneration that aggregate of 
communities which we call the past. The spirit of the vaunting cry we have referred to, 
would throw the world back into chaos. As far as individual minds are concerned, it w r ould 
extinguish the divinest intellects that were ever enshrined in the form of man. Being the 
offspring of our fathers, we come into their stead. Why not avail ourselves of our advan- 
tages ? Why not profit by our noblest inheritance ? If we must suffer from the folly, why 
not make use of the wisdom, of our ancestors ? Englishmen, above all nations, may exclaim, 
" What have we, that we have not received ?" What a treasure of moral and political 
wealth is there not laid up for us in the archives of the past ! Even novelty itself is the 
effect of antiquity. We come into no new world ! We are cast into the ancient mould of 
things ! Man springs from man, and age from age ; therefore all the past bears upon the 
present, and we cannot understand thoroughly that which is, or is to be, without also know- 
ing that which has been. Knowledge leans upon experience, and experience leans upon 
the past ! But it is not our intention to renew the foolish fight which obtained last cen- 
tury, between the ancients and the moderns. There is another party in the state who are 
perhaps the parents of the noxious phrase we have referred to, and should have been first 
noticed. These take it for granted, that the wisdom of our ancestors is that which is most 
like their own ; and no wonder that they have brought it into contempt. Such admirers of 
the wisdom of our ancestors, may not meet with it here. True wisdom knows nothing of 
the terms ancient or modern, and her spheres are not so inharmoniously adjusted as to pro- 
duce confusion, or come into collision. But within her magic circles of the past, rise up 
the awful spirits, " whose words are oracles for mankind, whose love embraces all countries, 
and whose voice sounds through all ages !" 

The literary character of the times may also be unfavourable to our undertaking. — This is 
an age of tracts, not of folios — fruitful in flowers, rather than in the forest-trees of literature, 
which perhaps it is the tendency of civilization to root up or to fell. The mind of the 
country is to be irrigated, some say regenerated, by a sort of periodical garden-engines. 
For this purpose the fountains of the great deep are " broken up" but not into; yet when 
we remember that there is now read a vast deal more than ever, we cannot despair of an 
attempt to popularize in this " multum in parvo" shape, the Prose Works of our great poet. 
Their intrinsic merits, their former celebrity, their author's fame, the daily agitation all along 
since their publication, of the very principles which he advocated, and which thousands 
yet deny , should have swept away the curse of the dust from these volumes long since, and, 
in " such a nation as this, not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit," 



/ 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. vii 

should, in spite of popular ingratitude or fickleness, or the fire of the common hangman, or 
the cavils and scandals or cobwebs of party criticism, have opened their immortal pages, 
and caused them to be known and read of all men, who are capable of relishing works of 
art, or of comprehending or realizing truths, for the forgetfulness or rejection of any one of 
which, " whole nations sometimes fare the worse." 

Principles, whether political or religious, are always important. As far as the former are 
concerned, we doubt not that our undertaking will be as successful as it is opportune. The 
spirit of the age is favourable to the truths which John Milton taught. The tracts on 
Ecclesiastical Policy possess as much interest now as when they were first published. This 
" schoolmaster" is abroad: and a whole people shall rejoice in his instructions, as they 
once took refuge in his defence. An oracular and prophetical voice, long silenced, is again 
heard, warning his enemies, and guiding and encouraging his friends and followers, never 
more to be abashed ! 

The life and character of John Milton are well known, and the great political events of 
his time, have of late received satisfactory and abundant illustration. Omitting, therefore, 
biographical and historical details, it shall be our object to present the reader with a brief 
and simple account of the contents of this volume. We shall observe in our examination 
the order of chronology. All the works, with the exception of the letters, and a few 
others, are controversial, and relate equally and entirely to civil and religious liberty. They 
embrace a period of about nineteen years, — the most eventful in our history. It will be 
interesting, to take up here that account of himself which an ungenerous adversary had 
wrung from him, — and to prefix to our review such parts of it, as may throw the light of 
his own opinion on his own performances. 

In " The Second Defence of the People of England," translated from the Latin by 
Robert Fellows, A. M. Oxon. he is led in self-defence to " rescue his life from that species 
of obscurity, which is the associate of unprincipled depravity." 

: ' This it will be necessary for me to do on more accounts than one : first, that so many 
good and learned men among the neighbouring nations, who read my works, may not be 
induced by this fellow's calumnies, to alter the favourable opinion which they have formed 
of me ; but may be persuaded that I am not one who ever disgraced beauty of sentiment 
by deformity of conduct, or the maxims of a freeman by the actions of a slave ; and that the 
whole tenour of my life has, by the grace of God, hitherto been unsullied by any enormity 
or crime. Next, that those illustrious worthies, who are the objects of my praise, may know 
that nothing could afflict me with more shame than to have any vices of mine diminish the 
force or lessen the value of my panegyric upon them ; and lastly, that the people of Eng- 
land, whom fate, or duty, or their own virtues, have incited me to defend, may be convinced 
from the purity and integrity of my life, that my defence, if it do not redound to their 
honour, can never be considered as their disgrace. I will now mention who and whence I 
am. I was born at London, of an honest family ; my father was distinguished by the 
undeviating integrity of his life ; my mother by the esteem in which she was held, and the 
alms which she bestowed. My father destined me from a child to the pursuits of literature ; 
and my appetite for knowledge was so voracious, that from twelve years of age I hardly 
ever left my studies, or went to bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of 
sight. My eyes were naturally w T eak, and I was subject to frequent headaches; which, 
however, could not chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress of my improve- 
ment. My father had me daily instructed in the grammar school, and by other masters at 
home. He then, after I had acquired a proficiency in various languages, and had made a 
considerable progress in philosophy, sent me to the University of Cambridge. Here I 
passed seven years in the usual course of instruction and study, with the approbation of 
the good, and without any stain upon my character, till I took the degree of master of arts. 



•i 



viii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

After this I did not, as this miscreant feigns, run away into Italy, but of my own accord 
retired to my father's house, whither I was accompanied by the regrets of most of the 
fellows of the college, who shewed me no common marks of friendship and esteem. On 
my father's estate, where he had determined to pass the remainder of his days, I enjoyed 
an interval of uninterrupted leisure, which I devoted entirely to the perusal of the Greek and 
Latin classics ; though I occasionally visited the metropolis, either for the sake of purchas- 
ing books, or of learning something new in mathematics or in music, in which I, at that 
time, found a source of pleasure and amusement. In this manner I spent five years, till 
my mother's death, I then became anxious to visit foreign parts, and particularly Italy. 
My father gave me his permission, and I left home with one servant. On my departure, 
the celebrated Henry Wootton, who had long been King James's ambassador at Venice, 
gave me a signal proof of his regard, in an elegant letter which he wrote, breathing not 
only the warmest friendship, but containing some maxims of conduct which I found very 
useful in my travels. The noble Thomas Scudamore, King Charles's ambassador, to whom 
I carried letters of recommendation, received me most courteously at Paris. His lordship 
gave me a card of introduction to the learned Hugo Grotius, at that time ambassador from 
the Queen of Sweden to the French court ; whose acquaintance I anxiously desired, and to 
whose house I was accompanied by some of his lordship's friends. A few days after, when 
I set out for Italy, he gave me letters to the English merchants; on my route, that they 
might shew me any civilities in their power. Taking ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa, and 
afterwards visited Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence. In the latter city, which I have always 
more particularly esteemed for the elegance of its dialect, its genius, and its taste, I stopped 
about two months ; when I contracted an intimacy with many persons of rank and learn- 
ing ; and was a constant attendant at their literary parties ; a practice which prevails there, 
and tends so much to the diffusion of knowledge and the preservation of friendship. No 
time will ever abolish the agreeable recollections which 1 cherish of Jacob Gaddi, Carolo 
Dati, Frescobaldo, Cultellero, Bonomatthai, Clementillo, Francisco, and many others. 
From Florence I went to Siena, thence to Rome, where, after I had spent about two months 
in viewing the antiquities of that renowned city, where I experienced the most friendly 
attentions from Lucas Holstein, and other learned and ingenious men, I continued my route 
to Naples. There I was introduced by a certain recluse; with whom I had travelled from 
Rome, to John Baptista Manso, Marquis of Villa, a nobleman of distinguished rank and 
authority, to whom Torquato Tasso, the illustrious poet, inscribed his book on friendship. 
During my stay, he gave me singular proofs of his regard ; he himself conducted me round 
the city and to the palace of the viceroy ; and more than once paid me a visit at my lodg- 
ings. On my departure he gravely apologized for not having shewn me more civility, which 
he said he had been restrained from doing, because I had spoken with so little reserve on 
matters of religion. When I was preparing to pass over into Sicily and Greece, the melan- 
choly intelligence which I received, of the civil commotions in England, made me alter my 
purpose ; for I thought it base to be travelling for amusement abroad, while my fellow 
citizens were fighting for liberty at home. While I was on my way back to Rome, some 
merchants informed me that the English Jesuits had formed a plot against me if I returned 
to Rome, because I had spoken too freely on religion ; for it was a rule which I laid down 
to myself in those places, never to be the first to begin any conversation on religion ; but if 
any questions were put to me concerning my faith, to declare it without any reserve or fear. 
I nevertheless returned to Rome. I took no steps to conceal either my person or my 
character; and for about the space of two months, I again openly defended, as I had done 
before, the reformed religion in the very metropolis of popery. By the favour of God, I got 
safe back to Florence, where I was received with as much affection as if I had returned to 
my native country. There I stopped as many months as I had done before, except that I 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. ix 

made an excursion for a few days to Lucca ; and crossing the Apennines, passed through 
Bologna and Ferrara to Venice. After I had spent a month in surveying the curiosities of 
this city, and had put on board a ship the books which I had collected in Italy, I proceed- 
ed through Verona and Milan, and along the Leman lake to Geneva. The mention of this 
city brings to my recollection the slandering More, and makes me again call the Deity to 
witness, that in all those places, in which vice meets with so little discouragement, and is 
practised with so little shame, I never once deviated from the paths of integrity and virtue, 
and perpetually reflected that, though my conduct might escape the notice of men, it could 
not elude the inspection of God. At Geneva I held daily conferences with John Deodati, 
the learned Professor of Theology. Then pursuing my former route through France, I 
returned to my native country, after an absence of one year and about three months ; at 
the time when Charles, having broken the peace, was renewing what is called the episcopal 
war with the Scots; in which the royalists being routed in the first encounter, and the 
English being universally and justly disaffected, the necessity of his affairs at last obliged 
him to convene a parliament. As soon as I was able, I hired a spacious house in the city 
for myself and my books ; where I again with rapture renevved my literary pursuits, and 
where I calmly awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted to the wise conduct of 
Providence, and to the courage of the people. The vigour of the parliament had begun to 
humble the pride of the bishops. As long as the liberty of speech was no longer subject to 
controul, all mouths began to be opened against the bishops; some complained of the vices 
of the individuals, others of those of the order. They said that it was unjust that they alone 
should differ from the model of other reformed churches; that the government of the 
church should be according to the pattern of other churches, and particularly the word of 
God. This awakened all my attention and my zeal — I saw that a way was opening for 
the establishment of real liberty ; that the foundation was laying for the deliverance of 
man from the yoke of slavery and superstition ; that the principles of religion, which were 
the first objects of our care, would exert a salutary influence on the manners and constitu- 
tion of the republic ; and as I had from my youth studied the distinctions between religious 
and civil rights, I perceived that if I ever wished to be of use, 1 ought at least not to be 
wanting to my country, to the church, and to so many of my fellow Christians, in a crisis 
of so much danger ; I therefore determined to relinquish the other pursuits in which I was 
engaged, and to transfer the whole force of my talents and my industry to this one impor- 
tant object. I accordingly wrote two books to a friend concerning the reformation of the 
church of England." The noble sacrifice was made — the bard became a patriot. 

In the year 1641 appeared his first controversial production, the precise object of which 
is sufficiently set forth in the title — " Of Reformation in England, and the Causes that 
hitherto have hindered it, — written to a Friend." Our author, it will be remembered, had 
already attacked prelacy, in his Lycidas ; and his hatred of their yoke had not abated in the 
course of the four years which elapsed between that poem and this work. We shall touch 
with a light hand the topics of these two books, — which are hardly surpassed in interest 
and excellence by any of their successors. The exordium of the first of these, full of 
" deep and retired thoughts," sternly, and even ruggedly, but devoutly expressed, charac- 
terizing, with some abrupt intermixtures of style, but with great power, the origin and 
increase of ecclesiastical pravity, concludes with a passage which is in itself an achieve- 
ment, and perhaps equal to any that ever fell from his pen, describing the outbreak of 
the Reformation. 

" But to dwell no longer in characterizing the depravities of the church, and how they 
sprung, and how they took increase ; when I recall to mind at last, after so many dark ages, 
wherein the huge overshadowing train of error had almost swept all the stars out of the 
firmament of the church ; how the bright and blissful Reformation (by divine power) strook 



x INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

through the black and settled night of ignorance and antichristian tyranny, methinks a 
sovereign and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom of him that reads or hears; and 
the sweet odour of the returning gospel imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of heaven. 
Then was the sacred Bible sought out of the dusty corners where profane falsehood and 
neglect had thrown it, the schools opened, divine and human learning raked out of the 
embers of forgotten tongues, the princes and cities trooping apace to the new-erected ban- 
ner of salvation ; the martyrs, with the unresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers 
of darkness, and scorning the fiery rage of the old red dragon." 

Proceeding then to the question, he enumerates the hinderances to reformation " in our 
forefathers' days, among ourselves," in English protestants, — not in Providence, not in 
papistical machinations, — which had been in operation since the glorious event of the Re- 
formation. These impediments he reduces to two, — our retaining of ceremonies, and con- 
fining the power of ordination to diocesan bishops, exclusively of church members. " Our 
ceremonies are senseless in themselves, and serve for nothing but either to facilitate our 
return to popery, or to hide the defects of better knowledge, and to set off the pomp of 
prelacy." Mingled with this dry deduction from our history, of the causes that " hindered 
the forwarding of true discipline " — (in which he runs over the times of Henry VIII., his 
character, and the conduct of the bishops, with the six " bloody articles," or as Selden calls 
them, the six-stringed whip, — the times of Edward VI., his infancy, the tumults that arose 
on repealing the six articles, the intrigues of the bishops, and the Northumberland plot, — 
the commission to frame ecclesiastical constitutions, — the times of Elizabeth, when 
Edward VL's constitutions were established, — showing the unwieldiness of these times, 
and the impossibility of effecting " exact reformation at one push") — the reader will meet 
with such declamation against the whole body and function of prelacy, as would be 
infallibly successful if pronounced before any modern auditory. 

The hinderers of reformation in his own times are " distinguished " into three sorts : — 
1. Antiquitarians (not Antiquarians, he says, whose labours are useful and laudable). 2. 
Libertines. 3. Politicians. Under the first head, the Antiquitarians will find established 
the difference between our bishops and those of purer times, in their election by the hands 
of the whole church for 400 years after Christ, and that in dignity they were only equal to 
their co-presbyters. Whether antiquity favours modern episcopacy or not, it is shown, 
1. That the best times were spreadingly infected; 2. That the best men of those times 
were foully tainted ; and 3. That the best writings of those men were dangerously adulte- 
rated. This threefold corruption is proved at large, and most successfully. It seems that 
even so early as 1641, when in his 33rd year, he was not merely a puritan, but a dissenter 
from the principle of our establishment ; for in anticipating an objection on the ground of 
drawing the proof of his propositions from the practice of ages before Constantine's time, and 
the alliance between the temporal and spiritual power, he says; " I am not of opinion to 
think the church a vine in this respect, because, as they take it, she cannot subsist without 
clasping about the elm of worldly strength and felicity, as if the heavenly city could not 
support itself without the props and buttresses of secular authority." His object, however, 
was reformation, not subversion, and therefore he did not cany. this principle out. The 
character and conduct of Constantine are examined, and Dante, Petrarch, and Ariosto, are 
quoted, to show, that it may be concluded for a received opinion, even among men profess- 
ing the Romish church, " that Constantine marred tiie church." The last topic in which 
he deals with the antiquitarian at his own weapon, respects the estimation which the an- 
cients of the purer times had of antiquity; and he demonstrates with great learning, that they 
acknowledge the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures, and refer all decision of controversy, whether 
in doctrine or discipline, to them. Paragraphs of amazing energy and incomparable beauty 
will be found under V. is head, and we may well exclaim with the writer, " Now, sir, for the 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xi 

love of holy reformation, what can be said more against these importunate clients of anti- 
quity, than she herself, their patroness, hath said ?" He exposes the drift of those who call 
for antiquity : — " they fear the plain field of the Scriptures ; the chase is too hot ; they seek 
the dark, the bushy, the tangled forest ; they would imbosk : they feel themselves strook in 
the transparent streams of divine truth ; they would plunge, and tumble, and think to lie 
hid in the foul weeds and muddy waters, where no plummet can reach the bottom. But 
let them beat themselves like whales, and spend their oil till they be dragged ashore : 
though wherefore should the ministers give them so much line for shifts and delays ? where- 
fore should they not urge only the gospel, and hold it ever in their faces like a mirror of 
diamond, till it dazzle and pierce their misty eyeballs ? maintaining it the honour of its 
absolute sufficiency and supremacy inviolable." 

The Libertines, the second class of hinderers, as they would object to all discipline, — " the 
dear and tender discipline of a father, the sociable and loving reproof of a brother, the 
bosom admonition of a friend," — he leaves them with the merry friar in Chaucer, and refers 
the political discourse of episcopacy to a second book, which we will proceed to examine. 

It is throughout one strain of wisdom and eloquence. In it we shall find set forth the evils 
which compel subjects to chastise rulers. The springs of a series of past and approaching 
disasters to church and king, and people, are laid bare. The wisdom of the sage and the 
poet is upon him. If ever the noble language of Cowper, his warmest admirer, were appli- 
cable to humanity, it is to our author. — 

A terrible sagacity informs 
The poet's heart. 

The introductory remarks upon the art of governing and ruling nations, and its general 
perversion in Christian commonwealths, will well repay the attention of our countrymen 
at the present time ; and the principles throughout this book, by w T hich he tries the third 
and last hinderers of reformation, namely, the Politicians, who assert that it stands not with 
" reasons of state," are not affected by the lapse of centuries, and though intended for the 
right reverend fathers in God, the bishops, will apply as well now as heretofore, both to 
them, and to every thing else that requires reform. " Alas, sir ! a commonwealth ought to 
be but as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest man, 
as big and compact in virtue as in body ; for look what the grounds and causes are of single 
happiness to one man, the same ye shall find them to a whole state, as Aristotle, both in 
his Ethics and Politics, from the principles of reason, lays down : by consequence, there- 
fore, that which is good and agreeable to monarchy, will appear soonest to be so, by being 
good and agreeable to the true welfare of every Christian ; and that which can be justly 
proved hurtful and offensive to every true Christian, will be evinced to be alike hurtful to 
monarchy : for God forbid that we should separate and distinguish the end and good of a 
monarch from the end and good of the monarchy, or of that, from Christianity. How then 
this third and last sort that hinder reformation, will justify that it stands not with reason 
of state, I much muse ; for certain I am, the Bible is shut against them, as certain that 
neither Plato nor Aristotle is for their turns." 

The schools of Loyola, with his Jesuits, are then summoned into the field ; and out of 
them, the " Politicians " allege, 1. That the church-government must be conformable to the 
civil polity ; next, That no form of church-government is agreeable to monarchy, but that 
of bishops. The first objection is annihilated in a single paragraph, which it would be well 
for the peace of the country, for our statesmen, who have ever so much at heart the honour 
of the church, to take note of. The second falls to pieces naturally, the first being confuted. 
Yet " to give them, " says our author," play, front and rear, it shall be my task to prove, that 
episcopacy, with that authority which it challenges in England, is not only not agreeable, 



xii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

but tending to the destruction of monarchy." He accordingly deduces the history of it 
down from its original, and amply shows what Prynne calls " the antipathie of the English 
lordly prelacie, both to regal monarchy and civil unity." The title of one of poor Prynne's 
works, published in the same year as this of Milton's, runs out into an indictment. — In 
addition to what we have above, he entitles his work, "An historical collection of several 
execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schisms, contumacies, anti- 
monarchical practices, and oppressions, of our English, British, French, Scottish, and Irish 
lordly, prelates, against our kingdoms, laws, liberties; and of the several warres, and civil 
dissensions, occasioned by them in or against our realm, in former and latter ages. Together 
with the judgment of our own ancient writers, and most judicious authors, touching the 
pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordliness, temporalities, wealth, secular employ- 
ments, trayterous practices, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both 
to king, state, church ; with an answer to the chief objections made for the divinity or 
continuance of their lordly function." The cry of " no bishop, no king," which we still 
hear, was a " fetch " from the Jesuits. " They feeling the axe of God's reformation, hew- 
ing at the old and hollow trunk of papacy, and finding the Spaniard their surest friend and 
safest refuge, to soothe him up in his dream of a fifth monarchy, and withal to uphold the 
decrepid papalty, have invented this superpolitic aphorism, as one terms it, one pope and 
one king." It is plain, that this worthy motto " no bishop, no king," " is of the same 
batch, and infanted out of the same fears." — " But" (the following passage does not dis- 
cover a republican leaning) " what greater debasement can there be to royal dignity, whose 
towering and stedfast height rests upon the unmoveable foundations of justice and heroic 
virtue, than to chain it in a dependance of subsisting or ruining, to the painted battlements 
and gaudy rottenness of prelaty, which want but one puff of the king's to blow them down 
like a pasteboard house built of court-cards ?" After the gentle digression, which he calls a 
tale, (and it is one of the " curiosities of literature,") he returns to this important subject, and 
argues it out in terrible earnest. The throne of a king being established, as Solomon says, in 
justice, he maintains that " the fall of prelacy, whose actions are so far distant from justice, 
cannot shake the least fringe that borders the royal canopy " — and three reasons are adduced 
from the many secondary and accessory causes, that support monarchy, and all other states, " to 
wit, the love of the subject, the multitude and valour of the people, and store of treasure," to 
show that the standing of this order is dangerous to regal safety. The whole nation, as the 
innumerable and grievous complaints of every shire cried out, was a willing witness under each 
of these heads, and our author thunders into the ears of prelates and king, what all the people 
were panting to have uttered. Each topic becomes a formidable redoubt of argument and 
declamation, and each paragraph is worthy of attention. Every page, as we approach the close 
of the work, thickens with interest, and is crowded with all the burning rays of the most im- 
passioned oratory. The apostrophe to England is at once affecting and sublime. He runs 
over the remainder of his task with such extreme rapidity, sentence after sentence, pealing 
like thunder, smiting like lightning, driving like a whirlwind, against the proud tops of the 
lordly hierarchy, that we must fain give up the task we had undertaken into the hands of 
the reader. The reference to the drift of the " bishop's war " (as one of their own order 
called it) with Scotland, is tremendous, — " to make a national war of a surplice-brabble, a 
tippet-scuflle, and engage the untainted honour of English knighthood, to unfurl the stream- 
ing red-cross, or to rear the horrid standard of those fatal guly dragons, for so unworthy a 
purpose as to force upon their fellow-subjects that which themselves are weary of, the skeleton 
of a mass book." — And the exhortation to England and Scotland to pursue their begun contest 
for liberty together, is an admonitory conclusion w r orthy of this magnificent page. On the 
high and holy ground of discipline he calls for immediate reformation, and after placing this 
point in a variety of lights, and surrounding it with a vast assemblage of argument, and 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xiii 

answering the objections of the bit by bit reformers of those days, the piece closes in a 
peroration in the form of a prayer, piously laying the sad condition of England before the 
greatest of beings, than which there is not a more sublime patriotic ode in any language. 
We insert the prayer, not merely to save the trouble of reference, but to excite the curiosity 
of those who are unacquainted with these works, when it is not gratified by drawing at once, 
as in this instance, upon our author. We omit the anathema, with which the petition con- 
cludes, — it is a curse which Walter Scott could have extended to three volumes. 

" Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory unapproachable, Parent of angels and 
men ! next, thee I implore, omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost remnant whose 
nature thou didst assume, ineffable and everlasting Love ! and thou, the third subsistence 
of divine infinitude, illumining Spirit, the joy and solace of created things ! one Triper- 
sonal Godhead ! look upon this thy poor and almost spent and expiring church, leave her 
not thus a prey to these importunate wolves, that wait and think long till they devour thy 
tender flock ; these wild boars that have broken into thy vineyard, and left the print of their 
polluting hoofs on the souls of thy servants. O let them not bring about their damned 
designs, that stand now at the entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting the watchword to 
open and let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve us in that pitchy cloud 
of infernal darkness, where we shall never more see the sun of thy truth again, never hope 
for the cheerful dawn, never more hear the bird of morning sing. Be moved with pity at 
the afflicted state of this our shaken monarchy, that now lies labouring under her throes, 
and struggling against the grudges of more dreadful calamities. 

" O thou, that, after the impetuous rage of five bloody inundations, and the succeeding sword 
of intestine war, soaking the land in her own gore, didst pity the sad and ceaseless revolu- 
tion of our swift and thick-coming sorrows ; when we were quite breathless, of thy free 
grace didst motion peace, and terms of covenant with us ; and having first well-nigh freed 
us from antichristian thraldom, didst build up this Britannic empire to a glorious and 
enviable height, with all her daughter-islands about her ; stay us in this felicity, let not the 
obstinacy of our half-obedience and will -worship bring forth that viper of sedition, that for 
these fourscore years has been breeding to eat through the entrails of our peace ; but let her 
cast her abortive spawn without the danger of this travailing and throbbing kingdom : that 
we may still remember in our solemn thanksgivings, how for us, the northern ocean even to 
the frozen Thule was scattered with the proud shipwrecks of the Spanish armada, and the 
very maw of hell ransacked, and made to give up her concealed destruction, ere she could 
vent it in that horrible and damned blast. 

" O how much more glorious will those former deliverances appear, when we shall know 
them not only to have saved us from greatest miseries past, but have reserved us for greatest 
happiness to come ! Hitherto thou hast but freed us, and that not fully, from the unjust and 
tyrannous claim of thy foes ; now unite us entirely, and appropriate us to thyself, tie us ever- 
lastingly in willing homage to the prerogative of thy eternal throne. 

" And now we know, O thou our most certain hope and defence, that thine enemies have 
been consulting all the sorceries of the great whore, and have joined their plots with that 
sad intelligencing tyrant that mischiefs the world with his mines of Ophir, and lies thirsting 
to revenge his naval ruins that have larded our seas : but let them all take counsel together, 
and let it come to nought ; let them decree, and do thou cancel it ; let them gather them- 
selves, and be scattered ; let them embattle themselves, and be broken ; let them embattle, 
and be broken, for thou art with us. 

" Then amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, some one may perhaps be heard offer- 
ing at high strains in new and lofty measures, to sing and celebrate thy divine mercies and 
marvellous judgments in this land throughout all ages ; whereby this great and warlike 
nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and continual practice of truth and righteousness, 



xiv INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

and casting far from her the rags of her old vices, may press on hard to that high and 
happy emulation to be found the soberest, wisest, and most Christian people at that day, 
when thou, the eternal and shortly-expected King, shalt open the clouds to judge the seve- 
ral kingdoms of this world, and distributing national honours and rewards to religious and 
just commonwealths, shalt put an end to all earthly tyrannies, proclaiming thy universal and 
mild monarchy through heaven and earth ; where they, undoubtedly, that by their labours, 
counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the common good of religion and their coun- 
trv, shall receive above the inferior orders of the blessed, the regal addition of principalities, 
legions, and thrones into their glorious titles, and in supereminence of beatific vision, pro- 
gressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall clasp inseparable hands with 
joy and bliss, in overmeasure for ever." 

To this and other attacks from puritan pens, bishop Hall, and, about the same time, 
archbishop Usher, replied; the former in " An humble Remonstrance to the high court of 
Parliament," and the latter in the " Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy." Milton's 
answers to these very learned and able works were produced in the same year. 

To continue our extracts from the Second Defence : — " Afterwards," (that is, after the first 
pamphlet,) " when two bishops of superior distinction vindicated their privileges against some 
principal ministers, I thought that on those topics, to the consideration of which I was led 
solely by my love of truth, and my reverence for Christianity, I should not probably write 
worse than those, who were contending only for their own emoluments and usurpations. I 
therefore answered the one in two books, of which the first is inscribed, Concerning 
Prelatical Episcopacy, and the other Concerning the Mode of Ecclesiastical Government; 
and I replied to the other in some Animadversions, and soon after in an Apology." 

It is not too much to say that Milton was a match for the learned Usher at his ow T n 
weapons, and his superior in other respects. The first of the replies, so far from justifying 
Dr. Johnson's snarl, is a model in style, of simplicity and moderation, and in argument, of 
logic and sound learning. The archbishop's forte lay in his erudition, and here he was one 
of the strongest men of his time ; but his discomfiture is complete, when his adversary 
carries the controversy before a higher tribunal than that of antiquity. The insufficiency, 
inconveniency, and impiety of quoting the fathers and excluding the apostles, — the 
method adopted by the episcopalians (as formerly by the papists) to establish any parts of 
Christianity,— is plainly, strongly, and fully shown. " Whatsoever," says our author, " either 
time or the heedless hand of blind chance, has drawn down to this present in her huge 
drag-net, whether fish or sea-weed, shells or shrubs, unpicked and unchosen, those are the 
fathers." And so he chides the good prelate for divulging useless treatises, stuffed with 
the specious names of Ignatius and Polycarpus, with fragments of old martyrologies, to 
distract and stagger the multitude of credulous readers. The piece is highly worthy of 
perusal, as an exposure of the claims of tradition. It is a complete dispersion of antiquity's 
" cloud, or rather petty fog, of witnesses." 

The other performance, entitled " The Reason of Church-Government urged against 
Prelaty," and principally intended against the same archbishop's account of the original of 
episcopacy, is in every point of view a valuable and powerful production. It is comprised 
in two Books. In the Preface, (frequently the most interesting portion of his works,) after 
stating the importance of the subject of church-government, and after referring to the ques- 
tion, or rather uproar, concerning it, he expresses a hope that England will belong neither to 
si e-patriarchal, nor to see-prelatical, but to that ministerial order of presbyters and deacons, 
which the apostles instituted. There are seven chapters in this Book, of which we shall give 
the titles, merely premising that there is more in each than meets the eye ; but they are so 
compactly and logically arranged, that any attempt to present the reader with an outline of 
them, without injuring their cumulative force, would be impossible. In chap. I. it is main- 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xv 

tained, That church government is prescribed in the gospel, and that to say otherwise is 
unsound. In ch. II. That church government is set down in Holy Scripture, and that to 
say otherwise is untrue. In ch. III. That it is dangerous and unworthy of the gospel to 
hold that church government is to be patterned by the law, as bishop Andrews and the 
primate of Armagh maintain. In ch. IV. That it is impossible to make the priesthood of 
Aaron a pattern whereon to ground episcopacy. In ch. V. we have a reply to the argu- 
ments of bishop Andrews and the primate. In ch. VI. That prelaty was not set up for 
prevention of schism, as is pretended ; or if it were, it performs not what it was first set 
up for, but quite the contrary. In ch. VII. That those many sects and schisms by some 
supposed to be among us, and that the rebellion in Ireland, ought not to be a hinderance, 
but a hastening, of reformation. In proof of our assertion, that there is more in each chap- 
ter than the title would appear to warrant us to expect, take these few sentences from the 
first section, on the importance of " discipline." " What need I instance ? He that hath 
read with judgment, of nations and commonwealths, of cities and camps, of peace and war, 
sea and land, will readily agree that the flourishing and decaying of all civil societies, all 
the moments and turnings of human occasions, are moved to and fro as upon the axle of 
discipline. So that whatsoever power or sway in mortal things weaker men have attributed 
to fortune, I durst with more confidence (the honour of Divine Providence ever saved) 
ascribe either to the vigour or the slackness of discipline. Nor is there any sociable per- 
fection in this life, civil or sacred, that can be above discipline ; but she is that which with 
her musical cords preserves and holds all the parts thereof together. And certainly disci- 
pline is not only the removal of disorder ; but if any visible shape can be given to divine 
things, the very visible shape and image of virtue, whereby she is not only seen in the 
regular gestures and motions of her heavenly paces as she walks, but also makes the har- 
mony of her voice audible to mortal ears. Yea, the angels themselves, in whom no disorder 
is feared, as the apostle that saw them in his rapture describes, are distinguished and 
quaternioned into their celestial princedoms and satrapies, according as God himself has 
writ his imperial decrees through the great provinces of heaven. The state also of the 
blessed in paradise, though never so perfect, is not therefore left without discipline, whose 
golden surveying reed marks out and measures every quarter and circuit of New Jerusalem. 
Yet is it not to be conceived, that those eternal effluences of sanctity and love in the glori- 
fied saints should by this means be confined and cloyed with repetition of that which is 
prescribed, but that our happiness may orb itself into a thousand vagancies of glory and 
delight, and with a kind of eccentrical equation be, as it were, an invariable planet of joy 
and felicity ; how much less can we believe that God would leave his frail and feeble, though 
not less beloved church here below, to the perpetual stumble of conjecture and disturbance 
in this our dark voyage, without the card and compass of discipline !" 

There are numerous passages, rising like this, naturally, out of the subject, not thrown in 
for the sake of ornament, in each of these seven chapters of the 1st Book, every whit equal 
to this, and of every sort and variety of eloquence. Milton's flights into the regions of imagery 
are never taken either for the sake of display, or to escape from the pressure of an argument. 
He is never in the air when he should be on the ground. He resorts to the wings of rhe- 
toric, from the firm summit of a vast pile of argumentation, and though for awhile he may 
be lost in the solar blaze, he soon comes down with " fell swoop " to his quarry. The 
2nd Book consists of a preface, three chapters, and a conclusion. Awe-stricken yet are we 
in perusing the preface to this 2nd Book. More or less than man he must be who can 
read it without emotion. It is throughout magnificent, — a glimpse into the heart and soul 
of Milton. He opens his bosom — he discourses with his conscience in our presence. He 
discloses his convictions of duty, and discovers his confidence of rectitude. He divulges 
his lofty hopes, springing out of his patriotism and his piety. Here we have that remarkable 

b 



xvi INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

" covenant with the knowing reader," to attempt ere long some poetical work, which his 
countrymen would not " let die." The noble promise is a pledge for the greatest perform- 
ance. His aspirations amount to positive faith : Paradise Lost is seen at the end of the 
radiant vista. This exordium is too long to extract entire : any fragmentary anticipation 
of it would spoil the whole. The electrical shock which follows invariably the voice of true 
eloquence, and proves incontestably its power and presence, admonishes us to point, in this 
instance, the reader's attention to the exordium at once, and in silence. It is " a sevenfold 
chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies." 

In the 1st chapter of the 2nd book, the author maintains that prelaty opposes the reason 
and end of the gospel in three ways, and first in her outward form. i( Who is there that 
measures wisdom by simplicity, strength by suffering, dignity by lowliness ? Who is there 
that counts it first to be last, something to be nothing, and reckons himself of great command 
in that he is a servant? Yet God, when he meant to subdue the world and hell at once, part 
of that to salvation, and this wholly to perdition, made choice of no other weapons or auxili- 
aries than these, whether to save or to destroy. It had been a small mastery for him to 
have drawn out his legions into array, and flanked them with his thunder; therefore he sent 
foolishness to confute wisdom, weakness to bind strength, despisedness to vanquish pride." 

In the 2nd chapter it is maintained, that the ceremonious doctrine of prelaty opposeth 
the reason and end of the gospel. 

In the 3rd chapter, the thesis is, That prelatical jurisdiction opposeth the reason and end 
of the gospel and state. The political reasons against this obnoxious form of church- 
government will probably be most interesting to the majority of his readers. There is an 
evident leaning to independency in all of the preceding works. 

Bishop Hall, or his son, or nephew, more witty than wise, having published " a Defence 
of the Humble Remonstrance," Milton's next work was " Animadversions" upon it. The 
preface apologizes for that harshness of style which he felt justified in adopting. This he 
does to satisfy tender consciences, who might shrink from the employment of such a weapon 
as satire in such a cause. The point is enlarged upon in the preface to the next work. In 
M uncasing the grand imposture," he copes with his adversary, sentence by sentence, and 
thus vindicates truth by taking the sophist short " at the first bound." It is one of the 
pleasantest of the theological tracts ; nor is it, although a tragi-comic dialogue between un- 
equal competitors, less subtle or profound than any of its predecessors. We may refer to the 
answer to the Remonstrant's assertion in the 4th section, as one of the most splendid passages 
( v< r penned. The topic itself was a hackneyed one, even in those days, but they who are 
acquainted with these writings, know full well, that however unpromising a subject may 
appear to be, it is best to see what is made of it, lest by overlooking it we miss some of the 
finest things in the Ian guage. We give the conclusion of the beautiful prayer, or rather prayer- 
ode, with which the section closes. " Come therefore, O thou that hast the seven stars in 
thy right hand, appoint thy chosen priests according to their orders and courses of old, to 
minister before thee, and duly to press and pour out the consecrated oil into thy holy and 
ever-burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit of prayer upon thy servants over all the 
land to this effi (i, and stirred up their vows as the sound of many waters about thy throne. 
Every one can say, that now certainly thou hast visited this land, and hast notforgotten the 
Utmost corners of the earth, in a time when men had thought that thoifwast gone up from 
Bl to the farthest end of the heavens, and hadst left to do marvellously among the sons of 
perfect and accomplish thy glorious act ! for men may leave their works 
unfinished, but thou art a God, thy nature is perfection : shouldst thou bring us thus far on 
from Egj pi to destroy us in this wilderness, though we deserve ; yet thy great name would 
luffer in the rejoicing of thine enemies, and the deluded hope of all thy servants. When 
thou hast settled peace in the church, and righteous judgment in thy kingdom, then shall 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xv ii 

all thy saints address their voices of joy and triumph to thee, standing on the shore of that 
Red sea into which our enemies had almost driven us. And he that now for haste snatches 
up a plain ungarnished present as a thank-offering to thee, which could not be deferred, in 
regard of thy so many late deliverances wrought for us one upon another, may then perhaps 
take up a harp, and sing thee an elaborate song to generations. In that day it shall no 
more be said as in scorn, this or that was never held so till this present age, when men 
have better learnt that the times and seasons pass along under thy feet, to go and come at 
thy bidding ; and as thou didst dignify our fathers' days with many revelations above all the 
foregoing ages, since thou tookest the flesh ; so thou canst vouchsafe unto us (though un- 
worthy) as large a portion of thy Spirit as thou pleasest : for who shall prejudice thy all- 
governing will ? seeing the power of thy grace is not passed away with the primitive times, 
as fond and faithless men imagine, but thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing at 
the door. Come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth ! 
put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty, take up that unlimited sceptre which thy 
Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee ; for now the voice of thy bride calls thee, and all 
creatures sigh to be renewed." 

The next section, containing the law case, is perhaps next also in excellence. The ser- 
mons are always better than the texts ; and when it is recollected that this is the third work 
on the same subject in one year, its perusal may well excite our wonder. 

Next year his last work on the puritan side of the controversy came out, " An Apology 
for Smectymnuus," in reply to bishop Hall or his son's " Modest Confutation against a 
scandalous and seditious Libel." The bishop's personalities may have quickened as they 
certainly sharpened the movements of his pen, and hastened this publication, in which he 
justifies at large the style and manner of his prior work ; and after making his reader merry 
at the expense of his modest opponent's title, proceeds to vindicate his own character, and 
furnish us with an eloquent and interesting account of himself, his education, studies, and 
pursuits. We refer those who, though on our author's side, dislike his " honest way of 
writing," to the first section in this tract for a most interesting digression on style. He 
well knew what he was about when he poured his overwhelming sarcasms on his assailants. 
It was as much out of his power to alter or soften the style in which he wrote, and for 
which he has been insolently abused, as to " dissolve the ground work of nature, which 
God created in him." A regard to truth, the relief of his " harden," the full reflection of his 
very soul, whatever might be the state of its emotions on his friends or his foes, rendered it 
impossible for him to divest himself of it. We will quote a passage from the section we 
refer to. 

" In times of opposition, when either against new heresies arising, or old corruptions to 
be reformed, this cool unpassioned mildness of positive wisdom is not enough to damp and 
astonish the proud resistance of carnal and false doctors, then (that I may have leave to soar 
awhile as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is ethereal, arming in complete diamond, 
ascends his fiery chariot drawn with two blazing meteors, figured like beasts, but of a 
higher breed than any the zodiac yields, resembling two of those four which Ezekiel and 
St. John saw ; the one visaged like a lion, to express power, high authority, and indigna- 
tion ; the other of countenance like a man, to cast derision and scorn upon perverse and 
fraudulent seducers : with these the invincible warrior, Zeal, shaking loosely the slack 
reins, drives over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such as are insolent to maintain traditions, 
bruising their stiff necks under his flaming wheels." 

The most splendid part of the performance, is the eulogy on the Long Parliament ; but 
he is always instructive, and most so when he leaves his merryman of the text, and strikes 
out into incidental or collateral topics. He is very severe upon the clergy, not only because 
their principles were in his opinion dangerous, and their practice disgraceful, but his usage 



xviii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

at their hands was barbarous.— What can be more so than this serious saying of old or 
young Hall,—" You that love Christ, and know this miscreant wretch, stone him to death, 
lest you smart for his impunity." This is the language of a bishop, or of his son, but is it 
that of a Christian ? Milton's spirit was a perfect contrast to Hall's. " In his whole life 
he never spake against a man even that his skin should be grazed." Hall's murderous 
advice is certainly of a piece with that pious prayer which is recorded in his Memoranda 
of his own Life, concerning the subtle and wily atheist, that had so grievously perplexed 
and gravelled him at Sir Robert Drury's, till he prayed the Lord to remove him, and his 
prayers were heard; for shortly after the atheist went to London, and there perished of the 
plague in great misery. But what can be expected from a man who in one of his epistles 
dares to assert that " separation from the church of England is worse than whoredom or 
drunkenness ? " The formularies of the church as by law established, are examined in the 
11th section, and severely exposed. Being taxed by his adversary with a want of ac- 
quaintance with the councils and fathers of the church, we have in the 12th section a re- 
markable account of his reading in, and of his opinion of, them, which concludes by 
advising his readers not to be deceived " by men that would overawe your ears with big 
names and huge tomes, that contradict and repeal one another, because they can cram a 
margin with citations. Do but winnow their chaff from their wheat, ye shall see their great 
heap shrink and wax thin past belief." We have a remarkable testimony to the character 
of the nonconformists. " We hear not of any, which are called nonconformists, that have 
been accused of scandalous living ; but are known to be pious, or at least sober, men." 
After answering a few more impertinent points, his adversary having said that he had met 
with " such a volley of expressions, as he would never desire to have them better clothed." 
— " For me, readers," says the ingenuous apologist, " I cannot say that I am utterly un- 
trained in those rules which best rhetoricians have given, or unacquainted with those ex- 
amples which the prime authors of eloquence have written in any learned tongue ; yet true 
eloquence I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth : and that whose mind 
soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest 
charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his 
words (by what I can express) like so many nimble and airy servitors trip about him at 
command, and in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly in their own places " The 
r; mainder of this discourse is devoted to the further castigation of his adversary, recom- 
mends the total removal of prelaty, the due distribution of church property, and predicts 
that when their coffers are emptied their voices will be dumb. This is the last time he 
drew his pen for the presbyterians, — or rather, not so much for presbyterianism, as for 
liberty ; and in her behalf we shall soon find that he had to wage war against his former 
allies, whose recreant steps led them at last to fight against her under the prelatical 
banner. The bishops fell, and Milton went on, and took no more notice of them, except 
in conjunction with the puritan apostates, whose perilous battle he fought, and whose 
\ ictory was soon abused. 

He thus refers to these works in his narrative, — " On this occasion it was supposed that 
I brought a timely succour to the ministers, who were hardly a match for the eloquence of 
tli. ir opponents; and from that time I was actively employed in refuting any answers that 
appeared When the bishops could no longer resist the multitude of their assailants, I had 
]. isure t<. turn my thoughts to other subjects; to the promotion of real and substantial liberty ; 
which is rather to be sought from within than from without; and whose existence depends 
(O much '-11 the terror of the sword, as on sobriety of conduct, and integrity of life. 
W hen therefore 1 perceived that there were three species of liberty, which are essential to the 
happiness of social life; religious, domestic, and civil; and as I had already written con- 
cerning the first, and the magistrates were strenuously active concerning the third, I de- 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. x i x 

termined to turn my attention to the second, or the domestic species. As this seemed to 
involve three material questions, the condition of the conjugal tie, the education of children, 
and the free publication of thought, I made them objects of distinct consideration." 

We now come to his Four Treatises on the subject of Marriage and Divorce. The cir- 
cumstances of his marriage are well known. Its imprudence is astonishing, but it is less 
so to find that his wife's wanton outrage should have been the occasion of these extraordi- 
nary productions. It is true they originated in his own misfortune, yet in such times there 
must have been numbers in the same predicament with himself; and his honest pleadings 
on behalf of domestic liberty, were perhaps as seasonable, as they are, whatever we may 
think of his principles, undoubtedly eloquent ; and their effect was far from inconsiderable. 
He evidently regarded them as not the least of his labours on behalf of liberty. 

" I explained my sentiments, not only on the solemnization of the marriage, but the 
dissolution, if circumstances rendered it necessary ; and I drew my arguments from the 
divine law, which Christ did not abolish, or publish another more grievous than that of 
Moses. I stated my own opinions, and those of others, concerning the exclusive exception 
of fornication, which our illustrious Selden has since, in his Hebrew Wife, more copiously 
discussed.: for he in vain makes a vaunt of liberty in the senate or in the forum who 
languishes under the vilest servitude to an inferior at home. On this subject therefore I 
published some books, which were more particularly necessary at that time, when man and 
wife were often the most inveterate foes, when the man often staid to take care of his chil- 
dren at home, while the mother of the family was seen in the camp of the enemy, threaten- 
ing death and destruction to her husband." 

This was his case, — his wife's friends were royalists, and she deserted him only one 
month after marriage, on the plea of revisiting them. He determined to repudiate her, and 
to justify his resolution, published in the year 1644 his "Doctrine and Discipline of 
Divorce, restored to the good of both sexes," and dedicated it to the parliament and the 
Assembly of Divines, in order that, as they were busy about the general reformation of the 
kingdom, they might also take this matter into consideration. " If the wisdom, the justice, 
the purity of God, be to be cleansed from the foulest imputations, which are not to be 
avoided, if charity be not to be degraded, and trodden down under a civil ordinance, if 
matrimony be not to be advanced like that exalted perdition, c above all that is called 
God,' or goodness, nay, against them both, then I dare affirm, there will be found in the 
contents of this book that which may concern us all." He declares his object to be to 
prove, first, That other reasons of divorce besides adultery were, by the law of Moses, and 
are yet to be, allowed by the christian magistrate, as a piece of justice, and that the words 
of Christ are not hereby contraried : next, That to prohibit absolutely any divorce what- 
ever, except those which Moses excepted, is against the reason of law. The grand position 
is this : That indisposition, unfitness, or contrariety of mind, arising from a cause in nature, 
unchangeable, hindering, and ever likely to hinder, the main benefits of conjugal society, 
which are solace and peace ; is a greater reason of divorce than adultery, or natural 
frigidity, provided there be a mutual consent for separation. He makes out a strong primd 
facie case ; but in so nice and difficult an argument, conducted so learnedly, by so splendid 
a casuist, and in the due and orderly method of division and subdivision so punctiliously 
observed in his time, analysis would be both ridiculous and useless. It will be read, 
were it merely for the sake of quickening and sharpening the mind by its prodigious 
subtlety and acuteness, as an intellectual exercise ; but it will be found much easier to 
deny his conclusions than to refute his arguments. Never was a greater mass of learning 
brought to bear upon a point, a mere point, of dispute* The context of the Scriptures, the 
letter and the spirit, and the scope of every passage touching the topic in hand, the laws 
of the first Christian emperors, the opinions of reformers, are adduced, for the purpose of 

J 



xx INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

demonstrating that by the laws of God, and by the inferences drawn from them by the most 
enlightened men, the power of divorce ought not to be rigidly restricted to those causes 
which render the nuptial state unfruitful, or taint it with a spurious offspring. Regarding 
mutual support and comfort as the principal objects of this union, he contends that what- 
ever defrauds it of these ends, vitiates the contract, and must necessarily justify the dissolu- 
tion. " What therefore God hath joined, let no man put asunder." — " But here the Chris- 
tian prudence lies, to consider what God hath joined. Shall we say that God hath joined 
error, fraud, unfitness, wrath, contention, perpetual loneliness, perpetual discord ? What- 
ever lust, or wine, or witchery, threat or enticement, avarice or ambition, have joined to- 
gether, faithful with unfaithful, Christian with anti-christian, hate with hate, or hate with 
love, shall we say this is God's joining ?" 

This book kindled the fury of the presbyterians ; and the bigots, unmindful of his services 
in the common cause, attempted to fix the most serious charges on his character, and bring 
him under the censure of parliament. He was actually summoned before the house of 
lords, but was honourably dismissed. This was not the way to put John Milton down. The 
parliament preachers rated at him, and his opponents grew more clamorous. He therefore 
published the " Tetrachordon, or Exposition of the four chief places in Scripture which 
treat of Nullities in Marriage," and dedicated it to parliament; confirming by explanation of 
Scripture, by testimony of ancient fathers, of civil law in the primitive church, of famousest 
protestant divines, and lastly, by an intended act of the parliament and church of England 
in the last year of Edward IV. the doctrines of his former book. 

The clamour with which this and the preceding work were received by his quondam 
associates, led to the following sonnets. 

A book was writ of late call'd Tetrachordon, 

And woven close, both matter, form, and style ; 

The subject new : it walked the town awhile, 
Numb'ring good intellects ; now seldom por'd on. 
Cries the stall reader, Bless us ! what a word on 

A title page is this ! and some in file 

Stand spelling false, while one might walk to Mile- 
End Green. Why is it harder, sirs, than Gordon, 
Colkitto, or Macdonnel, or Galasp ? 

Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek, 
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp ; 

Thy age, like our's, O soul of Sir John Cheek, 
Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, 

When thou taught'st Cambridge, and King Edward, Greek. 

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs, 

By the known rules of ancient liberty ; 

When straight a barbarous noise environs me, 
Of owls, and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs : 
As when those hinds that were transformed to frogs 

Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny, 

"\\ hich after held the sun and moon in fee. 
But this is got by casting pearls to hogs, 
That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, 

And still revolt when truth would set them free. 

Licence they mean, when they cry liberty ; 
For who loves that must first be wise and good : 

But from that mark how far they rove we see, 
For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood. 

The next piece he published on this subject was " The Judgment of the famous Martin 
Bncex touching Divorce" Bucer exactly agrees with Milton, though the latter had not seen 
hii book till after the publication of his own. Paulus Fagius, Peter Martyr, Erasmus, and 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxi 

Grotius, are shown to have adopted the same opinion. Perhaps Bucer's doctrines respect- 
ing this question, may have been not a little influenced in writing to Edward VI. by the 
conduct of that monarch's father. In the postscript to this pamphlet, the author quits for 
ever the camp of the presbyterian party, 

" whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and councils, equal hope 
And hazard in the glorious enterprise, 
Joined with him once!" 

His fourth and last work relating to divorce, was his " Colasterion," a reply to a nameless 
answer to his first work on this doctrine, " wherein the trivial author of that answer is dis- 
covered, the licenser conferred with, and the opinion, which they traduce, defended." The 
dull but malicious adversary was taken under the special patronage of Caryl, the licenser, 
author of the Commentary on Job, for which he is sharply rebuked here, and perhaps more 
than once referred to in the Areopagitica. In a letter to Leo of Aizema, dated West- 
minster, Feb. 5, 1654, Milton alludes to this controversy, and, as elsewhere, regrets that he 
did not publish in Latin. 

These treatises are equal to any which he ever wTote, Every page is strewed with 
felicities, and the mens divinior shines out with a lustre unsurpassed by himself on hap- 
pier, though not more interesting, themes. " There are many things," saith Sir Thomas 
Brown, " wherein the liberty of an honest reason may play and expatiate with security, and 
far without the circle of an heresie." 

" I then discussed the principles of education in a summary manner, but sufficiently 
copious for those who attend seriously to the subject ; than which nothing can be more 
necessary to principle the minds of men in virtue, the only genuine source of political and 
individual liberty, the only true safeguard of states, the bulwark of their prosperity and 
renown." 

His tractate " on Education " was published in 1644, the year when he entered into 
the heart-rending controversy concerning divorce, and it was dedicated to the remarkable 
individual at whose request it was written. Notwithstanding the sneers of Johnson, and 
other ushers and schoolmasters, at this noble scheme, we do hope that the country will, at 
no distant period, realize it. The plan is not for private individuals to attempt to carry into 
effect; but an enlightened government, with the vast collegiate resources of England at its 
disposal, might, without injuring existing establishments, place an academical institute on 
this ideal platform in every county. We may derive pleasure and instruction, from looking 
at this beautiful and benevolent production, as the history of the great author's own mind, 
as well as a chart for the guidance of others, and in this point of view it throws light on 
his character, and enlarges our estimate of his attainments. 

In November, 1644, he published the most beautiful of his treatises, the " Areopa- 
gitica ; a Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing — to the Parliament of England." 

It is well known that the art of printing, soon after its introduction into England, was 
regulated by the king's proclamations, prohibitions, charters of privilege, and of licence, 
and finally by the decrees of the star chamber ; which limited the number of printers, and 
of presses, and prohibited new publications unless previously approved by proper licensers. 
On the demolition of this odious jurisdiction by the ever-to-be-remembered long parliament, 
this system had been suspended. The presbyterian party, however, determined to revive 
the " imprimatur " of the star chamber, and it was against one of the orders made for this 
purpose, that Milton directed this famous argument, modelled after the classical examples 
of the Greek rhetors. It is thoroughly Grecian — the motto is taken from his favourite 
Euripides, and happily translated by himself. Having been frequently reprinted separately 



xxii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

in England, and through the French of Mirabeau's tract, « Sur la liberte de la Presse 
imite de l'Anglais, de Milton," obtained a modem continental celebrity, it is compara- 
tively a popular pamphlet. James Thomson, author of " The Seasons," published an 
Svo edition of it in 1738, when the freedom of the press was considered in danger; and in 
this poet's u Liberty," " the art of printing" is celebrated with elaborate praise. The 
separate edition of this transcendent pamphlet under the auspicious editorship of Holt 
White, Esq., is the most correct and valuable which has yet appeared. John Milton was 
the first man who asserted the liberty of unlicensed printing. The subject called forth all 
his powers, and he appears to have written every word under the impression, that every 
word would be weighed and read, not only by the statesmen whom he addressed, but by 
those of succeeding ages. Its importance, and the most illustrious tribunal before which 
he pleaded, never daunted him, but while he approached the august assemblage with the 
mien and countenance of a freeman, his discourse is at once rhetorical and deliberative, 
blending the fire of the orator with the wisdom of the sage. The " quid decet " is most 
admirably observed. He was pleading before no rabble — the greatest geniuses for government 
which the world ever saw, were the arbiters of his eloquence: — men who had been trium- 
phant in battle, and were mighty in council. The vehemence, the disdain, the terrible 
wrath of controversy, disappear, and in their stead we have such an exquisite union and 
interpenctration of the sublime and the pathetic, of the passionate and the rationative, of 
persuasion and argument, of subdued ecstasy and sober energy, of religion, and philosophy, 
and policy, all involved in a copious stream of such a wonderful language, as never before, 
and certainly never since, poured from the lips of ancient or of modern oratory. With the 
exception of the historical digressions, it is perhaps faultless, and they will be excused, when 
it is remembered that he stood alone, — and, as Bacon said of Luther, he was obliged in his 
solitude to make a party of antiquity against his own time. 

In the outset of the Areopagitica, he expresses the "joy and gratulation which it brings 
to all who wish to promote their country's liberty," to approach them — he tells them that 
" when complaints are fully heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then is the 
utmost bound of civil liberty attained," — that in permitting him to address them, it was 
evident that they are " in good part arrived to this complete point," and attributes praise 
to God, and next to " their faithful guidance and undaunted wisdom," — he craves leave to 
refer to his eulogium on their first acts as a proof that he estimates their merits, and that 
the present occasion demonstrates his fidelity, as the former did " his loyalest affection and 
his hope." — He appears before them to tell them "that it would fare better with truth, with 
learning, and the commonwealth, if one of their published orders were called in," — that it 
would prove that they are more pleased with " public advice " than other statists with " pub- 
lic flattery," — " that men will then see the difference between the magnanimity of a trien- 
nial parliament, and that jealous haughtiness of prelates and cabin councillors, that usurped 
of late, whereas they shall observe them in the midst of their victories and successes, more 
quietly brooking written exceptions against a voted order, than other courts," " the least 
signified dislike of any sudden proclamation." He is thus imboldened " to presume upon 
the meek demeanour of their civil and gentle greatness," — and by the consideration that in 
oncienl days men who professed the study of wisdom and eloquence, though private, were 
heard gladly, " if they had ought in public to admonish the state," he would be " thought 
DOl bo inferior to any of those who had this privilege, as the parliament was superior to the 
in- t of them who received their counsel ;" — " and how far you excel them, be assured, lords 
and commons, there can no greater testimony appear than when your prudent spirit ac- 
Imowledges and obeys the voice of reason from what quarter soever it be heard speaking; 
and renders ye as willing to repeal any act of your own setting forth, as any set forth by 
youi predeci ssors." But analysis is impossible. The topics which he urges embrace the 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 



xxm 



whole controversy, and are exhausted. The collateral excursions from the main positions 
of his argument are, as usual, profoundly instructive, and incomparably beautiful. Tole- 
ration of all opinions is the grand centre to which all the lines of illustration and of expo- 
sition point, and in which they all harmoniously meet. The bare question of licensing is 
apparently a dry one — -but his digressions embrace a most comprehensive circuit. The 
Areopagitica is a fine illustration of that wonderful aggressive vigour, by which the author's 
possession of the most inconsiderable position becomes a key to the most splendid con- 
quest — the pass of triumph — the punctum saliens, whence, 

in mighty quadrate join'd 
Of union irresistible, move on 
In silence his bright legions. 



It is John Milton's masterpiece. 

This was his last work under the division of civil liberty, and he thus writes of it : 
" Lastly, I wrote my Areopagitica, on the model of a set speech, in order to relieve the 
press from the restraints with which it was encumbered ; that the power of determining 
what was true, and what was false, what ought to be published, and what to be suppressed, 
might no longer be intrusted to a few illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their 
sanction to any work which contained views or sentiments at all above the level of the 
vulgar superstition." 

It was not till the year 1694, that the press was properly free. The office of licenser 
was abolished during the usurpation of Cromwell. 

" On the last species, or civil liberty I said nothing ; because I saw that sufficient atten- 
tion was paid to it by the magistrates ; nor did I write any thing on the prerogative of the 
crown, till the king, voted an enemy by the parliament, and vanquished in the field, was 
summoned before the tribunal which condemned him to lose his head. But when at 
length some presbyterian ministers, who had formerly been the most bitter enemies of 
Charles, became jealous of the growth of the independents, and of their ascendency in the 
parliament, most tumultuously clamoured against the sentence, and did all in their power 
to prevent the execution, though they were not angry, so much on account of the act itself, 
as because it was not the act of their party ; and when they dared to affirm, that the doctrine 
of the protestants, and of all the reformed churches, was abhorrent to such an atrocious 
proceeding against kings, I thought that it became me to oppose such a glaring falsehood, 
and accordingly, without any immediate or personal application to Charles, I shewed, in 
an abstract consideration of the question, what might lawfully be done against tyrants ; and 
in support of what I advanced, produced the opinions of the most celebrated divines ; while 
I vehemently inveighed against the egregious ignorance or effrontery of men, who professed 
better things, and from whom better things might have been expected." 

This first purely political work of Milton's made its appearance some few weeks after 
the execution of Charles ; and was written, as he further informs us, " rather to reconcile 
the minds of men to the event, than to discuss the legitimacy of that particular sentence, 
which concerned the magistracy, and which was already executed." 

Charles's criminality is admitted on all hands, and the only questions relate either to the 
expediency of the sentence, or the competency of the tribunal which pronounced it. What- 
ever may be thought of the former question, (and we are of opinion, that the step they took 
in carrying, against public opinion, even that just sentence, which described the king as 
" a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, and a public enemy," into execution, was eventually as 
fatal to themselves as the royal rebel,) we must remember that the deed was done, and 
could not be undone, and that therefore the real question was the last one, and this work of 
Milton's is confined to it. Guilt being proved against the first person in the state, who is 



xxiv INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

to punish it? This is an abstract question, but upon its determination depends our 
opinion of the regicide. The following is Milton's proposition, " That it is lawful, and 
hath been held so through all ages, for any who have the power, to call to account a tyrant, 
or wicked king, and after due conviction, to depose and put him to death ; if' the ordinary 
magistrate have neglected, or denied to do it." — We think that it is successfully maintained. 
" If such a one there be, by whose commission whole massacres have been committed on 
his faithful subjects, his provinces offered to pawn or alienation, as the hire of those whom 
he had solicited to come in and destroy whole cities and countries ; be he king, or tyrant, 
or emperor, the sword of justice is above him ; in whose hand soever is found sufficient 
power to avenge the effusion, and so great a deluge of innocent blood. For if all human 
power to execute, not accidentally but intendedly, the wrath of God upon evil-doers without 
exception, be of God ; then that power, whether ordinary, or if that fail, extraordinary, so 
executing that intent of God, is lawful, and not to be resisted." In proof, we have " set 
down, from first beginning, the original of kings ; how and wherefore exalted to that dignity 
above their brethren ; and from thence shall prove, that turning to tyranny they may be as 
law fully deposed and punished, as they were at first elected : this I shall do by authorities 
and reasons, not learnt in corners among schisms and heresies, as our doubling divines are 
ready to calumniate, but fetched out of the midst of choicest and most authentic learning, 
and no prohibited authors ; nor many heathen, but mosaical, Christian, orthodoxal, and, 
which must needs be more convincing to our adversaries, presbyterial." Bishop Horsley, 
having, as we shall see, brought a serious charge against Milton, which the appendix to this 
work rebuts, we point particular attention to the authorities which Milton has there produced. 

Milton's next work was " Observations upon the Articles of Peace with the Irish Rebels, 
on the Letter of Ormond to Colonel Jones, and the Representation of the Scots Presbytery 
at Belfast." 

It is well known that Charles's league with the papists precipitated his ruin. The Irish 
rebels were (even in their horrid massacre of the protestants) called " the Queen's army." 
Thirteen days after these Articles of Peace were concluded by his representative in Ireland, 
the king lost his head. Ireland was now the theatre of the royalist party, and with its 
rabble of papists, and the little presbytery of Belfast, and the remnant of its cavaliers, pre- 
sented as motley a spectacle of selfish union for selfish ends as was ever seen. The inde- 
pendent army, and the genius of Cromwell, however, kept them in awe. The lively lieutenant 
of the martyr, after all his loving " Articles of Agreement" with the murderers of protest- 
ants, and the novel friendship that had sprung up between him and the presbyterians, 
(ailed in bribery to effect what force could not do, and accordingly wrote to Colonel Jones, 
Bfl W hitelocke says, promising him great rewards to come to his obedience to the king. 
Ormond'8 letter is a very sprightly production, and though it had no effect on the veteran 
to whom lie sent it, Milton seems to have been not a little nettled with it. Jones's 
reply is very characteristic of his party, and of the times. The articles first come under 
examination, and are soon despatched. Then this letter of Ormond's is spoiled of some of 
it- sprightliness, and of all its haughtiness ; and lastly, our author comes "to deal with 
another sort of adversaries, in show far different, in substance somewhat the same." His 
remonstrance with the presbyterians is very powerful, and the style of the whole pamphlet 
ii In' id and masculine, and remarkable for great terseness and compression. 

" Bach were the fruits of my private studies, which I gratuitously presented to the church 
and to the Mate ; and for which I was recompensed by nothing but impunity; though the 
actions themselves procured me peace of conscience and the approbation of the good; while 
I reJK d iliit freedom of discussion which I loved. Others without labour or desert got 
won of honours and emoluments, but no one never knew me, either soliciting any thing 
nrsehVor through the medium of my friends; ever beheld me in a supplicating posture, at 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxv 

the doors of the senate or the levees of the great. I usually kept myself secluded at home, 
where my own property, part of which had been withheld during the civil commotions, and 
part of which had been absorbed in the oppressive contributions which I had to sustain, 
afforded me a scanty subsistence. When I was released from these engagements, and 
thought that I was about to enjoy an interval of uninterrupted ease, I turned my thoughts 
to a History of my Country, from the earliest times to the present period." 

Of this great undertaking, only six Books, four now, and two afterwards, w T ere completed. 
They were published in 1670. The four first, referred to in the preceding extract, con- 
duct the narrative to the union of the heptarchy under Edgar, and the remaining two, 
written subsequently to the Second Defence, bring it down to the battle of Hastings. 

In the 1st Book, taking it for granted, that of British affairs, from the first peopling of the 
island, till the coming of Julius Caesar, nothing certain either of tradition, history, or ancient 
fame, hath hitherto been left us, " Nevertheless, seeing that ofttimes relations heretofore ac- 
counted fabulous have been after found to contain in them many footsteps and reliques of 
something true, as what we read in poets of the flood, and giants little believed, till un- 
doubted witnesses taught us, that all was not feigned ; I have therefore determined to be- 
stow the telling over even of these reputed tales ; be it for nothing else but in favour of our 
English poets and rhetoricians, who by their art will know how to use them judiciously." 
And our author is as good as his word ; he ransacks Geoffrey Monmouth and his assertors, 
and thus concludes, " By this time, like one who had set out in his way by night, and 
travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the con- 
fines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though 
at a far distance, true colours and shapes." " We can hardly miss from one hand or other, 
to be sufficiently informed as of things past so long ago." The curious reader will compare 
this Book with the " Chronicles of Briton Kings " in Spencer's Faery Queene, (book ii. 
cant, x.) The versions in both are equally close. Milton was particularly fond of British 
fable. It is well known that he intended to make Prince Arthur the hero of his epic. It 
yet remains for modern minstrel " to recount in solemn cantos the deeds of knighthood 
founded by our victorious kings." Spencer's " continued allegory or darke conceit," leaves 
the field still open. Blackmore promised what he could not, and Dry den what he would 
not, perform — and where even Southey has failed, who can succeed ? The circumstance 
of Milton's entering so minutely into these tales and fables, shows the extent of his plan, 
and makes us the more regret that he never completed it. 

In the 2nd Book the history is thus continued. " I am now to write of what befel the 
Britons from fifty and three years before the birth of our Saviour, when first the Romans 
came in, till the decay and ceasing of that empire ; a story of much truth, and for the first 
hundred years, and somewhat more, collected without much labour." Here he rises into a 
fine strain of generalization ; and then, nothing daunted with the task, he culls our annals 
from various sources, and the book concludes with the fate of the Western empire. The 
arrogant Warburton gives the close of this book, " Henceforth we are to steer," &c. as an 
instance of the surprising grandeur of sentiment and expression into which he sometimes 
naturally, and without effort, rises. The beginnings and endings of all the books are 
beautifully written, collecting the rays of the past, and dispersing them, like a tropical sun- 
set, over the future. 

The exordium of the 3rd Book will take the reader by surprise, nor will we anticipate the 
splendid digression which he will meet with, beyond all comparison the most instructive 
and masterly in the whole range of English history. 

The 4th Book is occupied with the transactions of this heptarchy up to its union under 
Egbert, and after a long and sufficiently minute recital of all their dissensions, he adorns 
the tale by pointing a solemn warning to his own times. 



xxvi INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

The 5th Book contains the history of civil affairs, and of ecclesiastical, so far as they are 
directly connected with them, including the Danish irruptions, from the Union to the death 
of Edgar, and with him of the Saxon glory. The proem and peroration of this book, were 
intended for the factions of his day, and should be read together. 

The history of the decline and ruin of the Saxons, with the Conquest, complete this frag- 
ment, the whole of which seems to have been written in the solemn light of the concluding 
paragraph. His letter to Lord Henry de Bras, dated Westminster, July 15, 1657, informs 
us that Sallust was his favourite author and model in historical composition. 

We here resume his own narrative : " I had already finished four books, (of the history,) 
when after the subversion of the monarchy, and the establishment of a republic, I was sur- 
prised by an invitation from the council of state, who desired my services in the office for 
foreign affairs. A book appeared soon after, which was ascribed to the king, and contained 
the most invidious charges against the parliament. I was ordered to answer it ; and op- 
posed the Iconoclast to the Icon." 

His reply was published by authority, in the year 1649. It does not appear from the 
orders of the council, (for extracts from which the public are indebted to Mr. Todd,) that 
Milton was ordered to prepare the answer to this extraordinary work of the king's. There 
is no entry of it, as there would have been had it been a state-task, and he paid for it. He 
was probably invited to answer it, upon his own terms and at his leisure. The wisdom of 
the new government was shown in their selection of such a servant ; and his reply to the 
Icon is the most brilliant of his political writings in the mother tongue ; and, at the crisis, 
must have produced a salutary reaction on the public mind. It was reprinted in 1650, and 
published in French by Du Gard in 1652. The hangman had the honour of burning it 
on the Restoration, and indeed if suffering constituted martyrdom, this work has as good a 
claim to the title as he who suffered under similar hands and obtained it. An answer, or 
what purported so to be, appeared in 1651, called cuaw a/eXao-To?, the Image Unbroken; and 
another came out as late as 1692, entitled Vindicae Carolina?; both miserable performances, 
compared with that " song of songs," which it is said the accomplished monarch and his 
syren queen indited. The popularity of the Icon Basilike was certainly unexampled. It 
was the banner-cry of all who were opposed to the existing government. Forty-seven 
editions were circulated in England alone ; and 48,500 copies are said to have been sold. 
We shall not enter into the vexed question, Who wrote Icon Basilike ? It has been, and is, 
a regular controversy, and involves its hundred volumes. The question is set at rest, by the 
total absence of any allusion to it, by Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion. The 
silence of such a devotee, acquainted as he must have been with every particular relating 
to the work, presents an insurmountable obstacle to the imperial claim. Suspicions were 
entertained at the time that it was not the king's book. It has been since proved, almost 
beyond a possibility of doubt, that its author was Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter. We 
shall not enter into the evidence, but merely refer our readers to Laing's History of 
S. Otland, or Summons's admirable Life of Milton, for information and satisfaction. Milton 
intimated his suspicions of its authenticity, but it was evidently his policy, in the absence 
of all but internal evidence to corroborate his suspicions, to treat it as no forgery; he does 
not therefore uncase (his grand imposture. Be the " great unknown" whom he might, 
the gauntlet is here taken up as if it were the king's; every allegation is examined, 
the reply and justification of the parliament and army are complete, and the ghostly visitant 
giblx re baci again to the grave. . Pressing closely on his antagonist, and tracing him step 
1,v Bte Pi liir Iconoclast either exposes the fallacy of his reasonings, or the falsehood of 
hil assertions! or the hollowness of his professions, or the convenient speciousness of his 
devotion. In argument and in style, compressed and energetic, perspicuous and neat, it 
discovers a quickness, which never misses an advantage, and a keenness of remark, which 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxvii 

carries an irresistible edge. The martyr stands before us, exposed in all the deformity of 
his duplicity and despotism, smitten, blasted, and withered in the pitiless encounter : and 
yet there is not a single paragraph of unseemly exultation, of wanton mockery or insult, 
over the fall of the monarch, throughout the secretary's vindication of the patriots. The 
tone of the mournful and majestic Preface is always preserved. As so much history the 
Iconoclast is invaluable. The royal road to a fatal block is pointed out ; and the lesson is 
not more awful than plain ! The following extracts are specimens of that satire, sportive, 
and yet grave withal, which wrings its victim in every page. 

The monarch says, " They know my chiefest arms left me were prayers and tears." 
" O sacred reverence of God ! respect and shame of men ! whither were ye fled when 
these hypocrisies were uttered ? Was the kingdom then at all that cost of blood to re- 
move from him none but prayers and tears ? What were those thousands of blaspheming 
cavaliers about him, whose mouths let fly oaths and curses by the volley ? Were those the 
prayers ? and those carouses, drank to the confusion of all things good or holy, — did those 
minister the tears ? Were they prayers and tears, which were listed at York, mustered at 
He worth Moor, and laid siege to Hull for the guard of his person ? Were prayers and 
tears at so high a rate in Holland, that nothing could purchase them but the crown jewels ? 
Yet they in Holland (such word was sent us) sold them for guns, carabines, mortar-pieces, 
cannons, and other deadly instruments of war ; which, when they came to York, were all, 
no doubt by the merit of some great saint, suddenly transformed into prayers and tears ; and 
being divided into regiments and brigades, were the only arms that mischieved us in all 
those battles and encounters. These were his chief arms, whatever we must call them ; 
and yet such arms as they who fought for the commonwealth have, by the help of better 
prayers, vanquished and brought to nothing." 

In chapter XI. the king says, " But the ' incommunicable jewel of his conscience' he will 
not give, ' but reserve to himself.' It seems that his conscience was none of the crown 
jewels ; for those were in Holland, not incommunicable, to buy arms against his subjects. 
Being therefore but a private jewel, he could not have done a greater pleasure to the king- 
dom than by reserving it to himself. But he, contrary to what is here professed, would 
have his conscience not an incommunicable, but a universal conscience, the whole king- 
dom's conscience. Thus what he seems to fear lest we should ravish from him, is our chief 
complaint that he obtruded upon us ; we never forced him to part with his conscience, but 
it was he that would have forced us to part with ours." 

The eventful year of 1649 had not yet closed when Claude de Saumaise, latine Clau- 
dius Salmasius, the most celebrated scholar of the age, published his " Defensio Regia 
pro Carolo Primo ad Carolum Secundum," or a Royal Defence of Charles the 1st to Charles 
the 2nd. This insolent attack on the English government and people, produced at a 
critical juncture of affairs, by a man of unrivalled eminence in letters, and at the especial 
solicitation of the illustrious exile to whom it is dedicated, must have attracted attention, 
both at home and abroad, and required refutation. The achievements of a handful of heroes 
in England had roused the fears of despotism ; and a willing ear was probably lent by the 
continental potentates to the present invocation of their interference on behalf of the then 
Pretender. The council of state thought it desirable to issue a reply to this libellous and 
dangerous manifesto, and their determination is recorded in the following laconic order of 
the 8 Jan. 1649-50 : " That Mr. Milton do prepare something in answer to the Book of 
Salmasius, and when he hath done itt, bring itt to the council." 

Milton was present at the discussion which led to this characteristic direction, and 
although warned that the loss of sight would be one certain consequence of obeying it, he 
magnanimously undertook, and in spite of constant interruptions arising from increasing ill 
health, nobly performed his honourable task. " I would not," says he in the Second De- 



xxviii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

fence, " have listened to the voice even of Esculapius himself from the shrine of Epidauris, 
in preference to the suggestions of the heavenly monitor within my breast ; my resolution 
[to undertake the reply to the defence of the royal cause] was unshaken, though the alterna- 
tive was either the loss of my sight, or the desertion of my duty ; and I called to mind those 
two destinies, which the oracle of Delphi announced to the son of Thetis. 

Two fates may lead me to the realms of night ; 

If staying here, around Troy's walls I fight, 

To my dear home no more must I return ; 

But lasting glory will adorn my urn. 

But if I withdraw from the martial strife, 

Short is my fame, but long will he my life. — II. IX. 

I considered that many had purchased a less good by a greater evil, the meed of glory by 
the loss of life ; but that I might procure great good by a little suffering ; that though I am 
blind, I might still discharge the most honourable duties, the performance of which, as it is 
something more durable than glory, ought to be an object of superior admiration and 
esteem ; I resolved, therefore, to make the short interval of sight, which was left me to 
enjoy, as beneficial as possible to the public interest." — Early in the year 1651, out came 
" something in answer to the Book of Salmasius " — the immortal Defence of the People of 
England — the most costly-won and brilliant achievement in the annals of controversy. 

It is allowed by all, that the triumph of Milton was decisive, and the humiliation of his 
adversary complete. Salmasius, like another Milo, but without his strength, attempted to 
rive the British oak, and his presumption was rewarded by a fate equally miserable and ridicu- 
lous. Great was the advantage, which, in all encounters, Milton had over his enemies, in 
the consistency of his moral and political character. " I again invoke the Almighty to 
witness, that I never, at any time, wrote any thing which I did not think agreeable to truth, 
to justice, and to piety. Nor w r as I ever prompted to such exertions by the influence of 
ambition, by the lust of lucre or of praise ; it was only by the conviction of duty and the 
feeling of patriotism, a disinterested passion for the extension of civil and religious 
liberty." Salmasius was a mercenary parasite. He had formerly written with the great- 
est acrimony against the bishops of England : the " Royal Defence " is their unqualified 
and servile eulogy. Such was the effect of a hundred jacobins on this honorary professor 
in a protestant republic, that they spirited him up to offer, in this w T ork, the grossest insult 
to his feeders and patrons, who were obliged to prohibit its sale within their dominions. 
Milton, it should be remembered, implored the Dutch to take off this prohibition. His 
infinite conceit of himself turned upon his real or imaginary ascendency in scholarship, 
and it so happened that here where he was most sensitive, he was most vulnerable. The 
blunders and barbarisms in the style, the contradictions and sophisms in the argument, of 
the Royal Defence, laid its author open to the most galling exposure ; and where he should 
have been, and in points in which the world considered him, impregnable, he was often de- 
fenceless. His very authorities generally of themselves make against his cause, or if they do 
not, his own comments imitate their fugleman, and turn deserters. The laughter of Europe 
was excited when they saw a renowned, irrefragable, and most arrogant doctor, beaten, at his 
own weapons, by the island-champion of a " crew of fanatics." The giant dealer in words, 
when grappled with as a grammarian, is rolled over and over in the very dust on which 
alone, like Antaeus with Hercules, could he for one moment cope with his antagonist : and 
he is satisfactorily despatched only after the manner of his classical prototype. It must not 
be imagined that this contest was merely a duel of words ; or that the defender of our poli- 
tical faith, while necessarily keeping in view the character of Salmasius, lost sight of his 
principles. Pains have been taken to convey the impression that this controversy involved 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 



no principle. Butler, the witty and the starved-to-death author of Hudibras, thus alludes 

to it. 

Some polemicks use to draw their swords, 
Against the language only and the words. 
As he who fought at barriers with Salmasius, 
Engaged with nothing but his style and phrases. 
Waved to assert the murder of a prince, 
The author of false Latin to convince ; 
But laid the merits of the cause aside, 
By those that understood them to be tried ; 
And counted breaking Priscian's head a thing 
More capital than to behead a king; 
For which he has been praised by all the learned, 
Of knaves concerned, and pedants unconcerned ! 

Funny — but untrue. Sovereign was the contempt which John Milton entertained for the 
" mere trappings," both of pedantry and royalty. 

Salmasius was in fact little more than an ingenious emendator of broken sentences and 
worm-eaten words, and he probably sinned as much against his nature in assuming the 
character of a politician, as against his conscience in eulogizing bishops, and justifying a 
despot. He was one of those " grammarians " Sir Thomas Browne refers to, who " toure 
and plume themselves over a single line in Horace, and shew more pride in the construc- 
tion of one ode, than the author in the composure of the whole booke." Of " divine philo- 
sophy " Salmasius possessed not the tithe of a particle. Of the world of men, with its 
highest and most complicated concerns, he was as ignorant as the monk that spent his life 
in illuminating a letter. The power to strike out of the mass of particulars great princi- 
ples, — to hew from the rock the corner-stones of truth, and polish and complete the living 
edifice, — to stamp on the precious metal of original genius the signet that shall be sterling 
for ever, — was utterly withheld from his soul, and we shall look in vain through his book 
for any thing higher than its author. His production died into lumber an age ago — and his 
name, as a politician, is a dreadless symbol for de jure divino simplicity, even among the 
followers of Macchiavelli. In the first chapter of the Defence of the People of England, 
towards the end, his adversary thus speaks of him. 

" Dare you affect the reputation of a learned man ? I confess you are pretty well versed 
in phrase books, and lexicons, and glossaries ; insomuch that you have spent your time in 
nothing else. But you do not make appear that you have read any good authors with so 
much judgment as to have benefited by them. Other copies, and various lections, and words 
omitted, and corruptions of texts, and the like, these you are full of; but no footstep of any 
solid learning appears in all you have writ. Or do you think yourself a wise man, that quar- 
rel and contend about the meanest trifles that may be ?" 

Dr. Johnson acknowledges that Salmasius had " not much considered the rights of 
governments," (those of subjects, surely, the Doctor meant,) and yet endeavours to ridicule 
Milton for treating his antagonist, personally, rather as a verbiloquist and a pedant, than as 
a politician. A mere glance, however, at the fundamental doctrines asserted by Milton, 
will show the real scope and indestructible value of his work. Therein is maintained in 
opposition to Salmasius, who had asserted the irresponsibility of kings to their subjects, 
that all civil power emanates from the people ; that the magistrates, as well as the people, 
should be, and are, alike subject to the laws, and the sanction of history, with her exam- 
ples from all the most celebrated commonwealths, is produced ; that the regal office itself is 
merely a trust committed to the king by the people on certain conditions, express or im- 
plied, that he is therefore accountable to them for that trust, and if he betray it, is liable 
to be cashiered, or even punished capitally, should such be the will of the community ; 
hence that Charles the 1st, being guilty of misgovernment, and breach of trust, was lawfully 



xxx INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

and justly put to death. These positions he illustrates and confirms by an appeal to the 
Jewish and Christian Scriptures, to the most eminent writers, poets, historians, and law- 
givers of antiquity, to the laws of nature and nations, and lastly to our own municipal laws. 
Milton thus kept his eye on the cause, and not merely was the royal advocate silenced, but 
the claims of legitimacy quashed for ever. 

The performance of Salmasius is its own antidote. An elaborate defence of despotism 
in the abstract, it is that of Charles the 1st in particular ; and the entire argument proceeds 
upon the assumption that that unfortunate monarch had actually been what de jure divino 
it is there contended he had a right to be — A tyrant. The advocate of Charles being 
thus the advocate of pure tyranny, his bulky production, instead of being, as it imports, a 
defence of the oppressor, and a lasting monument to his honour, becomes a pillar of infamy 
— at once the trophy and the beacon of the people's cause. 

The work of our illustrious countryman is so strictly and critically a reply to the " Royal 
Defence," reviewing and refuting, Kara -v-oha, sentence by sentence, every important assertion 
or principle advanced by the adversary, that neither outline nor extract, synthesis nor 
analysis, can convey an idea of the depth of its philosophic spirit, the splendour of its eru- 
dition, or the varied beauties of its vigorous logic and sober rhetoric. No translation (yet 
the one subjoined is, in many points, excellent) can adequately reflect the immortal original. 
The delicious mannerism of Milton evaporates in transfusion. Walsingham has hit the 
sense, but to hit off the style is, we fear, impossible. In extracting the perfume, the lustre 
of the flower, often more charming than its precious fragrance, is gone. After all, in the 
best translation there must be the real difference between similarity and identity, and the 
formal, between the same warrior in a Roman panoply and a saxon gear. Milton is yet 
unexcelled in English, and few will question his pre-eminence in Latin composition. The 
language of Cicero is upon his tongue, and, " winged with red lightning and impetuous 
rage," never did the great Roman orator wield its thunders more easily or more effectively. 
We almost as deeply regret that Milton did not give to his countrymen a version " in the 
mother tongue" (which was his prime favourite) of that which he presented to Europe in the 
Latin, as we admire his unbounded mastery over the universal language. This regret 
extends as well to all his most important subsequent writings. The Viscount St. Albans 
conceived that the Latin volume of his Essays, " being in the universal language, might 
last as long as books last," — there is no danger of the Latin surviving the English, — but 
who does not wish that Milton had taken a hint from Bacon in this particular — it would 
have tended, inconceivably, to raise and perpetuate his political fame, and thus he would 
have postponed yet further the fate of both tongues. 

The continent " rang " with the praise of the work, and we doubt not that it will again 
ring with it. Little known prior to this great effort except at home, where he was disliked 
and feared by two most numerous factions, Milton's triumph was most felt and confessed 
abroad, where Salmasius had long held supreme sway, and Europe was the scene of its 
celebration. Congratulations poured in upon him from all quarters. Learned foreigners 
by letter complimented, most of the ambassadors visited or felicitated him. The French 
goi eminent assisted its sale, by ordering it to be burnt, both at Paris and Thoulouse,by the 
common hangman. His own most exquisite account of his contest with the advocate of 
legitimacy will be found in the Second Defence. He seems to have been always anxious 
to obtain and to preserve the good opinion of foreign scholars. When he was called upon 
to enter upon the last-mentioned work, and defend again, before the same tribunal, the very 
defenders of the great cause of which he was the champion, he can hardly refrain in his 
relation from assuming " a more lofty and swelling tone than the simplicity of an exordium 
may seem to justify ; and much," continues he, " as I may be surpassed in the powers of 
eloquence, and copiousness of diction, by the illustrious orators of antiquity ; yet the sub- 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxxi 

ject of which I treat was never surpassed in any age, in dignity or in interest. It has 
excited such general and such ardent expectation, that I imagine myself not in the forum 
or on the rostra, surrounded only by the people of Athens or of Rome ; but about to address 
in this, as I did in my former Defence, the whole collective body of people, cities, states, 
and councils of the wise and eminent, through the wide expanse of anxious and listening 
Europe." Jam videor mihi, ingressus iter, transmarinos tractus et porrectas late regiones, 
sublimis perlustrare ; vultus innumeros atque ignotos, animi sensus mecum conjunctissimos. 
Hinc Germanorum virile et infestum servituti robur, hide Francorum vividi dignique 
nomine liberales impetus, hinc Hispanorum consulta virtus, Italorum inde sedata suique 
compos magnanimitas ob oculos versatur. Quicquid uspiam liberorum pectorum, quicquid 
ingenui, quicquid magnanimi aut prudens latet aut se palam profitetur, alii tacite favere, 
alii aperte suffragan, accurrere alii et plausu accipere, alii tandem vero victi, dedititios se 
tradere. Videor jam mihi, tantis circumseptus copiis, ab Herculeis usque columnis ad 
extremos Liberi patris terminos, libertatem diu pulsam atque exulem, longo intervallo 
domum ubique gentium reducere : et, quod Triptolemus olim fertur, sed longe nobiliorem 
Cereali ilia frugem ex civitate mea gentibus importare ; restitutum nempe civilem libemmque 
vita? cultum, per urbes, per regna, perque nationes disseminare. — " I seem to survey, as from 
a towering height, the far extended tracts of sea and land, and innumerable crowds of specta- 
tors, betraying in their looks the liveliest interest, and sensations the most congenial with my 
own. Here I behold the stout and manly prowess of the German, disdaining servitude ; there 
the generous and lively impetuosity of the French ; on this side the calm and stately valour 
of the Spaniard ; on that the composed and wary magnanimity of the Italian. Of ail the 
lovers of liberty and virtue, the magnanimous and the wise, in whatever quarter they may 
be found, some secretly favour, others openly approve; some greet me with congratulations 
and applause ; others, who had long been proof against conviction, at last yield themselves 
captive to the force of truth. Surrounded by congregated multitudes, I now imagine, that, 
from the columns of Hercules to the Indian ocean, I behold the nations of the earth 
recovering that liberty which they so long had lost ; and that the people of this island 
are transporting to other countries a plant of more beneficial qualities, and more noble 
growth, than that which Triptolemus is reported to have carried from region to region ; that 
they are disseminating the blessings of civilization and freedom among cities, kingdoms, 
and nations. Nor shall I approach unknown, nor perhaps unloved, if it be told that I am the 
same person, who engaged in single combat that fierce advocate of despotism, till then 
reputed invincible in the opinion of many, and in his own conceit, who insolently chal- 
lenged us and our armies to the combat ; but whom, while I repelled his virulence, I 
silenced with his own weapons ; and over whom, if I may trust to the opinion of impartial 
judges, I gained a complete and glorious victory." 

Toland, and succeeding biographers, have asserted that Milton was rewarded by the 
council with a present of £1000. The Second Defence, published three years after the first, 
denies that its author was ever the richer by one half-penny for these and similar w r orks, 
and the council book shews that the gratitude of his task-masters, to their shame be it 
recorded, expended itself in commendation. 

" 1651. June 18. Ordered, that thanks be given to Mr. Milton on the behalf of the 
commonwealth, for his good services done in writing an answer to the booke of Salmasius, 
written against the proceedings of the commonwealth of England." But all this, says Mr. 
Todd, in his account of the life and writings of Milton, is crossed over, and nearly three 
lines following are obliterated, in which, Mr. Lemon says, a grant of money was made to 
Milton. After the cancelled passage, the regular entry thus follows : " The councill taking 
notice of the many good services performed by Mr. John Milton, their secretary for foreign 
Languages, to this state and commonwealth, particulate for his Booke in vindication of the 



xxxii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

Parliament and People of England against the calumnies and invectives of Salmasius, have 
thought lit to declare their resentment and good acceptance of the same ; and that the 
thanks of the councill be returned to Mr. Mylton, and their sense represented in that 
behalf." 

The Defence of the People of England does not contain any abstract principle which 
was not acted upon in the Revolution of 1688, and is not now formally embodied in the 
British Constitution, and approved of by the vast majority of those who enjoy its protec- 
tion. The Earl of Bridgewater, who had performed the part of the first brother in the 
Masque of Comus, is said to have written on the title-page of the Defensio, " Liber igne, 
author furca, dignissimi." So thought the friends of liberty in France, and would doubtless 
have carried the latter part of the sentence as they did the former into execution. It may 
be unhesitatingly asserted that there is no governmental or political maxim or opinion 
therein delivered or maintained to which a good king would not willingly subscribe. " If 
I write," says Milton in the Second Defence, " against tyrants, what is that to kings, whom 
I am far from associating with tyrants ? As much as an honest man differs from a rogue, 
so much I contend that a king differs from a tyrant. Whence it is clear that a tyrant is so 
far from being a king, that he is always in direct opposition to a king. And he who 
peruses the records of history, will find that more kings have been subverted by tyrants, 
than by subjects. He, therefore, that would authorize the destruction of tyrants, does not 
authorize the destruction of kings, but of the most inveterate enemies of kings." 

Far distant be the day when an English king shall require the assistance of another 
Salmasius ! 

The superabundant malice of Bishop Horsley, and the industry of Mr. Todd, have only 
been able to make a joint nibble at the Defensio. These luminaries of the church of Eng- 
land, differing in magnitude not density, have endeavoured to throw the shade of a foul 
slander over the Miltonic orb in this controversy. As Mr. Todd adds nothing of weight to 
the Bishop's paragraph, we shall content ourselves with the episcopal charge. il When 
Salmasius " (says Bishop Horsley in the Appendix to his Sermon before the House of 
Lords, Jan. 30, 1793, p. 38) " upbraided the Cromwell faction with the tenets of the Brown- 
i*is, the chosen advocate of that execrable faction (Milton) replied, that if they were 
Brownists, Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Zuinglius, and all the most celebrated theologians of the 
orthodox, must be included in the same reproach. A grosser falsehood as far as Luther* 
Calvin, and many others, are concerned, never fell from the unprincipled pen of a party 
writer. However sedition might be a part of the puritanick creed, the general faith of the 
Reformers rejects the infamous alliance." 

A serious charge is here brought, but is it attempted to be sustained ? The independents 
were a religious sect, and so named from the form of their church-government. With this 
farm it is evident that their theological doctrines had no necessary connexion — nor were 
Iheii political tenets necessarily either of the royal or rebel faction. How, therefore, the 
Bishop can, after Salmasius, class sedition as a part of the creed of a sect, which, as such, 
disclaims the alliance between the church and state — how a religious community, as such, 
can adopt so destructive a principle into their very articles of faith, will ever remain an 
incomprehensible marvel. As independents they could not profess the principle of sedition, 
dot could tin; religious reformers as such — therefore from the charge of sedition (which is 
a political offence) they are both equally clear. If in what the independents did believe, 
the reformers, as far as it was possible, believed also, the inference must be that the charge 
brought against the commonwealthsmen (of sedition) includes the reformers. The ultimate 
principle on which the reformers rested their opposition to the pope of Rome, was that 
which justified the independents (and other sectaries) in their religious opposition to the 
English pope, or the head of the English church; so that inasmuch as there can be re- 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxxiii 

ligious sedition, the sectaries might (if they chose) shelter themselves under the example 
of the greatest protestant reformers. The independents could not as such act in political 
opposition to the king of England ; — herein they acted as Englishmen upon the common 
ground of liberty, on which alone the protestant reformers as against their popish rulers 
could be justified, and on which alone the members of the church of England could be 
justified in expelling Pope James the 2nd from the English throne. 

Now for the fact — as to what was really the opinion of the reformers on the right of subjects 
to rebel against tyrants. The Bishop we have seen denies that the reformers acknowledged 
this right. What says Milton ? " We have put to death neither a good, nor a just, nor a 
merciful, nor a devout, nor a godly, nor a peaceable king, as you style him ; but an enemy 
that has been so to us almost ten years to an end ; nor one that was a father, but a de- 
stroyer of his country. You confess that such things have been practised ; for yourself 
have not the impudence to deny it : but not by protestants upon a protestant king. But 
there being so few protestant kings, it is no great wonder, if it never happened that one of 
them has been put to death. But that it is lawful to depose a tyrant, and punish him ac- 
cording to his deserts ; nay, that this is the opinion of many protestant divines, and of such 
as have been most instrumental in the late reformation, do you deny it if you dare." This 
is in the 1st chapter — the concluding paragraph of the 5th of the Defensio is the passage 
on which the Bishop animadverts. In the 1st chapter the opinion is reiterated. 

" You confess that ( some protestants whom you do not name, have asserted it lawful to 
depose a tyrant ;' but though you do not think fit to name them, I will, because you say 
' they are far worse than the Jesuits themselves ;' they are no other than Luther, and 
Zuinglius, and Calvin, and Bucer, and Pareus, and many others." 

Again in the 3rd chapter towards the end : " But would you know the reason why he (Sal- 
masius) dares not come so low as to the present times ? Why he does as it were hide him- 
self, and disappear, when he comes towards our own times ? The reason is, because he 
knows full well, that as many eminent divines as there are of the reformed churches, so 
many adversaries he would have to encounter. Let him take up the cudgels if he thinks 
fit ; he will quickly find himself run down with innumerable authorities, out of Luther, 
Zuinglius, Calvin, Bucer, Martyr, Pareus, and the rest. 1 could oppose you with testimo- 
nies out of divines, that have flourished even in Leyden." 

Reformation whether opposed to reigning government or to a reigning superstition is 
equally liable to the charge of " sedition" Milton at the end of this chapter says, " I cannot 
but smile at this man's preposterous whimsies; in ecclesiastics he is Helvidius, Thraseas, 
a perfect tyrannicide. In politics no man more a lackey and slave to tyrants than he. If 
his doctrine hold, not we only that have deposed our king, but the protestants in general, 
who against the minds of their princes have rejected the pope, are all rebels alike." 

These passages assert that it was the opinion of protestant divines, that tyrants whether 
in civil or ecclesiastical affairs might be resisted. Milton refers to them as undeniably 
favourable to the proceedings of the commonwealth. Not merely does he assert this coin- 
cidence of the opinion of the reformers with the conduct of his party in these and other 
places, in the Defensio, and .also in the Second Defence, but it will be remembered that 
in the appendix to " the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates," quotations from Luther, Zu- 
inglius, Calvin, Bucer, Pareus, Gilby, Christopher Goodman, are expressly given to this 
effect. Safely therefore may we set off against the Bishop's the Appendix of John Milton. 
Civil and religious liberty are in fact convertible terms — there is neither where there is 
not both. 

Salmasius threw a handful of dust on his conqueror before he died. He terminated his 
days at the Spa in Germany, in 1652, shortly after he had finished a most virulent reply to 
Milton, which however was not published until the year of the Restoration, when it was 



xxxir INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

produced with a dedication to Charles the 2nd, and entitled, " Claudii Salmasii ad Joannem 
Miltoimm Responsio, opus posthumum ; Dijon, Sept. 1660." Answer of Claudius Salma- 
sius to John Milton ; a posthumous work, &c. The learned Dr. Birch says, that the 
virulence which it displays is unexampled. He treats his antagonist as an ordinary school- 
master ; " qui ludimagister in Schola triviali Londinensi fuit ;" and charges him with 
divorcing his wife after a year's marriage, for reasons best known to himself, and defend- 
ing the law fulness of divorce for any causes whatsoever. He styles him, impura bellua, 
que nihil hominis sibi reliqui fecit prater lippiantes oculos. He charges him with some 
false quantities in his juvenile Latin poems ; and throughout the whole book gives him the 
title of Bellua, fanaticus latro, homunculus, lippulus, caeculus, homo perditissimus, nebulo, 
impurus, scelestus audax et nefarius alastor, infandus impostor, &c. &c. And declares that 
he would have him tortured with burning pitch or scalding oil till he expired : " pro 
ceteris autcm suis factis dictisque dignum dicam videri, qui pice ardenti, vel oleo fervente, 
perfundaris, usque dum animam effles nocentem et carnifici jam pridem debitam." So much 
for the " great" Salmasius. 

The First Defence is the last of Milton's writings — the last work which he wrote with 
his own hand. Before the end of the year in which he completed it, he was quite blind. 
All his future works therefore, whether prose or verse, must have been dictated. This is 
pure eloquence, and true bardic rapture, — the utterance — the hallowed fire, for which " to 
touch and purify his lips," he so devoutly prayed. The visitation of blindness must have 
been to a mind like his, so admirably framed to enjoy the wonders and beauties of the 
visible universe, a severe and afflictive dispensation — a hard sentence of exclusion from 
the palace of the magnificent creation. But his spirit had already conversed with the 
domain of materialisms ; the light, though faded from his eyes, was yet "pleasant" to his 
soul ; and the capacious vision of memory was perhaps more splendid than the actual reve- 
lation of visual sense. He had taken a spiritual possession of suns and systems, and 
turned them all into thoughts. Time itself became to him a part of the past, and the pre- 
sent was to him the portion of a privileged eternity. He was thus brought into perpetual 
contact or rather converse with the invisible. One veil of flesh was removed. His com- 
plete external dependence upon the kindnesses and sympathies of his fellow-creatures, 
must have taught him the lesson we have all to learn, of total dependence and reliance upon 
the Creator. Faith, now a necessary portion of his animal life, became more intensely 
identified with his spiritual nature. His mind was not benighted, nor even darkened. The 
lustre of these heavens and the luxuriance of this earth he was not destined to see anymore 
— but he knew that the time of his departure was at hand — and that his eyes should soon 
be opened, in " supereminence of beatific vision," upon the " new heavens, and the new 
eartli, wherein dwelleth righteousness !" 

Adversity, says Lord Bacon, does best discover virtue. Milton bore his affliction with 
I semplary patience and fortitude. His episcopalian enemies boasted that they saw in it 
a retribution for the transgressions of his pen. In the Second Defence, written three years 
after this calamity had befallen him, he explains, in a passage already quoted, the motives 
by which Ik; was governed in the measures which he took, and under the losses which he 
sustained — and thus replies to such miserable antagonists: 

Let then the calumniators of the divine goodness cease to revile, or to make me the 
object of their superstitious imagination. Let them consider that my situation, such as it 
i^. l- neither an object of my shame or my regret; that my resolutions are too firm to be 
shaken, that I am not depressed by any sense of the divine displeasure; that on the other 
band, in the most momentous periods, I have had full experience of the divine favour and 
protection, and that, in the solace and the strength, which have been infused into me from 
shore, I have been enabled to do the will of God; that I may oftener think on what he 






INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxxr 

has bestowed, than on what he has withheld ; that in short I am unwilling to exchange my 
consciousness of rectitude with that of any other person ; and that I feel the recollection a 
treasured store of tranquillity and delight. But if the choice were necessary, I would, Sir, 
prefer my blindness to yours : yours is a cloud spread over the mind, which darkens both the 
light of reason and of conscience ; mine keeps from my view only the coloured surfaces of 
things, while it leaves me at liberty to contemplate the beauty and stability of virtue and of 
truth. How many things are there besides, which I would not willingly see ; how many which 
I must see against my will ; and how few which I feel any anxiety to see ! There is, as the 
apostle has remarked, a way to strength through weakness. Let me then be the most feeble 
creature alive, as long as that feebleness serves to invigorate the energies of my rational and 
immortal spirit ; as long as in that obscurity, in which I am enveloped, the light of the divine 
presence more clearly shines: then, in proportion as I am weak, I shall be invincibly strong; 
and in proportion as I am blind, I shall more clearly see. O ! that I may thus be perfected 
by feebleness, and irradiated by obscurity! And indeed," (let these few sentences sink deep 
in our minds, and then we shall form a proper estimate of his posthumous detractors,) " in 
my blindness, I enjoy in no inconsiderable degree the favour of the Deity ; who regards me 
with more tenderness and compassion in proportion as I am able to behold nothing but 
himself. Alas ! for him who insults me, who maligns and merits public execration ! For 
the divine law not only shields me from injury ; but almost renders me too sacred to attack ; 
not indeed so much from the privation of my sight, as from the overshadowing of those 
heavenly wings, which seem to have occasioned this obscurity ; and which, when occa- 
sioned, he is wont to illuminate with an interior light, more precious and more pure. To 
this I ascribe the more tender assiduities of my friends, their soothing attentions, their kind 
visits, their reverential observances ; among whom there are some with whom I may inter- 
change the Pyladean and Thesean dialogue of inseparable friends. This extraordinary 
kindness which I experience, cannot be any fortuitous combination ; and friends, such as 
mine, do not suppose that all the virtues of a man are contained in his eyes. Nor do the 
persons of principal distinction in the commonwealth, suffer me to be bereaved of comfort, 
when they see me bereaved of sight, amid the exertions which I made, the zeal which I 
shewed, and the dangers which I ran for the liberty which I love. But, soberly reflecting 
on the casualties of human life, they shew me favour and indulgence as to a soldier who 
has served his time ; and kindly concede to me an exemption from care and toil. They 
do not strip me of the badges of honour which I have once worn ; they do not deprive me 
of the places of public trust to which I have been appointed ; they do not abridge my 
salary or emoluments ; which, though I may not do so much to deserve as I did formerly, 
they are too considerate and too kind to take away ; and in short they honour me as much, 
as the Athenians did those, whom they determined to support at the public expense in the 
Prytaneum. Thus, while both God and man unite in solacing me under the weight of my 
affliction, let no one lament my loss of sight in so honourable a cause. And let me not 
indulge in unavailing grief; or want the courage either to despise the revilers of my blind- 
ness, or the forbearance easily to pardon the offence." What say the revilers, not of his 
blindness, but of his memory, to this magnanimous effusion ? 

Time was yet his tabernacle — he yet a sojourner — and though he neither shunned nor 
courted publicity, he continued diligently to discharge all the common duties of life. 
Well might Wordsworth sing : 

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea, 
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free : 
So didst thou travel on life's common way, 
In cheerful godliness ; and yet thy heart 
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. 



XXXV 1 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 



Yet a while longer his harp was left in the hands of the guardian Muse. The strings 
were now occasionally, and never more harmoniously, touched by him. These sonnets 
show that his right hand had lost none of its cunning, and may be introduced here. 

ON HIS BLINDNESS 

When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 

And that one talent which is death to hide, 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent 
To serve therewith my Maker, and present 

My true account, lest he, returning, chide ; 

Doth God exact day-labour, light denied ? 
I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent 
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need 

Either man's work, or his own gifts ; who best 

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state 
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, 

And post o'er land and ocean without rest; 

They also serve who only stand and wait. 

TO CYRIAC SKINNER. 

Cyriac, this three-years-day these eyes, tho' clear, 

To outward view, of blemish or of spot, 

Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot, 
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear 
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, 

Or man or woman. Yet I argue not 

Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
Of heart or hope ; but still bear up and steer 
Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask ? 

The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 
In Liberty's defence, my noble task, 

Of which all Europe rings from side to side. 
This thought might lead me thro' the world's vain mask, 

Content, tho' blind, had I no better guide. 

The first reply to the Defensio Populi appeared in 1651, and was ascribed to Bishop 
Bramhall, and by some to Jane, an obscure lawyer of Gray's Inn. Mr. Todd has made the 
important discovery that its real author was one John Rowland. The anonymous pam- 
phlet was entitled, " Apologia pro Rege et Populo Anglicano, contra Johannis Polyprag- 
matici (alias Miltoni Anglo) Defensionem destructivam regis et populi." Philips, Milton's 
nephew, answered this barbarous production, in a piece which appeared in 1652, under 
the title of " Johannis Philippi Angli Responsio ad Apologiam anonymi cujusdam Tene- 
brionis pro Rege et Populo Anglicano infantissimam :" An Answer to a most puerile 
Apology for the King and People of England, by some anonymous Lurker, by John 
Philips, an Englishman. Milton was reserving himself for the rumoured retort of Sal- 
masius. His nephew, when he undertook this reply to a work so far beneath his own no- 
tice, had not attained his majority ; and as, from internal evidence, there can be little 
doubt that it was written under his superintendence, it has been always classed among his 
Prose Works. Its style, energy, latinity, withering sarcasm, are worthy of its real parent- 
age. It bears the name, but the Philippic was beyond the unassisted powers of the minor. 
With little that is new in argument, (for what could Rowland do after Salmasius ?) we have 
the same arguments often newly, powerfully, and even splendidly stated. In personal 
abuse it surpasses all his other pieces — and directed as it is entirely against an imaginary 
foe, it is far more ingenious than excusable. The work replied to is excessively offensive 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. XKXT ii 

in this particular. The Preface to the Responsio states the motives which might have 
induced Milton to shun, and Phi lips to undertake, an answer to so contemptible an adver- 
sary. 

" Such being the character of the man, (the anonymous Lurker,) he was by Milton him- 
self deservedly neglected and despised : since it was thought by all, unbecoming the dig- 
nity and choice eloquence of that polished and learned author, to stoop to clear away the 
ordure, (aderuenda sterquilinia,) to refute the furious gabbling of a miscreant of such un- 
curbed insolence, and egregious folly (rabidamque loquacitatem tam eftrsenis atque stulti 
blateronis refutandam). Lest, however, this empty blusterer should vaunt himself among 
his own runaways, and imagine that he has written something great, or even that is worth 
a scanty dinner ; led also by devotion to my country, and by the love of liberty so lately 
revived amongst us ; bound likewise by many obligations to the man whom he persecutes, 
and who will ever be held in reverence by me — I could not refrain, though unsolicited, 
from undertaking to repress the petulance of this senseless fellow. And as the Roman re- 
cruits of old were accustomed first to exercise themselves with swords and spears against 
a wooden man, so I, laying aside the rudiments of a wit as yet scarcely bearded, have the 
confidence that it may be no difficult matter to sharpen my style against this block : for 
w r ith an adversary so insipid and ordinary, any one, at the least with a small portion of 
ability, and a scantling only of erudition, may safely engage without premeditation." 
(Burnett's Translation.) 

After this, what becomes of a late remark, " that the nameless opponent was exhibited 
as a man of the most distinguished talents." How dull soever, or how beaten soever, may 
be both the adversary or the tract of argument, the wit vouchsafed by Milton to his nephew 
in this pamphlet, is never weary, and the stores of his learning appear inexhaustible. The 
triumph is never more decisive than when battle is given on the field of former victory. 

Milton took no notice of Sir Robert Rimer's " Animadversions " on the First Defence ; 
and Hobbes's " Leviathan," the hugest metaphysical monster ever chased through the 
waters of controversy, he left to perish unscathed in the maelstroom of public abhorrence. 
These, and scores of other works, were doomed to be dealt with by other hands. But in 
the same year, 1652, in which they were published, an Answer to the Defence appeared, 
which, as it abounded in the most atrocious calumnies, and the most unfeeling insolence, 
the 'Hpwcov ic\eo9 } was compelled to reassert his country's honour, and to maintain his own. 
The ignoble libeller, a real compound of the monkey and tiger, was a Frenchman of the 
name of Du Moulin. His ribald work was written in Latin, printed at the Hague, and 
entitled, " Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum ad versus Parricidas Anglicanos :" The Cry 
of the Royal Blood to Heaven against the English Parricides. This piece of service was 
ultimately rewarded with a prebendal stall at Canterbury. Such was the scandalous and 
scurrilous tendency of this work, that its author w T as afraid to publish it in this country. 
For this purpose, therefore, he sent it to Salmasius, and this omnivorous pedagogue having 
gorged its nauseous flattery of himself, (the author even wrote him a grand thanksgiving 
ode, entitled, " Magno Salmasio pro Defensione Regia Ode Eucharistica,") placed the MS. 
in the hands of his protege, one Morus or More, a migratory Scotchman, then settled in 
France, and a celebrated protestant preacher of the day, to conduct through the press. 
More entered heartily into the honourable task, wrote the dedication to the exiled Charles, 
under the name of Adrian Ulac, (Latine, Vlaccus,) the printer, and became so mixed up 
with the work, as to be generally considered as its author. He was the victim of the con- 
spiracy against our countrymen — and for a very brief reputation, (of which he certainly 
made the most while it lasted,) his life was embittered, and his memory covered with infamy. 

A considerable period elapsed between the aggression and the castigation. The friends of 
Salmasius reported that he was busy at the anvil of fabrication, and Milton was determined 



xxxviii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

to reserve himself for the more potent adversary. The death of the greater champion, how- 
ever, making the work which More had published of somewhat more importance, Milton 
was compelled to engage with the inferior author, and in 1654 he produced, in reply, his 
famous Second Defence — " Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano, contra infamem 
Libellum anonvmum, cui litulus, Regii Clamor, &c." The Second Defence of the People 
of England against the anonymous Libel, entitled, &c. The translation by Robert Fellowes, 
A. M. Oxon, is a successful performance — though it is not sufficiently close and idiomatic 
to entitle it to the character of a perfect one. The phraseology is perhaps just as over 
sonorous, as Walsingham's in the First Defence is flippant and skippish. We certainly 
want a new version of both. To exaggerate the merits of the original would be impossible. 
Considering the contemptible character of the opponent's work, the exhaustion of the 
general subject, and the melancholy catastrophe which had befallen our author, we might 
almost have augured its inferiority to the reply to Salmasius. It is more sober, but not 
one jot less powerful, than the First Defence. It is certainly much more entertaining. Its 
prodigious vehemence is tempered with consummate elegance ; and abounding equally in 
wise and noble sentiments, simply and energetically expressed, it not unfrequently reminds 
the reader of the Philippics of the mighty Athenian. Being, with all its successors, the 
production of a blind man, it may be judged of by the rules of the oratorical art, of which 
its author was so passionately fond, and his successful cultivation of which, in all its branches, 
is demonstrated by this, as well as by each of his other works. It was in personal defence 
against unmerited calumnies, more than in mere political altercation, that the orators of 
antiquity most successfully distinguished themselves. Milton had now not merely his 
beloved country for a client, with all the warriors and statesmen who had redeemed her 
from bondage, but he himself was charged with immoralities and heinous crimes, before 
the tribunal of the civilized world. The cause of liberty, and the character of her chosen 
advocate, rise triumphantly from the encounter, and vengeance recoils upon the enemies of 
the one, and the adversary of the other, with all the majesty which insulted justice 
could inflict in all the weight of overwhelming eloquence. There is a terrible moral 
in all this exposure of sacerdotal depravity in More : and, doubtless, many a heart has 
beaten, and many a face has blushed, under the influence of various emotions, while that 
indignant page has been read, in which Milton has tracked this clerical debauchee 
through the paths and into the haunts of depravity; and then thrown the glare of retri- 
butive daylight into their recesses. The justifiable personalities of this, and of the next 
works, have all the coherence of personification about them. More becomes a formal 
dramatic character— the type and representative of a species always numerous in religio- 
political establishments. The Moms of 1654 is the exact portraiture of one half of those 
who have been, and in this nineteenth century are, candidates for office in a church which 
abal] be nameless,— a corporeal spirituality under which the land and religion yet groan; 
—and the mitred successors of the lowly apostles who are so busily occupied within its 
hallowed enclosure, not being invested with the power of discerning spirits, can never 
prevent inch men from obtaining their holy orders for admission into that spiritual and 
temporal I ineyard While the eye of the bishop cannot detect hypocrisy, the palm of his 

hand | s the touch of indelibility, and the wand of discipline is broken against the 

aili ei crozier. 

Hi. character of our defender was unassailable and unsullied. His heart was as pure as 

"" t> :i »"l harmoniously did all their powers and passions unite to make up the perfect 

'■-" neou8n <» of this exalted specimen of humanity. All his works illustrate this won- 

(]Ul] I" •'""" ability, bo to speak, of his whole nature— this fine but thorough articulation of 

, , "" ,,,: ' 1 :m ' 1 n,,,I;i1 energies— this sublime and perpetual reciprocity and sympathy 

b*ween «D the rtores and functions of his soul. The kingdom of his spirit was not divided 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xxxix 

gainst itself, and with the strictest internal independence, the league of all the provinces, 
for resistance or conquest, was unbroken, federal, and complete. 

The Second Defence has furnished life-writers with more materials than all his other 
works put together ; and it has been well gleaned. We have availed ourselves of it, as far 
as we could, for explanatory, not biographical, purposes ; and we would urge all who are not 
acquainted with it as a whole, and those who may have imbibed prejudices against the author 
or his party, to peruse, and pause, and ponder over it as the most ingenuous and interesting 
of memorials, furnished by one of the greatest and best of men ; — the rock and the quarry, 
at once furnishing the materials to form, and the munition to protect, the edifice of his beau- 
tiful character. We pass by the exordium, wherein he recounts in the most impassioned 
style and with fervent gratitude, his own and the labours of others on behalf of liberty, and 
in which with prophetic exultation he throws her sacred fires into the heart of the benighted 
continent ; we pass by the eulogium on the Queen of Sweden, in the lustre of which her 
crown becomes a bauble ; we pass by the not less magnanimous than magnificent panegy- 
rick upon Cromwell, in which with consummate art the glowing recital of his achievements 
is made subservient to the most noble and solemn advice, and the glory of the past gathered 
up in suspense until the revelation of the future ; we pass by the concluding appeal to 
his countrymen, which the hearts of the illustrious Protector, and his Ironsides, must have 
felt, had they been harder than the mail which covered them : we pass by these topics, and 
others which complete the crown, and constitute the political charm, of the work : — for 
Milton himself is before us ! and invective and eulogy, the revolutionary storm and the 
portentous calm, warriors and their prowess, priests and their craft, vanish with the whole 
motley drama : the man — the patriot — the bard — the Christian — Milton is before us ! 

The Second Defence will ever be considered as the most satisfactory refutation of those 
calumnies and reproaches, which have been so industriously heaped upon its w T riter, and the 
men with whom he acted. No one who knows any thing of the character of Milton, would 
presume to accuse him of profligacy of principle, either in serving the council, or Cromwell. 
They with whom he condescended to co-operate, did their utmost to place the government 
on a safe, liberal, and lasting basis ; and though the issue of their endeavours was unfortu- 
nate, few, now-a-days, will question their abilities in the council and in the field, in peace 
and in war ; or their sincere devotion to the glory and welfare of their country. 

The influence of the Second Defence upon public opinion was wonderful. Morus denied 
the authorship, and published his " Fides Publica ;" to which Milton replied in that most 
tremendous of all castigations — " Authoris pro se Defensio contra Alexandrum Morum, 
Ecclesiasten :" The Author's Defence of himself against Alexander More, Ecclesiastic. 
It is almost a merciless retaliation on poor More ; and perhaps the severest, aciltest, wittiest 
specimen of retort or reply on record. Milton's detestation of vice is only equal to the 
dreadless majesty with which he exposes it. The Latin language, with all its mechanical 
stubbornness, is perfectly ductile to his will — it melts to his touch, and moulds itself into a 
fiery essence to do his bidding, and express, like an " airy servitor," the least or the greatest 
emotions. He was an incomparable reviewer. Nothing escapes him — and he avoids no- 
thing ; — he always rushes into the midst of the combat, and he comes out of the hottest melee 
unscathed, and even unbreathed. More was compelled to another struggle ; his answer was 
again briefly refuted by Milton in a piece entitled, " Authoris ad Alexandri Mori Supplemen- 
tum Responsio :" The Author's Answer to the Supplement of Alexander More : and so 
ended the controversy ; and like the last of every thing, its end is affecting. These poli- 
tical writings, so distinguished by every grace and glory of rhetorick, carried the celebrity of 
their author's name and cause to the very bounds of classic Europe. The fights are over — 
the victories won — one adversary after another silenced — the Salmasian controversy con- 
cluded : that volcano, with its noisy craters, is extinct — the lava is as cold as the Arctic 



xl INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

snows — and we have seen a mighty genius acting upon the sky-ward eruption, like the law 
of gravitation ; and the higher the burning fragments of rage and vituperation may 
have been thrown, the more hideous foils on the earth-born head that ruin of which we have 
witnessed the recoil. 

The death of Cromwell took place on the 3rd of September, 1659 : on that day, it is ob- 
servable, he was born ; on that day he fought the three great battles of Marston-Moor, 
Worcester, and Dunbar; and on that day he died, in the peaceable possession of the sove- 
reign power. The uncorruptible patriotism of Milton led him to retain office under this 
usurper — the greatest man that ever sat on an English throne. Hope that he would be able 
to reconstruct the commonwealth, fear that in case of his desertion the hateful dynasty 
would be restored, and a desire to maintain the honour of his country abroad, may have 
been the considerations which led our author, with all his republican predilections, to render 
the Protector his assistance and support. Grievously, however, must he have been disap- 
pointed ; not more perhaps by some things which Cromwell did, than by what he left 
undone ; — but the conduct of the four factions hardly left him any leisure from curbing their 
insolence, and defeating their machinations. Milton was not the only distinguished servant 
of Cromwell — Hale served him as chief justice; Howe and Owen officiated as his chap- 
lains ; and Blake refused not to wield the truncheon of the navy under him. 

Milton's two next works are valuable additions to our ample stores of what may be termed 
the literature of ecclesiastical liberty. Devoted to the consideration of two opposite evils, 
by which the church has always been afflicted or corrupted, two potent words, FORCE and 
HIRE, comprise the scope of both of these sound and able pamphlets. The first treatise 
relates to the exercise of force against conscience ; the last to the equally dangerous exer- 
cise of political power or patronage in favour of any religious system. By the former, " A 
Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes ; shewing, that it is not lawful for any 
Power on Earth to compel in Matters of Religion ;" and by the latter, " Considerations 
touching the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out of the Church ; wherein is also discoursed 
of Tythes, Church-fees, and Church-revenues ; and whether any Maintenance of Ministers 
can be settled by Law ;" we may consider the great political principle of absolute non- 
interference by the magistrate for or against Christianity (except on grounds of purely civil 
emergency, or expediency, or necessity) to be triumphantly settled and fundamentally estab- 
lished. They were both published, with an interval of a few months, in the year 1659. 
One was addressed to the parliament convened by Richard Cromwell; the other, the doctrines 
of which yet remain to be realized, was inscribed to the Long Parliament: both the pieces, 
though their author retained his Latin secretaryship, were private and unofficial. " I write 
not otherwise appointed or induced than by an inward persuasion of Christian duty, which I 
may usefully discharge to the common Lord and Master of us all." This was an important 
declaration. Milton was an avowed, and, on the subject of church-government, a thorough, 
independent He was then addressing the presbyterians, who were as averse to toleration 
as ever were the episcopalians. The only real quarrel which these men had with Cromwell 
was, that he would not establish them ; that he would not lend them his mighty arm to put 
dow 11 all other sectaries, and set up their Scotch inquisition, enforce their synodical censures, 
and place them in paramount possession of all the benefices and emoluments of the English, 
Scotch, and Irish hierarchies. This party, with the royalists, and the army, were now on 
the eve of making good the great usurper's prophecy, that, after his death, they would bring 
all things into confusion. The independents were not strong enough to cut through this " ill- 
united and unwieldy brigade ;" and the mere multitude were incapable of estimating the 
dangers of a restoration, or the blessings of a commonwealth. Our politic author determined 
to avail himself of the last moments of expiring liberty, which he had "used these eighteen 
Oil all occasions to assert the just rights and freedoms both of church and state;" and 



INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xli 

in the pamphlets before us, he strikes a two-handed blow at that system of " force " and 
" hire," of intolerance and patronage, in matters of religion, out of which have arisen nearly 
all the convulsions of modern Europe. Both the works are written with beautiful simpli- 
city and earnestness. The divine right and the political expediency of tithes are examined 
and refuted at great length, and with amazing learning and ingenuity. The pith and marrow 
of the argument, the strength and nerve of the language, will be found to contain all that is 
necessary, and all that might have been expected. Let it be remembered that he inter- 
rupted his four great works — his Poem, his History, his Latin Thesaurus, and his Theologi- 
cal Treatise — to write these two manuals. We particularly invite the immediate attention 
of our countrymen to the last of the two tracts. " In matters of religion," says our author, 
" he is learnedest who is plainest. The brevity I use, not exceeding a small manual, will 
not therefore I suppose be thought the less considerable, unless with them perhaps who think 
that great books only can determine great matters." Truth must triumph. We enjoy tole- 
ration, as it is insultingly styled ; but we are yet to witness the utter subversion of intole- 
rance, by the severance of the church from the state. Richard Cromwell soon abdicated 
his brief authority. For near two years after Cromwell's death, the government of Eng- 
land underwent various shapes, and every month almost produced a new scheme. The 
current of popular opinion ran strongly towards monarchy. The protestations of Monk, 
indeed, and the existence of the Long Parliament, in which there were few royalists and 
near fifty or sixty republicans, might support the faint hopes of the commonwealth-men. 
But Milton, as we find from his " Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of the Common- 
wealth," dated Oct. 20, 1659, expresses his indignation at the outrages of the army, and his 
gloomy apprehensions for the future. Soon after, he addressed a letter to General Monk, 
entitled, " The present Means and brief Delineation of a free Commonwealth." Both these 
letters are very short, and hardly occupy two pages of this edition. A few months after- 
wards, he addressed General Monk again, in a more masterly production, " The ready and 
easy Way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the Excellence thereof, compared with 
the Inconveniences and Dangers of readmitting Kingship in this Nation." The motto to this 
performance, hinting probably at the advice which he had publicly given to the Protector, 

" et nos 
Consilium Syllae dedimus, demus populo nunc," 

is as happy as his present counsel was opportune. With many evident inconsistencies, 
which will be easily excused, when w r e consider his own and the peril of his party, there is 
much to commend and more to admire. It is full of splendid writing and powerful anti- 
monarchical appeal. It was replied to both sportively and seriously, but not answered. 

The last of Milton's controversial productions was, " Brief Notes upon a late Sermon, 
titled, The Fear of God and the King ; preached, and since published, by Matthew Griffith, 
D. D. and Chaplain to the late King. Wherein many notorious wrestings of Scripture, and 
other Falsities, are observed." On the very eve of the Restoration he avows his republican- 
ism. The insolent L' Estrange wrote a reply, entitled, " No Blind Guides." 

A volume might be devoted to the critical examination of his letters, both private and 
official, on account both of their political and literary excellence. They are all written in 
Latin. There are thirty-one private ones — forty -three are written in the name of the par- 
liament — seventy-eight in the name of the Protector Oliver — eleven in the name of the 
Protector Richard — 'and in the name of the " Parliament Restored," two only were written. 
The private letters will very much interest the reader. Those to his Athenian friend 
are noble and affecting, and in a biographical point of view, exceedingly valuable. It 
is to be regretted that so few epistles of so extensive a correspondent should have been 
handed down to posterity. It is probable that most of his correspondents were foreigners. 
The official letters are much more numerous. Milton was an universal genius, and it would 



xlii INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. 

be difficult to predicate his failure in any undertaking in which learning or sagacity, wis- 
dom or common sense, could insure success. It is a maxim in the mouth of the many, 
degrading to all who are above the level of mediocrity, and therefore reiterated by those 
Whom the decree of nature has placed below it, that, with the ordinary or extraordinary 
business of life, the man of science or genius, the philosopher or scholar, cannot meddle 
without making himself as ridiculous, as his interference must be prejudicial to the interests 
intrusted to him. This radical blunder has been acted upon in all ages; nor need we 
wonder at the remark of a certain chancellor to his son : " See, with what little wit the 
world is governed !" Not so thought Oliver Cromwell. His selection of servants in all the 
departments of government, was very honourable to himself, and the mainspring of his suc- 
cess in war and peace, in foreign and domestic policy. Had Milton left nothing else in 
prose but these letters, we should have considered them as proofs of his great capacity for 
business. No mechanical drudge could have written them, With all his ardour of tem- 
perament he had an amazing share of " sound round-about common sense " — warmed by 
pervading genius into a nobler power. We need not point out the historical value of these 
exquisite models of negociation and composition. The foreign policy of the commonwealth 
cannot be well understood without an acquaintance with them. 

The juvenile Latin productions of Milton may be mentioned here — to recommend them 
merely, for to examine them minutely would be impossible. They are remarkable for 
felicity and correctness ; for masculine energy, and ripeness of thought, and occasional 
splendour of expression ; and as they show by what laborious industry and indefatigable 
perseverance our countryman realized the utmost excellence which these writings pro- 
mised, they should be pointed out to the attention of every youth. In fact, selections from 
his Latin works, for the use of the higher schools, should immediately be made : they would 
not interfere with the more ancient classics, which they rival, but would necessarily stimu- 
late to their imitation ; and, mingled with a few judicious extracts from his English prose, 
to be translated into Latin or Greek, or to be used as exercises in recitation, the effect upon 
youths of a proper age, under a teacher worthy of being intrusted with some such plan, 
would be incredibly beneficial. 

Milton's Latin Grammar, (1661,) and his Logic, (1672,) prove his deep interest in all 
that related to education. The former has been superseded, but the latter (with the inte- 
resting life prefixed to it) will always be regarded as a sound and useful system for dis- 
covering truth. 

We conclude our task. No political actor ever performed a more distinguished part on 
B more elevated stage, than John Milton ; nor, assuredly, did one ever retire from it so 
suddenly. Another and far different part of the great drama came on. A Stuart monarch 
was seated on the throne, and we hear no more of our politician. He was spared by Provi- 
dence, not by royal clemency. What a change from the blaze of public life to the refuge 
of obscurity ! It was an outward change only — made certainly more distressing by public 
ingratitude and private neglect, by the helplessness of blindness and poverty, and the 
increasing miseries of" crude old age." But, supported by celestial manna, and invigorated 
by the illumining Spirit, " the joy and solace of created things," his intellectual strength was 
move than equal to his day. " The troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes," on which 
he had been embarked, and on which he had been wrecked, was now exchanged for the 
final haven of" a calm and pleasing solitariness, fed with cheerful and confident thoughts;" 
- and booh he sent forth his immortal poems— the " Paradise Lost"— and " Paradise Re- 
- ;im " 1 •" h is sufficient to mention them ! His beautiful " Treatise of True Religion, 
Schism, Toleration, and the best means that may be used to prevent the growth 
of Popery," had not been long published, when he died, in the year 1674, and in the six 
and sixtieth of his age. 






INTRODUCTORY REVIEW. xliii 

We have only glanced at the contents of this volume. Of itself it is more than sufficient 
to enable us to form a correct estimate of the literary, political, and religious character of 
John Milton. Taken in connexion with his poetical works, it will be impossible to produce 
an author entitled to superior veneration and renown. Equally resplendent in the annals of 
liberty and of song, the name of the author of these writings is a sufficient guarantee 
for their interest to the scholar, their value to the politician, and their utility to every 
patriotic Christian. They are now cast into a proper shape for circulation, and wherever 
carried, they will administer not less to the delight and profit, than to the intellectual and 
moral wants and necessities, of the age. In them will be found nothing dangerous or 
anarchical — dishonourable or polluting. The monarch will not here find any thing to de- 
rogate from his just authority. His nobles will here learn true magnanimity — his people 
be built up in love to their country and to himself, and in " willing homage to the preroga- 
tive of the Eternal Throne." The man of taste will be refreshed — the protestant will rejoice 
in the paramount allegiance of the poet to the great principles of the Reformation. The least 
will find that he may be useful — the greatest, that he may be worthless ; — the most ignorant 
will here find an " eye-brightening electuary of knowledge and foresight" — the most 
learned, that his superior condescended to be most plain. These are the authorized works 
of a man, who never quailed before a tyrant, or bowed before a mob ; but, after exerting 
the greatest abilities in the greatest of causes, in fortitude, and meekness, and patience 
possessed his spirit, and became, in adversity and prosperity, an exemplar for a nation of 
" heroes, of sages, and of worthies." 

England is invested with supremacy in literature. She is not indebted for her imperial 
precedency to many of her sons. Great as is the number of her gigantic minds, two men 
she has reared and ripened, Milton and Shakspeare, whose achievements alone have raised 
her to a towering pre-eminence among the nations. Neither the ancients nor the moderns 
can match these Englishmen. Make the selection from any age, from the bright eras of 
the past, from the Greek or Roman constellations, to the later luminaries, and theirs will be 
found to be the brightest names that old Time wears in his gorgeous belt. . To them an 
Englishman points, and by them settles the supremacy of his country. Without them we 
might claim equality with other kingdoms; with them we are entitled to superiority. When 
you think of England, you think of Shakspeare — you think of Milton — they are England. 
Other nations have heroes, and philosophers, and critics, and scholars, and divines, equal to 
our own, but they have not Shakspeare and Milton : — we have, and surpass them. Nature 
gave them to England, and no reverse of fortune can rob us of them. Their works are 
landmarks, pillars of truth, on these the high places of the earth — and they will be identified 
with our soil, when our institutions may have been swept from it, and when our political 
supremacy may have passed away. But, with their works in our hands, and with our Bible, 
read, and believed, and revered, and upheld, in cottage and in palace, we need not fear the 
loss of our heritage — the luxury that enfeebles — the vice that enslaves — the wealth that 
corrupts — the anarchy that overwhelms : — intelligence and piety, wisdom, and religion, and 
power, will be cherished and perpetuated for generations ; — and with those who love these 
things, and bear the ark of British freedom, we leave, for their guidance and delight, this 
Book. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Introductory Review i 

^ Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England, and the 
causes that hitherto have hindered it : in two Books, written to a 

Friend 1 

Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and whether it may be deduced from the 
Apostolical Times, by virtue of those Testimonies which are alleged 
to that purpose in some late Treatises ; one whereof goes under the 

Name of James Archbishop of Armagh 22 

The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty. In two 

Books 28 

Animadversions upon the Remonstrant's Defence against Smectym- 

nuus 55 

An Apology for Smectymnuus 75 

Of Education; to Master Samuel Hartlib 98 

y/ Arxopaoitica ; a Speech for the Liberty of unlicensed Printing, to 

the Parliament of England 103 

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce restored to the good of both 
Sexes, from the Bondage of Canon Law, and other Mistakes, to the 
true Meaning of Scripture in the Law and Gospel compared, &c. . 120 
The Judgment of Martin Bucer concerning Divorce : written to Ed- 
ward the Sixth, in his second Book of the Kingdom of Christ, &c. . 159 
Tetrachordon : Expositions upon the four chief Places in Scripture 

which treat of Marriage, or Nullities in Marriage, &c 175 

Colasterion : A Reply to a nameless Answer against the Doctrine 
and Discipline of Divorce : wherein the trivial Author of that An- 
swer is discovered, the Licenser conferred with, and the Opinion, 

which they traduce, defended 220 

*^ The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates; proving, that it is lawful, and 
hath been held so through all Ages, for any, who have the Power, 
to call to account a Tyrant, or wicked King, and, after due Convic- 
tion, to depose, and put him to Death, if the ordinary Magistrate 

have neglected, or denied to do it, &c 231 

♦^Observations on the Articles of Peace between James Earl of Or- 
mond. for King Charles the First, on the one hand, and the Irish 
Rebels and Papists on the other hand: and on a Letter sent by 
Ormond to Colonel Jones, Governor of Dublin : and a Representa- 
tion of the Scots Presbytery at Belfast in Ireland. To which the 
said Articles, Letter, with Colonel Jones's Answer to it, and Repre- 
sentation, &c, are prefixed 245 

/ft Kiflc miB : in answer to a Book, entitled, Eikon Basilike, the 

Portraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings . . 272 
»/ A DlFBHoa of the People of England, in answer to Salmasius's De- 
fence of the King 3 gg 

t^ A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes : showing, that it is 
not lawful for any Power on Earth to compel in Matters of Re- 

411 

< iterations touching the likeliest Means to remove Hirelings out 

of the Church, &c 423 

i/ A Letter to a Friend, concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth . 439 
The pnwent Means and brief Delineation of a free Commonwealth, 
euy to be put >„ practice, and without delay. In a Letter to 
• Monk . . 

441 

^ The ready and ea*y Way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the 
red with the Inconveniences and Dangers 

of readmitting tOaptip in tins Nation ^ 

Br.*f Now upon a late Sermon, titled. "The Fear of God and the 

tad tincc ptiblkrtwd.by Matthew Griffith j) n 

to the l«te King, Wherein many notorious Wrestings of 

' <r<\ and other Falsi;.. ■'!.,. 4m 

Accedence commenced Grammar: supplied with sufficient Rules for 



Page 

the Use of such as, younger or elder, are desirous, without more 
Trouble than needs, to attain the Latin Tongue ; the elder sort es- 
pecially with little Teaching, and their own Industry 455 

-'The History of Britain, that Part especially now called England; 
from the first traditional Beginning, continued to the Norman Con- 
quest. Collected out of the ancientest and best Authors thereof. 
Published from a Copy corrected by the Author himself .... 475 
Of true Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, and what best Means 
may be used against the Growth of Popery. Printed in the year 

1673 562 

A brief History of Moscovia, and of other less known Countries lying 
Eastward of Russia, as far as Cathay, gathered from the writings 

of several Eye-witnesses 568 

A Declaration, or Letters Patents for the Election of John the Third, 
King of Poland, elected on the 22nd of May, Anno Dom. 1674, con- 
taining the Reasons of this Election, the great Virtues and Merits of 
the said serene Elect, his eminent Services in War, especially in 
his last great Victory against the Turks and Tartars ; whereof mauy 

Particulars are here related, not published before 583 

Letters of State to most of the Sovereign Princes and Republics of 
Europe, during the Administration of the Commonwealth, and the 

Protectors Oliver and Richard Cromwell 587 

Letters written in the Name of the Parliament ibid. 

Letters written in the Name of Oliver the Protector 603 

Letters written in the Name of Richard the Protector 634 

A Manifesto of the Lord Protector, against the Spaniards 639 

Johannis Miltoni Opera omnia Latina 647 

/Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, contra Claudii Anonymi, alias Sal- 

masii Defensioncm regiam 649 

defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano contra infamem Libellum 
anonymum cui titulus, " Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Ccelum, adver- 

sus Parricidas Anglicanos " 707 

Authoris pro se Defensio contra Alexandrum Morum Ecclesiasten, 
Libelli famosi, cui titulus, " Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Ccelum ad- 

versus Parricidas Anglicanos," Authorem recte dictum 733 

Authoris ad Alexandri Mori Supplementum Responsio 755 

Joannis Philippi Angli Responsio ad Apologiam anonymi cujusdam 
Tenebrionis pro Rege & Populo Anglicano infantissinmm .... 763 

Literae Senatus Anglicani nomine ac jussu conscriptae 777 

Literae Oliverii Protectoris nomine scriptae 792 

Literae Richardi Protectoris nomine scripta? 819 

Literae Parlamenti Restituti nomine scripta? 821 

Scriptum Dom. Protectoris Reipublicae Angliae, Scotiae, Hibernia?, &c. 

ex consensu atque sententia Concilii sui Editum : in quo hujus Rei- 

publicee Causa contra Hispanosjusta esse demonstratur .... 823 

Autoris Epistolarum Familiarum Liber unus : Quibus accesserunt 

ejusdem jam olim in Collegio Adolescentis Prolusiones quiedam 

Oratoriae 830 

Prolusiones quaedam Oratoriae 843 

Artis Logicae plenior Institutio ad Petri Rami Methodum concinnat 
adjecta est Praxis Analytica & Petri Rami Vita, Libris duot 

Praxis Logica analytica ex Dounamo 

Petri Rami Vita 



^Tfie Second Defence of the People of England, against an ai 
Libel, entitled, " The royal Blood crying to Heaven for \ 



royal 

on the English Parricides 
Familiar Epistles . . . 
General Index 



ano. 
eiv D 



I 



THE 



PROSE WORKS OF JOHN MILTON. 



REFORMATION IN ENGLAND, 

AND 

THE CAUSES THAT HITHERTO HAVE HINDERED IT. 

IN TWO BOOKS. 

WRITTEN TO A FRIEND. 

[first published 1641.] 



Sir, 
Amidst those deep and retired thoughts, which, with 
every man christianly instructed, ought to be most fre- 
quent of God, and of his miraculous ways and works 
amongst men, and of our religion and works, to be 
performed to him ; after the story of our Saviour Christ, 
suffering* to the lowest bent of weakness in the flesh, 
and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory 
in the spirit, which drew up his body also ; till we in 
both be united to him in the revelation of his kingdom, 
I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up 
the whole passion of pity on the one side, and joy on 
the other, than to consider first the foul and sudden 
corruption, and then, after many a tedious age, the 
long deferred, but much more wonderful and happy 
reformation of the church in these latter days. Sad it 
is to think how that doctrine of the gospel, planted by 
teachers divinely inspired, and by them winnowed and 
sifted from the chaff of overdated ceremonies, and re- 
fined to such a spiritual height and temper of purity, 
and knowledge of the Creator, that the body, with all 
the circumstances of time and place, were purified by 
the affections of the regenerate soul, and nothing left 
impure but sin ; faith needing not the weak and fal- 
lible office of the senses, to be either the ushers or in- 
terpreters of heavenly mysteries, save where our Lord 
himself in his sacraments ordained; that such a doc- 
trine should, through the grossness and blindness of 
her professors, and the fraud of deceivable traditions, I 
drag so downwards, as to backslide into the Jewish ' 
beggary of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward 



another way into the new-vomited paganism of sen- 
sual idolatry, attributing purity or impurity to things 
indifferent, that they might bring the inward acts of 
the spirit to the outward and customary eye-service 
of the body, as if they could make God earthly and 
fleshly, because they could not make themselves hea- 
venly and spiritual ; they began to draw down all the 
divine intercourse betwixt God and the soul, yea, the 
very shape of God himself, into an exterior and bodily 
form, urgently pretending a necessity and obligement 
of joining the body in a formal reverence, and worship 
circumscribed ; they hallowed it, they fumed it, they 
sprinkled it, they bedecked it, not in robes of pure in- 
nocency, but of pure linen, with other deformed and 
fantastic dresses, in palls and mitres, gold, and gew- 
gaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamins 
vestry : then was the priest set to con his motions and 
his postures, his liturgies and his lurries, till the soul 
by this means of overbodying herself, given up justly 
to fleshly delights, bated her wing apace downward : 
and finding the ease she had from her visible and sen- 
suous colleague the body, in performance of religious 
duties, her pinions now broken, and flagging, shifted 
off from herself the labour of high soaring any more, 
forgot her heavenly flight, and left the dull and droil- 
ing carcase to plod on in the old road, and drudging 
trade of outward conformity. And here out of question 
from her perverse conceiting of God and holy things, 
she had fallen to believe no God at all, had not custom 
and the worm of conscience nipped her incredulity: 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 






hence to all the duties of evangelical grace, instead of 
the adoptive and cheerful boldness which our new al- 
liance with God requires, came servile and thrallike 
fear: for in very deed, the superstitious mall by his 
good will is an atheist; but being scared from thence 
by the pangs and gripes of a boiling conscience, all in 
a pudder shuffles up to himself such a God and such a 
worship as is most agreeable to remedy his fear; which 
fear of his, as also is his hope, fixed only upon the 
flesh, renders likewise the whole faculty of his appre- 
hension carnal ; and all the inward acts of worship, 
issuing from the native strength of the soul, run out 
lavishly to the upper skin, and there harden into a 
crust of formality. Hence men came to scan the Scrip- 
tures by the letter, and in the covenant of our redemp- 
tion, magnified the external signs more than the quick- 
ening power of the Spirit ; and yet looking on them 
through their own guiltiness with a servile fear, and 
finding as little comfort, or rather terrour from them 
again, the} 7 knew not how to hide their slavish approach 
to God's behests, by them not understood, nor worthily 
received, but by cloaking their servile crouching to all 
religious presentments, sometimes lawful, sometimes 
idolatrous, under the name of humility, and terming the 
piebald frippery and ostentation of ceremonies, decency. 

Then was baptism, changed into a kind of exorcism 
and water, sanctified by Christ's institute, thought lit- 
tle enough to wash off the original spot, without the 
scratch or cross impression of a priest's forefinger : and 
that feast of free grace and adoption to which Christ 
invited his disciples to sit as brethren, and coheirs of 
the happy covenant, which at that table was to be 
sealed to them, even that feast of love and heavenly- 
admitted fellowship, the seal of filial grace, became the 
subject of horror, and glouting adoration, pageanted 
about like a dreadful idol ; which sometimes deceives 
well-meaning men, and beguiles them of their reward, 
by their voluntary humility; which indeed is fleshly 
pride, preferring a foolish sacrifice, and the rudiments 
of the world, as Saint Paul to the Colossians explain- 
« th, before a savoury obedience to Christ's example. 
Such was Peter's unseasonable humility, as then his 
knowledge was small, when Christ came to wash his 
feet; who at an impertinent time would needs strain 
courtesy with his master, and falling troublesomely 
upon the lowly, all-wise, and unexaminable intention 
of Christ, in what he went with resolution to do, so 
provoked by his interruption the meek Lord, that he 
threatened to exclude him from his heavenly portion, 
Dnles* he could be content to be less arrogant and stiff- 
neck* d in his humility. 

But to dwell no longer in characterizing the depra- 
rides of the church, and how they sprung, and how 
the} took increase; when I recall to mind at last, after 
v., many dark ages, wherein the huge overshadowing 
train of error had almost swept all the stars out of the 
firmament of the church ; how the bright and blissful 
reformation (by divine power) struck through the black 
and settled oigbl of ignorance and antichristian ty- 
ranny, methinks ■ sovereign and reviving joy must 
rush into the bosom of bim that reads or hears- 



and the sweet odour of the returning gospel imbathe 
his soul with the fragrancy of heaven. Then was the 
sacred Bible sought out of the dusty corners where 
profane falsehood and neglect had thrown it, the schools 
opened, divine and human learning raked out of the 
embers of forgotten tongues, the princes and cities 
trooping apace to the new-erected banner of salvation; 
the martyrs, with the unresistible might of weakness, 
shaking the powers of darkness, and scorning the fiery 
rage of the old red dragon. 
/ The pleasing pursuit of these thoughts hath ofttimes 
led me into a serious question and debatement with 
myself, how it should come to pass that England (hav- 
ing had this grace and honour from God, to be the first 
that should set up a standard for the recovery of lost 
truth, and blow the first evangelic trumpet to the 
nations, holding up, as from a hill, the new lamp of 
saving light to all Christendom) should now be last, 
and most unsettled in the enjoyment of that peace, 
whereof she taught the way to others ; although indeed 
our WicklifTe's preaching, at which all the succeeding 
reformers more effectually lighted their tapers, was to 
his countrymen but a short blaze, soon damped and 
stifled by the pope and prelates for six or seven kings' 
reigns ; yet methinks the precedency which God gave 
this island, to be first restorer of buried truth, should 
have been followed with more happy success, and 
sooner attained perfection ; in which as yet we are 
amongst the last : for, albeit in purity of doctrine we 
agree with our brethren ; yet in discipline, which is 
the execution and applying of doctrine home, and lay- 
ing the salve to the very orifice of the wound, yea, 
tenting and searching to the core, without which pulpit 
preaching is but shooting at rovers; in this we are no 
better than a schism from all the reformation, and a 
sore scandal to them : for while we hold ordination to 
belong only to bishops, as our prelates do, we must of 
necessity hold also their ministers to be no ministers, 
and shortly after their church to be no church. Not to 
speak of those senseless ceremonies which we only re- 
tain, as a dangerous earnest of sliding back to Rome, 
and serving merely, either as a mist to cover nakedness 
where true grace is extinguished, or as an interlude to 
set out the pomp of prelatism. Certainly it would be 
worth the while therefore, and the pains, to inquire 
more particularly, what, and how many the chief causes 
have been, that have still hindered our uniform consent 
to the rest of the churches abroad, at this time especially 
when the kingdom is in a good propensity thereto, and 
all men in prayers, in hopes, or in disputes, either for 
or against it./ 

Yet I will not insist on that which may seem to be 
the cause on God's part ; as his judgment on our sins, 
the trial of his own, the unmasking of hypocrites : nor 
shall I stay to speak of the continual eagerness and 
extreme diligence of the pope and papists to stop the 
furtherance of reformation, which know they have no 
hold or hope of England their lost darling, longer than 
the government of bishops bolsters them out; and 
therefore plot all they can to uphold them, as may be 
seen by the book of Santa Clara, the popish priest, in 






OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



defence of bishops, which came out piping hot much 
about the time that one of our own prelates, out of an 
ominous fear, had writ on the same argument ; as if 
they had joined their forces, like good confederates, to 
support one falling Babel. 

But I shall chiefly endeavour to declare those causes 
that hinder the forwarding of true discipline, which 
are among ourselves. Orderly proceeding will divide 
our inquiry into our forefathers' days, and into our 
times. Henry VIII was the first that rent this king- 
dom from the pope's subjection totally; but his quarrel 
being more about supremacy, than other faultiness in 
religion that he regarded, it is no marvel if he stuck 
where he did. The next default was in the bishops, 
who though they had renounced the pope, they still 
hugged the popedom, and shared the authority among 
themselves, by their six bloody articles, persecuting the 
protestants no slacker than the pope would have done. 
And doubtless, whenever the pope shall fall, if his ruin 
be not like the sudden downcome of a tower, the bishops, 
when they see him tottering, will leave him, and fall 
to scrambling, catch who may, he a patriarchdom, and 
another what comes next hand; as the French cardinal 
of late and the see of Canterbury hath plainly affected. 

In Edward the Sixth's days, why a complete reform- 
ation was not effected, to any considerate man may 
appear. First, he no sooner entered into his kingdom, 
but into a war with Scotland ; from whence the pro- 
tector returning with victory, had but newly put his 
hand to repeal the six articles, and throw the images 
out of churches, but rebellions on all sides, stirred up 
by obdurate papists, and other tumults, with a plain 
war in Norfolk, holding tack against two of the king's 
generals, made them of force content themselves with 
what they had already done. Hereupon followed 
ambitious contentions among the peers, which ceased 
not but with the protector's death, who was the most 
zealous in this point: and then Northumberland was 
he that could do most in England, who little minding 
religion, (as his apostasy well showed at his death,) bent 
all his wit how to bring the right of the crown into his 
own line. And for the bishops, they were so far from 
any such worthy attempts, as that they suffered them- 
selves to be the common stales, to countenance with 
their prostituted gravities every politic fetch that was 
then on foot, as oft as the potent statists pleased to 
employ them. Never do we read that they made use 
of their authority and high place of access, to bring 
the jarring nobility to christian peace, or to withstand 
their disloyal projects : but if a toleration for mass 
were to be begged of the king for his sister Mary, lest 
Charles the Fifth should be angry ; who but the grave 
prelates, Cranmer and Ridley, must be sent to extort 
it from the young king ? But out of the mouth of that 
godly and royal child, Christ himself returned such an 
awful repulse to those halting and timeserving prelates, 

tthat after much bold importunity, they went their way 
not without shame and tears. 



It appears from this and other passages, that the author in his younger 
years was orthodox, as it is called : but lie afterwards altered his senti- 



be followers of this world ; for when the protector's 
brother, Lord Sudley, the admiral, through private 
malice and malengine was to lose his life, no man 
could be found fitter than bishop Latimer (like another 
Dr. Shaw) to divulge in his sermon the forged accusa- 
tions laid to his charge, thereby to defame him with 
the people, who else it was thought would take ill the 
innocent man's death, unless the reverend bishop could 
warrant them there was no foul play. What could be 
more impious than to debar the children of the king 
from their right to the crown ? To comply with the 
ambitious usurpation of a traitor, and to make void the 
last will of Henry VIII, to which the breakers had 
sworn observance ? Yet bishop Cranmer, one of the 
executors, and the other bishops, none refusing, (lest 
they should resist the duke of Northumberland,) could 
find in their consciences to set their hands to the dis- 
enabling and defeating not only of Princess Mary the 
papist, but of Elizabeth the protestant, and (by the 
bishops' judgment) the lawful issue of King Henry c 

Who then can think (though these prelates had 
sought a further reformation) that the least wry face of 
a politician would not have hushed them ? But it will 
be said, these men were martyrs : what then ? though 
every true Christian will be a martyr when he is called 
to it, not presently does it follow, that every one suf- 
fering for religion is, without exception. Saint Paul 
writes, that " a man may give his body to be burnt, 
(meaning for religion,) and yet not have charity :" he 
is not therefore above all possibility of erring, because 
he burns for some points of truth. 

Witness the* Arians and Pelagians, which were slain 
by the heathen for Christ's sake, yet we take both these 
for no true friends of Christ. If the martyrs (saith 
Cyprian in his 30th epistle) decree one thing, and the 
gospel another, either the martyrs must lose their crown 
by not observing the gospel for which they are mar- 
tyrs, or the majesty of the gospel must be broken and 
lie flat, if it can be overtopped by the novelty of any 
other decree. 

And here withal I invoke the Immortal Deity, re- 
vealer and judge of secrets, that wherever I have in 
this book plainly and roundly (though worthily and 
truly) laid open the faults and blemishes of fathers, 
martyrs, or christian emperors, or have otherwise in- 
veighed against errour and superstition with vehement 
expressions; I have done it neither out of malice, nor 
list to speak evil, nor any vain glory, but of mere ne- 
cessity to vindicate the spotless truth from an igno- 
minious bondage, whose native worth is now become 
of such a low esteem, that she is like to find small 
credit with us for what she can say, unless she can 
bring a ticket from Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley ; or 
prove herself a retainer to Constantine, and wear his 
badge. More tolerable it were for the church of God, 
that all these names were utterly abolished like the 
brazen serpent, than that men's fond opinion should 
thus idolize them, and the heavenly truth be thus cap- 
tivated. 

raents ; as is plain from his tract on " True Religion, Heresy, Schism, 
and Toleration," which was the last work he published. 



OF RFFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



Now to proceed, whatsoever the bishops were, it 
seems they themselves were unsatisfied in matters of 
religion as they then stood, by that commission granted 
to eight bishops, eight other divines, eight civilians, 
eight common lawyers, to frame ecclesiastical constitu- 
tions ; which no wonder if it came to nothing, for (as 
Hayw aid relates) both their professions and their ends 
/were different Lastly, we all know by example, that 
exact reformation is not perfected at the first push, and 
those unwieldy times of Edward VI may hold some 
plea by this excuse. Now let any reasonable man 
judge whether that king's reign be a fit time from 
whence to pattern out the constitution of a church dis- 
cipline, much loss that it should yield occasion from 
whence to foster and establish the continuance of im- 
perfection, with the commendatory subscriptions of 

• nil lessors and martyrs, to entitle and engage a glorious 
name to a gross corruption. It was not episcopacy 
that wrought in them the heavenly fortitude of martyr- 
dom, as little is it that martyrdom can make good 
episcopacy; but it was episcopacy that led the good 
and holy men, through the temptation of the enemy, 
and the snare of this present world, to many blame- 
worthy and opprobrious actions. And it is still epis- 
copacy that before all our eyes worsens and slugs the 
moat learned and seeming religious of our ministers, 
who no sooner advanced to it, but like a seething pot 
-it to cool, sensibly exhale and reak out the greatest 
part of that zeal, and those gifts which were formerly 
in them, settling in a skinny congealment of ease and 
sloth at the top : and if they keep their learning by 
some potent sway of nature, it is a rare chance ; but 
their devotion most commonly comes to that queazy 
temper of lukewannness, that gives a vomit to God 
himself. 

' But what do we surfer misshapen and enormous pre- 
latiam, as we do, thus to blanch and varnish her de- 
formities with the fair colours, as before of martyrdom, 
BO now of episcopacy ? They are not bishops, God and 
all good men know they are not, that have filled this 
land with late confusion and violence; but a tyrannical 

• ■• H and corporation of impostors, that have blinded 
and abused the world so long under that name. He 
that, enabled with gifts from God, and the lawful and 
primitive choice of the church assembled in convenient 
number, faithfully from that time forward feeds his 
parochial flock, has his coequal and compresbyterial 

er to ordain ministers and deacons by public prayer, 

. ad rote of Christ's congregation in like sort as he 

himself was ordained, and is a true apostolic bishop. 

Bat win 11 be Steps up into the chair of pontifical pride, 

moderate and exemplary house for a 

\. ml ,1 and haughty palace, spiritual dignity for 

l una! pn cadence, and secular high office and employ- 

' &w the high negotiations of his heavenly embas- 

tben he degrades, then he- unbishops himself; 

he that main - him bishop, makes him no bishop. No 

mam I th« n foi il m Martin complained to Sulpitius 

rus, thai since he was bishop he felt inwardly a 

ble decaj of those rirtaes and graces that God 

had (riven him iii great measure before; although the 



same Sulpitius write that he was nothing tainted or 
altered in his habit, diet, or personal demeanour from 
that simple plainness to which he first betook himself. 
It was not therefore that thing alone which God took 
displeasure at in the bishops of those times, but rather 
an universal rottenness and gangrene in the whole 
function. 

From hence then I pass to Queen Elizabeth, the next 
protestant prince, in whose days why religion attained 
not a perfect reducement in the beginning of her reign, 
I suppose the hindering causes will be found to be 
common with some formerly alleged for King Edward 
VI ; the greenness of the times, the weak estate which 
Queen Mary left the realm in, the great places and 
offices executed by papists, the judges, the lawyers, 
the justices of peace for the most part popish, the 
bishops firm to Rome ; from whence was to be expected 
the furious flashing of excommunications, and absolv- 
ing the people from their obedience. Next, her private 
counsellors, whoever they were, persuaded her (as 
Camden writes) that the altering of ecclesiastical policy 
would move sedition. Then was the liturgy given to 
a number of moderate divines, and Sir Thomas Smith 
a statesman, to be purged and physicked : and surely 
they were moderate divines indeed, neither hot nor 
cold ; and Grindal the best of them, afterwards arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, lost favour in the court, and I 
think was discharged the government of his see, for 
favouring the ministers, though Camden seem willing 
to find another cause : therefore about her second year, 
in a parliament, of men and minds some scarce well 
grounded, others belching the sour crudities of yester- 
day's popery, those constitutions of Edward VI, which 
as you heard before no way satisfied the men that made 
them, are now established for best, and not to be mend- 
ed. From that time followed nothing but imprison- 
ments, troubles, disgraces on all those that found fault 
with the decrees of the convocation, and straight were 
they branded with the name of puritans. As for the 
queen herself, she was made believe that by putting 
down bishops her prerogative would be infringed, of 
which shall be spoken anon as the course of method 
brings it in : and why the prelates laboured it should 
be so thought, ask not them, but ask their bellies. 
They had found a good tabernacle, they sate under a 
spreading vine, their lot was fallen in a fair inherit- 
ance. And these perhaps were the chief impeachments 
of a more sound rectifying the church in the queen's 
time. 

From this period I count to begin our times, which 
because they concern us more nearly, and our own 
eyes and ears can give us the ampler scope to judge, 
will require a more exact search ; and to effect this the 
speedier, I shall distinguish such as I esteem to be the 
hinderers of reformation into three sorts, Antiquitarians 
(for so I had rather call them than antiquaries, whose 
labours are useful and laudable). 2. Libertines. 3. Po- 
liticians. 

To the votarists of antiquity I shall think to have 
fully answered, if I shall be able to prove out of anti- 
quity, First, that if they will conform our bishops to 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



the purer times, they must mew their feathers, and 
their pounces, and make but curtailed bishops of them ; 
and we know they hate to be docked and clipped, as 
much as to be put down outright. Secondly, that those 
purer times were corrupt, and their books corrupted 
soon after. Thirdly, that the best of those that then 
wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them, 
and send all to the Scriptures. 

First therefore, if those that overaffect antiquity 
will follow the square thereof, their bishops must be 
elected by the hands of the whole church. The an- 
cientest of the extant fathers, Ignatius, writing to the 
Philadelphians, saith, " that it belongs to them as to 
the church of God to choose a bishop." Let no man 
cavil, but take the church of God as meaning the whole 
consistence of orders and members, as St. Paul's epis- 
tles express, and this likewise being read over : besides 
this, it is there to be marked, that those Philadelphians 
are exhorted to choose a bishop of Antioch. Whence 
it seems by the way that there was not that wary limi- 
tation of diocese in those times, which is confirmed 
even by a fast friend of episcopacy, Camden, who can- 
not but love bishops as well as old coins, and his much 
lamented monasteries, for antiquity's sake. He writes 
in his description of Scotland, " That over all the world 
bishops had no certain diocese till pope Dionysius about 
the year 268 did cut them out; and that the bishops of 
Scotland executed their function in what place soever 
they came indifferently, and without distinction, till- 
King Malcolm the Third, about the year 1070." Whence 
may be guessed what their function was : was it to go 
about circled with a band of rooking officials, with 
cloakbags full of citations, and processes to be served 
by a corporality of griffonlike promoters and apparitors ? 
Did he go about to pitch down his court, as an empiric 
does his bank, to inveigle in all the money of the coun- 
try ? No, certainly, it would not have been permitted him 
to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he 
came. And verily some such matter it was as want of 
a fat diocese that kept our Britain bishops so poor in 
the primitive times, that being called to the council of 
Ariminum in the year 359, they had not wherewithal 
to defray the charges of their journey, but were fed 
and lodged upon the emperor's cost ; which must needs 
be no accidental but usual poverty in them : for the 
author, Sulpitius Severus, in his 2d book of Church- 
History, praises them, and avouches it praiseworthy in 
a bishop to be so poor as to have nothing of his own. 
But to return to the ancient election of bishops, that it 
could not lawfully be without the consent of the people 
is so express in Cyprian, and so often to be met with, 
that to cite each place at large, were to translate a 
good part of the volume ; therefore touching the chief 
passages, I refer the rest to whom so list peruse the 
author himself: in the 24th epistle, " If a bishop," 
saith he, " be once made and allowed by the testimony 
and judgment of his colleagues and the people, no 
other can be made." In the 55th, " When a bishop is 
made by the suffrage of all the people in peace." In 
the 68th mark but what he says ; " The people chiefly 
hath power either of choosing worthy ones, or refusing 



unworthy." this he there proves by authorities out of 
the Old and New Testament, and with solid reasons : 
these were his antiquities. 

This voice of the people, to be had ever in episcopal 
elections, was so well known before Cyprian's time, 
even to those that were without the church, that the 
emperor Alexander Severus desired to have his gover- 
nors of provinces chosen in the same manner, as Lam- 
pridius can tell ; so little thought it he offensive to 
monarchy. And if single authorities persuade not, 
hearken what the whole general council of Nicaea, the 
first and famousest of all the rest, determines, writing 
a synodical epistle to the African churches, to warn 
them of Arianism ; it exhorts them to choose orthodox 
bishops in the place of the dead, so they be worthy, 
and the people choose them ; whereby they seem to 
make the people's assent so necessary, that merit, with- 
out their free choice, were not sufficient to make a 
bishop. What would ye say now, grave fathers, if you 
should wake and see unworthy bishops, or rather no 
bishops, but Egyptian taskmasters of ceremonies thrust 
purposely upon the groaning church, to the affliction 
and vexation of God's people ? It was not of old that 
a conspiracy of bishops could frustrate and fob off the 
right of the people; for we may read how St. Martin, 
soon after Constantine, was made bishop of Turin in 
France, by the people's consent from all places there- 
about, maugre all the opposition that the bishops could 
make. Thus went matters of the church almost 400 
years after Christ, and very probably far lower: for 
Nicephorus Phocas the Greek emperor, whose reign 
fell near the 1000 year of our Lord, having done many 
things tyrannically, is said by Cedrenus to have done 
nothing more grievous and displeasing to the people, 
than to have enacted that no bishop should be chosen 
without his will ; so long did this right remain to the 
people in the midst of other palpable corruptions. Now 
for episcopal dignity, what it was, see out of Ignatius> 
who in his epistle to those of Trallis, confesseth, " That 
the presbyters are his fellow-counsellors and fellow- 
benchers." And Cyprian in many places, as in the 6th, 
41st, 52d epistles, speaking of presbyters, calls them 
his compresbyters, as if he deemed himself no other, 
whenas by the same place it appears he was a bishop ; 
he calls them brethren, but that will be thought his 
meekness : yea, but the presbyters and deacons writing 
to him think they do him honour enough, when they 
phrase him no higher than brother Cyprian, and dear 
Cyprian in the 26th epistle. For their authority it is 
evident not to have been single, but depending on the 
counsel of the presbyters as from Ignatius was erewhile 
alleged ; and the same Cyprian acknowledges as much 
in the 6th epistle, and adds thereto, that he had deter- 
mined, from his entrance into the office of bishop, to do 
nothing without the consent of his people, and so in 
the 31st epistle, for it were tedious to course through all 
his writings, which are so full of the like assertions, 
insomuch that even in the womb and centre of apos- 
tasy, Rome itself, there yet remains a glimpse of this 
truth ; for the pope himself, as a learned English 
writer notes well, performeth all ecclesiastical jurisdic- 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



lion as in consistory among his cardinals, which were 
originally but the parish priests of Rome. Thus then 
did the spirit of unity and meekness inspire and ani- 
mate every joint and sinew of the mystical body; but 
now the gravest and worthiest minister, a true bishop 
of his fold, shall be reviled and ruffled by an insulting- 
and only canon-wise prelate, as if he were some slight 
paltry companion : and the people of God, redeemed 
and washed with Christ's blood, and dignified with so 
many glorious titles of saints and sons in the gospel, 
are now no better reputed than impure ethnics and lay 
dogs ; st.»iH^, and pillars, and crucifixes, have now the 
honour and the alms due to Christ's living- members; 
the table of communion, now become a table of separa- 
tion, stands like an exalted platform upon the brow of 
the quire, fortified with bulwark and barricado,to keep 
off the profane touch of the laics, whilst the obscene 
and surfeited priest scruples not to paw and mammoc 
the sacramental bread, as familiarly as his tavern bis- 
cuit. And thus the people, vilified and rejected by 
them, give over the earnest study of virtue and godli- 
ness, as a thing of greater purity than they need, and 
the search of divine knowledge as a mystery too high 
for their capacities, and only for churchmen to meddle 
with ; which is what the prelates desire, that when 
they have brought us back to popish blindness, we 
might commit to their dispose the whole managing of 
cm salvation, for they think it was never fair world 
with them since that time. But he that will mould a 
modern bishop into a primitive, must yield him to be 
elected by the popular voice, undiocesed, unrevenued, 
unlorded, and leave him nothing but brotherly equality, 
matchless temperance, frequent fasting, incessant prayer 
and preaching, continual watchings and labours in his 
ministry ; which what a rich booty it would be, what 
a plump endowment to the many-benefice-gaping- 
mouth of a prelate, what a relish it would give to his 
canary -sucking and swan-eating palate, let old bishop 
Mountain judge for me. 

How little therefore those ancient times make for 
modern bishops, hath been plainly discoursed ; but let 
them make for them as much as they will, yet why we 
ought not to stand to their arbitrement, shall now ap- 
pear by a threefold corruption which will be found 
upon them. 1. The best times were spreadingly in- 
fected. 2. The best men of those times foully tainted, 
a. The best writings of those men dangerously adul- 

d. These positions are to be made good out of 
those times witnessing of themselves. First, Ignatius 
n. his early days testifies to the churches of Asia, that 
- \< 11 tli' 11 heresies were sprung up, and rise everywhere, 
..- Ensebius relates in his 3d book, 35th chap, after 
Greek number. And Hegesipp us, a grave church 
"' p 1 '"" antiquity, affirms in the same book of 

-us. c -V2: " That while the apostles were on 
the depravers of doctrine did hut lurk; but they 
once gone, with open forehead they durst preach down 
the truth with falsities." Fea, those that are reckoned 
fof orthodox, L< gan t<> maid ,i.| and shameful rents in 
'"■ church about th< trivial celebration of feasts, not 
agreeing when to keep Easter-day; which controversy 



grew so hot, that Victor the bishop of Rome excom- 
municated all the churches of Asia for no other cause, 
and was worthily thereof reproved by Irenaeus. For 
can any sound theologer think, that these great fathers 
understood what was gospel, or what was excommuni- 
cation ? Doubtless that which led the good men into 
fraud and errour was, that they attended more to the 
near tradition of what they heard the apostles some- 
times did, than to what they had left written, not con- 
sidering that many things which they did were by the 
apostles themselves professed to be done only for the 
present, and of mere indulgence to some scrupulous 
converts of the circumcision, but what they writ was 
of firm decree to all future ages. Look but a century 
lower in the 1st cap. of Eusebius 8th book. What a 
universal tetter of impurity had envenomed every part, 
order, and degree of the church, to omit the lay herd, 
which will be little regarded, " those that seem to be 
our pastors," saith he, " overturning the law of God's 
worship, burnt in contentions one towards another, and 
increasing in hatred and bitterness, outrageously sought 
to uphold lordship, and command as it were a tyranny." 
Stay but a little, magnanimous bishops, suppress your 
aspiring thoughts, for there is nothing wanting but 
Constantine to reign, and then tyranny herself shall 
give up all her citadels into your hands, and count ye 
thenceforward her trustiest agents. Such were these 
that must be called the ancientest and most virgin 
times between Christ and Constantine. Nor was this 
general contagion in their actions, and not in their 
writings : who is ignorant of the foul errours, the ridi- 
culous wresting of Scripture, the heresies, the vanities 
thick sown through the volumes of Justin Martyr, 
Clemens, Origen, Tertullian, and others of eldest time ? 
Who would think him fit to write an apology for 
christian faith to the Roman senate, that would tell 
them " how of the angels," which he must needs mean 
those in Genesis called the sons of God, " mixing- with 
women were begotten the devils," as good Justin Mar- 
tyr in his Apology told them ? But more indignation 
would it move to any Christian that shall read Tertul- 
lian, terming St. Paul a novice, and raw in grace, for 
reproving St. Peter at Antioch, worthy to be blamed if 
we believe the epistle to the Galatians: perhaps from 
this hint the blasphemous Jesuits presumed in Italy to 
give their judgment of St. Paul, as of a hotheaded per- 
son, as Sandys in his relations tells us. 

Now besides all this, who knows not how many 
superstitious works are ingraffed into the legitimate 
writings of the fathers ? And of those books that pass 
for authentic, who knows what hath been tampered 
withal, what hath been razed out, what hath been in- 
serted ? Besides the late legerdemain of the papists, 
that which Sulpitius writes concerning Origen's books, 
gives us cause vehemently to suspect, there hath been 
packing of old. In the third chap, of his 1st Dialogue 
we may read what wrangling the bishops and monks 
had about the reading or not reading of Origen; some 
objecting that he was corrupted by heretics, others an- 
swering that all such books had been so dealt with. 
How then shall I trust these times to lead me, that 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



testify so ill of leading- themselves ? Certainly of their 
defects their own witness may be best received, but of 
the rectitude and sincerity of their life and doctrine, to 
judge rightly, we must judge by that which was to be 
their rule. 

But it will be objected, that this was an unsettled 
state of the church, wanting the temporal magistrate 
to suppress the licence of false brethren, and the ex- 
travagancy of still new opinions ; a time not imitable 
for church government, where the temporal and spirit- 
ual power did not close in one belief, as under Con- 



caused to be laid up in a pillar of porphyry by his 
statue. How he or his teachers could trifle thus with 
half an eye open upon St. Paul's principles, I know 
not bow to imagine. 

How should then the dim taper of this emperor's 
age, that had such need of snuffing, extend any beam 
to our times, wherewith we might hope to be better 
lighted, than by those luminaries that God hath set up 
to shine to us far nearer hand. And what reformation 
he wrought for his own time, it will not be amiss to 
consider; he appointed certain times for fasts and feasts, 



stantine. I am not of opinion to think the church a built stately churches, gave large immunities to the 
vine in this respect, because, as they take it, she cannot 
subsist without clasping about the elm of worldly 
strength and felicity, as if the heavenly city could not 
support itself without the props and buttresses of secu- 
lar authority. They extol Constantine because he 
extolled them ; as our homebred monks in their his- 
tories blanch the kings their benefactors, and brand 
those that went about to be their correctors. If he had 
curbed the growing pride, avarice, and luxury of the 
clergy, then every page of his story should have swell- 
ed with his faults, and that which Zozimus the heathen 
writes of him should have come in to boot : we should 
have heard then in every declamation how he slew his 
nephew Commodus, a worthy man, his noble and eld- 
est son Crispus, his wife Fausta, besides numbers of 
his friends ; then his cruel exactions, his unsoundness 
in religion, favouring the Arians that had been con- 
demned in a council, of which himself sat as it were 
president; his hard measure and banishment of the 
faithful and invincible Athanasius ; his living unbap- 
tized almost to his dying day; these blurs are too ap- 
parent in his life. But since he must needs be the 
loadstar of reformation, as some men clatter, it will be 
good to see further his knowledge of religion what it 
was, and by that we may likewise guess at the sin- 
cerity of his times in those that were not heretical, it 
being likely that he would converse with the famous- 
est prelates (for so he had made them) that were to be 
found for learning. 

Of his Arianism we heard, and for the rest a pretty 
scantling of his knowledge may be taken by bis de- 
ferring to be baptized so many years, a thing not 
usual, and repugnant to the tenour of Scripture ; Philip 
knowing nothing that should hinder the eunuch to 
be baptized after profession of his belief. Next, by 
the excessive devotion, that I may not say superstition, 
both of him and his mother Helena, to find out the 
cross on which Christ suffered, that had long lain 
under the rubbish of old ruins; (a thing which the dis- 
ciples and kindred of our Saviour might with more 
ease have done, if they had thought it a pious duty ;) 
some of the nails whereof he put into his helmet, to 
bear off blows in battle, others he fastened among the 
studs of his bridle, to fulfil (as he thought, or his court 
bishops persuaded him) the prophecy of Zechariah ; 
" And it shall be that which is in the bridle shall be 
holy to the Lord." Part of the cross, in which he 
thought such virtue to reside, as would prove a kind of 
Palladium to save the city wherever it remained, he 



clergy, great riches and promotions to bishops, gave 
and ministered occasion to bring in a deluge of cere- 
monies, thereby either to draw in the heathen by a 
resemblance of their rites, or to set a gloss upon the 
simplicity and plainness of Christianity; which, to the 
gorgeous solemnities of paganism, and the sense of the 
world's children, seemed but a homely and yeomanly 
religion ; for the beauty of inward sanctity was not 
within their prospect. 

So that in this manner the prelates, both then and ever 
since, coming from a mean and plebeian life on a sudden 
to be lords of stately palaces, rich furniture, delicious 
fare, and princely attendance, thought the plain and 
homespun verity of Christ's gospel unfit any longer to 
hold their lordships' acquaintance, unless thepoor thread- 
bare matron were put into better clothes : her chaste and 
modest vail, surrounded with celestial beams, they over- 
laid with wanton tresses, and in a staring tire bespeckled 
her with all the gaudy allurements of a whore. 

Thus flourished the church with Constantine's wealth, 
and thereafter were the effects that followed ; his son 
Constantius proved a flat Arian, and his nephew Julian 
an apostate, and there his race ended : the church that 
before by inseusible degrees welked and impaired, now 
with large steps went down hill decaying : at this time 
Antichrist began first to put forth his horn, and that 
saying was common, that former times had wooden 
chalices and golden priests; but they, golden chalices 
and wooden priests. " Formerly," saith Sulpitius, 
" martyrdom by glorious death was sought more gree- 
dily than now bishoprics by vile ambition are hunted 
after," speaking of these times: and in another place, 
" they gape after possessions, they tend lands and liv- 
ings, they cower over their gold, they buy and sell : 
and if there be any that neither possess nor traffic, that 
which is worse, they set still, and expect gifts, and pros- 
titute every endowment of grace, every holy thing, to 
sale." And in the end of his history thus he concludes: 
" All things went to wrack by the faction, wilfulness, 
and avarice of the bishops ; and by this means God's 
people, and every good man, was had in scorn and de- 
rision;" which St. Martin found truly to be said by 
his friend Sulpitius; for, being held in admiration of 
all men, he had only the bishops his enemies, found 
God less favourable to him after he was bishop than 
before, and for his last sixteen years would come at no 
bishop's meeting. Thus you see, sir, what Constan- 
tine's doings in the church brought forth, either in his 
own or in his son's reign. 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



Now, lost it should be thought that something else 
might ail this author thus to hamper the bishops of 
those days, I will bring - you the opinion of three the 
famousest men for wit and learning that Italy at this 
day glories of, whereby it may be concluded for a re- 
ceived opinion, even among men professing the Romish 
faith, that Constantine marred all in the church. 
Dante, in his 19th Canto of Inferno, hath thus, as I 
will render it you in English blank verse : 

Ah Constantine ! of how much ill was cause 
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains 
That the first wealthy pope receiv'd of thee! 

So, in his 20th Canto of Paradise, he makes the 
like complaint, and Petrarch seconds him in the same 
mind in his 108th sonnet, which is wiped out by the 
inquisitor in some editions; speaking of the Roman 
Antichrist as merely bred up by Constantine. 

Founded in chaste and humble poverty, 

'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy horn, 

Impudent whore, where hast thou plac'd thy hope? 

In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth? 

Another Constantine comes not in haste. 

Ariosto of Ferrara, after both these in time, but 
equal in lame, following the scope of his poem in a 
difficult knot how to restore Orlando his chief hero to 
his lost senses, brings Astolfo the English knight up 
into the moon, where St. John, as he feigns, met him. 
Cant. 34. 

And to be short, at last his guide him brings 
Into a goodly valley, where he sees 
A mighty mass of things strangely confus'd, 
Tlungs that on earth were lost, or were abus'd. 

And amongst these so abused things, listen what he 
met withal, under the conduct of the Evangelist. 

Then past he to a flowery mountain green, 
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously : 
This was that gift (if you the truth will have) 
That Constantine to good Sylvestro gave. 

And this was a truth well known in England before 
thai poet was born, as our Chaucer's Ploughman shall 
tell you by and by upon another occasion. By all these 
circumstancei laid together, I do not see how it can be 
disputed what good this emperor Constantine wrought 
f " the church, but rather whether ever any, though 
perhaps not wittingly, get open a door to more mis- 
< hi. fin Christendom. There is just cause therefore, 
that when the prelates cry out, Let the church be re- 
I according to Constantine, it should sound to a 
judicious <:.r no otherwise, than if they should say, 
M rich, make us lofty, make us lawless; for if 
any under Inn, vrere not so, thanks to those ancient re- 
in., ins of integrity, whirl, were not yet quite worn out, 
and not to bit government. 

Thus finally it appears, that those purer times were 
not M "'• "'"I "IN a " ( l >'ot to be followed 

u itho.it suspicion, doubt, and danger. The last point 
wherein the antiquary is to be dealt with at his own 
weapon, is, to make it manifest that the ancien test and 
fthe fatheri bare disclaimed .-.II sufficiency in 



themselves that men should rely on, and sent all 
comers to the Scriptures, as allsufficient : that this is 
true, w r ill not be unduly gathered, by shewing what 
esteem they had of antiquity themselves, and what va- 
lidity they thought in it to prove doctrine or discipline. 
I must of necessity begin from the second rank of 
fathers, because till then antiquity could have no plea. 
Cyprian in his 63d Epistle : " If any," saith he, " of 
our ancestors, either ignorantly or out of simplicity, 
hath not observed that which the Lord taught us by 
example," speaking of the Lord's supper, "his simpli- 
city God may pardon of his mercy; but we cannot 
be excused for following him, being instructed by the 
Lord." And have not we the same instructions ; and 
will not this holy man, with all the whole consistory 
of saints and martyrs that lived of old, rise up and 
stop our mouths in judgment, when we shall go about to 
father our errours and opinions upon their authority ? 
In the 73d Epist. he adds, " In vain do they oppose 
custom to us, if they be overcome by reason ; as if cus- 
tom were greater than truth, or that in spiritual things 
that were not to be followed, which is revealed for the 
better by the Holy Ghost." In the 74tb, " Neither 
ought custom to hinder that truth should not prevail ; 
for custom without truth is but agedness of errour." 

Next Lactantius, he that was preferred to have the 
bringing up of Constantine's children, in his second 
book of Institutions, chap. 7 and 8, disputes against the 
vain trust in antiquity, as being the chiefest argument 
of the Heathen against the Christians : " They do not 
consider," saith he, " what religion is, but they are 
confident it is true, because the ancients delivered it ; 
they count it a trespass to examine it." And in the 
eighth : " Not because they went before us in time, 
therefore in wisdom ; which being given alike to all 
ages, cannot be prepossessed by the ancients : where- 
fore, seeing that to seek the truth is inbred to all, they 
bereave themselves of wisdom, the gift of God, who 
without judgment follow the ancients, and are led by 
others like brute beasts." St. Austin writes to Fortu- 
natian, that " he counts it lawful, in the books of 
whomsoever, to reject that which he finds otherwise 
than true; and so he would have others deal by him." 
He neither accounted, as it seems, those fathers that 
went before, nor himself, nor others of his rank, for 
men of more than ordinary spirit, that might equally 
deceive, and be deceived : and ofttimes setting our ser- 
vile humours aside, yea, God so ordering we may find 
truth with one man, as soon as in a council, as Cyprian 
agrees, 71st Epist. " Many things," saith he," are bet- 
ter revealed to single persons." At Nicse, in the first 
and best-reputed council of all the world, there had 
gone out a canon to divorce married priests, had not 
one old man, Paphnutius, stood up and reasoned 
against it. 

Now remains it to shew clearly that the fathers refer 
all decision of controversy to the scriptures, as allsuf- 
ficient to direct, to resolve, and to determine. Igna- 
tius, taking his last leave of the Asian churches, as he 
went to martyrdom, exhorted them to adhere close to 
the written doctrine of the apostles, necessarily written 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



for posterity : so far was he from unwritten traditions, 
as may be read in the 36th chap, of Eusebius,3d b. In 
the 74th Epist. of Cyprian against Stefan, bishop of 
Rome, imposing- upon him a tradition ; " Whence," 
quoth he, " is this tradition ? Is it fetched from the 
authority of Christ in the gospel, or of the apostles in 
their epistles ? for God testifies that those things are 
to be done which are written." And then thus, " What 
obstinacy, what presumption is this, to prefer human 
tradition before divine ordinance ?" And in the same 
epist. " if we shall return to the head, and beginning of 
divine tradition, (which we all know he means the 
Bible,) human errour ceases ; and the reason of heavenly 
mysteries unfolded, whatsoever was obscure becomes 
clear." And in the 14th distinct, of the same epist. 
directly against our modern fantasies of a still visible 
church, he teaches, " that succession of truth may fail; 
to renew which, we must have recourse to the foun- 
tains ;" using this excellent similitude, " if a channel, 
or conduit-pipe which brought in water plentifully be- 
fore, suddenly fail, do we not go to the fountain to 
know the cause, whether the spring affords no more, or 
whether the vein be stopped, or turned aside in the 
midcourse ? Thus ought we to do, keeping God's pre- 
cepts, that if in aught the truth shall be changed, we 
may repair to the gospel and to the apostles, that thence 
may arise the reason of our doings, from whence our 
order and beginning arose." In the 75th he inveighs 
bitterly against pope Stephanus, " for that he could 
boast his succession from Peter, and yet foist in tra- 
ditions that were not apostolical." And in his book of 
the unity of the church, he compares those that, neg*- 
lecting" God's word, follow the doctrines of men, to 
Corah, Dathan, and Abiram. The very first page of 
Athanasius against the gentiles, avers the scriptures to 
be sufficient of themselves for the declaration of truth ; 
and that if his friend Macarius read other religious 
writers, it was but (piKoKaXoQ come un vertuoso, (as the 
Italians say,) as a lover of elegance : and in his second 
tome, the 39th page, after he hath reckoned up the 
canonical books, " in these only," saith he, " is the 
doctrine of godliness taught ; let no man add to these, 
or take from these." And in his Synopsis, having again 
set down all the writers of the Old and New Testament, 
" these," saith he, " be the anchors and props of our 
faith." Besides these, millions of other books have 
been written by great and wise men according to rule, 
and agreement with these, of which I will not now 
speak, as being of infinite number, and mere depend- 
ance on the canonical books. Basil, in his 2d tome, 
writing of true faith, tells his auditors, he is bound to 
teach them that which he hath learned out of the 
Bible : and in the same treatise he saith, " that seeing 
the commandments of the Lord are faithful, and sure 
for ever, it is a plain falling from the faith, and a high 
pride, either to make void any thing therein, or to in- 
troduce any thing not there to be found :" and he gives 
the reason, " for Christ saith, My sheep hear my voice, 
they will not follow another, but fly from him, because 
they know not his voice." But not to be endless in 
quotations, it may chance to be objected, that there be 



many opinions in the fathers which have no ground in 
Scripture ; so much the less, may I say, should we fol- 
low them, for their own words shall condemn them, 
and acquit us that lean not on them ; otherwise these 
their words will acquit them, and condemn us. But it 
will be replied, the Scriptures are difficult to be under- 
stood, and therefore require the explanation of the 
fathers. It is true, there be some books, and especially 
some places in those books, that remain clouded ; yet 
ever that which is most necessary to be known is most 
easy ; and that which is most difficult, so far expounds 
itself ever, as to tell us how little it imports our saving 
knowledge. Hence, to infer a general obscurity over 
all the text, is a mere suggestion of the devil to dis- 
suade men from reading it, and casts an aspersion of 
dishonour both upon the mercy, truth, and wisdom of 
God. We count it no gentleness or fair dealing in a 
man of power amongst us, to require strict and punc- 
tual obedience, and yet give out all his commands 
ambiguous and obscure, we should think he had a plot 
upon us ; certainly such commands were no commands, 
but snares. The very essence of truth is plainness and 
brightness, the darkness and crookedness is our own. 
The wisdom of God created understanding, fit and 
proportionable to truth, the object and end of it, as the 
eye to the thing visible. If our understanding have a 
film of ignorance over it, or be blear with gazing on 
other false glisterings, what is that to truth ? If we 
will but purge with sovereign eyesalve that intellectual 
ray which God hath planted in us, then we would be- 
lieve the Scriptures protesting their own plainness and 
perspicuity, calling to them to be instructed, not only 
the wise and learned, but the simple, the poor, the 
babes, foretelling an extraordinary effusion of God's 
Spirit upon every age and sex, attributing to all men, 
and requiring from them the ability of searching", try- 
ing, examining all things, and by the spirit discerning 
that which is good ; and as the Scriptures themselves 
pronounce their own plainness, so do the fathers testify 
of them. 

I will not run into a paroxysm of citations again in 
this point, only instance Athanasius in his foremen- 
tioned first page: " The knowledge of truth," saith he, 
" wants no human lore, as being evident in itself, and 
by the preaching' of Christ now opens brighter than the 
sun." If these doctors, who had scarce half the light 
that we enjoy, who all, except two or three, were ig- 
norant of the Hebrew tongue, and many of the Greek, 
blundering upon the dangerous and suspectful transla- 
tions of the apostate Aquila, the heretical Theoclotian, 
the judaized Symmachus, the erroneous Origen ; if 
these could yet find the Bible so easy, why should we 
doubt, that have all the helps of learning, and faithful 
industry, that man in this life can look for, and the 
assistance of God as near now to us as ever ? But let 
the Scriptures be hard; are they more hard, more crab- 
bed, more abstruse than the fathers ? He that cannot 
understand the sober, plain, and unaffected style of the 
Scriptures, will be ten times more puzzled with the 
knotty Africanisms, the pampered metaphors, the intri- 
cate and involved sentences of the fathers, besides the 



10 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



fantastic ami declamatory flashes, the cross-jingling 
periods which cannot but disturb, and come thwart a 
settled devotion, worse than the din of bells and rattles. 
Now, sir, for the love of holy Reformation, what can 
be said more against these importunate clients of anti- 
quity than she herself their patroness hath said? Whe- 
ther, think ye, would she approve still to doat upon 
immeasurable, innumerable, and therefore unnecessary 
and unmerciful volumes, choosing rather to err with 
the specious name of the fathers, or to take a sound 
truth at the hand of a plain upright man, that all his 
(lavs have been diligently reading the holy Scriptures, 
and thereto imploring God's grace, while the admirers 
of antiquity have been beating their brains about their 
ambones, their dyptichs, and meniaias ? Now, he that 
cannot tell of stations and indictions, nor has wasted 
his precious hours in the endless conferring of councils 
and conclaves that demolish one another, (although I 
know many of those that pretend to be great rabbies 
in these studies, have scarce saluted them from the 
strings, and the titlepage ; or to give them more, have 
been but the ferrets and mousehunts of an index :) yet 
what pastor or minister, how learned, religious, or dis- 
crete soever, does not now bring both his cheeks full 
blown with oecumenical and synodical, shall be counted 
a lank, shallow, insufficient man, yea a dunce, and not 
worthy to speak about reformation of church disci- 
pline. But I trust they for whom God hath reserved 
the honour of reforming- this church, will easily perceive 
their adversaries' drift in thus calling for antiquity : 
they fear the plain field of the Scriptures ; the chase is 
too hot ; they seek the dark, the bushy, the tangled 
forest, they would imbosk : they feel themselves strook 
in the transparent streams of divine truth ; they would 
plunge, and tumble, and think to lie hid in the foul 
weeds and muddy waters, where no plummet can reach 



the bottom. But let them beat themselves like whales, 
and spend their oil till they be dragged ashore : though 
wherefore should the ministers give them so much line 
for shifts and delays ? wherefore should they not urge 
only the gospel, and hold it ever in their faces like a 
mirror of diamond, till it dazzle and pierce their misty 
eyeballs ? maintaining it the honour of its absolute 
sufficiency and supremacy inviolable : for if the Scrip- 
ture be for reformation, and antiquity to boot, it is but 
an advantage to the dozen, it is no winning cast : and 
though antiquity be against it, while the Scriptures be 
for it, the cause is as good as ought to be wished, anti- 
quity itself sitting judge. 

/ But to draw to an end; the second sort of those that 
may be justly numbered among the hinderers of re- 
formation, are libertines ; these suggest that the disci- 
pline sought would be intolerable : for one bishop now 
in a diocese, we should then have a pope in every pa- 
rish. It will not be requisite to answer these men, but 
only to discover them ; for reason they have none, but 
lust and licentiousness, and therefore answer can have 
none. It is not any discipline that they could live 
under, it is the corruption and remissness of discipline 
that they seek. Episcopacy duly executed, yea, the 
Turkish and Jewish rigour against whoring and drink- 
ing ; the dear and tender discipline of a father, the 
sociable and loving reproof of a brother, the bosom 
admonition of a friend, is a presbytery, and a consistory 
to them. It is only the merry friar in Chaucer can 
disple * them. 

Full sweetly heard he confession, 
And pleasant was his absolution, 
He was an easy man to give penance. 

And so I leave them ; and refer the political discourse 
of episcopacy to a second book. 



OF 



REFORMATION IN ENGLAND 



THE SECOND BOOK. 



Sis, 

1 1 ii a work pood and prudent to be able to guide one 

man ; oflargi i extended virtue to order well one house : 

but to govern a nation piously and justly, which only 

l) happily, ifl for a spirit of the greatest size, and 

divined mettle. And certainly of no less a mind, nor 

of l< M • \<< II- ace in another way, were they who by 

writing laid the solid and true foundations of this 

uhirl, \,f\wjr of greatest importance to the life 

• a contraction of disciple. 



of man, yet there is no art that hath been more cankered 
in her principles, more soiled, and slubbered with apho- 
risming pedantry, than the art of policy ; and that 
most, where a man would think should least be, in 
christian commonwealths. They teach not, that to 
govern well, is to train up a nation in true wisdom and 
virtue, and that which springs from thence, magnani- 
mity, (take heed of that,) and that which is our begin- 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



11 



niug, regeneration, and happiest end, likeness to God, 
which in one word we call godliness ; and that this is 
the true flourishing- of a land, other things follow as 
the shadow does the substance ; to teach thus were 
mere pulpitry to them. This is the masterpiece of a 
modern politician, how to qualify and mould the suf- 
ferance and subjection of the people to the length of 
that foot that is to tread on their necks ; how rapine 
may serve itself with the fair and honourable pretences 
of public good ; how the puny law may be brought 
under the wardship and control of lust and will : in 
which attempt if they fall short, then must a superficial 
colour of reputation by all means, direct or indirect, be 
gotten to wash over the unsightly bruise of honour. 
To make men governable in this manner, their precepts 
mainly tend to break a national spirit and courage, by 
countenancing open riot, luxury, and ignorance, till 
having thus disfigured and made men beneath men, as 
Juno in the fable of Io, they deliver up the poor trans- 
formed heifer of the commonwealth to be stung and 
vexed with the breese and goad of oppression, under 
the custody of some Argus with a hundred eyes of 
jealousy. To be plainer, sir, how to sodder, how to 
stop a leak, how to keep up the floating carcase of a 
crazy and diseased monarchy or state, betwixt wind 
and water, swimming still upon her own dead lees, that 
now is the deep design of a politician. Alas, sir ! a 
commonwealth ought to be but as one huge christian 
personage, one mighty growth and stature of an honest 
man, as big and compact in virtue as in body ; for look 
what the grounds and causes are of single happiness 
to one man, the same ye shall find them to a whole 
state, as Aristotle, both in his Ethics and Politics, from 
the principles of reason lays down : by consequence, 
therefore, that which is good and agreeable to mo- 
narchy, will appear soonest to be so, by being good 
and agreeable to the true welfare of every Christian ; 
and that which can be justly proved hurtful and offen- 
sive to every true Christian, will be evinced to be alike 
hurtful to monarchy : for God forbid that we should 
separate and distinguish the end and good of a monarch, 
from the end and good of the monarchy, or of that, from 
Christianity. How then this third and last sort that 
hinder reformation, will justify that it stands not with 
reason of state, I much muse; for certain I am, the 
Bible is shut against them, as certain that neither Plato 
nor Aristotle is for their turns. What they can bring 
us now from the schools of Loyola with his Jesuits, or 
their Malvezzi, that can cut Tacitus into slivers and 
steaks, we shall presently hear. They allege, 1. ThatN 
the church government must be conformable to the civil 
polity ; next, that no form of church-government is 
agreeable to monarchy, but that of bishops. Must 
church-government that is appointed in the gospel, and 
has chief respect to the soul, be conformable and pliant 
to civil, that is arbitrary, and chiefly conversant about 
the visible and external part of man ? This is the very 
maxim that moulded the calves of Bethel and of Dan ; 
this was the quintessence of Jeroboam's policy, he 
made religion conform to his politic interests ; and this 
was the sin that watched over the Israelites till their 



final captivity. If this state principle come from the 
prelates, as they affect to be counted statists, let them 
look back to Eleutherius bishop of Rome,and see what 
he thought of the policy of England ; being required 
by Lucius, the first christian king of this island, to 
give his counsel for the founding of religious laws, 
little thought he of this sage caution, but bids him be- 
take himself to the Old and New Testament, and re- 
ceive direction from them how to administer both church 
and commonwealth ; that he was God's vicar, and there- 
fore to rule by God's laws ; that the edicts of Csesar 
we may at all times disallow, but the statutes of God 
for no reason we may reject. Now certain, if church- 
government be taught in the gospel, as the bishops 
dare not deny, we may well conclude of what late 
standing this position is, newly calculated for the alti- 
tude of bishop-elevation, and lettuce for their lips. But 
by what example can they shew, that the form of 
church- discipline must be minted and modelled out to 
secular pretences ? The ancient republic of the Jews 
is evident to have run through all the changes of civil 
estate, if we survey the story from the giving of the 
law to the Herods; yet did one manner of priestly go- 
vernment serve without inconvenience to all these tem- 
poral mutations ; it served the mild aristocracy of elec- 
tive dukes, and heads of tribes joined with them ; the 
dictatorship of the judges, the easy or hardhanded mo- 
narchies, the domestic or foreign tyrannies : lastly, the 
Roman senate from without, the Jewish senate at home, 
with the Galilean tetrarch ; yet the Levites had some 
right to deal in civil affairs : but seeing the evan- 
gelical precept forbids churchmen to intermeddle with 
worldly employments, what interweavings or inter- 
workings can knit the minister and the magistrate in 
their several functions, to the regard of any precise 
correspondency ? Seeing that the churchman's office is 
only to teach men the christian faith, to exhort all, to 
encourage the good, to admonish the bad, privately the 
less offender, publicly the scandalous and stubborn ; to 
censure and separate, from the communion of Christ's 
flock, the contagious and incorrigible, to receive with 
joy and fatherly compassion the penitent : all this must 
be done, and more than this is beyond any church- 
authority. What is all this either here or there, to the 
temporal regiment of weal public, whether it be popu- 
lar, princely, or monarchical ? Where doth it entrench 
upon the temporal governor? where does it come in 
his walk? where doth it make inroad upon his juris- 
diction ? Indeed if the minister's part be rightly dis- 
charged, it renders him the people more conscionable, 
quiet, and easy to be governed ; if otherwise, his life 
and doctrine will declare him. If, therefore, the con- 
stitution of the church be already set down by divine 
prescript, as all sides confess, then can she not be a 
handmaid to wait on civil commodities and respects ; 
and if the nature and limits of church-discipline be 
such, as are either helpful to all political estates indif- 
ferently, or have no particular relation to any, then is 
there no necessity, nor indeed possibility, of linking 
the one with the other in a special conformation. 
Now for their second conclusion, " That no form of 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



church-government is agreeable to monarchy, but that 
of bishops," although it fall to pieces of itself by that 
which hath been said; yet to give them play, front 
and rear, it shall be my task to prove that episcopacy, 
with that authority which it challenges in England, is 
not only not agreeable, but tending to the destruction 
of monarchy. While the primitive pastors of the church 
of God laboured faithfully in their ministry, tending 
only their sheep, and not seeking, but avoiding all 
worldly matters as clogs, and indeed derogations and 
debasements to their high calling; little needed the 
princes and potentates of the earth, which way soever 
the gospel was spread, to study ways out to make a 
coherence between the church's polity and theirs: there- 
fore, when Pilate heard once our Saviour Christ pro- 
fessing that u bis kingdom was not of this world," he 
thought the man could not stand much in Caesar's 
light, nor much endamage the Roman empire ; for if 
the life of Christ be hid to this world, much more is his 
sceptre unoperative, but in spiritual things. And thus 
lived, for two or three ages, the successors of the apos- 
tles. But when, through Constantine's lavish super- 
stition, they forsook their first love, and set themselves 
up two gods instead, Mammon and their Belly; then 
taking advantage of the spiritual power which they 
had on men's consciences, they began to cast a long- 
ing eye to get the body also, and bodily things into 
their command : upon which their carnal desires, the 
spirit daily quenching and dying in them, knew no 
way to keep themselves up from falling to nothing, 
but by bolstering and supporting their inward rotten- 
ness by a carnal and outward strength. For a while they 
rather privily sought opportunity, than hastily disclosed 
their project ; but when Constantine was dead, and 
three or four emperors more, their drift became noto- 
rious and offensive to the whole world ; for while The- 
odosios the younger reigned, thus writes Socrates the 
historian, in his 7th book, chap. 11. " Now began an 
ill name to stick upon the bishops of Rome and Alex- 
andria, \\ bo beyond their priestly bounds now long ago 
had stepped into principality:" and this was scarce 
eighty years since their raising from the meanest 
worldly condition. Of courtesy now let any man tell 
me, if they draw to themselves a temporal strength and 

"lit of Caesar's dominion, is not Ccesar's empire 
thereby diminished ? But this was a stolen bit, hitherto 
be u.is bat a caterpillar secretly gnawing at monarchy ; 
ill- next time you shall see him a wolf, a lion, lifting 

.\ against his raiser, as Petrarch expressed it, 
and finally an open enemy and subverter of the Greek 
empire. Pbilippicus and Leo, with divers other 
emperon after them, not without the advice of their 
and at length of a whole eastern council 
<.f three hundred and thirty-eight bishops, threw 
the imagi i out of churches as being decreed idola- 
trous. 

Upon this goodly occasion, the bishop of Rome not 

the City, and all the territory about, into his 
bands, and makes himself lord thereof, which till 

then 'I bj a Greek magistrate, but absolves 

all ltd-, of tin ii tribute and obedience due to the em- 



peror, because he obeyed God's commandment in 
abolishing' idolatry. 

Mark, sir, here, how the pope came by St. Peter's 
patrimony, as he feigns it ; not the donation of Con- 
stantine, but idolatry and rebellion got it him. Ye 
need but read Sigonius, one of his own sect, to know 
the story at large. And now to shroud himself against 
a storm from the Greek continent, and provide a cham- 
pion to bear him out in these practices, he takes upon 
him by papal sentence to unthrone Chilpericus the 
rightful king of France, and gives the kingdom to 
Pepin, for no other cause, but that he seemed to him 
the more active man. If he were a friend herein to 
monarchy, I know not; but to the monarch I need not 
ask what he was. 

Having thus made Pepin his last friend, he calls him 
into Italy against Aistulphus the Lombard, that warred 
upon him for his late usurpation of Rome, as belonging 
to Ravenna which he had newly won. Pepin, not un- 
obedient to the pope's call, passing into Italy, frees 
him out of danger, and wins for him the whole ex- 
archate of Ravenna; which though it had been almost 
immediately before the hereditary possession of that 
monarchy, which was his chief patron and benefactor, 
yet he takes and keeps it to himself as lawful prize, 
and given to St. Peter. What a dangerous fallacy is 
this, when a spiritual man may snatch to himself any 
temporal dignity or dominion, under pretence of re- 
ceiving it for the church's use? Thus he claims Na- 
ples, Sicily, England, and what not? To be short, 
under show of his zeal against the errours of the Greek 
church, he never ceased baiting and goring the suc- 
cessors of his best lord Constantine, what by his 
barking curses and excommunications, what by his 
hindering the western princes from aiding them against 
the Sarazens and Turks, unless when they humoured 
him ; so that it may be truly affirmed, he was the sub- 
version and fall of that monarchy, which was the hoist- 
ing of him. This, besides Petrarch, whom I have 
cited, our Chaucer also hath observed, and gives from 
hence a caution to England, to beware of her bishops 
in time, for that their ends and aims are no more 
friendly to monarchy, than the pope's. 

This he begins in the Ploughman speaking, Part ii. 
Stanz. 28. 

The emperor yafe the pope sometime 

So high lordship him about, 

That at last the silly kime, 

The proud pope put him out ; 

So of this realm is no doubt, 

But lords beware and them defend ; 

For now these folks be wonders stout, 

The king and lords now this amend. 

And in the next Stanza, which begins the third part 
of the tale, he argues that, they ought not to be lords. 

Moses law f orb ode it tho 

That priests should no lordship welde, 

Christ's gospel biddeth also 

That they should no lordships held . 

Ne Christ's apostles were never so bold 

No such lordships to hem embrace, 

But smeren her sheep and keep her fold. 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



13 



And so forward. Whether the bishops of England 
have deserved thus to be feared by men so wise as our 
Chaucer is esteemed; and how agreeable to our mo- 
narchy and monarchs their demeanour has been, he 
that is but meanly read in our chronicles needs not be 
instructed. Have they not been as the Canaanites, and 
Philistines, to this kingdom? what treasons, what re- 
volts to the pope ? what rebellions, and those the 
basest and most pretenceless, have they not been chief 
in ? What could monarchy think, when Becket durst 
challenge the custody of Rochester-castle, and the 
Tower of London, as appertaining to his signory ? To 
omit his other insolencies and affronts to regal majesty, 
until the lashes inflicted on the anointed body of the 
king, washed off the holy unction with his blood 
drawn by the polluted hands of bishops, abbots, and 
monks. 

What good upholders of royalty were the bishops, 
when by their rebellious opposition against King John, 
Normandy was lost, he himself deposed, and this king- 
dom made over to the pope ? When the bishop of Win- 
chester durst tell the nobles, the pillars of the realm, 
that there were no peers in England, as in France, but 
that the king might do what he pleased. What could 
tyranny say more ? It would be pretty now if I should 
insist upon the rendering up of Tournay by Woolsey's 
treason, the excommunications, cursings, and inter- 
dicts upon the whole land ; for haply I shall be cut off 
short by a reply, that these were the faults of men and 
their popish errours, not of episcopacy, that hath now 
renounced the pope, and is a protestant. Yes, sure; as 
wise and famous men have suspected and feared the 
protestant episcopacy in England, as those that have 
feared the papal. 

You know, sir, what was the judgment of Padre Paolo, 
the great Venetian antagonist of the pope, for it is ex- 
tant in the hands of many men, whereby he declares his 
fear, that when the hierarchy of England shall light 
into the hands of busy and audacious men, or shall 
meet with princes tractable to the prelacy, then much 
mischief is like to ensue. And can it be nearer hand, 
than when bishops shall openly affirm that, no bishop 
no king? A trim paradox, and that ye may know 
where they have been a begging for it, I will fetch you 
the twin brother to it out of the Jesuits' cell : they feel- 
ing the axe of God's reformation, hewing at the old 
and hollow trunk of papacy, and finding the Spaniard 
their surest friend, and safest refuge, to sooth him up 
in his dream of a fifth monarchy, and withal to uphold 
the decrepit papalty, have invented this superpolitic 
aphorism, as one terms it, one pope and one king. 

Surely there is not any prince in Christendom, who, 
hearing this rare sophistry, can choose but smile ; and 
if we be not blind at home, we may as well perceive 
that this worthy motto, no bishop no king', is of the 
same batch, and infanted out of the same fears, a mere 
ague-cake coagulated of a certain fever they have, 
presaging their time to be but short : and now like 
those that are sinking, they catch round of that which 
is likeliest to hold them up ; and would persuade regal 
power, that if they dive, he must after. But what 



greater debasement can there be to royal dignity, 
whose towering and stedfast height rests upon the un- 
movable foundations of justice, and heroic virtue, than 
to chain it in a dependance of subsisting, or ruining, 
to the painted battlements and gaudy rottenness of 
prelatry, which want but one puff of the king's to blow 
them down like a pasteboard house built of court- 
cards ? Sir, the little ado which methinks I find in 
untacking these pleasant sophisms, puts me into the 
mood to tell you a tale ere I proceed further ; and Me- 
nenius Agrippa speed us. 

Upon a time the body summoned all the members 
to meet in the guild for the common good (as iEsop's 
chronicles aver many stranger accidents): the head by 
right takes the first seat, and next to it a huge and 
monstrous wen little less than the head itself, growing 
to it by a narrower excrescency. The members, 
amazed, began to ask one another what he was that 
took place next their chief? none could resolve. 
Whereat the wen, though unwieldy, with much ado 
gets up, and bespeaks the assembly to this purpose : 
that as in place he was second to the head, so by due 
of merit ; that he was to it an ornament, and strength, 
and of special near relation ; and that if the head should 
fail, none were fitter than himself to step into his place : 
therefore he thought it for the honour of the body, that 
such dignities and rich endowments should be decreed 
him, as did adorn, and set out the noblest members. 
To this was answered, that it should be consulted. 
Then was a wise and learned philosopher sent for, that 
knew all the charters, laws, and tenures of the body. 
On him it is imposed by all, as chief committee to ex- 
amine, and discuss the claim and petition of right put 
in by the wen ; who soon perceiving the matter, and 
wondering at the boldness of such a swoln tumor, Wilt 
thou (quoth he) that art but a bottle of vicious and 
hardened excrements, contend with the lawful and free- 
born members, whose certain number is set by ancient 
and unrepealable statute ? head thou art none, though 
thou receive this huge substance from it : what office 
bearest thou ? what good canst thou shew by thee done 
to the commonweal ? The wen not easily dashed, re- 
plies, that his office was his glory ; for so oft as the 
soul would retire out of the head from over the steam- 
ing vapours of the lower parts to divine contemplation, 
with him she found the purest and quietest retreat, as 
being most remote from soil and disturbance. Lourdan, 
quoth the philosopher, thy folly is as great as thy filth : 
know that all the faculties of the soul are confined of 
old to their several vessels and ventricles, from which 
they cannot part without dissolution of the whole body; 
and that thou containest no good thing in thee, but a 
heap of hard and loathsome uncleanness, and art to the 
head a foul disfigurement and burden, when I have 
cut thee off, and opened thee, as by the help of these 
implements I will do, all men shall see. 

But to return whence was digressed : seeing that 
the throne of a king, as the wise king Solomon often 
remembers us, " is established in justice," which is the 
universal justice that Aristotle so much praises, con- 
taining in it all other virtues, it may assure us that the 



14 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



fall of prelacy, whose actions are so far distant from 
justice, cannot shake the least fringe that borders the 
royal canopy ; but that their standing doth continually 
oppose and lay battery to regal safety, shall by that 
which follows easily appear. Amongst many second- 
ary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these 
arc not of least reckoning, though common to all other 
states; the love of the subjects, the multitude and 
valour of the people, and store of treasure. In all 
these things hath the kingdom been of late sore weak- 
ened, and chiefly by the prelates. First, let any man 
consider, that if any prince shall suffer under him a 
commission of authority to be exercised, till all the land 
groan and cry out, as against a whip of scorpions, 
whether this be not likely to lessen, and keel the affec- 
tions of the subject. Next, what numbers of faithful 
and freeborn Englishmen, and good Christians, have 
been constrained to forsake their dearest home, their 
friends and kindred, whom nothing but the wide ocean, 
and the savage deserts of America, could hide and 
shelter from the fury of the bishops ? O sir, if we could 
but see the shape of our dear mother England, as poets 
are wont to give a personal form to what they please, 
how would she appear, think ye, but in a mourning 
weed, with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly 
flowing from her eyes, to behold so many of her chil- 
dren exposed at once, and thrust from things of dearest 
necessity, because their conscience could not assent to 
things which the bishops thought indifferent ? Wbat 
more binding than conscience ? What more free than 
indifferency ? Cruel then must that indifferency needs 
be, that shall violate the strict necessity of conscience ; 
merciless and inhuman that free choice and liberty that 
shall break asunder the bonds of religion! Let the 
astrologer be dismayed at the portentous blaze of 
comets, and impressions in the air, as foretelling troubles 
/ and changes to states : I shall believe there cannot be 
a more ill-boding sign to a nation (God turn the omen 
from us !) than when the inhabitants, to avoid insuffer- 
able grievances at home, are enforced by heaps to for- 
sake their native country. Now, whereas the only 
remedy and amends against the depopulation and thin- 
in M of a land within, is the borrowed strength of firm 
alliance from without, these priestly policies of theirs 
having thus exhausted our domestic forces, have gone 
the way also to leave us as naked of our firmest and 
faithfullest neighbours abroad, by disparaging and 
alienating from us all protestant princes and common- 
irealthl ; who are not ignorant that our prelates, and 
SI many as they can infect, account them no better 
than a sort of sacrilegious and puritanical rebels, pre- 
(erriug the Spaniard our deadly enemy before them, 
and set all orthodox writers at nought in comparison 
of the Jesuits, who are indeed the only corrupters of 
youth and good learning: and I have heard many 
rise and learned men in Italy say as much. It can- 
not be thai the strongest knot of confederacy should 
not dailj slacken, when religion, which is the chief en- 
menl of oar league, shall be turned to their re- 
proacb. Hence it is that the prosperous and prudent 
of the I nited Provinces, (whom we ought to 



love, if not for themselves, yet for our own good work 
in them, they having been in a manner planted and 
erected by us, and having been since to us the faithful 
watchmen and discoverers of many a popish and Aus- 
trian complotted treason, and with us the partners of 
many a bloody and victorious battle,) whom the simi- 
litude of manners and language, the commodity of 
traffick, which founded the old Burgundian league be- 
twixt us, but chiefly religion, should bind to us im- 
mortally; even such friends as these, out of some 
principles instilled into us by the prelates, have been 
often dismissed with distasteful answers, and some- 
times unfriendly actions : nor is it to be considered to 
the breach of confederate nations, whose mutual interests 
is of such high consequence, though their merchants 
bicker in the East Indies ; neither is it safe, or wary, 
or indeed cbristianly, that the French king, of a differ- 
ent faith, should afford our nearest allies as good pro- 
tection as we. Sir, I persuade myself, if our zeal to 
true religion, and the brotherly usage of our truest 
friends, were as notorious to the world, as our pre- 
latical schism, and captivity to rochet apophthegms, 
we had ere this seen our old conquerors, and afterwards 
liegemen the Normans, together with the Britains our 
proper colony, and all the Gascoins that are the right- 
ful dowry of our ancient kings, come with cap and 
knee, desiring the shadow of the English sceptre to 
defend them from the hot persecutions and taxes of the 
French. But when they come hither, and see a tym- 
pany of Spaniolized bishops swag-gering in the fore- 
top of the state, and meddling to turn and dandle the 
royal ball with unskilful and pedantic palms, no mar- 
vel though they think it as unsafe to commit religion 
and liberty to their arbitrating as to a synagogue of 
Jesuits. 

y But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages 
and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the 
prelates ? What do I pick up so thriftily their scatter- 
ings and diminishings of the meaner subject, whilst 
they by their seditious practices have endangered to 
lose the king one third of his main stock ? What have 
they not done to banish him from his own native 
country ? But to speak of this as it ou*ght, would ask 
a volume by itself. 

Thus as they have unpeopled the kingdom by ex- 
pulsion of so many thousands, as they have endeavour- 
ed to lay the skirts of it bare by disheartening' and dis- 
honouring our loyallest confederates abroad, so have 
they hamstrung the valour of the subject by seek- 
ing to effeminate us all at home. Well knows every 
wise nation, that their liberty consists in manly and 
honest labours, in sobriety and rigorous honour to the 
marriage-bed, which in both sexes should be bred up 
from chaste hopes to loyal enjoyments ; and when the 
people slacken, and fall to looseness and riot, then do 
they as much as if they laid down their necks for some 
wild tyrant to get up and ride. Thus learnt Cyrus to 
tame the Lydians, whom by arms he could not whilst 
they kept themselves from luxury ; with one easy pro- 
clamation to set up stews, dancing, feasting, and 
dicing, he made them soon his slaves. I know not 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



15 



what drift the prelates had, whose brokers they were 
to prepare, and supple us either for a foreign invasion or 
domestic oppression : but this I am sure, they took the 
ready way to despoil us both of manhood and grace at 
once, and that in the shamefullest and ungodliest man- 
ner, upon that day which God's law, and even our own 
reason hath consecrated, that we might have one day 
at least of seven set apart wherein to examine and in- 
crease our knowledge of God, to meditate and com- 
mune of our faith, our hope, our eternal city in heaven, 
and to quicken withal the study and exercise of charity ; 
at such a time that men should be plucked from their 
soberest and saddest thoughts, and by bishops, the pre- 
tended fathers of the church, instigated, by public 
edict, and with earnest endeavour pushed forward to 
gaming, jigging, wassailing, and mixed dancing, is a 
horror to think ! Thus did the reprobate hireling priest 
Balaam seek to subdue the Israelites to Moab, if not 
by force, then by this devilish policy, to draw them 
from the sanctuary of God to the luxurious and ribald 
feasts of Baal-peor. Thus have they trespassed not 
only against the monarchy of England, but of heaven 
also, as others, I doubt not, can prosecute against them. 
I proceed within my own bounds to shew you next 
what good agents they are about the revenues and 
riches of the kingdom, which declare of what moment 
they are to monarchy, or what avail. Two leeches 
they have that still suck, and suck the kingdom, their 
ceremonies and their courts. If any man will contend 
that ceremonies be lawful under the gospel, he may be 
answered other where. This doubtless, that they ought 
to be many and overcostly, no true protestant will 
affirm. Now I appeal to all wise men, what an ex- 
cessive waste of treasure hath been within these few 
years in this land, not in the expedient, but in the 
idolatrous erection of temples beautified exquisitely to 
outvie the papists, the costly and dear-bought scandals 
and snares of images, pictures, rich copes, gorgeous 
altar-cloths : and by the courses they took, and the 
opinions they held, it was not likely any stay would be, 
or any end of theii' madness, where a pious pretext is 
so ready at hand to cover their insatiate desires. What 
can we suppose this will come to ? What other mate- 
rials than these have built up the spiritual Babel to the 
height of her abominations ? Believe it, sir, right truly 
it may be said, that Antichrist is Mammon's son. 
The sour leaven of human traditions, mixed in one 
putrefied mass with the poisonous dregs of hypo- 
crisy in the hearts of prelates, that lie basking in 
the sunny warmth of wealth and promotion, is the 
serpent's egg that will hatch an Antichrist whereso- 
ever, and engender the same monster as big, or little, 
as the lump is which breeds him. If the splendour of 
gold and silver begin to lord it once again in the 
church of England, we shall see Antichrist shortly 
wallow here, though his chief kennel be at Rome. If 
they had one thought upon God's glory, and the ad- 
vancement of Christian faith, they would be a means 
that with these expenses, thus profusely thrown away 
in trash, rather churches and schools might be built, 
where they cry out for want, and more added where 



too few are ; a moderate maintenance distributed to 
every painful minister, that now scarce sustains his 
family with bread, while the prelates revel like Bel- 
shazzar with their full carouses in goblets, and vessels 
of gold snatched from God's temple ; which (I hope) 
the worthy men of our land will consider. Now then 
for their courts. What a mass of money is drawn from 
the veins into the ulcers of the kingdom this way ; 
their extortions, their open corruptions, the multitude 
of hungry and ravenous harpies that swarm about their 
offices, declare sufficiently. And what though all this 
go not over sea ? It were better it did : better a penu- 
rious kingdom, than where excessive wealth flows into 
the graceless and injurious hands of common sponges, 
to the impoverishing of good and loyal men, and that 
by such execrable, such irreligious courses. 

If the sacred and dreadful works of holy discipline, 
censure, penance, excommunication, and absolution, 
where no prophane thing ought to have access, nothing 
to be assistant but sage and christianly admonition, 
brotherly love, flaming charity and zeal ; and then 
according to the effects, paternal sorrow, or paternal 
joy, mild severity, melting compassion : if such divine 
ministeries as these, wherein the angel of the church 
represents the person of Christ Jesus, must lie prostitute 
to sordid fees, and not pass to and fro between our Sa- 
viour, that of free grace redeemed us, and the submis- 
sive penitent, without the truckage of perishing coin, 
and the butcherly execution of tormentors, rooks, and 
rakeshames sold to lucre ; then have the Babylonish 
merchants of souls just excuse. Hitherto, sir, you have 
heard how the prelates have weakened and withdrawn 
the external accomplishments of kingly prosperity, the 
love of the people, their multitude, their valour, their 
wealth ; mining and sapping the outworks and redoubts 
of monarchy. Now hear how they strike at the very 
heart and vitals. 

We know that monarchy is made up of two parts, the 
liberty of the subject, and the supremacy of the king. 
I begin at the root. See what gentle and benign fa- 
thers they have been to our liberty ! Their trade being^ 
by the same alchymy that the pope uses, to extract 
heaps of gold and silver out of the drossy bullion of the^ 
people's sins ; and justly fearing that the quicksighted 
protestant eye, cleared in great part from the mist of 
superstition, may at one time or other look with a good 
judgment into these their deceitful pedleries ; to gain 
as many associates of guiltiness as they can, and to 
infect the temporal magistrate with the like lawless, 
though not sacrilegious extortion, see awhile what they 
do ; they engage themselves to preach, and persuade 
an assertion for truth the most false, and to this mo- 
narchy the most pernicious and destructive that could 
be chosen. What more baneful to monarchy than a 
popular commotion, for the dissolution of monarchy 
slides aptest into a democracy ; and what stirs the Eng- 
lishmen, as our wisest writers have observed, sooner to 
rebellion, than violent and heavy hands upon their goods 
and purses ? Yet these devout prelates, spight of our 
great charter, and the souls of our progenitors that 
wrested their liberties out of the Norman gripe with 



16 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



their dearest blood and highest prowess, for these many 
years have not ceased in their pulpits wrenching and 
spraining the text, to set at naught and trample under 
foot all the most sacred and lifeblood laws, statutes, and 
acts of parliament, that are the holy covenant of union 
and marriage between the king and his realm, by pro- 
scribing and confiscating from us all the right we have 
to our own bodies, goods, and liberties. What is this but 
to blow a trumpet, and proclaim a flrecross to an heredi- 
tary and perpetual civil war? Thus much against the 
subjects' liberty hath been assaulted by them. Now 
how they have spared supremacy, or are likely here- 
after to submit to it, remains lastly to be considered. 

The emulation that under the old law was in the 
king tow aids the priest, is now so come about in the 
gospel, that all the danger is to be feared from the 
priest to the king. Whilst the priest's office in the law 
was set out with an exterior lustre of pomp and glory, 
kings were ambitious to be priests ; now priests, not 
perceiving the heavenly brightness and inward splen- 
dour of their more glorious evangelic ministry, with as 
great ambition affect to be kings, as in all their courses 
is easy to be observed. Their eyes ever eminent upon 
worldly matters, their desires ever thirsting afterworldly 
employments, instead of diligent and fervent study in 
the Bible, they covet to be expert in canons and decre- 
tals, which may enable them to judge and interpose in 
temporal causes, however pretended ecclesiasical. Do 
they not hoard up pelf, seek to be potent in secular 
strength, in state affairs, in lands, lordships, and de- 
mains, to sway and carry all before them in high courts 
and privy councils, to bring into their grasp the high 
and principal offices of (he kingdom ? Have they not 
beeu told of late to check the common law, to slight 
and brave the indiminishable majesty of our highest 
court, the lawgiving and sacred parliament? Do they 
not plainly labour to exempt churchmen from the ma- 
gistrate ? Yea, so presumptuously as to question and 
menace officers that represent the king's person for using 
their authority against drunken priests ? The cause of 
protecting murderous clergymen was the first heart- 
burning that swelled up the audacious Becket to the 
pestilent and odious vexation of Henry the Second. 
Nay more, have not some of their devoted scholars be- 
gan, I need not say to nibble, but openly to argue 
against the king's supremacy? Is not the chief of them 
accused out of his own book, and his late canons, to 
affect a certain unquestionable patriarchate, indepen- 
<!■ nt. and nnsubordinate to the crown? From whence 
baring first brought us to a servile state of religion 
and manhood, and having predisposed his conditions 
with the pope, that lays claim to this land, or some 
Pepin of hie own creating, it were all as likely for him 
to aspire to the monarchy among us, as that the pope 
could find means so on the audden both to bereave the 
emperor of the Roman territory with the favour of 
Italy, and by an unexpected friend out of France, 
while he was in danger to lose his newgot purchase, 
bejond hope to leap into the fair exarchate of Ravenna. 

A good while the pope subtly acted the lamb, writ- 
ror, "my lord Tiberius, my lord Mau- 



ritius;" but no sooner did this his lord pluck at the 
images and idols, but he threw off his sheep's clothing, 
and started up a wolf, laying his paws upon the em- 
peror's right, as forfeited to Peter. Why may not we 
as well, having been forewarned at home by our re- 
nowned Chaucer, and from abroad by the great and 
learned Padre Paolo, from the like beginnings, as we 
see they are, fear the like events ? Certainly a wise 
and provident king ought to suspect a hierarchy in his 
realm, being- ever attended, as it is, with two such 
greedy purveyors, ambition and usurpation ; I say, he 
ought to suspect a hierarchy to be as dangerous and 
derogatory from his crown as a tetrarchy or a heptar- 
chy. Yet now that the prelates had almost attained to 
what their insolent and unbridled minds had hurried 
them ; to thrust the laity under the despotical rule of 
the monarch, that they themselves might confine the 
monarch to a kind of pupillage under their hierarchy, 
observe but how their own principles combat one an- 
other, and supplant each one his fellow. 

Having fitted us only for peace, and that a servile 
peace, by lessening our numbers, draining our estates, 
enfeebling our bodies, cowing our free spirits by those 
ways as you have heard, their impotent actions cannot 
sustain themselves the least moment, unless they would 
rouse us up to a war fit for Cain to be the leader of; 
an abhorred, a cursed, a fraternal war. England and 
Scotland, dearest brothers both in nature and in Christ, 
must be set to wade in one another's blood ; and Ire- 
land, our free denizen, upon the back of us both, as 
occasion should serve : a piece of service that the pope 
and all his factors have been compassing to do ever 
since the reformation. 

/ But ever blessed be he, and ever glorified, that from 
his high watchtower in the heavens, discerning the 
crooked ways of perverse and cruel men, hath hitherto 
maimed and infatuated all their damnable inventions, 
and deluded their great wizards with a delusion fit for 
fools and children : had God been so minded, he could 
have sent a spirit of mutiny amongst us, as he did be- 
tween Abimelech and the Sechemites, to have made our 
funerals, and slain heaps more in number than the 
miserable surviving remnant ; but he, when we least 
deserved, sent out a gentle gale and message of peace 
from the wings of those his cherubims that fan his 
mercyseat. Nor shall the wisdom, the moderation, 
the christian piety, the constancy of our nobility and 
commons of England, be ever forgotten, whose calm 
and temperate connivance could sit still and smile out 
the stormy bluster of men more audacious and pre- 
cipitant than of solid and deep reach, until their own 
fury had run itself out of breath, assailing by rash and 
heady approaches the impregnable situation of our 
liberty and safety, that laughed such weak enginery to 
scorn, such poor drifts to make a national war of a sur- 
plice brabble, a tippet scuffle, and engage the untainted 
honour of English knighthood to unfurl the streaming 
red cross, or to rear the horrid standard of those fatal 
guly dragons, for so unworthy a purpose, as to force 
upon their fellow-subjects that which themselves are 
weary of, the skeleton of a mass-book. Nor must the 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



17 



1 



patience, the fortitude, the firm obedience of the nobles 
and people of Scotland, striving- against manifold pro- 
vocations; nor must their sincere and moderate pro- 
ceedings hitherto be unremembered, to the shameful 
conviction of all their detractors./ 

Go on both hand in hand, O nations, never to be dis- 
united ; be the praise and the heroic song of all pos- 
terity ; merit this, but seek only virtue, not to extend 
your limits ; (for what needs to win a fading triumph- 
ant laurel out of the tears of wretched men ?) but to 
settle the pure worship of God in his church, and jus- 
tice in the state: then shall the hardest difficulties 
smooth out themselves before ye ; envy shall sink to 
hell, craft and malice be confounded, whether it be 
homebred mischief or outlandish cunning : yea, other 
nations will then covet to serve ye, for lordship and 
victory are but the pages of justice and virtue. Com- 
mit securely to true wisdom the vanquishing and un- 
casing of craft and subtlety, which are but her two 
runagates : join your invincible might to do worthy 
and godlike deeds ; and then he that seeks to break 
your union, a cleaving curse be his inheritance to all 
generations. 

Sir, you have now at length this question for the 
time, and as my memory would best serve me in such 
a copious and vast theme, fully handled, and you your- 
self may judge whether prelacy be the only church- 
government agreeable to monarchy. Seeing therefore 
the perilous and confused state into which we are fallen, 
and that to the certain knowledge of all men, through 
the irreligious pride and hateful tyranny of prelates, 
(as the innumerable and grievous complaints of every 
shire cry out,) if we will now resolve to settle affairs 
either according to pure religion or sound policy, we 
must first of all begin roundly to cashier and cut away 
from the public body the noisome and diseased tumour 
of prelacy, and come from schism to unity with our 
neighbour reformed sister-churches, which with the 
blessing of peace and pure doctrine have now long time 
flourished ; and doubtless with all hearty joy and gra- 
tulation will meet and welcome our Christian union 
with them, as they have been all this while grieved at 
our strangeness, and little better than separation from 
them. And for the discipline propounded, seeing that 
it hath been inevitably proved that the natural and 
fundamental causes of political happiness in all govern- 
ments are the same, and that this church-discipline is 
taught in the word of God, and, as we see, agrees ac- 
cording to wish with all such states as have received 
it ; we may infallibly assure ourselves that it will as 
well agree with monarchy, though all the tribe of 
Aphorismers and Politicasters would persuade us there 
be secret and mysterious reasons against it. For upon 
the settling hereof mark what nourishing and cordial 
restorements to the state will follow, the ministers of 
the gospel attending only to the work of salvation, 
every one within his limited charge ; besides the dif- 
fusive blessings of God upon all our actions, the king 
shall sit without an old disturber, a daily incroacher 
and intruder; shall rid his kingdom of a strong seques- 
tered and collateral power; a confronting mitre, whose 



potent wealth and wakeful ambition he had just cause 
to hold in jealousy : not to repeat the other present 
evils which only their removal will remove, and be- 
cause things simply pure are inconsistent in the mass 
of nature, nor are the elements or humours in a man's 
body exactly homogeneal ; and hence the best-founded 
commonwealths and least barbarous have aimed at a 
certain mixture and temperament, partaking the several 
virtues of each other state, that each part drawing to 
itself may keep up a steady and even uprightness in 
common. 

There is no civil government that hath been known, 
no not the Spartan, not the Roman, though both for 
this respect so much praised by the wise Polybius, 
more divinely and harmoniously tuned, more equally 
balanced as it were by the hand and scale of justice, 
than is the commonwealth of England ; where, under 
a free and untutored monarch, the noblest, worthiest, 
and most prudent men, with full approbation and suf- 
frage of the people, have in their power the supreme 
and final determination of highest affairs. Now if con- 
formity of church-discipline to the civil be so desired, 
there can be nothing more parallel, more uniform, than 
when under the sovereign prince, Christ's vicegerent, 
using the sceptre of David, according to God's law, the 
godliest, the wisest, the learnedest ministers in their 
several charges have the instructing and disciplining 
of God's people, by whose full and free election they 
are consecrated to that holy and equal aristocracy. 
And why should not the piety and conscience of Eng- 
lishmen, as members of the church, be trusted in the 
election of pastors to functions that nothing concern a 
monarch, as w r ell as their worldly wisdoms are privileged 
as members of the state in suffraging their knights and 
burgesses to matters that concern him nearly ? And if 
in weighing these several offices, their difference in 
time and quality be cast in, I know they will not turn 
the beam of equal judgment the moiety of a scruple. 
We therefore having already a kind of apostolical and 
ancient church election in our state, what a perverse- 
ness would it be in us of all others to retain forcibly a 
kind of imperious and stately election in our church ! 
And what a blindness to think that what is already 
evangelical, as it were by a happy chance in our po- 
lity, should be repugnant to that which is the same by 
divine command in the ministry ! Thus then we see 
that our ecclesiastical and political choices may con- 
sent and sort as well together without any rupture in 
the state, as Christians and freeholders. But as for 
honour, that ought indeed to be different and distinct, 
as either office looks a several way ; the minister whose 
calling and end is spiritual, ought to be honoured as a 
father and physician to the soul, (if he be found to be 
so,) with a sonlike and disciplelike reverence, which is 
indeed the dearest and most affectionate honour, most 
to be desired by a wise man, and such as will easily 
command a free and plentiful provision of outward 
necessaries, without his further care of this world. 

The magistrate, whose charge is to see to our per- 
sons and estates, is to be honoured with a more elabo- 
rate and personal courtship, with large salaries and 



18 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



stipends, that he himself may abound in those things 
whereof his legal justice and watchful care gives us 
the quiet enjoyment. And this distinction of honour 
will bring forth a seemly and graceful uniformity over 
all the kingdom. 

Then shall the nobles possess all the dignities and 
offices of temporal honour to themselves, sole lords 
without the improper mixture of scholastic and pusilla- 
nimous upstarts ; the parliament shall void her upper 
bouse of the same annoyances; the common and civil 
laws shall be both set free, the former from the con- 
trol, the other from the mere vassalage and copyhold 
of the clergy. 

And whereas temporal laws rather punish men when 
they have transgressed, than form them to be such as 
should transgress seldomest, we may conceive great 
hopes, through the showers of divine benediction water- 
ing the unmolested and watchful pains of the ministry, 
that the whole inheritance of God will grow up so 
straight and blameless, that the civil magistrate may 
with far less toil and difficulty, and far more ease and 
delight, steer the tall and goodly vessel of the common- 
wealth through all the gusts and tides of the world's 
mutability. 

Here I might have ended, but that some objections, 
which I have heard commonly flying about, press me 
to the endeavour of an answer. We must not run, they 
say, into sudden extremes. This is a fallacious rule, 
unless understood only of the actions of virtue about 
things indifferent: for if it be found that those two ex- 
tremes be vice and virtue, falsehood and truth, the 
greater extremity of virtue and superlative truth we run 
into, the more virtuous and the more wise we become ; 
and he that, flying from degenerate and traditional 
corruption, fears to shoot himself too far into the meet- 
ing embraces of a divinely warranted reformation, had 
better not have run at all. And for the suddenness, it 
cannot be feared. Who should oppose it? The papists ? 
they dare not. The prostestants otherwise affected ? 
they were mad. There is nothing will be removed but 
what to them is professedly indifferent. The long 
affection which the people have borne to it, what for 
itself, what for the odiousness of prelates, is evident: 
from the first year of Queen Elizabeth it hath still been 
more and more propounded, desired, and beseeched, 
yea sometimes favourably forwarded by the parliaments 
ili- mselres. Yet if it were sudden and swift, provided 
still it be from worse to better, certainly we ought to 
bie 08 from evil like a torrent, and rid ourselves of 
corrupt discipline, as we would shake fire out of our 
bosoms. 

S|». < (1 v and vehement were the reformations of all 
•I kings of Judah, though the people had been 
nuzzled in idolatry ever so long before; they feared not 
th<: bugbear danger, nor the lion in the way that the 
sluggish and timorous politician thinks he sees; no 
more did our brethren of the reformed churches abroad, 
ili. v rentured (God being their guide) out of rigid 
popery, LntO thai which we in mockery call precise 
puritanism, and yet ire see no inconvenience befel 
them 



Let us not dally with God when he offers us a full 
blessing, to take as much of it as we think will serve 
our ends, and turn him back the rest upon his hands, 
lest in his anger he snatch all from us again. Next, 
they allege the antiquity of episcopacy through all 
ages. What it was in the apostles' time, that question- 
less it must be still ; and therein I trust the ministers 
will be able to satisfy the parliament. But if episco- 
pacy be taken for prelacy, all the ages they can de- 
duce it through, will make it no more venerable than 
papacy. 

Most certain it is (as all our stories bear witness) 
that ever since their coming to the see of Canterbury 
for near twelve hundred years, to speak of them in 
general, they have been in England to our souls a sad 
and doleful succession of illiterate and blind guides ; 
to our purses and goods a wasteful band of robbers, a 
perpetual havock and rapine; to our state a continual 
hydra of mischief and molestation, the forge of discord 
and rebellion : this is the trophy of their antiquity, and 
boasted succession through so many ages. And for 
those prelate-martyrs they glory of, they are to be 
judged what they were by the gospel, and not the 
gospel to be tried by them. 

And it is to be noted, that if they were for bishop- 
rics and ceremonies, it was in their prosperity and ful- 
ness of bread ; but in their persecution, which purified 
them, and near their death, which was their garland, 
they plainly disliked and condemned the ceremonies, 
and threw away those episcopal ornaments wherein 
they were installed as foolish and detestable ; for so 
the words of Ridley at his degradement, and his letter 
to Hooper, expressly show. Neither doth the author 
of our church-history spare to record sadly the fall (for 
so he terms it) and infirmities of these martyrs, though 
we would deify them. And why should their martyr- 
dom more countenance corrupt doctrine or discipline, 
than their subscriptions justify their treason to the 
royal blood of this realm, by diverting and entailing 
the right of the crown from the true heirs, to the houses 
of Northumberland and Suffolk ? which had it took 
effect, this present king had in all likelihood never sat 
on this throne, and the happy union of this island had 
been frustrated. 

Lastly, whereas they add that some the learnedest 
of the reformed abroad admire our episcopacy ; it had 
been more for the strength of the argument to tell us, 
that some of the wisest statesmen admire it, for thereby 
we might guess them weary of the present discipline, 
as offensive to their state, which is the bug we fear : 
but being they are churchmen, we may rather suspect 
them for some prelatizing spirits that admire our 
bishoprics, not episcopacy. 

The next objection vanishes of itself, propounding a 
doubt, whether a greater inconvenience would not 
grow from the corruption of any other discipline than 
from that of episcopacy. This seems an unseasonable 
foresight, and out of order, to defer and put off the 
most needful constitution of one right discipline, while 
we stand balancing the discommodities of two corrupt 
ones. First constitute that which is right, and of itself 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



19 



it will discover and rectify that which swerves, and 
easily remedy the pretended fear of having- a pope in 
every parish, unless we call the zealous and meek cen- 
sure of the church a popedom, which whoso does, let 
him advise how he can reject the pastorly rod and 
sheephook of Christ, and those cords of love, and not 
fear to fall under the iron sceptre of his anger, that 
will dash him to pieces like a potsherd. 

At another doubt of theirs I wonder, whether this 
discipline which we desire he such as can be put in 
practice within this kingdom ; they say it cannot stand 
with the common law nor with the king's safety, thev 
government of episcopacy is now so weaved into the 
common law. In God's name let it weave out again -/ 
let not human quillets keep back divine authority. It 
is not the common law, nor the civil, but piety and 
justice that are our foundresses ; they stoop not, neither 
change colour for aristocracy, democracy, or monarchy, 
nor yet at all interrupt their just courses ; but far above 
the taking notice of these inferior niceties, with perfect 
sympathy, wherever they meet, kiss each other. Lastly, 
they are fearful that the discipline which will succeed 

I cannot stand with the king's safety. Wherefore ? it 
is but episcopacy reduced to what it should be : were 
it not that the tyranny of prelates under the name of 
bishops had made our ears tender and startling, we 
might call every good minister a bishop, as every 
bishop, yea the apostles themselves, are called minis- 
ters, and the angels ministering spirits, and the 
ministers again angels. But wherein is this pro- 
pounded government so shrewd ? Because the govern- 
ment of assemblies will succeed. Did not the apostles 
govern the church by assemblies ? How should it else 
be catholic ? How should it have communion ? We 
count it sacrilege to take from the rich prelates their 
lands and revenues, which is sacrilege in them to keep, 
using them as they do ; and can we think it safe to de- 
fraud the living church of God of that right which 
God has given her in assemblies? but the conse- 
quence! assemblies draw to them the supremacy of 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. No surely, they draw no 
supremacy, but that authority which Christ, and St. 
Paul in his name, confers upon them. The king may 
still retain the same supremacy in the assemblies, as in 
the parliament ; here he can do nothing alone against 
the common law, and there neither alone, nor with 
consent, against the Scriptures. But is this all ? No, 
this ecclesiastical supremacy draws to it the power to 
excommunicate kings; and then follows the worst that 
can be imagined. Do they hope to avoid this, by 
keeping prelates that have so often done it? Not to 
exemplify the malapert insolence of our own bishops 
in this kind towards our kings, I shall turn back to the 
primitive and pure times, which the objectors would 
have the rule of reformation to us. 

Not an assembly, but one bishop alone, Saint Am- 
brose of Milan, held Theodosius the most christian em- 
peror under excommunication above eight months 
together, drove him from the church in the presence of 
his nobles ; which the good emperor bore with heroic 
humility, and never ceased by prayers and tears, till 



he was absolved ; for which coming to the bishop with 
supplication into the salutatory, some outporch of the 
church, he was charged by him with tyrannical madness 
against God, for coming into holy ground. At last, 
upon conditions absolved, and after great humiliation 
approaching to the altar to offer, (as those thrice pure 
times then thought meet,) he had scarce withdrawn his 
hand, and stood awhile, when a bold archdeacon comes 
in the bishop's name, and chaces him from within the 
rails, telling him peremptorily, that the place wherein 
he stood was for none but the priests to enter, or to 
touch ; and this is another piece of pure primitive 
divinity ! Think ye, then, our bishops will forego the 
power of excommunication on whomsoever ? No cer- 
tainly, unless to compass sinister ends, and then revoke 
when they see their time. And yet this most mild, 
though withal dreadful and inviolable prerogative of 
Christ's diadem, excommunication, serves for nothing 
with them, but to prog and pander for fees, or to display 
their pride, and sharpen their revenge, debarring men 
the protection of the law ; and I remember not whether 
in some cases it bereave not men all right to their 
worldly goods and inheritances, besides the denial of 
christian burial. But in the evangelical and reform- 
ed use of this sacred censure, no such prostitution, 
no such iscariotical drifts are to be doubted, as that 
spiritual doom and sentence should invade worldly 
possession, which is the rightful lot and portion even 
of the wickedest men, as frankly bestowed upon 
them by the all-dispensing bounty as rain and sun- 
shine. No, no, it seeks not to bereave or destroy the 
body ; it seeks to save the soul by humbling the body, 
not by imprisonment, or pecuniary mulct, much less 
by stripes or bonds, or disinheritance, but by fatherly- 
admonishment and christian rebuke, to cast it into 
godly sorrow, whose end is joy, and ingenuous bash- 
fulness to sin : if that cannot be wrought, then as a 
tender mother takes her child and holds it over the 
pit with scaring words, that it may learn to fear where 
danger is; so doth excommunication as dearly and 
as freely, without money, use her wholesome and 
saving terrours : she is instant, she beseeches, by all 
the dear and sweet promises of salvation she entices 
and woos ; by all the threatenings and thunders of the 
law, and rejected gospel, she charges, and adjures : this 
is all her armory, her munition, her artillery; then she 
awaits with long-sufferance, and yet ardent zeal. In 
brief, there is no act in all the errand of God's ministers 
to mankind, wherein passes more loverlike contesta- 
tion between Christ and the soul of a regenerate man 
lapsing, than before, and in, and after the sentence of 
excommunication. As for the fogging proctorage of 
money, with such an eye as struck Gebazi with leprosy, 
and Simon Magus with a curse ; so does she look, and 
so threaten her fiery whip against that banking den of 
thieves that dare thus baffle, and buy and sell the aw- 
ful and majestic wrinkles of her brow. He that is 
rightly and apostolically sped with her invisible arrow, 
if he can be at peace in his soul, and not smell within 
him the brimstone of hell, may have fair leave to tell 
all his bags over undiminished of the least farthing, may 



20 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



eat his dainties, drink Jiis wine, nse his delights, enjoy 
his lands aud liberties, not the least skin raised, not the 
least hair misplaced, for all that excommunication has 
done : much more may a king- enjoy his rights and 
prerogatives undeflowercd, untouched, and be as abso- 
lute and complete a king 1 , as all his royalties and reve- 
nues can make him. Aud therefore little did Theodosius 
fear a plot upon his empire, when he stood excommu- 
nicate by Saint Ambrose, though it were done either 
with much haughty pride, or ignorant zeal. But let 
us rather look upon the reformed churches beyond the 
seas, the Grizons, the Swisses, the Hollanders, the 
French, that have a supremacy to live under as well as 
ire ; where do the churches in all these places strive for 
supremacy ? Where do they clash and justle suprema- 
cies with the civil magistrate ? In France, a more severe 
monarchy than ours, the protestants under this church- 
government, carry the name of the best subjects the 
king has ; and yet presbytery, if it must be so called, 
does there all that it desires to do : how easy were it, 
if there be such great suspicion, to give no more scope 
to it in England ! But let us not, for fear of a scarecrow, 
or else through hatred to be reformed, stand hankering 
and politizing, when God with spread hands testifies 
to us, and points us out the way to our peace. 

Let us not be so overcredulous, unless God hath 
blinded us, as to trust our dear souls into the hands of 
men that beg so devoutly for the pride and gluttony of 
their own backs and bellies, that sue and solicit so 
eagerly, not for the saving of souls, the consideration 
of which can have here no place at all, but for their 
bishoprics, deaneries, prebends, and canonries : how 
can these men not be corrupt, whose very cause is the 
bribe of their own pleading, whose mouths cannot open 
without the strong breath and loud stench of avarice, 
simony, and sacrilege, embezzling the treasury of the 
church on painted and gilded walls of temples, wherein 
God hath testified to have no delight, warming their 
palace kitchens, and from thence their unctuous and 
epicurean paunches, with the alms of the blind, the 
lame, the impotent, the aged, the orphan, the widow ? 
lor with these the treasury of Christ ought to be, here 
must be his jewels bestowed, his rich cabinet must be 
i mptied here ; as the constant martyr Saint Lawrence 
taught the Roman praetor. Sir, would you know what 
'the remonstrance of these men would have, what their 
petition implies? They intreat us that we would not 
be weary of those insupportable grievances that our 
shoulders bare hitherto cracked under; they beseech 
M thai we would think them fit to be our justices of 
peace, our lords, our highest officers of state, though 
they come furnished with namore experience than they 
learnt between the cook and the manciple, or more 
profoundly at the college audit, or the regent house, or 
me to their deepest insight, at their patron's table; 
they would request us to endure still the rustling of their 
-ilk. D and that we would burst our midriffs, 

rather than laugh to tee them under sail in .all their 
lawn and sarcenet, then •broods and tackle, with a 
leometrieal rhomboides upon their heads: they would 
bear | .< M appear before 



them once a year in Jerusalem, like good circumcised 
males and females, to be taxed by the poll, to be sconced 
ourheadmoney,our twopences, in their cbandlerly shop- 
book of Easter. They pray us that it would please us 
to let them still hale us, and worry us with their bandogs 
and pursuivants ; and that it would please the parlia- 
ment that they may yet have the whipping, fleecing, 
and flaying of us in their diabolical courts, to tear the 
flesh from our bones, and into our wide wounds instead 
of balm, to pour in the oil of tartar, vitriol, and mercury : 
surely a right reasonable, innocent, and soft-hearted 
petition. O the relenting bowels of the fathers ! Can 
this be granted them, unless God have smitten us with 
frenzy from above, and with a dazzling giddiness at 
noonday ? Should not those men rather be heard that 
come to plead against their own preferments, their 
worldly advantages, their own abundance; for honour 
and obedience to God's word, the conversion of souls, 
the christian peace of the land, and union of the re- 
formed catholic church, the unappropriating and unmo- 
nopolizing the rewards of learning and industry, from 
the greasy clutch of ignorance and high feeding ? We 
have tried already, and miserably felt what ambition, 
worldly glory, and immoderate wealth, can do ; what 
the boisterous and contradictional hand of a temporal, 
earthly, and corporeal spirituality can avail to the edi- 
fying of Christ's holy church ; were it such a desperate 
hazard to put to the venture the universal votes of 
Christ's congregation, and fellowly and friendly yoke 
of a teaching and laborious ministry, the pastorlike and 
apostolic imitation of meek and unlordly discipline, the 
gentle and benevolent mediocrity of church-mainte- 
nance, without the ignoble hucksterage of piddling- 
tithes ? Were it such an incurable mischief to make a 
little trial, what all this would do to the flourishing 
and growing up of Christ's mystical body ? as rather 
to use every poor shift, and if that serve not, to threaten 
uproar and combustion, and shake the brand of civil 
discord ? 

O, sir, I do now feel myself inwrapped on the sudden 
into those mazes and labyrinths of dreadful and hideous 
thoughts, that which way to get out, or which way to 
end, 1 know not, unless I turn mine eyes, and with your 
help lift up my hands to that eternal and propitious 
Throne, where nothing is readier than grace and refuge 
to the distresses of mortal suppliants : and it were a 
shame to leave these serious thoughts less piously than 
the heathen were wont to conclude their graver dis- 
courses. 

Thou, therefore, that sittest in light and glory unap- 
proachable, Parent of angels and men ! next, thee I 
implore, omnipotent King, Redeemer of that lost rem- 
nant whose nature thou didst assume, ineffable and 
everlasting Love ! and thou, the third subsistence of 
divine infinitude, illumining Spirit, the joy and solace 
of created things ! one Tripersonal godhead ! look upon 
this thy poor and almost spent and expiring church, 
leave her not thus a prey to these importunate wolves, 
that wait and think long till they devour thy tender 
flock ; these wild boars that have broke into thy vine- 
yard, and left the print oi their polluting hoofs on the 



OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



21 



souls of thy servants, O let them not bring- about their 
damned designs, that stand now at the entrance of the 
bottomless pit, expecting 1 the watchword to open and 
let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to reinvolve 
us in that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness, where we 
shall never more see the sun of thy truth again, never hope 
for the cheerful dawn, never more hear the bird of morn- 
ing sing. Be moved with pity at the afflicted state of 
this our shaken monarchy, that now lies labouring under 
her throes, and struggling against the grudges of more 
dreaded calamities. 

O thou, that, after the impetuous rage of five bloody 
inundations, and the succeeding sword of intestine war, 
soaking the land in her own gore, didst pity the sad 
and ceaseless revolution of our swift and thick-coming 
sorrows ; when we were quite breathless, of thy free 
grace didst motion peace, and terms of covenant with 
us ; and having first wellnigh freed us from antichristian 
thraldom, didst build up this Britannic empire to a glo- 
rious and enviable height, with all her daughter-islands 
about her; stay us in this felicity, let not the obstinacy 
of our half-obedience and will-worship bring forth that 
viper of sedition, that for these fourscore years hath been 
breeding to eat through the entrails of our peace ; but 
let her cast her abortive spawn without the danger of 
this travailing and throbbing kingdom : that we may 
still remember in our solemn thanksgivings, how for 
us, the northern ocean even to the frozen Thule was 
scattered with the proud shipwrecks of the Spanish 
armada, and the very maw of hell ransacked, and made 
to give up her concealed destruction, ere she could vent 
it in that horrible and damned blast. 

how much more glorious will those former deliver- 
ances appear, when we shall know them not only to 
have saved us from greatest miseries past, but to have 
reserved us for greatest happiness to come ! Hitherto 
thou hast but freed us, and that not fully, from the un- 
just and tyrannous claim of thy foes; now unite us en- 
tirely, and appropriate us to thyself, tie us everlastingly 
in willing homage to the prerogative of thy eternal 
throne. 

And now we know, O thou our most certain hope and 
defence, that thine enemies have been consulting all the 
sorceries of the great whore, and have joined their plots 
with that sad intelligencing tyrant that mischiefs the 



world with his mines of Ophir, and lies thirsting to re- 
venge his naval ruins that have larded our seas : but let 
them all take counsel together, and let it come to nought; 
let them decree, and do thou cancel it; let them gather 
themselves, and be scattered ; let them embattle them- 
selves, and be broken ; let them embattle, and be broken, 
for thou art with us. 

Then, amidst the hymns and hallelujahs of saints, 
some one may perhaps be heard offering at high strains 
in new and lofty measures, to sing and celebrate thy 
divine mercies and marvellous judgments in this land 
throughout all ages ; whereby this great and warlike 
nation, instructed and inured to the fervent and contin- 
ual practice of truth and righteousness, and casting far 
from her the rags of her old vices, may press on hard 
to that high and happy emulation to be found the sober- 
est, wisest, and most christian people at that day, when 
thou, the eternal and shortly-expected King, shalt open 
the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world, 
and distributing national honours and rewards to reli- 
gious and just commonwealths, shalt put an end to all 
earthly tyrannies, proclaiming thy universal and mild 
monarchy through heaven and earth ; where they un- 
doubtedly, that by their labours, counsels, and prayers, 
have been earnest for the common good of religion and 
their country, shall receive above the inferiour orders 
of the blessed, the regal addition of principalities, 
legions, and thrones into their glorious titles, and in 
supereminence of beatific vision, progressing the date- 
less and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall clasp inse- 
parable hands with joy and bliss, in overmeasure for 
ever. 

But they contrary, that by the impairing and dimi- 
nution of the true faith, the distresses and servitude of 
their country, aspire to high dignity, rule, and promotion 
here, after a shameful end in this life, (which God 
grant them,) shall be thrown down eternally into the 
darkest and deepest gulf of hell, where, under the, 
despiteful control, the trample and spurn of all the 
other damned, that in the anguish of their torture, shall 
have no other ease than to exercise a raving and bestial 
tyranny over them as their slaves and negroes, they 
shall remain in that plight for ever, the basest, the 
lowermost, the most dejected, most underfoot, and 
downtrodden vassals of perdition. 



PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



AND WHETHER IT MAY BE DEDUCED FROM THE APOSTOLICAL TIMES, BY VIRTUE OF THOSE TESTIMONIES 
WHICH ARE ALLEGED TO THAT PURPOSE IN SOME LATE TREATISES; ONE WHEREOF GOES UNDER THE NAME 
OF JAMES ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 

[first published 1641.] 



Episcopacy, as it is taken for an order in the church 
above a presbyter, or, as we commonly name him, the 
minister of a congregation, is either of divine constitu- 
tion or of human. If only of human, we have the 
same human privilege that all men have ever had since 
Adam, being born free, and in the mistress island of 
all the British, to retain this episcopacy, or to remove 
it, consulting- with our own occasions and conveniences, 
and for the prevention of our own dangers and dis- 
quiets, in what best manner we can devise, without 
running at a loss, as we must needs in those stale and 
useless records of either uncertain or unsound an- 
tiquity; which, if we hold fast to the grounds of the 
reformed church, can neither skill of us, nor we of it, 
so oft as it would lead us to the broken reed of tradi- 
tion. If it be of divine constitution, to satisfy us fully 
in that, the Scripture only is able, it being the only 
book left us of divine authority, not in any thing more 
divine than in the allsufficiency it hath to furnish us, 
as with all other spiritual knowledge, so with this in 
particular, setting out to us a perfect man of God, ac- 
complished to all the good works of his charge: through 
..II which book can be nowhere, either by plain text or 
solid reasoning, fou nd any difference between a bishop 
and a presbyter, save thai they be two names to sig- 
nify the same order. Notwithstanding this clearness, 
■nd that by all evidence of argument, Timothy and 
\ it oi (whom our prelates claim to imitate only in the 
controlling part of their office) had rather the vicege- 
of an apostleship committed to them, than the 
ordinary charge of ;i bishopric, as being men of an ex- 
traordinary calling; yet to verify that which St. Paul 
foretold of succeeding times, when men began to have 
itching < ;ir-. then ool contented with the plentiful and 
wbolesonx fountains of the gospel, they began after 
their own lu-ts to heap t,, themselves teachers, and as 
if the divine Scripture wanted a supplement, and were 
to be eked out, they caunol think any doubt resolved, 



and any doctrine confirmed, unless they run to that in- 
digested heap and fry of authors which they call an- 
tiquity. Whatsoever time, or the heedless hand of 
blind chance, hath drawn down from of old to this pre- 
sent, in her huge drag-net, whether fish or sea-weed, 
shells or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, those are the 
fathers. Seeing, therefore, some men, deeply conver- 
sant in books, have had so little care of late to give the 
world a better account of their reading, than by divulg- 
ing needless tractates stuffed with specious names of 
Ignatius and Polycarpus ; with fragments of old mar- 
tyrologies and legends, to distract and stagger the 
multitude of credulous readers, and mislead them from 
their strong guards and places of safety, under the 
tuition of holy writ ; it came into my thoughts to per- 
suade myself, setting all distances and nice respects 
aside, that I could do religion and my country no 
better service for the time, than doing my utmost en- 
deavour to recall the people of God from this vain 
foraging after straw, and to reduce them to their firm 
stations under the standard of the gospel ; by making 
appear to them, first the insufficiency, next the incon- 
veniency, and lastly the impiety of these gay testimo- 
nies, that their great doctors would bring them to 
dote on. And in performing this, I shall not strive 
to be more exact in method, than as their citations 
lead me. 

First, therefore, concerning Ignatius shall be treated 
fully, when the author shall come to insist upon some 
places in his epistles. Next, to prove a succession of 
twenty-seven bishops from Timothy, he cites one Le- 
ontius bishop of Magnesia, out of the 11th act of the 
Chalcedonian council : this is but an obscure and sin- 
gle witness, and for his faithful dealing who shall com- 
mend him to us, with this his catalogue of bishops ? 
What know we further of him, but that he might be as 
factious and false a bishop as Leontius of Antioch, that 
was a hundred years his predecessor? For neither the 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



23 



praise of his wisdom, or his virtue, hath left him me- 
morable to posterity, but only this doubtful relation, 
which we must take at his word : and how shall this 
testimony receive credit from his word, whose very 
name had scarce been thought on but for this bare tes- 
timony ? But they will say, he was a member of the 
council, and that may deserve to gain him credit with 
us. I will not stand to argue, as yet with fair allow- 
ance I might, that we may as j ustly suspect there were 
some bad and slippery men in that council, as we know 
there are wont to be in our convocations : nor shall I 
need to plead at this time, that nothing hath been more 
attempted, nor with more subtlety brought about, both 
anciently by other heretics, and modernly by papists, 
than to falsify the editions of the councils, of which we 
have none, but from our adversaries' hands, whence 
canons, acts, and whole spurious councils are thrust 
upon us ; and hard it would be to prove in all, which 
are legitimate, against the lawful rejection of an urgent 
and free disputer. But this I purpose not to take ad- 
vantage of; for w r hat avails it to wrangle about the 
corrupt editions of councils, whenas we know that many 
years ere this time, which was almost five hundred 
years after Christ, the councils themselves were foully 
corrupted with ungodly prelatism, and so far plunged 
into worldly ambition, as that it stood them upon long 
ere this to uphold their now well tasted hierarchy by 
what fair pretext soever they could, in like manner as 
they had now learned to defend many other gross cor- 
ruptions by as ancient, and supposed authentic tradition 
as episcopacy ? And what hope can we have of this 
whole council to warrant us a matter, four hundred 
years at least above their time, concerning the distinc- 
tion of bishop and presbyter, whenas we find them such 
blind judges of things before their eyes, in their decrees 
of precedency between bishop and bishop, acknowledg- 
ing Rome for the apostolic throne, and Peter, in that 
see, for the rock, the basis, and the foundation of the 
catholic church and faith, contrary to the interpretation 
of more ancient fathers ? And therefore from a mistaken 
text did they give to Leo, as Peter's successor, a kind 
of preeminence above the whole council, as Euagrius 
expresses; (for now the pope was come to that height, 
as to arrogate to himself by his vicars incompetible 
honours;) and yet having thus yielded to Rome, the 
universal primacy for spiritual reasons, as they thought, 
they conclude their sitting with a carnal and ambitious 
decree, to give the second place of dignity to Constan- 
tinople from reason of state, because it was New Rome; 
and by like consequence doubtless of earthly privileges 
annexed to each other city, was the bishop thereof to 
take his place. 

I may say again therefore, what hope can we have 
of such a council, as, beginning in the spirit, ended 
thus in the flesh ? Much rather should we attend to 
what Eusebius, the ancientest writer extant of church- 
history, notwithstanding all the helps he had above 
these, confesses in the 4th chapter of his third book, 
That it was no easy matter to tell who were those that 
were left bishops of the churches by the apostles, more 
than by what a man might gather from the Acts of the 



Apostles, and the Epistles of St. Paul, in which number 
he reckons Timothy for bishop of Ephesus. So as may 
plainly appear, that this tradition of bishoping Timothy 
over Ephesus was but taken for granted out of that 
place in St. Paul, which was only an intreating him to 
tarry at Ephesus, to do something left him in charge. 
Now, if Eusebius, a famous writer, thought it so diffi- 
cult to tell who were appointed bishops by the apostles, 
much more may we think it difficult to Leontius, an 
obscure bishop, speaking- beyond his own diocess : and 
certainly much more hard was it for either of them to 
determine what kind of bishops these were, if they had 
so little means to know who they were ; and much less 
reason have we to stand to their definitive sentence, 
seeing they have been so rash to raise up such lofty 
bishops and bishoprics out of places in Scripture merely 
misunderstood. Thus while we leave the Bible to gad 
after the traditions of the ancients, we hear the ancients 
themselves confessing, that what knowledge they had 
in this point was such as they had gathered from the 
Bible. 

Since therefore antiquity itself hath turned over the 
controversy to that sovereign book which we had fondly 
straggled from, we shall do better not to detain this 
venerable apparition of Leontius any longer, but dis- 
miss him with his list of seven and twenty, to sleep 
unmolested in his former obscurity. 

Now for the word Trpot^iog, it is more likely that 
Timothy never knew the word in that sense : it was 
the vanity of those next succeeding* times not to con- 
tent themselves with the simplicity of scripture-phrase, 
but must make a new lexicon to name themselves by ; 
one will be called irpotrojg, or antistes, a word of pre- 
cedence ; another would be termed a gnostic, as Cle- 
mens ; a third sacerdos, or priest, and talks of altars ; 
which was a plain sign that their doctrine began, to 
change, for which they must change their expressions. 
But that place of Justin Martyr serves rather to con- 
vince the author, than to make for him, where the name 
TTpoe^iog tuv a8e\(pa>v, the president or pastor of the 
brethren, (for to what end is he their president, but to 
teach them ?) cannot be limited to signify a prelatical 
bishop, but rather communicates that Greek appella- 
tion to every ordinary presbyter : for there he tells 
what the Christians had wont to do in their several 
congregations, to read and expound, to pray and ad- 
minister, all which he says the -n-poe^wg, or antistes, 
did. Are these the offices only of a bishop, or shall 
we think that every congregation where these things 
were done, which he attributes to this antistes, had a 
bishop present among them? Unless they had as 
many antistites as presbyters, which this place rather 
seems to imply ; and so we may infer even from their 
own alleged authority, " that antistes was nothing else 
but presbyter." 

As for that nameless treatise of Timothy's martyrdom, 
only cited by Photius that lived almost nine hundred 
years after Christ, it handsomely follows in that author 
the martyrdom of the seven sleepers, that slept (I tell 
you but what mine author says) three hundred and 
seventy and two years ; for so long they had been shut 



24 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



up in a cave without meat, and were found living". 
This story of Timothy's Ephesian bishopric, as it fol- 
lows in order, so may it for truth, if it only subsist upon 
its own authority, as it doth ; for Photius only saith he 
read it, he does not aver it. That other legendary 
piece found among- the lives of the saints, and sent us 
from the shop of the Jesuits at Louvain, does but bear 
the name of Polvcrates; how truly, who can tell? 
and shall have some more weight with us, when Poly- 
crates can persuade us of that which he affirms in the 
same place of Eusebius's fifth book, that St. John was 
a priest, and wore the golden breastplate : and why 
should he convince us more with his traditions of 
Timothy's episcopacy, than he could convince Victor 
bishop of Rome with his traditions concerning the feast 
of Easter, who, not regarding his irrefragable instances 
of examples taken from Philip and his daughters that 
were prophetesses, or from Polycarpus, no nor from 
St. John himself, excommunicated both him, and all 
the Asian churches, for celebrating their Easter judai- 
cally ? He may therefore go back to the seven bishops 
his kinsmen, and make his moan to them, that we 
esteem his traditional ware as lightly as Victor did. 

Those of Theodoret, Felix, and John of Antioch, are 
authorities of later times, and therefore not to be re- 
ceived for their antiquity's sake to give in evidence 
concerning an allegation, wherein writers, so much 
their elders, we see so easily miscarry. What if they 
had told us that Peter, who, as they say, left Ignatius 
bishop of Antioch, went afterwards to Rome, and was 
bishop there, as this Ignatius, and Irenaeus, and all 
antiquity with one mouth deliver ? there be never- 
theless a number of learned and wise protestants, who 
have written, and will maintain, that Peter's being 
at Rome as bishop cannot stand with concordance of 
Scripture. 

Now come the epistles of Ignatius to shew us, first, 
that Onesimus was bishop of Ephesus ; next, to assert 
the difference of bishop and presbyter: wherein I 
wonder that men, teachers of the protestant religion, 
make no more difficulty of imposing upon our belief a 
supposititious offspring of some dozen epistles, whereof 
five are rejected as spurious, containing in them here- 
sies and trifles ; which cannot agree in chronology 
with Ignatius, entitling him archbishop of Antioch 
Theopolis, which name of Theopolis that city had not 
till Justinian's time, long after, as Cedrenus mentions; 
"huh argues both the barbarous time, and the un- 
skilful fraud of him that foisted this epistle upon 
[gnatina. In the epistle to those of Tarsus, he con- 
demn! them for ministers of Satan, that say, " Christ 
is fin.l above all." To the Philippians, them that 
k' pi their Easter as the Asian churches, as Polycarpus 
did, and tbem that fasted upon any Saturday or Sunday, 
except one, be counts as those that had slain the Lord. 
To tboafl of Antiof h, be salutes the subdeacons, chan- 
\f rs. porters, and exofciefa, as if these had been orders 
of the rhiinh in his time: those other epistles less 
Onestioned, arc yet M interlarded with corruptions, as 
may justly r-nduc Us with a w boksome suspicion of the 
\- to the Trallians, he writes, that " a bishop 



hath power over all beyond all government and au- 
thority whatsoever." Surely then no pope can desire 
more than Ignatius attributes to every bishop; but 
what will become then of the archbishops and primates, 
if every bishop in Ignatius's judgment be as supreme 
as a pope ? To the Ephesians, near the very place 
from whence they fetch their proof for episcopacy, 
there stands a line that casts an ill hue upon all the 
epistle ; " Let no man err," saith he, " unless a man 
be within the rays or enclosure of the altar, he is de- 
prived of the bread of life." I say not but this may be 
stretched to a figurative construction; but yet it has 
an ill look, especially being followed beneath with the 
mention of I know not what sacrifices. In the other 
epistle to Smyrna, wherein is written that " they should 
follow their bishop as Christ did his Father, and the 
presbytery as the apostles ;" not to speak of the in- 
sulse, and ill laid comparison, this cited place lies upon 
the very brim of a noted corruption, which, had they 
that quote this passage ventured to let us read, all men 
would have readily seen what grain the testimony had 
been of, where it is said, " that it is not lawful without 
a bishop to baptize, nor to offer, nor to do sacrifice." 
What can our church make of these phrases but scan- 
dalous ? And but a little further he plainly falls to 
contradict the spirit of God in Solomon, judged by the 
words themselves ; " My son," saith he, " honour God 
and the king ; but I say, honour God, and the bishop 
as high-priest, bearing the image of God according to 
his ruling', and of Christ according to his priesting, 
and after him honour the king." Excellent Ignatius! 
can ye blame the prelates for making much of this 
epistle ? Certainly if this epistle can serve you to set 
a bishop above a presbyter, it may serve you next to 
set him above a king. These, and other like places in 
abundance through all those short epistles, must either 
be adulterate, or else Ignatius was not Ignatius, nor a 
martyr, but most adulterate, and corrupt himself. In 
the midst, therefore, of so many forgeries, where shall 
we fix to dare say this is Ignatius ? As for his style, 
who knows it, so disfigured and interrupted as it is ? 
except they think that where they meet with any thing 
sound, and ortbodoxal, there they find Ignatius. And 
then they believe him not for his own authority, but 
for a truth's sake, which they derive from elsewhere : 
to what end then should they cite him as authentic for 
episcopacy, when they cannot know what is authentic 
in him, but by the judgment which they brought with 
them, and not by any judgment which they might 
safely learn from him ? How can they bring satisfac- 
tion from such an author, to whose very essence the 
reader must be fain to contribute his own understand- 
ing ? Had God ever intended that we should have 
sought any part of useful instruction from Ignatius, 
doubtless he would not have so ill provided for our 
knowledge, as to send him to our hands in this broken 
and disjointed plight; and if he intended no such 
thing, we do injuriously in thinking to taste better the 
pure evangelic manna, by seasoning our mouths with 
the tainted scraps and fragments of an unknown table ; 
and searching among the verminous and polluted rags 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



25 



dropped overworn from the toiling" shoulders of time, 
with these deforinedly to quilt and interlace the entire, 
the spotless, and undecaying robe of truth, the daughter 
not of time, but of Heaven, only bred up here below in 
christian hearts, between two grave and holy nurses, 
the doctrine and discipline of the gospel. 

Next follows Irenaeus bishop of Lyons, who is cited 
to affirm, that Polycarpus " was made bishop of Smyrna 
by the apostles;" and this, it may seem, none could 
better tell than he who had both seen and heard Poly- 
carpus: but when did he hear him ? Himself confesses 
to Florinus, when he was a boy. Whether that age in 
Irenaeus may not be liable to many mistakings ; and 
whether a boy may be trusted to take an exact account 
of the manner of a church constitution, and upon what 
terms, and within what limits, and with what kind of 
commission Polycarpus received his charge, let a man 
consider, ere he be credulous. It will not be denied 
that he might have seen Polycarpus in his youth, a 
man of great eminence in the church, to whom the 
other presbyters might give way for his virtue, wisdom, 
and the reverence of his age ; and so did Anicetus, 
bishop of Rome, even in his own city, give him a kind 
of priority in administering the sacrament, as may be 
read in Eusebius : but that we should hence conclude 
a distinct and superior order from the young observa- 
tion of Irenaeus, nothing- yet alleged can warrant us; 
unless we shall believe such as would face us down, 
that Calvin and, after him, Beza were bishops of Ge- 
neva, because that in the unsettled state of the church, 
while things were not fully composed, their worth and 
learning cast a greater share of business upon them, 
and directed men's eyes principally towards them : 
and yet these men were the dissolvers of episcopacy. 
We see the same necessity in state affairs ; Brutus, 
that expelled the kings out of Rome, was for the time 
forced to be as it were a king- himself, till matters were 
set in order, as in a free commonwealth. He that had 
seen Pericles lead the Athenians which way he listed, 
haply would have said he had been their prince; and 
yet he was but a powerful and eloquent man in a de- 
mocracy, and had no more at any time than a tempo- 
rary and elective sway, which was in the will of the 
people when to abrogate. And it is most likely that in 
the church, they which came after these apostolic men, 
being less in merit, but bigger in ambition, strove to 
invade those privileges by intrusion and plea of right, 
which Polycarpus, and others like him possessed, from 
the voluntary surrender of men subdued by the excel- 
lency of their heavenly gifts ; which because their suc- 
cessors had not, and so could neither have that autho- 
rity, it was their policy to divulge that the eminence 
which Polycarpus and his equals enjoyed, was by right 
of constitution, not by free will of condescending. And 
yet thus far Irenaeus makes against them, as in that 
very place to call Polycarpus an apostolical presbyter. 
But what fidelity his relations had in g-eneral, we can- 
not sooner learn than by Eusebius, who, near the end 
of his third book, speaking of Papias, a very ancient 
writer, one that had heard St. John, and was known to 
many that had seen and been acquainted with others 



of the apostles, but being of a shallow wit, and not 
understanding those traditions which he received, filled 
his writings with many new doctrines, and fabulous 
conceits : he tells us there, that " divers ecclesiastical 
men, and Irenaeus among the rest, while they looked at 
his antiquity, became infected with his errours." Now, 
if Irenaeus was so rash as to take unexamined opinions 
from an author of so small capacity, when he was a 
man, we should be more rash ourselves to rely upon 
those observations which he made when he was a boy. 
And this may be a sufficient reason to us why we need 
no longer muse at the spreading of many idle traditions 
so soon after the apostles, while such as this Papias 
had the throwing them about, and the inconsiderate 
zeal of the next age, that heeded more the person than 
the doctrine, had the gathering them up. Wherever a 
man, who had been any way conversant with the apos- 
tles, was to be found, thither flew all the inquisitive 
ears, although the exercise of right instructing- was 
changed into the curiosity of impertinent fabling* : 
where the mind was to be edified with solid doctrine, 
there the fancy was soothed with solemn stories : with 
less fervency was studied what St. Paul or St. John 
had written, than was listened to one that could say, 
Here he taught, here he stood, this w r as his stature ; 
and thus he went habited ; and, O happy this house 
that harboured him, and that cold stone whereon he 
rested, this village wherein he wroug-ht such a miracle, 
and that pavement bedewed with the warm effusion of 
his last blood, that sprouted up into eternal roses to 
crown his martyrdom. Thus, while all their thoughts 
were poured out upon circumstances, and the gazing 
after such men as had sat at table with the apostles, 
(many of Avhich Christ hath professed, yea, though 
they had cast out devils in his name, he will not know 
at the last day,) by this means they lost their time, and 
truanted in the fundamental grounds of saving- know- 
ledge, as was seen shortly by their writings. Lastly, 
for Irenaeus, we have cause to think him less judicious 
in his reports from hand to hand of what the apostles 
did, when we find him so negligent in keeping the 
faith which they wrote, as to say in his third book 
against heresies, that " the obedience of Mary was the 
cause of salvation to herself and all mankind ; " and 
in his fifth book, that " as Eve was seduced to fly 
God, so the virgin Mary was persuaded to obey God, 
that the virgin Mary might be made the advocate of 
the virgin Eve." Thus if Irenaeus, for his nearness to 
the apostles, must be the patron of episcopacy to us, 
it is no marvel though he be the patron of idolatry to 
the papist, for the same cause. To the epistle of those 
brethren of Smyrna, that write the martyrdom of Poly- 
carpus/ and style him an apostolical and prophetical 
doctor, and bishop of the church of Smyrna, I could 
be content to give some credit for the great honour and 
affection which I see those brethren bear him ; and not 
undeservedly, if it be true, which they there say, that 
he was a prophet, and had a voice from heaven to com- 
fort him at his death, which they could hear, but the 
rest could not for the noise and tumult that was in the 
place ; and besides, if his body were so precious to the 



26 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



Christians, that he was never wont to pull off his shoes 
for one or other that still strove to have the office, 
that they might come in to touch his feet ; yet a lig-ht 
scruple or two I would gladly be resolved in : if 
Polycarpus (who, as they say, was a prophet that 
never failed in what he foretold) had declared to his 
friends, that he knew, by vision, he should die no other 
death than burning", how it came to pass that the fire, 
when it came to proof, would not do his work, but 
starting off like a full sail from the mast, did but reflect 
a golden light upon his unviolated limbs, exhaling 
Bach a sweet odour, as if all the incense of Arabia had 
been burning ; insomuch that when the billmen saw 
that the fire was overawed, and could not do the deed, 
one of them steps to him and stabs him with a sword, 
at which wound such abundance of blood gushed forth 
as quenched the fire. By all this relation it appears 
not how the fire was guilty of his death, and then how 
can his prophecy be fulfilled ? Next, how the standers- 
by could be so soon weary of such a glorious sig'ht, and 
such a fragrant smell, as to hasten the executioner to 
put out the fire with the martyr's blood ; unless perhaps 
they thought, as in all perfumes, that the smoak would 
be more odorous than the flame : yet these good bre- 
thren say he was bishop of Smyrna. No man ques- 
tions it, if bishop and presbyter were anciently all one, 
and how does it appear by any thing in this testimony 
that they were not? If among his other high titles of 
prophetical, apostolical, and most admired of those 
times, he be also styled bishop of the church of Smyrna 
in a kind of speech, which the rhetoricans call /car' 
tZoxvv, for his excellence sake, as being the most fa- 
mous of all the Smyrnian presbyters ; it cannot be 
proved neither from this nor that other place of Ire- 
na?us, that he was therefore in distinct and monarchical 
order above the other presbyters; it is more probable, 
that if the whole presbytery had been as renowned as 
he, they would have termed every one of them severally 
bishop of Smyrna. Hence it is, that we read some- 
times of two bishops in one place ; and had all the 
presbyters there been of like worth, we might perhaps 
have read of twenty. 

Tertullian accosts us next, (for Polycrates hath had 
his answer,) whose testimony, state but the question 
right, is of no more force to deduce episcopacy, than 
the two former. He says that the church of Smyrna 
had Polycarpus placed there by John, and. the church 
of Home, Clement ordained by Peter; and so the rest 
of the churches did shew what bishops they had receiv- 
ed by the appointment of the apostles. None of this 
will be 'out indicted, for we have it out of the Scripture 
that bishops or presbyters, which were the same, were 
h It by tli« apostles in every church, and they might 
p. rhapf gire some special charge to Clement, or Poly- 
carpus, or Linus, and put some special trust in them for 
the ( \]m ri. nee they had of their faith and constancy; 
it remains \<t to be evinced out of this and the like 
places, whiefa will nerer he, that the word bishop is 
otherwise taken, than in the language of St. Paul and 
The Acts, for an order above presbyters. We grant 
them bishops, we granl them worthy men, we grant 



them placed in several churches by the apostles ; we 
grant that Irenaeus and Tertullian affirm this ; but that 
they were placed in a superior order above the presby- 
tery, shew from all these words why we should grant. 
It is not enough to say the apostle left this man bishop 
in Rome, and that other in Ephesus, but to shew when 
they altered their own decree set down by St. Paul, 
and made all the presbyters underlings to one bishop. 
But suppose Tertullian had made an imparity where 
none was originally, should he move us, that goes about 
to prove an imparity between God the Father, and 
God the Son, as these words import in his book against 
Praxeas ? " The Father is the whole substance, but the 
Son a derivation, and portion of the whole, as he him- 
self professes, because the Father is greater than me." 
Believe him now for a faithful relater of tradition, 
whom you see such an unfaithful expounder of the 
Scripture : besides, in his time, all allowable tradition 
was now lost. For this same author, whom you bring 
to testify the ordination of Clement to the bishopric of 
Rome by Peter, testifies also, in the beginning of his 
treatise concerning chastity, that the bishop of Rome 
did then use to send forth his edicts by the name of 
Pontifex Maximus, and Episcopus Episcoporum, chief 
priest, and bishop of bishops : for shame then do not 
urge that authority to keep up a bishop, that will ne- 
cessarily engage you to set up a pope. As little can 
your advantage be from Hegesippus, an historian of 
the same time, not extant, but cited by Eusebius : his 
words are, that " in every city all things so stood in 
his time as the law, and the prophets, and our Lord did 
preach." If they stood so, then stood not bishops 
above presbyters ; for what our Lord and his disciples 
taught, God be thanked, we have no need to go 
learn of him : and you may as well hope to persuade 
us out of the same author, that James the brother of 
our Lord was a Nazarite, and that to him only it was 
lawful to enter into the holy of holies; that his food 
was not upon any thing that had life, fish or flesh ; 
that he used no woollen garments, but only linen, and 
so as he trifles on. 

If therefore the tradition of the church were now 
grown so ridiculous, and disconsenting from the doc- 
trine of the apostles, even in those points which were 
of least moment to men's particular ends, how well 
may we be assured it was much more degenerated in 
point of episcopacy and precedency, things which 
could afford such plausible pretences, such commo- 
dious traverses for ambition and avarice to lurk behind! 

As for those Britain bishops which you cite, take 
heed what you do; for our Britain bishops, less ancient 
than these, were remarkable for nothing more than 
their poverty, as Sulpitius Severus and Beda can re- 
member you of examples good store. 

Lastly, (for the fabulous Metaphrastes is not worth 
an answer,) that authority of Clemens Alexandrinus is 
not to be found in all his works ; and wherever it be 
extant, it is in controversy, whether it be Clement's or 
no; or if 'it were, it says only that St. John in some 
places constituted bishops: questionless he did, but 
where does Clemens say he set them above presbyters ? 



OF PRELATICAL EPISCOPACY. 



27 



No man will gainsay the constitution of bishops : but 
the raising them to a superior and distinct order above 
presbyters, seeing the gospel makes them one and the 
same thing, a thousand such allegations as these will 
not give prelatical episcopacy one chapel of ease above 
a parish church. And thus much for this cloud I can- 
not say rather than petty fog of witnesses, with which 
episcopal men would cast a mist before us, to deduce 
their exalted episcopacy from apostolic times. Now, 
although, as all men well know, it be the wonted shift 
of errour, and fond opinion, when they find themselves 
outlawed by the Bible, and forsaken of sound reason, 
to betake them with all speed to their old startinghole 
of tradition, and that wild and overgrown covert of an- 
tiquity, thinking to farm there at large room, and find 
good stabling, yet thus much their own deified an- 
tiquity betrays them to inform us, that tradition hath 
had very seldom or never the gift of persuasion ; as 
that which church -histories report of those east and 
western paschalists, formerly spoken of, will declare. 
Who would have thought that Polycarpus on the one 
side could have erred in what he saw St. John do, or 
Anicetus bishop of Rome on the other side, in what he 
or some of his friends might pretend to have seen St. 
Peter or St. Paul do ; and yet neither of these could 
persuade either when to keep Easter ? The like frivol- 
ous contention troubled the primitive English churches, 
while Colmanus and Wilfride on either side deducing 
their opinions, the one from the undeniable example of 
Saint John, and the learned bishop Anatolius, and 
lastly the miraculous Columba, the other from Saint 
Peter and the Nicene council; could gain no ground 
each of other, till King Oswy, perceiving no likelihood 
of ending the controversy that way, was fain to decide 
it himself, good king, with that small knowledge where- 
with those times had furnished him. So when those 
pious Greek emperors began, as Cedrenus relates, to 
put down monks, and abolish images, the old idolaters, 
finding themselves blasted, and driven back by the 
prevailing light of the Scripture, sent out their sturdy 
monks called the Abramites, to allege for images the 
ancient fathers Dionysius, and this our objected Ire- 
nseus: nay, they were so highflown in their antiquity, 
that they undertook to bring the apostles, and Luke 
the evangelist, yea Christ himself, from certain records 
that were then current, to patronize their idolatry : yet 
for all this the worthy emperor Theophilus, even in 
those dark times, chose rather to nourish himself and 
his people with the sincere milk of the gospel, than to 
drink from the mixed confluence of so many corrupt 
and poisonous waters, as tradition would have persuad- 
ed him to, by most ancient seeming authorities. In 
like manner all the reformed churches abroad, unthron- 
ing episcopacy, doubtless were not ignorant of these 
testimonies alleged to draw it in a line from the apos- 
tles' days : for surely the author will not think he hath 
brought us now any new authorities or considerations 
into the world, which the reformers in other places 
were not advised of: and yet we see, the intercession 
of all these apostolic fathers could not prevail with 
them to alter their resolved decree of reducing into 



order their usurping and over-proven dered episcopants ; 
and God hath blessed their work this hundred years 
with a prosperous and stedfast, and still happy success. 
And this may serve to prove the insufficiency of these 
present episcopal testimonies, not only in themselves 
but in the account of those ever that have been the fol- 
lowers of truth. It will next behove us to consider the 
inconvenience we fall into, by using ourselves to be 
guided by these kind of testimonies. He that thinks 
it the part of a well-learned man to have read diligently 
the ancient stories of the church, and to be no stranger 
in the volumes of the fathers, shall have all judicious 
men consenting with him ; not hereby to control, and 
new fangle the Scripture, God forbid ! but to mark how 
corruption and apostasy crept in by degrees, and to 
gather up wherever we find the remaining sparks of 
original truth, wherewith to stop the mouths of our ad- 
versaries, and to bridle them with their own curb, who 
willingly pass by that which is orthodoxal in them, 
and studiously cull out that which is commentitious,and 
best for their turns, not weighing the fathers in the bal- 
ance of Scripture, but Scripture in the balance of the 
fathers. If we, therefore, making first the gospel our 
rule and oracle, shall take the good which we light on 
in the fathers, and set it to oppose the evil which other 
men seek from them, in this way of skirmish we shall 
easily master all superstition and false doctrine ; but 
if we turn this our discreet and wary usage of them 
into a blind devotion towards them, and whatsoever we 
find written by them ; we both forsake our own grounds 
and reasons which led us at first to part from Rome, 
that is, to hold the Scriptures against all antiquity ; we 
remove our cause into our adversaries' own court, and 
take up there those cast principles, which will soon 
cause us to soder up with them again ; inasmuch as 
believing antiquity for itself in any one point, we bring 
an engagement upon ourselves of assenting to all that 
it charges upon us. For suppose we should now, neg- 
lecting that which is clear in Scripture, that a bishop 
and presbyter is all one both in name and office, and 
that what was done by Timothy and Titus, executing 
an extraordinary place, as fellow-labourers with the 
apostles, and of a universal charge in planting Chris- 
tianity through divers regions, cannot be drawn into 
particular and daily example ; suppose that neglecting 
this clearness of the text, we should, by the uncertain 
and corrupted writings of succeeding times, determine 
that bishop and presbyter are different, because we dare 
not deny what Ignatius, or rather the Perkin Warbeck 
of Ignatius, says ; then must we be constrained to take 
upon ourselves a thousand superstitions and falsities, 
which the papists will prove us down in, from as good 
authorities, and as ancient as these that set a bishop 
above a presbyter. And the plain truth is, that when 
any of our men, of those that are wedded to antiquity, 
come to dispute with a papist, and leaving the Scrip- 
tures put themselves without appeal to the sentence of 
synods and councils, using in the cause of Sion the 
hired soldiery of revolted Israel ; where they give the 
Romanists one buff, they receive two counterbuffs. 
Were it therefore but in this regard, every true bishop 



28 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book I. 



should be afraid to conquer in his cause by such autho- 
rities as these, which if we admit for the authority's 
sake, we open a broad passage for a multitude of doc- 
trines, that have no ground in Scripture, to break in 
upon us. 

Lastly, I do not know, it being- undeniable that there 
are but two ecclesiastical orders, bishops and deacons, 
mentioned in the gospel, how it can be less than im- 
piety to make a demur at that, which is there so per- 
spicuous, confronting and paralleling the sacred verity 
of St. Paul with the offals and sweepings of antiquity, 
that met as accidentally and absurdly, as Epicurus's 
atoms, to patch up a Leucippean Ignatius, inclining 
rather to make this phantasm an expounder, or indeed 
a depraver of St. Paul, than St. Paul an examiner, and 
discoverer of this impostorship ; nor caring how slightly 
they put off the verdict of holy text unsalved, that says 
plainly there be but two orders, so they maintain the 
reputation of their imaginary doctor that proclaims 
three. Certainly if Christ's apostle have set down but 
two, then according to his own words, though he him- 



self should unsay it, and not only the angel of Smyrna, 
but an angel from heaven, should bear us down that 
there be three, Saint Paul has doomed him twice, " Let 
him be accursed ;" for Christ hath pronounced that no 
tittle of his word shall fall to the ground ; and if one 
jot be alterable, it is as possible that all should perish : 
and this shall be our righteousness, our ample warrant, 
and strong assurance, both now and at the last day, 
never to be ashamed of, against all the heaped names 
of angels and martyrs, councils and fathers, urged upon 
us, if we have given ourselves up to be taught by the 
pure and living precept of God's word only ; which, 
without more additions, nay with a forbidding of them, 
hath within itself the promise of eternal life, the end 
of all our wearisome labours, and all our sustaining 
hopes. But if any shall strive to set up his ephod and 
teraphim of antiquity against the brightness and per- 
fection of the gospel ; let him fear lest he and his Baal 
be turned into Bosheth. And thus much may suffice 
to shew, that the pretended episcopacy cannot be de- 
duced from the apostolical times. 



REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



IN TWO BOOKS. 



[first published 1641. 



THE PREFACE. 



In the publishing of human laws, which for the most part aim not beyond the good of civil society, to set them 
barely forth to the people without reason or preface, like a physical prescript, or only with threatenings, as it 
M ere a lordly command, in the judgment of Plato was thought to be done neither generously nor wisely. His 
advice \\ as, seeing that persuasion certainly is a more winning and more manlike way to keep men in obedience 
than fear, that to such laws as were of principal moment, there should be used as an induction some well-tempered 
discourse, shewing how good,how gainful, how happy it must needs be to live according to honesty and justice; 
which being uttered with those native colours and graces of speech, as true eloquence, the daughter of virtue, 
ean beat bestow upon her mother's praises, would so incite, and in a manner charm, the multitude into the love 
of that which is really good, as to embrace it ever after, not of custom and awe, which most men do, but of 
choice and purpose, n itta true and constant delight. But this practice we may learn from a better and more 
ancient authority than any heathen writer hath to give us; and indeed being a point of so high wisdom and 
worth, how could it be bnl we should find it in that book, within whose sacred context all wisdom is-unfolded ? 
Moses, therefore, the onlj lawgiver that we can believe to have been visibly taught of God, knowing how vain 
it was to urn, laws to men whose hearts were not first seasoned with the knowledge of God and of his works, 
began from the book of Genesis, as a prologue to his laws; which Josephus right well hath noted: that the nation 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



29 



of the Jews, reading therein the universal goodness of God to all creatures in the creation, and his peculiar 
favour to them in his election of Abraham their ancestor from whom they could derive so many blessings upon 
themselves, might be moved to obey sincerely, by knowing so good a reason of their obedience. If then, in the 
administration of civil justice, and under the obscurity of ceremonial rites, such care was had by the wisest of 
the heathen, and by Moses among the Jews, to instruct them at least in a general reason of that government to 
which their subjection was required; how much more ought the members of the church, under the gospel, seek 
to inform their understanding in the reason of that government, which the church claims to have over them ! 
Especially for that church hath in her immediate cure those inner parts and affections of the mind, where the 
seat of reason is having power to examine our spiritual knowledge, and to demand from us, in God's behalf, a 
service entirely reasonable. But because about the manner and order of this government, whether it ought to 
be presbyterial or prelatical, such endless question, or rather uproar, is arisen in this land, as may be justly termed 
what the fever is to the physicians, the eternal reproach of our divines, whilst other profound clerks of late, 
greatly, as they conceive, to the advancement of prelaty, are so earnestly meting out the Lydian proconsular 
Asia, to make good the prime metropolis of Ephesus, as if some of our prelates in all haste meant to change their 
soil, and become neighbours to the English bishop of Chalcedon ; and whilst good Breerwood as busily bestirs 
himself in our vulgar tongue, to divide precisely the three patriarchates of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch ; and 
whether to any of these England doth belong : I shall in the mean while not cease to hope, through the mercy 
and grace of Christ, the head and husband of his church, that England shortly is to belong, neither to see pa- 
triarchal nor see prelatical, but to the faithful feeding and disciplining of that ministerial order, which the blessed 
apostles constituted throughout the churches ; and this I shall assay to prove, can be no other than presbyters and 
deacons. And if any man incline to think I undertake a task too difficult for my years, I trust through the su- 
preme enlightening assistance far otherwise ; for my years, be they few or many, what imports it ? So they bring 
reason, let that be looked on : and for the task, from hence that the question in hand is so needful to be known 
at this time, chiefly by every meaner capacity, and contains in it the explication of many admirable and heavenly 
privileges reached out to us by the gospel, I conclude the task must be easy : God having to this end ordained 
his gospel to be the revelation of his power and wisdom in Christ Jesus. And this is one depth of his wisdom, 
that he could so plainly reveal so great a measure of it to the gross distorted apprehension of decayed mankind. 
Let others, therefore, dread and shun the Scriptures for their darkness ; I shall wish I may deserve to be reckon- 
ed among those who admire and dwell upon them for their clearness. And this seems to be the cause why in 
those places of holy writ, wherein is treated of church-government, the reasons thereof are not formally and 
professedly set down, because to him that heeds attentively the drift and scope of christian profession, 
they easily imply themselves; which thing further to explain, having now prefaced enough, I shall no 
longer defer. 



chap. I. 



That church-government is prescribed in the gospel*, and that to say otherwise is unsound. 



The first and greatest reason of church-government we 
may securely, with the assent of many on the adverse 
part, affirm to be, because we find it so ordained and 
set out to us by the appointment of God in the Scrip- 
tures ; but whether this be presbyterial, or prelatical, it 
cannot be brought to the scanning, until I have said 
what is meet to some who do not think it for the ease 
of their inconsequent opinions, to grant that church- 
discipline is platformed in the Bible, but that it is left 
to the discretion of men. To this conceit of theirs I 
answer, that it is both unsound and untrue ; for there 
is not that thing in the world of more grave and ur- 
gent importance throughout the whole life of man, than 
is discipline. What need I instance ? He that hath 
read with judgment, of nations and commonwealths, 
of cities and camps, of peace and war, sea and land, 
will readily agree that the flourishing and decaying of 



all civil societies, all the moments and turnings of hu- 
man occasions, are moved to and fro as upon the axle 
of discipline. So that whatsoever power or sway in 
mortal things weaker men have attributed to for- 
tune, I durst with more confidence (the honour of 
Divine Providence ever saved) ascribe either to the 
vigour or the slackness of discipline. Nor is there any 
sociable perfection in this life, civil or sacred, that can 
be above discipline ; but she is that which with her 
musical cords preserves and holds all the parts thereof 
together. Hence in those perfect armies of Cyrus in 
Xenophon, and Scipio in the Roman stories, the excel- 
lence of military skill was esteemed, not by the not 
needing, but by the readiest submitting to the edicts 
of their commander. And certainly discipline is not 
only the removal of disorder ; but if any visible shape 
can be given to divine things, the very visible shape 



30 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book I. 



and image of virtue, whereby she is not only seen in 
the regular gestures and motions of her heavenly paces 
as she walks, but also makes the harmony of her voice 
audible to mortal ears. Yea, the angels themselves, in 
whom no disorder is feared, as the apostle that saw them 
in his rapture describes, are distinguished and quater- 
nioned into the celestial princedoms and satrapies, ac- 
cording as God himself has writ his imperial decrees 
through the great provinces of heaven. The state also 
of the blessed in paradise, though never so perfect, is 
not therefore left without discipline, whose golden sur- 
veying reed marks out and measures every quarter and 
circuit of New Jerusalem. Yet is it not to be conceived, 
that those eternal effluences of sanctity and love in the 
glorified saints should by this means be confined and 
cloved with repetition of that which is prescribed, but 
that our happiness may orb itself into a thousand va- 
gancies of glory and delight, and with a kind of eccen- 
trical equation be, as it were, an invariable planet of joy 
and felicity; how much less can we believe that God 
would leave his frail and feeble, though not less belov- 
ed church here below, to the perpetual stumble of con- 
jecture and disturbance in this our dark voyage, without 
the card and compass of discipline ! Which is so hard 
to be of man's making, that we may see even in the 
guidance of a civil state to worldly happiness, it is not 
for every learned, or every wise man, though many of 
them consult in common, to invent or frame a disci- 
pline : but if it be at all the work of man, it must be of 
such a one as is a true knower of himself, and in whom 
contemplation and practice, wit, prudence, fortitude, 
and eloquence, must be rarely met, both to comprehend 
the hidden causes of things, and span in his thoughts 
all the various effects, that passion or complexion can 
work in man's nature ; and hereto must his hand be at 
defiance with gain, and his heart in all virtues heroic; 
so far is it from the ken of these wretched projectors of 
ours, thatbescrawl their pamphlets everyday with new 
forma of government for our church. And therefore all 
the ancient lawgivers were either truly inspired, as 
.Moms, or were such men as with authority enough 
might give it out to be so, as Minos, Lycurgus, Numa, 
because they wisely forethought that men would never 
quietly submit to such a discipline as had not more of 
God's hand in it than man's. To come within the 
narrowness of household government, observation will 
shew us many deep counsellors of state and judges to 
demean themselves incorruptly in the settled course of 
a flairs, and many worthy preachers upright in their 
lives, powerful in their audience: but look upon either 
of these men where they are left to their own disci- 
plining at home, and you shall soon perceive, for all 
tin ir single knowledge and uprightness, how deficient 
tiny arc in tin- regulating of their own family; not 
onlv m what may concern the virtuous and decent 
composure of their minds in their several places, but 
that which i> of a lower and easier performance, the 
right I*--- wing of the outward vessel, their body, in 
health or sickness, rest or labour, diet or abstinence, 
whereby to render it more pliant to the soul, and useful 
i<> the commonwealth : which if men were but as good 



to discipline themselves, as some are to tutor their 
horses and hawks, it could not be so gross in most 
households. If then it appear so hard, and so little 
known how to govern a house well, which is thought 
of so easily discharge, and for every man's undertak- 
ing ; what skill of man, what wisdom, what parts can 
be sufficient to give laws and ordinances to the elect 
household of God ? If we could imagine that he had 
left it at random without his provident and gracious 
ordering, who is he so arrogant, so presumptuous, that 
durst dispose and guide the living ark of the Holy 
Ghost, though he should find it wandering in the field 
of Bethshemesh, without the conscious warrant of some 
high calling? But no profane insolence can parallel 
that which our prelates dare avouch, to drive out- 
rageously, and shatter the holy ark of the church, not 
borne upon their shoulders with pains and labour in 
the word, but drawn with rude oxen their officials, and 
their own brute inventions. Let them make shows of 
reforming while they will, so long as the church is 
mounted upon the prelatical cart, and not as it ought, 
between the hands of the ministers, it will but shake 
and totter; and he that sets to his hand, though with 
a good intent to hinder the shogging of it, in this un- 
lawful waggonry wherein it rides, let him beware it be 
not fatal to him as it was to Uzza. Certainly if God 
be the father of his family the church, wherein could 
he express that name more, than in training it up 
under his own allwise and dear economy, not turning 
it loose to the havoc of strangers and wolves, that 
would ask no better plea than this, to do in the church 
of Christ whatever humour, faction, policy, or licen- 
tious will would prompt them to ? Again, if Christ be 
the Church's husband, expecting her to be presented 
before him a pure unspotted virgin ; in what could he 
shew his tender love to her more, than in prescribing 
bis own ways, which he best knew would be to the 
improvement of her health and beauty, with much 
greater care doubtless, than the Persian king could 
appoint for his queen Esther those maiden dietings 
and set prescriptions of baths and odours, which may 
render her at last more amiable to his eye ? For of 
any age or sex, most unfitly may a virgin be left to an 
uncertain and arbitrary education. Yea, though she 
be well instructed, yet is she still under a more strait 
tuition, especially if betrothed. In like manner the 
church bearing the same resemblance, it were not 
reason to think she should be left destitute of that care, 
which is as necessary and proper to her as instruction. 
For public preaching indeed is the gift of the Spirit, 
working as best seems to his secret will; but discipline 
is the practic work of preaching directed and applied, 
as is most requisite, to particular duty ; without which 
it were all one to the benefit of souls, as it would be to 
the cure of bodies, if all the physicians in London 
should get into the several pulpits of the city, and 
assembling all the diseased in every parish, should 
begin a learned lecture of pleurisies, palsies, lethargies, 
to which perhaps none there present were inclined; 
and so, without so much as feeling one pulse, or giving 
the least order to any skilful apothecary, should dis- 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



31 



miss them from time to time, some groaning, some 
languishing, some expiring 1 , with this only charge, to 
look well to themselves, and do as they hear. Of 
what excellence and necessity then church-discipline 
is, how beyond the faculty of man to frame, and how 
dangerous to be left to man's invention, who would 
be every foot turning it to sinister ends ; how pro- 
perly also it is the work of God as father, and of 
Christ as husband, of the church, we have by thus 
much heard. 



CHAP. II. 

That church-government is set down in Holy Scripture, 
and that to say otherwise is untrue. 

As therefore it is unsound to say, that God hath not 
appointed any set government in his church, so it is 
untrue. Of the time of the law there can be no doubt ; 
for to let pass the first institution of priests and Levites, 
which is too clear to be insisted upon, when the temple 
came to be built, which in plain judgment could breed 
no essential change, either in religion, or in the priestly 
government; yet God, to shew how little he could en- 
dure that men should be tampering and contriving in 
his worship, though in things of less regard, gave to 
David for Solomon, not only a pattern and model of the 
temple, but a direction for the courses of the priests and 
Levites, and for all the work of their service. At the 
return from the captivity, things were only restored 
after the ordinance of Moses and David ; or if the least 
alteration be to be found, they had with them inspired 
men, prophets ; and it were not sober to say they did 
aught of moment without divine intimation. In the pro- 
phecy of Ezekiel, from the 40th chapter onward, after 
the destruction of the temple, God, by his prophet, 
seeking to wean the hearts of the Jews from their old 
law, to expect a new and more perfect reformation 
under Christ, sets out before their eyes the stately 
fabric and constitution of his church, with all the ec- 
clesiastical functions appertaining : indeed the descrip- 
tion is as sorted best to the apprehension of those times, 
typical and shadowy, but in such manner as never yet 
came to pass, nor ever must literally, unless we mean 
to annihilate the gospel. But so exquisite and lively 
the description is in pourtraying the new state of the 
church, and especially in those points where govern- 
ment seems to be most active, that both Jews and Gen- 
tiles might have good cause to be assured, that God, 
whenever he meant to reform his church, never intended 
to leave the government thereof, delineated here in such 
curious architecture, to be patched afterwards, and 
varnished over with the devices and embellishings of 
man's imagination. Did God take such delight in 
measuring out the pillars, arches, and doors of a mate- 
rial temple ? Was he so punctual and circumspect in 
lavers, altars, and sacrifices soon after to be abrogated, 
lest any of these should have been made contrary to 



his mind ? Is not a far more perfect work, more agree- 
able to his perfections in the most perfect state of the 
church militant, the new alliance of God to man ? 
Should not he rather now by his own prescribed disci- 
pline have cast his line and level upon the soul of man 
which is his rational temple, and, by the divine 
square and compass thereof, form and regenerate in us 
the lovely shapes of virtues and graces, the sooner to 
edify and accomplish that immortal stature of Christ's 
body, which is his church, in all her glorious linea- 
ments and proportions? And that this indeed God hath 
done for us in the gospel we shall see with open eyes, 
not under a veil. We may pass over the history of the 
Acts and other places, turning only to those epistles of 
St. Paul to Timothy and Titus; where the spiritual 
eye may discern more goodly and gracefully erected, 
than all the magnificence of temple or tabernacle, such 
a heavenly structure of evangelical discipline, so diffu- 
sive of knowledge and charity to the prosperous in- 
crease and growth of the church, that it cannot be 
wondered if that elegant and artful symmetry of the 
promised new temple in Ezekiel, and all those sump- 
tuous things under the law, were made to signify the 
inward beauty and splendour of the christian church 
thus governed. And whether this be commanded, let 
it now be judged. St. Paul after his preface to the first 
of Timothy, which he concludes in the 17th verse with 
Amen, enters upon the subject of this epistle, which is 
to establish the church-government, with a command: 
"This charge I commit to thee, son Timothy: ac- 
cording to the prophecies which went before on thee, 
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare." 
Which is plain enough thus expounded : This charge 
I commit to thee, wherein I now go about to instruct 
thee how thou shalt set up church-discipline, that thou 
mightest war a good warfare, bearing* thyself con- 
stantly and faithfully in the ministry, which, in the 
first to the Corinthians, is also called a warfare ; and 
so after a kind of parenthesis concerning Hymenaeus, 
he returns to his command, though under the mild 
word of exhorting, chap. ii. ver. 1, "I exhort there- 
fore ;" as if he had interrupted his former command by 
the occasional mention of Hymenaeus. More beneath 
in the 14th verse of the third chapter, when he had de- 
livered the duties of bishops or presbyters, and deacons, 
not once naming any other order in the church, he thus 
adds ; " These things write I unto thee, hoping to 
come unto thee shortly; (such necessity it seems there 
was ;) but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how 
thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." 
From this place it may be justly asked, whether Timothy 
by this here written, might know what was to be known 
concerning the orders of church governors or no ? If he 
might, then, in such a clear text as this, may we know 
too without further jangle ; if he might not, then did St. 
Paul write insufficiently, and moreover said not true, for 
he saith here he might know ; and I persuade myself he 
did know ere this was written, but that the apostle bad 
more regard to the instruction of us, than to the inform- 
ing of him. In the fifth chapter, after some other church- 
precepts concerning discipline, mark what a dreadful 



32 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GO VERNMENT 



Book I. 



command follows, vev. 21 : " I charge thee before God 
and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that 
thou observe these things." And as if all were not 
yet sure enough, he closes up the epistle with an adjur- 
ing charge thus; " I give thee charge in the sight of 
God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Je- 
sus, that thou keep this commandment :" that is, the 
whole commandment concerning discipline, being the 
main purpose of the epistle : although Hooker would 
fain have this denouncement referred to the particular 
precept going before, because the word commandment 
is in the singular number, not remembering that even 
in the first chapter of this epistle, the word command- 
ment is used in a plural sense, ver. 5 : " Now the 
end of the commandment is charity ;" and what more 
frequent than in like manner to say the law of Moses? 
So that either to restrain the significance too much, or 
too much to enlarge it, would make the adjuration 
either not so weighty or not so pertinent. And thus 
we find here that the rules of church-discipline are not 
only commanded, but hedged about with such a ter- 
rible impalement of commands, as he that will break 
through wilfully to violate the least of them, must 
hazard the wounding of his conscience even unto death. 
Yet all this notwithstanding, we shall find them broken 
well nigh all by the fair pretenders even of the next 
ages. No less to the contempt of him whom they 
feign to be the archfounder of prelaty, St. Peter, who, 
by what he writes in the fifth chapter of his first epis- 
tle, should seem to be far another man than tradition 
reports him : there he commits to the presbyters only 
full authority, both of feeding the flock and episcopat- 
ing ; and commands that obedience be given to them 
as to the mighty hand of God, which is his mighty 
ordinance. Yet all this was as nothing to repel the 
venturous boldness of innovation that ensued, changing 
the decrees of God that are immutable, as if they had 
been breathed by man. Nevertheless when Christ, by 
those visions of St. John, foreshews the reformation of 
his church, he bids him take his reed, and mete it out 
ajrain after the first pattern, for he prescribes no other. 
" Arise, said the angel, and measure the temple of God, 
and the altar, and them that worship therein." What 
is there in the world can measure men but discipline ? 
Our word ruling imports no less. Doctrine indeed is 
the measure, or at least the reason of the measure, it is 
true; bat unless the measure be applied to that which 
it is to measure, bow can it actually do its proper 
work? Whether therefore discipline be all one with 
doctrine, or the particular application thereof to this or 
that person, we all agree that doctrine must be such 
only as is commanded ; or whether it be something 
really differing from doctrine, yet was it only of God's 
appointment, as being the most adequate measure of 
the cborcfa and ber children, which is here the office of 
a peat erangeHst, and the reed given him from hea- 
v< i. Bat that part of the temple which is not thus 
Med, so far is it from being in God's tuition or de- 
Jiglit, that in the following verse he rejects it; how- 
.v, r in ihew and visibility it may seem a part of his 
churrh. \..t inasmuch as it lies thus unmeasured he 



leaves it to be trampled by the Gentiles ; that is to be 
polluted with idolatrous and gentilish rites and cere- 
monies. And that the principal reformation here fore- 
told is already come to pass, as well in discipline as in 
doctrine, the state of our neighbour churches afford us 
to behold. Thus, through all the periods and changes 
of the church, it hath been proved, that God hath still 
reserved to himself the right of enacting church-go- 
vernment. 



CHAP. HI. 






That it is dangerous and unworthy the gospel, to hold 
that church-government is to be patterned by the 
law, as bishop Andrews and the primate of Armagh 
maintain. 

We may return now from this interposing difficulty 
thus removed, to affirm, that since church -government 
is so strictly commanded in God's word, the first and 
greatest reason why we should submit thereto is, be- 
cause God hath so commanded. But whether of these 
two, prelaty or presbytery, can prove itself to be sup- 
ported by this first and greatest reason, must be the 
next dispute : wherein this position is to be first laid 
down, as granted ; that I may not follow a chase rather 
than an argument, that one of these two, and none 
other, is of God's ordaining ; and if it be, that ordi- 
nance must be evident in the gospel. For the imper- 
fect and obscure institution of the law, which the 
apostles themselves doubt not ofttimes to vilify, cannot 
give rules to the complete and glorious ministration of 
the gospel, which looks on the law as on a child, not 
as on a tutor. And that the prelates have no sure 
foundation in the gospel, their own guiltiness doth ma- 
nifest; they would not else run questing up as high as 
Adam to fetch their original, as it is said one of them 
lately did in public. To which assertion, had I heard 
it, because I see they are so insatiable of antiquity, I 
should have gladly assented, and confessed them yet 
more ancient : for Lucifer, before Adam, was the first 
prelate angel ; and both he, as is commonly thought, 
and our forefather Adam, as we all know, for aspir- 
ing above their orders, were miserably degraded. 
But others, better advised, are content to receive 
their beginning from Aaron and his sons, among 
whom bishop Andrews of late years, and in these 
times the primate of Armagh, for their learning are 
reputed the best able to say what may be said in this 
opinion. The primate, in his discourse about the ori- 
ginal of episcopacy newly revised, begins thus : " The 
ground of episcopacy is fetched partly from the pattern 
prescribed by God in the Old Testament, and partly 
from the imitation thereof brought in by the apostles.'' 
Herein I must entreat to be excused of the desire I 
have to be satisfied, how for example the ground of 
episcopacy is fetched partly from the example of the 
Old Testament, by whom next, and by whose autho- 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



33 



rity. Secondly, how the church-government under the 
gospel can be rightly called an imitation of that in the 
Old Testament ; for that the gospel is the end and ful- 
filling of the law, our liberty also from the bondage of 
the law, I plainly read. How then the ripe age of the 
gospel should be put to school again, and learn to go- 
vern herself from the infancy of the law, the stronger 
to imitate the weaker, the freeman to follow the cap- 
tive, the learned to be lessoned by the rude, will be a 
hard undertaking to evince from any of those prin- 
ciples, which either art or inspiration hath written. If 
any thing done by the apostles may be drawn howso- 
ever to a likeness of something mosaical, if it cannot 
be proved that it was done of purpose in imitation, as 
having the right thereof grounded in nature, and not 
in ceremony or type, it will little avail the matter. The 
whole judaic law is either political, (and to take pat- 
tern by that, no christian nation ever thought itself 
obliged in conscience,) or moral, which contains in it 
the observation of whatsoever is substantially and per- 
petually true and good, either in religion or course of 
life. That which is thus moral, besides what we fetch 
from those unwritten laws and ideas which nature hath 
engraven in us, the gospel, as stands with her dignity 
most, lectures to her from her own authentic handwrit- 
ing and command, not copies out from the borrowed 
manuscript of a subservient scroll, by way of imitating : 
as well might she be said in her sacrament of water, to 
imitate the baptism of John. What though she retain 
excommunication used in the synagogue, retain the 
morality of the sabbath ? She does not therefore imi- 
tate the law her underling, but perfect her. All that 
was morally delivered from the law to the gospel, in 
the office of the priests and Levites, was, that there 
should be a ministry set apart to teach and discipline 
the church ; both which duties the apostles thought good 
to commit to the presbyters. And if any distinction of 
honour were to be made among them, they directed it 
should be to those not that only rule well, but espe- 
cially to those that labour in the word and doctrine. 
By which we are told that laborious teaching is the 
most honourable prelaty that one minister can have 
above another in the gospel ; if therefore the supe- 
riority of bishopship be grounded on the priesthood as 
a part of the moral law, it cannot be said to be an imi- 
tation ; for it were ridiculous that morality should imi- 
tate morality, which ever was the same thing. This 
very word of patterning or imitating, excludes episco- 
pacy from the solid and grave ethical law, and betrays 
it to be a mere child of ceremony, or likelier some mis- 
begotten thing, that having plucked the gay feathers 
of her obsolete bravery, to hide her own deformed bar- 
renness, now vaunts and glories in her stolen plumes. 
In the mean while, what danger there is against the 
very life of the gospel, to make in any thing the typical 
law her pattern, and how impossible in that which 
touches the priestly government, I shall use such light 
as I have received, to lay open. It cannot be unknown 
by what expressions the holy apostle St. Paul spares 
not to explain to us the nature and condition of the law, 
calling those ordinances, which were the chief and 



essential offices of the priests, the elements and rudi- 
ments of the world, both weak and beggarly. Now to 
breed, and bring up the children of the promise, the heirs 
of liberty and grace, under such a kind of government 
as is professed to be but an imitation of that ministry, 
which engendered to bondage the sons of Agar ; how 
can this be but a foul injury and derogation, if not a 
cancelling of that birthright and immunity, which 
Christ hath purchased for us with his blood ? For the 
ministration of the law, consisting of carnal things, 
drew to it such a ministry as consisted of carnal re- 
spects, dignity, precedence, and the like. And such a 
ministry established in the gospel, as is founded upon 
the points and terms of superiority, and nests itself in 
Worldly honours, will draw to it, and we see it doth, 
such a religion as runs back again to the old pomp and 
glory of the flesh : for doubtless there is a certain at- 
traction and magnetic force betwixt the religion and 
the ministerial form thereof. If the religion be pure, 
spiritual, simple, and lowly, as the gospel most truly 
is, such must the face of the ministry be. And in like 
manner, if the form of the ministry be grounded in the 
worldly degrees of authority, honour, temporal juris- 
diction, we see with our eyes it will turn the inward 
power and purity of the gospel into the outward car- 
nality of the law ; evaporating and exhaling the inter- 
nal worship into empty conformities, and gay shews. 
And what remains then, but that we should run into 
as dangerous and deadly apostasy as our lamentable 
neighbours the papists, who, by this very snare and 
pitfall of imitating the ceremonial law, fell into that 
irrecoverable superstition, as must needs make void the 
covenant of salvation to them that persist in this blind- 
ness? 



CHAR IV. 

That it is impossible to make the priesthood of Aaron 
a pattern whereon to ground episcopacy. 

That which was promised next is, to declare the im- 
possibility of grounding evangelic government in the 
imitation of the Jewish priesthood ; which will be done 
by considering both the quality of the persons, and the 
office itself. Aaron and his sons were the princes of 
their tribe, before they were sanctified to the priesthood : 
that personal eminence, which they held above the 
other Levites, they received not only from their office, 
but partly brought it into their office ; and so from that 
time forward the priests were not chosen out of the 
whole number of the Levites, as our bishops, but were 
born inheritors of the dignity. Therefore, unless we 
shall choose our prelates only out of the nobility, and 
let them run in a blood, there can be no possible imita- 
tion of lording over their brethren in regard of their 
persons altogether unlike. As for the office, which was 
a representation of Christ's own person more imme- 
diately in the bigh-priest, and of his whole priestly 



34 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book I. 



office in all the other, to the performance of which the 
Levites were but servitors and deacons, it was neces- 
sary there should be a distinction of dignity between 
two functions of so great odds. But there being no 
such difference among our ministers, unless it be in 
reference to the deacons, it is impossible to found a 
prelaty upon the imitation of this priesthood : for 
wherein, or in what work, is the office of a prelate 
excellent above that of a pastor? In ordination, you 
will say ; but flatly against Scripture : for there we 
know Timothy received ordination by the hands of the 
presbytery, notwithstanding all the vain delusions that 
are used to evade that testimony, and maintain an un- 
warrantable usurpation. But wherefore should ordi- 
nation be a cause of setting up a superior degree in 
the church ? Is not that whereby Christ became our 
Saviour a higher and greater work, than that whereby 
he did ordain messengers to preach and publish him 
our Saviour ? Every minister sustains the person of 
Christ in his highest work of communicating- to us the 
mysteries of our salvation, and hath the power of 
binding and absolving; how should he need a higher 
dignity, to represent or execute that which is an in- 
feriour work in Christ ? Why should the performance 
of ordination, which is a lower office, exalt a prelate, 
and not the seldom discharge of a higher and more 
noble office, which is preaching and administering, 
much rather depress him ? Verily, neither the nature 
nor the example of ordination doth any way require 
an imparity between the ordainer and the ordained ; 
for what more natural than every like to produce his 
like, man to beget man, fire to propagate fire ? And 
in examples of highest opinion the ordainer is inferiour 
to the ordained ; for the pope is not made by the pre- 
cedent pope, but by cardinals, who ordain and conse- 
crate to a higher and greater office than their own. 



CHAP. V. 

To the arguments of bishop Andrews and the Primate. 

It follows here to attend to certain objections in a 
little treatise lately printed among others of like sort 
at Oxford, and in the title said to be out of the rude 
draughts of bishop Andrews: and surely they be rude 
draughts indeed, insomuch that it is marvel to think 
what hit friends meant, to let come abroad such shal- 
low reasonings with the name of a man so much 
bnrited for learning. In the twelfth and twenty-third 
be seems most notoriously inconstant to himself; 
for in tfo former place he tells us he forbears to take 
any argument of prelaty from Aaron, as being the type 
Of Christ In i lie latter he can forbear no longer, but 
repents him of his r.is}, gratuity, affirming, that to say, 
Christ h' tag come in the flesh, his figure in the high 
pri<st eeaseth, is the shift of an anabaptist; and stiffly 
argil's, that Christ being as well king as priest, was 
mbled hv the kings then, as by the 



high priest : so that if his coming take away the one 
type, it must also the other. Marvellous piece of 
divinity ! and well worth that the land should pay six 
thousand pounds a year for in a bishopric ; although 
I read of no sophister among the Greeks that was so 
dear, neither Hippias nor Protagoras, nor any whom 
the Socratic school famously refuted without hire. 
Here we have the type of the king* sewed to the tippet 
of the bishop, subtlely to cast a jealousy upon the 
crown, as if the right of kings, like Meleager in the 
Metamorphosis, were no longer-lived than the fire- 
brand of prelaty. But more likely the prelates fearing 
(for their own guilty carriage protests they do fear) 
that their fair days cannot long hold, practise by pos- 
sessing the king with this most false doctrine, to en- 
gage his power for them, as in his own quarrel, that 
when they fall they may fall in a general ruin ; just as 
cruel Tiberius would wish : 

" When I die let the earth be rolled in flames." 

But where, bishop, doth the purpose of the law 
set forth Christ to us as a king? That which never 
was intended in the law can never be abolished as part 
thereof. When the law was made, there was no king: 
if before the law, or under the law, God by a special 
type in any king would foresignify the future kingdom 
of Christ, which is not yet visibly come ; what was 
that to the law ? The whole ceremonial law (and types 
can be in no law else) comprehends nothing but the 
propitiatory office of Christ's priesthood, which being 
in substance accomplished, both law and priesthood 
fades away of itself, and passes into air like a transitory 
vision, and the right of kings neither stands by any 
type nor falls. We acknowledge that the civil ma- 
gistrate wears an authority of God's giving, and ought 
to be obeyed as his vicegerent. But to make a king a 
type, we say is an abusive and unskilful speech, and 
of a moral solidity makes it seem a ceremonial shadow : 
therefore your typical chain of king and priest must 
unlink. But is not the type of priest taken away by 
Christ's coming? No, saith this famous protestant 
bishop of Winchester, it is not ; and he that saith it is, 
is an anabaptist. What think ye, readers, do ye not 
understand him ? What can be gathered hence, but 
that the prelate would still sacrifice ? Conceive him, 
readers, he would missificate. Their altars, indeed, 
were in a fair forwardness ; and by such arguments as 
these they were setting up the molten calf of their mass 
again, and of their great hierarch the pope. For if the 
type of priest be not, taken away, then neither of the 
high priest, it were a strange beheading ; and high 
priest more than one there cannot be, and that one can 
be no less than a pope. And this doubtless was the 
bent of his career, though never so covertly. Yea, but 
there was something else in the high priest, besides the 
figure, as is plain by St. Paul's acknowledging him. 
It is true, that in the 17th of Deut. whence this au- 
thority arises to the priest in matters too hard for the 
secular judges, as must needs be many in the occasions 
of those times, involved with ceremonial niceties, no 
wonder though it be commanded to inquire at the 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



35 



mouth of the priests, who besides the magistrates their 
colleagues, had the oracle of urim to consult with. 
And whether the high priest Ananias had not en- 
croached beyond the limits of his priestly authority, or 
whether he used it rightly, was no time then for St. 
Paul to contest about. But if this instance be able to 
assert any right of jurisdiction to the clergy, it must 
impart it in common to all ministers, since it were a 
great folly to seek for counsel in a hard intricate scru- 
ple from a dunce prelate, when there might be found 
a speedier solution from a grave and learned minister, 
whom God hath gifted with the judgment of urim, 
more amply ofttimes than all the prelates together; 
and now in the gospel hath granted the privilege of 
this oraculous ephod alike to all his ministers. The 
reason therefore of imparity in the priests, being now, 
as is aforesaid, really annulled both in their person 
and in their representative office, what right of juris- 
diction soever can be from this place levitically be- 
queathed, must descend upon the ministers of the gospel 
equally, as it finds them in all other points equal. Well, 
then, he is finally content to let Aaron go ; Eleazar 
will serve his turn, as being a superior of superiors, and 
yet no type of Christ in Aaron's lifetime. O thou that 
wouldest wind into any figment, or phantasm, to save 
thy mite ! yet all this will not fadge, though it be cun- 
ningly interpolished by some second hand with crooks 
and emendations : hear then, the type of Christ in 
some one particular, as of entering yearly into the holy 
of holies, and such like, rested upon the high priest 
only as more immediately personating our Saviour: but 
to resemble his whole satisfactory office, all the line- 
age of Aaron was no more than sufficient. And all or 
any of the priests, considered separately without rela- 
tion to the highest, are but as a lifeless trunk, and sig- 
nify nothing. And this shews the excellence of 
Christ's sacrifice, who at once and in one person ful- 
filled that which many hundreds of priests many times 
repeating bad enough to foreshew. What other im- 
parity there was among themselves, we may safely 
suppose it depended on the dignity of their birth and 
family, together with the circumstances of a carnal 
service, which might afford many priorities. And this 
I take to be the sum of what the bishop hath laid to- 
gether to make plea for prelaty by imitation of the law : 
though indeed, if it may stand, it will infer popedom 
all as well. Many other courses he tries, enforcing 
himself with much ostentation of endless genealogies, 
as if he were the man that St. Paul forewarns us of in 
Timothy, but so unvigorously, that I do not fear his 
winning of many to his cause, but such as doting upon 
great names are either over-weak, or over-sudden of 
faith. I shall not refuse, therefore, to learn so much 
prudence as I find in the Roman soldier that attended 
the cross, not to stand breaking of legs, when the 
breath is quite out of the body, but pass to that which 
follows. The primate of Armagh at the beginning of 
his tractate seeks to avail himself of that place in 
the sixty-sixth of Isaiah, " I will take of them for 
priests and Levites, saith the Lord," to uphold hereby 
such a form of superiority among the ministers of the 

D 



gospel, succeeding those in the law, as the Lord's-day 
did the sabbath. But certain if this method may be 
admitted of interpreting those prophetical passages 
concerning christian times and a punctual correspond- 
ence, it may with equal probability be urged upon us, 
that we are bound to observe some monthly solemnity 
answerable to the new moons, as well as the Lord's- 
day which we keep in lieu of the sabbath : for in the 
23rd verse the prophet joins them in the same manner 
together, as before he did the priests and Levites, thus : 
" And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to 
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all 
flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Un- 
doubtedly, with as good consequence may it be alleged 
from hence, that we are to solemnize some religious 
monthly meeting different from the sabbath, as from 
the other any distinct formality of ecclesiastical orders 
may be inferred. This rather will appear to be the 
lawful and unconstrained sense of the text, that God, 
in taking of them for priests and Levites, will not es- 
teem them unworthy, though Gentiles, to undergo any 
function in the church, but will make of them a full 
and perfect ministry, as was that of the priests and Le- 
vites in their kind. And bishop Andrews himself, to 
end the controversy, sends us a candid exposition of 
this quoted verse from the 24th page of his said book, 
plainly deciding that God, by those legal names there 
of priests and Levites, means our presbyters and dea- 
cons; for which either ingenuous confession, or slip of 
his pen, we give him thanks, and withal to him that 
brought these treatises into one volume, who, setting 
the contradictions of two learned men so near together, 
did not foresee. What other deducements or analogies 
are cited out of St. Paul, to prove a likeness between 
the ministers of the Old and New Testament, having 
tried their sinews, I judge they may pass without harm- 
doing to our cause. We may remember, then, that 
prelaty neither hath nor can have foundation in the 
law, nor yet in the gospel ; which assertion, as being 
for the plainness thereof a matter of eyesight rather 
than of disquisition, I voluntarily omit ; not forgetting*, 
to specify this note again, that the earnest desire which 
the prelates have to build their hierarchy upon the 
sandy bottom of the law, gives us to see abundantly 
the little assurance, which they find to rear up their 
high roofs by the authority of the gospel, repulsed as 
it were from the writings of the apostles, and driven to 
take sanctuary among the Jews. Hence that open 
confession of the primate before mentioned f " Episco- 
pacy is fetched partly from the pattern of the Old Tes- 
tament, and partly from the New as an imitation of the 
Old ;" though nothing can be more rotten in divinity 
than such a position as this, and is all one as to say, 
episcopacy is partly of divine institution, and partly of 
man's own carving. For who gave the authority to 
fetch more from the pattern of the law, than what the 
apostles had already fetched, if they fetched anything 
at all, as hath been proved they did not ? So was Jero- 
boam's episcopacy partly from the pattern of the law, 
and partly from the pattern of his own carnality ; a 
party-coloured and a party-membered episcopacy : and 



36 



THE REASON OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT 



Book 1. 



what can this be else than a monstrous ? Others there- 
fore among the prelates, perhaps not so well able to 
brook, or rather to justify, this foul relapsing to the old 
law, have condescended at last to a plain confessing, 
that both the names and offices of bishops and presby- 
ters at first were the same, and in the Scriptures nowhere 
distinguished. This grants the remonstrant in the fifth 
section of his defence, and in the preface to his last 
Bhort answer. But what need respect be had whether 
he grant or grant it not, when as through all antiquity, 
and oven in the loftiest times of prelaty, we find it grant- 
ed ? Jerome, the learnedest of the fathers, hides not his 
opinion, that custom only, which the proverb calls a 
tyrant, was the maker of prelaty ; before his audacious 
workmanship the churches were ruled in common by 
the presbyters : and such a certain truth this was es- 
teemed, that it became a decree among the papal canons 
compiled by Gratian. Anselm also of Canterbury, who, 
to uphold the points of his prelatism, made himself a 
traitor to his country, yet, commenting the epistles to 
Titus and the Philippiaus, acknowledges, from the 
clearness of the text, what Jerome and the church ru- 
bric hath before acknowledged. He little dreamed then 
that the wecding-hook of reformation would after two 
ages pluck up his glorious poppy from insulting over 
the good corn. Though since some of our British pre- 
lates, seeing themselves pressed to produce Scrip- 
ture, try all their cunning, if the New Testament 
will not help them, to frame of their own heads, as it 
were with wax, a kind of mimic bishop limned out to 
the life of a dead priesthood : or else they would strain 
us out a certain figurative prelate, by wringing the 
collective allegory of those seven angels into seven 
single rochets. Howsoever, since it thus appears that 
custom was the creator of prelaty, being less 'ancient 
than the government of presbyters, it is an extreme 
folly to give them the hearing that tell us of bishops 
through so many ages : and if against their tedious 
muster of citations, sees, and successions, it be replied 
that wagers and church-antiquities, such as are repug- 
nant to the plain dictate of Scripture, are both alike 
the arguments of fools, they have their answer. We 
rather are to cite all those ages to an arraignment be- 
fore the word of God, wherefore, and what pretending, 
how presuming they durst alter that divine institution 
of presbyters, which the apostles, who were no various 
and inconstant men, surely had set up in the churches; 
and why they choose to live by custom and catalogue, 
or, as St. Paul saith, by sight and visibility, rather than 
by faith ? But, first, I conclude, from their own mouths, 
that God's command in Scripture, which doubtless 
- Dgfat to be the first and greatest reason of church-go- 
rernment, is wanting to prelaty. And certainly we 
bare plenteous warrant in the doctrine of Christ, to 
I; " rarine that the want of this reason is of itself suffi- 
1 1> nt to confute all other pretences, that may be brought 
in favour of it. 



CHAR VI. 

That prelaty was not set up for prevention of schism, 
as is pretended ; or if it were, that it performs not 
what it was first set up for, hut quite the contrary. 

Yet because it hath the outside of a specious reason, 
and specious things we know are aptest to work with 
human lightness and frailty, even against the solidest 
truth that sounds not plausibly, let us think it worth 
the examining for the love of infirmer Christians, of 
what importance this their second reason may be. Tra- 
dition they say hath taught them, that, for the preven- 
tion of growing schism, the bishop was heaved above 
the presbyter. And must tradition then ever thus to 
the world's end be the perpetual cankerworm to eat out 
God's commandments ? Are his decrees so inconsiderate 
and so fickle, that when the statutes of Solon or Lycur- 
gus shall prove durably good to many ages, his, in 
forty years, shall be found defective, ill-contrived, and 
for needful causes to be altered ? Our Saviour and his 
apostles did not only foresee, but foretell and forewarn 
us to look for schism. Is it a thing to be imagined of 
God's wisdom, or at least of apostolic prudence, to set up 
such a government in the tenderness of the church, as 
should incline, or not be more able than any others to 
oppose itself to schism? It was well known what a 
bold lurker schism was, even in the household of 
Christ, between his own disciples and those of John 
the Baptist about fasting ; and early in the Acts of the 
Apostles the noise of schism had almost drowned the 
proclaiming of the gospel ; yet we read not in Scrip- 
ture, that any thought was had of making prelates, no 
not in those places where dissension was most rife. If 
prelaty had been then esteemed a remedy against 
schism, where was it more needful than in that great 
variance among the Corinthians, which St. Paul so 
laboured to reconcile ? and whose eye could have found 
the fittest remedy sooner than his ? And what could 
have made the remedy more available, than to have 
used it speedily? And lastly, what could have been 
more necessary, than to have written it for our instruc- 
tion ? Yet we see he neither commended it to us, nor 
used it himself. For the same division remaining there, 
or else bursting forth again more than twenty years 
after St. Paul's death, we find in Clement's epistle, of 
venerable authority, written to the yet factious Corin- 
thians, that they were still governed by presbyters. 
And the same of other churches out of Hernias, and 
divers other the scholars of the apostles, by the late 
industry of the learned Salmasius appears. Neither 
yet did this worthy Clement, St. Paul's disciple, though 
writing to them to lay aside schism, in the least word 
advise them to change the presbyterian government 
into prelaty. And therefore if God afterward gave or 
permitted this insurrection of episcopacy, it is to be 
feared he did it in his wrath, as he gave the Israelites 
a king. With so good a will doth he use to alter his 
own chosen government once established. For mark 
whether this rare device of man's brain, thus preferred 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



before the ordinance of God, had better success than 
fleshly wisdom, not counselling with God, is wont to 
have. So far was it from removing schism, that if 
schism parted the congregations before, now it rent and 
mangled, now it raged. Heresy begat heresy with a 
certain monstrous haste of pregnancy in her birth, at 
once born and bringing forth. Contentions, before 
brotherly, were now hostile. Men went to choose their 
bishop as they went to a pitched field, and the day of 
his election was like the sacking of a city, sometimes 
ended with the blood of thousands. Nor this among 
heretics only, but men of the same belief, yea confess- 
ors ; and that with such odious ambition, that Euse- 
bius, in his eighth book, testifies he abhorred to write. 
And the reason is not obscure, for the poor dignity, or 
rather burden, of a parochial presbyter could not en- 
gage any great party, nor that to any deadly feud : 
but prelaty was a power of that extent and sway, that 
if her election were popular, it was seldom not the 
cause of some faction or broil in the church. But 
if her dignity came by favour of some prince, she 
was from that time his creature, and obnoxious to com- 
ply with his ends in state, were they right or wrong. 
So that, instead of finding prelaty an impeacher of 
schism or faction, the more I search, the more T grow 
into all persuasion to think rather that faction and she, 
as with a spousal ring, are wedded together, never to 
be divorced. But here let every one behold the just 
and dreadful j udgment of God meeting with the auda- 
cious pride of man, that durst offer to mend the ordi- 
nances of heaven. God, out of the strife of men, brought 
forth by his apostles to the church that beneficent and 
ever-distributing office of deacons, the stewards and 
ministers of holy alms : man, out of the pretended care 
of peace and unity, being caught in the snare of his 
impious boldness to correct the will of Christ, brought 
forth to himself upon the church that irreconcilable 
schism of perdition and apostasy, the Roman antichrist; 
for that the exaltation of the pope arose out of the 
reason of prelaty, it cannot be denied. And as I noted 
before, that the pattern of the high priest pleaded for 
in the gospel, (for take away the head priest, the rest 
are but a carcase,) sets up with better reason a pope 
than an archbishop ; for if prelaty must still rise and 
rise till it come to a primate, why should it stay there ? 
when as the catholic government is not to follow the 
division of kingdoms, the temple best representing the 
universal church, and the high priest the universal head : 
so I observe here, that if to quiet schism there must be 
one head of prelaty in a land, or monarchy, rising from 
a provincial to a national primacy, there may, upon 
better grounds of repressing schism, be set up one 
catholic head over the catholic church. For the peace 
and good of the church is not terminated in the schism- 
less estate of one or two kingdoms, but should be pro- 
vided for by the joint consultation of all reformed 
Christendom : that all controversy may end in the final 
pronounce or canon of one archprimate or protestant 
pope. Although by this means, for aught I see, all 
the diameters of schism may as well meet and be knit 
up in the centre of one grand falsehood. Now let all 



impartial men arbitrate what goodly inference these 
two main reasons of the prelates have, that by a natu- 
ral league of consequence make more for the pope than 
for themselves ; yea, to say more home, are the very 
womb for a new subantichrist to breed in, if it be not 
rather the old force and power of the same man of sin 
counterfeiting protestant. It was not the prevention 
of schism, but it was schism itself, and the hateful thirst 
of lording in the church, that first bestowed a being 
upon prelaty; this was the true cause, but the pretence 
is still the same. The prelates, as they would have it 
thought, are the only mauls of schism. Forsooth if 
they be put down, a deluge of innumerable sects will 
follow ; we shall be all Brownists, Familists, Anabap- 
tists. For the word Puritan seems to be quashed, and 
all that heretofore were counted such, are now Brown- 
ists. And thus do they raise an evil report upon the 
expected reforming grace that God hath bid us hope 
for ; like those faithless spies, whose carcases shall 
perish in the wilderness of their own confused igno- 
rance, and never taste the good of reformation. Do they 
keep away schism ? If to bring a numb and chill 
stupidity of soul, an unactive blindness of mind, upon 
the people by their leaden doctrine, or no doctrine at 
all ; if to persecute all knowing and zealous Christians 
by the violence of their courts, be to keep away schism, 
they keep schism away indeed : and by this kind of 
discipline all Italy and Spain is as purely and politicly 
kept from schism as England hath been by them. 
With as g'ood a plea might the dead-palsy boast to a 
man, It is I that free you from stitches and pains, and 
the troublesome feeling of cold and heat, of wounds 
and strokes ; if I were gone, all these would molest you. 
The winter might as well vaunt itself against the 
spring, I destroy all noisome and rank weeds, I keep 
down all pestilent vapours; yes, and all wholesome 
herbs, and all fresh dews, by your violent and hide- 
bound frost : but when the gentle west winds shall open 
the fruitful bosom of the earth, thus overgirded by your 
imprisonment, then the flowers put forth and spring, 
and then the sun shall scatter the mists, and the ma- 
nuring hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens 
the soil without thank to your bondage. But far 
worse than any frozen captivity is the bondage of pre- 
lates; for that other, if it keep down any thing which 
is good within the earth, so doth it likewise that which 
is ill ; but these let out freely the ill, and keep down 
the good, or else keep down the lesser ill, and let out 
the greatest. Be ashamed at last to tell the parliament, 
ye curb schismatics, whenas they know ye cherish and 
side with papists, and are now as it were one party 
with them, and it is said they help to petition for ye. 
Can we believe that your government strains in good 
earnest at the petty gnats of schism, whenas we see it 
makes nothing to swallow the camel heresy of Rome, 
but that indeed your throats are of the right pharisaical 
strain ? where are those schismatics, with whom the 
prelates hold such hot skirmish ? shew us your acts, 
those glorious annals which your courts of loathed me- 
mory lately deceased have left us? Those schismatics 
I doubt me will be found the most of them such as 



i 



38 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book I. 



whose only schism was to have spoken the truth 
against your high abominations and cruelties in the 
church ; this is the schism ye hate most, the removal 
of your criminous hierarchy. A politic government of 
yours, and of a pleasant conceit, set up to remove 
those as a pretended schism, that would remove you 
as a palpahle heresy in government. If the schism 
Mould pardon yc that, she might go jagged in as many 
cuts and slashes as she pleased for you. As for the 
rending of the church, we have many reasons to think 
it is not that which ye labour to prevent, so much as 
the rending of your pontifical sleeves : that schism 
would he the sorest schism to you ; that would be 
Brownism and Anabaptism indeed. If we go down, 
Bay you. (as if Adrian's wall were broken,) a flood of sects 
\\ill rush in. What sects? What are their opinions ? 
Give us the inventory : it will appear both by your 
former prosecutions and your present instances, that 
they are only such to speak of, as are offended with 
your lawless g-overnment, your ceremonies, your 
liturgy, an extract of the mass-book translated. But 
that they should be contemners of public prayer, 
nod churches used without superstition, I trust God 
will manifest it ere long" to be as false a slander, as 
your former slanders against the Scots. Noise it till 
ye be hoarse, that a rabble of sects will come in ; it will 
be answered ye, no rabble, sir priest, but an unanimous 
multitude of good protestants will then join to the 
church, which now, because of you, stand separated. 
This will be the dreadful consequence of your removal. 
As for those terrible names of sectaries and schismatics, 
which ye have got together, we know your manner of 
fight, when the quiver of your arguments, which is 
ever thin, and weakly stored, after the first brunt is 
quite empty, your course is to betake ye to your other 
quiver of slander, wherein lies your best archery. 
And whom you could not move by sophistical arguing, 
them you think to confute by scandalous misnaming; 
thereby inciting the blinder sort of people to mislike 
and deride sound doctrine and good Christianity, under 
two or three vile and hateful terms. But if we could 
easily endure and dissolve your doughtiest reasons in 
argument, we shall more easily bear the worst of your 
unreasonableness in calumny and false report: espe- 
cially being foretold by Christ, that if he our master 
were by your predecessors called Samaritan and Beel- 
Kebub, we must not think it strange if his best disci- 
ples in the reformation, as at first by those of your tribe 
ili' y were called Lollards and Hussites, so now by you 
1m termed Puritans and Brownists. But my hope is, 
thai the people of England will not suffer themselves 
'<■ be juggled thus out of their faith and religion by a 
mist of names east before their eyes, but will search 
•ria l\ by the Scriptures, and look quite through this 
fraudulent aspersion of a disgraceful name into the 
tilings themselves: knowing that the primitive Chris- 
tian* '" their times were accounted such as are now 
called Familists and Adamites, or worse. And many 
on the pi. lade side, tike the church of Sardis, have a 
Dame I" live, and yet are dead ; to be protestants, and 
are indeed papists in most of their principles. Thus 



persuaded, this your old fallacy we shall soon unmask, 
and quickly apprehend how you prevent schism, and 
who are your schismatics. But what if ye prevent 
and hinder all good means of preventing schism ? 
That way which the apostles used, was to call a coun- 
cil : from which, by any thing that can be learned 
from the fifteenth of the Acts, no faithful Christian was 
debarred, to whom knowledge and piety might give 
entrance. Of such a council as this every parochial 
consistory is a right homogeneous and constituting* 
part, being in itself, as it were, a little synod, and 
towards a general assembly moving upon her own basis 
in an even and firm progression, as those smaller squares 
in battle unite in one great cube, the main phalanx, an 
emblem of truth and steadfastness. Whereas, on the 
other side, prelaty ascending by a gradual monarchy 
from bishop to archbishop, from thence to primate, and 
from thence, for there can be no reason yielded neither 
in nature nor in religion, wherefore, if it have lawfully 
mounted thus high, it should not be a lordly ascendant 
in the horoscope of the church, from primate to patri- 
arch, and so to pope : I say, prelaty thus ascending in 
a continual pyramid upon pretence to perfect the 
church's unity, if notwithstanding it be found most 
needful, yea the utmost help to darn up the rents of 
schism by calling a council, what does it but teach us 
that prelaty is of no force to effect this work, which she 
boasts to be her masterpiece; and that her pyramid 
aspires and sharpens to ambition, not to perfection or 
unity ? This we know, that as often as any great 
schism disparts the church, and synods be proclaimed, 
the presbyters have as great right there, and as free 
vote of old, as the bishops, which the canon law con- 
ceals not. So that prelaty, if she will seek to close up 
divisions in the church, must be forced to dissolve and 
unmake her own pyramidal figure, which she affirms 
to be of such uniting power, whenas indeed it is the 
most dividing and schismatical form that geometricians 
know of, and must be fain to inglobe or incube herself 
among the presbyters ; which she hating to do, sends 
her haughty prelates from all parts with their forked 
mitres, the badge of schism, or the stamp of his cloven 
foot whom they serve I think, who, according to their 
hierarchies acuminating still higher and higher in a 
cone of prelaty, instead of healing up the gashes of 
the church, as it happens in such pointed bodies meet- 
ing, fall to gore one another with their sharp spires 
for upper place and precedence, till the council itself 
proves the greatest schism of all. And thus they are 
so far from hindering dissension, that they have made 
unprofitable, and even noisome, the chiefest remedy 
we have to keep Christendom at one, which is by coun- 
cils : and these, if we rightly consider apostolic exam- 
ple, are nothing else but general presbyteries. This 
seemed so far from the apostles to think much of, as if 
hereby their dignity were impaired, that, as we may 
gather by those epistles of Peter and John, which are 
likely to be latest written, when the church grew to a 
settling, like those heroic patricians of Rome (if we 
may use such comparison) hastening to lay down their 
dictatorship, they rejoiced to call themselves, and to be 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



39 






as fellow-elders among their brethren ; knowing- that 
their high office was but as the scaffolding of the 
church yet unbuilt, and would be but a troublesome 
disfigurement, so soon as the building was finished. 
But the lofty minds of an age or two after, such was 
their small discerning, thought it a poor indignity, 
that the high-reared government of the church should 
so on a sudden, as it seemed to them, squat into a pres- 
bytery. Next, or rather, before councils, the timeliest 
prevention of schism is to preach the gospel abundantly 
and powerfully throughout all the land, to instruct the 
youth religiously, to endeavour how the Scriptures 
may be easiest understood by all men ; to all which 
the proceedings of these men have been on set purpose 
contrary. But how, prelates, should you remove 
schism ? and how should you not remove and oppose 
all the means of removing schism ? when prelaty is a 
schism itself from the most reformed and most flourish- 
ing of our neighbour churches abroad, and a sad sub- 
ject of discord and offence to the whole nation at home. 
The remedy which you allege, is the very disease we 
groan under ; and never can be to us a remedy but by 
removing itself. Your predecessors were believed to 
assume this pre-eminence above their brethren, only 
that they might appease dissension. Now God and 
the church call upon you, for the same reason, to lay 
it down, as being to thousands of good men offensive, 
burdensome, intolerable. Surrender that pledge, which, 
unless you foully usurped it, the church gave you, and 
now claims it again, for the reason she first lent it. 
Discharge the trust committed to you, prevent schism ; 
and that ye can never do, but by discharging your- 
selves. That government which ye hold, we confess, 
prevents much, hinders much, removes much ; but 
what ? the schisms and grievances of the church ? no, 
but all the peace and unity, all the welfare not of the 
church alone, but of the whole kingdom. And if it be 
still permitted ye to hold, will cause the most sad, I 
know not whether separation be enough to say, but 
such a wide gulf of distraction in this land, as will 
never close her dismal gap until ye be forced, (for of 
yourselves you will never do as that Roman, Curtius, 
nobly did,) for the church's peace and your country's, to 
leap into the midst, and be no more seen. By this we 
shall know whether yours be that ancient prelaty, which 
you say was first constituted for the reducement of 
quiet and unanimity into the church, for then you will 
not delay to prefer that above your own preferment. If 
otherwise, we must be confident that your prelaty is no- 
thing else but your ambition, an insolent preferring of 
yourselves above your brethren ; and all your learned 
scraping in antiquity, even to disturb the bones of old 
Aaron and his sons in their graves, is but to maintain 
and set upon our necks a stately and severe dignity, 
which you called sacred, and is nothing in very deed but 
a grave and reverend gluttony, a sanctimonious avarice ; 
in comparison of which, all the duties and dearnesses 
which ye owe to God or to his church, to law, cus- 
tom, or nature, ye have resolved to set at nought. I 
could put you in mind what counsel Clement, a fellow- 
labourer with the apostles, gave to the presbyters of 



Corinth, whom the people, though unjustly, sought to 
remove. " Who among you," saith he, " is noble- 
minded, who is pitiful, who is charitable ? let him say 
thus, If for me this sedition, this enmity, these differ- 
ences be, I willingly depart, I go my ways ; only let 
the flock of Christ be at peace with the presbyters that 
are set over it. He that shall do this," saith he, " shall 
get him great honour in the Lord, and all places will 
receive him." This was Clement's counsel to good 
and holy men, that they should depart rather from their 
just office, than by their stay to ravel out the seamless 
garment of concord in the church. But I have better 
counsel to give the prelates, and far more acceptable 
to their ears ; this advice in my opinion is fitter for 
them : cling fast to your pontifical sees, bate not, quit 
yourselves like barons, stand to the utmost for your 
haughty courts and votes in parliament. Still tell us, 
that you prevent schism, though schism and combus- 
tion be the very issue of your bodies, your first-born ; 
and set your country a bleeding in a prelatical mutiny, 
to fight for your pomp, and that ill-favoured weed of 
temporal honour, that sits dishonourably upon your 
laic shoulders ; that ye may be fat and fleshy, swoln 
with high. thoughts and big with mischievous designs, 
when God comes to visit upon you all this fourscore 
years' vexation of his church under your Egyptian 
tyranny. For certainly of all those blessed souls which 
you have persecuted, and those miserable ones which 
you have lost, the just vengeance does not sleep. 



CHAP. VII. 

That those many sects and schisms by some supposed to 
be among us, and that rebellion in Ireland, ought 
not to be a hinderance, but a hastening of reform- 
ation. 

As for those many sects and divisions rumoured abroad 
to be amongst us, it is not hard to perceive, that they 
are partly the mere fictions and false alarms of the pre- 
lates, thereby to cast amazements and panic terrours 
into the hearts of weaker Christians, that they should 
not venture to change the present deformity of the 
church, for fear of I know not what worse incon- 
veniencies. With the same objected fears and sus- 
picions, we know that subtle prelate Gardner sought 
to divert the reformation. It may suffice us to be 
taught by St. Paul, that there must be sects for the 
manifesting of those that are sound-hearted. These are 
but winds and flaws to try the floating vessel of our 
faith, whether it be stanch and sail well, whether our 
ballast be just, our anchorage and cable strong. By 
this is seen who lives by faith and certain knowledge, 
and who by credulity and the prevailing opinion of the 
age ; whose virtue is of an unchangeable grain, and 
whose of a slight wash. If God come to try our con- 
stancy, we ought not to shrink or stand the less firmly 
for that, but pass on with more steadfast resolution to 



40 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book II. 



establish the truth, though it were through a lane of 
sects and heresies on each side. Other things men do 
to the glory of God : but sects and errours, it seems, 
God suffers to be for the glory of good men, that the 
world may know and reverence their true fortitude and 
undaunted constancy in the truth. Let us not there- 
fore make these things an incumbrance, or an excuse 
of our delay in reforming, which God sends us as an 
incitement to proceed with more honour and alacrity : 
for if there were no opposition, where were the trial of 
an unfeigned goodness and magnanimity? Virtue that 
wavers is not virtue, but vice revolted from itself, and 
after a while returning. The actions of just and pious 
men do not darken in their middle course ; but Solomon 
tells us, they are as the shining light, that shineth more 
and more unto the perfect day. But if we shall suffer 
the trifling doubts and jealousies of future sects to 
overcloud the fair beginnings of purposed reformation, 
let us rather fear that another proverb of the same wise 
man be not upbraided to us, that " the way of the 
wicked is as darkness, they stumble at they know not 
what." If sects and schisms be turbulent in the unset- 
tled estate of a church, while it lies under the amending 
hand, it best beseems our christian courage to think 
they are but as the throes and pangs that go before the 
birth of reformation, and that the work itself is now in 
doing. For if we look but on the nature of elemental 
and mixed things, we know they cannot suffer any 
change of one kind or quality into another, without the 
struggle of contrarieties. And in things artificial, 
seldom any elegance is wrought without a superfluous 
waste and refuse in the transaction. No marble statue 
can be politely carved, no fair edifice built, without 
almost as much rubbish and sweeping. Insomuch that 
even in the spiritual conflict of St. Paul's conversion, 
there fell scales from his eyes, that were not perceived 
before. No wonder then in the reforming of a church, 
which is never brought to effect without the fierce en- 
counter of truth and falsehood together, if, as it were, 
the splinters and shards of so violent a jousting, there 
fall from between the shock many fond errours and 
fanatic opinions, which, when truth has the upper 
band, and the reformation shall be perfected, will easily 
be rid out of the way, or kept so low, as that they shall 
be only the exercise of our knowledge, not the distur- 
bance or interruption of our faith. As for that which 
Barclay, in his " Image of Minds," writes concerning 
the horrible and barbarous conceits of Englishmen in 
tin ir religion, I deem it spoken like what he was, a 
fugitive papist traducing the island whence he sprung. 
It may be more judiciously gathered from hence, that 
tip J In ltI i-liniaii of many other nations is least atheisti- 
cal, and bean a natural disposition of much reverence 
and aw towards the Deity; but in his weakness and 
want of better instruction, which among us too fre- 
quently is neglected, especially by the meaner sort, 
turning the bent of his own wits, with a scrupulous 
and ' . v. bat he might do to inform himself 

ariglrl of God and bis worship, he may fall not unlikely 
sometil my other landman, into an uncouth 

opinion. And rerily if we look at his native toward- 



liness in the roughcast without breeding, some nation 
or other may haply be better composed to a natural 
civility and right judgment than he. But if he get 
the benefit once of a wise and well rectified nurture, 
which must first come in general from the godly vigi- 
lance of the church, I suppose that wherever mention 
is made of countries, manners, or men, the English 
people, among the first that shall be praised, may de- 
serve to be accounted a right pious, right honest, and 
right hardy nation. But thus while some stand dally- 
ing and deferring to reform for fear of that which 
should mainly hasten them forward, lest schism and 
errour should increase, we may now thank ourselves 
and our delays, if instead of schism a bloody and in- 
human rebellion be strook in between our slow movings. 
Indeed against violent and powerful opposition there 
can be no just blame of a lingering dispatch. But this 
I urge against those that discourse it for a maxim, as 
if the swift opportunities of establishing or reforming 
religion were to attend upon the phlegm of state-busi- 
ness. In state many thing's at first are crude and hard 
to digest, which only time and deliberation can supple 
and concoct. But in religion, wherein is no immatu- 
rity, nothing out of season, it goes far otherwise. The 
door of grace turns upon smooth hinges, wide opening to 
send out, but soon shutting to recall the precious offers of 
mercy to a nation : which, unless watchfulness and zeal, 
two quicksighted and ready-handed virgins, be there in 
our behalf to receive, we lose : and still the of'tener we 
lose, the straiter the door opens, and the less is offered. 
This is all we get by demurring in God's service. It 
is not rebellion that ought to be the hinderance of re- 
formation, but it is the want of this which is the cause 
of that. The prelates which boast themselves the only 
bridlers of schism, God knows have been so cold and 
backward both there and with us to repress heresy 
and idolatry, that either, through their carelessness, 
or their craft, all this mischief is befallen. What 
can the Irish subjects do less in God's just displeasure 
against us, than revenge upon English bodies the 
little care that our prelates have had of their souls ? Nor 
bath their negligence been new in that island, but ever 
notorious in Queen Elizabeth's days, as Camden their 
known friend forbears not to complain. Yet so little 
are they touched with remorse of these their cruelties, 
(for these cruelties are theirs, the bloody revenge of 
those souls which they have famished,) that whenas 
against our brethren the Scots, who, by their upright 
and loyal deeds, have now brought themselves an 
honourable name to posterity, whatsoever malice by 
slander could invent, rage in hostility attempt, they 
greedily attempted; toward these murderous Irish, the 
enemies of God and mankind, a cursed offspring of 
their own connivance, no man takes notice but that 
they seem to be very calmly and indifferently affected. 
Where then should we begin to extinguish a rebellion, 
that hath its cause from the misgovernment, of the 
church ? where, but at the church's reformation, and 
the removal of that government, which pursues and 
wars with all good Christians under the name of schis- 
matics, but maintains and fosters all papists and ido- 



1 



Book I. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



4L 



laters as tolerable Christians ? And if the sacred Bible 
may be our light, we are neither without example, nor 
the witness of God himself, that the corrupted state of 
the church is both the cause of tumult and civil wars, 
and that to stint them, the peace of the church must 
first be settled. " Now, for a long season," saith Aza- 
riah to King Asa, " Israel hath been without the true 
God, and without a teaching priest, and without law : 
and in those times there was no peace to him that went 
out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were 
upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation 
was destroyed of nation, and city of city, for God did 
vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore," 
saith he to the reformers of that age, " and let not your 
hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded." And 
in those prophets that lived in the times of reformation 
after the captivity, often doth God stir up the people 
to consider, that while establishment of church-matters 
was neglected, and put off, there " was no peace to 
him that went out or came in ; for I," saith God, 
" had set all men every one against his neighbour." 
But from the very day forward that they went seriously 
and effectually about the welfare of the church, he tells 
them, that they themselves might perceive the sudden 
change of things into a prosperous and peaceful con- 
dition. But it will here be said, that the reformation 
is a long work, and the miseries of Ireland are urgent 
of a speedy redress. They be indeed ; and how speedy 
we are, the poor afflicted remnant of our martyred 
countrymen that sit there on the seashore, counting 
the hours of our delay with their sighs, and the minutes 



with their falling tears, perhaps with the distilling of 
their bloody wounds, if they have not quite by this 
time cast off, and almost cursed the vain hope of our 
foundered ships and aids, can best judge how speedy 
we are to their relief. But let their succours be hasted, 
as all need and reason is; and let not therefore the re- 
formation, which is the chiefest cause of success and 
victory, be still procrastinated. They of the captivity 
in their greatest extremities could find both counsel 
and hands enough at once to build, and to expect the 
enemy's assault. And we, for our parts, a populous 
and mighty nation, must needs be fallen into a strange 
plight either of effeminacy or confusion, if Ireland, that 
was once the conquest of one single earl with his pri- 
vate forces, and the small assistance of a petty Kernish 
prince, should now take up all the wisdom and prowess 
of this potent monarchy, to quell a barbarous crew of 
rebels, whom, if we take but the right course to sub- 
due, that is, beginning at the reformation of our church, 
their own horrid murders and rapes will so fight against 
them, that the very sutlers and horse-boys of the camp 
will be able to rout and chase them, without the stain- 
ing of any noble sword. To proceed by other method 
in this enterprise, be our captains and commanders 
never so expert, will be as great an errour in the art 
of war, as any novice in soldiership ever committed. 
And thus I leave it as a declared truth, that neither the 
fear of sects, no nor rebellion, can be a fit plea to stay 
reformation, but rather to push it forward with all pos- 
sible diligence and speed. 



THE SECOND BOOK. 



How happy were it for this frail, and as it may be 
called mortal life of man, since all earthly things which 
have the name of good and convenient in our daily 
use, are withal so cumbersome and full of trouble, if 
knowledge, yet which is the best and lightsomest pos- 
session of the mind, were, as the common saying is, no 
burden ; and that what it wanted of being a load to any 
part of the body, it did not with a heavy advantage 
overlay upon the spirit ! For not to speak of that know- 
ledge that rests in the contemplation of natural causes 
and dimensions, which must needs be a lower wisdom, 
as the object is low, certain it is, that he who hath ob- 
tained in more than the scantiest measure to know any 
thing distinctly of God, and of his true worship, and 
what is infallibly good and happy in the state of man's 
life, what in itself evil and miserable, though vulgarly 
not so esteemed ; he that hath obtained to know this, the 
only high valuable wisdom indeed, remembering also 
that God, even to a strictness, requires the improvement 
of these his entrusted gifts, cannot but sustain a sorer 
burden of mind, and more pressing, than any support- 



able toil or weight which the body can labour under, 
how and in what manner he shall dispose and employ 
those sums of knowledge and illumination, which God 
hath sent him into this world to trade with. And that 
which aggravates the burden more, is, that, having re- 
ceived amongst his allotted parcels, certain precious 
truths, of such an orient lustre as no diamond can 
equal ; which nevertheless he has in charg'e to put off 
at any cheap rate, yea, for nothing* to them that will ; 
the great merchants of this world, fearing that this 
course would soon discover and disgrace the false glit- 
ter of their deceitful wares, wherewith they abuse the 
people, like poor Indians with beads and glasses, prac- 
tise by all means how they may suppress the vending 
of such rarities, and at such a cheapness as would undo 
them, and turn their trash upon their hands. There- 
fore by gratifying the corrupt desires of men in fleshly 
doctrines, they stir them up to persecute with hatred 
and contempt all those, that seek to bear themselves 
uprightly in this their spiritual factory : which they 
foreseeing, though they cannot but testify of truth, and 



42 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book II. 



the excellency of that heavenly traffick which they 
bring-, against what opposition or danger soever, yet 
needs must it sit heavily upon their spirits, that, being 
in God's prime intention, and their own, selected he- 
ralds of peace, and dispensers of treasure inestimable, 
without price to them that have no peace, they find in 
the discharge of their commission, that they are made 
the greatest variance and offence, a very sword and fire 
both in house and city over the whole earth. This is 
that which the sad prophet Jeremiah laments: "Wo 
is me, my mother, that thou hast born me, a man of 
strife and contention !" And although divine inspira- 
tion must certainly have been sweet to those ancient 
prophets, yet the irksomeness of that truth which they 
brought was so unpleasant unto them, that everywhere 
they call it a burden. Yea, that mysterious book of 
revelation, which the great evangelist was bid to eat, 
as it had been some eyebrightening electuary of know- 
ledge and foresight, though it were sweet in his mouth, 
and in the learning, it was bitter in his belly, bitter in 
the denouncing. Nor was this hid from the wise poet 
Sophocles, who in that place of his tragedy, where 
Tircsias is called to resolve king (Edipus in a matter 
which he knew would be grievous, brings him in be- 
moaning- his lot, that he knew more than other men. 
For surely to every g-ood and peaceable man, it must in 
nature needs be a hateful thing to be the displeaser 
and molester of thousands; much better would it like 
him doubtless to be the messenger of gladness and 
contentment, which is his chief intended business to 
all mankind, but that they resist and oppose their own 
true happiness. But when God commands to take the 
trumpet, and blow a dolorous or jarring blast, it lies 
not in man's will what he shall say, or what he 
shall conceal. If he shall think to be silent as Jere- 
miah did, because of the reproach and derision he met 
with daily, " and all his familiar friends watched for 
his halting," to be revenged on him for speaking the 
troth, he would be forced to confess as he confessed; 
" his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up 
in my bones; I was weary with forbearing and could not 
stay." Which might teach these times not suddenly 
to condemn all things that are sharply spoken or vehe- 
mently written as proceeding out of stomach, virulence, 
and ill nature; hut to consider rather, that if the pre- 
lates have leave to say the worst that can be said, or do 
the worst that can be done, while they strive to keep 
to themselves, to their great pleasure and commodity, 
those things which they ought to render up, no man 
can be justly offended with him that shall endeavour 
to imparl and bestow, without any gain to himself, 
those sharp and saving words which would be a terrour 
and a torment in him to keep back. For me, I have 
oV '• rmined to lav up as the best treasure and solace of 
a good old age, if Clod vouchsafe it me, the honest 
liberty of free speech from my youth, where I shall 
thiols it available in so dear a concernment as the 
chnrch*s good. For if T be, either by disposition or 
what other cause, too inquisitive, or suspicious of my- 
lelf and mine own doings, who can help it? But this 
I for. - e, that should the church he brought under 



heavy oppression, and God have given me ability the 
while to reason against that man that should be the au- 
thor of so foul a deed ; or should she, by blessing from 
above on the industry and courage of faithful men, 
change this her distracted estate into better days, with- 
out the least furtherance or contribution of those few 
talents, which God at that present had lent me ; I fore- 
see what stories I should hear within myself, all my 
life after, of discourage and reproach. Timorous and 
ungrateful, the church of God is now again at the foot 
of her insulting enemies, and thou bewailest ; what 
matters it for thee, or thy bewailing? When time was, 
thou couldst not find a syllable of all that thou hast read, 
or studied, to utter in her behalf. Yet ease and leisure 
was given thee for thy retired thoughts, out of the 
sweat of other men. Thou hast the diligence, the 
parts, the language of a man, if a vain subject were to 
be adorned or beautified ; but when the cause of God 
and his church was to be pleaded, for which purpose 
that tongue was given thee which thou hast, God lis- 
tened if he could hear thy voice among his zealous ser- 
vants, but thou wert dumb as a beast ; from hencefor- 
ward be that which thine own brutish silence hath 
made thee. Or else I should have heard on the other 
ear; slothful, and ever to be set light by, the church 
hath now overcome her late distresses after the un- 
wearied labours of many her true servants that stood up 
in her defence ; thou also wouldst take upon thee to 
share amongst them of their joy : but wherefore thou ? 
Where canst thou shew any word or deed of thine 
which might have hastened her peace? Whatever theu 
dost now talk, or write, or look, is the alms of other 
men's active prudence and zeal. Dare not now to say 
or do any thing better than thy former sloth and in- 
fancy ; or if thou darest, thou dost impudently to 
make a thrifty purchase of boldness to thyself, out 
of the painful merits of other men ; what before was 
thy sin is now thy duty, to be abject and worthless. 
These, and such like lessons as these, I know would have 
been my matins duly, and my even-song. But now by 
this little diligence, mark what a privilege I have gain- 
ed with good men and saints, to claim my right of la- 
menting the tribulations of the church, if she should 
suffer, when others, that have ventured nothing for her 
sake, have not the honour to be admitted mourners. But 
if she lift up her drooping head and prosper, among 
those that have something more than wished her wel- 
fare, I have my charter and freehold of rejoicing to me 
and my heirs. Concerning therefore this wayward 
subject against prelaty, the touching whereof is so dis- 
tasteful and disquietous to a number of men, as by 
what hath been said I may deserve of charitable readers 
to be credited, that neither envy nor gall hath entered 
me upon this controversy, but the enforcement of con- 
science only, and a preventive fear lest the omitting of 
this duty should be against me, when I would store up 
to myself the good provision of peaceful hours: so, lest 
it should be still imputed to me, as I have found it 
hath been, that some self-pleasing humour of vain-glory 
hath incited me to contest with men of high estimation, 
now while green years are upon my head ; from this 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



43 



needless surmisal I shall hope to dissuade the intel- 
ligent and equal auditor, if T can but say successfully 
that which in this exigent behoves me ; although I 
would be heard only, if it might be, by the elegant and 
learned reader, to whom principally for a while I shall 
beg leave I may address myself. To him it will be no 
new thing, though I tell him that if I hunted after 
praise, by the ostentation of wit and learning, I should 
not write thus out of mine own season when I have 
neither yet completed to my mind the full circle of my 
private studies, although I complain not of any insuffi- 
ciency to the matter in hand ; or were I ready to my 
wishes, it were a folly to commit any thing elaborately 
composed to the careless and interrupted listening of 
these tumultuous times. Next, if I were wise only to 
my own ends, I would certainly take such a subject as 
of itself might catch applause, whereas this hath all the 
disadvantages on the contrary, and such a subject as 
the publishing whereof might be delayed at pleasure, 
and time enough to pencil it over with all the curious 
touches of art, even to the perfection of a faultless pic- 
ture ; whenas in this argument the not deferring is of 
great moment to the good speeding, that if solidity 
have leisure to do her office, art cannot have much. 
Lastly, I should not choose this manner of writing, 
wherein knowing myself inferiour to myself, led by 
the genial power of nature to another task, I have the 
use, as I may account, but of my left hand. And though 
I shall be foolish in saying more to this purpose, yet, 
since it will be such a folly, as wisest men go about to 
commit, having only confessed and so committed, I 
may trust with more reason, because with more folly 
to have courteous pardon. For although a poet, soar- 
ing in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland 
and singing robes about him, might, without apology, 
speak more of himself than I mean to do ; yet for me 
sitting here below in the cool element of prose, a mor- 
tal thing among many readers of no empyreal conceit, 
to venture and divulge unusual things of myself, I 
shall petition to the gentler sort, it may not be envy 
to me. I must say therefore, that after I had for my 
first years, by the ceaseless diligence and care of my 
father, (whom God recompense !) been exercised to the 
tongues, and some sciences, as my age would suffer, 
by sundry masters and teachers both at home and at 
the schools, it was found, that whether ought was im- 
posed me by them that had the overlooking, or betaken 
to of mine own choice in English, or other tongue, 
prosing or versing, but chiefly this latter, the style, by 
certain vital signs it had, was likely to live. But 
much latelier in the private academies of Italy, whither 
I was favoured to resort, perceiving that some trifles 
which I had in memory, composed at under twenty or 
thereabout, (for the manner is, that every one must 
give some proof of his wit and reading there,) met with 
acceptance above what was looked for ; and other 
things, which I had shifted in scarcity of books and 
conveniences to patch up amongst them, were received 
with written encomiums, which the Italian is not for- 
ward to bestow on men of this side the Alps ; I began 
thus far to assent both to them and divers of my friends 



here at home, and not less to an inward prompting which 
now grew daily upon me, that by labour and intense 
study, (which I take to be my portion in this life,) joined 
with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps 
leave something so written to after-times, as they should 
not willingly let it die. These thoughts at once pos- 
sessed me, and these other ; that if I were certain to 
write as men buy leases, for three lives and downward, 
there ought no regard be sooner had than to God's 
glory, by the honour and instruction of my country. 
For which cause, and not only for that I knew it would 
be hard to arrive at the second rank among the Latins, 
I applied myself to that resolution, which Ariosto fol- 
lowed against the persuasions of Bembo, to fix all the 
industry and art I could unite to the adorning of my 
native tongue ; not to make verbal curiosities the end, 
(that were a toilsome vanity,) but to be an interpreter 
and relater of the best and sagest things, among mine 
own citizens throughout this island in the mother dia- 
lect. That what the greatest and choicest wits of 
Athens, Rome, or modern Italy, and those Hebrews of 
old did for their country , I, in my proportion, with this 
over and above, of being a Christian, might do for 
mine ; not caring to be once named abroad, though 
perhaps I could attain to that, but content with these 
British islands as my world; whose fortune hath hither- 
to been, that if the Athenians, as some say, made their 
small deeds great and renowned by their eloquent 
writers, England hath had her noble achievements 
made small by the unskilful handling of monks and 
mechanics. 

Time serves not now, and perhaps I might seem too 
profuse to give any certain account of what the mind 
at home, in the spacious circuits of her musing, hath 
liberty to propose to herself, though of highest hope 
and hardest attempting; whether that epic form whereof 
the two poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil 
and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief 
model : or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are 
strictly to be kept, or nature to be followed, which in 
them that know art, and use judgment, is no transgres- 
sion, but an enriching of art : and lastly, what king or 
knight, before the conquest, might be chosen in whom 
to lay the pattern of a christian hero. And as Tasso 
gave to a prince of Italy his choice whether he would 
command him to write of Godfrey's expedition against 
the Infidels, or Belisarius against the Goths, or Charle- 
main against the Lombards ; if to the instinct of nature 
and the emboldening of art aught may be trusted, and 
that there be nothing' adverse in our climate, or the 
fate of this age, it haply would be no rashness, from 
an equal diligence and inclination, to present the like 
offer in our own ancient stories ; or whether those 
dramatic constitutions, wherein Sophocles and Eurip- 
ides reign, shall be found more doctrinal and exemplary 
to a nation. The Scripture also affords us a divine 
pastoral drama in the Song of Solomon, consisting of 
two persons, and a double chorus, as Origen rightly 
judges. And the Apocalypse of St. John is the majes- 
tic image of a high and stately tragedy, shutting up 
and intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a 



44 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book II. 



sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping- sympho- 
nies : and this my opinion the grave authority of Pareus, 
commenting- that hook, is sufficient to confirm. Or if 
occasion shall lead, to imitate those magnific odes and 
hymns, wherein Pindarus and Callimaehus are in most 
things worthy, some others in their frame judicious, in 
their matter most an end faulty. But those frequent 
songs throughout the law and prophets beyond all these, 
not in their divine argument alone, but in the very 
critical art of composition, may be easily made appear 
o\lt all the kinds of lyric poesy to be incomparable. 
These abilities, wheresoever they be found, are the in- 
spired gift of God rarely bestowed, but yet to some 
(though most abuse) in every nation : and are of power, 
beside the office of a pulpit, to imbreed and cherish in 
a great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, 
to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the af- 
fections iu right tune ; to celebrate in glorious and 
lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's al migh- 
tiness, and what he works, and what he suffers to be 
wrought with high providence in his church ; to sing 
victorious agonies of martyrs and saints, the deeds and 
triumphs of just and pious nations, doing valiantly 
through faith against the enemies of Christ; to deplore 
the general relapses of kingdoms and states from justice 
and God's true worship. Lastly, whatsoever in religion 
is holy and sublime, in virtue amiable or grave, what- 
soever hath passion or admiration in all the changes 
of that which is called fortune from without, or the 
wily subtleties and refluxes of man's thoughts from 
within ; all these things with a solid and treatable 
smoothness to paint out and describe. Teaching over 
the whole book of sanctity and virtue, through all the 
instances of example, with such delight to those espe- 
cially of soft and delicious temper, who will not so 
much as look upon truth herself, unless they see her 
elegantly dressed ; that whereas the paths of honesty 
and good life appear now rugged and difficult, though 
they be indeed easy and pleasant, they will then appear 
to all men both easy and pleasant, though they were 
rugged and difficult indeed. And what a benefit this 
would be to our youth and gentry, maybe soon guessed 
by what we know of the corruption and bane, which 
they suck in daily from the writings and interludes of 
libidinous and ignorant poetasters, who having scarce 
ever heard of that which is the main consistence of a 
true poem, the choice of such persons as they ought to 
introduce, and what is moral and decent to each one ; 
do for the most part lay up vicious principles in sweet 
pills to be swallowed down, and make the taste of vir- 
tuous documents harsh and sour. But because the 
spirit of man cannot demean itself lively in this body, 
without sonic recreating intermission of labour and 
leriooj dungs, it were nappy for the commonwealth, if 
our magistrates, ai in those famous governments of old, 
wool. I take into their care, not only the deciding of our, 
rout, ntioni law easel and brawls, but the managing of 
our pubKek sports and festival pastimes; that they 
Bight be, not inch as were authorized a while since, 
the provocations of drunkenness and lust, but such as 
Bay inure and harden our bodies by martial exercises 



to all warlike skill and performance ; and may civilize, 
adorn, and make discreet our minds by the learned and 
affable meeting of frequent academies, and the procure- 
ment of wise and artful recitations, sweetened with 
eloquent and graceful inticements to the love and prac- 
tice of justice, temperance, and fortitude, instructing 
and bettering the nation at all opportunities, that the 
call of wisdom and virtue may be heard every where, 
as Solomon saith ; " She crieth without, she uttereth 
her voice in the streets, in the top of high places, in 
the chief concourse, and in the openings of the gates." 
Whether this may not be, not only in pulpits, but after 
another persuasive method, at set and solemn panegu- 
ries, in theatres, porches, or what other place or way, 
may win most upon the people to receive at once both 
recreation and instruction ; let them in authority con- 
sult. The thing which I had to say, and those inten- 
tions which have lived within me ever since I could 
conceive myself any thing worth to my country, I 
return to crave excuse that urgent reason hath plucked 
from me, by an abortive and foredated discovery. And 
the accomplishment of them lies not but in a power 
above man's to promise; but that none hath by more 
studious ways endeavoured, and with more unwearied 
spirit that none shall, that I dare almost aver of myself, 
as far as life and free leisure will extend ; and that the 
land had once enfranchised herself from this imperti- 
nent yoke of prelaty, under whose inquisitorious and 
tyrannical duncery, no free and splendid wit can flou- 
rish. Neither do I think it shame to covenant with 
any knowing reader, that for some few years yet I may 
go on trust with him toward the payment of what I 
am now indebted, as being a work not to be raised 
from the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine; like 
that which flows at waste from the pen of some 
vulgar amourist, or the trencher fury of a rhyming- 
parasite ; nor to be obtained by the invocation of 
dame memory and her siren daughters, but by de- 
vout prayer to that eternal Spirit, who can enrich 
with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his 
seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch 
and purify the lips of whom he pleases : to this must 
be added industrious and select reading, steady ob- 
servation, insig-ht into all seemly and generous arts and 
affairs ; till which in some measure be compassed, at 
mine own peril and cost, I refuse not to sustain this 
expectation from as many as are not loth to hazard so 
much credulity upon the best pledges that I can give 
them. Although it nothing content me to have dis- 
closed thus much before-hand, but that I trust hereby 
to make it manifest with what small willingness I en- 
dure to interrupt the pursuit of no less hopes than these, 
and leave a calm and pleasing solitariness, fed with 
cheerful and confident thoughts, to embark in a troubled 
sea of noises and hoarse disputes, put from beholding 
the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still 
air of delightful studies, to come into the dim reflection 
of hollow antiquities sold by the seeming bulk, and 
there be fain to club quotations with men whose learn- 
ing and belief lies in marginal stuffings, who, when 
they have, like good sumpters, laid ye down their 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



45 



horse-loads of citations and fathers at your door, with 
a rhapsody of who and who were bishops here or there, 
ye may take off their packsaddles, their day's work is 
done, and episcopacy, as they think, stoutly vindicated. 
Let any gentle apprehension, that can distinguish 
learned pains from unlearned drudgery, imagine what 
pleasure or profoundness can be in this, or what honour 
to deal against such adversaries. But were it the 
meanest under-service, if God by his secretary con- 
science enjoin it, it were sad for me if I should draw 
back ; for me especially, now when all men offer their 
aid to help, ease, and lighten the difficult labours of 
the church, to whose service, by the intentions of my 
parents and friends, I was destined of a child, and in 
mine own resolutions : till coming to some maturity of 
years, and perceiving what tyranny had invaded the 
church, that he who would take orders must subscribe 
slave, and take an oath withal, which, unless he took 
with a conscience that would retch, he must either 
straight perjure, or split his faith ; I thought it better 
to prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of 
speaking, bought and begun with servitude and for- 
swearing. Howsoever thus church-outed by the pre- 
lates, hence may appear the right I have to meddle 
in these matters, as before the necessity and constraint 
appeared. 



CHAP. I. 

That prelaty opposeth the reason and end of the gospel 
three ways ; and first, in her outward form. 

After this digression, it would remain that I should 
single out some other reason, which might undertake 
for prelaty to be a fit and lawful church-government ; 
but finding none of like validity with these that have 
already sped according to their fortune, I shall add one 
reason why it is not to be thought a church-government 
at all, but a church-tyranny, and is at hostile terms 
with the end and reason of Christ's evangelic ministry. 
Albeit I must confess to be half in doubt whether I 
should bring it forth or no, it being so contrary to the 
eye of the world, and the world so potent in most 
men's hearts, that I shall endanger either not to be 
regarded, or not to be understood ; for who is there 
almost that measures wisdom by simplicity, strength 
by suffering, dignity by lowliness ? Who is there that 
counts it first to be last, something to be nothing, and 
reckons himself of great command in that he is a ser- 
vant ? Yet God, when he meant to subdue the world 
and hell at once, part of that to salvation, and this 
wholly to perdition, made choice of no other weapons 
or auxiliaries than these, whether to save or to destroy. 
It had been a small mastery for him to have drawn 
out his legions into array, and flanked them with his 
thunder ; therefore he sent foolishness to confute wis- 
dom, weakness to bind strength, despisedness to van- 
quish pride : and this is the great mystery of the gospel 



made good in Christ himself, who, as he testifies, came 
not to be ministered to, but to minister; and must be 
fulfilled in all his ministers till his second coming. 
To go against these principles St. Paul so feared, that 
if he should but affect the wisdom of words in his 
preaching, he thought it would be laid to his charge, 
that he had made the cross of Christ to be of none 
effect. Whether, then, prelaty do not make of none 
effect the cross of Christ, by the principles it hath so 
contrary to these, nullifying the power and end of the 
gospel, it shall not want due proof, if it want not due 
belief. Neither shall I stand to trifle with one that 
would tell me of quiddities and formalities, whether 
prelaty or prelateity, in abstract notion be this or that; 
it suffices me that I find it in his skin, so I find it in- 
separable, or not oftener otherwise than a phoenix hath 
been seen; although I persuade me, that whatever 
faultiness was but superficial to prelaty at the begin- 
ning, is now, by the just judgment of God, long since 
branded and inworn into the very essence thereof. 
First, therefore, if to do the work of the gospel, Christ 
our Lord took upon him the form of a servant ; how 
can his servant in this ministry take upon him the 
form of a lord ? I know Bilson hath deciphered us all 
the gallantries of signore and monsignore, and mon- 
sieur, as circumstantially as any punctualist of Castile, 
Naples, or Fountain-Bleau, could have done : but this 
must not so compliment us out of our right minds, as 
to be to learn that the form of a servant was a mean, 
laborious, and vulgar life, aptest to teach ; which form 
Christ thought fittest, that he might bring about his 
will according to his own principles, choosing the 
meaner things of this world, that he might put under 
the high. Now, whether the pompous garb, the lordly 
life, the wealth, the haughty distance of prelaty, be 
those meaner things of the world, whereby God in 
them would manage the mystery of his gospel, be 
it the verdict of common sense. For Christ saith in 
St. John, " The servant is not greater than his lord, 
nor he that is sent, greater than he that sent him ;" 
and adds, " If ye know these things, happy are ye if 
ye do them." Then let the prelates well advise, if 
they neither know, nor do these things, or if they 
know, and yet do them not, wherein their happiness 
consists. And thus is the gospel frustrated by the 
lordly form of prelaty. 



CHAP. II. 

That the ceremonious doctrine of prelaty opposeth the 
reason and end of the gospel. 

That which next declares the heavenly power, and 
reveals the deep mystery of the gospel, is the pure sim- 
plicity of doctrine, accounted the foolishness of this 
world, yet crossing and confounding the pride and 
wisdom of the flesh. And wherein consists this fleshly 
wisdom and pride ? In being altogether ignorant of 



46 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book II. 



God and his worship ? No surely, for men are naturally 
ashamed of that. Where then ? It consists in a bold 
presumption of ordering' the worship and service of 
God after man's own will in traditions and ceremonies. 
Now if the pride and wisdom of the flesh were to be 
defeated and confounded, no doubt but in that very 
point wherein it was proudest, and thought itself wisest, 
that so the victory of the gospel might be the more il- 
lustrious. But our prelates, instead of expressing the 
spiritual power of their ministry, by warring against 
this chief bulwark and strong hold of the flesh, have 
entered into fast league with the principal enemy 
against whom they were sent, and turned the strength 
of fleshly pride and wisdom against the pure simplicity 
of saving truth. First, mistrusting to find the authority 
of their order in the immediate institution of Christ, or 
his apostles, by the clear evidence of Scripture, they 
fly to the carnal supportment of tradition ; when we 
appeal to the Bible, they to the unwieldy volumes of 
tradition : and do not shame to reject the ordinance of 
him that is eternal, for the perverse iniquity of sixteen 
hundred years; choosing rather to think truth itself a 
liar, than that sixteen ages should be taxed with an 
errour ; not considering the general apostasy that was 
foretold, and the church's flight into the wilderness. 
Nor is this enough ; instead of shewing the reason of 
their lowly condition from divine example and com- 
mand, they seek to prove their high pre-eminence from 
human consent and authority. But let them chant 
while they will of prerogatives, we shall tell them of 
Scripture ; of custom, we of Scripture ; of acts and 
statutes, still of Scripture ; till the quick and piercing 
word enter to the dividing of their souls, and the 
mighty weakness of the gospel throw down the weak 
mightiness of man's reasoning. Now for their de- 
meanour within the church, how have they disfigured 
and defaced that more than angelic brightness, the un- 
clouded serenity of christian religion, with the dark 
overcasting of superstitious copes and flaminical ves- 
tures, wearing on their backs, and I abhor to think, 
perhaps in some worse place, the inexpressible image 
of God the Father? Tell me, ye priests, wherefore this 
gold, wherefore these robes and surplices over the gos- 
pel ? Is our religion guilty of the first trespass, and 
hath need of clothing to cover her nakedness ? What 
does this <lse but cast an ignominy upon the perfection 
of Christ's ministry, by seeking to adorn it with that 
which was the poor remedy of our shame ? Believe it, 
wondrous doctors, all corporeal resemblances of inward 
holiness and beauty are now past; he that will clothe 
the gospel now, intimates plainly that the gospel is 
naked, uncomely, that I may not say reproachful. Do 
not, ye church-maskers, while Christ is clothing upon 
our barrenness with his righteous garment to make us 
acceptable in his Father's sight; do not, as ye do, 
cow and bide hi. righteous verity with the polluted 
clothing of jour a n monies, to make it seem more de- 
cnt in jrourown eyes. " How beautiful," saith Isaiah, 
"are the feet bf him that bringeth good tidings, that 
published salvation !" Are the feet so beautiful, and is 
the very bringing of these tidings so decent of itself? 



What new decency can then be added to this by your 
spinstry ? Ye think by these gaudy glisterings to stir 
up the devotion of the rude multitude ; ye think so, 
because ye forsake the heavenly teaching of St. Paul 
for the hellish sophistry of papism. If the multitude 
be rude, the lips of the preacher must give knowledge, 
and not ceremonies. And although some Christians 
be new-born babes comparatively to some that are 
stronger, yet in respect of ceremony, which is but a ru- 
diment of the law, the weakest Christian hath thrown 
off the robes of his minority, and is a perfect man, as 
to legal rites. What children's food there is in the 
gospel, we know to be no other than the " sincerity of 
the word, that they may grow thereby." But is here 
the utmost of your outbraving the service of God ? No. 
Ye have been bold, not to set your threshold by his 
threshold, or your post by his posts ; but your sacra- 
ment, your sign, call it what you will, by his sacrament, 
baptizing the christian infant with a solemn sprinkle, 
and unbaptizing for your own part with a profane and 
impious forefinger ; as if when ye had laid the purifying 
element upon his forehead, ye meant to cancel and 
cross it out again with a character not of God's bidding. 
O but the innocence of these ceremonies ! O rather the 
sottish absurdity of this excuse. What could be more 
innocent than the washing of a cup, a glass, or hands, 
before meat, and that under the law, when so many 
washings were commanded, and by long* tradition? 
yet our Saviour detested their customs, though never 
so seeming harmless, and charges them severely, that 
they had transgressed the commandments of God by 
their traditions, and worshipped him in vain. How 
much more then must these, and much grosser ceremo- 
nies now in force, delude the end of Christ's coming in 
the flesh against the flesh, and stifle the sincerity of 
our new covenant, which hath bound us to forsake all 
carnal pride and wisdom, especially in matters of re- 
ligion ? Thus we see again how prelaty, failing in 
opposition to the main end and power of the gospel, 
doth not join in that mysterious work of Christ, by 
lowliness to confound height, by simplicity of doc- 
trine the wisdom of the world, but contrariwise hath 
made itself high in the world and the flesh, to van- 
quish things by the world accounted low, and made 
itself wise in tradition and fleshly ceremony, to con- 
found the purity of doctrine which is the wisdom 
of God. 



CHAP. III. 

That prelatical jurisdiction opposeth the reason and 
end of the yospel and of state. 

The third and last consideration remains, whether 
the prelates in their function do work according to the 
gospel, practising to subdue the mighty things of this 
world by things weak, which St. Paul hath set forth to 
be the power and excellence of the gospel ; or whether 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



47 






in more likelihood they band themselves with the pre- 
valent thing's of this world, to overrun the weak things 
which Christ hath made choice to work by : and this 
will soonest be discerned by the course of their juris- 
diction. But here again I find my thoughts almost in 
suspense betwixt yea and no, and am nigh turning 
mine eye which way I may best retire, and not proceed 
in this subject, blaming the ardency of my mind that 
fixed me too attentively to come thus far. For truth, 
I know not how, hath this unhappiness fatal to her, 
ere she can come to the trial and inspection of the un- 
derstanding ; being to pass through many little wards 
and limits of the several affections and desires, she can- 
not shift it, but must put on such colours and attire, as 
those pathetic handmaids of the soul please to lead her 
in to their queen : and if she find so much favour with 
them, they let her pass in her own likeness; if not, 
they bring her into the presence habited and coloured 
like a notorious falsehood. And contrary, when any 
falsehood comes that way, if they like the errand she 
brings, they are so artful to counterfeit the very shape 
and visage of truth, that the understanding not being 
able to discern the fucus which these inchantresses 
with such cunning have laid upon the feature some- 
times of truth, sometimes of falsehood interchangeably, 
sentences for the most part one for the other at the first 
blush, according to the subtle imposture of these sen- 
sual mistresses, that keep the ports and passages be- 
tween her and the object. So that were it not for leav- 
ing imperfect that which is already said, I should go 
near to relinquish that which is to follow. And be- 
cause I see that most men, as it happens in this world, 
either weakly or falsely principled, what through ig- 
norance, and what through custom of licence, both in 
discourse and writing, by what hath been of late writ- 
ten in vulgar, have not seemed to attain the decision 
of this point: I shall likewise assay those wily arbi- 
tresses who in most men have, as was heard, the sole 
ushering of truth and falsehood between the sense and 
the soul, with what loyalty they will use me in con- 
voying this truth to my understanding ; the rather for 
that by as much acquaintance as I can obtain with 
them, I do not find them engaged either one way or 
other. Concerning therefore ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 
I find still more controversy, who should administer it, 
than diligent inquiry made to learn what it is : for had 
the pains been taken to search out that, it had been 
long ago enrolled to be nothing else but a pure tyran- 
nical forgery of the prelates ; and that jurisdictive 
power in the church there ought to be none at all. It 
cannot be conceived that what men now call jurisdic- 
tion in the church, should be other thing than a chris- 
tian censorship ; and therefore it is most commonly and 
truly named ecclesiastical censure. Now if the Ro- 
man censor, a civil function, to that severe assize of 
surveying and controlling the privatest and slyest man- 
ners of all men and all degrees, had no jurisdiction, no 
courts of plea or inditement, no punitive force annexed ; 
whether it were that to this manner of correction the 
intanglement of suits was improper, or that the notice 
of those upright inquisitors extended to such the most 



covert and spirituous vices as would slip easily between 
the wider and more material grasp of the law ; or that 
it stood more with the majesty of that office to have no 
other sergeants or maces about them but those invisible 
ones of terrour and shame ; or, lastly, were it their fear, 
lest the greatness of this authority and honour, armed 
with jurisdiction, might step with ease into a tyranny : 
in all these respects, with much more reason undoubt- 
edly ought the censure of the church be quite divested 
and disentailed of all jurisdiction whatsoever. For if 
the course of judicature to a political censorship seem 
either too tedious, or too contentious, much more may 
it to the discipline of the church, whose definitive de- 
crees are to be speedy, but the execution of rigour slow, 
contrary to what in legal proceedings is most usual ; 
and by how much the less contentious it is, by so much 
will it be the more christian. And if the censor, in his 
moral episcopacy, being to judge most in matters not 
answerable by writ or action, could not use an instru- 
ment so gross and bodily as jurisdiction is, how can 
the minister of the gospel manage the corpulent and 
secular trial of bill and process in things merely spiri- 
tual? Or could that Roman office, without this juridical 
sword or saw, strike such a reverence of itself into the 
most undaunted hearts, as with one single dash of ig- 
nominy to put all the senate and knighthood of Rome 
into a tremble ? Surely much rather might the heavenly 
ministry of the evangel bind herself about with far 
more piercing beams of majesty and awe, by wanting 
the beggarly help of halings and amercements in the 
use of her powerful keys. For when the church with- 
out temporal support is able to do her great works upon 
the unforced obedience of men, it argues a divinity 
about her. But when she thinks to credit and better 
her spiritual efficacy, and to win herself respect and 
dread by strutting in the false vizard of worldly autho- 
rity, it is evident that God is not there, but that her 
apostolic virtue is departed from her, and hath left her 
key-cold ; which she perceiving as in a decayed nature, 
seeks to the outward fomentations and chafings of 
worldly help, and external flourishes, to fetch, if it be 
possible, some motion into her extreme parts, or to 
hatch a counterfeit life with the crafty and artificial 
heat of jurisdiction. But it is observable, that so long- 
as the church, in true imitation of Christ, can be con- 
tent to ride upon an ass, carrying herself and her go- 
vernment along in a mean and simple guise, she may 
be, as he is, a lion of the tribe of Judah ; and in her 
humility all men with loud hosannas will confess her 
greatness. But when despising the mighty operation 
of the Spirit by the weak things of this world, she thinks 
to make herself bigger and more considerable, by using 
the way of civil force and jurisdiction, as she sits upon 
this lion she changes into an ass, and instead of ho- 
sannas every man pelts her with stones and dirt. 
Lastly, if the wisdom of the Romans feared to commit 
jurisdiction to an office of so high esteem and dread 
as was the censor's, we may see what a solecism in 
the art of policy it hath been, all this while through 
Christendom to give jurisdiction lo ecclesiastical cen- 
sure. For that strength, joined with religion, abused 



48 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book II. 



and pretended to ambitious ends, must of necessity 
breed the heaviest and most quelling tyranny not only 
upon the necks, but even to the souls of men : which 
if christian Rome had been so cautelous to prevent in 
her church, as pagan Rome was in her state, we had 
not had such a lamentable experience thereof as now 
we have from thence upon all Christendom. For 
although I said before that the church coveting to ride 
upon the lionly form of jurisdiction, makes a trans- 
formation of herself into an ass, and becomes despica- 
ble, that is, to those whom God hath enlightened with 
true knowledge ; but where they remain yet in the 
reliques of superstition, this is the extremity of their 
bondage and blindness, that while they think they do 
obeisance to the lordly vision of a lion, they do it to an 
ass, that through the just judgment of God is permitted 
to play the dragon among them because of their wilful 
stupidity. And let England here well rub her eyes, 
lest by leaving jurisdiction and church-censure to the 
same persons, now that God hath been so long medi- 
cining her eyesight, she do not with her over-politic 
fetches mar all, and bring herself back again to wor- 
ship this ass bestriding a lion. Having hitherto ex- 
plained, that to ecclesiastical censure no jurisdictive 
power can be added, without a childish and dangerous 
oversight in policy, and a pernicious contradiction in 
evangelical discipline, as anon more fully ; it will be 
next to declare wherein the true reason and force of 
church-censure consists, which by then it shall be laid 
open to the root; so little is it that I fear lest any 
crookedness, any wrinkle or spot should be found in 
presbyterian government, that if Bodin the famous 
French writer, though a papist, yet affirms that the 
commonwealth which maintains this discipline will 
certainly flourish in virtue and piety; I dare assure 
myself, that every true protestant will admire the 
integrity, the uprightness, the divine and gracious 
purposes thereof, and even for the reason of it so co- 
herent with the doctrine of the gospel, beside the evi- 
dence of command in Scripture, will confess it to be 
the only true church-government; and that contrary 
to the whole end and mystery of Christ's coming in 
the flesh, a false appearance of the same is exercised 
by prelaty. But because some count it rigorous, and 
that hereby men shall be liable to a double punish- 
ment, I will begin somewhat higher, and speak of 
punishment; which, as it is an evil, I esteem to be of 
two sorts, or rather two decrees only, a reprobate con- 
science iu this life, and hell in the other world. 
Whatever else men call punishment or censure, is not 
properly an evil, so it be not an illegal violence, but a 
taring medicine ordained of God both for the public 
and private good of man ; who consisting of two parts, 
the inward and the outward, was by the eternal Pro- 
vidence left under two sorts of cure, the church and 
the magistrate. The magistrate hath only to deal 
with the outward part, I mean not of the body alone, 
but of the mind in all her outward acts, which in 
Scripture i> called the outward man. So that it would 
be helpful to 01 if we might borrow such authority as 
the rhetorician* by patent may give us, with a kind of 



promethean skill to shape and fashion this outward 
man into the similitude of a body, and set him visible 
before us ; imagining the inner man only as the soul. 
Thus then the civil magistrate looking only upon the 
outward man, (I say as a magistrate, for what he doth 
further, he doth it as a member of the church,) if he 
find in his complexion, skin, or outward temperature 
the signs and marks, or in his doings the effects of in- 
justice, rapine, lust, cruelty, or the like, sometimes he 
shuts up as in frenetick or infectious diseases ; or con- 
fines within doors, as in every sickly estate. Some- 
times he shaves by penalty or mulct, or else to cool and 
take down those luxuriant humours which wealth and 
excess have caused to abound. Otherwhiles he sears, 
he cauterizes, he scarifies, lets blood ; and finally, for 
utmost remedy cuts off. The patients, which most an 
end are brought into his hospital, are such as are far 
gone, and beside themselves, (unless they be falsely 
accused,) so that force is necessary to tame and quiet 
them in their unruly fits, before they can be made 
capable of a more humane cure. His general end is 
the outward peace and welfare of the commonwealth, 
and civil happiness in this life. His particular end in 
every man is, by the infliction of pain, damage, and 
disgrace, that the senses and common perceivance 
might carry this message to the soul within, that it is 
neither easeful, profitable, nor praiseworthy in this life 
to do evil. Which must needs tend to the good of 
man, whether he be to live or die ; and be undoubtedly 
the first means to a natural man, especially an offender, 
which might open his eyes to a higher consideration of 
good and evil, as it is taught in religion. This is seen 
in the often penitence of those that suffer, who, had 
they escaped, had gone on sinning to an immeasurable 
heap, which is one of the extremest punishments. 
And this is all that the civil magistrate, as so being, 
confers to the healing of man's mind, working only by 
terrifying plasters upon the rind and orifice of the sore ; 
and by all outward appliances, as the logicians say, a 
posteriori, at the effect, and not from the cause ; not 
once touching the inward bed of corruption, and that 
hectic disposition to evil, the source of all vice and ob- 
liquity against the rule of law. Which how insufficient 
it is to cure the soul of man, we cannot better guess 
than by the art of bodily physic. Therefore God, to 
the intent of further healing man's depraved mind, to 
this power of the magistrate, which contents itself with 
the restraint of evil-doing in the external man, added 
that which we call censure, to purge it and remove it 
clean out of the inmost soul. In the beginning this 
authority seems to have been placed, as all both civil and 
religious rites once were, only in each father of a 
family; afterwards among the heathen, in the wise 
men and philosophers of the age ; but so as it was a 
thing voluntary, and no set government. More dis- 
tinctly among the Jews, as being God's peculiar peo- 
ple, where the priests, Levites, prophets, and at last the 
scribes and Pharisees, took charge of instructing and 
overseeing the lives of the people. But in the gospel, 
which is the straightest and the dearest covenant can 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



49 



adopted sons, and nothing- fitter for us to think on than 
to be like him, united to him, and, as he pleases to 
express it, to have fellowship with him ; it is all neces- 
sity that we should expect this blessed efficacy of 
healing- our inward man to be ministered to us in a 
more familiar and effectual method than ever before. 
God being- now no more a judge after the sentence of 
the law, nor, as it were, a schoolmaster of perishable 
rites, but a most indulgent father, governing- his church 
as a family of sons in their discreet ag-e: and therefore, 
in the sweetest and mildest manner of paternal disci- 
pline, he hath committed his other office of preserving 
in healthful constitution the inner man, which may be 
termed the spirit of the soul, to his spiritual deputy the 
minister of each congregation ; who being best ac- 
quainted with his own flock, hath best reason to know 
all the secretest diseases likely to be there. And look 
by how much the internal man is more excellent and 
noble than the external, by so much is his cure more 
exactly, and more thoroughly, and more particularly 
to be performed. For which cause the Holy Ghost by 
the apostles joined to the minister, as assistant in this 
great office, sometimes a certain number of grave and 
faithful brethren, (for neither doth the physician do all 
in restoring his patient, he prescribes, another prepares 
the medicine, some tend, some watch, some visit,) much 
more may a minister partly not see all, partly err as 
a man : besides, that nothing can be more for the mu- 
tual honour and love of the people to their pastor, and 
his to them, than when in select numbers and courses 
they are seen partaking and doing reverence to the 
holy duties of discipline by their serviceable and 
solemn presence, and receiving honour again from 
their employment, not now any more to be separated 
in the church by veils and partitions as laics and un- 
clean, but admitted to wait upon the tabernacle as the 
rightful clergy of Christ, a chosen generation, a royal 
priesthood, to otfer up spiritual sacrifice in that meet 
place, to which God and the congregation shall call 
and assign them. And this all Christians ought to 
know, that the title of clergy St. Peter gave to all 
God's people, till pope Higinus and the succeeding 
prelates took it from them, appropriating that name to 
themselves and their priests only ; and condemning the 
rest of God's inheritance to an injurious and alienate 
condition of laity, they separated from them by local 
partitions in churches, through their gross ignorance 
and pride imitating the old temple, and excluding the 
members of Christ from the property of being members, 
the bearing of orderly and fit offices in the ecclesiasti- 
cal body ; as if they had meant to sew up that Jewish 
veil, which Christ by his death on the cross rent in 
sunder. Although these usurpers could not so pre- 
sently overmaster the liberties and lawful titles of God's 
freeborn church ; but that Origen, being yet a layman, 
expounded the Scriptures publicly, and was therein 
defended by Alexander of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus 
of Caesarea, producing in his behalf divers examples, 
that the privilege of teaching was anciently permitted 
to many worthy laymen : and Cyprian in his epistles 
professes he will do nothing without the advice and 



assent of his assistant laics. Neither did the first 
Nicene council, as great and learned as it was, think it 
any robbery to receive in, and require the help and 
presence of many learned lay-brethren, as they were 
then called. Many other authorities to confirm this 
assertion, both out of Scripture and the writings of next 
antiquity, Golartius hath collected in his notes upon 
Cyprian ; whereby it will be evident, that the laity, 
not only by apostolic permission, but by consent of 
many of the ancientest prelates, did participate in 
church-offices as much as is desired any lay-elder 
should now do. Sometimes also not the elders alone, 
but the whole body of the church is interested in the 
work of discipline, as oft as public satisfaction is given 
by those that have given public scandal. Not to speak 
now of her right in elections. But another reason 
there is in it, which though religion did not commend 
to us, yet moral and civil prudence could not but ex- 
tol. It was thought of old in philosophy, that shame, 
or to call it better, the reverence of our elders, our bre- 
thren, and friends, was the greatest incitement to vir- 
tuous deeds, and the greatest dissuasion from unworthy 
attempts that might be. Hence we may read in the 
Iliad, where Hector being wished to retire from the 
battle, many of his forces being routed, makes answer, 
that he durst not for shame, lest the Trojan knights 
and dames should think he did ignobly. And certain 
it is, that whereas terrour is thought such a great 
stickler in a commonwealth, honourable shame is a far 
greater, and has more reason : for where shame is, there 
is fear; but where fear is, there is not presently shame. 
And if anything may be done to inbreed in us this ge- 
nerous and christianly reverence one of another, the 
very nurse and guardian of piety and virtue, it cannot 
sooner be than by such a discipline in the church, as 
may use us to have in awe the assemblies of the faith- 
ful, and to count it a thing most grievous, next to the 
grieving of God's Spirit, to offend those whom he hath 
put in authority, as a healing superintendence over our 
lives and behaviours, both to our own happiness, and 
that we may not give offence to good men, who, with- 
out amends by us made, dare not, against God's com- 
mand, hold communion with us in holy things. And 
this will be accompanied with a religious dread of be- 
ing outcast from the company of saints, and from the 
fatherly protection of God in his church, to consort 
with the devil and his angels. But there is jet a more 
ingenuous and noble degree of honest shame, or, call it, 
if you will, an esteem, whereby men bear an inward 
reverence toward their own persons. And if the love 
of God, as a fire sent from heaven to be ever kept alive 
upon the altars of our hearts, be the first principle of all 
godly and virtuous actions in men, this pious and just 
honouring of ourselves is the second, and may be 
thought as the radical moisture and fountain-head, 
whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues 
forth. And although I have given it the name of a 
liquid thing, yet it is not incontinent to bound itself, as 
humid things are, but hath in it a most restraining and 
powerful abstinence to start back, and glob itself upward 
from the mixture of any ungenerous and unbeseeming'' 



50 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book IT. 



motion, or any soil wherewith it may peril to stain it- 
self. Something- I confess it is to be ashamed of evil- 
doing- in the presence of any ; and to reverence the 
opinion and the countenance of a g-ood man rather than 
a bad, fearing- most in his sight to offend, g-oes so far 
as almost to be virtuous ; yet this is but still the fear 
of infamy, and many such, when they find themselves 
alone, saving- their reputation, will compound with 
Other scruples, and come to a close treaty with their 
dearer vices in secret. But he that holds himself in 
reverence and due esteem, both for the dig-nity of God's 
image upon him, and for the price of his redemption, 
which he thinks is visibly marked upon his forehead, 
accounts himself both a fit person to do the noblest and 
g-odliest deeds, and much better worth than to deject 
and defile, with such a debasement, and such a pollu- 
tion as sin is, himself so highly ransomed and ennobled 
to a new friendship and filial relation with God. Nor 
can he fear so much the offence and reproach of others, 
as he dreads and would blush at the reflection of his 
own severe and modest eye upon himself, if it should 
see him doing or imagining that which is sinful, though 
in the deepest secrecy. How shall a man know to do 
himself this right, how to perform his honourable duty 
of estimation and respect towards his own soul and 
body ? which way will lead him best to this hill-top of 
sanctity and goodness, above which there is no higher 
ascent but to the love of God, which from this self-pious 
regard cannot be asunder ? No better way doubtless, 
than to let him duly understand, that as he is called 
by the high calling of God, to be holy and pure, so is 
he by the same appointment ordained, and by the 
church's call admitted, to such offices of discipline in 
the church, to which his own spiritual gifts, by the 
example of apostolic institution, have authorized him. 
For we have learned that the scornful term of laic, the 
consecrating of temples, carpets, and table-cloths, the 
railing in of a repugnant and contradictive mount 
Sinai in the gospel, as if the touch of a lay-christian, 
who is nevertheless God's living temple, could prophane 
dead Judaisms, the exclusion of Christ's people from 
the offices of holy discipline through the pride of a 
usurping clergy, causes the rest to have an unworthy 
and abject opinion of themselves, to approach to holy 
duties with a slavish fear, and to unholy doings with 
a familiar boldness. For seeing such a wide and ter- 
rible distance between religious things and themselves, 
and that in respect of a wooden table, and the perimeter 
of holy ground about it, a flaggon pot, and a linen 
corporal, the priest esteems their layships unhallowed 
and unclean, they fear religion with such a fear as 
lOYCf not, and think the purity of the gospel too pure 
for them, and that any uncleanness is more suitable to 
their unconsecrated estate. But when every good 
Christian, thoroughly acquainted with all those glo- 
rious privileges of ^anctification and adoption, which 
lender him more sacred than any dedicated al- 
tar or element, -hall he restored to his right in the 
church, am! n.it excluded from Bucfa place of spiritual 
government, a- bu christian abilities, and his approved 
good life in the eje and t< -timonv of the chinch shall 



prefer him to, this and nothing sooner will open his 
eyes to a wise and true valuation of himself, (which is 
so requisite and high a point of Christianity,) and will 
stir him up to walk worthy the honourable and grave 
employment wherewith God and the church hath dig- 
nified him; not fearing lest he should meet with some 
outward holy thing in religion, which his lay-touch or 
presence might profane ; but lest something unholy 
from within his own heart should dishonour and profane 
in himself that priestly unction and clergy-right whereto 
Christ hath entitled him. Then would the congrega- 
tion of the Lord soon recover the true likeness and 
visage of what she is indeed, a holy generation, a royal 
priesthood, a saintly communion, the household and 
city of God. And this I hold to be another considera- 
ble reason why the functions of church -government 
ought to be free and open to any christian man, though 
never so laic, if his capacity, his faith, and prudent 
demeanour, commend him. And this the apostles 
wanant us to do. But the prelates object, that this 
will bring prophaneness into the church : to whom 
may be replied, that none have brought that in more 
than their own irreligious courses, nor more driven 
holiness out of living into lifeless things. For whereas 
God, who hath cleansed every beast and creeping worm, 
would not suffer St. Peter to call them common or un- 
clean, the prelate bishops, in their printed orders hung- 
up in churches, have proclaimed the best of creatures, 
mankind, so unpurified and contagious, that for him 
to lay his hat or his garment upon the chancel-table, 
they have defined it no less heinous, in express words, 
than to prophane the table of the Lord. And thus 
have they by their Canaanitish doctrine, (for that 
which was to the Jew but Jewish, is to the Christian 
no better than Canaanitish,) thus have they made com- 
mon and unclean, thus have they made prophane that 
nature, which God hath not only cleansed, but Christ 
also hath assumed. And now that the equity and just 
reason is so perspicuous, why in ecclesiastic censure 
the assistance should be added of such as whom not 
the vile odour of gain and fees, (forbid it, God, and blow 
it with a whirlwind out of our land !) but charity, 
neighbourhood, and duty to church-government hath 
called together, where could a wise man wish a more 
equal, gratuitous, and meek examination of any offence, 
that he might happen to commit against Christianity, 
than here ? Would he prefer those proud simoniacal 
courts ? Thus therefore the minister assisted attends his 
heavenly and spiritual cure : where we shall see him 
both in the course of his proceeding, and first in the 
excellency of his end, from the magistrate far different, 
and not more different than excelling. His end is to 
recover all that is of man, both soul and body, to an 
everlasting health ; and yet as for worldly happiness, 
which is the proper sphere wherein the magistrate 
cannot but confine his motion without a hideous ex- 
orbitancy from law, so little aims the minister, as his 
intended scope, to procure the much prosperity of 
this life, that ofttimes he may have cause to wish 
much of it away, as a diet puffing up the soul 
with a slimy fleshiness, and weakening her prin- 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



51 



cipal organic parts. Two heads of evil he has to 
cope with, ignorance and malice. Against the former 
he provides the daily manna of incorruptible doctrine, 
not at those set meals only in public, but as oft as he 
shall know that each infirmity or constitution requires. 
Against the latter with all the branches thereof, not 
meddling with that restraining and styptic surgery, 
which the law uses, not indeed against the malady, but 
against the eruptions, and outermost effects thereof; 
he on the contrary, beginning at the prime causes and 
roots of the disease, sends in those two divine ingre- 
dients of most cleansing power to the soul, admonition 
and reproof; besides which two there is no drug or 
antidote that can reach to purge the mind, and without 
which all other experiments are but vain, unless by 
accident. And he that will not let these pass into him, 
though he be the greatest king, as Plato affirms, must 
be thought to remain impure within, and unknowing 
of those things wherein his pureness and his knowledge 
should most appear. As soon therefore as it may be 
discerned that the christian patient, by feeding other- 
where on meats not allowable, but of evil juice, hath 
disordered his diet, and spread an ill humour through 
his veins, immediately disposing to a sickness ; the 
minister, as being much nearer both in eye and duty 
than the magistrate, speeds him betimes to overtake 
that diffused malignance with some gentle potion of 
admonishment ; or if aught be obstructed, puts in his 
opening and discussive confections. This not succeed- 
ing after once or twice, or oftener, in the presence of 
two or three his faithful brethren appointed thereto, he 
advises him to be more careful of his dearest health, 
and what it is that he so rashly hath let down into the 
divine vessel of his soul, God's temple. If this obtain 
not, he then, with the counsel of more assistants, who 
are informed of what diligence hath been already used, 
with more speedy remedies lays nearer siege to the 
entrenched causes of his distemper, not sparing such 
fervent and well aimed reproofs as may best give him 
to see the dangerous estate wherein he is. To this also 
his brethren and friends intreat, exhort, adjure; and 
all these endeavours, as there is hope left, are more or 
less repeated. But if neither the regard of himself, nor 
the reverence of his elders and friends prevail with him 
to leave his vicious appetite ; then as the time urges, 
such engines of terrour God hath given into the hand 
of his minister, as to search the tenderest angles of the 
heart : one while he shakes his stubbornness with rack- 
ing convulsions nigh despair, otherwhiles with deadly 
corrosives he gripes the very roots of his faulty liver to 
bring him to life through the entry of death. Hereto 
the whole church beseech him, beg of him, deplore 
him, pray for him. After all this performed with what 
patience and attendance is possible, and no relenting 
on his part, having done the utmost of their cure, in 
the name of God and of the church they dissolve their 
fellowship with him, and holding forth the dreadful 
sponge of excommunion, pi*onounce him wiped out of 
the list of God's inheritance, and in the custody of 
Satan till he repent. Which horrid sentence, though 
it touch neither life nor limb, nor any worldly posses- 

E 



sion, yet has it such a penetrating force, that swifter 
than any chymical sulphur, or that lightning which 
harms not the skin, and rifles the entrails, it scorches 
the inmost soul. Yet even this terrible denouncement 
is left to the church for no other cause but to be as a 
rough and vehement cleansing medicine, where the 
malady is obdurate, a mortifying to life, a kind of 
saving by undoing. And it may be truly said, that as 
the mercies of wicked men are cruelties, so the cruel- 
ties of the church are mercies. For if repentance sent 
from Heaven meet this lost wanderer, and draw him 
out of that steep journey wherein he was hasting to- 
wards destruction, to come and reconcile to the church, 
if he bring with him his bill of health, and that he is 
now clear of infection, and of no danger to the other 
sheep; then with incredible expressions of joy all his 
brethren receive him, and set before him those perfumed 
banquets of christian consolation ; with precious oint- 
ments bathing and fomenting the old, and now to be 
forgotten stripes, which terrour and shame had inflict- 
ed ; and thus with heavenly solaces they cheer up his 
humble remorse, till he regain his first health and 
felicity. This is the approved way, which the gospel 
prescribes, these are the " spiritual weapons of holy 
censure, and ministerial warfare, not carnal, but mighty 
through God to the pulling down of strong holds, cast- 
ing down imaginations, and every high thing that ex- 
alteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring- 
ing into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
Christ." What could be done more for the healing 
and reclaiming that divine particle of God's breathing, 
the soul, and what could be done less ? he that would 
hide his faults from such a wholesome curing as this, 
and count it a twofold punishment, as some do, is like 
a man, that having" foul diseases about him, perishes 
for shame, and the fear he has of a rigorous incision to 
come upon his flesh. We shall be able by this time 
to discern whether prelatical jurisdiction be contrary to 
the gospel or no. First, therefore, the government of 
the gospel being economical and paternal, that is, of 
such a family where there be no servants, but all sons 
in obedience, not in servility, as cannot be denied by 
him that lives but within the sound of Scripture ; how 
can the prelates justify to have turned the fatherly 
orders of Christ's household, the blessed meekness of 
his lowly roof, those ever-open and inviting doors of 
his dwelling house, which delight to be frequented with 
only filial accesses ; how can they justify to have turned 
these domestic privileges into the bar of a proud ju- 
dicial court, where fees and clamours keep shop and 
drive a trade, where bribery and corruption solicits, 
paltering the free and moneyless power of discipline 
with a carnal satisfaction by the purse ? Contrition, 
humiliation, confession, the very sighs of a repentant 
spirit, are there sold by the penny. That undeflowered 
and unblemishable simplicity of the gospel, not she 
herself, for that could never be, but a false-whited, a 
lawny resemblance of her, like that airborn Helena in 
the fables, made by the sorcery of prelates, instead of 
calling her disciples from the receipt of custom, is now 
turned publican herself; and gives up her body to a 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT 



Book IJ. 



mercenary whoredom under those fornicated arches, 
which she calls God's house, and in the sight of those 
her altars, which she hath set up to he adored, makes 
merchandise of the bodies and souls of men. Rejecting 
purgatory for no other reason, as it seems, than because 
her greediness cannot defer, but had rather use the ut- 
most extortion of redeemed penances in this life. But 
because these matters could not be thus carried without 
a begged and borrowed force from worldly authority, 
therefore prelaty, slighting- the deliberate and chosen 
council of Christ in his spiritual government, whose 
glory is in the weakness of fleshly thing's, to tread upon 
the crest of the world's pride and violence by the power 
of spiritual ordinances, hath on the contrary made these 
her friends and champions, which are Christ's enemies 
in this his high design, smothering and extinguishing 
the spiritual force of his bodily weakness in the dis- 
cipline of his church with the boisterous and carnal 
tyranny of an undue, unlawful, and un gospel-like ju- 
risdiction. And thus prelaty, both in her fleshly sup- 
portments, in her carnal doctrine of ceremony and tra- 
dition, in her violent and secular power, going quite 
counter to the prime end of Christ's coming in the flesh, 
that is, to reveal his truth, his glory, and his might, in 
a clean contrary manner than prelaty seeks to do, 
thwarting and defeating the great mystery of God; I 
do not conclude that prelaty is antichristian, for what 
need I ? the things themselves conclude it. Yet if 
such like practices, and not many worse than these of 
our prelates, in that great darkness of the Roman 
church, have not exempted both her and her present 
members from being judged to be antichristian in all 
orthodoxal esteem ; I cannot think but that it is the 
absolute voice of truth and all her children to pro- 
nounce this prelaty, and these her dark deeds in the 
midst of this great light wherein we live, to be more 
antichristian than antichrist himself. 



THE CONCLUSION. 

The mischief that prelaty does in the state. 

I add one thing more to those great ones that are so 
fond of prelaty: this is certain, that the gospel being 
the hidden might of Christ, as hath been heard, that 
i \' r a victorious power joined with it, like him in the 
!.'• f{ lation that went forth on the white horse with his 
bow and his crown conquering and to conquer. Tf we 
l< I J lit- angel of the gospel ride on his own way, he 
bifl proper business, conquering the high thoughts, 
and the proud reasonings of the flesh, and brings them 
under to gire obedience to Christ with the salvation of 
manj tools. But if ye turn him out of his road, and 
in a manni r force him to express his irresistible power 
by a doctrine of carnal might, as prelaty is, he will 
ii < thai fleshly -»^ i._ctli, which ye put into his hands, 
to uibdne your spirits by a servile and blind supersti- 
tion; and that again shall hold such dominion oyer your 



captive minds, as returning with an insatiate greedi- 
ness and force upon your worldly wealth and power, 
wherewith to deck and magnify herself, and her false 
worships, he shall spoil and havoc your estates, disturb 
your ease, diminish your honour, enthral your liberty 
under the swelling mood of a proud clergy, who will 
not serve or feed your souls with spiritual food ; look 
not for it, they have not wherewithal, or if they had, it 
is not in their purpose. But when they have glutted 
their ungrateful bodies, at least, if it be possible that 
those open sepulchres should ever be glutted, and when 
they have stuffed their idolish temples with the waste- 
ful pillage of your estates, will they yet have any com- 
passion upon you, and that poor pittance which they 
have left you ; will they be but so good to you as that 
ravisher was to his sister, when he had used her at his 
pleasure ; will they but only hate ye, and so turn ye 
loose ? No, they will not, lords and commons, they will 
not favour ye so much. What will they do then, in the 
name of God and saints, what will these mauhaters yet 
with more despite and mischief do? I will tell ye, or 
at least remember ye, (for most of ye know it already,) 
that they may want nothing to make them true mer- 
chants of Babylon, as they have done to your souls, 
they will sell your bodies, your wives, your children, 
your liberties, your parliaments, all these things ; and 
if there be ought else dearer than these, they will sell 
at an outcry in their pulpits to the arbitrary and illegal 
dispose of any one that may hereafter be called a king, 
whose mind shall serve him to listen to their bargain. 
And by their corrupt and servile doctrines boring our 
ears to an everlasting slavery, as they have done hither- 
to, so will they yet do their best to repeal and erase 
every line and clause of both our great charters. Nor 
is this only what they will do, but what they hold as 
the main reason and mystery of their advancement that 
they must do ; be the prince never so just and equal to 
his subjects, yet such are their malicious and depraved 
eyes, that they so look on him, and so understand him, 
as if he required no other gratitude or piece of service 
from them than this. And indeed they stand so oppor- 
tunely for the disturbing or the destroying- of a state, 
being a knot of creatures, whose dignities, means, and 
preferments have no foundation in the gospel, as they 
themselves acknowledge, but only in the prince's fa- 
vour, and to continue so long to them, as by pleasing 
him they shall deserve : whence it must needs be they 
should bend all their intentions and services to no other 
ends but to his, that if it should happen that a tyrant 
(God turn such a scourge from us to our enemies) 
should come to grasp the sceptre, here were his spear- 
men and his lances, here were his firelocks ready, he 
should need no other pretorian band nor pensionary 
than these, if they could once with their perfidious 
preachments awe the people. For although the pre- 
lates in time of popery were sometimes friendly enough 
to Magna Charta, it was because they stood upon their 
own bottom, without their main dependance on the 
royal nod : but now being well acquainted that the 
protestant religion, if she will reform herself rightly 
by the Scriptures, must undress them of all their gilded 



Book II. 



URGED AGAINST PRELATY. 



53 



vanities, and reduce them as they were at first, to 
the lowly and equal order of presbyters, they know it 
concerns them nearly to study the times more than the 
text, and to lift up their eyes to the hills of the court, 
from whence only comes their help ; but if their pride 
grow weary of this crouching" and observance, as ere 
long- it would, and that yet their minds climb still to a 
higher ascent of worldly honour, this only refuge can 
remain to them, that they must of necessity contrive to 
bring' themselves and us back again to the pope's su- 
premacy ; and this we see they had by fair degrees of 
late been doing. These be the two fair supporters be- 
tween which the strength of prelaty is borne up, either 
of inducing tyranny, or of reducing popery. Hence 
also we may judge that prelaty is mere falsehood. For 
the property of truth is, where she is publicly taught 
to unyoke and set free the minds and spirits of a nation 
first from the thraldom of sin and superstition, after 
which all honest and legal freedom of civil life cannot 
be long absent; but prelaty, whom the tyrant custom 
begot, a natural tyrant in religion, and in state the 
agent and minister of tyranny, seems to have had this 
fatal gift in her nativity, like another Midas, that what- 
soever she should touch or come near either in ecclesial 
or political government, it should turn, not to gold, 
though she for her part could wish it, but to the dross 
and scum of slavery, breeding and settling both in the 
bodies and the souls of all such as do not in time, with 
the sovereign treacle of sound doctrine, provide to for- 
tify their hearts against her hierarchy. The service of 
God who is truth, her liturgy confesses to be perfect 
freedom ; but her works and her opinions declare, that 
the service of prelaty is perfect slavery, and by conse- 
quence perfect falsehood. Which makes me wonder 
much that many of the gentry, studious men as I hear, 
should engage themselves to write and speak publicly 
in her defence ; but that I believe their honest and in- 
genuous natures coming to the universities to store 
themselves with good and solid learning, and there un- 
fortunately fed with nothing else but the scragged and 
thorny lectures of monkish and miserable sophistry, 
were sent home again with such a scholastical bur in 
their throats, as hath stopped and hindered all true and 
generous philosophy from entering, cracked their voices 
for ever with metaphysical gargarisms, and hath made 
them admire a sort of formal outside men prelatically 
addicted, whose unchastened and unwrought minds 
were never yet initiated or subdued under the true lore 
of religion or moral virtue, which two are the best and 
greatest points of learning ; but either slightly trained 
up in a kind of hypocritical and hackney course of 
literature to get their living by, and dazzle the ignor- 
ant, or else fondly over-studied in useless controversies, 
except those which they use with all the specious and 
delusive subtlety they are able, to defend their prelati- 
cal Sparta; having a gospel and church-government 
set before their eyes, as a fair field wherein they might 
exercise the greatest virtues and the greatest deeds of 
christian authority, in mean fortunes and little furni- 
ture of this world ; (which even the sage heathen 
writers, and those old Fabritii and Curii well knew to 



be a manner of working, than which nothing could 
liken a mortal man more to God, who delights most to 
work from within himself, and not by the heavy lug- 
gage of corporeal instruments ;) they understand it not, 
and think no such matter, but admire and dote upon 
worldly riches and honours, with an easy and intem- 
perate life, to the bane of Christianity : yea, they and 
their seminaries shame not to profess, to petition, and 
never leave pealing our ears, that unless we fat them like 
boars, and cram them as they list with wealth, with dean- 
eries and pluralities, with baronies and stately prefer- 
ments, all learning and religion will go underfoot. Which 
is such a shameless, such a bestial plea, and of that odious 
impudence in churchmen, who should be to us a pattern 
of temperance and frugal mediocrity, who should teach 
us to contemn this world and the gaudy things thereof, 
according to the promise which they themselves require 
from us in baptism, that should the Scripture stand by 
and be mute, there is not that sect of philosophers among 
the heathen so dissolute, no not Epicurus, nor Aristippus 
with all his Cyrenaic rout, but would shut his school- 
doors against such greasy sophisters ; not any college 
of mountebanks, but would think scorn to discover in 
themselves with such a brazen forehead the outrageous 
desire of filthy lucre. Which the prelates make so 
little conscience of, that they are ready to fight, and 
if it lay in their power, to massacre all good Christians 
under the names of horrible schismatics, for only find- 
ing fault with their temporal dignities, their uncon- 
scionable wealth and revenues, their cruel authority 
over their brethren that labour in the word, while they 
snore in their luxurious excess : openly proclaiming 
themselves now in the sight of all men, to be those 
which for awhile they sought to cover under sheep's 
clothing, ravenous and savage wolves, threatening in- 
roads and bloody incursions upon the flock of Christ, 
which they took upon them to feed, but now claim to 
devour as their prey. More like that huge dragon of 
Egypt, breathing out waste and desolation to the land, 
unless he were daily fattened with virgin's blood. 
Him our old patron St. George, by bis matchless valour 
slew, as the prelate of the garter that reads his collect 
can tell. And if our princes and knights will imitate 
the fame of that old champion, as by their order of 
knighthood solemnly taken they vow, far be it that 
they should uphold and side with this English dragon; 
but rather to do as indeed their oaths bind them, they 
should make it their knightly adventure to pursue and 
vanquish this mighty sail-winged monster, that menaces 
to swallow up the land, unless her bottomless gorge may 
be satisfied with the blood of the king's daughter the 
church ; and may, as she was wont, fill her dark and 
infamous den with the bones of the saints. Nor will 
any one have reason to think this as too incredible or too 
tragical to be spoken of prelaty, if he consider well 
from what a mass of slime and mud the slothful, the 
covetous, and ambitious hopes of church-promotions and 
fat bishoprics, she is bred up and nuzzled in, like a 
great Python, from her youth, to prove the general poi- 
son both of doctrine and good discipline in the land. 
For certainly such hopes and such principles of earth 



54 



THE REASON OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, Sec. 



Book II. 



as these wherein she welters from a young one, are 
the immediate generation both of a slavish and tyran- 
nous life to follow, and a pestiferous contagion to the 
whole kingdom, till like that fen-born serpent she be 
shot to death with the darts of the sun, the pure and 
powerful beams of God's word. And this may serve 
to describe to us in part, what prelaty hath been, and 
what, if she stand, she is like to be towards the whole 
body of people in England. Now that it may appear 
how she is not such a kind of evil, as hath any good or 
use in it, which many evils have, but a distilled quint- 
essence, a pure elixir of mischief, pestilent alike to all; 
I shall shew briefly, ere I conclude, that the prelates, 
as they are to the subjects a calamity, so are they the 
greatest uuderminers and betrayers of the monarch, to 
whom they seem to be most favourable. I cannot bet- 
ter liken the state and person of a king than to that 
mighty Nazarite Samson ; who being disciplined from 
his birth in the precepts and the practice of temperance 
and sobriety, without the strong drink of injurious and 
excessive desires, grows up to a noble strength and 
perfection with those his illustrious and sunny locks, 
the laws, waving and curling about his godlike shoul- 
ders. And while he keeps them about him undiminished 
and unshorn, he may with the jawbone of an ass, that 
is, with the word of his meanest officer, suppress and 
put to confusion thousands of those that rise against 
his just power. But laying down his head among the 
strumpet flatteries of prelates, while he sleeps and thinks 
no harm, they wickedly shaving' off all those bright 
and weighty tresses of his laws, and just prerogatives;, 
which were his ornament and strength, deliver him 
over to indirect and violent counsels, which, as those 
Philistines, put out the fair and far-sighted eyes of his 
natural discerning, and make him grind in the prison- 
house of their sinister ends and practices upon him : till 
he, knowing this prelatical rasor to have bereft him of 
his wonted might, nourish again his puissant hair, the 
golden beams of law and right: and they sternly shook, 
thunder with ruin upon the heads of those his evil 
counsellors, but not without great affliction to himself. 
This is the sum of their loyal service to kings ; yet 
these are the men that still cry, The king, the king, the 
Lord's anointed. We giant it, and wonder how they 
came to light upon any thing so true ; and wonder 
more, if kings be the Lord's anointed, how they dare 
thus oil over and besmear so holy an unction with the 
corrupt and putrid ointment of their base flatteries ; 
which, while they smooth the skin, strike inward and 
envenom the lifeblood. What fidelity kings can ex- 
pect from prelates, both examples past, and our present 
experience of their doings at this day, whereon is 
grounded all that hath been said, may suffice to inform 
US. A ii. I if they be such clippers of regal power, and 
•ban ra of the laws, how they stand affected to the law- 



giving parliament, yourselves, worthy peers and com- 
mons, can best testify ; the current of whose glorious 
and immortal actions hath been only opposed by the 
obscure and pernicious designs of the prelates, until 
their insolence broke out to such a bold affront, as hath 
justly immured their haughty looks within strong walls. 
Nor have they done any thing of late with more dili- 
gence, than to hinder or break the happy assembling- 
of parliaments, however needful to repair the shattered 
and disjointed frame of the commonwealth ; or if they 
cannot do this, to cross, to disenable, and traduce all 
parliamentary proceedings. And this, if nothing else, 
plainly accuses them to be no lawful members of the 
house, if they thus perpetually mutiny against their 
own body. And though they pretend, like Solomon's 
harlot, that they have right thereto, by the same judg- 
ment that Solomon gave, it cannot belong to them, 
whenas it is not only their assent, but their endeavour 
continually to divide parliaments in twain ; and not 
only by dividing, but by all other means to abolish and 
destroy the free use of them to all posterity. For the 
which, and for all their former misdeeds, whereof this 
book and many volumes more cannot contain the 
moiety, I shall move ye, lords, in the behalf I dare say 
of many thousand good Christians, to let your justice 
and speedy sentence pass against this great malefactor 
prelaty. And yet in the midst of rigour I would be- 
seech ye to think of mercy ; and such a mercy, (I fear 
I shall overshoot with a desire to save this failing- pre- 
laty,) such a mercy (if I may venture to say it) as may 
exceed that which for only ten righteous persons would 
have saved Sodom. Not that I dare advise ye to con- 
tend with God, whether he or you shall be more mer- 
ciful, but in your wise esteems to balance the offences 
of those peccant cities with these enormous riots of un- 
godly misrule, that prelaty hath wrought both in the 
church of Christ, and in the state of this kingdom. 
And if ye think ye may with a pious presumption strive 
to go beyond God in mercy, I shall not be one now 
that would dissuade ye. Though God for less than ten 
just persons would not spare Sodom, yet if you can 
find, after due search, but only one good thing in pre- 
laty, either to religion or civil government, to king or 
parliament, to prince or people, to law, liberty, wealth, 
or learning, spare her, let her live, let her spread among 
ye, till with her shadow all your dignities and honours, 
and all the glory of the land be darkened and obscured. 
But on the contrary, if she be found to be malignant, 
hostile, destructive to all these, as nothing can be surer, 
then let your severe and impartial doom imitate the 
divine vengeance; rain down your punishing force 
upon this godless and oppressing government, and bring 
such a dead sea of subversion upon her, that she may 
never in this land rise more to afflict the holy reformed 
church, and the elect people of God. 



ANIMADVERSIONS 



THE REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE AGAINST SMECTYMNUUS. 



[firsi published 1641.] 



THE PREFACE. 



Although it be a certain truth, that they who undertake a religious cause need not care to be men-pleasers ; 
yet because the satisfaction of tender and mild consciences is far different from that which is called men-pleasing- ; 
to satisfy such, I shall address myself in few words to give notice beforehand of something- in this book, which 
to some men perhaps may seem offensive, that when I have rendered a lawful reason of what is done, I may 
trust to have saved the labour of defending* or excusing- hereafter. We all know that in private or personal in- 
juries, yea in public sufferings for the cause of Christ, his rule and example teaches us to be so far from a readi- 
ness to speak evil, as not to answer the reviler in his language, though never so much provoked : yet in the 
detecting and convincing of any notorious enemy to truth and his country's peace, especially that is conceited 
to have a voluble and smart fluence of tongue, and in the vain confidence of that, and out of a more tenacious 
cling to worldly respects, stands up for all the rest to justify a long usurpation and convicted pseudepiscopy of 
prelates, with all their ceremonies, liturgies, and tyrannies, which God and man are now ready to explode and 
hiss out of the land ; I suppose, and more than suppose, it will be nothing disagreeing from christian meekness 
to handle such a one in a rougher accent, and to send home his haughtiness well bespurted with his own holy- 
water. Nor to do thus are we unautoritied either from the moral precept of Solomon, to answer him thereafter 
that prides him in his folly; nor from the example of Christ, and all his followers in all ages, who, in the refut- 
ing of those that resisted sound doctrine, and by subtile dissimulations corrupted the minds of men, have wrought 
up their zealous souls into such vehemencies, as nothing could be more killingly spoken : for who can be a 
greater enemy to mankind, who a more dangerous deceiver, than he who, defending a traditional corruption, 
uses no common arts, but with a wily stratagem of yielding to the time a greater part of his cause, seeming to 
forego all that man's invention hath done therein, and driven from much of his hold in Scripture ; yet leaving it 
hanging by a twined thread, not from divine command, but from apostolical prudence or assent ; as if he had 
the surety of some rolling trench, creeps up by this mean to his relinquished fortress of divine authority again, 
and still hovering between the confines of that which he dares not be openly, and that which he will not be 
sincerely, trains on the easy Christian insensibly within the close ambushment of worst errours, and with a sly 
shuffle of counterfeit principles, chopping and changing till he have gleaned all the good ones out of their 
minds, leaves them at last, after a slight resemblance of sweeping and garnishing, under the seven-fold possession 
of a desperate stupidity? And therefore they that love the souls of men, which is the dearest love, and stirs 
up the noblest jealousy, when they meet with such collusion, cannot be blamed though they be transported 
with the zeal of truth to a well-heated fervency ; especially, seeing they which thus offend against the souls 
of their brethren, do it with delight to their great gain, ease, and advancement in this world ; but they that seek 
to discover and oppose their false trade of deceiving, do it not without a sad and unwilling anger, not without 
many hazards; but without all private and personal spleen, and without any thought of earthly reward, when- 
as this very course they take stops their hopes of ascending above a lowly and unenviable pitch in this life. 
And although in the serious uncasing of a grand imposture, (for to deal plainly with you, readers, prelaty is no 
better,) there be mixed here and there such a grim laughter, as may appear at the same time in an austere visage, 
it cannot be taxed of levity or insolence : for even this vein of laughing (as I could produce out of grave authors) 
hath ofttimes a strong and sinewy force in teaching and confuting; nor can there be a more proper object of 
indignation and scorn together, than a false prophet taken in the greatest, dearest, and most dangerous cheat, 
the cheat of souls: in the disclosing whereof, if it be harmful to be angry, and withal to cast a lowering smile, 
when the properest object calls for both, it will be long enough ere any be able to say, why those two most ra- 
tional faculties of human intellect, anger and laughter, were first seated in the breast of man. Thus much, 



56 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



readers, in favour of the softer spirited Christian, for other exceptioners there was no thought taken. Only if it be 
asked, why this close and succinct manner of coping- with the adversary was rather chosen, this was the reason 
chiefly, that the ingenuous reader, without further amusing himself in the labyrinth of controversial antiquity, 
may come to the speediest way to see the truth vindicated, and sophistry taken short at the first false bound. 
Next, that the Remonstrant himself, as oft as he pleases to be frolic, and brave it with others, may find no gain 
of money, and may learn not to insult in so bad a cause. But now he begins. 



SECT. I. 



Remonstrant. My single remonstrance is encoun- 
tered with a plural adversary. 

Answer. Did not your single remonstrance bring 
along with it a hot scent of your more than singular 
affection to spiritual pluralities, your singleness would 
be less suspected with all good Christians than it is. 

Remonst. Their names, persons, qualities, numbers, 
I care not to know. 

Answ. Their names are known to the all-knowing 
Power above ; and in the mean while, doubtless, the} r 
reck not whether you or your nomenclator know them 
or not. 

Remonst. But could they say my name is Legion, 
for we are many ? 

Answ. Wherefore should ye begin with the devil's 
name, descanting upon the number of your opponents? 
Wherefore that conceit of Legion with a by-wipe ? Was 
it because you would have men take notice how you 
esteem them, whom through all your book so bounti- 
fully you call your brethren ? We had not thought that 
Legion could have furnished the Remonstrant with so 
many brethren. 

Remonst. My cause, ye gods, would bid me meet 
them undismayed, &c. 

Answ. Ere a foot further we must be content to 
hear a preambling boast of your valour, what a St. 
Dunstan you are to encounter Legions, either infernal 
or human. 

Remonst. My cause, ye gods. 

Answ. What gods ? Unless your belly, or the god of 
tlii- world be he P Shew us any one point of your re- 
monstrance that does not more concern superiority, 
pride, ease, and the belly, than the truth and glory of 
God, or the salvation of souls. 

Remonst. My cause, ye gods, would bid me meet 
them undismayed, and to say with holy David, " though 
a host, &c." 

Aii>w. Do not think to persuade us of your undaunt- 
ed courage, by misapplying to yourself the words of 
bolj David ; we know you fear, and are in an agony 
a( thia pr< sent, lest you should lose that superfluity of 
rich - and honour, which your party usurp. And who- 
loen r con to, and bo earnestly labours to keep such an 
ineambering surcharge of earthly things, cannot but 
bare aa earthquake still in bis bones. You are not 
armed, Kemonatraat, nor any of your band; you are 
n'-t flitted, nor your Loins girl for spiritual valour, 



and christian warfare, the luggage is too great that 
follows your camp ; your hearts are there, you march 
heavily : how shall we think you have not carnal fear, 
while we see you so subject to carnal desires ? 

Remonst. I do gladly fly to the bar. 

Answ. To the bar with him then. Gladly you say. 
We believe you as gladly as your whole faction wished 
and longed for the assembling of this parliament, as 
gladly as your beneficiaries the priests came up to an- 
swer the complaints and outcries of all the shires. 

Remonst. The Areopagi ! who were those ? Truly, 
my masters, I had thought this had been the name of 
the place, not of the men. 

Answ. A soar-eagle would not stoop at a fly ; but 
sure some pedagogue stood at your elbow, and made it 
itch with this parlous criticism ; they urged you with 
a decree of the sage and severe judges of Athens, and 
you cite them to appear for certain paragogical con- 
tempts, before a capacious pedanty of hot-livered 
grammarians. Mistake not the matter, courteous Re- 
monstrant, they were not making Latin : if in dealing* 
with an outlandish name, they thought it best not to 
screw the English mouth to a harsh foreign termina- 
tion, so they kept the .radical word, they did no more 
than the elegantest authors among the Greeks, Ro- 
mans, and at this day the Italians, in scorn of such a 
servility use to do. Remember how they mangle our 
British names abroad ; what trespass were it, if we in 
requital should as much neglect theirs ? And our learn- 
ed Chaucer did not stick to do so, writing Semyramis 
for Semiramis, Amphiorax for Amphiaraus, K. Sejes 
for K. Ceyx the husband of Alcyone, with many other 
names strangely metamorphosed from the true orthog- 
raphy, if he had made any account of that in these 
kind of words. 

Remonst. Lest the world should think the press 
had of late forgot to speak any language other than 
libellous, this honest paper hath broken through the 
throng. 

Answ. Mince the matter while you will, it shewed 
but green practice in the laws of discreet rhetoric to 
blurt upon the ears of a judicious parliament with such 
a presumptuous and overweening proem : but you do 
well to be the fewer of your own mess. 

Remonst. That which you miscall the preface, was 
a too just complaint of the shameful number of libels. 

Answ. How long is it that you and the prelatical 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



57 



troop have been in such distaste with libels ? Ask your 
Lysimachus Nicanor what defaming- invectives have 
lately flown abroad against the subjects of Scotland, 
and our poor expulsed brethren of New England, the 
prelates rather applauding- than shewing- any dislike : 
and this hath been ever so, insomuch that Sir Francis 
Bacon in one of his. discourses complains of the bishops' 
uneven hand over these pamphlets, confining- those 
ag-ainst bishops to darkness, but licensing those ag-ainst 
puritans to be uttered openly, though with the greater 
mischief of leading into contempt the exercise of re- 
ligion in the persons of sundry preachers, and dis- 
gracing the higher matter in the meaner person. 

Remonst. A point no less essential to that proposed 
remonstrance. 

Answ. We know where the shoe wring's you, you 
fret and are galled at the quick ; and O what a death 
it is to the prelates to be thus unvisarded, thus uncased, 
to have the periwigs plucked off that cover your bald- 
ness, your inside nakedness thrown open to public view ! 
The Romans had a time once every year, when their 
slaves might freely speak their minds ; it were hard if 
the freeborn people of England, with whom the voice 
of truth for these many years, even against the proverb, 
hath not been heard but in corners, after all your 
monkish prohibitions, and expurgatorious indexes, your 
gags and snaffles, your proud Imprimaturs not to be 
obtained without the shallow surview, but not shallow 
hand of some mercenary, narrow-souled, and illiterate 
chaplain ; when liberty of speaking, than which nothing 
is more sweet to man, was girded and strait-laced 
almost to a broken-winded phthisic, if now at a good 
time, our time of parliament, the very jubilee and re- 
surrection of the state, if now the concealed, the ag- 
grieved, and long persecuted truth, could not be suffered 
to speak ; and though she burst out with some efficacy 
of words, could not be excused after such an injurious 
strangle of silence, nor avoid the censure of libelling, 
it were hard, it were something pinching in a kingdom 
of free spirits. Some princes, and great statists, have 
thought it a prime piece of necessary policy, to thrust 
themselves under disguise into a popular throng, to 
stand the night long under eaves of houses, and low 
windows, that they might hear every where the utter- 
ances of private breasts, and amongst them find out the 
precious gem of truth, as amongst the numberless peb- 
bles of the shore; whereby they might be the abler to 
discover, and avoid, that deceitful and close-couched 
evil of flattery that ever attends them, and misleads 
them, and might skilfully know how to apply the 
several redresses to each malady of state, without trust- 
ing the disloyal information of parasites and sycophants : 
whereas now this permission of free writing, were there 
no good else in it, yet at some times thus licensed, is 
such an unripping, such an anatomy of the shyest and 
tenderest particular truths, as makes not only the whole 
nation in many points the wiser, but also presents and 
carries home to princes, men most remote from vulgar 
concourse, such a full insight of every lurking evil, or 
restrained good among the commons, as that they shall 
not need hereafter, in old cloaks and false beards, to 



stand to the courtesy of a night-walking cudgeller for 
eaves-dropping, nor to accept quietly as a perfume, the 
overhead emptying of some salt lotion. Who could be 
angry, therefore, but those that are guilty, with these 
free-spoken and plain-hearted men, that are the eyes of 
their country, and the prospective-glasses of their 
prince ? But these are the nettlers, these are the blab- 
bing books that tell, though not half your fellows' feats. 
You love toothless satires ; let me inform you, a tooth- 
less satire is as improper as a toothed sleek-stone, and 
as bullish. 

Remonst. I beseech you, brethren, spend your logic 
upon your own works. 

Answ. The peremptory analysis that you call it, I 
believe will be so hardy as once more to unpin your 
spruce fastidious oratory, to rumple her laces, her friz- 
zles, and her bobbins, though she wince and fling never 
so peevishly. 

Remonst. Those verbal exceptions are but light froth, 
and will sink alone. 

Answ. O rare subtlety, beyond all that Cardan ever 
dreamed of! when, I beseech you, will light things 
sink ? when will light froth sink alone ? Here in your 
phrase, the same day that heavy plummets will swim 
alone. Trust this man, readers, if you please, whose 
divinity would reconcile England with Rome, and his 
philosophy make friends nature with the chaos, sine 
pondere habentia pond us. 

Remonst. That scum may be worth taking off which 
follows. 

Answ. Spare your ladle, sir, it will be as the bishop's 
foot in the broth ; the scum will be found upon your 
own remonstrance. 

Remonst. T shall desire all indifferent eyes to judge, 
whether these men do not endeavour to cast unjust envy 
upon me. 

Answ. Agreed. 

Remonst. I had said that the civil polity, as in gene- 
ral notion, hath sometimes varied, and that the civil 
came from arbitrary imposers; these gracious interpret- 
ers would needs draw my words to the present and 
particular government of our monarchy. 

Answ. And deservedly have they done so; take up 
your logic else and see : civil polity, say you, hath 
sometimes varied, and came from arbitrary imposers ; 
what proposition is this? Bishop Downam in his dia- 
lectics will tell you it is a general axiom, though the 
universal particle be not expressed, and you yourself 
in your defence so explain in these words as in general 
notion. Hence is justly inferred, he that says civil 
polity is arbitrary, says that the civil polity of England 
is arbitrary. The inference is undeniable, a thesi ad 
hypothesin, or from the general to the particular, an 
evincing argument in logic. 

Remonst. Brethren, whiles ye desire to seem godly, 
learn to be less malicious. 

Answ. Remonstrant, till you have better learnt your 
principles of logic, take not upon you to be a doctor to 
others. 

Remonst. God bless all good men from such charity. 

Answ. I never found that logical maxims were un- 



58 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



charitable before; vet should a jury of logicians pass 
upon you, you would never be saved by the book. 

Remonst. And our sacred monarchy from such 
friends. 

Aiisw. Add, as the prelates. 

Remonst. If episcopacy have yoked monarchy, it is 
the insolence of the persons, not the fault of the calling". 

Answ. It was the fault of the persons, and of no 
calling: we do not count prelaty a calling. 

Remonst. The testimony of a pope (whom these men 
honour highly). 

Answ. That slanderous insertion w r as doubtless a 
pang of your incredible charity, the want whereof you 
lay so often to their charge ; a kind token of your fa- 
vour lapped up in a parenthesis, a piece of the clergy 
benevolence laid by to maintain the episcopal broil, 
whether the 1000 horse or no, time will discover: for 
certainly had those cavaliers come on to play their 
parts, such a ticket as this of highly honouring the pope, 
from the hand of a prelate, might have been of special 
use and safety to them that had cared for such a ransom. 

Remonst. And what says Antichrist? 

Answ. Ask your brethren the prelates, that hold in- 
telligence with him, ask not us. But is the pope Anti- 
christ now ? Good news ! take heed you be not shent 
for this ; for it is verily thought, that had this bill been 
put in against him in your last convocation, he would 
have been cleared by most voices. 

Remonst. Any thing serves against episcopacy. 

Answ. See the frowardness of this man, he would 
persuade us, that the succession and divine right of 
bishopdom hath been unquestionable through all ages ; 
yet when they bring against him kings, they were irre- 
ligious; popes, they are antichrist. By what era of 
computation, through what fairy land, would the man 
deduce this perpetual beadroll of uncontradicted epis- 
copacy ? The pope may as well boast his ungainsaid 
authority to them that will believe, that all his contra- 
dicters were either irreligious or heretical. 

Remonst. If the bishops, saith the pope, be declared 
to be of divine right, they would be exempted from 
regal power ; and if there might be this danger in those 
kingdoms, why is this enviously upbraided to those of 
ours '.' who do gladly profess, &c. 

Answ. Because your dissevered principles were but 
like the mangled pieces of a gashed serpent, that now 
b< gran to close, and grow together popish again. What- 
soever you now gladly profess out of fear, we know 
what your drifts were when you thought yourselves 
secure. 

Remonst It is a foul slander to charge the name of 
I piscopacj with a faction, for the fact imputed to some 

Answ. The more foul your faction that hath brought 
a harmless name into obloquy, and the fact may justly 
be imputed to all of ye that ought to have withstood it, 
and did not. 

Remonst. Re, brethren! are ye the presbyters of the 
church of England, and dare challenge episcopacy of 



knam V< .. u off as episcopacy dares be ft 



actious. 



Remonst. Had you spoken such a word in the time 
of holy Cyprian, what had become of you? 

Answ. They had neither been haled into your Ge- 
henna at Lambeth, nor strapadoed with an oath ex 
officio by your bowmen of the arches : and as for Cy- 
prian's time the cause was far unlike, he indeed suc- 
ceeded into an episcopacy that began then to prelatize; 
but his personal excellence like an antidote overcame 
the malignity of that breeding corruption, which was 
then a disease that lay hid for a while under shew of a 
full and healthy constitution, as those hydropic hu- 
mours not discernible at first from a fair and juicy 
fleshiness of body, or that unwonted ruddy colour, 
which seems graceful to a cheek otherwise pale ; and 
yet arises from evil causes, either of some inward ob- 
struction or inflammation, and might deceive the first 
physicians till they had learned the sequel, which Cy- 
prian's days did not bring forth ; and the prelatism of 
episcopacy, which began then to burgeon and spread, 
had as yet, especially in famous men, a fair, though a 
false imitation of flourishing. 

Remonst. Neither is the wrong less to make appli- 
cation of that which was most justly charged upon the 
practices and combinations of libelling separatists, 
whom I deservedly censured, &c. 

Answ. To conclude this section, our Remonstrant we 
see is resolved to make good that which was formerly 
said of his book, that it was neither humble nor a re- 
monstrance, and this his defence is of the same com- 
plexion. When he is constrained to mention the noto- 
rious violence of his clergy attempted on the church of 
Scotland, he slightly terms it a fact imputed to some 
few ; but when he speaks of that which the parliament 
vouchsafes to name the city petition, " which I," saith 
he, (as if the state had made him public censor,) " deserv- 
edly censured." And how ? As before for a tumultuary 
and underhand way of procured subscriptions, so now 
in his defence more bitterly, as the practices and com- 
binations of libelling separatists, and the miszealous 
advocates thereof, justly to be branded for incendiaries. 
Whether this be for the honour of our chief city to be 
noted with such an infamy for a petition, which not 
without some of the magistrates, and great numbers of 
sober and considerable men, was orderly and meekly 
presented, although our great clerks think that these 
men, because they have a trade, (as Christ himself and 
St. Paul had,) cannot therefore attain to some good 
measure of knowledge, and to a reason of their actions, 
as well as they that spend their youth in loitering, bez- 
zling, and harlotting, their studies in unprofitable ques- 
tions and barbarous sophistry, their middle age in am- 
bition and idleness, their old age in avarice, dotage, 
and diseases. And whether this reflect not with a con- 
tumely upon the parliament itself, which thought this 
petition worthy, not only of receiving, but of voting to 
a commitment, after it had been advocated, and moved 
for by some honourable and learned gentleman of the 
house, to be called a combination of libelling separa- 
tists, and the advocates thereof to be branded for in- 
cendiaries; whether this appeach not the judgment and 
approbation of the parliament I leave to equal arbiters. 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



59 



SECT. II. 

Remonst. After the overflowing- of your gall, you 
descend to liturgy and episcopacy. 

Answ. The overflow being past, you cannot now in 
your own judgment impute any bitterness to their fol- 
ing discourses. 

Remonst. Dr. Hall, whom you name I dare say for 
honour's sake. 

Answ. You are a merry man, sir, and dare say 
much. 

Remonst. And why should not I speak of martyrs, 
as the authors and users of this holy liturgy ? 

Answ. As the authors ! the translators, you might 
perhaps have said : for Edward the sixth, as Hayward 
hath written in his story, will tell you upon the word 
of a king, that the order of the service, and the use 
thereof in the English tongue, is no other than the old 
service was, and the same words in English which 
were in Latin, except a few things omitted, so fond, 
that it had been a shame to have heard them in 
English ; these are his words : whereby we are left 
uncertain who the author was, but certain that part of 
the work was esteemed so absurd by the translators 
thereof, as was to be ashamed of in English. O but 
the martyrs were the refiners of it, for that only is left 
you to say. Admit they were, they could not refine a 
scorpion into a fish, though they had drawn it, and 
rinced it with never so cleanly cookery, which made 
them fall at variance among themselves about the use 
either of it, or the ceremonies belonging to it. 

Remonst. Slight you them as you please, we bless 
God for such patrons of our good cause. 

Answ. O Benedicite ! Qui color ater erat, nunc est 
contrarius atro. Are not these they which one of your 
bishops in print scornfully terms the Foxian confes- 
sors ? Are not these they whose acts and monuments 
are not only so contemptible, but so hateful to the pre- 
lates, that their story was almost come to be a pro- 
hibited book, which for these two or three editions 
hath crept into the world by stealth, and at times of 
advantage, not without the open regret and vexation 
of the bishops, as many honest men that had to do in 
setting forth the book will justify ? And now at a dead 
lift for your liturgies you bless God for them : out upon 
such hypocrisy ! 

Remonst. As if we were bound to make good every 
word that falls from the mouth of every bishop. 

Answ. Your faction then belike is a subtile Janus, 
and hath two faces : your bolder face to set forward 
any innovations or scandals in the church, your cau- 
tious and wary face to disavow them if they succeed 
not, that so the fault may not light upon the function, 
lest it should spoil the whole plot by giving it an 
irrecoverable wound. Wherefore else did you not 
long ago, as a good bishop should have done, disclaim 
and protest against them ? Wherefore have you sat 
still, and complied and hood-winked, till the general 
complaints of the land have squeezed you to a wretched, 
cold, and hollow-hearted confession of some prelatical 



riots both in this and other places of your book ? Nay, 
what if you still defend them as follows ? 

Remonst. If a bishop have said that our liturgy 
hath been so wisely and charitably framed, as that the 
devotion of it yieldeth no cause of offence to a very 
pope's ear. 

Answ. new and never heard of supererogative 
height of wisdom and charity in our liturgy ! Is the 
wisdom of God or the charitable framing of God's 
word otherwise inoffensive to the pope's ear, than as 
he may turn it to the working of his mysterious iniquity? 
A little pulley would have stretched your wise and 
charitable frame it may be three inches further, that 
the devotion of it might have yielded no cause of 
offence to the very devil's ear, and that had been the 
same wisdom and charity surmounting" to the highest 
degree. For Antichrist we know is but the devil's 
vicar, and therefore please him with your liturgy, and 
you please his master. 

Remonst. Would you think it requisite, that we 
should chide and quarrel when we speak to the God of 
peace ? 

Answ. Fie, no sir, but forecast our prayers so, that 
Satan and his instruments may take as little excep- 
tion against them as may be, lest they should chide 
and quarrel with us. 

Remonst. It is no little advantage to our cause and 
piety, that our liturgy is taught to speak several lan- 
guages for use and example. 

Answ. The language of Ashdod is one of them, and 
that makes so many Englishmen have such a smatter- 
ing of their Philistian mother. And indeed our liturgy 
hath run up and down the world like an English gal- 
loping nun proffering herself, but we hear of none yet 
that bids money for her. 

Remonst. As for that sharp censure of learned Mr. 
Calvin, it might well have been forborn by him in 
aliena republica. 

Answ. Thus this untheological remonstrant would 
divide the individual catholic church into several re- 
publics : know, therefore, that every worthy pastor of 
the church of Christ hath universal right to admonish 
overall the world within the church ; nor can that care 
be aliened from him by any distance or distinction of 
nation, so long as in Christ all nations and languages 
are as one household. 

Remonst. Neither would you think it could become 
any of our greatest divines, to meddle with his charge. 

Answ. It hath ill become them indeed to meddle so 
maliciously, as many of them have done, though that 
patient and christian city hath borne hitherto all their 
profane scoffs with silence. 

Remonst. Our liturgy passed the judgment of no 
less reverend heads than his own. 

Answ. It bribed their judgments with worldly en- 
gagements, and so passed it. 

Remonst. As for that unparalleled discourse con- 
cerning the antiquity of liturgies, I cannot help your 
wonder, but shall justify mine own assertion. 

Answ. Your justification is but a miserable shifting 
off those testimonies of the ancientest fathers alleged 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



against you, and the authority of some synodal canons, 
which are now arrant to us. We profess to decide our 
controversies only by the Scriptures ; but yet to re- 
press your vain-glory, there will be voluntarily be- 
stowed upon you a sufficient conviction of your novelties 
out of succeeding 1 antiquity. 

Remonst. I cannot sec how you will avoid your 
own contradiction, for I demand, is this order of pray- 
ing and administration set or no ? If it be not set, how 
is it an order ? And if it be a set order both for matter 
and form 

Answ. Remove that form, lest you tumble over it, 
while you make such haste to clap a contradiction upon 
others. 

Remonst. If the forms were merely arbitrary, to 
what use was the prescription of an order ? 

Answ. Nothing will cure this man's understanding 
but some familiar and kitchen physic, which, with 
pardon, must for plainness sake be administered to 
him. Call hither your cook. The order of breakfast, 
dinner, and supper, answer me, is it set or no ? Set. 
Is a man therefore bound in the morning 1 to poached 
eggs and vinegar, or at noon to brawn or beef, or 
at night to fresh salmon, and French kickshose? May 
he not make his meals in order, though he be not 
bound to this or that viand ? Doubtless the neat-finger- 
ed artist will answer yes, and help us out of this great 
controversy without more trouble. Can we not under- 
stand an order in church-assemblies of praying 1 , read- 
ing, expounding, and administering, unless our prayers 
be still the same crambe of words ? 

Remonst. What a poor exception is this, that litur- 
gies were composed by some particular men ? 

Answ. It is a greater presumption in any particular 
men, to arrogate to themselves, that which God univer- 
sally gives to all his ministers. A minister that cannot 
be trusted to pray in his own words without being 
chewed to, and fescued to a formal injunction of his 
rote lesson, should as little be trusted to preach, besides 
the vain babble of praying over the same things im- 
mediately again ; for there is a large difference in the 
repetition of some pathetical ejaculation raised out of 
the sudden earnestness and vigour of the inflamed soul, 
(such as was that of Christ in the garden,) from the 
continual rehearsal of our daily orisons; which if a 
man shall kneel down in a morning, and say over, and 
presently in another part of the room kneel down again, 
and in other words ask but still for the same things as 
it were out of one inventory, I cannot see how he will 
i leape that heathenish battology of multiplying words, 
which Christ himself, that has the putting up of our 
prayers, told us would not be acceptable in heaven. 
WeW may men of eminent gifts set forth as many 
forma and helps to prayer as they please ; but to im- 
pc* them on ministers lawfully called, and sufficiently 
tried, as all ought to be ere they be admitted, is a su- 
percilious tyranny, impropriating the Spirit of God to 
them* lyes. 

Remonst Do we abridge this liberty by ordaining a 

public form. 

Answ. your bishopfl have set as fair to do it as they 



durst for that old pharasaical fear that still dogs them, 
the fear of the people ; though you will say you are 
none of those, still you would seem not to have joined 
with the worst, and yet keep aloof off from that which 
is best. I would you would either mingle, or part : 
most true it is what Savanarola complains, that while 
he endeavoured to reform the church, his greatest ene- 
mies were still these lukewarm ones. 

Remonst. And if the Lord's prayer be an ordinary 
and stinted form, why not others ? 

Answ. Because there be no other Lords, that can 
stint with like authority. 

Remonst. If Justin Martyr said, that the instructor 
of the people prayed (as they falsely term it) " accord- 
ing to his ability." 

Answ. "Ovrj d&vctfiig avry will be so rendered to the 
world's end by those that are not to learn Greek of the 
Remonstrant, and so Langus renders it to his face, if 
he could see ; and this ancient father mentions no an- 
tiphonies or responsories of the people here, but the 
only plain acclamation of Amen. 

Remonst. The instructor of the people prayed accord- 
ing to his ability, it is true, so do ours : and yet we 
have a liturgy, and so had they. 

Answ. A quick come-off. The ancients used pikes 
and targets, and therefore guns and great ordnance, 
because we use both. 

Remonst. Neither is this liberty of pouring' out our- 
selves in our 'prayers ever the more impeached by a 
public form. 

Answ. Yes, the time is taken up with a tedious num- 
ber of liturgical tautologies, and impertinencies. 

Remonst. The words of the council are full and af- 
firmative. 

Answ. Set the grave councils up upon their shelves 
again, and string them hard, lest their various and 
jangling opinions put their leaves into a flutter. I shall 
not intend this hot season to bid you the base through 
the wide and dusty champaign of the councils, but 
shall take counsel of that which counselled them, rea- 
son : and although I know there is an obsolete repre- 
hension now at your tongue's end, yet I shall be bold to 
say, that reason is the gift of God in one man as well 
as in a thousand : by that which we have tasted already 
of their cisterns, we may find that reason was the only 
thing, and not any divine command that moved them 
to enjoin set forms of liturgy. First, lest any thing in 
general might be missaid in their public prayers 
through ignorance, or want of care, contrary to the 
faith : and next, lest the Arians, and Pelagians in par- 
ticular, should infect the people by their hymns, and 
forms of prayer. By the leave of these ancient fathers, 
this was no solid prevention of spreading heresy, to 
debar the ministers of God the use of their noblest 
talent, prayer in the congregation ; unless they had 
forbid the use of sermons, and lectures too, but such as 
were ready made to their hands, as our homilies : or 
else he that was heretically disposed, had as fair an 
opportunity of infecting in his discourse as in his prayer 
or hymn. As insufficiently, and to say truth, as im- 
prudently, did they provide by their contrived liturgies, 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE &c. 



61 



lest any thing' should be erroneously prayed through 
ignorance, or want of care in the ministers. For if 
they were careless and ignorant in their prayers, cer- 
tainly they would be more careless in their preaching, 
and yet more careless in watching- over their flock ; and 
what prescription could reach to bound them both in 
these ? What if reason, now illustrated by the word 
of God, shall be able to produce a better prevention 
than these councils have left us against heresy, ignor- 
ance, or want of care in the ministry, that such wisdom 
and diligence be used in the education of those that 
would be ministers, and such strict and serious exami- 
nation to be undergone, ere their admission, as St. Paul 
to Timothy sets down at large, and then they need not 
carry such an unworthy suspicion over the preachers 
of God's word, as to tutor their unsoundness with the 
* Abcie of a liturgy, or to diet their ignorance, and want 
of care, with the limited draught of a matin, and even- 
song- drench. All this may suffice after all their labour- 
some scrutiny of the councils. 

Remonst. Our Saviour was pleased to make use in 
the celebration of his last and heavenly banquet both 
of the fashions and words which were usual in the 
Jewish feasts. 

Answ. What he pleased to make use of, does not 
justify what you please to force. 

Remonst. The set forms of prayer at the Mincha. 

Answ. We will not buy your rabbinical fumes ; we 
have one that calls us to buy of him pure gold tried in 
the fire. 

Remonst. In the Samaritan chronicle. 

Answ. As little do we esteem your Samaritan trum- 
pery, of which people Christ himself testifies, Ye wor- 
ship ye know not what. 

Remonst. They had their several songs. 

Answ. And so have we our several psalms for several 
occasions, without gramercy to your liturgy. 

Remonst. Those forms which we have under the 
names of Saint James, &c, though they have some in- 
sertions which are plainly spurious, yet the substance 
of them cannot be taxed for other than holy and 
ancient. 

Answ. Setting- aside the odd coinag-e of your phrase, 
which no mint-master of languag-e w r ould allow for 
sterling, that a thing- should be taxed for no other than 
holy and ancient, let it be supposed the substance of 
them may savour of something holy or ancient, this is 
but the matter ; the form, and the end of the thing-, may 
yet render it either superstitious, fruitless, or impious, 
and so worthy to be rejected. The garments of a 
strumpet are often the same, materially, that clothe a 
chaste matron, and yet ignominious for her to wear : 
the substance of the tempter's words to our Saviour were 
holy, but his drift nothing- less. 

Remonst. Tn what sense we hold the Roman a true 
church, is so cleared that the iron is too hot for their 
fingers. 

Answ. Have a care it be not the iron to sear your 
own conscience. 

Remonst. You need not doubt but that the alteration 

* i. e. A, b, c. 



of the liturgy will be considered by wiser heads than 
your own. 

Answ. We doubt it not, because we know your head 
looks to be one. 

Remonst. Our liturgy symbolizeth not with popish 
mass, neither as mass nor as popish. 

Answ. A pretty slipskin conveyance to sift mass into 
no mass, and popish into not popish ; yet saving this 
passing fine sophistical boulting hutch, so long as she 
symbolizes in form, and pranks herself in the weeds of 
popish mass, it may be justly feared she provokes the 
jealousy of God, no otherwise than a wife affecting 
whorish attire kindles a disturbance in the eye of her 
discerning- husband. 

Remonst. If I find gold in the channel, shall I throw 
it away because it was ill laid ? 

Answ. You have forgot that gold hath been anathe- 
matized for the idolatrous use ; and to eat the good 
creatures of God once offered to idols, is in St. Paul's 
account to have fellowship with devils, and to partake 
of the devil's table. And thus you throttle yourself 
with your own similies. 

Remonst. If the devils confessed the Son of God, 
shall I disclaim that truth ? 

Answ. You sifted not so clean before, but you shuffle 
as foully now ; as if there were the like necessity of 
confessing Christ, and using the liturgy : we do not 
disclaim that truth, because we never believed it for 
their testimony ; but we may well reject a liturgy which 
had no being that we can know of, but from the cor- 
ruptest times : if therefore the devil should be given 
never so much to prayer, I should not therefore cease 
from that duty, because I learned it not from him ; but 
if he would commend to me anew Pater-noster, though 
never so seemingly holy, he should excuse me the form 
which was his; but the matter, which was none of his, 
he could not give me, nor I be said to take it from him. 
It is not the goodness of matter therefore which is not, 
nor can be owed to the liturgy, that will bear it out, if 
the form, which is the essence of it, be fantastic and 
superstitious, the end sinister, and the imposition 
violent. 

Remonst. Had it been composed into this frame on 
purpose to bring papists to our churches. 

Answ. To bring them to our churches ? alas, what 
was that ? unless they had been first fitted by repent- 
ance, and right instruction. You will say, the word 
was there preached, which is the means of conversion ; 
you should have given so much honour then to the word 
preached, as to have left it to God's working without 
the interloping of a liturgy baited for them to bite at. 

Remonst. The project had been charitable and gra- 
cious. 

Answ. It was pharisaical, and vain-glorious, a greedy 
desire to w r in proselytes by conforming to them unlaw- 
fully ; like the desire of Tamar, who, to raise up seed 
to her husband, sate in the common road drest like a 
courtezan, and he that came to her committed incest 
with her. This was that which made the old Christians 
paganize, while by their scandalous and base conform- 



62 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



ing to heathenism they did no more, when they lad 
done their utmost, but bring- some pagans to chris- 
tianize ; for true Christians they neither were them- 
selves, nor could make other such in this fashion. 

Rcmonst. If there be found aught in liturgy that 
may endanger a scandal, it is under careful hands to 
remove it. 

Answ. Such careful hands as have shewn themselves 
sooner bent to remove and expel the men from the 
scandals, than the scandals from the men, and to lose 
a soul rather than a syllable or a surplice. 

Remonst. It is idolized they say in England, they 
mean at Amsterdam. 

Answ. Be it idolized therefore where it will, it is 
only idolatrized in England. 

Remonst. Multitudes of people they say distaste it; 
more shame for those that have so mistaught them. 

Answ. More shame for those that regard not the 
troubling God's church with things by themselves con- 
fessed to be indifferent, since true charity is afflicted, 
and burns at the offence of every little one. As for the 
christian multitude which you affirm to be so mistaught, 
it is evident enough, though you would declaim never 
so long to the contrary, that God hath now taught 
them to detest your liturgy and prelacy ; God who 
hath promised to teach all his children, and to deliver 
them out of your hands that hunt and worry their souls: 
hence is it that a man shall commonly find more sa- 
voury knowledge in one layman, than in a dozen of 
cathedral prelates ; as we read in our Saviour's time 
that the common people had a reverend esteem of him, 
and held him a great prophet, whilst the gowned rab- 
bies, the incomparable and invincible doctors, were of 
opinion that he was a friend of Beelzebub. 

Remonst. If the multitude distaste wholesome doc- 
trine, shall we, to humour them, abandon it? 

Answ. Yet again ! as if there were like necessity of 
saving doctrine, and arbitrary, if not unlawful, or in- 
convenient liturgy : who would have thought a man 
could have thwacked together so many incongruous 
similitudes, had it not been to defend the motley inco- 
herence of a patched missal ? 

Remonst. Why did not other churches conform to 
us ? I may boldly say ours was, and is, the more noble 
church. 

Answ. O Laodicean, how vainly and how carnally 
iost thou boast of nobleness and precedency! more 
lordly you have made our church indeed, but not more 
noble. 

Rcmonst. The second quaere is so weak, that I won- 
der it could fall from the pens of wise men. 

Answ. You are hut a bad fencer, for you never make 
a proffer against another man's weakness; but you 
le&re your own side always open: mark what follows. 

Remonst. Brethren, can ye think that our reformers 
had any other intentions than all the other founders of 
liturgies, the least part of whose care was the help of 
the minister's weakness? 



Answ. Do you not perceive the noose you have 
brought yourself into, whilst you were so brief to taunt 
other men with weakness ? Is it clean out of your mind 
what you cited from among the councils ; that the 
principal scope of those liturgy-founders was to prevent 
either the malice or the weakness of the ministers; 
their malice, of infusing heresy in their forms of prayer; 
their weakness, lest something might be composed by 
them through ignorance or want of care contrary to 
the faith ? Is it not now rather to be wondered, that 
such a weakness could fall from the pen of such a wise 
remonstrant man ? 

Remonst. Their main drift was the help of the 
people's devotion, that they knowing before the matter 
that should be sued for, 

Answ. A solicitous care, as if the people could be 
ignorant of the matter to be prayed for; seeing the 
heads of public prayer are either ever constant, or very 
frequently the same. 

Remonst. And the words wherewith it should be 
clothed, might be the more prepared, and be so much 
the more intent and less distracted. 

Answ. As for the words, it is more to be feared lest 
the same continually should make them careless or 
sleepy, than that variety on the same known subject 
should distract; variety (as both music and rhetoric 
teacheth us) erects and rouses an auditory, like the 
masterful running over many chords and divisions; 
whereas if men should ever be thumbing the drone of 
one plain song, it would be a dull opiate to the most 
wakeful attention. 

Remonst. Tell me, is this liturgy good or evil ? 

Answ. It is evil; repair the acheloian horn of your 
dilemma how you can, against the next push. 

Remonst. If it be evil, it is unlawful to be used. 

Answ. We grant you, and we find you have not 
your salve about you. 

Remonst. Were the imposition amiss, what is that 
to the people ? 

Answ. Not a little, because they bear an equal part 
with the priest in many places, and have their cues and 
verses as well as he. 

Remonst. The ears and hearts of our people look for 
a settled liturgy. 

Answ. You deceive yourself in their ears and hearts, 
they look for no such matter. 

Remonst. The like answer serves for homilies, surely 
they were enjoined to all, &c. 

Answ. Let it serve for them that will be ignorant, 
we know that Hay ward their own creature writes, that 
for defect of preachers, homilies were appointed to be 
read in churches, while Edward VI. reigned. 

Remonst. Away then with the book, whilst it may 
be supplied with a more profitable nonsense. 

Answ. Away with it rather, because it will be hardly 
supplied with a more unprofitable nonsense, than is in 
some passages of it to be seen. 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



63 



SECT. III. 

Remonst. Thus their cavils concerning liturgy are 
vanished. 

Answ. You wanted but hey pass, to have made 
your transition like a mystical man of Sturbridge. 
But for all your sleight of hand, our just exceptions 
against liturgy are not vanished, they stare you still in 
the face. 

Remonst. Certainly had I done so, I had been 
no less worthy to be spitten upon for my saucy un- 
charitableness, than they are now for their uncharitable 
falsehood. 

Answ. We see you are in a choler, therefore till you 
cool awhile we turn us to the ingenuous reader. See 
how this Remonstrant would invest himself condition- 
ally with all the rheum of the town, that he might 
have sufficient to bespaul his brethren. They are ac- 
cused by him of uncharitable falsehood, whereas their 
only crime hath been, that they have too credulously 
thought him, if not an over-logical, yet a well-meaning 
man ; but now we find him either grossly deficient in 
his principles of logic, or else purposely bent to delude 
the parliament with equivocal sophistry, scattering 
among his periods ambiguous words, whose interpreta- 
tion he will afterwards dispense according to his plea- 
sure, laying before us universal propositions, and then 
thinks when he will to pinion them with a limitation : 
for say, Remonstrant, 

Remonst. Episcopal government is cried down abroad 
by either weak or factious persons. 

Answ. Choose you whether you will have this pro- 
position proved to you to be ridiculous or sophistical ; 
for one of the two it must be. Step again to bishop 
Downam your patron, and let him gently catechise 
you in the grounds of logic ; he will shew you that this 
axiom, " episcopal government is cried down abroad 
by either weak or factious persons," is as much as to 
say, they that cry down episcopacy abroad, are either 
weak or factious persons. He will tell you that 
this axiom contains a distribution, and that all such 
axioms are general ; and lastly, that the distribution in 
which any part is wanting, or abundant, is faulty, and 
fallacious. If therefore distributing by the adjuncts 
of faction and weakness, the persons that decry epis- 
copacy, and you made your distribution imperfect for 
the nonce, you cannot but be guilty of fraud intended 
toward the honourable court to whom you wrote. If 
you had rather vindicate your honesty, and suffer in 
your want of art, you cannot condemn them of uncha- 
ritable falsehood, that attributed to you more skill than 
you had, thinking you had been able to have made a 
distribution, as it ought to be, general and full ; and so 
any man would take it, the rather as being accom- 
panied with that large word, (abroad,) and so take 
again either your manifest leasing, or manifest ig- 
norance. 

Remonst. Now come these brotherly slanderers. 

Answ. Go on, dissembling Joab, as still your use is, 
call brother and smite ; call brother and smite, till it be 



said of you, as the like was of Herod, a man had better 
be your hog than your brother. 

Remonst. Which never came within the verge of 
my thoughts. 

Answ. Take a metaphor or two more as good, the 
precinct, or the diocese of your thoughts. 

Remonst. Brethren, if you have any remainders of 
modesty or truth, cry God mercy. 

Answ. Remonstrant, if you have no groundwork of 
logic, or plain dealing in you, learn both as fast as you 
can. 

Remonst. Of the same strain is their witty descant 
of my confoundedness. 

Answ. Speak no more of it, it was a fatal word that 
God put into your mouth when you began to speak for 
episcopacy, as boding confusion to it. 

Remonst. I am still, and shall ever be thus self-con- 
founded, as confidently to say, that he is no peaceable 
and right-affected son of the church of England, that 
doth not wish well to liturgy and episcopacy. 

Answ. If this be not that saucy uncharitableness, 
with which, in the foregoing page, you voluntarily 
invested yourself, with thought to have shifted it off, 
let the parliament judge, who now themselves are de- 
liberating whether liturgy and episcopacy be to be well 
wished to, or no. 

Remonst. This they say they cannot but rank 
amongst my notorious — speak out, masters ; I would 
not have that word stick in your teeth or in your 
throat. 

Answ. Take your spectacles, sir, it sticks in the pa- 
per, and was a pectoral roule we prepared for you to 
swallow down to your heart. 

Remonst. Wanton wits must have leave to play with 
their own stern. 

Answ. A meditation of yours doubtless observed at 
Lambeth from one of the archiepiscopal kittens. 

Remonst. As for that form of episcopal government, 
surely could those look with my eyes, they would see 
cause to be ashamed of this their injurious misconceit. 

Answ. We must call the barber for this wise sen- 
tence ; one Mr. Ley the other day wrote a treatise of 
the sabbath, and his preface puts the wisdom of Ba- 
laam's ass upon one of our bishops, bold man for his 
labour ; but we shall have more respect to our Remon- 
strant, and liken him to the ass's master, though the 
story say he was not so quick-sighted as his beast. Is 
not this Balaam the son of Beor, the man whose eyes 
are open, that said to the parliament, Surely, could those 
look with my eyes ? Boast not of your eyes, it is fear- 
ed you have Balaam's disease, a pearl in your eye, 
Mammon's prestriction. 

Remonst. Alas, we could tell you of China, Japan, 
Peru, Brazil, New England, Virginia, and a thousand 
others, that never had any bishops to this day. 

Answ. O do not foil your cause thus, and trouble 
Ortelius ; we can help you, and tell you where they have 
been ever since Constantine's time at least, in a place 
called Mundus alter et idem, in the spacious and rich 
countries of Crapulia, Pamphagonia, Yuronia, and in 
the dukedom of Orgilia, and Variana, and their metro- 



64 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



polis of Ucalegonium. It was an oversight that none 
of. your prime antiquaries could think of these ve- 
nerable monuments to deduce episcopacy by; knowing 1 
that Mercurius Britaunicus had them forthcoming". 



SECT. IV. 

Remonst. Hitherto they have flourished, now I hope 
they will strike. 

Answ. His former transition was in the fair about 
the jugglers, now he is at the pageants among the 
w hi fliers. 

Remonst. As if arguments were almanacks. 

Answ. You will find some such as will prognosticate 
your date, and tell you that, after your long summer 
solstice, the Equator calls for you, to reduce you to the 
ancient and equal house of Libra. 

Remonst. Truly,, brethren, you have not well taken 
the height of the pole. 

Answ. No marvel, there be many more that do not 
take well the height of your pole ; but will take better 
the declination of your altitude. 

Remonst. He that said I am the way, said that the 
old way was the good way. 

Answ. He bids ask of the old paths, or for the old 
ways, where or which is the good way ; which implies 
that all old ways are not good, but that the good way 
is to be searched with diligence among the old ways, 
which is a thing that we do in the oldest records 
we have, the gospel. And if others may chance to 
spend more time with you in canvassing later anti- 
quity, I suppose it is not for that they ground them- 
selves thereon ; but that they endeavour by shewing 
the corruptions, incertainties, and disagreements of 
those volumes, and the easiness of erring, or overslip- 
ping in such a boundless and vast search, if they may 
not convince those that are so strongly persuaded 
thereof; yet to free ingenuous minds from an over- 
awful esteem of those more ancient than trusty fathers, 
whom custom and fond opinion, weak principles, and 
the neglect of sounder and superiour knowledge hath 
exalted so high as to have gained them a blind reve- 
rence ; whose books in bigness and number so endless 
and immeasurable, I cannot think that either God or 
nature, either divine or human wisdom, did ever mean 
should be a rule or reliance to us in the decision of any 
weighty and positive doctrine : for certainly every rule 
and instrument of necessary knowledge that God hath 
given us, ought to be so in proportion, as may be 
melded and managed by the life of man, without 
penning bin np from the duties of human society; 
and inch a rule and instrument of knowledge perfectly 
il the holv Bible. But he that shall bind himself to 
make antiquity bis rule, if he read but part, besides 
the difficulty of choice, his rule is deficient, and utterly 
unsatisfying ; for there may be other writers of another 
mind, which be hath not seen; and if he undertake 
all, the length of man's life cannot extend to give him 



a full and requisite knowledge of what was done in 
antiquity. Why do we therefore stand worshipping 
and admiring this unactive and lifeless Colossus, that, 
like a carved giant terribly menacing to children and 
weaklings, lifts up his club, but strikes not, and is 
subject to the muting of every sparrow ? If you let 
him rest upon his basis, he may perhaps delight the 
eyes of some with his huge and mountainous bulk, 
and the quaint workmanship of his massy limbs ; but 
if ye go about to take him in pieces, ye mar him ; and 
if you think, like pigmies, to turn and wind him whole 
as he is, besides your vain toil and sweat, be may 
chance to fall upon your own heads. Go, therefore, 
and use all your art, apply your sledges, your levers, 
and your iron crows, to heave and hale your mighty 
Polypheme of antiquity to the delusion of novices and 
unexperienced Christians. We shall adhere close to 
the Scriptures of God, which he hath left us as the just 
and adequate measure of truth, fitted and proportioned 
to the diligent study, memory, and use of every faithful 
man, whose every part consenting, and making up the 
harmonious symmetry of complete instruction, is able 
to set out to us a perfect man of God, or bishop 
thoroughly furnished to all the good works of his 
charge : and with this weapon, without stepping a foot 
further, we shall not doubt to batter and throw down 
your Nebuchadnezzar's image, and crumble it like the 
chaff of the summer threshing-floors, as well the gold 
of those apostolic successors that you boast of, as your 
Constantinian silver, together with the iron, the brass, 
and the clay of those muddy and strawy ages that 
follow. 

Remonst. Let the boldest forehead of them all deny 
that episcopacy hath continued thus long in our island, 
or that any till this age contradicted it. 

Answ. That bold forehead you have cleanly put 
upon yourself, it is you who deny that any till this age 
contradicted it ; no forehead of ours dares do so much : 
you have rowed yourself fairly between the Scylla and 
Charybdis, either of impudence or nonsense, and now 
betake you to whither you please. 

Remonst. As for that supply of accessory strength, 
which I not beg. 

Answ. Your whole remonstrance does nothing else 
but beg it, and your fellow-prelates do as good as 
whine to the parliament for their fleshpots of Egypt, 
making sad orations at the funeral of your dear pre- 
lacy, like that doughty centurion Afranius in Lucian ; 
who, to imitate the noble Pericles in his epitaphian 
speech, stepping up after the battle to bewail the 
slain Severianus, falls into a pitiful condolement, to 
think of those costly suppers and drinking banquets, 
which he must now taste of no more ; and by then 
he had done, lacked but little to lament the dear-loved 
memory and calamitous loss of his capon and white 
broth. 

Remonst. But raise and evince from the light of 
nature, and the rules of just policy, for the continu- 
ance of those thing-s which long use and many laws 
have firmly established as necessary and beneficial. 

Answ. Open your eyes to the light of grace, a better 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



65 



guide than nature. Look upon the mean condition of 
Christ and his apostles, without that accessory strength 
you take such pains to raise from the light of nature 
and policy : take divine counsel, " Labour not for the 
things that perish :" you would be the salt of the earth ; 
if that savour be not found in you, do not think much 
that the time is now come to throw you out, and tread 
you under-foot. Hark how St. Paul, writing to Timo- 
thy, informs a true bishop ; " Bishops (saith he) must 
not be greedy of filthy lucre ; and having food and 
raiment, let us be therewith content : but they (saith 
he, meaning, more especially in that place, bishops) 
that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and 
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men 
in destruction and perdition : for the love of money is 
the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, 
they have erred from the faith." How can we there- 
fore expect sound doctrine, and the solution of this our 
controversy from any covetous and honour-hunting 
bishop, that shall plead so stiffly for these things, while 
St. Paul thus exhorts every bishop ; " But thou, man 
of God, flee these things ?" As for the just policy, that 
long use and custom, and those many laws which you 
say have conferred these benefits upon you ; it hath 
been nothing else but the superstitious devotion of 
princes and great men that knew no better, or the base 
importunity of begging friars, haunting and harassing 
the deathbeds of men departing this life, in a blind 
and wretched condition of hope to merit heaven for 
the building of churches, cloisters, and convents. The 
most of your vaunted possessions, and those proud en- 
dowments that ye as sinfully waste, what are they but 
the black revenues of purgatory, the price of abused 
and murdered souls, the damned simony of Trentals, 
and indulgences to mortal sin ? How can ye choose 
but inherit the curse that goes along with such a patri- 
mony ? Alas ! if there be any releasement, any mitiga- 
tion, or more tolerable being for the souls of our mis- 
guided ancestors ; could we imagine there might be 
any recovery to some degree of ease left for as many of 
them as are lost, there cannot be a better way than to 
take the misbestowed wealth which they were cheated 
of, from these our prelates, who are the true successors 
of those that popped them into the other world with 
this conceit of meriting by their goods, which was their 
final undoing; and to bestow their beneficent gifts 
upon places and means of christian education, and the 
faithful labourers in God's harvest, that may incessantly 
warn the posterity of Dives, lest they come where their 
miserable forefather was sent by the cozenage and 
misleading of avaricious and worldly prelates. 

Remonst. It will stand long enough against the bat- 
tery of their paper pellets. 

Answ. That must be tried without a square cap in 
the council ; and if pellets will not do, your own canons 
shall be turned against you. 

Remonst. They cannot name any man in this nation, 
that ever contradicted episcopacy, till this present age. 

Answ. What an overworn and bedridden argument is 
this ! the last refuge ever of old falsehood, and there- 
fore a good sign, I trust, that your castle cannot hold 



out long. This was the plea of Judaism and idolatry 
against Christ and his apostles, of papacy against re- 
formation ; and perhaps to the frailty of flesh and blood 
in a man destitute of better enlightening may for some 
while be pardonable : for what has fleshly apprehension 
other to subsist by than succession, custom, and visi- 
bility ; which only hold, if in his weakness and blind- 
ness he be loth to lose, who can blame ? But in a pro- 
testant nation, that should have thrown off these tattered 
rudiments long ago, after the many strivings of God's 
Spirit, and our fourscore years' vexation of him in this 
our wilderness since reformation began, to urge these 
rotten principles, and twit us with the present age, 
which is to us an age of ages wherein God is mani- 
festly come down among us, to do some remarkable 
good to our church or state; is, as if a man should tax 
the renovating and reingendering Spirit of God with 
innovation, and that new creature for an upstart novelty ; 
yea, the new Jerusalem, which, without your admired 
link of succession, descends from heaven, could not 
escape some such like censure. If you require a fur- 
ther answer, it will not misbecome a Christian to be 
either more magnanimous or more devout than Scipio 
was ; who, instead of other answer to the frivolous 
accusations of Petilius the tribune, " This day, Romans, 
(saith he,) I fought with Hannibal prosperously; let us 
all go and thank the gods, that gave us so great a vic- 
tory:" in like manner will we now say, not caring 
otherwise to answer this unprotestantlike objection; In 
this age, Britons, God hath reformed his church after 
many hundred years of popish corruption; in this age 
he hath freed us from the intolerable yoke of prelates 
and papal discipline ; in this age he hath renewed our 
protestation against all those yet remaining dregs of 
superstition. Let us all go, every true protested Briton, 
throughout the three kingdoms, and render thanks to 
God the Father of light, and Fountain of heavenly grace, 
and to his Son Christ our Lord, leaving this Remon- 
strant and his adherents to their own designs; and let 
us recount even here without delay, the patience and 
long-suffering that God hath used towards our blind- 
ness and hardness time after time. For he being 
equally near to his whole creation of mankind, and of 
free power to turn his beneficent and fatherly regard 
to what region or kingdom he pleases, hath yet ever 
had this island under the special indulgent eye of his 
providence ; and pitying us the first of all other 
nations, after he had decreed to purify and renew his 
church that lay wallowing in idolatrous pollutions, 
sent first to us a healing messenger to touch softly 
our sores, and carry a gentle hand over our wounds : 
he knocked once and twice, and came again, opening 
our drowsy eyelids leisurely by that glimmering- 
light, which Wickliff and his followers dispersed ; 
and still taking off by degrees the inveterate scales 
from our nigh perished sight, purged also our deaf ears, 
and prepared them to attend his second warning trum- 
pet in our grandsires' days. How else could they have 
been able to have received the sudden assault of his 
reforming Spirit, warring against human principles, 
and carnal sense, the pride of flesh, that still cried up 



66 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



antiquity, custom, canous, councils, and laws; and cried 
down the truth for novelty, schism, profaneness, and 
sacrilege ? whenas we that have lived so long- in abun- 
dant light, besides the sunny reflection of all the neigh- 
bouring- churches, have yet our hearts rivetted with 
those old opinions, and so obstructed and benumbed 
with the same fleshly reasonings, which in our fore- 
fathers soon melted and gave way, against the morn- 
ing beam of reformation. If God had left undone this 
whole work, so contrary to flesh and blood, till these 
times; how should we have yielded to his heavenly 
call, had we been taken, as they were, in the starkness 
of our ignorance ; that yet, after all these spiritual pre- 
paratives and purgations, have our earthly apprehen- 
sions so clammed and furred with the old leaven ? O 
if we freeze at noon after their early thaw, let us fear 
lest the sun for ever hide himself, and turn his orient 
steps from our ingrateful horizon, justly condemned to 
be eternally benighted. Which dreadful judgment, O 
thou the ever-begotten Light and perfect image of the 
Father ! intercede, may never come upon us, as we trust 
thou hast; for thou hast opened our difficult and sad 
times, and given us an unexpected breathing after our 
long oppressions : thou hast done justice upon those 
that tyrannized over us, while some men wavered and 
admired a vain shadow of wisdom in a tongue nothing 
slow to utter guile, though thou hast taught us to ad- 
mire only that which is good, and to count that only 
praiseworthy, which is grounded upon thy divine pre- 
cepts. Thou hast discovered the plots, and frustrated 
the hopes, of all the wicked in the land, and put to 
shame the persecutors of thy church : thou hast made 
our false prophets to be found a lie in the sight of all 
the people, and chased them with sudden confusion and 
amazement before the redoubled brightness of thy de- 
scending cloud, that now covers thy tabernacle. Who 
is there that cannot trace thee now in thy beamy walk 
through the midst of thy sanctuary, amidst those golden 
candlesticks, which have long suffered a dimness 
amongst us through the violence of those that had 
seized them, and were more taken with the mention of 
their gold than of their starry light; teaching the doc- 
trine of Balaam, to cast a stumbling-block before thy 
servants, commanding them to eat things sacrificed to 
idols, and forcing them to fornication ? Come, there- 
fore, thou that hast the seven stars in thy right hand, 
appoint thy chosen priests according to their orders 
and courses of old, to minister before thee, and duly to 
press and pour out the consecrated oil into thy holy 
and ever-burning lamps. Thou hast sent out the spirit 
of prayer upon thy servants over all the land to this 
effect, and stirred up their vows as the sound of many 
waters about thy throne. Every one can say, that now 
certainly thou hast visited this land, and hast not for- 
gotten the utmost corners of the earth, in a time when 
■en bad thought that thou wast gone up from us to 
the farthest end of the heavens, and hadst left to do 
marvellously among the sons of these last ages. O per- 
fect and accomplish thy glorious acts! for men may 
leave their works unfinished, but thou art a God, thy 
nature is perfection : shouldst thou bring us thus far 



onward from Egypt to destroy us in this wilderness, 
though we deserve ; yet thy great name would suffer 
in the rejoicing of thine enemies, and the deluded hope 
of all thy servants. When thou hast settled peace in 
the church, and righteous judgment in the kingdom, 
then shall all thy saints address their voices of joy and 
triumph to thee, standing on the shore of that Red sea 
into which our enemies had almost driven us. And he 
that now for haste snatches up a plain ungarnished pre- 
sent as a thank-offering to thee, which could not be 
deferred in regard of thy so many late deliverances 
wrought for us one upon another, may then perhaps 
take up a harp, and sing thee an elaborate song to ge- 
nerations. In that day it shall no more be said as in 
scorn, this or that was never held so till this present 
age, when men have better learnt that the times and 
seasons pass along under thy feet to go and come at 
thy bidding: and as thou didst dignify our fathers' 
days with many revelations above all the foregoing 
ages, since thou tookest the flesh ; so thou canst vouch- 
safe to us (though unworthy) as large a portion of thy 
Spirit as thou pleasest : for who shall prejudice thy all- 
governing will ? seeing the power of thy grace is not 
passed away with the primitive times, as fond and 
faithless men imagine, but thy kingdom is now at hand, 
and thou standing at the door. Come forth out of thy 
royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth ! 
put on the visible robes of thy imperial majesty, take 
up that unlimited sceptre which thy almighty Father 
hath bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy bride 
calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be renewed. 



SECT. V. 

Remonst. Neglect not the gift which was given thee 
by prophecy, and by laying on the hands of presbytery. 

Answ. The English translation expresses the article, 
(the,) and renders it the presbytery, which you do in- 
jury to omit. 

Remonst. Which I wonder ye can so press, when 
Calvin himself takes it of the office, and not of the men. 

Answ. You think then you are fairly quit of this 
proof, because Calvin interprets it for you, as if we 
could be put off with Calvin's name, unless we be con- 
vinced with Calvin's reason ! the word irpeafivrLpiov is 
a collective noun, signifying a certain number of men 
in one order, as the word privy-council with us ; and 
so Beza interprets, that knew Calvin's mind doubtless, 
with whom he lived. If any amongst us should say 
the privy-council ordained it, and thereby constrain us 
to understand one man's authority, should we not laugh 
at him ? And therefore when you have used all your 
cramping-irons to the text, and done your utmost to 
cram a presbytery into the skin of one person, it will 
be but a piece of frugal nonsense. But if your mean- 
ing be with a violent hyperbaton to transpose the text, 
as if the words lay thus in order, " neglect not the gift 
of presbytery :" this were a construction like a harque- 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



67 



buss shot over a file of words twelve deep, without 
authority to bid them stoop ; or to make the word gift, 
like the river Mole in Surry, to run under the bottom 
of a long- line, and so start up to govern the word pres- 
bytery, as in immediate syntaxis ; a device ridiculous 
enough to make good that old wife's tale of a certain 
queen of England that sunk at Charing-cross, and rose 
up at Queenhithe. No marvel though the prelates be 
a troublesome generation, and, which way soever they 
turn them, put all things into a foul discomposure, when 
to maintain their domineering, they seek thus to rout 
and disarray the wise and well-couched order of Saint 
Paul's own words, using either a certain textual riot to 
chop off the hands of the word presbytery, or else a like 
kind of simony to clap the word gift between them. 
Besides, if the verse must be read according to this 
transposition, fxrj djwcXit rs kv aol xaQ^fiarog th 7rpea(3v- 
rtpia, it would be improper to call ordination ^dpio/ia, 
whenas it is rather only xtipiacua, an outward testimony 
if approbation ; unless they will make it a sacrament, 
as the papists do : but surely the prelates would have 
Saint Paul's words ramp one over another, as they use 
to climb into their livings and bishoprics. 

Remonst. Neither need we give any other satisfac- 
tion to the point, than from Saint Paul himself, 2 Tim- 
othy i. 6, " Stir up the gift of God which is in thee by 
the imposition of my hands ;" mine, and not others. 

Answ. Ye are too quick ; this last place is to be un- 
derstood by the former ; as the law of method, which 
bears chief sway in the art of teaching, requires, that 
clearest and plainest expressions be set foremost, to the 
end they may enlighten any following obscurity ; and 
wherefore we should not attribute a right method to the 
teachableness of Scripture, there can be no reason given : 
to which method, if we shall now go contrary, besides 
the breaking of a logical rule, which the Remonstrant 
hitherto we see hath made little account of, we shall 
also put a manifest violence and impropriety upon a 
known word against his common signification, in 
binding a collective to a singular person. But if we 
shall, as logic (or indeed reason) instructs us, expound 
the latter place by the former cited, and understand 
" by the imposition of my hands," that is, of mine 
chiefly as an apostle, with the joint authority and as- 
sistance of the presbytery, there is nothing more ordi- 
nary or kindly in speech, than such a phrase as expresses 
only the chief in any action, and understands the rest. 
So that the imposition of Saint Paul's hands, without 
more expression in this place, cannot exclude the joint 
act of the presbytery affirmed by the former text. 

Remonst. In the mean while see, brethren, how you 
have with Simon fished all night, and caught nothing. 

Answ. If we fishing with Simon the apostle can 
catch nothing, see what you can catch with Simon 
Magus ; for all his hooks and fishing implements he 
bequeathed among you. 



SECT. XIII. 

Remonst. We do again profess, that if our bishops 
challenge any other power than was delegated to and 
required of Timothy and Titus, we shall yield them 
usurpers. 

Answ. Ye cannot compare an ordinary bishop with 
Timothy, who was an extraordinary man, foretold and 
promised to the church by many prophecies, and his 
name joined as collateral with Saint Paul, in most of 
his apostolic epistles, even where he writes to the 
bishops of other churches, as those in Philippi. Nor can 
you prove out of the Scripture that Timothy was bishop 
of any particular place ; for that wherein it is said in 
the third verse of the first epistle, " As I besought thee 
to abide still at Ephesus," will be such a gloss to prove 
the constitution of a bishop by, as would not only be 
not so good as a Bourdeaux gloss, but scarce be re- 
ceived to varnish a vizard of Modona. All that can 
be gathered out of holy writ concerning Timothy is, 
that he was either an apostle, or an apostle's extraordi- 
nary vice-gerent, not confined to the charge of any 
place. The like may be said of Titus, (as those words 
import in the 5th verse,) that he was for that cause left 
in Crete, that he might supply or proceed to set in 
order that which St. Paul in apostolic manner had 
begun, for which he had his particular commission, as 
those words sound " as I had appointed thee." So that 
what he did in Crete, cannot so much be thought the 
exercise of an ordinary function, as the direction of an 
inspired mouth. No less may be gathered from the 
2 Cor. viii. 23. 

Remonst. You descend to the angels of the seven 
Asian churches ; your shift is, that the word angel is 
here taken collectively, not individually. 

Answ. That the word is collective, appears plainly, 
Revel, ii. 

First, Because the text itself expounds it so; for 
having spoken all the while as to the angel, the seventh 
verse concludes, that this was spoken to the churches. 
Now if the Spirit conclude collectively, and kept the 
same tenor all the way, for we see not where he par- 
ticularizes ; then certainly he must begin collectively, 
else the construction can be neither grammatical nor 

logical. 

Secondly, If the word angel be individual, then are 
the faults attributed to him individual : but they are 
such as for which God threatens to remove the candle- 
stick out of its place, which is as much as to take away 
from that church the light of his truth ; and we cannot 
think he will do so for one bishop's fault. Therefore 
those faults must be understood collective, and by con- 
sequence the subject of them collective. 

Thirdly, An individual cannot branch itself into subr 
individuals ; but this word angel doth in the tenth verse. 
" Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer ; 
behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison." 
And the like from other places of this and the following 
chapter may be observed. Therefore it is no individual 
word, but a collective. 



OS 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



Fourthly, In the 24th verse this word Angel is made 
capable of* a pronoun plural, which could not be, unless 
it were a collective. As for the supposed manuscript 
of Tecla, and two or three other copies that have ex- 
punged the copulative, we cannot prefer them before 
the more received reading - , and we hope you will not, 
against the translation of your mother the church of 
England, that passed the revise of your chiefest pre- 
lates: besides this, you will lay an unjust censure upon 
the much-praised bishop of Tbyatira, and reckon him 
among those that had the doctrine of Jezebel, when 
the text says, he only suffered her. Whereas, if you 
will but let in a charitable conjunction, as we know 
your so much called for charity will not deny, then you 
plainly acquit the bishop, if you comprehend him in 
the name of angel, otherwise you leave his case very 
doubtful. 

Remonst. " Thou sufferest thy wife Jezebel :" was 
she wife to the whole company, or to one bishop alone? 

Answ. Not to the whole company doubtless, for that 
had been worse than to have been the Levite's wife in 
Gibeah : but here among all those that constantly read 
it otherwise, whom you trample upon, your good mother 
of England is down again in the throng, who with the 
rest reads it, ' that woman Jezebel :' but suppose it 
were wife, a man might as well interpret that word 
figuratively, as her name Jezebel no man doubts to be 
a borrowed name. 

Remonst. Yet what makes this for a diocesan bishop ? 
Much every way. 

Answ. No more than a special endorsement could 
make to puff up the foreman of a jury. If we deny 
you more precedence, than as the senior of any society, 
or deny you this priority to be longer than annual ; 
prove you the contrary from hence, if you can. That 
you think to do from the title of eminence, Angel : alas, 
your wings are too short. It is not ordination nor 
jurisdiction that is angelical, but the heavenly message 
of the gospel, which is the office of all ministers alike; 
in which sense John the Baptist is called an Angel, 
which in Greek signifies a messenger, as oft as it is 
meant by a man, and might be so rendered here with- 
out treason to the hierarchy ; but that the whole book 
soars to a prophetic pitch in types and allegories. See- 
ing then the reason of this borrowed name is merely to 
signify the preaching of the gospel, and that this preach- 
ing equally appertains to the whole ministry ; hence 
may be drawn a fifth argument, that if the reason of 
this borrowed name Angel be equally collective and 
communicative to the whole preaching ministry of the 
place, then must the name be collectively and commu- 
nicatively taken ; but the reason, that is to say, the 
office, of preaching and watching over the flock, is 
equally collective and communicative : therefore the 
borrowed name itself is to be understood as equally 
collective and communicative to the whole preaching 
ministry of the place. And if you will contend still 
for a superiority in one person, you must ground it bet- 
ter than from this metaphor, which you may now de- 
ploy as the txehead that fell into the water, and say, 
" Alas, master., for it was borrowed ;" unless you have, 



as good a faculty to make iron swim, as you had to 
make light froth sink. 

Remonst. What is, if this be not, ordination and 
jurisdiction? 

Answ. Indeed in the constitution and founding of a 
church, that some men inspired from God should have 
an extraordinary calling to appoint, to order, and dis- 
pose, must needs be. So Moses, though himself no 
priest, sanctified and ordained Aaron and his sons ; but 
when all needful things be set, and regulated by the 
writings of the apostles, whether it be not a mere folly 
to keep up a superior degree in the church only for 
ordination and jurisdiction, it will be no hurt to debate 
awhile. The apostles were the builders, and, as it 
were, the architects of the christian church ; wherein 
consisted their excellence above ordinary ministers ? 
A prelate would say in commanding, in controlling, in 
appointing, in calling to them, and sending from about 
them, to all countries, their bishops and archbishops as 
their deputies, with a kind of legantine power. No, 
no, vain prelates, this was but as the scaffolding of a 
new edifice, which for the time must board and over- 
look the highest battlements ; but if the structure once 
finished, any passenger should fall in love with them, 
and pray that they might still stand, as being a singular 
grace and strengthening to the house, who would 
otherwise think, but that the man was presently to be 
laid hold on, and sent to his friends and kindred ? The 
eminence of the apostles consisted in their powerful 
preaching, their unwearied labouring in the word, their 
unquenchable charity, which, above all earthly respects, 
like a working flame, had spun up to such a height of 
pure desire, as might be thought next to that love 
which dwells in God to save souls; which, while they 
did, they were contented to be the offscouring of the 
world, and to expose themselves willingly to all afflic- 
tions, perfecting thereby their hope through patience 
to a joy unspeakable. As for ordination, what is it, 
but the laying on of hands, an outward sign or symbol 
of admission ? It creates nothing, it confers nothing ; 
it is the inward calling of God that makes a minister, 
and his own painful study and diligence that manures 
and improves his ministerial gifts. In the primitive 
times, many, before ever they had received ordination 
from the apostles, had done the church noble service, 
as Apollos and others. It is but an orderly form of re- 
ceiving a man already fitted, and committing to him a 
particular charge ; the employment of preaching is as 
holy, and far more excellent; the care also and judg- 
ment to be used in the winning of souls, which is 
thought to be sufficient in every worthy minister, is an 
ability above that which is required in ordination : for 
many may be able to judge who is fit to be made a 
minister, that would not be found fit to be made minis- 
ters themselves ; as it will not be denied that he may 
be the competent judge of a neat picture, or elegant 
poem, that cannot limn the like. Why therefore we 
should constitute a superior order in the church to per- 
form an office which is not only every minister's func- 
tion, but inferior also to that which he has a confessed 
right to; and why this superiority should remain thus 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



69 



usurped, some wise Epimenides tell us. Now for 
jurisdiction, this dear saint of the prelates, it will be 
best to consider, first, what it is : that sovereign Lord, 
who in the discharge of his holy anointment from God 
the Father, which made him supreme bishop of our 
souls, was so humble as to say, " Who made me a 
judge, or a divider over ye ?" hath taught us that a 
churchman's jurisdiction is no more but to watch over 
his flock in season, and out of season, to deal by sweet 
and efficacious instructions, gentle admonitions, and 
sometimes rounder reproofs : against negligence or 
obstinacy, will be required a rousing volley of pas- 
torly threatening^ ; against a persisting stubbornness, 
or the fear of a reprobate sense, a timely separation 
from the flock by that interdictive sentence, lest his 
conversation unprohibited, or unbranded, might breathe 
a pestilential murrain into the other sheep. In 
sum, his jurisdiction is to see the thriving and pros- 
pering of that which he hath planted : what other 
work the prelates have found for chancellors and suf- 
fragans, delegates and officials, with all the hell-pes- 
tering rabble of sumners and apparitors, is but an in- 
vasion upon the temporal magistrate, and affected by 
them as men that are not ashamed of the ensign and 
banner of antichrist. But true evangelical jurisdiction 
or discipline is no more, as was said, than for a minis- 
ter to see to the thriving and prospering of that which 
he hath planted. And which is the worthiest work of 
these two, to plant as every minister's office is equally 
with the bishops, or to tend that which is planted, 
which the blind and undiscerning prelates call juris- 
diction, and would appropriate to themselves as a busi- 
ness of higher dignity ? Have patience therefore a 
little, and hear a law case. A certain man of large 
possessions had a fair garden, and kept therein an ho- 
nest and laborious servant, whose skill and profession 
was to set or sow all wholesome herbs, and delightful 
flowers, according to every season, and whatever else 
was to be done in a well-husbanded nursery of plants 
and fruits. Now, when the time was come that he 
should cut his hedges, prune his trees, look to his ten- 
der slips, and pluck up the weeds that hindered their 
growth, he gets him up by break of day, and makes 
account to do what was needful in his garden; and 
who would think that any other should know better 
than he how the day's work was to be spent ? Yet for 
all this there comes another strange gardener that 
never knew the soil, never handled a dibble or spade to 
set the least potherb that grew there, much less had 
endured an hour's sweat or chilness, and yet challenges 
as his right the binding or unbinding of every flower, 
the clipping of every bush, the weeding and worming 
of every bed, both in that and all other gardens there- 
about. The honest gardener, that ever since the day- 
peep, till now the sun was grown somewhat rank, had 
wrought painfully about his banks and seedplots, at his 
commanding voice turns suddenly about with some 
wonder ; and although he could have well beteemed 
to have thanked him of the ease he proffered, yet loving 
his own handywork, modestly refused him, telling him 
withal, that, for his part, if he had thought much of his 



own pains, he could for once have committed the work 
to one of his fellow-labourers, for as much as it is well 
known to be a matter of less skill and less labour to 
keep a garden handsome, than it is to plant it, or con- 
trive it, and that he had already performed himself. No, 
said the stranger, this is neither for you nor your fellows 
to meddle with, but for me only that am for this pur- 
pose in dignity far above you ; and the provision which 
the lord of the soil allows me in this office is, and that 
with good reason, tenfold your wages. The gardener 
smiled and shook his head ; but what was determined, 
I cannot tell you till the end of this parliament. 

Remonst. If in time you shall see wooden chalices, 
and wooden priests, thank yourselves. 

Answ. It had been happy for this land, if your priests 
had been but only wooden ; all England knows they 
have been to this island not wood, but wormwood, that 
have infected the third part of our waters, like that 
apostate star in the Revelation, that many souls have 
died of their bitterness; and if you mean by wooden, 
illiterate or contemptible, there was no want of that 
sort among you ; and their number increasing daily, 
as their laziness, their tavern-hunting, their neglect of 
all sound literature, and their liking of doltish and 
monastical schoolmen daily increased. What, should 
I tell you how the universities, that men look should 
be fountains of learning and knowledge, have been 
poisoned and choaked under your governance ? And if 
to be wooden be to be base, where could there be found 
among all the reformed churches, nay in the church of 
Rome itself, a baser brood of flattering' and time-serv- 
ing priests? according as God pronounces by Isaiah, 
the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. As for your 
young scholars, that petition for bishoprics and dean- 
eries to encourage them in their studies, and that many 
gentlemen else will not put their sons to learning; away 
with such young mercenary striplings, and their simo- 
niacal fathers ; God has no need of such, they have no 
part or lot in his vineyard : they may as well sue for 
nunneries, that they may have some convenient stow- 
age for their withered daughters, because they cannot 
give them portions answerable to the pride and vanity 
they have bred them in. This is the root of all our 
mischief, that which they allege for the encouragement 
of their studies should be cut away forewith as the very 
bait of pride and ambition, the very garbage that draws 
together all the fowls of prey and ravin in the land to 
come and gorge upon the church. How can it be but 
ever unhappy to the church of England, while she shall 
think to entice men to the pure service of God by the 
same means that were used to tempt our Saviour to 
the service of the devil, by laying before him honour 
and preferment ? Fit professors indeed are they like to 
be, to teach others that godliness with content is great 
gain, whenas their godliness of teaching had not been 
but for worldly gain. The heathen philosophers thought 
that virtue was for its own sake inestimable, and the 
greatest gain of a teacher to make a soul virtuous ; so 
Xenophon writes to Socrates, who never bargained 
with any for teaching them ; he feared not lest those 
who had received so high a benefit from him, would 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



i).ot of their own free will return him all possible 
thanks. Was moral virtue so lovely, and so alluring-, 
and heathen men so enamoured of her, as to teach 
and study her with greatest neg-lect and contempt of 
worldly profit and advancement ? And is Christian 
piety so homely and so unpleasant, and Christian 
men so cloyed with her, as that none will study and 
teach her, but for lucre and preferment ? O stale- 
grown piety ! O gospel rated as cheap as thy Master, 
at thirty ponce, and not worth the study, unless thou 
canst buy those that will sell thee ! O race of Ca- 
pernaitans, senseless of divine doctrine, and capable 
only of loaves and belly-cheer ! But they will grant, 
perhaps, piety may thrive, but learning will decay : I 
would fain ask these men at whose hands they seek 
inferiour things, as wealth, honour, their dainty fare, 
their lofty houses ? No doubt but they will soon an- 
swer, that all these things they seek at God's hands. 
Do they think then that all these meaner and super- 
fluous things come from God, and the divine gift of 
learning from the den of Plutus, or the cave of Mam- 
mon ? Certainly never any clear spirit nursed up from 
brighter influences, with a soul enlarged to the dimen- 
sions of spacious art and high knowledge, ever entered 
there but with scorn, and thought it ever foul disdain 
to make pelf or ambition the reward of his studies ; it 
being the greatest honour, the greatest fruit and pro- 
ficiency of learned studies to despise these things. Not 
liberal science, but illiberal must that needs be, that 
mounts in contemplation merely for money. And what 
would it avail us to have a hireling clergy, though 
never so learned ? For such can have neither true wis- 
dom nor grace ; and then in vain do men trust in learn- 
ing, where these be wanting. Jf in less noble and 
almost mechanic arts, according to the definitions of 
those authors, he is not esteemed to deserve the name 
of a complete architect, an excellent painter, or the 
like, that bears not a generous mind above thepeasantly 
regard of wages and hire; much more must we think 
him a most imperfect and incomplete divine, who is 
so far from being a contemner of filthy lucre, that his 
whole divinity is moulded and bred up in the beggarly 
and brutish hopes of a fat prebendary, deanery, or 
bishopric; which poor and low-pitched desires, if they 
do but mix with those other heavenly intentions that 
draw a man to this study, it is justly expected that they 
should bring forth a bascborn issue of divinity, like that 
of those imperfect and putrid creatures that receive a 
crawling life from two most unlike procreants, the sun 
and mud. And in matters of religion, there is not any 
thing more intolerable than a learned fool, or a learned 
In pocrite ; the one is ever cooped up at his empty 
speculations, a sot, an ideot for any use that mankind 
can make of him, or else sowing the world with nice 
and idle questions, and with much toil and difficulty 
trading to his auditors up to the eyebrows in deep shal- 
lows that wet not the instep : a plain unlearned man 
that lives well by that light which he has, is better and 
wiser, and edifies others more towards a godly and happy 
life than he. The other is still us ing his sophisticated 
ind bending all his studies how to make his in- 



satiate avarice and ambition seem pious and orthodoxal, 
by painting his lewd and deceitful principles with a 
smooth and glossy varnish in a doctrinal way, to bring- 
about his wickedest purposes. Instead of the great 
harm therefore that these men fear upon the dissolving 
of prelates, what an ease and happiness will it be to 
us, when tempting' rewards are taken away, that the 
cunningest and most dangerous mercenaries will cease 
of themselves to frequent the fold, whom otherwise 
scarce all the prayers of the faithful could have kept 
back from devouring the flock ! But a true pastor of 
Christ's sending hath this especial mark, that for great- 
est labours and greatest merits in the church, he re- 
quires either nothing, if he could so subsist, or a very 
common and reasonable supply of human necessaries : 
we cannot therefore do better than to leave this care of 
ours to God, he can easily send labourers into his har- 
vest, that shall not cry, Give, give, but be contented 
with a moderate and beseeming allowance ; nor will 
he suffer true learning to be wanting, where true grace 
and our obedience to him abounds : for if he give us 
to know him aright, and to practise this our knowledge 
in right established discipline, how much more will he 
replenish us with all abilities in tongues and arts, that 
may conduce to his glory and our good ! He can stir 
up rich fathers to bestow exquisite education upon their 
children, and so dedicate them to the service of the 
gospel; he can make the sons of nobles his ministers, 
and princes to be his Nazarites ; for certainly there is 
no employment more honourable, more worthy to take 
up a great spirit, more requiring a generous and free 
nurture, than to be the messenger and herald of hea- 
venly truth from God to man, and, by the faithful work 
of holy doctrine, to procreate a number of faithful men, 
making a kind of creation like to God's, by infusing 
his spirit and likeness into them, to their salvation, as 
God did into him ; arising to what climate soever he 
turn him, like that Sun of righteousness that sent him, 
with healing in his wings, and new light to break in 
upon the chill and gloomy hearts of his hearers, raising- 
out of darksome barrenness a delicious and fragrant 
spring of saving knowledge, and good works. Can a 
man, thus employed, find himself discontented, or dis- 
honoured for want of admittance to have a pragmatical 
voice at sessions and jail deliveries? Or because he 
may not as a judge sit out the wrangling noise of li- 
tigious courts to shrive the purses of unconfessing and 
unmortified sinners, and not their souls, or be dis- 
couraged though men call him not lord, whenas the 
due performance of his office would gain him, even from 
lords and princes, the voluntary title of father ? Would 
he tug for a barony to sit and vote in parliament, know- 
ing that no man can take from him the gift of wisdom 
and sound doctrine, which leaves him free, though not 
to be a member, yet a teacher and persuader of the par- 
liament ? And in all wise apprehensions the persuasive 
power in man to win others to goodness by instruction 
is greater, and more divine, than the compulsive power 
to restrain men from being evil by terrour of the law ; 
and therefore Christ left Moses to be the lawgiver, but 
himself came down amongst us to be a teacher, with 



REMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, &c. 



71 



.which office his heavenly wisdom was so well pleased, 
as that he was angry with those that would have put a 
piece of temporal judicature into his hands, disclaim- 
ing- that he had any commission from above for such 
matters. 

Such a high calling therefore as this, sends not for 
those drossy spirits that need the lure and whistle of 
earthly preferment, like those animals that fetch and 
carry for a morsel ; no. She can find such as therefore 
study her precepts, because she teaches to despise pre- 
ferment. And let not those wretched fathers think they 
shall impoverish the church of willing and able supply, 
though they keep back their sordid sperm, begotten in 
the lustiness of their avarice, and turn them to their 
malting kilns ; rather let them take heed what lessons 
they instil into that lump of flesh which they are the 
cause of; lest, thinking to offer him as a present to 
God, they dish him out for the devil. Let the novice 
learn first to renounce the world, and so give himself 
to God, and not therefore give himself to God, that he 
may close the better with the world, like that false 
shepherd Palinode in the eclogue of May, under whom 
the poet lively personates our prelates, whose whole life 
is a recantation of their pastoral vow, and whose pro- 
fession to forsake the world, as they use the matter, 
bogs them deeper into the world. Those our admired 
Spenser inveighs against, not without some presage of 
these reforming times : 

The time was once and may again return, 
( For oft may happen that hath been beforn, ) 
When shepherds had none inheritance, 
!Ne of land nor fee in sufferance, 
But what might arise of the bare sheep, 
(Were it more or less,) which they did keep. 
Well ywis was it with shepherds tho, 
Nought having, nought feared they to forego : 
For Pan himself was their inheritance, 
And little them served for their maintenance : 
The shepherds God so well them guided, 
That of nought they were unprovided. 
Butter enough, honey, milk and whey, 
And their flock fleeces them to array. 
But tract of time, and long prosperity 
( That nurse of vice, this of insolency ) 
Lulled the shepherds in such security, 
That not content with loyal obeysance, 
Some gan to gape for greedy governance, 
And match themselves with mighty potentates, 
Lovers of lordships, and troublers of states. 
Tho gan shepherds swains to looke aloft, 
And leave to live hard, and learne to lig soft. 
Tho under colour of shepherds some while 
There crept in wolves full of fraud and guile, 
That often devoured their own sheep, 
And often the shepherd that did them keep. 
This was the first source of shepherds sorrow, 
That now nill be quit with bale, nor borrow. 

By all this we may conjecture, how little we need 
fear that the ungilding of our prelates will prove the 
woodening of our priests. In the mean while let no 
man carry in his head either such narrow or such evil 
eyes, as not to look upon the churches of Belgia and 
Helvetia, and that envied city Geneva : where in the 
christian world doth learning more flourish than in 



these places ? Not among your beloved Jesuits, nor 
their favourers, though you take all the prelates into 
the number, and instance in what kind of learning you 
please. And how in England all noble sciences attend- 
ing upon the train of christian doctrine may flourish 
more than ever ; and how the able professors of every 
art may with ample stipends be honestly provided ; 
and finally, how there may be better care had that 
their hearers may benefit by them, and all this without 
the prelates ; the courses are so many and so easy, that 
I shall pass them over. 

Remonst. It is God that makes the bishop, the king- 
that gives the bishopric ; what can you say to this ? 

Answ. What you shall not long stay for : we say it 
is God that makes a bishop, and the devil that makes 
him take a prelatical bishopric ; as for the king's gift, 
regal bounty may be excusable in giving, where the 
bishop's covetousness is damnable in taking. 

Remonst. Many eminent divines of the churches 
abroad have earnestly wished themselves in our condi- 
tion. 

Answ. I cannot blame them, they were not only 
eminent but supereminent divines, and for stomach 
much like to Pompey the Great, that could endure no 
equal. 

Remonst. The Babylonian note sounds well in your 
ears, " Down with it, down with it, even to the ground." 

Answ. You mistake the matter, it was the Edomitish 
note ; but change it, and if you be an angel, cry with 
the angel, " It is fallen, it is fallen." 

Remonst. But the God of heaven will, we hope, 
vindicate his own ordinance so long perpetuated to his 
church. 

Answ. Go rather to your god of this world, and see 
if he can vindicate your lordships, your temporal and 
spiritual tyrannies, and all your pelf; for the God of 
heaven is already come down to vindicate his ordinance 
from your so long perpetuated usurpation. 

Remonst. If yet you can blush. 

Answ. This is a more Edomitish conceit than the 
former, and must be silenced with a counter quip of the 
same country. So often and so unsavourily has it been 
repeated, that the reader may well cry, Down with it, 
down with it, for shame. A man would think you had 
eaten over-liberally"of Esau's red porridge, and from 
thence dream continually of blushing ; or perhaps, to 
heighten your fancy in writing, are wont to sit in your 
doctor's scarlet, which through your eyes infecting your 
pregnant imaginative with a red suffusion, begets a 
continual thought of blushing ; that you thus persecute 
ingenuous men over all your book, with this one over- 
tired rubrical conceit still of blushing' : but if you have 
no mercy upon them, yet spare yourself, lest you bejade 
the good galloway, your own opiniatre wit, and make 
the very conceit itself blush with spurgalling. 

Remonst. The scandals of our inferiour ministers I 
desired to have had less public. 

Answ. And what your superiour archbishop or bi- 
shops ! forbid to have it told in Gath I say you. O 
dauber ! and therefore remove not impieties from Israel. 
Constantine might have done more justly to have pti- 



72 



ANIMADVERSIONS UPON THE 



nished those clergical faults which he could not conceal, 
than to leave them unpunished, that they might remain 
concealed : better had it been for him, that the heathen 
had heard the fame of his justice, than of his wilful 
connivance and partiality ; and so the name of God 
and his truth had been less blasphemed among- his 
enemies, and the clergy amended, which daily, by this 
impunity, grew worse and worse. But, O to publish 
in the streets of Ascalon ! sure some colony of puritans 
have taken Ascalon from the Turk lately, that the Re- 
monstrant is so afraid of Ascalon. The papists we 
know condole you, and neither Constantinople nor 
your neighbours of Morocco trouble you. What other 
Ascalon can you allude to? 

Remonst. What a death it is to think of the sport 
and advantage these watchful enemies, these opposite 
spectators, will be sure to make of our sin and shame! 

Answ. This is but to fling and struggle under the 
inevitable net of God, that now begins to environ you 
round. 

Remonst. No one clergy in the whole christian world 
yields so many eminent scholars, learned preachers, 
grave, holy, and accomplished divines, as this church 
of England doth at this day. 

Answ. Ha, ha, ha! 

Remonst. And long, and ever may it thus flourish. 

Answ. O pestilent imprecation ! flourish as it does 
at this day in the prelates ? 

Remonst. But O forbid to have it told in Gath ! 

Answ. Forbid him rather, sacred parliament, to vio- 
late the sense of Scripture, and turn that which is 
spoken of the afflictions of the church under her pagan 
enemies, to a pargetted concealment of those prelatical 
crying sins: for from these is prophaneness gone forth 
into all the land ; they have hid their eyes from the 
sabbaths of the Lord ; they have fed themselves, and 
not their flocks ; with force and cruelty have they ruled 
over God's people : they have fed his sheep (contrary 
to that which St. Peter writes) not of a ready mind, 
but for filthy lucre; not as examples to the flock, but 
as being lords over God's heritage : and yet this dauber 
would daub still with his untempered mortar. But 
hearken what God says by the prophet Ezekiel, " Say 
unto them that daub this wall with untempered mor- 
tar, that it shall fall; there shall be an overflowing 
shower, and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a 
stormy wind shall rend it, and I will say unto you, the 
wall is no more, neither they that daubed it." 

Rcujoiist. Whether of us shall give a better account 
of our charity to the God of peace, I appeal. 

Answ. Your charity is much to your fellow-offenders, 
but nothing to the numberless souls that have been 
lost by their false feeding: use not therefore so sillily 
the name of charity, as most commonly you do, and 
the peaceful attribute of God to a preposterous end. 

R< monst. In the next section, like illbred sons, you 
spit in the face of your mother the church of England. 

Answ. What should we do or say to this Remon- 
strant, that hv bis idle and shallow reasonings, seems 
to have been conversant in no divinity, but that which 
IS colourable to uphold bishoprics:' we acknowledge, 



and believe, the catholic reformed church ; and if any 
man be disposed to use a trope or figure, as St. Paul 
did in calling her the common mother of us all, let him 
do as his own rhetoric shall persuade him. If therefore 
we must needs have a mother, and if the catholic church 
only be, and must be she, let all genealogy tell us, if it 
can, what we must call the church of England, unless 
we shall make every English protestant a kind of 
poetical Bacchus, to have two mothers : but mark, 
readers, the crafty scope of these prelates ; they en- 
deavour to impress deeply into weak and superstitious 
fancies, the awful notion of a mother, that hereby they 
might cheat tbem into a blind and implicit obedience 
to whatsoever they shall decree or think fit. And if 
we come to ask a reason of aught from our dear mother, 
she is invisible, under the lock and key of the prelates 
her spiritual adulterers ; they only are the internun- 
cios, or the go-betweens, of this trim devised mummery: 
whatsoever they say, she says must be a deadly sin of 
disobedience not to believe. So that we, who by God's 
special grace have shaken off the servitude of a great 
male tyrant, our pretended father the pope, should now, 
if we be not betimes aware of these wily teachers, sink 
under the slavery of a female notion, the cloudy con- 
ception of a demy-island mother ; and, while we think 
to be obedient sons, should make ourselves rather the 
bastards, or the centaurs of their spiritual fornications. 

Remonst. Take heed of the ravens of the valley. 

Answ. The ravens we are to take heed of are your- 
selves, that would peck out the eyes of all knowing 
Christians. 

Remonst. Sit you merry, brethren. 

Answ. So we shall when the furies of prelatical con- 
sciences will not give them leave to do so. 

Queries. Whether they would not jeopard their ears 
rather, &c. 

Answ. A punishment that awaits the merits of your 
bold accomplices, for the lopping and stigmatizing of 
so many freeborn Christians. 

Remonst. Whether the professed slovenliness in 
God's service, &c. 

Answ. We have heard of Aaron and his linen amice, 
but those days are past; and for your priest under the 
gospel, that thinks himself the purer or the cleanlier 
in his office for his new-washed surplice, we esteem him 
for sanctity little better than Apollonius Thyanaeus in 
his white frock, or the priest of Isis in his lawn sleeves ; 
and they may all for holiness lie together in the suds. 

Remonst. Whether it were not most lawful and just 
to punish your presumption and disobedience. 

Answ. The punishing of that which you call our 
presumption and disobedience, lies not now within the 
execution of your fangs ; the merciful God above, and 
our just parliament, will deliver us from your Ephesian 
beasts, your cruel Nimrods, with whom we shall be 
ever fearless to encounter. 

Remonst. God give you wisdom to see the truth, and 
grace to follow it. 

Answ. I wish the like to all those that resist not the 
Holy Ghost ; for of such God commands Jeremiah, 
saying, " Pray not thou for them, neither lift up cry or 



REiMONSTRANT'S DEFENCE, Sec. 



7$ 



prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for 
I will not hear thee;" and of such St. John saith, 
" He that bids them God speed, is partaker of their evil 
deeds." 



TO THE POSTSCRIPT. 



Remonst. A goodly pasquin borrowed for a great 
part out of Sion's plea, or the breviate consisting of a 
rhapsody of histories. 

Answ. How wittily you tell us what your wonted 
course is upon the like occasion : the collection was 
taken, be it known to you, from as authentic authors 
in this kind, as any in a bishop's library ; and the col- 
lector of it says moreover, that if the like occasion 
come again, he shall less need the help of breviates, or 
historical rhapsodies, than your reverence to eke out 
your sermonings shall need repair to postils or polian- 
theas. 

Remonst. They were bishops, you say; true, but 
they were popish bishops. 

Answ. Since you would bind us to your jurisdiction 
by their canon law, since you would enforce upon us 
the old riffraff of Sarum, and other monastical reliques ; 
since you live upon their unjust purchases, allege their 
authorities, boast of their succession, walk in their 
steps, their pride, their titles, their covetousness, their 
persecuting of God's people ; since you disclaim their 
actions, and build their sepulchres, it is most just that 
all their faults should be imputed to you, and their ini- 
quities visited upon you. 

Remonst. Could you see no colleges, no hospitals 
built ? 

Answ. At that primero of piety, the pope and car- 
dinals are the better gamesters, and will cog a die into 
heaven before you. 

Remonst. No churches re-edified ? 

Answ. Yes, more churches than souls. 

Remonst. No learned volumes writ ? 

Answ. So did the miscreant bishop of Spalato write 
learned volumes against the pope, and run to Rome 
when he had done : ye write them in your closets, and 
un write them in your courts ; hot volumists and cold 
bishops ; a swashbuckler against the pope, and a dor- 
mouse against the devil, while the whole diocese be 
sown with tares, and none to resist the enemy, but 
such as let him in at the postern ; a rare superintend- 
ent at Rome, and a cipher at home. Hypocrites ! the 
gospel faithfully preached to the poor, the desolate 
parishes visited and duly fed, loiterers thrown out, 
wolves driven from the fold, had been a better confuta- 
tion of the pope and mass, than whole hecatontomes 
of controversies ; and all this careering with spear in 
rest, and thundering upon the steel cap of Baronius or 
Rellarmine. 

Remonst. No seduced persons reclaimed ? 

Answ. More reclaimed persons seduced. 



Remonst. No hospitality kept ? 

Answ. Bacchanalias good store in every bishop's fa- 
mily, and good gleeking. 

Remonst. No great offenders punished ? 

Answ. The trophies of your high commission are 
renowned. 

Remonst. No good offices done for the public ? 

Answ. Yes, the good office of reducing monarchy to 
tyranny, of breaking pacifications, and calumniating 
the people to the king. 

Remonst. No care of the peace of the church ? 

Answ. No, nor of the land ; witness the two armies 
in the North, that now lie plundered and overrun by a 
liturgy. 

Remonst. No diligence in preaching ? 

Answ. Scarce any preaching at all. 

Remonst. No holiness in living' ? 

Answ. No. 

Remonst. Truly, brethren, I can say no more, but 
that the fault is in your eyes. 

Answ. If you can say no more than this, you were 
a proper Remonstrant to stand up for the whole tribe ! 

Remonst. Wipe them and look better. 

Answ. Wipe your fat corpulencies out of our light. 

Remonst. Yea, I beseech God to open them rather 
that they may see good. 

Answ. If you mean good prelates, let be your prayer. 
Ask not impossibilities. 

Remonst. As for that proverb, ' the bishop's foot hath 
been in it,' it were more fit for a Scurra in Trivio, or 
some ribald upon an alebench. 

Answ. The fitter for them then of whom it was 
meant. 

Remonst. I doubt not but they will say, the bishop's 
foot hath been in your book, for I am sure it is quite 
spoiled by this just confutation ; for your proverb, 
Sapit ollam. 

Answ. Spoiled, quoth ye ? Indeed it is so spoiled, as 
a good song is spoiled by a lewd singer; or as the say- 
ing is, " God sends meat, but the cooks work their 
wills :" in that sense we grant your bishop's foot may 
have spoiled it, and made it " Sapere ollam," if not 
" Sapere aulam ;" which is the same in old Latin, and 
perhaps in plain English. For certain your confuta- 
tion hath achieved nothing against it, and left nothing 
upon it but a foul taste of your skillet foot, and a more 
perfect and distinguishable odour of your socks, than 
of your nightcap. And how the bishop should confute 
a book with his foot, unless his brains were dropped 
into his great toe, I cannot meet with any man that 
can resolve me ; only they tell me that certainly such 
a confutation must needs be gouty. So much for the 
bishop's foot. 

Remonst. You tell us of Bonner's broth ; it is the 
fashion in some countries to send in their keal in the 
last service, and this it seems is the manner among our 
Smectymnuans. 

Answ. Your latter service at the high altar you 
mean : but soft, sir, the feast was but begun, the broth 
was your own, you have been inviting the land to it 
this fourscore years ; and so long we have been your 



74 



ANIMADVERSIONS, &c. 



slaves to serve it up for you, much against our wills: 
we know you have the beef to it, ready in your 
kitchens, we are sure it was almost sod before this par- 
liament begun ; what direction you have given since 
to your cooks, to set it by in the pantry till some fitter 
time, we know not, and therefore your dear jest is 
lost ; this broth was but your first service : Alas, sir, 
why do you delude your guests ? Why do not those 
goodly flanks and briskets march up in your stately 
chargers ? Doubtless if need be, the pope that owes 
you for mollifying the matter so well with him, and 
making him a true church, will furnish you with all 
the fat oxen of Italy. 

Remonst. Learned and worthy Doctor Moulin shall 
tell them. 

Answ. Moulin says in his book of the calling of 
pastors, that because bishops were the reformers of the 
English church, therefore they were left remaining : 
this argument is but of small force to keep you in your 
cathedrals. For first it may be denied that bishops 
were our first reformers, for Wickliff was before them, 
and his egregious labours are not to be neglected : be- 
sides, our bishops were in this work but the disciples 
of priests, and began the reformation before they were 
bishops. But what though Luther and other monks 
were the reformers of other places ? Does it follow 
therefore that monks ought to continue ? No, though 
Luther had taught so. And lastly, Moulin's argument 
directly makes against you ; for if there be nothing in 



it but this, bishops were left remaining because they 
were reformers of the church, by as good a consequence 
therefore they are now to be removed, because they 
have been the most certain deformers and miners of 
the church. Thus you see how little it avails you to 
take sanctuary among those churches which in the 
general scope of your actions formerly you have dis- 
regarded and despised ; however, your fair words would 
now smooth it over otherwise. 

Remonst. Our bishops, some whereof being crowned 
with martyrdom, subscribed the gospel with their 
blood. 

Answ. You boast much of martyrs to uphold your 
episcopacy ; but if you would call to mind what Euse- 
bius in his fifth book recites from Apollinarius of 
Hierapolis, you should then hear it esteemed no other 
than an old heretical argument, to prove a position 
true, because some that held it were martyrs ; this was 
that which gave boldness to the Marcionists and Cata- 
phryges to avouch their impious heresies for pious 
doctrine, because they could reckon many martyrs of 
their sect; and when they were confuted in other 
points, this was ever their last and stoutest plea. 

Remonst. In the mean time I beseech the God of 
heaven to humble you. 

Answ. We shall beseech the same God to give you a 
more profitable and pertinent humiliation than yet you 
know, and a less mistaken charitableness, with that 
peace which you have hitherto so perversely misafifected. 



APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS 



[first published 1642.] 



If, readers, to that same great difficulty of well-doing 
what we certainly know, were not added in most men 
as great a carelessness of knowing what they and 
others ought to do, we had been long ere this, no doubt 
but all of us, much farther on our way to some degree 
of peace and happiness in this kingdom. But since 
our sinful neglect of practising that which we know to 
be undoubtedly true and good, hath brought forth 
among us, through God's just anger, so great a diffi- 
culty now to know that which otherwise might be soon 
learnt, and hath divided us by a controversy of great 
importance indeed, but of no hard solution, which is 
the more our punishment ; I resolved (of what small 
moment soever I might be thought) to stand on that 
side where I saw both the plain authority of Scripture 
leading, and the reason of justice and equity persuad- 
ing ; with this opinion, which esteems it more unlike a 
Christian to be a cold neuter in the cause of the church, 
than the law of Solon made it punishable after a sedi- 
tion in the state. And because I observe that fear and 
dull disposition, lukewarmness and sloth, are not sel- 
domer wont to cloak themselves under the affected 
name of moderation, than true and lively zeal is cus- 
tomably disparaged with the term of indiscretion, 
bitterness, and choler ; I could not to my thinking 
honour a good cause more from the heart, than by de- 
fending it earnestly, as oft as I could judge it to behove 
me, notwithstanding any false name that could be in- 
vented to wrong or under-value an honest meaning. 
Wherein although I have not doubted to single forth 
more than once such of them as were thought the 
chief and most nominated opposers on the other side, 
whom no man else undertook ; if I have done well 
either to be confident of the truth, whose force is best 
seen against the ablest resistance, or to be jealous and 
tender of the hurt that might be done among the 
weaker by the intrapping authority of great names 
titled to false opinions ; or that it be lawful to attribute 
somewhat to gifts of God's imparting, which I boast 
not, but thankfully acknowledge, and fear also lest at 
my certain account they be reckoned to me rather many 



than few ; or if lastly it be but justice not to defraud 
of due esteem the wearisome labours and studious 
watchings, wherein I have spent and tired out almost 
a whole youth, I shall not distrust to be acquitted of 
presumption : knowing, that if heretofore all ages have 
received with favour and good acceptance the early in- 
dustry of him that hath been hopeful, it were but hard 
measure now, if the freedom of any timely spirit should 
be oppressed merely by the big and blunted fame of 
his elder adversary; and that his sufficiency must be 
now sentenced, not by pondering the reason he shews, 
but by calculating the years he brings. However, as 
my purpose is not, nor hath been formerly, to look 
on my adversary abroad, through the deceiving 
glass of other men's great opinion of him, but at 
home, where I may find him in the proper light of 
his own worth; so now against the rancour of an 
evil tongue, from which I never thought so absurdly, 
as that I of all men should be exempt, I must be 
forced to proceed from the unfeigned and diligent 
inquiry of my own conscience at home, (for better 
way I know not, readers,) to give a more true ac- 
count of myself abroad than this modest confuter, as 
he calls himself, hath given of me. Albeit, that in 
doing this I shall be sensible of two things which to 
me will be nothing pleasant ; the one is, that not un- 
likely I shall be thought too much a party in mine own 
cause, and therein to see least : the other, that I shall 
be put unwillingly to molest the public view with the 
vindication of a private name ; as if it were worth the 
while that the people should care whether such a one 
were thus, or thus. Yet those I entreat who have 
found the leisure to read that name, however of small 
repute, unworthily defamed, would be so good and 
so patient as to hear the same person not unneedfully 
defended. I will not deny but that the best apology 
against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and 
honest deeds set against dishonest words. And that I 
could at this time most easily and securely, with the 
least loss of reputation, use no other defence, I need 
not despair to win belief; whether I consider both the 



■(> 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



foolish contriving- and ridiculous aiming- of these his 
slanderous bolts, shot so wide of any suspicion to be 
fastened on me, that I have oft with inward content- 
ment perceived my friends congratulating themselves 
in my innocence, and my enemies ashamed of their 
partner's folly : or whether I look at these present 
times, wherein most men, now scarce permitted the 
liberty to think over their own concernments, have re- 
moved the seat of their thoughts more outward to the ex- 
pectation of public events : or whether the examples 
of men, either noble or religious, who have sat down 
lately with a meek silence and sufferance under many 
libellous endorsements, may be a rule to others, I 
might well appease myself to put up any reproaches in 
such an honourable society of fellow-sufferers, using no 
other defence. And were it that slander would be con- 
tent to make an end where it first fixes, and not seek 
to cast out the like infamy upon each thing that hath 
but any relation to the person traduced, I should have 
pleaded against this confuter by no other advocates 
than those which I first commended, silence and suf- 
ferance, and speaking deeds against faltering words. 
But when I discerned his intent was not so much to 
smite at me, as through me to render odious the truth 
which I had written, and to stain with ignominy that 
evangelic doctrine which opposes the tradition of pre- 
laty ; I conceived myself to be now not as mine own 
person, but as a member incorporate into that truth 
whereof I was persuaded, and whereof I had declared 
openly to be a partaker. Whereupon I thought it my 
duty, if not to myself, yet to the religious cause I had 
in hand, not to leave on my garment the least spot or 
blemish in good name, so long as God should give me 
to say that which might wipe it off. Lest those dis- 
graces, which I ought to suffer, if it so befall me, for 
my religion, through my default religion be made 
liable to surfer for me. And, whether it might not 
something reflect upon those reverent men, whose 
friend I may be thought in writing the Animadver- 
sions, was not my last care to consider; if I should 
rest under these reproaches, having the same common 
adversary with them, it might be counted small credit 
for their cause to have found such an assistant, as this 
babbler hath devised me. What other thing in his 
book there is of dispute or question, in answering 
thereto I doubt not to be justified; except there be 
Who will condemn me to have wasted time in throwing 
down that which could not keep itself up. As for 
others, who notwithstanding what I can allege have 
yet decreed to misinterpret the intents of my reply, I 
suppose they would have found as many causes to have 
in i -conceived the reasons of my silence. 

To begin therefore an apology for those animadver- 
sions, w bich I writ against the Remonstrant in defence 
of Smectymimus ; since the preface, which was pur- 
posely set before them, is not thought apologetical 
enough, it will be best to acquaint ye, readers, before 
other things, what the meaning was to write them in 
that manner which I did. Fori do not look to be 
asked wherefore I writ the book, it being no difficulty 



to answer, that I did it to those ends, which the best 
men propose to themselves when they write : but 
wherefore in that manner, neglecting the main bulk of 
all that specious antiquity, which might stun children, 
and not men, I chose rather to observe some kind of 
military advantages to await him at his foragings, at 
his waterings, and whenever he felt himself secure, to 
solace his vein in derision of his more serious oppo- 
nents. And here let me have pardon, readers, if the 
remembrance of that which he hath licensed himself to 
utter contemptuously of those reverend men, provoke 
me to do that over again, which some expect I should 
excuse as too freely done ; since I have two provoca- 
tions, his latest insulting in his short answer, and their 
final patience. I had no fear, but that the authors of 
Smectymnuus, to all the shew of solidity, which the 
Remonstrant could bring, were prepared both with 
skill and purpose to return a sufficing answer, and 
were able enough to lay the dust and pudder in anti- 
quity, which he and his, out of stratagem, are wont to 
raise; but when I saw his weak arguments headed 
with sharp taunts, and that his design was, if he could 
not refute them, yet at least with quips and snapping 
adages to vapour them out, which they, bent only upon 
the business, were minded to let pass ; by how much I 
saw them taking little thought for their own injuries, 
I must confess I took it as my part the less to endure 
that my respected friends, through their own unneces- 
sary patience, should thus lie at the mercy of a coy 
flirting style; to be girded with frumps and curtal 
gibes, by one who makes sentences by the statute, as 
if all above three inches long were confiscate. To me 
it seemed an indignity, that whom his whole wisdom 
could not move from their place, them his impetuous 
folly should presume to ride over. And if I were more 
warm than was meet in any passage of that book, 
which yet I do not yield, I might use therein the 
patronage of no worse an author than Gregory Nyssen, 
who mentioning his sharpness against Eunomius in 
the defence of his brother Basil, holds himself irre- 
provable in that "it was not for himself, but in the 
cause of his brother; and in such cases," saith he, 
" perhaps it is worthier pardon to be angry than to be 
cooler." And whereas this confuter taxes the whole 
discourse of levity, I shall shew ye, readers, where- 
soever it shall be objected in particular, that I have an- 
swered with as little lightness as the Remonstrant hath 
given example. I have not been so light as the palm 
of a bishop, which is the lightest thing in the world 
when he brings out his book of ordination : for then, 
contrary to that which is wont in releasing out of 
prison, any one that will pay bis fees is laid hands on. 
Another reason, it would not be amiss though the 
Remonstrant were told, wherefore he was in that un- 
usual manner beleaguered ; and this was it, to pluck 
out of the heads of his admirers the conceit that all who 
are not prelatical, are gross-headed, thick-witted, illi- 
terate, shallow. Can nothing then but episcopacy teach 
men to speak good English, to pick and order a set of 
words judiciously? Must we learn from canons and 
quaint scrmonings, interlined with barbarous Latin, to 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



77 



illumine a period, to wreath an enthymema with mas- 
terous dexterity ? I rather incline, as I have heard it 
observed, that a Jesuit's Italian when he writes, is ever 
naught, though he be born and bred a Florentine, so 
to think, that from like causes we may go near to ob- 
serve the same in the style of a prelate. For doubtless 
that indeed according to art is most eloquent, which 
turns and approaches nearest to nature from whence it 
came ; and they express nature best, who in their lives 
least wander from her safe leading, which may be called 
regenerate reason. So that how he should be truly 
eloquent who is not withal a good man, I see not. 
Nevertheless, as oft as is to be dealt with men who 
pride themselves in their supposed art, to leave them 
inexcusable wherein they will not be bettered ; there 
be of those that esteem prelaty a figment, who yet can 
pipe if they can dance, nor will be unfurnished to shew, 
that what the prelates admire and have not, others have 
and admire not. The knowledge whereof, and not of 
that only, but of what the Scripture teacheth us how 
we ought to withstand the perverters of the gospel, 
were those other motives, which gave the Animadver- 
sions no leave to remit a continual vehemence through- 
out the book. For as in teaching doubtless the spirit 
of meekness is most powerful, so are the meek only fit 
persons to be taught : as for the proud, the obstinate, 
and false doctors of men's devices, be taught they will 
not, but discovered and laid open they must be. For 
how can they admit of teaching, who have the condem- 
nation of God already upon them for refusing divine 
instruction ? That is, to be filled with their own de- 
vices, as in the Proverbs we may read : therefore we 
may safely imitate the method that God uses ; " with 
the froward to be froward, and to throw scorn upon the 
scorner," whom, if any thing, nothing- else will heal. 
And if the " righteous shall laugh at the destruction 
of the ungodly," they may also laugh at the pertinacious 
and incurable obstinacy, and at the same time be moved 
with detestation of their seducing malice, who employ 
all their wits to defend a prelaty usurped, and to de- 
prave that just government, which pride and ambition, 
partly by fine fetches and pretences, partly by force, 
hath shouldered out of the church. And against such 
kind of deceivers openly and earnestly to protest, lest 
any one should be inquisitive wherefore this or that man 
is forwarder than others, let him know that this office 
goes not by age or youth, but to whomsoever God shall 
give apparently the will, the spirit, and the utterance. 
Ye have heard the reasons for which I thought not 
myself exempted from associating with good men in 
their labours towards the church's welfare ; to which, 
if any one brought opposition, I brought my best re- 
sistance. If in requital of this, and for that I have not 
been negligent toward the reputation of my friends, I 
have gained a name bestuck, or as I may say, bedecked 
with the reproaches and reviles of this modest con futer; 
it shall be to me neither strange nor unwelcome, as that 
which could not come in a better time. 

Having rendered an account what induced me to 
write those animadversions in that manner as I writ 
them, I come now to see what the confutation hath to 



say against them; but so as the confuter shall hear first 
what I have to say against his confutation. And be- 
cause he pretends to be a great conjector at other men 
by their writings, I will not fail to give ye, readers, a 
present taste of him from his title, hung out like a toll- 
ing sign post to call passengers, not simply a confuta- 
tion, but " a modest confutation," with a laudatory of 
itself obtruded in the very first word. Whereas a 
modest title should only inform the buyer what the book 
contains without further insinuation ; this officious epi- 
thet so hastily assuming the modesty which others are 
to judge of by reading, not the author to anticipate to 
himself by forestalling, is a strong presumption, that 
his modesty, set there to sale in the frontispiece, is not 
much addicted to blush. A surer sign of his lost shame 
he could not have given, than seeking thus unseason- 
ably to prepossess men of his modesty. And seeing he 
hath neither kept his word in the sequel, nor omitted 
any kind of boldness in slandering, it is manifest his 
purpose was only to rub the forehead of his title with 
this word modest, that he might not want colour to be 
the more impudent throughout his whole confutation. 
Next, what can equally savour of injustice and plain 
arrogance, as to prejudice and forecondemn his adver- 
sary in the title for " slanderous and scurrilous," and 
as the Remonstrant's fashion is, for frivolous, tedious, 
and false, not staying till the reader can hear him 
proved so in the following discourse ? Which is one 
cause of a suspicion that in setting forth this pamphlet 
the Remonstrant was not unconsulted with : thus his 
first address was " an humble remonstrance by a dutiful 
son of the church," almost as if he had said, her white- 
boy. His next was, " a defence" (a wonder how it 
escaped some praising adjunct) " against the frivolous 
and false exceptions against Smectymnuus," sitting in 
the chair of his title-page upon his poor cast adversaries 
both as a judge and party, and that before the jury of 
readers can be impannelled. His last was " a short 
answer to a tedious vindication ;" so little can he suffer 
a man to measure either with his eye or judgment, 
what is short or what tedious, without his preoccupying 
direction : and from hence is begotten this " modest 
confutation against a slanderous and scurrilous libel." 
I conceive, readers, much may be guessed at the man 
and his book, what depth there is, by the framing of 
his title ; which being in this Remonstrant so rash and 
unadvised as ye see, I conceit him to be near akin to 
him who set forth a passion sermon with a formal dedi- 
catory in great letters to our Saviour. Although I 
know that all we do ought to begin and end in his 
praise and glory, yet to inscribe him in a void place 
with flourishes, as a man in compliment uses to trick 
up the name of some esquire, gentleman, or lord para- 
mount at common law, to be his book-patron, with the 
appendant form of a ceremonious presentment, will 
ever appear among the judicious to be but an insulse 
and frigid affectation. As no less was that before his 
book against the Brownists, to write a letter to a Pro- 
sopopoeia, a certain rhetorized woman whom he calls 
mother, and complains of some that laid whoredom to 
her charge; and certainly bad he folded his epistle 



78 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUSi 



with a superscription to be delivered to that female 
figure by any post or carrier, who were not a ubiquitary, 
it had been a most miraculous greeting. We find the 
primitive doctors, as oft as they writ to churches, 
speaking to them as to a number of faithful brethren 
and sons, and not to make a cloudy transmigration of 
sexes in such a familiar way of writing as an epistle 
ought to be, leaving the tract of common address, to 
run up, and tread the air in metaphorical compellations, 
and many fond utterances better let alone. But I step 
again to this emblazoner of his titlepage, (whether it 
be the same man or no, I leave it in the midst,) and 
here I find him pronouncing without reprieve, those 
animadversions to be a slanderous and scurrilous libel. 
To which I, readers, that they are neither slanderous, 
nor scurrilous, will answer in what place of his book 
he shall be found with reason, and not ink only, in his 
mouth. Nor can it be a libel more than his own, 
which is both nameless and full of slanders ; and if in 
this that it freely speaks of things amiss in religion, 
but established by act of state, I see not how Wickliflf 
and Luther, with all the first martyrs and reformers, 
could avoid the imputation of libelling. I never 
thought the human frailty of erring in cases of religion, 
infamy to a state, no more than to a council: it had 
therefore been neither civil nor christianly, to derogate 
the honour of the state for that cause, especially when 
I saw the parliament itself piously and magnani- 
mously bent to supply and reform the defects and 
oversights of their forefathers, which to the godly and 
repentant ages of the Jews were often matter of humble 
confessing and bewailing,. not of confident asserting 
aud maintaining. Of the state therefore I found good 
reason to speak all honourable things, and to join in 
petition with good men that petitioned : but against 
the prelates, who were the only seducers and misleaders 
of the state to constitute the government of the church 
not rightly, methought I had not vehemence enough. 
And thus, readers, by the example which he hath set 
me, T have given ye two or three notes of him out of 
his titlepage ; by which his firstlings fear not to guess 
boldly at his whole lump, for that guess will not fail 
ye ; and although I tell him keen truth, yet he may 
bear with me, since I am like to chase him into some 
good knowledge, and others, I trust, shall not mispend 
their leisure. For this my aim is, if I am forced to be 
impleading to him whose fault it is, T shall not forget 
at the same time to be useful in something to the 
slander-by. 

As therefore he began in the title, so in the next leaf 
he makes it his first business to tamper with his reader 
by sycopliauting and misnaming the work of his adver- 
sary. He calls it " a mime thrust forth upon the stage, 
to make up the breaches of those solemn scenes between 
the prelates and the Smectymnuans." Wherein while 
he is so over-greedy to fix a name of ill sound upon 
another, note how stupid he is to expose himself or his 
own friends to the same ignominy; likening those 
grave controversies to a piece of stagery, or scenework, 
where bis own Remonstrant, whether in buskin or sock, 
must of all right be counted the chief player, be it 



boasting Thraso, or Davus that troubles all things, or 
one who can shift into any shape, I meddle not ; let 
him explicate who hath resembled the whole argument 
to a comedy, for " tragical," he says, " were too omin- 
ous." Nor yet doth he tell us what a mime is, whereof 
we have no pattern from ancient writers, except some 
fragments, which contain many acute and wise sen- 
tences. And this we know in Laertius, that the mimes 
of Sophron were of such reckoning with Plato, as to 
take them nightly to read on, and after make them 
his pillow. Scaliger describes a mime to be a poem 
intimating any action to stir up laughter. But this 
being neither poem, nor yet ridiculous, how is it but 
abusively taxed to be a mime ? For if every book, which 
may by chance excite to laugh here and there, must be 
termed thus, then may the dialogues of Plato, who for 
those his writings hath obtained the surname of divine, 
be esteemed as they are by that detractor in Athenseus, 
no better than mimes. Because there is scarce one of 
them, especially wherein some notable sophister lies 
sweating and turmoiling under the inevitable and 
merciless dilemmas of Socrates, but that he who reads, 
were it Saturn himself, would be often robbed of more 
than a smile. And whereas he tells us, that " scurrilous 
Mime was a personated grim lowering fool," his foolish 
language unwittingly writes fool upon his own friend, 
for he who was there personated was only the Remon- 
strant ; the author is ever distinguished from the person 
he introduces. But in an ill hour hath this unfortunate 
rashness stumbled upon the mention of miming, that 
he might at length cease, which he hath not yet since 
he stepped in, to gall and hurt him whom he would 
aid. Could he not beware, could he not bethink him, 
was he so uncircumspect as not to foresee, that no 
sooner would that word mime be set eye on in the 
paper, but it would bring to mind that wretched pil- 
grimage over Minshew's dictionary called " Mundus 
alter et idem," the idlest and the paltriest mime that ever 
mounted upon bank ? Let him ask " the author of 
those toothless satires," who was the maker, or rather 
the anticreator of that universal foolery, who he was, 
who like that other principal of the Manichees the 
arch evil one, when he had looked upon all that he 
had made and mapped out, could say no other but 
contrary to the divine mouth, that it was all very 
foolish. That grave and noble invention, which the 
greatest and sublimest wits in sundry ages, Plato in 
Critias, and our two famous countrymen, the one in 
his " Utopia," the other in his " New Atlantis," chose, 
I may not say as a field, but as a mighty continent, 
wherein to display the largeness of their spirits, by 
teaching this our world better and exacter things 
than were yet known or used: this petty prevari- 
cator of America, the zany of Columbus, (for so he 
must be till his world's end,) having rambled over 
the huge topography of his own vain thoughts, no 
marvel if he brought us home nothing but a mere tan- 
kard drollery, a venereous parjetory for stews. Cer- 
tainly, he that could endure with a sober pen to sit and 
devise laws for drunkards to carouse by, I doubt me 
whether the very soberness of such a one, like an un- 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



79 



liquored Silenus, were not stark drunk. Let him go 
now and brand another man injuriously with the name 
of Mime, being himself the loosest and most extrava- 
gant Mime that hath been heard of, whom no less than 
almost half the world could serve for stage-room to play 
the Mime in. And let him advise again with sir Francis 
Bacon, whom he cites to confute others, what it is " to 
turn the sins of Christendom into a mimical mockery, 
to rip up the saddest vices with a laughing counte- 
nance," especially where neither reproof nor better 
teaching is adjoined. Nor is my meaning, readers, to 
shift off a blame from myself, by charging the like 
upon my accuser, but shall only desire, that sentence 
may be respited, till I can come to some instance 
whereto I may give answer. 

Thus having spent his first onset, not in confuting, 
but in a reasonless defaming of the book, the method 
of his malice hurries him to attempt the like against 
the author ; not by proofs and testimonies, but " having 
no certain notice of me," as he professes, " further than 
what he gathers from the animadversions," blunders at 
me for the rest, and flings out stray crimes at a ven- 
ture, which he could never, though he be a serpent, 
suck from any thing that I have written, but from his 
own stuffed magazine, and hoard of slanderous inven- 
tions, over and above that which he converted to venom 
in the drawing. To me, readers, it happens as a sin- 
gular contentment ; and let it be to good men no light 
satisfaction, that the slanderer here confesses, he has 
" no further notice of me than his own conjecture." 
Although it had been honest to have inquired, before 
he uttered such infamous words, and I am credibly in- 
formed he did inquire ; but finding small comfort from 
the intelligence which he received, whereon to ground 
the falsities which he had provided, thought it his 
likeliest course under a pretended ignorance to let 
drive at random, lest he should lose his odd ends, which 
from some penurious book of characters he had been 
culling out and would fain apply. Not caring to bur- 
den me with those vices, whereof, among whom my 
conversation hath been, I have been ever least sus- 
pected ; perhaps not without some subtlety to cast me 
into envy, by bringing on me a necessity to enter into 
mine own praises. In which argument I know every 
wise man is more unwillingly drawn to speak, than the 
most repining ear can be averse to hear. Nevertheless, 
since I dare not wish to pass this life unpersecuted of 
slanderous tongues, for God hath told us that to be ge- 
nerally praised is woeful, I shall rely on his promise 
to free the innocent from causeless aspersions : whereof 
nothing sooner can assure me, than if I shall feel him 
now assisting me in the just vindication of myself, 
which yet I could defer, it being more meet, that to 
those other matters of public debatement in this book 
I should give attendance first, but that I fear it would 
but harm the truth for me to reason in her behalf, so 
long as I should suffer my honest estimation to lie un- 
purged from these insolent suspicions. And if I shall 
be large, or unwonted in justifying myself to those who 
know me not, for else it would be needless, let them 
consider that a short slander will oft-times reach fur- 



ther than a long apology ; and that he who will do 
justly to all men, must begin from knowing how, if it so 
happen, to be not unjust to himself. I must be thought, 
if this libeller (for now he shews himself to be so) can find 
belief, after an inordinate and riotous youth spent at 
the university, to have been at length " vomited out 
thence." For which commodious lie, that he may be 
encouraged in the trade another time, I thank him ; 
for it hath given me an apt occasion to acknowledge 
publicly with all grateful mind, that more than ordi- 
nary favour and respect, which I found above any of 
my equals at the hands of those courteous and learned 
men, the fellows of that college wherein I spent some 
years : who at mj parting, after I had taken two de- 
grees, as the manner is, signified many ways, how 
much better it would content them that I would stay ; 
as by many letters full of kindness and loving respect, 
both before that time, and long after, I was assured of 
their singular good affection towards me. Which being 
likewise propense to all such as were for their studious 
and civil life worthy of esteem, I could not wrong their 
judgments, and upright intentions, so much as to think 
I had that regard from them for other cause, than that 
I might be still encouraged to proceed in the honest 
and laudable courses, of which they apprehended I had 
given good proof. And to those ingenuous and friendly 
men, who were ever the countenancers of virtuous and 
hopeful wits, I wish the best and happiest things, that 
friends in absence wish one to another. As for the com- 
mon approbation or dislike of that place, as now it is, 
that I should esteem or disesteem myself, or any other 
the more for that ; too simple and too credulous is the 
confuter, if he think to obtain with me, or any right 
discerner. Of small practice were that physician, who 
could not judge by what both she or her sister hath 
of long time vomited, that the worser stuff she strongly 
keeps in her stomach, but the better she is ever keck- 
ing at, and is queasy. She vomits now out of sickness; 
but ere it will be well with her, she must vomit by 
strong physic. In the mean time that suburb smk, as 
this rude scavenger calls it, and more than scurrilously 
taunts it with the plague, having a worse plague in his 
middle entrail, that suburb wherein I dwell shall be 
in my account a more honourable place than his uni- 
versity. Which as in the time of her better health, 
and mine own younger judgment, I never greatly ad- 
mired, so now much less. But he follows me to the 
city, still usurping and forging beyond his book notice, 
which only he affirms to have had ; " and where my 
morning haunts are, he wisses not." It is wonder, 
that being so rare an alchymist of slander, he could 
not extract that, as well as the university vomit, 
and the suburb sink which his art could distil so cun- 
ningly ; but because his limbec fails him, to give 
him and envy the more vexation, I Mill tell him. 
Those morning haunts are where they should be, 
at home ; not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits 
of an irregular feast, but up and stirring, in winter 
often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour, 
or to devotion; in summer as oft with the bird that 
first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good au- 



80 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



thors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be 
weary, or memory have its full fraught : fchen with use- 
ful and generous labours preserving- the body's health 
and hardiness to render lightsome, clear, and not lump- 
ish obedience to the mind, to the cause of religion, and 
our country's liberty, when it shall require firm hearts 
in sound bodies to stand and cover their stations, rather 
than to see the ruin of our protestation, and the inforce- 
ment of a slavish life. These are the morning- prac- 
tices : proceed now to the afternoon ; " in playhouses," 
he says, " and the bordelloes." Your intelligence, 
unfaithful spy of Canaan ? He gives in his evidence, 
that " there he hath traced me." Take him at his 
word, readers, but let him bring good sureties ere ye 
dismiss him, that while he pretended to dog others, he 
did not turn in for his own pleasure : for so much in 
effect he concludes against himself, not contented to be 
caught in every other gin, but he must be such a 
novice, as to be still hampered in his own hemp. In 
the animadversions, saith he, I find the mention of old 
cloaks, false beards, nightwalkers, and salt lotion ; 
therefore the animadverter haunts playhouses and bor- 
delloes ; for if he did not, how could he speak of such 
gear ? Now that he may know what it is to be a child, 
and yet to meddle with edged tools, I turn his antistro- 
phon upon his own head ; the confuter knows that these 
things are the furniture of playhouses and bordelloes, 
therefore by the same reason " the confuter himself 
hath been traced in those places." Was it such a dis- 
solute speech, telling of some politicians who were 
wont to eavesdrop in disg-uises, to say they were often 
liable to a nightwalking cudgeller, or the emptying of 
a urinal ? What if I had writ as your friend the author 
of the aforesaid mime, " Mundus alter et idem," to 
have been ravished like some young Cephalus or Hy- 
las, by a troop of camping housewifes in Viraginea, and 
that he was there forced to swear himself an uxorious 
varlet ; then after a long servitude to have come into 
Aphrodisia that pleasant country, that gave such a 
sweet smell to his nostrils among the shameless cour- 
tezans of Desvergonia ? Surely he would have then 
concluded me as constant at the bordello, as the galley- 
slave at his oar. But since there is such necessity to 
the hearsay of a tire, a periwig, or a vizard, that plays 
must have been seen, what difficulty was there in that? 
when in the colleges so many of the young divines, 
and those in next aptitude to divinity, have been seen 
so often upon the stage, writhing and unboning their 
clergy limbs to all the antic and dishonest gestures of 
Trinculoes, buffoons, and bawds; prostituting the shame 
of that ministry, which either they had, or were nigh 
having, to the eyes of courtiers and court ladies, with 
their grooms and mademoiselles. There while they 
acted and overacted, among other young scholars, I 
was a spectator; they thought themselves gallant men, 
and I thought them fools; they made sport, and I 
laughed ; they mispronounced, and I misliked; and to 
make up the atticism, they were out, and I hissed. 
Judge now whether so many good text-men were not 
sufficient to instruct mc of false beards and vizards, 
without more expositors; and how can this confuter 



take the face to object to me the seeing of that, which 
his reverend prelates allow, and incite their young dis- 
ciples to act ? For if it be unlawful to sit and behold a 
mercenary comedian personating that which is least 
unseemly for a hireling to do, how much more blame- 
ful is it to endure the sight of as vile things acted by 
persons either entered, or presently to enter into the 
ministry ; and how much more foul and ignominious 
for them to be the actors ! 

But because as well by this upbraiding to me the 
bordelloes, as by other suspicious glancings in his book, 
he would seem privily to point me out to his readers, 
as one whose custom of life were not honest, but licen- 
tious; I shall intreat to be born with, though I digress; 
and in a way not often trod, acquaint ye with the sum 
of my thoughts in this matter, through the course of 
my years and studies. Although I am not ignorant 
how hazardous it will be to do this under the nose of 
the envious, as it were in skirmish to change the com- 
pact order, and instead of outward actions, to bring 
inmost thoughts into front. And I must tell ye, read- 
ers, that by this sort of men I have been already bitten 
at ; yet shall they not for me know how slightly they 
are esteemed, unless they have so much learning as to 
read what in Greek a7reipoica\ia is, which, together with 
envy, is the common disease of those who censure books 
that are not for their reading. With me it fares now, 
as with him whose outward garment hath been injured 
and illbedighted ; for having no other shift, what help 
but to turn the inside outwards, especially if the lining 
be of the same, or, as it is sometimes, much better ? So 
if my name and outward demeanour be not evident 
enough to defend me, I must make trial, if the discovery 
of my inmost thoughts can : wherein of two purposes 
both honest, and both sincere, the one perhaps I shall 
not miss ; although I fail to gain belief with others, of 
being such as my perpetual thoughts shall here disclose 
me, I may yet not fail of success in persuading some 
to be such really themselves, as they cannot believe 
me to be more than what I fain. I had my time, 
readers, as others have, who have good learning be- 
stowed upon them, to be sent to those places, where 
the opinion was, it might be soonest attained ; and as 
the manner is, was not unstudied in those authors 
which are most commended ; whereof some were 
grave orators and historians, whose matter methought 
I loved indeed, but as my age then was, so I under- 
stood them ; others were the smooth elegiac poets, 
whereof the schools are not scarce, whom both for the 
pleasing sound of their numerous writing, which in 
imitation I found most easy, and most agreeable to 
nature's part in me, and for their matter, which what 
it is, there be few who know not, I was so allured to 
read, that no recreation came to me better welcome : 
for that it was then those years with me which are ex- 
cused, though they be least severe, I may be saved the 
labour to remember ye. Whence having observed them 
to account it the chief glory of their wit, in that they 
were ablest to judge, to praise, and by that could 
esteem themselves worthiest to love those high perfec- 
tions, which under one or other name they took to 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



■si 



celebrate; I thought with myself by every instinct 
and presage of nature, which is not wont to be false, 
that what emboldened them to this task, might with 
such diligence as they used embolden me ; and that 
what judgment, wit, or elegance was my share, would 
herein best appear, and best value itself, by how much 
more wisely, and with more love of virtue I should 
choose (let rude ears be absent) the object of not unlike 
praises : for albeit these thoughts to some will seem 
virtuous and commendable, to others only pardonable, 
to a third sort perhaps idle; yet the mentioning of 
them now will end in serious. Nor blame it, readers, 
in those years to propose to themselves such a reward, 
as the noblest dispositions above other things in this 
life have sometimes preferred : whereof not to be sen- 
sible when good and fair in one person meet, argues 
both a gross and shallow judgment, and withal an un- 
gentle, and swainish breast : for by the firm settling 
of these persuasions, I became, to my best memory, so 
much a proficient, that if I found those authors any 
where speaking unworthy things of themselves, or 
unchaste of those names which before they had ex- 
tolled; this effect it wrought with me, from that 
(time forward their art I still applauded, but the men 
I deplored; and above them all, preferred the two 
famous renowners of Beatrice and Laura, who never 
write but honour of them to whom they devote their 
verse, displaying sublime and pure thoughts, without 
transgression. And long it was not after, when I was 
confirmed in this opinion, that he who would not be 
frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable 
things, ought himself to be a true poem ; that is, a 
composition and pattern of the best and honourablest 
things ; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic 
men, or famous cities, unless he have in himself the 

I experience and the practice of all that which is praise- 
worthy. These reasonings, together with a certain 
niceness of nature, an honest haughtiness, and self- 
esteem either of what I was, or what I might be, 
(which let envy call pride,) and lastly that modesty, 
whereof though not in the titlepage, yet here I may 
be excused to make some beseeming profession ; all 
these uniting the supply of their natural aid together, 
kept me still above those low descents of mind, beneath 
which he must deject and plunge himself, that can 
agree to salable and unlawful prostitutions. Next, 
(for hear me out now, readers,) that I may tell ye 
whither my younger feet wandered; I betook me 
among those lofty fables and romances, which recount 
in solemn cantoes the deeds of knighthood founded by 
our victorious kings, and from hence had in renown 
over all Christendom. There I read it in the oath of 
every knight, that he should defend to the expense of 
his best blood, or of his life, if it so befel him, the 
honour and chastity of virgin or matron ; from whence 
even then I learned what a noble virtue chastity sure 
must be, to the defence of which so many worthies, by 
such a dear adventure of themselves, had sworn ; and 

[if I found in the story afterward, any of them, by word 
or deed, breaking that oath, I judged it the same fault 
of the poet, as that which is attributed to Homer, to 



have written indecent things of the gods : only this 
my mind gave me, that every free and gentle spirit, 
without that oath, ought to be born a knight, nor 
needed to expect the gilt spur, or the laying of a 
sword upon his shoulder to stir him up both by his 
counsel and his arms, to secure and protect the weak- 
ness of any attempted chastity. So that even these 
books, which to many others have been the fuel of 
wantonness and loose living, I cannot think how, 
unless by divine indulgence, proved to me so many 
incitements, as you have heard, to the love and stead- 
fast observation of that virtue which abhors the society 
of bordelloes. Thus from the laureat fraternity of 
poets, riper years and the ceaseless round of study and 
reading led me to the shady spaces of philosophy ; but 
chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and his equal 
Xenophon : where, if I should tell ye what I learnt of 
chastity and love, I mean that which is truly so, whose 
charming* cup is only virtue, which she bears in her 
hand to those who are worthy ; (the rest are cheated 
with a thick intoxicating- potion, which a certain 
sorceress, the abuser of love's name, carries about ;) 
and how the first and chiefest office of love begins and 
ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her 
divine generation, knowledge and virtue : with such 
abstracted sublimities as these, it might be worth 
your listening, readers, as I may one day hope to have 
ye in a still time, when there shall be no chiding ; 
not in these noises, the adversary, as ye know, bark- 
ing at the door, or searching for me at the bordelloes, 
where it may be he has lost himself, and raps up 
without pity the sage and rheumatic old prelatess, 
with all her young Corinthian laity, to inquire for 
such a one. Last of all, not in time, but as perfec- 
tion is last, that care was ever had of me, with my 
earliest capacity, not to be negligently trained in the 
precepts of christian religion : this that I have hitherto 
related, hath been to shew, that though Christianity 
had been but slightly taught me, yet a certain re- 
servedness of natural disposition, and moral discipline, 
learnt out of the noblest philosophy, was enough to 
keep me in disdain of far less incontinences than this 
of the bordello. But having had the doctrine of Holy 
Scripture, unfolding those chaste and high mysteries, 
with timeliest care infused, that " the body is for the 
Lord, and the Lord for the body;" thus also I argued 
to myself, that if unchastity in a woman, whom St. 
Paul terms the glory of man, be such a scandal and 
dishonour, then certainly in a man, who is both the 
image and glory of God, it must, though commonly 
not so thought, be much more deflowering and disho- 
nourable ; in that he sins both against his own body, 
which is the perfecter sex, and his own glory, which 
is in the woman; and that which is worst, against 
the image and glory of God, which is in himself. Nor 
did I slumber over that place, expressing such high 
rewards of ever accompanying the Lamb, with those 
celestial songs to others inapprehensible, but not to 
those who were not defiled with women, which doubt- 
less means fornication ; for marriage must not ue call- 
ed a defilement. Thus large I have purposely been, 



82 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



that if I have been justly taxed with this crime, it may 
come upon me, after all this my confession, with a ten- 
fold shame : but if I have hitherto deserved no such 
opprobrious word, or suspicion, I may hereby en- 
gage myself now openly to the faithful observation of 
what I have professed. I go on to shew you the un- 
bridled impudence of this loose railer, who, having 
once begun his race, regards not how far he flies out 
beyond all truth and shame ; who from the single no- 
tice of the Animadversions, as he protests, will under- 
take to tell ye the very clothes I wear, though he 
be much mistaken in my wardrobe : and like a son of 
Belial, without the hire of Jezebel, charges me " of 
blaspheming God and the king," as ordinarily as he 
imagines " me to drink sack and swear," merely be- 
cause this was a shred in his commonplace book, and 
seemed to come off roundly, as if he were some em- 
piric of false accusations, to try his poisons upon me, 
whether they would work or no. Whom what should 
I endeavour to refute more, whenas that book, which 
is his only testimony, returns the lie upon him ; not 
giving him the least hint of the author to be either a 
swearer or a sack drinker. And for the readers, if they 
can believe me, principally for those reasons which I 
have alleged, to be of life and purpose neither dishonest 
nor unchaste, they will be easily induced to think me 
sober both of wine and of word ; but if I have been 
already successless in persuading them, all that I can 
further say, will be but vain ; and it will be better 
thrift to save two tedious labours, mine of excusing, 
and theirs of needless hearing. 

Proceeding further, T am met with a whole ging of 
words and phrases not mine, for he hath maimed them, 
and, like a sly depraver, mangled them in this his 
wicked limbo, worse than the ghost of Deiphobus ap- 
peared to his friend iEneas. Here I scarce know them, 
and he that would, let him repair to the place in that 
book where I set them : for certainly this tormentor of 
semicolons is as good at dismembering and slitting 
sentences, as his grave fathers the prelates have been 
at stigmatizing and slitting noses. By such handicraft 
as this what might he not traduce ? Only that odour, 
which being his own must needs offend his sense of 
smelling, since he will needs bestow his foot among us, 
and not allow us to think he wears a sock, I shall en- 
deavour it may be offenceless to other men's ears. The 
Remonstrant having to do with grave and reverend 
men his adversaries, thought it became him to tell them 
in scorn, that " the bishop's foot had been in their 
book and confuted it;" which when I saw him arro- 
gate, to have done that with his heels that surpassed 
the best consideration of his head, to spurn a confuta- 
tion among respected men, I questioned not the law- 
fulness of moving bis jollity to bethink him, what odour 
;i sock would have in such painful business. And this 
may have chanced to touch him more nearly than I 
was aware, for indeed a bishop's foot that hath all his 
toes maugre the gout, and a linen sock over it, is the 
aptest emblem of the prelate himself; who being a 



pluralist, may under one surplice, which is also linen, 
hide four benefices, besides the metropolitan toe, and 
sends a fouler stench to heaven, than that which this 
young queasiness retches at. And this is the immediate 
reason here why our enraged confuter, that he may be 
as perfect a hypocrite as Caiaphas, ere he be a high- 
priest, cries out, " Horrid blasphemy !" and, like a re- 
creant Jew, calls for stones. I beseech ye, friends, ere 
the brickbats fly, resolve me and yourselves, is it blas- 
phemy, or any whit disagreeing from christian meek- 
ness, whenas Christ himself, speaking of unsavoury 
traditions, scruples not to name the dunghill and the 
jakes, for me to answer a slovenly wincer of a confu- 
tation, that if he would needs put his foot to such a 
sweaty service, the odour of his sock was like to be 
neither musk nor benjamin ? Thus did that foolish monk 
in a barbarous declamation accuse Petrarch of blas- 
phemy for dispraising the French wines. But this which 
follows is plain bedlam stuff, this is the demoniac le- 
gion indeed, which the Remonstrant feared had been 
against him, and now he may see is for him. "You 
that love Christ," saith he, " and know this miscreant 
wretch, stone him to death, lest you smart for his im- 
punity." What thinks the Remonstrant? does he like 
that such words as these should come out of his shop, 
out of his Trojan horse ? To give the watch-word like 
a Guisian of Paris to a mutiny or massacre ; to pro- 
claim a croisade against his fellow-christian now in this 
troublous and divided time of the kingdom ? If he do, 
I shall say that to be the Remonstrant, is no better than 
to be a Jesuit ; and that if he and his accomplices 
could do as the rebels have done in Ireland to the pro- 
testants, they would do in England the same to them 
that would no prelates. For a more seditious and but- 
cherly speech no cell of Loyola could have belched 
against one who in all his writing spake not, that any 
man's skin should be raised. And yet this cursing 
Shimei, a hurler of stones, as well as a railer, wants 
not the face instantly to make as though he " despaired 
of victory, unless a modest defence would get it him." 
Did I err at all, readers, to foretel ye, when first I met 
with his title, that the epithet of modest there was a 
certain red portending sign, that he meant ere long to 
be most tempestuously bold and shameless ? Neverthe- 
less, " he dares not say but there may be hid in his 
nature as much venomous atheism and profanation, as 
he thinks hath broke out at his adversary's lips ; but 
he hath not the sore running upon him," as he would 
intimate I have. Now trust me not, readers, if I be 
not already weary of pluming and footing this sea-gull, 
so open he lies to strokes, and never offers at another, 
but brings home the dorre upon himself. For if the 
sore be running upon me, in all judgment I have 
escaped the disease ; but he who hath as much hid in 
him, as he hath voluntarily confessed, and cannot ex- 
pel it, because he is dull, (for venomous atheism were 
no treasure to be kept within him else,) let him take 
the part he bath chosen, which must needs follow, to 
swell and burst with his own inward venom. 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTTMNUUS. 



83 



SECT. I. 

But mark, readers, there is a kind of justice observed 
among them that do evil, but this man loves injustice 
in the very order of his malice. For having- all this 
while abused the good name of his adversary with all 
manner of licence in revenge of his Remonstrant, if 
they be not both one person, or as I am told, father and 
son, yet after all this he calls for satisfaction, whenas 
he himself hath already taken the utmost farthing". 
" Violence hath been done," says he, " to the person of 
a holy and religious prelate." To which, something 
in effect to what St. Paul answered of Ananias, I an- 
swer, 4I I wist not, brethren, that he was a holy and 
religious prelate ;" for evil is written of those who 
would be prelates. And finding him thus in disguise 
without his superscription or phylactery either of holy 
or prelate, it were no sin to serve him as Longchamp 
bishop of Ely was served in his disguise at Dover: he 
hath begun the measure nameless, and when he pleases 
we may all appear as we are. And let him be then 
what he will, he shall be to me so as I find him prin- 
cipled. For neither must prelate or archprelate hope 
to exempt himself from being reckoned as one of the 
vulgar, which is for him only to hope whom true wis- 
dom and the contempt of vulgar opinions exempts, it 
being taught us in the Psalms, that he who is in honour 
and understandeth not, is as the beasts that perish. 
And now first " the manner of handling that cause," 
which I undertook, he thinks is suspicious, as if the 
wisest and the best words were not ever to some or 
other suspicious. But where is the offence, the dis- 
agreement from christian meekness, or the precept of 
Solomon in answering folly ? When the Remonstrant 
talks of froth and scum, I tell him there is none, and 
bid him spare his ladle : when he brings in the mess 
with keal, beef, and brewess, what stomach in England 
could forbear to call for flanks and briskets ? Capon 
and white broth having been likely sometimes in the 
same room with Christ and his apostles, why does it 
trouble him, that it should be now in the same leaf, 
especially where the discourse is not continued, but 
interrupt ? And let him tell me, is he wont to say 
grace, doth he not then name holiest names over the 
steam of costliest superfluities ? Does he judge it fool- 
ish or dishonest, to write that among religious things, 
which, when he talks of religious things, he can de- 
voutly chew ? Is he afraid to name Christ where those 
things are written in the same leaf, whom he fears not 
to name while the same things are in his mouth ? Doth 
not Christ himself teach the highest things by the 
similitude of old bottles and patched clothes? Doth he 
not illustrate best things by things most evil? his 
own coming to be as a thief in the night, and the right- 
eous man's wisdom to that of an unjust steward ? He 
might therefore have done better to have kept in his 
canting beggars, and heathen altar, to sacrifice his 
threadbare criticism of Bomolochus to an unseasonable 
goddess fit for him called Importunity, and have re- 



served his Greek derivation till he lecture to his fresh 
men, for here his itching pedantry is but flouted. 

But to the end that nothing may be omitted, which 
may farther satisfy any conscionable man, who, not- 
withstanding what I could explain before the Animad- 
versions, remains yet unsatisfied concerning that way 
of writing which I there defended, but this confuter, 
whom it pinches, utterly disapproves ; I shall assay 
once again, and perhaps with more success. If there- 
fore the question were in oratory, whether a vehement 
vein throwing out indignation or scorn upon an object 
that merits it, were among the aptest ideas of speech 
to be allowed, it were my work, and that an easy one, 
to make it clear both by the rules of best rhetoricians, 
and the famousest examples of the Greek and Roman 
orations. But since the religion of it is disputed, and 
not the art, I shall make use only of such reasons and 
authorities, as religion cannot except against. It will 
be harder to gainsay, than for me to evince, that in the 
teaching of men diversely tempered, different ways are 
to be tried. The Baptist, we know, was a strict man, 
remarkable for austerity and set order of life. Our 
Saviour, who had all gifts in him, was Lord to express 
his indoctrinating power in what sort him best seem- 
ed ; sometimes by a mild and familiar converse ; some- 
times with plain and impartial home-speaking, regard- 
less of those whom the auditors might think he should 
have had in more respect ; otherwhile, with bitter 
and ireful rebukes, if not teaching, yet leaving ex- 
cuseless those his wilful impugners. What was all 
in him, was divided among many others the teachers 
of his church ; some to be severe and ever of a sad 
gravity, that they may win such, and check sometimes 
those who be of nature over-confident and jocund ; 
others were sent more cheerful, free, and still as it were 
at large, in the midst of an untrespassing honesty ; that 
they who are so tempered, may have by whom they 
might be drawn to salvation, and they who are too 
scrupulous, and dejected of spirit, might be often 
strengthened with wise consolations and revivings: no 
man being forced wholly to dissolve that groundwork of 
nature which God created in him, the sanguine to empty 
out all his sociable liveliness, the choleric to expel quite 
the unsinning predominance of his anger; but that 
each radical humour and passion, wrought upon and 
corrected as it ought, might be made the proper mould 
and foundation of every man's peculiar gifts and vir- 
tues. Some also were indued with a staid moderation 
and soundness of argument, to teach and convince the 
rational and soberminded ; yet not therefore that to be 
thought the only expedient course of teaching, for in 
times of opposition, when either against new heresies 
arising, or old corruptions to be reformed, this cool un- 
passionate mildness of positive wisdom is not enough 
to damp and astonish the proud resistance of carnal and 
false doctors, then (that I may have leave to soar awhile 
as the poets use) Zeal, whose substance is ethereal, 
arming in complete diamond, ascends his fiery chariot 
drawn with two blazing meteors, figured like beasts, 
but of a higher breed than any the zodiac yields, re- 
sembling two of those four which Ezekiel and St. John 






84 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



saw ; tlic one visaged like a lion, to express power, high 
authority, and indignation; the other of countenance 
like a man, to cast derision and scorn upon perverse 
and fraudulent seducers : with these the invincible 
warrior, Zeal, shaking- loosely the slack reins, drives 
over the heads of scarlet prelates, and such as are in- 
solent to maintain traditions, bruising' their stiff necks 
under his flaming wheels. Thus did the true prophets 
of old combat with the false; thus Christ himself, the 
fountain of meekness, found acrimony enough to be 
still galling and vexing the prelatical pharisees. But 
>e will say, these had immediate warrant from God to 
be thus bitter; and I say, so much the plainer is it 
proved, that there may be a sanctified bitterness against 
the enemies of truth. Yet that ye may not think in- 
spiration only the warrant thereof, but that it is as any 
other virtue, of moral and general observation, the ex- 
ample of Luther may stand for all, whom God made 
choice of before others to be of highest eminence and 
power in reforming the church ; who, not of revelation, 
but of judgment, writ so vehemently against the chief 
defenders of old untruths in the Romish church, that 
his own friends and favourers were many times offended 
with the fierceness of his spirit; yet he being- cited 
before Charles the Fifth to answer for his books, and 
having divided them into three sorts, whereof one was 
of those w hich he had sharply written, refused, though 
upon deliberation given him, to retract or unsay any 
word therein, as we may read in Sleidan. Yea, he de- 
fends his eagerness, as being " of an ardent spirit, and 
one who could not write a dull style:" and affirmed, 
" he thought it God's will, to have the inventions of 
men thus laid open, seeing that matters quietly handled 
were quickly forgot." And here withal how useful and 
available God hath made his tart rhetoric in the church's 
cause, he often found by his own experience. For when 
he betook himself to lenity and moderation, as they 
call it, he reaped nothing but contempt both from Ca- 
jetan and Erasmus, from Cocleus, from Ecchius, and 
others ; insomuch that blaming his friends, who had so 
( •ounselled him, he resolved never to run into the like 
errour : if at other times he seem to excuse his vehe- 
mence, as more than what was meet, I have not ex- 
amined through his works, to know how far he gave 
way to his own fervent mind ; it shall suffice me to 
look to mine own. And this I shall easily aver, though 
it may seem a hard saying, that the Spirit of God, who 
is purity itself, when he would reprove any fault se- 
verely, or but relate things done or said with indigna- 
tion by others, abstains not from some words not civil 
at other times to be spoken. Omitting that place in 
Numbers at the killing of Zimri and Cosbi ; done by 
Pbineas in the height of zeal, related, as the rabbins 
i (pound, not without an obscene word; we may find 
in Deuteronomy and three of the prophets, where God, 
denouncing bitterly the punishments of idolaters, tells 
diem in ;i term immodest to be uttered in cool blood, 
that their wires shall be defiled openly. But these, 
they will Bay, were honest words in that age when they 
poken. Which is more than any rabbin can prove; 
and certainly had God been SO minded, he could have 



picked such words as should never have come into abuse. 
What will they say to this? David going against Na- 
bal, in the very same breath when he had just before 
named the name of God, he vows not " to leave any 
alive of Nabal's house that pisseth against the wall." 
But this was unadvisedly spoken, you will answer, and 
set down to aggravate his infirmity. Turn then to the 
first of Kings, where God himself uses the phrase, " I 
will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the 
wall." Which had it been an unseemly speech in the 
heat of an earnest expression, then we must conclude 
that Jonathan or Onkelosthe targumists were of cleaner 
language than he that made the tongue ; for they ren- 
der it as briefly, " I will cut off all who are at years of 
discretion," that is to say, so much discretion as to hide 
nakedness. Whereas God, who is the author both of 
purity and eloquence, chose this phrase as fittest in 
that vehement character wherein he spake. Otherwise 
that plain word might have easily been forborn : which 
the masoreths and rabbinical scholiasts, not well at- 
tending, have often used to blur the margent with Keri 
instead of Ketiv, and gave us this insulse rule out of 
their Talmud, " That all words which in the law are 
written obscenely, must be changed to more civil 
words : " fools, who would teach men to read more de- 
cently than God thought good to write. And thus I 
take it to be manifest, that indignation against men 
and their actions notoriously bad hath leave and autho- 
rity ofttimes to utter such words and phrases, as in 
common talk were not so mannerly to use. That ye 
may know, not only as the historian speaks, " that all 
those things for which men plough, build, or sail, obey 
virtue," but that all words, and whatsoever may be 
spoken, shall at some time in an unwonted manner 
wait upon her purposes. 

Now that the confutant may also know as he desires, 
what force of teaching there is sometimes in laughter ; 
I shall return him in short, that laughter being one 
way of answering " a fool according to his folly," 
teaches two sorts of persons, first, the fool himself "not 
to be wise in his own conceit," as Solomon affirms ; 
which is certainly a great document to make an unwise 
man know himself. Next, it teacheth the hearers, in 
as much as scorn is one of those punishments, which 
belong to men carnally wise, which is oft in Scripture 
declared; for when such are punished," the simple are 
thereby made wise," if Solomon's rule be true. And I 
would ask, to what end Eliah mocked the false pro- 
phets ? was it to shew his wit, or to fulfil his humour ? 
Doubtless we cannot imagine that great servant of God 
had any other end, in all which he there did, but to 
teach and instruct the poor misled people. And we 
may frequently read, that many of the martyrs in the 
midst of their troubles were not sparing to deride and 
scoff their superstitious persecutors. Now may the 
confutant advise again with Sir Francis Bacon, whether 
Eliah and the martyrs did well to turn religion into a 
comedy or satire; " to rip up the wounds of idolatry 
and superstition with a laughing countenance :" so that 
for pious gravity the author here is matched and over- 
matched, and for wit and morality in one that follows: 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



" laughing to teach the truth 

What hinders ? as some teachers give to boys 
Junkets and knacks that they may learn apace." 

Thus Flaccus in his first satire, and his tenth : 

" Jesting decides great things 

Stronglier and better oft than earnest can." 

I could urge the same out of Cicero and Seneca, but 
he may content him with this. And henceforward, if 
he can learn, may know as well what are the bounds 
and objects of laughter and vehement reproof, as he 
hath known hitherto how to deserve them both. But 
lest some may haply think, or thus expostulate with 
me after this debatement, who made you the busy 
almoner to deal about this dole of laughter and repre- 
hension, which no man thanks your bounty for? To 
the urbanity of that man I should answer much after 
this sort : that I, friend objecter, having read of hea- 
then philosophers, some to have taught, that whosoever 
would but use his ear to listen, might hear the voice of 
his guiding genius ever before him, calling, and as it 
were pointing to that way which is his part to follow ; 
others, as the stoics, to account reason, which they call 
the Hegemonicon, to be the common Mercury conduct- 
ing without errour those that give themselves obediently 
to be led accordingly : having read this, I could not 
esteem so poorly of the faith which I profess, that God 
had left nothing to those who had forsaken all other 
doctrines for his, to be an inward witness and warrant 
of what they have to do, as that they should need to 
measure themselves by other men's measures, how to 
give scope or limit to their proper actions ; for that 
were to make us the most at a stand, the most uncertain 
and accidental wanderers in our doings, of all religions 
in the world. So that the question ere while moved, 
who is he that spends thus the benevolence of laughter 
and reproof so liberally upon such men as the prelates, 
may return with a more just demand, who he is not of 
place and knowledge never so mean, under whose con- 
tempt and jerk these men are not deservedly fallen ? 
Neither can religion receive any wound by disgrace 
thrown upon the prelates, since religion and they surely 
were never in such amity. They rather are the men 
who have wounded religion, and their stripes must 
heal her. I might also tell them, what Electra in 
Sophocles, a wise virgin, answered her wicked mother, 
who thought herself too violently reproved by her the 
daughter : 

'Tis you that say it, not I ; you do the deeds, 
And your ungodly deeds find me the words. 

If therefore the Remonstrant complain of libels, it 
is because he feels them to be right aimed. For I ask 
again, as before in the Animadversions, how long is it 
since he hath disrelished libels ? We never heard the 
least mutter of his voice against them while they flew 
abroad without control or check, defaming the Scots 
and Puritans. And yet he can remember of none but 
Lysimachus Nicanor, and " that he misliked and cen- 
sured." No more but of one can the Remonstrant re- 
member? What if I put him in mind of one more ? 
What if of one more whereof the Remonstrant in many 
likelihoods may be thought the author ? Did he never 



see a pamphlet intitled after his own fashion, " A Sur- 
vey of that foolish, seditious, scandalous, prophane 
Libel, the Protestation protested ?" The child doth not 
more expressly refigure the visage of his father, than 
that book resembles the style of the Remonstrant, in 
those idioms of speech, wherein he seems most to de- 
light : and in the seventeenth page three lines together 
are taken out of the Remonstrance word for word, not 
as a citation, but as an author borrows from himself. 
Whoever it be, he may as justly be said to have libel- 
led, as he against whom he writes : there ye shall find 
another man than is here made shew of, there he bites 
as fast as this whines. " Vinegar in the ink " is there 
" the antidote of vipers." Laughing in a religious 
controversy is there " a thrifty physic to expel his 
melancholy." In the mean time the testimony of Sir 
Francis Bacon was not misalleged, complaining that 
libels on the bishops' part were uttered openly ; and if 
he hoped the prelates had no intelligence with the 
libellers, he delivers it but as his favourable opinion. 
But had he contradicted himself, how could I assoil 
him here, more than a little before, where I know not 
how, by entangling himself, he leaves an aspersion 
upon Job, which by any else I never heard laid to his 
charge ? For having affirmed that " there is no greater 
confusion than the confounding of jest and earnest," 
presently he brings the example of Job, " glancing at 
conceits of mirth, when he sat among the people with 
the gravity of a judge upon him." If jest and earnest 
be such a confusion, then were the people much wiser 
than Job, for " he smiled, and they believed him not." 
To defend libels, which is that whereof I am next 
accused, was far from my purpose. I had not so little 
share in good name, as to give another that advantage 
against myself. The sum of what I said was, that a 
more free permission of writing at some times might 
be profitable, in such a question especially wherein the 
magistrates are not fully resolved ; and both sides 
have equal liberty to write, as now they have. Not as 
when the prelates bore sway, in whose time the books 
of some men were confuted, when they who should 
have answered were in close prison, denied the use of 
pen or paper. And the divine right of episcopacy was 
then valiantly asserted, when he who would have 
been respondent must have bethought himself withal 
how he could refute the Clink or the Gatehouse. If 
now therefore they be pursued with bad words, who 
persecuted others with bad deeds, it is a way to lessen 
tumult rather than to increase it ; whenas anger thus 
freely vented spends itself ere it break out into action, 
though Machiavel, whom he cites, or any other Ma- 
chiaveiian priest, think the contrary. 



SECT. III. 

Now, readers, I bring ye to his third section ; wherein 
very cautiously and no more than needs, lest I should 
take him for some chaplain at hand, some squire of the 






86 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



body to his prelate, one that serves not at the altar 
only, but at the court cupboard, he will bestow on us 
a pretty model of himself; and sobs me out of half a 
dozen phthisical mottoes wherever he had them, hop- 
ping- short in the measure of convulsion-fits ; in which 
labour the agony of his wit hating escaped narrowly, 
instead of well-sized periods, he greets us with a quan- 
tity of thumb-ring posies. " He has a fortune there- 
fore good, because he is content with it." This is a 
piece of sapience not worth the brain of a fruit trencher; 
as if content were the measure of what is good or bad 
in the gift of fortune. For by this rule a bad man may 
have a good fortune, because he may be ofttimes con- 
tent with it for many reasons which have no affinity 
with virtue, as love of ease, want of spirit to use more, 
and the like. " And therefore content," he says, " be- 
cause it neither goes before, nor comes behind his 
merit." Belike then if his fortune should go before 
his merit, he would not be content, but resign, if we 
believe him, which I do the less, because he implies, 
that if it came behind his merit, he would be content 
as little. Whereas if a wise man's content should de- 
pend upon such a therefore, because his fortune came 
not behind his merit, how many wise men could have 
content in this world ? In his next pithy symbol I 
dare not board him, for he passes all the seven wise 
masters of Greece, attributing to himself that which on 
my life Solomon durst not : " to have affections so 
equally tempered, that they neither too hastily adhere 
to the truth before it be fully examined, nor too lazily 
afterward." Which, unless he only were exempted 
out of the corrupt mass of Adam, born without sin 
original, and living without actual, is impossible. 
Had Solomon, (for it behoves me to instance in the 
wisest, dealing with such a transcendant sage as this,) 
had Solomon affections so equally tempered, as " not 
adhering too lazily to the truth," when God warned 
him of his halting in idolatry ? do we read that he re- 
pented hastily? did not his affections lead him hastily 
from an examined truth, how much more would they 
lead him slowly to it? Yet this man, beyond a stoic 
apathy, fees truth as in a rapture, and cleaves to it ; 
not as through the dim glass of his affections, which, in 
this frail mansion of flesh, are ever unequally tempered, 
pushing forward to errour, and keeping back from truth 
ofttimes the best of men. But how far this boaster is 
from knowing himself, let his preface speak. Some- 
thing I thought it was that made him so quicksighted 
to gather such strange things out of the. Animadver- 
sions, whereof the least conception could not be drawn 
from thence, of " suburb-sinks," sometimes "out of wit 
and clothes," sometimes " in new serge, drinking sack, 
and swearing;" now I know it was this equal temper 
of fiis affections, that gave him to see clearer than any 
fi nn< l-rubbed serpent. Lastly, he has resolved " that 
D< ltd. . person nor cause shall improper him." I may 
mistake his meaning, for the word ye hear is " impro- 
Bul whether if not a person,yet a good parson- 
age or impropriation bought out for him, would not 
" improper" hirn, because there maybe a quirk in the 
word, J leave if for a canonist to resolve. 



SECT. IV. 

And thus ends this section, or rather dissection, of 
himself, short ye will say both in breadth and extent, 
as in our own praises it ought to be, unless wherein a 
good name hath been wrongfully attainted. Right ; 
but if ye look at what he ascribes to himself, " that 
temper of his affections," which cannot any where be 
but in Paradise, all the judicious panegyrics in any 
language extant are not half so prolix. And that well 
appears in his next removal. For what with putting 
his fancy to the tiptoe in this description of himself, 
and what with adventuring presently to stand upon 
his own legs without the crutches of his margin, which 
is the sluice most commonly that feeds the drought of 
his text, he comes so lazily on in a simile, with his 
" armfull of weeds," and demeans himself in the dull 
expression so like a dough-kneaded thing, that he has 
not spirit enough left him so far to look to bis syntax, 
as to avoid nonsense. For it must be understood there 
that the stranger, and not he who brings the bundle, 
would be deceived in censuring the field, which this 
hipshot grammarian cannot set into right frame of con- 
struction, neither here in the similitude, nor in the fol- 
lowing reddition thereof; which being to this purpose, 
that " the faults of the best picked out, and presented 
in gross, seem monstrous, this," saith he, " you have 
done, in pinning on his sleeve the faults of others;" as 
if to pick out his own faults, and to pin the faults of 
others upon him, were to do the same thing. To an- 
swer therefore how I have culled out the evil actions 
of the Remonstrant from his virtues, I am acquitted by 
the dexterity and conveyance of his nonsense, losing 
that for which he brought his parable. But Avhat of 
other men's faults I have pinned upon his sleeve, let 
him shew. For whether he were the man who termed 
the martyrs Foxian confessors, it matters not ; he that 
shall step up before others to defend a church-govern- 
ment, which wants almost no circumstance, but only a 
name, to be a plain popedom, a government which 
changes the fatherly and ever-teaching discipline of 
Christ into that lordly and uninstructing jurisdiction, 
which properly makes the pope Antichrist, makes him- 
self an accessory to all the evil committed by those, who 
are armed to do mischief by that undue government; 
which they, by their wicked deeds, do, with a kind of 
passive and unwitting obedience to God, destroy ; but 
he, by plausible words and traditions against the Scrip- 
ture, obstinately seeks to maintain. They, by their 
own wickedness ruining their own unjust authority, 
make room for good to succeed ; but he, by a shew of 
good upholding the evil which in them undoes itself, 
hinders the good which they by accident let in. Their 
manifest crimes serve to bring forth an ensuing good, 
and hasten a remedy against themselves ; and his seem- 
ing good tends to reinforce their self-punishing crimes 
and his own, by doing his best to delay all redress. 
Shall not all the mischief which other men do be laid 
to his charge, if they do it by that unchurch-like power 
which he defends? Christ saith, " he that is not with 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



87 



me, is against me ; and he that gathers not with me, 
scatters." In what degree of enmity to Christ shall we 
place that man then, who so is with him, as that it 
makes more against him ; and so gathers with him, 
that it scatters more from him ? Shall it avail that man 
to say he honours the martyrs' memory, and treads in 
their steps ? No ; the pharisees confessed as much of 
the holy prophets. Let him, and such as he, when they 
are in their best actions, even at their prayers, look to 
hear that which the pharisees heard from John the 
Baptist when they least expected, when they rather 
looked for praise from him ; " generation of vipers, 
who hath warned ye to flee from the wrath to come?" 
Now that ye have started back from the purity of Scrip- 
ture, which is the only rule of reformation, to the old 
vomit of your traditions; now that ye have either 
troubled or leavened the people of God, and the doc- 
trine of the gospel, with scandalous ceremonies and 
mass-borrowed liturgies, do ye turn the use of that 
truth which ye profess, to countenance that falsehood 
which ye gain by ? We also reverence the martyrs, but 
rely only upon the Scriptures. And why we ought not to 
rely upon the martyrs, I shall be content with such 
reasons as my confuter himself affords me ; who is, I 
must needs say for him, in that point as officious an 
adversary as I would wish to any man. For, " first," 
saith he, " there may be a martyr in a wrong cause, 
and as courageous in suffering as the best ; sometimes 
in a good cause with a forward ambition displeasing to 
God. Other whiles they that story of them out of blind 
zeal or malice, may write many things of them untruly." 
If this be so, as ye hear his own confession, with what 
safety can the Remonstrant rely upon the martyrs as 
" patrons of his cause," whenas any of those who are 
alleged for the approvers of our liturgy or prelaty, 
might have been, though not in a wrong cause, mar- 
tyrs ? Yet whether not vainly ambitious of that honour, 
or whether not misreported or misunderstood in those 
their opinions, God only knows. The testimony of 
what we believe in religion must be such as the con- 
science may rest on to be infallible and incorruptible, 
which is only the word of God. 



SECT. V. 

His fifth section finds itself aggrieved that the Re- 
monstrant should be taxed with the illegal proceeding 
of the high commission, and oath ex officio : and first, 
" whether they were illegal or no, it is more than he 
knows." See this malevolent fox ! that tyranny which 
the whole kingdom cried out against as stung with 
adders and scorpions, that tyranny which the parlia- 
ment, in compassion of the church and commonwealth, 
hath dissolved and fetched up by the roots, for which 
it hath received the public thanks and blessings of 
thousands ; this obscure thorn-eater of malice and de- 
traction as well as of quodlibets and sophisms, knows 
not whether it were illegal or not. Evil, evil would 



be your reward, ye worthies of the parliament, if this 
sophister and his accomplices had the censuring or the 
sounding forth of your labours. And that the Remon- 
strant cannot wash his hands of all the cruelties exer- 
cised by the prelates, is past doubting. They scourged 
the confessors of the gospel, and he held the scourgers' 
garments. They executed their rage; and he, if he 
did nothing else, defended the government with the 
oath that did it, and the ceremonies which were the 
cause of it; does he think to be counted guiltless ? 



SECT. VI. 

In the following section I must foretel ye, readers, 
the doings will be rough and dangerous, the baiting of 
a satire. And if the work seem more trivial or boister- 
ous than for this discourse, let the Remonstrant thank 
the folly of this confuter, who could not let a private 
word pass, but he must make all this blaze of it. I 
had said, that because the Remonstrant was so much 
offended with those who were tart against the prelates, 
sure he loved toothless satires, which I took were as 
improper as a toothed sleekstone. This champion from 
behind the arras cries out, that those toothless satires 
were of the Remonstrant's making ; and arms himself 
here tooth and nail, and horn to boot, to supply the 
want of teeth, or rather of gums in the satires. And 
for an onset tells me, that the simile of a sleekstone 
" shews I can be as bold with a prelate as familiar 
with a laundress." But does it not argue rather the 
lascivious promptness of his own fancy, who, from the 
harmless mention of a sleekstone, could neigh out the 
remembrance of his old conversation among the vira- 
ginian trollops ? For me, if he move me, I shall claim 
his own oath, the oath ex officio against any priest or 
prelate in the kingdom, to have ever as much hated 
such pranks as the best and chastest of them all. That 
exception which I made against toothless satires, the 
confuter hopes I had from the satirist, but is far de- 
ceived : neither have I ever read the hobbling- distich 
which he means. For this good hap I had from a 
careful education, to be inured and seasoned betimes 
with the best and elegantest authors of the learned 
tongues, and thereto brought an ear that could measure 
a just cadence, and scan without articulating: rather 
nice and humorous in what was tolerable, than patient 
to read every drawling versifier. Whence lighting 
upon this title of " toothless satires," I will not conceal 
ye what I thought, readers, that sure this must be some 
sucking satire, who might have done better to have 
used his coral, and made an end of breeding, ere he 
took upon him to wield a satire's whip. But when I 
heard him talk of " scowering the rusty swords of elvish 
knights," do not blame me, if I changed my thought, 
and concluded him some desperate cutler. But why 
" his scornful muse could never abide with tragic shoes 
her ancles for to hide," the pace of the verse told me 
that her mawkin knuckles were never shapen to that 



m 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTVMNUUS. 



royal buskin. And turning- by chance to the sixth 
satire of his second book, I was confirmed ; where hav- 
bes 



inof Deerun 



loftily " in Heaven's universal alphabet," 
he falls down to that wretched poorness and frigidity, 
as to talk of" Bridge street in Heaven, and the Ostler 
of Heaven," and there wanting other matter to catch 
him a heat, (for certain he was in the frozen zone 
miserably benummed,) with thoughts lower than any 
beadle betakes him to whip the signposts of Cambridge 
alehouses, the ordinary subject of freshmen's tales, and 
in a strain as pitiful. Which for him who would be 
counted the first English satire, to abase himself to, who 
might have learned better among- the Latin and Italian 
satirists, and in our own tongue from the " Vision and 
Creed of Pierce Plowman," besides others before him, 
manifested a presumptuous undertaking with weak and 
unexamined shoulders. For a satire as it was born out 
of a tragedy, so ought to resemble his parentage, to 
strike high, and adventure dangerously at the most 
eminent vices among the greatest persons, and not to 
creep into every blind tap-house, that fears a constable 
more than a satire. But that such a poem should be 
toothless, I still affirm it to be a bull, taking away the 
essence of that which it calls itself. For if it bite nei- 
ther the persons nor the vices, how is it a satire ? And 
if it bite either, how is it toothless ? So that toothless 
satires are as much as if he had said toothless teeth. 
What we should do therefore with this learned com- 
ment upon teeth and horns, which hath brought this 
confutant into his pedantic kingdom of Cornucopia, to 
reward him for glossing upon horns even to the Hebrew 
root, I know not; unless we should commend him to 
be lecturer in East-cheap upon St. Luke's day, when 
they send their tribute to that famous haven by Dept- 
ford. But we are not like to escape him so. For now 
the worm of criticism works in him, he will tell us the 
derivation of " German rutters, of meat, and of ink," 
which doubtless, rightly applied with some gall in it, 
may prove good to heal this tetter of pedagogism that 
bespreads him, with such a tenesmus of originating, 
that if he be an Arminian, and deny original sin, all the 
etymologies of his book shall witness, that his brain is 
not meanlv tainted with that infection. 



SECT. VII. 

His seventh section labours to cavil out the flaws 
which were found in the Remonstrant's logic; who 
having laid down for a general proposition, that " civil 
polity is variable and arbitrary," from whence was in- 
ferred logically upon him, that he had concluded the 
polity of England to be arbitrary, for general includes 
particular ; here his defendant is not ashamed to con- 
fess, that the Remonstrant's proposition was sophistical 
by a fallacy called ad plures interrogationes : which 
sounds to me somewhat strange, that a Remonstrant 
of that pretended sincerity should bring deceitful and 
double-dealing propositions to the parliament The 



truth is, he had let slip a shrewd passage ere he was 
aware, not thinking the conclusion would turn upon 
him with such a terrible edge, and not knowing how 
to wind out of the briars, he, or his substitute, seems 
more willing to lay the integrity of his logic to pawn, 
and grant a fallacy in his own major, where none is, 
than to be forced to uphold the inference. For that 
distinction of possible, and lawful, is ridiculous to be 
sought for in that proposition ; no man doubting that 
it is possible to change the form of civil polity ; and 
that it is held lawful by that major, the word " arbi- 
trary" implies. Nor will this help him, to deny that 
it is arbitrary " at any time, or by any undertakers," 
(which are the limitations invented by him since,) for 
when it stands as he will have it now by his second 
edition, " civil polity is variable, but not at any time, 
or by any undertakers," it will result upon him, belike 
then at some time, and by some undertakers it may. 
And so he goes on mincing the matter, till he meets 
with something in Sir Francis Bacon ; then he takes 
heart again, and holds his major at large. But by and 
by, as soon as the shadow of Sir Francis hath left him, 
he falls off again warping, and warping, till he come 
to contradict himself in diameter; and denies flatly that 
it is " either variable or arbitrary, being once settled." 
Which third shift is no Jess a piece of laughter : for, 
before the polity was settled, how could it be variable, 
whenas it was no polity at all, but either an anarchy or 
a tyranny ? That limitation therefore, of after-settling, 
is a mere tautology. So that, in fine, his former asser- 
tion is now recanted, and " civil polity is neither vari- 
able nor arbitrary." 



SECT. VIII. 

Whatever else may persuade me, that this confuta- 
tion was not made without some assistance or advice 
of the Remonstrant, yet in this eighth section that his 
hand was not greatly intermixed, I can easily believe. 
For it begins with this surmise, that " not having to 
accuse the Remonstrant to the king, I do it to the par- 
liament ;" which conceit of the man clearly shoves the 
king out of the parliament, and makes two bodies of 
one. Whereas the Remonstrant, in the epistle to his 
last " Short Answer," gives his supposal, " that they 
cannot be severed in the rights of their several concern- 
ments." Mark, readers, if they cannot be severed in 
what is several, (which casts a bull's eye to go yoke 
with the toothless satires,) how should they be severed 
in their common concernments, the welfare of the land, 
by due accusation of such as are the common griev- 
ances, among which I took the Remonstrant to be one? 
And therefore if I accused him to the parliament, it 
was the same as to accuse him to the king. Next be 
casts it into the dish of I know not whom, " that they 
flatter some of the house, and libel others whose con- 
sciences made them vote contrary to some proceedings." 
Those some proceedings can be understood of nothing 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTVMNUUS. 



89 



else but the deputy's execution. And can this private 
concoctor of malecontent, at the very instant when he 
pretends to extol the parliament, afford thus to blur 
over, rather than to mention, that public triumph of 
their justice and constancy, so high, so glorious, so 
reviving to the fainted commonwealth, with such a 
suspicious and murmuring expression as to call it 
some proceedings ? And yet immediately he falls to 
glossing, as if he were the only man that rejoiced at 
these times. But I shall discover to ye, readers, that 
this his praising of them is as full of nonsense and 
scholastic foppery, as his meaning he himself discovers 
to be full of close malignity. His first encomium is, 
" that the sun looks not upon a braver, nobler convoca- 
tion than is that of king, peers, and commons." One 
thing I beg of ye, readers, as ye bear any zeal to 
learning, to elegance, and that which is called decorum 
in the writing of praise, especially on such a noble ar- 
gument, ye would not be offended, though T rate this 
cloistered lubber according to his deserts. Where didst 
thou learn to be so aguish, so pusillanimous, thou losel 
bachelor of art, as against all custom and use of speech 
to term the high and sovereign court of parliament, a 
convocation ? Was this the flower of all the synonimas 
and voluminous papers, whose best folios are predes- 
tined to no better end than to make winding-sheets in 
lent for pilchers? Couldst thou presume thus with one 
word's speaking to clap as it were under hatches the 
king with all his peers and gentry into square caps 
and monkish hoods ? How well dost thou now appear 
to be a chip of the old block, that could find " Bridge 
street and alehouses in heaven ?" Why didst thou not, 
to be his perfect imitator, liken the king to the vice- 
chancellor, and the lords, to the doctors? Neither is 
this an indignity only but a reproach, to call that in- 
violable residence of justice and liberty, by such an 
odious name as now a " convocation" is become, which 
would be nothing injured, though it were styled the 
house of bondage, whereout so many cruel tasks, so 
many unjust burdens have been laden upon the bruised 
consciences of so many Christians throughout the land. 
But which of those worthy deeds, whereof we and our 
posterity must confess this parliament to have done so 
many and so noble, which of those memorable acts 
comes first into his praises ? None of all, not one. 
What will he then praise them for ? Not for any thing 
doing-, but for deferring to do, for deferring to chastise 
his lewd and insolent compriests : not that they have 
deferred all, but that he hopes they will remit what is 
yet behind. For the rest of his oratory that follows, 
so just is it in the language of stall epistle nonsense, 
that if he who made it can understand it, I deny not 
but that he may deserve for his pains a cast doublet. 
When a man would look he should vent something' of 
his own, as ever in a set speech the manner is with 
him that knows any thing, he, lest we should not take 
notice enough of his barren stupidity, declares it by 
alphabet, and refers us to odd remnants in his topics. 
Nor yet content with the wonted room of his margin, 
but he must cut out large docks and creeks into his text, 
to unlade the foolish frigate of his unseasonable autho- 



rities, not therewith to praise the parliament, but to 
tell them what he would have them do. What else 
there is, he jumbles together in such a lost construction, 
as no man, either lettered or unlettered, will be able to 
piece up. I shall spare to transcribe him, but if I do 
him wrong' let me be so dealt with. 

Now although it be a digression from the ensuing 
matter, yet because it shall not be said I am apter to 
blame others than to make trial myself, and that I may 
after this harsh discord touch upon a smoother string 
awhile to entertain myself and him that list, with some 
more pleasing fit, and not the least to testify the gra- 
titude which I owe to those public benefactors of their 
country, for the share I enjoy in the common peace 
and good by their incessant labours ; I shall be so 
troublesome to this declaimer for once, as to shew him 
what he might have better said in their praise ; wherein 
I must mention only some few things of many, for 
more than that to a digression may not be granted. 
Although certainly their actions are worthy not thus to 
be spoken of by the way, yet if hereafter it befall me 
to attempt something more answerable to their great 
merits, I perceive how hopeless it will be to reach the 
height of their praises at the accomplishment of that 
expectation that waits upon their noble deeds, the un- 
finishing whereof already surpasses what others before 
them have left enacted with their utmost performance 
through many ages. And to the end we may be confi- 
dent that what they do, proceeds neither from uncertain 
opinion, nor sudden counsels, but from mature wisdom, 
deliberate virtue, and dear affection to the public good ; 
I shall begin at that which made them likeliest in the 
eyes of good men to effect those things for the recovery 
of decayed religion and the commonwealth, which they 
who were best minded had long wished for, but few, 
as the times then were desperate, had the courage to 
hope for. First, therefore, the most of them being 
either of ancient and high nobility, or at least of known 
and well reputed ancestry, which is a great advantage 
towards virtue one way, but in respect of wealth, ease, 
and flattery, which accompany a nice and tender edu- 
cation, is as much ahinderance another way : the good 
which lay before them they took, in imitating the 
worthiest of their progenitors ; and the evil which as- 
saulted their younger years by the temptation of riches, 
high birth, and that usual bringing up, perhaps too 
favourable and too remiss, through the strength of an 
inbred goodness, and with the help of divine grace, 
that had marked them out for no mean purposes, they 
nobly overcame. Yet had they a greater danger to 
cope with ; for being trained up in the knowledge of 
learning, and sent to those places which were intended 
to be the seed plots of piety and the liberal arts, but 
were become the nurseries of superstition and empty 
speculation, as they were prosperous against those 
vices which grow upon youth out of idleness and 
superfluity, so were they happy in working off the 
harms of their abused studies and labours; correct- 
ing by the clearness of their own judgment the 
errours of their misinstruction, and were, as David 
was, wiser than their teachers. And although their 



90 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



lot fell into such times, and to be bred in such 
places, where if they chanced to be taught any thing 
good, or of their own accord had learnt it, they might 
see that presently untaught them by the custom and ill 
example of their elders ; so far in all probability was 
their youth from being misled by the single power of 
example, as their riper years were known to be un- 
moved with the baits of preferment, and undaunted for 
any discouragement and terrour which appeared often 
to those that loved religion and their native liberty ; 
which two things God hath inseparably knit together, 
and hath disclosed to us, that they who seek to corrupt 
our religion, are the same that would enthral our civil 
liberty. Thus in the midst of all disadvantages and 
disrespects, (some also at last not without imprisonment 
and open disgraces in the cause of their country,) hav- 
ing given proof of themselves to be better made and 
framed by nature to the love and practice of virtue, 
than others under the holiest precepts and best exam- 
ples have been headstrong and prone to vice ; and 
having in all the trials of a firm ingrafted honesty not 
oftener buckled in the conflict than given every oppo- 
sition the foil ; this moreover was added by favour 
from heaven, as an ornament and happiness to their 
virtue, that it should be neither obscure in the opinion 
of men, nor eclipsed for want of matter equal to illus- 
trate itself; God and man consenting in joint approba- 
tion to choose them out as worthiest above others to be 
both the great reformers of the church, and the restorers 
of the commonwealth. Nor did they deceive that ex- 
pectation which with the eyes and desires of their 
country was fixed upon them ; for no sooner did the 
force of so much united excellence meet in one globe 
of brightness and efficacy, but encountering the daz- 
zled resistance of tyranny, they gave not over, though 
their enemies were strong and subtle, till they had laid 
her groveling upon the fatal block ; with one stroke 
winning again our lost liberties and charters, which 
our forefathers after so many battles could scarce main- 
tain. And meeting next, as I may so resemble, with 
the second life of tyranny (for she was grown an am- 
biguous monster, and to be slain in two shapes) guard- 
ed with superstition, which hath no small power to 
captivate the minds of men otherwise most wise, they 
neither were taken with her mitred hypocrisy, nor 
terrified with the push of her bestial horns, but break- 
ing them, immediately forced her to unbend the pon- 
tifical brow, and recoil ; which repulse only given to 
the prelates (that we may imagine how happy their 
removal would be) was the producement of such glo- 
rious effects and consequences in the church, that if I 
should compare them with those exploits of highest 
fame in poems and panegyrics of old, I am certain it 
would but diminish and impair their worth, who are 
now my argument; for those ancient worthies deliver- 
ed men from such tyrants as were content to inforce 
only an outward obedience, letting the mind be as free 
as it could ; but these have freed us from a doctrine of 
tyranny, that offered violence and corruption even to 
the inward persuasion. They set at liberty nations and 
Cltiei of men good and bad mixed together; but these 



opening the prisons and dungeons, called out of dark- 
ness and bonds the elect martyrs and witnesses of their 
Redeemer. They restored the body to ease and wealth ; 
but these, the oppressed conscience to that freedom 
which is the chief prerogative of the gospel ; taking 
off those cruel burdens imposed not by necessity, as 
other tyrants are wont for the safeguard of their lives, 
but laid upon our necks by the strange wilfulness and 
wantonness of a needless and jolly persecutor called 
Indifference. Lastly, some of those ancient deliverers 
have had immortal praises for preserving their citizens 
from a famine of corn. But these, by this only repulse 
of an unholy heirarchy, almost in a moment replenish- 
ed with saving knowledge their country nigh famished 
for want of that which should feed their souls. All 
this being done while two armies in the field stood 
gazing on, the one in reverence of such nobleness 
quietly gave back and dislodged ; the other, spite of 
the unruliness, and doubted fidelity in some.regiments, 
was either persuaded or compelled to disband and re- 
tire home. With such a majesty had their wisdom be- 
girt itself, that whereas others had levied war to subdue 
a nation that sought for peace, they sitting here in 
peace, could so many miles extend the force of then- 
single words, as to overawe the dissolute stoutness of 
an armed power secretly stirred up .and almost hired 
against them. And having by a solemn protestation 
vowed themselves and the kingdom anew to God and 
his service, and by a prudent foresight above what their 
fathers thought on, prevented the dissolution and frus- 
trating of their designs by an untimely breaking up ; 
notwithstanding all the treasonous plots against them, 
all the rumours either of rebellion or invasion, they 
have not been yet brought to change their Constant re- 
solution, ever to think fearlessly of their own safeties, 
and hopefully of the commonwealth : which hath 
gained them such an admiration from all good men, 
that now they hear it as their ordinary surname, to be 
saluted the fathers of their country, and sit as gods 
among daily petitions and public thanks flowing in 
upon them. Which doth so little yet exalt them in 
their own thoughts, that, with all gentle affability and 
courteous acceptance, they both receive and return that 
tribute of thanks which is tendered them ; testifying 
their zeal and desire to spend themselves as it were 
piece-meal upon the grievances and wrongs of their 
distressed nation ; insomuch that the meanest artizans 
and labourers, at other times also women, and often the 
younger sort of servants assembling with their com- 
plaints, and that sometimes in a less humble guise than 
for petitioners, have gone with confidence, that neither 
their meanness would be rejected, nor their simplicity 
contemned ; nor yet their urgency distasted either by 
the dignity, wisdom, or moderation of that supreme 
senate ; nor did they depart unsatisfied. And indeed, 
if we consider the general concourse of suppliants, the 
free and ready admittance, the willing and speedy re- 
dress in what is possible, it will not seem much other- 
wise, than as if some divine commission from heaven 
were descended to take into hearing and commiseration 
the long remediless afflictions of this kingdom ; were 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



91 



it not that none more than themselves labour to remove 
and divert such thoughts, lest men should place too 
much confidence in their persons, still referring- us and 
our prayers to him that can grant all, and appointing 
the monthly return of public fasts and supplications. 
Therefore the more they seek to humble themselves, the 
more does God, by manifest signs and testimonies, 
visibly honour their proceedings ; and sets them as the 
mediators of this his covenant, which he offers us to 
renew. Wicked men daily conspire their hurt, and it 
comes to nothing; rebellion rages in our Irish province, 
but, with miraculous and lossless victories of few against 
many, is daily discomfited and broken ; if we neglect 
not this early pledge of God's inclining towards us, by 
the slackness of our needful aids. And whereas at other 
times we count it ample honour when God vouchsafes 
to make man the instrument and subordinate worker 
of his gracious will, such acceptation have their prayers 
found with him, that to them he hath been pleased to 
make himself the agent, and immediate performer of 
their desires; dissolving their difficulties when they 
are thought inexplicable, cutting out ways for them 
where no passage could be seen ; as who is there so 
regardless of divine Providence, that from late occur- 
rences will not confess ? If therefore it be so high a 
grace when men are preferred to be but the inferior 
officers of good things from God, what is it when God 
himself condescends, and works with his own hands to 
fulfil the requests of men ? Which I leave with them as 
the greatest praise that can belong to human nature : 
not that we should think they are at the end of their 
glorious progress, but that they will go on to follow his 
Almighty leading, who seems to have thus covenanted 
with them ; that if the will and the endeavour shall be 
theirs, the performance and the perfecting shall be his. 
Whence only it is that I have not feared, though many 
wise men have miscarried in praising great designs 
before the utmost event, because I see who is their as- 
sistant, who is their confederate, who hath engaged his 
omnipotent arm to support and crown with success their 
faith, their fortitude, their just and magnanimous ac- 
tions, till he have brought to pass all that expected good 
which, his servants trust, is in his thoughts to bring upon 
this land in the full and perfect reformation of his church. 

Thus far I have digressed, readers, from my former 
subject; but into such a path, as I doubt not ye will 
agree with me, to be much fairer and more delightful 
than the roadway I was in. And how to break off sud- 
denly into those jarring notes which this confuter hath 
set me, I must be wary, unless I can provide against 
offending the ear, as some musicians are wont skilfully 
to fall out of one key into another, without breach of har- 
mony . By good luck therefore his ninth section is spent 
in mournful elegy, certain passionate soliloquies, and two 
whole pages of interrogatories that praise the Remon- 
strant even to the sonneting of" his fresh cheek, quick 
eyes, round tongue, agil hand, and nimble invention." 

In his tenth section he will needs erect figures, and 
tell fortunes ; " I am no bishop," he says, " I was never 
born to it." Let me tell therefore this wizard, since he 
calculates so right, that he may know there be in the 



world, and I among those, who nothing admire his 
idol a bishopric; and hold that it wants so much to 
be a blessing, as that I rather deem it the merest, the 
falsest, the most unfortunate gift of fortune. And were 
the punishment and misery of being a prelate bishop 
terminated only in the person, and did not extend to 
the affliction of the whole diocese, if I would wish 
any thing in the bitterness of soul to mine enemy, I 
would wish him the biggest and fattest bishopric. But 
he proceeds ; and the familiar belike informs him, that 
" a rich widow, or a lecture, or both, would content 
me : " whereby I perceive him to be more ignorant in 
his art of divining than any gipsy. For this I cannot 
omit without ingratitude to that Providence above, 
who hath ever bred me up in plenty, although my life 
hath not been unexpensive in learning, and voyaging 
about; so long as it shall please him to lend me what 
he hath hitherto thought good, which is enough to 
serve me in all honest and liberal occasions, and some- 
thing over besides, I were unthankful to that highest 
bounty, if I should make myself so poor, as to solicit 
needily any such kind of rich hopes as this fortune- 
teller dreams of. And that he may further learn how 
his astrology is wide all the houses of heaven in spell- 
ing marriages, I care not if I tell him thus much pro- 
fessedly, though it be the losing of my rich hopes, as 
he calls them, that I think with them who, both in pru- 
dence and elegance of spirit, would choose a virgin of 
mean fortunes honestly bred, before the wealthiest 
widow. The fiend therefore, that told our Chaldean 
the contrary, was a lying fiend. His next venom he 
utters against a prayer, which he found in the Animad- 
versions, angry it seems to find any prayers but in the 
service book ; he dislikes it, and I therefore like it 
the better. " It was theatrical," he says ; and yet it 
consisted most of Scripture language ; it had no rubric 
to be sung in an antic cope upon the stage of a high 
altar. " It was bigmouthed," he says ; no marvel, if 
it were framed as the voice of three kingdoms ; neither 
was it a prayer so much as a hymn in prose, frequent 
both in the prophets, and in human authors; therefore 
the style was greater than for an ordinary prayer. " It 
was an astonishing prayer." I thank him for that con- 
fession, so it was intended to astound and to astonish 
the guilty prelates ; and this confuter confesses, that 
with him it wrought that effect. But in that which 
follows, he does not play the soothsayer, but the dia- 
bolic slanderer of prayers. " It was made," he says, 
" not so much to please God, or to benefit the weal 
public," (how dares the viper judge that?) " but to 
intimate," saith he, " your good abilities to her that is 
your rich hopes, your Maronilla." How hard is it 
when a man meets with a fool, to keep his tongue from 
folly ! That were miserable indeed to be a courtier of 
Maronilla, and withal of such a hapless invention, as 
that no way should be left me to present my meaning 
but to make myself a canting probationer of orisons. 
The Remonstrant, when he was as young as I, could 

ct Teach each hollow grove to sound his love, 
Wearying echo with one changeless word." 

Toothless Satires. 



92 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



And so he well might, and all his auditory besides 
with his "teach each." 

" Whether so me list my lovely thoughts to sing, 
Come dance ye nimble dryads by my side, 
Whiles 1 report my fortunes or my loves." 

Toothless Satires. 

Delicious! he had that whole bevy at command 
whether in morrice or at maypole; whilst I by this 
figure-caster must be imagined in such distress as to 
sue to Maronilla, and yet left so impoverished of what 
to say, as to turn my liturgy into my lady's psalter. 
Believe it, graduate, I am not altogether so rustic, and 
nothing- so irreligious, but as far distant from a lec- 
turer, as the merest laic, for any consecrating hand of 
a prelate that shall ever touch me. Yet I shall not 
decline the more for that, to speak my opinion in the 
controversy next moved, " whether the people may be 
allowed for competent judges of a minister's ability." 
For how else can be fulfilled that which God hath pro- 
mised, to pour out such abundance of knowledge upon 
all sorts of men in the times of the gospel ? How should 
the people examine the doctrine which is taught them, 
as Christ and his apostles continually bid them do? 
How should they "discern and beware of false pro- 
phets, and try every spirit," if they must be thought 
unfit to judge of the minister's abilities ? The apostles 
ever laboured to persuade the christian flock, that they 
" were called in Christ to all perfectness of spiritual 
knowledge, and full assurance of understanding in the 
mystery of God." But the non-resident and plurality- 
gaping prelates, the gulfs and whirlpools of benefices, 
but the dry pits of all sound doctrine, that they may 
the better preach what they list to their sheep, are still 
possessing them that they are sheep indeed, without 
judgment, without understanding, " the very beasts of 
mount Sinai," as this confuter calls them; which words 
of theirs may serve to condemn them out of their own 
mouths, and to shew the gross contrarieties that are in 
their opinions : for while none think the people so void 
of knowledge as the prelates think them, none are so 
backward and malignant as they to bestow knowledge 
upon them ; both by suppressing the frequency of ser- 
mons, and the printed explanations of the English 
Bible. No marvel if the people turn beasts, when their 
teachers themselves, as Isaiah calls them, " are dumb 
and greedy dogs, that can never have enough, ignor 
ant, blind, and cannot understand; who while they 
all look their own way, every one for his gain from his 
quarter," how many parts of the land are fed with 
windy ceremonies instead of sincere milk; and while 
one prelate enjoys the nourishment and right of twenty 
ministers, how many waste places are left as dark as 
" Galilee of the Gentiles, sitting in the region and sha- 
dow of death," without preaching minister, without 
light. So little care they of beasts to make them men, 
that by their sorcerous doctrine of formalities, they take 
the w.-iv in transform them out of christian men into 
judaizinir In-ast^. Had they but taught the land, or 
Buffered it to be taught, as Christ would it should have 
been in all plenteous dispensation of the word, then the 
poor mechanic might have so accustomed his ear to 



good teaching, as to have discerned between faithful 
teachers and false. But now, with a most inhuman 
cruelty, they who have put out the people's eyes, re- 
proach them of their blindness; just as the Pharisees 
their true fathers were wont, who could not endure 
that the people should be thought competent judges of 
Christ's doctrine, although we know they judged far 
better than those great rabbies : yet "this people," said 
they, " that knows not the law is accursed." We need 
not the authority of Pliny brought to tell us, the people 
cannot judge of a minister : yet that hurts not. For 
as none can judge of a painter, or statuary, but he who 
is an artist, that is, either in the practice or theory, 
which is often separated from the practice, and judges 
learnedly without it; so none can judge of a christian 
teacher,but he whohath eitherthe practice, or the know- 
ledge of christian religion, though not so artfully 
digested in him. And who almost of the meanest 
Christians hath not heard the Scriptures often read from 
his childhood, besides so many sermons and lectures 
more in number than any student hath heard in philo- 
sophy, whereby he may easily attain to know when he 
is wisely taught, and when weakly? whereof three 
ways I remember are set down in Scripture ; the one 
is to read often that best of books written to this pur- 
pose, that not the wise only, but the simple and ignor- 
ant, may learn by them ; the other way to know of a 
minister is, by the life he leads, whereof the meanest 
understanding may be apprehensive. The last way to 
judge aright in this point is, when he who judges, lives 
a christian life himself. Which of these three will the 
confuter affirm to exceed the capacity of a plain ar- 
tizan ? And what reason then is there left, wherefore 
he should be denied his voice in the election of his 
minister, as not thought a competent discerner? It is 
but arrogance therefore, and the pride of a metaphy- 
sical fume, to think that " the mutinous rabble " (for so 
he calls the christian congregation) " would be so mis- 
taken in a clerk of the university," that were to be their 
minister. I doubt me those clerks, that think so, are 
more mistaken in themselves ; and what with truanting 
and debauchery, what with false grounds and the 
weakness of natural faculties in many of them, (it be- 
ing a maxim in some men to send the simplest of their 
sons thither,) perhaps there would be found among them 
as many unsolid and corrupted judgments both in doc- 
trine and life, as in any other two corporations of like 
bigness. This is undoubted, that if any carpenter, smith, 
or weaver, were such a bungler in his trade, as the 
greater number of them are in their profession, he would 
starve for any custom. And should he exercise his ma- 
nufacture as little as they do their talents, he would for- 
get his art ; and should he mistake his tools as they do 
theirs, he would mar all the work he took in hand. 
How i'ew among them that know to write, or speak in 
a pure style ; much less to distinguish the ideas, and 
various kinds of style ; in Latin barbarous, and oft not 
without solecisms, declaiming in rugged and miscel- 
laneous gear blown together by the four winds, and in 
their choice preferring the gay rankness of Apuleius, 
Arnobius, or any modern fustianist, before the native 



AN APOLOGY FOR SxMECTYMNUUS. 



93 



Latinisms of Cicero. In the Greek tongue most of 
them unlettered, or " unentered to any sound proficiency 
in those attic masters of moral wisdom and eloquence." 
In the Hebrew text, which is so necessary to be under- 
stood, except it be some few of them, their lips are 
utterly uncircumcised. No less are they out of the 
way iu philosophy, pestering- their heads with the 
sapless dotages of old Paris and Salamanca. And that 
which is the main point, in their sermons affecting the 
comments and postils of friars and Jesuits, but scorning 
and slighting the reformed writers; insomuch that the 
better sort among them will confess it a rare matter to 
hear a true edifying sermon in either of their great 
churches ; and that such as are most hummed and ap- 
plauded there, would scarcely be suffered the second 
hearing in a grave congregation of pious Christians. 
Is there cause why these men should overwean, and be 
so queasy of the rude multitude, lest their deep worth 
should be undervalued for want of fit umpires ? No, 
my matriculated confutant, there will not want in any 
congregation of this island, that hath not been alto- 
gether famished or wholly perverted with prelatish 
leaven ; there will not want divers plain and solid 
men, that have learned by the experience of a good 
conscience, what it is to be well taught, who will soon 
look through and through both the lofty nakedness of 
your latinizing barbarian, and the finical goosery of 
your neat sermon actor. And so I leave you and your 
fellow " stars," as you term them, " of either horizon," 
meaning* I suppose either hemisphere, unless you will 
be ridiculous in your astronomy : for the rational hori- 
zon in heaven is but one, and the sensible horizons in 
earth are innumerable; so that your allusion was as 
erroneous as your stars. But that you did well to 
prognosticate them all at lowest in the horizon ; that is, 
either seeming bigger than they are through the mist 
and vapour which they raise, or else sinking and wasted 
to the snuff in their western socket. 



SECT. XI. 

His eleventh section intends I know not what, unless 
to clog us with the residue of his phlegmatic sloth, 
discussing with a heavy pulse the " expedience of set 
forms ;" which no question but to some, and for some 
time may be permitted, and perhaps there may be 
usefully set forth by the church a common directory of 
public prayer, especially in the administration of the 
sacraments. But that it should therefore be enforced 
where both minister and people profess to have no 
need, but to be scandalized by it, that, I hope, every 
sensible Christian will deny : and the reasons of such 
denial the confuter himself, as his bounty still is to his 
adversary, will give us out of his affirmation. First 
saith he, u God in his providence hath chosen some to 
teach others, and pray for others, as ministers and 
pastors." Whence I gather, that however the faculty 
of others may be, yet that they whom God hath set 



ajaart to his ministry, are by him endued with an ability 
of prayer ; because their office is to pray for others, 
and not to be the lip-working deacons of other men's 
appointed words. Nor is it easily credible, that he who 
can preach well, should be unable to pray well ; whenas 
it is indeed the same ability to speak affirmatively, or 
doctrinally, and only by changing the mood, to speak 
prayingly. In vain therefore do they pretend to want 
utterance in prayer, who can find utterance to preach. 
And if prayer be the gift of the Spirit, why do they 
admit those to the ministry, who want a main gift of 
their function, and prescribe gifted men to use that 
which is the remedy of another man's want; setting 
them their tasks to read, whom the Spirit of God stands 
ready to assist in his ordinance with the gift of free 
conceptions ? What if it be granted to the infirmity 
of some ministers (though such seem rather to be half 
ministers) to help themselves with a set form, shall it 
therefore be urged upon the plenteous graces of others? 
And let it be granted to some people while they are 
babes, in christian gifts, were it not better to take it 
away soon after, as we do loitering books and inter- 
lineaiy translations from children ; to stir up and exer- 
cise that portion of the Spirit which is in them, and 
not impose it upon congregations who not only deny 
to need it, but as a thing troublesome and offensive, 
refuse it ? Another reason which he brings for liturgy, 
is " the preserving of order, unity, and piety;" and 
the same shall be my reason against liturgy. For I, 
readers, shall always be of this opinion, that obedience 
to the spirit of God, rather than to the fair seeming 
pretences of men, is the best and most dutiful order 
that a Christian can observe. If the Spirit of God 
manifest the gift of prayer in his minister, what more 
seemly order in the congregation, than to go along 
with that man in our devoutest affections ? For him 
to abridge himself by reading, and to forestall himself 
in those petitions, which he must either omit, or vainly 
repeat, when he comes into the pulpit under a shew 
of order, is the greatest disorder. Nor is unity less 
broken, especially by our liturgy, though this author 
would almost bring the communion of saints to a com- 
munion of liturgical words. For what other reformed 
church holds communion with us by our liturgy, and 
does not rather dislike it ? And among ourselves, who 
knows it not to have been a perpetual cause of disunion ? 
Lastly, it hinders piety rather than sets it forward, 
being more apt to weaken the spiritual faculties, if the 
people be not. weaned from it in due time ; as the daily 
pouring in of hot waters quenches the natural heat. 
For not only the body and the mind, but also the im- 
provement of God's Spirit, is quickened by using. 
Whereas they who will ever adhere to liturgy, bring 
themselves in the end to such a pass by overmuch 
leaning, as to lose even the legs of their devotion. 
These inconveniencies and dangers follow the compel- 
ling of set forms : but that the toleration of the English 
liturgy now in use is more dangerous than the com- 
pelling of any other, which the reformed churches use, 
these reasons following may evince. To contend that 
it is fantastical, if not senseless in some places, were a 



94 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



copious argument, especially in the Responsories. 
For such alternations as are there used must be by 
several persons ; but the minister and the people can- 
not so sever their interests, as to sustain several per- 
sons; he being the only mouth of the whole body 
which he presents. And if the people pray, he being- 
silent, or they ask any one thing-, and he another, it 
either changes the property, making the priest the 
people, and the people the priest, by turns, or else 
makes two persons and two bodies representative where 
there should be but one. Which, if it be nought else, 
must needs be a strange quaintness in ordinary prayer. 
The like, or worse, may be said of the litany, wherein 
neither priest nor people speak any intire sense of 
themselves throughout the whole, I know not what to 
name it; only by the timely contribution of their parted 
stakes, closing up as it were the schism of a sliced 
prayer, they pray not in vain, for by this means they 
keep life between them in a piece of gasping sense, 
and keep down the sauciness of a continual rebounding 
nonsense. And hence it is, that as it hath been far 
from the imitation of any warranted prayer, so we all 
know it hath been obvious to be the pattern of many a 
jig. And he who hath but read in good books of de- 
votion and no more, cannot be so ei.her of ear or judg- 
ment unpractised to distinguish what is grave, path eti- 
cal, devout, and what not, but will presently perceive 
this liturgy all over in conception lean and dry, of 
affections empty and unmoving, of passion, or any 
height whereto the soul might soar upon the wings of 
zeal, destitute and barren ; besides errours, tautologies, 
impertinencies, as those thanks in the woman's church- 
ing for her delivery from sunburning and moonblasting, 
as if she had been travailing not in her bed, but in the 
deserts of Arabia. So that while some men cease not 
to admire the incomparable frame of our liturgy, I 
cannot but admire as fast what they think is become 
of judgment and taste in other men, that they can hope 
to be heard without laughter. And if this were all, 
perhaps it were a compliable matter. But when we 
remember this our liturgy where we found it, whence 
we had it, and yet where we left it, still serving to all 
the abominations of the antichristian temple, it may be 
wondered now we can demur whether it should be done 
away or no, and not rather fear we have highly offended 
in using it so long. It hath indeed been pretended to 
be more ancient than the mass, but so little proved, that 
whereas other corrupt liturgies have had withal such a 
seeming antiquity, as that their publishers have ven- 
tured to ascribe them with their worst corruptions either 
to St. Peter, St. James, St. Mark, or at least to Chry- 
sostom or Basil, ours hath been never able to find either 
age or author allowable, on whom to father those things 
therein which are least offensive, except the two creeds, 
for Te Deum has a smatch in it of Limbus Patrum : as 
if Christ had not " opened the kingdom of heaven" 
before he had " overcome the sharpness of death." So 
that having received it from the papal church as an 
original creature, for aught can be shewn to the con- 
trary, formed and fashioned by workmasters ill to be 
trusted, we may be assured that if God loathe the best 



of an idolater's prayer, much more the conceited fangle 
of his prayer. This confuter himself confesses that a 
community of the same set form in prayers, is that 
which " makes church and church truly one;" we then 
using a liturgy far more like to the mass book than to 
any protestant set form, by his own words must have 
more communion with the Romish church, than with 
any of the reformed. How can we then not partake 
w r ith them the curse and vengeance of their superstition, 
to whom we come so near in the same set form and 
dress of our devotion ? Do we think to sift the matter 
finer than we are sure God in his jealousy will, who 
detested both the gold and the spoil of idolatrous cities, 
and forbid the eating of things offered to idols ? Are 
we stronger than he, to brook that which his heart can- 
not brook? It is not surely because we think that 
prayers are no where to be had but at Rome ? That 
were a foul scorn and indignity cast upon all the re- 
formed churches, and our own : if we imagine that all 
the godly ministers of England are not able to new- 
mould a better and more pious liturgy than this which 
was conceived and infanted by an idolatrous mother, 
how basely were that to esteem of God's Spirit, and all 
the holy blessings and privileges of a true church above 
a false ! Hark ye, prelates, is this your glorious mother 
of England, who, whenas Christ hath taught her to 
pray, thinks it not enough unless she add thereto the 
teaching of Antichrist ? How can we believe ye would 
refuse to take the stipend of Rome, when ye shame not 
to live upon the almsbasket of her prayers ? Will ye 
persuade us, that ye can curse Rome from your hearts, 
when none but Rome must teach ye to pray ? Abra- 
ham disdained to take so much as a thread or a shoe- 
latchet from the king of Sodom, though no foe of his, 
but a w icked king ; and shall we receive our prayers 
at the bounty of our more wicked enemies, whose gifts 
are no gifts, but the instruments of our bane ? Alas ! 
that the Spirit of God should blow as an uncertain 
wind, should so mistake his inspiring, so misbestow his 
gifts promised only to the elect, that the idolatrous 
should find words acceptable to present God with, and 
abound to their neighbours, while the true professors 
of the gospel can find nothing of their own worth the 
constituting, wherewith to worship God in public ! 
Consider if this be to magnify the church of England, 
and not rather to display her nakedness to all the world. 
Like therefore as the retaining of this Romish liturgy 
is a provocation to God, and a dishonour to our church, 
so is it by those ceremonies, those purifyings and offer- 
ings at the altar, a pollution and disturbance to the 
gospel itself; and a kind of driving us with the foolish 
Galatians to another gospel. For that which the 
apostles taught hath freed us in religion from the ordi- 
nances of men, and commands that " burdens be not 
laid" upon the redeemed of Christ; though the form- 
alist will say, What, no decency in God's worship ? 
Certainly, readers, the worship of God singly in itself, 
the very act of prayer and thanksgiving, with those 
free and unimposed expressions which from a sincere 
heart unbidden come into the outward gesture, is the 
greatest decency that can be imagined. Which to 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



95 



dress up and garnish with a devised bravery abolished 
in the law, and disclaimed by the gospel, adds nothing 
but a deformed ugliness ; and hath ever afforded a 
colourable pretence to bring in all those traditions 
and carnalities that are so killing to the power and 
virtue of the gospel. What was that which made the 
Jews, figured under the names of Aholah and Aholibah, 
go a whoring after all the heathen's inventions, but 
that they saw a religion gorgeously attired and de- 
sirable to the eye ? What was all that the false doc- 
tors of the primitive church and ever since have 
done, but " to make a fair shew in the flesh," as St. 
Paul's words are ? If we have indeed given a bill 
of divorce to popery and superstition, why do we not 
say as to a divorced wife, Those things which are yours 
take them all with you, and they shall sweep after 
you? Why were not we thus wise at our parting from 
Rome ? Ah ! like a crafty adulteress she forgot not all 
her smooth looks and enticing words at her parting ; 
yet keep these letters, these tokens, and these few orna- 
ments ; I am not all so greedy of what is mine, let 
them preserve with you the memory of what T am ? 
No, but of what T was, once fair and lovely in your 
eyes. Thus did those tender-hearted reformers dotingly 
suffer themselves to be overcome with harlot's language. 
And she like a witch, but with a contrary policy, did 
not take something of theirs, that she still might have 
power to bewitch them, but for the same intent left 
something of her own behind her. And that her 
whorish cunning should prevail to work upon us her 
deceitful ends, though it be sad to speak, yet such is 
our blindness, that we deserve. For we are deep in 
dotage. We cry out sacrilege and misdevotion against 
those who in zeal have demolished the dens and cages 
of her unclean wallowings. We stand for a popish 
liturgy as for the ark of our covenant. And so little 
does it appear our prayers are from the heart, that mul- 
titudes of us declare, they know not how to pray but 
by rote. Yet they can learnedly invent a prayer of 
their own to the parliament, that they may still ig- 
norantly read the prayers of other men to God. They 
object, that if we must forsake all that is Rome's, we 
must bid adieu to our creed ; and I had thought our 
creed had been of the Apostles, for so it bears title. 
But if it be hers, let her take it. We can want no creed, 
so long as we want not the Scriptures. We magnify 
those who, in reforming our church, have inconsider- 
ately and blamefully permitted the old leaven to re- 
main and sour our whole lump. But they were martyrs; 
true, and he that looks well into the book of God's pro- 
vidence, if he read there that God for this their negli- 
gence and halting brought all that following persecu- 
tion upon this church, and on themselves, perhaps will 
be found at the last day not to have read amiss. 



SECT. XII. 

But now, readers, we have the port within sight; 
his last section, which is no deep one, remains only to 
be forded, and then the wished shore. And here first 



it pleases him much, that he had descried me, as he 
conceives, to be unread in the councils. Concern- 
ing which matter it will not be unnecessary to shape 
him this answer; that some years I had spent in the 
stories of those Greek and Roman exploits, wherein I 
found many things both nobly done, and worthily 
spoken ; when coming in the method of time to that 
age wherein the church had obtained a christian em- 
peror, I so prepared myself, as being now to read ex- 
amples of wisdom and goodness among those who were 
foremost in the church, not elsewhere to be paralleled; 
but, to the amazement of what I expected, I found it 
all quite contrary ; excepting in some very few, nothing 
but ambition, corruption, contention, combustion; in- 
somuch that I could not but love the historian Socrates, 
who, in the proem to his fifth book professes, " he was 
fain to intermix affairs of state, for that it would be 
else an extreme annoyance to hear in a continued dis- 
course the endless brabbles and counter-plottings of the 
bishops." Finding, therefore, the most of their actions 
in single to be weak, and yet turbulent; full of strife, 
and yet flat of spirit; and the sum of their best coun- 
cils there collected, to be most commonly in questions 
either trivial and vain, or else of short and easy deci- 
sion, without that great bustle which they made; I 
concluded that if their single ambition and ignorance 
was such, then certainly united in a council it would 
be much more ; and if the compendious recital of what 
they there did was so tedious and unprofitable, then 
surely to set out the whole extent of their tattle in a 
dozen volumes would be a loss of time irrecoverable. 
Besides that which I had read of St. Martin, who for his 
last sixteen years could never be persuaded to be at any 
council of the bishops. And Gregory Nazianzen betook 
him to the same resolution, affirming to Procopius, 
" that of any council or meeting of bishops he never 
saw good end ; nor any remedy thereby of evil in the 
church, but rather an increase. For," saith he, " their 
contentions and desire of lording no tongue is able to 
express." I have not therefore, I confess, read more 
of the councils save here and there ; I should be sorry 
to have been such a prodigal of my time : but that 
which is better, I can assure this confuter, I have read 
into them all. And if I want any thing yet, I shall 
reply something toward that which in the defence of 
Mursena was answered by Cicero to Sulpitius the 
lawyer. If ye provoke me (for at no hand else will I 
undertake such a frivolous labour) I will in three 
months be an expert councilist. For, be not deceived, 
readers, by men that would overawe your ears with 
big names and huge tomes that .contradict and repeal 
one another, because they can cram a margin with 
citations. Do but winnow their chaff from their wheat, 
ye shall see their great heap shrink and wax thin past 
belief. From hence he passes to inquire wherefore I 
should blame the vices of the prelates only, seeing the 
inferiour clergy is known to be as faulty. To which 
let him hear in brief; that those priests whose vices 
have been notorious, are all prelatical, which argues 
both the impiety of that opinion, and the wicked re- 
missness of that government. We hear not of any 



m 



AN APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS. 



which are called nonconformists, that have been ac- 
cused of scandalous living*; but are known to be pious 
or at least sober men. Which is a great g*ood argu- 
ment that they are in the truth and prelates in the 
errour. He would be resolved next, " What the corrup- 
tions of the universities concern the prelates ?" And to 
that let him take this, that the Remonstrant having 
spoken as if learning would decay with the removal of 
prelates, I shewed him that while books were extant and 
in print, learning could not readily be at a worse pass in 
the universities than it was now under their government. 
Then he seeks to justify the pernicious sermons of the 
clergy, as if they upheld sovereignty; whenas all 
christian sovereignty is by law, and to no other end 
but to the maintenance of the common good. But their 
doctrine was plainly the dissolution of law, which only 
sets up sovereignty, and the erecting of an arbitrary 
sway according to private will, to which they would 
enjoin a slavish obedience without law; which is the 
known definition of a tyrant, and a tyrannised people. 
A little beneath he denies that great riches in the church 
are the baits of pride and ambition; of which errour to 
undeceive him, I shall allege a reputed divine author- 
ity, as ancient as Constantine, which his love to an- 
tiquity must not except against; and to add the more 
weight, he shall learn it rather in the words of our old 
poet Gower than in mine, that he may see it is no new 
opinion, but a truth delivered of old by a voice from 
heaven, and ratified by long experience. 

" This Constantine which heal hath found, 

" Within Rome anon let found 

" Two churches which he did make 

" For Peter and for Paul's sake : 

" Of whom he had a vision, 

" And yafe thereto possession 

" Of lordship and of world's good ; 

" But how so that his will was good 

" Toward the pope and his franchise, 

" Yet hath it proved otherwise 

" To see the working of the deed : 

" For in cronick thus I read, 

" Anon as he hath made the yeft, 

" A voice was heard on high the left, 

" Of which all Rome was adrad, 

'• And said, this day venim is shad 

'In holy Church, of temporall 

" That meddleth with the spiritual ; 

" And how it stant in that degree, 

" Yet may a man the sooth see. 

" God amend it whan he will, 

" I can thereto none other skill." 

But there were beasts of prey, saith he, before wealth 
was bestowed on the church. What, though, because 
the vultures had then but small pickings, shall we 
therefore go and fling them a full gorge ? If they for 
lucre use to creep into the church undiscernibly, the 
more wisdom will it be so to provide that no revenue 
there may exceed the golden mean ; for so, good pas- 
tors will be content, as having need of no more, and 
knowing withal the precept and example of Christ and 
his apostles, and also will be less tempted to ambition. 
The bad will have but small matter whereon to set their 
mischief awork ; and the worst and subtlest heads will 



not come at all, when they shall see the crop nothing 
answerable to their capacious greediness ; for small 
temptations allure but dribbling- offenders ; but a great 
purchase will call such as both are most able of them- 
selves, and will be most enabled hereby to compass 
dangerous projects. But, saith he, " a widow's house 
will tempt as well as a bishop's palace." Acutely 
spoken ! because neither we nor the prelates can abolish 
widows' houses, which are but an occasion taken of evil 
without the church, therefore we shall set up within 
the church a lottery of such prizes as are the direct in- 
viting causes of avarice and ambition, both unnecessary 
and harmful to be proposed, and most easy, most con- 
venient, and needful to be removed. " Yea but they 
are in a wise dispenser's hand." Let them be in whose 
hand they will, they are most apt to blind, to puff up, 
and pervert, the most seeming good. And how they 
have been kept from vultures, whatever the dispenser's 
care hath been, we have learned by our miseries. But 
this which comes next in view, I know not what good 
vein or humour took him when he let drop into his 
paper; I that was ere while the ignorant, the loiterer, 
on the sudden by his permission am now granted " to 
know something." And that " such a volley of ex- 
pressions" he hath met withal, " as he would never 
desire to have them better clothed." For me, readers, 
although I cannot say that I am utterly untrained in 
those rules which best rhetoricians have given, or un- 
acquainted with those examples which the prime au- 
thors of eloquence have written in any learned tongue; 
yet true eloquence I find to be none, but the serious 
and hearty love of truth : and that whose mind soever 
is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good 
things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the know- 
ledge of them into others, when such a man would 
speak, his words (by what I can express) like so many 
nimble and airy servitors trip about him at command, 
and in well-ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly 
into their own places. But now to the remainder of 
our discourse. Christ refused great riches and large 
honours at the devil's hand. But why, saith he, " as 
they were tendered by him from whom it was a sin to 
receive them." Timely remembered: why is it not 
therefore as much a sin to receive a liturgy of the 
masses' giving, were it for nothing else but for the giver? 
" But he could make no use of such a high estate," 
quoth the confuter ; opportunely. For why then should 
the servant take upon him to use those things which 
his master had unfitted himself to use, that he might 
teach his ministers to follow his steps in the same 
ministry ? But " they were offered him to a bad end." 
So they prove to the prelates, who, after their prefer- 
ment, most usually change the teaching labour of the 
word, into the unteaching ease of lordship over con- 
sciences and purses. But he proceeds, " God enticed the 
Israelites with the promise of Canaan;" did not the 
prelates bring- as slavish minds with them, as the 
Jews brought out of Egypt? they had left out that 
instance. Besides that it was then the time, whenas 
the best of them, as St. Paul saith, " was shut up unto 
the faith under the law their schoolmaster," who was 



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97 



forced to entice them as children with childish entice- 
ments. But the gospel is our manhood, and the 
ministry should be the manhood of the gospel, not to 
look after, much less so basely to plead for earthly re- 
wards. " But God incited the wisest man Solomon 
with these means." Ah, confuter of thyself, this ex- 
ample hath undone thee ; Solomon asked an under- 
standing heart, which the prelates have little care to 
ask. He asked no riches, which is their chief care ; 
therefore was the prayer of Solomon pleasing to God ; 
he gave him wisdom at his request, and riches without 
asking, as now he gives the prelates riches at their 
seeking, and no wisdom because of their perverse ask- 
ing. But he gives not over yet, " Moses had an eye 
to the reward." To what reward, thou man that lookest 
with Balaam's eyes ? To what reward had the faith of 
Moses an eye ? He that had forsaken all the greatness 
of Egypt, and chose a troublesome journey in his old 
age through the wilderness, and yet arrived not at his 
journey's end. His faithful eyes were fixed upon that 
incorruptible reward, promised to Abraham and his 
seed in the Messiah ; he sought a heavenly reward, 
which could make him happy, and never hurt him, 
and to such a reward every good man may have a re- 
spect ; but the prelates are eager of such rewards as 
cannot make them happy, but can only make them 
worse. Jacob, a prince born, vowed that if God would 
" but give him bread to eat and raiment to put on, then 
the Lord should be bis God." But the prelates of 
mean birth, and ofttimes of lowest, making shew as if 
they were called to the spiritual and humble ministry 
of the gospel, yet murmur, and think it a hard service, 
unless, contrary to the tenour of their profession, they 
may eat the bread and wear the honours of princes : 
so much more covetous and base they are than Simon 
Magus, for he proffered a reward to be admitted to that 
work, which they will not be meanly hired to. But, 
saith he, " Are not the clergy members of Christ, why 
should not each member thrive alike ?" Carnal textman ! 
as if worldly thriving were one of the privileges we 
have by being in Christ, and were not a providence 
ofttimes extended more liberally to the Infidel than to 
the Christian. Therefore must the ministers of Christ 
not be over rich or great in the world, because their 
calling is spiritual, not secular ; because they have a 
special warfare, which is not to be entangled with many 
impediments ; because their master Christ gave them 
this precept, and set them this example, told them this 
was the mystery of his coming, by mean things and 
persons to subdue mighty ones : and lastly, because a 
middle estate is most proper to the office of teaching, 
whereas higher dignity teaches far less, and blinds 
the teacher. Nay, saith the confuter, fetching his last 
endeavour, " the prelates will be very loth to let go 
their baronies, and votes in parliament," and calls it 
" God's cause," with an insufferable impudence. " Not 
that they love the honours and the means," good men 
and generous ! " but that they would not have their 
country made guilty of such a sacrilege and injus- 
tice !" A worthy patriot for his own corrupt ends. 
That which he imputes as sacrilege to his country, is 



the only way left them to purge that abominable sacri- 
lege out of the land, which none but the prelates are 
guilty of; who for the discharge of one single duty, 
receive and keep that which might be enough to satisfy 
the labours of many painful ministers better deserving 
than themselves ; who possess huge benefices for lazy 
performances, great promotions only for the execution 
of a cruel disgospelling jurisdiction ; who ingross many 
pluralities under a nonresident and slubbering dispatch 
of souls ; who let hundreds of parishes famish in one 
diocese, while they the prelates are mute, and yet enjoy 
that wealth that would furnish all those dark places 
with able supply : and yet they eat, and yet they live 
at the rate of earls, and yet hoard up; they who chase 
away all the faithful shepherds of the flock, and bring 
in a dearth of spiritual food, robbing thereby the church 
of her dearest treasure, and sending herds of souls 
starveling to bell, while they feast and riot upon the 
labours of hireling curates, consuming and purloining 
even that which by their foundation is allowed, and left 
to the poor, and to reparations of the church. These 
are they who have bound the land with the sin of sa- 
crilege, from which mortal engagement we shall never 
be free, till we have totally removed with one labour, 
as one individual thing, prelaty and sacrilege. And 
herein will the king be a true defender of the faith, 
not by paring or lessening, but by distributing in due 
proportion the maintenance of the church, that all parts 
of the land may equally partake the plentiful and dili- 
gent preaching of the faith, the scandal of ceremonies 
thrown out that delude and circumvent the faith ; and 
the usurpation of prelates laid level, who are in words 
the fathers, but in their deeds, the oppugners of the 
faith. This is that which will best confirm him in that 
glorious title. Thus ye have heard, readers, how many 
shifts and wiles the prelates have invented to save their 
ill-got booty. And if it be true, as in Scripture it is 
foretold, that pride and covetousness are the sure marks 
of those false prophets which are to come ; then boldly 
conclude these to be as great seducers as any of the 
latter times. For between this and the judgment day 
do not look for any arch deceivers, who in spite of re- 
formation will use more craft, or less shame to defend 
their love of the world and their ambition, than these 
prelates have done. And if ye think that soundness of 
reason, or what force of argument soever, will bring 
them to an ingenuous silence, ye think that which will 
never be. But if ye take that course which Erasmus 
was wont to say Luther took against the pope and 
monks ; if ye denounce war against their mitres and 
their bellies, ye shall soon discern that turban of pride, 
which they wear upon their heads, to be no helmet of 
salvation, but the mere metal and hornwork of papal 
jurisdiction ; and that they have also this gift, like a 
certain kind of some that are possessed, to have their 
voice in their bellies, which, being well drained and 
taken down, their great oracle, which is only there, 
will soon be dumb; and the divine right of episcopacy, 
forthwith expiring, will put us no more to trouble with 
tedious antiquities and disputes. 



OF EDUCATION 



TO MASTER SAMUEL HARTLIB. 



Master Hartlib, 
T am long- since persuaded, that to say or do aught 
worth memory and imitation, no purpose or respect 
should sooner move us than simply the love of God, 
and of mankind. Nevertheless to write now the re- 
forming- of education, though it be one of the greatest 
and noblest designs that can be thought on, and for 
the want whereof this nation perishes ; I had not yet 
at this time been induced, but by your earnest entreat- 
ies and serious conjurements; as having my mind for 
the present half diverted in the pursuance of some other 
assertions, the knowledge and the use of which cannot 
but be a great furtherance both to the enlargement of 
truth, and honest living with much more peace. Nor 
should the laws of any private friendship have prevailed 
with me to divide thus, or transpose my former thoughts, 
but that I see those aims, those actions, which have 
won you with me the esteem of a person sent hither 
by some good providence from a far country to be the 
occasion and incitement of great good to this island. 
And, as I hear, you have obtained the same repute 
with men of most approved wisdom, and some of the 
highest authority among us ; not to mention the learned 
correspondence which you hold in foreign parts, and 
the extraordinary pains and diligence, which you have 
used in this matter both here and beyond the seas ; 
either by the definite will of God so ruling, or the pe- 
culiar sway of nature, which also is God's working. 
Neither can I think that so reputed and so valued as 
you are, you would to the forfeit of your own discern- 
ing ability, impose upon me an unfit and overponderous 
argument; but that the satisfaction, which you profess 
to have received from those incidental discourses which 
we have wandered into, hath pressed and almost con- 
strained you into a persuasion, that what you require 
from me in this point, I neither ought nor can in con- 
science defer beyond this time both of so much need 
at once, and so much opportunity to try what God hath 
determined. I will not resist therefore whatever it is, 
either of divine or human obligement, that you lay 
upon me; but will forthwith set down in writing, as 
you request me, that voluntary idea, which hath long 
in silence presented itself to me, of a better education, 
in extent and comprehension far more large, and yet 



of time far shorter, and of attainment far more certain, 
than hath been yet in practice. Brief I shall endeavour 
to be ; for that which I have to say, assuredly this nation 
hath extreme need should be done sooner than spoken. 
To tell you therefore what I have benefited herein 
among old renowned authors, I shall spare ; and to 
search what many modern Januas and Didactics, more 
than ever I shall read, have projected, my inclination 
leads me not. But if you can accept of these few ob- 
servations which have flowered off, and are as it were 
the burnishing' of many studious and contemplative 
years altogether spent in the search of religious and 
civil knowledge, and such as pleased you so well in 
the relating, I here give you them to dispose of. 

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of oar 
first parents by regaining to know God aright, and 
out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to 
be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our 
souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly 
grace of faith, makes up the highest perfection. But 
because our understanding cannot in this body found 
itself but on sensible things, nor arrive so clearly to the 
knowledge of God and things invisible, as by orderly 
conning over the visible and inferior creature, the same 
method is necessarily to be followed in all discreet 
teaching. And seeing every nation affords not expe- 
rience and tradition enough for all kind of learning-, 
therefore we are chiefly taught the languages of those 
people who have at any time been most industrious 
after wisdom ; so that language is but the instrument 
conveying to us things useful to be known. And 
though a linguist should pride himself to have all the 
tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have 
not studied the solid things in them as well as the 
words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be 
esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman 
competently wise in his mother dialect only. Hence 
appear the many mistakes which have made learning 
generally so unpleasing and so unsuccessful; first, we do 
amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping 
together so much miserable Latin and Greek, as might 
be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one 
year. And that which casts our proficiency therein 



OF EDUCATION. 



99 



so much behind, is our time lost partly in too oft idle 
vacancies given both to schools and universities ; 
partly in a preposterous exaction, forcing- the empty 
wits of children to compose themes, verses, and ora- 
tions, which are the acts of ripest judgment, and the 
final work of a head filled by long- reading- and observ- 
ing, with elegant maxims and copious invention. 
These are not matters to be wrung- from poor striplings, 
like blood out of the nose, or the plucking- of untimely 
fruit ; besides the ill habit which they g-et of wretched 
barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with 
their untutored Anglicisms, odious to be read, yet not 
to be avoided without a well-continued and judicious 
conversing among- pure authors digested, which they 
scarce taste : whereas, if after some preparatory grounds 
of speech b} r their certain forms got into memory, they 
were led to the praxis thereof in some chosen short 
book lessoned thoroughly to them, they might then 
forthwith proceed to learn the substance of good things, 
and arts in due order, which would bring- the whole 
lang-uage quickly into their power. This I take to be 
the most rational and most profitable way of learning 
languages, and whereby we may best hope to give ac- 
count to God of our youth spent herein. And for the 
usual method of teaching arts, I deem it to be an old 
errour of universities, not yet well recovered from the 
scholastic grossness of barbarous ages, that instead of 
beginning with arts most easy, (and those be such as 
are most obvious to the sense,) they present their young 
unmatriculated novices at first coming with the most 
intellective abstractions of logic and metaphysics ; so 
that they having but newly left those grammatic flats 
and shallows where they stuck unreasonably to learn a 
few words with lamentable construction, and now on 
the sudden transported under another climate to be 
tossed and turmoiled with their unballasted wits in 
fathomless and unquiet deeps of controversy, do for the 
most part grow into hatred and contempt of learning, 
mocked and deluded all this while with ragged notions 
and babblements, while they expected worthy and de- 
lightful knowledge ; till poverty or youthful years call 
them importunately their several ways, and hasten 
them with the sway of friends either to an ambitious 
and mercenary, or ignorantly zealous divinity ; some 
allured to the trade of law, grounding their purposes 
not on the prudent and heavenly contemplation of jus- 
tice and equity, which was never taught them, but on 
the promising and pleasing thoughts of litigious terms, 
fat contentions, and flowing fees ; others betake them 
to state affairs, with souls so unprincipled in virtue 
and true generous breeding, that flattery and court- 
shifts and tyrannous aphorisms appear to them the 
highest points of wisdom ; instilling their barren hearts 
with a conscientious slavery; if, as I rather think, it be 
not feigned. Others, lastly, of a more delicious and 
airy spirit, retire themselves (knowing no better) to the 
enjoyments of ease and luxury, living out their days 
in feast and jollity ; which indeed is the wisest and 
the safest course of all these, unless they were with 
more integrity undertaken. *And these are the errours, 



Thus it is in the first edition 
H 



and these are the fruits of mispending our prime youth 
at the schools and universities as we do, either in 
learning mere words, or such things chiefly as were 
better unlearned. 

I shall detain you now no longer in the demonstra- 
tion of what we should not do, but straight conduct you 
to a hill-side, where I will point you out the right path 
of a virtuous and noble education ; laborious indeed at 
the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of 
goodly prospect, and melodious sounds on every side, 
that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. I 
doubt not but ye shall have more ado to drive our dull- 
est and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs, from the in- 
finite desire of such a happy nurture, than we have now 
to hale and drag our choicest and hopefullest wits to 
that asinine feast of sowthistles and brambles, which 
is commonly set before them as all the food and enter- 
tainment of their tenderest and most docible age. I call 
therefore a complete and g-enerous education, that 
which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and mag- 
nanimously all the oflices, both private and public, of 
peace and war. And how all this may be done between 
twelve and one and twenty, less time than is now be- 
stowed in pure trifling at grammar and sophistry, is to 
be thus ordered. 

First, to find out a spacious house and ground about 
it fit for an academy, and big enough to lodge a hun- 
dred and fifty persons, whereof twenty or thereabout 
may be attendants, all under the g-overnment of one, 
who shall be thought of desert sufficient, and ability 
either to do all, or wisely to direct and oversee it done. 
This place should be at once both school and university, 
not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship, 
except it be some peculiar college of law, or physic, 
where they mean to be practitioners ; but as for those 
general studies which take up all our time from Lilly 
to commencing, as they term it, master of art, it should 
be absolute. After this pattern, as many edifices 
may be converted to this use as shall be needful in 
every city throughout this land, which would tend 
much to the increase of learning and civility every 
where. This number, less or more thus collected, to 
the convenience of a foot company, or interchangeably 
two troops of cavalry, should divide their day's work 
into three parts as it lies orderly; their studies, their 
exercise, and their diet. 

For their studies ; first, they should begin with the 
chief and necessary rules of some good grammar, either 
that now used, or any better ; and while this is doing, 
their speech is to be fashioned to a distinct and clear 
pronunciation, as near as may be to the Italian, espe- 
cially in the vowels. For we Englishmen being- far 
northerly, do not open our mouths in the cold air wide 
enough to grace a southern tongue; but are observed 
by all other nations to speak exceeding close and in- 
ward ; so that to smatter Latin with an English mouth, 
is as ill a hearing as law French. Next, to make them 
expert in the usefullest points of grammar; and withal 
to season them and win them early to the love of virtue 
and true labour, ere any flattering seducement or vain 



Lort 



100 



OF EDUCATION. 



principle seize them wandering, some easy and delight- 
ful book of education would be read to them; whereof 
the Greeks have store, as Cebes, Plutarch, and other 
Socratic discourses. But in Latin we have none of 
classic authority extant, except the two or three first 
books of Quintilian, and some select pieces elsewhere. 
But here the main skill and groundwork will be, to 
temper them such lectures and explanations upon every 
opportunity, as may lead and draw them in willing- 
obedience, en flamed with the study of learning-, and 
the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes 
of living to be brave men, and worthy patriots, dear to 
God, and famous to all ages. That they may despise 
and scorn all their childish and illtaught qualities, to 
delight in manly and liberal exercises ; which he who 
hath the art and proper eloquence to catch them with, 
what with mild and effectual persuasions, and what 
with the intimation of some fear, if need be, but chiefly 
by his own example, might in a short space gain them 
to an incredible diligence and courage ; infusing into 
their young breasts such an ingenuous and noble ar- 
dour, as would not fail to make many of them renowned 
and matchless men. At the same time, some other hour 
of the day, might be taught them the rules of arithme- 
tic, and soon after the elements of geometry, even play- 
ing, as the old manner was. After evening repast, till 
bedtime, their thoughts would be best taken up in the 
easy grounds of religion, and the story of Scripture. 
The next step would be to the authors of agriculture, 
Cato, Yarro, and Columella, for the matter is most easy; 
and if the language be difficult, so much the better, it 
is not a difficulty above their years. And here will be 
an occasion of inciting, and enabling them hereafter to 
improve the tillage of their country, to recover the bad 
soil, and to remedy the waste that is made of g'ood ; 
for this was one of Hercules's praises. Ere half these 
authors be read (winch will soon be with plying bard 
and daily) they cannot choose but be masters of any 
ordinary prose. So that it will be then seasonable for 
them to learn in any modern author the use of the 
globes, and all the maps ; first with the old names, and 
then with the new; or they might be then capable to 
read any compendious method of natural philosophy. 
And at the same time might be entering into the Greek 
tongue, after the same manner as was before prescribed 
in the Latin ; whereby the difficulties of grammar being 
soon overcome, all the historical physiology of Aris- 
totle and Theophrastus are open before them, and, as I 
may say, under contribution. The like access will be 
to Vitruvius, to Seneca's natural questions, to Mela, 
Celsus, Pliny, or Solinus. And having thus passed the 
principles of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and 
geography, with a general compact of physics, they 
may descend in mathematics to the instrumental sci- 
ence of trigonometry, and from thence to fortification, 
architecture, enginery, or navigation. And in natural 
philosophy they may proceed leisurely from the history 
of meteors, minerals, plants, and living creatures, as 
far as anatomy. Then also in course might be read to 
them out of some not tedious writer the institution of 
physic ; that they may know the tempers, the humours, 



the seasons, and how to manage a crudity ; which he 
who can wisely and timely do, is not only a great phy- 
sician to himself and to his friends, but also may at 
some time or other save an army by this frugal and 
expenseless means only ; and not let the healthy and 
stout bodies of young men rot away under him for want 
of this discipline ; which is a great pity, and no less a 
shame to the commander. To set forward all these 
proceedings in nature and mathematics, what hinders 
but that they may procure, as oft as shall be needful, the 
helpful experiences of hunters, fowlers, fishermen, shep- 
herds, gardeners, apothecaries ; and in the other sci- 
ences, architects, engineers, mariners, anatomists ; who 
doubtless would be ready, some for reward, and some 
to favour such a hopeful seminary. And this will give 
them such a real tincture of natural knowledge, as they 
shall never forget, but daily aug-ment with delight. 
Then also those poets which are now counted most 
hard, will be both facil and pleasant, Orpheus, Hesiod, 
Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Oppian, Dionysius, and 
in Latin, Lucretius, Manilius, and the rural part of 
Virgil. 

By this time, years, and good general precepts, will 
have furnished them more distinctly with that act of 
reason which in ethics is called Proairesis ; that they 
may with some judgment contemplate upon moral 
g-ood and evil. Then will be required a special rein- 
forcement of constant and sound indoctrinating to set 
them right and firm, instructing them more amply in 
the knowledge of virtue and the hatred of vice; while 
their young and pliant affections are led through all 
the moral works of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Plutarch, 
Laertius, and those Locrian remnants ; but still to be 
reduced in their nightward studies wherewith they 
close the day's work, under the determinate sentence 
of David or Solomon, or the evangels and apostolic 
Scriptures. Being perfect in the knowledge of per- 
sonal duty, they may then begin the study of cecono- 
mics. And either now or before this, they may have 
easily learned at any odd hour the Italian tongue. 
And soon after, but with wariness and good antidote, 
it would be wholesome enough to let them taste some 
choice comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian ; those trage- 
dies also, that treat of household matters, as Trachiniae, 
Alcestis, and the like. The next removal must be to 
the study of politics ; to know the beginning, end, and 
reasons of political societies ; that they may not in a 
dangerous fit of the commonwealth be such poor, 
shaken, uncertain reeds, of such a tottering conscience, 
as many of our great counsellors have lately shewn 
themselves, but stedfast pillars of the state. After this, 
they are to dive into the grounds of law, and legal 
justice; delivered first and with best warrant by Moses; 
and as far as human prudence can be trusted, in those 
extolled remains of Grecian lawgivers, Lycurgus, So- 
lon, Zaleucus, Charondas, and thence to all the Roman 
edicts and tables with their Justinian ; and so down to 
the Saxon and common laws of England, and th 
statutes. Sundays also and every evening may be now 
understandingly spent in the highest matters of theo- 
logy, and church-history ancient and modern ; and ere 



OF EDUCATION. 



101 



this time the Hebrew tongue at a set hour might have 
been gained, that the Scriptures may be now read in 
their own original ; whereto it would be no impossi- 
bility to add the Chaldee, and the Syrian dialect. 
When all these employments are well conquered, then 
will the choice histories, heroic poems, and attic trage- 
dies of stateliest and most regal argument, with all the 
famous political orations, offer themselves; which if 
they were not only read, but some of them got by 
memory, and solemnly pronounced with right accent 
and grace, as might be taught, would endue them 
even with the spirit and vigour of Demosthenes or 
Cicero, Euripides, or Sophocles. And now lastly will 
be the time, to read them with those organic arts, 
which enable men to discourse and write perspicuously, 
elegantly, and according to the fitted style of lofty, 
mean, or lowly. Logic, therefore, so much as is useful, 
is to be referred to this due place with all her well- 
couched heads and topics, until it be time to open her 
contracted palm into a graceful and ornate rhetoric 
taught out of the rule of Plato, Aristotle, Phalereus, 
Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which poetry 
would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, 
as being less subtile and fine, but more simple, sensu- 
ous, and passionate. I mean not here the prosody of 
a verse, which they could not but have hit on before 
among the rudiments of grammar; but that sublime 
art which in Aristotle's poetics, in Horace, and the 
Italian commentaries of Castlevetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, 
and others, teaches what the laws are of a true epic 
poem, what of a dramatic, what of a lyric, what deco- 
rum is, which is the grand masterpiece to observe. 
This would make them soon perceive what despicable 
creatures our common rhimers and play-writers be ; 
and shew them what religious, what glorious and 
magnificent use might be made of poetry, both in 
divine and human things. From hence, and not till 
now, will be the right season of forming them to be 
able writers and composers in every excellent matter, 
when they shall be thus fraught with an universal 
insig'ht into things. Or whether they be to speak in 
parliament or council, honour and attention would be 
waiting on their lips. There would then also appear 
in pulpits other visages, other gestures, and stuff 
otherwise wrought than what we now sit under, oft- 
times to as great a trial of our patience as any other 
that they preach to us. These are the studies wherein 
our noble and our gentle youth ought to bestow their 
time in a disciplinary way from twelve to one and 
twenty ; unless they rely more upon their ancestors 
dead than upon themselves living. In which me- 
thodical course it is so supposed they must proceed by 
the steady pace of learning onward, as at convenient 
times, for memory's sake, to retire back into the middle 
ward, and sometimes into the rear of what they have 
been taught, until they have confirmed and solidly 
united the whole body of their perfected knowledge, 
like the last embattelling of a Roman legion. Now 
will be worth the seeing, what exercises and recreations 
may best agree, and become these studies. 



THEIR EXERCISE. 

The course of study hitherto briefly described is, 
what I can guess by reading, likest to those ancient 
and famous schools of Pythagoras, Plato, Isocrates, 
Aristotle, and such others, out of which were bred such 
a number of renowned philosophers, orators, historians, 
poets, and princes all over Greece, Italy, and Asia, 
besides the flourishing studies of Cyrene and Alexan- 
dria. But herein it shall exceed them, and supply a 
defect as great as that which Plato noted in the com- 
monwealth of Sparta ; whereas that city trained up 
their youth most for war, and these in their academies 
and Lyceeum all for the gown, this institution of 
breeding which I here delineate shall be equally good 
both for peace and war. Therefore about an hour and 
a half ere they eat at noon should be allowed them for 
exercise, and due rest afterwards; but the time for this 
may be enlarged at pleasure, according as their rising 
in the morning shall be early. The exercise which I 
commend first, is the exact use of their weapon, to 
guard, and to strike safely with edge or point; this 
will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and well in 
breath, is also the likeliest means to make them grow 
large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and 
fearless courage, which being tempered with season- 
able lectures and precepts to them of true fortitude 
and patience, will turn into a native and heroic valour, 
and make them hate the cowardice of doing wrong. 
They must be also practised in all the locks and gripes 
of wrestling, wherein Englishmen were wont to excel, 
as need may often be in fight to tug, to grapple, and 
to close. And this perhaps will be enough, wherein to 
prove and heat their single strength. The interim of 
unsweating themselves regularly, and convenient rest 
before meat, may both with profit and delight be taken 
up in recreating and composing their travailed spirits 
with the solemn and divine harmonies of music heard 
or learned ; either whilst the skilful organist plies his 
grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues, or the whole 
symphony with artful and unimaginable touches adorn 
and grace the well studied chords of some choice com- 
poser ; sometimes the lute or soft organ stop waiting on 
elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil dit- 
ties ; which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely 
out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, 
to smooth and make them gentle from rustic harshness 
and distempered passions. The like also would not be 
unexpedient after meat, to assist and cherish nature in 
her first concoction, and send their minds back to 
study in good tune and satisfaction. Where having 
followed it close under vigilant eyes, till about two 
hours before supper, they are by a sudden alarum or 
watchword, to be called out to their military motions, 
under sky or covert, according to the season, as was the 
Roman wont ; first on foot, then as their age permits, 
on horseback, to all the art of cavalry; that having in 
sport, but with much exactness and daily muster, served 
out the rudiments of their soldiership, in all the skill of 
embattling, marching, encamping, fortifying, besicg- 



102 



OF EDUCATION. 



ing, and battering-, with all the helps of ancient and mo- 
dern stratagems, tactics, and warlike maxims, they may 
as it were out of a long war come forth renowned and 
perfect commanders in the service of their country. 
They would not then, if they were trusted with fair and 
hopeful armies, surfer them for want of just and wise 
discipline to shed away from about them like sick fea- 
thers, though they be never so oft supplied ; they would 
not suffer their empty and unrequitable colonels of 
-twenty men in a company, to quaff out, or convey 
into secret hoards, the wages of a delusive list, and a 
miserable remnant ; yet in the mean while to be over- 
mastered with a score or two of drunkards, the only 
soldiery left about them, or else to comply with all 
rapines and violences. No certainly, if they knew 
aught of that knowledge that belongs to good men or 
good governors, they would not suffer these things. 
But to return to our own institute ; besides these con- 
stant exercises at home, there is another opportunity of 
gaining experience to be won from pleasure itself abroad ; 
in those vernal seasons of the year when the air is calm 
and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against 
nature, not to go out and see her riches, and partake in 
her rejoicing with heaven and earth. I should not 
therefore be a persuader to them of studying- much 
then, after two or three years that they have well laid 
their grounds, but to ride out in companies with prudent 
and staid guides to all the quarters of the land; learn- 
ing and observing- all places of strength, all commo- 
dities of building and of soil, for towns and tillage, 
harbours and ports for trade. Sometimes taking sea as 
far as to our navy, to learn there also what they can in 
the practical knowledge of sailing and of sea-fight. 
These ways would try all their peculiar gifts of nature, 
and if there were any secret excellence among them 
would fetch it out, and give it fair opportunities to ad- 
vance itself by, which could not but mightily redound 
to the good of this nation, and bring into fashion again 
those old admired virtues and excellencies with far 



more advantage now in this purity of christian know- 
ledge. Nor shall we then need the monsieurs of Paris 
to take our hopeful youth into their slight and prodigal 
custodies, and send them over back again transformed 
into mimics, apes, and kickshows. But if they desire 
to see other countries at three or four and twenty years 
of age, not to learn principles, but to enlarge expe- 
rience, and make wise observation, they will by that 
time be such as shall deserve the regard and honour of 
all men where they pass, and the society and friend- 
ship of those in all places who are best and most emi- 
nent. And perhaps, then other nations will be glad 
to visit us for their breeding, or else to imitate us in 
their own country. 

Now lastly for their diet there cannot be much to say, 
save only that it would be best in the same house ; for 
much time else would be lost abroad, and many ill 
habits got ; and that it should be plain, healthful, and 
moderate, I suppose is out of controversy. Thus Mr. 
Hartlib, you have a general view in writing, as your 
desire was, of that, which at several times I had dis- 
coursed with you concerning the best and noblest way 
of education ; not beginning as some have done from 
the cradle, which yet might be worth many considera- 
tions, if brevity had not been my scope ; many other 
circumstances also I could have mentioned, but this to 
such as have the worth in them to make trial, for light 
and direction may be enough. Only I believe that 
this is not a bow for every man to shoot in, that counts 
himself a teacher ; but will require sinews almost 
equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses ; yet I am 
withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy 
in the assay, than it now seems at distance, and much 
more illustrious ; howbeit, not more difficult than I 
imagine, and that imagination presents me with no- 
thing but very happy, and very possible according to 
best wishes ; if God have so decreed, and this age have 
spirit and capacity enough to apprehend. 



A REOP AGITIC A 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING, 



TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND. 



Tov\ev9epov 6 y Ikc'ivo, ei t«? 0e\et iroXei 
Xpri'jov ti (3ov\evfi eh fxecrov cpepecv, ex<oi/. 
Kcu Tav9\ 6 xpt\£«>v, Xa/X7rp6f e<rO\ 6 jxt) 6e\<av, 
S^a, Tt tstcov kstv \aalrepov noKei ; 

Euripid. Hicetid. 
This is true Liberty, when freebom men, 
Having to advise the public, may speak free, 
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise ; 
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace ; 
What can be juster in a state than this ? 

Euripid. Hicetid. 



They, who to states and governors of the common- 
wealth direct their speech, high court of parliament ! 
or wanting' such access in a private condition, write 
that which they foresee may advance the public good ; 
I suppose them, as at the beginning of no mean en- 
deavour, not a little altered and moved inwardly in 
their minds; some with doubt of what will be the suc- 
cess, others with fear of what will be the censure ; some 
with hope, others with confidence of what they have to 
speak. And me perhaps each of these dispositions, as 
the subject was whereon I entered, may have at 
other times variously affected ; and likely might in 
these foremost expressions now also disclose which of 
them swayed most, but that the very attempt of this 
address thus made, and the thought of whom it hath 
recourse to, hath got the power within me to a passion, 
far more welcome than incidental to a preface. Which 
though I stay not to confess ere any ask, I shall be 
blameless, if it be no other, than the joy and gratula- 
tion which it brings to all who wish and promote their 
country's liberty ; whereof this whole discourse pro- 
posed will be a certain testimony, if not a trophy. For 
this is not the liberty which we can hope, that no 
grievance ever should arise in the commonwealth, that 
let no man in this world expect ; but when complaints 
are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily re- 
formed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty ob- 
tained that wise men look for. To which if I now 
manifest, by the very sound of this which I shall utter, 
that we are already in good part arrived, and yet from 
such a steep disadvantage of tyranny and superstition 
grounded into our principles, as was beyond the man- 



hood of a Roman recovery, it will be attributed first, 
as is most due, to the strong- assistance of God, our de- 
liverer; next to your faithful guidance and undaunted 
wisdom, lords and commons of England ! Neither is it 
in God's esteem, the diminution of his glory, when ho- 
nourable things are spoken of good men, and worthy 
magistrates ; which if I now first should begin to do 
after so fair a progress of your laudable deeds, and such 
a long obligement upon the whole realm to your inde- 
fatigable virtues, T might be justly reckoned among 
the tardiest and the unwillingest of them that praise 
ye. Nevertheless there being three principal things, 
without which all praising is but courtship and flattery ; 
first, when that only is praised which is solidly worth 
praise ; next, when greatest likelihoods are brought, 
that such things are truly and really in those persons, 
to whom they are ascribed ; the other, when he who 
praises, by shewing that such his actual persuasion is 
of whom he writes, can demonstrate that he flatters not; 
the former two of these I have heretofore endeavoured, 
rescuing the employment from him who went about to 
impair your merits with a trivial and malignant enco- 
mium; the latter as belonging chiefly to mine own 
acquittal, that whom I so extolled I did not flatter, 
hath been reserved opportunely to this occasion. For 
he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, 
and fears not to declare as freely what might be done 
better, gives ye the best covenant of his fidelity ; and 
that his loyalest affection and his hope waits on your 
proceedings. His highest praising is not flattery, and 
his plainest advice is a kind of praising ; for though 
I should affirm and hold by argument, that it 






101 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



would fare Letter with truth, with learning, and the 
commonwealth, if one of your published orders, which 
I should name, were called in; yet at the same 
time it could not but much redound to the lustre 
of your mild and equal government, whenas pri- 
vate persons are hereby animated to think } r e better 
pleased with public advice, than other statists have 
been delighted heretofore with public flattery. And 
men will then see what difference there is between the 
magnanimity of a triennial parliament, and that jealous 
haughtiness of prelates and cabin counsellors that 
usurped of late, whenas they shall observe ye in the 
midst of your victories and successes more gently brook- 
ing written exceptions against a voted order, than other 
courts, which had produced nothing worth memory but 
the weak ostentation of wealth, would have endured 
the least signified dislike at any sudden proclamation. 
If I should thus far presume upon the meek demeanour 
of your civil and gentle greatness, lords and commons ! 
as what your published order hath directly said, that 
to gainsay, I might defend myself with ease, if any 
should accuse me of being new or insolent, did they 
but know how much better I find ye esteem it to imi- 
tate the old and elegant humanity of Greece, than the 
barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian stateliness. 
And out of those ages, to whose polite wisdom and let- 
ters we owe that we are not yet Goths and Jutlanders, 
I could name him who from his private house wrote 
that discourse to the parliament of Athens, that per- 
suades them to change the form of democraty which 
was then established. Such honour was done in those 
days to men who professed the study of wisdom and 
eloquence, not only in their own country, but in other 
lands, that cities and signiories heard them gladly, and 
with great respect, if they had aught in public to ad- 
monish the state. Thus did Dion Prusceus, a stranger 
and a private orator, counsel the Rhodians against a 
former edict ; and I abound with other like examples, 
which to set here would be superfluous. But if from 
the industry of a life wholly dedicated to studious 
labours, and those natural endowments haply not the 
worst for two and fifty degrees of northern latitude, so 
much must be derogated, as to count me not equal to 
any of those who had this privilege, I would obtain to 
be thought not so inferior, as yourselves are superior 
to the most of them who received their counsel ; and 
how far you excel them, be assured, lords and com- 
mons! there can no greater testimony appear, than 
when your prudent spirit acknowledges and obeys the 
voice of reason, from what quarter soever it be heard 
speaking; and renders ye as willing to repeal any act 
of your own setting forth, as any set forth by your pre- 
decessors. 

If ye be thus resolved, as it were injury to think ye 
were not, I know not what should withhold me from 
presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to shew both 
that love of truth which ye eminently profess, and that 
uprightness of your judgment which is not wont to be 
partial to yourselves; by judging over again that order 
which ye have ordained "to regulate printing; that no 
book, pamphlet, or paper, shall be henceforth printed, 



unless the same be first approved and licensed by such, 
or at least one of such, as shall be thereto appointed." 
For that part which preserves justly every man's copy 
to himself, or provides for the poor, I touch not; only 
wish they be not made pretences to abuse and persecute 
honest and painful men, who offend not in either of 
these particulars. But that other clause of licensing 
books, which we thought had died with his brother 
quadragesimal and matrimonial when the prelates ex- 
pired, I shall now attend with such a homily, as shall 
lay before ye, first the inventors of it, to be those whom 
ye will be loth to own ; next, what is to be thought in 
general of reading, whatever sort the books be ; and 
that this order avails nothing to the suppressing of 
scandalous, seditious, and libellous books, which were 
mainly intended to be suppressed. Last, that it will 
be primely to the discouragement of all learning, and 
the stop of truth, not only by disexercising and blunt 
ing our abilities, in what we know already, but by 
hindering and cropping the discovery that might be 
yet further made, both in religious and civil wisdom. 

I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in 
the church and commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye 
how books demean themselves as well as men ; and 
thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice 
on them as malefactors ; for books are not absolutely 
dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them 
to be as active as that soul was whose prog'eny they 
are ; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest effi- 
cacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred 
them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously 
productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth ; and being 
sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed 
men. And yet on the other hand, unless wariness be 
used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book : 
who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's 
image ; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason 
itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. 
Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; but a good 
book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, im- 
balmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond 
life. It is true, no age can restore a life, whereof per- 
haps there is no great loss; and revolutions of ages do 
not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want 
of which whole nations fare the worse. We should be 
wary therefore what persecution we raise against the 
living labours of public men, how we spill that seasoned 
life of man, preserved and stored up in books ; since 
we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, 
sometimes a martyrdom ; and if it extend to the whole 
impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution 
ends not in the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes 
at the sethercal and fifth essence, the breath of reason 
itself; slays an immortality rather than a life. But lest 
I should be condemned of introducing licence, while I 
oppose licensing, I refuse not the pains to be so much 
historical, as will serve to shew what hath been done 
by ancient and famous commonwealths, against this 
disorder, till the very time that this project of licensing 
crept out of the inquisition, was catched up by our pre- 
lates, and hath caught some of our presbyters. 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



105 



In Athens, where books and wits were ever busier 
than in any other part of Greece, I find but only two 
sorts of writings which the magistrate cared to take 
notice of; those either blasphemous and atheistical, or 
libellous. Thus the books of Protagoras were by the 
judges of Areopagus commanded to be burnt, and him- 
self banished the territory for a discourse, begun with 
his confessing- not to know, " whether there were gods, 
or whether not." And against defaming-, it was agreed 
that none should be traduced by name, as was the man- 
ner of Vetus Comoedia, whereby we may guess how 
they censured libelling; and this course was quick 
enough, as Cicero writes, to quell both the desperate 
wits of other atheists, and the open way of defaming, 
as the event shewed. Of other sects and opinions, 
though tending to voluptuousness, and the denying of 
divine Providence, they took no heed. Therefore we 
do not read that either Epicurus, or that libertine school 
of Cyrene, or what the Cynic impudence uttered, was 
ever questioned by the laws. Neither is it recorded, 
that the writings of those old comedians were suppress- 
ed, though the acting of them were forbid ; and that 
Plato commended the reading of Aristophanes, the 
loosest of them all, to his royal scholar Dionysius, is 
commonly known, and may be excused, if holy Chry- 
sostom, as is reported, nightly studied so much the 
same author, and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous 
vehemence into the style of a rousing sermon. That 
other leading city of Greece, LacedEemon, considering 
that Lycurgus their lawgiver was so addicted to ele- 
gant learning, as to have been the first that brought 
out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer, and sent 
the poet Thales from Crete to prepare and mollify the 
Spartan surliness with his smooth songs and odes, the 
better to plant among them law and civility ; it is to 
be wondered how museless and unbookish they were, 
minding nought but the feats of war. There needed 
no licensing of books among them, for they disliked all 
but their own laconic apophthegms, and took a slight 
occasion to chase Archilocus out of their city, perhaps 
for composing in a higher strain than their own soldiery, 
ballads, and roundels, could reach to ; or if it were for 
his broad verses, they were not therein so cautious, but 
they were as dissolute in their promiscuous conversing; 
whence Euripides affirms in Andromache, that their 
women were all unchaste. This much may give us 
light after what sort of books were prohibited among 
the Greeks. The Romans also for many ages trained 
up only to a military roughness, resembling most the 
Lacedaemonian guise, knew of learning little but what 
their twelve tables and the pontific college with their 
augurs and flamins taught them in religion and law ; 
so unacquainted with other learning, that when Car- 
neades and Critolaus, with the stoic Diogenes, coming 
embassadors to Rome, took thereby occasion to give 
the city a taste of their philosophy, they were suspected 
for seducers by no less a man than Cato the censor, 
who moved it in the senate to dismiss them speedily, 
and to banish all such Attic babblers out of Italy. But 
Scipio and others of the noblest senators withstood him 
and his old Sabin austerity; honoured and admired the 



men ; and the censor himself at last, in his old age, fell 
to the study of that whereof before he was so scrupulous. 
And yet at the same time, Nsevius and Plautus, the 
first Latin comedians, had filled the city with all the 
borrowed scenes of Menander and Philemon. Then 
began to be considered there also what was to be done 
to libellous books and authors ; for Nsevius was quickly / 
cast into prison for his unbridled pen, and released by 
the tribunes upon his recantation ; we read also that 
libels were burnt, and the makers punished, by Augus- 
tus. The like severity, no doubt, was used, if aught 
were impiously written against their esteemed gods. 
Except in these two points, how the world went in 
books, the magistrate kept no reckoning. And there- 
fore Lucretius, without impeachment, versifies his Epi- 
curism to Memmius, and had the honour to be set forth 
the second time by Cicero, so great a father of the 
commonwealth; although himself disputes against that 
opinion in his own writings. Nor was the satirical 
sharpness or naked plainness of Lucilius, or Catullus, 
or Flaccus, by any order prohibited. And for matters 
of state, the story of Titus Livius, though it extolled 
that part w T hich Pompey held, was not therefore sup- 
pressed by Octavius Caesar, of the other faction. But 
that Naso was by him banished in his old age, for the 
wanton poems of his youth, was but a mere covert of 
state over some secret cause ; and besides, the books 
were neither banished nor called in. From hence we 
shall meet with little else but tyranny in the Roman 
empire, that we may not marvel, if not so often bad as 
good books were silenced. I shall therefore deem to 
have been large enough, in producing what among the 
ancients was punishable to write, save only which, all 
other arg-uments were free to treat on. 

By this time the emperors were become Christians 
whose discipline in this point I do not find to have been 
more severe than what was formerly in practice. The 
books of those whom they took to be grand heretics 
were examined, refuted, and condemned in the general 
councils ; and not till then were prohibited, or burnt, 
bj authority of the emperor. As for the writings of 
heathen authors, unless they were plain invectives 
against Christianity, as those of Porphyrius and Pro- 
clus, they met with no interdict that can be cited, till 
about the year 400, in a Carthaginian council, wherein 
bishops themselves were forbid to read the books of 
gentiles, but heresies they might read ; while others 
long before them on the contrary scrupled more the 
books of heretics, than of gentiles. And that the pri- 
mitive councils and bishops were wont only to declare 
what books were not commendable, passing no further, 
but leaving it to each one's conscience to read or to lay 
by, till after the year 800, is observed already by Padre 
Paolo the great unmasker of the Trentine council. 
After which time the popes of Rome, engrossing what 
they pleased of political rule into their own hands, ex- 
tended their dominion over men's eyes, as they had 
before over their judgments, burning and prohibiting 
to be read what they fancied not; yet sparing* in their 
censures, and the books not many which they so dealt 
with ; till Martin the fifth, by his bull, not only pro- 



108 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



hibited, but was tbe first that excommunicated the 
reading" of heretical books; for about that time Wick- 
liffe and Husse growing- terrible, were they who first 
drove the papal court to a stricter policy of prohibiting. 
Which course Leo the tenth and his successors follow- 
ed, until the council of Trent and the Spanish inquisi- 
tion engendering together brought forth or perfected 
those catalogues and expurging indexes, that rake 
through the entrails of many an old good author, with 
a violation worse than any could be offered to his tomb. 
Nor did they stay in matters heretical, but any subject 
that was not to their palate, they either condemned in 
a prohibition, or had it straight into the new Purgatory 
of an index. To fill up the measure of encroachment, 
their last invention was to ordain that no book, pam- 
phlet, or paper, should be printed (as if St. Peter had 
bequeathed them the keys of the press also as well as 
of Paradise) unless it were approved and licensed under 
the hands of two or three gluttonous friars. For example: 

Let the chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this 
present work be contained aught that may with- 
stand the printing ; 

Vincent Rabbata, vicar of Florence. 

I have seen this present work, and find nothing 
athwart the catholic faith and good manners; 
in witness whereof I have given, &c. 

Nicolo Cini, chancellor of Florence. 

Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that 

this present work of Davanzati may be printed, 

Vincent Rabatta, &c. 

It may be printed, July 15. 

Friar Simon Mompei d'Amelia, chancellor of the 
holy office in Florence. 

Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomless pit 
had not long since broke prison, that this quadruple 
exorcism would bar him down. I fear their next de- 
sign will be to get into their custody the licensing of 
that which they say Claudius intended,* but went not 
through with. Vouchsafe to see another of their forms, 
the Roman stamp ; 

Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend master 
of the holy palace, Belcastro, vicegerent. 

Imprimatur, 
Friar Nicholo Rodolphi, master of the holy palace. 

Sometimes five imprimaturs are seen together dia- 
logue wise in the piatza of one titlepage, compliment- 
ing and (lurking each to other with their shaven reve- 
rences, whether the author, who stands by in perplexity 
at the foot of his epistle, shall to the press or to the 
spungc. These arc the pretty responsories, these are 
the dear antiphonics, that so bewitched of late our pre- 

* Uu ■> veniam daret flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi. 

Sueton. in Claudio. 



lates and their chaplains, with the goodly echo they 
made ; and besotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly 
imprimatur, one from Lambeth -ho use, another from the 
west end of Paul's ; so apishly romanizing, that the 
word of command still was set down in Latin ; as if the 
learned grammatical pen that wrote it would cast no 
ink without Latin ; or perhaps, as they thought, be- 
cause no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure 
conceit of an imprimatur ; but rather, as I hope, for that 
our English, the language of men ever famous and 
foremost in the achievements of liberty, will not easily 
find servile letters enow to spell such a dictatory pre- 
sumption Englished. And thus ye have the inventors 
and the original of book licensing ripped up and drawn 
as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can 
be heard of, from any ancient state, or polity, or church, 
nor by any statute left us by our ancestors elder or 
later ; nor from the modern custom of any reformed city 
or church abroad ; but from the most antichristian 
council, and the most tyrannous inquisition, that ever 
inquired. Till then books were ever as freely admitted 
into the world as any other birth ; the issue of the brain 
was no more stifled than the issue of the womb ; no 
envious Juno sat crosslegged over the nativity of any 
man's intellectual offspring ; but if it proved a monster, 
who denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into 
the sea ? But that a book, in worse condition than a 
peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it be 
born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness the 
judgment of Radamanth and his colleagues, ere it can 
pass the ferry backward into light, was never heard 
before, till that mysterious iniquity, provoked and 
troubled at the first entrance of reformation, sought out 
new Limboes and new Hells wherein they might in- 
clude our books also within the number of their damned. 
And this was the rare morsel so officiously snatched up, 
and so illfavouredly imitated by our inquisiturieut 
bishops, and the attendant minorites their chaplains. 
That ye like not now these most certain authors of this 
licensing order, and that all sinister intention was far 
distant from your thoughts, when ye were importuned 
the passing it, all men who know the integrity of your 
actions, and how ye honour truth, will clear ye readily 
But some will say, what though the inventors were 
bad, the thing for all that may be good. It may so ; 
yet if that thing be no such deep invention, but obvious 
and easy for any man to light on, and yet best and 
wisest commonwealths through all ages and occasions 
have forborn to use it, and falsest seducers and oppres- 
sors of men were the first who took it up, and to no 
other purpose but to obstruct and hinder the first ap- 
proach of reformation ; I am of those who believe, it 
will be a harder alchymy than Lullius ever knew, to 
sublimate any good use out of such an invention. Yet 
this only is what I request to gain from this reason, 
that it may be held a dangerous and suspicious fruit, 
as certainly it deserves, for the tree that bore it, until I 
can dissect one by one the properties it has. But I 
have first to finish, as was propounded, what is to be 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



107 



thought in general of reading books, whatever sort they 
be, and whether be more the benefit or the harm that 
thence proceeds. 

Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Daniel, 
and Paul, who were skilful in all the learning of the 
Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which could not 
probably be without reading their books of all sorts, in 
Paul especially, who thought it no defilement to insert 
into holy Scripture the sentences of three Greek poets, 
and one of them a tragedian ; the question was not- 
withstanding sometimes controverted among the pri- 
mitive doctors, but with great odds on that side which 
affirmed it both lawful and profitable, as was then 
evidently perceived, when Julian the Apostate, and 
subtlest enemy to our faith, made a decree forbidding 
Christians the study of heathen learning ; for said he, 
they wound us with our own weapons, and with our 
own arts and sciences they overcome us. And indeed 
the Christians were put so to their shifts by this crafty 
means, and so much in danger to decline into all igno- 
rance, that the two Appollinarii were fain, as a man 
may say, to coin all the seven liberal sciences out of 
the Bible, reducing it into divers forms of orations, 
poems, dialogues, even to the calculating of a new 
christian grammar. But, saith the historian Socrates, 
the providence of God provided better than the industry 
of Apollinarius and his son, by taking away that illite- 
rate law with the life of him who devised it. So great 
an injury they then held it to be deprived of Hellenic 
learning; and thought it a persecution more under- 
mining, and secretly decaying the church, than the 
open cruelty of Decius or Dioclesian. And perhaps it 
was the same politic drift that the devil whipped St. 
Jerom in a lenten dream, for reading Cicero ; or else it 
was a phantasm, bred by the fever which had then 
seized him. For had an angel been his discipline^ 
unless it were for dwelling too much on Ciceronianisms, 
and had chastised £he reading, not the vanity, it had 
been plainly partial ; first to correct him for grave 
Cicero, and not for scurril Plautus, whom he confesses 
to have been reading not long before ; next to correct 
him only, and let so many more ancient fathers wax 
old in those pleasant and florid studies without the 
lash of such a tutoring apparition ; insomuch that Basil 
teaches how some good use may be made of Margites, 
a sportful poem, not now extant, writ by Homer ; and 
why not then of Morgante, an Italian romance much 
to the same purpose ? But if it be agreed we shall be 
tried by visions, there is a vision recorded by Eusebius, 
far ancienter than this tale of Jerom, to the nun Eusto- 
chium, and besides, has nothing of a fever in it. Dio- 
nysius Alexandrinus was, about the year 240, a person 
of great name in the church, for piety and learning, 
who had wont to avail himself much against heretics, 
by being conversant in their books; until a certain 
presbyter laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how 
he durst venture himself among those defiling volumes. 
The worthy man, loth to give offence, fell into a new 
debate with himself, what was to be thought ; when 
suddenly a vision sent from God (it is his own epistle 
that so avers it) confirmed him in these words : " Read 



any books whatever come to thy hands, for thou art 
sufficient both to judge aright, and to examine each 
matter." To this revelation he assented the sooner, as 
he confesses, because it was answerable to that of the 
apostle to the Thessalonians ; " Prove all things, hold 
fast that which is good." And he might have added 
another remarkable saying of the same author : " To 
the pure, all things are pure;" not only meats and 
drinks, but all kind of knowledge, whether of good or 
evil ; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently 
the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled. 
For books are as meats and viands are ; some of good, 
some of evil substance; and yet God in that unapocry- 
phal vision said without exception, " Rise, Peter, kill 
and eat;" leaving the choice to each man's discretion. 
Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ little or 
nothing from unwholesome ; and best books to a 
naughty mind are not unapplicable to occasions of 
evil. Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment 
in the healthiest concoction ; but herein the difference 
is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious 
reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, 
to forewarn, and to illustrate. Whereof what better 
witness can ye expect I should produce, than one of 
your own now sitting in parliament, the chief of learned 
men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden ; whose volume 
of natural and national laws proves, not only by great 
authorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons 
and theorems almost mathematically demonstrative, 
that all opinions, yea errours, known, read, and col- 
lated, are of main service and assistance toward the 
speedy attainment of what is truest. I conceive there- 
fore, that when God did enlarge the universal diet of 
man's body, (saving ever the rules of temperance,) he 
then also, as before, left arbitrary the dieting and re- 
pasting of our minds ; as wherein every mature man 
might have to exercise his own leading capacity. How 
great a virtue is temperance, how much of moment 
through the whole life of man ! Yet God commits the 
managing so great a trust without particular law or 
prescription, wholly to the demeanour of every grown 
man. And therefore when he himself tabled the Jews 
from heaven, that omer, which was every man's daily 
portion of manna, is computed to have been more than 
might have well sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as 
many meals. For those actions which enter into a man, 
rather than issue out of him, and therefore defile not, 
God uses not to captivate under a perpetual childhood 
of prescription, but trusts him with the gift of reason 
to be his own chooser; there were but little work left 
for preaching, if law and compulsion should grow so 
fast upon those things which heretofore were governed 
only by exhortation. Solomon informs us, that much 
reading is a weariness to the flesh ; but neither he, nor 
other inspired author, tells us that such or such reading 
is unlawful ; yet certainly had God thought good to 
limit us herein, it had been much more expedient to 
have told us what was unlawful, than what was 
wearisome. As for the burning of those Ephesian 
books by St. Paul's converts; it is replied, the books 
were magic, the Syriac so renders them. It was a 



108 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



private act, a voluntary act, and leaves us to a volun- 
tary imitation : the men in remorse burnt those books 
which were their own ; the magistrate by this exam- 
ple is not appointed ; these men practised the books, 
another might perhaps have read them in some sort 
usefully. Good and evil we know in the field of this 
world grow up together almost inseparably ; and the 
knowledge of good is so involved and interwoven with 
the knowledge of evil, and in so many cunning resem- 
blances hardly to be discerned, that those confused 
seeds which were imposed upon Psyche as an incessant 
labour to cull out, and sort asunder, were not more 
intermixed. It was from out the rind of one apple 
tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two 
twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world. 
And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of 
knowing good and evil, that is to say, of knowing good 
by evil. As therefore the state of man now is; what 
wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to for- 
bear, without the knowledge of evil ? He that can ap- 
prehend and consider vice with all her baits and seem- 
ing pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and 
yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true 
warfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and 
cloistered virtue unexercised, and unbreathed, that 
never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out 
of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run 
for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring 
not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much 
rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by 
what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a 
youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not 
the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and re- 
jects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure ; her white- 
ness is but an excremental whiteness ; which was the 
reason why our sage and serious poet Spenser, (whom 
I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus 
or Aquinas,) describing true temperance under the 
person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through 
the cave of Mammon, and the bower of earthly bliss, 
that he might see and know, and yet abstain. Since 
therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this 
world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, 
and the scanning of errour to the confirmation of truth, 
how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout 
into the regions of sin and falsity, than by reading all 
manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason? 
And this is the benefit which may be had of books pro- 
miscuously read. But of the harm that may result 
hence, three kinds are usually reckoned. First, is 
feared the infection that may spread ; but then, all hu- 
man learning and controversy in religious points must 
remove out of the world, yea, the Bible itself; for that 
ofttimes relates blasphemy not nicely, it describes the 
carnal sense of wicked men not unelegantly, it brings 
in holiest men passionately murmuring against pro- 
vidence through all the arguments of Epicurus ; in 
other great disputes it answers dubiously and darkly 
to the common reader; and ask a Talmudist what aiis 
the modesty of his marginal Keri, that Moses and all 
the prophets cannot persuade him to pronounce the tex- 



tual Chetiv. For these causes we all know the Bible 
itself put by the papist into the first rank of prohibited 
books. The ancientest fathers must be next removed, 
as Clement of Alexandria, and that Eusebian book of 
evangelic preparation, transmitting our ears through 
a hoard of heathenish obscenities to receive the gospel. 
Who finds not that Irenseus, Epiphanius, Jerom, and 
others discover more heresies than they well confute, 
and that oft for heresy which is the truer opinion ? Nor 
boots it to say for these, and all the heathen writers of 
greatest infection if it must be thought so, with whom 
is bound up the life of human learning, that they writ 
in an unknown tongue, so long as we are sure those 
languages are known as well to the worst of men, who 
are both most able, and most diligent to instil the 
poison they suck, first into the courts of princes, ac- 
quainting them with the choicest delights, and criti- 
cisms of sin. As perhaps did that Petronius, whom 
Nero called his arbiter, the master of his revels ; and 
that notorious ribald of Arezzo, dreaded and yet dear 
to the Italian courtiers. I name not him for posterity's 
sake, whom Henry the Eighth named in merriment 
his vicar of hell. By which compendious way all the 
contagion that foreign books can infuse will find a 
passage to the people far easier and shorter than an 
Indian voyage, though it could be sailed either by 
the north of Cataio eastward, or of Canada westward, 
while our Spanish licensing gags the English press 
never so severely. But on the other side, that infec- 
tion which is from books of controversy in religion, is 
more doubtful and dangerous to the learned, than to 
the ignorant; and yet those books must be permitted 
untouched by the licenser. It will be hard to instance 
where any ignorant man hath been ever seduced by 
any papistical book in English, unless it were com- 
mended and expounded to him by some of that clergy; 
and indeed all such tractates, whether false or true, are 
as the prophecy of Isaiah was to the eunuch, not to be 
" understood without a guide." But of our priests and 
doctors how many have been corrupted by studying the 
comments of Jesuits and Sorbonists, and how fast they 
could transfuse that corruption into the people, our ex- 
perience is both late and sad. It is not forgot, since 
the acute and distinct Arminius was perverted merely 
by the perusing of a nameless discourse written at 
Delft, which at first he took in hand to confute. Seeing 
therefore that those books, and those in great abun- 
dance which are likeliest to taint both life and doctrine, 
cannot be suppressed without the fall of learning, and 
of all ability in disputation, and that these books of 
either sort are most and soonest catching to the learned, 
(from whom to the common people whatever is heretical 
or dissolute may quickly be conveyed,) and that evil 
manners are as perfectly learnt without books a thousand 
other ways which cannot be stopped, and evil doctrine 
not with books can propagate, except a teacher guide, 
which he might also do without writing, and so beyond 
prohibiting ; I am not unable to unfold, how this caute- 
lous enterprise of licensing can be exempted from the 
number of vain and impossible attempts. And he who 
were pleasantly disposed, could not well avoid to liken 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



109 



it to the exploit of that gallant man, who thought to 
pound up the crows by shutting his park gate. Besides 
another inconvenience, if learned men be the first re- 
ceivers out of books, and dispreaders both of vice and 
errour, how shall the licensers themselves be confided 
in, unless we can confer upon them, or they assume to 
themselves above all others in the land, the grace of 
infallibility and uncorruptedness ? And again, if it be 
true, that a wise man, like a good refiner, can gather 
gold out of the drossiest volume, and that a fool will 
be a fool with the best book, yea, or without book ; 
there is no reason that we should deprive a wise man 
of any advantage to his wisdom, while we seek to re- 
strain from a fool that which being restrained will be 
no hinderance to his folly. For if there should be so 
much exactness always used to keep that from him 
which is unfit for his reading, we should in the judg- 
ment of Aristotle not only, but of Solomon, and of our 
Saviour, not vouchsafe him good precepts, and by con- 
sequence not willingly admit him to good books ; as 
being certain that a wise man will make better use of 
an idle pamphlet, than a fool will do of sacred Scripture. 
It is next alleged, we must not expose ourselves to 
temptations without necessity, and next to that, not 
employ our time in vain things. To both these objec- 
tions one answer will serve, out of the grounds already 
laid, that to all men such books are not temptations, 
nor vanities; but useful drugs and materials wherewith 
to temper and compose effective and strong medicines, 
which man's life cannot want. The rest, as children 
and childish men, who have not the art to qualify and 
prepare these working minerals, well may be exhorted 
to forbear, but hindered forcibly they cannot be, by 
all the licensing that sainted inquisition could ever yet 
contrive ; which is what I promised to deliver next : 
that this order of licensing conduces nothing to the 
end for which it was framed; and hath almost prevented 
me by being clear already while thus much hath been 
explaining. See the ingenuity of truth, who, when 
she gets a free and willing hand, opens herself faster 
than the pace of method and discourse can overtake 
her. It was the task which I began with, to shew that 
no nation, or well instituted state, if they valued books 
at all, did ever use this way of licensing; and it might 
be answered, that this is a piece of prudence lately 
discovered. To which I return, that as it was a thing 
slight and obvious to think on, so if it had been difficult 
to find out, there wanted not among them long since, 
who suggested such a course ; which they not follow- 
ing, leave us a pattern of their judgment that it was 
not the not knowing, but the not approving, which 
was the cause of their not using it. Plato, a man of 
high authority indeed, but least of all for his Common- 
wealth, in the book of his laws, which no city ever yet 
received, fed his fancy with making many edicts to his 
airy burgomasters, which they who otherwise admire 
him wish had been rather buried and excused in the 
genial cups of an academic night sitting. By which 
laws he seems to tolerate no kind of learning, but by 
unalterable decree, consisting most of practical tradi- 
tions, to the attainment whereof a library of smaller 



bulk than his own dialogues would be abundant. And 
there also enacts, that no poet should so much as read 
to any private man what he had written, until the 
judges and law keepers had seen it, and allowed it; 
but that Plato meant this law peculiarly to that com- 
monwealth which he had imagined, and to no other, 
is evident. Why was he not else a lawgiver to him- 
self, but a transgressor, and to be expelled by his own 
magistrates, both for the wanton epigrams and dia- 
logues which he made, and his perpetual reading of 
Sophron, Mimus, and Aristophanes, books of grossest 
infamy ; and also for commending the latter of them, 
though he were the malicious libeller of his chief friends, 
to be read by the tyrant Dionysius, who had little need 
of such trash to spend his time on ? But that he knew 
this licensing of poems had reference and dependance 
to many other provisoes there set down in his fancied 
republic, which in this world could have no place ; 
and so neither he himself, nor any magistrate or city 
ever imitated that course, which taken apart from those 
other collateral injunctions must needs be vain and 
fruitless. For if they fell upon one kind of strictness, 
unless their care were equal to regulate all other things 
of like aptness to corrupt the mind, that single endea- 
vour they knew would be but a fond labour ; to shut 
and fortify one gate against corruption, and be neces- 
sitated to leave others round about wide open. If we 
think to regulate printing, thereby to rectify manners, 
we must regulate all recreations and pastimes, all that 
is delightful to man. No music must be heard, no song 
be set or sung, but what is grave and doric. There must 
be licensing dancers, that no gesture, motion, or de- 
portment be taught our youth, but what by their allow- 
ance shall be thought honest; for such Plato was. 
provided of. It will.ask more than the work of twenty 
licensers to examine all the lutes, the violins, and the 
guitars in every house ; they must not be suffered to 
prattle as they do, but must be licensed what they 
may say. And who shall silence all the airs and mad- 
rigals that whisper softness in chambers ? The windows- 
also, and the balconies must be thought on ; there are 
shrewd books, with dangerous frontispieces, set to sale £ 
who shall prohibit them, shall twenty licensers ? The 
villages also must have their visitors to inquire what 
lectures the bagpipe and the rebec reads, even to the 
ballatry and the gamut of every municipal fidler ; for 
these are the countryman's Arcadias, and his Monte 
Mayors. Next, what more national corruption, for 
which England hears ill abroad, than household glut- 
tony ; who shall be the rectors of our daily rioting ? 
And what shall be done to inhibit the multitudes, that 
frequent those houses where drunkenness is sold and 
harboured ? Our garments also should be referred to 
the licensing of some more sober workinasters, to see 
them cut into a less wanton garb. Who shall regulate 
all the mixed conversation of our youth, male and fe- 
male together, as is the fashion of this country ? Who 
shall still appoint what shall be discoursed, what pre- 
sumed, and no further ? Lastly, who shall forbid and 
separate all idle resort, all evil company ? These things 
will be, and must be; but how they shall be least 



110 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



hurtful, how least enticing, herein consists the grave 
and governing wisdom of a state. To sequester out 
of the world into Atlantic and Eutopian politics, which 
never can be drawn into use, will not mend our con- 
dition ; but to ordain wisely as in this world of evil, 
in the midst whereof God hath placed us unavoidably. 
Nor is it Plato's licensing of books will do this, 
which necessarily pulls along with it so many other 
kinds of licensing, as will make us all both ridiculous 
and weary, and yet frustrate ; but those unwritten, or 
at least unconstraiuing laws of virtuous education, re- 
ligious and civil nurture, which Plato there mentions, 
as the bonds and ligaments of the commonwealth, the 
pillars and the sustainers of every written statute ; these 
they be, which will bear chief sway in such matters as 
these, when all licensing will be easily eluded. Im- 
punity and remissness for certain are the bane of a 
commonwealth ; but here the great art lies, to discern 
in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and 
in what things persuasion only is to work. If every 
action which is good or evil in man at ripe years were 
to be under pittance, prescription, and compulsion, 
what were virtue but a name, what praise could be then 
due to well doing, what gramercy to be sober, just, or 
continent ? Many there be that complain of divine 
Providence for suffering Adam to transgress. Foolish 
tongues ! when God gave him reason, he gave him 
freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing ; he had 
been else a mere artificial Adam, such an Adam as he 
is in the motions. We ourselves esteem not of that 
obedience, or love, or gift, which is of force ; God 
therefore left him free, set before him a provoking ob- 
ject, ever almost in his eyes ; herein consisted his merit, 
herein the right of his reward, the praise of his absti- 
nence. Wherefore did he create passions within us, 
pleasures round about us, but that these rightly tem- 
pered are the very ingredients of virtue ? They are not 
skilful considerers of human things, who imagine to 
remove sin, by removing the matter of sin ; for, besides 
that it is a huge heap increasing under the very act of 
diminishing, though some part of it may for a time be 
withdrawn from some persons, it cannot from all, in 
such a universal thing as books are ; and when this is 
done, yet the sin remains entire. Though ye take 
from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one 
jewel left, ye cannot bereave him of his covetousness. 
Banish all objects of lust, shut up all youth into the 
severest discipline that can be exercised in any hermit- 
age, ye cannot make them chaste, that came not thither 
so : such great care and wisdom is required to the right 
managing of this point. Suppose we could expel sin 
by this means ; look how much we thus expel of sin, 
so much we expel of virtue : for the matter of them 
both is the same : remove that, and ye remove them 
both alike. This justifies the high providence of God, 
who, though he commands us temperance, justice, con- 
tinence, yet pours out before us even to a profuseness 
all desirable things, and gives us minds that can wan- 
der beyond all limit and satiety. Why should we then 
affect a rigour contrary to the manner of Gt)d and of 
nature, by abridging or scanting those means, which 



books, freely permitted, are both to the trial of virtue, 
and the exercise of truth ? It would be better done, to 
learn that the law must needs be frivolous, which goes 
to restrain things, uncertainly and yet equally working 
to good and to evil. And were I the chooser, a dram 
of well doing should be preferred before many times as 
much the forcible hinderance of evil doing. For God 
sure esteems the growth and completing of one virtuous 
person, more than the restraint of ten vicious. And 
albeit, whatever thing we hear or see, sitting, walking, 
travelling, or conversing, may be fitly called our book, 
and is of the same effect that writings are ; yet grant 
the thing to be prohibited were only books, it appears 
that this order hitherto is far insufficient to the end 
which it intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, 
but weekly, that continued court-libel against the par- 
liament and city, printed, as the wet sheets can witness, 
and dispersed among us for all that licensing can do ? 
Yet this is the prime service a man would think wherein 
this order should give proof of itself. If it were exe- 
cuted, you will say. But certain, if execution be remiss 
or blindfold now, and in this particular, what will it 
be hereafter, and in other books ? If then the order 
shall not be vain and frustrate, behold a new labour, 
lords and commons, ye must repeal and proscribe all 
scandalous and unlicensed books already printed and 
divulged ; after ye have drawn them up into a list, that 
all may know which are condemned, and which not ; 
and ordain that no foreign books be delivered out of 
custody, till they have been read over. This office will 
require the whole time of not a few overseers, and those 
no vulgar men. There be also books which are partly 
useful and excellent, partly culpable and pernicious ; 
this work will ask as many more officials, to make ex- 
purgations and expunctions, that the commonwealth of 
learning be not damnified. In fine, when the multitude 
of books increase upon their hands, ye must be fain to 
catalogue all those printers who are found frequently 
offending, and forbid the importation of their whole 
suspected typography. In a word, that this your order 
may be exact, and not deficient, ye must reform it per- 
fectly according to the model of Trent and Sevil, which 
I know ye abhor to do. Yet though ye should conde- 
scend to this, which God forbid, the order still would 
be but fruitless and defective to that end whereto ye 
meant it. If to prevent sects and schisms, who is so 
unread or uncatechised in story, that hath not heard of 
many sects refusing books as a hinderance, and pre- 
serving their doctrine unmixed for many ages, only by 
unwritten traditions? The christian faith, (for that 
was once a schism !) is not unknown to have spread all 
over Asia, ere any gospel or epistle was seen in writing. 
If the amendment of manners be aimed at, look into 
Italy and Spain, whether those places be one scruple 
the better, the honester, the wiser, the chaster, since 
all the inquisitional rigour that hath been executed 
upon books. 

Another reason, whereby to make it plain that this 
order will miss the end it seeks, consider by the quality 
which ought to be in every licenser. It cannot be de- 
nied, but that he who is made judge to sit upon the 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



Ill 



birth or death of books, whether they may be wafted 
into this world or not, had need to be a man above the 
common measure, both studious, learned, and judicious ; 
there may be else no mean mistakes in the censure of 
what is passable or not; which is also no mean injury. 
If he be of such worth as behoves him, there cannot be 
a more tedious and unpleasing journey work, a greater 
loss of time levied upon his head, than to be made the 
perpetual reader of unchosen books and pamphlets, oft- 
times huge volumes. There is no book that is accept- 
able, unless at certain seasons ; but to be enjoined the 
reading of that at all times, and in a hand scarce legi- 
ble, whereof three pages would not down at any time 
in the fairest print, is an imposition which I cannot be- 
lieve how he that values time, and his own studies, or 
is but of a sensible nostril, should be able to endure. 
In this one thing I crave leave of the present licensers 
to be pardoned for so thinking; who doubtless took 
this office up, looking on it through their obedience to 
the parliament, whose command perhaps made all 
things seem easy and unlaborious to them ; but that 
this short trial hath wearied them out already, their 
own expressions and excuses to them, who make so 
many journeys to solicit their licence, are testimony 
enough. Seeing therefore those, who now possess the 
employment, by all evident signs wish themselves well 
rid of it, and that no man of worth, none that is not a 
plain unthrift of his own hours, is ever likely to suc- 
ceed them, except he mean to put himself to the salary 
of a press corrector, we may easily foresee what kind 
of licensers we are to expect hereafter, either ignorant, 
imperious, and remiss, or basely pecuniary. This is 
what I had to shew, wherein this order cannot con- 
duce to that end, whereof it bears the intention. 

I lastly proceed from the no good it can do, to the 
manifest hurt it causes, in being first the greatest dis- 
couragement and affront that can be offered to learn- 
ing, and to learned men. It was the complaint and 
lamentation of prelates, upon every least breath of a 
motion to remove pluralities, and distribute more equally 
church revenues, that then all learning- would be for 
ever dashed and discouraged. But as for that opinion, 
I never found cause to think, that the tenth part of 
learning stood or fell with the clergy : nor could I ever 
but hold it for a sordid and unworthy speech of any 
churchman, who had a competency left him. If there- 
fore ye be loth to dishearten utterly and discontent, not 
the mercenary crew of false pretenders to learning, but 
the free and ingenuous sort of such as evidently were 
born to study and love learning for itself, not for lucre, 
or any other end, but the service of God and of truth, 
and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise, 
which God and good men have consented shall be the 
reward of those, whose published labours advance the 
good of mankind : then know, that so far to distrust 
the judgment and the honesty of one who hath but a 
common repute in learning, and never yet offended, as 
not to count him fit to print his mind without a tutor 
and examiner, lest he should drop a schism, or some- 
thing of corruption, is the greatest displeasure and in- 
dignity to a free and knowing spirit, that can be put 



upon him. What advantage is it to be a man, over it 
is to be a boy at school, if we have only escaped the 
ferula, to come under the fescue of an Imprimatur ? If 
serious and elaborate writings, as if they were no more 
than the theme of a grammar-lad under his pedagogue, 
must not be uttered without the cursory eyes of a tem- 
porizing' and extemporizing licenser ? He who is not 
trusted with his own actions, his drift not being known 
to be evil, and standing to the hazard of law and 
penalty, has no great argument to think himself re- 
puted in the commonwealth wherein he was born for 
other than a fool or a foreigner. When a man writes 
to the world, he summons up all his reason and deli- 
beration to assist him ; he searches, meditates, is indus- 
trious, and likely consults and confers with his judi- 
cious friends ; after all which done, he takes himself to 
be informed in what he writes, as well as any that writ 
before him ; if in this the most consummate act of his 
fidelity and ripeness, no years, no industry, no former 
proof of his abilities can bring him to that state of ma- 
turity, as not to be still mistrusted and suspected, 
unless he carry all his considerate diligence, ail his 
midnight watchings, and expense of Palladian oil, to 
the hasty view of an unleisured licenser, perhaps much 
his younger, perhaps far his inferior in judgment, per- 
haps one who never knew the labour of bookwriting; 
and if he be not repulsed, or slighted, must appear in 
print like a puny with his guardian, and his censor's 
hand on the back of his title to be his bail and surety, 
that he is no ideot or seducer ; it cannot be but a dis- 
honour and derogation to the author, to the book, to 
the privilege and dignity of learning. And what if the 
author shall be one so copious of fancy, as to have 
many things well worth the adding, come into his mind 
after licensing, while the book is yet under the press, 
which not seldom happens to the best and diligentest 
writers ; and that perhaps a dozen times in one book. 
The printer dares not go beyond his licensed copy ; so 
often then must the author trudge to his leave-giver, 
that those his new insertions may be viewed ; and 
many a jaunt will be made, ere that licenser, for it 
must be the same man, can either be found, or found 
at leisure ; meanwhile either the press must stand 
still, which is no small damage, or the author lose his 
accuratest thoughts, and send the book forth worse 
than he had made it, which to a diligent writer is the 
greatest melancholy and vexation that can befal. And 
how can a man teach with authority, which is the life 
of teaching; how can he be a doctor in his book as 
he ought to be, or else had better be silent, vvhenas 
all he teaches, all he delivers, is but under the tuition, 
under the correction of his patriarchal licenser, to 
blot or alter what precisely accords not with the hide- 
bound humour which he calls his judgment ? When 
every acute reader upon the first sight of a pedantic 
licence, will be ready with these like words to ding 
the book a coit's distance from him, I hate a pupil 
teacher, I endure not an instructor that comes to me 
under the wardship of an overseeing fist. I know no- 
thing of the licenser, but that I have his own hand 
here for his arrogance ; who shall warrant me his 



112 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



j udgment ? The state, sir, replies the stationer : but has 
a quick return, the slate shall be my governors, but not 
my critics ; they may be mistaken in the choice of a 
licenser, as easily as this licenser may be mistaken in an 
author. This is some common stuff; and he might add 
from Sir Francis Bacon, that " such authorized books 
are but the language of the times." For though a 
licenser should happen to be judicious more than ordi- 
nary, which will be a great jeopardy of the next suc- 
cession, yet his very office and his commission enjoins 
him to let pass nothing but what is vulgarly received 
already. Nay, which is more lamentable, if the work 
of any deceased author, though never so famous in his 
lifetime, and even to this day, comes to their hands 
for licence to be printed, or reprinted, if there be found 
in his book one sentence of a venturous edge, uttered 
in the height of zeal, (and who knows whether it might 
not be the dictate of a divine spirit ?) yet not suiting with 
every low decrepit humour of their own, though it were 
Knox himself, the reformer of a kingdom, that spake 
it, they will not pardon him their dash ; the sense of 
that great man shall to all posterity be lost, for the 
fearfulness, or the presumptuous rashness of a per- 
functory licenser. And to what an author this violence 
hath been lately done, and in what book of greatest 
consequence to be faithfully published, I could now 
instance, but shall forbear till a more convenient sea- 
son. Yet if these things be not resented seriously and 
timely by them who have the remedy in their power, 
but that such iron-moulds as these shall have authority 
to gnaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, 
and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the 
orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the 
more sorrow will belong to that hapless race of men, 
w hose misfortune it is to have understanding. Hence- 
forth let no man care to learn, or care to be more 
than worldly wise ; for certainly in higher matters 
to be ignorant and slothful, to be a common stedfast 
dunce, will be the only pleasant life, and only in 
request. 

And as it is a particular disesteem of every knowing 
person alive, and most injurious to the written labours 
and monuments of the dead, so to me it seems an un- 
dervaluing and vilifying of the whole nation. I cannot 
set so light by all the invention, the art, the wit, the 
grave and solid judgment which is in England, as 
that it can be comprehended in any twenty capacities 
how good soever; much less that it should not pass 
except their superintendence be over it, except it be 
sifted and strained with their strainers, that it should 
be uncurrent without their manual stamp. Truth and 
understanding are not such wares as to be monopolized 
and traded in by tickets, and statutes, and standards. 
We must not think to make a staple commodity of all 
the knowledge in the land, to mark and license it like 
our broad cloth and our woolpacks. What is it but a 
servitude like that imposed by the Philistines, not to 
be allowed the sharpening of our own axes and coul- 
ters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty 
licensing forges? Had any one written and divulged 
erroneous things and scandalous to honest life, mis- 



using and forfeiting the esteem had of his reason 
among men, if after conviction this only censure were 
adjudged him, that he should never henceforth write, 
but what were first examined by an appointed officer, 
whose hand should be annexed to pass his credit 
for him, that now he might be safely read ; it could 
not be apprehended less than a disgraceful punishment. 
Whence to include the whole nation, and those that 
never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and sus- 
pectful prohibition, may plainly be understood what a 
disparagement it is. So much the more whenas debtors 
and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, 
but unoffensive books must not stir forth without a visible 
jailor in their title. Nor is it to the common people less 
than a reproach ; for if we be so jealous over them, as 
that we dare not trust them with an English pamphlet, 
what do we but censure them for a giddy, vicious, and 
ungrounded people ; in such a sick and weak state of 
faith and discretion, as to be able to take nothing down 
but through the pipe of a licenser ? That this is care 
or love of them, we cannot pretend, whenas in those 
popish places, where the laity are most hated and de- 
spised, the same strictness is used over them. Wisdom 
we cannot call it, because it stops but one breach 
of licence, nor that neither : whenas those corruptions, 
which it seeks to prevent, break in faster at other doors, 
which cannot be shut. 

And in conclusion it reflects to the disrepute of our 
ministers also, of whose labours we should hope better, 
and of their proficiency which their flock reaps by them, 
than that after all this light of the gospel which is, and 
is to be, and all this continual preaching, they should 
be still frequented with such an unprincipled, unedified, 
and laic rabble, as that the whiff of every new pam- 
phlet should stagger them out of their catechism and 
christian walking. This may have much reason to 
discourage the ministers, when such a low conceit is 
had of all their exhortations, and the benefiting 
of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit 
to be turned loose to three sheets of paper without a 
licenser ; that all the sermons, all the lectures preach- 
ed, printed, vended in such numbers, and such volumes, 
as have now well-nigli made all other books unsale- 
able, should not be armour enough against one single 
Enchiridion, without the castle of St. Angelo of an 
Imprimatur. 

And lest some should persuade ye, lords and com- 
mons, that these arguments of learned men's discou- 
ragement at this your order are mere flourishes, and 
not real, I could recount what I have seen and heard 
in other countries, where this kind of inquisition tyran- 
nizes; when I have sat among their learned men, (for 
that honour I had,) and been counted happy to be born 
in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they sup- 
posed England was, while themselves did nothing but 
bemoan the servile condition into which learning 
amongst them was brought; that this was it which 
had damped the glory of Italian wits; that nothing 
had been there written now these many years but 
flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and 
visited the famous Galileo grown old, a prisoner to the 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



113 



inquisition, for thinking' in astronomy otherwise than 
the franciscan and dominican licensers thought. And 
though I knew that England then was groaning loudest 
under the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I took it as a 
pledge of future happiness, that other nations were so 
persuaded of her liberty. Yet was it beyond my hope, 
that those worthies were then breathing in her air, 
who should be her leaders to such a deliverance, as 
shall never be forgotten by any revolution of time that 
this world hath to finish. When that was once begun, 
it was as little in my fear, that what words of com- 
plaint I heard among learned men of other parts uttered 
against the inquisition, the same I should hear by as 
learned men at home uttered in time of parliament 
against an order of licensing; and that so generally, 
that when I had disclosed myself a companion of their 
discontent, I might say, if without envy, that he whom 
an honest quaestorship had endeared to the Sicilians, 
was not more by them importuned against Verres, than 
the favourable opinion which I had among many who 
honour }'e, and are known and respected by ye, loaded 
me with entreaties and persuasions, that I would not 
despair to lay together that which just reason should 
bring into my mind, toward the removal of an unde- 
served thraldom upon learning. That this is not there- 
fore the disburdening of a particular fancy, but the 
common grievance of all those who had prepared their 
minds and studies above the vulgar pitch to advance 
truth in others, and from others to entertain it, thus 
much may satisfy. And in their name I shall for 
neither friend nor foe conceal what the general mur- 
mur is; that if it come to inquisitioning again, and 
licensing, and that we are so timorous of ourselves, 
and suspicious of all men, as to fear each book, and 
the shaking of every leaf, before we know what the 
contents are; if some who but of late were little better 
than silenced from preaching, shall come now to silence 
us from reading, except what they please, it cannot be 
guessed what is intended by some but a second tyranny 
over learning : and will soon put it out of controversy, 
that bishops and presbyters are the same to us both 
name and thing. That those evils of prelaty which 
before from five or six and twenty sees were distri- 
butively charged upon the whole people, will now 
light wholly upon learning, is not obscure to us : 
whenas now the pastor of a small unlearned parish, on 
the sudden shall be exalted archbishop over a large 
diocese of books, and yet not remove, but keep his 
other cure too, a mystical pluralist. He who but of 
late cried down the sole ordination of every novice 
bachelor of art, and denied sole jurisdiction over the 
simplest parishioner, shall now at home in his private 
chair assume both these over worthiest and excellentest 
books, and ablest authors that write them. This is 
not, ye covenants and protestations that we have made ! 
this is not to put down prelaty ; this is but to chop an 
episcopacy ; this is but to translate the palace metro- 
politan from one kind of dominion into another ; this 
is but an old canonical slightof commuting our penance. 
To startle thus betimes at a mere unlicensed pamphlet, 
will, after a while, be afraid; of every conventicle, and 



a while after will make a conventicle of every chris- 
tian meeting. But I am certain, that a state governed 
by the rules of justice and fortitude, or a church built 
and founded upon the rock of faith and true know- 
ledge, cannot be so pusillanimous. While things are 
yet not constituted in religion, that freedom of writing 
should be restrained by a discipline imitated from the 
prelates, and learned by them from the inquisition to 
shut us up all again into the breast of a licenser, must 
needs give cause of doubt and discouragement to all 
learned and religious men : who cannot but discern 
the fineness of this politic drift, and who are the con- 
trivers ; that while bishops were to be baited clown, 
then all presses might be open ; it was the people's 
birthright and privilege in time of parliament, it was 
the breaking forth of light. But now the bishops 
abrogated and voided out of the church, as if our re- 
formation sought no more, but to make room for others 
into their seats under another name; the episcopal arts 
begin to bud again ; the cruise of truth must run no 
more oil ; liberty of printing must be enthralled again 
under a prelatical commission of twenty; the privilege 
of the people nullified ; and which is worse, the free- 
dom of learning must groan again, and to her old 
fetters : all this the parliament yet sitting. Although 
their own late arguments and defences against the 
prelates might remember them, that this obstructing 
violence meets for the most part with an event utterly 
opposite to the end which it drives at : instead of sup- 
pressing sects and schisms, it raises them and invests 
them with a reputation : " the punishing of wits en- 
hances their authority," saith the Viscount St. Albans ; 
" and a forbidding writing is thought to be a certain 
spark of truth, that flies up in the faces of them who 
seek to tread it out." This order therefore may prove 
a nursing mother to sects, but I shall easily shew how 
it will be a stepdame to truth : and first by disenabling 
us to the maintenance of what is known already. 

Well knows he who uses to consider, that our faith 
and knowledge thrives by exercise, as well as our limbs 
and complexion. Truth is compared in Scripture to a 
streaming fountain; if her waters flow not in a per- 
petual progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of 
conformity and tradition. A man may be a heretic in 
the truth ; and if he believe things only because his 
pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without 
knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet 
the very truth he holds becomes his heresy. There is 
not any burden, that some would gladlier post off to 
another, than the charge and care of their religion. 
There be, who knows not that there be of protestants 
and professors, who live and die in as errant and im- 
plicit faith, as any lay papist of Loretto. A wealthy 
man, addicted to his pleasure and to his profits, finds 
religion to be a traffic so entangled, and of so many 
piddling accounts, that of all mysteries he cannot skill 
to keep a stock going upon that trade. What should 
he do ? Fain he would have the name to be religious, 
fain he would bear up with his neighbours in that. 
What does he therefore, but resolves to give over toil- 
ing, and to find himself out some factor, to whose care 



114 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



and credit he may commit the whole managing- of his 
religious affairs ; some divine of note and estimation 
that must be. To him he adheres, resigns the whole 
warehouse of his religion, with all the locks and keys, 
into his custody; and indeed makes the very person of 
that man his religion ; esteems his associating with him 
a sufficient evidence and commendatory of his own 
piety. So that a man may say his religion is now no 
more within himself, but is become a dividual movable, 
and goes and comes near him, according as that good 
man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives 
him gifts, feasts him, lodges him ; his religion comes 
home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and sump- 
tuously laid to sleep ; rises, is saluted, and after the 
malmsey, or some well-spiced bruage, and better break- 
fasted, than he whose morning appetite would have 
gladly fed on g-reen figs between Bethany and Jeru- 
salem, his religion walks abroad at eight, and leaves 
his kind entertainer in the shop trading all day without 
his religion. 

Another sort there be, who when they hear that all 
things shall be ordered, all things regulated and set- 
tled; nothing written but what passes through the 
customhouse of certain publicans that have the ton- 
naging and poundaging of all freespoken truth ; will 
straight give themselves up into your hands, make them 
and cut them out what religion ye please : there be 
delights, there be recreations and jolly pastimes, that 
will fetch the day about from sun to sun, and rock the 
tedious year as in a delightful dream. What need they 
torture their heads with that which others have taken 
so strictly, and so unalterably into their own purvey- 
ing ? These are the fruits, which a dull ease and cessa- 
tion of our knowledge will bring forth among the 
people. How goodly, and how to be wished w T ere such 
an obedient unanimity as this ! What a fine conform- 
ity would it starch us all into ! Doubtless a staunch 
and solid piece of framework, as any January could 
freeze together. 

Nor much better will be the consequence even among 
the clergy themselves: it is no new thing never heard 
of before, for a parochial minister, who has his reward, 
and is at his Hercules pillars in a warm benefice, to be 
easily inclinable, if he have nothing else that may rouse 
up his studies, to finish his circuit in an English Con- 
cordance and a topic folio, the gatherings and savings 
of a sober graduateship, a Harmony and a Catena, 
treading the constant round of certain common doc- 
trinal heads, attended with their uses, motives, marks 
and means ; out of which, as out of an alphabet or sol 
fa, by forming and transforming, joining and disjoining 
variously, a little bookcraft, and two hours' meditation, 
might furnish him unspeakably to the performance of 
more than a weekly charge of sermoning : not to 
reckon up the infinite helps of interliniaries, breviaries, 
synopses, and other loitering gear. But as for the 
multitude of sermons ready printed and piled up, on 
every text that is not difficult, our London trading St. 
Thomas in his vestry, and add to boot St. Martin and 
St. Huoh, have not within their hallowed limits more 
vendible ware of all sorts ready made : so that penury 



he never need fear of pulpit provision, having where 
so plenteously to refresh his mag'azine. But if his 
rear and flanks be not impaled, if his back door be not 
secured by the rigid licenser, but that a bold book may 
now and then issue forth, and give the assault to some 
of his old collections in their trenches, it will concern 
him then to keep waking, to stand in watch, to set good 
guards and sentinels about his received opinions, to 
walk the round and counter-round with his fellow in- 
spectors, fearing- lest any of his flock be seduced, who 
also then would be better instructed, better exercised 
and disciplined. And God send that the fear of this 
diligence, which must then be used, do not make us 
affect the laziness of a licensing church ! 

For if we be sure we are in the right, and do not 
hold the truth guiltily, which becomes not, if we our- 
selves condemn not our own weak and frivolous teach- 
ing, and the people for an untaught and irreligious 
gadding rout; what can be more fair, than when a 
man judicious, learned, and of a conscience, for aught 
we know as good as theirs that taught us what we 
know, shall not privily from house to house, which is 
more dangerous, but openly by writing, publish to the 
world what his opinion is, what his reasons, and where- 
fore that which is now thought cannot be sound ? 
Christ urged it as wherewith to justify himself that he 
preached in public; yet writing is more public than 
preaching; and more easy to refutation if need be, 
there being so many whose business and profession 
merely it is to be the champions of truth ; which if they 
neglect, what can be imputed but their sloth or unability ? 

Thus much we are hindered and disinured by this 
course of licensing toward the true knowledge of what 
we seem to know. For how much it hurts and hinders 
the licensers themselves in the calling of their ministry, 
more than any secular employment, if they will dis- 
charge that office as they ought, so that of necessity 
they must neglect either the one duty or the other; I 
insist not, because it is a particular, but leave it to their 
own conscience, how they will decide it there. 

There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay open, 
the incredible loss and detriment that this plot of licens- 
ing puts us to, more than if some enemy at sea should 
stop up all our havens, and ports, and creeks ; it hin- 
ders and retards the importation of our richest merchan- 
dise, truth : nay, it was first established and put in 
practice by anti-christian malice and mystery on set 
purpose to extinguish, if it were possible, the light of 
reformation, and to settle falsehood; little differing from 
that policy wherewith the Turk upholds his Alcoran, 
by the prohibiting of printing. It is not denied, but 
gladly confessed, we are to send our thanks and vows 
to Heaven, louder than most of nations, for that great 
measure of truth which we enjoy, especially in those 
main points between us and the pope, with his appur- 
tenances the prelates : but he who thinks we are to 
pitch our tent here, and have attained the utmost pros- 
pect of reformation, that the mortal glass wherein we 
contemplate can shew us, till we come to beatific vision ; 
that man by this very opinion declares, that he is yet 
far short of truth. 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



115 



Truth indeed came once into the world with her di- 
vine master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to 
look on : but when he ascended, and his apostles after 
him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race 
of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian 
Typhon with his conspirators, how they dealt with the 
good Osiris, took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely 
form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the 
four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends 
of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful 
search that Isis made for the mangled body of Osiris, 
went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as 
they could find them. We have not yet found them 
all, lords and commons, nor ever shall do, till her 
master's second coming; he shall bring together every 
joint and member, and shall mould them into an im- 
mortal feature of loveliness and perfection. Suffer not 
these licensing prohibitions to stand at every place of 
opportunity forbidding and disturbing them that con- 
tinue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to the 
torn body of our martyred saint. We boast our light ; 
but if we look not wisely on the sun itself, it smites us 
into darkness. Who can discern those planets that 
are oft eombust, and those stars of brightest magnitude, 
that rise and set with the sun, until the opposite mo- 
tion of their orbs bring them to such a place in the fir- 
mament, where they may be seen evening' or morning ? 
The light which we have gained, was given us, not to 
be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things 
more remote from our knowledge. It is not the un- 
frocking of a priest, the unmitring of a bishop, and the 
removing him from off the presbyterian shoulders, that 
will make us a happy nation ; no, if other things as 
great in the church, and in the rule of life both 
ceconomical and political, be not looked into and re- 
formed, we have looked so long upon the blaze that 
Zuinglius and Calvin have beaconed up to us, that we 
are stark blind. There be who perpetually complain 
of schisms and sects, and make it such a calamity that 
any man dissents from their maxims. It is their own 
pride and ignorance which causes the disturbing, 
who neither will hear with meekness, nor can con- 
vince, yet all must be suppressed which is not found 
in their Syntagma. They are the troublers, they are 
the dividers of unity, who neglect and permit not 
others to unite those dissevered pieces, which are yet 
wanting to the body of truth. To be still searching 
what we know not, by what we know, still closing 
up truth to truth as we find it, (for all her body is ho- 
mogeneal, and proportional,) this is the golden rule 
in theology as well as in arithmetic, and makes up 
the best harmony in a church ; not the forced and out- 
ward union, of cold, and neutral, and inwardly divided 
minds. 

I Lords and commons of England ! consider what na- 
tion it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the go- 
vernors : a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, 
ingenious, and piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtile 
and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any 
point the highest that human capacity can soar to. 
Therefore the studies of learning in her deepest sciences 



have been so ancient, and so eminent among us, that 
writers of good antiquity and able judgment have been 
persuaded, that even the school of Pythagoras, and 
the Persian wisdom, took beginning from the old phi- 
losophy of this island. And that wise and civil Ro- 
man, Julius Agricola, who governed once here for 
Ccesar, preferred the natural wits of Britain, before 
the laboured studies of the French. Nor is it for no- 
thing that the grave and frugal Transilvanian sends 
out yearly from as far as the mountainous borders of 
Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not 
their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language 
and our theologic arts. Yet that which is above all 
this, the favour and the love of Heaven, we have 
great argument to think in a peculiar manner pro- 
pitious and propending towards us. Why else was 
this nation chosen before any other, that out of her, as 
out of Sion, should be proclaimed and sounded forth 
the first tidings and trumpet of reformation to all Eu- 
rope ? And had it not been the obstinate perverseness 
of our prelates against the divine and admirable spirit 
of Wickliff, to suppress him as a schismatic and inno- 
vator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Husse and Jerom, 
no nor the name of Luther or of Calvin, had been ever 
known : the glory of reforming all our neighbours 
had been completely ours. But now, as our obdurate 
clergy have with violence demeaned the matter, we 
are become hitherto the latest and the backwardest 
scholars, of whom God offered to have made us the 
teachers. Now once again by all concurrence of 
signs, and by the general instinct of holy and devout 
men, as they daily and solemnly express their thoughts, 
God is decreeing to begin some new and great pe- 
riod in his church, even to the reforming of reforma- 
tion itself; what does he then but reveal himself to 
his servants, and as his manner is, first to his English- 
men ? I say as his manner is, first to us, though 
we mark not the method of his counsels, and are 
unworthy. Behold now this vast city : a city of 
refuge, the mansion-house of liberty, encompassed and 
surrounded with his protection ; the shop of war hath 
not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion 
out the plates and instruments of armed justice in de- 
fence of beleagured truth, than there be pens and heads 
there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, search- 
ing, revolving new notions and ideas wherewith to 
present, as with their homage and their fealty, the ap- 
proaching reformation : others as fast reading, trying 
all things, assenting to the force of reason and con- 
vincement. What could a man require more from a 
nation so pliant and so prone to seek after knowledge ? 
What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant soil, 
but wise and faithful labourers, to make a knowing- 
people, a nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies? 
We reckon more than five months yet to harvest; there 
need not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift up, the 
fields are white already. Where there is much desire 
to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much 
writing, many opinions ; for opinion in good men is 
but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic 
terrours of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest and 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding-, 
which God hath stirred up in this city. What some 
lament of, we rather should rejoice at, should rather 
praise this pious forwardness among- men, to reassume 
the ill-deputed care of their religion into their own 
hands again. A little generous prudence, a little for- 
bearance of one another, and some grain of charity 
might win all these diligcncies to join and unite into 
one general and brotherly search after truth ; could we 
but foreg-o this prelatical tradition of crowding free 
consciences and christian liberties into canons and pre- 
cepts of men. I doubt not, if some great and worthy 
stranger should come among us, wise to discern the 
mould and temper of a people, and how to govern it, 
observing the high hopes and aims, the diligent alacrity 
of our extended thoughts and reasonings in the pur- 
suance of truth and freedom, but that he would cry out 
as Pyrrhus did, admiring the Roman docility and 
courage ; if such were my Epirots, I would not despair 
the greatest design that could be attempted to make a 
church or kingdom happy. Yet these are the men 
cried out against for schismatics and sectaries, as if, 
while the temple of the Lord was building, some cut- 
ting, some squaring the marble, others hewing the 
cedars, there should be a sort of irrational men, who 
could not consider there must be many schisms and 
many dissections made in the quarry and in the timber, 
ere the house of God can be built. And when every 
stone is laid artfully together, it cannot be united into 
a continuity, it can but be contiguous in this world : 
neither can every piece of the building be of one form ; 
nay rather the perfection consists in this, that out of 
many moderate varieties and brotherly dissimilitudes 
that are not vastly disproportional, arises the goodly 
and the graceful symmetry that commends the whole 
pile and structure. Let us therefore be more consider- 
ate builders, more wise in spiritual architecture, when 
great reformation is expected. For now the time seems 
come, wherein Moses the great prophet may sit in 
heaven rejoicing to see that memorable and glorious 
wish of his fulfilled, when not only our seventy elders, 
but all the Lord's people, are become prophets. No 
marvel then though some men, and some good men 
too perhaps, but young in goodness, as Joshua then 
was, envy them. They fret, and out of their own 
weakness are in agony, lest these divisions and subdi- 
visions will undo us. The adversary again applauds, 
and waits the hour ; when they have branched them- 
selves out, saith he, small enough into parties and par- 
titions, then will be our time. Fool ! he sees not the 
firm root, out of which we all grow, though into 
branches; nor will beware until he see our small di- 
vided maniples cutting through at every angle of his 
ill united and unwieldy brigade. And that we are to 
hope better of all these supposed sects and schisms, and 
that we shall not need that solicitude, honest perhaps, 
though overliinorous, of them that vex in this behalf, 
but shall laugh in the end at those malicious applaud- 
ers of our differences, I have these reasons to persuade 
me. 

First, when a city shall be as it were besieged and 



blocked about, her navigable river infested, inroads and 
incursions round, defiance and battle oft rumoured to 
be marching up, even to her walls and suburb trenches; 
that then the people, or the greater part, more than at 
other times, wholly taken up with the study of highest 
and most important matters to be reformed, should be 
disputing, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, 
even to a rarity and admiration, things not before dis- 
coursed or written of, argues first a singular good will, 
contentedness, and confidence in your prudent foresight, 
and safe government, lords and commons ; and from 
thence derives itself to a gallant bravery and well 
grounded contempt of their enemies, as if there were 
no small number of as great spirits among us, as his 
was who, when Rome was nigh besieged by Hannibal, 
being in the city, bought that piece of ground at no 
cheap rate, whereon Hannibal himself encamped his 
own regiment. Next, it is a lively and cheerful pre- 
sage of our happy success and victory. For as in a 
body when the blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigor- 
ous, not only to vital, but to rational faculties, and 
those in the acutest and the pertest operations of wit 
and subtlety, it argues in what g-ood plight and consti- 
tution the body is; so when the cheerfulness of the 
people is so sprightly up, as that it has not only where- 
with to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to 
spare, and to bestow upon the solidest and sublimest 
points of controversy and new invention, it betokens 
us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, by 
casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption to 
outlive these pangs, and w T ax young again, entering 
the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, des- 
tined to become great and honourable in these latter 
ages.* Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, 
and shaking her invincible locks : methinks I see her 
as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her 
undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; purging and 
unsealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself 
of heavenly radiance ; while the whole noise of timor- 
ous and flocking birds, with those also that love the 
twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and 
in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of 
sects and schisms. 

What should ye do then, should ye suppress all this 
flowery crop of knowledge and new light sprung up 
and yet springing daily in this city ? Should ye set an 
oligarchy of twenty engrossers over it, to bring- a fa- 
mine upon our minds again, when we shall know 
nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel ? 
Believe it, lords and commons! they who counsel ye 
to such a suppressing, do as good as bid ye suppress 
yourselves ; and I will soon shew how. If it be de- 
sired to know the immediate cause of all this free writ- 
ing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer 
than your own mild, and free, and humane government; 
it is the liberty, lords and commons, which your own 
valorous and happy counsels have purchased us; li- 
berty which is the nurse of all great wits : this is that 
which hath rarified and enlightened our spirits like the 
influence of heaven ; this is that which hath enfran- 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



17 



chised, enlarged, and lifted up our apprehensions de- 
grees above themselves. Ye cannot make us now less 
capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of the 
truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us 
so, less the lovers, less the founders of our true li- 
berty. We can grow ignorant again, brutish, formal, 
and slavish, as ye found us ; but you then must first 
become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, 
and tyrannous, as they were from whom ye have freed 
us. That our hearts are now more capacious, our 
thoughts more erected to the search and expectation of 
greatest and exactest things, is the issue of your own 
virtue propagated in us ; ye cannot suppress that, un- 
less ye reinforce an abrogated and merciless law, that 
fathers may dispatch at will their own children. And 
who shall then stick closest to ye and excite others? 
Not he who takes up arms for coat and conduct, and 
his four nobles of Danegelt. Although I dispraise not 
the defence of just immunities, yet love my peace 
better, if that were all. Give me the liberty to know, 
to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, 
above all liberties. 

What would be best advised then, if it be found so 
hurtful and so unequal to suppress opinions for the new- 
ness or the unsuitableness to a customary acceptance, 
will not be my task to say ; I shall only repeat what I 
have learned from one of your own honourable num- 
ber, a right noble and pious lord, who had he not sa- 
crificed his life and fortunes to the church and com- 
monwealth, we had not now missed and bewailed a 
worthy and undoubted patron of this argument. Ye 
know him, I am sure ; yet I for honour's sake, and 
may it be eternal to him, shall name him, the Lord 
Brook. He writing of episcopacy, and by the way 
treating of sects and schisms, left ye his vote, or rather 
now the last words of his dying charge, which I know 
will ever be of dear and honoured regard with ye, so 
full of meekness and breathing charity, that next to 
his last testament, who bequeathed love and peace to 
his disciples, I cannot call to mind where I have read 
or heard words more mild and peaceful. He there ex- 
horts us to hear with patience and humility those, how- 
ever they be miscalled, that desire to live purely, in 
such a use of God's ordinances, as the best guidance of 
their conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, 
though in some disconformity to ourselves. The book 
itself will tell us more at large, being published to the 
world, and dedicated to the parliament by him, who 
both for his life and for his death deserves, that what 
advice he left be not laid by without perusal. 

And now the time in special is, by privilege to write 
and speak what may help to the further discussing of 
matters in agitation. The temple of Janus with his 
two controversal faces might now not unsignificantly 
be set open. And though all the winds of doctrine 
were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the 
field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to 
misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; 
who ever knew truth put to the worse, in a free and 
open encounter ? Her confuting is the best and surest 
suppressing. He who hears what praying there is for 



light and clear knowledge to be sent down among us, 
would think of other matters to be constituted beyond 
the discipline of Geneva, framed and fabricked already 
to our hands. Yet when the new light which we beg 
for shines in upon us, there be who envy and oppose, 
if it come not first in at their casements. What a col- 
lusion is this, whenas we are exhorted by the wise man 
to use diligence, " to seek for wisdom as for hidden 
treasures" early and late, that another order shall en- 
join us, to know nothing but by statute ? When a man 
hath been labouring the hardest labour in the deep 
mines of knowledge, hath furnished out his findings in 
all their equipage, drawn forth his reasons as it were a 
battle ranged, scattered and defeated all objections in 
his way, calls out his adversary into the plain, offers 
him the advantage of wind and sun, if he please, only 
that he may try the matter by dint of argument ; for 
his opponents then to sculk, to lay ambushments, to 
keep a narrow bridge of licensing where the challenger 
should pass, though it be valour enough in soldiership, 
is but weakness and cowardice in the wars of truth. 
For who knows not that truth is strong, next to the 
Almighty ; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor 
licensings to make her victorious, those are the shifts 
and the defences that errour uses against her power : 
give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps, 
for then she speaks not true, as the old Proteus did, 
who spake oracles only when he was caught and bound, 
but then rather she turns herself into all shapes, ex- 
cept her own, and perhaps tunes her voice according to 
the time, as Micaiah did before Ahab, until she be ad- 
jured into her own likeness. Yet is it not impossible 
that she may have more shapes than one ? What else 
is all that rank of things indifferent, wherein truth 
may be on this side, or on the other, without being un- 
like herself? What but a vain shadow else is the abo- 
lition of " those ordinances, that hand-writing nailed 
to the cross ?" What great purchase is this christian 
liberty which Paul so often boasts of? His doctrine is, 
that he who eats or eats not, regards a day or regards 
it not, may do either to the Lord. How many other 
things might be tolerated in peace, and left to con- 
science, had we but charity, and were it not the chief 
strong hold of our hypocrisy to be ever judging one 
another ? I fear yet this iron yoke of outward con- 
formity hath left a slavish print upon our necks ; the 
ghost of a linen decency yet haunts us. We stumble, 
and are impatient at the least dividing of one visible 
congregation from another, though it be not in fun- 
damentals ; and through our forwardness to suppress, 
and our backwardness to recover, any enthralled piece 
of truth out of the gripe of custom, we care not to 
keep truth separated from truth, which is the fiercest 
rent and disunion of all. We do not see that while 
we still affect by all means a rigid external formality, 
we may as soon fall again into a gross conforming 
stupidity, a stark and dead congealment of " wood 
and hay and stubble " forced and frozen together, 
which is more to the sudden degenerating of a church 
than many subdichotomies of petty schisms. Not 
that I can think well of every light separation ; or 






118 



A SPEECH FOR THE LIBERTY 



that all in a church is to be expected " gold and silver 
and precious stones :" it is not possible for man to 
sever the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the 
other fry; that must be the angels' ministry at the end 
of mortal things. Yet if all cannot be of one mind, as 
who looks they should be ? this doubtless is more 
wholesome, more prudent, and more christian, that 
many be tolerated rather than all compelled. I mean 
not tolerated popery, and open superstition, which as it 
extirpates all religions and civil supremacies, so itself 
should be extirpate, provided first that all charitable 
and compassionate means be used to win and regain 
the weak and the misled : that also which is impious 
or evil absolutely either against faith or manners, no 
law can possibly permit, that intends not to unlaw 
itself: but those neighbouring differences, or rather 
indifferences, are what I speak of, whether in some 
point of doctrine or of discipline, which though they 
may be many, yet need not interrupt the unity of spi- 
rit, if we could but find among us the bond of peace. 
In the mean while, if any one would write, and bring 
his helpful hand to the slow moving reformation which 
we labour under, if truth have spoken to him before 
others, or but seemed at least to speak, who hath so 
bejesuited us, that we should trouble that man with 
asking licence to do so worthy a deed ; and not con- 
sider this, that if it come to prohibiting, there is not 
aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself: 
whose first appearance to our eyes, bleared and dimmed 
with prejudice and custom, is more unsightly and un- 
plausible than many errours ; even as the person is of 
many a great man slight and contemptible to see to. 
And what do they tell us vainly of new opinions, when 
this very opinion of theirs, that none must be heard 
but whom they like, is the worst and newest opinion 
of all others ; and is the chief cause why sects and 
schisms do so much abound, and true knowledge is 
kept at distance from us ; besides yet a greater danger 
which is in it. For when God shakes a kingdom, with 
strong and healthful commotions, to a general reform- 
ing, it is not untrue that many sectaries and false 
teachers are then busiest in seducing. But yet more 
true it is, that God then raises to his own work men of 
rare abilities, and more than common industry, not 
only to look back and revise what hath been taught 
heretofore, but to gain further, and to go on some new 
enlightened steps in the discovery of truth. For such 
is the order of God's enlightening his church, to dis- 
pense and deal out by degrees his beam, so as our 
earthly eyes may best sustain it. Neither is God ap- 
pointed and confined, where and out of what place 
these his chosen shall be first heard to speak; for he 
sees not as man sees, chooses not as man chooses, lest 
we should devote ourselves again to set places and 
assemblies, and outward callings of men; planting 
our faith one while in the old convocation house, and 
another while in the chapel at Westminster; when all 
the faith and religion that shall be there canonized, is 
not sufficient without plain convinccment, and the 
charity of patient instruction, to supple the least bruise 
of conscience, to edify the meanest Christian, who de- 



sires to walk in the spirit, and not in the letter of human 
trust, for all the number of voices that can be there 
made ; no, though Harry the seventh himself there, 
with all his liege tombs about him, should lend them 
voices from the dead to swell their number. And if 
the men be erroneous who appear to be the leading 
schismatics, what withholds us but our sloth, our self- 
will, and distrust in the right cause, that we do not 
give them gentle meetings and gentle dismissions, 
that we debate not and examine the matter thoroughly 
with liberal and frequent audience; if not for their 
sakes yet for our own ? Seeing no man who hath tasted 
learning, but will confess the many ways of profiting 
by those who, not contented with stale receipts, are 
able to manage and set forth new positions to the world. 
And were they but as the dust and cinders of our feet, 
so long as in that notion they may yet serve to polish 
and brighten the armory of truth, even for that respect 
they were not utterly to be cast away. But if they be 
of those whom God hath fitted for the special use of 
these times with eminent and ample gifts, and those 
perhaps neither among the priests, nor among the 
Pharisees, and we in the haste of a precipitant zeal 
shall make no distinction, but resolve to stop their 
mouths, because we fear they come with new and 
dangerous opinions, as we commonly forejudge them 
ere we understand them ; no less than woe to us, while, 
thinking thus to defend the gospel, we are found the 
persecutors ! 

There have been not a few since the beginning of 
this parliament, both of the presbytery and others, who 
by their unlicensed books to the contempt of an im- 
primatur first broke that triple ice clung about our 
hearts, and taught the people to see day : I hope that 
none of those were the persuaders to renew upon us 
this bondage, which they themselves have wrought so 
much good by contemning-. But if neither the check 
that Moses gave to young Joshua, nor the counter- 
mand which our Saviour gave to young John, who 
was so ready to prohibit those whom he thought un- 
licensed, be not enough to admonish our elders how 
unacceptable to God their testy mood of prohibiting 
is; if neither their own remembrance what evil hath 
abounded in the church by this lett of licensing, and 
what good they themselves have begun by transgress- 
ing it, be not enough, but that they will persuade and 
execute the most Dominican part of the inquisition 
over us, and are already with one foot in the stirrup so 
active at suppressing, it would be no unequal distribu- 
tion in the first place to suppress the suppressors them- 
selves ; whom the change of their condition hath puffed 
up, more than their late experience of harder times 
hath made wise. 

i And as for regulating the press, let no man think to 
have the honour of advising ye better than yourselves 
have done in that order published next before this, 
" That no book be printed, unless the printer's and the 
author's name, or at least the printer's, be registered." 
Those which otherwise come forth, if they be found 
mischievous and libellous, the fire and the executioner 
will be the timeliest and the most effectual remedy, 



OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 



119 



that man's prevention can use. For this authentic 
Spanish policy of licensing- books, if I have said aught, 
will prove the most unlicensed book itself within a 
short while ; and was the immediate image of a star- 
chamber decree to that purpose made in those very 
times when that court did the rest of those her pious 
works, for which she is now fallen from the stars with 
Lucifer. Whereby ye may guess what kind of state 
prudence, what love of the people, what care of religion 
or good manners there was at the contriving", although 
with singular hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to 
their good behaviour. And how it got the upper hand 
of your precedent order so well constituted before, if 
we may believe those men whose profession gives 
them cause to inquire most, it may be doubted there 
was in it the fraud of some old patentees and monopo- 
lizers in the trade of bookselling ; who under pretence 
of the poor in their company not to be defrauded, and 
the just retaining of each man his several copy, (which 
God forbid should be gainsaid,) brought divers glossing 
colours to the house, which were indeed but colours, 



and serving to no end except it be to exercise a su- 
periority over their neighbours ; men who do not there- 
fore labour in an honest profession, to which learning- 
is indebted, that they should be made other men's 
vassals. Another end is thought was aimed at by some 
of them in procuring by petition this order, that having 
power in their hands malignant books might the 
easier escape abroad, as the event shews. But of these 
sophisms and elenchs of merchandize I skill not : 
This I know, that errours in a good government 
and in a bad are equally almost incident; for what 
magistrate may not be misinformed, and much the 
sooner, if liberty of printing be reduced into the power 
of a few ? But to redress willingly and speedily what 
hath been erred, and in highest authority to es- 
teem a plain advertisement more than others have 
done a sumptuous bride, is a virtue (honoured lords 
and commons!) answerable to your highest actions, 
and whereof none can participate but greatest and 
wisest men. 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE 



DIVORCE. 



RESTORED TO THE GOOD OF BOTH SEXES, FROM THE BONDAGE OF CANON LAW, AND OTHER MISTAKES, 

TO THE TRUE MEANING OF SCRIPTURE IN THE LAW AND GOSPEL COMPARED. 

WHEREIN ALSO ARE SET DOWN THE BAD CONSEQUENCES OF ABOLISHING, OR CONDEMNING 

AS SIN, THAT WHICH THE LAW OF GOD ALLOWS, AND CHRIST ABOLISHED NOT. 



NOW THE SECOND TIME REVISED, AND MUCH AUGMENTED, IN TWO BOOKS : TO THE PARLIAMENT 
OF ENGLAND, WITH THE ASSEMBLY. 



Matth, xiii, 52. " Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, which bringcth out of 

his treasury things new and old."' 
Prov. xviii. 13. " He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him." 



[first published 1643, 1644.] 



TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND, WITH THE ASSEMBLY. 



If it were seriously asked, (and it would be no untimely 
question,) renowned parliament, select assembly ! who 
of all teachers and masters, that have ever taught, hath 
drawn the most disciples after him, both in religion 
and in manners ? it might be not untruly answered, 
Custom. Though virtue be commended for the most 
persuasive in her theory, and conscience in the plain 
demonstration of the spirit finds most evincing ; yet 
whether it be the secret of divine will, or the original 
blindness we are born in, so it happens for the most 
part, that custom still is silently received for the best 
instructor. Except it be, because her method is so glib 
and easy, in some manner like to that vision of Ezekiel 
rolling up her sudden book of implicit knowledge, for 
him that will to take and swallow down at pleasure ; 
which proving but of bad nourishment in the concoction, 
as it was heedless in the devouring, puffs up unhealthily 
a certain big face of pretended learning, mistaken 
among credulous men for the wholesome habit of 
soundness and good constitution, but is indeed no 
other than that swoln visage of counterfeit know- 
ledge and literature, which not only in private mars 
our education, but also in public is the common climber 
into every chair, where either religion is preached, or 
law reported : filling each estate of life and profession 
with abject and servile principles, depressing the high 
and heaven-born spirit of man, far beneath the condition 
wherein either God created him, or sin hath sunk him. 
To pursue the allegory, custom being but a mere face, 
as echo is a mere voice, rests not in her unaccomplish- 
ment, until by secret inclination she accorporate herself 



with errour, who being a blind and serpentine body 
without a head, willingly accepts what he wants, and 
supplies what her incompleteness went seeking. Hence 
it is, that errour supports custom, custom countenances 
errour: and these two between them would persecute 
and chase away all truth and solid wisdom out of hu- 
man life, were it not that God, rather than man, once 
in many ages calls together the prudent and religious 
counsels of men, deputed to repress the incroachments, 
and to work off the inveterate blots and obscurities 
wrought upon our minds by the subtle insinuating of 
errour and custom ; who, with the numerous and vul- 
gar train of their followers, make it their chief design 
to envy and cry down the industry of free reasoning, 
under the terms of humour and innovation ; as if the 
womb of teeming truth were to be closed up, if she 
presume to bring forth aught that sorts not with their 
unchewed notions and suppositions. Against which 
notorious injury and abuse of man's free soul, to testify 
and oppose the utmost that study and true labour can 
attain, heretofore the incitement of men reputed grave 
hath led me among others ; and now the duty and the 
right of an instructed Christian calls me through the 
chance of good or evil report, to be the sole advocate 
of a discountenanced truth : a high enterprise, lords 
and commons ! a high enterprise and a hard, and such 
as every seventh son of a seventh son does not venture 
on. Nor have I amidst the clamour of so much envy 
and impertinence whither to appeal, but to the con- 
course of so much piety and wisdom here assembled. 
Bringing in my hands an ancient and most necessary, 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



121 



L 



most charitable, and jet most injured statute of Moses ; 
not repealed ever by him who only had the authority, 
but thrown aside with much inconsiderate neglect, 
under the rubbish of canonical ignorance ; as once the 
whole law was by some such like conveyance in Jo- 
siah's time. And he who shall endeavour the amend- 
ment of any old neglected grievance in church or state, 
or in the daily course of life, if he be gifted with abilities 
of mind, that may raise him to so high an undertaking, 
I grant he hath already much whereof not to repent 
him ; yet let me aread him, not to be the foreman of 
any misjudged opinion, unless his resolutions be firmly 
seated in a square and constant mind, not conscious to 
itself of any deserved blame, and regardless of un- 
grounded suspicions. For this let him be sure, he shall 
be boarded presently by the ruder sort, but not by dis- 
creet and well-nurtured men, with a thousand idle 
descants and surmises. Who when they cannot con- 
fute the least joint or sinew of any passage in the book ; 
yet God forbid that truth should be truth, because they 
have a boisterous conceit of some pretences in the writer. 
But were they not more busy and inquisitive than the 
apostle commends, they would hear him at least, " re- 
joicing so the truth be preached, whether of envy or 
other pretence whatsoever :" for truth is as impossible 
to be soiled by any outward touch, as the sunbeam ; 
though this ill hap wait on her nativity, that she never 
comes into the world, but like a bastard, to the ignominy 
of him that brought her forth ; till time, the midwife 
rather than the mother of truth, have washed and salted 
the infant, declared her legitimate, and churched the 
father of his young Minerva, from the needless causes 
of his purgation. Yourselves can best witness this, 
w r orthy patriots ! and better will, no doubt, hereafter : 
for who among ye of the foremost that have travailed 
in her behalf to the good of church or state, hath not 
been often traduced to be the agent of his own by-ends, 
under pretext of reformation ? So much the more I 
shall not be unjust to hope, that however infamy or 
envy may work in other men to do her fretful will 
against this discourse, yet that the experience of your 
own uprightness misinterpreted will put ye in mind, to 
give it free audience and generous construction. What 
though the brood of Belial the draff of men, to whom 
no liberty is pleasing, but unbridled and vagabond 
lust without pale or partition, will laugh broad per- 
haps, to see so great a strength of Scripture mustering 
up in favour, as they suppose, of their debaucheries ; 
they will know better when they shall hence learn, 
that honest liberty is the greatest foe to dishonest licence. 
And what though others, out of a waterish and queasy 
conscience, because ever crazy and never yet sound, 
will rail and fancy to themselves that injury and licence 
is the best of this book ? Did not the distemper of their 
own stomachs affect them with a dizzy megrim, they 
would soon tie up their tongues, and discern themselves 
like that Assyrian blasphemer, all this while reproach- 
ing not man, but the Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, 
whom they do not deny to have belawgiven his own 
sacred people with this very allowance, which they 
now call injury and licence, and dare cry shame on, 



and will do yet a while, till they get a little cordial 
sobriety to settle their qualming zeal. But this ques- 
tion concerns not us perhaps : indeed man's disposition, 
though prone to search after vain curiosities, yet when 
points of difficulty are to be discussed, appertaining- to 
the removal of unreasonable wrong\and burden from 
the perplexed life of our brother, it is incredible how 
cold, how dull, and far from all fellow-feeling we are, 
without the spur of self-concernment. Yet if the wis- 
dom, the justice, the purity of God be to be cleared 
from foulest imputations, which are not yet avoided ; if 
charity be not to be degraded and trodden down under 
a civil ordinance ; if matrimony be not to be advanced 
like that exalted perdition written of to the Thessalo- 
nians, " above all that is called God," or goodness, nay 
against them both ; then I dare affirm, there will be 
found in the contents of this book that which may con- 
cern us all. You it concerns chiefly, worthies in par- 
liament ! on whom, as on our deliverers, all our griev- 
ances and cares, by the merit of your eminence and 
fortitude, are devolved. Me it concerns next, having 
with much labour and faithful diligence first found 
out, or at least with a fearless and communicative can- 
dour first published to the manifest good of Christendom, 
that which, calling to witness every thing mortal and 
immortal, I believe unfeignedly to be true. Let not 
other men think their conscience bound to search con- 
tinually after truth, to pray for enlightening from 
above, to publish what they think they have so obtain- 
ed, and debar me from conceiving - myself tied by the 
same duties. Ye have now, doubtless, by the favour 
and appointment of God, ye have now in your hands a 
great and populous nation to reform ; from what cor- 
ruption, what blindness in religion, ye know well; in 
what a degenerate and fallen spirit from the apprehen- 
sion of native liberty, and true manliness, I am sure ye 
find ; with what unbounded licence rushing to whore- 
doms and adulteries, needs not long inquiry: insomuch 
that the fears, which men have of too strict a discipline, 
perhaps exceed the hopes, that can be in others, of ever 
introducing it with any great success. What if I 
should tell ye now of dispensations and indulgences, 
to give a little the reins, to let them play and nibble 
with the bait a while; a people as hard of heart as that 
Egyptian colony that went to Canaan. This is the 
common doctrine that adulterous and injurious divorces 
were not connived only, but with eye open allowed of 
old for hardness of heart. But that opinion, I trust, 
by then this following argument hath been well read, 
will be left for one of the mysteries of an indulgent 
Antichrist, to farm out incest by, and those his other 
tributary pollutions. What middle way can be taken 
then, may some interrupt, if we must neither turn to 
the right, nor to the left, and that the people hate to 
be reformed ? Mark then, judges and lawgivers, and 
ye whose office it is to be our teachers, for I will utter 
now a doctrine, if ever any other, though neglected or 
not understood, yet of great and powerful importance 
to the governing of mankind. He who wisely would 
restrain the reasonable soul of man within due bounds, 
must first himself know perfectly, how far the territory 



122 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



and dominion extends of just and honest liberty. As 
little must he offer to bind that which God hath loosened, 
as to loosen that which he hath bound. The ignorance 
and mistake of this high point hath heaped up one huge 
half of all the misery that hath been since Adam. In 
the gospel we shall read a supercilious crew of masters, 
whose holiness, or rather whose evil eye, grieving that 
God should be so faeil to man, was to set straiter limits 
to obedience, than God hath set, to enslave the dignity 
of man, to put a garrison upon his neck of empty and 
over-dignified precepts : and we shall read our Saviour 
never more grieved and troubled, than to meet with such 
a peevish madness among men against their own free- 
dom. How can we expect him to be less offended 
with us, when much of the same folly shall be found 
yet remaining where it least ought, to the perishing of 
thousands ? The greatest burden in the world is super- 
stition, not only of ceremonies in the church, but of ima- 
ginary and scarecrow sins at home. What greater 
weakening, what more subtle stratagem against our 
christian warfare, when besides the gross body of real 
transgressions to encounter, we shall be terrified by a 
vain and shadowy menacing of faults that are not? 
When things indifferent shall be set to overfront us 
under the banners of sin, what wonder if we be routed, 
and by this art of our adversary, fall into the subjec- 
tion of worst and deadliest offences ? The superstition of 
the papist is, "touch not, taste not," when God bids 
both ; and ours is, " part not, separate not," when God 
and charity both permits and commands. " Let all 
your things be done with charity," saith St. Paul ; and 
his master saith, " She is the fulfilling of the law." Yet 
now a civil, an indifferent, a sometime dissuaded law 
of marriage, must be forced upon us to fulfil, not only 
without charity but against her. No place in heaven 
or earth, except hell, where charity may not enter: 
yet marriage, the ordinance of our solace and content- 
ment, the remedy of our loneliness, will not admit now 
either of charity or mercy, to come in and mediate, or 
pacify the fierceness of this gentle ordinance, the un- 
remedied loneliness of this remedy. Advise ye well, 
supreme senate, if charity be thus excluded and ex- 
pulsed, how ye will defend the untainted honour of 
your own actions and proceedings. He who marries, 
intends as little to conspire his own ruin, as he that 
swears allegiance : and as a whole people is in propor- 
tion to an ill government, so is one man to an ill mar- 
riage. If they, against any authority, covenant, or 
statute, may by the sovereign edict of charity, save not 
only their lives but honest liberties from unworthy 
bondage, as well maybe against any private covenant, 
which he never entered to his mischief, redeem himself 
from [insupportable disturbances to honest peace, and 
jnsf contentment: And much the rather, for that to re- 
sist the highest magistrate though tyrannizing, God 
never gave us express allowance, only he gave us rea- 
son, charity, nature, and good example to bear us out; 
but in this economical misfortune thus to demean our- 
selves, besides the warrant of those four great directors, 
which doth as justly belong hither, we have an express 
law of God, and such a law, as whereof our Saviour 



with a solemn threat forbid the abrogating. For no 
effect of tyranny can sit more heavy on the common- 
wealth, than this household unhappiness on the family. 
And farewell all hope of true reformation in the state, 
while such an evil as this lies undiscerned or unre- 
garded in the house : on the redress whereof depends 
not only the spiritful and orderly life of our own grown 
men, but the willing and careful education of our 
children. Let this therefore be now examined, this 
tenure and .freehold of mankind, this native and do- 
mestic charter given us by a greater lord than that 
Saxon king the confessor. Let the statutes of God be 
turned over, be scanned anew, and considered not al- 
together by the narrow intellectuals of quotationists 
and common places, but (as was the ancient right of 
councils) by men of what liberal profession soever, of 
eminent spirit and breeding, joined with a diffuse and 
various knowledge of divine and human things ; able 
to balance and define good and evil, right and wrong, 
throughout every state of life ; able to shew us the 
ways of the Lord straight and faithful as they are, not 
full of cranks and contradictions, and pitfalling dis- 
penses, but with divine insight and benignity measured 
out to the proportion of each mind and spirit, each 
temper and disposition created so different each from 
other, and yet by the skill of wise conducting, all to 
become uniform in virtue. To expedite these knots, 
were worthy a learned and memorable synod ; while 
our enemies expect to see the expectation of the church 
tired out with dependencies and independencies, how 
they will compound, and in what calends. Doubt 
not, worthy senators ! to vindicate the sacred honour 
and judgment of Moses your predecessor, from the 
shallow commenting of scholastics and canonists. 
Doubt not after him to reach out your steady hands to 
the misinformed and wearied life of man ; to restore 
this his lost heritage, into the household state ; where- 
with be sure that peace and love, the best subsistence 
of a christian family, will return home from whence 
they are now banished ; places of prostitution will be 
less haunted, the neighbour's bed less attempted, the 
yoke of prudent and manly discipline will be generally 
submitted to ; sober and well ordered living will soon 
spring up in the commonwealth. Ye have an author 
great beyond exception, Moses ; and one yet greater, 
he who hedged in from abolishing every smallest jot 
and tittle of precious equity contained in that law, 
with a more accurate and lasting Masoreth, than either 
the synagogue of Ezra or the Galilsean school at 
Tiberias hath left us. Whatever else ye can enact, 
will scarce concern a third part of the British name : 
but the benefit and good of this your magnanimous ex- 
ample, will easily spread far beyond the banks of 
Tweed and the Norman isles. It would not be the 
first or second time, since our ancient druids, by whom 
this island was the cathedral of philosophy to France, 
left off their pagan rites, that England hath had this 
honour vouchsafed from heaven, to give out reforma- 
tion to the world. Who was it but our English Con- 
stantine that baptized the Roman empire ? Who but 
the Northumbrian Willibrode, and Winifride of Devon, 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



123 



with their followers, were the first apostles of Germany ? 
Who but Alcuin and Wickliff our countrymen opened 
the eyes of Europe, the one in arts, the other in reli- 
gion ? Let not England forget her precedence of teach- 
ing nations how to live. 

Know, worthies ; and exercise the privilege of your 
honoured country. A greater title I here bring ye, 
than is either in the power or in the policy of Rome to 
give her monarchs ; this glorious act will style ye the 
defenders of charity. Nor is this yet the highest in- 
scription that will adorn so religious and so holy a de- 
fence as this : behold here the pure and sacred law of 
God, and his yet purer and more sacred name, offering 
themselves to you, first of all christian reformers to be 
acquitted from the long-suffered ungodly attribute of 
patronizing adultery. Defer not to wipe off instantly 
these imputative blurs and stains cast by rude fancies 
upon the throne and beauty itself of inviolable holi- 
ness : lest some other people more devout and wise than 
we bereave us this offered immortal glory, our wonted 
prerogative, of being the first asserters in every great 
vindication. For me, as far as my part leads me, I 
have already my greatest gain, assurance and inward 
satisfaction to have done in this nothing unworthy of 
an honest life, and studies well employed. With what 
event, among the wise and right understanding hand- 
ful of men, I am secure. But how among the drove of 
custom and prejudiced this will be relished by such 
whose capacity, since their youth run ahead into the 
easy creek of a system or a medulla, sails there at will 
under the blown physiognomy of their unlaboured ru- 
diments; for them, what their taste will be, I have 
also surety sufficient, from the entire league that hath 
ever been between formal ignorance and grave ob- 
stinacy. Yet when I remember the little that our Sa- 
viour could prevail about this doctrine of charity against 



the crabbed textuists of his time, I make no wonder, 
but rest confident, that whoso prefers either matrimony 
or other ordinance before the good of man and the 
plain exigence of charity, let him profess papist, or 
protestant, or what he will, he is no better than a Pha- 
risee, and understands not the gospel : whom as a mis- 
interpreter of Christ I openly protest ag'ainst ; and 
provoke him to the trial of this truth before all the 
world : and let him bethink him withal how he will 
sodder up the shifting flaws of his ungirt permis- 
sions, his venial and unvenial dispenses, wherewith the 
law of God pardoning and unpardoning hath been 
shamefully branded for want of heed in glossing, to 
have eluded and baffled out all faith and chastity from 
the marriage-bed of that holy seed, with politic and 
judicial adulteries. I seek not to seduce the simple and 
illiterate ; my errand is to find out the choicest and 
the learnedest, who have this high gift of wisdom to 
answer solidly, or to be convinced. I crave it from the 
piety, the learning, and the prudence which is housed 
in this place. It might perhaps more fitly have been 
written in another tongue : and I had done so, but that 
the esteem I have of my country's judgment, and the 
love I bear to my native language to serve it first with 
what I endeavour, made me speak it thus, ere I assay 
the verdict of outlandish readers. And perhaps also 
here I might have ended nameless, but that the address 
of these lines chiefly to the parliament of England 
might have seemed ingrateful not to acknowledge by 
whose religious care, unwearied watchfulness, coura- 
geous and heroic resolutions, I enjoy the peace and 
studious leisure to remain, 

The Honourer and Attendant of their noble Worth 
and Virtues, 

John Milton. 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE 

OF 

DIVORCE; 

RESTORED TO THE GOOD OF BOTH SEXES. 
BOOK I. 



THE PREFACE. 

That man is the occasion of his own miseries in most of those evils which he imputes to God's inflicting. Tlie 
absurdity of our canonists in their decrees about divorce. The christian imperial laws framed with more 
equity. The opinion of Hugo Grotius and Paulus Fagius : And the purpose in general of this discourse. 

Many men, whether it be their fate or fond opinion, easily persuade themselves, if God would but be pleased 
a while to withdraw his just punishments from us, and to restrain what power either the devil or any earthly 
enemy hath to work us wo, that then man's nature would find immediate rest and releasement from all evils. 
But verily they who think so, if they be such as have a mind large enough to take into their thoughts a general 



124 THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 

survey of human things, would soon prove themselves in that opinion far deceived. For though it were granted 
us by divine indulgence to be exempt from all that can be harmful to us from without, yet the perverseness of 
our folly is so bent, that we should never lid hammering out of our own hearts, as it were out of a flint, the 
seeds and sparkles of new misery to ourselves, till all were in a blaze again. And no marvel if out of our own 
hearts, for they are evil ; but even out of those things which God meant us, either for a principal good, or a 
pure contentment, we are still hatching and contriving upon ourselves matter of continual sorrow and per- 
plexity. What greater good to man than that revealed rule, whereby God vouchsafes to shew us how he would 
be worshipped ? And yet that not rightly understood became the cause, that once a famous man in Israel could 
not but oblige his conscience to be the sacrificer ; or if not, the gaoler of his innocent and only daughter : and 
was the cause of ttimes that armies of valiant men have given up their throats to a heathenish enemy on the sab- 
bath day ; fondly thinking their defensive resistance to be as then a work unlawful. What thing more instituted 
to the solace and delight of man than marriage ? And yet the misinterpreting of some scripture, directed mainly 
against the abusers of the law for divorce given by Moses, hath changed the blessing of matrimony not seldom 
into a familiar and coinhabiting mischief; at least into a drooping and disconsolate household captivity, with- 
out refuge or redemption. So ungoverned and so wild a race doth superstition run us, from one extreme of 
abused liberty into the other of unmerciful restraint. For although God in the first ordaining of marriage 
taught us to what end he did it, in words expressly implying the apt and cheerful conversation of man with 
woman, to comfort and refresh him against the evil of solitary life, not mentioning the purpose of generation 
till afterwards, as being but a secondary end in dignity, though not in necessity: yet now, if any two be but 
once handed in the church, and have tasted in any sort the nuptial bed, let them find themselves never so mis- 
taken in their dispositions through any errour, concealment, or misadventure, that through their different 
tempers, thoughts, and constitutions, they can neither be to one another a remedy ag'ainst loneliness, nor live 
in any union or contentment all their days ; yet they shall, so they be but found suitably weaponed to 
the least possibility of sensual enjoyment, be made, spight of antipathy, to fadge together, and combine 
as they may to their unspeakable wearisomeness, and despair of all sociable delight in the ordinance which 
God established to that very end. What a calamity is this, and as the wise man, if he were alive, 
would sigh out in his own phrase, what a " sore evil is this under the sun !" All which we can re- 
fer justly to no other author than the canon law and her adherents, not consulting with charity, the in- 
terpreter and guide of our faith, but resting in the mere element of the text ; doubtless by the policy of 
the devil to make that gracious ordinance become unsupportable, that what with men not daring to ven- 
ture upon wedlock, and what with men wearied out of it, all inordinate licence might abound. It was for 
many ages that marriage lay in disgrace with most of the ancient doctors, as a work of the flesh, almost a 
defilement, wholly denied to priests, and the second time dissuaded to all, as he that reads Tertullian or 
Jerom may see at large. Afterwards it was thought so sacramental, that no adultery or desertion could dis- 
solve it; and this is the sense of our canon courts in England to this day, but in no other reformed church 
else : yet there remains in them also a burden on it as heavy as the other two were disgraceful or super- 
stitious, and of as much iniquity, crossing a law not only written by Moses, but charactered in us by nature, 
of more antiquity and deeper ground than marriage itself; which law is to force nothing against the fault- 
less proprieties of nature, yet that this may be colourably done, our Saviour's words touching divorce are as 
it were congealed into a stony rigour, inconsistent both with his doctrine and his office ; and that which he 
preached only to the conscience is by canonical tyranny snatched into the compulsive censure of a judicial 
court; where laws are imposed even against the venerable and secret power of nature's impression, to love, 
whatever cause be found to loath : which is a heinous barbarism both against the honour of marriage, the 
dignity of man and his soul, the goodness of Christianity, and all the human respects of civility. Notwithstand- 
ing that some the wisest and gravest among the christian emperors, who had about them, to consult with, those 
of the fathers then living, who for their learning and holiness of life are still with us in great renown, have 
made their statutes and edicts concerning this debate far more easy and relenting in many necessary cases, 
wherein the canon is inflexible. And Hugo Grotius, a man of these times, one of the best learned, seems not 
obscurely to adhere in his persuasion to the equity of those imperial decrees, in his notes upon the Evangelists ; 
much allaying the outward roughness of the text, which hath for the most part been too immoderately expounded; 
and excites the diligence of others to inquire further into this question, as containing many points that have not 
yet been explained. Which ever likely to remain intricate and hopeless upon the suppositions commonly stuck 
to, the authority of Paulus Fagius, one so learned and so eminent in England once, if it might persuade, would 
straight acquaint us with a solution of these differences no less prudent than compendious. He, in his com- 
ment on the Pentateuch, doubted not to maintain that divorces might be as lawfully permitted by the magis- 
trate to Christians, as they were to the Jews. But because he is but brief, and these things of great consequence 
not to be kept obscure, I shall conceive it nothing above my duty, either for the difficulty or the censure that 
may pass thereon, to communicate such thoughts as I also have had, and do offer them now in this general 
labour of reformation to the candid view both of church and magistrate : especially because I see it the hope of 
good men, that those irregular and unspiritual courts have spun their utmost date in this land, and some better 
course must now be constituted. This therefore shall be the task and period of this discourse to prove, first, 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



125 



that other reasons of divorce, besides adultery, were by the law of Moses, and are yet to be allowed by the 
christian magistrate as a piece of justice, and that the words of Christ are not hereby contraried. Next, that to 
prohibit absolutely any divorce whatsoever, except those which Moses excepted, is against the reason of law, 
as in due place I shall shew out of Fagius with many additions. He therefore who by adventuring-, shall be 
so happy as with success to light the way of such an expedient liberty and truth as this, shall restore the much- 
wronged and over-sorrowed state of matrimony, not only to those merciful and life-giving- remedies of Moses, 
but as much as may be, to that serene and blissful condition it was in at the beginning-, and shall deserve of all 
apprehensive men, (considering the troubles and distempers, which, for want of this insight have been so oft in 
kino-doms,in states, and families,) shall deserve to be reckoned among the public benefactors of civil and human 
life, above the inventors of wine and oil ; for this is a far dearer, far nobler, and more desirable cherishing to 
man's life, unworthily exposed to sadness and mistake, which he shall vindicate. Not that licence, and levity, 
and unconsented breach of faith should herein be countenanced, but that some conscionable and tender pity 
might be had of those who have unwarily, in a thing they never practised before, made themselves the bondmen 
of a luckless and helpless matrimony. In which argument, he whose courage can serve him to give the first 
onset, must look for two several oppositions ; the one from those who having sworn themselves to long custom, 
and the letter of the text, will not out of the road; the other from those whose gross and vulgar apprehensions 
conceit but low of matrimonial purposes, and in the work of male and female think they have all. Neverthe- 
less, it shall be here sought by due ways to be made appear, that those words of God in the institution, promis- 
ing a meet help against loneliness, and those words of Christ, " that his yoke is easy, and his burden light," 
were not spoken in vain : for if the knot of marriage may in no case be dissolved but for adultery, all the bur- 
dens and services of the law are not so intolerable. This only is desired of them who are minded to judge 
hardly of thus maintaining, that they would be still, and hear all out, nor think it equal to answer deliberate 
reason with sudden heat and noise ; remembering this, that many truths now of reverend esteem and credit, 
had their birth and beginning once from singular and private thoughts, while the most of men were otherwise 
possessed; and had the fate at first to be generally exploded and exclaimed on by many violent opposers : yet 
I may err perhaps in soothing myself, that this present truth revived will deserve on all hands to be not sinis- 
terly received, in that it undertakes the cure of an inveterate disease crept into the best part of human society; 
and to do this with no smarting corrosive, but with a smooth and pleasing lesson, which received hath the virtue 
to soften and dispel rooted and knotty sorrows, and without enchantment, if that be feared, or spell used, hath 
regard at once both to serious pity and upright honesty ; that tends to the redeeming and restoring of none but 
such as are the object of compassion, having in an ill hour hampered themselves, to the utter dispatch of all 
their most beloved comforts and repose for this life's term. But if we shall obstinately dislike this new overture 
of unexpected ease and recovery, what remains but to deplore the frowardness of our hopeless condition, which 
neither can endure the estate we are in, nor admit of remedy either sharp or sweet. Sharp we ourselves dis- 
taste ; and sweet, under whose hands we are, is scrupled and suspected as too luscious. In such a posture Christ 
found the Jews, who were neither won with the austerity of John the Baptist, and thought it too much licence 
to follow freely the charming pipe of him who sounded and proclaimed liberty and relief to all distresses: yet 
truth in some age or other will find her witness, and shall be justified at last by her own children. 



CHAP. I. 



The position proved by the law of Moses. That law expounded and asserted to a moral and charitable use, 
first by Paulus Fagius, next with other additions. 



To remove therefore, if it be possible, this great and 
sad oppression, which through the strictness of a literal 
interpreting hath invaded and disturbed the dearest 
and most peaceable estate of household society, to the 
overburdening, if not the overwhelming of many Chris- 
tians better worth than to be so deserted of the church's 
considerate care, this position shall be laid down, first 
proving, then answering what may be objected either 
from Scripture or light of reason. 

" That indisposition, unfitness, or contrariety of 
mind, arising from a cause in nature unchangeable, 



hindering, and ever likely to hinder, the main benefits 
of conjugal society, which are solace and peace; is a 
greater reason of divorce than natural frigidity, espe- 
cially if there be no children, and that there be mutual 
consent." 

This I gather from the law in Deut. xxiv. 1. " When 
a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come 
to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he 
hath found some uncleanness in her, let him write her 
a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and 
send her out of his house," &c. This law, if the words 



126 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



of Christ may be admitted into our belief, shall never 
while the world stands, for him be abrogated. First 
therefore I here set down what learned Fagius hath 
observed on this law ; " the law of God," saith he, 
" permitted divorce for the help of human weakness. 
For every one that of necessity separates, cannot live 
single. That Christ denied divorce to his own, hinders 
not; for what is that to the unregenerate, who hath 
not attained such perfection ? Let not the remedy be 
despised, which was given to weakness. And when 
Christ saith, who marries the divorced commits adultery, 
it is to be understood if he had any plot in the divorce." 
The rest I reserve until it be disputed, how the magis- 
trate is to do herein. From hence we may plainly dis- 
cern a twofold consideration in this law: first, the end 
of the lawgiver, and the proper act of the law, to com- 
mand or to allow something just and honest, or indif- 
ferent. Secondly, his sufferance from some accidental 
result of evil by this allowance, which the law cannot 
remedy. For if this law have no other end or act but 
only the allowance of sin, though never to so good in- 
tention, that law is no law, but sin muffled in the robe 
of law, or law disguised in the loose garment of sin. 
Both which are too foul hypotheses, to save the phae- 
nomenon of our Saviour's answer to the Pharisees about 
this matter. And I trust anon by the help of an infal- 
lible guide, to perfect such Prutenic tables, as shall 
mend the astronomy of our wide expositors. 

The cause of divorce mentioned in the law is trans- 
lated " some uncleanness," but in the Hebrew it sounds 
" nakedness of aught, or any real nakedness:" which 
by all the learned interpreters is referred to the mind 
as well as to the body. And what greater nakedness 
or unfitness of mind than that which hinders ever the 
solace and peaceful society of the married couple ; and 
what hinders that more than the unfitness and defec- 
tiveness of an unconjugal mind ? The cause therefore 
of divorce expressed in the position cannot but agree 
with that described in the best and equallest sense of 
Moses's law. Which, being a matter of pure charity, 
is plainly moral, and more now in force than ever; 
therefore surely lawful. For if under the law such 
was God's gracious indulgence, as not to suffer the 
ordinance of his goodness and favour through any errour 
to be seared and stigmatized upon his servants to their 
misery and thraldom ; much less will he suffer it now 
under the covenant of grace, by abrogating his former 
grant of remedy and relief. But the first institution 
will be objected to have ordained marriage inseparable. 
To that a little patience until this first part have amply 
discoursed the grave and pious reasons of this divorcive 
law ; and then I doubt not but with one gentle stroking 
to wipe away ten thousand tears out of the life of man. 
Yet thus much I shall now insist on, that whatever the 
institution were, it could not be so enormous, nor so 
rebellious against both nature and reason, as to exalt 
itself above the end and person for whom it was insti- 
tuted. 



CHAP. II. 

The first reason of this law grounded on the prime rea- 
son of matrimony. That no covenant whatsoever 
obliges against the main end both of itself and of the 
parties covenanting. 

Fok all sense and equity reclaims, that any law or 
covenant, how solemn or strait soever, either between 
God and man, or man and man, though of God's join- 
ing, should bind against a prime and principal scope 
of its own institution, and of both or either party cove- 
nanting: neither can it be of force to engage a blame- 
less creature to his own perpetual sorrow, mistaken for 
his expected solace, without suffering charity to step in 
and do a confessed good work of parting those, whom 
nothing holds together but this of God's joining, falsely 
supposed against the express end of his own ordinance. 
And what his chief end was of creating woman to be 
joined with man, his own instituting words declare, 
and are infallible to inform us what is marriage, and 
what is no marriage; unless we can think them set 
there to no purpose : " it is not good," saith he, " that 
man should be alone, I will make him a help meet for 
him." From which words, so plain, less cannot be 
concluded, nor is by any learned interpreter, than that 
in God's intention a meet and happy conversation is 
the chiefest and the noblest end of marriage : for we 
find here no expression so necessarily implying carnal 
knowledge, as this prevention of loneliness to the mind 
and spirit of man. To this, Fagius, Calvin, Pareus, 
Rivetus, as willingly and largely assent as can be 
wished. And indeed it is a greater blessing from God, 
more worthy so excellent a creature as man is, and a 
higher end to honour and sanctify the league of mar- 
riage, whenas the solace and satisfaction of the mind 
is regarded and provided for before the sensitive pleas- 
ing of the body. And with all generous persons mar- 
ried thus it is, that where the mind and person pleases 
aptly, there some unaccomplishment of the body's de- 
light may be better borne with, than when the mind 
hangs off in an unclosing disproportion, though the 
body be as it ought; for there all corporal delight will 
soon become unsavoury and contemptible. And the 
solitariness of man, which God had namely and prin- 
cipally ordered to prevent by marriage, hath no remedy, 
but lies under a worse condition than the loneliest sin- 
gle life : for in single life the absence and remoteness 
of a helper might inure him to expect his own comforts 
out of himself, or to seek with hope ; but here the con- 
tinual sight of his deluded thoughts, without cure, 
must needs be to him, if especially his complexion in- 
cline him to melancholy, a daily trouble and pain of 
loss, in some degree like that which reprobates feel. 
Lest therefore so noble a creature as man should be 
shut up incurably under a worse evil by an easy mis- 
take in that ordinance which God gave him to remedy 
a less evil, reaping to himself sorrow while he went to 
rid away solitariness, it cannot avoid to be concluded, 
that if the woman be naturally so of disposition, as will 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



127 



not help to remove, but help to increase that same God- 
forbidden loneliness, which will in time draw on with 
it a general discomfort and dejection of mind, not be- 
seeming- either christian profession or moral conversa- 
tion, unprofitable and dangerous to the commonwealth, 
when the household estate, out of which must flourish 
forth the vigour and spirit of all public enterprises, is 
so illcontented and procured at home, and cannot be 
supported ; such a marriage can be no marriage, whereto 
the most honest end is wanting: and the ag-grieved 
person shall do more manly, to be extraordinary and 
singular in claiming the due right whereof he is frus- 
trated, than to piece up his lost contentment by visiting 
the stews, or stepping to his neighbour's bed ; which 
is the common shift in this misfortune : or else by suf- 
fering his useful life to waste away, and be lost under 
a secret affliction of an unconscionable size to human 
strength. Against all which evils the mercy of this 
Mosaic law was graciously exhibited. 



CHAP. III. 

The ignorance and iniquity of canon law, providing for 
the right of the body in marriage, but nothing for the 
ivrongs and grievances of the mind. An objection, 
that the mind should be better looked to before con- 
tract, answered. 

How vain therefore is it, and how preposterous in 
the canon law, to have made such careful provision 
against the impediment of carnal performance, and to 
have had no care about the unconversing inability of 
mind so defective to the purest and most sacred end of 
matrimony ; and that the vessel of voluptuous enjoy- 
ment must be made good to him that has taken it upon 
trust, without any caution ; whenas the mind, from 
whence must flow the acts of peace and love, a far 
more precious mixture than the quintescence of an ex- 
crement, though it be found never so deficient and 
unable to perform the best duty of marriage in a cheer- 
ful and agreeable conversation, shall be thought good 
enough, however flat and melancholious it be, and 
must serve, though to the eternal disturbance and lan- 
guishing of him that complains! Yet wisdom and 
charity, weighing God's own institution, would think 
that the pining of a sad spirit wedded to loneliness 
should deserve to be freed, as well as the impatience of 
a sensual desire so providently relieved. It is read to 
us in the liturgy, that " we must not marry to satisfy 
the fleshly appetite, like brute beasts, that have no 
understanding ;" but the canon so runs, as if it dreamed 
of no other matter than such an appetite to be satis- 
fied ; for if it happen that nature hath stopped or ex- 
tinguished the veins of sensuality, that marriage is 
annulled. But though all the faculties of the under- 
standing and conversing part after trial appear to be so 
ill and so aversely met through nature's unalterable 
working, as that neither peace, nor any sociable con- 
tentment can follow, it is as nothing; the contract 



shall stand as firm as ever, betide what will. What is 
this but secretly to instruct us, that however many grave 
reasons are pretended to the married life, yet that no- 
thing indeed is thought worth regard therein, but the 
prescribed satisfaction of an irrational heat ? Which 
cannot be but ignominious to the state of marriage, 
dishonourable to the undervalued soul of man, and 
even to christian doctrine itself: while it seems more 
moved at the disappointing of an impetuous nerve, than 
at the ingenuous grievance of a mind unreasonably 
yoked ; and to place more of marriage in the channel 
of concupiscence, than in the pure influence of peace 
and love, whereof the soul's lawful contentment is the 
only fountain. 

But some are ready to object, that the disposition 
ought seriously to be considered before. But let them 
know again, that for all the wariness can be used, it 
may yet befall a discreet man to be mistaken in his 
choice, and we have plenty of examples. The soberest 
and best governed men are least practised in these 
affairs ; and who knows not that the bashful muteness 
of a virgin may ofttimes hide all the unliveliness and 
natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation ; 
nor is there that freedom of access granted or presumed, 
as may suffice to a perfect discerning till too late ; and 
where any indisposition is suspected, what more usual 
than the persuasion of friends, that acquaintance, as it 
increases, will amend all ? And lastly, it is not strange 
though many, who have spent their youth chastely, are 
in some things not so quick -sighted, while they haste 
too eagerly to light the nuptial torch ; nor is it there- 
fore that for a modest errour a man should forfeit so 
great a happiness, and no charitable means to release 
him : since they who have lived most loosely, by reason 
of their bold accustoming, prove most successful in 
their matches, because their wild affections unsettling 
at will, have been as so many divorces to teach them 
experience. Whenas the sober man honouring the 
appearance of modesty, and hoping well of every 
social virtue under that veil, may easily chance to meet, 
if not with a body impenetrable, yet often with a mind 
to all other due conversation inaccessible, and to all 
the more estimable and superior purposes of matri- 
mony useless and almost lifeless : and what a solace, 
what a fit help such a consort would be through the 
whole life of a man, is less pain to conjecture than to 
have experience. 



CHAP. IV. 

The second reason of this law, because without it, mar- 
riage as it happens oft is not a remedy of that which 
it promises, as any rational creature would expect. 
That marriage, if we pattern from the beginning, as 
our Saviour bids, was not properly the remedy of lust, 
but the fulfilling of conjugal love and helpfulness. 

And that we may further see what a violent cruel 
thing- it is to force the continuing of those together, 



128 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



whom God and nature in the gentlest end of marriage 
never joined ; divers evils and extremities, that follow 
upon such a compulsion, shall here be set in view. Of 
evils, the first and greatest is, that hereby a most ab- 
surd and rash imputation is fixed upon God and his 
holy laws, of conniving and dispensing with open and 
common adultery among his chosen people ; a thing 
which the rankest politician would think it shame and 
disworship that his laws should countenance: how and 
in what manner that comes to pass I shall reserve till 
the course of method brings on the unfolding of many 
scriptures. Next, the law and gospel are hereby made 
liable to more than one contradiction, which I refer 
also thither. Lastly, the supreme dictate of charity is 
hereby many ways neglected and violated ; which I 
shall forthwith address to prove. First, we know St. 
Paul saith, It is better to marry than to burn. Mar- 
riage therefore was given as a remedy of that trouble; 
but what might this burning mean ? Certainly not 
the mere motion of carnal lust, not the mere goad of a 
sensitive desire : God does not principally take care 
for such cattle. What is it then but that desire which 
God put into Adam in Paradise, before he knew the 
sin of incontinence ; that desire which God saw it was 
not good that man should be left alone to burn in, the 
desire and longing to put off an unkindly solitariness 
by uniting another body, but not without a fit soul to 
his, in the cheerful society of wedlock ? Which if it 
were so needful before the fall, when man was much 
more perfect in himself, how much more is it needful 
now against all the sorrows and casualties of this life, 
to have an intimate and speaking help, a ready and 
reviving associate in marriage ? Whereof who misses, 
by chancing on a mute and spiritless mate, remains 
more alone than before, and in a burning less to be 
contained than that which is fleshly, and more to be 
considered; as being more deeply rooted even in the 
faultless innocence of nature. As for that other burn- 
ing, which is but as it were the venom of a lusty and 
over-abounding concoction, strict life and labour, with 
the abatement of a full diet, may keep that low and 
obedient enough : but this pure and more inbred desire 
of joining to itself in conjugal fellowship a fit con- 
versing soul (which desire is properly called love) 
" is stronger than death," as the spouse of Christ 
thought; " many waters cannot quench it, neither can 
the floods drown it." This is that rational burning 
that marriage is to remedy, not to be allayed with fast- 
ing, nor with any penance to be subdued : which how 
can he assuage who by mishap hath met the most un- 
meet and unsuitable mind ? Who hath the power to 
struggle with an intelligible flame, not in Paradise to 
be resisted, become now more ardent by being failed 
of what in reason it looked for; and even then most 
unquenched, when the importunity of a provender 
burning is well enough appeased ; and yet the soul 
hath obtained nothing of what it justly desires. Cer- 
tainly such a one forbidden to divorce, is in effect for- 
bidden to marry, and compelled to greater difficulties 
than in a single life: for if there be not a more hu- 
mane burning which marriage must satisfy, or else 



may be dissolved, than that of copulation, marriage 
cannot be honourable for the meet reducing and termi- 
nating lust between two; seeing many beasts in vo- 
luntary and chosen couples live together as unadulte- 
rously, and are as truly married in that respect. But 
all ingenuous men will see that the dignity and bless- 
ing of marriage is placed rather in the mutual enjoy- 
ment of that which the wanting soul needfully seeks, 
than of that which the plenteous body would joyfully 
give away. Hence it is that Plato in his festival dis- 
course brings in Socrates relating what he feigned to 
have learned from the prophetess Diotima, how Love 
was the son of Penury, begot of Plenty in the garden 
of Jupiter. Which divinely sorts with that which in 
effect Moses tells us, that Love was the son of Loneli- 
ness, begot in Paradise by that sociable and helpful 
aptitude which God implanted between man and wo- 
man toward each other. The same also is that burn- 
ing mentioned by St. Paul, whereof marriage ought 
to be the remedy: the flesh hath other mutual and easy 
curbs which are in the power of any temperate man. 
When therefore this original and sinless penury or 
loneliness of the soul cannot lay itself down by the 
side of such a meet and acceptable union as God or- 
dained in marriage, at least in some proportion, it can- 
not conceive and bring forth love, but remains utterly 
unmarried under a former wedlock, and still burns in 
the proper meaning of St. Paul. Then enters Hate, 
not that hate that sins, but that which only is natural 
dissatisfaction, and the turning aside from a mistaken 
object: if that mistake have done injury, it fails not to 
dismiss with recompense ; for to retain still, and not be 
able to love, is to heap up more injury. Thence this 
wise and pious law of dismission now defended, took 
beginning : he therefore who lacking of his due in the 
most native and humane end of marriage, thinks it 
better to part than to live sadly and injuriously to that 
cheerful covenant, (for not to be beloved, and yet re- 
tained, is the greatest injury to a gentle spirit,) he I 
say, who therefore seeks to part, is one who highly 
honours the married life and would not stain it : and 
the reasons which now move him to divorce, are equal 
to the best of those that could first warrant him to 
marry; for, as was plainly shewn, both the hate which 
now diverts him, and the loneliness which leads him 
still powerfully to seek a fit help, hath not the least 
grain of a sin in it, if he be worthy to understand him- 
self. 



CHAP. V. 

The third reason of this law, because without it, he 
who has happened where he finds nothing hut remedi- 
less offences and discontents, is in more and greater 
temptations than ever before. 

Thirdly, Yet it is next to be feared, if he must be 
still bound without reason by a deaf rigour, that when 






THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



he perceives the just expectance of his mind defeated, 
he will begin even against law to cast about where he 
may find his satisfaction more complete, unless he be a 
thing heroically virtuous ; and that are not the com- 
mon lump of men, for whom chiefly the laws ought to 
be made ; though not to their sins, yet to their unsin- 
ning weaknesses, it being above their strength to en- 
dure the lonely estate, which while they shunned they 
are fallen into. And yet there follows upon this a 
worse temptation : for if he be such as hath spent his 
youth unblamably, and laid up his chiefest earthly 
comforts in the enjoyments of a contented marriage, 
nor did neglect that furtherance which was to be ob- 
tained therein by constant prayers ; when he shall find 
himself bound fast to an uncomplying discord of na- 
ture, or, as it oft happens, to an image of earth and 
phlegm, with whom he looked to be the copartner of a 
sweet and gladsome society, and sees withal that his 
bondage is now inevitable; though he be almost the 
strongest Christian, he will be ready to despair in vir- 
tue, and mutiny against Divine Providence : and this 
doubtless is the reason of those lapses, and that me- 
lancholy despair, which we see in many wedded per- 
sons, though they understand it not, or pretend other 
causes, because they know no remedy ; and is of ex- 
treme danger: therefore when human frailty sur- 
charged is at such a loss, charity ought to venture 
much, and use bold physic, lest an overtossed faith en- 
danger to shipwreck. 



CHAP. VI. 

The fourth reason of this law, that God regards love 
and peace in the family, more than a compulsive per- 
formance of marriage, which is more broke by a 
grievous continuance, than by a needful divorce. 

Fourthly, Marriage is a covenant, the very being 
whereof consists not in a forced cohabitation, and coun- 
terfeit performance of duties, but in unfeigned love and 
peace : and of matrimonial love, no doubt but that was 
chiefly meant, which by the ancient sages was thus 
parabled ; that Love, if he be not twin born, yet hath 
a brother wondrous like him, called Anteros ; whom 
while he seeks all about, his chance is to meet with 
many false and feigning desires, that wander singly 
up and down in his likeness : by them in their bor- 
rowed garb, Love, though not wholly blind, as poets 
wrong him, yet having but one eye, as being born an 
archer aiming, and that eye not the quickest in this dark 
region here below, which is not Love's proper sphere, 
partly out of the simplicity and credulity which is na- 
tive to him, often deceived, embraces and consorts him 
with these obvious and suborned striplings, as if they 
were his mother's own sons ; for so he thinks them, 
while they subtilly keep themselves most on his blind 
side. But after a while, as his manner is, when soar- 
ing up into the high tower of his Apogseum, above the 



_ 3 !> v 3Jl_ 

129 

tfOQ 

shadow of the earth, he darts out the direct rays of his 
then most piercing eyesight upon the impostures and 
trim disguises that were used with him, and discerns 
that this is not his genuine brother as he imagined ; he 
has no longer the power to hold fellowship with such 
a personated mate : for straight his arrows lose their 
golden heads, and shed their purple feathers, his silken 
braids untwine, and slip their knots, and that original 
and fiery virtue given him by fate all on a sudden goes 
out, and leaves him undeified and despoiled of all his 
force; till finding Anteros at last, he kindles and re- 
pairs the almost faded ammunition of his deity by the 
reflection of a coequal and homogeneal fire. Thus 
mine author sung it to me : and by the leave of those 
who would be counted the only grave ones, this is no 
mere amatorious novel (though to be wise and skilful 
in these matters, men heretofore of greatest name in 
virtue have esteemed it one of the highest arcs, that 
human contemplation circling upwards can make from 
the globy sea whereon she stands) : but this is a deep 
and serious verity, shewing us that love in marriage 
cannot live nor subsist unless it be mutual ; and where 
love cannot be, there can be left of wedlock nothing 
but the empty husk of an outside matrimony, as unde- 
lightful and unpleasing to God as any other kind of 
hypocrisy. So far is his command from tying men to 
the observance of duties which there is no help for, 
but they must be dissembled. If Solomon's advice be 
not over-frolic, " live joyfully," saith he, " with the wife 
whom thou lovest, all thy days, for that is thy portion." 
How then, where we find it impossible to rejoice or to 
love, can we obey this precept ? How miserably do 
we defraud ourselves of that comfortable portion, which 
God gives us, by striving vainly to glue an errour to- 
gether, which God and nature will not join, adding 
but more vexation and violence to that blissful society 
by our importunate superstition, that will not hearken 
to St. Paul, 1 Cor. vii. who, speaking of marriage and 
divorce, determines plain enough in general, that God 
therein " hath called us to peace, and not to bondage." 
Yea, God himself commands in his law more than once, 
and by his prophet Malachi, as Calvin and the best 
translations read, that " he who hates, let him divorce," 
that is, he who cannot love. Hence it is that the rab- 
bins, and Maimonides, famous among the rest, in a 
book of his set forth by Buxtorfius, tells us, that "di- 
vorce was permitted by Moses to preserve peace in 
marriage, and quiet in the family." Surely the Jews 
had their saving peace about them as well as we, yet 
care was taken that this wholesome provision for 
household peace should also be allowed them : and 
must this be denied to Christians ? O perverseness ! 
that the law should be made more provident of peace- 
making than the gospel ! that the gospel should be 
put to beg a most necessary help of mercy from the 
law, but must not have it ; and that to grind in the 
mill of an undelighted and servile copulation, must be 
the only forced work of a christian marriage, ofttimes 
with such a yokefellow, from whom both love and 
peace, both nature and religion mourns to be sepa- 
rated. I cannot therefore be so diffident, as not se- 



130 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



curely to conclude, that he who can receive nothing of 
the most important helps in marriage, being thereby 
disinabled to return that duty which is his, with a clear 
and hearty countenance, and thus continues to grieve 
whom he would not, and is no less grieved ; that man 
ought even for love's sake and peace to move divorce 
upon good and liberal conditions to the divorced. 
And it is a less breach of wedlock to part with wise and 
quiet consent betimes, than still to foil and profane 
that mystery of joy and union with a polluting sadness 
and perpetual distemper : for it is not the outward con- 
tinuing of marriage that keeps whole that covenant, 
but whatsoever does most according' to peace and love, 
whether in marriage or in divorce, he it is that breaks 
marriage least ; it being so often written, that " Love 
only is the fulfilling of every commandment." 



CHAP. VII. 

The fifth reason, that nothing more hinders and dis- 
turbs the whole life of a Christian, than a matrimony 
found to be incurably unfit, and doth the same in 
effect that an idolatrous match. 

Fifthly, As those priests of old were not to be long 
in sorrow, or if they were, they could not rightly exe- 
cute their function ; so every true Christian in a higher 
order of priesthood, is a person dedicate to joy and 
peace, offering himself a lively sacrifice of praise and 
thanksgiving, and there is no christian duty that is not 
to be seasoned and set off with cheerishness ; which in 
a thousand outward and intermitting crosses may yet 
be done well, as in this vale of tears : but in such a bo- 
som affliction as this, crushing the very foundation of 
his inmost nature, when he shall be forced to love 
against a possibility, and to use a dissimulation against 
his soul in the perpetual and ceaseless duties of a hus- 
band ; doubtless his whole duty of serving God must 
needs be blurred and tainted with a sad unprepared- 
ness and dejection of spirit wherein God has no delight. 
Who sees not therefore how much more Christianity 
it would be to break by divorce, that which is more 
broken by undue and forcible keeping, rather than " to 
cover the altar of the Lord with continual tears, so that 
he rcgardeth not the offering any more," rather than 
that the whole worship of a christian man's life should 
languish and fade away beneath the weight of an im- 
measurable grief and discouragement ? And because 
some think the children of a second matrimony suc- 
ceeding a divorce would not be a holy seed, it hindered 
not the Jews from being so ; and why should we not 
think them more holy than the offspring of a former 
ill-twisted wedlock, begotten only out of a bestial ne- 
cessity, without any true love or contentment, or joy 
to their parents? So that in some sense we may call 
them the " children of wrath" and anguish, which will 
as little conduce to their sanctifying, as if they had 
been bastards: for nothing more than disturbance of 
mind suspends us from approaching to God ; such a 



disturbance especially, as both assaults our faith and 
trust in God's providence, and ends, if there be not a 
miracle of virtue on either side, not only in bitterness 
and wrath, the canker of devotion, but in a desperate 
and vicious carelessness, when he sees himself, without 
fault of his, trained by a deceitful bait into a snare of 
misery, betrayed by an alluring ordinance, and then 
made the thrall of heaviness and discomfort by an un- 
divorcing law of God, as he erroneously thinks, but of 
man's iniquity, as the truth is : for that God prefers the 
free and cheerful worship of a Christian, before the 
grievance and exacted observance of an unhappy mar- 
riage, besides that the general maxims of religion as- 
sure us, will be more manifest by drawing a parallel 
argument from the ground of divorcing an idolatress, 
which was, lest he should alienate his heart from the 
true worship of God : and what difference is there 
whether she pervert him to superstition by her enticing- 
sorcery, or disenable him in the whole service of God 
through the disturbance of her unhelpful and unfit 
society ; and so drive him at last, through murmuring 
and despair, to thoughts of atheism ? Neither doth it 
lessen the cause of separating, in that the one willingly 
allures him from the faith, the other perhaps unwill- 
ingly drives him ; for in the account of God it comes 
all to one, that the wife loses him a servant : and there- 
fore by all the united force of the Decalogue she ought 
to be disbanded, unless we must set marriage above 
God and charity, which is the doctrine of devils, no 
less than forbidding to marry. 



CHAP. VIII. 

That an idolatrous heretic ought to be divorced, after 
a convenient space given to hope of conversion. That 
place of 1 Cor. vii. restored from a twofold errone- 
ous exposition ; and that the common expositors 
flatly contradict the moral law. 

And here by the way, to illustrate the whole ques- 
tion of divorce, ere this treatise end, I shall not be loth 
to spend a few lines in hope to give a full resolve of 
that which is yet so much controverted ; whether an 
idolatrous heretic ought to be divorced. To the resolv- 
ing whereof we must first know, that the Jews were 
commanded to divorce an unbelieving Gentile for two 
causes : First, because all other nations, especially the 
Canaanites, were to them unclean. Secondly, to avoid 
seducement. That other nations were to the Jews im- 
pure, even to the separating of marriage, will appear 
out of Exod. xxxiv. 16, Deut. vii. 3, 6, compared with 
Ezra ix. 2, also chap. x. 10, 11, Neh. xiii. 30. This 
was the ground of that doubt raised among the Corin- 
thians by some of the circumcision ; whether an unbe- 
liever were not still to be counted an unclean thing, so 
as that they ought to divorce from such a person. This 
doubt of theirs St. Paul removes by an evangelical 
reason, having respect to that vision of St. Peter, where- 
in the distinction of clean and unclean being abolished, 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



131 



all living creatures were sanctified to a pure and chris- 
tian use, and mankind especially, now invited by a 
general call to the covenant of grace. Therefore saith 
St. Paul, " The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the 
husband;" that is, made pure and lawful to his use, 
so that he need not put her away for fear lest her un- 
belief should defile him; but that if he found her love 
still towards him, he might rather hope to win her. 
The second reason of that divorce was to avoid seduce- 
ment, as is proved by comparing those two places of 
the law to that which Ezra and Nehemiah did by di- 
vine warrant iu compelling the Jews to forego their 
wives. And this reason is moral and perpetual in the 
rule of christian faith without evasion ; therefore saith 
the apostle, 2 Cor. vi. " Misyoke not together with 
infidels," which is interpreted of marriage in the first 
place. And although the former legal pollution be now 
done off, yet there is a spiritual contagion in idolatry 
as much to be shunned ; and though seducement were 
not to be feared, yet where there is no hope of convert- 
ing, there always ought to be a certain religious aver- 
sation and abhorring, which can no way sort with 
marriage : Therefore saith St. Paul, " What fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? What com- 
munion hath light with darkness ? What concord hath 
Christ with Belial ? What part hath he that believeth 
with an infidel?" And in the next verse but one 
he moralizes, and makes us liable to that command of 
Isaiah ; " Wherefore come out from among them, and 
be separate, saith the Lord ; touch not the unclean 
thing, and I will receive ye." And this command thus 
gospelized to us, hath the same force with that where- 
on Ezra grounded the pious necessity of divorcing. 
Neither had he other commission for what he did, 
than such a general command in Deut. as this, nay 
not so direct ; for he is bid there not to marry, but 
not bid to divorce, and yet we see with what a zeal 
and confidence he was the author of a general divorce 
between the faithful and the unfaithful seed. The 
gospel is more plainly on his side, according to three 
of the evangelists, than the words of the law ; for 
where the case of divorce is handled with such seve- 
rity, as was fittest to aggravate the fault of unbounded 
licence ; yet still in the same chapter, when it comes 
into question afterwards, whether any civil respect, or 
natural relation which is dearest, may be our plea to 
divide, or hinder or but delay our duty to religion, we 
hear it determined that father, and mother, and wife 
also, is not only to be hated, but forsaken, if we mean 
to inherit the great reward there promised. Nor will 
it suffice to be put off by saying we must forsake them 
only by not consenting- or not complying with them, 
for that were to be done, and roundly too, though being 
of the same faith, they should but seek out of a fleshly 
tenderness to weaken our christian fortitude with 
worldly persuasions, or but to unsettle our constancy 
with timorous and softening suggestions ; as we may 
read with what a vehemence Job, the patientest of 
men, rejected the desperate counsels of his wife ; and 
Moses, the meekest, being thoroughly offended with 
the prophane speeches of Zippora, sent her back to her 



father. But if they shall perpetually, at our elbow, 
seduce us from the true worship of God, or defile and 
daily scandalize our conscience by their hopeless con- 
tinuance in misbelief; then even in the due progress 
of reason, and that ever equal proportion which justice 
proceeds by, it cannot be imagined that his cited place 
commands less than a total and final separation from 
such an adherent ; at least that no force should be used 
to keep them together ; while we remember that God 
commanded Abraham to send away his irreligious wife 
and her son for the offences which they gave in a pious 
family. And it may be guessed that David for the like 
cause disposed of Michal in such a sort, as little differed 
from a dismission. Therefore against reiterated scan- 
dals and seducements, which never cease, much more 
can no other remedy or retirement be found but abso- 
lute departure. For what kind of matrimony can that 
remain to be, what one duty between such can be per- 
formed as it should be from the heart, when their 
thoughts and spirits fly asunder as far as heaven and 
hell ; especially if the time that hope should send forth 
her expected blossoms, be past in vain ? It will easily 
be true, that a father or a brother may be hated zeal- 
ously, and loved civilly or naturally ; for those duties 
may be performed at distance, and do admit of any 
long absence : but how the peace and perpetual coha- 
bitation of marriage can be kept, how that benevolent 
and intimate communion of body can be held, with one 
that must be hated with a most operative hatred, must 
be forsaken and yet continually dwelt with and accom- 
panied ; he who can distinguish, hath the gift of an 
affection very oddly divided and contrived : while 
others both just and wise, and Solomon among the rest, 
if they may not hate and forsake as Moses enjoins, 
and the gospel imports, will find it impossible not to 
love otherwise than will sort with the love of God, 
whose jealousy brooks no corrival. And whether is 
more likely, that Christ bidding to forsake wife for 
religion, meant it by divorce as Moses meant it, whose 
law, grounded on moral reason, was both his office and 
his essence to maintain ; or that he should bring a new 
morality into religion, not only new, but contrary to 
an unchangeable command, and dangerously derogat- 
ing from our love and worship of God ? As if when 
Moses had bid divorce absolutely, and Christ had said, 
hate and forsake, and his apostle had said, no commu- 
nication with Christ and Belial ; yet that Christ after 
all this could be understood to say, divorce not, no not 
for religion, seduce, or seduce not. What mighty and 
invisible remora is this in matrimony, able to demur 
and to contemn all the divorcive engines in heaven or 
earth ! both which may now pass away, if this be true, 
for more than many jots or tittles, a whole moral law 
is abolished. But if we dare believe it is not, then in 
the method of religion, and to save the honour and 
dignity of our faith, we are to retreat and gather up 
ourselves from the observance of an inferior and civil 
ordinance, to the strict maintaining of a general and 
religious command, which is written, " Thou shalt 
make no covenant with them," Deut. vii, 2, 3 : and 
that covenant which cannot be lawfully made, we have 



132 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



directions and examples lawfully to dissolve. Also 
2 Chron. ii. 19, " Shouldest thou love them that hate 
the Lord ?" No, doubtless ; for there is a certain scale 
of duties, there is a certain hierarchy of upper and 
lower commands, which for want of studying in right 
order, all the world is in confusion. 

Upon these principles I answer, that a right believer 
ought to divorce an idolatrous heretic, unless upon 
better hopes : however, that it is in the believer's choice 
to divorce or not. 

The former part will be manifest thus first, that an 
apostate idolater, whether husband or wife seducing - , 
was to die by the decree of God, Deut. xiii. 6, 9 ; that 
marriage therefore God himself disjoins : for others 
born idolaters, the moral reason of their dang-erous 
keeping-, and the incommunicable antagony that is be- 
tween Christ and Belial, will be sufficient to enforce 
the commandment of those two inspired reformers Ezra 
and Nehemiah, to put an idolater away as well under 
the gospel. 

The latter part, that although there be no seducement 
feared, yet if there be no hope given, the divorce is 
lawful, will appear by this ; that idolatrous marriage 
is still hateful to God, therefore still it maybe divorced 
by the pattern of that warrant that Ezra bad, and by 
the same everlasting reason': neither can any man 
give an account wherefore, if those whom God joins 
no man can separate, it should not follow, that whom 
he joins not, but hates to join, those men ought to 
separate. But saith the lawyer, " That which ought 
not to have been done, once done, avails." I answer, 
" this is but a crotchet of the law, but that brought 
against it is plain Scripture." As for what Christ spake 
concerning divorce, it is confessed by all knowing men, 
he meant only between them of the same faith. But 
what shall we say then to St. Paul, who seems to bid 
us not divorce an infidel willing to stay ? We may 
safely say thus, that wrong collections have been 
hitherto made out of those words by modern divines. 
His drift, as was heard before, is plain ; not to com- 
mand our stay in marriage with an infidel, that had 
been a flat renouncing of the religious and moral law; 
but to inform the Corinthians, that the body of an un- 
believer was not defiling, if his desire to live in chris- 
tian wedlock shewed any likelihood that his heart was 
opening to the faith ; and therefore advises to forbear 
departure so long till nothing- have been neglected to 
set forward a conversion: this I say he advises, and 
that with certain cautions, not commands, if we can 
take up so much credit for him, as to get him believed 
upon his own word : for what is this else but his coun- 
sel in a thing indifferent, " to the rest speak I, not the 
Lord ?" for though it be true, that the Lord never spake 
it, yet from St. Paul's mouth we should have took it as 
a command, had not himself forewarned us, and dis- 
claimed; which notwithstanding if we shall still avouch 
to be a command, he palpably denying it, this is not 
to expound St. Paul, but to outface him. Neither doth 
it follow, that the apostle may interpose his judgment 
in a case of christian liberty, without the guilt of add- 
ing to God's word. How do we know marriage or 



single life to be of choice, but by such like words as 
these, " I speak this by permission, not of command- 
ment ; I have no command of the Lord, yet I give my 
judgment." Why shall not the like words have leave 
to signify a freedom in this our present question, 
though Beza deny ? Neither is the Scripture hereby 
less inspired, because St. Paul confesses to have written 
therein what he had not of command : for we grant 
that the Spirit of God led him thus to express himself 
to christian prudence, in a matter which God thought 
best to leave uncommanded. Beza therefore must be 
warily read, when he taxes St. Austin of blasphemy, 
for holding that St. Paul spake here as of a thing in- 
different. But if it must be a command, I shall yet the 
more evince it to be a command that we should herein 
be left free; and that out of the Greek word used in 
the 12th ver., which instructs us plainly, there must be 
a joint assent and good liking' on both sides : he that 
will not deprave the text must thus render it; " If a 
brother have an unbelieving wife, and she join in con- 
sent to dwell with him," (which cannot utter less to us 
than a mutual agreement,) let him not put her away 
from the mere surmise of judaical uncleanness : and 
the reason follows, for the body of an infidel is not 
polluted, neither to benevolence, nor to procreation. 
Moreover, this note of mutual complacency forbids all 
offer of seducement, w r hich to a person' of zeal cannot 
be attempted without great offence : if therefore seduce- 
ment be feared, this place hinders not divorce. An- 
other caution was put in this supposed command, of 
not bringing the believer into ' bondage ' hereby, which 
doubtless might prove extreme, if christian liberty and. 
conscience were left to the humour of a pagan staying" 
at pleasure to play with, and to vex and wound with a 
thousand scandals and burdens, above strength to bear. 
If therefore the conceived hope of gaining a soul come 
to nothing, then charity commands that the believer 
be not wearied out with endless waiting under many 
grievances sore to his spirit; but that respect be had 
rather to the present suffering of a true Christian, than 
the uncertain winning of an obdurate heretic. The 
counsel we have from St. Paul to hope, cannot counter- 
mand the moral and evangelic charge we have from 
God to fear seducement, to separate from the misbe- 
liever, the unclean, the obdurate. The apostle wisheth 
us to hope ; but does not send us a wool-gathering 
after vain hope ; he saith, " How knowest thou, O man, 
whether thou shalt save thy wife ?" that is, till he try 
all due means, and set some reasonable time to himself, 
after which he may give over washing an Ethiop, if 
he will hear the advice of the gospel ; " Cast not pearls 
before swine," saith Christ himself. " Let him be to 
thee as a heathen. Shake the dust off thy feet." If 
this be not enough, " hate and forsake" what relation 
soever. And this also that follows must appertain to 
the precept, " Let every man wherein he is called, 
therein abide w^ith God," v. 24, that is, so walking in 
his inferior calling of marriage, as not by dangerous 
subjection to that ordinance, to hinder and disturb the 
higher calling of his Christianity. Last, and never 
too oft remembered, whether this be a command, or 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



133 



an advice, we must look that it be so understood as 
not to contradict the least point of moral religion that 
God hath formerly commanded; otherwise what do 
we but set the moral law and the gospel at civil war 
together ? and who then shall be able to serve these 
two masters ? 



CHAR IX. 

That adultery is not the greatest breach of matrimony : 
that there may be other violations as great. 

Now whether idolatry or adultery be the greatest 
violation of marriage, if any demand let him thus con- 
sider; that among christian writers touching matri- 
mony, there be three chief ends thereof agreed on : 
godly society, next civil, and thirdly, that of the mar- 
riage-bed. Of these the first in name to be the highest 
and most excellent, no baptized man can deny, nor 
that idolatry smites directly against this prime end ; 
nor that such as the violated end is, such is the viola- 
tion : but he who affirms adultery to be the highest 
breach, affirms the bed to be the highest of marriage, 
which is in truth a gross and boorish opinion, how 
common soever : as far from the countenance of Scrip- 
ture, as from the light of all clean philosophy or civil 
nature. And out of the question the cheerful help that 
may be in marriage toward sanctity of life, is the 
purest, and so the noblest end of that contract : but if 
the particular of each person be considered, then of 
those three ends which God appointed, that to him is 
greatest which is most necessary ; and marriage is then 
most broken to him when he utterly wants the fruition 
of that which he most sought therein, whether it were 
religious, civil, or corporal society. Of which wants to 
do him right by divorce only for the last and meanest 
is a perverse injury, and the pretended reason of it as 
frigid as frigidity itself, which the code and canon are 
only sensible of. Thus much of this controversy. I 
now return to the former argument. And having shewn 
that disproportion, contrariety, or numbness of mind 
may justly be divorced, by proving already the prohi- 
bition thereof opposes the express end of God's institu- 
tion, suffers not marriage to satisfy that intellectual and 
innocent desire which God himself kindled in man to 
be the bond of wedlock, but only to remedy a sublunary 
and bestial burning, which frugal diet, without mar- 
riage, would easily chasten. Next, that it drives many 
to transgress the conjugal bed, while the soul wanders 
after that satisfaction which it had hope to find at home, 
V.but hath missed ; or els* it sits repining, even to athe- 
ism, finding itself hardly dealt with, but misdeeming 
the cause to be in God's law, which is in man's unright- 
eous ignorance. I have shewn also how it unties the 
inward knot of marriage, which is peace and love, (if 
that can be untied which was never knit,) while it aims 
to keep fast the outward formality : how it lets perish the 
christian man, to compel impossibly the married man. 

* The first edition has svpematural. 



CHAP. X. 

The sixth reason of this law ; that to prohibit divorce 
sought for natural cases, is against nature. 

The sixth place declares this prohibition to be as 
respectless of human nature, as it is of religion, and 
therefore is not of God. He teaches, that an unlawful 
marriage may be lawfully divorced : and that those 
who have thoroughly discerned each other's disposition, 
which ofttimes cannot be till after matrimony, shall 
then find a powerful reluctance and recoil of nature on 
either side, blasting all the content of their mutual 
society, that such persons are not lawfully married, (to 
use the apostle's words,) " Say I these things as a man, 
or saith not the law also the same ? For it is written, 
Deut. xxii. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with dif- 
ferent seeds, lest thou defile both. Thou shalt not 
plough with an ox and an ass together ;" and the like. 
I follow the pattern of St. Paul's reasoning ; " Doth 
God care for asses and oxen," how ill they yoke toge- 
ther, " oris it not said altogether for our sakes ? for our 
sakes no doubt this is written." Yea the apostle him- 
self, in the forecited 2 Cor. vi. 14. alludes from that 
place of Deut. to forbid misyoking marriage, as by the 
Greek Avord is evident; though he instance but in one 
example of mismatching with an infidel, yet next to 
that, what can be a fouler incongruity, a greater vio- 
lence to the reverend secret of nature, than to force a 
mixture of minds that cannot unite, and to sow the 
sorrow of man's nativity with seed of two incoherent 
and incombining dispositions ? which act being kindly 
and voluntary, as it ought, the apostle in the language 
he wrote called eunoia, and the Latins, benevolence, 
intimating the original thereof to be in the understand- 
ing, and the will; if not, surely there is nothing which 
might more properly be called a malevolence rather ; 
and is the most injurious and unnatural tribute that 
can be extorted from a person endued with reason, to 
be made pay out the best substance of his body, and of 
his soul too, as some think, when either for just and 
powerful causes he cannot like, or from unequal causes 
finds not recompense. And that there is a hidden effi- 
cacy of love and hatred in man as well as in other 
kinds, not moral but natural, which though not always 
in the choice, yet in the success of marriage will ever 
be most predominant ; besides daily experience, the 
author of Ecclesiasticus, whose wisdom hath set him 
next the Bible, acknowledges, xiii. 16, " A man, saith 
he, will cleave to his like." But what might be the 
cause, whether each one's allotted Genius or proper 
star, or whether the supernal* influence of schemes and 
angular aspects, or this elemental crasis here below ; 
whether all these jointly or singly meeting friendly, or 
unfriendly in either party, I dare not, with the men I 
am like to clash, appear so much a philosopher as to 
conjecture. The ancient proverb in Homer less ab- 
struse, entitles this work of leading each like person 
to his like, peculiarly to God himself: which is plain 
enough also by his naming of a meet or like help in 
the first espousal instituted ; and that every woman is 



134 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



meet for every man, none so absurd as to affirm. See- 
ing" then there is a twofold seminary, or stock in nature, 
from whence are derived the issues of love and hatred, 
distinctly flowing- through the whole mass of created 
things, and that God's doing- ever is to bring- the due 
likenesses and harmonies of his works together, except 
when out of two contraries met to their own destruc- 
tion, he moulds a third existence; and that it is errour, 
or some evil angel which either blindly or maliciously 
hath drawn together, in two persons ill embarked in 
wedlock, the sleeping discords and enmities of nature, 
lulled on purpose with some false bait, that they may 
wake to agony and strife, later than prevention could 
have wished, if from the bent of just and honest inten- 
tions beginning what was begun and so continuing, all 
that is equal, all that is fair and possible hath been 
tried, and no accommodation likely to succeed ; what 
folly is it still to stand combating and battering against 
invincible causes and effects, with evil upon evil, till 
cither the best of our days be lingered out, or ended 
with some speeding sorrow! The wise Ecclesiasticus 
advises rather, xxxvii. 27, " My son, prove thy soul in 
thy life, see what is evil for it, and give not that unto 
it." Reason he had to say so; for if the noisomeness 
or disfigurement of body can soon destroy the sympathy 
of mind to wedlock duties, much more will the annoy- 
ance and trouble of mind infuse itself into all the facul- 
ties and acts of the body, to render them invalid, un- 
kindly, and even unholy against the fundamental law 
book of nature, which Moses never thwarts, but rever- 
ences : therefore he commands us to force nothing 
against sympathy or natural order, no not upon the 
most abject creatures; to shew that such an indignity 
cannot be offered to man without an impious crime. 
And certainly those divine meditating words of finding 
out a meet and like help to man, have in them a con- 
sideration of more than the indefinite likeness of 
womanhood ; nor are they to be made waste paper on, 
for the dulncss of canon divinity : no, nor those other 
allegoric precepts of beneficence fetched out of the 
closet of nature, to teach us goodness and compassion 
in not compelling together unmatchable societies; or 
if they meet through mischance, by all consequence to 
disjoin them, as God and nature signifies, and lectures 
to us not only by those recited decrees, but even by the 
first and last of all his visible works ; when by his di- 
vorcing command the world first rose out of chaos, nor 
can be renewed again out of confusion, but by the 
separating of unmeet consorts. 



CHAP. XI. 



The seventh reason, that sometimes continuance in mar- 
riage may be evidently the shortening or endanger- 
"'!/ °.f life Lo either party ; both law and divinity 
concluding, that life is to be preferred before mar- 
riage, the intended solace of life. 

Seven-i mi.y, The canon law and divines consent, 
that if either party be found contriving against ano- 



ther's life, they may be severed by divorce : for a sin 
against the life of marriage is greater than a sin against 
the bed ; the one destroys, the other but defiles. The 
same may be said touching those persons who being of 
a pensive nature and course of life, have summed up 
all their solace in that free and lightsome conversation 
which God and man intends in marriage; whereof 
when they see themselves deprived by meeting an un- 
sociable consort, they ofttimes resent one another's 
mistake so deeply, that long it is not ere grief end one 
of them. When therefore this danger is foreseen, that 
the life is in peril by living together, what matter is it 
whether helpless grief or wilful practice be the cause ? 
This is certain, that the preservation of life is more 
worth than the compulsory keeping of marriage ; and 
it is no less than cruelty to force a man to remain in 
that state as the solace of his life, which he and his 
friends know will be either the undoing or the dis- 
heartening of his life. And what is life without the 
vigour and spiritual exercise of life ? How can it be 
useful either to private or public employment? Shall it 
therefore be quite dejected, though never so valuable, 
and left to moulder away in heaviness, for the super- 
stitious and impossible performance of an ill-driven 
bargain ? Nothing more inviolable than vows made to 
God ; yet we read in Numbers, that if a wife had 
made such a vow, the mere will and authority of her 
husband might break it : how much more then may he 
break the error of his own bonds with an unfit and 
mistaken wife, to the saving of his welfare, his life, 
yea his faith and virtue, from the hazard of overstrong 
temptations ? For if man be lord of the sabbath, to the 
curing of a fever, can he be less than lord of marriage 
in such important causes as these ? 



CHAP. XII. 



The eighth reason, It is probable, or rather certain, 
that every one who happens to marry, hath not the 
calling ; and therefore upon unfitness found and 
considered, force ought not to be used. 

Eighthly, It is most sure that some even of those 
who are not plainly defective in body, yet are desti- 
tute of all other marriageable gifts, and consequently 
have not the calling to marry, unless nothing be re- 
quisite thereto but a mere instrumental body ; which 
to affirm, is to that unanimous covenant a reproach : 
yet it is as sure that many such, not of their own de- 
sire, but by the persuasion of friends, or not knowing 
themselves, do often enter into wedlock ; where find- 
ing the difference at length between the duties of a 
married life, and the gifts of a single life, what unfit- 
ness ofmind,what wearisomeness, scruples, and doubts, 
to an incredible offence and displeasure, are like to fol- 
low between, may be soon imagined ; whom thus to 
shut up, and immure, and shut up together, the one 
with a mischosen mate, the other in a mistaken call- 
ing, is not a course that christian wisdom and tender- 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



133 



ness ought to use. As for the custom that some parents 
and guardians have of forcing' marriages, it will be 
better to say nothing" of such a savage inhumanity, 
but only thus ; that the law which gives not all free- 
dom of divorce to any creature endued with reason so 
assassinated, is next in cruelty. 



CHAP. XIII. 



The ninth reason ; because marriage is not a mere 
carnal coition, but a human society : where that can- 
not reasonably be had, there can be no true matri- 
mony. Marriage compared with all other cove- 
nants and vows warrantably broken for the good of 
man. Marriage the Papists' sacrament, and unfit 
marriage the Protestants' idol. 

Ninthly, I suppose it will be allowed us that mar- 
riage is a human society, and that all human society 
must proceed from the mind rather than the body, else 
it would be but a kind of animal or beastish meeting : 
if the mind therefore cannot have that due company 
by marriage that it may reasonably and humanly de- 
sire, that marriage can be no human society, but a cer- 
tain formality; or gilding over of little better than a 
brutish congress, and so in very wisdom and pureness 
to be dissolved. 

But marriage is more than human, " the covenant 
of God," Prov. ii. 17, therefore man cannot dissolve it. 
I answer, if it be more than human, so much the more 
it argues the chief society thereof to be in the soul ra- 
ther than in the body, and the greatest breach thereof 
to be unfitness of mind rather than defect of body : for 
the body can have least affinity in a covenant more 
than human, so that the reason of dissolving holds good 
the rather. Again, I answer, that the sabbath is a 
higher institution, a command of the first table, for the 
breach whereof God hath far more and oftener testified 
his anger than for divorces, which from Moses to Ma- 
lachi he never took displeasure at, nor then neither if 
we mark the text ; and yet as oft as the good of man is 
concerned, he not only permits, but commands to break 
the sabbath. What covenant more contracted with 
God and less in man's power, than the vow which hath 
once passed his lips ? yet if it be found rash, if offen- 
sive, if unfruitful either to God's glory or the good of 
man, our doctrine forces not error and unwillingness 
irksomely to keep it, but counsels wisdom and better 
thoughts boldly to break it ; therefore to enjoin the in- 
dissoluble keeping of a marriage found unfit against 
the good of man both soul and body, as hath been evi- 
denced, is to make an idol of marriage, to advance it 
above the worship of God and the good of man, to make 
it a transcendent command, above both the second and 
first table ; which is a most prodigious doctrine. 

Next, whereas they cite out of the Proverbs, that it 
is the covenant of God, and therefore more than hu- 
man, that consequence is manifestly false : for so the 
covenant which Zedekiah made with the infidel king 



of Babel, is called the Covenant of God, Ezek. xvii. 
19, which would be strange to hear counted more than 
a human covenant. So every covenant between man 
and man, bound by oath, may be called the covenant 
of God, because God therein is attested. So of mar- 
riage he is the author and the witness ; yet hence will 
not follow any divine astriction more than what is sub- 
ordinate to the glory of God, and the main good of 
either party : for as the glory of God and their es- 
teemed fitness one for the other, was the motive which 
led them both at first to think without other revelation 
that God had joined them together; so when it shall 
be found by their apparent unfitness, that their con- 
tinuing to be man and wife is against the glory of God 
and their mutual happiness, it may assure them that 
God never joined them ; who hath revealed his gra- 
cious will not to set the ordinance above the man for 
whom it was ordained ; not to canonize marriage either 
as a tyranness or a goddess over the enfranchised life 
and soul of man ; for wherein can God delight, 
wherein be worshipped, wherein be glorified by the 
forcible continuing of an improper and ill-yoking cou- 
ple ? He that loved not to see the disparity of several 
cattle at the plough, cannot be pleased with vast un- 
meetness in marriage. Where can be the peace and 
love which must invite God to such a house ? May 
it not be feared that the not divorcing of such a help- 
less disagreement will be the divorcing of God finally 
from such a place? But it is a trial of our patience, 
say they : I grant it ; but which of Job's afflictions 
were sent him with that law, that he might not use 
means to remove any of them if he could ? And what 
if it subvert our patience and our faith too ? Who 
shall answer for the perishing of all those souls, perish- 
ing by stubborn expositions of particular and inferior 
precepts against the general and supreme rule of cha- 
rity ? They dare not affirm that marriage is either a 
sacrament or a mystery, though all those sacred things 
give place to man ; and yet they invest it with such 
an awful sanctity, and give it such adamantine chains 
to bind with, as if it were to be worshipped like some 
Indian deity, when it can confer no blessing upon us, 
but works more and more to our misery. To such 
teachers the saying of St. Peter at the council of Jeru- 
salem will do well to be applied : " Why tempt ye 
God to put a yoke upon the necks of" Christian men, 
which neither the Jews, God's ancient people, " nor 
we are able to bear;" and nothing but unwary ex- 
pounding hath brought upon us? 



CHAP. XIV. 



Considerations concerning Familism, Antinomianism ; 
and why it may be thought that such opinions may 
proceed from the undue restraint of some just liberty, 
than which no greater cause to contemn discipline. 

To these considerations this also may be added as no 
improbable conjecture, seeing that sort of men who 



13G 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



follow Anabaptism, Familism, Antinomianism, and 
other fanatic dreams, (if we understand them not amiss,) 
be such most commonly as are by nature addicted to 
religion, of life also not debauched, and that their opi- 
nions having' full swing", do end in satisfaction of the 
flesh ; it may be come with reason into the thoughts of 
a wise man, whether all this proceed not partly, if not 
chiefly, from the restraint of some lawful liberty, which 
ought to be given men, and is denied them ? As by 
physic we learn in menstruous bodies, where nature's 
current hath been stopped, that the suffocation and up- 
ward forcing of some lower part affects the head and 
inward sense with dotage and idle fancies. And on 
the other hand, whether the rest of vulgar men not so 
religiously professing, do not give themselves much 
the more to whoredom and adulteries, loving the cor- 
rupt and venial discipline of clergy-courts, but hating 
to hear of perfect reformation; whenas they foresee 
that then fornication shall be austerely censured, adul- 
tery punished, and marriage, the appointed refuge of 
nature, though it hap to be never so incongruous and 
displeasing, must yet of force be worn out, when it can 
be to no other purpose but of strife and hatred, a thing 
odious to God ? This may be worth the study of skil- 
ful men in theology, and the reason of things. And 
lastly, to examine whether some undue and ill ground- 
ed strictness upon the blameless nature of man, be not 
the cause in those places where already reformation is, 



that the discipline of the church, so often, and so una- 
voidably broken, is brought into contempt and deri- 
sion ? And if it be thus, let those who are still bent to 
hold this obstinate literality, so prepare themselves, as 
to share in the account for all these transgressions, 
when it shall be demanded at the last day, by one 
who will scan and sift things with more than a literal 
wisdom of equity : for if these reasons be duly pon- 
dered, and that the gospel is more jealous of laying on 
excessive burdens than ever the law was, lest the soul 
of a Christian, which is inestimable, should be over- 
tempted and cast away ; considering also that many 
properties of nature, which the power of regeneration 
itself never alters, may cause dislike of conversing, 
even between the most sanctified ; which continually 
grating in harsh tune together, may breed some jar 
and discord, and that end in rancour and strife, a thing 
so opposite both to marriage and to Christianity, it 
would perhaps be less scandal to divorce a natural dis- 
parity, than to link violently together an unchristian 
dissension, committing two insnared souls inevitably to 
kindle one another, not with the fire of love, but with a 
hatred irreconcileable ; who, were they dissevered, 
would be straight friends in any other relation. But 
if an alphabetical servility must be still urged, it may 
so fall out, that the true church may unwittingly use 
as much cruelty in forbidding to divorce, as the church 
of Antichrist doth wilfully in forbidding to marry. 



BOOK II, 



CHAP. I. 

The ordinance of sabbath and marriage compared. Hyperbole no mifrequent figure in the gospel Excess 
cured by contrary excess. Christ neither did nor could abrogate the law of divorce, but only reprieve the 
abuse thereof 



Hitherto the position undertaken has been declared, 
and proved by a law of God, that law proved to be 
moral, and unabolishable, for many reasons equal, 
honest, charitable, just, annexed thereto. It follows 
now, that those places of Scripture, which have a seem- 
ing to revoke the prudence of Moses, or rather that 
merciful decree of God, be forthwith explained and re- 
conciled. For what are all these reasonings worth, 
will some reply, whenas the words of Christ are plainly 
against all divorce, "except in case of fornication ?" 
to whom he whose mind were to answer no more but 
this, " except also in case of charity," might safely ap- 
peal to the more plain words of Christ in defence of so 
excepting. " Thou shalt do no manner of work," 
saith the commandment of the sabbath. Yes, saith 
Christ, works of charity. And shall we be more se- 
vere in paraphrasing the considerate and tender gos- 
pel, than he was in expounding the rigid and peremp- 



tory law ? What was ever in all appearance less 
made for man, and more for God alone, than the sab- 
bath ? yet when the good of man comes into the scales, 
we hear that voice of infinite goodness and benignity, 
that " sabbath was made for man, and not man for 
sabbath." What thing ever was more made for man 
alone, and less for God, than marriage ? And shall we 
load it with a cruel and senseless bondage utterly 
against both the good of man, and the glory of God ? 
Let whoso will now listen, I want neither pall nor 
mitre, I stay neither for ordination nor induction; but 
in the firm faith of a knowing Christian, which is the 
best and truest endowment of the keys, I pronounce, 
the man, who shall bind so cruelly a good and gracious 
ordinance of God, hath not in that the spirit of Christ. 
Yet that every text of Scripture seeming opposite may 
be attended with a due exposition, this other part en- 
sues, and makes account to find no slender arguments 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



137 



for this assertion, out of those very scriptures, which 
are commonly urg-ed against it. 

First therefore let us remember, as a thing - not to be 
denied, that all places of Scripture, wherein just reason 
of doubt arises from the letter, are to be expounded by 
considering upon what occasion every thing- is set 
down, and by comparing other texts. The occasion, 
which induced our Saviour to speak of divorce, was 
either to convince the extravagance of the Pharisees in 
that point, or to give a sharp and vehement answer to 
a tempting question. And in such cases, that we are 
not to repose all upon the literal terms of so many words, 
many instances will teach us: wherein we may plainly 
discover how Christ meant not to be taken word for 
word, but like a wise physician, administering one ex- 
cess against another, to reduce us to a permiss ; where 
they were too remiss, he saw it needful to seem most 
severe : in one place he censures an unchaste look to 
be adultery already committed ; another time he passes 
over actual adultery with less reproof than for an un- 
chaste look; not so heavily condemning secret weak- 
ness, as open malice: so here he may be justly thought 
to have given this rigid sentence against divorce, not 
to cut off all remedy from a good man, who finds him- 
self consuming away in a disconsolate and uninjoined 
matrimony, but to lay a bridle upon the bold abuses of 
those overweening rabbies; which he could not more 
effectually do, than by a countersway of restraint curb- 
ing their wild exorbitance almost in the other extreme; 
as when we bow things the contrary way, to make 
them come to their natural straightness. And that this 
was the only intention of Christ is most evident, if we 
attend but to his own words and protestation made in 
the same sermon, not many verses before he treats of 
divorcing, that he came not to abrogate from the law 
" one jot or tittle," and denounces against them that 
shall so teach. 

But St. Luke, the verse immediately foregoing that 
of divorce, inserts the same caveat, as if the latter could 
not be understood without the former ; and as a witness 
to produce against this our wilful mistake of abrogat- 
ing, which must needs confirm us, that whatever else 
in the political law of more special relation to the Jews 
might cease to us ; yet that of those precepts concern- 
ing divorce, not one of them was repealed by the doc- 
trine of Christ, unless we have vowed not to believe 
his own cautious and immediate profession ; for if these 
our Saviour's words inveigh against all divorce, and 
condemn it as adultery, except it be for adultery, and 
be not rather understood against the abuse of those 
divorces permitted in the law, then is that law of 
Moses, Deut. xxiv. 1, not only repealed and wholly 
annulled against the promise of Christ, and his known 
profession not to meddle in matters judicial; but that 
which is more strange, the very substance and purpose 
of that law is contradicted, and convinced both of in- 
justice and impurity, as having authorized and main- 
tained legal adultery by statute. Moses also cannot 
scape to be guilty of unequal and unwise decrees 
punishing- one act of secret adultery by death, and per- 
mitting a whole life of open adultery by law. And 



albeit lawyers write, that some political edicts, though 
not approved, are yet allowed to the scum of the people, 
and the necessity of the times; these excuses have but 
a weak pulse : for first, we read, not that the scoundrel 
people, but the choicest, the wisest, the holiest of that 
nation have frequently used these laws, or such as 
these, in the best and holiest times. Secondly, be it 
yielded, that in matters not very bad or impure, a 
human lawgiver may slacken something of that which 
is exactly good, to the disposition of the people and 
the times: but if the perfect, the pure, the righteous 
law of God, (for so are all his statutes and his judg- 
ments,) be found to have allowed smoothly, without 
any certain reprehension, that which Christ afterward 
declares to be adultery, how can we free this law from 
the horrible indictment of being both impure, unjust, 
and fallacious ? 



CHAP. II. 

How divorce was permitted for hardness of heart, can- 
not be uyidwstood by the common exposition. That 
the law cannot permit, much less enact a permission 
of sin. 

Neither will it serve to say this was permitted for 
the hardness of their hearts, in that sense as it is usually 
explained : for the law were then but a corrupt and 
erroneous schoolmaster, teaching- us to dash against a 
vital maxim of religion, by doing foul evil in hope of 
some certain good. 

This only text is not to be matched again through- 
out the whole Scripture, whereby God in his perfect 
law should seem to have granted to the hard hearts of 
his holy people, under his own hand, a civil immunity 
and free charter to live and die in a long successive 
adultery, under a covenant of works, till the Messiah, 
and then that indulgent permission to be strictly de- 
nied by a covenant of grace ; besides, the incoherence 
of such a doctrine cannot, must not be thus interpreted, 
to the raising of a paradox never known till then, only 
hanging by the twined thread of one doubtful scrip- 
ture, against so many other rules and leading principles 
of religion, of justice, and purity of life. For what 
could be granted more either to the fear, or to the lust 
of any tyrant or politician, than this authority of Moses 
thus expounded ; which opens him a way at will to 
dam up justice, and not only to admit of any Romish 
or Austrian dispenses, but to enact a statute of that 
which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate 
vice, to make sin itself, the ever alien and vassal sin, a 
free citizen of the commonwealth, pretending* only 
these or these plausible reasons ? And well he might, 
all the while that Moses shall be alleged to have done 
as much without shewing any reason at all. Yet this 
could not enter into the heart of David, Psal. xciv. 20, 
how any such authority, as endeavours to " fashion 
wickedness by a law," should derive itself from God. 



138 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



And Isaiah says, " Wo upon them that decree unrigh- 
teous decrees," chap. x. 1. Now which of these two 
is the better lawgiver, and which deserves most a wo, 
he that gives out an edict singly unjust, or he that con- 
firms to generations a fixed and unmolested impunity 
of that which is not only held to be unjust, but also 
unclean, and both in a high degree ; not only as they 
themselves affirm, an injurious expulsion of one wife, 
but also an unclean freedom by more than a patent to 
wed another adulterously ? How can we therefore with 
safety thus dangerously confine the free simplicity of 
our Saviour's meaning to that which merely amounts 
from so many letters, whenas it can consist neither 
with its former and cautionary words, nor with other 
more pure and holy principles, nor finally with a scope 
of charity, commanding by his express commission in 
a higher strain ? But all rather of necessity must be 
understood as only against the abuse of that wise 
and ingenuous liberty, which Moses gave, and to 
terrify a roving conscience from sinning under that 
pretext. 



CHAP. III. 

That to allow sin by law, is against the nature of law, 
the end of the lawgiver, and the good of the people. 
Impossible therefore in the law of God. That it 
makes God the author of sin more than any thing ob- 
jected by the Jesuits or Arminians against predesti- 
nation. 

But let us yet further examine upon what considera- 
tion a law of licence could be thus given to a holy peo- 
ple for their hardness of heart. I suppose all will 
answer, that for some good end or other. But here the 
contrary shall be proved. First, that many ill effects, 
but no good end of such a sufferance can be shewn ; 
next, that a thing unlawful can, for no good end what- 
ever, be either done or allowed by a positive law. If 
there were any good end aimed at, that end was then 
good either to the law or to the lawgiver licensing ; or as 
to the person licensed. That it could not be the end 
of the law, whether moral or judicial, to license a sin, 
I prove easily out of Rom. v. 20, " The law entered, 
that the offence might abound,' that is, that sin might 
be made abundantly manifest to be heinous and dis- 
pleasing to God, that so his offered grace might be 
the more esteemed. Now if the law, instead of aggra- 
vating and terrifying sin, shall give out licence, it foils 
itself and turns recreant from its own end: it forestalls 
the pure grace of Christ, which is through righteous- 
ness, with impure indulgences, which are through sin. 
And instead of discovering sin, for " by the law is the 
knowledge thereof," saith St. Paul; and that by certain 
and true light for men to walk in safety, it holds out 
false and dazzling fires to stumble men; or, like those 
miserable flics, to run into with delight and be burnt : 



for how many souls might easily think that to be law- 
ful which the law and magistrate allowed them ? 
Again, we read, 1 Tim. i. 5, " The end of the com- 
mandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good 
conscience, and of faith unfeigned." But never could 
that be charity, to allow a people what they could not 
use with a pure heart, but with conscience and faith 
both deceived, or else despised. The more particular 
end of the judicial law is set forth to us clearly, Rom. 
xiii. That God hath given to that "law a sword not in 
vain, but to be a terrour to evil works, a revenge to 
execute wrath upon him that doth evil." If this terri- 
ble commission should but forbear to punish wicked- 
ness, were it other to be accounted than partial and 
unjust? but if it begin to write indulgence to vulgar 
uncleanness, can it do more to corrupt and shame the 
end of its own being? Lastly, if the law allow sin, it 
enters into a kind of covenant with sin ; and if it do, 
there is not a greater sinner in the world than the law 
itself. The law, to use an allegory something differ- 
ent from that in Philo-Judseus concerning Amalek, 
though haply more significant, the law is the Israelite, 
and hath this absolute charge given it, Deut. xxv. 
" To blot out the memory of sin, the Amalekite, from un- 
der heaven, not to forget it." Again, the law is the 
Israelite, and hath this express repeated command, " to 
make no covenant with sin, the Canaanite," but to ex- 
pel him lest he prove a snare. And to say truth, it 
were too rigid and reasonless to proclaim such an en- 
mity between man and man, were it not the type of a 
g-reater enmity between law and sin. I speak even 
now, as if sin were condemned in a perpetual villanage 
never to be free by law, never to be manumitted : but 
sure sin can have no tenure by law at all, but is rather 
an eternal outlaw, and in hostility with law past all 
atonement : both diagonal contraries, as much allowing 
one another, as day and night together in one hemi- 
sphere. Or if it be possible, that sin with his darkness 
may come to composition, it cannot be without a foul 
eclipse and twilight to the law, whose brightness ought 
to surpass the noon. Thus we see how this unclean 
permittance defeats the sacred and glorious end both 
of the moral and judicial law. 

As little good can the lawgiver propose to equity by 
such a lavish remissness as this : if to remedy hardness 
of heart, Parseus and other divines coufess it more in- 
creases by this liberty, than is lessened: and how is it 
probable, that their hearts were more hard in this, that 
it should be yielded to, than in any other crime ? Their 
hearts were set upon usury, and are to this day, no 
nation more ; yet that which was the endamaging 
only of their estates was narrowly forbid ; this which 
is thought the extreme injury and dishonour of their 
wives and daughters, with the defilement also of them- 
selves, is bounteously allowed. Their hearts were as 
hard under their best kings to offer in high places, 
though to the true God : yet that, but a small thing, it 
strictly forewarned ; this, accounted a high offence 
against one of the greatest moral duties, is calmly per- 
mitted and established. How can it be evaded, but 
that the heavy censure of Christ should fall worse upon 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



139 



this lawgiver of theirs, than upon all the scribes and 
Pharisees ? For they did but omit judgment and mercy 
to trifle in mint and cummin, yet all according to law ; 
but this their lawgiver, altogether as punctual in such 
niceties, goes marching on to adulteries, through the 
violence of divorce by law against law. If it were such 
a cursed act of Pilate a subordinate judge to Ccesar, 
overswayed by those hard hearts, with much ado to 
suffer one transgression of law but once, what is it then 
with less ado to publish a law of transgression for many 
ages ? Did God for this come down and cover the 
mount of Sinai with his glory, uttering in thunder those 
his sacred ordinances out of the bottomless treasures of 
his wisdom and infinite pureness, to patch up an ulcer- 
ous and rotten commonwealth with strict and stern in- 
junctions, to wash the skin and garments for every 
unclean touch ; and such easy permission given to pol- 
lute the soul with adulteries by public authority, with- 
out disgrace or question ? No, it had been better that 
man had never known law or matrimony, than that 
such foul iniquity should be fastened upon the Holy 
One of Israel, the Judge of all the earth ; and such a 
piece of folly as Belzebub w r ould not commit, to divide 
against himself, and prevent his own ends : or if he, to 
compass more certain mischief, might yield perhaps to 
feign some good deed, yet that God should enact a 
licence of certain evil for uncertain good against his 
own glory and pureness, is abominable to conceive. 
And as it is destructive to the end of law, and blasphe- 
mous to the honour of the lawgiver licensing, so is it 
as pernicious to the person licensed. If a private friend 
admonish not, the Scripture saith, " he hates his bro- 
ther, and lets him perish ;" but if he soothe him and 
allow his faults, the Proverbs teach us " he spreads a 
net for his neighbour's feet, and worketh ruin." If the 
magistrate or prince forget to administer due justice, 
and restrain not sin, Eli himself could say, " it made 
the Lord's people to transgress." But if he countenance 
them against law by his own example, what havoc it 
makes both in religion and virtue among the people 
may be g'uessed, by the anger it brought upon Hoph- 
ni and Phineas not to be appeased " with sacrifice nor 
offering for ever." If the law be silent to declare sin, 
the people must needs generally go astray, for the 
apostle himself saith, " he had not known lust but by 
the law : " and surely such a nation seems not to be 
under the illuminating guidance of God's law, but 
under the horrible doom rather of such as despise the 
gospel ; " he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." But 
where the law itself gives a warrant for sin, I know 
not what condition of misery to imagine miserable 
enough for such a people, unless that portion of the 
wicked, or rather of the damned, on whom God threat- 
ens, in Psal. xi. " to rain snares;" but that questionless 
cannot be by any law, which the apostle saith is " a 
ministry ordained of God for our good," and not so 
many ways and in so high a degree to our destruction, 
as we have now been graduating. And this is all the 
good can come to the person licensed in his hardness 
of heart. 

I am next to mention that, which because it is a 



ground in divinity, Rom. iii. will save the labour of 
demonstrating, unless her given axioms be more doubt- 
ed than in other hearts, (although it be no less firm in 
precepts of philosophy,) that a thing unlawful can for 
no good whatsoever be done, much less allowed by a 
positive law. And this is the matter why interpreters 
upon that passage in Hosea will not consent it to be a 
true story, that the prophet took a harlot to wife : be- 
cause God, being a pure spirit, could not command a 
thing repugnant to his own nature, no not for so good 
an end as to exhibit more to the life a wholesome and 
perhaps a converting parable to many an Israelite. 
Yet that he commanded the allowance of adulterous 
and injurious divorces for hardness of heart, a reason 
obscure and in a wrong sense, they can very favour- 
ably persuade themselves ; so tenacious is the leaven 
of an old conceit. But they shift it ; be permitted only. 
Yet silence in the law is consent, and consent is acces- 
sory : why then is not the law being silent, or not ac- 
tive against a crime, accessory to its own conviction, 
itself judging ? For though we should grant, that it 
approves not, yet it wills : and the lawyers' maxim is, 
that " the will compelled is yet the will." And though 
Aristotle in his ethics calls this " mixed action," yet he 
concludes it to be voluntary and inexcusable, if it be 
evil. How justly then might human law and philo- 
sophy rise up against the righteousness of Moses, if 
this be true which our vulgar divinity fathers upon 
him, yea upon God himself, not silently, and only 
negatively to permit, but in his law to divulge a writ- 
ten and general privilege to commit and persist in 
unlawful divorces with a high hand, with security 
and no ill fame ? for this is more than permitting 
and contriving, this is maintaining: this is warrant- 
ing, this is protecting, yea this is doing evil, and such 
an evil as that reprobate lawgiver did, whose lasting 
infamy is engraven upon him like a surname, " he 
who made Israel to sin." This is the lowest pitch 
contrary to God that public fraud and injustice can 
descend. 

If it be affirmed, that God, as being Lord, may do 
what he will, ye we must know, that God hath not two 
wills, but one will, much less two contrary. If he once 
willed adultery should be sinful, and to be punished 
with death, all his omnipotence will not allow him, to 
will the allowance that his holiest people might as it 
were by his own antinomy, or counterstatute, live un- 
reproved in the same fact as he himself esteemed it, 
according to our common explainers. The hidden ways 
of his providence we adore and search not, but the law 
is his revealed will, his complete, his evident and cer- 
tain will : herein he appears to us as it were in human 
shape, enters into covenant with us, swears to keep it, 
binds himself like a just lawgiver to his own prescrip- 
tions, gives himself to be understood by men, judges 
and is judged, measures and is commensurate to right 
reason ; cannot require less of us in one cantle of his 
law than in another, his legal justice cannot be so fickle 
and so variable, sometimes like a devouring fire, and 
by and by connivent in the embers, or, if I may so say, 
oscitant and supine. The vigour of his law could no 



140 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



more remit, than the hallowed fire upon his altar could 
be let go out. The lamps that burned before him might 
need snuffing, but the light of his law never. Of this 
also more beneath, in discussing a solution of Rivetus. 
The Jesuits, and that sect among us which is named 
of Arminius, are wont to charge us of making God the 
author of sin, in two degrees especially, not to speak 
of his permission: 1. because we hold, that he hath 
decreed some to damnation, and consequently to sin, 
say they; next, because those means, which are of 
saving knowledge to others, he makes to them an oc- 
casion of greater sin. Yet considering the perfection 
wherein man was created, and might have stood, no 
degree necessitating his freewill, but subsequent, 
though not in time, yet in order to causes, which were 
in his own power ; they might methinks be persuaded 
to absolve both God and us. Whenas the doctrine of 
Plato and Chrysippus, with their followers, the Aca- 
demics and the Stoics, who knew not what a consum- 
mate and most adorned Pandora was bestowed upon 
Adam, to be the nurse and guide of bis arbitrary hap- 
piness and perseverance, I mean his native innocence 
and perfection, which might have kept him from being 
our true Epimetheus ; and though they taught of vir- 
tue and vice to be both the gift of divine destiny, they 
could yet give reasons not invalid, to justify the coun- 
cils of God and fate from the insulsity of mortal 
tongues : that man's own freewill self-corrupted, is the 
adequate and sufficient cause of his disobedience be- 
sides fate ; as Homer also wanted not to express, both 
in his Iliad and Odyssee. And Manilius the poet, 
although in his fourth book he tells of some " created 
both to sin and punishment ;" yet without murmuring, 
and with an industrious cheerfulness, he acquits the 
Deity. They were not ignorant in their heathen lore, 
that it is most godlike to punish those who of his crea- 
tures became his enemies with the greatest punish- 
ment; and they could attain also to think, that the 
greatest, when God himself throws a man furthest from 
him ; which then they held he did, when he blinded, 
hardened, and stirred up his offenders, to finish and 
pile up their desperate work since they had undertaken 
it. To banish for ever into a local hell, whether in 
the air or in the centre, or in that uttermost and bot- 
tomless gulf of chaos, deeper from holy bliss than the 
world's diameter multiplied ; they thought not a pu- 
nishing so proper and proportionate for God to inflict, 
as to punish sin with sin. Thus were the common 
sort of Gentiles wont to think, without any wry 
thoughts cast upon divine governance. And therefore 
Cicero, not in his Tusculan or Campanian retirements 
among the learned wits of that age, but even in the 
senate to a mixed auditory, (though he were sparing 
otherwise to broach his philosophy among statists and 
lawyers,) yet as to this point, both in his oration against 
Piso, and in that which is about the answers of the 
soothsayers against Clodius, he declares it publicly as 
no paradox to common ears, that God cannot punish 
man more, nor make him more miserable, than still by 
making him more sinful. Thus we see how in this 
controversy the justice of God stood upright even I 



among heathen disputers. But if any one be truly, 
and not pretendedly zealous for God's honour, here I 
call him forth before men and angels, to use his best 
and most advised skill, lest God more unavoidably than 
ever yet, and m the guiltiest manner, be made the au- 
thor of sin : if he shall not only deliver over and incite 
his enemies by rebuke to sin as a punishment, but 
shall by patent under his own broad seal allow his 
friends whom he would sanctify and save, whom he 
would unite to himself and not disjoin, whom he would 
correct by wholesome chastening, and not punish as 
he doth the damned by lewd sinning ; if he shall allow 
these in his law, the perfect rule of his own purest will, 
and our most edified conscience, the perpetrating of an 
odious and manifold sin without the least contesting. 
It is wondered how there can be in God a secret and 
revealed will ; and yet what wonder, if there be in man 
two answerable causes. But here there must be two 
revealed wills grappling in a fraternal war with one 
another without any reasonable cause apprehended. 
This cannot be less, than to ingraft sin into the sub- 
stance of the law, which law is to provoke sin by cross- 
ing and forbidding*, not by complying with it. Nay 
this is, which I tremble in uttering, to incarnate sin 
into the unpunishing and well-pleased will of God. 
To avoid these dreadful consequences, that tread upon 
the heels of those allowances to sin, will be a task of 
far more difficulty, than to appease those minds, which 
perhaps out of a vigilant and wary conscience except 
against predestination. Thus finally we may con- 
clude, that a law wholly giving licence cannot upon 
any good consideration be given to a holy people, for 
hardness of heart in the vulgar sense. 



CHAP. IV. 

That if divorce be no command, no more is marriage. 
That divorce could he no dispensation, if it were sin- 
ful. The solution of Rivetus, that God dispensed by 
some unknown way, ought not to satisfy a christian 
mind. 

Others think to evade the matter by not granting 
any law of divorce, but only a dispensation, which is 
contrary to the words of Christ, who himself calls it a 
' Law,' Mark x. o : or if we speak of a command in 
the strictest definition, then marriage itself is no more 
a command than divorce, but only a free permission to 
him who cannot contain. But as to dispensation, I 
affirm the same as before of the law, that it can never 
be given to the allowance of sin : God cannot give it, 
neither in respect of himself, nor in respect of man ; 
not in respect of himself, being a most pure essence, 
the just avenger of sin ; neither can he make that 
cease to be a sin, which is in itself unjust and impure, 
as all divorces they say were, which were not for adul- 
tery. Not in respect of man, for then it must be either 
to his good, or to his evil. Not to his good ; for how 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



141 



can that be imagined any good to a sinner, whom no- 
thing' but rebuke and due correction can save, to hear 
the determinate oracle of divine law louder than any 
reproof dispensing and providing for the impunity and 
convenience of sin ; to make that doubtful, or rather 
lawful, which the end of the law was to make most 
evidently hateful ? Nor to the evil of man can a dis- 
pense be given ; for if " the law were ordained unto 
life," Rom. vii. 10, how can the same God publish dis- 
penses against that law, which must needs be unto" 
death ? Absurd and monstrous would that dispense be, 
if any judge or law should give it a man to cut his own 
throat, or to damn himself. Dispense therefore pre- 
supposes full pardon, or else it is not a dispense, but a 
most baneful and bloody snare. And why should God 
enter covenant with a people to be holy, as " the com- 
mand is holy, and just, and good," Rom. vii. 12, and 
yet suffer an impure and treacherous dispense, to mis- 
lead and betray them under the vizard of law to a le- 
gitimate practice of uncleanness ? God is no covenant- 
breaker ; he cannot do this. 

Rivetus, a diligent and learned writer, having well 
weighed what hath been written by those founders of 
dispense, and finding the small agreement among 
them, would fain work himself aloof these rocks and 
quicksands, and thinks it best to conclude, that God 
certainly did dispense, but by some way to us unknown, 
and so to leave it. But to this I oppose, that a Chris- 
tian by no means ought to rest himself in such an ig- 
norance; whereby so many absurdities will straight 
reflect both against the purity, justice, and wisdom of 
God, the end also both of law and gospel, and the com- 
parison of them both together. God indeed in some 
ways of his providence is high and secret, past finding 
out : but in the delivery and execution of his law, 
especially in the managing of a duty so daily and so 
familiar as this is whereof we reason, hath plain enough 
revealed himself, and requires the observance thereof 
not otherwise, than to the law of nature and equity 
imprinted in us seems correspondent. And he hath 
taught us to love and extol his laws, not only as they 
are his, but as they are just and good to every wise and 
sober understanding. Therefore Abraham, even to the 
face of God himself, seemed to doubt of divine justice, 
if it should swerve from the irradiation wherewith it 
had enlightened the mind of man, and bound itself to 
observe its own rule ; " wilt thou destroy the righteous 
with the wicked ? that be far from thee; shall not the 
judge of the earth do right?" Thereby declaring, that 
God hath created a righteousness in right itself, against 
which he cannot do. So David, Psalm cxix. " the tes- 
timonies which thou hast commanded are righteous 
and very faithful ; thy word is very pure, therefore thy 
servant loveth it." Not only then for the author's sake, 
but for its own purity. ' He is faithful,' saith St. Paul, 
" he cannot deny himself;" that is, cannot deny his own 
promises, cannot but be true to his own rules. He often 
pleads with men the uprightness of his ways by their 
own principles. How should we imitate him else, to 
" be perfect as he is perfect ?" If at pleasure he can 
dispense with golden poetic ages of such pleasing 



licence, as in the fabled reign of old Saturn, and this 
perhaps before the law might have some covert ; but 
under such an undispensing covenant as Moses made 
with them, and not to tell us why and wherefore, in- 
dulgence cannot give quiet to the breast of an intelli- 
gent man ? We must be resolved how the law can be 
pure and perspicuous, and yet throw a polluted skirt 
over these Eleusinian mysteries, that no man can utter 
what they mean : worse ''in this than the worst obsceni- 
ties of heathen superstition ; for their filthiness was 
hid, but the mystic reason thereof known to their sages. 
But this Jewish imputed filthiness was daily and open, 
but the reason of it is not known to our divines. We 
know of no design the gospel can have to impose new 
righteousness upon works, but to remit the old by faith 
without works, if we mean justifying works : we know 
no mystery our Saviour could have to lay new bonds 
upon marriage in the covenant of grace which himself 
had loosened to the severity of law. So that Rivetus 
may pardon us, if we cannot be contented with his 
nonsolution, to remain in such a peck of uncertainties 
and doubts, so dangerous and ghastly to the funda- 
mentals of our faith. 



CHAP. V. 

What a Dispensation is. 

Therefore to get some better satisfaction, we must 
proceed to inquire as diligently as we can what a dis- 
pensation is, which I find to be either properly so call- 
ed, or improperly. Improperly so called, is rather a 
particular and exceptive law, absolving and disobliging 
from a more general command for some just and rea- 
sonable cause. As Numb. ix. they who were unclean, 
or in a journey, had leave to keep the passover in the 
second month, but otherwise ever in the first. As for 
that in Leviticus of marrying the brother's wife, it was 
a penal statute rather than a dispense ; and commands 
nothing injurious or in itself unclean, only prefers a 
special reason of charity before an institutive decency, 
and perhaps is meant for lifetime only, as is expressed 
beneath in the prohibition of taking two sisters. What 
other edict of Moses, carrying but the semblance of a 
law in any other kind, may bear the name of a dis- 
pense, I have not readily to instance. But a dispensa- 
tion most properly is some particular accident rarely 
happening, and therefore not specified in the law, but 
left to the decision of charity, even under the bondage 
of Jewish rites, much more under the liberty of the 
gospel. Thus did " David enter into the house of God 
and did eat the shewbread,he and his followers, which 
was" ceremonially " unlawful." Of such dispenses as 
these it was that Verdunethe French divine so gravely 
disputed in the council of Trent against friar Adrian, 
who held that the pope might dispense with anything. 
" It is a fond persuasion," saith Verdune, " that dispens- 
ing is a favour ; nay, it is as good distributive justice 



142 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



as what is most, and the priest sins if he gives it not, 
for it is nothing' else but a right interpretation of law." 
Thus far that I can learn touching this matter whole- 
somely decreed. But that God, who is the giver of 
every good and perfect gift, Jam. i. should give out a 
rule and directory to sin by, should enact a dispensation 
as longlived as a law, whereby to live in privileged 
adultery for hardness of heart, (and this obdurate dis- 
ease cannot be conceived how it was the more amended 
by this unclean remedy,) is the most deadly and scor- 
pionlike gift, that the enemy of mankind could have 
given to any miserable sinner, and is rather such a 
dispense as that was, which the serpent gave to our first 
parents. God gave quails in his wrath, and kings in 
his wrath, yet neither of these things evil in them- 
selves : but that he whose eyes cannot behold impurity, 
should in the book of his holy covenant, his most un- 
passionate law, give licence and statute for uncontrol- 
led adultery, although it go for the received opinion, I 
shall ever dissuade my soul from such a creed, such an 
indulgence as the shop of Antichrist never forged a 
baser. 



CHAR VI. 

That the Jew had no more right to this supposed dis- 
pense than the Christian hath, and rather not so 
much. 

But if we must needs dispense, let us for a while so 
far dispense with truth, as to grant that sin may be 
dispensed ; yet there will be copious reason found to 
prove, that the Jew had no more right to such a sup- 
posed indulgence than the Christian ; whether we look 
at the clear knowledge wherein he lived, or the strict 
performance of works whereto he was bound. Besides 
visions and prophecies, they had the law of God, 
which in the Psalms and Proverbs is chiefly praised 
for sureness and certainty, both easy and perfect to the 
enlightening of the simple. How could it be so ob- 
scure then, or they so sottishly blind in this plain, 
moral, and household duty ? They had the same pre- 
cepts about marriage ; Christ added nothing to their 
clearness, for that had argued them imperfect ; he 
opens not the law, but removes the pharisaic mists 
raised between the law and the people's eyes : the 
only sentence which he adds, "What God hath joined 
let no man put asunder," is as obscure as any clause 
fetched out of Genesis, and hath increased a yet unde- 
cided controversy of clandestine marriages. If we 
examine over all his sayings, we shall find him not so 
much interpreting the law with his words, as referring 
his own words to be interpreted by the law, and oftener 
obscures his mind in short, and vehement, and com- 
pact sentences, to blind and puzzle them the more, 
who would not understand the law. The Jews there- 
fore wore as little to be dispensed with for lack of 
moral knowledge as we. 



Next, none I think will deny, but that they were as 
much bound to perform the law as any Christian. 
That severe and rigorous knife not sparing the tender 
foreskin of any male infant, to carve upon his flesh the 
mark of that strict and pure covenant whereinto he en- 
tered, might give us to understand enough against the 
fancy of dispensing. St. Paul testifies, that every 
" circumcised man is a debtor to the whole law," Gal. 
v. or else " circumcision is in vain," Rom. ii. 25. How 
vain then, and how preposterous must it needs be to 
exact a circumcision of the flesh from an infant into an 
outward sign of purity, and to dispense an uncircum- 
cision in the soul of a grown man to an inward and 
real impurity ! How vain again was that law, to im- 
pose tedious expiations for every slight sin of igno- 
rance and errour, and to privilege without penance or 
disturbance an odious crime whether of ignorance or 
obstinacy ! How unjust also inflicting death and 
extirpation for the mark of circumstantial pureness 
omitted, and proclaiming all honest and liberal in- 
demnity to the act of a substantial impureness com- 
mitted, making void the covenant that was made 
against it! Thus if we consider the tenour of the 
law, to be circumcised and to perform all, not pardon- 
ing so much as the scapes of errour and ignorance, and 
compare this with the condition of the gospel, " believe 
and be baptized," I suppose it cannot be long ere we 
grant, that the Jew was bound as strictly to the per- 
formance of every duty, as was possible ; and therefore 
could not be dispensed with more than the Christian, 
perhaps not so much. 



CHAP. VII. 



That the Gospel is apter to dispense than the Law. 
Parceus answered. 

If then the law will afford no reason, why the Jew 
should be more gently dealt with than the Christian, 
then surely the gospel can afford as little, why the 
Christian should be less gently dealt with than the 
Jew. The gospel indeed exhorts to highest perfec- 
tion, but bears with weakest infirmity more than the 
law. Hence those indulgences, " all cannot receive 
this saying, every man hath his proper gift," with ex- 
press charges not " to lay on yokes, which our fathers 
could not bear." The nature of man still is as weak* 
and yet as hard ; and that weakness and hardness as 
unfit and as unteachable to be harshly used as ever. 
Ay but, saith Paraeus, there is a greater portion of spi- 
rit poured upon the gospel, which requires from us per- 
fecter obedience. I answer, this does not prove, that 
the law might give allowance to sin more than the 
gospel ; and if it were no sin, we know it were the 
work of the spirit to " mortify our corrupt desires and 
evil concupiscence ;" but not to root up our natural af- 
fections and disaffeclions, moving to and fro even in 
wisest men upon just and necessary reasons, which 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



143 



were the true ground of that Mosaic dispense, and is 
the utmost extent of our pleading". What is more or 
less perfect we dispute not, but what is sin or no sin. 
And in that I still affirm the law required as perfect 
obedience as the gospel : besides that the prime end of 
the gospel is not so much to exact our obedience, as to 
reveal grace, and the satisfaction of our disobedience. 
What is now exacted from us, it is the accusing- law 
that does it, even yet under the gospel ; but cannot be 
more extreme to us now than to the Jews of old ; for 
the law ever was of works, and the gospel ever was of 
grace. 

Either then the law by harmless and needful dis- 
penses, which the gospel is now made to deny, must 
have anticipated and exceeded the grace of the gos- 
pel, or else must be found to have given politic and su- 
perficial graces without real pardon, saying in general, 
" do this and live," and yet deceiving and damning 
underhand with unsound and hollow permissions; 
which is utterly abhorring from the end of all law, as 
hath been shewed. But if those indulgences were safe 
and sinless, out of tenderness and compassion, as in- 
deed they were, and yet shall be abrogated by the gos- 
pel ; then the law, whose end is by rigour to magnify 
grace, shall itself give grace, and pluck a fair plume 
from the gospel ; instead of hastening us thither, al- 
luring us from it. And whereas the terrour of the law 
was a servant to amplify and illustrate the mildness of 
grace; now the unmildness of evangelic grace shall 
turn servant to declare the grace and mildness of the 
rigorous law. The law was harsh to extol the grace 
of the gospel, and now the gospel by a new affected 
strictness of her own shall extenuate the grace which 
herself offers. For by exacting a duty which the law 
dispensed, if we perform it, then is grace diminished, 
by how much performance advance, unless the apostle 
argue wrong : if we perform it not, and perish for not 
performing, then are the conditions of grace harder than 
those of rigour. If through faith and repentance we 
perish not, yet grace still remains the less, by requiring 
that which rigour did not require, or at least not so 
strictly. Thus much therefore to Parseus ; that if the 
gospel require perfecter obedience than the law as a 
duty, it exalts the law and debases itself, which is 
dishonourable to the work of our redemption. See- 
ing therefore that all the causes of any allowance, that 
the Jews might have, remain as well to the Christians; 
this is a certain rule, that so long as the causes remain, 
the allowance ought. And having thus at length in- 
quired the truth concerning law and dispense, their 
ends, their uses, their limits, and in what manner both 
Jew and Christian stand liable to the one or capable of 
the other; we may safely conclude, that to affirm the 
giving of any law or law-like dispense to sin for hard- 
ness of heart, is a doctrine of that extravagance from 
the sage principles of piety, that whoso considers tho- 
roughly cannot but admire how this hath been digest- 
ed all this while. 



CHAP. VIII. 

The true sense how Moses suffered divorce for hard- 
ness of heart. 

What may we do then to salve this seeming incon- 
sistence? I must not dissemble, that I am confident it 
can be done no other way than this : 

Moses, Deut. xxiv. 1, established a grave and pru- 
dent law, full of moral equity, full of due consideration 
towards nature, that cannot be resisted, a law consent- 
ing with the wisest men and civilest nations; that 
when a man hath married a wife, if it come to pass, 
that he cannot love her by reason of some displeasing- 
natural quality or unfitness in her, let him write her a 
bill of divorce. The intent of which law undoubtedly 
was this, that if any good and peaceable man should 
discover some helpless disagreement or dislike either of 
mind or body, whereby he could not cheerfully perform 
the duty of a husband without the perpetual dissem- 
bling of offence and disturbance to his spirit ; rather 
than to live uncomfortably and unhappily both to him- 
self and to his wife ; rather than to continue undertak- 
ing a duty, which he could not possibly discharge, he 
might dismiss her whom he could not tolerably and so 
not conscionably retain. And this law the Spirit of 
God by the mouth of Solomon, Prov. xxx. 21, 23, tes- 
tifies to be a good and a necessary law, by granting it 
that " a hated woman," (for so the Hebrew word signi- 
fies, rather than " odious," though it come all to one,) 
that " a hated woman, when she is married, is a thing 
that the earth cannot bear." What follows then, but 
that the charitable law must remedy what nature can- 
not undergo ? Now that many licentious and hard- 
hearted men took hold of this law to cloke their bad 
purposes, is nothing strange to believe. And these 
were they, not for whom Moses made the law, (God 
forbid!) but whose hardness of heart taking ill-ad- 
vantage by this law he held it better to suffer as by 
accident, where it could not be detected, rather than 
good men should lose their just and lawful privilege of 
remedy ; Christ therefore having to answer these 
tempting Pharisees, according as his custom was, not 
meaning to inform their proud ignorance what Moses 
did in the true intent of the law, which they had ill 
cited, suppressing the true cause for which Moses gave 
it, and extending it to every slight matter, tells them 
their own, what Moses was forced to suffer by their 
abuse of his law. Which is yet more plain, if we 
mark that our Saviour, in Matt. v. cites not the law of 
Moses, but the pharisaical tradition falsely grounded 
upon that law. And in those other places, chap. xix. 
and Mark x. the Pharisees cite the law, but conceal the 
wise and humane reason there expressed ; which our 
Saviour corrects not in them, whose pride deserved not 
his instruction, only returns them what is proper to 
them : "Moses for the hardness of your heart suffered 
you," that is, such as you, " to put away your wives; 
and to you he wrote this precept for that cause," which 
(" to you ") must be read with an impression, and un- 



144 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



derstood limitedly of such as covered ill purposes under 
that Law ; for it was seasonable, that they should hear 
their own unbounded licence rebuked, but not season- 
able for them to hear a good man's requisite liberty 
explained. But us he hath taught better, if we have 
ears to hear. He himself acknowledged it to be a law, 
Mark x. and being- a law of God, it must have an un- 
doubted " end of charity, which may be used with a 
pure heart, a g-ood conscience, and faith unfeig-ned,"as 
was heard : it cannot allow sin, but is purposely to resist 
sin, as by the same chapter to Timothy appears. There 
we learn also, " that the law is good, if a man use it 
lawfully." Out of doubt then there must be a certain 
g-ood in this law, which Moses willingly allowed, 
and there might be an unlawful use made thereof by 
hypocrites ; and that was it which was unwillingly 
suffered, foreseeing it in general, but not able to dis- 
cern it in particulars. Christ therefore mentions not 
here what Moses and the law intended ; for good men 
might know that by many other rules ; and the scorn- 
ful Pharisees were not fit to be told, until they could 
employ that knowledge they had less abusively. Only 
he acquaints them with what Moses by them was put 
to suffer. 



CHAP. IX. 

The Words of the institution how to he understood ; 
and of our Saviours Answer to his Disciples. 

And to entertain a little their overweening arrogance 
as best befitted, and to amaze them yet further, because 
they thought it no hard matter to fulfil the law, he 
draws them up to that unseparable institution, which 
God ordained in the beginning before the fall, when 
man and woman were both perfect, and could have no 
cause to separate : just as in the same chapter he stands 
not to contend with the arrogant young man, who 
boasted his observance of the whole law, whether he 
had indeed kept it or not, but screws him up higher to 
a task of that perfection, which no man is bound to 
imitate. And in like manner, that pattern of the first 
institution he set before the opinionative Pharisees, to 
dazzle them, and not to bind us. For this is a solid 
rule, that every command, given with a reason, binds 
our obedience no otherwise than that reason holds. 
Of this sort was that command in Eden ; " therefore 
shall a man cleave to his wife, and they shall be one 
flesh ;" which we see is no absolute command, but 
with an inference "therefore :" the reason then must be 
first considered, that our obedience be not misobedience. 
The first is, for it is not single, because the wife is to 
the husband, " flesh of his flesh," as in the verse going 
before. But this reason cannot be sufficient of itself: 
for why then should he for his wife leave his father 
and mother, with whom he is far more " flesh of flesh, 
and bone of bone," as being made of their substance ? 
and besides, it can be bat a sorry and ignoble society 
of life, whose inseparable injunction depends merely 



upon flesh and bones. Therefore we must look higher, 
since Christ himself recalls us to the beginning, and 
we shall find, that the primitive reason of never divorc- 
ing was that sacred and not vain promise of God to 
remedy man's loneliness by " making him a meet help 
for him," though not now in perfection, as at first ; 
yet still in proportion as things now are. And this is 
repeated, verse 20, when all other creatures were fitly 
associated and brought to Adam, as if the Divine Power 
had been in some care and deep thought, because " there 
was not yet found any help meet for man." And can 
we so slightly depress the all-wise purpose of a delibe- 
rating God, as if his consultation had produced no 
other good for man, but to join him with an accidental 
companion of propagation, which his sudden word had 
already made for every beast ? nay a far less good to man 
it will be found, if she must at all adventures be fast- 
ened upon him individually. And therefore even plain 
sense and equity, and, which is above them both, the 
all-interpreting voice of charity herself cries aloud, 
that this primitive reason, this consulted promise of 
God, " to make a meet help," is the only cause that 
gives authority to this command of not divorcing, to 
be a command. And it might be further added, that 
if the true definition of a wife were asked at good 
earnest, this clause of being " a meet help" would shew 
itself so necessary and so essential, in that demonstra- 
tive argument, that it might be logically concluded : 
therefore she who naturally and perpetually is no " meet 
help," can be no wife ; which clearly takes away the 
difficulty of dismissing such a one. If this be not 
thought enough, I answer yet further, that marriage, 
unless it mean a fit and tolerable marriage, is not inse- 
parable neither by nature nor institution. Not by na- 
ture, for then Mosaic divorces had been against nature, 
if separable and inseparable be contraries, as who doubts 
they be ? and what is against nature is against law, 
if soundest philosophy abuse us not : by this reckoning 
Moses should be most unmosaic, that is, most illegal, 
not to say most unnatural. Nor is it inseparable by 
the first institution ; for then no second institution of 
the same law for so many causes could dissolve it ; it 
being most unworthy a human, (as Plato's judgment 
is in the fourth book of his laws,) much more a divine 
lawgiver, to write two several decrees upon the same 
thing. But what would Plato have deemed, if one of 
these were good, and the other evil to be done ? Lastly, 
suppose it to be inseparable by institution, yet in com- 
petition with higher things, as religion and charity in 
mainest matters, and when the chief end is frustrate 
for which it was ordained, as hath been shewn ; if still 
it must remain inseparable, it holds a strange and law- 
less propriety from all other works of God under heaven. 
From these many considerations, we may safely gather, 
that so much of the first institution as our Saviour men- 
tions, for he mentions not all, was but to quell and put 
to nonplus the tempting Pharisees, and to lay open 
their ignorance and shallow understanding of the Scrip- 
tures. For, saith he, " have ye not read that he which 
made them at the beginning, made them male and fe- 
male, and said, for this cause shall a man cleave to his 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



145 



wife ? " which these blind usurpers of Moses's chair 
could not gainsay : as if this single respect of male 
and female were sufficient against a thousand inconve- 
niences and mischiefs, to clog- a rational creature to his 
endless sorrow unrelinquishably, under the guileful 
superscription of his intended solace and comfort. What 
if they had thus answered ? Master, if thou mean to 
make wedlock as inseparable as it was from the begin- 
ning, let it be made also a fit society, as God meant it, 
which we shall soon understand it ought to be, if thou 
recite the whole reason of the law. Doubtless our 
Saviour had applauded their just answer. For then 
they had expounded his command of Paradise, even 
as Moses himself expounds it by the laws of divorce, 
that is, with due and wise regard to the premises and 
reasons of the first command ; according to which, 
without unclean and temporizing permissions, he in- 
structs us in this imperfect state what we may lawfully 
do about divorce. 

But if it be thought, that the disciples, offended at 
the rigour of Christ's answer, could yet obtain no miti- 
gation of the former sentence pronounced to the Pha- 
risees, it may be fully answered, that our Saviour con- 
tinues the same reply to his disciples, as men leavened 
with the same customary licence which the Pharisees 
maintained, and displeased at the removing of a tra- 
ditional abuse, whereto they had so long not unwill- 
ingly been used : it was no time then to contend with 
their slow and prejudicial belief, in a thing wherein an 
ordinary measure of light in Scripture, with some at- 
tention, might afterwards inform them well enough. 
And yet ere Christ had finished this argument, they 
might have picked out of his own concluding words an 
answer more to their minds, and in effect the same with 
that which hath been all this while intreating audience : 
" All men," saith he, " cannot receive this saying, save 
they to whom it is given ; he that is able to receive it, 
let him receive it." What saying is this which is left 
to a man's choice to receive, or not receive ? what but 
the married life ? Was our Saviour so mild and so fa- 
vourable to the weakness of a single man, and is he 
turned on the sudden so rigorous and inexorable, to 
the distresses and extremities of an ill-wedded man ? 
Did he so graciously give leave to change the better 
single life for the worse married life ? Did he open so 
to us this hazardous and accidental door of marriage, 
to shut upon us like the g'ate of death, without retract- 
ing or returning, without permitting to change the 
worst, most insupportable, most unchristian mischance 
of marriage, for all the mischiefs and sorrows that can 
ensue, being' an ordinance which was especially given 
as a cordial and exhilarating cup of solace, the better 
to bear our other crosses and afflictions? Questionless 
this was a hard-heartedness of divorcing, worse than 
that in the Jews, which they say extorted the allow- 
ance from Moses, and is utterly dissonant from all the 
doctrine of our Saviour. After these considerations 
therefore, to take a law out of Paradise given in time 
of original perfection, and to take it barely without 
those just and equal inferences and reasons which 
mainly establish it, nor so much as admitting those 



needful and safe allowances, wherewith Moses himself 
interprets it to the fallen condition of man ; argues no- 
thing in us but rashness and contempt of those means 
that God left us in his pure and chaste law, without 
which it will not be possible for us to perform the strict 
imposition of this command : or if we strive beyond 
our strength, we shall strive to obey it otherwise than 
God commands it. And lamented experience daily 
teaches the bitter and vain fruits of this our presump- 
tion, forcing men in a thing wherein we are not able 
to judge either of their strength or their sufferance. 
Whom neither one voice nor other by natural addic- 
tion, but only marriage ruins, which doubtless is not 
the fault of that ordinance, for God gave it as a bless- 
ing, nor always of man's mischoosing*, it being an er- 
rour above wisdom to prevent, as examples of wisest 
men so mistaken manifest : it is the fault therefore of a 
perverse opinion, that will have it continued in despite 
of nature and reason, when indeed it was never so 
truly joined. All those expositors upon the fifth Mat- 
thew confess the law of Moses to be the law of the 
Lord, wherein no addition or diminution hath place; 
yet coming to the point of divorce, as if they feared 
not to be called least in the kingdom of heaven, any 
slight evasion will content them, to reconcile those 
contradictions, which they make between Christ and 
Moses, between Christ and Christ. 



CHAR X. 

The vain shift of those who make the law of divorce to 
be only the premises of a succeeding law. 

Some will have it no law, but the granted premises 
of another law following, contrary to the words of 
Christ, Mark x. 5, and all other translations of gravest 
authority, who render it in form of a law, agreeably to 
Mai. ii. 16, as it is most anciently and modernly ex- 
pounded. Besides, the bill of divorce, and the par- 
ticular occasion therein mentioned, declares it to be 
orderly and legal. And what avails this to make the 
matter more righteous, if such an adulterous condition 
shall be mentioned to build a law upon without either 
punishment or so much as forbidding ? They pretend 
it is implicitly reproved in these words, Deut. xxiv. 4, 
" after she is defiled ; " but who sees not that this defile- 
ment is only in respect of returning to her former hus- 
band after an intermixed marriage ? else why was not 
the defiling condition first forbidden, which would have 
saved the labour of this after-law ? Nor is it seemly or 
piously attributed to the justice of God and his known 
hatred of sin, that such a heinous fault as this through 
all the law should be only wiped with an implicit 
and oblique touch, (which yet is falsely supposed,) 
and that his peculiar people should be let wallow in 
adulterous marriages almost two thousand years, for 
want of a direct law to prohibit them : it is rather to 
be confidently assumed, that this was granted to appa- 



146 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



rent necessities, as being of unquestionable right and 
reason in the law of nature, in that it still passes with- 
out inhibition, even when the greatest cause is given 
to us to expect it should be directly forbidden. 



CHAP. XI. 

The other shift of saying divorce was permitted by law, 
but not approved. More of the institution. 

But it was not approved. So much the worse that 
it was allowed ; as if sin had over-mastered the word 
of God, to conform her steady and straight rule to sin's 
crookedness, which is impossible. Besides, what need- 
ed a positive grant of that which was not approved ? It 
restrained no liberty to him that could but use a little 
fraud ; it had been better silenced, unless it were ap- 
proved in some case or other. But still it was not ap- 
proved. Miserable excusers! he who doth evil, that 
good may come thereby, approves not what he doth ; 
and yet the grand rule forbids him, and counts his 
damnation just if he do it. The sorceress Medea did 
not approve her own evil doings, yet looked not to be 
excused for that : and it is the constant opinion of Plato 
in Protagoras, and other of his dialogues, agreeing 
with that proverbial sentence among the Greeks, that 
" no man is wicked willingly." Which also the Peri- 
patetics do rather distinguish than deny. What great 
thank then if any man, reputed wise and constant, will 
neither do, nor permit others under his charge to do, 
that which he approves not, especially in matter of sin? 
but for a judge, but for a magistrate the shepherd of 
his people, to surrender up his approbation against law, 
and his own judgment, to the obstinacy of his herd; 
what more unjudgelike, unmagistratelike, and in war 
more uncommanderlike ? Twice in a short time it was 
the undoing of the Roman state, first when Pompey, 
next Avhen Marcus Brutus, had not magnanimity 
enough but to make so poor a resignation of what they 
approved, to what the boisterous tribunes and soldiers 
bawled for. Twice it was the saving of two of the 
greatest commonwealths in the world, of Athens by 
Themistocles at the seafight of Salamis, of Rome by 
Fabius Maximus in the Punic war; for that these two 
matchless generals had the fortitude at home against 
the rashness and the clamours of their own captains 
and confederates, to withstand the doing or permitting 
of what they could not approve in their duty of their 
great command. Thus far of civil prudence. But 
when we speak of sin, let us look again upon the old 
reverend Eli ; who in his heavy punishment found no 
difference between the doing and permitting of what 
he did not approve. If hardness of heart in the people 
may be an excuse, why then is Pilate branded through 
all memory ? lie approved not what he did, he openly 
protested, he washed his hands, and laboured not a lit- 
tle ere he would yield to the hard hearts of a whole 
people, both princes and plebians, importuning and 



turn ulting even to the fear of a revolt. Yet is there 
any will undertake his cause ? If therefore Pilate for 
suffering but one act of cruelty against law, though 
with much unwillingness testified, at the violent de- 
mand of a whole nation, shall stand so black upon re- 
cord to all posterity ; alas for Moses ! what shall we 
say for him, while we are taught to believe he suffered 
not one act only both of cruelty and uncleanliness in 
one divorce, but made it a plain and lasting law against 
law, whereby ten thousand acts accounted both cruel 
and unclean might be daily committed, and this with- 
out the least suit or petition of the people, that we can 
read of? 

And can we conceive without vile thoughts, that the 
majesty and holiness of God could endure so many 
ages to gratify a stubborn people in the practice of a 
foul polluting sin ? and could he expect they should 
abstain, he not signifying his mind in a plain command, 
at such time especially when he was framing their laws 
and them to all possible perfection ? But they were to 
look back to the first institution ; nay rather why was 
not that individual institution brought out of Paradise, 
as was that of the sabbath, and repeated in the body 
of the law, that men might have understood it to be a 
command ? For that any sentence that bears the re- 
semblance of a precept, set there so out of place in an- 
other world, at such a distance from the whole law, 
and not once mentioned there, should be an obliging 
command to us, is very disputable ; and perhaps it 
might be denied to be a command without further dis- 
pute : however, it commands not absolutely, as hath 
been cleared, but only with reference to that precedent 
promise of God, which is the very ground of his insti- 
tution : if that appear not in some tolerable sort, how 
can we affirm such a matrimony to be the same which 
God instituted ? in such an accident it will best be- 
hoove our soberness to follow rather what moral Sinai 
prescribes equal to our strength, than fondly to think 
within our strength all that lost Paradise relates. 



CHAP. XII. 

The third shift of them who esteem it a mere judicial 
law. Proved again to be a law of moral equity. 

Another while it shall suffice them, that it was not 
a moral but a judicial law, and so was abrogated : nay 
rather not abrogated because judicial ; which law the 
ministry of Christ came not to deal with. And who 
put it in man's power to exempt, where Christ speaks 
in general of not abrogating " the least jot or tittle," 
and in special not that of divorce, because it follows 
among those laws which he promised expressly not to 
abrogate, but to vindicate from abusive traditions ? 
which is most evidently to be seen in the 16th of Luke, 
where this caution of not abrogating is inserted imme- 
diately, and not otherwise than purposely, when no 
other point of the law is touched but that of divorce. 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



147 



And if we mark the 31st verse of Matt. v. he there cites 
not the law of Moses, but the licentious gloss which 
traduced the law ; that therefore which he cited, that 
he abrogated, and not only abrogated, but disallowed 
and flatly condemned ; which could not be the law of 
Moses, for that had been foully to the rebuke of his 
great servant. To abrogate a law made with God's 
allowance, had been to tell us only that such a law 
was now to cease : but to refute it with an ignominious 
note of civilizing adultery, casts the reproof, which 
was meant only to the Pharisees, even upon him that 
made the law. But yet if that be judicial, which be- 
longs to a civil court, this law is less judicial than nine 
of the ten commandments : for antiquaries affirm, that 
divorces proceeded among the Jews without knowledge 
of the magistrate, only with hands and seals under the 
testimony of some rabbies to be then present. Per- 
kins, in a " Treatise of Conscience," grants, that what 
in the judicial law is of common equity binds also the 
Christian : and how to judge of this, prescribes two 
ways : if wise nations have enacted the like decree ; 
or if it maintain the good of a family, church, or com- 
monwealth. This therefore is a pure moral oeconomi- 
cal law, too hastily imputed of tolerating sin ; being 
rather so clear in nature and reason, that it was left to 
a man's own arbitrement to be determined between 
God and his own conscience ; not only among the 
Jews, but in every wise nation : the restraint whereof, 
who is not too thick-sighted, may see how hurtful and 
distinctive it is to the house, the church, and common- 
wealth. And that power which Christ never took 
from the master of a family, but rectified only to a right 
and wary use at home ; that power the undiscerning 
canonist hath improperly usurped in his court-leet, 
and bescribbled with a thousand trifling impertinences, 
which yet have filled the life of man with serious 
trouble and calamity. Yet grant it were of old a ju- 
dicial law, it need not be the less moral for that, being 
conversant as it is about virtue or vice. And our Sa- 
viour disputes not here the judicature, for that was not 
his office, but the morality of divorce, whether it be 
adultery or no ; if therefore he touch the law of Moses 
at all, he touches the moral part thereof, which is ab- 
surd to imagine, that the covenant of grace should 
reform the exact and perfect law of works, eternal and 
immutable ; or if he touch not the law at all, then is 
not the allowance thereof disallowed to us. 



CHAP. XIII. 

The ridiculous opinion, that divorce was permitted 
from the custom in Egypt. That Moses gave not x 
this law unwillingly. Perkins confesses this law 
was not abrogated. 

Others are so ridiculous as to allege, that this li- 
cence of divorcing was given them because they were 
so accustomed in Egypt. As if an ill custom were to 
l 



be kept to all posterity ; for the dispensation is both 
universal and of time unlimited, and so indeed no dis- 
pensation at all : for the overdated dispensation of a 
thing unlawful, serves for nothing but to increase hard- 
ness of heart, and makes men but wax more incorrigi- 
ble ; which were a great reproach to be said of any 
law or allowance that God should give us. In these 
opinions it would be more religion to advise well, lest 
we make ourselves juster than God, by censuring 
rashly that for sin, which his unspotted law without 
rebuke allows, and his people without being conscious 
of displeasing him have used : and if we can think so 
of Moses, as that the Jewish obstinacy could compel 
him to write such impure permissions against the word 
of God and his own judgment; doubtless it was his 
part to have protested publicly what straits he was 
driven to, and to have declared his conscience, when 
he gave any law against his mind : for the law is the 
touchstone of sin and of conscience, and must not be 
intermixed with corrupt indulgences ; for then it loses 
the greatest praise it has of being certain, and infalli- 
ble, not leading into errour as the Jews were led by 
this connivance of Moses, if it were a connivance. 
But still they fly back to the primitive institution, and 
would have us re-enter Paradise against the sword that 
guards it. Whom I again thus reply to, that the place 
in Genesis contains the description of a fit and perfect 
marriage, with an interdict of ever divorcing such a 
union : but where nature is discovered to have never 
joined indeed, but vehemently seeks to part, it cannot 
be there conceived that God forbids it; nay, he com- 
mands it both in the law and in the prophet Malachi, 
which is to be our rule. And Perkins upon this chap- 
ter of Matthew deals plainly, that our Saviour here 
confutes not Moses's law, but the false glosses that de- 
praved the law ; which being true, Perkins must needs 
grant, that something then is left to that law which 
Christ found no fault with ; and what can that be but 
the conscionable use of such liberty, as the plain words 
import ? so that by his own inference, Christ did not 
absolutely intend to restrain all divorces to the only 
cause of adultery. This therefore is the true scope of 
our Saviour's will, that he who looks upon the law 
concerning divorce, should also look back upon the 
institution, that he may endeavour what is perfectest : 
and he that looks upon the institution shall not refuse 
as sinful and unlawful those allowances, which God 
affords him in his following law, lest he make himself 
purer than his Maker, and presuming above strength, 
slip into temptations irrecoverably. For this is won- 
derful, that in all those decrees concerning marriage, 
God should never once mention the prime institution 
to dissuade them from divorcing', and that he should 
forbid smaller sins as opposite to the hardness of their 
hearts, and let this adulterous matter of divorce pass 
ever un reproved. 

This is also to be marvelled, that seeing Christ did 
not condemn whatever it was that Moses suffered, and 
that thereupon the christian magistrate permits usury 
and open stews, and here with us adultery to be so 
slightly punished, which was punished by death to 



148 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



these hard-hearted Jews ; why we should strain thus 
at the matter of divorce, which may stand so much 
with charity to permit, and make no scruple to allow 
usury esteemed to be so much against charity? But 
this it is to embroil ourselves against the righteous and 
all-wise judgments and statutes of God; which are 
not variable and contrarious as we would make them, 
one while permitting', and another while forbidding-, but 
are most constant and most harmonious each to other. 
For how can the uncorrupt and majestic law of God, 
bearing- in her hand the wages of life and death, har- 
bour such a repugnance within herself, as to require an 
unexempted and impartial obedience to all her decrees, 
either from us or from our Mediator, and yet debase 
herself to faulter so many ages with circumcised adul- 
teries by unclean and slubbering permissions ? 



CHAP. XIV. 

'That BeziCs opinion of regulating sin hy apostolic law 
cannot be found. 

Yet Beza's opinion is, that a politic law (but what 
politic law I know not, unless one of Machiavel's) 
may regulate sin ; may bear indeed, I grant, with im- 
perfection for a time, as those canons of the apostles 
did in ceremonial things : but as for sin, the essence of 
it cannot consist with rule ; and if the law fail to regu- 
late sin, and not to take it utterly away, it necessarily 
confirms and establishes sin. To make a regularity of 
sin by law, either the law must straighten sin into no 
sin, or sin must crook the law into no law. The judi- 
cial law can serve to no other end than to be the pro- 
tector and champion of religion and honest civility, as 
is set down plainly, Rom. xiii. and is but the arm of 
moral law, which can no more be separate from justice, 
than justice from virtue. Their office also, in a dif- 
ferent manner, steers the same course ; the one teaches 
what is good by precept, the other unteaches what is 
bad by punishment. But if we give way to politic 
dispensations of lewd uncleanness, the first good con- 
sequence of such a relax will be the justifying of papal 
stews, joined with a toleration of epidemic whoredom. 
Justice must revolt from the end of her authority, and 
become the patron of that whereof she was created the 
punishcr. The example of usury, which is commonly 
alleged, makes against the allegation which it brings, as 
I touched before. Besides that usury, so much as is per- 
mitted by the magistrate, and demanded with common 
equity, is neither against the word of God, nor the rule 
of charity ; as hath been often discussed by men of 
eminent learning and judgment. There must be there- 
fore some other example found out to shew us wherein 
civil policy may with warrant from God settle wicked- 
ness by law, and make that lawful which is lawless. 
Although I doubt not but, upon deeper consideration, 
that which is true in physic will be found as true in 



policy, that as of bad pulses those that beat most in 
order, are much worse than those that keep the most 
inordinate circuit; so of popular vices those that may 
be committed legally will be more pernicious, than 
those that are left to their own course at peril, not under 
a stinted privilege to sin orderly and regularly, which 
is an implicit contradiction, but under due and fearless 
execution of punishment. 

The political law, since it cannot regulate vice, is to 
restrain it by using all means to root it out. But if it 
suffer the weed to grow up to any pleasurable or con- 
tented height upon what pretext soever, it fastens the 
root, it prunes and dresses vice, as if it were a good 
plant. Let no man doubt therefore to affirm, that it is 
not so hurtful or dishonourable to a commonwealth, 
nor so much to the hardening of hearts, when those 
worse faults pretended to be feared are committed, by 
who so dares under strict and executed penalty, as 
when those less faults tolerated for fear of greater 
harden their faces, not their hearts only, under the pro- 
tection of public authority. For what less indignity 
were this, than as if justice herself, the queen of virtues, 
(descending from her sceptred royalty,) instead of con- 
quering, should compound and treat with sin, her eternal 
adversary and rebel, upon ignoble terms ? or as if the 
judicial law were like that untrusty steward in the 
gospel, and instead of calling in the debts of his moral 
master, should give out subtile and sly acquittances to 
keep himself from begging ? or let us person him like 
some wretched itinerary judge, who to gratify his de- 
linquents before him, would let them basely break his 
head, lest they should pull him from the bench, and 
throw him over the bar. Unless we had rather think 
both moral and judicial, full of malice and deadly 
purpose, conspired to let the debtor Israelite, the seed 
of Abraham, run on upon a bankrupt score, flattered 
with insufficient and ensnaring discharges, that so he 
might be haled to a more cruel forfeit for all the in- 
dulgent arrears which those judicial acquittances had 
engaged him in. No, no, this cannot be, that the law 
whose integrity and faithfulness is next to God, should 
be either the shameless broker of our impunities, or the 
intended instrument of our destruction. The method 
of holy correction, such as became the commonwealth 
of Israel, is not to bribe sin with sin, to capitulate and 
hire out one crime with another; but with more noble 
and graceful severity than Popilius the Roman legate 
used with Antiochus, to limit and level out the direct 
way from vice to virtue, with straightest and exactest 
lines on either side, not winding or indenting so much 
as to the right hand of fair pretences. Violence indeed 
and insurrection may force the law to suffer what it 
cannot mend ; but to write a decree in allowance of sin, 
as soon can the hand of justice rot off. Let this be 
ever concluded as a truth that will outlive the faith of 
those that seek to bear it down. 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 1 



149 



CHAP. XV. 

That divorce was not given for wives only, as Beza 
and Parceus write. More of the institution. 

Lastly, if divorce were granted, as Beza and others 
say, not for men, but to release afflicted wives ; cer- 
tainly, it is not only a dispensation, but a most merciful 
law; and why it should not yet be in force, being 
wholly as needful, I know not what can be in cause 
but senseless cruelty. But yet to say, divorce was 
granted for relief of wives rather than of husbands, is 
but weakly conjectured, and is manifestly the extreme 
shift of a huddled exposition. Whenas it could not 
be found how hardness of heart should be lessened by 
liberty of divorce, a fancy was devised to hide the flaw, 
by commenting that divorce was permitted only for the 
help of wives. Palpably uxorious ! who can be ignor- 
ant, that woman was created for man, and not man for 
woman, and that a husband may be injured as insuffer- 
ably in marriage as a wife ? What an injury is it after 
wedlock not to be beloved ! what to be slighted ! what 
to be contended with in point of house-rule who shall 
be the head; not for any parity of wisdom, for that 
were something reasonable, but out of a female pride ! 
" I suffer not," saith St. Paul, " the woman to usurp au- 
thority over the man." If the apostle could not suffer 
it, into what mould is he mortified that can ? Solomon 
saith, " that a bad wife is to her husband as rottenness 
to his bones, a continual dropping. Better dwell in 
the corner of a house-top, or in the wilderness," than 
with such a one. " Whoso hideth her, hideth the wind, 
and one of the four mischiefs which the earth cannot 
bear." If the Spirit of God wrote such aggravations as 
these, and (as may be guessed by these similitudes) 
counsels the man rather to divorce than to live with 
such a colleague ; and yet on the other side expresses 
nothing of the wife's suffering with a bad husband : is 
it not most likely that God in his law had more pity 
towards man thus wedlocked, than towards the woman 
that was created for another? The same Spirit relates 
to us the course, which the Medes and Persians took 
by occasion of Vashti, whose mere denial to come at 
her husband's sending, lost her the being* queen any 
longer, and set up a wholesome law, " that every man 
should bear rule in his own house." And the divine 
relater shews us not the least sign of disliking what 
was done ; how should he, if Moses long before was 
nothing less mindful of the honour and pre-eminence 
due to man ? So that to say divorce was granted for 
woman rather than man, was but fondly invented. 
Esteeming therefore to have asserted thus an injured 
law of Moses, from the unwarranted and guilty name 
of a dispensation, to be again a most equal and requisite 
law, we have the word of Christ himself, that he came 
not to alter the least tittle of it ; and signifies no small 
displeasure against him that shall teach to do so. On 
which relying, I shall not much waver to affirm, that 
those words, which are made to intimate as if they for- 
bad all divorce, but for adultery, (though Moses have 



constituted otherwise,) those words taken circumscriptly, 
without regard to any precedent law of Moses, or at- 
testation of Christ himself, or without care to preserve 
those his fundamental and superior laws of nature and 
charity, to which all other ordinances give up their 
seal, are as much against plain equity and the mercy 
of religion, as those words of " Take, eat, this is my 
body," elementally understood, are against nature and 
sense. 

And surely the restoring of this degraded law hath 
well recompensed the diligence was used by enlight- 
ening us further to find out wherefore Christ took off 
the Pharisees from alleging the law, and referred them 
to the first institution ; not condemning, altering, or 
abolishing this precept of divorce, which is plainly 
moral, for that were against his truth, his promise, and 
his prophetic office ; but knowing how fallaciously they 
had cited and concealed the particular and natural 
reason of the law, that they might justify any froward 
reason of their own, he lets go that sophistry uncon- 
vinced ; for that had been to teach them else, which his 
purpose was not. And since they had taken a liberty 
which the law gave not, he amuses and repels their 
tempting pride with a perfection of Paradise, which 
the law required not; not thereby to oblige our per- 
formance to that whereto the law never enjoined the 
fallen estate of man : for if the first institution must 
make wedlock, whatever happen, inseparable to us, it 
must make it also as perfect, as meetly helpful, and as 
comfortable as God promised it should be, at least in 
some degree ; otherwise it is not equal or proportion- 
able to the strength of man, that he should be reduced 
into such indissoluble bonds to his assured misery, if 
all the other conditions of that covenant be manifestly 
altered. 



CHAP. XVI. 

How to be understood, that they must be one flesh ; and 
how that those whom God hath joined, man should 
not sunder. 

Next he saith, " they must be one flesh ;" which 
when all conjecturing is done, will be found to import 
no more but to make legitimate and good the carnal 
act, which else might seem to have something of pol- 
lution in it; and infers thus much over, that the fit 
union of their souls be such as may even incorporate 
them to love and amity : but that can never be where 
no correspondence is of the mind ; nay, instead of be- 
ing one flesh, they will be rather two carcasses chained 
unnaturally together; or, as it may happen, a living 
soul bound to a dead corpse ; a punishment too like 
that inflicted by the tyrant Mezentius, so little worthy 
to be received as that remedy of loneliness, which God 
meaut us. Since we know it is not the joining of an- 
other body will remove loneliness, but the uniting of 
another compliable mind ; and that it is no blessing 



150 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



but a torment, nay a base and brutish condition to be 
one flesh, unless where nature can in some measure fix 
a unity of disposition. The meaning therefore of these 
words, " For this cause shall a man leave his father 
and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife," was first 
to shew us the dear affection which naturally grows in 
every not unnatural marriage, even to the leaving of 
parents, or other familiarity whatsoever. Next, it 
justifies a man in so doing, that nothing is done undu- 
tifull y to father or mother. But he that should be here 
feteftrfy commanded to cleave to his error, a disposition 
which to his he finds will never cement, a quotidian of 
sorrow and discontent in his house ; let us be excused 
to pause a little, and bethink us every way round ere 
we lay such a flat solecism upon the gracious, and 
certainly not inexorable, not ruthless and flinty ordi- 
nance of marriage. For if the meaning of these words 
must be thus blocked up within their own letters from 
all equity and fair deduction, they will serve then well 
indeed their turn, who affirm divorce to have been 
granted only for wives ; whenas we see no word of 
this text binds women, but men only, what it binds. 
No marvel then if Salomith (sister to Herod) sent a 
writ of ease to Costobarus her husband, which (as Jo- 
sephus there attests) was lawful only to men. No 
marvel though Placidia, the sister of Honorius, threat- 
ened the like to earl Constantius for a trivial cause, as 
Photius relates from Olympiodorus. No marvel any 
thing, if letters must be turned into palisadoes, to stake 
out all requisite sense from entering to their due en- 
largement. 

Lastly, Christ himself tells who should not be put 
asunder, namely, those whom God hath joined. A 
plain solution of this great controversy, if men would 
but use their eyes, for when is it that God may be said 
to join? when the parties and their friends consent ? 
No surely, for that may concur to lewdest ends. Or is 
it when church rites are finished ? Neither; for the effi- 
cacy of those depends upon the presupposed fitness of 
either party. Perhaps after carnal knowledge : least 
of all ; for that may join persons whom neither law nor 
nature dares join. It is left, that only then when the 
minds arc fitly disposed and enabled to maintain a 
cheerful conversation, to the solace and love of each 
other, according as God intended and promised in the 
very first foundation of matrimony, " I will make 
him a help-meet for him ;" for surely what God in- 
tended and promised, that only can be thought to be his 
joining, and not the contrary. So likewise the apostle 
witnesseth, 1 Cor. vii. 15, that in marriage " God hath 
called us to peace." And doubtless in what respect he 
hath called us to marriage, in that also he hath joined 
us. The rest, whom either disproportion or deadness 
of spirit, or something distasteful and averse in the im- 
mutable bent of nature renders conjugal, error may 
have joined, but God never joined against the meaning 
of his own ordinance. And if he joined them not, then 
i^ there no power above their own consent to hinder 
tin mi from unjoining, when they cannot reap the so- 
berest ends of being together in any tolerable sort. 
Neither can it be said properly that such twain were 



ever divorced, but only parted from each other, as two 
persons unconjunctive are unmarriable together. But 
if, whom God hath made a fit help, frowardness or 
private injuries hath made unfit, that being the secret 
of marriage, God can better judge than man, neither 
is man indeed fit or able to decide this matter : how- 
ever it be, undoubtedly a peaceful divorce is a less 
evil, and less in scandal than hateful, hard-hearted, and 
destructive continuance of marriage in the judgment of 
Moses and of Christ, that justifies him in choosing the 
less evil ; which if it were an honest and civil pru- 
dence in the law, what is there in the gospel forbid- 
ding such a kind of legal wisdom, though we should 
admit the common expositors? 



CHAP. XVII. 

The sentence of Christ concerning divorce how to be 
expounded. What Grotius hath observed. Other 
additions. 

Having thus unfolded those ambiguous reasons, 
wherewith Christ (as his wont was) gave to the Phari- 
sees that came to sound him, such an answer as they de- 
served, it will not be uneasy to explain the sentence it- 
self that now follows ; " Whosoever shall put away his 
wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry an- 
other, committeth adultery." First therefore I will set 
down what is observed by Grotius upon this point, a 
man of general learning. Next, I produce what mine 
own thoughts gave me before I had seen his annotations. 
Origen, saith he, notes that Christ named adultery 
rather as one example of other like cases, than as one 
only exception ; and that is frequent not only in human 
but in divine laws, to express one kind of fact, whereby 
other causes of like nature may have the like plea, as 
Exod. xxi. 18, 19, 20, 26 ; Deut. xix. 5. And from the 
maxims of civil law he shews, that even in sharpest 
penal laws the same reason hath the same right; and 
in gentler laws, that from like causes to like the law 
interprets rightly. But it may be objected, saith he, 
that nothing destroys the end of wedlock so much as 
adultery. To which he answers, that marriage was not 
ordained only for copulation, but for mutual help and 
comfort of life : and if we mark diligently the nature 
of our Saviour's commands, we shall find that both 
their beginning and their end consists in charity ; 
whose will is, that we should so be good to others, as 
that we be not cruel to ourselves : and hence it appears 
why Mark, and Luke, and St. Paul to the Corinthians, 
mentioning this precept of Christ, add no exception, 
because exceptions that arise from natural equity are 
included silently under general terms : it would be 
considered therefore, whether the same equity may not 
have place in other cases less frequent. Thus far he. 
From hence is what I add : First, that this saying of 
Christ, as it is usually expounded, can be no law at all, 
that a man for no cause should separate but for adul- 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



151 



tery, except it be a supernatural law, not binding us as 
we now are ; had it been the law of nature, either the 
Jews, or some other wise and civil nation, would have 
pressed it : or let it be so, yet that law, Deut. xxiv. 1, 
whereby a man hath leave to part, whenas for just and 
natural cause discovered he cannot live, is a law an- 
cienter and deeper engraven in blameless nature than 
the other : therefore the inspired lawgiver Moses took 
care, that this should be specified and allowed; the 
other he let vanish in silence, not once repeated in the 
volume of his law, even as the reason of it vanished 
with Paradise. Secondly, this can be no new com- 
mand, for the gospel enjoins no new morality, save 
only the infinite enlargement of charity, which in this 
respect is called the new commandment by St. John, 
as being the accomplishment of every command. 
Thirdly, it is no command of perfection further than it 
partakes of charity, which is " the bond of perfection." 
Those commands therefore, which compel us to self- 
cruelty above our strength, so hardly will help forward 
to perfection, that they hinder and set backward in all 
the common rudiments of Christianity, as was proved. 
It being thus clear, that the words of Christ can be no 
kind of command as they are vulgarly taken, we shall 
now see in what sense they may be a command, and 
that an excellent one, the same with that of Moses, 
and no other. Moses had granted, that only for a na- 
tural annoyance, defect, or dislike, whether in body or 
mind, (for so the Hebrew word plainly notes,) which a 
man could not force himself to live with, he might 
give a bill of divorce, thereby forbidding any other 
cause, wherein amendment or reconciliation might 
have place. This law the Pharisees depraving extended 
to any slight contentious cause whatsoever. Christ 
therefore seeing where they halted, urges the negative 
part of the law, which is necessarily understood, (for 
the determinate permission of Moses binds them from 
further licence,) and checking their supercilious drift, 
declares that no accidental, temporary, or reconcilable 
offence (except fornication) can justify a divorce. He 
touches not here those natural and perpetual hinder- 
ances of society, whether in body or mind, which are 
not to be removed ; for such as they are aptest to cause 
an unchangeable offence, so are they not capable of 
reconcilement, because not of amendment , they do not 
break indeed, but they annihilate the bands of marriage 
more than adultery. For that fault committed argues 
not always a hatred either natural or incidental against 
whom it is committed ; neither does it infer a disability 
of all future helpfulness, or loyalty, or loving agree- 
ment, being once past and pardoned, where it can be 
pardoned : but that which naturally distastes, and " finds 
no favour in the eyes" of matrimony, can never be 
concealed, never appeased, never intermitted, but proves 
a perpetual nullity of love and contentment, a solitude 
and dead vacation of all acceptable conversing. Moses 
therefore permits divorce, but in cases only that have 
no hands to join, and more need of separating than 
adultery. Christ forbids it, but in matters only that 
may accord, and those less than fornication. Thus is 
Moses's law here plainly confirmed, and those causes 



which he permitted not a jot gainsaid. And that this 
is the true meaning of this place, I prove by no less an 
author than St. Paul himself, 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11 ; upon 
which text interpreters agree, that the apostle only 
repeats the precept of Christ : where while he speaks 
of the " wife's reconcilement to her husband," he puts 
it out of controversy, that our Saviour meant chiefly 
matters of strife and reconcilement ; of which sort he 
would not that any difference should be the occasion 
of divorce, except fornication. And that we may learn 
better how to value a grave and prudent law of Moses, 
and how unadvisedly we smatter with our lips, when 
we talk of Christ's abolishing any judicial law of his 
great Father, except in some circumstances which are 
judaical rather than judicial, and need no abolishing', 
but cease of themselves ; I say again, that this recited 
law of Moses contains a cause of divorce greater be- 
yond compare than that for adultery: and whoso can- 
not so conceive it, errs and wrongs exceedingly a law 
of deep wisdom for want of well fathoming. For let 
him mark, no man urges the just divorcing of adul- 
tery as it is a sin, but as it is an injury to marriage; 
and though it be but once committed, and that with- 
out malice, whether through importunity or opportu- 
nity, the gospel does not therefore dissuade him who 
would therefore divorce ; but that natural hatred 
whenever it arises, is a greater evil in marriage than 
the accident of adultery, a greater defrauding, a 
greater injustice, and yet not blamable, he who un- 
derstands not after all this representing, I doubt his 
will like a hard spleen draws faster than his understand- 
ing can well sanguify : nor did that man ever know 
or feel what it is to love truly, nor ever yet compre- 
hend in his thoughts what the true intent of marriag-e 
is. And this also will be somewhat above his reach, 
but yet no less a truth for lack of his perspective, that 
as no man apprehends what vice is so well as he who 
is truly virtuous, no man knows hell like him who con- 
verses most in heaven ; so there is none that can esti- 
mate the evil and the affliction of a natural hatred in 
matrimony, unless he have a soul gentle enough and 
spacious enough to contemplate what is true love. 

And the reason why men so disesteem this wise judg- 
ing law of God, and count hate, or " the not finding of 
favour," as it is there termed, a humourous, a dishonest, 
and slight cause of divorce, is because themselves ap- 
prehend so little of what true concord means : for if 
they did, they would be juster in their balancing be- 
tween natural hatred and casual adultery ; this being 
but a transient injury, and soon amended, I mean as 
to the party against whom the trespass is : but that 
other being an unspeakable and unremitting sorrow 
and offence, whereof no amends can be made, no cure, 
no ceasing but by divorce, which like a divine touch 
in one moment heals all, and (like the word of God) in 
one instant hushes outrageous tempests into a sudden 
stillness and peaceful calm. Yet all this so great a 
good of God's own enlarging- to us is, by the hard reins 
of them that fit us, wholly diverted and embezzled from 
us. Maligners of mankind ! But who hath taught 
you to mangle thus, and make more gashes in the 






152 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



miseries of a blameless creature, with the leaden dag- 
gers of your literal decrees, to whose ease you cannot 
add the tithe of one small atom, but by letting alone 
your unhelpful surgery. As for such as think wander- 
ing concupiscence to be here newly and more precisely 
forbidden than it was before ; if the apostle can con- 
vince them, we know that we are to " know lust by 
the law," and not by any new discovery of the gospel. 
The law of Moses knew what it permitted, and the 
g'ospel knew what it forbid ; he that under a peevish 
conceit of debarring concupiscence, shall go about to 
make a novice of Moses, (not to say a worse thing, for 
reverence sake,) and such a one of God himself, as is a 
horrour to think, to bind our Saviour in the default of 
a downright promise-breaking; and to bind the dis- 
unions of complaining nature in chains together, and 
curb them with a canon bit; it is he that commits 
all the whoredom and adultery which himself adjudges, 
besides the former guilt so manifold that lies upon 
him. And «if none of these considerations, with all 
their weight and gravity, can avail to the dispossessing 
him of his precious literalism, let some one or other en- 
treat him but to read on ,in the same 19th of Matth. 
till he comes to that place that says, " Some make them- 
selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." 
And if then he please to make use of Origen's knife, 
he may do well to be his own carver. 



CHAP. XVII. 



Whether the words of our Saviour be rightly ex- 
pounded only of actual fornication to be the cause 
of divorce. The opinion of Grotius, with other 
reasons. 

But because we know that Christ never gave a ju- 
dicial law, and that the word fornication is variously 
significant in Scripture, it will be much right done to 
our Saviour's words, to consider diligently whether it 
be meant here, that nothing but actual fornication 
proved by witness can warrant a divorce; for so our 
canon law judges. Nevertheless, as I find that Gro- 
tius on this place hath observed the christian emperors, 
Theodosius the Hnd and Justinian, men of high wis- 
dom and reputed piety, decreed it to be a divorcive 
fornication, if the wife attempted either against the 
knowledge, or obstinately against the will of her hus- 
band, such things as gave open suspicion of adulteriz- 
ing, as the wilful haunting of feasts, and invitations 
with men not of near kindred, the lying forth of her 
house, without probable cause, the frequenting of 
theatres against her husband's mind, her endeavour to 
prevent or destroy conception. Hence that of Jerom, 
" where fornication is suspected, the wife may lawfully 
be-divorced :" not that every motion of a jealous mind 
should be regarded, but that it should not be exacted 
to prove all things by the visibility of law witnessing, 
or else to hoodwink the mind •. for the law is not able 



to judge of these things but by the rule of equity, and 
by permitting a wise man to walk the middle way of 
prudent circumspection, neither wretchedly jealous, 
nor stupidly and tamely patient. To this purpose hath 
Grotius in his notes. He shews also, that fornication 
is taken in Scripture for such a continual headstrong 
behaviour, as tends to plain contempt of the husband, 
and proves it out of Judges xix. 2, where the Levite's 
wife is said to have played the whore against him ; 
which Josephus and the Septuagint, with the Chaldean, 
interpret only of stubbornness and rebellion against her 
husband : and to this I add, that Kimchi, and the 
two other rabbies who gloss the text, are in the same 
opinion. Ben Gersom reasons, that had it been 
w T horedom, a Jew and a Levite would have disdained 
to fetch her again. And this I shall contribute, that 
had it been whoredom, she would have chosen any 
other place to run to than to her father's house, it being 
so infamous for a Hebrew woman to play the harlot, 
and so opprobrious to the parents. Fornication then 
in this place of the Judges is understood for stubborn 
disobedience against the husband, and not for adul- 
tery. A sin of that sudden activity, as to be already 
committed when no more is done, but only looked un- 
chastely: which yet I should be loth to judge worthy 
a divorce, though in our Saviour's language it be called 
adultery. Nevertheless when palpable and frequent 
signs are given, the law of God, Numb. v. so far gave 
way to the jealousy of a man, as that the woman, set 
before the sanctuary with her head uncovered, was ad- 
jured by the priest to swear whether she were false or 
no, and constrained to drink that " bitter water," with 
an undoubted " curse of rottenness and tympany" to 
follow^ unless she were innocent. And the jealous 
man had not been guiltless before God, as seems by 
the last verse, if having such a suspicion in his head, 
he should neglect his trial ; which if to this day it be 
not to be used, or be thought as uncertain of effect as 
our antiquated law of Ordalium, yet all equity will 
judge, that many adulterous demeanours, which are of 
lewd suspicion and example, may be held sufficient to 
incur a divorce, though the act itself hath not been 
proved. And seeing the generosity of our nation is so, 
as to account no reproach more abominable than to be 
nicknamed the husband of an adulteress ; that our law 
should not be as ample as the law of God, to vindicate 
a man from that ignoble sufferance, is our barbarous 
unskilfulness, not considering that the law should be 
exasperated according to our estimation of the injury. 
And if it must be suffered till the act be visibly proved, 
Solomon himself, whose judgment will be granted to 
surpass the acuteness of any canonist, confesses, Prov. 
xxx. 19, 20, that for the act of adultery it is as difficult 
to be found as the " track of an eagle in the air, or the 
way of a ship in the sea ; " so that a man may be put 
to unmanly indignities ere it be found out. This there- 
fore may be enough to inform us, that divorcive adul- 
tery is not limited by our Saviour to the utmost act, 
and that to be attested always by eyewitness, but may 
be extended also to divers obvious actions, which either 
plainly lead to adultery, or give such presumption 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



153 



whereby sensible men may suspect the deed to be al- 
ready done. And this the rather may be thought, in 
that our Saviour chose to use the word Fornication, 
which word is found to signify other matrimonial 
transgressions of main breach to that covenant besides 
actual adultery. For that sin needed not the riddance 
of divorce, but of death by the law, which was active 
even till then by the example of the woman taken in 
adultery; or if the law had been dormant, our Saviour 
was more likely to have told them of their neglect, 
than to have let a capital crime silently scape into a 
divorce : or if it be said, his business was not to tell 
them what was criminal in the civil courts, but what 
was sinful at the bar of conscience, how dare they then, 
having no other ground than these our Saviour's word's, 
draw that into the trial of law, which both by Moses 
and our Saviour was left to the jurisdiction of con- 
science? But we take from our Saviour, say they, only 
that it was adultery, and our law of itself applies the 
punishment. But by their leave that so argue, the 
great Lawgiver of all the world, who knew best what 
was adultery, both to the Jew and to the Gentile, ap- 
pointed no such applying, and never likes when mortal 
men will be vainly presuming to outstrip his justice. 



CHAP. XIX. 

Christ's manner of teaching. St. Paul adds to this 
matter of divorce ivithout command, to shew the mat- 
ter to be of equity, not of rigour. That the bondage 
of a Christian mag be as much, and his peace as little, 
in some other marriages besides idolatrous. If those 
arguments therefore be good in that one case, why not 
in those other P Therefore the apostle himself adds, 

kv rOlf," TOIOVTOIQ. 

Thus at length we see both by this and other places, 
that there is scarce any one saying in the gospel but 
must be read with limitations and distinctions to be 
rightly understood ; for Christ gives no full comments 
or continued discourses, but (as Demetrius the rhetori- 
cian phrases it) speaks oft in monosyllables, like a 
master scattering the heavenly grain of his doctrine 
like pearls here and there, which requires a skilful 
and laborious gatherer, who must compare the words 
he finds with other precepts, with the end of every 
ordinance, and with the general analogy of evangelic 
doctrine : otherwise many particular sayings would be 
but strange repugnant riddles, and the church would 
offend in granting divorce for frigidity, which is not 
here excepted with adultery, but by them added. And 
this was it undoubtedly, which gave reason to St. Paul 
of his own authority, as he professes, and without 
command from the Lord, to enlarge the seeming con- 
struction of those places in the gospel, by adding a 
case wherein a person deserted (which is something 
less than divorced) may lawfully marry again. And 
having declared his opinion in one case, he leaves a 
further liberty for christian prudence to determine in 



cases of like importance, using words so plain as not 
to be shifted off, " that a brother or a sister is not under 
bondage in such cases ; " adding also, that " God hath 
called us to peace" in marriage. 

Now if it be plain, that a Christian may be brought 
into unworthy bondage, and his religious peace not 
only interrupted now and then, but perpetually and 
finally hindered in wedlock, by misyoking with a di- 
versity of nature as well as of religion, the reasons of 
St. Paul cannot be made special to that one case of 
infidelity, but are of equal moment to a divorce, 
wherever Christian liberty and peace are without fault 
equally obstructed : that the ordinance which God gave 
to our comfort may not be pinned upon us to our un- 
deserved thraldom, to be cooped up, as it were in 
mockery of wedlock, to a perpetual betrothed loneli- 
ness and discontent, if nothing worse ensue. There 
being nought else of marriage left between such, but a 
displeasing and forced remedy against the sting of a 
brute desire : which fleshly accustoming without the 
soul's union and commixture of intellectual delight, as 
it is rather a soiling than a fulfilling of marriage rites, 
so is it enough to abase the mettle of a generous spirit, 
and sinks him to a low and vulgar pitch of endeavour 
in all his actions ; or, (which is worse,) leaves him in 
a despairing plight of abject and hardened thoughts : 
which condition rather than a good man should fall 
into, a man useful in the service of God and mankind, 
Christ himself hath taught us to dispense with the 
most sacred ordinance of his worship, even for a bodily 
healing to dispense with that holy and speculative rest 
of sabbath, much more then with the erroneous ob- 
servance of an ill-knotted marriage, for the sustaining 
of an overcharged faith and perseverance. 



CHAP. XX. 

The meaning of St. Paul, that " charity believeth all 
things." What is to be said to the licence which is 
vainly feared will grow hereby. What to those who 
never have done prescribing patience in this case. 
The papist most severe against divorce, yet most easy 
to all licence. Of all the miseries in marriage God is 
to be cleared, and the faults to be laid on man's un- 
just laws. 

And though bad causes would take licence by this 
pretext, if that cannot be remedied, upon their con- 
science be it who shall so do. This was that hardness 
of heart, and abuse of a good law, which Moses was 
content to suffer, rather than good men should not have 
it at all to use needfully. And he who to run after one 
lost sheep left ninety-nine of his own flock at random 
in the wilderness, would little perplex his thoughts for 
the obduring of nine hundred and ninety such as will 
daily take worse liberties, whether they have permis- 
sion or not. To conclude, as without charity God hath 



154 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



given no commandment to men, so without it neither 
can men rightly believe any commandment given. 
For every act of true faith, as well that whereby we 
believe the law, as that whereby we endeavour the law, 
is wrought in us by charity, according to that in the 
divine hymn of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiii. " Charity be- 
lieveth all things;" not as if she were so credulous, 
which is the exposition hitherto current, for that were 
a trivia] praise, but to teach us that charity is the high 
governess of our belief, and that we cannot safely 
assent to any precept written in the Bible, but as cha- 
rity commends it to us. Which agrees with that of 
the same apostle to the Eph. iv. 14, 15 ; where he tells 
us, that the way to g'et a sure undoubted knowledge of 
things, is to hold that for truth which accords most 
with charity. Whose unerring- guidance and conduct 
having followed as a loadstar, with all diligence and 
fidelity, in this question ; I trust (through the help of 
that illuminating spirit which hath favoured me) to 
have done no every day's work, in asserting, after 
many the words of Christ, with other scriptures of 
great concernment, from burdensome and remorseless 
obscurity, tangled with manifold repugnances, to their 
native lustre and consent between each other; hereby 
also dissolving tedious and Gordian difficulties, which 
have hitherto molested the church of God, and are now 
decided not with the sword of Alexander, but with the 
immaculate hands of charity, to the unspeakable good 
of Christendom. And let the extreme literalist sit 
down now, and revolve whether this in all necessity 
be not the due result of our Saviour's words, or if he 
persist to be otherwise opinioned, let him well advise, 
lest thinking to gripe fast the gospel, he be found in- 
stead with the canon law in his fist : whose boisterous 
edicts tyrannizing the blessed ordinance of marriage 
into the quality of a most unnatural and unchristianly 
yoke, hath given the flesh this advantage to hate it, 
and turn aside, ofttimes unwillingly, to all dissolute 
uncleanness, even till punishment itself is weary of 
and overcome by the incredible frequency of trading 
lust and uncontrolled adulteries. Yet men whose creed 
is custom, I doubt not will be still endeavouring to 
hide the sloth of their own timorous capacities with 
this pretext, that for all this it is better to endure with 
patience and silence this affliction which God hath 
sent. And I agree it is true, if this be exhorted and 
not enjoined ; but withal it will be wisely done to be 
as sure as may be, that what man's iniquity hath laid 
on be not imputed to God's sending, lest under the 
colour of an affected patience we detain ourselves at 
the gulf's mouth of many hideous temptations, not to 
be withstood without proper gifts, which (as Perkins 
well notes) God gives not ordinarily, no not to most 
earnest prayers. Therefore we pray, " Lead us not 
into temptation ;" a vain prayer, if, having led our- 
selves thither, we love to stay in that perilous con- 
dition. God sends remedies as well as evils, under 
which he who lies and groans, that may lawfully ac- 
quit himself, is accessory to his own ruin; nor will it 
excuse him though he suffer through a sluggish fear- 
fulness to search thoroughly what is lawful, for fear 



of disquieting the secure falsity of an old opinion. 
Who doubts not but that it may be piously said, to him 
who would dismiss his frigidity, Bear your trial, take 
it as if God would have you live this life of conti- 
nence? if he exhort this, I hear him as an angel, 
though he speak without warrant; but if he would 
compel me, I know him for Satan. To him who di- 
vorces an adulteress, piety might say, pardon her; you 
may shew much mercy, you may win a soul : yet the 
law both of God and man leaves it freely to him : for 
God loves not to plough out the heart of our en- 
deavours with overhard and sad tasks. God delights 
not to make a drudge of virtue, whose actions must be 
all elective and unconstrained. Forced virtue is as a 
bolt overshot, it goes neither forward nor backward, 
and does no good as it stands. Seeing therefore that 
neither Scripture nor reason hath laid this unjust auste- 
rity upon divorce, we may resolve that nothing else 
hath wrought it but that letter-bound servility of the 
canon doctors, supposing marriage to be a sacrament, 
and out of the art they have to lay unnecessary bur- 
dens upon all men, to make a fair shew in the fleshly 
observance of matrimony, though peace and love with 
all other conjugal respects fare never so ill. And in- 
deed the papists, who are the strictest forbidders of di- 
vorce, are the easiest libertines to admit of grossest 
uncleanness ; as if they had a design by making wed- 
lock a supportless yoke, to violate it most, under colour 
of preserving it most inviolable ; and withal delighting 
(as their mystery is) to make men the day labourers of 
their own afflictions, as if there were such a scarcity of 
miseries from abroad, that we should be made to melt 
our choicest home blessings, and coin them into crosses, 
for want whereby to hold commerce with patience. If 
any therefore who shall hap to read this discourse, hath 
been through misadventure ill engaged in this con- 
tracted evil here complained of, and finds the fits and 
workings of a high impatience frequently upon him ; 
of all those wild words which men in misery think to 
ease themselves by uttering, let him not open his lips 
against the providence of Heaven, or tax the ways of 
God and his divine truth : for they are equal, easy, and 
not burdensome : nor do they ever cross the just and 
reasonable desires of men, nor involve this our portion 
of mortal life into a necessity of sadness and malecon- 
tent, by laws commanding over the unreducible anti- 
pathies of nature, sooner or later found, but allow us to 
remedy and shake off those evils into which human 
errour hath led us through the midst of our best inten- 
tions, and to support our incident extremities by that 
authentic precept of sovereign charity, whose grand 
commission is to do and to dispose over all the ordinances 
of God to man, that love and truth may advance each 
other to everlasting. While we, literally superstitious, 
through customary faintness of heart, not venturing to 
pierce with our free thoughts into the full latitude of 
nature and religion, abandon ourselves to serve under 
the tyranny of usurped opinions ; suffering those ordi- 
nances which were allotted to our solace and reviving, 
to trample over us, and hale us into a multitude of sor- 
rows, which God never meant us. And where he sets 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



155 



us in a fair allowance of way, with honest liberty and 
prudence to our guard, we never leave subtilizing* and 
casuisting till we have straitened and pared that liberal 
path into a razor's edge to walk on ; between a preci- 
pice of unnecessary mischief on either side, and start- 
ing" at every false alarm, we do not know which way 
to set a foot forward with manly confidence and chris- 
tian resolution, through the confused ringing in our 
ears of panic scruples and amazements. 



CHAP. XXI. 



That the matter of divorce is not to be tried by law, 
but by conscience, as many other sins are. The ma- 
gistrate can only see that the condition of the divorce 
be just and equal. The opinion of Fagius, and the 
reasons of this assertion. 

Another act of papal encroachment it was, to pluck 
the power and arbitrement of divorce from the master 
of the family, into whose hands God and the law of 
all nations had put it, and Christ so left it, preaching 
only to the conscience, and not authorizing a judicial 
court to toss about and divulge the unaccountable and 
secret reason of disaffection between man and wife, as 
a thing* most improperly answerable to any such kind 
of trial. But the popes of Rome, perceiving the great 
revenue and high authority it would give them even 
over princes, to have the judging and deciding of such 
amain consequence in the life of man as was divorce; 
wrought so upon the superstition of those ages, as to 
divest them of that right, which God from the begin- 
ning had entrusted to the husband : by which means 
they subjected that ancient and naturally domestic 
prerogative to an external and unbefitting judicature. 
For although differences in divorce about dowries, join- 
tures, and the like, besides the punishing of adultery, 
ought not to pass without referring, if need be, to the 
magistrate; yet that the absolute and final hindering 
of divorce cannot belong to any civil or earthly power, 
against the will and consent of both parties, or of the 
husband alone, some reasons will be here urged as 
shall not need to decline the touch. But first I shall 
recite what hath been already yielded by others in fa- 
vour of this opinion. Grotius and many more agree, 
that notwithstanding what Christ spake therein to the 
Conscience, the magistrate is not thereby enjoined 
aught against the preservation of civil peace, of equity, 
and of convenience. And among these Fagius is most 
remarkable, and gives the same liberty of pronouncing 
divorce to the christian magistrate as the Mosaic had. 
" For whatever," saith he, " Christ spake to the rege- 
nerate, the judge hath to deal with the vulgar : if 
therefore any through hardness of heart will not be a 
tolerable wife to her husband, it will be lawful as well 
now as of old to pass the bill of divorce, not by private 
but by public authority Nor doth man separate them 
then, but God by his law of divorce given by Moses. 



What can hinder the magistrate from so doing, to 
whose government all outward things are subject, to 
separate and remove from perpetual vexation, and no 
small danger, those bodies whose minds are already 
separate; it being his office to procure peaceable and 
convenient living in the commonwealth ; and being 
as certain also, that they so necessarily separated 
cannot all receive a single life ?" And this I observe, 
that our divines do generally condemn separation of 
bed and board, without the liberty of second choice : 
if that therefore in some cases be most purely neces- 
sary, (as who so blockish to deny ?) then is this also 
as needful. Thus far by others is already well 
stepped, to inform us that divorce is not a matter of 
law, but of charity : if there remain a furlong yet to 
end the question, these following reasons may serve to 
gain it with any apprehension not too unlearned or 
too wayward. First, because ofttimes the causes of 
seeking divorce reside so deeply in the radical and in- 
nocent affections of nature, as is not within the diocese 
of law to tamper with. Other relations may aptly 
enough be held together by a civil and virtuous love : 
but the duties of man and wife are such as are chiefly 
conversant in that love which is most ancient and 
merely natural, whose two prime statutes are to join 
itself to that which is good, and acceptable, and friendly ; 
and to turn aside and depart from what is disagreeable, 
displeasing-, and unlike : of the two this latter is the 
strongest, and most equal to be regarded ; for although 
a man may often be unjust in seeking that which he 
loves, yet he can never be unjust or blamable in retiring 
from his endless trouble and distaste, when as his tar- 
rying- can redound to no true content on either side. 
Hate is of all things the mightiest divider, nay is divi- 
sion itself. To couple hatred therefore, though wedlock 
try all her golden links, and borrow to her aid all the 
iron manacles and fetters of law. it does but seek to 
twist a rope of sand, which was a task they say that 
posed the devil : and that sluggish fiend in hell, Ocnus, 
whom the poems tell of, brought his idle cordage to as 
good effect, which never served to bind with, but to 
feed the ass that stood at his elbow. And that the re- 
strictive law against divorce attains as little to bind 
any thing truly in a disjointed marriage, or to keep it 
bound, but serves only to feed the ignorance and de- 
finitive impertinence of a doltish canon, were no absurd 
allusion. To hinder therefore those deep and serious 
regresses of nature in a reasonable soul, parting from 
that mistaken help, which he justly seeks in a person 
created for him, recollecting himself from an unmeet 
help which was never meant, and to detain him by 
compulsion in such an unpredestined misery as this, is 
in diameter against both nature and institution : but to 
interpose a jurisdictive power over the inward and 
irremediable disposition of man, to command love and 
sympathy, to forbid dislike against the guiltless instinct 
of nature, is not within the province of any law to 
reach ; and were indeed an uncommodious rudeness, 
not a just power : for that law may bandy with nature, 
and traverse her sage motions, was an errour in Calli- 
cles the rhetorician, whom Socrates from high principles 



156 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



confutes in Plato's Gorgias. If therefore divorce may 
be so natural, and that law and nature are not to go 
contrary ; then to forbid divorce compulsively, is not 
only against nature, but against law. 

Next, it must be remembered, that all law is for 
some good, that may be frequently attained without 
the admixture of a worse inconvenience; and therefore 
many «ross faults, as ingratitude and the like, which 
are too far within the soul to be cured by constraint of 
law, are left only to be wrought on by conscience and 
persuasion. Which made Aristotle, in the 10th of his 
Ethics to Nicomachus, aim at a kind of division of law 
into private or persuasive, and public or compulsive. 
Hence it is, that the law forbidding divorce never at- 
tains to any good end of such prohibition, but rather 
multiplies evil. For if nature's resistless sway in love 
or hate be once compelled, it grows careless of itself, 
vicious, useless to friends, unserviceable and spiritless 
to the commonwealth. Which Moses rightly foresaw, 
and all wise lawgivers that ever knew man, what kind 
of creature he was. The parliament also and clergy 
of England were not ignorant of this, when they con- 
sented that Harry the VIII might put away his queen 
Anne of Cleve, whom he could not like after he had 
been wedded half a year; unless it were that, contrary 
to the proverb, they made a necessity of that which 
might have been a virtue in them to do : for even the 
freedom and eminence of man's creation gives him to 
be a law in this matter to himself, being the head of 
the other sex which was made for him : whom there- 
fore though he ought not to injure, yet neither should 
he be forced to retain in society to his own overthrow, 
nor to hear any judge therein above himself. It being 
also an unseemly affront to the sequestered and veiled 
modesty of that sex, to have her unpleasingness and 
other concealments bandied up and down, and aggra- 
vated in open court by those hired masters of tongue- 
fence. Such uncomely exigencies it befel no less a 
majesty than Henry the VIII to be reduced to, who, 
finding just reason in his conscience to forego his bro- 
ther's wife, after many indignities of being deluded, 
and made a boy of by those his two cardinal judges, 
was constrained at last, for want of other proof, that 
she had been carnally known by prince Arthur, even 
to uncover the nakedness of that virtuous lady, and to 
recite openly the obscene evidence of his brother's 
chamberlain. Yet it pleased God to make him see all 
the tyranny of Rome, by discovering this which they 
exercised over divorce, and to make him the beginner 
of a reformation to this whole kingdom, by first assert- 
ing into his familiary power the right of just divorce. 
It is true, an adulteress cannot be shamed enough by 
any public proceeding ; but the woman whose honour 
is not appcached is less injured by a silent dismission, 
being otherwise not illiberally dealt with, than to en- 
dure a clamouring debate of utterless things, in a busi- 
ness of that civil secrecy and difficult discerning, as not 
to be overmuch questioned by nearest friends. Wbich 
drew that answer from the greatest and worthiest 
Roman of his time, Paulus Emilius, being demanded 
why he would put away his wife for no visible reason? 



" This shoe," said he, and held it out on his foot, " is 
a neat shoe, a new shoe, and yet none of you know 
where it wrings me ;" much less by the unfamiliar 
cognizance of a feed gamester can such a private dif- 
ference be examined, neither ought it. 

Again, if law aim at the firm establishment and pre- 
servation of matrimonial faith, we know that cannot 
thrive under violent means, but is the more violated. 
It is not when two unfortunately met are by the canon 
forced to draw in that yoke an unmerciful day's work 
of sorrow till death unharness them, that then the law 
keeps marriage most unviolated and unbroken; but 
when the law takes order, that marriage be accountant 
and responsible to perform that society, whether it be 
religious, civil, or corporal, which maybe conscionably 
required and claimed therein, or else to be dissolved if 
it cannot be undergone. This is to make marriage 
most indissoluble, by making it a just and equal deal- 
er, a performer of those due helps, which instituted the 
covenant; being otherwise a most unjust contract, and 
no more to be maintained under tuition of law, than 
the vilest fraud, or cheat, or theft, that may be com- 
mitted. But because this is such a secret kind of fraud 
or theft, as cannot be discerned by law but only by the 
plaintiff himself; therefore to divorce was never count- 
ed a political or civil offence, neither to Jew nor Gen- 
tile, nor by any judicial intendment of Christ, further 
than could be discerned to transgress the allowance of 
Moses, which was of necessity so large, that it doth 
all one as if it sent back the matter undeterminable at 
law, and intractable by rough dealing, to have in- 
structions and admonitions bestowed about it by them 
whose spiritual office is to adjure and to denounce, and 
so left to the conscience. The law can only appoint 
the just and equal conditions of divorce, and is to look 
how it is an injury to the divorced, which in truth it 
can be none, as a mere separation ; for if she consent, 
wherein has the law to right her? or consent not, then 
is it either just, and so deserved; or if unjust, such in 
all likelihood was the divorcer : and to part from an 
unjust man is a happiness, and no injury to be lament- 
ed. But suppose it to be an injury, the law is not able 
to amend it, unless she think it other than a miserable 
redress, to return back from whence she was expelled, 
or but entreated to be gone, or else to live apart still 
married without marriage, a married widow. Last, if 
it be to chasten the divorcer, what law punishes a deed 
which is not moral but natural, a deed which cannot 
certainly be found to be an injury; or how can it be 
punished by prohibiting the divorce, but that the inno- 
cent must equally partake both in the shame and in 
the smart ? So that which way soever we look, the law 
can to no rational purpose forbid divorce, it can only 
take care that the conditions of divorce be not inju- 
rious. Thus then we see the trial of law, how imper- 
tinent it is to this question of divorce, how helpless 
next, and then how hurtful. 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



157 



CHAP. XXII. 

The last reason why divorce is not to be restrained by 
law, it being against the law of nature and of nations. 
The larger proof whereof referred to Mr. Selderfs 
book, " De Jure Naturali et Gentium." An ob- 
jection of Par ceus answered. How it ought to be or- 
dered by the church. That this will not breed any 
worse inconvenience, nor so bad as is now suffered. 

Therefore the last reason, why it should not be, is 
the example we have, not only from the noblest and 
wisest commonwealths, guided by the clearest light of 
human knowledge, but also from the divine testimo- 
nies of Gcd himself, lawgiving in person to a sancti- 
fied people. That all this is true, whoso desires to 
know at large with least pains, and expects not here 
overlong rehearsals of that which is by others already 
so judiciously gathered ; let him hasten to be acquaint- 
ed with that noble volume written by our learned Sel- 
den, " Of the Law of Nature and of Nations," a work 
more useful and more worthy to be perused by whoso- 
ever studies to be a great man in wisdom, equity, and 
justice, than all those " decretals and sumless sums," 
which the pontifical clerks have doted on, ever since 
that unfortunate mother famously sinned thrice, and 
died impenitent of her bringing into the world those 
two misbegotten infants, and for ever infants, Lombard 
and Gratian, him the compiler of canon iniquity, the 
other the Tubalcain of scholastic sophistry, whose over- 
spreading barbarism hath not only infused their own 
bastardy upon the fruitfullest part of human learning, 
not only dissipated and dejected the clear light of na- 
ture in us, and of nations, but hath tainted also the 
fountains of divine doctrine, and rendered the pure and 
solid law of God unbeneficial to us by their calumnious 
dunceries. Yet this law, which their unskilfulness 
hath made liable to all ignominy, the purity and wis- 
dom of this law shall be the buckler of our dispute. 
Liberty of divorce we claim not, we think not but from 
this law; the dignity, the faith, the authority thereof 
is now grown among Christians, O astonishment ! a 
labour of no mean difficulty and envy to defend. That 
it should not be counted a faultering dispense, a flat- 
tering permission of sin, the bill of adultery, a snare, 
is the expense of all this apology. And all that we 
solicit is, that it may be suffered to stand in the place 
where God set it, amidst the firmament of his holy 
laws, to shine, as it was wont, upon the weaknesses 
and errors of men, perishing else in the sincerity of 
their honest purposes : for certain there is no memory 
of whoredoms and adulteries left among us now, when 
this warranted freedom of God's own giving is made 
dangerous and discarded for a scroll of licence. It 
must be your suffrages and votes, O Englishmen, that 
this exploded decree of God and Moses may scape and 
come off fair, without the censure of a shameful abro- 
gating : which, if yonder sun ride sure, and means not 
to break word with us to-morrow, was never yet abro- 
gated by our Saviour. Give sentence if you please, 



that the frivolous canon may reverse the infallible judg- 
ment of Moses and his great director. Or if it be the 
reformed writers, whose doctrine persuades this rather, 
their reasons I dare affirm are all silenced, unless it be 
only this. Parseus on the Corinthians would prove, 
that hardness of heart in divorce is no more now to be 
permitted, but to be amerced with fine and imprison- 
ment. I am not willing to discover the forgettings of" 
reverend men, yet here I must: what article or clause 
of the whole new covenant can Paraeus bring, to exas- 
perate the judicial law upon any infirmity under the 
gospel ? I say infirmity, for if it were the high hand of 
sin, the law as little would have endured it as the 
gospel; it would not stretch to the dividing of an in- 
heritance ; it refused to condemn adultery, not that 
these things should not be done at law, but to shew that 
the gospel hath not the least influence upon judicial 
courts, much less to make them sharper and more heavy, 
least of all to arraign before a temporal judge that 
which the law without summons acquitted. " But," 
saith he, " the law was the time of youth, under vio- 
lent affections; the gospel in us is mature age, and 
ought to subdue affections." True, and so ought the 
law too, if they be found inordinate, and not merely 
natural and blameless. Next I distinguish, that the 
time of the law is compared to youth and pupilage in 
respect of the ceremonial part, which led the Jews as 
children throug'h corporal and garish rudiments, until 
the fulness of time should reveal to them the higher 
lessons of faith and redemption. This is not meant of 
the moral part, therein it soberly concerned them not 
to be babies, but to be men in good earnest : the sad 
and awful majesty of that law was not to be jested 
with : to bring a bearded nonage with lascivious dis- 
pensations before that throne, had been a lewd affront, 
as it is now a gross mistake. But what discipline is 
this, Parseus, to nourish violent affections in youth, by 
cockering and wanton indulgencies, and to chastise 
them in mature age with a boyish rod of correction? 
How much more coherent is it to Scripture, that the 
law as a strict schoolmaster should have punished every 
trespass without indulgence so baneful to youth, and 
that the gospel should now correct that by admonition 
and reproof only, in free and mature age, which was 
punished with stripes in the childhood and bondage of 
the law ? What therefore it allowed then so fairly, much 
less is to be whipped now, especially in penal courts : 
and if it ought now to trouble the conscience, why did 
that angry accuser and condemner law reprieve it ? So 
then, neither from Moses nor from Christ hath the ma- 
gistrate any authority to proceed against it. But what, 
shall then the disposal of that power return again to 
the master of a family ? Wherefore not, since God there 
put it, and the presumptuous canon thence bereft it? 
This only must be provided, that the ancient manner 
be observed in the presence of the minister and other 
grave selected elders, who after they shall have ad- 
monished and pressed upon him the words of our Sa- 
viour, and he shall have protested in the faith of the 
eternal gospel, and the hope he has of happy resurrec- 
tion, that otherwise than thus he cannot do, and thinks 



158 



THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



himself and this bis case not contained in that prohi- 
bition of divorce which Christ pronounced, the matter 
not being of malice, but of nature, and so not capable 
of reconciling 1 ; to constrain him further were to un- 
christian him, to unman him, to throw the mountain of 
Sinai upon him, with the weight of the whole law to 
boot, flat against the liberty and essence of the gospel ; 
and yet nothing available either to the sanctity of mar- 
riage, the good of husband, wife, or children, nothing 
profitable either to church or commonwealth, but hurt- 
ful and pernicious in all these respects. But this will 
bring in confusion : yet these cautious mistrusters 
might consider, that what they thus object lights not 
upon this book, but upon that which I engage against 
them, the book of God and Moses, with all the wisdom 
and providence which had forecast the worst of confu- 
sion that could succeed, and yet thought fit of such a 
permission. But let them be of good cheer, it wrought 
so little disorder among the Jews, that from Moses till 
after the captivity, not one of the prophets thought it 
worth the rebuking ; for that of Malachi well looked 
into will appear to be not against divorcing, but rather 
against keeping strange concubines, to the vexation of 
their Hebrew wives. If therefore we Christians may 
be thought, as good and tractable as the Jews were, 
(and certainly the probibitors of divorce presume us to 
be better,) then less confusion is to be feared for this 
among us than was among them. If we be worse, or 
but as bad, which lamentable examples confirm we are, 
then have we more, or at least as much, need of this 
permitted law, as they to whom God therefore gave it 
(as they say) under a harsher covenant. Let not there- 
fore the frailty of man go on thus inventing needless 
troubles to itself, to groan under the false imag-ination 
of a strictness never imposed from above; enjoining 
that for duty, which is an impossible and vain super- 
erogating. " Be not righteous overmuch," is the coun- 
sel of Ecclesiastes ; " why shouldst thou destroy thy- 
self?" Let us not be thus overcurious to strain at 
atoms, and yet to stop every vent and cranny of per- 
missive liberty, lest nature wanting those needful pores 
and breathing-places, which God hath not debarred 
our weakness, either suddenly break out into some wide 
rupture of open vice and frantic heresy, or else inwardly 
fester with repining and blasphemous thoughts, under 
an unreasonable and fruitless rigour of unwarranted 
law. Against which evils nothing can more beseem 
the religion of the church, or the wisdom of the state, 
than to consider timely and provide. And in so doing 
let them not doubt but they shall vindicate the misre- 
puted honour of God and his great lawgiver, by suffer- 
ing him to give his own laws according to the condition 



of man's nature best known to him, without the un- 
sufFerable imputation of dispensing legally with many 
ages of ratified adultery. They shall recover the mis- 
attended words of Christ to the sincerity of their true 
sense from manifold contradictions, and shall open them 
with the key of charity. Many helpless Christians 
they shall arise from the depth of sadness and distress, 
utterly unfitted as they are to serve God or man : many 
they shall reclaim from obscure and giddy sects, many 
regain from dissolute and brutish licence, many from 
desperate hardness, if ever that were justly pleaded. 
They shall set free many daughters of Israel not want- 
ing much of her sad plight whom " Satan had bound 
eighteen years." Man they shall restore to his just dig- 
nity and prerogative in nature, preferring* the soul's 
free peace before the promiscuous draining of a carnal 
rage. Marriage, from a perilous hazard and snare, 
they shall reduce to be a more certain haven and re- 
tirement of happy society ; when they shall judge ac- 
cording to God and Moses, (and how not then accord- 
ing to Christ,) when they shall judge it more wisdom 
and goodness to break that covenant seemingly, and 
keep it really, than by compulsion of law to keep it 
seemingly, and by compulsion of blameless nature to 
break it really, at least if it were ever truly joined. 
The vigour of discipline they may then turn with bet- 
ter success upon the prostitute looseness of the times, 
when men, finding in themselves the infirmities of for- 
mer ages, shall not be constrained above the gift of 
God in them to unprofitable and impossible observ- 
ances, never required from the civilest, the wisest, the 
holiest nations, whose other excellencies in moral vir- 
tue they never yet could equal. Last of all, to those 
whose mind is still to maintain textual restrictions, 
whereof the bare sound cannot consist sometimes with 
humanity, much less with charity; I would ever answer, 
by putting them in remembrance of a command above 
all commands, which they seem to have forgot, and 
who spake it : in comparison whereof, this which they 
so exalt is but a petty and subordinate precept. " Let 
them go" therefore with whom I am loth to couple 
them, yet they will needs run into the same blindness 
with the Pharisees ; " let them go therefore," and con- 
sider well what this lesson means, " I will have mercy 
and not sacrifice ;" for on that " saying all the law and 
prophets depend," much more the gospel, whose end 
and excellence is mercy and peace. Or if they cannot 
learn that, how will they hear this? which yet I shall 
not doubt to leave with them as a conclusion, That 
God the Son hath put all other things under his own 
feet, but his commandments he hath left all under the 
feet of charity. 



JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, CONCERNING DIVORCE: 

WRITTEN TO EDWARD THE SIXTH, IN HIS SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST; AND NOW ENGLISHED. WHEREIN A LATE 
BOOK, RESTORING THE "DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE," 18 HERE CONFIRMED AND JUSTIFIED BY THE AUTHORITY OF 

MARTIN BUCER. 

TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND. 

John iii. 10. " Art thou a teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things ?" 

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY. 



TESTIMONIES OF THE HIGH APPROBATION WHICH LEARNED 
MEN HAVE GIVEN OF MARTIN BUCER. 

Simon Grinceus, 1533. 

Among all the Germans, I give the palm to Bucer, for 
excellence in the Scriptures. Melancthon in human 
learning- is wonderous fluent; but greater knowledge 
in the Scripture I attribute to Bucer, and speak it un- 
feignedly. 

John Calvin, 1539. 

Martin Bucer, a most faithful doctor of the church 
of Christ, besides his rare learning, and copious know- 
ledge of many things, besides his clearness of wit, 
much reading, and other many and various virtues, 
wherein he is almost by none now living excelled, 
hath few equals, and excels most; hath this praise pe- 
culiar to himself, that none in this age hath used ex- 
acter diligence in the exposition of Scripture. 

And a little beneath. 

Bucer is more large than to be read by overbusied 
men, and too high to be easily understood by unatten- 
tive men, and of a low capacity. 

Sir John Cheeh, Tutor to King Edward VI. 1551. 

We have lost our master, than whom the world 
scarce held a greater, whether we consider his know- 
ledge of true religion, or his integrity and innocence 
of life, or his incessant study of holy things, or his 
matchless labour of promoting piety, or his authority 
and amplitude of teaching, or whatever else was 
praise-worthy and glorious in him. Script. Anglican, 
pag. 864. 

John Sturmius of Strasburgh. 

No man can be ignorant what a great and constant 
opinion and estimation of Bucer there is in Italy, 



France, and England. Whence the saying of Quin- 
tilian hath oft come to my mind, that he hath well 
profited in eloquence whom Cicero pleases. The same 
say I of Bucer, that he hath made no small progress in 
divinity, whom Bucer pleases; for in his volumes, 
which he wrote very many, there is the plain impres- 
sion to be discerned of many great virtues, of diligence, 
of charity, of truth, of acuteness, of judgment, of learn- 
ing. Wherein he hath a certain proper kind of writing, 
whereby he doth not only teach the reader, but affects 
him with the sweetness of his sentences, and with the 
manner of his arguing, which is so teaching-, and so 
logical, that it may be perceived how learnedly he se- 
parates probable reasons from necessary, how forcibly 
he confirms what he has to prove, how subtilely he 
refutes, not with sharpness but with truth. 

Theodore Beza, on the Portraiture ofM. Bucer. 

This is that countenance of Bucer, the mirror of 
mildness tempered with gravity ; to whom the city of 
Strasburgh owes the reformation of her church. Whose 
singular learning, and eminent zeal, joined with ex- 
cellent wisdom, both his learned books, and public dis- 
putations in the general diets of the empire, shall 
witness to all ages. Him the German persecution 
drove into England ; where honourably entertained by 
Edward the Vlth, he was for two years chief professor 
of divinity in Cambridge, with greatest frequency and 
applause of all learned and pious men until his death, 
1551. Bezse Icones. 

Mr. Fox's Booh of Martyrs, Vol. iii. p. 763. 

Bucer, what by writing, but chiefly by reading- 
and preaching openly, wherein, being painful in the 
word of God, he never spared himself, nor regarded 
health, brought all men into such an admiration of 
him, that neither his friends could sufficiently praise 
him, nor his enemies in any point find fault with 



160 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



his singular life and sincere doctrine. A most cer- 
tain token whereof may be his sumptuous burial at 
Cambridge, solemnized with so great an assistance of 
all the university, that it was not possible to devise 
more to the setting out and amplifying of the same. 

Dr. Pern, the Popish Vice-chancellor of Cambridge, 
his adversary. 

Cardinal Pool, about the fourth year of Queen Mary, 
intending to reduce the university of Cambridge to 
popery again, thought no way so effectual, as to cause 
the bones of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius, which 
had been four years in the grave, to be taken up and 
burnt openly with their books, as knowing that those 
two worthy men had been of greatest moment to the 
reformation of that place from popery, and had left 
such powerful seeds of their doctrine behind them, as 
would never die, unless the men themselves were 
digged up, and openly condemned for heretics by the 
university itself. This was put in execution, and Doc- 
tor Pern, vice-chancellor, appointed to preach against 
Bucer : who, among other things, laid to his charge 
the opinions which he held of the marriage of priests, 
of divorcement, and of usury. But immediately after 
his sermon, or somewhat before, as the Book of Mar- 
tyrs for a truth relates, vol. iii. p. 770, the said Doctor 
Pern smiting himself on the breast, and in manner 
weeping, wished with all his heart, that God would 
grant his soul might then presently depart, and remain 
with Bucer's; for he knew his life was such, that if 
any man's soul were worthy of heaven, he thought 
Bucer's in special to be most worthy. Histor. de Com- 
bust. Buceri et Fagii. 

Acworth, the University-orator. 

Soon after that Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, 
this condemnation of Bucer and Fagius by the cardi- 
nal and his doctors was solemnly repealed by the uni- 
versity ; and the memory of those two famous men ce- 
lebrated in an oration by Acworth, the University-ora- 
tor, which is yet extant in the Book of Martyrs, vol. 
iii. p. 773, and in Latin, Scripta Anglican, p. 936. 

Nicholas Carre, a learned man; Walter Haddon, 
master of the requests to Queen Elizabeth ; Matthew 
Parker, afterwards primate of England; with other 
eminent men, in their funeral orations and sermons, 
express abundantly how great a man Martin Bucer 
Was; what an incredible loss England sustained in his 
death ; and that witlj him died the hope of a perfect 
reformation for that age. Ibid. 

Jacobus Verheiden of Crave, in his clogics of famous 
divines. 

Though the Dame of Martin Luther be famous, yet 
thou, Martin Burr r, for 'piety, learning, labour, care, 
vigilanr.r , ami writing, art not to be held inferiour to 
Lutln r. Bucer was a singular instrument of God, so 
was Dither. By the death of this most learned and 
most faithful man, the chorch of Christ sustained a 
heavy loss, as Calvin witnesseth; and they who are 
studious of Calvin are not ignorant how much he as- 



cribes to Bucer; for thus he writes in a letter to Vire- 
tus: "What a manifold loss befel the church of God 
in the death of Bucer, as oft as I call to, mind, I feel 
my heart almost rent asunder." 

Peter Martyr Epist. to Conradus Huhertus. 

He is dead, who hath overcome in many battles of 
the Lord. God lent us for a time this our father, and 
our teacher, never enough praised. Death hath di- 
vided me from a most unanimous friend, one truly ac- 
cording to mine own heart. My mind is overpressed 
with grief, insomuch that I have not power to write 
more. I bid thee in Christ farewell, and wish thou 
mayst be able to bear the loss of Bucer better than I 
can bear it. 

Testimonies given by learned men to Paulus Fagius, 
who held the same opinion with Martin Bucer con- 
cerning divorce. 

Paulus Fagius, born in the Palatinate, became most 
skilful in the Hebrew tongue. Being called to the 
ministry at Isna, he published many ancient and pro- 
fitable Hebrew books, being aided in the expenses by 
a senator of that city, as Origen sometime was by a 
certain rich man called Ambrosius. At length invited 
to Strasburgh, he there famously discharged the office 
of a teacher; until the same persecution drove him 
and Bucer into England, where he was preferred to a 
professor's place in Cambridge, and soon after died. 
Bezae Icones. 

Melchior Adamus writes his life among the famous 
German divines. 

Sleidan and Huanus mention him with honour in 
their history : and Verheiden in his elogies. 



TO THE PARLIAMENT. 

The Book which, among other great and high 
points of reformation, contains as a principal part 
thereof, this treatise here presented, supreme court of 
parliament ! was, by the famous author Martin Bucer, 
dedicated to Edward the VI : whose incomparable 
youth doubtless had brought forth to the church of 
England such a glorious manhood, had his life 
reached it, as would have left in the affairs of religion 
nothing without an excellent pattern for us now to fol- 
low. But since the secret purpose of divine appoint- 
ment hath reserved no less perhaps than the just half 
of such a sacred work to be accomplished in this age, 
and principally, as we trust, by your successful wis- 
dom and authority, religious lords and commons ! 
what wonder if I seek no other, to whose exactest 
judgment and review T may commend these last and 
worthiest labours of this renowned teacher; whom 
living all the pious nobility of those reforming times, 
your truest and best-imitated ancestors, reverenced and 
admired. Nor was he wanting to a recompence as great 
as was himself; when both at many times before, and 
especially among his last sighs and prayers, testifying 
his dear and fatherly affection to the church and realm 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



161 



of England, he sincerely wished in the hearing- of 
many devout men, " that what he had in his last book 
written to King" Edward concerning discipline might 
have place in this kingdom. His hope was then, 
that no calamity, no confusion, or deformity would 
happen to the commonwealth ; but otherwise he 
feared, lest in the midst of all this ardency to 
know God, yet by the neglect of discipline, our 
good endeavours would not succeed."* These remark- 
able words of so godly and so eminent a man at his 
death, as they are related by a sufficient and well- 
known witness, who beard them, and inserted by Thu- 
anus into his grave and serious history ; so ought they 
to be chiefly considered by that nation, for whose sake 
they were uttered, and more especially by that general 
council, which represents the body of that nation. If 
therefore the book, or this part thereof, for necessary 
causes, be now revived and recommended to the use of 
this undisciplined age ; it hence appears, that these 
reasons have not erred in the choice of a fit patronage 
for a discourse of such importance. But why the 
whole tractate is not here brought entire, but this mat- 
ter of divorcement selected in particular, to prevent the 
full speed of some misinterpreter, I hasten to disclose. 
First, it will be soon manifest to them who know what 
wise men should know, that the constitution and re- 
formation of a commonwealth, if Ezra and Nehemiah 
did not misreform, is, like a building, to begin orderly 
from the foundation thereof, which is marriage and the 
family, to set right first whatever is amiss therein. How 
can there else grow up a race of warrantable men, while 
the house and home that breeds them is troubled and 
disquieted under a bondage not of God's constraining, 
with a natureless constraint, (if his most righteous judg- 
ments may be our rule,) but laid upon us imperiously 
in the worst and weakest ages of knowledge, by a ca- 
nonical tyranny of stupid and malicious monks ? who 
having rashly vowed themselves to a single life, which 
they could not undergo, invented new fetters to throw 
on matrimony, that the world thereby waxing more 
dissolute, they also in a general looseness might sin 
with more favour. Next, there being yet among many 
such a strange iniquity and perverseness against all 
necessary divorce, while they will needs expound the 
words of our Saviour, not duly by comparing other 
places, as they must do in the resolving of a hundred 
other scriptures, but b} r persisting deafly in the abrupt 
and papistical way of a literal apprehension against 
the direct analogy of sense, reason, law, and gospel ; 
it therefore may well seem more than time, to apply 
the sound and holy persuasions of this apostolic man to 
that part in us, which is not yet fully dispossessed of 
an errour as absurd, as most that we deplore in our 
blindest adversaries ; and to let his authority and un- 
answerable reasons be vulgarly known, that either his 
name, or the force of his doctrine, may work a whole- 
some effect. Lastly, I find it clear to be the author's 
intention, that this point of divorcement should be held 
and received as a most necessary and prime part of 
discipline in every Christian government. And there- 

* Nicol. Car. de obitu Buceri. 



fore having reduced his model of reformation to fourteen 
heads, he bestows almost as much time about this one 
point of divorce, as about all the rest ; which also was 
the judgment of his heirs and learned friends in Ger- 
many, best acquainted with his meaning ; who first 
published this his book by Oporinus at Basil, (a city 
for learning and constancy in the true faith honourable 
among the first,) added a special note in the title, " that 
there the reader should find the doctrine of divorce 
handled so solidly, and so fully, as scarce the like in 
any writer of that age :" and with this particular com- 
mendation they doubted not to dedicate the book, as a 
most profitable and exquisite discourse, to Christian 
the Hid, a worthy and pious king of Denmark, as the 
author himself had done before to our Edward the 
Vlth. Yet did not Bucer in that volume only declare 
what his constant opinion was herein, but also in his 
comment upon Matthew, written at Strasburgh divers 
years before, he treats distinctly and copiously the 
same argument in three several places ; touches it also 
upon the 7th to the Romans, and promises the same 
solution more largely upon the first to the Corinthians, 
omitting no occasion to weed out this last and deepest 
mischief of the canon law, sown into the opinions of 
modern men, against the laws and practice both of 
God's chosen people, and the best primitive times. 
Wherein his faithfulness and powerful evidence pre- 
vailed so far with all the church of Strasburgh, that 
they published this doctrine of divorce as an article of 
their confession, after they had taught so eight and 
twenty years, through all those times, when that city 
flourished, and excelled most, both in religion, learn- 
ing, and government, under those first restorers of 
the gospel there, Zelius, Hedio, Capito, Fagius, and 
those who incomparably then governed the common- 
wealth, Farrerus and Sturmius. If therefore God in 
the former age found out a servant, and by whom he 
had converted and reformed many a city, by him 
thought good to restore the most needful doctrine of 
divorce from, rigorous and harmful mistakes on the 
right hand ; it can be no strange thing, if in this age 
he stir up by whatsoever means whom it pleases him, 
to take in hand and maintain the same assertion. 
Certainly if it be in man's discerning to sever provi- 
dence from chance, I could allege many instances, 
wherein there would appear cause to esteem of me no 
other than a passive instrument under some power and 
counsel higher and better than can be human, working 
to a general good in the whole course of this matter. 
For that I owe no light, or leading received from any 
man in the discovery of this truth, what time I first 
undertook it in " the Doctrine and Discipline of Di- 
vorce," and had only the infallible grounds of Scripture 
to be my guide ; he who tries the inmost heart, and 
saw with what severe industry and examination of 
myself I set down every period, will be my witness. 
When I had almost finished the first edition, I chanced 
to read in the notes of Hugo Grotius upon the 5th of 
Matthew, whom I straight understood inclining to 
reasonable terms in this controversy : and something 



162 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



he whispered rather than disputed about the law of 
charity, and the true end of wedlock. Glad therefore 
of such an able assistant, however at much distance, I 
resolved at length to put off into this wild and calum- 
nious world. For God, it seems, intended to prove me, 
whether 1 durst alone take up a rightful cause against 
a world of disesteem, and found I durst. My name I 
did not publish, as not willing it should sway the reader 
cither for me or against me. But when I was told that 
the style, which what it ails to be so soon distinguish- 
able I cannot tell, was known by most men, and that 
some of the clergy began to inveigh and exclaim on 
what I was credibly informed they had not read ; I 
took it then for my proper season, both to shew them a 
name that could easily contemn such an indiscreet kind 
of censure, and to reinforce the question with a more 
accurate diligence : that if any of them would be so 
good as to leave railing, and to let us hear so much of 
his learning and christian wisdom, as will be strictly 
demanded of him in his answering to this problem, care 
was had he should not spend his preparations against 
a nameless pamphlet. By this time I had learned that 
Paulus Fagius, one of the chief divines in Germany, 
sent for by Frederic the Palatine, to reform his domin- 
ion, and after that invited hither in King Edward's 
days, to be a professor of divinity in Cambridge, was 
of the same opinion touching divorce, which these men 
so lavishly traduced in me. What I found, I inserted 
where fittest place was, thinking sure they would re- 
spect so grave an author, at least to the moderating of 
their odious inferences. And having now perfected a 
second edition, I referred the judging thereof to your 
high and impartial sentence, honoured lords and com- 
mons ! For I was confident, if any thing generous, any 
thing noble, and above the multitude, were left yet in 
the spirit of England ; it could be no where sooner 
found, and no where sooner understood, than in that 
house of justice and true liberty, where ye sit in coun- 
cil. Nor doth the event hitherto, for some reasons 
which I shall not here deliver, fail me of what I con- 
ceived so highly. Nevertheless, being far otherwise 
dealt with by some, of whose profession and supposed 
knowledge I had better hope, and esteemed the deviser 
of a new and pernicious paradox ; I felt no difference 
within me from that peace and firmness of mind, which 
is of nearest kin to patience and contentment: both for 
that I knew I had divulged a truth linked inseparably 
with the most fundamental rules of Christianity, to 
stand or fall together, and was not uninformed, that 
divers learned and judicious men testified their daily 
approbation of the book. Yet at length it hath pleased 
God, who had already given me satisfaction in myself, 
to afford nic now a means whereby I may be fully 
justified also in the eyes of men. When the book had 
been now the second time set forth well-nigh three 
months, as I best remember, I then first came to hear 
that Martin Bucer had written much concerning di- 
vorce : whom, earnestly turning over, I soon perceived, 
but not without amazement, in the same opinion, con- 
firmed with the same reasons which in that published 
book, without the help or imitation of any precedent 



writer, I had laboured out, and laid together. Not but 
that there is some difference in the handling, in the 
order, and the number of arguments, but still agreeing 
in the same conclusion. So as I may justly gratulate 
mine own mind with due acknowledgment of assist- 
ance from above, which led me, not as a learner, but 
as a collateral teacher, to a sympathy of judgment 
with no less a man than Martin Bucer. And he, if 
our things here below arrive him where he is, does not 
repent him to see that point of knowledge, which he 
first and with an unchecked freedom preached to those 
more knowing times of England, now found so neces- 
sary, though what he admonished were lost out of our 
memory; yet that God doth now again create the same 
doctrine in another unwritten table, and raises it up 
immediately out of his pure oracle to the convincement 
of a perverse age, eager in the reformation of names 
and ceremonies, but in realities as traditional and as 
ignorant as their forefathers. I would ask now the 
foremost of my profound accusers, whether they dare 
affirm that to be licentious, new, and dangerous, which 
Martin Bucer so often and so urgently avouched to be 
most lawful, most necessary, and most christian, with- 
out the least blemish to his good name, among all the 
worthy men of that age, and since, who testify so highly 
of him? If they dare, they must then set up an arrogance 
of their own against all those churches and saints who 
honoured him without this exception : if they dare not, 
how can they now make that licentious doctrine in an- 
other, which was never blamed or confuted in Bucer, 
or in Fagius ? The truth is, there will be due to them 
for this their unadvised rashness the best donative that 
can be given them; I mean, a round reproof; now 
that where they thought to be most magisterial, they 
have displayed their own want, both of reading, and 
of judgment. First, to be so unacquainted in the 
writings of Bucer, which are so obvious and so useful 
in their own faculty ; next, to be so caught in a preju- 
dicating weakness, as to condemn that for lewd, which 
(whether they knew or not) these elect servants of 
Christ commended for lawful ; and for new, that which 
was taught by these almost the first and greatest au- 
thors of reformation, who were never taxed for so 
teaching ; and dedicated without scruple to a royal 
pair of the first reforming kings in Christendom, and 
confessed in the public confession of a most orthodoxical 
church and state in Germany. This is also another 
fault which I must tell them ; that they have stood 
now almost this whole year clamouring afar off, while 
the book hath been twice printed, twice brought up, 
and never once vouchsafed a friendly conference with 
the author, who would be glad and thankful to be 
shown an errour, either by private dispute, or public 
answer, and could retract, as well as wise men before 
him; might also be worth the gaining, as one who 
heretofore hath done good service to the church by 
their own confession. Or if he be obstinate, their con- 
futation would have rendered him without excuse, and 
reclaimed others of no mean parts, who incline to his 
opinion. But now their work is more than doubled ; 
and how they will hold up their heads against the 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



163 



sudden aspect of these two great and reverend saints, 
whom they have defamed, how they will make good 
the censuring- of that, for a novelty of licence, which 
Bucer constantly taught to be a pure and holy law of 
Christ's kingdom, let them advise. For against these 
my adversaries, who, before the examining of a pro- 
pounded truth in a fit time of reformation, have had the 
conscience to oppose naught else but their blind re- 
proaches and surmises, that a single innocence might 
not be oppressed and overborn by a crew of mouths, 
for the restoring of a law and doctrine falsely and un- 
learnedly reputed new and scandalous ; God, that I 
may ever magnify and record this his goodness, hath 
unexpectedly raised up as it were from the dead more 
than one famous light of the first reformation, to bear 
witness with me, and to do me honour in that very 
thing, wherein these men thought to have blotted me; 
and hath given them the proof of a capacity, which they 
despised, running equal, and authentic with some of 
their chiefest masters unthought of, and in a point of 
sagest moment. However, if we know at all when to 
ascribe the occurrences of this life to the work of a 
special Providence, as nothing is more usual in the 
talk of good men, what can be more like to a special 
Providence of God, than in the first reformation of 
England, that this question of divorce, as a main thing 
to be restored to just freedom, was written, and seri- 
ously commended to Edward the Vlth, by a man called 
from another country to be the instructor of our na- 
tion ; and now in this present renewing of the church 
and commonwealth, which we pray may be more 
lasting, that the same question should be again treated 
and presented to this parliament, by one enabled to 
use the same reasons without the least sight or know- 
ledge of what was done before ? It were no trespass, 
lords and commons ! though something of less note 
were attributed to the ordering of a heavenly power; 
this question therefore of such prime concernment both 
to christian and civil welfare, in such an extraordinary 
manner, not recovered, but plainly twice born to these 
latter ages, as from a divine hand I tender to your ac- 
ceptance, and most considerate thoughts. Think not 
that God raised up in vain a man of greatest authority 
in the church, to tell a trivial and licentious tale in the 
ears of that good prince, and to bequeath it as his last 
will and testament, nay rather as the testament and 
royal law of Christ, to this nation ; or that it should of 
itself, after so many years, as it were in a new field 
where it was never sown, grow up again as a vicious 
plant in the mind of another, who had spoke honestest 
things to the nation ; though he knew not that what his 
youth then reasoned without a pattern had been heard 
already, and well allowed from the gravity and worth 
of Martin Bucer: till meeting with the envy of men 
ignorant in their own undertaken calling, God directed 
him to the forgotten writings of this faithful evange- 
list, to be his defence and warrant against the gross 
imputation of broaching licence. Ye are now in the 
glorious way to high virtue, and matchless deeds, trust- 
ed with a most inestimable trust, the asserting of our 
just liberties. Ye have a nation that expects now, and 

M 



from mighty sufferings aspires to be the example of all 
Christendom to a perfectest reforming. Dare to be as 
great, as ample, and as eminent in the fair progress of 
your noble designs, as the full and goodly stature of 
truth and excellence itself; as unlimited by petty pre- 
cedents and copies, as your unquestionable calling from 
Heaven gives ye power to be. What are all our public 
immunities and privileges worth, and how shall it be 
judged, that we fight for them with minds worthy to 
enjoy them, if we suffer ourselves in the mean while 
not to understand the most important freedom, that 
God and nature hath given us in the family ; which 
no wise nation ever wanted, till the popery and super- 
stition of some former ages attempted to remove and 
alter divine and most prudent laws for human and 
most imprudent canons : whereby good men in the 
best portion of their lives, and in that ordinance of God 
which entitles them from the beginning to most just 
and requisite contentments, are compelled to civil in- 
dignities, which by the law of Moses bad men were not 
compelled to ? Be not bound about, and straitened in 
the spacious wisdom of your free spirits, by the scanty 
and unadequate and inconsistent principles of such as 
condemn others for adhering to traditions, and are them- 
selves the prostrate worshippers of custom ; and of 
such a tradition as they can deduce from no antiquity, 
but from the rudest and thickest barbarism of anti- 
christian times. But why do I anticipate the more ac- 
ceptable and prevailing voice of learned Bucer himself, 
the pastor of nations ? And O that I could set him liv- 
ing before ye in that doctrinal chair, where once the 
learnedest of England thought it no disparagement to 
sit at his feet! He would be such a pilot, and such a 
father to ye, as ye would soon find the difference of his 
hand and skill upon the helm of reformation. Nor do 
I forget that faithful associate of his labours, Paulus 
Fagius ; for these their great names and merits, how 
precious soever, God hath now joined with me neces- 
sarily, in the good or evil report of this doctrine, which 
I leave with you. It was written to a religious king 
of this land ; written earnestly as a main matter where- 
in this kingdom needed a reform, if it purposed to be 
the kingdom of Christ : written by him, who if any, 
since the days of Luther, merits to be counted the apos- 
tle of the church : whose unwearied pains and watch- 
ing for our sakes, as they spent him quickly here among 
us, so did they, during the shortness of his life, incre- 
dibly promote the gospel throughout this realm. The 
authority, the learning, the godliness of this man con- 
sulted with, is able to outbalance all that the lightness 
of a vulgar opposition can bring to counterpoise. I 
leave him also as my complete surety and testimonial, 
if truth be not the best witness to itself, that what I 
formerly presented to your reading on this subject, 
was good, and just, and honest, not licentious. Not 
that I have now more confidence by the addition of 
these great authors to my party: for what I wrote 
was not my opinion, but my knowledge ; even then 
when I could trace no footstep in the way I went; 
nor that I think to win upon your apprehensions with 
numbers and with names, rather than with reasons ; 



164 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



yet certainly the worst of my detractors will not except 
against so good a bail of my integrity and judgment, 
as now appears for me. They must else put in the 
fame of Bucer and of Fagius, as my accomplices and 
confederates, into the same indictment; they must dig- 
up the good name of these prime worthies, (if their 
names could be ever buried,) they must dig- them up 
and brand them as the papists did their bodies ; and 
those their pure unblamable spirits, which live not 
only in heaven, but in their writings, they must attaint 
with new attaintures, which no protestant ever before 
aspersed them with. Or if perhaps we may obtain to 
g-et our appeachment new drawn a writ of errour, not 
of libertinism, that those two principal readers of refor- 
mation may not now come to be sued in a bill of 
licence, to the scandal of our chureh ; the brief result 
will be, that for the errour, if their own works be not 
thought sufficient to defend them, their lives yet, who 
will be ready, in a fair and christianly discussive way, 



to debate and sift this matter to the utmost ounce of 
learning and religion, in him that shall lay it as an 
errour, either upon Martin Bucer, or any other of his 
opinion. If this be not enough to qualify my tra- 
ducers, and that they think it more for the wisdom of their 
virulence, not to recant the injuries they have bespoke 
me, I shall not, for much more disturbance than they 
can bring me, intermit the prosecution of those 
thoughts, which may render me best serviceable, either 
to this age, or, if it so happen, to posterity; following 
the fair path, which your illustrious exploits, ho- 
noured lords and commons ! against the breast of 
tyranny have opened ; and depending so on your 
happy successes in the hopes that I have conceived 
either of myself, or of the nation, as must needs 
conclude me one who most affectionately wishes and 
awaits the prosperous issue of your noble and valorous 
counsels. 

John Milton. 



JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, TOUCHING DIVORCE 



TAKEN OCT OF THE SECOND BOOK ENTITLED, 



'OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST; ' WRITTEN BY MARTIN BUCER TO EDWARD THE 
SIXTH, KING OF ENGLAND. 



CHAP. XV. 

The seventh law of the sanctifying and ordering of 
marriage. That the ordering of marriage belongs 
to the /civil power. That the popes have evaded by 
fraud and force the ordering of marriage. 

Besides these things, Christ our king, and his 
churches, require from your sacred majesty, that you 
would take upon you the just care of marriages. For 
it is unspeakable how many good consciences are 
hereby entangled, afflicted, and in danger, because 
there are no just laws, no speedy way constituted ac- 
cording to God's word, touching this holy society and 
fountain of mankind. For seeing matrimony is a civil 
tiling, men, that they may rightly contract, inviolably 
keep, and not without extreme necessity dissolve mar- 
riage, arc Dot only to be taught by the doctrine and 
discipline of the church, but also are to be acquitted, 
aided, and compelled by laws and judicature of the 
commonwealth. Which thing pious emperors acknow- 
ledging, and therein framing themselves to the law of 
nations, gave laws both of contracting and preserving, 
and also where an unhappy need required, of divorcing 
marriage* As may be neen in the code of Justinian, 



the 5th book, from the beginning through twenty-four 
titles. And in the authentic of Justinian the 22d, and 
some others. 

But the Antichrists of Rome, to get the imperial 
power into their own hands, first by fraudulent persua- 
sion, afterwards by force, drew to themselves the whole 
authority of determining and judging as well in matri- 
monial causes, as in most other matters. Therefore it 
hath been long believed, that the care and government 
thereof doth not belong to the civil magistrate. Yet 
where the gospel of Christ is received, the laws of An- 
tichrist should be rejected. If therefore kings and go- 
vernors take not this care, by the power of law and 
justice, to provide that marriages be piously contracted, 
religiously kept, and lawfully dissolved, if need require, 
who sees not what confusion and trouble is brought 
upon this holy society; and what a rack is prepared, 
even for many of the best consciences, while they have 
no certain laws to follow, no justice to implore, if any 
intolerable thing happen ? And how much it concerns 
the honour and safety of the commonwealth, that mar- 
riages, according to the will of Christ, be made, main- 
tained, and not without just cause dissolved, who 
understands not? For unless that first and holiest 
society of nnan and woman be purely constituted, that 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



I Go 



household discipline may be upheld by them according 
to God's law, how can we expect a race of good men ? 
Let your majesty therefore know, that this is your 
duty, and in the first place, to reassume to yourself the 
just ordering of matrimony, and by firm laws to 
establish and defend the religion of this first and divine 
society among men, as all wise lawgivers of old, and 
christian emperors, have carefully done. 

The two next chapters, because they chiefly treat 
about the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, I omit ; 
only setting down a passage or two concerning the ju- 
dicial laws of Moses, how fit they be for Christians to 
imitate rather than any other. 

CHAP. XVII, towards the end. 

I confess that we, being free in Christ, are not 
bound to the civil laws of Moses in every circumstance ; 
yet seeing no laws can be more honest, just, and whole- 
some, than those which God himself gave, who is eter- 
nal wisdom and goodness, I see not why Christians, in 
things which no less appertain to them, ought not to 
follow the laws of God, rather than of any men. We 
are not to use circumcision, sacrifice, and those bodily 
washings prescribed to the Jews ; yet by these things 
we may rightly learn, with what purity and devotion 
both baptism and the Lord's supper should be ad- 
ministered and received. How much more is it our duty 
to observe diligently what the Lord hath commanded, 
and taught by the examples of his people concerning 
marriage, whereof we have the use no less than they ! 

And because this same worthy author hath another 
passage to this purpose, in his comment upon Matthew, 
chap. v. 19, I here insert it from p. 46. 

Since we have need of civil laws, and the power of 
punishing", it will be wisest not to contemn those 
given by Moses; but seriously rather to consider 
what the meaning of God was in them, what he chiefly 
required, and how much it might be to the good of 
every nation, if they would borrow thence their man- 
ner of governing the commonwealth ; yet freely all 
things and with the Spirit of Christ. For what Solon, 
or Plato, or Aristotle, what lawyers or Caesars could 
make better laws than God ? And it is no light argu- 
ment, that many magistrates at this day do not enough 
acknowledge the kingdom of Christ, though they 
would seem most christian, in that they govern their 
states by laws so diverse from those of Moses, 

The 18th chapter I only mention as determining a 
thing not here in question, that marriage without con- 
sent of parents ought not to be held good ; yet with 
this qualification fit to be known. 

That if parents admit not the honest desires of their 
children, but shall persist to abuse the power they have 
over them ; they are to be mollified by admonitions, 
entreaties, and persuasions, first of their friends and 

(kindred, next of the church-elders. Whom if still the 
hard parents refuse to hear, then ought the magistrate 
to interpose his power : lest any by the evil mind of 
their parents be detained from marriage longer than is 
meet, or forced to an unworthy match : in which case 



the Roman laws also provided. C. de Nupt. 1. 11, 
13, 26. 

CHAP. XIX. 

Whether it may be permitted to revoke the promise of 
marriage. 
Here ariseth another question concerning contracts, 
when they ought to be unchangeable? for religious 
emperors decreed, that the contract was not indissolu- 
ble, until the spouse were brought home, and the so- 
lemnities performed. They thought it a thing un- 
worthy of divine and human equity, and the due con- 
sideration of man's infirmity in deliberating and de- 
termining, when space is given to renounce other con- 
tracts of much less moment, which are not yet con- 
firmed before the magistrate, to deny that to the most 
weighty contract of marriage, which requires the great- 
est care and consultation. Yet lest such a covenant 
should be broken for no just cause, and to the injury 
of that person to whom marriage was promised, they 
decreed a fine, that he who denied marriage to whom 
he had promised, and for some cause not approved by 
the judges, should pay the double of that pledge which 
was given at making sure, or as much as the judge 
should pronounce might satisfy the damage, or the 
hinderance of either party. It being most certain, 
that ofttimes after contract just and honest causes of 
departing from promise cOme to be known and found 
out, it cannot be other than the duty of pious princes, 
to give men the same liberty of unpromising in these 
cases, as pious emperors granted: especially where 
there is only a promise, and not carnal knowledge. 
And as there is no true marriage between them, who 
agree not in true consent of mind ; so it will be the 
part of godly magistrates, to procure that no matri- 
mony be among their subjects, but what is knit with 
love and consent. And though your majesty be not 
bound to the imperial laws, yet it is the duty of a 
christian king', to embrace and follow whatever he 
knows to be any where piously and justly constituted, 
and to be honest, just, and well-pleasing to his people. 
But why in God's law and the examples of his saints 
nothing hereof is read, no marvel ; seeing his ancient 
people had power, yea a precept, that whoso could not 
bend his mind to the true love of his wife, should give 
her a bill of divorce, and send her from him, though 
after carnal knowledge and long dwelling together. 
This is enough to authorize a godly prince in that in- 
dulgence which he gives to the changing of a con- 
tract; both because it is certainly the invention of 
Antichrist, that the promise of marriage de prsesenti, 
as they call it, should be indissoluble, and because it 
should be a prince's care, that matrimony be so joined, 
as God ordained ; which is, that every one should love 
his wife with such a love as Adam expressed to Eve : 
so as we may hope, that they who marry may become 
one flesh, and one also in the Lord. 

CHAP. XX. 

Concerns only the celebration of marriage. 



166 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



CHAP. XXI. 

The mams of preserving marriage holy and pure. 

Now since there ought not to be less care, that mar- 
be religiously kept, than that it be piously and 
d( liberately contracted, it will be meet, that to every 
church be ordained certain grave and godly men, who 
may have this care upon them, to observe whether the 
husband beaT himself wisely toward the wife, loving-, 
and inciting her to all piety, and the other duties of 
this life; and whether the wife be subject to her hus- 
band, and study to he truly a meet help to him, as first 
to all godliness, so to every other use of life. And if 
thev shall find each to other failing of their duty, or 
the one long absent from the other without just and 
argent cause, or giving suspicion of irreligious and 
impure life, or of living in manifest wickedness, let it 
he admonished them in time. And if their authority 
be contemned, let the names of such contemners be 
brought to the magistrate, who may use punishment 
to compel such violators of marriage to their duty, that 
they may abstain from all probable suspicion of trans- 
gressing; and if they admit of suspected company, the 
magistrate is to forbid them ; whom they not therein 
obeying, are to be punished as adulterers, according to 
the law of Justinian, Authent. 117. For if holy wed- 
lock, the fountain and seminary of good subjects, be 
not vigilantly preserved from all blots and disturbances, 
what can he hoped, as I said before, of the springing 
up of good men, and a right reformation of the com- 
monwealth ? We know it is not enough for Christians 
to abstain from foul deeds, but from the appearance 
and suspicion thereof. 

CHAP. XXII. 
OJ lawful divorce, what the ancient churches have 
thought. 
Now we shall speak about that dissolving of matri- 
mony, which may be approved in the sight of God, if 
any grievous necessity require. In which thing the 
Roman antichrists have knit many a pernicious entan- 
glement to distressed consciences: for that they might 
here also exalt themselves above God, as if they would 
be wiser and chaster than God himself is; forno cause, 
honest or necessary, will they permit a final divorce ; 
in the mean while, u boredoms and adulteries, and worse 
things than these, not only tolerating in themselves 
and others, but cherishing and throwing men headlong 
into these evils. For although they also disjoin mar- 
ried persons from hoard and bed, that is, from all con- 
jugal society arid communion, and this not only for 
adultery, but for ill usage, and matrimonial duties de- 
nied ; yet they forbid those thus parted, to join in wed- 
lock with others : hut, as I said before, any dishonest 
associating they permit. And they pronounce the 
bond of marriage to remain between those whom they 
have thus separated. As if the bond of marriage, God 
so teaching and pronouncing, were not such a league 
as hinds the married couple to all society of life, and 
commnnion in divine and human things; and so asso- 



ciated keeps them. Something indeed out of the later 
fathers they may pretend for this their tyranny, especi- 
ally out of Austria and some others, who were much 
taken with a preposterous admiration of single life ; 
yet though these fathers, from the words of Christ not 
rightly understood, taught that it was unlawful to 
marry again, while the former wife lived, whatever 
cause there had been either of desertion or divorce; yet 
if we mark the custom of the church, and the common 
judgment which both in their times and afterward pre- 
vailed, we shall perceive, that neither these fathers did 
ever cast out of the church any one for marrying after 
a divorce, approved by the imperial laws. 

Nor only the first christian emperors, but the latter 
also, even to Justinian and after him, did grant for 
certain causes approved by judges, to make a true di- 
vorce ; which made and confirmed by law, it might be 
lawful to marry again ; which if it could not have been 
done without displeasing Christ and his church, surely 
it would not have been granted by christian emperors, 
nor had the fathers then winked at those doings in the 
emperors. Hence ye may see that Jerome also, though 
zealous of single life more than enough, and such a 
condemner of second marriage, though after the death 
of either party, yet, forced by plain equity, defended 
Fabiola, a noble matron of Rome, who, having refused 
her husband for just causes, was married to another. 
For that the sending of a divorce to her husband was 
not blameworthy, he affirms because the man was hei- 
nously vicious ; and that if an adulterer's wife may be 
discarded, an adulterous husband is not to be kept. 
But that she married again, while yet her husband was 
alive; he defends in that the apostle hath said, " It is 
better to marry than to burn ;" and that young widows 
should marry, for such was Fabiola, and could not re- 
main in widowhood. 

But some one will object, that Jerome there adds, 
" Neither did she know the vigour of the gospel, wherein 
all cause of marrying is debarred from women, while 
their husbands live; and again, while she avoided 
many wounds of Satan, she received one ere she was 
aware." But let the equal reader mind also what went 
before ; " Because," saith he, soon after the beginning, 
" there is a rock and storm of slanderers opposed before 
her, I will not praise her converted, unless I first ab- 
solve her guilty." For why does he call them slander- 
ers, who accused Fabiola of marrying again, if he did 
not judge it a matter of christian equity and charity, to 
pass by and pardon that fact, though in his own opinion 
he held it a fault ? And what can this mean, " I will 
not praise her, unless I first absolve her?" For how 
could he absolve her, but by proving that Fabiola, nei- 
ther in rejecting her vicious husband, nor in marrying 
another, had committed such a sin, as could be justly 
condemned ? Nay, he proves both by evident reason, 
and clear testimonies of Scripture, that she avoided sin. 

This is also hence understood, that Jerome by the 
vigour of the gospel, meant that height and perfection 
of our Saviour's precept, which might be remitted to 
those that burn ; for he adds, " But if she be accused 
in that she remained not unmarried, I shall confess the 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



1G7 



fault, so I may relate the necessity." If then he ac- 
knowledged a necessity, as he did, because she was 
young-, and could not live in widowhood, certainly he 
could not impute her second marriage to her much 
blame : but when he excuses her out of the word of 
God, does he not openly declare his thoughts, that the 
second marriage of Fabiola was permitted her by the 
Holy Ghost himself, for the necessity which he suffered, 
and to shun the danger of fornication, though she went 
somewhat aside from the vigour of the gospel ? But if 
any urge, that Fabiola did public penance for her 
second marriage, which was not imposed but for great 
faults; it is answered, she was not enjoined to this 
penance, but did it of her own accord, " and not till 
after her second husband's death." As in the time of 
Cyprian, we read that many were wont to do voluntary 
penance for small faults, which were not liable to ex- 
communication. 

CHAP. XXITI. 

That marriage was granted by the ancient fathers, 
even after the vow of single life. 

I omit his testimonies out of Cyprian, Gellasius, Epi- 
phanius, contented only to relate what he thence 
collects to the present purpose. 

Some will say perhaps, wherefore all this concerning 
marriage after vow of single life, whenas the question 
was of marriage after divorce ? For this reason, that 
they whom it so much moves, because some of the 
fathers thought marriage after any kind of divorce to 
be condemned of our Saviour, may see that this con- 
clusion follows not. The fathers thought all marriage 
after divorce to be forbidden of our Saviour, therefore 
they thought such marriage was not to be tolerated in 
a Christian. For the same fathers judged it forbidden 
to marry after vow ; yet such marriages they neither 
dissolved nor excommunicated : for these words of our 
Saviour, and of the Holy Ghost, stood in their way ; 
" All cannot receive this saying, but they to whom it is 
given. Every one hath his proper gift from God, one 
after this manner, another after that. It is better to 
marry than to burn. I will that younger widows 
marry ;" and the like. 

So there are many canons and laws extant, whereby 
priests, if they married, were removed from their office, 
yet is it not read that their marriage was dissolved, as 
the papists now-a-days do, or that they were excommu- 
nicated, nay expressly they might communicate as lay- 
men. If the consideration of human infirmity, and 
those testimonies of divine scripture which grant mar- 
riage to every one that wants it, persuaded those fathers 
to bear themselves so humanely toward them who had 
married with breach of vow to God, as they believed, 
and with divorce of that marriage wherein they were 
in a manner joined to God ; who doubts, but that the 
same fathers held the like humanity was to be afforded 
to those, who after divorce and faith broken with men, 
as they thought, entered into a second marriage ? For 
among such are also found no less weak, and no less 
burning-. 



CHAP. XXIV. 

Who of the ancient fathers have granted marriage 
after divorce. 

This is clear both by what hath been said, and by 
that which Origen relates of certain bishops in his 
time, Homil. 7, in Matt. " I know some," saith he, 
"which are over churches, who without Scripture have 
permitted the wife to marry while her former husband 
lived. And did this against Scripture, which saith, the 
wife is bound to her husband so long as he lives ; and 
she shall be called an adulteress, if, her husband living, 
she take another man ; yet did they not permit this 
without cause, perhaps for the infirmity of such as had 
not continence, they permitted evil to avoid worse." 
Ye see Origen and the doctors of his age, not without 
all cause, permitted women after divorce to marry, 
though their former husbands were living ; yet writes 
that they permitted against Scripture. But what cause 
could they have to do so, unless they thought our Sa- 
viour in his precepts of divorce had so forbidden, as 
willing to remit such perfection to his weaker ones, 
cast into danger of worse faults ? 

The same thought Leo, bishop of Rome, Ep. 85, to 
the African bishops of Mauritania Csesariensis, wherein 
complaining of a certain priest, who divorcing his wife, 
or being divorced by her, as other copies have it, had 
married another, neither dissolves the matrimony, nor 
excommunicates him, only unpriests him. The fathers 
therefore, as we see, did not simply and wholly con- 
demn marriage after divorce. 

But as for me, this remitting of our Saviour's pre- 
cepts, which these ancients allow to the infirm in marry- 
ing after vow and divorce, I can in no ways admit; 
for whatsoever plainly consents not with the command- 
ment, cannot, I am certain, be permitted, or suffered in 
any Christian : for heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but not a tittle from the commandments of God among 
them who expect life eternal. Let us therefore con- 
sider, and weigh the words of our Lord concerning 
marriage and divorce, which he pronounced both by 
himself, and by his apostle, and let us compare them 
with other oracles of God ; for whatsoever is contrary 
to these, I shall not persuade the least tolerating 
thereof. But if it can be taught to agree with the 
word of God, yea to be commanded, that most men 
may have permission given them to divorce and marry 
again, I must prefer the authority of God's word be- 
fore the opinion of fathers and doctors, as they them- 
selves teach. 

CHAP. XXV. 

The words of our Lord, and of the Holy Ghost, by the 
Apostle Paul concerning divorce, are explained. The 
1st Axiom, that Christ could not condemn of adultery, 
that which he once commanded. 

But the words of our Lord, and of the Holy Ghost, 
out of which Austin and some others of the fathers 
think it concluded, that our Saviour forbids marriage 






168 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



after any divorce, are these; Matt. v. 31, 32, " Tt hath 
been said," &c. : and Matt. xix. 7, " They say unto him, 
why did Moses then command," &c: and Mark x. and 
Luke xvi. Rom. vii. 1, 2, 3, 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11. Hence 
therefore they conclude, that all marriage after divorce 
is called adultery; which to commit, being 1 noways to 
be tolerated in any Christian, they think it follows, that 
second marriage is in no case to be permitted either to 
the divorcer, or to the divorced. 

But that it may be more fully and plainly perceived 
what force is in this kind of reasoning, it will be the 
best course, to lay down certain grounds whereof no 
Christian can doubt the truth. First, it is a wickedness 
to suspect, that our Saviour branded that for adultery, 
which himself, in his own law which he came to fulfil, 
and not to dissolve, did not only permit, but also com- 
mand ; for by him, the only mediator, was the whole 
law of God given. But that by this law of God mar- 
riage was permitted after any divorce, is certain by 
Deut. xxiv. 1. 

CHAP. XXVI. 

That God in his law did not only grant, but also com- 
mand divorce to certain men. 
Deut. xxiv. 1, "When a man hath taken a wife," 
&c. But in Mai. ii. 15, 16, is read the Lord's com- 
mand to put her away whom a man hates, in these 
words : " Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal 
injuriously against the wife of his youth. If he hate, 
let him put away, saith the Lord God of Israel. And 
he shall hide thy violence with his garment," that mar- 
ries her divorced by thee, " saith the Lord of hosts ; 
but take heed to your spirit, and do no injury." By 
these testimonies of the divine law, we see, that the 
Lord did not only permit, but also expressly and ear- 
nestly commanded his people, by whom he would that 
all holiness and faith of marriage covenant should be 
observed, that he, who could not induce his mind to 
love his wife with a true conjugal love, might dismiss 
her, that she might marry to another. 

CHAP. XXVII. 

That what the Lord permitted and commanded to 
his ancient people concerning divorce belongs also to 
Christians. 

Now what the Lord permitted to his first-born peo- 
ple, that certainly he could not forbid to his own among 
the Gentiles, whom he made coheirs, and into one body 
with his people ; nor could he ever permit, much less 
command, aught that was not good for them, at least 
so used as he commanded. For being God, he is not 
changed as man. Which thing who seriously con- 
siders, how can he imagine, that God would make 
that wicked to them that believe, and serve him under 
grace, which he granted and commanded to them that 
served him under the law ? Whenas the same causes 
require the same permission. And who that knows 
but human matters, and loves the truth, will deny that 
many marriages hang as ill together now, as ever they 

♦ Matthew v. 34. 



did among the Jews ? So that such marriages are liker 
to torments than true marriages. As therefore the 
Lord doth always succour and help the oppressed, so 
he would ever have it provided for injured husbands 
and wives, that under pretence of the marriage bond, 
they be not sold to perpetual vexations, instead of the 
loving and comfortable marriage duties. And lastly, 
as God doth always detest hypocrisy and fraud, so nei- 
ther doth he approve that among his people, that 
should be counted marriage, wherein none of those 
duties remain, whereby the league of wedlock is 
chiefly preserved. What inconsiderate neglect then of 
God's law is this, that I may not call it worse, to hold 
that Christ our Lord would not grant the same reme- 
dies both of divorce and second marriage to the weak, 
or to the evil, if they will needs have it so, but espe- 
cially to the innocent and wronged ; whenas the same 
urgent causes remain as before, when the discipline of 
the church and magistrate hath tried what may be tried ? 

CHAP. XXVIII. 

That our Lord Christ intended not to make new laws 
of marriage and divorce, or of any civil matters. 
Axiom 2. 

It is agreed by all who determine of the kingdom 
and offices of Christ by the Holy Scriptures, as all 
godly men ought to do, that our Saviour upon earth 
took not on him either to give new laws in civil affairs, 
or to change the old. But it is certain, that matri- 
mony and divorce are civil things. Which the chris- 
tian emperors knowing, gave conjugal laws, and re- 
served the administration of them to their own courts ; 
which no true ancient bishop ever condemned. 

Our Saviour came to preach repentance and remis- 
sion : seeing therefore those, who put away their wives 
without any just cause, were not touched with con- 
science of the sin, through misunderstanding of the 
law, he recalled them to a right interpretation, and 
taught, that the woman in the beginning- was so joined 
to the man, that there should be a perpetual union 
both in body and spirit : where this is not, the matri- 
mony is already broke, before there be yet any divorce 
made, or second marriage. 

CHAP. XXIX. 

That it is wicked to strain the words of Christ beyond 
their purpose. 

This is his third Axiom, whereof there needs no ex- 
plication here. 

CHAP. XXX. 

That all places of Scripture about the same thing are 
to be joined, and compared, to avoid contradictions. 
Axiom 4. 

This he demonstrates at large out of sundry places iu 
the gospel, and principally by that precept against 
swearing,* which, compared with many places of the 
law and prophets, is a flat contradiction of them all, 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



169 



if we follow superstitiousl y the letter. Then having" 
repeated briefly his four axioms, he thus proceeds. 
These thing's thus preadmonished, let us inquire 
what the undoubted meaning is of our Saviour's words, 
and inquire according- to the rule which is observed by 
all learned and good men in their expositions ; that 
praying first to God, who is the only opener of our 
hearts, we may first with fear and reverence consider 
well the words of our Saviour touching this question. 
Next, that we may compare them with all other places 
of Scripture treating of this matter, to see how they con- 
sent with our Saviour's words, and those of his apostle. 

CHAP. XXXI. 

This chapter disputes against Austin and the pa- 
pists, who deny second marriage even to them who di- 
vorce incase of adultery; which because it is not con- 
troverted among true protestants, but that the inno- 
cent person is easily allowed to marry, I spare the 
translating. 

CHAP. XXXII. 

That a manifest adulteress ought to be divorced, and 
cannot lawfully be retained in marriage by any true 
Christian. 

This though he prove sufficiently, yet I let pass, 
because this question was not handled in the Doctrine 
and Discipline of Divorce ; to which book I bring so 
much of this treatise as runs parallel. 

CHAP. XXXIII. 

That adultery is to be punished with death. 
This chapter also I omit for the reason last alleged. 

CHAP. XXXIV. 

That it is lawful for a wife to leave an adulterer, and 
to marry another husband. 

This is generally granted, and therefore excuses me 
the writing out. 

CHAP. XXXV. 

Places in the writings of the apostle Paul, touching 
divorce, explained. 

Let us consider the answers of the Lord given by 
the apostle severally. Concerning the first, which is 
Rom. vii. 1, «< Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to 
them that know the law, &c. Ver. 2, The woman is 
bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth." 
Here it is certain, that the Holy Ghost had no purpose 
to determine aught of marriage, or divorce, but only to 
bring an example from the common and ordinary law 
of wedlock, to shew, that as no covenant holds either 
party being dead, so now that we are not bound to the 
law, but to Christ our Lord, seeing that through him 
we are dead to sin, and to the law ; and so joined to 
Christ, that we may bring forth fruit in him from a 
willing godliness, and not by the compulsion of law, 
whereby our sins are more excited, and become more 
violent. What therefore the Holy Spirit here speaks of 



matrimony cannot be extended beyond the general 
rule. 

Besides it is manifest, that the apostle did allege the 
law of wedlock, as it was delivered to the Jews ; for, 
saith he, " I speak to them that know the law." They 
knew no law of God, but that by Moses, which plainly 
grants divorce for several reasons. It cannot therefore 
be said, that the apostle cited this general example out 
of the law, to abolish the several exceptions of that law, 
which God himself granted by giving authority to 
divorce. 

Next, when the apostle brings an example out of 
God's law concerning- man and wife, it must be neces- 
sary, that we understand such for man and wife, as are 
so indeed according to the same law of God; that is, 
who are so disposed, as that they are both willing and 
able to perform the necessary duties of marriage ; not 
those who, under a false title of marriage, keep them- 
selves mutually bound to injuries and disgraces; for 
such twain are nothing less than lawful man and wife. 

The like answer is to be given to all other places 
both of the gospel and the apostle, that whatever ex- 
ception may be proved out of God's law, be not ex- 
cluded from those places. For the Spirit of God doth 
not condemn things formerly granted and allowed, 
where there is like cause and reason. Hence Am- 
brose, upon that place, 1 Cor. vii. 15, " A brother or a 
sister is not under bondage in such cases," thus ex- 
pounds ; " The reverence of marriage is not due to 
him who abhors the author of marriage ; nor is that 
marriage ratified, which is without devotion to God : 
he sins not therefore, who is put away for God's 
cause, though he join himself to another. For the 
dishonour of the Creator dissolves the right of matri- 
mony to him who is deserted, that he be not accused, 
though marrying to another. The faith of wedlock is 
not to be kept with him who departs, that he might 
not hear the God of Christians to be the author of wed- 
lock. For if Ezra caused the misbelieving wives and 
husbands to be divorced, that God might be appeased, 
and not offended, though they took others of their own 
faith, how much more shall it be free, if the misbe- 
liever depart, to marry one of our own religion. For 
this is not to be counted matrimony, which is against 
the law of God." 

Two things are here to be observed toward the fol- 
lowing discourse, which truth itself and the force of 
God's word hath drawn from this holy man. For 
those words are very large, " Matrimony is not rati- 
fied, without devotion to God." And " the dishonour 
of the Creator dissolves the right of matrimony." For 
devotion is far off, and dishonour is done to God by all 
who persist in any wickedness and heinous crime. 

CHAP. XXXVI. 

That although it seem in the Gospel, as if our Saviour 
granted divorce only for adultery, yet in very deed 
he granted it for other causes also. 

Now is to be dealt with this question, whether it 
be lawful to divorce and marry again for other causes 






170 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



besides adultery, since our Saviour expressed that only ? 
To this question, if we retain our principles already 
laid, and must acknowledge it to be a cursed blas- 
phemy, if we say that the words of God do contradict 
one another, of necessity we must confess, that our 
Lord did grant divorce, and marriage after that, for 
other causes besides adultery, notwithstanding- what 
he said in Matthew. For first, they who consider but 
only that place, 1 Cor. vii. which treats of believers 
and misbelievers matched tog-ether, must of force con- 
fess, That our Lord granted just divorce and second 
marriage in the cause of desertion, which is other than 
the cause of fornication. And if there be one other 
cause found lawful, then is it most true, that divorce 
w as granted not only for fornication. 

Next, it cannot be doubted, as I shewed before, by 
them to whom it is given to know God and his judg- 
ments out of his own word, but that, what means of 
peace and safety God ever granted and ordained to his 
elected people, the same he grants and ordains to men 
of all ages, who have equally need of the same reme- 
dies. And who, that is but a knowing man, dares say 
there be not husbands and wives now to be found in 
such a hardness of heart, that they will not perform 
either conjugal affection, or any requisite duty thereof, 
though it be most deserved at their hands ? 

Neither can any one defer to confess, but that God, 
whose property it is to judge the cause of them that 
suffer injury, hath provided for innocent and honest 
persons wedded, how they might free themselves by 
lawful means of divorce, from the bondage and iniquity 
of those who are falsely termed their husbands or their 
wives. This is clear out of Deut. xxiv. 1 ; Malachi ii. ; 
Matt. xix. 1 ; 1 Cor. vii. ; and out of those principles, 
which the Scripture every where teaches, that God 
changes not his mind, dissents not from himself, is no 
accepter of persons ; but allows the same remedies to 
all men oppressed with the same necessities and infirm- 
ities ; yea, requires that we should use them. This he 
will easily perceive, who considers these things in the 
Spirit of the Lord. 

Lastly, it is most certain, that the Lord hath com- 
manded us to obey the civil laws, every one of his own 
< ommonwealth, if they be not against the laws of God. 

CHAP. XXXVII. 

For what causes divorce is permitted bj/ the civil law 
ex I. Consensu Codic. de Repudiis. 

It is also manifest, that the law of Theodosius and 
Yah-ntinian, which begins " Consensu," &c. touching 
divorce, and many other decrees of pious emperors 
agreeing herewith, are not contrary to the word of 
God ; and therefore may be recalled into use by any 
christian prince or commonwealth ; nay, ought to be 
with due respect had to every nation: for whatsoever 
is equal and just, that in every thing is to be sought 
and osed by Christians. Hence it is plain, that divorce 
is granted by divine approbation, both to husbands and 
to wives, if either party can convict the other of these 
following offences before the magistrate. 



If the husband can prove the wife to be an adulteress, 
a witch, a murderess; to have bought or sold to slavery 
any one freeborn, to have violated sepulchres, commit- 
ted sacrilege, favoured thieves and robbers, desirous of 
feasting with strangers, the husband not knowing, or 
not willing ; if she lodge forth without a just and pro- 
bable cause, or frequent theatres and sights, he forbid- 
ding ; if she be privy with those that plot against the 
state, or if she deal falsely, or offer blows. And if the 
wife can prove her husband guilty of any those fore- 
named crimes, and frequent the company of lewd 
women in her sight; or if he beat her, she had the like 
liberty to quit herself; with this difference, that the 
man after divorce might forthwith marry again ; the 
woman not till a year after, lest she might chance to 
have conceived. 

CHAP. XXXVIII. 

An exposition of 'those places wherein God declares the 
nature of holy wedlock. 

Now to the end it may be seen, that this agrees with 
the divine law, the first institution of marriage is to be 
considered, and those texts in which God established 
the joining of male and female, and described the 
duties of them both. When God had determined to 
make woman, and give her as a wife to man, he spake 
thus, Gen. ii. 18, " It is not good for man to be alone, 
I will make him a help meet for him. And Adam said," 
but in the Spirit of God, v. 23, 24, " This is now bone 
of my bone, and flesh of my flesh : Therefore shall a 
man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to 
his wife, and they shall be one flesh." 

To this first institution did Christ recall his own ; 
when answering the Pharisees, he condemned the 
licence of unlawful divorce. He taught therefore by 
his example, that we, according to this first institution, 
and what God hath spoken thereof, ought to determine 
what kind of covenant marriage is, how to be kept, and 
how far; and lastly, for what causes to be dissolved. 
To which decrees of God these also are to be joined, 
which the Holy Ghost hath taught by his apostle, that 
neither the husband nor the wife " hath power of their 
own body, but mutually each of either's." That " the 
husband shall love the wife as his own body, yea as 
Christ loves his church ; and that the wife ought to be 
subject to her husband, as the church is to Christ." 

By these things the nature of holy wedlock is cer- 
tainly known ; whereof if only one be wanting in both 
or either party, and that either by obstinate malevo- 
lence, or too deep inbred weakness of mind, or lastly, 
through incurable impotence of body, it cannot then 
be said, that the covenant of matrimony holds good 
between such ; if we mean that covenant, which God 
instituted and called marriage, and that whereof only 
it must be understood that our Saviour said, " Those 
whom God hath joined, let no man separate." 

And hence is concluded, that matrimony requires 
continual cohabitation and living together, unless the 
calling of God be otherwise evident; which union if 
the parties themselves disjoin either by mutual consent, 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



171 



or one against the other's will depart, the marriage is 
then broken. Wherein the papists, as in other things, 
oppose themselves against God ; while they separate 
for many causes from bed and board, and yet will have 
the bond of matrimony remain, as if this covenant 
could be other than the conjunction and communion 
not only of bed and board, but of all other loving and 
helpful duties. This we may see in these words ; " I 

(will make him a help meet for him ; bone of his bone, 
and flesh of his flesh : for this cause shall he leave 
father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they 
twain shall be one flesh." By which words who dis- 
cerns not, that God requires of them both so to live to- 
gether, and to be united not only in body but in mind 
also, with such an affection as none maybe dearer and 
more ardent among all the relations of mankind, nor 
of more efficacy to the mutual offices of love and loy- 
alty ? They must communicate and consent in all things 
both divine and human, which have any moment to well 
and happy living. The wife must honour and obey 
her husband, as the church honours and obeys Christ 
her head. The husband must love and cherish his 
wife, as Christ his church. Thus they must be to each 
other, if they will be true man and wife in the sight of 
God, whom certainly the churches ought to follow in 
their judgment. Now the proper and ultimate end of 
marriage is not copulation, or children, for then there 
was not true matrimony between Joseph and Mary the 
mother of Christ, nor between many holy persons more; 
but the full and proper and main end of marriage is 
the communicating of all duties, both divine and hu- 
man, each to other with utmost benevolence and affec- 
tion. 

CHAR XXXIX. 

The properties of a true and christian marriage more 
distinctly repeated. 

By which definition we may know, that God esteems 
and reckons upon these four necessary properties to be 
in every true marriage. 1. That they should live to- 
gether, unless the calling of God require otherwise for 
a time. 2. That they should love one another to the 
height of dearness, and that in the Lord, and in the 
communion of true religion. 3. That the husband bear 
himself as the head and preserver of his wife, instruct- 
ing her to all godliness and integrity of life ; that the 
wife also be to her husband a help, according to her place, 
especially furthering him in the true worship of God, 
and next in all the occasions of civil life. And 4. That 
they defraud not each other of conjugal benevolence, 
as the apostle commands, 1 Cor. vii. Hence it follows, 
according to the sentence of God, which all Christians 
ought to be ruled by, that between those who, either 
through obstinacy, or helpless inability, cannot or will 
not perform these repeated duties, between thos3 there 
can be no true matrimony, nor ought they to be CDunted 
man and wife. 



CHAR XL. 



Whether those crimes recited chap, xxxvii. out of the 
civil law, dissolve matrimony in God's account. 

Now if a husband or wife be found guilty of any of 
those crimes, which by the law " consensu" are made 
causes of divorce, it is manifest, that such a man can- 
not be the head and preserver of his wife, nor such a 
woman be a meet help to her husband, as the divine 
law in true wedlock requires ; for these faults are pu- 
nished either by death, or deportation, or extreme in- 
famy, which are directly opposite to the covenant of 
marriage. If they deserve death, as adultery and the 
like, doubtless God would not that any should live in 
wedlock with them whom he would not have to live at 
all. Or if it be not death, but the incurring of noto- 
rious infamy, certain it is neither just, nor expedient, 
nor meet, that an honest man should be coupled with 
an infamous woman, nor an honest matron with an in- 
famous man. The wise Roman princes had so great 
a regard to the equal honour of either wedded person, 
that they counted those marriages of no force, which 
were made between the one of good repute, and the 
other of evil note. How much more will all honest 
regard of christian expedience and comeliness beseem 
and concern those who are set free and dignified in 
Christ, than it could the Roman senate, or their sons, 
for whom that law was provided ? 

And this all godly men will soon apprehend, that 
he who ought to be the head and preserver not only of 
his wife, but also of his children and family, as Christ 
is of his church, had need be one of honest name : so 
likewise the wife, which is to be the meet help of an 
honest and good man, the mother of an honest offspring 
and family, the glory of the man, even as the man is 
the glory of Christ, should not be tainted with igno- 
miny ; as neither of them can avoid to be, having been 
justly appeached of those forenamed crimes ; and there- 
fore cannot be worthy to hold their place in a christian 
family : yea, they themselves turn out themselves and 
dissolve that holy covenant. And they who are true 
brethren and sisters in the Lord are no more in bondage 
to such violators of marriage. 

But here the patrons of wickeduess and dissolvers of 
christian discipline will object, that it is the part of 
man and wife to bear one another's cross, whether in 
calamity or infamy, that they may gain each other, if 
not to a good name, yet to repentance and amendment. 
But they who thus object, seek the impunity of wick- 
edness, and the favour of wicked men, not the duties 
of true charity ; which prefers public honesty before 
private interest, and had rather the remedies of whole- 
some punishment appointed by God should be in use, 
than that by remissness the licence of evil doing should 
increase. For if they who, by committing such of- 
fences, have made void the holy knot of marriage, be 
capable of repentance, they will be sooner moved when 
due punishment is executed on them, than when it is 
remitted. 

We must ever beware, lest, in contriving what will 



172 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER, 



be best for the soul's health of delinquents, we make 
ourselves wiser and discreeter than God. He that re- 
ligiously weighs his oracles concerning marriage, can- 
not doubt that they, who have committed the foresaid 
transgressions, have lost the right of matrimony, and 
are unworthy to hold their dignity in an honest and 
christian family. 

But if any husband or wife see such signs of repent- 
ance in their transgressor, as that they doubt not to re- 
gain them by continuing with them, arid partaking of 
their miseries and attaiutures, they may be left to their 
own hopes, and their own mind ; saving ever the right 
of church and commonwealth, that it receive no scandal 
by the neglect of due severity, and their children no 
harm by this invitation to licence, and want of good 
education. 

From all these considerations, if they be thought on, 
as in the presence of God, and out of his word, any 
one may perceive, who desires to determine of these 
things by the Scripture, that those causes of lawful 
divorce, which the most religious emperors Theodosius 
and Valcntinian set forth in the forecited place, are ac- 
cording to the law of God, and the prime institution of 
marriage ; and were still more and more straitened, as 
the church and state of the empire still more and more 
corrupted and degenerated. Therefore pious princes 
and commonwealths both may and ought establish 
them again, if they have a mind to restore the honour, 
sanctity, and religion of holy wedlock to their people, 
and disentangle many consciences from a miserable 
and perilous condition, to a chaste and honest life. 

To those recited causes wherefore a wife might send 
a divorce to her husband, Justinian added four more, 
Constit. 117; and four more, for which a man might 
put away his wife. Three other causes were added in 
the Code " de repudiis, 1. Jubemus." All which causes 
are so clearly contrary to the first intent of marriage, 
that they plainly dissolve it. I set them not down, 
being easy to be found in the body of the civil law. 

It was permitted also by christian emperors, that 
they who would divorce by mutual consent, might with- 
out impediment. Or if there were any difficulty at 
all in it, the law expresses the reason, that it was 
only in favour of the children ; so that if there were 
none, the law of those godly emperors made no other 
difficulty of a divorce by consent. Or if any were 
minded without consent of the other to divorce, and 
without those causes which have been named, the 
christian emperors laid no other punishment upon them, 
than that the husband wrongfully divorcing his wife 
should give hack her dowry, and the use of that which 
\\ ai called " Donatio propter nuptias;" or if there were 
no dowry nor no donation, that he should then give 
her the fourth part of his goods. The like penalty 
was inflicted on the wife departing without just cause. 
But that they who were on ': married should be com- 
pelled to remain so ever against their wills, was not 
exacted. Wherein those pious princes followed the 
law of God in Deut. xxiv. 1, and his express charge 
by the prophet Malachi, to dismiss from him the wife 
whom he hates. For God never meant in marriage to 



give to man a perpetual torment instead of a meet 
help. Neither can God approve, that to the violation 
of this holy league (which is violated as soon as true 
affection ceases and is lost) should be added murder, 
which is already committed by either of them who re- 
solvedly hates the other, as I shewed out of 1 John iii. 
15, " Whoso hateth his brother, is a murderer." 

CHAP. XLT. 

Whether the husband or wife deserted may marry 
to another. 

The wife's desertion of her husband the christian 
emperors plainly decreed to be a just cause of divorce, 
whenas they granted him the right thereof, if she had 
but lain out one night against his will without probable 
cause. But of the man deserting his wife they did not 
so determine : yet if we look into the word of God, we 
shall find, that he who though but for a year without 
just cause forsakes his wife, and neither provides for 
her maintenance, nor signifies his purpose of returning, 
and good will towards her, whenas he may, hath for- 
feited his right in her so forsaken. For the Spirit of 
God speaks plainly, that both man and wife have such 
power over one another's person, as that they cannot 
deprive each other of living together, but by consent, 
and for a time. 

Hither may be added, that the Holy Spirit grants 
desertion to be a cause of divorce, in those answers 
given to the Corinthians concerning a brother or sister 
deserted by a misbeliever. " If he depart, let him de- 
part, a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such 
cases." In which words, who sees not that the Holy 
Ghost openly pronounced, that the party without 
cause deserted is not bound for another's wilful de- 
sertion, to abstain from marriage, if he have need 
thereof? 

But some will say, that this is spoken of a misbe- 
liever departing. But I beseech ye, cloth not he reject 
the faith of Christ in his deeds, who rashly breaks the 
holy covenant of wedlock instituted by God ? And 
besides this, the Holy Spirit does not make the misbe- 
lieving of him who departs, but the departing of him 
who disbelieves, to be the just cause of freedom to 
the brother or sister. 

Since therefore it will be agreed among Christians, 
that they who depart from wedlock without just cause, 
do not only deny the faith of matrimony, but of Christ 
also, whatever they profess with their mouths; it is but 
reason to conclude, that the party deserted is not bound 
in case of causeless desertion, but that he may lawfully 
seek another consort, if it be needful to him, toward a 
pure and blameless conversation. 

CHAR XLII. 

The impotence of body, leprosy, madness, fyc. are just 
causes of divorce. 

Of this, because it was not disputed in the Doctrine 
and Discipline of Divorce, him that would know fur- 
ther, I commend to the Latin original. 



CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



173 



CHAR XLIII. 

That to grant divorce for all the causes which have been 
hitherto brought, disagrees not from the words of 
Christ, naming only the cause of adultery. 

Now we must see how these things can stand with 
the words of our Saviour, who seems directly to forbid 
all divorce except it be for adultery. To the under- 
standing- whereof, we must ever remember this : That 
in the words of our Saviour there can be no contrariety : 
That his words and answers are not to be stretched be- 
yond the question proposed : That our Saviour did not 
there purpose to treat of all the causes for which it 
might be lawful to divorce and marry again ; for then 
that in the Corinthians of marrying again without 
guilt of adultery could not be added. That it is not 
good for that man to be alone, who hath not the spe- 
cial gift from above. That it is good for every such one 
to be married, that he may shun fornication. 

With regard to these principles, let us see what our 
Lord answered to the tempting Pharisees about divorce, 
and second marriage, and how far his answer doth 
extend. 

First, no man who is not very contentious will deny, 
that the Pharisees asked our Lord whether it were 
lawful to put away such a wife, as was truly, and ac- 
cording to God's law, to be counted a wife ; that is, 
such a one as would dwell with her husband, and both 
would and could perform the necessary duties of wed- 
lock tolerably. But she who will not dwell with her 
husband is not put away by him, but goes of herself: 
and she who denies to be a meet help, or to be so hath 
made herself unfit by open misdemeanours, or through 
incurable impotencies cannot be able, is not by the law 
of God to be esteemed a wife ; as hath been shewn 
both from the first institution, and other places of Scrip- 
ture. Neither certainly would the Pharisees propound 
a question concerning such an unconjugal wife; for 
their depravation of the law had brought them to that 
pass, as to think a man had right to put away his wife 
for any cause, though never so slight. Since therefore 
it is manifest, that Christ answered the Pharisees con- 
cerning a fit and meet wife according to the law of 
God, whom he forbid to divorce for any cause but for- 
nication ; who sees not that it is a wickedness so to 
wrest and extend that answer of his, as if it forbad to 
divorce her who hath already forsaken, or hath lost the 
place and dignity of a wife, by deserved infamy, or 
hath undertaken to be that which she hath not natural 
ability to be ? 

This truth is so powerful, that it hath moved the pa- 
pists to grant their kind of divorce for other causes be- 
sides adultery, as for ill usage, and the not performing 
of conjugal duty; and to separate from bed and board 
for these causes, which is as much divorce as they grant 
for adultery. 

But some perhaps will object, that though it be 
yielded that our Lord granted divorce not only for 
adultery, yet it is not certain, that he permitted mar- 
riage after divorce, unless for that only cause. I an- 



swer, first, that the sentence of divorce and second 
marriage is one and the same. So that when the right 
of divorce is evinced to belong not only to the cause of 
fornication, the power of second marriage is also proved 
to be not limited to that cause only ; and that most 
evidently whenas the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. vii. so frees 
the deserted party from bondage, as that he may not 
only send a just divorce in case of desertion, but may 
seek another marriage. 

Lastly, seeing God will not that any should live 
in danger of fornication and utter ruin for the default 
of another, and hath commanded the husband to send 
away with a bill of divorce her whom he could not 
love ; it is impossible that the charge of adultery should 
belong to him who for lawful causes divorces and mar- 
ries, or to her who marries after she hath been unjustly 
rejected, or to him who receives her without all fraud 
to the former wedlock. For this were a horrid blas- 
phemy against God, so to interpret his words, as to 
make him dissent from himself; for who sees not a flat 
contradiction in this, to enthral blameless men and 
women to miseries and injuries, under a false and sooth- 
ing title of marriage, and yet to declare by his apos- 
tle, that a brother or sister is not under bondage in such 
cases? No less do these two things conflict with them- 
selves, to enforce the innocent and faultless to endure 
the pain and misery of another's perverseness, or else 
to live in unavoidable temptation ; and to affirm else- 
where that he lays on no man the burden of another 
man's sin, nor doth constrain any man to the endan- 
gering of his soul. 

CHAP. XLIV. 

That to those also who are justly divorced, second mar- 
riage ought to be permitted. 

This although it be well proved, yet because it con- 
cerns only the offender, I leave him to search out his 
own charter himself in the author. 

CHAP. XLV. 

That some persons are so ordained to marriage, as that 
they cannot obtain the gift of continence, no not by 
earnest prayer ; and that therein every one is to be 
left to his own judgment and conscience, and not to 
have a burden laid upon him by any other. 

CHAP. XLVI. 

The words of the apostle concerning the praise of sin- 
gle life unfolded. 

These two chapters not so immediately debating 
the right of divorce, I choose rather not to insert. 

CHAP. XLVIT. 

The conclusion of this treatise. 

These things, most renowned king, I have brought 
together, both to explain for what causes the unhappy 
but sometimes most necessary help of divorce ought to 
be granted according to God's word, by princes and 



174 



THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN BUCER CONCERNING DIVORCE. 



rulers ; as also to explain how the words of Christ do 
consent with such a grant. I have been large indeed 
both in handling those oracles of God, and in laying- 
down those certain principles, which he who will know 
what the mind of God is in this matter, must ever think 
on and remember. But if we consider what mist and 
obscurity hath been poured out by Antichrist upon this 
question, and how deep this pernicious contempt of 
wedlock, and admiration of single life, even in those 
w ho are not called thereto, hath sunk into many men's 
persuasions ; I fear lest all that hath been said be 
hardly enough to persuade such, that they would cease 
at length to make themselves wiser and holier than 
God himself, in being so severe to grant lawful mar- 
riage, and so easy to connive at all, not only whoredoms 
but deflowerings and adulteries : whenas, among the 
people of God, no whoredom was to be tolerated. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to destroy the 
works of Satan, sent down his Spirit upon all Chris- 
tians, and principally upon christian governors both in 
church and commonwealth, (for of the clear judgment 
of your royal majesty I nothing doubt, revolving the 
Scripture so often as ye do,) that they may acknowledge 
how much they provoke the anger of God against us, 
whenas all kind of unchastity is tolerated, fornications 
and adulteries winked at; but holy and honourable 
wedlock is oft withheld by the mere persuasion of Anti- 
christ, from such as without this remedy cannot pre- 
serve themselves from damnation ! For none who hath 
but a spark of honesty will deny, that princes and states 
ought to use diligence toward the maintaining of pure 
and honest life among all men, without which all jus- 
tice, all fear of God, and true religion decays. 

And who knows not, that chastity and pureness of 
life can never be restored, or continued in the common- 
wealth, unless it be first established in private houses, 
from whence the whole breed of men is to come forth ? 
To effect this, no wise man can doubt, that it is neces- 
sary lor princes and magistrates first with severity to 
punish whoredom and adultery ; next to see that mar- 
he lawfully contracted, and in the Lord ; then 
thai tin v be faithfully kept; and lastly, when that un- 
happini as urges, that they be lawfully dissolved, and 
other marriage granted, according as the law of God, 
and of nature, and the constitutions of pious princes 
bare decreed; as I have shewn both by evident autho- 
of Scripture, together with the writings of the 
ancient fathers, and other testimonies. Only the Lord 
grant that we may learn to prefer his ever just and 
saving word, before the comments of Antichrist, too 
deeply rooted in many, and the falsi; and blasphemous 
exposition of our Saviour's words. Amen. 



A POSTSCRIPT. 

Tuts far Martin Bucer: whom, where I might 
Without injury to either part of the cause, I deny not 
to have epitomized ; in the rest observing a well- war- 



ranted rule, not to give an inventory of so many words, 
but to weigh their force. I could have added that elo- 
quent and right christian discourse, written by Erasmus 
on this argument, not disagreeing in effect from Bucer. 
But this, I hope, will be enough to excuse me with the 
mere Englishman, to be no forger of new and loose 
opinions. Others may read him in his own phrase on 
the first to the Corinthians, and ease me who never 
could delight in long citations, much less in whole tra- 
ductions ; whether it be natural disposition or educa- 
tion in me, or that my mother bore me a speaker of 
what God made mine own, and not a translator. There 
be others also whom I could reckon up, of no mean 
account in the church, (and Peter Martyr among the 
first,) who are more than half our own in this contro- 
versy. But this is a providence not to be slighted, 
that as Bucer wrote this tractate of divorce in England 
and for England, so Erasmus professes he begun here 
among us the same subject, especially out of compas- 
sion, for the need he saw this nation had of some cha- 
ritable redress herein ; and seriously exhorts others to 
use their best industry in the clearing of this point, 
wherein custom hath a greater sway than verity. That 
therefore which came into the mind of these two ad- 
mired strangers to do for England, and in a touch of 
highest prudence, which they took to be not yet re- 
covered from monastic superstition, if I a native am 
found to have done for mine own country, altogether 
suitably and conformably to their so large and clear 
understanding, yet without the least help of theirs ; I 
suppose that henceforward among conscionable and 
judicious persons it will no more be thought to my 
discredit, or at all to this nation's dishonour. And if 
these their books the one shall be printed often with 
best allowance in most religious cities, the other with 
express authority of Leo the Tenth, a pope, shall, for 
the propagating of truth, be published and republished, 
though against the received opinion of that church, 
and mine containing but the same thing, shall in a 
time of reformation, a time of free speaking, free writ- 
ing, not find a permission to the press ; I refer me to 
wisest men, whether truth be suffered to be truth, or 
liberty to be liberty, now among us, and be not again 
in danger of new fetters and captivity after all our 
hopes and labours lost : and whether learning be not 
(which our enemies too prophetically feared) in the 
way to be trodden down again by ignorance. Whereof 
while time is, out of the faith owing to God and my 
country, I bid this kingdom beware; and doubt not 
but God who hath dignified this parliament already to 
so many glorious degrees, will also give them (which 
is a singular blessing) to inform themselves rightly in 
the midst of an unprincipled age, and to prevent this 
working mystery of ignorance and ecclesiastical thral- 
dom, which under new shapes and disguises begins 
afresh to grow upon us. 



TETRACHO RD O N : 

EXPOSITIONS 

UPON THE FOUR CHIEF PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH TREAT 
OF MARRIAGE, OR NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



Gen. i. 27, 28, compared and explained by Gen. ii. 18, 23, 24. Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. Matt. v. 31, 32, with 
Matt. xix. from ver. 3 to 11. 1 Cor. vii. from ver. 10 to 16. 

WHEREIN THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE, AS WAS LATELY PUBLISHED, IS CONFIRMED BY EXPLANATION OF SCRIP- 
TURE, BY TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT FATHERS, OF CIVIL LAWS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, OF FAMOUSEST REFORMED DIVINES; 
AND LASTLY, BY AN INTENDED ACT OF THE PARLIAMENT AND CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE LAST YEAR OF EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

— laaioiffi Kaiva npocrtpep&v <ro<}><\ 

Aofeir axpelo?, kov crocpos 7re<pvKevat. 
Ttov 5' av doKOuvTtov eldevcu ti izoik'iXov, 
Kpeiacrwv vofxicrOei 1 ! kv troXet, \vnpov <pavrj. 

Euripid. Medea. 



TO THE PARLIAMENT. 



That which I knew to be the part of a good magis- 
trate, aiming" at true liberty through the right infor- 
mation of religious and civil life, and that which I saw, 
and was partaker of, your vows and solemn covenants, 
parliament of England ! your actions also manifestly 
tending to exalt the truth, and to depress the tyranny 
of errour and ill custom, with more constancy and 
prowess than ever yet any, since that parliament which 
put the first sceptre of this kingdom into his hand 
whom God and extraordinary virtue made their mon- 
arch ; were the causes that moved me, one else not 
placing much in the eminence of a dedication, to pre- 
sent your high notice with a discourse, conscious to it- 
self of nothing more than of diligence, and firm 
affection to the public good. And that ye took it so 
as wise and impartial men, obtaining so great power 
and dignity, are wont to accept, in matters both doubt- 
ful and important, what they think offered them well 
meant, and from a rational ability, I had no less than 
to persuade me. And on that persuasion am returned, 
as to a famous and free port, myself also bound by 
more than a maritime law, to expose as freely what 
fraughtage T conceive to bring of no trifles. For al- 
though it be generally known, how and by whom ye 
have been instigated to a hard censure of that former 
book, entitled, " The Doctrine and Discipline of Di- 
vorce," an opinion held by some of the best among re- 
formed writers without scandal or confutement, though 
now thought new and dangerous by some of our severe 
Gnostics, whose little reading, and less meditating, 



holds ever with hardest obstinacy that which it took 
up with easiest credulity ; I do not find yet that aught, 
for the furious incitements which have been used, hath 
issued by your appointment, that might give the least 
interruption or disrepute either to the author, or to the 
book. Which he who will be better advised than to 
call your neglect or connivance at a thing imagined 
so perilous, can attribute it to nothing more justly 
than to the deep and quiet stream of your direct and 
calm deliberations, that gave not way either to the 
fervent rashness or the immaterial gravity of those 
who ceased not to exasperate without cause. For 
which uprightness and incorrupt refusal of what ye 
were incensed to, lords and commons ! (though it were 
done to justice, not to me, and was a peculiar demon- 
stration how far your ways are different from the rash 
vulgar,) besides those allegiances of oath and duty, 
which are my public debt to your public labours, I 
have yet a store of gratitude laid up, which cannot be 
exhausted ; and such thanks perhaps they may live to 
be, as shall more than whisper to the next ages. Yet 
that the author may be known to ground himself upon 
his own innocence, and the merit of his cause, not up- 
on the favour of a diversion, or a delay to any just cen- 
sure, but wishes rather he might see those his detractors 
at any fair meeting, as learned debatements are privi- 
leged with a due freedom under equal moderators ; I 
shall here briefly single one of them, (because he hath 
obliged me to it,) who I persuade me having scarce read 
the book, nor knowing him who writ it, or at least 



176 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



feigning- the latter, bath not forborn to scandalize him, 
unconferred with, imadmonished, undealt with by any 
pastorly or brotherly convincenient, in the most open 
and invective manner, and at the most bitter opportu- 
nitv that drift or set design could have invented. 
And this, when as the canon law, though commonly 
most favouring the boldness of their priests, punishes 
the naming or traducing of any person in the pulpit, 
was by him made no scruple. If I shall therefore take 
licence by the right of nature, and that liberty wherein 
I was born, to defend myself publicly against a print- 
ed calumny, and do willingly appeal to those judges 
to whom I am accused, it can be no immoderate or 
unallowable course of seeking so just and needful re- 
parations. Which I had done long since, had not those 
employments, which are now visible, deferred me. 
It was preached before ye, lords and commons! in 
August last upon a special day of humiliation, that 
" there was a wicked book abroad," and ye were taxed 
of sin that it was yet " uncensured, the book deserving 
to be burnt ;" and " impudence" also was charged 
upon the author, who durst " set his name to it, and 
dedicate it to yourselves ! First, lords and commons ! 
I pray to that God, before whom ye then were pros- 
trate, so to forgive ye those omissions and trespasses, 
which ye desire most should find forgiveness, as I shall 
soon shew to the world how easily ye absolve your- 
selves of that which this man calls your sin, and is 
indeed your wisdom, and your nobleness, whereof to 
this day ye have done well not to repent. He terms 
it " a wicked book," and why but " for allowing other 
causes of divorce, than Christ and his apostles men- 
tion ?" and with the same censure condemns of wicked- 
ness not only Martin Bucer, that elect instrument of 
reformation, highly honoured, and had in reverence by 
Edward the Sixth, and his whole parliament, whom 
also I had published in English by a good providence, 
about a week before this calumnious digression was 
preached ; so that if he knew not Bucer then, as he 
ought to have known, he might at least have known 
hi in some months after, ere the sermon came in print; 
wherein notwithstanding he persists in his former sen- 
tence, and condemns again of wickedness, either igno- 
rantly or wilfully, not only Martin Bucer, and all the 
cboieett and holiest of our reformers, but the whole 
parliament and church of England in those best and 
purest times of Edward the Sixth. All which I shall 
prove with good evidence, at the end of these explana- 
tions. And then lctitbe judged and seriously considered 
u ith what hope the affairs of our religion are committed 
to not among others, who hath now only left him which 
of the twain he will choose, whether this shall be his pal- 
pable ignorant ■<•, or the same wickedness of his ownbook, 
which he so lavishly imputes to the writings of other 
men: and whether this of his, that thus peremptorily de- 
fames and attaints of wickedness unspotted churches, 
unblemished parliaments, and the most eminent re- 
storers of christian doctrine, deserve not to be burnt first. 
Ant] ii'his heat had burst out only against the opinion, 
his wonted passion hail no donbt been silently borne 
with w onted patience. But since, against the charity of 



that solemn place and meeting, it served him further 
to inveigh opprobriously against the person, branding 
him with no less than impudence, only for setting his 
name to what he had written; I must be excused not 
to be so wanting to the defence of an honest name, or 
to the reputation of those good men who afford me their 
society, but to be sensible of such a foul endeavoured 
disgrace : not knowing aught either in mine own de- 
serts, or the laws of this land, why I should be sub- 
ject, in such a notorious and illegal manner, to the in- 
temperances of this man's preaching choler. And in- 
deed to be so prompt and ready in the midst of his hum- 
bleness, to toss reproaches of this bulk and size, argues 
as if they were the weapons of his exercise, I am sure 
not of his ministry, or of that day's work. Certainly 
to subscribe my name at what I was to own, was what 
the state had ordered and requires. And he who lists 
not to be malicious, would call it ingenuity, clear con- 
science, willingness to avouch what might be ques- 
tioned, or to be better instructed. And if God were so 
displeased with those, Isa. Iviii. who " on the solemn 
fast were wont to smite with the fist of wickedness," it 
could be no sign of his own humiliation accepted, 
which disposed him to smite so keenly with a reviling 
tongue. But if only to have writ my name must be 
counted " impudence," how doth this but justify an- 
other, who might affirm with as good warrant, that the 
late discourse of " Scripture and Reason," which is 
certain to be chiefly his own draught, was published 
without a name, out of base fear, and the sly avoidance 
of what might follow to his detriment, if the party at 
court should hap to reach him ? And I, to have set my 
name, where he accuses me to have set it, am so far 
from recanting, that I offer my hand also if need be, 
to make good the same opinion which I there main- 
tain, by inevitable consequences drawn parallel from 
his own principal arguments in that of " Scripture and 
Reason :" which I shall pardon him if he can deny, 
without shaking his own composition to pieces. The 
" impudence" therefore, since he weighed so little what 
a gross revile that was to give his equal, I send him 
back again for a phylactery to stitch upon his arro- 
gance, that censures not only before conviction, so bit- 
terly without so much as one reason given, but cen- 
sures the congregation of his governors to their faces, 
for not being so hasty as himself to censure. 

And whereas my other crime is, that I addressed the 
dedication of what I had studied to the parliament; 
how could I better declare the loyalty which I owe to 
that supreme and majestic tribunal, and the opinion 
which I have of the high entrusted judgment, and per- 
sonal worth assembled in that place ? With the same 
affections therefore, and the same addicted fidelity, par- 
liament of England ! I here again have brought to 
your perusal on the same argument these following 
expositions of Scripture. The former book, as pleased 
some to think, who were thought judicious, had of 
reason in it to a sufficiency; what they required was, 
that the Scriptures there alleged might be discussed 
more fully. To their desires thus much further hath 
been laboured in the Scriptures. Another sort also, 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



177 



who wanted more authorities and citations, have not 
been here unthought of. If all this attain not to satisfy 
them, as I am confident that none of those our great 
controversies at this day hath had a more demonstrative 
explaining-, I must confess to admire what it is : for 
doubtless it is not reason now-a-days that satisfies or 
suborns the common credence of men, to yield so 
easily, and grow so vehement in matters much more 
disputable, and far less conducing- to the daily g-ood 
and peace of life. Some whose necessary shifts have 
long enured them to cloak the defects of their unstudied 
years, and hatred now to learn, under the appearance 
of a grave solidity, (which jestimation they have gained 
among- weak perceivers,) find the ease of slighting 
what they cannot refute, and are determined, as I 
hear, to hold it not worth the answering-. In which 
number I must be forced to reckon that doctor, 
who in a late equivocating treatise plausibly set afloat 
against the Dippers, diving the while himself with a 
more deep prelatical malignance against the present 
state and church-government, mentions with ignominy 
" the Tractate of Divorce ;" yet answers nothing, but 
instead thereof (for which I do not commend his mar- 
shalling) sets Moses also among the crew of his Ana- 
baptists; as one who to a holy nation, the common- 
wealth of Israel, gave laws " breaking the bonds of 
marriage to inordinate lust." These are no mean 
surges of blasphemy, not only dipping Moses the di- 
vine lawgiver, but dashing with a high hand against 
the justice and purity of God himself: as these ensu- 
ing scriptures plainly and freely handled shall verify, 
to the launching of that old apostemated errour. Him 
therefore I leave now to his repentance. 

Others, which is their courtesy, confess that wit and 
parts may do much to make that seem true which is 
not; as was objected to Socrates by them who could 
not resist his efficacy, that he ever made the worst 
cause seem the better; and thus thinking themselves 
discharged of the difficulty, love not to wade further 
into the fear of a convincement. These will be their 
excuses to decline the full examining of this serious 
point. So much the more I press it and repeat it, 
lords and commons ! that ye beware while time is, ere 
this grand secret, and only art of ignorance affecting 
tyranny, grow powerful, and rule among us. For if 
sound argument and reason shall be thus put off, either 
by an undervaluing silence, or the masterly censure of 
a railing word or two in the pulpit, or by rejecting the 
force of truth, as the mere cunning of eloquence and 
sophistry ; what can be the end of this, but that all 
good learning and knowledge will suddenly decay ? 
Ig-norance, and illiterate presumption, which is yet 
but our disease, will turn at length into our very con- 
stitution, and prove the hectic evil of this age : worse 
to be feared, if it get once to reign over us, than any 
fifth monarchy. If this shall be the course, that what 
was wont to be a chief commendation, and the ground 
of other men's confidence in an author, his diligence, 
his learning, his elocution, whether by right or by ill 
meaning granted him, shall be turned now to a disad- 
vantage and suspicion against him, that what he writes, 



though unconfuted, must therefore be mistrusted, there- 
fore not received for the industry, the exactness, the la- 
bour in it, confessed to be more than ordinary ; as if 
wisdom had now forsaken the thirsty and laborious in- 
quirer, to dwell against her nature with the arrogant 
and shallow babbler; to what purpose all those pains 
and that continual searching required of us by Solo- 
mon to the attainment of understanding? Why are 
men bred up with such care and expense to a life of 
perpetual studies ? Why do yourselves with such en- 
deavour seek to wipe off the imputation of intending 
to discourage the progress and advance of learning ? 
He therefore, whose heart can bear him to the high 
pitch of your noble enterprises, may easily assure him- 
self, that the prudence and far-judging circumspect- 
ness of so grave a magistracy sitting in parliament, 
who have before them the prepared and purposed act 
of their most religious predecessors to imitate in this 
question, cannot reject the clearness of these reasons, 
and these allegations both here and formerly offered 
them ; nor can overlook the necessity of ordaining 
more wholesomely and more humanely in the casual- 
ties of divorce, than our laws have yet established, if 
the most urgent and excessive grievances happening 
in domestic life be worth the laying to heart; which, 
unless charity be far from us, cannot be neglected. 
And that these things, both in the right constitution, 
and in the right reformation of a commonwealth, call 
for speediest redress, and ought to be the first con- 
sidered, enough was urged in what was prefaced to 
that monument of Bucer, which I brought to your re- 
membrance, and the other time before. Henceforth, 
except new cause be given, I shall say less and less. 
For if the law make not timely provision, let the law, 
as reason is, bear the censure of those consequences, 
which her own default now more evidently produces. 
And if men want manliness to expostulate the right of 
their due ransom, and to second their own occasions, 
they may sit hereafter and bemoan themselves to have 
neglected through faintness the only remedy of their 
sufferings, which a seasonable and well-grounded 
speaking might have purchased them. And perhaps 
in time to come, others will know how to esteem what 
is not every day put into their hands, when they have 
marked events, and better weighed how hurtful and 
unwise it is, to hide a secret and pernicious rupture un- 
der the ill counsel of a bashful silence. But who 
would distrust aught, or not be ample in his hopes of 
your wise and christian determinations ? who have the 
prudence to consider, and should have the goodness, 
like gods, as ye are called, to find out readily, and by 
just law to administer those redresses, which have of 
old, not without God ordaining, been granted to the 
adversities of mankind, ere they who needed were put 
to ask. Certainly, if any other have enlarged his 
thoughts to expect from this government, so justly un- 
dertaken, and by frequent assistances from Heaven so 
apparently upheld, glorious changes and renovations 
both in church and state, he among the foremost might 
be named, who prays that the fate of England may 
tarry for no other deliverers. JOHN MILTON. 



TETRACHORDON: 



EXPOSITIONS 

UPON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE WHICH TREAT OF MARRIAGE, OR 

NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



Genesis i. 27. 
So God created man in his own image, in the image of 

Gol created he him; male and female created he 

them, 
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 

Be fruitful, &c. 

Gev. ii. 18. 

And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should 
be alone, I will make him a help meet for him. 

23. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and 
flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called woman, be- 
cause she was taken out of a man. 

24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mo- 
ther, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall 
be one flesh. 

Gen. i. 27. 

" So God created man in his own image."] To be 
informed aright in the whole history of marriage, that 
we may know for certain, not by a forced yoke, but 
by an impartial definition, what marriage is, and what 
is not marriage : it will undoubtedly be safest, fairest, 
and most with our obedience, to inquire, as our Saviour's 
direction is, how it was in the beginning. And that 
ire begin bo high as man created after God's own 
image, there want not earnest causes. For nothing 
now-a-<l,t vv ii more degenerately forgotten, than the 
trne dignity of man. almost in every respect, but espe- 
cially in tbifl prime institution of matrimony, wherein 
In- native pre-eminence ought most to shine. Although 
if we consider that just and natural privileges men 
neither can rightly seek, nor dare fully claim, unless 
thej 1-'- allied to inward goodness and stedfast know- 
and that the want of this quells them to a ser- 
i ile n ii-'- of id' ir on n conscious unworthiness; it may 
save the wondering why in this age many are so op- 
posite both to human and to christian liberty, either 
while they understand not, or envy others that do; 



contenting, or rather priding themselves in a specious 
humility and strictness bred out of low ignorance, that 
never yet conceived the freedom of the gospel ; and is 
therefore by the apostle to the Colossians ranked with 
no better company than will worship and the mere 
shew of wisdom. And how injurious herein they are, 
if not to themselves, yet to their neighbours, and not 
to them only, but to the all-wise and bounteous grace 
offered us in our redemption, will orderly appear. 

" In the image of God created he him."] It is enough 
determined, that this image of God, wherein man was 
created, is meant wisdom, purity, justice, and rule over 
all creatures. All which, being lost in Adam, was re- 
covered with gain by the merits of Christ. For albeit 
our first parent had lordship over sea, and land, and 
air, yet there was a law without him, as a guard set 
over him. But Christ having cancelled the hand- 
writing of ordinances which was against us, Col. ii. 
14, and interpreted the fulfilling of all through charity, 
hath in that respect set us over law, in the free custody 
of his love, and left us victorious under the guidance 
of his living spirit, not under the dead letter ; to follow 
that which most edifies, most aids and furthers a reli- 
gious life, makes us holiest and likest to his immortal 
image, not that which makes us most conformable and 
captive to civil and subordinate precepts : whereof the 
strictest observance may ofttimes prove the destruction 
not only of many innocent persons and families, but of 
whole nations. Although indeed no ordinance human 
or from heaven can bind against the good of man ; so 
that to keep them strictly against that end, is all one 
with to break them. Men of most renowned virtue 
have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the 
law; and wisest magistrates have permitted and dis- 
pensed it ; while they looked not peevishly at the letter, 
but with a greater spirit at the good of mankind, if 
always not written in the characters of law, yet engraven 
in the heart of man by a divine impression. This hea- 
thens could see, as the well-read in story can recount of 
Solon and Epaminondas, whom Cicero in his first book 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, &c. 



^79 



of " Invention " nobly defends. " All law," saith he, 
" we ought to refer to the common good, and interpret 
by that, not by the scroll of letters. No man observes 
law for law's sake, but for the good of them for whom 
it was made." The rest might serve well to lecture 
these times, deluded through belly doctrines into a de- 
vout slavery. The Scripture also affords David in the 
shewbread, Hezekiah in the passover, sound and safe 
transgressors of the literal command, which also dis- 
pensed not seldom with itself; and taught us on what 
just occasions to do so: until our Saviour, for whom 
that great and godlike work was reserved, redeemed 
us to a state above prescriptions, by dissolving the 
whole law into charity. And have we not the soul to 
understand this, and must we against this glory of 
God's transcendent love towards us be still the servants 
of a literal indictment ? 

" Created he him."] It might be doubted why he 
saith, " In the image of God created he him," not 
them, as well as "male and female" them ; especially 
since that image might be common to them both, but 
male and female could not, however the Jews fable 
and please themselves with the accidental concurrence 
of Plato's wit, as if man at first had been created her- 
maphrodite : but then it must have been male and fe- 
male created he him. So had the image of God been 
equally common to them both, it had no doubt been 
said, in the image of God created he them. But St. 
Paul ends the controversy, by explaining, that the 
woman is not primarily and immediately the image of 
God, but in reference to the man, " The head of the 
woman," saith he, 1 Cor. xi. " is the man ;" " he the 
image and glory of God, she the glory of the man ;" he 
not for her, but she for him. Therefore his precept is, 
" Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fit in the 
Lord," Col. iii. 18 ; " in every thing," Eph. v. 24. 
Nevertheless man is not to hold her as a servant, but 
receives her into a part of that empire, which God pro- 
claims him to, though not equally, yet largely, as his 
own image and glory ; for it is no small glory to him, 
that a creature so like him should be made subject to 
him. Not but that particular exceptions may have 
place, if she exceed her husband in prudence and dex- 
terity, and he contentedly yield : for then a superior 
and more natural law comes in, that the wiser should 
govern the less wise, whether male or female. But 
that which far more easily and obediently follows from 
this verse is, that, seeing woman was purposely made 
for man, and he her head, it cannot stand before the 
breath of this divine utterance, that man the portraiture 
of God, joining to himself for his intended good and 
solace an inferior sex, should so become her thrall, 
whose wilfulness or inability to be a wife frustrates the 
occasional end of her creation ; but that he may acquit 
himself to freedom by his natural birthright, and that 
indelible character of priority, which God crowned him 
with. If it be urged, that sin hath lost him this, the 
answer is not far to seek, that from her the sin first 
proceeded, which keeps her justly in the same propor- 
tion still beneath. She is not to gain by being first in 
the transgression, that man should further lose to her, 

N 



because already he hath lost by her means. Oft it 
happens, that in this matter he is without fault ; so that 
his punishment herein is causeless : and God hath the 
praise in our speeches of him, to sort his punishment in 
the same kind with the offence. Suppose he erred ; it 
is not the intent of God or man, to hunt an errour so 
to the death with a revenge beyond all measure and 
proportion. But if we argue thus, this affliction is be- 
fallen him for his sin, therefore he must bear it, without 
seeking the only remedy : first, it will be false, that all 
affliction comes for sin, as in the case of Job, and of the 
man born blind, John ix. 3, was evident : next, by that 
reason, all miseries coming for sin, we must let them 
all lie upon us like the vermin of an Indian Catharist, 
which his fond religion forbids him to molest. Were 
it a particular punishment inflicted through the anger 
of God upon a person, or upon a land, no law hinders 
us in that regard, no law but bids us remove it if we can ; 
much more if it be a dangerous temptation withal ; 
much more yet, if it be certainly a temptation, and not 
certainly a punishment, though a pain. As for what 
they say we must bear with patience ; to bear with 
patience, and to seek effectual remedies, implies no con- 
tradiction. It may no less be for our disobedience, 
our unfaithfulness, and other sins against God, that 
wives become adulterous to the bed ; and questionless 
we ought to take the affliction as patiently as christian 
prudence would wish : } r et hereby is not lost the right 
of divorcing for adultery. No, you say, because our 
Saviour excepted that only. But why, if he were so 
bent to punish our sins, and try our patience in binding 
on us a disastrous marriage, why did he except adul- 
tery ? Certainly to have been bound from divorce in 
that case also had been as plentiful a punishment to 
our sins, and not too little work for the patientest. 
Nay, perhaps they will say it was too great a suffer- 
ance ; and with as slight a reason, for no wise man but 
would sooner pardon the act of adultery once and again 
committed by a person worth pity and forgiveness, than 
to lead a wearisome life of unloving and unquiet con- 
versation with one who neither affects nor is affected, 
much less with one who exercises all bitterness, and 
would commit adultery too, but for envy lest the per- 
secuted condition should thereby get the benefit of his 
freedom. It is plain therefore, that God enjoins not 
this supposed strictness of not divorcing either to punish 
us, or to try our patience. 

Moreover, if man be the image of God, which con- 
sists in holiness, and woman ought in the same respect 
to be the image and companion of man, in such wise 
to be loved as the church is beloved of Christ; and if, 
as God is the head of Christ, and Christ the head of 
man, so man is the head of woman ; I cannot see by 
this golden dependance of headship and subjection, 
but that piety and religion is the main tie of christian 
matrimony : so as if there be found between the pair a 
notorious disparity either of wickedness or heresy, the 
husband by all manner of right is disengaged from a 
creature, not made and inflicted on him to the vexation 
of his righteousness : the wife also, as her subjection is 
terminated in the Lord, being herself the redeemed of 



180 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



Christ, is not still bound to be the vassal of him, who 
is the bondslave of Satan : she being now neither the 
image nor the glory of such a person, nor made for him, 
nor left in bondage to him ; but hath recourse to the 
wing of charity, and protection of the church, unless 
there be a hope on either side : yet such a hope must 
be meant, as may be a rational hope, and not an end- 
less servitude. Of which hereafter. 

But usually it is objected, that if it be thus, then 
there can be no true marriage between misbelievers and 
irreligious persons. I might answer, let them see to 
that who are such ; the church hath no commission to 
judge those without, 1 Cor. v. But this they will say 
perhaps, is but penuriously to resolve a doubt. I an- 
swer therefore, that where they are both irreligious, the 
marriage may be yet true enough to them in a civil 
relation. For there are left some remains of God's 
iiiiane in man, as he is merely man ; which reason God 
gives against the shedding of man's blood, Gen. ix. as 
being made in God's image, without expressing whether 
lie were a good man or a bad, to exempt the slayer 
from punishment. So that in those marriages where 
the parties are alike void of religion, the wife owes a 
civil homage and subjection, the husband owes a civil 
loyalty. But where the yoke is misyoked, heretic 
with faithful, godly with ungodly, to the grievance 
and manifest endangering of a brother or sister, reasons 
of a higher strain than matrimonial bear sway; unless 
the gospel, instead of freeing us, debase itself to make 
us bond-men, and suffer evil to control good. 

" Male and female created he them."] This con- 
tains another end of matching* man and woman, being 
the right and lawfulness of the marriage-bed ; though 
much inferior to the former end of her being his image 
and help in religious society. And who of weakest 
insight may not see, that this creating of them male 
and female cannot in any order of reason, or Christian- 
ity, be of such moment against the better and higher 
purposes of their creation, as to enthral husband or wife 
to duties or to sufferings, unworthy and unbeseeming 
the image of God in them ? Now whenas not only 
men, but good men, do stand upon their right, their 
estimation, their dignity, in all other actions and de- 
portments, with warrant enough and good conscience, 
U having the image of God in them, it will not be dif- 
ficolt to determine what is unworthy and unseemly for 
a man to do or suffer in wedlock: and the like propor- 
tionally may be found for woman, if we love not to 
itand disputing below the principles of humanity. He 
thai -aid, " Male and female created he them," imme- 
diately before that said also in the same verse, " in the 
image of God created he him," and redoubled it, that 
our thought! might not be so full of dregs as to urge 
thifl poor consideration of male and female, without 
i. Hi, mitring the nobleness of that former repetition; 
I' •< a I" i' God - nd8 a wise eye to examine our trivial 
glosses, they be found extremely to creep upon the 
ground : esp daily ^ince they confess, that what here 
Coneerns marriage i^ hut a brief touch, only preparative 
to th. institution which follows more expressly in the 
in \t chapter; and that Christ so took it, as desiring to 



be briefest with them who came to tempt him, account 
shall be given in due place. 

Ver. 28. " And God blessed them, and God said 
unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish 
the earth," &c. 

This declares another end of matrimony, the propa- 
gation of mankind ; and is again repeated to Noah and 
his sons. Many things might be noted on this place 
not ordinary, nor unworth the noting ; but I undertook 
not a general comment. Hence therefore we see the 
desire of children is honest and pious ; if we be not less 
zealous in our Christianity than Plato was in his hea- 
thenism ; who in the sixth of his laws, counts offspring 
therefore desirable, that we may leave in our stead sons 
of our sous, continual servants of God : a religious and 
prudent desire, if people knew as well what were re- 
quired to breeding as to begetting ; which desire per- 
haps was a cause, why the Jews hardly could endure 
a barren wedlock : and Philo, in his book of special 
laws, esteems him only worth pardon, that sends not 
barrenness away. Carvilius, the first recorded in Rome 
to have sought divorce, had it granted him for the bar- 
renness of his wife, upon his oath that he married to 
the end he might have children ; as Dionysius and 
Gellius are authors. But to dismiss a wife only for 
barrenness, is hard : and yet in some the desire of chil- 
dren is so great, and so just, yea sometimes so necessary, 
that to condemn such a one to a childless age, the fault 
apparently not being in him, might seem perhaps more 
strict than needed. Sometimes inheritances, crowns, 
and dignities are so interested and annexed in their 
common peace and good to such or such lineal descent, 
that it may prove of great moment both in the affairs 
of men and of religion, to consider thoroughly what 
might be done herein, notwithstanding the wayward- 
ness of our school doctors. 

Gen. II. 18. 

" And the Lord said, It is not good that man should 

be alone ; I will make him a help meet for him." 

Ver. 23. " And Adam said,"&c. Ver. 24. " Therefore 

shall a man leave," &c. 

This second chapter is granted to be a commentary 
on the first, and these verses granted to be an exposi- 
tion of that former verse, " Male and female created 
he them :" and yet when this male and female is by 
the explicit words of God himself here declared to be 
not meant other than a fit help, and meet society ; some, 
who would engross to themselves the whole trade of 
interpreting, will not suffer the clear text of God to do 
the office of explaining itself. 

" And the Lord God said, It is not good."] A man 
would think, that the consideration of who spake should 
raise up the intention of our minds to inquire better, 
and obey the purpose of so great a speaker : for as we 
order the business of marriage, that which he here 
speaks is all made vain ; and in the decision of matri- 
mony, or not matrimony, nothing at all regarded. Our 
presumption hath utterly changed the state and con- 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



181 






dition of this ordinance : God ordained it in love and 
helpfulness to be indissoluble, and we in outward act 
and formality to be a forced bondage ; so that being- 
subject to a thousand errours in the best men, if it prove 
a blessing 1 to any, it is of mere accident, as man's law 
hath handled it, and not of institution. 

" It is not good for man to be alone."] Hitherto all 
things, that have been named, were approved of God 
to be very good : loneliness is the first thing, which 
God's eye name not good : whether it be a thing, or 
the want of something, I labour not; let it be their 
tendance, who have the art to be industriously idle. 
And here " alone " is meant alone without woman ; 
otherwise Adam had the company of God himself, and 
angels to converse with ; all creatures to delight him 
seriously, or to make him sport. God could have created 
him out of the same mould a thousand friends and bro- 
ther Adams to have been his consorts ; yet for all this, 
till Eve was given him, God reckoned him to be alone. 

" It is not good."] God here presents himself like 
to a man deliberating; both to shew us that the matter 
is of high consequence, and that he intended to found 
it according to natural reason, not impulsive command ; 
but that the duty should arise from the reason of it, not 
the reason be swallowed up in a reasonless duty. 
" Not good," was as much to Adam before his fall, as 
not pleasing, not expedient; but since the coming of 
sin into the world, to him who hath not received the 
continence, it is not only not expedient to be alone, but 
plainly sinful. And therefore he who wilfully abstains 
from marriage, not being supernaturally gifted, and he 
who by making the yoke of marriage unjust and in- 
tolerable, causes men to abhor it, are both in a diabo- 
lical sin, equal to that of Antichrist, who forbids to 
marry. For what difference at all whether he abstain 
men from marrying, or restrain them in a marriage 
happening totally discommodious, distasteful, dishonest, 
and pernicious to him, without the appearance of his 
fault ? For God does not here precisely say, I make a 
female to this male, as he did before ; but expounding 
himself here on purpose, he saith, because it is not good 
for man to be alone, I make him therefore a meet help. 
God supplies the privation of not good, with the per- 
fect gift of a real and positive good : it is man's per- 
verse cooking, who hath turned this bounty of God 
into a scorpion, either by weak and shallow construc- 
tions, or by proud arrogance and cruelty to them who 
neither in their purposes nor in their actions have of- 
fended against the due honour of wedlock. 

Now whereas the apostle's speaking in the spirit, 
1 Cor. vii. pronounces quite contrary to this word of 
God, " It is good for a man not to touch a woman," 
and God cannot contradict himself; it instructs us, that 
his commands and words, especially such as bear the 
manifest title of some good to man, are not to be so 
strictly wrung, as to command without regard to the 
most natural and miserable necessities of mankind. 
Therefore the apostle adds a limitation in the 26th 
verse of that chapter, for the present necessity it is 
good ; which he gives us doubtless as a pattern how to 
reconcile other places by the general rule of charity. 



" For man to be alone."] Some would have the 
sense hereof to be in respect of procreation only : and 
Austin contests that manly friendship in all other re- 
gard had been a more becoming solace for Adam, than 
to spend so many secret years in an empty world with 
one woman. But our writers deservedly reject this 
crabbed opinion ; and defend that there is a peculiar 
comfort in the married state beside the genial bed, 
which no other society affords. No mortal nature can 
endure either in the actions of religion, or study of 
wisdom, without sometime slackening the cords of in- 
tense thought and labour : which lest we should think 
faulty, God himself conceals us not his own recreations 
before the world was built ; " I was," saith the eternal 
wisdom, " daily his delight, playing always before 
him." And to him indeed wisdom is as a high tower 
of pleasure, but to us a steep hill, and we toiling ever 
about the bottom : he executes with ease the exploits 
of his omnipotence, as easy as with us it is to will : but 
no worthy enterprise can be done by us without con- 
tinual plodding and wearisomeness to our faint and 
sensitive abilities. We cannot therefore always be con- 
templative, or pragmatical abroad, but have need of 
some delightful intermissions, wherein the enlarged 
soul may leave off a while her severe schooling; and, 
like a glad youth in wandering vacancy, may keep 
her holidays to joy and harmless pastime : which as she 
cannot well do without company, so in no company 
so well as where the different sex in most resembling* 
unlikeness, and most unlike resemblance, cannot but 
please best, and be pleased in the aptitude of that va- 
riety. Whereof lest we should be too timorous, in the 
awe that our flat sages would form us and dress us, 
wisest Solomon among his gravest Proverbs counte- 
nances a kind of ravishment and erring fondness in the 
entertainment of wedded leisures ; and in the Song of 
Song's, which is generally believed, even in the jolliest 
expressions, to figure the spousals of the church with 
Christ, sings of a thousand raptures between those two 
lovely ones far on the hither side of carnal enjoyment. 
By these instances, and more which might be brought, 
we may imagine how indulgently God provided against 
man's loneliness ; that he approved it not, as by him- 
self declared not good ; that he approved the remedy 
thereof, as of his own ordaining, consequently good : 
and as he ordained it, so doubtless proportionably to 
our fallen estate he gives it; else were his ordinance 
at least in vain, and we for all his gifts still empty 
handed. Nay, such an unbounteous giver we should 
make him, as in the fables Jupiter was to Ixion, giv- 
ing him a cloud instead of Juno, giving him a mon- 
strous issue by her, the breed of Centaurs, a neglected 
and unloved race, the fruits of a delusive marriage ; 
and lastly, giving him her with a damnation to that 
wheel in hell, from a life thrown into the midst of 
temptations and disorders. But God is no deceitful 
giver, to bestow that on us for a remedy of loneli- 
ness, which if it bring not a sociable mind as well 
as a conjunctive body, leaves us no less alone than 
before; and if it bring a mind perpetually averse and 
disagreeable, betrays us to a worse condition than 



182 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



the most deserted loneliness. God cannot in the jus- 
tice of his own promise and institution so unexpect- 
edly mock us, by forcing that upon us as the re- 
medy of solitude, which wraps us in a misery worse 
than any wilderness, as the Spirit of God himself 
judues, Prov. xix. especially knowing" that the best 
and wisest men amidst the sincere and most cordial de- 
sigllS ,,(' their heart, do daily err in choosing-. We may 
conclude therefore, seeing- orthodoxal expositors con- 
fess to tun- hands, that by loneliness is not only meant 
the want of copulation, and that man is not less alone 
by turning- in a body to him, unless there be within it 
a mind answerable; that it is a work more worthy the 
care and consultation of God to provide for the wor- 
thiest part of man, which is his mind, and not unna- 
turally to set it beneath the formalities and respects of 
the body, to make it a servant of its own vassal : I say, 
Aye may conclude that such a marriag-e, wherein the 
mind is so disgraced and vilified below the body's in- 
terest, and can have no just or tolerable contentment, 
is not of God's institution, and therefore no marriage. 
Nay, in concluding this, I say we conclude no more 
than what the common expositors themselves give us, 
both in that which I have recited, and much more 
hereafter. But the truth is, they give us in such a 
manner, as they who leave their own mature po- 
sitions like the eggs of an ostrich in the dust; I 
do but lay them in the sun ; their own pregnancies 
hatch the truth ; and I am taxed of novelties and strange 
producements, while they, like that inconsiderate bird, 
know not that these are their own natural breed. 

" I will make him a help meet for him."] Here the 
heavenly iustitutor, as if he laboured not to be mis- 
taken by the supercilious hypocrisy of those that love 
to master their brethren, and to make us sure that he 
gave us not now a servile yoke, but an amiable knot, 
contents not himself to say, I will make him a wife; 
but resolving to give us first the meaning before the 
name of a wife, saith graciously, " I will make him a 
lid]) meet for him." And here again, as before, I do 
not require more full and fair deductions than the whole 
( onsent of our divines usually raise from this text, that 
in matrimony there must be first a mutual help to 
piety, next to civil fellowship of love and amity, then 
to g( aeration, so to household affairs, lastly the remedy 
of incontinence. And commonly they reckon them in 
such order, as leaves generation and incontinence to 
be last considered. This I amaze me at, that though 
ill the superior and nobler ends both of marriage 
and of the married persons be absolutely frustrate, 
the matrimony stirs not, loses no hold, remains as 
rooted ;is the centre : hut if the body bring but in a 
complaint of frigidity, by that cold application only 
this adamantine Alp of wedlock has leave to dis- 
roln ; irbiefa else ;ill the machinations) of religious or 
<i\il reason at the suit of a distressed mind, either for 
divine worship <<r human conversation violated, cannot 
unfasten. What courts of concupiscence are these, 
wherein fleshly appetite i^ heard before right reason, 
lovt lore or devotion? They may be pious 
Christians together, they may he loving and friendly, 



they may be helpful to each other in the family, but 
they cannot couple ; that shall divorce them, though 
either party would not. They can neither serve God 
together, nor one be at peace Avith the other, nor be 
good in the family one to other, but live as they were 
dead, or live as they were deadly enemies in a cage to- 
gether ; it is all one, they can couple, they shall not 
divorce till death, not though this sentence be their 
death. What is this besides tyranny, but to turn na- 
ture upside down, to make both religion and the mind 
of man wait upon the slavish errands of the body, and 
not the body to follow either the sanctity or the sove- 
reignty of the mind, unspeakably wronged, and with 
all equity complaining ? what is this but to abuse the 
sacred and mysterious bed of marriage to be the com- 
pulsive stye of an ingrateful and malignant lust, stirred 
up only from a carnal acrimony, without either love or 
peace, or regard to any other thing holy or human ? 
This I admire, how possibly it should inhabit thus long 
in the sense of so many disputing theologians, unless 
it be the lowest lees of a canonical infection liver- 
grown to their sides ; which perhaps will never uncling, 
without the strong abstersive of some heroic magistrate, 
whose mind, equal to his high office, dares lead him 
both to know and to do without their frivolous case- 
putting. For certain he shall have God and this in- 
stitution plainly on his side. And if it be true both in 
divinity and law, that consent alone, though copula- 
tion never follow, makes a marriage ; how can they 
dissolve it for the want of that which made it not, and 
not dissolve it for that not continuing which made it 
and should preserve it in love and reason, and differ- 
ence it from a brute conjugality ? 

" Meet for him."] The original here is more expres- 
sive than other languages word for word can render it; 
but all agree effectual conformity of disposition and 
affection to be hereby signified ; which God as it were, 
not satisfied with the naming of a help, goes on de- 
scribing another self, a second self, a very self itself. 
Yet now there is nothing in the life of man, through 
our misconstruction, made more uncertain, more ha- 
zardous and full of chance, than this divine blessing 
with such favourable significance here conferred upon 
us; which if we do but err in our choice, the most un- 
blameable errour that can be, err but one minute, one 
moment after those mighty syllables pronounced, 
which take upon them to join heaven and hell toge- 
ther unpardonably till death pardon : this divine bless- 
ing that looked but now with such a humane smile 
upon us, and spoke such gentle reason, straight van- 
ishes like a fair sky, and brings on such a scene of 
cloud and tempest, as turns all to shipwreck without 
haven or shore, but to a ransomless captivity. And 
then they tell us it is our sin : but let them be told 
again, that sin through the mercy of God hath not 
made such waste upon us, as to make utterly void to our 
use any temporal benefit, much less any so much avail- 
ing to a peaceful and sanctified life, merely for a most 
incident errour, which no wariness can certainly shun. 
And wherefore serves our happy redemption, and the 
liberty we have in Christ, but to deliver us from cala- 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



183 



mitous yokes, not to be lived under without the en- 
dangerment of our souls, and to restore us in some 
competent measure to a right in every good thing both 
of this life, and the other? Thus we see how treatably 
and distinctly God hath here taught us what the prime 
ends of marriage are ; mutual solace and help. That 
we are now, upon the most irreprehensible mistake in 
choosing, defeated and defrauded of all this original 
benignity, was begun first through the snare of anti- 
christian canons long since obtruded upon the church 
of Rome, and not yet scoured off by reformation, out of 
a lingering vain-glory that abides among us to make 
fair shews in formal ordinances, and to enjoin conti- 
nence and bearing of crosses in such a garb as no scrip- 
ture binds us, under the thickest arrows of temptation, 
where we need not stand. Now we shall see with what 
acknowledgment and assent Adam received this new 
associate which God brought him. 

Ver. 23. " And Adam said, This is now bone of my 
bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called 
woman, because she was taken out of man." 

That there was a nearer alliance between Adam and 
Eve, than could be ever after between man and wife, 
is visible to any. For no other woman was ever 
moulded out of her husband's rib, but of mere strangers 
for the most part they come to have that consanguini- 
ty, which they have by wedlock. And if we look 
nearly upon the matter, though marriage be most 
agreeable to holiness, to purity, and justice, yet is it 
not a natural, but a civil and ordained relation. For 
if it were in nature, no law or crime could disannul it, 
to make a wife, or husband, otherwise than still a wife 
or husband, but only death ; as nothing but that can 
make a father no father, or a son no son. But divorce 
for adultery or desertion, as all our churches agree but 
England, not only separates, but nullifies, and extin- 
guishes the relation itself of matrimony, so that they 
are no more man and wife ; otherwise the innocent 
party could not marry elsewhere, without the guilt of 
adultery. Next, were it merely natural, why was it 
here ordained more than the rest of moral law to man 
in his original rectitude, in whose breast all that was 
natural or moral was engraven without external con- 
stitutions and edicts? Adam therefore in these words 
^does not establish an indissoluble bond of marriage in 
the carnal ligaments of flesh and bones ; for if he did, 
it would belong only to himself in the literal sense, 
every one of us being nearer in flesh of flesh, and bone 
of bones, to our parents than to a wife ; they therefore 
were not to be left for her in that respect. But Adam, 
who had the wisdom given him to know all creatures, 
and to name them according to their properties, no 
doubt but had the gift to discern perfectly that which 
concerned him much more; and to apprehend at first 
sight the true fitness of that consort which God pro- 
vided him. And therefore spake in reference to those 
words which God pronounced before ; as if he had 
said, This is she by whose meet help and society I shall no 
more be alone; this is she who was made my image, even 
as I the image of God; not so much in body, as in unity of 



mind and heart. And he might as easily know what 
were the words of God, as he knew so readily what 
had been done with his rib, while he slept so soundly. 
He might well know, if God took a rib out of his in- 
side to form of it a double good to him, he would far 
sooner disjoin it from his outside, to prevent a treble 
mischief to him; and far sooner cut it quite off from 
all relation for his undoubted ease, than nail it into his 
body again, to stick for ever there a thorn in his heart. 
Whenas nature teaches us to divide any limb from the 
body to the saving of its fellows, though it be the 
maiming and deformity of the whole ; how much more 
is it her doctrine to sever by incision, not a true limb 
so much, though that be lawful, but an adherent, a 
sore, the gangrene of a limb, to the recovery of a whole 
man! But if in these words we shall make Adam to 
erect a new establishment of marriage in the mere 
flesh, which God so lately had instituted, and founded 
in the sweet and mild familiarity of love and solace, 
and mutual fitness ; what do we but use the mouth of 
our general parent, the first time it opens, to an arro- 
gant opposition and correcting of God's wiser ordi- 
nance ? These words therefore cannot import any 
thing new in marriage, but either that which belongs 
to Adam only, or to us in reference only to the insti* 
tuting words of God, which made a meet help ag'ainst 
loneliness. Adam spake like Adam the words of flesh 
and bones, the shell and rind of matrimony ; but God 
spake like God, of love, and solace, and meet help, the 
soul both of Adam's words and of matrimony. 

Ver. 24. " Therefore shall a man leave his father 
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; 
and they shall be one flesh." 

This verse, as our common herd expounds it, is the 
great knot-tier, which hath undone by tying-, and by 
tangling, millions of guiltless consciences : this is that 
grisly porter, who having drawn men and wisest men 
by subtle allurement within the train of an unhappy 
matrimony, claps the dungeon-gate upon them, as ir- 
recoverable as the grave. But if we view him well, 
and hear him with not too hasty and prejudicant ears, 
we shall find no such terror in him. For first, it is not 
here said absolutely without all reason he shall cleave 
to his wife, be it to his weal or to his destruction as it 
happens, but he shall do this upon the premises and 
considerations of that meet help and society before 
mentioned. " Therefore he shall cleave to his wife," 
no otherwise a wife than a fit help. He is not bid to 
leave the dear cohabitation of his father, mother, bro- 
thers, and sisters, to link himself inseparably with the 
mere carcass of a marriage, perhaps an enemy. This 
joining particle " Therefore" is in all equity, nay in 
all necessity of construction, to comprehend first and 
most principally what God spake concerning the in- 
ward essence of marriage in his institution, that we 
may learn how far to attend what Adam spake of the 
outward materials thereof in his approbation. For if 
we shall bind these words of Adam only to a corporal 
meaning, and that the force of this injunction upon all 
us his sons, to live individually with any woman wmch 



84 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



hath hefallen us in the most mistaken wedlock, shall 
consist not in those moral and relative causes of Eve's 
creation, but in the mere anatomy of a rib, and that 
Adam's insight concerning 1 wedlock reached no fur- 
ther, we shall make him as very an idiot as the So- 
cinians make him; which would not be reverently 
done of us. Let us be content to allow our great fore- 
father so much wisdom, as to take the instituting- words 
of God along* with hira into this sentence, which if they 
be well minded, will assure us that flesh and ribs are 
but of a weak and dead efficacy to keep marriage united 
where there is no other fitness. The rib of marriage, 
to all since Adam, is a relation much rather than a 
bone ; the nerves and sinews thereof are love and meet 
help, they knit not every couple that marries, and 
where they knit they seldom break ; but where they 
break, which for the most part is where they were 
never truly joined, to such at the same instant both 
flesh and rib cease to be in common : so that here they 
argue nothing to the continuance of a false or violated 
marriage, but must be led back again to receive their 
meaning from those institutive words of God, which 
give them all the life and vigour they have. 

" Therefore shall a man leave his father," &c] 
What to a man's thinking more plain by this appoint- 
ment, that the fatherly power should give place to con- 
jugal prerogative? Yet it is generally held by re- 
formed writers against the papist, that though in per- 
sons at discretion the marriage in itself be never so fit, 
though it be fully accomplished with benediction, 
board, and bed, yet the father not consenting, his main 
will without dispute shall dissolve all. And this they 
affirm only from collective reason, not any direct law ; 
for that in Exod. xxii. 17, which is most particular, 
speaks that a father may refuse to marry his daughter 
to one who hath defloured her, not that he may take 
her away from one who hath soberly married her. 
Yet because the general honour due to parents is great, 
they hold he may, and perhaps hold not amiss. But 
again, when the question is of harsh and rugged pa- 
i. hn, who defer to bestow their children seasonably, 
they agree jointly, that the church or magistrate may 
bestow them, though without the father's consent : and 
for this they have no express authority in Scripture. 
So that thev may see by their own handling of this 
rerj place, that it is not the stubborn letter must go- 
vern us, but the divine and softening breath of charity, 
which turns and winds the dictate of every positive 
command, and shapes it to the good of mankind. 
Shall the outward accessory of a father's will wanting 
rend the fittest and most affectionate marriage in twain, 
after all nuptial consummations; and shall not the want 
of lore, and the privation of all civil and religious con- 
cord, which ifl the inward essence of wedlock, do as 
uracil to part those; <rbu were never truly wedded ? 
Shall a father have this power to vindicate his own 
wilful honour and authority to the utter breach of a 
dearly united marriage, and shall not a man in 
his own power have the permission to free his soul, his 
life, and all his comfort of life from the disaster of a no- 
marriage ? Shall fatherhood, which is but man, for his 



own pleasure dissolve matrimony ; and shall not ma- 
trimony, which is God's ordinance, for its own honour 
and better conservation dissolve itself, when it is wrong 
and not fitted to any of the chief ends which it owes us ? 
" And they shall be one flesh."] These words also 
infer, that there ought to be an individuality in mar- 
riage ; but without all question presuppose the joining 
causes. Not a rule yet that we have met with, so uni- 
versal in this whole institution, but hath admitted limi- 
tations and conditions according to human necessity. 
The very foundation of matrimony, though God laid it 
deliberately, " that it is not good for man to be alone," 
holds not always, if the apostle can secure us. Soon 
after we are bid leave father and mother, and cleave to 
a wife, but must understand the father's consent withal, 
else not. " Cleave to a wife," but let her be a wife, let 
her be a meet help, a solace, not a nothing, not an ad- 
versary, not a desertrice : can any law or command be 
so unreasonable, as to make men cleave to calamity, to 
ruin, to perdition ? In like manner here " they shall 
be one flesh ;" but let the causes hold, and be made 
really good which only have the possibility to make 
them one flesh. We know that flesh can neither join 
nor keep together two bodies of itself ; what is it then 
must make them one flesh, but likeness, but fitness of 
mind and disposition, which may breed the spirit of 
concord and union between them ? If that be not in 
the nature of either, and that there has been a remedi- 
less mistake, as vain we go about to compel them into 
one flesh, as if we undertook to weave a garment of 
dry sand. It were more easy to compel the vegetable 
and nutritive power of nature to assimilations and mix- 
tures, which are not alterable each by other; or force 
the concoctive stomach to turn that into flesh, which is 
so totally unlike that substance, as not to be wrought 
on. For as the unity of mind is nearer and greater 
than the union of bodies, so doubtless is the dissimili- 
tude greater and more dividual, as that which makes 
between bodies all difference and distinction. Espe- 
cially whenas besides the singular and substantial dif- 
ferences of every soul, there is an intimate quality of 
good or evil, through the whole progeny of Adam, 
which like a radical heat, or mortal chillness, joins 
them, or disjoins them irresistibly. In whom there- 
fore either the will or the faculty, is found to have never 
joined, or now not to continue so, it is not to say, they 
shall be one flesh, for they cannot be one flesh. God 
commands not impossibilities ; and all the ecclesiasti- 
cal glue, that liturgy or laymen can compound, is not 
able to sodder up two such incongruous natures into 
the one flesh of a true beseeming marriage. Why did 
Moses then set down their uniting into one flesh ? 
And I again ask, why the gospel so oft repeats the eat- 
ing of our Saviour's flesh, the drinking of his blood? 
" That we are one body with him, the members of 
his body, flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone," 
Ephes. v. Yet lest we should be Capernaitans, as we 
are told there, that the flesh profiteth nothing; so we 
are told here, if we be not as deaf as adders, that this 
union of the flesh proceeds from the union of a fit help 
and solace. We know, that there was never a more 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



185 



spiritual mystery than this gospel taught us under the 
terms of body and flesh ; yet nothing- less intended 
than that we should stick there. What a stupidness 
then is it, that in marriage, which is the nearest resem- 
blance of our union with Christ, we should deject our- 
selves to such a sluggish and underfoot philosophy, as 
to esteem the validity of marriage merely by the flesh, 
though never so broken and disjointed from love and 
peace, which only can give a human qualification to 
that act of the flesh, and distinguish it from bes- 
tial ! The text therefore uses this phrase, that " they 
shall be one flesh," to justify and make legitimate 
the rites of marriage-bed ; which was not unneed- 
ful, if for all this warrant they were suspected of 
pollution by some sects of philosophy, and religions 
of old, and latelier among the papists, and other he- 
retics elder than they. Some think there is a high 
mystery in those words, from that which Paul saith 
of them, Ephes. v. " This is a great mystery, but I 
speak of Christ and the church : and thence they 
would conclude marriage to be inseparable. For me, 
I dispute not now whether matrimony be a mystery 
or no ; if it be of Christ and his church, certainly it is 
not meant of every ungodly and miswedded marriage, 
but then only mysterious, when it is a holy, happy, 
and peaceful match. But when a saint is joined 
with a reprobate, or both alike wicked with wicked, 
fool with fool, a he-drunkard with a she ; when the bed 
hath been nothing else for twenty years or more, but 
an old haunt of lust and malice mixed together, no 
love, no goodness, no loyalty, but counterplotting', and 
secret wishing one another's dissolution; this is to me 
the greatest mystery in the world, if such a marriage 
as this can be the mystery of aught, unless it be the 
mystery of iniquity : according to that which Pareeus 
cites out of Chrysostom, that a bad wife is a help for 
the devil, and the like may be said of a bad husband. 
Since therefore none but a fit and pious matrimony can 
signify the union of Christ and his church, there can- 
not hence be any hinderance of divorce to that wedlock 
wherein there can be no good mystery. Rather it might 
to a christian conscience be matter of finding itself so 
much less satisfied than before, in the continuance of 
an unhappy yoke, wherein there can be no representa- 
tion either of Christ, or of his church. 

Thus having inquired the institution how it was in 
the beginning, both from the 1 chap, of Gen. where it 
was only mentioned in part, and from the second, where 
it was plainly and evidently instituted ; and having 
attended each clause and word necessary with a dili- 
gence not drowsy, we shall now fix with some advan- 
tage, and by a short view backward gather up the 
ground we have gone, and sum up the strength we 
have, into one argumentative head, with that organic 
force that logic proffers us. All arts acknowledge, that 
then only we know certainly, when we can define ; for 
definition is that which refines the pure essence of things 
from the circumstance. If therefore we can attain in 
this our controversy to define exactly what marriage is, 
we shall soon learn when there is a nullity thereof, and 
when a divorce. 



The part therefore of this chapter, which hath been 
here treated, doth orderly and readily resolve itself into 
a definition of marriage, and a consectary from thence. 
To the definition these words chiefly contribute ; " It is 
not good," &c. " I will make," &c. Where the con- 
sectary begins this connection, " Therefore" informs 
us, " Therefore shall a man," &c. Definition is decreed 
by logicians to consist only of causes constituting the 
essence of a thing. What is not therefore among the 
causes constituting marriage, must not stay in the de- 
finition. Those causes are concluded to be matter, and, 
as the artist calls it, Form. But inasmuch as the same 
thing may be a cause more ways than one, and that in 
relations and institutions which have no corporal sub- 
sistence, but only a respective being, the Form, by 
which the thing is what it is, is oft so slender and un- 
distinguishable, that it would soon confuse, were it not 
sustained by the efficient and final causes, which con- 
cur to make up the form, invalid otherwise of itself, it 
will be needful to take in all the four causes into the 
definition. First therefore the material cause of matri- 
mony is man and woman ; the author and efficient, 
God and their consent ; the internal Form and soul of 
this relation, is conjugal love arising from a mutual fit- 
ness to the final causes of wedlock, help and society in 
religious, civil, and domestic conversation, which in- 
cludes as an inferior end the fulfilling of natural desire, 
and specifical increase ; these are the final causes both 
moving the Efficient, and perfecting the Form. And 
although copulation be considered among the ends of 
marriage, yet the act thereof in a right esteem can no 
longer be matrimonial, than it is an effect of conjugal 
love. When love finds itself utterly unmatched, and 
justly vanishes, nay rather cannot but vanish, the fleshly 
act indeed may continue, but not holy, not pure, not 
beseeming the sacred bond of marriage ; being at best 
but an animal excretion, but more truly worse and 
more ignoble than that mute kindliness among the 
herds and flocks : in that proceeding as it ought from 
intellective principles, it participates of nothing rational, 
but that which the field and the fold equals. For in 
human actions the soul is the agent, the body in a 
manner passive. If then the body do out of sensitive 
force, what the soul complies not with, how can man, 
and not rather something beneath man, be thought the 
doer ? 

But to proceed in the pursuit of an accurate defini- 
tion, it will avail us something*, and whet our thoughts, 
to examine what fabric hereof others have already 
reared. Parseus on Gen. defines marriage to be " an 
indissoluble conjunction of one man and one woman to 
an individual and intimate conversation, and mutual 
benevolence," &c. Wherein is to be marked his placing 
of intimate conversation before bodily benevolence; for 
bodily is meant, though indeed " benevolence " rather 
sounds will than body. Why then shall divorce be 
granted for want of bodily performance, and not for 
want of fitness to intimate conversation, whenas cor- 
poral benevolence cannot in any human fashion be 
without this ? Thus his definition places the ends of 
marriage in one order, and esteems them in another. 



186 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



His tautology also of indissoluble and individual is not 
to be imitated ; especially since neither indissoluble 
nor individual hath aught to do in the exact definition, 
being but a conscctary flowing from thence, as appears 
by plain Scripture, " Therefore shall a man leave," &c. 
For marriage is not true marriage by being- individual, 
but therefore individual, if it be true marriage. No 
argument but causes enter the definition : a consectary 
is but the effect of those causes. Besides, that marriage 
is indissoluble, is not catholicly true; we know it dis- 
soluble for adultery and for desertion by the verdict of 
all reformed churches. Dr. Ames defines it " an indi- 
> iclual conjunction of one man and one woman, to 
communion of body and mutual society of life :" but 
this perverts the order of God, who in the institution 
places meet help and society of life before communion 
of body. And vulgar estimation undervalues beyond 
comparison all society of life and communion of mind 
beneath the communion of body; granting no divorce, 
but to the want, or miscommunicatingof that. Hemin- 
gius, an approved author, Melancthon's scholar, and 
who, next to Bucer and Erasmus, writes of divorce 
most like a divine, thus comprises, " Marriage is a 
conjunction of one man and one woman lawfully con- 
senting, into one flesh, for mutual help's sake, ordained 
of God." And in his explanation stands punctually 
upon the conditions of consent, that it be not in any 
main matter deluded, as being the life of wedlock, and 
no true marriage without a true consent. " Into one 
flesh" he expounds into one mind, as well as one body, 
and makes it the formal cause : herein only missing, 
while he puts the effect into his definition instead of 
the cause which the text affords him. For " one flesh" 
is not the formal essence of wedlock, but one end, or 
one effect of " a meet help:" the end ofttimes being 
the effect and fruit of the form, as logic teaches: else 
many a_;ed and holy matrimonies, and more eminently 
that of Joseph and Mary, would be no true marriage. 
And that Maxim generally received, would be false, 
that " consent alone, though copulation never follow, 
makes the marriage." Therefore to consent lawfully 
into one flesh, is not the formal cause of matrimony, 
hot only our of the effects. The civil lawyers, and first 
Justinian or Tribonian defines matrimony a " conjunc- 
tion of man and woman containing individual accus- 
tom of life." Wherein first, individual is not so bad as 
indissoluble put in by others : and although much 
cavil might be made in the distinguishing between in- 
di\ isible and individual, yet the one taken for possible, 
the other for actual, neither the one nor the other can 
belong to tin essence of marriage; especially when a 
civilian defines, by which law marriage is actually 
(liver..-! for many causes, and with good leave, by 
mutual consent Therefore where "conjunction" is said, 
they who comment the Institutes agree, that conjunc- 
tion of mind i-, by the law meant, not necessarily con- 
junction of body. That law then had good reason 
attending to it. ou n definition, that divorce should be 
granted for the breaking of that conjunction which it 
holds noc. Bsary, SOOI* r than for the want of that con- 
junction whirl) it holds not necessary. And whereas 



Tuningus a famous lawyer, excuses individual as the 
purpose of marriage, not always the success, it suffices 
not. Purpose is not able to constitute the essence of a 
thing. Nature herself, the universal mother, intends 
nothing but her own perfection and preservation; yet 
is not the more indissoluble for that. The Pandects 
out of Modestiuus, though not define, yet well describe 
marriage " the conjunction of male and female, the 
society of all life, the communion of divine and human 
right:" which Bucer also imitates on the fifth to the 
Ephesians. But it seems rather to comprehend the 
several ends of marriage than to contain the more con- 
stituting cause that makes it what it is. 

That I therefore among others (for who sings not 
Hylas ?) may give as well as take matter to be judged 
on, it will be looked I should produce another defini- 
tion than these which have not stood the trial. Thus 
then I suppose that marriage by the natural and plain 
order of God's institution in the text may be more de- 
monstratively and essentially defined. " Marriage is 
a divine institution, joining man and woman in a love 
fitly disposed to the helps and comforts of domestic 
life." " A divine institution." This contains the prime 
efficient cause of marriage : as for consent of parents 
and guardians, it seems rather a concurrence than a 
cause ; for as many that marry are in their own power 
as net; and where they are not their own, yet are they 
not subjected beyond reason. Now though efficient 
causes are not requisite in a definition, yet divine in- 
stitution hath such influence upon the Form, and is so 
a conserving cause of it, that without it the Form is 
not sufficient to distinguish matrimony from other con- 
junctions of male and female, which are not to be 
counted marriage. " Joining man and woman in a 
love," &c. This brings in the parties' consent; until 
which be, the marriage hath no true being. When I 
say " consent," I mean not errour, for errour is not 
properly consent : and why should not consent be here 
understood with equity and good to either part, as in 
all other friendly covenants, and not be strained and 
cruelly urged to the mischief and destruction of both ? 
Neither do I mean that singular act of consent which 
made the contract, for that may remain, and yet the 
marriage not true nor lawful ; and that may cease, and 
yet the marriage both true and lawful, to their sin that 
break it. So that either as no efficient at all, or but a 
transitory, it comes not into the definition. That con- 
sent I mean, which is a love fitly disposed to mutual 
help and comfort of life : this is that happy Form of 
Marriage naturally arising from the very heart of di- 
vine institution in the text, in all the former definitions 
either obscurely, and under mistaken terms expressed, 
or not at all. This gives marriage all her due, all her 
benefits, all her being, all her distinct and proper being. 
This makes a marriage not a bondage, a blessing not 
curse, a gift of God not a snare. Unless there be a 
love, and that love born of fitness, how can it last? 
unless it last, how can the best and sweetest purposes 
of marriage be attained ? And they not attained, which 
are the chief ends, and with a lawful love constitute 
the formal cause itself of marriage, how can the essence 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



187 



thereof subsist? How can it be indeed what it goes for? 
Conclude therefore by all the power of reason, that 
where this essence of marriage is not, there can be no 
true marriage ; and the parties, either one of them or 
both, are free, and without fault, rather by a nullity 
than by a divorce, may betake them to a second choice, 
if their present condition be not tolerable to them. If 
any shall ask, why " domestic" in the definition ? I 

I answer, that because both in the Scriptures, and in the 
gravest poets and philosophers, I find the properties 
and excellencies of a wife set out only from domestic 
virtues ; if they extend further, it diffuses them into 
the notion of some more common duty than matrimo- 
nial. 

Thus far of the definition ; the consectary which 
flows from thence, altogether depends thereon, is ma- 
nifestly brought in by this connexive particle " there- 
fore ;" and branches itself into a double consequence ; 
First, individual society, "therefore shall a man leave 
father and mother :" Secondly, conjugal benevolence, 
" and they shall be one flesh." Which, as was shewn, 
is not without cause here mentioned, to prevent and to 
abolish the suspect of pollution in that natural and un- 
defiled act. These consequences therefore cannot either 
in religion, law, or reason, be bound, and posted upon 
mankind to his sorrow and misery, but receive what 
force they have from the meetness of help and solace, 
which is the formal cause and end of that definition 
that sustains them. And although it be not for the 
majesty of Scripture, to humble herself in artificial the- 
orems, and definitions, and corollaries, like a professor 
in the schools, but looks to be analysed, and interpreted 
by the logical industry of her disciples and followers, 
and to be reduced by them, as oft as need is, into those 
sciential rules, which are the implements of instruc- 
tion; yet Moses, as if foreseeing the miserable work 
that man's ignorance and pusillanimity would make in 
this matrimonious business, and endeavouring his ut- 
most to prevent it, condescends in this place to such a 
methodical and schoollike way of defining and conse- 
quencing, as in no place of the whole law more. 

Thus we have seen, and, if we be not contentious, 
may know what was marriage in the beginning, to 
which in the gospel we are referred ; and what from 
hence to judge of nullity, or divorce. Here I esteem 
the work done ; in this field the controversy decided ; 
but because other places of Scripture seem to look 
aversely upon this our decision, (although indeed they 
keep all harmony with it,) and because it is a better 
work to reconcile the seeming diversities of Scripture, 
than the real dissensions of nearest friends; I shall 
assay in the three following discourses to perform that 
office. 

Deut. xxiv. 1, 2. 

1. " When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, 
and it come to pass that she find no favour in his 

^eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in 
her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement, 
and give it in her hand, and send her out of his 
house. 



2. And when she is departed out of his house, she may 
go and be another man's wife." 

That which is the only discommodity of speaking in 
a clear matter, the abundance of argument that presses 
to be uttered, and the suspense of judgment what to 
choose, and how in the multitude of reason to be not 
tedious, is the greatest difficulty which I expect here 
to meet with. Yet much hath been said formerly 
concerning this law in " the Doctrine of Divorce." 
Whereof I shall repeat no more than what is necessary. 
Two things are here doubted : First, and that but of 
late, whether this be a law or no; next, what this 
reason of " uncleanness" might mean, for which the 
law is granted. That it is a plain law no man ever 
questioned, till Vatablus within these hundred years 
professed Hebrew at Paris, a man of no religion, as 
Beza deciphers him. Yet some there be who follow 
him, not only against the current of all antiquity both 
Jewish and Christian, but the evidence of Scripture 
also, Malachi ii. 16, " Let him who hateth put away, 
saith the Lord God of Israel." Although this place 
also hath been tampered with, as if it were to be thus 
rendered, " The Lord God saith, that he hateth putting 
away." But this new interpretation rests only in the 
authority of Junius : for neither Calvin, nor Vatablus 
himself, nor any other known divine so interpreted 
before. And they of best note who have translated the 
Scripture since, and Diodati for one, follow not his 
reading. And perhaps they might reject it, if for no- 
thing else, for these two reasons: first, it introduces in 
a new manner the person of God speaking less majestic 
than he is ever wont : when God speaks by his prophet, 
he ever speaks in the first person, thereby signifying 
his majesty and omnipresence. He would have said, 
I hate putting away, saith the Lord; and not sent word 
by Malachi in a sudden fallen style, " The Lord God 
saith, that he hateth putting away :" that were a phrase 
to shrink the glorious omnipresence of God speaking, 
into a kind of circumscriptive absence. And were as 
if a herald, in the achievement of a king, should com- 
mit the indecorum to set his helmet sideways and close, 
not full-faced and open in the posture of direction and 
command. We cannot think therefore that this last 
prophet would thus in a new fashion absent the person 
of God from his own words, as if he came not along 
with them. For it would also be wide from the proper 
scope of this place ; he that reads attentively will soon 
perceive, that God blames not here the Jews for putting 
away their wives, but for keeping strange concubines, 
to the " profaning of Juda's holiness," and the vexation 
of their Hebrew wives, v. 11, and 14, " Judah hath 
married the daughter of a strange god :" and exhorts 
them rather to put their wives away whom they hate, 
as the law permitted, than to keep them under such 
affronts. And it is received, that this prophet lived in 
those times of Ezra and Nehemiah, (nay by some is 
thought to be Ezra himself,) when the people were 
forced by these two worthies to put their strange wives 
away. So that what the story of those times, and the 
plain context of the eleventh verse, from whence this 



188 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



rebuke begins, can give us to conjecture of the obscure 
and curt Ebraisms that follow ; this prophet does not 
forbid putting away, but forbids keeping, and com- 
mands putting away according to God's law, which 
is the plainest interpreter both of what God will, 
and what he can best suffer. Thus much evinces, 
that God there commanded divorce by Malachi ; and 
this confirms, that he commands it also here by 
Moses. 

I may the less doubt to mention by the way an au- 
thor, though counted apocryphal, yet of no small ac- 
count for piety and wisdom, the author of Ecclesiasti- 
cus. Which book, begun by the grandfather of that 
Jesus, who is called the son of Siracb,mig-ht have been 
written in part, not much after the time when Mala- 
chi lived ; if we compute by the reign of Ptolemaeus 
Euergetes. It professes to explain the law and the 
prophets ; and yet exhorts us to divorce for incurable 
causes, and to cut oft* from the flesh those whom it there 
describes, Ecclesiastic, xxv. 26. Which doubtless 
that wise and ancient writer would never have advised, 
had either Malachi so lately forbidden it, or the law by 
a full precept not left it lawful. But I urge not this 
for want of better proof; our Saviour himself allows 
divorce to be a command, Mark x. 3, 5. Neither do 
they weaken this assertion, who say it was only a suf- 
ferance, as shall be proved at large in that place of' 
Mark. But suppose it were not a written law, they 
never can deny it was a custom, and so effect nothing. 
For the same reasons that induce them why it should 
not be a law, will straiten them as hard why it should 
be allowed a custom. All custom is either evil, or not 
evil; if it be evil, this is the very end of lawgiving, to 
abolish evil customs by wholesome laws ; unless we 
imagine Moses weaker than every negligent and start- 
ling politician. If it be, as they make this of divorce 
to be, a custom against nature, against justice, against 
charity, how, upon this most impure custom tolerated, 
could the God of pureness erect a nice and precise law, 
that the wife married after divorce could not return to 
her former husband, as being defiled ? What was all 
this following niceness worth, built upon the lewd 
foundation of a wicked thing allowed ? In few words 
then, this custom of divorce either was allowable, or 
not allowable ; if not allowable, how could it be al- 
lowed ? if it were allowable, all who understand law 
will consent, that a tolerated custom hath the force of 
a law, and is indeed no other but an unwritten law, as 
Justinian calls it, and is as prevalent as any written 
statute. So that their shift of turning this law into a 
custom wheels about, and gives the onset upon their 
own flanks; not disproving, but concluding it to be 
tlj<- more firm law, because it was without controversy 
a granted custom ; as clear in the reason of common 
life, as those given rules whereon Euclides builds his 
propositions. 

Thus being every way a law of God, who can with- 
out blasphemy doubt it to be a just and pure law? 
Moses continually disavows the giving them any sta- 
tute, or judgment, but what he learnt of God ; of whom 
also in his song he saith, Deut. xxxii. " He is the rock, 



his work is perfect, all his ways are judgment, a God 
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." 
And David testifies, the judgments of the Lord " are 
true and righteous altogether." Not partly right and 
partly wrong, much less wrong altogether, as divines 
of now-a-days dare censure them. Moses again, of 
that people to whom he gave this law, saith, Deut. xiv. 
" Ye are the children of the Lord your God, the Lord 
hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself 
above all the nations upon the earth, that thou shouldst 
keep all his commandments, and be high in praise, in 
name, and in honour, holy to the Lord !" chap. xxvi. 
And in the fourth, " Behold I have taught you statutes 
and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded 
me, keep therefore and do them. For this is your wis- 
dom and your understanding in the sight of nations 
that shall hear all these statutes, and say, surely this 
great nation is a wise and understanding people. For 
what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh to 
them? and what nation that hath statutes and judg- 
ments so righteous as all this law which I set before 
you this day ?" Thus whether we look at the purity 
and justice of God himself, the jealousy of his honour 
among other nations, the holiness and moral perfection 
which he intended by his law to teach this people, we 
cannot possibly think how he could endure to let them 
slug and grow inveterately wicked, under base allow- 
ances, and whole adulterous lives by dispensation. 
They might not eat, they might not touch an unclean 
thing ; to what hypocrisy then were they trained up, if 
by prescription of the same law, they might be unjust, 
they might be adulterous for term of life ? forbid to soil 
theirgarments with a coy imaginary pollution, but not 
forbid, but countenanced and animated by law, to soil 
their souls with deepest defilements. What more un- 
like to God, what more like that God should hate, than 
that his law should be so curious to wash vessels and 
vestures, and so careless to leave unwashed, unregard- 
ed, so foul a scab of Egypt in their souls ? What would 
we more ? The statutes of the Lord are all pure and 
just: and if all, then this of divorce. 

" Because he hath found some uncleanness in her."] 
That we may not esteem this law to be a mere autho- 
rizing of licence, as the Pharisees took it, Moses adds the 
reason, for " some uncleanness found." Some heretofore 
have been so ignorant, as to have thought, that this un- 
cleanness means adultery. But Erasmus, who, for having* 
writ an excellent treatise of divorce, was wrote against 
by some burly standard divine, perhaps of Cullen, or of 
Lovain, who calls himself Phimostomus, shews learn- 
edly out of the fathers, with other testimonies and 
reasons, that uncleanness is not here so understood ; 
defends his former work, though new to that age, and 
perhaps counted licentious, and fears not to engage all 
his fame on the argument. Afterward, when exposi- 
tors began to understand the Hebrew text, which they 
had not done of many ages before, they translated word 
for word not " uncleanness," but " the nakedness of 
any thing;" and considering that nakedness is usually 
referred in Scripture to the mind as well as to the body, 
they constantly expound it any defect, annoyance, or 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



189 



ill quality in nature, which to be joined with, makes 
life tedious, and such company worse than solitude. 
So that here will be no cause to vary from the general 
consent of exposition, which gives us freely that God 
permitted divorce, for whatever was unalterably dis- 
tasteful, whether in body or mind. But with this ad- 
monishment, that if the Roman law, especially in con- 
tracts and dowries, left many things to equity with 
these cautions, " ex fide bona, quod sequius melius erit, 
ut inter bonos bene agitur;" we will not grudge to 
think, that God intended not licence here to every hu- 
mour, but to such remediless grievances as might move 
a good and honest and faithful man then to divorce, 
when it can no more be peace or comfort to either of 
them continuing thus joined. And although it could 
not be avoided, but that men of hard hearts would abuse 
this liberty, yet doubtless it was intended, as all other 
privileges in law are, to good men principally, to bad 
only by accident. So that the sin was not in the per- 
mission, nor simply in the action of divorce, (for then 
the permitting also had been sin,) but only in the abuse. 
But that this law should, as it were, be wrung from 
God and Moses, only to serve the hardheartedness, and 
the lust of injurious men, how remote it is from all 
sense, and law, and honesty, and therefore surely from 
the meaning of Christ, shall abundantly be manifest 
in due order. 

Now although Moses needed not to add other reason 
of this law than that one there expressed, yet to these 
ages wherein canons, and Scotisms, and Lombard laws, 
have dulled, and almost obliterated the lively sculpture 
of ancient reason and humanity ; it will be requisite to 
heap reason upon reason, and all little enough to vin- 
dicate the whiteness and the innocence of this divine 
law, from the calumny it finds at this day, of being a 
door to licence and confusion. Whenas indeed there is 
not a judicial point in all Moses, consisting of more 
true equity, high wisdom, and godlike pity than this 
law ; not derogating, but preserving the honour and 
peace of marriage, and exactly agreeing with the sense 
and mind of that institution in Genesis. 

For, first, if marriage be but an ordained relation, as 
it seems not more, it cannot take place above the prime 
dictates of nature : and if it be of natural right, yet it 
must yield to that which is more natural, and before it 
by eldership and precedence in nature. Now it is not 
natural, that Hugh marries Beatrice, or Thomas Re- 
becca, being only a civil contract, and full of many 
chances ; but that these men seek them meet helps, 
that only is natural ; and that they espouse them such, 
that only is marriage. But if they find them neither 
fit helps nor tolerable society, what thing more natural, 
more original, and first in nature, than to depart from 
that which is irksome, grievous, actively hateful, and 
injurious even to hostility, especially in a conjugal re- 
spect, wherein antipathies are invincible, and where 
the forced abiding of the one can be no true good, no 
real comfort to the other? For if he find no content- 
ment from the other, how can he return it from himself? 
or no acceptance, how can he mutually accept ? What 
more equal, more pious, than to untie a civil knot for a 



natural enmity held by violence from parting, to dis- 
solve an accidental conjunction of this or that man and 
woman, for the most natural and most necessary dis- 
agreement of meet from unmeet, guilty from guiltless, 
contrary from contrary ? It being certain, that the 
mystical and blessed unity of marriage can be no way 
more unhallowed and profaned, than by the forcible 
uniting of such disunions and separations. Which if 
we see ofttimes they cannot join or piece up a common 
friendship, or to a willing conversation in the same 
house, how should they possibly agree to the most fa- 
miliar and united amity of wedlock ? Abraham and 
Lot, though dear friends and brethren in a strange 
country, chose rather to part asunder, than to infect 
their friendship with the strife of their servants : Paul 
and Barnabas, joined together by the Holy Ghost to a 
spiritual work, thought it better to separate, when once 
they grew at variance. If these great saints, joined 
by nature, friendship, religion, high providence, and 
revelation, could not so govern a casual difference, a 
sudden passion, but must in wisdom divide from the 
outward duties of a friendship, or a colleagueship in 
the same family, or in the same journey, lest it should 
grow to a worse division ; can any thing be more ab- 
surd and barbarous, than that they whom only errour, 
casualty, art, or plot, hath joined, should be compelled, 
not against a sudden passion, but against the perma- 
nent and radical discords of nature, to the most inti- 
mate and incorporating duties of love and embrace- 
ment, therein only rational and human, as they are free 
and voluntary^ being else an abject and servile yoke, 
scarce not brutish ? and that there is in man such a 
peculiar sway of liking or disliking in the affairs of 
matrimony, is evidently seen before marriage among 
those who can be friendly, can respect each other, yet 
to marry each other would not for any persuasion. If 
then this unfitness and disparity be not till after mar- 
riage discovered, through many causes, and colours,, 
and concealments, that may overshadow ; undoubtedly 
it will produce the same effects, and perhaps with more 
vehemence, that such a mistaken pair would give the 
world to be unmarried again. And their condition 
Solomon to the plain justification of divorce expresses, 
Prov. xxx. 21, 23, where he tells us of his own accord, 
that a '• hated, or a hateful woman, when she is mar- 
ried, is a thing* for which the earth is disquieted, and 
cannot bear it :" thus giving divine testimony to this 
divine law, which bids us nothing - more than is the 
first and most innocent lesson of nature, to turn away 
peaceably from what afflicts, and hazards our destruc- 
tion ; especially when our staying can do no good, and 
is exposed to all evil. 

Secondly, It is unjust that any ordinance, ordained 
to the g*ood and comfort of man, where that end is 
missing, without his fault, should be forced upon him 
to an unsufferable misery and discomfort, if not com- 
monly ruin. All ordinances are established in their 
end ; the end of law is the virtue, is the righteousness 
of law : and therefore him we count an ill expounder, 
who urges law against the intention thereof. The 
general end of every ordinance, of every severest, every 



190 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



divinest, even of Sabbath, is the good of man ; yea his 
temporal good not excluded. But marriage is one of 
the benignest ordinances of God to man, whereof both 
the general and particular end is the peace and con- 
tentment of man's mind, as the institution declares. 
Contentment of body they grant, which if it be de- 
frauded, the pica of frigidity shall divorce: but here 
lies the fathomless absurdity, that granting this for 
bodily defect, they will not grant it for any defect of 
the mind, any violation of religious or civil society. 
Wbenas, if (he argument of Christ be firm against the 
ruler of the synagogue, Luke xiii. " Thou hypocrite, 
doth not each of you on the Sabbath-day loosen his ox 
or his ass from the stall, and lead him to watering, and 
should not I unbind a daughter of Abraham from this 
bond of Satan ?" it stands as good here ; ye have re- 
gard in marriage to the grievance of body, should you 
not regard more the grievances of the mind, seeing the 
soul as much excels the body, as the outward man ex- 
cels the ass, and more ? for that animal is yet a living 
creature, perfect in itself; but the body without the 
soul is a mere senseless trunk. No ordinance there- 
fore, given particularly to the good both spiritual and 
temporal of man, can be urged upon him to his mis- 
chief; and if they yield this to the unworthier part, 
the body, whereabout are they in their principles, that 
they yield it not to the more worthy, the mind of a 
good man ? 

Thirdly, As no ordinance, so no covenant, no not 
between God and man, much less between man and 
man, being, as all are, intended to the good of both 
parties, can hold to the deluding or making miserable 
of them both. For equity is understood in every cove- 
nant, even between enemies, though the terms be not 
expressed. If equity therefore made it, extremity may 
dissolve it. But marriage, they used to say, is the 
covenant of God. Undoubted : and so if any covenant 
frequently called in Scripture, wherein God is called 
to witness : the covenant of friendship between David 
and Jonathan is called the covenant of the Lord, 1 Sam. 
xx. The covenant of Zedekiah with the king of Ba- 
bel, a covenant to be doubted whether lawful or no, 
yet, in respect of God invoked thereto, is called " the 
oath, and the covenant of God," Ezek. xvii. Marriage 
also is called " the covenant of God," Prov. ii. 17. 
Why, hut as before, because God is the witness thereof, 
Mai. ii. 14. So that this denomination adds nothing 
to the covenant of marriage, above any other civil and 
solemn contract: nor is it more indissoluble for this 
n ason than any other against the end of its own ordi- 
nation ; nor is any vow or oath to God exacted with 
BOCD a rigour, where superstition reigns not. For look 
bow much divine the covenant is, so much the more 
equal, lo much the more to be expected that every 
arti I- thereof should he fairly made good; no false 
dealing or Dnperforming should be thrust upon men 
without redress, if the covenant be so divine. But 
faith, thej say, must be kept in covenant, though to 
our damage. [ answer, that only holds true, where the 
other side performs; which failing, he is no longer 
ho, iiid. Again, this i> (rue, when the keeping of faith 



can be of any use or benefit to the other. But in mar- 
riage, a league of love and willingness, if faith be not 
willingly kept, it scarce is worth the keeping ; nor can 
be any delight to a generous mind, with whom it is 
forcibly kept : and the question still supposes the one 
brought to an impossibility of keeping it as he ought, 
by the other's default ; and to keep it formally, not only 
with a thousand shifts and dissimulations, but with open 
anguish, perpetual sadness and disturbance, no willing- 
ness, no cheerfulness, no contentment; cannot be any 
good to a mind not basely poor and shallow, with 
whom the contract of love is so kept. A covenant 
therefore brought to that pass, is on the unfaulty side 
without injury dissolved. 

Fourthly, The law is not to neglect men uuder 
greatest sufferances, but to see covenants of greatest 
moment faithfullest performed. And what injury com- 
parable to that sustained in a frustrate and false-deal- 
ing marriag*e, to lose, for another's fault against him, 
the best portion of his temporal comforts, and of his 
spiritual too, as it may fall out ? It was the law, that 
for man's good and quiet reduced things to propriety, 
which were at first in common ; how much more law r - 
like were it to assist nature in disappropriating that 
evil, which by continuing proper becomes destructive? 
But he might have bewared. So he might in any 
other covenant, wherein the law does not constrain 
errour to so dear a forfeit. And yet in these matters 
wherein the wisest are apt to err, all the wariness that 
can be ofttimes nothing avails. But the law can com- 
pel the offending party to be more duteous. Yes, if all 
these kind of offences were fit in public to be complained 
of, or being compelled were any satisfaction to a mate 
not sottish, or malicious. And these injuries work so 
vehemently, that if the law remedy them not, by sepa- 
rating the cause when no way else will pacify, the 
person not relieved betakes him either to such disorderly 
courses, or to such a dull dejection, as renders him 
either infamous, or useless to the service of God and his 
country. Which the law ought to prevent as a thing 
pernicious to the commonwealth ; and what better pre- 
vention than this which Moses used ? 

Fifthly, The law is to tender the liberty and the hu- 
man dignity of them that live under the law, whether 
it be the man's right above the woman, or the woman's 
just appeal against wrong and servitude. But the du- 
ties of marriage contain in them a duty of benevolence, 
which to do by compulsion against the soul, where 
there can be neither peace, nor joy, nor love, but an 
enthralment to one who either cannot or will not be 
mutual in the g-odliest and the civilest ends of that 
society, is the ignoblest and the lowest slavery that a 
human shape can be put to. This law therefore justly 
and piously provides against such an unmanly task of 
bondage as this. The civil law, though it favoured 
the setting free of a slave, yet, if he proved ungrateful 
to his patron, reduced him to a servile condition. If 
that law did well to reduce from liberty to bondage 
for an ingratitude not the greatest, much more became 
it the law of God, to enact the restorement of a free- 
born man from an unpurposed and unworthy bondage 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE, 



191 



to a rightful liberty, for the most unnatural fraud and 
ingratitude that can be committed against him. And 
if that civilian emperor, in his title of " Donations," 
permit the giver to recall his gift from him who proves 
unthankful towards him ; yea, though he had sub- 
scribed and signed in the deed of his gift not to recall 
f it, though for this very cause of ingratitude ; with much 
more equity doth Moses permit here the giver to recall 

I no petty gift, but the gift of himself, from one who 
most injuriously and deceitfully uses him against the 
main ends and conditions of his giving himself, ex- 
pressed in God's institution. 

Sixthly, Although there be nothing in the plain 
words of this law, tbat seems to regard the afflictions 
of a wife, how great soever ; yet expositors determine, 
and doubtless determine rightly, that God was not un- 
compassionate of them also in the framing of this law. 
For should the rescript of Antoninus in the civil law 
give release to servants flying for refuge to the empe- 
ror's statue, by giving leave to change their cruel 
masters ; and should God, who in his law also is good 
to injured servants, by granting them their freedom 
in divers cases, not consider the wrongs and miseries 
of a wife, which is no servant? Though herein the 
countersense of our divines to me, I must confess, 
seems admirable ; who teach that God gave this as a 
merciful law, not for man whom he here names, and 
to whom by name he gives this power ; but for the 
wife, whom he names not, and to whom by name he 
gives no power at all. For certainly if man be liable 
to injuries in marriage, as well as woman, and man 
be the worthier person, it were a preposterous law to 
respect only the less worthy; her whom God made 
for marriage, and not him at all for whom marriage 
was made. 

Seventhly, The law of marriage gives place to the 
power of parents : for we hold, that consent of parents 
not had may break the wedlock, though else accom- 
plished. It gives place to masterly power, for the 
master might take away from a Hebrew servant the 
wife which he gave him, Exod. xxi. If it be an- 
swered, that the marriage of servants is no matrimony; 
it is replied, that this in the ancient Roman law is 
true, not in the Mosaic. If it be added, she was a stran- 
ger, not a Hebrew, therefore easily divorced ; it will be 
answered, that strangers not being Canaanites, and 
they also being converts, might be lawfully married, 
as Rahab was. And her conversion is here supposed ; 
for a Hebrew master could not lawfully give a heathen 
wife to a Hebrew servant. However, the divorcing of 
an Israelitish woman was as easy by the law, as the 
divorcing of a stranger, and almost in the same words 
permitted, Deut. xxiv. and Deut. xxi. Lastly, it gives 
place to the right of war, for a captive woman lawfully 
married, and afterwards not beloved, might be dis- 
missed, only without ransom, Deut. xxi. If marriage 
be dissolved by so many exterior powers, not superior, 
as we think, why may not the power of marriage itself, 
for its own peace and honour, dissolve itself, where the 
persons wedded be free persons? Why may not a 
greater and more natural power complaining dissolve 



marriage? For the ends, why matrimony was or- 
dained, are certainly and by all logic above the ordi- 
nance itself ; why may not that dissolve marriage, 
without which that institution hath no force at all ? 
For the prime ends of marriage are the whole strength 
and validity thereof, without which matrimony is like 
an idol, nothing in the world. But those former al- 
lowances were all for hardness of heart. Be that 
granted, until we come where to understand it better ; 
if the law suffer thus far the obstinacy of a bad man, is 
it not more righteous here, to do willingly what is but 
equal, to remove in season the extremities of a good 
man ? 

Eighthly, If a man had deflowered a virgin, or 
brought an ill name on his wife, that she came not a 
virgin to him, he was amerced in certain shekels of 
silver, and bound never to divorce her all his days, 
Deut. xxii. which shews that the law gave no liberty 
to divorce, where the injury was palpable; and that 
the absolute forbidding' to divorce was in part the 
punishment of a deflowerer, and a defamer. Yet not 
so but that the wife questionless might depart when 
she pleased. Otherwise this course had not so much 
righted her, as delivered her up to more spite and 
cruel usage. This law therefore doth justly distin- 
guish the privilege of an honest and blameless man in 
the matter of divorce, from the punishment of a noto- 
rious offender. 

Ninthly, Suppose it should be imputed to a man, 
that he was too rash in his choice, and why he took not 
better heed, let him now smart, and bear his folly as 
he may ; although the law of God, that terrible law, 
do not thus upbraid the infirmities and unwilling mis- 
takes of man in his integrity : but suppose these and 
the like proud aggravations of some stern hypocrite, 
more merciless in his mercies, than any literal law in 
the rigour of severity, must be patiently heard ; yet all 
law, and God's law especially, grants every where to 
errour easy remitments, even where the utmost penalty 
exacted were no undoing. With great reason there- 
fore and mercy doth it here not torment an errour, if it 
be so, with the endurance of a whole life lost to all 
household comfort and society, a punishment of too 
vast and huge dimension for an errour, and the more 
unreasonable for that the like objection may be op- 
posed against the plea of divorcing for adultery : he 
might have looked better before to her breeding under 
religious parents : why did he not more diligently in- 
quire into her manners, into what company she kept ? 
every glance of her eye, every step of her gait, would 
have prophesied adultery, if the quick scent of these 
discerners had been took along ; they had the divina- 
tion to have foretold you all this, as they have now the 
divinity to punish an errour inhumanly. As good rea- 
son to be content, and forced to be content with your 
adulteress, if these objectors might be the judges of 
human frailty. But God, more mild and good to man, 
than man to his brother, in all this liberty given to 
divorcement, mentions not a word of our past errours 
and mistakes, if any were ; which these men objecting 
from their own inventions, prosecute with all violence 



192 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



and iniquity. For if the one be to look so narrowly 
what he takes, at the peril of ever keeping 1 , why should 
not the other be made as wary what is promised, by 
the peril of losing ? for without those promises the 
treaty of marriage had not proceeded. Why should 
his own arrow bind him, rather than the other's fraud 
acquit him ? Let the buyer beware, saith the old law- 
beaten termer. Belike then there is no more honesty, 
nor ingenuity in the bargain of a wedlock, than in the 
baying of a colt : we must it seems drive it on as craft- 
ily with those whose affinity we seek, as if they were a 
pack of salemen and complotters. But the deceiver de- 
ceives himself in the unprosperous marriag-e, and there- 
in is sufficiently punished. I answer, that the most of 
those who deceive are such as either understand not, 
or value not the true purposes of marriag-e ; they have 
the prey they seek, not the punishment : yet say it 
prove to them some cross, it is not equal that errour 
and fraud should be linked in the same degree of for- 
feiture, but rather that errour should be acquitted, and 
fraud bereaved his morsel, if the mistake were not on 
both sides ; for then on both sides the acquitment would 
be reasonable, if the bondage be intolerable ; which 
this law graciously determines, not unmindful of the 
wife, as was granted willingly to the common exposi- 
tors, though beyond the letter of this law, yet not be- 
yond the spirit of charity. 

Tenthly, Marriage is a solemn thing, some say a 
holy, the resemblance of Christ and his church : and 
so indeed it is where the persons are truly religious; 
and we know all sacred things, not performed sin- 
cerely as they ought, are no way acceptable to God in 
their outward formality. And that wherein it differs 
from personal duties, if they be not truly done, the 
fault is in ourselves ; but marriage to be a true and 
pious marriage is not in the single power of any per- 
son ; the essence whereof, as of all other covenants, is 
in relation to another, the making and maintaining 
causes thereof are all mutual, and must be a commu- 
nion of spiritual and temporal comforts. If then either 
of them cannot, or obstinately will not, be answerable 
in these duties, so as that the other can have no peace- 
ful living, or endure the want of what he justly seeks, 
and sees no hope, then straight from that dwelling, 
love, which is the soul of wedlock, takes his flight, 
leaving only some cold performances of civil and com- 
mon respects ; but the true bond of marriage, if there 
were ever any there, is already burst like a rotten thread. 
Then follows dissimulation, suspicion, false colours, 
fake pretences, and worse than these, disturbance, an- 
noyance, vexation, sorrow, temptation even in the 
faultless person, weary of himself, and of all actions 
public or domestic ; then comes disorder, neglect, 
hatred, and perpetual strife; all these the enemies of 
holiness and Christianity, and every one persisted in, a 
remediless violation of matrimony. Therefore God, 
who hates all feigning and formality, where there 
should ),<; all faith and sincereness, and abhors the in- 
evitable discord, where there should be greater concord ; 
when through another's default faith and concord can- 
not be, counts it neither just to punish the innocent 



with the transgressor, nor holy, nor honourable for the 
sanctity of marriage, that should be the union of peace 
and love, to be made the commitment and close fight 
of enmity and hate. And therefore doth in this law 
what best agrees with his goodness, loosening a sacred 
thing to peace and charity, rather than binding it to 
hatred and contention ; loosening only the outward and 
formal tie of that which is already inwardly and really 
broken, or else was really never joined. 

Eleventhly, One of the chief matrimonial ends is 
said to seek a holy seed ; but where an unfit marriage 
administers continual cause of hatred and distemper, 
there, as was heard before, cannot choose but much 
unholiness abide. Nothing more unhallows a man, 
more unprepares him to the service of God in any duty, 
than a habit of wrath and perturbation, arising from 
the importunity of troublous causes never absent. And 
where the household stands in this plight, what love 
can there be to the unfortunate issue, what care of 
their breeding, which is of main conducement to their 
being holy ? God therefore, knowing how unhappy it 
would be for children to be born in such a family, gives 
this law as a prevention, that, being an unhappy pair, 
they should not add to be unhappy parents, or else as 
a remedy that if there be children, while they are few- 
est, they may follow either parent, as shall be agreed, 
or judged, from the house of hatred and discord to a 
place of more holy and peaceable education. 

Twelfthly, All law is available to some good end, 
but the final prohibition of divorce avails to no g-ood 
end, causing only the endless aggravation of evil, and 
therefore this permission of divorce was given to the 
Jews by the wisdom and fatherly providence of God ; 
who knew that law cannot command love, without 
which matrimony hath no true being, no good, no 
solace, nothing of God's instituting, nothing but so 
sordid and so low, as to be disdained of any generous 
person. Law cannot enable natural inability either of 
body, or mind, which gives the grievance ; it cannot 
make equal those inequalities, it cannot make fit those 
unfitnesses; and where there is malice more than de- 
fect of nature, it cannot hinder ten thousand injuries, 
and bitter actions of despight, too subtle and too unap- 
parent for law to deal with. And while it seeks to 
remedy more outward wrongs, it exposes the injured 
person to other more inward and more cutting. All 
these evils unavoidably will redound upon the children, 
if any be, and upon the whole family. It degenerates 
and disorders the best spirits, leaves them to unsettled 
imaginations, and degraded hopes, careless of them- 
selves, their households, and their friends, unactive to all 
public service, dead to the commonwealth ; wherein 
they are by one mishap, and no willing trespass of 
theirs, outlawed from all the benefits and comforts of 
married life and posterity. It confers as little to the 
honour and inviolable keeping of matrimony, but sooner 
stirs up temptations and occasions to secret adulteries 
and unchaste roving. But it maintains public honesty. 
Public folly rather; who shall judge of public honesty? 
The law of God and of ancientest Christians, and all 
civil nations ; or the illegitimate law of monks and 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



193 



canonists, the most malevolent, most unexperienced, 
most incompetent judges of matrimony? 

These reasons, and many more that might be alleged, 
afford us plainly to perceive both what good cause this 
law had to do for good men in mischances, and what 
necessity it had to suffer accidentally the hardhearted- 
ness of bad men, which it could not certainly discover, 
or discovering could not subdue, no nor endeavour to 
restrain without multiplying sorrow to them, for whom 
all was endeavoured. The guiltless therefore were not 
deprived their needful redresses, and the hard hearts of 
others, unchastisable in those judicial courts, were so 
remitted there, as bound over to the higher session of 
conscience. 

Notwithstanding all this, there is a loud exception 
against this law of God, nor can the holy Author save 
his law from this exception, that it opens a door to all 
licence and confusion. But this is the rudest, I was 
almost saying the most graceless objection, and with 
the least reverence to God and Moses, that could be 
devised : this is to cite God before man's tribunal, to 
arrogate a wisdom and holiness above him. Did not 
God then foresee what event of licence or confusion 
could follow ? Did not he know how to ponder these 
abuses with more prevailing respects, in the most even 
balance of his justice and pureness, till these correctors 
came up to shew him better ? The law is, if it stir up 
sin any way, to stir it up by forbidding, as one con- 
trary excites another, Rom. vii. ; but if it once come to 
provoke sin, by granting licence to sin, according to 
laws that have no other honest end, but only to permit 
the fulfilling of obstinate lust, how is God not made 
the contradicter of himself? No man denies, that best 
things may be abused ; but it is a rule resulting from 
many pregnant experiences, that what doth most harm 
in the abusing', used rightly doth most good. And 
such a good to take away from honest men, for being 
abused by such as abuse all things, is the greatest 
abuse of all. That the whole law is no further useful, 
than as a man uses it lawfully, St. Paul teaches, 1 Tim. 
i. And that christian liberty may be used for an oc- 
casion to the flesh, the same apostle confesses, Gal. v. ; 
yet thinks not of removing it for that, but bids us rather 
" stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath freed 
us, and not be held again in the yoke of bondage." 
The very pei mission, which Christ gave to divorce for 
adultery, may be foully abused, by any whose hard- 
ness of heart can either feign adultery, or dares com- 
mit, that he may divorce. And for this cause the pope, 
and hitherto the church of England, forbid all divorce 
from the bond of marriage, though for openest adultery. 
If then it be righteous to hinder, for the fear of abuse, 
that which God's law, notwithstanding that caution, 
hath warranted to be done, doth not our righteousness 
come short of Antichrist ? or do we not rather herein 
conform ourselves to his unrighteousness in this undue 
and unwise fear ? For God regards more to relieve by 
this law the just complaints of good men, than to curb 
the licence of wicked men, to the crushing withal, and 
the overwhelming of his afflicted servants. He loves 
more that his law should look with pity upon the diffi- 



culties of his own, than with rigour upon the bound- 
less riots of them who serve another master, and, hin- 
dered here by strictness, will break another way to 
worse enormities. If this law therefore have many 
good reasons for which God gave it, and no intention 
of giving scope to lewdness, but as abuse by accident 
comes in with every good law, and every good thing ; 
it cannot be wisdom in us, while we can content us 
with God's wisdom, nor can be purity, if his purity 
will suffice us, to except against this law, as if it fostered 
licence. But if they affirm this law had no other end, 
but to permit obdurate lust, because it would be ob- 
durate, making the law of God intentionally to pro- 
claim and enact sin lawful, as if the will of God were 
become sinful, or sin stronger than his direct and law- 
giving will; the men would be admonished to look 
well to it, that while they are so eager to shut the door 
against licence, they do not open a worse door to blas- 
phemy. And yet they shall be here further shewn 
their iniquity : what more foul common sin among us 
than drunkenness ? And who can be ignorant, that if 
the importation of wine, and the use of all strong 
drink, were forbid, it would both clean rid the possi- 
bility of committing that odious vice, and men might 
afterwards live happily and healthfully without the 
use of those intoxicating liquors ? Yet who is there, 
the severest of them all, that ever propounded to lose 
his sack, his ale, toward the certain abolishing of so 
great a sin ? who is there of them, the holiest, that less 
loves his rich canary at meals, though it be fetched 
from places that hazard the religion of them who fetch 
it, and though it make his neighbour drunk out of the 
same tun ? While they forbid not therefore the use of 
that liquid merchandise, which forbidden would ut- 
terly remove a most loathsome sin, and not impair either 
the health or the refreshment of mankind, supplied 
many other ways: why do they forbid a law of God, 
the forbidding whereof brings into excessive bondage 
ofttimes the best of men, and betters not the worse ? 
He, to remove a national vice, will not pardon his cups, 
nor think it concerns him to forbear the quaffing of that 
outlandish grape, in his unnecessary fulness, though 
other men abuse it never so much ; nor is he so abste- 
mious as to intercede with the magistrate, that all mat- 
ter of drunkenness be banished the commonwealth ; 
and yet for the fear of a less inconvenience unpardon- 
ably requires of his brethren, in their extreme necessity, 
to debar themselves the use of God's permissive law, 
though it might be their saving, and no man's endan- 
gering the more. Thus this peremptory strictness we 
may discern of what sort it is, how unequal, and how 
unj ust. 

But it will breed confusion. What confusion it 
would breed God himself took the care to prevent in 
the fourth verse of this chapter, that the divorced, being 
married to another, might not return to her former 
husband. And Justinian's law counsels the same in 
his title of" Nuptials." And what confusion else can 
there be in separation, to separate upon extreme 
urgency the religious from the irreligious, the fit from 
the unfit, the willing from the wilful, the abused from 



194 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



the abuser ? Such a separation is quite contrary to con- 
fusion. But to bind and mix together holy with 
atheist, heavenly with hellish, fitness with unfitness, 
light with darkness, antipathy with antipathy, the in- 
jured with the injurer, and force them into the most 
inward nearness of a detested union ; this doubtless is 
the most horrid, the most unnatural mixture, the great- 
est confusion that can be confused. 

Thus by this plain and Christian Talmud, vindi- 
cating the law oi" God from irreverent and unwary ex- 
positions, I trust, where it shall meet with intelligent 
perusers, some stay at least in men's thoughts will be 
obtained, to consider these many prudent and righteous 
ends of this divorcing permission : that it may have, 
for the great Author's sake, hereafter some competent 
allowance to be counted a little purer than the preroga- 
tive of a legal and public ribaldry, granted to that holy 
seed. So that from hence we shall hope to find the 
way still more open to the reconciling of those places, 
which treat this matter in the gospel. And thither now 
without interruption the course of method brings us. 



Matt. v. 31, 32. 

31. " It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his 
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement." 

32. " But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put 
away his wife," &c. 

Matt. xix. 3, 4, &c. 

3. " And the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting 
him," &c. 

" It hath been said."] What hitherto hath been spoke 
upon the law of God touching matrimony or divorce, 
he who will deny to have been argued according to 
reason and all equity of Scripture, I cannot edify how, 
or by what rule of proportion, that man's virtue calcu- 
lates, what his elements are, nor what his analytics. 
Confidently to those who have read good books, and 
to those whose reason is not an illiterate book to them- 
selves, I appeal, whether they would not confess all 
this to be the commentary of truth and justice, were it 
not for these recited words of our Saviour. And if they 
take not back that which they thus grant, nothing 
sooner might persuade them that Christ here teaches 
no new precept, and nothing sooner might direct them 
to find his meaning than to compare and measure it by 
the rules of nature and eternal righteousness, which no 
uritu n law extinguishes, and the gospel least of all. 
For what can be more opposite and disparaging to the 
com nant of love, of freedom, and of our manhood in 
grace, than to be made the yoking pedagogue of new 
Reverities, the scribe of syllables and rigid letters, not 
only grievous to the best of men, but different and 
strange from the light of reason in them, save only as 
they are fain to Wretch and distort their apprehensions, 
for fear of displeasing the verbal straitness of a text, 



which our own servile fear gives us not the leisure to 
understand aright ? If the law of Christ shall be writ- 
ten in our hearts, as was promised to the gospel, Jer. 
xxxi. how can this in the vulgar and superficial sense 
be a law of Christ, so far from being written in our 
hearts, that it injures and disallows not only the free 
dictates of nature and moral law, but of charity also 
and religion in our hearts ? Our Saviour's doctrine is, 
that the end and the fulfilling of every command is 
charity; no faith without it, no truth without it, no 
worship, no works pleasing to God but as they partake 
of charity. He himself sets us an example, breaking 
the solemnest and strictest ordinance of religious rest, 
and justified the breaking, not to cure a dying man, 
but such whose cure might without danger have been 
deferred. And wherefore needs must the sick man's 
bed be carried on that day by his appointment? And 
why were the disciples, who could not forbear on that 
day to pluck the corn, so industriously defended, but 
to shew us, that, if he preferred the slightest occasions 
of man's good before the observing of highest and 
severest ordinances, he gave us much more easy leave 
to break the intolerable yoke of a never well-joined 
wedlock for the removing of our heaviest afflictions ? 
Therefore it is, that the most of evangelic precepts are 
given us in proverbial forms, to drive us from the let- 
ter, though we love ever to be sticking there. For no 
other cause did Christ assure us that whatsoever things 
we bind, or slacken on earth, are so in heaven, but to 
signify that the christian arbitrement of charity is su- 
preme decider of all controversy, and supreme resolver 
of all Scripture, not as the pope determines for his own 
tyranny, but as the church ought to determine for its 
own true liberty. Hence Eusebius, not far from the 
beginning of his history, compares the state of Chris- 
tians to that of Noah and the patriarchs before the law. 
And this indeed was the reason why apostolic tradition 
in the ancient church was counted nigh equal to the 
written word, though it carried them at length awry, 
for want of considering that tradition was not left to 
be imposed as law, but to be a pattern of that christian 
prudence and liberty, which holy men by right assumed 
of old ; which truth was so evident, that it found en- 
trance even into the council of Trent, when the point 
of tradition came to be discussed. And Marinaro, a 
learned Carmelite, for approaching too near the true 
cause that gave esteem to tradition, that is to say, the 
difference between the Old and New Testament, the 
one punctually prescribing written law, the other 
guiding by the inward spirit, was reprehended by Car- 
dinal Pool as one that had spoken more worthy a 
German Colloquy, than a general council. I omit 
many instances, many proofs and arguments of this 
kind, which alone would compile a just volume, and 
shall content me here to have shewn briefly, that the 
great and almost only commandment of the gospel is, 
to command nothing against the good of man, and 
much more no civil command against his civil good. 
If we understand not this, we are but cracked cymbals, 
we do but tinkle, we know nothing, we do nothing, all 
J the sweat of our toilsomest obedience will but mock 






WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



195 



us. And what we suffer superstitiously returns us no 
thanks. Thus medicining our eyes, we need not doubt 
to see more into the meaning' of these our Saviour's 
words, than many who have gone before us. 

" It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his 
wife."] Our Saviour was by the doctors of his time 
suspected of intending- to dissolve the law. In this 
chapter he wipes off this aspersion upon his accusers, 
and shews, how they were the lawbreakers. In every 
commonwealth, when it decays, corruption makes two 
main steps ; first, when men cease to do according to 
the inward and uncompelled actions of virtue, caring 
only to live by the outward constraint of law, and turn 
the simplicity of real good into the craft of seeming so 
by law. To this hypocritical honesty was Rome de- 
clined in that age wherein Horace lived, and discovered 
it 1,0 Quintius. 

Whom do we count a good man, whom but he 
Who keep the laws and statutes of the Senate? 
Who judges in great suits and controversies? 
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause ? 
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood 
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin. 

The next declining is, when law becomes now too 
strait for the secular manners, and those too loose for 
the cincture of law. This brings in false and crooked 
interpretations to eke out law, and invents the subtle 
encroachment of obscure traditions hard to be disproved. 
To both these descents the Pharisees themselves were 
fallen. Our Saviour therefore shews them both where 
they broke the law, in not marking the divine intent 
thereof, but only the letter ; and where they depraved 
the letter also with sophistical expositions. This law 
of divorce they had depraved both ways : first, by 
teaching that to give a bill of divorce was all the duty 
which that law required, whatever the cause were ; 
next by running to divorce for any trivial, accidental 
cause ; whenas the law evidently stays in the grave 
causes of natural and immutable dislike. " It hath 
been said," saith he. Christ doth not put any con- 
tempt or disesteem upon the law of Moses, by citing* it 
so briefly ; for in the same manner God himself cites a 
law of greatest caution, Jer. iii. " They say if a man 
put away his wife, shall he return to her again ?" &c. 
Nor doth he more abolish it than the law of swearing, 
cited next with the same brevity, and more appearance 
of contradicting : for divorce hath an exception left it ; 
but we are charged there, as absolutely as words can 
charge us, " not to swear at all ; " yet who denies the 
lawfulness of an oath, though here it be in no case per- 
mitted ? And what shall become of his solemn protes- 
tation not to abolish one law, or one tittle of any law, 
especially of those which he mentions in this chapter ? 
And that he meant more particularly the not abolishing 
of Mosaic divorce, is beyond all cavil manifest in Luke 
xvi. 17, 18, where this clause against abrogating is in- 
serted immediately before the sentence against divorce, 
as if it were called thither on purpose to defend the 
equity of this particular law against the foreseen rash- 

* The first edition has judicial, but as that word may not be so univer- 
sally understood in this place us jikdaicat, (though the meaning or both 

d 



ness of common textuaries, who abolish laws, as the 
rabble demolish images, in the zeal of their hammers 
oft violating the sepulchres of good men : like Pen- 
theus in the tragedies, they see that for Thebes which 
is not, and take that for superstition, as these men in 
the heat of their annulling perceive not how they abo- 
lish right, and equal and justice, under the appearance 
of judicial. And yet are confessing all the while, that 
these sayings of Christ stand not in contradiction to 
the law of Moses, but to the false doctrine of the Pha- 
risees raised from thence ; that the law of God is per- 
fect, not liable to additions or diminutions : and Paraeus 
accuses the Jesuit Maldonatus of greatest falsity for 
limiting the perfection of that law ouly to the rudeness 
of the Jews. He adds, " That the law promiseth life 
to the performers thereof, therefore needs not perfecter 
precepts than such as bring to life; that if the correc- 
tions of Christ stand opposite, not to the corruptions of 
the Pharisees, but to the law itself of God, the heresy 
of Manes would follow, one God of the Old Testament, 
and another of the New. That Christ saith not here, 
Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of 
Moses' law, but of the scribes and Pharisees." That 
all this may be true : whither is common sense flown 
asquint, if we can maintain that Christ forbid the Mo- 
saic divorce utterly, and yet abolished not the law that 
permits it? For if the conscience only were checked, 
and the law not repealed, what means the fanatic bold- 
ness of this age, that dares tutor Christ to be more 
strict than he thought fit ? Ye shall have the evasion, 
it was a judicial law. What could infancy and slum- 
ber have invented more childish ? Judicial or not ju- 
dicial, it was one of those laws expressly which he 
forewarned us with protestation, that his mind was, 
not to abrogate : and if we mark the steerage of his 
words, what course they hold, we may perceive that 
what he protested not to dissolve (that he might faith- 
fully and not deceitfully remove a suspicion from him- 
self) was principally concerning the judicial law; for 
of that sort are all these here which he vindicates, ex- 
cept the last. Of the ceremonial law he told them true, 
that nothing of it should pass " until all were fulfilled." 
Of the moral law he knew the Pharisees did not sus- 
pect he meant to nullify that : for so doing would 
soon have undone his authority, and advanced theirs. 
Of the judicial law therefore chiefly this apology was 
meant : for how is that fulfilled longer than the com- 
mon equity thereof remains in force ? And how is this 
our Saviour's defence of himself not made fallacious, 
if the Pharisees' chief fear be lest he should abolish the 
judicial law, and he, to satisfy them, protests his good 
intention to the moral law ? It is the general grant of 
divines, that what in the judicial law is not merely 
judaical,* but reaches to human equity in common, 
was never in the thought of being abrogated. If our 
Saviour took away aught of law, it was the burden- 
some of it, not the ease of burden ; it was the bondage, 
not the liberty of any divine law, that he removed ; 
this he often professed to be the end of his coming. 

be here the same,) we have therefore insetted the latter word in the text. 



196 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



But what if the law of divorce be a moral law, as most 
certainly it is fundamentally, and hath been so proved 
in the reasons thereof? For though the giving of a bill 
mav be judicial, yet the act of divorce is altogether 
conversant in good and evil, and so absolutely moral. 
So far as it is good, it never can be abolished, being 
moral ; and so far as it is simply evil, it never could 
be judicial, as hath been shewn at large " in the Doc- 
trine of Divorce," and will be reassumed anon. Whence 
one of these two necessities follow, that either it was 
never established, or never abolished. Thus much may 
be enough to have said on this place. The following 
verse will be better unfolded in the 19th chapter, where 
it meets us again, after a large debatement on the 
question between our Saviour and his adversaries. 

Matt. xix. 3, 4, &c. 

Ycr. 3. " And the Pharisees came unto him, tempting 

him, and saying unto him." 

" Tempting him."] The manner of these men com- 
ing to our Saviour, not to learn, but to tempt him, may 
give us to expect, that their answer will be such as is 
fittest for them ; not so much a teaching, as an entang- 
ling. No man, though never so willing or so well 
enabled to instruct, but if he discern his willingness 
and candour made use of to entrap him, will suddenly 
draw in himself, and laying aside the facil vein of 
perspicuity, will know his time to utter clouds and 
riddles ; if he be not less wise than that noted fish, 
whenas he should be not unwiser than the serpent. 
Our Saviour at no time expressed any great desire to 
teach the obstinate and unteachable Pharisees ; but 
when they came to tempt him, then least of all. As 
now about the liberty of divorce, so another time about 
the punishment of adultery, they came to sound him ; 
and what satisfaction got they from his answer, either 
to themselves, or to us, that might direct a law under 
the gospel, new from that of Moses, unless we draw 
his absolution of adultery into an edict ? So about the 
tribute, who is there can pick out a full solution, what 
and when we must give to Caesar, by the answer which 
be gave the Pharisees? If we must give to Caesar that 
which is Caesar's, and all be Caesar's which hath his 
image, we must either new stamp our coin, or we may 
go new stamp our foreheads with the superscription of 
slaves instead of freemen. Besides, it is a general 
precept not only of Christ, but of all other sages, not 
to instruct the unworthy and the conceited, who love 
tradition more than truth, but to perplex and stumble 
then purposely with contrived obscurities. No wonder 
then if they, who would determine of divorce by this 
place, have ever found it difficult and unsatisfying 
through all the ages of the church, as Austin himself 
and other great v. ritera confess. Lastly, it is manifest 
t«. be the principal scope of our Saviour, both here, and 
in the fifth of Matthew, to convince the Pharisees of 
what they being evil did licentiously, not to explain 
what Others being good and blameless men might be 
permitted to do in case of extremity. Neither was it 
onabh to talk of honest and conscientious liberty 



among them, who had abused legal and civil liberty to 
uncivil licence. We do not say to a servant what we 
say to a son ; nor was it expedient to preach freedom 
to those who had transgressed in wantonness. When 
we rebuke a prodigal, we admonish him of thrift, not 
of magnificence, or bounty. . And to school a proud 
man, we labour to make him humble, not magnanimous. 
So Christ, to retort these arrogant inquisitors their own, 
took the course to lay their haughtiness under a sever- 
ity which they deserved ; not to acquaint them, or to 
make them judges either of the just man's right and 
privilege, or of the afflicted man's necessity. And if 
we may have leave to conjecture, there is a likelihood 
offered us by Tertullian in his fourth against Marcion, 
whereby it may seem very probable, that the Pharisees 
had a private drift of malice against our Saviour's life 
in proposing this question ; and our Saviour had a 
peculiar aim in the rigour of his answer, both to let 
them know the freedom of his spirit, and the sharpness 
of his discerning. " This I must now shew," saith 
Tertullian, " whence our Lord deduced this sentence, 
and which way he directed it, whereby it will more 
fully appear, that he intended not to dissolve Moses." 
And thereupon tells us, that the vehemence of this 
our Saviour's speech was chiefly darted against Herod 
and Herodias. The story is out of Joseph us ; Herod 
had been a long time married to the daughter of Aretas 
king of Petra, till happening" on his journey towards 
Rome to be entertained at his brother Philip's house, 
he cast his eye unlawfully and unguestlike upon Hero- 
dias there, the wife of Philip, but daughter to Aristo- 
bulus their common brother, and durst make words of 
marrying her his niece from his brother's bed. She 
assented, upon agreement he should expel his former 
wife. All was accomplished, and by the Baptist re- 
buked with the loss of his head. Though doubtless 
that stayed not the various discourses of men upon the 
fact, which while the Herodian flatterers, and not a few 
perhaps among' the Pharisees, endeavoured to defend 
by wresting the law, it might be a means to bring the 
question of divorce into a hot agitation among the 
people, how far Moses gave allowance. The Pharisees 
therefore knowing our Saviour to be a friend of John 
the Baptist, and no doubt but having heard much of 
his sermon on the mount, wherein he spake rigidly 
against the licence of divorce, they put him this ques- 
tion, both in hope to find him a contradictor of Moses, 
and a condemner of Herod ; so to insnare him within 
compass of the same accusation which had ended his 
friend ; and our Saviour so orders his answer, as that 
they might perceive Herod and his adulteress, only 
not named : so lively it concerned them both what he 
spake. No wonder then if the sentence of our Saviour 
sounded stricter than his custom was ; which his con- 
scious attempters doubtless apprehended sooner than 
his other auditors. Thus much we gain from hence to 
inform us, that what Christ intends to speak here of 
divorce, will be rather the forbidding of what we may 
not do herein passionately and abusively, as Herod and 
Herodias did, than the discussing of what herein we 
may do reasonably and necessarily. 






WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



197 



" Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ?"] It 
might be rendered more exactly from the Greek, <' to 
loosen or to set free ;" which though it seem to have a 
milder signification than the two Hebrew words com- 
monly used for divorce, yet interpreters have noted, 
that the Greek also is read in the Septuagint for an act 
which is not without constraint. As when Achish drove 
from his presence David, counterfeiting madness, Psal. 
xxxiv. the Greek word is the same with this here, to 
put away. And Erasmus quotes Hilary rendering it 
by an expression not so soft. Whence may be doubted, 
whether the Pharisees did not state this question in the 
strict right of the man, not tarrying for the wife's con- 
sent. And if our Saviour answered directly according 
to what was asked in the term of putting away, it will 
be questionable, whether the rigour of his sentence did 
not forbid only such putting away as is without mutual 
consent, in a violent and harsh manner, or without any 
reason but will, as the tetrarch did. Which might be 
the cause that those christian emperors feared not in 
their constitutions to dissolve marriage by mutual con- 
sent; in that our Saviour seems here, as the case is 
most likely, not to condemn all divorce, but all injury 
and violence in divorce. But no injury can be done to 
them, who seek it, as the Ethics of Aristotle sufficiently 
prove. True it is, that an unjust thing may be done 
to one though willing, and so may justly be forbidden : 
but divorce being in itself no unjust or evil thing, but 
only as it is joined with injury or lust; injury it can- 
not be at law, if consent be, and Aristotle err not. And 
lust it may as frequently not be, while charity hath the 
judging of so many private grievances in a misfortuned 
wedlock, which may pardonably seek a redemption. 
But whether it be or not, the law cannot discern or 
examine lust, so long as it walks from one lawful term 
to another, from divorce to marriage, both in themselves 
indifferent. For if the law cannot take hold to punish 
many actions apparently covetous, ambitious, ingrate- 
ful, proud, how can it forbid and punish that for lust, 
which is but only surmised so, and can no more be 
certainly proved in the divorcing now, than before in 
the marrying ? Whence if divorce be no unjust thing, 
but through lust, a cause not discernible by law, as 
law is wont to discern in other cases, and can be no 
injury, where consent is ; there can be nothing in the 
equity of law, why divorce by consent may not be 
lawful : leaving secresies to conscience, the thing 
which our Saviour here aims to rectify, not to revoke 
the statutes of Moses. In the mean while the word 
" to put away," being in the Greek to loosen or dissolve, 
utterly takes away that vain papistical distinction of 
divorce from bed, and divorce from bond, evincing 
plainly, that Christ and the Pharisees mean here that 
divorce, which finally dissolves the bond, and frees 
both parties to a second marriage. 

" For every cause."] This the Pharisees held, that 
for every cause they might divorce, for every accidental 
cause, any quarrel or difference that might happen. 
So both Josephus and Philo, men who lived in the 
same age, explain ; and the Syriac translator, whose 
antiquity is thought parallel to the Evangelists them- 



selves, reads it conformably, " upon any occasion or 
pretence." Divines also generally agree, that thus the 
Pharisees meant. Cameron, a late writer, much ap- 
plauded, commenting this place not undiligentl} , 
affirms that the Greek preposition Kara translated un- 
usually (for) hath a force in it implying the suddenness 
of those pharisaic divorces; and that their question 
was to this effect, " whether for any cause, whatever it 
chanced to be, straight as it rose, the divorce might be 
lawful." This he freely gives, whatever moved him, 
and I as freely take, nor can deny his observation to 
be acute and learned. If therefore we insist upon the 
word of " putting away ;" that it imports a constraint 
without consent, as might be insisted, and may enjoy 
what Cameron bestows on us, that " for every cause " 
is to be understood, " according as any cause may 
happen," with a relation to the speediness of those di- 
vorces, and that Herodian act especially, as is already 
brought us ; the sentence of our Saviour will appear 
nothing so strict a prohibition as hath been long con- 
ceived, forbidding only to divorce for casual and tem- 
porary causes, that may be soon ended, or soon re- 
medied : and likewise forbidding- to divorce rashly, 
and on the sudden heat, except it be for adultery. If 
these qualifications maybe admitted, as partly we offer 
them, partly are offered them by some of their own 
opinion, and that where nothing is repugnant why 
they should not be admitted, nothing can wrest them 
from us; the severe sentence of our Saviour will straight 
unbend the seeming frown into that gentleness and com- 
passion, which was so abundant in all his actions, his 
office, and his doctrine, from all which otherwise it 
stands off at no mean distance. 

Ver. 4. "And he answered and said unto them, Have 
ye not read, that he which made them at the be- 
ginning, made them male and female?" 

Ver. 5. "And said, For this cause shall a man leave 
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, 
and they twain shall be one flesh." 

Ver. 6. " Wherefore they are no more twain, but 
one flesh. What therefore God hath joined toge- 
ther, let not man put asunder." 

4, and 5. " Made them male and female; and said, 
For this cause," &c] We see it here undeniably, that 
the law which our Saviour cites to prove that divorce 
was forbidden, is not an absolute and tyrannical com- 
mand without reason, as now-a-days we make it little 
better, but is grounded upon some rational cause not 
difficult to be apprehended, being in a matter which 
equally concerns the meanest and the plainest sort of 
persons in a household life. Our next way then will 
be to inquire if there be not more reasons than one ; 
and if there be, whether this be the best and chiefest. 
That we shall find by turning to the first institution, 
to which Christ refers our own reading : he himself, 
having to deal with treacherous assailants, useth bre- 
vity, and lighting on the first place in Genesis that 
mentions any thing tending to marriage in the first 
chapter, joins it immediately to the twenty-fourth verse 
of the second chapter, omitting all the prime words 



IDS 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



between which create the institution, and contain the 
noblest and purest ends of matrimony ; without which 
attained, that conjunction hath nothing- in it above 
what is common to us with beasts. So likewise beneath 
in this very chapter, to the young- man, who came not 
tempting him, but to learn of him, asking him which 
commandments he should keep; he neither repeats the 
Bret table, nor all the second, nor that in order which 
be repeats. If here then being tempted, he desire to 
be the shorter, and the darker in his conference, and 
emit to cite that from the second of Genesis, which all 
divines confess is a commentary to what he cites out of 
the first, the " making them male and female ;" what 
are we to do, but to search the institution ourselves ? 
And we shall find there his own authority, giving 
other manner of reasons why such firm union is to be 
in matrimony ; without which reasons, their being- 
male and female can be no cause of joining- them un- 
separably : for if it be, then no adultery can sever. 
Therefore the prohibition of divorce depends not upon 
this reason here expressed to the Pharisees, but upon 
the plainer and more eminent causes omitted here, and 
referred to the institution ; which causes not being- 
found in a particular and casual matrimony, this sen- 
sitive and materious cause alone can no more hinder a 
divorce against those higher and more human reasons 
urging it, than it can alone without them to warrant a 
copulation, but leaves it arbitrary to those who in their 
chance of marriage find not why divorce is forbid them, 
but why it is permitted them ; and find both here and 
in Genesis, that the forbidding is not absolute, but ac- 
cording to the reasons there taught us, not here. And 
that our Saviour taught them no better, but uses the 
most vulgar, most animal and corporal argument to 
convince them, is first to shew us, that as throug-h their 
licentious divorces they made no more of marriage, 
than as if to marry were no more than to be male and 
female, so he goes no higher in his confutation ; deem- 
ing them unworthy to be talked with in a higher strain, 
but to be tied in marriage by the mere material cause 
thereof, since their own licence testified that nothing- 
matrimonial was in their thought, but to be male and 
female. Next, it might be done to discover the brute 
i-nnrance of these carnal doctors, who taking on them 
to dispute of marriage and divorce, were put to silence 
with such a Blender opposition as this, and outed from 
their hold with scarce one quarter of an argument. 
That we may believe this, his entertainment of the 
\ Ming man soon after may persuade us. Whom, though 
I" came to preach eternal life by faith only, he dis- 
misses with a salvation taught him by works only. 
On whirl, place Params notes, " That this man was 
1" i.< convinced by a false persuasion ; and that Christ 
i> wont otherwise to answer hypocrites, otherwise those 
*■* ■'"« docible." Much rather then may we think, 
that, in handling these tempters, he forgot not so to 
Craine bis prndeqt ambiguities and concealments, as 
W*l t« the troubling of those peremptory disputants 
moot Wholesome. When therefore we would know 
what right there may be, in all accidents, to divorce, 
■v e mu^t repair thither n lure God professes to teach his 



servants by the prime institution, and not where we 
see him intending to dazzle sophisters : we must not 
read, " he made them male and female," and not un- 
derstand he made them more intendedly " a meet help " 
to remove the evil of being " alone." We must take 
both these together, and then we may infer completely, 
as from the whole cause, why a man shall cleave to his 
wife, and they twain shall be one flesh : but if the full 
and chief cause why we may not divorce be wan ting- 
here, this place may skirmish with the rabbies while it 
will, but to the true Christian it prohibits nothing be- 
yond the full reason of its own prohibiting*, which is 
best known by the institution. 

Ver. 6. " Wherefore they are no more twain, but 
one flesh."] This is true in the general right of mar- 
riage, but not in the chance-medley of every particular 
match. For if they who were once undoubtedly one 
flesh, yet become twain by adultery, then sure they 
who were never one flesh rightly, never helps meet 
for each other according to the plain prescript of God, 
may with less ado than a volume be concluded still 
twain. And so long as we account a magistrate no 
magistrate, if there be but a flaw in his election, why 
should we not much rather count a matrimony no ma- 
trimony, if it cannot be in any reasonable manner 
according to the words of God's institution. 

" What therefore God hath joined, let not man put 
asunder."] But here the christian prudence lies to con- 
sider what God hath joined ; shall we say that God 
hath joined errour, fraud, unfitness, wrath, contention, 
perpetual loneliness, perpetual discord ; whatever lust, 
or wine, or witchery, threat or inticement, avarice or 
ambition hath joined together, faithful and unfaithful, 
Christian with antichristian, hate with hate, or hate 
with love ; shall we say this is God's joining ? 

" Let not man put asunder."] That is to say, what 
God hath joined ; for if it be, as how oft we see it may 
be, not of God's joining, and his law tells us he joins 
not unmatchable things, but hates to join them, as an 
abominable confusion, then the divine law of Moses 
puts them asunder, his own divine will in the institu- 
tion puts them asunder, as oft as the reasons be not ex- 
tant, for which only God ordained their joining. Man 
only puts asunder when his inordinate desires, his pas- 
sion, his violence, his injury makes the breach: not 
when the utter want of that which lawfully was the 
end of his joining, when wrongs and extremities and 
unsupportable grievances compel him to disjoin : when 
such as Herod and the Pharisees divorce beside law, 
or against law, then only man separates, and to such 
only this prohibition belongs. In a word, if it be un- 
lawful for man to put asunder that which God hath 
joined, let man take heed it be not detestable to join 
that by compulsion which God hath put asunder. 

Ver. 7. " They say unto him, Why did Moses then 
command to give a writing of divorcement, and 
to put her away ?■'.' 

Ver. 8. " He saith unto them, Moses because of the 
hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away 
your wives ; but from the beginning it was not so." 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



199 



" Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suf- 
fered you."] Hence the divinity now current argues, 
that this judicial law of Moses is abolished. But sup- 
pose it were so, though it hath been proved otherwise, 
the firmness of such right to divorce, as here pleads is 
fetched from the prime institution, does not stand or 
fall with the judicial Jew, but is as moral as what is 
moralest. Yet as I have shewn positively, that this 
law cannot be abrogated, both by the words of our Sa- 
viour pronouncing the contrary, and by that unabol- 
ishable equity which it conveys to us; so I shall now 
bring to view those appearances of. strength, which 
are levied from this text to maintain the most gross 
and massy paradox that ever did violence to reason 
and religion, bred only under the shadow of these 
words, to all other piety or philosophy strange and in- 
solent, that God by act of law drew out a line of adul- 
tery almost two thousand years long : although to de- 
tect the prodigy of this surmise, the former book set 
forth on this argument hath already been copious. I 
shall not repeat much, though I might borrow of mine 
own ; but shall endeavour to add something either yet 
untouched, or not largely enough explained. First, it 
shall be manifest, that the common exposition cannot 
possibly consist with christian doctrine : next, a truer 
meaning of this our Saviour's reply shall be left in the 
room. The received exposition is, that God, though 
not approving, did enact a law to permit adultery by 
divorcement simply unlawful. And this conceit they 
feed with fond supposals, that have not the least foot- 
ing in Scripture : as that the Jews learned this custom 
of divorce in Egypt, and therefore God would not un- 
teach it them till Christ came, but let it stick as a no- 
torious botch of deformity in the midst of his most per- 
fect and severe law. And yet he saith, Lev. xviii. 
" After the doings of Egypt ye shall not do." Another 
while they invent a slander, (as what thing more bold 
than teaching ignorance when he shifts to hide his na- 
kedness ?) that the Jews were naturally to their wives 
the cruellest men in the world ; would poison, brain, 
and do I know not what, if they might not divorce. 
Certain, if it were a fault heavily punished, to bring 
an evil report upon the land which God gave, what is 
it to raise a groundless calumny against the people 
which God made choice of? But that this bold inter- 
pretament, how commonly soever sided with, cannot 
stand a minute with any competent reverence to God, 
or his law, or his people, nor with any other maxim of 
religion, or good manners, might be proved through all 
the heads and topics of argumentation; but I shall 
■willingly be as concise as possible. First the law, 
not only the moral, but the judicial, given by Moses, is 
just and pure ; for such is God who gave it. " Hearken, 

Israel," saith Moses, Deut. iv. " unto the statutes 
and the judgments which I teach you, to do them, that 
ye may live, Sec. Ye shall not add unto the word which 

1 command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from 
it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord 
your God, which I command you." And onward in 
the chapter, " Behold, I have taught you statutes 
and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded 



me. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wis- 
dom and your understanding. For what nation hath 
God so nigh unto them, and what nation hath statutes 
and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set 
before ye this day ?" Is it imaginable there should be 
among these a law which God allowed not, a law giv- 
ing permissions laxative to unmarry a wife, and marry 
a lust, a law to suffer a kind of tribunal adultery? 
Many other scriptures might be brought to assert the 
purity of this judicial law, and many I have alleged 
before; this law therefore is pure and just. But if it 
permit, if it teach, if it defend that which is both unjust 
and impure, as by the common doctrine it doth, what 
think we? The three general doctrines of Justinian's 
law are, " To live in honesty, To hurt no man, To give 
every one his due." Shall the Roman civil lav/ observe 
these three things, as the only end of law, and shall a 
statute be found in the civil law of God, enacted sim- 
ply and totally against all these three precepts of na- 
ture and morality ? 

Secondly, The gifts of God are all perfect, and cer- 
tainly the law is of all his other gifts one of the per- 
fectest. But if it give that outwardly which it takes 
away really, and give that seemingly, which, if a man 
take it, wraps him into sin and damns him ; what gift 
of an enemy can be more dangerous and destroying 
than this ? 

Thirdly, Moses every where commends his laws r 
prefers them before all of other nations, and warrants 
them to be the way of life and safety to all that walk 
therein, Lev. xviii. But if they contain statutes which 
God approves not, and train men unweeting to commit 
injustice and adultery under the shelter of law ; if 
those things be sin, and death sin's wages, what is this 
law but the snare of death ? 

Fourthly, The statutes and judgments of the Lord r 
which, without exception, are often told us to be such, 
as doing we may live by them, are doubtless to be. 
counted the rule of knowledge and of conscience. 
" For I had not known lust," saith the apostle, " but 
by the law." But if the law come down from the state 
of her incorruptible majesty to grant lust his boon, 
palpably it darkens and confounds both knowledge and 
conscience ; it goes against the common office of all 
goodness and friendliness, which is at least to counsel 
and admonish; it subverts the rules of all sober edu- 
cation, and is itself a most negligent and debauching 
tutor. 

Fifthly, If the law permits a thing unlawful, it per- 
mits that which elsewhere it hath forbid ; so that here- 
by it contradicts itself, and transgresses itself. But if 
the law become a transgressor, it stands guilty to it- 
self, and how then shall it save another? It makes a 
confederacy with sin, how then can it justly condemn 
a sinner? And thus reducing itself to the state of nei- 
ther saving nor condemning, it will not fail to expire 
solemnly ridiculous. 

Sixthly, The prophets in Scripture declare severely 
against the decreeing of that which is unjust, Psa). 
xciv. 20 ; Isaiah x. But it was done, they say, for 
hardness of heart: to which objection the apostle's 



200 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



rule, " not to do evil that good may come thereby," 
gives an invincible repulse ; and here especially, where 
it cannot be shown how any good came by doing- this 
evil, how rather more evil did not hereon abound ; for 
the giving way to hardness of heart hardens the more, 
and adds more to the number. God to an evil and adul- 
terous generation would not " grant a sign ;" much 
less would he for their hardness of heart pollute his 
law with adulterous permission. Yea, but to permit 
evil, is not to do evil. Yes, it is in a most eminent 
manner to do evil : where else are all our grave and 
faithful sayings, that he whose office is to forbid and 
forbids not, bids, exhorts, encourages ? Why hath God 
denounced his anger against parents, masters, friends, 
magistrates, neglectful of forbidding what they ought, 
if law, the common father, master, friend, and perpe- 
tual magistrate, shall not only not forbid, but enact, 
exhibit, and uphold with countenance and protection, 
a deed every way dishonest, whatever the pretence be? 
If it were of those inward vices, which the law cannot 
by outward constraint remedy, but leaves to conscience 
and persuasion, it had been guiltless in being silent: 
but to write a decree of that which can be no way law- 
ful, and might with ease be hindered, makes law by 
the doom of law itself accessory in the highest degree. 

Seventhly, It makes God the direct author of sin : 
for although he be not made the author of what he 
silently permits in his providence, yet in his law, the 
image of his will, when in plain expression he consti- 
tutes and ordains a fact utterly unlawful ; what wants 
he to authorize it, and what wants that to be the 
author? 

Eighthly, To establish by law a thing wholly unlaw- 
ful and dishonest, is an affirmation was never heard of 
before in any law, reason, philosophy, or religion, till 
it was raised by inconsiderate glossists from the mis- 
take of this text. And though the civilians have been 
contented to chew this opinion, after the canon had 
subdued them, yet they never could bring example or 
authority, either from divine writ, or human learning, 
or human practice in any nation, or well-formed re- 
public, but only from the customary abuse of this text. 
Usually they allege the epistle of Cicero to Atticus ; 
u herein Cato is blamed for giving sentence to the scum 
of Romulus, as if he were in Plato's commonwealth. 
Cato would have called some great one into judgment 
for bribery; Cicero, as the time stood, advised against 
it. Cato, not to endamage the public treasury, would 
Dot grant to the Roman knights, that the Asian taxes 
illicit he farmed them at a less rate. Cicero wished 
Died. Nothing in all this will be like the estab- 
lish nig of a law to sin: here are no laws made, here 
only th. execution of law is craved might be suspend- 
« 'I : 1>< t\\ eeu w bicfa and our question is a broad differ- 
AimI what if human lawgivers have confessed 
thej could not frame their laws to that perfection which 
th.\ desired P We hear of no such confession from 
concerning the laws of God, but rather all praise 
and high testimony of perfection given them. And 
although man's nature cannot bear exactest laws, yet 
-till within tin confine! of good it may and must, so 



long as less good is far enoug'h from altogether evil. 
As for what they instance of usury, let them first prove 
usury to be wholly unlawful, as the laws allow it; 
which learned men as numerous on the other side will 
deny them. Or if it be altogether unlawful, why is it 
toleratedjnore than divorce? He who said divorce not, 
said also, " Lend, hoping for nothing again," Luke vi. 
35. But then they put in, that trade could not stand; 
and so to serve the commodity of insatiable trading, 
usury shall be permitted : but divorce, the only means 
ofttimes to right the innocent and outrageously wrong- 
ed, shall be utterly forbid. This is egregious doctrine, 
and for which one day charity will much thank them. 
Beza not finding how to solve this perplexity, and 
Cameron since him, would secure us ; although the 
latter confesses, that to " permit a wicked thing by 
law, is a wickedness which God abhors; yet to limit 
sin, and prescribe it a certain measure, is good." First, 
this evasion will not help here ; for this law bounded 
no man : he might put away whatever found not 
favour in his eyes. And how could it forbid to di- 
vorce, whom it could not forbid to dislike, or command 
to love ? If these be the limits of law to restrain sin, 
who so lame a sinner, but may hop over them more 
easily than over those Romulean circumscriptions, not 
as Remus did with hard success, but with all indemnity ? 
Such a limiting as this were not worth the mischief 
that accompanies it. This law therefore, not bounding 
the supposed sin, by permitting enlarges it, gives it 
enfranchisement. And never greater confusion, than 
when law and sin move their landmarks, mix their 
territories, and correspond, have intercourse, and traffic 
together. When law contracts a kindred and hospital- 
ity with transgression, becomes the godfather of sin, 
and names it lawful ; when sin revels and gossips 
within the arsenal of law, plays and dandles the artil- 
lery of justice that should be bent against her, this is a 
fair limitation indeed. Besides, it is an absurdity to 
say that law can measure sin, or moderate sin ; sin is 
not in a predicament to be measured and modified, but 
is always an excess. The least sin that is exceeds the 
measure of the largest law that can be good ; and is as 
boundless as that vacuity beyond the world. If once 
it square to the measure of law, it ceases to be an ex- 
cess, and consequently ceases to be a sin ; or else law 
conforming itself to the obliquity of sin, betrays itself 
to be not straight, but crooked, and so immediately no 
law. And the improper conceit of moderating sin by 
law will appear, if we can imagine any lawgiver so 
senseless as to decree, that so far a man may steal, and 
thus far be drunk, that moderately he may couzen, and 
moderately commit adultery. To the same extent it 
would be as pithily absurd to publish, that a man may 
moderately divorce, if to do that be entirely naught. 
But to end this moot ; the law of Moses is manifest to 
fix no limit therein at all, or such at least as impeaches 
the fraudulent abuser no more than if it were not set; 
only requires the dismissive writing without other cau- 
tion, leaves that to the inner man, and the bar of con- 
science. But it stopped other sins. This is as vain 
as the rest, and dangerously uncertain : the contrary 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE, 



201 



to be feared rather, that one sin, admitted courteously 
by law, opened the gate to another. However, evil 
must not be done for good. And it were a fall to be 
lamented, and indignity unspeakable, if law should 
become tributary to sin her slave, and forced to yield 
up into his hands her awful minister, punishment ; 
should buy out our peace with sin for sin, paying as it 
were her so many Philistian foreskins to the proud de- 
mand of transgression. But suppose it any way pos- 
sible to limit sin, to put a girdle about that Chaos, sup- 
pose it also good ; yet if to permit sin by law be an 
abomination in the eyes of God, as Cameron acknow- 
ledges, the evil of permitting will eat out the good of 
limiting. For though sin be not limited, there can but 
evil come out of evil ; but if it be permitted and de- 
creed lawful by divine law, of force then sin must pro- 
ceed from the infinite good, which is a dreadful thought. 
But if the restraining of sin by this permission being 
good, as this author testifies, be more good than the 
permission of more sin by the restraint of divorce, and 
that God weighing both these like two ingots, in the 
perfect scales of his justice and providence, found them 
so, and others, coming without authority from God, 
shall change this counterpoise, and judge it better to 
let sin multiply by setting a judicial restraint upon di- 
vorce which Christ never set; then to limit sin by this 
permission, as God himself thought best to permit it, it 
will behove them to consult betimes whether these their 
balances be not false and abominable ; and this their 
limiting that which God loosened, and their loosening 
the sins that he limited, which they confess was good 
to do : and w r ere it possible to do by law, doubtless it 
would be most morally good ; and they so believing, 
as we hear they do, and yet abolishing a law so good 
and moral, the limiter of sin, what are they else but 
contrary to themselves ? For they can never bring us 
to that time wherein it will not be good to limit sin, 
and they can never limit it better than so as God pre- 
scribed in his law. 

Others conceive it a more defensible retirement to 
say, this permission to divorce sinfully for harduess of 
heart was a dispensation. But surely they either know 
not, or attended not to what a dispensation means. A 
dispensation is for no long time, is particular to some 
persons, rather than general to a whole people ; always 
hath charity the end, is granted to necessities and iu- 
firmities, not to obstinate lust. This permission is 
another creature, hath all those evils and absurdities 
following the name of a dispensation, as when it was 
named a law ; and is the very antarctic pole against 
charity, nothing more adverse, ensnaring and ruining 
those that trust in it, or use it ; so lewd and criminous 
as never durst enter into the head of any politician, 
Jew, or proselyte, till they became the apt scholars of 
this canonistic exposition. Aught in it, that can allude 
in the least manner to charity, or goodness, belongs 
with more full right to the Christian under grace and 
liberty, than to the Jew under law and bondage. To 
Jewish ignorance it could not be dispensed, without a 
horrid imputation laid upon the law, to dispense foully, 
instead of teaching fairly ; like that dispensation that 



first polluted Christendom with idolatry, permitting to 
laymen images instead of books and preaching. Sloth 
or malice in the law would they have this called ? But 
what ignorance can be pretended for the Jews, who had 
all the same precepts about marriage, that we know ? 
for Christ refers all to the institution. It was as rea- 
sonable for them to know then as for us now, and con- 
cerned them alike : for wherein hath the gospel altered 
the nature of matrimony ? All these considerations, or 
many of them, have been further amplified in " the 
Doctrine of Divorce." And what Rivetus and Paraeus 
have objected, or given over as past cure, hath been 
there discussed. Whereby it may be plain enough to 
men of eyes, that the vulgar exposition of a permit- 
tance by law to an intire sin, whatever the colour may 
be, is an opinion both ungodly, unpolitic, unvirtuous, 
and void of all honesty and civil sense. It appertains 
therefore to every zealous Christian, both for the honour 
of God's law, and the vindication of our Saviour's 
words, that such an irreligious depravement no longer 
may be soothed and flattered through custom, but with 
all diligence and speed solidly refuted, and in the room 
a better explanation given; which is now our next 
endeavour. 

" Moses suffered you to put away," &c] Not com- 
manded you, says the common observer, and therefore 
cared not how soon it were abolished, being but suffer- 
ed ; herein declaring his annotation to be slight, and 
nothing law-prudent. For in this place " commanded " 
and " suffered " are interchangeably used in the same 
sense both by our Saviour and the Pharisees. Our Sa- 
viour, who here saith, " Moses suffered you," in the 
10th of Mark saith, " Moses wrote you this command." 
And the Pharisees, who here say, " Moses commanded," 
and would mainly have it a command, in that place of 
Mark say, " Moses suffered," which had made against 
them in their own mouths, if the word of " suffering " 
had weakened the command. So that suffered and 
commanded is here taken for the same thing on both 
sides of the controversy : as Cameron also and others 
on this place acknowledge. And lawyers know that 
all the precepts of law are divided into obligatory and 
permissive, containing either what we must do, or what 
we may do ; and of this latter sort are as many pre- 
cepts as of the former, and all as lawful. Tutelage, an 
ordainment than which nothing more just, being for 
the defence of orphans, the Institutes of Justinian say 
" is given and permitted by the civil law :" and " to 
parents it is permitted to choose and appoint by will 
the guardians of their children." What more equal, 
and yet the civil law calls this " permission." So like- 
wise to " manumise," to adopt, to make a will, and to 
be made an heir, is called " permission " by law. Mar- 
riage itself, and this which is already granted, to divorce 
for adultery, obliges no man, is but a permission by 
law, is but suffered. By this we may see how weakly 
it hath been thought, that all divorce is utterly unlaw- 
ful, because the law is said to suffer it: whenas to 
" suffer" is but the legal phrase denoting what by law 
a man may do or not do. 

" Because of the hardness of your hearts."] Hence 



a -2 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



they argue that therefore he allowed it not; and there- 
fore it must be abolished. But the contrary to this 
will sooner follow, that because he suffered it for a cause, 
therefore in relation to that cause he allowed it. Next, 
if he in his wisdom, and in the midst of his severity, 
allowed it for hardness of heart, it can be nothing better 
than arrogance and presumption to take stricter courses 
■gainst hardness of heart, than God ever set an exam- 
ple ; and that under the gospel, which warrants them 
to do no judicial act of compulsion in this matter, much 
loss lo be more severe against hardness of extremity, 
than God thought good to be against hardness of heart. 
He suffered it, rather than worse inconveniences; these 
men wiser, as they make themselves, will suffer the 
\\ orst and heinousest inconveniences to follow, rather 
than they will suffer what God suffered. Although 
they can know when they please, that Christ spake 
only to the conscience, did not judge on the civil 
bench, but always disavowed it. What can be more 
contrary to the ways of God, than these their doings ? 
If they be such enemies to hardness of heart, although 
this groundless rigour proclaims it to be in themselves, 
they may yet learn, or consider, that hardness of heart 
hath a twofold acceptation in the gospel. One, when 
it is in a good man taken for infirmity, and imper- 
fection, which was in all the apostles, whose weakness 
only, not utter want of belief, is called hardness of 
heart, Mark xvi. Partly for this hardness of heart, the 
imperfection and decay of man from original righteous- 
ness, it was that God suffered not divorce only, but all 
that which by civilians is termed the " secondary law 
of nature and of nations." He suffered his own people 
to waste and spoil and slay by war, to lead captives, to 
be some masters, some servants, some to be princes, 
others to be subjects; he suffered propriety to divide 
nil things by several possession, trade, and commerce, 
not without usury; in his commonwealth some to be 
undeservedly rich, others to be undeservingly poor. 
All which till hardness of heart came in was most un- 
just; whenas prime nature made us all equal, made us 
equal coheirs by common right and dominion over all 
<iv.it tires. I n tne same manner, and for the same 
he suffered divorce as well as marriage, our im- 
perfect and degenerate condition of necessity requiring 
this law among the rest, as a remedy against intoler- 
tUe wrong and servitude above the patience of man to 
Nor was it given only because our infirmity, or 
if it must be so called, hardness of heart, could not en- 
due all things; but because the hardness of another's 
might not inflict all things upon an innocent 
I I r*0«, whom far other ends brought into a league of 
"»• BOI of bondage and indignity. If therefore 
»'■ abolish divorce as only suffered for hardness of 
*« may a. well abolish the whole law of nations, 
lj raftered forthe same cause; it being shewn us 
''"'I I Cor. vi. that the very seeking of a man's 
bj law, and at the hands of a worldly magis- 
tral.. i> nr,t without the hardness of our hearts. "For 
why do ye not rather take wrong," saith he, "why 
suffer ye not rather yoarselrei to be defrauded?" If 
nothing now Boat bf raff t\ <\ for hardness of heart, I 



vil 
for 



say the very prosecution of our right by way of civil 
justice can no more be suffered among Christians 
the hardness of heart wherewith most men pursue it. 
And that would next remove all our judicial laws, and 
this restraint of divorce also in the number; which 
would more than half end the controversy. But if it 
be plain, that the whole juridical law and civil power 
is only suffered under the gospel, for the hardness of 
our hearts, then wherefore should not that which Moses 
suffered, be suffered still by the same reason ? 

In a second signification, hardness of heart is taken 
for a stubborn resolution to do evil. And that God 
ever makes any law purposely to such, I deny; for he 
vouchsafes to enter covenant with them, but as they 
fortune to be mixed with good men, and pass undisco- 
vered ; much less that he should decree an unlawful 
thing only to serve their licentiousness. But that God 
" suffers" this reprobate hardness of heart I affirm, not 
only in this law of divorce, but throughout all his best 
and purest commandments. He commands all to wor- 
ship in singleness of heart according to all his ordi- 
nances ; and yet suffers the wicked man to perform all 
the rites of religion hypocritically, and in the hardness 
of his heart. He gives us general statutes and privi- 
leges in all civil matters, just and good of themselves, 
yet suffers unworthiest men to use them, and by them 
to prosecute their own right, or any colour of right, 
though for the most part maliciously, covetously, rigor- 
ously, revengefully. He allowed by law the discreet 
father and husband to forbid, if he thought fit, the re- 
ligious vows of his wife or daughter, Numb. xxx. ; and 
in the same law suffered the hardheartedness of impious 
and covetous fathers or husbands abusing this law, to 
forbid their wives or daughters in their offerings and 
devotions of greatest zeal. If then God suffer hardness 
of heart equally in the best laws, as in this of divorce, 
there can be no reason that for this cause this law 
should be abolished. But other laws, they object, may 
be well used, this never. How often shall I answer, 
both from the institution of marriage, and from other 
general rules in Scripture, that this law of divorce hath 
many wise and charitable ends besides the being suf- 
fered for hardness of heart, which is indeed no end, 
but an accident happening through the whole law ; 
which gives to good men right, and to bad men, who 
abuse right under false pretences, gives only sufferance. 
Now although Christ express no other reasons here, 
but only what was suffered, it nothing follows that this 
law had no other reason to be permitted but for hard- 
ness of heart. The Scripture seldom or never in one 
place sets down all the reasons of what it grants or 
commands, especially when it talks to enemies and 
tempters. St. Paul •permitting marriage, 1 Cor. vii. 
seems to permit even that also for hardness of heart 
only, lest we should run into fbrnication : yet no intel- 
ligent man thence concludes marriage allowed in the 
gospel only to avoid an evil, because no other end is 
there expressed. Thus Moses of necessity suffered 
many to put away their wives for hardness of heart ; 
but enacted the law of divorce doubtless for other good 
causes, not for this only sufferance. He permitted not 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



203 



divorce by Jaw as an evil, for that was impossible to 
divine law, but permitted by accident the evil of them 
who divorced against the law's intention undiscover- 
ably. This also may be thought not improbably, that 
Christ, stirred up in his spirit against these tempting 
Pharisees, answered them in a certain form of indig- 
nation usual among good authors ; whereby the ques- 
tion or the truth is not directly answered, but something 
which is fitter for them, who ask, to hear. So in the 
ecclesiastical stories, one demanding how God employ- 
ed himself before the world was made ? had answer, 
that he was making hell for curious questioners. Ano- 
ther (and Libanus the sophist, as I remember) asking 
in derision some Christian, What the carpenter, mean- 
ing our Saviour, was doing, now that Julian so pre- 
vailed ? had it returned him, that the carpenter was 
making a coffin for the apostate. So Christ being 
demanded maliciously why Moses made the law of 
divorce, answers them in a vehement scheme, not telling* 
them the cause why he made it, but what was fittest to 
be told them, that " for the hardness of their hearts" 
he suffered them to abuse it. And albeit Mark say not 
" he suffered" you, but, " to you he wrote this precept;" 
Mark may be warrantably expounded by Matthew the 
larger. And whether he suffered, or gave precept, 
being all one as was heard, it changes not the trope of 
indignation, fittest account for such askers. Next, for 
the hardness of " your hearts, to you he wrote this 
precept," infers not therefore for this cause only he 
wrote it, as was paralleled by other Scriptures. Lastly, 
it may be worth the observing, that Christ, speaking 
to the Pharisees, does not say in general that for hard- 
ness of heart he gave this precept, but " you he suffered, 
and to you he gave this precept, for your hardness of 
heart." It cannot be easily thought, that Christ here 
included all the children of Israel under the person of 
these tempting Pharisees, but that he conceals where- 
fore he gave the better sort of them this law, and ex- 
presses by saying emphatically " To you" how he gave 
it to the worser, such as the Pharisees best represented, 
that is to say, for the hardness of your hearts : as indeed 
to wicked men and hardened hearts he gives the whole 
law and the gospel also, to harden them the more. 
Thus many ways it may orthodoxally be understood 
how God or Moses suffered such as the demanders 
were, to divorce for hardness of heart. Whereas the 
vulgar expositor, beset with contradictions and absur- 
dities round, and resolving at any peril to make an ex- 
position of it, (as there is nothing more violent and 
boisterous than a reverend ignorance in fear to be con- 
victed,) rushes brutely and impetuously against all the 
principles both of nature, piety, and moral goodness ; 
and in the fury of his literal expounding overturns 
them all. 

"But from the beginning it was not so."] Not 
how from the beginning ? Do they suppose that men 
might not divorce at all, not necessarily, not delibe- 
rately, except for adultery, but that some law, like ca- 
non law, presently attached them, both before and after 
the flood, till stricter Moses came, and with law brought 
licence into the world ? that were a fancy indeed to 



smile at. Undoubtedly as to point of judicial law, di- 
vorce was more permissive from the beginning before 
Moses than under Moses. But from the beginning, 
that is to say, by the institution in Paradise, it was not 
intended that matrimony should dissolve for every tri- 
vial cause, as you Pharisees accustom. But that it was 
not thus suffered from the beginning ever since the 
race of men corrupted, and laws were made, he who 
will affirm must have found out other antiquities than 
are yet known. Besides, we must consider now, what 
can be so as from the beginning, not only what should 
be so. In the beginning, had men continued perfect, 
it had been just that all things should have remained 
as they began to Adam and Eve. But after that the 
sons of men grew violent and injurious, it altered the 
lore of justice, and put the government of things into 
a new frame. While man and woman were both per- 
fect each to other, there needed no divorce ; but when 
they both degenerated to imperfection, and ofttimes 
grew to be an intolerable evil each to other, then law 
more justly did permit the alienating of that evil 
which estate made proper, than it did the appropriating 
of that good which nature at first made common. For 
if the absence of outward good be not so bad as the 
presence of a close evil, and that propriety, whether by 
covenant or possession, be but the attainment of some 
outward good, it is more natural and righteous that 
the law should sever us from an intimate evil, than ap- 
propriate any outward good to us from the community 
of nature. The gospel indeed tending ever to that 
which is perfectest, aimed at the restorement of all 
things as they were in the beginning ; and therefore 
all things were in common to those primitive Christi- 
ans in the Acts, which Ananias and Sapphira dearly 
felt. That custom also continued more or less till the 
time of Justin Martyr, as may be read in his second 
Apology, which might be writ after that act of com- 
munion perhaps some forty years above a hundred. 
But who will be the man that shall introduce this kind 
of commonwealth, as Christianity now goes ? If then 
marriage must be as in the beginning, the persons that 
marry must be such as then were; the institution must 
make good, in some tolerable sort, what it promises to 
either party. If not, it is but madness to drag this one 
ordinance back to the beginning, and draw down all 
other to the present necessity and condition, far from 
the beginning, even to the tolerating of extortions and 
oppressions. Christ only told us, that from the begin- 
ning it was not so ; that is to say, not so as the Phari- 
sees manured the business ; did not command us that 
it should be forcibly so again in all points, as at the 
beginning ; or so at least in our intentions and desires, 
but so in execution, as reason and present nature can 
bear. Although we are not to seek, that the institution 
itself from the first beginning was never but con- 
ditional, as all covenants are: because thus and thus, 
therefore so and so; if not thus, then not so. Then 
moreover was perfectest to fulfil each law in itself; now 
is perfectest in this estate of things, to ask of charity 
how much law may be fulfilled : else the fulfilling oft- 
times is the greatest breaking. If any therefore de- 



204 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



mand, which is now most perfection, to ease an extre- 
mity bv divorce, or to enrage and fester it by the griev- 
ous observance of a miserable wedlock, I am not desti- 
tute to say, which is most perfection (although some, 
who believe they think favourably of divorce, esteem it 
only venial to infirmity). Him I hold more in the 
way to perfection, who foregoes an unfit, ungodly, and 
discordant wedlock, to live according to peace and 
love, and God's institution in a fitter choice, than he 
who debars himself the happy experience of all godly, 
which is peaceful, conversation in his family, to live a 
contentious and unchristian life not to be avoided, in 
temptations not to be lived in, only for the false keep- 
ing of a most unreal nullity, a marriage that hath no 
affinity with God's intention, a daring phantasm, a 
mere toy of terrour awing weak senses, to the lament- 
able superstition of ruining themselves; the remedy 
whereof God in his law vouchsafes us. Which not to 
dare use, he warranting, is not our perfection, is our in- 
firmity, our little faith, our timorous and low conceit of 
charity : and in them who force us, it is their masking 
pride and vanity, to seem holier and more circumspect 
than God. So far is it that we need impute to him in- 
firmity, who thus divorces : since the rule of perfection 
is not so much that which was done in the beginning, 
as that which is now nearest to the rule of charity. This 
is the greatest,the perfectest,the highest commandment. 

Ver. 9. " And I say unto you, whoso shall put away 
his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall 
marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso 
marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adul- 
tery." 

" And I say unto you."] That this restrictive de- 
nouncement of Christ contradicts and refutes that per- 
missive precept of Moses common expositors them- 
selves disclaim : and that it does not traverse from the 
closet of conscience to the courts of civil or canon law, 
with any Christian rightly commenced, requires not 
long evincing. If Christ then did not here check per- 
■MSsire Hoses, nor did reduce matrimony to the begin- 
ning more than all other things, as the reason of man's 
condition could bear ; we would know precisely what 
it was whieh be did. and what the end was of his de- 
claring thus austerely against divorce. For this is a 
c.iil.-., ,| oracli in ];,u, that he who looks not at the 
intention of a precept, the more superstitious he is of 
tin letter, the more he misinterprets. Was it to 
ihane Ifbtee? that bad been monstrous: or all those 
■•rest ages of Israel, to whom the permission was 
granted P that were as incredible. Or was it that he 
« bo fan,, to abrogate the burden of law, not the equi- 
tjr,aboaU put this yoke upon a blameless person, to 
bagee haaaelf in chains with a begirting mischief, not 
i.. separate till death ? He who taught us, that no man 
puts B piece of new doth upon an old garment, or new 
'•' '"' '""» old bottles, that be should sew this patch of 
■trietMts upon the -Id apparel of our frailty, to make 
a r. i.t mr.r.- bearable, v. benas in all other amendments 
he* doctrine -till charges, that regard be had to the 
gnrmoat, and to the ressel, whai it can endure; this 



were an irregular and single piece of rigour, not only 
sounding disproportion to the whole gospel, but out- 
stretching the most rigorous nerves of law and rigour 
itself. No other end therefore can be left imaginable of 
this excessive restraint, but to bridle those erroneous and 
licentious postillers the Pharisees ; not by telling them 
what may be done in necessity, but what censure they 
deserve who divorce abusively, which their tetrarch 
had done. And as the offence was in one extreme, so 
the rebuke, to bring more efficaciously to a rectitude 
and mediocrity, stands not in the middle way of duty, 
but in the other extreme. Which art of powerful re- 
claiming, wisest men have also taught in their ethical 
precepts and Gnomologies, resembling it, as when we 
bend a crooked wand the contrary way; not that it 
should stand so bent, but that the overbending might 
reduce it to a straightness by its own reluctance. And 
as the physician cures him who hath taken down poison, 
not by the middling temper of nourishment, but by the 
other extreme of antidote ; so Christ administers here a 
sharp and corrosive sentence against a foul and putrid 
licence ; not to eat into the flesh, but into the sore. 
And knowing that our divines through all their com- 
ments make no scruple, where they please, to soften 
the high and vehement speeches of our Saviour, which 
they call hyperboles : why in this one text should they 
be such crabbed Masorites of the letter, as not to mol- 
lify a transcendence of literal rigidity, which they con- 
fess to find often elsewhere in his manner of delivery, 
but must make their exposition here such an obdurate 
Cyclops, to have but one eye for this text, and that only 
open to cruelty and enthralment, such as no divine or 
human law before ever heard of? No, let the foppish 
canonist, with his fardel of matrimonial cases, go and 
be vendible where men be so unhappy as to cheapen 
him : the words of Christ shall be asserted from such 
elemental notaries, and resolved by the now only law- 
giving mouth of charity ; which may be done un- 
doubtedly by understanding them as follows. 

" Whosoever shall put away his wife."] That is to 
say, shall so put away as the propounders of this ques- 
tion, the Pharisees, were wont to do, and covertly de- 
fended Herod for so doing ; whom to rebuke, our 
Saviour here mainly intends, and not to determine all 
the cases of divorce, as appears by St. Paul. Whoso- 
ever shall put away, either violently without mutual 
consent for urgent reasons, or conspiringly by plot of 
lust, or cunning malice, shall put away for any sud- 
den mood, or contingency of disagreement, which is 
not daily practice, but may blow soon over, and be re- 
conciled, except it be fornication ; whosoever shall put 
away rashly, as his choler prompts him, without due 
time of deliberating, and think his conscience discharg- 
ed only by the bill of divorce given, and the outward 
law satisfied ; whosoever, lastly, shall put away his 
wife, that is a wife indeed, and not in name only, such 
a one who both can and is willing to be a meet help 
toward the chief ends of marriage both civil and sanc- 
tified, except fornication be the cause, that man, or that 
pair, commit adultery. Not he who puts away by mu- 
tual consent, with all the considerations and respects 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



205 



of humanity and gentleness, without malicious or lust- 
ful drift. Not he who after sober and cool experience, 
and long" debate within himself, puts away, whom 
though he cannot love or suffer as a wife with that sin- 
cere affection that marriage requires, yet loves at least 
with that civility and goodness, as not to keep her 
under a neglected and unwelcome residence, where 
nothing can be hearty, and not being, it must needs be 
both unjoyous, and injurious to any perceiving person 
so detained, and more injurious than to be freely and 
upon good terms dismissed. Nor doth he put away 
adulterously who complains of causes rooted in immu- 
table nature, utter unfitness, utter disconformity, not 
conciliable, because not to be amended without a mira- 
cle. Nor he who puts away an unquenchable vexation 
from his bosom, and flies an evil, than which a greater 
cannot befall human society. Nor he who puts away 
with the full suffrage and applause of his conscience, 
not relying on the written bill of law, but claiming by 
faith and fulness of persuasion the rights and promises 
of God's institution, of which he finds himself in a mis- 
taken wedlock defrauded. Doubtless this man hath 
bail enough to be no adulterer, giving divorce for these 
causes. 

" His wife."] This word is not to be idle here, a 
mere word without sense, much less a fallacious word 
signifying contrary to what it pretends ; but faithfully 
signifies a wife, that is, a comfortable help and society, 
as God instituted ; does not signify deceitfully under 
this name an intolerable adversary, not a helpless, un- 
affectionate, and sullen mass, whose very company re- 
presents the visible and exactest figure of loneliness it- 
self. Such an associate he who puts away, divorces not 
a wife, but disjoins a nullity which God never joined, 
if she be neither willing, nor to her proper and requisite 
duties sufficient, as the words of God institute her. And 
this also is Bucer's explication of this place. 

" Except it be for fornication," or " saving for the 
cause of fornication," as Matt, v.] This declares what 
kind of causes our Saviour meant ; fornication being 
no natural and perpetual cause, but only accidental 
and temporary ; therefore shews that head of causes 
from whence it is excepted, to be meant of the same 
sort. For exceptions are not logically deduced from a 
diverse kind, as to say whoso puts away for any na- 
tural cause except fornication, the exception would 
want salt. And if they understand it, whoso for any 
cause whatever, they cast themselves; granting di- 
vorce for frigidity a natural cause of their own allow- 
ing, though not here expressed, and for desertion with- 
out infidelity, whenas he who marries, as they allow 
him for desertion, deserts as well as is deserted, and 
finally puts away for another cause besides adultery. 
It will with all due reason therefore be thus better un- 
derstood, whoso puts away for any accidental and tem- 
porary causes, except one of them, which is fornication. 
Thus this exception finds out the causes from whence 
it is excepted, to be of the same kind, that is, casual, 
not continual. 

" Saving for the cause of fornication."] The New 
Testament, though it be said originally writ in Greek, 



yet hath nothing near so many Atticisms as Hebraisms, 
and Syriacisms, which was the majesty of God, not 
filing the tongue of Scripture to a Gentilish idiom, but 
in a princely manner offering to them as to Gentiles 
and foreigners grace and mercy, though not in foreign 
words, yet in a foreign style that might induce them 
to the fountains ; and though their calling were high 
and happy, yet still to acknowledge God's ancient 
people their betters, and that language the metropoli- 
tan language. He therefore who thinks to scholiaze 
upon the gospel, though Greek, according to his Greek 
analogies, and hath not been auditor to the oriental 
dialects, shall want in the heat of his analysis no ac- 
commodation to stumble. In this place, as the 5th of 
Matth. reads it, " Saving for the cause of fornication," 
the Greek, such as it is, sounds it, except for the " word, 
report, speech, or proportion" of fornication. In which 
regard, with other inducements, many ancient and 
learned writers have understood this exception, as com- 
prehending any fault equivalent and proportional to 
fornication. But truth is, the evangelist here He- 
braizes, taking " word or speech for cause or matter" 
in the common Eastern phrase, meaning perhaps no 
more than if he had said for fornication, as in this 19th 
chapter. And yet the word is found in the 5th of Ex- 
odus also signifying proportion ; where the Israelites 
are commanded to do their tasks, " the matter of each 
day in his day." A task we know is a proportion of work, 
not doing the same thing absolutely every day, but so 
much. Whereby it may be doubtful yet, whether here 
be not excepted not only fornication itself, but other 
causes equipollent, and proportional to fornication. 
Which very word also to understand rightly, we must 
of necessity have recourse again to the Hebrew. For 
in the Greek and Latin sense by fornication is meant 
the common prostitution of body for sale. So that they 
who are so exact for the letter shall be dealt with by 
the Lexicon, and the Etymologicon too if they please, 
and must be bound to forbid divorce for adultery also, 
until it come to open whoredom and trade, like that for 
which Claudius divorced Messalina. Since therefore 
they take not here the word fornication in the common 
significance, for an open exercise in the stews, but 
grant divorce for one single act of privatest adultery, 
notwithstanding that the word speaks a public and no- 
torious frequency of fact, not without price ; we may 
reason with as good leave, and as little straining to 
the text, that our Saviour on set purpose chose this 
word fornication, improperly applied to the lapse of 
adultery, that we might not think ourselves bound 
from all divorce, except when that fault hath been actu- 
ally committed. For the language of Scripture signi- 
fies by fornication (and others besides St. Austin so ex- 
pounded it) not only the trespass of body, nor perhaps 
that between married persons, unless in a degree or 
quality as shameless as the bordello ; but signifies also 
any notable disobedience, or intractable carriage of the 
wife to the husband, as Judg. xix. 2, whereof at large 
in " the Doctrine of Divorce," 1. 2. c. 18. Secondly, 
signifies the apparent alienation of mind not to idola- 
try, (which may seem to answer the act of adultery,) 



206 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



but far on this side, to any point of will-worship, though 
to the true God ; sometimes it notes the love of earthly 
things, or worldly pleasures, though in a right believer, 
sometimes the least suspicion of unwitting idolatry. 
As Numb. xv. 39, wilful disobedience to any of the 
least of God's commandments is called fornication: 
Psal. Iwiii. 26, 27. a distrust only in God, and with- 
drawing from that nearness of zeal and confidence 
which ought to be, is called fornication. We may be 
sure it could not import thus much less than idolatry in 
the borrowed metaphor between God and man, unless 
it signified as much less than adultery in the ordinary 
acceptation between man and wife. Add also, that 
there was no need our Saviour should grant divorce for 
adultery, it being death by law, and law then in force. 
Which was the cause why Joseph sought to put away 
his betrothed wife privately, lest he should make her 
an example of capital punishment, as learnedest ex- 
pounders affirm, Herod being a great zealot of the 
Mosaic law, and the Pharisees great masters of the 
text, as the woman taken in adultery doubtless had 
cause to fear. Or if they can prove it was neglected, 
which they cannot do, why did our Saviour shape his 
answer to the corruption of that age, and not rather 
tell them of their neglect ? If they say he came not to 
meddle with their judicatures, much less then was it in 
his thought to make them new ones, or that divorce 
should be judicially restrained in a stricter manner by 
these his words, more than adultery judicially acquit- 
ted by those his words to the adulteress. His sentence 
doth no more by law forbid divorce here, than by law 
it doth absolve adultery there. To them therefore, who 
have drawn this yoke upon Christians from his words 
thus wrested, nothing remains but the guilt of a pre- 
sumption and perverseness, which will be hard for them 
to answer. Thus much that the word fornication is to 
be understood as the language of Christ understands it 
for a constant alienation and disaffection of mind, or 
lor the continual practice of disobedience and crossness 
from the duties of love and peace ; that is, in sum, when 
to be a tolerable wife is either naturally not in their 
power, or obstinately not in their will: and this 
opinion also is St. Austin's, lest it should hap to be 
inspected of novelty. Yet grant the thing here meant 
•rere only adultery, the reason of things will afford 
more to our assertion, than did the reason of words, 
lor why is divorce unlawful but only for adultery? 
because, say they, that crime only breaks the matri- 
mony, lint this, I reply, the institution itself gain- 
for that which is most contrary to the words and 
meaning of the institution, that most breaks the matri- 
mony ; bat b perpetual unmeetness and unwillingness 
to all the dudes of help, of love, and tranquillity, is 
ni oat contrary to the words and meaning of the insti- 
tution ; that therefore much more breaks matrimony 
than the ad of adultery, though repeated. For this, 
ai it i- not f. It, nor troubles him who perceives it not, 
io being per© ired, may be soon repented, soon amend- 
ed: WOO, it it can be pardoned, may be redeemed with 
the more ardent Jo\e and duty in her who hath the 
pardon. But this natural unmeetness both cannot be 



unknown long, and ever after cannot be amended, if it 
be natural, and will not, if it be far gone obstinate. So 
that wanting aught in the instant to be as great a breach 
as adultery, it gains it in the perpetuity to be greater. 
Next, adultery does not exclude her other fitness, her 
other pleasingness ; she may be otherwise both loving 
and prevalent, as many adulteresses be; but in this 
general unfitness or alienation she can be nothing to 
him that can please. In adultery nothing is given from 
the husband, which he misses, or enjoys the less, as it 
may be subtly given ; but this unfitness defrauds him 
of the whole contentment which is sought in wedlock. 
And what benefit to him, though nothing be given by 
the stealth of adultery to another, if that which there 
is to give, whether it be solace, or society, be not such 
as may justly content him ? and so not only deprives 
him of what it should give him, but gives him sorrow 
and affliction, which it did not owe him. Besides, is 
adultery the greatest breach of matrimony in respect 
of the offence to God, or of the injury to man? If in 
the former, then other sins may offend God more, and 
sooner cause him to disunite his servant from being one 
flesh with such an offender. If in respect of the latter, 
other injuries are demonstrated therein more heavy to 
man's nature than the iterated act of adultery. God 
therefore, in his wisdom, would not so dispose his re- 
medies, as to provide them for the less injuries, and not 
allow them for the greater. Thus is won both from the 
word fornication, and the reason of adultery, that the 
exception of divorce is not limited to that act, but en- 
larged to the causes above specified. 

" And whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth 
commit adultery."] By this clause alone, if by nothing 
else, we may assure us that Christ intended not to de- 
liver here the whole doctrine of divorce, but only to 
condemn abuses. Otherwise to marry after desertion, 
which the apostle, and the reformed churches at this 
day, permit, is here forbid, as adultery. Be she never 
so wrongfully deserted, or put away, as the law then 
suffered, if thus forsaken and expulsed, she accept the 
refuge and protection of any honester man who would 
love her better, and give herself in marriage to him ; 
by what the letter guides us, it shall be present adul- 
tery to them both. This is either harsh and cruel, or 
all the churches, teaching as they do to the contrary, 
are loose and remiss ; besides that the apostle himself 
stands deeply fined in a contradiction against our Sa- 
viour. What shall we make of this? what rather the 
common interpreter can make of it, for they be his own 
markets, let him now try; let him try which way he 
can wind in his Vertumnian distinctions and evasions, 
if his canonical g-abardine of text and letter do not now 
sit too close about him, and pinch his activity : which 
if I err not, hath here hampered itself in a spring fit 
for those who put their confidence in alphabets. Span- 
heim, a writer of " Evangelic Doubts," comes now and 
confesses, that our Saviour's words are " to be limited 
beyond the limitation there expressed, and excepted 
beyond their own exception," as not speaking of what 
happened rarely, but what most commonly. Is it so 
rare, Spanheim, to be deserted ? or was it then so rare 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



207 



to put away injuriously, that a person so hatefully ex- 
pelled, should to the heaping- of more injury be turned 
like an infectious thing- out of all marriage fruition 
upon pain of adultery, as not considerable to the bre- 
vity of this half sentence ? Of what then speaks our 
Saviour ? " of that collusion," saith he, " which was 
then most frequent among the Jews, of changing wives 
and husbands through inconstancy and unchaste de- 
sires." Colluders yourselves, as violent to this law of 
God by your unmerciful binding, as the Pharisees by 
their unbounded loosening! Have thousands of chris- 
tian souls perished as to this life, and God knows what 
hath betided their consciences, for want of this healing 
explanation ; and is it now at last obscurely drawn 
forth, only to cure a scratch, and leave the main wound 
spouting ? " Whosoever putteth away his wife, except 
for fornication, committeth adultery." That shall be 
spoke of all ages, and all men, though never so justly 
otherwise moved to divorce : in the very next breath, 
;t And whoso marrieth her which is put away commit- 
teth adultery:" the men are new and miraculous, they 
tell you now, " you are to limit it to that age, when it 
was in fashion to chop matrimonies; and must be 
meant of him who puts away with his wife's consent 
through the lightness and lewdness of them both." 
But by what rule of logic, or indeed of reason, is our 
commission to understand the antecedent one way and 
the consequent another ? for in that habitude this whole 
verse may be considered : or at least to take the parts 
of a copulate axiom, both absolutely affirmative, and 
to say, the first is absolutely true, the other not, but 
must be limited to a certain time and custom ; which 
is no less than to say they are both false ? For in this 
compound axiom, be the parts never so many, if one 
of them do but falter, and be not equally absolute and 
general, the rest are all false. If therefore, that " he 
who marries her which is put away commits adultery," 
be not generally true, neither is it generally true, that 
" he commits adultery who puts away for other cause 
than fornication." And if the marrying her which is 
put away must be understood limited, which they can- 
not but yield it must, with the same limitation must 
be understood the putting away. Thus doth the com- 
mon exposition confound itself and justify this which 
is here brought ; that our Saviour, as well in the first 
part of this sentence as in the second, prohibited only 
such divorces as the Jews then made through malice 
or through plotted licence, not those which are for 
necessary and just causes; where charity and wisdom 
disjoins, that which not God, but errour and disaster, 
joined. 

And there is yet to this our exposition^ a stronger 
siding friend, than any can be an adversary, unless St. 
Paul be doubted, who repeating a command concern- 
ing divorce, 1 Cor. vii. which is agreed by writers to 
be the same with this of our Saviour, and appointing 
that the " wife remain unmarried, or be reconciled to 
her husband," leaves it infallible, that our Saviour spake 
chiefly against putting away for casual and choleric 
disagreements, or any other cause which may with 
human patience and wisdom be reconciled ; not hereby 



meaning to hale and dash together the irreconcileable 
aversations of nature, nor to tie up a faultless person 
like a parricide, as it were into one sack with an 
enemy, to be his causeless tormentor and executioner 
the length of a long life. Lastly, let this sentence of 
Christ be understood how it will, yet that it was never 
intended for a judicial law, to be enforced by the ma- 
gistrate, besides that the office of our Saviour had no 
such purpose in the gospel, this latter part of the sen- 
tence may assure us, " And whoso marrieth her which 
is put away, commits adultery." Shall the exception 
for adultery belong to this clause or not ? If not, it 
would be strange, that he who marries a woman really 
divorced for adultery, as Christ permitted, should be- 
come an adulterer by marrying one who is now no other 
man's wife, himself being also free, who might by this 
means reclaim her from common whoredom. And if 
the exception must belong hither, then it follows that 
he who marries an adulteress divorced commits no 
adultery ; which would soon discover to us what an 
absurd and senseless piece of injustice this would be, 
to make a civil statute of in penal courts : whereby the 
adulteress put away may marry another safely ; and 
without a crime to him that marries her; but the inno- 
cent and wrongfully divorced shall not marry again 
without the guilt of adultery both to herself and to her 
second husband. This saying of Christ therefore can- 
not be made a temporal law, were it but for this 
reason. Nor is it easy to say what coherence there is 
at all in it from the letter, to any perfect sense not ob- 
noxious to some absurdity, and seems much less agree- 
able to whatever else of the gospel is left us written : 
doubtless by our Saviour spoken in that fierceness and 
abstruse intricacy, first to amuse his tempters, and ad- 
monish in general the abusers of that Mosaic law ; next, 
to let Herod know a second knower of his unlawful 
act, though the Baptist were beheaded ; last, that his 
disciples and all good men might learn to expound him 
in this place, as in all other his precepts, not by the 
written letter, but by that unerring paraphrase of chris- 
tian love and charity, which is the sum of all commands, 
and the perfection. 

Ver. 10. " His disciples say unto him, If the case 
of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to 
marry." 

This verse I add, to leave no objection behind un- 
answered : for some may think, if* this our Saviour's 
sentence be so fair, as not commanding aught that pa- 
tience or nature cannot brook, why then did the disciples 
murmur and say, " it is not good to marry ?" I answer, 
that the disciples had been longer bred up under the 
pharissean doctrine, than under that of Christ, and so 
no marvel though they yet retained the infection of 
loving old licentious customs ; no marvel though they 
thought it hard they might not for any offence, that 
thoroughly angered them, divorce a wife, as well as 
put away a servant, since it was but giving her a bill, 
as they were taught. Secondly, it was no unwonted 
thing with them not to understand our Saviour in mat- 
ters far easier. So that be it granted their conceit of 



208 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



this text was the same which is now commonly con- 
ceived, according- to the usual rate of their capacity 
then, it will not hurt a better interpretation. But why 
did not Christ, seeing- their errour, inform them ? for 
good cause, it was his professed method not to teach 
them all things at all times, but each thing in due 
place and season. Christ said, Luke xxii. that " he 
who had no sword, should sell his garment and buy 
one :" the disciples took it in a manifest wrong- sense, 
yet our Saviour did not there inform them better. He 
told them, " it was easier for a camel to g-o through a 
needle's eve," than a rich man in at heaven-gate. 
They were " amazed exceedingly :" he explained him- 
self to mean of those " who trust in riches," Mark x. 
" They were amazed then out of measure," for so Mark 
relates it; as if his explaining had increased their 
amazement in such a plain case, and which concerned 
so nearly their calling to be informed in. Good reason 
therefore, if Christ at that time did not stand amplify- 
ing, to the thick prejudice and tradition wherein they 
were, this question of more difficulty, and less concern- 
ment to any perhaps of them in particular. Yet did he 
not omit to sow within them the seeds of a sufficient 
determining, against the time that his promised Spirit 
should bring all things to their memory. He had de- 
clared in their hearing not long before, how distant he 
was from abolishing the law itself of divorce; he had 
referred them to the institution ; and after all this, 
gives them a set answer, from which they might collect 
what was clear enough, that " all men cannot receive 
all sayings," ver. 11. If such regard be had to each 
man's receiving of marriage or single life, what can 
arise, that the same christian regard should not be had 
in most necessary divorce ? All which instructed both 
them and us, that it beseemed his disciples to learn the 
deciding of this question, which hath nothing new in 
it, first by the institution, then by the general grounds 
of religion, not by a particular saying here and there, 
tempered and levelled only to an incident occasion, the 
riddance of a tempting assault. For what can this be 
but weak and shallow apprehension, to forsake the 
standard principles of institution, faith and charity; 
then to be blank and various at every occurrence in 
Scripture, and in a cold spasm of scruple, to rear pecu- 
liar doctrines upon the place, that shall bid the gray 
authority of most unchangeable and sovereign rules 
lo rtand by and be contradicted? Thus to this evan- 
gelic precept of famous difficulty, which for these many 
ages weakly understood, and violently put in practice, 
bath made a shambles rather than an ordinance of 
matrimony, I am firm a truer exposition cannot be 
given. If this or that argument here used please not 
every one, there is no scarcity of arguments, any half 
of then will suffice. Or should they all fail, as truth 
itself can fail at woo, J ibooid content me with the in- 
stitution alone towage this controversy, and not distrust 
to i \ inee. If any need it not, the happier; yet Chris- 
tians ought to study earnestly what may be another's 
But if. u mortal mischances are, some hap to 
lire they abuse not, and give God 
rei iw d this remedy, not too late 



need 

need it. let them be 

his thanks, who hath 



for them, and scowered off an inveterate misexposition 
from the gospel : a work not to perish by the vain 
breath or doom of this age. Our next industry shall 
be, under the same guidance, to try with what fidelity 
that remaining passage in the Epistles touching this 
matter hath been commented. 

1 Cor. vii. 10, &c. 

10. "And unto the married I command," &c.' 

11. " And let not the husband put away his wife." 

This intimates but what our Saviour taught before, 
that divorce is not rashly to be made, but reconcilement 
to be persuaded and endeavoured, as oft as the cause 
can have to do with reconcilement, and is not under 
the dominion of blameless nature ; which may have 
reason to depart, though seldomest and last from cha- 
ritable love, yet sometimes from friendly, and familiar, 
and something oftener from conjugal love, which re- 
quires not only moral, but natural causes to the making 
and maintaining; and maybe warrantably excused to 
retire from the deception of what it justly seeks, and 
the ill requitals which unjustly it finds. For nature 
hath her zodiac also, keeps her great annual circuit 
over human things, as truly as the sun and planets in 
the firmament; hath her anomalies, hath her obliquities 
in ascensions and declinations, accesses and recesses, 
as blamelessly as they in heaven. And sitting in her 
planetary orb with two reins in each hand, one strait, 
the other loose, tempers the course of minds as well as 
bodies to several conjunctions and oppositions, friendly 
or unfriendly aspects, consenting oftest with reason, 
but never contrary. This in the effect no man of 
meanest reach but daily sees ; and though to every 
one it appear not in the cause, yet to a clear capacity, 
well nurtured with good reading and observation, it 
cannot but be plain and visible. Other exposition 
therefore than hath been given to former places, that 
give light to these two summary verses, will not be 
needful : save only that these precepts are meant to 
those married who differ not in religion. 

" But to the rest speak I, not the Lord : if any bro- 
ther hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased 
to dwell with him, let him not put her away." 

Now follows what is to be done, if the persons wed- 
ded be of a different faith. The common belief is, that 
a Christian is here commanded not to divorce, if the 
infidel please to stay, though it be but to vex, or to de- 
ride, or to seduce the Christian. This doctrine will be 
the easy work of a refutation. The other opinion is, 
that a Christian is here conditionally permitted to hold 
wedlock with a misbeliever only, upon hopes limited 
by christian prudence, which without much difficulty 
shall be defended. That this here spoken by Paul, 
not by the Lord, cannot be a command, these reasons 
avouch. First, the law of Moses, Exod. xxxiv. 16, 
Deut. vii. 3, 6, interpreted by Ezra and Nehemiah, two 
infallible authors, commands to divorce an infidel not 
for the fear only of a ceremonious defilement, but of 
an irreligious seducement, feared both in respect of the 
believer himself, and of his children in danerer to be 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



209 






perverted by the misbelieving" parent, Nehem. xiii. 24, 
26. And Peter Martyr thought this a convincing rea- 
son. If therefore the legal pollution vanishing have 
abrogated the ceremony of this law, so that a Christian 
may be permitted to retain an infidel without unclean- 
ness, yet the moral reason of divorcing stands to eter- 
nity, which neither apostle nor angel from heaven can 
countermand. All that they reply to this is their human 
warrant, that God will preserve us in our obedience to 
this command against the danger of seducement. And 
so undoubtedly he will, if we understand his commands 
aright ; if we turn not this evangelic permission into 
a legal, and yet illegal, command ; if we turn not hope 
into bondage, the charitable and free hope of gaining 
another into the forced and servile temptation of losing 
ourselves : but more of this beneath. Thus these words 
of Paul by common doctrine made a command, are 
made a contradiction to the moral law. 

Secondly, Not the law only, but the gospel from the 
law, and from itself, requires even in the same chap- 
ter, where divorce between them of one religion is so 
narrowly forbid, rather than our christian love should 
come into danger of backsliding, to forsake all relations 
how near soever, and the wife expressly, with promise 
of a high reward, Matt. xix. And he who hates not 
father or mother, wife or children, hindering his christ- 
ian course, much more if they despise or assault it, can- 
not be a disciple, Luke xiv. How can the apostle then 
command us to love and continue in that matrimony, 
which our Saviour bids us hate and forsake ? They can 
as soon teach our faculty of respiration to contract and 
to dilate itself at once, to breathe and to fetch breath 
in the same instant, as teach our minds how to do such 
contrary acts as these towards the same object, and as 
they must be done in the same moment. For either 
the hatred of her religion, and her hatred to our religion, 
will work powerfully against the love of her society, 
or the love of that will by degrees flatter out all our 
zealous hatred and forsaking, and soon ensnare us to 
unchristianly compliances. 

Thirdly, In marriage there ought not only to. be a 
civil love, but such a love as Christ loves his church ; 
but where the religion is contrary without hope of con- 
version, there can be no love, no faith, no peaceful so- 
ciety, (they of the other opinion confess it,) nay there 
ought not to be, further than in expectation of gaining 
a soul ; when that ceases, we know God hath put an 
enmity between the seed of the woman, and the seed 
of the serpent. Neither should we " love them that hate 
the Lord," as the prophet told Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 
xix. And this apostle himself in another place warns 
us, that we " be not unequally yoked with infidels," 2 
Cor. vi. for that there can be no fellowship, no com- 
munion, no concord between such. Outward commerce 
and civil intercourse cannot perhaps be avoided ; but 
true friendship and familiarity there can be none. 
How vainly therefore, not to say how impiously, would 
the most inward and dear alliance of marriage or con- 
tinuance in marriage be commanded, where true friend- 
ship is confessed impossible ! For, say they, we are 
forbid here to marry with an infidel, not bid to divorce. 



But to rob the words thus of their full sense, will not 
be allowed them : it is not said, enter not into yoke, 
but " be not unequally yoked ;" which plainly forbids 
the thing in present act, as well as in purpose : and 
his manifest conclusion is, not only that " we should 
not touch," but that having touched, " we should come 
out from among them, and be separate ;" with the pro- 
mise of a blessing thereupon, that " God will receive 
us, will be our father, and we his sons and daughters," 
ver. 17, 18. Why we should stay with an infidel after 
the expense of all our hopes can be but for a civil rela- 
tion ; but why we should depart from a seducer, setting 
aside the misconstruction of this place, is from a religi- 
ous necessity of departing. The worse cause therefore 
of staying (if it be any cause at all, for civil govern- 
ment forces it not) must not overtop the religious cause 
of separating", executed with such an urgent zeal, and 
such a prostrate humiliation, by Ezra and Nehemiah. 
What God hates to join, certainly he cannot love should 
continue joined ; it being all one in matter of ill conse- 
quence, to marry, or to continue married with an infidel, 
save only so long as we wait willingly, and with a safe 
hope. St. Paul therefore citing here a command of the 
Lord Almighty, for so he terms it, that we should sepa- 
rate, cannot have bound us with that which he calls 
his own, whether command or counsel, that we should 
not separate. 

Which is the fourth reason, for he himself takes care 
lest we should mistake him, " but to the rest speak I, 
not the Lord." If the Lord spake not, then man spake 
it, and man hath no lordship to command the con- 
science : yet modern interpreters will have it a com- 
mand, maugre St. Paul himself; they will make him a 
prophet like Caiaphas, to speak the word of the Lord, 
not thinking, nay denying to think: though he disa- 
vow to have received it from the Lord, his word shall 
not be taken ; though an apostle, he shall be borne 
down in his own epistle, by a race of expositors who 
presume to know from whom he spake, better than he 
himself. Paul deposes, that the Lord speaks not this ; 
they, that the Lord speaks it : can this be less than to 
brave him with a full-faced contradiction ? Certainly 
to such a violence as this, for I cannot call it an ex- 
pounding, what a man should answer I know not, un- 
less that if it be their pleasure next to put a gag into 
the apostle's mouth, they are already furnished with 
a commodious audacity toward the attempt. Beza 
would seem to shun the contradictory, by telling us 
that the Lord spake it not in person, as he did the for- 
mer precept. But how many other doctrines doth St. 
Paul deliver, which the Lord spake not in person, and 
yet never uses this preamble but in things indifferent ! 
So long as we receive him for a messenger of God, for 
him to stand sorting sentences, what the Lord spake in 
person, and what he, not the Lord in person, would be 
but a chill trifling, and his readers might catch an ague 
the while. But if we shall supply the grammatical 
ellipsis regularly, and as we must in the same tense, 
all will be then clear, for we cannot supply it thus, to 
the rest I speak, the Lord spake not ; but I speak, the 
Lord speaks not. If then the Lord neither spake in 



210 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



person, nor speaks it now, the apostle testifying both, 
it follows duly, that this can be no command. For- 
sooth the fear is, lest this, not being- a command, would 
prove an evangelic counsel, and so make way for su- 
pererogations. As if tl e apostle could not speak his 
mind in things indifferent, as he doth in four or five 
several places of this chapter with the like preface of 
not commanding, but that the doubted inconvenience 
of supererogating must needs rush in. And how adds 
it to the word of the Lord, (for this also they object,) 
whenas the apostle by his christian prudence guides us 
in the liberty which God hath left us to, without com- 
mand ? Couid not the Spirit of God instruct us by him 
what was free, as well as what was not? But what 
need I more, when Cameron, an ingenuous writer, and 
in high esteem, solidly confutes the surmise of a com- 
mand here, and among other words hath these ; that 
" when Paul speaks as an apostle, he uses this form," 
The Lord saith, not I, ver. 10; " but as a private man 
he saith, I speak, not the Lord." And thus also all the 
prime fathers, Austin, Jerom, and the rest, understood 
this place. 

Fifthly, The very stating of the question declares 
this to be no command ; " If any brother hath an un- 
believing wife, and she be pleased to dwell with him, 
let him not put her away." For the Greek word crvvev- 
coKt'i does not imply only her being pleased to stay, but 
his being pleased to let her stay ; it must be a consent 
of them both. Nor can the force of this word be ren- 
dered less, without either much negligence or iniquity 
of him that otherwise translates it. And thus the Greek 
church also and their synods understood it, who best 
knew what their own language meant, as appears by 
Matthseus Monachus, an author set forth by Leuncla- 
vius, and of antiquity perhaps not inferior to Balsa- 
mon, who writes upon the canons of the apostles: this 
author in his chap. " That marriage is not to be made 
with heretics," thus recites the second canon of the 
6th synod : " As to the Corinthians, Paul determines ; 
If the believing wife choose to live with the unbeliev- 
ing husband, or the believing husband with the unbe- 
liei ing wife. Mark," saith he, " how the apostle here 
condescends, if the believer please to dwell with the 
unbeliever; so that if he please not, out of doubt the 
marriage is dissolved. And I am persuaded it was so 
in the beginning, and thus preached." And thereupon 
gives an example of one, who though not deserted, yet 
by the decree of Theodotus the patriarch divorced an 
unbelieving wife. What therefore depends in the plain 
state of this question on the consent and well liking of 
then both must not he a command. Lay next the lat- 
tet end of the 11th verse to the 12th, (for wherefore else 
)> logic taught us?) in a discreet axiom, as it can be 
no other by the phrase; " The Lord saith, Let not the 
bttband put away his wife: but I say, Let him not put 
au.iv a nitfa Itering wife." This sounds as if by the 
judgment of Paul a man might put away any wife but 
the mUbeKeving ; or else the parts are not discrete, or 
dueentanj, for both conclude not putting awav, and 
DOaseqoentlj in inch a form the proposition is ridicu- 
ImB Of necessity therefore the former part of this 



sentence must be conceived, as understood, and silently 
o-ranted, that although the Lord command to divorce 
an infidel, yet I, not the Lord, command you. No, but 
give my judgment, that for some evangelic reasons a 
Christian may be permitted not to divorce her. Thus 
while we reduce the brevity of St. Paul to a plainer 
sense, by the needful supply of that which was granted 
between him and the Corinthians, the very logic of his 
speech extracts him confessing, that the Lord's com- 
mand lay in a seeming contrariety to this his counsel : 
and that he meant not to thrust out a command of the 
Lord by a new one of his own, as one nail drives an- 
other, but to release us from the rigour of it, by the 
right of the gospel, so far forth as a charitable cause 
leads us in the hope of winning another soul without 
the peril of losing our own. For this is the glory of 
the gospel, to teach us that " the end of the command- 
ment is charity," 1 Tim. i. not the drudging out a poor 
and worthless duty forced from us by the tax and tale 
of so many letters. This doctrine therefore can be no 
command, but it must contradict the moral law, the 
gospel, and the apostle himself, both elsewhere and 
here also even in the act of speaking. 

If then it be no command, it must remain to be a 
permission, and that not absolute, for so it would be 
still contrary to the law, but with such a caution as 
breaks not the law, but as the manner of the gospel is, 
fulfils it through charity. The law had two reasons, 
the one was ceremonial, the pollution that all Gentiles 
were to the Jews ; this the vision of Peter had abol- 
ished, Acts x. and cleansed all creatures to the use of 
a Christian. The Corinthians understood not this, but 
feared lest dwelling in matrimony with an unbeliever, 
they were defiled. The apostle discusses that scruple 
with an evangelic reason, shewing them that although 
God heretofore under the law, not intending the con- 
version of the Gentiles, except some special ones, held 
them as polluted things to the Jew, yet now purposing 
to call them in, he hath purified them from that legal 
unclean ness wherein they stood, to use and to be used 
in a pure manner. 

For saith he, " The unbelieving husband is sanctified 
by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by 
the husband, else were your children unclean ; but 
now they are holy." That is, they are sanctified to 
you, from that legal impurity which you so fear ; and 
are brought into a near capacity to be holy, if they be- 
lieve, and to have free access to holy things. In the 
mean time, as being God's creatures, a Christian hath 
power to use them according to their proper use ; in as 
much as now, " all things to the pure are become pure." 
In this legal respect therefore ye need not doubt to 
continue in marriage with an unbeliever. Thus others 
also expound this place, and Cameron especially. 
This reason warrants us only what we may do without 
fear of pollution, does not bind us that we must. But 
the other reason of the law to divorce an infidel was 
moral, the avoiding of enticement from the true faith. 
This cannot shrink ; but remains in as full force as 
ever, to save the actual Christian from the snare of a 
misbeliever. Yet if a Christian full of grace and spi- 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



211 



ritual gifts, finding- the misbeliever not frowardly af- 
fected, fears not a seducing*, but hopes rather a gain- 
ing, who sees not that this moral reason is not violated 
by not divorcing, which the law commanded to do, but 
better fulfilled by the excellence of the gospel working 
through charity ? For neither the faithful is seduced, 
and the unfaithful is either saved, or with all discharge 
of love and evangelic duty sought to be saved. But 
contrariwise, if the infirm Christian shall be com- 
manded here against his mind, against his hope, and 
against his strength, to dwell with all the scandals, 
the household persecutions, or alluring temptations of 
an infidel, how is not the gospel by this made harsher 
than the law, and more yoking ? Therefore the apos- 
tle, ere he deliver this other reason why we need not 
in all haste put away an infidel, his mind misgiving 
him, lest he should seem to be the imposer of a new 
command, stays not for method, but with an abrupt 
speed inserts the declaration of their liberty in this 
matter. 

"But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart; a 
brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases : 
but God hath called us to peace." 

" But if the unbelieving depart."] This cannot be 
restrained to local departure only : for who knows not 
that an offensive society is worse than a forsaking? If 
his purpose of cohabitation be to endanger the life, or 
the conscience, Beza himself is half persuaded, that 
this may purchase to the faithful person the same free- 
dom that a desertion may; and so Gerard and others 
whom he cites. If therefore he depart in affection ; if 
he depart from giving hope of his conversion; if he 
disturb, or scoff at religion, seduce or tempt; if he 
rage, doubtless not the weak only, but the strong may 
leave him : if not for fear, yet for the dignity's sake of 
religion, which cannot be liable to all base affronts, 
merely for the worshipping of a civil marriage. I 
take therefore " departing " to be as large as the nega- 
tive of being well pleased : that is, if he be not pleased 
for the present to live lovingly, quietly, inoffensively, 
so as may give good hope ; which appears well by that 
which follows. 

" A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such 
cases."] If St. Paul provide seriously against the bon- 
dage of a Christian, it is not the only bondage to live 
unmarried for a deserting infidel, but to endure his 
presence intolerably, to bear indignities against his re- 
ligion in words or deeds, to be wearied with seduce- 
ments, to have idolatries and superstitions ever before 
his eyes, to be tormented with impure and prophane 
conversation; this must needs be bondage to a Chris- 
tian: is this left all unprovided for, without jemedy, 
or freedom granted ? Undoubtedly no ; for the apostle 
leaves it further to be considered with prudence, what 
bondage a brother or sister is not under, not only in 
this case, but as he speaks himself plurally, " in such 
cases." 

" But God hath called us to peace."] To peace, not 
to bondage, not to brabbles and contentions with him 
who is not pleased to live peaceably, as marriage and 
Christianity require. And where strife arises from a 



cause hopeless to be allayed, what better way to peace 
than by separating that which is ill joined ? It is not 
divorce that first breaks the peace of a family, as some 
fondly comment on this place, but it is peace already 
broken, which, when other cures fail, can only be re- 
stored to the faultless person by a necessary divorce. 
And St. Paul here warrants us to seek peace, rather 
than to remain in bondage. If God hath called us to 
peace, why should we not follow him ? why should we 
miserably stay in perpetual discord under a servitude 
not required ? 

" For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt 
save thy husband," &c] St. Paul having thus cleared 
himself, not to go about the mining of our christian 
liberty, not to cast a snare upon us, which to do 
he so much hated, returns now to the second reason of 
that law, to put away an infidel for fear of seducement, 
which he does not here contradict with a command now 
to venture that ; but if neither the infirmity of the Chris- 
tian, nor the strength of the unbeliever, be feared, but 
hopes appearing that he may be won, he judges it no 
breaking of that law, though the believer be permitted 
to forbear divorce, and can abide, without the peril of 
seducement, to offer the charity of a salvation to wife 
or husband, which is the fulfilling, not the transgress- 
ing, of that law ; and well worth the undertaking with 
much hazard and patience. For what knowest thou, 
whether thou shalt save thy wife that is, till all means 
convenient and possible with discretion and probabi- 
lity, as human things are, have been used. For 
Christ himself sends not our hope on pilgrimage to 
the world's end ; but sets it bounds, beyond which we 
need not wait on a brother, much less on an infidel. 
If after such a time we may count a professing Chris- 
tian no better than a heathen, after less time perhaps 
we may cease to hope of a heathen; that he will turn 
Christian. Otherwise, to bind us harder than the 
law, and tell us we are not under bondage, is mere 
mockery. If, till the unbeliever please to part, we 
may not stir from the house of our bondage, then 
certain this our liberty is not grounded in the pur- 
chase of Christ, but in the pleasure of a miscreant. 
What knows the loyal husband, whether he may not 
save the adulteress? he is not therefore bound to re- 
ceive her. What knows the wife, but she may re- 
claim her husband who hath deserted her? Yet the 
reformed churches do not enjoin her to wait longer 
than after the contempt of an ecclesiastical summons. 
Beza himself here befriends us with a remarkable 
speech, " What could be firmly constituted in human 
matters, if under pretence of expecting grace from 
above, it should be never lawful for us to seek our 
right ?" And yet in other cases not less reasonable to 
obtain a most just and needful remedy by divorce, he 
turns the innocent party to a task of prayers beyond 
the multitude of beads and rosaries, to beg the gift of 
chastity in recompense of an injurious marriage. But 
the apostle is evident enough, " we are not under 
bondage;" trusting that he writes to those who are 
not ignorant what bondage is, to let supercilious de- 
terminers cheat them of their freedom. God hath 



212 



EXPOSITIONS OX THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 






called us to peace, and so doubtless hath left in our 
hands how to obtain it seasonably : if it be not our own 
choice to sit ever like novices wretchedly servile. 

Thus much the apostle in this question between 
Christian and pagan, to us now of little use; yet sup- 
posing- it written for our instruction, as it may be rightly 
applied, 1 doubt not but that the difference between a 
true believer and a heretic, or any one truly religious 
either deserted or seeking* divorce from any one grossly 
erroneous or prophane, may be referred hither. For 
St. Paul leaves us here the solution not of this case 
only, which little concerns us, but of such like cases, 
w inch may occur to us. For where the reasons directly 
square, who can forbid why the verdict should not be 
(lie same ? But this the common writers allow us not. 
And yet from this text, which in plain words give liberty 
to none, unless deserted by an infidel, they collect the 
same freedom, though tbe desertion be not for religion, 
which, as I conceive, they need not do; but may, 
without straining, reduce it to the cause of fornication. 
For first, they confess that desertion is seldom without 
a just suspicion of adultery: next, it is a breach of 
marriage in the same kind, and in some sort worse: 
for adultery, though it give to another, yet it bereaves 
not all ; but the deserter wholly denies all right, and 
makes one flesh twain, which is counted the absolutest 
breach of matrimony, and causes the other, as much as 
in him lies, to commit sin, by being so left. Never- 
theless, those reasons, which they bring of establishing 
by this place the like liberty from any desertion, are 
fair and solid : and if the thing* be lawful, and can be 
proved so, more ways than one, so much the safer. 
Their arguments I shall here recite, and that they may 
not come idle, shall use them to make good the like 
freedom to divorce for other causes ; and that we are 
no more under bondage to any heinous default against 
the main ends of matrimony, than to a desertion : first 
they allege that 1 to Tim. v. 8, " If any provide not 
for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, 
and is worse than an infidel." But a deserter, say they, 
" can have no care of them who are most his own ; 
therefore the deserted party is not less to be righted 
against such a one, than against an infidel." With the 
same evidence I argue, that man or wife, who hates in 
wedlock, is perpetually unsociable, unpeaceful, or un- 
dnteoos, either not being able, or not willing to perform 
what the main ends of marriage demand in help and 
M>lace,canno< he said to care for who should be dearest 
in the house; therefore is worse than an infidel in both 
r> gards, either in undertaking a duty which he cannot 
perform, to the undeserved and unspeakable injury of 
it., other party so defrauded and betrayed, or not per- 
forming what he hath undertaken, whenas he may or 
i hare, t<> the perjury of himself, more irreligious 
than heath nism, The Nameless person therefore hath 
as good a plea to sue out his delivery from this bond- 
H from the desertion of an infidel. Since most 
■niteri eannol hut grant that desertion is not only a 
local ahaenee, bul an intolerable society; or if they 
pant it riot. |he reasons of St. Paul grant it, with as 
nracfa tear* SStbej grant to eulurge a particular free- 



dom from paganism, into a general freedom from any 
desertion. Secondly, they reason from the likeness of 
either fact, " the same loss redounds to the deserted by 
a Christian, as by an infidel, the same peril of tempta- 
tion." And I in like manner affirm, that if honest and 
free persons may be allowed to know what is most to 
their own loss, the same loss and discontent, but worse 
disquiet, with continual misery and temptation, resides 
in the company, or better called the persecution of an 
unfit, or an unpeaceable consort, than by his desertion. 
For then the deserted may enjoy himself at least. And 
he who deserts is more favourable to the party whom 
his presence afflicts, than that importunate thing, which 
is and will be ever conversant before the eyes, a loyal 
and individual vexation. As for those who still rudely 
urge it no loss to marriage, no desertion, so long as the 
flesh is present, and offers a benevolence that hates, or 
is justly hated ; I am not of that vulgar and low per- 
suasion, to think such forced embracements as these 
worth the honour, or the humanity of marriage, but 
far beneath the soul of a rational and freeborn man. 
Thirdly, they say, " It is not the infidelity of the de- 
serter, but the desertion of the infidel, from which the 
apostle gives this freedom :" and I join, that the apos- 
tle could as little require our subjection to an unfit and 
injurious bondage present, as to an infidel absent. To 
free us from that which is an evil by being distant, and 
not from that which is an inmate, and in the bosom 
evil, argues an improvident and careless deliverer. 
And thus all occasions, which way soever they turn, 
are not unofficious to administer something which may 
conduce to explain or to defend the assertion of this 
book touching divorce. I complain of nothing, but 
that it is indeed too copious to be the matter of a dis- 
pute, or a defence, rather to be yielded, as in the best 
ages, a thing of common reason, not of controversy. 
What have I left to say ? I fear to be more elaborate in 
such a perspicuity as this ; lest I should seem not to 
teach, but to upbraid the dulness of an age ; not to 
commune with reason in men, but to deplore the loss 
of reason from among men : this only, and not the 
want of more to say, is the limit of my discourse. 

Who among the fathers have interpreted the words of 
Christ concerning divorce, as is here interpreted ; 
and what the civil law of christian emperors in the 
primitive church determined. 

Although testimony be in logic an argument rightly 
called " inartificial," and doth not solidly fetch the truth 
by multiplicity of authors, nor argue a thing false by 
the few that hold so ; yet seeing most men from their 
youth so accustom, as not to scan reason, nor clearly to 
apprehend it, but to trust for that the names and num- 
bers of such, as have got, and many times undeservedly, 
the reputation among them to know much ; and be- 
cause there is a vulgar also of teachers, who are as 
blindly by whom they fancy led, as they lead the 
people, it will not be amiss for them who had rather 
list themselves under this weaker sort, and follow au- 
thorities, to take notice that this opinion, which I bring, 
hath been favoured, and by some of those affirmed, 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



213 



who in their time were able to carry what they taught, 
had they urged it, through all Christendom ; or to 
have left it such a credit with all good men, as they 
who could not boldly use the opinion, would have 
feared to censure it. But since by his appointment on 
whom the times and seasons wait, every point of doc- 
trine is not fatal to be thoroughly sifted out in every 
age ; it will be enough forme to find, that the thoughts 
of wisest heads heretofore, and hearts no less reverenced 
for devotion, have tended this way, and contributed their 
lot in some good measure towards this which hath been 
here attained. Others of them, and modern especially, 
have been as full in the assertion, though not so full 
in the reason ; so that either in this regard, or in the 
former, I shall be manifest in a middle fortune to meet 
the praise or dispraise of being something first. 

But I defer not what I undertook to shew, that in 
the church both primitive and reformed, the words of 
Christ have been understood to grant divorce for other 
causes than adultery ; and that the word fornication in 
marriage hath a larger sense than that commonly sup- 
posed. 

Justin Martyr in his first Apology, written within 
fifty years after St. John died, relates a story which 
Eusebius transcribes, that a certain matron of Rome 5 
the wife of a vicious husband, herself also formerly 
vicious, but converted to the faith, and persuading the 
same to her husband, at least the amendment of his 
wicked life; upon his not yielding to her daily en- 
treaties and persuasions in this behalf, procured by law 
to be divorced from him. This was neither for adultery, 
nor desertion, but as the relation says, " esteeming it 
an ungodly thing to be the consort of bed with him, 
who against the law of nature and of right sought out 
voluptuous ways." Suppose he endeavoured some un- 
natural abuse, as the Greek admits that meaning, it 
cannot yet be called adultery; it therefore could be 
thought worthy of divorce no otherwise than as equi- 
valent, or worse ; and other vices will appear in other 
respects as much divorcive. Next, it is said her friends 
advised her to stay a while; and what reason gave 
they ? riot because they held unlawful what she pur- 
posed, but because they thought she might longer yet 
hope his repentance She obeyed, till the man going 
to Alexandria, and from thence reported to grow still 
more impenitent, not for any adultery or desertion, 
whereof neither can be gathered, but saith the Martyr, 
and speaks it like one approving, " lest she should be 
partaker of his unrighteous and ungodly deeds, remain- 
ing in wedlock, the communion of bed and board with 
such a person, she left him by a lawful divorce." This 
cannot but give us the judgment of the church in 
those pure and next to apostolic times. For how else 
could the woman have been permitted, or here not re- 
prehended ? and if a wife might then do this without 
reproof, a husband certainly might no less, if not 
more. 

Tertullian in the same age, writing his fourth Book 
against Marcion, witnesses " that Christ, by his an- 
swer to the Pharisees, protected the constitution of 
Moses as his own, and directed the institution of the 



Creator," for I alter not his Carthaginian phrase ; " he 
excused rather than destroyed the constitution of Moses; 
I say, he forbid conditionally, if any one therefore put 
away, that he may marry another : so that if he pro- 
hibited conditionally, then not wholly : and what he 
forbad not wholly, he permitted otherwise, where the 
cause ceases for which he prohibited : " that is, when a 
man makes it not the cause of his putting away, merely 
that he may marry again. " Christ teaches not con- 
trary to Moses, the justice of divorce hath Christ the 
asserter : he would not have marriage separate, nor 
kept with ignominy, permitting then a divorce ; " and 
guesses that this vehemence of our Saviour's sentence 
was chiefly bent against Herod, as was cited before. 
Which leaves it evident how Tertullian interpreted this 
prohibition of our Saviour : for whereas the text is, 
" Whosoever putteth away, and marrieth another," 
wherefore should Tertullian explain it, " Whosoever 
putteth away that he may marry another," but to sig- 
nify his opinion, that our Saviour did not forbid di- 
vorce from an unworthy yoke, but forbid the malice or 
the lust of a needless change, and chiefly those plotted 
divorces then in use ? 

Origen in the next century testifies to have known 
certain who had the government of churches in his 
time, who permitted some to marry, while yet their 
former husbands lived, and excuses the deed, as done 
" not without cause, though without Scripture," which 
confirms that cause not to be adultery; for how then 
was it against Scripture that they married again ? And 
a little beneath, for I cite his seventh homily on Mat- 
thew, saith he, " to endure faults worse than adultery 
and fornication, seems a thing unreasonable ; " and 
disputes therefore that Christ did not speak by " way 
of precept, but as it were expounding." By which and 
the like speeches, Origen declares his mind, far from 
thinking that our Saviour confined all the causes of 
divorce to actual adultery. 

Lactantius, of the age that succeeded, speaking of 
this matter in the 6th of his " Institutions," hath these 
words : " But lest any think he may circumscribe di- 
vine precepts, let this be added, that all misinterpret- 
ing, and occasion of fraud or death may be removed, 
he commits adultery who marries the divorced wife ; 
and besides the crime of adultery, divorces a wife that 
he may marry another." To divorce and marry another, 
and to divorce that he may marry another, are two dif- 
ferent things ; and imply that Lactantius thought not 
this place the forbidding of all necessary divorce, but 
such only as proceeded from the wanton desire of a 
future choice, not from the burden of a present affliction. 

About this time the council of Eliberis in Spain de- 
creed the husband excommunicate, " if he kept his wife 
being an adulteress ; but if he left her, he might after 
ten years be received into communion, if he retained 
her any while in his house after the adultery known." 
The council of Neocsesaria, in the year 314, decreed, 
That if the wife of any laic were convicted of adultery, 
that man could not be admitted into the ministry : if 
after ordination it were committed, he was to divorce 
her; if not be could not hold his ministry. The coun- 



•214 



EXPOSITIONS OX THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



i il of Nantes condemned in seven years' penance the 
husband, that would reconcile with an adulteress. But 
how proves this that other causes may divorce ? It 
proves thus : There can be but two causes why these 
councils enjoined so strictly the divorcing- of an adul- 
b ress, either as an offender against God, or against the 
husband ; in the latter respect they could not impose 
on him to divorce ; for every man is the master of his 
own forgiveness; who shall hinder him to pardon the 
in juries done against himself? It follows therefore, 
that the divorce of an adulteress was commanded by 
these three councils, as it was a sin against God ; and 
liv all consequence they could not but believe that 
other sins as heinous might with equal justice be the 
ground of a divorce. 

Basil in his 73d rule, as Chamier numbers it, thus 
determines; " That divorce ought not to be, unless for 
adultery, or the hinderance to a godly life." What doth 
this but proclaim aloud more causes of divorce than 
adultery, if by other sins besides this, in wife or hus- 
band, the godliness of the better person may be certainly 
hindered and endangered? 

Epiphanius no less ancient, writing against heretics, 
and therefore should himself be orthodoxal above others, 
acquaints us in his second book, Tom. 1, not that his 
private persuasion was, but that the whole church in 
his time generally thought other causes of divorce law- 
ful besides adultery, as comprehended under that 
name : " If," saith he, " a divorce happen for any cause, 
either fornication or adultery, or any heinous fault, the 
word of God blames not either the man or wife marry- 
ing again, nor cuts them off from the congregation, or 
from life, but bears with the infirmity; not that he 
may keep both wives, but that leaving the former he 
maybe lawfully joined to the latter: the holy word, 
and the holy church of God, commiserates this man, 
especially if he be otherwise of good conversation, and 
live according to God's law." This place is clearer than 
exposition, and needs no comment. 

Ambrose, on the 16th of Luke, teaches " that all 
n i (flock is not God'sjoining :" and to the 19th of Prov. 

• That a wife is prepared of the Lord," as the old Latin 
translates it, he answers, that the Septuagint renders 
it, " a wife is fitted by the Lord, and tempered to a kind 
of harmony; and where that harmony is, there God 
joins ; where it is not, there dissension reigns, which 
it not from God, for God is love." This he brings to 
prove tin marrying of Christian with Gentile to be no 
marriage, and consequently divorced without sin: but 
be h bo sees not this argument how plainly it serves to 
divorce anj untenable, or unatonable matrimony, sees 
little. On the first to the Cor. vii. he grants a woman 
naj leave her husband not only for fornication, " but 

Ottacy, and inverting nature, though not marry 

•gain : |,„i the man may;" here are causes of divorce 

ed other than adultery. And going on, he affirms, 

• tl.at iIm cause of God is greater than the cause of 
natrimooi ; tk.t the reverence of wedlock is not due 
to him nrbfl hates the author thereof; that no matri- 
HMmj i- firm vMtljont devotion to God; that dishonour 

lJ'-im ;,, (..,fi ,. 1( iiit^ iIk other being deserted from the 



bond of matrimony ; that the faith of marriage is not 
to be kept with such." If these contorted sentences 
be aught worth, it is not the desertion that breaks 
what is broken, but the impiety ; and who then may not 
for that cause better divorce, than tarry to be deserted ? 
or these grave savings of St. Ambrose are but knacks. 

Jerom on the 19th of Matthew explains, that for the 
cause of fornication, or the " suspicion thereof, a man 
may freely divorce." What can breed that suspicion, 
but sundry faults leading that way ? By Jerom's con- 
sent therefore divorce is free not only for actual adul- 
tery, but for any cause that may incline a wise man to 
the just suspicion thereof. 

Austin also must be remembered among those who 
hold, that this instance of fornication gives equal in- 
ference to other faults equally hateful, for which to 
divorce : and therefore in his books to Pollentius he 
disputes, " that infidelity, as being a greater sin than 
adultery, ought so much the rather cause a divorce." 
And on the sermon on the mount, under the name of 
fornication, will have "idolatry, or any harmful super- 
stition," contained, which are not thought to disturb 
matrimony so directly as some other obstinacies and 
disaffections, more against the daily duties of that 
covenant, and in the Eastern tongues not unfrequently 
called fornication, as hath been shewn. " Hence is un- 
derstood," saith he, " that not only for bodily fornica- 
tion, but for that which draws the mind from God's 
law, and foully corrupts it, a man may without fault 
put away his wife, and a wife her husband ; because 
the Lord excepts the cause of fornication, which forni- 
cation we are constrained to interpret in a general 
sense." And in the first book of his " Retractations," 
chap. 16, he retracts not this his opinion, but com- 
mends it to serious consideration ; and explains that 
he counted not there all sin to be fornication, but the 
more detestable sort of sins. The cause of fornication 
therefore is not in this discourse newly interpreted to 
signify other faults infringing the duties of wedlock, 
besides adultery. 

Lastly, the council of Agatha in the year 506, Can. 
25, decreed, that " if laymen who divorced without 
some great fault, or giving no probable cause, therefore 
divorced, that they might marry some unlawful person., 
or some other man's, if before the provincial bishops 
were made acquainted, or judgment passed, they pre- 
sumed this, excommunication was the penalty." 
Whence it follows, that if the cause of divorce were 
some great offence, or that they gave probable causes 
for what they did, and did not therefore divorce, that 
they might presume with some unlawful person, or 
what was another man's, the censure of church in 
those days did not touch them. 

Thus having alleged enough to shew, after what 
manner the primitive church for above 500 years un- 
derstood our Saviour's words touching divorce, I shall 
now, with a labour less dispersed, and sooner dis- 
patched, bring under view what the civil law of those 
times constituted about this matter: I say the civil 
law, which is the honour of every true civilian to stand 
for, rather than to eount that for law, which the politi- 



es 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE. 



215 



fical canon had enthralled them to, and instead of in- 
terpreting a generous and elegant law, made them the 
drudges of a blockish Rubric. 

Theodosius and Valentinian, pious emperors both, 
ordained that, " as by consent lawful marriages were 
made, so by consent, but not without the bill of di- 
vorce, they might be dissolved ; and to dissolve was 
the more difficult, only in favour of the children." We 
see the wisdom and piety of that age, one of the purest 
and learnedest since Christ, conceived no hinderance 
in the words of our Saviour, but that a divorce, mutu- 
ally consented, might be suffered by the law, especially 
if there were no children, or if there were, careful pro- 
vision was made. And further saith that law, (suppos- 
ing there wanted the consent of either,) " We design 
the causes of divorce by this most wholesome law ; for 
as we forbid the dissolving of marriage without just 
cause, so we desire that a husband or a wife distressed 
by some adverse necessity, should be freed though by 
an unhappy, yet a necessary relief." What dram of 
wisdom or religion (for charity is the truest religion) 
could there be in that knowing age, which is not vir- 
tually summed up in this most just law ? As for those 
other christian emperors, from Constantine the first of 
them, finding the Roman law in this point so answer- 
able to the Mosaic, it might be the likeliest cause why 
they altered nothing to restraint ; but if aught, rather 
to liberty, for the help and consideration of the weaker 
sex, according as the gospel seems to make the wife 
more equal to her husband in these conjugal respects, 
than the law of Moses doth. Therefore "if a man 
were absent from his wife four years, and in that space 
not heard of, though gone to war in the service of the 
empire," she might divorce, and marry another, by the 
edict of Constantine to Dalmatius, Cod. 1. 5, tit. 17. 
And this was an age of the church, both ancient and 
cried up still for the most flourishing in knowledge 
and pious government since the apostles. But to re- 
turn to this law of Theodosius, with this observation 
by the way, that still as the church corrupted, as the 
clergy grew more ignorant, and yet more usurping on 
the magistrate, who also now declined, so still divorce 
grew more restrained ; though certainly if better times 
permitted the thing that worse times restrained, it 
would not weakly argue that the permission was bet- 
ter, and the restraint worse. This law therefore of 
Theodosius, wiser in this than the most of his succes- 
sors, though no wiser than God and Moses, reduced 
the causes of divorce to a certain number, which by 
the judicial law of God, and all recorded humanity, 
were left before to the breast of each husband, provided 
that the dismiss was not without reasonable conditions 
to the wife. But this was a restraint not jet come to 
extremes. For besides adultery, and that not only ac- 
tual, but suspected by many signs there set down, any 
fault equally punishable with adultery, or equally in- 
famous, might be the cause of a divorce. Which in- 
forms us how the wisest of those ages understood that 
place in the gospel, whereby not the pilfering of a be- 
nevolence was considered as the main and only breach 
of wedlock, as is now thought, but the breach of love 



and peace, a more holy union than that of the flesh ; 
and the dignity of an honest person was regarded not 
to be held in bondage with one whose ignominy was 
infectious. To this purpose was constituted Cod. 
1. 5, tit. 17, and Authent. collat. 4, tit. i. Novell. 22, 
where Justinian added three causes more. In the 117 
Novell, most of the same causes are allowed, but the 
liberty of divorcing by consent is repealed : but by 
whom ? by Justinian, not a wiser, not a more religious 
emperor than either of the former, but noted by judi- 
cious writers for his fickle head in making and unmak- 
ing laws ; and how Procopius, a good historian, and a 
counsellor of state then living, deciphers him in his 
other actions, I willingly omit. Nor was the church 
then in better case, but had the corruption of a hundred 
declining years swept on it, when the statute of " Con- 
sent " was called in ; which, as I said, gives us every 
way more reason to suspect this restraint, more than 
that liberty : which therefore in the reign of Justin, 
the succeeding emperor, was recalled, Novell. 140, and 
established with a preface more wise and christianly 
than for those times, declaring the necessity to restore 
that Theodosian law, if no other means of reconcile- 
ment could be found. And by whom this law was ab- 
rogated, or how long after, I do not find ; but that those 
other causes remained in force as long as the Greek 
empire subsisted, and were assented to by that church, 
is to be read in the canons and edicts compared by 
Photius the patriarch, with the avertiments of Balsa- 
mon and Matthseus Monachus thereon. 

But long before those days, Leo, the son of Basilius 
Macedo, reigning about the year 886, and for his ex- 
cellent wisdom surnamed the "Philosopher," consti- 
tuted, " that in case of madness, the husband might 
divorce after three years, the wife after five." Constit. 
Leon. Ill, 112. This declares how he expounded our 
Saviour, and derived his reasons from the institution, 
which in his preface with great eloquence are set down ; 
whereof a passage or two may give some proof, though 
better not divided from the rest. u There is not," saith 
he, u a thing more necessary to preserve mankind, than 
the help given him from his own rib ; both God and 
nature so teaching us : which doing so, it was requi- 
site that the providence of law, or if any other care 
be to the good of man, should teach and ordain those 
things which are to the help and comfort of married 
persons, and confirm the end of marriage purposed 
in the beginning, not those things which afflict and 
bring perpetual misery to them." Then answers the 
objection, that they are one flesh ; " If matrimony 
had held so as God ordained it, he were wicked 
that would dissolve it. But if we respect this in ma- 
trimony, that it be contracted to the good of both, 
how shall he, who for some great evil feared, persuades 
not to marry though contracted, not persuade to un- 
marry, if after marriage a calamity befall ? Should we 
bid beware lest any fall into an evil, and leave him 
helpless who by human errour is fallen therein ? This 
were as if we should use remedies to prevent a disease, 
but let the sick die without remedy." The rest will be 
worth reading in the author. 



216 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE 



And thus we have the judgment first of primitive fa- 
thers ; next of the imperial law not disallowed by the 
universal church in ages of her best authority; and 
lastly, of the whole Greek church and civil state, in- 
corporating their canons and edicts together, that di- 
vorce was lawful for other causes equivalent to adultery, 
contained under the word fornication. So that the ex- 
position of our Saviour's sentence here alleged hath all 
these ancient and great asserters ; is therefore neither 
new nor licentious, as some would persuade the com- 
monalty ; although it be nearer truth that nothing is 
more new than those teachers themselves, and nothing 
more licentious than some known to be, whose hypo- 
crisy yet shames not to take offence at this doctrine 
for licence ; whenas indeed they fear it would remove 
licence, and leave them but few companions. 

That the pope's canon law, encroaching upon civil ma- 
gistracy, abolished all divorce even for adultery. 
What the reformed divines have recovered ; and that 
the famousest of them have taught according to the 
assertioii of this book. 

But in these western parts of the empire, it will ap- 
pear almost unquestionable, that the cited law of Theo- 
dosius and Valentinian stood in force until the blindest 
and corruptest times of popedom displaced it. For, that 
the volumes of Justinian never came into Italy, or be- 
yond Illyricum, is the opinion of good antiquaries. 
And that only manuscript thereof found in Apulia, by 
Lotharius the Saxon, and given to the states of Pisa, 
for their aid at sea against the Normans of Sicily, was 
received as a rarity not to be matched. And although 
the Goths, and after them the Lombards and Franks, 
who overrun the most of Europe, except this island, 
(unless we make our Saxons and Normans a limb of 
them,) brought in their own customs, yet that they fol- 
lowed the Roman laws in their contracts in marriages, 
Agathias the historian is alleged. And other testimo- 
nies relate, that Alaricus and Theodoric, their kings, 
writ their statutes out of this Theodosian code, which 
hath the recited law of divorce. Nevertheless, while 
the monarchs of Christendom were yet barbarous, and 
but half-Christian, the popes took this advantage of 
their weak superstition, to raise a corpulent law out of 
the canons and decretals of audacious priests ; and pre- 
sumed also to set this in the front: " That the consti- 
tutions of princes are not above the constitutions of 
clergy, but beneath them." Using this very instance 
of divorce, as the first prop of their tyranny ; by a false 
i onaequence drawn from a passage of Ambrose upon 
Luke, where he saith, though " man's law grant it, 
rod'l Law prohibits it:" whence Gregory the pope, 
writing to Tbeoctista, infers that ecclesiastical courts 
< annot be dissolved by the magistrate. A fair conclu- 
sion from a doable errour. First, in saying that the 
divine law prohibited divorce : (for what will he make 
of Moses?) next, supposing that it did, how will it 
follow, thai whatever Christ forbids in his evangelic 
precepts, should be haled into a judicial constraint 
■gainst th pattern of a divine law? Certainly the 
gospel CUM not to enact inch compulsions. In the 



mean while we may note here, that the restraint of di- 
vorce was one of the first fair seeming pleas which the 
pope had, to step into secular authority, and with his 
antichristian rigour to abolish the permissive law of 
christian princes conforming to a sacred lawgiver. 
Which if we consider, this papal and unjust restriction 
of divorce need not be so dear to us, since the plau- 
sible restraining of that was in a manner the first loos- 
ening of Antichrist, and, as it were, the substance of 
his eldest horn. Nor do we less remarkably owe the 
first means of his fall here in England, to the contemn- 
ing of that restraint by Henry the VIII, whose divorce 
he opposed. Yet was not that rigour executed an- 
ciently in spiritual courts, until Alexander the Hid, 
who trod upon the neck of Frederic Barbarossa the em- 
peror, and summoned our Henry lid into Normandy, 
about the death of Becket. He it was, that the worthy 
author may be known, who first actually repealed the 
imperial law of divorce, and decreed this tyrannous de- 
cree, that matrimony for no cause should be dissolved, 
though for many causes it might separate ; as may be 
seen Decret. Gregor. 1. 4, tit. 19, and in other places 
of the canonical tomes. The main good of which in- 
vention, wherein it consists, who can tell ? but that it 
hath one virtue incomparable, to fill all Christendom 
with whoredoms and adulteries, beyond the art of Ba- 
laams, or of devils. Yet neither can these, though so 
perverse, but acknowledge that the words of Christ, 
under the name of fornication, allow putting away for 
other causes than adultery, both from " bed and board," 
but not from the " bond;" their only reason is, be- 
cause marriage they believe to be a " sacrament." But 
our divines, who would seem long since to have re- 
nounced that reason, have so forgot themselves, as yet 
to hold the absurdity, which but for that reason, unless 
there be some mystery of Satan in it, perhaps the pa- 
pist would not hold. It is true, we grant divorce for 
actual and proved adultery, and not for less than many 
tedious and unrepairable years of desertion, wherein a 
man shall lose all his hope of posterity, which great 
and holy men have bewailed, ere he can be righted ; 
and then perhaps on the confines of his old age, when 
all is not worth the while. But grant this were sea- 
sonably done ; what are these two cases to many other, 
which afflict the state of marriage as bad, and yet find 
no redress ? What hath the soul of man deserved, if it 
be in the way of salvation, that it should be mortgaged 
thus, and may not redeem itself according to conscience 
out of the hands of such ignorant and slothful teachers 
as these, who are neither able nor mindful to give due 
tendance to that precious cure which they rashly un- 
dertake ; nor have in them the noble goodness, to con- 
sider these distresses and accidents of man's life, but 
are bent rather to fill their mouths with tithe and ob- 
lation ? Yet if they can learn to follow, as well as they 
can seek to be followed, I shall direct them to a fair 
number of renowned men, worthy to be their leaders, 
who will commend to them a doctrine in this point 
wiser than their own ; and if they be not impatient, 
it will be the same doctrine which this treatise hath 
defended. 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE, 



217 



WicklifF, that Englishman honoured of God to be 
the first preacher of a general reformation to all Eu- 
rope, was not in this thing better taught of God, than 
to teach among his chiefest recoveries of truth, " that 
divorce is lawful to the Christian for many other causes 
equal to adultery." This book indeed, through the 
poverty of our libraries, I am forced to cite from " Arni- 
sseus of Halberstad on the Rite of Marriage," who cites 
it from Corasius of Toulouse, c. 4. Cent. Sect, and he 
from WicklifF, 1. 4. Dial. c. 21. So much the sorrier, 
for that I never looked into an author cited by his ad- 
versary upon this occasion, but found him more conduci- 
ve to the question than his quotation rendered him. 

Next, Luther, how great a servant of God ! in his 
book of " Conjugal Life" quoted by Gerard out of the 
Dutch, allows divorce for the obstinate denial of con- 
jugal duty ; and " that a man may send away a proud 
Vashti, and marry an Esther in her stead." It seems, 
if this example shall not be impertinent, that Luther 
meant not only the refusal of benevolence, but a stub- 
born denial of any main conjugal duty; or if he did 
not, it will be evinced from what he allows. For out 
of question, with men that are not barbarous, love, and 
peace, and fitness, will be yielded as essential to mar- 
riage, as corporal benevolence. " Though I give my 
body to be burnt," saith St. Paul, " and have not cha- 
rity, it profits me nothing." So though the body pros- 
titute itself to whom the mind affords no other love or 
peace, but constant malice and vexation, can this bodily 
benevolence deserve to be called a marriage between 
Christians and rational creatures ? 

Melancthon, the third great luminary of reformation, 
in his book " concerning Marriage," grants divorce for 
cruel usage, and danger of life, urging the authority 
of that Theodosian law, which he esteems written with 
the grave deliberation of godly men ; " and that they 
who reject this law, and think it disagreeing from the 
gospel, understand not the difference of law and gos- 
pel ; that the magistrate ought not only to defend life, 
but to succour the weak conscience ; lest, broke with 
grief and indignation, it relinquish prayer, and turn to 
some unlawful thing." What if this heavy plight of 
despair arise from other discontents in wedlock, which 
may go to the soul of a good man more than the dan- 
ger of his life, or cruel using, which a man cannot be 
liable to ? suppose it be ingrateful usage, suppose it 
be perpetual spite and disobedience, suppose a hatred; 
shall not the magistrate free him from this disquiet 
which interrupts his prayers, and disturbs the course of 
his service to God and his country all as much, and 
brings him such a misery, as that he more desires to 
leave his life, than fears to lose it? Shall not this 
equally concern the office of civil protection, and much 
more the charity of a true church, to remedy ? 

Erasmus, who for learning was the wonder of his 
age, both in his Notes on Matthew, and on the first to 
the Corinthians, in a large and eloquent discourse, and 
in his answer to Phimostomus, a papist, maintains (and 
no protestant then living contradicted him) that the 
words of Christ comprehend many other causes of di- 
vorce under the name of fornication. 



Bucer, (whom our famous Dr. Rainolds was wont to 
prefer before Calvin,) in his comment on Matthew, and 
in his second book " of the Kingdom of Christ," treats 
of divorce at large, to the same effect as is written in 
" the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce " lately pub- 
lished, and the translation is extant: whom, lest I 
should be thought to have wrested to mine own purpose, 
take something more out of his 49th chapter, which I 
then for brevity omitted. " It will be the duty of 
pious princes, and all who govern church or common- 
wealth, if any, whether husband or wife, shall affirm 
their want of such, who either will or can tolerably 
perform the necessary duties of married life, to grant 
that they may seek them such, and marry them ; if 
they make it appear that such they have not." This 
book he wrote here in England, where he lived the 
greatest admired man ; and this he dedicated to Ed- 
ward the Vlth. 

Fagius, ranked among the famous divines of Ger- 
many, whom Frederic, at that time the Palatine, sent 
for to be the reformer of his dominion, and whom after- 
wards England sought to, and obtained of him to come 
and teach her, differs not in this opinion from Bucer, as 
his notes on the Chaldee Paraphrast well testify. 

The whole church of Strasburgh in her most flou- 
rishing time, when Zellius, Hedio, Capito, and other 
great divines, taught there, and those two renow r ned 
magistrates, Farrerus and Sturmius, governed that com- 
monwealth and academy to the admiration of all Ger- 
many, hath thus in the 21st article : " We teach, that 
if according to the word of God, yea, or against it, di- 
vorces happen, to do according to God's word, Deut. 
xxiv. 1. Matt. xix. 1 Cor. vii. and the observation of 
the primitive church, and the christian constitution of 
pious Csesars." 

Peter Martyr seems in word our easy adversary, but 
is indeed for us : toward which, though it be something 
when he saith of this opinion, " that it is not wicked, 
and can hardly be refuted," this which follows is much 
more; " I speak not here," saith he, " of natural im- 
pediments, which may so happen, that the matrimony 
can no longer hold :" but adding, that he often won- 
dered " how the ancient and most christian emperors 
established those laws of divorce, and neither Ambrose, 
who had such influence upon the laws of Theodosius, 
nor any of those holy fathers found fault, nor any of 
the churches, why the magistrates of this day should 
be so loth to constitute the same. Perhaps they fear 
an inundation of divorces, which is not likely; when- 
as we read not either among the Hebrews, Greeks, or 
Romans, that they were much frequent where they 
were most permitted. If they judge christian men 
worse than Jews or pagans, they both injure that 
name, and by this reason will be constrained to grant 
divorces the rather; because it was permitted as a 
remedy of evil, for who would remove the medicine, 
while the disease is yet so rife ?" This being read both 
in " his Commonplaces," and on the first to the Corinthi- 
ans, with what we shall relate more of him yet ere the 
end, sets him absolutely on this side. Not to insist that 
in both these, and other places of his commentaries, he 



218 



EXPOSITIONS ON THE FOUR CHIEF PLACES IN SCRIPTURE, 



grants divorce not only for desertion, but for the se- 
ducement and scandalous demeanour of an heretical 
consort. 

Musculus, a divine of no obscure fame, distinguishes 
between the religious and the civil determination of 
divorce ; and leaving the civil wholly to the lawyers, 
pronounces a commonable divorce for impotence not 
only natural, but accidental, if it be durable. His equity 
it seems, can enlarge the words of Christ to one cause 
more than adultery; why may not the reason of another 
man as wise enlarge them to another cause ? 

Gualtcr of Zuric, a well-known judicious commen- 
tator, in his homilies on Matthew, allows divorce for 
" leprosy, or any other cause which renders unfit for 
wedlock," and calls this rather " a nullity of marriage 
than a divorce." And who, that is not himself a mere 
body, can restrain all the unfitness of marriage only to 
a corporeal defect ? 

Hemingius, an author highly esteemed, and his works 
printed at Geneva, writing of divorce, confesses that 
learned men " vary in this question, some granting 
three causes thereof, some five, others many more ;" 
he himself gives us six, " adultery, desertion, inability, 
errour, evil usage, and impiety," using argument" that 
Christ under one special contains the whole kind, and 
under the name and example of fornication, he includes 
other causes equipollent." This discourse he wrote at 
the request of many who had the j udging of these causes 
in Denmark and Norway, who by all likelihood fol- 
lowed his advice. 

Hunnius, a doctor of Wittenberg, well known both 
in divinity and other arts, on the 19th of Matt, affirms, 
" That the exception of fornication expressed by our 
Saviour, excludes not other causes equalling adultery, 
or destructive to the substantiate of matrimony ; but 
was opposed to the custom of the Jews, who made di- 
vorce for every light cause." 

Felix Bidenbachius, an eminent divine in the duchy 
of YVirtemberg, affirms, " That the obstinate refusal of 
conjugal due is a lawful cause of divorce ;" and gives 
an instance, " that the consistory of that state so judg- 
ed." 

Gerard cites Harbardus, an author not unknown, and 
AruisaHis cites Wigandus, both yielding divorce in case 
of cruel usage ; and another author, who testifies to 
" have seen, in a dukedom of Germany, marriages dis- 
jointed for some implacable enmities arising." 

Beza, one of the strictest against divorce, denies it 
not " for danger of life from a heretic, or importunate 
solicitation to do aught against religion :" and counts 
n • ;ill one whether the heretic desert, or would stay 
ujmpii intolerable conditions." But this decision, well 
< y a mined , will be found of no solidity. For Beza would 
be uked why, if God so strictly exact our stay in any 
kind of wedlock, we had not better stay and hazard a 
murdering for religion at the hand of a wife or husband 
as he and others enjoin us to stay and venture it for 
all other causes but that ? and why a man's life is not 
as u.ll and warrantably saved by divorcing from an 
orthodox murderer, as an heretical? Again, if desertion 
be Confessed by him to consist not only in the forsak- 



ing, but in the unsufferable conditions of staying, a 
man may as well deduce the lawfulness of divorcing 
from any intolerable conditions, (if his grant be good, 
that we may divorce thereupon from a heretic,) as he 
can deduce it lawful to divorce from any deserter, by 
finding it lawful to divorce from a deserting infidel. 
For this is plain, if St. Paul's permission to divorce an 
infidel deserter infer it lawful for any malicious deser- 
tion, then doth Beza's definition of a deserter transfer 
itself with like facility from the cause of religion, to 
the cause of malice, and proves it as good to divorce 
from him who intolerably stays, as from him who pur- 
posely departs ; and leaves it as lawful to depart from 
him who urgently requires a wicked thing, though 
professing the same religion, as from him who urges a 
heathenish or superstitious compliance in a different 
faith. For if there be such necessity of our abiding, 
we ought rather to abide the utmost for religion, than 
for any other cause ; seeing both the cause of our stay 
is pretended our religion to marriage, and the cause of 
our suffering is supposed our constant marriage to re- 
ligion. Beza therefore, by his own definition of a de- 
serter, justifies a divorce from any wicked or intolerable 
conditions rather in the same religion than in a different. 

Aretius, a famous divine of Bern, approves many 
causes of divorce in his " Problems," and adds, " that 
the laws and consistories of Switzerland approve them 
also." As first, " adultery, and that not actual only, 
but intentional ;" alleging Matthew v. " Whosoever 
looketh to lust, hath committed adultery already in his 
heart. Whereby," saith he, " our Saviour shews, that 
the breach of matrimony may be not only by outward 
act, but by the heart and desire ; when that hath once 
possessed, it renders the conversation intolerable, and 
commonly the fact follows." Other causes to the num- 
ber of nine or ten, consenting in most with the imperial 
laws, may be read in the author himself, who avers 
them " to be grave and weighty." All these are men 
of name in divinity; and to these, if need were, might 
be added more. Nor have the civilians been all so 
blinded by the canon, as not to avouch the justice of 
those old permissions touching divorce. 

Alciat of Milain, a man of extraordinary wisdom and 
learning, in the sixth book of his " Parerga," defends 
those imperial laws, " not repugnant to the gospel," as 
the church then interpreted. " For," saith he, " the 
ancients understood him separate by man, whom pas- 
sions and corrupt affections divorced, not if the pro- 
vincial bishops first heard the matter, and judged, as 
the council of Agatha declares :" and on some part of 
the Code he names Isidorus Hispalensis, the first com- 
puter of canons, " to be in the same mind." And in 
the former place gives his opinion, " that divorce might 
be more lawfully permitted than usury." 

Corasius, recorded by Helvicus among the famous 
lawyers, hath been already cited of the same judgment. 

Wesembechius, a much-named civilian, in his com- 
ment on this law defends it, and affirms, " That our 
Saviour excluded not other faults equal to adultery ; 
and that the word fornication signifies larger among 
the Hebrews than with us, comprehending every fault, 



WHICH TREAT OF NULLITIES IN MARRIAGE, 



219 



which alienates from him to whom obedience is due, 
and that the primitive church interpreted so." 

Grotius, yet living", and of prime note among learned 
men, retires plainly from the canon to the ancient ci- 
vility, yea, to the Mosaic law, " as being- most just and 
undeceivable." On the 5th of Matth. he saith, " That 
Christ made no civil laws, but taught us how to use 
law: that the law sent not a husband to the judge 
about this matter of divorce, but left him to his own 
conscience ; that Christ therefore cannot be thought to 
send him; that adultery may be judged by a vehe- 
ment suspicion ; that the exception of adultery seems 
an example of other like offences ;" proves it " from 
the manner of speech, the maxims of law, the reason 
of charity, and common equity." 

These authorities, without long search, I had to pro- 
duce, all excellent men, some of them such as many 
ages had brought forth none greater : almost the mean- 
est of them might deserve to obtain credit in a singu- 
larity ; what might not then all of them joined in an 
opinion so consonant to reason ? For although some 
speak of this cause, others of that, why divorce may 
be, yet all agreeing in the necessary enlargement of 
that textual straitness, leave the matter to equity, not 
to literal bondage ; and so the opinion closes. Nor 
could I have wanted more testimonies, had the cause 
needed a more solicitous inquiry. But herein the satis- 
faction of others hath been studied, not the gaining of 
more assurance to mine own persuasion : although au- 
thorities contributing reason withal be a good confirm- 
ation and a welcome. But God (I solemnly attest 
him!) withheld from my knowledge the consenting 
judgment of these men so late, until they could not be 
my instructors, but only my unexpected witnesses to 
partial men, that in this work I had not given the worst 
experiment of an industry joined with integrity, and 
the free utterance, though of an unpopular truth. 
Which yet to the people of England may, if God so 
please, prove a memorable informing ; certainly a bene- 
fit which was intended them long since by men of 
highest repute for wisdom and piety, Bucer and Eras- 
mus. Only this one authority more, whether in place 
or out of place, I am not to omit; which if any can 
think a small one, I must be patient, it is no smaller 
than the whole assembled authority of England both 
church and state ; and in those times which are on re- 
cord for the purest and sincerest that ever shone yet on 
the reformation of this island, the time of Edward the 
Sixth. That worthy prince, having utterly abolished 
the canon law out of his dominions, as his father did 
before him, appointed by full vote of parliament a com- 



mittee of two and thirty chosen men, divines and law- 
yers, of whom Cranmer the archbishop, Peter Martyr, 
and Walter Haddon, (not without the assistance of Sir 
John Cheeke the king's tutor, a man at that time 
counted the learnedest of Englishmen, and for piety 
not inferior,) were the chief, to frame anew some ec- 
clesiastical laws, that might be instead of what was 
abrogated. The work with great diligence was finish- 
ed, and with as great approbation of that reforming 
age was received; and had been doubtless, as the 
learned preface thereof testifies, established by act of 
parliament, had not the good king's death, so soon en- 
suing, arrested the further growth of religion also, from 
that season to this. Those laws, thus founded on the 
memorable wisdom and piety of that religious parlia- 
ment and synod, allow divorce and second marriage, 
" not only for adultery or desertion, but for any capital 
enmity or plot laid against the other's life, and like- 
wise for evil and fierce usage :" nay the twelfth chap- 
ter of that title by plain consequence declares, " that 
lesser contentions, if they be perpetual, may obtain di- 
vorce :" which is all one really with the position by 
me held in the former treatise published on this argu- 
ment, herein only differing, that there the cause of 
perpetual strife was put for example in the unchange- 
able discord of some natures; but in these laws in- 
tended us by the best of our ancestors, the effect of 
continual strife is determined no unjust plea of divorce, 
whether the cause be natural or wilful. Whereby the 
wariness and deliberation, from which that discourse 
proceeded, will appear, and that God hath aided us to 
make no bad conclusion of this point; seeing the 
opinion, which of late hath undergone ill censures 
among the vulgar, hath now proved to have done no 
violence to Scripture, unless all these famous authors 
alleged have done the like; nor hath affirmed aught 
more than what indeed the most nominated fathers of 
the church, both ancient and modern, are unexpect- 
edly found affirming; the laws of God's peculiar peo- 
ple, and of primitive Christendom found to have prac- 
tised, reformed churches and states to have imitated, 
and especially the most pious church-times of this 
kingdom to have framed and published, and, but for 
sad hinderances in the sudden change of religion, had 
enacted by the parliament. Henceforth let them, who 
condemn the assertion of this book for new and licen- 
tious, be sorry; lest, while they think to be of the 
graver sort, and take on them to be teachers, they ex- 
pose themselves rather to be pledged up and down by 
men who intimately know them, to the discovery and 
contempt of their ignorance and presumption. 



COLASTERION: 



A REPLY TO A NAMELESS ANSWER AGAINST THE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE 

OF DIVORCE. 



WHEREIN THE TRIVIAL AUTHOR OF THAT ANSWER IS DISCOVERED, THE LICENSER CONFERRED WITH, AND THE OPINION, 

WHICH THEY TRADUCE, DEFENDED. 



Prov. xxvi. 5. " Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. 

[FIRST PUBLISHED 16-45.] 



After many rumours of confutations and convictions, 
forthcoming- against the Doctrine and Discipline of 
Divorce, and now and then a by-blow from the pulpit, 
feathered with a censure strict indeed, but how true, 
more beholden to the authority of that devout place, 
which it borrowed to be uttered in, than to any sound 
reason which it could oracle; while I still hoped as for 
a blessing to see some piece of diligence, or learned 
discretion, come from them, it was my hap at length, 
lighting on a certain parcel of queries, that seek and 
find not, to find not seeking, at the tail of anabaptistical, 
antinomian, heretical, atheistical epithets, a jolly slan- 
der, called " Divorce at Pleasure." I stood awhile and 
wondered, what we might do to a man's heart, or what 
anatomy use, to find in it sincerity ; for all our wonted 
marks every day fail us, and where we thought it was, 
we see it is not, for alter and change residence it can- 
not sure. And yet I see no good of body or of mind 
secure to a man for all his past labours, without per- 
petual watchfulness and perseverance : whenas one 
above others, who hath suffered much and long in the 
defence of truth, shall after all this give her cause to 
leave him so destitute and so vacant of her defence, as 
to jrield his mouth to be the common road of truth and 
falsehood, and such falsehood as is joined with a rash 
and heedless calumny of his neighbour. For what book 
hath he ever met with, as his complaint is, " printed 
in the city," maintaining either in the title, or in the 
whole pursuance, " Divorce at Pleasure ?" It is true, 
that to divorce upon extreme necessity, when through 
the perverseness, or the apparent unfitness of either, 
tli< continuance can be to both no good at all, but an 
intolerable injury and temptation to the wronged and 
the defrauded ; to divorce then, there is a book that 
•riitef it lawful. And that this law is a pure and 
wholesome national law, not to be withheld from good 
men, because others likely enough may abuse it to their 
pleasure, cannot be charged upon thai book, but must 



be entered a bold and impious accusation against God 
himself; who did not for this abuse withhold it from 
his own people. It will be just therefore, and best for 
the reputation of him who in his Subitanes hath thus 
censured, to recall his sentence. And if, out of the 
abundance of his volumes, and the readiness of his 
quill, and the vastness of his other employments, espe- 
cially in the gTeat audit for accounts, he can spare us 
aught to the better understanding- of this point, he shall 
be thanked in public ; and what hath offended in the 
book shall willingly submit to his correction. Provided 
he be sure not to come with those old and stale suppo- 
sitions, unless he can take away clearly what that dis- 
course hath urged against them, by one who will expect 
other arguments to be persuaded the good health of a 
sound answer, than the gout and dropsy of a big mar- 
gin, littered and overlaid with crude and huddled quo- 
tations. But as I still was waiting, when these light- 
armed refuters would have done pelting at their three 
lines uttered with a sage delivery of no reason, but an 
impotent and worse than Bonnerlike censure, to burn 
that which provokes them to a fair dispute ; at length 
a book was brought to my hands, intitled " An Answer 
to the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." Gladly I 
received it, and very attentively composed myself to 
read ; hoping that now some good man had vouchsafed 
the pains to instruct me better, than I could yet learn 
out of all the volumes, which for this purpose I had 
visited. Only this I marvelled, and other men have 
since, whenas I, in a subject so new to this age, and so 
hazardous to please, concealed not my name, why this 
author, defending that part which is so creeded by the 
people, would conceal his. But ere I could enter three 
leaves into the pamphlet, (for I defer the peasantly 
rudeness, which by the licenser's leave I met with after- 
wards,) my satisfaction came in abundantly, that it 
could be nothing why he durst not name himself, but 
the guilt of his own wretchedness. For first, not to 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE DOCTRINE, &c. 



221 



speak of his abrupt and bald beginning-, his very first 
page notoriously bewrays him an illiterate and arro- 
gant presumer in that which he understands not, bear- 
ing" us in hand as if he knew both Greek and Hebrew, 
and is not able to spell it; which had he been, it had 
been either written as it ought, or scored upon the 
printer. If it be excused as the carelessness of his 
deputy, be it known, the learned author himself is in- 
ventoried, and summoned up to the utmost value of his 
livery-cloak. Whoever he be, though this to some may 
seem a slight contest, I shall yet continue to think that 
man full of other secret injustice, and deceitful pride, 
who shall offer in public to assume the skill though it 
be but of a tongue which he hath not, and would catch 
his readers to believe of his ability, that which is not 
in him. The licenser indeed, as his authority now 
stands, may license much ; but if these Greek orthogra- 
phies were of his licensing, the boys at school might 
reckon with him at his grammar. Nor did I find this 
his want of the pretended languages alone, but accom- 
panied with such a low and homespun expression of 
his mother English all along, without joint or frame, 
as made me, ere I knew further of him, often stop and 
conclude, that this author could for certain be no other 
than some mechanic. Nor was the style flat and rude, 
and the matter grave and solid, for then there had been 
pardon ; but so shallow and so unwary was that also, 
as gave sufficiently the character of a gross and slug- 
gish, yet a contentious and overweening, pretender. 
For first, it behoving him to shew, as he promises, 
what divorce is, and what the true doctrine and disci- 
pline thereof, and this being to do by such principles 
and proofs as are received on both sides, he performs 
neither of these; but shews it first from the judaical 
practice, which he himself disallows, and next from 
the practice of canon law, which the book he would 
confute utterly rejects, and all laws depending thereon ; 
which this puny clerk calls " the Laws of England," 
and yet pronounceth them by an ecclesiastical judge : 
as if that were to be accounted the law of England 
which dependeth on the popery of England ; or if it 
were, this parliament he might know hath now damned 
that judicature. So that whether his meaning were to 
inform his own party, or to confute his adversary, in- 
stead of shewing us the true doctrine and discipline 
of divorce, he shews us nothing but his own con- 
temptible ignorance. For what is the Mosaic law to 
his opinion ? And what is the canon, now utterly an- 
tiquated, either to that, or to mine ? Ye see already 
what a faithful definer we have him. From such a 
wind-egg of definition as this, they who expect any of 
his other arguments to be well hatched, let them enjoy 
the virtue of their worthy champion. But one thing 
more I observed, a singular note of his stupidity, and 
that his trade is not to meddle with books, much less 
with confutations ; whenas the " Doctrine of Divorce" 
had now a whole year been published the second time, 
with many arguments added, and the former ones bet- 
tered and confirmed, this idle pamphlet comes reeling 
forth against the first edition only ; as may appear to 
any by the pages quoted : which put me in mind of 



what by chance I had notice of to this purpose the last 
summer, as nothing so serious but happens ofttimes to 
be attended with a ridiculous accident : it was then 
told me, that the " Doctrine of Divorce" was answered, 
and the answer half printed against the first edition, 
not by one, but by a pack of heads ; of whom the chief, 
by circumstance, was intimated to me, and since ratified 
to be no other, if any can hold laughter, and I am sure 
none will guess him lower, than an actual serving-man. 
This creature, for the story must on, (and what though 
he be the lowest person of an interlude, he may deserve 
a canvassing,) transplanted himself, and to the im- 
provement of his wages, and your better notice of his 
capacity, turned solicitor. And having conversed much 
with a stripling divine or two of those newly-fledged 
probationers, that usually come scouting from the uni- 
versity, and lie here no lame legers to pop into the Be- 
thesda of some knight's chaplainship, where they bring 
grace to his good cheer, but no peace or benediction 
else to his house ; these made the cham-party, he con- 
tributed the law, and both joined in the divinity. 
Which made me intend following the advice also of 
friends, to lay aside the thought of mispending a reply 
to the buz of such a drone's nest. But finding that it 
lay, whatever was the matter, half a year after un- 
finished in the press, and hearing for certain that a 
divine of note, out of his good will to the opinion, had 
taken it into his revise, and something had put out, 
something put in, and stuck it here and there with a 
clove of his own calligraphy, to keep it from tainting : 
and further, when I saw the stuff, though very coarse 
and threadbare, garnished and trimly faced with the 
commendations of a licenser, I resolved, so soon as lei- 
sure granted me the recreation, that my man of law 
should not altogether lose his soliciting. Although I im- 
pute a share of the making to him whose name I find in 
the approbation, who may take, as his mind serves him, 
this reply. In the mean while it shall be seen, I refuse 
no occasion, and avoid no adversary, either to maintain 
what I have begun, or to give it up for better reason. 

To begin then with the licenser and his censure. 
For a licenser is not contented now to give his single 
Imprimatur, but brings his chair into the title-leaf; 
there sits and judges up, or judges down, what book he 
pleases : if this be suffered, what worthless author, or 
what cunning printer, will not be ambitious of such a 
stale to put off the heaviest gear; which may in time 
bring in round fees to the licenser, and wretched mis- 
leading to the people? But to the matter: he " ap- 
proves the publishing of this book, to preserve the 
strength and honour of marriage against those sad 
breaches and dangerous abuses of it." Belike then the 
wrongful suffering of all those sad breaches and abuses 
in marriage to a remediless thraldom is the strength 
and honour of marriage ; a boisterous and bestial 
strength, a dishonourable honour, an infatuated doc- 
trine, whose than the Salvo jure of tyrannizing, which 
we all fight against. Next he saith, that " common 
discontents make these breaches in unstaid minds, and 
men given to change." His words may be appre- 
hended, as if they disallowed only to divorce for com- 



222 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE 



mon discontents, in unstaid minds, having- no cause, 
but a desire of change, and then we agree. But if he 
take all discontents on this side adultery, to be com- 
mon, that is to say, not difficult to endure, and to af- 
fect only unstaid minds, it might administer just cause 
to think him the unfittest man that could be, to offer at 
a comment upon Job ;* as seeming- by this to have no 
more true sense of a good man in his afflictions, than 
those Edomitish friends had, of whom Job complains, 
and ag-ainst whom God testifies his ang-er. Shall a 
man of your own coat, who hath espoused his flock, 
and represents Christ more in being- the true husband 
of his cong-reg-ation, than an ordinary man doth in be- 
ing the husband of his wife, (and yet this represent- 
ment is thought a chief cause why marriage must be 
inseparable,) shall this spiritual man ordinarily for the 
increase of his maintenances or any slight cause, for- 
sake that wedded cure of souls, that should be dearest 
to him, and marry another and another? And shall 
not a person wrongfully afflicted, and persecuted even 
to extremity, forsake an unfit, injurious, and pestilent 
mate, tied only by a civil and fleshly covenant ? If 
you be a man so much hating change, hate that other 
change ; if yourself be not guilty, counsel your bre- 
thren to hate it ; and leave to be the supercilious judge 
of other men's miseries and changes, that your own be 
not judged. " The reasons of your licensed pam- 
phlet," you say, " are good ;"they must be better than 
your own then ; I shall wonder else how such a trivial 
fellow was accepted and commended, to be the con- 
futer of so dangerous an opinion as ye give out mine. 

Now therefore to your attorney, since no worthier an 
adversary makes his appearance, nor this neither his 
appearance, but lurking under the safety of his name- 
less obscurity ; such as ye turn him forth at the pos- 
tern, I must accept him ; and in a better temper than 
Ajax do mean to scourge this ram for ye, till I meet 
with his Ulysses. 

He begins with law, and we have it of him as good 
cheap as any huckster at law, newly set up, can possi- 
bly afford, and as impertinent ; but for that he hath re- 
ceived his handsel. He presumes also to cite the civil 
law, which I perceive, by his citing, never came within 
his dormitory : yet what he cites, makes but against 
himself. 

His second thing therefore is to refute the adverse 
position, and very methodically, three pages before he 
sets it down ; and sets his own in the place, "that dis- 
agreement of mind or disposition, though shewing it- 
self in much sharpness, is not by the law of God or 
man a just cause of divorce." 

To this position I answer; That it lays no battery 
against mine, no nor so much as faces it, but tacks 
about, long ere it come near, like a harmless and re- 
spectful confutement. For I confess that disagreement 
of mind or disposition, though in much sharpness, is 
not always a just cause of divorce; for much may be 
endured. But what if the sharpness be much more 
than his much ? To that point it is our mishap we 
have not here his grave decision. He that will contra- 
• Mr. Caryl. 



diet the position which I alleged, must hold that no 
disagreement of mind or disposition can divorce, though 
shewn in most sharpness ; otherwise he leaves a place 
for equity to appoint limits, and so his following argu- 
ments will either not prove his own position, or not 
disprove mine. 

His first argument, all but what hobbles to no pur- 
pose, is this ; " Where the Scripture commands a thing 
to be done, it appoints when, how, and for what, as in 
the case of death, or excommunication. But the Scrip- 
ture directs not what measure of disagreement or con- 
trariety may divorce : therefore the Scripture allows 
not any divorce for disagreement." — Answer. First, 
I deny your major; the Scripture appoints many 
things, and yet leaves the circumstance to man's dis- 
cretion, particularly in your own examples : excom- 
munication is not taught when and for what to be, but 
left to the church. How could the licenser let pass this 
childish ignorance, and call it " good ?" Next, in 
matters of death, the laws of England, whereof you 
have intruded to be an opiniastrous subadvocate, and 
are bound to defend them, conceive it not enjoined in 
Scripture, when or for what cause they shall put to 
death, as in adultery, theft, and the like. Your minor 
also is false, for the Scripture plainly sets down for what 
measure of disagreement a man may divorce, Deut. 
xxiv. 1 . Learn better what that phrase means, " if she 
find no favour in his eyes." 

Your second argument, without more tedious fum- 
bling, is briefly thus : " If diversity in religion, which 
breeds a g'reater dislike than any natural disagree- 
ment, may not cause a divorce, then may not the lesser 
disagreement: But diversity of religion may not; 
Ergo." 

Answ. First, I deny in the major, that diversity of 
religion breeds a greater dislike to marriage-duties than 
natural disagreement. For between Israelite, or 
Christian, and infidel, more often hath been seen too 
much love: but between them who perpetually clash 
in natural contrarieties, it is repugnant that there 
should be ever any married love or concord. Next, I 
deny your minor, that it is commanded not to divorce 
in diversity of religion, if the infidel will stay : for that 
place in St. Paul commands nothing, as that book at 
large affirmed, though you overskipped it. 

Secondly, If it do command, it is but with condition 
that the infidel be content, and well-pleased to stay, 
which cuts off the supposal of any great hatred or dis- 
quiet between them, seeing the infidel had liberty to 
depart at pleasure ; and so this comparison avails no- 
thing. 

Your third argument is from Deut. xxii. " If a 
man hate his wife, and raise an ill report, that he found 
her no virgin ;" if this were false, " he might not put 
her away," though hated never so much. 

Ans. This was a malicious hatred, bent against her 
life, or to send her out of doors without her portion. 
Such a hater loses by due punishment that privilege, 
Deut. xxiv. 1, to divorce for a natural dislike; which, 
though it could not love conjugally, yet sent away 



DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



223 



civilly, and with just conditions. But doubtless the 
wife in that former case had liberty to depart from her 
false accuser, lest his hatred should prove mortal ; else 
that law peculiarly made to right the woman, had turn- 
ed to her greatest mischief. 

Your fourth argument is ; u One Christian ought to 
bear the infirmities of another, but chiefly of his wife." 
Ans. I grant infirmities, but not outrages, not per- 
petual defraudments of truest conjugal society, not in- 
juries and vexations as importunate as fire. Yet to en- 
dure very much, might do well an exhortation, but not 
a compulsive law. For the Spirit of God himself, by 
Solomon, declares that such a consort " the earth can- 
not bear, and better dwell in a corner of the house-top, 
or in the wilderness." Burdens may be borne, but still 
with consideration to the strength of an honest man 
complaining. Charity indeed bids us forgive our ene- 
mies, yet doth not force us to continue friendship and 
familiarity with those friends who have been false or 
unworthy towards us ; but is contented in our peace 
with them, at a fair distance. Charity commands not 
the husband to receive again into his bosom the adul- 
terous wife, but thinks it enough, if he dismiss her 
with a beneficent and peaceful dismission. No more 
doth charity command, nor can her rule compel, to re- 
tain in nearest union of wedlock one whose other gross- 
est faults, or disabilities to perform what was cove- 
nanted, are the just causes of as much grievance and 
dissension in a family, as the private act of adultery. 
Let not therefore, under the name of fulfilling charity, 
such an unmerciful and more than legal yoke be pad- 
locked upon the neck of any Christian. 

Your fifth argument : " If the husband ought to love 
his wife, as Christ his church, then ought she not to be 
put away for contrariety of mind." 

Answ. This similitude turns against him : for if the 
husband must be as Christ to the wife, then must the 
wife be as the church to her husband. If there be a 
perpetual contrariety of mind in the church toward 
Christ, Christ himself threatens to divorce such a 
spouse, and hath often done it. If they urge, this was 
no true church, I urge again that was no true wife. 

His sixth argument is from Matth. v. 32, which he 
expounds after the old fashion, and never takes notice 
of what I brought against that exposition ; let him 
therefore seek his answer there. Yet can he not leave 
this argument, but he must needs first shew us a curvet 
of his madness, holding out an objection, and running 
himself upon the point. " For," saith he, " if Christ 
except no cause but adultery, then all other causes, as 
frigidity, incestuous marriage, &c. are no cause of di- 
vorce ;" and answers, " that the speech of Christ holds 
universally, as he intended it; namely, to condemn 
such divorce as was groundlessly practised among the 
Jews, for every cause which they thought sufficient ; 
not checking the law of consanguinities or affinities, 
or forbidding other cause which makes marriage void, 
ipso facto." 

Answ. Look to it now, you be not found taking fees 
on both sides ; for if you once bring limitations to the 

* First Edition. 



universal words of Christ, another will do as much 
with as good authority; and affirm, that neither did he 
check the Jaw, Deut. xxiv. 1, nor forbid the causes that 
make marriage void actually ; which if any thing in 
the world doth, unfitness doth, and contrariety of mind ; 
yea, more than adultery, for that makes not the mar- 
riage void, nor much more unfit, but for the time, if the 
offended party forgive : but unfitness and contrariety 
frustrates and nullifies for ever, unless it be a rare 
chance, all the good and peace of wedded conversation ; 
and leaves nothing between them enjoyable, but a 
prone and savage necessity, not worth the name of 
marriage, unaccompanied with love. Thus much his 
own objection hath done against himself. 

Argument 7th. He insists, " that man and wife are 
one flesh, therefore must not separate." But must be 
sent to look again upon the* 35th page of that book, 
where he might read an answer, which he stirs not. 
Yet can he not abstain, but he must do us another 
pleasure ere he goes ; although I call the common 
pleas to witness, I have not hired his tongue, whatever 
men may think by his arguing. For besides adultery, 
he excepts other causes which dissolve the union of 
being one flesh, either directly, or by consequence. If 
only adultery be excepted by our Saviour, and he volun- 
tarily can add other exceptions that dissolve that union, 
both directly and by consequence; these words of Christ, 
the main obstacle of divorce, are open to us by his own 
invitation, to include whatever causes dissolve that 
union of flesh, either directly or by consequence. 
Which, till he name other causes more likely, I affirm 
to be done soonest by unfitness and contrariety of 
mind ; for that induces hatred, which is the greatest 
dissolver both of spiritual and corporal union, turning 
the mind, and consequently the body, to other objects. 
Thus our doughty adversary, either directly or by con- 
sequence, yields us the question with his own mouth : 
and the next thing he does, recants it again. 

His 8th argument shivers in the uttering, and he 
confesseth to be "not over-confident of it :" but of the 
rest it may be sworn he is. St. Paul, 1 Cor. vii. saith, 
that the " married have trouble in the flesh," therefore 
we must bear it, though never so intolerable. 

I answer, if this be a true consequence, why are not 
all troubles to be borne alike ? Why are we suffered 
to divorce adulteries, desertions, or frigidities ? Who 
knows not that trouble and affliction is the decree of 
God upon every state of life ? Follows it therefore, 
that, though they grow excessive and insupportable, 
we must not avoid them? If we may in all other 
conditions, and not in marriage, the doom of our suf- 
fering ties us not by the trouble, but by the bond of 
marriage : and that must be proved inseparable from 
other reasons, not from this place. And his own con- 
fession declares the weakness of this argument, yet 
his ungoverned arrogance could not be dissuaded from 
venting it. 

His 9th argument is, " that a husband must love his 
wife as himself; therefore he may not divorce for any 
disagreement, no more than he may separate his soul 



224 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE 



from his body." I answer: if he love his wife as him- 
self, he must love her so far as he may preserve him to 
her in a cheerful and comfortable manner, and not so 
as to ruin himself by anguish and sorrow, without any 
benefit to her. Next, if the husband must love his 
wife as himself, she must be understood a wife in some 
reasonable measure, willing- and sufficient to perform 
the chief duties of her covenant, else by the hold of this 
argument it would be his great sin to divorce either 
for adultery or desertion. The rest of this will run 
circuit with the union of one flesh, which was an- 
swered before. And that to divorce a relative and 
metaphorical union of two bodies into one flesh can- 
not be likened in all things to the dividing of that 
natural union of soul and body into one person, is ap- 
parent of itself. 

His last argument he fetches " from the inconveni- 
ence that would follow upon his freedom of divorce, to 
the corrupting of men's minds, and the overturning of 
all human society." 

But for me let God and Moses answer this blas- 
phemer, who dares bring in such a foul indictment 
against the divine law. Why did God permit this to 
his people the Jews, but that the right and good, 
which came directly thereby, was more in his esteem 
than the wrong and evil, which came by accident? 
And for those weak supposes of infants that would be 
left in their mothers' belly, (which must needs be good 
news for chamber-maids, to hear a serving-man grown 
so provident for great bellies,) and portions and join- 
tures likely to incur embezzlement hereby, the ancient 
civil law instructs us plentifully how to award, which 
our profound opposite knew not, for it was not in his 
tenures. 

His arguments are spun ; now follows the chaplain 
with his antiquities, wiser if he had refrained, for his 
very touching aught that is learned soils it, and lays 
him still more and more open, a conspicuous gull. 
There being both fathers and councils more ancient, 
wherewith to have served his purpose better than with 
what he cites, how may we do to know the subtle drift, 
that moved him to begin first with the "twelfth council 
of Toledo ?" I would not undervalue the depth of his 
notion ; but perhaps he had heard that the men of To- 
ledo had store of good blade-mettle, and were excellent 
at cuttling; who can tell but it might be the reach of 
his policy, that these able men of decision would do 
best to have the prime stroke among his testimonies in 
deciding this cause ? But all this craft avails himself 
not; for seeing they allow no cause of divorce by for- 
nication, what do these keen doctors here, but cut him 
over the sinews with their toledoes, for holding in the 
precedent page other causes of divorce besides, both 
directly and by consequence ? As evil doth that Saxon 
council, next quoted, bestead him. For if it allow di- 
vorce precisely for no cause but fornication, it thwarts 
his own exposition : and if it understand fornication 
largely, it sides with whom he would confute. How- 
ever, the authority of that synod can be but small, being 
under Theodorus, the Canterbury bishop, a Grecian 
monk of Tarsus, revolted from his own church to the 



pope. What have we next ? the civil law stuffed in 
between two councils, as if the Code had been some 
synod ; for that he understood himself in this quotation, 
is incredible ; where the law, Cod. 1. 3, tit. 38, leg. 11, 
speaks not of divorce, but against the dividing of pos- 
sessions to divers heirs, whereby the married servants 
of a great family were divided, perhaps into distant 
countries and colonies ; father from son, wife from 
husband, sore against their will. Somewhat lower he 
confesseth, that the civil law allows many reasons of 
divorce, but the canon law decrees otherwise ; a fair 
credit to his cause ! And I amaze me, though the fancy 
of this dolt be as obtuse and sad as any mallet, how the 
licenser could sleep out all this, and suffer him to up- 
hold his opinion by canons and Gregorial decretals ; 
a law which not only his adversary, but the whole re- 
formation of this church and state, hath branded and 
rejected. As ignorantly, and too ignorantly to deceive 
any reader but an unlearned, he talks of Justin Martyr's 
Apology, not telling us which of the twain ; for that 
passage in the beginning of his first, which I have 
cited elsewhere, plainly makes against him : so doth 
Tertullian, cited next, and next Erasmus, the one 
against Marcion, the other in his annotations on Mat- 
thew, and to the Corinthians. And thus ye have the 
list of his choice antiquities, as pleasantly chosen as ye 
would wish from a man of his handy vocation, puffed 
up with no luck at all above the stint of his capacity. 

Now he comes to the position, which I set down 
whole ; and, like an able textman, slits it into four, that 
he may the better come at it with his barber-surgery, 
and his sleeves turned up. Wherein first, he denies 
" that any disposition, unfitness, or contrariety of mind, 
is unchangeable in nature, but that by the help of diet 
and physic it may be altered." 

I mean not to dispute philosophy with this pork, who 
never read any. But I appeal to all experience, though 
there be many drugs to purge these redundant humours 
and circulations, that commonly impair health, and are 
not natural, whether any man can with the safety of 
his life bring a healthy constitution into physic with 
this design, to alter his natural temperament and 
disposition of mind. How much more vain and ridi- 
culous would it be, by altering and rooting up the 
grounds of nature, which is most likely to produce 
death or madness, to hope the reducing of a mind to 
this or that fitness, or two disagreeing minds to a mu- 
tual sympathy ! Suppose they might, and that with 
great danger of their lives and right senses, alter one 
temperature, how can they know that the succeeding 
disposition will not be as far from fitness and agree- 
ment ? They would perhaps change melancholy into 
sanguine ; but what if phlegm and choler in as great 
a measure come instead, the unfitness will be still as 
difficult and troublesome ? But lastly, whether these 
things be changeable or not, experience teaches us, 
and our position supposes that they seldom do change 
in any time commensurable to the necessities of man, 
or convenient to the ends of marriage : and if the fault 
be in the one, shall the other live all his days in bond- 
age and misery for another's perverseness, or immedi- 



DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



225 



cable disaffection ? To my friends, of which may fewest 
be so unhappy, I have a remedy, as they know, more 
wise and manly to prescribe : but for his friends and 
followers, (of which many may deserve justly to feel 
themselves the unhappiness which they consider not in 
others,) I send them by his advice to sit upon the stool 
and strain, till their cross dispositions and contrarieties 
of mind shall change to a better correspondence, and 
to a quicker apprehension of common sense, and their 
own good. 

His second reason is as heedless ; " because that grace 
may change the disposition, therefore no indisposition 
may cause divorce." 

Answ. First, it will not be deniable that many per- 
sons, gracious both, may yet happen to be very unfitly 
married, to the great disturbance of either. Secondly, 
What if one have grace, the other not, and will not 
alter, as the Scriptures testify there be of those, in 
whom we may expect a change, when " the blacka- 
moor changes his colour, or the leopard his spots," 
Jer. xiii. 23. Shall the gracious therefore dwell in 
torment all his life, for the ungracious ? We see that 
holiest precepts, than which there can no better physic 
be administered to the mind of man, and set on with 
powerful preaching, cannot work this cure, no not in 
the family, not in the wife of him that preaches day 
and night to her. What an unreasonable thing is it, 
that men, and clergymen especially, should exact such 
wonderous changes in another man's house, and are 
seen to work so little in their own ! 

To the second point of the position, that this unfit- 
ness hinders the main ends and benefits of marriage ; 
he answers, " if I mean the unfitness of choler, or sul- 
len disposition, that soft words, according to Solomon, 
pacify wrath." 

But I reply, that the saying of Solomon is a proverb, 
frequently true, not universally, as both the event shews, 
and many other sentences written by the same author, 
particularly of an evil woman, Prov. xxi. 9, 19, and in 
other chapters, that she is better shunned than dwelt 
with, and a desert is preferred before her society. Wh at 
need the Spirit of God put this choice into our heads, 
if soft words could always take effect with her ? How 
frivolous is not only this disputer, but he that taught 
him thus, and let him come abroad ! 

To his second answer I return this, that although 
there be not easily found such an antipathy, as to hate 
one another like a toad or poison ; yet that there is oft 
such a dislike in both, or either, to conjugal love, as 
hinders all the comfort of matrimony, scarce any can be 
so simple as not to apprehend. And what can be that 
favour, found or not found, in the eyes of the husband, 
but a natural liking or disliking ; whereof the law of 
God, Deut. xxiv. bears witness, as of an ordinary ac- 
cident, and determines wisely and divinely thereafter. 
And this disaffection happening to be in the one, not 
without the unspeakable discomfort of the other, must 
he be left like a thing consecrated to calamity and de- 
spair, without redemption ? 

Against the third branch of the position, he denies 
that " solace and peace, which is contrary to discord 



and variance, is the main end of marriage." What 
then ? He will have it " the solace of male and female." 
Came this doctrine out of some school, or some sty? 
Who but one forsaken of all sense and civil nature, 
and chiefly of Christianity, will deny that peace, con- 
trary to discord, is the calling and the general end of 
every Christian, and of all his actions, and more espe- 
cially of marriage, which is the dearest league of love, 
and the dearest resemblance of that love which in 
Christ is dearest to his church ? How then can peace 
and comfort, as it is contrary to discord, which God 
hates to dwell with, not be the main end of marriage ? 
Discord then we ought to fly, and to pursue peace, far 
above the observance of a civil covenant already broken, 
and the breaking daily iterated on the other side. And 
what better testimony than the words of the institution 
itself, to prove that a conversing- solace, and peaceful 
society, is the prime end of marriage, without which 
no other help or office can be mutual, beseeming the 
dignity of reasonable creatures, that such as they should 
be coupled in the rites of nature by the mere compul- 
sion of lust, without love or peace, worse than wild 
beasts ? Nor was it half so wisely spoken as some deem, 
though Austin spake it, that if God had intended 
other than copulation in marriage, he would for Adam 
have created a friend, rather than a wife, to converse 
with ; and our own writers blame him for this opinion; 
for which and the like passages, concerning marriage, 
he might be justly taxed with rusticity in these affairs. 
For this cannot but be with ease conceived, that there 
is one society of grave friendship, and another amiable 
and attractive society of conjugal love, besides the 
deed of procreation, which of itself soon cloys, and is 
despised, unless it be cherished and reincited with a 
pleasing conversation. Which if ignoble and swinish 
minds cannot apprehend, shall such merit therefore be 
the censures of more generous and virtuous spirits ? 

Against the last point of the position, to prove that 
contrariety of mind is not a greater cause of divorce 
than corporal frigidity, he enters into such a tedious 
and drawling tale " of burning, and burning, and lust 
and burning," that the dull argument itself burns too 
for want of stirring; and yet all this burning is not 
able to expel the frigidity of his brain. So long there- 
fore as that cause in the position shall be proved a 
sufficient cause of divorce, rather than spend words 
with this phlegmy clod of an antagonist, more than of 
necessity and a little merriment, I will not now con- 
tend whether it be a greater cause than frigidity or no. 

His next attempt is upon the arguments which I 
brought to prove the position. And for the first, not 
finding it of that structure as to be scaled with his short 
ladder, he retreats with a bravado, that it deserves no 
answer. And I as much wonder what the whole book 
deserved, to be thus troubled and solicited by such a 
paltry solicitor. I would he had not cast the gracious 
eye of his duncery upon the small deserts of a pam- 
phlet, whose every line meddled with uncases him to 
scorn and laughter. 

That which he takes for the second argument, if he 
look better, is no argument, but an induction to those 



22C 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE 



that follow. Then he stumbles that I should say, " the 
gentlest ends of marriage," confessing- that he under- 
stands it not. And I believe him heartily : for how 
should he, a serving-man both by nature and by func- 
tion, an idiot by breeding, and a solicitor by pre- 
sumption, ever come to know or feel within himself 
what the meaning is of " gentle?" He blames it for 
" a neat phrase," for nothing angers him more than his 
own proper contrary. Yet altogether without art sure 
he is not ; for who could have devised to give us more 
briefly a better description of his own servility? 

But what will become now of the business I know 
not ; for the man is suddenly taken with a lunacy of 
law, and speaks revelations out of the attorney's aca- 
demy only from a lying spirit: for he says, " that 
where a thing is void ipso facto, there needs no legal 
proceeding to make it void :" which is false, for mar- 
riage is void by adultery or frigidity, yet not made 
void without legal proceeding. Then asks my opinion 
of John-a-Noaks and John-a-Stiles : and I answer him, 
that I, for my part, think John Dory was a better man 
than both of them ; for certainly they were the greatest 
wranglers that ever lived, and have filled all our law- 
books with the obtunding story of their suits and trials. 
After this he tells a miraculous piece of antiquity, 
how " two Romans, Titus and Sempronius, made feoff- 
ments," at Rome sure, and levied lines by the common 
law. But now his fit of law past, yet hardly come to 
himself, he maintains, that, if marriage be void, as be- 
ing neither of God nor nature, " there needs no legal 
proceeding to part it," and I tell him that offends not 
me: then, quoth he, " this is nothing to your book, 
being the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." But 
that I deny him ; for all discipline is not legal, that is 
to say, juridical, but some is personal, some economi- 
cal, and some ecclesiastical. 

Lastly, If I prove that contrary dispositions are 
joined neither of God nor nature, and so the marriage 
void, " he will give me the controversy." I have 
proved in that book to any wise man, and without 
more ado the institution proves it. 

Where I answer an objection usually made, that 
" the disposition ought to be known before marriage," 
and shew how difficult it is to choose a fit consort, and 
how easy to mistake: the servitor would know " what 
I mean by conversation," declaring his capacity nothing 
refined since his law-puddering, but still the same it 
was in the pantry, and at the dresser. Shall I argue 
of conversation with this hoyden, to go and practise at 
his opportunities in the larder ? To men of quality I 
have said enough ; and experience confirms by daily 
example, that wisest, soberest, justest men are some- 
times miserably mistaken in their choice. Whom to 
leave thus without remedy, tossed and tempested in a 
most unquiet sea of afflictions and temptations, I say 
is most unehristianly. 

But he goes on to untruss my arguments, imagining 
them his master's points. Only in the passage follow- 
ing I cannot but admire the ripeness and the pregnance 
of his native treachery, endeavouring to be more a fox 
than his wit will suffer him. Whereas I briefly men- I 



tioned certain heads of discourse, which I referred to a 
place more proper according to my method, to be treat- 
ed there at full with all their reasons about them, this 
brain-worm, against all the laws of dispute, will needs 
deal with them here. And as a country hind, some- 
times ambitious to shew his betters that he is not so 
simple as you take him, and that he knows his advan- 
tages, will teach us a new trick to confute by. And 
would you think to what a pride he swells in the con- 
templation of his rare stratagem, offering to carp at the 
language of a book, which yet he confesses to be 
generally commended ; while himself will be acknow- 
ledged, by all that read him, the basest and the hungri- 
est enditer, that could take the boldness to look abroad. 
Observe now the arrogance of a groom, how it will 
mount. I had written, that common adultery is a thing 
which the rankest politician would think it shame and 
disworship, that his law should countenance. First, it 
offends him, that " rankest" should signify aught but 
his own smell : who that knows English should not 
understand me, when I say a rank serving-man, a rank 
pettifogger, to mean a mere serving-man, a mere and 
arrant pettifogger, who lately was so hardy, as to lay 
aside his buckram-wallet, and make himself a fool in 
print, with confuting books which are above him? 
Next, the word " politician" is not used to his maw, 
and thereupon he plays the most notorious hobby-horse, 
jesting and frisking in the luxury of his nonsense with 
such poor fetches to cog a laughter from us, that no antic 
hobnail at a morris, but is more handsomely facetious. 
Concerning that place Deut. xxiv. 1, which he saith 
to be " the main pillar of my opinion," though I rely 
more on the institution than on that: these two pillars 
I do indeed confess are to me as those two in the porch 
of the temple, Jachin and Boaz, which names import 
establishment and strength ; nor do I fear who can shake 
them. The exposition of Deut. which I brought, is 
the received exposition, both ancient and modern, by 
all learned men, unless it be a monkish papist here and 
there : and the gloss, which he and his obscure assist- 
ant would persuade us to, is merely new and absurd 
presuming out of his utter ignorance in the Hebrew to 
interpret those words of the text; first,. in a mistaken 
sense of uncleanness, against all approved writers. 
Secondly, in a limited sense, whenas the original speaks 
without limitation, " some uncleanness, or any :" and 
it had been a wise law indeed to mean itself particular, 
and not to express the case which this acute rabbi hath 
all this while been hooking for; whereby they who are 
most partial to him may guess that something is in this 
doctrine which I allege, that forces the adversary to 
such a new and strained exposition ; wherein he does 
nothing for above four pages, but founder himself to 
and fro in his own objections; one while denying that 
divorce was permitted, another while affirming that it 
was permitted for the wife's sake, and after all, distrusts 
himself. And for his surest retirement, betakes him to 
those old suppositions, " that Christ abolished the 
Mosaic law of divorce; that the Jews had not sufficient 
knowledge in this point, through the darkness of the 
dispensation of heavenly things; that under the plen- 



DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



227 



teous grace of the gospel we are tied by cruellest com- 
pulsion to live in marriage till death with the wicked- 
est, the worst, the most persecuting mate." These 
ignorant and doting surmises he might have read con- 
futed at large, even in the first edition ; but found it 
safer to pass that part over in silence. So that they 
who see not the sottishness of this his new and tedious 
exposition, are worthy to love it dearly. 

His explanation done, he charges me with a wicked 
gloss, and almost blasphemy, for saying that Christ in 
teaching meant not always to be taken word for word ; 
but like a wise physician, administering one excess 
against another, to reduce us to a perfect mean. Cer- 
tainly to teach us were no dishonest method : Christ 
himself hath often used hyperboles in his teaching; 
and gravest authors, both Aristotle in the second of his 
" Ethics to Nichomachus," and Seneca in his seventh 
" de Beneficiis," advise us to stretch out the line of 
precept ofttimes beyond measure, that while we tend 
further, the mean might be the easier attained. And 
whoever comments that 5th of Matthew, when he 
comes to the turning of cheek after cheek to blows, and 
the parting both with cloak and coat, if any please to 
be the rifler, will be forced to recommend himself to 
the same exposition, though this chattering lawmonger 
be bold to call it wicked. Now note another precious 
piece of him ; Christ, saith he, " doth not say that an 
unchaste look is adultery, but the lusting after her;" as 
if the looking unchastely could be without lusting. 
This gear is licensed for good reason ; " Imprimatur." 

Next he would prove, that the speech of Christ is not 
uttered in excess against the Pharisees, first, " because 
he speaks it to his disciples," Matth. v. which is false, 
for he spake it to the multitude, as by the first verse is 
evident, among which in all likelihood were many 
Pharisees, but out of doubt all of them pharisean disci- 
ples, and bred up in their doctrine ;, from which ex- 
tremes of errour and falsity Christ throughout his 
whole sermon labours to reclaim the people. Second- 
ly, saith he, " because Christ forbids not only putting 
away, but marrying her who is put away." Acutely, 
as if the Pharisees might not have offended as much 
in marrying the divorced, as in divorcing the married. 
The precept may bind all, rightly understood ; and yet 
the vehement manner of giving it may be occasioned 
only by the Pharisees. 

Finally, he winds up his text with much doubt and 
trepidation ; for it may be his trenchers were not 
scraped, and that which never yet afforded corn of sa- 
vour to his noddle, the saltcellar was not rubbed: and 
therefore in this haste easily granting, that his answers 
fall foul upon each other, and praying, you would not 
think he writes as a prophet, but as a man, he runs to 
the blackjack, fills his flagon, spreads the table, and 
serves up dinner. 

After waiting and voiding, he thinks to void my 
second argument, and the contradictions that will fol- 
low both in the law and gospel, if the Mosaic law were 
abrogated by our Saviour, and a compulsive prohibition 
fixed instead: and sings his old song, " that the gos- 
pel counts unlawful that which the law allowed," in- 

Q 



stancing in circumcision, sacrifices, washings. But 
what are these ceremonial things to the changing of a 
moral point in household duty, equally belonging to 
Jew and Gentile ? Divorce was then right, now wrong ; 
then permitted in the rigorous time of law, now forbid- 
den by law, even to the most extremely afflicted, in 
the favourable time of grace and freedom. But this is 
not for an unbuttoned fellow to discuss in the garret at 
his trestle, and dimension of candle by the snuff; 
which brought forth his scullionly paraphrase on St. 
Paul, whom he brings in discoursing such idle stuff to 
the maids and widows, as his own servile inurbanity 
forbears not to put into the apostle's mouth, " of the 
soul's conversing :" and this he presumes to do, being 
a bayard, who never had the soul to know what con- 
versing means, but as his provender and the familiarity 
of the kitchen schooled his conceptions. 

He passes to the third argument, like a boar in a 
vineyard, doing nought else, but still as he goes champ- 
ing and chewing over, what I could mean by this chi- 
maera of a " fit conversing soul," notions and words 
never made for those chops ; but like a g*enerous wine, 
only by overworking the settled mud of his fancy, to 
make him drunk, and disgorge his vileness the more 
openly. All persons of gentle breeding (I say 
" gentle," though this barrow grunt at the word) I 
know will apprehend, and be satisfied in what I spake, 
how unpleasing and discontenting the society of body 
must needs be between those whose minds cannot be 
sociable. But what should a man say more to a snout 
in this pickle ? What language can be low and degene- 
rate enough ? 

The fourth argument which I had was, that mar- 
riage being a covenant, the very being whereof con- 
sists in the performance of unfeigned love and peace ; 
if that were not tolerably performed, the covenant be- 
came broke and revocable. Which how can any, in 
whose mind the principles of right reason and justice 
are not cancelled, deny ? For how can a thing subsist, 
when the true essence thereof is dissolved ? Yet this he 
denies, and yet in such a manner as alters my assertion ; 
for he puts in, " though the main end be not attained 
in full measure :" but my position is, if it be not tole- 
rably attained, as throughout the whole discourse is 
apparent. 

Now for his reasons: " Heman found not that peace 
and solace which is the main end of communion with 
God, should be therefore break off that communion ?" 

I answer, that if Heman found it not, the fault was 
certainly his own; but in marriage it happens far 
otherwise : sometimes the fault is plainly not his who 
seeks divorce ; sometimes it cannot be discerned whose 
fault it is ; and therefore cannot in reason or equity be 
the matter of an absolute prohibition. 

His other instance declares, what a right handicrafts- 
man he is of petty cases, and how unfit to be aught else 
at highest, but a hackney of the law. "I change 
houses with a man ; it is supposed I do it for my own 
ends ; I attain them not in this house ; I shall not 
therefore go from my bargain." How without fear 
might the young Charinus in Andria now cry out, 



228 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE 



" What likeness can be here to a marriage ?" In this 
bargain was no capitulation, but the yielding of pos- 
session to one another, wherein each of them had his 
several end apart. In marriage there is a solemn vow 
of love and fidelity each to other: this bargain is fully 
accomplished iu the change ; in marriage the coveuant 
still is in performing. If one of them perform nothing 
tolerablv, but instead of love, abound in disaffection, 
disobedience, fraud, and hatred ; what thing* in the 
nature of a covenant shall bind the other to such a 
perdurable mischief? Keep to your problems of ten 
groats, these matters are not for prag'matics and folk- 
mooters to babble in. 

Concerning the place of Paul, " that God hath called 
us to peace," 1 Cor. vii. and therefore, certainly, if 
any where in this world, we have a right to claim it 
reasonably in marriage ; it is plain enough in the sense 
which I gave, and confessed by Paneus, and other or- 
thodox divines, to be a good sense, and this answerer 
doth not weaken it. The other place, that "he who 
hateth, may put away," which if I shew him, he pro- 
mises to yield the whole controversy, is, besides Deut. 
xxiv. 1, Deut. xxi. 14, and before this, Exod. xxi. 8. 
Of Malachi I have spoken more in another place ; 
and say again, that the best interpreters, all the an- 
cient, and most of the modern, translate it as I cite 
it, and very few otherwise, whereof perhaps Junius is 
the chief. 

Another thing troubles him, that marriage is called 
" the mystery of joy." Let it still trouble him ; for 
what hath he to do either with joy or with mystery? 
He thinks it frantic divinity to say, it is not the out- 
ward continuance of marriage that keeps the covenant 
of marriage whole; but whosoever doth most accord- 
ing to peace and love, whether in marriage or divorce, 
lie breaks marriage least. If I shall spell it to him, 
he breaks marriage least, is to say, he dishonours not 
marriage ; for least is taken in the Bible, and other 
good authors, for, not at all. And a particular mar- 
riage a man may break, if for a lawful cause, and yet 
not break, that is, not violate, or dishonour the ordi- 
nance of marriage. Hence those two questions that 
follow are left ridiculous ; and the maids at Aldgate, 
whom he flouts, are likely to have more wit than the 
serving-man at Addle-gate. 

Whereas he taxes me of adding' to the Scripture in 
that I said love only is the fulfilling of every command- 
ment, I cited no particular scripture, but spake a gene- 
ral sense, which might be collected from many places. 
For seeing love includes faith, what is there that can 
fulfil every commandment but only love ? and I 
meant, as any intelligent reader might apprehend, 
• \< iy positive and civil commandment, whereof Christ 
hath taught us that man is the lord. It is not the for- 
mal duty of worship, or the sitting still, that keeps the 
holy rest of sabbath ; but whosoever doth most accord- 
ing to charity, whether be works or works not, he 
a the lioh nst of sabbath least. So marriage be- 
ing a civil ordinance, made for man, not man for it; 
he who doth that which most accords with charity, first 
to himself, next to whom he next owes it, whether in 



marriag-e or divorce, he breaks the ordinance of mar- 
riage least. And what in religious prudence can be 
charity to himself, and what to his wife, either in con- 
tinuing- or in dissolving- the marriag*e-knot, hath been 
already oft enough discoursed. So that what St. Paul 
saith of circumcision, the same I stick not to say of a 
civil ordinance, made to the good and comfort of man, 
not to his ruin ; marriage is nothing-, and divorce is 
nothing, " but faith which worketh by love." And 
this I trust none can mistake. 

Against the fifth argument, that a Christian, in a 
hig'her order of priesthood than that Levitical, is a 
person dedicate to joy and peace; and therefore needs 
not in subjection to a civil ordinance, made to no other 
end but for his good, (when without his fault he finds it 
impossible to be decently or tolerably observed,) to 
plunge himself into immeasurable distractions and 
temptations, above his strength ; ag*ainst this he proves 
nothing, but gads into silly conjectures of what abuses 
would follow, and with as good reason might declaim 
against the best things that are. 

Against the sixth argument, that to force the con- 
tinuance of marriage between minds found utterly un- 
fit and disproportional, is against nature, and seems 
forbid under that allegorical precept of Moses, " not to 
sow a field with divers seeds, lest both be defiled ; not 
to plough with an ox and an ass together," which I de- 
duced by the pattern of St. Paul's reasoning- what was 
meant by not muzzling the ox ; he rambles over a long 
narration, to tell us that " by the oxen are meant the 
preachers :" which is not doubted. Then he demands, 
" if this my reasoning be like St. Paul's." And I an- 
swer him, yes. He replies, that sure St. Paul would 
be ashamed to reason thus. And I tell him, no. He 
grants that place which I alleged, 2 Cor. vi. of un- 
equal yoking*, may allude to that of Moses, but says, " I 
cannot prove it makes to my purpose," and shews not 
first how he can disprove it. Weigh, gentlemen, and 
consider, whether my affirmations, backed with reason, 
may hold balance ag*ainst the bare denials of this pon- 
derous confuter, elected by his ghostly patrons to be 
my copesmate. 

Proceeding* on to speak of mysterious things in na- 
ture, I had occasion to fit the language thereafter ; mat- 
ters not, for the reading of this odious fool, who thus 
ever, when he meets with aught above the cogitation 
of his breeding*, leaves the noisome stench of his rude 
slot behind him, maligning that any thing should be 
spoke or understood above his own genuine baseness; 
and gives sentence that his confuting hath been em- 
ployed about a frothy, immeritous, and undeserving 
discourse. Who could have believed so much inso- 
lence durst vent itself from out the hide of a varlet, as 
thus to censure that which men of mature judgment 
have applauded to be writ from good reason ? But this 
contents him not, he falls now to rave in his barbarous 
abusivencss; and why? a reason befitting such an ar- 
tificer, because he saith the book is contrary to all hu- 
man learning; whenas the world knows, that all both 
human and divine learning, till the canon law, allowed 
divorce try consent, and for many causes without con- 



DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCE. 



229 



sent. Next, he dooms it as contrary to truth ; whenas 
it hath been disputable among- learned men, ever since 
it was prohibited : and is by Peter Martyr thought an 
opinion not impious, but hard to be refuted; and by 
Erasmus deemed a doctrine so charitable and pious, as, 
if it cannot be used, were to be wished it could; but is 
by Martin Bucer, a man of dearest and most religious 
memory in the church, taught and maintained to be 
either most lawfully used, or most lawfully permitted. 
And for this, for I affirm no more than Bucer, what 
censure do you think, readers, he hath condemned the 
book to ? To a death no less impious than to be burnt 
by the hangman. Mr. Licenser, (for I deal not now 
with this caitiff, never worth my earnest, and now not 
seasonable for my jest,) you are reputed a man discreet 
enough, religious enough, honest enough, that is, to an 
ordinary competence in all these. But now your turn 
is, to hear what your own hand hath earned ye ; that 
when you suffered this nameless hangman to cast into 
public such a despiteful contumely upon a name and 
person deserving of the church and state equally to 
yourself; and one who hath done more to the present 
advancement of your own tribe, than you or many of 
them have done for themselves ; you forgot to be either 
honest, religious, or discreet. Whatever the state might 
do concerning it, supposed a matter to expect evil from, 
I should not doubt to meet among them with wise, and 
honourable, and knowing men : but as to this brute 
libel, so much the more impudent and lawless for the 
abused authority which it bears ; I say again, that I 
abominate the censure of rascals and their licensers. 

With difficulty I return to what remains of this ig- 
noble task, for the disdain I have to change a period 
more with the filth and venom of this gourmand, swell- 
ed into a confuter ; yet for the satisfaction of others I 
endure all this. 

Ag'ainst the seventh argument, that if the canon law 
and divines allow divorce for conspiracy of death, they 
may as well allow it to avoid the same consequence 
from the likelihood of natural causes. 

First, he denies that the canon so decrees. 

I answer, that it decrees for danger of life, as much 
as for adultery, Decret. Gregor. 1. 4, tit. 19, and in other 
places : and the best civilians, who cite the canon law, 
so collect, as Schneidewin in Instit. tit. 10, p. 4, de 
Divort. And indeed, who would have denied it, but 
one of a reprobate ignorance in all he meddles with ? 

Secondly, he saith the case alters ; for there the of- 
fender, " who seeks the life, doth implicitly at least act 
a divorce." 

And I answer, that here nature, though no offender, 
doth the same. But if an offender, by acting a di- 
vorce, shall release the offended, this is an ample grant 
against himself. He saith, nature teaches to save life 
from one who seeks it. And I say, she teaches no less 
to save it from any other cause that endangers it. He 
saith, that here they are both actors. Admit they were, 
it would not be uncharitable to part tbem ; yet some- 
times they are not both actors, but the one of them 
most lamentedly passive. So he concludes, we must 
not take advantage of our own faults and corruptions 



to release us from our duties. But shall we take no 
advantage to save ourselves from the faults of another, 
who hath annulled his right to our duty? No, says he, 
" let them die of the sullens, and try who will pity 
them." Barbarian, the shame of all honest attorneys ! 
why do they not hoise him over the bar and blanket 
him ? 

Against the eighth argument, that they who are des- 
titute of all marriageable gifts, except a body not 
plainly unfit, have not the calling to marry, and conse- 
quently married and so found, may be divorced : this, 
he saith, is nothing to the purpose, and not fit to be an- 
swered. I leave it therefore to the judgment of his 
masters. 

Against the ninth argument, that marriage is a hu- 
man society, and so chiefly seated in agreement and 
unity of mind : if therefore the mind cannot have that 
due society by marriage, that it may reasonably and 
humanly desire, it can be no human society, and so not 
without reason divorcible : here he falsifies, and turns 
what the position required of a reasonable agreement 
in the main matters of society into an agreement in all 
things, which makes the opinion not mine, and so he 
leaves it. 

At last, and in good hour, we are come to his fare- 
well, which is to be a concluding taste of his jabber- 
ment in law, the flashiest and the fustiest that ever cor- 
rupted in such an unswilled hogshead. 

Against my tenth argument, as he calls it, but as I 
intended it, my other position, " That divorce is not a 
thing determinable by a compulsive law, for that all 
law is for some good that may be frequently attained 
without the admixture of a worse inconvenience : but 
the law forbidding divorce never attains to any good 
end of such prohibition, but rather multiplies evil ; 
therefore the prohibition of divorce is no good law." 
Now for his attorney's prize : but first, like a right 
cunning and sturdy logician, he denies my argument, 
not mattering whether in the major or minor: and 
saith, " there are many laws made for good, and yet 
that good is not attained, through the defaults of the 
party, but a greater inconvenience follows." 

But I reply, that this answer builds upon a shallow 
foundation, and most unjustly supposes every one in 
default, who seeks divorce from the most injurious 
wedlock. The default therefore will be found in the 
law itself; which is neither able to punish the offender, 
but the innocent must withal suffer ; nor can right the 
innocent in what is chiefly sought, the obtainment of 
love or quietness. His instances out of the common 
law are all so quite beside the matter which he would 
prove, as may be a warning to all clients how they 
venture their business with such a cockbrained solicitor. 
For being to shew some law of England, attaining to 
no good end, and yet through no default of the party, 
who is thereby debarred all remedy, he shews us only 
how some do lose the benefit of good laws through 
their own default. His first example saith, " it is a 
just law that every one shall peaceably enjoy his estate 
in lands or otherwise." Does this law attain to no good 
end ? The bar will blush at this most incogitant wood- 



230 



A REPLY TO AN ANSWER AGAINST THE DOCTRINE, &c. 



cock. But see if a draught of Littleton will recover 
him to his senses. " If this man, having fee simple in 
his lands, yet will take a lease of his own lands from 
another, this shall he an estopple to him in an assize 
from the recovering" of his own land." 

Mark now and register him ! How many are there 
of ten thousand who have such a fee simple in their 
sconce, as to take a lease of their own lands from an- 
other? So that this inconvenience lights upon scarce 
one in an age, and by his own default ; and the law 
of enjoying each man his own is good to all others. 
But on the contrary, this prohibition of divorce is good 
to none, and brings inconvenience to numbers, who lie 
under intolerable grievances without their own default, 
through the wickedness or folly of another ; and all 
this iniquity the law remedies not, but in a manner 
maintains. His other cases are directly to the same 
purpose, and might have been spared, but that he is a 
tradesman of the law, and must be borne with at his 
first setting up, to lay forth his best ware, which is 
only gibberish. 

I have now done that, which for many causes I 
might have thought could not likely have been my for- 
tune, to be put to this underwork of scouring and un- 
rubbishing the low and sordid ignorance of such a 
presumptuous lozel. Yet Hercules had the labour once 
imposed upon him to carry dung out of the Augean 
stable. At any hand I would be rid of him : for I had 
rather, since the life of man is likened to a scene, that 
all my entrances and exits might mix with such per- 
sons only, whose worth erects them and their actions 
to a grave and tragic deportment, and not to have to 
do with clowns and vices. But if a man cannot peace- 
ably walk into the world, but must be infested ; some- 
times at his face with dorrs and horseflies, sometimes 
beneath with bawling whippets and shin barkers, and 
these to be set on by plot and consultation with a junto 
of clergymen and licensers, commended also and re- 
joiced in by those whose partiality cannot yet forego 
old papistical principles ; have I not cause to be in 
such a manner defensive, as may procure me freedom 
to pass more unmolested hereafter by those encum- 
brances, not so much regarded for themselves, as for 



those who incite them ? And what defence can pro- 
perly be used in such a despicable encounter as this, 
but either the slap or the spurn ? If they can afford 
me none but a ridiculous adversary, the blame belongs 
not to me, though the whole dispute be strewed and 
scattered with ridiculous. And if he have such an 
ambition to know no better who are his mates, but 
among those needy thoughts, which, though his two 
faculties of serving-man and solicitor should compound 
into one mongrel, would be but thin and meagre, if in 
this penury of soul he can be possible to have the lusti- 
ness to think of fame, let him but send me how he calls 
himself, and I may chance not fail to indorse him on 
the backside of posterity, not a golden, but a brazen 
ass. Since my fate extorts from me a talent of sport, 
which I had thought to hide in a napkin, he shall be 
my Batrachomuomachia, my Bavius, my Calandrino, 
the common adagy of ignorance and overweening : 
nay, perhaps, as the provocation may be, I may be 
driven to curl up this gliding prose into a rough sotadic, 
that shall rhyme him into such a condition, as instead 
of judging good books to be burnt by the executioner, 
he shall be readier to be his own hangman. Thus 
much to this nuisance. 

But as for the subject itself, which I have writ and 
now defend, according as the opposition bears; if any 
man equal to the matter shall think it appertains him to 
take in hand this controversy, either excepting against 
aught written, or persuaded he can shew better how 
this question, of such moment to be throughly known, 
may receive a true determination, not leaning on the 
old and rotten suggestions whereon it yet leans; if his 
intents be sincere to the public, and shall carry him on 
without bitterness to the opinion, or to the person dis- 
senting ; let him not, I entreat him, guess by the 
handling, which meritoriously hath been bestowed on 
this object of contempt and laughter, that I account it 
any displeasure done me to be contradicted in print : 
but as it leads to the attainment of any thing more true, 
shall esteem it a benefit; and shall know how to return 
his civility and fair argument in such a sort, as he shall 
confess that to do so is my choice, and to have done 
thus was my chance. 



THE 



TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES 



THAT IT IS LAWFUL, AND HATH BEEN HELD SO THROUGH ALL AGES, FOR ANY, WHO HAVE THE POWER, TO CALL TO ACCOUNT 
A TYRANT, OR WICKED KING, AND, AFTER DUE CONVICTION, TO DEPOSE, AND PUT HIM TO DEATH; IF THE ORDINARY MAGIS- 
TRATE HAVE NEGLECTED, OR DENIED TO DO IT- 



THAT THEY, WHO OF LATE SO MUCH BLAME DEPOSING, ARE THE MEN THAT DID IT THEMSELVES. 



[first published 1648-9.] 



If men within themselves would he governed by 
reason, and not generally give up their understanding 
to a double tyranny, of custom from without, and blind 
affections within ; they would discern better what it is 
to favour and uphold the tyrant of a nation. But be- 
ing slaves within doors, no wonder that they strive so 
much to have the public state conformably governed 
to the inward vitious rule, by which they govern them- 
selves. For indeed none can love freedom heartily, 
but good men : the rest love not freedom, but licence: 
which never hath more scope, or more indulgence than 
under tyrants. Hence is it, that tyrants are not oft 
offended, nor stand much in doubt of bad men, as being 
all naturally servile; but in whom virtue and true 
worth most is eminent, them they fear in earnest, as by 
right their masters ; against them lies all their hatred 
and suspicion. Consequently neither do bad men hate 
tyrants, but have been always readiest, with the falsi- 
fied names of Loyalty and Obedience, to colour over 
their base compliances. And although sometimes for 
shame, and when it comes to their own grievances, of 
purse especially, they would seem good patriots, and 
side with the better cause, yet when others for the de- 
liverance of their country endued with fortitude and 
heroic virtue, to fear nothing but the curse written 
against those " that do the work of the Lord negli- 
gently ,"f would go on to remove, not only the calami- 
ties and thraldoms of a people, but the roots and causes 
whence they spring; straight these men, and sure 
helpers at need, as if they hated only the miseries, but 
not the mischiefs, after they have juggled and paltered 
with the world, bandied and borne arms against their 
king, divested him, disanointed him, nay, cursed him 
all over in their pulpits, and their pamphlets, to the en- 
gaging of sincere and real men beyond what is possi- 
ble or honest to retreat from, not only turn revolters 

* This tract, which was first published in February 1648 9, after the 
execution of king Charles, and is a defence of that action against the objec- 
tions of the Presbyterians, was, in the year 1650, republished by the author 
with considerable additions, all which, omitted in every former edition of 
the author's works, are here carefully inserted in their proper places. The 



from those principles, which only could at first move 
them, but lay the strain of disloyalty, and worse, on 
those proceedings, which are the necessary conse- 
quences of their own former actions ; nor disliked by 
themselves, were they managed to the entire advan- 
tages of their own faction ; not considering the while 
that he, toward whom they boasted their new fidelity, 
counted them accessory; and by those statutes and 
laws, which they so impotently brandish against others, 
would have doomed them to a traitor's death for what 
they have done already. It is true, that most men are 
apt enough to civil wars and commotions as a novelty, 
and for a flash hot and active ; but through sloth or in- 
constancy, and weakness of spirit, either fainting ere 
their own pretences, though never so just, be half at- 
tained, or, through an inbred falsehood and wicked- 
ness, betray ofttimes to destruction with themselves 
men of noblest temper joined with them for causes, 
whereof they in their rash undertakings were not capa- 
ble. If God and a good cause give them victory, the 
prosecution whereof for the most part inevitably draws 
after it the alteration of laws, change of government, 
downfall of princes with their families ; then comes the 
task to those worthies, which are the soul of that enter- 
prise, to be sweat and laboured out amidst the throng 
and noses of vulgar and irrational men. Some con- 
testing for privileges, customs, forms, and that old en- 
tanglement of iniquity, their gibberish laws, though the 
badge of their ancient slavery. Others, who have been 
fiercest against their prince, under the notion of a ty- 
rant, and no mean incendiaries of the war against them, 
when God, out of his providence and high disposal hath, 
delivered him into the band of their brethren, on a sud- 
den and in a new garb of allegiance, which their doings 
have long since cancelled, they plead for him, pity him, 
extol him, protest against those that talk of bringing 

copy which l~ use, after the above title, has the following sentence ; " Pub- 
lished now the second time with some additions, and many testimonies also 
added out of the best and learnedest among protestant divines, asserting 
the position of this book." The passages here restored are marked with 
single inverted commas. t Jer. xlviii. 1. 



232 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



him to the trial of justice, which is the sword of God, 
superior to all mortal things, in whose hand soever by 
apparent signs his testified will is to put it. But certain- 
ly, if we consider, who and what they are, on a sudden 
grown so pitiful, we may conclude their pity can be no 
true and christian commiseration, but either levity and 
shallowness of mind, or else a carnal admiring of that 
worldly pomp and greatness, from whence they see 
him fallen ; or rather, lastly, a dissembled and seditious 
pity, feigned of industry to beget new discord. As for 
mercy, if it be to a tyrant, under which name they 
themselves have cited him so oft in the hearing of God, 
of angels, and the holy church assembled, and there 
charged him with the spilling of more innocent blood 
by far, than ever Nero did, undoubtedly the mercy 
which they pretend is the mercy of wicked men, and 
" their mercies,"* we read, " are cruelties ;" hazarding 
the welfare of a whole nation, to have saved one whom 
they so oft have termed Agag, and vilifying the blood 
of many Jonathans that have saved Israel; insisting 
with much niceness on the unnecessariest clause of 
their covenant wrested, wherein the fear of change and 
the absurd contradiction of a flattering hostility had 
hampered them, but not scrupling to give away for 
compliments, to an implacable revenge, the heads of 
many thousand Christians more. 

Another sort there is, who coming in the course of 
these affairs, to have their share in great actions above 
the form of law or custom, at least to give their voice 
and approbation ; begin to swerve and almost shiver 
at the majesty and grandeur of some noble deed, as if 
they were newly entered into a great sin ; disputing 
precedents, forms, and circumstances, when the com- 
monwealth nigh perishes for want of deeds in substance, 
done with just and faithful expedition. To these I wish 
better instruction, and virtue equal to their calling; 
the former of which, that is to say instruction, I shall 
endeavour, as my duty is, to bestow on them ; and ex- 
hort them not to startle from the just and pious resolu- 
tion of adhering with all their strength and assistance 
to the present parliament and army, in the glorious way 
wherein justice and victory hath set them; the only 
warrants through all ages, next under immediate reve- 
lation, to exercise supreme power ; in those proceed- 
ings, which hitherto appear equal to what hath been 
done in any age or nation heretofore justly or mag- 
nanimously. Nor let them be discouraged or deterred 
by any new apostate scarecrows, who, under shew of 
giving counsel, send out their barking monitories and 
mementoes, empty of aught else but the spleen of a 
frustrated faction. For how can that pretended counsel 
be either sound or faithful, when they that give it see 
not, for madness and vexation of their ends lost, that 
those statutes and scriptures, which both falsely and 
scandalously they w rest against their friends and asso- 
ciates, would by sentence of the common adversary fall 
first and heaviest upon their own heads ? Neither let/ 
mild and tender dispositions he foolishly softened from 
their duty and perseverance with the unmasculine rhe- 
toric of any puling priest or chaplain, sent as a friendly 

• Prov. xii. 10. 



letter of advice, for fashion's sake in private, and forth- 
with published by the sender himself, that we may 
know how much of friend there was in it, to cast an 
odious envy upon them to whom it was pretended to 
be sent in charity. Nor let any man be deluded by 
either the ignorance, or the notorious hypocrisy and 
self-repugnance, of our dancing divines, who have the 
conscience and the boldness to come with scripture in 
their mouths, glossed and fitted for their turns with a 
double contradictory sense, transforming the sacred 
verity of God to an idol with two faces, looking at once 
two several ways ; and with the same quotations to 
charge others, which in the same case they made serve 
to justify themselves. For while the hope to be made 
classic and provincial lords led them on, while plural- 
ities greased them thick and deep, to the shame and 
scandal of religion, more than all the sects and heresies 
they exclaim against; then to fight against the king's 
person, and no less a party of his lords and commons, 
or to put force upon both the houses, was good, was 
lawful, was no resisting of superior powers ; they only 
were powers not to be resisted, who countenanced the 
good, and punished the evil. But now that their cen- 
sorious domineering is not suffered to be universal, truth 
and conscience to be freed, tithes and pluralities to be 
no more, though competent allowance provided, and 
the warm experience of large gifts, and they so good 
at taking them ; yet now to exclude and seize upon 
impeached members, to bring delinquents without ex- 
emption to a fair tribunal by the common national law 
against murder, is now to be no less than Corah, Da- 
than, and Abiram. He who but ere while in the pulpits 
was a cursed tyrant, an enemy to God and saints, laden 
with all the innocent blood spilt in three kingdoms, 
and so to be fought against; is now, though nothing 
penitent or altered from his first principles, a lawful 
magistrate, a sovereign lord, the Lord's anointed, not to 
be touched, though by themselves imprisoned. As if this 
only were obedience, to preserve the mere useless bulk 
of his person, and that only in prison, not in the field, 
not to disobey his commands, deny him his dignity 
and office, every where to resist his power, but where 
they think it only surviving in their own faction. 

But who in particular is a tyrant, cannot be deter- 
mined in a general discourse, otherwise than by sup- 
position ; his particular charge, and the sufficient proof 
of it, must determine that : which I leave to magistrates, 
at least to the uprighter sort of them, and of the people, 
though in number less by many, in whom faction least 
hath prevailed above the law of nature and right rea- 
son, to judge as they find cause. But this I dare own 
as part of my faith, that if such a one there be, by 
whose commission whole massacres have been com- 
mitted on his faithful subjects, his provinces offered to 
pawn or alienation, as the hire of those whom he had 
.solicited to come in and destroy whole cities and coun- 
tries ; be he king, or tyrant, or emperor, the sword of 
justice is above him; in whose hand soever is found 
sufficient power to avenge the effusion, and so great a 
deluge of innocent blood. For if all human power to 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



233 



execute, not accidentally but intendedly the wrath of 
God upon evil-doers without exception, be of God ; 
then that power, whether ordinary, or if that fail, ex- 
traordinary, so executing" that intent of God, is lawful, 

/ and not to be resisted. But to unfold more at large 
this whole question, though with all expedient brevity, 
I shall here set down, from first beginning-, the original 
of kings ; how and wherefore exalted to that dignity 
above their brethren ; and from thence shall prove, 
that turning to tyranny they may be as lawfully de- 
posed and punished, as they were at first elected : this 
.1 shall do by authorities and reasons, not learnt in 

/ corners among- schisms and heresies, as our doubling 
divines are ready to calumniate, but fetched out of the 
midst of choicest and most authentic learning, and no 
prohibited authors ; nor many heathen, but mosaical, 
Christian, orthodoxal, and which must needs be more 
convincing to our adversaries, presbyterial. 

No man, who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny, 
that all men naturally were born free, being the imag-e 
and resemblance of God himself, and were, by privi- 
lege above all the creatures, born to command, and not 
to obey : and that they lived so, till from the root of 
Adam's transgression, falling among themselves to do 
wrong and violence, and foreseeing that such courses 
must needs tend to the destruction of them all, they 
agreed by common league to bind each other from 
mutual injury, and jointly to defend themselves against 
any, that gave disturbance or opposition to such agree- 
ment. Hence came cities, towns, and commonwealths. 
And because no faith in all was found sufficiently bind- 
ing, they saw it needful to ordain some authority, that 
might restrain by force and punishment what was vio- 
lated against peace and common right. This authority 
and power of self-defence and preservation being origi- 
nally and naturally in every one of them, and unitedly 
in them all; for ease, for order, and lest each man 
should be his own partial judge, they communicated 
and derived either to one, whom for the eminence of 
his wisdom and integrity they chose above the rest, or 
to more than one, whom they thought of equal deserv- 
ing : the first was called a king ; the other, magistrates : 
not to be their lords and masters, (though afterward 
those names in some places were given voluntarily to 
such as had been authors of inestimable good to the 
people,) but to be their deputies and commissioners, to 
execute, by virtue of their intrusted power, that justice, 
which else every man by the bond of nature and of 
covenant must have executed for himself, and for one 
another. And to him that shall consider well, why 
among free persons one man by civil right should bear 
authority and jurisdiction over another; no other end 
or reason can be imaginable. These for a while go- 
verned well, and with much equity decided all things 
at their own arbitrament; till the temptation of such a 
power, left absolute in their hands, perverted them at 
length to injustice and partiality. Then did they, who 
mw by trial had found the danger and inconveniences 
f committing arbitrary power to any, invent laws 
either framed or consented to by all; that should con- 
fine and limit the authority of whom they chose to 



govern them : that so man, of whose failing they had 
proof, might no more rule over them, but law and rea- 
son, abstracted as much as might be from personal 
errours and frailties. " While, as the magistrate was 
set above the people, so the law was set above the 
magistrate." When this would not serve, but that the 
law was either not executed, or misapplied, they were 
constrained from that time, the only remedy left 
them, to put conditions and take oaths from all kings 
and magistrates at their first instalment to do impar- 
tial justice by law: who upon those terms and no 
other, received allegiance from the people, that is to 
say, bond or covenant to obey them in execution of 
those laws, which they the people had themselves 
made or assented to. And this ofttimes with express 
warning, that if the king or magistrate proved un- 
faithful to his trust, the people would be disengaged. 
They added also counsellors and parliaments, not to be 
only at his beck, but with him or without him, at set 
times, or at all times, when any danger threatened, to 
have care of the public safety. Therefore saith Clau- 
dius Sesell, a French statesman, " The parliament was 
set as a bridle to the king ; " which I instance rather, 
" not because our English lawyers have not said the 
same long before, but because that French monarchy 
is granted by all to be a far more absolute one than 
ours. That this and the rest of what hath hitherto 
been spoken is most true, might be copiously made ap- 
pear through all stories heathen and christian ; even of 
those nations, where kings and emperors have sought 
means to abolish all ancient memory of the people's 
right by their encroachments and usurpations. But I 
spare long insertions, appealing to the German, French, 
Italian, Arragonian, English, and not least the Scot- 
tish histories: not forgetting* this only by the way, 
that William the Norman, though a conqueror, and 
not unsworn at his coronation, was compelled, a second 
time, to take oath at St. Albans, ere the people would 
be brought to yield obedience. 

It being thus manifest, that the power of kings and 
magistrates is nothing else, but what is only deriva- 
tive, transferred and committed to them in trust from 
the people to the common good of them all, in whom 
the power yet remains fundamentally, and cannot be 
taken from them, without a violation of their natural 
birthright ; and seeing that from hence Aristotle, and 
the best of political writers, have defined a king, " him 
who governs to the good and profit of his people, and 
not for his own ends ; " it follows from necessary 
causes, that the titles of sovereign lord, natural lord, 
and the like, are either arrogancies, or flatteries, not 
admitted by emperors and kings of best note, and dis- 
liked by the church both of Jews (Isa. xxvi. 13,) and 
ancient Christians, as appears by Tertullian and others. 
Although generally the people of Asia, and with them 
the Jews also, especially since the time they chose a 
king against the advice and counsel of God, are noted 
by wise authors much inclinable to slavery. 

Secondly, that to say, as is usual, the king bath as 
good right to his crown and dignity, as any man to his 
inheritance, is to make the subject no better than the 



234 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



king's slave, his chattel, or his possession that may be 
bought and sold : and doubtless, if hereditary title were 
sufficiently inquired, the best foundation of it would be 
found but either in courtesy or convenience. But sup- 
pose it to be of right hereditary, what can be more 
just and legal, if a subject for certain crimes be to for- 
feit by law from himself and posterity all his inherit- 
ance to the king, than that a king for crimes propor- 
tional should forfeit all his title and inheritance to the 
people ? Unless the people must be thought created 
all for him, he not for them, and they all in one body 
inferior to him single; which were a kind of treason 
against the dignity of mankind to affirm. 

Thirdly, it follows, that, to say kings are accountable 
to none but God, is the overturning of all law and go- 
vernment. For if they may refuse to give account, 
then all covenants made with them at coronation, all 
oaths, are in vain, and mere mockeries ; all laws which 
they swear to keep, made to no purpose : for if the king 
fear not God, (as how many of them do not !) we hold 
then our lives and estates by the tenure of his mere 
grace and mercy, as from a god, not a mortal magis- 
trate; a position that none but court-parasites or men 
besotted would maintain ! 'Aristotle therefore, whom 
we commonly allow for one of the best interpreters of 
nature and morality, writes in the fourth of his Politics, 
chap. x. that " monarchy unaccountable, is the worst 
sort of tyranny, and least of all to be endured by free- 
born men."' And surely no christian prince, not drunk 
with high mind, and prouder than those pagan Cae- 
sars that deified themselves, would arrogate so unrea- 
sonably above human condition, or derogate so basely 
from a whole nation of men his brethren, as if for him 
only subsisting, and to serve his glory, valuing them 
in comparison of his own brute will and pleasure no 
more than so many beasts, or vermin under his feet, 
not to be reasoned with, but to be trod on; among 
whom there might be found so many thousand men 
for wisdom, virtue, nobleness of mind, and all other re- 
spects but the fortune of his dignity, far above him. 
Yet some would persuade us that this absurd opinion was 
King David's, because in the 51st Psalm he cries out 
to God, "Against thee only have I sinned;" as if Da- 
vid had imagined, that to murder Uriah and adulterate 
his wife had been no sin against his neighbour, whenas 
that law of Moses was to the king expressly, Deut. 
xvii. not to think so highly of himself above his bre- 
thren. David therefore by those words could mean 
no other, than either that the depth of his guiltiness 
was known to God only, or to so few as had not the 
will or power to question him, or that the sin against 
God was greater beyond compare than against Uriah. 
Whatever his meaning were, any wise man will see, 
that the pathetical words of a psalm can be no certain 
decision to a point that hath abundantly more certain 
rules to go by. How much more rationally spake the 
heathen king Demophoon in a tragedy of Euripides, 
than these interpreters would put upon King David! 
" I rule not my people by tyranny, as if they were bar- 
barians, but am myself liable, if I do unjustly, to suf- 
fer justly. " Not unlike was the speech of Trajan the 



worthy emperor, to one whom he made general of his 
praetorian forces : " Take this drawn sword," saith he, 
" to use for me, if I reign well ; if not, to use against 
me." Thus Dion relates. And not Trajan only, but 
Theodosius the younger, a christian emperor, and one 
of the best, caused it to be enacted as a rule undeniable 
and fit to be acknowledged by all kings and empe- 
rors, that a prince is bound to the laws ; that on the 
authority of law the authority of a prince depends, and 
to the laws ought to submit. Which edict of his re- 
mains yet unrepealed in the Code of Justinian, 1. 1. tit. 
24, as a sacred constitution to all the succeeding em- 
perors. How then can any king in Europe maintain 
and write himself accountable to none but God, when 
emperors in their own imperial statutes have written 
and decreed themselves accountable to law ? And in- 
deed where such account is not feared, he that bids a 
man reign over him above law, may bid as well a sa- 
vage beast. 

It follows, lastly, that since the king or magistrate 
holds his authority of the people, both originally and 
naturally for their good in the first place, and not his 
own ; then may the people, as oft as they shall judge 
it for the best, either choose him or reject him, retain 
him or depose him though no tyrant, merely by the 
liberty and right of freeborn men to be governed as 
seems to them best. This, though it cannot but stand 
with plain reason, shall be made good also by Scripture, 
Deut. xvii. 14, " When thou art come into the land, 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt say, I 
will set a king over me, like as all the nations about 
me." These words confirm us that the right of choosing, 
yea of changing their own government, is by the grant 
of God himself in the people. And therefore when 
they desired a king, though then under another form 
of government, and though their changing displeased 
him, yet he that was himself their king, and rejected 
by them, would not be a hinderance to what they in- 
tended, further than by persuasion, but that they might 
do therein as they saw good, 1 Sam. viii. only he re- 
served to himself the nomination of who should reign 
over them. Neither did that exempt the king, as if he 
were to God only accountable, though by his especial 
command anointed. Therefore " David first made a 
covenant with the elders of Israel, and so was by them 
anointed king," 2 Sam. v. 3, 1 Chron. xi. And Jehoi- 
ada the priest, making Jehoash king, made a covenant 
between him and the people, 2 Kings xi. 17. There- 
fore when Roboam, at his coming to the crown, rejected 
those conditions, which the Israelites brought him, hear 
what they answer him, " What portion have we in 
David, or inheritance in the son of Jesse ? See to thine 
own house, David." And for the like conditions not 
performed, all Israel before that time deposed Samuel ; 
not for his own default, but for the misgovemment of 
his sons. But some will say to both these examples, 
it was evilly done. I answer, that not the latter, be- 
cause it was expressly allowed them in the law, to set 
up a king if they pleased ; and God himself joined with 
them in the work ; though in some sort it was at that 
time displeasing to him, in respect of old Samuel, who 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



235 



had governed them uprightly. As Livy praises the 
Romans, who took occasion from Tarquinius, a wicked 
prince, to gain their liberty, which to have extorted, 
saith he, from Numa, or any of the good kings before, 
had not been seasonable. Nor was it in the former 
example done unlawfully; for when Roboam had pre- 
pared a huge army to reduce the Israelites, he was 
forbidden by the prophet, 1 Kings xii. 24, " Thus saith 
the Lord, ye shall not go up, nor fight against your 
brethren, for this thing is from me." He calls them 
their brethren, not rebels, and forbids to be proceeded 
against them, owning the thing himself, not by single 
providence, but by approbation, and that not only of 
the act, as in the former example, but of the fit season 
also; he had not otherwise forbid to molest them. 
And those grave and wise counsellors, whom Rehoboam 
first advised with, spake no such thing, as our old gray- 
headed flatterers now are w^ont, stand upon your birth- 
right, scorn to capitulate, you hold of God, not of them ; 
for they knew no such matter,, unless conditionally, 
hut gave him politic counsel, as in a civil transaction. 
Therefore kingdom and magistracy, whether supreme 
or subordinate, is called " a human ordinance," 1 Pet. 
ii. 13, &c. ; which we are there taught is the will of 
God we should submit to, so far as for the punishment 
of evil-doers, and the encouragement of them that do 
well. " Submit," saith he, " as free men." " But to 
any civil power unaccountable, unquestionable, and 
not to be resisted, no not in wickedness, and violent 
actions, how can we submit as free men ?" " There is 
no power but of God," saith Paul, Rom. xiii. as much 
as to say, God put it into man's heart to find out that 
way at first for common peace and preservation, ap- 
proving the exercise thereof; else it contradicts Peter, 
who calls the same authority an ordinance of man. It 
must be also understood of lawful and just power, else 
we read of great power in the affairs and kingdoms of 
the world permitted to the devil : for saith he to Christ, 
Luke iv. 6, all this power will I give thee, and the 
glory of them, for it is delivered to me, and to whom- 
soever I will, I give it : neither did he lie, or Christ 
gainsay what he affirmed ; for in the thirteenth of the 
Revelation, we read how the dragon gave to the beast 
his power, his seat, and great authority : which beast 
so authorized most expound to be the tyrannical powers 
and kingdoms of the earth. Therefore Saint Paul in 
the forecited chapter tells us, that such magistrates he 
means, as are not a terrour to the good, but to the evil, 
such as bear not the sword in vain, but to punish of- 
fenders, and to encourage the good. If such only be 
mentioned here as powers to be obeyed, and our sub- 
mission to them only required, then doubtless those 
powers, that do the contrary, are no powers ordained 
of God ; and by consequence no obligation laid upon 
us to obey or not to resist them. And it may be well 
observed, that both these apostles, whenever they give 
this precept, express it in terms not concrete, but ab- 
stract, as logicians are wont to speak ; that is, they 
mention the ordinance, the power, the authority, before 
the persons that execute it ; and what that power is, 
lest we should be deceived, they describe exactly. So 



that if the power be not such, or the person execute not 
such power, neither the one nor the other is of God, 
but of the devil, and by consequence to be resisted. 
From this exposition Chrysostom also on the same place 
dissents not ; explaining that these words were not 
written in behalf of a tyrant. And this is verified by 
David, himself a king, and likeliest to be the author 
of the Psalm xciv. 20, which saith, " Shall the throne 
of iniquity have fellowship with thee ?" And it were 
worth the knowing, since kings in these days, and 
that by Scripture, boast the justness of their title, 
by holding it immediately of God, yet cannot shew 
the time when God ever set on the throne them 
or their forefathers, but only when the people chose 
them ; why by the same reason, since God ascribes as 
oft to himself the casting down of princes from the 
throne, it should not be thought as lawful, and as much 
from God, when none are seen to do it but the people, 
and that for just causes. For if it needs must be a sin 
in them to depose, it may as likely be a sin to have 
elected. And contrary, if the people's act in election 
be pleaded by a king, as the act of God, and the most 
just title to enthrone him, why may not the people's 
act of rejection be as well pleaded by the people as the 
act of God, and the most just reason to depose him? 
So that we see the title and just right of reigning or 
deposing in reference to God, is found in Scripture to 
be all one ; visible only in the people, and depending 
merely upon justice and demerit. Thus far hath been 
considered chiefly the power of kings and magistrates; 
how it was and is originally the people's, and by them 
conferred in trust only to be employed to the common 
peace and benefit; with liberty therefore and right re- 
maining in them, to reassume it to themselves, if by 
kings or magistrates it be abused ; or to dispose of it 
by any alteration, as they shall judge most conducing 
to the public good. 

We may from hence with more ease and force of 
argument determine what a tyrant is, and what the 
people may do against him. A tyrant, whether by 
wrong or by right coming to the crown, is he who, re- 
garding neither law nor the common good, reigns only 
for himself and his faction: thus St. Basil among 
others defines him. And because his power is great, 
his will boundless and exorbitant, the fulfilling whereof 
is for the most part accompanied with innumerable 
wrongs and oppressions of the people, murders, massa- 
cres, rapes, adulteries, desolation, and subversion of 
cities and whole provinces ; look how great a good and 
happiness a just king is, so great a mischief is a tyrant; 
as he the public father of his country, so this the com- 
mon enemy. Against whom what the people lawfully 
may do, as against a common pest, and destroyer of 
mankind, I suppose no man of clear judgment need , s 
cro further to be guided than by the very principles of 
nature in him. But because it is the vulgar folly of 
men to desert their own reason, and shutting their eyes, 
to think they see best with other men's, I shall shew 
by such examples as ought to have most weight with 
us, what hath been done in this case heretofore. The 
Greeks and Romans, as their prime authors witness. 



236 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



held it not only lawful, but a glorious and heroic deed, 
rewarded publicly with statues and garlands, to kill an 
infamous tyrant at any time without trial: and but 
reason, that he, who trod down all law, should not be 
vouchsafed the benefit of law. Insomuch that Seneca 
the tragedian brings in Hercules, the grand suppressor 
of tyrants, thus speaking; 

Victims, baud ulla amplior 



Potest, magisque opima mactari Jovi 
Quam rex iniquus 

There can be slain 

No sacrifice to God more acceptable 
Than an unjust and wicked king 



But of these I name no more, lest it be objected they 
were heathen ; and come to produce another sort of 
men, that had the knowledge of true religion. Among 
the Jews this custom of tyrant-killing was not unusual. 
First Ehud, a man whom God had raised to deliver 
Israel from Eglon king of Moab, who had conquered 
and ruled over them eighteen years, being sent to him 
as an ambassador with a present, slew him in his own 
house. But he was a foreign prince, an enemy, and 
Ehud besides had special warrant from God. To the 
first I answer, it imports not whether foreign or native: 
for no prince so native but professes to hold by law; 
which when he himself overturns, breaking all the 
covenants and oaths that gave him title to his dignity, 
and were the bond and alliance between him and his 
people, what differs he from an outlandish king, or 
from an enemy ? For look how much right the king 
of Spain hath to govern us at all, so much right hath 
the king of England to govern us tyrannically. If 
he, though not bound to us by any league, coming from 
Spain in person to subdue us, or to destroy us, might 
lawfully by the people of England either be slain in 
fight, or put to death in captivity, what hath a native 
king to plead, bound by so many covenants, benefits, 
and honours, to the welfare of his people ; why he 
through the contempt of all laws and parliaments, the 
only tie of our obedience to him, for his own will's 
sake, and a boasted prerogative unaccountable, after 
seven years warring and destroying of his best subjects, 
overcome, and yielded prisoner, should think to scape 
unquestionable, as a thing divine, in respect of whom 
so many thousand Christians destroyed should lie un- 
accounted for, polluting with their slaughtered carcasses 
all the land over, and crying for vengeance against 
the living that should have righted them ? Who knows 
not that there is a mutual bond of amity and brother- 
hood between man and man over all the world, neither 
is it the English sea that can sever us from that duty 
and relation : a straiter bond yet there is between fel- 
low-subjocts, neighbours, and friends. But when any 
of these do one to another so as hostility could do no 
worse, what doth the law decree less against them, 
than open enemies and invaders ? or if the law be not 
present or too weak, what doth it warrant us to less 
than single defence or civil war? and from that time 
forward the law of civil defensive war differs nothing 



from the law of foreign hostility. Nor is it distance of 
place that makes enmity, but enmity that makes dis- 
tance. He therefore that keeps peace with me, near 
or remote, of whatsoever nation, is to me, as far as all 
civil and human offices, an Englishman and a neigh- 
bour: but if an Englishman, forgetting all laws, hu- 
man, civil, and religious, offend against life and liberty, 
to him offended, and to the law in his behalf, though 
born in the same womb, he is no better than a Turk, a 
Saracen, a heathen. This is gospel, and this was ever 
law among equals; how much rather then in force 
against any king whatever, who in respect of the peo- 
ple is confessed inferior and not equal : to distinguish 
therefore of a tyrant by outlandish, or domestic, is a 
weak evasion. To the second, that he was an enemy; 
I answer, what tyrant is not ? yet Eglon by the Jews 
had been acknowledged as their sovereign, they had 
served him eighteen years, as long almost as we our 
William the Conqueror, in all which he could not be so 
unwise a statesman, but to have taken of them oaths 
of fealty and allegiance ; by which they made them- 
selves his proper subjects, as their homage and present 
sent by Ehud testified. To the third, that he had spe- 
cial warrant to kill Eglon in that manner, it cannot be 
granted, because not expressed ; it is plain, that he 
was raised by God to be a deliverer, and went on just 
principles, such as were then and ever held allowable 
to deal so by a tyrant, that could no otherwise be dealt 
with. Neither did Samuel, though a prophet, with his 
own hand abstain from Agag ; a foreign enemy, no 
doubt ; but mark the reason, " As thy sword hath 
made women childless ;" a cause that by the sentence 
of law itself nullifies all relations. And as the law is 
between brother and brother, father and son, master 
and servant, wherefore not between king, or rather ty- 
rant, and people ? And whereas Jehu had special com- 
mand to slay Jehoram a successive and hereditary 
tyrant, it seems not the less imitable for that ; for 
where a thing grounded so much on natural reason 
hath the addition of a command from God, what does 
it but establish the lawfulness of such an act ? Nor is 
it likely that God, who had so many ways of punishing 
the house of Ahab, would have sent a subject against 
his prince, if the fact in itself, as done to a tyrant, had 
been of bad example. And if David refused to lift his 
hand against the Lord's anointed, the matter between 
them was not tyranny, but private enmity, and David 
as a private person had been his own revenger, not so 
much the people's : but when any tyrant at this day 
can shew himself to be the Lord's anointed, the only 
mentioned reason why David withheld his hand, he 
may then, but not till then, presume on the same pri- 
vilege. 

We may pass therefore hence to christian times. 
And first our Saviour himself, how much he favoured 
tyrants, and how much intended they should be found 
or honoured among Christians, declared his mind not 
obscurely; accounting' their absolute authority no bet- 
ter than Gentilism, yea though they flourished it over 
with the splendid name of benefactors ; charging those 
that would be his disciples to usurp no such dominion ; 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



237 



but that they, who were to be of most authority among 
them, should esteem themselves ministers and servants 
to the public. Matt. xx. 25, " The princes of the Gen- 
tiles exercise lordship over them ; and Mark x. 42, 
" They that seem to rule," saith he, either slighting- or 
accounting them no lawful rulers ; " but ye shall not 
be so, but the greatest among you shall be your ser- 
vant." And although he himself were the meekest, 
and came on earth to be so, yet to a tyrant we hear him 
not vouchsafe an humble word : but, " Tell that fox," 
Luke xiii. " So far we ought to be from thinking that 
Christ and his gospel should be made a sanctuary for 
tyrants from justice, to whom his law before never 
gave such protection." And wherefore did his mother 
the virgin Mary give such praise to God in her pro- 
phetic song, that he had now by the coming of Christ, 
cut down dynastas, or proud monarchs, from the throne, 
if the church, when God manifests his power in them 
to do so, should rather choose all misery and vassalage 
to serve them, and let them still sit on their potent 
seats to be adored for doing mischief? Surely it is not 
for nothing, that tyrants by a kind of natural instinct 
both hate and fear none more than the true church and 
saints of God, as the most dangerous enemies and sub- 
verted of monarchy, though indeed of tyranny ; hath 
not this been the perpetual cry of courtiers and court- 
prelates? whereof no likelier cause can be alleged, but 
that they well discerned the mind and principles of 
most devout and zealous men, and indeed the very 
discipline of church, tending to the dissolution of all 
tyranny. No marvel then if since the faith of Christ 
received, in purer or impurer times, to depose a king 
and put him to death for tyranny, hath been accounted 
so just and requisite, that neighbour kings have both 
upheld and taken part with subjects in the action. 
And Ludovicus Pius, himself an emperor, and son of 
Charles the Great, being made judge (du Haillan is 
my author) between Milegast king of the Vultzes and 
his subjects who had deposed him, gave his verdict for 
the subjects, and for him whom they had chosen in his 
room. Note here, that the right of electing whom 
they please is by the impartial testimony of an em- 
peror in the people : for, said he, " A just prince ought 
to be preferred before an unjust, and the end of govern- 
ment before the prerogative." And Constantinus Leo, 
another emperor, in the Byzantine laws saith, " That 
the end of a king is for the general good, which he not 
performing, is but the counterfeit of a king." And to 
prove, that some of our own monarchs have acknow- 
ledged, that their high office exempted them not from 
punishment, they had the sword of St. Edward borne 
before them by an officer, who was called earl of the 
palace, even at the times of their highest pomp and 
solemnities ; to mind them, saith Matthew Paris, the 
best of our historians, " that if they erred, the sword 
had power to restrain them." And what restraint the 
sword comes to at length, having both edge and point, 
if any sceptic will doubt, let him feel. It is also affirmed 
from diligent search made in our ancient books of law, 
that the peers and barons of England had a legal right 
to judge the king: which was the cause most likely, 



(for it could be no slight cause,) that they were called 
his peers, or equals. This however may stand im- 
movable, so long- as man hath to deal with no better 
than man ; that if our law judge all men to the lowest 
by their peers, it should in all equity ascend also, and 
judge the highest. And so much I find both in our 
own and foreign story, that dukes, earls, and mar- 
quisses were at first not hereditary, not empty and 
vain titles, but names of trust and office, and with the 
office ceasing; as induces me to be of opinion, that 
every worthy man in parliament, (for the word baron 
imports no more,) might for the public good be 
thought a fit peer and judge of the king; without re- 
gard had to petty caveats and circumstances, the chief 
impediment in high affairs, and ever stood upon most by 
circumstantial men. Whence doubtless our ancestors 
who were not ignorant with what rights either nature 
or ancient constitution had endowed them, when oaths 
both at coronation and renewed in parliament would 
not serve, thought it no way illegal, to depose and put 
to death their tyrannous kings. Insomuch that the 
parliament drew up a charge against Richard the Se- 
cond, and the commons requested to have judgment 
decreed against him, that the realm might not be en- 
dangered. And Peter Martyr, a divine of foremost 
rank, on the third of Judg*es approves their doings. Sir 
Thomas Smith also, a protestant and a statesman, in 
his Commonwealth of England, putting the question, 
" whether it be lawful to rise against a tyrant;" an- 
swers, " that the vulgar judge of it according to the 
event, and the learned according to the purpose of 
them that do it." But far before those days Gildas, 
the most ancient of all our historians, speaking* of those 
times wherein the Roman empire decaying quitted and 
relinquished what right they had by conquest to this 
island, and resigned it all into the people's hands, tes- 
tifies that the people thus reinvested with their own 
original right, about the year 446, both elected them 
kings, whom they thought best, (the first christian Bri- 
tish kings that ever reigned here since the Romans,) 
and by the same right, when they apprehended cause, 
usually deposed and put them to death. This is the 
most fundamental and ancient tenure, that any king of 
England can produce or pretend to; in comparison of 
which, all other titles and pleas are but of yesterday. 
If any object, that Gildas condemns the Britons for so 
doing, the answer is as ready ; that he condemns them 
no more for so doing, than he did before for choosing 
such ; for saith he, " They anointed them kings, not 
of God, but such as were more bloody than the rest." 
Next, he condemns them not at all for deposing or 
putting them to death, but for doing it overhastily, 
without trial or well examining the cause, and for 
electing others worse in their room. Thus we have 
here both domestic and most ancient examples, that the 
people of Britain have deposed and put to death their 
kings iu those primitive christian times. And to couple 
reason with example, if the church in all ages, primi- 
tive, Romish, or protestant, held it ever no less their 
duty than the power of their keys, though without ex- 
press warrant of Scripture, to bring indifferently both 



238 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



king" and peasant under the utmost rigour of their 
canons and censures ecclesiastical, even to the smiting 
him with a final excommunion, if he persist impe- 
nitent : what hinders, but that the temporal law both 
may and ought, though without a special text or pre- 
cedent, extend with like indifference the civil sword, 
to the cutting off, without exemption, him that capitally 
offends, seeing that justice and religion are from the 
same God, and works of justice ofttimes more accept- 
able ? Yet because that some lately with the tongues 
and arguments of malignant backsliders have written, 
that the proceedings now in parliament against the 
king* arc without precedent from any protestant state 
or kingdom, the examples which follow shall be all 
protestant, and chiefly presbyterian. 

In the year 1546, the duke of Saxony, landgrave of 
Hesse, and the whole protestant league, raised open 
war against Charles the Fifth their emperor, sent him 
a defiance, renounced all faith and allegiance toward 
him, and debated long in council, whether they should 
give him so much as the title of Caesar. Sleidan. 1. 17. 
Let all men judge what this wanted of deposing or of 
killing, but the power to do it. 

In the year 1559, the Scots protestants claiming pro- 
mise of their queen-regent for liberty of conscience, 
she answering, that promises were not to be claimed 
of princes beyond what was commodious for them to 
grant, told her to her face in the parliament then at 
Stirling, that if it were so, they renounced their obe- 
dience ; and soon after betook them to arms. Buchanan 
Hist. 1. 16. Certainly, when allegiance is renounced, 
that very hour the king or queen is in effect deposed. 

In the year 1564, John Knox, a most famous divine, 
and the reformer of Scotland to the presbyterian disci- 
pline, at a general assembly maintained openly in a 
dispute against Lethington the secretary of state, that 
subjects might and ought to execute God's judgments 
upon their king; that the fact of Jehu and others 
against their king, having the ground of God's ordi- 
nary command to put such and such offenders to death, 
was not extraordinary, but to be imitated of all that 
preferred the honour of God to the affection of flesh 
and wicked princes; that kings, if they offend, have 
no privilege to be exempted from the punishments of 
law more than any other subject: so that if the king 
be a murderer, adulterer, or idolater, he should suffer, 
not as a king, but as an offender; and this position he 
repeats again and again before them. Answerable was 
the opinion of John Craig, another learned divine, and 
that laws made by the tyranny of princes, or the neg- 
ligence of people, their posterity might abrogate, and 
reform all things according to the original institution 
of commonwealths. And Knox, being commanded by 
the nobility to write to Calvin and other learned men 
for their judgments in that question, refused ; alleging, 
that both himself was fully resolved in conscience, and 
had heard their judgments, and had the same opinion 
under handwriting of many the most godly and most 
learned that he knew in Europe; that if he should 
move the question to them again, what should he do 
but shew his own forgetfulness or inconstancy ? All 



this is far more largely in the ecclesiastic history of 
Scotland, 1. 4, with many other passages to this effect 
all the book over, set out with diligence by Scots- 
men of best repute among them at the beginning of 
these troubles; as if they laboured to inform us Avhat 
we were to do, and what they intended upon the like 
occasion. 

And to let the world know, that the whole church 
and protestant state of Scotland in those purest times 
of reformation were of the same belief, three years 
after, they met in the field Mary their lawful and he- 
reditary queen, took her prisoner, yielding before fight ? 
kept her in prison, and the same year deposed her. 
Bucban. Hist. 1. 18. 

And four years after that, the Scots, in justification 
of their deposing- Queen Mary, sent ambassadors to 
Queen Elizabeth, and in a written declaration alleged, 
that they had used towards her more lenity than she de- 
served; that their ancestors had heretofore punished 
their kings by death or banishment; that the Scots 
were a free nation, made king whom they freely chose, 
and with the same freedom unkinged him if they saw 
cause, by right of ancient laws and ceremonies yet re- 
maining, and old customs yet among the highland- 
ers in choosing the head of their clans, or families ; all 
which, with many other arguments, bore witness, that 
regal power was nothing else but a mutual covenant or 
stipulation between king and people. Buch. Hist. 1. 
20. These were Scotsmen and presbyterians : but 
what measure then have they lately offered, to think 
such liberty less beseeming us than themselves, pre- 
suming to put him upon us for a master, whom their 
law scarce allows to be their own equal ? If now then 
we hear them in another strain than heretofore in the 
purest times of their church, we may be confident it is 
the voice of faction speaking in them, not of truth and 
reformation. " Which no less in England than in 
Scotland, by the mouths of those faithful witnesses 
commonly called puritans and nonconformists, spake 
as clearly for the putting down, yea, the utmost punish- 
ing, of kings, as in their several treatises may be read ; 
even from the first reign of Elizabeth to these times. 
Insomuch that one of them, whose name was Gibson, 
foretold King James, he should be rooted out, and con- 
clude his race, if he persisted to uphold bishops. And 
that very inscription, stamped upon the first coins at 
his coronation, a naked sword in a hand with these 
words, ; ' Si mereor, in me," " Against me, if I deserve," 
not only manifested the judgment of that state, but 
seemed also to presage the sentence of divine justice in 
this event upon his son. 

In the year 1581, the states of Holland, in a general 
assembly at the Hague, abjured all obedience and sub- 
jection to Philip king of Spain ; and in a declaration 
justify their so doing; for that by his tyrannous go- 
vernment, against faith so many times given and bro- 
ken, he had lost his right to all the Belgic provinces ; 
that therefore they deposed him, and declared it lawful 
to choose another in his stead. Thuan. 1. 74. From 
that time to this, no state or kingdom in the world hath 
equally prospered : but let them remember not to look 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



239 



with an evil and prejudicial eye upon their neighbours 
walking- by the same rule. 

But what need these examples to presbyterians, I 
mean to those who now of late would seem so much to 
abhor deposing", whenas they to all Christendom have 
given the latest and the liveliest example of doing- it 
themselves ? I question not the lawfulness of raising- 
war ag-ainst a tyrant in defence of religion, or civil li- 
berty ; for no protestant church, from the first Walden- 
$es of Lyons and Languedoc to this day, but have done 
it round, and maintained it lawful. But this I doubt 
not to affirm, that the presbyterians, who now so much 
condemn deposing, were the men themselves that de- 
posed the king, and cannot, with all their shifting and 
relapsing, wash off the guiltiness from their own hands. 
For they themselves, by these their late doings, have 
made it guiltiness, and turned their own warrantable 
actions into rebellion. 

There is nothing, that so actually makes a king of 
England, as rightful possession and supremacy in all 
Causes both Civil and Ecclesiastical : and nothing that 
so actually makes a subject of England, as those two 
oaths of allegiance and supremacy observed without 
equivocating, or any mental reservation. Out of doubt 
then when the king shall command things already con- 
stituted in church or state, obedience is the true essence 
of a subject, either to do, if it be lawful, or if he hold 
the thing unlawful, to submit to that penalty which 
the law imposes, so long as he intends to remain a sub- 
ject. Therefore when the people, or any part of them, 
shall rise against the king and his authority, executing 
the law in any thing established, civil or ecclesiastical, 
I do not say it is rebellion, if the thing commanded 
though established be unlawful, and that they sought 
first all due means of redress (and no man is further 
bound to law ) ; but I say it is an absolute renouncing 
both of supremacy and allegiance, which in one word 
is an actual and total deposing of the king, and the set- 
ting up of another supreme authority over them. And 
whether the presbyterians have not done all this and 
much more, they will not put me, I suppose, to reckon 
up a seven years story fresh in the memory of all men. 
Have they not utterly broke the oath of allegiance, re- 
jecting the king's command and authority sent them 
from any part of the kingdom, whether in things law- 
ful or unlawful ? Have they not abjured the oath of 
supremacy, by setting up the parliament without the 
king, supreme to all their obedience ; and though their 
vow and covenant bound them in general to the par- 
liament, yet sometimes adhering to the lesser part of 
lords and commons that remained faithful, as they term 
it, and even of them, one while to the commons with- 
out the lords, another while to the lords without the 
commons ? Have they not still declared their mean- 
ing, whatever their oath were, to hold them only for 
supreme, whom they found at any time most yielding 
to what they petitioned? Both these oaths, which 
were the straitest bond of an English subject in refer- 
ence to the king, being thus broke and made void ; it 
follows undeniably, that the king from that time was 
by them in fact absolutely deposed, and they no longer 



in reality to be thought his subjects, notwithstanding 
their fine clause in the covenant to preserve his person, 
crown, and dignity, set there by some dodging casuist 
with more craft than sincerity, to mitigate the matter 
in case of ill success, and not taken, I suppose, by any 
honest man, but as a condition subordinate to every 
the least particle, that might more concern religion, 
liberty, or the public peace. 

To prove it yet more plainly, that they are the men 
who have deposed the king, I thus argue. We know, 
that king and subject are relatives, and relatives have 
no longer being than in the relation ; the relation be- 
tween king and subject can be no other than regal au- 
thority and subjection. Hence I infer past their de- 
fending, that if the subject, who is one relative, take 
away the relation, of force he takes away also the 
other relative : but the presbyterians, who were one 
relative, that is to say, subjects, have for this seven 
years taken away the relation, that is to say, the 
king's authority, and their subjection to it; therefore 
the presbyterians for these seven years have removed 
and extinguished the other relative, that is to say, 
the king ; or to speak more in brief, have deposed him ; 
not only by depriving him the execution of his autho- 
rity, but by conferring it upon others. If then their 
oaths of subjection broken, new supremacy obeyed, new 
oaths and covenant taken, notwithstanding frivolous 
evasions, have in plain terms unkinged the king, much 
more then hath their seven years war, not deposed him 
only, but outlawed him, and defied him as an alien, a 
rebel to law, and enemy to the state. It must needs be 
clear to any man not averse from reason, that hostility 
and subjection are two direct and positive contraries, 
and can no more in one subject stand together in re- 
spect of the same king, than one person at the same 
time can be in two remote places. Against whom 
therefore the subject is in act of hostility, we may be 
confident, that to him he is in no subjection : and in 
whom hostility takes place of subjection, for they can 
by no means consist together, to him the king can be 
not only no king, but an enemy. So that from hence 
we shall not need dispute, whether they have deposed 
him, or what they have defaulted towards him as no 
king, but shew manifestly how much they have done 
toward the killing him. Have they not levied all these 
wars against him, whether offensive or defensive, (for 
defence in war equally offends, and most prudently be- 
forehand,) and given commission to slay, where they 
knew his person could not be exempt from danger ? 
And if chance or flight had not saved him, how often 
had they killed him, directing their artillery, without 
blame or prohibition, to the very place where they saw 
him stand? Have they not sequestered him, judged or 
unjudged, and converted his revenue to other uses, de- 
taining from him, as a grand delinquent, all means of 
livelihood, so that for them long since he might have 
perished, or have starved? Have they not hunted and 
pursued him round about the kingdom with sword and 
fire ? Have they not formerly denied to treat with him, 
and their now recanting ministers preached against him, 
as a reprobate incurable, an enemy to God and his 



240 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



church, marked for destruction, and therefore not to be 
treated with ? Have they not besieged him, and to their 
power forbid hira water and fire, save what they shot 
against him to the hazard of his life? Yet while they 
thus assaulted and endangered it with hostile deeds, 
they swore in words to defend it with his crown and 
dignity ; not in order, as it seems now, to a firm and 
lasting peace, or to his repentance after all this blood ; 
but simply, without regard, without remorse or any 
comparable value of all the miseries and calamities 
suffered by the poor people, or to suffer hereafter, 
through his obstinacy or impenitence. No understand- 
ing man can be ignorant, that covenants are ever made 
according to the present state of persons and of things; 
and have ever the more general laws of nature and of 
reason included in them, though not expressed. If I 
make a voluntary covenant, as with a man to do him 
good, and he prove afterward a monster to me, I should 
conceive a disobligement. If I covenant, not to hurt 
an enemy, in favour of him and forbearance, and hope 
of his amendment, and he, after that, shall do me ten- 
fold injury and mischief to what he had done when I 
so covenanted, and still be plotting what may tend to 
my destruction, I question not but that his after-actions 
release me ; nor know I covenant so sacred, that with- 
holds me from demanding justice on him. Howbeit, 
had not their distrust in a good cause, and the fast and 
loose of our prevaricating divines, overswayed, it had 
been doubtless better, not to have inserted in a covenant 
unnecessary obligations, and words, not works of super- 
erogating allegiance to their enemy ; no way advan- 
tageous to themselves, had the king prevailed, as to 
their cost many would have felt; but full of snare and 
distraction to our friends, useful only, as we now find, 
to our adversaries, who under such a latitude and 
shelter of ambiguous interpretation have ever since 
been plotting and contriving new opportunities to 
trouble all again. How much better had it been, and 
more becoming an undaunted virtue, to have declared 
openly and boldly whom and what power the people 
were to hold supreme, as on the like occasion protestants 
have done before, and many conscientious men now in 
these times have more than once besought the parlia- 
ment to do, that they might go on upon a sure founda- 
tion, and not with a riddling covenant in their mouths, 
seeming to swear counter, almost in the same breath, 
allegiance and no allegiance ; which doubtless had 
drawn off all the minds of sincere men from siding with 
them, had they not discerned their actions far more 
deposing him than their words upholding him; which 
words, made now the subject of cavillous interpreta- 
tions, stood ever in the covenant, by judgment of the 
more discerning sort, an evidence of their fear, not of 
their fidelity. What should I return to speak on, of 
those attempts for which the king himself hath often 
charged the presbytcrians of seeking his life, whenas 
in the due estimation of things they might without a 
fallacy be said to have done the deed outright ? Who 
knows not, that the king is a name of dignity and 
office, not of person ? Who therefore kills a king, must 
kill him while he is a king. Then they certainly, who 



by deposing him have long since taken from him the 
life of a king, his office and his dignity, they in the 
truest sense may be said to have killed the king: not 
only by their deposing and waging war against him, 
which, besides the danger to his personal life, set him 
in the farthest opposite point from any vital function 
of a king, but by their holding him in prison, vanquished 
and yielded into their absolute and despotic power, 
which brought him to the lowest degradement and in- 
capacity of the regal name. I say not by whose, 
matchless valour next under God, lest the story of their 
ingratitude thereupon carry me from the purpose in 
hand, which is to convince them, that they, which I 
repeat again, were the men who in the truest sense 
killed the king, not only as is proved before, but by 
depressing him their king far below the rank of a sub- 
ject to the condition of a captive, without intention to re- 
store him, as the chancellor of Scotland in a speech told 
him plainly at Newcastle, unless he granted fully all 
their demands, which they knew he never meant. Nor 
did they treat, or think of treating, with him, till their 
hatred to the army that delivered them, not their love 
or duty to the king, joined them secretly with men 
sentenced so oft for reprobates in their own mouths, by 
whose subtle inspiring they grew mad upon a most 
tardy and improper treaty. Whereas if the whole bent 
of their actions had not been against the king himself, 
but only against his evil counsellors, as they feigned, 
and published, wherefore did they not restore him all 
that while to the true life of a king, his office, crown, 
and dignity, when he was, in their power, and they 
themselves his nearest counsellors ? The truth therefore 
is, both that they would not, and that indeed they could 
not without their own certain destruction, having re- 
duced him to such a final pass, as was the very death 
and burial of all in him that was regal, and from 
whence never king of England yet revived, but by the 
new reinforcement of his own party, which was a kind 
of resurrection to him. Thus having quite extinguish- 
ed all that could be in him of a king, and from a total 
privation clad him over, like another specifical thing, 
with forms and habitudes destructive to the former, 
they left in his person, dead as to law and all the civil 
right either of king or subject, the life only of a pri- 
soner, a captive, and a malefactor : whom the equal 
and impartial hand of justice finding, was no more to 
spare than another ordinary man ; not only made ob- 
noxious to the doom of law by a charge more than 
once drawn up against him, and his own confession to 
the first article atNewport,but summoned and arraigned 
in the sight of God and his people, cursed and devoted 
to perdition worse than any Ahab, or Antiochus, with 
exhortation to curse all those in the name of God, that 
made not war against him, as bitterly as Meroz was 
to be cursed, that went not out against a Canaanitish 
king, almost in all the sermons, prayers, and fulmina- 
tions, that have been uttered this seven years by those 
cloven tongues of falsehood and dissension, who now, 
to the stirring up of new discord, acquit him; and 
against their own discipline, which they boast to be the 
throne and sceptre of Christ, absolve him, unconfound 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



241 



him, though unconverted, unrepentant, unsensible of 
all their precious saints and martyrs, whose blood they 
have so oft laid upon his head : and now again with a 
new sovereign anointment can wash it all off, as if it 
were as vile, and no more to be reckoned for than the 
blood of so many dogs in a time of pestilence : giving 
the most opprobrious lie to all the acted zeal, that for 
these many years hath filled their bellies, and fed them 
fat upon the foolish people. Ministers of sedition, not 
of the gospel, who, while they saw it manifestly tend 
to civil war and bloodshed, never ceased exasperating 
the people against him ; and now, that they see it 
likely to breed new commotion, cease not to incite 
others against the people, that have saved them from 
him, as if sedition were their only aim, whether against 
him or for him. But God, as we have cause to trust, 
will put other thoughts into the people, and turn them 
from giving ear or heed to these mercenary noise- 
makers, of whose fury and false prophecies we have 
enough experience; and from the murmurs of new 
discord will incline them, to hearken rather with erected 
minds to the voice of our supreme magistracy, calling 
us to liberty, and the flourishing deeds of a reformed 
commonwealth ; with this hope, that as God was here- 
tofore angry with the Jews who rejected him and his 
form of government to choose a king, so that he will 
bless us, and be propitious to us, who reject a king to 
make him only our leader, and supreme governor, in 
the conformity as near as may be of his own ancient 
government; if we have at least but so much worth in 
us to entertain the sense of our future happiness, and 
the courage to receive what God vouchsafes us: wherein 
we have the honour to precede other nations, who are 
now labouring to be our followers. For as to this 
question in hand, what the people by their just right 
may do in change of government, or of governor, we 
see it cleared sufficiently ; besides other ample author- 
ity, even from the mouths of princes themselves. And 
surely they that shall boast, as we do, to be a free na- 
tion, and not have in themselves the power to remove 
or to abolish any governor supreme, or subordinate, 
with the government itself upon urgent causes, may 
please their fancy with a ridiculous and painted free- 
dom, fit to cozen babies; but are indeed under tyranny 
and servitude ; as wanting that power, which is the 
root and source of all liberty, to dispose and oeconomize 
in the land which God hath given them, as masters of 
family in their own house and free inheritance. With- 
out which natural and essential power of a free nation, 
though bearing high their heads, they can in due esteem 
be thought no better than slaves and vassals born, in 
the tenure and occupation of another inheriting lord. 
Whose government, though not illegal, or intolerable, 
hangs over them as a lordly scourge, not as a free go- 
vernment ; and therefore to be abrogated. How much 
more justly then may they fling off tyranny, or tyrants; 
who being once deposed can be no more than private 
men, as subject to the reach of justice and arraignment 
as any other transgressors ? And certainly if men, not 
to speak of heathen, both wise and religious, have done 
justice upon tyrants what way they could soonest, how 



much more mild and humane then is it, to give them 
fair and open trial ; to teach lawless kings, and all who 
so much adore them, that not mortal man, or his im- 
perious will, but justice, is the only true sovereign and 
supreme majesty upon earth ? Let men cease therefore, 
out of faction and hypocrisy, to make outcries and hor- 
rid things of things so just and honourable. ' Though 
perhaps till now, no protestant state or kingdom can 
be alleged to have openly put to death their king, 
which lately some have written, and imputed to their 
great glory ; much mistaking the matter. It is not, 
neither ought to be, the glory of a protestant state, never 
to have put their king to death ; it is the glory of a 
protestant king never to have deserved death.' And if 
the parliament and military council do what they do 
without precedent, if it appear their duty, it argues the 
more wisdom, virtue, and magnanimity, that they know 
themselves able to be a precedent to others. Who per- 
haps in future ages, if they prove not too degenerate, 
will look up with honour, and aspire toward these ex- 
emplary and matchless deeds of their ancestors, as to the 
highest top of their civil glory and emulation. Which 
heretofore, in the pursuance of fame and foreign domi- 
nion, spent itself vaingloriously abroad; but henceforth 
may learn a better fortitude, to dare execute highest 
justice on them, that shall by force of arms endeavour the 
oppressing and bereaving of religion and their liberty 
at home : that no unbridled potentate or tyrant, but to 
his sorrow, for the future may presume such high and 
irresponsible licence over mankind, to havoc and turn 
upside down whole kingdoms of men, as though they 
were no more in respect of his perverse will than a na- 
tion of pismires. As for the party called presbyterian, 
of whom I believe very many to be good and faithful 
Christians, though misled by some of turbulent spirit, 
I wish them, earnestly and calmly, not to fall off from 
their first principles, nor to affect rigour and superior- 
ity over men not under them ; not to compel unforcible 
things, in religion especially, which, if not voluntary, 
becomes a sin ; not to assist the clamour and malicious 
drifts of men, whom they themselves have judged to be 
the worst of men, the obdurate enemies of God and his 
church : nor to dart against the actions of their bre- 
thren, for want of other argument, those wrested laws 
and scriptures thrown by prelates and malignants 
against their own sides, which, though they hurt not 
otherwise, yet taken up by them to the condemnation 
of their own doings, give scandal to all men, and dis- 
cover in themselves either extreme passion or apos- 
tacy. Let them not oppose their best friends and asso- 
ciates, who molest them not at all, infringe not the 
least of their liberties, unless they call it their liberty 
to bind other men's consciences, but are still seeking 
to live at peace with them and brotherly accord. Let 
them beware an old and perfect enemy, who, though 
he hope by sowing discord to make them his instru- 
ments, yet cannot forbear a minute the open threaten- 
ing of his destined revenge upon them, when they 
have served his purposes. Let them fear therefore, if 
they be wise, rather what they have done already, than 
what remains to do, and be warned in time they put no 



242 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



confidence in princes whom they have provoked, lest 
they he added to the examples of those that miserably 
have tasted the event. Stories can inform them how 
Christiern the lid, king" of Denmark, not much above 
a hundred years past, driven out by his subjects, and 
received again upon new oaths and conditions, broke 
through them all to his most bloody revenge ; slaying 
his chief opposers, when he saw his time, both them 
•and their children, invited to a feast for that purpose. 
How Maximilian dealt with those of Bruges, though 
by mediation of the German princes reconciled to them 
by solemn and public writings drawn and sealed. 
How the massacre at Paris was the effect of that cre- 
dulous peace, which the French protestants made with 
Charles the IX, their king : and that the main visible 
cause, which to this day hath saved the Netherlands 
from utter ruin, was their final not believing the per- 
fidious cruelty, which as a constant maxim of state 
hath been used by the Spanish kings on their subjects 
that have taken arms, and after trusted them ; as no 
latter age but can testify, heretofore in Belgia itself, 
and this very year in Naples. And to conclude with 
one past exception, though far more ancient, David, 
whose sanctified prudence might be alone sufficient, 
not to warrant us only, but to instruct us, when once 
he had taken arms, never after that trusted Saul, though 
with tears and much relenting he twice promised not 
to hurt him. These instances, few of many, might ad- 
monish them, both English and Scotch, not to let their 
own ends, and the driving on of a faction, betray them 
blindly into the snare of those enemies, whose revenge 
looks on them as the men who first begun, fomented, 
and carried on beyond the cure of any sound or safe ac- 
commodation, all the evil which hath since unavoid- 
ably befallen them and their king. 

I have something also to the divines, though brief 
to what were needful ; not to be disturbers of the civil 
affairs, being in hands better able and more belonging 
to manage them ; but to study harder, and to attend the 
office of good pastors, knowing that he, whose flock is 
least among them, hath a dreadful charge, not per- 
formed by mounting twice into the chair with a formal 
preachment huddled up at the odd hours of a whole 
lazy week, but by incessant pains and watching in sea- 
son and out of season, from house to house, over the 
souls of whom they have to feed. Which if they ever 
well considered, how little leisure would they find, to 
be the most pragmatical sidesmen of every popular tu- 
mult and sedition ! And all this while are to learn 
what the true end and reason is of the gospel which 
they teach; and what a world it differs from the cen- 
sorious and supercilious lording over conscience. It 
would be good also they lived so as might persuade 
the people they hated covetousness, which, worse than 
heresy, is idolatry; hated pluralities, and all kind of 
simony ; left rambling from benefice to benefice, like 
ravenous wolves seeking where they may devour the 
biggest. Of which if some, well and warmly seated 
from the beginning, be not guilty, it were good they 

• All that follows, to the end of this tract, was left out not only in the 
edition printed 1733, in 2 vols, folio, but in that of Mr. Toland, who first 



held not conversation with such as are : let them be 
sorry, that, being called to assemble about reforming 
the church, they fell to progging and soliciting the 
parliament, though they had renounced the name of 
priests, for a new settling of their tithes and oblations ; 
and double-lined themselves with spiritual places of 
commodity beyond the possible discharge of their duty. 
Let them assemble in consistory with their elders and 
deacons, according to ancient ecclesiastical rule, to the 
preserving of church discipline, each in his several 
charge, and not a pack of clergymen by themselves to 
belly-cheer in their presumptuous Sion, or to promote 
designs, abuse and gull the simple laity, and stir up 
tumult, as the prelates did, for the maintenance of their 
pride and avarice. These things if they observe, and 
wait with patience, no doubt but all things will go well 
without their importunities or exclamations : and the 
printed letters, which they send subscribed with the 
ostentation of great chai-acters and little moment, would 
be more considerable than now they are. But if they 
be the ministers of mammon instead of Christ, and 
scandalize his church with the filthy love of gain, as- 
piring also to sit the closest and the heaviest of all ty- 
rants upon the conscience, and fall notoriously into the 
same sins, whereof so lately and so loud they accused 
the prelates ; as God rooted out those wicked ones im- 
mediately before, so will he root out them their imita- 
tors : and to vindicate his own glory and religion, will 
uncover their hypocrisy to the open world ; and visit 
upon their own heads that " curse ye Meroz," the very 
motto of their pulpits, wherewith so frequently, not as 
Meroz, but more like atheists, they have blasphemed 
the vengeance of God, and traduced the zeal of his 
people. 

4 * And that they be not what they go for, true mi- 
nisters of the protestant doctrine, taught by those 
abroad, famous and religious men, who first reformed 
the church, or by those no less zealous, who withstood 
corruption and the bishops here at home, branded with 
the name of puritans and nonconformists, we shall 
abound with testimonies to make appear : that men 
may yet more fully know the difference between pro- 
testant divines, and these pulpit-firebrands. 

' Luther. Lib. contra rusticos apud Sleidan. 1. 5. 

' Is est hodie rerum status, Sec. " Such is the state 
of things at this day, that men neither can, nor will, 
nor indeed ought to endure longer the domination of 
you princes." 

' Neque vero Caesarcm, &c. " Neither is Caesar to 
make war as head of Christendom, protector of the 
church, defender of the faith ; these titles being false 
and windy, and most kings being the greatest enemies 
to religion." Lib.de Bello contra Turcas, apud Sleid. 
1. 14. What hinders then, but that we may depose or 
punish them ? 

' These also are recited by Cochlceus in his Miscel- 
lanies to be the words of Luther, or some other eminent 
divine, then in Germany, when the protestants there 

collected the author's works: how this omission arose, the reader will see 
in a note at the beginning of this tract, page 231. 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



243 






entered into solemn covenant at Smalcaldia. Ut ora 
iis obturera, &c. " That I may stop their mouths, the 
pope and emperor are not born, but elected, and may 
also be deposed as hath been often done." If Luther, 
or whoever else, thought so, he could not stay there ; 
for the right of birth or succession can be no privilege 
in nature, to let a tyrant sit irremovable over a nation 
freeborn, without transforming that nation from the 
nature and condition of men born free, into natural, 
hereditary, and successive slaves. Therefore he saith 
further ; " To displace and throw down this exactor, 
this Phalaris, this Nero, is a work pleasing to God ;" 
namely, for being such a one : which is a moral reason. 
Shall then so slight a consideration as his hap to be 
not elective simply, but by birth, which was a mere ac- 
cident, overthrow that which is moral, and make un- 
pleasing to God that which otherwise had so well 
pleased him ? Certainly not : for if the matter be rightly 
argued, election, mueh rather than chance, binds a man 
to content himself with what he surfers by his own bad 
election. Though indeed neither the one nor other 
binds any man, much less any people, to a necessary 
sufferance of those wrongs and evils, which they have 
ability and strength enough given them to remove. 

' Zwinglius, torn. 1, articul. 42. 

' Quando vero perfide, &c. " When kings reign 
perfidiously, and against the rule of Christ, they may 
according to the word of God be deposed." 

' Mihi ergo compertum non est, &c. " I know not 
how it comes to pass, that kings reign by succession, 
unless it be with consent of the whole people." Ibid. 

" Quum vero consensu, &c. " But when by suffrage 
and consent of the whole people, or the better part of 
them, a tyrant is deposed or put to death, God is the 
chief leader in that action." Ibid. 

1 Nunc cum tam tepidi sumus, &c. " Now that we 
are so lukewarm in upholding public justice, we endure 
the vices of tyrants to reign now-a-days with impunity ; 
justly therefore by them we are trod underfoot, and 
shall at length with them be punished. Yet ways are 
not wanting by which tyrants may be removed, but 
there wants public justice." Ibid. 

' Cavete vobis 6 tyranni. " Beware, ye tyrants ! 
for now the gospel of Jesus Christ, spreading far and 
wide, will renew the lives of many to love innocence 
and justice; which if ye also shall do, ye shall be hon- 
oured. But if ye shall go on to rage and do violence, 
ye shall be trampled on by all men." Ibid. 

" Romanum imperium imo quodque, &c. " When 
the Roman empire, or any other, shall begin to oppress 
religion, and we negligently suffer it, we are as much 
guilty of religion so violated, as the oppressors them- 
selves." Idem, Epist. ad Conrad. Somium. 

' Calvin on Daniel, c. iv. v. 25. 
' Hodie monarchse semper in suis titulis. &c. " Now- 
a-days monarchs pretend always in their titles, to be 
kings by the grace of God : but how many of them to 
this end only pretend it, that they may reign without 
control ! for to what purpose is the grace of God men- 



tioned in the title of kings, but that they may acknow- 
ledge t no superior ? In the mean while God, whose 
name they use to support themselves, they willingly 
would tread under their feet. It is therefore a mere 
cheat, when they boast to reign by the grace of God." 
' Abdicant se terreni principes, &c. " Earthly 
princes depose themselves, while they rise against 
God, yea they are unworthy to be numbered among 
men : rather it behoves us to spit upon their heads, 
than to obey them." On Dan. c. vi. v. 22. 

' Bucer on Matth. c. v. 

' Si princeps superior, &c. " If a sovereign prince 
endeavour by arms to defend transgressors, to subvert 
those things which are taught in the word of God, they, 
who are in authority under him, ought first to dissuade 
him ; if they prevail not, and that he now bears him- 
self not as a prince but as an enemy, and seeks to vio- 
late privileges and rights granted to inferior magistrates 
or commonalties, it is the part of pious magistrates, 
imploring first the assistance of God, rather to try all 
ways and means, than to betray the flock of Christ to 
such an enemy of God : for they also are to this end 
ordained, that they may defend the people of God, and 
maintain those thing's which are good and just. For 
to have supreme power lessens not the evil committed 
by that power, but makes it the less tolerable, by how 
much the more generally hurtful. Then certainly the 
less tolerable, the more unpardonabiy to be punished." 

' Of Peter Martyr we have spoke before. 

' Parse us in Rom. xiii. 

' Quorum est constituere magistratus, &c. " They 
whose part is to set up magistrates, may restrain them 
also from outrageous deeds, or pull them down ; but 
all magistrates are set up either by parliament or by 
electors, or by other magistrates ; they, therefore, who 
exalted them may lawfully degrade and punish them." 

' Of the Scots divines I need not mention others than 
the famousest among them, Knox, and his fellow-la- 
bourers in the reformation of Scotland ; whose large 
treatise on this subject defend the same opinion. To 
cite them sufficiently, were to insert their whole books, 
written purposely on this argument. "Knox's Ap- 
peal ;" and to the reader ; where he promises in a post- 
script, that the book which he intended to set forth, 
called, "The Second Blast of the Trumpet," should 
maintain more at large, that the same men most justly 
may depose and punish him whom unadvisedly they 
have elected, notwithstanding birth, succession, or any 
oath of allegiance. Among our own divines, Cart- 
wright and Feuner, two of the learnedest, may in rea- 
son satisfy us what was held by the rest. Fenner in 
his book of Theology maintaining, that they who have 
power, that is to say, a parliament, may either by fair 
means or by force depose a tyrant, whom he defines to 
be him, that wilfully breaks all or the principal con- 
ditions made between him and the commonwealth. 
Fen. Sac. Theolog. c. 13. And Cartwright in a pre- 
fixed epistle testifies his approbation of the whole book. 



•244 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



1 Gilby de Obedientia, p. 25 and 105. 

" King's have their authority of the people, who may 
upon occasion reassume it to themselves." 

' England's Complaint ag-ainst the Canons. 

" The people may kill wicked princes as monsters 
and cruel beasts." 

' Christopher Goodman of Obedience. 

"When kings or rulers become blasphemers of God, 
oppressors and murderers of their subjects, they ought 
no more to be accounted kings or lawful magistrates, 
but as private men to be examined, accused, and con- 
demned and punished by the law of God, and being 
convicted and punished by that law, it is not man's 
but God's doing." C. x. p. 139. 

" By the civil laws, a fool or idiot born, and so 
proved, shall lose the lands and inheritance whereto he 
is born, because he is not able to use them aright: and 
especially ought in no case be suffered to have the go- 
vernment of a whole nation ; but there is no such evil 
can come to the commonwealth by fools and idiots, as 
doth by the rage and fury of ungodly rulers ; such, 
therefore, being without God, ought to have no author- 
ity over God's people, who by his word requireth the 
contrary." C. xi. p. 143, 144. 

" No person is exempt by any law of God from this 
punishment: be he king, queen, or emperor, he must 
die the death ; for God hath not placed them above 
others, to transgress his laws as they list, but to be 
subject to them as well as others ; and if they be sub- 
ject to his laws, then to the punishment also, so much 
the more as their example is more dangerous." C. xiii. 
p. 184. 

" When magistrates cease to do their duty, the peo- 
ple are as it were without magistrates, yea, worse, and 
then God giveth the sword into the people's hand, and 
he himself is become immediately their head." P. 185. 

" If princes do right, and keep promise with you, 
then do you owe to them all humble obedience ; if not, 
ye arc discharged, and your study ought to be in this 
case how ye may depose and punish according to the 
law such rebels against God, and oppressors of their 
country." P. 190. 

' This Goodman was a minister of the English 
church at Geneva, as Dudley Fenner was at Middle- 
burgh, or some other place in that country. These 
were the pastors of those saints and confessors, who, 
flying from the bloody persecution of Queen Mary, 
gathered up at length their scattered members into 
many congregations ; whereof some in upper, some in 
lower Germany, part of them settled at Geneva ; where 
this author having preached on this subject to the great 
liking of certain learned and godly men who heard him, 
was by them sundry times and with much instance re- 
quired to write more fully on that point. Who thereupon 
took it in hand, and conferring with the best learned 
in those parts, (among whom Calvin was then living 
in the same city,) with their special approbation he 
published this treatise, aiming principally, as is testi- 
fied by Whittingham in the preface, that his brethren 



of England, the protestants, might be persuaded in 
the truth of that doctrine concerning obedience to ma- 
gistrates. Whittingham in Prefat. 

'These were the true protestant divines of England, 
our fathers in the faith we hold; this was their sense, 
who for so many years labouring under prelacy, through 
all storms and persecutions kept religion from extin- 
guishing ; and delivered it pure to us, till there arose 
a covetous and ambitious generation of divines, (for di- 
vines they call themselves !) who, feigning on a sudden 
to be new converts and proselytes from episcopacy, un- 
der which they had long temporised, opened tbeirmouths 
at length, in shew against pluralities and prelacy, but 
with intent to swallow them down both ; gorging them- 
selves like harpies on those simonious places and pre- 
ferments of their outed predecessors, as the quarry for 
which they hunted, not to plurality only but to multi- 
plicity ; for possessing which they had accused them 
their brethren, and aspiring under another title to the 
same authority and usurpation over the consciences of 
all men. 

' Of this faction, diverse reverend and learned divines 
(as they are styled in the philactery of their own title- 
pag'e) pleading the lawfulness of defensive arms against 
the king', in a treatise called " Scripture and Reason," 
seem in words to disclaim utterly the deposing of a 
king ; but both the Scripture, and the reasons which 
they use, draw consequences after them, which, without 
their bidding, conclude it lawful. For if by Scripture, 
and by that especially to the Romans, which they most 
insist upon, kings, doing that which is contrary to 
Saint Paul's definition of a magistrate, may be resisted, 
they may altogether with as much force of consequence 
be deposed or punished. And if by reason the unjust 
authority of kings " may be forfeited in part, and his 
power be reassumed in part, either by the parliament 
or people, for the case in hazard and the present neces- 
sity," as they affirm, p. 34, there can no scripture be 
alleged, no imaginable reason given, that necessity 
continuing, as it may always, and they in all prudence 
and their duty may take upon them to foresee it, why 
in such a case they may not finally amerce him with 
the loss of his kingdom, of whose amendment they 
have no hope. And if one wicked action persisted in 
against religion, laws, and liberties, may warrant us to 
thus much in part, why may not forty times as many 
tyrannies, by him committed, warrant us to proceed on 
restraining him, till the restraint become total ? For 
the ways of justice are exactest proportion ; if for one 
trespass of a king it require so much remedy or satis- 
faction, then for twenty more as heinous crimes, it re- 
quires of him twenty-fold ; and so proportion ably, till 
it come to what is utmost among men. If in these 
proceedings against their king they may not finish, by 
the usual course of justice, what they have begun, they 
could not lawfully begin at all. For this golden rule 
of justice and morality, as well as of arithmetic, out of ( 
three terms which they admit, will as certainly and 
unavoidably bring out the fourth, as any problem that 
ever Euclid or Apollonius made good by demonstration. 

' And if the parliament, being undeposable but by] 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



245 



themselves, as is affirmed, p. 37, 38, might for his 
whole life, if they saw cause, take all power, authority, 
and the sword out of his hand, which in effect is to 
unmagistrate him, why might they not, being then 
themselves the sole magistrates in force, proceed to 
punish him, who, being lawfully deprived of all things 
that define a magistrate, can be now no magistrate to 
be degraded lower, but an offender to be punished. 
Lastly, whom they may defy, and meet in battle, why 
may they not as well prosecute by justice? For lawful 
war is but the execution of justice against them who 
refuse law. Among whom if it be lawful (as they 
deny not, p. 19, 20,) to slay the king himself coming 
in front at his own peril, wherefore may not justice do 
that intendedly, which the chance of a defensive war 
might without blame have done casually, nay pur- 
posely, if there it find him among the rest? They ask, 
p. 19, " By what rule of conscience or God, a state is 
bound to sacrifice religion, laws, and liberties, rather 
than a prince defending such as subvert them, should 
come in hazard of his life." And I ask by what con- 
science, or divinity, or law, or reason, a state is bound 
to leave all these sacred concernments under a per- 
petual hazard and extremity of danger, rather than cut 
off a wicked prince, who sits plotting day and night to 
subvert them. They tell us, that the law of nature 
justifies any man to defend himself, even against the 
king in person: let them shew us then, why the same 
law may not justify much more a state or whole people, 
to do justice upon him, against whom each private 
man may lawfully defend himself; seeing all kind of 
justice done is a defence to good men, as well as a 
punishment to bad ; and justice done upon a tyrant is 
no more but the necessary self-defence of a whole com- 
monwealth. To war upon a king, that his instruments 
may be brought to condign punishment, and thereafter 
to punish them the instruments, and not to spare only, 
but to defend and honour him the author, is the strangest 
piece of justice to be called christian, and the strangest 
piece of reason to be called human, that by men of re- 
verence and learning, as their style imports them, ever 
yet was vented. They maintain in the third and fourth 
section, that a judge or inferior magistrate is anointed 
of God, is his minister, hath the sword in his hand, is 
to be obeyed by St. Peter's rule, as well as the supreme, 
and without difference any where expressed : and yet 
will have us fight against the supreme till he remove 
and punish the inferior magistrate (for such were great- 
est delinquents); whenas by Scripture, and by reason, 
there can no more authority be shewn to resist the one 
than the other; and altogether as much, to punish or 
depose the supreme himself, as to make war upon him, 
till he punish or deliver up his inferior magistrates, 
whom in the same terms we are commanded to obey, 
and not to resist. Thus while they, in a cautious line 
or two here and there stuffed in, are only verbal against 
the pulling down or punishing of tyrants, all the Scrip- 
ture and the reason, which they bring, is in every leaf 
direct and rational, to infer it altogether as lawful, as 
to resist them. And yet in all their sermons, as hath 
by others been well noted, they went much further. 



For divines, if we observe them, have their postures, 
and their motions no less expertly, and with no less 
variety, than they that practise feats in the Artillery- 
ground. Sometimes they seem furiously to march on, 
and presently march counter ; by and by they stand, 
and then retreat ; or if need be can face about, or 
wheel in a whole body, with that cunning and dex- 
terity as is almost unperceivable ; to wind themselves 
by shifting ground into places of more advantage. 
And providence only must be the drum, providence the 
word of command, that calls them from above, but 
alvvays to some larger benefice, or acts them into such 
or such figures and promotions. At their turns and 
doublings no men readier, to the right, or to the left ; 
for it is their turns which they serve chiefly; herein only 
singular, that with them there is no certain hand right 
or left, but as their own commodity thinks best to call 
it. But if there come a truth to be defended, which to 
them and their interest of this world seems not so pro- 
fitable, straight these nimble motionists can find no 
even legs to stand upon ; and are no more of use to 
reformation thoroughly performed, and not superfi- 
cially, or to the advancement of truth, (which among 
mortal men is always in her progress,) than if on a 
sudden they were struck maim and crippled. Which 
the better to conceal, or the more to countenance by a 
general conformity to their own limping, they would 
have Scripture, they would have reason also made to 
halt with them for company ; and would put us off 
with impotent conclusions, lame and shorter than the 
premises. In this posture they seem to stand with 
great zeal and confidence on the wall of Sion ; but like 
Jebusites, not like Israelites, or Levites : blind also 
as well as lame, they discern not David from Adoni- 
bezec : but cry him up for the Lord's anointed, whose 
thumbs and great toes not long before they had cut 
off upon their pulpit cushions. Therefore he who is 
our only king, the root of David, and whose kingdom 
is eternal righteousness, with all those that war 
under him, whose happiness and final hopes are laid 
up in that only just and rightful kingdom, (which we 
pray incessantly may come soon, and in so praying 
wish hasty ruin and destruction to all tyrants,) even he 
our immortal King, and all that love him, must of ne- 
cessity have in abomination these blind and lame de- 
fenders of Jerusalem ; as the soul of David hated them, 
and forbid them entrance into God's house, and his 
own. But as to those before them, which I cited first 
(and with an easy search, for many more might be 
added) as they there stand, without more in number, 
being the best and chief of protestant divines, we may 
follow them for faithful guides, and without doubting 
may receive them, as witnesses abundant of what we 
here affirm concerning tyrants. And indeed I find it 
generally the clear and positive determination of them 
all, (not prelatical, or of this late faction subprelatical,) 
who have written on this argument; that to do justice 
on a lawless king, is to a private man unlawful ; to an 
inferior magistrate lawful : or if they were divided in 
opinion, yet greater than these hexe alleged, or of more 
authority in the church, there can be none produced. 



246 



THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES. 



If any one shall go about by bringing- other testimonies 
to disable these, or by bringing these against themselves 
in other cited passages of their books, he will not only 
fail to make good that false and impudent assertion of 
those mutinous ministers, that the deposing' and pu- 
nishing of a king or tyrant " is against the constant 
judgment of all protestant divines," it being quite the 
contrary ; but will prove rather what perhaps he in- 
tended not, that the judgment of divines, if it be so 
various and inconstant to itself, is not considerable, or 
to be esteemed at all. Ere which be yielded, as I hope 
it never will, these ignorant assertors in their own art 
will have proved themselves more and more, not to be 
protestant divines, whose constant judgment in this 
point they have so audaciously belied, but rather to be 
a pack of hungry church-wolves, who in the steps of 



Simon Magus their father following the hot scent of 
double livings and pluralities, advowsons, donatives, 
inductions, and augmentations, though uncalled to the 
flock of Christ, but by the mere suggestion of their 
bellies, like those priests of Bel, whose pranks Daniel 
found out ; have got possession, or rather seized upon 
the pulpit, as the strong hold and fortress of their sedi- 
tion and rebellion against the civil magistrate. Whose 
friendly and victorious hand having rescued them from 
the bishops their insulting lords, fed them plenteously, 
both in public and in private, raised them to be high 
and rich of poor and base; only suffered not their 
covetousness and fierce ambition (which as the pit that 
sent out their fellow-locusts hath been ever bottomless 
and boundless) to interpose in all things, and over all 
persons, their impetuous ignorance and importunity.' 



OBSERVATIONS 

ON 

THE ARTICLES OF PEACE, 

BETWEEN JAMES EARL OF ORMOND FOR KING CHARLES THE FIRST ON THE ONE HAND, AND THE IRISH REBELS AND PAPISTS ON 

THE OTHER HAND : 

AND ON A LETTER SENT BY ORMOND TO COLONEL JONES, GOVERNOR OF DUBLIN- AND A REPRESENTATION OF THE SCOTS PRESBY- 
TERY AT BELFAST IN IRELAND. 

To which the said Articles, Letter, with Colonel Jones's Answer to it, and Representation, $c. are prefixed. 

[FIRST TUBLISHED 1648-9.] 



A PROCLAMATION. 

ORMOND, 

Whereas articles of peace are made, concluded, ac- 
corded, and agreed upon, by and between us, James 
lord marquis of Ormond, lord lieutenant-general, and 
general governor of his majesty's kingdom of Ireland, 
by virtue of the authority wherewith we are intrusted, 
for, and on the behalf of his most excellent majesty on 
the one part, and the general assembly of the Roman 
Catholics of the said kingdom, for, and on the behalf 
of his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects of the same, 
on the other part ; a true copy of which articles of peace 
are hereunto annexed : we the lord lieutenant do, by 
this proclamation, in his majesty's name publish the 
same, and do in his majesty's name strictly charge and 
command all his majesty's subjects, and all others in- 
habiting or residing within his majesty's said kingdom 
of Ireland, to take notice thereof, and to render due 
obedience to the same in all the parts thereof. 

And as his majesty hath been induced to this peace, 
out of a deep sense of the miseries and calamities 
brought upon this his kingdom and people, and out of 
hope conceived by his majesty, that it may prevent the 
further effusion of his subjects' blood, redeem them out 
of all the miseries and calamities, under which they now 
suffer, restore them to all quietness and happiness under 
his majesty's most gracious government, deliver the 
kingdom in general from those slaughters, depredations, 
rapines, and spoils, which always accompany a war, 
encourage the subjects and others with comfort to be- 
take themselves to trade, traffic, commerce, manufac- 
ture, and all other things, which uninterrupted may in- 
crease the wealth and strength of the kingdom, beget 
in all his majesty's subjects of this kingdom a perfect 



unity amongst themselves, after the too long continued 
division amongst them : so his majesty assures himself, 
that all his subjects of this his kingdom (duly consider- 
ing the great and inestimable benefits which they may 
find in this peace) will with all duty render due obedi- 
ence thereunto. And we, in his majesty's name, do 
hereby declare, That all persons, so rendering due 
obedience to the said peace, shall be protected, cherished, 
countenanced, and supported by his majesty, and his 
royal authority, according to the true intent and mean- 
ing of the said articles of peace. 

GiV ZZ;X a Z a MS Ki '' GOD SAVE THE KING. 



Articles of peace, made, concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between his excellency James 
lord marquis of Ormond, lord lieutenant-general, 
and general of his majesty's hingdom of Ireland, for, 
and on the behalf of, his most excellent majesty, by 
virtue of the authority wherewith the said lord lieu- 
tenant is intrusted, on the one part : and the general 
assembly of Roman Catholics of the said kingdom, 
for and on the behalf of his majesty's Roman 
Catholic subjects of the same, on the other part^ 

His majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, as thereunto 
bound by allegiance, duty, and nature, do most humbly 
and freely acknowledge and recognise their sovereign 
lord king Charles, to be lawful and undoubted king of 
this kingdom of Ireland, and other his highness' realms 
and dominions : and his majesty's said Roman Catholic 
subjects, apprehending with a deep sense the sad con- 
dition whereunto his majesty is reduced, as a further 
testimony of their loyalty do declare, that they and 
their posterity for ever, to the utmost of their power. 



248 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



even to the expense of their blood and fortunes, will 
maintain and uphold his majesty, his heirs and lawful 
successors, their rights, prerogatives, government, and 
authority, and thereunto freely and heartily will render 
all due obedience. 

Of which faithful and loyal recognition and declara- 
tion, so seasonably made by the said Roman Catholics, 
his majesty is graciously pleased to accept, and accord- 
ingly to own them his loyal and dutiful subjects : and 
is further graciously pleased, to extend unto them the 
following graces and securities. 

I. Imprimis, it is concluded, accorded, and agreed 
upon, by and between the said lord lieutenant, for, and 
on the behalf of his most excellent majesty, and the 
said general assembly, for, and on the behalf of the 
said Roman Catholic subjects ; and his majesty is 
graciously pleased, That it shall be enacted by act to 
be passed in the next parliament to be held in this 
kingdom, that all and every the professors of the Ro- 
man Catholic religion, within the said kingdom, shall 
be free and exempt from all mulcts, penalties, restraints, 
and inhibitions, that are or may be imposed upon them 
by any law, statute, usage, or custom whatsoever, for, 
or concerning the free exercise of the Roman Catholic 
religion : and that it shall be likewise enacted, That 
the said Roman Catholics, or any of them, shall not be 
questioned or molested in their persons, goods, or estates, 
for any matter or cause whatsoever, for, concerning, or 
by reason of the free exercise of their religion, by vir- 
tue of any power, authority, statute, law, or usage what- 
soever : and that it shall be further enacted, That no 
Roman Catholic in this kingdom shall be compelled 
to exercise any religion, form of devotion, or divine 
service, other than such as shall be agreeable to their 
conscience ; and that they shall not be prejudiced or 
molested in their persons, goods, or estates, for not ob- 
serving, using, or hearing the book of common prayer, 
or any other form of devotion or divine service, by 
virtue of any colour or statute made in the second year 
of queen Elizabeth, or by virtue or colour of any other 
law, declaration of law, statute, custom, or usage what- 
soever, made or declared, or to be made or declared: 
and that it shall be further enacted, that the professors 
of the Roman Catholic religion, or any of them, be not 
bound or obliged to take the oath, commonly called 
the oath of Supremacy, expressed in the statute of 2 
Elizabeth, c. 1, or in any other statute or statutes : and 
that the said oath shall not be tendered unto them, and 
that the refusal of the said oath shall not redound to 
the prejudice of them, or any of them, they taking the 
oath of allegiance in haec verba, viz. " I A. B. do here- 
by acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare in my 
conscience, before God and the world, that our sove- 
reign lord king Charles is lawful and rightful king of 
this realm, and of other his majesty's dominions and 
countries ; and I will bear faith and true allegiance to 
his majesty, and his heirs and successors, and him and 
them will defend to the uttermost of my power against 
all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall 
be made against his or their crown and dignity; and 
do my best endeavour to disclose and make known to 



his majesty, his heirs and successors, or to the lord de- 
puty, or other his majesty's chief governor or governors 
for the time being, all treason or traiterous conspira- 
cies, which I shall know or hear to be intended against 
his majesty, or any of them : and I do make this re- 
cognition and acknowledgment, heartily, willingly, 
and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian ; so help 
me God," &c. Nevertheless, the said lord lieutenant 
doth not hereby intend, that any thing in these conces- 
sions contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, 
to the granting of churches, church-livings, or the ex- 
ercise of jurisdiction, the authority of the said lord 
lieutenant not extending so far; yet the said lord lieu- 
tenant is authorized to give the said Roman Catholics 
full assurance, as hereby the said lord lieutenant doth 
give unto the said Roman Catholics full assurance, 
that they or any of them shall not be molested in 
the possession which they have at present of the 
churches or church-livings, or of the exercise of their 
respective jurisdictions, as they now exercise the same, 
until such time as his majesty, upon a full considera- 
tion of the desires of the said Roman Catholics in a 
free parliament to be held in this kingdom, shall de- 
clare his further pleasure. 

II. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed 
upon, by and between the said parties, and his majesty 
is further graciously pleased, that a free parliament 
shall be held in this kingdom within six months after 
the date of these articles of peace, or as soon after as 
Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord presi- 
dent of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, 
Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel 
esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket 
knight, sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Brown, 
Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, 
and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or the major part of 
them, will desire the same, so that by possibility it may 
be held ; and that in the mean time, and until the ar- 
ticles of these presents, agreed to be passed in parlia- 
ment, be accordingly passed, the same shall be inviola- 
bly observed as to the matters therein contained, as if 
they were enacted in parliament : and that in case a 
parliament be not called and held in this kingdom 
within two years next after the date of these articles 
of peace, then his majesty's lord lieutenant, or other 
his majesty's chief governor or governors of this king- 
dom for the time being, will, at the request of the said 
Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord pre- 
sident of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, 
Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel 
esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket 
knight, sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Brown, 
Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, 
and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or the major part of 
them, call a general assembly of the lords and com- 
mons of this kingdom, to attend upon the said lord 
lieutenant, or other his majesty's chief governor or. go- 
vernors of this kingdom for the time being, in such 
convenient pla e, for the better settling of the affairs of 
the kingdom. And it is further concluded, accorded, 
and agreed upon, by and between the said parties, that 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



249 



all matters, that by these articles are agreed upon to be 
passed in parliament, shall be transmitted into Eng- 
land, according to the usual form, to be passed in the 
said parliament, and that the said acts so agreed upon, 
and so to be passed, shall receive no disjunction or 
alteration here in England ; provided that nothing 
shall be concluded by both or either of the said houses 
of parliament, which may bring prejudice to any of 
his majesty's protestant party, or their adherents, or to 
his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, or their adhe- 
rents, other than such things as upon this treaty are 
concluded to be done, or such things as may be proper 
for the committee of privileges of either or both houses 
to take cognizance of, as in such cases heretofore hath 
been accustomed ; and other than such matters as his 
majesty will be graciously pleased to declare his fur- 
ther pleasure in, to be passed in parliament for the 
satisfaction of his subjects; and other than such things 
as shall be propounded to either or both houses by his 
majesty's lord lieutenant or other chief governor or 
governors of this kingdom for the time being, during 
the said parliament, for the advancement of his majes- 
ty's service, and the peace of the kingdom ; which clause 
is to admit no construction which may trench upon the 
articles of peace or any of them ; and that both houses 
of parliament may consider what they shall think con- 
venient touching the repeal or suspension of the statute, 
commonly called Poyning's Act, intitled, An Act that 
no parliament be holden in that land, until the Acts be 
certified into England. 

III. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that all acts, ordinances, 
and orders, made by both or either houses of par- 
liament, to the blemish, dishonour, or prejudice of his 
majesty's Roman Catholic subjects of this kingdom, or 
any of them, since the 7th August 1641, shall be va- 
cated ; and that the same, and all exemplifications and 
other acts which continue the memory of them, be 
made void by act to be passed in the next parliament 
to be held in this kingdom : and that in the mean time 
the said acts or ordinances, or any of them, shall be no 
prejudice to the said Roman Catholics, or any of them. 

IV. Item, It is also concluded, and agreed upon, 
and his majesty is likewise graciously pleased, that all 
indictments, attainders, outlawries in this kingdom, 
and all the processes and other proceedings thereupon, 
and all letters patents, grants, leases, customs, bonds, 
recognizances, and all records, act or acts, office or 
offices, inquisitions, and all other things depending 
upon, or taken by reason of the said indictments, at- 
tainders, or outlawries, since the 7th day of August, 
1641, in prejudice of the said Catholics, their heirs, ex- 
ecutors, administrators, or assigns, or any of them, or 
the widows of them, or any of them, shall be vacated 
and made void in such sort as no memory shall remain 
thereof, to the blemish, dishonour, or prejudice of the 
said Catholics, their heirs, executors, administrators, or 
assigns, or any of them ; or the widows of them, or any 
of them ; and that to be done when the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 



Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket knight, 
sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Brown, Donnogh 
O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neal, Miles Reilie, and Ger- 
rald Fennell, esquires, or the major part of them, shall 
desire the same, so that by possibility it may be done : 
and in the mean time, that no such indictments, attain- 
ders, outlawries, processes, or any other proceedings 
thereupon, or any letters patents, grants, leases, custo- 
diums, bonds, recognizances, or any record or acts, 
office or offices, inquisitions, or any other thing depend- 
ing upon, or by reason of the said indictments, attain- 
ders, or outlawries, shall in any sort prejudice the said 
Roman Catholics, or any of them, but that they and 
every of them shall be forthwith, upon perfection of 
these articles, restored to their respective possessions 
and hereditaments respectively; provided, that no man 
shall be questioned, by reason hereof, for mesne rates 
or wastes, saving wilful wastes committed after the first 
day of May last past. 

V. Item, It is likewise concluded, accorded, and 
agreed; and his majesty is graciously pleased, that as 
soon as possible may be, all impediments, which may 
hinder the said Roman Catholics to sit or vote in the 
next intended parliament, or to choose, or to be chosen, 
knights and burgesses, to sit or vote there, shall be re- 
moved, and that before the said parliament. 

VI. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed 
upon, and his majesty is further graciously pleased, 
that all debts shall remain as they were upon the 
twenty-third of October, 1641. Notwithstanding any 
disposition made or to be made, by virtue or colour of 
any attainder, outlawry, fugacy, or other forfeiture ; 
and that no disposition or grant made, or to be made 
of any such debts, by virtue of any attainder, outlawry, 
fugacy, or other forfeiture, shall be of force ; and this 
to be passed as an act in the next parliament. 

VII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, and his majesty is graciously pleased, that 
for the securing of the estates or reputed estates of the 
lords, knights, gentlemen, and freeholders, or reputed 
freeholders, as well of Connaght and county of Clare, 
or country of Thomond, as of the counties of Limerick 
and Tipperary, the same to be secured by act of par- 
liament, according to the intent of the twenty-fifth 
article of the graces granted in the fourth year of his 
majesty's reign, the tenour whereof, for so much as 
concerneth the same, doth ensue in these words, viz. 
We are graciously pleased, that for the inhabitants of 
Connaght and country of Thomond and county of 
Clare, that their several estates shall be confirmed unto 
them and their heirs against us, and our heirs and suc- 
cessors, by act to be passed in the next parliament to 
be holden in Ireland, to the end the same may never 
hereafter be brought into any further question by us, 
or our heirs and successors. In which act of parliament 
so to be passed, you are to take care, that all tenures 
in capite, and all rents and services as are now due, or 
which ought to be answered unto us out of the said 
lands and premises, by any letters patent passed thereof 



250 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



since the first year of king' Henry VIII, or found by 
any office taken from the said first year of king Henry 
VIII, until the twenty-first of July 1645, whereby our 
late dear lather, or any his predecessors, actually re- 
ceived any profit by wardship, liveries, primer-seisins, 
mesne rates, ousterlemains, or fines of alienation with- 
out license, be again reserved unto us, our heirs and 
successors, and all the rest of the premises to be holden 
of our castle of Athlone by knight's service, according 
to our said late father's letters, notwithstanding any 
tenures in capite found for us by office, since the 
twenty-first of July 1615, and not appearing in any 
such letters patent, or offices ; within which rule his 
majesty is likewise graciously pleased, that the said 
lauds in the counties of Limerick and Tipperary be 
included, but to be held by such rents and tenures only, 
as they were in the fourth year of his majesty's reign; 
provided always, that the said lords, knights, gentle- 
men, and freeholders of the said province of Connaght, 
county of Clare, and country of Thomond, and counties 
of Tipperary and Limerick, shall have and enjoy the 
full benefit of such composition and agreement which 
shall be made with his most excellent majesty, for the 
court of wards, tenures, respites, and issues of homage, 
any clause in this article to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. And as for the lauds within the counties of Kil- 
kenny and Wickloe, unto which his majesty was in- 
titled by offices, taken or found in the time of the earl 
of Stratford's g-ovemment in this king'dom, his majesty 
is further g'raciously pleased, that the state thereof shall 
he considered in the next intended parliament, where 
his majesty will assent unto that which shall be just 
and honourable ; and that the like act of limitation of 
his majesty's titles, for the security of the estates of his 
subjects of this kingdom, be passed in the said parlia- 
ment, as was enacted in the twenty-first year of his 
late majesty king James his reign in England. 

VIII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, and his majesty is further graciously 
pleased, that all incapacities imposed upon the natives 
of this kingdom or any of them, as natives, by any act 
of parliament, provisoes in patents or otherwise, be 
taken away by act to be passed in the s-aid parliament; 
and that they may be enabled to erect one or more inns 
of court in or near the city of Dublin or elsewhere, as 
shall be thought fit by his majesty's lord lieutenant, or 
other chief governor or governors of this kingdom for 
the time being; and in case the said inns of court shall 
be erected before the first day of the next parliament, 
then the same shall be in such places as his majesty's 
lord lieutenants or other chief governor or governors of 
this kingdom for the time being, by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the said Thomas lord viscount 
Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Don- 
nogfa lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of 
Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnell esquire, sir Lucas 
Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket knight, sir Richard 
Barn wall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Cal- 
laghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, Gerrald Fennell, 
esquires, or any seven or more of them, shall think fit; 
and that such students, natives of this kingdom, as shall 



be therein, may take and receive the usual degrees ac- 
customed in any inns of court, they taking* the ensuing 
oath, viz. " I A. B. do hereby acknowledge, profess, 
testify, and declare in my conscience before God and 
the world, that our sovereign lord king Charles is law- 
ful and rightful king- of this realm, and of other his 
majesty's dominions and countries; and I will bear 
faith and true allegiance to his majesty, and his heirs 
and successors, and him and them will defend to the 
utmost of my power against all conspiracies and at- 
tempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his or 
their crown and dig'nity ; and do my best endeavour to 
disclose and make known to his majesty, his heirs and 
successors, or to the lord deputy, or other his majesty's 
chief governor or governors for the time being, all 
treason or traiterous conspiracies, which I shall know 
or hear to be intended against his majesty or any of 
them. And I do here make this recognition and ac- 
knowledgment heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the 
true faith of a Christian ; so help me God," &c. And 
his majesty is further graciously pleased, that his ma- 
jesty's Roman Catholic subjects may erect and keep 
free schools for education of youths in this kingdom, 
any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding ; 
and that all the matters assented unto in this article be 
passed as acts of parliament in the said next parlia- 
ment. 

IX. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that places of command, 
honour, profit, and trust, in his majesty's armies in this 
kingdom, shall be, upon perfection of these articles, 
actually and by particular instances conferred upon his 
Roman Catholic subjects of this kingdom; and that 
upon the distribution, conferring, and disposing* of the 
places of command, honour, profit, and trust, in his 
majesty's armies in this kingdom, for the future no 
difference shall be made between the said Roman 
Catholics, and other his majesty's subjects; but that 
such distribution shall be made with equal indiflferency 
according to their respective merits and abilities ; and 
that all his majesty's subjects of this kingdom, as well 
Roman Catholics as others, may, for his majesty's ser- 
vice and their own security, arm themselves the best 
they may, wherein they shall have all fitting encou- 
ragement. And it is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that places of 
command, honour, profit, and trust, in the civil go- 
vernment in this kingdom, shall be, upon passing of 
the bills in these articles mentioned in the next parlia- 
ment, actually and by particular instances conferred 
upon his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects of this 
kingdom; and that in the distribution, conferring, and 
disposal of the places of command, honour, profit, and 
trust, in the civil government, for the future no differ- 
ence shall be made between the said Roman Catholics, 
and other his majesty's subjects, but that such distri- 
bution shall be made with equal indifferency, according 
to their respective merits and abilities; and that in the 
distribution of ministerial offices or places, which now I 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



251 



are, or hereafter shall be void in this kingdom, equality 
shall be used to the Roman Catholic natives of this 
kingdom, as to other his majesty's subjects ; and that 
the command of forts, castles, garrison-towns, and 
other places of importance, of this kingdom, shall be 
conferred upon his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects 
of this kingdom, upon perfection of these articles, 
actually and by particular instances ; and that in the 
distribution, conferring, and disposal of the forts, 
castles, garrison-towns, and other places of importance 
in this kingdom, no difference shall be made between 
his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects of this king- 
dom, and other his majesty's subjects, but that such 
distribution shall be made with equal indifferency, ac- 
cording to their respective merits and abilities ; and that 
until full settlement in parliament, fifteen thousand foot 
and two thousand and five hundred horse of the Roman 
Catholics of this kingdom shall be of the standing army 
of this kingdom ; and that until full settlement in par- 
liament as aforesaid, the said lord lieutenant, or other 
chief governor or governors of this kingdom for the time 
being, and the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of 
Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord 
viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon 
knight, sir Nicholas Plunket knight, sir Richard Barn- 
wall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, 
Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennel, 
esquires, or any seven or more of them, the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 
Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas Plunket, kt. sir 
Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh 
O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Ger- 
rald Fennell, esquires, shall diminish or add unto the 
said number, as they shall see cause from time to time. 
X. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that his majesty 
will accept of the yearly rent, or annual sum of twelve 
thousand pounds sterling, to be applotted with indiffer- 
ency and equality, and consented to be paid to his ma- 
jesty, his heirs and successors, in parliament, for and in 
lieu of the court of wards in this kingdom, tenures in 
capite, common knight's service, and all other tenures 
within the cognizance of that court, and for and in 
lieu of all wardships, primer-seisins, fines, ousterle- 
mains, liveries, intrusions, alienations, mesne rates, re- 
leases, and all other profits, within the cognizance of 
the said court, or incident to the said tenures, or any 
of them, or fines to accrue to his majesty by reason of 
the said tenures or any of them, and for and in lieu of 
respites and issues of homage and fines for the same. 
And the said yearly rent being so applotted and con- 
sented unto in parliament as aforesaid, then a bill is to 
be agreed on in the said parliament, to be passed as 
an act for the securing of the said yearly rent, or an- 
nual sum of twelve thousand pounds, to be applotted as 
aforesaid, and for the extinction and taking away of the 
said court, and other matters aforesaid in this article 



contained. And it is further agreed, that reasonable 
compositions shall be accepted for wardships since the 
twenty-third of October 1641, and already granted; 
and that no wardships fallen and not granted, or that 
shall fall, shall be passed until the success of this arti- 
cle shall appear; and if his majesty be secured as 
aforesaid, then all wardships fallen since the said 
twenty -third of October, are to be included in the argu- 
ment aforesaid, upon composition to be made with such 
as have grants as aforesaid ; which composition, to be 
made with the grantees since the time aforesaid, is to 
be left to indifferent persons, and the umpirage to the 
said lord lieutenant. 

XL Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
ag*reed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that no noble- 
man or peer of this realm, in parliament, shall be here- 
after capable of more proxies than two, and that blank 
proxies shall be hereafter totally disallowed ; and that 
if such noblemen or peers of this realm, as have no 
estates in this kingdom, do not within five years, to 
begin from the conclusion of these articles, purchase 
in this kingdom as followeth, viz. a lord baron 
200/. per annum, a lord viscount 400/. per annum, 
and an earl 600/. per annum, a marquis 800/. per 
annum, a duke 1000/. per annum, shall lose their 
votes in parliament, until such time as they shall after- 
wards acquire such estates respectively ; and that none 
be admitted in the house of commons, but such as shall 
be estated and resident within this kingdom. 

XII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that as for and 
concerning the independency of the parliament of Ire- 
land on the parliament of England, his majesty will 
leave both houses of parliament in this kingdom to 
make such declaration therein as shall be agreeable to 
the laws of the kingdom of Ireland. 

XIII. Item, It is further concluded, and agreed 
upon, by and between the said parties, and his majesty 
is further graciously pleased, that the council-table 
shall contain itself within its proper bounds, in handling 
matters of state and weight fit for that place; amongst 
which the patents of plantation, and the offices where- 
upon those grants are founded, to be handled, as mat- 
ters of state, aud to be heard and determined by his. 
majesty's lord lieutenant, or other chief governor or 
governors for the time being, and the council publicly 
at the council-board, and not otherwise ; but titles be- 
tween party and party, grown after these patents 
granted, are to be left to the ordinary course of law ; 
and that the council-table do not hereafter intermeddle 
with common business, that is within the cognizance 
of the ordinary courts, nor with the altering of posses- 
sions of lands, nor make, nor use, private orders, hear- 
ings, or references concerning any such matter, nor 
grant any injunction or order for stay of any suits in 
any civil cause ; and that parties grieved for or by rea- 
son of any proceedings formerly had there may com- 
mence their suits, and prosecute the same, in any of his 
majesty's courts of justice or equity for remedy of their 



252 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



pretended rights, without any restraint or interruption 
from his majesty, or otherwise, by the chief governor 
or governors and council of this kingdom : and that 
the proceedings in the respective precedency courts 
shall be pursuant and according to his majesty's printed 
book of instructions, and that they shall contain them- 
selves within the limits prescribed by that book, when 
the kingdom shall be restored to such a degree of quiet- 
ness, as they be not necessarily enforced to exceed the 
same. 

XIV. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that as for and 
concerning one statute made in this kingdom, in the 
eleventh year of the reign of queen Elizabeth, entitled, 
An Act for staying of wool-flocks, tallow, and other 
necessaries within this realm: and another statute made 
in the said kingdom, in the twelfth year of the reign of 
the said queen, entitled, An Act 

And one other statute made in the said kingdom, in 
the 13th year of the reign of the said late queen, en- 
titled, An exemplanation of the act made in a session 
of this parliament for the staying of wool-flocks, tallow, 
and other wares and commodities mentioned in the said 
act, and certain articles added to the same act, all con- 
cerning staple or native commodities of this kingdom, 
shall be repealed, if it shall be so thought fit in the 
parliament, (excepting for wool and wool-fells,) and 
that such indifferent persons as shall be agreed on by 
the said lord lieutenant and the said Thomas lord vis- 
count Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, 
Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron 
of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas 
Dillon knt. sir Nicholas Plunket knt. sir Richard 
Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Calla- 
ghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fen- 
nell, esquires, or any seven or more of them, shall be 
authorized by commission under the great seal, to mo- 
derate and ascertain the rates of merchandize to be 
exported or imported out of, or into this kingdom, as 
they shall think fit. 

' XV. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed, by 
and between the said parties, and his majesty is gra- 
ciously pleased, that all and every person and persons 
Avithin this kingdom, pretending to have suffered by 
offices found of several countries, territories, lands, 
and hereditaments in the province of Ulster, and other 
provinces of this kingdom, in or since the first year of 
king James his reign, or by attainders or forfeitures, 
or by pretence and colour thereof, since the said first 
year of king James, or by other acts depending on the 
said offices, attainders, and forfeitures, may petition his 
majesty in parliament for relief and redress ; and if 
after examination it shall appear to his majesty, the 
said persons, or any of them, have been injured, then 
his majesty will prescribe a course to repair the person 
or persons so suffering, according to justice and honour. 
XVI. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that as to the particular 






cases of Maurice lord viscount de Rupe and Fermoy, 
Arthur lord viscount Iveagh, sir Edward Fitz-Ger- 
rald of Cloanglish baronet, Charles Mac-Carty Reag, 
Roger Moore, Anthony Mare, William Fitz-Gerrald, 
Anthony Lince, John Lacy, Collo Mac-brien Mac- 
Mahone, Daniel Castigni, Edmond Fitz-Gerrald of 
Ballimartir, Lucas Keating, Theobald Roch Fitz- 
Miles, Thomas Fitz-Gerrald of the Valley, John 
Bourke of Logmaske, Edmond Fitz-Gerrald of Balli- 
mallo, James Fitz-William Gerrald of Glinane, and 
Edward Sutton, they may petition his majesty in the 
next parliament, whereupon his majesty will take such 
consideration of them as shall be just and fit. 

XVII. Item, It is likewise concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that the citizens, free- 
men, burgesses, and former inhabitants of the city of 
Cork, towns of Youghall and Downegarven, shall be 
forthwith, upon perfection of these articles, restored to 
their respective possessions and estates in the said city 
and towns respectively, where the same extends not to 
the endangering of the said garrisons in the said city 
and towns. In which case, so many of the said citi- 
zens and inhabitants, as shall not be admitted to the 
present possession of their houses within the said city 
and towns, shall be afforded a valuable annual rent for 
the same, until settlement in parliament, at which time 
they shall be restored to those their possessions. And 
it is further agreed, and his majesty is graciously 
pleased, that the said citizens, freemen, burgesses, and 
inhabitants of the said city of Cork, and towns of 
Youghall and Downegarven, respectively, shall be 
enabled in convenient time before the next parliament 
to be held in this kingdom, to choose and return bur- 
gesses into the same parliament. 

XVIII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that an act of ob- 
livion be passed in the next parliament, to extend to all 
his majesty's subjects of this kingdom, and their adhe- 
rents, of all treasons and offences, capital, criminal, and 
personal, and other offences, of Avhat nature, kind, or 
quality soever, in such manner, as if such treasons or 
offences had never been committed, perpetrated, or 
done : that the said act do extend to the heirs, children, 
kindred, executors, administrators, wives, widows, dow- 
agers, or assigns of such of the said subjects and their 
adherents, who died on, before, or since, the 23d of 
October, 1641. That the said act do relate to the first 
day of the next parliament ; that the said act do extend 
to all bodies politic and corporate, and their respective 
successors, and unto all cities, boroughs, counties, ba- 
ronies, hundreds, towns, villages, thitlings, and every 
of them within this kingdom, for and concerning all 
and every of the said offences, and any other offence or 
offences in them, or any of them committed or done by 
his majesty's said subjects, or their adherents, or any 
of them, before, in, or since the 23d of October, 1641. 
Provided this act shall not extend to be construed to 
pardon any offence or offences, for which any person or 
persons have been convicted or attainted on record at 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



253 



any time before the 23d day of October, in the year of 
our Lord 1641. That this act shall extend to piracies, 
and all other offences committed upon the sea by his 
majesty's said subjects, or their adherents, or any of 
them ; that in this act of oblivion, words of release, ac- 
quittal, and discharge be inserted, that no-person or 
persons, bodies politic or corporate, counties, cities, bo- 
roughs, baronies, hundreds, towns, villages, thitlings, 
or any of them within this kingdom, included within 
the said act, be troubled, impeached, sued, inquieted, 
or molested, for or by reason of any offence, matter, 
or thing whatsoever, comprised within the said act : 
and the said act shall extend to all rents, goods, and 
chattels taken, detained, or grown due to the subjects 
of the one party from the other since the 23d of Octo- 
ber, 1641, to the date of these articles of peace; and 
also to all customs, rents, arrears of rents, to prizes, re- 
cognizances, bonds, fines, forfeitures, penalties, and to 
all other profits, perquisites, and dues which were due, 
or did or should accrue to his majesty on, before, or 
since the 23d of October, 1641, until the perfection of 
these articles, and likewise to all mesne rates, fines of 
what nature soever, recognizances, judgments, execu- 
tions thereupon, and penalties whatsoever, and to all 
other profits due to his majesty since the said 23d of 
October and before, until the perfection of these arti- 
cles, for, by reason, or which lay within the survey or 
recognizance of the court of wards; and also to all re- 
spites, issues of homage, and fines for the same : pro- 
vided this shall not extend to discharge or remit any 
of the king's debts or subsidies due before the said 23d 
of October, 1641, which were then or before levied, or 
taken by the sheriffs, commissioners, receivers, or col- 
lectors, and not then or before accounted for, or since 
disposed to the public use of the said Roman Ca- 
tholic subjects, but that such persons may be brought 
to account for the same after full settlement in par- 
liament, and not before, unless by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the said Thomas lord viscount 
Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, 
Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron 
of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lu- 
cas Dillon knt. sir Nicholas Plunket knt. sir Rich- 
ard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O 
Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Ger- 
rald Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of them, 
as the said lord lieutenant otherwise shall think fit; 
provided, that such barbarous and inhuman crimes, 
as shall be particularized and agreed upon by the 
said lord lieutenant, and the said Thomas lord vis- 
count Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Con- 
naght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon knt. sir Nicholas Plunket knt. sir 
Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh 
O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Ger- 
rald Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of them, as 
to the actors and procurers thereof, be left to be tried 
and adjudged by such indifferent commissioners, as 
shall be agreed upon by the said lord lieutenant, and 
the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 



lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander 
Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knt. sir Nicho- 
las Plunket knt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jef- 
fery Browne, Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, 
Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any seven 
or more of them ; and that the power of the said com- 
missioners shall continue only for two years next ensu- 
ing the date of their commission, which commission is 
to issue within six months after the date of these articles, 
provided also, that the commissioners, to be agreed on 
for the trial of the said particular crimes to be excepted, 
shall hear, order, and determine all cases of trust, 
where relief may or ought in equity to be afforded 
against all manner of persons, according to the equity 
and circumstances of every such cases ; and his majes- 
ty's chief governor or governors, and other magistrates 
for the time being, in all his majesty's courts of justice, 
and other his majesty's officers of what condition or 
quality soever, be bound and required to take notice of 
and pursue the said act of oblivion, without pleading 
or suit to be made for the same : and that no clerk or 
other officers do make out or write out any manner of 
writs, processes, summons, or other precept, for, con- 
cerning, or by reason of any matter, cause, or thing 
whatsoever, released, forgiven, discharged, or to be for- 
given by the said act, under pain of twenty pounds 
sterling, and that no sheriff or other officer do execute 
any such writ, process, summons, or precept; and that 
no record, writing', or memory, do remain of any offence 
or offences, released or forgiven, or mentioned to be 
forgiven by this act ; and that all other clauses usually 
inserted in acts of general pardon or oblivion, enlarging 
his majesty's grace and mercy, not herein particular- 
ized, be inserted and comprised in the said act, when 
the bill shall be drawn up with the exceptions already 
expressed, and none other. Provided always, that the 
said act of oblivion shall not extend to any treason* 
felony, or other offence or offences, which shall be com- 
mitted or done from or after the date of these articles, 
until the first day of the before-mentioned next parlia- 
ment, to be held in this kingdom. Provided also, that 
any act or acts, which shall be done by virtue, pretence* 
or in pursuance of these articles of peace agreed upon, 
or any act or acts which shall be done by virtue, colour, 
or pretence of the power or authority used or exercised 
by and amongst the confederate Roman Catholics after 
the date of the said articles, and before the said publi- 
cation, shall not be accounted, taken, construed, or to 
be, treason, felony, or other offence to be excepted out 
of the said act of oblivion ; provided likewise, that the 
said act of oblivion shall not extend unto any person 
or persons, that will not obey and submit unto the peace 
concluded and agreed on by these articles ; provided 
further, that the said act of oblivion, or any thing in 
this article contained, shall not hinder or interrupt the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac- 
Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas 
Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery 



254 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



Browne, Domiogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, 
Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennel], esqrs. or any seven 
or more of them, to call to an account, and proceed 
against the council and congregation, and the respective 
supreme councils, commissioners general, appointed 
hitherto from time to time by the confederate Catholics 
to manage their affairs, or any other person or persons 
accountable to an accompt for their respective receipts 
and disbursements, since the beginning of their respec- 
tive employments under the said confederate Catholics, 
or to acquit or release any arrear of excises, customs, 
or public taxes, to be accounted for since the 23d of 
October, 1641, and not disposed of hitherto to the pub- 
lic use, but that the parties therein concerned may be 
called to an account for the same as aforesaid, by the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Domiogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac- 
Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas 
Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery 
Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, Tyrl ah O Neile, Miles 
Reily, and Gerrald Fennel, esqrs. or any seven or more 
of them, the said act or any thing therein contained to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

XIX. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that an act be passed in 
the next parliament, prohibiting, that neither the lord 
deputy or other chief governor or governors, lord chan- 
cellor, lord high treasurer, vicetreasurer, chancellor, or 
any of the barons of the exchequer, privy council, or 
judges of the four courts, be farmers of his majesty's 
customs within this kingdom. 

XX. Item, It is likewise concluded, accorded, and 
agreed, and his majesty is graciously pleased, that an 
act of parliament pass in this kingdom against mono- 
polies, such as was enacted in England 21 Jacobi Re- 
gis, with a further clause of repealing of all grants of 
monopolies in this kingdom ; and that commissioners 
be agreed upon by the said lord lieutenant, and the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kcrrv, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander 
Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knt. sir Nicho- 
las Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery 
Browne, Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah Neile, 
Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any 
seven or more of them, to set down the rates for the 
custom and imposition to be laid on Aquavitse, Wine, 
Oil, Yarn, and Tobacco. 

XXI. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed, 
and his majesty is graciously pleased, that such per- 
sons as shall be agreed on by the said lord lieutenant 
and the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Cos- 
tologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord 
Viscount Muskcrry, Francis lord Baron of Athunry, 
Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knt. 
sir Nicholas Plunket knight, sir Richard Barnwall 
baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyr- 
lah Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, 
or any seven or more of them, shall be as soon as may 



be authorized by commission under the great seal, to 
regulate the court of castle-chamber, and such causes 
as shall be brought into, and censured in the said 
court. 

XXII. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed 
upon, and his majesty is graciously pleased, that two 
acts lately passed in this kingdom, one prohibiting the 
plowing with horses by the tail, and the other pro- 
hibiting the burning of oats in the straw, be repealed. 

XXIII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, for as much as 
upon application of agents from this kingdom unto his 
majesty in the fourth year of his reign, and lately upon 
humble suit made unto his majesty, by a committee of 
both houses of the parliament of this kingdom, order 
was given by his majesty for redress of several griev- 
ances, and for so many of those as are not expressed in 
the articles, whereof both houses in the next ensuing 
parliament shall desire the benefit of his majesty's said 
former directions for redress therein, that the same be 
afforded them ; yet so as for prevention of inconve- 
niencies to his majesty's service, that the warning men- 
tioned in the 24th article of the graces in the fourth 
year of bis majesty's reign be so understood, that the 
warning being left at the person's dwelling houses be 
held sufficient warning ; and as to the 22d article of the 
said graces, the process hitherto used in the court of 
wards do still continue, as hitherto it hath done in that, 
and hath been used in other English courts; but the 
court of wards being compounded for, so much of the 
aforesaid answer as concerns warning and process 
shall be omitted. 

XXIV. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that maritime 
causes may be determined in this kingdom, without 
driving of merchants or others to appeal and seek jus- 
tice elsewhere : and if it shall fall out, that there be 
cause of an appeal, the party grieved is to appeal to 
his majesty in the chancery of Ireland ; and that sen- 
tence thereupon to be given by the delegates, to be 
definitive, and not be questioned upon any further ap- 
peal, except it be in the parliament of this kingdom, if 
the parliament shall then be sitting, otherwise not, this 
to be by act of parliament ; and until the said parlia- 
ment, the admiralty and maritime causes shall be ordered 
and settled by the said lord lieutenant, or other chief 
governor or governors of this kingdom for the time be- 
ing, by and with the advice and consent of the said 
Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord pre- 
sident of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, 
Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel 
esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket 
knight, sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, 
Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, 
and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of 
them. 

XXV. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that his majesty's sub- 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



255 



jects of this kingdom be eased of all rents and increase 
of rents lately raised on the commission or defective 
titles in the earl of Strafford's government, this to be by 
act of parliament ; and that in the mean time the said 
rents or increase of rents shall not be written for by 
any process, or the payment thereof in any sort pro- 
cured. 

XXVI. Item, It is farther concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that, by act to 
be passed in the next parliament, all the arrears of in- 
terest-money, which did accrue and grow due by way 
of debt, mortgage, or otherwise, and yet not so satis- 
fied since the 23d of October, 1641, until the perfection 
of these articles, shall be fully forgiven and be released; 
and that for and during the space of three years next 
ensuing, no more shall be taken for use or interest of 
money than five pounds per centum. And in cases of 
equity arising through disability, occasioned by the 
distempers of the times, the considerations of equity to 
be like unto both parties: but as for mortgages con- 
tracted between his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects 
and others of that party, where entry hath been made 
by the mortgagers against law, and the condition of 
their mortgages, and detained wrongfully by them 
without giving any satisfaction to the mortgagees, or 
where any such mortgagers have made profit of the 
lands mortgaged above country charges, yet answer 
no rent, or other consideration to the mortgagees, the 
parties grieved respectively to be left for relief to a 
course of equity therein. 

XXVII. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, 
and agreed upon, and his majesty is further graciously 
pleased, that, immediately upon perfection of these ar- 
ticles, the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costo- 
logh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord 
viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon 
knight, sir Nicholas Plunket knight, sir Richard 
Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Calla- 
ghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fen- 
nell, esquires, shall be authorized by the said lord 
lieutenant, to proceed in, hear, determine, and execute, 
in and throughout this kingdom, the ensuing particu- 
lars, and all the matters thereupon depending 1 ; and 
that such authority, and other the authorities hereafter 
mentioned, shall remain of force without revocation, 
alteration, or diminution, until acts of parliament be 
passed, according to the purport and intent of these 
articles ; and that in case of death, miscarriage, disabi- 
lity to serve by reason of sickness or otherwise of any 
the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 
lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander 
Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Ni- 
cholas Plunket knight, sir Richard Barnwall baronet, 
Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O 
Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, and 
his majesty's lord lieutenant, or other chief governor 
or governors of this kingdom for the time being, shall 
name and authorize another in the place of such as 



shall be so dead or shall miscarry himself, or be so dis- 
abled, and that the same shall be such person as shall 
be allowed of by the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon 
of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh 
lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, 
sir Nicholas Plunket knight, sir Richard Barnwall 
baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, Tyr- 
lah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, 
or any seven or more of them then living. And that 
the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 
lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander 
Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Ni- 
cholas Plunket knight, sir Richard Barnwall baronet, 
Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O 
Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or 
any seven or more of them, shall have power to applot, 
raise, and levy means with indifferency and equality 
by way of excise or otherwise, upon all his majesty's 
subjects within the said kingdom, their persons, estates, 
and goods, towards the maintenance of such army or 
armies as shall be thought fit to continue, and be in 
pay for his majesty's service, the defence of the king- 
dom, and other the necessary public charges thereof, 
and towards the maintenance of the forts, castles, gar- 
risons, and towns, until there shall be a settlement in 
parliament of both or either party, other than such of 
the said forts, garrisons, and castles, as from time to 
time shall be thought fit, by his majesty's chief go- 
vernor or governors of this kingdom for the time being, 
by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 
Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon knight, sir Nicholas Plunket knight, 
sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Don- 
nogh O Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and 
Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of 
them, not to be maintained at the charge of the public : 
provided, that his majesty's lord lieutenant, or other 
chief governor or governors of this kingdom for the 
time being, be first made acquainted with such taxes, 
levies, and excises as shall be made, and the manner 
of levying thereof, and that he approve the same; and 
to the end that such of the protestant party, as shall 
submit to the peace, may in the several countries, where 
any of their estates lie, have equality and indifferency 
in the assessments and levies, that shall concern their 
estates in the said several counties. 

It is concluded, accorded, and agreed upon, and his 
majesty is graciously pleased, that in the directions, 
which shall issue to any such county, for the applotting, 
sub-dividing, and levying of the said public assessments, 
some of the said protestant party shall be joined with 
others of the Roman Catholic party to that purpose, 
and for effecting that service; and the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 
Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas Plunket kt. sir Rich- 



256 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



ard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnogh O 
Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrald 
Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of them, shall 
have power to levy the arrears of all excises and other 
public taxes imposed by the confederate Roman Ca- 
tholics, and yet unpaid, and to call receivers and other 
accomptants of all former taxes and all public dues to 
a just and strict account, either by themselves, or by 
such as they or any seven or more of them shall name 
or appoint; and that the said lord lieutenant, or any 
other chief governor or governors of this kingdom for 
the time being, shall from time to time issue commis- 
sions to such person or persons as shall be named and 
appointed by the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of 
Costologb, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord 
viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon kt. 
sir Nicholas Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, 
Jeffery Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, Tyrlah O 
Neile, Miles Reily, and Gerrard Fennell, esquires, or 
any seven or more of them, for letting, setting, and 
improving" the estates of all such person and persons, 
as shall adhere to any party opposing his majesty's 
authority, and not submitting to the peace; and that 
the profits of such estates shall be converted by the 
said lord lieutenant, or other chief governor or govern- 
ors of this kingdom for the time being, to the main- 
tenance of the king's army and other necessary 
charges, until settlement by parliament ; and that 
the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 
lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander 
Mac-Donnel esquire, sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas 
Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery 
Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, 
Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any 
seven or more of them, shall have power to applot, 
raise, and levy means, with indifferency and equality, 
for the buying of arms and ammunition, and for 
the entertaining of frigates in such proportion as shall 
be thought fit by his majesty's lord lieutenant or other 
chief governors of this kingdom for the time being, by 
and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 
Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac-Donnel esquire, 
sir Lucas Dillon, kt. sir Nicholas Plunket kt. sir 
Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery Browne, Donnoo-h 
Callaghan, Tyrlah Neile, Miles Reily, and Ger- 
rald Fennell, esquires, or any seven or more of them ; 
the said arms and ammunition to be laid up in such 
magazines, and under the charge of such persons as 
shall be agreed on by the said lord lieutenant, and the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, Alexander Mac- 
Donncl esquire, sir Lucas Dillon kt. sir Nicholas 
Plunket kt. sir Richard Barnwall baronet, Jeffery 
Browne, Donnogh Callaghan, Tyrlah O Neile, 
Miles Reily, and Gerrald Fennell, esquires, or any 
seven or more of them, and to be disposed of, and the 



said frigates to be employed for his majesty's service, 
and the public use and benefit of this kingdom of Ire- 
land ; and that the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon 
of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh 
lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
&c. or any seven or more of them, shall have power to 
applot, raise, and levy means, with indifferency and 
equality, by way of excise or otherwise, in the several 
cities, corporate towns, counties, and part of counties, 
now within the quarters and only upon the estates of 
the said confederate Roman Catholics, all such sum 
and sums of money as shall appear to the said Thomas 
lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president of 
Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis 
lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven or more of 
them, to be really due, for and in the discharge of the 
public engagements of the said confederate Catholics, 
incurred and grown clue before the conclusion of these 
articles ; and that the said Thomas lord viscount Dil- 
lon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Don- 
nogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of 
Athunry, &c. or any seven or more of them, shall be 
authorized to appoint receivers, collectors, and all other 
officers, for such monies as shall be assessed, taxed, or 
applotted, in pursuance of the authorities mentioned 
in this article, and for the arrears of all former applot- 
ments, taxes, and other public dues yet unpaid : and 
that the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 
lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any 
seven or more of them, in case of refractories or delin- 
quency, may distrain and imprison, and cause such de- 
linquents to be distrained and imprisoned. And the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven 
or more of them, make perfect books of all such monies 
as shall be applotted, raised, or levied, out of which 
books they are to make several and respective abstracts, 
to be delivered under their hands, or the hands of any 
seven or more of them, to the several and respective 
collectors, which shall be appointed to levy and receive 
the same. And that a duplicate of the said books, 
under the hands of the said Thomas lord viscount Dil- 
lon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh 
lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, 
&c. or any seven or more of them, be delivered unto 
his majesty's lord lieutenant, or other chief governor 
or governors of this kingdom for the time being, where- 
by a perfect account may be given ; and that the said 
Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord presi- 
dent of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, 
Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven or 
more of them, shall have power to call the council and 
congregation, and the respective supreme councils, and 
commissioners general, appointed hitherto from time to 
time, by the said confederate Roman Catholics, to 
manage their public affairs, and all other persons ac- 
countable, to an account, for all their receipts and dis- 
bursements since the beginning of their respective 
employments under the confederate Roman Catholics. 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



257 



XXVIII. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed, 
by and between the said parties, and his majesty is 
graciously pleased, that for the preservation of the peace 
and tranquillity of the kingdom, the said lord lieuten- 
ant, and the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Cos- 
tologh, lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord 
viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. 
or any seven or more of them, shall for the present 
agree upon such persons, who are to be authorized by 
commission under the great seal, to be commissioners of 
the peace, oyer and terminer, assizes and gaol-delivery, 
in and throughout the kingdom, to continue during 
pleasure, with such power as justices of the peace, oyer 
and terminer, assizes and gaol-delivery in former time 
of peace have usually had, which is not to extend unto 
any crime or offence committed before the first of May 
last past, and to be qualified with power to hear and 
determine all civil causes coming before them, not ex- 
ceeding ten pounds : provided that they shall not in- 
termeddle with titles of lands ; provided likewise, the 
authority of such commissioners shall not extend to 
question any person or persons, for any shipping, cattle, 
or goods, heretofore taken by either party from the 
other, or other injuries done contrary to the articles of 
cessation, concluded by and with the said Roman Ca- 
tholic party in or since May last, but that the same 
shall be determined by such indifferent persons, as the 
lord lieutenant, by the advice and consent of the said 
Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord presi- 
dent of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, 
Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven or 
more of them, shall think fit, to the end that speedy 
and equal justice may be done to all parties grieved ; 
and the said commissioners are to make their estreats 
as accustomed of peace, and shall take the ensuing 
oath, viz. You shall swear, that as justice of the peace, 
oyer and terminer, assizes and gaol-delivery in the 
counties of A. B. in all articles of the commission to 
you directed, you shall do equal right to the poor and 
to the rich, after your cunning and wit and power, 
and after the laws and customs of the realm, and in 
pursuance of these articles : and you shall not be 
of counsel of any quarrel hanging before you ; and 
the issues, fines, and amerciaments, which shall hap- 
pen to be made, and all forfeitures which shall 
happen before you, you shall cause to be entered 
without any concealment or embezzling, and send 
to the court of exchequer, or to such other place as 
his majesty's lord lieutenant, or other chief governor 
or governors of this kingdom, shall appoint, until there 
may be access unto the said court of exchequer: you 
shall not lett for gift or other cause, but well and truly 
you shall do your office of justice of peace, oyer and 
terminer, assizes and gaol-delivery in that behalf; and 
that you take nothing for your office of justice of the 
peace, oyer and terminer, assizes and gaol-delivery to 
be done, but of the king, and fees accustomed ; and you 
shall not direct, or cause to be directed, any warrant 
by you, to be made to the parties, but you shall direct 
them to the sheriffs and bailiffs of the said counties re- 
spectively, or other the king's officers or ministers, or 



other indifferent persons to do execution thereof. So 
help your God, &c. 

And that as well in the said commission, as in all 
other commissions, and authorities to be issued in pur- 
suance of the present articles, this clause shall be in- 
serted, viz. That all officers, civil and martial, shall 
be required to be aiding and assisting and obedient 
unto the said commissioners, and other persons, to be 
authorized as aforesaid in the execution of their re- 
spective powers. 

XXIX. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that his majesty's 
Roman Catholic subjects do continue the possession of 
such of his majesty's cities, garrisons, towns, forts, and 
castles, which are within their now quarters, until set- 
tlement by parliament, and to be commanded, ruled, 
and governed in chief, upon occasion of necessity, (as 
to the martial and military affairs,) by such as his ma- 
jesty, or his chief governor or governors of this king- 
dom for the time being, shall appoint ; and the said 
appointment to be by and with the advice and consent 
of the said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, 
lord president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount 
Muskerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any 
seven or more of them ; and his majesty's chief go- 
vernor or governors, is to issue commissions accord- 
ingly to such persons as shall be so named and ap- 
pointed as aforesaid, for the executing of such com- 
mand, rule, or government, to continue until all the 
particulars in these present articles, agreed on to pass 
in parliament, shall be accordingly passed : only in 
case of death or misbehaviour, such other person or 
persons to be appointed for the said command, rule, or 
government, to be named and appointed in the place 
or places of him or them, who shall so die or misbehave 
themselves, as the chief governor or governors for the 
time being, by the advice and consent of the said Tho- 
mas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord president 
of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Fran- 
cis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven or more 
of them, shall think fit, and to be continued until a set- 
tlement in parliament as aforesaid. 

XXX. Item, It is further concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, by and between the said parties, and his 
majesty is further graciously pleased, that all customs 
and tenths of prizes belonging to bis majesty, which 
from the perfection of these articles shall fall due within 
this kingdom, shall be paid unto his majesty's receipt, 
or until recourse may be had thereunto in the ordinary 
legal way, unto such person or persons, and in such 
place or places, and under such controls, as the lord 
lieutenant shall appoint to be disposed of, in order to 
the defence and safety of the kingdom, and the defray- 
ing of other the necessary public charges thereof, for 
the ease of the subjects in other their levies, charges, 
and applotments. And that all and every person or 
persons, who are at present entrusted and employed by 
the said Roman Catholics, in the entries, receipts, col- 
lections, or otherwise, concerning the said customs and 
tenths of prizes, do continue their respective employ- 



258 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



ments in the same, until full settlement in parliament, 
accountable to his majesty's receipts, or until recourse 
may be had thereunto; as the said lord lieutenant shall 
appoint as aforesaid, other than to such, and so many 
of them, as to the chief governor or governors for the 
time being, by and with the advice and consent of the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven 
or more of them, shall be thought fit to be altered ; and 
then, and in such case, or in case of death, fraud, or 
misbehaviour, or other alteration of any such person or 
persons, then such other person or persons to be em- 
ployed therein, as shall be thought fit by the chief 
governor or governors for the time being, by and with 
the advice and consent of the said Thomas lord vis- 
count Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, 
Donnogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron 
of Athunry, &c. or any seven or more of them; and 
when it shall appear, that any person or persons, who 
shall be found faithful to his majesty, hath right to any 
of the offices or places about the said customs, where- 
unto he or they may not be admitted until settlement 
in parliament as aforesaid, that a reasonable compensa- 
tion shall be afforded to such person or persons for the 
same. 

XXXI. Item, As for and concerning his majesty's 
rents, payable at Easter next, and from thenceforth to 
grow due, until a settlement in parliament, it is con- 
cluded, accorded, and agreed upon, by and between the 
said parties, and bis majesty is graciously pleased, that 
the said rents be not written for, or levied, until a full 
settlement in parliament; and in due time upon appli- 
cation to be made to the said lord lieutenant, or other 
chief governor or governors of this kingdom, by the 
said Thomas lord viscount Dillon of Costologh, lord 
president of Connaght, Donnogh lord viscount Mus- 
kerry, Francis lord baron of Athunry, &c. or any seven 
or more of them, for remittal of those rents, the said 
lord lieutenant, or any other chief governor or govern- 
ors of this kingdom for the time being-, shall intimate 
their desires, and the reason thereof, to his majesty, 
who, upon consideration of the present condition of this 
kingdom, will declare his gracious pleasure therein, as 
shall be just, and honourable, and satisfactory to the 
reasonable desires of his subjects. 

XXXII. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed, 
by and between the said parties, and his majesty is 
graciously pleased, that the commissioners of oyer and 
terminer and gaol-delivery to be named as aforesaid, 
shall have power to hear and determine all murders, 
manslaughters, rapes, stealths, burning of houses and 
corn in rick or stack, robberies, burglaries, forcible en- 
tries, detainers of possessions, and other offences com- 
mitted or done, and to be committed and done since 
the first day of -May last past, until the first day of the 
next parliament, these present articles, or any thing 
therein contained to the contrary notwithstanding; 
provided, that the authority of the said commissioners 
shall not extend to question any person or persons, for 
doing or committing any act whatsoever, before the 



conclusion of this treaty, by virtue or colour of any 
warrant or direction from those in public authority 
among the confederate Roman Catholics, nor unto 
any act, which shall be done after the perfecting and 
concluding of these articles, by virtue or pretence of 
any authority, which is now by these articles agreed 
on ; provided also, that the said commission shall not 
continue longer than the first day of the next par- 
liament. 

XXXIII. Item, It is concluded, accorded by and 
between the said parties, and his majesty is further 
graciously pleased, that, for the determining such dif- 
ferences, which may arise between his majesty's sub- 
jects within this kingdom, and the prevention of incon- 
venience and disquiet, which through want of due 
remedy in several causes may happen, there shall be 
judicatures established in this kingdom, and that the 
persons to be authorized in them shall have power to do 
all such things as shall be proper and necessary for 
them to do ; and the said lord lieutenant, by and with 
the advice and consent of the said Thomas lord viscount 
Dillon of Costologh, lord president of Connaght, Don- 
nogh lord viscount Muskerry, Francis lord baron of 
Athunry, &c. or an} r seven or more of them, shall name 
the said persons so to be authorized, and to do all other 
things incident unto and necessary for the settling of 
the said intended judicatures. 

XXXIV. Item, At the instance, humble suit, and 
earnest desire of the general assembly of the confede- 
rate Roman Catholics, it is concluded, accorded, and 
agreed upon, that the Roman Catholic regular clergy 
of this kingdom, behaving themselves conformable to 
these articles of peace, shall not be molested in the 
possessions which at present they have of, and in the 
bodies, sites, and precincts of such abbeys and monas- 
teries belonging to any Roman Catholic within the 
said kingdom, until settlement by parliament; and that 
the said clergy shall not be molested in the enjoying 
such pensions as hitherto since the wars they enjoyed 
for their respective livelihoods from the said Roman 
Catholics : and the sites and precincts hereby in- 
tended, are declared to be the body of the abbey, one 
garden and orchard to each abbey, if any there be, and 
what else is contained within the walls, meers, or an- 
cient fences or ditch, that doth supply the wall thereof, 
and no more. 

XXXV. Item, It is concluded, accorded, and agreed, 
by and between the said parties, that as to all other de- 
mands of the said Roman Catholics, for or concerning 
all or any the matters proposed by them, not granted 
or assented unto in and by the aforesaid articles, the 
said Roman Catholics be referred to his majesty's gra- 
cious favour and further concessions. In witness 
whereof the said lord lieutenant, for and on the behalf 
of his most excellent majesty, to the one part of these 
articles remaining with the said Roman Catholics, hath 
put his hand and seal: and sir Richard Rlake, knt. in 
the chair of the general assembly of the said Roman 
Catholics, by order, command, and unanimous consent 
of the said Catholics in full assembly, to the other part 
thereof remaining with the said lord lieutenant, hath 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRTSH. 



259 



put to his hand and the public seal hitherto used by 
the said Roman Catholics, the 17th of January, 1648, 
and in the 24th year of the reign of our sovereign lord 
Charles, by the grace of God, king of Great Britain, 
France, and Ireland, &c 

Sir, 
I have not thus long forborn to invite you, with those 
under your command, to a submission to his majesty's 
authority in me, and a conjunction with me, in the 
ways of his service, out of any the least aversion I had 
to you, or any of them, or out of any disesteem I had 
to your power, to advance or impede the same ; but 
out of my fear, whiles those, that have of late usurped 
power over the subjects of England, held forth the least 
colourable shadow of moderation in their intentions 
towards the settlement of church or state, and that in 
some tolerable way with relation to religion, the inte- 
rest of the king and crown, the freedom of parliament, 
the liberties of the subject, any addresses from me pro- 
posing the withdrawing of that party from those thus 
professing, from whom they have received some, and 
expected further support, would have been but coldly 
received, and any determination thereupon deferred, in 
hope and expectation of the forementioned settlement ; 
or that you yourself, who certainly have not wanted a 
foresight of the sad confusion now covering the face of 
England, would have declared with me, the lord Inche- 
queen, and the Protestant army in Munster, in pre- 
vention thereof; yet my fear was, it would have been 
as difficult for you, to have carried with you the main 
body of the army under your command, (not so clear- 
sighted as yourself,) as it would have been dangerous 
to you, and those with you well-inclined, to have at- 
tempted it without them ; but now that the mask of 
hypocrisy, by which the independent army hath en- 
snared and enslaved all estates and degrees of men, is 
laid aside, now that, barefaced, they evidently appear 
to be the subverters of true religion, and to be the pro- 
tectors and inviters not only of all false ones, but of 
irreligion and atheism, now that they have barbarously 
and inhumanly laid violent, sacrilegious hands upon 
and murdered God's anointed, and our king, not as 
heretofore some parricides have done, to make room 
for some usurper, but in a way plainly manifesting their 
intentions to change the monarchy of England into 
anarchy, unless their aim be first to constitute an elec- 
tive kingdom; and Cromwell or some such John of 
Leyden being elected, then by the same force, by which 
they have thus far compassed their ends, to establish a 
perfect Turkish tyranny; now that of the three estates 
of king, lords, and commons, whereof in all ages par- 
liaments have consisted, there remains only a small 
number, and they the dregs and scum of the house of 
commons, picked and awed by the army, a wicked 
remnant, left for no other end, than yet further if it be 
possible to delude the people with the name of a parlia- 
ment : the king being murdered, the lords and the rest 
of the commons being by unheard-of violence at several 
times forced from the houses, and some imprisoned. 
And now that there remains no other liberty in the sub- 



ject but to profess blasphemous opinions, to Tevile and 
tread under foot magistracy, to murder magistrates, 
and oppress and undo all that are not like-minded with 
them. Now I say, that I cannot doubt but that you 
and all with you under your command will take this 
opportunity to act and declare against so monstrous and 
unparalleled a rebellion, and that you and they will 
cheerfully acknowledge, and faithfully serve and obey 
our gracious king Charles II. undoubted heir of his 
father's crown and virtues; under whose right and 
conduct we may by God's assistance restore protestant 
religion to purity, and therein settle it, parliaments to 
their freedom, good laws to their force, and our fellow- 
subjects to their just liberties; wherein how glorious 
and blessed a thing it will be, to be so considerably in- 
strumental, as you may now make yourself, I leave to 
you now to consider. And though I conceive, there 
are not any motives relating to some particular interest 
to be mentioned after these so weighty considerations, 
which are such as the world hath not been at any time 
furnished with ; yet I hold it my part to assure you, 
that as there is nothing you can reasonably propose for 
the safety, satisfaction, or advantage of yourself, or of 
any that shall adhere to you in what I desire, that I 
shall not to the uttermost of my power provide for ; so 
there is nothing I would, nor shall more industriously 
avoid, than those necessities arising from my duty to 
God and man, that 'may by your rejecting this offer 
force me to be a sad instrument of shedding English 
blood, which in such case must on both sides happen. 
If this overture find place with you, as I earnestly wish 
it may, let me know w T ith what possible speed you can, 
and if you please by the bearer, in what way you desire 
it shall be drawn on to a conclusion. For in that, 
as well as in the substance, you shall find all ready 
compliance from me, that desire to be 

Your affectionate friend to serve you, 

Carrick, March 9, 1648. ORMOND. 

For Colonel Michael Jones, 
Governor of Dublin. 

My Lord, 

Your lordship's of the ninth I received the twelfth 
instant, and therein have I your lordship's invitation to 
a conjunction with yourself (I suppose) as lord lieu- 
tenant of Ireland, and with others now united with the 
Irish, and with the Irish themselves also. 

As I understand not how your lordship should be iiir 
vested with that power pretended, so am I very well 
assured, that it is not in the power of any without the 
parliament of England, to give and assure pardon to 
those bloody rebels, as by the act to that end passed 
may appear more fully. I am also well assured, that 
the parliament of England would never assent to such 
a peace, (such as is that of your lordship's with the 
rebels,) wherein is little or no provision made either for 
the protestants or the protestant religion. Nor can I 
understand how the protestant religion should be settled 
and restored to its purity by an army of papists, or the 
protestant interests maintained by those very enemies, 



260 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



by whom they have been spoiled and there slaughter- 
ed : and very evident it is, that both the protestants 
and protestant religion are, in that your lordship's 
treaty, left as in the power of the rebels, to be by them 
borne down and rooted out at pleasure. 

As for that consideration by } r our lordship offered of 
the present and late proceedings in England, I see not 
how it may be a sufficient motive to me (or any other 
in like trust for the parliament of England in the ser- 
vice of the kingdom) to join with those rebels, upon 
any the pretences in that your lordship's letter men- 
tioned; for therein were there a manifest betraying 
that trust reposed in me, in deserting the service and 
work committed to me, in joining with those I shall 
oppose, and in opposing whom I am obliged to serve. 

Neither conceive I it any part of my work and care, 
to take notice of any whatsoever proceedings of state, 
foreign to my charge and trust here, especially they 
being found hereunto apparently destructive. 

Most certain it is, and former ages have approved it, 
that the intermeddling of governors and parties in this 
kingdom, with sidings and parties in England, have 
been the very betraying of this kingdom to the Irish, 
whiles the British forces here had been thereupon 
called off, and the place therein laid open, and as it 
were given up to the common enemy. 

It is what your lordship might have observed in your 
former treaty with the rebels, that, upon your lordship's 
thereupon withdrawing, and sending hence into Eng- 
land the most considerable part of the English army 
then commanded by you; thereby was the remaining 
British party not long after overpowered, and your 
quarters by the Irish overrun to the gates of Dublin, 
yourself also reduced to that low condition, as to be be- 
sieged in this very city, (the metropolis and principal 
citadel of the kingdom,) and that by those rebels, 
who till then could never stand before you : and what 
the end hath been of that party, also so sent by your 
lordship into England, (although the flower and strength 
of the English army here, both officers and soldiers,) 
hath been very observable. 

And how much the dangers are at present (more 
than in former ages) of hazarding the English interest 
in this kingdom, by sending any parties hence into 
any other kingdom upon any pretences whatsoever, is 
very apparent, as in the generality of the rebellion, 
now more than formerly ; so considering your lord- 
ship's present conclusions with and concessions to the 
rebels, wherein they are allowed the continual posses- 
sion of all the cities, forts, and places of strength, where- 
of they stood possessed at the time of their treaty with 
your lordship, and that they are to have a standing 
force (if I well remember) of 15000 foot and 2500 
horse, (all of their own party, officers and soldiers,) and 
they (with the whole kingdom) to be regulated by a 
major part of Irish trustees, chosen by the rebels them- 
•elres, as persons for their interests and ends, to be by 
them confided in, without whom nothing is to be acted. 
Therein I cannot but mind your lordship of what hath 
been sometimes by yourself delivered, as your sense in 
this particular; that the English interest in Ireland 



must be preserved by the English, and not by Irish ; 
and upon that ground (if I be not deceived) did your 
lordship then capitulate with the parliament of Eng- 
land, from which clear principle I am sorry to see your 
lordship now receding - . 

As to that by your lordship menaced us here, of 
blood and force, if dissenting from your lordship's ways 
and designs, for my particular I shall (my lord) much 
rather choose to suffer in so doing, (for therein shall I 
do what is becoming, and answerable to my trust,) than 
to purchase myself on the contrary the ignominious 
brand of perfidy by any allurements of whatsoever ad- 
vantages offered me. 

But very confident I am of the same divine power, 
which hath still followed me in this work, and will 
still follow me ; and in that trust doubt nothing of thus 
giving your lordship plainly this my resolution in that 
particular. So I remain, 

Your lordship's humble servant, 
Dublin, March 14th, 1648. (Signed) MIC. JONES. 

For the lord of Ormond these. 



LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF IRELAND. 

Ormond, 
Whereas our late sovereign lord king Charles of 
happy memory hath been lately by a party of his re- 
bellious subjects of England most traitorously, mali- 
ciously, and inhumanly put to death and murdered ; 
and forasmuch as his majesty that now is, Charles hy 
the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France, 
and Ireland, is son and heir of his said late majesty, 
and therefore by the laws of the land, of force, and 
practised in all ages, is to inherit. We therefore, in 
discharge of the duty we owe unto God, our allegiance 
and loyalty to our sovereign, holding it fit him so to 
proclaim in and through this his majesty's kingdom, 
do by this our present proclamation declare and mani- 
fest to the world, That Charles II, son and heir of our 
sovereign lord king Charles I, of happy memory, is, 
by the grace of God, the undoubted king of England, 
Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. 
Given at Carrick, Feb. 26th, 1648. 

GOD SAVE THE KING. 



A NECESSARY REPRESENTATION 

Of the present Evils and imminent Dangers to Religion, 
Laws, and Liberties, arising from the late and pre- 
sent practices of the sectarian party in England : to- 
gether with an Exhortation to duties relating to the 
covenant, unto all within our charge, and to all the 
well-affected within this kingdom, by the Presbytery 
at Belfast, February the 15th, 1649. 

When we seriously consider the great and many 
duties, which we owe unto God and his people, over 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



261 



whom he hath made us overseers, and for whom we 
must give an account ; and when we behold the laud- 
able examples of the worthy ministers of the province 
of London, and of the commissioners of the general 
assembly of the church of Scotland, in their free and 
faithful testimonies against the insolencies of the sec- 
tarian party in England : considering also the depen- 
dency of this kingdom upon the kingdom of England, 
and remembering how against strong oppositions we 
were assisted by the Lord the last year in the discharge 
of the like duty, and how he punished the contempt of 
our warning upon the despisers thereof: we find our- 
selves as necessitated, so the more encouraged, to cast 
in our mite in the treasury, lest our silence should in- 
volve us in the guilt of unfaithfulness, and our people 
in security and neglect of duties. 

In this discharge of the trust put upon us by God, 
we would not be looked upon as sowers of sedition, or 
broachers of national and divisive motions; our record 
is in heaven, that nothing is more hateful unto us, nor 
less intended by us, and therefore we shall not fear the 
malicious and wicked aspersions, which we know Satan 
by his instruments is ready to cast, not onlj- upon us, 
but on all who sincerely endeavour the advancement of 
reformation. 

What of late have been, and now are, the insolent 
and presumptuous practices of the sectaries in Eng- 
land, is not unknown to the world : for, First, notwith- 
standing their specious pretences for religion and liber- 
ties, yet their late and present actings, being therewith 
compared, do clearly evidence, that they love a rough 
garment to deceive; since they have with a high hand 
despised the oath, in breaking the covenant, which is 
so strong a foundation to both, whilst they load it with 
slighting reproaches, calling it a bundle of particular 
and contrary interests, and a snare to the people ; and 
likewise labour to establish by laws an universal tole- 
ration of all religions, which is an innovation overturn- 
ing of unity in religion, and so directly repugnant to 
the word of God, the two first articles of our solemn 
covenant, which is the greatest wickedness in them to 
violate, since many of the chiefest of themselves have, 
with their hands, testified to the most high God, sworn 
and sealed it. 

Moreover, their great disaffection to the settlement 
of religion, and so their future breach of covenant, doth 
more fully appear by their strong oppositions to Pres- 
byterian government, (the hedge and bulwark of re- 
ligion,) whilst they express their hatred to it more than 
to the worst of errours, by excluding it under the name 
of compulsion; when tbey embrace even Paganism 
and Judaism in the arms of toleration. Not to speak 
of their aspersions upon it, and the assertors thereof, as 
antichristian and popish, though they have deeply 
sworn, to maintain the same government in the first 
article of the covenant, as it is established in the church 
of Scotland, which they now so despitefully blaspheme. 

Again, it is more than manifest, that they seek not 
the vindication, but the extirpation of laws and liber- 
ties, as appears by their seizing on the person of the 
king, and at their pleasures removing him from place 



to place, not only without the consent, but (if we mis- 
take not) against a direct ordinance of parliament : 
their violent surprising, imprisoning, and secluding 
many of the most worthy members of the honourable 
house of commons, directly against a declared privilege 
of parliament, (an action certainly without parallel in 
any age,) and their purposes of abolishing parliamentary 
power for the future, and establishing of a represent- 
ative (as they call it) instead thereof. Neither hath 
their fury staid here, but without all rule or example, 
being but private men, they have proceeded to the trial 
of the king, against both interest and protestation of 
the kingdom of Scotland, and the former public decla- 
rations of both kingdoms, (besides the violent hastes-e- 
jecting the hearing of any defences,) with cruel hands 
have put him to death ; an act so horrible, as no history, 
divine or human, hath laid a precedent of the like. 

These and many other their detestable insolencies 
may abundantly convince every unbiassed judgment, 
that the present practice of the sectaries and their abet* 
tors do directly overturn the laws and liberties of the 
kingdoms, root out lawful and supreme magistracy, 
(the just privileges whereof we have sworn to main- 
tain,) and introduce a fearful confusion and lawless 
anarchy. 

The Spirit of God by Solomon tells us, Prov. xxx. 
21, That a servant to reign, is one of the four things 
for which the earth is disquieted, and which it cannot 
bear : we wonder nothing, that the earth is disquieted 
for these things ; but we wonder greatly, if the earth 
can bear them. And albeit the Lord so permit, that 
folly be set in great dignity, and they which sit in low 
place ; " that servants ride upon horses, and princes 
walk as servants upon the earth," Eccles. x. ver. 6, 7, 
yet the same wise man saith, Prov. xix, " Delight is 
not seemly for a fool, much less for a servant to have 
rule over princes." 

When we consider these things, we cannot but de- 
clare and manifest our utter dislike and detestation of 
such unwarrantable practices, directly subverting our 
covenant, religion, laws, and liberties. And as watch- 
men in Sion, warn all the lovers of truth and well- 
affected to the covenant, carefully to avoid compliance 
with, or not bearing witness against, horrid insolencies, 
lest partaking with them in their sins, they also be 
partakers of their plagues. Therefore in the spirit of 
meekness, we earnestly intreat, and in the authority of 
Jesus Christ (whose servants we are) charge and obtest 
all, who resolve to adhere unto truth and the covenant, 
diligently to observe, and conscientiously to perform, 
these following duties. 

First, That, according to our solemn covenant, every 
one study more the power of godliness and personal 
reformation of themselves and families ; because, for 
the great breach of this part of the covenant, God is 
highly offended with these lands, and justly provoked 
to permit men to be the instruments of our misery and 
afflictions. 

Secondly, That every one in their station and calling 
earnestly contend for the faith, which was once de- 
livered to the saints, Jude 3. And seek to have their 



262 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE. 



hearts established with grace, that they be not unstable 
and wavering - , carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine ; but that they receive the truth in love, avoiding; 
the company of such as withdraw from and vilify the 
public ordinances; speak evil of church-government; 
invent damnable errours, under the specious pretence 
of a gospel-way and new light; and highly extol the 
persons and courses of notorious sectaries, lest God give 
them over to strong delusions (the plague of these 
times) that they may believe lies, and be damned. 

Thirdly, That they would not be drawn by counsel, 
command, or example, to shake off the ancient and 
fundamental government of these kingdoms by king 
and parliament, which we are so deeply engaged to 
preserve by our solemn covenant, as they would not be 
found guilty of the great evil of these times, (condemn- 
ed by the Holy Ghost,) the despising of dominion and 
speaking* evil of dignities. 

Fourthly, That they do cordially endeavour the pre- 
servation of the union amongst the well-affected in the 
kingdoms, not being' swayed by any national respect : 
remembering that part of the covenant ; " that we shall 
not suffer ourselves directly nor indirectly, by what- 



soever combination, persuasion, or terrour, to be divided 
or withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunc- 
tion." 

And Finally, Albeit there be more present hazard 
from the power of sectaries, (as were from malignants 
the last year,) yet we are not ignorant of the evil pur- 
poses of malignants, even at this time, in all the king- 
doms, and particularly in this ; and for this cause, we 
exhort every one with equal watchfulness to keep 
themselves free from associating with such, or from 
swerving in their judgments to malignant principles; 
and to avoid all such persons as have been from the 
beginning known opposers of reformation, refusers of 
the covenant, combining themselves with papists and 
other notorious malignants, especially such who have 
been chief promoters of the late engagement against 
England, calumniators of the work of reformation, in 
reputing; the miseries of the present times unto the ad- 
vancers thereof; and that their just hatred to sectaries 
incline not their minds to favour malignants, or to 
think, that, because of the power of sectaries, the cause 
of God needs the more to fear the enmity, or to stand 
in need of the help, of malignants. 



OBSERVATIONS 



UPON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



WITH THE IRISH REBELS, ON THE LETTER OF ORMOND TO COLONEL JONES, AND THE 
REPRESENTATION OF THE PRESBYTERY AT BELFAST. 



Although it be a maxim much agreeable to wis- 
dom, that just deeds are the best answer to injurious 
words ; and actions of whatever sort, their own plain- 
est interpreters; yet since our enemies can find the 
leisure both ways to offend us, it will be requisite, we 
should be found in neither of those ways neglectful of 
our just defence: to let them know, that sincere and 
upright intentions can certainly with as much ease de- 
liver themselves into words as into deeds. 

Having therefore seen of late those articles of peace 
granted to the papist rebels of Ireland, as special graces 
and favours from the late king, in reward, most likely, 
of their work done, and in his name and authority con- 
firmed and ratified by James earl of Ormond ; together 
with his letter to Colonel Jones, governor of Dublin, 
full of contumely and dishonour, both to the parliament 
and army : and on the other side, an insolent and se- 
ditions representation from the Scots presbytery at 
Belfast in the North of Ireland, no less dishonourable 
to the state, and much about the same time brought 
hither : there will he needful as to the same slanderous 
aspersions hut one and the same vindication against 
them both. Nor can we sever them in our notice and 
• M ntment, though one part entitled a presbytery, and 



would be thought a protestant assembly, since their 
own unexampled virulence hath wrapt them into the 
same guilt, made them accomplices and assistants to 
the abhorred Irish rebels, and with them at present to 
advance the same interest : if we consider both their 
calumnies, their hatred, and the pretended reasons of 
their hatred to be the same ; the time also and the 
place concurring, as that there lacks nothing but a few 
formal words, which may be easily dissembled, to make 
the perfectest conjunction ; and between them to divide 
that island. 

As for these articles of peace made with those inhu- 
man rebels and papists of Ireland by the late king, as 
one of his last masterpieces, we may be confidently 
persuaded, that no true-born Englishman can so much 
as barely read them without indignation and disdain, 
that those bloody rebels, and so proclaimed and judged 
of by the king himself, after the merciless and babarous 
massacre of so many thousand English, (who had used 
their right and title to that country with such tender- 
ness and moderation, and might otherwise have secured 
themselves with ease against their treachery,) should 
be now graced and rewarded with such freedoms and 
enlargements, as none of their ancestors could ever 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



263 



merit by their best obedience, which at best was always 
treacherous ; to be enfranchised with full liberty equal 
to their conquerors, whom the just revenge of ancient 
piracies, cruel captivities, and the causeless infestation 
of our coast, had warrantably called over, and the long 
prescription of many hundred years ; besides what 
other titles are acknowledged by their own Irish par- 
liament, had fixed and seated in that soil with as good 
a right as the merest natives. 

These, therefore, by their own foregoing demerits 
and provocations justly made our vassals, are by the 
first article of this peace advanced to a condition of 
freedom superior to what any English protestants durst 
have demanded. For what else can be the meaning 
to discharge them the common oath of supremacy, es- 
pecially being papists, (for whom principally that oath 
was intended,) but either to resign them the more into 
their own power, or to set a mark of dishonour upon 
the British loyalty ; by trusting Irish rebels for one 
single oath of allegiance, as much as all his subjects of 
Britain for the double swearing both of allegiance and 
supremacy ? 

The second article puts it into the hands of an Irish 
parliament to repeal, or to suspend, if they think con- 
venient, the act usually called Poyning's Act, which 
was the main, and yet the civilest and most moderate, 
acknowledgment imposed of their dependance on the 
crown of England ; whereby no parliament could be 
summoned there, no bill be passed, but what was first 
to be transmitted and allowed under the great seal of 
England. The recalling of which act tends openly to 
invest them with a law-giving power of their own, en- 
ables them by degrees to throw of all subjection to this 
realm, and renders them (who by their endless treasons 
and revolts have deserved to hold no parliament at all, 
but to be governed by edicts and garrisons) as absolute 
and supreme in that assembly, as the people of Eng- 
land in their own land. And the twelfth article grants 
them in express words, that the Irish parliament shall 
be no more dependent on the parliament of England, 
than the Irish themselves shall declare agreeable to the 
laws of Ireland. 

The two and twentieth article, more ridiculous than 
dangerous, coming especially from such a serious knot 
of lords and politicians, obtains, that those acts prohibit- 
ing to plow with horses by the tail, and burn oats in the 
straw, be repealed ; enough, if nothing else, to declare 
in them a disposition not only sottish, but indocible, 
and averse from all civility and amendment : and what 
hopes they give for the future, who, rejecting the in- 
genuity of all other nations to improve and wax more 
civil by a civilizing conquest, though all these many 
years better shewn and taught, prefer their own absurd 
and savage customs before the most convincing evi- 
dence of reason and demonstration : a testimony of 
their true barbarism and obdurate wilfulness, to be ex- 
pected no less in other matters of greatest moment. 

Yet such as these, and thus affected, the ninth article 
entrusts with the militia; a trust which the king swore 
by God at Newmarket he would not commit to his par- 
liament of England, no, not for an hour. And well de- 



clares the confidence he had in Irish rebels, more than 
in his loyalest subjects. He grants them moreover, 
till the performance of all these articles, that fifteen 
thousand foot and two thousand five hundred horse 
shall remain a standing army of papists at the beck 
and command of Dillon, Muskerry, and other arch- 
rebels, with power also of adding to that number as 
they shall see cause. And by other articles allows 
them the constituting of magistrates and judges in all 
causes, whom they think fit : and till a settlement to 
their own minds, the possession of all those towns and 
countries within their new quarters, being little less 
than all the island, besides what their cruelty hath dis- 
peopled and laid waste. And lastly, the whole manag- 
ing both of peace and war is committed to papists, 
and the chief leaders of that rebellion. 

Now let all men judge what this wants of utter 
alienating and acquitting the whole province of Ire- 
land from all true fealty and obedience to the com- 
monwealth of England. Which act of any king 
against the consent of his parliament, though no other 
crime were laid against him, might of itself strongly 
conduce to the disenthralling him of all. In France, 
Henry the Third, demanding leave in greatest exigen- 
cies to make sale of some crown-lands only, and that to 
his subjects, was answered by the parliament then at 
Blois, that a king in no case, though of extremest ne- 
cessity, might alienate the patrimony of his crown, 
whereof he is but only usufructuary, as civilians term 
it, the propriety remaining ever to the kingdom, not to 
the king. And in our own nation, King John, for re- 
signing, though unwillingly, his crown to the pope's 
legate, with little more hazard to his kingdom than 
the payment of one thousand marks, and the unsightli- 
ness of such a ceremony, was deposed by his barons, 
and Lewis, the French king's son, elected in his room. 
And to have carried only the jewels, plate, and trea- 
sure into Ireland, without consent of the nobility, was 
one of those impeachments, that condemned Richard 
the Second to lose his crown. 

But how petty a crime this will seem to the alienat- 
ing of a whole kingdom, which in these articles of peace 
we see as good as done by the late king, not to friends 
but to mortal enemies, to the accomplishment of his own 
interests and ends, wholly separate from the people's 
good, may without aggravation be easily conceived. 
Nay, by the covenant itself, since that so cavillously is- 
urged against us, we are enjoined in the fourth article,, 
with all faithfulness to endeavour the bringing all 
such to public trial and condign punishment, as shall 
divide one kingdom from another. And what greater 
dividing than by a pernicious and hostile peace, to 
disalliege a whole feudary kingdom from the ancient 
dominion of England ? Exception we find there of no 
person whatsoever ; and if the king, who hath actually 
done this, or any for him, claim a privilege above jus- 
tice, it is again demanded by what express law either 
of God or man, and why he whose office is to execute 
law and justice upon all others, should set himself like 
a demigod in lawless and unbounded anarchy ; refus- 
ing to be accountable for that authority over men na- 







261 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



turally his equals, which God himself without a reason 
given is not wont to exercise over his creatures ? And 
if God, the nearer to be acquainted with mankind and 
his frailties, and to become our priest, made himself a 
man, and subject to the law, we gladly would be in- 
structed, why any mortal man, for the good and wel- 
fare of his brethren being made a king, should by a 
clean contrary motion make himself a god, exalted 
above law ; the readiest way to become utterly unsen- 
sible, both of his human condition, and his own duty. 

And how securely, how smoothly, with how little 
touch or sense of any commiseration, either princely or 
so much as human, he hath sold away that justice so 
oft demanded, and so oft by himself acknowledged to 
be due, for the blood of more than two hundred thousand 
of his subjects, that never hurt him, never disobeyed 
him, assassinated and cut in pieces by those Irish bar- 
barians, to give the first promoting, as is more than 
thought, to his own tyrannical designs in England, 
will appear by the eighteenth article of his peace ; 
wherein, without the least regard of justice to avenge 
the dead, while he thirsts to be avenged upon the living, 
to all the murders, massacres, treasons, piracies, from 
the very fatal day, wherein that rebellion first broke 
out, he grants an act of oblivion. If this can be justi- 
fied, or not punished in whomsoever, while there is any 
faith, any religion, any justice upon earth, there can 
no reason be alleged, why all thing's are not left to con- 
fusion. And thus much be observed in brief concern- 
ing these articles of peace made by the late king with 
his Irish rebels. 

The letter of Ormond sent to Colonel Jones, gover- 
nor of Dublin, attempting his fidelity, which the dis- 
cretion and true worth of that gentleman hath so well 
answered and repulsed, had passed here without men- 
tion, but that the other part of it, not content to do the 
errand of treason, roves into a long digression of evil 
and reproachful language to the parliament and army 
of England, which though not worth their notice, as 
from a crew of rebels whose inhumanities are long 
since become the honour and execration of all that hear 
them, yet in the pursuance of a good endeavour, to 
give the world all due satisfaction of the present doings, 
no opportunity shall be omitted. 

He accuses first, " That we are the subverters of re- 
ligion, the protectors and inviters not only of all false 
ones, but of irreligion and atheism." An accusation 
that no man living could more unjustly use than our 
accuser himself; and which, without a strange besot- 
tedness, he could not expect but to be retorted upon 
DM own head. All men, who are true protestants, of 
which number he gives out to be one, know not a more 
immediate and killing subverter of all true religion 
than Antichrist, whom they generally believe to be the 
pope and church of Rome; he therefore, who makes 
peace irith this grand enemy and persecutor of the true 
church, lie who joins with him, strengthens him, gives 
him root to grow up and spread his poison, removing 
all opposition against him, granting him schools, ab- 
beys, ami revenues, garrisons, towns, fortresses, as in 
•(> many of those articles may be seen, he of all protes- 



tants may be called most justly the subverter of true 
religion, the protector and inviter of irreligion and 
atheism, whether it be Ormond or his master. And if 
it can be no way proved, that the parliament hath 
countenanced popery or papists, but have every where 
broken their temporal power, thrown clown their pub- 
lic superstitions, and confined them to the bare enjoy- 
ment of that which is not in our reach, their con- 
sciences ; if they have encouraged all true ministers of 
the gospel, that is to say, afforded them favour and pro- 
tection in all places where they preached, and although 
they think not money or stipend to be the best en- 
couragement of a true pastor, yet therein also have not 
been wanting nor intend to be, they doubt not then to 
affirm themselves, not the subverters, but the main- 
tainors and defenders, of true religion ; which of itself 
and by consequence is the surest and the strongest sub- 
version, not only of all false ones, but of irreligion and 
atheism. For " the weapons of that warfare," as the 
apostle testifies, who best knew, " are not carnal, but 
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong 
holds, and all reasonings, and every high thing exalt- 
ed against the knowledge of God, surprising every 
thought unto the obedience of Christ, and easily re- 
venging all disobedience," 2 Cor. x. What minister or 
clergyman, that either understood his high calling, or 
sought not to erect a secular and carnal tyranny over 
spiritual things, would neglect this ample and sublime 
power conferred upon him, and come a begging to the 
weak hand of magistracy for that kind of aid which 
the magistrate hath no commission to afford him, and 
in the way he seeks it hath been always found helpless 
and unprofitable. Neither is it unknown, or by wisest 
men unobserved, that the church began then most ap- 
parently to degenerate, and go to ruin, when she bor- 
rowed of the civil power more than fair encouragement 
and protection ; more than which Christ himself and 
his apostles never required. To say therefore, that we 
protect and invite all false religions, with irreligion 
also and atheism, because we lend not, or rather mis- 
apply not, the temporal power to help out, though in 
vain, the sloth, the spleen, the insufficiency of church- 
men, in the execution of spiritual discipline over those 
within their charge, or those without, is an imputation 
that may be laid as well upon the best regulated states 
and governments through the world : who have been 
so prudent as never to employ the civil sword further 
than the edge of it could reach, that is, to civil offences 
only ; proving always against objects that were spi- 
ritual a ridiculous weapon. Our protection therefore 
to men in civil matters unoffensive we cannot deny ; 
their consciences we leave, as not within our cogni- 
zance, to theproper cure of instruction, praying forthem. 
Nevertheless, if any be found among us declared athe- 
ists, malicious enemies of God, and of Christ; the par- 
liament, I think, professes not to tolerate such, but 
with all befitting endeavours to suppress them. Other- 
ways to protect none that in a larger way may be taxed 
of irreligion and atheism, may perhaps be the ready 
way to exclude none sooner out of protection, than 
those themselves that most accuse it to be so general to 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



265 



others. Lastly, that we invite such as these, or en- 
courage them, is a mere slander without proof. 

He tells us next, that they have murdered the king. 
And they deny not to have justly and undauntedly, as 
became the parliament of England, for more blood- 
shed and other heinous crimes than ever king of this 
land was guilty of, after open trial, punished him with 
death. A matter, which to men, whose serious con- 
sideration thereof hath left no certain precept or exam- 
ple undebated, is so far from giving offence, that we 
implore and beseech the Divine Majesty so to uphold 
and support their spirits with like fortitude and mag- 
nanimity, that all their ensuing actions may correspond 
and prove worthy that impartial and noble piece of 
justice, wherein the hand of God appeared so evidently 
on our side. We shall not then need to fear, what 
all the rout and faction of men basely principled can 
do against us. 

The end of our proceedings, which he takes upon 
him to have discovered, " the changing forsooth of 
monarchy into anarchy," sounds so like the smattering 
of some raw politician, and the overworn objection of 
every trivial talker, that we leave him in the number. 
But seeing in that which follows he contains not him- 
self, but, contrary to what a gentleman should know 
of civility, proceeds to the contemptuous naming of a 
person, whose valour and high merit many enemies 
more noble than himself have both honoured and feared ; 
to assert his good name and reputation, of whose ser- 
vice the commonwealth receives so ample satisfaction, 
it is answered in his behalf, that Cromwell, whom he 
couples with a name of scorn, hath done in few years 
more eminent and remarkable deeds, whereon to found 
nobility in his house, though it were wanting', and 
perpetual renown to posterity, than Ormond and all 
his ancestors put together can shew from any record 
of their Irish exploits, the widest scene of their glory. 

He passes on his groundless objectures, that the aim 
of this parliament may be perhaps to set up first an 
elective kingdom, and after that a perfect Turkish 
tyranny. Of the former we suppose the late act against 
monarchy will suffice to acquit them. Of the latter 
certainly there needed no other pattern than that ty- 
ranny, which was so long modelling by the late king 
himself, with Strafford, and that archprelate of Canter- 
bury, his chief instruments ; whose designs God hath 
dissipated. Neither is it any new project of the mon- 
archs, and their courtiers in these days, though 
Christians they would be thought, to endeavour the 
introducing of a plain Turkish tyranny. Witness 
that consultation had in the court of France under 
Charles the IXth at Blois, wherein Poncet, a certain 
court-projector, brought in secretly by the chancellor 
Biragha, after many praises of the Ottoman govern- 
ment, proposes means and ways at large, in presence of 
the king, the queen regent, and Anjou the king's bro- 
ther, how with best expedition and least noise the 
Turkish tyranny might be set up in France. It ap- 
pears therefore, that the design of bringing in that 
tyranny, is a monarchical design, and not of those who 
have dissolved monarchy. 



As for parliaments by three estates, we know, that a 
parliament signifies no more than the supreme and ge- 
neral council of a nation, consisting of whomsoever 
chosen and assembled for the public g'ood ; which was 
ever practised, and in all sorts of government, before 
the word parliament, or the formality, or the possibi- 
lity of those three estates, or such a thing as a titular 
monarchy, had either name or being- in the world. The 
original of all which we could produce to be far newer 
than those " all ages" which he vaunts of, and by such 
first invented and contrived, whose authority, though 
it were Charles Martel, stands not so high in our re- 
pute, either for himself, or the age he lived in, but that 
with as good warrant we may recede from what he 
ordained, as he ordain what before was not. 

But whereas besides he is bold to allege, that of the 
three estates there remains only a small number, and 
they the " dregs and scum of the house of commons;" 
this reproach, and in the mouth of an Irishman, con- 
cerns not them only ; but redounds to apparent dis- 
honour of the whole English nation. Doubtless there 
must be thought a great scarcity in England of persons 
honourable and deserving, or else of judgment, or so 
much as honesty in the people, if those, whom they 
esteem worthy to sit in parliament, be no better than 
scum and dregs in the Irish dialect. But of such like 
stuff we meet not any where with more excrescence 
than in his own lavish pen; which feeling itself loose 
without the reins of discretion, rambles for the most 
part beyond all soberness and civility. In which tor- 
rent he goes on negociating* and cheapening the loy- 
alty of our faithful governor of Dublin, as if the known 
and tried constancy of that valiant gentleman were to 
be bought with court fumes. 

He lays before him, that "there remains now no 
other liberty in the subject, but to profess blasphemous 
opinions, to revile and tread under foot magistracy, to 
murder magistrates, to oppress and undo all that are 
not like-minded with us." Forgetting in the mean 
while himself to be in the head of a mixed rabble, part 
papists, part fugitives, and part savages, guilty in the 
highest degree of all these crimes. What more blas- 
phemous, not opinion, but whole religion, than popery, 
plung'ed into idolatrous and ceremonial superstition, the 
very death of all true religion; figured to us by the 
Scripture itself in the shape of that beast, full of the 
names of blasphemy, which we mention, to hirn as to 
one that would be counted protestant, and had his 
breeding in the house of a bishop ? And who are those 
that have trod under foot magistracy, murdered magis- 
trates, oppressed and undone all that sided not with 
them, but the Irish rebels, in that horrible conspiracy, 
for which Ormond himself hath either been or seemed 
to be their enemy, though now their ringleader ? And 
let him ask the Jesuits about him, whether it be not 
their known doctrine and also practice, not by fair and 
due process of justice to punish kings and magistrates, 
which we disavow not, but to murder them in the basest 
and most assassinous manner, if their church interest 
so require. There will not need more words to this 
windy railer, convicted openly of all those crimes* 



!66 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



which he so confidently, and yet falsely, charges upon 
others. 

We have now to deal, though in the same country, 
with another sort of adversaries, in shew far different, 
in substance much what the same. These write them- 
selves the presbytery of Belfast, a place better known 
by the name of a late barony, than by the fame of 
these men's doctrine or ecclesiastical deeds : whose 
obscurity till now never came to our hearing*. And 
surely we should think this their representment far be- 
neath considerable, who have neglected and passed 
over the like unadvisedness of their fellows in other 
places more near us, were it not to observe in some par- 
ticulars the sympathy, good intelligence, and joint pace 
which they go in the north of Ireland, with their co- 
partning rebels in the south, driving on the same in- 
terest to lose us that kingdom, that they may gain it 
themselves, or at least share in the spoil: though the 
other be open enemies, these pretended brethren. 

The introduction of their manifesto out of doubt must 
be zealous ; " Their duty," they say, " to God and his 
people, over whom he hath made them overseers, and 
for whom they must give account." What mean these 
men ? Is the presbytery of Belfast, a small town in 
Ulster, of so large extent, that their voices cannot serve 
to teach duties in the congregation which they oversee, 
without spreading and divulging to all parts, far be- 
yond the diocess of Patrick or Columba, their written 
representation, under the subtle pretence of feeding 
their own flock ? Or do they think to oversee, or un- 
dertake to give an account for, all to whom their paper 
sends greeting? St. Paul to the elders of Ephesus 
thinks it sufficient to give charge, " That they take 
heed to themselves, and to the flock over which they 
were made overseers," beyond those bounds he enlarges 
not their commission. And surely when we put down 
bishops and put up presbyters, which the most of them 
have made use of to enrich and exalt themselves, and 
turn the first heel against their benefactors, we did not 
think, that one classic fraternity, so obscure and so re- 
mote, should involve us and all state-affairs within the 
censure and jurisdiction of Belfast, upon pretence of 
overseeing their own charge. 

We very well know, that church-censures are limited 
to church-matters, and these within the compass of their 
own province, or to say more truly, of their own con- 
gregation : that affairs of state are not for their meddling, 
as we could urge even from their own invectives and 
protestations against the bishops, wherein they tell 
them with much fervency, that ministers of the gospel, 
neither by that function, nor any other which they 
ought accept, have the least warrant to be pragmatical 
in the state. 

And surely in vain were bishops for these and other 
causes forbid to sit and vote in the house, if these men 
out of the house, and without vote, shall claim and be 
permitted more licence on their presbyterial stools, to 
breed continual disturbance by interposing in the com- 
monwealth. But seeing that now, since their heaving 
out the prelates to heave in themselves, they devise new 
wraja to bring both ends together, which will never 



meet ; that is to say, their former doctrine with their 
present doings, a3 " that they cannot else teach magis- 
trates and subjects their duty, and that they have be- 
sides a right themselves to speak as members of the 
commonwealth :" let them know, that there is a wide 
difference between the general exhortation to justice 
and obedience, which in this point is the utmost of their 
duty, and the state-disputes wherein they are now 
grown such busy-bodies, to preach of titles, interests, 
and alterations in government : more than our Saviour 
himself, or any of his apostles, ever took upon them, 
though the title both of Caesar and of Herod, and what 
they did in matters of state, might have then admitted 
controversy enough. 

Next, for their civil capacities, we are sure, that 
pulpits and church-assemblies, whether classical or 
provincial, never were intended or allowed by wise 
magistrates, no, nor by him that sent them, to advance 
such purposes, but that as members of the common- 
wealth they ought to mix with other commoners, and 
in that temporal body to assume nothing above other 
private persons, or otherwise than in a usual and legal 
manner : not by distinct remonstrances and represent- 
ments, as if they were a tribe and party by themselves, 
which is the next immediate way to make the church 
lift a horn against the state, and claim an absolute and 
undepending jurisdiction, as from like advantage and 
occasion (to the trouble of all Christendom) the pope 
hath for many ages done ; and not only our bishops 
were climbing after him, but our presbyters also, as 
by late experiment we find. Of this representation 
therefore we can esteem and judge no other than of a 
slanderous and seditious libel, sent abroad by a sort of 
incendiaries, to delude and make the better way under 
the cunning and plausible name of a presbytery. 

A second reason of their representing is, " that they 
consider the dependance of that kingdom upon Eng- 
land," which is another shameless untruth that ever 
they considered ; as their own actions will declare, by 
conniving, and in their silence partaking, with those in 
Ulster, whose obedience, by what we have yet heard, 
stands dubious, and with an eye of conformity rather 
to the north, than to that part where they owe their 
subjection ; and this in all likelihood by the inducement 
and instigation of these representee : who are so far 
from considering their dependance on England, as to 
presume at every word to term proceedings of parlia- 
ment, " the insolencies of a sectarian party, and of pri- 
vate men." Despising dominion, and speaking- evil 
of dignities, which hypocritically they would seem to 
dissuade others from ; and not fearing the due correc- 
tion of their superiors, that may in fit season overtake 
them. Whenas the least consideration of their depend- 
ance on England, would have kept them better in their 
duty. 

The third reason which they use makes against them ; 
the remembrance how God punished the contempt of 
their warning last year upon the breakers of covenant, 
whenas the next year after they forget the warning of 
that punishment hanging over their own heads for the 
very same transgression, their manifest breach of cove- 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



267 



nant by this seditious representation, accompanied with 
the doubtful obedience of that province which repre- 
sents it. 

And thus we have their preface supported with three 
reasons ; two of them notorious falsities, and the third 
against themselves ; and two examples, " the province 
of London, and the commissioners of the kirk-assembly." 
But certain, if canonical examples bind not, much less 
do apocryphal. 

Proceeding to avouch the trust put upon them by 
God, which is plainly proved to be none of this nature, 
"they would not be looked upon as sowers of sedition, 
or authors of divisive motions; their record," they say, 
" is in heaven," and their truth and honesty no man 
knows where. For is not this a shameless hypocrisy, 
and of mere wolves in sheep's clothing-, to sow sedition 
in the ears of all men, and to face us down to the very 
act, that they are authors of no such matter ? But let 
the sequel both of their paper, and the obedience of the 
place wherein they are, determine. 

Nay, while we are yet writing these things, and 
foretelling all men the rebellion, which was even then 
designed in the close purpose of these unhallowed 
priestlings, at the very time when with their lips they 
disclaimed all sowing of sedition, news is brought, and 
too true, that the Scottish inhabitants of that province 
are actually revolted, and have not only besieged in 
Londonderry those forces, which were to have fought 
against Ormond and the Irish rebels ; but have in a 
manner declared with them, and begun open war 
against the parliament ; and all this by the incitement 
and illusions of that unchristian synagogue at Belfast, 
who yet dare charge the parliament, " that, notwith- 
standing specious pretences, yet their actings do evi- 
dence, that they love a rough garment to deceive." 
The deceit we own not, but tbe comparison, by what 
at first sight may seem alluded, we accept: for that 
hairy roughness assumed won Jacob the birthright 
both temporal and eternal ; and God we trust hath so 
disposed the mouth of these Balaams, that, coming to 
curse, they have stumbled into a kind of blessing, and 
compared our actings to the faithful act of that patri- 
arch. 

But if they mean, as more probably their meaning 
was, that " rough garment" spoken of Zach. xiii. 4, 
we may then behold the pitiful store of learning and 
theology, which these deceivers have thought sufficient 
to uphold their credit with the people, who, though the 
rancour that leavens them have somewhat quickened 
the common drawling of their pulpit elocution, yet for 
want of stock enough in scripture-phrase to serve the 
necessary uses of their malice, they are become so libe- 
ral, as to part freely with their own budge-gowns from 
off their backs, and bestow them on the magistrate as 
a rough garment to deceive ; rather than not be fur- 
nished with a reproach, though never so improper, 
never so odious to be turned upon themselves. For 
but with half an eye cast upon that text, any man will 
soon discern that rough g-arment to be their own coat, 
their own livery, the very badge and cognizance of 
such false prophets as themselves, Who, when they 



understand, or ever seriously mind, the beginning of 
that 4th verse, may " be ashamed every one of his 
lying vision," and may justly fear that foregoing de- 
nouncement to such " as speak lies in the name of the 
Lord," verse 3, lurking* under the rough garment of 
outward rigour and formality, whereby they cheat the 
simple. So that " this rough garment to deceive" we 
bring ye once again, grave sirs, into your own vestry; 
or with Zachary shall not think much to fit it to your 
own shoulders. To bestow aught in good earnest on 
the magistrate, we know your classic priestship is too 
gripple, for ye are always begging : and for this rough 
gown to deceive, we are confident ye cannot spare it ; 
it is your Sunday's gown, your every day gown, your 
only gown, the gown of your faculty ; your divining 
gown ; to take it from ye were sacrilege. Wear it 
therefore, and possess it yourselves, most grave and 
reverend Carmelites, that all men, both young and old, 
as we hope they will shortly, may yet better know ye, 
and distinguish ye by it ; and give to your rough 
gown, wherever they meet it, whether in pulpit, classis, 
or provincial synod, the precedency and the pre-emi- 
nence of deceiving. 

They charge us next, that we have broken the cove- 
nant, and loaden it with slighting reproaches. For 
the reproaching, let them answer that are guilty, 
whereof the state we are sure cannot be accused. For 
the breaking, let us hear wherein. " In labouring," 
say they, " to establish by law a universal toleration 
of all religions." This touches not the state; for cer- 
tainly were they so minded, they need not labour it, 
but do it, having power in their hands ; and we know 
of no act as yet passed to that purpose. But suppose 
it done, wherein is the covenant broke ? The covenant 
enjoins us to endeavour the extirpation first of popery 
and prelacy, then of heresy, schism, and profaneness, 
and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doc- 
trine and the power of godliness. And this we cease 
not to do by all effectual and proper means : but these 
divines might know, that to extirpate all these things 
can be no work of the civil sword, but of the spiritual, 
which is the word of God. 

No man well in his wits, endeavouring to root up 
weeds out of his ground, instead of using the spade 
will take a mallet or a beetle. Nor doth the covenant 
any way engage us to extirpate, or to prosecute the 
men, but the heresies and errours in them, which we 
tell these divines, and the rest that understand not, be- 
longs chiefly to their own function, in the diligent 
preaching and insisting upon sound doctrine, in the 
confuting, not the railing down, errours, encountering 
both in public and private conference, and by the 
power of truth, not of persecution, subduing those au- 
thors of heretical opinions, and lastly in the spiritual 
execution of church-discipline within their own con- 
gregations. In all these ways we shall assist them, 
favour them, and as far as appertains to us join with 
them, and moreover not tolerate the free exercise of 
any religion, which shall be found absolutely contrary 
to sound doctrine or the power of godliness ; for the 
conscience, we must have patience till it be within our 






268 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE 



verge. And thus doing", we shall believe to have kept 
exactly all that is required from us by the covenant. 
Whilst they by their seditious practices against us, 
than which nothing- for the present can add more assist- 
ance or advantage to those bloody rebels and papists 
in the south, will be found most pernicious covenant- 
breakers themselves, and as deep in that guilt, as those 
of their own nation the last year; the warning of 
whose ill success, like men hardened for the same judg- 
ment, they miserably pervert to an encouragement in 
the same offence, if not a far worse: for now they have 
joined interest with the Irish rebels, who have ever 
fought against the covenant, whereas their countrymen 
the year before made the covenant their plea. But as 
it is a peculiar mercy of God to his people, while they 
remain his, to preserve them from wicked considera- 
tions; so it is a mark and punishment of hypocrites, to 
be driven at length to mix their cause, and the interest 
of their covenant, with God's enemies. 

And whereas they affirm, that the tolerating of all 
religions, in the manner that we tolerate them, is an 
innovation; we must acquaint them, that we are able 
to make it good, if need be, both by Scripture and the 
primitive fathers, and the frequent assertion of whole 
churches and protestant states in their remonstrances 
and expostulations against the popish tyranny over 
souls. And what force of argument do these doctors 
bring to the contrary ? But we have long observed to 
what pass the bold ignorance and sloth of our clergy 
tends no less now than in the bishops' days, to make 
their bare sayings and censures authentic with the peo- 
ple, though destitute of any proof or argument. But 
thanks be to God, they are discerned. 

Their next impeachment is, " that we oppose the 
presbyterial government, the hedge and bulwark of 
religion." Which all the land knows to be a most im- 
pudent falsehood, having established it with all free- 
dom, wherever it hath been desired. Nevertheless, as 
we perceive it aspiring to be a compulsive power upon 
all without exception in parochial, classical, and pro- 
vincial hierarchies, or to require the fleshly arm of ma- 
gistracy in the execution of a spiritual discipline, to 
punish and amerce by any corporal infliction those 
whose consciences cannot be edified by what authority 
they are compelled, we hold it no more to be " the 
hedge and bulwark of religion," than the popish or 
prclatical courts, or the Spanish Inquisition. 

But we are told, " we embrace paganism and Juda- 
ism in the arms of toleration." A most audacious ca- 
lumny ! And yet while we detest Judaism, we know 
ourselves commanded by St. Paul, Rom. xi. to respect 
the Jews, and by all means to endeavour their conver- 
sion. 

Neither was it ever sworn in the covenant, to main- 
tain an universal presbytery in England, as they falsely 
allege, but in Scotland against the common enemy, if 
our aid were called for : being left free to reform our 
own country according to the word of God, and the 
example of best reformed churches; from which rule 
we are not yet departed. 

But here, utterly forgetting to be ministers of the 



gospel, they presume to open their mouths, not " in the 
spirit of meekness," as like dissemblers they pretend? 
but with as much devilish malice, impudence, and 
falsehood, as any Irish rebel could have uttered, and 
from a barbarous nook of Ireland brand us with the ex- 
tirpation of laws and liberties ; things which they seem 
as little to understand, as aught that belong to good 
letters or humanity. 

"That we seized on the person of the king;" who 
was surrendered into our hands an enemy and captive 
by our own subordinate and paid army of Scots in 
England. Next, " our imprisoning many members of 
the house." As if it were impossible they should de- 
serve it, conspiring and bandying against the public 
good ; which to the other part appearing*, and with the 
power they had, not resisting had been a manifest de- 
sertion of their trust and duty. No question but it is as 
good and necessary to expel rotten members out of the 
house, as to banish delinquents out of the land : and 
the reason holds as well in forty as in five. And if 
they be yet more, the more dangerous is their number. 
They had no privilege to sit there, and vote home the 
author, the impenitent author, of all our miseries, to 
freedom, honour, and royalty, for a i'exv fraudulent, if 
not destructive, concessions. Which that they went 
about to do, how much more clear it was to all men, so 
much the more expedient and important to the com- 
monwealth was their speedy seizure and exclusion ; 
and no breach of any just privilege, but a breach of 
their knotted faction. And here they cry out, " an ac- 
tion without parallel in any age." So heartily we 
wish all men were unprejudiced in all our actions, as 
these illiterate denouncers never paralleled so much of 
any age as would contribute to the tithe of a century. 
" That we abolish parliamentary power, and establish 
a representative instead thereof." Now we have the 
height of them ; these profound instructors, in the midst 
of their representation, would know the English of a 
representative, and were perhaps of that classis, who 
heretofore were as much staggered at triennial. 

Their grand accusation is our justice done on the 
king, which that they may prove to be " without rule 
or example," they venture all the credit they have in 
divine and human history ; and by the same desperate 
boldness detect themselves to be egregious liars and 
impostors, seeking to abuse the multitude with a shew 
of that gravity and learning, which never was their 
portion. Had their knowledge been equal to the 
knowledge of any stupid monk or abbot, they would 
have known at least, though ignorant of all things 
else, the life and acts of him, who first instituted their 
order : but these blockish presbyters of Clandeboy 
know not that John Knox, who was the first founder of 
presbytery in Scotland, taught professedly the doctrine 
of deposing and of killing kings. And thus while they 
deny that any such rule can be found, the rule is found 
in their own country, given them by their own first 
prcsbyterian institutor; and they themselves, like irre- 
gular friars walking- contrary to the rule of their own 
foundation, deserve for so gross an ignorance and trans- 
gression to be disciplined upon their own stools. Or 



BETWEEN THE EARL OF ORMOND AND THE IRISH. 



269 



had their reading- in history been any, which by this 
we may be confident is none at all, or their malice not 
heightened to a blind rage, they never would so rashly 
have thrown the dice to a palpable discovery of their 
ignorance and want of shame. But wherefore spend 
we two such precious things as time and reason upon 
priests, the most prodig'al misspenders of time, and the 
scarcest owners of reasons? It is sufficient we have 
published our defences, given reasons, given examples 
of our justice done; books also have been written to 
the same purpose for men to look on that will ; that 
no nation under heaven but in one age or other hath 
done the like. The difference only is, which rather 
seems to us matter of glory, that they for the most part 
have without form of law done the deed by a kind of 
martial justice, we by the deliberate and well-weighed 
sentence of a legal judicature. 

But they tell us, " it was against the interest and 
protestation of the kingdom of Scotland." And did 
exceeding well to join those two together : here by in- 
forming us what credit or regard need be given in 
England to a Scots protestation, ushered in by a Scots 
interest : certainly no more than we see is given in 
Scotland to an English declaration, declaring the in- 
terest of England. If then our interest move not them, 
why should theirs move us ? If they say, we are not all 
England ; we reply, they are not all Scotland : nay, 
were the last year so inconsiderable a part of Scotland, 
as were beholden to this which they now term the sec- 
tarian army, to defend and rescue them at the charges 
of England, from a stronger party of their own coun- 
trymen, in whose esteem they were no better than sec- 
tarians themselves. But they add, "it was against the 
former declarations of both kingdoms," to seize, or 
proceed against the king. We are certain, that no 
such declarations of both kingdoms, as derive not their 
full force from the sense and meaning of the covenant, 
can be produced. 

And if they plead against the covenant, " to pre- 
serve and defend his person : " we ask them briefly, 
whether they take the covenant to be absolute or con- 
ditional? If absolute, then suppose the king to have 
committed all prodigious crimes and impieties against 
God, or nature, or whole nations, he must nevertheless 
be sacred from all violent touch. Which absurd opinion, 
how it can live in any man's reason, either natural or 
rectified, we much marvel : since God declared his 
anger as impetuous for the saving of King Benhadad, 
though surrendering himself at mercy, as for the kill- 
ing of Naboth. If it be conditional, in the preservation 
and defence of religion, and the people's liberty, then 
certainly to take away his life, being dangerous, and 
pernicious to both these, was no more a breach of the 
covenant, than for the same reason at Edinburgh to 
behead Gordon the marquis of Huntley. By the same 
covenant we made vow to assist and defend all those, 
that should enter with us into this league ; not abso- 
lutely, but in the maintenance and pursuing thereof. 
If therefore no man else was ever so mad, as to claim 
from hence an impunity from all justice, why should 
any for the king, whose life, by other articles of the 



same covenant, was forfeit? Nay if common sense had 
not led us to such a clear interpretation, the Scots com- 
missioners themselves might boast to have been our 
first teachers : who, when they drew to the malignance 
which brought forth that perfidious last year's irruption 
against all the bands of covenant or Christian neigh- 
bourhood, making their hollow plea the defence of his 
majesty's person, they were constrained by their own 
guiltiness, to leave out that following morsel that 
would have choked them, " the preservation and de- 
fence of true religion and our liberties." And question- 
less in the preservation of these we are bound as well, 
both by the covenant, and before the covenant, to pre- 
serve and defend the person of any private man, as the 
person and authority of any inferior magistrate : so 
that this article, objected with such vehemence against 
us, contains not an exception of the king's person, and 
authority, to do by privilege what wickedness he list, 
and be defended as some fancy, but an express testi- 
fication of our loyalty ; and the plain words without 
wresting will bear as much, that we had no thoughts 
against his person, or just power, provided they might 
consist with the preservation and defence of true reli- 
gion and our liberties. But to these how hazardous 
his life was, will be needless to repeat so often. It may 
suffice, that, while he was in custody, where we ex- 
pected his repentance, his remorse at last, and com- 
passion of all the innocent blood shed already, and 
hereafter likely to be shed, for his mere wilfulness, he 
made no other use of our continual forbearance, our 
humblest petitions and obtestations at his feet, but to 
sit contriving and fomenting new plots against us, 
and, as his own phrase was, " playing his own game" 
upon the miseries of his people : of which we desire no 
other view at present than these articles of peace with 
the rebels, and the rare game likely to ensue from such 
a cast of his cards. And then let men reflect a little 
upon the slanders and reviles of these wretched priests, 
and judge what modesty, what truth, what conscience, 
what any thing fit for ministers, or we might say rea- 
sonable men, can harbour in them. For what they be- 
gan in shamelessness and malice, they conclude in 
frenzy : throwing out a sudden rhapsody of proverbs 
quite from the purpose ; and with as much comeliness 
as when Saul prophesied. For casting off, as he did 
his garments, all modesty and meekness, wherewith 
the language of ministers ought to be clothed, espe- 
cially to their supreme magistrate, they talk at random 
of" servants raging, servants riding, and wonder how 
the earth can bear them." Either these men imagine 
themselves to be marvellously high set and exalted in 
the chair of Belfast, to vouchsafe the parliament of 
England no better style than servants, or else their 
high notion, which we rather believe, falls as low as 
court-parasitism ; supposing all men to be servants 
but the king. And then all their pains taken to 
seem so wise in proverbing serve but to conclude them 
downright slaves : and the edge of their own proverb 
falls reverse upon themselves. For as " delight is not 
seemly for fools," much less high words to come from 
base minds. What they are for ministers, or how they 



270 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE ARTICLES OF PEACE, &c. 



crept into the fold, whether at the window, or through 
the wall, or who set them there so haughty in the pon- 
tifical see of Belfast, we know not. But this we rather 
have cause to wonder, if the earth can bear this insuf- 
ferable insolency of upstarts; who, from a ground which 
is not their own, dare send such defiance to the sove- 
reign magistracy of England, by whose authority and 
in whose right they inhabit there. By their actions 
we might rather judge them to be a generation of 
highland thieves and redshanks, who being neigh- 
bourly admitted, not as the Saxons by merit of their 
warfare against our enemies, but by the courtesy of 
England, to hold possessions in our province, a country 
better than their own, have, with worse faith than those 



heathen, proved ingrateful and treacherous guests to 
their best friends and entertainers. And let them take 
heed, lest while their silence as to these matters might 
have kept them blameless and secure under those pro- 
ceedings which they so feared to partake in, that these 
their treasonous attempts and practices have not in- 
volved them in a far worse guilt of rebellion; and 
(notwithstanding that fair dehortatory from joining 
with malignants) in the appearance of a co-interest 
and partaking with the Irish rebels : against whom, 
though by themselves pronounced to be the enemies 
of God, they go not out to battle, as they ought, but 
rather by these their doings assist and become asso- 



'EIK0N0KAA2THZ. 

IN ANSWER TO A BOOK ENTITLED, 

'EIKQN BA2IA1KH, 
THE PORTRAITURE OF HIS MAJESTY IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS. 

BY JOHN MILTON. 

PUBLISHED FROM THE AUTHOR'S SECOND EDITION, PRINTED IN 1650, 

WITH MANY ENLAHGEMEN'TS, 

BY RICHARD BARON. 

WITH A PREFACE 

SHEWING THE TRANSCENDENT EXCELLENCY OF MILTON'S PROSE WORKS. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED, 

AN ORIGINAL LETTER TO MILTON, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. 

Morpheus, on thy dewy wing 

Such fair auspicious visions bring. 

As sooth'd great Milton's injur'd age, 

When in prophetic dreams he saw 

The tribes unborn with pious awe 

Imbibe each virtue from his heavenly page. 

Dr. Akenside. 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



When the last impression of Milton's prose works was committed to my care, I executed that trust with the 
greatest fidelity. Not satisfied with printing- from any copy at hand, as editors are generally wont, my affec- 
tion and zeal for the author induced me to compare every sentence, line by line, with the original edition of 
each treatise that I was able to obtain. Hence, errours innumerable of the former impression were corrected ; 
besides what improvements were added from the author's second edition of The Tenure of Kings and Magis- 
trates, which Mr. Toland had either not seen, or had neglected to commit to the press.* 

After I had endeavoured to do this justice to my favourite author, the last summer I discovered a second edi- 
tion of his Eikonoklastes, with many large and curious additions, printed in the year 1650, which edition had 
escaped the notice both of Mr. Toland and myself. 

In communicating this discovery to a few friends, I found that this edition was not unknown to some others, 
though from low and base motives secreted from the public. But I, who from my soul love liberty, and for that 
reason openly and boldly assert its principles at all times, resolved that the public should no longer be withheld 
from the possession of such a treasure. 

I therefore now give a new impression of this work, with the additions and improvements made by the author; 
and I deem it a singular felicity, to be the instrument of restoring to my country so many excellent lines long 
lost, — and in danger of being for ever lost, — of a writer who is a lasting honour to our language and na- 
tion; — and of a work, wherein the principles of tyranny are confuted and overthrown, and all the arts and 
cunning of a great tyrant and his adherents detected and laid open. 

The love of liberty is a public affection, of which those men must be altogether void, that can suppress or 
smother any thing written in its defence, and tending to serve its glorious cause. What signify professions, 
when the actions are opposite and contradictory ? Could any high-churchman, any partizan of Charles I, have 
acted a worse, or a different part, than some pretended friends of liberty have done in this instance ? Many high- 

* Mr. Toland first collected and published the author's prose works in 3 vols, folio, 1697, or 1698 : for which all lovers of liberty owe grateful praise 
to his name ; but through hurry, or perhaps not having seen the different copies, he printed rrom the first edition of some tracts, which the author had 
afterwards published with considerable additions. 

In 1738 Milton's prose works were again published in 2 vols, folio; of which impression all I shall say is, that, no person being employed to 
inspect the press, the printer took the liberty to alter what he did not understand, and thereby defaced the author, and marred the beauty ot many 
passages. 



272 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

church priests and doctors have laid out considerable sums to destroy the prose works of Milton, and have pur- 
chased copies of his particular writings for the infernal pleasure of consuming- them * This practice, however 
detestable, was yet consistent with principle. But no apology can be made for men that espouse a cause, and 
at the same time conceal aught belonging to its support. Such men may tell us that they love liberty, but I 
tell them that they love their bellies, their ease, their pleasures, their profits, in the first place. A man that will 
not hazard all for liberty, is unworthy to be named among its votaries, unworthy to participate its blessings. 

Manv circumstances at present loudly call upon us to exert ourselves. Venality and corruption have well- 
nigh extinguished all principles of liberty. The bad books also, that this age hath produced, have ruined our 
youth. The novels and romances, which are eagerly purchased and read, emasculate the mind, and banish 
ei eiy thing grave and manly. One remedy for these evils is, to revive the reading of our old writers, of which 
we have good store, and the study whereof would fortify our youth against the blandishments of pleasure and 
the arts of corruption. 

Milton in particular ought to be read and studied by all our young gentlemen as an oracle. He was a great 
and noble genius, perhaps the greatest that ever appeared among men ; and his learning was equal to his ge- 
nius. He had the highest sense of liberty, glorious thoughts, with a strong and nervous style. His works are 
full of wisdom, a treasure of knowledge. In them the divine, the statesman, the historian, the philologist, may 
be all instructed and entertained. It is to be lamented, that his divine writings are so little known. Very few 
are acquainted with them, many have never heard of them. The same is true with respect to another great 
writer contemporary with Milton, and an advocate for the same glorious cause ; I mean Algernon Sydney, 
whose Discourses on Government are the most precious legacy to these nations. 

All antiquity cannot shew two writers equal to these. They were both great masters of reason, both great 
masters of expression. They had the strongest thoughts, and the boldest images, and are the best models 
that can be followed. The style of Sydney is always clear and flowing, strong and masculine. The great 
Milton has a style of his own, one fit to express the astonishing sublimity of his thoughts, the mighty vigour of 
his spirit, and that copia of invention, that redundancy of imagination, which no writer before or since hath 
equalled. In some places, it is confessed, that his periods are too long, which renders him intricate, if not alto- 
gether unintelligible to vulgar readers; but these places are not many. In the book before us his style is for 
the most part free and easy, and it abounds both in eloquence, and wit and argument. I am of opinion, that 
the style of this work is the best and most perfect of all his prose writings. Other men have commended the 
style of his History as matchless and incomparable, whose malice could not see or would not acknowledge the 
excellency of his other works. It is no secret whence their aversion to Milton proceeds ; and whence their 
caution of naming him as any other writer than a poet. Milton combated superstition and tyranny of every 
form, and in every degree. Against them he employed his mighty strength, and, like a battering ram, beat 
down all before him. But notwithstanding these mean arts, either to hide or to disparage him, a little time 
will make him better known ; and the more he is known, the more he will be admired. His works are not like 
the fugitive short-lived things of this age, few of which survive their authors : they are substantial, durable, 
eternal writings ; which will never die, never perish, whilst reason, truth, and liberty have a being in these nations. 

Thus much I thought proper to say on occasion of this publication, wherein I have no resentment to gratify, 
no private interest to serve : all my aim is to strengthen and support that good old cause, which in my youth I 
embraced, and the principles whereof I will assert and maintain whilst I live. 

The following letter to Milton, being very curious, and no where published perfect and entire, may be fitly 
preserved in this place. 

A Letter from Mr. Wall to John Milton, Esquire. 

Sik, 
I rfxejved yours the day after you wrote, and do humbly thank you, that you are pleased to honour me with 
your letters. I confess I have (even in my privacy in the country) oft had thoughts of you, and that with much 
respect, for your friendliness to truth in your early years, and in bad times. But I was uncertain whether your 
relation to the court, f (though I think a commonwealth was more friendly to you than a court) had not clouded 
your former light, but your last book resolved that doubt. You complain of the non-proficiency of the nation, 
■ad of its retrogade motion of late, in liberty and spiritual truths. It is much to be bewailed ; but yet let us 
pity human frailty. When those who made deep protestations of their zeal for our liberty both spiritual and 
< i\il, and made the fairest offers to be assertors thereof, and whom we thereupon trusted ; when those, being 
instated in power, shall betray the good thing committed to them, and lead us back to Egypt, and by that 
force \\ hicfa we gave them to win us liberty hold us fast in chains ; what can poor people do ? You know who 
they were, that watched our Saviour's sepulchre to keep him from rising.} 

I his hath (><•< n practised with Mich wA by many of that cursed tribe, that it is a wonder there are any copies left. John Swale, a bookseller of 
I-eeds hi Yorkshire, »n honest man, though or high-church, told me, that he could have more money for burning Milton's Defence of Liberty and the 
People of England, than I would give for the purchase of it. Some priests in that neighbourhood used to meet once a year, and after they were well 
warmed with strong beer, they sacrificed to the Hames the author's Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, as also this treatise against the ElKfiN. 1 have it 
jn my power to produce more instances of the like sacerdojal spirit, with which in some future publication I may entertain the world. 
* ^Iilton was Latin Seuetary. + Soldiers; this is a severe insinuation against a standing army. 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 273 

Besides, whilst people are not free, but straitened in accommodations for life, their spirits will be dejected and 
servile : and conducing" to that end, there should be an improving of our native commodities, as our manufac- 
tures, our fishery, our fens, forests, and commons, and our trade at sea, &c. which would give the body of the 
nation a comfortable subsistence ; and the breaking that cursed yoke of tithes would much help thereto. 

Also another thing I cannot but mention, which is, that the Norman conquest and tyranny is continued upon 
the nation without any thought of removing it; I mean the tenure of lands by copy hold, and holding for life 
under a lord, or rather tyrant of a manor ; whereby people care not to improve their laud by cost upon it, not 
knowing how soon themselves or theirs may be outed it; nor what the house is in which they live. for the same 
reason : and they are far more enslaved to the lord of the manor, than the rest of the nation is to a king or 
supreme magistrate. 

We have waited for liberty, but it must be God's work and not man's, who thinks it sweet to maintain his 
pride and worldly interest to the gratifying of the flesh, whatever becomes of the precious liberty of mankind. 

But let us not despond, but do our duty ; and God will carry on that blessed work in despite of all opposites, 
and to their ruin if they persist therein. 

Sir, my humble request is, that you would proceed, and give us that other member of the distribution men- 
tioned in your book; viz. that Hire doth greatly impede truth and liberty : it is like if you do, you shall find 
opposers : but remember that saying, Beatius est pati quam frui : or, in the apostle's words, James v. 11, We 
count them happy that endure. 

I have sometimes thought (concurring with your assertion of that storied voice that should speak from 
heaven) when ecclesiastics were endowed with worldly preferments, hodie venenum infunditur in ecclesiam : 
for to use the speech of Genesis iv. ult. according to the sense which it hath in the Hebrew, then began men to 
corrupt the worship of God. I shall tell you a supposal of mine, which is this : Mr. Dury has bestowed about 
thirty years time in travel, conference, and writings, to reconcile Calvinists and Lutherans, and that with little 
or no success. But the shortest way were, — take away ecclesiastical dignities, honours, and preferments, on 
both sides, and all would soon be hushed ; the ecclesiastics would be quiet, and then the people would come 
forth into truth and liberty. But I will not engage in this quarrel; yet I shall lay this engagement upon 
myself to remain 

Your faithful friend and servant, 

Causham, May 26, 1659. John Wall. 

From this letter the reader may see in what way wise and good men of that age employed themselves: in 
studying to remove every grievance, to break every yoke. And it is matter of astonishment, that this age, 
which boasts of greatest light and knowledge, should make no effort toward a reformation in things acknow- 
ledged to be wrong; but both in religion and in civil government be barbarian ! 

Below Blackheath, Richard Baron. 

June 20, 1756. 



\E / K N K A A 2 T H 2. 

Prov. xxviii. 15. As a roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. 

16. The prince that wanteth understanding, is also a great oppressor ; but he that hateth covetousness, shall prolong his days. 

17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall fly to the pit, let no man stay him. 

SALLUST. CONJURAT. CATILIN. 

Regium imperium, quod initio, conservandte libertatis, atque augendae reipublicse causa fuerat, in superbiam, dominationemque se convertit. 

Regibus boni, quam mali, suspectiores sunt, semperque his aliena virtus formidolosa est. 

Impune" quaelibet facere, id est regem esse. idem, bell, jugurth. 

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY. 



THE PREFACE. 



To descant on the misfortunes of a person fallen from 
so high a dignity, who hath also paid his final debt 
both to nature and his faults, is neither of itself a thing 
commendable, nor the intention of this discourse. 
Neither was it fond ambition, nor the vanity to get a 
name, present or with posterity, by writing* against a 



king. I never was so thirsty after fame, nor so desti- 
tute of other hopes and means, better and more certain 
to attain it : for kings have gained glorious titles from 
their favourers by writing against private men, as 
Henry Vlllth did against Luther; but no man 
ever gained much honour by writing against a king, 



274 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



as not usually meeting- with that force of argument in 
such courtly antagonists, which to convince might add 
to his reputation. Kings most commonly, though 
strong in legions, are hut weak at arguments ; as they 
who ever have accustomed from the cradle to use their 
will only as their right hand, their reason always as 
their left. Whence unexpectedly constrained to that 
kind of combat, they prove but weak and puny adver- 
saries: nevertheless, for their sakes, who through 
custom, simplicity, or want of better teaching, have no 
more seriously considered kings, than in the gaudy 
name of majesty, and admire tbem and their doings as 
if they breathed not the same breath with other mortal 
men, I shall make no scruple to take up (for it seems to 
be the challenge both of him and all his party) to take up 
this gauntlet, though a king's, in the behalf of liberty 
and the commonwealth. 

And further, since it appears manifestly the cunning 
drift of a factious and defeated party, to make the same 
advantage of his book, which they did before of his 
regal name and authority, and intend it not so much 
the defence of his former actions, as the promoting of 
their own future designs; (making thereby the book 
their own rather than the king's, as the benefit now 
must be their own more than his;) now the third time 
to corrupt and disorder the minds of weaker men, by 
new suggestions and narrations, either falsely or fal- 
laciously representing the state of things to the dishon- 
our of this present government, and the retarding of a 
general peace, so needful to this afflicted nation, and 
so nigh obtained ; I suppose it no injury to the dead, 
but a good deed rather to the living, if by better inform- 
ation given them, or, which is enough, by only remem- 
bering them the truth of what they themselves know 
to be here misaffirmed, they may be kept from entering 
the third time unadvisedly into war and bloodshed : 
for as to any moment of solidity in the book itself, 
(save only that a king is said to be the author, a name, 
than which there needs uo more among the blockish 
vulgar, to make it wise, and excellent, and admired, 
nay to set it next the Bible, though otherwise containing 
little else but the common grounds of tyranny and popery, 
dressed up the better to deceive, in anew protestant guise, 
trimly garnished over,) or as to any need of answering, 
in respect of staid and well-principled men, I take it 
on me as a work assigned rather, than by me chosen 
or affected : which was the cause both of beginning it so 
late, and finishing it so leisurely in the midst of other 
employments and diversions. And though well it 
might have seemed in vain to write at all, considering 
the envy and almost infinite prejudice likely to be stirred 
up among the common sort, against whatever can be 
written or gainsaid to the king's book, so advantageous 
to a book it is only to be a king's ; and though it be 
an irksome labour, to write with industry and judicious 
pains, that which, neither weighed nor well read, shall 
)><• judged without industry or the pains of well-judg- 
ing, by faction and the easy literature of custom and 
opinion; it shall be ventured yet, and the truth not 
imottx red, but sent abroad, in the native confidence of 
earn, how she cau, her entertainment 



in the world, and to find out her own readers : few per- 
haps, but those few, of such value and substantial 
worth, as truth and wisdom, not respecting' numbers 
and big names, have been ever wont in all ages to be 
contented with. And if the late king had thought 
sufficient those answers and defences made for him in 
his lifetime, they who on the other side accused his evil 
government, judging that on their behalf enoug*h also 
hath been replied, the heat of this controversy was in 
all likelihood drawing to an end; and the further men- 
tion of his deeds, not so much unfortunate as faulty, 
had in tenderness to his late sufferings been willingly 
forborn ; and perhaps for the present age might have 
slept with him unrepeated, while his adversaries, calmed 
and assuaged with the success of their cause, had been 
the less unfavourable to his memory. But since he 
himself, making new appeal to truth and the world, 
hath left behind him this book, as the best advocate 
and interpreter of his own actions, and that his friends 
by publishing, dispersing, commending", and almost 
adoring it, seem to place therein the chief strength and 
nerves of their cause ; it would argue doubtless in the 
other party great deficience and distrust of themselves, 
not to meet the force of his reason in any field whatso- 
ever, the force and equipage of whose arms they have 
so often met victoriously : and he who at the bar stood 
excepting ag-ainst the form and manner of his judica- 
ture, and complained that he was not heard ; neither 
he nor his friends shall have that cause now r to find 
fault, being met and debated with in this open and 
monumental court of his erecting; and not only heard 
uttering- his whole mind at large, but answered : which 
to do effectually, if it be necessary, that to his book 
nothing the more respect be had for being his, they of 
his own party can have no just reason to exclaim. 
For it were too unreasonable that he, because dead, 
should have the liberty in his book to speak all evil of 
the parliament ; and they because living, should be 
expected to have less freedom, or any for them, to speak 
home the plain truth of a full and pertinent reply. As 
he, to acquit himself, hath not spared his adversaries to 
load them with all sorts of blame and accusation, so to 
him, as in his book alive, there will be used no more 
courtship than he uses ; but what is properly his own 
guilt, not imputed any more to his evil counsellors, (a 
ceremony used longer by the parliament than he him- 
self desired,) shall be laid here without circumlocutions 
at his own door. That they who from the first begin- 
ning, or but now of late, by what unhappiness I know 
not, are so much affatuated, not with his person only, 
but with his palpable faults, and doat upon his deform- 
ities, may have none to blame but their own folly, if 
they live and die in such a strooken blindness, as next 
to that of Sodom hath not happened to any sort of men 
more gross, or more misleading. Yet neither let his 
enemies expect to find recorded here all that hath been 
whispered in the court, or alleged openly, of the king's 
bad actions ; it being the proper scope of this work in 
hand, not to rip up and relate the misdoings of his 
whole life, but to answer only and refute the missay- 
ings of his book. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



First, then, that some men (whether this were by him 
intended, or by his friends) have by policy accomplished 
after death that revenge upon their enemies, which in 
life they were not able, hath been oft related. And 
among 1 other examples we find, that the last will of 
Caesar being read to the people, and what bounteous 
legacies he had bequeathed them, wrought more in 
that vulgar audience to the avenging of his death, than 
all the art he could ever use to w r in their favour in his 
lifetime. And how much their intent, who published 
these overlate apologies and meditations of the dead 
king, drives to the same end of stirring up the people 
to bring him that honour, that affection, and by con- 
sequence that revenge to his dead corpse, which he 
himself living could never gain to his person, it appears 
both by the conceited portraiture before his book, 
drawn out to the full measure of a masking scene, and 
set there to catch fools and silly gazers ; and by those 
Latin words after the end, Vota dabunt quae bella ne- 
garunt; intimating, that what he could not compass 
by war, he should achieve by his meditations : for in 
words which admit of various sense, the liberty is ours, 
to choose that interpretation, which may best mind us 
of what our restless enemies endeavour, and what we 
are timely to prevent. And here may be well observed 
the loose and negligent curiosity of those, who took 
upon them to adorn the setting out of this book ; for 
though the picture set in front would martyr him and 
saint him to befool the people, yet the Latin motto in 
the end, which they understand not, leaves him, as it 
were, a politic contriver to bring about that interest, 
by fair and plausible words, which the force of arms 
denied him. But quaint emblems and devices, begged 
from the old pageantry of some twelfthnight's enter- 
tainment at Whitehall, will do but ill to make a saint 
or martyr : and if the people resolve to take him sainted 
at the rate of such a canonizing, I shall suspect their 
calendar more than the Gregorian. In one thing I 
must commend his openness, who gave the title to this 
book, Eikujv BairiXiKj), that is to say, The King*'s Image; 
and by the shrine he dresses out for him, certainly 
would have the people come and worship him. For 
which reason this answer also is entitled, Iconoclastes, 
the famous surname of many Greek emperors, who in 
their zeal to the command of God, after long tradition 
of idolatry in the church, took courage and broke all 
superstitious images to pieces. But the people, exor- 
bitant and excessive in all their motions, are prone oft- 
times not to a religious only, but to a civil kind of 
idolatry, in idolizing their kings : though never more 
mistaken in the object of their worship ; heretofore 
being wont to repute for saints those faithful and cou- 
rageous barons, who lost their lives in the field, making 
glorious war against tyrants for the common liberty ; 
as Simon de Momfort, earl of Leicester, against Henry 
the Hid ; Thomas Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster, 
against Edward the lid. But now, with a besotted 
and degenerate baseness of spirit, except some few 
who yet retain in them the old English fortitude and 
love of freedom, and have testified it by their matchless 

* The Presbyterians. 
T 



deeds, the rest, imbastardized from the ancient noble- 
ness of their ancestors, are ready to fall flat and give 
adoration to the image and memory of this man, who 
hath offered at more cunning fetches to undermine our 
liberties, and put tyranny into an art, than any British 
king before him : which low dejection and debasement 
of mind in the people, I must confess, I cannot will- 
ingly ascribe to the natural disposition of an English- 
man, but rather to two other causes ; first, to the pre- 
lates and their fellow-teachers, though of another name 
and sect,* whose pulpit-stuff, both first and last, hath 
been the doctrine and perpetual infusion of servility 
and wretchedness to all their hearers, and whose lives 
the type of worldliness and hypocrisy, without the least 
true pattern of virtue, righteousness, or self-denial in 
their whole practice. I attribute it next to the factious 
inclination of most men divided from the public by 
several ends and humours of their own. At first no 
man less beloved, no man more generally condemned, 
than was the king ; from the iime that it became his 
custom to break parliaments at home, and either wil- 
fully or weakly to betray protestants abroad, to the 
beginning of these combustions. All men inveighed 
against him ; all men, except court-vassals, opposed 
him and his tyrannical proceedings ; the cry was uni- 
versal ; and this full parliament was at first unanimous 
in their dislike and protestation against his evil govern- 
ment. But when they, who sought themselves and 
not the public, began to doubt, that all of them could 
not by one and the same way attain to their ambitious 
purposes, then was the king, or his name at least, as.a 
fit property first made use of, his doings made the best 
of, and by degrees justified ; which begot him such a 
party, as, after many wiles and smugglings with his 
inward fears, emboldened him at length to set up his 
standard against the parliament : whenas before that 
time, all his adherents, consisting most of dissolute 
swordsmen and suburb-roysters, hardly amounted to 
the making up of one ragged regiment strong enough 
to assault the unarmed house of commons. After 
which attempt, seconded by a tedious and bloody war 
on his subjects, wherein he hath so far exceeded those 
his arbitrary violences in time of peace, they who be- 
fore hated him for his high misgovernment, nay fought 
against him with displayed banners in the field, now 
applaud him and extol him for the wisest and most 
religious prince that lived. By so strange a method 
amongst the mad multitude is a sudden reputation won, 
of wisdom by wilfulness and subtle shifts, of goodness 
by multiplying evil, of piety by endeavouring to root 
out true religion. 

But it is evident that the chief of his adherents never 
loved him, never honoured either him or his cause, but 
as they took him to set a face upon their own malignant 
designs, nor bemoan his loss at all, but the loss of their 
own aspiring hopes : like those captive women, whom 
the poet notes in his Iliad, to have bewailed the death 
of Patroclus in outward show, but indeed their own 
condition. 

ndrpoxXov irpoipamv, oty&v $' avrdv Ktjde tKa^rj. 

Horn. Iliad, r. 



276 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



And it needs must be ridiculous to any judgment 
unen thralled, that they, who in other matters express 
so little fear either of God or man, should in this one 
particular outstrip all precisianism with their scruples 
and cases, and fill men's ears continually with the noise 
of their conscientious loyalty and allegiance to the 
king, rebels in the mean while to God in all their ac- 
tions besides : much less that they, whose professed 
loyalty and allegiance led them to direct arms against 
the king's person, and thought him nothing violated 
by the sword of hostility drawn by them against him, 
should now in earnest think him violated by the un- 
sparing sword of justice, which undoubtedly so much 
the less in vain she bears among men, by bow much 
greater and in highest place the offender. Else 
justice, whether moral or political, were not justice, but 
a false counterfeit of that impartial and godlike vir- 
tue. The only grief is, that the head was not strook 
off to the best advantage and commodity of them that 
held it by the hair :* an ingrateful and perverse gene- 
ration, who having first cried to God to be delivered 
from their king, now murmur ag'ainst God that heard 
their prayers, and cry as loud for their king against 
those that delivered them. But as to the author of 
these soliloquies, whether it were undoubtedly the late 
king, as is vulgarly believed, or any secret coadjutor, 
and some stick not to name him ; it can add nothing, 
nor shall take from the weight, if any be, of reason 
which he brings. But allegations, not reasons, are 
the main contents of this book, and need no more than 
other contrary allegations to lay the question before all 
men in an even balance; though it were supposed, 
that the testimony of one man, in his own cause affirm- 
ing, could be of any moment to bring in doubt the au- 
thority of a parliament denying. But if these his 
fairspoken words shall be here fairly confronted and 
laid parallel to his own far differing deeds, manifest 
and visible to the whole nation, then surely we may 
look on them who notwithstanding shall persist to give 
to bare words more credit than to open deeds, as men 
whose judgment was not rationally evinced and per- 
suaded, but fatally stupified and bewitched into such 
a blind and obstinate belief: for whose cure it may be 
doubted, not whether any charm, though never so 
u isely murmured, but whether any prayer can be avail- 
able This however would be remembered and well 
noted, that while the king, instead of that repentance 
wljkh was in reason and in conscience to be expected 
from him, without which we could not lawfully read- 
out him, persists here to maintain and justify the most 
apparent of bis evil doings, and washes over with a 
(onit-fucus the worst and foulest of his actions, disables 
and nnereatea the parliament itself, with all our laws 
and native liberties that ask not his leave, dishonours 
and attaints all protectant churches not prelatical, and 
what they piously reformed, with the slander of rebel- 
lion, sacrilege, and hypocrisy; they, who seemed of 
late i" Stand up hottest for the covenant, can now sit 
Mint* and much pleased to hear all these opprobrious 
things ottered against their faith, their freedom, and 



• 'I he author adds in th<- Bret edition, n h 



rvation, though madf 



themselves in their own doings made traitors to boot: 
the divines, also, their wizards, can be so brazen as to 
cry Hosanna to this his book, which cries louder against 
them for no disciples of Christ, but of Iscariot; and to 
seem now convinced with these withered arguments 
and reasons here, the same which in some other writ- 
ings of that party, and in his own former declarations 
and expresses, they have so often heretofore endea- 
voured to confute and to explode ; none appearing all 
this while to vindicate church or state from these ca- 
lumnies and reproaches but a small handful of men, 
whom they defame and spit at with all the odious 
names of schism and sectarism. I never knew that 
time in England, when men of truest religion were 
not counted sectaries: but wisdom now, valour, jus- 
tice, constancy, prudence united and imbodied to defend 
religion and our liberties, both by word and deed, 
against tyranny, is counted schism and faction. Thus 
in a graceless age things of highest praise and imitation 
under a right name, to make them infamous and hateful 
to the people, are miscalled. Certainly, if ignorance 
and perverseness will needs be national and universal, 
then they who adhere to wisdom and to truth, are not 
therefore to be blamed, for being so few as to seem a 
sect or faction. But in my opinion it goes not ill with 
that people where these virtues grow so numerous and 
well joined together, as to resist and make head against 
the rage and torrent of that boisterous folly and super- 
stition, that possesses and hurries on the vulgar sort. 
This therefore we may conclude to be a high honou? 
done us from God, and a special mark of his favour, 
whom he hath selected as the sole remainder, after all 
these changes and commotions, to stand upright and 
stedfast in his cause; dignified with the defence of 
truth and public liberty ; while others, who aspired to 
be the top of zealots, and had almost brought religion 
to a kind of trading monopoly, have not only by their 
late silence and neutrality belied their profession, but 
foundered themselves and their consciences, to comply 
with enemies in that wicked cause and interest, which 
they have too often cursed in others, to prosper now in 
the same themselves. 



I. Upon the king's calling this last parliament. 

That which the king lays down here as his first 
foundation, and as it were the head stone of his whole 
structure, that " he called this last parliament, not 
more by others' advice, and the necessity of his affairs, 
than by his own choice and inclination ;" is to all 
knowing men so apparently not true, that a more un- 
lucky and inauspicious sentence, and more betokening 
the downfal of his whole fabric, hardly could have 
come into his mind. For who knows not, that the incli- 
nation of a prince is best known either by those next 
about him, and most in favour with him, or by the 
current of his own actions ? Those nearest to this king, 
and most his favourites, were courtiers and prelates ; 
men whose chief study was to find out which way the 

by a common t-nemy, may for t)ie truth of it hereafter become a proverb. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



277 



king 1 inclined, and to imitate him exactly : how these 
men stood affected to parliaments cannot be forgotten. 
No man but may remember, it was their continual ex- 
ercise to dispute and preach against them; and in their 
common discourse nothing was more frequent, than 
that " they hoped the king should now have no need of 
parliaments any more." And this was but the copy, 
which his parasites had industriously taken from his 
own words and actions, who never called a parliament 
but to supply his necessities; and having supplied 
those, as suddenly and ignominiously dissolved it, with- 
out redressing any one grievance of the people : some- 
times choosing rather to miss of his subsidies, or to 
raise them by illegal courses, than that the people 
should not still miss of their hopes to be relieved by 
parliaments. 

The first he broke off at his coming to the crown, for 
no other cause than to protect the duke of Buckingham 
against them who had accused him, besides other 
heinous crimes, of no less than poisoning the deceased 
king his father; concerning which matter the declara- 
tion of No more addresses hath sufficiently informed 
us. And still the latter breaking was with more affront 

»and indignity put upon the house and her worthiest 
members, than the former. Insomuch that in the fifth 
year of his reign, in a proclamation he seems offended 
at the very rumour of a parliament divulged among 
the people ; as if he had taken it for a kind of slander, 
that men should think him that way exorable, much 
less inclined : and forbids it as a presumption, to pre- 
scribe him any time for parliaments ; that is to say, 
either by persuasion or petition, or so much as the re- 
porting of such a rumour : for other manner of pre- 
scribing was at that time not suspected. By which 
fierce edict, the people, forbidden to complain, as well 
as forced to suffer, began from thenceforth to despair 
of parliaments. Whereupon such illegal actions, and 
especially to get vast sums of money, were put in prac- 
tice by the king and his new officers, as monopolies, 
compulsive knighthoods, coat, conduct, and ship-money, 
the seizing not of one Naboth's vineyard, but of whole 
inheritances, under the pretence of forest or crown- 
lands ; corruption and bribery compounded for, with 
impunities granted for the future, as gave evident 
proof, that the king never meant, nor could it stand 
with the reason of his affairs, ever to recall parlia- 
ments : having brought by these irregular courses the 
people's interest and his own to so direct an opposition, 
that he might foresee plainly, if nothing but a parlia- 
ment could save the people, it must necessarily be his 
undoing. 

Till eight or nine years after, proceeding with a high 
hand in these enormities, and having the second time 
levied an injurious war against his native country 
Scotland ; and finding all those other shifts of raising 
money, which bore out his first expedition, now to fail 
him, not " of his own choice and inclination," as any 
child may see, but urged by strong necessities, and the 
very pangs of state, which his own violent proceedings 
had brought him to, he calls a parliament; first in Ire- 
land, which only was to give him four subsidies and so 



to expire ; then in England, where his first demand was 
but twelve subsidies to maintain a Scots war, con- 
demned and abominated by the whole kingdom : pro- 
mising their grievances should be considered after- 
wards. Which when the parliament, who judged that 
war itself one of their main grievances, made no haste 
to grant, not enduring the delay of his impatient will, 
or else fearing the conditions of their grant, he breaks 
off the whole session, and dismisses them and their 
grievances with scorn and frustration. 

Much less therefore did he call this last parliament 
by his own choice and inclination ; but having first 
tried in vain all undue ways to procure money, his 
army of their own accord being- beaten in the north, 
the lords petitioning, and the general voice of the peo- 
ple almost hissing him and his ill acted regality off the 
stage, compelled at length both by his wants and by 
his fears, upon mere extremity he summoned this last 
parliament. And how is it possible, that he should 
willingly incline to parliaments, who never was per- 
ceived to call them but for the greedy hope of a whole 
national bribe, his subsidies; and never loved, never 
fulfilled, never promoted the true end of parliaments, 
the redress of grievances ; but still put them off, and 
prolonged them, whether gratified or not gratified ; 
and was indeed the author of all those grievances? To 
say therefore, that he called this parliament of his own 
choice and inclination, argues how little truth we can 
expect from the sequel of this book, which ventures in 
the very first period to affront more than one nation 
with an untruth so remarkable ; and presumes a more 
implicit faith in the people of England, than the pope 
ever commanded from the Romish laity ; or else a na- 
tural sottishness fit to be abused and ridden : while in 
the judgment of wise men, by laying the foundation of 
his defence on the avouchment of that which is so 
manifestly untrue, he hath given a worse soil to his 
own cause, than when his whole forces were at any 
time overthrown. They therefore, who think such 
great service done to the king's affairs in publishing 
this book, will find themselves in the end mistaken ; if 
sense and right mind, or but any mediocrity of know- 
ledge and remembrance, hath not quite forsaken men. 

But to prove his inclination to parliaments, he affirms 
here, " to have always thought the right way of them 
most safe for his crown, and best pleasing to his peo- 
ple." What he thought, we know not, but that he ever 
took the contrary way, we saw ; and from his own ac- 
tions we felt long ago what he thought of parliaments 
or of pleasing his people : a surer evidence than what 
we hear now too late in words. 

He alleges, that " the cause of forbearing to convene 
parliaments was the sparks, which some men's distem- 
pers there studied to kindle." They were indeed not 
tempered to his temper ; for it neither was the law, 
nor the rule, by which all other tempers were to be. 
tried; but they were esteemed and chosen for the fit- 
test men, in their several counties, to allay and quench 
those distempers, which his own inordinate doings 
had inflamed. And if that were his refusing to con- 
vene, till those men had been qualified to his temper, 



278 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



that is to say, li is will, we may easily conjecture what 
hope there was of parliaments, had not fear and his 
insatiate poverty, in the midst of his excessive wealth, 
constrained him. 

" He hoped by his freedom and their moderation to 
prevent misunderstanding's." And wherefore not by 
their freedom and his moderation? But freedom he 
thought too high a word for them, and moderation too 
mean a word for himself: this was not the way to pre- 
\ cut misunderstandings. He still " feared passion and 
prejudice in other men;" not in himself: "and doubted 
not by the weight of his" own " reason, to counterpoise 
any faction ;" it being so easy for him, and so frequent, 
to call his obstinacy reason, and other men's reason, 
faction. We in the mean while must believe that wis- 
dom and all reason came to him by title with his crown ; 
passion, prejudice, and faction came to others by being 
subjects. 

" He was sorry to hear, with what popular heat 
elections were carried in many places." Sorry rather, 
that court-letters and intimations prevailed no more, 
to divert or to deter the people from their free election 
of those men, whom they thoug'ht best affected to reli- 
gion and their country's liberty, both at that time in 
danger to be lost. And such men they were, as by 
the kingdom were sent to advise him, not sent to be 
cavilled at, because elected, or to be entertained by 
him with an undervalue and misprision of their temper, 
judgment, or affection. In vain was a parliament 
thought fittest by the known laws of our nation, to 
advise and regulate unruly kings, if they, instead of 
hearkening to advice, should be permitted to turn it off, 
and refuse it by vilifying" and traducing their advisers, 
or by accusing of a popular heat those that lawfully 
el< etcd them. 

" His own and his children's interest obliged him to 
seek, and to preserve the love and welfare of his sub- 
jects." Who doubts it? But the same interest, com- 
mon to all kings, was never yet available to make them 
all seek that, which was indeed best for themselves and 
their posterity. All men by their own and their chil- 
dren'a interest are obliged to honesty and justice: but 
Im.w little that consideration works in private men, how 
much less in kings, their deeds declare best. 

li- intended to oblige both friends and enemies, 
and to exceed their desires, did they but pretend to 
any modest and sober sense;" mistaking the whole 
business of a parliament; which met not to receive 
from him obligations, but justice; nor he to expect 
from them their modesty, but their grave advice, uttered 
« itli freedom in the public cause. His talk of modesty 
in their desires of the common welfare argues him not 
much to have understood what he had to grant, who 
misconceived bo much the nature of what they had to 
\imI lor " Bober sense," the expression was too 
mean, and recoils niil, as much dishonour upon him- 
^- If to \,< ;i kin- where sober sense could possibly be 
io wanting in ;• parliament. 

"The odium and offences, which some men's rigour, 

01 remissness in church and state, had contracted upon 

■'■■" -"""ut be Ired to bare expiated with 



better laws and regulations." And yet the worst of 
misdemeanors committed by the worst of all his fa- 
vourites in the height of their dominion, whether acts 
of rigour or remissness, he hath from time to time con- 
tinued, owned, and tEtken upon himself by public de- 
clarations, as often as the clergy, or any other of his 
instruments, felt themselves overburdened with the 
people's hatred. And who knows not the superstitious 
rigour of his Sunday's chapel, and the licentious remiss- 
ness of his Sunday's theatre; accompanied with that 
reverend statute for dominical jigs and maypoles, pub- 
lished in his own name, and derived from the example 
of his father James? Which testifies all that rigour in 
superstition, all that remissness in religiou, to have 
issued out originally from his own house, and from his 
own authority. Much rather then may those general 
miscarriages in state, his proper sphere, be imputed to 
no other person chiefly than to himself. And which of 
all those oppressive acts or impositions did he ever dis- 
claim or disavow, till the fatal awe of this parliament 
hung ominously over him ? Yet here he smoothly seeks 
to wipe off all the envy of his evil government upon 
his substitutes and under-officers; and promises, though 
much too late, what wonders he purposed to have done 
in the reforming of religion : a work wherein all his 
undertakings heretofore declared him to have had little 
or no judgment: neither could his breeding, or his 
course of life, acquaint him with a thing so spiritual. 
Which may well assure us what kind of reformation 
we could expect from him ; either some politic form of 
an imposed religion, or else perpetual vexation and 
persecution to all those that complied not with such a 
form. The like amendment he promises in state; not 
a step further " than his reason and conscience told 
him was fit to be desired;" wishing "he had kept 
within those bounds, and not suffered his own judg- 
ment to have been overborne in some things," of which 
things one was the earl of Strafford's execution. And 
what signifies all this, but that still his resolution was 
the same, to set up an arbitrary government of his own, 
and that all Britain was to be tied and chained to the 
conscience, judgment, and reason of one man; as if 
those gifts had been only his peculiar and prerogative, 
entailed upon him with his fortune to be a king ? 
Whenas doubtless no man so obstinate, or so much a 
tyrant, but professes to he guided by that which he 
calls his reason and his judgment, though never so cor- 
rupted ; and pretends also his conscience. In the mean 
while, for any parliament or the whole nation to have 
either reason, judgment, or conscience, by this rule was 
altogether in vain, if it thwarted the king's will ; which 
was easy for him to call by any other plausible name. 
He himself hath many times acknowledged, to have 
no right over us but by law ; and by the same law to 
govern us : but law in a free nation hath been ever 
public reason, the enacted reason of a parliament; 
which he denying to enact, denies to govern us by that 
which ought to be our law ; interposing his own pri- 
vate reason, which to us is no law. And thus we find 
these fair and spacious promises, made upon the expe- 
rience of mail}' hard sufferings, and bis most mortified 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE 



279 



retirements, being thoroughly sifted to contain nothing 
in them much different from his former practices, so 
cross, and so reverse to all his parliaments, and both 
the nations of this island. What fruits they could in 
likelihood have produced in his restorement, is obvious 
to any prudent foresight. 

And this is the substance of his first section, till we 
come to the devout of it, modelled into the form of a 
private psalter. Which they who so much admire, 
either for the matter or the manner, may as well admire 
the archbishop's late breviary, and many other as good 
manuals and handmaids of Devotion, the lip-work of 
every prelatical liturgist, clapped together and quilted 
out of Scripture phrase, with as much ease, and as little 
need of Christian diligence or judgment, as belongs to 
the compiling of any ordinary and saleable piece of 
English divinity, that the shops value. But he who 
from such a kind of psalmistry, or any other verbal de- 
votion, without the pledge and earnest of suitable deeds, 
can be persuaded of a zeal and true righteousness in the 
person, hath much yet to learn ; and knows not that the 
deepest policy of a tyrant hath been ever to counterfeit 
religious. And Aristotle in his Politics hath mentioned 
that special craft among twelve other tyrannical so- 
phisms. Neither want we examples : Andronicus Com- 
menus the Byzantine emperor, though a most cruel 
tyrant, is reported by Nicetas, to have been a constant 
reader of Saint Paul's epistles ; and by continual study 
had so incorporated the phrase and style of that tran- 
scendant apostle into all his familiar letters, that the 
imitation seemed to vie with the original. Yet this 
availed not to deceive the people of that empire, who, 
notwithstanding his saint's vizard, tore him to pieces 
for his tyranny. From stories of this nature both 
ancient and modern which abound, the poets also, and 
some English, have been in this point so mindful of 
decorum, as to put never more pious words in the 
mouth of any person, than of a tyrant. I shall not in- 
stance an abstruse author, wherein the king might b i 
less conversant, but one whom we well know was the 
closet companion of these his solitudes, William Shaks- 
peare ; who introduces the person of Richard the third, 
speaking in as high a strain of piety and mortification 
as is uttered in any passage of this book, and some- 
times to the same sense and purpose with some words 
in this place; "I intended," saith he, " not only to 
oblige my friends, but my enemies." The like saith 
Richard, Act II. Scene 1. 

" I do not know that Englishman alive, 
With whom my soul is any jot at odds, 
More than the infant that is born to night ; 
I thank my God for my humility." 

Other stuff of this sort may be read throughout the 
whole tragedy, wherein the poet used not much licence 
in departing from the truth of history, which delivers 
him a deep dissembler, not of his affections only, but 
of religion. 

In praying therefore, and in the outward work of 
devotion, this king we see hath not at all exceeded the 

* The second edition for woman, lias fiction. 



worst of kings before him. But herein the worst of 
kings, professing Christianism, have by far exceeded 
him. They, for aught w r e know, have still prayed 
their own, or at least borrowed from fit authors. But 
this king, not content with that which, although in a 
thing holy, is no holy theft, to attribute to his own 
making other men's whole prayers, hath as it were 
unhallowed and unchristened the very duty of prayer 
itself, by borrowing to a christian use prayers offered 
to a heathen god. Who would have imagined so little 
fear in him of the true all-seeing Deity, so little rever- 
ence of the Holy Ghost, whose office is to dictate and 
present our christian prayers, so little care of truth in 
his last words, or honour to himself, or to his friends, 
or sense of his afflictions, or of that sad hour which was 
upon him, as immediately before his death to pop into 
the hand of that grave bishop who attended him, for a 
special relique of his saintly exercises, a prayer stolen 
word for word from the mouth of a heathen woman * 
praying to a heathen god ; and that in no serious book, 
but the vain amatorious poem of Sir Philip Sidney's 
Arcadia ; a book in that kind full of worth and wit, 
but among religious thoughts and duties not worthy to 
be named ; nor to be read at any time without good 
caution, much less in time of trouble and affliction to 
be a Christian's prayer-book ? They who are yet in- 
credulous of what I tell them for a truth, that this phi- 
lippic prayer is no part of the king's goods, may satisfy 
their own eyes at leisure, in the 3d book of Sir Philip's 
Arcadia, p. 248, comparing Pamela's prayer with the 
first prayer of his majesty, delivered to Dr. Juxton 
immediately before his death, and entitled a Prayer in 
time of Captivity, printed in all the best editions of his 
book. And since there be a crew of lurking railers, 
who in their libels, and their fits of railing up and 
down, as I hear from others, take it so currishly, that I 
should dare to tell abroad the secrets of their ^Egyptian 
Apis ; to gratify their gall in some measure yet more, 
which to them will be a kind of alms, (for it is the 
weekly vomit of their gall which to most of them is the 
sole means of their feeding,) that they may not starve 
for me, I shall gorge them once more with this digres- 
sion somewhat larger than before : nothing troubled 
or offended at the working upward of their sale-venom 
thereupon, though it happen to asperse me; being*, it 
seems, their best livelihood, and the only use or good 
digestion that their sick and perishing minds can make 
of truth charitably told them. However, to the benefit 
of others much more worth the gaining-, I shall proceed 
in my assertion ; that if only but to taste wittingly of 
meat or drink offered to an idol, be in the doctrine of 
St. Paul judged a pollution, much more must be his 
sin, who takes a prayer so dedicated into his mouth, 
and offers it to God. Yet hardly it can be thought 
upon (though how sad a thing!) without some kind of 
laughter at the manner and solemn transaction of so 
gross a cosenage, that he, who had trampled over us 
so stately and so tragically, should leave the world at 
last so ridiculously in his exit, as to bequeath among 
his deifying friends that stood about him such a pre- 






280 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



eious piece of mockery to be published by them, as 
must needs cover both his and their heads with shame, 
if they have any left. Certainly they that will may 
now see at length how much they were deceived in 
him, and were ever like to be hereafter, who cared not, 
so near the minute of his death, to deceive his best and 
dearest friends with the trumpery of such a prayer, not 
more secretly than shamefully purloined ; yet given 
them as the royal issue of his own proper zeal. And 
sure it was the hand of God to let them fall, and be 
taken in such a foolish trap, as hath exposed them to 
all derision ; if for nothing- else, to throw contempt and 
disgrace in the sight of all men, upon this his idolized 
book, and the whole rosary of his prayers ; thereby 
testifying how little he accepted them from those, who 
thought no better of the living- God than of a buzzard 
idol, fit to be so served and worshipped in reversion, 
with the polluted orts and refuse of Arcadias and ro- 
mances, without being- able to discern the affront rather 
than the worship of such an ethnic prayer. But leav- 
ing what might justly be offensive to God, it was a 
trespass also more than usual against human right, 
which commands, that every author should have the 
property of his own work reserved to him after death, 
as well as living. Many princes have been rigorous 
in laying taxes on their subjects by the head, but of 
any king heretofore that made a levy upon their wit, 
and seized it as his own legitimate, I have not whom 
beside to instance. True it is, I looked rather to have 
found him gleaning out of books written purposely to 
help devotion. And if in likelihood he have borrowed 
much more out of prayerbooks than out of pastorals, 
then are these painted feathers, that set him off so gay 
among the people, to be thought kw or none of them 
his own. But if from his divines he have borrowed 
nothing, nothing out of all the magazine, and the 
rheum of their mellifluous prayers and meditations, let 
them who now mourn for him as for Tamuz,them who 
howl in their pulpits, and by their howling declare 
themselves right wolves, remember and consider in the 
midst of their hideous faces, when they do only not cut 
their flesh for him like those rueful priests whom Elijah 
mocked ; that he who was once their Ahab, now their 
Josiab, though feigning outwardly to reverence church- 
men, yet here hath so extremely set at naught both 
them ;ind their praying faculty, that being at a loss 
himself what to pray in captivity, he consulted neither 
with the liturgy, nor with the directory, but neglecting 
the huge fardel] of all their honeycomb devotions, went 
directly where be doubted not to find better praying 
to lii- mind with Pamela, in the Countess's Arcadia. 
What greater argument of disgrace and ignominy 
could have been thrown with cunning upon the whole 
ch i 'j;\ , than that the king, among all his priestery, and 
all those numberless volumes of their theological dis- 
tillations, not meeting with one man or book of that 
coat that could befriend him with a prayer in captivity, 
was forced to rob Sir Philip and his captive shepherd- 
ed of their heathen orisons, to supply in any fashion 
bis miserable indigence, not of bread, but of a single 
prayer to God p I say therefore not of bread, for that 



want may befal a good man, and yet not make him 
totally miserable : but he who wants a prayer to be- 
seech God in his necessity, it is inexpressible how poor 
he is ; far poorer within himself than all his enemies 
can make him. And the unfitness, the indecency of 
that pitiful supply which he sought, expresses yet fur- 
ther the deepness of his poverty. 

Thus much be said in general to his prayers, and in 
special to that Arcadian prayer used in his captivity ; 
enough to undeceive us what esteem we are to set upon 
the rest. 

For he certainly, whose mind could serve him to seek 
a christian prayer out of a pagan legend, and assume 
it for his own, might gather up the rest God knows 
from whence ; one perhaps out of the French Astrsea, 
another out of the Spanish Diana; Amadis and Palmerin 
could hardly scape him. Such a person we may be 
sure had it not in him to make a prayer of his own, or 
at least would excuse himself the pains and cost of his 
invention so long as such sweet rhapsodies of heathenism 
and knight-errantry could yield him prayers. How 
dishonourable then, and how unworthy of a christian 
king, were these ignoble shifts to seem holy, and to 
get a saintship among the ignoi'ant and wretched peo- 
ple ; to draw them by this deception, worse than all 
his former injuries, to go a whoring after him ? And 
how unhappy, how forsook of grace, and unbeloved of 
God that people, who resolve to know no more of piety 
or of goodness, than to account him their chief saint 
and martyr, whose bankrupt devotion came not honestly 
by his very prayers ; but having sharked them from 
the mouth of a heathen worshipper, (detestable to teach 
him prayers !) sold them to those that stood and hon- 
oured him next to the Messiah, as his own heavenly 
compositions in adversity, for hopes no less vain and 
presumptuous (and death at that time so imminent 
upon him) than by these goodly relics to be held a saint 
and martyr in opinion with the cheated people ! 

And thus far in the whole chapter we have seen and 
considered, and it cannot but be clear to all men, how, 
and for what ends, what concernments and necessities, 
the late king was no way induced, but every way con- 
strained, to call this last parliament ; yet here in his 
first prayer he trembles not to avouch as in the ears of 
God, " That he did it with an upright intention to his 
glory, and his people's good :" of which dreadful attes- 
tation, how sincerely meant, God, to whom it was 
avowed, can only judge; and he hath judged already, 
and hath written his impartial sentence in characters 
legible to all Christendom ; and besides hath taught us, 
that there be some, whom he hath given over to delu- 
sion, whose very mind and conscience is defiled ; of 
whom St. Paul to Titus makes mention. 



//. Upon the Earl of Strafford's Death. 

This next chapter is a penitent confession of the 
king, and the strangest, if it be well weighed, that ever 
was auricular. For he repents here of giving his con- 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE 



281 



sent, though most unwillingly, to the most seasonable 
and solemn piece of justice, that had been done of 
many years in the laud : but his sole conscience thought 
the contrary. And thus was the welfare, the safety, 
and within a little, the unanimous demand of three 
populous nations, to have attended still on the singular- 
ity of one man's opinionated conscience ; if men had 
always been so tame and spiritless, and had not unex- 
pectedly found the grace to understand, that, if his 
conscience were so narrow and peculiar to itself, it was 
not fit his authority should be so ample and universal 
over others : for certainly a private conscience sorts 
not with a public calling, but declares that person rather 
meant by nature for a private fortune. And this also 
we may take for truth, that he, whose conscience thinks 
it sin to put to death a capital offender, will as oft 
think it meritorious to kill a righteous person. But 
let us hear what the sin was, that lay so sore upon 
him, and, as one of his prayers given to Dr. Juxton 
testifies, to the very day of his death ; it was his sign- 
ing the bill of Strafford's execution ; a man whom all 
men looked upon as one of the boldest and most impe- 
tuous instruments that the king had, to advance any 
violent or illegal design. He had ruled Ireland, and 
some parts of England, in an arbitrary manner; had 
endeavoured to subvert fundamental laws, to subvert 
parliaments, and to incense the king against them ; 
he had also endeavoured to make hostility between 
England and Scotland : he had counselled the king, 
to call over that Irish army of papists, which he had 
cunningly raised, to reduce England, as appeared by 
good testimony then present at the consultation : for 
which, and many other crimes alleged and proved 
against him in twenty-eight articles, he was condemned 
of high treason by the parliament. The commons by 
far the greater number cast him : the lords, after they 
had been satisfied in a full discourse by the king's so- 
licitor, and the opinions of many judges delivered in 
their house, agreed likewise to the sentence of treason. 
The people universally cried out for justice. None 
were his friends but courtiers and clergymen, the worst 
at that time, and most corrupted sort of men ; and court 
ladies, not the best of women ; who, when they grow 
to that insolence as to appear active in state-affairs, 
are the certain sign of a dissolute, degenerate, and 
pusillanimous commonwealth. Last of all the king, 
or rather first, for these were but his apes, was not sa- 
tisfied in conscience to condemn him of high treason ; 
and declared to both houses, " that no fears or respects 
whatsoever should make him alter that resolution found- 
ed upon his conscience :" either then his resolution was 
indeed not founded upon his conscience, or his con- 
science received better information, or else both his 
conscience and this his strong resolution strook sail, 
notwithstanding these glorious words, to his stronger 
fear; for within a few days after, when the judges at 
a privy council and four of his elected bishops had 
picked the thorn out of his conscience, he was at length 
persuaded to sign the bill for Strafford's execution. 
And yet perhaps, that it wrung his conscience to con- 
demn the earl of high treason is not unlikely ; not be- 



cause he thought him guiltless of highest treason, had 
half those crimes been committed against his own pri- 
vate interest or person, as appeared plainly by his 
charge against the six members ; but because he knew 
himself a principal in what the earl was but his acces- 
sory, and thought nothing treason against the common- 
wealth, but against himself only. 

Had he really scrupled to sentence that for treason, 
which he thought not treasonable, why did he seem re- 
solved by the judges and the bishops? and if by them 
resolved, how comes the scruple here again ? It was 
not then, as he now pretends, " the importunities of 
some, and the fear of many," which made him sign, 
but the satisfaction given him by those judges and 
ghostly fathers of his own choosing. Which of him 
shall we believe ? for he seems not one, but double ; 
either here we must not believe him professing that his 
satisfaction was but seemingly received and out of fear, 
or else we may as well believe that the scruple was no 
real scruple, as we can believe him here against him- 
self before, that the satisfaction then received was no 
real satisfaction. Of such a variable and fleeting con- 
science what hold can be taken ? But that indeed it 
was a facil conscience, and could dissemble satisfaction 
when it pleased, his own ensuing actions declared ; 
being soon after found to have the chief hand in a most 
detested conspiracy against the parliament and king- 
dom, as by letters and examinations of Percy, Goring, 
and other conspirators came to light ; that his intention 
was to rescue the earl of Strafford, by seizing on the 
Tower of London; to bring up the English army out 
of the North, joined with eight thousand Irish papists 
raised by Strafford, and a French army to be landed at 
Portsmouth, against the parliament and their friends. 
For which purpose the king, though requested by both 
houses to disband those Irish papists, refused to do it, 
and kept them still in arms to his own purposes. No 
marvel then, if, being as deeply criminous as the earl 
himself, it stung his conscience to adjudge to death 
those misdeeds, whereof himself bad been the chief au- 
thor : no marvel though instead of blaming and detest- 
ing his ambition, his evil counsel, his violence, and 
oppression of the people, he fall to praise his great abi- 
lities ; and with scholastic flourishes beneath the de- 
cency of a king, compares him to the sun, which in all 
figurative use and significance bears allusion to a king, 
not to a subject : no marvel though he knit contradic- 
tions as close as words can lie together, " not approving 
in his judgment," and yet approving in his subsequent 
reason all that Strafford did, as " driven hy the neces- 
sity of times, and the temper of that people ;" for this 
excuses all his misdemeanors. Lastly, no marvel that 
he goes on building many fair and pious conclusions 
upon false and wicked premises, which deceive the 
common reader, not well discerning the antipathy of 
such connexions : but this is the marvel, and may be the 
astonishment, of all that have a conscience, how he 
durst in the sight of God (and with the same words of 
contrition wherewith David repents the murdering of 
Uriah) repent his lawful compliance to that just act of 
not saving him, whom he ought to have delivered up 






282 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



to speedy punishment; though himself the guiltier of 
the two. If the deed were so sinful, to have put to 
death so great a malefactor, it would have taken much 
doubtless from the heaviness of his sin, to have told 
God in his confession, how he laboured, what dark plots 
he had contrived, into what a league entered, and with 
what conspirators, against his parliament and kingdoms, 
to have rescued from the claim of justice so notable and 
so dear an instrument of tyranny ; which would have 
been a story, no doubt, as pleasing in the ears of Hea- 
ven, as all these equivocal repentances. For it was 
fear, and nothing else, which made him feign before 
both the scruple and the satisfaction of his conscience, 
that is to say, of his mind : his first fear pretended con- 
science, that he might be borne with to refuse signing ; 
his latter fear, being more urgent, made him find a 
conscience both to sign, and to be satisfied. As for re- 
pentance, it came not on him till a long time after ; 
when he saw " he could have suffered nothing more, 
though he had denied that bill." For how could he un- 
derstandingly repent of letting that be treason, which 
the parliament and whole nation so judged ? This was 
that which repented him, to have given up to just 
punishment so stout a champion of his designs, who 
might have been so useful to him in his following civil 
broils. It was a worldly repentance, not a conscien- 
tious ; or else it was a strange tyranny, which his con- 
science had got over him, to vex him like an evil spirit 
for doing one act of justice, and by that means to " for- 
tify his resolution" from ever doing so any more. That 
mind must needs be irrecoverably depraved, which, 
either by chance or importunity, tasting but once of one 
just deed, spatters at it, and abhors the relish ever after. 
To the scribes and Pharisees wo was denounced by our 
Saviour, for straining at a gnat and swallowing a 
camel, though a gnat were to be strained at : but to a 
conscience with whom one good deed is so hard to pass 
down as to endanger almost a choking, and bad deeds 
without number, though as big and bulky as the ruin 
of three kingdoms, go down currently without strain- 
ing, certainly a far greater wo appertains. If his con- 
science were come to that unnatural dyscrasy, as to 
digest poison and to keck at wholesome food, it was 
not for the parliament, or any of his kingdoms, to feed 
with him any longer. Which to conceal he would 
persuade us, that the parliament also in their conscience 
escaped not " some touches of remorse" for putting 
Strafford to death, in forbiddingit by an after-act to be 
a precedent for the future. But, in a fairer construc- 
tion, that act implied rather a desire in them to pacify 
the kind's mind, whom they perceived by this means 
quite alienated : in the mean while not imagining that 
Urii after-act should be retorted on them to tie up jus- 
tit < for the time to come upon like occasion, whether 
this were made a precedent or not, no more than the 
want of such a precedent, if it had been wanting, had 
bet n available to binder this. 

lint how likelj is it, that this after-act argued in the 
parliament their hast repenting for the death of Straf- 
ford, when it argued so little in the king himself : who, 
notwithstanding this after-act, which had his own hand 



and concurrence, if not his own instigation, within the 
same year accused of high treason no less than six 
members at once for the same pretended crimes, which 
his conscience would not yield to think treasonable in 
the earl : so that this his subtle argument to fasten a 
repenting, and by that means a guiltiness of Strafford's 
death upon the parliament, concludes upon his own 
head ; and shews us plainly, that either nothing in his 
judgment was treason against the commonwealth, but 
only against the king's person ; (a tyrannical principle !) 
or that his conscience was a perverse and prevaricating 
conscience, to scruple that the commonwealth should 
punish for treasonous in one eminent offender that 
which he himself sought so vehemently to have pun- 
ished in six guiltless persons. If this were " that 
touch of conscience, which he bore with greater re- 
gret" than for any sin committed in his life, whether 
it were that proditory aid sent to Rochel and religion 
abroad, or that prodigality of shedding blood at home, 
to a million of his subjects' lives not valued in com- 
parison to one Strafford ; we may consider yet at last, 
what true sense and feeling could be in that con- 
science, and what fitness to be the master conscience 
of three kingdoms. 

But the reason why he labours, that we should take 
notice of so much " tenderness and regret in his soul 
for having any hand in Strafford's death," is worth the 
marking ere we conclude : " he hoped it would be some 
evidence before God and man to all posterity, that he 
was far from bearing that vast load and guilt of blood" 
laid upon him by others : which hath the likeness of a 
subtle dissimulation; bewailing the blood of one man, 
his commodious instrument, put to death most justly, 
though by him unwillingly, that we might think him 
too tender to shed willingly the blood of those thou- 
sands whom he counted rebels. And thus by dipping 
voluntarily his finger's end, yet with shew of great re- 
morse, in the blood of Strafford, whereof all men clear 
him, he thinks to scape that sea of innocent blood, 
wherein his own guilt inevitably hath plunged him 
all over. And we may well perceive to what easy 
satisfactions and purgations he had inured his secret 
conscience, who thought by such weak policies and 
ostentations as these to gain belief and absolution from 
understanding men. 



III. Upon his going to the House of Commons. 

Concerning his unexcusable and hostile march from 
the court to the house of commons, there needs not 
much be said ; for he confesses it to be an act, which 
most men, whom he calls " his enemies," cried shame 
upon, " indifferent men grew jealous of and fearful, 
and many of his friends resented, as a motion arising 
rather from passion than reason :" he himself, in one of 
his answers to both houses, made profession to be con- 
vinced, that it was a plain breach of their privilege; 
yet here, like a rotten building newly trimmed over, 
he represents it speciously and fraudulently, to impose 
upon the simple reader; and seeks by smooth and sup- 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



283 



pie words not here only, but through his whole book, 
to make some beneficial use or other even of his worst 
miscarriages. 

"These men," saith he, meaning his friends, "knew 
not the just motives and pregnant grounds with which 
I thought myself furnished;" to wit, against the five 
members, whom he came to drag out of the house. 
His best friends indeed knew not, nor could ever know, 
his motives to such a riotous act ; and had he himself 
known any just grounds, he was not ignorant how 
much it might have tended to his justifying, had he 
named them in this place, and not concealed them. 
But suppose them real, suppose them known, what 
was this to that violation and dishonour put upon the 
whole house, whose very door forcibly kept open, and 
all the passages near it, he beset with swords and 
pistols cocked and menaced in the hands of about three 
hundred swaggerers and ruffians, who but expected, 
nay audibly called for, the word of onset to begin a 
slaughter ? 

" He had discovered, as he thought, unlawful cor- 
respondences, which they had used, and engagements 
to embroil his kingdoms ;" and remembers not his own 
unlawful correspondences and conspiracies with the 
Irish army of papists, with the French to land at Ports- 
mouth, and his tampering both with the English and 
Scots army to come up against the parliament: the 
least of which attempts, by whomsoever, was no less 
than manifest treason against the commonwealth. 

If to demand justice on the five members were his 
plea, for that which they with more reason might have 
demanded justice upon him, (I use his own argument,) 
there needed not so rough assistance. If he had " re- 
solved to bear that repulse with patience," which his 
queen by her words to him at his return little thought 
he would have done, wherefore did he provide against 
it with such an armed and unusual force ? but his heart 
served him not to undergo the hazard that such a 
desperate scuffle would have brought him to. But 
wherefore did he go at all, it behoving him to know 
there were two statutes, that declared he ought first to 
have acquainted the parliament, who were the accusers, 
which he refused to do, though still professing to go- 
vern by law, and still justifying his attempts against 
law ? And when he saw it was not permitted him to 
attaint them but by a fair trial, as was offered him 
from time to time, for want of just matter which yet 
never came to light, he let the business fall of his own 
accord; and all those pregnancies and just motives 
came to just nothing. 

" He had no temptation of displeasure or revenge 
against those men:" none but what he thirsted to 
execute upon them, for the constant opposition which 
they made against his tyrannous proceedings, and the 
love and reputation which they therefore had among 
the people ; but most immediately, for that they were 
supposed the chief, by whose activity those twelve 
protesting bishops were but a week before committed 

I to the Tower. 
" He missed but little to have produced writings 



though their chambers, trunks, and studies were sealed 
up and searched ; yet not found guilty. " Providence 
would not have it so." Good Providence! that curbs 
the raging of proud monarchs, as well as of mad mul- 
titudes. " Yet he wanted not such probabilities" (for 
his pregnant is come now to probable) " as were suf- 
ficient to raise jealousies in any king's heart :" and 
thus his pregnant motives are at last proved nothing 
but a tympany, or a Queen Mary's cushion ; for in any 
king's heart, as kings go now, what shadowy conceit 
or groundless toy will not create a jealousy ? 

" That he had designed to insult the house of com- 
mons," taking God to witness, he utterly denies ; yet 
in his answer to the city, maintains that " any course 
of violence had been very justifiable." And we may 
then guess how far it was from his design : however, 
it discovered in him an excessive eagerness to be aven- 
ged on them that crossed him ; and that to have his 
will, he stood not to do things never so much below 
him. What a becoming sight it was, to see the king 
of England one while in the house of commons, and by 
and by in the Guildhall among* the liveries and manu- 
facturers, prosecuting so greedily the track of five or 
six fled subjects; himself not the solicitor only, but the 
pursuivant and the apparitor of his own partial cause ! 
And although in his answers to the parliament, he hath 
confessed, first that his manner of prosecution was ille- 
gal, next " that as he once conceived he had ground 
enough to accuse them, so at length that he found as good 
cause to desert any prosecution of them ;" yet here he 
seems to reverse all, and against promise takes up his 
old deserted accusation, that he might have something 
to excuse himself, instead of giving due reparation, 
which he always refused to give them whom he had so 
dishonoured. 

" That I went," saith he of his going to his house of 
commons, " attended with some gentlemen ;" gentle- 
men indeed ! the rag'ged infantry of stews and bro- 
thels ; the spawn and shipwreck of taverns and dicing- 
houses : and then he pleads, " it was no unwonted 
thing for the majesty and safety of a king to be so at- 
tended, especially in discontented times." An illustri- 
ous majesty no doubt, so attended ! a becoming safety 
for the king of England, placed in the fidelity of such 
guards and champions ! happy times, when braves and 
hacksters, the only contented members of his govern- 
ment, were thought the fittest and the faithfullest to 
defend his person against the discontents of a parlia- 
ment and all good men ! Were those the chosen ones 
to " preserve reverence to him," while he entered " un- 
assured," and full of suspicions, into his great and 
faithful counsel? Let God then and the world judge, 
whether the cause were not in his own guilty and un- 
warrantable doings : the house of commons, upon seve- 
ral examinations of this business, declared it sufficiently 
proved, that the coming of those soldiers, papists and 
others, with the king, was to take away some of their 
members, and in case of opposition or denial, to have 
fallen upon the house in a hostile manner. This the 
king here denies ; adding a fearful imprecation against 
his own life, " if he purposed any violence or oppres- 



284 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



sion against the innocent, then," saitli he, " let the ene- 
my prosecute my soul, and tread my life to the ground, 
and lay my honour in the dust." What need then more 
disputing ? He appealed to God's tribunal, and behold ! 
God hath judged and done to him in the sight of all 
men according to the verdict of his own mouth : to be 
a warning to all kings hereafter how they use presump- 
tuously the words and protestations of David, without 
the spirit and conscience of David. And the king's 
admirers may here see their madness, to mistake this 
book for a monument of his worth and wisdom, whenas 
indeed it is his doomsday-book ; not like that of Wil- 
liam the Norman his predecessor, but the record and 
memorial of his condemnation; and discovers whatever 
hath befallen him, to have been hastened on from di- 
vine justice by the rash and inconsiderate appeal of his 
own lips. But what evasions, what pretences, though 
never so unjust and empty, will he refuse in matters 
more unknown, and more involved in the mists and 
intricacies of state, who, rather than not justify himself 
in a thing so generally odious, can flatter his integrity 
with such frivolous excuses against the manifest dis- 
sent of all men, whether enemies, neuters, or friends ? 
But God and his judgments have not been mocked; 
and good men may well perceive what a distance there 
was ever like to be between him and his parliament, and 
perhaps between him and all amendment, who for one 
good deed, though but consented to, asks God forgive- 
ness ; and from his worst deeds done, takes occasion 
to insist upon his righteousness ! 



IV. Upon the Insolency of the Tumults. 

\\ e have here, I must confess, a neat and well- 
couched invective ag-ainst tumults, expressing a true 
fear of them in the author ; but yet so handsomely 
composed, and withal so feelingly, that, to make a 
royal comparison, I believe Rehoboam the son of Solo- 
mon could not have composed it better. Yet Rehoboam 
had more cause to inveigh against them ; for they had 
stoned his tribute-gatherer, and perhaps had as little 
spared his own person, had he not with all speed 
betaken him to his chariot. But this king hath stood 
tbe uorst of them in his own house without danger, 
when his coach and horses, in a panic fear, have been 
to seek: which argues, that the tumults at Whitehall 
were nothing so dangerous as those at Sechem. 

lint tin- matter here considerable, is not whether the 
Icing or his household rhetorician have made a pithy 
declamation against tumults; but first, whether these 
were tumults or not; next, if they were, whether the 
king himself did not cause them. Let us examine 
then forr how things at that time stood. The king, as 
before hat!, been proved, having both called this par- 
liament unwillingly, and as unwillingly from time to 
ondeset nded to their several acts, carrying on a 
disjoint and private interesl of bis own, and not endur- 
ing to be m Crossed and ovrrswayed, especially in the 
ting ofbifl ehi<f and boldest instrument, the de- 



puty of Ireland first tempts the English army, with no 
less reward than the spoil of London, to come up and 
destroy the parliament. That being discovered by 
some of the officers, who, though bad enough, yet ab- 
horred so foul a deed ; the king", hardened in his pur- 
pose, tempts them the second time at Burro wbridg - e, 
promises to pawn his jewels for them, and that they 
should be met and assisted (would they but march on) 
with a gross body of horse under the earl of Newcastle. 
He tempts them yet the third time, though after dis- 
covery, and his own abjuration to have ever tempted 
them, as is affirmed in the declaration of" No more ad- 
dresses." Neither this succeeding, he turns him next 
to the Scotch army, and by his own credential letters 
given to O Neal and Sir John Henderson, baits his 
temptation with a richer reward ; not only to have the 
sacking of London, but four northern counties to be 
made Scottish, with jewels of great value to be given 
in pawn the while. But neither would the Scots, for 
any promise of reward, be brought to such an execrable 
and odious treachery : but with much honesty gave no- 
tice of the king's design both to the parliament and 
city of London. The parliament moreover had intelli- 
gence, and the people could not but discern, that there 
was a bitter and malignant party grown up now to 
such a boldness, as to give out insolent and threaten- 
ing speeches against the parliament itself. Besides 
this, the rebellion in Ireland was now broke out; and 
a conspiracy in Scotland had been made, while the 
king was there, against some chief members of that 
parliament; great numbers here of unknown and sus- 
picious persons resorted to the city. The king", being 
returned from Scotland, presently dismisses that guard, 
which the parliament thought necessary in the midst 
of so many dangers to have about them, and puts an- 
other guard in their place, contrary to the privilege of 
that high court, and by such a one commanded, as 
made them no less doubtful of the guard itself. Which 
they therefore, upon some ill effects thereof first found, 
discharge ; deeming it more safe to sit fvee, though 
without guard, in open danger, than enclosed with a 
suspected safety. The people therefore, lest their wor- 
thiest and most faithful patriots, who had exposed 
themselves for the public, and whom they saw now 
left naked, should want aid, or be deserted in the midst 
of these dangers, came in multitudes, though unarmed, 
to witness their fidelity and readiness in case of any 
violence offered to the parliament. The king, both 
envying to see the people's love thus devolved on an- 
other object, and doubting lest it might utterly disable 
him to do with parliaments as he was wont, sent a 
message into the city forbidding such resorts. The 
parliament also, both by what was discovered to them, 
and what they saw in a malignant party, (some of 
which had already drawn blood in a fray or two at the 
court-gate, and even at their own gate in W^estminster- 
hall,) conceiving themselves to be still in danger where 
they sate, sent a most reasonable and just petition to 
the king, that a guard might be allowed them out of 
the city, whereof the king's own chamberlain the earl 
of Essex, might have command ; it being the right of 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



285 



inferior courts to make choice of their own guard. 
This the king- refused to do, and why he refused the 
very next day made manifest: for on that day it was 
that he sallied out from Whitehall, with those trusty 
myrmidons, to block up or give assault to the house of 
commons. He had, besides all this, begun to fortify 
his court, and entertained armed men not a few ; who, 
standing at his palace gate, reviled and with drawn 
swords wounded many of the people, as they went by 
unarmed, and in a peaceable manner, whereof some 
died. The passing by of a multitude, though neither 
to St. George's feast, nor to a tilting, certainly of itself 
was no tumult; the expression of their loyalty and 
steadfastness to the parliament, whose lives and safe- 
ties by more than slight rumours they doubted to be in 
danger, was no tumult. If it grew to be so, the cause 
was in the king himself and his injurious retinue, who 
both by hostile preparations in the court, and by actual 
assailing of the people, gave them just cause to defend 
themselves. 

Surely those unarmed and petitioning people needed 
not have been so formidable to any, but to such whose 
consciences misgave them how ill they had deserved 
of the people ; and first began to injure them, because 
they justly feared it from them ; and then ascribe that 
to popular tumult, which was occasioned by their own 
provoking. 

And that the king was so emphatical and elaborate 
on this theme against tumults, and expressed with 
such a vehemence his hatred of them, will redound less 
perhaps than he was aware to the commendation of his 
government. For besides that in good governments 
they happen seldomest, and rise not without cause, if 
they prove extreme and pernicious, they were never 
counted so to monarchy, but to monarchical tyranny; 
and extremes one with another are at most antipathy. 
If then the king so extremely stood in fear of tumults, 
the inference will endanger him to be the other ex- 
treme. Thus far the occasion of this discourse against 
tumults : now to the discourse itself, voluble enough, and 
full of sentence, but that, for the most part, either spe- 
cious rather than solid, or to his cause nothing pertinent. 

" He never thought any thing more to presage the 
mischiefs that ensued, than those tumults." Then was 
his foresight but short, and much mistaken. Those tu- 
mults were but the mild effects of an evil and injurious 
reign ; not signs of mischiefs to come, but seeking relief 
for mischiefs past : those signs were to be read more 
apparent in his rage and purposed revenge of those free 
expostulations and clamours of the people against his 
lawless government. " Not any thing," saith he, 
" portends more God's displeasure against a nation, 
than when he suffers the clamours of the vulgar to pass 
all bounds of law and reverence to authority." It por- 
tends rather his displeasure against a tyrannous king, 
whose proud throne he intends to overturn by that 
contemptible vulgar ; the sad cries and oppressions of 
whom his loyalty regarded not. As for that suppli- 
cating people, they did no hurt either to law or author- 
ity, but stood for it rather in the parliament against 
whom they feared would violate it. 



" That they invaded the honour and freedom of the 
two houses," is his own officious accusation, not 
seconded by the parliament, who, had they seen cause, 
were themselves best able to complain. And if they 
" shook and menaced" any, they were such as had 
more relation to the court than to the commonwealth ; 
enemies, not patrons of the people. But if their pe- 
titioning unarmed were an invasion of both houses, 
what was his entrance into the house of commons, be- 
setting it with armed men ? In what condition then 
was the honour and freedom of that house ? 

" They forebore not rude deportments, contemptuous 
words and actions, to himself and his court." 

It was more wonder, having heard what treacherous 
hostility he had designed against the city and his whole 
kingdom, that they forebore to handle him as people 
in their rage have handled tyrants heretofore for less 
offences. 

" They were not a short ague, but a fierce quotidian 
fever." He indeed may best say it, who most felt it ; 
for the shaking was within him, and it shook him by 
his own description " worse than a storm, worse than 
an earthquake ;" Belshazzar's palsy. Had not worse 
fears, terrours, and envies made within him that com- 
motion, how could a multitude of his subjects, armed 
with no other weapon than petitions, have shaken all 
his joints with such a terrible ague ? Yet that the par- 
liament should entertain the least fear of bad intentions 
from him or his party, he endures not ; but would per- 
suade us, that " men scare themselves and others with- 
out cause :" for he thought fear would be to them a 
kind of armour, and his design was, if it were possible, 
to disarm all, especially of a wise fear and suspicion ; 
for that he knew would find weapons. 

He goes on therefore with vehemence, to repeat the 
mischiefs done by these tumults. " They first petition- 
ed, then protested ; dictate next, and lastly overawe the 
parliament. They removed obstructions, they purged 
the houses, cast out rotten members." If there were a 
man of iron, such as Talus, by our poet Spencer, is 
feigned to be, the page of justice, who with his iron 
flail could do all this, and expeditiously, without those 
deceitful forms and circumstances of law, worse than 
ceremonies in religion ; I say, God send it done, whe- 
ther by one Talus, or by a thousand. 

" But they subdued the men of conscience in par- 
liament, backed and abetted all seditious and schis- 
matical proposals against government ecclesiastical 
and civil." 

Now we may perceive the root of his hatred, whence 
it springs. It was not the king's grace or princely 
goodness, but this iron flail, the people, that drove the 
bishops out of their baronies, out of their cathedrals, 
out of the lords' house, out of their copes and surplices, 
and all those papistical innovations, threw down the 
high-commission and star-chamber, gave us a triennial 
parliament, and what we most desired ; in revenge 
whereof he now so bitterly inveighs against them ; 
these are those seditious and schismatical proposals 
then by him condescended to as acts of grace, now of 
another name; which declares him, touching matters 



286 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



of church and state, to have been no other man in the 
deepest of his solitude, than he was before at the high- 
est of his sovereignty. 

But this was not the worst of these tumults, they 
played the hasty " midwives, and would not stay the 
ripening, but went straight to ripping up, and forcibly 
cut out abortive votes." 

They would not stay perhaps the Spanish demurring, 
and putting off such wholesome acts and counsels, as 
the politic cabinet at Whitehall had no mind to. But 
all this is complained here as done to the parliament, 
and vet we heard not the parliament at that time com- 
plain of any violence from the people, but from him. 
Wherefore intrudes he to plead the cause of parliament 
against the people, while the parliament was pleading 
their own cause against him ; and against him were 
forced to seek refuge of the people ? It is plain then, 
that those confluxes and resorts interrupted not the 
parliament, nor by them were thought tumultuous, but 
by him only and his court faction. 

" But what good man had not rather want any thing 
lie most desired for the public good, than attain it by 
such unlawful and irreligious means ?" As much as to 
say, had not rather sit still, and let his country be ty- 
rannized, than that the people, finding no other re- 
medy, should stand up like men, and demand their 
rights and liberties. This is the artificialest piece of 
finesse to persuade men into slavery that the wit of 
court could have invented. But hear how much better 
the moral of this lesson would befit the teacher. What 
good man had not rather want a boundless and arbi- 
trary power, and those fine flowers of the crown, called 
prerogatives, than for them to use force and perpetual 
vexation to his faithful subjects, nay to wade for them 
through blood and civil war ? So that this and the 
whole bundle of those following sentences may be ap- 
plied better to the convincement of his own violent 
courses, than of those pretended tumults. 

" Who were the chief demagogues to send for those 
tumults, some alive are not ignorant." Setting aside 
the affrightment of this goblin word ; for the king, by 
his leave, cannot coin English, as he could money, to 
be current, (and it is believed this wording was above 
his known style and orthography, and accuses the 
whole composure to be conscious of some other author,) 
yet if the people were sent for, emboldened and directed 
by those demagogues, who, saving his Greek, were 
good patriots, and by his own confession " men of some 
repute for parts and piety," it helps well to assure us 
there was both urgent cause, and the less danger of 
their coming. 

" Complaints were made, yet no redress could be 
obtained.* 1 The parliament also complained of what 
dangi r they sate in from another party, and demanded 
«f him a guard, but it was not granted. What marvel 
then if it cheated them to see some store of their friends, 
and in the Roman, not the pettifogging sense, their 
clients so near about them; a defence due by nature 
both from whom it was offered, and to whom, as due 
U to their parents ; though the court stormed and 
fretted to see such honour given to them, who were 



then best fathers of the commonwealth. And both the 
parliament and people complained, and demanded jus- 
tice for those assaults, if not murders, done at his own 
doors by that crew of rufflers; but he, instead of doing 
justice on them, justified and abetted them in what 
they did, as in his public answer to a petition from the 
city may be read. Neither is it slightly to be passed 
over, that in the very place where blood was first drawn 
in this cause, at the beginning of all that followed, 
there was his own blood shed by the executioner: ac- 
cording to that sentence of divine justice, " in the place 
where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick 
thy blood, even thine." 

From hence he takes occasion to excuse that impro- 
vident and fatal errour of his absenting from the par- 
liament. " When he found that no declaration of the 
bishops could take place against those tumults." Was 
that worth his considering, that foolish and self-un- 
doing declaration of twelve cipher bishops, who were 
immediately appeached of treason for that audacious 
declaring? The bishops peradventure were now and 
then pulled by the rochets, and deserved another kind 
of pulling ; but what amounted this to " the fear of his 
own person in the streets ?" Did he not the very next 
day after his irruption into the house of commons, than 
which nothing had more exasperated the people, go in 
his coach unguarded into the city ? Did he receive the 
least affront, much less violence, in any of the streets, 
but rather humble demeanors and supplications ? Hence 
may be gathered, that however in his own guiltiness 
he might have justly feared, yet that he knew the 
people so full of awe and reverence to his person, as to 
dare commit himself single among the thickest of them, 
at a time when he had most provoked them. Besides, 
in Scotland they had handled the bishops in a more 
robustious manner ; Edinburgh had been full of tu- 
mults, two armies from thence had entered England 
against him : yet after all this he was not fearful, but 
very forward to take so long a journey to Edinburgh ; 
which argues first, as did also his rendition afterward to 
the Scots army, that to England he continued still, as he 
w r as indeed, a stranger, and full of diffidence, to the 
Scots only a native king, in his confidence ; though not 
in his dealing towards them. It shows us next beyond 
doubting, that all this his fear of tumults was but a 
mere colour and occasion taken of his resolved absence 
from the parliament, for some end not difficult to be 
guessed. And those instances wherein valour is not 
to be questioned for not " scuffling with the sea, or an 
undisciplined rabble," are but subservient to carry on 
the solemn jest of his fearing tumults ; if they discover 
not withal the true reason why he departed, only to 
turn his slashing at the court-gate to slaughtering in 
the field ; his disorderly bickering to an orderly in- 
vading; which was nothing else but a more orderly 
disorder. 

" Some suspected and affirmed, that he meditated a 
war when he went first from Whitehall." And they 
were not the worst heads that did so, nor did any of his 
former acts weaken him to that, as he alleges for him- 
self; or if they had, they clear him only for the time of 






AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



28? 



passing them, not for whatever thoughts might come 
after into his mind. Former actions of improvidence 
or fear, not with him unusual, cannot absolve him of 
all after-meditations. 

He goes on protesting his " no intention to have 
left Whitehall," had these horrid tumults given him but 
fair quarter; as if he himself, his wife, and children 
had been in peril. But to this enough hath been an- 
swered. 

" Had this parliament, as it was in its first election," 
namely, with the lord and baron bishops, " sate full 
and free," he doubts not but all had gone well. What 
warrant this of his to us, whose not doubting was all 
good men's greatest doubt ? 

" He was resolved to hear reason, and to consent so 
far as he could comprehend." A hopeful resolution : 
what if his reason were found by oft experience to 
comprehend nothing beyond his own advantages ; was 
this a reason fit to be intrusted with the common good 
of three nations ? 

" But," saith he, " as swine are to gardens, so are 
tumults to parliaments." This the parliament, had they 
found it so, could best have told us. In the mean while, 
who knows not that one great hog may do as much 
mischief in a garden as many little swine ? 

" He was sometimes prone to think, that had he 
called this last parliament to any other place in Eng- 
land, the sad consequences might have been prevented." 
But change of air changes not the mind. Was not his 
first parliament at Oxford dissolved after two subsidies 
given him, and no justice received? Was not his last 
in the same place, where they sate with as much free- 
dom, as much quiet from tumults, as they could desire ; 
a parliament, both in his account and their own, con- 
sisting of all his friends, that fled after him, and suf- 
fered for him, and yet by him nicknamed, and cashiered 
for a " mongrel parliament, that vexed his queen with 
their base and mutinous motions," as his cabinet-letter 
tells us? Whereby the world may see plainly, that no 
shifting of place, no sifting of members to his own 
mind, no number, no paucity, no freedom from tumults, 
could ever bring his arbitrary wilfulness, and tyran- 
nical designs, to brook the least shape or similitude, 
the least counterfeit of a parliament. 

Finally, instead of praying for his people as a good 
king should do, he prays to be delivered from them, as 
" from wild beasts, inundations, and raging seas, that 
had overborne all loyalty, modesty, laws, justice, and 
religion." God save the people from such intercessors! 






V. Upon the Bill for triennial Parliaments, and for 
settling this, fyc. 

The bill for a triennial parliament was but the third 
part of one good step toward that which in times past 
was our annual right. The other bill for settling this 
parliament was new indeed, but at that time very ne- 
cessary ; and in the king's own words no more than 
what the world " was fully confirmed he might in jus- 

* Written by Mr. Sadler, of which the best edition is that of 1649, in 



tice, reason, honour, and conscience grant them;" for 
to that end he affirms to have done it. 

But whereas he attributes the passing of them to his 
own act of grace and willingness, (as his manner is to 
make virtues of his necessities,) and giving to himself 
all the praise, heaps ingratitude upon the parliament, 
a little memory will set the clean contrary before us ; 
that for those beneficial acts we owe what we owe to 
the parliament, but to his granting them neither praise 
nor thanks. The first bill granted much less than two 
former statutes yet in force by Edward the Third; that 
a parliament should be called every year, or oftener, if 
need were : nay, from a far ancienter law-book called 
the " Mirror," it is affirmed in a late treatise called 
" Rights of the kingdom,"* that parliaments by our 
old laws ought twice a year to be at London. From 
twice in one year to once in three years, it may be soon 
cast up how great a loss we fell into of our ancient 
liberty by that act, which in the ignorant and slavish 
minds we then were, was thought a great purchase. 
Wisest men perhaps were contented (for the present, at 
least) by this act to have recovered parliaments, which 
were then upon the brink of danger to be for ever lost. 
And this is that which the king preaches here for a 
special token of his princely favour, to have abridged 
and overreached the people five parts in six of what 
their due was, both by ancient statute and originally. 
And thus the taking from us all but a triennial rem- 
nant of that English freedom which our fathers left us 
double, in a fair annuity enrolled, is set out, and sold 
to us here for the gracious and over-liberal giving of a 
new enfranchisement. How little, may we think, did 
he ever give us, who in the bill of his pretended givings 
writes down imprimis that benefit or privilege once in 
three years given us, which by so giving he more than 
twice every year illegally took from us; such givers 
as give single to take away sixfold, be to our enemies ! 
for certainly this commonwealth, if the statutes of our 
ancestors be worth aught, would have found it hard 
and hazardous to thrive under the damage of such a 
guileful liberality. The other act was so necessary, 
that nothing in the power of man more seemed to be 
the stay and support of all things from that steep ruin 
to which he had nigh brought them, than that act ob- 
tained. He had by his ill stewardship, and, to say no 
worse, the needless raising of two armies intended for 
a civil war, beggared both himself and the public ; and 
besides had left us upon the score of his needy enemies 
for what it cost them in their own defence against him. 
To disengage him and the kingdom great sums were 
to be borrowed, which would never have been lent, nor 
could ever be repaid, had the king chanced to dissolve 
this parliament as heretofore. The errours also of his 
government had brought the kingdom to such ex- 
tremes, as were incapable of all recovery without the 
absolute continuance of a parliament. It had been 
else in vain to go about the settling of so great distem- 
pers, if he, who first caused the malady, might, when 
he pleased, reject the remedy. Notwithstanding all 
which, that he granted both these acts unwillingly, 

quarto ; the edition of 1687 being curtailed. It is an excellent book. 



288 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



and as a mere passive instrument, was then visible 
even to most of those men who now will see no- 
thing-. 

At passing of the former act he himself concealed 
not his unwillingness; and testifying- a general dislike 
of their actions, which they then proceeded in with 
great approbation of the whole kingdom, he told them 
with a masterly brow, that " by this act he had obliged 
them above what they had deserved," and gave a piece 
of justice to the commonwealth six times short of his 
predecessors, as if he had been giving some boon or 
begged office to a sort of his desertless grooms. 

That he passed the latter act against his will, no 
man in reason can hold it questionable. For if the 
February before he made so dainty, and were so loth 
to bestow a parliament once in three years upon the 
nation, because this had so opposed his courses, was it 
likely that the May folio wing he should bestow willingly 
on this parliament an indissoluble sitting, when they 
had offended him much more by cutting short and im- 
peaching of high treason his chief favourites ? It was 
his fear then, not his favour, which drew from him 
that act, lest the parliament, incensed by his conspira- 
cies against them about the same time discovered, 
should with the people have resented too heinously 
those his doings, if to the suspicion of their danger 
from him he had also added the denial of this only 
means to secure themselves. 

From these acts therefore in which he glories, and 
wherewith so oft he upbraids the parliament, he can- 
not justly expect to reap aught but dishonour and 
dispraise; as being both unwillingly granted, and the 
one granting much less than was before allowed by 
statute, the other being a testimony of his violent and 
lawless custom, not only to break privileges, but whole 
parliaments ; from which enormity they were con- 
strained to bind him first of all his predecessors; never 
any before him having given like causes of distrust 
and jealousy to his people. As for this parliament, 
how far he was from being advised by them as he 
ought, let his own words express. 

He taxes them with " undoing what they found well 
done:" and yet knows they undid nothing in the 
church but lord bishops, liturgies, ceremonies, high- 
commission, judged worthy by all true protestants to 
be thrown out of the church. They undid nothing in 
the state but irregular and grinding courts, the main 
grievances to be removed ; and if these were the things 
which in his opinion they found well done, we may 
again from hence be informed with what unwillingness 
he removed them ; and that those gracious acts, whereof 
N frequently he makes mention, may be englished 
more properly acts of fear and dissimulation against 
bis mind and conscience. 

I be hill preventing dissolution of this parliament he 
ealh '• an unparalleled act, out of the extreme confi- 
dence that his subjects would not make ill use of it." 
Bui was it not a greater confidence of the people, to put 
into one man's hand so great a power, till he abused 
it, as to summon and dissolve parliaments? He would 
be thanked for trusting them, and ought to thank them 



rather for trusting him : the trust issuing first from 
them, not from him. 

And that it was a mere trust, and not his preroga- 
tive, to call and dissolve parliaments at his pleasure ; 
and that parliaments were not to be dissolved, till all 
petitions were heard, all grievances redressed, is not 
only the assertion of this parliament, but of our ancient 
law-books, which aver it to be an unwritten law of 
common right, so engraven in the hearts of our ances- 
tors, and by them so constantly enjoyed and claimed, 
as that it needed not enrolling. And if the Scots in 
their declaration could charg-e the king with breach of 
their laws for breaking up that parliament without 
their consent, while matters of greatest moment were 
depending ; it were unreasonable to imagine, that the 
wisdom of England should be so wanting- to itself 
through all ages, as not to provide by some known 
law, written or unwritten, against the not calling, or 
the arbitrary dissolving, of parliaments ; or that they 
who ordained their summoning twice a year, or as oft 
as need required, did not tacitly enact also, that as ne- 
cessity of affairs called them, so the same necessity 
should keep them undissolved, till that were fully satis- 
fied. Were it not for that, parliaments, and all the 
fruit and benefit we receive by having them, would 
turn soon to mere abusion. It appears then, that if 
this bill of not dissolving were an unparalleled act, it 
was a known and common right, which our ancestors 
under other kings enjoyed as firmly, as if it had been 
graven in marble; and that the infringement of this 
king first brought it into a written act : who now 
boasts that as a great favour done us, Avhich his own 
less fidelity than was in former king's constrained us 
only of an old undoubted right to make a new written 
act. But what needed written acts, whenas anciently 
it was esteemed part of his crown oath, not to dissolve 
parliaments till all grievances were considered ? where- 
upon the old "Modi of Parliament" calls it flat per- 
jury, if he dissolve them before : as I find cited in a 
book mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, to 
which and other law-tractats I refer the more lawyerly 
mooting of this point, which is neither my element, nor 
my proper work here ; since the book, which I have to 
answer, pretends reason, not authorities and quotations: 
and I hold reason to be the best arbitrator, and the law 
of law itself. 

It is true, that " good subjects think it not just, that 
the king's condition should be worse by bettering 
theirs." But then the king must not be at such a dis- 
tance from the people in judging what is better and 
what worse; which might have been agreed, had he 
known (for his own words condemn him) " as well 
with moderation to use, as with earnestness to desire, 
his own advantages." 

" A continual parliament he thought would keep the 
commonwealth in tune." Judge, commonwealth, what 
proofs he gave, that this boasted profession was ever in 
iiis thought. 

" Some," saith he, " gave out, that I repented me of 
that settling act." His own actions gave it out beyond 
all supposition; for doubtless it repented him to have 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



289 



established that by law, which he went about so soon 
after to abrogate by the sword. 

He calls those acts, which he confesses "tended to 
their good, not more princely than friendly contribu- 
tions." As if to do his duty were of courtesy, and the 
discharge of his trust a parcel of his liberality ; so nigh 
lost in his esteem was the birth-right of our liberties, 
that to give them back again upon demand, stood at 
the mercy of his contribution. 

" He doubts not but the affections of his people will 
compensate his sufferings for those acts of confidence :" 
and imputes his sufferings to a contrary cause. Not 
his confidence, but his distrust, was that which brought 
him to those sufferings, from the time that he forsook 
his parliament; and trusted them never the sooner for 
what he tells " of their piety and religious strictness," 
but rather hated them as puritans, whom he always 
sought to extirpate. 

He would have it believed, that " to bind his hands 
by these acts, argued a very short foresight of things, 
and extreme fatuity of mind in him," if he had meant 
a war. If we should conclude so, that were not the 
only argument : neither did it argue, that he meant 
peace; knowing that what he granted for the present 
out of fear, he might as soon repeal by force, watching 
his time; and deprive them the fruit of those acts, if 
his own designs, wherein he put his trust, took effect. 

Yet he complains, " that the tumults threatened to 
abuse all acts of grace, and turn them into wanton- 
ness." I would they had turned his wantonness into 
the grace of not abusing Scripture. Was this becom- 
ing such a saint as they would make him, to adulte- 
rate those sacred words from the grace of God to the 
acts of his own grace ? Herod was eaten up of worms 
for suffering others to compare his voice to the voice of 
God ; but the borrower of this phrase gives much more 
cause of jealousy, that he likened his own acts of grace 
to the acts of God's grace. 

From prophaneness he scarce comes off with perfect 
sense. " I was not then in a capacity to make war," 
therefore " I intended not." " I was not in a capa- 
city," therefore " I could not have given my enemies 
greater advantage, than by so unprincely inconstancy 
to have scattered them by arms, whom but lately I had 
settled by parliament." What place could there be 
for his inconstancy in that thing whereto he was in no 
capacity ? Otherwise his inconstancy was not so un- 
wonted, or so nice, but that it would have easily found 
pretences to scatter those in revenge, whom he settled 
in fear. 

"It had been a course full of sin, as well as of hazard 
and dishonour." True ; but if those considerations 
withheld him not from other actions of like nature, 
how can we believe they were of strength sufficient, to 
withhold him from this ? And that they withheld him 
not, the event soon taught us. 

" His letting some men go up to the pinnacle of the 
temple, was a temptation to them to cast him down 
headlong." In this simile we have himself compared 
to Christ, the parliament to the devil, and his giving 
them that act of settling, to his letting them go up to 



the " pinnacle of the temple." A tottering and giddy 
act rather than a settling. This was goodly use made 
of Scripture in his solitudes : but it was no pinnacle of 
the temple, it was a pinnacle of Nebuchadnezzar's 
palace, from whence he and monarchy fell headlong 
together. 

He would have others see that " all the kingdoms of 
the world are not worth gaining by ways of sin which 
hazard the soul;" and hath himself left nothing unha- 
zarded to keep three. He concludes with sentences, 
that, rightly scanned, make not so much for him as 
against him, and confesses, that "the act of settling 
was no sin of his will ;" and we easily believe him, for 
it hath been clearly proved a sin of his unwillingness. 

With his orisons I meddle not, for he appeals to a 
high audit. This yet may be noted, that at his prayers 
he had before him the sad presage of his ill success, 
" as of a dark and dangerous storm, which never ad- 
mitted his return to the port from whence he set out." 
Yet his prayer-book no sooner shut, but other hopes 
flattered him; and their flattering was his destruction. 



VI. Upon his Retirement from Westminster. 

The simile wherewith he begins I was about to have 
found fault with, as in a garb somewhat more poetical 
than for a statist : but meeting with many strains of 
like dress in other of his essays, and hearing him re- 
ported a more diligent reader of poets than of politi- 
cians, I begun to think that the whole book might per- 
haps be intended a piece of poetry. The words are 
good, the fiction smooth and cleanly ; there wanted 
only rhyme, and that, they say, is bestowed upon it 
lately. But to the argument. 

" I staid at Whitehall, till I was driven away by 
shame more than fear." I retract not what I thought 
of the fiction, yet here, I must confess, it lies too open. 
In his messages and declarations, nay in the whole 
chapter next but one before this, he affirms, that " the 
danger wherein his wife, his children, and his own 
person" were by those tumults, was the main cause 
that drove him from Whitehall, and appeals to God as 
witness : he affirms here that it was " shame more than 
fear." And Digby, who knew his mind as well as any, 
tells his new-listed guard, " that the principal cause of 
his majesty's going thence was to save them from being 
trod in the dirt." From whence we may discern what 
false and frivolous excuses are avowed for truth, either 
in those declarations, or in this penitential book. Our 
forefathers were of that courage and severity of zeal to 
justice and their native liberty, against the proud con- 
tempt and misrule of their kings, that when Richard 
the Second departed but from a committee of lords, 
who sate preparing matter for the parliament not yet 
assembled, to the removal of his evil counsellors, they 
first vanquished and put to flight Robert de Vere his 
chief favourite ; and then, coming up to London with 
a huge army, required the king, then withdrawn for 
fear, but no further off than the Tower, to come to 






290 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



Westminster, Which he refusing", they told him flatly, 
that unless he came they would choose another. So 
high a crime it was accounted then for kings to absent 
themselves, not from a parliament, which none ever 
durst, but from any meeting- of his peers and counsel- 
lors, which did but tend towards a parliament. Much 
less would they have suffered, that a king-, for such 
trivial and various pretences, one while for fear of tu- 
mults, another while "for shame to see them," should 
leave his regal station, and the whole kingdom bleed- 
ing to death of those wounds, which his own unskilful 
and perverse government had inflicted. 

Shame then it was that drove him from the parlia- 
ment, but the shame of what? Was it the shame of his 
manifold errours and misdeeds, and to see how weakly 
he had played the king ? No ; " but to see the bar- 
barous rudeness of those tumults to demand any thing." 
We have started here another, and I believe the truest 
cause of his deserting the parliament. The worst and 
strangest of that " Any thing," which the people then 
demanded, was but the unlording of bishops, and ex- 
pelling them the house, and the reducing of church- 
discipline to a conformity with other protestant churches ; 
this was the barbarism of those tumults : and that he 
might avoid the granting of those honest and pious 
demands, as well demanded by the parliament as the 
people, for this very cause more than for fear, by his 
own confession here, he left the city ; and in a most 
tempestuous season forsook the helm and steerage of 
the commonwealth. This was that terrible "Any 
thing," from which his Conscience and his Reason 
chose to run, rather than not deny. To be importuned 
the removing of evil counsellors, and other grievances 
in church and state, was to him " an intolerable oppres- 
sion." If the people's demanding were so burdensome 
to him, what was his denial and delay of justice to 
them ? 

But as the demands of his people were to him a bur- 
den and oppression, so was the advice of his parliament 
esteemed a bondage; "Whose agreeing votes," as he 
affirms, "were not by any law or reason conclusive to 
his judgment." For the law, it ordains a parliament to 
advise him in his great affairs; but if it ordain also, 
that the single judgment of a king shall out-balance 
all the wisdom of his parliament, it ordains that which 
frustrates the end of its own ordaining. For where the 
king's judgment may dissent, to the destruction, as it 
may happen, both of himself and the kingdom, their 
advice, and no further, is a most insufficient and frus- 
traneous means to be provided by law in cases of so 
high concernment. And where the main and principal 
law of common preservation against tyranny is left so 
fruitless and infirm, there it must needs follow, that all 
lesser laws are to their several ends and purposes much 
more weak and ineffectual. For that nation would de- 
serve to be renowned and chronicled for folly and s!u- 
pidity, that should by law provide force against private 
and petty wrongs, advice only against tyranny and 
public ruin. It being therefore most unlike a law, to 
ordain a remedy so slender and unlawlike, to be the 
* Second edifon bai it of , ill our safely or prevention. 



utmost means of all public safety or prevention,* as 
advice is, v/hich may at any time be rejected by the 
sole judgment of one man, the king, and so unlike the 
law of England, which lawyers say is the quintessence 
of reason and mature wisdom ; we may conclude, that 
the king's negative voice was never any law, but an 
absurd and reasonless custom, beg-otten and grown up 
either from the flattery of basest times, or the usurpa- 
tion of immoderate princes. Thus much to the law of 
it, by a better evidence than rolls and records, reason. 

But is it possible he should pretend also to reason, 
that the judgment of one man, not as a wise or good 
man, but as a king, and ofttimes a wilful, proud, and 
wicked king, should outweigh the prudence and all 
the virtue of an elected parliament ? What an abusive 
thing were it then to summon parliaments, that by the 
major part of voices greatest matters may be there de- 
bated and resolved, whenas one single voice after that 
shall dash all their resolutions ? 

He attempts to give a reason why it should, " Be- 
cause the whole parliaments represent not him in any 
kind." But mark how little he advances ; for if the 
parliament represent the whole kingdom, as is sure 
enough they do, then doth the king represent only 
himself; and if a king without his kingdom be in a 
civil sense nothing-, then without or against the repre- 
sentative of bis whole kingdom, he himself represents 
nothing; and by consequence his judgment and his 
negative is as good as nothing - : and though we should 
allow him to be something, yet not equal f or compar- 
able to the whole kingdom, and so neither to them who 
represent it : much less that one syllable of his breath 
put into the scales should be more ponderous than the 
joint voice and efficacy of a whole parliament, assem- 
bled by election, and endued with the plenipotence of 
a free nation, to make laws, not to be denied laws ; and 
with no more but no, a sleeveless reason, in the most 
pressing times of danger and disturbance to be sent 
home frustrate and remediless. 

Yet here he maintains, " to be no further bound to 
agree with the votes of both houses, than he sees them 
to agree with the will of God, with his just rights as a 
king, and the general good of his people." As to the 
freedom of his agreeing or not agreeing, limited with 
due bounds, no man reprehends it; this is the question 
here, or the miracle rather, why his only not agreeing- 
should lay a negative bar and inhibition upon that 
which is agreed to by a whole parliament, though 
never so conducing to the public good or safety ? To 
know the will of God better than his whole kingdom, 
whence should he have it ? Certainly court-breeding- 
and his perpetual conversation with flatterers was but 
a bad school. To judge of his own rights could not 
belong to him, who had no right by law in any court 
to judge of so much as felony or treason, being held a 
party in both these cases, much more in this ; and his 
rights however should give place to the general good, 
for which end all his rights were given him. Lastly, 
to suppose a clearer insight and discerning of the 
general good, allotted to his own singular judgment, 

1 Second edition has equivalent. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



291 



than to the parliament and all the people, and from 
that self-opinion of discerning, to deny them that good 
which they, being- all freemen, seek earnestly and call 
for, is an arrogance and iniquity beyond imagination 
rude and unreasonable ; they undoubtedly having most 
authority to judge of the public good, who for that 
purpose are chosen out and sent by the people to advise 
him. And if it may be in him to see oft " the major 
part of them not in the right," had it not been more 
his modesty, to have doubted their seeing him more 
often in the wrong ? 

He passes to another reason of his denials, " because 
of some men's hydropic unsatiableness, and thirst of 
asking, the more they drank, whom no fountain of re- 
gal bounty was able to overcome." A comparison 
more properly bestowed on those that came to guzzle 
in his wine-cellar, than on a freeborn people that came 
to claim in parliament their rights and liberties, which 
a king ought therefore to grant, because of right de- 
manded ; not to deny them for fear his bounty should 
be exhausted, which in these demands (to continue the 
same metaphor) was not so much as broached ; it being 
his duty, not his bounty, to grant these things. He 
who thus refuses to give us law, in that refusal gives 
us another law, which is his will, another name also, 
and another condition ; of freemen to become his 
vassals. 

Putting off the courtier, he now puts on the philoso- 
pher, and sententiously disputes to this effect, " That 
reason ought to be used to men, force and terrour to 
beasts ; that he deserves to be a slave, who captivates 
the rational sovereignty of his soul and liberty of his 
will to compulsion ; that he would not forfeit that free- 
dom, which cannot be denied him as a king, because 
it belongs to him as a man and a Christian, though to 
preserve his kingdom; but rather die enjoying the 
empire of his soul, than live in such a vassalage, as not 
to use his reason and conscience, to like or dislike as a 
king." Which words, of themselves, as far as they 
are sense, good and philosophical, yet in the mouth of 
him, who, to engross this common liberty to himself, 
would tread down all other men into the condition of 
slaves and beasts, they quite lose their commendation. 
He confesses a rational sovereignty of soul and free- 
dom of will in every man, and yet with an implicit 
repugnancy would have his reason the sovereign of 
that sovereignty, and would captivate and make use- 
less that natural freedom of will in all other men but 
himself. But them that yield him this obedience he 
so well rewards, as to pronounce them worthy to be 
slaves. They who have lost all to be his subjects, may 
stoop and take up the reward. What that freedom is, 
which " cannot be denied him as a king, because it 
belongs to him as a man and a christian," I understand 
not. If it be his negative voice, it concludes all men, 
who have not such a negative as his against a whole 
parliament, to be neither men nor Christians : and what 
was he himself then, all this while that we denied it 
him as a king ? Will he say, that he enjoyed within 
himself the less freedom for that ? Might not he, both 
as a man and as a christian, have reigned within him- 
u 



self in full sovereignty of soul, no man repining, but 
that his outward and imperious will must invade the 
civil liberties of a nation ? Did we therefore not per- 
mit him to use his reason or his conscience, not permit- 
ting him to bereave us the use of ours ? And might 
not he have enjoyed both as a king, governing us as 
freemen by what laws we ourselves would be govern- 
ed ? It was not the inward use of his reason and of his 
conscience, that would content him, but to use them 
both as a law over all his subjects, " in whatever he 
declared as a king to like or dislike." Which use of 
reason, most reasonless and unconscionable, is the ut- 
most that any tyrant ever pretended over his vassals. 

In all wise nations the legislative power, and the 
judicial execution of that power, have been most com- 
monly distinct, and in several hands ; but yet the for- 
mer supreme, the other subordinate. If then the king 
be only set up to execute the law, which is indeed the 
highest of his office, he ought no more to make or for- 
bid the making of any law agreed upon in parliament, 
than other inferior judges, who are his deputies. 
Neither can he more reject a law offered him by the 
commons, than he can new make a law, which they 
reject. And yet the more to credit and uphold his 
cause, he would seem to have philosophy on his side ; 
straining her wise dictates to unphilosophical purposes. 
But when kings come so low, as to fawn upon philo- 
sophy, which before they neither valued nor under- 
stood, it is a sign that fails not, they are then put to 
their last trump. And philosophy as well requites 
them, by not suffering her golden sayings either to be- 
come their lips, or to be used as masks and colours of 
injurious and violent needs. So that what they pre- 
sume to borrow from her sage and virtuous rules, like 
the riddle of Sphinx not understood, breaks the neck of 
their own cause. 

But now again to politics : " He cannot think the 
Majesty of the crown of England to be bound by any 
coronation oath in a blind and brutish formality, to 
consent to whatever its subjects in parliament shall re- 
quire." What tyrant could presume to say more, when 
he meant to kick down all law, government, and bond 
of oath ? But why he so desires to absolve himself the 
oath of his coronation would be worth the knowing. It 
cannot but be yielded, that the oath, which binds him 
to performance of his trust, ought in reason to contain 
the sum of what his chief trust and office is. But if it 
neither do enjoin, nor mention to him, as a part of his 
duty, the making or the marring of any law, or scrap 
of law, but requires only his assent to those laws which 
the people have already chosen, or shall choose; (for so 
both the Latin of that oath, and the old English ; and 
all reason admits, that the people should not lose under 
a new king what freedom they had before ;) then that 
negative voice so contended for, to deny the passing of 
any law, which the commons choose, is both against 
the oath of his coronation, and his kingly office. And 
if the king may deny to pass what the parliament hath 
chosen to be a law, then doth the king make himself 
superior to his whole kingdom ; which not only the 
general maxims of policy gainsay, but even our own 



'292 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



standing* laws, as hath been cited to him in remon- 
strances heretofore, that " the king hath two superiors, 
the law, and his court of parliament." But this he 
counts to be a blind and brutish formality, whether it 
be law, or oath, or his duty, and thinks to turn it off 
with wholesome words and phrases, which he then first 
learnt of the honest people, when they were so often 
compelled to use them against those more truly blind 
and brutish formalities thrust upon us by his own com- 
mand, not in civil matters only, but in spiritual. And if 
his oath to perform what the people require, when they 
crown him, be in his esteem a brutish formality, then 
doubtless those other oaths of allegiance and supremacy, 
taken absolute on our part, may most justly appear to 
us in all respects as brutish and as formal ; and so by 
his own sentence no more binding to us, than his oath 
to him. 

As for his instance, in case " he and the house of 
peers attempted to enjoin the house of commons," it 
bears no equality ; for he and the peers represent but 
themselves, the commons are the whole kingdom. 

Thus he concludes " his oath to be fully discharged 
in governing by laws already made," as being not 
bound to pass any new, "if his reason bids him deny." 
And so may infinite mischiefs grow, and he with a 
pernicious negative may deny us all things good, or 
just, or safe, whereof our ancestors, in times much dif- 
fering from ours, had either no foresight, or no occasion 
to foresee ; while our general good and safety shall 
depend upon the private and overweening reason of 
one obstinate man, who against all the kingdom, if he 
list, will interpret both the law and his oath of corona- 
tion by the tenour of his own will. Which he himself 
confesses to be an arbitrary power, yet doubts not in 
his argument to imply, as if he thought it more fit the 
parliament should be subject to his will, than he to 
their advice ; a man neither by nature nor by nurture 
wise. How is it possible, that he, in whom such 
principles as these were so deep rooted, could ever, 
though restored again, have reigned otherwise than 
tyrannically ? 

He objects, " That force was but a slavish method 
to dispel his errour." But how often shall it be an- 
swered him, that no force was used to dispel the errour 
out of his head, but to drive it from off our necks? for 
his errour was imperious, and would command all 
other men to renounce their own reason and under- 
standing, till they perished under the injunction of his 
all ruling errour. 

He alleges the uprightness of his intentions to ex- 
cuse his possible failings, a position false both in law 
and divinity: yea, contrary to his own better princi- 
ples, who affirms in the twelfth chapter, that " the 
goodness of a man's intention will not excuse the scan- 
dal and contagion of his example." His not knowing, 
through the corruption of flattery and court-principles, 
what he ought to have known, will not excuse his not 
doing what he ought to have done; no more than the 
small skill of him, who undertakes to be a pilot, will 
excuse him to be misled by any wandering star mis- 
taken for the pole. But let his intentions be never so 



upright, what is that to us ? what answer for the reason 
and the national rights, which God hath given us, if 
having parliaments, and laws, and the power of mak- 
ing more to avoid mischief, we suffer one man's blind 
intentions to lead us all with our eyes open to manifest 
destruction ? 

And if arguments prevail not with such a one, force 
is well used ; not " to carry on the weakness of our 
counsels, or to convince his errour," as he surmises, 
but to acquit and rescue our own reason, our own con- 
sciences, from the force and prohibition laid by his 
usurping errour upon our liberties and understandings. 

" Never any thing* pleased him more, than when his 
judgment concurred with theirs." That was to the ap- 
plause of his own judgment, and would as well have 
pleased any self-conceited man. 

" Yea, in many things he chose rather to deny him- 
self than them." That is to say, in trifles. For " of 
his own interests" and personal rights he conceives 
himself " master." To part with, if he please; not to 
contest for, against the kingdom, which is greater than 
he, whose rights are all subordinate to the kingdom's 
good. And " in what concerns truth, justice, the right 
of church, or his crown, no man shall gain his consent 
against his mind." What can be left then for a par- 
liament, but to sit like images, while he still thus 
either with incomparable arrogance assumes to himself 
the best ability of judging for other men what is truth, 
justice, goodness, what his own and the church's 
right, or with unsufferable tyranny restrains all men 
from the enjoyment of any good, which his judgment, 
though erroneous, thinks not fit to grant them ; not- 
withstanding that the law and his coronal oath re- 
quires his undeniable assent to what laws the parlia- 
ment agree upon ? 

" He had rather wear a crown of thorns with our Sa- 
viour." Many would be all one with our Saviour, 
whom our Saviour will not know. They who govern 
ill those kingdoms which they had a right to, have to 
our Saviour's crown of thorns no right at all. Thorns 
they may find enow of their own gathering, and their 
own twisting ; for thorns and snares, saith Solomon, 
are in the Way of the froward : but to wear them, as 
our Saviour wore them, is not given to them, that suf- 
fer by their own demerits. Nor is a crown of gold his 
due, who cannot first wear a crown of lead ; not only 
for the weight of that great office, but for the compli- 
ance which it ought to have with them who are to 
counsel him, which here he terms in scorn " An imbased 
flexibleness to the various and oft contrary dictates of 
any factions," meaning his parliament; for the ques- 
tion, hath been all this while between them two. And 
to his parliament, though a numerous and choice as- 
sembly of whom the land thought wisest, he imputes, 
rather than to himself, "want of reason, neglect of the 
public, interest of parties, and particularity of private 
will and passion ;" but with what modesty or likelihood 
of truth, it will be wearisome to repeat so often. 

He concludes with a sentence fair in seeming, but 
fallacious. For if the conscience be ill edified, the re- 
solution may more befit a foolish than a christian king, 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



293 



to prefer a self-willed conscience before a kingdom's 
good ; especially in the denial of that, which law and 
his regal office by oath bids him grant to his parliament 
and whole kingdom rightfully demanding. For we 
may observe him throughout the discourse to assert his 
negative power against the whole kingdom ; now under 
the specious plea of his conscience and his reason, but 
heretofore in a louder note ; " Without us, or against 
our consent, the votes of either or of both houses toge- 
ther, must not, cannot, shall not." Declar. May 4, 
1642. 

With these and the like deceivable doctrines he 
leavens also his prayer. 



VII. Upon the Queen's Departure. 

To this argument we shall soon have said ; for what 
concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household 
privacies, extolling to others the virtues of his wife ? 
an infirmity not seldom incident to those who have least 
cause. But how good she was a wife, was to himself, 
and be it left to his own fancy ; how bad a subject, is 
not much disputed. And being such, it need be made 
no wonder, though she left a protestant kingdom with 
as little honour as her mother left a popish. 

That this " is the first example of any protestant sub- 
jects, that have taken up arms against their king a 
protestant," can be to protestants no dishonour ; when 
it shall be heard, that he first levied war on them, and 
to the interest of papists more than of protestants. He 
might have given yet the precedence of making war 
upon him to the subjects of his own nation, who had 
twice opposed him in the open field long ere the Eng- 
lish found it necessary to do the like. And how 
groundless, how dissembled is that fear, lest she, who 
for so. many years had been averse from the religion of 
her husband, and every year more and more, before 
these disturbances broke out, should for them be now 
the more alienated from that, to which w r e never heard 
she was inclined ? But if the fear of her delinquency, 
and that justice which the protestants demanded on 
her, was any cause of her alienating the more, to have 
gained her by indirect means had been no advantage 
to religion, much less then was the detriment to lose 
her further off. It had been happy if his own actions 
had not given cause of more scandal to the protestants, 
than what they did against her could justly scandalize 
any papist. 

Them who accused her, well enough known to be 
the parliament, he censures for " men yet to seek their 
religion, whether doctrine, discipline, or good man- 
ners ;" the rest he soothes with the name of true Eng- 
lish protestants, a mere schismatical name, yet he so 
great an enemy of schism. 

He ascribes " rudeness and barbarity, worse than 
Indian," to the English parliament ; and " all virtue" 
to his wife, in strains that come almost to sonnetting : 
how fit to govern men, undervaluing and aspersing 
the great council of his kingdom, in comparison of one 



woman ! Examples are not far to seek, how great mis- 
chief and dishonour hath befallen nations under the 
government of effeminate and uxorious magistrates ; 
who, being themselves governed and overswayed at 
home under a feminine usurpation, cannot but be far 
short of spirit and authority without doors, to govern a 
whole nation. 

" Her tarrying here he could not think safe among 
them, who were shaking hands with allegiance, to lay 
faster hold on religion ;" and taxes them of a duty ra- 
ther than a crime, it being just to obey God rather than 
man, and impossible to serve two masters : I would 
they had quite shaken off what they stood shaking 
hands with ; the fault was in their courage, not in their 
cause. 

In his prayer he prays, that the disloyalty of his pro- 
testant subjects may not be a hinderance to her love of 
the true religion ; and never prays, that the dissolute- 
ness of his court, the scandals of his clergy, the unsound- 
ness of his own judgment, the lukewarmness of his 
life, his letter of compliance to the pope, his permitting 
agents at Rome, the pope's nuncio, and her jesuited 
mother here, may not be found in the sight of God far 
greater hinderances to her conversion. 

But this had been a subtle prayer indeed, and well 
prayed, though as duly as a Paternoster, if it could 
have charmed us to sit still, and have religion and our 
liberties one by one snatched from us, for fear lest rising 
to defend ourselves we should fright the queen, a stiff 
papist, from turning protestant ! As if the way to make 
his queen a protestant, had been to make his subjects 
more than halfway papists. 

He prays next, " that his constancy may be an anti- 
dote against the poison of other men's example." His 
constancy in what ? Not in religion, for it is openly 
known, that her religion wrought more upon him, than 
his religion upon her; and his open favouring of papists, 
and his hatred of them called puritans, (the ministers 
also that prayed in churches for her conversion, being 
checked from court,) made most men suspect she had 
quite perverted him. But what is it, that the blindness 
of hypocrisy dares not do ? It dares pray, and thinks 
to hide that from the eyes of God, which it cannot hide 
from the open view of man. 



VIII. Upon his Repulse at Hull, and the Fate of 
the Hothams. 

Hull, a town of great strength and opportunity both 
to sea and land affairs, was at that time the magazine 
of all those arms, which the king had bought with 
money most illegally extorted from his subjects of 
England, to use in a causeless and most unjust civil 
war against his subjects of Scotland. The king in 
high discontent and anger had left the parliament, and 
was gone towards the north, the queen into Holland, 
where she pawned and set to sale the crown jewels ; (a 
crime heretofore counted treasonable in kings ;) and to 
what intent these sums were raised, the parliament was 



294 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



not ignorant. His going- northward in so high a chafe 
they doubted was to possess himself of that strength, 
which the storehouse and situation of Hull might add 
suddenly to his malignant party. Having first there- 
fore in many petitions earnestly prayed him to dispose 
and settle, with consent of both houses, the military 
power in trusty hands, and he as oft refusing, they 
were necessitated by the turbulence and danger of 
those times, to put the kingdom by their own authority 
into a posture of defence ; and very timely sent Sir 
John Hotham, a member of the house, and knight of 
that county, to take Hull into his custody, and some 
of the trained bands to his assistance. For besides the 
general danger, they had, before the king's going to 
York, notice given them of his private commissions to 
the earl of Newcastle, and to Colonel Legg,one of those 
employed to bring the army up against the parliament; 
who had already made some attempts, and the former 
of them under a disguise, to surprise that place for the 
king's party. And letters of the Lord Digby were in- 
tercepted, wherein was wished, that the king would 
declare himself, and retire to some safe place ; other 
information came from abroad, that Hull was the place 
designed for some new enterprise. And accordingly 
Digby himself not long after, with many other com- 
manders, and much foreign ammunition, landed in those 
parts. But these attempts not succeeding, and that 
town being now in custody of the parliament, he sends 
a message to them, that he had firmly resolved to go 
in person into Ireland, to chastise those wicked rebels, 
(for these and worse words he then gave them,) and 
that towards this work he intended forthwith to raise 
by his commissions, in the counties near Westchester, 
a guard for his own person, consisting of 2000 foot, and 
200 horse, that should be armed from bis magazine at 
Hull. On the other side, the parliament, foreseeing 
the king's drift, about the same time send him a peti- 
tion, that they might have leave for necessary causes 
to remove the magazine of Hull to the Tower of Lon- 
don, to which the king returns his denial; and soon 
-after going to Hull attended with about 400 horse, re- 
quires the governor to deliver him up the town : 
whereof the governor besought humbly to be excused, 
till he could send notice to the parliament, who had 
intrusted him ; whereat the king much incensed pro- 
claims him traitor before the town walls, and gives im- 
mediate order to stop all passages between him and 
the parliament Yet he himself dispatches post after 
post to demand justice, as upon a traitor; using a 
strange iniquity to require justice upon him, whom he 
then waylaid, and debarred from his appearance. The 
parliament no sooner understood what had passed, but 
they declare, that Sir John Hotham had done no more 
than was his duty, and was therefore no traitor. 

rhia relation, being most true, proves that which is 
affirmed here to be most false ; seeing the parliament, 
•rhom he accounts his " greatest enemies," had " more 
confidence to abet and own" what Sir John Hotham 
had done, than the king had confidence to let him an- 
Ij cr in his own behalf. 
Jo speak of his patience, and in that solemn man- 



ner, be might better have forborne ; " God knows," 
saith he, " it affected me more with sorrow for others, 
than with anger for myself; nor did the affront trouble 
me so much as their sin." This is read, I doubt not, 
and believed : and as there is some use of every thing, 
so is there of this book, were it but to show us, what a 
miserable, credulous, deluded thing that creature is, 
which is called the vulgar ; who, notwithstanding what 
they might know, will believe such vainglories as these. 
Did not that choleric and vengeful act of proclaiming 
him traitor before due process of law, having been con- 
vinced so late before of his illegality with the five mem- 
bers, declare his anger to be incensed ? doth not his 
own relation confess as much ? and his second message 
left him fuming three days after, and in plain words 
testifies " his impatience of delay" till Hotham be se- 
verely punished, for that which he there terms an in- 
supportable affront. 

Surely if his sorrow for Sir John Hotham's sin were 
greater than his anger for the affront, it was an ex- 
ceeding great sorrow indeed, and wonderous charitable. 
But if it stirred him so vehemently to have Sir John 
Hotham punished, and not at all, that we hear, to have 
him repent, it had a strange operation to be called a 
sorrow for his sin. He who would persuade us of his 
sorrow for the sins of other men, as they are sins, not 
as they are sinned against himself, must give us first 
some testimony of a sorrow for his own sins, and next 
for such sins of other men as cannot be supposed a di- 
rect injury to himself. But such compunction in the 
king no man hath yet observed ; and till then his sor- 
row for Sir John Hotham's sin will be called no other 
than the resentment of his repulse ; and his labour to 
have the sinner only punished will be called by a right 
name, his revenge. 

And " the hand of that cloud, which cast all soon 
after into darkness and disorder," was his own hand. 
For assembling the inhabitants of Yorkshire and other 
counties, horse and foot, first under colour of a new 
guard to his person, soon after, being supplied with 
ammunition from Holland, bought with the crown 
jewels, he begins an open war by laying siege to Hull : 
which town was not his own, but the kingdom's; and 
the arms there, public arms, bought with the public 
money, or not his own. Yet had they been his own by 
as good right as the private house and arms of any man 
are his own ; to use either of them in a way not private, 
but suspicious to the commonwealth, no law permits. 
But the king had no propriety at all either in Hull or in 
the magazine : so that the following maxims, which he 
cites " of bold and disloyal undertakers," may belong 
more justly to whom he least meant them. After this 
he again relapses into the praise of his patience at 
Hull, and by his overtaking of it seems to doubt either 
his own conscience or the hardness of other men's be- 
lief. To me the more he praises it in himself, the 
more he seems to suspect that in very deed it was 
not in him ; and that the lookers on so likewise 
thought. 

Thus much of what he suffered by Hotham, and with 
what patience; now of what Hotham suffered, as he 



« 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



295 



judges, for opposing' him: " he could not but observe 
how God not long after pleaded and avenged his cause." 
Most men are too apt, and commonly the worst of men, 
so to interpret and expound the judgments of God, 
and all other events of Providence or chance, as makes 
most to the justifying of their own cause, though never 
so evil ; and attribute all to the particular favour of 
God towards them. Thus when Saul heard that David 
was in Keilah, " God," saith he, " hath delivered him 
into my hands, for he is shut in." But how far that 
king was deceived in his thought that God was favour- 
ing to his cause, that story unfolds ; and how little 
reason this king had to impute the death of Hotham 
to God's avengement of his repulse at Hull, may easily 
be seen. For while Hotham continued faithful to his 
trust, no man more safe, more successful, more in re- 
putation than he : but from the time he first sought to 
make his peace with the king, and to betray into his 
hands that town, into which before he had denied him 
entrance, nothing prospered with him. Certainly had 
God purposed him such an end for his opposition to the 
king, he would not have deferred to punish him till 
then, when of an enemy he was changed to be the 
king's friend, nor have made his repentance and amend- 
ment the occasion of his ruin. How much more likely 
is it, since he fell into the act of disloyalty to his charge, 
that the judgment of God concurred with the punish- 
ment of man, and justly cut him off for revolting to 
the king! to give the world an example, that glorious 
deeds done to ambitious ends find reward answerable, 
not to their outward seeming, but to their inward am- 
bition. In the mean while, what thanks he had from 
the king for revolting to his cause, and what good opi- 
nion for dying in his service, they who have ventured 
like him, or intend, may here take notice. 

He proceeds to declare, not only in general where- 
fore God's judgment was upon Hotham, but under- 
takes by fancies, and allusions, to give a criticism upon 
every particular : " that his head was divided from his 
body, because his heart was divided from the king ; 
two heads cut off in one family for affronting the head 
of the commonwealth ; the eldest son being infected 
with the sin of his father, against the father of his 
country." These petty glosses and conceits on the high 
and secret judgments of God, besides the boldness of 
unwarrantable commenting, are so weak and shallow, 
and so like the quibbles of a court sermon, that we may 
safely reckon them either fetched from such a pattern, 
or that the hand of some household priest foisted them 
in ; lest the world should forget how much he was a 
disciple of those cymbal doctors. But that argument, 
by which the author would commend them to us, dis- 
credits them the more : for if they be so " obvious to 
every fancy," the more likely to be erroneous, and to 
misconceive the mind of those high secrecies, whereof 
they presume to determine. For God judges not by 
human fancy. 

But however God judged Hotham, yet he had the 
king's pity : but mark the reason how preposterous ; so 
far he had his pity, " as he thought he at first acted 
more against the light of his conscience, than many 






other men in the same cause." Questionless they who 
act against conscience, whether at the bar of human or 
divine justice, are pitied least of all. These are the 
common grounds and verdicts of nature, whereof when 
he who hath the judging of a whole nation is found 
destitute, under such a governor that nation must needs 
be miserable. 

By the way he jerks at " some men's reforming to 
models of religion, and that they think all is gold of 
piety, that doth but glister with a show of zeal." We 
know his meaning, and apprehend how little hope there 
could be of him from such language as this : but are 
sure that the piety of his prelatic model glistered more 
upon the posts and pillars, which their zeal and fer- 
vency gilded over, than in the true works of spiritual 
edification. 

" He is sorry that Hotham felt the justice of others, 
and fell not rather into the hands of his mercy." But 
to clear that, he should have shewn us what mercy he 
had ever used to such as fell into his hands before, ra- 
ther than what mercy he intended to such as never 
could come to ask it. Whatever mercy one man might 
have expected, it is too well known the whole nation 
found none ; though they besought it often, and so 
humbly ; but had been swallowed up in blood and ruin, 
to set his private will above the parliament, had not his 
strength failed him. " Yet clemency he counts a debt, 
which he ought to pay to those that crave it; since we 
pay not any thing to God for his mercy but prayers 
and praises." By this reason we ought as freely to 
pay all things to all men ; for of all that we receive 
from God, what do we pay for, more than prayers and 
praises ? we looked for the discharge of his office, the 
payment of his duty to the kingdom, and are paid 
court-payment with empty sentences that have the 
sound of gravity, but the significance of nothing per- 
tinent. 

Yet again after his mercy past and granted, he re- 
turns back to give sentence upon Hotham ; and whom 
he tells us he would so fain have saved alive, him he 
never leaves killing with a repeated condemnation, 
though dead long since. It was ill that somebody 
stood not near to whisper him, that a reiterating judge 
is worse than a tormentor. " He pities him, he rejoices 
not, he pities him" again; but still is sure to brand 
him at the tail of his pity with some ignominious mark, 
either of ambition or disloyalty. And with a kind of 
censorious pity aggravates rather than lessens or con- 
ceals the fault: to pity thus, is to triumph. 

He assumes to foreknow, that " after-times will dis- 
pute, whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull, 
or at Tower-hill." What knew he of after-times, who, 
while he sits judging and censuring without end the 
fate of that unhappy father and his son at Tower-hill, 
knew not the like fate attended him before his own 
palace gate ; and as little knew whether after-times re- 
serve not a greater infamy to the story of his own life 
and reign ? 

He says but over again in his prayer what his 
sermon hath preached : how acceptably to those in 
heaven we leave to be decided by that precept, which 



296 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



forbids " vain repetitions." Sure enough it lies as heavy 
as he can lay it upon the head of poor Hotham. 

Needs he will fasten upon God a piece of revenge as 
done for his sake ; and take it for a favour, before he 
know it was intended him : which in his closet had 
been excusable, but in a written and published prayer 
too presumptuous. Ecclesiastes hath a right name for 
such kind of sacrifices. 

Going on he prays thus, "Let not thy justice pre- 
vent the objects and opportunities of my mercy." To 
folly, or to blasphemy, or to both, shall we impute 
this ? Shall the justice of God give place, and serve to 
glorify the mercies of a man ? All other men, who 
know what they ask, desire of God, that their doings 
may tend to his glory ; but in this prayer God is re- 
quired, that his justice would forbear to prevent, and as 
good have said to intrench upon the glory of a man's 
mercy. If God forbear his justice, it must be, sure, to 
the magnifying of his own mercy : how then can any 
mortal man, without presumption little less than im- 
pious, take the boldness to ask that glory out of his 
hand ? It may be doubted now by them who under- 
stand religion, whether the king were more unfortunate 
in this his prayer, or Hotham in those his sufferings. 



IX. Upon the listing and raising Armies, Sfc. 

It were an endless work, to walk side by side with 
the verbosity of this chapter ; only to what already 
hath not been spoken, convenient answer shall be 
given. He begins again with tumults : all demonstra- 
tion of the people's love and loyalty to the parliament 
was tumult; their petitioning tumult ; their defensive 
armies were but listed tumults ; and will take no no- 
tice that those about him, those in a time of peace listed 
into his own house, were the beginners of all these tu- 
mults ; abusing and assaulting not only such as came 
peaceably to the parliament at London, but those that 
came petitioning to the king himself at York. Neither 
did they abstain from doing violence and outrage to 
the messengers sent from parliament ; he himself either 
countenancing or conniving at them. 

He supposes, that " his recess gave us confidence, 
that he might be conquered." Other men suppose both 
that and all tilings else, who knew him neither by na- 
ture warlike, nor experienced, nor fortunate ; so far 
was any man, that discerned aught, from esteeming him 
unconquerable; yet such are readiest to embroil others. 

" But he had a soul invincible." What praise is 
that? The stomach of a child is ofttimes invincible to 
all correction. The untcachable man hath a soul to 
all reason and good advice invincible ; and he who is 
intractable, lie whom nothing can persuade, may boast 
himself ini incible ; whenas in some things to be over- 
come, is more honest and laudable than to conquer. 

He labours to have it thought, that " his fearing God 
more than man ' was the ground of his sufferings ; but 
lie ihonld have known, that a good principle not rightly 
understood may prove as hurtful as a bad; and his 



fear of God may be as faulty as a blind zeal. He pre- 
tended to fear God more than the parliament, who never 
urged him to do otherwise ; he should also have feared 
God more than he did his courtiers, and the bishops, 
who drew him, as they pleased, to things inconsistent 
with the fear of God. Thus boasted Saul to have 
" performed the commandment of God," and stood in 
it against Samuel ; but it was found at length, that he 
had feared the people more than God, in saving those 
fat oxen for the worship of God, which were appointed 
for destruction. Not much unlike, if not much worse, 
was that fact of his, who, for fear to displease his 
court and mongrel clergy, with the dissolutest of the 
people, upheld in the church of God, while his power 
lasted, those beasts of Amalec, the prelates, against the 
advice of his parliament and the example of all refor- 
mation ; in this more inexcusable than Saul, that Saul 
was at length convinced, he to the hour of death fixed 
in his false persuasion; and soothes himself in the flat- 
tering peace of an erroneous and obdurate conscience ; 
singing to his soul vain psalms of exultation, as if the 
parliament had assailed his reason with the force of 
arms, and not he on the contrary their reason with his 
arms ; which hath been proved already, and shall be 
more hereafter. 

He twits them with " his acts of grace ;" proud, and 
unselfknowing words in the mouth of any king, who 
affects not to be a god, and such as ought to be as odi- 
ous in the ears of a free nation. For if they were un- 
just acts, why did he grant them as of grace ? If just, 
it was not of his grace, but of his duty and his oath to 
grant them. 

" A glorious king he would be, though by his suffer- 
ings :" but that can never be to him, whose sufferings 
are his own doings. He feigns " a hard choice " put 
upon him, "either to kill his subjects, or be killed." 
Yet never was king less in danger of any violence 
from his subjects, till he unsheathed his sword against 
them ; nay long after that time, when he had spilt the 
blood of thousands, they had still his person in a fool- 
ish veneration. 

He complains, "that civil war must be the fruits 
of his seventeen years reigning with such a measure of 
justice, peace, plenty, and religion, as all nations either 
admired or envied." For the justice we had, let the 
council-table, star-chamber, high-commission speak the 
praise of it; not forgetting the unprincely usage, and, 
as far as might be, the abolishing of parliaments, the 
displacing of honest judges, the sale of offices, bribery, 
and exaction, not found out to be punished, but to be 
shared in with impunity for the time to come. Who 
can number the extortions, the oppressions, the public 
robberies and rapines committed on the subject both by 
sea and land under various pretences ? their possessions 
also taken from them, one while as forest-land, another 
while as crown-land ; nor were their goods exempted, 
no not the bullion in the mint ; piracy was become a 
project owned and authorized against the subject. 

For the peace we had, what peace was that which 
drew out the English to a needless and dishonourable 
voyage against the Spaniard at Cales ? Or that which 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



297 



lent our shipping to a treacherous and antichristian 
war against the poor protestants of Rochel our suppli- 
ants ? What peace was that which fell to rob the 
French bj sea, to the embarring of all our merchants 
in that kingdom ? which brought forth that unblest ex- 
pedition to the Isle of Rhee, doubtful whether more 
calamitous in the success or in the design, betraying all 
the flower of our military youth and best commanders 
to a shameful surprisal and execution. This was the 
peace we had, and the peace we gave, whether to 
friends or to foes abroad. And if at home any peace 
were intended us, what meant those Irish billetted sol- 
diers in all parts of the kingdom, and the design of 
German horse to subdue us in our peaceful houses ? 

For our religion, where was there a more ignorant, 
profane, and vitious clergy, learned in nothing but the 
antiquity of their pride, their covetousness, and super- 
stition ? whose unsincere and leavenous doctrine, cor- 
rupting the people, first taught them looseness, then 
bondage ; loosening them from all sound knowledge 
and strictness of life, the more to fit them for the bond- 
age of tyranny and superstition. So that what was 
left us for other nations not to pity, rather than admire 
or envy, all those seventeen years, no wise man could 
see. For wealth and plenty in a land where justice 
reigns not is no argument of a flourishing state, but of 
a nearness rather to ruin or commotion. 

These were not " some miscarriages" only of govern- 
ment, " which might escape," but a universal distem- 
per, and inducement of law to arbitrary power ; not 
through the evil counsels of" some men," but through 
the constant course and practice of all that were in 
highest favour : whose worst actions frequently avow- 
ing he took upon himself; and what faults did not yet 
seem in public to be originally his, such care he took 
by professing, and proclaiming openly, as made them 
all at length his own adopted sins. The persons also, 
when he could no longer protect, he esteemed and fa- 
voured to the end ; but never, otherwise than by con- 
straint, yielded any of them to due punishment ; thereby 
manifesting that what they did was by his own author- 
ity and approbation. 

Yet here he asks, " whose innocent blood he hath 
shed, what widows' or orphans' tears can witness against 
him ?" After the suspected poisoning of his father, not 
inquired into, but smothered up, and him protected and 
advanced to the very half of his kingdom, who was 
accused in parliament to be author of the fact ; (with 
much more evidence than Duke Dudley, that false pro- 
tector, is accused upon record to have poisoned Edward 
the Sixth ;) after all his rage and persecution, after so 
many years of cruel war on his people in three king- 
doms ! Whence the author of " Truths manifest,"* a 
Scotsman, not unacquainted with affairs, positively 
affirms, " that there hath been more christian blood 
shed by the commission, approbation, and connivance 
of King Charles, and his father James, in the latter end 
of their reign, than in the ten Roman persecutions." 
Not to speak of those many whippings, pillories, and 

* The title of the treatise here referred to, is, Truth its Manifest ; or, a 
»hort and true Relation of divers main Passages of Things (in seme whereof 
the Scots are particularly concerned) from the very first Beginning of these 



other corporal inflictions, wherewith his reign also be- 
fore this war was not unbloody ; some have died in 
prison under cruel restraint, others in banishment, 
whose lives were shortened through the rigour of that 
persecution, wherewith so many years he infested the 
true church. And those six members all men judged 
to have escaped no less than capital danger, whom he 
so greedily pursuing into the house of commons, had 
not there the forbearance to conceal how much it trou- 
bled him, " that the birds were flown." If some vul- 
ture in the mountains could have opened his beak in- 
telligibly and spoke, what fitter words could he have 
uttered at the loss of his prey? The tyrant Nero, 
though not yet deserving that name, set his hand so 
unwillingly to the execution of a condemned person, 
as to wish " he had not known letters." Certainly for 
a king himself to charge his subjects with high trea- 
son, and so vehemently to prosecute them in his own 
cause, as to do the office of a searcher, argued in him 
no great aversation from shedding blood, were it but 
to " satisfy his anger," and that revenge was no un- 
pleasing morsel to him, whereof he himself thought 
not much to be so diligently his own caterer. But we 
insist rather upon what was actual, than what was 
probable. 

He now falls to examine the causes of this war, as a 
difficulty which he had long " studied" to find out. 
" It was not," saith he, " my withdrawing from White- 
hall; for no account in reason could be given of those 
tumults, where an orderly guard was granted." But 
if it be a most certain truth, that the parliament could 
never yet obtain of him any guard fit to be confided in, 
thereby his own confession some account of those pre- 
tended tumults " may in reason be given ;" and both 
concerning them and the guards enough hath been said 
already. 

" Whom did he protect against the justice of parlia- 
ment?" Whom did he not to his utmost power? En- 
deavouring to have rescued Strafford from their justice, 
though with the destruction of them and the city ; to 
that end expressly commanding the admittance of new 
soldiers into the Tower, raised by Suckling and other 
conspirators, under pretence for the Portugal; though 
that ambassador, being sent to, utterly denied to know 
of any such commission from his master. And yet 
that listing continued : not to repeat his other plot of 
bringing up the two armies. But what can be disputed 
with such a king, in whose mouth and opinion the 
parliament itself was never but a faction, and their 
justice no justice, but " the dictates and overswaying 
insolence of tumults and rabbles ?" and under that ex- 
cuse avouches himself openly the general patron of 
most notorious delinquents, and approves their flight 
out of the land, whose crimes were such, as that the 
justest and the fairest trial would have soonest con- 
demned them to death. But did not Catiline plead in 
like manner against the Roman senate, and the injust- 
ice of their trial, and the justice of his flight from 
Rome? Csesar also, then hatching tyranny, injected 

unhappy Troubles to this Day. Published in 12mo, 1645. A reply to this 
was published in quarto, 1646, entitled, Manifest Truths; or, an Inversion 
of Truths Manifest. 



208 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



the same scrupulous demurs, to stop the sentence of 
death in full and free senate decreed on Lentulus and 
Cethegus, two of Catiline's accomplices, which were 
renewed and urged for Strafford. He vouchsafes to 
the reformation, by both kingdoms intended, no better 
name than " innovation and ruin both in church and 
state." And what we would have learned so gladly of 
him in other passages before, to know wherein, he tells 
us now of his own accord. The expelling bishops out 
of the house of peers, that was "ruin to the state;" the 
" removing" them " root and branch," this was " ruin 
to the church." 

How happy could this nation be in such a governor, 
who counted that their ruin, which they thought their 
deliverance; the ruin both of church and state, which 
was the recovery and the saving of them both ? 

To the passing of those bills against bishops how is 
it likely that the house of peers gave so hardly their 
consent, which they gave so easily before to the at- 
taching them of high treason, twelve at once, only for 
protesting that the parliament could not act without 
them? Surely if their rights and privileges were 
thought so undoubted in that house, as is here main- 
tained ; then was that protestation, being meant and 
intended in the name of their whole spiritual order, no 
treason ; and so that house itself will become liable to 
a just construction either of injustice to appeach them 
for so consenting, or of usurpation, representing none 
but themselves, to expect that their voting or not voting 
should obstruct the commons : who not for " five re- 
pulses of the lords," no not for fifty, were to desist from 
what in the name of the whole kingdom they demand- 
ed, so long as those lords were none of our lords. And 
for the bill against root and branch, though it passed 
not in both houses till many of the lords and some few 
of the commons, either enticed away by the king, or 
overawed by the sense of their own malignancy not 
prevailing, deserted the parliament, and made a fair 
riddance of themselves ; that was no warrant for them 
who remained faithful, being' far the greater number, 
to lay aside that bill of root and branch, till the return 
of their fugitives; a bill so necessary and so much de- 
sired by themselves as well as by the people. 

This was the partiality, this degrading of the bishops, 
a thing so wholesome in the state, and so orthodoxal 
in the church both ancient and reformed ; which the 
king rather than assent to " will either hazard both his 
own and the kingdom's ruin," by our just defence 
against his force of arms; or prostrate our consciences 
in a blind obedience to himself, and those men, whose 
superstition, zealous or unzealous, would enforce upon 
us an antichristian tyranny in the church, neither pri- 
mitive, apostolical, nor more anciently universal than 
some other manifest corruptions. 

But " he was bound, besides his judgment, by a most 
strict and indispensable oath, to preserve the order and 
the rights of the church." If he mean that oath of his 
coronation, and that the letter of that oath admit not to 
be interpreted either by equity, reformation, or better 
knowledge, then was the king bound by that oath, to 
grant the clergy all those customs, franchises, and cano- 



nical privileges granted to them by Edward the Con- 
fessor: and so might one day, under pretence of that 
oath and his conscience, have brought us all again to 
popery : but had he so well remembered as he ought 
the words to which he swore, he might have found 
himself no otherwise obliged there, than "according to 
the laws of God, and true profession of the gospel." 
For if those following words, " established in this king- 
dom," be set there to limit and lay prescription on the 
laws of God and truth of the gospel by man's estab- 
lishment, nothing can be more absurd or more injuri- 
ous to religion. So that however the German em- 
perors or other kings have levied all those wars on their 
protestant subjects under the colour of a blind and 
literal observance to an oath, yet this king had least 
pretence of all; both sworn to the laws of God and 
evangelic truth, and disclaiming, as we heard him be- 
fore, " to be bound by any coronation oath, in a blind 
and brutish formality." Nor is it to be imagined, if 
what shall be established come in question, but that the 
parliament should oversway the king, and not he the 
parliament. And by all law and reason that which 
the parliament will not is no more established in this 
kingdom, neither is the king bound by oath to uphold 
it as a thing established. And that the king (who of 
his princely grace, as he professes, hath so oft abolished 
things that stood firm bylaw, as the star-chamber and 
high-commission) ever thought himself bound by oath 
to keep them up, because established ; he who will be- 
lieve, must at the same time condemn him of as many 
perjuries, as he is well known to have abolished bolh 
laws and jurisdictions that wanted no establishment. 

" Had he gratified," he thinks, " their antiepiscopal 
faction with his consent, and sacrificed the church- 
government and revenues to the fury of their covetous- 
ness," &c. an army had not been raised. Whereas it 
was the fury of his own hatred to the professors of true 
religion, which first incited him to prosecute them with 
the sword of war, when whips, pillories, exiles, and im- 
prisonments were not thought sufficient. To colour 
which he cannot find wherewithal, but that stale pre- 
tence of Charles the Vth, and other popish kings, that 
the protestants had only an intent to lay hands upon 
the church-revenues, a thing never in the thoughts of 
this parliament, till exhausted by his endless war upon 
them, their necessity seized on that for the common- 
wealth, which the luxury of prelates had abused before 
to a common mischief. 

His consent to the unlording of bishops, (for to that 
he himself consented, and at Canterbury the chief seat 
of their pride, so God would have it!) " was from his 
firm persuasion of their contentedness to suffer a pre- 
sent diminution of their rights." Can any man, read- 
ing this, not discern the pure mockery of a royal 
consent, to delude us only for " the present," meaning, 
it seems, when time should serve, to revoke all ? By 
this reckoning, his consents and his denials come all 
to one pass : and we may hence perceive the small 
wisdom and integrity of those votes, which voted his 
concessions of the Isle of Wight for grounds of a last- 
ing peace. This he alleges, this controversy about 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



299 



bishops, " to be the true state" of that difference be- 
tween him and the parliament. For he held episco- 
pacy " both very sacred and divine;" with this judg- 
ment, and for this cause, he withdrew from the parlia- 
ment, and confesses that some men knew " he was like 
to bring again the same judgment which he carried 
with him." A fair and unexpected justification from 
his own mouth afforded to the parliament, who, not- 
withstanding what they knew of his obstinate mind, 
omitted not to use all those means and that patience to 
have gained him. 

As for delinquents, " he allows them to be but the 
necessary consequences of his and their withdrawing 
and defending," a pretty shift ! to mince the name of 
a delinquent into a necessary consequent : what is a 
traitor, but the necessary consequence of his treason ? 
What a rebel, but of his rebellion ? From his conceit 
he would infer a pretext only in the parliament " to 
fetch in delinquents," as if there had indeed been no 
such cause, but all the delinquency in London tu- 
mults. Which is the overworn theme and stuffing of 
all his discourses. 

This he thrice repeats to be the true state and reason 
of all that war and devastation in the land ; and that 
" of all the treaties and propositions" offered him, he 
was resolved " never to grant the abolishing of episco- 
pal, or the establishment of presbyterian, government." 
I would demand now of the Scots and covenanters, (for 
so I call them, as misobservers of the covenant,) how 
they will reconcile " the preservation of religion and 
their liberties, and the bringing of delinquents to con- 
dign punishment," with the freedom, honour, and 
safety of this avowed resolution here, that esteems al 
the zeal of their prostituted covenant no better than 
" a noise and shew of piety, a heat for reformation, 
filling them with prejudice, and obstructing all equality 
and clearness of judgment in them." With these prin- 
ciples who knows but that at length he might have 
come to take the covenant, as others, whom they bro- 
therly admit, have done before him ? And then all, no 
doubt, had gone well, and ended in a happy peace. 

His prayer is most of it borrowed out of David ; but 
what if it be answered him as the Jews, who trusted in 
Moses, were answered by our Saviour ; " there is one 
that accuseth you, even David, whom you misapply." 

He tells God, " that his enemies are many," but tells 
the people, when it serves his turn, they are but " a 
faction of some few, prevailing over the major part of 
both houses." 

" God knows he had no passion, design, or prepara- 
tion, to embroil his kingdom in a civil war." True ; 
for he thought his kingdom to be Issachar, a " strong 
ass that would have couched down between two bur- 
dens," the one of prelatical superstition, the other of 
civil tyranny : but what passion and design, what 
close and open preparation he had made, to subdue us 
to both these by terrour and preventive force, all the 
nation knows. 

" The confidence of some men had almost persuaded 

him to suspect his own innocence." As the words of 

* The second edition has so fain. To feign, is to dissemble ; but we use 



Saint Paul had almost persuaded Agrippa to be a Chris- 
tian. But almost, in the works of repentance, is as 
good as not at all. 

" God," saith he, " will find out bloody and deceit- 
ful men, many of whom have not lived out half their 
days." It behoved him to have been more cautious 
how he tempted God's finding out of blood and deceit, 
till his own years had been further spent, or that he had 
enjoyed longer the fruits of his own violent counsels. 

But instead of wariness he adds another temptation, 
charging God " to know, that the chief design of this 
war was either to destroy his person, or to force his 
judgment." And thus his prayer, from the evil prac- 
tice of unjust accusing men to God, arises to the hide- 
ous rashness of accusing G od before men, to know that 
for truth which all men know to be most false. 

He prays, " that God would forgive the people, for 
they know not what they do." It is an easy matter to 
say over what our Saviour said ; but how he loved the 
people other arguments than affected sayings must de- 
monstrate. He who so oft hath presumed rashly to 
appeal to the knowledge and testimony of God in things 
so evidently untrue, may be doubted what belief or 
esteem he had of his forgiveness, either to himself, or 
those for whom he would *so feign that men should 
hear he prayed. 



X. Upon their seizing the magazines, forts, fyc. 

To put the matter soonest out of controversy who 
was the first beginner of this civil war, since the begin- 
ning of all war may be discerned not only by the first 
act of hostility, but by the counsels and preparations 
foregoing, it shall evidently appear, that the king was 
still foremost in all these. No king had ever at his 
first coming to the crown more love and acclamation 
from a people ; never any people found worse requital 
of their loyalty and good affection : first, by his extra- 
ordinary fear and mistrust, that their liberties and rights 
were the impairing and diminishing of his regal power, 
the true original of tyranny ; next, by his hatred to all 
those who were esteemed religious ; doubting that 
their principles too much asserted liberty. This was 
quickly seen by the vehemence, and the causes alleged 
of his persecuting, the other by his frequent and oppro- 
brious dissolution of parliaments ; after he had de- 
manded more money of them, and they to obtain their 
rights had granted him, than would have bought the 
Turk out of Morea, and set free all the Greeks. But 
when he sought to extort from us, by way of tribute, 
that which had been offered to him conditionally in 
parliament, as by a free people, and that those extor- 
tions were now consumed and wasted by the luxury 
of his court, he began then (for still the more he did 
wrong, the more he feared) before any tumult or insur- 
rection of the people to take counsel how he might to- 
tally subdue them to his own will. Then was the 
design of German horse, while the duke reigned, and 
the word feign for fond desire of a thing. 



300 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



which was worst of all, some thousands of the Irish 
papists were in several parts billeted upon us, while a 
parliament was then sitting-. The pulpits resounded 
with no other doctrine than that which gave all pro- 
perty to the king - , and passive obedience to the subject. 
After which, innumerable forms and shapes of new ex- 
actions and exactors overspread the land : nor was it 
enough to be impoverished, unless we were disarmed. 
Our trained bands, which are the trustiest and most 
proper strength of a free nation not at war with itself, 
liad their arms in divers counties taken from them ; 
other ammunition by design was ingrossed and kept in 
the Tower, not to be bought without a licence, and at 
a high rate. 

Thus far and many other ways were his counsels 
and preparations before-hand with us, either to a civil 
war, if it should happen, or to subdue us without a 
war, which is all one, until the raising of his two ar- 
mies against the Scots, and the latter of them raised to 
the most perfidious breaking of a solemn pacification : 
the articles whereof though subscribed with his own 
hand, he commanded soon after to be burned openly 
by the hangman. What enemy durst have done him 
that dishonour and affront, which he did therein to 
himself ? 

After the beginning of this parliament, whom he saw 
so resolute and unanimous to relieve the common- 
wealth, and that the earl of Strafford was condemned 
to die, other of his evil counsellors impeached and im- 
prisoned ; to shew there wanted not evil counsel within 
himself sufficient to begin a war upon his subjects, 
though no way by them provoked, he sends an agent 
with letters to the king of Denmark, requiring aid 
against the parliament : and that aid was coming, 
when Divine Providence, to divert them, sent a sudden 
torrent of Swedes into the bowels of Denmark. He 
then endeavours to bring up both armies, first the Eng- 
lish, with whom 8000 Irish papists, raised by Straf- 
ford, and a French army were to join ; then the Scots 
at Newcastle, whom he thought to have encouraged 
by telling them what money and horse he was to have 
from Denmark. I mention not the Irish conspiracy 
till due place. These and many other were his coun- 
sels toward a civil war. His preparations, after those 
two armies were dismissed, could not suddenly be too 
open : nevertheless there were 8000 Irish papists, which 
he refused to disband, though entreated by both houses, 
first for reasons best known to himself, next under pre- 
tence of lending them to the Spaniard; and so kept 
them undisbanded till very near the month wherein 
that rebellion broke forth. He was also raising forces 
in London, pretendedly to serve the Portugal, but with 
intent to seize the Tower ; into which divers cannoneers 
irere by him sent with many fireworks and grenadocs ; 
and many great battering pieces were mounted against 
the city. The court was fortified with ammunition, and 
soldiers new listed, who followed the king from Lon- 
don, and appeared at Kingston some hundreds of horse 
in a warlike manner, with waggons of ammunition 
after them; the queen in Holland was buying more; 
of which the parliament had certain knowledge, and 



had not yet so much as demanded the militia to be set- 
tled, till they knew both of her going over sea, and to 
what intent. For she had packed up the crown jewels 
to have been going long before, had not the parliament, 
suspecting by the discoveries at Burrow-bridge what 
was intended with the jewels, used means to stay her 
journey till the winter. Hull and the magazine there 
had been secretly attempted under the king's hand ; 
from whom (though in his declarations renouncing all 
thought of war) notes were sent oversea for supply of 
arms ; which were no sooner come, but the inhabitants 
of Yorkshire and other counties were called to arms, 
and actual forces raised, while the parliament were yet 
petitioning in peace, and had not one man listed. 

As to the act of hostility, though not much material 
in whom first it began, or by whose commissions dated 
first, after such counsels and preparations discovered, 
and so far advanced by the king, yet in that act also he 
will be found to have had precedency, if not at London 
by the assault of his armed court upon the naked people, 
and his attempt upon the house of commons, yet cer- 
tainly at Hull, first by his close practices on that town, 
next by his siege. Thus whether counsels, preparations, 
or acts of hostility be considered, it appears with evi- 
dence enough, though much more might be said, that 
the king is truly charged to be the first beginner of 
these civil wars. To which may be added as a close, 
that in the Isle of Wight he charged it upon himself 
at the public treaty, and acquitted the parliament. 

But as for the securing of Hull and the public stores 
therein, and in other places, it was no " surprisal of 
his strength ;" the custody whereof by authority of 
parliament was committed into hands most fit and most 
responsible for such a trust. It were a folly beyond 
ridiculous, to count ourselves a free nation, if the king, 
not in parliament, but in his own person, and against 
them, might appropriate to himself the strength of a 
whole nation as his proper g'oods. What the laws of 
the land are, a parliament should know best, having 
both the life and death of laws in their lawgiving 
power : and the law of England is, at best, but the 
reason of parliament. The parliament therefore, taking 
into their hands that whereof most properly they ought 
to have the keeping, committed no surprisal. If they 
prevented him, that argued not at all either " his inno- 
cency or unpreparedness," but their timely foresight 
to use prevention. 

But what needed that ? " They knew his chiefest 
arms left him were those only, which the ancient Christ- 
ians were wont to use against their persecutors, prayers 
and tears." O sacred reverence of God ! respect and 
shame of men ! whither were ye fled when these hy- 
pocrisies were uttered ? Was the kingdom then at all 
that cost of blood to remove from him none but prayers 
and tears ? What were those thousands of blaspheming 
cavaliers about him, whose mouths let fly oaths and 
curses by the volley ; were those the prayers ? and 
those carouses drunk to the confusion of all things good 
or holy, did those minister the tears ? Were they pra} r ers 
and tears that were listed at York, mustered on Heworth 
moor, and laid siege to Hull for the guard of his per- 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



301 



son ? Were prayers and tears at so high a rate in Hol- 
land, that nothing could purchase them but the crown 
jewels ? Yet they in Holland (such word was sent us) 
sold them for guns, carabines, mortar-pieces, cannons, 
and other deadly instruments of war ; which, when they 
came to York, were all, no doubt by the merit of some 
great saint, suddenly transformed into prayers and 
tears : and, being divided into regiments and brigades, 
were the only arms that mischieved us in all those bat- 
tles and encounters. 

These were his chief arms, whatever we must call 
them, and yet such arms as they who fought for the 
commonwealth have by the help of better prayers van- 
quished and brought to nothing. 

He bewails his want of the militia, " not so much in 
reference to his own protection, as the people's, whose 
many and sore oppressions grieve him." Never con- 
sidering how ill for seventeen years together he had 
protected them, and that these miseries of the people 
are still his own handwork, having smitten them, like 
a forked arrow, so sore into the kingdom's sides, as 
not to be drawn out and cured without the incision of 
more flesh. 

He tells us, that " what he wants in the hand of 
power," he has in " the wings of faith and prayer." 
But they who made no reckoning of those wings, while 
they had that power in their hands, may easily mistake 
the wings of faith for the wings of presumption, and 
so fall headlong. 

We meet next with a comparison, how"" apt let them 
judge who have travelled to Mecca, " that the parlia- 
ment have hung the majesty of kingship in an airy 
imagination of regality, between the privileges of both 
houses, like the tomb of Mahomet." He knew not 
that he Mas prophesying the death and burial of a 
Turkish tyranny, that spurned down those laws which 
gave it life and being, so loug as it endured to be a 
regulated monarchy. 

He counts it an injury " not to have the sole power 
in himself to help or hurt any ;" and that the " militia, 
which he holds to be his undoubted right, should be 
disposed as the parliament thinks fit:" and yet confesses, 
that, if he had it in his actual disposing, he would de- 
fend those whom he calls " his good subjects, from those 
men's violence and fraud, who would persuade the 
world j that none but wolves are fit to be trusted with 
the custody of the shepherd and his flock." Surely, if 
we may guess whom he means here, by knowing whom 
he hath ever most opposed in this controversy, we may 
then assure ourselves, that by violence and fraud he 
means that which the parliament hath done in settling 
the militia, and those the wolves into whose hands it 
was by them intrusted : which draws a clear confession 
from his own mouth, that if the parliament had left 
him sole power of the militia, he would have used it to 
the destruction of them and their friends. 

As for sole power of the militia, which he claims as 
a right no less undoubted than the crown, it hath been 
oft enough told him, that he hath no more authority 
over the sword, than over the law ; over the law he 
hath none, either to establish or to abrogate, to interpret 



or to execute, but only by his courts and in his courts, 
whereof the parliament is highest ; no more therefore 
hath he power of the militia, which is the sword, either 
to use or to dispose, but with consent of parliament ; 
give him but that, and as good give him in a lump all 
our laws and liberties. For if the power of the sword 
were any where separate and undepending from the 
power of the law, which is originally seated in the 
highest court, then would that power of the sword be 
soon master of the law : and being at one man's disposal 
might, when he pleased, control the law ; and in derision 
of our Magna Charta, which were but weak resistance 
against an armed tyrant, might absolutely enslave us. 
And not to have in ourselves, though vaunting to be 
freeborn, the power of our own freedom, and the public 
safety, is a degree lower than not to have the property 
of our own goods. For liberty of person, and the right 
of self-preservation, is much nearer, much more natural, 
and more worth to all men, than the propriety of their 
goods and wealth. Yet such power as all this did the 
king in open terms challenge to have over us, and 
brought thousands to help him win it ; so much more 
good at fighting than at understanding, as to persuade 
themselves, that they fought then for the subject's 
liberty. 

He is contented, because he knows no other remedy, 
to resign this power " for his own time, but not for his 
successors : " so diligent and careful he is, that we 
should be slaves, if not to him, yet to his posterity, and 
fain would leave us the legacy of another war about 
it. But the parliament have done well to remove that 
question : whom, as his manner is to dignify with 
some good name or other, he calls now a " many- 
headed hydra of government, full of factious distrac- 
tions, and not more eyes than mouths." Yet surely 
not more mouths, or not so wide, as the dissolute rab- 
ble of all his courtiers had, both hees and shees, if there 
were any males among them. 

He would prove, that to govern by parliament hath 
" a monstrosity rather than perfection;" and grounds 
his argument upon two or three eminent absurdities : 
first, by placing counsel in the senses ; next, by turn- 
ing the senses out of the head, and in lieu thereof plac- 
ing power supreme above sense and reason : which be 
now the greater monstrosities? Further to dispute what 
kind of government is best would be a long debate; it 
sufHceth that his reasons here for monarchy are found 
weak and inconsiderable. 

He bodes much " horrour and bad influence after 
his eclipse." He speaks his wishes ; but they who by 
weighing prudently things past foresee things to come, 
the best divination, may hope rather all good success 
and happiness, by removing that darkness, which the 
misty cloud of his prerogative made between us and a 
peaceful reformation, which is our true sun-light, and 
not he, though he would be taken for our sun itself. 
And wherefore should we not hope to be governed 
more happily without a king, whenas all our misery 
and trouble hath been either by a king, or by our ne- 
cessary vindication and defence against him ? 

He would be thought " inforced to perjury," by hav- 



302 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



ing granted the militia, by which his oath bound him 
to protect the people. If he can be perjured in grant- 
ing that, whj doth he refuse for no other cause the 
abolishing of episcopacy ? But never was any oath so 
blind as to swear him to protect delinquents against 
justice, but to protect all the people in that order, and 
by those hands which the parliament should advise 
him to, and the protected confide in ; not under the 
show of protection to hold a violent and incommunica- 
ble sword over us, as ready to be let fall upon our own 
necks, as upon our enemies; nor to make our own 
hands and weapons fight against our own liberties. 

By his parting with the militia he takes to himself 
much praise of his " assurance in God's protection;" 
and to the parliament imputes the fear " of not daring 
to adventure the injustice of their actions upon any other 
way of safety." But wherefore came not this assur- 
ance of God's protection to him till the militia was 
wrung out of his hands ? It should seem by his holding 
it so fast, that his own actions and intentions had no 
less of injustice in them, than what he charges upon 
others, whom he terms Chaldeans, Sabeans, and the 
devil himself. But Job used no such militia against 
those enemies, nor such a magazine as was at Hull, 
which this king so contended for, and made war upon 
us, that he might have wherewithal to make war 
against us. 

He concludes, that, " although they take all from 
him, yet can they not obstruct his way to heaven." It 
was no handsome occasion, by feigning obstructions 
where they are not, to tell us whither he was going : 
he should have shut the door, and prayed in secret, not 
here in the high street. Private prayers in public ask 
something of whom they ask not, and that shall be 
their reward. 



XI. Upon the Nineteen Propositions, fyc. 

Of the nineteen propositions he names none in parti- 
cular, neither shall the answer: But he insists upon 
the old plea of " his conscience, honour, and reason;" 
using the plausibility of large and indefinite words, to 
defend himself at such a distance as may hinder the 
eye of common judgment from all distinct view and 
examination of his reasoning. " He would buy the 
peace of his people at any rate, save only the parting 
with his conscience and honour." Yet shews not how 
it can happen that the peace of a people, if otherwise 
to be bought at any rate, should be inconsistent or at 
rariance with the conscience and honour of a king. 
Till then, we may receive it for a better sentence, that 
nothing should be more agreeable to the conscience 
and honour of a king, than to preserve his subjects in 
peace; especially from civil war. 

And which of the propositions were " obtruded on 
bin with the point of the sword," till he first with the 
point of the sword thrust from him both the propositions 
and the propoonden ? He never reckons those violent 
and merciless obtrusions, which for almost twenty 



years he had been forcing upon tender consciences by 
all sorts of persecution, till through the multitude of 
them that were to suffer, it could no more be called a 
persecution, but a plain war. From which when first 
the Scots, then the English, were constrained to de- 
fend themselves, this their just defence is that which 
he calls here, " their making war upon his soul." 

He grudges that " so many things are required of 
him, and nothing offered him in requital of those fa- 
vours which he had granted." What could satiate the 
desires of this man, who being king of England, and 
master of almost two millions yearly what by hook or 
crook, was still in want; and those acts of justice 
which he was to do in duty, counts done as favours ; 
and such favours as were not done without the avari- 
cious hope of other rewards besides supreme honour, 
and the constant revenue of his place ? 

" This honour," he saith, " they did him, to put him 
on the giving part." And spake truer than he intend- 
ed, it being merely for honour's sake that they did so ; 
not that it belonged to him of right : for what can he 
give to a parliament, who receives all he hath from the 
people, and for the people's good ? Yet now he brings 
his own conditional rights to contest and be preferred 
before the people's good ; and yet unless it be in order 
to their good, he hath no rights at all ; reigning by 
the laws of the land, not by his own ; which laws are 
in the hands of parliament to change or abrogate as 
they shall see best for the commonwealth, even to the 
taking away of kingship itself, when it grows too mas- 
terful and burdensome. For every commonwealth is 
in general defined, a society sufficient of itself, in all 
things conducible to well-being and commodious life. 
Any of which requisite things, if it cannot have with- 
out the gift and favour of a single person, or without 
leave of his private reason or his conscience, it cannot 
be thought sufficient of itself, and by consequence no 
commonwealth, nor free ; but a multitude of vassals in 
the possession and domain of one absolute lord, and 
wholly obnoxious to his will. If the king have power 
to give or deny any thing to his parliament, he must 
do it either as a person several from them, or as one 
greater : neither of which will be allowed him : not to 
be considered severally from them ; for as the king of 
England can do no wrong, so neither can he do right 
but in his courts and by his courts; and what is legally 
done in them, shall be deemed the king's assent, though 
he as a several person shall judge or endeavour the 
contrary ; so that indeed without his courts, or against 
them, he is no king. If therefore he obtrude upon us 
any public mischief, or withhold from us any general 
good, which is wrong in the highest degree, he must 
do it as a tyrant, not as a king of England, by the 
known maxims of our law. Neither can he, as one 
greater, give aught to the parliament which is not in 
their own power, but he must be greater also than the 
kingdom which they represent: so that to honour him 
with the giving part was a mere civility, and may be 
well termed the courtesy of England, not the king's 
due. 

But the " incommunicable jewel of his conscience" 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



303 



he will not give, " but reserve to himself." It seems 
that his conscience was none of the crown jewels ; for 
those we know were in Holland, not incommunicable, 
to buy arms against his subjects. Being- therefore but 
a private jewel, he could not have done a greater plea- 
sure to the kingdom, than by reserving it to himself. 
But he, contrary to what is here professed, would have 
his conscience not an incommunicable, but a universal 
conscience, the whole kingdom's conscience. Thus 
what he seems to fear lest we should ravish from him, 
is our chief complaint that he obtruded upon us ; we 
never forced him to part with his conscience, but it was 
he that would have forced us to part with ours. 

Some things he taxes them to have offered him, 
" which, while he had the mastery of his reason, he 
would never consent to." Very likely ; but had his 
reason mastered him as it ought, and not been mastered 
long ago by his sense and humour, (as the breeding of 
most kings hath been ever sensual and most humoured,) 
perhaps he would have made no difficulty. Meanwhile 
at what a fine pass is the kingdom, that must depend 
in greatest exigencies upon the fantasy of a king's 
reason, be he wise or fool, who arrogantly shall answer 
all the wisdom of the land, that what they offer seems 
to him unreasonable ! 

He prefers his " love of truth " before his love of the 
people. His love of truth would have led him to the 
search of truth, and have taught him not to lean so 
much upon his own understanding. He met at first 
with doctrines of unaccountable prerogative ; in them 
he rested, because they pleased him; they therefore 
pleased him because they gave him all ; and this he 
calls his love of truth, and prefers it before the love of 
his people's peace. 

Some things they proposed, " which would have 
wounded the inward peace of his conscience." The 
more our evil hap, that three kingdoms should be thus 
pestered with one conscience ; who chiefly scrupled to 
grant us that, which the parliament advised him to, as 
the chief means of our public welfare and reformation. 
These scruples to many perhaps will seem pretended ; 
to others, upon as good grounds, may seem real ; and 
that it was the just judgment of God, that he who was 
so cruel and so remorseless to other men's consciences, 
should have a conscience within him as cruel to him- 
self; constraining him, as he constrained others, and 
ensnaring him in such ways and counsels as were cer- 
tain to be his destruction. 

" Other things though he could approve, yet in 
honour and policy he thought fit to deny, lest he should 
seem to dare deny nothing." By this means he will 
be sure, what with reason, honour, policy, or punctilios, 
to be found never unfurnished of a denial ; whether it 
were his envy not to be overbounteous, or that the sub- 
missness of our asking stirred up in him a certain plea- 
sure of denying. Good princes have thought it their 
chief happiness to be always granting; if good things, 
for the things' sake ; if things indifferent, for the 
people's sake ; while this man sits calculating variety 
of excuses how he may grant least ; as if his whole 
strength and royalty were placed in a mere negative. 



Of one proposition especially he laments him much, 
that they would bind him " to a general and implicit 
consent for whatever they desired." Which though I 
find not among the nineteen, yet undoubtedly the oath 
of his coronation binds him to no less ; neither is he at 
all by his office to interpose against a parliament in the 
making or not making of any law; but to take that for 
just and good legally, which is there decreed, and to 
see it executed accordingly. Nor was he set over us 
to vie wisdom with his parliament, but to be guided 
by them ; any of whom possibly may as far excel him 
in the gift of wisdom, as he them in place and dignity. 
But much nearer is it to impossibility, that any king" 
alone should be wiser than all his council ; sure enough 
it was not he, though no king ever before him so much 
contended to have it thought so. And if the parlia- 
ment so thought not, but desired him to follow their 
advice and deliberation in things of public concern- 
ment, he accounts it the same proposition, as if Sam- 
son had been moved " to the putting out his eyes, that 
the Philistines might abuse him." And thus out of an 
unwise or pretended fear, lest others should make a 
scorn of him for yielding to his parliament, he regards 
not to give cause of worse suspicion, that he made a 
scorn of his regal oath. 

But "to exclude him from all power of denial seems 
an arrogance;" in the parliament he means: what in 
him then to deny against the parliament ? None at all, 
by what he argues : for "by petitioning, they confess 
their inferiority, and that obliges them to rest, if not 
satisfied, yet quieted with such an answer as the will 
and reason of their superior thinks fit to give." First, 
petitioning, in better English, is no more than request- 
ing or requiring ; and men require not favours only, but 
their due ; and that not only from superiors, but from 
equals, and inferiors also. The noblest Romans, when 
they stood for that which was a kind of regal honour, 
the consulship, were wont in a submissive manner to go 
about, and beg that highest dignity of the meanest ple- 
beians, naming them man by man ; which in their 
tongue was called petitio consulatus. And the parlia- 
ment of England petitioned the king, not because all 
of them were inferior to him, but because he was infe- 
rior to any one of them, which they did of civil custom, 
and for fashion's sake, more than of duty ; for by plain 
law cited before, the parliament is his superior. 

But what law in any trial or dispute enjoins a free- 
man to rest quieted, though not satisfied with the will 
and reason of his superior ? Tt were a mad law that 
would subject reason to superiority of place. And if 
our highest consultations and purposed laws must be 
terminated by the king's will, then is the will of one 
man our law, and no subtlety of dispute can redeem 
the parliament and nation from being slaves : neither 
can any tyrant require more than that his will or rea- 
son, though not satisfying, should yet be rested in, and 
determine all things. We may conclude therefore, that 
when the parliament petitioned the king, it was but 
merely form, let it be as "foolish and absurd" as he 
pleases. It cannot certainly be so absurd as what he 
requires, that the parliament should confine their own 



304 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



and all the kingdom's reason to the will of one man, 
because it was his hap to succeed his father. For 
neither God nor the laws have subjected us to his will, 
nor set his reason to be our sovereign above law, (which 
must needs be, if he can strangle it in the birth,) but set 
his person over us in the sovereign execution of such 
laws as the parliament establish. The parliament 
therefore, without any usurpation, hath had it always 
in their power to limit and confine the exorbitancy of 
kings, whethei they call it their will, their reason, or 
their conscience. 

But this above all w r as never expected, nor is to be 
endured, that a king, who is bound by law and oath to 
follow the advice of his parliament, should be permitted 
to except against them as " young statesmen," and 
proudly to suspend his following their advice, " until 
his seven years experience had shewn him how well 
they could govern themselves." Doubtless the law 
never supposed so great an arrogance could be in one 
man ; that he whose seventeen years unexperience had 
almost ruined all, should sit another seven years school- 
master to tutor those who were sent by the whole realm 
to be his counsellors and teachers. And with what 
modesty can he pretend to be a statesman himself, who 
with his father's king-craft and his own, did never 
that of his own accord, which was not directly opposite 
to his professed interest both at home and abroad ; dis- 
contenting and alienating his subjects at home, weak- 
ening and deserting his confederates abroad, and with 
them the common cause of religion ; so that the whole 
course of his reign, by an example of his own furnish- 
ing, hath resembled Phaeton more than Phoebus, and 
forced the parliament to drive like Jehu ; which omen 
taken from his own mouth, God hath not diverted? 

And he on the other side might have remembered, 
that the parliament sit in that body, not as his subjects, 
but as his superiors, called, not by him, but by the law ; 
not only twice every year, but as oft as great affairs 
require, to be his counsellors and dictators, though he 
stomach it ; nor to be dissolved at his pleasure, but 
when all grievances be first removed, all petitions heard 
and answered. This is not only reason, but the known 
law of the land. 

"When he heard that propositions would be sent 
him," he sat conjecturing what they would propound ; 
and because they propounded what he expected not, 
he takes that to be a warrant for his denying them- 
But what did he expect ? He expected that the par- 
liament would reinforce " some old laws." But if those 
laws were not a sufficient remedy to all grievances, 
nay were found to be grievances themselves, when did 
we 1"><; that other part of our freedom to establish new? 
JI< nought " some injuries done by himself and others 
to the commonwealth were to be repaired." But how 
eooU that be, while he the chief offender took upon 
him to be lole .judge both of the injury and the repara- 
tion P •• He staid till the advantages of his erown con- 
sidered, might induce him to condescend to the people's 
good. ' When u the crown itself with all those ad- 
vantages were therefore given him, that the people's 
good should be fir>t considered; not bargained for, and 



bought by inches with the bribe of more offertures and 
advantages to his crown. He looked " for moderate 
desires of due reformation ;" as if any such desires 
could be immoderate. He looked for such a reforma- 
tion " both in church and state, as might preserve" the 
roots of every grievance and abuse in both still grow- 
ing, (which he calls " the foundation and essentials,") 
and would have only the excrescences of evil pruned 
away for the present, as was plotted before, that they 
might grow fast enough between triennial parliaments, 
to hinder them by work enough besides from ever 
striking at the root. He alleges, " They should have 
had regard to the laws in force, to the wisdom and 
piety of former parliaments, to the ancient and uni- 
versal practice of christian churches." As if they who 
come with full authority to redress public grievances, 
which ofttimes are laws themselves, were to have their 
hands bound by laws in force, or the supposition of 
more piety and wisdom in their ancestors, or the prac- 
tice of churches heretofore ; whose fathers, notwith- 
standing* all these pretences, made as vast alterations 
to free themselves from ancient popery. For all anti- 
quity that adds or varies from the Scripture, is no more 
warranted to our safe imitation, than what was done 
the age before at Trent. Nor was there need to have 
despaired of what could be established in lieu of what 
was to be annulled, having before his eyes the govern- 
ment of so many churches beyond the seas; whose 
pregnant and solid reasons wrought so with the par- 
liament, as to desire a uniformity rather with all other 
protestants, than to be a schism divided from them 
under a conclave of thirty bishops, and a crew of irre- 
ligious priests that gaped for the same preferment. 

And whereas he blames those propositions for not 
containing what they ought, what did they mention, 
but to vindicate and restore the rights of parliament 
invaded by cabin councils, the courts of justice ob- 
structed, and the government of the church innovated 
and corrupted ? All these things he might easily have 
observed in them, which he affirms he could not find ; 
but found "those demanding" in parliament, who 
were " looked upon before as factious in the state, and 
schismatical in the church ; and demanding not only 
toleration for themselves in their vanity, novelty, and 
confusion, but also an extirpation of that government, 
whose rights they had a mind to invade." Was this 
man ever likely to be advised, who with such a preju- 
dice and disesteem sets himself against his chosen and 
appointed counsellors ? likely ever to admit of reforma- 
tion, who censures all the government of other protes- 
tant churches, as bad as any papist could have cen- 
sured them ? And what king had ever his whole 
kingdom in such contempt, so to wrong and dishonour 
the free elections of his people, as to judge them, whom 
the nation thought worthiest to sit with him in parlia- 
ment, few else but such as were "punishable by the 
laws?" yet knowing that time was, when to be a pro- 
testant,to be a Christian, was by law as punishable as 
to be a traitor; and that our Saviour himself, coming 
to reform his church, was accused of an intent to 
invade Caesar's right, as good a right as the prelate 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



305 



bishops ever had ; the one being" got by force, the other 
by spiritual usurpation ; and both by force upheld. 

He admires and falls into an extasy, that the parlia- 
ment should send him such a "horrid proposition," as 
the removal of episcopacy. But expect from him in 
an extasy no other reasons of his admiration than the 
dream and tautology of what he hath so often repeated, 
law, antiquity, ancestors, prosperity, and the like, 
which will be therefore not worth a second answer, but 
may pass with his own comparison into the common 
sewer of other popish arguments. 

" Had the two houses sued out their livery from the 
wardship of tumults," he could sooner have believed 
them. It concerned them first to sue out their livery 
from the unjust wardship of his encroaching preroga- 
tive. And had he also redeemed his overdated mino- 
rity from a pupilage under bishops, he would much 
less have mistrusted his parliament ; and never would 
have set so base a character upon them, as to count 
them no better than the vassals of certain nameless 
men, whom he charges to be such as "hunt after fac- 
tion with their hounds the tumults." And yet the 
bishops could have told him, that Nimrod, the first that 
hunted after faction, is reputed by ancient tradition the 
first that founded monarchy; whence it appears, that 
to hunt after faction is more properly the king's game; 
and those hounds, which he calls the vulgar, have been 
often hallooed to from court, of whom the mongrel sort 
have been enticed ; the rest have not lost their scent, 
but understood aright, that the parliament had that 
part to act, which he had failed in ; that trust to dis- 
charge, which he had broken ; that estate and honour 
to preserve, which was far beyond his, the estate and 
honour of the commonwealth, which he had embezzled. 
Yet so far doth self-opinion or false principles delude 
and transport him, as to think " the concurrence of his 
reason" to the votes of parliament, not only political, 
but natural, "and as necessary to the begetting," or 
bringing forth of any one " complete act of public wis- 
dom as the sun's influence is necessary to all nature's 
productions." So that the parliament, it seems, is but 
a female, and without his procreative reason, the laws 
which they can produce are but wind-eggs : wisdom, it 
seems, to a king is natural, to a parliament not natu- 
ral, but by conjunction with the king ; yet he professes 
to hold his kingly right by law ; and if no law could 
be made but by the great council of a nation, which we 
now term a parliament, then certainly it was a parlia- 
ment that first created kings ; and not only made laws 
before a king was in being, but those laws especially 
whereby he holds his crown. He ought then to have 
so thought of a parliament, if he count it not male, as 
of his mother, which to civil being created both him and 
the royalty he wore. And if it hath been anciently in- 
terpreted the presaging sign of a future tyrant, but to 
dream of copulation with his mother, what can it be 
less than actual tyranny to affirm waking, that the 
parliament, which is his mother, can neither conceive 
or bring forth "any authoritative act" without his 
fnasculine coition ? Nay, that his reason is as celestial 
and life-giving to the parliament, as the sun's influ- j 



ence is to the earth : what other notions but these, or 
such like, could swell up Caligula to think himself a 
god? 

But to be rid of these mortifying propositions, he 
leaves no tyrannical evasion unessayed ; first, " that 
they are not the joint and free desires of both houses, 
or the major part;" next, " that the choice of many 
members was carried on by faction." The former of 
these is already discovered to be an old device put 
first in practice by Charles the Fifth, since the refor- 
mation : who when the protestants of Germany for 
their own defence joined themselves in league, in his 
declarations and remonstrances laid the fault only 
upon some few, (for it was dangerous to take notice of 
too many enemies,) and accused them, that under co- 
lour of religion they had a purpose to invade his and 
the church's right ; by which policy he deceived many 
of the German cities, and kept them divided from that 
league, until they saw themselves brought into a snare. 
That other cavil against the people's choice puts us in 
mind rather what the court was wont to do, and how 
to tamper with elections: neither was there at that 
time any faction more . potent, or more likely to do 
such a business, than they themselves who complain 
most. 

But " he must chew such morsels as propositions, 
ere he let them down." So let him; but if the king- 
dom shall taste nothing but after his chewing, what 
does he make of the kingdom but a great baby ? 
" The straitness of his conscience will not give him 
leave to swallow down such camels of sacrilege and 
injustice as others do." This is the Pharisee up and 
down, " I am not as other men are." But what ca- 
mels of injustice he could devour, all his three realms 
were witness, w r hich was the cause that they almost 
perished for want of parliaments. And he that will be 
unjust to man, will be sacrilegious to God ; and to be- 
reave a Christian conscious of liberty for no other rea- 
son than the narrowness of his own conscience, is the 
most unjust measure to man, and the worst sacrilege 
to God. That other, which he calls sacrilege, of tak- 
ing from the clergy that superfluous wealth, which 
antiquity as old as Constantine, from the credit of a 
divine vision, counted " poison in the church," hath 
been ever most opposed by men, whose righteousness 
in other matters hath been least observed. He con- 
cludes, as his manner is, with high commendation of 
his own " unbiassed rectitude," and believes nothing to 
be in them that dissent from him, but faction, innova- 
tion, and particular designs. Of these repetitions I 
find no end, no not in his prayer; which being founded 
upon deceitful principles, and a fond hope that God 
will bless him in those errours, which he calls " ho- 
nest," finds a fit answer of St. James, " Ye ask and re- 
ceive not, because ye ask amiss." As for the truth and 
sincerity, which he prays may be always found in those 
his declarations to the people, the contrariety of his 
own actions will bear eternal witness, how little care- 
ful or solicitous he was, what he promised or what he 
uttered there. 



306 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



XII. Upon the Rebellion in Ireland. 

The rebellion and horrid massacre of English pro- 
testants in Ireland, to the number of 154,000 in the 
province of Ulster only, by their own computation ; 
which added to the other three, makes up the total 
sum of that slaughter in all likelihood four times as 
great ; although so sudden and so violent, as at first to 
amaze all men that were not accessary; yet from 
whom and from what counsels it first sprung, neither 
was nor could be possibly so secret, as the contrivers 
thereof, blinded with vain hope, or the despair that 
other plots would succeed, supposed. For it cannot be 
imaginable, that the Irish, guided by so many subtle 
and Italian heads of the Romish party, should so far 
have lost the use of reason, and indeed of common 
sense, as not supported with other strength than their 
own, to begin a war so desperate and irreconcilable 
against both England and Scotland at once. All other 
nations, from whom they could expect aid, were busied 
to the utmost in their own most necessary concernments. 
It remains then that either some authority, or some 
great assistance promised them from England, was that 
whereon they chiefly trusted. And as it is not difficult 
to discern from what inducing cause this insurrection 
first arose, so neither was it hard at first to have ap- 
plied some effectual remedy, though not prevention. 
And yet prevention was not hopeless, when Strafford 
either believed not, or did not care to believe, the seve- 
ral warnings and discoveries thereof, which more than 
once by papists and by friars themselves were brought 
him ; besides what was brought by deposition, divers 
months before that rebellion, to the archbishop of Can- 
terbury and others of the king's council; as the decla- 
ration of " no addresses" declares. But the assurance 
which they had in private, that no remedy should be 
applied, was, it seems, one of the chief reasons that 
drew on their undertaking. And long it was before 
that assurance failed them ; until the bishops and po- 
pish lords, who, while they sat and voted, still opposed 
the sending aid to Ireland, were expelled the house. 

Seeing then the main excitement and authority for 
this rebellion must be needs derived from England, it 
will be next inquired, who was the prime author. The 
king here denounces a malediction temporal and eter- 
nal, not simply to the author, but to the " malicious 
author " of this bloodshed : and by that limitation may 
exempt, not himself only, but perhaps the Irish rebels 
themselves, who never will confess to God or man that 
any blood was shed by them maliciously ; but either 
in the catholic cause, or common liberty, or some other 
specious plea, which the conscience from grounds both 
good and evil usually suggests to itself : thereby think- 
ing to elude the direct force of that imputation, which 
lies upon them. 

Yet he acknowledges, "it fell out as a most unhap- 
py advantage of some men's malice against him :" but 
indeed of most men's just suspicion, by finding in it 
no such wide departure or disagreement from the scope 
of his former counsels and proceedings. And that he 



himself was the author of that rebellion, he denies both 
here and elsewhere, with many imprecations, but no 
solid evidence : What on the other side against his 
denial hath been affirmed in three kingdoms, being 
here briefly set in view, the reader may so judge as he 
finds cause. 

This is most certain, that the king was ever friendly to 
the Irish papists, and in his third year, against the plain 
advice of parliament, like a kind of pope, sold them 
many indulgences for money ; and upon all occasions 
advancing the popish party, and negotiating underhand 
by priests, who were made his agents, engaged the Irish 
papists in a war against the Scots protestants. To that 
end he furnished them, and had them trained in, arms, 
and kept them up, either openly or underhand, the only 
army in his three kingdoms, till the very burst of that 
rebellion. The summer before that dismal October, a 
committee of most active papists, all since in the head of 
that rebellion, were in great favour at Whitehall; and 
admitted to many private consultations with the king 
and queen. And to make it evident that no mean mat- 
ters were the subject of those conferences, at their request 
he gave away his peculiar right to more than five Irish 
counties, for the payment of an inconsiderable rent. 
They departed not home till within two months before 
the rebellion ; and were either from the first breaking 
out, or soon after, found to be the chief rebels them- 
selves. But what should move the king besides his 
own inclination to popery, and the prevalence of his 
queen over him, to hold such frequent and close meet- 
ings with a committee of Irish papists in his own house, 
while the parliament of England sat unadvised with, 
is declared by a Scots author, and of itself is clear 
enough. The parliament at the beginning of that 
summer, having put Strafford to death, imprisoned 
others his chief favourites, and driven the rest to fly; 
the king, who had in vain tempted both the Scots and 
the English army to come up against the parliament 
and city, finding no compliance answerable to his hope 
from the protestant armies, betakes himself last to the 
Irish ; who had in readiness an army of eight thousand 
papists, which he had refused so often to disband, and 
a committee here of the same religion. With them, 
who thought the time now come, (which to bring about 
they had been many years before not wishing only, 
but with much industry complotting, to do some emi- 
nent service for the church of Rome and their own per- 
fidious natures, against a puritan parliament and the 
hated English their masters,) he agrees and concludes, 
that so soon as both armies in England were disbanded, 
the Irish should appear in arms, master all the protest- 
ants, and help the king against his parliament. And 
we need not doubt, that those five counties were given 
to the Irish for other reason than the four northern 
counties had been a little before offered to the Scots. 
The king, in August, takes a journey into Scotland ; 
and overtaking the Scots army then on their way home, 
attempts the second time to pervert them, but without 
success. No sooner come into Scotland, but he lays a 
plot, so saith the Scots author, to remove out of the 
way such of the nobility there as were most likely to 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



307 



withstand, or not to further his designs. This being- 
discovered, he sends from his side one Dillon, a papist 
lord, soon after a chief rebel, with letters into Ireland ; 
and dispatches a commission under the great seal of 
Scotland, at that time in his own custody, command- 
ing that they should forthwith, as had been formerly 
agreed, cause all the Irish to rise in arms. Who no 
sooner had received such command, but obeyed, and 
began in massacre ; for they knew no other way to 
make sure the protestants, which was commanded them 
expressly ; and the way, it seems, left to their discre- 
tion. He who hath a mind to read the commission 
itself, and sound reason added why it was not likely to 
be forged, besides the attestation of so many Irish them- 
selves, may have recourse to a book, entitled, " The 
Mystery of Iniquity." Besides what the parliament 
itself in the declaration of " no more addresses" hath 
affirmed, that they have one copy of that commission 
in their own hands, attested by the oaths of some that 
were eye-witnesses, and had seen it under the seal : 
others of the principal rebels have confessed, that this 
commission was the summer before promised at London 
to the Irish commissioners ; to whom the king then 
discovered in plain words his great desire to be re- 
venged on the parliament of England. 

After the rebellion broke out, which in words only 
he detested, but underhand favoured and promoted by 
all the offices of friendship, correspondence, and what 
possible aid he could afford them, the particulars 
whereof are too many to be inserted here ; I suppose 
no understanding man could longer doubt who was 
" author or instigator" of that rebellion. If there be 
who yet doubt, I refer them especially to that declara- 
tion of July 1643, with that of " no addresses" 1647, 
and another full volume of examinations to be set out 
speedily concerning this matter. Against all which 
testimonies, likelihoods, evidences, and apparent actions 
of his own, being so abundant, his bare denial, though 
with imprecation, can no way countervail ; and least 
of all in his own cause. 

As for the commission granted them, he thinks to 
evade that by retorting, that " some in England fight 
against him, and jet pretend his authority." But, 
though a parliament by the known laws may affirm 
justly to have the king's authority, inseparable from 
that court, though divided from his person, it is not 
credible that the Irish rebels, who so much tendered 
his person above his authority, and were by him so well 
received at Oxford, would be so far from all humanity, 
as to slander him with a particular commission, signed 
and sent them by his own hand. 

And of his good affection to the rebels this chapter 
itself is not without witness. He holds them less in 
fault than the Scots, as from whom they might allege 
to have fetched " their imitation ;" making no differ- 
ence between men that rose necessarily to defend 
themselves, which no protestant doctrine ever dis- 
allowed, against them who threatened war, and those 
who began a voluntary and causeless rebellion, with 
the massacre of so many thousands, who never meant 
them harm. 

x 



He falls next to flashes, and a multitude of words, in 
all which is contained no more than what might be the 
plea of any guiltiest offender: He was not the author, 
because " he hath the greatest share of loss and dis- 
honour by what is committed." Who is there that 
offends God, or his neighbour, on whom the greatest 
share of loss and dishonour lights not in the end ? But 
in the act of doing evil, men use not to consider the 
event of these evil doings ; or if they do, have then no 
power to curb the sway of their own wickedness : so 
that the greatest share of loss and dishonour to happen 
upon themselves, is no argument that they were not 
guilty. This other is as weak, that " a king's interest, 
above that of any other man, lies chiefly in the com- 
mon welfare of his subjects ;" therefore no king will 
do aught against the common welfare. For by this 
evasion any tyrant might as well purge himself from 
the guilt of raising troubles or commotions among the 
people, because undoubtedly his chief interest lies in 
their sitting still. 

I said but now, that even this chapter, if nothing 
else, might suffice to discover his good affection to the 
rebels, which in this that follows too notoriously ap- 
pears; imputing this insurrection to " the preposterous 
rigour, and unreasonable severity, the covetous zeal 
and uncharitable fury, of some men ;" (these " some 
men," by his continual paraphrase, are meant the par- 
liament ;) and, lastly, " to the fear of utter extirpation." 
If the whole Irish ry of rebels had feed some advocate 
to speak partially and sophistically in their defence, 
he could have hardly dazzled better; yet nevertheless 
would have proved himself no other than a plausible 
deceiver. And, perhaps (nay more than perhaps, for 
it is affirmed and extant under good evidence, that) 
those feigned terrours and jealousies were either by the 
king himself, or the popish priests which were sent by 
him, put into the head of that inquisitive people, on 
set purpose to engage them. For who had power " to 
oppress" them, or to relieve them being oppressed, but. 
the king, or his immediate deputy ? This rather should 
have made them rise against the king, than against 
the parliament. Who threatened or ever thought of 
their extirpation, till they themselves had begun it to 
the English ? As for " preposterous rigour, covetous 
zeal, and uncharitable fury," they had more reason to 
suspect those evils first from his own commands, whom 
they saw using daily no greater argument to prove the 
truth of his religion than by enduring no other but his 
own Prelatical; and, to force it upon others, made 
episcopal, ceremonial, and common-prayer book wars. 
But the papists understood him better than by the out- 
side; and knew that those wars were their wars. Al- 
though if the commonwealth should be afraid to sup- 
press open idolatry, lest the papists thereupon should 
grow desperate, this were to let them grow and become 
our persecutors, while we neglected w T hat we might 
have done evangelically to be their reformers : or to 
do as his father James did, who instead of taking heart 
and putting confidence in God by such a deliverance 
as from the powder-plot, though it went not off, yet 
with the mere conceit of it, as some observe, was hit 



;'K>8 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



into such a hectic trembling* between protestant and 
papist all his life after, that he never durst from that 
time do otherwise than equivocate or collogue with the 
pope and his adherents. 

He would be thought to commiserate the sad effects 
of that rebellion, and to lament that " the tears and 
blood spilt there did not quench the sparks of our civil" 
discord here. But who beg-an these dissensions? and 
what can be more openly known than those retardings 
and delays, which by himself were continually devised, 
to hinder and put back the relief of those distressed 
protestants ? which undoubtedly, had it not been then 
put back, might have saved many streams of those 
tears and that blood, whereof he seems here so sadly to 
bewail the spilling-. His manifold excuses, diversions, 
and delays, are too well known to be recited here in 
particular, and too many. 

But " he offered to go himself in person upon that 
expedition," and reckons up many surmises why he 
thinks they would not suffer him. But mentions not 
that by his underdealing to debauch armies here at 
home, and by his secret intercourse with the chief re- 
bels, long ere that time every where known, he had 
brought the parliament into so just a diffidence of him, 
as that they durst not leave the public arms to his dis- 
posal, much less an army to his conduct. 

He concludes, " That next the sin of those who be- 
gan that rebellion, theirs must needs be who hindered 
the suppressing, or diverted the aids." But judgment 
rashly given, ofttimes involves the judge himself. He 
finds fault with those " who threatened all extremity 
to the rebels," and pleads much that mercy should be 
shewn them. It seems he found himself not so much 
concerned as those who had lost fathers, brothers, wives, 
and children by their cruelty; whom in justice to re- 
taliate is not, as he supposes, " unevangelical ; " so 
long as magistracy and war are not laid down under 
the gospel. If this his sermon of affected mercy were 
not too pharisaical, how could he permit himself to 
cause the slaughter of so many thousands here in Eng- 
land for mere prerogatives, the toys and gewgaws of 
his crown, for copes and surplices, the trinkets of his 
priests ; and not perceive his own zeal, while he taxes 
others, to be most preposterous and unevangelical ? 
Neither is there the same cause to destroy a whole city 
for the ravishing of a sister, not done out of villainy, 
and recompense offered by marriage ; nor the same 
cause for those disciples to summon fire from heaven 
upon the whole city where they were denied lodging- ; 
and tot a nation by just war and execution to slay 
whole families of them, who so barbarously had slain 
whole families before. Did not all Israel do as much 
against the Benjamites for one rape committed by a 
few, and defended by the whole tribe? and did they 
not the same to Jabesh-Gilead for not assisting them 
in that revenge? I speak not this that such measure 
should he meted rigorously to all the Irish, or as re- 
membering that the parliament ever so decreed ; but 
to shew that this his homily hath more craft and affec- 
tation in it, than of sound doctrine. 

• I lie second editiou 



But it was happy that his going into Ireland was 
not consented to ; for either he had certainly turned 
his raised forces against the parliament itself, or not 
gone at all ; or had he gone, what work he would have 
made there, his own following words declare. 

" He would have punished some ;" no question ; for 
some, perhaps, who were of least use, must of necessity 
have been sacrificed to his reputation, and the conve- 
nience of his affairs. Others he " would have disarm- 
ed ;" that is to say, in his own time : but " all of them 
he would have protected from the fury of those that 
would have drowned them, if they had refused to swim 
down the popular stream." These expressions are too 
often met, and too well understood, for any man to 
doubt his meaning*. By the " fury of those," he means 
no other than the justice of parliament, to whom yet 
he had committed the whole business. Those who 
would have refused to swim down the popular stream, 
our constant key tells us to be papists, prelates, and 
their faction ; these, by his own confession here, he 
would have protected against his puritan parliament: 
and by this who sees not that he and the Irish rebels 
had but one aim, one and the same drift, and would 
have forthwith joined in one body against us ? 

He goes on still in his tenderness of the Irish rebels, 
fearing lest " our zeal should be more greedy to kill 
the bear for his skin, than for any harm he hath done." 
This either justifies the rebels to have done no harm at 
all, or infers his opinion that the parliament is more 
bloody and rapacious in the prosecution of their justice, 
than those rebels were in the execution of their barba- 
rous cruelty. Let men doubt now and dispute to whom 
the king was a friend most — to his English parliament, 
or to his Irish rebels. 

With whom, that we may yet see further how much 
he was their friend, after that the parliament had 
brought them every where either to famine or a low 
condition, he, to give them all the respite and advan- 
tages they could desire, without advice of parliament, 
to whom he himself had committed the managing of 
that war, makes a cessation ; in pretence to relieve the 
protestants, " overborne there with numbers;" but, as 
the event proved, to support the papists, by diverting 
and drawing' over the English army there, to his own 
service here against the parliament. For that the pro- 
testants were then on the winning hand, it must needs 
be plain ; who, notwithstanding the miss of those forces, 
which at their landing here mastered without difficulty 
great part of Wales and Cheshire, yet made a shift to 
keep their own in Ireland. But the plot of this Irish 
truce is in good part discovered in that declaration of 
September 30, 1643. And if the protestants were but 
handfuls there, as he calls them, why did he stop and 
waylay, both by land and sea, to his utmost power, 
those provisions and supplies which were sent by the 
parliament ? How were so many handfuls called over, 
as for a while stood him in no small stead, and against 
our main forces here in England ? 

Since therefore all the reasons that can be given of 
this cessation appear so false and frivolous, it may be 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



309 



justly feared, that the design itself was most wicked 
and pernicious. What remains then ? He " appeals 
to God," and is cast; likening his punishment to Job's 
trials, before he saw them to have Job's ending. But 
how could charity herself believe there was at all in 
him any religion, so much as but to fear there is a 
God ; whenas, by what is noted in the declaration of 
" no more addresses," he vowed solemnly to the par- 
liament, with imprecations upon himself and his pos- 
terity, if ever he consented to the abolishing of those 
laws which were in force against papists ; and, at the 
same time, as appeared plainly by the very date of his 
own letters to the queen and Ormond, consented to the 
abolishing of all penal laws against them both in Ire- 
land and England ? If these were acts of a religious 
prince, what memory of man, written or unwritten, can 
tell us news of any prince that ever was irreligious ? 
He cannot stand " to make prolix apologies." Then 
surely those long pamphlets set out for declarations 
and protestations in his name were none of his ; and 
how they should be his, indeed, being so repugnant to 
the whole course of his actions, augments the difficulty. 

But he usurps a common saying, " That it is kingly 
to do well, and hear ill." That may be sometimes true : 
but far more frequently to do ill and hear well ; so great 
is the multitude of flatterers, and them that deify the 
name of king ! 

Yet, not content with these neighbours, we have him 
still a perpetual preacher of his own virtues, and of 
that especially, which who knows not to be patience 
perforce ? 

He " believes it will at last appear, that they who 
first began to embroil his pother kingdoms, are also 
guilty of the blood of Ireland." And we believe so 
too ; for now the cessation is become a peace by pub- 
lished articles, and commission to bring them over 
against England, first only ten thousand by the earl 
of Glamorgan,* next all of them, if possible, under 
Ormond, which was the last of all his transactions done 
as a public person. And no wonder; for he looked 
upon the blood spilt, whether of subjects or of rebels, 
with an indifferent eye, " as exhausted out of his own 
veins;" without distinguishing, as he ought, which 
was good blood and which corrupt; the not letting out 
whereof, endangers the whole body. 

And what the doctrine is, ye may perceive also by 
the prayer, which, after a short ejaculation for the 
" poor protestants," prays at large for the Irish rebels, 
that God would not give them over, or "their children, 
to the covetousness, cruelty, fierce and cursed anger" 
of the parliament. 

He finishes with a deliberate and solemn curse " upon 
himself and his father's house." Which how far God 
hath already brought to pass, is to the end, that men, 
by so eminent an example, should learn to tremble at 
his judgments, and not play with imprecations. 



S«e this fully proved in Dr. Birch's Enquiry inlothe share whichKing 



XIII. Upon the calling in of the Scots, and their 
coming. 

It must needs seem strange, where men accustom 
themselves to ponder and contemplate things in their 
first original and institution, that kings, who as all 
other officers of the public, were at first chosen and 
installed only by consent and suffrage of the people, 
to govern them as freemen by laws of their own 
making-, and to be, in consideration of that dignity 
and riches bestowed upon them, the entrusted servants 
of the commonwealth, should, notwithstanding, grow 
up to that dishonest encroachment, as to esteem them- 
selves masters, both of that great trust which they 
serve, and of the people that betrusted them; counting 
what they ought to do, both in discharge of their pub- 
lic duty, and for the great reward of honour and reve- 
nue which they receive, as done all of mere grace and 
favour; as if their power over us were by nature, and 
from themselves, or that God had sold us into their 
hands. Indeed, if the race of kings were eminently 
the best of men, as the breed at Tutbury is of horses, 
it would in reason then be their part only to com- 
mand, ours always to obey. But kings by generation 
no way excelling others, and most commonly not 
being the wisest or the worthiest by far of whom thoy 
claim to have the governing ; that we should yield them 
subjection to our own ruin, or hold of them the right 
of our common safety, and our natural freedom by mere 
gift, (as when the conduit pisses wine at coronations,) 
from the superfluity of their royal grace and beneficence, 
we may be sure was never the intent of God, whose 
ways are just and equal ; never the intent of nature, 
whose works are also regular ; never of any people not 
wholly barbarous, whom prudence, or no more but 
human sense, would have better guided when they 
first created kings, than so to nullify and tread to dirt 
the rest of mankind, by exalting one person and his 
lineage without other merit looked after, but the mere 
contingency of a begetting, into an absolute and un- 
accountable dominion over them and their posterity. 
Yet this ignorant or wilful mistake of the whole matter 
had taken so deep root in the imagination of this king, 
that whether to the English or to the Scot, mentioning 
what acts of his reg-al office (though God knows how 
unwillingly) he had passed, he calls them, as in other 
places, acts of grace and bounty; so here "special ob- 
ligations, favours, to gratify active spirits, and the de- 
sires of that party." Words not only sounding pride 
and lordly usurpation, but injustice, partiality, and 
corruption. For to the Irish he so far condescended, 
as first to tolerate in private, then to covenant openly 
the tolerating of popery : so far to the Scot, as to re- 
move bishops, establish presbytery, and the militia in 
their own hands ; " preferring, as some thought, the de- 
sires of Scotland before his own interest and honour." 
But being once on this side Tweed, his reason, his con- 
science, and his honour became so frightened with a 
kind of false virginity, that to the English neither one 

Charles I. had in the transactions of the earl of Glamorgan, 2d edit. 1756. 



310 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



nor other of the same demands could be granted, where- 
with the Scots were gratified ; as if our air and climate 
on a sudden had changed the property and the nature 
both of conscience, honour, and reason, or that he found 
none so fit as English to be the subjects of his arbitrary 
power. Ireland was as Ephraim, the strength of his 
head ; Scotland as Judah, was his lawgiver; but over 
England, as over Edom, he meant to cast his shoe : 
and yet so many sober Englishmen, not sufficiently 
awake to consider this, like men enchanted with the 
Circaean cup of servitude, will not be held back 
from running their own heads into the yoke of bond- 
age. 

The sum of his discourse is against " settling of re- 
ligion by violent means ;" which, whether it were the 
Scots' design upon England, they are best able to clear 
themselves. But this of all may seem strangest, that 
the king, who, while it was permitted him, never did 
thing more eagerly than to molest and persecute 
the consciences of most religious men ; he who had 
made a war, and lost all, rather than not uphold a hier- 
archy of persecuting bishops, should have the confidence 
here to profess himself so much an enemy of those that 
force the conscience. For was it not he, who upon the 
English obtruded new ceremonies, upon the Scots a 
new Liturgy, and with his sword went about to en- 
grave * a bloody Rubric on their backs ? Did he not 
forbid and hinder all effectual search of truth ; nay, 
like a besieging enemy, stopped all her passages both 
by word and writing ? Yet here can talk of " fair and 
equal disputations :" where, notwithstanding, if all 
submit not to his judgment, as not being " rationally 
convicted," they must submit (and he conceals it not) 
to his penalty, as counted obstinate. But what if he 
himself, and those his learned churchmen, were the 
convicted or the obstinate part long ago ; should re- 
formation suffer them to sit lording over the church in 
their fat bishoprics and pluralities, like the great whore 
that sitteth upon many waters, till they would vouch- 
safe to be disputed out ? Or should we sit disputing, 
while they sat plotting and persecuting ? Those clergy- 
men were not " to be driven into the fold like sheep," 
as his simile runs, but to be driven out of the fold like 
wolves or thieves, where they sat fleecing those flocks 
which they never fed. 

He believes " that presbytery, though proved to be 
the only institution of Jesus Christ, were not by the 
sword to be set up without his consent;" which is con- 
trary both to the doctrine and the known practice of 
all protestant churches, if his sword threaten those who 

1 their own accord embrace it. 

And although Christ and his apostles, being to civil 

affairs but private men, contended not with magistrates; 

yel win i) magistrates themselves, and especially par- 

liaments, who have greatest right to dispose of the civil 

word, come to know religion, they ought in conscience 

to defend all those who receive it willingly, against 

the rioleneeef any king or tyrant whatsoever. Neither 

i- it therefore true, "that Christianity is planted or 

d with christian blood-," for there is a large dif- 

• I he wcond edition nan icore. 



Terence between forcing men by the sword to turn 
presbyterians, and defending those who willingly are 
so, from a furious inroad of bloody bishops, armed with 
the militia of a king their pupil. And if " covetous- 
ness and ambition be an argument that presbytery 
hath not much of Christ," it argues more strongly 
against episcopacy ; which, from the time of her first 
mounting to an order above the presbyters, had no 
other parents than covetousness and ambition. And 
those sects, schisms, and heresies, which he speaks of, 
" if they get but strength and numbers," need no other 
pattern than episcopacy and himself, to "set up then- 
ways by the like method of violence." Nor is there 
any thing that hath more marks of schism and secta- 
rism than English episcopacy; whether we look at 
apostolic times, or at reformed churches ; for " the uni- 
versal way of church-government before," may as soon 
lead us into gross errour, as their universally corrupted 
doctrine. And government, by reason of ambition, was 
likeliest to be corrupted much the sooner of the two. 
However, nothing can be to us catholic or universal in 
religion, but what the Scripture teaches; whatsoever 
without Scripture pleads to be universal in the church, 
in being universal is but the more schismatical. Much 
less can particular laws and constitutions impart to the 
church of England any power of consistory or tribunal 
above other churches, to be the sole judge of what is 
sect or schism, as with much rigour, and without Scrip- 
ture, they took upon them. Yet these the king resolves 
here to defend and maintain to his last, pretending, 
after all those conferences offered, or had with him, 
" not to see more rational and religious motives than 
soldiers carry in their knapsacks." With one thus re- 
solved, it was but folly to stand disputing. 

He imagines his " own judicious zeal to be most con- 
cerned in his tuition of the church." So thought Saul 
when he presumed to offer sacrifice, for which he lost 
his kingdom ; so thought Uzziah when he went into 
the temple, but was thrust out with a leprosy for his 
opinioned zeal, which he thought judicious. It is not 
the part of a king, because he ought to defend the 
church, therefore to set himself supreme head over the 
church, or to meddle with ecclesial government, or to 
defend the church, otherwise than the church would be 
defended ; for such defence is bondage : nor to defend 
abuses, and stop all reformation, under the name of 
" new moulds fancied and fashioned to private designs." 
The holy things of church are in the power of other 
keys than were delivered to his keeping. Christian 
liberty, purchased with the death of our Redeemer, and 
established by the sending of his free spirit to inhabit 
in us, is not now to depend upon the doubtful consent 
of any earthly monarch ; nor to be again fettered with 
a presumptuous negative voice, tyrannical to the par- 
liament, but much more tyrannical to the church of 
God ; which was compelled to implore the aid of par- 
liament, to remove his force and heavy hands from off 
our consciences, who therefore complains now of that 
most just defensive force, because only it removed his 
violence and persecution. If this be a violation to his 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



311 



conscience, that it was hindered by the parliament from 
violating' the more tender consciences of so many thou- 
sand g-ood Christians, let the usurping- conscience of 
all tyrants be ever so violated ! 

He wonders, fox wonder ! how we could so much 
" distrust God's assistance," as to call in the protestant 
aid of our brethren in Scotland ; why then did he, if 
his trust were in God and the justice of his cause, not 
scruple to solicit and invite earnestly the assistance 
both of papists and of Irish rebels? If the Scots were 
by us at length sent home, they were not called to stay 
here always; neither was it for the people's ease to 
feed so many legions longer than their help was need- 
ful. 

" The government of their kirk we despised" not, 
but their imposing of that government upon us ; not 
presbytery, but archpresbytery, classical, provincial, 
and diocesan presbytery, claiming to itself a lordly 
power and superintendency both over flocks and pas- 
tors, over persons and congregations no way their own. 
But these debates, in his judgment, would have been 
ended better " by the best divines in Christendom in a 
full and free synod." A most improbable way, and 
such as never yet was used, at least with good success, 
by any protestant kingdom or state since the reforma- 
tion : every true church having wherewithal from 
Heaven, and the assisting spirit of Christ implored, to 
be complete and perfect within itself. And the whole 
nation is not easily to be thought so raw, and so per- 
petually a novice, after all this light, as to need the 
help and direction of other nations, more than what 
they write in public of their opinion, in a matter so fa- 
miliar as church-government. 

In fine, he accuses piety with the want of loyalty, 
and religion with the breach of allegiance, as if God 
and he were one master, whose commands were so 
often contrary to the commands of God. He would 
persuade the Scots, that their " chief interest consists in 
their fidelity to the crown." But true policy will teach 
them, to find a safer interest in the common friendship 
of England, than in the ruins of one ejected family. 



XIV. Upon the Covenant. 



Upon this theme his discourse is long, his matter 
little but repetition, and therefore soon answered. 
First, after an abusive and strange apprehension of 
covenants, as if men "pawned their souls" to them 
with whom they covenant, he digresses to plead for 
bishops ; first from the antiquity of their " possession 
here, since the first plantation of Christianity in this 
island ;" next from " a universal prescription since the 
apostles, till this last century." But what avails the 
most primitive antiquity against the plain sense of 
Scripture? which, if the last century have best fol- 
lowed, it ought in our esteem to be the first. And yet 
it hath been often proved by learned men, from the 
writings and epistles of most ancient Christians, that 
episcopacy crept not up into an order above the pres- 



byters, till many years after that the apostles were 
deceased. 

He next "is unsatisfied with the covenant," not only 
for*" some passages in it referring to himself," as he 
supposes, " with very dubious and dangerous limita- 
tions," but for binding men "by oath and covenant" 
to the reformation of church-discipline. First, those 
limitations were not more dangerous to him, than he to 
our liberty and religion ; next, that which was there 
vowed, to cast out of the church an antichristian hier- 
archy which God had not planted, but ambition and 
corruption had brought in, and fostered to the church's 
great damage and oppression, was no point of contro- 
versy to be argued without end, but a thing of clear 
moral necessity to be forthwith done. Neither was 
the " covenant superfluous, though former engage- 
ments, both religious and legal, bound us before ; " 
but was the practice of all churches heretofore intend- 
ing reformation. All Israel, though bound enough 
before by the law of Moses " to all necessary duties ;." 
yet with Asa their king entered into a new covenant 
at the beginning of a reformation : and the Jews, after 
captivity, without consent demanded of that king who 
was their master, took solemn oath to walk in the com- 
mandments of God. All protestant churches have 
done the like, notwithstanding" former engagements to 
their several duties. And although his aim were to 
sow variance between the protestation and the cove- 
nant, to reconcile them is not difficult. The protesta- 
tion was but one step, extending only to the doctrine 
of the church of England, as it was distinct from church 
discipline ; the covenant went further, as it pleased 
God to dispense his lig-ht and our encouragement by 
degrees, and comprehended church-government: For- 
mer with latter steps, in the progress of well-doing, 
need not reconcilement. Nevertheless he breaks 
through to his conclusion, " that all honest and wise 
men ever thought themselves sufficiently bound by 
former ties of religion;" leaving Asa, Ezra, and the 
whole church of God, in sundry ages, to shift for ho- 
nesty and wisdom from some other than his testimony. 
And although after-contracts absolve not till the former 
be made void, yet he first having done that, our duty 
returns back, which to him was neither moral nor 
eternal, but conditional. 

Willing to persuade himself that many "good men" 
took the covenant, either unwarily or out of fear, he 
seems to have bestowed some thoughts how these 
" good men, " following his advice, may keep the cove- 
nant and not keep it. The first evasion is, presuming 
" that the chief end of covenanting in such men's in- 
tentions was to preserve religion in purity, and the 
kingdom's peace." But the covenant will more truly 
inform them, that purity of religion and the kingdom's 
peace was not then in state to be preserved, but to be 
restored ; and therefore binds them not to a preserva- 
tion of what was, but to a reformation of what was 
evil, what was traditional, and dangerous, whether no- 
velty or antiquity, in church or state. To do this, 
clashes with " no former oath " lawfully sworn either 
to God or the king, and rightly understood. 



312 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



In general, he brands all " such confederations by 
league and covenant, as the common road used in all 
factious perturbations of state and church." This kind 
of language reflects, with the same ignominy, upon all 
the protestant reformations that have been since Lu- 
ther; and so indeed doth his whole book, replenished 
throughout with hardly other words or arguments than 
papists, and especially popish kings, have used hereto- 
fore against their protestant subjects, whom he would 
persuade to be " every man his own pope, and to absolve 
himself of those ties,"by the suggestion of false orequi- 
vocal interpretations too oft repeated to be now answered. 

The parliament, hesaith, " made their covenant, like 
manna, agreeable to every man's palate." This is an- 
other of his glosses upon the covenant ; he is content 
to let it be manna, but his drift is that men should 
loath it or at least expound it by their own " relish," 
and "latitude of sense;" wherein, lest any one of the 
simpler sort should fail to be his craftsmaster, he fur- 
nishes him with two or three laxative, he terms them 
" general clauses, which may serve somewhat to re- 
lieve them" against the covenant taken : intimating, 
as if" what were lawful and according to the word of 
God," were no otherwise so, than as every man fancied 
to himself. From such learned explications and re- 
solutions as these upon the covenant, what marvel if 
no royalist or malignant refuse to take it, as having 
learnt from these princely instructions his many " sal- 
voes, cautions, and reservations," how to be a cove- 
nanter aud anticovenanter, how at once to be a Scot, 
and an Irish rebel. 

He returns again to disallow of " that reformation 
which the covenant" vows, "as being the partial ad- 
vice of a few divines." But matters of this moment, 
as they were not to be decided there by those divines, 
so neither are they to be determined here by essays and 
curtal aphorisms, but by solid proofs of Scripture. 

The rest of his discourse he spends, highly accusing 
the parliament, "that the main reformation by" them 
" intended, was to rob the church," and much applaud- 
ing himself both for "his forwardness" to all due re- 
formation, and his averseness from all such kind of sa- 
crilege. All which, with his glorious title of the 
" Church's Defender," we leave him to make good by 
" Pharaoh's divinity," if he please, for to Joseph's piety 
it will be a task unsuitable. As for "the parity and 
poverty of ministers," which he takes to be so sad of 
" consequence," the Scripture reckons them for two 
special legacies left by our Saviour to his disciples; 
under which two primitive nurses, for such they were 
d, the church of God more truly flourished than 
after, since the time that imparity and church re- 
\< mi. rushing in, corrupted and bclepered all theclergy 
with a worse infection than Gehazi's ; some one of 
whose tribe, rather than a king, I should take to be 
compiler of that ansalted and Simonical prayer an- 
nexed : although the prayer itself strongly prays 
against them. For never such holy things as he means 
_i\r ■:■ more to Bwine,nor the church's bread more 
to dogs, than when it fed ambitious, irreligious, and 
dumb prelal 



XV. Upo7i the many Jealousies, fyc. 

To wipe off jealousies and scandals, the best way 
had been by clear actions, or till actions could be cleared, 
by evident reasons ; but mere words we are too well 
acquainted with. Had "his honour and reputation 
been dearer to him" than the lust of reigning, how 
could the parliament of either nation have laid so often 
at his door the breach of words, promises, acts, oaths, 
and execrations, as they do avowedly in many of their 
petitions and addresses to him ? Thither I remit the 
reader. And who can believe that whole parliaments, 
elected by the people from all parts of the land, should 
meet in one mind and resolution not to advise him, but 
to conspire against him, in a worse powder-plot than 
Catesbie's, " to blow up," as he terms it, " the people's 
affection towards him, and batter down their loyalty 
by the engines of foul aspersions :" Water-works ra- 
ther than engines to batter with, yet those aspersions 
were raised from the foulness of his own actions : 
whereof to purge himself, he uses no other argument 
than a general and so often iterated commendation of 
himself; and thinks that court holy-water hath the 
virtue of expiation, at least with the silly people ; to 
whom he familiarly imputes sin where none is, to 
seem liberal of his forgiveness where none is asked or 
needed. 

What ways he hath taken toward the prosperity of 
his people, which he would seem "so earnestly to de- 
sire," if we do but once call to mind, it will be enough 
to teach us, looking on the smooth insinuations here, 
that tyrants are not more flattered by their slaves, than 
forced to flatter others whom they fear. 

For the people's " tranquillity he would willingly be 
the Jonah ;" but lest he should be taken at his word, 
pretends to foresee within ken two imaginary "winds" 
never heard of in the compass, which threaten, if he 
be cast overboard, "to increase the storm;" but that 
controversy divine lot hath ended. 

" He had rather not rule, than that his people should 
be ruined :" and yet, above these twenty years, hath 
been ruining the people about the niceties of his rul- 
ing. He is accurate "to put a difference between the 
plague of malice and the ague of mistakes; the itch of 
novelty, and the leprosy of disloyalty." But had he 
as well known how to distinguish between the vener- 
able gray hairs of ancient religion and the old scurf 
of superstition, between the wholesome heat of well 
governing and the feverous rage of tyrannizing, his 
judgment in state physic had been of more authority. 

Much he prophesies, " that the credit of those men, 
who have cast black scandals on him, shall ere long 
be quite blasted by the same furnace of popular oblo- 
quy, wherein they sought to cast his name and honour." 
I believe not that a Romish gilded portraiture gives 
better oracle than a Babylonish golden image could 
do, to tell us truly who heated that furnace of obloquy^ 
or who deserves to be thrown in, Nebuchadnezzar or 
the three kingdoms. It " gave him great cause to 
suspect his own innocence," that he was opposed by 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



313 



" so many who professed singular piety." But this 
qualm was soon over, and he concluded rather to sus- 
pect their religion than his own innocence, affirming 
that " many with him were both learned and religious 
above the ordinary size." But if his great seal, with- 
out the parliament, were not sufficient to create lords, 
his parole must needs be far more unable to create 
learned and religions men ; and who sball authorize 
his unlearned judgment to point them out? 

He guesses that " many well-minded men were by 
popular preachers urged to oppose him." But the op- 
position undoubtedly proceeded and continues from 
heads far wiser, and spirits of a nobler strain ; those 
priest-led Herodians, with their blind guides, are in 
the ditch already ; travelling, as they thought, to Sion, 
but moored in the Isle of Wig'ht. 

He thanks God " for his constancy to the protestant 
religion both abroad and at home." Abroad, his letter 
to the pope; at home, his innovations in the church, 
will speak his constancy in religion what it was, with- 
out further credit to this vain boast. 

His " using the assistance of some papists," as the 
cause might be, could not hurt his religion ; but, in the 
settling of protestanism, their aid was both unseemly 
and suspicious, and inferred that the greatest part of 
protestants were against him and his obtruded settle- 
ment. 

But this is strange indeed, that he should appear 
now teaching the parliament what no man, till this 
was read, thought ever he had learned, " that difference 
of persuasion in religious matters may fall out where 
there is the sameness of allegiance and subjection." If 
he thought so from the beginning, wherefore was there 
such compulsion used to the puritans of England, and 
the whole realm of Scotland, about conforming to a 
liturgy ? Wherefore no bishop, no king ? Wherefore 
episcopacy more agreeable to monarchy, if different 
persuasions in religion may agree in one duty and al- 
legiance ? Thus do court maxims, like court minions, 
rise or fall as the king* pleases. 

Not to tax him for want of elegance as a courtier, in 
writing Oglio for Olla the Spanish word, it might be 
well affirmed, that there was a greater medley and dis- 
proportioning of religions, to mix papists with protest- 
ants in a religious cause, than to entertain all those 
diversified sects, who yet were all protestants, one re- 
ligion though many opinions. 

Neither was it any " shame to protestants," that he, 
a declared papist, if his own letter to the pope, not yet 
renounced, belie bim not, found so few protestants of 
his religion, as enforced him to call in both the counsel 
and the aid of papists to help establish protestancy, 
who were led on, not " by the sense of their allegi- 
ance," but by the hope of his apostacy to Rome, from 
disputing to warring; his own voluntary and first 
appeal. 

His hearkening to evil counsellors, charged upon 
him so often by the parliament, he puts off as " a de- 
vice of those men, who were so eager to give him better 
counsel." That " those men" were the parliament, and 
that he ought to have used the counsel of none but 



those, as a king, is already known. What their civility 
laid upon evil counsellors, he himself most commonly 
owned ; but the event of those evil counsels, " the enor- 
mities, the confusions, the miseries," he transfers from 
the guilt of his own civil broils to the just resistance 
made by parliament ; and imputes what miscarriages 
of his they could not yet remove for his opposing, as 
if they were some new misdemeanours of their bring- 
ing in, and not the inveterate diseases of his own bad 
government ; which, with a disease as bad, he falls 
again to magnify and commend : and may all those 
who would be governed by his " retractions and con- 
cessions," rather than by laws of parliament, admire 
his self-encomiums, and be flattered with that " crown 
of patience," to which he cunningly exhorted them, 
that his monarchical foot might have the setting it upon 
their heads '. 

That trust which the parliament faithfully discharged 
in the asserting of our liberties, he calls "another arti- 
fice to withdraw the people from him to their designs. ' r 
What piece of justice could they have demanded for 
the people, which the jealousy of a king might not 
have miscalled a design to disparage his government, 
and to ingratiate themselves?. To be more just, reli- 
gious, wise, or magnanimous than the common sort, 
stirs up in a tyrant both fear and envy; and straight 
he cries out popularity, which, in his account, is little 
less than treason. The sum is, they thought to limit 
or take away the remora of his negative voice, which, 
like to that little pest at sea, took upon it to arrest and 
stop the commonwealth steering under full sail to a 
reformation : they thought to share with him in the 
militia, both or either of which he could not possibly hold 
without consent of the people, and not be absolutely a 
tyrant. He professes " to desire no other liberty than 
what he envies not his subjects according to law;" 
yet fought with might and main against his subjects, 
to have a sole power over them in his hand, botb 
against and beyond law. As for the philosophical 
liberty which in vain he talks of, we may conclude 
him very ill trained up in those free notions, who to 
civil liberty was so injurious. 

He calls the conscience " God's sovereignty ;" why, 
then, doth he contest with God about that supreme 
title? why did he lay restraints, and force enlarge- 
ments, upon our consciences in things for which we 
were to answer God only and the church ? God bids 
us " be subject for conscience sake;" that is, as to a 
magistrate, and in the laws ; not usurping over spi- 
ritual things, as Lucifer beyond his sphere. And the 
same precept bids him likewise, for conscience sake, 
be subject to the parliament, both his natural and his 
legal superiour. 

Finally, having laid the fault of these commotions 
not upon his own misgovernment, but upon the " am- 
bition of others, the necessity of some men's fortune, 
and thirst after novelty," he bodes himself " much 
honour and reputation, that, like the sun, shall rise 
and recover himself to such a splendour, as owls, bats, 
and such fatal birds shall be unable to bear." Poets, 
indeed, used to vapour much after this manner. But 



114 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



to bad kings, who, without cause, expect future glory 
from their actions, it happens, as to bad poets, who sit 
and starve themselves with a delusive hope to win im- 
mortality by their bad lines. For though men ought 
not to " speak evil of dignities" which are just, yet 
nothing hinders us to speak evil, as often as it is the 
truth, of those who in their dignities do evil. Thus did 
our Saviour himself, John the Baptist, and Stephen the 
Martyr. And those black veils of his own misdeeds he 
might be sure would ever keep " his face from shining," 
till he could " refute evil speaking with well doing," 
which grace he seems here to pray for; and his prayer 
doubtless as it was prayed, so it was heard. But even 
his prayer is so ambitious of prerogative, that it dares 
ask away the prerogative of Christ himself, " To be- 
come the headstone of the corner." 



XVI. Upon the Ordinance against the Common-Pr ayer 
Book. 

What to think of liturgies, both the sense of Scrip- 
ture, and apostolical practice, would have taught him 
better, than his human reasonings and conjectures : 
nevertheless, what weight they have, let us consider. 
If it " be no news to have all innovations ushered in 
with the name of reformation," sure it is less news to 
have all reformation censured and opposed under the 
name of innovation, by those who, being exalted in 
high place above their merit, fear all change, though 
of things never so ill or so unwisely settled. So hardly 
can the dotage of those that dwell upon antiquity allow 
present times any share of godliness or wisdom. 

The removing of liturgy he traduces to be done only 
as a " thing plausible to the people;" whose rejection 
of it he likens, with small reverence, to the crucifying of 
our Saviour; next, that it was done " to please those 
men who gloried in their extemporary vein," meaning 
the ministers. For whom it will be best to answer, 
as was answered for the man born blind, " They are 
of age, let them speak for themselves ;" not how they 
came blind, but whether it were liturgy that held them 
tongue-tied. 

" For the matter contained in that book," we need 
no better witness than King Edward the Sixth, who to 
the Cornish rebels confesses it was no other than the 
old mass-book done into English, all but some few 
words that were expunged. And by this argument, 
which King Edward so promptly had to use against 
that irreligious rabble, we may be assured it was the 
carnal fear of those divines and politicians that modelled 
the liturgy no farther off from the old mass, lest by too 
great an alteration they should incense the people, and 
1" destitute of the same shifts to fly to, which they had 
taught the young king. 

" For the maimer of using- set forms, there is no 
flrml.tb.it that, wholesome" matter and good desires 
rightly conceived in the heart, wholesome words will 

• J be promise of the Spirit's assistance, liere alluded to, was extraordi- 



follow of themselves. Neither can any true Christian 
find a reason why liturgy should be at all admitted, a 
prescription not imposed or practised by those first 
founders of the church, who alone had that authority: 
without whose precept or example, how constantly the 
priest puts on his gown and surplice, so constantly 
doth his prayer put on a servile yoke of liturgy. This 
is evident, that they " who use no set forms of prayer," 
have words from their affections ; while others are to 
seek affections fit and proportionable to a certain dose 
of prepared words ; which as they are not rigorously 
forbid to any man's private infirmity, so to imprison 
and confine by force, into a pinfold of set words, those 
two most unimprisonable things, our prayers, and that 
divine spirit of utterance that moves them, is a tyranny 
that would have longer hands than those giants who 
threatened bondage to heaven. What we may do in 
the same form of words is not so much the question, as 
whether liturgy may be forced as he forced it. It is 
true that we " pray to the same God ;" must we, there- 
fore, always use the same words ? Let us then use but 
one word, because we pray to one God. " We profess 
the same truths," but the liturgy comprehends not all 
truths : " we read the same Scriptures," but never read 
that all those sacred expressions, all benefit and use of 
Scripture, as to public prayer, should be denied us, ex- 
cept what was barrelled up in a common-prayer book 
with many mixtures of their own, and, which is worse, 
without salt. But suppose them savory words and un- 
mixed, suppose them manna itself, yet, if they shall be 
hoarded up and enjoined us, while God every morning 
rains down new expressions into our hearts ; instead of 
being fit to use, they will be found, like reserved manna, 
rather to breed worms and stink. " We have the same 
duties upon us, and feel the same wants;" yet not al- 
ways the same, nor at all times alike ; but with variety 
of circumstances, which ask variety of words : whereof 
God hath given us plenty ; not to use so copiously 
upon all other occasions, and so niggardly to him 
alone in our devotions. As if Christians were now in 
a worse famine of words fit for prayer, than was of 
food at the siege of Jerusalem, when perhaps the priests 
being to remove the shewbread, as was accustomed, 
were compelled every sabbath day, for want of other 
loaves, to bring again still the same. If the " Lord's 
Prayer" had been the " warrant or the pattern of set 
liturgies," as is here affirmed, why was neither that 
prayer, nor any other set form, ever after used, or so 
much as mentioned by the apostles, much less com- 
mended to our use ? Why was their care wanting in a 
thing so useful to the church ? so full of danger and 
contention to be left undone by them to other men's 
penning, of whose authority we could not be so cer- 
tain ? Why was this forgotten by them, who declare 
that they have revealed to us the whole counsel of 
God ? who, as he left our affections to be guided by 
his sanctifying spirit, so did he likewise our words to 
be put into us without our premeditation ;* not only 
those cautious words to be used before gentiles and ty- 

nary, and beloneed only to the first age ; so that the author's argument is 
in this part inconclusive. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



315 



rants, but much more those filial words, of which we 
have so frequent use in our access with freedom of 
speech to the throne of grace. Which to lay aside for 
other outward dictates of men, were to injure him and 
his perfect gift, who is the spirit, and the giver of our 
ability to pray ; as if his ministration were incomplete, 
and that to whom he gave affections, he did not also 
afford utterance to make his gift of prayer a perfect 
gift ; to them especially, whose office in the church is 
to pray publicly. 

And although the gift were only natural, yet volun- 
tary prayers are less subject to formal and superficial 
tempers than set forms : for in those, at least for words 
and matter, he who prays must consult first with his 
heart, which in likelihood may stir up his affections ; 
in these, having both words and matter ready made to 
his lips, which is enough to make up the outward act 
of prayer, his affections grow lazy, and come not up 
easily at the call of words not their own; the prayer 
also having less intercourse and sympathy with a heart 
wherein it was not conceived, saves itself the labour of 
so long a journey downward, and flying up in haste 
on the specious wings of formality, if it fall not back 
again headlong, instead of a prayer which was expected, 
presents God with a set of stale and empty words. 

No doubt but " ostentation and formality" may taint 
the best duties ; we are not therefore to leave duties for 
no duties, and to turn prayer into a kind of lurry. 
Cannot unpremeditated babblings be rebuked and re- 
strained in whom we find they are, but the Spirit of 
God must be forbidden in all men ? But it is the cus- 
tom of bad men and hypocrites, to take advantage at 
the least abuse of good things, that under that covert 
they may remove the goodness of those things, rather 
than the abuse. And how unknowingly,, how weakly 
is the using of set forms attributed here to " constancy," 
as if it were constancy in the cuckoo to be always in 
the same liturgy. 

Much less can it be lawful that an Englished mass- 
book, composed, for ought we know, by men neither 
learned, nor godly, should justle out, or at any time de- 
prive us the exercise of that heavenly gift, which God 
by special promise pours out daily upon his church, 
that is to say, the spirit of prayer. Whereof to help 
those many infirmities, which he reckons up, " rude- 
ness, impertinency, flatness," and the like, we have a 
remedy of God's finding out, which is not liturgy, but 
his own free Spirit. Though we know not what to pray 
as we ought, yet he with sighs unutterable by any 
words, much less by a stinted liturgy, dwelling in us 
makes intercession for us, according to the mind and 
will of God, both in private and in the performance of 
all ecclesiastical duties. For it is his promise also, 
that where two or three gathered together in his 
name shall agree to ask him any thing, it shall be 
granted ; for he is there in the midst of them. If then 
ancient churches, to remedy the infirmities of prayer, 
or rather the infections of Arian and Pelagian heresies, 
neglecting that ordained and promised help of the 
Spirit, betook them almost four hundred years after 
Christ to liturgy, (their own invention,) we are not to 



imitate them ; nor to distrust God in the removal of 
that truant help to our devotion, which by him never 
was appointed. And what is said of liturgy, is said 
also of directory, if it be imposed : although to forbid 
the service-book there be much more reason, as being 
of itself superstitious, offensive, and indeed, though 
Englished, yet still the mass-book ; and public places 
ought to be provided of such as need not the help of 
liturgies or directories continually, but are supported 
with ministerial gifts answerable to their calling. 

Lastly, that the common-prayer book was rejected 
because it " prayed so oft for him," he had no reason 
to object : for what large and laborious prayers were 
made for him in the pulpits, if he never heard, it is 
doubtful they were never heard in heaven. We might 
now have expected, that his own following prayer 
should add much credit to set forms ; but on the con- 
trary we find the same imperfections in it, as in most 
before, which he lays here upon extemporal. Nor doth 
he ask of God to be directed whether liturgies be law- 
ful, but presumes, and in a manner would persuade 
him, that they be so; praying, " that the church and 
he may never want them." What could be prayed 
worse extempore ? unless he mean by wanting, that 
they may never need them. 



XVII. Of the differences in point of Church-Govern- 
ment. 

The government of church by bishops hath been so 
fully proved from the Scriptures to be vicious and usurp- 
ed, that whether out of piety or policy maintained, it 
is not much material ; for piety grounded upon errour 
can no more justify King Charles, than it did Queen 
Mary, in the sight of God or man. This however 
must not be let pass without a serious observation ; God 
having so disposed the author in this chapter as to 
confess and discover more of mystery and combination 
between tyranny and false religion, than from any 
other hand would have been credible. Here we may 
see the very dark roots of them both turned up, and 
how they twine and interweave one another in the 
earth, though above ground shooting up in two several 
branches. We may have learnt both from sacred his- 
tory and times of reformation, that the kings of this 
world have both ever hated and instinctively feared 
the church of God. Whether it be for that their doc- 
trine seems much to favour two things to them so 
dreadful, liberty and equality; or because they are the 
children of that kingdom, which, as ancient prophecies 
have foretold, shall in the end break to pieces and dis- 
solve all their great power and dominion. And those 
kings and potentates who have strove most to rid them- 
selves of this fear, by cutting off or suppressing the 
true church, have drawn upon themselves the occasion 
of their own ruin, while they thought with most policy 
to prevent it. Thus Pharaoh, when once he began to 
fear and wax jealous of the Israelites, lest they should 
multiply and fight against him, and that his fear stirred 






316 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



him up to afflict and keep them under, as the only re- 
medy of what he feared, soon found that the evil which 
before slept, came suddenly upon him, by the prepos- 
terous way he took to prevent* it. Passing by ex- 
amples between, and not shutting- wilfully our eyes, 
we may see the like story brought to pass in our own 
laud. This king, more than any before him, except 
perhaps his father, from his first entrance to the crown, 
harbouring- in his mind a strange fear and suspicion of 
men most religious, and their doctrine, which in his 
own language he here acknowledges, terming it " the 
seditious exorbitancy" of ministers' tongues, and doubt- 
ing " lest they," as he not christianly expresses it, 
" should with the keys of heaven let out peace and 
loyalty from the people's hearts;" though they never 
preached or attempted aught that might justly raise in 
him such though ts,f he could not rest, or think himself 
secure, so long as they remained in any of his three 
kingdoms unrooted out. But outwardly professing 
the same religion with them, he could not presently 
use violence as Pharaoh did, and that course had with 
others before but ill succeeded. He chooses therefore 
a more mystical way, a newer method of antichristian 
fraud, to the church more dangerous ; and like to Ba- 
lak the son of Zippor, against a nation of prophets 
thinks it best to hire other esteemed prophets, and to 
undermine and wear out the true church by a false 
ecclesiastical policy. To this drift he found the go- 
vernment of bishops most serviceable; an order in the 
church, as by men first corrupted, so mutually corrupt- 
ing them who receive it, both in judgment and man- 
ners. He, by conferring bishoprics and great livings 
on whom he thought most pliant to his will, against 
the known canons and universal practice of the ancient 
church, whereby those elections were the people's right, 
sought, as he confesses, to have " greatest influence 
upon churchmen." They on the other side finding 
themselves in a high dignity, neither founded by Scrip- 
ture, nor allowed by reformation, nor supported by any 
spiritual gift or grace of their own, knew it their best 
course to have dependence only upon him : and 
wrought his fancy by degrees to that degenerate and 
unkingly persuasion of " No bishop, no king." When 
as on the contrary all prelates in their own subtle sense 
are of another mind ; according to that of Pius the 
fourth remembered in the history of Trent,:}: that bishops 
then grow to be most vigorous and potent, when princes 
happen to be most weak and impotent. Thus when 
both interest of tyranny and episcopacy were incorpo- 
rate into each other, the king, whose principal safety 
and establishment consisted in the righteous execution 
of his civil power, and not in bishops and their wicked 
couna 1-. fatally driven on, set himself to the extirpating 
of those men whose doctrine and desire of church-dis- 
cipline he so feared would be the undoing of his mon- 
AimI because no temporal law could touch 
t!i< innocence of their lives, he begins with the perse- 
cution of their consciences, laying scandals before 
th. .11 ; and makes that the argument to inflict his un- 



I'ionhastoshun it. 
J lie itcoii'l edition has Hppreliensiotn. 



I just penalties both on their bodies and estates. In this 
war against the church, if he hath sped so, as other 
haughty monarchs whom God heretofore hath harden- 
ed to the like enterprise, we ought to look up with 
praises and thanksgiving to the author of our deliver- 
ance, to whom victory and power, majesty, honour, and 
dominion belongs for ever. 

In the mean while, from his own words we may per- 
ceive easily, that the special motives which he had to 
endear and deprave his judgment to the favouring and 
utmost defending of episcopacy, are such as here we 
represent them : and how unwillingly, and with what 
mental reservation, he condescended against his interest 
to remove it out of the peers' house, hath been shewn 
already. The reasons, which he affirms wrought so 
much upon his judgment, shall be so far answered as 
they be urged. 

Scripture he reports, but distinctly produces none ; 
and next the " constant practice of all christian churches, 
till of late years tumult, faction, pride, and covetous- 
ness, invented new models under the title of Christ's 
government." Could any papist have spoken more 
scandalously against all reformation ? Well may the 
parliament and best-affected people not now be troubled 
at his calumnies and reproaches, since he binds them 
in the same bundle with all other the reformed churches ; 
who also may now further see, besides their own bitter 
experience, what a cordial and well-meaning helper 
they had of him abroad, and how true to the protestant 
cause. 

As for histories to prove bishops, the Bible, if we 
mean not to run into errours, vanities, and uncertain- 
ties, must be our only history. Which informs us that 
the apostles were not properly bishops ; next, that 
bishops were not successors of apostles, in the function 
of apostleship : and that if they were apostles, they 
could not be precisely bishops ; if bishops, they could 
not be apostles ; this being universal, extraordinary, 
and immediate from God ; that being an ordinary, fixed, 
and particular charge, the continual inspection over a 
certain flock. And although an ignorance and devia- 
tion of the ancient churches afterward, may with as 
much reason and charity be supposed as sudden in 
point of prelaty, as in other manifest corruptions, yet 
that " no example since the first age for 1500 years 
can be produced of any settled church, wherein were 
many ministers and congregations, which had not some 
bishops above them ;" the ecclesiastical story, to which 
he appeals for want of Scripture, proves clearly to be a 
false and overconfident assertion. Sozomenus, who 
above twelve hundred years ago, in his seventh book, 
relates from his own knowledge, that in the churches 
of Cyprus and Arabia (places near to Jerusalem, and 
with the first frequented by apostles) they had bishops 
in every village ; and what could those be more than 
presbyters ? The like he tells of other nations ; and that 
episcopal churches in those days did not condemn them. 
I add, that many western churches, eminent for their 
faith and good works, and settled above four hundred 

X The second edition has in the Trentine story. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



317 






years ago in France, in Piemont and Bohemia, have 
both taught and practised the same doctrine, and not 
admitted of episcopacy among them. And if we may 
believe what the papists themselves have written of 
these churches, which they call Waldenses, I find it 
in a book written almost four hundred years since, and 
set forth in the Bohemian history, that those churches 
in Piemont * have held the same doctrine and govern- 
ment, since the time that Constantine with his mischiev- 
ous donations poisoned Sylvester and the whole church. 
Others affirm they have so continued there since the 
apostles ; and Theodorus Belvederensis in his relation 
of them confesseth, that those heresies, as he names 
them, were from the first times of Christianity in that 
place. For the rest I refer me to that famous testimony 
of Jerome, who upon that very place which he cites 
here,f the epistle to Titus, declares openly that bishop 
and presbyter were one and the same thing, till by the 
instigation of Satan, partialities grew up in the church, 
and that bishops rather by custom than any ordainment 
of Christ, were exalted above presbyters ; whose inter- 
pretation we trust shall be received before this intricate 
stuff tattled here of Timothy and Titus, and I know 
not whom their successors, far beyond court-element, 
and as far beneath true edification. These are his 
" fair grounds both from scripture-canons and ecclesi- 
astical examples ;" how undivine-like written, and how 
like a worldly gospeller that understands nothingof these 
matters, posterity no doubt will be able to judge; and 
will but little regard what he calls apostolical, who in his 
letter to the pope calls apostolical the Roman religion. 

Nor let him think to plead, that therefore, " it was 
not policy of state," or obstinacy in him which upheld 
episcopacy, because the injuries and losses which he 
sustained by so doing were to him " more considerable 
than episcopacy itself ; " for all this might Pharaoh 
have had to say in his excuse of detaining the Israel- 
ites, that his own and his kingdom's safety, so much 
endangered by his denial, was to him more dear than 
all their building labours could be worth to Egypt. 
But whom God hardens, them also he blinds. 

He endeavours to make good episcopacy not only 
in " religion, but from the nature of all civil govern- 
ment, where parity breeds confusion and faction." 
But of faction and confusion, to take no other than his 
own testimony, where hath more been ever bred than 
under the imparity of his own monarchical government? 
of which to make at this time longer dispute, and from 
civil constitutions and human conceits to debate and 
question the convenience of divine ordinations, is neither 
wisdom nor sobriety : and to confound Mosaic priest- 
hood with evangelic presbytery against express institu- 
tion, is as far from warrantable. As little to purpose 
is it, that we should stand polling the reformed churches, 
whether they equalize in number " those of his three 
kingdoms ;" of whom so lately the far greater part, 
what they have long desired to do, have now quite 
thrown off episcopacy. 

* We have a very curious history of these churches, written by Samuel 
Morland, esq. who went commissioner extraordinary from O. Cromwell, 
for relief of the protestants in the valleys of Piemont. It was published 
in folio, 16J8. 



Neither may we count it the language or religion of 
a protestant, so to vilify the best reformed churches (for 
none of them but Lutherans retain bishops) as to fear 
more the scandalizing of papists, because more numer- 
ous, than of our protestant brethren, because a handful. 
It will not be worth the while to say what " schisma- 
tics or heretics " have had no bishops : yet, lest he 
should be taken for a great reader, he who prompted 
him, if he were a doctor, might have remembered the 
forementioned place in Sozomenus ; which affirms, that 
besides the Cyprians and Arabians, who were counted 
orthodoxal, the Novations also, and Montanists in 
Pbrygia, had no other bishops than such as were in 
every village : and what presbyter hath a narrower 
diocese ? As for the Aerians we know of no heretical 
opinion justly fathered upon them, but that they held 
bishops and presbyters to be the same. Which he in 
this place not obscurely seems to hold a heresy in all 
the reformed churches; with whom why the church of 
England desired conformity, he can find no reason, 
with all his " charity, but the coming in of the Scots' 
army;" such a high esteem he had of the Eng- 
lish ! 

He tempts the clergy to return back again to bishops, 
from the fear of" tenuity and contempt," and the as- 
surance of better -' thriving under the favour of princes ;" 
against which temptations if the clergy cannot arm 
themselves with their own spiritual armour, they are 
indeed as " poor a carcass" as he terms them. 

Of secular honours and great revenues added to the 
dignity of prelates, since the subject of that question is 
now removed, we need not spend time : but this per- 
haps will never be unseasonable to bear in mind out of 
Chrysostom, that when ministers came to have lands, 
houses, farms, coaches, horses, and the like lumber, then 
religion brought forth riches in the church, and the 
daughter devoured the mother. 

But if his judgment in episcopacy may be judged by 
the goodly choice he made of bishops, we need not 
much amuse ourselves with the consideration of those 
evils, which by his foretelling, will "necessarily follow" 
their pulling down, until he prove that the apostles, 
having no certain diocese or appointed place of resi- 
dence, were properly " bishops over those presbyters 
whom they ordained, or churches they planted :" 
wherein ofttimes their labours were both joint and 
promiscuous : or that the apostolic power must " neces- 
sarily descend to bishops, the use and end" of either 
function being so different. And how the church hath 
flourished under episcopacy, let the multitude of their 
ancient and gross errours testify, and the words of 
some learnedest and most zealous bishops among them ; 
Nazianzen in a devout passion, wishing prelaty had 
never been ; Bazil terming them the slaves of slaves ; 
Saint Martin, the enemies of saints, and confessing that 
after he was made a bishop, he found much of that 
grace decay in him which he had before. 

Concerning his " Coronation oath," what it was, and 

t The second edition has it thus, " who upon this very place which he 
only roves at here." 



318 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



how far it bound him, already hath been spoken. This 
we may take for certain, that he was never sworn to 
his own particular conscience and reason, but to our 
conditions as a free people, which required him to give 
us such laws as ourselves should* choose. This the 
Scots could bring - him to, and would not be baffled with 
the pretence of a coronation-oath, after that episcopacy 
had for many years been settled there. Which con- 
cession of his to them, and not to us, he seeks here to 
put off with evasions that are ridiculous. And to omit 
no shifts, he alleges that the presbyterian manners gave 
him no encouragement to like their modes of govern- 
ment. If that were so, yet certainly those men are in 
most likelihood nearer to amendment, who seek a 
stricter church-discipline than that of episcopacy, under 
which the most of them learned their manners. If es- 
timation were to be made of God's law by their man- 
ners, who, leaving Egypt, received it in the wilderness, 
it could reap from such an inference as this nothing 
but rejection and disesteem. 

For the prayer wherewith he closes, it had been good 
some safe liturgy, which he so commends, had rather 
been in his way ; it would perhaps in some measure 
have performed the end for which they say liturgy was 
first invented ; and have hindered him both here, and 
at other times, from turning his notorious errours into 
his prayers. 



XVIII. Upon the Uxbridge Treaty, fyc. 

" If the way of treaties be looked upon" in general, 
" as retiring" from bestial force to human reason, his 
first aphorism here is in part deceived. For men may 
treat like beasts as well as fight. If some fighting 
were not manlike, then either fortitude were no virtue, 
or no fortitude in fighting : And as politicians ofttimes 
through dilatory purposes and emulations handle the 
matter, there hath been no where found more bestial- 
ity than in treating ; which hath no more commenda- 
tions in it, than from fighting to come to undermining, 
from violence to craft ; and when they can no longer 
do as lions, to do as foxes. 

The sincerest end of treating after war once pro- 
claimed is, either to part with more, or to demand less, 
than was at first fought for, rather than to hazard more 
lives, or worse mischiefs. What the parliament in that 
point were willing to have done, when first after the 
war begun, they petitioned him at Colebrook to vouch- 
safe a treaty, is not unknown. For after he had taken 
God to witness of his continual readiness to treat, or to 
offer treaties to the avoiding of bloodshed, had named 
Windsor the place of treaty, and passed his royal word 
not to advance further, till commissioners by such a 
time were speeded towards him ; taking the advantage 
of a thick mist, which fell that evening, weather that 
MOI1 invited him to a design no less treacherous and 
r, I, Mine; he follows at the heels of those messengers 
of peace with a train of covert war; and with a bloody 

• the second edition has shall choose. 



surprise falls on our secure forces, which lay quartering 
at Brentford in the thoughts and expectation of a 
treaty. And although in them who make a trade of 
w r ar, and against a natural enemy, such an onset might 
in the rigour of martial f law have been excused, while 
arms were not yet by agreement suspended ; yet by a 
king, who seemed so heartily to accept of treating with 
his subjects, and professes here, " he never wanted 
either desire or disposition to it, professes to have 
greater confidence in his reason than in his sword, and 
as a Christian to seek peace and ensue it," such bloody 
and deceitful advantages would have been forborne 
one day at least, if not much longer ; in whom there 
had not been a thirst rather than a detestation of civil 
war and blood, and a desire to subdue rather than to 
treat. 

In the midst of a second treaty not long after, sought 
by the parliament, and after much ado obtained with 
him at Oxford, what subtle and unpeaceable designs he 
then had in chace, his own letters discovered : What 
attempts of treacherous hostility successful and unsuc- 
cessful he made against Bristol, Scarborough, and other 
places, the proceedings of that treaty will soon put us 
in mind ; and how he was so far from granting more of 
reason after so much of blood, that he denied then to 
grant what before he had offered ; making no other use 
of treaties pretending peace, than to gain advantages 
that might enable him to continue war : What marvel 
then if " he thought it no diminution of himself," as oft 
as he saw his time, " to be importunate for treaties," 
when he sought them only as by the upshot appeared, 
"to get opportunities ?" And once to a most cruel pur- 
pose, if we remember May 1643. And that messenger 
of peace from Oxford, whose secret message and com- 
mission, had it been effected, would have drowned the 
innocence of our treating, in the blood of a designed 
massacre. Nay, when treaties from the parliament 
sought out him, no less than seven times, (oft enough 
to testify the willingness of their obedience, and too 
oft for the majesty of a parliament to court their sub- 
jection,) he, in the confidence of his own strength, or 
of our divisions, returned us nothing back but denials, 
or delays, to their most necessary demands ; and being 
at lowest, kept up still and sustained his almost fa- 
mished hopes with the hourly expectation of raising 
up himself the higher, by the greater heap which he 
sat promising himself of our sudden ruin through dis- 
sension. 

But he infers, as if the parliament would have com- 
pelled him to part with something of " his honour as a 
king." What honour could he have, or call his, joined 
not only with the offence or disturbance, but with the 
bondage and destruction of three nations ? whereof, 
though he be careless and improvident, yet the parlia- 
ment, by our laws and freedom, ought to judge, and 
use prevention ; our laws else were but cobweb laws. 
And what were all his most rightful honours, but the 
people's gift, and the investment of that lustre, ma- 
jesty, and honour, which for the public good, and no 
otherwise, redounds from a whole nation into one per- 

t The second edition has military. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



319 



son ? So far is any honour from being his to a com- 
mon mischief and calamity. Yet still he talks on equal 
terms with the grand representative of that people, for 
whose sake he was a king- ; as if the general welfare 
and his subservient rights were of equal moment or 
consideration. His aim indeed hath ever been to mag- 
nify and exalt his borrowed rights and prerogatives 
above the parliament and kingdom, of whom he holds 
them. But when a king sets himself to bandy against 
the highest court and residence of all his regal power, 
he then, in the single person of a man, fights against 
his own majesty and kingship, and then indeed sets 
the first hand to his own deposing. 

" The treaty at Uxbridge," he saith, " gave the fair- 
est hopes of a happy composure ; " fairest indeed, if his 
instructions to bribe our commissioners with the pro- 
mise of security, rewards, and places, were fair: what 
other hopes it gave, no man can tell. There being but 
three main heads whereon to be treated ; Ireland, epis- 
copacy, and the militia ; the first was anticipated and 
forestalled by a peace at any rate to be hastened 
with the Irish rebels, ere the treaty could begin, that 
he might pretend his word and honour passed against 
" the specious and popular arguments" (he calls them 
no better) which the parliament would urge upon him 
for the continuance of that just war. Episcopacy he 
bids the queen be confident he will never quit : which 
informs us by what patronage it stood : and the sword 
he resolves to clutch as fast, as if God with his own 
hand had put it into his. This was the " moderation 
which he brought ;" this was "as far as reason, ho- 
nour, conscience," and the queen, who was his regent 
in all these, " would give him leave." Lastly, " for 
composure," instead of happy, how miserable it was 
more likely to have been, wise men could then judge ; 
when the English, during treaty, were called rebels; 
the Irish, good and catholic subjects ; and the parlia- 
ment beforehand, though for fashion's sake called a 
parliament, yet by a Jesuitical sleight not acknow- 
ledged, though called so ; but privately in the council 
books enrolled no parliament : that if accommodation 
had succeeded, upon what terms soever, such a devilish 
fraud was prepared, that the king in his own esteem 
had been absolved from all performance, as having 
treated with rebels and no parliament ; and they, on 
the other side, instead of an expected happiness, had 
been brought under the hatchet. Then no doubt " war 
had ended," that massacre and tyranny might begin. 
These jealousies, however raised, let all men see whe- 
ther they be diminished or allayed, by the letters of 
his own cabinet opened. And yet the breach of this 
treaty is laid all upon the parliament and their com- 
missioners, with odious names of "pertinacy, hatred of 
peace, faction, and covetousness," nay, his own brat 
"superstition" is laid to their charge ; notwithstanding 
his here professed resolution to continue both the order, 
maintenance, and authority of prelates, as a truth of 
God. 

And who " were most to blame in the unsuccessful- 
ness of that treaty," his appeal is to God's decision ; 
believing to be very excusable at that tribunal. But if 



ever man gloried in an unflexible stiffness, he came not 
behind any; and that grand maxim, always to put 
something into his treaties, which might give colour 
to refuse all that was in other things granted, and to 
make them signify nothing, was his own principal 
maxim and particular instructions to his commission- 
ers. Yet all, by his own verdict, must be construed 
reason in the king, and depraved temper in the parlia- 
ment. 

That the " highest tide of success," with these princi- 
ples and designs, " set him not above a treaty," no 
great wonder. And yet if that be spoken to his 
praise, the parliament therein surpassed him ; who, 
when he was their vanquished and their captive, bis 
forces utterly broken and disbanded, yet offered him 
three several times no worse proposals or demands, 
than when he stood fair to be their conqueror. But 
that imprudent surmise that his lowest ebb could not 
set him " below a fight," was a presumption that ruined 
him. 

He presaged the future " unsuccessfulness of trea- 
ties, by the unwillingness of some men to treat;" and 
could not see what was present, that their unwilling- 
ness had good cause to proceed from the continual ex- 
perience of his own obstinacy and breach of word. 

His prayer therefore of forgiveness to the guilty of 
" that treaty's breaking," he had good reason to say 
heartily over, as including no man in that guilt sooner 
than himself. 

As for that protestation following in his prayer, 
" how oft have I entreated for peace, but when I speak 
thereof they make them ready to war ;" unless he 
thought himself still in that perfidious mist bstween 
Colebrook and Hounslow, and thought that mist could 
hide him from the eye of Heaven as well as of man, 
after such a bloody recompence given to our first offers 
of peace, how could this in the sight of Heaven with- 
out horrours of conscience be uttered ? 



XIX. Upon the various events of the War. 

It is no new or unwonted thing, for bad men to claim 
as much part in God as his best servants; to usurp 
and imitate their words, and appropriate to themselves 
those properties, which belong only to the good and 
righteous. This not only in Scripture is familiarly to 
be found, but here also in this chapter of Apocrypha. 
He tells us much, why " it pleased God" to send him 
victory or loss, (although what in so doing was the in- 
tent of God, he might be much mistaken as to his own 
particular,) but we are yet to learn what real good use 
he made thereof in his practice. 

Those numbers, which he grew to " from small be- 
ginnings," were not such as out of love came to pro- 
tect him, for none approved his actions as a king, ex- 
cept courtiers and prelates, but were such as fled to be 
protected by him from the fear of that reformation 
which the pravity of their lives would not bear. Such 
a snowball he might easily gather by rolling through 



320 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



those cold and dark provinces of ignorance and lewd- 
ness, where on a sudden he became so numerous. He 
imputes that to God's " protection," which, to them 
who persist in a bad cause, is either his long-suffering' 
or his hardening ; and that to wholesome " chastise- 
ment," which were the gradual beginnings of a severe 
punishment. For if neither God nor nature put civil 
power in the hands of any whomsoever, but to a lawful 
end, and commands our obedience to the authority of 
law only, not to the tyrannical force of any person ; 
and if the laws of our land have placed the sword in 
no man's single hand, so much as to unsheath against 
a foreign enemy, much less upon the native people ; 
but have placed it in that elective body of the parlia- 
ment, to whom the making, repealing, judging, and 
interpreting of law itself was also committed, as was 
fittest, so long as we intended to be a free nation, and 
not the slaves of one man's will ; then was the king 
himself disobedient and rebellious to that law by which 
he reigned : and by authority of parliament to raise 
arms against him in defence of law and liberty, we do 
not only think, but believe and know, was justifiable 
both " by the word of God, the laws of the land, and 
all lawful oaths ;" and they who sided with him, fought 
against all these. 

The same allegations, which he uses for himself and 
his party, may as well fit any tyrant in the world : for 
let the parliament be called a faction when the king 
pleases, and that no law must be made or changed, 
either civil or religious, because no law will content 
all sides, then must be made or changed no law at all, 
but what a tyrant, be he protestant or papist, thinks fit. 
Which tyrannous assertion forced upon us by the 
sword, he who fights against, and dies fighting, if his 
other sins outweigh not, dies a martyr undoubtedly both 
of the faith and of the commonwealth ; and I hold it 
not as the opinion, but as the full belief and persuasion, 
of far holier and wiser men than parasitic preachers : 
who, without their dinner-doctrine, know that neither 
king, law, civil oaths, or religion, was ever established 
without the parliament: and their power is the same 
to abrogate as to establish : neither is any thing to be 
thought established, which that house declares to be 
abolished. Where the parliament sits, there insepar- 
ably sits the king, there the laws, there our oaths, and 
whatsoever can be civil in religion. They who fought 
for the parliament, in the truest sense, fought for all 
these; who fought for the king divided from his par- 
liament, fought for the shadow of a king against all 
these ; and for things that were not, as if they were 
established. It were a thing monstrously absurd and 
contradictory, to give the parliament a legislative 
power, and then to upbraid them for transgressing old 
establishments. 

But the king and his party having lost in this quar- 
rel their heaven upon earth, begin to make great reck- 
oning of eternal life, and at an easy rate in forma 
pa up er is canonize one another into heaven ; he them 
in hi< hook, they him in the portraiture before his book : 

• Hmi what description an historian of that party gives of those on the 
royal sale : " Never had anj »o'>'l undertaking so many unworthy attend- 
ants, iuch horrid blasphemers and wicked wretches, as ours hath had ; I 



but as was said before, stage-work will not do it, much 
less the "justness of their cause," wherein most fre- 
quently they died in a brutish fierceness, with oaths 
and other damning words in their mouths ; as if such 
had been all " the only oaths" they fought for ; which 
undoubtedly sent them full sail on another voyage than 
to heaven. In the mean while they to whom God 
gave victory, never brought to the king at Oxford the 
state of their consciences, that he should presume with- 
out confession, more than a pope presumes, to tell 
abroad what " conflicts and accusations," men whom 
he never spoke with, have " in their own thoughts." 
We never read of any English king but one that was 
a confessor, and his name was Edward ; yet sure it 
passed his skill to know thoughts, as this king takes 
upon him. But they who will not stick to slander 
men's inward consciences, which they can neither see 
nor know, much less will care to slander outward ac- 
tions, which they pretend to see, though with senses 
never so vitiated. 

To judge of " his condition conquered," and the 
manner of " dying" on that side, by the sober men 
that chose it, would be his small advantage : it being' 
most notorious, that they who were hottest in his cause, 
the most of them were men oftener drunk, than by their 
good will sober, and very many of them so fought and 
so died.* 

And that the conscience of any man should grow 
suspicious, or be now convicted by any pretensions in 
the parliament, which are now proved false and unin- 
tended;, there can be no just cause. For neither did 
they ever pretend to establish his throne without our 
liberty and religion, nor religion without the word of 
God, nor to judge of laws by their being established, 
but to establish them by their being* good and necessary. 

He tells the world " he often prayed, that all on his 
side might be as faithful to God and their own souls, 
as to him." But kings, above all other men, have in 
their hands not to pray only, but to do. To make that 
prayer effectual, he should have governed as well as 
prayed. To pray and not to govern, is for a monk, 
and not a king. Till then he might be well assured, 
they were more faithful to their lust and rapine than 
to him. 

In the wonted predication of his own virtues he goes 
on to tell us, that to " conquer he never desired, but 
only to restore the laws and liberties of his people." 
It had been happy then he had known at last, that by 
force to restore laws abrogated by the legislative par- 
liament, is to conquer absolutely both them and law 
itself. And for our liberties none ever oppressed them 
more, both in peace and war; first like a master by his 
arbitrary power, next as an enemy by hostile invasion. 

And if his best friends feared him, and " he himself, 
in the temptation of an absolute conquest," it was 
not only pious but friendly in the parliament, both 
to fear him and resist him ; since their not yielding was 
the only means to keep him out of that temptation, 
wherein he doubted his own strength. 

quake to think, much more to speak, what mine ears have heard from some 
of their lips ; but to discover them is not my present business." 

Si/mmon's Defence of King Charles I. p. 165. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE, 



321 



He takes himself to be "guilty in this war of no- 
thing- else, but of confirming- the power of some men ;" 
Thus all along he signifies the parliament, whom to 
have settled by an act he counts to be his only guilti- 
ness. So well he knew, that to continue a parliament, 
was to raise a war against himself; what were his ac- 
tions then, and his government the while ? For never 
was it heard in all our story, that parliaments made 
war on their kings, but on their tyrants ; whose modesty 
and gratitude was more wanting to the parliament, 
than theirs to any of such kings. 

What he yielded was his fear; what he denied was 
his obstinacy. Had he yielded more, fear might per- 
chance have saved him ; had he granted less, his ob- 
stinacy had perhaps the sooner delivered us. 

" To review the occasions of this war," will be to 
them never too late, who would be warned by his ex- 
ample from the like evils: but to wish only a happy 
conclusion, will never expiate the fault of his unhappy 
beginnings. It is true, on our side the sins of our lives 
not seldom fought ag'ainst us : but on their side, be- 
sides those, the grand sin of their cause. 

How can it be otherwise, when he desires here most 
unreasonably, and indeed sacrilegiously, that we should 
be subject to him, though not further, yet as far as all 
of us may be subject to God; to whom this expression 
leaves no precedency ? He who desires from men as 
much obedience and subjection, as we may all pay to 
God, desires not less than to be a God: a sacrilege far 
worse than meddling with the bishops' lands, as he 
esteems it. 

His prayer is a good prayer and a glorious ; but glo- 
rying is not good, if it know not that a little leaven 
leavens the whole lump. It should have purged out 
the leaven of untruth, in telling God that the blood of 
his subjects by him shed, was in his just and necessary 
defence. Yet this is remarkable ; God hath here so 
ordered his prayer, that as his own lips acquitted the 
parliament, not long before his death, of all the blood 
spilt in this war, so now his prayer unwittingly draws 
it upon himself. For God imputes not to any man the 
blood he spills in a just cause; and no man ever beg- 
ged his not imputing of that, which he in his justice 
could not impute : so that now, whether purposely or 
unaware, he hath confessed both to God and man the 
blood-guiltiness of all this war to lie upon his own 
head. 



XX. Upon the Reformation of the Times. 

This chapter cannot punctually be answered with- 
out more repetitions than now can be excusable : which 
perhaps have already been more humoured than was 
needful. As it presents us with nothing new, so with 
his exceptions against reformation pitifully old, and 
tattered with continual using ; not only in his book, 
but in the words and writings of every papist and 
popish king. On the scene he thrusts out first an an- 
timasque of bugbears, novelty and perturbation ; that 
the ill looks and noise of those two may as long as 



possible drive off all endeavours of a reformation. 
Thus sought pope Adrian, by representing the like vain 
terrours, to divert and dissipate the zeal of those re- 
forming princes of the age before in Germany. And 
if we credit Latimer's sermons, our papists here in 
England pleaded the same dangers and inconveni- 
encies against that which was reformed by Edward the 
Sixth. Whereas if those fears had been available, 
Christianity itself had never been received. Which 
Christ foretold us would not be admitted, without the 
censure of novelty, and many great commotions. 
These therefore are not to deter us. 

He grants reformation to be " a good work," and 
confesses " what the indulgence of times and corrup- 
tion of manners might have depraved." So did the 
forementioned pope, and our grandsire papists in this 
realm. Yet all of them agree in one song with this 
here, that " they are sorry to see so little regard had to 
laws established, and the religion settled." 

" Popular compliance, dissolution of all order and 
government in the church, schisms, opinions, undecen- 
cies, confusions, sacrilegious invasions, contempt of the 
clergy and their liturgy, diminution of princes ;" all 
these complaints are to be read in the messages and 
speeches almost of every legate from the pope to those 
states and cities which began reformation. From 
whence he either learned the same pretences, or had 
them naturally in him from the same spirit. Neither 
was there ever so sincere a reformation that hath 
escaped these clamours. 

He offered a " synod or convocation rightly chosen." 
So offered all those popish kings heretofore ; a course 
the most unsatisfactory, as matters have been long~car- 
ried, and found by experience in the church liable to 
the greatest fraud and packing ; no solution, or redress 
of evil, but an increase rather; detested therefore by 
Nazianzen, and some other of the fathers. And let it 
be produced, what good hath been done by synods from 
the first times of reformation. 

Not to justify what enormities the vulgar may com- 
mit in the rudeness of their zeal, we need but only in- 
stance how he bemoans "the pulling down of crosses" 
and other superstitious monuments, as the effect " of a 
pupular and deceitful reformation." How little this 
savours of a protestant, is too easily perceived. 

What he charges in defect of "piety, charity, and 
morality," hath been also charged by papists upon the 
best reformed churches ; not as if they the accusers were 
not tenfold more to be accused, but out of their malig- 
nity to all endeavour of amendment; as we know who 
accused to God the sincerity of Job; an accusation of 
all others the most easy, when as there lives not any 
mortal man so excellent, who in these things is not 
always deficient. But the infirmities of the best men, 
and the scandals of mixed hypocrites in all times of 
reforming, whose bold intrusion covets to be ever seen 
in things most sacred, as they are most specious, can 
lay no just blemish upon the integrity of others, much 
less upon the purpose of reformation itself. Neither 
can the evil doings of some be the excuse of our de- 
laying or deserting that duty to the church, which for 



322 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



no respect of times or carnal policies can be at any 
time unseasonable. 

He tells with great shew of piety what kind of per- 
sons public reformers ought to be, and what they ought 
to do. It is strange that in above twenty years, the 
church growing- still worse and worse under him, he 
could neither be as he bids others be, nor do as he 
pretends here so well to know; nay, which is worst of 
all, after the greatest part of his reign spent in neither 
knowing nor doing aught toward a reformation either 
in church or state, should spend the residue in hinder- 
ing those by a seven years war, whom it concerned, 
with his consent or without it, to do their parts in that 
great performance. 

It is true, that the " method of reforming" may well 
subsist without " perturbation of the state;" but that 
it falls out otherwise for the most part, is the plain text 
of Scripture. And if by his own rule he had allowed 
us to " fear God first," and the king- in due order, our 
allegiance might have still followed our religion in a 
fit subordination. But if Christ's kingdom be taken 
for the true discipline of the church, and by " his king- 
dom " be meant the violence he used against it, and to 
uphold an antichristian hierarchy, then sure enough it 
is, that Christ's kingdom could not be set up without 
pulling down his : and they were best Christians who 
were least subject to him. " Christ's government," 
out of question meaning it prelatical, he thought would 
confirm his : and this was that which overthrew it. 

He professes " to own his kingdom from Christ, and 
to desire to rule for his glory, and the church's good." 
The pope and the king of Spain profess every where 
as much ; and both by his practice and all his reason- 
ings, all his enmity against the true church we see 
hath been the same with theirs, since the time that in 
his letter to the pope he assured them both of his full 
compliance. " But evil beginnings never bring forth 
good conclusions:" they are his own words, and he 
ratified them by his own ending. To the pope he en- 
gaged himself to hazard life and estate for the Roman 
religion, whether in compliment he did it, or in earnest ; 
and God, who stood nearer than he for complimenting 
minded, writ down those words; that according to his 
resolution, so it should come to pass. He prays against 
" his hypocrisy and pharisaical washings," a prayer to 
him most pertinent, but chokes it straight with other 
words, which pray him deeper into his old errours and 
delusions. 



XXI. Upon his Letters taken and divulged. 

The king's letters taken at the battle of Naseby, 
being of greatest importance to let the people see what 
faith there was in all his promises and solemn protesta- 
tions, were transmitted to public view by special order 
of the parliament. They discovered his good affection 
to papists and Irish rebels, the strict* intelligence he 
held, the pernicious and dishonourable peace he made 

• The second edition has the old word straight. 



with them, not solicited, but rather soliciting, which by 
all invocations that were holy he had in public abjured. 
They revealed his endeavours to bring in foreign forces, 
Irish, French, Dutch, Lorrainers, and our old invaders 
the Danes upon us, besides his subtleties and myste- 
rious arts in treating- ; to sum up all, they shewed him 
governed by a woman. All which, though suspected 
vehemently before, and from good grounds believed, 
yet by him and his adherents peremptorily denied, were 
by the opening of that cabinet visible to all men under 
his own hand. 

The parliament therefore, to clear themselves of as- 
persing him without cause, and that the people might 
no longer be abused and cajoled, as they call it, by 
falsities and court impudence, in matters of so high 
concernment; to let them know on what terms their 
duty stood, and the kingdom's peace, conceived it 
most expedient and necessary, that those letters should 
be made public. This the king affirms was by them 
done without "honour and civility;" words, which if 
they contain not in them, as in the language of a 
courtier most commonly they do not, more of substance 
and reality, than compliment, ceremony, court-fawning, 
and dissembling, enter not I suppose further than the 
ear into any wise man's consideration. Matters were 
not then between the parliament, and a king their 
enemy, in that state of trifling, as to observe those su- 
perficial vanities. But if honour and civility mean, 
as they did of old, discretion, honesty, prudence, and 
plain truth, it will be then maintained against any sect 
of those Cabalists, that the parliament, in doing what 
they did with those letters, could suffer in their honour 
and civility no diminution. The reasons are already 
heard. 

And that it is with none more familiar than with 
kings, to transgress the bounds of all honour and civility, 
there should not want examples good store, if brevity 
would permit : in point of letters, this one shall suffice. 

The duchess of Burgundy, and heir of duke Charles, 
had promised to her subjects, that she intended no 
otherwise to govern, than by advice of the three estates ; 
but to Lewis the French king had written letters, that 
she had resolved to commit wholly the managing of 
her affairs to four persons, whom she named. The 
three estates, not doubting the sincerity of her princely 
word, send ambassadors to Lewis, who then besieged 
Arras belonging to the duke of Burgundy. The king, 
taking hold of this occasion to set them at division 
among themselves, questioned their credence : which 
when they offered to produce with their instructions, 
he not only shews them the private letter of their 
duchess, but gives it them to carry home, wherewith to 
affront her ; which they did, she denying it stoutly ; till 
they, spreading it before her face in a full assembly, 
convicted her of an open lie. Which, although Co- 
mines the historian much blames, as a deed too harsh 
and dishonourable in them who were subjects, and not 
at war with their princess, yet to his master Lewis, who 
first divulged those letters, to the open shaming of that 
young governess, he imputes no incivility or dishonour 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



323 



at all, although betraying 1 a certain confidence reposed 
by that letter in his royal secrecy. 

With much more reason then may letters not inter- 
cepted only, but won in battle from an enemy, be made 
public to the best advantages of them that win them, 
to the discovery of such important truth or falsehood. 
Was it not more dishonourable in himself to feign sus- 
picions and jealousies, which we first found among 
those letters, touching the chastity of his mother, thereby 
to gain assistance from the king of Denmark, as in 
vindication of his sister? The damsel of Burgundy 
at sight of her own letter was soon blank, and more 
ingenuous than to stand outfacing ; but this man, 
whom nothing will convince, thinks by talking world 
without end, to make good his integrity and fair deal- 
ing, contradicted by his own hand and seal. They 
who can pick nothing out of them but phrases, shall 
be counted bees: they that discern further both there 
and here, that constancy to his wife is set in place be- 
fore laws and religion, are in his naturalities no better 
than spiders. 

He would work the people to a persuasion, that " if 
he be miserable, they cannot be happy." What should 
hinder them ? Were they all born twins of Hippo- 
crates with him and his fortune, one birth, one burial ? 
It were a nation miserable indeed, not worth the name 
of a nation, but a race of idiots, whose happiness and 
welfare depended upon one man. The happiness of a 
nation consists in true religion, piety, justice, prudence, 
temperance, fortitude, and the contempt of avarice and 
ambition. They in whomsoever these virtues dwell 
eminently, need not kings to make them happy, but 
are the architects of their own happiness ; and whether 
to themselves or others are not less than kings. But in 
him which of these virtues were to be found, that might 
extend to the making happy, or the well- governing of 
so much as his own household, which was the most 
licentious and ill-governed in the whole land ? 

But the opening of his letters was designed by the 
parliament " to make all reconciliation desperate." 
Are the lives of so many good and faithful men, that 
died for the freedom of their country, to be so slighted, 
as to be forgotten in a stupid reconcilement without 
justice done them ? What he fears not by war and 
slaughter, should we fear to make desperate by 
opening his letters? Which fact he would parallel 
with Cham's revealing of his father's nakedness : when 
he at that time could be no way esteemed the Father of 
his Country, but the destroyer; nor had he ever before 
merited that former title. 

" He thanks God he cannot only bear this with pa- 
tience, but with charity forgive the doers." Is not 
this meer mockery, to thank God for what he can do, 
but will not ? For is it patience to impute barbarism 
and inhumanity to the opening of an enemy's letter, 
or is it charity to clothe them with curses in his prayer, 
whom he hath forgiven in his discourse ? In which 
prayer, to shew how readily he can return good for 
evil to the parliament, and that if they take away his 
coat he can let them have his cloak also; for the 
dismantling of his letters he wishes " they may be 



covered with the cloak of confusion." Which I sup- 
pose they do resign with much willingness, both live- 
ry, badge, and cognizance, to them who chose rather 
to be the slaves and vassals of his will, than to stand 
against him, as men by nature free ; born and created 
with a better title to their freedom, than any king hath 
to his crown. 



XXII. Upon his going to the Scots. 

The king's coming in, whether to the Scots or 
English, deserved no thanks : for necessity was his 
counsellor; and that he hated them both alike, his ex- 
pressions everywhere manifest. Some say his purpose 
was to have come to London, till hearing how strictly 
it was proclaimed, that no man should conceal him, he 
diverted his course. But that had been a frivolous ex- 
cuse : and besides, he himself rehearsing the consulta- 
tions had, before he took his journey, shews us clearly 
that he was determined to adventure " upon their loy- 
alty who first began his troubles." And that the Scots 
had notice of it before, hath been long since brought 
to light. What prudence there could be in it, no man 
can imagine; malice there might be, by raising new 
jealousies to divide friends. For besides his diffidence 
of the English, it was no small dishonour that he put 
upon them, when rather than yield himself to the par- 
liament of England, he yielded to a hireling army of 
Scots in England, paid for their service here, not in 
Scotch coin, but in English silver ; nay, who from the 
first beginning of these troubles, what with brotherly 
assistance, and what with monthly pay, have defended 
their own liberty and consciences at our charge. How- 
ever, it was a hazardous and rash journey taken, " to 
resolve riddles in men's loyalty," who had more reason 
to mistrust the riddle of such a disguised yielding ; 
and to put himself in their hands whose loyalty was a 
riddle to him, was not the course to be resolved of if, 
but to tempt it. What Providence denied to force, he 
thought it might grant to fraud, which he styles Pru- 
dence ; but Providence was not cozened with disguises, 
neither outward nor inward. 

To have known " his greatest danger in his supposed 
safety, and his greatest safety in his supposed danger," 
was to him a fatal riddle never yet resolved ; wherein 
rather to have employed his main skill, had been much 
more to his preservation. 

Had he " known when the game was lost," it might 
have saved much contest ; but the way to give over 
fairly, was not to slip out of open war into a new dis- 
guise. He lays down his arms, but not his wiles ; nor 
all his arms ; for in obstinacy he comes no less armed 
than ever cap a pe. And what were they but wiles, 
continually to move for treaties, and yet to persist the 
same man, and to fortify his mind before-hand, still 
purposing to grant no more than what seemed good to 
that violent and lawless triumvirate within him, under 
the falsified names of his reason, honour, and consci- 
ence, the old circulating dance of his shifts and evasions ? 



3-2-1 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASTLIKE. 



The words of a king 1 , as they are full of power, in 
the authority and strength of law, so like Samson, 
without the strength of that Nazarite's lock, they have 
no more power in them than the words of another man. 

He adores reason as Domitiau did Minerva, and 
calls her the " Diviuest power," thereby to intimate as 
if at reasoning 1 , as at his own weapon, no man were so 
able as himself. Might we be so happy as to know 
where these monuments of his reason may be seen ; for 
in his actions and his writing- they appear as thinly as 
could be expected from the meanest parts, bred up in 
the midst of so many ways extraordinary to know 
something-. He who reads his talk, would think he 
had left Oxford not without mature deliberation : yet 
his prayer confesses, that " he knew not what to do." 
Thus is verified that Psalm; "he poureth contempt 
upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wil- 
derness where there is no way." Psal. cvii. 



XXI TI. Lpon the Scots delivering the king to the 
English. 

That the Scots in England should " sell their king*," 
as he himself here affirms, and for a " price so much 
above that," which the covetousness of Judas was con- 
tented with to sell our Saviour, is so foul an infamy 
and dishonour cast upon them, as befits none to vindi- 
cate but themselves. And it were but friendly counsel 
to wish them beware the son, who comes among them 
with a firm belief, that they sold his father. The rest 
of this chapter he sacrifices to the echo of his con- 
science, out-babling creeds and aves : glorying in his 
resolute obstinacy, and as it were triumphing how 
" evident it is now, not that evil counsellors," but he 
himself, hath been the author of all our troubles. Herein 
only we shall disagree to the world's end, while he, 
who sought so manifestly to have annihilated all our 
laws and liberties, hath the confidence to persuade 
us, that he hath fought and suffered all this while in 
their defence. 

But he who neither by his own letters and commis- 
sions under hand and seal, nor by his own actions held 
as in a mirror before his face, will be convinced to see 
his faults, can much less be won upon by any force of 
words, neither he, nor any that take after him; who 
in that respect are no more to be disputed with, than 
1 1 j * \ who deny principles. No question then but the 
parliament did wisely in their decree at last, to make 
no more addresses. For how unalterable his will was, 
that would have been our lord, how utterly averse 
from the parliament and reformation during his con- 
' • < mcnt, we may behold in this chapter. But to be 
< \< r answering fruitless repetitions, I should become 
liable to answer for the same myself. He borrows 
David's psalms, as he charges the assembly of divines 
in bis twentieth discourse, " To have set forth old cate- 
bbianfl and confessions of faith new dressed:" had he 
borrowed David's heart, it had been much the holier 
theft. Tor such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not 



bettered by the borrower, among good authors is ac- 
counted plagiary. However, this was more tolerable 
than Pamela's prayer stolen out of Sir Philip. 



XXIV. Upon the denying him the attendance of his 
Chaplains. 

A chaplain is a thing so diminutive and inconsider- 
able, that how he should come here among matters of 
so great concernment, to take such room up in the dis- 
courses of a prince, if it be not wondered, is to be 
smiled at. Certainly by me, so mean an argument 
shall not be written ; but I shall huddle him, as he 
does prayers. The Scripture owns no such order, no 
such function in the church ; and the church not own- 
ing them, they are left, for aught I know, to such a 
further examining as the sons of Sceva the Jew met 
with. Bishops or presbyters we know, and deacons 
we know, but what are chaplains ? In state perhaps 
they may be listed among the upper serving-men of 
some great household, and be admitted to some such 
place, as may style them the sewers, or the yeomen- 
ushers of devotion, where the master is too resty or too 
rich to say his own prayers, or to bless his own table. 
Wherefore should the parliament then take such im- 
plements of the court cupboard into their consideration? 
They knew them to have been the main corrupters at 
the king's elbow ; they knew the king to have been 
always their most attentive scholar and imitator, and 
of a child to have sucked from them and their closet- 
work all his impotent principles of tyranny and super- 
stition. While therefore they had any hope left of his 
reclaiming, these sowers of malignant tares they kept 
asunder from him, and sent to him such of the minis- 
ters and other zealous persons, as they thought were 
best able to instruct him, and to convert him. What 
could religion herself have done more, to the saving of 
a soul ? But when they found him past cure, and that 
he to himself was grown the most evil counsellor of 
all, they denied him not his chaplains, as many as 
were fitting, and some of them attended him, or else 
were at his call, to the very last. Yet here he makes 
more lamentation for the want of his chaplains, than 
superstitious Micah did to the Danites, who had taken 
away his household priest: " Ye have taken away my 
gods which I made, and the priest, and what have I 
more ?" And perhaps the whole story of Micah might 
square not unfitly to this argument : " Now know I," 
saith he, " that the Lord will do me good, seeing I 
have a Levite to my priest." Micah had as great a care 
that his priest should be Mosaical, as the king had, 
that his should be apostolical ; yet both in an errour 
touching their priests. Household and private orisons 
were not to be officiated by priests; for neither did 
public prayer appertain only to their office. Kings here- 
tofore, David, Solomon, and Jehosaphat, who might not 
touch the priesthood, yet might pray in public, } r ea in 
the temple, while the priests themselves stood and 
heard. What ailed this king then, that he could not 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



325 



chew his own matins without the priest's Ore tenus ? 
Yet is it like he could not pray at home, who can here 
publish a whole prayerbook of his own, and signifies 
in some part of this chapter, almost as good a mind to 
be a priest himself, as Micah had to let his son be ! 
There was doubtless therefore some other matter in it, 
which made him so desirous to have his chaplains 
about him, who were not only the contrivers, but very 
oft the instruments also of his designs. 

The ministers which were sent him, no marvel he 
endured not; for they preached repentance to him : the 
others gave him easy confession, easy absolution, nay 
strengthened his hands, and hardened his heart, by 
applauding him in his wilful ways. To them he was 
an Ahab, to these a Constantine ; it must follow then, 
that they to him were as unwelcome as Elijah was to 
Ahab, these as dear and pleasing as Amaziah the priest 
of Bethel was to Jeroboam. These had learned well 
the lesson that would please ; " Prophesy not against 
Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, the king's court ;" 
and had taught the king to say of those ministers, 
which the parliament had sent, " Amos hath conspired 
against me, the land is not able to bear all his words." 

Returning to our first parallel, this king looked upon 
his prelates, " as orphans under the sacrilegious eyes 
of many rapacious reformers :" and there was as great 
fear of sacrilege between Micah and his mother, till 
with their holy treasure, about the loss whereof there 
was such cursing, they made a graven and a molten 
image, and got a priest of their own. To let go his 
criticizing about the " sound of prayers, imperious, 
rude, or passionate," modes of his own devising, we 
are in danger to fall again upon the flats and shallows 
of liturgy. Which if I should repeat again, would 
turn my answers into Responsories, and beget another 
liturgy, having too much of one already. 

This only I shall add, that if the heart, as he alleges, 
cannot safely "join with another man's extemporal 
sufficiency," because we know not so exactly what they 
mean to say ; then those public prayers made in the 
temple by those forenamed kings, and by the apostles 
in the congregation, and by the ancient Christians for 
above three hundred years before liturgies came in, 
were with the people made in vain. 

After he hath acknowledged, that kings heretofore 
prayed without chaplains, even publickly in the temple 
itself, and that every " private believer is invested with 
a royal priesthood ;" yet like one that relished not 
what he " tasted of the heavenly gift, and the good 
word of God," whose name he so confidently takes into 
his mouth, he frames to himself impertinent and vain 
reasons, why he should rather pray by the officiating 
mouth of a closet chaplain. " Their prayers," saith 
he, " are more prevalent, they flow from minds more 
enlightened, from affections less distracted." Admit 
this true, which is not, this might be something said 
as to their prayers for him, but what avails it to their 
praying with him ? If his own mind " be encumbered 
with secular affairs," what helps it his particular prayer, 
though the mind of his chaplain be not wandering, 
either after new preferment, or his dinner ? The fer- 



vency of one man in prayer cannot supererogate for 
the coldness of another ; neither can his spiritual de- 
fects in that duty be made out, in the acceptance of 
God, by another man's abilities. Let, him endeavour 
to have more light in himself, and not to walk by an- 
other man's lamp, but to get oil into his own. Let him 
cast from him, as in a christian warfare, that secular 
encumbrance, which either distracts or overloads him ; 
his load else will never be the less heavy, because an- 
other man's is light. Thus these pious flourishes and 
colours, examined thoroughly, are like the apples of 
Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye, but 
look well upon them, or at least but touch them, and 
they turn into cinders. 

In his prayer he remembers what " voices of joy and 
gladness" there were in his chapel, " God's house," in 
his opinion, between the singing men and the organs; 
and this was " unity of spirit in the bond of peace ;" 
the vanity, superstition, and misdevotion of which 
place, was a scandal far and near : Wherein so many 
things were sung and prayed in those songs, which 
were not understood ; and yet he who makes a diffi- 
culty how the people can join their hearts to extem- 
poral prayers, though distinctly heard and understood, 
makes no question how they should join their hearts 
in unity to songs not understood. 

I believe that God is no more moved with a prayer 
elaborately penned, than men truly charitable are 
moved with the penned speech of a beggar. 

Finally, O ye ministers, ye pluralists, whose lips 
preserve not knowledge, but the way ever open to your 
bellies, read here what work he makes among your 
wares, your gallipots, your balms and cordials, in print; 
and not only your sweet sippets in widows' houses, but 
the huge gobbets wherewith he charges you to have 
devoured houses and all ; the " houses of your bre- 
thren, your king, and your God." Cry him up for a 
saint in your pulpits, while he cries you down for athe- 
ists into hell. 



XXV. Upon his penitential Meditations and Vows at 
Holmby. 

It is not hard for any man, who hath a Bible in his 
hands, to borrow good words and holy sayings in 
abundance ; but to make them his own, is a work of 
grace, only from above. He borrows here many peni- 
tential verses out of David's psalms. So did many 
among those Israelites, who had revolted from the true 
worship of God, " invent to themselves instruments of 
music like David," and probably psalms also like his; 
and yet the prophet Amos complains heavily against 
them. But to prove how short this is of true repent- 
ance, I will recite the penitence of others, who have 
repented in words not borrowed, but their own, and 
yet by the doom of Scripture itself, are judged repro- 
bates. 

" Cain said unto the Lord, My iniquity is greater 
than I can bear : behold thou hast driven me this day 



32C 



AX ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I 
be bid. 

" And when Esau heard the words of his father, he 
cried with an exceeding- bitter cry, and said, Bless me, 
even me also, O my father ; yet found no place of re- 
pentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 
Heb. xii. 

"And Pharaoh said to Moses, The Lord is righteous, 
T and my people are wicked ; I have sinned against 
the Lord your God, and against you. 

" And Balaam said, Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his. 

" And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have 
transgressed the commandment of the Lord ; yet honour 
me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people. 

"And when Ahab heard the words of Elijah, he rent 
his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, 
and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. 

" J eh oram also rent his clothes, and the people look- 
ed, and behold he had sackcloth upon his flesh ;" yet 
in the very act of his humiliation he could say, " God 
do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elisha shall 
stand on him this day. 

"Therefore saith the Lord, They have not cried unto 
me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds. 
They return, but not to the Most High. Hosea vii. 

" And Judas said, I have sinned, in that I have be- 
trayed innocent blood. 

" And Simon Magus said, Pray ye to the Lord for 
me, that none of these things come upon me." 

All these took the pains both to confess and to repent 
in their own words, and many of them in their own 
tears, not in David's. But transported with the vain 
ostentation of imitating David's language, not his life, 
observe how he brings a curse upon himself and his 
father's house (God so disposing it) by his usurped and 
ill-imitated prayer, " Let thy anger I beseech thee be 
against me and my father's house ; as for these sheep, 
what have they done?" For if David indeed sinned in 
numbering the people, of which fault he in earnest 
made that confession, and acquitted the whole people 
from the guilt of that sin ; then doth this king, using 
the same words, bear witness against himself to be the 
guilty person ; and either in his soul and conscience 
here acquits the parliament and the people, or else 
abuses the words of David, and dissembles grossly to 
the very face of God ; which is apparent in the next 
line; wherein he accuses even the church itself to God, 
as if she were the church's enemy, for having overcome 
his tyranny by the powerful and miraculous might of 
God's manifest arm : For to other strength, in the midst 
of our divisions and disorders, who can attribute our 
victories? Thus had this miserable man no worse ene- 
to solicit and mature his own destruction, from 
the hastened sentence of divine justice, than the obdu- 
rate curses which proceeded against himself out of his 
own mouth. 

Hitherto his meditations, now his vows; which, as 
the vows of hypocrites use to be, are most commonly 
absurd, and some wicked. Jacob vowed, that God 
should be his God, if he granted him but what was ne- 



cessary to perform that vow, life and subsistence ; but 
the obedience proffered here is nothing so cheap. He, 
who took so heinously to be offered nineteen proposi- 
tions from the parliament, capitulates here with God 
almost in as many articles. 

" If he will continue that light," or rather that dark- 
ness of the gospel, which is among his prelates, settle 
their luxuries, and make them gorgeous bishops; 

If he will "restore" the grievances and mischiefs of 
those obsolete and popish laws, which the parliament 
without his consent had abrogated, and will suffer jus- 
tice to be executed according to his sense; 

" If he will suppress the many schisms in church," 
to contradict himself in that which he hath foretold 
must and shall come to pass, and will remove reforma- 
tion as the greatest schism of all, and factions in state, 
by which he means in every leaf the parliament; 

If he will "restore him" to his negative voice and 
the militia, as much as to say, to arbitrary power, which 
he wrongfully avers to be the " right of his prede- 
cessors ;" 

"If he will turn the hearts of his people" to their 
old cathedral and parochial service in the liturgy, and 
their passive obedience to the king ; 

" If he will quench " the army, and withdraw our 
forces from withstanding the piracy of Rupert, and the 
plotted Irish invasion ; 

"If he will bless him with the freedom" of bishops 
again in the house of peers, and of fugitive delinquents 
in the house of commons, and deliver the honour of par- 
liament into his hands, from the most natural and due 
protection of the people, that entrusted them with the 
dangerous enterprise of being faithful to their coun- 
try against the rage and malice of his tyrannous oppo- 
sition ; 

"If he will keep him from that great offence" of 
following the counsel of his parliament, and enacting 
what they advise him to; which in all reason, and by 
the known law, and oath of his coronation, he ought to 
do, and not to call that sacrilege, which necessity 
through the continuance of his own civil war hath com- 
pelled him to ; necessity, which made David eat the 
shewbread, made Ezekiah take all the silver which 
was found in God's house, and cut off the gold which 
overlaid those doors and pillars, and gave it to Sena- 
cherib; necessity, which ofttimes made the primitive 
church to sell her sacred utensils, even to the commu- 
nion-chalice ; 

" If he will restore him to a capacity of glorifying 
him by doing" that both in church and state, which 
must needs dishonour and pollute his name; 

" If he will bring him again with peace, honour, 
and safety, to his chief city," without repenting, with- 
out satisfying for the blood spilt, only for a few politic 
concessions, which are as good as nothing ; 

" If he will put again the sword into his hand, to 
punish " those that have delivered us, and to protect 
delinquents against the justice of parliament ; 

Then, if it be possible to reconcile contradictions, he 
will praise him by displeasing him, and serve him by 
disserving him. 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



327 



" His glory," in the gaudy copes and painted win- 
dows, mitres, rochets, altars, and the chaunted service- 
book, " shall be dearer to him," than the establishing 
his crown in righteousness, and the spiritual power of 
religion. 

" He will pardon those that have offended him in 
particular," but there shall want no subtle ways to be 
even with them upon another score of their supposed 
offences against the commonwealth ; whereby he may 
at once affect the glory of a seeming justice, and de- 
stroy them pleasantly, while he feigns to forgive them 
as to his own particular, and outwardly bewails them. 

These are the conditions of his treating- with God, to 
whom he bates nothing of what he stood upon with the 
parliament : as if commissions of array could deal with 
him also. 

But of all these conditions, as it is now evident in our 
eyes, God accepted none, but that final petition, which 
he so oft, no doubt but by the secret judgment of God, 
importunes against his own bead ; praying God, " That 
his mercies might be so toward him, as his resolutions 
of truth and peace were toward his people." It follows 
then, God having cut him off, without granting any of 
these mercies, that his resolutions were as feigned, as 
his vows were frustrate. 



XXVI. Upon the Army's surprisal of the King at 
Holmby. 

To give account to royalists what was done with 
'their vanquished king, yielded up into our hands, is 
not to be expected from them, whom God hath made 
his conquerors. And for brethren to debate and rip up 
their falling out in the ear of a common enemy, thereby 
making him the judge, or at least the well-pleased au- 
ditor of their disagreement, is neither wise nor comely. 
To the king therefore, were he living, or to his party 
yet remaining, as to this action, there belong-s no an- 
swer. Emulations, all men know, are incident among- 
military men, and are, if they exceed not, pardonable. 
But some of the former army, eminent enough for their 
own martial deeds, and prevalent in the house of com- 
mons, touched with envy to be so far outdone by a 
new model which they contemned, took advantage of 
presbyterian and independent names, and the viru- 
lence of some ministers, to raise disturbance. And 
the war being then ended, thought slightly to have 
discarded them who had faithfully done the work, 
without their due pay, and the reward of their invinci- 
ble valour. But they who had the sword yet in their 
hands, disdaining to be made the first objects of in- 
gratitude and oppression, after all that expense of their 
blood for justice, and the common liberty, seized upon 
the king their prisoner, whom nothing but their match- 
less deeds had brought so low as to surrender up his 
person : though he, to stir up new discord, chose rather 
to give up himself a captive to his own countrymen, 
who less had won him. This in likelihood might 
have grown to some height of mischief, partly through 



the strife which was kindling - between our elder and 
our younger warriors, but chiefly through the seditious 
tongues of some false ministers, more zealous against 
schisms, than against their own simony and plurali- 
ties, or watchful of the common enemy, whose subtile 
insinuations had g'ot so far in among them, as with all 
diligence to blow the coals. But it pleased God, not 
to embroil and put to confusion his whole people for 
the perverseness of a few. The growth of our dissen- 
sion was either prevented, or soon quieted : the enemy 
soon deceived of his rejoicing, and the king especially 
disappointed of not the meanest morsel that his hope 
presented him, to ruin us by our division. And being 
now so nigh the end, we may the better be at leisure to 
stay a while, and hear him commenting upon his own 
captivity. 

He saith of his surprisal, that it was a" motion ec- 
centric and irregular." What then ? his own allusion 
from the celestial bodies puts us in mind, that irregular 
motions may be necessary on earth sometimes, as well 
as constantly in heaven. This is not always best, 
which is most regular to written law. Great worthies 
heretofore by disobeying law, ofttimes have saved 
the commonwealth ; and the law afterward by firm 
decree hath approved that planetary motion, that un- 
blamable exorbitancy in them. 

He means no good to either independent or presby- 
terian, and yet his parable, like that of Balaam, is 
overruled to portend them good, far beside his inten- 
tion. Those twins, that strove enclosed in the womb 
of Rebecca, were the seed of Abraham; the younger 
undoubtedly gained the heavenly birthright ; the el- 
der, though supplanted in his simile, shall yet no ques- 
tion find a better portion than Esau found, and far 
above his uncircumcised prelates. 

He censures, and in censuring seems to hope it will 
be an ill omen, that they who build Jerusalem divided 
their tong'ues and hands. But his hope failed him 
with his example ; for that there were divisions both 
of tongues and hands at the building of Jerusalem, the 
story would have certified him ; and yet the work 
prospered; and if God will, so may this, notwithstand- 
ing all the craft and malignant wiles of Sanballat and 
Tobiah, adding what fuel they can to our dissensions ; 
or the indignity of his comparison, that likens us to 
those seditious zealots, whose intestine fury brought 
destruction to the last Jerusalem. 

It being now no more in his hand to be revenged on 
his opposers, he seeks to satiate his fancy with the 
imagination of some revenge upon them from above ; 
and like one who in a drowth observes the sky, he sits 
and watches when any thing will drop, that might so- 
lace him with the likeness of a punishment from Hea- 
ven upon us ; which he straight expounds how he 
pleases. No evil can befal the parliament or city, but 
he positively interprets it a judgment upon them for 
his sake: as if the very manuscript of God's judg- 
ments had been delivered to his custody and exposition. 
But his reading declares it well to be a false copy 
which he uses ; dispensing often to his own bad deeds 
and successes the testimony of divine favour, and to> 






328 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



the good deeds and successes of other men divine 
wrath and vengeance. But to counterfeit the hand 
of God, is the boldest of all forgery: And he who 
without warrant, but his own fantastic surmise, 
takes upon him perpetually to unfold the secret and 
unsearchable mysteries of high providence, is likely 
for the most part to mistake and slander them; and 
approaches to the madness of those reprobate thoughts, 
that would wrest the sword of justice out of God's 
hand, and employ it more justly in their own conceit. 
It was a small thing, to contend with the parliament 
about the sole power of the militia, when we see him 
doing little less than laying hands on the weapons of 
God himself, which are his judgments, to wield and 
manage them by the sway and bent of his own frail 
cogitations. Therefore "they that by tumults first oc- 
casioned the raising of armies " in his doom must needs 
" be chastened by their own army for new tumults." 

First, note here his confession, that those tumults 
were the first occasion of raising armies, and by con- 
sequence that he himself raised them first, against those 
supposed tumults. But who occasioned those tumults, 
or who made them so, being- at first nothing more than 
the unarmed and peaceable concourse of people, hath 
been discussed already. And that those pretended tu- 
mults were chastised by their own army for new tu- 
mults, is not proved by a game at tic-tac with words ; 
" tumults and armies, armies and tumults," but seems 
more like the method of a justice irrational than divine. 

If the city were chastened by the army for new tu- 
mults, the reason is by himself set down evident and 
immediate, " their new tumults." With what sense 
can it be referred then to another far-fetched and ima- 
ginary cause, that happened so many years before, and 
in his supposition only as a cause ? Manlius defended 
the Capitol and the Romans from their enemies the 
Gauls : Manlius for sedition afterward was by the Ro- 
mans thrown headlong from the Capitol ; therefore 
Manlius was punished by divine justice for defending 
the Capitol, because in that place punished for sedi- 
tion, and by those whom he defended. This is his logic 
upon divine justice; and was the same before upon 
the death of Sir John Hotham. And here again, " such 
as were content to see him driven away by unsup- 
pressed tumults, arc now forced to fly to an army." 
Was this a judgment? Was it not a mercy rather, that 
they had a noble and victorious army so near at hand 
to fly to ? 

From God's justice he comes down to man's justice. 
Those few of both houses, who at first withdrew with 
him for the vain pretence of tumults, were counted de- 
serters; therefore those many must be also deserters, 
who withdrew afterwards from real tumults: as if it 
were the place that made a parliament, and not the 
end and cause. Because it is denied that those were 
tumults, from which the king made shew of being 
driven, is it therefore of necessity implied, that there 
could be never any tumults for the future? If some 
men fly in craft, may not other men have cause to fly 
in earnest ? But mark the difference between their 
flight and his; they soon returned in safetv to their 



places, he not till after many years, and then a captive 
to receive his punishment. So that their flying - , whe- 
ther the cause be considered, or the event, or both, 
neither justified him, nor condemned themselves. 

But he will needs have vengeance to pursue and 
overtake them ; though to bring it in, it cost him an 
inconvenient and obnoxious comparison, " As the mice 
and rats overtook a German bishop." I would our 
mice and rats had been as orthodoxal here, and had so 
pursued all his bishops out of England ; then vermin 
had rid away vermin, which now hath lost the lives of 
too many thousand honest men to do. 

" He cannot but observe this divine justice, yet with 
sorrow and pity." But sorrow and pity in a weak and 
overmastered enemy is looked upon no otherwise than 
as the ashes of his revenge burnt out upon himself: or 
as the damp of a cooled fury, when we say, it gives. 
But in this manner to sit spelling and observing divine 
justice upon every accident and slight disturbance, that 
may happen humanly to the affairs of men, is but an- 
other fragment of his broken revenge; and yet the 
shrewdest and the cunningest obloquy, that can be 
thrown upon their actions. For if he can persuade 
men, that the parliament and their cause is pursued 
with divine vengeance, he hath attained his end, to 
make all men forsake them, and think the worst that 
can be thought of them. 

Nor is he only content to suborn divine justice in his 
censure of what is past, but he assumes the person of 
Christ himself, to prognosticate over us what he wishes 
would come. So little is any thing or person sacred 
from him, no not in heaven, which he will not use, 
and put on, if it may serve him plausibly to wreak his 
spleen, or ease his mind upon the parliament. Although, 
if ever fatal blindness did both attend and punish wil- 
fulness, if ever any enjoyed not comforts for neglecting 
counsel belonging to their peace, it was in none more 
conspicuously brought to pass than in himself: and his 
predictions against the parliament and their adherents 
have for the most part been verified upon his own head, 
and upon his chief counsellors. 

He concludes with high praises of the army. But 
praises in an enemy are superfluous, or smell of craft; 
and the army shall not need his praises, nor the par- 
liament fare worse for his accusing prayers that follow. 
Wherein, as his charity can be no way comparable to 
that of Christ, so neither can his assurance, that they 
whom he seems to pray for, in doing what they did 
against him, " knew not what they did." It was but 
arrogance therefore, and not charity, to lay such ignor- 
ance to others in the sight of God, till he himself had 
been infallible, like him whose peculiar words he over- 
weeningly assumes. 



XXVII. Entitled, To the Prince of Wales. 

What the king wrote to his son, as a father, con- 
cerns not us ; what he wrote to him as a king of Eng- 
land, concerns not him ; God and the parliament having 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



329 



now otherwise disposed of England. But because I 
see it done with some artifice and labour, to possess the 
people, that they might amend their present condition, 
by his, or by his son's restorement, I shall shew point 
by point, that although the king had been reinstalled 
to his desire, or that his son admitted should observe 
exactly all his father's precepts, yet that this would be 
so far from conducing to our happiness, either as a re- 
medy to the present distempers, or a prevention of the 
like to come, that it would inevitably throw us back 
again into all our past and fulfilled miseries ; would 
force us to fight over again all our tedious wars, and 
put us to another fatal struggling for liberty and life, 
more dubious than the former. In which, as our suc- 
cess hath been no other than our cause ; so it will be 
evident to all posterity, that his misfortunes were the 
mere consequence of his perverse judgment. 

First, he argues from the experience of those troubles, 
which both he and his son have had, to the improvement 
of their piety and patience; and by the way bears 
witness in his own words, that the corrupt education 
of his youth, which was but glanced at only in some 
former passages of this answer, was a thing neither of 
mean consideration, nor untruly charged upon him or 
his son: himself confessing here, that " court-delights 
are prone either to root up all true virtue and honour, 
or to be contented only with some leaves and withering 
formalities of them, without any real fruits tending to 
the public good." Which presents him still in his own 
words another Rehoboam, softened by a far worse 
court than Solomon's, and so corrupted by flatteries, 
which he affirms to be unseparable, to the overturning 
of all peace, and the loss of his own honour and king- 
doms. That he came therefore thus bred up and nur- 
tured to the throne far worse than Rehoboam, unless 
he be of those who equalized his father to King Solomon, 
we have here his own confession. And how voluptu- 
ously, how idly reigning in the hands of other men, he 
either tyrannized or trifled away those seventeen years 
of peace, without care or thought, as if to be a king 
had been nothing' else in his apprehension, but to eat 
and drink, and have his will, and take his pleasure ; 
though there be who can relate his domestic life to the 
exactness of a diary, there shall be here no mention 
made. This yet we might have then foreseen, that he 
who spent his leisure so remissly and so corruptly to 
his own pleasing, would one day or other be worse 
busied and employed to our sorrow. And that he acted 
in good earnest what Rehoboam did but threaten, to 
make his little finger heavier than his father's loins, 
and to whip us up with two-twisted scorpions, both 
temporal and spiritual tyranny, all his kingdoms have 
felt. What good use he made afterwards of his adver- 
sity, both his impenitence and obstinacy to the end, (for 
he was no Manasseh,) and the sequel of these his medi- 
tated resolutions, abundantly express : retaining, com- 
mending, teaching, to his son all those putrid and 
pernicious documents both of state and of religion, in- 
stilled by wicked doctors, and received by him as in a 
vessel nothing better seasoned, which were the first 
occasion both of his own and all our miseries. And if 



he, in the best maturity of his years and understanding-, 
made no better use to himself or others of his so long 
and manifold afflictions, either looking up to God, or 
looking down upon the reason of his own affairs ; 
there can be no probability, that his son, bred up, not 
in the soft effeminacies of a court only, but in the rug- 
ged and more boisterous licence of undisciplined camps 
and garrisons, for years unable to reflect with judgment 
upon his own condition, and thus ill instructed by his 
father, should give his mind to walk by any other rules 
than these, bequeathed him as on his father's death-bed, 
and as the choicest of all that experience, which his 
most serious observation and retirement in good or evil 
days had taught him. David indeed, by suffering 
without just cause, learned that meekness and that wis- 
dom by adversity, which made him much the fitter man 
to reign. But they who suffer as oppressors, tyrants, 
violaters of law, and persecutors of reformation, with- 
out appearance of repenting ; if they once get hold 
again of that dignity and power, which they had lost, 
are but whetted and enraged by what they suffered, 
against those whom they look upon as them that caused 
their sufferings. 

How he hath been " subject to the sceptre of God's 
word and spirit," though acknowledged to be the best 
government ; and what his dispensation of civil power 
hath been, with what justice, and what honour to the 
public peace ; it is but looking back upon the whole 
catalogue of his deeds, and that will be sufficient to 
remember us. " The cup of God's physic," as he calls 
it, what alteration it wrought in him to a firm health- 
fulness from any surfeit, or excess whereof the people 
generally thought him sick, if any man would go about 
to prove, we have his own testimony following here, 
that it wrought none at all. 

First, he hath the same fixed opinion and esteem of 
his old Ephesian goddess, called the Church of England, 
as he had ever ; and charges strictly his son after him 
to persevere in that antipapal schism, (for it is not much 
better,) as that which will be necessary both for his soul's 
and the kingdom's peace. But if this can be any foun- 
dation of the kingdom's peace, which was the first cause 
of our distractions, let common sense be judge. It is a 
rule and principle worthy to be known by Christians, 
that no scripture, no nor so much as any ancient creed, 
binds our faith, or our obedience to any church what- 
soever, denominated by a particular name ; far less, if 
it be distinguished by a several government from that 
which is indeed catholic. No man was ever bid be 
subject to the church of Corinth, Rome, or Asia, but to 
the church without addition, as it held faithful to the 
rules of Scripture, and the government established in 
all places by the apostles; which at first was uni- 
versally the same in all churches and congregations; 
not differing or distinguished by the diversity of coun- 
tries, territories, or civil bounds. That church, that 
from the name of a distinct place takes authority to set 
up a distinct faith or government, is a schism and fac- 
tion, not a church. It were an injury to condemn the 
papist of absurdity and contradiction, for adhering' to 
his catholic Romish religion, if we, for the pleasure of 



330 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASTLIKE. 



a king* and bis politic considerations, shall adhere to a 
catholic English. 

But suppose the church of England were as it ought 
to be, how is it to us the safer by being so named and 
established, whenas that very name and establishment, 
by this contriving, or approbation, served for nothing 
else but to delude us and amuse us, while the church of 
England insensibly was almost changed and translated 
into the church of Rome. Which as every man knows 
in general to be true, so the particular treaties and 
transactions tending to that conclusion are at larg-e 
discovered in a book entitled the " English Pope." 
But when the people, discerning these abuses, began 
to call for reformation, in order to which the parliament 
demanded of the king to unestablish that prelatical 
government, which without Scripture had usurped over 
us; straight as Pharaoh accused of idleness the Israel- 
ites that sought leave to go and sacrifice to God, he 
lays faction to their charge. And that we may not 
hope to have ever any thing reformed in the church 
either by him or his son, he forewarns him, " that the 
devil of rebellion doth most commonly turn himself 
into an angel of reformation :" and says enough to 
make him hate it, as the worst of evils, and the bane 
of his crown : nay he counsels him to " let nothing 
6eem little or despicable to him, so as not speedily and 
effectually to suppress errours and schisms." Whereby 
we may perceive plainly, that our consciences were 
destined to the same servitude and persecution, if not 
worse than before, whether under him, or if it should 
so happen, under his son ; who count all protestant 
churches erroneous and schismatical, which are not 
episcopal. His next precept is concerning' our civil 
liberties; which by his sole voice and predominant 
will must be circumscribed, and not permitted to ex- 
tend a hand's breadth further than his interpretation of 
the laws already settled. And although all human 
laws are but the offspring of that frailty, that fallibility 
and imperfection, which was in their authors, whereby 
many laws in the change of ignorant and obscure ages, 
may be found both scandalous, and full of grievance to 
their posterity that made them, and no law is further 
good than mutable upon just occasion ; yet if the re- 
moving of an old law, or the making of a new, would 
save the kingdom, we shall not have it, unless his arbi- 
trary voice will so far slacken the stiff curb of his pre- 
rogative, as to grant it us ; who are as freeborn to make 
our own laws, as our fathers were, who made these we 
have. Where are then the English liberties, which we 
boast to have been left us by our progenitors ? To that 
he answers, that " our liberties consist in the enjoy- 
ment of the fruits of our industry, and the benefit of 
those laws, to which we ourselves have consented." 
First, for the enjoyment of those fruits, which our in- 
dustry and labours have made our own upon our own, 
what privilege is that above what the Turks, Jews, 
and Moors enjoy under the Turkish monarchy ? For 
without that kind of justice, which is also in Algiers, 
among thieves and pirates between themselves, no 
kind of government, no society, just or unjust, could 
stand ; no combination or conspiracy could stick toge- 



gether. Which he also acknowledges in these words : 
" that if the crown upon his head be so heavy as to 
oppress the whole body, the weakness of inferiour 
members cannot return any thing of strength, honour, 
or safety to the head ; but that a necessary debilitation 
must follow." So that this liberty of this subject con- 
cerns himself and the subsistence of his own regal 
power in the first place, and before the consideration of 
any right belonging to the subject. We expect there- 
fore something more, that must distinguish free go- 
vernment from slavish. But instead of that, this 
king, though ever talking and protesting as smooth as 
now, suffered it in his own hearing to be preached 
and pleaded without control or check, by them whom 
he most favoured and upheld, that the subject had 
no property of his own goods, but that all was the 
king's right. 

Next, for the " benefit of those laws, to which we 
ourselves have consented," we never had it under him; 
for not to speak of laws ill executed, when the parlia- 
ment, and in them the people, have consented to divers 
laws, and, according* to our ancient rights, demanded 
them, he took upon him to have a negative will, as the 
transcendent and ultimate law above all our laws; and 
to rule us forcibly by laws, to which we ourselves did 
not consent, but complained of. Thus these two heads, 
wherein the utmost of his allowance here will give our 
liberties leave to consist, the one of them shall be so far 
only made good to us, as may support his own interest 
and crown from ruin or debilitation ; and so far Turkish 
vassals enjoy as much liberty under Mahomet and the 
Grand Signior: the other we neither yet have enjoyed 
under him, nor were ever like to do under the tyranny 
of a negative voice, which he claims above the unani- 
mous consent and power of a whole nation, virtually in 
the parliament. 

In which negative voice to have been cast by the 
doom of war, and put to death by those who vanquished 
him in their own defence, he reckons to himself more 
than a negative martyrdom. But martyrs bear witness 
to the truth, not to themselves. If I bear witness of 
myself, saith Christ, my witness is not true. He who 
writes himself martyr by his own inscription, is like an 
ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture 
which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what 
shape it is: which else no man could imagine: no 
more than how a martyrdom can belong to him, who 
therefore dies for his religion, because it is established. 
Certainly if Agrippa had turned Christian, as he was 
once turning, and had put to death scribes and Phari- 
sees for observing the law of Moses, and refusing 
Christianity, they had died a truer martyrdom. For 
those laws were established by God and Moses, these 
by no warrantable authors of religion, whose laws in 
all other best reformed churches are rejected. And if 
to die for an establishment of religion be martyrdom, 
then Romish priests executed for that, which had so 
many hundred years been established in this land, are 
no worse martyrs than he. Lastly, if to die for the 
testimony of his own conscience, be enough to make 
him a martyr, what heretic dying for direct blasphemy, 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



331 



as some have done constantly, may not boast a martyr- 
dom ? As for the constitution or repeal of civil laws, 
that power lying- only in the parliament, which he by 
the very law of his coronation was to grant them, not 
to debar them, not to preserve a lesser law with the 
contempt and violation of a greater; it will conclude 
him not so much as in a civil and metaphorical sense 
to have died a martyr of our laws, but a plain trans- 
gressor of them. And should the parliament, endued 
with legislative power, make our laws, and be after to 
dispute them piece-meal with the reason, conscience, 
humour, passion, fancy, folly, obstinacy, or other ends 
of one man, whose sole word and will shall baffle and 
unmake what all the wisdom of a parliament hath 
been deliberately framing- ; what a ridiculous and con- 
temptible thing a parliament would soon be, and what 
a base unworthy nation we, who boast our freedom, 
and send them with the manifest peril of their lives to 
preserve it, they who are not marked by destiny for 
slaves may apprehend ! In this servile condition to 
have kept us still under hatches, he both resolves here 
to the last, and so instructs his son. 

As to those offered condescensions of a " charitable 
connivance, or toleration," if we consider what went 
before, and what follows, they moulder into nothing. 
For, what with not suffering ever so little to seem a 
despicable schism, without effectual suppression, as he 
warned him before, and what with no opposition of 
law, government, or established religion to be permit- 
ted, which is his following proviso, and wholly within 
his own construction ; what a miserable and suspected 
toleration, under spies and haunting promooters, we 
should enjoy, is apparent. Besides that it is so far be- 
neath the honour of a parliament and free nation, to 
beg and supplicate the godship of one frail man, for 
the bare and simple toleration of what they all consent 
to be both just, pious, and best pleasing to God, while 
that which is erroneous, unjust, and mischievous in 
the church or state, shall by him alone against them 
all be kept up and established, and they censured the 
while for a covetous, ambitious, and sacrilegious fac- 

Ition. 
Another bait to allure the people is the charge he 
lays upon his son to be tender of them. Which if we 
should believe in part, because they are his herd, his 
cattle, the stock upon his ground, as he accounts them, 
whom to waste and destroy would undo himself, yet 
the inducement, which he brings to move him, renders 
the motion itself something suspicious. For if princes 
need no palliations, as he tells his son, wherefore is it 
that he himself hath so often used them ? Princes, of 
all other men, have not more change of raiment in 
their wardrobes, than variety of shifts and palliations 
in their solemn actings and pretences to the people. 

To try next if he can ensnare the prime men of those 
who have opposed him, whom, more truly than his 
meaning was, he calls the " patrons and vindicators of 
the people," he gives out indemnity, and offers acts of 
oblivion. But they who with a good conscience and 
upright heart did their civil duties in the sight of God, 
and in their several places, to resist tyranny and the 






violence of superstition banded both against them, he 
may be sure will never seek to be forgiven that, which 
may be justly attributed to their immortal praise; nor 
will assent ever to the guilty blotting out of those ac- 
tions before men, by which their faith assures them 
they chiefly stand approved, and are had in remem- 
brance before the throne of God. 

He exhorts his son " not to study revenge." But 
how far he, or at least they about him, intend to follow 
that exhortation, was seen lately at the Hague, and 
now lateliest at Madrid ; where to execute in the basest 
manner, though but the smallest part of that savage 
and barbarous revenge, which they do nothing else but 
study and contemplate, they cared not to let the world 
know them for professed traitors and assassinators of 
all law both divine and human, even of that last and 
most extensive law kept inviolable to public persons 
among all fair enemies in the midst of uttermost defiance 
and hostility. How implacable therefore they would be, 
after any terms of closure or admittance for the future, 
or any like opportunity given them hereafter, it will 
be wisdom and our safety to believe rather, and prevent, 
than to make trial. And it will concern the multitude, 
though courted here, to take heed how they seek to 
hide or colour their own fickleness and instability with 
a bad repentance of their well-doing, and their fidelity 
to the better cause ; to which at first so cheerfully and 
conscientiously they joined themselves. 

He returns again to extol the church of England, 
and again requires his son by the joint authority of " a 
father and a king, not to let his heart receive the least 
check or disaffection against it." And not without 
cause, for by that means, "having sole influence upon 
the clergy, and they upon the people, after long search 
and many disputes," he could not possibly find a more 
compendious and politic way to uphold and settle ty- 
ranny, than by subduing first the consciences of vulgar 
men, with the insensible poison of their slavish doc- 
trine : for then the body and besotted mind without 
much reluctancy was likeliest to admit the yoke. 

He commends also " parliaments held with freedom 
and with honour." But I would ask how that can be, 
while he only must be the sole free person in that num- 
ber ; and would have the power with his unaccountable 
denial, to dishonour them by rejecting all their coun- 
sels, to confine their lawgiving power, which is the 
foundation of our freedom, and to change at his plea- 
sure the very name of a parliament into the name of a 
faction. 

The conclusion therefore must needs be quite con- 
trary to what he concludes ; that nothing can be more 
unhappy, more dishonourable, more unsafe for all, than 
when a wise, grave, and honourable parliament shall 
have laboured, debated, argued, consulted, and, as he 
himself speaks, " contributed" for the public good all 
their counsels in common, to be then frustrated, disap- 
pointed, denied and repulsed by the single whiff of a 
negative, from the mouth of one wilful man ; nay, to 
be blasted, to be struck as mute and motionless as a 
parliament of tapestry in the hangings ; or else after 
all their pains and travel to be dissolved, and cast away 



332 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



like so many noughts in arithmetic, unless it be to 
turn the O of their insignificance into a lamentation 
with the people, who had so vainly sent them. For 
this is not to " enact all things by public consent," as 
he would hare us be persuaded, this is to enact nothing* 
but by the private consent and leave of one not nega- 
tive tyrant; this is mischief without remedy, a stifling 
and obstructing- evil that hath no vent, no outlet, no 
passage through : grant him this, and the parliament 
hath no more freedom than if it sate in his noose, which 
when he pleases to draw together with one twitch of 
his negative, shall throttle a whole nation, to the wish 
of Caligula, in one neck. This with the power of the 
militia in his own hands over our bodies and estates, 
and the prelates to enthral our consciences either by 
fraud or force, is the sum of that happiness and liberty 
we were to look for, whether in his own restitution, or 
in these precepts given to his son. Which unavoidably 
would have set us in the same state of misery, wherein 
we were before ; and have either compelled us to sub- 
mit like bondslaves, or put us back to a second wan- 
dering over that horrid wilderness of distraction and 
civil slaughter, which, not without the strong and 
miraculous hand of God assisting us, we have mea- 
sured out, and survived. And who knows, if we make 
so slight of this incomparable deliverance, which God 
hath bestowed upon us, but that we shall, like those 
foolish Israelites, who deposed God and Samuel to set 
up a king, " cry out" one day, " because of our king," 
which we have been mad upon ; and then God, as he 
foretold them, will no more deliver us. 

There remains now but little more of his discourse, 
■whereof to take a short view will not be amiss. His 
words make semblance as if he were magnanimously 
exercising himself, and so teaching his son, " to want 
as well as to wear a crown ;" and would seem to account 
it "not worth taking up or enjoying, upon sordid, 
dishonourable, and irreligious terms ;" and yet to bis 
very last did nothing more industriously, than strive to 
take up and enjoy again his sequestered crown, upon 
the most sordid, disloyal, dishonourable, and irreligious 
terms, not of making peace only, but of joining and in- 
corporating with the murderous Irish, formerly by him- 
self declared against, for "wicked and detestable rebels, 
odious to God and all good men." And who but those 
rebels now are the chief strength and confidence of his 
son ? While the presbyter Scot that woos and solicits 
him, is neglected and put off, as if no terms were to 
him sordid, irreligious, and dishonourable, but the Scot- 
tish and presbyterian, never to be complied with, till 
the fear of instant perishing starve him out at length to 
some unsound and hypocritical agreement. 

i I«' bids his son " keep to the true principles of piety, 
virtue, and honour, and he shall never want a king- 
dom." And I say, people of England ! keep ye to 
those principles, and ye shall never want a king. Nay, 
after such a fair deliverance as this, with so much for- 
titude and valour shewn against a tyrant, that people 
that should seek a king, claiming what this man claims, 
would six u tin mselves to be by nature slaves, and ar- 
rant beasts ; not fit for that liberty, which they cried 



out and bellowed for, but fitter to be led back again 
into their old servitude, like a sort of clamouring and 
fighting brutes, broke loose from their copy-holds, that 
know not how to use or possess the liberty which they 
fought for; but with the fair words and promises of an 
old exasperated foe, are ready to be stroked and tamed 
again, into the wonted and well-pleasing state of their 
true Norman villanage, to them best agreeable. 

The last sentence, whereon he seems to venture 
the whole weight of all his former reasons and argu- 
mentations, " That religion to their God, and loyalty 
to their king, cannot be parted, without the sin and in- 
felicity of a people," is contrary to the plain teaching 
of Christ, that " No man can serve two masters ; but, if 
he hold to the one, he must reject and forsake the 
other." If God, then, and earthly kings be for the 
most part not several only, but opposite masters, it will 
as oft happen, that they who will serve their king must 
forsake their God ; and they who will serve God must 
forsake their king ; which then will neither be their sin, 
nor their infelicity ; but their wisdom, their piety, and 
their true happiness ; as to be deluded by these unsound 
and subtle ostentations here, would be their misery; 
and in all likelihood much greater than what they 
hitherto have undergone : if now again intoxicated 
and moped with these royal, and therefore so delicious 
because royal, rudiments of bondage, the cup of 
deception, spiced and tempered to their bane, they 
should deliver up themselves to these glozing words 
and illusions of him, whose rage and utmost violence 
they have sustained, and overcome so nobly. 



XXVIII. Entitled Meditations upon Death. 

It might be well thought by him, who reads no fur- 
ther than the title of this last essay, that it required no 
answer. For all other human things are disputed, and 
will be variously thought of to the world's end. But 
this business of death is a plain case, and admits no 
controversy : in that centre all opinions meet. Never- 
theless, since out of those few mortifying hours, that 
should have been intirest to themselves, and most at 
peace from all passion and disquiet, he can afford spare 
time to inveigh bitterly against that justice which was 
done upon him ; it will be needful to say something in 
defence of those proceedings, though briefly, in regard 
so much on this subject hath been written lately. 

It happened once, as we find in Esdras and Jose- 
phus, authors not less believed than any under sacred, 
to be a great and solemn debate in the court of Darius, 
what thing was to be counted strongest of all other. 
He that could resolve this, in reward of his excellent 
wisdom, should be clad in purple, drink in gold, sleep 
on a bed of gold, and sit next Darius. None but they 
doubtless who were reputed /wise, had the question 
propounded to them : who after some respite given 
them by the king to consider, in full assembly of all 
his lords and gravest counsellors, returned severally 
what they thought. The first held, that wine was 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



333 



strongest, another that the king- was strongest. But 
Zorobabel prince of the captive Jews, and heir to the 
crown of Judah, being one of them, proved women to 
be stronger than the king, for that he himself had seen 
a concubine take his crown from off his head to set it 
upon her own : and others besides him have likewise 
seen the like feat done, and not in jest. Yet he proved 
on, and it was so yielded by the king himself, and all 
his sages, that neither wine, nor women, nor the king, 
but truth of all other things was the strongest. For 
me, though neither asked, nor in a nation that gives 
such rewards to wisdom, I shall pronounce my sen- 
tence somewhat different from Zorobabel ; and shall 
defend that either truth and justice are all one, (for 
truth is but justice in our knowledge, and justice is but 
truth in our practice ; and he indeed so explains him- 
self, in saying that with truth is no accepting of per- 
sons, which is the property of justice,) or else if there 
be any odds, that justice, though not stronger than 
truth, yet by her office is to put forth and exhibit more 
strength in the affairs of mankind. For truth is pro- 
perly no more than contemplation ; and her utmost ef- 
ficiency is but teaching: but justice in her very es- 
sence is all strength and activity ; and hath a sword 
put into her hand, to use against all violence and op- 
pression on the earth. She it is most truly, who ac- 
cepts no person, and exempts none from the severity of 
ber stroke. She never suffers injury to prevail, but 
when falsehood first prevails over truth ; and that also 
is a kind of justice done on them who are so deluded. 
Though wicked kings and tyrants counterfeit her 
sword, as some did that buckler, fabled to fall from 
heaven into the capitol, yet she communicates her 
power to none but such as like herself are just, or at 
least will do justice. For it were extreme partiality 
and injustice, the flat denial and overthrow of herself, 
to put her own authentic sword into the hand of an un- 
just and wicked man, or so far to accept and exalt one 
mortal person above his equals, that he alone shall 
have the punishing of all other men transgressing, 
and not receive like punishment from men, when he 
himself shall be found the highest transgressor. 

We may conclude therefore, that justice, above all 
other things, is and ought to be the strongest : she is 
the strength, the kingdom, the power, and majesty of 
all ages. Truth herself would subscribe to this, though 
Darius and all the monarcbs of the world should deny. 
And if by sentence thus written, it were my happiness 
to set free the minds of Englishmen from longing to 
return poorly under that captivity of kings, from which 
the strength and supreme sword of justice hath de- 
livered them, I shall have done a work not much infe- 
riour to that of Zorobabel : who by well praising and 
extolling the force of truth, in that contemplative 
strength conquered Darius ; and freed his country and 
the people of God, from the captivity of Babylon. 
Which I shall yet not despair to do, if they in this 
land, whose minds are yet captive, be but as ingenu- 
ous to acknowledge the strength and supremacy of 
justice, as that heathen king was to confess the strength 
of truth : or let them but, as he did, grant that, and 



they will soon perceive, that truth resigns all her out- 
ward strength to justice : justice therefore must needs 
be strongest, both in her own, and in the strength of 
truth. But if a king may do among men whatsoever 
is his will and pleasure, and notwithstanding be unac- 
countable to men, then contrary to his magnified wis- 
dom of Zorobabel, neither truth nor justice, but the 
king, is strongest of all other things, which that Persian 
monarch himself, in the midst of all his pride and glory, 
durst not assume. 

Let us see therefore what this king hath to affirm, 
why the sentence of justice, and the weight of that 
sword, which she delivers into the hands of men, should 
be more partial to him offending, than to all others of 
human race. First, he pleads, that " no law of God or 
man gives to subjects any power of judicature without 
or against him." Which assertion shall be proved in 
every part to be most untrue. The first express law of 
God given to mankind was that to Noah, as a law, in 
general, to all the sons of men. And by that most an- 
cient and universal law, " Whosoever sheddeth man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed ;" we find here 
no exception. If a king therefore do this, to a king, 
and that by men also, the same shall be done. This 
in the law of Moses, which came next, several times 
is repeated, and in one place remarkably, Numb. 
xxxv. " Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of 
a murderer, but he shall surely be put to death : the 
land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed 
therein, but by the blood of him that shed it." This 
is so spoken as that which concerned all Israel, not 
one man alone, to see performed ; and if no satis- 
faction were to be taken, then certainly no exception. 
Nay the king, when they should set up any, was to 
observe the whole law, and not only to see it done, 
but to "do it ; that his heart might not be lifted up 
above his brethren ;" to dream of vain and useless pre- 
rogatives or exemptions, whereby the law itself must 
needs be founded in unrighteousness. 

And were that true, which is most false, that all kings 
are the Lord's anointed, it were yet absurd to think 
that the anointment of God should be, as it were, a 
charm against law, and give them privilege, who punish 
others, to sin themselves unpunishably. The high 
priest was the Lord's anointed as well as any king, and 
with the same consecrated oil : yet Solomon had put 
to death Abiathar, had it not been for other respects 
than that anointment. If God himself say to kings, 
" touch not mine anointed," meaning his chosen people, 
as is evident in that psalm, yet no man will argue 
thence, that he protects them from civil laws if they 
offend ; then certainly, though David as a private man, 
and in his own cause, feared to lift his hand against 
the Lord's anointed, much less can this forbid the law, 
or disarm justice from having legal power against any 
king. No other supreme magistrate, in what kind of 
government soever, lays claim to any such enormous 
privilege; wherefore then should any king, who is but 
one kind of magistrate, and set over the people for no 
other end than they ? 

Next in order of time to the laws of Moses arc those 






334 



AX ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



of Christ, who declares professedly his judicature to be 
spiritual, abstract from civil managements, and there- 
fore leaves all nations to their own particular laws, and 
way of government Yet because the church hath a 
kind of jurisdiction within her own bounds, and that 
also, though in process of time much corrupted and 
plainly turned into a corporal judicature, yet much 
approi ed by this king; it will be firm enough and valid 
against him, if subjects, by the laws of church also, be 
" invested with a power of judicature" both without 
and against their king-, though pretending", and by 
them acknowledged, " next and immediately under 
Christ supreme head and governor." Theodosius, one 
of the best christian emperors, having made a slaughter 
of the Thessalonians for sedition, but too cruelly, was 
excommunicated to his face by St. Ambrose, who was 
his subject ; and excommunion is the utmost of eccle- 
siastical judicature, a spiritual putting to death. But 
this, ye will say, was only an example. Read then 
the story ; and it will appear, both that Ambrose 
avouched it for the law of God, and Theodosius con- 
fessed it of his own accord to be so ; " and that the law 
of God was not to be made void in him, for any rever- 
ence to his imperial power." From hence, not to be 
tedious, I shall pass into our own land of Britain ; and 
shew that subjects here have exercised the utmost of 
spiritual judicature, and more than spiritual, against 
their kings, his predecessors. Vortiger, for committing 
incest with his daughter, was by St. German, at that 
time his subject, cursed and condemned in a British 
counsel about the year 448 ; and thereupon soon after 
was deposed. Mauricus, a king in Wales, for breach 
of oath and the murder of Cynetus, was excommuni- 
cated and cursed, with all his offspring, by Oudoceus 
bishop of LlandafF in full synod, about the year 560; 
and not restored, till he had repented. Morcant, an- 
otfa r king in Wales, having slain Frioc his uncle, was 
fain to come in person, and receive judgment from the 
same bishop and his clergy; who upon his penitence 
acquitted him, for no other cause than lest the kingdom 
should he destitute of a successor in the royal line. 
Th< M examples are of the primitive, British, and epis- 
copal church ; long ere they had any commerce or 
communion with the church of Rome. What power 
afterwards of deposing kings, and so consequently of 
putting tli* in to death, was assumed and practised by 
tin- canon law, I omit, as a thing generally known. 
('• rtatnly, if whole councils of the Romish church have 
in ili midst of their dimness discerned so much of truth, 
at Constance, and ;it Basil, and many of 
tl.i in to avouch at Trent also, that a council is above 
tin- pope, and may judge him, though by them not de- 
li <1 to be the vicar of Christ ; we in our clearer light 
maj be ashamed not to discern further, that a parlia- 
ni- ni i^ l.v all equity and right above a king, and may 
judge him. whose reasons and pretensions to hold of 
lily, ai lu~ immediate vicegerent, we know how- 
far fetch* <l iii. v air, and insufficient 

hi for the lawi of man, it. would ask a volume to 

I all that might be cited in this point against him 

from all antiquity. In Greece, Orestes, the son of 



Agamemnon, and by succession king of Argos, was in 
that country judged and condemned to death for kill- 
ing- his mother: whence escaping", he was judged again, 
though a stranger, before the great council of Areopa- 
gus in Athens. And this memorable act of judicature 
was the first, that brought the justice of that grave 
senate into fame and high estimation over all Greece 
for many ages after. And in the same city, tyrants 
were to undergo leg'al sentence by the laws of Solon. 
The kings of Sparta, though descended lineally from 
Hercules, esteemed a god among' them, were often 
judged, and sometimes put to death, by the most just 
and renowned laws of Lycurg'us ; who, though a king, 
thought it most unequal to bind his subjects by any 
law, to which he bound not himself. In Rome, the 
laws made by Valerius Publicola, soon after the expel- 
ling of Tarquin and his race, expelled without a writ- 
ten law, the law being afterward written ; and what 
the senate decreed ag-ainst Nero, that he should be 
judged and punished according to the laws of their 
ancestors, and what in like manner was decreed against 
other emperors, is vulgarly known ; as it was known 
to those heathen, and found just by nature ere any law 
mentioned it. And that the christian civil law war- 
rants like power of judicature to subjects against 
tyrants, is written clearly by the best and famousest 
civilians. For if it was decreed by Theodosius, and 
stands yet firm in the code of Justinian, that the law 
is above the emperor, then certainly the emperor being 
under law r , the law may judge him ; and if judge him, 
may punish him, proving tyrannous : how else is the 
law above him, or to what purpose ? These are neces- 
sary deductions; and thereafter hath been done in all 
ages and kingdoms, oftener than to be here recited. 

But what need we any further search after the law 
of other lands, for that which is so fully and so plainly 
set down lawful in our own ? Where ancient books tell 
us, Bracton, Fleta, and others, that the king is under 
law, and inferiour to his court of parliament ; that al- 
though bis place " to do justice" be highest, yet that 
he stands as liable " to receive justice" as the meanest 
of his kingdom. Nay, Alfred the most worthy king, 
and by some accounted first absolute monarch of the 
Saxons here, so ordained ; as is cited out of an ancient 
law-book called " the Mirror;" in " rights of the king- 
dom," p. 31, where it is complained on, " as the sove- 
reign abuse of all," that " the king should be deemed 
above the law, whereas he ought to be the subject to 
it by his oath." Of which oath anciently it was the 
last clause, that the king " should be as liable, aud 
obedient to suffer right, as others of his people." And 
indeed it were but fond and senseless, that the king 
should be accountable to every petty suit in lesser 
courts, as we all know he was, and not be subject 
to the judicature of parliament in the main matters of 
our common safety or destruction ; that he should be 
answerable in the ordinary course of law for any wrong 
done to a private person, and not answerable in court 
of parliament for destroying the whole kingdom. By 
all this, and much more that might be added, as in an 
argument over-copious rather than barren, we see it 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



335 



manifest that all laws, both of God and man, are made 
without exemption of any person whomsoever; and 
that if kings presume to overtop the law by which 
they reign for the public good, they are by law to be 
reduced into order ; and that can no way be more 
justly, than by those who exalt them to that high place. 
For who should better understand their own laws, and 
when they are transgrest, than they who are governed 
by them, and whose consent first made them ? And 
who can have more right to take knowledge of things 
done within a free nation, than they within them- 
selves ? 

Those objected oaths of allegiance and supremacy 
we swore, not to his person, but as it was invested 
with his authority ; and his authority was by the people 
first given him conditionally, in law, and under law, 
and under oath also for the kingdom's good, and not 
otherwise; the oaths then were interchanged, and mu- 
tual; stood and fell together; he swore fidelity to his 
trust ; (not as a deluding ceremony, but as a real con- 
dition of their admitting him for king; and the con- 
queror himself swore it oftener than at his crowning;) 
they swore homage and fealty to his person in that 
trust. There was no reason why the kingdom should 
be further bound by oaths to him, than he by his coro- 
nation oath to us, which he hath every way broken : 
and having broken, the ancient crown oath of Alfred 
above mentioned conceals not his penalty. 

As for the covenant, if that be meant, certainly no 
discreet person can imagine it should bind us to him in 
any stricter sense than those oaths formerly. The acts 
of hostility, which we received from him, were no such 
dear obligements, that we should owe him more fealty 
and defence for being our enemy, than we could 
before when we took him only for a king. They 
were accused by him and his party, to pretend liberty 
and reformation, but to have no other end than to 
make themselves great, and to destroy the king's per- 
son and authority. For which reason they added that 
third article, testifying to the world, that as they were 
resolved to endeavour first a reformation in the church, 
to extirpate prelacy, to preserve the rights of parlia- 
ment, and the liberties of the kingdom, so they intend- 
ed, so far as it might consist with the preservation and 
defence of these, to preserve the king's person and au- 
thority ; but not otherwise. As far as this comes to, 
they covenant and swear in the sixth article, to pre- 
serve and defend the persons and authority of one an- 
other, and all those that enter into that league ; so that 
this covenant gives no unlimitable exemption to the 
king's person, but gives to all as much defence and 
preservation as to him, and to him as much as to their 
own persons, and no more ; that is to say, in order and 
subordination to those main ends, for which we live 
and are a nation of men joined in society either chris- 
tian, or at least human. But if the covenant were 
made absolute, to preserve and defend any one whom- 
soever, without respect had, either to the true religion, 
or those other superiour things to be defended and pre- 
served however, it cannot then be doubted, but that the 
covenant was rather a most foolish, hasty, and unlaw- 



ful vow, than a deliberate and well-weighed covenant; 
swearing us into labyrinths and repugnances, no wav 
to be solved or reconciled, and therefore no way to be 
kept; as first offending' against the law of God, to vow 
the absolute preservation, defence, and maintaining of 
one man, though in his sins and offences never so great 
and heinous against God or his neighbour; and to ex- 
cept a person from justice, whereas his law excepts 
none. Secondly, it offends against the law of this na- 
tion, wherein, as hath been proved, kings in receiving 
justice, and undergoing due trial, are not differenced 
from the meanest subject. Lastly, it contradicts and 
offends against the covenant itself, which vows in the 
fourth article to bring to open trial and condign punish- 
ment all those that shall be found guilty of such crimes 
and delinquencies, whereof the king, by his own letters 
and other undeniable testimonies not brought to light 
till afterward, was found and convicted to be chief 
actor in what they thought him, at the time of taking 
that covenant, to be overruled only by evil counsellors; 
and those, or whomsoever they should discover to be 
principal, they vowed to try, either by their own " su- 
preme judicatories," (for so even then they called them,) 
" or by others having power from them to that effect." 
So that to have brought the king to condign punish- 
ment hath not broke the covenant, but it would have 
broke the covenant to have saved him from those judi- 
catories, which both nations declared in that covenant to 
be supreme against any person whatsoever. And besides 
all this, to swear in covenant the bringing of his evil 
counsellors and accomplices to condign punishment, and 
not only to leave unpunished and untouched the grand 
offender, but to receive him back again from the accom- 
plishment of so many violences and mischiefs, dipped 
from head to foot, and stained over with the blood of 
thousands that were his faithful subjects, forced to their 
own defence against a civil war by him first raised 
upon them; and to receive him thus, in this gory pickle, 
to all his dignities and honours, covering the igno- 
minious and horrid purple robe of innocent blood, that 
sat so close about him, with the glorious purple of 
royalty and supreme rule, the reward of highest excel- 
lence and virtue here on earth ; were not only to swear 
and covenant the performance of an unjust vow, the 
strangest and most impious to the face of God, but 
were the most unwise and unprudential act as to civil 
government. For so long as a king shall find by ex- 
perience, that, do the worst he can, his subjects, over- 
awed by the religion of their own covenant, will only 
prosecute his evil instruments, not dare to touch his 
person ; and that whatever hath been on his part of- 
fended or transgressed, he shall come off at last with 
the same reverence to his person, and the same honour 
as for well doing, he will not fail to find them work ; 
seeking far and near, and inviting to his court all the 
concourse of evil counsellors, or agents, that may be 
found : who, tempted with preferments and his promise 
to uphold them, will hazard easily their own heads, 
and the chance of ten to one but they shall prevail at 
last, over men so quelled and fitted to be slaves by the 
false conceit of a religious covenant. And they in that 



336 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE 



superstition neither wholly yielding-, nor to the utmost 
resisting", at the upshot of all their foolish war and ex- 
pense, will find to have done no more but fetched a 
compass only of their miseries, ending at the same 
point of slavery, and in the same distractions wherein 
they first begun. But when kings themselves are 
made as liable to punishment as their evil counsellors, 
it will be both as dangerous from the king himself as 
from his parliament, lo those that evil counsel him : 
and they, who else would be his readiest agents in evil, 
will then not fear to dissuade or to disobey him, not 
only in respect of themselves and their own lives, which 
for his sake they would not seem to value, but in respect 
of that danger which the king himself may incur, whom 
they would seem to love and serve with greatest fidelity. 
On all these grounds therefore of the covenant itself, 
whether religious or political, it appears likeliest, that 
both the English parliament and the Scotch commis- 
sioners, thus interpreting the covenant, (as indeed at 
that time they were the best and most authentical in- 
terpreters joined together,) answered the king unani- 
mously, in their letter dated January the 13th, 1645, 
that till security and satisfaction first given to both 
kingdoms for the blood spilled, for the Irish rebels 
brought over, and for the war in Ireland by him fo- 
mented, they could in nowise yield their consent to his 
return. Here was satisfaction, full two years and up- 
ward after the covenant taken, demanded of the king 
by both nations in parliament for crimes at least capital, 
wherewith they charged him. And what satisfaction 
could be given for so much blood, but justice upon 
him that spilled it? till which done, they neither took 
themselves bound to grant him the exercise of his regal 
office by any meaning of the covenant which they then 
declared, (though other meanings have been since con- 
trived,) nor so much regarded the safety of his person, 
as to admit of his return among them from the midst 
of those whom they declared to be his greatest enemies; 
nay from himself as from an actual enemy, not as from 
a king, they demanded security. But if the covenant, 
all this notwithstanding, swore otherwise to preserve 
him that in the preservation of true religion and our 
liberties, against which he fought, if not in arms, yet 
in resolution, to his dying day, and now after death still 
fights again in this his book, the covenant was better 
broken, than he saved. And God hath testified by all 
propitious and the most evident sign, whereby in these 
l.at. r timet li< is wont to testify what pleases him, that 
such a solemn and for many ages unexampled act of 
doe punishment was no mockery of justice, but a most 
grateful and well-pleasing sacrifice. Neither was it to 
COTCT their perjury, as he accuses, but to uncover his 
m rjury to the oath of his coronation. 

The rest of his discourse quite forgets the title ; and 
turns his meditations upon death into obloquy and bitter 
reb id. nee against his "judges and accusers;" imitat- 
ing therein, notour Saviour, but his grandmother Mary 
queen of Scots, as also in the most of his other scruples, 
twos, and evasions; and from whom he seems to 
have learnt, aa it were bj beart, or else by kind, that 
irbicll is though! In his admirers to be the most vir- 



tuous, most manly, most christian, and most martyr- 
like, both of his words and speeches here, and of his 
answers and behaviour at his trial. 

" It is a sad fate," he saith, " to have his enemies 
both accusers, parties, and judges." Sad indeed, but 
no sufficient plea to acquit him from being so judged. 
For what malefactor might not sometimes plead the 
like ? If his own crimes have made all men his ene- 
mies, who else can judge him? They of the powder- 
plot against his father might as well have pleaded the 
same. Nay, at the resurrection it may as well be 
pleaded, that the saints, who then shall judge the world, 
are "both enemies, judges, parties, and accusers." 

So much he thinks to abound in his own defence, 
that he undertakes an unmeasurable task, to bespeak 
" the singular care and protection of God over all 
kings," as being the greatest patrons of law, justice, 
order, and religion on earth. But what patrons they 
be, God in the Scripture oft enough hath expressed ; 
and the earth itself hath too long groaned under the 
burden of their injustice, disorder, and irreligion. 
Therefore "to bind their kings in chains, and their no- 
bles with links of iron," is an honour belonging to his 
saints ; not to build Babel, (which was Nimrod's work, 
the first king 1 , and the beginning of his kingdom was 
Babel,) but to destroy it, especially that spiritual Babel : 
and first to overcome those European kings, which re- 
ceive their power, not from God, but from the beast; 
and are counted no better than his ten horns. " These 
shall hate the great whore," and yet " shall give 
their kingdoms to the beast that carries her ; they 
shall commit fornication with her," and yet " shall 
burn her with fire," and yet " shall lament the fall of 
Babylon," where they fornicated with her. Revela- 
tions chap. xvii. and xviii. 

Thus shall they be to and fro, doubtful and ambigu- 
ous in all their doings, until at last, " joining their 
armies with the beast," whose power first raised them* 
they shall perish with him by the " King of kings," 
against whom they have rebelled ; and " the fowls 
shall eat their flesh." This is their doom written, Rev. 
xix. and the utmost that we find concerning them in 
these latter days ; which we have much more cause to 
believe, than his unwarranted revelation here, prophe- 
sying what shall follow after his death, with the spirit 
of enmity, not of St. John. 

He would fain bring us out of conceit with the good 
success, which God hath vouchsafed us. We measure 
not our cause by our success, but our success by our 
cause. Yet certainly in a good cause success is a good 
confirmation ; for God hath promised it to good men 
almost in every leaf of Scripture. If it argue not for 
us, we are sure it argues not against us ; but as much 
or more for us, than ill success argues for them ; for to 
the wicked God hath denounced ill success in all they 
take in hand. 

He hopes much of those " softer tempers," as he 
calls them, and " less advantaged by his ruin, that their 
consciences do already" gripe them. It is true, there 
be a sort of moody, hotbrained, and always unedified 
consciences ; apt to engage their leaders into great and 



AN ANSWER TO EIKON BASILIKE. 



337 



dangerous affairs past retirement, and then upon a 
sudden qualm and swimming- of their conscience, to 
betray them basely in the midst of what was chiefly 
undertaken for their sakes.* Let such men never meet 
with any faithful parliament to hazard for them; never 
with any noble spirit to conduct and lead them out ; 
but let them live and die in servile condition and their 
scrupulous queasiness, if no instruction will confirm 
them ! Others there be, in whose consciences the loss 
of gain, and those advantages they hoped for, hath 
sprung a sudden leak. These are they that cry out, 
the covenant broken ! and to keep it better slide back 
into neutrality, or join actually with incendiaries and 
malignants. But God hath eminently begun to punish 
those, first in Scotland, then in Ulster, who have pro- 
voked him with the most hateful kind of mockery, to 
break his covenant under pretence of strictest keeping 
it; and hath subjected them to those malignants, with 
whom they scrupled not to be associates. In God 
therefore we shall not fear what their false fraternity 
can do against us. 

He seeks again with cunning words to turn our suc- 
cess into our sin. But might call to mind, that the 
Scripture speaks of those also, who " when God slew 
them, then sought him;" yet did but "flatter him with 
their mouth, and lyed to him with their tongues ; for 
their heart was not right with him." And there was 
one, who in the time of his affliction trespassed more 
against God. This was that king Ahaz. 

He glories much in the forgiveness of his enemies ; 

• A severe rebuke this to the Presbyterians. 



so did his grandmother at her death. Wise men would 
sooner have believed him, had he not so often told us 
so. But he hopes to erect " the trophies of his charity 
over us." And trophies of charity no doubt will be as 
glorious as trumpets before the alms of hypocrites ; and 
more especially the trophies of such an aspiring charity, 
as offers in his prayer to share victory with God's com- 
passion, which is over all his works. Such prayers as 
these may haply catch the people, as was intended : 
but how they please God is to be much doubted, though 
prayed in secret, much less written to be divulged. 
Which perhaps may gain him after death a short, con- 
temptible, and soon fading reward ; not what he aims 
at, to stir the constancy and solid firmness of any wise 
man, or to unsettle the conscience of any knowing 
Christian, (if he could ever aim at a thing so hopeless, 
and above the genius of his cleric elocution,) but to 
catch the worthless approbation of an inconstant, irra- 
tional, and image-doting rabble ; that like a credulous 
and hapless herd, begotten to servility, and enchanted 
with these popular institutes of tyranny, subscribed 
with a new device of the king's picture at his prayers, 
hold out both their ears with such delight and ravish- 
ment to be stigmatized and bored through, in witness 
of their own voluntary and beloved baseness. The 
rest, whom perhaps ignorance without malice, or some 
errour, less than fatal, hath for the time misled, on this 
side sorcery or obduration, may find the grace and good 
guidance, to bethink themselves and recover. 



DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



IN ANSWER TO 



SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING.* 

[first published 1G92.] 



THE PREFACE. 

Although I fear, lest, if in defending* the people of England, I should be as copious in words, and empty of 
matter, as most men think Salmasius has been in his defence of the king-, I might seem to deserve justly to be 
accounted a verbose and silly defender; yet since no man thinks himself obliged to make so much haste, 
though in the handling but of any ordinary subject, as not to premise some introduction at least, according as 
the weight of the subject requires; if I take the same course in handling almost the greatest subject that ever 
was (without being too tedious in it) I am in hopes of attaining two things, which indeed I earnestly desire : 
the one, not to be at all wanting, as far as in me lies, to this most noble cause, and most worthy to be recorded 
to all future ages : the other, that I may appear to have avoided myself that frivolousness of matter, and redun- 
dancy of words, which I blame in my antagonist. For I am about to discourse of matters, neither inconsider- 
able nor common, but how a most potent king - , after he had trampled upon the laws of the nation, and given a 
shock to its religion, and begun to rule at his own will and pleasure, was at last subdued in the field by his 
own subjects, who had undergone a long slavery under him; how afterwards he was cast into prison, and when 
he gave no ground, either by words or actions, to hope better things of him, he was finally by the supreme 
council of the kingdom condemned to die, and beheaded before the very gates of the royal palace. I shall 
likewise relate (which will much conduce to the easing men's minds of a great superstition) by what right, 
especially according to our law, this judgment was given, and all these matters transacted ; and shall easily 
defend my valiant and worthy countrymen (who have extremely well deserved of all subjects and nations in 
the world) from the most wicked calumnies both of domestic and foreign railers, and especially from the re- 
proaches of this most vain and empty sophister, who sets up for a captain and ringleader to all the rest. For 
what king's majesty sitting upon an exalted throne, ever shone so brightly, as that of the people of England 
then did, when shaking off that old superstition, which had prevailed a long time, they gave judgment upon 
the king himself, or rather upon an enemy who had been their king, caught as it were in a net by his own 
laws, (who alone of all mortals challenged to himself impunity by a divine right,) and scrupled not to inflict the 
same punishment upon him, being guilty, which he would have inflicted upon any other? But why do I men- 
tion these things as performed by the people, which almost open their voice themselves, and testify the presence 
of God throughout ? who, as often as it seems good to his infinite wisdom, uses to throw down proud and unruly 
kings, exalting themselves above the condition of human nature, and utterly to extirpate them and all their 
family. By his manifest impulse being set on work to recover our almost lost liberty, following him as our 
guide, and adoring the impresses of his divine power manifested upon all occasions, we went on in no obscure, 
but an illustrious passage, pointed out and made plain to us by God himself. Which things, if I should so 
much as hope by any diligence or ability of mine, such as it is, to discourse of as I ought to do, and to commit 
them so to writing, as that perhaps all nations and all ages may read them, it would be a very vain thing in 
me. For what style can be august and magnificent enough, what man has parts sufficient to undertake so great 
a task ? Since we find by experience, that in so many ages as are gone over the world, there has been but here 
and there a man found, who has been able worthily to recount the actions of great heroes, and potent states; 
can any man have so good an spinion of his own talents, as to think himself capable to reach these glorious and 
wonderful works of Almighty God, by any language, by any style of his? Which enterprise, though some of 

• This translation of the author's " Defensio pro Populo Anglicano" Mr. Tolanu* ascrihes to Mr. Washington, a gentleman of the Temple. 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND &c. 339 

the most eminent persons in our commonwealth have prevailed upon me by their authority to undertake, and 
would have it be my business to vindicate with my pen against envy and calumny (which are proof against 
arms) those glorious performances of theirs, (whose opinion of me I take as a very great honour, that they should 
pitch upon me before others to be serviceable in this kind of those most valiant deliverers of my native country ; 
and true it is, that from my very youth, I have been bent extremely upon such sort of studies, as inclined me, 
if not to do great things myself, at least to celebrate those that did,) yet as having no confidence in any such 
advantages, I have recourse to the divine assistance; and invoke the great and holy God, the giver of all good 
gifts, that I may as substantially, and as truly, discourse and refute the sauciness and lies of this foreign decla- 
mator, as our noble generals piously and successfully by force of arms broke the king's pride, and his unruly 
domineering, and afterwards put an end to both by inflicting a memorable punishment upon himself, and as 
thoroughly as a single person did with ease but of late confute and confound the king himself rising as it were 
from the grave, and recommending himself to the people in a book published after his death, with new artifices 
and allurements of words and expressions. Which antagonist of mine, though he be a foreigner, and, though 
he deny it a thousand times over, but a poor grammarian ; yet not contented with a salary due to him in that 
capacity, chose to turn a pragmatical coxcomb, and not only to intrude in state-affairs, but into the affairs of a 
foreign state : though he brings along with him neither modesty, nor understanding, nor any other qualification 
requisite in so great an arbitrator, but sauciness, and a little grammar only. Indeed if he had published here, 
and in English, the same things as he has now wrote in Latin, such as it is, I think no man would have thought 
it worth while to return an answer to them, but would partly despise them as common, and exploded over and 
over already, and partly abhor them as sordid and tyrannical maxims, not to be endured even by the most ab- 
ject of slaves : nay, men that have sided with the king, would have had these thoughts of his book. But since 
he has swoln it to a considerable bulk, and dispersed it amongst foreigners, who are altogether ignorant of our 
affairs and constitution ; it is fit that they who mistake them, should be better informed ; and that he, who is so 
very forward to speak ill of others, should be treated in his own kind. If it be asked, why we did not then 
attack him sooner, why we suffered him to triumph so long, and pride himself in our silence ? For others I am 
not to answer; for myself I can boldly say, that I had neither words nor arguments long to seek for the defence 
of so good a cause, if I had enjoyed such a measure of health, as would have endured the fatigue of writing. 
And being but weak in body, I am forced to write by piecemeal, and break off almost every hour, though the 
subject be such as requires an uuintermitted study and intenseness of mind. But though this bodily indisposi- 
tion may be a hindrance to me in setting forth the just praises of my most worthy countrymen, who have been 
the saviours of their native country, and whose exploits, worthy of immortality, are already famous all the world 
over; yet I hope it will be no difficult matter for me to defend them from the insolence of this silly little scho- 
lar, and from that saucy tongue of his, at least. Nature and laws would be in an ill case, if slavery should find 
what to say for itself, and liberty be mute : and if tyrants should find men to plead for them, and they that can 
master and vanquish tyrants, should not be able to find advocates. And it were a deplorable thing indeed, if 
the reason mankind is endued withal, and which is the gift of God, should not furnish more arguments for 
men's preservation, for their deliverance, and, as much as the nature of the thing will bear, for making 
them equal to one another, than for their oppression, and for their utter ruin under the domineering power of 
one single person. Let me therefore enter upon this noble cause with a cheerfulness, grounded upon this 
assurance, that my adversary's cause is maintained by nothing but fraud, fallacy, ignorance, and barbarity ; 
whereas mine has light, truth, reason, the practice and the learning of the best ages of the world, of its side. 

But now, having said enough for an introduction, since we have to do with critics ; let us in the first place 
consider the title of this choice piece : " Defensio Regia pro Car. Primo, ad Car. Secundum : a Royal Defence 
(or the king's defence) for Charles the First, to Charles the Second." You undertake a wonderful piece of 
work, whoever you are ; to plead the father's cause before his own son : a hundred to one but you carry it. 
But I summon you, Salmasius, who heretofore sculked under a wrong name, and now go by no name at all, to 
appear before another tribunal, and before other judges, where perhaps you may not hear those little applauses, 
which you used to be so fond of in your school. But why this royal defence dedicated to the king's own son ? 
We need not put him to the torture ; he confesses why. " At the king's charge," says he. O mercenary and 
chargeable advocate ! could you not afford to write a defence for Charles the father, whom you pretend to have 
been the best of kings, to Charles the son, the most indigent of all kings, but it must be at the poor king's own 
charge ? But though you are a knave, you would not make yourself ridiculous, in calling it the king's defence ; for 
you having sold it, it is no longer yours, but the king's indeed : who bought it at the price of a hundred jacobusses, 
a great sum for a poor king to disburse. I know very well what I say : and it is well enough known who brought 
the gold, and the purse wrought with beads : we know who saw you reach out greedy fists, under pretence of 
embracing the king's chaplain, who brought the present, but indeed to embrace the present itself, and by ac- 
cepting it to exhaust almost all the king's treasury. 

But now the man comes himself, the door creaks ; the actor comes upon the stage. 

In silence now, and with attention wait, 

That ye may learn what th' Eunuch has o prate. 

Terent. 






340 A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 

For whatever the matter is with him, he blusters more than ordinary. "A horrible message had lately struck 
our ears, but our minds more, with a heinous wound concerning a parricide committed in England in the per- 
son of a king, by a wicked conspiracy of sacrilegious men." Indeed that horrible message must either have 
had a much longer sword than that which Peter drew, or those ears must have been of a wonderful length, that 
it could wound at such a distance; for it could not so much as in the least offend any ears but those of an ass. 
For what harm is it to you, that are foreigners? are any of you hurt by it, if we amongst ourselves put our own 
enemies, our own traitors to death, be they commoners, noblemen, or kings? Do you, Salmasius, let alone what 
does not concern you : for I have a horrible message to bring of you too ; which I am mistaken if it strike not 
a more heinous wound into the ears of all grammarians and critics, provided tbey have any learning and delicacy 
in them, to wit, your crowding so many barbarous expressions together in one period in the person of (Aristar- 
rhus) a grammarian ; and that so great a critic as you, hired at the king's charge to write a defence of the king 
his father, should not only set so fulsome a preface before it, much like those lamentable ditties that used to be 
sung at funerals, and which can move compassion in none but a coxcomb; but in the very first sentence should 
provoke your readers to laughter with so many barbarisms all at once. " Persona regis," you cry. Where do 
you find any such Latin ? or are you telling* us some tale or other of a Perkin Warbec, who taking upon him 
the person of a king, has, forsooth, committed some horrible parricide in England ? which expression, though 
dropping carelessly from your pen, has more truth in it than you are aware of. For a tyrant is but like a king 
upon a stage, a man in a vizor, and acting the part of a king in a play ; he is not really a king. But as for 
these gallicisms, that are so frequent in your book, I won't lash you for them myself, for I am not at leisure ; 
but shall deliver you over to your fellow-grammarians, to be laughed to scorn and whipped by them. What 
follows is much more heinous, that what was decreed by our supreme magistracy to be done to the king, should 
be said by you to have been done " by a wicked conspiracy of sacrilegious persons." Have you the impudence, 
you rogue, to talk at this rate of the acts and decrees of the chief magistrates of a nation, that lately was a most 
potent kingdom, and is now a more potent commonwealth ? Whose proceedings no king ever took upon him by 
word of mouth, or otherwise, to vilify and set at nought. The illustrious states of Holland therefore, the ge- 
nuine offspring of those deliverers of their country, have deservedly by their edict condemned to utter darkness 
this defence of tyrants, so pernicious to the liberty of all nations; the author of which every free state ought to 
forbid their country, or to banish out of it ; and that state particularly that feeds with a stipend so ungrateful 
nii'l bo savage an enemy to their commonwealth, whose very fundamentals, and the causes of their becoming a 
free state, this fellow endeavours to undermine as well as ours, and at one and the same time to subvert both ; 
loading with calumnies the most worthy asserters of liberty there, under our names. Consider with yourselves, 
ye most illustrious states of the United Netherlands, who it was that put this asserter of kingly power upon set- 
ting pen to paper? who it was, that but lately began to play Rex in your country ? what counsels were taken, 
what endeavours used, and what disturbances ensued thereupon in Holland? and to what pass things might 
have been brought by this time ? How slavery and a new master were ready prepared for you ; and how near 
expiring that liberty of yours, asserted and vindicated by so many years w T ar and toil, would have been ere 
now, if it had not taken breath again by the timely death of a certain rash young gentleman. But our author 
begins to strut again, and to feign wonderful tragedies; "whomsoever this dreadful news reached, (to wit, the 
news of Salmasius's parricidial barbarisms,) all of a sudden, as if they had been .struck with lightning, their 
hair stood an end, and their tongues clove to the roof of their mouth." Which let natural philosophers take 
notice of, (for this secret in nature was never discovered before,) that lightning makes men's hair stand on end. 
But who knows not that little effeminate minds are apt to be amazed ,at the news of any extraordinary great 
action ; and that then they shew themselves to be, what they really were before, no better than so many stocks? 
could not refrain from tears;" some little women at court, I suppose, or if there be any more effeminate 
than they, of whose number Salmasius himself being one. is by a new metamorphosis become a fountain near 
akin to his name, (Salmacis,) and with his counterfeit flood of tears prepared over night, endeavours to emascu- 
late generous minds : I advise therefore, and wish them to have a care ; 

Infamis ne quern male fortibus undis 

Salmacis enervet. 

Ne, si vir cum venerit, exeat inde 

Semivir, et tactis subito moliescat in undis. 

Abstain, as manhood you esteem, 

From Salmacis' pernicious stream : 

If but one moment there you stay, 

Too dear you'll for your bathing pay. — 

Depart nor man nor woman, but a sight 

Disgracing both, a loath'd hermaphrodite. 

'• I b< v that had more courage" (which yet he expresses in miserable bald Latin, as if he could not so much 
-k of men of courage and magnanimity in proper words) " were set on fire with indignation to that de- 
gree, that tbej could hardly contain themselves." Those furious Hectors we value not of a rush. We have | 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 341 

been accustomed to rout such bullies in the field with a true sober courage ; a courage becoming men that can 
contain themselves, and are in their right wits. " There were none that did not curse the authors of so horrible 
a villany." But yet, you say, their tongues clove to the roof of their mouths ; and if you mean this of our 
fugitives only, I wish they had clove there to this day ; for we know very well, that there is nothing more 
common with them, than to have their mouths full of curses and imprecations, which indeed all good men 
abominate, but withal despise. As for others, it is hardly credible, that when they heard the news of our having 
inflicted a capital punishment upon the king, there should any be found, especially in a free state, so naturally 
adapted to slavery as either to speak ill of us, or so much as to censure what we had done. Nay, it is highly 
probable, that all good men applauded us, and gave God thanks for so illustrious, so exalted a piece of justice ; 
and for a caution so very useful to other princes. In the mean time, as for those fierce, those steel-hearted men, 
that, you say, take on for, and bewail so pitifully, the lamentable and wonderful death I know not who ; them 
I say, together with their tinkling advocate, the dullest that ever appeared since the name of a king was born 
and known in the world, we shall even let whine on, till they cry their eyes out. But in the mean time, what 
schoolboy, what little insignificant monk, could not have made a more elegant speech for the king, and in bet- 
ter Latin, than this royal advocate has done ? But it would be folly in me to make such particular animadver- 
sions upon his childishness and frenzies throughout his book, as I do here upon a few in the beginning of it ; 
which yet I would be willing enough to do, (for we hear that he is swelled with pride and conceit to the utmost 
degree imaginable,) if the undigested and immethodical bulk of his book did not protect him. He was resolved 
to take a course like the soldier in Terence, to save his bacon ; and it was very cunning in him, to stuff his 
book with so much puerility, and so many silly whimsies, that it might nauseate the smartest man in the 
world to death to take notice of them all. Only I thought it might not be amiss to give a specimen of 
him in the preface ; and to let the serious reader have a taste of him at first, that he might guess by the first 
dish that is served up, how noble an entertainment the rest are like to make; and that he may imagine with 
himself what an infinite number of fooleries and impertinencies must needs be heaped up together in the body 
of the book, when they stand so thick in the very entrance into it, where, of all other places, they ought to have 
been shunned. His tittle-tattle that follows, and his sermons fit for nothing but to be wormeaten, I can easily 
pass by, as for any thing in them relating to us, we doubt not in the least, but that what has been written and 
published by authority of parliament, will have far greater weight with all wise and sober men, than the ca- 
lumnies and lies of one single impudent little fellow ; who being hired by our fugitives, their country's ene- 
mies, has scraped together, and not scrupled to publish in print, whatever little story any one of them that 
employed him put into his head. And that all men may plainly see how little conscience he makes of 
setting down any thing right or wrong, good or bad, I desire no other witness than Salmasius himself. 
In his book, entitled, "Apparatus contra Primatum Papae," he says, ' there are most weighty reasons why the 
church ought to lay aside episcopacy, and return to the apostolical institution of presbyters : that a far greater 
mischief has been introduced into the church by episcopacy, than the schisms themselves were, which were be- 
fore apprehended : that the plague which episcopacy introduced, depressed the whole body of the church 
under a miserable tyranny ; nay, had put a yoke even upon the necks of kings and princes : that it would be 
more beneficial to the church, if the whole hierarchy itself were extirpated, than if the pope only, who is the 
head of it, were laid aside,' page 160. ' That it would be very much for the good of the church, if episcopacy 
were taken away, together with the papacy : that if episcopacy were once taken down, the papacy would fall 
of itself, as being founded upon it,' page 171. He says, 'he can shew very good reasons why episcopacy 
ought to be put down in those kingdoms, that have renounced the pope's supremacy ; but that he can see no 
reason for retaining it there: that a reformation is not entire, that is defective in this point: that no reason can 
be alleged, no probable cause assigned, why the supremacy of the pope being once disowned, episcopacy should 
notwithstanding be retained,' page 197. — Though he had wrote all this, and a great deal more to this effect, 
but four years ago, he is now become so vain and so impudent withal, as to accuse the parliament of England, 
' for not only turning the bishops out of the house of lords, but for abolishing episcopacy itself.' Nay, he per- 
suades us to receive episcopacy, and defends it by the very same reasons and arguments, which with a great 
deal of earnestness he had confuted himself in that former book ; to wit, ' that bishops were necessary and 
ought to have been retained, to prevent the springing up of a thousand pernicious sects and heresies.' Crafty 
turncoat! are you not ashamed to shift hands thus in things that are sacred, and (I had almost said) to betray 
the church ; whose most solemn institutions } r ou seem to have asserted and vindicated with so much noise, that 
when it should seem for your interest to change sides, you might undo and subvert all again with the more dis- 
grace and infamy to yourself? It is notoriously known, that when both houses of parliament, being extremely 
desirous to reform the church of England by the pattern of our reformed churches, had resolved to abolish 
episcopacy, the king first interposed, and afterwards waged war against them chiefly for that very cause; which 
proved fatal to him. Go now and boast of your having defended the king; who, that you might the better 
defend him, do now openly betray and impugn the cause of the church, whose defence you yourself had for- 
merly undertaken ; and whose severest censures ought to be inflicted upon you. As for the present form of our 
government, since such a foreign insignificant professor as you, having laid aside your boxes and desks stuffed 
with nothing but trifles, which you might have spent your time better in putting into order, will needs turn 






342 A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 

busybody, and be troublesome in otber men's matters, I shall return you this answer, or rather not to you, but 
to them that are wiser than Yourself, viz. That the form of it is such as our present distractions will admit of; 
not such as were to be wished, but such as the obstinate divisions, that are amongst us, will bear. What state 
soever is pestered with factions, and defends itself by force of arms, is very just in having- regard to those only 
that are sound and untainted, and in overlooking- or secluding the rest, be they of the nobility or the common 
people ; nay, though profiting* by experience, they should refuse to be governed any longer either by a king or 
a house of lords. But in railing at that supreme council, as you call it, and at the chairman there, you make 
yourself very ridiculous ; for that council is not the supreme council, as you dream it is, but appointed by authority 
of parliament, for a certain time only; and consisting of forty persons, for the most part members of par- 
liament, any one of whom may be president if the rest vote him into the chair. And there is nothing 
more common, than for our parliaments to appoint committees of their own members ; who, when so ap- 
pointed, have power to meet where they please, and hold a kind of a little parliament amongst themselves. 
And the most weighty affairs are often referred to them, for expedition and secrecy ; the care of the navy, 
the army, the treasury; in short, all things whatsoever relating either to war or peace. Whether this be 
called a council, or any thing else, the thing is ancient, though the name may be new ; and it is such an in- 
stitution, as no government can be duly administered without it. As for our putting the king to death, and 
changing the government, forbear your bawling, don't spit your venom, till, going along with you through 
every chapter, J shew, whether you will or no, " by what law, by what right and justice," all that was done. 
But if you insist to know, "by what right, by what law;" by that law, I tell you, which God and nature have 
enacted, viz. that whatever things are for the universal good of the whole state, are for that reason lawful and 
just. So wise men of old used to answer such as you. You find fault with us for " repealing laws, that had ob- 
tained for so many years ;" but you do not tell us whether those laws were good or bad, nor, if you did, should 
we heed what you said ; for you, busy puppy, what have you to do with our laws? I wish our magistrates 
had repealed more than they have, both laws and lawyers ; if they had, they would have consulted the interest 
of the christian religion, and that of the people better than they have done. It frets you, that " hobgoblins, sons 
of the earth, scarce gentlemen at home, scarce known to their own countrymen, should presume to do such 
things." But you ought to have remembered, what not only the Scriptures, but Horace would have taught 
you, viz. 

Valet ima sumtnis 

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus, 

Obscura promens, &c. 

The power that did create, can change the scene 
Of things ; make mean of great, and great of mean ; 
The brightest glory can eclipse with night ; 
And place the most obscure in dazzling light. 

But take this into the bargain. Some of those who, you say, be scarce gentlemen, are not at all inferiour in 
birth to any of your party. Others, whose ancestors were not noble, have taken a course to attain to true no- 
bility by their own industry and virtue, and are not inferiour to men of the noblest descent. They had rather be 
called " sons of the earth," provided it be their own earth, (their own native country,) and act like men at home, 
than, being destitute of house or land, to relieve the necessities of nature in a foreign country by selling of 
smoke, as thou dost, an inconsiderable fellow and a jack-straw, and who dependest upon the good-will of thy 
masters for a poor stipend ; for whom it were better to dispense with thy labours, and return to thy own kindred 
ind rnuntrymen,if thou hadstnot this one piece of cunning, to babble out some silly prelections and fooleries at 
so good a rate amongst foreigners. You find fault with our magistrates for admitting such " a common sewer 
..f all sorts of sects." Why should they not? It belongs to the church to cast them out of the communion of 
the faithful ; not to the magistrate to banish them the country, provided they do not offend against the civil 
laws of the state. Men at first united into civil societies, that they might live safely, and enjoy their liberty, 
without being wronged or oppressed; and that they might live religiously, and according to the doctrine of 
Christianity, they united themselves into churches. Civil societies have laws, and churches have a discipline pe- 
culiar to themselves, and far differing from each other. And this has been the occasion of so many wars in 
Christendom ; to wit, because the civil magistrate and the church confounded their jurisdictions. Therefore we 
flo not admit of the popish sect, so as to tolerate papists at all ; for we do not look upon that as a religion, but 
rather as a hierarchical tyranny, under a cloak of religion, clothed with the spoils of the civil power, which it 
has usurped to itself, contrary to our Saviour's own doctrine. As for the independents, we never had any such 
amongst us, as you describe ; they that we call independents, are only such as hold, that no classis or synods 
have a superiority over any particular church, and that therefore they ought all to be plucked up by the roots, 
;»s branches, or rather as the very trunk, of hierarchy itself; which is your own opinion too. And from hence it 
was that the name of independents prevailed amongst the vulgar. The rest of your preface is spent in endea- 
vouring not only to stir up the hatred of all kings and monarchs against us, but to persuade them to make a 
general war upon us. Mithridates of old, though in a different cause, endeavoured to stir up all princes to make 
war upon the Romans, by laying to their charge almost just the same things that you do to ours : viz. that the 



AN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING 



343 



Romans aimed at nothing- but the subversion of all kingxloms, that they had no regard to any thing, whether sa- 
cred or civil, that from their very first rise, they never enjoyed any thing but what they had acquired by force, 
that they were robbers, and the greatest enemies in the world to monarchy. Thus Mithridates expressed him- 
self in a letter to Arsaces, king of the Parthians. But how came you, whose business it is to make silly speeches 
from your desk, to have the confidence to imagine, that by your persuasions to take up arms, and sounding an 
alarm as it were, you should be able so much as to influence a king 1 amongst boys at play ; especially, with so 
shrill a voice, and unsavoury breath, that I believe, if you were to have been the trumpeter, not so much as Ho- 
mer's mice would have waged war against the frogs ? So little do we fear, you slug- you, any war or 
danger from foreign princes through your silly rhetoric, who accusest us to them, just as if you were at 
play, " that we toss kings' heads like balls ; play at bowls with crowns ; and regard sceptres no more than if they 
were fools' staves with heads on :" but you in the mean time, you silly loggerhead, deserve to have your bones 
well thrashed with a fool's staff, for thinking to stir up kings and princes to war by such childish arguments. 
Then you cry aloud to all nations, who, I know full well, will never heed what you say. You call upon that 
wretched and barbarous crew of Irish rebels too, to assert the king's party. Which one thing is sufficient evi- 
dence how much you are both a fool and a knave, and how you outdo almost all mankind in villany, impu- 
dence, and madness ; who scruple not to implore the loyalty and aid of an execrable people devoted to the 
slaughter, whom the king* himself always abhorred, or so pretended, to have any thing- to do with, by reason of 
the guilt of so much innocent blood, which they had contracted. And that very perfidiousness and cruelty, 
which he endeavoured as much as he could to conceal, and to clear himself from any suspicion of, you, the most 
villanous of mortals, as fearing neither God nor man, voluntarily and openly take upon yourself. Go on then, under- 
take the king's defence at the encouragement and by the assistance of the Irish. You take care, and so you might 
well, lest any should imagine, that you were about to bereave Cicero or Demosthenes of the praise due to their 
eloquence, by telling us beforehand, that " you conceive you ought not to speak like an orator." It is wisely said 
of a fool ; you conceive you ought not to do what is not in your power to do : and who, that knows you never 
so little, ever expects any thing like an orator from you? Who neither uses, nor is able to publish, any thing 
that is elaborate, distinct, or has so much as sense in it; but like a second Crispin, or that little Grecian Tzetzes, 
you do but write a great deal, take no pains to write well; nor could write any thing well, though you took 
never so much pains. " This cause shall be argued (say you) in the hearing, and as it were before the tribunal, 
of all mankind." That is what we like so well, that we could now wish we had a discreel and intelligent ad- 
versary, and not such a hairbrained blunderbuss as you, to deal with. You conclude very tragically, like Ajax 
in his raving; " I will proclaim to heaven and earth the injustice, the villany, the perfidiousness and cruelty of 
these men, and will deliver them over convicted to all posterity." O flowers ! that such a witless, senseless 
bawler, one that was born but to spoil or transcribe good authors, should think himself able to write any thing 
of his own, that will reach posterity, whom, together with his frivolous scribbles, the very next age will bury in 
oblivion; unless this defence of the king perhaps may be beholden to the answer I give to it, for being looked 
into now and then. And I would entreat the illustrious states of Holland, to take off their prohibition, and 
suffer the book to be publicly sold. For when I have detected the vanity, ignorance, and falsehood, that it is 
full of, the farther it spreads, the more effectually it will be suppressed. Now let us hear how he convicts us. 



DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND 



CHAP I. 



I persuade myself, Salmasius, that you being a vain 
flashy man, are not a little proud of being the king of 
Great Britain's defender, who himself was styled the 
" Defender of the Faith." For my part, I think you 
deserve your titles both alike ; for the king defended 
the faith, and you have defended him, so, that betwixt 
you, you have spoiled both your causes: which I shall 
make appear throughout the whole ensuing discourse, 
and particularly in this very chapter. You told us in 
the 12th page of your preface, that " so good and so 
just a cause ought not to be embellished with any flou- 



rishes of rhetoric; that the king needed no other de- 
fence, than by a bare narrative of his story :" and yet 
in your first chapter, in which you had promised us 
that bare narrative, you neither tell the story right, 
nor do you abstain from making use of all the skill you 
have in rhetoric to set it off. So that, if we must take 
your own judgment, we must believe the king's cause 
to be neither good nor just. But by the way, I would 
advise you not to have so good an opinion of yourself 
(for nobody else has so of you) as to imagine that you 
are able to speak well upon any subject, who can 



3-44 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



neither play the part of an orator, nor an historian, nor 
express yourself in a style that would not be ridiculous 
even in a lawyer; but like a mountebank's juggler, 
with big swelling words in your preface, you raised 
our expectation, as if some mighty matter were to en- 
sue; in which your design was not so much to intro- 
duce a true narrative of the king's story, as to make 
your own empty intended nourishes go off the better. 
For " being now about to give us an account of the 
matter of fact, you find yourself encompassed and af- 
frighted with so many monsters of novelty, that you 
arc at a loss what to say first, what next, and what last 
of all." I will tell you what the matter is with you. 
In the first place, you find yourself affrighted and 
astonished at your own monstrous lies, and then you 
God that empty head of yours not encompassed, but car- 
ried round, with so many trifles and fooleries, that you 
not only now do not, but never did, know what was fit 
to be spoken, and in what method. " Among the many 
difficulties, that you find in expressing the heinousness 
of so incredible a piece of impiety, this one offers itself, 
you say, which is easily said, and must often be re- 
peated ; to wit, that the sun itself never beheld a more 
outrageous action." But by your good leave, Sir, the 
sun has beheld many things, that blind Bernard never 
saw. But we are content you should mention the sun 
over and over. And it will be a piece of prudence in 
you so to do. For though our wickedness does not re- 
quire it, the coldness of the defence that you are mak- 
ing does. " The original of kings, you say, is as 
ancient as that of the sun." May the g'ods and god- 
desses, Damasippus, bless thee with an everlasting 
solstice; that thou mayest always be warm, thou that 
canst not stir a foot without the sun. Perhaps you 
would avoid the imputation of being* called a doctor 
linbraticus. But alas! you are in perfect darkness, 
that make no difference betwixt a paternal power, and 
a regal : and that when you had called kings fathers 
of their country, could fancy that with that metaphor 
you had persuaded us, that whatever is applicable to a 
father, is so to a king. Alas ! there is a great differ- 
ence betwixt them. Our fathers begot us. Our king 
made not us, but we him. Nature has given fathers 
to us all, but we ourselves appointed our own king. 
it the people is not for the king, but the king for 
them. "We bear with a father, though he be harsh 
and severe ;" and so we do with a king. But we do 
not bear with a father, if he be a tyrant. If a father mur- 
der his son, he himself must die for it; and why should 
not a king be subject to the same law, which certainly 
ii a most just one ? Especially considering that a fa- 
ther cannot by any possibility divest himself of that 
relation, hut a king may easily make himself neither 
king nor father of his people. If this action of ours be 
considered iccording to its quality, as you call it, I, 
who an both an Englishman born, and was an eye- 
witni - '.ii!,. transaction*^ these times, tell you, who 
■TC both a ton ign< r and an utter stranger to our affairs ; 
that we bare pnt to death neither a good, nor a just, 
HOT a merciful, nor a devout, nor a godly, nor a peace- 
iua wai r.n<< , counsellor at law. 



able king, as you style him ; but an enemy, that has 
been so to us almost ten years to an end ; nor one that 
was a father, but a destroyer of his country. You con~ 
fess, that such things have been practised ; for your- 
self have not the impudence to deny it: but not by 
protestants upon a protestant king. As if he deserved 
the name of a protestant, that, in a letter to the pope, 
could give him the title of most holy father; that was 
always more favourable to the papists than to those of 
his own profession. And being such, he is not the first 
of his own family, that has been put to death by pro- 
testants. Was not his grandmother deposed and 
banished, and at last beheaded by protestants? And 
were not her own countrymen, that were protestants 
too, well enough pleased with it ? Nay, if I should say 
they were parties to it, I should not lie. But there 
being so few protestant kings, it is no great wonder, 
if it never happened that one of them has been put to 
death. But that it is lawful to depose a tyrant, and to 
punish him according to his deserts ; nay, that this is 
the opinion of very eminent divines, and of such as 
have been most instrumental in the late reformation, do 
you deny it if you dare. You confess, that many kings 
have come to an unnatural death ; some by the sword, 
some poisoned, some strangled, and some in a dun- 
geon ; but for a king to be arraigned in a court of ju- 
dicature, to be put to plead for his life, to have sentence 
of death pronounced against him, and that sentence 
executed ; this you think a more lamentable instance 
than all the rest, and make it a prodigious piece of im- 
piety. Tell me, thou superlative fool, whether it be 
not more just, more agreeable to the rules of humanity, 
and the laws of all human societies, to bring a criminal, 
be his offence what it will, before a court of justice, to 
give him leave to speak for himself; and, if the law 
condemn him, then to put him to death as he has de- 
served, so as he may have time to repent or to recol- 
lect himself; than presently, as soon as ever he is 
taken, to butcher him without more ado ? Do you think 
there is a malefactor in the world, that if he might 
have his choice, would not choose to be thus dealt 
withal ? And if this sort of proceeding against a private 
person be accounted the fairer of the two, why should 
it not be counted so against a prince P Nay, why should 
we not think, that himself liked it better ? You would 
have had him killed privately, and none to have seen 
it, either that future ages might have lost the advan- 
tage of so good an example; or that they that did this 
glorious action, might seem to have avoided the light, 
and to have acted contrary to law and justice. You 
aggravate the matter by telling us, that it was not done 
in an uproar, or brought about by any faction amongst 
great men, or in the heat of a rebellion, either of the 
people, or the soldiers : that there was no hatred, no 
fear, no ambition, no blind precipitate rashness in the 
case; but that it was long consulted on, and done with 
deliberation. You did well in leaving off being an 
* Advocate, and turn grammarian, who from the acci- 
dents and circumstances of a thing, which in themselves 
considered sway neither one way nor other, argue in 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



345 



dispraise of it, before you have proved the thing- itself 
to be either good or bad. See how open you lie : if the 
action you are discoursing of be commendable and praise- 
worthy, they that did it deserve the greater honour, in 
that they were prepossessed with no passions, but did 
what they did for virtue's sake. If there were great 
difficulty in the enterprise, they did well in not going 
about it rashly, but upon advice and consideration. 
Though for my own part, when I call to mind with 
how unexpected an importunity and fervency of mind, 
and with how unanimous a consent, the whole army, 
and a great part of the people from almost every county 
in the kingdom, cried out with one voice for justice 
against the king", as being the sole author of all their 
calamities : I cannot but think, that these things were 
brought about by a divine impulse. Whatever the 
matter was, whether we consider the magistrates, or 
the body of the people, no men ever undertook with 
more courage, and, which our adversaries themselves 
confess, in a more sedate temper of mind, so brave an 
action, an action that might have become those famous 
heroes, of whom we read in former ages ; an action, 
by which they ennobled not only laws, and their exe- 
cution, which seem for the future equally restored to 
high and low against one another; but even justice, 
and to have rendered it, after so signal a judgment, 
more illustrious and greater than in its own self. We 
are now come to an end of the 3d page of the first book, 
and have not the bare narrative he promised us yet. 
He complains that our principles are, that a king, whose 
government is burdensome and odious, may lawfully 
be deposed : and " by this doctrine," says he, " if they 
had had a king a thousand times better than they had, 
they would not have spared his life." Observe the 
man's subtle way of arguing. For I would willingly 
be informed what consequence there is in this, unless 
he allows, that a king's government may be burden- 
some and odious, who is a thousand times better than 
our king was. So that now he has brought things to 
this pass, to make the king that he defends a thousand 
times worse than some whose government notwith- 
standing is burdensome and odious, that is, it may be, 
the most monstrous tyrant that ever reigned. I wish 
ye joy, O ye kings, of so able a defender ! Now the 
narrative begins. " They put him to several sorts of 
torments." Give an instance. " They removed him 
from prison to prison ;" and so they might lawfully do; 
for having been a tyrant, he became an open enemy, 
and was taken in war. " Often changing his keepers." 
Lest they themselves should change. " Sometimes 
they gave him hopes of liberty ; nay, and sometimes 
even of restoring him to his crown, upon articles of 
agreement." It seems then the taking away his life 
was not done upon so much premeditation, as he talked 
of before ; and that we did not lay hold on all oppor- 
tunities and means, that offered themselves, to renounce 
our king. Those things that in the beginning of the 
war we demanded of him, when he had almost brought 
us under, which things if they were denied us, we 
could enjoy no liberty, nor live in any safety; those 
very things we petitioned him for when he was our 



prisoner, in a humble, submissive way, not once, nor 
twice, but thrice, and oftener, and were as often denied. 
When we had now lost all hopes of the king's comply- 
ing with us, then was that noble order of parliament 
made, that from that time forward, there should no 
articles be sent to the king ; so that we left off apply- 
ing ourselves to him, not from the time that he began 
to be a tyrant, but from the time that we found him 
incurable. But afterward some parliament-men set 
upon a new project, and meeting with a convenient 
opportunity to put it in practice, pass a vote to send 
further proposals once more to the king. Whose wick- 
edness and folly nearest resembles that of the Roman 
senate, who contrary to the opinion of M. Tullius, and 
all honest men, voted to send embassadors to M. An- 
tony; and the event had been the same, but that it 
pleased God Almighty, in his providence, to order it 
otherwise, and to assert our liberty, though he suffered 
them to be enslaved : for though the king did not agree 
to any thing that might conduce to a firm peace, and 
settlement of things, more than he had before, they go 
and vote themselves satisfied. Then the sounder part 
of the house finding themselves and the commonwealth 
betrayed, implore the aid of that valiant and always 
faithful army to the commonwealth. Upon which oc- 
casion I can observe only this, which yet I am loth to 
utter ; to wit, that our soldiers understood themselves 
better than our senators, and that they saved the com- 
monwealth by their arms, when the other by their 
votes had almost ruined it. Then he relates a great 
many things in a doleful, lamentable strain ; but he 
does it so senselessly, that he seems rather to beg of 
his readers, that they would be sorrowful, than to stir 
up any such passion in them. It grieves him " to 
think that the king should undergo a capital punish- 
ment, after such a manner as no other king ever had 
done." Though he had often told us before, that there 
never was a king that underwent a capital punishment 
at all. Do you use to compare ways and manners, ye 
coxcomb, when you have no things nor actions to 
compare with one another? " He suffered death," says 
he, " as a robber, as a murderer, as a parricide, as a 
traitor, as a tyrant." Is this defending the king ? Or 
is it not rather giving a more severe sentence against 
him, than that that we gave ? How came you so all 
on a sudden to be of our mind ? He complains " that 
executioners in vizards [personati carnifices] cut off the 
king's head." What shall we do with this fellow ? 
He told us before, of " a murder committed on one in 
the disguise of a king [in persona regis] :" now he 
says, it was done in the disguise of an executioner. It 
were to no purpose, to take particular notice of every 
silly thing he says. He tells stories of " boxes on the 
ear^ and kicks, that," he says, " were given the king 
by common soldiers, and that it was four shillings 
apiece to see his dead body." These, and such like 
stories, which partly are false, and partly impertinent, 
betray the ignorance and childishness of our poor 
scholar; but are far from making any reader ever a 
whit the sadder. In good faith his son Charles had 
done better to have hired some ballad-singer, to have 



346 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



bewailed his father's misfortunes, than this doleful, 
shall I call him, or rather most ridiculous orator, who 
is so dry and insipid, that there is not the least spirit 
in anv thing- he says. Now the narrative is done, and 
it is hard to say what he does next, he runs on so sor- 
didly and irregular. Now he is angry, then he won- 
ders ; be neither cares what he talks, nor how ; repeats 
the same things ten times over, that could not but look 
ill, though lie had said them but once. And I persuade 
myself, the extemporary rhymes of some antic juck- 
pudding may deserve printing better; so far am I from 
thinking aught he says worthy of a serious answer. I 
pass by his styling the king a" protector of religion," 
who chose to make war upon the church, rather than 
part with those church-tyrants, and enemies of all re- 
ligion, the bishops ; and how is it possible, that he 
should " maintain religion in its purity," that was 
himself a slave to those impure traditions and ceremo- 
nies of theirs ? And for our " sectaries, whose sacrile- 
gious meetings," you say, " have public allowance ;" 
instance in any of their principles, the profession of 
which is not openly allowed of, and countenanced in 
Holland. But in the mean time, there is not a more 
sacrilegious wretch in nature than yourself, that always 
took liberty to speak ill of all sorts of people. " They 
could not wound the commonwealth more dangerously, 
than by taking off its master." Learn, ye abject, 
homeborn slave ; unless ye take away the master, ye 
destroy the commonwealth. That that has a master, 
is one man's property. The word master denotes a 
private, not a public relation. " They persecute most 
unjustly those ministers, that abhorred this action of 
theirs." Lest you should not know what ministers he 
means, I will tell you in a few words what manner of 
men they were; they were those very men, that by 
their writings and sermons justified taking up arms 
against the king, and stirred the people up to it : that 
daily cursed, as Deborah did Meroz.all such as would 
not furnish the parliament either with arms, or men, or 
money. That taught the people out of their pulpits, 
that they were not about to fight against a king, but a 
greater tyrant than either Saul or Ahab ever were; 
nay, more a Nero than Nero himself. As soon as the 
bishops, and those clergymen whom they daily in- 
veighed against, and branded with the odious names 
of ploralists and nonresidents, were taken out of their 
way, they presently jump, some into two, some into 
three of their best benefices ; being now warm them- 
selves, they soon unworthily neglected their charge. 
Their covetousuess brake through all restraints of mo- 
(1. rty and religion, and themselves now labour under 
the same infamy, that they had loaded their predeces- 
sors with ; and because their covetousuess is not yet 
^a;i~fi«d, and their ambition has accustomed them to 
raise tumults, and be enemies to peace, they cannot 
rest at quiet yet, but preach up sedition against the 
magistracy, as it is now established, as they had for- 
merly done against the king. They now tell the 
people, that he was cruelly murdered ; upon whom 
themselves having heaped all their curses, had devoted 
him to destruction, whom they had delivered up as it 



were to the parliament, to be despoiled of his royalty, 
and pursued with a holy war. They now complain, 
that the sectaries are not extirpated ; which is a most 
absurd thing to expect the magistrates should be able 
to do, who never yet were able, do what they could, to 
extirpate avarice and ambition, those two most per- 
nicious heresies, and more destructive to the church 
than all the rest, out of the very order and tribe of the 
ministers themselves. For the sects which they inveigh 
against, I confess there are such amongst us, but they 
are obscure, and make no noise in the world : the sects 
that they are of, are public and notorious, and much 
more dangerous to the church of God. Simon Magus 
and Diotrephes were the ringleaders of them. Yet are 
we so far from persecuting these men, though they are 
pestilent enough, that though we know them to be ill- 
affected to the government, and desirous of and endea- 
vouring to work a change, we allow them but too much 
liberty. You, that are both a Frenchman and a vaga- 
bond, seem displeased that " the English, more fierce 
and cruel than their own mastiffs," as your barking 
eloquence has it, " have no regard to the lawful suc- 
cessor and heir of the crown : take no care of the king's 
youngest son, nor of the queen of Bohemia." I will 
make ye no answer ; you shall answer yourself. 
" When the frame of a government is changed from a 
monarchy to any other, the new modellers have no re- 
gard to succession:" the application- is easy; it is in 
your book De primatu Papae. " The great change 
throughout three kingdoms," you say, " was brought 
about by a small number of men in one of them." If 
this were true, that small number of men would have 
deserved to have dominion over the rest; valiant men 
over fainthearted cowards. " These are they that pre- 
sumptuously took upon them to change," antiquum 
regni regimen, in alium qui a pluribus tyrannis tene- 
atur. It is well for them that you cannot fiud fault 
with them, without committing a barbarous solecism ; 
you shame all grammarians. " The English will never 
be able to wash out this stain." Nay, you, though a 
blot and a stain to all learned men, were never yet able 
to stain the renown and everlasting glory of the Eng- 
lish nation, that with so great a resolution, as we 
hardly find the like recorded in any history, having 
struggled with, and overcome, not only their enemies 
in the field, but the superstitious persuasions of the 
common people, have purchased to themselves in 
general amongst all posterity the name of deliverers : 
the body of the people having undertook and perform- 
ed an enterprise, which in other nations is thought to 
proceed only from a magnanimity that is peculiar to 
heroes. What " the protestants and primitive Chris- 
tians" have done, or would do upon such an occasion, 
I will tell ye hereafter, when we come to debate the 
merits of the cause : in discoursing it before, I should 
be guilty of your fault, who outdo the most imperti- 
nent talkers in nature. You wonder how we shall be 
able to answer the Jesuits. Meddle with your own 
matters, you runagate, and be ashamed of your ac- 
tions, since the church is ashamed of you ; who, though 
hut of late you set yourself so fiercely and with so 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



347 



much ostentation against the pope's supremacy and 
episcopal government, are now become yourself a very 
creature of the bishops. You confess, that " some pro- 
testants, whom you do not name, have asserted it law- 
ful to depose a tyrant:" but though you do not think 
fit to name them, I will, because you say " they are far 
worse than the very Jesuits themselves ;" they are no 
other than Luther, and Zuinglius, and Calvin, and 
Bucer, and Pareus, and many others. " But then," 
you say, " they refer it to the judgment of learned and 
wise men, who shall be accounted a tyrant. But what 
for men were these ? Were they wise men, were they 
men of learning ? Were they anywise remarkable, 
either for virtue or nobility ?" You may well allow a 
people, that has felt the heavy yoke of slavery to be 
wise, and learned, and noble enough, to know what is 
fit to be done to the tyrant that has oppressed them ; 
though they neither consult with foreigners nor gram- 
marians. But that this man was a tyrant, not only the 
parliaments of England and Scotland have declared by 
their actions and express words ; but almost all the 
people of both nations assented to it, till such time as 
by the tricks and artifices of the bishops they were 
divided into two factions : and what if it has pleased 
God to choose such men, to execute his vengeance 
upon the greatest potentates on earth, as he chose to be 
made partakers of the benefit of the gospel ? " Not 
many wise, not many learned, not many powerful, not 
many noble : that by those that are not, he might bring 
to nought those that are ; and that no flesh might glory 
in his sight." And who are you, that babble to the 
contrary? dare you affect the reputation of a learned 
man ? I confess you are pretty well versed in phrase- 
books, and lexicons, and glossaries ; insomuch that you 
seem to have spent your time in nothing else. But you 
do not make appear, that you have read any good au- 
thors with so much judgment as to have benefited by 
them. Other copies, and various lections, and words 
omitted, and corruptions of texts, and the like, these 
you are full of; but no footstep of any solid learning 
appears in all you have writ : or do ye think yourself 
a wise man, that quarrel and contend about the meanest 
trifles that may be ? That being altogether ignorant 
in astronomy and physic, yet are always railing at the 
professors of both, whom all men credit in what things 
belong to their own sciences, that would be ready to 
curse them to the pit of hell, that should offer to de- 
prive you of the vain glory of having corrected or sup- 
plied the least word or letter in any copy you have 
criticised upon. And yet you are mad to hear yourself 
called a grammarian. In certain trifling discourses of 
yours, you call Dr. Hammond knave in plain terms, 
who was one of this king's chaplains, and one that he 
valued above all the rest, for no other reason but be- 
cause he had called you a grammarian. And I do not 
question, but you would have been as ready to have 
thrown the same reproach upon the king himself, if 
you had heard that he had approved his chaplain's 
judgment of you. Take notice now, how much I (who 
am but one of those many English, that you have the 
impudence to call madmen, and unlearned, and ignoble, 



and wicked) slight and despise you, (for that the Eng- 
lish nation in general should take any notice in public 
of such a worm as you are, would be an infinite under- 
valuing of themselves,) who, though one should turn 
you topsyturvy, and inside out, are but a grammarian : 
nay, as if you had made a foolisher wish than Midas 
did, whatever you meddle with, except when you make 
solecisms, is grammar still. Whosoever therefore he 
be, though from among the dregs of that common peo- 
ple that you are so keen upon, (for as for those men of 
eminency amongst us, whose great actions evidenced 
to all men their nobility, and virtue, and conduct, I 
will not disgrace them so much, as to compare you to 
them, or them to you,) but whosoever, I say, among 
the dregs of that common people, has but sucked in 
this principle, that he was not born for his prince, but 
for God and his country; he deserves the reputation 
of a learned, and an honest, and a wise man more, 
and is of greater use in the world, than yourself. For 
such a one is learned without letters; you have letters, 
but no learning, that understand so many languages, 
turn over so many volumes, and yet are but asleep 
when all is done. 



CHAP. II. 

The argument that Salmasius, toward the conclusion 
of his first chapter, urged as irrefragable, to wit, that 
it was really so, because all men unanimously agreed 
in it; that very argument, than which, as he applied 
it, there is nothing more false, I, that am now about to 
discourse of the right of kings, may turn upon himself 
with a great deal of truth. For, whereas he defines " a 
king" (if that may be said to be defined which he 
makes infinite) " to be a person in whom the supreme 
power of the kingdom resides, who is answerable to 
God alone, who may do whatsoever pleases him, who 
is bound by no law :" I will undertake to demonstrate, 
not by mine, but by his own reasons and authorities, 
that there never was a nation or people of any account 
(for to ransack all the uncivilized parts of the world 
were to no purpose) that ever allowed this to be their 
king's right, or put such exorbitant power into his 
hand, as " that he should not be bound by any law, 
that he might do what he would, that he should judge 
all, but be judged of none." Nor can I persuade my- 
self, that there ever was any one person besides Sal- 
masius of so slavish a spirit, as to assert the outrageous 
enormities of tyrants to be the rights of kings. Those 
amongst us that were the greatest royalists, always ab- 
horred this sordid opinion : and Salmasius himself, as 
appears by some other writings of his before he was 
bribed, was quite of another mind. Insomuch, that 
what he here gives out, does not look like the dictates 
of a free subject under a free government, much less in 
so famous a commonwealth as that of Holland, and the 
most eminent university there : but seems to have been 
penned by some despicable slave, that lay rotting in a 






348 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



prison, ov a dungeon. If whatever a king- has a mind 
to do, the right of kings will bear him out in, (which 
was a lesson that the bloody tyrant Antoninus Cara- 
calla, though his step-mother Julia preached it to him, 
and endeavoured to inure him to the practice of it, by 
making him commit incest with herself, yet could 
hardly suck in,) then there neither is, nor ever was, 
that king, that deserved the name of a tyrant. They 
may safely violate all the laws of God and man : their 
very being kings keeps them innocent. What crime 
was ever any of them guilty of? They did but make 
use of their own right upon their own vassals. No king 
can commit such horrible cruelties and outrages, as will 
not be within this right of kings. So that there is no 
pretence left for any complaints or expostulations with 
any of them. And dare you assert, that " this right of 
kings," as you call it, " is grounded upon the law of 
nations, or rather upon that of nature," you brute 
beast ? for you deserve not the name of a man, that are 
so cruel and unjust towards all those of your own kind ; 
that endeavour, as much as in you lies, so to bear down 
and vilify the whole race of mankind, that were made 
after the image of God, as to assert and maintain, that 
those cruel and unmerciful taskmasters, that through 
the superstitious whimsies, or sloth, or treachery of 
some persons, get into the chair, are provided and ap- 
pointed by nature herself, that mild and gentle mother 
of us all, to be the governors of those nations they en- 
slave. By which pestilent doctrine of yours, having 
rendered them more fierce and untractable, you not 
only enable them to make havoc of, and trample under 
foot, their miserable subjects; but endeavour to arm 
them for that very purpose with the law of nature, the 
right of kings, and the very constitutions of govern- 
ment, than which nothing can be more impious or ridi- 
culous. By my consent, as Dionysius formerly of a 
tyrant became a schoolmaster, so you of a grammarian 
should become a tyrant; not that you may have that 
regal license of doing other people harm, but a fair 
opportunity of perishing miserably yourself: that, as 
Tiberius complained, when he had confined himself to 
the island Capreae, you may be reduced into such a 
condition, as to be sensible that you perish daily. But 
let us look a little more narrowly into this right of 
kings that yon talk of. "This was the sense of the 
eastern, and of the western part of the world." I shall 
not answer you with what Aristotle and Cicero (who 
are both as credible authors as any we have) tell us, 
viz. That the people of Asia easily submit to slavery, 
but the Syrians and the Jews are even born to it from 
the womb. I confess there are but few, and those men 
of great wisdom and courage, that are either desirous 
of liberty, or capable of using it. The greatest part of 
the world choose to live under masters ; but yet they 
would have them just ones. As for such as are unjust 
and tyrannical, neither was God ever so much an enemy 
to mankind, as to enjoin a necessity of submitting to 
them ; nor \\ M there ever any people so destitute of all 
sense, and sunk into such a depth of despair, as to im- 
pose so cruel a law upon themselves and their posterity. 
First, you produce " the words of King Solomon in his 



Ecclesiastes." And we are as willing to appeal to the 
Scripture as you. As for Solomon's authority, we will 
consider that hereafter, when perhaps we shall be better 
able to understand it. First, let us hear God himself 
speak, Deut. xvii. 14. " When thou art come into the 
land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt 
say, I will set a king over me, like as the nations that 
are round about me." Which passage I could wish all 
men would seriously consider : for hence it appears by 
the testimony of God himself; first, that all nations are 
at liberty to erect what form of government they will 
amongst themselves, and to change it when and into 
what they will. This God affirms in express terms 
concerning the Hebrew nation ; and it does not appear 
but that other nations are, as to this respect, in the same 
condition. Another remark that this place yields us, 
is, that a commonwealth is a more perfect form of go- 
vernment than a monarchy, and more suitable to the 
condition of mankind, and in the opinion of God him- 
self better for his own people ; for himself appointed it, 
and could hardly be prevailed withal a great while 
after, and at their own importunate desire, to let them 
change it into a monarchy. But to make it appear, 
that he gave them their choice to be governed by a 
single person, or by more, so they were justly governed, 
in case they should in time to come resolve upon a 
king, he prescribes laws for this king of theirs to ob- 
serve, whereby he was forbidden to multiply to him- 
self horses and wives, or to heap up riches: wiience 
he might easily infer, that no power was put into his 
hands over others, but according to law, since even 
those actions of his life, which related only to himself, 
were under a law. He was commanded therefore to 
transcribe with his own hand all the precepts of the 
law, and having writ them out, to observe and keep 
them, that his mind might not be lifted up above his 
brethren. It is evident from hence, that as well the 
prince as the people was bound by the law of Moses. 
To this purpose Joseph us writes, a proper and able 
interpreter of the laws of his own country, who was 
admirably well versed in the Jewish policy, and 
infinitely preferable to a thousand obscure ignorant 
rabbins : he has it thus in the fourth book of his 
Antiquities, ' Api^oKparia ^.ev ovv Kpdn^ov, fyc. "An Aris- 
tocracy is the best form of government ; wherefore 
do not you endeavour to settle any other; it is 
enough for you, that God presides over ye, but if 
you will have a king, let him guide himself by the law 
of God, rather than by his own wisdom ; and lay a 
restraint upon him, if he offer at more power than the 
state of your affairs will allow of." Thus he expresses 
himself upon this place in Deuteronomy. Another 
Jewish author, Philo Judseus, who was Josephus's 
contemporary, a very studious man in the law of Moses, 
upon which he wrote a large commentaiy : when in 
his book concerning the creation of the king, he inter- 
prets this chapter of Deuteronomy, he sets a king loose 
from the law no otherwise than as an enemy may be 
said to be so : " They," says he, " that to the prejudice 
and destruction of the people acquire great power to 
themselves, deserve not the name of kings, but that of 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



349 



enemies : for their actions are the same with those of 
an irreconcilable enemy. Nay, they, that under a pre- 
tence of government are injurious, are worse than open 
enemies. We may fence ourselves against the latter ; 
but the malice of the former is so much the more pesti- 
lent, because it is not always easy to be discovered." 
But when it is discovered, why should they not be dealt 
with as enemies ? The same author in his second book, 
Allegoriar. Legis, " A king," says he, " and a tyrant, 
are contraries." And a little after, " A king ought not 
only to command, but also to obey." All this is very 
true, you will say, a king ought to observe the laws, as 
well as any other man. But what if he will not, what 
law is there to punish him ? I answer, the same law 
that there is to punish other men ; for I find no excep- 
tions. There is no express law to punish the priests, 
or any other inferiour magistrates, who all of them, if 
this opinion of the exemption of kings from the penal- 
ties of the law would hold, might, by the same reason, 
claim impunity, what guilt soever they contract, be- 
cause there is no positive law for their punishment ; 
and yet I suppose none of them ever challenged such 
a prerogative, nor would it ever be allowed them, if 
they should. Hitherto we have learned from the very 
text of God's own law, that a king ought to obey the 
laws, and not lift himself up above his brethren. Let 
us now consider whether Solomon preached up any 
other doctrine, chap. viii. ver. 2. " I counsel thee to 
keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of 
the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight ; 
stand not in an evil thing ; for he doth whatsoever 
pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is 
power; and who may say unto him, what dost thou ?" 
It is well enough known, that here the preacher directs 
not his precepts to the Sanhedrim, or to a parliament, 
but to private persons ; and such he commands to 
" keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of 
the oath of God." But as they swear allegiance to 
kings, do not kings likewise swear to obey and main- 
tain the laws of God, and those of their own country ? 
So the Reubenites and Gadites promise obedience to 
Joshua, Josh. i. 17. " According as we hearkened unto 
Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee ; 
only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with 
Moses." Here is an express condition. Hear the 
preacher else, ch. ix. ver. 17. " The words of wise men 
are heard in quiet, more than the cry of him that ruleth 
among fools." The next caution that Solomon gives 
us, is, " Be not hasty to go out of his sight; stand not 
in an evil thing ; for be doth whatsoever pleaseth him." 
That is, he does what he will to malefactors, whom the 
law authorizes him to punish, and against whom he 
may proceed with mercy or severity, as he sees occasion. 
Here is nothing like tyranny ; nothing that a good 
man needs be afraid of. " Where the word of a king 
is, there is power; and who may say to him, What dost 
thou ?" And yet we read of one, that not only said to 
a king, " What dost thou ?" but told him, " Thou hast 
done foolishly." But Samuel, you may say, was an 
extraordinary person. I answer you with your own 
words, which follow in the forty-ninth page of your 



book, " What was there extraordinary," say you, " in 
Saul or David ?" And so say I, what was there in 
Samuel extraordinary ? He was a prophet, you will 
say ; so are they that now follow his example ; for they 
act according to the will of God, either his revealed or 
his sacred will, which yourself grant in your 50th page. 
The preacher therefore in this place prudently advises 
private persons not to contend with princes ; for it is 
even dangerous to contend with any man, that is either 
rich or powerful. But what then ? must therefore the 
nobility of a nation, and all the inferiour magistrates, 
and the whole body of the people, not dare to mutter 
when a king raves and acts like a madman ? Must they 
not oppose a foolish, wicked, and outrageous tyrant, 
that perhaps seeks the destruction of all good men ? 
Must they not endeavour to prevent his turning all 
divine and human things upside down ? Must they 
suffer him to massacre his people, burn their cities, 
and commit such outrages upon them daily ; and 
finally, to have perfect liberty to do what he lists with- 
out control ? 

O de Cappadocis eques catastris ! 
Thou slavish knight of Cappadocia ! 

Whom all free people, if you can have the confidence 
hereafter to set your foot within a free country, ought 
to cast out from amongst them, and send to some re- 
mote parts of the world, as a prodigy of dire portent ; 
or to condemn to some perpetual drudgery, as one de- 
voted to slavery, solemnly obliging themselves, if they 
ever let you go, to undergo a worse slavery under some 
cruel, silly tyrant : no man living can either devise 
himself, or borrow from any other, expressions so full 
of cruelty and contempt, as may not justly be applied 
to you. But go on. " When the Israelites asked a 
king of God, they said, they would set up a king that 
should have the same rule and dominion over them, 
that the kings of their neighbour countries exercised 
over their subjects. But the kings of the East we know 
had an unlimited power," as Virgil testifies, 

" Regem non sic iEgyptus et ingens 

" Lydia, nee populi Parthorum^ et Medus Hydaspes 

" Observant." 

" No Eastern nation ever did adore 

" The majesty of sovereign princes more." 

First, what is that to us, what sort of kings the 
Israelites desired ? Especially since God was angry 
with them, not only for desiring such a king as other 
nations had, and not such a king as his own law de- 
scribes, but barely for desiring a king at all ? Nor is 
it credible, that they should desire an unjust king, and 
one that should be out of the reach of all laws, who 
could not bear the government of Samuel's sons, though 
under the power of laws; but from their covetousness 
sought refuge in a king. And lastly, the verse that 
you quote out of Virgil does not prove, that the kings 
of the East had an absolute unlimited power ; for those 
bees, that he there speaks of, and who reverence their 
kings, he says, more than the Egyptians or Medes do 
theirs, by the authority of the same poet: 

" Magnis agitant sub legibus asvum." 

" Live under certain fundamental laws." 



350 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



They do not live under a king- then, that is tied to no 
law. But now I will let you see how little reason you 
have to think I hear you an ill-will. Most people 
think you a knave; hut I will make it appear, that 
you have only put on a knave's vizor for the present. 
In your introduction to your discourse of the pope's 
supremacy, you say, that some divines in the council 
of Trent made use of the government, that is said to 
be amongst bees, to prove the pope's supremacy. This 
fancy you borrow from them, and urge it here with the 
same malice that they did there. Now that very same 
answer that you gave them, whilst you were an honest 
man, now that you are become a knave, you shall give 
yourself, and pull off with your own hand that vizor 
you have now put on : " The bees," say you, " are a 
state, and so natural philosophers call them ; they have 
a king, but a harmless one ; he is a leader, or captain, 
rather than a king-; he never beats, nor pulls, nor kills 
his subject bees." No wonder they are so observant 
of him then : but in good faith, you had but ill luck 
to meddle with these bees; for though they are bees of 
Trent, they shew you to be a drone. Aristotle, a most 
exact writer of politics, affirms that the Asiatic monar- 
chy, which yet himself calls barbarous, was according 
to law, Politic. 3. And whereas he reckons up five se- 
veral sorts of monarchies, four of those five he makes 
governments according" to laws, and with the con- 
sent of the people ; and yet he calls them tyrannical 
forms of government, because they lodge so much 
power in one man's hand. But the kingdom of the 
Lacedemonians, he says, is most properly a kingdom, 
because there all power is not in the king. The fifth 
sort of monarchy, which he calls 7ra}xfiaai\ua, that is, 
where the king is all in all ; and to which he refers 
that that you call the right of kings, which is a liberty 
to do what they list ; he neither tells us when nor 
where any such form of government ever obtained. 
Nor seems he to have mentioned it for any other pur- 
pose, than to shew how unjust, absurd, and tyrannical 
a government it is. You say, that when Samuel would 
deter the people from choosing a king, he propounded 
to them this right of kings. But whence had Samuel 
it ? Had he it from the written law of God ? That can- 
not be. We have observed already, that the Scriptures 
afford us a quite other scheme of sovereignty. Had 
Samuel it then immediately from God himself by reve- 
lation ? That is not likely neither; for God dislikes it, 
discommends it, finds fault with it: so that Samuel 
■ ■>■ - not expound to the people any right of kings ap- 
pointed by God ; but a corrupt and depraved manner 
■I governing, taken up by the pride and ambition of 
princes. He telle not the people what their kings 
Ought to do, but what they would do. He told them 
the maimer of their king, as before he told us the man- 
ner of the priests, the aonsofEli; for he uses the same 
word in both places (which you in the thirty-third page 
of your book, by a Hebrew solecism too, call nsu'c). 
Thai manner of" thein was wicked, and odious, and 
tyrannical: it wa$ no right, but great wrong. The 
fathen bare commented upon this place too: I will 
Distance in one, that may stand for a great many; and 



that is Sulpitius Severus, a contemporary and intimate 
friend of St. Jerome, and, in St. Augustin's opinion, a 
man of great wisdom and learning. He tells us in his 
sacred history, that Samuel in that place acquaints the 
people with the imperious rule of kings, and how they 
used to lord it over their subjects. Certainly it cannot 
be the right of kings to domineer and be imperious. 
But according to Sallust, that lawful power and 
authority that kings were entrusted with, for the pre- 
servation of the public liberty, and the good of the 
commonwealth, quickly degenerated into pride and 
tyranny : and this is the sense of all orthodox divines, 
and of all lawyers, upon that place of Samuel. And 
you might have learned from Sichardus, that most of 
the rabbins too were of the same mind; at least, not 
any one of them ever asserted, that the absolute in- 
herent right of kings is there discoursed of. Your- 
self in your fifth chapter, page 106, complain, that 
" not only Clemens Alexandrinus, but all other ex- 
positors mistake themselves upon this text:" and 
you, I will warrant ye, are the only man that have 
had the good luck to hit the mark. Now, what a piece 
of folly and impudence is this in you to maintain, in 
opposition to all orthodox expositors, that those very 
actions, which God so much condemns, are the right of 
kings, and to pretend law for them ! Though yourself 
confess, that that right is very often exercised in com- 
mitting 1 outrages, being injurious, contumelious, and 
the like. Was any man ever to that degree sui juris, 
so much his own master, as that he might lawfully 
prey upon mankind, bear down all that stood in his 
way, and turn all things upside down ? Did the Ro- 
mans ever maintain, as you say they did, that any man 
might do these thing's suo jure, by virtue of some in- 
herent right in himself? Sallust indeed makes C. 
Memmius, a tribune of the people, in an invective 
speech of his against the pride of the nobility, and 
their escaping unpunished, howsoever they misbehaved 
themselves, to use these words, viz. " To do whatever 
one has a mind to, without fear of punishment, is to be 
a king." This saying you catched hold of, thinking it 
would make for your purpose ; but consider it a little 
better, and you will find yourself deceived. Does he 
in that place assert the right of kings ? or does he not 
blame the common people, and chide them for their 
sloth, in suffering their nobility to lord it over them, as 
if they were out of the reach of all law, and in submit- 
ting again to that kingly tyranny, which, together 
with their kings themselves, their ancestors had law- 
fully and justly rejected and banished from amongst 
them ? If you had consulted Tully, you would have 
understood both Sallust and Samuel better. In his 
oration pro C. Rabirio, " There is none of us ignorant," 
says he, " of the manner of kings. These are their 
lordly dictates : mind what I say, and do accordingly." 
Many passages to this purpose he quotes out of poets, 
and calls them not the right, but the custom or manner 
of kings ; and he says, we ought to read and consider 
them, not only for curiosity sake, but that w r e may 
learn to beware of them, and avoid them. You per- 
ceive how miserably you are come off with Sallust, 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



351 



who though he be as much an enemy to tyranny as 
any other author whatsoever, you thought would have 
patronized this tyrannical right that you are establish- 
ing. Take my word for it, the right of kings seems to 
be tottering, and even to further its own ruin, by rely- 
ing upon such weak props for its support ; and by en- 
deavouring to maintain itself by such examples and 
authorities, as would hasten its downfal, if it were fur- 
ther off than it is. " The extremity of right or law," 
you say, " is the height of injury, Summum jus summa 
injuria ; this saying is verified most properly in kings, 
who, when they go to the utmost of their right, fall into 
those courses, in which Samuel makes the rights of 
kings to consist." And it is a miserable right, which, 
when you have said all you can for, you can no other- 
wise defend, than by confessing, that it is the greatest 
injury that may be. The extremity of right or law is 
said to be, when a man ties himself up to niceties, 
dwells upon letters and syllables, and in the mean 
time neglects ths intent "and equity of the law ; or 
when a written law is cunningly and maliciously in- 
terpreted; this Cicero makes to have been the rise of 
that common saying. But since it is certain that all 
right flows from the fountain of justice, so that nothing 
can possibly be any man's right that is not just, it is a 
most wicked thing in you to affirm, that for a king to 
be unjust, rapacious, tyrannical, and as ill as the worst 
of them ever was, is according to the right of kings ; 
and to tell us that a holy prophet would have persuaded 
the people to such a senseless thing. For whether 
written or unwritten, whether extreme or remiss, what 
right can any man have to be injurious ? Which, lest 
you should confess to be true of other men, but not of 
kings, I have one man's authority to object to } r ou, 
who, I think, was a king likewise, and professes that 
that right of kings, that you speak of, is odious both to 
God and himself: it is in the 94th psalm, " Shall the 
throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, that fra- 
meth mischief by a law ?" Be not therefore so inju- 
rious to God, as to ascribe this doctrine to him, viz. that 
all manner of wicked and flagitious actions are but the 
right of kings ; since himself tells us, that he abhors 
all fellowship with wicked princes for this very reason, 
because, under pretence of sovereignty, they create 
misery and vexation to their subjects. Neither bring 
up a false accusation against a prophet of God ; for by 
making him to teach us in this place what the right of 
kings is, you do not produce the right Samuel, but 
such another empty shadow as was raised by the witch 
of Endor. Though for my own part, I verily believe that 
that infernal Samuel would not have been so great a 
liar, but that he would have confessed, that what you 
call the right of kings, is tyranny. We read indeed 
of impieties countenanced by law, Jus datum sceleri : 
you yourself confess, that they are bad kings that have 
made use of this boundless licence of theirs to do every 
thing. Now, this right that you have introduced for 
the destruction of mankind, not proceeding from God, 
as I have proved it does not, must needs come from the 
devil ; and that it does really so, will appear more 
clearly hereafter. " By virtue of this liberty, say you, 



princes may if they will." And for this, you pretend 
to have Cicero's authority. I am always willing to 
mention your authorities, for it generally happens, that 
the very authors you quote them out of, give you an 
answer themselves. Hear else what Cicero says in his 
4th Philippic, "What cause of war can be more just 
and warrantable than to avoid slavery ? For though a 
people may have the good fortune to live under a 
gentle master, yet those are in a miserable condition, 
whose prince may tyrannize over them if he will." 
May, that is, can; has power enough so to do. If he 
meant it of his right, he would contradict himself, and 
make that an unjust cause of war, which himself had 
affirmed with the same breath to be a most just one. 
It is not therefore the right of all kings that you de- 
scribe, but the injuriousness, and force, and violence 
of some. Then you tell us what private men may 
do. " A private man," say you, " may lie, may be un- 
grateful :" and so may kings, but what then ? May 
they therefore plunder, murder, ravish, without control ? 
It is equally prejudicial and destructive to the com- 
monwealth, whether it be their own prince, or a robber, 
or a foreign enemy, that spoils, massacres, and enslaves 
them. And questionless, being both alike enemies of 
human society, the one, as well as the other, may law- 
fully be opposed and punished ; and their own prince 
the rather, because he, though raised to that dignity 
by the honours that his people have conferred upon him, 
and being bound by his oath to defend the public 
safety, betrays it notwithstanding all. At last you 
grant, that " Moses prescribes laws, according to which 
the king that the people of Israel should choose, ought 
to govern, though different from this right that Samuel 
proposes;" which words contain a double contradiction 
to what you have said before. For whereas you had 
affirmed, that a king was bound by no law, here you 
confess he is. And you set up two contrary rights, one 
described by Moses, and another by Samuel, which is 
absurd. " But," says the prophet, "you shall be ser- 
vants to your king." Though I should grant that the 
Israelites were really so, it would not presently follow, 
that it was the right of their kings to have them so; 
but that by the usurpation and injustice of most of 
them, they were reduced to that condition. For the 
prophet had foretold them, that that importunate peti- 
tion of theirs would bring a punishment from God 
upon them ; not because it would be their king's right 
so to harass them, but because they themselves had 
deserved it should be so. If kings are out of the reach 
of the law, so as that they may do what they list, they 
are more absolute than any masters, and their subjects 
in a more despicable condition than the worst of slaves. 
The law of God provided some redress from them, 
though of another nation, if their masters were cruel 
and unreasonable towards them. And can we imagine, 
that the whole body of the people of a free nation, 
though oppressed and tyrannized over, and preyed 
upon, should be left remediless ? That they had no law 
to protect them, no sanctuary to betake themselves to ? 
Can we think, that they were delivered from the bond- 
age they were under to the Egyptian kings, to be re- 



352 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



duced into a worse to one of their own brethren ? All 
which being- neither agreeable to the law of God, nor 
to common sense, nothing can be more evident, than 
that the prophet declares to the people the manner, and 
not the right, of kings ; nor the manner of all kings, 
but of most. Then you come to the rabbins, and quote 
two of them, but you have as bad luck with them here, 
as you had before. For it is plain, that that other chapter 
that rabbi Joses speaks of, and which contains, he says, 
the right of kings, is that in Deuteronomy, and not 
in Samuel. For rabbi Judas says very truly, and against 
you, that that discourse of Samuel's was intended only 
to frighten the people. It is a most pernicious doc- 
trine, to maintain that to be any one's right, which in 
itself is flat injustice, unless you have a mind to speak 
by contraries. And that Samuel iutended to affrighten 
them, appears b} r the 18th verse, "And ye shall cry out 
in that day, because of your king, which ye shall have 
chosen you, and I will not hear you in that day, saith 
the Lord." That was to be their punishment for their 
obstinacy in persisting to desire a king*, against the 
mind and will of God ; and yet they are not forbidden 
here either to pray against him, or to endeavour to rid 
themselves of him. For if they might lawfully pray 
to God against him, without doubt they might use all 
lawful means for their own deliverance. For what 
man living, when he finds himself in any calamity, 
betakes himself to God, so as to neglect his own duty, 
in order to a redress, and rely upon his lazy prayers 
only ? But be it how it will, what is all this to the right 
of kings, or of the English people ? who neither asked 
a king against the will of God, nor had one appointed 
us by God, but by the right that all nations have to 
appoint their own governors, appointed a king over us 
by laws of our own, neither in obedience to, nor against, 
any command of God? And this being the case, for 
aught I see, we have done well in deposing our king, 
and are to be commended for it, since the Israelites 
sinned in asking one. And this the event has made 
appear; for we, when we had a king, prayed to God 
against him, and he heard us, and delivered us : but 
the Jews (who not being under a kingly government, 
desired a king) he suffered to live in slavery under 
one, till, at last, after their return from the Babylonish 
captivity, they betook themselves to their former go- 
\ eminent again. Then you come to give us a display 
of your talmudical learning; but you have as ill suc- 
cess with that as you have had with all the rest. For, 
whilst you are endeavouring to prove that kings are 
not liable to any temporal judicature, you quote an au- 
thority out of the treatise of the Sanhedrim, " that the 
king neither is judged of others, nor does himself judge 
any." Which is against the people's own petition in 
Samuel; for they desired a king that might judge 
them. You labour in vain to salve this, by telling us, 
that it is to be understood of those kings that reigned 
after the Babylonish captivity. For then, what say 
ye to Maimonides? He makes this difference betwixt 
the kings of Israel and those of Juda ; that the kings 
of the posterity of David judge, and are judged ; but 
the kings of Israel do neither. You contradict and 



quarrel with yourself or your rabbins, and still do my 
work for me. This, say you, is not to be understood 
of the kings of Israel in their first institution ; for in 
the 17th verse it is said, " you shall be his servants ;" 
that is, he shall use you to it, not that he shall have 
any right to make you so. Or if you understand it of 
their king's right, it is but a judgment of God upon 
them for asking a king; the effects of which they were 
sensible of under most of their kings, though not per- 
haps under all. But you need no antagonists, you are 
such a perpetual adversary to yourself. For you tell 
us now a story, as if you were arguing on my side, 
how that first Aristobulus, and after him Jannaeus sur- 
nanied Alexander, did not receive that kingly right that 
they pretended to, from the Sanhedrim, that great trea- 
sury and oracle of the laws of that nation, but usurped 
it by degrees against the will of the senate. For whose 
sake, you say, that childish fable of the principal men 
of that assembly being struck dead by the angel Ga- 
briel was first invented. And thus you confess, that 
this magnificent prerogative, upon which you seem 
mainly to rely, viz. " that kings are not to be judged 
by any upon earth, was grounded upon this worse than 
an old wife's tale, that is, upon a rabbinical fable." But 
that the Hebrew kings were liable to be called in 
question for their actions, and to be punished with 
stripes, if they were found faulty, Sichardus shews at 
large out of the waitings of the rabbins, to which author 
you are indebted for all that you employ of that sort of 
learning, and yet you have the impudence to be thwart- 
ing" with him. Nay, we read in Scripture, that Saul 
thought himself bound by a decree of his own making; 
and in obedience thereunto, that he cast lots with his 
son Jonathan which of them two should die. Uzzias 
likewise, when he was thrust out of the temple by the 
priests as a leper, submitted as every private person in 
such a case ought to do, and ceased to be a king. Sup- 
pose he should have refused to go out of the temple, 
and lay down the government, and live alone, and had 
resolved to assert that kingly right of not being sub- 
ject to any law, do you think the priests, and the people 
of the Jews, would have suffered the temple to be de- 
filed, the laws violated, and live themselves in danger 
of the infection ? It seems there are laws against a 
leprous king, but none against a tyrant. Can any 
man possibly be so mad and foolish as to fancy, that 
the laws should so far provide for the people's health, 
as though some noisome distemper should seize upon 
the king himself, yet to prevent the infection's reaching 
them, and make no provision for the security of their 
lives and estates, and the very being of the whole state, 
against the tyranny of a cruel, unjust prince, which is 
incomparably the greater mischief of the two ? " But," 
say you, "there can be no precedent shewn of anyone 
king that has been arraigned in a court of justice, 
and condemned to die," Sichardus answers that well 
enough. It is all one, says he, as if one should argue 
on this manner : The emperor of Germany never was 
summoned to appear before one of the prince electors ; 
therefore, if the prince elector Palatine should impeach 
the emperor, he were not bound to plead to it ; though 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



353 



it appears by the golden bull, that Charles the fourth 
subjected himself arid his successors to that cognizance 
and jurisdiction. But no wonder if kings were in- 
dulged in their ambition, and their exorbitances passed 
by, when the times were so corrupt and depraved, that 
even private men, if they had either money or interest, 
might escape the law, though guilty of crimes of never 
so high a nature. That cLvvnivQwov, that you speak 
of, that is to be wholly independent upon any other, 
and accountable to none upon earth, Vhich you say is 
peculiar to the majesty of sovereign princes, Aristotle 
in the 4th book of his Pol. Ch. 10. calls a most tyran- 
nical form of government, and not in the least to be 
endured by a free people. And that kings are not 
liable to be questioned for their actions, you prove by 
the testimony of a very worthy author, that barbarous 
tyrant Mark Antony ; one of those that subverted the 
commonwealth of Rome : and yet he himself, when he 
undertook an expedition against the Parthians, sum- 
moned Herod before him, to answer to a charge of 
murder, and would have punished him, but that Herod 
bribed him. So that Antony's asserting this preroga- 
tive royal, and your defence of King Charles, come both 
out of one and the same spring. " And it is very 
reasonable," say you, " that it should be so; for kings 
derive their authority from God alone." What kings 
are those, I pray, that do so ? For I deny, that there 
ever were any such kings in the world, that derived 
their authority from God alone. Saul, the first king of 
Israel, had never reigned, but that the people desired 
a king, even against the will of God ; and though he 
was proclaimed king once at Mizpah,yet after that he 
lived a private life, and looked to his father's cattle, 
till he was created so the second time by the people at 
Gilgal. And what think ye of David ? Though he 
had been anointed once by God, was he not anointed 
a second time in Hebron by the tribe of Judah, and 
after that by all the people of Israel, and that after a 
mutual covenant betwixt him and them ? 2 Sam. v. 
1 Chron. xi. Now, a covenant lays an obligation upon 
kings, and restrains them within bounds. Solomon, you 
say, " succeeded him in the throne of the Lord, and 
was acceptable to all men :" 1 Chron. xxix. So that 
it is something to be well-pleasing in the eyes of the 
people. Jehoiadah the priest made Joash king, but 
first he made him and the people enter into a covenant 
to one another, 2 Kings xi. I confess that these kings, 
and all that reigned of David's posterity, were ap- 
pointed to the kingdom both by God and the people ; 
but of all other kings, of what country soever, I affirm, 
that they are made so by the people only : nor can you 
make it appear, that they are appointed by God, any 
otherwise than as all other things, great and small, 
are said to be appointed by him, because nothing comes 
to pass without his providence. So that I allow the 
throne of David was in a peculiar manner called " the 
throne of the Lord :" whereas the thrones of other 
princes are no otherwise God's, than all other things 
in the world are his ; which if you would, you might 
have learnt out of the same chapter, ver. 11, 12. 
" Thine, Lord, is the greatness, &c. for all that is in 



the heaven and in the earth is thine. Both riches and 
honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all." And 
this is so often repeated, not to puff up kings, but to 
put them in mind, though they think themselves gods, 
that yet there is a God above them, to whom they owe 
whatever they are and have. And thus w r e easily un- 
derstand what the poets, and the Essenes among the 
Jews, mean, when they tell us, that it is by God that 
kings reign, and that they are of Jupiter; for so all of 
us are of God, we are all his offspring. So that this 
universal right of Almighty God's, and the interest 
that he has in princes, and their thrones, and all that 
belongs to them, does not at all derogate from the 
people's right; but that notwithstanding' all this, all 
other kings, not particularly and by name appointed 
by God, owe their sovereignty to the people only, and 
consequently are accountable to them for the manage- 
ment of it. The truth of which doctrine, though the 
common people are apt to flatter their kings, yet they 
themselves acknowledge, whether good ones, as Sarpe- 
don in Homer is described to have been ; or bad ones, 
as those tyrants in the lyrick poet : 

Y\avK£, Tit) drj vuii rfn/xZ/jtiicrOa, ftaXWa, &C. 

Glaucus, in Lycia we're ador'd like gods : 
What makes 'twixt us and others so great odds ? 

He resolves the question himself: " Because, says 
he, we excel others in heroical virtues : Let us fight 
manfully then, says he, lest our countrymen tax us 
with sloth and cowardice." In which words he inti- 
mates to us, both that kings derive their grandeur from 
the people, and that for their conduct and behaviour in 
war they are accountable to them. Bad kings in- 
deed, though to cast some terrour into people's minds, 
and beget a reverence of themselves, they declare to the 
world, that God only is the author of kingly government; 
in their hearts and minds they reverence no other deity 
but that of fortune, according to that passage in Horace : 

Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythae, 
Regumque matres barbarorum,et 
Purpurei metuunt tyranni. 

Injurioso ne pede proruas 

Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens 

Ad arma cessantes, ad arma 

Concitet, imperiumque frangat. 

" All barb'rous people, and their princes too, 
" All purple tyrants honour you ; 
" The very wand'ring Scythians do. 

" Support the pillar of the Roman state, 

" Lest all men beinvolv'd in one man's fate. 

" Continue us in wealth and peace ; 

" Let wars and tumults ever cease." 

So that if it is by God that kings now-a-days reign, 
it is by God too that the people assert their own liberty; 
since all things are of him, and by him. I am sure 
the Scripture bears witness to both; that by him kings 
reign, and that by him they are cast down from their 
thrones. And yet experience teaches us, that both 
these things are brought about by the people, oftener 
than by God. Be this right of kings, therefore, what 
it will, the right of the people is as much from God as 



354 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



it. And whenever any people, without some visible 
designation of God himself, appoint a king- over them, 
they have the same right to put him down, that they 
had to set him up at first. And certainly it is a more 
godlike action to depose a tyrant than to set up one : 
and there appears much more of God in the people, 
when they depose an unjust prince, than in a king that 
oppresses an innocent people. Nay, the people have a 
warrant from God to judge wicked princes; for God 
has conferred this very honour upon those that are 
dear to him, that celebrating the praises of Christ their 
own king, " they shall bind in chains the kings of the 
nations, (under which appellation all tyrants under the 
gospel are included,) and execute the judgments written 
upon them that challenge to themselves an exemption 
from all written laws," Psalm cxlix. So that there is 
but little reason left for that wicked and foolish opinion, 
that kings, who commonly are the worst of men, should 
he so high in God's account, as that he should have 
put the world under them, to be at their beck, and be 
governed according to their humour; and that for 
their sakes alone he should have reduced all mankind, 
whom he made after his own image, into the same 
condition with brutes. After all this, rather than say 
nothing, you produce M. Aurelius as a countenancer 
of tyranny; but you had better have let him alone. I 
cannot say whether he ever affirmed, that princes are 
accountable only before God's tribunal. ButXiphiline 
indeed, out of whom you quote those words of M. Au- 
relius, mentions a certain government, which he calls 
an Autarchy, of which he makes God the only judge: 
mpi dvTapxiag 6 Oebg fiovog Kpivetv dvvarai. But that this 
word Autarchy and Monarchy are synonymous, I can- 
not easily persuade myself to believe. And the more 
I read what goes before, the less I find myself inclinable 
to think so. And certainly whoever considers the 
context, will not easily apprehend what coherence this 
sentence has with it, and must needs wonder how it 
comes so abruptly into the text ; especially since Mar- 
cus Aurelius, that mirror of princes, carried himself 
towards the people, as Capitolinus tells us, just as if 
Rome had been a commonwealth still. And we all 
know, that when it was so, the supreme power was in 
the people. The same emperor honoured the memory 
of Thraseas, and Helvidius, and Cato, and Dio, and 
Brutus ; who all were tyrant-slayers, or affected the 
reputation of being thought so. In the first book that 
he writes of his own life, he says, that he proposed to 
himself a form of government, under which all men 
might equally enjoy the benefit of the law, and right 
and justice be equally administered to all. And in his 
fourth hook he says, the law is master, and not he. 
II « acknowledged the right of the senate and the people, 
and their interest in all things: we are so far, says he, 
from having any thing ofoor own, that we live in your 
bouses. These things Xiphiline relates of him. So 
little did he arrogate aught to himself by virtue of his 
sovereign right When he died, he recommended his 
son to the Romans, for his successor, if they should 
think he deserved it. So far was he from pretending 
to a commission from Heaven to exercise that absolute 



and imaginary right of sovereignty, that Autarchy, 
that you tell us of. " All the Latin and Greek books 
are full of authorities of this nature." But we have 
heard none of them yet. " So are the Jewish au- 
thors." And yet, } r ou say, " the Jews in many things 
allowed but too little to their princes." Nay, you will 
find that both the Greeks and the Latins allowed 
much less to tyrants. And how little the Jews allow- 
ed them would appear, if that book that Samuel 
" wrote of the manner of the kingdom" were extant ; 
which book, the Hebrew T doctors tell us, their kings 
tore in pieces and burnt, that they might be more at 
liberty to tyrannize over the people without control or 
fear of punishment. Now look about ye again, and 
catch hold of somewhat or other. In the last place, 
you come to wrest David's words in the 17th Psalm, 
"let my sentence come forth from thy presence." 
Therefore, says Barnachmoni, " God only can judge 
the king." And yet it is most likely, that David pen- 
ned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul, at 
which time, though himself were anointed, he did not 
decline being judged even by Jonathan: "Notwith- 
standing, if there be iniquity in me, slay me thyself," 
1 Sam. xx. At least, in this psalm he does no more 
than what any person in the world would do upon the 
like occasion ; being falsely accused by men, he ap- 
peals to the judgment of God himself, " let thine 
eyes look upon the thing that is right; thou hast 
proved and visited mine heart," &c. What relation 
has this to a temporal judicature? Certainly they do 
no good office to the right of kings, that thus discover 
the weakness of its foundation. Then you come with 
that threadbare argument, which of all others is most 
in vogue with our courtiers, " Against thee, thee only 
have I sinned," Psalm li. 6. As if David in the midst 
of his repentance, when overwhelmed with sorrow, 
and almost drowned in tears, he was humbly imploring 
God's mercy, had any thoughts of this kingly right of 
his when his heart was so low, that he thought he de- 
served not the right of a slave. And can we think, 
that he despised all the people of God, his own bre- 
thren, to that degree, as to believe that he mig'ht mur- 
der them, plunder them, and commit adultery with 
their wives, and yet not sin against them all this while? 
So holy a man could never be guilty of such insuffer- 
able pride, nor have so little knowledge either of him- 
self, or of his duty to his neighbour. So without doubt 
when he says, " against thee only," he meant, against, 
thee chiefly have 1 sinned, &c. But whatever he 
means, the words of a psalm are too full of poetry, and 
this psalm too full of passion, to afford us any exact 
definitions of right and justice; nor is it proper to 
argue any thing of that nature from them. " But 
David was never questioned for this, nor made to plead 
for his life before the Sanhedrim." What then ? How 
should they know, that any such thing had been, which 
was done so privately, that perhaps for some years 
after not above one or two were privy to it, as such 
secrets there are in most courts ? 2 Sam. xii. " Thou 
hast done this thing in secret." Besides, what if the 
senate should neglect to punish private persons ? Would 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



355 



any infer, that therefore they ought not to be punished 
at all ? But the reason why David was not proceeded 
against as a malefactor, is not much in the dark : he 
had condemned himself in the 5th verse, " The man that 
hath done this thing shall surely die." To which the 
prophet presently replies, "Thou art the man." So 
that in the prophet's judgment, as well as his own, he 
was worthy of death : but God, by his sovereign right 
over all things, and of his great mercy to David, ab- 
solves him from the guilt of his sin, and the sentence 
of death which he had pronounced against himself; 
verse 13th, " The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou 
shalt not die." The next thing you do is to rail at 
some bloody advocate or other, and you take a deal of 
pains to refute the conclusion of his discourse. Let him 
look to that; I will endeavour to be as short as I can 
in what I have undertaken to perform. But some 
things I must not pass by without taking notice of; as 
first and foremost your notorious contradictions; for in 
the 30th page you say, " The Israelites do not depre- 
cate an unjust, rapacious, tyrannical king, one as bad 
as the worst of kings are." And yet, page 42, you are 
very smart upon your advocate, for maintaining that 
the Israelites asked for a tyrant : " Would they have 
leaped out of the fryingpan into the fire," say you, 
" and groan under the cruelty of the worst of tyrants, 
rather than live under bad judg'es, especially being 
used to such a form of government?" First, you said 
the Hebrews would rather live under tyrants and 
judges, here you say they would rather live under 
judges than tyrants; and that "they desired nothing 
less than a tyrant." So that your advocate may 
answer you out of your own book. For according 
to your principles it is every king's right to be a ty- 
rant. What you say next is very true, " the supreme 
power was then in the people, which appears by their 
own rejecting their judges, and making choice of a 
kingly government." Remember this, when I shall 
have occasion to make use of it. You say, that God 
gave the children of Israel a king as a thing good 
and profitable for them, and deny that he gave them 
one in his anger, as a punishment for their sin. But 
that will receive an easy answer; for to what purpose 
should they cry to God because of the king that they 
had chosen, if it were not because a kingly government 
is an evil thing ; not in itself, but because it most 
commonly does, as Samuel forewarns the people that 
theirs would, degenerate into pride and tyranny ? If 
you are not yet satisfied, hark what you say yourself; 
acknowledge your own hand, and blush ; it is in your 
" Apparatus ad Primatum : God gave them a king in 
his anger," say you, " being offended at their sin in 
rejecting him from ruling over them ; and so the chris- 
tian church, as a punishment for its forsaking the pure 
worship of God, has been subjected to the more than 
kingly government of one mortal head." So that if 
your own comparison holds, either God gave the chil- 
dren of Israel a king as an evil thing, and as a punish- 
ment, or he has set up the pope for the good of the 
church. Was there ever any thing more light and mad 
than this man is ? Who would trust him in the smallest 
2 A 



matters, that in things of so great concern says and un- 
says without any consideration in the world? You 
tell us in your twenty-ninth page, " that by the consti- 
tution of all nations, kings are bound by no law." That 
"this had been the judgment both of the. eastern and 
western part of the world." And yet, page 43, you 
say, " That all the kings of the east ruled icard vo/jiov, 
according to law, nay, that the very kings of Egypt 
in all matters whatsoever, whether great or small, were 
tied to laws." Though in the beginning of this chap- 
ter you had undertook to demonstrate, That "kings are 
bound by no laws, that they give laws to others, but 
have none prescribed to themselves." For my part I 
have no reason to be angry with you, for either you 
are mad, or of our side. You do not defend the king's 
cause, but argue against him, and play the fool with 
him: or if you are in earnest, that epigram of Catullus, 

Tanto pessimus omnium poeta, 
Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus. 

The worst of poets, I myself declare, 

By how much you the best of patrons are. 

That epigram, I say, may be turned, and very properly 
applied to you ; for there never was so good a poet as 
you are a bad patron. Unless that stupidity, that you 
complain your advocate is " immersed over head and 
ears in," has blinded the eyes of your own understand- 
ing too, I will make you now sensible that you are 
become a very brute yourself. For now you come and 
confess, that " the kings of all nations have laws pre- 
scribed to them." But then you say again, " They are 
not so under the power of them, as to be liable to cen- 
sure or punishment of death, if they break them." 
W r hich yet you have proved neither from Scripture, nor 
from any good author. Observe then in short ; to pre- 
scribe municipal laws to such as are not bound by them, 
is silly and ridiculous : and to punish all others, but 
leave some one man at liberty to commit all sort of 
impieties without fear of punishment, is most unjust; 
the law being general, and not making any exception; 
neither of which can be supposed to hold place in the 
constitutions of any wise lawmaker, much less in those 
of God's own making. But that all may perceive how 
unable you are to prove out of the writings of the Jews, 
what you undertook in this chapter to make appear by 
them, you confess of your own accord, That " there 
are some rabbins, who affirm that their forefathers ought 
not to have had any other king than God himself; and 
that he set other kings over them for their punishment." 
And of those men's opinion I declare myself to be. It 
is not fitting or decent, that any man should be a king, 
that does not far excel all his subjects. But where 
men are equals, as in all governments very many are, 
they ought to have an equal interest in the govern- 
ment, and hold it by turns. But that all men should 
be slaves to one that is their equal, or (as it happens 
most commonly) far inferiour to them, and very often 
a fool, who can so much as entertain such a thought 
without indignation ? Nor does " it make for the ho- 
nour of a kingly government, that our Saviour was of 



356 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



the posterity of some kings," move than it does for the 
commendation of the worst of kings, that he Mas the 
offspring- of some of them too. "The Messias is a king." 
We acknowledge him so to be, and rejoice that he is 
so; and pray that his kingdom may come, for he is 
Worthy : nor is there any other equal, or next to him. 
And yet a kingly government being put into the hands 
of unworthy and undeserving persons, as most com- 
monly it is, may well be thought to have done more 
harm than good to mankind. Nor does it follow for all 
this that all kings, as such, are tyrants. But suppose 
it did, as for argument-sake I will allow it does, lest 
you should think I am too hard with ye; make you 
the best use of it you can. " Then, say you, God him- 
self may properly be said to be the king of tyrants, nay, 
himself, the worst of all tyrants." If the first of these 
conclusions docs not follow, another does, which may 
be drawn from most parts of your book, viz. That you 
perpetually contradict, not only the Scriptures, but 
your own self. For in the very last foregoing period 
you had affirmed, that " God was the king of all things, 
having himself created them." Now he created tyrants 
and devils, and consequently, by your own reason, is 
the king of such. The second of these conclusions we 
detest, and wish that blasphemous mouth of yours were 
stopped up, with which you affirm God to be the worst 
of tyrants, if he be, as you often say he is, the king 
and lord of such. Nor do you much advantage your 
cause by telling us, that " Moses was a king, and had 
the absolute and supreme power of a king." For we 
could be content that any other were so, that could 
" refer our matters to God, as Moses did, and consult 
with him about our affairs," Exod. xviii. 19. But 
neither did Moses, notwithstanding his great famili- 
arity with God, ever assume a liberty of doing what he 
would himself. What says he of himself; " the people 
come unto me to inquire of God." They came not then 
to receive Moses's own dictates and commands. Then 
says Jethro, ver. 19. " Be thou for the people to God- 
ward, that thou mayst bring their causes unto God." 
And Moses himself says, Deut. iv. 5. " I have taught 
you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God 
commanded me." Hence it is that he is said to have 
been " faithful in all the house of God." Numb. xii. 7. 
So that the Lord Jehovah himself was the people's 
king, and Moses no ot';er than as it were an interpre- 
ter or a messenger betwixt him and them. Nor can 
you, without impiety and sacrilege, transfer this abso- 
lute supreme power and authority, from God to a man, 
(not having any warrant from the word of God so to 
do,) which Moses used only as a deputy or substitute to 
God ; under whose eye, and in whose presence, him- 
self and the people always were. But now, for an ag- 
gravation of your wickedness, though here you make 
Moses to have exercised an absolute and unlimited 
power in your " Apparat. ad Primat." page 230, you 
say, that " he, together with the seventy elders, ruled 
the people, and that himself was the chief of the people, 
but not their master." If Moses therefore were a king, 
as certainly he was, and the best of kings, and had a 
supreme and legal power, as you say he had, and yet 



neither was the people's master nor governed them 
alone; then, according to you, kings, though indued 
with the supreme power, are not by virtue of that so- 
vereign and kingly right of theirs lords over the people, 
nor ought to govern them alone ; much less according 
to their own will and pleasure. After all this, you have 
the impudence to feign a command from God to that 
people, " to set up a king over them, as soon as they 
should be possessed of the Holy Land," Deut xvii. 
For you craftily leave out the former words, " and shalt 
say, I will set a king over me," &c. And now call to 
mind what you said before, page 42, and what I said 
I should have occasion to make use of, viz. " That the 
power was then in the people, and that they were en- 
tirely free." What follows, argues you either mad or 
irreligious; take whether you list: " God," say you, 
" having so long before appointed a kingly govern- 
ment, as best and most proper for that people; what 
shall we say to Samuel's opposing it, and God's own 
acting, as if himself were against it? How do these 
things agree?" He finds himself caught; and observe 
now with how great malice against the prophet, and 
impiety against God, he endeavours to disentangle 
himself. " We must consider," says he, " that Samuel's 
own sons then judged the people, and the people re- 
jected thembecause of their corruption ; now Samuel was 
loth his sons should be laid aside, and God, to gratify 
the prophet, intimated to him, as if himself were not 
very well pleased with it." Speak out, ye wretch, 
and never mince the matter : you mean, God dealt 
deceitfully with Samuel, and he with the people. It 
is not your advocate, but yourself, that are " frantic 
and distracted ;" who cast off all reverence to God 
Almighty, so you may but seem to honour the king. 
Would Samuel prefer the interest of his sons, and 
their ambition, and their covetousness, before the 
general good of all the people, when they asked a 
thing that would be good and profitable for them? 
Can we think, that he would impose upon them by 
cunning and subtilty, and make them believe things 
that were not ? Or if we should suppose all this true of 
Samuel, would God himself countenance and gratify 
him in it ; would he dissemble with the people ? So 
that either that was not the right of kings, which Sam- 
uel taught the people ; or else that right, by the testi- 
mony both of God and the prophet, was an evil thing, 
was burdensome, injurious, unprofitable, and charge- 
able to the commonwealth : or lastly, (which must not 
be admitted,) God and the prophet deceived the people. 
God frequently protests, that he was extremely dis- 
pleased with them for asking a king. V. 7th, " They 
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that 
I should not reign over them." As if it were a kind 
of idolatry to ask a king that would even suffer him- 
self to be adored, and assume almost divine honour to 
himself. And certainly, they that subject themselves 
to a worldly master, and set him above all laws, come 
but a little short of choosing a strange god : and a 
strange one it commonly is ; brutish, and void of all 
sense and reason. So 1st of Sam. chap. 10th, v. 19th, 
" And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself 






IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



357 



saved you out of all your adversities and your tribula- 
tion, and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king- 
over us ;" &c. and chap. 12th, v. 12th, " Ye said unto 
me, Nay, but a king- shall reign over us ; when the Lord 
your God was your king-:" and v. the 17th, " See that 
your wickedness is great, that ye have done in the 
sight of the Lord, in asking you a king-." And Hosea 
speaks contemptibly of the king-, chap. xiii. v. 10, 11, 
" I will be thy king-; where is any other that may save 
in all thy cities, and thy judg-es of whom thou saidst, 
Give me a king-, and princes ? I gave thee a king in 
mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." 
And Gideon, that warlike judge, that was greater than 
a king; " I will not rule over you," says he, " neither 
shall my son rule over you ; the Lord shall rule over 
you," Judges, chap. viii. Intimating thereby, that it 
is not fit for a man, but for God only, to exercise do- 
minion over men. And hence Joseph us in his book 
against Appion, an Egyptian grammarian, and a foul- 
mouthed fellow, like you, calls the commonwealth of 
the Hebrews a Theocracy, because the principality was 
in God only. In Isaiah, chap. xxvi. v. 13, the people 
in their repentance, complain that it had been mischiev- 
ous to them, " that other lords besides God himself, 
had had dominion over them." All which places prove 
clearly, that God gave the Israelites a king in his 
anger ; but now who can forbear laughing at the use 
you make of Abimelech's story ? Of whom it is said, 
when he was killed, partly by a woman that hurled a 
piece of millstone upon him, and partly by his own 
armour-bearer, that " God rendered the wickedness of 
Abimelech." " This history," say you, " proves strongly, 
that God only is the judge and avenger of kings." 
Yea, if this argument hold, he is the only judge and 
punisher of tyrants, villanous rascals, and bastards. 
Whoever can get into the saddle, whether by right or 
by wrong, has thereby obtained a sovereign kingly 
right over the people, is out of all danger of punish- 
ment, all inferiour magistrates must lay down their 
arms at his feet, the people must not dare to mutter. 
But what if some great notorious robber had perished 
in war, as Abimelech did, would any man infer from 
thence, that God only is the judge and punisher of 
highwaymen ? Or what if Abimelech had been con- 
demned by the law, and died by an executioner's hand, 
would not God then have rendered his wickedness ? 
You never read, that the judges of the children of 
Israel were ever proceeded against according to law : 
and yet you confess, that " where the government is 
an aristocracy, the prince, if there be any, may and 
ought to be called in question, if he break the laws." 
This in your 47th page. And why may not a tyrant 
as well be proceeded against in a kingly government ? 
why, because God rendered the wickedness of Abime- 
lech. So did the woman, and so did his own armour- 
bearer ; over both which he pretended to a right of 
sovereignty. And what if the magistrates had rendered 
his wickedness ? Do not they bear the sword for that 
very purpose, for the punishment of malefactors ? 
Having done with his powerful argument from the 
history of Abimelech's death, he betakes himself, as 



his custom is, to slanders and calumnies ; nothing but 
dirt and filth comes from him ; but for those things 
that he promised to make appear, he hath not proved 
any one of them, either from the Scriptures or from the 
writings of the rabbins. He alleges no reason why 
kings should be above all laws, and they only of all 
mortal men exempt from punishment, if they deserve 
it. He falls foul upon those yery authors and author- 
ities that he makes use of, and by his own discourse 
demonstrates the truth of the opinion that he argues 
against. And perceiving, that he is like to do but little 
good with his arguments, he endeavours to bring an 
odium upon us, by loading us with slanderous accusa- 
tions, as having put to death the most virtuous innocent 
prince that ever reigned. " Was King Solomon, says 
he, better than King Charles the First ?" I confess some 
have ventured to compare his father King James with 
Solomon ; nay, to make King James the better gentle- 
man of the two. Solomon was David's son, David had 
been Saul's musician ; but King James was the son of 
the earl of Darnley, who, as Buchanan tells us, because 
David the musician got into the queen's bed-chamber 
at an unseasonable time, killed him a little after ; for 
he could not get to him then, because he had bolted 
the door on the inside. So that King James being the 
son of an earl, was the better gentleman ; and was 
frequently called a second Solomon, though it is not 
very certain, that himself was not the son of David 
the musician too. But how could it ever come into 
your head, to make a comparison between King 
Charles and Solomon ? For that very King Charles 
whom you praise thus to the sky, that, very man's 
obstinacy, and covetousness, and cruelty, his hard 
usage of all good and honest men, the wars that 
he raised, the spoilings, and plunderings, and confla- 
grations, that he occasioned, and the death of innu- 
merable of his subjects, that he was the cause of, does 
his son Charles, at this very time, whilst I am a-writing, 
confess and bewail on the stool of repentance in 
Scotland, and renounces there that kingly right that 
you assert. But since you delight in parallels, let us 
compare King Charles and King Solomon together a 
little : " Solomon began his reign with the death of 
his brother," who justly deserved it; King Charles be- 
gan his with his father's funeral, I do not say with his 
murder: and yet all the marks and tokens of poison 
that may be appeared in his dead body ; but that sus- 
picion lighted upon the duke of Buckingham only, 
whom the king notwithstanding cleared to the parlia- 
ment, though he had killed the king and his father; 
and not only so, but he dissolved the parliament, lest 
the matter should be inquired into. " Solomon op- 
pressed the people with heavy taxes ;" but he spent 
that money upon the temple of God, and in raising 
other public buildings : King Charles spent his in ex- 
travagances. Solomon was enticed to idolatry by 
many wives : this man by one. Solomon, though he 
were seduced himself, we read not that he seduced 
others ; but King Charles seduced and enticed others, 
not only by large and ample rewards to corrupt the 
church, but by his edicts and ecclesiastical constitutions 



358 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



he compelled ihem to set up altars, which all pro- 
testants abhor, and to bow down to crucifixes painted 
over them on the wall. " But }et for all this, Solo- 
mon was not condemned to die." Nor does it follow 
because he was not, that therefore he ought not to have 
been. Perhaps there were many circumstances, that 
made it then not expedient. But not long- after, the 
people both by words and actions made appear what 
they took to be their right, when ten tribes of twelve 
revolted from his son ; and if he had not saved himself 
by flight, it is very likely they would have stoned him, 
notwithstanding his threats and big swelling words. 



CHAP. III. 

Having proved sufficiently, that the kings of the 
Jews were subject to the same laws that the people 
were; that there are no exceptions made in their fa- 
vour in Scripture ; that it is a most false assertion 
grounded upon no reason, nor warranted by any au- 
thority, to say, that kings may do what they list with 
impunity ; that God has exempted them from all hu- 
man jurisdiction, and reserved them to his own tribu- 
nal only ; let us now consider, whether the gospel 
preach up any such doctrine, and enjoin that blind obe- 
dience, which the law was so far from doing, that it 
commanded the contrary ; let us consider, whether or 
no the gospel, that heavenly promulgation, as it were, 
of christian liberty, reduce us to a condition of slavery 
to kings and tyrants, from whose imperious rule even 
the old law, that mistress of slavery, discharged the 
people of God, when it obtained. Your first argument 
you take from the person of Christ himself. But, alas ! 
who does not know, that he put himself into the con- 
dition, not of a private person only, but even of a ser- 
vant, that we might be made free ? Nor is this to be 
understood of some internal spiritual liberty only ; how 
inconsistent else would that song of his mother's be 
with the design of his coming into the world, " He 
hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their 
heart, he hath put down the mighty from their seat, 
and hath exalted the humble and meek !" How ill 
suited to their occasion would these expressions be, if 
the coming of Christ rather established and strength- 
ened a tyrannical government, and made a blind sub- 
jection the duty of all Christians ! He himself having 
been born, and lived, and died under a tyrannical go- 
vernment, has thereby purchased liberty for us. As he 
gives us his grace to submit patiently to a condition of 
slavery, if there be a necessity of it; so if by any ho- 
nest ways and means we can rid ourselves, and obtain 
our liberty, he is so far from restraining us, that he en- 
conragea us so to do. Hence it is that St. Paul not 
only of an evangelical, but also of a civil liberty, says 
thus, I Cor. vii. 21. "Art thou called, being a ser- 
\ ;int ? care not for it ; but if thou mayst be made free, 
use it rather ; you are bought with a price, be not ye 
Ben ants of men." So that you are very impertinent in 



endeavouring to argue us into slavery by the example 
of our Saviour ; who, by submitting to such a condition 
himself, has confirmed even our civil liberties. He took 
upon him indeed in our stead the form of a servant, but 
he always retained his purpose of being a deliverer; 
and thence it was, that he taught us a quite other no- 
tion of the right of kings, than this that you endeavour 
to make good. You, I say, that preach up not king- 
ship, but tyranny, and that in a commonwealth ; by 
enjoining not only a necessary, but a religious, subjec- 
tion to whatever tyrant gets into the chair, whether he 
come to it by succession or by conquest, or chance, or 
any how. And now I will turn your own weapons 
against you ; and oppose you, as I use to do, with 
your own authorities. When the collectors of the tri- 
bute money came to Christ for tribute in Galilee, he 
asked Peter, Matt. xvii. " Of whom the kings of the 
earth took custom or tribute, of their own children, or 
of strangers ?" Peter saith unto him, " Of strangers." 
Jesus saith unto him, " Then are the children free ; not- 
withstanding, lest we should offend them, &c. give unto 
them for thee and for me." Expositors differ upon 
this place, whom this tribute was paid to; some say it 
was paid to the priests, for the use of the sanctuary ; 
others, that it was paid to the emperor. I am of 
opinion, that it was the revenue of the sanctuary, but 
paid to Herod, who perverted the institution of it, and 
took it to himself. Josephus mentions divers sorts of tri- 
bute, which he and his sons exacted, all which Agrippa 
afterwards remitted. And this very tribute, though 
small in itself, yet being accompanied with many more, 
was a heavy burden. The Jews, even the poorest of 
them, in the time of their commonwealth, paid a poll; 
so that it was some considerable oppression that our Sa- 
viour spoke of: and from hence he took occasion to tax 
Herod's injustice (under whose government, and within 
whose jurisdiction he then was) in that, whereas the 
kings of the earth, who affect usually the title of fathers 
of their country, do not use to oppress their own chil- 
dren, that is, their own natural-born subjects, with 
heavy and unreasonable exactions, but lay such burdens 
upon strangers and conquered enemies ; he, quite con- 
trary, oppressed not strangers, but his own people. But 
let what will be here meant by children, either natural- 
born subjects, or the children of God, and those of the 
elect only, or Christians in general, as St. Augustine 
understands the place ; this is certain, that if Peter was 
a child, and therefore free, then by consequence we are 
so too, by our Saviour's own testimony, either as En- 
glishmen, or as Christians, and that it therefore is not the 
right of kings to exact heavy tributes from their own 
countrymen, and those freeborn subjects. Christ him- 
self professes, that he paid not this tribute as a thing 
that was due, but that he might not bring trouble upon 
himself by offending those that demanded it. The 
work that he came into this world to do, was quite of 
another nature. But if our Saviour deny, that it is 
the right of kings to burden their freeborn subjects 
with grievous exactions ; he would certainly much less 
allow it to be their right to spoil, massacre, and torture 
their own countrymen, and those Christians too. He 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



359 



discoursed after such a manner of the right of kings, 
that those to whom he spoke suspected his principles 
as laying too great a restraint upon sovereignty, and 
not allowing the licence that tyrants assume to them- 
selves to be the rights of kings. It was not for no- 
thing, that the Pharisees put such questions to him, 
tempting him ; and that at the same time they told him, 
that he regarded not the person of any man : nor was 
it for nothing, that he was angry when such questions 
were proposed to him, Matt. xxii. If one should en- 
deavour to ensnare you with little questions, and catch 
at your answers, to ground an accusation against you 
upon your own principles concerning the right of kings, 
and all this under a monarchy, would you be angry 
with him ? You would have but very little reason. It 
is evident, that our Saviour's principles concerning go- 
vernment were not agreeable to the humour of princes. 
His answer too implies as much ; by which he rather 
turned them away, than instructed them. He asked 
for the tribute-money. " Whose image and superscrip- 
tion is it ?" says he. They tell him it was Caesar's. 
" Give then to Caesar," says he, " the things that are 
Caesar's ; and to God. the things that are God's." And 
how comes it to pass, that the people should not have 
given to them the things that are theirs ? " Render to 
all men their dues," says St. Paul, Rom. xiii. So that 
Caesar must not engross all to himself. Our liberty is 
not Caesar's ; it is a blessing we have received from 
God himself; it is what we are born to; to lay this 
down at Caesar's feet, which we derive not from him, 
which we are not beholden to him for, were an unwor- 
thy action, and a degrading of our very nature. If 
one should consider attentively the countenance of a 
man, and not inquire after whose image so noble a 
creature were framed ; would not any one that heard 
him presently make answer, That he was made after 
the image of God himself? Being therefore peculiarly 
God's own, and consequently things that are to be 
given to him, we are entirely free by nature, and can- 
not without the greatest sacrilege imaginable be re- 
duced into a condition of slavery to any man, especially 
to a wicked, unjust, cruel tyrant. Our Saviour does not 
take upon him to determine what things are God's and 
what Caesar's; he leaves that as he found it. If the 
piece of money, which they shewed him, was the same 
that was paid to God, as in Vespasian's time it was; 
then our Saviour is so far from having put an end to 
the controversy, that he has but entangled it, and made 
it more perplexed than it was before : for it is impos- 
sible the same thing should be given both to God and to 
Caesar. But, you say, he intimates to them what 
things were Caesar's ; to wit, that piece of money, be- 
cause it bore the emperor's stamp : and what of all that ? 
How does this advantage your cause ? You get not 
the emperor, or yourself, a penny by this conclusion. 
Either Christ allowed nothing at all to be Caesar's, 
but that piece of money that he then had in his 
hand, and thereby asserted the people's interest in 
every thing else; or else, if (as you would have us 
understand him) he affirms all money that has the 
emperor's stamp upon it, to be the emperor's own, 



he contradicts himself, and indeed gives the magis- 
trate a property in every man's estate, whenas he 
himself paid his tribute-money with a protestation, that 
it was more than what either Peter or he were bound 
to do. The ground you rely on is very weak ; for 
money bears the prince's image, not as a token of its 
being his, but of its being good metal, and that none 
may presume to counterfeit it. If the writing princes' 
names or setting their stamps upon a thing, vest the 
property of it in them, it were a good ready way for 
them to invade all property. Or rather, if whatever 
subjects have been absolutely at their prince's disposal, 
which is your assertion, that piece of money was not 
Caesar's because his image was stamped on it, but be- 
cause of right it belonged to him before it was coined. 
So that nothing can be more manifest, than that our 
Saviour in this place never intended to teach us our 
duty to magistrates, (he would have spoken more plain- 
ly if he had,) but to reprehend the malice and wicked- 
ness of the hypocritical Pharisees. When they told 
him that Herod laid wait to kill him ; did he return an 
humble, submissive answer? " Go, tell that fox," says 
he, &c. intimating, that kings have no other right to 
destroy their subjects, than foxes have to devour the 
things they prey upon. Say you, " he suffered death 
under a tyrant." How could he possibly under any other? 
But from hence you conclude, that he asserted it to 
be the right of kings to commit murder and act injus- 
tice. You would make an excellent moralist. But 
our Saviour, though he became a servant, not to make 
us so but that we might be free; yet carried he him- 
self so with relation to the magistracy, as not to as- 
cribe any more to them than their due. Now, let us 
come at last to inquire what his doctrine was upon 
this subject. The sons of Zebedee were ambitious of 
honour and power in the kingdom of Christ, which 
they persuaded themselves he would shortly set up 
in the world ; he reproves them so, as withal to let 
all Christians know what form of civil government 
he desires they should settle amongst themselves. 
" Ye know," says he, " that the princes of the Gen- 
tiles exercise dominion over them ; and they that 
are great exercise authority upon them; but it shall 
not be so among you ; but whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever 
will be chief among you, let him be your servant." 
Unless you had been distracted, you could never have 
imagined, that this place makes for you : and yet you 
urge it, and think it furnishes you with an argument 
to prove, that our kings are absolute lords and masters 
over us and ours. May it be our fortune to have to do 
with such enemies in war, as will fall blindfold and 
naked into our camp instead of their own : as you con- 
stantly do, who allege that for yourself, that of all 
things in the world makes most against you. The Is- 
raelites asked God for a king, such a king as other 
nations round about them had. God dissuaded them 
by many arguments, whereof our Saviour here gives 
us an epitome ; " You know that the princes of the 
Gentiles exercise dominion over them." But yet, be- 
cause the Israelites persisted in their desire of a king, 



360 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



God gave them one, though in his wrath. Our Sa- 
viour, lest Christians should desire a king-, such a one 
at least as might rule, as he says the princes of the 
G entiles did, prevents them with an injunction to the 
contrary ; " but it shall not be so among- you." What 
can be said plainer than this ? That stately, imperious 
sway and dominion, that kings use to exercise, shall 
not be amongst you ; what specious titles soever they 
may assume to themselves, as that of benefactors, or 
the like. " But he that will be great amongst you," 
(and who is greater than the prince ?) " let him be your 
servant." So that the lawyer, whoever he be, that you 
are so smart upon, was not so much out of the way, 
but had our Saviour's own authority to back him, when 
he said, that Christian princes were indeed no other 
than the people's servants; it is very certain that all 
good magistrates are so. Insomuch that Christians 
cither must have no king- at all, or if they have, that 
king must be the people's servant. Absolute lordship 
and Christianity are inconsistent. Moses himself, by 
whose ministry that servile oeconomy of the old law 
was instituted, did not exercise an arbitrary, haughty 
power and authority, but bore the burden of the people, 
and carried them in his bosom, as a nursing* father does 
a sucking child, Numb. xi. and what is that of a nurs- 
ing father but a ministerial employment ? Plato would 
not have the magistrates called lords, but servants and 
helpers of the people ; nor the people servants, but 
maintainers of their magistrates, because they give 
meat, drink, and wages to their kings themselves. 
Aristotle calls the magistrates, keepers and ministers of 
the laws. Plato, ministers and servants. The apostle 
calls them ministers of God ; but they are ministers 
and servants of the people, and of the laws, nevertheless 
for all that ; the laws and the magistrates were both 
created for the good of the people : and yet this is it, 
that you call " the opinion of the fanatic mastiffs in 
England." I should not have thought the people of 
England were mastiff dogs, if such a mongrel cur as 
thou art did not bark at them so currishly. The mas- 
ter, if it shall please ye, of St. Lupus,* complains it 
seems, that the mastiffs are mad (fanatics). Germanus 
heretofore, whose colleague that Lupus of Triers was, 
deposed our incestuous king Vortigern by his own au- 
thority. And therefore St. Lupus despises thee, the 
master not of a Holy Wolf, but of some hunger-starved 
thieving little wolf or other, as being more contempt- 
ible than that master of \ ipers, of whom Martial makes 
mention, who bast by relation a barking she-wolf at 
home too, that domineers over thee most wretchedly; 
at whose instigations, as I am informed, thou hast 
wrote this stuff. And therefore it is the less wonder, 
that thou shouldst endeavour to obtrude an absolute 
regal government upon others, who hast been accus- 
tomed to bear a female rule so servilely at home thy- 
self, lie therefore, in the name of God, the master of 
a wolf, lest a she-wolf be thy mistress; be a wolf thy- 
self, be a monster made up of a man and a wolf; what- 
ever thou art, the English mastiffs will but make a 
laughing-stock of thee. But I am not now at leisure 

* Lupus in Latin signifies a wolf. 



to hunt for wolves, and will put an end therefore to 
this digression. You that but a while ago wrote a 
book against all manner of superiority in the church, 
now call St. Peter the prince of the apostles. How 
inconstant you are in your principles ! But what says 
Peter ? " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of 
man, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as 
supreme, or to governours, as unto them that are sent 
by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise 
of them that do well: for so is the will of God," &c. 
This epistle Peter wrote, not only to private persons, 
but those strangers scattered and dispersed through 
Asia ; who, in those places where they sojourned, had 
no other right, than what the laws of hospitality en- 
titled them to. Do you think such men's case to be the 
same with that of natives, freeborn subjects, nobility, 
senates, assemblies of estates, parliaments ? nay, is not 
the case far different of private persons, though in their 
own country; and senators, or magistrates, without 
whom kings themselves cannot possibly subsist ? But 
let us suppose, that St. Peter had directed his epistle 
to the natural-born subjects, and those not private per- 
sons neither; suppose he had writ to the senate of 
Rome; what then ? No law that is grounded upon a 
reason, expressly set down in the law itself, obligeth 
further than the reason of it extends. " Be subject," 
says he, vnoTayyTt : that is, according to the genuine 
sense and import of the word, " be subordinate, or 
legally subject." For the law, Aristotle says, is order. 
" Submit for the Lord's sake." Why so ? Because a 
king is an officer " appointed by God for the punish- 
ment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do 
well; for so is the will of God:" to wit, that we 
should submit and yield obedience to such as are here 
described. There is not a word spoken of any other. 
You see the ground of this precept, and how well it is 
laid. The apostle adds in the 16th verse, as free ; 
therefore not as slaves. What now ? if princes per- 
vert the design of magistracy, and use the power 
that is put into their hands to the ruin and destruction 
of good men, and the praise and encouragement of 
evil-doers ; must we all be condemned to perpetual 
slavery, not private persons only, but our nobility, 
all our inferiour magistrates, our very parliament 
itself? Is not temporal government called a human 
ordinance? How comes it to pass then, that man- 
kind should have power to appoint and constitute what 
may be good and profitable for one another ; and want 
power to restrain or suppress things that are universally 
mischievous and destructive? That prince, you say, 
to whom St. Peter enjoins subjection, was Nero the 
tyrant: and from thence you infer, that it is our duty 
to submit and yield obedience to such. But it is not 
certain, that this epistle was writ in Nero's reign : it is 
as likely to have been writ in Claudius's time. And 
they that are commanded to submit, were private per- 
sons and strangers; they were no consuls, no magis- 
trates: it was not the Roman senate, that St. Peter 
directed his epistle to. Now let us hear what use you 
make of St. Paul, (for you take a freedom with the 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



361 






apostles, I find, that you will not allow us to take with 
princes ; you make St. Peter the chief of them to-day, 
and to-morrow put another in his place). St. Paul in 
his 13th chap, to the Romans, has these words : " Let 
every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there 
is no power but of God ; the powers that be, are or- 
dained of God." I confess he writes this to the Ro- 
mans, not to strangers dispersed, as Peter did ; but, 
however, he writes to private persons, and those of the 
meaner rank; and yet he gives us a true and clear ac- 
count of the reason, the original, and the design of 
government; and shews us the true and proper ground 
of our obedience, that it is far from imposing a neces- 
sity upon us of being slaves. " Let every soul, sa} 7 s 
he, that is, let every man, submit." Chrysostom tells 
us, " that St. Paul's design in this discourse, was to 
make it appear, that our Saviour did not go about to 
introduce principles inconsistent with the civil govern- 
ment, but such as strengthened it, and settled it upon 
the surest foundations." He never intended then by 
setting Nero or any other tyrant out of the reach of all 
laws, to enslave mankind under his lust and cruelty. 
" He intended too, (says the same author,) to dissuade 
from unnecessary and causeless wars." Rut he does 
not condemn a war taken up against a tyrant, a bosom 
enemy of his own country, and consequently the most 
dangerous that may be. " It was commonly said in 
those days, that the doctrine of the apostles was sedi- 
tious, themselves persons that endeavoured to shake 
the settled laws and government of the world ; that 
this was what they aimed at in all they said and did." 
The apostle in this chapter stops the mouths of such 
gainsayers : so that the apostles did not write in de- 
fence of tyrants as you do ; but they asserted such 
things as made them suspected to be enemies to the 
government they lived under, things that stood in need 
of being explained and interpreted, and having an- 
other sense put upon them than was generally received. 
St. Chrysostom has now taught us what the apostle's 
design was in this discourse ; let us now examine his 
words : " Let every soul be subject to the higher 
powers." He tells us not what those higher powers 
are, nor who they are ; for he never intended to over- 
throw all governments, and the several constitutions of 
nations, and subject all to some one man's will. Every 
good emperor acknowledged, that the laws of the em- 
pire, and the authority of the senate, was above him- 
self; and the same principle and notion of government 
has obtained all along in civilized nations. Pindar, as 
he is cited by Herodotus, calls the law iravruv PaaiKsa, 
king over all. Orpheus in his hymns calls it the king 
both of gods and men : and he gives the reason why 
it is so ; because, says he, it is that that sits at the helm 
of all human affairs. Plato in his book de Legibus, 
calls it to xparovv iv rfj 7r6Xei: that that ought to have 
the greatest sway in the commonwealth. In his epis- 
tles he commends that form of government, in which 
the law is made lord and master, and no scope given 
to any man to tyrannize over the laws. Aristotle is of 
the same opinion in his Politicks ; and so is Cicero in 
his book de Legibus, that the laws ought to govern the 



magistrates, as they do the people. The law therefore 
having always been accounted the highest power on 
earth, by the judgment of the most learned and wise 
men that ever were, and by the constitutions of the 
best-ordered states ; and it being very certain, that the 
doctrine of the gospel is neither contrary to reason, nor 
the law of nations, that man is truly and properly sub- 
ject to the higher powers, who obeys the law and the 
magistrates, so far as they govern according to law. 
So that St. Paul does not only command the people, 
but princes themselves, to be in subjection ; who are 
not above the laws, but bound by them, " for there is 
no power but of God :" that is, no form, no lawful con- 
stitution of any government. The most ancient laws 
that are known to us were formerly ascribed to God as 
their author. For the law, says Cicero in his Philip- 
pics, is no other than a rule of well-grounded reason, 
derived from God himself, enjoining whatever is just 
and right, and forbidding the contrary. So that the 
institution of magistracy is Jure Divino, and the end 
of it is, that mankind might live under certain laws, 
and be governed by them. But what particular form 
of government each nation would live under, and what 
persons should be intrusted with the magistracy, with- 
out doubt, was left to the choice of each nation. Hence 
St. Peter calls kings and deputies, human ordinances. 
And Hosea, in the 8th chapter of his prophecy, " they 
have set up kings, but not by me ; they have made 
princes, and I knew it not." For in the commonwealth 
of the Hebrews, where, upon matters of great and 
weighty importance, they could have access to God 
himself, and consult with him, they could not choose 
a king themselves by law, but were to refer the mat- 
ter to him. Other nations have received no such 
command. Sometimes the very form of government, 
if it be amiss, or at least those persons that have the 
power in their hands, are not of God, but of men, or 
of the devil, Luke iv. " All this power will I give 
unto thee, for it is delivered unto me, and I give 
it to whom I will." Hence the devil is called the 
prince of this world ; and in the 12th of the Revela- 
tions, the dragon gave to the beast his power, and his 
throne, and great authority. So that we must not un- 
derstand St. Paul, as if he spoke of all sorts of magis- 
trates in general, but of lawful magistrates; and so they 
are described in what follows. We must also under- 
stand him of the powers themselves; not of those men, 
always, in whose hands they are lodged. St. Chrysos- 
tom speaks very well and clearly upon this occasion. 
" What?" says he, "is every prince then appointed by 
God to be so ? I say no such thing," says he. " St. 
Paul speaks not of the person of the magistrate, but of 
the magistracy itself. He does not say, there is no 
prince but who is of God. He says there is no power 
but of God." Thus far St. Chrysostom ; for what 
powers are, are ordained of God : so that Paul speaks 
only of a lawful magistracy. For what is evil and 
amiss cannot be said to be ordained, because it is dis- 
orderly ; order and disorder cannot consist together in 
the same subject. The apostle says, "the powers that 
be;" and you interpret his words as if he had said, 



362 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



" the powers that now be ;" that you may prove, that 
the Romans ought in conscience to obey Nero, who 
you take for granted was then emperor. T am very 
well content you should read the words so, and draw 
that conclusion from them. The consequence will be, 
that Englishmen ought to yield obedience to the pre- 
sent government, as it is now established according to 
a new model; because you must needs acknowledge, 
that it is the present government, and ordained of God, 
as much at least as Nero's was. And lest you should 
object, that Nero came to the empire by a lawful suc- 
cession, it is apparent from the Roman history, that 
both he and Tiberius got into the chair by the tricks 
and artifices of their mothers, and had no right at all 
to the succession. So that you are inconsistent with 
yourself, and retract from your own principles, in af- 
firming that the Romans owed subjection to the govern- 
ment that then was ; and yet denying- that Englishmen 
owe subjection to the government that now is. But it 
is no wonder, to hear you contradict yourself. There 
are no two things in the world more directly opposite 
and contrary to one another, than you are to yourself. 
But what will become of you, poor wretch ? You 
have quite undone the young king with your witticisms, 
and ruined his fortunes utterly; for according to your 
own doctrine you must needs confess, that this present 
government in England is ordained of God, and that 
all Englishmen are bound in conscience to submit to 
it. Take notice, all ye critics and textuaries ; do 
not you presume to meddle with this text. Thus 
Salmasius corrects that passage in the epistle to the 
Romans : he has made a discovery, that the words 
ought not to be read, " the powers that are ; but, the 
powers that now are :" and all this to prove, that all 
men owed subjection and obedience to Nero the tyrant, 
whom he supposed to have been then emperor. This 
Epistle, which you say was writ in Nero's time, was 
writ in his predecessor's time, who was an honest well- 
meaning man : and this learned men evince by unde- 
niable arguments. But besides, the five first years of 
Nero's reign were without exception. So that this 
threadbare argument, which so many men have at their 
tongues' end, and have been deceived by, to wit, that 
tyrants are to be obeyed, because St. Paul enjoins a 
subjection to Nero, is evident to have been but a cun- 
ning invention of some ignorant parson. He that re- 
sists the powers, to wit, a law ul power, resists the 
ordinance of God. Kings themselves come under 
the penalty of this law, when they resist the senate, 
and act contrary to the laws. But do they resist the 
ordinance of God, that resist an unlawful power, or a 
person that goes about to overthrow and destroy a law- 
ful one? No man living in his right wits can maintain 
such an assertion. The words immediately after make 
it u clear as the sun, that the apostle speaks only of a 
lawful power; for lie gives us in them a definition of 
magistrates, and thereby explains to us who are the 
persons thus authorized, and upon what account we 
are to yi< Id obedience, lest we should be apt to mistake 
and ground extravagant notions upon his discourse. 
" The magistrates," says be, " are not a terrour to good 



works, but to evil: Wilt thou then not be afraid of the 
power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have 
praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to 
thee for good. He beareth not the sword in vain ; for 
he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath 
upon him that doth evil." What honest man would 
not willingly submit to such a magistracy as is here 
described ? And that not only to avoid wrath, and for 
fear of punishment, but for conscience sake. Without 
magistrates, and some form or other of civil govern- 
ment, no commonwealth, no human society, can subsist, 
there were no living in the world. But whatever 
power enables a man, or whatsoever magistrate takes 
upon him, to act contrary to what St. Paul makes the 
duty of those that are in authority ; neither is that 
power nor that magistrate ordained of God. And con- 
sequently to such a magistracy no subjection is com- 
manded, nor is any due, nor are the people forbidden 
to resist such authority ; for in so doing they do not 
resist the power, nor the magistracy, as they are here 
excellently well described ; but they resist a robber, a 
tyrant, an enemy ; who if he may notwithstanding in 
some sense be called a magistrate, upon this account 
only, because he has power in his hands, which per- 
haps God may have invested him with for our punish- 
ment; by the same reason the devil may be called a 
magistrate. This is most certain, that there can be 
but one true definition of one and the same thing. So 
that if St. Paul in this place define what a magistrate 
is, which he certainly does, and that accurately well ; 
he cannot possibly define a tyrant, the most contrary 
thing imaginable, in the same words. Hence I infer, 
that he commands us to submit to such magistrates 
only as he himself defines and describes, and not to 
tyrants, which are quite other things. " For this cause 
you pay tribute also :" he gives a reason together with 
a command. Hence St. Chrysostom ; " why do we 
pay tribute to princes? Do we not," adds he, "there- 
by reward them for the care they take of our safety? 
We should not have paid them any tribute, if we had 
not been convinced, that it was good for us to live 
under a government." So that I must here repeat 
what I have said already, that since subjection is not 
absolutely enjoined, but on a particular reason, that 
reason must be the rule of our subjection : where that 
reason holds, we are rebels if we submit not ; where it 
holds not, we are cowards and slaves if we do. "But," 
say you, " the English are far from being freemen ; 
for they are wicked and flagitious." I will not 
reckon up here the vices of the French, though they 
live under a kingly government ; neither will I excuse 
my own countrymen too far : but this I may safely say, 
whatever vices they have, they have learnt them under 
a kingly government ; as the Israelites learnt a great 
deal of wickedness in Egypt. And as they, when 
they were brought into the wilderness, and lived 
under the immediate government of God himself, could 
hardly reform, just so it is with us. But there are good 
hopes of many amongst us ; that I may not here cele- 
brate those men who are eminent for their piety and 
virtue and love of the truth ; of which sort I persuade 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



363 



myself we have as great a number, as where you think 
there are most such. " But they have laid a heavy 
yoke upon the English nation:" what if they have, 
upon those of them that endeavoured to lay a heavy 
yoke upon all the rest? upon those that have deserved 
to be put under the hatches ? As for the rest, I question 
not but they are very well content to be at the expense 
of maintaining their own liberty, the public treasury 
being exhausted by the civil wars. Now he betakes 
himself to the fabulous rabbins again : he asserts fre- 
quently, that kings are bound by no laws ; and yet 
he proves, that according to the sense of the rabbins, 
" a king may be guilty of treason, by suffering an in- 
vasion upon the rights of his crown." So kings are 
bound by laws, and they are not bound by them ; they 
may be criminals, and yet they may not be so. This 
man contradicts himself so perpetually, that contradic- 
tion and he seem to be of kin to one another. You 
say that God himself put many kingdoms under the 
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I confess 
he did so for a time, Jer. xxvii. 7, but do you make 
appear, if you can, that he put the English nation into 
a condition of slavery to Charles Stuart for a minute. 
I confess he suffered them to be enslaved by him for 
some time; but I never yet heard, that himself ap- 
pointed it so to be. Or if you will have it so, that God 
shall be said to put a nation under slavery, when a ty- 
rant prevails ; why may he not as well be said to de- 
liver them from his tyranny, when the people prevail 
and get the upper hand ? Shall his tyranny be said to 
be of God, and not our liberty ? There is no evil in the 
city, that the Lord hath not done, Amos iii. So that 
famine, pestilence, sedition, war, all of them are of 
God ; and is it therefore unlawful for a people afflicted 
with any of these plagues, to endeavour to get rid of 
them ? Certainly they would do their utmost, though 
they know them to be sent by God, unless himself mira- 
culously from heaven should command the contrary : 
and why may they not by the same reason rid them- 
selves of a tyrant, if they are stronger than he ? Why 
should we suppose his weakness to be appointed by 
God for the ruin and destruction of the commonwealth, 
rather than the power and strength of all the people for 
the good of the state? Far be it from all commonwealths, 
from all societies of freeborn men, to maintain not only 
such pernicious, but such stupid and senseless, prin- 
ciples ; principles that subvert all civil society, that to 
gratify a few tyrants, level all mankind with brutes; 
and by setting princes out of the reach of human laws, 
give them an equal power over both. I pass by those 
foolish dilemmas that you now make, which that you 
might take occasion to propose, you feign some or other 
to assert, that the " superlative power of princes is de- 
rived from the people;" though for my own part I do 
not at all doubt, but that all the power that any magis- 
trates have is so. Hence Cicero, in his Orat. pro Flac- 
co, " Our wise and holy ancestors," says he, " appointed 
those things to obtain for laws, that the people enact- 
ed." And hence it is, that Lucius Crassus, an excellent 
Roman orator, and at that time president of the senate, 
when in a controversy betwixt them and the common 



people, he asserted their rights, " I beseech you, says 
he, suffer not us to live in subjection to any, but your- 
selves, to the entire body of whom we can and ought 
to submit." For though the Roman senate governed 
the people, the people themselves had appointed them 
to be their governors, and had put that power into their 
hands. We read the term of Majesty more frequently 
applied to the people of Rome, than to their kings. 
Tully in Orat. pro Flancio, " it is the condition of all 
free people, (says he,) and especially of this people, the 
lord of all nations, by their votes to give or take away, 
to or from any, as themselves see cause. It is the duty 
of the magistrates patiently to submit to what the body 
of the people enact. Those that are not ambitious of 
honour, have the less obligation upon them to court 
the people : those that affect preferment, must not be 
weary of entreating them." Should I scruple to call a 
king the servant of his people, when I hear the Ro- 
man senate, that reigned over so many kings, profess 
themselves to be but the people's servants? You will 
object perhaps, and say, that all this is very true in a 
popular state; but the case was altered afterwards, 
when the regal law transferred all the people's right 
unto Augustus and his successors. But what think you 
then of Tiberius, whom yourself confess to have been a 
very great tyrant, as he certainly was ? Suetonius says 
of him, that when he was once called Lord or Master, 
though after the enacting of that Lex Regia, he de- 
sired the person that gave him that appellation, to for- 
bear abusing him. How does this sound in your ears? 
a tyrant thinks one of his subjects abuses him in call- 
ing him Lord. The same emperor in one of his speeches 
to the senate, " I have said," says he, " frequently, here- 
tofore, and now I say it again, that a good prince, whom 
you have invested with so great a power as I am intrust- 
ed with, ought to serve the senate and the body of the 
people, and sometimes even particular persons; nor do I 
repent of having said so : I confess that you have been 
good, and just, and indulgent masters to me, and that 
you are yet so." You may say, that he dissembled in 
all this, as he was a great proficient in the art of hypo- 
crisy; but that is all one. No man endeavours to 
appear otherwise than he ought to be. Hence Tacitus 
tells us, that it was the custom in Rome for the empe- 
rors in the Circus, to worship the people ; and that both 
Nero and other emperors practised it. Claudian in his 
panegyric upon Honorius mentions the same custom. 
By which sort of adoration what could possibly be 
meant, but that the emperors of Rome, even after the 
enacting of the Lex Regia, confessed the whole body 
of the people to be their superiours ? But I find, as I 
suspected at first, and so I told ye, that you have spent 
more time and pains in turning over glossaries, and 
criticising upon texts, and propagating such-like labo- 
rious trifles, than in reading sound authors so as to im- 
prove your knowledge by them. For had you been 
never so little versed in the writings of learned men in 
former ages, you would not have accounted an opinion 
new, and the product of some enthusiastic heads, which 
has been asserted and maintained by the greatest phi- 
losophers, and most famous politicians in the world. 



364 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



You endeavour to expose one Martin, who you tell us 
was a tailor, and one William a tanner ; but if they 
are such as you describe them, I think they and you 
may very well go tog-ether; though they themselves 
would be able to instruct you, and unfold those myste- 
rious riddles that you propose : as, " Whether or no they 
that in a monarchy would have the king- but a servant 
to the commonwealth, will say the same thing of the 
whole body of the people in a popular state? And 
whether all the people serve in a democracy, or only 
some part or other serve the rest?" And when they 
have been an CEdipus to you, by my consent you shall 
be a sphinx to them in good earnest, and throw your- 
self headlong from some precipice or other, and break 
your neck ; for else I am afraid you will never have 
done with your riddles and fooleries. You ask, " Whe- 
ther or no, when St. Paul names kings, he meant the 
people ?" I confess St. Paul commands us to pray for 
kings, but he had commanded us to pray for the people 
before, ver. 1. But there are some for all that, both 
among kings and common people, that we are forbid- 
den to pray for; and if a man may not so much as be 
prayed for, may he not be punished ? What should 
hinder? But, " when Paul wrote this epistle, he that 
reigned was the most profligate person in the world." 
That is false. For Ludovicus Capellus makes it evi- 
dent, that this epistle likewise was writ in Claudius's 
time. When St. Paul has occasion to speak of Nero, 
he calls him not a king, but a lion ; that is, a wild, sa- 
vage beast, from whose jaws he is glad he was de- 
livered, 2 Tim. iv. So that it is for kings, not for 
beasts, that we are to pray, that under them we may 
live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and ho- 
nesty. Kings and their interest are not the things here 
intended to be advanced and secured ; it is the public 
peace, godliness, and honesty, whose establishment we 
are commanded to endeavour after, and to pray for. 
But is there any people in the world, that would not 
choose rather to live an honest and careful life, though 
never free from war and troubles, in the defence of them- 
selves and their families, whether against tyrants or 
enemies, (for I make no difference,) than under the 
power of a tyrant or an enemy, to spin out a life 
equally troublesome, accompanied with slavery and ig- 



iny 



That the latter is the more desirable of the 



two, I will prove by a testimony of your own; not be- 
cause I think your authority worth quoting, but that 
all men may observe how double-tongued you are, and 
how mercenary your pen is. "Who would not rather," 
say you, " bear with those dissensions, that through 
the emulation of great men often happen in an aristo- 
eratica] government, than live under the tyrannical 
government of one, where nothing but certain misery 
and ruin is to be looked for? The people of Rome 
pr< ferred their commonwealth, though never so much 
■battered with civil broils, before the intolerable yoke 
of their emperors. When a people, to avoid sedition, 
■obmiteto a monarchy, and finds by experience, that 
(fall i> the worst e\ il of the two, they often desire to re- 
turn to their former government again." These arc 
your own words, and more you have to this purpose in 



that discourse concerning bishops, which under a 
feigned name you wrote against Petavius the Jesuit; 
though yourself are more a Jesuit than he, nay worse 
than any of that crew. We have already heard the 
sense of the Scripture upon this subject ; and it has been 
worth our while to take some pains to find it out. But 
perhaps it will not be so to inquire into the judgment 
of the fathers, and to ransack their volumes : for if they 
assert any thing, which is not warranted by the word of 
God, we may safely reject their authority, be it never 
so great; and particularly that expression that you al- 
lege out of Irenoeus, " that God in his providence orders 
it so, that such kings reign as are suitable to and pro- 
per for the people they are to govern, all circumstances 
considered." That expression, I say, is directly contrary 
to Scripture. For though God himself declared openly, 
that it was better for his own people to be governed by 
judges, than by kings, yet he left it to them to change 
that form of government for a worse, if they would 
themselves. And we read frequently, that when the 
body of the people has been good, they have had a 
wicked king, and contrariwise that a good king has 
sometimes reigned, when the people have been wicked. 
So that wise and prudent men are to consider and see 
what is profitable and fit for the people in general ; for 
it is very certain, that the same form of government is 
not equally convenient for all nations, nor for the same 
nation at all times ; but sometimes one, sometimes an- 
other may be more proper, according as the industry 
and valour of the people may increase or decay. But 
if you deprive the people of this liberty of setting up 
what government they like best among themselves, you 
take that from them, in which the life of all civil liberty 
consists. Then you tell us of Justin Martyr, of his 
humble and submissive behaviour to the Antonines, 
those best of emperors ; as if any body would not do 
the like to princes of such moderation as they were. 
" How much worse Christians are we in these days, 
than those were! They were content to live under a 
prince of another religion." Alas! they were private 
persons, and infinitely inferior to the contrary party in 
strength and number. "But now papists will not 
endure a protestant prince, nor protestants one that is 
popish." You do well and discreetly in showing your- 
self to be neither papist nor protestant. And you are 
very liberal in your concessions ; for now you confess, 
that all sorts of Christians agree in that very thing, 
that you alone take upon you with so much impudence 
and wickedness, to cry down and oppose. And how 
unlike those fathers that you commend, do you shew 
yourself: they wrote apologies for the Christians to 
heathen princes ; you in defence of a wicked popish 
king, against Christians and protestants. Then you 
entertain us with a number of impertinent quotations 
out of Athenagoras and Tertullian : things that we 
have already heard out of the writings of the apostles, 
much more clearly and intelligibly exprest. But Ter- 
tullian was quite of a different opinion from yours, of a 
king's being a lord and master over his subjects : which 
you either knew not, or wickedly dissembled. For he, 
though he were a Christian, and directed his discourse 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



365 



to a heathen emperor, had the confidence to tell him, 
that an emperor ought not to be called Lord. " Augus- 
tus himself, says he, that formed this empire, refused 
that appellation ; it is a title proper to God only. Not 
but that the title of Lord and Master may in some sense 
be ascribed to the emperor : but there is a peculiar 
sense of that word, which is proper to God only ; and 
in that sense, I will not ascribe it to the emperor. I 
am the emperor's freeman. God alone is my Lord and 
Master." And the same author, in the same discourse ; 
" how inconsistent," says he, " are those two appella- 
tions, Father of his country, and Lord and Master !" 
And now I wish you much joy of Tertullian's autho- 
rity, whom it had been a great deal better you had let 
alone. But Tertullian calls them parricides that slew 
Domitian. And he does well, for so they were, his 
wife and servants conspired against him. And they 
set one Parthenius and Stephanus, who were accused 
for concealing part of the public treasure, to make him 
away. If the senate and the people of Rome had pro- 
ceeded against him according to the custom of their 
ancestors; had given judgment of death against him, 
as they did once against Nero; and had made search 
for him to put him to death ; do ye think Tertullian 
would have called them parricides? If he had, he 
would have deserved to be hanged, as you do. I give 
the same answer to your quotation out of Origen, that 
I have given already to what you have cited out 
of Irenseus. Athanasius indeed says, that kings are 
not accountable before human tribunals. But I won- 
der who told Athanasius this ! I do not hear, that he 
produces any authority from Scripture, to confirm this 
assertion. And I will rather believe kings and emper- 
ors themselves, who deny that they themselves have 
any such privilege, than I will Athanasius. Then you 
quote Ambrosius, who after he had been a proconsul, 
and after that became a catechumen, at last got into a 
bishopric : but for his authority, I say, that his inter- 
pretation of those words of David, " against thee only 
I have sinned," is both ignorant and adulatory. He 
was willing all others should be enthralled to the em- 
peror, that he might enthral the emperor to himself. 
We all know with what a papal pride and arrogancy 
he treated Theodosius the emperor, how he took upon 
him to declare him guilty of that massacre at Thessa- 
lonica, and to forbid him coming into the church : how 
miserably raw in divinity, and unacquainted with the 
doctrine of the gospel, he shewed himself upon that 
occasion ; when the emperor fell down at his feet, he 
commanded him to get him out of the porch. At last, 
when he was received again into the communion of 
the church, and had offered, because he continued 
standing near to the altar, the magisterial prelate com- 
manded him out of the rails : " O Emperor," says he, 
" these inner places are for the priests only, it is not 
lawful for others to come within them!" Does this 
sound like the behaviour of a minister of the gospel, or 
like that of a Jewish high-priest ? And yet this man, 
such as we hear he was, would have the emperor ride 
other people, that himself might ride him, which is a 
common trick of almost all ecclesiastics. With words to 



this purpose, he put back the emperor as inferior to 
himself; "You rule over men," saith he, "that are 
partakers of the same nature, and fellow-servants with 
yourself: for there is only one Lord and King over all, 
to wit, the Creator of all." This is very pretty ! This 
piece of truth, which the craft and flattery of clergy- 
men has all along endeavoured to suppress and obscure, 
was then brought to light by the furious passion, or 
to speak more mildly, by the ignorant indiscreet zeal, 
of one of them. After you have displayed Ambrose's 
ignorance, you shew your own, or rather, vent a heresy 
in affirming point blank, That " under the Old Testa- 
ment, there was no such thing as forgiveness of sins 
upon the account of Christ's sufferings, since David 
confessed his transgression, saying, Against thee only 
have I sinned," Psal. lviii. It is the orthodox tenet, 
that there never was any remission of sins, but by the 
blood of the Lamb that was slain from the beginning 
of the world. I know not whose disciple you are, that 
set up for a broacher of new heresies : but certain I 
am, that that great divine's disciple, whom you are so 
angry with, did not mistake himself, when he said, 
that any one of David's subjects might have said, 
"Against thee only have I sinned," as properly, and 
with as much right, as David himself. Then you 
quote St. Austin, and produce a company of Hipponen- 
sian divines. What you allege out of St. Austin makes 
not at all against us. We confess that as the prophet 
Daniel has it, it is God that changeth times, sets up 
one kingdom, and pulls down another; we only desire 
to have it allowed us, that he makes use of men as his 
instruments. If God alone gave a kingdom to King 
Charles, God alone has taken it from him again, and 
given it to the parliament, and to the people. If there- 
fore our allegiance was due to King Charles, because 
God had given him a kingdom ; for the same reason it 
is now due to the present magistracy. For yourself 
confess, that God has given our magistrates such power 
as he uses to give to wicked princes, for the punish- 
ment of the nation. And the consequence of this will 
be, that according to your own opinion, our present 
magistrates being raised and appointed by God, cannot 
lawfully be deposed by any, but God himself. Thus 
you overthrow the opinion you pretend to maintain, 
which is a thing very frequent with you ; your apology 
for the king carries its death's wound in it. You 
have attained to such a prodigious degree of mad- 
ness and stupidity, as to prove it unlawful upon any 
account whatsoever, to lift up one's finger against 
magistrates, and with the very next breath to affirm, 
that it is the duty of their subjects to rise up in re- 
bellion against them. You tell us, that St. Jerora calls 
Ishmael, that slew Gedaliah, a parricide or traitor: 
and it is very true, that he was so : for Gedaliah was 
deputy governor of Judsea, a good man, and slain by 
Ishmael without any cause. The same author in his 
comment upon the book of Ecclesiastes, says, that 
Solomon's command to keep the king's commandment, 
is the same with St. Paul's doctrine upon the same 
subject ; and deserves commendation for having made 
a more moderate construction of that text, than most 



366 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



of his contemporaries. You say, you will forbear in- 
quiring into the sentiments of learned men that lived 
since St. Austin's time: but to shew that you had 
rather dispense with a lie, than not quote any author 
that you think makes for } r ou, in the very next period 
but one you produce the authorities of Isidore, Gregory, 
and Otho, Spanish and Dutch authors, that lived in 
the most barbarous and ignorant ages of all ; whose 
authorities, if you knew how much we despise, you 
would not have told a lie to have quoted them. But 
would you know the reason why he dares not come so 
low as to the present times ? why he does as it were 
hide himself, and disappear, when he comes towards 
our own times? The reason is, because he knows full 
well, that as many eminent divines as there are of the 
reformed churches, so many adversaries he would have 
to encounter. Let him take up the cudgels, if he 
thinks fit ; he will quickly find himself run down with 
innumerable authorities out of Luther, Zuinglius, Cai- 
viu, Bucer, Martyr, Parseus, and the rest. I could 
oppose you with testimonies out of divines, that have 
flourished even in Leyden. Though that famous uni- 
versity and renowned commonwealth, which has been 
as it were a sanctuary for liberty, those fountains and 
streams of all polite learning, have not yet been able 
to wash away that slavish rust that sticks to you, and 
infuse a little humanity into you. Finding yourself 
destitute of any assistance or help from orthodox pro- 
testant divines, you have the impudence to betake 
yourself to the Sorbonists, whose college you know is 
devoted to the Romish religion, and consequently but 
of xery weak authority amongst protestants. We are 
willing to deliver so wicked an assertor of tyranny as 
you, to be drowned in the Sorbonne, as being ashamed 
to own so despicable a slave as you shew yourself to 
be, by maintaining that the whole body of a nation is 
not equal in power to the most slothful degenerate 
prince that may be. You labour in vain to lay that 
upon the pope, which all free nations, and all orthodox 
divines, own and assert. But the 



pop* 



and his ch 



when they were in a low condition, and but of small 
account in the world, were the first authors of this per- 
nicious absurd doctrine of yours; and when by preach- 
ing such doctrine they had gotten power into their 
own hands, they became the worst of tyrants them- 
selves. Yet they engaged all princes to them by the 
closest tie imaginable, persuading the world, that was 
now besotted with their superstition, that it was un- 
lawful to depose princes, though never so bad, unless 
the pope dispensed with their allegiance to them, by 
absolving them from their oaths. But you avoid or- 
thodox writers, and endeavour to burden the truth with 
prejndice and calumny, by making the pope the first 
assertor of what is a known and common received 
opinion amongst them; which if you did not do it 
( unninglv, you would make yourself appear to be 
neither papist nor protestant, but a kind of mongrel 
Idumean Herodian. For as they of old adored one 
most inhuman Moody tyrant for the Messias, so you 
Would have the world fall down and worship all. You 
boast, that " you have confirmed your opinion by the 



testimonies of the fathers that flourished in the four 
first centuries; whose writings only are evangelical, 
and according to the truth of the christian religion." 
This man is past all shame ! how many things did they 
preach, how many things have they published, which 
Christ and his apostles never taught ! How many 
things are there in their writings, in which all protest- 
ant divines differ from them ! But what is that opinion 
that you have confirmed by their authorities? " Why, 
that evil princes are appointed by God." Allow that, 
as all other pernicious and destructive things are. 
What then ? why, " that therefore they have no judge 
but God alone, that they are above all human laws ; 
that there is no law, written or unwritten, no law of 
nature, nor of God, to call them to account before their 
own subjects." But how comes that to pass? Certain 
I am that there is no law against it: no penal law ex- 
cepts kings. And all reason and justice requires, that 
those that offend, should be punished according to 
their deserts, without respect of persons. Nor have 
you hitherto produced any one law, either written or 
unwritten, of God or of nature, by which this is forbid- 
den. What stands in the way then ? Why may not 
kings be proceeded against ? Why, " because they 
are appointed by God, be they never so bad." I do 
not know whether I had best call you a knave, or a 
fool, or ignorant, unlearned barbarian. You shew 
yourself a vile wretch, by propagating a doctrine so 
destructive and pernicious ; and you are a fool for 
backing it with such silly arguments. God says in 
Isa. liv. " I have created the slayer to destroy." Then 
by your reason a murderer is above the laAvs. Turn 
this topsyturvy, and consider it as long as you will, 
you will find the consequence to be the same with your 
own. For the pope is appointed by God, just as ty- 
rants are, and set up for the punishment of the church, 
which I have already demonstrated out of your own 
writings. " And yet," say you, Wal. Mes. pag. 412, 
" because he has raised his primacy to an insufferable 
height of power, so as that he has made it neither bet- 
ter nor worse than plain downright tj 7 ranny, both he 
and his bishops may be put down more lawfully, than 
they were at first set up." You tell us, that the pope 
and the bishops (though God in his wrath appointed 
them) may yet lawfully be rooted out of the church, 
because they are tyrants ; and yet you deny that it is 
lawful to depose a tyrant in the commonwealth, and 
that for no other reason, than because God appointed 
him, though he did it in his ang-er. What ridiculous 
stuff is this ! for whereas the pope cannot hurt a man's 
conscience against his own will, for in the consciences 
of men it is that his kingdom consists, yet you are for 
deposing him as a grievous tyrant, in whose own power 
it is not to be a tyrant ; and yet you maintain, that a 
tyrant properly and truly so called, a tyrant that has 
all our lives and estates within his reach, without whose 
assistance the pope himself could not exercise his ty- 
ranny in the church, ought for conscience sake to be 
born withal and submitted to. These assertions com- 
pared with one another betray your childishness to that 
degree, that no man can read your books, but must of 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



367 



necessity take notice of your ignorance, rashness, and 
incogitancy. But you allege another reason, " human 
affairs would be turned upside down." They would 
so, and be changed for the better. Human affairs would 
certainly be in a deplorable condition, if being once 
troubled and disordered, there was a necessity of their 
continuing always so. I say, they would be changed 
for the better, for the king's power would revert to the 
people, from whom it was first derived, and conferred 
upon one of themselves ; and the power would be trans- 
ferred from him that abused it, to them that were pre- 
judiced and injured by the abuse of it; than which 
nothing can be more just, for there could not well be 
an umpire in such a case; who would stand to the 
judgment of a foreigner? all mankind would equally 
be subject to the laws ; there would be no gods of flesh 
and blood : which kind of deities whoever goes about 
to set up in the world, they are equally injurious to 
church and commonwealth. Now I must turn your 
own weapons upon you again. You say, " there can 
be no greater heresy than this, to set up one man in 
Christ's seat. These two are infallible marks of Anti- 
christ, infallibility in spirituals, and omnipotence in tem- 
porals." Apparat. ad Prim, page 171. Do you pretend 
that kings are infallible ? If you do not, why do you 
make them omnipotent ? And how comes it to pass, 
that an unlimited power in one man should be accounted 
less destructive to temporal thing's, than it is to eccle- 
siastical ? Or do you think, that God takes no care at 
all of civil affairs ? If he takes none himself, I am sure 
he does not forbid us to take care which way they go. 
If he does take any care about them, certainly he would 
have the same reformation made in the commonwealth, 
that he would have made iu the church, especially it 
being* obvious to every man's experience, that infalli- 
bility and omnipotency being arrogated to one man, 
are equally mischievous in both. God has not so mo- 
delled the government of the world as to make it the 
duty of any civil community to submit to the cruelties 
of tyrants, and yet to leave the church at liberty to free 
themselves from slavery and tyranny ; nay, rather quite 
contrary, he has put no arms into the church's hand 
but those of patience and innocence, prayer and eccle- 
siastical discipline ; but in the commonwealth, all the 
magistracy are by him entrusted with the preservation 
and execution of the laws, with the power of punishing 
and revenging; he has put the sword into their hands. 
I cannot but smile at this man's preposterous whimsies ; 
in ecclesiastics he is Helvidius, Thraseas, a perfect ty- 
rannicide. In politics no man more a lackey and slave 
to tyrants than he. If his doctrine hold, not we only 
that have deposed our king, but the protestants in gene- 
ral, who against the minds of their princes have rejected 
the pope, are all rebels alike. But I have confounded 
him long enough with his own arguments. Such is 
the nature of the beast, lest his adversary should be 
unprovided, he himself furnishes him with weapons. 
Never did any man give his antagonist greater advan- 
tages against himself than he does. They that he has 
to do withal, will be sooner weary of pursuing him, 
than he of flying. 



CHAP. XV. 

Perhaps you think, Salmasius, that you have done 
enough to ingratiate yourself with princes ; that you 
have deserved w T ell of them : but if they consider their 
own interest, and take their measures according to 
what it really is, not according to the false gloss that 
your flatterers have put upon it, there never was any 
man in the world that deserved so ill of them as you, 
none more destructive and pernicious to them and their 
interest in the whole world than yourself. For by ex- 
alting the power of kings above all human laws, you 
tell all mankind that are subject to such a government, 
that they are no better than slaves, and make them 
but the more desirous of liberty by discovering to them 
their errour, and putting that into their heads, that they 
never so much as dreamt of before, to wit, that they 
are slaves to their princes. And without doubt such a 
sort of government will be more irksome and uusufFer- 
able, by how much the more you persuade the world, 
that it is not by the allowance and submission of na- 
tions, that kings have obtained this exorbitant power ; 
but that is absolutely essential to such a form of govern- 
ment, and of the nature of the thing itself. So that 
whether you make the world of your mind or no, your 
doctrine must needs be mischievous and destructive, 
and such as cannot but be abhorred of all princes. 
For if you should work men into a persuasion, that the 
right of kings is without all bounds, they would no 
longer be subject to a kingly government; if you miss 
of your aim, yet you make men weary of kings, by 
telling them that they assume such a power to them- 
selves, as of right belonging to them. But if princes 
will allow of those principles that I assert; if they will 
suffer themselves and their own power to be circum- 
scribed by laws, instead of an uncertain, weak, and 
violent government, full of cares and fears, they will 
reign peaceably, quietly, and securely. If they slight 
this counsel of mine, though wholesome iu itself, be- 
cause of the meanness of the author, they shall know 
that it is not my counsel only, but what was anciently 
advised by one of the wisest of kings. For Lycurgus 
king of Lacedemon, when he observed that his own re- 
lations that were princes of Arg-os and Messana, by en- 
deavouring to introduce an arbitrary government had 
ruined themselves and their people; he, that he might 
benefit his country, and secure the succession to his own 
family, could think upon no better expedient, than to 
communicate his power to the senate, and taking' the 
great men of the realm into part of the government with 
himself; and by this means the crown continued in his 
family for many ages. But whether it was Lycurgus, or, 
as some learned men are of opinion, Theopompus, that in- 
troduced that mixed form of government among the La- 
cedemonians, somewhat more than a hundred years after 
Lycurgus's time, (of whom it is recorded, that he used 
to boast, that by advancing the power of the senate 
above that of the prince, he had settled the kingdom 
upon a sure foundation, and was like to leave it in a 
lasting and durable condition to his posterity,) which of 



368 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



them soever it was, T say, he has left a good example 
to modern princes; and was as creditable a counsellor, 
as his counsel was safe. For that all men should sub- 
mit to any one man, so as to acknowledge a power in 
him superior to all human laws, neither did any law 
ever enact, nor indeed was it possible that any such 
law should ever be; for that cannot be said to be a law 
that strikes at the root of all laws, and takes them quite 
away: it being- apparent that your positions are incon- 
sistent with the nature of all laws, being- such as ren- 
der them no laws at all. You endeavour notwith- 
standing-, in this fourth chapter, to make g-ood by 
examples, what you have not been able to do by any 
reasons that you have alleg-ed hitherto. Let us con- 
sider whether your examples help your cause ; for they 
many times make things plain, which the laws are 
either altogether silent in, or do but hint at. We will 
begin first with the Jews, whom we suppose to have 
known most of the mind of God ; and then, according 
to your own method, we will come to the times of 
Christianity. And first, for those times in which the 
Israelites being subject to kings, who, or howsoever 
they were, did their utmost to cast that slavish yoke 
from off their necks. Eglon the king of Moab had 
made a conquest of them ; the seat of his empire 
was at Jericho ; he was no contemner of the true God ; 
when his name was mentioned, he rose from his seat: 
the Israelites had served him eighteen years ; they sent 
a present to him, not as to an enemy, but to their own 
prince ; notwithstanding which outward veneration 
and profession of subjection, they killed him by a wile, 
as an enemy to their country. You will say perhaps, 
that Ehud, who did that action, had a warrant from 
God for so doing. He had so, it is like; and what 
greater argument of its being a warrantable and 
praiseworthy action ? God uses not to put men upon 
things that are unjust, treacherous, and cruel, but upon 
such things as are virtuous and laudable. But we read 
no where that there was any positive command from 
Heaven in the case. " The Israelites called upon 
God ;" so did we. And God stirred up a saviour for 
them ; so he did for us. Eglon of a neighbouring 
prince became a prince of the Jews; of an enemy to 
them he became their king. Our gentleman of an 
English king became an enemy to the English nation; 
so that he ceased to be a king. Those capacities are 
inconsistent. No man can be a member of the state, 
and an enemy to it at the same time. Antony was 
never looked upon by the Romans as a consul, nor 
Nero as an emperor, after the senate had voted them 
both enemies. This Cicero tells us in his Fourth Phi- 
lippic : "If Antony be a consul," says he, "Brutus is 
an enemy; but if Brutus be a saviour and preserver of 
the commonwealth, Antony is an enemy: none but 
robbers count him a consul." By the same reason, say 
I, who but enemies to their country look upon a ty- 
rant as a king? So that Eglon's being a foreigner, 
and King Charles a prince of our own, will make no 
difference in the case; both being enemies and both 
tyrants, they are in the same circumstances. If Ehud 
killed him justly, we have done so too in putting our 



king to death. Samson that renowned champion of 
the Hebrews, though his countrymen blamed him for 
it, " Dost thou not know," say they, " that the Philis- 
tines have dominion over us ?" Yet against those 
Philistines, under whose dominion he was, he himself 
undertook a war in his own person, without any other 
help ; and whether he acted in pursuance of a com- 
mand from Heaven, or was prompted by his own valour 
only, or whatsoever inducement he had, he did not 
put to death one, but many, that tyrannized over his 
country, having first called upon God by prayer, and 
implored his assistance. So that Samson counted it no 
act of impiety, but quite contrary, to kill those that 
enslaved his country, though they had dominion over 
himself too ; and though the greater part of his coun- 
trymen submitted to their tyranny. " But yet David, 
who was both a king and a prophet, would not take 
away Saul's life, because he was God's anointed." 
Does it follow, that because David refused to do a 
thing, therefore we are obliged not to do that very 
thing ? David was a private person, and would not 
kill the king ; is that a precedent for a parliament, for 
a whole nation ? David would not revenge his own 
quarrel, by putting- his enemy to death by stealth ; 
does it follow, that therefore the magistrates must not 
punisr a malefactor according to law ? He would not 
kill a king ; must not an assembly of the states there- 
fore punish a tyrant ? he scrupled the killing of God's 
anointed ; must the people therefore scruple to condemn 
their own anointed ? especially one that after having 
so long professed hostility against his own people, and 
washed oft* that anointing of his, whether sacred or 
civil, with the blood of his own subjects. I confess 
that those kings, whom God by his prophets anointed 
to be kings, or appointed to some special service, as he 
did Cyrus, Isa. xliv. may not improperly be called the 
Lord's anointed : but all other princes, according to the 
several ways of their coming to the government, are 
the people's anointed, or the army's, or many times the 
anointed of their own faction only. But taking it for 
granted, that all kings are God's anointed, you can 
never prove, that therefore they are above all laws, 
and not to be called in question, what villanies soever 
they commit. What if David laid a charge upon him- 
self and other private persons, not to stretch forth their 
hands against the Lord's anointed ? Does not God 
himself command princes not so much as " to touch 
his anointed?" which were no other than his people, 
Psal. cv. He preferred that anointing, wherewith his 
people were anointed, before that of kings, if any 
such thing were. Would any man offer to infer from 
this place of the Psalmist, that believers are not to 
be called in question, though they offend against the 
laws, because God commands princes not to touch his 
anointed ? King Solomon was about to put to death 
Abiathar the priest, though he were God's anointed too; 
and did not spare him because of his anointing, but be- 
cause he had been his father's friend. If that sacred and 
civil anointing, wherewith the high priest of the Jews 
was anointed, whereby he was not only constituted high 
priest, but a temporal magistrate in many cases, did 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



369 



not exempt him from the penalty of the laws ; how 
comes a civil anointing- only to exempt a tyrant? But 
you say, " Saul was a tyrant, and worthy of death :" 
What then ? It does not follow, that because he de- 
served it, that David in the circumstances he was then 
under had power to put him to death without the people's 
authority, or the command of the magistracy. But 
was Saul a tyrant ? I wish you would say so ; indeed 
you do so, though you had said before in your Second 
Book, page 32, That " he was no tyrant, but a good 
king, and chosen of God." Why should false accusers, 
and men guilty of forgery, be branded, and you escape 
without the like ignominious mark ? For they practise 
their villanies with less treachery and deceit, than you 
write and treat of matters of the greatest moment. 
Saul was a good king, when it served your turn to 
have him so ; and now he is a tyrant, because it suits 
with your present purpose. But it is no wonder, that 
you make a tyrant of a good king ; for your principles 
look as if they were invented for no other design, than 
to make all good kings so. But yet David, though he 
would not put to death his father-in-law, for causes 
and reasons that we have nothing to do withal, yet in 
his own defence, he raised an army, took and possessed 
cities that belonged to Saul, and would have defended 
Keilah against the king's forces, had he not under- 
stood, that the citizens would be false to him. Suppose 
Saul had besieged the town, and himself had been the 
first that had scaled the walls ; do you think David 
would presently have thrown down his arms, and have 
betrayed all those that assisted him to his anointed 
enemy ? I believe not. What reason have we to think 
David would have stuck to do what we have done, 
who when his occasions and circumstances so required, 
proffered bis assistance to the Philistines, who were 
then the professed enemies of his country, and did that 
against Saul, which I am sure we should never have 
done against our tyrant? I am weary of mentioning 
your lies, and ashamed of them. You say, it is a maxim 
of the English, "That enemies are rather to be spared 
than friends;" and that therefore " we conceived we 
ought not to spare our king's life, because he had been 
our friend." You impudent liar, what mortal ever 
heard this whimsy before you invented it? But we 
will excuse it. You could not bring in that thread- 
bare flourish, of our being more fierce than our own 
mastiffs, (which now comes in the fifth time, and will as 
oft again before we come to the end of your book,) with- 
out some such introduction. We are not so much more 
fierce than our own mastiffs, as you are more hungry 
than any dog whatsoever, who return so greedily to 
what you have vomited up so often. Then you tell us, 
that David commanded the Amalekite to be put to 
death, who pretended to have killed Saul. But that 
instance, neither in respect to the fact, nor the person, 
has any affinity with what we are discoursing of. I do 
not well understand what cause David had to be so 
severe upon that man, for pretending to have hastened 
the king's death, and in effect to have put him out of 
his pain, when he was dying ; unless it were to take 
away from the Israelites all suspicion of his own hav- 



ing been instrumental in it, whom they might look upon 
as one that had revolted to the Philistines, and was part 
of their army. Just such another action as this of Da- 
vid's do all men blame in Domitian, who put to death 
Epaphroditus, because he had helped Nero to kill him- 
self. After all this, as another instance of your impu- 
dence, you call him not only the " anointed of the 
Lord," but " the Lord's Christ," who a little before you 
said was a tyrant, and acted by the impulse of some 
evil spirit. Such mean thoughts you have of that reve- 
rend name, that you are not ashamed to give it to a 
tyrant, whom you yourself confess to have been pos- 
sessed with the devil. Now I come to that precedent, 
from which every man that is not blind, must needs 
infer the right of the people to be superiour to that of 
kings. When Solomon was dead, the people assem- 
bled themselves at Sichem to make Rehoboam king. 
Thither himself went, as one that stood for the place, 
that he might not seem to claim the succession as his 
inheritance, nor the same right over a freeborn people, 
that every man has over his father's sheep and oxen. 
The people propose conditions, upon which they were 
willing to admit him to the government. He desires 
three days' time to advise ; he consults with the old 
men ; they tell him no such thing, as that he had an 
absolute right to succeed, but persuade him to comply 
with the people, and speak them fair, it being in their 
power whether he should reign or not. Then he ad- 
vises with the young men that were brought up with 
him ; they, as if Salmasius's phrenzy had taken them, 
thunder this right of kings into his ears ; persuade him 
to threaten the people with whips and scorpions : and 
he answered the people as they advised him. When 
all Israel saw, that the king hearkened not to them, 
then they openly protest the right of the people, and 
their own liberty; " What portion have we in David? 
To thy tents, O Israel ! now look to thine own house, 
David." When the king sent Adoram to them, they 
stoned him with stones, and perhaps they would nothave 
stuck to have served the king himself so, but he made 
haste and got out of the way. The next news is of a great 
army raised by Rehoboam, to reduce the Israelites to 
their allegiance. God forbids him to proceed, " Go 
not up," says he, " to war against your brethren the 
children of Israel ; for this thing is of me." Now con- 
sider, heretofore the people had desired a king; God 
was displeased with them for it, but yet permitted them 
to make a king according to that right that all nations 
have to appoint their own governors. Now the people 
reject Rehoboam from ruling them ; and this God not 
only suffers them to do, but forbids Rehoboam to 
make war against them for it, and stops him in his 
undertaking ; and teaches him withal, that those that 
had revolted from him were not rebels in so doing; 
but that he ought to look upon them as brethren. 
Now recollect yourself: you say, that all kings are 
of God, and that therefore the people ought not to 
resist them, be they never such tyrants. I answer 
you, the convention of the people, their votes, their 
acts, are likewise of God, and that by the testimony 
of God himself in this place ; and consequently ac- 



370 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



cording- to your argument, by the authority of God 
himself, princes ought not to resist the people. For 
as certain as it is, that kings are of God, and what- 
ever argument you may draw from thence to enforce a 
subjection and obedience to them : so certain is it, that 
free assemblies of the body of the people are of God, 
and that naturally affords the same argument for their 
right of restraining princes from going beyond their 
bounds, and rejecting them if there be occasion ; nor is 
their so doing a justifiable cause of war, any more than 
the people of Israel's rejecting Rehoboam was. You 
ask why the people did not revolt from Solomon ? 
Who but you would ask such an impertinent question ? 
You see they did revolt from a tyrant, and were neither 
punished nor blamed for it. It is true, Solomon fell 
into some vices, but he was not therefore a tyrant ; he 
made amends for his vices by many excellent virtues, 
that he was famous for, by many benefits which accrued 
to the nation of the Jews by his government. But 
admit that he had been a tyrant: many times the cir- 
cumstances of a nation are such that the people will 
not, and many times such that they cannot, depose a 
tyrant. You see they did it when it was in their 
power. " But," say you^ " Jeroboam's act was ever 
had in detestation; it was looked upon as an unjust 
revolt from a lawful prince; he and his successors were 
accounted rebels." I confess we find his revolt from 
the true worship of God often found fault with ; but I 
no where find him blamed for revolting from Rehobo- 
am ; and his successors are frequently spoken of as 
wicked princes, but not as rebels. " Acting contrary 
to law and right," say you, " cannot introduce or 
establish a right." I pray, what becomes then of your 
right of kings ? Thus do you perpetually baffle your- 
self. You say, " Adulteries, murders, thefts are daily 
committed with impunity." Are you not aware, that 
here you give an answer to your own question, how it 
comes to pass, that tyrants do so often escape un- 
punished ? You say, " Those kings were rebels, and 
yet the prophets do no where dissuade the people from 
their allegiance." And why do you, you rascally false 
prophet, endeavour to persuade the people of England 
not to yield obedience to their present magistrates, 
though in your opinion they are rebels ? " This Eng- 
lish faction of robbers," say you, " allege for them- 
selves, that by some immediate voice from Heaven, they 
were put upon their bloody enterprise." It is noto- 
riously evident, that you were distracted when you 
wrote these lines; for as you have put the words toge- 
ther, they are neither Latin, nor sense. And that the 
English pretend to any such warrant, as a justification 
of their actions, is one of those many lies and fictions, 
that your book is full of. But I proceed to urge you 
with examples. Libna, a great city, revolted from Jo- 
ram, because he had forsaken God: it was the king 
therefore that was guilty, not the city, nor is the city 
blamed for it. lie that considers the reason that is 
given why that city rejected his government, must 
conclude, that the Holy Ghost rather approves of what 
they did than condemns them for it. " These kind of 
revolts are no precedents," say you. But why were 



you then so vain, as to promise in the beginning of 
this chapter, that you would argue from examples, 
whereas all the examples that you allege, are mere 
negatives, which prove nothing ? and when we urge 
examples that are solid and positive, you say they are 
no precedents. Who would endure such a way of ar- 
guing? You challenged us at precedents; we pro- 
duced them ; and what do you do ? you hang back, 
and get out of the way. I proceed : Jehu, at the com- 
mand of a prophet, slew a king ; nay, he ordered the 
death of Ahaziah, his own liege prince. If God would 
not have tyrants put to death by their own subjects, if 
it were a wicked thing so to do, a thing of a bad ex- 
ample ; why did God himself command it? If he 
commanded it, it was a lawful, commendable, and a 
praiseworthy action. It was not therefore lawful to 
kill a tyrant, because God commanded it; but God 
commanded it, because, antecedently to his command, 
it w r as a justifiable and a lawful action. Again, Je- 
hoiada the high priest did not scruple to depose Atha- 
liah, and kill her, though she had been seven years in 
actual possession of the crown. " But," say you, " she 
took upon her the government, when she had no right 
to it." And did not you say yourself, but a while ago, 
" that Tiberius assumed the sovereignty, when it be- 
longed not at all to him ?" And yet you then affirmed, 
that, according to our Saviour's doctrine, we ought to 
yield obedience to such tyrants as he was. It were a 
most ridiculous thing to imagine, that a prince, who 
gets in by usurpation, may lawfully be deposed; but 
one that rules tyrannically may not. " But," say you, 
" Athaliah could not possibly reign according to the 
law of the Jewish kingdom, ' Thou shalt set over thee 
a king,' says God Almighty; he does not say, Thou 
shalt set over thee a queen." If this argument have 
any weight, I may as well say, the command of God 
was, that the people should set over themselves a king, 
not a tyrant. So that I am even with you. Amazias 
was a slothful, idolatrous prince, and was put to death, 
not by a few conspirators ; but rather, it should seem, 
by the nobility, and by the body of the people. For 
he fled from Jerusalem, had none to stand by him, 
and they pursued him to Lachish : they took counsel 
against him, says the history, because he had forsaken 
God : and we do not find that Azarias his son pro- 
secuted those that had cut off his father. You quote 
a great many frivolous passages out of the rabbins, to 
prove that the kings of the Jews were superiour to 
the Sanhedrim. You do not consider Zedekiah's own 
words, Jer. xxxviii. " The king is not he that can 
do any thing against you." So that this was the 
prince's own style. Thus he confessed himself infe- 
riour to the great council of the realm. " Perhaps," 
say you, " he meant, that he durst not deny them 
any thing for fear of sedition." But what does your 
perhaps signify, whose most positive asserting any 
thing is not worth a louse ? For nothing in nature can 
be more fickle and inconsistent than you are. How 
oft you have appeared in this discourse inconsistent 
with yourself; unsaying with one breath what you 
have said with another? Here, again, you make com- 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



371 



parisons betwixt King" Charles, and some of the good 
kings of Judah. You speak contemptibly of David, as 
if he were not worthy to come in competition with him. 
' : Consider David," say you, " an adulterer, a murderer; 
King Charles was guilty of no such crimes. Solomon 
his son, who was accounted wise," &c. Who can with 
patience hear this filthy, rascally fool, speak so irrever- 
ently of persons eminent both in greatness and piety ? 
Dare you compare King David with King Charles ; a 
most religious king and prophet, with a superstitious 
prince, and who was but a novice in the christian reli- 
gion ; a most prudent wise prince with a weak one; a 
valiant prince with a cowardly one ; finally, a most 
just prince with a most unjust one? Have you the 
impudence to commend his chastity and sobriety, who 
is known to have committed all manner of lewdness in 
company with his confident the duke of Buckingham ? 
It were to no purpose to inquire into the private actions 
of his life, who publicly at plays would embrace and 
kiss the ladies lasciviously, and handle virgins' and 
matrons' breasts, not to mention the rest. I advise you 
therefore, you counterfeit Plutarch, to abstain from 
such like parallels, lest I be forced to publish those 
things concerning King Charles, which I am willing 
to conceal. Hitherto we have entertained ourselves 
with what the people of the Jews have acted or at- 
tempted against tyrants, and by what right they did it 
in those times, when God himself did immediately, as 
it were, by his voice from heaven govern their com- 
monwealth. The ages that succeeded, do not afford us 
any authority, as from themselves, but confirm us in 
our opinion by their imitating the actions of their fore- 
fathers. For after the Babylonish captivity, when God 
did not give any new command concerning the crown, 
though the royal line was not extinct, we find the 
people return to the old mosaical form of government 
again. They were one while tributaries to Antiochus, 
king of Syria ; yet when he enjoined them things that 
were contrary to the law of God, they resisted him, 
and his deputies, under the conduct of their priests, the 
Maccabees, and by force regained their former liberty. 
After that, Avhoever was accounted most worthy of it, 
had the principality conferred upon him. Till at last, 
Harcanus the son of Simon, the brother of Judah, the 
Maccabee, having spoiled David's sepulchre, enter- 
tained foreign soldiers, and began to invest the priest- 
hood with a kind of regal power. After whose time 
his son Aristobulus was the first that assumed the 
crown ; he was a tyrant indeed, and yet the people 
stirred not against him, which is no great wonder, for 
he reigned but one year. And he himself being over- 
taken with a grievous disease, and repenting of his 
own cruelty and wickedness, desired nothing more than 
to die, and had his wish. His brother Alexander suc- 
ceeded him ; " and against him," you say, " the people 
raised no insurrection, though he were a tyrant too." 
And this lie might have gone down with us, if Jose- 
phus's history had not been extant. We should then 
have had no memory of those times, but what your Jo- 
sippus would afford us, out of whom you transcribe a 
tew senseless and useless apophthegms of the Phari- 
2 B 



sees. The history is thus : Alexander administered 
the public affairs ill, both in war and peace; and 
though he kept in pay great numbers of Pisidians and 
Cilicians, yet could he not protect himself from the 
rage of the people: but whilst he was sacrificing they 
fell upon him, and had almost smothered him with 
boughs of palm trees and citron trees. Afterward the 
whole nation made war upon him six years, during 
which time, when many thousands of the Jews had 
been slain, and he himself being at length desirous of 
peace, demanded of them, what they would have him 
to do to satisfy them ; they told him nothing could do 
that but his blood, nay, that they should hardly pardon 
him after his death. This history you perceived was 
not for your purpose, and so you put it off with a few 
pharisaical sentences ; when it had been much better, 
either to have let it quite alone, or to have given a true 
relation of it: but you trust to lies more than to the 
truth of your cause. Even those eight hundred Pha- 
risees, whom he commanded to be crucified, were of 
their number that had taken up arms against him. And 
they with the rest of the people had solemnly protested, 
that if they could subdue the king's forces, and get his 
person into their power, they would put him to death. 
After the death of Alexander, his wife Alexandra took 
the government upon her, as Athaliah had formerly 
done, not according to law, (for you have confessed, 
that the laws of the Jews admitted not a. female to wear 
the crown,) but she got it partly by force, for she main- 
tained an army of foreigners ; and partly by favour, 
for she had brought over the Pharisees to her interest, 
which sort of men were of the greatest authority with 
the people. Them she had made her own, by putting 
the power into their hands, and retaining to herself 
only the name. Just as the Scotch presbyterians lately 
allowed Charles the name of king, but upon condition, 
that he would let them be king in effect. After the 
death of Alexandra, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, her sons, 
contended for the sovereignty; Aristobulus was more 
industrious, and having a greater party, forced his 
elder brother out of the kingdom. A while after, when 
Pompey passed through Syria, in. his return from the 
Mithridatic war ; the Jews, supposing they had now 
an opportunity of regaining their liberty, by referring 
their cause to him, dispatch an embassy to him in their 
own names ; they renounce both the brothers ; complain 
that they had enslaved them. Pompey deposed Aristo- 
bulus, leaves the priesthood, and such a principality as 
the laws allowed, to Hyrcanus the elder. From that 
time forward he was called high priest, and Ethnarcha. 
After these times in the reign of Archelaus, the son of 
Herod, the Jews sent fifty ambassadors to Augustus 
Caesar; accused Herod that was dead, and Archelaus 
his son, that then reigned ; they deposed him as much 
as in them lay, and petitioned the emperor, that the 
people of the Jews might be governed without a king*. 
Caesar was moved at their entreaty, and did not appoint a 
king over them, but a governor, whom they called an 
ethnarch. When that governor had presided ten years 
over Judea, the people sent ambassadors again to 
Rome, and accused him of tyranny. Caesar heard 



372 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



them graciously ; sent for the governor, condemned 
him to perpetual exile, and banished him to Vienna. 
Answer me, now, that people that accused their own 
princes, that desired their condemnation, that desired 
their punishment, would not they themselves rather, if 
it had been in their power, and that they might have 
had their choice ; would not they, I say, rather have 
put them to death themselves; you do not deny, but 
that the people and the nobles often took up arms 
against the Roman deputies, when by their avarice, or 
their cruelty, their government was burdensome and 
oppressive. But you give a ridiculous reason for this, 
as all the rest of yours are. You say, "they were not 
yet accustomed to the yoke ;" very like they were not, 
under Alexander, Herod, and his son. " But," say 
you, " they would not raise war against Caius Caesar, 
nor Petronius." I confess they did not, and they did 
very prudently in abstaining, for they were not able. 
Will you hear their own words, on that occasion ? 
" We will not make war," say they, " because we can- 
not." That thing, which they themselves acknow- 
ledge they refrained from for want of ability, you, false 
hypocrite, pretend they refrained from out of religion. 
Then with a great deal of toil you do just nothing' at 
all ; for you endeavour to prove out of the fathers, 
(though you had done it as superficially before,) that 
kings are to be prayed for. That good kings are to be 
prayed for, no man denies ; nay, and bad ones too, as 
long as there are any hopes of them : so we oug'ht to 
pray for highwaymen, and for our enemies. But 
how ? not that they may plunder, spoil, and murder 
us; but that they may repent. We pray both for 
thieves and enemies ; and yet who ever dreamt, but 
that it was lawful to put the laws in execution against 
one, and to fight against the other ? I value not the 
Egyptian liturgy that you quote; but the priest that 
you mention, who prayed that Commodus might suc- 
ceed his father in the empire, did not pray for any 
thing in my opinion, but imprecated all the mischiefs 
imaginable to the Roman state. You say, " that we 
have broken our faith, which we engaged more than 
once, in solemn assemblies, to preserve the authority 
and majesty of the king." But because hereafter you 
are more large upon that subject, I shall pass it by in 
this place; and talk with you when you come to it 
again. You return then to the fathers ; concerning 
whom take this in short. Whatever they say, which 
is not warranted by the authority of the Scrip- 
tures, or by good reason, shall be of no more regard 
with me, than if any other ordinary man had said it. 
The first that you quote is Tertullian, who is no ortho- 
dox writer, notorious for many errours; whose autho- 
rity, if he were of your opinion, would stand you in no 
stead. But what says he? He condemns tumults 
and rebellions. So do we. But in saying so, we do 
not mean to destroy all the people's rights and privi- 
leges, all the authority of senates, the power of all 
magistrates, the king only excepted. The fathers de- 
claim against seditions rashly raised by the giddy heat 
of the multitude ; they speak not of the inferiour ma- 
gistrates, of senates, of parliaments encouraging the 



people to a lawful opposing of a tyrant. Hence Am- 
brose, whom you quote ; " Not to resist," says he, " but 
to weep and to sigh, these are the bulwarks of the 
priesthood ; what one is there of our little number, 
who dare say to the emperor, I do not like your laws? 
This is not allowed the priests, and shall laymen pre- 
tend to it ?" It is evident of what sort of persons he 
speaks, viz. of the priests, and such of the people as 
are private Tnen, not of the magistrates. You see by 
how weak and preposterous a reason he lighted a torch 
as it were to the dissensions, that were afterwards to 
arise betwixt the laity and the clergy concerning even 
civil or temporal laws. But because you think you 
pressed hardest upon us with the examples of the pri- 
mitive Christians ; who though they were harassed as 
much as a people could be, yet, you say, " they never 
took up arms against the emperor : " I will make it ap- 
pear, in the first place, that for the most part they could 
not: secondly, that whenever they could, they did: 
and thirdly, that whether they did or did not, they 
were such a sort of people, as that their example de- 
serves to have little sway with us. First therefore, no 
man can be ignorant of this, that when the common- 
wealth of Rome expired, the whole and sovereign 
power in the empire was settled in the emperor ; that 
all the soldiers were under his pay; insomuch that if 
the whole body of the senate, the equestrian order, and 
all the common people, had endeavoured to work a 
change, they might have made way for a massacre of 
themselves, but could not in any probability retrieve 
their lost liberty : for the empire would still have con- 
tinued, though they might perhaps have been so lucky 
as to have killed the emperor. This being' so, what 
could the Christians do ? It is true, there were a great 
many of them ; but they were dispersed, they were gene- 
rally persons of mean quality, and but of small interest 
in the world. How many of them would one legion 
have been able to keep in awe ? Could so inconsider- 
able a body of men as they were in those days ever 
expect to accomplish an enterprise that many famous 
generals, and whole armies of tried soldiers, had lost 
their lives in attempting ? When about 300 years after 
our Saviour's nativity, which was near upon 20 years 
before the reign of Constantine the Great, when Dio- 
clesian was emperor, there was but one Christian legion 
in the whole Roman empire ; which legion, for no 
other reason than because it consisted of christians, was 
slain by the rest of the army at a town in France call- 
ed Octodurum. " The Christians," say you, " conspired 
not with Cassius, with Albinus, with Niger;" and does 
Tertullian think they merited by not being willing to 
lose their lives in the quarrels of infidels? It is evident 
therefore, that the Christians could not free themselves 
from the yoke of the Roman emperors ; and it could 
be no ways advantageous to their interest to conspire 
with infidels, as long as heathen emperors reigned. 
But that afterwards the Christians made war upon ty- 
rants, and defended themselves by force of arms when 
there was occasion, and many times revenged upon 
tyrants their enormities, I am now about to make ap- 
pear. In the first place, Constantine, being a chris- 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



373 



tian, made war upon Licinius, and cut him off, who 
was his partner in the sovereign power, because he 
molested the eastern Christians; bj which act of his he 
declared thus much at least, that one magistrate might 
punish another: for he for his subjects' sake punished 
Licinius, who to all intents was as absolute in the em- 
pire as himself, and did not leave the vengeance to 
God alone : Licinius might have done the same to 
Constantine, if there had been the like occasion. So 
then, if the matter be not wholly reserved to God's 
own tribunal, but that men have something to do in 
the case, why did not the parliament of England stand 
in the same relation to King Charles, that Constantine 
did to Licinius ? The soldiers made Constantine what 
he was: but our laws have made our parliaments equal, 
nay, superiour, to our kings. The inhabitants of Con- 
stantinople resisted Constantius an Arian emperor, by 
force of arms, as long as they were able ; they opposed 
Hermogenes whom he had sent with a military power 
to depose Paul an orthodox bishop ; the house whither 
he had betaken himself for security they fired about his 
ears, and at last killed him right out. Constans threat- 
ened to make war upon his brother Constantius, unless 
he would restore Paul and Athanasius to their bishop- 
rics. You see those holy fathers, when their bishoprics 
were in danger, were not ashamed to stir up their 
prince's own brother to make war upon him. Not long 
after, the christian soldiers, who then made whom they 
would emperors, put to death Constans the son of Con- 
stantinus, because he behaved himself dissolutely and 
proudly in the government, and translated the empire 
to Magnentius. Nay, those very persons that saluted 
Julian by the name of emperor, against Constantius's 
will, who was actually in possession of the empire, (for 
Julian was not then an apostate, but a virtuous and 
valiant person,) are they not amongst the number of 
those primitive Christians, whose example you propose 
to us for our imitation ? Which action of theirs, when 
Constantius by his letters to the people very sharply 
and earnestly forbad, (which letters were openly read 
to them,) they all cried out unanimously, that them- 
selves had but done what the provincial magistrates, 
the army, and the authority of the commonwealth had 
decreed. The same persons declared war against 
Constantius, and contributed as much as in them lay, 
to deprive him both of his government and his life. 
How did the inhabitants of Antioch behave themselves, 
who were none of the worst sort of Christians ? I will 
warrant you they prayed for Julian, after he became 
an apostate, whom they used to rail at in his own pre- 
sence, and scoffing at his long beard bid him make 
ropes of it : upon the news of whose death they offered 
public thanksgivings, made feasts, and gave other 
public demonstrations of joy. Do you think they used, 
when he was alive, to pray for the continuance of his 
life and health ? Nay, is it not reported, that a chris- 
tian soldier, in his own army, was the author of his 
death ? Sozomen, a writer of ecclesiastical history, 
does not deny it, but commends him that did it, if the 
fact were so. " For it is no wonder," says he, " that 
some of his own soldiers might think within himself, 



that not only the Greeks, but all mankind hitherto had 
agreed, that it was a commendable action to kill a ty- 
rant; and that they deserve all men's praise, who are 
willing to die themselves to procure the liberty of all 
others: so that that soldier ought not rashly to be con- 
demned, who in the cause of God and of religion, was 
so zealous and valiant." These are the words of So- 
zomen, a good and religious man of that age. By 
which we may easily apprehend what the general 
opinion of pious men in those days was upon this point. 
Ambrose himself being commanded by the emperor 
Valentinian the younger, to depart from Milan, refused 
to obey him, but defended himself and the palace by 
force of arms against the emperor's officers, and took 
upon him, contrary to his own doctrine, to resist the 
higher powers. There was a great sedition raised at 
Constantinople against the emperor Arcadius, more 
than once, by reason of Chrysostom's exile. Hitherto 
I have shewn how the primitive Christians behaved 
themselves towards tyrants ; how not only the chris- 
tian soldiers, and the people, but the fathers of the 
church themselves, have both made war upon them, 
and opposed them with force, and all this before St. 
Austin's time: for you yourself are pleased to go down 
no lower; and therefore I make no mention of Valen- 
tinian the son of Placidia, who was slain by Maximus 
a senator, for committing adultery with his wife; nor 
do I mention Avitus the emperor, whom, because he 
disbanded the soldiers, and betook himself wholly to a 
luxurious life, the Roman senate immediately deposed ; 
because these things came to pass some years after St. 
Austin's death. But all this I give you : suppose I had 
not mentioned the practice of the primitive Christians ; 
suppose they never had stirred in opposition to tyrants; 
suppose they had accounted it unlawful so to do ; I 
will make it appear, that they were not such persons, 
as that we ought to rely upon their authority, or can 
safely follow their example. Long before Constantine's 
time the generality of Christians had lost much of the 
primitive sanctity and integrity both of their doctrine 
and manners. Afterwards, when he had vastly enriched 
the church, they began to fall in love with honour and 
civil power, and then the christian religion went to 
wreck. First luxury and sloth, and then a great drove 
of heresies and immoralities, broke loose among them; 
and these begot envy, hatred, and discord, which 
abounded every where. At last, they that were linked 
together into one brotherhood by that holy band of re- 
ligion, were as much at variance and strife among 
themselves as the most bitter enemies in the world 
could be. No reverence for, no consideration of, their 
duty was left among them : the soldiers and com- 
manders of the army, as oft as they pleased themselves, 
created new emperors, and sometimes killed good ones 
as well as bad. I need not mention such as Verannio, 
Maximus, Eugenius, whom the soldiers all of a sudden 
advanced and made them emperors ; nor Gratian, an 
excellent prince; nor Valentinian the younger, who 
was none of the worst, and yet were put to death by 
them. It is true, these things were acted by the sol- 
diers, and soldiers in the field ; but those soldiers were 



374 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



christians, and lived in that age which you call evan- 
gelical, and whose example you propose to us for our 
imitation. Now you shall hear how the clergy managed 
themselves: pastors and bishops, and sometimes those 
very fathers whom we admire and extol to so high a 
degree, every one of whom was a leader of their several 
flocks ; those very men, I say, fought for their bishop- 
rics, as tyrants did for their sovereignty; sometimes 
throughout the city, sometimes in the very churches, 
sometimes at the altar, clergymen and laymen fought 
promiscuously ; they slew one another, and great 
slaughters were made on both sides. You may remem- 
ber Damasus and Urcisinus, who were contemporaries 
with Ambrose. It would be too long to relate the tu- 
multuary insurrections of the inhabitants of Constan- 
tinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, especially those under 
the conduct and management of Cyrillus, whom you 
extol as a preacher up of obedience ; when the monks 
in that fight, within the city, had almost slain Orestes, 
Theodosius's deputy. Now who can sufficiently won- 
der at your impudence, or carelessness and neglect? 
" Till St. Austin's time, say you, and lower down than 
the age that he lived in, there is not any mention ex- 
tant in history, of any private person, of any com- 
mander, or of any number of conspirators, that have 
put their prince to death, or taken up arms against 
him." I have named to you, out of known and ap- 
proved histories, both private persons and magistrates, 
that with their own hands have slain not only bad but 
very good princes : whole armies of Christians, many 
bishops among them, that have fought against their 
own emperors. You produce some of the fathers, that 
with a great flourish of words, persuade or boast of 
obedience to princes : and I, on the other side, produce 
both those same fathers, and others besides them, that 
by their actions have declined obedience to their princes, 
even in lawful things; have defended themselves with 
a military force against them; others that have opposed 
forcibly, and wounded their deputies ; and others that, 
being competitors for bishoprics, have maintained civil 
wars against one another: as if it were lawful for 
Christians to wage war with Christians for a bishopric, 
and citizens with citizens; but unlawful to fight 
against a tyrant, in defence of our liberty, of our wives 
and children, and of our lives themselves. Who would 
own such fathers as these ? You produce St. Austin, 
who, you say, asserts, that " the power of a master over 
his servants, and a prince over his subjects, is one and 
the same thing" But I answer; if St. Austin assert 
any such thing, he asserts what neither our Saviour, 
nor any of his apostles ever asserted ; though for the 
confirmation of that assertion, than which nothing can 
be more false, he pretends to rely wholly upon their 
authority. The three or four last pages of this fourth 
chapter, arc stuffed with mere lies, or things carelessly 
and loosely put together, that are little to the purpose: 
and that every one that reads them, will discover by 
what has been said already. For what concerns the 
pope, against whom you disclaim so loudly, I am con- 
tent you should bawl at him, till you are hoarse. But 



whereas you endeavour to persuade the ignorant, that 
" all that called themselves Christians, yielded an entire 
obedience to princes, whether good or bad, till the 
papal power grew to that height, that it was acknow- 
ledged superiour to that of the civil magistrate, and till 
he took upon him to absolve subjects from their allegi- 
ance :" I have sufficiently proved by many examples 
before and s'ince the age that St. Augustine lived in, 
that nothing can be more false. Neither does that 
seem to have much more truth in it, which you say in 
the last place ; viz. that pope Zachary absolved the 
Frenchmen from their oath of allegiance to their king. 
For Francis Hottoman, who was both a Frenchman 
and a lawyer, and a very learned man, in the 13th 
chapter of his Francogallia, denies that either Chil- 
peric was deposed, or the kingdom translated to Pepin, 
by the pope's authority; and he proves out of very an- 
cient chronicles of that nation, that the w r hole affair was 
transacted in the great council of the kingdom, accord- 
ing to the original constitution of that government. 
Which being once done, the French histories, and pope 
Zachary himself, deny that there was any necessity of 
absolving his subjects from their allegiance. For not 
only Hottoman, but Guiccard, a very eminent historian 
of that nation, informs us, that the ancient records of 
the kingdom of France testify, that the subjects of that 
nation upon the first institution of kingship amongst 
them, reserved a power to themselves, both of choosing 
their princes, and of deposing them again, if they 
thought fit : and that the oath of allegiance, which 
they took, was upon this express condition ; to wit, 
that the king should likewise perform what at his 
coronation he swore to do. So that if kings, by 
misgoverning the people committed to their charge, 
first broke their own oath to their subjects, there 
needs no pope to dispense with the people's oaths; 
the kings themselves by their own perfidiousness hav- 
ing absolved their subjects. And finally, pope Zachary 
himself, in a letter of his to the French, which 
you yourself quote, renounces, and ascribes to the 
people that authority, which you say he assumes to 
himself: for, if a prince be accountable to the people, 
being beholden to them for his royalty ; if the people, 
since they make kings, have the same right to depose 
them, as the very words of that pope are ; it is not 
likely that the Frenchmen would by any oath depart 
in the least from that ancient right, or ever tie up their 
own hands, so as not to have the same right that their 
ancestors always had, to depose bad princes, as well 
as to honour and obey good ones; nor is it likely that 
they thought themselves obliged to yield that obedience 
to tyrants, which they swore to yield only to good 
princes. A people obliged to obedience by such an 
oath is discharged of that obligation, when a lawful 
prince becomes a tyrant, or gives himself over to sloth 
and voluptuousness; the rule of justice, the very law 
of nature, dispenses with such a people's allegiance. So 
that even by the pope's own opinion, the people were 
under no obligation to yield obedience to Chilperic, 
and consequently had no need of a dispensation. 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



375 



CHAR V. 

Though I am of opinion, Salmasius, and always 
was, that the law of God does exactly agree with the 
law of nature ; so that having- shewn what the law of 
God is, with respect to princes, and what the practice 
has been of the people of God, both Jews and Chris- 
tians, I have at the same time, and by the same dis- 
course, made appear what is most agreeable to the law 
of nature: yet because you pretend " to confute us 
most powerfully by the law of nature," I will be con- 
tent to admit that to be necessary, which before I had 
thought would be superfluous; that in this chapter I 
may demonstrate, that nothing is more suitable to the 
law of nature, than that punishment be inflicted upon 
tyrants. Which if I do not evince, I will then agree 
with you, that likewise by the law of God they are 
exempt. I do not purpose to frame a long discourse 
of nature in general, and the original of civil societies ; 
that argument has been largely handled by many 
learned men, both Greek and Latin. But I shall en- 
deavour to be as short as may be ; and my design is 
not so much to confute you, (who would willingly have 
spared this pains,) as to shew that you confute your- 
self, and destroy your own positions. I will begin 
with that first position, which you lay down as a fun- 
damental, and that shall be the groundwork of my en- 
suing discourse. " The law of nature," say you, " is 
a principle imprinted on all men's minds, to regard 
the g-ood of all mankind, considering- men as united 
together in societies. But this innate principle cannot 
procure that common good, unless, as there are people 
that must be governed, so that very principle ascertain 
who shall govern them." To wit, lest the stronger op- 
press the weaker, and those persons, who for their 
mutual safety and protection have united themselves 
together, should be disunited and divided by injury 
and violence, and reduced to a bestial savage life again. 
This I suppose is what you mean. " Out of the num- 
ber of those that united into one body," you say, " there 
must needs have been some chosen, who excelled the rest 
in wisdom and valour; that they, either by force or by 
persuasion, might restrain those that were refractory, 
and keep them within due bounds. Sometimes it would 
so fall out, that one single person, whose conduct and 
valour was extraordinary, might be able to do this, and 
sometimes more assisted one another with their advice 
and counsel. But since it is impossible, that any one 
man should order all things himself, there was a neces- 
sity of his consulting with others, and taking some 
into part of the government with himself; so that 
whether a single person reign, or whether the supreme 
power reside in the body of the people, since it is im- 
possible, that all should administer the affairs of the 
commonwealth, or that one man should do all, the 
government does always lie upon the shoulders of 
many. And afterwards you say, " both forms of go- 
vernment, whether by many or a few, or by a single 
person, are equally according to the law of nature, viz. 
That it is impossible for any single person so to go- 



vern alone, as not to admit others into a share of the 
government with himself." Though I might have 
taken all this out of the third book of Aristotle's Poli- 
tics, I chose rather to transcribe it out of your own 
book ; for you stole it from him, as Prometheus did fire 
from Jupiter, to the ruin of monarchy, and overthrow 
of yourself, and your own opinion. For inquire as 
diligently as you can for your life into the law of 
nature, as you have described it, you will not find the 
least footstep in it of kingly power, as you explain it. 
" The law of nature," say you, " in ordering- who 
should govern others, respected the universal good of 
all mankind." It did not then regard the private good, 
of any particular person, not of a prince; so that the 
king is for the people, and consequently the people 
superiour to him : which being allowed, it is impos- 
sible that princes should have any right to oppress or 
enslave the people ; that the inferiour should have right 
to tyrannize over the superiour. So that since kings 
cannot pretend to any right to do mischief, the right 
of the people must be ackowledged, according to the 
law of nature, to be superiour to that of princes; and 
therefore, by the same right, that before kingship was 
known, men united their strength aiH counsels for 
their mutual safety and defence; by the same right, 
that for the preservation of all men's liberty, peace, and 
safety, they appointed one or more to govern the rest; by 
the same right they may depose those very persons 
whom for their valour or wisdom they advanced to the 
government, or any others that rule disorderly, if they 
find them, by reason of their slothfulness, folly, or im- 
piety, unfit for government : since nature does not re- 
gard the good of one, or of a few, but of all in general. 
For what sort of persons were they whom you suppose 
to have been chosen ? You say, " they were such as 
excelled in courage and conduct," to wit, such as by 
nature seemed fittest for government; who by reason 
of their excellent wisdom and valour, were enabled to 
undertake so great a charg-e. The consequence of this 
I take to be, that right of succession is not by the law 
of nature ; that no man by the law of nature has right 
to be king, unless he excel all others in wisdom and 
courage ; that all such as reign and want these quali- 
fications, are advanced to the government by force Ol- 
faction ; have no right by the law of nature to be what 
they are, but ought rather to be slaves than princes. 
For nature appoints that wise men should govern fools, 
not that wicked men should rule over g*ood men, fools 
over wise men : and consequently they that take the 
government out of such men's hands, act according to 
the law of nature. To what end nature directs wise 
men should bear the rule, } r ou shall hear in your own 
words ; viz. " That by force or by persuasion, they 
may keep such as are unruly within due bounds." 
But how should he keep others within the bounds of 
their duty, that neglects, or is ignorant of, or wilfully 
acts contrary to, his own? Allege now, if you can, 
any dictate of nature by which we are enjoined to neg- 
lect the wise institutions of the law of nature, and have 
no regard to them in civil and public concerns, when 
we see what great and admirable things nature herself 



376 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



effects in things that are inanimate and void of sense, 
rather than lose her end. Produce any rule of nature, or 
natural justice, by which inferiour criminals ought to be 
punished, but kings and princes to go unpunished ; and 
not only so, but though guilty of the greatest crimes im- 
aginable, be had in reverence and almost adored. You 
agree, That "all forms of government, whether by many, 
or few, or by a single person, are equally agreeable to 
the law of nature." So that the person of a king is not by 
the law of nature more sacred than a senate of nobles, or 
magistrates, chosen from amongst the common people, 
who you grant may be punished, and ought to be if they 
offend; and consequently, kings ought to be so too, who 
are appointed to rule for the very same end and purpose 
that other magistrates are. " For," say you, " nature 
does not allow any single person to rule so entirely, as 
not to have partners in the government." It does not 
therefore allow of a monarch ; it does not allow one 
single person to rule so, as that all others should be in 
a slavish subjection to his commands only. You that 
give princes such partners in the government, " as in 
whom," to use your own words, " the government 
always resides," do at the same time make others col- 
leagues with them, and equal to them; nay, and con- 
sequently you settle a power in those colleagues of 
punishing and of deposing them. So that while you 
yourself go about, not to extol a kingly government, 
but to establish it by the law of nature, you destroy it ; 
no greater misfortune could befall sovereign princes, 
than to have such an advocate as you are. Poor un- 
happy wretch ! what blindness of mind has seized you, 
that you should unwittingly take so much pains to 
discover your knavery and folly, and make it visible to 
the world, (which before you concealed in some mea- 
sure, and disguised,) that you should be so industrious 
to heap disgrace and ignominy upon yourself? What 
offence does Heaven punish you for, in making you 
appear in public, and undertake the defence of a des- 
perate cause, with so much impudence and childishness, 
and instead of defending it, to betray it by your ignor- 
ance ? What enemy of yours would desire to see you 
in a more forlorn, despicable condition than you are, 
who have no refuge left from the depth of misery, but 
in your own imprudence and want of sense, since by 
your unskilful and silly defence, you have rendered 
tyrants the more odious and detestable, by ascribing to 
them an unbounded liberty of doing mischief with im- 
punity ; and consequently have created them more 
enemies than they had before? But I return to your 
contradictions. When you had resolved with yourself 
to be so wicked, as to endeavour to find out a founda- 
tion for tyranny in the law of nature, you saw a neces- 
sity of extolling monarchy above other sorts of govern- 
ment ; u hich you cannot go^about to do, without doing 
as you use to do, that is, contradicting yourself. For 
having said but a little before, " That all forms of go- 
vernment, whether by more or fewer, or by a single 
person, are equally according to the law of nature," 
now you tell us, " that of all these sorts of government, 
that of a single person is most natural:" nay, though 
you had said in express terms but lately, " that the law 



of nature does not allow, that any government should 
reside entirely in one man." Now upbraid whom you 
will with the putting of tyrants to death ; since you 
yourself, by your own folly, have cut the throats of all 
monarchs, nay even of monarchy itself. But it is not 
to the purpose for us here to dispute which form of go- 
vernment is best, by one single person, or by many. I 
confess many eminent and famous men have extolled 
monarchy ; but it has always been upon this supposi- 
tion, that the prince was a very excellent person, and 
one that of all others deserved best to reign ; without 
which supposition, no form of government can be so 
prone to tyranny as monarchy is. And whereas you 
resemble a monarchy to the government of the world 
by one Divine Being, I pray answer me, whether you 
think that any other can deserve to be invested with a 
power here on earth, that shall resemble his power that 
governs the world, except such a person as does infi- 
nitely excel all other men, and both for wisdom and 
goodness in some measure resemble the Deity ? and 
such a person, in my opinion, none can be but the Son 
of God himself. — And whereas you make a kingdom 
to be a kind of family, and make a comparison betwixt 
a prince and the master of a family; observe how lame 
the parallel is. For a master of a family begot part 
of his household, at least he feeds all those that are of 
his house, and upon that account deserves to have the 
government; but the reason holds not in the case of 
a prince ; nay, it is quite contrary. In the next 
place, you propose to us for our imitation the example 
of inferiour creatures, especially of birds, and amongst 
them of bees, which according to your skill in na- 
tural philosophy, are a sort of birds too ; " The bees 
have a king over them." The bees of Trent you 
mean ; do not you remember ? all other bees you 
yourself confess to be commonwealths. But leave 
off playing the fool with bees; they belong to the 
Muses, and hate, and (you see) confute, such a beetle 
as you are. " The quails are under a captain." Lay 
such snares for your own bitterns ; you are not fowler 
good enough to catch us. Now you begin to be per- 
sonally concerned. Gallus Gallinaceus, a cock, say 
you, " has both cocks and hens under him." How can 
that be, since you yourself that are Gallus, and but too 
much Gallinaceus, by report cannot govern your own 
single hen, but let her govern you ? So that if a Gal- 
linaceus be a king over many hens, you that are a slave 
to one, must own yourself not to be so good as a Gal- 
linaceus, but some Stercorarius Gallus, some dunghill- 
cock or other. For matter of books, there is no body 
publishes huger dunghills than you, and you disturb 
all people with your shitten cock-crow ; that is the 
only property in which you resemble a true cock. I 
will throw you a great many barley-corns, if in ran- 
sacking- this dung-hill book of yours, you can shew me 
but one jewel. But why should I promise you barley, 
that never pecked at corn, as that honest plain cock 
that we read of in iEsop, but at gold, as that roguey 
cock in Plautus, though with a different event ; for 
you found a hundred Jacobusses, and he was struck 
dead with Euclio's club, which you deserve more than 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



377 



he did. But let us go on : " That same natural reason 
that designs the good and safety of all mankind, re- 
quires, that whoever be once promoted to the sovereign- 
ty, be preserved in the possession of it." Whoever 
questioned this, as long as his preservation is consistent 
with the safety of all the rest ? But is it not obvious to 
all men, that nothing can be more contrary to natural 
reason, than that any one man should be preserved and 
defended, to the utter ruin and destruction of all others ? 
But yet (you say) " it is better to keep and defend a 
bad prince, nay one of the worst that ever was, than to 
change him for another ; because his ill government 
cannot do the commonwealth so much harm as the 
disturbances will occasion, which must of necessity be 
raised before the people can get rid of him." But what 
is this to the right of kings by the law of nature ? If 
nature teaches me rather to suffer myself to be robbed 
by highwaymen, or if I should be taken captive by 
such, to purchase my liberty with all my estate, than 
to fight with them for my life, can you infer from thence, 
that they have a natural right to rob and spoil me ? 
Nature teaches men to give way sometimes to the vio- 
lence and outrages of tyrants, the necessity of affairs 
sometimes enforces a toleration with their enormities ; 
what foundation can you find in this forced patience 
of a nation, in this compulsory submission, to build a 
right upon, for princes to tyrannize by the law of nature ? 
That right which nature has given the people for their 
own preservation, can you affirm that she has invested 
tyrants with for the people's ruin and destruction ? 
Nature teaches us, of two evils to choose the least ; 
and to bear with oppression, as long as there is a ne- 
cessity of so doing; and will you infer from hence, 
that tyrants have some right by the law of nature to 
oppress their subjects, and go unpunished, because, as 
circumstances may fall out, it may sometimes be a less 
mischief to bear with them than to remove them ? 
Remember what yourself once wrote concerning 
bishops against a Jesuit ; you were then of another 
opinion than you are now : I have quoted your words 
formerly ; you there affirm " that seditious civil dissen- 
sions and discords of the nobles and common people 
against and amongst one another are much more tole- 
rable, and less mischievous, than certain misery and 
destruction under the government of a single person, 
that plays the tyrant." And you said very true. For 
you had not then run mad ; you had not then been 
bribed with Charles his Jacobusses. You had not got 
the Kings'-evil. I should tell you perhaps, if I did not 
know you, that you might be ashamed thus to prevari- 
cate. But you can sooner burst than blush, who have 
cast off all shame for a little profit. Did you not re- 
member, that the commonwealth of the people of Rome 
flourished and became glorious when they had banished 
their kings ? Could you possibly forget that of the Low 
Countries ? which, after it had shook off the yoke of 
the king of Spain, after long' and tedious wars, but 
crowned with success, obtained its liberty, and feeds 
such a pitiful grammarian as yourself with a pension : 
but not with a design that their youth might be so in- 
fatuated by your sophistry, as to choose rather to return 



to their former slavery, than to inherit the glorious 
liberty which their ancestors purchased for them. May 
those pernicious principles of yours be banished with 
yourself into the most remote and barbarous corners of 
the world. And last of all, the commonwealth of Eng- 
land might have afforded you an example, in which 
Charles, who had been their king, after he had been 
taken captive in war, and was found incurable, was 
put to death. But " they have defaced and impover- 
ished the island with civil broils and discords, which 
under its kings was happy, and swam in luxury." 
Yea, when it was almost buried in luxury and volup- 
tuousness, and the more inured thereto, that it might 
be enthralled the more easily ; when its laws were 
abolished, and its religion agreed to be sold, they de- 
livered it from slavery. You are like him that pub- 
lished Simplicius and Epictetus in the same volume ; 
a very grave stoic, " who call an island happy, because 
it swims in luxury." I am sure no such doctrine ever 
came out of Zeno's school. But why should not you, 
who would give kings a power of doing what they list, 
have liberty yourself to broach what new philosophy 
you please ? Now begin again to act your part. " There 
never was in any king's reign so much blood spilt, so 
many families ruined." All this is to be imputed to 
Charles, not to us, who first raised an army of Irishmen 
against us; who by his own warrant authorized the Irish 
nation to conspire against the English ; who by their 
means slew two hundred thousand of his English subjects 
in the province of Ulster, besides what numbers were slain 
in other parts of that kingdom ; who solicited two armies 
towards the destruction of the parliament of England, 
and the city of London ; and did many other actions 
of hostility before the parliament and people had listed 
one soldier for the preservation and defence of the go- 
vernment. What principles, what law, what religion 
ever taught men rather to consult their ease, to save 
their money, their blood, nay their lives themselves, 
than to oppose an enemy with force? for I make no 
difference between a foreign enemy and another, since 
both are equally dangerous and destructive to the good 
of the whole nation. The people of Israel saw very 
well, that they could not possibly punish the Benja- 
mites for murdering the Levite's wife, without the loss 
of many men's lives : and did that induce them to sit 
still? Was that accounted a sufficient argument why 
they should abstain from war, from a very bloody civil 
war ? Did they therefore suffer the death of one poor 
woman to be unrevenged ? Certainly if nature teaches 
us rather to endure the government of a king, though 
he be never so bad, than to endanger the lives of a 
great many men in the recovery of our liberty; it must 
teach us likewise not only to endure a kingly govern- 
ment, which is the only one that you argue ought to 
be submitted to, but even an aristocracy and a de- 
mocracy : nay, and sometimes it will persuade us, to 
submit to a multitude of highwaymen, and to slaves 
that mutiny. Fulvius and Rupilius, if your principles 
had been received in their days, must not have en- 
gaged in the servile war (as their writers call it) after 
the Prsetorian armies were slain: Crassus must not 



378 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



bave marched against Spartacus, after the rebels had 
destroyed one Roman army, and spoiled their tents : 
nor must Pompey have undertaken the Piratic war. 
But the state of Rome must have pursued the dictates 
of nature, and must have submitted to their own slaves, 
or to the pirates, rather than run the hazard of losing 
some men's lives. You do not prove at all, that nature 
has imprinted any such notion as this of yours on the 
minds of men : and yet you cannot forbear boding- us 
ill luck, and denouncing the wrath of God against us, 
(which may Heaven divert, and inflict it upon yourself, 
and all such prognosticators as you,) who have punish- 
ed, as he deserved, one that had the name of our king-, 
but was in fact our implacable enemy ; and we have 
made atonement for the death of so many of our coun- 
trymen, as our civil wars have occasioned, by shedding 
his blood, that was the author and cause of them. 
Then you tell us, that a kingly government appears to 
be more according- to the laws of nature, because more 
nations, both in our days, and of old, have submitted 
to that form of government than ever did to any other." 
I answer, if that be so, it was neither the effect of any 
dictate of the law of nature, nor was it in obedience to 
any command from God. God would not suffer his 
own people to be under a king- ; he consented at last, 
but unwillingly; what nature and right reason dic- 
tates, we are not to gather from the practice of most 
nations, but of the wisest and most prudent. The 
Grecians, the Romans, the Italians, and Carthaginians, 
with many other, have of their own accord, out of 
choice, preferred a commonwealth to a kingly govern- 
ment ; and these nations that I have named, are better 
instances than all the rest. Hence Sulpitius Severus 
says, " That the very name of a king was always very 
odious among a free-born people." But these things 
concern not our present purpose, nor many other im- 
pertinences that follow over and over again. I will 
make haste to prove that by examples, which I have 
proved already by reason; viz. that it is very agreeable 
to the law of nature, that tyrants should be punished ; 
and that all nations, by the instinct of nature, have 
punished them ; which will expose your impudence, 
and make it evident, that you take a liberty to publish 
palpable downright lies. You begin with the Egyp- 
tians; and indeed, who does not see, that you play.the 
gipsy yourself throughout? "Amongst them," say 
you, " there is no mention extant of any king, that was 
ever slain by the people in a popular insurrection, no 
war made upon any of their kings by their subjects, 
no attempt made to depose any of them." What think 
you then of Osiris, who perhaps was the first king that 
the Egyptians ever had ? Was not he slain by his 
brother Typhon, and five and twenty other con- 
spirators ? And did not a great part of the body of the 
people side with them, and fight a battle with Isis and 
Orus, the late king's wife and son ? I pass by Sesostris, 
whom his brother had well nigh put to death, and 
Chemmis and Cephrenes, against whom the people 
were <l< si rvedlj enraged ; and because they could not 
do it while they were alive, they threatened to tear 
them in pieces after they were dead. Do you think 



that a people that durst lay violent hands upon good 
kings, had any restraint upon them, either by the light 
of nature or religion, from putting bad ones to death ? 
Could they that threatened to pull the dead bodies of 
their princes out of their graves, when they ceased to 
do mischief, (though by the custom of their own coun- 
try the corpse of the meanest person was sacred and 
inviolable,) abstain from inflicting punishment upon 
them in their lifetime, when they were acting all their 
villanies, if they had been able, and that upon some 
maxim of the law of nature ? I know you would not 
stick to answer me in the affirmative, how absurd soever 
it be ; but that you may not offer at it, I will pull out 
your tongue. Know then, that some ages before Cephre- 
nes's time, one Ammosis was king of Egypt, and was 
as great a tyrant, as who has been the greatest ; him 
the people bore with. This you are glad to hear; this 
is what you would be at. But hear what follows, my 
honest Telltruth. I shall speak out of Diodorus, 
" They bore with him for some while, because he was 
too strong for them." But when Actisanes king of 
Ethiopia made war upon him, they took that opportu- 
nity to revolt, so that being deserted, he was easily 
subdued, and Egypt became an accession to the king- 
dom of Ethiopia. You see the Egyptians, so soon as 
they could, took up arms against a tyrant; they joined 
forces with a foreign prince, to depose their own king, 
and disinherit his posterity ; they chose to live under a 
moderate and good prince, as Actisanes was, though a 
foreigner, rather than under a tyrant of their own. 
The same people with a very unanimous consent took 
up arms against Apries, another tyrant, who relied 
upon foreign aids that he had hired to assist him. 
Under the conduct of Amasis their general they con- 
quered, and afterwards strangled him, and placed 
Amasis in the throne. And observe this circumstance 
in the history; Amasis kept the captive king a good 
while in the palace, and treated him well : at last, 
when the people complained that he nourished his own 
and their enemy ; he delivered him into their hands, 
who put him to death in the manner I have mentioned. 
These things are related by Herodotus and Diodorus. 
Where are you now? do you think that any tyrant 
would not choose a hatchet rather than a halter ? " After- 
wards," say you, " when the Egyptians were brought 
into subjection by the Persians, they continued faithful 
to them ;" which is most false ; they never were faith- 
ful to them : for in the fourth year after Cambyses had 
subdued them, they rebelled. Afterwards, when Xerxes 
had tamed them, within a short time they revolted 
from his son Artaxerxes, and set up one Inarus to be 
their king. After his death they rebelled again, and 
created one Tachus king, and made war upon Ar- 
taxerxes Mnemon. Neither were they better subjects 
to their own princes, for they deposed Tachus, and 
conferred the government upon his son Nectanebus, till 
at last Artaxerxes Ochus brought them the second 
time under subjection to the Persian empire. When 
they were under the Macedonian empire, they declared 
by their actions, that tyrants ought to be under some 
restraint: they threw down the statues and images of 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



379 



Ptolemaeus Physco, and would have killed him, but 
that the mercenary army, that he commanded, was too 
strong for them. His son Alexander was forced to 
leave his country by the mere violence of the people, 
who were incensed against him for killing his mother : 
and the people of Alexandria dragged his son Alexan- 
der out of the palace, whose insolent behaviour gave 
just offence, and killed him in the theatre : and the 
same people deposed Ptolemseus Auletes for his many 
crimes. Now since it is impossible, that any learned 
man should be ignorant of these things that are so 
generally known ; and since it is an inexcusable fault 
in Salmasius to be ignorant of them, whose profession 
it is to teach them others, and whose very asserting 
things of this nature ought to carry in itself an argu- 
ment of credibility ; it is certainly a very scandalous 
thing (I say) either that so ignorant, illiterate a block- 
head, should, to the scandal of all learning, profess 
himself, and be accounted a learned man, and obtain 
salaries from princes and states ; or that so impudent 
and notorious a liar should not be branded with some 
particular mark of infamy, and for ever banished from 
the society of learned and honest men. Having 
searched among the Egyptians for examples, let us 
now consider the Ethiopians their neighbours. They 
adore their kings, whom they suppose God to have ap- 
pointed over them, even as if they were a sort of gods : 
and yet whenever the priests condemn any of them, 
they kill themselves : and on that manner, says Diodo- 
rus, they punish all their criminals; they put them 
not to death, but send a minister of justice to command 
them to destroy their own persons. In the next place, 
you mention the Assyrians, the Medes, and the Per- 
sians, who of all others were most observant of their 
princes : and you affirm, contrary to all historians that 
have wrote any thing concerning those nations, that 
" the regal power there had an unbounded liberty an- 
nexed to it, of doing what the king listed." In the 
first place, the prophet Daniel tells us, how the Baby- 
lonians expelled Nebuchadnezzar out of human society, 
and made him graze with the beasts, when his pride 
grew to be insufferable. The laws of those countries 
were not entitled the laws of their kings, but the laws 
of the Medes and Persians ; which laws were irrevoca- 
ble, and the kings themselves were bound by them : 
insomuch that Darius the Mede, though he earnestly 
desired to have delivered Daniel from the hands of the 
princes, yet could not effect it. " Those nations, " say 
you, " thought it no sufficient pretence to reject a prince, 
because he abused the right that was inherent in him 
as he was sovereign." But in the very writing of these 
words you are so stupid, as that with the same breath 
that you commend the obedience and submissiveness 
of those nations, of your own accord you make mention 
of Sardanapalus's being deprived of his crown by Ar- 
baces. Neither was it he alone that accomplished that 
enterprize; for he had the assistance of the priests 
(who of all others were best versed in the law) and of 
the people; and it was wholly upon this account that 
he deposed him, because he abused his authority and 
power, not by giving himself over to cruelty, but to 






luxury and effeminacy. Run over the histories of He- 
rodotus Ctesias, Diodorus, and you will find things 
quite contrary to what you assert here ; you will find 
that those kingdoms were destroyed for the most part 
by subjects, and not by foreigners ; that the Assyrians 
were brought down by the Medes, who then were their 
subjects, and the Medes by the Persians, who at that 
time were likewise subject to them. You yourself 
confess, that " Cyrus rebelled, and that at the same 
time in divers parts of the empire little upstart govern- 
ments were formed by those that shook off the Medes." 
But does this agree with what you said before? Does 
this prove the obedience of the Medes and Persians 
to their princes, and that Jus Regium which you had 
asserted to have been universally received amongst 
those nations ? What potion can cure this brainsick 
frenzy of yours? You say, " it appears by Herodo- 
tus how absolute the Persian kings were." Cambyses 
being desirous to marry his sisters, consulted with the 
judges, who were the interpreters of the laws, to 
whose decision all difficult matters were to be refer- 
red. What answer had he from them? They told 
him, they knew no law which permitted a brother to 
marry his sister; but another law they knew, that the 
kings of Persia might do what they listed. Now to 
this I answer, if the kings of Persia were really so ab- 
solute, what need was there of any other to interpret 
the laws, besides the king himself? Those superfluous 
unnecessary judges would have had their abode and 
residence in any other place rather than in the palace, 
where they were altogether useless. Again, if those 
kings might do whatever they would, it is not credi- 
ble, that so ambitious a prince as Cambyses, should be 
so ignorant of that grand prerogative, as to consult 
with the judges, whether what he desired were accord- 
ing to law. What was the matter then ? either they 
designed to humour the king, as you say they did, or 
they were afraid to cross his inclination, which is the 
account that Herodotus gives of it; and so told him of 
such a law, as they knew would please him, and in 
plain terms made a fool of him, which is no new thing 
with judg'es and lawyers now-a-days. " But," say you, 
" Artabanus a Persian told Themistocles, that there was 
no better law in Persia, than that by which it was 
enacted, that kings were to be honoured and adored." 
An excellent law that was without doubt, which com- 
manded subjects to adore their princes ! but the primi- 
tive fathers have long ago damned it; and Artabanus 
was a proper person to recommend such a law, who 
was the very man that a little while after slew Xerxes 
with his own hand. You quote regicides to assert 
royalty. I am afraid you have some design upon 
kings. In the next place, you quote the poet Claudian, 
to prove how obedient the Persians were. But I ap- 
peal to their histories and annals, which are full of the 
revolts of the Persians, the Medes, the Bactrians, and 
Babylonians, and give us frequent instances of the 
murders of their princes. The next person whose au- 
thority you cite, is Otanes the Persian, who likewise 
killed Smerdis then king of Persia, to whom, out of the 
hatred which he bore to a kingly government, he 



380 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



reckons up the impieties and injurious actions of kings, 
their violation of all laws, their putting* men to death 
without any legal conviction, their rapes and adulte- 
ries ; and all this you will have called the right of 
kings, and slander Samuel again as a teacher of such 
doctrines. You quote Homer, who says that kings de- 
rive their authority from Jupiter ; to which I have 
already given an answer. For King Philip of Mace- 
don, whose asserting the right of kings you make use 
of; I will believe that Charles his description of it, as 
soon as his. Then you quote some sentences out of a 
fragment of Diogenes a Pythagorean ; but you do not 
tell us what sort of a king he speaks of. Observe 
therefore how he begins that discourse ; for whatever 
follows must be understood to have relation to it. 
" Let him be king," says he, " that of all others is 
most just, and so he is that acts most according to law ; 
for no man can be king that is not just ; and without 
laws there can be no justice." This is directly opposite 
to that regal right of yours. And Ecphantas, whom you 
likewise quote, is of the same opinion : " Whosoever 
takes upon him to be a king, ought to be naturally 
most pure and clear from all imputation," And a little 
after, " Him," says he, " we call a king, that governs 
well, and he only is properly so." So that such a king 
as you speak of, according" to the philosophy of the 
Pythagoreans, is no king- at all. Hear now what Plato 
says in his Eighth Epistle : " Let kings," says he, " be 
liable to be called to account for what they do : Let the 
laws control not only the people but kings themselves, 
if they do any thing not warranted by law." I will 
mention what Aristotle says in the Third Book of his 
Politics; " It is neither for the public good, nor is it 
just," says he, " seeing all men are by nature alike 
and equal, that any one should be lord and master over 
all the rest, where there are no laws ; nor is it for the 
public good, or just, that one man should be a law' to 
the rest, where there are laws ; nor that any one, though 
a good man, should be lord over other good men, nor 
a bad man, over bad men." And in the Fifth Book, 
says he, " That king whom the people refuse to be 
governed by, is no longer a king, but a tyrant." Hear 
what Xenophon says in Hiero : " People are so far 
from revenging the deaths of tyrants, that they confer 
great honour upon him that kills one, and erect statues 
in their temples to the honour of tyrannicides." Of 
this I can produce an eye-witness, Marcus Tullius, in 
his oration pro Milone; "The Grecians," says he, 
" ascribe divine worship to such as kill tyrants: what 
tilings of this nature have I myself seen at Athens, 
and in the other cities of Greece ! how many religious 
observances have been instituted in honour of such 
men ! how many hymns! They are consecrated to im- 
mortality and adoration, and their memory endea- 
voured to be perpetuated." And lastly, Polybius, an 
historian of great authority and gravity, in the Sixth 
Book of his History, says thus: " When princes began 
to indulge their own lusts and sensual appetites, then 
kingdoms wt re tinned into so many tyrannies, and the 
subjects began to conspire the death of their governors; 
neither was it the profligate sort that were the authors 



of those designs, but the most generous and magnani- 
mous." I could quote many such like passages, but 1 
shall instance in no more. From the philosophers yon 
appeal to the poets ; and I am very willing to follow 
you thither. iEschylus is enough to inform us, that 
the power of the kings of Greece was such, as not to 
be liable to the censure of any laws, or to be ques- 
tioned before any human judicature; for he in that 
tragedy that is called, The Suppliants, calls the king 
of the Argives, " a governor not obnoxious to the judg- 
ment of any tribunal." But you must know, (for the 
more you say, the more you discover your rashness 
and want of judgment,) you must know, I say, that 
one is not to regard what the poet says, but what per- 
son in the play speaks, and what that person says ; for 
different persons are introduced, sometimes good, some- 
times bad ; sometimes wise men, sometimes fools ; and 
such words are put into their mouths, as it is most 
proper for them to speak ; not such as the poet would 
speak, if he were to speak in his own person. The 
fifty daughters of Danaus, being banished out of 
Egypt, became suppliants to the king of the Argives ; 
they begged of him, that he would protect them from 
the Egyptians, who pursued them with a fleet of ships. 
The king told them he could not undertake their pro- 
tection, till he had imparted the matter to the people ; 
" For," says be, " if I should make a promise to you, I 
should not be able to perform it, unless I consult with 
them first." The women being strangers and sup- 
pliants, and fearing the uncertain suffrages of the people, 
tell him, " That the power of all the people resides in 
him alone ; that he judges all others, but is not judged 
himself by any." He answers: " I have told you al- 
ready, That I cannot do this thing that you desire of 
me, without the people's consent ; nay, and though I 
could, I would not." At last he refers the matter to 
the people; "I will assemble the people," says he, 
" and persuade them to protect you." The people met, 
and resolved to engage in their quarrel; insomuch that 
Danaus their father bids his daughters " be of good 
cheer, for the people of the country, in a popular con- 
vention, had voted their safeguard and defence." If I 
had not related the whole thing, how rashly would this 
impertinent Ignoramus have determined concerning 
the right of kings among the Grecians, out of the 
mouths of a few women that were strangers and sup- 
pliants, though the king himself, and the history, be 
quite contrary ! The same thing appears by the story 
of Orestes in Euripides, who after his father's death 
was himself king of the Argives, and yet was called in 
question by the people for the death of his mother, and 
made to plead for his life, and by the major suffrage 
was condemned to die. The same poet, in his play 
called " The Suppliants," declares, That at Athens the 
kingly power was subject to the laws ; where Theseus 
then king of that city is made to say these words : "This 
is a free city, it is not governed by one man ; the 
people reigns here." And his son Demophoon, who 
was king after him, in another tragedy of the same 
poet, called Heraclidce ; " I do not exercise a tyran- 
nical power over them, as if they were Barbarians: 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



381 



I am upon other terms with them ; but if I do them 
justice, they will do me the like." Sophocles in his 
(Edipus shews, That anciently in Thebes the kings 
were not absolute neither: hence says Tiresias to 
(Edipus, " I am not your slave." And Creon to the 
same king", " I have some right in this city," says he, 
" as well as you." And in another tragedy of the same 
poet, called Antigone, iEmon tells the king, " That the 
city of Thebes is not governed by a single person." 
All men know, that the kings of Lacedsemon have been 
arraigned, and sometimes put to death judicially. 
These instances are sufficient to evince what power the 
kings in Greece had. Let us consider now the Ro- 
mans : You betake yourself to that passage of C. Mem- 
mius in Sallust, of kings having a liberty to do what 
they list, and go unpunished ; to which I have given 
an answer already. Sallust himself says in express 
words, " That the ancient government of Rome was 
by their laws, though the name and form of it was 
regal : which form of government, when it grew into a 
tyranny, you know they put down and changed." 
Cicero, in his oration against Piso, " Shall I," says he, 
" account him a consul, who would not allow the senate 
to have any authority in the commonwealth ? Shall I 
take notice of any man as consul, if at the same time 
there be no such thing as a senate ; when of old the 
city of Rome acknowledged not their kings, if they 
acted without or in opposition to the senate ?" Do you 
hear; the very kings themselves at Rome signified 
nothing without the senate. "But," say you, " Ro- 
mulus governed as he listed ;" and for that you quote 
Tacitus. No wonder : the government was not then 
established by law ; they were a confused multitude of 
strangers, more likely than a regulated state ; and all 
mankind lived without laws, before governments were 
settled. But when Romulus was dead, though all the 
people were desirous of a king, not having yet expe- 
rienced the sweetness of liberty, yet, as Livy informs 
us, " The sovereign power resided in the people ; so 
that they parted not with more right than they retain- 
ed." The same author tells us, " That the same power 
was afterwards extorted from them by their emperors." 
Servius Tullius at first reigned by fraud, and as it were 
a deputy to Tarquinius Priscus ; but afterward he re- 
ferred it to the people, Whether they would have him 
reign or no? At last, says Tacitus, he became the au- 
thor of such laws as the kings were obliged to obey. 
Do you think he would have done such an injury to 
himself and his posterity, if he had been of opinion, 
that the right of kings had been above all laws ? Their 
last king, Tarquinius Superbus, was the first that put 
an end to that custom of consulting the senate concern- 
ing all public affairs : for which very thing, and other 
enormities of his, the people deposed him, and banished 
him and his family. These things I have out of Livy 
and Cicero, than whom you will hardly produce any 
better expositors of the right of kings among the Ro- 
mans. As for the dictatorship, that was but temporary, 
and was never made use of, but in great extremities, 
and was not to continue longer than six months. But 
that which you call the right of the Roman emperors, 



was no right, but a plain downright force ; and was 
gained by war only. " But Tacitus," say you, " that 
lived under the government of a single person, writes 
thus; the gods have committed the sovereign power in 
human affairs to princes only, and have left to subjects 
the honour of being obedient." But you tell us not 
where Tacitus has these words, for you were conscious 
to yourself, that you imposed upon your readers in 
quoting them ; which I presently smelt out, though I 
could not find the place of a sudden : for that expres- 
sion is not Tacitus's own, who is an approved writer, 
and of all others the greatest enemy to tyrants; but 
Tacitus relates that of M. Terentius, a gentleman of 
Rome, being accused for a capital crime, amongst other 
things that he said to save his life, flattered Tiberius 
on this manner. It is in the Sixth Book of his Annals. 
" The gods have entrusted you with the ultimate judg- 
ment in all things ; they have left us the honour of 
obedience." And you cite this passage as if Tacitus 
had said it himself; you scrape together whatever 
seems to make for your opinion, either out of ostenta- 
tion, or out of weakness ; you would leave out nothing 
that you could find in a baker's or a barber's shop ; nay, 
you would be glad of any thing that looked like an ar- 
gument, from the very hangman. If you had read Ta- 
citus himself, and not transcribed some loose quotations 
out of him by other authors, he would have taught you 
whence that imperial right had its original. " After the 
conquest of Asia," says he, " the whole state of our affairs 
was turned upside down ; nothing of the ancient integrity 
of our forefathers was left amongst us ; all men shook 
off that former equality which had been observed, and 
began to have reverence for the mandates of princes." 
This you might have learned out of the Third Book of 
his Annals, whence you have all your regal right. 
" When that ancient equality was laid aside, and in- 
stead thereof ambition and violence took place, tyran- 
nical forms of government started up, and fixed them- 
selves in many countries." The same thing you 
might have learned out of Dio, if your natural levity 
and unsettledness of judgment would have suffered 
you to apprehend any thing that is solid. He tells us 
in the Fifty-third Book of his History, out of which 
book you have made some quotation already, That Oc- 
tavius Caesar, partly by force, and partly by fraud, 
brought things to that pass, that the emperors of Rome 
became no longer fettered by laws. For he, though he 
promised to the people in public that he would lay 
down the government, and obey the laws, and become 
subject to others; yet under pretence of making war 
in several provinces of the empire, still retained the 
legions, and so by degrees invaded the government, 
which he pretended he would refuse. This was not re- 
gularly getting from under the law, but breaking for- 
cibly through all laws, as Spartacus the gladiator might 
have done, and then assuming to himself the style of 
prince or emperor, as if God or the law of nature had 
put all men and all laws into subjection under him. 
Would you inquire a little further into the original of 
the right of the Roman emperors? Marcus Antonius, 
whom Caesar (when by taking up arms against the 



382 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



commonwealth be bad got all tbe power into bis 
bands) bad made consul, when a solemnity called tbe 
Lupercalia was celebrated at Rome, as bad been con- 
trived beforehand, that he should seta crown upon Cae- 
sar's head, though the people sighed and lamented at 
the sight, caused it to be entered upon record, that 
Marcus Antonius, at tbe Lupercalia, made Csesar king 
at tbe instance of the people. Of which action Cicero 
in his second Philippic says, " was Lucius Tarquinius 
therefore expelled, Spurius Cassius, Sp. Melius, and 
Marcus Manilius put to death, that after many ages 
Marcus Antonius should make a king in Rome, con- 
trary to law?" But you deserve to be tortured, and 
loaded with everlasting' disg-race, much more than 
Mark Antony ; though I would not have you proud 
because be and yourself are put together ; for I do not 
think so despicable a wretch as you fit to be compared 
with him in any thing but bis impiety ; you that in 
those horrible Lupercalia of yours set not a crown upon 
one tyrant's bead, but upon all, and such a crown as 
you would have limited by no laws, nor liable to any. 
Indeed if we must believe the oracles of the emperors 
themselves, (for so some christian emperors, as Tbeodo- 
sius and Valens, have called their edicts, Cod. lib. 1. 
tit. 14.) the authority of the emperors depends upon 
that of the law. So that the majesty of the person 
that reigns, even by thejudgment, or call itthe oracle, 
of tbe emperors themselves, must submit to the laws, 
on whose authority it depends. Hence Pliny tells 
Trajan in his Panegyric, when tbe power of the empe- 
rors was grown to its height, " A principality and an 
absolute sovereignty are quite different things. Tra- 
jan puts down whatever looks like a kingdom; he 
rules like a prince, that there may be no room for a 
magisterial power." And afterwards, " whatever I 
have said of other princes, I said that I might shew 
how our prince reforms and corrects the manners of 
princes, which by long custom have been corrupted 
and depraved." Are you not ashamed to call that the 
right of kings, that Pliny calls the corrupt and de- 
praved customs of princes? Rut let this suffice to 
have been said in short of the right of kings, as it was 
taken at Rome. How they dealt with their tyrants, 
whether kings or emperors, is generally known. They 
expelled Tarquin. "But," say you, "how did they 
expel him ? Did they proceed against him judicially ? 
No such matter: when he would have come into the 
city, they shut the gates against him." Ridiculous 
fool ; what could they do but shut tbe gates, when he 
was hastening to them with part of the army ? And 
what great difference will there be, whether they ba- 
nished him or put him to death, so they punished him 
one way or other? The best men of that age killed 
( ';> Bar the tyrant in the very senate. Which action of 
theirs, Marcus Tullins, who was himself a very excel- 
but man, and publicly called tbe father of his coun- 
try, both elsewhere, and particularly in his second 
Philippic, extols wonderfully. I will repeat some of 
bis words: "All good men killed Ccesar as far as 
in them lav. Some men could not advise in it, others 
wanted courage to act in it, others an opportunity, all 



had a good will to it." And afterwards, " what 
greater and more glorious action (ye holy gods!) ever 
was performed, not in this city only, but in any 
other country ? what action more worthy to be re- 
commended to everlasting- memory ? I am not un- 
willing to be included within the number of those 
that advised it, as within tbe Trojan horse." The 
passage of Seneca may relate both to the Romans 
and the Grecians : " there cannot be a greater nor 
more acceptable sacrifice offered up to Jupiter, than a 
wicked prince." For if you consider Hercules, whose 
words these are, they shew what the opinion was of 
the principal men amongst the Grecians in that age. 
If the poet, who flourished under Nero, (and the most 
worthy persons in plays generally express the poet's 
own sense,) then this passage shews us what Seneca 
himself, and all good men, even in Nero's time, thought 
was fit to -be done to a tyrant; and bow virtuous an 
action, bow acceptable to God, they thought it to kill 
one. So every good man of Rome, as far as in him 
lay, killed Domitian. Pliny the second owns it openly 
in bis Panegyric to Trajan tbe emperor, " we took plea- 
sure in dashing those proud looks against the ground, 
in piercing him with our swords, in mangling him with 
axes, as if he had bled and felt pain at every stroke : 
no man could so command bis passion of joy, but 
that he counted it a piece of revenge to behold his 
mangled limbs, his members torn asunder, and after 
all, his stern and horrid statues thrown down and 
burnt." And afterwards, " they cannot love good 
princes enough, that cannot hate bad ones as they de- 
serve." Then amongst other enormities of Domitian, 
he reckons this for one, that he put to death Epaphro- 
ditus, that had killed Nero: " Had we forgotten tbe 
avenging Nero's death ? Was it likely that he would 
suffer his life and actions to be ill spoken of, whose 
death he revenged ?" He seems to have thought it 
almost a crime not to kill Nero, that counts it so great 
a one to punish him that did it. By what has been 
said, it is evident, that the best of the Romans did not 
only kill tyrants, as oft as they could, and howsoever 
they could ; but that they thought it a commendable 
and a praiseworthy action so to do, as the Grecians bad 
done before them. For when they could not proceed 
judicially against a tyrant in his lifetime, being in- 
feriour to him in strength and power, yet after his 
death they did it, and condemned him by tbe Valerian 
law. For Valerius Publicola, Junius Brutus bis col- 
league, when he saw that tyrants, being guarded with 
soldiers, could not be brought to a legal trial, he de- 
vised a law to make it lawful to kill them any way, 
though uncondemned ; and that they that did it, should 
afterwards give an account of their so doing-. Hence, 
when Cassius had actually run Caligula through with 
a sword, though every body else had done it in their 
hearts, Valerius Asiaticus, one that had been consul, 
being present at that time, cried out to the soldiers, 
that began to mutiny because of his death, " I wish I 
myself bad killed him." And the senate at the same 
time was so far from being displeased with Cassius for 
what he had done, that they resolved to extirpate the 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



383 



memory of the emperors, and to raze the temples that 
had been erected in honour of them. When Claudius 
was presently saluted emperor by the soldiers, they 
forbad him by the tribune of the people to take the 
government upon him; but the power of the soldiers 
prevailed. The senate declared Nero an enemy, and 
made inquiry after him, to have punished him accord- 
ing - to the law of their ancestors; which required, that 
he should be stripped naked, and hung- by the neck 
upon a forked stake, and whipped to death. Consider 
now, how much more mildly and moderately the Eng- 
lish dealt with their tyrant, though many are of opinion, 
that he caused the spilling of more blood than ever 
Nero himself did. So the senate condemned Domitian 
after his death ; they commanded his statues to be 
pulled down and dashed in pieces, which was all they 
could do. When Commodus was slain by his own 
officers, neither the senate nor the people punished the 
fact, but declared him an enemy, and inquired for his 
dead corpse, to have made it an example. An act of 
the senate made upon that occasion is extant in Lam- 
pridius : " Let the enemy of his country be deprived of 
all his titles ; let the parricide be drawn, let him be 
torn in pieces in the Spoliary, let the enemy of the 
gods, the executioner of the senate, be dragged with a 
hook," &c. The same persons in a very full senate 
condemned Didus Julianus to death, and sent a tribune 
to slay him in the palace. The same senate deposed 
Maximinus, and declared him an enemy. Let us hear 
the words of the decree of the senate concerning him, 
as Capitolinus relates it: " The consul put the ques- 
tion, ' Conscript fathers, what is your pleasure concern- 
ing the Maximines ?' They answered, ' They are 
enemies, they are enemies, whoever kills them shall 
be rewarded.' " Would you know now, whether the 
people of Rome, and the provinces of the empire, obeyed 
the senate, or Maximine the emperor ? Hear what the 
same author says, the senate wrote letters into all the 
provinces, requiring them to take care of their common 
safety and liberty ; the letters were publicly read. And 
the friends, the deputies, the generals, the tribunes, the 
soldiers of Maximine, were slain in all places; very 
few cities were found, that kept their faith with the 
public enemy. Herodian relates the same thing. But 
what need we give any more instances out of the 
Roman histories ? Let us now see what manner of 
thing the right of kings was in those days, in the na- 
tions that bordered upon the empire. Ambiorix, a king 
of the Gauls, confesses " the nature of his dominion to 
be such, that the people have as great power over him, 
as he over them." And consequently, as well as he 
judged them, he might be judged by them. Vercin- 
getorix, another king in Gaul, was accused of treason 
by his own people. These things Caesar relates in his 
history of the Gallic wars. " Neither is the regal power 
among the Germans absolute and uncontrollable; lesser 
matters are ordered and disposed by the princes ; 
greater affairs by all the people. The king or prince 
is more considerable by the authority of his persua- 
sions, than by any power that he has of commanding. 
If his opinion be not approved of, they declare their 



dislike of it by a general murmuring noise." This is 
out of Tacitus. Nay, and you yourself now confess, 
that what but of late you exclaimed against as an un- 
heard of thing, has been often done, to wit, that " no 
less than fifty Scottish kings have been either banish- 
ed, or imprisoned, or put to death, nay, and some of 
them publicly executed." Which having come to pass 
in our very island ; why do you, as if it were your 
office to conceal the violent deaths of tyrants, by bury- 
ing them in the dark, exclaim against it as an abomin- 
able and unheard of thing? You proceed to commend 
the Jews and Christians for their religious obedience 
even to tyrants, and to heap one lie upon another; in 
all which I have already confuted you. Lately you 
made large encomiums on the obedience of the Assy- 
rians and Persians, and now you reckon up their rebel- 
lions; and though but of late you said they never had 
rebelled at all, now you give us a great many reasons 
why they rebelled so often. Then you resume the nar- 
rative of the manner of our king's death, which you 
had broken off so long since ; that if you had not taken 
care sufficiently to appear ridiculous and a fool then, 
you may do it now. You said, " he was led through 
the members of his own court." What you mean by 
the members of the court, I would gladly know. You 
enumerate the calamities that the Romans underwent 
by changing their kingdom into a commonwealth. In 
which I have already shewn how grossly you give 
yourself the lie. What was it you said, when you 
wrote against the Jesuit ? You demonstrated, that " in 
an aristocracy, or a popular state, there could but be 
seditions and tumults, whereas under a tyrant nothing 
was to be looked for, but certain ruin and destruction;" 
and dare you now say, you vain corrupt mortal, that 
" those seditions were punishments inflicted upon them 
for banishing their kings?" Forsooth, because King 
Charles gave you a hundred Jacobusses, therefore the 
Romans shall be punished for banishing their kings. 
But " they that killed Julius Csesar, did not prosper 
afterwards." I confess, if I would have had any tyrant 
spared, it should have been him. For although he in- 
troduced a monarchical government into a free state by 
force of arms, yet perhaps himself deserved a kingdom 
best; and yet I conceive that none of those that killed 
him can be said to have been punished for so doing, any 
more than Caius Antonius, Cicero's colleague, for de- 
stroying Catiline, who when he was afterward con- 
demned for other crimes, says Cicero in his oration pro 
Flacco, " Catiline's sepulchre was adorned with flow- 
ers." For they that favoured Catiline, they rejoiced ; 
they gave out then, that what Catiline did was just, to 
increase the people's hatred against those that had cut 
him off. These are artifices, which wicked men make 
use off, to deter the best of men from punishing tyrants, 
and flagitious persons, I might as easily say the quite 
contrary, and instance in them that have killed tyrants, 
and prospered afterwards ; if any certain inference 
might be drawn in such cases from the events of things. 
You object further, " that the English did not put their 
hereditary king to death in like manner, as tyrants 
used to be slain, but as robbers and traitors are exe- 



384 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



cuted." In the first place I do not, nor can any wise 
man, understand what a crown's being- hereditary should 
contribute to a king's crimes being- unpunishable. 
What you ascribe to the barbarous cruelty of the Eng- 
lish, proceeded rather from their clemency and mode- 
ration, and as such, deserves commendation ; who, 
though the being- a tyrant is a crime that comprehends 
all sorts of enormities, such as robberies, treasons, and 
rebellions against the whole nation, yet were content- 
ed to inflict no greater punishment upon him for being 
so, than they used of course to do upon any common 
highwayman, or ordinary traitor. You hope " some 
such men as Harmodius and Thrasibulus will rise up 
against us, and make expiation for the king-'s death, 
by shedding their blood that were the authors of it." 
But you will run mad with despair, and be detested 
by all good men, and put an end to that wretched life 
of yours, by hanging yourself, before you see men like 
Harmodius avenging the blood of a tyrant upon such 
as have done no other than what they did themselves. 
That you will come to such an end is most probable, 
nor can any other be expected of so great a rogue ; but 
the other thing is an utter impossibility. You mention 
thirty tyrants that rebelled in Gallienus's time. And 
what if it fall out, that one tyrant happens to oppose 
another, must therefore all they that resist tyrants be 
accounted such themselves ? You cannot persuade men 
into such a belief, you slave of a knight ; nor your au- 
thor Trebellius Pollio, the most inconsiderable of all 
historians that have writ. " If any of the emperors 
were declared enemies by the senate," you say, " it 
was done by faction, but could not have been by law." 
You put us in mind what it was that made emperors 
at first : it was faction and violence, and to speak 
plainer, it was the madness of Antony, that made gene- 
rals at first rebel against the senate, and the people of 
Rome ; there was no law, no right for their so doing". 
" Galba," you say, " was punished for his insurrection 
against Nero." Tell us likewise how Vespasian was 
punished for taking up arms against Vitellius. " There 
was as much difference, you say, " betwixt Charles 
and Nero, as betwixt those English butchers, and the 
Roman senators of that age." Despicable villain ! by 
whom it is scandalous to be commended, and a praise 
to be evil spoken of: but a few periods before, dis- 
coursing of this very thing, you said, " that the Roman 
senate under the emperors was in effect but an assem- 
bly of slaves in robes :" and here you say, " that very 
senate was an assembly of kings;" which if it be 
allowed, then are kings, according to your own opinion, 
but slaves with robes on. Kings are blessed, that have 
such a fellow as you to write in their praise, than whom 
no man is more a rascal, no beast more void of sense, 
unless this one may be said to be peculiar to you, that 
Done ever brayed so learnedly. You make the parliament 
of England more like to Nero, than to the Roman se- 
nate. This itch of \ours of making similitudes enforces 
me to rectify yon, whether I will or no : and I will let 
you see how like King Charles was to Nero; Nero, 
you say, u commanded his own mother to be run through 
with a sword." But Charles murdered both his prince, 



and his father, and that by poison. For to omit other 
evidences; he that would not suffer a duke that was 
accused for it, to come to his trial, must needs have 
been guilty of it himself. Nero slew many thousands 
of Christians; but Charles slew many more. There 
were those, says Suetonius, that praised Nero after he 
was dead, that longed to have had him again, " that 
hung garlands of flowers upon his sepulchre," and 
gave out that they would never prosper, that had been 
his enemies. And some there are transported with 
the like phrensy, that wish for King Charles again, 
and extol him to the highest degree imaginable, of 
whom you, a knight of the halter, are a ringleader. 
" The English soldiers, more savage than their own 
mastiffs, erected a new and unheard of court of justice." 
Observe this ingenious symbol, or adage of Salmasius, 
which he has now repeated six times over, " more sa- 
vage than their own mastiffs." Take notice, orators 
and schoolmasters ; pluck, if you are wise, this elegant 
flower, which Salmasius is so very fond of: commit 
this flourish of a man, that is so much a master of 
words, to your desks for safe custody, lest it be lost. 
Has your rage made you forget words to that degree, 
that like a cuckoo, you must needs say the same thing 
over and over again ? What strange thing has befallen 
you? The poet tells us, that spleen and rag'e turned 
Hecuba into a dog; and it has turned you, the lord of 
St. Lupus, into a cuckoo. Now you come out with 
fresn contradictions. You had said before, page 113, 
that " princes were not bound by any laws, neither 
coercive, nor directory ; that they were bound by no law 
at all." Now you say, that " you will discourse by and 
by of the difference betwixt some kings and others, in 
point of power; some having had more, some less." 
You say, " you will prove that kings cannot be judged, 
nor condemned by their own subjects, by a most solid 
argument ;" but you do it by a very silly one, and it 
is this : You say, " There was no other difference than 
that betwixt the judges, and the kings of the Jews; 
and yet the reason why the Jews required to have 
kings over them, was because they were weary of their 
judges, and hated their government." Do you think, 
that, because they might judge and condemn their 
judges, if they misbehaved themselves in the govern- 
ment, they therefore hated and were weary of them, 
and would be under kings, whom they should have no 
power to restrain and keep within bounds, though they 
should break through all laws? Who but you ever ar- 
gued so childishly? So that they desired a king for 
some other reason, than that they might have a master 
over them, whose power should be superiour to that of 
the law ; which reason, what it was, it is not to our 
present purpose to make a conjecture. Whatever it 
was, both God and his prophets tell us, it was no piece 
of prudence in the people to desire a king. And now 
you fall foul upon your rabbins, and are very angry 
with them for saying, that a king might be judged and 
condemned to undergo stripes; out of whose writings 
you said before you had proved, that the kings of the 
Jews could not be judged. Wherein you confess, that 
you told a lie when you said you had proved any such 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



385 



thing- out of their writings. Nay, you come at last to 
forget the subject you were upon, of writing- in the 
king's defence, and raise little impertinent contro- 
versies about Solomon's stables, and how many stalls 
he had for his horses. Then of a jockey you become 
a ballad-singer again, or rather, as I said before, a 
raving distracted cuckoo. You complain, that in these 
latter ages, discipline has been more remiss, and the 
rule less observed and kept up to ; viz. because one ty- 
rant is not permitted, without a check from the law, to 
let loose the reins of all discipline, and corrupt all 
men's manners. This doctrine, you say, the Brown- 
ists introduced amongst those of the reformed religion; 
so that Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Bucer, and all the 
most celebrated orthodox divines, are Brownists in 
your opinion. The English have the less reason to 
take your reproaches ill, because they hear you belch- 
ing out the same slanders against the most eminent 
doctors of the church, and in effect against the whole 
reformed church itself. 



CHAP. VI. 

After having- discoursed upon the law of God and 
of nature, and handled both so untowardly, that you 
have got nothing by the bargain but a deserved re- 
proach of ignorance and knavery; I cannot apprehend 
what you can have further to allege in defence of your 
royal cause, but mere trifles. I for my part hope I 
have given satisfaction already to all good and learn- 
ed men, and done this noble cause right, should I 
break off here ; yet lest I should seem to any to de- 
cline your variety of arguing and ingenuity, rather 
than your immoderate impertinence, and tittle-tattle, I 
will follow you wherever you have a mind to go ; but 
with such brevity as shall make it appear, that after 
having performed whatever the necessary defence of 
the cause required, if not what the dignity of it me- 
rited, I now do but comply with some men's expecta- 
tion, if not their curiosity. " Now," say you, " I shall 
allege other and greater arguments." What ! greater 
arguments than what the law of God and nature af- 
forded ? Help, Lucina ! the mountain Salmasius is in 
labour ! It is not for nothing that he has got a she- 
husband. Mortals, expect some extraordinary birth. 
" If he that is, and is called a king, might be accused 
before any other power, that power must of necessity 
be greater than that of the king ; and if so, then must 
that power be indeed the kingly power, and ought to 
have the name of it: for a kingly power is thus de- 
fined ; to wit, the supreme power in the state residing 
in a single person, and which has no superiour." O 
ridiculous birth ! a mouse crept out of the mountain ! 
help grammarians! one of your number is in danger 
of perishing ! the law of God and of nature are safe ; 
but Salmasius's dictionary is undone. What if I 
should answer you thus? That words ought to give 
place to things; that we having taken away kingly 
government itself, do not think ourselves concerned 



about its name and definition ; let others look to that, 
who are in love with kings : we are contented with 
the enjoyment of our liberty ; such an answer would 
be good enough for you. But to let you see that I 
deal fairly with you throughout, I will answer you, 
not only from my own, but from the opinion of very 
wise and good men, who have thought, that the name 
and power of a king are very consistent with a power 
in the people and the law superiour to that of the king 
himself. In the first place, Lycurgus, a man very 
eminent for wisdom, designing, as Plato says, to se- 
cure a kingly government as well as it was possible, 
could find no better expedient to preserve it, than by 
making the power of the senate, and of the Ephori, 
that is, the power of the people, superiour to it. The- 
seus, in Euripides, king of Athens, was of the same 
opinion ; for he to his great honour restored the peo- 
ple to their liberty, and advanced the power of the 
people above that of the king, and yet left the regal 
power in that city to his posterity. Whence Euripi- 
des in his play called the " Suppliants," introduces 
him speaking on this manner : " I have advanced 
the people themselves into the throne, having freed 
the city from slavery, and admitted the people to a 
share in the government, by giving them an equal 
right of suffrage." And in another place to the herald 
of Thebes, " in the first place," says he, " you begin 
your speech, friend, with a thing that is not true, in 
styling me a monarch : for this city is not governed 
by a single person, but is a free state ; the people 
reigns here." These were his words, when at the same 
time he was both called and really was king there. 
The divine Plato likewise, in his eighth epistle, 
" Lycurgus," says he, " introduced the power of the 
senate and of the Ephori, a thing very preservative 
of kingly government, which by this means has 
honourably flourished for so many ages, because the 
law in effect was made king. Now the law cannot be 
king, unless there be some, who, if there should be oc- 
casion, may put the law in execution against the king. 
A kingly government so bounded and limited, he him- 
self commends to the Sicilians : " Let the people enjoy 
their liberty under a kingly government ; let the king 
himself be accountable ; let the law take place even 
against kings themselves, if they act contrary to law." 
Aristotle likewise, in the third book of his Politics, 
" of all kingdoms," says he, " that are g*overned by 
laws, that of the Lacedemonians seems to be most truly 
and properly so." And he says, all forms of kingly 
governments are according- to settled and established 
laws, but one, which he calls 7ra/ji(3aai\eia, or Absolute 
Monarchy, which he does not mention ever to have 
obtained in any nation. So that Aristotle thought such 
a kingdom, as that of the Lacedemonians was to be 
and deserve the name of a kingdom more properly than 
any other; and consequently that a king, though sub- 
ordinate to his own people, was nevertheless actually 
a king, and properly so called. Now since so many 
and so great authors assert, that a kingly government 
both in name and thing may very well subsist even 
where the people, though they do not ordinarily exer- 



386 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



cise the supreme power, yet have it actually residing 
iu them, and exercise it upon occasion ; be not you of 
so mean a soul as to fear the downfall of grammar, and 
the confusion of the signification of words to that de- 
gree, as to betray the liberty of mankind, and the state, 
rather than your glossary should not hold water. And 
know for the future, that words must be conformable 
to things, not tilings to words. By this means you 
will have more wit, and not run on in infinitum, which 
now you are afraid of. " It was to no purpose then 
for Seneca," you say, " to describe those three forms of 
government, as he has done." Let Seneca do a thing 
to no purpose, so we enjoy our liberty. And if I mis- 
take us not, we are other sort of men, than to be en- 
slaved by Seneca's flowers. And yet Seneca, though 
he says, that the sovereign power in a kingly govern- 
ment resides in a single person, says withal, that " the 
power is the people's," and by them committed to the 
king for the welfare of the whole, not for their ruin and 
destruction ; and that the people has not given him a 
propriety in it, but the use of it. " Kings at this rate," 
you say, " do not reign by God but by the people." 
As if God did not so overrule the people, that they set 
up such kings, as it pleases God. Since Justinian 
himself openly acknowledges, that the Roman empe- 
rors derived their authority from that " royal law, 
whereby the people granted to them and vested in them 
all their own power and authority." But how oft shall 
we repeat these things over and over again ? Then you 
take upon you to intermeddle with the constitution of 
our government, in which you are no way concerned, 
who are both a stranger and a foreigner; but it shews 
your sauciness, and want of good manners. Come 
then, let us hear your solecisms, like a busy coxcomb 
as you are. You tell us, but it is in false Latin, " that 
what those desperadoes say, is only to deceive the 
people." You rascal ! was it not for this that you, a 
renegado grammarian, were so forward to intermeddle 
with the affairs of our government, that you might in- 
troduce your solecisms and barbarisms amongst us? 
But say, how have we deceived the people ? " The 
form of government which they have set up, is not po- 
pular, but military." This is what that herd of fugi- 
tives and vagabonds hired you to write. So that I 
shall not trouble myself to answer you, who bleat what 
you know nothing of, but I will answer them that 
hired you. " Who excluded the lords from parliament, 
was it the people ?" Ay, it was the people ; and in so 
doing they threw an intolerable yoke of slavery from 
off their necks. Those very soldiers, who you say did 
it, were not foreigners, but our own countrymen, and 
a great part of the people ; and they did it with the 
consent, and at the desire, of almost all the rest of the 
people, and not without the authority of the parliament 
neither. " Was it the people that cut off part of the 
house of commons, forcing some away ?" &c. Yes, I 
say, it was the people. For whatever the better and 
sounder part of the senate did, in which the true power 
of the people resided, why may not the people be 
said to have done it ? What if the greater part of the 
senate should choose to be slaves, or to expose the go- 



vernment to sale, ought not the lesser number to inter- 
pose, and endeavour to retain their liberty, if it be in 
their power ? " But the officers of the army and their 
soldiers did it." And w r e are beholden to those officers 
for not being wanting to the state, but repelling the 
tumultuary violence of the citizens and mechanics of 
London, who, like that rabble that appeared for Clodius, 
had but a little before beset the very parliament house ? 
Do you therefore call the right of the parliament, to 
whom it properly and originally belongs, to take care 
of the liberty of the people both in peace and war, a 
military power? But it is no wonder that those traitors 
that have dictated these passages to you, should talk at 
that rate; so that profligate faction of Antony and his 
adherents used to call the senate of Rome, when they 
armed themselves against the enemies of their country, 
The camp of Pompey. And now I am glad to under- 
stand, that they of your party envy Cromwell, that 
most valiant general of our army, for undertaking that 
expedition in Ireland, (so acceptable to Almighty God,) 
surrounded with a joyful crowd of his friends, and pro- 
secuted with the well-wishes of the people, and the 
prayers of all good men : for I question not but at the 
news of his many victories there, they are by this time 
burst with spleen. I pass by many of your imperti- 
nencies concerning tbe Roman soldiers. What follows 
is most notoriously false : " The power of the people," 
say you, " ceases where there is a king." By what 
law of right is that ? Since it is known that almost all 
kings, of what nations soever, received their authority 
from the people upon certain conditions ; which if the 
king do not perform, I wish you would inform us, why 
that power, which was but a trust, should not return to 
the people, as well from a king, as from a consul, or 
any other magistrate. For when you tell us, that it is 
necessary for the public safety, you do but trifle with 
us ; for the safety of the public is equally concerned, 
whether it be from a King, or from a Senate, or from a 
Triumvirate, that the power wherewith they were en- 
trusted reverts to the people, upon their abuse of it ; 
and yet you yourself grant, that it may so revert from 
all sorts of magistrates, a king only excepted. Cer- 
tainly, if no people in their right wits ever committed 
the government either to a king, or other magistrates, 
for any other purpose than for the common good of 
them all, there can be no reason why, to prevent the 
utter ruin of them all, they may not as well take it 
back again from a king, as from other governors ; nay, 
and it may with far greater ease be taken from one, 
than from many. And to invest any mortal creature 
with a power over themselves, on any other terms than 
upon trust, were extreme madness; nor is it credible 
that any people since the creation of the world, who 
had freedom of will, were ever so miserably silly, as 
either to part with the power for ever, and to all pur- 
poses, or to revoke it from those whom they had en- 
trusted with it, but upon most urgent and weighty 
reasons. If dissensions, if civil wars, are occasioned 
thereby, there cannot any right accrue from thence to 
the king, to retain that power by force of arms, which 
the people challenge from him as their own. Whence 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



387 



it follows, that what you say, and we do not deny, that 
" governors are not likely to be changed," is true with 
respect to the people's prudence, not the king's right ; 
but that therefore they ought never to be changed, 
upon no occasion whatsoever, that does not follow by 
no means; nor have you hitherto alleged any thing, 
or made appear any right of kings to the contrary, but 
that all the people concurring, they may lawfully be 
deposed, when unfit for government ; provided it may 
be done, as it has been often done in your own country 
of France, without any tumults or civil wars. Since 
therefore the safety of the people, and not that of a ty- 
rant, is the supreme law ; and consequently ought to 
be alleged on the people's behalf against a tyrant, and 
not for him against them : you that go about to pervert 
so sacred and so glorious a law, with your fallacies 
and jugglings ; you who would have this supreme law, 
and which of all others is most beneficial to mankind, 
to serve only for the impunity of tyrants ; let me tell 
you, (since you call us Englishmen so often inspired, 
and enthusiasts, and prophets,) let me, I say, be so far 
a prophet, as to tell you, that the vengeance of God 
and man hangs over your head for so horrid a crime ; 
although your subjecting all mankind to tyranny, as 
far as in you lies, which in effect is no better than con- 
demning them to be devoured by wild beasts, is in 
itself part of its own vengeance; and whithersoever 
you fly, and wheresoever you wander, will first or last 
pursue you with its furies, and overtake you, and cause 
you to rave worse than you do at present. I come 
now to your second argument, which is not unlike the 
first : If the people may resume their liberty, " there 
would be no difference," say you, " betwixt a popular 
state and a kingdom ; but that in a kingdom one man 
rules, and in a popular state many." And what if that 
were true; would the state have any prejudice by it ? 
But you yourself tell us of other differences that would 
be notwithstanding; to wit, of " Time and succession; 
for in popular states, the magistrates are generally 
chosen yearly ;" whereas kings, if they behave them- 
selves well, are perpetual ; and in most kingdoms there 
is a succession in the same family. But let them differ 
from one another, or not differ, I regard not those petty 
things : in this they agree, that when the public good 
requires it, the people may, without doing injury to 
any, resume that power for the public safety, which 
they committed to another for that end and purpose. 
" But according to the royal law, by the Romans so 
called, which is mentioned in the institutes, the people 
of Rome granted all their power and authority to the 
prince." They did so by compulsion; the emperor 
being willing to ratify their tyranny by the authority 
of a law. But of this we have spoken before; and 
their own lawyers, commenting upon this place in the 
institutes, confess as much. So that we make no ques- 
tion but the people may revoke what they were forced 
to grant, aud granted against their wills. But most 
rational it is to suppose, that the people of Rome trans- 
ferred no other power to the prince, than they had be- 
fore granted to their own magistrates; and that was a 
power to govern according to law, and a revocable, not 

2 c 



an absurd, tyrannical power. Hence it was, that the 
emperors assumed the consular dignity, and that of the 
tribunes of the people ; but after Julius Caesar, not one 
of them pretended to the dictatorship : in the Circus 
Maximus they used to adore the people, as I have said 
already out of Tacitus and Claudian. But "as here- 
tofore many private persons have sold themselves into 
slavery, so a whole nation may." Thou jailbird of a 
knight, thou day-spirit, thou everlasting scandal to thy 
native country ! The most despicable slaves in the 
world ought to abhor and spit upon such a factor for 
slavery, such a public pander as thou art. Certainly 
if people had so enslaved themselves to kings, then 
might kings turn them over to other masters, or sell 
them for money, and yet we know that kings cannot 
so much as alienate the demesnes of the crown : and 
shall he, that has but the crown, and the revenues that 
belong to it, as an usufructuary, and those given him 
by the people, can he be said to have, as it were, pur- 
chased the people, and made them his propriety ? 
Though you were bored through both ears, aud went 
barefoot, you would not be so vile and despicable, so 
much more contemptible than all slaves, as the broach- 
ing such a scandalous doctrine as this makes you. But 
go on, and punish yourself for your rogueries as now 
you do, though against your will. You frame a long- 
discourse of the law of war; which is nothing to the 
purpose in this place : for neither did Charles conquer 
us; and for his ancestors, if it were never so much 
granted that they did, yet have they often renounced 
their title as conquerors. And certain it is, That we 
were never so conquered, but that as we swore allegi- 
ance to them, so they swore to maintain our laws, and 
govern by them : which laws, when Charles had noto- 
riously violated, taken in what capacity you will, as 
one who had formerly been a conquerer or was now a 
perjured king, we subdued him by force, he himself 
having begun with us first. And according to your 
own opinion, " Whatever is acquired by war, becomes 
his property that acquired it." So that how full soever 
you are of words, how impertinent soever a babbler, 
whatever you prate, how great a noise soever you make, 
what quotations soever out of the rabbins, though you 
make yourself never so hoarse, to the end of this chap- 
ter, assure yourself, That nothing of it makes for the 
king, he being now conquered, but all for us, who by 
God's assistance are conquerors. 



CHAP. VII. 

To avoid two very great inconveniencies, and, con- 
sidering your own weight, very weighty ones indeed, 
vou denied in the foregoing chapter, that the people's 
power was superior to that of the king; for if that 
should be granted, kings must provide themselves of 
some other name, because the people would indeed be 
king, and some divisions in your sj'stem of politics 
would be confounded : the first of which inconveni- 



388 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



encies would thwart with your dictionary, and the lat- 
ter overthrow your politics. To these I have given 
such an answer as shews, that though our own safety 
and liberty were the principal things I aimed the pre- 
servation of, yet withal, I had some consideration of 
salving your dictionary, and your politics. " Now," 
say you, " I will prove by other arguments, That a 
kini: cannot be judged by his own subjects; of which 
arguments this shall be the greatest and most convin- 
cing, that a king has no peer in his kingdom." What ! 
Can a king have no peer in his kingdom ? What then 
is the meaning of those twelve ancient peers of the 
kings of France ? Are they fables and trifles ? Are 
they called so in vain, and in mock only ? Have a 
care how you affront those principal men of that king- 
dom ; who if they are not the king's peers, as they are 
called, I am afraid your dictionary, which is the only 
thing you are concerned for, will be found more faulty 
in France than in England. But go to, let us hear 
your demonstration, that a king has no peer in his own 
kingdom. " Because," say you, " the people of Rome, 
when they had banished their king, appointed not one, 
but two consuls: and the reason was, That if one of 
them should transgress the laws, his colleague might 
be a check to him." There could hardly have been de- 
vised any thing more silly: how came it to pass then, 
that but one of the consuls had the bundles of rods car- 
ried before him, and not both, if two were appointed, 
that each might have a power over the other? And 
what if both had conspired against the commonwealth ? 
Would not the case then be the very same that it would 
have been, if one consul only had been appointed with- 
out a colleague ? But we know very well, that both 
consuls, and all other magistrates, were bound to obey 
the senate, whenever the senate and the people saw, 
that the interest of the commonwealth so required. 
We have a famous instance of that in the decemvirs, 
who though they were invested with the power of con- 
suls, and were the chief magistrates, yet the authority 
of the senate reduced them all, though they struggled 
to retain their government. Nay, we read that some 
consuls, before they were out of office, had been de- 
clared enemies, and arms have been taken up against 
them ; for in those days no man looked upon him as a 
consul, who acted as an enemy. So war was waged 
against Antony, though a consul, by authority of the 
senate; in which being worsted, he would have been 
put to death, but that Octavius, affecting the empire, 
sided with him to subvert the commonwealth. Now 
whereas you say, "that it is a property peculiar to 
kingly majesty, that the power resides in a single per- 
son ;" that is but a loose expression, like the rest of 
what you say, and is contradicted by yourself a little 
after: " for the Hebrew judges," you say, "ruled as 
long as they lived, and there was but one of them at 
a time ; the Scripture also calls them kings : and yet 
they were accountable to the great council." Thus 
we see, that an itch of vain glory, in being thought to 
have said all that can be said, makes you hardly say 
any thing but contradictions. Then I ask, what kind 
of government that was in the Pvornan empire, when 



sometimes two, sometimes three emperors, reigned all 
at once? Do you reckon them to have been empe- 
rors, that, is, kings, or was it an aristocracy, or a tri- 
umvirate ? Or will you deny, that the Roman empire 
under Antoninus and Verus, under Dioclesian and 
Maximian, under Constantine and Licinius, was still 
but one entire empire ? If these princes were not 
kings, your three forms of government will hardly 
hold; if they were, then it is not an essential property 
of a kingly government, to reside in a single person. 
" If one of these offend," say you," then may the other 
refer the matter to the senate, or the people, where he 
may be accused and condemned." And does not the 
senate and the people then judge, when the matter is 
so referred to them ? So that if you will give any cre- 
dit to yourself, there needs not one colleague to judge 
another. Such a miserable advocate as you, if you 
were not so wretched a fellow as } r ou are, would de- 
serve compassion ; you lie every way so open to blows, 
that if one were minded for sport's sake to make a 
pass at any part of you, he could hardly miss, let him 
aim where he would. " It is ridiculous," say you, " to 
imagine, that a king will ever appoint judges to con- 
demn himself." But I can tell you of an emperor, 
that was no ridiculous person, but an excellent prince, 
and that was Trajan, who when he delivered a dagger 
to a certain Roman magistrate, as the custom was, that 
being the badge of his office, frequently thus admo- 
nished him, " Take this sword, and use it for me, if I 
do as I ought ; if otherwise, against me : for miscar- 
riages in the supreme magistrate are less excusable." 
This Dion and Aurelius Victor say of him. You see 
here, that a worthy emperor appointed one to judge 
himself, though he did not make him equal. Tibe- 
rius perhaps might have said as much out of vanity 
and hypocrisy ; but it is almost a crime to imagine, 
that so good and virtuous a prince as Trajan, did not 
really speak as he thought, and according to what he 
apprehended right and just. How much more reason- 
able was it, that though he were superiour to the se- 
nate in power, and might, if he would, have refused to 
yield them any obedience, yet he actually did obey 
them, as by virtue of his office he ought to do, and ac- 
knowledged their right in the government to be supe- 
riour to his own ! For so Pliny tells us in his Panegy- 
ric, " The senate both desired and commanded you to be 
consul a fourth time ; you may know by the obedience 
you pay them, that this is no word of flattery, but of 
power." And a little after, " This is the design you 
aim at, to restore our lost liberty." And Trajan was 
not of that mind alone ; the senate thought so too, and 
were of opinion, that their authority was indeed su- 
preme : for they that could command their emperor, 
might judge him. So the emperor Marcus Aurelius, 
when Cassius governor of Syria endeavoured to get the 
empire from him, referred himself either to the senate, 
or the people of Rome, and declared himself ready to 
lay down the government, if they would have it so. 
Now how should a man determine of the right of kings 
better, and more truly, than out of the very mouths of 
the best of kings ? Indeed every good king accounts 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



389 



either the senate, or the people, not only equal, but 
superiour to himself by the law of nature. But a 
tyrant being by nature inferiour to all men, every one 
that is stronger than he, ought to be accounted not 
only his equal, but superiour : for as heretofore nature 
taught men from force and violence to betake them- 
selves to laws ; so wherever the laws are set at naught, 
the same dictate of nature must necessarily prompt us 
to betake ourselves to force again. " To be of this 
opinion," says Cicero pro Sestio, "is a sign of wisdom; 
to put it in practice, argues courage and resolution ; 
and to do both, is the effect of virtue in its perfection." 
Let this stand then as a settled maxim of the law of 
nature, never to be shaken by any artifices of flatterers, 
that the senate, or the people, are superiour to kings, 
be they good or bad : which is but what you yourself 
do in effect confess, when you tell us, that the au- 
thority of kings was derived from the people. For that 
power, which they transferred to princes, doth yet na- 
turally, or, as I may say, virtually reside in themselves 
notwithstanding: for so natural causes, that produce 
any effect by a certain eminency of operation, do always 
retain more of their own virtue and energy than they 
impart; nor do they, by communicating to others, ex- 
haust themselves. You see, the closer we keep to na- 
ture, the more evidently does the people's power appear 
to be above that of the prince. And this is likewise 
certain, that the people do not freely, and of choice, 
settle the government in the king absolutely, so as to 
give him a propriety in it, nor by nature can do so ; 
but only for the public safety and liberty, which, when 
the king ceases to take care of, then the people in effect 
have given him nothing at all : for nature says, the 
people gave it him to a particular end and purpose ; 
which end, if neither nature nor the people can attain, 
the people's gift becomes no more valid than any other 
void covenant or agreement. These reasons prove very 
fully, that the people are superiour to the king; and so 
your " greatest and most convincing argument, that a 
king cannot be judged by his people, because he has 
no peer in his kingdom," nor any superiour, falls to 
the ground. For you take that for granted, which we 
by no means allow. " In a popular state," say you, 
" the magistrates being appointed by the people, may 
likewise be punished for their crimes by the people : in 
an aristocracy the senators may be punished by their 
colleagues: but it is a prodigious thing to proceed 
criminally against a king in his own kingdom, and 
make him plead for his life." What can you conclude 
from hence, but that they who set up kings over them, 
are the most miserable and most silly people in the 
world ? But, I pray, what is the reason why the peo- 
ple may not punish a king that becomes a malefactor, 
as well as they may popular magistrates and senators 
in an aristocracy? Do you think that all they who 
live under a kingly government, were so strangely in 
love with slavery, as when they might be free, to choose 
vassalage, and to put themselves all and entirely under 
the dominion of one man, who often happens to be an 
ill man, and often a fool, so as whatever cause might 
be, to leave themselves no refuge in, no relief from, the 



laws nor the dictates of nature, against the tyranny of 
a most outrageous master, when such a one happens? 
Why do they then tender conditions to their kings, 
when they first enter upon their government, and pre- 
scribe laws for them to govern by ? Do they do this 
to be trampled upon the more, and be the more laughed 
to scorn ? Can it be imagined, that a whole people 
would ever so vilify themselves, depart from their own 
interest to that degree, be so wanting to themselves, as 
to place all their hopes in one man, and he very often 
the most vain person of them all ? To what end do 
they require an oath of their kings, not to act any 
thing contrary to law ? We must suppose them to do 
this, that (poor creatures !) they may learn to their 
sorrow, that kings only may commit perjury with im- 
punity. This is what your own wicked conclusions 
hold forth. " If a king, that is elected, promise any 
thing to his people upon oath, which, if he would not 
have sworn to, perhaps they would not have chose 
him, yet if he refuse to perform that promise, he falls 
not under the people's censure. Nay, though he swear 
to his subjects at his election, that he will administer 
justice to them according to the laws of the kingdom ; 
and that if he do not, they shall be discharged of their 
allegiance, and himself ipso facto cease to be their 
king ; yet if he break this oath, it is God and not man 
that must require it of him." I have transcribed these 
lines, not for their elegance, for they are barbarously 
expressed; nor because I think there needs any answer 
to them, for they answer themselves, they explode and 
damn themselves by their notorious falsehood and 
loathsomeness : but I did it to recommend you to kings 
for your great merits ; that among so many places as 
there are at a court, they may put you into some pre- 
ferment or office that may be fit for you. Some are 
princes' secretaries, some their cup-bearers, some mas- 
ters of the revels: I think you had best be master 
of the perjuries to some of them. You shall not be 
master of the ceremonies, you are too much a clown 
for that ; but their treachery and perfidiousness shall be 
under your care. But that men may see you are both 
a fool and a knave to the highest degree, let us consider 
these last assertions of yours a little more narrowly : 
" A king," say you, " though he swear to his subjects 
at his election, that he will govern according to law, 
and that if he do not, they shall be discharged of their 
allegiance, and he himself ipso facto cease to be then- 
king ; yet can he not be deposed or punished hy them." 
Why not a king, I pray, as well as popular magis- 
trates ? because in a popular state, the people do not 
transfer all their power to the magistrates. And do they, 
in the case that you have put, vest it all in the king, 
when they place him in the government upon those 
terms expressly, to hold it no longer than he uses it 
well ? Therefore it is evident, that a king sworn to ob- 
serve the laws, if he transgress them, may be punished 
and deposed, as well as popular magistrates. So that 
you can make no more use of that invincible argument 
of the people's transferring all their right and power to 
the prince ; you yourself have battered it down with 
your own engines. Hear now another most powerful 



390 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



and invincible argument of his, why subjects cannot 
judge their kings, « because he is bound by no law, 
being himself the sole lawgiver." Which having been 
proved already to be most false, this great reason comes 
to nothing, as well as the former. But the reason why 
princes have but seldom been proceeded ag-ainst for 
personal and private crimes, as whoredom, and adul- 
tery, and the like, is not because they could not justly 
be punished even for such, but lest the people should 
receive more prejudice through disturbances that might 
be occasioned by the king's death, and the change of 
affairs, than they would be profited by the punishment 
of one man or two. But when they begin to be uni- 
versally injurious and insufferable, it has always been 
the opinion of all nations, that then, being tyrants, it 
is lawful to put them to death any how, condemned or 
uncondemned. Hence Cicero, in his Second Philippic, 
says thus of those that killed Caesar, "they were the 
first that ran through with their swords, not a man who 
affected to be king, but who was actually settled in the 
government; which, as it was a worthy and godlike 
action, so it is set before us for our imitation." How 
unlike are you to him! "Murder, adultery, injuries, 
are not regal and public, but private and personal 
crimes." Well said, parasite ! you have obliged all 
pimps and profligates in courts by this expression. 
How ingeniously do you act both the parasite and the 
pimp with the same breath ! "A king that is an adul- 
terer, or a murderer, may yet govern well, and conse- 
quently ought not to be put to death, because, together 
with his life, he must lose his kingdom ; and it was 
never yet allowed by God's laws, or man's, that for one 
and the same crime, a man was to be punished twice." 
Infamous foulmouth wretch ! By the same reason the 
magistrates in a popular state, or in an aristocracy, 
ought never to be put to death, for fear of double 
punishment; no judge, no senator must die, for they 
must lose their magistracy too, as well as their lives. 
As you have endeavoured to take all power out of the 
people's hands, and vest it in the king, so you would 
all majesty too: a delegated translatitious majesty we 
allow, but that majesty does chiefly and primarily re- 
side in him, you can no more prove, than you can, that 
power and authority does. " A king," you say, "can- 
not commit treason against his people, but a people 
may against their king." And yet a king is what he 
is for the people only, not the people for him. Hence 
T infer, that the whole body of the people, or the greater 
part of them, must needs have greater power than the 
king. This you deny, and begin to cast up accounts. 
" He is of greater power than any one, than any two, 
than any three, than any ten, than any hundred, than 
any thousand, than any ten thousand :" be it so, " he 
is of more power than half the people." I will not 
deny that neither; "add now half of the other half, 
will he not have more power than all those?" Not at 
all. Go on, why do you take away the board ? Do 
you not understand progression in arithmetic? He 
begins to reckon after another manner. " Has not the 
king, and the nobility together, more power ?" No, Mr. 
Changeling, I deny that too. If by the nobility, whom 



you style optimates, you mean the peers only ; for it 
may happen that amongst the whole number of them, 
there may not be one man deserving that appellation : 
for it often falls out, that there are better and wiser 
men than they amongst the commons, whom iii con- 
junction with the greater or the better part of the 
people, I should not scruple to call by the name of, and 
take them for, all the people. " But if the king is not 
superiour in power to all the people together, he is then 
a king but of single persons, he is not the king of the 
whole body of the people." You say well, no more he 
is, unless they are content he should be so. Now, 
balance your accounts, and you will find that by mis- 
casting, you have lost your principal. " The English 
say, that the right of majesty originally and principally 
resides in the people ; which principle would introduce 
a confusion of all states." What, of an aristocracy and 
democracy ? But let that pass. What if it should over- 
throw a gy naeocracy too ? (i. e. a government of one or 
more women,) under which state, or form of government, 
they say, you are in danger of being beaten at home ; 
would not the English do you a kindness in that, you 
sheepish fellow, you ? But there is no hope of that. 
For it is most justly so ordered, since you would sub- 
ject all mankind to tyranny abroad, that you yourself 
should live in a scandalous most unmanlike slavery at 
home. " We must tell you," you say, " what we mean 
by the word People." There are a great many other 
things, which you stand more in need of being told : 
for of things that more immediately concern you, you 
seem altogether ignorant, and never to have learnt any 
thing but words and letters, not to be capable of any 
thing else. But this you think you know, that by the 
word people we mean the common people only, exclu- 
sive of the nobility, because we have put down the 
House of Lords. And yet that very thing shews, that 
under the word people we comprehend all our natives, 
of what order and degree soever; in that we have 
settled one supreme senate only, in which the nobility 
also, as a part of the people, (not in their own right, as 
they did before ; but representing those boroughs or 
counties, for which they may be chose,) may give their 
votes. Then you inveigh against the common people, 
as being "blind and brutish, ignorant of the art of 
governing ;" you say there is " nothing more empty, 
more vain, more inconstant, more uncertain than they."' 
All which is very true of yourself, and it is true like- 
wise of the rabble, but not of the middle sort, amongst 
whom the most prudent men, and most skilful in 
affairs, are generally found ; others are most commonly 
diverted either by luxury and plenty, or by want and 
poverty, from virtue, and the study of laws and govern- 
ment. " There are many ways," you say, " by which 
kings come to the crown, so as not to be beholden to 
the people at all for it ;" and especially, " those that 
inherit a kingdom." But those nations must certainly 
be slaves, and born to slavery, that acknowledge any 
one to be their lord and master so absolutely, as that 
they are his inheritance, and come to him by descent, 
without any consent of their own ; they deserve not the 
appellation of subjects, nor of freemen, nor can they 






IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



391 



justly be reputed such; nor are they to be accounted 
as a civil society, but must be looked on as the posses- 
sions and estate of their lord, and his family: for I see 
no difference as to the right of ownership betwixt them, 
and slaves, or beasts. Secondly, " they that come to 
the crown by conquest, cannot acknowledge them- 
selves to have received from the people the power 
to usurp." We are not now discoursing- of a con- 
queror, but of a conquered king ; what a conqueror 
may lawfully do, we will discourse elsewhere ; do you 
keep to your subject. But whereas you ascribe to 
kings that ancient right, that masters of families have 
over their households, and take an example from thence 
of their absolute power; I have shewn already over 
and over, that there is no likeness at all betwixt them. 
And Aristotle (whom you name so often) if you had 
read him, would have taught you as much in the be- 
ginning- of his Politics, where he says they judge 
amiss, that think there is but little difference betwixt 
a king, and a master of a family : " For that there is 
not a numerical, but a specifical difference betwixt a 
kingdom and a family." For when villages grew to 
be towns and cities, that regal domestic right vanished 
by degrees, and was no more owned. Hence Diodorus, 
in his first book, says, that anciently kingdoms were 
transmitted not to the former kings' sons, but to those 
that had best deserved of the people. And Justin, 
" Originally," says he, " the government of nations, 
and of countries, was by king-s, who were exalted to 
that height of majesty, not by popular ambition, but 
for their moderation, which commended them to good 
men." Whence it is manifest, that, in the very begin- 
ning of nations, that fatherly and hereditary govern- 
ment gave way to virtue, and the people's right : which 
is the most natural reason and cause, and was the true 
rise of kingly government. For at first men entered 
into societies, not that any one might insult over all 
the rest, but that in case any should injure another, 
there might be laws and judges to protect them from 
wrong, or at least to punish the wrong doers. When 
men were at first dispersed and scattered asunder, some 
wise and eloquent man persuaded them to enter into 
civil societies; " that he himself," say you, " might 
exercise dominion over them, when so united." Per- 
haps you meant this of Nimrod, who is said to have 
been the first tyrant. Or else it proceeds from your 
own malice only, and certainly it cannot have been 
true of those great and generous spirited men, but is a 
fiction of your own, not warranted by any authority 
that I ever heard of. For all ancient writers tell us, 
that those first instituters of communities of men had 
a regard to the good and safety of mankind only, and 
not to any private advantages of their own, or to 
make themselves great or powerful. One thing I 
cannot pass by, which I suppose you intended for an 
emblem, to set off the rest of this chapter : " If a con- 
sul," say you, " had been to be accused before his 
magistracy expired, there must have been a dictator 
created for that purpose ;" though you had said before, 
" that for that very reason there were two of them." 
Just so your positions always agree with one another, 



and almost every page declares how weak and frivolous 
whatever you say or write upon any subject is. " Un- 
der the ancient Saxon kings," you say, " the people 
were never called to parliaments." If any of our own 
countrymen had asserted such a thing, I could easily 
have convinced him that he was in an errour. But I 
am not so much concerned at your mistaking our affairs, 
because you are a foreigner. This in effect is all you 
say of the right of kings in general. Many other 
things I omit, for you use many digressions, and put 
things down that either have no ground at all, or are 
nothing to the purpose, and my design is not to vie 
with you in impertinence. 



CHAP. VIII. 

If you had published your own opinion, Salmasius, 
concerning the right of kings in general, without 
affronting any persons in particular, notwithstanding 
this alteration of affairs in England, as long as you 
did but use your own liberty in writing what yourself 
thought fit, no Englishman could have had any cause 
to have been displeased with you, nor would you have 
made good the opinion you maintain ever a whit the 
less. For if it be a positive command both of Moses 
and of Christ himself, " That all men whatsoever, 
whether Spaniards, French, Italians, Germans, Eng-- 
lish, or Scots, should be subject to their princes, be they 
good or bad," which you asserted, p. 127, to what pur- 
pose was it for you, who are a foreigner, and unknown 
to us, to be tampering with our laws, and to read us 
lectures out of them as out of your own papers and 
miscellanies, which, be they how they will, you have 
taught us already in a great many words, that they 
ought to give way to the laws of God ? But now it is 
apparent, that you have undertaken the defence of this 
royal cause, not so much out of your own inclination, 
as partly because you were hired, and that at a good 
round price too, considering how things are with him 
that set you on work ; and partly, it is like, out of ex- 
pectation of some greater reward hereafter; to publish 
a scandalous libel against the English, who are injuri- 
ous to none of their neighbours, and meddle with their 
own matters only. If there were no such thing as that 
in the case, is it credible, that any man should be so 
impudent or so mad, as though he be a stranger, and 
at a great distance from us, yet of his own accord to 
intermeddle with our affairs, and side with a party ? 
What the devil is it to you, what the English do 
amongst themselves ? What would you have, prag- 
matical puppy ? What would you be at ? Have you 
no concerns of your own at home ? I wish you had 
the same concerns that that famous Olus, your fellow- 
busybody in the Epigram, had ; and perhaps so you 
have ; you deserve them, I am sure. Or did that hot- 
spur your wife, who encouraged you to write what you 
have done for outlawed Charles's sake, promise you 
some profitable professor's place in England, and God 



392 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



knows what gratifications at Charles's return ? But 
assure yourselves, my mistress and my master, that 
England admits neither of wolves, nor owners of 
wolves: so that it is no wonder you spit so much ve- 
nom at our English mastiffs. It were better for you 
to return to those illustrious titles of yours in France ; 
first to that bungerstarved lordship of yours at*St. 
Lou ; and in the next place to the sacred consistory of 
the most christian king-. Being- a counsellor to the 
prince, you are at too great a distance from your own 
country. But T see full well, that she neither desires 
you, nor your counsel ; nor did it appear she did, when 
you were there a few years ago, and beg'an to lick a 
cardinal's trencher: she is in the right, by my troth, 
and can very willingly suffer such a little fellow as 
you, that are but one half of a man, to run up and down 
with your mistress of a wife, and your desks full of 
trifles and fooleries, till you light somewhere or other 
upon a stipend, large enough for a knight of the gram- 
mar, or an illustrious critic on horseback, if any prince 
or state has a mind to hire a vagabond doctor, that is 
to be sold at a good round price. But here is one that 
will bid for you ; whether you are a merchantable com- 
modity or not, and what you are worth, we shall see by 
and by. You say, " the parricides assert, that the go- 
vernment of England is not merely kingly, but that it 
is a mixed government." Sir Thomas Smith, a coun- 
tryman of ours in Edward the Sixth's days, a good 
lawyer, and a statesman, one whom you yourself will 
not call a parricide, in the beginning of a book which 
he wrote "of the commonwealth of England," asserts 
the same thing-, and not of our government only, but 
of almost all others in the world, and that out of Aris- 
totle ; and he says it is not possible, that any govern- 
ment should otherwise subsist. But as if you thought 
it a crime to say any thing, and not unsay it again, 
you repeat your former threadbare contradictions. You 
say, " there neither is nor ever was any nation, that did 
not understand by the very name of a king, a person 
whose authority is inferiour to God alone, and who is 
accountable to no other." And yet a little after you 
confess, " that the name of a king was formerly given 
to such powers and magistrates, as had not a full and 
absolute right of themselves, but had a dependence 
upon the people, as the suffetes among the Carthagini- 
ans, the Hebrew judges, the kings of the Lacedemo- 
nians, and of Arragon." Are you not very consistent 
with yourself? Then you reckon up five several sorts 
of monarchies out of Aristotle ; in one of which only 
that right obtained, which you say is common to all 
kings. Concerning which I have said already more 
than once, that neither doth Aristotle give an instance 
of any such monarchy, nor was there ever any such in 
being : the other four he clearly demonstrates that they 
were bounded by established laws, and the king's 
power subject to those laws. The first of which four 
was that of the Lacedemonians, which in his opinion 
did of all others best deserve the name of a kingdom. 
The second was such as obtained among barbarians, 

Latin Sanctu* T.t.pus, Saint Wolf, is the name of a place 
hi Iranc. where SalrnaMus had some tmall estate, and was called so 



which was lasting, because regulated by laws, and be- 
cause the people willingly submitted to it; whereas 
by the same author's opinion in his third book, what 
king soever retains the sovereignty against the peo- 
ple's will, is no longer to be accounted a king, but a 
downright tyrant ; all which is true likewise of his 
third sort of kings, which he calls iEsymnetes, who 
were chosen by the people, and most commonly for a 
certain time only, and for some particular purposes, 
such as the Roman dictators were. The fourth sort he 
makes of such as reigned in the heroical days, upon 
whom for their extraordinary merits the people of their 
own accord conferred the government, but yet bounded 
by laws ; nor could these retain the sovereignty against 
the will of the people ; nor do these four sorts of kingly 
governments differ, he says, from tyranny in any thing 
else, but only in that these governments are with the 
good liking of the people, and that against their will. 
The fifth sort of kingly government, which he calls 
■n-afijSaaiXeia, or absolute monarchy, in which the su- 
preme power resides in the king's person, which you 
pretend to be the right of all kings, is utterly con- 
demned by the philosopher, as neither for the good of 
mankind, nor consonant to justice or nature, unless 
some people should be content to live under such a go- 
vernment, and withal confer it upon such as excel all 
others in virtue. These things any man may read in 
the third book of his Politics. But you, I believe, that 
once in your life you might appear witty and florid, 
pleased yourself with making a comparison " betwixt 
these five sorts of kingly government, and the five 
zones of the world ; betwixt the two extremes of kingly 
power, there are three more temperate species interposed, 
as there lie three zones betwixt the torrid and the fri- 
gid." Pretty rogue ! what ingenious comparisons he 
always makes us ! may you for ever be banished whi- 
ther you yourself condemn an absolute kingdom to be, 
that is, to the frigid zone, which when you are there, 
will be doubly cold to what it was before. In the 
mean while we shall expect that new-fashioned sphere 
which you describe, from you our modern Archimedes, 
in which there shall be two extreme zones, one torrid, 
and the other frigid, and three temperate ones lying- 
betwixt. " The kings of the Lacedemonians, you say, 
might lawfully be imprisoned, but it was not lawful to 
put them to death." Why not ? Because the minis- 
ters of justice, and some foreign soldiers, being sur- 
prised at the novelty of the thing, thought it not law- 
ful to lead Agis to his execution, though condemned 
to die? And the people of Lacedemon were displeased 
at his death, not because condemned to die, though a 
king, but because he was a good man and popular, 
and had been circumvented by a faction of the great 
ones. Says Plutarch, "Agis was the first king, that 
was put to death by the ephori;" in which words he 
does not pretend to tell us what lawfully might be 
done, but what actually was done. For to imagine that 
such as may lawfully accuse a king, and imprison him, 
may not also lawfully put him to death, is a childish 

from St. Lupus, a German bishop, who with St. German came over into 
England, Anno Horn. 429. 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASITJS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



393 



conceit. At last you betake yourself to give an ac- 
couut of the right of English kings. " There never 
was," you say, " bat one king in England." This you 
say, because you had said before, " unless a king be 
sole in the government, he cannot be a king." Which 
if it be true, some of them, who I had thought had been 
kings of England, were not really so ; for to omit 
many of our Saxon kings, who had either their sons 
or their brothers partners with them in the government, 
it is known that King Henry II, of the Norman race, 
reigned together with his son. " Let them shew," say 
you, " a precedent of any kingdom under the govern- 
ment of a single person, who has not an absolute power : 
though in some kingdoms more remiss, in others more 
intense." Do you shew any power that is absolute, 
and yet remiss, you ass ? is not that power that is ab- 
solute, the supreme power of all ? How can it then be 
both supreme and remiss ? Whatsoever kings you shall 
acknowledge to be invested with a remiss (or a less) 
power, those I will easily make appear to have no ab- 
solute power; and consequently to be inferiour to a 
people, free by nature, who is both its own lawgiver, 
and can make the regal power more or less intense or 
remiss; that is, greater or less. Whether the whole 
island of Britain was anciently governed by kings, or 
no, is uncertain. It is most likely, that the form of 
their government changed according to the exigencies 
of the times. Whence Tacitus says, " the Britains 
anciently were under kings; now the great men amongst 
them divide them into parties and factions." When the 
Romans left them, they were about forty years without 
kings ; they were not always therefore under a kingly 
government, as you say they were. But when they 
were so, that the kingdom was hereditary, I positively 
deny; which that it was not, is evident both from the 
series of their kings, and their way of creating them ; 
for the consent of the people is asked in express words. 
When the king has taken the accustomed oath, the 
archbishop stepping to every side of the stage erected 
for that purpose, asks the people four several times in 
these words, " Do you consent to have this man to be 
your king?" Just as if he spoke to them in the Roman 
style, Vultis, Jubetis hunc Regnare ? " Is it your plea- 
sure, do you appoint this man to reign ?" Which would 
be needless, if the kingdom were by the law hereditary. 
But with kings, usurpation passes very frequently for 
law and right. You go about to ground Charles's 
right to the crown, who was so often conquered himself, 
upon the right of conquest. William, surnamed the 
conqueror, forsooth, subdued us. But they who are 
not strangers to our history, know full well, that the 
strength of the English nation was not so broken in 
that one fight at Hastings, but that they might easily 
have renewed the war. But they chose rather to ac- 
cept of a king, than to be under a conqueror and a ty- 
rant : they swear therefore to William, to be his liege- 
men, and he swears to them at the altar, to carry him- 
self towards them as a good king ought to do in all 
respects. When he broke his word, and the English 
betook themselves again to their arms, being diffident 
of his strength, he renewed his oath upon the Holy 



Evangelists, to observe the ancient laws of England. 
And therefore, if after that he miserably oppressed the 
English, (as you say he did,) he did it not bj r right of 
conquest, but by right of perjury. Besides, it is cer- 
tain, that many ages ago, the conquerors and conquer- 
ed coalesced into one and the same people : so that 
that right of conquest, if any such ever were, must 
needs have been antiquated long ago. His own words 
at his death, which I give you out of a French manu- 
script written at Caen, put all out of doubt, " I appoint 
no man (says he) to inherit the kingdom of England." 
By which words, both his pretended right of conquest, 
and the hereditary right, were disclaimed at his death, 
and buried together with him. I see now that you have 
gotten a place at court, as I foretold you would ; you 
are made the king's chief treasurer and steward of his 
court craft : and what follows, you seem to write ex 
officio, as by virtue of your office, magnificent Sir. " If 
any preceding kings, being thereunto compelled by 
factions of great men, or seditions amongst the com- 
mon people, have receded in some measure from their 
right, that cannot prejudice the successor; but that he 
is at liberty to resume it." You say well ; if therefore 
at any time our ancestors have through neglect lost 
any thing that was their right, why should that pre- 
judice us their posterity ? If they would promise for 
themselves to become slaves, they could make no such 
promise for us ; who shall always retain the same right 
of delivering ourselves out of slavery, that they had of 
enslaving themselves to any whomsoever. You won- 
der how it comes to pass that a king of Great Britain 
must now-a-days be looked upon as one of the magis- 
trates of the kingdom only ; whereas in all other kingly 
governments in Christendom, kings are invested with 
a free and absolute authority. For the Scots, I remit 
you to Buchanan : for France, your own native coun- 
try, to which you seem to be a stranger, to Hottomau's 
Fcanco-Gallia, and Girardus a French historian : for 
the rest, to other authors, of whom none that I know 
of were Independants : out of whom you might have 
learned a quite other lesson concerning- the right of 
kings, than what you teach. Not being able to prove, 
that a tyrannical power belongs to the kiugs of Eng- 
land by right of conquest, you try now to do it by- 
right of perjury. Kings profess themselves to reign 
" by the grace of God:" what if they had professed 
themselves to be gods ? I believe if they had, you 
might easily have been brought to become one of their 
priests. So the archbishops of Canterbury pretended 
to archbishop it by " Divine Providence." Are j^ou 
such a fool, as to deny the pope's being a king in the 
church, that you may make the king greater than a 
pope in the state? But in the statutes of the realm the 
king is called our Lord. You are become of a sudden 
a wonderful Nomenclator of our statutes : but you 
know not that many are called lords and masters who 
are not really so : you know not how unreasonable a 
thing it is to judge of truth and right by titles of ho- 
nour, not to say of flattery. Make the same inference, 
if you will, from the parliament's being called the 
king's parliament ; for it is called the king's bridle too, 



84 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



or a bridle to the king- : and therefore the king is no 
more lord or master of his parliament, than a horse is 
of his bridle. But why not the king's parliament, 
since the king' "summons them?" I will tell you 
why; because the consuls used to indict a meeting of 
the senate, yet were they not lords over that council. 
When the king therefore summons or calls together a 
parliament, he does it by virtue and in discharge of 
that office, which he has received from the people, that 
he may advise with them about the weighty affairs of 
the kingdom, not his own particular affairs. Or when 
at any time the parliament debated of the king's own 
affairs, if any could properly be called his own, they 
were always the last things they did ; and it was in 
their choice when to debate of them, and whether at 
all or no, and depended not upon the king's pleasure. 
And they whom it concerns to know this, know very 
well, that parliaments anciently, whether summoned 
or not, might by law meet twice a year: but the laws 
are called too, " the king's laws." These are flattering 
ascriptions ; a king of England can of himself make no 
law ; for he was not constituted to make laws, but to 
see those laws kept, which the people made. And you 
yourself here confess, that " parliaments meet to make 
laws ;" wherefore the law is also called the law of the 
land, and the people's law. Whence King Ethelstane 
in the preface to his laws, speaking to all the people, 
" I have granted you every thing," says he, " by your 
own law." And in the form of the oath, which the 
kings of England used to take before they were made 
kings, the people stipulate with them thus; " Will you 
grant those just laws, which the people shall choose?" 
The king answers, " I will." And you are infinitely 
mistaken in saying, that " when there is no parliament 
sitting, the king governs the whole state of the king- 
dom, to all intents and purposes, by a regal power." 
For he can determine nothing of any moment, with 
respect to either peace or war : nor can he put any stop 
to the proceedings of the courts of justice. And the 
judges therefore swear, that they will do nothing ju- 
dicially, but according to law, though the king by 
word, or mandate, or letters under his own seal, should 
command the contrary. Hence it is that the king is 
often said in our law to be an infant; and to possess 
his rights and dignities, as a child or a ward does his: 
see the Mirror, Cap. 4. Sect. 22. And hence is that 
common saying amongst us, that " the king can do no 
wrong:" which you, like a rascal, interpret thus, 
" Whatever the king does, is no injury, because he is 
not liable to be punished for it." By this very com- 
ment, if there were nothing else, the wonderful impu- 
dence and villany of this fellow discovers itself suffi- 
ciently. " It belongs to the head," you say, " to com- 
mand, and not to the members : the king- is the head of 
the parliament." You would not trifle thus, if you had 
anj guts in your brains. You are mistaken again 
(but there is no end of your mistakes) in not distin- 
guishing the king's counsellors from the states of the 
realm: for neither ought he to make choice of all of 
them, nor of any of them, which the rest do not ap- 
prove of; but for electing any member of the house of 



commons, he never so much as pretended to it. Whom 
the people appointed to that service, they were seve- 
rally chosen by the votes of all the people in their re- 
spective cities, towns, and counties. I speak now of 
things universally known, and therefore I am the 
shorter. But you say, " it is false that the parliament 
was instituted by the people, as the worshippers of 
saint Independency assert." Now I see why you took 
so much pains in endeavouring to subvert the papacy; 
you carry another pope in your belly, as we say. For 
what else should you be in labour of, the wife of a 
woman, a he-wolf, impregnated by a she- wolf, but 
either a monster, or some new sort of papacy ? You 
now make he-saints and she-saints, at your pleasure, 
as if you were a true genuine pope. You absolve kings 
of all their sins, and as if you had utterly vanquished 
and subdued your antagonist the pope, you adorn your- 
self with his spoils. But because you have not yet 
profligated the pope quite, till the second and third, and 
perhaps the fourth and fifth part of your book of his su- 
premacy come out, which book will nauseate a great 
many readers to death, sooner than you will get the 
better of the pope by it ; let it suffice you in the mean 
time, I beseech you, to become some antipope or other. 
There is another she-saint, besides that Indepen- 
dency that you deride, which you have canonized in 
good earnest; and that is, the tyranny of kings: you 
shall therefore by my consent be the high priest of 
tyranny ; and that you may have all the pope's titles, 
you shall be a " servant of the servants," not of God, 
but of the court. For that curse pronounced upon Ca- 
naan seems to stick as close to you, as your shirt. You 
call the people " a beast." What are you then your- 
self? For neither can that sacred consistory, nor your 
lordship of St. Lou, exempt you its master from being 
one of the people, nay, of the common people ; nor 
can make you other than what you really are, a most 
loathsome beast. Indeed, the writings of the prophets 
shadow out to us the monarchy and dominion of great 
kings by the name, and under the resemblance, of a 
great beast. You say, that " there is no mention of 
parliaments held under our kings, that reigned before 
William the Conqueror." It is not worth while to jan- 
gle about a French word : the thing was always in 
being; and you yourself allow that in Saxon times, 
Concilia Sapientum, Wittena-gemots, are mentioned. 
And there are wise men among the body of the peo- 
ple, as well as amongst the nobility. But "in the 
statute of Merton made in the twentieth year of King 
Henry the third, the earls and barons are only named." 
Thus you are always imposed upon by words, who 
yet have spent your whole life in nothing else but 
words ; for we know very well that in that age, not 
only the guardians of the cinque-ports, and magistrates 
of cities, but even tradesmen are sometimes called ba- 
rons; and without doubt, they might much more rea- 
sonably call every member of parliament, though never 
so much a commoner, by the name of baron. For that in 
the fifty-second year of the same king's reign, the com- 
moners as well as the lords were summoned, the statute 
of Marlbridge, and most other statutes, declare in ex- 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



395 



press words; which commoners King" Edward the third, 
in the preface to the statute-staple, calls, " Magnates 
Comitatum, the great men of the counties," as you 
very learnedly quote it for me ; those to wit, " that 
came out of several counties, and served for them ;" 
which number of men constituted the house of com- 
mons, and neither were lords, nor could be. Besides, 
a book more ancient than those statutes, called, " Mo- 
dus habendi Parliamenta, i. e. the manner of holding 
parliaments," tells us, that the king and the commons 
may hold a parliament, and enact laws, though the 
lords, the bishops are absent ; but that with the lords, 
and the bishops, in the absence of the commons, no 
parliament can be held. And there is a reason given 
for it, viz. because kings held parliaments and councils 
with their people before any lords or bishops were 
made ; besides, the lords serve for themselves only, the 
commons each for the county, city, or borough that 
sent them. And that therefore the commons in parlia- 
ment represent the whole body of the nation ; in which 
respect they are more worthy, and every way prefer- 
able to the house of peers. " But the power of Judi- 
cature," you say, "never was invested in the house ot 
commons." Nor was the king ever possessed of it: 
remember though, that originally all power proceeded, 
and yet does proceed, from the people. Which Marcus 
Tullius excellently well shews in his oration, " De 
lege Agraria, of the Agrarian law :" "As all powers, 
authorities, and public administrations ought to be 
derived from the whole body of the people ; so those 
of them ought in an especial manner so to be de- 
rived, which are ordained and appointed for the com- 
mon benefit and interest of all, to which employments 
every particular person may both give his vote for the 
choosing such persons, as he thinks will take most care 
of the public, and withal by voting and making inter- 
est for them, lay such obligations upon them, as may 
entitle them to their friendship and g*ood offices in 
time to come." Here you see the true rise and original 
of parliaments, and that it was much ancienter than 
the Saxon chronicles. Whilst we may dwell in such 
a light of truth and wisdom, as Cicero's age afforded, 
you labour in vain to blind us with the darkness of 
obscurer times. By the saying whereof I would not 
be understood to derogate in the least from the autho- 
rity and prudence of our ancestors, who most certainly 
went further in the enacting of good laws, than either 
the ages they lived in, or their own learning or educa- 
tion seem to have been capable of; and though some- 
times they made laws that were none of the best, yet 
as being conscious to themselves of the ignorance and 
infirmity of human nature, they have conveyed this 
doctrine down to posterity, as the foundation of all laws, 
which likewise all our lawyers admit, that if any law, 
or custom, be contrary to the law of God, of nature, or 
of reason, it ought to be looked upon as null and void. 
Whence it follows, that though it were possible for you 
to discover any statute, or other public sanction, which 
ascribed to the king a tyrannical power, since that 
would be repugnant to the will of God, to nature and 
to right reason, you may learn from that general 



and primary law of ours, which I have just now 
quoted, that it will be null and void. But you will 
never be able to find, that any such right of kings has 
the least foundation in our law. Since it is plain 
therefore, that the power of judicature was originally 
in the people themselves, and that the people never 
did by any royal law part with it to the king, (for the 
kings of England neither used to judge any man, nor 
can by the law do it, otherwise than according to laws 
settled and agreed to : Fleta, Book I. Cap. 17.) it fol- 
lows, that this power remains yet whole and entire in 
the people themselves. For that it was either never 
committed to the house of peers, or if it were, that it 
may lawfully be taken from them again, you yourself 
will not deny. But, " It is in the king's power," you 
say, " to make a village into a borough, and that into 
a city ; and consequently, the king does in effect cre- 
ate those that constitute the Commons House of Par- 
liament." But, I say, that even towns and boroughs 
are more ancient than kings ; and that the people is 
the people, though they should live in the open fields. 
And now we are extremely well pleased with your 
Anglicisms, COUNTY COURT, THE TURNE, 
HUNDREDA : You have quickly learnt to count 
your hundred Jacobusses in English. 

Quis expedivit Salmasio suam. HUNDREDAM? 
Picamque docuit verba nostra conari ? 
Magister artis venter, et Jacobcci 
Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii Regis 
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi, 
Ipse Antichristi modb qui Primatum Papa, 
Minatus una est dissipate sufflatu, 
Cantabit ultrb Cardinalitium melos. 

Who taught Salmasius, that French chatt'ring pie, 
To aim at English, and HUNDREDA cry? 
The starving rascal, flush'd with just a Hundred 
English Jacobusses, HUNDREDA blunder'd. 
An outlaw'd king's last stock.— A hundred nv re, 
Would make him pimp for th' Antichristian whore ; 
And in Rome's praise employ his poison'd breath, 
Who threat'ned once to stink the Pope to death. 

The next thing you do is to trouble us with a long 
discourse of the earls and the barons, to shew that the 
king made them all ; which we readily grant, and for 
that reason they were most commonly at the king's 
beck ; and therefore we have done well to take care, 
that for the future they shall not be judges of a free 
people. You affirm, that " the power of calling par- 
liaments as often as he pleases, and of dissolving them 
when he pleases, has belonged to the king time out of 
mind." Whether such a vile, mercenary foreigner as 
you, who transcribe what some fugitives dictate to 
you, or the express letter of our own laws, are more to 
be credited in this matter, we shall inquire hereafter. 
But say you, " there is another argument, and an in- 
vincible one, to prove the power of the kings of Eng- 
land superior to that of the parliament ; the king's 
power is perpetual and of course, whereby he adminis- 
ters the government singly without the parliament ; 
that of the parliament is extraordinary, or out of course, 



396 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND 



and limited to particulars only, nor can they enact any 
tiling- so as to be binding- in law, without the king." 
Where does the great force of this argument lie? In 
the words " of course and perpetual ?" Why, many 
inferiour magistrates have an ordinary and perpetual 
power, those whom we call justices of the peace. 
Have they therefore the supreme power ? And I have 
said already, that the king's power is committed to 
him, to take care, by interposing his authority, that 
nothing be done contrary to law, and that he may see 
to the due observation of our laws, not to top his own 
upon us : and consequently that the king has no power 
out of his courts ; nay, all the ordinary power is rather 
the people's, who determine all controversies themselves 
by juries of twelve men. And hence it is, that when 
a malefactor is asked at his arraignment, " How will 
you be tried?" he answers always, according to law 
and custom, " by God and my country;" not by God 
and the king, or the king's deputy. But the authority 
of the parliament, which indeed and in truth is the 
supreme power of the people committed to that senate, 
if it may be called extraordinary, it must be by reason 
of its eminence and superiority ; else it is known they 
are called ordines, and therefore cannot properly be 
said to be extra ordinem, out of order ; and if not ac- 
tually, as they say, yet virtually they have a perpetual 
power and authority over all courts and ordinary 
magistrates, and that without the king. And now it 
seems our barbarous terms grate upon your critical ears, 
forsooth ! whereas, if I had leisure, or that it were 
worth my while, I could reckon up so many barbarisms 
of yours in this one book, as, if you were to be chastized 
for them as you deserve, all the schoolboys' ferulas in 
Christendom would be broken upon you ; nor would 
you receive so many pieces of gold as that wretched 
poet did of old, but a great many more boxes on the 
ear. You say, " It is a prodigy more monstrous than 
all the most absurd opinions in the world put together, 
that the Bedlams should make a distinction betwixt 
the king's power and his person." I will not quote 
what every author has said upon this subject; but if 
by the words Personam Regis, you mean what we call 
in English, the person of the king; Chrysostom, who 
was no Bedlam, might have taught you, that it is no 
absurd thing to make a distinction betwixt that and 
his power; for that further explains the apostle's com- 
ii) ml of being subject to the higher powers, to be meant 
of the thing, the power itself, and not of the persons 
of the magistrates. And why may not I say that a 
king, who acts any thing contrary to law, acts so far 
forth as a private person, or a tyrant, and not in the 
capacity of a king invested with a legal authority ? If 
you do not know, that there may be in one and the 
same man more persons or capacities than one, and 
that those capacities may in thought and conception 
be h vercd from the man himself, you are altogether 
ignorant both of Latin and common sense. But this 
you gay to absolve kings from all sin and guilt; and 
that you may make us believe, that you are gotten into 
the chair yourself, which you have pulled the pope out 
of. " The king," you say," is supposed not capable 



of committing- any crime, because no punishment is 
consequential upon any crime of his." Whoever there- 
fore is not punished, offends not; it is not the theft, 
but the punishment, that makes the thief. Salmasius 
the Grammarian commits no solecisms now, because 
he is from under the ferula ; when you have overthrown 
the pope, let these, for God's sake, be the canons of 
your pontificate, or at least your indulgencies, whether 
you shall choose to be called the high priest St. Tyran- 
ny, or St. Slavery. I pass by the reproachful language, 
which towards the latter end of the chapter you give 
the state of the commonwealth, and the church of 
England ; it is common to such as you are, you con- 
temptible varlet, to rail at those things most that are 
most praiseworthy. But that I may not seem to have 
asserted any thing- rashly concerning the right of the 
kings of England, or rather concerning the people's 
right with respect to their princes ; I will now allege 
out of our ancient histories a few things indeed of 
many, but such as will make it evident, that the Eng- 
lish lately tried their king according to the settled laws 
of the realm, and the customs of their ancestors. After 
the Romans quitted this island, the Britains for about 
forty years were sui juris, and without any kings at 
all. Of whom those they first set up, some they put 
to death. And for that, Gildas reprehends them, not 
as you do, for killing their kings, but for killing them 
uncondemned, and (to use his own words) " non pro 
veri examinatione," without inquiring- into the matter 
of fact. Vortigern was for his incestuous marriage 
with his own daughter condemned (as Nennius informs 
us, the most ancient of all our historians next to Gil- 
das) by St. German, " and a general council of the 
Britains," and his son Vortimer set up in his stead. 
This came to pass not long after St. Augustine's death, 
which is enough to discover how futilous you are, to 
say, as you have done, that it was a Pope, and Zachary 
by name, who first held the lawfulness of judging- 
kings. About the year of our Lord 600, Morcantius, 
who then reigned in Wales, was by Oudeceus, bishop 
of Llandaff, condemned to exile, for the murder of his 
uncle, though he got the sentence off by bestowing- 
some lands upon the church. Come we now to the 
Saxons, whose laws we have, and therefore I shall quote 
none of their precedents. Remember, that the Saxons 
were of a German extract, who never invested their 
kings with any absolute, unlimited power, but consult- 
ed in a body of the more weighty affairs of govern- 
ment; whence we may perceive, that in the time of our 
Saxon ancestors parliaments (the name itself only ex- 
cepted) had the supreme authority. The name thejr gave 
them, was " councils of wise men ;" and this in the 
reign of Ethelbert, of whom Bede says, " that he made 
laws in imitation of the Roman laws, cum concilio 
sapientum ; by the advice, or in a council of his wise 
men." So Edwin king of Northumberland, and Ina 
king of the west Saxons," having- consulted with their 
wise men, and the elders of the people," made new 
laws. Other laws King Alfred made, " by the advice" 
in like manner of " his wise men ;" and he says himself, 
" that it was by the consent of them all, that they were 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



397 



commanded to be observed." From these and many- 
other like places, it is as clear as the sun, that chosen 
men even from amongst the common people, were mem- 
bers of the supreme councils, unless we must believe, 
that no men are wise but the nobility. We have like- 
wise a very ancient book, called the " Mirror of Jus- 
tice," in which we are told, that the Saxons, when they 
first subdued the Britains, and chose themselves kings, 
required an oath of them, to submit to the judgment of 
the law, as much as any of their subjects, Cap. 1. Sect. 
2. In the same place it is said, that it is but just that 
the king have his peers in parliament, to take cogni- 
zance of wrongs done by the king, or the queen ; and 
that there was a law made in King Alfred's time, 
that parliaments should be holden twice a year at Lon- 
don, or oftener, if need were : which law, when through 
neglect it grew into disuse, was revived by two statutes 
in King Edward the Third's time. And in another an- 
cient manuscript, called " Modus tenendi Parliamenta," 
we read thus, " If the king was summoned, he is guilty 
of perjury ; and shall be reputed to have broken his 
coronation oath." For how can he be said to grant 
those good laws, which the people choose, as he is sworn 
to do, if he hinders the people from choosing them, 
either by summoning parliaments seldomer, or by dis- 
solving them sooner, than the public affairs require, or 
admit ? And that oath which the kings of England 
take at their coronation, has always been looked upon 
by our lawyers as a most sacred law. And what re- 
medy can be found to obviate the great dangers of the 
whole state, (which is the very end of summoning par- 
liaments,) if that great and august assembly may be 
dissolved at the pleasure many time of a silly, head- 
strong king ? To absent himself from them, is certainly 
less than to dissolve them ; and yet by our laws, as 
that Modus lays them down, the king neither can nor 
ought to absent himself from his parliament, unless he 
be really indisposed in health ; nor then neither, till 
twelve of the peers have been with him to inspect his 
body, and give the parliament an account of his indis- 
position. Is this like the carriage of servants to a 
master ? On the other hand the house of commons, 
without whom there can be no parliament held, though 
summoned by the king, may withdraw, and having 
made a secession, expostulate with the king concerning 
malead ministration, as the same book has it. But, 
which is the greatest thing of all, amongst the laws of 
King Edward, commonly called the Confessor, there 
is one very excellent, relating to the kingly office ; 
which office, if the king do not discharge as he ought, 
then, says the law, " he shall not retain so much as the 
name of a king." And lest these words should not be 
sufficiently understood, the example of Chilperic king 
of France is subjoined, whom the people for that cause 

t deposed. And that by this law a wicked king is liable 
to punishment, that sword of King Edward, called 
Curtana, denotes to us, which the earl of Chester used 
to carry in the solemn procession at a coronation ; " a 
token," says Matthew Paris, " that he has authority 
by law to punish the king, if be will not do his duty:" 
and the sword is hardly ever made use of but in capital 



punishments. This same law, together with other laws 
of that good King Edward, did William the Conqueror 
ratify in the fourth year of his reign, and in a very full 
council held at Verulam, confirmed it with a most so- 
lemn oath : and by so doing, he not only extinguished 
his right of conquest, if he ever had any over us, but 
subjected himself to be judged according to the tenour 
of this very law. And his son Henry swore to the ob- 
servance of King Edward's laws, and of this amongst 
the rest ; and upon those only terms it was that he 
was chosen king, while his elder brother Robert was 
alive. The same oath was taken by all succeeding 
kings, before they were crowned. Hence our ancient 
and famous lawyer Bracton, in his first book, Chap, 
viii, " There is no king in the case," says he, " where 
will rules the roast, and law does not take place." 
And in his third book, Chap, ix, " A king* is a king so 
long as he rules well ; he becomes a tyrant when he 
oppresses the people committed to his charge." And 
in the same chapter, " The king ought to use the power 
of law and right as God's minister and vicegerent ; 
the power of wrong is the Devil's, and not God's ; 
when the king turns aside to do injustice, he is the 
minister of the Devil." The very same words almost 
another ancient lawyer has, who was the author of the 
book called " Fleta ;" both of them remembered that 
truly royal law of King Edward, that fundamental 
maxim in our law, which I have formerly mentioned, 
by which nothing' is to be accounted a law, that is con- 
trary to the laws of God, or of reason ; no more than a 
tyrant can be said t to be a king, or a minister of the 
Devil a minister of God. Since therefore the law is 
chiefly right reason, if we are bound to obey a king, 
and a minister of God ; by the very same reason, and 
the very same law, we ought to resist a tyrant, and a 
minister of the Devil. And because controversies arise 
oftener about names than things, the same authors tell 
us, that a king of England, though he have not lost 
the name of a king, yet is as liable to be judged, and 
ought so to be, as any of the common people. Bracton, 
Book I. Chap, viii ; Fleta, Book I. Chap, xvii ; " No 
man ought to be greater than the king in the admini- 
stration of justice; but he himself ought to be as little 
as the least in receiving justice, si peccat,if he offend." 
Others read it, si petat. Since our kings therefore are 
liable to be judged, whether by the name of tyrants, 
or of kings, it must not be difficult to assign their legal 
judges. Nor will it be amiss to consult the same authors 
upon that point. Bracton, Book I. Chap, xvi ; Fleta, 
Book I. Chap. 17 ; " The king has his superiours in 
the government ; the law, by which he is made king ; 
and his court, to wit, the earls, and the barons : comites 
(earls) are as much as to say, companions ; and he 
that has a companion, has a master; and therefore, if 
the king will be without a bridle, that is, not govern 
by law, they ought to bridle him." That the commons 
are comprehended in the word barons, has been shewn 
already ; and in the books of our ancient laws they 
are frequently said to have been called peers of parlia- 
ment : and especially in the Modus tenendi, &c. " There 
shall be chosen," says that book, " out of all the peers 



398 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



of the realm, five and twenty persons, of whom five 
shall be knights, five citizens, and five burg-esses; and 
two knights of a county have a greater vote in grant- 
ing and rejecting than the greatest earl in England." 
And it is but reasonable they should, for they vote for 
a whole county, &c. the earls for themselves only. 
And who can but perceive, that those patent earls, whom 
you call earls made by writ, (since we have now none 
that hold their earldoms by tenure,) are very unfit per- 
sons to try the king, who conferred their honours upon 
them ? Since therefore by our law, as appears by that 
old book, called " the Mirror," the king has hispeers, who 
in parliament have cognizance of wrongs done by the 
king to any of his people ; and since it is notoriously 
known, that the meanest man in the kingdom may 
even in inferiour courts have the benefit of the law 
against the king himself, in case of any injury, or 
wrong sustained ; how much more consonant to justice, 
how much more necessary is it, that in case the king 
oppress all his people, there should be such as have 
authority not only to restrain him, and keep him within 
bounds, but to judge and punish him ! for that govern- 
ment must needs be very ill, and most ridiculously 
constituted, in which remedy is provided in case of 
little injuries, done by the prince to private persons, 
and no remedy, no redress for greater, no care taken 
for the safety of the whole; no provision made to the 
contrary, but that the king may, without any law, ruin 
all his subjects, when at the same time he cannot by 
law so much as hurt any one of them. And since I 
have shewn, that it is neither good manners, nor ex- 
pedient, that the lords should be the king's judges; it 
follows, that the power of judicature in that case does 
wholly, and by very good right, belong to the com- 
mons, who are both peers of the realm, and barons, and 
have the power and authority of all the people com- 
mitted to them. For since (as we find it expressly in 
our written law, which I have already cited) the com- 
mons together with the king made a good parliament 
without either lords or bishops, because before either 
lords or bishops had a being, kings held parliaments 
with their commons only; by the very same reason the 
commons apart must have the sovereign power without 
the king, and a power of judging the king himself; be- 
cause before there ever was a king, they in the name of 
the whole body of the nation held councils and parlia- 
ments, had the power of judicature, made laws, and 
made the kings themselves, not to lord it over the peo- 
ple, but to administer their public affairs. Whom if 
the king", instead of so doing, shall endeavour to injure 
and oppress, our law pronounces him from time for- 
ward not so much as to retain the name of a king, to 
be no Mich thing as a king: and if he be no king, 
what need we trouble ourselves to find out peers for 
him? lor being then by all good men adjudged to 
be a tyrant, there are none but who are peers good 
enough for him, and proper enough to pronounce sen- 
tence of death upon him judicially. These things being 
BO, 1 think I lone sufficiently proved what I undertook, 
by many authorities, and written laws; to wit, that 
Wnce the commons have authority by very good right 



to try the king, and since they have actually tried him, 
and put him to death, for the mischief he had done 
both in church and state, and without all hope of 
amendment, they have done nothing therein but what 
was just and regular, for the interest of the state, in 
discharging of their trust, becoming their dignity, and 
according to the laws of the land. And I cannot upon 
this occasion, but congratulate myself with the honour 
of having had such ancestors, who founded this go- 
vernment with no less prudence, and in as much libertv 
as the most worthy of the ancient Romans or Grecians 
ever founded any of theirs : and they must needs, if 
they have any knowledge of our affairs, rejoice over 
their posterity, who when they were almost reduced 
to slavery, yet with so much wisdom and courage vin- 
dicated and asserted the state, which they so wisely 
founded upon so much liberty, from the unruly govern- 
ment of a king. 



CHAP. IX. 

I think by this time it is sufficiently evident, that 
kings of England may be judged even by the laws of 
England ; and that they have their proper judges, 
which was the thing to be proved. What do you do 
further? (for whereas you repeat many things that you 
have said before, I do not intend to repeat the answers 
that I have given them). " It is an easy thing to de- 
monstrate, even from the nature of the things for which 
parliaments are summoned, that the king is above the 
parliament. The parliament (you say) is wont to be 
assembled upon weighty affairs, such as wherein the 
safety of the kingdom and of the people is concerned." 
If therefore the kiug call parliaments together, not for 
his own concerns, but those of the nation, nor to settle 
those neither, but by their own consent, at their own 
discretion, what is he more than a minister, and as it 
were an agent for the people ? since without their suf- 
frages that are chosen by the people, he cannot exact 
the least thing whatsoever, either with relation to him- 
self, or any body else ? Which proves likewise, that 
it is the king's duty to call parliaments whenever the 
people desire it; since the people's and not the king's 
concerns are to be treated of by that assembly, and to 
be ordered as they see cause. For although the king's 
assent be required for fashion sake, which in lesser 
matters, that concerned the welfare of private persons 
only, he might refuse, and use that form, " the king 
will advise;" yet in those greater affairs, that con- 
cerned the public safety, and liberty of the people in 
general, he had no negative voice : for it would have 
been against his coronation oath to deny his assent in 
such cases, which was as binding to him as any law 
could be, and against the chief article of Magna 
Charta, cap. 29. " We will not deny to any man, nor 
will we delay to render to every man, right and justice." 
Shall it not be in the king's power to deny justice, and 
shall it be in his power to deny the enacting* of just 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



309 



laws? Could he not deny justice to any particular 
person, and could he to all his people ? Could he not 
do it in inferiour courts, and could he in the supreme 
court of all ? Or, can any king- be so arrogant as to 
pretend to know what is just and profitable better than 
the whole body of the people? Especially, since " he 
is created and chosen for this very end and purpose, to 
do justice to all," as Bracton says, lib, iii. c. 9, that is, 
to do justice according- to such laws as the people 
agree upon. Hence is what we find in our records, 
7 H. IV. Rott. Pari. num. 59, the king- has no pre- 
rogative, that derogates from justice and equity. And 
formerly when kings have refused to confirm acts of 
parliament, to wit, Magna Charta and some others, our 
ancestors have brought them to it by force of arms. And 
yet our lawyers never were of opinion, that those laws 
were less valid, or less binding, since the king was 
forced to assent to no more than what he ought in jus- 
tice to have assented to voluntarily, and without con- 
straint. Whilst you go about to prove that kings of 
other nations have been as much under the power 
of their senates or councils, as our kings were, you do 
not argue us into slavery, but them into liberty. In 
which you do but that over again, that you have from 
the very beginning of your discourse, and which 
some silly Leguleians now and then do, to argue un- 
awares against their own clients. But you say, 
" We confess that the king, wherever he be, yet is 
supposed still to be present in his parliament by virtue 
of his power; insomuch, that whatever is transacted 
there, is supposed to be done by the king himself:" 
and then as if you had got some pretty bribe or small 
morsel, and tickled with the remembrance of your 
purse of gold, " we take," say you, " what they give 
us ;" and take a halter then, for I am sure you deserve 
it. But we do not give it for granted, which is the 
thing you thought would follow from thence, " that 
therefore that court acts only by virtue of a delegated 
power from the king." For when we say, that the regal 
power, be it what it will, cannot be absent from the 
parliament, do we thereby acknowledge that power to 
be supreme ? Does not the king's authority seem rather 
to be transferred to the parliament, and, as being the 
lesser of the two, to be comprised in the greater ? Cer- 
tainly, if the parliament may rescind the king's acts 
whether he will or no, and revoke privileges granted 
by him, to whomsoever they be granted : if they may 
set bounds to his prerogative, as they see cause ; if they 
may regulate his yearly revenue, and the expenses of 
his court, his retinue, and generally all the concerns of 
his household ; if they may remove his most intimate 
friends and counsellors, and, as it were, pluck them out 
of his bosom, and bring them to condign punishment ; 
finally, if any subject may by law appeal from the 
king to the parliament, (all which things, that they 
may lawfully be done, and have been frequently prac- 
tised, both our histories and records, and the most 
eminent of our lawyers, assure us,) I suppose no man 
in his right wits will deny the authority of the parlia- 
ment to be superiour to that of the king. For even in 
an interregnum the authority of the parliament is in 



being, and (than which nothing is more common in our 
histories) they have often made a free choice of a suc- 
cessor, without any regard to an hereditary descent. 
In short, the parliament is the supreme council of the 
nation, constituted and appointed by a most free people, 
and armed with ample power and authority, for this 
end and purpose; viz. to consult together upon the 
most weighty affairs of the kingdom; the king was 
created to put their laws in execution. Which thing 
after the parliament themselves had declared in a public 
edict, (for such is the justice of their proceedings, that 
of their own accord they have been willing to give an 
account of their actions to other nations,) is it not pro- 
digious, that such a pitiful fellow as you are, a man of 
no authority, of no credit, of no figure in the world, a 
mere Burgundian slave, should have the impudence to 
accuse the parliament of England, asserting by a public 
instrument their own and their country's right, " of a 
detestable and horrid imposture ?" Your country may 
be ashamed, you rascal, to have brought forth a little 
inconsiderable fellow of such profligate impudence. 
But perhaps you have somewhat to tell us, that may be 
for our good : go on, we will hear you. " What laws," 
say you, " can a parliament enact, in which the bishops 
are not present?" Did you then, you madman, expel 
the order of bishops out of the church, to introduce them 
into the state ? O wicked wretch ! who ought to be 
delivered over to Satan, whom the church ought to for- 
bid her communion, as being a hypocrite, and an 
atheist, and no civil society of men to acknowledge as 
a member, being a public enemy, and a plague-sore to 
the common liberty of mankind ; who, where the 
gospel fails you, endeavour to prove out of Aristotle, 
Halicarnassaeus, and then from some popish authorities 
of the most corrupt ages, that the king of England is 
the head of the church of England, to the end that you 
may, as far as in you lies, bring in the bishops again, 
his intimates and table-companions, grown so of late, 
to rob and tyrannize in the church of God, whom God 
himself has deposed and degraded, whose very order 
you had heretofore asserted in print that it ought to be 
rooted out of the world, as destructive of and pernicious 
to the christian religion. What apostate did ever so 
shamefully and wickedly desert as this man has done, 
I do not say his own, which indeed never was any, but 
the christian doctrine which he had formerly asserted ? 
" The bishops being put down, who under the king, 
and by his permission, held plea of ecclesiastical causes, 
upon whom," say you, "will that jurisdiction de- 
volve ?" O villain ! have some regard at least to your 
own conscience ; remember before it be too late, if at 
least this admonition of mine come not too late, re- 
member that this mocking the Holy Spirit of God is an 
inexpiable crime, and will not be left unpunished. 
Stop at last, and set bounds to your fury, lest the wrath 
of God lay hold upon you suddenly, for endeavouring 
to deliver the flock of God, his anointed ones that are 
not to be touched, to enemies and cruel tyrants, to be 
crushed and trampled on again, from whom himself by 
a high and stretched-out arm had so lately delivered 
them; and from whom you yourself maintained, that 



400 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



they ought to be delivered, I know not whether for 
any good of theirs, or in order to the hardening of 
your own heart, and to further your own damnation. 
If the bishops have no right to lord it over the church, 
certainly much less have kings, whatever the laws of 
men may be to the contrary. For they that know any 
thing of the gospel know thus much, that the govern- 
ment of the church is altogether divine and spiritual, 
and no civil constitution. Whereas you say, that " in 
secular affairs, the kings of England have always had 
the sovereign power ;" our laws do abundantly declare 
that to be false. Our courts of justice are erected and 
suppressed, not by the king's authority, but that of the 
parliament; and yet in any of them, the meanest sub- 
ject might go to law with the king; nor is it a rare 
thing for the judges to give judgment against him, 
which if the king should endeavour to obstruct by any 
prohibition, mandate, or letters, the judges were bound 
by law, and by their oaths, not to obey him, but to re- 
ject such inhibitions as null and void in law. The 
king could not imprison any man, or seize his estate 
as forfeited ; he could not punish any man, not sum- 
moned to appear in court, where not the king, but the 
ordinary judges give sentence; which they frequently 
did, as I have said, against the king. Hence our 
Bracton, lib. 3, cap. 9, "The regal power," says he, 
"is according to law; he has no power to do any 
wrong, nor can the king do any thing but what the 
law warrants." Those lawyers that you have consult- 
ed, men that have lately fled their country, may tell 
you another tale, and acquaint you with some statutes, 
not very ancient neither, but made in King Edward IV, 
King Henry VI, and King Edward Vlth's days; but 
they did not consider, that what power soever those 
statutes gave the king, was conferred upon him by 
authority of parliament, so that he was beholden to 
them for it ; and the same power that conferred it, 
might at pleasure resume it. How comes it to 
pass, that so acute a disputant as you, should suffer 
yourself to be imposed upon to that degree, as to 
make use of that very argument to prove the king's 
power to be absolute and supreme, than which no- 
thing proves more clearly, that it is subordinate to 
that of the parliament ? Our records of the greatest 
authority with us declare, that our kings owe all 
their power, not to any right of inheritance, of con- 
quest, or succession, but to the people. So in the par- 
liament rolls of King Henry IV, numb. 108, we read, 
that the kingly office and power was granted by the 
commons to King Henry IV, and before him, to his 
predecessor King Richard II, just askings use to grant 
commissioners' places and lieutenantships to their de- 
puties, by edicts and patents. Thus the house of com- 
mons ordered expressly to be entered upon record, 
" that they had granted to King Richard to use the 
same good liberty, that the kings of England before 
him had used:" which because that king abused to 
tie subversion of the laws, and "contrary to his oath 
at his coronation," the same persons, that granted him 
that power, took it back again, and deposed him. The 
same men. as appears by the same record, declared in 



open parliament, " that having confidence in the pru- 
dence and moderation of King Henry the IVth, they 
will and enact, that he enjoy the same royal authority 
that his ancestors enjoyed." Which if it had been any 
other than in the nature of a trust, as this was, either 
those houses of parliament were foolish and vain, to 
give what was none of their own, or those kings that 
were willing to receive as from them, what was already 
theirs, were too injurious both to themselves and their 
posterity ; neither of which is likely. " A third part 
of the regal power," say you, " is conversant about the 
militia; this the kings of England have used to order 
and govern, without fellow or competitor." This is as 
false as all the rest that you have taken upon the cre- 
dit of fugitives : for in the first place, both our own his- 
tories, and those of foreigners, that have been any 
whit exact in the relation of our affairs, declare, that 
the making of peace and war always did belong to the 
parliament. And the laws of St. Edward, which our 
kings were bound to swear that they would maintain, 
make this appear beyond all exception, in the chapter 
" De Heretochiis," viz. " That there w T ere certain offi- 
cers appointed in every province and county through- 
out the kingdom, that were called Heretochs,in Latin, 
duces, commanders of armies, that were to command 
the forces of the several counties," not for the honour 
of the crown only, " but for the good of the realm. 
And they were chosen by the general council, and in 
the several counties at public assemblies of the inha- 
bitants, as sheriffs ought to be chosen." Whence it is 
evident, that the forces of the kingdom, and the com- 
manders of those forces, were anciently, and ought to 
be still, not at the king's command, but at the people's; 
and that this most reasonable and just law obtained in 
this kingdom of ours, no less than heretofore it did in 
the commonwealth of the Romans. Concerning which, 
it w T ill not be amiss to hear what Cicero says, Philip. 1. 
"All the legions, all the forces of the commonwealth, 
wheresoever they are, are the people of Rome's; nor 
are those legions, that deserted the consul Antonius, 
said to have been Antony's, but the commonwealth's 
legions." This very law of St. Edward, together with 
the rest, did William the Conqueror, at the desire and 
instance of the people, confirm by oath, and added over 
and above, cap. 56, " That all cities, boroughs, castles, 
should be so watched every night, as the sheriffs, the 
aldermen, and other magistrates, should think meet for 
the safety of the kingdom." And in the 6th law, 
"Castles, boroughs, and cities, were first built for the 
defence of the people, and therefore ought to be main- 
tained free and entire, by all ways and means." What 
then ? Shall towns and places of strength in times of 
peace be guarded against thieves and robbers by com- 
mon councils of the several places ; and shall they not 
be defended in dangerous times of war, against both 
domestic and foreign hostility, by the common council 
of the whole nation ? If this be not granted, there can 
be no freedom, no integrity, no reason, in the guarding 
of them : nor shall we obtain any of those ends, for 
which the law itself tells us, that towns and fortresses 
were at first founded. Indeed our ancestors were will- 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



401 



ing- to put any thing" into the king's power, rather than 
their arms, and the garrisons of their towns; conceiv- 
ing- that to be neither better nor worse, than betraying 
their liberty to the fury and exorbitancy of their princes. 
Of which there are so very many instances in our his- 
tories, and those so generally known, that it would be 
superfluous to mention any of them here. But "the 
king owes protection to his subjects ; and how can he 
protect them, unlesshehavemen and arms at command?" 
But, say I, he had all this for the good of the kingdom, 
ashas been said, not for the destruction of his people, 
and the ruin of the kingdom : which in King Henry 
the Illd's time, one Leonard, a learned man in those 
days, in an assembly of bishops, told Rustandus, the 
pope's nuncio and the king's procurator, in these words ; 
" All churches are the pope's, as all temporal things 
are said to be the king's, for defence and protection, 
not his in propriety and ownership, as we say ; they 
are his to defend, not to destroy." The aforementioned 
law of St. Edward is to the same purpose ; and what 
does this import more than a trust ? Does this look 
like absolute power ? Such a kind of power a com- 
mander of an army always has, that is, a delegated 
power; and yet both at home and abroad he is never 
the less able to defend the people that choose him. 
Our parliaments would anciently have contended with 
our kings about their liberty and the laws of St. Ed- 
ward, to very little purpose; and it would have been 
an unequal match betwixt the kings and them, if they 
had been of opinion, that the power of the sword be- 
longed to them alone : for how unjust laws soever 
their kings would have imposed upon them, their 
charter, though never so great, would have been a 
weak defence against force. But say you, "What 
would the parliament be the better for the militia, 
since without the king's assent they cannot raise the 
least farthing from the people towards the maintaining 
it ?" Take you no thought for that : for in the first 
place you go upon a false supposition, "that parlia- 
ments cannot impose taxes without the king's assent," 
upon the people that send them, and whose concerns 
they undertake. In the next place, you, that are 
so officious an inquirer into other men's matters, can- 
not but have heard, that the people of their own ac- 
cord, by bringing in their plate to be melted down, 
raised a great sum of money towards the carrying on of 
this war against the king. Then you mention the 
largeness of our king's revenue : you mention over and 
over again five hundred and forty thousands: that 
" those of our kings that have been eminent for their 
bounty and liberality have used to give large boons 
out of their own patrimony." This you were glad to 
hear; it was by this charm, that those traitors to their 
country allured you, as Balaam the prophet was en- 
ticed of old, to curse the people of God, and exclaim 
against the judicial dispensations of his providence. 
You fool ! what was that unjust and violent king the 
better for such abundance of wealth ? What are you 
the better for it? Who have been no partaker of any 
part of it, that I can hear of, (how great hopes soever 
you may have conceived of being vastly enriched by 



it,) but only of a hundred pieces of gold, in a purse 
wrought with beads. Take that reward of thine ini- 
quity, Balaam, which thou hast loved, and enjoy it. 
You go on to play the fool ; " the setting up of a 
standard is a prerogative that belongs to the king only." 
How so ? Why because Virgil tells us in his iEneis, 
" that Turnus set up a standard on the top of the tower 
at Laurentum, for an ensign of war." And do not you 
know, Grammarian, that every general of an army 
does the same thing? But, says Aristotle, " The king 
must always be provided of a military power, that he 
may be able to defend the laws ; and therefore the king 
must be stronger than the whole body of the people," 
This man makes consequences just as Ocnus does ropes 
in hell; which are of no use but to be eaten by asses. 
For a number of soldiers given to the king by the 
people, is one thing, and the sole power of the militia 
is quite another thing; the latter, Aristotle does not 
allow that kings ought to be masters of, and that in 
this very place which you have quoted; " He ought," 
says he, " to have so many armed men about him, as 
to make him stronger than any one man, than many 
men got together ; but he must not be stronger than all 
the people." Polit. lib. 3, cap. 4, Else instead of pro- 
tecting them, it would be in his power to subject both 
people and laws to himself. For this is the difference 
betwixt a king' and a tyrant: a king, by consent of 
the senate and people, has about him so many armed 
men, as to enable him to resist enemies, and suppress 
seditions. A tyrant, against the will both of senate 
and people, gets as great a number as he can, either of 
enemies, or profligate subjects, to side with him against 
the senate and the people. The parliament therefore 
allowed the king, as they did whatever he had besides, 
the setting up of a standard ; not to wage war against 
his own people, but to defend them against such as 
the parliament should declare enemies to the state : 
if he acted otherwise, himself was to be accounted an 
enemy ; since according to the very law of St. Edward, 
or according to a more sacred law than that, the law 
of nature itself, he lost the name of a king, and was 
no longer such. Whence Cicero in his Philip. " He 
forfeits his command in the army, and interest in his 
government, that employs them against the state." 
Neither could the king compel those that held of him 
by knight-service, to serve him in any other war, 
than such as was made by consent of parliament; 
which is evident by many statutes. So for customs 
and other subsidies for the maintenance of the navy ? 
the king could not exact them without an act of parlia- 
ment; as was resolved about twelve years ago, by the 
ablest of our lawyers, when the king's authority was 
at the height. And long before them, Fortescue, an 
eminent lawyer, and chancellor to King Henry the 
sixth, " The king of England," says he, " can neither 
alter the laws, nor exact subsidies without the people's 
consent." Nor can any testimonies be brought from an- 
tiquity, to prove the kingdom of England to have been 
merely regal. " The king," says Bracton, " has a ju- 
risdiction over all his subjects ;" that is, in his courts 
of justice, where justice is administered in the king's 



402 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



name indeed, but according to our own laws. " All are 
subject to the king-;" that is, every particular man is ; 
and so Bracton explains himself in the places that I have 
cited. What follows is but turning' the same stone over 
and over again, (at which sport I believe you are able 
to tire Sisiphus himself,) and is sufficiently answered by 
what has been said already. For the rest, if our parlia- 
ments have sometimes complimented good kings with 
submissive expressions, though neithersavouring of flat- 
tery nor slavery, those are not to be accounted due to 
tyrants, nor ought to prejudice the people's right : good 
manners and civility do not infringe liberty. Where- 
as you cite out of Sir Edward Coke and others, " that 
the kingdom of England is an absolute kingdom ;" 
that is said with respect to any foreign prince, or 
the emperor: because as Camden says, " It is not 
under the patronage of the emperor : " but both of them 
affirm, that the government of England resides not in 
king alone, but in a body politic. Whence Fortescue, 
in his book de Laud. Leg. Aug. cap. 9, " The king of 
England," says he, " governs his people, not by a 
merely regal, but a political power; for the English 
are governed by laws of their own making." Foreign 
authors were not ignorant of this : hence Philip de 
Comines, a grave author, in the Fifth Book of his Com- 
mentaries, " Of all the kingdoms of the earth," says 
he, " that I have any knowledge of, there is none in my 
opinion where the government is more moderate, where 
the king has less power of hurting his people, than in 
England." Finally, " It is ridiculous," say you, " for 
them to affirm that kingdoms were ancienter than kings; 
which is as much as if they should say, that there was 
light before the sun was created." But with your good 
leave, Sir, we do not say that kingdoms, but that the 
people, were before kings. In the mean time, who can 
be more ridiculous than you, who deny there was light 
before the sun had a being? You pretend to a curiosity 
in other men's matters, and have forgot the very first 
things that were taught you. " You wonder how they 
that have seen the king sit upon his throne, at a session 
of parliament, (sub aureo et serico Coclo, under a golden 
and silken heaven,) under a canopy of state, should so 
much as make a question, whether the majesty resided 
in him, or in the parliament ?" They are certainly 
hard of belief, whom so lucid an argument, coming 
down from heaven, cannot convince. Which golden 
heaven, you, like a stoic, have so devoutly and se- 
riously gazed upon, that you seem to have forgot what 
kind of heaven Moses and Aristotle describe to us; for 
you deny, that there was any light in Moses's heaven 
before the sun ; and in Aristotle's you make three tem- 
perate zones. How many zones you observed in that 
golden and silken heaven of the king's, I know not; 
but I know you got one zone (a purse) well tempered 
with a hundred golden stars by your astronomy. 



CHAP. X. 

Since this whole controversy, whether concerning 
the right of kings in general, or that of the king of 
England in particular, is rendered difficult and intri- 
cate, rather by the obstinacy of parties, than by the 
nature of the thing itself; I hope they that prefer truth 
before the interest of a faction, will be satisfied with 
what I have alleged out of the law of God, the laws 
of nations, and the municipal laws of my own country, 
that a king of England may be brought to trial, and 
put to death. As for those whose minds are either 
blinded with superstition, or so dazzled with the splen- 
dour and grandeur of a court, that magnanimity and 
true liberty do not appear so glorious to them, as they 
are in themselves, it will be in vain to contend with 
them, either by reason and arguments, or examples. 
But you, Salmasius, seem very absurd, as in every 
other part of your book, so particularly in this, who 
though you rail perpetually at the Independents, and 
revile them with all the terms of reproach imaginable, 
yet assert to the highest degree that can be the independ- 
ency of a king, whom you defend ; and will not allow 
him to " owe his sovereignty to the people, but to his 
descent." And whereas in the beginning of your book 
you complained, that he was " put to plead for his life," 
here you complain " that he perished without being 
heard to speak for himself." But if you have a mind 
to look into the history of his trial, which is very faith- 
fully published in French, it may be you will be of an- 
other opinion. Whereas he had liberty given him for 
some days together, to say what he could for himself, 
he made use of it not to clear himself of the crimes 
laid to his charge, but to disprove the authority of his 
judges, and the judicature that he was called before. 
And whenever a criminal is either mute, or says no- 
thing to the purpose, there is no injustice in condemn- 
ing him without hearing him, if his crimes are noto- 
rious, and publicly known. If you say, that Charles 
died as he lived, I agree with you : if you say, that he 
died piously, holily, and at ease, you may remember 
that his grandmother Mary, Queen of Scots, an infa- 
mous woman, died on a scaffold with as much outward 
appearance of piety, sanctity, and constancy, as he did. 
And lest you should ascribe too much to that presence 
of mind, which some common malefactors have so great 
a measure of at their death ; many times despair, and 
a hardened heart, puts on as it were a vizor of courage; 
and stupidity, a shew of quiet and tranquillity of mind : 
sometimes the worst of men desire to appear good, un- 
daunted, innocent, and now and then religious, not 
only in their life, but at their death ; and in suffering 
death for their villanies, use to act the last part of their 
hypocrisy and cheats, with all the shew imaginable; 
and like bad poets or stageplayers, are very ambitious 
at being clapped at the end of the play. " Now," you 
say, " you are come to inquire who they chiefly were, 
that gave sentence against the king." Whereas it 
ought first to be inquired into, how you, a foreigner, 
and a French vagabond, came to have any thing to 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING, 



403 



do to raise a question about our affairs, to which you 
are so much a stranger? And what reward induced 
you to it? But we know enough of that, and who satis- 
fied your curiosity in these matters of ours ; even those 
fugitives, and traitors to their country, that could easily 
hire such a vain fellow as you, to speak ill of us. Then 
an account in writing of the state of our affairs was 
put into your hands by some hairbrained, half protes- 
tant, half papist chaplain or other, or by some sneak- 
ing courtier, and you were put to translate it into Latin ; 
out of that you took these narratives, which, if you 
please, we will examine a little : " Not the hundred 
thousandth part of the people consented to this sentence 
of condemnation." What were the rest of the people then, 
that suffered so great a thing to be transacted against 
their will ? Were they stocks and stones, were they 
mere trunks of men only, or such images of Britains, as 
Virgil describes to have been wrought in tapestry ? 

Purpurea intexti tollant aulaa Britanni. 
And Britains interwove held up the purple hangings. 

For you describe no true Britains, but painted ones, or 
rather needle-wrought men instead of them. Since 
therefore it is a thing so incredible, that a warlike na- 
tion should be subdued by so few, and those of the 
dregs of the people, (which is the first thing that occurs 
in your narrative,) that appears in the very nature of 
the thing itself to be most false. " The bishops were 
turned out of the house of lords by the parliament it- 
self." The more deplorable is your madness, (for are 
not you yet sensible that you rave ?) to complain of their 
being turned out of the parliament, whom you yourself 
in a large book endeavour to prove ought to be turned 
out of the church. " One of the states of parliament, 
to wit, the house of lords, consisting of dukes, earls, 
and viscounts, was removed." And deservedly were 
they removed ; for they were not deputed to sit there 
by any town or county, but represented themselves 
only ; they had no right over the people, but (as if 
they had been ordained for that very purpose) used 
frequently to oppose their rights and liberties. They 
were created by the king, they were his companions, 
his servants, and, as it were, shadows of him. He 
being removed, it was necessary they should be reduced 
to the same level with the body of the people, from 
amongst whom they took their rise. " One part of the 
parliament, and that the worst of all, ought not to have 
assumed that power of judging and condemning the 
king." But I have told you already, that the house 
of commons was not only the chief part of our parlia- 
ment, while we had kings, but was a perfect and entire 
parliament of itself, without the temporal lords, much 
more without the bishops. But, " the whole house of 
commons themselves were not admitted to have to do 
with the trial of the king " To wit, that part of them 
was not admitted, that openly revolted to him in their 
minds and counsels ; whom, though they styled him 
their king, yet they had so often acted against as an 
enemy. The parliament of England, and the deputies 
sent from the parliament of Scotland, on the 13th of 
January, 1645, wrote to the king, in answer to a letter 
2 D 



of his, by which he desired a deceitful truce, and that 
he might treat with them at London ; that they could 
not admit him into that city, till he had made satisfac- 
tion to the state for the civil war that he had raised in 
the three kingdoms, and for the deaths of so many of 
his subjects slain by his order ; and till he had agreed 
to a true and firm peace upon such terms as the parlia- 
ments of both kingdoms had offered him so often 
already, and should offer him again. He on the other 
hand either refused to hear, or by ambiguous answers 
eluded, their just and equal proposals, though most 
humbly presented to him seven times over. The par- 
liament at last, after so many years' patience, lest the 
king should overturn the state by his wiles and delays, 
when in prison, which he could not subdue in the field, 
and lest the vanquished enemy, pleased with our divi- 
sions, should recover himself, and triumph unexpectedly 
over his conquerors, vote that for the future they would 
have no regard to him, that they would send him no 
more proposals, nor receive any from him : after which 
vote, there were found even some members of parlia- 
ment, who out of the hatred they bore that invincible 
army, whose glory they envied, and which they would 
have had disbanded, and sent home with disgrace, after 
they had deserved so well of their nation, and out of a 
servile compliance with some seditious ministers, find- 
ing their opportunity, when many, whom they knew 
to be otherwise minded than themselves, having been 
sent by the house itself to suppress the presbyterians, 
who began already to be turbulent, were absent in the 
several counties, with a strange levity, not to say per- 
fidiousness, vote that that inveterate enemy of the state, 
who had nothing of a king but the name, without giv- 
ing any satisfaction or security, should be brought back 
to London, and restored to his dignity and government, 
as if he had deserved well of the nation by what he had 
done. So that they preferred the king before their re- 
ligion, their liberty, and that very celebrated covenant 
of theirs. What did they do in the mean time, who 
were sound themselves, and saw such pernicious coun- 
cils on foot? Ought they therefore to have been want- 
ing to the nation, and not provide for its safety, because 
the infection had spread itself even in their own house? 
But, who secluded those ill-affected members ? " The 
English army," you say : so that it was not an army 
of foreigners, but of most valiant, and faithful, honest 
natives, whose officers for the most part were members 
of parliament ; and whom those good secluded mem- 
bers would have secluded their country, and banished 
into Ireland ; while in the mean time the Scots, whose 
alliance began to be doubtful, had very considerable 
forces in four of our northern counties, and kept garri- 
sons in the best towns of those parts, and had the king 
himself in custody ; whilst they likewise encouraged 
the tumultuating of those of their own faction, who 
did more than threaten the parliament, both in city and 
country, and through whose means not only a civil, 
but a war with Scotland too shortly after brake out. 
If it has been always counted praise-worthy in pri- 
vate men to assist the state, and promote the public 
good, whether by advice or action ; our army sure 



404 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



was in no fault, who being ordered by the parliament 
to come to town, obeyed and came, and when they 
were come, quelled with ease the faction and uproar 
of the king's party, who sometimes threatened the 
house itself. For things were brought to that pass, 
that of necessity either we must be run down by 
them, or they by us. They had on their side most of 
the shopkeepers and handicraftsmen of London, and 
generally those of the ministers, that were most fac- 
tious. On our side was the army, whose fidelity, 
moderation, and courage were sufficiently known. It 
being in our po\ver by their means to retain our liberty, 
our state, our common safety, do you think we had 
not been fools to have lost all by our negligence and 
folly ? They who had had places of command in the 
king's arm}-, after their party w r ere subdued, had laid 
down their arms indeed against their wills, but conti- 
nued enemies to us in their hearts : and they flocked to 
town, and were here watching all opportunities of re- 
newing the war. With these men, though they were 
the greatest enemies they had in the world, and thirsted 
after their blood, did the Presbyterians, because they 
were not permitted to exercise a civil as well as an 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all others, hold secret 
correspondence, and took measures very unworthy of 
what they had formerly both said and done; and they 
came to that spleen at last, that they would rather en- 
thral themselves to the king again, than admit their 
own brethren to share in their liberty, which they like- 
wise had purchased at the price of their own blood ; 
they choose rather to be lorded over once more by a 
tyrant, polluted with the blood of so many of his own 
subjects, and who was enraged, and breathed out no- 
thing but revenge, against those of them that were left, 
than endure their brethren and friends to be upon the 
square with them. The Independents, as they are 
called, were the only men, that from first to last kept 
to their point, and knew what use to make of their vic- 
tory. They refused (and wisely, in my opinion) to 
make him king again, being then an enemy, who 
when he was their king, had made himself their enemy: 
nor were they ever the less averse to a peace, but they 
very prudently dreaded a new war, or a perpetual sla- 
very under the name of a peace. To load our army 
with the more reproaches, you begin a silly confused 
narrative of our affairs; in which, though I find many 
things false, many things frivolous, many things laid 
to our charge for which we rather merit; yet I think 
it will be to no purpose for me to write a true relation, 
in answer to your false one. For you and I are argu- 
ing, not writing histories, and both sides will believe 
our reasons, but not our narrative; and indeed the na- 
ture of the things themselves is such, that they cannot 
be related as they ought to be, but in a set history; so 
that I think it better, as Sallust said of Carthage, rather 
to say nothing at all, than to say but a little of things 
of this weight and importance. Nay, and I scorn so 
much as to mention the praises of great men, and of 
Almighty God himself, (who in so wonderful a course 
of affairs ought to he frequently acknowledged,) amongst 
your slanders and reproaches. I will therefore only 



pick out such things as seem to have any colour of ar- 
gument. You say, " the English and Scots promised 
by a solemn covenant, to preserve the majesty of the 
king." But you omit upon what terms they promised 
it ; to wit, if it might consist with the safety of their 
religion and their liberty. To both which, religion 
and liberty, that king was so averse to his last breath, 
and watched all opportunities of gaining advantages 
upon them, that it was evident that his life was danger- 
ous to their religion, and the certain ruin of their liberty. 
But then you fall upon the king's judges again: " If 
we consider the thing aright, the conclusion of this 
abominable action must be imputed to the Independ- 
ents, yet so as the Presbyterians may justly challenge 
the glory of its beginning and progress." Hark, ye 
Presbyterians, what good has it done you ? How is 
your innocence and loyalty the more cleared by your 
seeming so much to abhor the putting the king to death ? 
You yourselves, in the opinion of this everlasting talk- 
ative advocate of the king your accuser, " went more 
than half-way towards it ; you were seen acting the 
fourth act and more, in this tragedy; you may justly 
be charged with the king's death, since you shewed 
the way to it ; it was you and only you that laid his 
head upon the block." Wo be to you in the first place, 
if ever Charles his posterity recover the crown of Eng- 
land ; assure yourselves, you are like to be put in the 
black list. But pay your vows to God, and love your 
brethren who have delivered you, who have prevented 
that calamity from falling upon you, who have saved 
you from inevitable ruin, though against your wills. 
You are accused likewise for that " some years ago 
you endeavoured by sundry petitions to lessen the king's 
authority, that you published some scandalous expres- 
sions of the king himself in the papers you presented 
him with in the name of the parliament ; to wit, in 
that declaration of the lords and commons of the 26th 
of May 1642, you declared openly in some mad posi- 
tions that breathed nothing- but rebellion, what your 
thoughts were of the king's authority : Hotham by 
order of parliament shut the gates of Hull against the 
king; }'ou had a mind to make a trial by this first act 
of rebellion how much the king would bear." What 
could this man say more, if it were his design to recon- 
cile the minds of all Englishmen to one another, and 
alienate them wholly from the king ? for he gives them 
here to understand, that if ever the king be brought 
back, they must not only expect to be punished for his 
father's death, but for the petitions they made long 
ago', and some acts that past in full parliament, con- 
cerning the putting down the common-prayer and 
bishops, and that of the triennial parliament, and seve- 
ral other things that were enacted with the greatest 
consent and applause of all the people that could be ; 
all which will be looked upon as the seditions and mad 
positions of the Presbyterians. But this vain fellow 
changes his mind all of a sudden ; and what but of late, 
" when he considered it aright," he thought was to be 
imputed wholly to the Presbyterians, now that "he con- 
siders the same thing from first to last," he thinks the 
Independents were the sole actors of it. But even now 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



405 






he told us, " the Presbyterians took up arms against 
the king 1 , that by them he was beaten, taken captive, 
and put in prison : " now he says, " this whole doctrine 
of rebellion is the Independents' principle." O ! the 
faithfulness of this man's narrative ! how consistent he is 
with himself ! what need is there of a counter-narrative 
to this of his, that cuts its own throat? But if any 
man should question whether you are an honest man 
or a knave, let him read these following lines of yours: 
" It is time to explain whence and at what time this 
sect of enemies to kingship first began. Why truly 
these rare puritans began in Queen Elizabeth's time to 
crawl out of hell, and disturb not only the church, but 
the state likewise; for they are no less plagues to the 
latter than to the former." Now your very speech be- 
wrays you to be a right Balaam ; for where you de- 
signed to spit out the most bitter poison you could, 
there unwittingly and against your will you have pro- 
nounced a blessing. For it is notoriously known all 
over England, that if any endeavoured to follow the 
example of those churches, whether in France or Ger- 
many, which they accounted best reformed, and to ex- 
ercise the public worship of God in a more pure man- 
ner, which our bishops had almost universally corrupted 
with their ceremonies and superstitions ; or if any 
seemed either in point of religion or morality to be bet- 
ter than others, such persons were by the favour of 
episcopacy termed Puritans. These are they whose 
principles youjsay are so opposite to kingship. Nor 
are they the only persons, " most of the reformed re- 
ligion, that have not sucked in the rest of their prin- 
ciples, yet seem to have approved of those that strike 
at kingly government." So that while you inveigh 
bitterly against the Independents, and endeavour to 
separate them from Christ's flock, with the same breath 
you praise them; and those principles which almost 
every where you affirm to be peculiar to the Indepen- 
dents, here you confess have been approved of by most 
of the reformed religion. Nay, you are arrived to that 
degree of impudence, impiety, and apostacy, that 
though formerly you maintained bishops ought to be 
extirpated out of the church root and branch, as so 
many pests and limbs of antichrist, here you say the 
king ought to protect them, for the saving of his coro- 
nation oath. You cannot shew yourself a more in- 
famous villain than you have done already, but by ab- 
juring the protestant reformed religion, to which you 
are a scandal. Whereas you tax us with giving a 
"toleration of all sects and heresies," you ought not to 
find fault with us for that; since the church bears with 
such a profligate wretch as you yourself, such a vain 
fellow, such a liar, such a mercenary slanderer, such an 
apostate, one who has the impudence to affirm, that the 
best and most pious of Christians, and even most of 
those who profess the reformed religion, are crept out 
of hell, because they differ in opinion from you. I 
had best pass by the, calumnies that fill up the rest of 
this chapter, and those prodigious tenets that you as- 
cribe to the Independents, to render them odious ; for 
neither do they at all concern the cause you have in 
hand, and they are such for the most part as deserve 



to be laughed at and despised, rather than receive a 
serious answer. 



CHAP. XT. 

You seem to begin this eleventh chapter, Salmasius, 
though with no modesty, yet with some sense of your 
weakness and trifling in this discourse. For whereas 
you proposed to yourself to inquire in this place, by 
what authority sentence was given against the king ; 
you add immediately, which nobody expected from you, 
that "it is in vain to make any such inquiry; to wit, 
because the quality of the persons that did it leaves 
hardly any room for such a question." And therefore 
as you have been found guilty of a great deal of im- 
pudence and sauciness in the undertaking of this cause, 
so since you seem here conscious of your own imper- 
tinence, I shall give you the shorter answer. To your 
question then ; by what authority the house of commons 
either condemned the king themselves, or delegated 
that power to others ; I answer, they did it by virtue 
of the supreme authority on earth. How they come to 
have the supreme power, you may learn by what I 
have said already, when I have refuted your imper- 
tinencies upon that subject. If you believed yourself, 
that you could ever say enough upon any subject, you 
would not be so tedious in repeating the same thing so 
many times over. And the house of commons might 
delegate their judicial power by the same reason, by 
which you say the king may delegate his, who received 
all he had from the people. Hence in that solemn 
league and covenant that you object to us, the parlia- 
ments of England and Scotland solemnly protest and 
engage to each other, to punish the traitors in such 
manner as " the supreme, judicial authority in both 
nations, or such as should have a delegated power from 
them," should think fit. Now you hear the parlia- 
ments of both nations protest with one voice, that they 
may delegate their judicial power, which they call the 
supreme ; so that you move a vain and frivolous con- 
troversy about delegating this power. " But," say 
you, "there were added to those judges, that were 
made choice of out of the house of commons, some offi- 
cers of the army, and it never was known, that soldiers 
had any right to try a subject for his life." I will 
silence you in a very few words : you may remember, 
that we are not now discoursing of a subject, but of an 
enemy ; whom if a general of an army, after he has 
taken him prisoner, resolves to dispatch, would he be 
thought to proceed otherwise than according to custom 
and martial law, if he himself with some of his officers 
should sit upon him, and try and condemn him ? An 
enemy to a state, made a prisoner of war, cannot be 
looked upon to be so much as a member, much less a 
king in that state. This is declared by that sacred law 
of St. Edward, which denies that a bad king is a king 
at all, or ought to be called so. Whereas you say, it 
was " not the whole, but a part of the house of com- 



!0C? 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



mons, that tried and condemned the king," I give you 
lliis answer: the number of" them, who gave their votes 
for putting the king to death, was far greater than is 
necessary, according to the custom of our parliaments, 
to transact the greatest affairs of the kingdom, in the 
absence of the rest ; who since they were absent through 
their own fault, (for to revolt to the common enemy in 
their hearts, is the worst sort of absence,) their absence 
ought not to hinder the rest who continued faithful to 
the cause, from preserving the state; which when it 
was in a tottering- condition, and almost quite reduced 
to slavery and utter ruin, the whole body of the 
people had at first committed to their fidelity, pru- 
dence, and courage. And they acted their parts 
like men ; they set themselves in opposition to the un- 
ruly wilfulness, the rage, the secret designs of an in- 
veterate and exasperated king ; they preferred the 
common liberty and safety before their own ; they out- 
did all former parliaments, they outdid all their ances- 
tors, in conduct, magnanimity, and steadiness to their 
cause. Yet these very men did a great part of the 
people ungratefully desert in the midst of their under- 
taking, though they had promised them all fidelity, all 
the help and assistance- they could afford tliem. These 
were for slavery and peace, with sloth and luxury, 
upon any terms : others demanded their liberty, nor 
would accept of a peace, that was not sure and honour- 
able. What should the parliament do in this case? 
Ought they to have defended this part of the people, 
that was sound, and continued faithful to them and their 
country, or to have sided with those that deserted both ? 
I know what you will say they ought to have done. 
You are not Eurylochus, but Elpenor, a miserable en- 
chanted beast, a filthy swine, accustomed to a sordid 
slavery even under a woman ; so that you have not the 
ieast relish of true magnanimity, nor consequently of 
liberty, which is the effect of it : you would have all 
other men slaves, because you find in yourself no 
generous, ingenuous inclinations; you say nothing, 
you breathe nothing, but what is mean and servile. 
You raise another scruple, to wit, " that he was the 
king of Scotland too, whom we condemned;" as if he 
might therefore do what he would in England. But 
that you may conclude this chapter, which of all others 
l- the most weak and insipid, at least with some witty 
quirk, " there are two little words," say you, "that 
are made up of the same number of letters, and differ 
only in the placing of them, but whose significations 
are wide asunder, to wit, Vis and Jus, (might and 
right)." It is no great wonder, that such a three-let- 
tered man as you, (fur, a thief,) should make such a 
witticism upon three letters: it is the greater wonder 
(which yet you assert throughout your book) that two 
things so directly opposite to one another as those two 
are, should yet meet and become one and the same 
thing in kings. For what violence was ever acted 
hy kings, which you do not affirm to be their right? 
These are all the passages, that I could pick out of 
nine long pages, that I thought deserved an answer. 
The real consists either of repetitions of things that 
have been answered more than once, or such as have 



no relation to the matter in hand. So that my being 
more brief in this chapter than in the rest is not 
to be imputed to want of diligence in me, which, how 
irksome soever you are to me, I have not slackened, 
but to your tedious impertinence, so void of matter 
and sense. 



CHAP. XII. 



I wish, Salmasius, that you had left out this part of 
your discourse concerning the king's crime, which it 
had been more advisable for yourself and your party 
to have done; for I am afraid lest in giving you an 
answer to it, I should appear too sharp and severe upon 
him, now he is dead, and hath received his punish- 
ment. But since you choose rather to discourse con- 
fidently and at large upon that subject, I will make 
you sensible, that you could not have done a more in- 
considerate thing, than to reserve the worst part of 
your cause to the last, to wit, that of ripping up and 
inquiring into the king's crimes; wbich when I shall 
have proved them to have been true and most exorbi- 
tant, they will render his memory unpleasant and 
odious to all good men, and imprint now in the close 
of the controversy a just hatred of you, who undertake 
his defence, on the reader's minds. Say you, " his 
accusation may be divided into two parts, one is con- 
versant about his morals, the other taxeth him with 
such faults as be might commit in his public capacity." 
I will be content to pass by in silence that part of his 
life that he spent in banquetting, at plays, and in the 
conversation of women ; for what can there be in lux- 
ury and excess worth relating ? And what would those 
things have been to us, if he had been a private per- 
son ? But since he would be a king, as he could not 
live a private life, so neither could his vices be like 
those of a private person. For in the first place, he 
did a great deal of mischief by his example : in the 
second place, all that time that he spent upon his lust, 
and his sports, which was a great part of his time, he 
stole from the state, the government of which he had 
undertaken : thirdly and. lastly, he squandered away 
vast sums of money, which were not his own, but the 
public revenue of the nation, in his domestic luxury 
and extravagance. So that in his private life at home 
he first began to be an ill king. But let us rather 
pass over to those crimes, " that he is charged with on 
the account of misgovernment." Here you lament 
his being condemned as a tyrant, a traitor, and a mur- 
derer. That he had no wrong done him, shall now be 
made appear. But first let us define a tyrant, not ac- 
cording to vulgar conceits, but the judgment of Aris- 
totle, and of all learned men. He is a tyrant who re- 
gards his own welfare and profit only, and not that 
of the people. So Aristotle defines one in the tenth 
book of his Ethics, and elsewhere, and so do very many 
others. Whether Charles regarded his own or the 
people's good, these few things of many, that I shall 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



407 



but touch upon, will evince. When his vents and 
other public revenues of the crown would not defray 
the expenses of the court, he laid most heavy taxes 
upon the people ; and when they were squandered 
away, he invented new ones; not for the benefit, 
honour, or defence of the state, but that he might hoard 
up, or lavish out in one house, the riches and wealth, 
not of one, but of three nations. When at this rate he 
broke lose, and acted without any colour of law to 
warrant his proceedings, knowing- that the parliament 
was the only thing* that could give him check, he en- 
deavoured either wholly to lay aside the very calling 
of parliaments, or calling them just as often, and no 
oftener, than to serve his own turn, to make them en- 
tirely at his devotion. Which bridle when he had cast 
off himself, he put another bridle upon the people ; he 
put garrisons of German horse and Irish foot in many 
towns and cities, and that in time of peace. Do you 
think he does not begin to look like a tyrant ? In which 
very thing, as in many other particulars, which you 
have formerly given me occasion to instance, though 
you scorn to have Charles compared with so cruel a 
tyrant as Nero, he resembled him extremely much. 
For Nero likewise often threatened to take away the 
senate. Besides, he bore extreme hard upon the con- 
sciences of good men, and compelled them to the use 
of ceremonies and superstitious worship, borrowed from 
popery, and by him reintroduced into the church. 
They that would not conform, were imprisoned or 
banished. He made war upon the Scots twice for no 
other cause than that. By all these actions he has 
surely deserved the name of a tyrant once over at least. 
Now I will tell you why the word traitor was put into 
his indictment : when he assured Jris parliament by 
promises, by proclamations, by imprecations, that he 
had no design against the state, at that very time did 
he list Papists in Ireland, he sent, a private embassy 
to the king of Denmark to beg assistance from him of 
arms, horses, and men, expressly against the parlia- 
ment; and was endeavouring to raise an army first in 
England, and then in Scotland. To the English he 
promised the plunder of the city of London ; to the 
Scots, that the four northern counties should be added 
to Scotland, if they would but help him to get rid of 
the parliament, by what means soever. These projects 
not succeeding, he sent over one Dillon, a traitor, into 
Ireland with private instructions to the natives, to fall 
suddenly upon all the English that inhabited there.— 
These are the most remarkable instances of his treasons, 
not taken up upon hearsay and idle reports, but disco- 
vered by letters under his own hand and seal. And 
finally I suppose no man will deny that he was a mur- 
derer, by whose order the Irish took arms, and put to 
death with most exquisite torments above a hundred 
thousand English, who lived peaceably by them, and 
without any apprehension of danger ; and who raised 
so great a civil war in the other two kingdoms. Add 
to all this, that at the treaty in the Isle of Wight the 
king openly took upon himself the guilt of the war, 
and cleared the parliament in the confession he made 
there, which is publicly known. Thus you have in 



short why King Charles was adjudged a tyrant, a trai- 
tor, and a murderer. " But," say you, " why was he 
not declared so before, neither in that solemn league 
and covenant, nor afterwards when he was delivered 
to them, either by the Presbyterians or the Indepen- 
dents, but on the other hand was received as a king 
ought to be, with all reverence ?" This very thing is 
sufficient to persuade any rational man, that the parlia- 
ment entered not into any councils of quite deposing 
the king, but as their last refuge, after they had suf- 
fered and undergone all that possibly they could, and 
had attempted all other ways and means. You alone 
endeavour maliciously to lay that to their charge, which 
to all good men cannot but evidence their great patience, 
moderation, and perhaps a too long forbearing with the 
king's pride and arrogance. But " in the month of 
August, before the king suffered, the house of commons, 
which then bore the only sway, and was governed by 
the Independents, wrote letters to the Scots, in which 
they acquainted them, that they never intended to alter 
the form of government that had obtained so long in 
England under king, lords, and commons." You may 
see from hence, how little reason there is to ascribe the 
deposing of the king to the principles of the Indepen- 
dents. They, that never used to dissemble and conceal 
their tenets, even then, when they had the sole manage- 
ment of affairs, profess, " That they never intended to 
alter the government." But if afterwards a thing came 
into their minds, which at first they intended not, why 
might they not take such a course, though before not 
intended, as appeared most advisable, and most for the 
nation's interest ? Especially when they found, that the 
king could not possibly be intreated or induced to as- 
sent to those just demands, that they had made from 
time to time, and which were always the same from 
first to last. He persisted in those perverse sentiments 
with respect to religion and his own right, which he 
had all along espoused, and which were so destructive 
to us ; not in the least altered from the man that he 
was, when in peace and war he did us all so much 
mischief. If he assented to any thing, he gave no ob- 
scure hints, that he did it against his will, and that 
whenever he should come into power again, he would 
look upon such his assent as null and void. The same 
thing his son declared by writing under his hand, when 
in those days he run away with part of the fleet, and 
so did the king himself by letters to some of his own 
party in London. In the mean time, ag-ainst the avowed 
sense of the parliament, he struck up a private peace 
with the Irish, the most barbarous enemies imaginable 
to England, upon base dishonourable terms; but when- 
ever he invited the English to treaties of peace, at those 
very times, with all the power he had, and interest he 
could make, he was preparing for war. In this case, 
what should they do, who were entrusted with the care 
of the government ? Ought they to have betrayed the 
safety of us all to our most bitter adversary ? Or would 
you have had them left us to undergo the calamities of 
another seven years' war, not to say worse ? God put a 
better mind into them, of preferring, pursuant to that 
very solemn league and covenant, their religion and 



408 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



liberties, before those thoughts they once had, of not 
rejecting - the king; for they had not goue so far as to 
vote it ; all which they saw at last, (though indeed later 
than they might have done,) could not possibly subsist, 
as long as the king continued king-. The parliament 
ought and must of necessity be entirely free, and at 
liberty to provide for the good of the nation, as occa- 
sion requires; nor ought they so to be wedded to their 
first sentiments, as to scruple the altering their minds, 
for their own, or the nation's good, if God put an 
opportunity into their hands of procuring- it. But 
" the Scots were of another opinion ; for they, in a let- 
ter to Charles, the king's son, call his father a most 
sacred prince, and the putting- him to death a most 
execrable villany." Do not you talk of the Scots, 
whom you know not; we know them well enough, and 
know the time when they called that same king a most 
execrable person, a murderer, and a traitor; and the 
putting a tyrant to death a most sacred action. Then 
you pick holes in the king's cbarg-e, as not being pro- 
perly penned ; and you ask " why we needed to call 
him a traitor and a murderer, after we had styled him 
a tyrant; since the word tyrant includes all the crimes 
that may be ;" and then you explain to us grammati- 
cally and critically, what a tyrant is. Away with 
those trifles, you pedagogue, which that one definition 
of Aristotle's, that lias lately been cited, will utterly 
confound ; and teach such a doctor as you, that the 
word tyrant (for all your concern is barely to have 
some understanding of words) may be applied to one, 
who is neither a traitor nor a murderer. But " the 
laws of England do not make it treason in the king, 
to stir up sedition against himself or the people." Nor 
do they say, that the parliament can be guilty of trea- 
son by deposing a bad king, nor that any parliament 
ever was so, though they have often done it; but our 
laws plainly and clearly declare, that a king may vio- 
late, diminish, nay, and wholly lose his royalty. For 
that expression in the law of St. Edward, of " losing 
the name of a king," signifies neither more nor less, 
than being deprived of the kingly office and dignity; 
which befel Chilperic king of France, whose example 
for illustration sake is taken notice of in the law itself. 
There is not a lawyer amongst us, that can deny, but 
that the highest treason may be committed against the 
kingdom as well as against the king. I appeal to 
Glanville himself, whom you cite, " If any man at- 
tempt to put the king- to death, or raise sedition in the 
realm, it is high treason." So that attempt of some 
papists to blow up the parliament-house, and the lords 
and commons there with gunpowder, was by King- 
James himself, and both houses of parliament, declared 
to be high treason, not against the king- only, but 
against the parliament and the whole kingdom. It 
would be to no purpose to quote more of our statutes, 
to prove so clear a truth ; which yet I could easily do. 
For the thing itself is ridiculous, and absurd to ima- 
gine, that hiuh treason may be committed against the 
king, and not against the people, for whose good, nay, 
and by whose leave, as I may say, the king is what 
he is : so that you babble over so many statutes of ours J 



to no purpose; you toil and wallow in our ancient 
law-books to no purpose; for the laws themselves 
stand or fall by authority of parliament, who always 
had power to confirm or repeal them ; and the parlia- 
ment is the sole judge of what is rebellion, what high 
treason, (lsesa majestas,) and whatnot. Majesty never 
was vested to that degree in the person of the king, as 
not to be more conspicuous and more august in parlia- 
ment, as I have often shewn : but who can endure to 
hear such a senseless fellow, such a French mounte- 
bank, as you, declare what our laws are? And, you 
English fugitives ! so many bishops, doctors, lawyers, 
who pretend that all learning and ingenuous literature 
is fled out of England with yourselves, was there not 
one of you that could defend the king's cause and your 
own, and that in good Latin also, to be submitted to 
the judgment of other nations, but that this brainsick, 
beggarly Frenchman must be hired to undertake the 
defence of a poor indigent king, surrounded with so 
many infant-priests and doctors ? This very thing, I 
assure you, will be a great imputation to you amongst 
foreigners ; and you will be thought deservedly to have 
lost that cause, you were so far from being able to 
defend by force of arms, as that you cannot so much 
as write in behalf of it. But now I come to you 
again, good man Goosecap, who scribble so finely; 
if at least you are come to yourself again : for I find 
you here towards the latter end of your book in a 
deep sleep, and dreaming of some voluntary death or 
other, that is nothing to the purpose. Then you 
" deny, that it is possible for a king in his right wits 
to embroil his people in seditions, to betray his own 
forces to be slaughtered by enemies, and raise fac- 
tions against himself." All which things having been 
done by many kings, and particularly by Charles the 
late king of England, you will no longer doubt, I 
hope, especially being addicted to Stoicism, but that 
all tyrants, as well as profligate villains, are down- 
right mad. Hear what Horace says, " Whoever 
through a senseless stupidity, or any other cause what- 
soever, hath his understanding so blinded, as not to 
discern truth, the Stoics account of him as of a mad- 
man : and such are whole nations, such are kings and 
princes, such are all mankind ; except those very few 
that are wise." So that if you would clear King 
Charles from the imputation of acting like a madman, 
you must first vindicate his integrity, and shew that 
he never acted like an ill man. " But a king," you 
say, "cannot commit treason against his own subjects 
and vassals." In the first place, since we are as free as 
any people under heaven, we will not be imposed upon 
by any barbarous custom of any other nation whatso- 
ever. In the second place, suppose we had been the 
king's vassals; that relation would not have obliged 
us to endure a tyrant to reign and lord it over us. All 
subjection to magistrates, as our own laws declare, is 
circumscribed, and confined within the bounds of ho- 
nesty, and the public good. Read Leg. Hen. I. Cap. 
55. The obligation betwixt a lord and his tenants is 
mutual, and remains so long as the lord protects his te- 
nant; (this is all our lawyers tell us;) but if the lord be 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



409 



too severe and cruel to his tenant, and do him some 
heinous injury, "The whole relation betwixt them, 
and whatever obligation the tenant is under by having 
done homage to his lord, is utterly dissolved and ex- 
tinguished." These are the very words ofBracton and 
Fleta. So that in some case, the law itself warrants 
even a slave, or a vassal, to oppose his lord, and allows 
the slave to kill him, if he vanquish him in battle. If 
a city or a whole nation may not lawfully take this 
course with a tyrant, the condition of freemen will be 
worse than that of slaves. Then you go about to ex- 
cuse King Charles's shedding of innocent blood, partly 
by murders committed by other kings, and partly by 
some instances of men put to death by them lawfully. 
For the matter of the Irish massacre, you refer the 
reader to 'Euewv BgktiXik?) ; and I refer you to Eicono- 
clastes. The town of Rochel being taken, and the 
townsmen betrayed, assistance shewn, but not afforded 
them, you will not have laid at Charles's door; nor 
have I any thing' to say, whether he was faulty in that 
business or not; he did mischief enough at home; we 
need not inquire into what misdemeanours he was 
guilty of abroad. But you in the mean time would 
make all the protestant churches, that have at any time 
defended themselves by force of arms against princes, 
who were professed enemies of their religion, to have 
been guilty of rebellion. Let them consider how much 
it concerns them for the maintaining their ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline, and asserting their own integrity, not to 
pass by so great an indignity offered them by a person 
bred up by and amongst themselves. That which 
troubles us most is, that the English likewise were be- 
trayed, in that expedition. He, who had designed 
long* ago to convert the government of England into a 
tyranny, thought he could not bring it to pass, till the 
flower and strength of the military power of the nation 
were cut off. Another of his crimes was, the causing 
some words to be struck out of the usual coronation 
oath, before he himself would take it. Unworthy and 
abominable action ! The act was wicked in itself; 
what shall be said of him that undertakes to justify it? 
For by the eternal God, what greater breach of faith, 
and violation of all laws, can possibly be imagined ? 
What ought to be more sacred to him, next to the holy 
sacraments themselves, than that oath ? Which of the 
two do you think the more flagitious person, him that 
offends against the law, or him that endeavours to 
make the law equally guilty with himself? Or rather 
him who subverts the law itself, that he may not seem 
to offend against it ? For thus that king violated that 
oath, which he ought most religiously to have sworn 
to ; but that he might not seem openly and publicly to 
violate it, he craftily adulterated and corrupted it ; and 
lest he himself should be accounted perjured, he turned 
the very oath into a perjury. What other could be ex- 
pected, than that his reign would be full of injustice, 
craft, and misfortune, who began it with so detestable 
an injury to his people ? And who durst pervert and 
adulterate that law, which he thought the only obsta- 
cle that stood in his way, and hindered him from per- 
verting all the rest of the laws : But " that oath " (thus j 



you justify him) " lays no other obligation upon kings, 
than the laws themselves do : and kings pretend, that 
they will be bound and limited by laws, though indeed 
they are altogether from under the power of the laws." 
Is it not prodigious, that a man should dare to express 
himself so sacrilegiously and so senselessly, as to as- 
sert, that an oath sacredly sworn upon the Holy Evan- 
gelists, may be dispensed with, and set aside as a little 
insignificant thing, without any cause whatsoever ! 
Charles himself refutes you, you prodigy of impiety, 
who, thinking that oath no light matter, choose rather 
by a subterfuge to avoid the force of it, or by a fallacy 
to elude it, than openly to violate it ; and would rather 
falsify and corrupt the oath, than manifestly forswear 
himself after he had taken it. But " The king indeed 
swears to his people, as the people do to him ; but the 
people swear fidelity to the king, not the king to them." 
Pretty invention ! Does not he that promises, and binds 
himself by an oath to do any thing to or for another, 
oblige his fidelity to them that require the oath of him ? 
Of a truth, every king swears Fidelity, and Service, 
and Obedience to the people, with respect to the per- 
formance of whatsoever he promises upon oath to do. 
Then you run back to William the Conqueror, who 
was forced more than once to swear to perform, not 
what he himself would, but what the people and the 
great men of the realm required of him. If many 
kings "are crowned without the usual solemnity," and 
reign without taking any oath, the same thing may be 
said of the people ; a great many of whom never took, 
the oath of allegiance. If the king by not taking an 
oath be at liberty, the people are so too. And that part 
of the people that has sworn, swore not to the king only, 
but to the realm, and the laws, by which the king 
came to his crown ; and no otherwise to the king, than 
whilst he should act according to those laws, that 
" the common People," that is, the house of Com- 
mons, should choose ; (quas vulgus elegerit.) For it 
were folly to alter the phrase of our law, and turn 
it into more genuine Latin. This clause, (quas 
vulgus elegerit,) which the commons shall choose, 
Charles before he was crowned, procured to be razed 
out. " But," say you, " without the king's assent the 
people can choose no laws ;" and for this you cite two 
statutes, viz. Anno 37 H. VI, Cap. 15, and 13 Edw. IV, 
Cap. 8 : but these two statutes are so far from appear- 
ing in our statute-books, that in the years you mention 
neither of those kings enacted any laws at all. Go now 
and complain, that those fugitives, who pretended to 
furnish you with matter out of our statutes, imposed 
upon you in it ; and let other people in the mean time 
stand astonished at your impudence and vanity, who 
are not ashamed to pretend to be thoroughly versed in 
such books, as it is so evident you have never looked 
into, nor so much as seen. And that clause in the 
coronation oath, which such a brazen-faced brawler as 
you call fictitious, "The king's friends," you say your- 
self, " acknowledge, that it may possibly be extant in 
some ancient copies, but that it grew into disuse, be- 
cause it had no convenient signification." But for 
that very reason did our ancestors insert it in the oath, 



410 



A DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



that the oath might have such a si g-nifi cation as would 
not be for a tyrant's conveniency. If it had really 
grown into disuse, which yet is most false, there was 
the greater need of reviving it ; but even that would 
have been to no purpose, according to your doctrine : 
" For that custom of taking an oath, as kings now-a- 
days generally use it, is no more," you say, " than a 
bare ceremony." And yet the king, when the bishops 
were to be put down, pretended that he could not do it 
by reason of that oath. And consequently that rever- 
end and sacred oath, as it serves for the king's turn, or 
not, must be solemn and binding, or an empty cere- 
mony: which I earnestly entreat my countrymen to 
take notice of, and to consider what manner of a king 
they are like to have, if he ever come back. For it 
would never have entered into the thoughts of this ras- 
cally foreig'n grammarian, to write a discourse of the 
rights of the crown of England, unless both Charles 
Stuart now in banishment, and tainted with his father's 
principles, and those profligate tutors that he has along 
with him, had industriously suggested to him what 
they would have writ. They dictated to him, " That 
the whole parliament were liable to be proceeded 
against as traitors, because they declared without the 
king's assent all them to be traitors, who had taken up 
arms against the parliament of England ; and that 
parliaments were but the king's vassals : that the oath, 
which our kings take at their coronation, is but a cere- 
mony :" And why not that a vassal too? So that no 
reverence of laws, no sacredness of an oath, will be 
sufficient to protect }^our lives and fortunes, either from 
the exorbitance of a furious, or the revenge of an ex- 
asperated, prince, who has been so instructed from his 
cradle, as to think laws, religion, nay, and oaths them- 
selves, ought to be subject to his will and pleasure. 
How much better is it, and more becoming yourselves, 
if you desire riches, liberty, peace, and empire, to ob- 
tain them assuredly by your own virtue, industry, pru- 
dence, and valour, than to long after and hope for 
them in vain under the rule of a king ? They who are 
of opinion that these things cannot be compassed but 
under a king, and a lord, it cannot well be expressed 
how mean, how base, I do not say, how unworthy, 
thoughts they have of themselves ; for in effect, what 
do they other than confess, that they themselves are 
lazy, weak, senseless, silly persons, and framed for 
slavery both in body and mind ? And indeed all man- 
ner of slavery is scandalous and disgraceful to a free- 
born ingenuous person; but for you, after you have 
recovered your lost liberty, by God's assistance, and 
your own arms; after the performance of so many 
valiant exploits, and the making so remarkable an ex- 
ample of a most potent king, to desire to return again 
into a condition of bondage and slavery, will not only 
be scandalous and disgraceful, hut an impious and 
wicked thing ; and equal to that of the Israelites, who 
for desiring to return to the Egyptian slavery were so 
severely punished for that sordid, slavish temper of 
mind, and so many of them destroyed by that God 
who had been their deliverer. But what say j'ou now, 
who would persuade us to become slaves ? " The 



king," say you, " had a power of pardoning such as 
were guilty of treason, and other crimes ; which evinces 
sufficiently, that the king himself was under no law." 
The king might indeed pardon treason, not against the 
kingdom, but against himself; and so may any body 
else pardon wrongs done to themselves ; and he might, 
perhaps, pardon some other offences, though not always. 
But does it follow, because in some cases he had the 
right of saving a malefactor's life, that therefore he 
must have a right to destroy all good men ? If the 
king be impleaded in an inferiour court, he is not 
obliged to answer, but by his attorney : does it there- 
fore follow, that when he is summoned by all his sub- 
jects to appear in parliament, he may choose whether 
he will appear or no, and refuse to answer in person ? 
You say, " That we endeavour to justify what we 
have done by the Hollanders' example;" and upon 
this occasion, fearing the loss of that stipend with 
which the Hollanders feed such a murrain and pest as 
you are, if by reviling the English you should con- 
sequently reflect upon them that maintain you, you 
endeavour to demonstrate " how unlike their actions 
and ours are." The comparison that you make be- 
twixt them I resolve to omit (though many things in 
it are most false, and other things flattery all over, 
which yet you thought yourself obliged to put down, 
to deserve your pension). For the English think 
they need not allege the examples of foreigners for 
their justification. They have municipal laws of 
their own, by which they have acted ; laws with rela- 
tion to the matter in hand the best in the world : they 
have the examples of their ancestors, great and gal- 
lant men, for their imitation, who never gave way to 
the exorbitant power of princes, and who have put 
many of them to death, when their government be- 
came insupportable. They were born free, they stand 
in need of no other nation, they can make what laws 
they please for their own good government. One 
law in particular they have a great veneration for, 
and a very ancient one it is, enacted by nature itself, 
That all human laws, all civil right and government, 
must have a respect to the safety and welfare of good 
men, and not be subject to the lusts of princes. From 
hence to the end of your book I find nothing but rub- 
bish and trifles, picked out of the former chapters; of 
which you have here raised so great a heap, that I can- 
not imagine what other design you could have in it, 
than to presage the ruin of your whole fabric. At last, 
after an infinite deal of tittle-tattle, you make an end, 
calling " God to witness, that you undertook the de- 
fence of this cause, not only because you were desired 
so to do, but because your own conscience told you, 
that you could not possibly undertake the defence of a 
better." Is it fit for you to intermeddle with our 
matters, with which you have nothing to do, because 
you were desired, when we ourselves did not desire 
you ? to reproach with contumelious and opprobrious 
language, and in a printed book, the supreme magis- 
tracy of the English nation, when according to the 
authority and power that they are intrusted with, they 
do but their duty within their own jurisdiction, and all 



IN ANSWER TO SALMASIUS'S DEFENCE OF THE KING. 



411 



this without the least injury or provocation from them? 
v'for they did not so much as know that there was such 
a man in the world as you.) And I pray by whom 
were you desired ? By your wife, I suppose, who, they 
say, exercises a kingly right and jurisdiction over you; 
and whenever she has a mind to it (as Fulvia is made 
to speak in that obscene epigram, that you collected 
some centoes out of, page 320) cries, " Either write, or 
let us fight;" that made you write perhaps, lest the 
signal should be given. Or were you asked by Charles 
the younger, and that profligate gang of vagabond 
courtiers, and like a second Balaam called upon by an- 
other Balak to restore a desperate cause by ill writing, 
that was lost by ill fighting? That may be; but there 
is this difference, for he was a wise understanding man, 
and rid upon an ass that could speak, to curse the 
people of God : thou art a very talkative ass thyself, 
and rid by a woman, and being surrounded with the 
healed heads of the bishops, that heretofore thou hadst 
wounded, thou seemest to represent that beast in the 
Revelation. But they say, that a little after you had 
written this book you repented of what you had done. 
It is well, if it be so; and to make your repentance 
public, I think the best course that you can take will 
be, for this long book that you have writ, to take a 
halter, and make one long letter of yourself. So Judas 
Iscariot repented, to whom you are like ; and that 
young Charles knew, which made him send you the 
purse, Judas his badge; for he had heard before, and 
found afterward by experience, that you were an apos- 
tate and a devil. Judas betrayed Christ himself, and 
you betray his church ; you have taught heretofore, 
that bishops were antichristian, and you are now re- 
volted to their party. You now undertake the defence 
of their cause, whom formerly you damned to the pit 
of hell. Christ delivered all men from bondage, and 
you endeavour to enslave all mankind. Never ques- 
tion, since you have been such a villain to God him- 
self, his church, and all mankind in general, but that 
the same fate attends you that befell your equal, out 
of despair rather than repentance, to be weary of your 
life, and hang yourself, and burst asunder as he did ; 
and to send before-hand that faithless and treacherous 
conscience of yours, that railing conscience at good 
and holy men, to that place of torment that is prepared 
for you. And now I think, through God's assistance, 
I have finished the work I undertook, to wit, the de- 
fence of the noble actions of my countrymen at home, 
and abroad, against the raging and envious madness 
of this distracted sopbister; and the asserting of the 
common rights of the people against the unjust domi- 
nation of kings, not out of any hatred to kings, but ty- 
rants : nor have I purposely left unanswered any one 
argument alleged by my adversary, nor any one ex- 
ample or authority quoted by him, that seemed to have 
any force in it, or the least colour of an argument. 
Perhaps I have been guilty rather of the other extreme, 
of replying to some of his fooleries and trifles, as if they 



were solid arguments, and thereby may seem to have 
attributed more to them than they deserved. One thing 
yet remains to be done, which perhaps is of the greatest 
concern of all, and that is, that you, my countrymen, 
refute this adversary of yours yourselves, which I do 
not see any other means of your effecting, than by a 
constant endeavour to outdo all men's bad words by 
your own good deeds. When you laboured under more 
sorts of oppression than one, you betook yourselves to 
God for refuge, and he was graciously pleased to hear 
your most earnest prayer and desires. He has glo- 
riously delivered you, the first of nations, from the two 
greatest mischiefs of this life, and most pernicious to 
virtue, tyranny and superstition; he has endued you 
with greatness of mind to be the first of mankind, who 
after having conquered their own king, and having had 
him delivered into their hands, have not scrupled to con- 
demn him judicially, and pursuant to that sentence of 
condemnation, to put him to death. After the performing 
so glorious an action as this, you ought to do nothing 
that is mean and little, not so much as to think of, 
much less to do, any thing but what is great and sub- 
lime. Which to attain to, this is your only way ; as you 
have subdued your enemies in the field, so to make ap- 
pear, that unarmed, and in the highest outward peace and 
tranquillity, you of all mankind are best able to subdue 
ambition, avarice, the love of riches, and can best avoid 
the corruptions that prosperity is apt to introduce, (which 
generally subdue and triumph over other nations,) to 
shew as great justice, temperance, and moderation in 
the maintaining your liberty, as you have shewn cou- 
rage in freeing yourselves from slavery. These are 
the only arguments, 'by which you will be able to 
evince, that you are not such persons as this fellow re- 
presents you, Traitors, Robbers, Murderers, Parricides, 
Madmen ; that you did not put your king to death out 
of any ambitious design, or a desire of invading the 
rights of others, not out of any seditious principles or 
sinister ends; that it was not an act of fury or mad- 
ness ; but that it was wholly out of love to your liberty, 
your religion, to justice, virtue, and your country, that 
you punished a tyrant. But if it should fall out other- 
wise, (which God forbid,) if as you have been valiant 
in war, you should grow debauched in peace, you that 
have had such visible demonstrations of the goodness 
of God to yourselves, and his wrath against your 
enemies; and that you should not have learned by so 
eminent, so remarkable an example before your eyes, 
to fear God, and work righteousness ; for my part, I 
shall easily grant and confess (for I cannot deny it) 
whatever ill men may speak or think of you, to be 
very true. And you will find in a little time, that 
God's displeasure against you will be greater than 
it has been against your adversaries, greater than his 
grace and favour has been to yourselves, which you 
have had larger experience of than any other nation 
under heaven. 



TREATISE 



CIVIL POWER IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES; 



THAT IT IS NOT LAWFUL FOR ANY POWER ON EARTH TO 
COMPEL IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 

[first PUBLISHED 1659.] 



TO THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, WITH THE DOMINIONS THEREOF. 



I have prepared, Supreme Council ! against the much- 
expected time of your sitting-, this treatise; which, 
though to all christian magistrates equally belonging, 
and therefore to have been written in the common lan- 
guage of Christendom, natural duty and affection hath 
confined and dedicated first to my own nation ; and 
in a season wherein the timely reading thereof, to the 
easier accomplishment of your great work, may save 
you much labour and interruption : of two parts usu- 
ally proposed, civil and ecclesiastical, recommending 
civil only to your proper care, ecclesiastical to them 
only from whom it takes both that name and nature. 
Yet not for this cause only do I require or trust to find 
acceptance, but in a twofold respect besides : first, as 
bringing clear evidence of scripture and protestant 
maxims to the parliament of England, who in all their 
late acts, upon occasion, have professed to assert only 
the true protestant christian religion, as it is contained 
in the Holy Scriptures : next, in regard that your 
power being but for a time, and having in yourselves 
a christian liberty of your own, which at one time or 
Other may be oppressed, thereof truly sensible, it will 
concern you while you are in power, so to regard other 
men's consciences, as you would your own should be 
regarded in the power of others; and to consider that 
any law against conscience is alike in force against 
any conscience, and so may one way or other justly 
redound upon yourselves. One advantage I make no 
doubt of, that I shall write to many eminent persons 
of your number, already perfect and resolved in this 
important article of Christianity. Some of whom I re- 



member to have heard often for several years, at a 
council next in authority to your own, so well joining 
religion with civil prudence, and yet so well distin- 
guishing the different power of either ; and this not 
only voting, but frequently reasoning why it should be 
so, that if any there present had been before of an opinion 
contrary, he might doubtless have departed thence a 
convert in that point, and have confessed, that then 
both common wealth and religion will at length, if ever, 
flourish in Christendom, when either they who govern 
discern between civil and religious, or they only who so 
discern shall be admitted to govern. Till then, nothing 
but troubles, persecutions, commotions can be expected; 
the inward decay of true religion among ourselves, and 
the utter overthrow at last by a common enemy. Of 
civil liberty I have written heretofore, by the appoint- 
ment, and not without the approbation, of civil power : 
of christian liberty I write now, which others long- 
since having done with all freedom under heathen em- 
perors, I should do wrong to suspect, that I now shall 
with less under christian governors, and such especi- 
ally as profess openly their defence of christian liber- 
ty ; although I write this, not otherwise appointed or 
induced, than by an inward persuasion of the christian 
duty, which I may usefully discharge herein to the 
common Lord and Master of us all, and the certain hope 
of his approbation, first and chiefest to be sought: in 
the hand of whose providence I remain, praying all 
success and good event on your public councils, to the 
defence of true religion and our civil rights. 

John Milton. 



A TREATISE 



CIVIL POWER IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



Two things there be, which have been ever found 
working much mischief to the church of God, and the 
advancement of truth ; force on one side restraining, 
and hire on the other side corrupting, the teachers there- 
of. Few ages have been since the ascension of our 
Saviour, wherein the one of these two, or both toge- 
ther, have not prevailed. It can be at no time, there- 
fore, unseasonable to speak of these things ; since by 
them the church is either in continual detriment and 
oppression, or in continual danger. The former shall be 
at this time my argument ; the latter as I shall find God 
disposing me, and opportunity inviting. What I argue, 
shall be drawn from the Scripture only ; and therein 
from true fundamental principles of the gospel, to all 
knowing Christians undeniable. And if the governors 
of this commonwealth, since the rooting out of prelates, 
have made least use of force in religion, and most have 
favoured christian liberty of any in this island before 
them since the first preaching of the gospel, for which 
we are not to forget our thanks to God, and their due 
praise; they may, I doubt not, in this treatise, find 
that which not only will confirm them to defend still 
the christian liberty which we enjoy, but will incite 
them also to enlarge it, if in aught they yet straiten 
it. To them who perhaps hereafter, less experienced 
in religion, may come to govern or give us laws, this 
or other such, if they please, may be a timely instruc- 
tion : however, to the truth it will be at all times no 
unneedful testimony, at least some discharge of that 
general duty, which no Christian, but according to what 
he hath received, knows is required of him, if he have 
aught more conducing to the advancement of religion, 
than what is usually endeavoured, freely to impart it. 
It will require no great labour of exposition, to un- 
fold what is here meant by matters of religion ; being 
as soon apprehended as defined, such things as belong 
chiefly to the knowledge and service of God ; and are 
either above the reach and light of nature without re- 
velation from above, and therefore liable to be variously 
understood by human reason, or such things as are en- 
joined or forbidden by divine precept, which else by 
the light of reason would seem indifferent to be done 
or not done; and so likewise must needs appear to 
every man as the precept is understood. Whence I 
here mean by conscience or religion that full per- 
suasion, whereby we are assured, that our belief and 
practice, as far as we are able to apprehend and pro- 



bably make appear, is according to the will of God 
and his Holy Spirit within us, which we ought to fol- 
low much rather than any law of man, as not only his 
word every where bids us, but the very dictate of rea- 
son tells us. Acts iv. 19. " Whether it be right in the 
sight of God, to hearken to you more than to God, 
judge ye." That for belief or practice in religion, ac- 
cording to this conscientious persuasion, no man ought 
to be punished or molested by any outward force on 
earth whatsoever, I distrust not, through God's im- 
plored assistance, to make plain by these following 
arguments. 

First, it cannot be denied, being the main foundation 
of our protestant religion, that we of these ages, having 
no other divine rule or authority from without us, war- 
rantable to one another as a common ground, but the 
Holy Scripture, and no other within us but the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit so interpreting that scripture as 
warrantable only to ourselves, and to such whose con- 
sciences we can so persuade, can have no other ground in 
matters of religion but only from the Scriptures. And 
these being not possible to be understood without this 
divine illumination, which no man can know at all 
times to be in himself, much less to be at any time 
for certain in any other, it follows clearly, that no man 
or body of men in these times can be the infalli- 
ble judges or determiners in matters of religion to any 
other men's consciences but their own. And there- 
fore those Bereans are commended, Acts xvii. 11, who 
after the preaching even of St. Paul, " searched the 
Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Nor 
did they more than what God himself in many places 
commands us by the same apostle, to search, to try, to 
judge of these things ourselves: and gives us reason 
also, Gal. vi. 4, 5, " Let every man prove his own 
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, 
and not in another: for every man shall bear his own 
burden." If then we count it so ignorant and irreli- 
gious in the papist, to think himself discharged in 
God's account, believing only as the church believes, 
how much greater condemnation will it be to the pro- 
testant his condemner, to think himself justified, be- 
lieving only as the state believes ? With good cause, 
therefore, it is the general consent of all sound pro- 
testant writers, that neither traditions, councils, nor 
canons of any visible church, much less edicts of any 
magistrate or civil session, but the Scripture only, can 



414 



A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 



be the final judge or rule in matters of religion, and 
that only in the conscience of every christian to him- 
self. Which protestation made by the first public re- 
formers of our religion against the imperial edicts of 
Charles the fifth, imposing- church-traditions without 
Scripture, gave first beginning to the name of Protes- 
tant ; and with that name hath ever been received this 
doctrine, which prefers the Scripture before the church, 
and acknowledges none but the Scripture sole inter- 
preter of itself to the conscience. For if the church be 
not sufficient to be implicitly believed, as we hold it is 
not, what can there else be named of more authority 
than the church but the conscience, than which God 
only is greater, 1 John iii. 20 ? But if any man shall 
pretend that the Scripture judges to his conscience for 
other men, he makes himself greater not only than the 
church, but also than the Scripture, than the consciences 
of other men : a presumption too high for any mortal, 
since every true Christian, able to give a reason of his 
faith, hath the word of God before him, the promised 
Holy Spirit, and the mind of Christ within him, 1 Cor. 
ii. 16; a much better and safer guide of conscience, 
which as far as concerns himself he may far more cer- 
tainly know, than any outward rule imposed upon him 
by others, whom he inwardly neither knows nor can 
know ; at least knows nothing of them more sure than 
this one thing, that they cannot be his judges in reli- 
gion. 1 Cor. ii. 15, "The spiritual man judgeth all 
things, but he himself is judged of no man." Chiefly 
ibr this cause do all true protestants account the pope 
Antichrist, for that he assumes to himself this infalli- 
bility over both the conscience and the Scripture; "sit- 
ting in the temple of God," as it were opposite to God, 
" and exalting himself above all that is called God, or 
is worshipped," 2 Thess. ii. 4. That is to say, not only 
above all judges and magistrates, who though they be 
called gods, are far beneath infallible ; but also above 
God himself, by giving law both to the Scripture, to the 
conscience, and to the Spirit itself of God within us. 
Whenas we find, James iv. 12, " There is one lawgiver, 
who is able to save and to destroy : Who art thou that 
judgest another P" That Christ is the only lawgiver of 
his church, and that it is here meant in religious mat- 
ters, no well-grounded Christian will deny. Thus also 
St. Paul, Rom. xiv. 4, " Who art thou that judgest the 
servant of another ? to his own lord he standeth or 
falleth : but he shall stand ; for God is able to make 
him stand." As therefore of one beyond expression 
bold and presumptuous, both these apostles demand, 
" Who art thou," that presumest to impose other law 
or judgment in religion than the only lawgiver and 
judge Christ, who only can save and destroy, gives to 
the conscience ? And the forecited place to the Thes- 
palouians, by compared effects, resolves us, that be he 
or they who or wherever they be or can be, they are of 
far less authority than the church, whom in these things 
as protestants they receive not, and yet no less Anti- 
christ in tliis main point of Antichristianism, no less a 
pope or popedom than he at Rome, if not much more, 
by setting up supreme interpreters of Scripture either 
those doctors whom they follow, or, which is far worse, 



themselves as a civil papacy assuming- unaccountable 
supremacy to themselves, not in civil only, but in eccle- 
siastical causes. Seeing then that in matters of reli- 
gion, as hath been proved, none can judge or determine 
here on earth, no not church-governors themselves, 
against the consciences of other believers, my inference 
is, or rather not mine but our Saviour's own, that in 
those matters they neither can command nor use con- 
straint, lest they run rashly on a pernicious consequence, 
forewarned in that parable, Matt. xiii. from the 29th to 
the 31st verse : " Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye 
root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow to- 
gether until the harvest : and in the time of harvest I 
will say to the reapers, Gather ye tog-ether first the 
tares," &c. Whereby he declares, that this work 
neither his own ministers nor any else can discern- 
ingly enough or judgingly perform without his own 
immediate direction, in his own fit season, and that 
they ought till then not to attempt it. Which is 
further confirmed, 2 Cor. i. 24, " Not that we have 
dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your 
joy." If apostles had no dominion or constraining 
power over faith or conscience, much less have ordinary 
ministers, 1 Pet. v. 2, 3, "Feed the flock of God, &c. 
not by constraint, neither as being lords over God's 
heritage." But some will object, that this overthrows 
all church-discipline, all censure of errours, if no man 
can determine. My answer is, that what they hear is 
plain Scripture, which forbids not church-sentence or 
determining, but as it ends in violence upon the con- 
science unconvinced. Let whoso will interpret or de- 
termine, so it be according to true church-discipline, 
which is exercised on them only who have willingly 
joined themselves in that covenant of union, and pro- 
ceeds only to a separation from the rest, proceeds never 
to any corporal inforcement or forfeiture of money, 
which in all spiritual things are the two arms of Anti- 
christ, not of the true church ; the one being an inqui- 
sition, the other no better than a temporal indulgence 
of sin for money, whether by the church exacted or 
by the magistrate ; both the one and the other a 
temporal satisfaction for what Christ hath satisfied 
eternally; a popish commuting of penalty, corporal 
for spiritual ; a satisfaction to man, especially to the 
magistrate, for what and to whom we owe none : these 
and more are the injustices of force and fining in 
religion, besides what I most insist on, the violation of 
God's express commandment in the gospel, as hath 
been shewn. Thus then, if church-governors cannot 
use force in religion, though but for this reason, be- 
cause they cannot infallibly determine to the conscience 
without convincement, much less have civil magis- 
trates authority to use force where they can much less 
judge; unless they mean only to be the civil execu- 
tioners of them who have no civil power to give them 
such commission, no, nor yet ecclesiastical, to any 
force or violence in religion. To sum up all in brief, 
if we must believe as the magistrate appoints, why not 
rather as the church ? If not as either without con- 
vincement, how can force be lawful ? But some are 
ready to cry out, what shall then be done to bias- 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



415 



pheniy ? Them I would first exhort, not thus to terrify 
and pose the people with a Greek word ; but to teach 
them better what it is, being- a most usual and common 
word in that language to signify any slander, any ma- 
licious or evil speaking - , whether against God or man, 
or anything to good belonging: Blasphemy or evil 
speaking against God maliciously, is far from con- 
science in religion, according to that of Mark ix. 39, 
"There is none who doth a powerful work in my 
name, and can lightly speak evil of me." If this suf- 
fice not, I refer them to that prudent and well delibe- 
rated act, August 9, 1650, where the parliament de- 
fines blasphemy against God, as far as it is a crime be- 
longing* to civil judicature, plenius ac melius Chrysippo 
etCrantore; in plain English, more warily, more ju- 
diciously, more orthodoxally than twice their number 
of divines have done in many a prolix volume: al- 
though in all likelihood they whose whole study and 
profession these things are, should be most intelligent 
and authentic therein, as they are for the most part, yet 
neither they nor these unerring- always, or infallible. 
But we shall not carry it thus; another Greek appari- 
tion stands in our way, Heresy and Heretic ; in like 
manner also railed at to the people as in a tongue un- 
known. They should first interpret to them, that he- 
resy, by what it signifies in that language, is no word 
of evil note, meaning only the choice or following of 
any opinion good or bad in religion, or any other 
learning : and thus not only in heathen authors, but in 
the New Testament itself, without censure or blame ; 
Acts xv. 5, " Certain of the heresy of the Pharisees 
which believed;" and xxvi. 5, "After the exactest he- 
resy of our religion I lived a Pharisee." In which 
tense presbyterian or independent may without re- 
proach be called a heresy. Where it is mentioned 
with blame, it seems to differ little from schism ; 1 
Cor. xi. 18, 19, " I hear that there be schisms among 
you," &c. for there must also heresies be among you, 
&c. Though some, who write of heresy after their 
own heads, would make it far worse than schism ; 
whenas on the contrary, schism signifies division, and 
in the worst sense ; heresy, choice only of one opinion 
before another, which may be without discord. In 
apostolic times, therefore, ere the Scripture was writ- 
ten, heresy was a doctrine maintained against the doc- 
trine by them delivered ; which in these times can be 
no otherwise defined than a doctrine maintained against 
the light which we now only have, of the Scripture. 
Seeing therefore, that no man, no synod, no session o 
men, though called the Church, can judge definitively 
the sense of Scripture to another man's conscience, 
which is well known to be a general maxim of the 
protestant religion ; it follows plainly, that he who 
holds in religion that belief, or those opinions, which 
to his conscience and utmost understanding appear 
with most evidence or probability in the Scripture, 
though to others he seem erroneous, can no more be 
justly censured for a heretic than his censurers ; who 
do but the same thing themselves, while they censure 
him for so doing. For ask them, or any protestant, 
which hath most authority, the church ok the Scrip- 



ture ? They will answer, doubtless, that the Scrip- 
ture : and what hath most authority, that no doubt but 
they will confess is to be followed. He then, who to 
his best apprehension follows the Scripture, though 
against any point of doctrine by the whole church re- 
ceived, is not the heretic; but he who follows the 
church against his conscience and persuasion grounded 
on the Scripture. To make this yet more undeniable, 
I shall only borrow a plain simile, the same which our 
own writers, when they would demonstrate plainest, 
that we rightly prefer the Scripture before the church, 
use frequently against the papist in this manner. As 
the Samaritans believed Christ, first for the woman's 
word, but next and much rather for his own, so we the 
Scripture: first on the church's word, but afterwards 
and much more for its own, as the word of God ; yea, 
the church itself we believe then for the Scripture. The 
inference of itself follows : if by the protestant doc- 
trine we believe the Scripture, not for the church's 
saying, but for its own, as the word of God, then ought 
we to believe what in our conscience we apprehend the 
Scripture to say, though the visible church, with all her 
doctors, gainsay: and being taught to believe them 
only for the Scripture, they who so do are not heretics, 
but the best protestants : and by their opinions, what- 
ever they be, can hurt no protestant, whose rule is not 
to receive them but from the Scripture : which to inter- 
pret convincingly to his own conscience, none is able 
but himself guided by the Holy Spirit; and not so 
guided, none than he to himself can be a worse deceiver. 
To protestants, therefore, whose common rule and touch- 
stone is the Scripture, nothing can with more conscience, 
more equity, nothing more protestantly can be permit- 
ted, than a free and lawful debate at all times by writ- 
ing, conference, or disputation of what opinion soever, 
disputable by Scripture : concluding, that no man in re- 
ligion is properly a heretic at this day, but he who main- 
tains traditions or opinions not probable by Scripture, 
who, for aught I know, is the papist only ; he the only he- 
retic, who counts all heretics but himself. Such as these, 
indeed, were capitally punished by the law of Moses, 
as the only true heretics, idolaters, plain and open de- 
serters of God and his known law : but in the g-ospel 
such are punished by excommunion only. Tit. iii. 10, 
" An heretic, after the first and second admonition, re- 
ject." But they who think not this heavy enough, 
and understand not that dreadful awe and spiritual 
efficacy, which the apostle hath expressed so highly 
to be in church-discipline, 2 Cor. x. of which anon, and 
think weakly that the church of God cannot long sub- 
sist but in a bodily fear, for want of other proof will 
needs wrest that place of St. Paul, Rom. xiii. to set up 
civil inquisition, and give power to the magistrate both 
of civil judgment, and punishment in causes ecclesi- 
astical. But let us see with what strength of argu- 
ment; "let every soul be subject to the higher powers." 
First, bow prove they that the apostle means other 
powers, than such as they to whom he writes were 
then under ; who meddled not at all in ecclesiastical 
causes, unless as tyrants and persecutors ? And from 
them, I hope, they will not derive either the right of 



416 



A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 



magistrates to judge in spiritual thing's, or the duty of 
such our obedience. How prove they next, that he 
entitles them here to spiritual causes, from whom he 
withheld, as much as in him lay, the judging of civil? 
1 Cor. vi. 1, &c. If he himself appealed to Caesar, it 
was to judge his innocence, not his religion. " For 
rulers are not a terrour to good works, but to the evil :" 
then are they not a terrour to conscience, which is the 
rule or judge of good works grounded on the Scripture. 
But heresy, they say, is reckoned among evil works, 
Gal. v. 20, as if all evil works were to be punished by 
the magistrate ; whereof this place, their own citation, 
reckons up besides heresy a sufficient number to con- 
fute them ; " uncleanness, wantonness, enmity, strife, 
emulations, animosities, contentions, envy in gs ;" all 
which are far more manifest to be judged by him than 
heresy, as they define it ; and yet I suppose they will 
not subject these evil works, nor many more suchlike, 
to his cognizance and punishment. " Wilt thou then 
not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, 
and thou shalt have praise of the same." This shews 
that religious matters are not here meant ; wherein 
from the power here spoken of, they could have no 
praise : " For he is the minister of God to thee for 
good :" True; but in that office, and to that end, and 
by those means, which in this place must be clearly 
found, if from this place they intend to argue. And 
how, for thy good by forcing, oppressing, and ensnar- 
ing thy conscience ? Many are the ministers of God, 
and their offices no less different than many ; none 
more different than state and church government. 
Who seeks to govern both, must needs be worse than 
any lord prelate, or church pluralist : for he in his own 
faculty and profession, the other not in his own, and 
for the most part not thoroughly understood, makes 
himself supreme lord or pope of the church, as far as 
his civil jurisdiction stretches ; and all the ministers of 
God therein, his ministers, or his curates rather in the 
function only, not in the government ; while he him- 
self assumes to rule by civil power things to be ruled 
only by spiritual : whenas this very chapter, verse 6, 
appointing him his peculiar office, which requires ut- 
most attendance, forbids him this worse than church 
plurality from that full and weighty charge, wherein 
alone he is " the minister of God, attending continually 
on this very thing." To little purpose will they here 
instance Moses, who did all by immediate divine di- 
rection ; no nor yet Asa, Jehosaphat, or Josiah, who 
both might, when they pleased, receive answer from 
God, and had a commonwealth by him delivered them, 
incorporated with a national church, exercised more in 
bodily than in spiritual worship: so as that the church 
Blight be called a commonwealth, and the whole com- 
monwealth a church : nothing of which can be said of 
Christianity, delivered without the help of magistrates, 
yea, in the midst of their opposition; how little then 
with any reference to them, or mention of them, save 
only of our obedience to their civil laws, as they coun- 
tenance food, and deter evil? which is the proper work 
of the magistrate, following in the same verce, and 
ibews distinctly wherein he is the minister of God," a 



revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil." 
But we must first know who it is that doth evil: the 
heretic they say among the first. Let it be known 
then certainly who is a heretic ; and that he who holds 
opinions in religion professedly from tradition, or his 
own inventions, and not from Scripture, but rather 
against it, is the only heretic: and yet though such, 
not always punishable by the magistrate, unless he do 
evil against a civil law, properly so called, hath been 
already proved, without need of repetition. " But if 
thou do that which is evil, be afraid." To do by 
Scripture and the gospel, according to conscience, is 
not to do evil ; if we thereof ought not to be afraid, he 
ought not by his judging to give cause : causes there- 
fore of religion are not here meant. " For he beareth 
not the sword in vain." Yes, altogether in vain, if it 
smite he knows not what; if that for heresy, which 
not the church itself, much less he, can determine ab- 
solutely to be so ; if truth for errour, being himself so 
often fallible, he bears the sword not in vain only, but 
unjustly and to evil. " Be subject not only for wrath, 
but for conscience sake :" How for conscience sake, 
against conscience ? By all these reasons it appears 
plainly, that the apostle in this place gives no judg- 
ment or coercive power to magistrates, neither to 
those then, nor these now, in matters of religion ; and 
exhorts us no otherwise than he exhorted those 
Romans. It hath now twice befallen me to assert, 
through God's assistance, this most wrested and vexed 
place of Scripture ; heretofore against Salmasius, and 
regal tyranny over the state ; now against Erastus, 
and state tyranny over the church. If from such un- 
certain, or rather such improbable, grounds as these, 
they endue magistracy with spiritual judgment, 
they may as well invest him in the same spiritual 
kind with power of utmost punishment, excommu- 
nication ; and then turn spiritual into corporal, as no 
worse authors did than Chrysostom, Jerome, and 
Austin, whom Erasmus and others in their notes on 
the New Testament have cited, to interpret that cut- 
ting off which St. Paul wished to them who had brought 
back the Galatians to circumcision, no less than the 
amercement of their whole virility : and Grotius adds, 
that this concising punishment of circumcisers became 
a penal law thereupon among the Visigoths : a dan- 
gerous example of beginning in the spirit to end so in 
the flesh ; whereas that cutting off much likelier seems 
meant a cutting off from the church, not unusually so 
termed in Scripture, and a zealous imprecation, not a 
command. But I have mentioned this passage to shew 
how absurd they often prove, who have not learned to 
distinguish rightly between civil power and ecclesias- 
tical. How many persecutions then, imprisonments, 
banishments, penalties, and stripes ; how much blood- 
shed have the forcers of conscience to answer for, and 
protestants rather than papists! For the papist, judg- 
ing by his principles, punishes them who believe not 
as the church believes, though against the Scripture; 
but the protestant, teaching every one to believe the 
Scripture, though against the church, counts heretical, 
and persecutes against his own principles, them who 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



417 



in any particular so believe as he in general teaches 
them ; them who most honour and believe divine Scrip- 
ture, but not against it any human interpretation though 
universal ; them who interpret Scripture only to them- 
selves, which by his own position, none but they to 
themselves can interpret : them who use the Scripture 
no otherwise by his own doctrine to their edification, 
than he himself uses it to their punishing ; and so 
whom his doctrine acknowledges a true believer, his 
discipline persecutes as a heretic. The papist exacts 
our belief as to the church due above Scripture; and 
by the church, which is the whole people of God, 
understands the pope, the general councils, prelatical 
only, and the surnamed fathers : but the forcing pro- 
testant, though he deny such belief to any church what- 
soever, yet takes it to himself and his teachers, of far 
less authority than to be called the church, and above 
Scripture believed : which renders his practice both 
contrary to his belief, and far worse than that belief, 
which he condemns in the papist. By all which, well 
considered, the more he professes to be a true protest- 
ant, the more he hath to answer for his persecuting 
than a papist. No protestant therefore, of what sect 
soever, following Scripture only, which is the common 
sect wherein they all agree, and the granted rule of 
every man's conscience to himself, ought by the com- 
mon doctrine of protestants, to be forced or molested 
for religion. But as for popery and idolatry, why they 
also may not hence plead to be tolerated, I have much 
less to say. Their religion the more considered, the 
less can be acknowledged a religion ; but a Roman 
principality rather, endeavouring to keep up her old 
universal dominion under a new name, and mere sha- 
dow of a catholic religion ; being indeed more rightly 
named a catholic heresy against the Scripture, sup- 
ported mainly by a civil, and except in Rome, by a 
foreign, power: justly therefore to be suspected, not 
tolerated by the magistrate of another country. Be- 
sides, of an implicit faith which they profess, the con- 
science also becomes implicit, and so by voluntary ser- 
vitude to man's law, forfeits her christian liberty. 
Who then can plead for such a conscience, as being 
implicitly enthralled to man instead of God, almost 
becomes no conscience, as the will not free, becomes 
no will ? Nevertheless, if they ought not to be tolerated, 
it is for just reason of state, more than of religion ; 
which they who force, though professing to be protest- 
ants, deserve as little to be tolerated themselves, being 
no less guilty of popery, in the most popish point. 
Lastly, for idolatry, who knows it not to be evidently 
against all Scripture, both of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, and therefore a true heresy, or rather an impiety, 
wherein a right conscience can have nought to do ; and 
the works thereof so manifest, that a magistrate can 
hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least 
the public and scandalous use thereof? 

From the riddance of these objections, I proceed yet 
to another reason why it is unlawful for the civil ma- 
gistrate to use force in matters of religion ; which is, 
because to judge in those things, though we should 
grant him able, which is proved he is not, yet as a 



civil magistrate he hath no right. Christ hath a go- 
vernment of his own, sufficient of itself to all his ends 
and purposes in governing his church, but much dif- 
ferent from that of the civil magistrate ; and the dif- 
ference in this very thing principally consists, that it 
governs not by outward force ; and that for two rea- 
sons. First, Because it deals only with the inward man 
and his actions, which are all spiritual, and to outward 
force not liable. 2dly, To shew us the divine excel- 
lence of his spiritual kingdom, able, without worldly 
force, to subdue all the powers and kingdoms of this 
world, which are upheld by outward force only. That 
the inward man is nothing else but the inward part of 
man, his understanding and his will; and that his ac- 
tions thence proceeding, yet not simply thence, but 
from the work of divine grace upon them, are the whole 
matter of religion under the gospel, will appear plainly 
by considering what that religion is; whence we shall 
perceive yet more plainly that it cannot be forced. 
What evangelic religion is, is told in two words, Faith 
and Charity, or Belief and Practice. That both these 
flow, either, the one from the understanding, the other 
from the will, or both jointly from both ; once indeed 
naturally free, but now only as they are regenerate 
and wrought on by divine grace, is in part evident to 
common sense and principles unquestioned, the rest by 
Scripture : concerning our belief, Matt. xvi. 17, " Flesh 
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Fa- 
ther which is in heaven." Concerning our practice, as 
it is religious, and not merely civil, Gal. v. 22, 23, and 
other places, declare it to be the fruit of the spirit 
only. Nay, our whole practical duty in religion is con- 
tained in charity, or the love of God and our neigh- 
bour, no way to be forced, yet the fulfilling of the 
whole law ; that is to say, our whole practice in reli- 
gion. If then both our belief and practice, which 
comprehend our whole religion, flow from faculties of 
the inward man, free and unconstrainable of themselves 
by nature, and our practice not only from faculties 
endued with freedom, but from love and charity be- 
sides, incapable of force, and all these things by trans- 
gression lost, but renewed and regenerated in us by 
the power and gift of God alone ; how can such re- 
ligion as this admit of force from man, or force be any 
way applied to such religion, especially under the free 
offer of grace in the gospel, but it must forthwith frus- 
trate and make of no effect, both the religion and the 
gospel ? And that to compel outward profession, which 
they will say perhaps ought to be compelled, though 
inward religion cannot, is to compel hypocrisy, not to 
advance religion, shall yet, though of itself clear 
enough, be ere the conclusion further manifest. The 
other reason why Christ rejects outward force in the 
government of his church, is, as I said before, to shew 
us the divine excellence of his spiritual kingdom, able 
without worldly force to subdue all the powers and 
kingdoms of this world, which are upheld by outward 
force only : by which to uphold religion otherwise 
than to defend the religious from outward violence, is 
no service to Christ or his kingdom, but rather a dis- 
paragement, and degrades it from a divine and spiritual 



418 



A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 



kingdom, to a kingdom of this world : which he denies 
it to be, because it needs not force to confirm it : John 
xviii. 36. " If my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fig'ht, that I should not be delivered 
to the Jews." This proves the kingdom of Christ not 
governed by outward force, as being none of this world, 
whose kingdoms are maintained all by force only : and 
yet disproves not that a christian commonwealth may 
defend itself against outward force, in the cause of 
religion as well as in any other : though Christ him- 
self coming purposely to die for us, would not be so 
defended. 1 Cor. i. 27, " God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world, to confound the thing's which are 
mighty." Then surely he hath not chosen the force of 
this world to subdue conscience, and conscientious men, 
who in this world are counted weakest; but rather 
conscience, as being- weakest, to subdue and regulate 
force, his adversary, not his aid or instrument in go- 
verning the church : 2 Cor. x. 3, 4, 5, 6, " For though 
we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh : for 
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty 
through God to the pulling down of strong holds, cast- 
ing down imaginations, and every high thing that ex- 
alts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing 
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: 
and having in a readiness to avenge all disobedience." 
It is evident by the first and second verses of this 
chapter, and the apostle here speaks of that spiritual 
power by which Christ governs his church, how all- 
sufficient it is, how powerful to reach the conscience, 
and the inward man with whom it chiefly deals, and 
whom no power else can deal with. In comparison of 
which, as it is here thus magnificently described, how 
uneffectual and weak is outward force with all her 
boisterous tools, to the shame of those Christians, and 
especially those churchmen, who to the exercising of 
church-discipline, never cease calling on the civil ma- 
gistrate to interpose his fleshly force ? An argument 
that all true ministerial and spiritual power is dead 
within them; who think the gospel, which both began 
and spread over the whole world for above three hun- 
dred years, under heathen and persecuting emperors, 
cannot stand or continue, supported by the same divine 
presence and protection, to the world's end, much 
easier under the defensive favour only of a christian 
magistrate, unless it be enacted and settled, as they 
call it, by the state, a statute or state religion ; and 
understand not that the church itself cannot, much less 
the state, settle or impose one title of religion upon our 
obedience implicit, but can only recommend or pro- 
pound it to our free and conscientious examination : 
unless they mean to set the state higher than the 
church in religion, and with a gross contradiction give 
to the state in their settling petition that command of 
our implicit belief, which they deny in their settled 
confession both to the state and to the church. Let 
them cease then to importune and interrupt the magis- 
trate from attending to his own charge in civil and 
moral things, the settling of things just, things honest, 
the defence of things religious, settled by the churches 
within themselves; and the repressing of their contra- 



ries, determinate by the common light of nature 
which is not to constrain or to repress religion probable 
by Scripture, but the violaters and persecuters thereof 
of all which things he hath enough and more than 
enough to do, left yet undone ; for which the land 
groans, and justice goes to wrack the while. Let him 
also forbear force where he hath no right to judge, for 
the conscience is not his province, lest a worst wo ar- 
rive him, for worse offending than was denounced by 
our Saviour, Matt, xxiii. 23, against the Pharisees: 
Ye have forced the conscience, which was not to be 
forced ; but judgment and mercy ye have not executed ; 
this ye should have done, and the other let alone. And 
since it is the counsel and set purpose of God in the 
gospel, by spiritual means which are counted weak, to 
overcome all power which resists him ; let them not 
go about to do that by worldly strength, which he hath 
decreed to do by those means which the world counts 
weakness, lest they be again obnoxious to that saying, 
which in another place is also written of the Pharisees, 
Luke vii. 30, " That they frustrated the counsel of 
God." The main plea is, and urged with much vehe- 
mence to their imitation, that the kings of Judah, as 
I touched before, and especially Josiah, both judged 
and used force in religion : 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33, " He 
made all that were present in Israel to serve the Lord 
their God :" an argument, if it be well weighed, worse 
than that used by the false prophet Shemaia to the high 
priest, that in imitation of Jehoiada, he ought to put 
Jeremiah in the stocks, Jer. xxix. 24, 26, &c. for which 
he received his due denouncement from God. But to 
this besides I return a threefold answer : First, That 
the state of religion under the gospel is far differing 
from what it was under the law ; then was the state of 
rigour, childhood, bondage, and works, to all which 
force was not unbefitting ; now is the state of grace, 
manhood, freedom, and faith, to all which belongs will- 
ingness and reason, not force : the law was then writ- 
ten on tables of stone, and to be performed according 
to the letter, willingly or unwillingly ; the gospel, 
our new covenant, upon the heart of every believer, to 
be interpreted only by the sense of charity and inward 
persuasion : the law had no distinct government or 
governors of church and commonwealth, but the priests 
and Levites judged in all causes, not ecclesiastical 
only, but civil, Deut. xvii. 8, &c. which under the 
gospel is forbidden to all church-ministers, as a thing 
which Christ their master in his ministry disclaimed, 
Luke xii. 14, as a thing beneath them, 1 Cor. vi. 4, 
and by many other statutes, as to them who have a 
peculiar and far differing government of their own. 
If not, why different the governors? Why not church- 
ministers in state-affairs, as well as state-ministers in 
church-affairs ? If church and state shall be made one 
flesh again as under the law, let it be withal considered, 
that God, who then joined them, hath now severed 
them ; that which, he so ordaining, was then a lawful 
conjunction, to such on either side as join again what 
he hath severed would be nothing now but their own 
presumptuous fornication. Secondly, the kings of 
Judah, and those magistrates under the law, might have 






IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



419 



recourse, as I said before, to divine inspiration ; which 
our magistrates under the gospel have not, more than 
to the same spirit, which those whom they force have 
ofttimes in greater measure than themselves : and so, 
instead of forcing the Christian, they force the Holy 
Ghost ; and, against that wise forewarning of Gama- 
liel, fight against God. Thirdly, those kings and 
magistrates used force in such things only as were un- 
doubtedly known and forbidden in the law of Moses, 
idolatry and direct apostacy from that national and strict 
enjoined worship of God ; whereof the corporal punish- 
ment was by himself expressly set down : but magis- 
trates under the gospel, our free, elective, and rational 
worship, are most commonly busiest to force those 
things which in the gospel are either left free, nay, 
sometimes abolished when by them compelled, or else 
controverted equally by writers on both sides, and 
sometimes with odds on that side which is against 
them. By which means they either punish that which 
they ought to favour and protect, or that with corporal 
punishment, and of their own inventing, which not 
they, but the church, had received command to chastise 
with a spiritual rod only. Yet some are so eager in 
their zeal of forcing', that they refuse not to descend 
at length to the utmost shift of that parabolical proof, 
Luke xiv. 16, &c. " Compel them to come in :" there- 
fore magistrates may compel in religion. As if a para- 
ble were to be strained through every word or phrase, 
and not expounded by the general scope thereof; which 
is no other here than the earnest expression of God's 
displeasure on those recusant Jews, and his purpose to 
prefer the Gentiles on any terms before them ; expressed 
here by the word compel. But how compels he ? 
Doubtless no other way than he draws, without which 
no man can come to him, John vi. 44, and that is by 
the inward persuasive motions of his Spirit, and by his 
ministers ; not by the outward compulsions of a magis- 
trate or his officers. The true people of Christ, as is 
foretold, Psalm ex. 3, " are a willing people in the day 
of his power ;" then much more now when he rules all 
things by outward weakness, that both his inward 
power and their sincerity may the more appear. " God 
loveth a cheerful giver :" then certainly is not pleased 
with an uncheerful worshipper : as the very words de- 
clare of his evangelical invitations,. Isa. Iv. 1, " Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come." John vii. 37, " If any 
man thirsteth." Rev. iii. 18, " I counsel thee." And 
xxii. 17, " Whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely." And in that grand commission of preach- 
ing, to invite all nations, Mark xvi. 16, as the reward 
of them who come, so the penalty of them who come 
not, is only spiritual. But they bring now some rea- 
son with their force, which must not pass unanswered, 
that the church of Thyatira was blamed, Rev. ii. 20, 
for suffering the false " prophetess to teach and to se- 
duce." I answer, That seducement is to be hindered 
by fit and proper means ordained in church-discipline, 
by instant and powerful demonstration to the contrary ; 
by opposing truth to errour, no unequal match ; truth 
the strong, to errour the weak, though sly and shifting. 
Force is no honest confutation, but uneffectual, and for 
2 E 



the most part unsuccessful, ofttimes fatal to them who 
use it: sound doctrine, diligently and duly taught,. is 
of herself both sufficient, and of herself (if some secret 
judgment of God hinder not) always prevalent against 
seducers. This the Thyatirians had neglected, suffer- 
ing, against church-discipline, that woman to teach 
and seduce among them : civil force they had not 
then in their power, being the christian part only of 
that city, and then especially under one of those ten 
great persecutions, whereof this the second was raised 
by Domitian : force therefore in these matters could not 
be required of them who were under force themselves. 
I have shewn, that the civil power hath neither right, 
nor can do right, by forcing religious things : I will 
now shew the wrong it doth, by violating the funda- 
mental privilege of the gospel, the new birthright of 
every true believer, christian liberty : 2 Cor. iii. 17, 
" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
Gal. iv. 26. " Jerusalem which is above is free ; 
which is the mother of us all." And ver. 31, " We are 
not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." It 
will be sufficient in this place to say no more of christian 
liberty, than that it sets us free not only from the bond- 
age of those ceremonies, but also from the forcible im- 
position of those circumstances, place and time, in the 
worship of God : which though by him commanded in 
the old law, yet in respect of that verity and freedom 
which is evangelical, St. Paul comprehends both kinds 
alike, that is to say, both ceremony and circumstance, 
under one and the same contemptuous name of" weak 
and beggarly rudiments," Gal. iv. 3, 9, 10; Col. ii. 8, 
with 16; conformable to what our Saviour himself 
taught, John iv. 21,23, " Neither in this mountain, nor 
yet at Jerusalem. In spirit and in truth ; for the 
Father seeketh such to worship him :" that is to say, not 
only sincere of heart, for such he sought ever ; but also, 
as the words here chiefly import, not compelled to 
place, and by the same reason, not to any set time ; as 
his apostle by the same spirit hath taught us, Rom. xiv. 
5, &c. " One man esteemeth one day above another; 
another," &c. ; Gal . iv. 10, " Ye observe days and months," 
&c. ; Col. ii. 16. These and other such places in Scrip- 
ture the best and learnedest reformed writers have 
thought evident enough to instruct us in our freedom, 
not only from ceremonies, but from those circumstances 
also, though imposed with a confident persuasion of 
morality in them, which they hold impossible to be in 
place or time. By what warrant then our opinions 
and practices herein are of late turned quite against 
all other protestants, and that which is to them ortho- 
doxal, to us becomes scandalous and punishable by 
statute, I wish were once again considered ; if we mean 
not to proclaim a schism in this point from the best and 
most reformed churches abroad. They who would seem 
more knowing, confess that these things are indiffer- 
ent, but for that very cause by the magistrate may be 
commanded. As if God of his special grace in the gos- 
pel had to this end freed us from his own command- 
ments in these things, that our freedom should subject 
us to a more grievous yoke, the commandments of men. 
As well may the magistrate call that common or un- 



420 



A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER 



clean which God hath cleansed, forbidden to St. Peter, 
Acts x. 15 ; as well may he loosen that which God hath 
straitened, or straiten that which God hath loosened, 
as he may enjoin those things in religion which God 
hath left tree, and lay on that yoke which God hath 
taken off. For he hath not only given us this gift as 
a special privilege and excellence of the free gospel 
above the servile law, but strictly also hath commanded 
us to keep it and enjoy it. Gal. v. 13, " You are called 
to liberty." 1 Cor. vii. 23, " Be not made the servants 
of men." Gal. v. 14, " Stand fast therefore in the liberty 
wherewith Christ hath made us free; and be not en- 
tangled again with the yoke of bondage." Neither is 
this a mere command, but for the most part in these 
forecited places, accompanied with the very weightiest 
and inmost reasons of christian relig'ion : Rom. xiv. 9, 
10, " For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and 
revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and 
living. But why dost thou judge thy brother?" &c. 
How t presumest thou to be his lord, to be whose only 
Lord, at least in these things, Christ both died, and 
rose, and lived again ? " We shall all stand before the 
judgment-seat of Christ." Why then dost thou not 
only judge, but persecute in these things for which we 
arc to be accountable to the tribunal of Christ only, 
our Lord and lawgiver ? 1 Cor. vii. 23, " Ye are bought 
with a price; be not made the servants of men." 
Some trivial price belike, and for some frivolous pre- 
tences paid in their opinion, if bought and by him re- 
deemed, who is God, from what was once the service 
of God, we shall be enthralled again, and forced by 
men to what now is but the service of men. Gal. iv. 
31, with v. 1, " We are not children of the bondwoman, 
&c. stand fast therefore," &c. Col. ii. 8, " Beware lest 
any man spoil you, &c. after the rudiments of the 
world, and not after Christ." Solid reasons whereof 
are continued through the whole chapter. Ver. 10, 
" Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all 
principality and power:" not completed therefore or 
made the more religious by those ordinances of civil 
power, from which Christ their head hath discharged 
us; ' ; blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that 
was against us, which was contrary to us; and took it 
out of the way, nailing it to his cross," ver. 14. Blotting 
out ordinances written by God himself, much more 
those bo boldly written over again by men: ordinances 
n bich wen; against us, that is, against our frailty, much 
more those w bich are against our conscience. " Let no 
man therefore judge you in respect of," &c. ver. 16. Gal. 
i\ . :5. Sec. " Ev( a so we, when we were children, were 
in bondage under the rudiments of the world: But 
when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his 
Son, fcc. to redeem them that were under the law, that 
we might receive the adoption of sons, *cc. Where- 
fore thou art no more a servant, but a son, &c. But 
now, &c. how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly 
rudiments, w hereunto ye desire again to be in bond- 
age? Ye observe days," &c. Hence it plainly ap- 
pears, that if we be not free, we arc not sous, but still 
servants unadopted ; and if we turn again to those weak 
and beggarly rudiments, we are not free ; yea, though 



willingly, and with a misguided conscience, we desire 
to be in bondage to them ; how much more then if 
unwillingly and against our conscience ! Ill was our 
condition changed from legal to evangelical, and small 
advantage gotten by the gospel, if for the spirit of 
adoption to freedom promised us, we receive again the 
spirit of bondage to fear; if our fear, which was then 
servile towards God only, must be now servile in re- 
ligion towards men : strange also and preposterous 
fear, if when and wherein it hath attained by the re- 
demption of our Saviour to be filial only towards God, 
it must be now servile towards the magistrate : who, 
by subjecting us to his punishment in these things, 
brings back into religion that law of terrour and satis- 
faction belonging now only to civil crimes ; and 
thereby in effect abolishes the gospel, by establishing 
again the law to a far worse yoke of servitude upon us 
than before. It will therefore not misbecome the 
meanest Christian to put in mind christian magistrates, 
and so much the more freely by how much the more 
they desire to be thought christian, (for they will be 
thereby, as they ought to be in these things, the more 
our brethren and the less our lords,) that they meddle 
not rashly with christian liberty, the birthright and 
outward testimony of our adoption ; lest while they 
little think it, nay, think they do God service, they 
themselves, like the sons of that bondwoman, be found 
persecuting them who are freeborn of the Spirit, and 
by a sacrilege of not the least aggravation, bereaving 
them of that sacred liberty, which our Saviour with 
his own blood purchased for them. 

A fourth reason, why the magistrate ought not to 
use force in religion, I bring from the consideration of 
all those ends, which he can likely pretend to the in- 
terposing of his force therein : and those hardly can 
be other than first the glory of God ; next, either the 
spiritual good of them whom he forces, or the temporal 
punishment of their scandal to others. As for the pro- 
moting of God's glory, none, I think, will say that his 
glory ought to be promoted in religious things by un- 
warrantable means, much less by means contrary to 
what he hath commanded. That outward force is 
such, and that God's glory in the whole administration 
of the gospel according to his own will and counsel 
ought to be fulfilled by weakness, at least so refuted, 
not by force ; or if by force, inward and spiritual, not 
outward and corporeal, is already proved at large. 
That outward force cannot tend to the good of him 
who is forced in religion, is unquestionable. For in 
religion whatever we do under the gospel, we ought to 
be thereof persuaded without scruple; and are justified 
by the faith we have, not by the work we do : Rom. 
xiv. 5, " Let every man be fully persuaded in his own 
mind." The other reason which follows necessarily is 
obvious, Gal. ii. 16, and in many other places of St. 
Paul, as the groundwork and foundation of the 'whole 
gospel, that we are "justified by the faith of Christ, 
and not by the works of the law." If not by the works 
of God's law, how then by the injunctions of man's 
law ? Surely force cannot work persuasion, which is 
faith ; cannot therefore justify nor pacify the con- 



IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



421 



science; and that which justifies not in the gospel, 
condemns ; is not only not good, but sinful to do : 
Rom. xiv. 23, " Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin." It 
concerns the magistrate then to take heed how he forces 
in religion conscientious men : lest by compelling them 
to do that whereof they cannot be persuaded, that 
wherein they cannot find themselves justified, but by 
their own consciences condemned, instead of aiming at 
their spiritual good, he force them to do evil; and 
while he thinks himself Asa, Josiah, Nehemiah, he be 
found Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin ; and thereby 
draw upon his own head all those sins and shipwrecks 
of implicit faith and conformity, which he hath forced, 
and all the wounds given to those little ones, whom to 
offend he will find worse one day than that violent 
drowning mentioned Matt, xviii. 6. Lastly, as a pre- 
face to force, it is the usual pretence, That although 
tender consciences shall be tolerated, yet scandals 
thereby given shall not be unpunished, prophane and 
licentious men shall not be encouraged to neglect the 
performance of religious and holy duties by colour of 
any law giving liberty to tender consciences. By 
which contrivance the way lies ready open to them 
hereafter, who may be so minded, to take away by little 
and little that liberty which Christ and his gospel, not 
any magistrate, hath right to give : though this kind 
of his giving be but to give with one hand, and take 
away with the other, which is a deluding, not a giv- 
ing. As for scandals, if any man be offended at the 
conscientious liberty of another, it is a taken scandal, 
not a given. To heal one conscience, we must not 
wound another: and men must be exhorted to beware 
of scandals in christian liberty, not forced by the ma- 
gistrate ; lest while he g*oes about to take away the 
scandal, which is uncertain whether given or taken, he 
take away our liberty, which is the certain and the sa- 
cred gift of God, neither to be touched by him, nor to 
be parted with by us. None more cautious of giving 
scandal than St. Paul. Yet while he made himself 
" servant to all," that he " might gain the more," he 
made himself so of his own accord, was not made so by 
outward force, testifying at the same time that he " was 
free from all men," 1 Cor. ix. 19 ; and thereafter ex- 
horts us also, Gal. v. 13, " Ye were called to liberty, 
&c. but by love serve one another : " then not by force. 
As for that fear, lest prophane and licentious men 
should be encouraged to omit the performance of re- 
ligious and holy duties, how can that care belong to 
the civil magistrate, especially to his force ? For if 
prophane and licentious persons must not neglect the 
performance of religious and holy duties, it implies, 
that such duties they can perform, which no protestant 
will affirm. They who mean the outward perform- 
ance, may so explain it; and it will then appear yet 
more plainly, that such performance of religious and 
holy duties, especially by prophane and licentious per- 
sons, is a dishonouring rather than a worshipping of 
God ; and not only by him not required, but detested : 
Prov. xxi. 27, " The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomi- 
nation ; how much more when he bringeth it with a 
wicked mind ?" To comoel therefore the prophane to 



things holy in his prophaneness, is all one under the 
gospel, as to have compelled the unclean to sacrifice in 
his uncleanness under the law. And I add withal, 
that to compel the licentious in his licentiousness, and 
the conscientious against his conscience, comes all to 
one : tends not to the honour of God, but to the mul- 
tiplying and the aggravating of sin to them both. We 
read not that Christ ever exercised force but once ; 
and that was to drive prophane ones out of his tem- 
ple, not to force them in : and if their being there was 
an offence, we find by manj r other scriptures that their 
praying there was an abomination : and yet to the 
Jewish law, that nation, as a servant, was obliged ; but 
to the gospel each person is left voluntary, called only, 
as a son, by the preaching of the word ; not to be driven 
in by edicts and force of arms. For if by the apostle, 
Rom. xii. 1, we are " beseeched as brethren by the 
mercies of God to present our bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable ser- 
vice" or worship, then is no man to be forced by the 
compulsive laws of men to present his body a dead 
sacrifice ; and so under the gospel most unholy and 
unacceptable, because it is his unreasonable service, 
that is to say, not only unwilling but unconscionable. 
But if prophane and licentious persons may not omit 
the performance of holy duties, why may they not par- 
take of holy things ? Why are they prohibited the 
Lord's supper, since both the one and the other action 
may be outward; and outward performance of duty 
may attain at least an outward participation of bene- 
fit? The church denying them that communion of 
grace and thanksgiving, as it justly doth, why doth 
the magistrate compel them to the union of performing 
that which they neither truly can, being themselves 
unholy, and to do seemingly is both hateful to God, 
and perhaps no less dangerous to perform holy duties 
irreligiously, than to receive holy signs or sacraments 
unworthily ? All prophane and licentious men, so 
known, can be considered but either so without the 
church as never yet within it, or departed thence of 
their own accord, or excommunicate : if never yet 
within the church, whom the apostle, and so con- 
sequently the church, have nought to do to judge, as 
he professes, 1 Cor. v. 12, then by what authority doth 
the magistrate judge ; or, which is worse, compel in 
relation to the church ? If departed of his own accord, 
like that lost sheep, Luke xv. 4, &c. the true church 
either with her own or any borrowed force worries him 
not in again, but rather in all charitable manner sends 
after him; and if she find him, lays him gently on her 
shoulders; bears him, yea bears his burdens, his errours, 
his infirmities any way tolerable, " so fulfilling the law 
of Christ," Gal. vi. 2. If excommunicate, whom the 
church hath bid go out, in whose name doth the magis- 
trate compel to go in ? The church indeed hinders 
none from hearing in her public congregation, for the 
doors are open to all : nor excommunicates to destruc- 
tion ; but, as much as in her lies, to a final saving. Her 
meaning therefore must needs be, that as her driving 
out brings on no outward penalty, so no outward force 
or penalty of an improper and only a destructive power 



422 



A TREATISE OF CIVIL POWER IN ECCLESIASTICAL CAUSES. 



should drive in again her infectious sheep ; therefore 
sent out because infectious, and not driven in but with 
the danger not only of the whole and sound, but also 
of his own utter perishing*. Since force neither in- 
structs in religion, nor begets repentance or amendment 
of life, but on the contrary, hardness of heart, formality, 
hypocrisy, and, as I said before, every way increase of 
sin ; more and more alienates the mind from a violent 
religion, expelling out and compelling- in, and reduces 
it to a condition like that which the Britons complain 
of in our story, driven to and fro between the Picts and 
the sea. If after excommuniou he be found intractable, 
incurable, and will not hear the church, he becomes as 
one never yet within her pale, " a heathen or a pub- 
lican," Matt, xviii. 17, not further to be judged, no not 
by the magistrate, unless for civil causes; but left to 
the final sentence of that Judge, whose coming- shall 
be in flames of fire ; that Maranatha, 1 Cor. xvi. 22, 
than which to him so left nothing- can be more dread- 
ful, and ofttimes to him particularly nothing- more 
speedy, that is to say, The Lord cometh : in the mean 
while delivered up to Satan, 1 Cor. v. 5, 1 Tim. i. 20, 
that is, from the fold of Christ and kingdom of grace 
to the world again, which is the kingdom of Satan ; 
and as he was received " from darkness to light, and 
from the power of Satan to God," Acts xxvi. 18, so 
now delivered up again from light to darkness, and 
from God to the power of Satan ; yet so as is in both 
places manifested, to the intent of saving him, brought 
sooner to contrition by spiritual than by any corporal 
severity. But grant it belonging any way to the 
magistrate, that prophane and licentious persons omit 
not the performance of holy duties, which in them were 
odious to God even under the law, much more now 
under the gospel ; yet ought his care both as a magis- 
trate and a Christian, to be much more that conscience 
be not inwardly violated, than that licence in these 
things be made outwardly conformable : since his part 
is undoubtedly as a Christian, which puts him upon this 
office much more than as a magistrate, in all respects 
to have more care of the conscientious than of the pro- 
phane; and not for their sakes to take away (while 
they pretend to give) or to diminish the rightful liberty 
of religious consciences. 

On these four scriptural reasons, as on a firm square, 
this truth, flic right of christian and evangelic liberty, 
will stand immovable against all those pretended con- 
sequences of licence and confusion, which for the most 
part men most licentious and confused themselves, or 
Bttch as whose severity would be wiser than divine 
wisdom, are ev< r aptcst to object against the ways of 
God : as if God without them, when he gave us this 
111*. rty,knevf not of the worst which these men in their 
arrogance pretend will follow: yet knowing all their 
front, he gave us this liherty as by him judged best. 
As to those magistrates who think it their work to set- 
tle r< ligion, and those ministers or others, who so oft 
call upon them to do so, I trust, that having well con- 
sidered what hath heen here argued, neither they will 
continue in that intention, nor these in that expectation 
from them; when they shall find that the settlement 



of religion belongs only to each particular church by 
persuasive and spiritual means within itself, and that 
the defence only of the church belongs to the magis- 
trate. Had he once learnt not further to concern him- 
self with church-affairs, half his labour might be spared, 
and the commonwealth better tended. To which end, 
that which I premised in the beginning, and in due 
place treated of more at large, I desire now concluding, 
that they would consider seriously what religion is : 
and they will find it to be, in sum, both our belief and 
our practice depending upon God only. That there 
can be no place then left for the magistrate or his force 
in the settlement of religion, by appointing either what 
we shall believe in divine things, or practise in re- 
ligious, (neither of which things are in the power of 
man either to perform himself, or to enable others,) I 
persuade me in the christian ingenuity of all religious 
men, the more they examine seriously, the more they 
will find clearly to be true : and find how false and de- 
viseable that common saying is, which is so much re- 
lied upon, that the christian magistrate is " Custos 
utriusque Tabulae," Keeper of both Tables, unless is 
meant by keeper the defender only : neither can that 
maxim be maintained by any proof or argument, wdrich 
hath not in this discourse first or last been refuted. 
For the two tables, or ten commandments, teach our 
duty to God and our neighbour from the love of both ; 
give magistrates no authority to force either : they seek 
that from the judicial law, though on false grounds, 
especially in the first table, as I have shewn ; and 
both in first and second execute that authority for the 
most part, not according to God's judicial laws, but 
their own. As for civil crimes, and of the outward 
man, which all are not, no, not of those against the 
second table, as that of coveting; in them what power 
they have, they had from the beginning, long before 
Moses or the two tables were in being. And whether 
they be not now as little in being to be kept by any 
Christian as they are two legal tables, remains yet as 
undecided, as it is sure they never were yet delivered 
to the keeping of any christian magistrate. But of 
these things perhaps more some other time ; what may 
serve the present hath been above discoursed suffi- 
ciently out of the Scriptures: and to those produced, 
might be added testimonies, examples, experiences, of 
all succeeding ages to these times, asserting this doc- 
trine : but having herein the Scripture so copious and 
so plain, we have all that can be properly called true 
strength and nerve ; the rest would be but pomp and 
encumbrance. Pomp and ostentation of .eading is ad- 
mired among the vulgar: but doubtless in matters of 
religion he is learnedest who is plainest. The brevity 
I use, not exceeding a small manual, will not there- 
fore, I suppose, be thought the less considerable, un- 
less with them perhaps who think that great books 
only can determine great matters. I rather choose 
the common rule, not to make much ado, where less may 
serve. Which in controversies, and those especially of 
religion, would make them less tedious, and by conse- 
quence read oftener by many more, and with more 
benefit. 



CONSIDERATIONS 



TOUCHING THE LIKELIEST MEANS 



TO REMOVE HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



WHEREIN IS ALSO DISCOURSED 



OF TITHES, CHURCH-FEES, AND CHURCH-REVENUES; AND WHETHER ANY 
MAINTENANCE OF MINISTERS CAN BE SETTLED BY LAW. 

(FIRST PUBLISHED 1659.} 



TO THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, WITH THE DOMINIONS THEREOF. 



Owing to your protection, Supreme Senate ! this liberty 
of writing-, which I have used these eighteen years on 
all occasions to assert the best rights and freedoms both 
of church and state, and so far approved, as to have 
been trusted with the representment and defence of 
your actions to all Christendom against an adversary 
of no mean repute ; to whom should I address what I 
still publish on the same argument, but to you, whose 
magnanimous councils first opened and unbound the 
age from a double bondage under prelatical and regal 
tyranny ; above our own hopes heartening us to look 
up at last like men and Christians from the slavish de- 
jection, wherein from father to son we were bred up 
and taught ; and thereby deserving of these nations, if 
they be not barbarously ingrateful, to be acknowledged, 
next under God, the authors and best patrons of reli- 
gious and civil liberty, that ever these islands brought 
forth ? The care and tuition of whose peace and safety, 
after a short but scandalous night of interruption, is 
now again, by a new dawning of God's miraculous 
providence among us, revolved upon your shoulders. 
And to whom more appertain these considerations, 
which I propound, than to yourselves, and the debate 
before you, though I trust of no difficulty, yet at pre- 
sent of great expectation, not whether ye will gratify, 
were it no more than so, but whether ye will hearken 
to the just petition of many thousands best affected 
both to religion and to this your return, or whether ye 
will satisfy, which you never can, the covetous pre- 
tences and demands of insatiable hirelings, whose dis- 
affection ye well know both to yourselves and your 
resolutions ? That I, though among many others in 
this common concernment, interpose to your delibera- 
tions what my thoughts also are ; your own judgment 
and the success thereof hath given me the confidence : 
which requests but this, that if I have prosperously, 
God so favouring me, defended the public cause of this 
commonwealth to foreigners, ye would not think the 



reason and ability, whereon ye trusted once (and repent 
not) your whole reputation to the world, either grown 
less by more maturity and longer study, or less avail- 
able in English than in another tongue : but that if it 
sufficed some years past to convince and satisfy the 
unengaged of other nations in the justice of your do- 
ings, though then held paradoxal, it may as well suffice 
now against weaker opposition in matters, except here 
in England with a spirituality of men devoted to their 
temporal gain, of no controversy else among protest- 
ants. Neither do I doubt, seeing daily the acceptance 
which they find who in their petitions venture to bring 
advice also, and new models of a commonwealth, but 
that you will interpret it much more the duty of a 
Christian to offer what his conscience persuades him 
may be of moment to the freedom and better constitut- 
ing of the church : since it is a deed of highest charity 
to help undeceive the people, and a work worthiest 
your authority, in all things else authors, assertors, and 
now recoverers of our liberty, to deliver us, the only 
people of all protestants left still undelivered, from the 
oppressions of a simonious decimating clergy, who 
shame not, against the judgment and practice of all other 
churches reformed, to maintain, though very weakly, 
their popish and oft refuted positions ; not in a point 
of conscience wherein they might be blameless, but in 
a point of covetousness and unjust claim to other men's 
goods; a contention foul and odious in any man, but 
most of all in ministers of the gospel, in whom conten- 
tion, though for their own right, scarce is allowable. 
Till which grievances be removed, and religion set 
free from the monopoly of hirelings, I dare affirm, that 
no model whatsoever of a commonwealth will prove 
successful or undisturbed ; and so persuaded, implore 
divine assistance on your pious counsels and proceed- 
ings to unanimity in this and all other truth. 

John Milton. 



CONSIDERATIONS 



TOUCHING THE LIKELIEST MEA> 



TO REMOVE HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



The former treatise, which leads in this, began with 
two tilings ever found working much mischief to the 
one side restraining, and hire on the other side corrupt- 
ing, the teachers thereof. The latter of these is by 
much the more dangerous: for under force, though no 
thank to the forcers, true religion ofttimes best thrives 
and flourishes; but the corruption of teachers, most 
commonly the effect of hire, is the very bane of truth 
in them who are so corrupted. Of force not to be used 
in matters of religion, I have already spoken; and so 
stated matters of conscience and religion in faith and 
divine worship, and so severed them from blasphemy 
and heresy, the one being such properly as is despiteful, 
the other such as stands not to the rule of Scripture, and 
so both of them not matters of religion, but rather 
against it, that to them who will yet use force, this only 
choice can be left, whether they will force them to be- 
lieve, to whom it is not given from above, being not 
forced thereto by any principle of the gospel, which is 
now the only dispensation of God to all men; or 
whether being protestants, they will punish in those 
things wherein the protestant religion denies them to 
be judges, cither in themselves infallible, or to the con- 
sciences of other men; or whether, lastly, they think 
fit to punish erroLir, supposing they can be infallible 
that it is so, being- not wilful, but conscientious, and, 
according to the best light of him who errs, grounded 
on Scripture : which kind of errour all men religious, 
or hut only reasonable, have thought worthier of pardon, 
and the growth thereof to be prevented by spiritual 
in .in- and church-discipline, not by civil laws and out- 
ward force, since it is God only who gives as well to 
believe aright, as to believe at all ; and by those means, 
which be ordained sufficiently in his church to the full 

ion of his divine purpose in the gospel. It re- 
mains now to speak of hire, the other evil so mischievous 
in r ligion : whereof I promised then to speak further, 
when 1 should find God disposing me, and opportunity 
inviting. Opportunity I find now inviting ; and ap- 

: 'l therein the concurrence of God disposing; 

tb< maintenance of church-ministers, a thing not 
properly belonging to t!i. ; magistrate, and yet with such 
importunity called for, and expected from him, is at 



present under public debate. Wherein lest any thing 
may happen to be determined and established preju- 
dicial to the right and freedom of the church, or advan- 
tageous to such as may be found hirelings therein, it 
will be now most seasonable, and in these matters, 
wherein every Christian hath his free suffrage, no way 
misbecoming christian meekness to offer freely, without 
disparagement to the wisest, such advice as God shall 
incline him and enable him to propound : since hereto- 
fore in commonwealths of most fame for government, 
civil laws were not established till they had been first 
for certain days published to the view of all men, that 
whoso pleased might speak freely his opinion thereof, 
and give in his exceptions, ere the law could pass to a 
full establishment. And where ought this equity to 
have more place, than in the liberty which is insepar- 
able from christian religion ? This, I am not ignorant, 
will be a work unpleasing to some : but what truth is 
not hateful to some or other, as this, in likelihood, will 
be to none but hirelings. And if there be among them 
who hold it their duty to speak impartial truth, as the 
work of their ministry, though not performed without 
money, let them not envy others who think the same 
no less their duty by the general office of Christianity, 
to speak truth, as in all reason may be thought, more 
impartially and unsuspectedly without money. 

Hire of itself is neither a thing unlawful, nor a 
word of any evil note, signifying no more than a 
due recompence or reward ; as when our Saviour 
saith, "the labourer is worthy of his hire." That 
which makes it so dangerous in the church, and pro- 
perly makes the hireling, a word always of evil signi- 
fication, is either the excess thereof, or the undue man- 
ner of giving and taking it. What harm the excess 
thereof brought to the church, perhaps was not found 
by experience till the days of Constautine; who out of 
his zeal thinking he could be never too liberally a 
nursing father of the church, might be not unfitly said 
to have cither overlaid it or choked it in the nursing. 
Which was foretold, as is recorded in ecclesiastical 
traditions, by a voice heard from heaven, on the very 
day that those great donations and church-revenues 
were given, crying aloud, " This day is poison poured 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE HIRELINGS, &c. 



425 



into the church." Which the event soon after verified, 
as appears by another no less ancient observation, 
" That religion brought forth wealth, and the daughter 
devoured the mother." But long ere wealth came into 
the church, so soon as any gain appeared in religion, 
hirelings were apparent; drawn in long before by the 
very scent thereof. Judas therefore, the first hire- 
ling, for want of present hire answerable to his covet- 
ing, from the small number or the meanness of such 
as then were the religious, sold the religion itself 
with the founder thereof, his master. Simon Magus 
the next, in hope only that preaching and the gifts of 
the Holy Ghost would prove gainful, offered before- 
hand a sum of money to obtain them. Not long after, 
as the apostle foretold, hirelings like wolves came in by 
herds: Acts xx. 29, " For I know this, that after my 
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, 
not sparing the flock." Tit. i. 11, " Teaching things 
which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." 2 Pet. 
ii. 3, " And through covetousness shall they with 
feigned words make merchandise of you." Yet they 
taught not false doctrine only, but seeming piety: 

1 Tim. vi. 5, " Supposing that gain is godliness." 
Neither came they in of themselves only, but invited 
ofttimes by a corrupt audience : 2 Tim. iv. 3, " For 
the time will come, when they will not endure sound 
doctrine, but after their own lusts they will heap to 
themselves teachers, having itching ears : " and they 
ou the other side, as fast heaping to themselves disci- 
ples, Acts xx. 30, doubtless had as itching palms : 

2 Pet. ii. 15, '- Following the way of Balaam, the son of 
Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness." Jude 
11, " They ran greedily after the errour of Balaam for 
reward." Thus we see, that not only the excess of hire 
in wealthiest times, but also the undue and vicious 
taking or giving it, though but small or mean, as in 
the primitive times, gave to hirelings occasion, though 
not intended, yet sufficient to creep at first into the 
church. Which argues also the difficulty, or rather the 
impossibility, to remove them quite, unless every minis- 
ter were, as St. Paul, contented to preach gratis ; but 
few such are to be found. As therefore we cannot 
justly take away all hire in the church, because we 
cannot otherwise quite remove all hirelings, so are we 
not, for the impossibility of removing them all, to use 
therefore no endeavour that fewest may come in ; but 
rather, in regard the evil, do what we can, will always 
be incumbent and unavoidable, to use our utmost dili- 
gence how it may be least dangerous : which will be 
likeliest effected, if we consider, first, what recompence 
God hath ordained should be given to ministers of the 
church ; (for that a recompence ought to be given them, 
and may by them justly be received, our Saviour him- 
self from the very light of reason and of equity hath 
declared, Luke x. 7, " The labourer is worthy of his 
hire;") next, by whom ; and lastly, in what manner. 

What recompence ought to be given to church-minis- 
ters, God hath answerably ordained according to that 
difference, which he hath manifestly put between those 
his two great dispensations, the law and the gospel. 
Under the law he gave them tithes ; under the gospel, 



having left all things in his church to charity and 
christian freedom, he hath given them only what is 
justly given them. That, as well under the gospel, as 
under the law, say our English divines, and they only 
of all protestants, is tithes ; and they say true, if any 
man be so minded to give them of his own the tenth 
or twentieth ; but that the law therefore of tithes is in 
force under the gospel, all other protestant divines, 
though equally concerned, yet constantly deny. For 
although hire to the labourer be of moral and perpe- 
tual right, yet that special kind of hire, the tenth, can 
be of no right or necessity, but to that special labour 
for which God ordained it. That special labour was 
the levitical and ceremonial service of the tabernacle, 
Numb, xviii. 21, 31, which is now abolished : the right 
therefore of that special hire must needs be withal 
abolished, as being also ceremonial. That tithes were 
ceremonial, is plain, not being given to the Levites till 
they had been first offered a heave-offering to the Lord, 
ver. 24, 28. He then who by that law brings tithes 
into the gospel, of necessity brings in withal a sacrifice, 
and an altar; without which tithes by that law were 
unsanctified and polluted, ver. 32, and therefore never 
thought on in the first christian times, till ceremonies, 
altars, and oblations, by an ancienter corruption, were 
brought back long before. And yet the Jews, ever 
since their temple was destroyed, though they have 
rabbies and teachers of their law, yet pay no tithes, as 
having no Levites to whom, no temple where, to pay 
them, no altar w T hereon to hallow them : which argues 
that the Jews themselves never thought tithes moral, 
but ceremonial only. That Christians therefore should 
take them up, when Jews have laid them down, must 
needs be very absurd and preposterous. Next, it is 
as clear in the same chapter, that the priests and Levites 
had not tithes for their labour only in the tabernacle, 
but in regard they were to have no other part nor in- 
heritance in the land, ver. 20, 24, and by that means 
for a tenth, lost a twelfth. But our Levites undergo- 
ing no such law of deprivement, can have no right 
to any such compensation : nay, if by this law they 
will have tithes, can have no inheritance of land, but 
forfeit what they have. Besides this, tithes were of two 
sorts, those of every year, and those of every third year : 
of the former, every one that brought his tithes, was to 
eat his share : Deut. xiv. 23, " Thou shalt eat before 
the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose 
to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy 
wine, and of thine oil," &c. Nay, though he could 
not bring his tithe in kind, by reason of his distant 
dwelling- from the tabernacle or temple, but was there- 
by forced to turn it into money, he was to bestow that 
money on whatsoever pleased him, oxen, sheep, wine, or 
strong' drink ; and to eat and drink thereof there before 
the Lord, both he and his houshold, ver. 24, 25, 26. As 
for tithes of every third year, they were not given only 
to the Levite, but to the stranger, the fatherless, and 
the widow, ver. 28, 29, and chap. xxvi. 12, 13. So 
that ours, if they will have tithes, must admit of these 
sharers with them. Nay, these tithes were not paid 
in at all to the Levite, but the Levite himself was to 



426 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



come with those his fellow-guests, and eat bis share 
of them only at bis bouse who provided them; and 
this not in regard of his ministerial office, but because 
he had no part or inheritance in the land. Lastly, 
the priests and Levites, a tribe, were of a far different 
constitution from this of our ministers under the 
gospel : in them were orders and degrees both by 
family, dignity, and office, mainly distinguished ; 
the high priest, his brethren and his sons, to whom 
the Levites themselves paid tithes, and of the best, 
wire eminently superiour, Numb, xviii. 28, 29. No 
protestant, I suppose, will liken one of our minis- 
ters to a high priest, but rather to a common Levite. 
Unless then, to keep their tithes, they mean to bring- 
back again bishops, archbishops, and the whole gang 
of prelatry, to whom will they themselves pay tithes, as 
by that law it was a sin to them if they did not? ver. 
32. Certainly this must needs put them to a deep de- 
mur, while the desire of holding fast their tithes with- 
out sin may tempt them to bring- back again bishops, 
as the likeness of that hierarchy that should receive 
tithes from them ; and the desire to pay none, may ad- 
vise them to keep out of the church all orders above 
them. But if we have to do at present, as I suppose 
we have, with true reformed protestants, not with 
papists or prelates, it will not be denied that in the gos- 
pel there be but two ministerial degrees, presbyters and 
deacons ; which if they contend to have any succession, 
reference or conformity with those two degrees under 
the law, priests and Levites, it must needs be such 
whereby our presbyters or ministers may be answer- 
able to priests, and our deacons to Levites ; by which 
rule of proportion it will follow that we must pay our 
tithes to the deacons only, and they only to the minis- 
ters. But if it be truer yet, that the priesthood of Aaron 
typified a better reality, 1 Pet ii. 5, signifying the 
christian true and " holy priesthood to offer up spiritual 
sacrifice;" it follows hence, that we are now justly 
exempt from paying tithes to any who claim from 
Aaron, since that priesthood is in us now real, which in 
hi in was but a shadow. Seeing then by all this which 
iias been shewn, that the law of tithes is partly cere- 
monial, as the work was for which they were given, 
partly judicial, not of common, but of particular right 
to the tribe of Levi, nor to them alone, but to the owner 
also and his houshold, at the time of their offering, 
and every three years to the stranger, the fatherless 
and the widow, their appointed sharers, and that they 
were a tribe of priests and deacons improperly com- 
pared to the constitution of our ministry ; and the tithes 
given by that people to those deacons only; it follows 
th;it our minister.-, at this day, being neither priests nor 
I.< \ ites, nor fitly answering to either of them, can have 
no just title or pretence to tithes, by any consequence 
drawn from the law of Moses. But they think they 
have yet a better plea in the example of Melchisedec, 
who took tithes of Abraham ere the law was given; 
whence they would infer tithes to be of moral right. 
But they ought to know, or to remember, that not ex- 
amples, hut express commands, oblige our obedience to 
God or man : next, that whatsoever was done in re- 



ligion before the law written, is not presently to be 
counted moral, when as so many things were then 
done both ceremonial and judaically judicial, that we 
need not doubt to conclude all times before Christ 
more or less under the ceremonial law. To what end 
served else those altars and sacrifices, that distinction 
of clean and unclean entering into the ark, circum- 
cision, and the raising up of seed to the elder brother? 
Gen. xxxviii. 8. If these things be not moral, though 
before the law, how are tithes, though in the example 
of Abraham and Melchisedec ? But this instance is so 
far from being the just ground of a law, that after all 
eircumstances duly weighed both from Gen. xiv. and 
Heb. vii. it will not be allowed them so much as an 
example. Melchisedec, besides his priestly benedic- 
tion, brought with him bread and wine sufficient to re- 
fresh Abraham and his whole army; incited to do so, 
first, by the secret providence of God, intending him 
for a type of Christ and his priesthood ; next, by his 
due thankfulness and honour to Abraham, who had 
freed his borders of Salem from a potent enemy : Abra- 
ham on the other side honours him with the tenth of 
all, that is to say, (for he took not sure his whole estate 
with him to that war,) of the spoils, Heb. vii. 4. Incited 
he also by the same secret providence, to signify as 
grandfather of Levi, that the Levitical priesthood was 
excelled by the priesthood of Christ. For the giving 
of a tenth declared, it seems, in those countries and 
times, him the greater who received it. That which 
next incited him, was partly his gratitude to requite the 
present, partly his reverence to the person and his bene- 
diction : to his person, as a king and priest, greater 
therefore than Abraham, who was a priest also, but not 
a king. And who unhired will be so hardy as to say, 
that Abraham at any other time ever paid him tithes, 
either before or after; or had then, but for this acci- 
dental meeting and obligement ; or that else Melchise- 
dec had demanded or exacted them, or took them other- 
wise than as the voluntary gift of Abraham ? But our 
ministers, though neither priests nor kings more than 
any other Christian, greater in their own esteem than 
Abraham and all his seed, for the verbal labour of a 
seventh day's preachment, not bringing, like Melchise- 
dec, bread or wine at their own cost, would not take 
only at the willing hand of liberality or gratitude, but 
require and exact as due, the tenth, not of spoils, but 
of our whole estates and labours; nor once, but yearly. 
We then it seems, by the example of Abraham, must 
pay tithes to these Melchisedecs : but what if the per- 
son of Abraham can neither no way represent us, or 
will oblige the ministers to pay tithes no less than 
other men ? Abraham had not only a priest in his loins, 
but was himself a priest, and gave tithes to Melchise- 
dec cither as grandfather of Levi, or as father of the 
faithful. If as grandfather (though he understood it 
not) of Levi, he obliged not us, but Levi only, the in- 
fcriour priest, by that homage (as the apostle to the 
Hebrews clearly enough explains) to acknowledge the 
greater. And they who by Melchisedec claim from 
Abraham as Levi's grandfather, have none to seek their 
tithes of but the Levites, where they can find them. 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



427 



If Abraham, as father of the faithful, paid tithes to 
Melchisedec, then certainly the ministers also, if they 
be of that number, paid in him equally with the rest. 
Which may induce us to believe, that as both Abraham 
and Melchisedec, so tithes also in that action typical 
and ceremonial, signified nothing* else but that sub- 
jection which all the faithful, both ministers and 
people, owe to Christ, our high priest and king-. 

In any literal sense, from this example, they never 
will be able to extort that the people in those days 
paid tithes to priests, but this only, that one priest once 
in his life, of spoils only, and in, requital partly of a 
liberal present, partly of a benediction, gave voluntary 
tithes, not to a greater priest than himself, as far as 
Abraham could then understand, but rather to a priest 
and king- joined in one person. They will reply, per- 
haps, that if one priest paid tithes to another^ it must 
needs be understood that the people did no less to the 
priest. But I shall easily remove that necessity, by 
remembering - them that in those days was no priest, 
but the father, or the first-born of each family ; and by 
consequence no people to pay him tithes, but his own 
children and servants, who had not wherewithal to pay 
him, but of his own. Yet grant that the people then 
paid tithes, there will not yet be the like reason 
to enjoin us ; they being* then under ceremonies, a 
mere laity, we now under Christ, a royal priesthood 
1 Pet. ii. 9, as we are coheirs, kings and priests with 
him, a priest for ever after the order or manner of Mel- 
chisedec. As therefore Abraham paid tithes to Mel- 
chisedec because Levi was in him, so we ought to pay 
none because the true Melchisedec is in us, and we in 
him, who can pay to none greater, and hath freed us, 
by our union with himself, from all compulsive tributes 
and taxes in his church. Neither doth the collateral 
place, Heb. vii. make other use of this story, than to 
prove Christ, personated by Melchisedec, a greater 
priest than Aaron : ver. 4. " Now consider how great 
this man was," &c. ; and proves not in the least man- 
ner that tithes be of any right to ministers, but the 
contrary : first, the Levites had a commandment to take 
tithes of the people according- to the law, that is, of 

(their brethren, though they come out of the loins of 
Abraham, ver. 5. The commandment then was, it 
seems, to take tithes of the Jews only, and according- 
to the law. That law changing of necessity with the 
priesthood, no other sort of ministers, as they must 
needs be another sort under another priesthood, can re- 
ceive that tribute of tithes which fell with that law> 
unless renewed by another express command, and ac- 
cording- to another law ; no such law is extant. Next, 
Melchisedec not as a minister, but as Christ himself in 
person, blessed Abraham, who " had the promises," 
ver. ^5, and in him blessed all both ministers and peo- 
ple, both of the law and gospel : that blessing- declared 
bim greater and better than whom he blessed, ver. 7, 
/receiving tithes from them all, not as a maintenance, 
which Melchisedec needed not, but as a sign of homage 
\J and subjection to their king and priest : whereas minis- 
ters bear not the person of Christ in his priesthood or 
kingship, bless not as he blesses, are not by their bless- 






ing greater than Abraham, and all the faithful with 
themselves included in him; cannot both give and 
take tithes in Abraham, cannot claim to themselves 
that sign of our allegiance due only to our eternal king 
and priest, cannot therefore derive tithes from Melchi- 
sedec. Lastly, the eighth verse hath thus; "Here 
men that die receive tithes : there he received them, of 
whom it is witnessed that he liveth." Which words 
intimate, that as he offered himself once for us, so he 
received once of us in Abraham, and in that place the 
typical acknowledgment of our redemption : which 
had it been a perpetual annuity to Christ, by him 
claimed as his due, Levi must have paid it yearly, as 
well as then, ver. 9, and our ministers ought still, to 
some Melchisedec or other, as well now as they did in 
Abraham. But that Christ never claimed any such 
tenth as his annual due, much less resigned it to the 
ministers, his so officious receivers, without express 
commission or assignment, will be yet clearer as we 
proceed. Thus much may at length assure us, that 
this example of Abraham and Melchisedec, though I 
see of late they build most upon it, can so little be the 
ground of any law to us, that it will not so much avail 
them as to the authority of an example. Of like im- 
pertinence is that example of Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 22, 
who of his free choice, not enjoined by any law, vowed 
the tenth of all that God should give him : which for 
aught appears to the contrary, he vowed as a thing no 
less indifferent before his vow, than the foreg-oing part 
thereof: that the stone, which he had set there for a 
pillar, should be God's house. And to whom vowed 
he this tenth, but to God ? Not to any priest, for we 
read of none to him greater than himself: and to God, 
no doubt, but he paid what he vowed, both in the 
building of that Bethel, with other altars elsewhere, 
and the expense of his continual sacrifices, which none 
but he had a right to offer. However therefore he 
paid his tenth, it could in no likelihood, unless by such 
an occasion as befell his grandfather, be to any priest. 
But, say they, "All the tithe of the land, whether of 
the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the 
Lord's, holy unto the Lord, Lev. xxvii. 30." And this 
before it w r as given to the Levites; therefore since they 
ceased. No question ; For the whole earth is the 
Lord's, and the fulness thereof, Psal. xxiv. 1, and the 
light of nature shews us no less : but that the tenth is 
his more than the rest, how know I, but as he so de- 
clares it ? He declares it so here of the land of Canaan 
only, as by all circumstance appears, and passes, by 
deed of gift, this tenth to the Levite ; yet so as offered 
to him first a heave-offering, and consecrated on his 
altar, Numb, xviii. all which I had as little known, but 
by that evidence. The Levites are ceased, the gift re- 
turns to the giver. How then can we know that he 
hath given it to any other ? Or how can these men 
presume to take it unoffered first to God, unconsecrated, 
without another clear and express donation, whereof 
they shew no evidence or writing? Besides, he hath 
now alienated that holy land ; who can warrantably 
affirm, that he hath since hallowed the tenth of this 
land, which none but God hath power to do or can 



42$ 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



warrant ? Their last proof they cite out of the gospel, 
which makes as little for them, Matt, xxiii. 23, where 
our Saviour denouncing- woe to the scribes and Phari- 
sees, who paid tithe so exactly, and omitted weightier 
matters, tells them, that these they ought to have done, 
that is, to have paid tithes. For our Saviour spake 
thou to those who observed the law of Moses, which 
was yet not fully abrogated, till the destruction of the 
temple. And by the way here we may observe, out of 
their own proof, that the scribes and Pharisees, though 
then chief teachers of the people, such at least as were 
not Levites, did not take tithes, but paid them : so 
much less covetous were the scribes and Pharisees in 
those worse times than ours at this day. This is so 
apparent to the reformed divines of other countries, 
that when any one of ours hath attempted in Latin to 
maintain this argument of tithes, though a man would, 
think they might suffer him without opposition, in a 
point equally tending to the advantage of all ministers, 
yet they forbear not to oppose him, as in a doctrine not 
fit to pass unopposed under the gospel. Which shews 
the modesty, the contentedness of those foreign pastors, 
with the maintenance given them, their sincerity also 
in the truth, though less gainful, and the avarice of 
ours ; who through the love of their old papistical 
tithes, consider not the weak arguments, or rather con- 
jectures and surmises, which they bring to defend them. 
On the other side, although it be sufficient to have 
proved in general the abolishing of tithes, as part of 
the judaical or ceremonial law, which is abolished all, 
as well that before as that after Moses ; yet I shall 
further prove them abrogated by an express ordinance 
of the gospel, founded, not on any type, or that munici- 
pal law of Moses, but on moral and. general equity, 
given us in stead : 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14, " Know ye not, 
that they who minister about holy things, live of the 
things of the temple ; and they which wait at the altar, 
arc partakers with the altar ? So also the Lord hath 
ordained, that they who preach the gospel, should live 
of the gospel." He saith not, should live on things 
w hich were of the temple, or of the altar, of which were 
tithes, for that had given them a clear title : but abro- 
gating that former law of Moses, which determined 
what and how much, by a later ordinance of Christ, 
which leaves the what and how much indefinite and 
tree, so it be sufficient to live on : he saith, " The Lord 
hath so ordained, that they who preach the gospel, 
should live of the gospel ;" which hath neither temple, 
altar, nor sacrifice: Heb. \ii. 13, " For he of whom 
things are spoken, pertaineth to another tribe, of 
which no man gave attendance at the altar:" his minis- 
ters therefore cannot thence have tithes. And where 
tin Lord hath so ordained, we may find easily in more 
than one evangelist : Luke x. 7, 8, " In the same house 
)■ main, eating and drinking such things as they give : 
for the labourer is worthy of his hire, &c. And into 
whatSCN r< r city you enter, and they receive you, eat 
such things as are set before you." To which ordi- 
nance of Christ it may seem likeliest, that the apostle 
r I. rs ii. both here, and 1 Tim. v. 18, where he cites 
the raying of our Saviour, " That the labourer 



is worthy of his hire." And both by this place of Luke, 
and that of Matt. x. 9, 10, 11, it evidently appears, 
that our Saviour ordained no certain maintenance for 
his apostles or ministers, publicly or privately, in house 
or city received; but that, whatever it were, which 
might suffice to live on : and this not commanded or 
proportioned by Abraham or by Moses, whom he might 
easily have here cited, as his manner was, but declared 
only by a rule of common equity, which proportions the 
hire as well to the ability of him who gives, as to the 
labour of him who receives, and recommends him only 
as worthy, not invests him with a legal right. And 
mark whereon he grounds this his ordinance; not on a 
perpetual right of tithes from Melchisedec, as hirelings 
pretend, which he never claimed, either for himself, or 
for his ministers, but on the plain and common equity 
of rewarding the labourer; worthy sometimes of single, 
sometimes of double honour, not proportionable by 
tithes. And the apostle in this forecited chapter to the 
Corinthians, ver. 11, affirms it to be no great recom- 
pence, if carnal things be reaped for spiritual sown ; 
but to mention tithes, neglects here the fittest occasion 
that could be offered him, and leaves the rest free and 
undetermined. Certainly if Christ or his apostles had 
approved of tithes, they would have, either by writing 
or tradition, recommended them to the church ; and that 
soon would have appeared in the practice of those pri- 
mitive and the next ages. But for the first three hun- 
dred years and more, in all the ecclesiastical story, I 
find no such doctrine or 'example : though errour by 
that time had brought back again priests, altars, and 
oblations; and in many other points of religion had 
miserably judaized the church. So that the defenders 
of tithes, after a long pomp, and tedious preparation 
out of heathen authors, telling us that tithes were paid 
to Hercules and Apollo, which perhaps was imitated 
from the Jews, and as it were bespeaking our expect- 
ation, that they will abound much more with authori- 
ties out of christian story, have nothing' of general ap- 
probation to begin with from the first three or four 
ages, but that which abundantly serves to the confut- 
ation of their tithes; while they confess that church- 
men in those ages lived merely upon freewill-offerings. 
Neither can they say, that tithes were not then paid 
for want of a civil magistrate to ordain them, for Chris- 
tians had then also lands, and might give out of them 
what they pleased ; and yet of tithes then given we 
find no mention. And the first christian emperors, 
who did all things as bishops advised them, supplied 
what was wanting to the clergy not out of tithes, 
which were never motioned, but out of their own im- 
perial revenues ; as is manifest in Eusebius, Theodoret, 
and Sozomen, from Constantine to Arcadius. Hence 
those ancientest reformed churches of the Waldenses, 
if they rather continued not pure since the apostles, 
denied that tithes were to be given, or that they were 
ever given in the primitive church, as appears by an 
ancient tractate in the Bohemian history. Thus far 
hath the church been always, whether in her prime or 
in her ancientest reformation, from the approving of 
tithes: nor without reason ; for they might easily per- 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



429 






ceive that tithes were fitted to the Jews only, a national 
church of many incomplete synagogues, uniting- the 
accomplishment of divine worship in one temple ; and 
the Levites there had their tithes paid where they did 
their bodily work ; to which a particular tribe was set 
apart by divine appointment, not by the people's elec- 
tion : but the christian church is universal ; not tied to 
nation, diocess, or parish, but consisting- of many par- 
ticular churches complete in themselves, gathered not 
by compulsion, or the accident of dwelling nigh toge- 
ther, but by free consent, choosing both their particular 
church and their church-officers. Whereas if tithes be 
set up, all these christian privileges will be disturbed 
and soon lost, and with them christian liberty. 

The first authority which our adversaries bring, after 
those fabulous apostolic canons, which they dare not 
insist upon, is a provincial council held at Cullen, 
where they voted tithes to be God's rent, in the year 
356 ; at the same time perhaps when the three kings 
reigned there, and of like authority. For to what 
purpose do they bring these trivial testimonies, by 
which they might as well prove altars, candles at noon, 
and the greatest part of those superstitions fetched from 
paganism or Jewism, which the papist, inveigled by 
this fond argument of antiquity, retains to this day ? 
To what purpose those decrees of I know not what 
bishops, to a parliament and people who have thrown 
out both bishops and altars, and promised all reforma- 
tion by the word of God ? And that altars brought 
tithes hither, as one corruption begot another, is evi- 
dent by one of those questions, which the monk Aus- 
tin propounded to the pope, " concerning those things, 
which by offerings of the faithful came to the altar ; " 
as Beda writes, 1. i. c. 27. If then by these testimo- 
nies we must have tithes continued, we must again 
have altars. Of Fathers, by custom so called, they 
quote Ambrose, Augustin, and some other ceremonial 
doctors of the same leaven : whose assertion, without 
pertinent scripture, no reformed church can admit; 
and what they vouch is founded on the law of Moses, 
with which every where pitifully mistaken, they again 
incorporate the gospel ; as did the rest also of those 
titular Fathers, perhaps an age or two before them, by 
many rites and ceremonies, both Jewish and heathen- 
ish, introduced ; whereby thinking to gain all, they 
lost all : and instead of winning Jews and pagans to 
be Christians, by too much condescending they turned 
Christians into Jews and pagans. To heap such un- 
convincing citations as these in religion, w r hereof the 
Scripture only is our rule, argues not much learning 
nor judgment, but the lost labour of much unprofitable 
reading. And yet a late hot Querist * for tithes, whom 
ye may know by his wits lying ever beside him in the 
margin, to be ever beside his wits in the text, a fierce 
reformer once, now rankled with a contrary heat, would 
send us back, very reformedly indeed, to learn reforma- 
tion from Tyndarus and RebufFus, two canonical pro- 
moters. They produce next the ancient constitutions 
of this land, Saxon laws, edicts of kings, and their 
councils, from Athelstan, in the year 928, that tithes 

* Prj-nne. 



by statute were paid : and might produce from Ina, 
above 200 years before, that Romescot or Peter's penny 
was by as good statute law paid to the pope ; from 725, 
and almost as long continued. And who knows not 
that this law of tithes was enacted by those kings and 
barons upon the opinion they had of their divine right ? 
as the very words import of Edward the Confessor, in 
the close of that law : " For so blessed Austin preached 
and taught;" meaning the monk, who first brought 
the Romish religion into England from Gregory the 
pope. And by the way I add, that by these laws, imi- 
tating the law of Moses, the third part of tithes only 
was the priest's due ; the other two were appointed for 
the poor, and to adorn or repair churches; as the ca- 
nons of Ecbert and Elfric witness : Concil. Brit. If 
then these laws were founded upon the opinion of di- 
vine authority, and that authority be found mistaken 
and erroneous, as hath been fully manifested, it follows, 
that these laws fall of themselves with their false foun- 
dation. But with what face or conscience can they 
allege Moses or these laws for titles, as they now en- 
joy or exact them ; whereof Moses ordains the owner, 
as we heard before, the stranger, the fatherless, and 
the widow, partakers of the Levite ; and these Fathers 
which they cite, and these though Romish rather than 
English laws, allotted both to priest and bishop the 
third part only ? But these our protestant, these our 
new reformed English presbyterian divines, against 
their own cited authors, and to the shame of their pre- 
tended reformation, would engross to themselves all 
tithes by statute ; and supported more by their wilful 
obstinacy and desire of filthy lucre, than by these both 
insufficient and impertinent authorities, would persuade 
a christian magistracy and parliament, whom we trust 
God hath restored for a happier reformation, to impose 
upon us a judaical ceremonial law, and yet from that 
law to be more irregular and unwarrantable, more com- 
plying with a covetous clergy, than any of those popish 
kings and parliaments alleged. Another shift they 
have to plead, that tithes may be moral as well as the 
sabbath, a tenth of fruits as well as a seventh of days : 
I answer, that the prelates who urge this argument 
have least reason to use it, denying morality in the 
sabbath, and therein better agreeing with reformed 
churches abroad than the rest of our divines. As 
therefore the seventh day is not moral, but a convenient 
recourse of worship in fit season, whether seventh or 
other number ; so neither is the tenth of our goods, 
but only a convenient subsistence morally due to minis- 
ters. The last and lowest sort of their arguments, 
that men purchased not their tithe with their land, and 
such like pettifoggery, I omit ; as refuted sufficiently 
by others : I omit also their violent and irreligious ex- 
actions, related no less credibly ; their seizing of pots 
and pans from the poor, who have as good right to 
tithes as they ; from some, the very beds ; their suing 
and imprisoning, worse than when the canon law was 
in force ; worse than when those wicked sons of Eli 
were priests, whose manner was thus to seize their 
pretended priestly due by force; 1 Sam. ii. 12, &c. 



430 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



" Whereby men abhorred the offering- of the Lord." 
And it may be feared, that many will as much abhor 
the gospel, if such violence as this be suffered in her 
ministers, and in that which they also pretend to be 
the offering of the Lord. For those sons of Belial 
within some limits made seizure of what they knew 
A\as their own by an undoubted law; but these, from 
whom there is no sanctuary, seize out of men's 
grounds, out of men's houses, their other goods of 
double, sometimes of treble value, for that which, did 
not covetousness and rapine blind them, they know to 
be not their own by the gospel which they preach. 
Of some more tolerable than these, thus severely God 
hath spoken ; Isa. xlvi. 10, &c. " They are greedy 
dogs; they all look to their own way, every one for 
his gain, from his quarter." With what anger then 
will he judge them who stand not looking, but un- 
der colour of a divine right, fetch by force that which 
is not their own, taking his name not in vain, but in 
violence ? Nor content, as Gehazi was, to make a cun- 
ning, but a constrained advantage of what their master 
bids them give freely, how can they but return smitten, 
worse than that sharking minister, with a spiritual 
leprosy ? And yet they cry out sacrilege, that men will 
not be gulled and baffled the tenth of their estates, by 
giving credit to frivolous pretences of divine right. 
Where did God ever clearly declare to all nations, or 
in all lands, (and none but fools part with their estates 
without clearest evidence, on bare supposals and pre- 
sumptions of them who are the g'ainers thereby,) that 
he required the tenth as due to him or his Son perpetu- 
ally and in all places ? Where did he demand it, that 
we might certainly know, as in all claims of temporal 
right is just and reasonable? or if demanded, where 
did he assign it, or by what evident conveyance to mi- 
nisters ? Unless they can demonstrate this by more 
than conjectures, their title can be no better to tithes 
than the title of Gehazi was to those things which by 
abusing his master's name he rooked from Naaman. 
Much less where did he command that tithes should 
be fetched by force, where left not under the gospel, 
whatever his right was, to the freewill-offerings of 
men ? Which is the greater sacrilege, to .bely divine 
authority, to make the name of Christ accessory to vio- 
lence, and robbing him of the very honour which he 
aimed at in bestowing freely the gospel, to commit 
simony and rapine, both secular and ecclesiastical ; 
or on the other side, not to give up the tenth of civil 
right an<l propriety to the tricks and impostures of 
clergymen, contrived with all the art and argument 
that their bellies can invent or suggest; yet so ridicu- 
lous and presuming on the people's dulness and super- 
stition, as to think they prove the divine right of their 
maintenance by A braham paying tithes to Melchisedcc, 
u h- aai Iffelchisedec in that passage rather gave main- 
tenance to Abraham; in whom all, both priests and 
minisfa ra aa well as laymen, paid tithes, not received 
them. And because I affirmed above, beginning this 
first pari of my discourse, that God hath given to mi- 
nistersof the gospel that maintenance only which is 
justly given them, let us see a little what hath been 



thought of that other maintenance besides tithes, which 
of all protestants our English divines either only or 
most apparently both require and take. Those are fees 
for christenings, marriages, and burials : which, though 
whoso will may give freely, yet being not of rig*ht, but 
of free gift, if they be exacted or established, they be- 
come unjust to them who are otherwise maintained ; 
and of such evil note, that even the council of Trent, 
1. ii. p. 240, makes them liable to the laws against 
simony, who take or demand fees for the administering 
of any sacrament : " Che la sinodo volendo levare gli 
abusi introdotti," &c. And in the next page, with like 
severity, condemns the giving or taking for a benefice, 
and the celebrating- of marriages, christenings, and 
burials, for fees exacted or demanded : nor counts it 
less simony to sell the ground or place of burial. And 
in a state-assembly at Orleans, 1561, it was decreed, 
" Che non si potesse essiger cosa alcuna, &c. p. 429, 
That nothing should be exacted for the administring 
of sacraments, burials, or any other spiritual function." 
Thus much that council, of all others the most popish, 
and this assembly of papists, though, by their own 
principles, in bondage to the clergy, were induced, 
either by their own reason and shame, or by the light 
of reformation then shining in upon them, or rather 
by the known canons of many councils and synods long 
before, to condemn of simony spiritual fees demanded. 
For if the minister be maintained for his whole ministry, 
why should he be twice paid for any part thereof? 
Why should he, like a servant, seek vails over and 
above his wages ? As for christenings, either they 
themselves call men to baptism, or men of themselves 
comec if ministers invite, how ill had it become John 
the Baptist to demand fees for his baptizing, or Christ 
for his christenings ? Far less becomes it these now, 
with a greediness lower than that of tradesmen calling 
passengers to their shop, and yet paid beforehand, to 
ask again fordoing that which those their founders did 
freely. If men of themselves come to be baptized, they 
are either brought by such as already pay the minister, 
or come to be one of his disciples and maintainers : of 
whom to ask a fee as it were for entrance is a piece of 
paltry craft or caution, befitting none but beggarly 
artists. Burials and marriages are so little to be any 
part of their gain, that they who consider well may 
find them to be no part of their function. At burials 
their attendance they allege on the corpse ; all the 
guests do as much unhired. But their prayers at the 
grave ; superstitiously required : yet if required, their 
last performance to the deceased of their own flock. 
But the funeral sermon ; at their choice, or if not, an 
occasion offered them to preach out of season, which is 
one part of their office. But something must be spoken 
in praise ; if due, their duty ; if undue, their corruption : 
a peculiar simony of our divines in England only. 
But the ground is broken, and especially their unright- 
eous possession, the chancel. To sell that, will not only 
raise up in j udgment the council of Trent against them, 
but will lose them the best champion of tithes, their 
zealous antiquary, Sir Henry Spelman ; who in a book 
written to that purpose, by many cited canons, and some 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



431 



even of times corruptest in the church, proves that fees 
exacted or demanded for sacraments, marriages, burials, 
and especially for interring", are wicked, accursed, si- 
moniacal, and abominable: yet thus is the church, for 
all this noise of reformation, left still unreformed, by 
the censure of their own synods, their own favourers, 
a den of thieves and robbers. As for marriages, that 
ministers should meddle with them, as not sanctified or 
legitimate, without their celebration, I find no ground 
in Scripture either of preceptor example. Likeliest it 
is (which our Selden hath well observed, 1. 2, c. 28, 
Ux. Eb.) that in imitation of heathen priests, who were 
wont at nuptials to use many rites and ceremonies, and 
especially, judging it would be profitable, and the in- 
crease of their authority, not to be spectators only in 
business of such concernment to the life of man, they in- 
sinuated that marriage was not holy without their bene- 
diction, and forthebettercolour,madeitasacrament; be- 
ing of itself a civil ordinance, a household contract, a 
thing indifferent and free to the whole race of mankind, 
not as religious, but as men : best, indeed, undertaken to 
religious ends, and as the apostle saith, 1 Cor. vii. " in 
the Lord." Yet not therefore invalid or unholy with- 
out a minister and his pretended necessary hallowing, 
more than any other act, enterprise, or contract of civil 
life, which ought all to be done also in the Lord and 
to his glory: all which, no less than marriage, were 
by the cunning of priests heretofore, as material to 
their profit, transacted at the altar. Our divines deny 
it to be a sacrament; yet retained the celebration, till 
prudently a late parliament recovered the civil liberty 
of marriage from their encroachment, and transferred 
the ratifying and registering thereof from the canonical 
shop to the proper cognizance of civil magistrates. 
Seeing then, that God hath given to ministers under 
the gospel that only which is justly given them, that 
is to say, a due and moderate livelihood, the hire of 
their labour, and that the heave-offering of tithes is 
abolished with the altar; yea, though not abolished, 
yet lawless, as they enjoy them; their Melchisedechian 
right also trivial and groundless, and both tithes and 
fees, if exacted or established, unjust and scandalous; 
we may hope, with them removed, to remove hirelings 
in some good measure, whom these tempting baits, by 
law especially to be recovered, allure into the church. 
The next thing to be considered in the maintenance 
of ministers, is by whom it should be given. Wherein 
though the light of reason might sufficiently inform us, 
it will be best to consult the Scripture : Gal. vi. 6, 

^" Let him that is taught in the word, communicate to 
him that teacheth, in all good things:" that is to say, 
in all manner of gratitude, to his ability. 1 Cor. ix. 11, 
" If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a 
great matter if we reap your carnal things ?" To whom 
therefore hath not been sown, from him wherefore 
should be reaped ? 1 Tim. v. 17, " Let the elders that 
rule well, be counted worthy of double honour; espe- 
cially they who labour in word and doctrine." By 
these places we see, that recompence was given either 
by every one in particular who had been instructed, or 
by them all in common, brought into the church-trea- 



sury, and distributed to the ministers according to 
their several labours : and that was judged either by 
some extraordinary person, as Timothy, who by the 
apostle was then left evangelist at Ephesus, 2 Tim. iv. 
5, or by some to whom the church deputed that care. 
This is so agreeable to reason, and so clear, that any 
one may perceive what iniquity and violence hath pre- 
vailed since in the church, whereby it hath been so 
ordered, that they also shall be compelled to recompense 
the parochial minister, who neither chose him for their 
teacher, nor have received instruction from him, as 
being either insufficient, or not resident, or inferiour to 
whom they follow; wherein to bar them their choice, 
is to violate christian liberty. Our law books testify, 
that before the council of Lateran, in the year 1179, 
and the fifth of our Henry II, or rather before a de- 
cretal Epistle of pope Innocent the Hid, about 1200, 
and the first of King John, " any man might have 
given his tithes to what spiritual person he would :" 
and as the Lord Coke notes on that place, Instit. part 2, 
that " this decretal bound not the subjects of this realm, 
but as it seemed just and reasonable." The pope took 
his reason rightly from the above-cited place, 1 Cor. 
ix. 11, but falsely supposed every one to be instructed 
by his parish priest. Whether this were then first so 
decreed, or rather long before, as may seem by the laws 
of Edgar and Canute, that tithes were to be paid, not 
to whom he would that paid them, but to the cathedral 
church or the parish priest, it imports not ; since the 
reason which they themselves bring, built on false sup- 
position, becomes alike infirm and absurd, that he 
should reap from me, who sows not to me ; be the 
cause either his defect, or my free choice. But here it 
will be readily objected, What if they who are to be 
instructed be not able to maintain a minister, as in 
many villages ? I answer, that the Scripture shews in 
many places what ought to be done herein. First I 
offer it to the reason of any man, whether he think the 
knowledge of christian religion harder than any other 
art or science to attain. I suppose he will grant that 
it is far easier, both of itself, and in regard of God's 
assisting Spirit, not particularly promised us to the at- 
tainment of any other knowledge, but of this only : 
since it was preached as well to the shepherds of Beth- 
lehem by angels, as to the eastern wise men by that 
star : and our Saviour declares himself anointed to 
preach the gospel to the poor, Luke iv. 18 ; then surely 
to their capacity. They who after him first taught it, 
were otherwise unlearned men : they who before Hus 
and Luther first reformed it, were for the meanness of 
their condition called, " the poor men of Lions :" and 
in Flanders at this day, " le Gueus," which is to say, 
Beggars. Therefore are the Scriptures translated into 
every vulgar tongue, as being held in main matters of 
belief and salvation, plain and easy to the poorest: and 
such no less than their teachers have the spirit to guide 
them in all truth, John xiv. 26, and xvi. 13. Hence 
we may conclude, if men be not all their lifetime under 
a teacher to learn logic, natural philosophy, ethics, or 
mathematics, which are more difficult, that certainly it 
is not necessary to the attainment of christian know- 



432 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



ledge, that men should sit all their life long' at the feet 
of a pulpited divine ; while he, a lollard indeed over 
his el how cushion, in almost the seventh part of forty 
or fifty years teaches them scarce half the principles of 
religion; and his sheep ofttimes sit the while to as little 
purpose of benefitting, as the sheep in their pews at 
Smithfield ; and for the most part by some simony or 
Other bought and sold like them : or if this comparison 
be too low, like those women, 1 Tim. iii. 7, " Ever learn- 
ing- and never attaining-;" yet not so much through 
their own fault, as through the unskilful and immetbo- 
dical teaching of their pastor, teaching here and there 
at random out of this or that text, as his ease or fancy, 
and ofttimes as his stealth, guides him. Seeing then 
that christian religion may be so easily attained, and by 
meanest capacities, it cannot be much difficult to find 
ways, both how the poor, yea all men, may be soon 
taught what is to be known of Christianity, and they 
who teach them, recompensed. First, if ministers of 
their own accord, who pretend that they are called and 
sent to preach the gospel, those especially who have no 
particular flock, would imitate our Saviour and his dis- 
ciples, who went preaching through the villages, not 
only through the cities, Matt. ix. 35, Mark vi. 6, Luke 
xiii. 22, Acts viii. 25, and there preached to the poor as 
well as to the rich, looking for no recompence but in 
heaven : John iv. 35, 36, " Look on the fields, for they 
are white already to harvest: and he that reapeth, re- 
ceiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." 
Tins was their wages. But they will soon reply, we 
ourselves have not wherewithal; who shall bear the 
charges of our journey ? To whom it may as soon be 
answered, that in likelihood they are not poorer, than 
they who did thus ; and if they have not the same faith, 
which those disciples had to trust in God and the pro- 
mise of Christ for their maintenance as they did, and 
yet intrude into the ministry without any livelihood of 
their own, they cast themselves into miserable hazard 
or temptation, and ofttimes into a more miserable neces- 
sity, either to starve, or to please their paymasters rather 
than God; and give men just cause to suspect, that 
they came neither called nor sent from above to preach 
the word, but from below, by the instinct of their own 
hunger, to feed upon the church. Yet grant it needful 
to allow them both the charges of their journey and the 
hire of their labour, it will belong next to the charity 
of richer congregations, where most commonly they 
abound with teachers, to send some of their number to 
the villages round, as the apostles from Jerusalem sent 
Peter and John to the city and villages of Samaria, 
Acts viii. 14,25; or as the church at Jerusalem sent 
Barnabas to Antiocb, chap. xi. 22, and other churches 
joining sent Luke to travel with Paul, 2 Cor. \ui. 19; 
though whether tbey had their charges borne by the 
church or no, it be not recorded. If it be objected, that 
this itinerary preaching will not serve to plant the 
gOSp< 1 in those places, unless they who are sent abide 
th< re some competent time; I answer, that if they stay 
I year or two, which was the longest time usually 
staid by the apostles in one place, it may suffice to teach 
them, who will attend and learn all the points of reli- 



gion necessary to salvation ; then sorting them into 
several congregations of a moderate number, out of the 
ablest and zealousest among them to create elders, who, 
exercising and requiring from themselves what they 
have learned, (for no learning is retained without con- 
stant exercise and methodical repetition,) may teach and 
govern the rest : and so exhorted to continue faithful 
and stedfast, they may securely be committed to the 
providence of God and the guidance of his Holy Spirit, 
till God may offer some opportunity to visit them again, 
and to confirm them : which when they have done, 
they have done as much as the apostles were wont to 
do in propagating the gospel, Acts xiv. 23, "And when 
they had ordained them elders in every church, and had 
prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, 
on whom they believed." And in the same chapter, 
ver. 21, 22, " When they had preached the gospel to 
that city, and had taught many, they returned again 
to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antiocb, confirming the 
souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue 
in the faith." And chap. xv. 36, " Let us go again, 
and visit our brethren." And ver. 41, "He went 
through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches." 
To these I might add other helps, which we enjoy now, 
to make more easy the attainment of christian religion 
by the meanest : the entire Scripture translated into 
English with plenty of notes ; and somewhere or other, 
I trust, may be found some w T holesome body of divinity, 
as they call it, without school-terms and metaphysical 
notions, which have obscured rather than explained 
our religion, and made it seem difficult without cause. 
Thus taught once for all, and thus now and then visited 
and confirmed, in the most destitute and poorest places 
of the land, under the government of their own elders 
performing all ministerial offices among them, they 
may be trusted to meet and edify one another whether 
in church or chapel, or, to save them the trudging of 
many miles thither, nearer home, though in a house or 
barn. For notwithstanding the gaudy superstition of 
some devoted still ignorantly to temples, we may be 
well assured, that he who disdained not to be laid in a 
manger, disdains not to be preached in a barn ; and 
that by such meetings as these, being indeed most 
apostolical and primitive, they will in a short time ad- 
vance more in christian knowledge and reformation of 
life, than by the many years' preaching of such an in- 
cumbent, I may say, such an Incubus ofttimes, as will 
be meanly hired to abide long in those places. They 
have this left perhaps to object further ; that to send 
thus, and to maintain, though but for a year or two, 
ministers and teachers in several places, would prove 
charg'eable to the churches, though in towns and cities 
round about. To whom ag'ain I answer, that it was 
not thought so by them who first thus propagated the 
gospel, though but few in number to us, and much less 
able to sustain the expense. Yet this expense would 
be much less than to hire incumbents, or rather incum- 
brances, for lifetime; and a great means (which is the 
subject of this discourse) to diminish hirelings. But be 
the expense less or more, if it be found burdensome to 
the churches, they have in this land an easy remedy in 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



433 



their recourse to the civil magistrate; who hath in his 
hands the disposal of no small revenues, left perhaps 
anciently to superstitious, but meant undoubtedly to 
good and best uses; and therefore, once made public, 
appliable by the present magistrate to such uses as the 
church, or solid reason from whomsoever, shall con- 
vince him to think best. And those uses may be, no 
doubt, much rather than as glebes and augmentations 
are now bestowed, to grant such requests as these of 
the churches; or to erect in greater number, all over 
the land, schools, and competent libraries to those 
schools, where languages and arts may be taught free 
together, without the needless, unprofitable, and incon- 
venient removing to another place. So all the land 
would be soon better civilized, and they who are taught 
freely at the public cost might have their education 
given them on this condition, that therewith content, 
they should not gad for preferment out of their own 
country, but continue there thankful for what they re- 
ceived freely, bestowing it as freely on their country, 
without soaring above the meanness wherein they were 
born. But how they shall live when they are thus bred 
and dismissed, will be still the sluggish objection. To 
which is answered, that those public foundations may 
be so instituted, as the youth therein may be at once 
brought up to a competence of learning and to an ho- 
nest trade ; and the hours of teaching so ordered, as 
their study may be no hindrance to their labour or 
other calling. This was the breeding of St. Paul, 
though bora of no mean parents, a free citizen of the 
Roman empire : so little did his trade debase him, that it 
rather enabled him to use that magnanimity of preach- 
ing the gospel through Asia and Europe at his own 
charges. Thus those preachei-s among- the poor Wal- 
denses, the ancient stock of our reformation, without 
these helps which I speak of, bred up themselves in 
trades, and especially in physic and surgery, as well as 
in the study of Scripture, (which is the only true theo- 
logy,) that they might be no burden to the church ; and 
by the example of Christ, might cure both soul and 
body; through industry joining that to their ministry, 
which he joined to his by gift of the spirit. Thus re- 
lates Peter Gilles in his history of the Waldenses in 
Piemont. But our ministers think scorn to use a trade, 
and count it the reproach of this age, that tradesmen 
preach the gospel. It were to be wished they were all 
tradesmen ; they would not so many of them, for want 
of another trade, make a trade of their preaching : and 
yet they clamour that tradesmen preach ; and yet they 
preach, while they themselves are the worst tradesmen 
of all. As for church-endowments and possessions, I 
meet with none considerable before Constantine, but 
the houses and gardens where they met, and their 
places of burial ; and I persuade me, that from the an- 
cient Waldenses, whom deservedly I cite so often, held, 
" That to endow churches is an evil thing; and, that 
the church then fell off and turned whore, sitting on 
that beast in the Revelation, when under pope Sylves- 
ter she received those temporal donations." So the fore- 
cited tractate of their doctrine testifies. This also their 
own traditions of that heavenly voice witnessed, and 



some of the ancient fathers then living foresaw and 
deplored. And indeed^ how could these endowments 
thrive better with the church, being unjustly taken by 
those emperors, without suffrage of the people, out of 
the tributes and public lands of each city, whereby the 
people became liable to be oppressed with other taxes. 
Being therefore given for the most part by kings and 
other public persons, and so likeliest out of the public, 
and if without the people's consent, unjustly, however 
to public ends of much concernment, to the good or 
evil of a commonwealth, and in that regard made pub- 
lic though given by private persons, or which is worse, 
given, as the clergy then persuaded men, for their souls' 
health, a pious gift; but as the truth was, ofttimes a 
bribe to God, or to Christ for absolution, as they were 
then taught, from murders, adulteries, and other hein- 
ous crimes; what shall be found heretofore given by 
kings or princes out of the public, may justly by the 
magistrate be recalled and reappropriated to the civil 
revenue : what by private or public persons out of their 
own, the price of blood or lust, or to some such purga- 
torious and superstitious uses, not only may, but ought 
to be taken off from Christ, as a foul dishonour laid 
upon him, or not impiously given, nor in particular to 
any one, but in general to the church's good, may be 
converted to that use, which shall be judged tending 
more directly to that general end. Thus did the princes 
and cities of Germany in the first reformation ; and 
defended their so doing by many reasons, which are 
set down at large in Sleidan, Lib. 6, Anno 152G, and 
Lib. 11, Anno 1537, and Lib. 13, Anno 1540. But that 
the magistrate either out of that church-revenue which 
remains yet in his hand, or establishing any other 
maintenance instead of tithe, should take into his own 
power the stipendiary maintenance of church-minis- 
ters, or compel it by law, can stand neither with the 
people's right, nor with christian liberty, but would 
suspend the church wholly upon the state, and turn 
ministers into state pensioners. And for the magistrate 
in person of a nursing father to make the church his 
mere ward, as always in minority, the church, to whom 
he ought as a magistrate, Isa. xlix. 23, " to bow down 
with his face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of 
her feet;" her to subject to his political drifts or con- 
ceived opinions, by mastering her revenue; and so by 
his examinant committees to circumscribe her free elec- 
tion of ministers, is neither just nor pious; no honour 
done to the church, but a plain dishonour: and upon 
her whose only head is in heaven, yea upon him, who 
is only head, sets another in effect, and which is most 
monstrous, a human on a heavenly, a carnal on a spi- 
ritual, a political herd on an ecclesiastical body ; which 
at length by such heterogeneal, such incestuous con- 
junction, transforms her ofttimes into a beast of many 
heads and many horns. For if the church be of all 
societies the holiest on earth, and so to be reverenced 
by the magistrate ; not to trust her with her own belief 
and integrity, and therefore not with the keeping, at 
least with the disposing, of what revenue shall be found 
justly and lawfully her own, is to count the church not 
a holy congregation, but a pack of giddy or dishonest 



434 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



persons, to be ruled by civil power in sacred affairs. 
But to proceed further in the truth yet more freely, 
seeing- the christian church is not national, but consist- 
ing of many particular congregations, subject to many 
changes, as well through civil accidents, as through 
schisms and various opinions, not to be decided by any 
outward judge, being' matters of conscience, whereby 
those protended church-revenues, as they have been 
over, so are like to continue endless matter of dissen- 
sion both between the church and magistrate, and the 
churches among themselves, there will be found no 
better remedy to these evils, otherwise incurable, than 
bv the incorruptest council of those Waldenses, or first 
reformers, to remove them as a pest, an apple of discord 
in the church, (for what else can be the effect of riches, 
and the snare of money in religion ?) and to convert 
them to those more profitable uses above expressed, or 
other such as shall be judged most necessary; consider- 
ing that the church of Christ was founded in poverty 
rather than in revenues, stood purest and prospered best 
without them, received them unlawfully from them who 
both erroneously and unjustly, sometimes impiously, 
gave them, and so justly was ensnared and corrupted by 
them. And lest it be thought that, these revenues with- 
drawn and better employed, the magistrate ought instead 
to settle by statute some maintenance of ministers, let 
this be considered first, that it concerns every man's 
conscience to what religion he contributes ; and that the 
civil magistrate is intrusted with civil rights only, not 
with conscience, which can have no deputy or repre- 
sentor of itself, but one of the same mind : next, that 
what each man gives to the minister, he gives either as 
to God, or as to his teacher; if as to God, no civil 
power can justly consecrate to religious uses any part 
either of civil revenue, which is the people's, and must 
save them from other taxes, or of any man's propriety, 
but God by special command, as he did by Moses, or 
the owner himself by voluntary intention and the per- 
suasion of his giving it to God. Forced consecrations 
out of another man's estate are no better than forced 
vows, hateful to God, " who loves a cheerful giver;" 
but much more hateful, wrung out of men's purses to 
maintain a disapproved ministry against their con- 
science ; however unholy, infamous, and dishonourable 
to bis ministers and the free gospel, maintained in such 
unworthy manner as by violence and extortion. If he 
give it as to his teacher, what justice or equity compels 
him to pay for learning that religion which leaves 
freely to his choice, whether he will learn it or no, 
whether of this teacher or another, and especially to 
pay lor what he never learned, or approves not; where- 
in, besides the wound of his conscience, he becomes 
th« h bs able to recompense his true teacher? Thus far 
hath bo D inquired by whom church-ministers ought to 
be maintained, and hath been proved most natural, 
most i qua! and agreeable with Scripture, to be by them 
who receive their teaching; and by whom, if they be 
Doable. Which ways well observed can discourage 
Done hut hirelings, and will much lessen their number 
in tli< church. 

It remains lastly to consider, in what manner God 



hath ordained that recompense be given to ministers of 
the gospel ; and by all Scripture it will appear, that he 
hath given it them not by civil law and freehold, as 
they claim, but by the benevolence and free gratitude 
of such as receive them : Luke x. 7, 8, " Eating and 
drinking such things as they gave you. If they re- 
ceive you, eat such things as are set before you." 
Matt. x. 7, 8, " As ye go, preach, saying, The king- 
dom of God is at hand, &c. Freely ye have received, 
freely give." If God have ordained ministers to preach 
freely, whether they receive recompense or not, then 
certainly he hath forbid both them to compel it, and 
others to compel it for them. But freely given, he ac- 
counts it as given to himself: Phil. iv. 16, 17, 18, "Ye 
sent once and again to my necessity : not because I 
desire a gift ; but I desire fruit, that may abound to 
your account. Having received of Epaphroditus the 
things which were sent from you, an odour of sweet 
smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God ;" 
which cannot be from force or unwillingness. The 
same is said of alms, Heb. xiii. 16, " To do good and to 
communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifice God is 
well pleased." Whence the primitive church thought 
it no shame to receive all their maintenance as the alms 
of their auditors. Which they who defend tithes, as if 
it made for their cause, whenas it utterly confutes them, 
omit not to set down at large ; proving to our hands 
out of Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others, that the 
clergy lived at first upon the mere benevolence of their 
hearers; who gave what they gave, not to the clergy, 
but to the church ; out of which the clergy had their 
portions given them in baskets, and were thence called 
sportularii, basket-clerks : that their portion was a very 
mean allowance, only for a bare livelihood ; according 
to those precepts of our Saviour, Matt. x. 7, &c. the 
rest was distributed to the poor. They cite also out of 
Prosper, the disciple of St. Austin, that such of the 
clergy as had means of their own, might not without 
sin partake of church maintenance; not receiving 
thereby food which they abound with, but feeding on 
the sins of other men : that the Holy Ghost saith of 
such clergymen, they eat the sins of my people ; and 
that a council at Antioch, in the year 340, suffered not 
either priest or bishop to live on church-maintenance 
without necessity. Thus far tithers themselves have 
contributed to their own confutation, by confessing that 
the church lived primitively on alms. And I add, that 
about the year 359, Constantius the emperor having' 
summoned a general council of bishops to Arminium 
in Italy, and provided for their subsistence there, the 
British and French bishops judging it not decent to 
live on the public, chose rather to be at their own 
charges. Three only out of Britain constrained through 
want, yet refusing offered assistance from the rest, ac- 
cepted the emperor's provision; judging it more con- 
venient to subsist by public than by private sustenance. 
Whence we may conclude, that bishops then in this 
island had their livelihood only from benevolence; in 
which regard this relater Sulpitius Severus, a good 
author of the same time, highly praises them. And the 
Waldenses, our first reformers, both from the Scripture 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



435 



and these primitive examples, maintained those among" 
them who bore the office of ministers by alms only. 
Take their very words from the history written of them 
in French, Part 3, Lib. 2, Chap, 2, " La nourriture et 
ce de quoy nous sommes couverts, &c. Our food and 
clothing is sufficiently administered and given to us 
by way of gratuity and alms, by the good people 
whom we teach," If then by alms and benevolence, 
not by legal force, not by tenure of freehold or copy- 
hold : for alms, though just, cannot be compelled ; and 
benevolence forced is malevolence rather, violent and 
inconsistent with the gospel ; and declares him no true 
minister thereof, but a rapacious hireling rather, who 
by force receiving it, eats the bread of violence and 
exaction, no holy or just livelihood, no not civilly 
counted honest; much less beseeming such a spiritual 
ministry. But, say they, our maintenance is our due, 
tithes the right of Christ, unseparable from the priest, 
no where repealed; if then, not otherwise to be had, 
by law to be recovered : for though Paul were pleased 
to forego his due, and not to use his power, 1 Cor. 
ix. 12, yet he had a power, ver. 4, and bound not 
others. I answer first, because I see them still so loth 
to unlearn their decimal arithmetic, and still grasp their 
tithes as inseparable from a priest, that ministers of 
the gospel are not priests ; and therefore separated from 
tithes by their exclusion, being neither called priests 
in the New Testament, nor of any order known in 
Scripture : not of Melchisedec, proper to Christ only . 
not of Aaron, as they themselves will confess; and the 
third priesthood only remaining, is common to all the 
faithful. But they are ministers of our high priest. — 
True, but not of his priesthood, as the Levites were to 
Aaron ; for he performs that whole office himself in- 
communicably. Yet tithes remain, say they, still un- 
released, the due of Christ ; and to whom payable, but 
to his ministers ? I say again, that no man can so 
understand them, unless Christ in some place or other 
so claim them. That example of Abraham argues no- 
thing but his voluntary act; honour once only done, 
but on what consideration, whether to a priest or to a 
king, whether due the honour, arbitrary that kind of 
honour or not, will after all contending be left still in 
mere conjecture : which must not be permitted in the 
claim of such a needy and subtle spiritual corporation, 
pretending by divine right to the tenth of all other 
men's estates ; nor can it be allowed by wise men or 
the verdict of common law. And the tenth part, 
though once declared holy, is declared now to be no 
holier than the other nine, by that command to Peter, 
Acts x. 15, 28, whereby all distinction of holy and un- 
holy is removed from all things. Tithes therefore, 
though claimed, and holy under the law, yet are now 
released and quitted both by that command to Peter, 
and by this to all ministers, above-cited Luke x. " eat- 
ing and drinking such things as they give you :" 
made holy now by their free gift only. And therefore 
St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 4, asserts his power indeed ; but 
of what ? not of tithes, but " to eat and drink such 
things as are given" in reference to this command ; 
which he calls not holvthings, or things of the gospel, 
2 F 



as if the gospel had any consecrated things in answer 
to things of the temple, ver. 13, but he calls them 
"your carnal things," ver. 11, without changing their 
property. And what power had he ? Not the power 
of force, but of conscience only, whereby be might law- 
fully and without scruple live on the gospel ; receiving 
what was given him, as the recompence of his labour 
For if Christ the Master hath professed his kingdom 
to be not of this world, it suits not with that profession, 
either in him or his ministers, to claim temporal right 
from spiritual respects. He who refused to be the di- 
vider of an inheritance between two brethren, cannot 
approve his ministers, by pretended right from him, to 
be dividers of tenths and freeholds out of other men's 
possessions, making thereby the gospel but a cloak of 
carnal interest, and to the contradiction of their master, 
turning his heavenly kingdom into a kingdom of this 
world, a kingdom of force and rapine : to whom it will 
be one day thundered more terribly than to Gehazi, for 
thus dishonouring a far greater master and his gospel; 
" Is this a time to receive money, and to receive gar- 
ments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep and 
oxen ?" The leprosy of Naaman, linked with that 
apostolic curse of perishing imprecated on Simon Ma- 
gus, may be feared will "cleave to such and to their 
seed for ever." So that when all is done, and belly 
hath used in vain all her cunning shifts, I doubt not 
but all true ministers, considering the demonstration of 
what hath been here proved, will be wise, and think it 
much more tolerable to hear, that no maintenance of 
ministers, whether tithes or any other, can be settled by 
statute, but must be given by them who receive instruc- 
tion ; and freely given, as God hath ordained. And 
indeed what can be a more honourable maintenance to 
them than such, whether alms or willing oblations, as 
these ; which being accounted both alike as given to 
God, the only acceptable sacrifices now remaining, 
must needs represent him who receives them much in 
the care of God, and nearly related to him, when not 
by worldly force and constraint, but with religious awe 
and reverence, what is given to God, is given to him ; 
and what to him, accounted as given to God. This 
would be well enough, say they ; but how many will 
so give ? I answer, as many, doubtless, as shall be well 
taught, as many as God shall so move. Why are ye 
so distrustful, both of your own doctrine and of God's 
promises, fulfilled in the experience of those disciples 
first sent? Luke xxii. 35, "When I sent you without 
purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing ? And 
they said, Nothing." How then came ours, or who 
sent them thus destitute, thus poor and empty both of 
purse and faith ? Who style themselves embassadors of 
Jesus Christ, and seem to be his tithe-gatherers, though 
an office of their own setting up to his dishonour, his 
exacters, his publicans rather, not trusting that he will 
maintain them in their embassy, unless they bind him 
to his promise by a statute-law, that we shall maintain 
them. Lay down for shame that magnific title, while 
ye seek maintenance from the people : it is not the man- 
ner of embassadors to ask maintenance of them to whom 
they are sent. But he who is Lord of all things, hath 



43G 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE 



soordaiued: trust him then; he doubtless will com- 
mand the people to make good his promises of main- 
tenance more honourably unasked, unraked for. This 
they know, this they preach, yet believe not: but think 
it as impossible, without a statute-law, to live of the 
gospel, as if by those words they were bid go eat their 
Bibles, as Ezekiel and John did their books ; and such 
doctrines as these are as bitter to their bellies ; but will 
serve so much the better to discover hirelings, who can 
have nothing, though but in appearance, just and solid 
to answer for themselves against what hath been here 
spoken, unless perhaps this one remaining- pretence, 
which we shall quickly see to be either false or unin- 
genuous. 

They pretend that their education, either at school or 
university, hath been very chargeable, and therefore 
ought to be repaired in future by a plentiful mainte- 
nance : whenas it is well known, that the better half of 
them, (and ofttimes poor and pitiful boys, of no merit 
or promising hopes that might entitle them to the pub- 
lic provision, but their poverty and the unjust favour 
of friends,) have had the most of their breeding, both at 
school and university, by scholarships, exhibitions, and 
fellowships at the public cost, which might engage them 
the rather to give freely, as they have freely received. 
Or if they have missed of these helps at the latter place, 
they have after two or three years left the course of 
their studies there, if they ever well began them, and 
undertaken, though furnished with little else but igno- 
rance, boldness, and ambition, if with no worse vices, a 
chaplainship in some gentleman's house, to the frequent 
embasing- of his sons with illiterate and narrow prin- 
ciples. Or if they have lived there upon their own, 
who knows not that seven years charge of living there, 
to them who fly not from the government of their pa- 
rents to the licence of a university, but come seriously 
to study, is no more than may be well defrayed and 
reimbursed by one year's revenue of an ordinary good 
benefice? If they had then means of breeding" from 
their parents, it is likely they have more now ; and if 
they have, it needs must be mechanic and uningenuous 
in them, to bring a bill of charges for the learning of 
those liberal arts and sciences, which they have learned 
(if they have indeed learned them, as they seldom have) 
to their own benefit and accomplishment. But they 
will say, we had betaken us to some other trade or pro- 
i. ssion, had we not expected to find a better livelihood 
by the ministry. This is that which I looked for, to 
discover them openly neither true lovers of learning, 
and so very seldom guilty of it, nor true ministers of 
the gospel. So long ago out of date is that old true 
-;i . ing, 1 Tim. iii. 1, " If a man desire a bishopric, he 
desires a good work :" for now commonly he who de- 
sires to he a minister, looks not at the work, but at the 
- ; and by that lure or lowbcll,may be tolled from 
parish to parish all the town over. But what can be 
plainer simony, than thus to be at charges beforehand, 
to no other end than to make their ministry doubly or 
trebly beneficial ? To whom it might he said, as justly 
as to that Simon, " Thy money perish with thee, be- 
thou bast thought, that the gift of God may be 



purchased with money; thou hast neither part nor lot 
in this matter." Next, it is a fond errour, though too 
much believed among- us, to think that the university 
makes a minister of the gospel ; what it may conduce 
to other arts and sciences, I dispute not now : but that 
which makes fit a minister, the Scripture can best in- 
form us to be only from above, whence also we are bid 
to seek them ; Matt. ix. 38, " Pray ye therefore to the 
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers 
into his harvest." Acts xx. 28, " The flock, over which 
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." Rom. x. 
15, " How shall they preach, unless they be sent?" 
By whom sent? by the university, or the magistrate, 
or their belly ? No surely, but sent from God only, and 
that God who is not their belly. And whether he be 
sent from God, or from Simon Magus, the inward sense 
of his calling and spiritual ability will sufficiently tell 
him ; and that strong obligation felt within him, which 
was felt by the apostle, will often express from him the 
same words : 1 Cor. ix. 16, " Necessity is laid upon 
me, yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel." Not 
a beggarly necessity, and the woe feared otherwise of 
perpetual want, but such a necessity as made him will- 
ing to preach the gospel gratis, and to embrace poverty, 
rather than as a woe to fear it. 1 Cor. xii. 28, " God 
hath set some in the church, first apostles," &c. Ephes. 
iv. 11, &c. " He g'ave some apostles, Sec. For the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come 
to the unity of the faith." Whereby we may know, 
that as he made them at the first, so he makes them 
still, and to the world's end. 2 Cor. iii. 6, " Who hath 
also made us fit or able ministers of the New Testa- 
ment." 1 Tim. iv. 14, " The gift that is in thee, which 
was given thee by prophecy, and the laying" on of the 
hands of the presbytery." These are all the means, 
which we read of, required in Scripture to the making- 
of a minister. All this is granted, you will say ; but 
yet that it is also requisite he should be trained in 
other learning: which can be no where better had than 
at universities. I answer, that what learning, either 
human or divine, can be necessary to a minister, may 
as easily and less chargeably be had in any private 
house. How deficient else, and to how little purpose, 
are all those piles of sermons, notes, and comments on 
all parts of the Bible, bodies and marrows of divinity, 
besides all other sciences, in our English tongue ; many 
of the same books which in Latin they read at the uni- 
versity ? And the small necessity of going thither to 
learn divinity I prove first from the most part of them- 
selves, who seldom continue there till they have well 
got through logic, their first rudiments; though, to say 
truth, logic also may much better be wanting in dis- 
putes of divinity, than in the subtile debates of lawyers, 
and statesmen, who yet seldom or never deal with syl- 
logisms. And those theological disputations there held 
by professors and graduates are such, as tend least of 
all to the edification or capacity of the people, but 
rather perplex and leaven pure doctrine with scholas- 
tical trash, than enable any minister to the better 
preaching of the gospel. Whence we may also com- 



HIRELINGS OUT OF THE CHURCH. 



437 



pute, since they come to reckonings, the charges of his 
needful library; which, though some shame not to 
value at 6001. may be competently furnished for 601. 
If any man for his own curiosity or delight be in books 
further expensive, that is not to be reckoned as neces- 
sary to his ministerial, either breeding or function. 
But papists and other adversaries cannot be confuted 
without fathers and councils, immense volumes, and of 
vast charges. I will shew them therefore a shorter and 
a better way of confutation : Tit. i. 9, " Holding fast 
the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may 
be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to con- 
vince gainsayers :" who are confuted as soon as heard, 
bringing that which is either not in Scripture, or 
against it. To pursue them further through the ob- 
scure and entangled wood of antiquity, fathers and 
councils fighting one against another, is needless, end- 
less, not requisite in a minister, and refused by the first 
reformers of our religion. And yet we may be con- 
fident, if these things be thought needful, let the state 
but erect in public good store of libraries, and there 
will not want men in the church, who of their own in- 
clinations will become able in this kind against papist 
or any other adversary. I have thus at large examined 
the usual pretences of hirelings, coloured over most 
commonly with the cause of learning and universities; 
as if with divines learning stood and fell, wherein for 
the most part their pittance is so small ; and, to speak 
freely, it were much better there were not one divine 
in the universities, no school-divinity known, the idle 
sophistry of monks, the canker of religion ; and that 
they who intended to be ministers, were trained up in 
the church only by the Scripture, and in the original 
languages thereof at school ; without fetching the 
compass of other arts and sciences, more than what 
they can well learn at secondary leisure, and at 
home. — Neither speak I this in contempt of learning, 
or the ministry, but hating the common cheats of both ; 
hating that they, who have preached out bishops, pre- 
lates, and canonists, should, in what serves their own 
ends, retain their false opinions, their pharisaical leaven, 
their avarice, and closely their ambition, their plurali- 
ties, their nonresidences, their odious fees, and use their 
legal and popish arguments for tithes : that independ- 
ents should take that name, as they may justly from 
the true freedom of christian doctrine and church-disci- 
pline subject to no superiour judge but God only, and 
seek to be dependents on the magistrates for their 
maintenance ; which two things, independence and 
state-hire in religion, can never consist long or cer- 
tainly together. For magistrates at one time or other, 
not like these at present our patrons of christian liberty, 
will pay none but such whom by their committees of 
examination they find conformable to their interests 
and opinions : and hirelings will soon frame themselves 
to that interest, and those opinions which they see best 
pleasing to their paymasters; and to seem right them- 
selves, will force others as to the truth. But most of all 
they are to be reviled and shamed, who cry out with 
the distinct voice of notorious hirelings; that if ye set- 
tle not our maintenance by law, farewell the gospel ; 



than which nothing can be uttered more false, more 
ignominious, and I may say, more blasphemous against 
our Saviour ; vvho hath promised without this condi- 
tion, both his Holy Spirit, and his own presence with 
his church to the world's end : nothing more false, 
(unless with their own mouths they condemn them- 
selves for the unworthiest and most mercenary of all 
other ministers,) by the experience of 300 years after 
Christ, and the churches at this day in France, Austria, 
Polonia, and other places, witnessing the contrary 
under an adverse magistrate, not a favourable ; nothing 
more ignominious, levelling, or rather undervaluing* 
Christ beneath Mahomet. For if it must be thus, how 
can any Christian object it to a Turk, that his religion 
stands by force only; and not justly fear from him 
this reply, Yours both by force and money, in the judg- 
ment of your own preachers? This is that which 
makes atheists in the land, whom they so much com- 
plain of: not the want of maintenance, or preachers, 
as they allege, but the many hirelings and cheaters 
that have the gospel in their hands; hands that still 
crave, and are never satisfied. Likely ministers indeed, 
to proclaim the faith, or to exhort our trust in God, 
when they themselves will not trust him to provide for 
them in the message whereon, they say, he sent them ; 
but threaten, for want of temporal means, to desert it ; 
calling that want of means, which is nothing else but 
the want of their own faith : and would force us to pay 
the hire of building our faith to their covetous incre- 
dulity. "Doubtless, if God only be he who gives minis- 
ters to his church till the world's end ; and through the 
whole gospel never sent us for ministers to the schools 
of philosophy, but rather bids us beware of such "vain 
deceit," Col. ii. 8, (which the primitive church, after two 
or three ages not remembering, brought herself quickly 
to confusion,) if all the faithful be now " a holy and a 
royal priesthood," 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9, not excluded from the 
dispensation of things holiest, after free election of the 
church, and imposition of hands, there will not want 
ministers elected out of all sorts and orders of men, for 
the gospel makes no difference from the magistrate 
himself to the meanest artificer, if God evidently favour 
him with spiritual gifts, as he can easily, and oft hath 
done, while those bachelor divines and doctors of the 
tippet have been passed by. Heretofore in the first 
evangelic times, (and it were happy for Christendom 
if it were so again,) ministers of the gospel were by 
nothing else distinguished from other christians, but by 
their spiritual knowledge and sanctity of life, for which 
the church elected them to be her teachers and over- 
seers, though not thereby to separate them from what- 
ever calling she then found them following besides; as 
the example of St. Paul declares, and the first times of 
Christianity. ^When once they affected to be called a 
clergy, and became, as it were, a peculiar tribe of Le- 
vites, a party, a distinct order in the commonwealth, 
bred up for divines in babbling schools, and fed at the 
public cost, good for nothing else but what was good 
for nothing, they soon grew idle : that idleness, with 
fulness of bread, begat pride and perpetual contention 
with their feeders the despised laity, through all ages 



438 



THE LIKELIEST MEANS TO REMOVE HIRELINGS, &c. 



ever since ; to the perverting' of religion, and the dis- 
turbance of all Christendom. And we may confidently 
conclude, it never will be otherwise while they are 
thus upheld undepending on the church, on which 
alone they anciently depended, and are by the magis- 
trate publicly maintained a numerous faction of indi- 
gent persons, crept for the most part out of extreme 
want and bad nurture, claiming by divine right and 
freehold the tenth of our estates, to monopolize the 
ministry as their peculiar, which is free and open to all 
able Christians, elected by any church. Under this 
pretence exempt from all other employment, and en- 
riching themselves on the public, they last of all prove 
common incendiaries, and exalt their horns against the 
magistrate himself that maintains them, as the priest of 
Rome did soon after against his benefactor the emperor, 
and the presbyters of late in Scotland. Of which hire- 
ling crew, together with all the mischiefs, dissensions, 
troubles, wars merely of their kindling, Christendom 
might soon rid herself and be happy, if Christians 
would but know their own dignity, their liberty, their 
adoption, and let it not be wondered if I say, then- 
spiritual priesthood, whereby they have all equally ac- 



cess to any ministerial function, whenever called by 
their own abilities, and the church, though they never 
came near commencement or university. But while 
protestants, to avoid the due labour of understanding 
their own religion, are content to lodge it in the breast, 
or rather in the books, of a clergyman, and to take it 
thence by scraps and mammocks, as he dispenses it in 
his Sunday's dole ; they will be always learning and 
never knowing ; always infants ; always either his 
vassals, as lay papists are to their priests; or at odds 
with him, as reformed principles give them some light 
to be not wholly conformable ; whence infinite disturb- 
ances in the state, as they do, must needs follow. Thus 
much I had to say; and, I suppose, what may be 
enough to them who are net avariciously bent other- 
wise, touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings 
out of the church ; than which nothing* can more con- 
duce to truth, to peace and all happiness both in church 
and state. If I be not heard nor believed, the event 
will bear me witness to have spoken truth ; and I, in 
the mean while, have borne my witness, not out of sea- 
son, to the church and to my country. 



LETTER TO A FRIEND, 



CONCERNING 



THE RUPTURES OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 



1'UBLISIIED FROM THE MANUSCRU 



Sir, 
Upon the sad and serious discourse which we fell into 
last night, concerning- these dangerous ruptures of the 
Commonwealth, scarce yet in her infancy, which can- 
not be without some inward flaw in her bowels; I 
began to consider more intensely thereon than hitherto 
I have been wont, resigning myself to the wisdom and 
care of those who had the government ; and not find- 
ing" that either God or the public required more of me, 
than my prayers for them that govern. And since you 
have not only stirred up my thoughts, by acquainting 
me with the state of affairs, more inwardly than I 
knew before ; but also have desired me to set down my 
opinion thereof, trusting- to your ingenuity, I shall 
give you freely my apprehension, both of our present 
evils, and what expedients, if God in mercy regard us, 
may remove them. I will begin with telling you how 
I was overjoyed, when I heard that the army, under 
the working of God's Holy Spirit, as I thought, and 
still hope well, had been so far wrought to christian hu- 
mility, and self-denial, as to confess in public their 
backsliding from the good old cause, and to shew the 
fruits of their repentance, in the righteousness of their 
restoring the old famous parliament, which they had 
without just authority dissolved: I call it the famous 
parliament, though not the harmless, since none well- 
affected, but will confess, they have deserved much 
more of these nations, than they have undeserved. 
And I persuade me, that God was pleased with their 
restitution, signing it, as he did, with such a signal 
victory, when so great a part of the nation were des- 
perately conspired to call back again their ^Egyptian 
bondage. So much the more it now amazes me, that 
they, whose lips were yet scarce closed from giving 
thanks for that great deliverance, should be now re- 
lapsing, and so soon again backsliding into the same 
fault, which they confessed so lately and so solemnly 
to God and the world, and more lately punished in 
those Cheshire rebels; that they should now dissolve 
that parliament, which they themselves re-established, 
and acknowledged for their supreme power in their 
other day's humble representation : and all this, for no 



apparent cause of public concernment to the church or 
commonwealth, but only for discommissioning nine 
great officers in the army ; which had not been done, 
as is reported, but upon notice of their intentions against 
the parliament. I presume not to give my censure 
on this action, not knowing, as yet I do not, the bot- 
tom of it. I speak only what it appears to us without 
doors, till better cause be declared, and I am sure to all 
other nations most illegal and scandalous, I fear me 
barbarous, or rather scarce to be exampled among any 
barbarians, that a paid army should, for no other cause, 
thus subdue the supreme power that set them up. This, 
I say, other nations will judge to the sad dishonour of 
that army, lately so renowned for the civilest and best 
ordered in the world, and by us here at home, for the 
most conscientious. Certainly, if the great officers and 
soldiers of the Holland, French, or Venetian forces, 
should thus sit in council, and write from garrison to 
garrison against their superiours, they might as easily 
reduce the king of France, or duke of Venice, and put 
the United Provinces in like disorder and confusion. 
Why do they not, being most of them held ignorant of 
true religion ? because the light of nature, the laws of 
human society, the reverence of their magistrates, co- 
venants, engagements, loyalty, allegiance, keeps them 
in awe. How grievous will it then be ! how infamous 
to the true religion which we profess ! how dishonour- 
able to the name of God, that his fear and the power 
of his knowledge in an army professing to be his, 
should not work that obedience, that fidelity to their 
supreme magistrates, that levied them and paid them ; 
when the light of nature, the laws of human society, 
covenants and contracts, yea common shame, works in 
other armies, amongst the worst of them ! Which will 
undoubtedly pull down the heavy judgment of God 
among us, who cannot but avenge these hypocrisies, 
violations of truth and holiness ; if they be indeed so 
as they yet seem. For neither do I speak this in re- 
proach to the army, but as jealous of their honour, in- 
citing them to manifest and publish with all speed, 
some better cause of these their late actions, than hath 



410 



LETTER TO A FRIEND, &c. 



hitherto appeared, and to find out the Achan amongst 
them, whose close ambition in all likelihood abuses 
their honest natures against their meaning- to these dis- 
orders ; their readiest way to bring in again the common 
enemy, and with him the destruction of true religion, 
and civil liberty. But, because our evils are now 
grown more dangerous and extreme, than to be reme- 
died by complaints, it concerns us now to find out what 
remedies may be likeliest to save us from approaching 
ruin. Being now in anarchy, without a counselling 
and governing power; and the army, T suppose, find- 
ing themselves insufficient to discharge at once both 
military and civil affairs, the first thing to be found 
out with all speed, without which no commonwealth 
can subsist, must be a senate or general council of 
state, in whom must be the power, first to preserve the 
public peace ; next, the commerce with foreign nations ; 
and lastly, to raise moneys for the management of 
these affairs : this must either be the parliament re-ad- 
mitted to sit, or a council of state allowed of by the 
army, since they only now have the power. The terms 
to be stood on are, liberty of conscience to all profess- 
ing Scripture to be the rule of their faith and worship; 
and the abjuration of a single person. If the parlia- 
ment be again thought on, to salve honour on both 
sides, the well affected part of the city, and the con- 
gregated churches, may be induced to mediate by pub- 
lic addresses, and brotherly beseechings ; which, if 
there be that saintship among ns which is talked of, 
ought to be of highest and undeniable persuasion to 
reconcilement. If the parliament be thought well dis- 
solved, as not complying fully to grant liberty of con- 
science, and the necessary consequence thereof, the 
removal of a forced maintenance from ministers, then 
must the army forthwith choose a council of state, 
whereof as many to be of the parliament, as are un- 
doubtedly affected to these two conditions proposed. 
That which I conceive only able to cement, and unite 
for ever the army, either to the parliament recalled, or 
this chosen council, must be a mutual league and oath, 
private or public, not to desert one another till death : 
that is to say, that the army be kept up, and all these 
officers in their places during life, and so likewise the 
parliament or counsellors of state; which will be no 
way unjust, considering their known merits on either 
side, in council or in field, unless any be found false to 
any of these two principles, or otherwise personally 



criminous in the judgment of both parties. If such a 
union as this be not accepted on the army's part, be 
confident there is a single person underneath. That 
the army be upheld, the necessity of our affairs and 
factions will constrain long enough perhaps, to content 
the longest liver in the army. And whether the civil 
government be an annual democracy, or a perpetual 
aristocracy, is not to me a consideration for the extre- 
mities wherein we are, and the hazard of our safety 
from our common enemy, gaping at present to devour 
us. That it be not an oligarchy, or the faction of a 
few, may be easily prevented by the numbers of their 
own choosing, who may be found infallibly constant 
to those two conditions fore-named, full liberty of con- 
science, and the abjuration of monarchy proposed : and 
the well-ordered committees of their faithfullest adher- 
ents in every county, may give this government the 
resemblance and effects of a perfect democracy. As 
for the reformation of laws, and the places of judica- 
ture, whether to be here, as at present, or in every 
county, as hath been long aimed at, and many such 
proposals, tending no doubt to public good, they may 
be considered in due time, when we are past these per- 
nicious pangs, in a hopeful way of health, and firm 
constitution. But unless these things, which I have 
above proposed, one way or other, be once settled, in 
my fear, which God avert, we instantly ruin ; or a 
best become the servants of one or other single person, 
the secret author and fomenter of these disturbances. 
You have the sum of my present thoughts, as much as 
I understand of these affairs, freely imparted ; at your 
request, and the persuasion you wrought in me, that I 
might chance hereby to be some way serviceable to the 
Commonwealth, in a time when all ought to be endea- 
vouring what good they can, whether much or but 
little. With this you may do what you please, put 
out, put in, communicate, or suppress : you offend not 
me, who only have obeyed your opinion, that in doing- 
what I have done, I might happen to offer something- 
which might be of some use in this great time of need. 
However, I have not been wanting to the opportunity 
which you presented before me, of shewing the readi- 
ness which I have in the midst of my unfitness, to 
whatever may be required of me, as a public duty. 

October 20, 1659. 



PRESENT MEANS AND BRIEF DELINEATION 

OF 

A FREE COMMONWEALTH, 

EASY TO BE PUT IN PRACTICE, AND WITHOUT DELAY. 
IN A LETTER TO GENERAL MONK. 

PUBLISHED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT. 



First, All endeavours speedily to be used, that the 
ensuing 1 election he of such as are already firm, or in- 
clinable to constitute a free commonwealth, (according 
to the former qualifications decreed in parliament, and 
not yet repealed, as I hear,) without single person, or 
house of lords. If these be not such, but the con- 
trary, who foresees not, that our liberties will be utterly 
lost in this next parliament, without some powerful 
course taken, of speediest prevention? The speediest 
way will be to call up forthwith the chief gentlemen 
out of every county; to lay before them (as your ex- 
cellency hath already, both in your published letters to 
the army, and your declaration recited to the members 
of parliament) the danger and confusion of readmitting 
kingship in this land ; especially against the rules of 
all prudence and example, in a family once ejected, 
and thereby not to be trusted with the power of re- 
venge : that you will not longer delay them w r ith vain 
expectation, but will put into their hands forthwith the 
possession of a free commonwealth; if they will first 
return immediately and elect them, by such at least of 
the people as are rightly qualified, a standing- council 
in every city and great town, which may then be dig- 
nified with the name of city, continually to consult the 
good and flourishing state of that place, with a compe- 
tent territory adjoined; to assume the judicial laws, 
either those that are, or such as they themselves shall 
new make severally, in each commonalty, and all judi- 
catures, all magistracies, to the administration of all 
justice between man and man, and all the ornaments 
of public civility, academies, and such like, in their own 
hands. Matters appertaining to men of several coun- 
ties or territories, may be determined, as they are here 
at London, or in some more convenient place, under 
equal judges. 

Next, That in every such capital place, they will 
choose them the usual number of ablest knights and 
burgesses, engaged for a commonwealth, to make up 
the parliament, or (as it will from henceforth be better 
called) the Grand or General Council of the Nation : 
whose office must be, with due caution, to dispose of 



forces, both by sea and land, under the conduct of your 
excellency, for the preservation of peace, both at. home 
and abroad ; must raise and manage the public revenue, 
but with provident inspection of their accompts ; must 
administer all foreign affairs, make all general laws, 
peace or war, but not without assent of the standing 
council in each city, or such other general assembly as 
may be called on such occasion, from the whole terri- 
tory, where they may, without, much trouble, deliber- 
ate on all things fully, and send up their suffrages 
within a set time, by deputies appointed. Though 
this grand council be perpetual, (as in that book I 
proved would be best and most conformable to best 
examples,) yet they will then, thus limited, have so 
little matter in their hands, or power to endanger our 
liberty; and the people so much in theirs, to prevent 
them, having all judicial laws in their own choice, and 
free votes in all those which concern generally the 
whole commonwealth ; that we shall have little cause 
to fear the perpetuity of our general senate ; which 
will be then nothing else but a firm foundation and 
custody of our public liberty, peace, and union, through 
the whole commonwealth, and the transactors of our 
affairs with foreign nations. 

If this yet be not thought enough, the known expe- 
dient may at length be used, of a partial rotation. 

Lastly, If these gentlemen convocated refuse these 
fair and noble offers of immediate liberty, and happy 
condition, no doubt there be enough in every county 
who will thankfully accept them ; your excellency once 
more declaring publicly this to be your mind, and hav- 
ing a faithful veteran army, so ready and glad to assist 
you in the prosecution thereof. , For the full and abso- 
lute administration of law in every county, which is the 
difficultest of these proposals, hath been of most long de- 
sired ; and the not granting it held a general grievance. 
The rest, when they shall see the beginnings and pro- 
ceedings of these constitutions proposed, and the orderly, 
the decent, the civil, the safe, the noble effects thereof, 
will be soon convinced, and by degrees come in of their 
own accord, to be partakers of so happy a government. 



THE 



READY AND EASY WAY 



TO ESTABLISH 



A FREE COMMONWEALTH, 



AND THE EXCELLENCE THEREOF, COMPARED WITH THE* INCONVENIENCIES AND DANGERS 
OF READMITTING KINGSHIP IN THIS NATION. 

[first published 1660.] 



— Et nos 

Consilium dedimus Sylloe, demus populo nunc. 



Although, since the writing" of this treatise, the face 
of things hath had some change, writs for new elec- 
tions have heen recalled, and the members at first 
chosen re-admitted from exclusion ; yet not a little re- 
joicing to hear declared the resolution of those who 
are in power, tending to the establishment of a free 
commonwealth, and to remove, if it be possible, this 
noxious humour of returning to bondage, instilled of 
late by some deceivers, and nourished from bad princi- 
ples and false apprehensions among too many of the 
people ; I thought best not to suppress what I had 
written, hoping that it may now be of much more use 
and concernment to be freely published, in the midst 
of our elections to a free parliament, or their sitting to 
consider freely of the government ; whom it behoves 
to have all things represented to them that may direct 
their judgment therein; and I never read of any state, 
scarce of any tyrant, grown so incurable, as to refuse 
counsel from any in a time of public deliberation, much 
less to be offended. If their absolute determination be 
to iuthrall us, before so long a Lent of servitude, they 
may permit us a little shroving-time first, wherein to 
speak freely, and take our leaves of liberty. And be- 
cause in the former edition, through haste, many faults 
escaped, and many books were suddenly dispersed, ere 
the note to mend them could be sent, I took the oppor- 
tunity from this occasion to revise and somewhat to 
enlarge the whole discourse, especially that part which 
ruins for a perpetual senate. The treatise thus re- 
\ i ed and enlarged, is as follows. 

The Parliament of England, assisted by a great 
number of the people who appeared and stuck to them 
la it 1j fullest in defence of religion and their civil liber- 
ties, judging kingship by long experience a govern- 
on nt unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous, justly 
and magnanimously abolished it, turning regal bond- 
itoa free commonwealth, to the admiration and ter- 
rour of our emulous neighbours. They took themselves 
not bound by the light of nature or religion to any 
former covenant, from which the king himself, by 
forfeitures of a latter date or discovov, and our 



own longer consideration thereon, had more and more 
unbound us, both to himself and his posterity; as hath 
been ever the justice and the prudence of all wise na- 
tions, that have ejected tyranny. They covenanted 
" to preserve the king's person and authority, in the 
preservation of the true religion, and our liberties;"' 
not in his endeavouring to bring in upon our consci- 
ences a popish religion ; upon our liberties, thraldom ; 
upon our lives, destruction, by his occasioning, if not 
coraplotting, as was after discovered, the Irish massa- 
cre ; his fomenting and arming the rebellion ; his 
covert leaguing with the rebels against us ; his refus- 
ing, more than seven times, propositions most just and 
necessary to the true religion and our liberties, tendered 
him by the parliament both of England and Scotland. 
They made not their covenant concerning him with no 
difference between a king and a God; or promised him, 
as Job did to the Almighty, " to trust in him though 
he slay us :" they understood that the solemn engage- 
ment, wherein we all forswore kingship, was no more 
a breach of the covenant, than the covenant was of the 
protestation before, but a faithful and prudent going 
on both in words well weighed, and in the true sense 
of the covenant " without respect of persons," when we 
could not serve two contrary masters, God and the 
king, or the king and that more supreme law, sworn 
in the first place to maintain our safety and our 
liberty. They knew the people of England to be 
a free people, themselves the representors of that 
freedom ; and although many were excluded, and 
as many fled (so they pretended) from tumults to 
Oxford, yet they were left a sufficient number to act in 
parliament, therefore not bound by any statute of pre- 
ceding parliaments, but by the law of nature only, 
which is the only law of laws truly and properly to all 
mankind fundamental ; the beginning and the end of 
all government; to which no parliament or people that 
will throughly reform, but may and must have recourse, 
as they had, and must yet have, in church-reform- 
ation (if they throughly intend it) to evangelic rules; 
not to ecclesiastical canons, though never so ancient, 



THE READY AND EASY WAY, &c. 



443 



so ratified and established in the land by statutes 
which for the most part are mere positive laws, neither 
natural nor moral : and so by any parliament, for just 
and serious considerations, without scruple to be at any 
time repealed. If others of their number in these thing's 
were under force, they were not, but under free con- 
science ; if others were excluded by a power which 
they could not resist, they were not therefore to leave 
the helm of government in no hands, to discontinue 
their care of the public peace and safety, to desert the 
people in anarchy and confusion, no more than when 
so many of their members left them, as made up in 
outward formality a more legal parliament of three 
estates against them. The best-affected also, and best- 
principled of the people, stood not numbering or com- 
puting, on which side were most voices in parliament, 
but on which side appeared to them most reason, most 
safety, when the house divided upon main matters. 
What was well motioned and advised, they examined 
not whether fear or persuasion carried it in the vote, 
neither did they measure votes and counsels by the in- 
tentions of them that voted ; knowing that intentions 
either are but guessed at, or not soon enough known ; 
and although good, can neither make the deed such, 
nor prevent the consequence from being bad : suppose 
bad intentions in things otherwise well done ; what 
was well done, was by them who so thought, not the 
less obeyed or followed in the state ; since in the church, 
who had not rather follow Iscariot or Simon the magi- 
cian, though to covetous ends, preaching, than Saul, 
though in the uprightness of his heart persecuting the 
gospel ? Safer they therefore judged what they thought 
the better counsels, though carried on by some perhaps 
to bad ends, than the worse by others, though endea- 
voured with best intentions : and yet they were not to 
learn, that a greater number might be corrupt within 
the walls of a parliament, as well as of a city ; whereof 
in matters of nearest concernment all men will be 
judges; nor easily permit, that the odds of voices in 
their greatest council shall more endanger them by 
corrupt or credulous votes, than the odds of enemies 
by open assaults ; judging, that most voices ought not 
always to prevail, where main matters are in question. 
If others hence will pretend to disturb all counsels ; 
what is that to them who pretend not, but are in real 
danger ; not they only so judging, but a great, though 
not the greatest, number of their chosen patriots, who 
might be more in weight than the others in numbers : 
there being in number little virtue, but by weight and 
measure wisdom working all things, and the dangers 
on either side they seriously thus weighed. From the 
treaty, short fruits of long labours, and seven years 
war ; security for twenty years, if we can hold it ; re- 
formation in the church for three years : then put to 
shift again with our vanquished master. His justice, 
his honour, his conscience declared quite contrary to 
ours; which would have furnished him with many 
such evasions, as in a book entitled, " An Inquisition 
for Blood," soon after were not concealed : bishops not 
totally removed, but left, as it were, in ambush, a re- 
serve, with ordination in their sole power ; their lauds 



Y 



already sold, not to be alienated, but rented, and the 
sale of them called " sacrilege ; " delinquents, few of 
many brought to condign punishment; accessories 
punished, the chief author, above pardon, though, after 
utmost resistance, vanquished ; not to give, but to re- 
ceive, laws; yet besought, treated with, and to be thank- 
ed for his gracious concessions, to be honoured, wor- 
shipped, glorified. If this we swore to do, with what 
righteousness in the sight of God, with what assurance 
that we bring not by such an oath, the whole sea of 
blood-guiltiness upon our heads ? If on the other side 
we prefer a free government, thoug'h for the present not 
obtained, yet all those suggested fears and difficulties, 
as the event will prove, easily overcome, we remain 
finally secure from the exasperated regal power, and 
out of snares ; shall retain the best part of our liberty, 
which is our religion, and the civil part will be from 
these who defer us, much more easily recovered, being 
neither so subtle nor so awful as a king reinthroned. 
Nor were their actions less both at home and abroad, 
than might become the hopes of a glorious rising com- 
monwealth : nor were the expressions both of army and 
people, whether in their public declarations, or several 
writings, other than such as testified a spirit in this 
nation, no less noble and well fitted to the liberty of a 
commonwealth, than in the ancient Greeks or Romans. 
Nor was the heroic cause unsuccessfully defended to S,. 
all Christendom, against the tongue of a famous and 
thought invincible adversary ; nor the constancy an 
fortitude, that so nobly vindicated our liberty, our 
victory at once against two the most prevailing usurp- 
ers over mankind, superstition and tyranny, unpraised 
or uncelebrated in a written monument, likely to out- 
live detraction, as it hath hitherto convinced or si- 
lenced not a few of our detractors, especially in parts 
abroad. After our liberty and religion thus prosper- 
ously fought for, gained, and many years possessed, 
except in those unhappy interruptions, which God 
hath removed ; now that nothing remains, but in all 
reason the certain hopes of a speedy and immediate 
settlement for ever in a firm and free commonwealth, 
for this extolled and magnified nation, regardless 
both of honour won, or deliverances vouchsafed from 
heaven, to fall back, or rather to creep back so poorly, 
as it seems the multitude would, to their once abjured 
and detested thraldom of kingship, to be ourselves the 
slanderers of our own just and religious deeds, though 
done by some to covetous and ambitious ends, yet not 
therefore to be stained with their infamy, or they to 
asperse the integrity of others ; and yet these now by 
revolting from the conscience of deeds well done, both 
in church and state, to throw away and forsake, or 
rather to betray, a just and noble cause for the mixture 
of bad men who have ill-managed and abused it, (which 
had our fathers done heretofore, and on the same pre- 
tence deserted true religion, what had long ere this 
become of our gospel and all protestant reformation so 
much intermixed with the avarice and ambition of 
some reformers ?) and by thus relapsing, to verify all 
the bitter predictions of our triumphing enemies, who 
will now think they wisely discerned and justly cen- 



44t 



THE READY AND EASY WAY 



sured both us and all our actions as rash, rebellious, 
hypocritical, and impious ; not only argues a strange, 
degenerate contagion suddenly spread among- us, fitted 
and prepared for new slavery, but will render us a scorn 
and derision to all our neighbours. And what will 
they at best say of us, and of the whole English name, 
but scoffingly, as of that foolish builder mentioned by 
our Saviour, who began to build a tower, and was not 
able to finish it? Where is this goodly tower of a 
commonwealth, which the English boasted they would 
build to overshadow kings, and be another Rome in 
the west ? The foundation indeed they lay gallantly, 
but fell into a worse confusion, not of tongues, but of 
factions, than those at the tower of Babel ; and have 
left no memorial of their work behind them remaining - , 
but in the common laughter of Europe ! Which must 
needs redound the more to our shame, if we but look 
on our neighbours the United Provinces, to usinferiour 
in all outward advantages ; who notwithstanding, in 
the midst of greater difficulties, courageously, wisely, 
constantly went through with the same work, and are 
settled in all the happy enjoyments of a potent and 
flourishing- republic to this day. 

Besides this, if we return to kingship, and soon re- 
pent, (as undoubtedly we shall, when we begin to find 
the old encroachments coming on by little and little 
upon our consciences, which must necessarily proceed 
from king and bishop united inseparably in one inter- 
est,) we may be forced perhaps to fight over again all 
that we have fought, and spend over again all that we 
have spent, but are never like to attain thus far as we 
are now advanced to the recovery of our freedom, 
never to have it in possession as we now have it, never 
to be vouchsafed hereafter the like mercies and signal 
assistances from Heaven in our cause, if by our in- 
grateful backsliding we make these fruitless; flying 
now to regal concessions from his divine condescen- 
sions, and gracious answers to our once importuning 
prayers against the tyranny which we then groaned 
under ; making vain and viler than dirt the blood of 
so many thousand faithful and valiant Englishmen, 
who left us in this liberty, bought with their lives ; 
losing by a strange after-game of folly all the battles 
we have won, together with all Scotland as to our 
conquest, hereby lost, which never any of our kings 
could conquer, all the treasure we have spent, not that 
corruptible treasure only, but that far more precious of 
all our late miraculous deliverances; treading back 
again with lost labour all our happy steps in the pro- 
gress of reformation, and most pitifully depriving our- 
selves the instant fruition of that free government, 
which we have so dearly purchased, a free common- 
v. • alth, not only held by wisest men in all ages the 
noblest, the manliest, the equallest, the justest govern- 
ni' nt. the most agreeable to all due liberty and propor- 
tional equality, both human, civil, and christian, most 
cherishing to virtue and true religion, but also (I may 
with greatest probability) plainly commended, 
or rather enjoined by our Saviour himself, to all Chris- 
tians, not without remarkable disallowance, and the 
brand of Geutilism upon kingship. God in much dis- 



pleasure gave a king to the Israelites, and imputed it 
a sin to them that they sought one : but Christ ap- 
parently forbids his disciples to admit of any such 
heathenish government; " The kings of the Gentiles," 
saith he, " exercise lordship over them ;" and they that 
" exercise authority upon them are called benefactors : 
but ye shall not be so ; but he that is greatest among 
you, let him be as the younger ; and he that is chief, 
as he that serveth." The occasion of these his words 
was the ambitious desire of Zebedee's two sons, to be 
exalted above their brethren in his kingdom, which 
they thought was to be ere long upon earth. That he 
speaks of civil government, is manifest by the former 
part of the comparison, which infers the other part to 
be always in the same kind. And what government 
comes nearer to this precept of Christ, than a free com- 
monwealth ; wherein they who are the greatest, are 
perpetual servants and drudges to the public at their 
own cost and charges, neglect their own affairs, yet 
are not elevated above their brethren ; live soberly in 
their families, walk the street as other men, may be 
spoken to freely, familiarly, friendly, without adora- 
tion ? Whereas a king must be adored like a demigod, 
with a dissolute and haughty court about him, of vast 
expense and luxury, masks and revels, to the de- 
bauching of our prime gentry both male and female ; 
not in their pastimes only, but in earnest, by the loose 
employments of court-service, which will be then 
thought honourable. There will be a queen of no less 
charge ; in most likelihood outlandish and a papist, 
besides a queen-mother such already; together with 
both their courts and numerous train : then a royal 
issue, and ere long severally their sumptuous courts ; 
to the multiplying of a servile crew, not of servants 
only, but of nobility and gentry, bred up then to 
the hopes not of public, but of court-offices, to be 
stewards, chamberlains, ushers, grooms, even of the 
close-stool ; and the lower their minds debased with 
court-opinions, contrary to all virtue and reforma- 
tion, the haughtier will be their pride and profuse- 
ness. We may well remember this not long since at 
home ; nor need but look at present into the French 
court, where enticements and preferments daily draw 
away and pervert the protestant nobility. As to the 
burden of expense, to our cost we shall soon know it; 
for any good to us deserving to be termed no better 
than the vast and lavish price of our subjection, and 
their debauchery, which we are now so greedily cheap- 
ening, and would so fain be paying most inconsider- 
ately to a single person ; who for any thing wherein 
the public really needs him, will have little else to do, 
but to bestow the eating and drinking- of excessive 
dainties, to set a pompous face upon the superficial 
actings of state, to pageant himself up and down in 
progress among the perpetual bowings and cringings 
of an abject people, on either side deifying and adoring 
him for nothing done that can deserve it. For what 
can he more than another man ? who, even in the ex- 
pression of a late court-poet, sits only like a great cipher 
set to no purpose before a long row of other significant 
figures. Nay, it is well and happy for the people, it 



TO ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 



445 



their king" be but a cipher, being- ofttimes a mischief, a 
pest, a scourge of the nation, and which is worse, not 
to be removed, not to be controlled, much less accused 
or brought to punishment, without the danger of a 
common ruin, without the shaking* and almost sub- 
version of the whole land : whereas in a free common- 
wealth, any governor or chief counsellor offending 
may be removed and punished, without the least com- 
motion. Certainly then that people must needs be 
mad, or strangely infatuated, that build the chief hope 
of their common happiness or safety on a single per- 
son ; who, if he happen to be good, can do no more 
than another man ; if to be bad, bath in his hands to 
do more evil without check, than millions of other men. 
The happiness of a nation must needs be firmest and 
certainest in full and free council of their own electing, 
where no single person, but reason only, sways. And 
what madness is it for them who might manage nobly 
their own affairs themselves, sluggishly and weakly 
to devolve all on a single person ; and more like boys 
under age than men, to commit all to his patronage 
and disposal, who neither can perform what he under- 
takes, and yet for undertaking it, though royally paid, 
will not be their servant, but their lord ! How unmanly 
must it needs be, to count such a one the breath of our 
nostrils, to hang all our felicity on him, all our safety, 
our well-being, for which if we were aught else but 
sluggards or babies, we need depend on none but God 
and our own counsels, our own active virtue and in- 
dustry ! " Go to the ant, thou sluggard," saith Solo- 
mon ; " consider her ways, and be wise ; which having 
no prince, ruler, or lord, provides her meat in the sum- 
mer, and gathers her food in the harvest:" which evi- 
dently shews us, that they who think the nation un- 
done without a king, though they look grave or 
haughty, have not so much true spirit and understand- 
ing in them as a pismire : neither are these diligent 
creatures hence concluded to live in lawless anarchy, 
or that commended, but are set the examples to impru- 
dent and ungoverned men, of a frugal and self-govern- 
ing democracy or commonwealth ; safer and more 
thriving in the joint providence and counsel of many 
industrious equals, than under the single domination 
of one imperious lord. It may be well wondered that 
any nation, styling themselves free, can suffer any man 
to pretend hereditary right over them as their lord ; 
whenas by acknowledging that right, they conclude 
themselves his servants and his vassals, and so renounce 
their own freedom. Which how a people and their 
leaders especially can do, who have fought so glori- 
ously for liberty; how they can change their noble 
words and actions, heretofore so becoming the majesty 
of a free people, into the base necessity of court-flat- 
teries and prostrations, is not only strange and ad- 
mirable, but lamentable to think on. That a nation 
should be so valorous and courageous to win then- 
liberty in the field, and when they have won it, should 
be so heartless and unwise in their counsels, as not to 
know how to use it, value it, what to do with it, or with 
themselves ; but after ten or twelve years' prosperous 
war and contestation with tyranny, basely and besot- 



tedly to run their necks again into the yoke which they 
have broken, and prostrate all the fruits of their victory 
for nought at the feet of the vanquished, besides our 
loss of glory, and such an example as kings or tyrants 
never yet had the like to boast of, will be an ignominy 
if it befall us, that never yet befell any nation pos- 
sessed of their liberty; worthy indeed themselves, 
whatsoever they be, to be for ever slaves, but that part 
of the nation which consents not with them, as I per- 
suade me of a great number, far worthier than by their 
means to be brought into the same bondage. Con- 
sidering these things so plain, so rational, I cannot but 
yet further admire on the other side, how any man, 
who hath the true principles of justice and religion in 
him, can presume or take upon him to be a king and 
lord over his brethren, whom he cannot but know, whe- 
ther as men or Christians, to be for the most part every 
way equal or superior to himself: how he can display 
with such vanity and ostentation his regal splendour, 
so supereminently above other mortal men ; or being 
a Christian, can assume such extraordinary honour 
and worship to himself, while the kingdom of Christ, 
our common king and lord, is hid to this world, and 
such Gentilish imitation forbid in express words by 
himself to all his disciples. All protestants hold that 
Christ in his church hath left no vicegerent of his 
power; but himself, without deputy, is the only head 
thereof, governing it from heaven : how then can any 
christian man derive his kingship from Christ, but with 
worse usurpation than the pope his headship over the 
church, since Christ not only hath not left the least 
shadow of a command for any such vicegerence from 
him in the state, as the pope pretends for his in the 
church, but hath expressly declared, that such regal 
dominion is from the Gentiles, not from him, and hath 
strictly charged us not to imitate them therein ? 

I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men 
will easily agree with me, that a free commonwealth 
without single person or house of lords is by far the 
best government, if it can be had ; but we have all this 
while, say they, been expecting it, and cannot yet at- 
tain it. It is true indeed, when monarchy was dis- 
solved, the form of a commonwealth should have forth- 
with been framed, and the practice thereof immedi- 
ately begun ; that the people might have soon been 
satisfied and delighted with the decent order, ease, and 
benefit thereof: we had been then by this time firmly 
rooted past fear of commotions or mutations, and now 
flourishing : this care of timely settling a new govern- 
ment instead of the old, too much neglected, hath been 
our mischief. Yet the cause thereof may be ascribed 
with most reason to the frequent disturbances, inter- 
ruptions, and dissolutions, which the parliament hath 
had, partly from the impatient or disaffected people, 
partly from some ambitious leaders in the army; much 
contrary, I believe, to the mind and approbation of the 
army itself, and their other commanders, once unde- 
ceived, or in their own power. Now is the opportu-^N^ 
nity, now the very season, wherein we may obtain a 
free commonwealth, and establish it for ever in the 
land, without difficulty or much delay. Writs are sent 



446 



THE READY AND EASY WAY 



out for elections, and, which is worth observing, in the 
name, not of any king-, but of the keepers of our 
liberty, to summon a free parliament; which then 
only will indeed be free, and deserve the true honour 
of that supreme title, if they preserve us a free people. 
Which never parliament was more free to do ; being 
now called not as heretofore, by the summons of a king, 
but by the voice of liberty : and if the people, laying 
aside prejudice and impatience, will seriously and 
calmly now consider their own good, both religious 
and civil, their own liberty and the only means thereof, 
as shall be here laid down before them, and will elect 
their knights and burgesses able men, and according 
to the just and necessary qualifications, (which, for 
aii^ht I hear, remain yet in force unrepealed, as they 
were formerly decreed in parliament,) men not ad- 
dicted to a single person or house of lords, the work is 
done ; at least the foundation firmly laid of a free com- 
monwealth, and good part also erected of the main 
structure. For the ground and basis of every just and 
free government, (since men have smarted so oft for 
committing all to one person,) is a general council of 
ablest men, chosen by the people to consult of public 
affairs from time to time for the common good. In 
this grand council must the sovereignty, not trans- 
ferred, but delegated only, and as it were deposited, 
reside ; with this caution, they must have the forces by 
sea and land committed to them for preservation of the 
common peace and liberty ; must raise and manage 
the public revenue, at least with some inspectors de- 
puted for satisfaction of the people, how it is employed ; 
must make or propose, as more expressly shall be said 
anon, civil laws, treat of commerce, peace, or war with 
foreign nations, and, for the carrying on some particu- 
lar affairs with more secrecy and expedition, must 
elect, as they have already out of their own number 
and others, a council of state. 

And, although it may seem strange at first hearing, 
by reason that men's minds are prepossessed with the 
notion of successive parliaments, I affirm, that the 
grand or general council, being well chosen, should be 
perpetual : for so their business is or may be, and oft- 
tini' -5 urgent ; the opportunity of affairs gained or lost 
in a moment. The day of council cannot be set as 
the day of a festival ; but must be ready always to pre- 
vent or answer all occasions. By this continuance 
they will become every way skilfullest, best provided 
of intelligence from abroad, best acquainted with the 
people at home, and the people with them. The ship 
of the commonwealth is always under sail ; they sit at 
tin -tern, and if they steer well, what need is there to 
change them, it being rather dangerous ? Add to 
this, that the grand council is both foundation and 
main pillar of the whole state; and to move pillars 
and foundations, not faulty, cannot be safe for the 
building. 1 see not therefore, how we can be ad- 
vantaged by successive and transitory parliaments; 
hut that they are much likelier continually to unsettle 
ratb< r than to settle a i'nc government, to breed com- 
motions, changes, novelties, and uncertainties, to bring 
t upon present affairs and opportunities, while 



all minds are in suspense with expectation of a new 
assembly, and the assembly for a good space taken up 
with the new settling of itself. After which, if they 
find no great work to do, they will make it, by altering 
or repealing former acts, or making and multiplying 
new ; that they may seem to see what their predeces- 
sors saw not, and not to have assembled for nothing : 
till all law be lost in the multitude of clashing statutes. 
But if the ambition of such as think themselves in- 
jured, that they also partake not of the government, 
and are impatient till they be chosen, cannot brook the 
perpetuity of others chosen before them; or if it be 
feared, that long continuance of power may corrupt 
sincerest men, the known expedient is, and by some 
lately propounded, that annually (or if the space be 
longer, so much perhaps the better) the third part of 
senators may go out according to the precedence of 
their election, and the like number be chosen in their 
places, to prevent their settling of too absolute a power, 
if it should be perpetual : and this they call " partial 
rotation." But I could wish, that this wheel or partial 
wheel in state, if it be possible, might be avoided, as 
having too much affinity with the wheel of Fortune. 
For it appears not how this can be done, without dan- 
ger and mischance of putting out a great number of 
the best and ablest : in whose stead new elections may 
bring in as many raw, unexperienced, and otherwise 
affected, to the weakening and much altering for the 
worse of public transactions. Neither do I think a 
perpetual senate, especially chosen or entrusted by the 
people, much in this land to be feared, where the well- 
affected, either in a standing army, or in a settled mi- 
litia, have their arms in their own hands. Safest 
therefore to me it seems, and of least hazard or inter- 
ruption to affairs, that none of the grand council be 
moved, unless by death, or just conviction of some 
crime : for what can be expected firm or stedfast from 
a floating foundation ? however, I forejudge not any 
probable expedient, any temperament that can be 
found in things of this nature, so disputable on either 
side. Yet lest this which I affirm be thought my 
single opinion, I shall add sufficient testimony. King- 
ship itself is therefore counted the more safe and dur- 
able because the king, and for the most part his coun- 
cil, is not changed during life: but a commonwealth 
is held immortal, and therein firmest, safest, and most 
above fortune : for the death of a king causeth ofttimes 
many dangerous alterations; but the death now and 
then of a senator is not felt, the main body of them 
still continuing permanent in greatest and noblest 
commonwealths, and as it were eternal. Therefore 
among the Jews, the supreme council of seventy, called 
the Sanhedrim, founded by Moses, in Athens that of 
Areopagus, in Sparta that of the ancients, in Rome the 
senate, consisted of members chosen for term of life; 
and by that means remained as it were still the same 
to generations. In Venice they change indeed oftener 
than every year some particular council of state, as that 
of six, or such other : but the true senate, which up- 
holds and sustains the government, is the whole aris- 
tocracy immovable. So in the United Provinces, the 



TO ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 



447 



states genera], which are indeed but a council of state 
deputed by the whole union, are not usually the same 
persons for above three or six years ; but the states of 
every city, in whom the sovereignty hath been placed 
time out of mind, are a standing senate, without suc- 
cession, and accounted chiefly in that regard the main 
prop of their liberty. And why they should be so in 
every well-ordered commonwealth, they who write of 
policy give these reasons ; " That to make the senate 
successive, not only impairs the dignity and lustre of 
the senate, but weakens the whole commonwealth, and 
brings it into manifest danger; while by this means 
the secrets of state are frequently divulged, and matters 
of greatest consequence committed to inexpert and no- 
vice counsellors, utterly to seek in the full and inti- 
mate knowledge of affairs past." I know not therefore 
what should be peculiar in England, to make successive 
parliaments thought safest, or convenient here more 
than in other nations, unless it be the fickleness, which 
is attributed to us as we are islanders: but good educa- 
tion and acquisite wisdom ought to correct the rluxible 
fault, if any such be, of our watery situation. It will 
be objected, that in those places where they had per- 
petual senates, they had also popular remedies against 
their growing too imperious: as in Athens, besides 
Areopagus, another senate of four or five hundred; in 
Sparta, the Ephori ; in Rome, the tribunes of the peo- 
ple. But the event tells us, that these remedies either 
little avail the people, or brought them to such a licen- 
tious and unbridled democracy, as in fine ruined them- 
selves with their own excessive power. So that the 
main reason urged why popular assemblies are to be 
trusted with the people's liberty, rather than a senate 
of principal men, because great men will be still en- 
deavouring to enlarge their power, but the common 
sort will be contented to maintain their own liberty, is 
by experience found false ; none being more immoder- 
ate and ambitious to amplify their power, than such 
popularities, which were seen in the people of Rome ; 
who at first contented to have their tribunes, at length 
contented with the senate that one consul, then both, 
soon after, that the censors and praetors also should be 
created plebeian, and the whole empire put into their 
hands ; adoring lastly those, who most were adverse to 
the senate, till Marius, by fulfilling their inordinate 
desires, quite lost them all the power, for which they 
had so long been striving, and left them under the 
tyranny of Sylla : the balance therefore must be ex- 
actly so set, as to preserve and keep up due authority 
on either side, as well in the senate as in the people. 
And this annual rotation of a senate to consist of three 
hundred, as is lately propounded, requires also another 
popular assembly upward of a thousand, with an an- 
swerable rotation. Which, besides that it will be 
liable to all those inconveniences found in the aforesaid 
remedies, cannot but be troublesome and chargeable, 
Doth in their motion and their session, to the whole 
land, unwieldy with their own bulk, unable in so great 
a number to mature their consultations as they ought, 
if any be allotted them, and that they meet not from 
so many parts remote to sit a whole year lieger in one 



place, only now and then to hold up a forest of fingers, 
or to convey each man his bean or ballot into the box, 
without reason shewn or common deliberation ; incon- 
tinent of secrets, if any be imparted to them ; emulous 
and always jarring with the other senate. The much 
better way doubtless will be, in this wavering con- 
dition of our affairs, to defer the changing or circum- 
scribing of our senate, more than may be done with 
ease, till the commonwealth be throughly settled in 
peace and safety, and they themselves give us the oc- 
casion. Military men hold it dang'erous to change 
the form of battle in view of an enemy : neither did 
the people of Rome bandy with their senate, while any 
of the Tarquins lived, the enemies of their liberty; 
nor sought by creating tribunes, to defend themselves 
against the fear of their patricians, till sixteen years 
after the expulsion of their kings, and in full security 
of their state, they had or thought they had just cause 
given them by the senate. Another way will be, 
to well qualify and refine elections : not committing 
all to the noise and shouting of a rude multitude, but 
permitting only those of them who are rightly qualified, 
to nominate as many as they will ; and out of that 
number others of a better breeding, to choose a less 
number more judiciously, till after a third or fourth 
sifting and refining of exactest choice, they only be 
left chosen who are the due number, and seem by most 
voices the worthiest. To make the people fittest to ""* 
choose, and the chosen fittest to govern, will be to 
mend our corrupt and faulty education, to teach the 
people faith, not without virtue, temperance, modesty, 
sobriety, parsimony, justice; not to admire wealth or 
honour ; to hate turbulence and ambition ; to place 
every one his private welfare and happiness in the 
public peace, liberty, and safety. They shall not then 
need to be much mistrustful of their chosen patriots in 
the grand council ; who will be then rightly called the 
true keepers of our liberty, though the most of their 
business will be in foreign affairs. But to prevent all 
mistrust, the people then will have their several ordinary 
assemblies (which will henceforth quite annihilate the 
odious power and name of committees) in the chief 
towns of every country, without the trouble, charge, or 
time lost of summoning and assembling from far in so 
great a number, and so long residing from their own 
houses, or removing of their families, to do as much at 
home in their several shires, entire or subdivided, to- 
ward the securing of their liberty, as a numerous as- 
sembly of them all formed and convened on purpose 
with the wariest rotation. Whereof I shall speak more 
ere the end of this discourse : for it may be referred to 
time, so we be still going on by degrees to perfection. 
The people well weighing and performing these things, 
I suppose would have no cause to fear, though the par- 
liament abolishing that name, as originally signifying 
but the parley of our lords and commons with the Nor- 
man king when he pleased to call them, should, with 
certain limitations of their power, sit perpetual, if their 
ends be faithful and for a free commonwealth, under 
the name of a grand or general council. Till this be 
I done, I am in doubt whether our state will be ever 



448 



THE READY AND EASY WAY 



certainly and throughly settled ; never likely till then 
to see an end of our troubles and continual changes, or 
at least never the true settlement and assurance of our 
liberty. The grand council being thus firmly constitut- 
ed to perpetuity, and still, upon the death or default of 
any member, supplied and kept in full number, there 
can be no cause alleged, why peace, justice, plentiful 
trade, and all prosperity should not thereupon ensue 
throughout the whole land ; with as much assurance as 
can be of human things, that they shall so continue (if 
God favour us, and our wilful sins provoke him not) 
even to the coming of our true and rightful, and only 
to be expected King, only worthy as he is our only 
Saviour, the Messiah, the Christ, the only heir of his 
eternal Father, the only by him anointed and ordained 
since the work of our redemption finished, universal 
Lord of all mankind. The way propounded is plain, 
easy, and open before us; without intricacies, without 
the introducement of new or absolute forms or terms, or 
exotic models ; ideas that would effect nothing ; but 
with a number of new injunctions to manacle the na- 
tive liberty of mankind ; turning all virtue into pre- 
scription, servitude, and necessity, to the great impair- 
ing and frustrating of christian liberty. I say again, 
this way lies free and smooth before us ; is not tangled 
with inconveniencies ; invents no new incumbrances ; 
requires no perilous, no injurious alteration or circum- 
scription of men's lands and properties ; secure, that in 
this commonwealth, temporal and spiritual lords re- 
moved, no man or number of men can attain to such 
wealth or vast possession, as will need the hedge of an 
agrarian law (never successful, but the cause rather of 
sedition, save only where it began seasonably with first 
possession) to confine them from endangering our pub- 
lic liberty. To conclude, it can have no considerable 
objection made against it, that it is not practicable ; lest 
it be said hereafter, that we gave up our liberty for 
want of a ready way or distinct form proposed of a free 
commonwealth. And this facility we shall have above 
our next neighbouring commonwealth, (if we can keep 
us from the fond conceit of something like a duke of 
Venice, put lately into many men's heads by some one 
or other subtly driving on under that notion his own 
ambitious ends to lurch a crown,) that our liberty shall 
not be hampered or hovered over by any engagement 
to such a potent family as the house of Nassau, of whom 
to stand in perpetual doubt and suspicion, but we shall 
live the clearest and absolutest free nation in the world. 
On the contrary, if there be a king, which the in- 
considerate multitude are now so mad upon, mark how 
far short we are like to come of all those happinesses, 
which in a free state we shall immediately be possessed 
of. First, the grand council, which, as I shewed be- 
fore, should sit perpetually, (unless their leisure give 
them now and then some intermissions or vacations, 
easily manageable by the council of state left sitting,) 
shall he called, by the king's good will and utmost en- 
deavour, as seldom as may be. Tor it is only the king's 
ri^lit, ho will say, to call a parliament; and this he 
will do most commonly about his own affairs rather 
than the kingdom's, as will appear plainly so soon as 



they are called. For what will their business then be, 
and the chief expense of their time, but an endless tug- 
ging between petition of right and royal prerogative, 
especially about the negative voice, militia, or subsidies, 
demanded and ofttimes extorted without reasonable 
cause appearing to the commons, who are the only true 
representatives of the people and their liberty, but will 
be then mingled with a court-faction ; besides which, 
within their own walls, the sincere part of them who 
stand faithful to the people will again have to deal with 
two troublesome counter-working' adversaries from 
without, mere creatures of the king-, spiritual, and the 
greater part, as is likeliest, of temporal lords, nothing- 
concerned with the people's liberty. If these prevail not 
in what they please, though never so much against the 
people's interest, the parliament shall be soon dissolved, 
or sit and do nothing; not suffered to remedy the least 
grievance, or enact aught advantageous to the people. 
Next, the council of state shall not be chosen by the 
parliament, but by the king, still his own creatures, 
courtiers, and favourers ; who will be sure in all their 
counsels to set their master's grandeur and absolute 
power, in what they are able, far above the people's 
liberty. I deny not but that there may be such a king, 
who may regard the common good before his own, may 
have no vicious favourite, may hearken only to the 
wisest and incorruptest of his parliament : but this 
rarely happens in a monarchy not elective ; and it be- 
hoves not a wise nation to commit the sum of their 
well-being, the whole state of their safety to fortune. 
What need they; and how absurd would it be, whenas 
they themselves, to whom his chief virtue will be but 
to hearken, may with much better management and 
dispatch, with much more commendation of their own 
worth and magnanimity, govern without a master ? 
Can the folly be parralleled, to adore and be the slaves 
of a single person, for doing that which it is ten thou- 
sand to one whether he can or will do, and we without 
him might do more easily, more effectually, more laud- 
ably ourselves ? Shall w T e never grow old enough to 
be wise, to make seasonable use of gravest authorities, 
experiences, examples ? Is it such an unspeakable joy 
to serve, such felicity to wear a yoke ? to clink our 
shackles, locked on by pretended law of subjection, 
more intolerable and hopeless to be ever shaken off, 
than those which are knocked on by illegal injury and 
violence ? Aristotle our chief instructor in the univer- 
sities, Test this doctrine be thought sectarian, as the 
royalist would have it thought, tells us in the third of 
his Politics, that certain men at first, for the matchless 
excellence of their virtue above others, or some great 
public benefit, were created kings by the people, in 
small cities and territories, and in the scarcity of others 
to be found like them ; but when they abused their 
power, and governments grew larger, and the number 
of prudent men increased, that then the people, soon 
deposing their tyrants, betook them, in all civilest 
places, to the form of a free commonwealth. And why 
should we thus disparage and prejudicate our own na- 
tion, as to fear a scarcity of able and worthy men united 
in counsel to govern us, if we will but use diligence 



TO ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 



449 



and impartiality, to find them out and choose them, ra- 
ther yoking- ourselves to a single person, the natural 
adversary and oppressor of liberty ; though good, yet 
far easier corruptible by the excess of his single power 
and exaltation, or at best, not comparably sufficient to 
bear the weight of government, nor equally disposed to 
make us happy in the enjoyment of our liberty under 
him ? 

But admit, that monarchy of itself may be conveni- 
ent to some nations ; yet to us who have thrown it out, 
received back again, it cannot but prove pernicious. 
For kings to come, never forgetting their former ejec- 
tion, will be sure to fortify and arm themselves suffi- 
ciently for the future against all such attempts hereafter 
from the people : who shall be then so narrowly watched 
and kept so low, that though they would never so fain, 
and at the same rate of their blood and treasure, they 
never shall be able to regain what they now have pur- 
chased and may enjoy, or to free themselves from any 
yoke imposed upon them : nor will they dare to go 
about it ; utterly disheartened for the future, if these 
their highest attempts prove unsuccessful ; which will 
be the triumph of all tyrants hereafter over any people 
that shall resist oppression ; and their song will then 
be, to others, How sped the rebellious English ? to our 
posterity, How sped the rebels your fathers ? This is not 
my conjecture, but drawn from God's known denounce- 
ment ag'ainst the gentilizing Israelites, who, though 
they were governed in a commonwealth of God's own 
ordaining, he only their king, they his peculiar people, 
yet affecting rather to resemble heathen, but pretending 
the raisgovernment of Samuel's sons, no more a reason 
to dislike their commonwealth, than the violence of 
Eli's sons was imputable to that priesthood or religion, 
clamoured for a king. They had their longing, but 
with this testimony of God's wrath ; " Ye shall cry out 
in that day, because of your king whom ye shall have 
chosen, and the Lord will not hear you in that day." 
Us if he shall hear now, how much less will he hear 
when we cry hereafter, who once delivered by him from 
a king - , and not without wonderous acts of his provi- 
dence, insensible and unworthy of those high mercies, 
are returning precipitantly, if he withhold us not, back 
to the captivity from whence he freed us ! Yet neither 
shall we obtain or buy at an easy rate this new gilded 
yoke, which thus transports us : a new royal revenue 
must be found, a new episcopal ; for those are indivi- 
dual : both which being wholly dissipated, or bought 
by private persons, or assigned for service done, and 
especially to the army, cannot be recovered without 
general detriment and confusion to men's estates, or a 
heavy imposition on all men's purses ; benefit to none 
but to the worst and igmoblest sort of men, whose hope 
is to be either the ministers of court riot and excess, or 
the gainers by it : but not to speak more of losses and 
extraordinary levies on our estates, what will then be 
the revenges and offences remembered and returned, 
not only by the chief person, but by all his adherents; 
accounts and reparations that will be required, suits, 
indictments, inquiries, discoveries, complaints, informa- 
tions, who knows against whom or how many, though 



perhaps neuters, if not to utmost infliction, yet to im- 
prisonment, fines, banishment, or molestation ? if not 
these, yet disfavour, discountenance, disregard, and 
contempt on all but the known royalist, or whom 
he favours, will be plenteous. Nor let the new royal- 
ized presbyterians persuade themselves, that their 
old doings, though now recanted, will be forgotten ; 
whatever conditions be contrived or trusted on. Will 
they not believe this ; nor remember the pacifica- 
tion, how it was kept to the Scots ; how other so- 
lemn promises many a time to us ? Let them but now 
read the diabolical forerunning libels, the faces, the 
gestures, that now appear foremost and briskest in all 
public places, as the harbingers of those, that are in 
expectation to reign over us; let them but hear the in- 
solencies, the menaces, the insultings, of our newly ani- 
mated common enemies crept lately out of their holes, 
their hell I might say, by the language of their in- 
fernal pamphlets, the spew of every drunkard, every 
ribald ; nameless, yet not for want of licence, but for 
very shame of their own vile persons, not daring to 
name themselves, while they traduce others by name ; 
and give us to foresee, that they intend to second their 
wicked words, if ever they have power, with more 
wicked deeds. Let our zealous backsliders forethink 
now with themselves how their necks yoked with these 
tigers of Bacchus, these new fanatics of not the preach- 
ing, but the sweating tub, inspired with nothing holier 
than the venereal pox, can draw one way under mo- 
narchy to the establishing of church discipline with 
these new disgorged atheisms : yet shall they not have 
the honour to yoke with these, but shall be yoked under 
them; these shall plough on their backs. And do 
they among them, who are so forward to bring in the 
single person, think to be by him trusted or long re- 
garded ? So trusted they shall be, and so regarded, as 
by kiugs are wont reconciled enemies; neglected, and 
soon after discarded, if not persecuted for old traitors; 
the first inciters, beginners, and more than to the third 
part actors, of all that followed. It will be found also, 
that there must be then, as necessary as now, (for the 
contrary part will be still feared,) a standing army; 
which for certain shall not be this, but of the fiercest 
cavaliers, of no less expense, and perhaps again under 
Rupert. But let this army be sure they shall be soon 
disbanded, and likeliest without arrear or pay; and 
being disbanded, not be sure bat they may as soon be 
questioned for being in arms against their king : the 
same let them fear who have contributed money ; 
which will amount to no small number, that must then 
take their turn to be made delinquents and compound- 
ers. They who past reason and recovery are devoted 
to kingship perhaps will answer, that a greater part by 
far of the nation will have it so, the rest therefore must 
yield. Not so much to convince these, which I little 
hope, as to confirm them who yield not, I reply, that 
this greatest part have both in reason, and the trial of 
just battle, lost the right of their election what the go- 
vernment shall be : of them who have not lost that 
right, whether they for kingship be the greater num- 
ber, who can.- certainly determine? Suppose they be, 



450 



THE READY AND EASY WAY 






yet of freedom they partake all alike, one main end of 
government: which if the greater part value not, but 
/will degenerately forego, is it just or reasonable, that 
most voices against the main end of government should 
enslave the less number that would be free ? more just 
it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number 
compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong to 
them, their liberty, than that a greater number, for the 
pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuri- 
^ ously to be their fellow-slaves. They who seek no- 
thing but their own just liberty, have always right to 
win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be 
the voices never so numerous that oppose it. And how 
much we above others are concerned to defend it from 
kingship, and from them who in pursuance thereof so 
perniciously would betray us and themselves to most 
certain misery and thraldom, will be needless to repeat. 

Having thus far shewn with what ease we may now 
obtain a free commonwealth, and by it, with as much 
ease, all the freedom, peace, justice, plenty, that we 
can desire ; on the other side, the difficulties, troubles, 
uncertainties, nay rather impossibilities, to enjoy these 
things constantly under a monarch : I will now pro- 
ceed to shew more particularly wherein our freedom 
and flourishing condition will be more ample and se- 
cure to us under a free commonwealth, than under 
kingship. 

The whole freedom of man consists either in spirit- 
ual or civil liberty. As for spiritual, who can be at 
rest, who can enjoy any thing in this world with con- 
tentment, who hath not liberty to serve God, and to 
save his own soul, according to the best light which 
God hath planted in him to that purpose, by the read- 
ing of his revealed will, and the guidance of his Holy 
Spirit ? That this is best pleasing to God, and that 
the whole protestant church allows no supreme judge 
or rule in matters of religion, but the Scriptures; and 
these to be interpreted by the Scriptures themselves, 
which necessarily infers liberty of conscience ; I have 
heretofore proved at large in another treatise ; and 
might yet further, by the public declarations, confes- 
sions, and admonitions of whole churches and states, 
obvious in all histories since the reformation. 

'1 his liberty of conscience, which above all other 
tilings ought to be to all men dearest and most pre- 
cious, no government more inclinable not to favour 
only, but to protect, than a free commonwealth ; as be- 
ing most magnanimous, most fearless, and coiifident 
of its own fair proceedings. Whereas kingship, though 
looking big, yet indeed most pusillanimous, full of 
fears, full of jealousies, startled at every umbrage, as 
it hath been observed of old to have ever suspected 
most and mistrusted them who were in most esteem 
for virtue and generosity of mind, so it is now known 
to have most in doubt and suspicion them who arc 
most reputed to be religious. Queen Elizabeth, 
though herself accounted so good a protestant, so mo- 
derate, so confident of her subjects' love, would never 
give way so much as to presbytcrian reformation in 
this land, though once and again besought, as Camden 
relates, but imprisoned and persecuted the very propo- 



sers thereof; alleging it as her mind and maxim un- 
alterable, that such reformation would diminish regal 
authority. What liberty of conscience can we then 
expect of others, far worse principled from the cradle, 
trained up and governed by popish and Spanish coun- 
sels, and on such depending hitherto for subsistence? 
Especially what can this last parliament expect, who 
having revived lately and published the covenant, have 
re-engaged themselves, never to readmit episcopacy ? 
Which no son of Charles returning but will most cer- 
tainly bring back with him, if he regard the last and 
strictest charge of his father, "to persevere in, not the 
doctrine only, but government of the church of Eng- 
land, not to neglect the speedy and effectual sup- 
pressing of errours and schisms;" among which he ac- 
counted presbytery one of the chief. Or if, notwith- 
standing that charge of his father, he submit to the 
covenant, how will he keep faith to us, with disobe- 
dience to him ; or regard that faith given, which must 
be founded on the breach of that last and solemnest 
paternal charge, and the reluctance, I may say the 
antipathy, which is in all kings, against presbyterian 
and independent discipline ? For they hear the gospel 
speaking much of liberty ; a word which monarchy 
and her bishops both fear and hate, but a free common- 
wealth both favours and promotes ; and not the word 
only, but the thing itself. But let our governors be- 
ware in time, lest their hard measure to liberty of con- 
science be found the rock whereon they shipwreck 
themselves, as others have now done before them in the 
course wherein God was directing their steerage to a 
free commonwealth ; and the abandoning of all those^ 
whom they call sectaries, for the detected falsehood 
and ambition of some, be a wilful rejection of their 
own chief strength and interest in the freedom of all 
protestant religion, under what abusive name soever / 
calumniated. 

The other part of our freedom consists in the civil 
rights and advancements of every person according to 
his merit: the enjoyment of those never more certain, 
and the access to these never more open, than in a free 
commonwealth. Both which, in my opinion, may be 
best and soonest obtained, if every country in the land 
were made a kind of subordinate commonalty or com- 
monwealth, and one chief town or more, according as 
the shire is in circuit, made cities, if they be not so 
called already; where the nobility and chief gentry, 
from a proportionable compass of territory annexed to 
each city, may build houses or palaces befitting their 
quality, may bear part in the government, make their 
own judicial laws, or use these that are, and execute 
them by their own elected judicatures and judges with- 
out appeal, in all things of civil government between 
man and man ; so they shall have justice in their own 
hands, law executed fully and finally in their own 
counties and precincts, long wished and spoken of, but 
never yet obtained ; they shall have none then to blame 
but themselves, if it be not well administered; and 
fewer laws to expect or fear from the supreme autho- 
rity ; or to those that shall be made, of any great con- 
cernment to public liberty, they may, without much 



TO ESTABLISH A FREE COMMONWEALTH. 



451 



trouble in these commonalties, or in more general as- 
semblies called to their cities from the whole territory 
on such occasion, declare and publish their assent or 
dissent by deputies, within a time limited, sent to the 
grand council; yet so as this their judgment declared 
shall submit to the greater number of other counties or 
commonalties, and not avail them to any exemption of 
themselves, or refusal of agreement with the rest, as it 
may in any of the United Provinces, being sovereign 
within itself, ofttimes to the great disadvantage of that 
union. In these employments they may, much better 
than they do now, exercise and sit themselves till their 
lot fall to be chosen into the grand council, according 
as their worth and merit shall be taken notice of by the 
people. As for controversies that shall happen between 
men of several counties, they may repair, as they do 
now, to the capital city, or any other more commodi- 
ous, indifferent place, and equal judges. And this I 
find to have been practised in the old Athenian com- 
monwealth, reputed the first and ancientest place of 
civility in all Greece ; that they had in their several 
cities a peculiar, in Athens a common government; 
and their right, as it befel them, to the administration 
of both. They should have here also schools and acade- 
mies at their own choice, wherein their children may 
be bred up in their own sight to all learning and noble 
education ; not in grammar only, but in all liberal arts 
and exercises. This would soon spread much more 
knowledge and civility, yea, religion, through all parts 
of the land, by communicating the natural heat of 
government and culture more distributively to all ex- 
treme parts, which now lie numb and neglected, would 
soon make the whole nation more industrious, more in- 
genious at home ; more potent, more honourable abroad. 
To this a free commonwealth will easily assent ; (nay, 
the parliament hath had already some such thing in 
design ;) for of all governments a commonwealth aims 
most to make the people flourishing, virtuous, noble, 
and high-spirited. Monarchs will never permit ; whose 
aim is to make the people wealthy indeed perhaps, and 
well fleeced, for their own shearing, and the supply of 
regal prodigality ; but otherwise softest, basest, vicious- 
est, servilest, easiest to be kept under : and not only in 
fleece, but in mind also sheepishest ; and will have all 
the benches of judicature annexed to the throne, as a 
gift of royal grace, that we have justice done us; 
whenas nothing can be more essential to the freedom 
of a people, than to have the administration of justice, 
and all public ornaments, in their own election, and 
within their own bounds, without long travelling or 
depending upon remote places to obtain their right, or 
any civil accomplishment ; so it be not supreme, but 
subordinate to the general power and union of the 
whole republic. In which happy firmness, as in the 
particular above-mentioned, we shall also far exceed 
•the United Provinces, by having, not as they, (to the 
retarding and distracting ofttimes of their counsels or 
urgentest occasions,) many sovereignties united in one 
commonwealth, but many commonwealths under one 
united and intrusted sovereignty. And when we have 
our forces by sea and land, either of a faithful army, 
2 G 



or a settled militia, in our own hands, to the firm esta- 
blishing of a free commonwealth, public accounts under 
our own inspection, general laws and taxes, with their 
causes in our own domestic suffrages, judicial laws, 
offices, and ornaments at home in our own ordering 
and administration, all distinction of lords and com- 
moners, that may any way divide or sever the public 
interest, removed ; what can a perpetual senate have 
then, wherein to grow corrupt, wherein to encroach 
upon us, or usurp ? or if they do, w 7 herein to be formi- 
dable ? Yet if all this avail not to remove the fear or 
envy of a perpetual sitting, it may be easily provided, 
to change a third part of them yearly, or every two or 
three years, as was above-mentioned ; or that it be at 
those times in the people's choice, whether they will 
change them, or renew their power, as they shall find 
cause. 

I have no more to say at present : few words will 
save us, well considered ; few and easy things, now 
seasonably done. But if the people be so affected as 
to prostitute religion and liberty to the vain and ground- 
less apprehension, that nothing* but kingship can re- 
store trade, not remembering the frequent plagues and 
pestilences that then wasted this city, such as through 
God's mercy we never have felt since ; and that trade 
flourishes no where more than in the free common- 
wealths of Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries, be- 
fore their eyes at this day ; yet if trade be grown so 
craving and importunate through the profuse living of 
tradesmen, that nothing - can support it but the luxuri- 
ous expenses of a nation upon trifles or superfluities ; 
so as if the people generally should betake themselves 
to frugality, it might prove a dangerous matter, lest 
tradesmen should mutiny for want of trading; and that 
therefore we must forego and set to sale religion, 
liberty, honour, safety, all concernments divine or hu- 
man, to keep up trading : if, lastly, after all this light 
among* us, the same reason shall pass for current, to 
put our necks again under kingship, as was made use 
of by the Jews to return back to Egypt, and to the 
worship of their idol queen, because they falsely 
imagined that they then lived in more plenty and pros- 
perity; our condition is not sound but rotten, both in 
religion and all civil prudence; and will bring us soon, 
the way we are marching, to those calamities, which 
attend always and unavoidably on luxury, all national 
judgments under foreign and domestic slavery: so far 
we shall be from mending our condition by monarch- 
ising our government, whatever new conceit now pos- 
sesses us. However, with all hazard I have ventured 
what I thought my duty to speak in season, and to 
forewarn my country in time; wherein I doubt not but 
there be many wise men in all places and degrees, but 
am sorry the effects of wisdom are so little seen among 
us. Many circumstances and particulars I could have 
added in those things whereof I have spoken : but a 
few main matters now put speedily in execution, will 
suffice to recover us, and set all right: and there will 
want at no time who are good at circumstances ; but 
men who set their minds on main matters, and suf- 
ficiently urge them, in these most difficult times I find 



452 



THE READY AND EASY WAY, &c. 



not many. What I have spoken, is the language of 
that which is not called amiss " The good old Cause:" 
if it seem strange to any, it will not seem more strange, 
I hope, than convincing to backsliders. Thus much I 
should perhaps have said, though I were sure I should 
have spoken only to trees and stones; and had none to 
cry to, but with the prophet, " O earth, earth, earth !" 
to tell the very soil itself, what her perverse inhabit- 
ants are deaf to. Nay, though what I have spoke 
should happen (which thou sutfernot, who didst create 
mankind free ! nor thou next, who didst redeem us 
from being servants of men !) to be the last words of 
our expiring liberty. But I trust I shall have spoken 
persuasion to abundance of sensible and ingenuous 



men ; to some perhaps, whom God may raise to these 
stones to become children of reviving liberty ; and may 
reclaim, though they seem now choosing them a cap- 
tain back for Egypt, to bethink themselves a little, and 
consider whither they are rushing ; to exhort this tor- 
rent also of the people, not to be so impetuous, but to 
keep their due channel ; and at length recovering and 
uniting their better resolutions, now that they see 
already how open and unbounded the insolence and 
rage is of our common enemies, to stay these ruinous 
proceedings, justly and timely fearing to what a pre- 
cipice of destruction the deluge of this epidemic mad- 
ness would hurry us, through the general defection of 
a misguided and abused multitude. 



BRIEF NOTES UPON 



A LATE SERMON, 



THE FEAR OF GOD AND THE KING; 



PREACHED AND SINCE PUBLISHED 



BY MATTHEW GRIFFITH, D. D. 



AND CHAPLAIN TO THE LATE KING. 



WHEREIN MANY NOTORIOUS WRESTINGS OF SCRIPTURE, AND OTHER FALSITIES, ARE OBSERVED. 

[first published 1660.] 



I affirmed in the preface of a late discourse, intitled, 
" The ready Way to establish a Free Commonwealth, 
and the Dangers of re-admitting" Kingship in this Na- 
tion," that the humour of returning- to our old bondage 
was instilled of late by some deceivers ; and to make 
good, that what I then affirmed was not without just 
ground, one of those deceivers I present here to the 
people : and if I prove him not such, refuse not to be 
so accounted in his stead. 

He begins in his epistle to the General,* and moves 
cunningly for a licence to be admitted physician both 
to church and state ; then sets out his practice in phy- 
sical terms, " a wholesome electuary to be taken every 
morning next our hearts ;" tells of the opposition which 
he met with from the college of state physicians, then 
lays before you his drugs and ingredients ; " Strong- 
purgatives in the pulpit, contempered of the myrrh of 
mortification, the aloes of confession and contrition, the 
rhubarb of restitution and satisfaction ;" a pretty fan- 
tastic dose of divinity from a pulpit mountebank, not 
unlike the fox, that turning pedlar opened his pack of 
ware before the kid ; though he now would seem, " to 
personate the good Samaritan," undertaking to " de- 
scribe the rise and progress of our national malady, 
and to prescribe the only remedy ;" which how he per- 
forms, we shall quickly see. 

First, he would suborn St. Luke as his spokesman 
to the General, presuming, it seems, " to have had as 
perfect understanding of things from the very first," as 
the evangelist had of his gospel; that the General, who 
hath so eminently born his part in the whole action, 
" might know the certainty of those things" better 
from him a partial sequestered enemy ; for so he pre- 
sently appears, though covertly, and like the tempter, 
* Monk. 



commencing his address with an impudent calumny 
and affront to his excellence, that he would be pleased 
"to carry on what he had so happily begun in the 
name and cause" not of God only, which we doubt not, 
but " of his anointed," meaning the late king's son ; to 
charge him most audaciously and falsely with the re- 
nouncing of his own public promises and declarations, 
both to the parliament and the army, and we trust his 
actions ere long will deter such insinuating' slanderers 
from thus approaching him for the future. But the 
General may well excuse him ; for the Comforter him- 
self scapes not his presumption, avouched as falsely, 
to have empowered to those designs "him and him 
only," who hath solemnly declared the contrary. What 
fanatic, against whom he so often inveighs, could 
more presumptuously affirm whom the Comforter hath 
empowered, than this anti-fanatic, as he would be 
thought ? 

THE TEXT. 

Prov. xxiv. 21, My son, fear God and the king, and 
meddle not with them that be seditions, or desirous 
of change, &c. 

Letting pass matters not in controversy, I come to 
the main drift of your sermon, the king; which word 
here is either to signify any supreme magistrate, or else 
your latter object of fear is not universal, belongs not 
at all to many parts of Christendom, that have no king ; 
and in particular not to us. That we have no king 
since the putting down of kingship in this common- 
wealth, is manifest by this last parliament, who, to the 
time of their dissolving, not only made no address at 
all to any king, but summoned this next to come by 



454 



BRIEF NOTES ON DR. GRIFFITH'S SERMON. 



the writ formerly appointed of a free commonwealth, 
without restitution or the least mention of any kingly 
right or power ; which could not be, if there were 
at present any kino- f England. The main part there- 
fore of your sermon, if it mean a king in the usual 
sense, is either impertinent and absurd, exhorting your 
auditory to fear that which is not; or if king here be, 
as it is understood, for any supreme magistrate, by 
your own exhortation they are in the first place not to 
meddle with you, as being yourself most of all the se- 
ditious meant here, and the " desirous of change," in 
stirring them up to " fear a king," whom the present 
government takes no notice of. 

You begin with a vain vision, " God and the king at 
the first blush" (which will not be your last blush) 
" seeming to stand in your text like those two cheru- 
bims on the mercy-seat, looking on each other." By 
this similitude, your conceited sanctuary, worse than 
the altar of Ahaz, patterned from Damascus, degrades 
God to a cherub, and raises your king to be his colla- 
teral in place, notwithstanding the other differences you 
put ; which well agrees with the court-letters, lately 
published, from this lord to the other lord, that cry him 
up for no less than angelical and celestial. 

Your first observation, page 8, is, " That God and 
the king are coupled in the text, and what the Holy 
Ghost hath thus firmly combined, we may not, we must 
not dare to put asunder;" and yourself is the first man 
who puts them asunder by the first proof of your doc- 
trine immediately following, Judg. vii. 20, which 
couples the sword of the Lord and Gideon, a man who 
not only was no king-, but refused to be a king or 
monarch, when it was offered him, in the very next 
chapter, ver. 22, 23, " I will not rule over you, neither 
shall my son rule over you ; the Lord shall rule over 
you." Here we see, that this worthy heroic deliverer of 
his country thought it best governed, if the Lord go- 
verned it in that form of a free commonwealth, which 
they then enjoyed, without a single person. And thus 
is your first scripture abused, and most impertinently 
cited, nay, against yourself, to prove, that " kings at 
their coronation have a sword given them," which you 
interpret "the militia, the power of life and death put 
into their hands," against the declared judgment of 
our parliaments, nay, of all our laws, which reserve to 
themselves only the power of life and death, and render 
you in their just resentment of this boldness another 
Dr. Manwaring. 

Your next proof is as false and frivolous, " The king," 
say you, " is God's sword-bearer;" true, but not the 
king only: for Gideon, by whom you seek to prove 
this, neither was nor would be a king; and as you 
yourself confess, page 40, " There be divers forms of 
government." " He bears not the sword in vain," 
Rom xiii. 4 : This also is as true of any lawful rulers, 
< specially supreme; so that " Rulers," ver. 3, and there- 
fore tljis present government, without whose authority 
you excite the people to a king, bear the sword as well 
as kings, and as little in vain. " They fight against 
God, who resist his ordinance, and go about to wrest 
the sword out of the hands of his anointed." This is 



likewise granted : but who is his anointed ? Not every 
king, but they only who were anointed or made kings 
by his special command ; as Saul, David, and his race, 
which ended in the Messiah, (from whom no kings at 
this day can derive their title,) Jehu, Cyrus, and if any 
other were by name appointed by him to some parti- 
cular service : as for the rest of kings, all other su- 
preme magistrates are as much the Lord's anointed as 
they; and our obedience commanded equally to them 
all ; " for there is no power but of God," Rom. xiii. 1 : 
and we are exhorted in the gospel to obey kings, as 
other magistrates, not that they are called any where 
the Lord's anointed, but as they are the " Ordinance of 
man," 1 Pet. ii. 13. You therefore and other such 
false doctors, preaching kings to your auditory, as the 
Lord's only anointed, to withdraw people from the pre- 
sent government, by your own text are self-condemned, 
and not to be followed, not to be " meddled with," but 
to be noted, as most of all others the " seditious and 
desirous of change." 

Your third proof is no less against yourself. Psal. cv. 
15, " Touch not mine anointed." For this is not spoken 
in behalf of kings, but spoken to reprove kings, that 
they should not touch his anointed saints and servants, 
the seed of Abraham, as the verse next before might 
have taught you : he reproved kings for their sakes, 
saying, " Touch not mine anointed, and do my pro- 
phets no harm;" according to that, 2 Cor. i. 21, " He 
who hath anointed us, is God." But how well you 
confirm one wrested scripture with another! 1 Sam- 
viii. 7, " They have not rejected thee, but me :" grossly 
misapplying these words, which were not spoken to 
any who had " resisted or rejected" a king, but to them 
who much against the will of God had sought a king, 
and rejected a commonwealth, wherein they might have 
lived happily under the reign of God only, their king. 
Let the words interpret themselves ; ver. 6, 7, " But 
the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us 
a king to judge us : and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice 
of the people in all that they say unto thee ; for they 
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that 
I should not reign over them." Hence you conclude, 
"so indissoluble is the conjunction of God and the 
king." O notorious abuse of Scripture ! whenas you 
should have concluded, so unwilling was God to give 
them a king, so wide was the disjunction of God from 
a king. Is this the doctrine you boast of, to be "so 
clear in itself, and like a mathematical principle, that 
needs no farther demonstration ?" Bad logic, bad ma- 
thematics, (for principles can have no demonstration 
at all,) but worse divinity. O people of an implicit 
faith, no better than Romish, if these be thy prime 
teachers, who to their credulous audience dare thus 
juggle with Scripture, to allege those places for the proof 
of their doctrine, which are the plain refutation : and this 
is all the Scripture which he brings to confirm his point. 

The rest of his preachment is mere groundless chat, 
save here and there a few grains of corn scattered to 
entice the silly fowl into his net, interlaced here and 
there with some human reading, though slight, and not 



i 



BRIEF NOTES ON DR. GRIFFITH'S SERMON. 



455 



without geographical and historical mistakes : as page 
29, Suevia the German dukedom, for Suecia the Nor- 
thern kingdom : Philip of Macedon, who is generally 
understood of the great Alexander's father only, made 
contemporary, page 31, with T. Quintus the Roman 
commander, instead of T. Quintius, and the latter 
Philip : and page 44, Tully cited " in his third oration 
against Verres," to say of him, " that he was a wicked 
consul," who never was a consul : nor " Trojan se- 
dition ever portrayed " by that verse of Virgil, which 
you cite page 47, as that of Troy : schoolboys could 
have told you, that there is nothing of Troy in that 
whole portraiture, as you call it, of Sedition. These 
gross mistakes may justly bring in doubt your other 
loose citations, and that you take them up somewhere 
at the second or third hand rashly, and without due 
considering. 

Nor are you happier in the relating or the moraliz- 
ing your fable, " The frogs" (being once a free na- 
tion, saith the fable) " petitioned Jupiter for a king: 
he tumbled among them a log : they found it insen- 
sible ; they petitioned then for a king that should be 
active: he sent them a crane" (a Stork, saith the fa- 
ble) " which straight fell to pecking them up." This 
you apply to the reproof of them who desire change : 
whereas indeed the true moral shews rather the folly 
of those who being free seek a king; which for the 
most part either as a log lies heavy on his subjects, 
without doing aught worthy of his dignity and the 
charge to maintain him, or as a stork, is ever pecking 
them up, and devouring them. 

But " by our fundamental laws, the king is the high- 
est power," page 40. If we must hear mooting and 
law lectures from the pulpit, what shame is it for a 
doctor of divinity not first to consider, that no law can 
be fundamental, but that which is grounded on the 
light of nature or right reason, commonly called moral 
Law : which no form of government was ever counted, 
but arbitrary, and at all times in the choice of every 
free people, or their representers. This choice of go- 
vernment is so essential to their freedom, that longer 
than they have it, they are not free. In this land not 
only the late king and his posterity, but kingship itself, 
hath been abrogated by a law ; which involves with as 
good reason the posterity of a king forfeited to the 
people, as that law heretofore of treason against the 
king, attainted the children with the father. This law 
against both king and kingship they who most ques- 
tion, do not less question all enacted without the king 
and his antiparliament at Oxford, though called mon- 
grel by himself. If no law must be held good, but 
what passes in full parliament, then surely in exact- 
ness of legality no member must be missing : for look 
how many are missing, so many counties or cities that 
sent them want their representers. But if, being once 
chosen, they serve for the whole nation, then any num- 
ber, which is sufficient, is full, and most of all in times 
of discord, necessity, and danger. The king himself 
was bound by the old mode of parliaments, not to be 
absent, but in case of sickness, or some extraordinary 
occasion, and then to leave his substitute ; much less 



might any member be allowed to absent himself. If 
the king then and many of the members with him, 
without leaving any in his stead, forsook the parlia- 
ment upon a mere panic fear, as was that time judged 
by most men, and to levy war against them that sat, 
should they who were left sitting, break up, or not dare 
enact aught of nearest and presentest concernment to 
public safety, for the punctilio wanting of a full num- 
ber, which no law-book in such extraordinary cases hath 
determined? Certainly if it were lawful for them to 
fly from their charge upon pretence of private safety, 
it was much more lawful for these to set and act in 
their trust what was necessary for the public. By a 
law therefore of parliament, and of a parliament that 
conquered both Ireland, Scotland, and all their ene- 
mies in England, defended their friends, were gene- 
rally acknowledged for a parliament both at home and 
abroad, kingship was abolished: this law now of late 
hath been negatively repealed ; yet kingship not posi- 
tively restored, and I suppose never was established by 
any certain law in this land, nor possibly could be : for 
how could our forefathers bind us to any certain form of 
government, more than we can bind our posterity ? If 
a people be put to war with their king for his misgo- 
vernment, and overcome him, the power is then un- 
doubtedly in their own hands how they will be governed. 
The war was granted just by the king himself at the 
beginning of his last treaty, and still maintained to be 
so by this last parliament, as appears by the qualifica- 
tion prescribed to the members of this next ensuing-, 
that none shall be elected, who have borne arms against 
the parliament since 1641. If the war were just, the 
conquest was also just by the law of nations. And he 
who was the chief enemy, in all right ceased to be the 
king, especially after captivity, by the deciding ver- 
dict of war ; and royalty with all her laws and preten- 
sions yet remains in the victor's power, together with 
the choice of our future government. Free common- 
wealths have been ever counted fittest and properest 
for civil, virtuous, and industrious, nations, abounding 
with prudent men worthy to govern ; monarchy fittest 
(o curb degenerate, corrupt, idle, proud, luxurious 
people. If we desire to be of the former, nothing better 
for us, nothing nobler than a free commonwealth : if 
we will needs condemn ourselves to be of the latter, de- 
spairing of our own virtue, industry, and the number 
of our able men, we may then, conscious of our own 
un worthiness to be governed better, sadly betake us to 
our befitting thraldom : yet choosing out of our num- 
ber one who hath best aided the people, and best merit- 
ed against tyranny, the space of a reign or two we may 
chance to live happily enough, or tolerably. But that 
a victorious people should give up themselves again to 
the vanquished, was never yet heard of, seems rather 
void of all reason and good policy, and will in all pro- 
bability subject the subduers to the subdued, will ex- 
pose to revenge, to beggary, to ruin, and perpetual 
bondage, the victors under the vanquished : than which 
what can be more unworthy ? 

From misinterpreting our law, you return to do again 
the same with Scripture, and would prove the su- 



456 



BRIEF NOTES ON DR. GRIFFITH'S SERMON. 






premacy of English kings from 1 Pet. ii. 13, as if that 
were the apostle's work : wherein if he saith that " the 
king is supreme," he speaks so of him but as an " ordi- 
nance of man," and in respect of those " governors that 
are sent by him," not in respect of parliaments, which 
by the law of this land are his bridle; in vain his 
bridle, if not also his rider : and therefore hath not 
only co-ordination witli him, which you falsely call 
seditious, but hath superiority above him, and that 
neither " against religion," nor " right reason :" no nor 
against common law ; for our kings reigned only by 
law. But the parliament is above all positive law, 
whether civil or common, makes or unmakes them 
both ; and still the latter parliament above the former, 
above all the former lawgivers, then certainly above 
all precedent laws, entailed the crown on whom it 
pleased; and as a great lawyer saith, " is so transcend- 
ent and absolute, that it cannot be confined either for 
causes or persons, within any bounds." But your cry 
is, no parliament without a king. If this be so, we 
have never had lawful kings, who have all been created 
kings either by such parliaments, or by conquest : if 
by such parliaments, they are in your allowance none; 
if by conquest, that conquest we have now conquered. 
So that as well by your own assertion as by ours, there 
can at present be no king. And how could that person 
be absolutely supreme, who reigned, not under law 
only, but under oath of his good demeanour, given to 
the people at his coronation, ere the people gave him 
his crown ? and his principal oath was to maintain 
those laws, which the people should choose. If then 
the law itself, much more he who was but the keeper 
and minister of law, was in their choice, and both he 
subordinate to the performance of his duty sworn, and 
our sworn allegiance in order only to his performance. 



You fall next on the consistorian schismatics ; for so 
you call Presbyterians, page 40, and judge them to have 
" enervated the king's supremacy by their opinions 
and practice, differing in many things only in terms 
from popery ;" though some of those principles, which 
you there cite concerning kingship, are to be read in 
Aristotle's Politics, long ere popery was thought 
on. The presbyterians therefore it concerns to be 
well forewarned of you betimes ; and to them I leave 
you. 

As for your examples of seditious men, page 54, &c. 
Cora, Absalom, Zimri, Sheba, to these you might with 
much more reason have added your own name, who 
" blow the trumpet of sedition " from your pulpit against 
the present government: in reward whereof they have 
sent you by this time, as I hear, to your " own place," 
for preaching open sedition, while you would seem to 
preach against it. 

As for your Appendix annexed of the " Samaritan 
revived," finding it so foul a libel against all the well 
affected of this land, since the very time of ship-money, 
against the whole parliament, both lords and commons, 
except those that fled to Oxford, against the whole re- 
formed church, not only in England and Scotland, but 
all over Europe, (in comparison whereof you and your 
prelatical party are more truly schismatics and secta- 
rians, nay, more properly fanatics in your fanes and 
gilded temples, than those whom you revile by those 
names,) and meeting with no more Scripture or solid 
reason in your " Samaritan wine and oil," than hath 
already been found sophisticated and adulterate, I 
leave your malignant narrative, as needing no other 
confutation, than the just censure already passed upon 
you by the council of state. 



ACCEDENCE 
COMMENCED GRAMMAR, 



SUPPLIED WITH 



SUFFICIENT RULES 



FOR THE USE OF SUCH AS, YOUNGER OR ELDER, ARE DESIROUS, WITHOUT MORE TROUBLE THAN NEEDS, TO ATTAIN THE LATIN 
TONGUE; THE ELDER SORT ESPECIALLY, WITH LITTLE TEACHING, AND THEIR OWN INDUSTRY. 

[FIRST PUBLISHED 1669.] 



TO THE READER. 



It hath been long* a general complaint, not without cause, in the bringing- up of youth, and still is, that the 
tenth part of man's life, ordinarily extended, is taken up in learning-, and that very scarcely, the Latin Tongue. 
Which tardy proficience may be attributed to several causes : in particular, the making' two labours of one, by 
learning- first the Accedence, then the Grammar in Latin, ere the language of those rules be understood. The 
only remedy of this was to join both books into one, and in the English Tongue; whereby the long way is 
much abbreviated, and the labour of understanding much more easy: a work supposed not to have been done 
formerly ; or if done, not without such difference here in brevity and alteration, as maybe found of moment. 
That of Grammar, touching letters and syllables, is omitted, as learnt before, and little different from the Eng- 
lish Spelling-book ; especially since few will be persuaded, to pronounce Latin otherwise than their own English. 
What will not come under rule, by reason of the much variety in declension, gender, or construction, is also 
here omitted, lest the course and clearness of method be clogged with catalogues instead of rules, or too much 
interruption between rule and rule : which Linaker, setting down the various idioms of many verbs, was forced 
to do by alphabet, and therefore, though very learned, not thought fit to be read in schools. But in such words, 
a dictionary stored with good authorities will be found the readiest guide. Of figurate construction, what is 
useful is digested into several rules of Syntaxis : and Prosody, after this Grammar well learned, will not need 
to be Englished for him who hath a mind to read it. Account might be now given what addition or alteration 
from other Grammars hath been here made, and for what reason. But he who would be short in teaching, must 
not be long in prefacing : the book itself follows, and will declare sufficiently to them who can discern. 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



Latin Grammar is the art of right understanding, 
speaking, or writing Latin, observed from them who 
have spoken or written it best. 

Grammar hath two parts: right wording, usually 
called Etymology ; and right joining of words, or Syn- 
taxis. 

Etymology, or right wording, teacheth what belongs 

_ 



Of Latin Speech are eight General Parts. 

Noun ~\ I Adverb \ 

Pronoun f Declined . Conjunction f Undecline(L 

Verb ( .Preposition ( 

Participle ) | Interjection ) 

Declined are those words which have divers end- 
ings ; as homo a man, hominis of a man ; amo I love, 
amas thou lovest. Undeclined are those words which 



458 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



have but one ending, as bene well, cum when, turn 
then. 

Nouns, pronouns, and participles are declined with 
gender, number, and case; verbs, as hereafter in the 
verb. 

Of Genders. 

Genders are three, the masculine, feminine, and 
neuter. The masculine may be declined with this ar- 
ticle hie, as hie vir a man ; the feminine with this arti- 
cle, hose, as base mulier a woman ; the neuter with this 
article, hoc, as hoc saxuni a stone. 

Of the masculine are generally all nouns belonging 
to the male kind, as also the names of rivers, months, 
and winds. 

Of the feminine, all nouns belonging to the female 
kind, as also the names of countries, cities, trees, some 
few of the two latter excepted : of cities, as Agragas 
and Sulmo, masculine ; Arg'os, Tibur, Preeneste, and 
such as end in urn, neuter; Anxur both. Of trees, 
oleaster and spinus, masculine : but oleaster is read 
also feminine, Cic. Verr. 4. Acer, siler, suber, thus, 
robur, neuter. 

And of the neuter are all nouns, not being proper 
names, ending in urn, and many others. 

Some nouns are of two genders, as hie or haec dies 
a day ; and all such may be spoken both of male and 
female, as hie or haec parens a father or mother: some 
be of three, as hie haec and hoc felix happy. 

Of Numbers. 

Words declined have two numbers, the singular and 
the plural. The singular speaketh but of one, as lapis 
a stone. The plural of more than one, as lapides 
stones ; yet sometimes but of one, as Athenae the city 
of Athens, literoe an epistle, aedes cediuni a house. 

Note, that some nouns have no singular, and some 
no plural, as the nature of their signification requires. 
Some are of one gender in the singular; of another, 
or two genders, in the plural, as reading will best 
teach. 

Of Cases. 

Nouns, pronouns, and participles are declined with 
six endings, which are called cases, both in the singu- 
lar and plural number. The nominative, genitive, 
dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative. 

The nominative is the first case, and properly nameth 
the thing, as liber a book. 

The genitive is euglished with this sign of as libri 
of a book. 

The dative with this sign to, or for, as libro to or for 
a book. 

The accusative hath no sign. 

The vocative < alleth or speaketh to, as O liber, 
book, and i^ commonly like the nominative. 

But in the neuter gender the nominative, accusa- 
nt . and vocative, are like in both numbers, and in the 
plural end always in a. 

The ablative i» * ogluhed with these signs, in, with, 
of for, from, by, and such like, as de libro of or from 



the book, pro libro for the book ; and the ablative 
plural is always like the dative. 

Note, that some nouns have but one ending through- 
out all cases, as frugi, nequam, nihil ; and all words of 
number from three to a hundred, as quatuor four, 
quinque five, &c. 

Some have but one, some two, some three cases only, 
in the singular or plural, as use will best teach. 

Of a Noun. 

A Noun is the name of a thing, as manus a hand, 
domus a house, bonus g*ood, pulcher fair. 

Nouns be substantives or adjectives. 

A noun substantive is understood by itself, as homo 
a man, domus a house. 

An adjective, to be well understood, requireth a sub- 
stantive to be joined with it, as bonus good, parvus 
little, which cannot be well understood unless some- 
thing good or little be either named, as bonus vir a 
good man, parvus puer a little boy ; or by use under- 
stood, as honestum an honest thing-, boni good men. 

The Declining of Substantives. 

Nouns substantives have five declensions or forms of 
ending their cases, chiefly distinguished by the different 
ending of their genitive singular. 

The first Declension. 

The first is when the genitive and dative singular 
end in ae, &c. as in the example following. 



Singular. 
No. Voc. Abl. musa 
Gen. Dat. musae 
Ace. musam. 



Plural. 
Nom. Voc. musae 
Gen. musarum 
Dat. Abl. musis 
Ace. musas. 



This one word familia joined with pater, mater, 
filius, or filia, endeth the genitive in as, as pater fa- 
milias, but sometimes familiae. Dea, mula, equa, 
liberta, make the dative and ablative plural in abus ; 
filia and nata in is or abus. 

The first declension endeth always in a, unless in 
some words derived of the Greek : and is always of the 
feminine gender, except in names attributed to men, 
according to the general rule, or to stars, as cometa, 
planeta. 

Nouns, and especially proper names derived of the 
Greek, have here three endings, as, es, e, and are de- 
clined in some of their cases after the Greek form. 
iEneas, ace. iEnean, voc. JEnea; Anchises, ace. An- 
chisen, voc. Anchise, or Anchisa, abl. Anchise. Pene- 
lope, Penelopes, Penelopen, voc. abl. Penelope. Some- 
times following the Latin, as Marsya, Philocteta, for as 
and es; Philoctetam, Eriphylam, for an and en. Cic. 

The second Declension. 

The second is when the genitive singular endeth in 
i, the dative in o, &c. 



Singular. 
Nom. Voc. liber 
Gen. libri 
Dat. Abl. libro 
Ace. librum. 



Plural 
Nom. Voc. libri 
Gen. librorum 
Dat. Abl. libris 
Ace. libros. 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



459 



Note, that when the nominative endeth in us, the 
vocative shall end in e, as dominus 6 domine, except 
deus 6 deus. And these following-, agnus, lucus, vul- 
gus, populus, chorus, fluvius, e or us. 

When the nominative endeth in ius, if it be the pro- 
per name of a man, the vocative shall end in i, as 
Georgius 6 Georgi ; hereto add Alius 6 fili, and genius 
6 geni. 

All nouns of the second declension are of the mascu- 
line or neuter gender ; of the masculine, such as end in 
er, or, or us, except some few, humus, domus, alvus, 
and others derived of the Greek, as methodus, antido- 
tus, and the like, which are of the feminine, and some 
of them sometimes also masculine, as atomus, phaselus; 
to which add ficus the name of a disease, grossus, 
pampinus, and rubus. 

Those of the neuter, except virus, pelagus, and vul- 
gus, (which last is sometimes masculine,) end all in 
um, and are declined as followeth : 



Singular. 
Nom. Ac. Voc. studium 
Gen. studii 
Dat. Abl. studio. 



Plural. 
Nom. Ac. Voc. studia 
Gen. studiorum 
Dat. Abl. studiis. 



Some nouns in this declension are of the first example 
singular, of the second plural, as Pergamus the city 
Troy, plur. haec Pergama; and some names of hills, as 
Maenalus, Ismarus, haec Ismara ; so also Tartarus, and 
the lake Avernus ; others are of both, as sibilus, jocus, 
locus, hi loci, or haec loca. Some are of the second 
example singular, of the first plural, as Argos, coelum, 
plur. hi coeli ; others of both, as rastrum, capistrum, 
filum, fraenum ; plur. frseni or fraena. Nundinum, & 
epulum, are of the first declension plural, nundinae, 
epulae ; balneum of both, balnese or balnea. 

Greek proper names have here three endings, os, on, 
and us long from a Greek diphthong. Haec Delos, 
banc Delon. Hoc Ilion. The rest regular, Hie Pan- 
thus, 6 Panthu, Virg. 

The third Declension. 

The third is when the genitive singular endeth in is, 

the dative in i, the accusative in em, the ablative in e, 

and sometimes in i; the nom. ace. voc. plural in es, 

the genitive in um, and sometimes in ium, &c. 

Singular. Plural. 

Nom. Gen. Voc. panis Nom. Ace. Voc. panes 



Gen. panum 

Dat. Abl. panibus. 

Plural. 
Nom. Ac. Voc. parentes 
Gen. parentum 
Dat. Abl. parentibus. 



Dat. pani 
Ace. panem 
Abl. pane 

Singular. 
Nom. Voc. parens 
Gen. parentis 
Dat. parenti 
Ace. parentem 
Abl. parente. 
This third declension, with many endings, hath all 
genders, best known by dividing all nouns hereto be- 
longing into such as either increase one syllable long 
or short in the genitive, or increase not at all. 

Such as increase not in the genitive are generally 
feminine, as nubes nubis, caro carnis. 

Except such as end in er, as hie venter ventris, and 



these in is following, natalis, aqualis, lienis, orbis, 
callis, caulis, collis, follis, mensis, ensis, fustis, funis, 
panis, penis, crinis, ignis, cassis, fascis, torris, piscis, 
unguis, vermis, vectis, postis, axis, and the compounds 
of assis, as centussis. 

But canalis, finis, clunis, restis, sentis, amnis, corbis, 
linter, torquis, anguis, hie or haec: to these add vepres. 

Such as end in e are neuters, as mare, rete, and two 
Greek in es, as hippomanes, cacoethes. 

Nouns increasing long. 

Nouns increasing one syllable long in the genitive 
are generally feminine, as haec pietas pietatis, virtus 
virtutis. 

Except such as end in ans masculine, as dodrans, 
quadrans, sextans ; in ens, as oriens, torrens, bidens, a 
pickaxe. 

In or, most commonly derived of verbs, as pallor, 
clamor ; in o, not thence derived, as ternio, senio, ser- 
mo, temo, and the like. 

And these of one syllable, sal, sol, ren, splen, as, bes, 
pes, mos, flos, ros, dens, mons, pons, fons, grex. 

And words derived from the Greek in en, as lichen ; 
in er, as crater; in as, as adamas; in es, as lebes ; to 
these, hydrops, thorax, phoenix. 

But scrobs, rudens, stirps, the body or root of a tree, 
and calx a heel, hie or haec. 

Neuter, these of one syllable, mel, fel, lac, far, ver, 
cor, aes, vas vasis, os ossis, os oris, rus, thus, jus, crus, 
pus. And of more syllables in al and ar, as capital, 
laquear, buthalec hoc or haec. 

Nouns increasing short. 

Nouns increasing short in the genitive are generally 
masculine, as hie sanguis sanguinis, lapis lapidis. 

Except, feminine all words of many syllables ending 
in do or go, as dulcedo, compago ; arbor, hyems, cus- 
pis, pecus pecudis : These in ex, forfex, carex, tomex, 
supellex : In ix, appendix, histrix, coxendix, filix : 
Greek nouns, in as and is, as lampas, iaspis : To these 
add chlamys, bacchar, sindon, icon. 

But margo, cinis, pulvis, adeps, forceps, pumex, ra- 
mex, imbrex, obex, silex, cortex, onyx, and sardonyx, 
hie or haec. 

Neuters are all ending in a, as problema : in en, ex- 
cept hie pecten; in ar, as jubar : in er these, verber, 
iter, uber, cadaver, zinziber, laser, cicer, siser, piper, 
papaver, sometimes in ur, except hie furfur, in us, as 
onus, in ut, as caput; to these marmor, oequor, ador. 

Greek proper names here end in as, an, is, and ens, 
and may be declined some wholly after the Greek form, 
as Pallas, Pallados, Palladi, Pallada ; others in some 
cases, as Atlas, ace. Atlanta, voc. Atla. Garamas, plur. 
Garamantes, ace. Garamantas. Pan, Panos, Pana. 
Phyllis, Phyllidos, voc. Phylli, plur. Phyllides, ace. 
Phyllidas. Tethys, Tethyos, ace. Tethyn, voc. Tethy. 
Neapolis Neapolios, ace. Neapolin. Paris, Paridos or 
Parios, ace. Parida, or Parin. Orpheus, Orpheos, Or- 
phei, Orphea, Orpheu. But names in eus borrow 
sometimes their genitive of the second declension, as 
Erechtheus, Erechthei. Cic. Achilles or Achilleus, 



460 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



Achillei ; and sometimes their accusative in on or um, 
as Orpheus Orpheon, Theseus Theseum, Perseus Per- 
seum, which sometimes is formed after Greek words of 
the first declension ; Latin, Perseus or Perses, Persse 
Persse Persen Persse Persa. 

The fourth Declension. 

The fourth is when the genitive singular endeth in 
us, the dative singular in ui, and sometimes in u, plural 
in ibus, and sometimes in ubus. 

Singular. Plural. 

Norn. Gen. Voc. sensus 



Dat. sensui 
Ace. sensum 
Abl. sensu. 



Nom. Ace. Voc. sensus 
Gen. sensu um 
Dat. Abl. sensibus. 



The fourth declension hath two endings, us and u; 
us generally masculine, except some few, as hsec 
mantis, ficus, the fruit of a tree, acus, porticus, tribus, 
but penus and specus hie or hsec. U of the neuter, 
as gelu, genu, vera; but in the singular most part 
defective. 

Proper names in os and o long, pertaining to the 
fourth declension Greek, may belong best to the fourth 
in Latin, as Audrogeos, gen. Androgeo, ace. Andro- 
geon; hie Athos, hunc Atho, Virg.; hsec Sappho, gen. 
Sapphus, ace. Sappho. Better authors follow the 
Latin form, as Dido Didonis Didonem. But Jesus 
Jesu Jesum Jesu Jesu. 

The fifth Declension. 

The fifth is when the genitive and dative singular 
end in ei, &c. 

Singular. Plural. 



Nom. Voc. res 
Gen. Dat. rei 
Ace. rem 
Abl. re. 



Nom. Ac. Voc. res 
Gen. rerum 
Dat. Abl. rebus. 



All nouns of the fifth declension are of the feminine 
gender, except dies hie or hsec, and his compound me- 
ridies hie only. 

Some nouns are of more declensions than one, asvas 
vasis of the third in the singular, of the second in the 
plural vasa vasorum. Col us, laurus, and some others, 
of tbe second and fourth. Saturnalia, saturnalium or 
saturnaliorum, saturnalibus, and such other names of 
feasts. Poernatuin, poematis or poematibus, of the 
second and third plural. Plebs of the third and fifth, 
plebis or plebei. 

The Declining of Adjectives. 

A Noun adjective is declined with three termina- 
or with three articles. 

An adjective of three terminations is declined like 
the first and second declension of substantives joined 
together after tins manner. 



Singular. 

N. bonus bona bonum 
G. boni bona; boni 
I), bono bonse bono 
A. bonum bonam bonum 
V. bone bona bonum 
A. bono bona bono. 



Plural 
No. Vo. boni bonce bona 
G. bonorum bonarum 
bonorura 

Dal. Abl. bonis 

A. bonos bonas bona 



In like manner those in er and ur, as sacer sacra sa- 
crum, satur satura saturum ; but unus, totus, solus, 
alius, alter, ullus, uter, with their compounds neuter, 
uterque, and the like, make their genitive singular in 
ius, the dative in i, as unus una unum, gen. unius, 
dat. uni, in all the rest like bonus, save that alius 
maketh in the neuter gender aliud, and in the dative 
alii, and sometimes in the genitive. 

Ambo and duo be thus declined in the plural only. 

Nom. Voc. ambo ambse ambo 
Gen. amborum ambarum amborum 
Dat. Abl. ambobus ambabus ambobus 
Ace. ambos or ambo, ambas ambo. 

Adjectives of three articles have in the nominative 
either one ending, as hie, hsec, & hoc felix ; or two, 
as hie & hsec tristis & hoc triste ; and are declined 
like the third declension of substantives, as followeth. 

Plural. 



Singular. 
No. hie hsec & hoc felix 
Gen. felicis 
Dat. felici 
Ace. hunc & banc feli- 

cem, & hoc felix 
Voc. 6 felix. 
Abl. felice or felici. 

Singular. 
No. hie & hsec tristis & 

hoc triste 
Gen. tristis 
Dat. Abl. tristi 
Ace. hunc & hanc tris- 

tem, & hoc triste 
Voc. 6 tristis, & 6 triste. 



Nom. hi & hse felices, & 

hsec felicia 
Gen. felicium 
Dat. Abl. felicibus 
Ace. hos & has felices, & 

hsec felicia 
Voc. 6 felices, & 6 felicia. 

Plural. 
Nom. hi & hse tristes & 

hsec tristia 
Gen. tristium 
Dat Abl. tristibus 
Ace. hos & has tristes, & 

hsec tristia 
Voc. 6 tristes, & 6 tristia. 



There be also another sort which have in the nomi- 
native case three terminations and three articles, as hie 
acer, hie & hsec acris, hoc acre. In like manner be 
declined equester, volucer, and some few others, being 
in all other cases like the examples beforegoing. 

Comparisons of Nouns. 

Adjectives, whose signification may increase or be 
diminished, may form comparison, whereof there be 
two degrees above tbe positive word itself, The com- 
parative, and superlative. 

The positive signifieth the thing itself without com- 
paring, as durus hard. 

The comparative exceedeth his positive in significa- 
tion, compared with some other, as durior harder ; and 
is formed of the first case of his positive that endeth 
in i, by putting thereto or and us, as of duri, hie & hsec 
durior, & hoc durius : of dulci, dulcior, dulcius. 

The superlative exceedeth his positive in the highest 
degree, as durissimus hardest; and it is formed of the 
first case of his positive that endeth in is, by put- 
ting thereto simus, as of duris durissimus, dulcis dul- 
cissimus. 

If the positive end in er, the superlative is formed of 
the nominative case by putting to it rimus, as pulcher 
pulcherrimus. Like to these are vetus veterrimus, ma- 
turus maturimus; but dexter dexterrimus, and sinister, 
sinisterior, sinisterrimus. 

All these nouns ending in lis make the superlative 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



461 



by changing" is into limus, as humilis, similis, facilis, 
gracilis, agilis, docilis docillimus. 

All other nouns ending" in lis do follow the general 
rule, as utilis utilissimus. 

Of these positives following" are formed a different 
sort of superlatives ; of superus, supremus and summus ; 
inferus, infimus and imus; exterus, extimus and ex- 
tremus ; posterus postremus. 

Some of these want the positive, and are formed 
from adverbs; of intra, interior intimus, ultra ulterior 
ultimus, citra citerior citimus, pridem prior primus, 
prope propior proximus. 

Others from positives without case, as nequam, ne- 
quior, nequissimus. 

Some also from no positive, as ocior ocissimus. 
Some want the comparative, as novus novissimus, in- 
clytus inclytissimus. 

Some the superlative, as senex senior, juvenis junior, 
adolescens adolescentior. 

Some ending" in us, frame their comparative as if they 
ended in ens, benevolus, maledicus, magnificus magni- 
ficentior magnificentissimus. 

These following" are without rule, bonus melior opti- 
mus, malus pejor pessimus, magnus major maximus, 
parvus minor minimus ; multus plurimus, multa plu- 
rima, multumplus plurimum. 

If a volume come before us, it is compared with ma- 
g-is and maxime, as pius, magis pius, maxime pius; 
idoneus, magis and maxime idoneus. Yet some of 
these follow the general rule, as assiduus assiduissi- 
mus, strenuus strenuior, exiguus exiguissimus, tenuis 
tenuior tenuissimus. 

Of a Pronoun. 

A Pronoun is a part of speech that standeth for a 
noun substantive, either present or before spoken of, as 
ille he or that, hie this, qui who. 

There be ten pronouns, ego, tu, sui, ille, ipse, iste, 
hie, is, qui, and quis, besides their compounds, egomet, 
tute, hicce, idem, quisnam, aliquis, and such others. 
The rest so called, as meus, tuus, suus, noster, vester, 
nostras, vestras, cujus, and cujas, are not pronouns, but 
adjectives thence derived. 

Of pronouns such as shew the thing present are 
called demonstratives, as ego, tu, hie; and such as re- 
fer to a thing antecedent, or spoken of before, are 
called relatives, as qui who or which. 

Quis, and often qui, because they ask a question, are 
called interrogatives, with their compounds, ecquis, 
numquis. 

Declensions of Pronouns are three. 

Ego, tu, sui, be of the first declension, and be thus 
declined. 



Singular. 

Nom. ego 
Gen. mei 
Dat. mihi 
Ace. Abl. me 
Voc. caret. 



Plural. 

Nom. Ace. nos 
Gen. nostrum or nostri 
Dat. Abl. nobis 
Voc. caret. 



Singular 




Plural. 


Nom. Voc. tu 
Gen. tui 
Dat. tibi 
Ace. Abl. te. 




Nom. Ace. Voc. vos 
Gen. vestrum or vestri 
Dat. Abl. vobis. 


Sing. 1 Nom. 
Plur. \ Gen. 


Voc. 
sui 


caret 1 Dat. sibi 

| Ace. Abl. se. 



From these three be derived meus, tuus, suus, nos- 
ter, vester, nostras, vestras, (which are called posses- 
sives,) whereof the former five be declined like adjec- 
tives of three terminations, except that meus in the vo- 
cative case maketh mi, mea, meum ; nostras, vestras, 
with three articles, as hie & h fee nostras, & hoc nostras 
or nostrate, vestrate. In other cases according to rule. 

These three, ille, iste, ipse, be of the second declen- 
sion, making their genitive singular in ius, their dative 
in i; and the former two be declined like the adjective 
alius, and the third like nnus, before spoken of. 

Nom. ille ilia illud, Gen. illius, Dat. illi. 
Sing. Nom. iste ista istud, Gen. isfius, Dat. isti. 

Nom. ipse ipsa ipsum, Gen. ipsius, Dat. ipsi. 

These four, hie, is, qui, and quis, be of the third de- 
clension, making their genitive singular in jus, with j 
consonant, and be declined after this manner. 

Plural. 
Nom. hi hae haec 
Gen. horum harum horum 
Dat. Abl. his 
Ace. hos has haec 



Singular. 
Nom. hie hsec hoc 
Gen. hujus 
Dat. huic 
Ace. hunc hanc hoc 
Voc. caret 
Abl. hoc hac hoc. 



Voc. caret. 



Of iste and hie is compounded istic, istaec, istoc or is- 
tuc. Ace. istunc, istanc, istoc or istuc. Abl. istoc, 
istaec only. 

Plural. 



Ph 



istac, istoc. 

Singular. 
Nom. is ea id 
Gen. ejus 
Dat. ei 

Ace. eum earn id 
Voc. caret 
Abl. eo ea eo. 

Singular. 
Nom. qui quae quod 
Gen. cujus 
Dat. cui 

Ace. quern quam quod 
Voc. caret 
Ab. quo qua quo or qui. 

In like manner, quivis, quilibet, and quicunque the 
compounds. 

Sing. Nom. quis, qua or quae, quid, Gen. fyc. like 
qui. So quisquam, quisnam, compounds. 

Of quis are made these pronoun adjectives, cujus 
cuja cujum, whose; and hie & haec cujus and hoc 
cujate, of what nation. 

Quisquis is defective, and thus declined, 



Nom. ii eae ea 

Gen. eorum earum eorum 

Dat. Abl. iis or eis 

Ace. eos eas ea 

Voc. caret. 



Plural. 
Nom. qui, quae quae 
Gen. quorum quarum quo- 
rum. 
Dat. Abl. quibus or queis 
Ace. quos quas quae 
Voc. caret. 



Nom. 



r Quisquis 
I Quicquid 



Ace. < Quicquid 



Ab. 



Quoquo 

aqua 

Quoquo. 



rQu 
?Qu 
CQu 



Of a Verb. 
A Verb is a part of speech, that betokeneth being, 



462 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



as sum I am ; or doing, as laudo I praise ; and is de- 
clined with mood, tense, number, and person. 

Moods. 

There be four moods, which express the manner of 
doing; the indicative, the imperative, the potential or 
subjunctive, and the infinitive. 

The indicative mood sheweth or declareth, as laudo 
I praise. 

The imperative biddeth or exhorteth, as lauda 
praise thou. 

The potential or subjunctive is englished with these 
signs, ruay, can, might, would, could, should : or with- 
out them as the indicative, if a conjunction go before or 
follow ; as laudem I may or can praise. Cum lauda- 
rem when I praised. Cavissem, si praevidissem, I had 
bewared if I had foreseen. 

The infinitive is englished with this sign, to, as lau- 
dare to praise. 

Tenses. 

There be three tenses which express the time of 
doing : the present, the preterit or past, and the future. 

The present tense speaketh of the time that now is, as 
laudo I praise. 

The preterit speaketh of the time past, and is distin- 
guished by three degrees : the preterimperfect, the pre- 
terperfect, and the preterpluperfect. 

The preterimperfect speaketh of the time not per- 
fectly past, as laudabam I praised or did praise. 

The preterperfect speaketh of the time perfectly past, 
as laudavi I have praised. 

The preterpluperfect speaketh of the time more than 
perfectly past, as laudaveram I had praised. 

The future tense speaketh of the time to come, as 
laudabo I shall or will praise. 

Persons. 

Through all moods, except the infinitive, there be 
three persons in both numbers, as, sing, laudo I praise, 
laudas thou praisest, laudat he praiseth ; plur. lauda- 
mus we praise, laudatis ye praise, laudant they praise. 
Except some verbs which are declined or formed in the 
third person only, and have before them this sign, it, 
as tedet it irketh, oportet it behoveth, and are called 
impersonals. 

The verb which betokeneth being is properly the 
verb sum only, which is therefore called a verb sub- 
stantive, and formed after this manner. 

Indicative. 
I am. 
Sum, es, est, Plur. sumus, estis, sunt. 

I was. 
Eram, eras, erat, PL eramus, eratis. erant. 
I have been. 
lui, fuisti, fuit, Plur. fuimus, fuistis, fuerunt 

or fuere. 
I bad been. 

Tret. Fueram, fueras, fuerat, Plur. fueramus, fueratis, 
plup. fuerant. 
Fo- | I shall or will be. 
ture. | Ero, eris, erit, Plur. erimus, eritis, erunt. 



Pres. 
ring. 
Pret. 
imp. 

Pret. 

perfect. 



Sing. 



Pres. 
sing. 



Be thou. 

Sis,es, I Sit, 
esto. j esto. 



Imperative. 



Plur 



Si- 
mus, 



Sitis,este, 
estote, 



Sint, 
sunto. 



Potential. 

I may or can be. 
Sim, sis, sit, PL simus, sitis, sint. 
I might or could be. 
Essem or forem, es, et, PL essemus, essetis, 
essent or forent. 
I might or could have been. 
Fuerim, ris, rit, PL rimus, litis, rint. 
If I had been. 
Fuissem, es, et. PL emus, etis, ent. 



Fuisse, to have or had 
been. 



Preter- 
imperf 
Preter- 
perfect 

Preterplup. 
with a con- 
junction, Si 

Future, I If I shall be, or shall have been. 
Si. I Fuero, ris, rit, PL rimus, litis, rint. 

Infinitive. 

Pres. , Preter- 

a " d Esse, to be P erfe< *' 
preter- ' & pret. 

imperf. pluper. 

Future. Fore, to be hereafter. 

In like manner are formed the compounds ; absum, 
adsum, desum, obsum, praesum, prosum, possum; but 
possum something varies after this manner. 

Indicat. Pres. Sing. Possum, potes, potest, Plur. pos- 
sumus, potestis, possunt. The other are regular, pote- 
ram, potui, potueram, potero. 

Imperative it wants. 

Potent. Pres. Possum, &c. Preterimperfect, Possem. 

Infin. Pres. Posse. Preterit, Potuisse. 

Voices. 

In Verbs that betoken Doing are two voices, the 
Active and the Passive. 

The Active signifieth to do, and always endeth in o, 
as doceo I teach. 

The Passive signifieth what is done to one by an- 
other, and always endeth in or, as doceor I am taught. 

From these are to be excepted two sorts of verbs. 
The first are called Neuters, and cannot take or in the 
passive, as curro I run, sedeo I sit; yet sig-nify some- 
times passively, as vapulo I am beaten. 

The second are called Deponents, and signify act- 
ively, as loquor I speak ; or neuters, as glorior I boast : 
but are formed like passives. 

Conjugations. 

Verbs both active and passive have four conjuga- 
tions, or forms of declining, known and distinguished 
by their infinitive mood active, which always endeth 
in re. 

In the first conjugation, after a long, as laudare to 
praise. 

In the second, after e long, as habere to have. 

In the third, after e short, as legere to read. 

In the fourth, after i long, as audire to hear. 

In these four conjugations, verbs are declined or 
formed by mood, tense, number, and person, after these 
examples. 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



463 



Indicative Mood. 
Present Tense. 



Singular. 



Plural. 



I Thou He 
praise, praisest. praiseth 
Laudo, laudas, laudat 
Habeo, habes, habet, 
Lego, leg-is, leg-it, 
Audio, audis, audit, 

Laudabam, 
Habebam, 
Legebam, 
Audiebam, 

Laudavi^ 
Habui 
Legi 
Audivi ) 

Laudaveram 
Habueram 



Preter- 
imperfect 
tense sing. 

Preter- 
perfect 
tense sing. 

Preter- 



We 

praise. 



Ye 



praise, 
laudamus, laudatis. 
habemus, habetis, 
legimus, leg-itis, 



\ 
They 
praise. 

laudant. 

habent. 

legunt. 



audimus, auditis, audiunt. 
I praised, or did praise, 
bas, bat, PI. bamus, batis, bant. 



I have praised, 
isti, it, PI. imus, istis, erunt or ere. 



V ras, r 



I had praised. 

at, PI. ramus, ratis, rant. 



pluperfect L 

tense sing. . n. % 

J Audiveram. ) 

Future Habebo° \ bis ' bit ' Pl bimus ' bitis ' bunt ' 

tense sing. Legam ) , nJ ... 

* j- c es, et, Plur. emis, etis, ent. 
Audiam ) 

Imperative Mood. 

Praise Let him Let us Praise Let them 

thou. praise. praise. ye. praise. 

fLauda, Laudet, PL Lau- Laudate, Laudent, 

laudato, laudato, demus. laudatote. laudanto. 

Habe, Habeat, PI. Ha- Habete, Habeant, 

habeto. habeto. beamus. habetote. habento. 

Lege, Legat, PI. Le- Legite, Leg-ant, 

legito. legito. gamus. legitote. leguuto. 

Audi, Audiat, PI. Au- Audite. Audiant, 

^.audito. audito. diamus. auditote. audiunto. 

Potential Mood. 






Laudem, laudes, laudet, PI. laudemus, lau- 
Present Habeam, } detis, laudent. 

tense sing. Leg*am, > as, at, PI. amus, atis, ant. 

Audiam. ) 

Preterim- Laudarem ? > ) I might or could praise. 

r -. Haberem, f ,. -m 

perfect Lecrerem > r es, ret, PI. remus, retis, rent. 

tense ^Audirem.' 3 

I might or could have praised. 
Laudaverim, ^ 



Habuerim, 
Leg-erim, 



ris, rit, PI. rimus, litis, rink 



Preter- 
perfect 
tense sing. X u 3 ive 7im. 

If I had praised. 
Preterplu. Laudavissem, } 

sing-, with Habuissem, ( ses, set, Plur. semus, setis, 
a conjunc- Leg-issem, t sent, 

tion, Si Audivissem, 3 

If I shall praise, or shall have praised. 

-v . Laudavero, "} 

Future „ r ' / 

Habuero, f • .. n , . ... 

tense sing. L }■ ris, rit, Plur. rimus, ntis, nnt 



Audivero, ) 

Infinitive Mood. 



Present Laudare, 
aud Pre- Habere 
terimper- Legere. 
feet tense. Audire, 



'} 



r Praise. 
rp 1 Have. 

To ) Read. 
CHear. 



To have or had 



Preterper- Laudavisse,) 
feet & Pre- Habuisse, ( 
terpluper- Legisse, I 
feet tense. Audivisse, ) 

Verbs of the third conjugation irregular in some 
Tenses of the Active Voice. 



( Praised. 
JHad. 
) Read. 
(.Heard. 



Singular. 
Volo, vis, vult, 

Nolo, 

The rest is want- 
Malo, mavis, mavult, 



Indicative Mood. 
Present Tense. 

Plural. 
Volumus, vultis, volunt. 
Nolumus nolunt. 



inar in this Tense. 



Preterit. 



C Volui. 
^ Nolui. 



( Malui. 

Volo and Malo want the Imperative Mood. 

Imperative. 

S Noli, „, f Nolite, 

* Nolito. ™ r - \ Nolitote. 

Potential. 



Sing. 



Present 



Velim 

Nolim 
tense sing. MaKm 

Preterim- Vellem 
perfect Nollem 
tense sing. Mallem 



, Vis, it 
, > es, et, 



Plur. imus, itis, int. 



Plur. emus, etis, ent 
Infinitive. 



C Velle, 

Present. 1 Nolle, 

( Malle. 

Indicat, Pres. Edo, edis or es, edit or est, Plur. editis 
or estis. 

Imper. Ede or es. Edito or esto. Edat, edito or 
esto. Plur. Edite or este. Editote or estote. 

Poten. Preterimperfect Tense, Ederem or essem. 

Infinit. Edere or esse. 

Verbs of the fourth Conjugation irregular, in some 
Tenses active. 

Eo, and queo with his compound nequeo, make eunt 
and queuut in the plural indicative present, and in their 
preterimperfect ibam and quibam ; their future, ibo and. 
quibo. 

Imperat. I, ito. Eat, ito. Plur. Eamus. Ite, itote. 
Eant, eunto. 

Potent. Earn, Irem, &c. 



The forming of the Passive Voice. 

Indicative. 

I am praised. 

Laudor, aris or are, atur, I I amur, amini, antur. 

Habeor, eris or ere, etur, | I emur, emini, entur. 

Legor, eris or ere, itur, ^ imur, imini, untur. 

Audior, iris or ire, itur, j imur, imini, iuntur. 



QQ 



I was praised. 
„ . Laudabar,"\ 
Preterim- Habebai% / baris or bare, batur, 

P ei ec . Legebar, (Plur. bamur, bamini, bantur. 
tense sing. Au | iebar ) 



464 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



Note that the passive voice hath no preterperfect, nor 
the tenses derived from thence in any mood. 

I shall or will be praised. 

Laudabor, } beris or bere, bitur, Plur. 
Future Habebor, S bimur, bimini, buntur. 

tense sing. Legar, } eris or ere, etur, PL emur, emini, 

Audiar, S entur. 



Imperative. 

Be thou praised. Let him be praised. 

Laudare, laudator. Laudetur, laudator, 

Habere, habetor. Habeatur, habetor, 

Legere, legator. Legatur, legitor. 

Audire, auditor. Audiatur, auditor. 

Let us be -r> • j Let them be 

. , Be ye praised. • A 

praised. J r praised. 

Laudemur. Laudamini, laudaminor. Laudentur, 

laudantor. 
Habeamur. Habemini, habeminor. Habeantur, 

habentor. 
Legamur. Legimini, legiminor. Legantur, 

leguntor. 
Audiamur. Audimini, audiminor. Audiantur, 

audiuntor. 

Potential. 

I may or can be praised. 
Lauder, eris or ere, etur, Plur. emur, emini, 
Habear, } entur. 



Present 
sin y. 



r, 3 



Legar, \ aris or are, atur, Plur. amur, amini, 
Audiar, ) antur. 



I might or should be praised 

Preterim Laud 

perfect 

sing. 




reris or rere, retur, Plur. remur, 
remini, rentur. 



Infinitive. 



Present and 

preterim- 

perfect. 



Laudari 
Haberi 
Legi 
Audiri 



r Praised , 
v Heard. 



Verbs irregular in some Tenses passive. 

Edor, editur or estur: the rest is regular. 

The verb Fio, is partly of the third, and partly of 
the fourth conjugation, and hath only the infinitive of 
the passive form. 

Indicat. Pres. sing. Fio, fis, fit, plur. fimus, fitis, 
fiunt. Preterimperfect, Fiebam. Preterperfect it wants. 
Future, Fiam, &c. 

Imperat. Fi, fito. plur. Fite, fitote, Finant, fiunto. 

Poten. Pres. Fiam, &c. Preterimperfect, Fierem. 

Infinit. Fieri. 

Also this verb Fero, is contracted or shortened in 
some tenses, both active and passive, as Fers, fert, for 
l'< ris, f'erit, &c. 

Indicat. Pres. ring. Fero, fers, fert. plur. — fertis — 
Preterperfect, Tali. 

[mperat I < r, ferto, &c. pi. Ferte, fertote. 

Pc* nt. Preterimperfect, Ferrem, -Sec. 

Infinit. Ferre. 



Passive. 
Indie. Pres. sing. Feror, ferris or ferre, fertur, &c. 
Imperat. sing. Ferre, fertor, &c. 
Potent. Preterimperfect, Ferrer. 
Infinit. Feri. 

Of Gerunds and Supines. 

There be also belonging to the infinitive mood of 
all verbs certain voices called gerunds and supines, 
both of the active and passive signification. 

The first gerund in di, as laudandi of praising or of 
being praised. The second in do, as laudando in prais- 
ing or in being praised. The third in dum, as laudan- 
dum to praise or to be praised. 

Note that in the two latter conjugations the gerunds 
end sometimes in undi, do, dum, as dicendi or dicundi : 
but from eo always eundi, except in the compound am- 
biendi. 

Supines are two. The first signifieth actively, as 
laudatum to praise ; the latter passively, as laudatu to 
be praised. Note that most neuters of the second con- 
jugation, and volo, nolo, malo, with many other verbs, 
have no supine. 

Verbs of the four conjugations irregular in the preter- 
perfect tense or supines. 

Verbs of the first conjugation form their preterper- 
fect tense in avi, supine in atum, as laudo laudavi lau- 
datum. 

Except 

Poto potavi potatum or potum ; neco necavi necatum 
or nectum. 

Domo, tono, sono, crepo, veto, cubo, form ui, itum, 
as cubui cubitum ; but secui sectum, fricui frictum, 
mico micui: yet some of these are found regular in the 
preterperfect tense or supine, especially compounded, 
as increpavit, discrepavit, dimicavit, sonatum, dimica- 
tum, intonatum, infricatum, and the like. 

Plico and his compounds form ui or avi, as explicui 
or explicavi, explicitum or explicatum ; except suppli- 
co, and such as are compounded with a noun, as dupli- 
co, multiplico in avi only. 

But lavo lavi lautum lotum or lavatum, juvo juvi, 
adjuvo adjuvi adjutum. 

Do dedi datum. Sto steti statum, in the compounds, 
stitum, and sometimes stato, as prsestum proestiti 
prcestitum and prajstatum. 

Verbs of the second conjugation form their preter- 
perfect tense in ui, their supine in itum, as habeo habui 
habitum. 

Some are regular in their preterperfect tense, but not 
in their supines, as doceo docui doctum, misceo miscui 
mistum, tenco tenui tentum, torreo torrui tostum, cen- 
seo censui censum, pateo patui passum, careo carui 
cassum and caritum. 

Others are irregular both in preterperfect tense and 
supines, as jubeo jussi jussum, sorbeo sorbui and sorpsi 
sorptum, mulceo mulsi mulsum, luceo luxi. 

Deo in di, as sedeosed/sessum, video vidi visum, pran- 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



465 



deo prandi pransum. And some in si, as suadeo suasi 
suasum, video risi risum, ardeo arsi arsum. Four double 
their first letters, as pendeo pependi pensurn, mordeo 
momordi morsum, spondeo spopondi sponsum, tondeo 
totondi tonsum; but not in their compounds, as depen- 
di depensum. 

Geo in si, and some in xi, as urgeo ursi, mulgeo 
mulsi and mulxi mulctum, augeo auxi auctum, indul- 
geo indulsi indultum, frigeo frixi, lugeo luxi. 

Ieo, leo, and neo nevi, vieo vievi vietum : but cieo 
cievi citum, deleo delevi deletum, fleo flevi fletum, com- 
pleo complevi completum ; as also the compounds of 
oleo, except redoleo and suboleo ; but adolevi adultum, 
neo nevi netum, but maneo mansi, torqueo torsi tortum, 
hsereo hsesi. 

Veo in vi, as ferveo fervi, but deferveo deferbui, con- 
niveo connivi and connixi, movi motum, vovi votum, 
cavi cautum, favi fautum. 

The third conjugation formeth the preterperfect 
tense by changing- o of the present tense into i : the 
supine without certain rule, as lego legi lectum, bibo 
bibi bibitum, lambo Iambi, scabo scabi, ico ici ictum, 
mando mandi mansum, pando pandi passum, edo edi 
esum or estum, in like manner comedo, the other com- 
pounds esum only ; rudo nidi, sallo salli salsum, psallo 
psalli, emo emi emptum, viso visi visum, verto verti 
versum, solvo solvi solutum, volvo volvi volutum, exuo 
exui exutum, but ruo rui ruitum, in compound rutum, 
as derui derutum; ingruo, metuo metui. 

Others are irregular both in preterperfect tense and 
supine. 

In bo, scribo scripsi scriptum, nubo nupsi nuptum, 
cumbo cubui cubitum. 

In co, vinco vici vietum, dico dixi dictum ; in like 
manner duco ; parco peperci and parsi parsum and 
parcitum. 

In do, these three lose n, findo fidi fissum, scindo 
scidi scissum, fundo fudi fusum. These following, 
vado, rado, leedo, ludo, divido, trudo, claudo, plaudo, 
rodo, si and sum, as rosi rosum, but cedo cessi cessum. 
The rest double their first letters in the preterperfect 
tense, but not compounded, as tundo tutudi tunsum, 
contundo contudi contusum, and so in other com- 
pounds. Pendo pependi pensum, dependo dependi, 
tendo tetendi tensum and tentum, contendo contendi, 
pedopepedi peditum, cado cecidi casum, occido, recido 
recidi recasum. The other compounds have no supine. 
Csedo cecidi csesum, occido occidi occisum. To these 
add all the compounds of do in this conjugation, addo, 
credo, edo, dedo, reddo, perdo, abdo, obdo, condo, indo, 
trado, prodo, vendo vendidi venditum, except the double 
compound, obscondo obscondi. 

In go, ago egi actum, dego degi, satago sategi, frango 
fregi fractum, pango to join pegi pactum, pango to 
singpanxi, ango anxi, jungo junxijunctum; but these 
five, fingo mingo pingo stringo ringo lose n in their 
supines, as finxifictum ; mingo minxi, figo fixi fixum, 
rego rexi rectum ; diligo, negligo, intelligo, lexi lec- 
tum, spargo sparsi sparsum. These double their first 
letter, tango tetigi factum, but not in his compounds, 



as contingo contigi, pango to bargain pepigi pactum, 
pungo and repungo pupugi and punxi punctum, the 
other compounds punxi only. 

Ho in xi, traho traxi tractum, veho vexi vectum. 

In lo, vello velli and vulsi vulsum, colo colui out- 
turn ; excello, prsecello, cellui celsum ; alo alui alitum 
and altum. The rest not compounded, double then- 
first letter, fallo fefelli falsum, refello refelli, pello 
pepuli pulsum, compello compuli, cello ceculi, percello 
perculi and perculsi perculsum. 

In mo, vomo vomui vomitum, tremo tremui, premo 
pressi pressum, como, premo, demo, sumo, after the 
same manner as sumpsi sumptum. 

In no, sino sivi situm, sterno stravi stratum, sperno 
sprevi spretum, lino levi lini and livi litum, cerno crevi 
cretum, temno tempsi, contemno contempsi contemp- 
tum, gigno genui genitum, pono posui positum, cano 
cecini cantum, concino concinui concentum. 

In po, rumpo rupi ruptum, scalpo scalpsi scalptum ; 
the rest in ui, strep o strep ui strepitum. 

In quo, linquo liqui, relinquo reliqui relictum, coquo 
coxi coctum. 

In ro, verro verri and versi versum, sero to sow sevi 
satum, in compound, situm, as inserto insitum ; sero of 
another signification most used in his compounds, 
assero, consero, desero, exero, serui sertum; uro ussi 
ustum, gero gessi gestum, qusero qusesivi quaesitum, 
tero trivi tritum, curro, excurro, prsecurro, cucurri cur- 
sum, the other compounds double not, as concurro con- 
curri. 

In so, accerso, arcesso, incesso, lacesso, ivi itum, ca- 
pesso both i and ivi, pinso pinsui pistum and pinsitum. 

In sco, pasco pavi pastum ; compesco, dispesco, ui ; 
posco poposci, disco didici, quinisco quexi, nosco novi 
notum, but agnosco agnitum, cognosco cognitum. 

In to, sisto stiti statum, flecto flexi flexum, pecto 
pexui and pexi pexum and pectitum, necto nexui and 
nexi nexum, plecto plexi plexum, sterto stertui, meto 
messui messum, mitto misi missum, peto petivipetitum. 

In vo, vivo vixi vietum. 

In xo, texo texui textum, nexo nexui nexum. 

In cio, facio feci factum, jacio jeci j actum, lacio lexi 
lectum, specio spexi spectum, with their compounds, 
but elicio elicui elicitum. 

In dio, fodio fodi fossum. 

In gio, fugio fugi fugitum. 

In pio, capio cepi captum, rapio rapui raptum, cupio 
cupivi cupitum, sapio sapui and sapivi sapitum. 

In rio, pario peperi partum. 

In tio, quatio quassi quassum, concutio concussi con- 
cussum. 

In uo, pluo plui and pluvi plutum, struo struxi struc- 
tum, fluo fluxi fluxum. 

The fourth conjugation formeth the preterperfect 
tense in ivi, the supine in itum. 

Except, Venio veni ventum, comperio, reperio reperi 
repertum, cambio campsi campsum,sepio sepsi septum, 
sarcio sarsi sartum, fulceo fulci fultum, sen tio sensi 
sensum, haurio hausi haustum, sancio sanxi sanctum 
and sancitum, vincio vinxi vinctum, salio salui saltum, 



466 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



in compound sultum, as desilio desilui desultum, amicio 
amicui amictum, aperio, operio perui pertum, veneo 
venivi venum, siugultivi singultum, sepelivi sepul- 
tuni. 

Of Verbs Compounded. 

These verbs compounded change a into e through- 
out, damno, lacto, sacro, fallo, arceo, tracto, partio, far- 
cio, carpo, patro, scando, spargo, as conspergo conspersi 
conspersuin. 

These following change their first vowel into i, and 
some of them their supines into e, habeo, lateo, salio, 
statuo, cado, loedo, cano, qusero, caedo, tango, egeo, 
teneo, taceo, sapio, rapio, placeo, displiceo displicui 
displicitum ; except, complaceo, perplaceo, posthabeo. 

Scalpo, calco, salto, change a into u, as exculpo ; 
claudo, quatio, lavo, lose a, as excludo, excutio, eluo. 

These following change their first vowel into i, but 
not in the preterperfect tense, and sometimes a into e 
in the supine, emo, sedeo, rego, frango, capio, jacio, 
lacio, specio, premo, as comprimo compressi compres- 
sum, conjicio conjeci conjectum, pango in two only, 
compiugo, impingo : ago, in all but perago, satago, 
circumago, dego, and cogo coegi : facio with a prepo- 
sition only, not in other compounds, as inficio, olfacio: 
lego in these only, diligo, eligo, intelligo, negligo, 
seligo, in the rest not, as preelego, add to these super- 
sedeo. 

Of Verbs Defective. 

Verbs called inceptives, ending- in sco, borrow their 
preterperfect tense from the verb whereof they are de- 
rived, as tepesco tepui from tepeo, ingemisco ingemui 
from ingemo ; as also these verbs cerno to see, vidi 
from video, sido sedi from sedeo, fero tuli from tulo out 
of use, in the supine latum, tollo sustuli sublatum from 
suffero. 

These want the preterperfect tense. 

Verbs ending in asco, as puerasco; in isco, as satis- 
co ; in urio, except parturio, esurio ; these also, vergo, 
ambigo, ferio, furo, polleo, nideo, have no preterperfect 
tense. 

Contrary, these four, odi, coepi, novi, memini, are 
found in the preterperfect tense only, and the tenses 
derived, as odi, oderam, oderim, odisse, except memini, 
which hath memento mementote in the imperative. 

Others are defective both in tense and person, as aio, 
ais, ait, Plur. aiunt. The preterimperfect aiebam is 
intire. Imperative, ai. Potential, aias, aiat, Plur. 
aiamus, aiant. 

Ausim, for ausus sim, ausis, ausit, Plur. ausint. 

Salveo, salvebis, salve salveto, salvete salvetote, sal- 
vere. 

Ave aveto, avete avetote. 

1 axo, faxis, faxit, faxint. 

Qtueso, Plur. qiuesumus. 

Infit, infiuut. 

Inquio or inquam, inquis, inquit, Plur. inquiunt. 
Inquiebat. Cic. Topic, inquisti, inquit. Future, inquies, 
inqniet Imperat inque inquito. Potent, inquiat. 

Dor the first person passive of do, and for before far- 



ris or farre in the indicative, are not read, nor der or 
fer in the potential. 

Of a Varticiple. 

A Participle is a part of speech, partaking with the 
verb from whence it is derived in voice, tense, and sig- 
nification, and with a noun adjective in manner of 
declining'. 

Participles are either of the active or passive voice. 

Of the active two. One of the present tense ending 
in ans, or ens, as laudans praising', habens, legens, au- 
diens, and is declined like fojlix, as hie hsec & hoc 
habens, Gen. habentis, Dat. habenti, &c. Docens, do- 
centis, &c. But from eo, euns, and in the compounds 
iens euntis, except ambiens ambientis. Note that 
some verbs otherwise defective have this participle, as 
aiens, inquiens. 

The other of the future tense is most commonly 
formed of the first supine, by changing m into rus, as 
of laudatum laudaturus to praise or about to praise, 
habiturus, lecturus, auditurus ; but some are not regu- 
larly formed, as of sectum secaturus, of jutum juva- 
turus, sonitum soniturus, partum pariturus, argutum 
arguiturus, and such like ; of sum, futurus : this as 
also the other two participles following are declined 
like bonus. 

This participle, with the verb sum, affordeth a second 
future in the active voice, as laudaturus sum, es, est, 
&c. as also the future of the infinitive, as laudaturum 
esse to praise hereafter, futurum esse, &c. 

Participles of the passive voice are also two, one of 
the preterperfect tense, another of the future. 

A participle of the preterperfect tense is formed of 
the latter supine, by putting thereto s, as of laudatu 
laudatus praised, of habitu habitus, lectu lectus, auditu 
auditus. 

This participle, joined with the verb sum, supplieth 
the want of a preterperfect and preterpluperfect tense 
in the indicative mood passive, and both them and the 
future of the potential ; as also the preterperfect and 
preterpluperfect of the infinitive, and with ire or fore 
the future; as laudatus sum or fui I have been praised, 
Plur. laudati sumus or fuimus we have been praised, 
laudatus eram or fueram, &c. Potential, laudatus sim 
or fuerim, laudatus essem or fuissem, laudatus ero or 
fuero. Infinit. laudatum esse or fuisse to have or had 
been praised ; laudatum ire or fore to be praised hereafter. 

Nor only passives, but some actives also or neuters, 
besides their own preterperfect tense borrow another 
from this participle ; Coeno ccenavi and coenatus sum, 
Juravi and juratus, Potavi and potus sum, Titubavi 
and titubatus, Careo carui cassus sum, Prandeo prandi 
and pransus, Pateo patui and passus sum, Placeo placui 
placitus, Suesco suevi suetus sum, Libet libuit and li- 
bitum est, Licet licuit licitum, Pudet puduit puditum, 
Pigct piguit pigitum, Taedet tseduit pertaesum est, and 
this deponent Mereor merui and meritus sum. 

These neuters following, like passives, have no other 
preterperfect tense, but by this participle, Gaudeo ga- 
visus sum, Fido fisus, Audeo ausus, Fio factus, Soleo 
solitus sum. 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



46? 



These deponents also form this participle from supines 
irregular ; Labor lapsus, patior passus, perpetior per- 
pessus, fateor fassus, confiteor confessus, diffiteor dif- 
fessus, gradior gressus, ingredior ingressus, fatiscor 
fessus, metior mensus, utor usus, ordior to spin orditus, 
to begin orsus, nitor nisus and nixus, ulciscor ultus, 
irascor iratus, reor ratus, obliviscor oblitus, fruor fruc- 
tus or fruitus, misereor misertus, tuor and tueor tuitus, 
loquor locutus, sequor secutus, experior expertus, pa- 
cicor pactus, nanciscor nactus, apiscor aptus, adipis- 
cor adeptus, queror questus, proficiscor profectus, ex- 
pergiscor experrectus, comminiscor commentus, nascor 
natus, morior mortuus, orior ortus sum. 

A participle of the future passive is formed of the 
gerund in dum, by changing m into s, as of laudandum 
laudandus to be praised, of habendum habendus, &c. 
And likewise of this participle with the verb Sum, may 
be formed the same tenses in the passive, which were 
formed with the participle of the preterperfect tenses, 
as laudandus sum or fui, &c. 

Infinit. Landandum esse or fore. 

Of verbs deponent come participles both of the ac- 
tive and passive form, as loquor loquens locutus loco- 
turus loquendus ; whereof the participle of the preter 
tense signifieth sometimes both actively and passively, 
as dignatus, testatus, meditatus, and the like. 

Of an Adverb. 

An Adverb is a part of speech joined with some 
other to explain its signification, as valde probus very 
honest, bene est it is well, valde doctus very learned, 
bene mane early in the morning. 

Of adverbs, some be of Time, as hodie to-day, eras 
to-morrow, &c. 

Some be of Place, as ubi where, ibi there, &c. And 
of many other sorts needless to be here set down. 

Certain adverbs also are compared, as docte learnedly, 
doctius doctissime, fortiter fortius fortissimo, saepe ssepi- 
us saepissime, and the like. 

Of a Conjunction. 

A Conjunction is a part of speech that joineth words 
and sentences together. 

Of Conjunctions some be copulatives, as et and, quo- 
que also, nee neither. 

Some be disjunctive, as aut or. 



Some be causal, as nam for, quia because, and many 
such like. 

Adverbs when they govern mood and tense, and 
join sentences together, as cum, ubi, postquam, and the 
like, are rather to be called conjunctions. 

Of a Preposition. 

A Preposition is a part of speech most commonly 
either set before nouns in apposition, as ad patrem, or 
joined with any other words in composition, as indoctus. 

These six, di, dis, re, se, am, con, are not read but in 
composition. 

As adverbs having cases after them may be called 
prepositions, so prepositions having none, may be 
counted adverbs. 

Of an Interjection. 

An Interjection is a part of speech, expressing some 
passion of the mind. 

Some be of sorrow, as heu, hei. 

Some be of marvelling, as papse. 

Some of disdaining, as vah. 

Some of praising, as euge. 

Some of exclaiming, as 6, proh, and such like. 



Figures of Speech. 

Words are sometimes increased or diminished by a 
letter or syllable in the beginning, middle, or ending, 
which are called Figures of speech. 

Increased. 

In the beginning, as Gnatus for natus, tetuli for tuli. 
Prothesis. 

In the middle, as Rettulit for retulit, cinctutus for 
cinctus. Epenthesis. 

In the end, as Dicier for dici. Paragoge. 

Diminished. 

In the beginning, as Ruit for eruit. Apherisis. 

In the middle, as Audiit for audivit, dixti for dixisti, 
lamna for lamina. Syncope. 

In the end, as Consili for consilii; scin for scisne. 
Apocope. 



2 H 



THE 



SECOND PART OF GRAMMAR, 



COMMONLY CALLED 



SYNTAXIS, OR CONSTRUCTION 



Hitherto the eight parts of speech declined and un- 
declined have been spoken of single, and each one by 
itself: now followeth Syntaxis or Construction, which 
is the right joining of these parts together in a sentence. 
Construction consisteth either in the agreement of 
words together in number, gender, case, and person, 
which is called concord ; or the governing of one the 
other in such case or mood as is to follow. 

Of the Concords. 

There be Three concords or agreements. 

The first is of the adjective with his substantive. 

The second is of the verb with his nominative case. 

The third is of the relative with his antecedent. 

An adjective (under which is comprehended both 
pronoun and participle) with his substantive or substan- 
tives, a verb with his nominative case or cases, and a 
relative with his antecedent or antecedents, agree all 
in number, and the two latter in person also : as Amicus 
certus. Viri docti. Praeceptor praelegit, vos vero neg- 
ligitis. Xenophon et Plato fuere aequales. Vir sapit 
qui pauca loquitur. Pater et praeceptor veniunt. Yea 
though the conjunction be disjunctive, as, Quos neque 
desidia neque luxuria vitiaverant. Celsus. Pater et 
praeceptor, quos qua?ritis. But if a verb singular fol- 
low many nominatives, it must be applied to each of 
them apart, as, Nisi foro et curiae officium ac verecun- 
dia sua constiterit. Val. Max. 

An adjective with his substantive, and a relative with 
his antecedent agree in gender and case ; but the rela- 
tive not in case always, being ofttimes governed by 
other constructions : as, Amicus certus in re incerta 
cernitur. Liber quern dedisti mihi. 

And if it be a participle serving the infinitive mood 
future, it ofttimes agrees with the substantive neither 
in gender nor in number, as, Hanc sibi rem praesidio 
sperat futurum. Cic. Audierat non datum iri filio uxo- 
rem. Terent. Omnia potius actum iri puto quam de 
proviridis. Cic. 

But when a verb cometh between two nominative 
cases not of the same number, or a relative between 
two substantives not of the same gender, the verb in 



number, and the relative in gender may agree with 
either of them ; as, Amantium irae amoris reintegratio 
est. Quid enim nisi vota supersunt. Tuentur ilium 
globum qui terra dicitur. Animal plenum rationis, 
quem vocamus hominem. Lutetia est quam nos Pari- 
sios dicimus. 

And if the nominative cases be of several persons, or 
the substantives and antecedents of several genders, the 
verb shall agree with the second person before the third, 
and with the first before either ; and so shall the ad- 
jective or relative in their gender; as, Ego et tu sumus 
in tuto. Tu et pater periclitamini. Pater et mater 
mortui sunt. Frater et soror quos vidisti. 

But in things that have not life, an adjective or re- 
lative of the neuter gender may agree with substantives 
or antecedents masculine or feminine, or both together ; 
as, Arcus et calami sunt bona. Arcus et calami quae 
fregisti. Pulcbritudinem, constantiam, ordinem in 
consiliis factisque conservanda putat. Cic. Off. 1. Ira 
et aegritudo permista sunt. Sal. 

Note that the infinitive mood, or any part of a sen- 
tence, may be instead of a nominative case to the verb, 
or of a substantive to the adjective, or of an antece- 
dent to the relative, and then the adjective or relative 
shall be of the neuter gender : and if there be more 
parts of a sentence than one, the verb shall be in the 
plural number ; Diluculo surgere saluberrimum est. 
Virtutem sequi, vita est honestissima. Audito procon- 
sulem in Ciliciam tendere. In tempore veni, quod 
omnium rerum est primum. Tu multum dormis et saepe 
potas, quae duo sunt corpori inimica. 

Sometimes also an adverb is put for the nominative 
case to a verb, and for a substantive to an adjective ; 
as, Partim signorum sunt combusta. Prope senties et 
vicies erogatum est. Cic. Verr. 4. 

Sometimes also agreement, whether it be in gender 
or number, is grounded on the sense, not on the words ; 
as, Ilium senium, for ilium senem. Iste scelus, for iste 
scclestus. Ter. Transtulit in Eunuchum suam, mean- 
ing comoediam. Ter. Pars magna obligati, meaning 
homines. Liv. Impliciti laqueis nudus uterque, for 
ambo. Ov. Alter in alterius jactantes lumina vultus, 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



469 



Ovid : that is, Alter et alter. Insperanti ipsa refers 
te nobis, for mihi. Catul. Disce omnes, Virg. Mn. 2, 
for tu quisquis es. Dua importuna prodigia, quos 
egestas tribuno plebis constrictos addixerat. Cic. pro 
Sest. Pars mersi tenuere ratem. Rhemus cam fratre 
Quirino jura dabant, Virg : that is, Rhemus et frater 
Quirinus. Divellimur inde Iphitus et Pelias mecum. 
Virg. 

Construction of Substantives. 

Hitherto of concord or agreement ; the other part 
followeth, which is Governing, whereby one part of 
speech is governed by another, that is to say, is put in 
such case or mood as the word that governeth or goeth 
before in construction requireth. 

When two substantives come together betokening 
divers things, whereof the former may be an adjective 
in the neuter gender taken for a substantive, the latter 
(which also maybe a pronoun) shall be in the genitive 
case ; as, Facundia Ciceronis. Amator studiorum. 
Ferimur per opaca locorum. Corruptus vanis rerum, 
Hor. Desiderium tui. Pater ejus. 

Sometimes, the former substantive, as this word offi- 
cium or mos, is understood ; as Oratoris est, it is the 
part of an orator. Extremse est dementiae, it is the 
manner of extreme madness. Ignavi est, it is the qua- 
lity of a slothful man. Ubi ad Dianse veneris ; tem- 
plum is understood. Justitisene prius mirer belline 
laborum, Virg: understand causa. Neque ille sepositi 
ciceris, neque longae invidit avenae. Hor. Supply 
partem. 

But if both the substantives be spoken of one thing, 
which is called apposition, they shall be both of the 
same case ; as, Pater meus vir amat me puerum. 

Words that signify quality, following the substantive 
whereof they are spoken, may be put in the genitive or 
ablative case ; as, Puer bonae indolis, or bona indole. 
Some have a genitive only ; as, Ingentis rex nominis. 
Liv. Decern annorum puer. Hujusmodipax. Hujus 
generis animal. But genus is sometimes in the accu- 
sative : as, Si hoc genus rebus non proficitur. Varr. de 
Re rust. And the cause or manner of a thing in the 
ablative only : as, Sum tibi natura parens, praeceptor 
consiliis. 

Opus and Usus, when they signify need, require an 
ablative ; as, Opus est mihi tuo judicio. Viginti minis 
usus est filio. But opus is sometimes taken for an ad- 
jective undeclined, and signifieth needful : as, Dux 
nobis et auctor opus est. Alia quae opus sunt para. 

Construction of Adjectives, governing a Genitive. 

Adjectives that signify desire, knowledge, ignor- 
ance, remembrance, forgetfulness, and such like ; as 
also certain others derived from verbs, and ending in 
ax, require a genitive; as Cupidus auri. Peritus belli. 
Ignarus omnium. Memor praeteriti. Reus furti. Te- 
nax propositi. Tempus edax rerum. 

Adjectives called nouns partitive, because they sig- 
nify part of some whole quantity or number, govern 
the word that signifieth the thing parted or divided, in 
the genitive ; as Aliquis nostrum. Primus omnium. 



Aurium mollior est sinistra. Oratorum eloquentissimus. 
And oft in the neuter gender ; as Multum lucri. Id 
negotii. Hoc noctis. Sometimes, though seldom, a 
word signifying the whole, is read in the same case 
with the partitive, as Habet duos gladios quibus altero 
te occisurum minatur, altero villicum, Plaut. for Quo- 
rum altero. Magnum opus habeo in manibus ; quod 
jampridem ad hunc ipsum (me autem dicebat) quaedam 
institui. Cic. Acad. I. Quod quaedam for cujus quaedam. 

A Dative. 

Adjectives that betoken profit or disprofit, likeness 
or unlikeness, fitness, pleasure, submitting or belong- 
ing to any thing, require a dative ; as Labor est utilis 
corpori. Equalis Hectori. Idoneus bello. Jucundus 
omnibus. Parenti supplex. Mihi proprium. 

But such as betoken profit or disprofit have some- 
times an accusative with a preposition ; as Homo ad 
nullam partem utilis. Cic. Inter se aequales. 

And some adjectives signifying likeness, unlikeness, 
or relation, may have a genitive. Par hujus. Ejus 
culpae affines. Domini similis es. Commune animan- 
tium est conjunctionis appetitus. Alien um dignitatis 
ejus. Cic. Fin. 1. Fuit hoc quondam proprium populi 
Romani, longe a domo bellare. But propior and 
proximus admit sometimes an accusative ; as proximus 
Pompeium sedebam. Cic. 

An Accusative. 

Nouns of measure are put after adjectives of like sig- 
nification in the accusative, and sometimes in the abla- 
tive; as Turris alta centum pedes. Arbor lata ties di- 
gitos. Liber crassus ties pollices, or tribus pollicibus. 
Sometimes in the genitive ; as Areas latas pedum de- 
num facito. 

All words expressing part or parts of a thing, may 
be put in the accusative, or sometimes in the ablative ; 
as Saucius frontem or fronte. Excepto quod non simul 
esses ceetera laetus. Hor. Nuda pedem. Ov. Os hu- 
merosque deo similis. Virg. Sometimes in the genitive ; 
as Dubius mentis. 

An Ablative. 

Adjectives of the comparative degree englished 
with this sign then or by, as dignus, indignus, praedi- 
tus, contentus, and these words of price, carus, vilis, 
require an ablative ; as Frigidior glacie. Multo doc- 
tior. Uno pede altior. Dignus honore. Virtu te prae- 
ditus. Sorte sua contentus. Asse charum. 

But of comparatives, plus, amplius, and minus, may 
govern a genitive ; also a nominative, or an accusative ; 
as Plus quinquaginta hominum. Amplius duorum 
millium. Ne plus tertia pars eximatur mellis. Varro. 
Paulo plus quingentos passus. Ut ex sua cuj usque 
parte ne minus dimidium ad fratrem perveniret, Cic. 
Verr. 4. And dignus, indignus, have sometimes a ge- 
nitive after them ; as Militia est operis altera digna 
tui. Indignus avorum. Virg. 

Adjectives betokening plenty or want, will have an 
ablative, and sometimes a genitive ; as Vacuus ira, or 
irae. Nulla epistola inanis re aliqua. Ditissimus agri. 



470 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR, 



Stultorum plena sunt omnia. Integer vitoe, scelerisque 
purus. Expers omnium. Vobis immunibus hujus esse 
moli dabitur. 

Words also betokening the cause, or form, or man- 
ner of a thing, are put after adjectives in the ablative 
case; as Pallidus ira. Trepidus morte futura. No- 
mine Grammaticus, re Barbarus. 

Of Pronouns. 

Pronouns differ not in construction from nouns, ex- 
cept that possessives, Meus, tuus, suus, noster, vester, 
by a certain manner of speech, are sometimes joined to 
a substantive, which governs their primitive understood 
with a noun or participle in a genitive case; as Dico 
mea unius opera rempublicam esse liberatam, Cic. for 
Mci unius opera. In like manner Nostra duorum, trium, 
paucorum, omnium virtute, for nostrum, duorum, &c. 
Meum soli us peccatum, Cic. Ex tuo ipsius animo, for 
Tui ipsius. Ex sua cujusque parte, Id. Verr. 2. Ne 
tua quidem recentia proximi praetoris vestigia persequi 
poterat. Cic. Verr. 4. Si meas praesentis preces non 
putas profuisse, Id. pro. Plane. Nostros vidisti flentis 
ocellos. Ovid. 

Also a relative, as qui or is, sometimes answers to 
an antecedent noun or pronoun primitive understood 
in the possessive ; as, Omnes laudare fortunas meas, 
qui filium haberem tali ingenio praeditum. Terent. 

Construction of Verbs. 

Verbs for the most part govern either one case after 
them, or more than one in a different manner of con- 
struction. 

Of the Verb substantive Sum, and such like, with a 
nominative and other oblique cases. 

Verbs that signify being, as Sum, existo, fio ; and 
certain passives, as Dicor, vocor, salutor, appellor, ha- 
beor, existimor, videor ; also verbs of motion or rest, as 
incedo, discedo, sedeo, with such like, will have a 
nominative case after them, as they have before them, 
because both cases belong to the same person or thing, 
and the latter is rather in an apposition with the former, 
than governed by the verb; as Temperantia est virtus. 
Horatius salutatur poeta. Ast ego quae divum incedo 
regina. 

And if est be an impersonal, it may sometimes go- 
vern a genitive, as Usus poetae, ut moris est, licentia. 
Phsedrus 1. 4. Negavit moris esse Graecorum ut, &c. 
Cic. Verr. 2. 

But if the following noun be of another person, or 
not directly spoken of the former, both after Sum and 
all his compounds, except possum, it shall be put in 
the dative ; as Est mihi domi pater. Multa petentibus 
desont multa. 

And if a thing be spoken of, relating to the person, 
it may be also in the dative ; as Sum tibi prsesidio. 
Bee res est mihi voluptati. Quorum alteri Capitoni 
cognomen fuit. Cic. Pastori nomen Faustulo fuisse 
ferunt Liv. 



Of Verbs transitive with an accusative, and the excep- 
tions thereto belonging. 
Verbs active or deponent, called transitive, because 
their action passeth forth on some person or thing, will 
have an accusative after them of the person or thing 
to whom the action is done ; as Amo te. Vitium fuge. 
Deum venerare. Usus promptos facit. Juvat me. 
Oportet te. 

Also verbs called neuters, may have an accusative of 
their own signification ; as Duram servit servitutem. 
Long-am ire viam. Endymionis somnum dormis. 
Pastillos Rusillus olet. Nee vox hominem sonat. Cum 
glaucum saltasset. Paterc. Agit laetum convivam. 
Horat. Hoc me latet. 

But these verbs, though transitive, Misereor and. 
miseresco, pass into a genitive ; as Miserere mei. 
Sometimes into a dative : Huic misereor. Sen. Dilige 
bonos, miseresce malis. Boetius. 

Reminiscor, obliviscor, recordor, and memini, some- 
times also require a genitive ; as Datae fidei reminisci- 
tur. Memini tui. Obliviscor carminis. Sometimes 
retain the accusative; as Recordor pueritiam. Omnia 
qua? curant senes meminerunt. Plaut. 

These impersonals also, interest and refert, signify- 
ing to concern, require a genitive, except in these ab- 
latives feminine, Mea, tua, sua, nostra, vestra, cuja. 
And the measure of concernment is often added in these 
genitives, magni, parvi, tanti, quanti, with their com- 
pounds; as Interest omnium recte agere. Tua refert 
teipsum nosse. Vestra parvi interest. 

But verbs of profiting or disprofiting, believing, 
pleasing, obeying, opposing, or being angry with, pass 
into a dative : as Non potes mihi commodare nee in- 
commodare. Placeo omnibus. Crede mihi. Nimium 
ne crede colori. Pareo parentibus. Tibi repugno. 
Adolescenti nihil est quod succenseat. But of the first 
and third sort, Juvo, adjuvo, laedo, offendo, retain an 
accusative. 

Lastly these transitives, fungor, fruor, utor, potior, 
and verbs betokening want, pass direct into an ablative. 
Fungitur officio. Aliena frui insania. Utere sorte tua. 
But fungor, fruor, utor, had anciently an accusative. 
Verbs of want, and potior, may have also a genitive. 
Pecuniae indiget. Quasi tu hujus indigeas patris. 
Potior urbe, or urbis. 

Sometimes a phrase of the same signification with a 
single verb, may have the case of the verb after it ; as 
Id operam do, that is to say, id ago. Idne estis au- 
thores mihi ? for id suadetis. Quid me vobis tactio 
est? for tangitis. Plaut. Quid tibi hanc curatio est 
rem? Id. 

The Accusative with a Genitive. 

Hitherto of transitives governing their accusative, 
or other case, in single and direct construction : now 
of such as may have after them more cases than one 
in construction direct and oblique, that is to say, with 
an accusative, a genitive, dative, other accusative, or 
ablative. 

Verbs of esteeming, buying, or selling, besides their 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR, 



471 



accusative, will have a genitive betokening- the value 
or price : Flocci, nihili, pili, hujus, and the like after 
verbs of esteeming- : Tanti, quanti, pluris, minoris, and 
such like, put without a substantive, after verbs of 
buying or selling; as Non hujus te sestimo. Ego ilium 
flocci pendo. iEqui boni hoc facio or consulo. Quanti 
mercatus es hunc equum ? Pluris quam vellem. 

But the word of value is sometimes in the ablative; 
as Parvi or parvo sestimas probitatem. And the word 
of price most usually; as Teruncio eum non emerim. 
And particularly in these adjectives, Vili, paulo, mini- 
ino, magno, nimio, plurimo, duplo, put without a sub- 
stantive ; as Vili vendo tritfcum. Redimite captum 
quam queas minimo. And sometimes minore for mi- 
noris. Nam a Cselio propinqui minore centessimis 
minimum movere non possunt. Cic. Att. 1. 1. But 
verbs neuter or passive have only the oblique cases 
after them ; as Tanti eris aliis, quanti tibi fueris. Pu- 
dor parvi penditur. Which is also to be observed in 
the following rules. 

And this neuter valeo governeth the word of value 
in the accusative ; as Denarii dicti quod denos -aeris 
valebant. Varr. 

Verbs of admonishing, accusing, condemning, ac- 
quitting, will have, besides their accusative, a genitive 
of the crime, or penalty, or thing; as Admonuit me 
errati. Accusas me furti? Vatem sceleris damnat. 
Furem dupli condemnavit. And sometimes an ablative 
with a preposition, or without ; as Condemnabo eodem 
ego te crimine. Accusas furti, an stupri, an utroque ? 
De repetundis accusavit, or damnavit. Cic. 

Also these impersonals, poenitet, taedet, miseret, mise- 
rescit, pudet, piget, to their accusative will have a 

(genitive, either of the person, or of the thing; as Nos- 
tri nosmet poenitet. Urbis me taedet. Pudet me neg- 
ligently. 

An Accusative with a Dative. 

Verbs of giving or restoring, promising or paying, 
commanding or shewing, trusting or threatening, add 
to their accusative a dative of the person ; as Fortuna 
multisnimiumdedit. Haec tibi promitto. Ms alienum 
mihi numeravit. Frumentum imperat civitatibus. 
Quod et cui dicas, videto. Hoc tibi suadeo. Tibi or 
ad te scribo. Pecuniam omnem tibi credo. Utrique 
mortem minatus est. 

To these add verbs active compounded with these 
prepositions, prse, ad, ab, con, de, ex, ante, sub, post, 
ob, in, and inter; as Prsecipio hoc tibi. Admovit urbi 
exercitum. Collegse suo imperium abrogavit. Sic 
parvis componere magna solebam. 

Neuters have a dative only; as Meis majoribus vir- 
tute prreluxi. But some compounded with prse and 
ante may have an accusative; as Prsestat ingenio alius 
alium. Multos anteit sapientia. Others with a pre- 
position ; as Quce ad ventris victum conducunt. In 
htfec studia incumbite. Cic. 

Also all verbs active, betokening acquisition, liken- 
ing, or relation, commonly englished with to or for, 
have to their accusative a dative of the person ; as 
Magnam laudem sibi peperit. Huic habeo, non tibi. 



Se illis eequarunt. Expedi mihi hoc negotium : but 
mihi, tibi, sibi, sometimes are added for elegance, the 
sense not requiring ; as Suo hunc sibi jugulat gladio. 
Terent. Neuters a dative only ; as Non omnibus dor- 
mio. Libet mihi. Tibi licet. 

Sometimes a verb transitive will have to his accusa- 
tive a double dative, one of the person, another of the 
thing ; as Do tibi vestem pignori. Verto hoc tibi 
vitio. Hoc tu tibi laudi duces. 

A double Accusative. 

Verbs of asking, teaching*, arraying, and concealing, 
will have two accusatives, one of the person, another of 
the thing ; as Rogo te pecuniam. Doceo te literas. 
Quod te jamdudum hortor. Induit se calceos. Hoc 
me celabas. 

And being passives, they retain one accusative of 
the thing, as Sumtumque recingitur anguem. Ovid. 
Met. 4. Induitur rogam. Mart. 

But verbs of arraying sometimes change the one ac- 
cusative into an ablative or dative ; as Induo te tunica, 
or tibi tunicam. Instravit equum penula, or equo pe- 
nulam. 

An Accusative with an Ablative. 

Verbs transitive may have to their accusative an ab- 
lative of the instrument or cause, matter or manner of 
doing ; and neuters the ablative only ; as Ferit eum 
gladio. Taceo metu. Malis gaudet alienis. Summa 
eloquentia causam egit. Capitolium saxo quadrato 
substructum est. Tuo consilio nitor. Vescor pane. 
Affluis opibus. Amore abundas. Sometimes with a 
preposition of the manner; as Summa cum humanitate 
me tractavit. 

Verbs of endowing, imparting, depriving, discharg- 
ing, filling, emptying, and the like, will have an abla- 
tive, and sometimes] a genitive ; as Dono te hoc annulo. 
Plurima salute te impertit. Aliquem familiarem suo 
sermone participavit. Paternum servum sui participavit 
consilii. Interdico tibi aqua, et igni. Libero te hoc 
metu. Implentur veteris Bacchi. 

Also verbs of comparing or exceeding, will have an 
ablative of the excess ; as Prsefero hunc multis gradi- 
bus. Magno intervallo eum superat. 

After all manner of verbs, the word signifying any 
part of a thing may be put in the genitive, accusative, 
or ablative; as Absurde facis qui angas te animi. 
Pendet animi. Discrucior animi. Desipit mentis. 
Candet dentes. Rubet capillos. iEgrotat animo, 
magis quam corpore. 

Nouns of Time and Place after Verbs. 

Nouns betokening part of time be put after verbs in 
the ablative, and sometimes in the accusative ; as 
Nocte vigilas, luce dormis. Nullam partem noctis re- 
quiescit. Cic. Abhinc triennium ex Andro commigra- 
vit. Ter. Respondit triduo ilium, ad summum quatri- 
duo periturum. Cic. Or if continuance of time, in the 
accusative, sometimes in the ablative ; as Sexaginta 
annos natus. Hyemem totam stertis. Imperium dc- 



472 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



ponere maluerunt, quam id tenere punctum temporis 
contra religionem. Cic. Imperavit triennio, et decern 
mensibus. Suet. Sometimes with a preposition ; as 
Fere in diebus paucis, quibus haec acta sunt. Ter. 
Rarely with a genitive ; as, Temporis angusti mansit 
concordia discors. Lucan. 

Also nouns betokening space between places are put 
in the accusative, and sometimes in the ablative ; as, 
Pedem hinc ne discesseris. Abest ab urbe quingentis 
millibus passuum. Terra marique gentibus imperavit. 

Nouns that signify place, and also proper names of 
greater places, as countries, be put after verbs of moving 
or remaining, with a preposition, signifying to, from, 
in, or by, in such case as the preposition require th ; 
as Proflciscor ab urbe. Vivit in Anglia. Veni per 
Galliam in Italiam. 

But if it be the proper name of a lesser place, as of 
a city, town, or lesser island, or any of these four, 
Humus, domus, militia, bellum, with these signs, 
on, in, or at, before them, being of the first or second 
declension, and singular number, they shall be put in 
the genitive; if of the third declension, or plural num- 
ber, or this word rus, in the dative or ablative ; as, 
Vixit Romae, Londini. Ea habitabat Rhodi. Conon 
plurimum Cypri vixit. Cor. Nep. Procumbit humi 
bos. Domi belliquesimul viximus. Militavit Cartha- 
gini, or Carthagine. Studuit Athenis. Ruri or rure 
educatus est. 

If the verb of moving be to a place, it shall be put 
in the accusative ; as Eo Romam, domum, rus. If 
from a place, in the ablative ; as Discessit Londino. 
Abiit domo. Rure est reversus. 

Sometimes with a preposition ; as A Brundusio pro- 
fectus est, Cic. Manil. Ut ab Athenis in Bceotiam 
irem. Sulpit. apud Cic. Fam. 1. 4. Cum te profectum 
ab domo scirem. Liv. 1. 8. 

Construction of Passives. 

A Verb passive will have after it an ablative of the 
doer, with the preposition a or ab before it, sometimes 
without, and more often a dative ; as Virgilius legitur 
a me. Fortes creantur fortibus. Hor. Tibi fama peta- 
tur. And neutro-passives, as Vapulo, veneo, liceo, ex- 
ulo, fio, may have the same construction ; as Ab hoste 
venire. 

Sometimes an accusative of the thing is found after 
a passive: as Coronari Olympia. Hor. Epist. 1. Cy- 
clopa movetur. Hor. for saltat or egit. Purgor bilem. 
1.1. 

Construction of Gerunds and Supines. 

Gerunds and supines will have such cases as the 
verb from whence they come ; as Otium scribendi lite- 
ras. Eo auditum poetas. Ad consulendum tibi. 

A gerund in di is commonly governed both of sub- 
stantives and adjectives in manner of a genitive; as 
Causa videndi. Amorhabendi. Cupidus visendi. Cer- 
tus eundi. And sometimes governeth a genitive plural; 
as Illornm videndi gratia. Ter. 

Gerunds in do are used after verbs in manner of an 
ablative, according to former rules, with or without a 



preposition ; as, Defessus sum ambulando. A discendo 
facile deterretur. Caesar dando, sublevando, ignos- 
cendo, gloriam adeptus est. In apparando consumunt 
diem. 

A gerund in dum is used in manner of an accusative 
after prepositions governing that case ; as, Ad eapien- 
dum hostes. Ante domandum ingentes tollent animos. 
Virg. Ob redimendum captivos. Inter coenandum. 

Gerunds in signification are ofttimes used as parti- 
ciples in dus ; Tuorum consiliorum reprimendorum 
causa. Cic. Orationem Latinam legendis nostris efficies 
pleniorem. Cic. Ad accusandos homines praemio du- 
citur. 

A gerund in dum joined with the impersonal est, and 
implying some necessity or duty to do a thing, may 
have both the active and passive construction of the 
verb from whence it is derived ; as Utendum est aetate. 
Ov. Pacem Trojano a rege petendum. Virg. Iterandum 
eadem ista mihi. Cic. Serviendum est mihi amicis. 
Plura dixi, quam dicendum fuit. Cic. pro Sest. 

Construction of Verb with Verb. 

When two verbs come together, without a nomina- 
tive case between them, the latter shall be in the in- 
finitive mood; as Cupio discere. Or in the first supine 
after verbs of moving; as Eo cubitum, spectatum. Or 
in the latter with an adjective; as Turpe est dictu. 
Facile factu. Opus scitu. 

But if a case come between, not governed of the 
former verb, it shall always be an accusative before the 
infinitive mood ; as Te rediisse incolumem gaudeo. 
Malo me divitem esse, quam haberi. 

And this infinitive esse, will have always after it an 
accusative, or the same case which the former verb 
governs; as Expedit bonos esse vobis. Quo mihi com- 
misso, non licet esse piam. But this accusative agree- 
eth with another understood before the infinitive ; as 
Expedit vobis vos esse bonos. Natura beatis omnibus 
esse dedit. Nobis non licet esse tam disertis. The 
same construction may be used after other infinitives 
neuter or passive like to esse in signification ; as Max- 
imo tibi postea et civi, et duci evadere contigit. Val. 
Max. 1. 6. 

Sometimes a noun adjective or substantive governs 
an infinitive: as Audax omnia perpeti. Dignusamari. 
Consilium ceperunt ex oppido profugere. Caes. Minari 
divisoribus ratio non erat. Cic. Verr. 1. 

Sometimes the infinitive is put absolute for the pre- 
terimperfect or preterperfect tense : as, Egoillud sedulo 
negare factum. Ter. Galba autem multas similitudines 
aflferre. Cic. Hie contra hsec omnia mere, agere vitam. 
Ter. 

Construction of Participles. 

Participles govern such cases as the verb from 
whence they come, according to their active or passive 
signification; as, Fruiturus amicis. Nunquam audita 
mihi. Diligendus ab omnibus. Sate sanguine divum. 
Telamone creatus. Corpore mortali cretus. Lucret. 
Nate dea. Edite regibus. Laevo suspensi loculos tabu- 
lasque lacerto. Hor. Census equestrem summam. Id. 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



473 



Abeundum est mihi. Venus orta mari. Exosus bella. 
Virg. Exosus diis. Gell. Arma perosus. Ovid. But 
Pertaesus hath an accusative otherwise than the verb ; 
as Pertaesus ignaviam. Semet ipse pertaesus. Suet. 
To these add participial adjectives ending- in bilis of 
the passive signification, and requiring like case after 
them ; as Nulli penetrabilis astro lucus erat. 

Participles changed into adjectives have their con- 
struction by the rules of adjectives, as Appetens vini. 
Fugitans litum. Fidens animi. 

An Ablative put absolute. 

Two Nouns together, or a noun and pronoun with a 
participle expressed or understood, put absolutely, that 
is to say, neither governing nor governed of a verb, 
shall be put in the ablative ; as Authore senatu bellum 
geritur. Me duce vinces. Caesare veniente hostes 
fugerunt. Sublato claraore prselium committitur. 

Construction of Adverbs. 

En and ecce will have a nominative, or an accusative, 
and sometimes with a dative ; En Priamus. Ecce tibi 
status noster. En habitum. Ecce autem alterum. 

Adverbs of quantity, time, and place require a geni- 
tive ; as Satis loquentiae, sapientice parum satis. Also 
compounded with a verb ; as Is rerum suarum satagit. 
Tunc temporis ubique gentium. Eo impudentiae pro- 
cessit. Quoad ejus fieri poterit. 

To these add Ergo signifying the cause ; as Illius 
ergo. Virg. Virtutis ergo. Fugae atque formidinis ergo 
non abiturus. Liv. 

Others will have such cases as the nouns from whence 
they come ; as Minime gentium. Optime omnium. 
Venit obviam illi. Canit similiter huic. Albanum, 
sive Falernum te magis oppositis delectat. Hor. 

Adverbs are joined in a sentence to several moods of 
verbs. 

Of time. Ubi, postquam, cum or quum, to an indica- 
tive or subjunctive ; as Haec ubi dicta dedit. Ubi nos 
laverimus. Postquam excessit ex ephebis. Cum faciam 
vitula. Virg. Cum canerem reges. Id. 

Donee while, to an indicative. Donee eris faelix. 
Donee until, to an indicative or subjunctive; Cogere 
donee oves jussit. Virg. Donee ea aqua decocta sit. 
Colum. 

Dum while, to an indicative. Dum apparatur virgo. 
Dum until, to an indicative or subjunctive; as Dum 
redeo. Tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit aestas. 
Dum for dummodo so as, or so that, to a subjunctive; 
Dum prosim tibi. 

Quoad while, to an indicative. Quoad expectas con- 
tubernalem. Quoad until, to a subjunctive. Omnia 
integra servabo, quoad exercitus hue mittatur. 

Simulac, simulatque to an indicative or subjunctive; 
as Simulac belli patiens erat, simulatque adoleverit 
aetas. 

Ut as, to the same moods. Ut salutabis, ita resalu- 
taberis. Ut sementem feceris, ita et metos. Hor. Ut 
so soon as, to an indicative only : as Ut ventum est in 
urbem. 

Quasi, tanquam, perinde, ac si, to a subjunctive only; 



as Quasi non norimus nos inter nos. Tanquam feceris 
ipse aliquid. 

Ne of forbidding, to an imperative or subjunctive; 
as Ne saevi. Ne metuas. 

Certain adverbs of quantity, quality, or cause; as 
Quam, quoties, cur, quare, &c. Thence also qui, quis, 
quantus, qualis, and the like, coming into a sentence 
after the principal verb, govern the verb following in 
a subjunctive ; as Videte quam valde malitiae suae 
confidat. Cic. Quid est cur tu in isto loco sedeas ? Cic. 
pro Cluent. Subsideo mihi diligentiam comparavi, 
quae quanta sit intelligi non potest, nisi, &c. Cic. pro 
Quint. Nam quid hoc iniquius dici potest. Quam me 
qui caput alterius fortunasque defendam, priore loco 
discere. Ibid. Nullum est officium tam sanctum atque 
solenne, quod non avaritia violare soleat. Ibid. Non 
me fallit, si consulamini quid sitis responsuri. Ibid. 
Dici vix potest quam multa sint quae respondeatis ante 
fieri oportere. Ibid. Docui quo die hunc sibi promi- 
sisse dicat, eo die ne Romae quidem eum fuisse. Ibid. 
Conturbatus discedit neque mirum cui haec optio tam 
misera daretur. Ibid. Narrat quo in loco viderit Quin- 
tium. Ibid. Recte majores eum qui socium fefellisset 
in virorum bonorum numero non putarunt haberi opor- 
tere. Cic. pro Rose. Am. Quae concursatio percontan- 
tium quid praetor edixisset, ubi coenaret, quid enunti- 
asset. Cic. Agrar. 1. 

Of Conjunctions. 

Conjunctions copulative and disjunctive, and these 
four, Quam, nisi, praeterquam, an, couple like cases; 
as Socrates docuit Xenophontem et Platonem. Aut 
dies est, aut nox. Nescio albus an ater sit. Est minor 
natu quam tu. Nemini placet praeterquam sibi. 

Except when some particular construction requireth 
otherwise; as Studui Romae et Athenis. Emi fundum 
centum nummis et pluris. Accusas furti, an stupri, an 
utroque ? 

They also couple for the most part like moods and 
tenses, as Recto stat corpore, despicitque terras. But 
not always like tenses ; as Nisi me lactasses, et vana 
spe produceres. Et habetur, et referetur tibi a me 
gratia. 

Of other conjunctions, some govern an indicative, 
some a subjunctive, according to their several signifi- 
cations. 

Etsi, tametsi, etiamsi, quanquam, an indicative ; 
quam vis and licet, most commonly a subjunctive; as 
Etsi nihil novi afferebatur. Quanquam animus memi- 
nisse horret. Quamvis Elysios miretur Graecia cam- 
pos. Ipse licet venias. 

Ni, nisi, si, siquidem, quod, quia, postquam, postea- 
quam, antequam, priusquam, an indicative or subjunc- 
tive ; as Nisi vi mavis eripi. Ni faciat. Castigo te, non 
quod odeo habeam, sed quod amem. Antequam dicam. 
Si for quamvis, a subjunctive only. Redeam? Non si 
me obsecret. 

Si also conditional may sometimes govern both verbs 
of the sentence in a subjunctive ; as Respiraro si te vi- 
dero. Cic. ad Attic. 

Quando, quandoquidem, quoniam, an indicative; as 



474 



ACCEDENCE COMMENCED GRAMMAR. 



Dicite quandoquidem in molli consedimus herba. 
Quouiara convenimus ambo. 

Cum, seeing that, a subjunctive; as Cum sis officiis 
Gradive virilibus aptus. 

Ne, an, num, of doubting-, a subjunctive; as Nihil 
refert, fecerisne, an persuaseris. Vise num redierit. 

Iuterrogatives also of disdain or reproach understood, 
govern a subjunctive; as Tantum dem, quantum ille 
poposcerit ? Cic. Verr. 4. Sylvam tu Scantiam vendas ? 
Cic. Agrar. Hunc tu non ames ? Cic. ad Attic. Fu- 
rem aliquem aut rapacem accusaris? Vitand a semper 
erit omnis avaritiae suspicio. Cic. Ver. 4. Sometimes 
an infinitive; as Mene incoepto desistere victam? Virg. 

Ut that, lest not, or although, a subjunctive ; as Te 
oro, ut redeat jam in viam. Metuo ut substet hospes. 
Ut omnia contingat quae volo. 

Of Prepositions. 

Of Prepositions some will have an accusative after 
them, some an ablative, some both, according to their 
different signification. 

An accusative these following, Ad, apud, ante, ad- 
versus, ad ver sum, cis, citra, circum, circa, circiter, con- 
tra, erga, extra, inter, intra, infra, juxta, ob, pone, per, 
prope, propter, post, penes, praeter, secundum, supra, 
secus, trans, ultra, usque, versus : but versus is most 
commonly set after the case it governs, as Londinum 
versus. 

And for an accusative after ad, a dative sometimes 
is used in poets ; as It clamor ccelo. Virg. Coelo si 
gloria tollit iEneadum. Sil. for ad ccelum. 

An ablative these, A, ab, abs, absque, cum, coram, 
de, e, ex, pro, prae, palam, sine, tenus, which last is 
also put after his case, being most usually a genitive, 
if it be plural; as Capulo tenus. Aurium tenus. 

These, both cases, In, sub, super, subter, clam, pro- 
cul. 

In, signifying to, towards, into, or against, requires 
an accusative ; as Pisces emptos obolo in ccenam seni. 
Animus in Teucros benignus. Versa est in cineres 
Troja. In te committere tantum quid Troes potuere ? 
Lastly, when it signifies future time, or for; as Bellum 
in trigesimum diem indixerunt. Designati consulesin 



annum sequentem. Alii pretia faciunt in singula ca- 
pita canum. Var. Otherwise in will have an ablative ; 
as In urbe. In terris. 

Sub, when it signifies to, or in time, about, or a little 
before, requires an accusative; as Sub umbram pro- 
peremus. Sub id tempus. Sub noctem. Otherwise 
an ablative. Sub pedibus. Sub umbra. 

Super signifying beyond, or present time, an accu- 
sative ; as Super Garamantas et Indos. Super cccnain, 
Suet, at supper time. Of or concerning, an ablative ; 
as Multa super Priamo rogitans. Super hac re. 

Super, over or upon, may have either case; as Su- 
per ripas Tiberis effusus. Saeva sedens super arma. 
Fronde super viridi. 

So also may subter ; as Pugnatum est super subter- 
que terras. Subter densa testudine. Virg. Clam pa- 
trem or patre. Procul muros. Liv. Patria procul. 

Prepositions in composition govern the same cases as 
before in apposition. Adibo hominem. Detrudunt 
naves scopulo. And the preposition is sometimes re- 
peated ; as Detrahere de tua fama nunquam cogitavi. 
And sometimes understood, governeth his usual case; 
as Habeo te loco parentis. Apparuit humana specie. 
Cumis erant oriundi. Liv. Liberis parentibus oriun- 
dis. Colum. Mutat quadrata rotundis. Hor. Pridie 
compitalia. Pridie nonas or calendas. Postridie idus. 
Postridie ludos. Before which accusatives ante or 
post is to be understood. Filii id aetatis. Cic. Hoc 
noctis. Liv. Understand Secundum. Or refer to part of 
time. Omnia Mercurio similis. Virg. Understand per. 

Of Interjections. 

Certain interjections have several cases after them. 
0, a nominative, accusative, or vocative ; as O festus 
dies hominis. O ego laevus. Hor. fortunatos. O 
formose puer. 

Others a nominative or an accusative ; as Heu pris- 
ca fides ! Heu stirpem invisam ! Proh sancte Jupiter ! 
Proh deum atque hominum fidem ! Hem tibi Davum ! 

Yea, though the interjection be understood ; as Me 
miserura ! Me ccecum, qui haec ante non viderim* 

Others will have a dative; as Hei mihi. Vae misero 
mihi. Terent. 



THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN, 

THAT PART ESPECIALLY, NOW CALLED ENGLAND; 

FROM THE FIRST TRADITIONAL BEGINNING, CONTINUED TO THE 
NORMAN CONQUEST. 

COLLECTED OUT OP THE ANCIENTEST AND BEST AUTHORS THEREOF. 
[published from a copy corrected by the author himself, 1670.] 



THE FIRST BOOK. 



The beginning" of nations, those excepted of whom 
sacred books have spoken, is to this day unknown. 
Nor only the beginning-, but the deeds also of many 
succeeding- ages, yea, periods of ag-es, either wholly 
unknown, or obscured and blemished with fables. 
Whether it were that the use of letters came in long' 
after, or were it the violence of barbarous inundations, 
or they themselves, at certain revolutions of time, fatally 
decaying-, and degenerating- into sloth and ig-norance ; 
whereby the monuments of more ancient civility have 
been some destroyed, some lost. Perhaps disesteem 
and contempt of the public affairs then present, as not 
worth recording-, might partly be in cause. Certainly 
ofttimes we see that wise men, and of best ability, have 
forborn to write the acts of their own days, while they 
beheld with a just loathing and disdain, not only how 
unworthy, how perverse, how corrupt, but often how 
ignoble, how petty, how below all history, the persons 
and their actions were ; who, either by fortune or some 
rude election, had attained, as a sore judgment and 
ignominy upon the land, to have chief sway in manag- 
ing the commonwealth. But that any law, or super- 
stition of our philosophers, the Druids, forbad the Bri- 
tains to write their memorable deeds, I know not why 
any out of Caesar a should allege : he indeed saitb, that 
their doctrine they thought not lawful to commit to 
letters; but in most matters else, both private and 
public, among which well may history be reckoned, 
they used the Greek tongue ; and that the British 
Druids, who taught those in Gaul, would be ignorant 
of any language known and used by their disciples, or 
so frequently writing other things, and so inquisitive 
into highest, would for want of recording be ever 
children in the knowledge of times and ages, is not 
likely. Whatever might be the reason, this we find, 
that of British affairs, from the first peopling of the 
island to the coming of Julius Caesar, nothing certain, 
a Caes. 1,6. 



either by tradition, history, or ancient fame, hath hitherto 
been left us. That which we have of oldest seeming, 
hath by the greater part of judicious antiquaries been 
long rejected for a modern fable. 

Nevertheless there being others, besides the first sup- 
posed author, men not unread, nor unlearned in anti- 
quity, who admit that for approved story, which the 
former explode for fiction ; and seeing that ofttimes 
relations heretofore accounted fabulous have been after 
found to contain in them many footsteps and reliques 
of something true, as what we read in poets of the 
flood, and giants little believed, till undoubted wit- 
nesses taught us, that all was not feigned ; I have 
therefore determined to bestow the telling* over even of 
these reputed tales ; be it for nothing else but in favour 
of our English poets and rhetoricians, who by their art 
will know how to use them judiciously. 

I might also produce example, as Diodorus among 
the Greeks, Livy and others among the Latins, Poly- 
dore and Virunnius accounted among our own writers. 
But I intend not with controversies and quotations to 
delay or interrupt the smooth course of history ; much 
less to argue and debate long who were the first in- 
habitants, with what probabilities, what authorities each 
opinion hath been upheld ; but shall endeavour that 
which hitherto hath been needed most, with plain and 
lightsome brevity, to relate well and orderly things 
worth the noting, so as may best instruct and benefit 
them that read. Which, imploring divine assistance, 
that it may redound to his glory, and the good of the 
British nation, I now begin. 

THAT the whole earth was inhabited before the flood, 
and to the utmost point of habitable ground from those 
effectual words of God in the creation, may be more 
than conjectured. Hence that this island also had her 
dwellers, her affairs, and perhaps her stories, even in 
that old world those many hundred years, with much 



476 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book I. 



reason we may infer. After the flood, and the dispers- 
ing- of nations, as they journeyed leisurely from the 
east, Gomer the eldest son of Japhet, and his offspring-, 
as by authorities, arg-uments, and affinity of divers 
names is generally believed, were the first that peopled 
all these west and northern climes. But they of our 
own writers, who thought they had done nothing, un- 
less with all circumstance they tell us when, and who 
first set foot upon this island, presume to name out of 
fabulous and counterfeit authors a certain Samothes or 
Dis, a fourth or sixth son of Japhet, (who they make, 
about 200 years after the flood, to have planted with 
colonies, first the continent of Celtica or Gaul, and 
next this island ; thence to have named it Samothea,) 
to have reigned here, and after him lineally four kings, 
Magus, Saron, Druis, and Bardus. But the forged 
Berosus, whom only they have to cite, no where 
mentions that either he, or any of those whom they 
bring, did ever pass into Britain, or send their people 
hither. So that this outlandish figment may easily 
excuse our not allowing it the room here so much as 
of a British fable. 

That which follows, perhaps as wide from truth, 
though seeming less impertinent, is, that these Samo- 
theans under the reign of Bardus were subdued by 
Albion, a giant, son of Neptune; who called the island 
after his own name, and ruled it 44 years. Till at 
length passing over into Gaul, in aid of his brother 
Lestrvgon, against whom Hercules was hasting out of 
Spain into Italy, he was there slain in fight, and Ber- 
gion also his brother. 

Sure enough we are, that Britain hath been anciently 
termed Albion, both by the Greeks and Romans. And 
Mela, the geographer, makes mention of a stony shore 
in Languedoc, where by report such a battle was fought. 
The rest, as his giving name to the isle, or even land- 
ing here, depends altogether upon late surmises. But 
too absurd, and too unconscionably gross is that fond 
invention, that wafted hither the fifty daughters of a 
strange Dioclesi.n king of Syria; brought in, doubt- 
less, by some illiterate pretender to something mistaken 
in the common poetical story of Danaus king of Argos, 
while his vanity, not pleased with the obscure begin- 
ning which truest antiquity affords the nation, laboured 
to contrive us a pedigree, as he thought, more noble. 
These daughters by appointment of Danaus on the 
marriage-night having murdered all their husbands, 
except Linceus, whom his wife's loyalty saved, were 
by him, at the suit of his wife their sister, not put to 
death, but turned out to sea in a ship unmanned ; of 
which whole sex they had incurred the hate : and as 
the tale goes, were driven on this island. Where the 
inhabitants, none but devils, as some write, or as others, 
a lawless crew left here by Albion, without head or 
governor, both entertained them, and had issue by 
them a second breed of giants, who tyrannized the 
isle, till Brutus came. 

The eldest of these dames in their legend they call 
Albina; and from thence, for which cause the whole 
was framed, will have the name Albion derived. 
• Hollinshed. 



Incredible it may seem so sluggish a conceit should 
prove so ancient, as to be authorized by the elder Nin- 
nius, reputed to have lived above a thousand years ago. 
This I find not in him : but that Histion, sprung of 
Japhet, had four sons; Francus, Romanus, Alemannus, 
and Britto, of whom the Britains;* as true, I believe, 
as that those other nations, whose names are resembled, 
came of the other three; if these dreams give not just 
occasion to call in doubt the book itself, which bears 
that title. 

Hitherto the things themselves have given us a 
warrantable dispatch to run them soon over. But now 
of Brutus and his line, with the whole progeny of 
kings, to the entrance of Julius Caesar, we cannot so 
easily be discharged ; descents of ancestry, long con- 
tinued, laws and exploits not plainly seeming to be 
borrowed, or devised, which on the common belief have 
wrought no small impression ; defended by many, de- 
nied utterly by few. For what though Brutus and 
the whole Trojan pretence were yielded up; (seeing 
they who first devised to bring us from some noble 
ancestor, were content at first with Brutus the consul ; 
till better invention, although not willing to forego the 
name, taught them to remove it higher into a more 
fabulous age, and by the same remove lighting on the 
Trojan tales in affectation to make the Britain of one 
original with the Roman, pitched there ;) yet those old 
and inborn names of successive kings, never any to 
have been real persons, or done in their lives at least 
some part of what so long hath been remembered, can- 
not be thoug-ht without too strict an incredulity. 

For these, and those causes above mentioned, that 
which hath received approbation from so many, I have 
chosen not to omit. Certain or uncertain, be that upon 
the credit of those whom I must follow; so far as keeps 
aloof from impossible and absurd, attested by ancient 
writers from books more ancient, I refuse not, as the 
due and proper subject of story. The principal author 
is well known to be Geoffrey of Monmouth ; what he 
was, and whence his authority, who in his age, or be- 
fore him, have delivered the same matter, and such 
like general discourses, will better stand in a treatise 
by themselves. Allf of them agree in this, that Bru- 
tus was the son of Silvius; he of Ascanius; whose 
father was Eneas a Trojan prince, who at the burning 
of that city, with his son Ascanius, and a collected 
number that escaped, after long wandering on the sea, 
arrived in Italy. Where at length by the assistance 
of Latinus king of Latiam, who had given him his 
daughter Lavinia, he obtained to succeed in that king- 
dom, and left it to Ascanius, whose son Silvius (though 
Roman histories deny Silvius to be the son of Ascanius) 
had married secretly a niece of Lavinia. 

She being with child, the matter became known to 
Ascanius. Who commandinghis " magicians to inquire 
by art, what sex the maid had conceived," had answer, 
" that it was one who should be the death of both his 
parents; and banished for the fact, should after all, in a 
far country, attain the highest honour." The predic- 
tion failed not, for in travail the mother died. And 

t Henry of Huntingdon, Matthew of Westminster. 



Book I. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Brutus (the child was so called) at fifteen years of age, 
attending his father to the chace, with an arrow unfor- 
tunately killed him. 

Banished therefore by his kindred, he retires into 
Greece. Where meeting with the race of Helenus king 
Priam's son, held there in servile condition by Pandra- 
sus then king, with them he abides. For Pyrrhus, in 
revenge of his father slain at Troy, had brought thither 
with him Helenus, and many others into servitude. 
There Brutus among his own stock so thrives in virtue 
and in arms, as renders him beloved to kings and great 
captains, above all the youth of that land. Whereby 
the Trojans not only began to hope, but secretly to 
move him, that he would lead them the way to liberty. 
They allege their numbers, and the promised help of 
Assaracus a noble Greekish youth, by the mother's side 
a Trojan; whom for that cause his brother went about 
to dispossess of certain castles bequeathed him by his 
father. Brutus considering both the forces offered 
him, and the strength of those holds, not unwillingly 
consents. 

First therefore having fortified those castles, he with 
Assaracus and the whole multitude betake them to the 
woods and hills, as the safest place from whence to ex- 
postulate ; and in the name of all sends to Pandrasus 
this message, " That the Trojans holding it unworthy 
their ancestors to serve in a foreign kingdom had re- 
treated to the woods ; choosing rather a savage life 
than a slavish : if that displeased him, that then with 
his leave they might depart to some other soil." 

As this may pass with good allowance that the Tro- 
jans might be many in these parts, (for Helenus was 
by Pyrrhus made king of the Chaonians, and the sons 
of Pyrrhus by Andromache Hector's wife, could not but 
be powerful through all Epirus,) so much the more it 
may be doubted, how these Trojans could be thus in 
bondage, where they had friends and countrymen so 
potent. But to examine these things with diligence, 
were but to confute the fables of Britain, with the fa- 
bles of Greece or Italy : for of this age, what we have 
to say, as well concerning most other countries, as this 
island, is equally under question. Be how it will, 
Pandrasus not expecting so bold a message from the sons 
of captives, gathers an army ; and marching towards 
the woods, Brutus who had notice of his approach nigh 
to the town called Sparatinum, (I know not what town, 
but certain of no Greek name,) over night planting 
himself there with good part of his men, suddenly sets 
upon him, and with slaughter of the Greeks pursues 
him to the passage of a river, which mine author names 
Akalon, meaning perhaps Achelous or Acheron ; where 
at the ford he overlays them afresh. This victory ob- 
tained, and a sufficient strength left in Sparatinum, 
Brutus with Antigonus, the king's brother, and his 
friend Anacletus, whom he had taken in the fight, re- 
turns to the residue of his ffiends in the thick woods ; 
while Pandrasus with all speed recollecting, besieges 
the town. Brutus to relieve his men besieged, who 
earnestly called him, distrusting the sufficiency of his 
force, bethinks himself of this policy. Calls to him 
Anacletus, and threatening instant death else, both to 



^""J^v 



477 



him and his friend Antigonus, enjoins him, that he 
should go at the second hour of night to the Greekish 
leagre, and tell the guards he had brought Antigonus 
by stealth out of prison to a certain woody vale, unable 
through the weight of his fetters to move him further, 
entreating them to come speedily and fetch him in. 
Anacletus to save both himself and his friend Antigonus, 
swears this, and at a fit hour sets on alone toward the 
camp ; is met, examined, and at last unquestionably 
known. To whom, great profession of fidelity first 
made, he frames his tale, as had been taught him ; and 
they now fully assured, with a credulous rashness 
leaving their stations, fared accordingly by the ambush 
that there awaited them. Forthwith Brutus divided 
his men into three parts, leads on in silence to the camp ; 
commanding first each part at a several place to enter, 
and forbear execution, till he with his squadron pos- 
sessed of the king's tent, gave signal to them by trum- 
pet. The sound whereof no sooner heard, but huge 
havock begins upon the sleeping and unguarded enemy, 
whom the besieged also now sallying forth, on the other 
side assail. Brutus the while had special care to seize 
and secure the king's person ; whose life still within 
his custody, he knew was the surest pledge to obtain 
what he should demand. Day appearing, he enters 
the town, there distributes the king's treasury, and 
leaving the place better fortified, returns with the king 
his prisoner to the woods. Straight the ancient and 
grave men he summons to council, what they should 
now demand of the king. 

After long debate Mempricius, one of the gravest, 
utterly dissuading them from thought of longer stay in 
Greece, unless they meant to be deluded with a subtle 
peace, and the awaited revenge of those whose friends 
they had slain, advises them to demand first the king's 
eldest daughter Innogen in marriage to their leader 
Brutus with a rich dowry, next shipping, money, and 
fit provision for them all to depart the land. 

This resolution pleasing best, the king now brought 
in, and placed in a high seat, is briefly told, that on 
these conditions granted, he might be free ; not granted 
he must prepare to die. 

Pressed with fear of death, the king readily yields ; 
especially to bestow his daughter on whom he confessed 
so noble and so valiant : offers them also the third part 
of his kingdom, if they like to stay; if not, to be their 
hostage himself, till he had made good his word. 

The marriage therefore solemnized, and shipping 
from all parts got together, the Trojans in a fleet, no 
less written than three hundred four and twenty sail, 
betake them to the wide sea : where with a prosperous 
course, two days and a night bring them on a certain 
island longbefore dispeopled and left waste by sea-rovers, 
the name whereof was then Leogecia, now unknown. 
They who were sent out to discover, came at length to 
a ruined city, where was a temple and image of Diana 
that gave oracles : but not meeting first or last, save 
wild beasts, they return with this notice to their ships ; 
wishing their general would inquire of that oracle what 
voyage to pursue. 

Consultation had, Brutus taking with him Gerion 



478 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book I. 



his diviner, and twelve of tbe ancientest, with wanton 
ceremonies before the inward shrine of the goddess, in 
verse (as it seems the manner was) utters his request, 
" Diva potens nemorum," &c. 

Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will 
Walk'st on the rolling sphere, and through the deep 
On thy third reign the earth look now, and tell 
What land, what seat of rest thoubidd'st me seek, 
What certain seat, where 1 may worship thee 
For aye, with temples vow'd, and virgin choirs. 
To whom sleeping- before the altar, Diana in a vision 

that night thus answered, " Brute sub occasum solis," 

&c. 

Brutus, far to the west, inth' ocean wide, 
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, 
Seagirt it lies, where giants dwelt of old, 
Now void it fits thy people ; thither bend 
Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat, 
Where to thy sons another Troy shall rise ; 
And kings be born of thee, whose dreaded might 
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold. 

These verses originally Greek, were put in Latin, 
saith Virunnius, by Gildas a British poet, and him to 
have lived under Claudius. Which granted true, adds 
much to the antiquity of this fable ; and indeed the 
Latin verses are much better, than of the age for Geof- 
frey ap Arthur, unless perhaps Joseph of Exeter, the 
only smooth poet of those times, befriended him. In 
this, Diana overshot her oracle thus ending, " Ipsis 
totius terrae subditus orbis erit," That to the race of 
Brute, kings of this island, the whole earth shall be 
subject. 

But Brutus, guided now, as he thought, by divine 
conduct, speeds him towards the west ; and after some 
encounters on the Afric side, arrives at a place on the 
Tyrrhene sea; where he happens to find the race of 
those Trojans, who with Antenor came into Italy; and 
Corineus, a man much famed, was their chief: though 
by surer authors it be reported, that those Trojans with 
Antenor were seated on the other side of Italy, on the 
Adriatic, not the Tyrrhene shore. But these joining 
company, and past the Herculean Pillars, at the mouth 
of Ligeris in Aquitania cast anchor : where after some 
discovery made of the place, Corineus, hunting nigh 
the shore with his men, is by messengers of the king 
Goffarius Pictus met, and questioned about his errand 
there. Who not answering to their mind, Imbertus, 
one of them, lets fly an arrow at Corineus, which he 
avoiding, slays him : and the Pictavian himself here- 
upon levying his whole force, is overthrown by Brutus, 
and Corineus; who with the battle-axe which he was 
wont to manage against the Tyrrhene giants, is said 
to have done marvels. But Goffarius having drawn to 
his aid the whole country of Gaul, at that time governed 
by twelve kings, puts his fortune to a second trial; 
wherein the Trojans, overborn by multitude, are driven 
back, and besieged in their own camp, which by good 
foresight was strongly situate. Whence Brutus un- 
expectedly issuing out, and Corineus in the mean 
while, whose device it was, assaulting them behind 
from a wood, u here he had conveyed his men the night 
before : the Trojans are again victors, but with the loss 



of Turon a valiant nephew of Brutus : whose ashes, left 
in that place, gave name to the city of Tours, built 
there by the Trojans. Brutus finding now his powers 
much lessened, and this yet not the place foretold him, 
leaves Aquitain, and with an easy course arriving at 
Totness in Devonshire, quickly perceives here to be the 
promised end of his labours. 

The island, not yet Britain but Albion, was in a 
manner desert and inhospitable; kept only by a rem- 
nant of giants, whose excessive force and tyranny had 
consumed the rest. Them Brutus destroys, and to his 
people divides the land, which with some reference to 
his own name he thenceforth calls Britain. To Cori- 
neus, Cornwall, as now we call it, fell by lot; the rather 
by him liked, for that the bugest giants in rocks and 
caves were said to lurk still there; which kind of mon- 
sters to deal with was his old exercise. 

And here with leave bespoken to recite a grand fable, 
though dignified by our best poets : while Brutus, on 
a certain festival day solemnly kept on that shore, 
where he first landed, was with the people in great 
jollity and mirth, a crew of these savages breaking in 
upon them, began on a sudden another sort of game, 
than at such a meeting was expected. But at length 
by many hands overcome, Goemagog the hugest, in 
height twelve cubits, is reserved alive, that with him 
Corineus, who desired nothing more, might try his 
strength ; whom in a wrestle the giant catching aloft, 
with a terrible hug broke three of his ribs : nevertheless 
Corineus enraged, heaving him up by main force, and 
on his shoulders bearing him to the next high rock, 
threw him headlong, all shattered, into the sea, and 
left his name on the cliff, called ever since Langoema- 
gog, which is to say, the g'iant's leap. 

After this, Brutus in a chosen place builds Troja 
Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London : 
and began to enact laws ; Heli being then high priest 
in Judaea : and having governed the whole isle twenty- 
four years, died, and was buried in his new Troy. His 
three sons, Locrine, Albanact, and Camber, divide the 
land by consent. Locrine had the middle part Loegria ; 
Camber possessed Cambria, or Wales; Albanact, Al- 
bania, now Scotland. But he in the end by Humber 
king of the Hunds, who with a fleet invaded that land, 
was slain in fight, and his people drove back into 
Loegria. Locrine and his brother go out against 
Humber; who now marching onward, was by them 
defeated, and in a river drowned, which to this day 
retains his name. Among the spoils of his camp and 
navy, were found certain young maids, and Estrildis 
above the rest, passing fair, the daughter of a king in 
Germany ; from whence Humber, as he went wasting 
the sea coast, had led her captive : whom Locrine, 
though before contracted to the daughter of Corineus, 
resolves to marry. But being forced and threatened 
by Corineus, whose authority and power he feared, 
Guendolen the daughter he yields to marry, but in 
secret loves the other : and ofttimes retiring, as to some 
private sacrifice, through vaults and passages made 
under ground, and seven years thus enjoying her, had 
by her a daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. 



Book I. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



479 



But when once his fear was off by the death of Corine- 
us. not content with secret enjoyment, divorcing Guen- 
dolen, he makes Estrildes now his queen. Guendolen, 
all in rage, departs into Cornwall, where Madan, the 
son she had bj Locrine, was hitherto brought up by 
Corineus his grandfather. And gathering- an army of 
her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her 
husband by the river Sture; wherein Locrine, shot 
with an arrow, ends his life. But not so ends the fury 
of Guendolen ; for Estrildis, and her daughter Sabra, 
she throws into a river : and, to leave a monument of 
revenge, proclaims that the stream be thenceforth call- 
ed after the damsel's name ; which, by length of time, 
is changed now to Sabrina, or Severn. 

Fifteen years she governs in behalf of her son; then 
resigning to him at age, retires to her father's dominion. 
This, saith my author, was in the days of Samuel. 
Madan hath the praise to have well and peacefully 
ruled the space of forty years, leaving behind him two 
sons, Mempricius, and Malim. Mempricius had first 
to do with the ambition of his brother, aspiring to share 
with him in the kingdom ; whom therefore, at a meet- 
ing to compose matters, with a treachery, which his 
cause needed not, he slew. 

Nor was he better in the sole possession, whereof so 
ill he could endure a partner, killing his nobles, and 
those especially next to succeed him ; till lastly, given 
over to unnatural lust, in the twentieth of his reign, 
hunting in a forest, he was devoured by wolves. 

His son Ebranc, a man of mighty strength and sta- 
ture, reigned forty years. He first, after Brutus, wasted 
Gaul ; and returning rich and prosperous, builded Ca- 
erebranc, now York ; in Albania, Alclud, Mount Agned, 
or the Castle of Maidens, now Edinburgh. He had 
twenty sons and thirty daughters by twenty wives. His 
daughters he sent to Silvius Alba into Italy, who be-» 
stowed them on his peers of the Trojan line. His sons, 
under the leading of Assaracus their brother, won them 
lands and signiories in Germany ; thence called from 
these brethren, Germania; a derivation too hastily 
supposed, perhaps before the word Germanus, or the 
Latin tongue was in use. Some who have described 
Henault, as Jacobus Bergomas, and Lassabeus, are 
cited to affirm, that Ebranc, in his war there, was by 
Brunchildis, lord of Henault, put to the worse. 

Brutus, therefore, surnamed Greenshield, succeeding, 
to repair his father's losses, as the same Lessabeus re- 
ports, fought a second battle in Henault, with Brun- 
child, at the mouth of Scaldis, and encamped on the 
river Hania. Of which our Spencer also thus sings : 

Let Scaldis tell, and let tell Hania, 
And let the marsh of Esthambruges tell 
What colour were their waters that same day, 
And all the moor 'twixt Elversham and Dell, 
With blood of Henalois, which therein fell ; 
How oft that day did sad Brunchildis see 
The Greenshield dyed in dolorous vermeil, &c. 

But Henault, and Brunchild, and Greenshield, seem 
newer names than for a story pretended thus ancient. 
Him succeeded Leil, a maintainer of peace and 

d Called now Carlisle. 



equity ; but slackened in his latter end, whence arose 
some civil discord. He built, in the North, Cairleil; d 
and in the days of Solomon. 

Rudhuddibras, or Hudibras, appeasing the commo- 
tions which his father could not, founded Caerkeynt or 
Canterbury, Caerguent or Winchester, and Mount Pa- 
ladur, now Septoniaor Shaftesbury: but this by others 
is contradicted. 

Bladud his son built Caerbadus or Bath, and those 
medicinal waters he dedicated to Minerva ; in whose 
temple there he kept fire continually burning. He 
was a man of great invention, and taught necromancy; 
till having made him wings to fly, he fell down upon 
the temple of Apollo in Trinovant, and so died after 
twenty years reign. 

Hitherto, from father to son, the direct line hath run 
on : but Leir, who next reigned, had only three daugh- 
ters, and no male issue : governed laudibly, and built 
Caerleir, now Leicester, on the bank of Sora. But at 
last, falling through age, he determines to bestow his 
daughters, and so among them to divide his kingdom. 
Yet first, to try which of them loved him best, (a trial 
that might have made him, had he known as wisely 
how to try, as he seemed to know how much the trying 
behooved him,) he resolves a simple resolution, to ask 
them solemnly in order ; and which of them should 
profess largest, her to believe. Gonorill the eldest, 
apprehending too well her father's weakness, makes 
answer, invoking Heaven, " That she loved him above 
her soul." " Therefore," quoth the old man, overjoyed, 
" since thou so honourest my declining age, to thee and 
the husband whom thou shalt choose, I give the third 
part of my realm." So fair a speeding, for a few words 
soon uttered, was to Regan, the second, ample instruc- 
tion what to say. She, on the same demand, spares no 
protesting; and the gods must witness, that otherwise 
to express her thoughts she knew not, but that " She 
loved him above all creatures ;" and so receives an 
equal reward with her sister. But Cordeilla, the 
youngest, though hitherto best beloved, and now before 
her eyes the rich and present hire of a little easy sooth- 
ing, the danger also, and the loss likely to betide plain 
dealing, yet moves not from the solid purpose of a sin- 
cere and virtuous answer. " Father," saith she, " my 
love towards you is as my duty bids : what should a 
father seek, what can a child promise more ? They, 
who pretend beyond this, flatter." When the old man, 
sorry to hear this, and wishing her to recall those 
words, persisted asking ; with a loyal sadness at her 
father's infirmity, but something, on the sudden, harsh, 
and glancing rather at her sisters than speaking her 
own mind, " Two ways only," saith she, " I have to 
answer what you require me : the former, your com- 
mand is, I should recant; accept then this other which 
is left me ; look how much you have, so much is your 
value, and so much I love you." " Then hear thou," 
quoth Leir, now all in passion, " what thy ingratitude 
hath gained thee ; because thou hast not reverenced 
thy aged father equal to thy sisters, part in my king- 
dom, or what else is mine, reckon to have none." And, 



480 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



Book I. 



without delay, gives in marriage his other daughters, 
Gonorill to Maglaunus duke of Albania, Regan to 
Henninus duke of Cornwal ; with them in present 
half his kingdom ; the rest to follow at his death. In 
the mean while, fame was not sparing- to divulge the 
wisdom and other graces of Cordeilla, insomuch that 
Aganippus, a great king in Gaul, (however he came by 
his Greek name, not found in any register of French 
kings,) seeks her to wife ; and nothing altered at the 
loss of her dowry, receives her gladly in such manner 
as she was sent him. After this King Leir, more and 
more drooping with years, became an easy prey to his 
daughters and their husbands ; who now, by daily en- 
croachment, had seized the whole kingdom into their 
hands : and the old king is put to sojourn with his 
eldest daughter attended only by threescore knights. 
But they in a short while grudged at, as too numerous 
and disorderly for continual guests, are reduced to 
thirty. Not brooking that affront, the old king betakes 
him to his second daughter : but there also, discord 
soon arising between the servants of differing masters 
in one family, five only are suffered to attend him. 
Then back again he returns to the other ; hoping that 
she his eldest could not but have more pity on his gray 
hairs : but she now refuses to admit him, unless he be 
content with one only of his followers. At last the re- 
membrance of his youngest, Cordeilla, comes to his 
thoughts ; and now acknowledging how true her words 
had been, though with little hope from whom he had 
so injured, be it but to pay her the last recompense she 
can have from him, his confession of her wise fore- 
warning, that so perhaps his misery, the proof and 
experiment of her wisdom, might something soften her, 
he takes his journey into France. Now might be seen 
a difference between the silent, or downright spoken 
affection of some children to their parents, and the 
talkative obsequiousness of others; while the hope of 
inheritance overacts them, and on the tongue's end 
enlarges their duty. Cordeilla, out of mere love, with- 
out the suspicion of expected reward, at the message 
only of her father in distress, pours forth true filial 
tears. And not enduring either that her own, or any 
other eye should see him in such forlorn condition as 
his messenger declared, discreetly appoints one of her 
trusted servants first to convey him privately towards 
some good sea-town, there to array him, bathe him, 
cherish him, furnish him with such attendance and 
state as beseemed his dignity; that then, as from his 
first landing, he might send word of his arrival to her 
husband Aganippus. Which done, with all mature and 
requisite contrivance, Cordeilla, with the king her hus- 
band, and all the barony of his realm, who then first 
had news of his passing the sea, go out to meet him ; 
and after all honourable and joyful entertainment, 
Aganippus, as to his wife's father, and his royal guest, 
surrenders him, during his abode there, the power and 
divpov;,] of his whole dominion: permitting his wife 
Cordeilla to go with an army, and set her father upon 
his throne. Wherein her piety so prospered, as that 
sljf vanquished her impious sisters, with those dukes; 
nod J,eir again, as saith the story, three years obtained 



the crown. To whom, dying, Cordeilla, with all regal 
solemnities, gave burial in the town of Leicester : and 
then, as right heir succeeding, and her husband dead, 
ruled the land five years in peace. Until Marganus 
and Cunedagius, her two sisters' sons, not bearing that 
a kingdom should be governed by a woman, in the 
unseasonablest time to raise that quarrel against a wo- 
man so worthy, make war against her, depose her, and 
imprison her ; of which impatient, and now long- un- 
exercised to suffer, she there, as is related, killed her- 
self. The victors between them part the land ; but 
Marganus, the eldest sister's son, who held, by agree- 
ment, from the north side of Humber to Cathness, in- 
cited by those about him, to invade all as his own right, 
wars on Cunedagius, who soon met him, overcame, and 
overtook him in a town of Wales, where he left his life, 
and ever since his name to the place. 

Cunedagius was now sole king, and governed with 
much praise many years, about the time when Rome 
was built. 

Him succeeded Rivallo his son, wise also and fortu- 
nate ; save what they tell us of three days raining 
blood and swarms of stinging flies, whereof men died. 
In order then Gurgustius, Jago or Lago, his nephew ; 
Sisilius, Kinmarcus. Then Gorbogudo, whom others 
name Gorbodego, and Gorbodion, who had two sons, 
Ferrex, and Porrex. They, in the old age of their fa- 
ther, falling to contend who should succeed, Porrex, 
attempting by treachery his brother's life, drives him 
into France ; and in his return, though aided with the 
force of that country, defeats and slays him. But by 
his mother Videna, who less loved him, is himself, 
with the assistance of her women, soon after slain in 
his bed : with whom ended, as is thought, the line of 
Brutus. Whereupon the whole land, with civil broils, 
was rent into five kingdoms, long time waging war 
each on other; and some say fifty years. At length 
Dunwallo Molmutius, the son of Cloten king of Corn- 
wal, one of the foresaid five, excelling in valour and 
goodliness of person, after his father's decease, found 
means to reduce again the whole island into a mo- 
narchy; subduing the rest at opportunities. First, 
Ymner king of Loegria, whom he slew ; then Rudau- 
cus of Cambria, Staterius of Albania, confederate toge- 
ther. In which fight Dunwallo is reported, while the 
victory hung doubtful, to have used this art. He takes 
with him 600 stout men, bids them put on the armour 
of their slain enemies; and so unexpectedly approach- 
ing the squadron, where those two kings had placed 
themselves in fight, from that part which they thought 
securest, assaults and dispatches them. Then display- 
ing his own ensigns, which before he had concealed, 
and sending notice to the other part of his army what 
was done, adds to them new courage, and gains a final 
victory. This Dunwallo was the first in Britain that 
wore a crown of gold ; and therefore by some reputed 
the first king. He established the Molmutine laws, fa- 
mous among the English to this day; written long- 
after in Latin by Gildas, and in Saxon by King Al- 
fred: so saith Geoffrey, but Gildas denies to have known 
aught of the Britains before Csesar; much less knew 



Book I. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



481 



Alfred. These laws, whoever made them, bestowed on 
temples the privilege of sanctuary ; to cities also, 
and the ways thither leading-, yea to plows, granted a 
kind of like refuge ; and made such riddance of thieves 
and robbers, that all passages were safe. Forty years 
he governed alone, and was buried nigh to the Temple 
of Concord ; which he, to the memory of peace restored, 
had built in Trinovant. 

His two sons, Belinus and Brennus, contending 
about the crown, by decision of friends, came at length 
to an accord: Brennus to have the north of Humber, 
Belinus the sovereignty of all. But the younger not 
long so contented, that he, as they whispered to him, 
whose valour had so oft repelled the invasions of Ceul- 
phus the Morine duke, should now be subject to his 
brother, upon new design sails into Norway ; enters 
league and affinity with Elsing that king : which Be- 
linus perceiving, in his absence dispossesses him of all 
the north. Brennus, with a fleet of Norwegians, makes 
towards Britain ; but encountered by Guithlac, the 
Danish king, who, laying claim to his bride, pursued 
him on the sea, his haste was retarded, and he bereft of 
his spouse ; who, from the fight, by a sudden tempest, 
was with the Danish king driven on Northumberland, 
and brought to Belinus. Brennus, nevertheless, find- 
ing means to recollect his navy, lands in Albania, and 
gives battle to his brother in the wood Calaterium ; but 
losing the day, escapes with one single ship into Gaul. 
Meanwhile the Dane, upon his own offer to become 
tributary, sent home with his new prize, Belinus re- 
turns his thoughts to the administering of justice, and 
the perfecting of his father's law. And to explain 
what highways might enjoy the foresaid privileges, he 
caused to be drawn out and paved four main roads to 
the utmost length and breadth of the island, and two 
others athwart ; which are since attributed to the Ro- 
mans. Brennus, on the other side, soliciting to his aid 
the kings of Gaul, happens at last on Seginus duke of 
the Allobroges; where his worth, and comeliness of 
person, won him the duke's daughter and heir. In 
whose right he shortly succeeding, and, by obtained 
leave, passing with a great host through the length of 
Gaul, gets footing once again in Britain. Now was 
Belinus unprepared : and now the battle ready to join, 
Conuvenna, the mother of them both, all in a fright, 
throws herself between ; and calling earnestly to Bren- 
nus her son, whose absence had so long deprived her 
of his sight, after embracements and tears, assails him 
with such a motherly power, and the mention of things 
so dear and reverend, as irresistibly wrung from him 
all his enmity against Belinus. 

Then are hands joined, reconciliation made firm, and 
counsel held to turn their united preparations on fo- 
reign parts. Thence that by these two all Gallia was 
overrun, the story tells; and what they did in Italy, 
and at Rome, (if these be they, and not Gauls, who 
took that city,) the Roman authors can best relate. So 
far from home I undertake not for the Monmouth 
Chronicle; which here, against the stream of history, 
carries up and down these brethren, now into Germany, 
then again to Rome, pursuing Gabius and Porsena, 



two unheard-of consuls. Thus much is more generally 
believed, that both this Brennus, and another famous 
captain, Britomarus, whom the epitomist Florus and 
others mention, were not Gauls, but Britains ; the name 
of the first in that tongue signifying a king, and of the 
other a great Britain. However, Belinus, after a while, 
returning home, the rest of his days ruled in peace, 
wealth, and honour, above all his predecessors; build- 
ing some cities, of which one was Caerose upon Osca, 
since Caerlegion ; beautifying others, as Trinovant, 
with a gate, haven, and a tower, on the Thames, re- 
taining yet his name; on the top whereof his ashes 
are said to have been laid up in a golden urn. 

After him Gurguntius Barbirus was king, mild and 
just; but yet, inheriting his father's courage, he sub- 
dued the Dacian, or Dane, who refused to pay the tri- 
bute covenanted to Belinus for his enlargement. In his 
return, finding about the Orkneys thirty ships of Spain, 
or Biscay, fraught with men and women for a planta- 
tion, whose captain also Bartholinus, wrongfully banish- 
ed, as he pleaded, besought him that some part of his 
territory might be assigned them to dwell in, he sent 
with them certain of his own men to Ireland, which 
then lay unpeopled, and gave them that island, to hold 
of him as in homage. He was buried in Caerlegion, a 
city which he had walled about. 

Guitheline his son is also remembered as a just and 
good prince ; and his wife Martia to have excelled so 
much in wisdom, as to venture upon a new institution of 
laws. Which King Alfred translating, called Marchen 
Leage ; but more truly thereby is meant the Mercian 
law, not translated by Alfred, but digested or incorpor- 
ated with the West-Saxon. In the minority of her 
son she had the rule; and then, as may be supposed, 
brought forth these laws, not herself, for laws are mas- 
culine births, but by the advice of her sagest counsel- 
lors ; and therein she might do virtuously, since it be- 
fel her to supply the nonage of her son ; else nothing 
more awry from the law of God and nature, than that 
a woman should give laws to men. 

Her son Sisilius coming to years, received the rule ; 
then, in order, Kimarus ; then Danius, or Elanius, his 
brother. Then Morindus, his son by Tanguestela, a 
concubine, who is recorded a man of excessive strength, 
valiant, liberal, and fair of aspect, but immanely cruel ; 
not sparing, in his anger, enemy or friend, if any 
weapon were in his hand. A certain king of the Mo- 
rines, or Picards, invaded Northumberland ; whose 
army this king, though not wanting sufficient numbers, 
chiefly by his own prowess overcame; but dishonoured 
his victory by the cruel usage of his prisoners, whom 
his own hands, or others in his presence, put all to 
several deaths : well fitted to such a bestial cruelty was 
his end ; for hearing of a huge monster, that from the 
Irish sea infested the coast, and, in the pride of his 
strength, foolishly attempting to set manly valour 
against a brute vastness, when his weapons were all in 
vain, by that horrible mouth he was catched up and 
devoured. 

Gorbonian, the eldest of his five sons, than whom a 
juster man lived not in his age, was a great builder of 



482 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book I. 



temples, and gave to all what was their due : to his 
gods, devout worship ; to men of desert, honour and 
preferment ; to the commons, encouragement in their 
labours and trades, defence and protection from injuries 
and oppressions ; so that the land flourished above her 
neighbours; violence and wrong seldom was heard of. 
His death was a general loss : he was buried in Tri- 
novant. 

Archigallo, the second brother, followed not his ex- 
ample; but depressed the ancient nobility; and, by 
peeling the wealthier sort, stuffed his treasury, and 
took the right way to be deposed. 

Elidure, the next brother, surnamed the Pious, was 
set up in his place : a mind so noble, and so moderate, 
as almost is incredible to have been ever found. For, 
having held the sceptre five years, hunting one day in 
the forest of Calater, he chanced to meet his deposed 
brother, wandering in a mean condition; who had 
been long in vain beyond the seas, importuning foreign 
aids to his restorement ; and was now, in a poor habit, 
with only ten followers, privately returned to find sub- 
sistence among his secret friends. At the unexpected 
sight of him, Elidure himself also then but thinly ac- 
companied, runs to him with open arms ; and, after 
many dear and sincere welcbmings, conveys him to the 
city Alclud ; there hides him in his own bedchamber. 
Afterwards feigning himself sick, summons all his 
peers, as about greatest affairs ; where admitting them 
one by one, as if his weakness endured not the disturb- 
ance of more at once, causes them, willing or unwilling, 
once more to swear allegiance to Archigallo. Whom, 
after reconciliation made on all sides, he leads to York ; 
and, from his own head, places the crown on the head 
of his brother. Who thenceforth, vice itself dissolving 
in him, and forgetting her firmest hold, with the ad- 
miration of a deed so heroic, became a true converted 
man ; ruled worthily ten years, died, and was buried 
in Caerleir. Thus was a brother saved by a brother, 
to whom love of a crown, the thing that so often daz- 
zles and vitiates mortal men, for which thousands of 
nearest blood have destroyed each other, was in respect 
of brotherly dearness, a contemptible thing. 

Elidure now in his own behalf re-assumes the go- 
vernment, and did as was worthy such a man to do. 
When Providence, that so great a virtue might want 
no sort of trial to make it more illustrious, stirs up Vi- 
genius and Peredure, his youngest brethren, against 
him who had deserved so nobly of that relation, as least 
of all by a brother to be injured. Yet him they defeat, 
him they imprison in the tower of Trinovant, and di- 
l id. bis kingdom ; the North to Peredure, the South to 
^ igenios. After whose death Peredure obtaining all, 
BO much the better used his power, by how much the 
be got it : so that Elidure now is hardly missed. 
Bol vet, in all right owing to his elder the due place 
n b< n of be had deprived him, fate would that he should 
die first : and Elidure, after many years imprisonment, 
i- now the third time seated on the throne; which at 
lost be enjoyed long in peace, finishing the interrupted 

t Mtttfa. Westoi. 
r fluntingd. I. i. 

tegan daria this ; and says it was called so by the Saxons, from 



course of his mild and just reign, as full of virtuous 
deeds as days to his end. 

After these five sons of Morindus, succeeded also 
their sons in order. e Regin of Gorbonian, Marg'anus 
of Archigallo, both good kings. But Enniaunus, his 
brother, taking other courses, was after six years de- 
posed. Then Idwallo, taught by a near example, go- 
verned soberly. Then Runno, then Geruntius, he of 
Peredure, this last the son of Elidure. From whose 
loins (for that likely is the durable and surviving race 
that springs of just progenitors) issued a long descent 
of kings, whose names only for many successions, 
without other memory, stand thus registered: Catellus, 
Coillus, Porrex, Cherin, and his three sons, Fulgenius, 
Eldadus, and Andragius, his son Urianus ; Eliud, 
Eledaucus, Clotenus, Gurguntius, Merianus, Bleduno, 
Capis, Oenus, Sisillius ; twenty kings in a continued 
row, that either did nothing, or lived in ages that wrote 
nothing; at least, a foul pretermission in the author of 
this, whether story or fable ; himself weary, as seems, 
of his own tedious tale. 

But to make amends for this silence, Blegabredus 
next succeeding, is recorded to have excelled all before 
him in the art of musick ; opportunely, had he but left 
us one song of his twenty predecessors' doings. 

Yet after him nine more succeeded in name ; his 
brother Archimailus, Eldol, Redion, Rederchius, Sa- 
mulius, Penissel, Pir, Capoirus ; but Cliguellius, with 
the addition of modest, wise, and just. 

His son Heli reigned forty years, and had three sons, 
Lud, Cassibelan, and Nennius. This Heli seems to be 
the same whom Ninius, in his Fragment, calls Mino- 
can ; for him he writes to be the father of Cassibelan. 
Lud was he who enlarged and walled about Trinovant; 
there kept his court, made it the prime city, and called 
it from his own name Caerlud, or Lud's town, now 
London. Which, as is alleged out of Gildas, became 
matter of great dissension betwixt him and his brother 
Nennius ; who took it heinously that the name of Troy, 
their ancient country, should be abolished for any new 
one. Lud was hardy, and bold in war ; in peace, a 
jolly feaster. He conquered many islands of the sea, 
saith Huntingdon/ and was buried by the gate, which 
from thence we call Ludgate.s His two sons, Audro- 
geus and Tenuantius, were left to the tuition of Cassi- 
belan; whose bounty and high demeanour so wrought 
with the common people, as got him easily the king- 
dom transferred upon himself. He nevertheless, con- 
tinuing to favour and support his nephews, confers 
freely upon Androgeus London with Kent ; upon 
Tenuantius, Cornwal ; reserving a superiority both 
over them, and all the other princes to himself, till the 
Romans for awhile circumscribed his power. Thus 
far, though leaning only on the credit of Geoffrey 
Monmouth, and his assertors, I yet, for the specified 
causes, have thought it not beneath my purpose to re- 
late what I found. Whereto I neither oblige the belief 
of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. 
Nor have I stood with others computing or collating 

Lud, in our ancient language, people, and gate, quasi porta populi ; of all 
the gates of the city, that having the greatest passage of people; especially 
before Newgate was built, which was about the reign of Henry II. 



Book II 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



483 



years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious 
about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the 
substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one 
who bad set out on his way by night, and travelled 
through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history 
now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth 
meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, 
though at a far distance, true colours and shapes. 
For albeit Caesar, whose authority we are now first to 
follow, wanted not who taxed him of misrepresenting in 
his Commentaries, yea in his civil war against Pompey, 
much more, may we think, in the British affairs, of 
whose little skill in writing he did not easily hope to 
be contradicted ; yet now, in such variety of good au- 
thors, we hardly can miss, from one hand or other, to 
be sufficiently informed, as of things past so long 
ago. But this will better be referred to a second dis- 



THE SECOND BOOK. 

I am now to write of what befel the Britains from 
fifty and three years before the birth of our Saviour, 
when first the Romans came in, till the decay and ceas- 
ing of that empire ; a story of much truth, and for the 
first hundred years and somewhat more, collected with- 
out much labour. So many and so prudent were the 
writers, which those two, the civilest and the wisest of 
European nations, both Italy and Greece, afforded to 
the actions of that puissant city. For worthy deeds 
are not often destitute of worthy relaters : as by a cer- 
tain fate, great acts and great eloquence have most 
commonly gone hand in hand, equalling and honouring 
each other in the same ages. It is true, that in obscurest 
times, by shallow and unskilful writers, the indistinct 
noise of many battles and devastations of many king- 
doms, overrun and lost, hath come to our ears. For 
what wonder, if in all ages ambition and the love of 
rapine hath stirred up greedy and violent men to bold 
attempts in wasting and ruining wars, which to poste- 
rity have left the work of wild beasts and destroyers, 
rather than the deeds and monuments of men and con- 
querors ? But he whose just and true valour uses the 
necessity of war and dominion not to destroy, but to 
prevent destruction, to bring in liberty against tyrants, 
law and civility among barbarous nations, knowing 
that when he conquers all things else, he cannot conquer 
Time or Detraction, wisely conscious of this his want, 
as well as of his worth not to be forgotten or concealed, 
honours and hath recourse to the aid of eloquence, his 
friendliest and best supply; by whose immortal re- 
cord his noble deeds, which else were transitory, become 
fixed and durable against the force of years and gene- 
rations, he fails not to continue through all posterity, 
over Envy, Death, and Time also victorious. Therefore 
when the esteem of science and liberal study waxes low 
in the commonwealth, we may presume that also there 
all civil virtue and worthy action is grown as low to 

a Suef. vit. Cass. 

2i 



a decline : and then eloquence as it were consorted in 
the same destiny, with the decrease and fall of virtue, 
corrupts also and fades ; at least resigns her office of 
relating to illiterate and frivolous historians, such as 
the persons themselves both deserve, and are best pleas- 
ed with ; whilst they want either the understanding 
to choose better, or the innocence to dare invite the 
examining and searching style of an intelligent and 
faithful writer to the survey of their unsound exploits, 
better befriended by obscurity than fame. As for these, 
the only authors we have of British matters, while the 
power of Rome reached hither, (for Gildas affirms that 
of the Roman times no British writer was in his days 
extant, or if any were, either burnt by enemies or 
transported with such as fled the Pictish and Saxon 
invasions,) these therefore only Roman authors there 
be, who in the Latin tongue have laid together as much, 
and perhaps more than was requisite to a history of 
Britain. So that were it not for leaving an unsightly 
gap so near to the beginning, I should have judged 
this labour, wherein so little seems to be required above 
transcription, almost superfluous. Notwithstanding 
since I must through it, if aught by diligence may be 
added or omitted, or by other disposing may be more 
explained or more expressed, I shall assay. 

Julius Caesar (of whom, and of the Roman free state 
more than what appertains, is not here to be discours- 
ed) having subdued most part of Gallia, which by a 
potent faction he had obtained of the senate as his pro- 
vince for many years, stirred up with a desire of adding 
still more glory to his name, and the whole Roman 
empire to his ambition ; some a say, with a far meaner 
and ignobler, the desire of British pearls, whose big- 
ness he delighted to balance in his hand ; determines, 
and that upon no unjust pretended occasion, to try his 
force in the conquest also of Britain. For he under- 
stood that the Britains in most of his Gallian wars had 
sent supplies against him ; had received fugitives of 
the Bellovaci his enemies ; and were called over to 
aid the cities of Armorica, which had the year before 
conspired all in a new rebellion. Therefore Csesar, b 
though now the summer well nigh ending, and the 
season unagreeable to transport a war, yet judged it 
would be great advantage, only to get entrance into 
the isle, knowledge of men, the places, the ports, the 
accesses ; which then, it seems, were even to the Gauls 
our neighbours almost unknown. For except mer- 
chants and traders, it is not oft, c saith he, that any use 
to travel thither; and to those that do, besides the sea- 
coast, and the ports next to Gallia, nothing else is 
known. But here I must require, as Pollio did, the 
diligence, at least the memory, of Caesar : for if it were 
true, as they of Rhemes told him, that Divitiacus, not 
long before a puissant king of the Soissons, had Britain 
also under his command, besides the Belgian colonies 
which he affirms to have named, and peopled many 
provinces there ; if also the Britains had so frequently 
given them aid in all their wars ; if lastly, the Druid 
learning honoured so much among them, were first 
taught them out of Britain, and they who soonest 

b Year before Christ 53. c Cass. Com. 1. 1. 



484 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



would attain that discipline, sent hitherto learn ; d it 
appears not how Britain at that time should be so ut- 
terly unknown in Gallia, or only known to merchants, 
yea to them so little, that being called together from 
all parts, none could be found to inform Caesar of what 
bigness the isle, what nations, how great, what use of 
war they had, what laws, or so much as what commo- 
dious havens for bigger vessels. Of all which things 
as it were then first to make discovery, he sends Caius 
Volusenus, in a long galley, with command to return 
as soon as this could be effected. He in the mean 
lime with his whole power draws nigh to the Morine 
coast, whence the shortest passage was into Britain. 
Hither his navy, which he used against the Armoricans, 
and what else of shipping can be provided, he draws 
together. This known in Britain, the embassadors 
are sent from many of the states there, who promise 
hostages and obedience to the Roman empire. Them, 
after audience given, Caesar as largely promising and 
exhorting to continue in that mind, sends home, and 
Avith them Comius of Arras, whom he had made king 
of that country, and now secretly employed to gain a 
Roman party among' the Britains, in as many cities as 
he found inclinable, and to tell them that he himself 
was speeding thither. Volusenus, with what disco- 
very of the island he could make from aboard his ship, 
not daring to venture on the shore, within five days re- 
turns to Caesar. Who soon after, with two legions, 
ordinarily amounting, of Romans and their allies, to 
about 25,000 foot, and 4500 horse, the foot in 80 ships 
of burden, the horse in 18, besides what galleys w T ere 
appointed for his chief commanders, sets off, about the 
third watch of night, with a good gale to sea; leaving 
behind him Sulpitius Rufus to make good the port with 
a sufficient strength. But the horse, whose appointed 
shipping lay windbound eight mile upward in another 
haven, had much trouble to embark. Caesar, now 
within sight of Britain, beholds on every hill multi- 
tudes of armed men ready to forbid his landing; and 
e Cicero writes to his friend Atticus, that the accesses of 
the island were wondrously fortified with strong works 
or moles. Here from the fourth to the ninth hour of 
day he awaits at anchor the coming up of his whole 
fleet. Meanwhile, with his legates and tribunes, con- 
sulting and giving order to fit all things for what 
might happen in such a various and floating water- 
fight as was to be expected. This place, which was a 
narrow bay, close environed with hills, appearing no 
way commodious, he removes to a plain and open 
shore eight miles distant; commonly supposed about 
Deal in Kent.' Which when the Britains perceived, 
their horse and chariots, as then they used in fight 
scowering before, their main power speeding after, 
some thick upon the shore, others not tarrying to be 
assailed, ride in among the waves to encounter, and 
assault the Etonians even under their ships, with such 
;i bold and free hardihood, that Caesar himself between 
confessing and excusing that his soldiers were to come 
down from their ships, to stand in water heavy armed, 
and to fight at once, denies not but that the terror of 
•> < ' »■ Com. 1.1. « Cic. Att. 1. 4. Ep. 17. f Camden. 



such new and resolute opposition made them forget 
their wonted valour. To succour which he commands 
his galleys, a sight unusual to the Britains, and more 
apt for motion, drawn from the bigger vessels, to row 
against the open side of the enemy, and thence with 
slings, engines, and darts, to beat them back. But 
neither yet, though amazed at the strangeness of those 
new seacastles, bearing up so near, and so swiftly as 
almost to overwhelm them, the hurtling of oars, the 
battering of fierce engines ag'ainst their bodies barely 
exposed, did the Britains give much ground, or the Ro- 
mans gain ; till he who bore the eagle of the tenth 
legion, yet in the galleys, first beseeching his gods, 
said thus aloud, " Leap down soldiers, unless you mean 
to betray your ensign ; I for my part will perform what 
I owe to the commonwealth and my general." This 
uttered, overboard he leaps, and with his eagle fiercely 
advanced runs upon the enemy; the rest heartening 
one another not to admit the dishonour of so nigh losing 
their chief standard, follow him resolutely. Now was 
fought eagerly on both sides. Ours who well knew 
their own advantages, and expertly used them, now in 
the shallows, now on the sand, still as the Romans went 
trooping" to their ensigns, received them, dispatched 
them, and with the help of their horse, put them every 
where to great disorder. But Caesar causing all his 
boats and shallops to be filled with soldiers, commanded 
to ply up and down continually with relief where they 
saw need ; whereby at length all the foot now disem- 
barked, and got together in some order on firm ground, 
with a more steady charge put the Britains to flight: 
but wanting all their horse, whom the winds yet with- 
held from sailing, they were not able to make pur- 
suit. In this confused fig'ht,» Scaeva a Roman soldier 
having pressed too far among the Britains, and beset 
round, after incredible valour shown, single against a 
multitude, swam back safe to his general ; and in 
the place that rung with his praises, earnestly besought 
pardon for his rash adventure against discipline ; which 
modest confessing 1 after no bad event, for such a deed, 
wherein valour and ingenuity so much outweighed 
transgression, easily made amends and preferred him 
to be a centurion. Caesar also is brought in by Julian,' 1 
attributing to himself the honour (if it were at all an 
honour to that person which he sustained) of being the 
first that left his ship, and took land : but this were to 
make Caesar less understand what became him than 
Scaeva. The Britains finding themselves mastered in 
fight, forthwith send ambassadors to treat of peace, 
promising to give hostages, and to be at command. 
With them Comius of Arras also returned ; whom hi- 
therto, since his first coming' from Caesar, they had de- 
tained in prison as a spy: the blame whereof they lay 
on the common people ; for whose violence, and their 
own imprudence, they crave pardon. Caesar complain- 
ing they had first sought peace, and then without cause 
had begun war, yet content to pardon them, commands 
hostages : whereof part they bring in straight, others, 
far up in the country to be sent for, they promise in a 
lew days. Meanwhile the people disbanded and sent 

g Valer. Max. Plutarch. h In Caesaribus. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



485 






hoine, many princes and chief men from all parts of 
the isle submit themselves and their cities to the dis- 
pose of Csesar, who lay then encamped, as is thought, 
on Barham down. Thus had the Britains made their 
peace ; when suddenly an accident unlooked for put 
new counsels into their minds. Four days after the 
coming of Csesar, those eighteen ships of burden, which 
from the upper haven had taken in all the Roman 
horse, borne with a soft wind to the very coast, in sight 
of the Roman camp, were by a sudden tempest scat- 
tered and driven back, some to the port from whence 
they loosed, others down into the west country ; who 
finding there no safety either to land or to cast anchor, 
chose rather to commit themselves again to the trou- 
bled sea; and, as Orosius reports, were most of them 
cast away. The same night, it being full moon, the 
galleys left upon dry land, were, unaware to the Ro- 
mans, covered with a springtide, and the greater ships, 
that lay off at anchor, torn and beaten with waves, to 
the great perplexity of Csesar, and his whole army ; 
who now had neither shipping left to convey them back, 
nor any provision made to stay here, intending to have 
wintered in Gallia. All this the Britains well perceiv- 
ing, and by the compass of his camp, which without 
baggage appeared the smaller, guessing at his num- 
bers, consult together, and one by one slyly withdraw- 
ing from the camp, where they were waiting the con- 
clusion of a peace, resolve to stop all provisions, and to 
draw out the business till winter. Csesar, though ig- 
norant of what they intended, yet from the condition 
wherein he was, and their other hostages not sent, sus- 
pecting what was likely, begins to provide apace, all 
that might be, against what might happen; lays in 
corn, and with materials fetched from the continent, 
and what was left of those ships which were past help, 
he repairs the rest. So that now by the incessant la- 
bour of his soldiers, all but twelve were again made 
serviceable. While these things are doing, one of the 
legions being sent out to forage, as was accustomed, 
and no suspicion of war, while some of the Britains 
were remaining in the country about, others also going 
and coming freely to the Roman quarters, they who 
were in station at the camp gates sent speedily word 
to Csesar, that from that part of the country, to which 
the legion went, a greater dust than usual was seen to 
rise. Csesar guessing the matter, commands the co- 
horts of guard to follow him thither, two others to suc- 
ceed in their stead, the rest all to arm and follow. They 
had not marched long, when Csesar discerns his legion 
sore overcharged: for the Britains not doubting but 
that their enemies on the morrow would be in that 
place, which only they had left unreaped of all their 
harvest, had placed an ambush ; and while they were 
dispersed and busiest at their labour, set upon them, 
killed some, and routed the rest. The manner of 
their fight was from a kind of chariots ; wherein riding 
about and throwing darts, with the clutter of their 
horse, and of their wheels, they ofttimes broke the 
rank of their enemies; then retreating among the horse, 
and quitting their chariots, they fought on foot. The 

i Dion, Cassar Com. 5. 



charioteers in the mean while somewhat aside from the 
battle, set themselves in such order that their masters 
at any time oppressed with odds, might retire safely 
thither, having performed with one person both the 
nimble service of a horseman, and the stedfast duty of 
a foot soldier. So much they could with their chariots 
by use and exercise, as riding on the speed down a steep 
hill, to stop suddenly, and with a short rein turn swiftly, 
now running on the beam, now on the yoke, then in 
the seat. With this sort of new skirmishing the Ro- 
mans now over-matched and terrified, Csesar with op- 
portune aid appears; for then the Britains make a 
stand : but he considering that now was not fit time to 
offer battle, while his men were scarce recovered of so 
late a fear, only keeps his ground, and soon after leads 
back his legions to the camp. Further action for many 
days following was hindered on both sides by foul 
weather; in which time the Britains dispatching mes- 
sengers round about, learn to how few the Romans 
were reduced, what hope of praise and booty, and now, 
if ever, of freeing themselves from the fear of like in- 
vasions hereafter, by making these an example, if they 
could but now uncamp their enemies ; at this intima- 
tion multitudes of horse and foot coming down from all 
parts, make towards the Romans. Csesar foreseeing 
that the Britains, though beaten and put to flight, 
would easily evade his foot, yet with no more than 
thirty horse, which Comius had brought over, draws 
out his men to battle, puts again the Britains to flight, 
pursues with slaughter, and returning burns and lays 
waste all about. Whereupon embassadors the same 
day being sent from the Britains to desire peace, Csesar 
as his affairs at present stood, for so great a breach 
of faith, only imposes on them double the former hos- 
tages to be sent after him into Gallia : and because 
September was nigh half spent, a season not fit to 
tempt the sea with his weatherbeaten fleet, the same night 
with a fair wind he departs towards Belgia; whither 
two only of the British cities sent hostages, as they pro- 
mised, the rest neglected. But at Rome when the news 
came of Csesar's acts here, whether it were esteemed 
a conquest or a fair escape, supplication of twenty days 
is decreed by the senate, as either for an exploit done, 
or a discovery made, wherein both Csesar and the Ro- 
mans gloried not a little, though it brought no benefit 
either to him or to the commonwealth. 

The winter following, 1 Csesar, as his custom was, 
going into Italy, when as he saw that most of the Bri- 
tains regarded not to send their hostages, appoints his 
legates whom he left in Belgia, to provide what pos- 
sible shipping they could either build, or repair. Low 
built they were to be, as thereby easier both to freight, 
and to hale ashore ; nor needed to be higher, because 
the tide so often changing, was observed to make the 
billows less in our sea than those in the Mediterranean : 
broader likewise they were made, for the better trans- 
porting of horses, and all other freightage, being in- 
tended chiefly to that end. These all about six hundred 
in a readiness, with twenty-eight ships of burden, and 
what with adventurers, and other hulks about two hun- 



486 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



dred, Cotta one of the legates wrote them, as Athenaeus 
affirms, in all one thousand; Caesar from port Iccius, a 
passage of some thirty mile over, leaving behind him 
Labienns to guard the haven, and for other supply at 
need, with five legions, though but two thousand horse, 
about sunset hoisting sail with a slack south-west, at 
midnight was becalmed. And finding when it was 
light, that the whole navy lying on the current, had 
fallen off from the isle, which now they could descry on 
their left hand ; bj r the unwearied labour of bis sol- 
diers, who refused not to tug - the oar, and kept course 
with ships under sail, he bore up as near as might be, 
to the same place where he had landed the year before; 
where about noon arriving, k no enemy could be seen. 
For the Batons, which in great number, as was after 
known, had been there, at sight of so huge a fleet durst 
not abide. Caesar forthwith landing his army, and en- 
camping to his best advantage, some notice being 
given him by those he took, where to find his enemy ; 
with the whole power, save only ten cohorts, and three 
hundred horse, left to Quintus Atrius for the giiard 
of his ships, about the third watch of the same night, 
marches up twelve miles into the country. And at 
length by a river, commonly thought the Stowre in 
Kent, espies embattled the British forces. They with 
their horses and chariots advancing to the higher 
hanks, oppose the Romans in their march, and begin 
the fight; but repulsed by the Roman cavalry, give back 
into the woods to a place notably made strong* both by 
art and nature ; which, it seems, had been a fort, cr 
hold of strength raised heretofore in time of wars among 
themselves. For entrance, and access on all sides, by 
the felling of huge trees overtbwart one another, was 
quite barred up ; and within these the Britons did their 
utmost to keep out the enemy. But the soldiers of the 
seventh legion locking all their shields together like a 
roof close over head, and others raising a mount, with- 
out much loss of blood took the place, and drove them 
all to forsake the woods. Pursuit they made not long, 
as being through ways unknown ; and now evening- 
came on, which they more wisely spent in choosing 
out where to pitch and fortify their camp that night. 
The next morning Ceesar had but newly sent out his 
men in three bodies to pursue, and the last no further 
gone than yet in sight, when horsemen all in post from 
Quintus Atrius bring word to Caesar, that almost all 
iiiv ships in a tempest that night had suffered wreck, 
and lay broken upon the shore. Caesar at this news 
recalls his legions, himself in all haste riding back to 
the seaside, beheld with his eyes the ruinous prospect. 
About forty vessels were sunk and lost, the residue so 
torn and shaken, as not to be new-rigged without much 
labour. Straight he assembles what number of ship- 
wrights either in his own legions or from beyond sea 
could be summoned; appoints Labienns on the Belgian 
^-ide to build more; and with a dreadful industry of ten 
days, not respiting the soldiers day or night, drew up 
all his ships, and intrenched them round within the 
circuit of his camp. This done, and leaving to their 
defence the same strength as before, he returns with 
k Before (be birth of Christ, 52. 



his whole forces to the same wood, where he had de- 
feated the Britons ; who preventing him with greater 
powers than before, had now repossessed themselves of 
the place, under Cassibelan their chief leader: whose 
territory from the states bordering on the sea was 
divided by the river Thames about eighty miles in- 
ward. With him formerly other cities had continual 
war ; but now in the common danger had all made 
choice of him to be their general. Here the British 
horse and charioteers meeting with the Roman cavalry 
fought stoutly; and at first, something overmatched, 
they retreat to the near advantage of their woods and 
hills, but still followed by the Romans, made head 
again, cut off the forwardest among them, and after 
some pause, while Caesar, who thought the day's work 
had been done, was busied about the intrenching of his 
camp, march out again, give fierce assault to the very 
stations of his guards and sentries ; and while the main 
cohorts of two legions, that were sent to the alarm, 
stood within a small distance of each other, terrified at 
the newness and boldness of their fight, charged back 
again through the midst, without loss of a man. Of 
the Romans that day was slain Quintus Laberius Durus 
a tribune; the Britons having fought their fill at the 
very entrance of Caesar's camp, and sustained the re- 
sistance of his whole army intrenched, gave over the 
assault. Caesar here acknowledges, that the Roman 
way both of arming, and of fighting, was not so well 
fitted against this kind of enemy ; for that the foot in 
heavy armour could not follow their cunning flight, and 
durst not by ancient discipline stir from their ensign; 
and the horse alone disjoined from the legions, against 
a foe that turned suddenly upon them with a mixed 
encounter both of horse and foot, were in equal danger 
both following and retiring. Besides their fashion 
was, not in great bodies, and close order, but in small 
divisions and open distances to make their onset; ap- 
pointing others at certain spaces, now to relieve and 
bring off the weary, now to succeed and renew the con- 
flict; which argued no small experience, and use of 
arms. Next day the Britons afar off upon the bills 
begin to show themselves here and there, aud though 
less boldly than before, to skirmish with the Roman 
horse. But at noon Caesar having sent out three 
legions, and all his horse, with Trebonius the legate, 
to seek fodder, suddenly on all sides they set upon the 
foragers, and charge up after them to the very legions, 
and their standards. The Romans with great courage 
beat them back, and in the chace, being well seconded 
by the legions, not giving them time either to rally, to 
stand, or to descend from their chariots as they were 
wont, slew many. From this overthrow, the Britons 
that dwelt farther off betook them home; and came no 
more after that time with so great a power against 
Caesar. Whereof advertised, he marches onward to 
the frontiers of Cassibelan, 1 which on this side was 
bounded by the Thames, not passable except in one 
place, and that difficult, about Coway-stakes near Oat- 
lands, as is conjectured. Hither coming he descries 
on the other side great forces of the enemy, placed in 

1 Camden. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



48^ 



good array ; the bank set all with sharp stakes, others 
in the bottom, covered with water; whereof the marks, 
in Beda's time, were to be seen, as he relates. This 
having- learned by such as were taken, or had run to 
him, he first commands his horse to pass over; then his 
foot, who wading up to the neck, went on so resolutely 
and so fast, that they on the other side, not enduring 
the violence, retreated and fled. Cassibelan no more 
now in hope to contend for victory, dismissing all but 
four thousand of those charioteers, through woods and 
intricate ways attends their motion ; where the Romans 
are to pass, drives all before him ; and with continual 
sallies upon the horse, where they least expected, cut- 
ting off some and terrifying others, eompels them so 
close together, as gave them no leave to fetch in prey 
or booty without ill success. Whereupon Caesar strictly 
commanding- all not to part from the leg-ions, had 
nothing left him in his way but empty fields and 
houses, which he spoiled and burnt. Meanwhile the 
Trinobantes, a state or kingdom, and perhaps the great- 
est then among the Britons, less favouring Cassibelan, 
send ambassadors, and yield to Caesar upon this reason. 
Immanuentius had been their king ; him Cassibelan 
had slain, and purposed the like to Mandubratius his 
son, whom Orosius calls Androgorius, Beda Androgius; 
but the youth escaping by flight into Gallia, put him- 
self under the protection of Caesar. These entreat, that 
Mandubratius may be still defended, and sent home to 
succeed in his father's right. Caesar sends him, de- 
mands forty hostages and provision for his army, which 
they immediately bring in, and have their confines 
protected from the soldiers. By their example the 
Cenimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci, Cassi (so I 
write them, for the modern names are but guessed) on 
like terms make their peace. By them he learns that 
the town of Cassibelan, supposed to be Verulam, was 
not far distant; fenced about with woods and marshes, 
well stuffed with men and much cattle. For towns 
then in Britain were only woody places ditched round, 
and with a mud wall encompassed against the inroads 
of enemies. Thither goes Caesar with his legions, and 
though a place of great strength both by art and 
nature, assaults it in two places. The Britons after 
some defence fled out all at another end of the town ; 
in the flight many were taken, many slain, and great 
store of cattle found there. Cassibelan for all these 
losses yet deserts not himself; nor was yet his authority 
so much impaired, but that in Kent, though in a man- 
ner possessed by the enemy, his messengers and com- 
mands find obedience enough to raise all the people. 
By his direction, Cingetorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus, 
and Segonax, four kings reigning* in those countries 
which lie upon the sea, lead them on to assault that 
camp, wherein the Romans had entrenched their ship- 
ping- : but they whom Caesar left there issuing- out slew 
many, and took prisoner Cingetorix a noted leader, 
without loss of their own. Cassibelan after so many 
defeats, moved especially by revolt of the cities from 
him, their inconstancy and falsehood one to another, 
uses mediation by Comius of Arras to send ambassadors 



m Pliny. n Oros. lib. 6, c. 7, and 



o Dion, MeJa, Csesar. 



about treaty of yielding. Caesar, who had determined 
to winter in the continent, by reason that Gallia was 
unsettled, and not much of the summer now behind, 
commands him only hostages, and what yearly tribute 
the island should pay to Rome, forbids him to molest 
the Trinobantes, or Mandubratius ; and with his hos- 
tages, and a great number of captives, he puts to sea, 
having at twice embarked his whole army. At his retui n 
to Rome, as from a glorious enterprise, he offers to Venus, 
the patroness of his family, a corslet of British pearls." 1 
Howbeit other ancient writers have spoken more 
doubtfully of Caesar's victories here; and that in plain 
terms he fled from hence; for which the common verse 
in Luean, with divers passages here and there in Taci- 
tus, is alleged. Paulus Orosius, n who took what he 
wrote from a history of Suetonius now lost, writes, that 
Caesar in his first journey, entertained with a sharp 
fight, lost no small number of his foot, and by tempest 
nigh all his horse. Dion affirms, that once in the 
second expedition all his foot were routed ; Orosius 
that another time all his horse. The British author, 
whom I use only then when others are all silent, hath 
many trivial discourses of Caesar's being here, which 
are best omitted. Nor have we more of Cassibelan, 
than what the same story tells, how he warred soon 
after with Androgeus, about his nephew slain by Eve- 
linus nephew to the other; which business at length 
composed, Cassibelan dies, and was buried in York, if 
the Monmouth book fable not. But at Caesar's coming 
hither, such likeliest were the Britons, as the writers 
of those times, and their own actions represent them ; 
in courage and warlike readiness to take advantage by 
ambush or sudden onset, not inferiour to the Romans, 
nor Cassibelan to Caesar; in weapons, arms, and the 
skill of encamping, embattling, fortifying, overmatch- 
ed ; their weapons were a short spear and light target, 
a sword also by their side, their fight sometimes in 
chariots fang-ed at the axle with iron sithes, their bodies 
most part naked, only painted with woad in sundry 
figures, to seem terrible,P as they thought, but, pursued 
by enemies, not nice of their painting- to run into bogs 
worse than wild Irish up to the neck, and there to stay 
many days holding a certain morsel in their mouths no 
big-ger than a bean, to suffice hunger ;i but that receipt, 
and the temperance it taug-ht, is long since unknown 
among us : their towns and strong holds were spaces 
of ground fenced about with a ditch, and great trees 
felled overthwart each other, their buildings within 
were thatched houses for themselves and their cattle : 
in peace the upland inhabitants, besides hunting, tended 
their flocks and herds, but with little skill of country 
affairs ; the making of cheese they commonly knew 
not, wool or flax they spun not, gardening and planting 
many of them knew not; clothing they had none, but 
what the skins of beasts afforded them, r and that not 
always ; yet gallantry they had,s painting their own 
skins with several portraitures of beast, bird, or flower, 
a vanity which hath not yet left us, removed only from 
the skin to the skirt behung now with as many coloured 
ribands and gewgaws : towards the seaside they tilled 

p Herodian. q Dion. r Herodian. s Solinus. 



488 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II 



the ground, and lived much after the manner of the Gauls 
their neighbours, or first planters: 1 their money was 
brazen pieces or iron rings, their best merchandize tiu, 
the rest trifles of glass, ivory, and such like : u yet gems 
and pearls they had, saith Mela, in some rivers : their 
ships of light timber wickered with ozier between, and 
covered over with leather, served not therefore to trans- 
port them far, and their commodities were fetched away 
by foreign merchants : their dealing, saith Diodorus, 
plain and simple without fraud ; their civil government 
under many princes and states, x not confederate or con- 
sulting in common, but mistrustful, and ofttimes warring 
one with the other, which g'ave them up one by one an 
easy conquest to the Romans : their religion was go- 
verned by a sort of priests or magicians, called Druids 
from the Greek name of an oak, which tree they had in 
great reverence, and the mistletoe especially growing 
thereon. Pliny writes them skilled in magic no less 
than those of Persia ; by their abstaining from a hen, 
a hare, and a goose, from fish also, saith Dion, and their 
opinion of the soul's passing after death into other 
bodies,y they may be thought to have studied Pythago- 
ras ; yet philosophers I cannot call them, reported men 
factious and ambitious, contending sometimes about 
the archpriesthood not without civil war and slaughter 5 
nor restrained they the people under them from a lewd, 
adulterous, and incestuous life, ten or twelve men, ab- 
surdly against nature, possessing one woman as their 
common wife, though of nearest kin, mother, daughter, 
or sister ; progenitors not to be gloried in. But the 
gospel, not long after preached here, abolished such 
impurities, and of the Romans we have cause not to 
say much worse, than that they beat us into some 
civility; likely else to have continued longer in a bar- 
barous and savage manner of life. After Julius (for 
Julius before his death tyrannously had made himself 
emperor of the Roman commonwealth, and was slain 
in the senate for so doing) he who next obtained the 
empire, Octavianus Caesar Augustus, either contemning 
the island, as Strabo would have us think, whose 
neither benefit was worth the having nor enmity worth 
the fearing; or out of a wholesome state-maxim, 
as BOme say, to moderate and bound the empire from 
growing vast and unwieldy, made no attempt against 
the Britons. But the truer cause was party civil war 
among the Romans, partly other affairs more urging. 
For about twenty years aftcr, a all which time the Bri- 
tons had lived at their own dispose, Augustus, in imi- 
tation of his uncle Julius, either intending or seeming 
to intend an expedition hither, was come into Gallia, 
when the news of a revolt in Pannonia diverted him : b 
about seven years after in the same resolution, what 
with the unscttledness of Gallia, and what with am- 
baasadore from Britain which met him there, he pro- 
<<•< ded not. The next year, difference arising about 
covenants, be was again prevented by other new com- 
motions in Spain. Nevertheless some of the British 
potentates omitted not to seek his friendship by gifts 

I ' War. ii Tacitus, Di<x!or, Strabo, Luran. x Taritus. y Caesar. 
' Strabo, I.e. a Year before the birth of Christ, 32. 

b Dion, I. 4'J: yeai before the Liilh of Christ, 'J5 : Dion, I. 53, 24. 



offered in the Capitol, and other obsequious addresses. 
Insomuch that the whole island c became even in those 
days well known to the Romans; too well perhaps for 
them, who from the knowledge of us were so like to 
prove enemies. But as for tribute, the Britons paid none 
to Augustus, except what easy customs were levied on 
the slightcommodities wherewith they traded into Gallia. 

After Cassibelan, Tenantius the younger son of Lud, 
according to the Monmouth story, was made king. 
For Androgeus the elder, conceiving himself generally 
hated for siding with the Romans, forsook his claim 
here, and followed Caesar's fortune. This king is re- 
corded just and warlike. 

His son Kymbeline, or Cunobeline, succeeding, was 
brought up, as is said, in the court of Augustus, and 
with him held friendly correspondences to the end ; 
was a warlike prince; his chief seat Camalodunum, 
or Maldon, as by certain of his coins, yet to be seen, 
appears. Tiberius, the next emperor, adhering always 
to the advice of Augustus, and of himself less caring 
to extend the bounds of his empire, sought not the 
Britons ; and they as little to incite him, sent home 
courteously the soldiers of Germanicus, that by ship- 
wreck had been cast on the British shore. d But Ca- 
ligula, 6 his successor, a wild and dissolute tyrant, hav- 
ing passed the Alps with intent to rob and spoil those 
provinces, and stirred up by Adminius the son of Cu- 
nobeline ; who, by his father banished, with a small 
number fled thitherto him, made semblance of march- 
ing toward Britain ; but being come to the ocean, and 
there behaving himself madly and ridiculously, went 
back the same way : yet sent before him boasting 
letters to the senate, as if all Britain had been 
yielded him. Cunobeline now dead, Adminius the 
eldest by his father banished from his country, and 
by his own practice against it from the crown, 
though by an old coin seeming to have also reigned ; 
Togodumnus, and Caractacus the two younger, uncer- 
tain whether unequal or subordinate in power, were 
advanced into his place. But through civil discord, 
Bericus (what he was further, is not known) with 
others of his party flying to Rome/ persuaded Clau- 
dius the emperor to an invasion. Claudius now consul 
the third time, and desirous to do something, whence 
he might gain the honour of a triumph, at the persua- 
sion of these fugitives, whom the Britons demanding, 
he had denied to render, and they for that cause had 
denied further amity with Rome, makes choice of this 
island for his province :f? and sends before him Aulus 
Plautius the praetor, with this command, if the business 
grew difficult, to give him notice. Plautius with much 
ado persuaded the legions to move out of Gallia, mur- 
muring that now they must be put to make war be- 
yond the world's end, for so they counted Britain; and 
what welcome Julius the dictator found there, doubt- 
less they had heard. At last prevailed with, and hoist- 
ing sail from three several ports, lest their landing 
should in any one place be resisted, meeting cross 



c Strabo, I. 4. <1 Tacit, an. I. 2. 

e Year af'tcrithe birth ot Christ, 16. Dion, Sueton. Ca.. Ano.Dom. 40. 
f Dion. g 43. Sueton. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



489 



winds, they were cast back and disheartened ; till in 
the night a meteor shooting 1 flames from the East, and 
as they fancied directing 1 their course, they took heart 
again to try the sea, and without opposition landed. 
For the Britons, having heard of their unwillingness 
to come, had been negligent to provide against them ; 
and retiring' to the woods and moors, intended to frus- 
trate and wear them out with delays, as they had served 
Caesar before. Plautius, after much trouble to find 
them out, encountering first with Caractacus, then with 
Togodumnus, overthrew them; and receiving into 
conditions part of the Boduni, who were then subject 
to the Catuellani, and leaving there a garrison, went 
on toward a river : where the Britons not imagining 
that Plautius without a bridge could pass, lay on the 
further side careless and secure. But he sending first 
the Germans, whose custom was, armed as they were, 
to swim with ease the strongest current, commands 
them to strike especially at the horses, whereby the 
chariots, wherein consisted their chief art of fight, be- 
came unserviceable. To second them he sent Vespa- 
sian, who in his latter days obtained the empire, and 
Sabinus his brother; who unexpectedly assailing those 
who were least aware, did much execution. Yet not 
for this were the Britons dismayed ; but reuniting the 
next day, fought with such a courage, as made it hard 
to decide which way hung the victory : till Caius 
Sidius Geta, at point to have been taken, recovered 
himself so valiantly, as brought the day on his side ; 
for which at Rome he received high honours. After 
this the Britons drew back toward the mouth of 
Thames, and, acquainted with those places, crossed 
over; where the Romans following them through bogs 
and dangerous flats, hazarded the loss of all. Yet the 
Germans getting over, and others by a bridge at some 
place above, fell on them again with sundry alarms 
and great slaughter; but in the heat of pursuit run- 
ning themselves again into bogs and mires, lost as 
many of their own. Upon which ill success, and see- 
ing the Britons more enraged at the death of Togo- 
dumnus, who in one of these battles had been slain, 
Plautius fearing the worst, and glad that he could hold 
what he held, as was enjoined him, sends to Claudius. 
He who waited ready with a huge preparation, as if 
not safe enough amidst the flower of all his Romans, 
like a great Eastern king, with armed elephants 
marches through Gallia. So full of peril was this en- 
terprise esteemed, as not without all this equipage, and 
stranger terrours than Roman armies, to meet the 
native and the naked British valour defending their 
country. Joined with Plautius, who encamping on 
the bank of Thames attended him, he passes the river. 
The Britons, who had the courage, but not the wise 
conduct of old Cassibelan, laying all stratagem aside, 
in downright manhood scruple not to affront in open 
field almost the whole power of the Roman empire. 
But overcome and vanquished, part by force, others by 
treaty come in and yield. Claudius therefore, who 
took Camalodunum, the royal seat of Cunobeline, was 
often by the army saluted Imperator; a military title 

. h Dion, 1. 62. Tacit, an. 14, 44. i Sueton. Claud. 5, 24. 



which usually they gave their general after any notable 
exploit; but to others, not above once in the same 
war ; as if Claudius, by these acts, had deserved more 
than the laws of Rome had provided honour to reward. 
Having therefore disarmed the Britons, but remitted 
the confiscation of their goods," for which they wor- 
shipped him with sacrifice and temple as a god, leaving 
Plautius to subdue what remained ; he returns to 
Rome, from whence he had been absent only six 
months, and in Britain but sixteen days ; sending the 
news before him of his victories, though in a small part 
of the island. By which is manifestly refuted that 
which Eutropius and Orosius write of his conquering- 
at that time also the Orcades islands, lying to the North 
of Scotland ; and not conquered by the Romans (for 
aught found in any g-ood author) till above forty years 
after, as shall appear. To Claudius the senate, as for 
achievements of highest merit, decreed excessive 
honours; arches, triumphs, annual solemnities, and the 
surname of Britannicus both to him and his son. 

Suetonius writes, that Claudius found here no resist- 
ance, and that all was done without stroke: but this 
seems not probable. The Monmouth writer names 
these two sons of Cunobeline, Guiderius and Arviragus ; 
that Guiderius being slain in fight, Arviragus, to con- 
ceal it, put on his brother's habiliments, and in his per- 
son held up the battle to a victory ; the rest, as of Hano 
the Roman captain, Genuissa the emperor's daughter, 
and such like stuff, is too palpably untrue to be worth 
rehearsing in the midst of truth. Plautius after this, 
employing his fresh forces to conquer on, and quiet the 
rebelling countries, found work enough to deserve at 
his return a kind of triumphant riding into the Capitol 
side by side with the emperor.i Vespasian also under 
Plautius had thirty conflicts with the enemy ; in one 
of which encompassed, and in great danger, he was 
valiantly and piously rescued by his son Titus : k two 
powerful nations he subdued here, above twenty towns 
and the Isle of Wight ; for which he received at Rome 
triumphal ornameuts, and other great dignities. For 
that city in reward of virtue was ever magnificent ; 
and long after when true merit was ceased among 
them, lest any thing resembling virtue should want 
honour, the same rewards were yet allowed to the very 
shadow and ostentation of merit. Ostorius in the room 
of Plautius viceprsetor met with turbulent affairs; 1 the 
Britons not ceasing to vex with inroads all those coun- 
tries that were yielded to the Romans ; and now the 
more eagerly," 1 supposing that the new general, unac- 
quainted with his army, and on the edge of winter, 
would not hastily oppose them. But he weighing 
that first events w ere most available to breed fear or 
contempt, with such cohorts as were next at hand, sets 
out against them : whom having routed, so close he 
follows, as one who meant not to be every day molest- 
ed with the cavils of a slight peace, or an emboldened 
enemy. Lest they should make head again, he dis- 
arms whom he suspects ; and to surround them, places 
many garrisons upon the rivers of Antona and Sabrina. 
But the Icenians, a. stout people, untouched yet by 

k Sueton. Vesp. Dio. 1. 60, 47. 1 50. Tacit, an. 12. m Eutropius. 



490 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



these wars, as having - before sought alliance with the 
Romans, were the first that brooked not this. By their 
example others rise; and in a chosen place, fenced 
with high banks of earth and narrow lanes to prevent 
the horse, warily encamp. Ostorius though yet not 
strengthened with his legions, causes the auxiliar 
bands, his troops also alighting, to assault the ram- 
part. They within, though pestered with their own 
number, stood to it like men resolved, and in a narrow 
compass did remarkable deeds. But overpowered at 
last, and others by their success quieted, who till then 
wavered, Ostorius next bends his force upon the Can- 
gians, wasting all even to the sea of Ireland, without 
foe in his way, or them, who durst, ill handled; when 
the Brigantes, attempting new matters, drew him back 
to settle first what was unsecure behind him. They, of 
whom the chief were punished, the rest forgiven, soon 
gave over ; but the Silures, no way tractable, were not 
to be repressed without a set war. To further this, 
Camalodunum was planted with a colony of veteran 
soldiers ; to be a firm and ready aid against revolts, 
and a means to teach the natives Roman law and 
civility. Cogidunus also a British king, their fast 
friend, had to the same intent certain cities given 
him: n a haughty craft, which the Romans used, to 
make kings also the servile agents of enslaving others. 
But the Silures, hardy of themselves, relied more on 
the valour of Caractacus ; whom many doubtful, many 
prosperous successes had made eminent above all that 
ruled in Britain. He, adding to his courage policy, 
and knowing himself to be of strength inferior, in 
other advantages the better, makes the seat of his war 
among the Ordovices ; a country wherein all the odds 
were to his own party, all the difficulties to his enemy. 
The hills and every access he fortified with heaps of 
stones, and guards of men ; to come at whom a river 
of unsafe passage must be first waded. The place, as 
Camden conjectures, had thence the name of Caer-ca- 
radoc on the west edge of Shropshire. He himself 
continually went up and down, animating his officers 
and leaders, that " this was the day, this the field, 
either to defend their liberty, or to die free ;" calling to 
mind the names of his glorious ancestors, who drove 
Ceesar the dictator out of Britain, whose valour hither- 
to bad preserved them from bondage, their wives and 
children from dishonour. Inflamed with these words, 
they all vow their utmost, with such undaunted resolu- 
tion as amazed the Roman general; but the soldiers 
I ss weighing, because less knowing, clamoured to be 
led on against any danger. Ostorius, after wary cir- 
cumspection, bids them pass the river: the Britons no 
sooner had them within reach of their arrows, darts, 
and stones, but slew and wounded largely of the Ro- 
mans. They on the other side closing their ranks, 
and over head closing their targets, threw down the 
rampires of the Britons, and pursue them up the 
bills, both light and armed legions; till what with 
galling darts and heavy strokes, the Britons, who wore 
neither helmet nor cuirass to defend them, were at last 
orercome. This the Romans thought a famous vic- 

n Tacit, vit, Agri< . 



tory ; wherein the wife and daughter of Caractacus 
were taken, his brothers also reduced to obedience; 
himself escaping to Cartismandua, queen of the Bri- 
gantes, against faith given was to the victors delivered 
bound; having held out against the Romans nine 
years, saith Tacitus, but by truer computation, se- 
ven. Whereby his name was up through all the ad- 
joining provinces, even to Italy and Rome; many 
desiring to see who he was, that could withstand 
so many years the Roman puissance : and fcsesar, 
to extol his own victory, extolled the man whom he 
had vanquished. Being brought to Rome, the peo- 
ple as to a solemn spectacle were called together, 
the emperor's guard stood in arms. In order came 
first the king's servants, bearing his trophies won 
in other wars, next his brothers, wife, and daughter, 
last himself. The behaviour of others, through fear, 
was low and degenerate; he only neither in coun- 
tenance, word, or action submissive, standing at the 
tribunal of Claudius, briefly spake to this purpose : " If 
my mind, Caesar, had been as moderate in the height 
of fortune, as my birth and dignity was eminent, 
I might have come a friend rather than a captive into 
this city. Nor couldst thou have disliked him for a 
confederate, so noble of descent, and ruling so many na- 
tions. Mj r present estate to me disgraceful, to thee is 
glorious. I had riches, horses, arms, and men ; no 
wonder then if I contended, not to lose them. But if 
by fate, yours only must be empire, then of necessity 
ours among the rest must be subjection. If I sooner 
had been brought to yield, my misfortune had been 
less notorious, your conquest had been less renowned ; 
and in your severest determining of me, both will be 
soon forgotten. But if you grant that I shall live, by 
me will live to you for ever that praise which is so near 
divine, the clemency of a conqueror." Csesar moved 
at such a spectacle of fortune, but especially at the no- 
bleness of his bearing it, gave him pardon, and to all 
the rest. They all unbound, submissly thank him, and 
did like reverence to Agrippina the emperor's wife, who 
sat by in state ; anew and disdained sight to the manly 
eyes of Romans, a woman sitting public in her female 
pride among* ensigns and armed cohorts. To Ostorius 
triumph is decreed ; and his acts esteemed equal to 
theirs, that brought in bonds to Rome famousest kings. 
But the same prosperity attended not his later actions 
here; for the Silures, whether to revenge their loss of 
Caractacus, or that they saw Ostorius, as if now all 
were done, less earnest to restrain them, beset the pre- 
fect of his camp, left there with legionary bands to ap- 
point garrisons: and had not speedy aid come in from 
the neighbouring holds and castles, had cut them all 
off; notwithstanding which, the prefect with eight 
centurions, and many their stoutest men, were slain : 
and upon the neck of this, meeting first with Roman 
foragers, then with other troops hasting to their relief, 
utterly foiled and broke them also. Ostorius sending 
more after, could hardly stay their flight ; till the 
weighty legions coming on, at first poised the battle, 
at length turned the scale : to the Britons without 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



491 






much loss, for by that time it grew night. Then was 
the war shivered, as it were, into small frays and bick- 
ering's ; not unlike sometimes to so many robberies, in 
woods, at waters, as chance or valour, advice or rash- 
ness, led them on, commanded or without command. 
That which most exasperated the Silures, was a report 
of certain words cast out by the emperor, " That he 
would root them out to the very name." Therefore two 
cohorts more of auxiliars, by the avarice of their leaders 
too securely pillaging, they quite intercepted ; and be- 
stowing liberally the spoils and captives, whereof they 
took plenty, drew other countries to join with them. 
These losses falling so thick upon the Romans, Osto- 
rius with the thought and anguish thereof ended his 
days; the Britons rejoicing, although no battle, that 
yet adverse war had worn out so great a soldier. Csesar 
in his place ordains Aul us Didius; but ere his coming, 
though much hastened, that the province might not 
want a governor, the Silures had given an overthrow 
to Manlius Valens with his legion, rumoured on both 
sides greater than was true, by the Silures to animate 
the new general ; by him in a double respect, of the 
more praise if he quelled them, or the more excuse if 
he failed. Meantime the Silures forgot not to infest 
the Roman pale with wide excursions ; till Didius 
marching out, kept them somewhat more within bounds. 
Nor were they long to seek, who after Caractacus should 
lead them ; for next to him in worth and skill of war, 
Venutius, a prince of the Brigantes, merited to be their 
chief. He at first faithful to the Romans, and by them 
protected, was the husband of Cartismandua, queen of 
the Brigantes, himself perhaps reigning elsewhere. 
She who had betrayed Caractacus and her country 
to adorn the triumph of Claudius, thereby grown 
powerful and gracious with the Romans, presuming 
on the hire of her treason, deserted ber husband ; 
and marrying Vellocatus one of his squires, con- 
fers on him the kingdom also. This deed so odious 
and full of infamy, disturbed the whole state ; Venu- 
tius with other forces, and the help of her own subjects, 
who detested the example of so foul a fact, and withal 
the uncomeliness of their subjection to the monarchy 
of a woman, a piece of manhood not every day to be 
found among Britons, though she had got by subtile 
train his brother with many of his kindred into her 
hands, brought her soon below the confidence of being 
able to resist longer. When imploring the Roman aid, 
with much ado, and after many a hard encounter, she 
escaped the punishment which was ready to have seized 
her. Venutius thus debarred the authority of ruling 
his own household, justly turns his anger against the 
Romans themselves ; whose magnanimity not wont to 
undertake dishonourable causes, had arrogantly inter- 
meddled in his domestic affairs, to uphold the rebellion 
of an adulteress against her husband. And the king- 
dom he retained against their utmost opposition ; and 
of war gave them their fill ; first in a sharp conflict of 
uncertain event, then against the legion of Csesius Na- 
sica. Insomuch that Didius growing old, and manag- 
ing the war by deputies, had work enough to stand on 

o Tacit, vit. ^gric. 



his defence, with the gaining now and then of a small 
castle. And Nero ° (for in that part of the isle things 
continued in the same plight to the reign of Vespasian) 
was minded but for shame to have withdrawn the Ro- 
man forces out of Britain : in other parts whereof, 
about the same time other things befel.P Verannius, 
whom Nero sent hither to succeed Didius, dying in 
his first year, save a few inroads upon the Silures, left 
only a great boast behind him, " That in two years, had 
he lived, he would have conquered all." But Suetonius 
Paulinus, who next was sent hither, esteemed a soldier 
equal to the best in that age, for two years together 
went on prosperously, both confirming- what was got, 
and subduing onward. At last over-confident of his 
present actions, and emulating* others, of whose deeds 
he heard from abroad, marches up as far as Mona, the 
isle of Anglesey, a populous place. For they, it seems, 
had both entertained fugitives, and given good assist- 
ance to the rest that withstood him. He makes him 
boats with flat bottoms, fitted to the shallows which he 
expected in that narrow frith ; his foot so passed over, 
his horse waded or swam. Thick upon the shore stood 
several gross bands of men well weaponed, many 
women like furies running to and fro in dismal habit, 
with hair loose about their shoulders, held torches in 
their hands. The Druids (those were their priests, of 
whom more in another place) with hands lift up to 
Heaven uttering direful prayers, astonished the Ro- 
mans ; who at so strange a sight stood in amaze, 
though wounded: at length awakened and encouraged 
by their general, not to fear a barbarous and lunatic 
rout, fall on, and beat them down scorched and rolling 
in their own fire. Then were they yoked with garri- 
sons, and the places consecrate to their bloody super- 
stitions destroyed. For whom they took in war, they 
held it lawful to sacrifice ; and by the entrails of men 
used divination. While thus Paulinus had his thought 
still fixed before to go on winning, his back lay broad 
open to occasion of losing more behind : for the Bri- 
tons, urged and oppressed with many unsufferable in- 
juries, had all banded themselves to a general revolt. 
The particular causes are not all written by one au- 
thor ; Tacitus who lived next those times of any to us 
extant, writes that Prasutagus king of the Icenians, 
abounding in wealth, had left Caesar coheir with his 
two daughters ; thereby hoping to have secured from 
all wrong both his kingdom and his house ; which fell 
out far otherwise. For under colour to oversee and 
take possession of the emperor's new inheritance, his 
kingdom became a prey to centurions, his house to 
ravening' officers, his wife Boadicea violated with 
stripes, his daughters with rape, the wealthiest of his 
subjects, as it were, by the will and testament of their 
king thrown out of their estates, his kindred made lit- 
tle better than slaves. The new colony also at Cama- 
lodunum took house or land from whom they pleased, 
terming them slaves and vassals ; the soldiers comply- 
ing with the colony, out of hope hereafter to use the 
same licence themselves. Moreover the temple erected 
to Claudius as a badge of their eternal slavery, stood a 

p Tacit. Hist. 3. Sueton. 



492 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



great eyesore ; the priests whereof, unoer pretext of 
what was due to the religious service, wasted and em- 
bezzled each man's substance upon themselves. And 
Catus Decianus the procurator endeavoured to bring 
all their goods within the compass of new confiscation,^ 
by disavowing the remitment of Claudius. Lastly, 
Seneca, in his books a philosopher, having drawn the 
Britons unwillingly to borrow of him vast sums upon 
fair promises of easy loan, and for repayment to take 
their own time, on a sudden compels them to pay in 
all at once with great extortion. Thus provoked by 
heaviest sufferings, and thus invited by opportunities 
in the absence of Paulinus, the Icenians, and by their 
examples the Trinobantes, and as many else as hated 
servitude, rise up in arms. Of these ensuing troubles 
many foregoing signs appeared ; the image of victory 
at Camalodunum fell down of itself with her face turn- 
ed, as it were, to the Britons; certain women, in a kind 
of ecstacy, foretold of calamities to come : in the coun- 
cil-house were heard by night barbarous noises; in the 
theatre hideous bowling's, in the creek horrid sights, 
betokening the destruction of that colony ; hereto the 
ocean seeming of a bloody hue, and human shapes at 
low ebb, left imprinted on the sand, wrought in the 
Britons new courage, in the Romans unwonted fears. 
Camalodunum, where the Romans had seated themselves 
to dwell pleasantly, rather than defensively, was not 
fortified ; against that therefore the Britons make first 
assault. The soldiers within were not very many. 
Decianus the procurator could send them but two hun- 
dred, those ill armed : and through the treachery of 
some among them, who secretly favoured the insurrec- 
tion, they had deferred both to entrench, and to send 
out such as bore not arms ; such as did, flying to the 
temple, which on the second day was forcibly taken, 
were all put to the sword, the temple made a heap, the 
rest rifled and burnt. Petilius Cerealis coming to his 
succour, is in his way met and overthrown, his whole 
legion cut to pieces; he with his horse hardly escaping 
to the Roman camp. Decianus, whose rapine was the 
cause of all this, fled into Gallia. But Suetonius at 
these tidings not dismayed, through the midst of his 
enemy's country, marches to London (though not 
termed a colony, yet full of Roman inhabitants, and 
for the frequency of trade, and other commodities, a 
town even then of principal note) with purpose to have 
made there the seat of war. But considering the 
smallness of his numbers, and the late rashness of Pe- 
tilius, he chooses rather with the loss of one town to 
save the rest. Nor was he flexible to any prayers or 
weeping of them that besought him to tarry there; but 
taking with him such as were willing, gave signal to 
depart; ihey who through weakness of sex or age, or 
love of the place, went not along, perished by the 
enemy; so did Verulam,a Roman free town. For the 
Britons omitting forts and castles, flew thither first 
where richest booty and the hope of pillaging tolled 
tfaem on. In this massacre about seventy thousand 
Romans and their associates, in the places above men- 
tioned, of certain lost their lives. None might be 

q Dion. r Dion. 1. 6C. 



spared, none ransomed, but tasted all either a present 
or a lingering death ; no cruelty that either outrage or 
the insolence of success put into their heads, was left 
unacted. The Roman wives and virgins hanged up 
all naked, 1 " had their breasts cut off, and sewed to their 
mouths; that in the grimness of death they might 
seem to eat their own flesh ; while the Britons fell to 
feasting and carousing in the temple of Andate their 
goddess of victory. Suetonius adding to his legion 
other old officers and soldiers thereabout, which gather- 
ed to him, were near upon ten thousand ; and purpos- 
ing with those not to defer battle, had chosen a place 
narrow, and not to be overwinged, on his rear a wood; 
being well informed that his enemy were all in front 
on a plain unapt for ambush : the legionaries stood 
thick in order, empaled with light armed ; the horse 
on either wing. The Britons in companies and 
squadrons were every where shouting and swarming, 
such a multitude as at other time never ; no less 
reckoned than two hundred and thirty thousand : so 
fierce and confident of victory, that their wives also 
came in waggons to sit and behold the sports, as they 
made full account of killing Romans : a folly doubt- 
less for the serious Romans to smile at, as a sure token 
of prospering that day : a woman also was their com- 
mander in chief. For Boadicea and her daughters 
ride about in a chariot, telling the tall champions as 
a g*reat encouragement, that with the Britons it was 
usual for women to be their leaders. A deal of other 
fondness they put into her mouth not worth recital ; 
how she was lashed, how her daughters were handled, 
things worthier silence, retirement, and a vail, than for 
a woman to repeat, as done to her own person, or to 
hear repeated before a host of men. The Greek histo- 
rian 3 sets her in the field on a high heap of turves, in a 
loose-bodied gown, declaiming, a spear in her hand, a 
hare in her bosom, which after a long circumlocution, 
she was to let slip among them for luck's sake ; then 
praying to Andate the British goddess, to talk again 
as fondly as before. And this they do out of a vanity, 
hoping to embellish and set out their history with the 
strangeness of our manners, not caring in the mean 
while to brand us with the rankest note of barbarism, 
as if in Britain women were men, and men women. I 
affect not set speeches in a history, unless known for 
certain to have been so spoken in effect as they are 
written, nor then, unless worth rehearsal : and to in- 
vent such, thoug'h eloquently, as some historians have 
done, is an abuse of posterity, raising in them that read 
other conceptions of those times and persons than were 
true. Much less therefore do I purpose here or else- 
where to copy out tedious orations without decorum, 
though in their authors composed ready to my hand. 
Hitherto what we have heard of Cassibelan, Togadum- 
nus, Venusius, and Caractacus, hath been full of mag- 
nanimity, soberness, and martial skill : but the truth 
is, that in this battle and whole business the Britons 
never more plainly manifested themselves to be right 
Barbarians ; no rule, no foresight, no forecast, experi- 
ence, or estimation, either of themselves or of their 






Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



493 



enemies ; such confusion, such impotence, as seemed 
likest not to a war, but to the wild hurry of a distract- 
ed woman, with as mad a crew at her heels. Therefore 
Suetonius, contemning their unruly noises and fierce 
looks, heartens his men hut to stand close a while, and 
strike manfully this headless rabble that stood nearest, 
the rest would be a purchase rather than a toil. And 
so it fell out; for the leg-ion, when they saw their 
time, bursting* out like a violent wedge, quickly broke 
and dissipated what opposed them; all else only held 
out their necks to the slayer; for their own carts and 
waggons were so placed by themselves, as left them 
but little room to escape between. The Roman slew 
all; men, women, and the very drawing horses lay 
heaped along the field in a gory mixture of slaughter. 
About fourscore thousand Britons are said to have been 
slain on the place; of the enemy scarce four hundred, 
and not many more wounded. Boadicea poisoned her- 
self, or, as others say, sickened and died, t She was 
of stature big and tall, of visage grim and stern, harsh 
of voice, her hair of a bright colour flowing down to 
her hips; she wore a plaited garment of divers colours, 
with a great golden chain ; buttoned over all a thick 
robe. Gildas calls her the crafty lioness, and leaves 
an ill fame upon her doings. Dion sets down other- 
wise the order of this fight, and that the field was not 
won without much difficulty, nor without intention of 
the Britons to give another battle, had not the death 
of Boadicea come between. Howbeit Suetonius, to 
preserve discipline, and to dispatch the reliquesof war, 
lodged with all the army in the open field ; which 
was supplied out of Germany with a thousand horse 
and ten thousand foot; thence dispersed to winter, and 
with incursions to waste those countries that stood out. 
But to the Britons famine was a worse affliction ; hav- 
ing left off, during this uproar, to till the ground, and 
made reckoning to serve themselves on the provisions 
of their enemy. Nevertheless those nations that were 
yet untamed, hearing of some discord risen between 
Suetonius and the new procurator Classicianus, were 
brought but slowly to terms of peace; and the rigour 
used by Suetonius on them that yielded, taught them 
the better course to stand on their defence. For it is cer- 
tain that Suetonius, though else a worthy man, overproud 
of his victory, gave too much way to his anger against 
the Britons. Classician therefore sending such word 
to Rome, that these severe proceedings would beget an 
endless war, Polycletus, no Roman but a courtier, was 
sent by Nero to examine how things went. He ad- 
monishing Suetonius to use more mildness, awed the 
army, and to the Britons gave matter of laughter. 
Who so much even till then were nursed up in their 
native liberty, as to wonder that so great a general 
with his whole army should be at the rebuke and or- 
dering of a court-servitor. But Suetonius a while 
after, having lost a few galleys on the shore, was bid 
resign his command to Petronius Turpilianus, who not 
provoking the Britons, nor by them provoked, was 
thought to have pretended the love of peace to what 



t Dion. 

w Tac. hist. 1. 1. and vit. 



u Tacit vit. Agric. 
Agric. Anno post Christ. 69. 



indeed was his love of ease and sloth. Trebellius 
Maximus followed his steps, usurping the name of 
gentle government to any remissness or neglect of dis- 
cipline ; which brought in first license, next disobe- 
dience into his camp ; incensed against him partly for 
his covetousness, partly by the incitement of Roscius 
Caelius, legate of a legion ; with whom formerly dis- 
agreeing, now that civil war began in the empire, he 
fell to open discord ; w charging him with disorder and 
sedition, and him Cselius with peeling and defrauding 
the legions of their pay ; insomuch that Trebellius, 
hated and deserted of the soldiers, was content a 
while to govern by base entreaty, and forced at 
length to flee the land. Which notwithstanding 
remained in good quiet, governed by Cselius and 
the other legate of a leg-ion, both faithful to Vitel- 
lius then emperor ; who sent hither Vectius Bola- 
nus ; under whose lenity, though not tainted with 
other fault, against the Britons nothing was done, 
nor in their own discipline reformed. x Petilius Ce- 
realis by appointment of Vespasian succeeding, had 
to do with the populous Brigantes in many bat- 
tles, and some of those not unbloody. For as we 
heard before, it y was Venusius who even to these 
times held them tack, both himself remaining to the 
end unvanquished, and some part of his country not so 
much as reached. It appears also by several passages 
in the histories of Tacitus,z that no small matter of 
British forces were commanded over sea the year before 
to serve in those bloody wars between Otho and Vitel- 
lius, Vitellius and Vespasian contending for the empire. 
To CereaJis succeeded Julius Frontinus in the govern- 
ment of Britain, 3 who by taming the Silures, a people 
warlike and strongly inhabiting, augmented much his 
reputation. But Julius Agricola, whom Vespasian in 
his last year sent hither, trained up from his youth in 
the British wars, extended with victories the Roman 
limit beyond all his predecessors. His coming was in 
the midst of summer ; and the Ordivices to welcome 
the new general had hewn in pieces a whole squadron 
of horse which lay upon their bounds, few escaping. 
Agricola, who perceived that the noise of this defeat 
had also in the province desirous of novelty stirred up 
new expectations, resolves to be beforehand with the 
danger : and drawing together the choice of his legions 
with a competent number of auxiliaries, not being met 
by the Ordovices, who kept the hills, himself at the 
head of his men, hunts them up and down through 
difficult places, almost to the final extirpating of that 
whole nation. With the same current of success, what 
Paulinus had left unfinished he conquers in the isle of 
Mona : for the islanders altogether fearless of his ap- 
proach, whom they knew to have no shipping, when 
they saw themselves invaded on a sudden by the aux- 
iliars, whose country-use had taught them to swim 
over with horse and arms, were compelled to yield. 
This gained Agricola much opinion : who at his very 
entrance, a time which others bestowed of course in 
hearing compliments and gratulations, had made such 



x Tacit, hist. 2. and vit. Agric. 
z Tacit, hist. 3. and vit. Agric 



y Calvis. 
a Post Christ. ?9. 



494 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



earlj' progress into laborious and hardest enterprises. 
But by far not so famous was Agricola in bringing 
Avar to a speedy end, as in cutting off the causes from 
whence war arises. For he knowing that the end of 
war was not to make way for injuries in peace, began 
reformation from his own house ; permitted not his at- 
tendants and followers to sway, or have to do at all in 
public affairs : lays on with equality the proportions of 
corn and tribute that were imposed ; takes off exactions, 
and the fees of encroaching officers, heavier than the 
tribute itself. For the countries had been compelled 
before, to sit and wait the opening of public granaries, 
and both to sell and to buy their corn at what rate the 
publicans thought fit; the purveyors also commanding 
when they pleased to bring it in, not to the nearest, 
but still to the remotest places, either by the compound- 
ing of such as would be excused, or by causing a dearth, 
where none was, made a particular gain. These griev- 
ances and the like, he in the time of peace removing, 
brought peace into some credit; which before, since 
the Romans coming, had as ill a name as war. The 
summer following, Titus then emperor, b he so continu- 
ally with inroads disquieted the enemy over all the 
isle, and after terrour so allured them with his gentle 
demeanour, that many cities which till that time would 
not bend, gave hostages, admitted garrisons, and came 
in voluntarily. The winter he spent all in worthy ac- 
tions ; teaching and promoting - like a public father the 
institutes and customs of civil life. The inhabitants 
rude and scattered, and by that the proner to war, he so 
persuaded to build houses, temples, and seats of justice ; 
and by praising the forward, quickening the slow, 
assisting all, turned the name of necessity into an 
emulation. He caused moreover the noblemen's sons 
to be bred up in liberal arts; and by preferring the 
wits of Britain before the studies of Gallia, brought 
them to affect the Latin eloquence, who before hated 
the language. Then were the Roman fashions imi- 
tated, and the gown ; after a while the incitements 
also and materials of vice, and voluptuous life, proud 
buildings, baths, and the elegance of banqueting; 
which the foolisher sort called civility, but was indeed 
a secret art to prepare them for bondage. Spring ap- 
pearing, he took the field, and with a prosperous ex- 
pedition wasted as far northward as frith of Taus all 
that obeyed not, with such a terrour, as he went, that 
the Reman army, though much hindered by tempestu- 
ous weather, had the leisure to build forts and castles 
where they pleased, none daring to oppose them. Be- 
sides, Agricola had this excellence in him, so pro- 
vidently to choose his places where to fortify, as not 
another general then alive. No sconce or fortress of 
bis raising eras ever known either to have been forced, 
or yielded op or quitted. Out of these impregnable by 
■ii J* . <>r in that case duly relieved, with continual 
irruptions lie so prevailed, that the enemy, whose 
manner was in winter to regain what in summer he 
had lost, was now alike in both seasons kept short and 
itreightened. For these exploits, then esteemed so 
great and honourable, Titus, in whose reign they were 
b Post Christ. 80. c Dion. I. 66. Post Christ. 82. 



achieved, was the fifteenth time saluted imperator; c 
and of him Agricola received triumphal honours. The 
fourth summer, Domitian then ruling the empire, he 
spent in settling and confirming what the year before 
he had travelled over with a running conquest. And 
had the valour of his soldiers been answerable, he 
had reached that year, as was thought, the utmost 
bounds of Britain. For Glota and Bodotria, now 
Dunbritton, and the frith of Edinburgh, two opposite 
arms of the sea, divided only by a neck of land, and 
all the creeks and inlets on this side, were held by 
the Romans, and the enemy driven as it were into 
another island. In his fifth year d he passed over into 
the Orcades, as we may probably guess, and other 
Scotch isles; discovering and subduing nations, till then 
unknown. He gained also with his forces that part of 
Britain which faces Ireland, as aiming also to conquer 
that island ; where one of the Irish kings driven out 
by civil wars coming to him, he both gladly received, 
and retained him as against a fit time. The summer 
ensuing, on mistrust that the nations beyond Bodotria 
would generally rise, and forelaythe passages by land, 
he caused his fleet, making a great show, to bear along 
the coast, and up the friths and harbours ; joining most 
commonly at night on the same shore both land and 
sea-forces, with mutual shouts and loud greetings. 
At sight whereof the Britons, not wont to see their sea 
so ridden, were much daunted. Howbeit the Caledo- 
nians e with great preparation, and by rumour, as of 
things unknown much greater, taking arms, and of 
their own accord beginning war by the assault of sundry 
castles, sent back some of their fear to the Romans 
themselves: and there were of the commanders, who 
cloaking their fear under show of sage advice,, coun- 
selled the general to retreat back on this side Bodo- 
tria. He in the mean while having intelligence, that 
the enemy would fall on in many bodies, divided also 
his army into three parts. Which advantage the Bri- 
tons quickly spying, and on a sudden uniting what 
before they had disjointed, assail by night with all 
their forces that part of the Roman army which they 
knew to be the weakest; and breaking in upon the 
camp, surprised between sleep and fear, had begun some 
execution. When Agricola, who had learnt what way 
the enemies took, and followed them with all speed, 
sending before him the lightest of his horse, and foot 
to charge them behind, the rest as they came on to 
affright them with clamour, so plied them without res- 
pite, that by approach of day the Roman ensigns glit- 
tering all about, had encompassed the Britons : who 
now after a sharp fight in the very ports of the camp, 
betook them to their wonted refuge, the woods and 
fens, pursued a while by the Romans; that day else in 
all appearance had ended the war. The legions rein- 
eouraged by this event, they also now boasting, who 
but lately trembled, cry all to be led on as far as there 
was British ground. The Britons also not acknow- 
ledging the loss of that day to Roman valour, but to 
the policy of their captain, abated nothing of their 
stoutness; but arming their youth, conveying their 

d Post Christ. 83. e Poet Christ. 84. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



495 



wives and children to places of safety, in frequent as- 
semblies, and by solemn covenants bound themselves 
to mutual assistance against the common enemy. About 
the same time a cohort of Germans having- slain their 
centurion with other Roman officers in a mutiny, and 
for fear of punishment fled on shipboard, launched 
forth in three light galleys without pilot ; f and by tide 
or weather carried round about the coast, using* piracy 
where they landed, while their ships held out, and as 
their skill served them, with various fortune, were the 
first discoverers to the Romans that Britain was an 
island. g The following summer, Agricola having- 
before sent his navy to hover on the coast, and with 
sundry and uncertain landings to divert and disunite 
the Britons, himself with a power best appointed for 
expedition, wherein also were many Britons, whom he 
had long tried, both valiant and faithful, marches on- 
ward to the mountain Grampius, where the British, 
above thirty thousand, were now lodged, and still in- 
creasing; for neither would their old men, so many as 
were yet vigorous and lusty, be left at home, long prac- 
tised in war, and every one adorned with some badge, 
or cognizance of his w T arlike deeds long ago. Of whom 
Galgacus, both by birth and merit the prime leader to 
their courage, though of itself hot and violent, is by 
his rough oratory, in detestation of servitude and the 
Roman yoke, said to have added much more eagerness 
of fight, testified by their shouts and barbarous ap- 
plauses. As much did on the other side Agricola exhort 
his soldiers to victory and glory ; as much the 
soldiers by his firm and well-grounded exhortations 
were all on a fire to the onset. But first he orders them 
on this sort : Of eight thousand auxiliary foot he makes 
his middle ward, on the wings three thousand horse, 
the legions as a reserve, stood in array before the camp ; 
either to seize the victory won without their own haz- 
ard, or to keep up the battle if it should need. The 
British powers on the hill side, as might best serve for 
show and terrour, stood in their battalions ; the first on 
even ground, the next rising behind, as the hill ascend- 
ed. The field between rung with the noise of horse- 
men and chariots ranging up and down. Agricola 
doubting to be overwinged, stretches out his front, 
though somewhat with the thinnest, insomuch that 
many advised to bring up the legions : yet he not al- 
tering, alights from his horse, and stands on foot before 
the ensigns. The fight began aloof, and the Britons 
had a certain skill with their broad swashing swords 
and short bucklers either to strike aside, or to bear off 
the darts of their enemy ; and withal to send back 
showers of their own. Until Agricola discerning that 
those little targets and unwieldy glaves ill pointed, 
would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and 
close, commanded three Batavian cohorts, and two of 
the Tungrians exercised and armed for close fight, to 
draw up, and come to handy strokes. The Batavians, 
as they were commanded, running in upon them, now 
with their long tucks thrusting at the face, now with 
their piked targets bearing them down, had made good 
riddance of them that stood below; and for haste omit- 



f Dion. I. 66. 



g Post Christ. 85. 



ting further execution, began apace to advance up hill, 
seconded now by all the other cohorts. Meanwhile 
the horsemen flee, the charioteers mix themselves 
to fight among the foot, where many of their horse 
also fallen in disorderly, were now more a mischief 
to their own, than before a terrour to their ene- 
mies. The battle was a confused heap, the ground 
unequal ; men, horses, chariots, crowded pellmell ; 
sometimes in little room, by and by in large, fighting, 
rushing, felling, overbearing, overturning. They on 
the hill, which were not yet come to blows, perceiving 
the fewness of their enemies, came down amain ; and 
had enclosed the Romans unawares behind, but that 
Agricola with a strong body of horse, which he reserved 
for such a purpose, repelled them back as fast; and 
others drawn off the front, were commanded to wheel 
about and charge them on the backs. Then were the 
Romans clearly masters ; they follow, they wound, 
they take, and to take more, kill whom they take : the 
Britons, in whole troops with weapons in their hands 
one while fleeing the pursuer, anon without weapons 
desperately running upon the slayer. But of all them, 
when once they got the woods to their shelter, with 
fresh boldness made head again, and the forwardest on 
a sudden they turned and slew, the rest so hampered, 
as had not Agricola, who was every where at band, 
sent out his readiest cohorts, with a part of his horse to 
alight and scour the woods, they had received a foil in 
the midst of victory ; but following with a close and 
orderly pursuit, the Britons fled again, and w r ere to- 
tally scattered ; till night and weariness ended the 
chase. And of them that day ten thousand fell ; of 
the Romans three hundred and forty, among whom 
Aulus Atticus the leader of a cohort ; carried with heat 
of youth and the fierceness of his horse too far on. The 
Romans jocund of this victory, and the spoil they got, 
spent the night; the vanquished wandering about the 
field, both men and women, some lamenting, some 
calling their lost friends, or carrying off their wounded ; 
others forsaking, some burning, their own houses ; and 
it was certain enough, that there were who with a 
stern compassion laid violent hands on their wives and 
children, to prevent the more violent hands of hostile 
injury. Next day appearing, manifested more plainly 
the greatness of their loss received ; every where silence, 
desolation, houses burning afar off, not a man seen, all 
fled, and doubtful whither : such word the scouts bring- 
ing in from all parts, and the summer now spent, no 
fit season to disperse a war, the Roman general leads 
his army among the Horestians ; by whom hostages 
being given, he commands his admiral with a sufficient 
navy to sail round the coast of Britain ; himself with 
slow marches, that his delay in passing might serve to 
awe those new conquered nations, bestows his army in 
their winter-quarters. The fleet also having fetched a 
prosperous and speedy compass about the isle, put in 
at the haven Trutulensis, now Richburgh near Sand- 
wich, from whence it first set out: h and now likeliest, 
if not two years before, as was mentioned, the Romans 
might discover and subdue the isles of Orkney ; which 

h Camden. Juven. sat. 2. 



496 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



others with less reason, following 1 Eusebius and Oro- 
sius, attribute to the deeds of Claudius. These perpe- 
tual exploits abroad won him wide fame : w-ith Domi- 
tian, under whom great virtue was as punishable as 
open crime, won him hatred. k For he maligning the 
renown of these his acts, in shew decreed him honours, 
in secret devised his ruin. ] Agricola therefore com- 
manded home for doing too much of what he was sent 
to do, left the province to his successor quiet and se- 
cure. Whether he, as is conjectured, were Salustius 
Lucullus, or before him some other, for Suetonius only 
names him legate of Britain under Domitian ; but fur- 
ther of him, or aught else done here until the time of 
Hadrian, is no where plainly to be found. Some g-ather 
by a preface in Tacitus to the book of his histories, 
that what Agricola won here, was soon after by Do- 
mitian either through want of valour lost, or through 
envy neglected. And Juvenal the poet speaks of Arvi- 
ragus in these days, and not before, king of Britain ; 
who stood so well in his resistance, as not only to be 
talked of at Rome, but to be held matter of a glorious 
triumph, if Domitian could take him captive, or over- 
come him. Then also Claudia Rufina the daughter of 
a Briton, and wife of Pudence a Roman senator, lived 
at Rome famous by the verse of Martial for beauty, 
wit, and learning. The next we hear of Britain, is, 
that when Trajan was emperor, it revolted, and was 
subdued. But Hadrian next entering on the empire, 01 
they soon unsubdued themselves. Julius Severus, saith 
Dion, then governed the island, a prime soldier of that 
age : he being called away to suppress the Jews then 
in tumult left things at such a pass, as caused the em- 
peror in person to take a journey hither ; u where many 
things he reformed, and, as Augustus and Tiberius 
counselled, to gird the empire within moderate bounds, 
he raised a wall with great stakes driven in deep, and 
fastened together, in manner of a strong mound, four- 
score mile in length, to divide what was Roman from 
Barbarian ; as his manner was to do in other frontiers 
of his empire, where great rivers divided not the limits. 
No ancient author names the place, but old inscriptions, 
and the ruin itself, yet testifies where it went along be- 
tween Solway frith by Carlisle, and the mouth of 
Tine.° Hadrian having quieted the island, took it for 
honour to be titled on his coin, " The restorer of Bri- 
tain." In his time also Priscus Licinius, as appears 
by an old inscription, was lieutenant here. Antoninus 
Pius reigning,P the Brigantes ever least patient of 
foreign servitude, breaking in upon Genounia (which 
Camden guesses to be Guinethia or North Wales) part 
of the Roman province, were with the loss of much ter- 
ritory driven back by Lollius Urbicus, who drew an- 
other "all of turves; in likelihood much beyond the 
former, and as Camden proves, between the frith of 
Danbritton, and of Edinburgh ; to hedge out incur- 
sion from the north. And Seius Saturninus, as is col- 
lected from th< s digested had charge here of the Roman 
nav y. With like success did Marcus Aurelius/ next 
emperor, by his legate Calphurnius Agricola, finish here 

i Entrap. 1.7. It Dion. 1.66. 1 Post Christ. ?/>. 

in -i-H.tianus in rjt. Hadrian. „ Post Christ. |£2. Spartianus ibid, 

den. p Pausan. archad. q Cap. vit. Ant. Post Christ. 144. 



a new war : Commodus after him obtaining the empire. 
In his time, as among so many different accounts may 
seem most probable, s Lucius a supposed kingiu some 
part of Britain, the first of any king in Europe, that we 
read of, received the Christian faith, and this nation 
the first by public authority professed it : a high and 
singular grace from above, if sincerity and perseverance 
went along, otherwise an empty boast, and to be feared 
the verifying of that true sentence, " The first shall be 
last." And indeed the praise of this action is more 
proper to King Lucius, than common to the nation ; 
whose first professing by public authority was no real 
commendation of their true faith, which had appeared 
more sincere and praise-worthy, whether in this or 
other nation, first professed without public authority 
or against it, might else have been but outward con- 
formity. Lucius in our Monmouth story is made the 
second by descent from Marius; Marius the son of 
Arviragus is there said to have overthrown the Picts 
then first coming out of Scythia, slain Roderic their 
king ; and in sign of victory to have set up a monu- 
ment of stone in the country since called Westmaria; 
but these things have no foundation. Coilus the son 
of Marius, all his reign, which was just and peaceable, 
holding great amity with the Romans, left it hereditary 
to Lucius. He (if Beda err not, living near five hun- 
dred years after, yet our ancientest author of this re- 
port) sent to Elutherius, then bishop of Rome,* an 
improbable letter, as some of the contents discover, 
desiring that by his appointment he and his people 
might receive Christianity. From whom two religious 
doctors, named in our chronicles Faganus and Deru- 
vianus, forthwith sent, are said to have converted and 
baptized well nigh the whole nation: 11 thence Lucius 
to have had the surname of Levermaur, that is to say, 
great light. Nor yet then first was the christian faith 
here known, but even from the latter days of Tiberius, 
as Gildas confidently affirms, taught and propagated, 
and that as some say by Simon Zelotes, as others by 
Joseph of Arimathea, Barnabas, Paul, Peter, and their 
prime disciples. But of these matters, variously writ- 
ten and believed, ecclesiastic historians can best deter- 
mine ; as the best of them do, with little credit given 
to the particulars of such uncertain relations. As for 
Lucius, they write, x that after a long reign he was 
buried in Gloucester ; but dying without issue, left the 
kingdom in great commotion. By truer testimoirv ? 
we find that the greatest war which in those days 
busied Commodus, was in this island. For the nations 
northward, notwithstanding the wall raised to keep 
them out, breaking in upon the Roman province, 
wasted wide ; and both the army and the leader that 
came against them wholly routed, and destroyed ; 
which put the emperor in such a fear, as to dispatch 
hither one of his best commanders, Ulpius Marcellus. 2 
He a man endowed with all nobleness of mind, frugal 
and temperate, mild and magnanimous, in war bold 
and watchful, invincible against lucre, and the assault 
of bribes; what with his valour, and these his other 

r Post Christ. 162.Digest. I. 36. s Beda. t Post Christ. 181. 

11 N'ennius. x Geoff. Mon. y Dion. 1. 72. 

z Post Christ. 183. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



497 



virtues, quickly ended this war that looked so danger- 
ous, and had himself like to have been ended by the 
peace which he brought home, for presuming- to be so 
worthy and so good under the envy of so worthless 
and so bad an emperor. a After whose departure the 
Roman legions fell to sedition among themselves ; fif- 
teen hundred of them went to Rome in name of the 
rest, and were so terrible to Commodus himself, as that 
to please them he delivered up to their care Perennis 
the captain of his guard, for having in the British war 
removed their leaders, who were senators, and in their 
places put those of the equestrian order. Notwith- 
standing which compliance, they endeavoured here to 
set up another emperor against him ; and Helvius Per- 
tinax, b who succeeded governour, found it a work so 
difficult to appease them, that once in a mutiny he was 
left for dead among many slain ; and though afterwards 
he severely punished the tumulters, was fain at length 
to seek a dismission from his charge. After him Clo- 
dius Albinus took the government; but he, for having 
to the soldiers made an oration against monarchy, by 
the appointment of Commodus was bid resign to Junius 
Severus. d But Albinus in those troublesome times 
ensuing under the short reign of Pertinax and Didius 
Julianus, e found means to keep in his hands the go- 
vernment of Britain ; although Septimius Severus/ 
who next held the empire, sent hither Heraclitus to 
displace him; but in vain, for Albinus with all the 
British powers and those of Gallia met Severus about 
Lyons in France, 8 and fought a bloody battle with him 
for the empire, though at last vanquished and slain. 
The government of Britain h Severus divided between 
two deputies ; till then one legate was thought suf- 
ficient ; the north he committed to Virius Lupus, 
i Where the Meatee rising in arms, and the Caledonians, 
though they had promised the contrary to Lupus, k 
preparing to defend them, so hard beset, he was com- 
pelled to buy his peace, and a few prisoners with great 
sums of money. But hearing that Severus had now 
brought to an end his other wars, he writes him plainly 
the state of things here, 1 " the Britons of the north made 
war upon him, broke into the province, and harassed 
all the countries nigh them, that there needed suddenly 
either more aid, or himself in person." Severus, though 
now much weakened with age and the gout, yet de- 
sirous to leave some memorial of his warlike achieve- 
ments here, as he had done in other places, and besides to 
withdraw by this means his two sons from the pleasures 
of Rome, and his soldiers from idleness, with a mighty 
power, far sooner than could be expected, arrives in 
Britain. m The northern people much daunted with the 
report of so great forces brought over with him, and yet 
more preparing, send embassadors to treat of peace, and 
to excuse their former doings. The emperor now loth 
to return home without some memorable thing done, 
whereby he might assume to his other titles the addi- 
tion of Britannicus, delays his answer, and quickens 
his preparations ; till in the end, when all things were 



a Lamprid. in coram. Post Christ. 186. b Capitolin. in Pert. 

c Capitolin. in Alb. d Post Christ. 193. e Dion Did. Jul. 

f Spartian. in Sever. g Herod. 1.3. It Ibid, 

i Digest, 1. 28. tit. 6. k Dion. 1 Herod. 1. 3, 



in readiness to follow them, they are dismissed without 
effect. His principal care was to have many bridges 
laid over bogs and rotten moors, that his soldiers might 
have to fight on sure footing. For it seems through 
lack of tillage, the northen parts were then, as Ireland 
is at this day ; and the inhabitants in like manner 
wanted to retire, and defend themselves in such watery 
places half naked. He also being past Adrian's wall, 11 
cut down woods, made ways through hills, fastened 
and filled up unsound and plashy fens. Notwithstand- 
ing all this industry used, the enemy kept himself so 
cunningly within his best advantages, and seldom ap- 
pearing, so opportunely found his times to make irrup- 
tion upon the Romans, when they were most in straits 
and difficulties, sometimes training them on with a few 
cattle turned out, and drawn within ambush cruelly 
handling them, that many a time enclosed in the midst 
of sloughs and quagmires, they chose rather themselves 
to kill such as were faint and could not shift away, 
than leave them there a prey to the Caledonians.© 
Thus lost Severus, and by sickness in those noisome 
places, no less than fifty thousand men : and yet de- 
sisted not, though for weakness carried in a litter, till 
he had marched through with his army to the utmost 
northern verge of the isle : and the Britons offering 
peace, were compelled to lose much of their country 
not before subject to the Romans.? Severus on the 
frontiers of what he had firmly conquered, builds a 
wall cross the island from sea to sea ; which one author 
judges the most magnificent of all his other deeds; 
and that he thence received the style of Britannicus ;q 
in length a hundred and thirty-two miles. Orosius 
adds it fortified with a deep trench, and between certain 
spaces many towers or battlements. The place whereof 
some will have to be in Scotland, the same which Lol- 
lius Urbicus had walled before. r Others affirm it only 
Hadrian's work re-edified ; both plead authorities and 
the ancient track yet visible : but this I leave among 
the studious of these antiquities to be discussed more at 
large. While peace held, the empress Julia meeting 
on a time certain British ladies, and discoursing with 
the wife of Argentocoxus a Caledonian, cast out a scoff 
against the looseness of our island women ; whose 
manner then was to use promiscuously the company of 
divers men. Whom straight the British woman boldly 
thus answered : " Much better do we Britons fulfil the 
work of nature than you Romans ; we with the best 
men accustom openly; you with the basest commit 
private adulteries." Whether she thought this answer 
might serve to justify the practice of her country, as 
when vices are compared, the greater seems to justify 
the less; or whether the law and custom wherein she 
was bred, had whipped out of her conscience the better 
dictate of nature, and not convinced her of the shame, 
certain it is, that whenas other nations used a liberty 
not unnatural for one man to have many wives, the 
Britons s altogether as licentious, but more absurd and 
preposterous in their license, had one or many wives 



m Post Christ. 208. n Post Christ. 209. 

p Post Christ. 210. Spartianus in Sever. 

q Eutropii Pean. Oros. 1. 7. Cassid. Chro. 

r Buchanan. s Cassar. 



438 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



in common among- ten or twelve husbands; and those 
for the most part incestuously. But no sooner was Se- 
verus returned into the province, than the Britons take 
arms again. Against whom Severus, worn out with 
labours and infirmity, sends Antoninus his eldest son, 
expressly commanding him to spare neither sex nor 
age. But Antoninus, who had his wicked thoughts 
taken up with the contriving of his father's death, a 
safer enemy than a son, did the Britons not much de- 
triment. Whereat Severus, more overcome with grief 
than any other malady, ended his life at York. 1 After 
whose decease Antoninus Caracalla his impious son, 
concluding peace with the Britons, took hostages and 
departed to Rome. The conductor of all this northern 
war Scottish writers name Donaldus, he of Monmouth 
Fulgenius, in the rest of his relation nothing worth. 
From hence the Roman empire declining apace, good 
historians growing scarce, or lost, have left us little 
else but fragments for many years ensuing. Under 
Gordian the emperor we find, by the inscription" of an 
altar-stone, that Nonius Philippus governed here. Un- 
der Galienus we read there was a strong- and general 
revolt from the Roman legate. Of the thirty tyrants 
w hich not long after took upon them the style of em- 
peror," by many coins found among us, Lollianus, Vic- 
torious, Posthumus, the Tetrici, and Marius are con- 
jectured to have risen or born great sway in this 
islands Whence Porphyrius, a philosopher then liv- 
ing, said that Britain was a soil fruitful of tyrants ; 
and is noted to be the first author that makes mention 
of the Scottish nation. While Probus was emperor,z 
Bonosus the son of a rhetorician, bred up a Spaniard, 
though by descent a Briton, and a matchless drinker; 
nor much to be blamed, if, as they write, he were still 
wisest in his cups; having attained in warfare to high 
honours, and lastly in his charge over the German ship- 
ping, willingly, as was thought, miscarried, trusting 
on his power with the western armies, and joined with 
Proculus, bore himself a while for emperor ; but after 
a long and bloody fight at Cullen, vanquished by 
Probus, he hanged himself, and gave occasion of a 
ready jest made on him for his much drinking : a 
" Here hangs a tankard, not a man." After this, 
Probus with much wisdom prevented a new rising- 
here in Britain by the severe loyalty of Victorinus a 
Moor, at whose entreaty he had placed here that go- 
vernour which rebelled. For the emperor upbraiding 
him with the disloyalty of whom he had commended, 
Victorinus undertaking to set all right again, hastes 
thither, and finding indeed the governour to intend 
sedition, by some contrivance not mentioned in the 
story, slew him, whose name b some imagine to be 
Cornelias Lelianus. They write also that Probus 
gave leave to the Spaniards, Gauls, and Britons to 
plant Tines, and to make wine ; and having subdued 
the Vandals and Burgundians in a great battle, sent 
o\< i many of them hither to inhabit, where they did 
L r '""l service to the Romans, when any insurrection 

' 211. Bpartianoa in Sever. n Post Christ. 242. 

Camh. Cnmber. x Post Christ. 250. F.umen. Paneir. Const. 

y Post Christ. Co7. Camden, Gildas, Hieronym. z Post Christ. 

282. Vopis<-. in Bona*. * Zozirn. I. 1. h Carnd. 

c Zozimus. d Post Christ. 283. Vopisc. in Carin. 



happened in the isle. After whom Carus emperor 
going against the Persians, left Carinus d one of his 
sons to govern among" other western provinces this 
island with imperial authority ; but him Dioclesian, 
saluted emperor by the eastern arms, overcame and 
slew. About which time Carausius, e a man of low 
parentage, born in Menapia, about the parts of Cleves 
and Juliers, who through all military degrees was 
made at length admiral of the Belgic and Armoric seas, 
then much infested by the Franks and Saxons, what 
he took from the pirates, neither restoring to the owners 
nor accounting to the public, but enriching himself, 
and yet not scouring the seas, but conniving rather at 
those sea robbers, was grown at length too great a de- 
linquent to be less than an emperor ; f for fear and 
guiltiness in those days made emperors oftener than 
merit: and understanding that Maximianus Hercu- 
lius,? Dioclesian's adopted son, was come against him 
into Gallia, passed over with the navy, which he had 
made his own, into Britain, and possessed the island. 
Where he built a new h fleet after the Roman fashion, 
got into his power the legion that was left here in gar- 
rison, other outlandish cohorts detained, listed the very 
merchants and factors of Gallia, and with the allure- 
ment of spoil invited great numbers of other barbarous 
nations to his part, and trained them to sea service, 
wherein the Romans at that time were grown so out of 
skill, that Carausius with his navy did at sea what he 
listed, robbing on every coast; whereby Maximilian, 
able to come no nearer than the shore of Boloigne, was 
forced to conclude a peace with Carausius, and yield 
him Britain; 1 as one fittest to guard the province there 
against inroads from the North But not long after k 
having assumed Constantius Chlorus to the dignity of 
Csesar, sent him against Carausius ; who in the mean 
while had made himself strong both within the land 
and without. 1 Galfred of Monmouth writes, that he 
made the Picts his confederates ; to whom, lately come 
out of Scythia, he gave Albany to dwell in : and it is 
observed, that before his time the Picts are not known 
to have been any where mentioned, and then first by 
Eumenius a rhetorician." 1 He repaired and fortified 
the wall of Severus with seven castles, and a round 
house of smooth stone on the bank of Carron, which 
river, saith Ninnius, was of his name so called ; he 
built also a triumphal arch in remembrance of some 
victory there obtained. In France he held Gessoria- 
cum, or Boloigne; and all the Franks, which had by 
his permission seated themselves in Belgia, were at his 
devotion. But Constantius hasting into Gallia, besieges 
Boloigne, and with stones and timber obstructing the 
port, keeps out all relief that could be sent in by Ca- 
rausius. Who ere Constantius, with the great fleet 
which he had prepared, could arrive hither, was slain 
treacherously o by Alectus one of his friends, who 
longed to step into his place ; when he seven years, 
and worthily as some say, as others tyrannically, had 
ruled the island. So much the more did Constantius 

e Post Christ. 284. Aurel. Victor, de Caesar. f Post Christ. 285. 

Eutrop. Oros. g Eumen. Pane-?. 2. h Post Christ. 28f>. 

i Victor. Eutrop. k Post Christ. 291. 1 Buchanan. 

in Paneg. 2. n Paneg. Sigonius. o Post Christ. 292. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



499 



prosecute that opportunity, before Alectus could well 
strengthen his affairs : p and though in ill weather, 
putting to sea with all urgency from several havens to 
spread the terrour of his landiug, and the doubt where 
to expect him, in a mist passing the British fleet un- 
seen, that lay scouting near the isle of Wight, no sooner 
got ashore, but fires his own ships, to leave no hope of 
refuge but in victory. Alectus also, though now much 
dismayed, transfers his fortune to a battle on the shore; 
but encountered by Asclepiodotas, captain of the prae- 
torian bands, and desperately rushing on, unmindful 
both of ordering his men, or bringing them all to fight, 
save the accessories of his treason, and his outlandish 
hirelings, is overthrown, and slain with little or no loss 
to the Romans, but great execution on the Franks. 
His body was found almost naked in the field, for his 
purple robe he had thrown aside, lest it should descry 
him, unwilling to be found. The rest taking flight to 
London, and purposing with the pillage of that city to 
escape by sea, are met by another part of the Roman 
army, whom the mist at sea disjoining had by chance 
brought thither, and with a new slaughter chased 
through all the streets. The Britons, their wives also 
and children, with great joy go out to meet Constan- 
tius, as one whom they acknowledge their deliverer 
from bondage and insolence. All this seems by Eume- 
nius, q who then lived, and was of Constantius's hous- 
hold, to have been done in the course of one continued 
action; so also thinks Sigonius, a learned writer: though 
all others allow three years to the tyranny of Alectus. 
In these days were great store of workmen, and excel- 
lent builders in this island, whom, after the alteration 
of things here, the iEduans in Burgundy entertained 
to build their temples, and public edifices. Dioclesian 
having hitherto successfully used his valour against the 
enemies of his empire, uses now his rage in a bloody 
persecution against his obedient and harmless christian 
subjects : from the feeling whereof neither was this 
island, though most remote, far enough removed. 1 " 
Among them here who suffered gloriously, Aron, and 
Julius of Caerleon upon Usk, but chiefly Alban of Veru- 
lam, were most renowned ; the story of whose martyr- 
dom soiled, and worse martyred with the fabling zeal 
of some idle fancies, more fond of miracles, than appre- 
hensive of truth, deserves not longer digression. Con- 
stantius, after Dioclesian, dividing the empire with Ga- 
lerius, had Britain among his other provinces ; where 
either preparing or returning with a victory from an ex- 
pedition against the Caledonians, he died at York. s His 
son Constantine, who happily came post from Rome to 
Boloigne, just about the time, saith Eumenius, that his 
father was setting sail his last time hither, and not long 
before his death, was by him on his deathbed named, 
and after his funeral, by the whole army saluted empe- 
ror. There goes a fame, and that seconded by most of 
our own historians, though not those the ancientest, 
that Constantine was born in this island, his mother 
Helena the daughter of Coilus a British prince, not 

p Camd. ex Nin. Eumen. Pan. 3. Oros. 1. 7. c. 25. q Eumen. 

r Gildas. s Author, ign. post Marcellin. Valesii. Post Christ. 306. 

Eutrop. Eumen. idem. Auth. ignot. 
t Idem vit. Auth. ignot. Euseb. Const. Oros. 1. 7. 25 cap. Cass. Chron. 
w Post Christ. 307. Sigon. 

2 K 



sure the father of King Lucius, whose sister she must 
then be, for that would detect her too old by a hundred 
years to be the mother of Constantine. But to salve 
this incoherence, another Coilus is feigned to be then 
earl of Colchester. To this therefore the Roman authors 
give no testimony, except a passage or two in the 
Panegyrics, about the sense whereof much is argued : 
others t nearest to those times clear the doubt, and write 
him certainly born of a mean woman, Helena, the con- 
cubine of Constantius, at Naisus in Dardania. u How- 
beit, ere his departure hence, he seems to have had 
some bickerings in the North, which by reason of more 
urgent affairs composed, he passes into Gallia ; and 
after four years returns either to settle or to alter the 
state of things here, until a new war against Maxentius 
called him back, leaving Pacatianus his vicegerent. 
x He deceasing", Constantine his eldest son enjoyed for 
his part of the empire, with all the provinces that lay 
on this side the Alps, this island also. y But falling to 
civil war with Constans his brother, was by him slain ; 
who with his third brother Constantius coming into 
Britain, seized it as victor. Against him rose Mag- 
nentius, 2 one of his chief commanders, by some affirmed 
the son of a Briton, he having gained on his side great 
forces, contested with Constantius in many battles for 
the sole empire; but vanquished, in the end slew him- 
self. a Somewhat before this time Gratianus Funarius, 
the father of Valentinian, afterwards emperor, had chief 
command of those armies which the Romans kept here. 
b And the Arian doctrine which then divided Christen- 
dom, wrought also in this island no small disturbance ; 
a land, saith Gildas, greedy of every thing new, sted- 
fast in nothing. At last c Constantius appointed a 
synod of more than four hundred bishops to assemble 
at Ariminum on the emperor's charges, which the rest 
all refusing', three only of the British, poverty constrain- 
ing them, accepted ; though the other bishops among 
them offered to have born their charges ; esteeming it 
more honourable to live on the public, than to be ob- 
noxious to any private purse. Doubtless an ingenuous 
mind, and far above the presbyters of our age ; who 
like well to sit in assembly on the public stipend, but 
liked not the poverty that caused these to do so. After 
this Martinus was deputy of the province ; who being 
offended with the cruelty which Paulus, an inquisitor 
sent from Constantius, exercised in his inquiry after 
those military officers who had conspired with Magnen- 
tius, was himself laid hold on as an accessory : at which 
enraged he runs at Paulus with his drawn sword ; but 
failing to kill him, turns it on himself. Next to whom, 
as may be guessed, Alipius was made deputy. In the 
mean time Julian, d whom Constantius had made 
Ccesar, having recovered much territory about the 
Rhine, where the German inroads before bad long in- 
sulted, to relieve those countries almost ruined, causes 
eight hundred pinnaces to be built ; and with them, 
by frequent voyages, plenty of corn to be fetched in 
from Britain ; which even then was the usual bounty 

x Post Christ. 311. Camd. Ammian. 1. 20. and in cum Valesius. 
y Post Christ. 3-10. Libanius in Basilico. z Post Christ. 343. Camd. 

ex Firmico. a Post Christ. 350. Camden, 

b Post Christ. 353. Ammian. c Post Christ. 359. 

d Liban. Or. 10. Zozim. 1. 3. Marcel. 1. 18. 



500 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book II. 



of this soil to those parts, as oft as French and Saxon 
pirates hindered not the transportation. 6 While f 
Constantias yet reigned, the Scots and Picts breaking" 
in upon the Northern confines, Julian, being at Paris, 
sends over Lupicinus, a well-tried soldier, but a proud 
and covetous man, who with a power of light-armed 
Herulians, Batavians, and Mcesians, in the midst of 
winter sailing from Boloigne, arrives at Rutupise, 
seated on the opposite shore, and comes to London, to 
consult there about the war; but soon after was recalled 
b v Julian, then chosen emperor. Under whom we read 
not of aught happening here, only that Palladius, one 
of his great officers, was hither banished, s This year, 
Valentinian being emperor, the Atticots, Picts, and Scots, 
roving up and down, and last the Saxons with perpetual 
landings and invasions harried the South coast of 
Britain; slew Nectaridius who governed the sea 
borders, and Bulchobaudes with his forces by an am- 
bush. With which news Valentinian not a little per- 
plexed, sends first Severus high steward of his house, 
and soon recalls him ; then Jovinus, who intimating 
the necessity of greater supplies, he sends at length 
Theodosius, a man of tried valour and experience, 
father to the first emperor of that name. He h with 
selected numbers out of the legions, and cohorts, crosses 
the sea from Boloigne to Rutupiae; from whence with 
the Batavians, Herulians, and other legions that ar- 
rived soon after, he marches to London ; and dividing 
his forces into several bodies, sets upon the dispersed 
and plundering enemy, laden with spoil ; from whom 
recovering the booty which they led away, and were 
forced to leave there with their lives, he restores all to 
the right owners, save a small portion to his wearied 
soldiers, and enters London victoriously; which, before 
in many straits and difficulties, was now revived as with 
a great deliverance. The numerous enemy with whom 
he had to deal, was of different nations, and the war 
scattered : which Theodosius, getting daily some intel- 
ligence from fugitives and prisoners, resolves to carry 
on by sudden parties and surprisals, rather than set 
battles ; nor omits he to proclaim indemnity to such 
as would lay down arms, and accept of peace, which 
brought in many. Yet all this not ending the work, 
he requires that Civilis, a man of much uprightness, 
might be sent him, to be as deputy of the island, and 
Dulcitius a famous captain. Thus was Theodosius 
busied, besetting with ambushes the roving enemy, 
repressing his roads, restoring cities and castles to 
their former safety and defence, laying every where 
the firm foundation of a long peace, when ' Valentinus 
a Pannonian, for some great offence banished into 
Britain, conspiring with certain exiles and soldiers 
against Theodosius, whose worth he dreaded as the only 
obstacle to his greater design of gaining the isle into 
bis power, is discovered, and with his chief accomplices 
delivered over to condign punishment: against the 
rest, Theodosius with a wise lenity suffered not inquisi- 
tion to proceed too rigorously, lest the fear thereof ap- 

e A mm . 1. 23. f Post Christ. 360. Amm. 1. 20. 

Imm. I. £6, 27. I. Post Christ. 367. 

. Pot Christ. :'/,!>,. Amm. I. 2B. Zozim. ). 4. 
I. Port Christ, 373. Amm. I.'."). i Zozim. I. 4. Sigon. 

m Pros. Aqoitanic, Cliron. Post Christ. 383. 



pertaining to so many, occasion might arise of new 
trouble in a time so unsettled. This done, he applies 
himself to reform things out of order, raises on the con- 
fines many strong holds; and in them appoints due 
and diligent watches : and so reduced all things out 
of danger, that the province, which but lately was un- 
der command of the enemy, became now wholly Ro- 
man, new named Valentia of Valentinian, and the city 
of London, Augusta. Thus Theodosius nobly acquit- 
ting himself in all affairs, with general applause of the 
whole province, accompanied to the sea-side returns to 
Valentinian. Who about five years after sent hither 
Fraomarius, a king of the Almans, k with authority of 
a tribune over his own country forces; which then, 
both for number and good service, were in high esteem. 
Against Gratian, who succeeded in the Western em- 
pire, Maximus a Spaniard, and one who had served in 
the British wars with younger Theodosius, (for he 
also, either with his father, or not long after him, 
seems to have done something in this island,) and now 
general of the Roman armies here, either discontented 
that Theodosius was preferred before him to the em- 
pire, or constrained by the soldiers who hated Gratian, 
assumes the imperial purple;" 1 and having attained 
victory against the Scots and Picts, with the flower 
and strength of Britain, passes into France ; there 
slays Gratian, and without much difficulty, the 
space of n five years obtains his part of the empire, 
overthrown at length, and slain by Theodosius. With 
whom perishing most of his followers, or not returning 
out of Armorica, which Maximus had given them to 
possess, the South of Britain by this means exhausted 
of her youth, and what there was of Roman soldiers on 
the confines drawn off, became a prey to savage inva- 
sions ;° of Scots from the Irish seas, of Saxons from 
the German, of Picts from the North. Against them, 
firstP Chrysanthus the son of Marcian a bishop, made 
deputy of Britain by Theodosius, demeaned himself 
worthily : then Stilicho a man of great power, whom 
Theodosius dying left protector of his son Honorius, 
either came in person, or sending over sufficient aid, 
repressed them, and as it seems new fortified the wall 
against them. But that legion being called away, 
when the Roman armies from all parts hasted to re- 
lieve Honorius,*! then besieged in Asta of Piemont, by 
Alaric the Goth, Britain was left exposed as before, to 
those barbarous robbers. Lest any wonder how the 
Scots came to infest Britain from the Irish sea, it must 
be understood, that the Scots not many years before 
had been driven all out of Britain by Maximus ; r and 
their king Eugenius slain in fight, as their own annals 
report: whereby, it seems, wandering up and down 
without certain seat, they lived by scumming those 
seas and shores as pirates. But more authentic writers 
confirm us, that the Scots, whoever they be originally, 
came first into Ireland, and dwelt there, and named it 
Scotia long before the North of Britain took that name. 
s Orosius, who lived at this time, writes that Ireland 



o Post Christ. 389. 
and deBelloGet. 



n Hildas. Post Christ. 3R8.Peda.Ninn. 

I> Socrat. I. 7. Claudian de laud. Stil. I. 

(| Post Christ. 402. 

r F.thelwc-rd Sax. an. Bede epit. in the year 5G5 ; and Bede, 1. 2. c. 4. 

s Oros. 1. 1. c. 2. 



Book II. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



501 



was then inhabited by Scots, About this time, 1 though 
troublesome, Pelagius a Briton found the leisure to 
bring 1 new and dangerous opinions into the church, 
and is largely writ against by St. Austin. But the 
Roman powers which were called into Italy, when 
once the fear of Alaric was over, made return into se- 
veral provinces ; and perhaps Victorinus of Tolosa, 
whom Rutilius the poet much commends, might be 
then prefect of this island ; if it were not he whom 
Stilicho sent hither. Buchanan writes, that endeavour- 
ing to reduce the Picts into a province, he gave the 
occasion of their calling back Fergusius and the Scots, 
whom Maximus with their help had quite driven out 
of the island : and indeed the verses of that poet speak 
him to have been active in those parts. But the time 
which is assigned him later by Buchanan after Gra- 
tianus Municeps, by Camden after Constantine the ty- 
rant, accords not with that which follows in the plain 
course of history. u For the Vandals having broke in 
and wasted all Belgia, even to those places from 
whence easiest passage is into Britain, the Roman 
forces here, doubting to be suddenly invaded, were all 
in uproar, and in tumultuous manner set up Marcus, 
who it may seem was then deputy. But him not 
found agreeable to their heady courses, they as hastily 
kill ; x for the giddy favour of a mutinying rout is as 
dangerous as their fury. The like they do by y Gra- 
tian a British Roman, in four months advanced, adored, 
and destroyed. There was among them a common 
soldier whose name was Constantine, with him on a 
sudden so taken they are, upon the conceit put in them 
of the luckiness in his name, as without other visible 
merit to create him emperor. It fortuned that the 
man had not his name for nought; so well he knew 
to lay hold, and make good use of an unexpected offer. 
He therefore with a wakened spirit, to the extent of his 
fortune dilating his mind, which in his mean condition 
before lay contracted and shrunk up, orders with good 
advice his military affairs : and with the whole force 
of the province, and what of British was able to bear 
arms, he passes into France, aspiring at least to an 
equal share with Honorius in the empire. Where, by 
the valour of Edobecus a Frank, and Gerontius a 
Briton, and partly by persuasion, gaining all in his 
way, he comes to Aries. 2 With like felicity by his son 
Constans, whom of a monk he had made a Caesar, 
and by the conduct of Gerontius he reduces all Spain 
to his obedience. But Constans after this displacing 
Gerontius, the affairs of Constantine soon went to 
wreck; for he by this means alienated, set up Max- 
imus one of his friends against him in Spain ; a and 
passing into France, took Vienna by assault, and having 
slain Constans in that city, calls on the Vandals against 
Constantine; who by him incited, as by him before 
they had been repressed, breaking forward, overrun 
most part of France. But when Constantius Comes, 
the emperor's general, with a strong power came out 
of Italy, b Gerontius, deserted by his own forces, re- 
tires into Spain ; where also growing into contempt 



t Post Christ. 405. 

x Sozom. I. 9. 

a Post Christ. 409. 



U Post Christ. 407. Zozim. 1. 6. 
y Oros. ]. 7. z Post Christ. 408. 

b Sozom, 1. 9. 



with the soldiers, after his flight out of France, by whom 
his house in the night was beset, having first with a 
few of his servants defended himself valiantly, and 
slain above three hundred, though when his darts and 
other weapons were spent he might have escaped at a 
private door, as all his servants did, not enduring to 
leave his wife Nonnichia, whom he loved, to the vio- 
lence of an enraged crew, he first cuts off the head of 
his friend Alanus, as was agreed ; next his wife, though 
loth and delaying, yet by her entreated and importuned, 
refusing to outlive her husband, he dispatched : for 
which her resolution, Sozomenus an ecclesiastical 
writer gives her high praise, both as a wife, and as a 
christian. Last of all, against himself he turns his 
sword ; but missing the mortal place, with his poniard 
finishes the work. Thus far is pursued the story of a 
famous Briton, related negligently by our other histo- 
rians. As for Constantine, his ending was not answer- 
able to his setting out ; for he with his other son Ju- 
lian besieged by Constantius in Aries, and mistrusting 
the change of his wonted success, to save his head, 
poorly turns priest; but that not availing him, is car- 
ried into Italy, and there put to death ; having four 
years acted the emperor. While these things were 
doing, d the Britons at home, destitute of Roman aid, 
and the chief strength of their own youth, that went 
first with Maximus, then with Constantine, not return- 
ing home, vexed and harassed by their wonted ene- 
mies, had sent messages to Honorius ; but he at that 
time not being able to defend Rome itself, which the 
same year was taken by Alaric, advises them by his 
letter to consult how best they might for their own 
safety, and acquits them of the Roman jurisdictions 
They therefore thus relinquished, and by all right the 
government relapsing into their own hands, thenceforth 
betook themselves to live after their own laws, defend- 
ing their bounds as well as they were able ; and the 
Armoricans, who not long after were called the Britons 
of France, followed their example. Thus expired this 
great empire of the Romans ; first in Britain, soon 
after in Italy itself: having born chief sway in this 
island, thoug'h never thoroughly subdued, or all at 
once in subjection, if we reckon from the coming in of 
Julius to the taking of Rome by Alaric, in which year 
Honorius wrote those letters of discharge into Britain, 
the space of 462 years/ And with the empire fell also 
what before in this Western world was chiefly Roman ; 
learning, valour, eloquence, history, civility, and even 
language itself, all these together, as it were, with 
equal pace, diminishing and decaying. Henceforth 
we are to steer by another sort of authors ; near enough 
to the things they write, as in their own country, if 
that would serve ; in time not much belated, some of 
equal age ; in expression barbarous, and to say how 
judicious, I suspend a while: this we must expect; in 
civil matters to find them dubious relaters, and still to 
the best advantage of what they term Holy Church, 
meaning indeed themselves: in most other matters of 
religion, blind, astonished, and struck with superstition 



c Olympiodor. apud Photium. 
e Procopius vandalic. 



d Gildas, Beda, Zozim. 1, 6. 
f Calvis. Sigon. 



502 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



as with a planet; in one word, Monks. Yet these 
guides, where can be had no better, must be followed ; 
in gross, it may be true enough ; in circumstances 
each man, as his judgment gives him, may reserve 
his faith, or bestow it. But so different a state of 
things requires a several relation. 



THE THIRD BOOK. 

This third book having- to tell of accidents as va- 
rious and exemplary as the intermission or change of 
government hath any where brought forth, may de- 
serve attention more than common, and repay it with 
like benefit to them who can judiciously read : consider- 
ing especially that the late civil broils had cast us into 
a condition uot much unlike to what the Britons then 
were in when the imperial jurisdiction departing hence 
left them to the sway of their own councils ; which 
times by comparing seriously with these latter, and 
that confused anarchy with this interreign, we may be 
able from two such remarkable turns of state, produc- 
ing like events among us, to raise a knowledge of our- 
selves both great and weighty, by judging hence what 
kind of men the Britons generally are in matters of so 
high enterprise; how by nature, industry, or custom, 
fitted to attempt or undergo matters of so main con- 
sequence : for if it be a high point of wisdom in every 
private man, much more is it in a nation, to know it- 
self; rather than puffed up with vulgar flatteries and 
encomiums, for want of self-knowledge, to enterprise 
rashly and come off miserably in great undertakings. 

a [Of these who swayed most in the late troubles, 
few words as to this point may suffice. They had 
arms, leaders, and successes to their wish ; but to make 
use of so great an advantage was not their skill. 

To other causes therefore, and not to the want of 
force, to warlike manhood in the Britons, both those, 
and these lately, we must impute the ill husbanding of 
those fair opportunities, which might seem to have put 
liberty so long desired, like a bridle, into their hands. 
Of which otlier causes equally belonging to ruler, 
priest, and people, above hath been related : which, as 
they brought those ancient natives to misery and ruin, 
by liberty, which, rightly used, might have made them 
happy ; so brought they these of late, after many la- 
bours, much bloodshed, and vast expense, to ridiculous 
frustration : in whom the like defects, the like miscar- 
riages notoriously appeared, with vices not less hate- 
ful or inexcusable. 

For a parliament being called, to address many 
things, as it. was thought, the people with great cou- 
and expectation to be eased of what discontented 
tlicm, chose to their behoof in parliament, such as they 
thought best affected to the public good, and some in- 
deed men of wisdom and integrity; the rest, (to be sure 
the greater part,; whom wealth or ample possessions, 

a The following paragraphs, within crotchets, have been omitted in all 
W«»orm< '"" author'i History of Britain, except that pub- 



or bold and active ambition (rather than merit) had 
commended to the same place. 

But when once the superficial zeal and popular 
fumes that acted their New magistracy were cooled, 
and spent in them, strait every one betook himself (set- 
ting the commonwealth behind, his private ends before) 
to do as his own profit or ambition led him. Then was 
justice delayed, and soon after denied : spight and 
favour determined all: hence faction, thence treachery, 
both at home and in the field : every where wrong, and 
oppression : foul and horrid deeds committed daily, or 
maintained, in secret, or in open. Some who had been 
called from shops and warehouses, without other merit, 
to sit in supreme councils and committees, (as their 
breeding was,) fell to huckster the commonwealth. 
Others did thereafter as men could sooth and humour 
them best; so he who would give most, or, under covert 
of hypocritical zeal, insinuate basest, enjoyed unwor- 
thily the rewards of learning and fidelity ; or escaped 
the punishment of his crimes and misdeeds. Their 
votes and ordinances, which men looked should have 
contained the repealing of bad laws, and the immediate 
constitution of better, resounded with nothing else, but 
new impositions, taxes, excises ; yearly, monthly, 
weekly. Not to reckon the offices, gifts, and prefer- 
ments bestowed and shared among themselves : they 
in the mean while, who were ever faith fullest to this 
cause, and freely aided them in person, or with their 
substance, when they durst not compel either, slighted 
and bereaved after of their just debts by greedy seques- 
trations, were tossed up and down after miserable at- 
tendance from one committee to another with petitions 
in their hands, yet either missed the obtaining of their 
suit, or though it were at length granted, (mere shame 
and reason ofttimes extorting from them at least a shew 
of justice,) yet by their sequestrators and subcommittees 
abroad, men for the most part of insatiable hands, and 
noted disloyalty, those orders were commonly disobey- 
ed : which for certain durst not have been, without 
secret compliance, if not compact with some superiours 
able to bear them out. Thus were their friends con- 
fiscate in their enemies, while they forfeited their debt- 
ors to the state, as they called it, but indeed to the 
ravening seizure of innumerable thieves in office: yet 
were withal no less burdened in all extraordinary 
assessments and oppressions, than those whom they 
took to be disaffected : nor were we happier creditors 
to what we called the state, than to them who were 
sequestered as the state's enemies. 

For that faith which ought to have been kept as 
sacred and inviolable as any thing holy, " the Public 
Faith," after infinite sums received, and all the wealth 
of the church not better employed, but swallowed up 
into a private Gulf, was not ere long ashamed to con- 
fess bankrupt. And now besides the sweetness of 
bribery, and other gain, with the love of rule, their 
own guiltiness and the dreaded name of Just Account, 
which the people had long called for, discovered plainly 
that there were of their own number, who secretly con- 

lished in Hie collection of his works, 1738, 2 vol. folio, and the subsequent 
edition in quarto. 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



503 



trived and fomented those troubles and combustions in 
the land, which openly they sat to remedy; and would 
continually find such work, as should keep them from 
being ever brought to that Terrible Stand of laying- 
down their authority for lack of new business, or not 
drawing- it out to any length of time, though upon the 
ruin of a whole nation. 

And if the state were in this plight, religion was not 
in much better; to reform which, a certain number of 
divines were called, neither chosen by any rule or cus- 
tom ecclesiastical, nor eminent for either piety or 
knowledge above others left out; only as each member 
of parliament in his private fancy thought fit, so elected 
one by one. The most part of them were such, as had 
preached and cried down, with great shew of zeal, the 
avarice and pluralities of bishops and prelates ; that 
one cure of souls was a full employment for one spirit- 
ual pastor how able soever, if not a charge rather above 
human strength. Yet these conscientious men (ere 
any part of the work done for which they came toge- 
ther, and that on the public salary) wanted not bold- 
ness, to the ignominy and scandal of their pastorlike 
profession, and especially of their boasted reformation, 
to seize into their hands, or not unwillingly to accept 
(besides one, sometimes two or more of the best livings) 
collegiate masterships in the universities, rich lectures 
in the city, setting sail to all winds that might blow 
gain into their covetous bosoms : by which means these 
great rebukers of nonresidence, among so many distant 
cures, were not ashamed to be seen so quickly plural- 
is ts and nonresidents themselves, to a fearful condem- 
nation doubtless by their own mouths. And yet the 
main doctrine for which they took such pay, and in- 
sisted upon with more vehemence than gospel, was but 
to tell us in effect, that their doctrine was worth no- 
thing, and the spiritual power of their ministry less 
available than bodily compulsion ; persuading the 
magistrate to use it, as a stronger means to subdue and 
bring in conscience, than evangelical persuasion : dis- 
trusting the virtue of their own spiritual weapons, 
which were given them, if they be rightly called, with 
full warrant of sufficiency to pull down all thoughts 
and imaginations that exalt themselves against God. 
But while they taught compulsion without convince- 
ment, which not long before they complained of as 
executed unchristianly, against themselves; these in- 
tents are clear to have been no better than antichris- 
tian : setting up a spiritual tyranny by a secular power, 
to the advancing of their own authority above the 
magistrate, whom they would have made their execu- 
tioner, to punish church-delinquencies, whereof civil 
laws have no cognizance. 

And well did their disciples manifest themselves to 
be no better principled than their teachers, trusted with 
committeeships and other gainful offices, upon their 
commendations for zealous, (and as they sticked not to 
term them,) godly men ; but executing their places 
like children of the devil, unfaithfully, unjustly, un- 
mercifully, and where not corruptly, stupidly. So that 
between them the teachers, and these the disciples, 
there hath not been a more ignominious and mortal 



wound to faith, to piety, to the work of reformation, 
nor more cause of blaspheming given to the enemies of 
God and truth, since the first preaching of reformation. 

The people therefore looking one while on the sta- 
tists, whom they beheld without constancy or firmness, 
labouring doubtfully beneath the weight of their own 
too high undertakings, busiest in petty things, trifling 
in the main, deluded and quite alienated, expressed 
divers ways their disaffection; some despising whom 
before they honoured, some deserting, some inveighing, 
some conspiring against them. Then looking on the 
churchmen, whom they saw under subtle hypocrisy to 
have preached their own follies, most of them not the 
gospel, timeservers, covetous, illiterate persecuters, not 
lovers of the truth, like in most things whereof they 
accused their predecessors : looking on all this, the 
people which had been kept warm a while with the 
counterfeit zeal of their pulpits, after a false heat, be- 
came more cold and obdurate than before, some turning 
to lewdness, some to flat atheism, put beside their old 
religion, and foully scandalized in what they expected 
should be new. 

Thus they who of late were extolled as our greatest 
deliverers, and had the people wholly at their devotion, 
by so discharging their trust as we see, did not only 
weaken and unfit themselves to be dispensers of what 
liberty they pretended, but unfitted also the people, 
now grown worse and more disordinate, to receive or 
to digest any liberty at all. For stories teach us, that 
liberty sought out of season, in a corrupt and degene- 
rate age, brought Rome itself to a farther slavery : for 
liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be 
handled by just and virtuous men ; to bad and disso- 
lute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own 
hands: neither is it completely given, but by them 
who have the happy skill to know what is grievance 
and unjust to a people, and how to remove it wisely; 
what good laws are wanting, and how to frame them 
substantially, that good men may enjoy the freedom 
which they merit, and the bad the curb which they 
need. But to do this, and to know these exquisite 
proportions, the heroic wisdom which is required, sur- 
mounted far the principles of these narrow politicians : 
what wonder then if they sunk as these unfortunate 
Britons before them, entangled and oppressed with 
things too hard and generous above their strain and 
temper? For Britain, to speak a truth not often, 
spoken, as it is aland fruitful enough of men stout and 
courageous in war, so it is naturally not over-fertile of 
men able to govern justly and prudently in peace, 
trusting only in their mother-wit ; who consider not 
justly, that civility, prudence, love of the public good, 
more than of money or vain honour, are to this soil in 
a manner outlandish ; grow not here, but in minds 
well implanted with solid and elaborate breeding, too 
impolitic else and rude, if not headstrong and intract- 
able to the industry and virtue either of executing or 
understanding true civil government. Valiant indeed, 
and prosperous to win a field ; but to know the end 
and reason of winning, unjudicious, and unwise: in 
good or bad success, alike unteachable. For the sun, 



Wl 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



which wc want, ripens wits as well as fruits ; and as 
wine and oil are imported to us from abroad, so must 
ripe understanding-, and many civil virtues, be imported 
into our minds from foreign writings, and examples of 
best ages; we shall else miscarry still, and come short 
in the attempts of any great enterprise. Hence did 
their victories prove as fruitless, as their losses danger- 
ous ; and left them still conquering under the same 
grievances, that men suffer conquered : which was 
indeed unlikely to go otherwise, unless men more than 
vulgar bred up, as few of them were, in the knowledge 
of ancient and illustrious deeds, invincible against 
many and vain titles, impartial to friendships and rela- 
tions, had conducted their affairs: but then from the 
chapman to tbe retailer, many whose ignorance was 
more audacious than the rest, were admitted with all 
their sordid rudiments to bear no mean sway among 
them, both in church and state. 

From the confluence of all their errours, mischiefs, 
and misdemeanors, what in the eyes of man could be 
expected, but what befel those ancient inhabitants, 
whom they so much resembled, confusion in the end ? 

But on these things, and this parallel, having enough 
insisted, I return to the story, which gave us matter of 
this digression.] 

The Britons thus, as we heard, being left without 
protection from the empire, and the land in a manner 
emptied of all her youth, consumed in wars abroad, or 
not caring to return home, themselves, through long 
subjection, servile in mind, b slothful of body, and with 
the use of arms unacquainted, sustained but ill formany 
years the violence of those barbarous invaders, who now 
daily grew upon them. For although at first greedy 
of change, c and to be thought the leading nation to 
freedom from the empire, they seemed awhile to bestir 
them with a shew of diligence in their new affairs, 
some secretly aspiring to rule, others adoring the name 
of liberty, yet so soon as they felt by proof the weight 
of what it was to govern well themselves, and what was 
wanting within them, not stomach or the love of licence, 
but the wisdom, the virtue, the labour, to use and 
maintain true liberty, they soon remitted their heat, 
and shrunk more wretchedly under the burden of their 
own liberty, than before under a foreign yoke. Inso- 
much that the residue of those Romans, which had 
planted themselves here, despairing of their ill deport- 
ment at home, and weak resistance in the field by those 
few who had the courage or the strength to bear arms, 
nine years after the sacking of Rome removed out of 
Britain into France, d hiding for haste great part of 
their treasure, which was never after found. e And 
now again the Britons, no longer able to support them- 
selves against the prevailing enemy, solicit Honorius 
to their aid/ with mournful letters, embassages, and 
rows of perpetual subjection to Rome, if the northern 
fee were bat repulsed. «He at their request spares 
i li< in one legion, which with great slaughter of the 
Scots and Piets drove diem beyond the borders, rescued 
tbe Britons, and advised them to build a wall across 



bGild. Bede. Malinj. 

< I.ilitlwcrit. sumal. Sax. 
onus, I. 1 1. 



c Zozim. I. 6. (] Post Christ. 418. 

; Gildas. Post Christ. 422. 
h Bede, I. i .<■. o. 



the island, between sea and sea, from the place where 
Edinburgh now stands to the frith of Dunbritton, by 
the city Alcluith. h But the material being only turf, 
and by the rude multitude un artificially built up with- 
out better direction, availed them little. > For no 
sooner was the legion departed, but the greedy spoilers 
returning, land in great numbers from their boats and 
pinnaces, wasting, slaying, and treading down all be- 
fore them. Then are messengers again posted to 
Rome in lamentable sort, beseeching that they would 
not suffer a whole province to be destroyed, and the 
Roman name, so honourable yet among them, to be- 
come the subject of Barbarian scorn and insolence. 
k The emperor, at their sad complaint, with what speed 
was possible, sends to their succour. Who coming 
suddenly on those ravenous multitudes that minded 
only spoil, surprise them with a terrible slaughter. 
They who escaped fled back to those seas, from whence 
yearly they were wont to arrive, and return laden with 
booties. But the Romans, who came not now to rule, 
but charitably to aid, declaring that it stood not longer 
with the ease of their affairs to make such laborious 
voyages in pursuit of so base and vagabond robbers, 
of whom neither glory was to be got, nor gain, exhort- 
ed them to manage their own warfare; and to defend 
like men their country, their wives, their children, and 
what was to be dearer than life, their liberty, ag'ainst 
an enemy not stronger than themselves, if their own 
sloth and cowardice had not made them so : if they 
would but only find hands to grasp defensive arms, 
rather than basely stretch them out to receive bonds. 
1 They gave them also their help to build a new wall, 
not of earth as the former, but of stone, (both at the 
public cost, and by particular contributions,) traversing 
the isle in a direct line from east to west, between cer- 
tain cities placed there as frontiers to bear off the 
enemy, where Severus had walled once before. They 
raised it twelve foot high, eight broad. Along the 
south shore, because from thence also like hostility 
was feared, they place towers by the sea-side at certain 
distances, for safety of the coast. Withal they instruct 
them in the art of war, leaving patterns of their arms 
and weapons behind them ; and with animating words, 
and many lessons of valour to a faint-hearted audience, 
bid them finally farewel, without purpose to return. 
And these two friendly expeditions, the last of any 
hither by the Romans, were performed, as may be 
gathered out of Beda and Diaconus, the two last years 
of Honorius. m Their leader, as some modernly write, 
was Gallio of Ravenna ; Buchanan, who departs not 
much from the fables of his predecessor Boethius, names 
him Maximianus, and brings against him to this battle 
Fergus first king of Scots, after their second supposed 
coming into Scotland, Durstus, king of Picts, both 
there slain, and Dioneth an imaginary king of Britain, 
or duke of Cornwall, who improbably sided w»th them 
against his own country, hardly escaping. 11 With no 
less exactness of particular circumstances he takes upon 
him to relate all those tumultuary inroads of the Scots 



i Gildas. 

I Bede, ibid. Gildas. 

n Buch. I. 5. 



k Post Christ. 42.3. 

m Blond. Sabellic. 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



505 



and Picts into Britain, as if they had but yesterday 
happened, their order of battle, manner of fight, num- 
ber of slain, articles of peace, things whereof Gildas 
and Beda are utterly silent, authors to whom the Scotch 
writers have none to cite comparable in antiquity ; no 
more therefore to be believed for bare assertions, how- 
ever quaintly drest, than our Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
when he varies most from authentic story. But either 
the inbred vanity of some, in that respect unworthily 
called historians, or the fond zeal of praising their 
nations above truth, hath so far transported them, that 
where they find nothing faithfully to relate, they fall 
confidently to invent what they think may either best 
set off their history, or magnify their country. 

The Scots and Picts in manners differing somewhat 
from each other, but still unanimous to rob and spoil, 
hearing that the Romans intended not to return, from 
their gorroghs or leathern frigates pour out themselves 
in swarms upon the land more confident than ever; and 
from the north end of the isle to the very wall's side, 
then first took possession as inhabitants ; while the Bri- 
tons with idle weapons in their hands stand trembling 
on the battlements, till the half naked Barbarians with 
their long and formidable iron hooks pull them down 
headlong. The rest not only quitting the wall, but 
towns and cities, leave them to the bloody pursuer, 
who follows killing, wasting-, and destroying all in his 
way. From these confusions arose a famine, and from 
thence discord and civil commotion among the Britons; 
each man living by what he robbed or took violently 
from his neighbour. When all stores were consumed 
and spent where men inhabited, they betook them to the 
woods, and lived by hunting, which was their only 
sustainment. p To the heaps of these evils from with- 
out were added new divisions within the church. <iFor 
Agricola the son of Severianus a Pelagian bishop had 
spread his doctrine wide among the Britons, not unin- 
fected before. The sounder part, neither willing to 
embrace his opinion to the overthrow of divine grace, 
nor able to refute him, crave assistance from the churches 
of France: who send them German us bishop of Aux- 
erre, and Lupus of Troyes. They by continual preach- 
ing in churches, 1 " in streets, in fields, and not without 
miracles, as is written, confirmed some, regained others, 
and at Verulam in a public disputation put to silence 
their chief adversaries. This reformation in the church 
was believed to be the cause of their success a while 
after in the field. For the Saxons and Picts with joint 
force,s which was no new thing before the Saxons at 
least had any dwelling in this island, during the abode 
of Germanus here, had made a strong impression from 
the north. * The Britons marching out against them, 
and mistrusting their own power, send to Germanus 
and his colleague, reposing more in the spiritual 
strength of those two men, than in their own thousands 
armed. They came, and their presence in the camp 
was not less than if a whole army had come to second 
them. It was then the time of Lent, and the people, 
instructed by the daily sermons of these two pastors, 



o Gildas, Bede. 

r Post Christ. 426. Prosp. 

s Post Christ. 430. 



p Bede. q Constantius. 

ait. Matth. West, ad ann. 446. 

t Constant, vit. German. 



came flocking to receive baptism. There was a place 
in the camp set apart as a church, and tricked up with 
boughs upon Easter-day. The enemy understanding 
this, and that the Britons were taken up with religions 
more than with feats of arms, advances after the pas- 
chal feast, as to a certain victory. German, who also 
had intelligence of their approach, undertakes to be 
captain that day; and riding out with selected troops 
to discover what advantages the place might offer, 
lights on a valley compassed about with hills, by which 
the enemy was to pass. And placing there his ambush, 
warns them, that what word they heard him pronounce 
aloud, the same they should repeat with universal shout. 
The enemy passes on securely, and German thrice 
aloud cries Hallelujah ; which answered by the sol- 
diers with a sudden burst of clamour, is from the hills 
and valleys redoubled. The Saxons and Picts on a 
sudden supposing it the noise of a huge host, throw 
themselves into flight, casting down their arms, and 
great numbers of them are drowned in the river which 
they had newly passed. This victory, thus won with- 
out hands, left to the Britons plenty of spoil, and the 
person and the preaching of German greater authority 
and reverence than before. And the exploit might pass 
for current, if Constantius, the writer of his life in the 
next age, had resolved us how the British army came 
to want baptizing; for of any paganism at that time, 
or long before, in the land we read not, or that Pela- 
gianism was rebaptized. The place of this victory, as 
is reported, was in Flintshire," by a town called Guid 
cruc, and the river Allen, where a field retains the name 
of Maes German to this day. But so soon as German 
was returned home, x the Scots and Picts, (though now 
so many of them Christians, that Palladius a deacon 
was ordained and sent by Celestine the pope to be a 
bishop over them,) were not so well reclaimed, or not 
so many of them, as to cease from doing mischief to 
their neighbours,? where they found no impeachment 
to fall in yearly as they were wont. They therefore of 
the Britons who perhaps were not yet wholly ruined, 
in the strongest and south-west parts of the isle, 2 send 
letters to iEtius, then third time consul of Rome, with 
this superscription ; " To iEtius thrice consul, the groans 
of the Britons." And after a few words thus: " The 
barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us back to 
the barbarians : thus bandied up and down between 
two deaths, we perish either by the sword or by the 
sea." But the empire, at that time overspread with 
Huns and Vandals, was not in condition to lend them 
aid. Thus rejected and wearied out with continual 
flying from place to place, but more afflicted with fa- 
mine, which then grew outrageous among them, many 
for hunger yielded to the enemy ; others either more 
resolute, or less exposed to wants, keeping within 
woods and mountainous places, not only defended 
themselves, but sallying out, at length gave a stop to 
the insulting foe, with many seasonable defeats ; led 
by some eminent person, as may be thought, who ex- 
horted them not to trust in their own strength, but in 

u Usser. Primod. p. 33.3. 

x Post Christ. 431. Prosp. Aquit. Ethelwerd. y Florent. Gild. Bede. 

z Malmsbury, 1. i. c. i. p. 8. Post Christ. 446. 



50G 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



divine assistance. And perhaps no other here is meant 
than the foresaid deliverance by German, if computa- 
tion would permit, which Gildas either not much re- 
garded, or might mistake; but that he tarried so long- 
here, the writers of his life assent not. a Finding- there- 
fore such opposition, the Scotch or Irish robbers, for so 
they are indifferently termed, without delay get them 
home. The Picts, as before was mentioned, then first 
began to settle in the utmost parts of the island, using 
now and then to make inroads upon the Britons. But 
they in the mean while thus rid of their enemies, begin 
afresh to till the ground ; which after cessation yields 
her fruit in such abundance, as had not formerly been 
known, for many ag-es. But wantonness and luxury, 
the wonted companions of plenty, grow up as fast ; 
and with them, if Gildas deserve belief, all other vices 
incident to human corruption. That which he notes 
especially to be the chief perverting' of all good in the 
land, and so continued in his days, was the hatred of 
truth, and all such as durst appear to vindicate and 
maintain it. Against them, as against the only dis- 
turbers, all the malice of the land was bent. Lies 
and falsities, and such as could best invent them, 
were only in request. Evil was embraced for good, 
wickedness honoured and esteemed as virtue. And 
this quality their valour had, ag-ainst a foreign 
enemy to be ever backward and heartless; to civil 
broils eager and prompt. In matters of government, 
and the search of truth, weak and shallow ; in false- 
hood and wicked deeds, pregnant and industrious. 
Pleasing to God, or not pleasing-, with them weighed 
alike ; and the worse most an end was the weigher. 
All things were done contrary to public welfare and 
safety; nor only by secular men, for the clergy also, 
whose example should have guided others, were as 
vicious and corrupt. Many of them besotted with con- 
tinual drunkenness, or swollen with pride and wilful- 
ness, full of contention, full of envy, indiscrete, incom- 
petent judges to determine what in the practice of life 
is good or evil, what lawful or unlawful. Thus fur- 
nished with judgment, and for manners thus qualified 
both priest and lay, they agree to choose them several 
kings of their own ; as near as might be, likest them- 
selves ; and the words of my author import as much. 
Kings were anointed, saith he, not of God's anointing, 
but such as were cruellest ; and soon after as inconsider- 
ately, without examining the truth, put to death, by 
their anointers, to set up others more fierce and proud. 
As lor the election of their kings, (and that they had 
not all one monarch, appears both in ages past and by 
the sequel,) it began, as nigh as maybe guessed, either 
this year b or the following, when they saw the Ro- 
mans bad quite deserted their claim. About which 
tune also P< lagianism again prevailing by means of 
some few, the British clergy too weak, it seems, at dis- 
pnte, entreat the second time German to their assist- 
ant ; who coming with Severus a disciple of Lupus, 
that vras bis former associate, stands not now to argue, 
for the people generally continued right ; but inquiring 

, , a a- f !', p0it Chri » t 44 7- Constant. Bede. 
I husf. 418. Sigon. Gildas. 



those authors of new disturbance, adjudges them to 
banishment. They therefore by consent of all were 
delivered to German ; who carrying them over with 
him, c disposed of them in such place where neither 
they could infect others, and were themselves under 
cure of better instruction. But Germanus the same 
year died in Italy ; and the Britons not long after 
found themselves again in much perplexity, with no 
slight rumour that their old troublers the Scots and 
Picts had prepared a strong invasion, purposing to 
kill all, and dwell themselves in the land from end to 
end. But ere their coming in, as if the instruments of 
divine justice had been at strife, which of them first 
should destroy a wicked nation, the pestilence, fore- 
stalling the sword, left scarce alive whom to bury the 
dead ; and for that time, as one extremity keeps off an- 
other, preserved the land from a worse incumbrance of 
those barbarous dispossessors, whom the contagion 
gave not leave now to enter far. d And yet the Bri- 
tons, nothing bettered by these heavy judgments, the 
one threatened, the other felt, instead of acknowledg- 
ing the hand of Heaven, run to the palace of their king 
Vortigern with complaints and cries of what they sud- 
denly feared from the Pictish invasion. Vortigern, 
who at that time was chief rather than sole king, un- 
less the rest had perhaps left their dominions to the 
common enemy, is said by him of Monmouth, to have 
procured the death first of Constantine, then of Con- 
stance his son, who of a monk was made king, and by 
that means to have usurped the crown. But they who 
can remember how Constantine, with his son Constance 
the monk, the one made emperor, the other Ccesar, pe- 
rished in France, may discern the simple fraud of this 
fable. But Vortigern however coming- to reig-n, is de- 
ciphered by truer stories a proud unfortunate tyrant, and 
yet of the people much beloved, because his vices sorted 
so well with theirs. For neither was he skilled in war, 
nor wise in counsel, but covetous, lustful, luxurious, 
and prone to all vice ; wasting the public treasure in 
gluttony and riot, careless of the common danger, and 
through a haughty ignorance unapprehensive of his 
own. Nevertheless importuned and awakened at 
length by unusual clamours of the people, he summons 
a general council, to provide some better means than 
heretofore had been used against these continual an- 
noyances from the north. Wherein by advice of all it 
was determined, that the Saxons be invited into Bri- 
tain against the Scots and Picts; whose breaking in 
they either shortly expected, or already found they had 
not strength enough to oppose. The Saxons were a 
barbarous and heathen nation, famous for nothing else 
but robberies and cruelties done to all their neighbours, 
both by sea and land ; in particular to this island, wit- 
ness that military force, which the Roman emperors 
maintained here purposely against them, under a spe- 
cial commander, whose title, as is found on good re- 
cord^ was " Count of the Saxon shore in Britain," and 
the many mischiefs done by their landing here, both 
alone and with the Picts, as above hath been related, 



<l Malms. 1. |. 
e N Otitis imperii. 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



507 






witness as rauch. f They were a people thought by 
good writers to be descended of the Sacse, a kind of 
Scythians in the north of Asia, thence called Sacasons, 
or sons of Sacse, who with a flood of other northern na- 
tions came into Europe, toward the declining of the 
Roman empire; and using piracy from Denmark all 
along these seas, possessed at length by intrusion all 
that coast of Germany,? and the Netherlands, which 
took thence the name of Old Saxony, lying between 
the Rhine and Elve, and from thence north as far as 
Eidora, the river bounding Holsatia, though not so 
firmly or so largely, but that their multitude wandered 
yet uncertain of habitation. Such guests as these the 
Britons resolve now to send for, and entreat into their 
houses and possessions, at whose very name heretofore 
they trembled afar off. So much do men through im- 
patience count ever that the heaviest, which they bear 
at present, and to remove the evil which they suffer, 
care not to pull on a greater ; as if variety and change 
in evil also were acceptable. Or whether it be that 
men in the despair of better, imagine fondly a kind of 
refuge from one misery to another. 

h The Britons therefore with Vortigern, who was 
then accounted king over them all, resolve in full coun- 
cil to send embassadors of their choicest men with 
great gifts, and saith a Saxon writer, in these words 
desiring their aid ; " Worthy Saxons, hearing the fame 
of your prowess, the distressed Britons wearied out, 
and overpressed by a continual invading enemy, have 
sent us to beseech your aid. They have a land fertile 
and spacious, which to your commands they bid us 
surrender. Heretofore we have lived with freedom, 
under the obedience and protection of the Roman em- 
pire. Next to them we know none worthier than 
yourselves : and therefore become suppliants to your 
valour. Leave us not below our present enemies, and 
to aught by you imposed, willingly we shall submit." 
Yet Ethelwerd writes not that they promised subjec- 
tion, but only amity and league. They therefore who 
had chief rule among them, 1 hearing- themselves en- 
treated by the Britons, to that which gladly they would 
have wished to obtain of them by entreating, to the 
British embassy return this answer : k "Be assured 
henceforth of the Saxons, as of faithful friends to the 
Britons, no less ready to stand by them in their need, 
than in their best of fortune." The embassadors return 
joyful, and with news as welcome to their country, 
whose sinister fate had now blinded them for destruc- 
tion. ' The Saxons, consulting- first their gods, (for 
they had answer, that the land whereto they went, they 
should hold three hundred years, half that time conquer- 
ing, and half quietly possessing,) furnish out three 
long- gallies," 1 or kyules, with a chosen company of 
warlike youth, under the conduct of two brothers, 
Hengist and Horsa, descended in the fourth degree 
from Woden ; of whom, deified for the fame of his 
acts, most kings of those nations derive their pedigree. 
These, and either mixed with these, or soon after by 
themselves, two other tribes, or neighbouring people, 



f Florent Wignrn. ad an. 370. 

I. Fthelverd. Malmsb. Witichind. pest. Sax. 1. 1. 

k Witichind. 1 Gildas. 



g Ethelwerd. 

i Malms, 
m 15ede. 



Jutes and Angles, the one from Jutland, the other from 
Anglen by the city of Sleswick, both provinces of Den- 
mark, arrive in the first year of Martian the Greek em- 
peror, from the birth of Christ four hundred and fifty," 
received with much good-will of the people first, then 
of the king, who after some assurances given and taken, 
bestows on them the isle of Tanet, where they first 
landed, hoping they might be made hereby more eager 
against the Picts, when they fought as for their own 
country, and more loyal to the Britons, from whom they 
had received a place to dwell in, which before they 
wanted. The British Nennius writes, that these bre- 
thren were driven into exile out of Germany, and to 
Vortigern who reigned in much fear, one while of the 
Picts, then of the Romans and Ambrosius, came oppor- 
tunely into the haven. ° For it was the custom in Old 
Saxony, when their numerous offspring overflowed the 
narrowness of their bounds, to send them out by lot 
into new dwellings wherever they found room, either 
vacant or to be forced, p But whether sought, or 
unsought, they dwelt not here long without employ- 
ment. For the Scots and Picts were now come down, 
some say, as far as Stamford, in Lincolnshire, whom 
perhaps not imagining to meet, new opposition, the 
Saxons, though not till after a sharp encounter, put to 
flight ;q and that more than once; slaying in fight, r 
as some Scotch writers affirm, their king Eugenius the 
son of Fergus. s Hengist perceiving the island to be 
rich and fruitful, but her princes and other inhabitants 
given to vicious ease, sends word home, inviting- others 
to a share of his good success. Who returning with 
seventeen ships, were grown up now to a sufficient 
army, and entertained without suspicion on these terms, 
that they " should bear the brunt of war against the 
Picts, receiving stipend, and some place to inhabit." 
With these was brought over the daughter of Hengist, 
a virgin wonderous fair, as is reported, Rowen the 
British call her : she by commandment of her father, 
who had invited the king to a banquet, coming in 
presence with a bowl of wine to welcome him, and to 
attend on his cup till the feast ended, won so much 
upon his fancy, though already wived, as to demand 
her in marriage upon any conditions. Hengist at first, 
thoug'h it fell out perhaps according to his drift, held 
off, excusing his meanness ; then obscurely intimating 
a desire and almost a necessity, by reason of his aug- 
mented numbers, to have his narrow bounds of Tanet 
enlarged to the circuit of Kent, had it straight by do- 
nation ; though Guorangonus, till then, was king of 
that place ; and so, as it were overcome by the great 
munificence of Vortigern, gave his daughter. And 
still encroaching on the king's favour, got further leave 
to call over Octa and Ebissa, his own and his brother's 
son ; pretending that they, if the north were given 
them, would sit there as a continual defence against 
the Scots, while himself guarded the east. * They 
therefore sailing with forty ships, even to the Or- 
cades, and every way curbing the Scots and Picts, 
possessed that part of the isle which is now Nor- 



n Post Christ. 4.50. Nennius. Malms. 

p Henry Huntingd. q Ethelwerd. 

s Nenn, t Gildas, Bed. ft eun. 



o Malms, 
r Bed. Nen. 



508 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



thuniberland. Notwithstanding- this, they complain 
that their monthly pay was grown much into arrear ; 
which when the Britons found means to satisfy, though 
alleging withal, that they to whom promise was made 
of wages were nothing so many in number : quieted 
with this awhile, but still seeking occasion to fall off, 
they find fault next, that their pay is too small for the 
danger they undergo, threatening open war, unless it 
be augmented. Guortimer, the king's son, perceiving 
his father and the kingdom thus betrayed, from that 
time bends his utmost endeavour to drive them out, 
They on the other side making" league with the Picts 
and Scots, and issuing out of Kent, wasted without 
resistance almost the whole land even to the western 
sea, with such a horrid devastation, that towns and 
colonies overturned, priests and people slain, temples 
and palaces, what with fire and sword, lay altogether 
heaped in one mixed ruin. Of all which multitude 
so great was the sinfulness that brought this upon them, 
Gildas adds, that few or none were likely to be other 
than lewd and wicked persons. The residue of these, 
part overtaken in the mountains were slain ; others 
subdued with hunger preferred slavery before instant 
death ; some getting* to rocks, hills, and woods, inac- 
cessible, preferred the fear and danger of any death, 
before the shame of a secure slavery;" many fled over 
sea into other countries ; some into Holland, where yet 
remain the ruins of Brittenburgh, an old castle on the 
sea, to be seen at low water not far from Leyden, either 
built, as writers of their own affirm, or seized on by 
those Britons, in their escape from Hengist ; x others 
into Armorica, peopled, as some think, with Britons 
long before, either by gift of Constantine the Great, or 
else of Maximus, to those British forces which had 
served them in foreign wars;y to whom those also that 
miscarried not with the latter Constantine at Aries, 
and lastly, these exiles driven out by Saxons, fled for 
refuge. But the ancient chronicles of those provinces 
attest their coming thither to be then first when they 
fled the Saxons ; and indeed the name of Britain in 
France is not read till after that time. Yet how a sort 
of fugitives, who had quitted without stroke their own 
country, should so soon win another, appears not, un- 
less joined to some party of their own settled there be- 
fore. z Vortigern, nothing bettered by these calamities, 
grew at last so obdurate as to commit incest with his 
daughter, tempted or tempting him out of an ambition 
to the crown. For which being censured and con- 
demned in a great synod of clerks and laics, partly 
for fear of the Saxons, according to the counsel 
of his peers, he retired into Wales, and built him 
there a strong castle in Radnorshire, 21 by the advice 
of Ambrosias a young prophet, whom others call Mer- 
lin. Nevertheless Faustus, who was the son thus in- 
<•< itnotislv begotten, under the instructions of German, 
01 some of bis disciples, for German was dead before, 
proved a religions man, and lived in devotion by the 
river Remnis, in Glamorganshire. b But the Saxons, 
though finding it so easy to subdue the isle, with most 

y Hunting. 1. 1. 



ii Primord. p. 418. 
2 Neno. Malirob. 



x Malms. I. 1. c. 1. 

;t N'enn. 
< Ncnn. 



of their forces, uncertain for what cause, returned home : 
whenas the easiness of their conquest might seem rather 
likely to have called in more; which makes more pro- 
bable that which the British write of Guortimer. c For 
he coming to reign, instead of his father deposed for 
incest, is said to have thrice driven and besieged the 
Saxons in the isle of Tanet; and when they issued out 
with powerful supplies sent from Saxony, to have 
fought with them four other battles, whereof three are 
named ; the first on the river Darwent, the second at 
Episford, wherein Horsa the brother of Hengist Ml, 
and on the British part Catigern the other son of Vor- 
tigern. The third in a field by Stonar, then called 
Lapis Tituli, in Tanet, where he beat them into their 
ships that bore them home, glad to have so escaped, 
and not venturing to land again for five years after. In 
the space whereof Guortimer dying, commanded they 
should bury him in the port of Stonar; persuaded that 
his bones lying there would be terrour enough, to keep 
the Saxons from ever landing in that place : they, saith 
Nennius, neglecting his command, buried him in Lin- 
coln. But concerning these times, ancientest annals 
of the Saxons relate in this manner. d In the year four 
hundred and fifty-five, Hengist and Horsa fought 
against Vortigern, in a place called Eglesthrip, now 
Ailsford in Kent, where Horsa lost his life, of whom 
Horsted, the place of his burial, took name. 

After this first battle and the death of his brother, 
Hengist with his son Esca took on him kingly title, e 
and peopled Kent with Jutes ; who also then, or not 
long after, possessed the Isle of Wight, and part of 
Hampshire lying opposite. f Two years after in a fight 
at Creganford, or Craford, Heng-ist and his son slew of 
the Britons four chief commanders, and as many thou- 
sand men; the rest in great disorder flying to London, 
with the total loss of Kent, s And eight years passing* 
between, he made new war on the Britons; of whom, 
in a battle at Wippeds-fleot, twelve princes were slain, 
and Wipped the Saxon earl, who left his name to that 
place, though not sufficient to direct us where it now 
stands. h His last encounter was at a place not men- 
tioned, where he gave them such an overthrow, that 
flying in great fear they left the spoil of all to their 
enemies. And these perhaps are the four battles, ac- 
cording to Nennius, fought by Guortimer, though by 
these writers far differently related ; and happening 
besides many other bickerings, in the space of twenty 
years, as Malmsbury reckons. Nevertheless it plainly 
appears that the Saxons, by whomsoever, were put to 
hard shifts, being all this while fought withal in Kent, 
their own allotted dwelling, and sometimes on the very 
edge of the sea, which the word Wippeds-fleot seems 
to intimate. 'But Guortimer now dead, and none of 
courage left to defend the land, Vortigern either by the 
power of his faction, or by consent of all, reassumes 
the government: and Hengist thus rid of his grand 
opposer, hearing gladly the restorement of his old fa- 
vourer, returns again with great forces; but to Vorti- 
gern, whom he well knew how to handle without 

d Post Christ. 455. Bede. Ethelwerd. Florent. Annal. Sax. 

e the kingdom of Kent. f" Posl Christ. 457. 

g Post Christ. 465. h Post Christ. 473. i Nennius 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



509 



warring-, as to his son-in-law, now that the only author 
of dissension between them was removed by death, 
offers nothing- but all terms of new league and amity. 
The king", both for his wife's sake and his own sottish - 
ness, consulting- also with his peers not unlike himself, 
readily yields ; and the place of parley is agreed on ; 
to which either side was to repair without weapons. 
Heng-ist, whose meaning- was not peace, but treachery, 
appointed his men to be secretly armed, and acquainted 
them to what intent. k The watchword was, Nemet 
eour saxes, that is, Draw your daggers ; which they 
observing, when the Britons were thoroughly heated 
with wine (for the treaty it seems was not without 
cups) and provoked, as was plotted, by some affront, 
dispatched with those poniards every one his next man, 
to the number of three hundred, the chief of those that 
could do aught against him, either in counsel or in 
field. Vortigern they only bound and kept in custody, 
until he granted them for his ransom three provinces, 
which were called afterward Essex, Sussex, and Mid- 
dlesex. Who thus dismissed, retiring again to his 
solitary abode in the country of Guorthigirniaun, so 
called by his name, from thence to the castle of his 
own building in North Wales, by the river Tiehi ; 
and living there obscurely among his wives, was at 
length burnt in his tower by fire from Heaven, at the 
prayer, 1 as some say, of German, but that coheres not; 
as others, by Ambrosius Aurelian ; of whom, as we 
have heard at first, he stood in great fear, and partly 
for that cause invited in the Saxons. Who, whether 
by constraint or of their own accord, after much mis- 
chief done, most of them returning back into their 
own country, left a fair opportunity to the Britons of 
avenging themselves easier on those who staid be- 
hind. Repenting therefore, and with earnest suppli- 
cation imploring divine help to prevent their final 
rooting out, they gather from all parts, and under the 
leading of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a virtuous and 
modest man, the last here of the Roman stock, ad- 
vancing now onward against the late victors, defeat 
them in a memorable battle. Common opinion, but 
grounded chiefly on the British fables, makes this Am- 
brosius to be a younger son of that Constantine, whose 
eldest, as we heard, was Constance the monk; who 
both lost their lives abroad usurping the empire. But 
the express words both of Gildas and Bede assure us, 
that the parents of this Ambrosius having- here born 
regal dignity, were slain in these Pictish wars and 
commotions in the island. And if the fear of Ambrose 
induced Vortigern to call in the Saxons, it seems Vor- 
tigern usurped his right. I perceive not that Nennius 
makes any difference between him and Merlin ; for 
that child without father, that prophesied to Vortigern, 
he names not Merlin, but Ambrose ; makes him the 
son of a Roman consul, but concealed by his mother, 
as fearing that the king therefore sought his life : 
yet the youth no sooner had confessed his parentage, 
but Vortigern either in reward of his predictions, or 

k Malms. 1 Min. ex legend St. Ger. Galfrid. Monmouth, 

in Gildas. Bed. n Nenn. 

o Post Christ. 477. Sax. an. Ethehv. Florent. 
p Post Christ. 405. Florent. q Iluntinad. 



as his right, bestowed upon him all the west of Bri- 
tain ; himself retiring to a solitary life. Whosever son 
he was, he was the first," 1 according to surest authors, 
that led against the Saxons, and overthrew them ; but 
whether before this time or after, none have written. 
This is certain, that in a time when most of the Saxon 
forces were departed home, the Britons gathered 
strength ; and either against those who were left re- 
maining, or against their whole powers the second time 
returning, obtained this victory. Thus Ambrose as 
chief monarch of the isle succeeded Vortigern ; to whose 
third son Pascentius he permitted the rule of two re- 
gions in Wales, Buelth and Guorthigirniaun. In his 
days, saith Nennius, n the Saxons prevailed not much : 
against whom Arthur, as being then chief general for 
the British kings, made great war, but more renowned 
in songs and romances, than in true stories. And the 
sequel itself declares as much. For in the year four 
hundred and seventy seven, Ella, the Saxon, with his 
three sons, Cymen, Pleting, and Cissa, at a place in 
Sussex called Cymenshore, arrive in three ships, kill 
many of the Britons, chasing them that remained into 
the wood Andreds Leage. p Another battle was fought 
at Mercreds-Burnamsted, wherein Ella had by far the 
victory; but <i Huntingdon makes it so doubtful, that 
the Saxons were constrained to send home for supplies. 
r Four years after died Hengist, the first Saxon king of 
Kent; noted to have attained that dignity by craft, as 
much as valour, and giving scope to his own cruel na- 
ture, rather than proceeding by mildness or civility. 
His son Oeric, surnamed Oisc, of whom the Kentish 
kings were called Oiscings, succeeded him, and sate 
content with his father's winnings, more desirous to 
settle and defend, than to enlarge his bounds : he reign- 
ed twenty-four } r ears. s By this time Ella and his son 
Cissa besieging Andredchester, supposed now to be 
Newenden in Kent, take it by force, and all within it 
put to the sword. 

Thus Ella, three years after the death of Hengist,, 
began his kingdom of the South-Saxons;* peopling it 
with new inhabitants, from the country which was then 
Old Saxony, at this day Holstein in Denmark, ano! 
had besides at his command all those provinces, which 
the Saxons had won on this side Huniber. u Animated 
with these good successes, as if Britain were become 
now the field of fortune, Kerdic another Saxon prince, 
the tenth by lineage from Woden, x an old and prac- 
tised soldier, who in many prosperous conflicts against 
the enemy in those parts had nursed up a spirit too big 
to live at home with equals, coming to a certain place, 
which from thence took the name of Kerdic-shore,y with 
five ships, and Kenric his son, the very same day over- 
threw the Britons that opposed him ; and so effectually, 
that smaller skirmishes after that day were sufficient to 
drive them still further off, leaving him a large territory. 
z After him Porta another Saxon, with his two sons 
Bida and Megla, in two ships arrive at Portsmouth 
thence called, and at their landing slew a young Bri- 

r Post Christ. 489. Malms. Bed. I. 2. c. 5. 

s Post Christ. 492. Camden. t The kingdom of South-Saxons. 

u Bed. I. 1. c. 15. and I. <2. c. 5. x Sax. ami. omn. 

y Post Christ. 495. z Post Christ. 501. Sax. an. omn. Huntingdon. 



510 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



tish nobleman, with many others who unadvisedly set 
upon them. a The Britons to recover what they had 
lost, draw together all their forces, led by Natanleod, 
or Nazaleod, a certain king in Britain, and the g-reatest, 
saith one; but with him five thousand of his men Ker- 
die puts to rout and slays. From whence the place in 
Hantshire, as far as Kerdicsford, now Chardford, was 
called of old Nazaleod. Who this king should be, hath 
bred much question ; some think it to be the British 
name of Ambrose ; others to be the right name of his 
brother, who for the terrour of his eagerness in fight, 
became more known by the surname of Uther, which 
in the Welch tongue signifies Dreadful. And if ever 
such a king in Britain there was as Uther Pendragon, 
for so also the Monmouth book surnames him, this in 
all likelihood must be he. Kerdic by so g*reat a blow 
given to the Britons had made large room about him; 
not only for the men he brought with him, but for such 
also of his friends, as he desired to make great ; for 
which cause, and withal the more to strengthen him- 
self, his two nephews Stuff and Withgar, in three 
vessels bring him new levies to Kerdic-shore. b Who, 
that they might not come sluggishly to possess what 
others had won for them, either by their own seeking, 
or by appointment, are set in a place where they could 
not but at their first coming give proof of themselves 
upon the enemy; and so well they did it, that the Bri- 
tons after a hard encounter left them masters of the 
field. c About the same time, Ella the first South-Saxon 
king died; whom Cissa, his youngest son, succeeded ; 
the other two failing before him. 

Nor can it be much more or less than about this time, 
for it was before the West-Saxon kingdom, that Uffa, 
the eighth from Woden, made himself king of the East- 
Angles;* 1 who by their name testify the country above 
mentioned ; from whence they came in such multitudes, 
that their native soil is said to have remained in the 
days of Beda uninhabited. e Huntingdon defers the 
time of their coming- in to the ninth year of Kerdic's 
reign : for, saith he/ at first many of them strove for 
principality, seizing every one his province, and for 
some while so continued, making petty wars among 
themselves ; k till in the end Uffa, of whom those kings 
were called Uffings, overtopped them all in the year 
five hundred and seventy one; h then Titilus his son, 
the father of Redwald, who became potent. 

And not much after the East-Angles, began also the 
East-Saxons to erect a kingdom under Sleda, the tenth 
from Woden. But Huntingdon, as before, will have 
it later by eleven years, and Erchcnwin to be the first 
king. 

Kerdic the same in power, though not so fond of title, 
forbore the name twenty-four years after his arrival ; 
but then founded so firmly the kingdom of West- 
Saxons,' that it subjected all the rest at length, and 
became the sole monarchy of England. The same 
year be bad a victory against the Britons at Kerdic's 
ford, by the river A ven : and after eight years, k another 
great 6gbt at Kerdic's leage, but which won the day 

a Post Christ. 508. Ann. nmn. Huntingd. Camden. Uss. Primord. 

' lirist. 514. An. oiiin. c |liintin"<ion. 

d J lie kingdom of East Angles. e Malmsb. 1. 1. c. 5. Bed. 1. 1. c. 15. 



is not by any set down. Hitherto have been collected 
what there is of certainty with circumstance of time 
and place to be found registered, and no more than 
barely registered, in annals of best note ; without de- 
scribing after Huntingdon the manner of those battles 
and encounters, which they who compare, and can 
judge of books, may be confident he never found in 
any current author, whom he had to follow. But this 
disease hath been incident to many more historians: 
and the age whereof we now write hath had the ill hap, 
more than any since the first fabulous times, to be sur- 
charged with all the idle fancies of posterity. Yet that 
we may not rely altogether on Saxon relaters, Gildas, 
in antiquity far before these, and every way more cre- 
dible, speaks of these wars in such a manner, though 
nothing conceited of the British valour, as declares the 
Saxons in his time and before to have been foiled not 
seldomer than the Britons. For besides that first vic- 
tory of Ambrose, and the interchangeable success long 
after, he tells that the last overthrow, which they re- 
ceived at Badon-hill, was not the least ; which they in 
their oldest annals mention not at all. And because 
the time of this battle, by any who could do more than 
guess, is not set down, or any foundation given from 
whence to draw a solid compute, it cannot be much 
wide to insert it in this place. For such authors as we 
have to follow give the conduct and praise of this ex- 
ploit to Arthur; and that this was the last of twelve 
great battles, which he fought victoriously against the 
Saxons. The several places written by Nennius in 
their Welch names 1 were many hundred years ago un- 
known, and so here omitted. But who Arthur was, 
and whether ever any such reigned in Britain, hath 
been doubted heretofore, and may again with good 
reason. For the monk of Malmsbury, and others, 
whose credit hath swayed most with the learnedersort, 
we may well perceive to have known no more of this 
Arthur five hundred years past, nor of his doings, than 
we, now living; and what they bad to say, transcribed 
out of Nennius, a very trivial writer yet extant, which 
hath already been related ; or out of a British book, 
the same which he of Monmouth set forth, utterly un- 
known to the world, till more than six hundred years 
after the days of Arthur, of whom (as Sigebert in his 
chronicle confesses) all other histories were silent, both 
foreign and domestic, except only that fabulous book. 
Others of later time have sought to assert him by old 
legends and cathedral regests. But he who can accept 
of legends for good story, may quickly swell a volume 
with trash, and had need be furnished with two only 
necessaries, leisure and belief; whether it be the writer, 
or he that shall read. As to Arthur, no less is in doubt 
who was his father ; for if it be true, as Nennius or his 
notist avers, that Arthur was called Mab-Uther, that is 
to say, a cruel son, for the fierceness that men saw in 
him of a child, and the intent of his name Arturus im- 
ports as much, it might well be that some in after-ages, 
who sought to turn him into a fable, wrested the word 
Uther into a proper name, and so feigned him the son 

315. 



f Huntingd. ]. 2. p. 31.' 
h Malms. I. 1. c. 6. 
k Sax. ann. oinH.527- 



g Bed. 1. 2. c. 15. 
Post Christ. 5 19. 
1 Is'enn. 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



511 



of Uther ; since we read not in any certain story, that 
ever such person lived till Geoffrey of Monmouth set 
him off with the surname of Pendragon. And as we 
doubted of his parentage, so may we also of his puis- 
sance; for whether that victory at Badon-hill were his 
or no, is uncertain ; Gildas not naming 1 him, as he did 
Ambrose in the former. Next, if it be true as Caradoc 
relates,™ that Melvas, king of that country which is 
now Somerset, kept from him Gueniver his wife a whole 
year in the town of Glaston, and restored her at the 
entreaty of Gildas, rather than for any enforcement that 
Arthur with all his chivalry could make against a small 
town defended only by a moory situation ; had either 
his knowledge in war, or the force he had to make, 
been answerable to the fame they hear, that petty king 
had neither dared such affront, nor he been so long, 
and at last without effect, in revenging it. Considering 
lastly how the Saxons gained upon him every where 
all the time of his supposed reign, which began, as 
some write," in the tenth year of Kerdic, who wrung 
from him by long war the counties of Somerset and 
Hampshire ; there will remain neither place nor cir- 
cumstance in story, which may administer any likeli- 
hood of those great acts, that are ascribed to him. ° This 
only is alleged by Nennius in Arthur's behalf, that the 
Saxons, though vanquished never so oft, grew still 
more numerous upon him by continual supplies out of 
Germany. And the truth is, that valour may be over- 
toiled, and overcome at last with endless overcoming. 
But as for this battle of mount Badon, where the Sax- 
ons were hemmed in, or besieged, whether by Arthur 
won, or whensoever, it seems indeed to have given a 
most undoubted and important blow to the Saxons, 
and to have stopped their proceedings for a good while 
after. Gildas himself witnessing, that the Britons, 
having thus compelled them to sit down with peace, fell 
thereupon to civil discord among themselves. Which 
words may seem to let in some light toward the search- 
ing out when this battle was fought. And we shall find 
no time since the first Saxon war, from whence a longer 
peace ensued, than from the fight at Kerdic's Leage, in 
the year five hundred and twenty seven, which all the 
chronicles mention, without victory to Kerdic ; and 
give us argument from the custom they have of mag- 
nifying their own deeds upon all occasions, to presume 
here his ill speeding. And if we look still onward, 
even to the forty-fourth year after, wherein Gildas 
wrote, if his obscure utterance be understood, we shall 
meet with every little war between the Britons and 
Saxons. PThis only remains difficult, that the victory 
first won by Ambrose was not so long before this at 
Badon siege, but that the same men living might be 
eyewitnesses of both ; and by this rate hardly can the 
latter be thought won by Arthur, unless we reckon him 
a grown youth at least in the days of Ambrose, and 
much more than a youth, if Malmsbury be heard, who 
affirms all the exploits of Ambrose to have been done 
chiefly by Arthur as his general, which will add much 
unbelief to the common assertion of his reigning after 

m Caradoc. Llancarvon. vit. Gild. 

11 Malms, antiquit. Glaston. Post Christ. 529. 

o Primord. p. 468. Polychrome. I. 5. c. 6. 



Ambrose and Uther, especially the fight of Badon 
being the last of his twelve battles. But to prove by 
that which follows, that the fight at Kerdic's Leage, 
though it differ in name from that of Badon, may be 
thought the same by all effects ; Kerdic three years 
after/i not proceeding onward, as his manner was, on 
the continent, turns back his forces on the Isle of 
Wight ; which, with the slaying of a few only in 
Withgarburgh, he soon masters; and not long sur- 
viving, left it to his nephews by the mother's side, Stuff 
and Withgar : r the rest of what he had subdued, Ken- 
ric his son held ; and reigned twenty-six years, in 
whose tenth year s Withgar was buried in the town of 
that island which bore his name. Notwithstanding 
all these unlikelihoods of Arthur's reign and great 
achievements, in a narration crept in I know not how 
among the laws of Edward the Confessor, Arthur the 
famous king of Britons, is said not only to have ex- 
pelled hence the Saracens, who were not then known 
in Europe, but to have conquered Friesland, and all 
the north-east isles as far as Russia, to have made 
Lapland the eastern bound of his empire, and Norway 
the chamber of Britain. When should this be done ? 
From the Saxons, till after twelve battles, he had no 
rest at home ; after those, the Britons, contented with 
the quiet they had from their Saxon enemies, were so 
far from seeking conquests abroad, that by report of 
Gildas above cited, they fell to civil wars at home. 
Surely Arthur much better had made war in old Sax- 
ony, to repress their flowing hither, than to. have won 
kingdoms as far as Russia, scarce able here to defend 
his own. Buchanan our neighbour historian repre- 
hends him of Monmouth, and others, for fabling in the 
deeds of Arthur; yet what he writes thereof himself, 
as of better credit, shows not whence he had but from 
those fables; which he seems content to believe in 
part, on condition that the Scots and Picts may be 
thought to have assisted Arthur in all his wars and 
achievements ; whereof appears as little ground by 
credible story, as of that which he most counts fabu- 
lous. But not further to contest about such uncer- 
tainties. 

In the year five hundred and forty-seven, 1 Ida the 
Saxon, sprung also from Woden in the tenth degree, 
began the kingdom of Bernicia in Northumberland ; 
built the town Bebenburgh, which was after walled ; 
and had twelve sons, half by wives and half by concu- 
bines. Hengist, by leave of Vortig-ern, we may re- 
member, had sent Octave and Ebissa, to seek them 
seats in the north, and there, by warring on the Picts, 
to secure the southern parts. Which they so prudently 
effected, that what by force and fair proceeding, they 
well quieted those countries ; and though so far distant 
from Kent, nor without power in their hands, yet kept 
themselves nigh a hundred and eighty years within 
moderation ; and, as inferiour governours, they and 
their offspring gave obedience to the kings of Kent, as 
to the elder family. Till at length following the ex- 
ample of that age, when no less than kingdoms were 

p Gildas. q Post Christ. 530. Sax. an. omn. 

r Post Christ. 534. s Post Christ. 544. 

t Post Christ. 547- Annal. omn. Bed. Epit. Malms. 



512 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book III. 



the prize of every fortunate commander, they thought 
it but reason, as well as others of their nation, to as- 
sume royalty. Of whom Ida was the first," a man in 
the prime of his years, and of parentage as we heard ; 
but how he came to wear the crown, aspiring- or by 
free choice, is not said. Certain enough it is, that his 
virtues made him not less noble than his birth ; in war 
undaunted and unfoiled, in peace tempering- the awe 
of magistracy w T ith a natural mildness, he reigned 
about twelve years. x In the mean while Kenric in a 
fight at Searesbirig, now Salisbury, killed and put to 
flight many of the Britons ; and the fourth year after 
at Beranvirig/ now Banbury, as some think, with 
Keaulin his son, put them again to flight. Keaulin 
shortly after succeeded his father in the West-Sax- 
ons. And Alia, descended also of Woden, but of an- 
other line, set up a second kingdom in Deira, the south 
part of Northumberland, 2 and held it thirty years ; 
while Adda, the son of Ida, and five more after him, 
reigned without other memory in Bemicia : and in 
Kent, Ethelbert the next year began. a But Esca the 
son of Hengist had left Otha, and he Emeric to rule 
after him ; both which, without adding to their 
bounds, kept what thej r had in peace fifty-three years. 
But Ethelbert in length of reign equalled both his 
progenitors, and as Beda counts, three years exceeded. 
b Young at his first entrance, and unexperienced, he 
was the first raiser of civil war among the Saxons ; 
claiming from the priority of time wherein Hengist 
took possession here, a kind of right over the later 
kingdoms; and thereupon was troublesome to their 
confines : but by them twice defeated, he who but now 
thought to seem dreadful, became almost contemptible. 
For Keaulin and Cutha his son, pursuing him into his 
own territory, slew there in battle, at Wibbandun, 
two of his earls, Oslac and Cneban. By this means 
the Britons, but chiefly by this victory at Badon, for 
the space of forty-four years, ending in five hundred 
and seventy-one, received no great annoyance from 
the Saxons: but the peace they enjoyed, by ill using 
it, proved more destructive to them than war. For 
being raised on a sudden by two such eminent suc- 
cesses, from the lowest condition of thraldom, they 
whose eyes had beheld both those deliverances, that by 
Ambrose and this at Badon, were taught by the expe- 
rience of either fortune, both kings, magistrates, priests, 
and private men, to live orderly. But when the next 
age, d unacquainted with past evils, and only sensible 
of their present ease and quiet, succeeded, straight fol- 
lowed the apparent subversion of all truth, and justice, 
in the minds of most men : scarce the least forestep 
or impression of goodness left remaining through all 
ranks and degrees in the land ; except in some so very 
few, as to be hardly visible in a general corruption : 
which grew in short space not only manifest, but odious 
to all the neighbouring nations. And first their kings, 
■Bongat whom also the sons or grandchildren of Am- 
brose, were foully degenerated to all tyranny and vici- 
ous life. Whereof to hear some particulars out of Gil- 



ii Mulmv 

y Pot Christ. 556. Camden. 



x Post Christ. 552. Annal. omn. 

z Post Christ. 56o. Annal Florent. 



das, will not be impertinent. They avenge, saith he, 
and they protect, not the innocent, but the guilty; 
they swear oft, but perjure; they wage war, but civil 
and unjust war. They punish rig-orously them that rob 
by the high-way ; but those grand robbers, that sit with 
them at table, they honour and reward. They give 
alms largely, but in the face of their almsdeeds, pile 
up wickedness to a far higher heap. They sit in the 
seat of judgment, but go seldom by the rule of right; 
neglecting and proudly overlooking the modest and 
harmless, but countenancing the audacious, though 
guilty of abominable crimes; they stuff their prisons, 
but with men committed rather by circumvention than 
by any just cause. Nothing better were the clergy, 
but at the same pass, or rather worse than when the 
Saxons came first in ; unlearned, unapprehensive, yet 
impudent ; subtle prowlers, pastors in name, but in- 
deed wolves ; intent upon all occasions, not to feed the 
flock, but to pamper and well-line themselves : not 
called, but seizing on the ministry as a trade, not as a 
spiritual charge; teaching the people not by sound 
doctrine, but by evil example ; usurping the chair of 
Peter, but through the blindness of their own worldly 
lusts, they stumble upon the seat of Judas ; deadly haters 
of truth, broachers of lies ; looking on the poor Chris- 
tian with eyes of pride and contempt; but fawning on 
the wickedest rich men without shame : great promoters 
of other men's alms, with their set exhortations ; but 
themselves contributing ever least : slightly touching 
the many vices of the age, but preaching without end 
their own grievances, as done to Christ; seeking after 
preferments and degrees in the church, more than after 
heaven ; and so gained, made it their Avhole study how 
to keep them by any tyranny. Yet lest they should 
be thought things of no use in their eminent places, 
they have their niceties and trivial points to keep in 
awe the superstitious multitude; but in true saving- 
knowledge leave them still as gross and stupid as them- 
selves; bunglers at the Scripture, nay, forbidding and 
silencing them that know ; but in worldly matters, 
practised and cunning shifters ; in that only art and 
simony great clerks and masters, bearing their heads 
high, but their thoughts abject and low. He taxes 
them also as gluttonous, incontinent, and daily drunk- 
ards. And what shouldst thou expect from these, poor 
laity, so he goes on, these beasts, all belly ? Shall these 
amend thee, who are themselves laborious in evil do- 
ings ? Shall thou see with their eyes, who see right 
forward nothing but gain ? Leave them rather, as bids 
our Saviour, lest ye fall both blindfold into the same 
perdition. Are all thus ? Perhaps not all, or not so 
grossly. But what availed it Eli to be himself blame- 
less, while he connived at others that were abominable ? 
Who of them hath been envied for his better life? Who 
of them hath hated to consort with these, or withstood 
their entering the ministry, or endeavoured zealously 
their casting out? Yet some of these perhaps by others 
are legended for great saints. This was the state of 
government, this of religion among the Britons, in 



Post Christ. 561. 

Ann. omn. Post Christ. 5d8. 



b Malms, 
d Gildas. 



Book III. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



513 



that long calm of peace, which the fight at Badon-hill 
had brought forth. Whereby it came to pass, that so 
fair a victory came to nothing. Towns and cities were 
not reinhabited, but lay ruined and waste; nor was it 
long ere domestic war breaking out wasted them more. 
For Britain, e as at other times, had then also several 
kings : five of whom Gildas, living then in Armorica 
at a safe distance, boldly reproves by name : first, Con- 
stantine, (fabled the son of Cador, duke of Cornwall, 
Arthur's half, by the mother's side,) who then reigned 
in Cornwall and Devon, a tyrannical and bloody king, 
polluted also with many adulteries: he got into his 
power two young princes of the blood royal, uncertain 
whether before him in right, or otherwise suspected ; 
and after solemn oath given of their safety the year 
that Gildas wrote, slew them with their two governors 
in the church, and in their mother's arms, through the 
abbot's cope which he had thrown over them, thinking 
by the reverence of his vesture to have withheld the 
murderer. These are commonly supposed to be the 
sons of Mordred, Arthur's nephew, said to have revolt- 
ed from his uncle, giving him in a battle his death's 
wound, and by him after to have been slain. Which 
things, were they true, would much diminish the blame 
of cruelty in Constantine, revenging Arthur on the 
sons of so false a Mordred. In another part, but not 
expressed where, Aurelius Conanus was king : him he 
charges also with adulteries, and parricide ; cruelties 
worse than the former; to be a hater of his country's 
peace, thirsting after civil war and prey. His con- 
dition, it seems, was not very prosperous, for Gildas 
wishes him, being now left alone, like a tree withering 
in the midst of a barren field, to remember the vanity 
and arrogance of his father, and elder brethren, who 
came all to untimely death in their youth. The third 
reigning in Demetia, or South Wales, was Vortipor, 
the son of a good father ; he was, when Gildas wrote, 
grown old, not in years only, but in adulteries ; and 
in governing, full of falsehood and cruel actions. In 
his latter days, putting away his wife, who died in di- 
vorce, he became, if we mistake not Gildas, incestuous 
with his daughter. The fourth was Cuneglas, im- 
brued in civil war ; he also had divorced his wife, and 
taken her sister, who had vowed widowhood : he was 
a great enemy to the clergy, high-minded, and trust- 
ing to his wealth. The last, but greatest of all in 
power, was Maglocune, and greatest also in wicked- 
ness: he had driven out, or slain, many other kings, 
or tyrants, and was called the Island Dragon, perhaps 
having his seat in Anglesey; a profuse giver, a great 
warrior, and of a goodly stature. While he was yet 
young, he overthrew his uncle, though in the head of 
a complete army, and took from him the kingdom : 
then touched with remorse of his doings, not without 
deliberation, took upon him the profession of a monk; 
but soon forsook his vow, and his wife also ; which 
for that vow he had left, making love to the wife of 
his brother's son then living. Who not refusing the 
offer, if she were not rather the first that enticed, found 

e Primord. p. 444. f Post Christ. 571. Camden. Annal. omn. 

g Post Christ. 577- h Post Christ. 584. i Huntingd. 

k the kingdom of Mercia. Huntingd. Matt. Westm, 



means both to dispatch her own husband, and the for- 
mer wife of Maglocune, to make her marriage with 
him the more unquestionable. Neither did he this for 
want of better instructions, having had the learnedest 
and wisest man, reputed of all Britain, the instituter 
of his youth. Thus much, the utmost that can be 
learnt by truer story, of what past among the Britons 
from the time of their useless victory at Badon, to the 
time that Gildas wrote, that is to say, as may be guess- 
ed, from five hundred and twenty -seven to five hun- 
dred and seventy-one, is here set down altogether ; not 
to be reduced under any certainty of years. But now 
the Saxons, who for the most part all this while had 
been still, unless among themselves, began afresh to 
assault them, and ere long to drive them out of all 
which they had maintained on this side Wales. For 
Cuthulf, the brother of Keaulin/ by a victory obtained 
at Bedanford, now Bedford, took from them four good 
towns, Liganburgh, Eglesburgh, Bensington now Ben- 
son in Oxfordshire, and Ignesham ; but outlived not 
many months his good success. And after six years 
morels Keaulin, and Cuthwin his son, gave them great 
overthrow at Deorrham in Gloucestershire, slew three 
of their kings, Comail, Condidan, and Farinmaile ; and 
three of their chief cities, Gloucester, Cirencester, and 
Badencester. The Britons notwithstanding, after some 
space of time, 11 judging to have outgrown their losses, 
gather to a head and encounter Keaulin, with Cutha 
his son, at Fethanleage ; whom valiantly fighting, they 
slew among the thickest, and, as is said, forced the 
Saxons to retire. 1 But Keaulin, reinforcing the fight, 
put them to a main rout ; and following his advantage, 
took many towns, and returned laden with rich booty. 
The last of those Saxons, who raised their own 
achievements to a monarchy, was Crida, much about 
this time, first founder of the Mercian kingdom, k draw- 
ing also his pedigree from Woden. Of whom all to 
write the several genealogies, though it might be done 
without long search, were in my opinion to encumber 
the story with a sort of barbarous names, to little pur- 
pose. ! This may suffice, that of Woden's three sons, 
from the eldest issued Hengist, and his succession ; from 
the second, the kings of Mercia; from the third all 
that reigned in West-Saxony, and most of the North- 
umbers, of whom Alia was one, the first king of Deira ; 
which, after his death, the race of Ida seized, and made 
it one kingdom with Bernicia,m usurping the childhood 
of Edwin, Alla's son; whom Ethelric, the son of Ida, 
expelled. Notwithstanding others write of him, that 
from a poor life, and beyond hope in his old age, com- 
ing to the crown, he could hardly, by the access of a 
kingdom, have overcome his former obscurity, had 
not the fame of his son preserved him. Once more 
the Britons," ere they quitted all on this side the 
mountains, forgot not to show some manhood ; for 
meeting Keauliu at Woden's-beorth, that is to say, 
at Woden's-mount in Wiltshire; whether it were 
by their own forces, or assisted by the Angles, whose 
hatred Keaulin had incurred, they ruined the whole 

I Malmsb. 1. 1. c. 3. m Florent. ad ann. Post Christ. 559. 

n Post Christ. 588. Annal. omn. 

o Post Christ. 592. Florent. Bed. 1. 2. c. 3. Malms. Florent. Sax. ann. 



514 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



v - 



army, and chased him out of his kingdom; from 
whence flying, he died the next year in poverty, who a 
little before was the most potent, and indeed sole king 
of all the Saxons on this side the Huniber. But who 
was chief among- the Britons in this exploit had been 
worth remembering, whether .it were Maglocune, of 
whose prowess hath been spoken, or Teudric king of 
Glamorgan, whom the regest of LandafF recounts to 
have been always victorious in fight; to have reigned 
about this time, and at length to have exchanged his 
crown for an hermitage ; till in the aid of his son 
Mouric, whom the Saxons had reduced to extremes, 
taking arms again, he defeated them at Tinterne by 
the river Wye; but himself received a mortal wound, P 
The same year with Keaulin, whom Keola the son of 
Cuthulf, Keaulin's brother, succeeded, Crida also the 
Mercian king deceased, in whose room Wibba succeed- 
ed ; and in Northumberland, Ethelfrid, in the room of 
Ethelric, reigning twenty-four years. Thus omitting 
fables, we have the view of what with reason can be 
relied on for truth, done in Britain since the Romans 
forsook it. Wherein we have heard the many miseries 
and desolations brought by divine hand on a perverse 
nation; driven, when nothing else would reform them, 
out of a fair country, into a mountainous and barren 
corner, by strangers and pagans. So much more 
tolerable in the eye of heaven is infidelity professed, 
than christian faith and religion dishonoured by un- 
christian works. Yet they also at length renounced 
their heathenism; which how it came to pass, will be 
the matter next related. 



THE FOURTH BOOK. 

The Saxons grown up now to seven absolute king- 
doms, and the latest of them established by succession, 
finding their power arrive well nigh at the utmost of 
what was to be gained upon the Britons, and as little 
fearing to be displanted by them, had time now to sur- 
vey at leisure one another's greatness. Which quickly 
bred among them either envy or mutual jealousies ; till 
the west kingdom at length grown overpowerful, put 
an end to all the rest. a Meanwhile, above others, 
Ethelbert of Kent, who by this time had well ripened 
bis young ambition, with more ability of years and ex- 
perience in war, what before he attempted to his loss, 
now successfully attains : and by degrees brought all 
the other monarchies between Kent and Humber to be 
at his devotion. To which design the kingdom of 
W • M Saxons, being the firmest of them all, at that 
time sore shaken by their overthrow at Woden's-beorth, 
and the death of Keaulin, gave him, no doubt, a main 
advantage ; the rest yielded not subjection, but as he 
earned it by continual victories. b And to win him the 
more regard abroad, he marries Bertha the French 
king's daughter, though a Christian, and with this con- 






I Bed. Malms. I> Bed. I. 1. c. 25. 

(l Bed. 1.2. c, l. 



dition, to have the free exercise of her faith, under the 
care and instruction of Letardus a bishop, sent by her 
parents along with her; the king notwithstanding and 
his people retaining their old religion. c Beda out of 
Gildas lays it sadly to the Britons' charge, that they 
never would vouchsafe their Saxon neighbours the 
means of conversion ; but how far to blame they were, d 
and what hope there was of converting in the midst of 
so much hostility, at least falsehood, from their first 
arrival, is not now easy to determine. e Howbeit not 
long after they had the christian faith preached to 
them by a nation more remote, and (as report went, 
accounted old in Beda's time) upon this occasion. 

The Northumbrians had a custom at that time, and 
many hundred years after not abolished, to sell their 
children for a small value into any foreign land. Of 
which number two comely youths were brought to 
Rome, whose fair and honest countenances invited 
Gregory, archdeacon of that city, among others that 
beheld them, pitying their condition, to demand whence 
they were; it was answered by some who stood by, 
that they were Angli of the province Deira, subjects to 
Alia king of Northumberland ; and by religion, pagans. 
Which last Gregory deploring, framed on a sudden 
this allusion to the three names he heard ; that the 
Angli so like to angels should be snatched ' de ira,' 
that is, from the wrath of God, to sing hallelujah : and 
forthwith obtaining license, of Benedict the pope, had 
come and preached here among them, had not the 
Roman people, whose love endured not the absence of 
so vigilant a pastor over them, recalled him then on 
his journey, though but deferred his pious intention. 
f For a while after, succeeding in the papal seat, and 
now in bis fourth year, admonished, saith Beda, by 
divine instinct, he sent Augustin, whom he had de- 
signed for bishop of the English nation, and other 
zealous monks with him, to preach to them the gospel. 
Who being now on their way, discouraged by some 
reports, or their own carnal fear, sent back Austin, in 
the name of all, to beseech Gregory they might return 
home, and not be sent a journey so full of hazard, to a 
fierce and infidel nation, whose tongue they understood 
not. Gregory with pious and apostolic persuasions 
exhorts them not to shrink back from so good a work, 
but cheerfully to go on in the strength of divine assist- 
ance. The letter itself, yet extant among our writers 
of ecclesiastic story, I omit here, as not professing to 
relate of those matters more than what mixes aptly 
with civil affairs. The abbot Austin, for so he was 
ordained over the rest, reincouraged by the exhorta- 
tions of Gregory, and his fellows by the letter which 
he brought them, came safe to the isle of Tanet,^ in 
number about forty, besides some of the French nation, 
whom they took along as interpreters. Ethelbert the 
king, to whom Austin at his landing had sent a new 
and wondrous message, that he came from Rome to 
proffer heaven and eternal happiness in the knowledge 
of another God than the Saxons knew, appoints them 
to remain where they had landed, and necessaries to 



e Malms. I. 1. c. 3. 
8 Pobt Christ. 597- 



f Post Christ. 596. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



515 



be provided them, consulting in the mean time what 
was to be done. And after certain days coming- into 
the island, chose a place to meet them under the open 
sky, possessed with an old persuasion, that all spells, 
if they should use any to deceive him, so it were not 
within doors, would be unavailable. They on the 
other side called to his presence, advancing- for their 
standard a silver cross,- and the painted imag-e of our 
Saviour, came slowly forward, singing- their solemn 
litanies : which wrought in Ethelbert more suspicion 
perhaps that they used enchantments ; till sitting down 
as the king willed them, they there preached to him, 
and all in that assembly, the tidings of salvation. 
Whom having heard attentively, the king thus an- 
swered : " Fair indeed and ample are the promises 
which ye bring, and such things as have the appear- 
ance in them of much good ; yet such as being new 
and uncertain, I cannot easily assent to, quitting the 
religion which from my ancestors, with all the English 
nation, so many years I have retained. Nevertheless 
because ye are strangers, and have endured so long a 
journey, to impart us the knowledge of things, which 
I persuade me you believe to be the truest and the 
best, ye may be sure, we shall not recompense you 
with any molestation, but shall provide rather how we 
may friendliest entertain ye ; nor do we forbid whom 
ye can by preaching gain to your belief." And ac- 
cordingly their residence he allotted them in Doroverne 
or Canterbury his chief city, and made provision for 
their maintenance, with free leave to preach their doc- 
trine where they pleased. By which, and by the ex- 
ample of their holy life, spent in prayer, fasting, and 
continual labour in the conversion of souls, they won 
many; on whose bounty and the king's, receiving 
only what was necessary, they subsisted. There stood 
without the city on the east side, an ancient church 
built in honour of St. Martin, while yet the Romans 
remained here : in which Bertha the queen went out 
usually to pray : h here they also began first to preach, 
baptize, and openly to exercise divine worship. But 
when the king himself, convinced by their good life 
and miracles, became christian, and was baptized, which 
came to pass in the very first year of their arrival, then 
multitudes daily, conforming to their prince, thought 
it honour to be reckoned among those of his faith. 
To whom Ethelbert indeed principally showed his 
favour, but- compelled none. » For so he had been 
taught by them who were both the instructors and the 
authors of his faith, that christian religion ought to be 
voluntary, not compelled. About this time Kelwulf 
the son of Cutha, Keaulin's brother, reigned over the 
West Saxons, k after his brother Keola or Kelric, and 
had continual war either with English, Welsh, Picts, 
or Scots. l But Austin, whom with his fellows Ethel- 
bert had now endowed with a better place for their 
abode in the city, and other possessions necessary to 
livelihood, crossing into France, was by the archbishop 
of Aries, at the appointment of pope Gregory, ordained 
archbishop of the English ; and returning, sent to 



h Post Christ. 598. 

k Sax. arm. Malms. Post Christ. 601. 
2 L 



I 1.2. c. 5. 



Rome Laurence and Peter, two of his associates, to 
acquaint the pope of his good success in England, and 
to be resolved of certain theological, or rather levitical 
questions : with answers to which, not proper in this 
place, Gregory sends also to the great work of convert- 
ing, that went on so happily, a supply of labourers, 
Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, Rufinian,and many others; 
who what they were, may be guessed by the stuff which 
they brought with them, vessels and vestments for the 
altar, copes, reliques, and for the archbishop Austin a 
pall to say mass in : to such a rank superstition that 
age was grown, though some of them yet retaining an 
emulation of apostolic zeal. Lastly, to Ethelbert they 
brought a letter with many presents. Austin, thus ex- 
alted to archiepiscopal authority, recovered from the 
ruins and other profane uses a christian church in Can- 
terbury, built of old by the Romans, which he dedicated 
by the name of Christ's church, and joining to it built 
a seat for himself and his successors ; a monastery also 
near the city eastward, where Ethelbert at his motion 
built St. Peter's, and enriched it with great endow- 
ments, to be a place of burial for the archbishops and 
kings of Kent : so quickly they stepped up into fel- 
lowship of pomp with kings. m While thus Ethelbert 
and his people had their minds intent, Ethelfrid the 
Northumbrian king was not less busied in far different 
affairs : for being altogether warlike, and covetous of 
fame, he more wasted the Britons than any Saxon king 
before him ; winning from them large territories, which 
either he made tributary, or planted with his own sub- 
jects. n Whence Edan king of those Scots that dwelt 
in Britain, jealous of his successes, came against him 
with a mighty army, to a place called Degsastan ; but 
in the fight losing most of his men, himself with a few 
escaped : only Theobald the king's brother, and the 
w T hole wing which he commanded, unfortunately cut 
off, made the victory to Ethelfrid less intire. Yet from 
that time no king of Scots in hostile manner durst pass 
into Britain for a hundred and more years after: and 
what some years before Kelwulf the West Saxon is 
annalled to have done against the Scots and Picts, 
passing through the land of Ethelfrid a king* so potent, 
unless in his aid and alliance, is not likely. Buchanan 
writes as if Ethelfrid, assisted by Keaulin whom he mis- 
titles king of East Saxons, had before this time a bat- 
tle with Aidan, wherein Cutha, Keaulin's son, was slain. 
But Cutha, as is above written from better authority, 
was slain in fight against the Welsh twenty years be- 
fore. ° The number of Christians began now to in- 
crease so fast that Augustin, ordaining bishops under 
him, two of his assistants Mellitus and Justus, sent 
them out both to the work of their ministry. And 
Mellitus by preaching converted the East Saxons, over 
whom Sebert the son of Sleda, by permission of Ethel- 
bert, being born of his sister Ricula, then reigned. 
Whose conversion Ethelbert to gratulate, built them 
the great church of St. Paul in London to be their 
bishop's cathedral ; as Justus also had his built at Ro- 
chester, and both gifted by the same king with fair 



1 Bed. 1. i.e. 27. 
n Post Christ. 603. 



m Bed. 1. 2. c. 34. 

o Post Christ. 604. Bed. 1. 2. c. 3. 



I 



516 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



possessions. Hitherto Austin laboured well among* 
infidels, but not with like commendation soon after 
among- Christians. For by means of Ethelbert sum- 
moning- the Britain bishops to a place on the edge of 
Worcestershire, called from that time Augustin's oak, 
he requires them to conform with him in the same day 
of celebrating' Easter, and many other points wherein 
they differed from the rites of Rome : which when they 
refused to do, not prevailing- by dispute, he appeals to 
a miracle, restoring" to sight a blind man whom the 
Britons could not cure. At this something- moved, 
though not minded to recede from their own opinions 
without further consultation, they request a second 
meeting- : to which came seven Britain bishops, with 
many other learned men, especially from the famous 
monastery of Bangor, in which were said to be so 
many monks, living all by their own labour, that being- 
divided under seven rectors, none had fewer than three 
hundred. One man there was who staid behind, a 
hermit bj the life he led, who by his wisdom effected 
more than all the rest who went: being- demanded, 
for they held him as an oracle, how they might know 
Austin to be a man from God, that they might follow 
him, he answered, that if they found him meek and 
humble, they should be taught by him, for it was like- 
liest to be the yoke of Christ, both what he bore him- 
self, and would have them bear; but if he bore himself 
proudly, that they should not regard him, for he was 
then certainly not of God. They took his advice, and 
hasted to the place of meeting. Whom Austin, being 
already there before them, neither arose to meet, nor 
received in any brotherly sort, but sat all the while 
pontifically in his chair. Whereat the Britons, as 
they were counselled by the holy man, neglected him, 
and neither hearkened to his proposals of conformity, 
nor would acknowledge him for an archbishop: and 
in the name of the rest,P Dinothus, then abbot of 
Bangor, is said thus sagely to have answered him : 
" As to the subjection which you require, be thus per- 
suaded of us, that in the bond of love and charity we 
are all subjects and servants to the church of God, yea 
to the pope of Rome, and every good Christian, to 
help them forward, both by word and deed, to be the 
children of God : other obedience than this we know 
not to be due to him whom you term the pope; and 
this obedience we are ready to give both to him and 
to every Christian continually. Besides, we are go- 
verned under God by the bishop of Caerleon, who is to 
oversee us in spiritual matters." To which Austin thus 
presaging, some say menacing, replies, " Since ye re- 
fuse to accept of peace with your brethren, ye shall have 
war from your enemies ; and since ye will not with us 
preach the word of life to whom ye ought, from their 
hands ye shall receive death." This, though writers 
agree not whether Austin spake it as his prophecy, or 
as his plot against the Britons, fell out accordingly. 
f i For many years were not past, when Ethelfrid, whe- 
ther of hi-; own accord, or at the request of Ethelbert, 
incensed by Austin., with a powerful host came to West- 



P Spelmaa. Concil. p. 106. 

r Malms, ge^t. pont. I. 1. 



(i Sax.ann. Hunting. Post Christ. 607. 
8 Sax. ami. 



Chester, then Caer-legion. Where being met by the 
British forces, and both sides in readiness to give the 
onset, he discerns a company of men, not habited for 
war, standing together in a place of some safety ; and 
by them a squadron armed. Whom having- learnt 
upon some inquiry to be priests and monks, assembled 
thither after three days' fasting, to pray for the g-ood 
success of their forces against, him, " therefore they 
first," saith he, " shall feel our swords ; for they who 
pray against us, fight heaviest against us by their 
prayers, and are our dangerousest enemies." And with 
that turns his first charg-e upon the monks : Brocmail, 
the captain set to guard them, quickly turns his back, 
and leaves above twelve hundred monks to a sudden 
massacre, whereof scarce fifty escaped. But not so easy 
work found Ethelfrid against another part of Britons 
that stood in arms, whom though at last he overthrew, 
yet with slaughter nigh as great to his own soldiers. 
To excuse Austin of this bloodshed, lest some might 
think it his revengeful policy, Beda writes, that he 
was dead long before, although if the time of his sitting 
archbishop be right computed sixteen years, he must 
survive this action. r Other just ground of charging 
him with this imputation appears not, save what evi- 
dently we have from Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose 
weight we know. s The same year Kelwulf made war 
on the South Saxons, bloody, saith Huntingdon, to both 
sides, but most to them of the south : l and four years 
after dying, left the government of West Saxons to 
Kinegils and Cuichelm, the sons of his brother Keola. 
Others, as Florent of Worcester, and Matthew of West- 
minster, will have Cuichelm son of Kinegils, but ad- 
mitted to reign with his father, in whose third year" 
they are recorded with joint forces or conduct to have 
fought against the Britons in Beandune, now Bindon 
in Dorsetshire, and to have slain of them above two 
thousand. x More memorable was the second year 
following, by the death of Ethelbert the first christian 
king of Saxons, and no less a favourer of all civility in 
that rude ag-e. He gave laws and statutes after the 
example of Roman emperors, written with the advice 
of his sagest counsellors, but in the English tongue, 
and observed long after. Wherein his special care was 
to punish those who had stolen aught from church or 
churchman, thereby shewing how gratefully he received 
at their hands the christian faith. Which, he no sooner 
dead, but his son Eadbald took the course as fast to 
extinguish ; not only falling back into heathenism, 
but that which heathenism was wont to abhor, marry- 
ing his father's second wife. Then soon was perceived 
what multitudes for fear or countenance of the king 
had professed Christianity, returning now as eagerly to 
their old religion. Nor staid the apostacy within one 
province, but quickly spread over to the East Saxons ; 
occasioned there likewise, or set forward, by the death 
of their christian king Sebert : whose three sons, of 
whom two are named Sexted and Seward,y neither in 
his lifetime would be brought to baptism, and after his 
decease reestablished the free exercise of idolatry ; nor 



t Post Christ, fill. Sax. ann. Malm, 
x Post Christ. 616. Sax. an. 



u Post Christ. 614. Camel, 
y Malms. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



517 



so content, they set themselves in despight to do some 
open profanation against the other sacrament. Coming 
therefore into the church where Mellitus the bishop 
was ministering', they required him in abuse and scorn 
to deliver to them unbaptized the consecrated bread ; 
and him refusing drove disgracefully out of their do- 
minion. Who crossed forthwith into Kent, where 
things were in the same plight, and thence into France, 
with Justus bishop of Rochester. But divine venge- 
ance deferred not long the punishment of men so im- 
pious ; for Eadbald, vexed with an evil spirit, fell often 
into foul fits of distraction ; and the sons of Sebert, in 
a fight against the West Saxons, perished with their 
whole army. But Eadbald, within the year, by an 
extraordinary means became penitent. For when 
Lawrence the archbishop and successor of Austin was 
preparing to ship for France, after Justus and Mellitus, 
the story goes, if it be worth believing, that St. Peter, 
in whose church he spent the night before in watching 
and praying, appeared to him, and to make the vision 
more sensible, gave him many stripes for offering to 
desert his flock ; at sight whereof the king (to whom 
next morning he showed the marks of what he had 
suffered, by whom and for what cause) relenting and 
in great fear, dissolved his incestuous marriage, and 
applied himself to the christian faith more sincerely 
than before, with all his people. But the Londoners, 
addicted still to paganism, would not be persuaded to 
receive again Mellitus their bishop, and to compel them 
was not in his power. z Thus much through all the 
south was troubled in religion, as much were the north 
parts disquieted through ambition. For Ethelfrid of 
Bernicia, as was touched before, having thrown Edwin 
out of Deira, and joined that kingdom to his own, not 
content to have bereaved him of his right, whose known 
virtues and high parts gave cause of suspicion to his 
enemies, sends messengers to demand him of Redwald 
king of East Angles ; under whose protection, after 
many years wandering obscurely through all the island, 
he had placed his safety. Redwald, though having 
promised all defence to Edwin as to his suppliant, yet 
tempted with continual and large offers of gold, and 
not contemning the puissance of Ethelfrid, yielded at 
length, either to dispatch him, or to give him into their 
hands : but earnestly exhorted by his w T ife, not to be- 
tray the faith and inviolable law of hospitality and re- 
fuge given, a prefers his first promise as the more reli- 
gious ; nor only refuses to deliver him, but since war 
was thereupon denounced, determines to be beforehand 
with the danger; and with a sudden army raised, 
surprises Ethelfrid, little dreaming an invasion, and in 
a fight near to the east side of the river Idle, on the 
Mercian border, now Nottinghamshire, slays him, b 
dissipating easily those few forces which he had got 
to march out overhastily with him ; who yet, as a 
testimony of his fortune not his valour to be blamed, 
slew first with his own hands Reiner the king's son. 
His two sons Oswald and Oswi, by Acca, Edwin's 
sister, escaped into Scotland. By this victory Red- 
wald became so far superiour to the other Saxon kings, 

z Post Christ. 617- a Malms. 1. 1. c. 3. b Camden. 



that Beda reckons him the next after Ella and Ethel- 
bert ; who, besides this conquest of the north, had 
likewise all on the other side Humber at his obedience. 
He had formerly in Kent received baptism, but com- 
ing home, and persuaded by his wife, who still it seems 
was his chief counsellor to good or bad alike, relapsed 
into his old religion : yet not willing* to forego his new, 
thought it not the worst way, lest perhaps he might 
err in either, for more assurance to keep them both ; and 
in the same temple erected one altar to Christ, another 
to his idols. But Edwin, as with more deliberation he 
undertook, and with more sincerity retained, the christian 
profession, so also in power and extent of dominion far 
exceeded all before him ; subduing all, saith Beda, 
English or British, even to the isles, then called Me- 
vanian, Anglesey, and Man ; settled in his kingdom 
by Redwald, he sought in marriage Edelburga, whom 
others called Tate, the daughter of Ethelbert. To 
whose embassadors Eadbald her brother made answer, 
that " to wed their daughter to a pagan, was not the 
christian law." Edwin replied, that " to her religion 
he would be no hinderance, w r hich with her whole 
household she might freely exercise. And moreover, 
that if examined it were found the better, he would 
embrace it." These ingenuous offers, opening so fair 
a way to the advancement of truth, are accepted,* 1 and 
Paulinus as a spiritual guardian sent along with the 
virgin. He being to that purpose made bishop by 
Justus, omitted no occasion to plant the Gospel in those 
parts, but with small success, till the next year* 3 Cui- 
chelm, at that time one of the two West-Saxon kings, 
envious of the greatness which he saw Edwin growing 
up to, sent privily Eumerus a hired swordsman to as- 
sassin him ; who, under pretence of doing- a message 
from his master, with a poisoned weapon stabs at Ed- 
win, conferring with him in his house, by the river 
Derwent in Yorkshire, on an Easter-day; which Lilla 
one of the king's attendants, at the instant perceiving, 
with a loyalty that stood not then to deliberate, aban- 
doned his whole body to the blow; which notwith- 
standing made passage through to the king's person 
with a wound not to be slighted. The murderer en- 
compassed now with swords, and desperate, forere- 
venges his own fall with the death of another, whom his 
poniard reached home. Paulinus omitting no opportunity 
to win the king from misbelief, obtained at length this 
promise from him ; that if Christ whom he so magni- 
fied, would give him to recover of his wound, and 
victory of his enemies who had thus assaulted him, he 
would then become christian, in pledge whereof he 
gave his young daughter Eanfled, to be bred up in re- 
ligion ; who, with twelve others of his family, on the 
day of Pentecost was baptized. And by that time well 
recovered of his wound, to punish the author of so foul 
a fact, he went with an army against the West Sax- 
ons: whom having quelled by war, and of such as had 
conspired against him, put some to death, others par- 
doned, he returned home victorious, and from that time 
worshipped no more his idols, yet ventured not rashly 
into baptism, but first took care to be instructed rightly 
c Bed. 1. 2. c. 15. d Post Christ. 626. e Post Christ. 625. 



518 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



what he learnt, examining' and still considering- with 
himself and others whom he held wisest; though Bo- 
niface the pope, by large letters of exhortation both to 
him and his queen, was not wanting- to quicken his be- 
lief. But while he still deferred, and his deferring 
might seem now to have passed the maturity of wis- 
dom to a faulty lingering-, Paulinus by revelation, as 
was believed, coming- to the knowledge of a secret 
which befel him strangely in the time of his troubles, 
on a certain day went in boldly to him, and laying his 
right hand on the head of the king, asked him if he re- 
membered what that sign meant; the king- trembling, 
and in amaze rising* up, straight fell at his feet. " Be- 
hold," saith Paulinus, raising- him from the ground, 
" God hath delivered you from your enemies, and 
g-iven you the kingdom as you desired : perform now 
what long' since you promised him, to receive his doc- 
trine, which I now bring' you, and the faith, which if 
you accept, shall to your temporal felicity add eternal." 
The promise claimed of him by Paulinus, how and 
wherefore made, though savouring* much of leg-end is 
thus related. Redwald, as we have heard before, daz- 
zled with the gold of Ethelfrid, or by his threatening 
overawed, having- promised to yield up Edwin, one of 
his faithful companions, of which he had some few 
with him in the court of Redwald, that never shrunk 
from his adversity, about the first hour of the night 
comes in haste to his chamber, and calling- him forth 
for better secrecy, reveals to him his dang-er, offers him 
his aid to make escape; but that course not approved, 
as«eeming dishonourable without move manifest cause 
to begin distrust towards one who had so long- been 
his only refug-e, the friend departs. Edwin left alone 
without the palace g-ate, full of sadness and perplexed 
thoughts, discerns about the dead of night a man 
neither by countenance nor by habit to him known, 
approaching towards him. Who after salutation asked 
him, "why at this hour, when all others were at rest, 
he alone so sadly sat waking on a cold stone." Edwin 
not a little misdoubting who he might be, asked him 
again, " what his sitting within doors, or without, con- 
cerned him to know." To whom he again, "Think 
not that who thou art, or why sitting here, or what 
danger hangs over thee is to me unknown : but what 
would you promise to that man, whoever would be- 
friend you out of all these troubles, and persuade Red- 
wald to the like?" "All that I am able," answered 
Edwin. And he, " What if the same man should pro- 
mise to make you greater than any English king hath 
been before you ? " "I should not doubt," quoth Ed- 
win, "to be answerably grateful." "And what if to 
all this he would inform you," said the other, " in a 
way to happiness, beyond what any of your ancestors 
hath known? would you hearken to his council?" 
Edwin without stopping promised "he would." And 
the other laying his right hand on Edwin's head, 
"When this sign," saith he, "shall next befal thee, 
remember this time of night, and this discourse, to 
perform what thou hast promised;" and with these 
words disappearing, he left Edwin much revived, but 

f Post Christ. 627. 



not less filled with wonder, who this unknown should 
be. When suddenly the friend who had been 
gone all this while to listen further what was like to 
be decreed of Edwin, comes back and joyfully bids 
him rise to his repose, for that the king's mind, though 
for a while drawn aside, was now fully resolved not 
only not to betray him, but to defend him against all 
enemies, as he had promised. This was said to be 
the cause why Edwin admonished by the bishop of a 
sign which had befallen him so strangely, and as he 
thought so secretly, arose to him with that reverence 
and amazement, as to one sent from heaven, to claim 
that promise of him which he perceived well was 
due to a divine power, that had assisted him in his 
troubles. To Paulinus therefore he makes answer, 
that the christian belief he himself ought by promise, 
and intended to receive ; but would confer first with 
his chief peers and counsellors, that if they like- 
wise could be won, all at once might be baptized. 
They therefore being asked in council what their 
opinion was concerning this new doctrine, and well 
perceiving which way the king inclined, every one 
thereafter shaped his reply. The chief priest, speaking 
first, discovered an old grudge he had against his gods, 
for advancing others in the king's favour above him 
their chief priest : another hiding his court-compliance 
with a grave sentence, commended the choice of cer- 
tain before uncertain, upon due examination; to like 
purpose answered all the rest of his sages, none openly 
dissenting from what was likely to be the king's creed : 
whereas the preaching of Paulinus could work no such 
effect upon them, toiling till that time without success. 
Whereupon Edwin, renouncing heathenism, became 
Christian : and the pagan priest, offering himself freely 
to demolish the altars of his former gods, made some 
amends for his teaching to adore them. f With Edwin, 
his two sons Osfrid and Eanfrid, born to him by Quen- 
burga, daughter, as saith Beda, of Kearle king of Mer- 
cia, in the time of his banishment, and with them most 
of the people, both noble and commons, easily convert- 
ed, were baptized ; he with his whole family at York, 
in a church easily built up of wood, the multitude most 
part in rivers. Northumberland thus christened, Pau- 
linus, crossing Humber, converted also the province of 
Lindsey, and Blecca the governor of Lincoln, with his 
household and most of that city ; wherein he built a 
church of stone, curiously wrought, but of small con- 
tinuance ; for the roof in Beda's time, uncertain whether 
by neglect or enemies, was down ; the walls only 
standing. Meanwhile in Mercia, Kearle, a kinsman of 
Wibba, saith Huntingdon, not a son, having long with- 
held the kingdom from Penda, Wibba's son, left it now 
at length in the fiftieth year of his age: with whom 
Kinegils and Cuichelm, the West-Saxon kings, two 
years after,? having by that time it seems recovered 
strength, since the inroad made upon them by Edwin, 
fought at Cirencester, then made truce. But Edwin 
seeking every way to propagate the faith, which with 
so much deliberation he had received, persuaded Eorp- 
wald, the son of Redwald, king of East-Angles, to em- 

g Post Christ. 629. Sax. ann. 



Book; IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



519 



brace the same belief; h willingly or in awe, is not 
known, retaining- under Edwin tbe name only of a 
king. * But Eorpwald not long survived his conver- 
sion, slain in fight by Riebert a. pagan : whereby the 
people havinglightly followed the religion of their king, 
as lightly fell back to their old superstitions for above 
three years after : Edwin in the mean while, to his 
faith adding virtue, by the due administration of jus- 
tice wrought such peace over all his territories, that 
from sea to sea man or woman might have travelled in 
safety. His care also was of fountains by the way side, 
to make them fittest for the use of travellers. And not 
unmindful of regal state, whether in war or in peace, 
he had a royal banner carried before him. But having 
reigned with much honour seventeen years, he was at 
length by Kedwallay or Cadwallon, king of the Bri- 
tons, who with aid of the Mercian Penda had rebelled 
against him, slain in a battle with his son Osfrid, at a 
place called Hethfield, and his whole army overthrown 
or dispersed in the year six hundred and thirty three,k 
and the forty-seventh of his age, in the eye of man 
worthy a more peaceful end. His head brought to 
York was there buried in the church by him begun. 
Sad was this overthrow, both to church and state of the 
Northumbrians: for Penda being a heathen, and the 
British king, though in name a Christian, but in deeds 
more bloody than the pagan, nothing was omitted of 
barbarous cruelty in the slaughter of sex or age ; Ked- 
walla threatening to root out the whole nation, though 
then newly christian. For the Britons, and, as Beda 
saith, even to his days, accounted Saxon Christianity 
no better than paganism, and with them held as little 
communion. From these calamities no refuge being 
left but flight, Paulinus taking with him Ethilburga the 
queen and her children, aided by Bassus, one of Ed- 
win's captains, made escape by sea to Eadbald king of 
Kent : who receiving his sister with all kindness, made 
Paulinus bishop of Rochester, where he ended his days. 
After Edwin, the kingdom of Northumberland became 
divided as before, each rightful heir seizing his part; 
in Deira Osric, the son of Elfric, Edwin's uncle, by 
profession a Christian, and baptized by Paulinus : in 
Bernicia, Eanfrid the son of Ethelfrid ; who all the 
time of Edwin, with his brother Oswald, and many of 
the young nobility, lived in Scotland exiled, and had 
been there taught and baptized. No sooner had they 
gotten each a kingdom, but both turned recreant, 
sliding back into their old religion ; and both were the 
same year slain ; Osric by a sudden eruption of Ked- 
walla, whom he in a strong town had unadvisedly be- 
sieged ; Eanfrid seeking peace, and inconsiderately 
I with a few surrendering himself. Kedwalla now ranged 
at will through both those provinces, using cruelly his 
conquest; 1 when Oswald the brother of Eanfrid with 
a small but christian army unexpectedly coming on, 
defeated and destroyed both him and his huge forces, 
which he boasted to be invincible, by a little river run- 
ning into Tine, near the ancient Roman wall then 
called Denisburn, the place afterwards Heaven-field, 



h Post Christ. 032. Sax. ann. 
k Post Christ. 633. 



i Florent. Genealog. 
1 Post Christ. 634. 



from the cross reported miracles for cures, which Os- 
wald there erected before the battle, in token of his 
faith against the great number of his enemies. Ob- 
taining the kingdom he took care to instruct again the 
people in Christianity. Sending therefore to the Scot- 
tish elders, Beda so terms them, among whom he had 
received baptism, requested of them some faithful 
teacher, who might again settle religion in his realm, 
which the late troubles had much impaired ; they, as 
readily hearkening to his request, send Aidan, a Scotch 
monk and bishop, but of singular zeal and meekness, 
with others to assist him, whom at their own desire he 
seated in Lindisfarne, as the episcopal seat, now Holy 
Island : and being the son of Ethelfrid, by the sister 
of Edwin, as right heir, others failing, easily reduced 
both kingdoms of Northumberland as before into one; 
nor of Edwin's dominion lost any part, but enlarged it 
rather ; over all the four British nations, A ngles, Britons, 
Picts, and Scots, exercising regal authority. Of his de- 
votion, humility, and almsdeeds, much is spoken; that 
he disdained not to be the interpreter of Aidan, preach- 
ing in Scotch or bad English, to his nobles and house- 
hold servants; and had the poor continually served at 
his gate, after the promiscuous manner of those times : 
his meaning might be upright, but the manner more 
ancient of private or of church-contribution is doubtless 
more evangelical. m About this time the West-Saxons^. 
anciently called Gevissi, by the preaching of Berinus, 
a bishop, whom pope Honorius had sent, were con- 
verted to the faith with Kinegils their king : him Os- 
wald received out of the font, and his daughter^ in 
marriage. n The next year Cuichelm was baptized in 
Dorchester, but lived not to the year's end. The East- 
Angles also this year were reclaimed to the faith of 
Christ, which for some years past they had thrown off. 
But Sigbert the brother of Eorpwald now succeeded in 
that kingdom, praised for a most christian and learned 
man : who while his brother yet reigned, living in 
France an exile, for some displeasure conceived against 
him by Redwald his father, learned there the christian, 
faith ; and reigning soon after, in the same instructed 
his people, by the preaching of Felix a Burgundian 
bishop. 

°In the year six hundred and forty Eadbold deceas- 
ing, left to Ercombert, his son by Emma the French 
king's daughter, the kingdom of Kent; recorded the 
first of English kings, who commanded through his 
limits the destroying of idols; laudably, if all idols 
without exception; and the first to have established 
Lent among us, under strict penalty; not worth re- 
membering, but only to inform us, that no Lent was 
observed here till his time by compulsion : especially 
being noted by some to have fraudulently usurped 
upon his elder brother Ermenred,P whose right was 
precedent to the crown. Oswald having reigned eight 
years,q worthy also as might seem of longer life, fell 
into the same fate with Edwin, and from the same 
hand, in a great battle overcome and slain by Penda, 
at a place called Maserfiekl, now Oswestre in Shrop- 

m Post Christ. 635. Sax. an. n Post Christ. 636. 

o Post Christ. 610. p Mat. West. q Post Christ. 642. 



520 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



shire, 1 " miraculous, as saith Beda, after his death. 
s His brother Oswi succeeded him ; reigning, though 
in much trouble, twenty-eight years; opposed either 
by Peuda, or his own son Alfred, or his brother's son 
Ethilwald. l Next year Kinegils the West-Saxon king 
dying left bis son Kenwalk in his stead, though as yet 
unconverted. About this time Sigebert king of East- 
Angles having learnt in France, ere his coming to 
reign, the manner of their schools, with the assistance 
of some teachers out of Kent instituted a school here 
after the same discipline, thought to be the university 
of Cambridge, then first founded ; and at length weary 
of his kingly office, betook him to a monastical life ; 
commending the care of government to his kinsman 
Egric, who had sustained with him part of that burden 
before. It happened some years after, that Penda 
made war on the East-Ang-les : they expecting a sharp 
encounter, besought Sigebert, whom they esteemed an 
expert leader, with his presence to confirm the soldiery; 
and him refusing - , carried by force out of the monastery 
into the camp; where acting the monk rather than the 
captain, with a single wand in his hand, he was slain 
with Egric, and his whole army put to flight. Anna 
of the royal stock, as next in right, succeeded ; and 
hath the praise of a virtuous and most christian prince. 
u But Kenwalk the West-Saxon having married the 
sister of Penda, and divorced her, was by him with 
more appearance of a just cause vanquished in light, 
and deprived of his crown : whence retiring to Anna 
king of East-Angles, after three years abode in his 
court x he there became christian, and afterwards re- 
gained his king'dom. Oswi in the former years of his 
reign had sharer with him Oswin, nephew of Edwin, 
who ruled in Deira seven years, commended much for 
his zeal in religion, and for comeliness of person, with 
other princely qualities, beloved of all. Notwithstand- 
ing which, dissensions growing between them, it came 
to arms. Oswin seeing himself much exceeded in 
numbers, thought it more prudence, dismissing his 
army, to reserve himself for some better occasion. But 
committing his person with one faithful attendant to 
the loyalty of Hunwald an earl, his imagined friend, 
he was by him treacherously discovered, and by com- 
mand of Oswi slain, y After whom within twelve 
days, and for grief of him whose death he foretold, 
died bishop Aidan, famous for his charity, meekness, 
and labour in the gospel. The fact of Oswi was de- 
testable to all ; which therefore to expiate, a monastery 
was built in the place where it was done, and prayers 
there daily offered up for the souls of both kings, the 
slain and the slayer. Kenwalk, by this time re-in- 
stalled in his kingdom, kept it long, but with various 
fortune ; for Beda relates him ofttimes afflicted by his 
enemies, 2 with great losses : and in six hundred and 
fifty-two, by the annals, fought a battle (civil war 
Ethelwerd calls it) at Bradanford by the river Afene ; 
against whom, and for what cause, or who had the 
virtoiv, they write not. Camden names the place 
Bradford in Wiltshire, by the river Avon, and Cuthred 



r Can I Bed. I. 3. c. 1 1, 

u I'oit Christ OIj. Sa>.. an. 



t Post Christ. 643. Sax. 
x Pobi Cluist. cia. 



his near kinsman, against whom he fought, but cites 
no authority ; certain it is, that Kenwalk four years 
before had given large possessions to his nephew 
Cuthred, the more unlikely therefore now to have re^ 
belled. 

a The next year Peada, whom his father Penda, 
though a heathen, had for his princely virtues made 
prince of Middle-Angles, belonging to the Mercians, 
was with that people converted to the faith. For com- 
ing to Oswi with request to have in marriage Alfleda 
his daughter, he was denied her, but on condition that 
he with all his people should receive Christianity. 
Hearing therefore not unwillingly what was preached 
to him of resurrection and eternal life, much persuaded 
also by Alfrid the king's son, who had his sister Kyni- 
burg to wife, he easily assented, for the truth's sake 
only as he professed, whether he obtained the virgin or 
no, and was baptized with all his followers. Return- 
ing, be took with him four presbyters to teach the 
people of his province; who by their daily preaching 
won many. Neither did Penda, though himself no 
believer, prohibit any in his kingdom to hear or believe 
the gospel, but rather hated and despised those, who, 
professing to believe, attested not their faith by good 
works; condemning them for miserable and justly to 
be despised, who obey not that God, in whom they 
choose to believe. How well might Penda, this heathen, 
rise up in judgment against many pretended Christians, 
both of his own and these days ! yet being a man bred 
up to war, (as no less were others then reigning, and 
ofttimes one against another, though both Christians,) 
he warred on Anna king of the b East Angles, perhaps 
without cause, for Anna was esteemed a just man, and 
at length slew him. About this time the East Saxons, 
who, as above bath been said, had expelled their bishop 
Mellitus, and renounced the faith, were by the means 
of Oswi thus reconverted. Sigebert, sumamed the 
small, being the son of Seward, without other memory 
of his reign, left his son king of that province, after 
him Sigebert the second; who coming often to visit 
Oswi his great friend, was by him at several times 
fervently dissuaded from idolatry, and convinced at 
length to forsake it, was there baptized ; on his return 
home taking with him Kedda a laborious preacher, 
afterwards made bishop ; by whose teaching, with 
some help of others, the people were again recovered 
from misbelief. But Sigebert some years after, though 
standing fast in religion, was by the conspiracy of two 
brethren, in place near about him, wickedly murdered ; 
who being asked, " What moved them to a deed so 
heinous," gave no other than this barbarous answer ; 
" That they were angry with him for being so gentle 
to his enemies, as to forgive them their injuries when- 
ever they besought him." Yet his death seems to have 
happened not without some cause by hitn given of 
divine displeasure. For one of those earls who slew 
him, living in unlawful wedlock, and therefore excom- 
municated so severely by the bishop, that no man 
might presume to enter into his house, much Jess to sit 



y Post Christ. 651. Bede. 
a Post Christ. 653. 



z Bed. 1. 3. c.7. Post Christ. 652. 
b Post Christ. 651. Sax. an. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



521 



at meat with him, the king- not regarding- his church- 
censure, went to feast with him at his invitation. 
Whom the bishop meeting- in his return, though peni- 
tent for what he had done, and fallen at his feet, touched 
with the rod in his hand, and angrily thus foretold : 
" Because thou hast neglected to abstain from the house 
of that excommunicate, in that house thou shalt die ;" 
and so it fell out, perhaps from that prediction, God 
bearing- witness to his minister in the power of church- 
discipline, spiritually executed, not juridically on the 
contemner thereof. This year c 655 proved fortunate 
to Oswi, and fatal to Penda ; for Oswi by the continual 
inroads of Penda having long endured much devast- 
ation, to the endangering once by assault and fire 
Bebbanburg, d his strongest city, now Bamborrow-cas- 
tle, unable to resist him, with many rich presents offered 
to buy his peace, which not accepted by the pagan , e 
who intended nothing but destruction to that king-, 
though more than once in affinity with him, turning- 
gifts into vows, he implores divine assistance, devoting, 
if he were delivered from his enemy, a child of one 
year old, his daughter, to be a nun, and twelve portions 
of land whereon to build monasteries. His vows, as 
may be thought, found better success than his proffered 
gifts ; for hereupon with his son Alfrid, gathering a 
small power, he encountered and discomfited the Mer- 
cians, thirty times exceeding his in number, and led on 
by expert captains/ at a place called Laydes, now 
Leeds in Yorkshire. Besides this Ethelwald, the son 
of Oswald, who ruled in Deira, took part with the 
Mercians ; but in the fight withdrew his forces, and in 
a safe place expected the event : with which unseason- 
able retreat the Mercians, perhaps terrified and mis- 
doubting more danger, fled; their commanders, with 
Penda himself, most being slain, among whom Edil- 
here the brother of Anna, who ruled after him the East- 
Angles, and was the author of this war; many more 
flying were drowned in the river, which Beda calls 
Winwed, then swoln above its banks.s The death of 
Penda, who had been the death of so many g*ood kings, 
made general rejoicing, as the song- witnessed. At the 
river Winwed, Anna was avenged. To Edelhere suc- 
ceeded Ethelwald his brother, in the East-Angles ; to 
Sigebert in the East-Saxons, Suidhelm the son of Sex- 
bald, saith Bede, h the brother of Sigebert, saith Malms- 
bury ; he was baptized by Kedda, then residing in the 
East- Angles, and by Ethelwald the king received out 
of the font. But Oswi in the strength of his late victory, 
within' three years after subdued all Mercia, and of the 
Pictish nation greatest part, at which time he gave to 
Peada his son-in-law the kingdom of South-Mercia, 
divided from the Northern by Trent. But Peada the 
spring following, as was said, by the treason of his wife 
the daughter of Oswi, married by him for a special Chris- 
tian, on the feast of Easter k not protected by the holy 
time, was slain. The Mercian nobles, Immin, Eaba, 
and Eadbert, throwing off the government of Oswi, set 
up Wulfer the other son of Penda to be their king, 
whom till then they had kept hid, and with him ad- 

c Post Christ. 655. d Bed. 1. 3. c. 16. e Camd. 

f Camden. g Mat. West. h Bed. ]. 3. c. 22. 

i Post Christ. 658. Sax. ami. k Post Christ. 659. Sax. arm. 



hered to the christian faith. Kenwalk the West-Saxon, 
now settled at home, and desirous to enlarge his do- 
minion, prepares against the Britons, joins battle with 
them at Pen in Somersetshire, and overcoming, pursues 
them to Pedridan. Another fight he had with them 
before, at a place called Witgeornesburg, barely men- 
tioned by the monk of Malmsbury. Nor was it long 
ere he fell at variance with Wulfer the son of Penda, 
his old enemy, scarce yet warm in his throne, foug-ht 
with him at Possentesburg-h, on the Easter holydays, 1 
and as Ethelwerd saith, took him prisoner ; but the 
Saxon annals, quite otherwise, that Wulfer winning- 
the field, wasted the West-Saxon country as far as 
Eskesdun : nor staying there, took and wasted the 
isle of Wight, but causing- the inhabitants to be bap- 
tized, till then unbelievers, gave the island to Ethel- 
wald king of South-Saxons, whom he had received out 
of the font. The year m six hundred and sixty-four a 
synod of Scottish and English bishops, in the presence 
of Oswi and Alfred his son, was held at a monastery in 
those parts, to debate on what day Easter should be 
kept ; a controversy which long before had disturbed 
the Greek and Latin churches : wherein the Scots not 
agreeing with the way of Rome ; nor yielding to the 
disputants on that side, to whom the king most in- 
clined, such as were bishops here, resigned, and returned 
home with their disciples. Another clerical question 
was there also much controverted, not so superstitious 
in my opinion as ridiculous, about the right shaving- of 
crowns. The same year was seen an eclipse of the sun 
in May, followed by a sore pestilence beg-iiming in the 
South," but spreading to the North, and over all Ireland 
with great mortality. In which time the East-Saxons, 
after Swithelm's decease, being governed by Siger the 
son of Sigebert the small, and Sebbi of Seward, though 
both subject to the Mercians ; Siger and his people 
unsteady of faith, supposing that this plague was come 
upon them for renouncing their old religion, fell off 
the second time to infidelity. Which the Mercian king' 
Wulfer understanding, sent Jarumaunus a faithful 
bishop, who with other his fellow-labourers, by sound 
doctrine and gentle dealing, soon recured them of 
their second relapse. In Kent, Ercombert expiring', 
was succeeded by his son Ecbert. In whose fourth 
year,o by means of Theodore, a learned Greekish 
monk of Tarsus, whom pope Vitalian had ordained 
archbishop of Canterbury, the Greek and Latin tongue, 
with other liberal arts, arithmetic, music, astronomy, 
and the like, began first to flourish among the Saxons ; 
as did also the whole land, under potent and religious 
kings, more than ever before, as Bede affirms, till his 
own days. Two years p after in Northumberland died 
Oswi, much addicted to Romish rites, and resolved, 
had his disease released him, to have ended his days 
at Rome. Ecfrid, the eldest of his sons begot in wed- 
lock, succeeded him. After others three years, Ecbert 
in Kent deceasing, left nothing memorable behind 
him, but the general suspicion to have slain or connived 
at the slaughter of his uncle's two sons, Elbert and 

1 Post Christ. C61. Sax. arm. m Post Christ. 664. Bed. 

Q Malms. o Post Christ. 66B. Sax. ami. 

p Post Christ. 670. Sax. arm. q Post Christ. 673. Sax. arm. 



522 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



Egelbright. In recompense whereof he gave to the r 
mother of them part of Tanet, wherein to build an ab- 
bey ; the kingdom fell to his brother Lothair. And 
much about this time by best account it should be, how- 
everplaced in Beda, s thatEcfridofNorthumberland, hav- 
ing war with the Mercian Wulfer, won from him Lind- 
sey, and the country thereabout. Sebbi having reigned 
over the East-Saxons thirty years, not long before his 
death, though long before desiring, took on him the 
habit of a monk ; and drew his wife at length, though 
unwilling, to the same devotion. Kenwalk also dying 
left the government to Sexburga his wife, who outlived 
him in it but one year, driven out, saith Mat. Westm. 
by the nobles disdaining female government. * After 
whom several petty kings, as Beda calls them, for ten 
years space divided the West-Saxons ; others name 
two, Esc win, the nephew of Kinegils, and Kentwin 
the son, not petty by their deeds : u for Escwin fought 
a battle with Wulfer, x at Bedanhafde, and about a year 
after both deceased ; but Wulfer not without a stain 
left behind him of selling the bishoprick of London to 
Wini; the first simonist we read of in this story: Ken- 
walk had before expelled him from his chair at Win- 
chester. Ethelred, the brother of Wulfer, obtaining 
next the kingdomof'Mercia, not only recovered Lindsey, 
and what besides in those parts Wulfer had lost to 
Ecfrid some years before, but found himself strong 
enough to extend his arms another way, as far as Kent, 
wasting that country without respect to church or mo- 
nastery ,y much also endamaging the city of Rochester, 
notwithstanding what resistance Lothair could make 
against him. z In August six hundred and seventy- 
eight was seen a morning- comet for three months fol- 
lowing, in manner of a fiery pillar. And the South- 
Saxons about this time were converted to the christian 
faith, upon this occasion. Wilfred bishop of the Nor- 
thumbrians entering into contention with Ecfrid the 
king, was by him deprived of his bishoprick, and long 
wandering up and down as far as Rome, a returned at 
length into England ; but not daring to approach the 
north, whence he was banished, bethought him where 
he might to best purpose elsewhere exercise his minis- 
try. The sou tli of all other Saxons remained yet 
heathen ; but Ediwalk their king not long before had 
been baptized in Mercia, persuaded by Wulfer, and 
In him, as hath been said, received out of the font. 
b For which relation's sake he had the Isle of Wight, 
and a province of the Meannari adjoining given him 
on the continent about Meanesborow in Hantshire, 
which Wulfer had a little before gotten from Kenwalk. 
Thither Wilfrid takes his journey, and with the help of 
other spiritual labourers about him, in short time planted 
there the gospel. It had not rained, as is said, of 
three years before in that country, whence many of 
the people daily perished by famine ; till on the first 
day of their public baptism, soft and plentiful showers 
descending restored all abundance to the summer fol- 
lowing. "Two years after this, Kentwin the other 

i -\' a ' ', ,' ' ' , '°- , 1 Post Christ. 07 1. Bed. I. 4. c. 12. 

■V /"'• . r * Ma Post Christ. 676 . y Bed I 4 c l" 

a Post Christ. 679. b Bed. l/4.c. 13 Camden. 
'•*■ '''■ *ax.an. d Post Christ. 683. Sax. an. 



West-Saxon king above named, chaced the Welsh 
Britons, as is chronicled without circumstance, to 
the very sea-shore. But in the year, by Beda's reck- 
oning, six hundred and eighty-three, d Kedvalla a 
West-Saxon of the royal line, (whom the Welsh 
will have to be Cadwallader, last king of the Britons,) 
thrown out by faction, returned from banishment, and 
invaded both Kentwin, if then living, or whoever 
else had divided the succession of Kenwalk, slay- 
ing in fight Edelwalk the South-Saxon, who op- 
posed him in their aid ; e but soon after was re- 
pulsed by two of his captains, Bertune and Audune, 
who for a while held the province in their power. f 
But Kedwalla gathering new force, with the slaughter 
of Bertune, and also of Edric the successor of Edel- 
walk, won the kingdom ; but reduced the people to 
heavy thraldom, e Then addressing to conquer the 
Isle of Wight, till that time pagan, saith Beda, (others 
otherwise, as above hath been related,) made a vow, 
though himself yet unbaptized, to devote the south 
part of that island, and the spoils thereof, to holy uses. 
Conquest obtained, paying his vow as then was the be- 
lief, he gave his fourth to bishop Wilfrid, by chance 
there present ; and he to Bertwin a priest, his sister's 
son, with commission to baptize all the vanquished, 
who meant to save their lives. But the two young 
sons of Arwald, king of that island, met with much 
more hostility : for they, at the enemy's approach fly- 
ing out of the isle, and betrayed where they were hid 
not far from thence, were led to Ked waller, who lay 
then under cure of some wounds received, and by his 
appointment, after instruction and baptism first given 
them, harshly put to death, which the youths are said 
above their age to have christianly suffered. In Kent 
Lothair died this year of his wounds received in the 
fight against the South-Saxons, led on by Edric, who 
descending from Ermenred, it seems challenged the 
crown, and wore it, though not commendably, one 
year and a half: but coming to a violent death, h left 
the land exposed a prey either to homebred usurpers, or 
neighbouring invaders. Among whom Kedwalla, 
taking advantage from their civil distempers, and 
marching easily through the South-Saxons, whom he 
had subdued, sorely harassed the county, untouched 
of a long time by any hostile incursion. But the 
Kentish men, all parties uniting against a common 
enemy, with joint power so opposed him, that he was 
constrained to retire back ; his brother Mollo in the 
flight, with twelve men in his company, seeking 
shelter in a house was beset, and therein burnt by the 
pursuers: 1 Kedwalla much troubled at so great a loss, 
recalling and soon rallying his disordered forces, re- 
turned fiercely upon the chasing enemy ; k nor could 
he be got out of the province, till both by fire and 
sword he had avenged the death of his brother. 1 At 
length Victrcd, the son of Ecbert, attaining the king- 
dom, both settled at home all things in peace, and se- 
cured his borders from all outward hostility. m While 

e Bed. I. 4. c. 15. f Malms. Tost. Christ. 684. g Bed. 1. 4. c. 15* 

h Post Christ. 685. Malms. 

i Sax. an. Malms. k Post Christ. 686. 

1 Post Christ. 687. m Bed. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



523 



thus Kedwalla disquieted both West and East, after 
his winning- the crown, Ecfrid the Northumbrian, 
and Ethelred the Mercian, fought a sore battle by the 
river Trent ; wherein Elfwin brother to Ecfrid, a youth 
of eighteen years, much beloved, was slain ; and the 
accident likely to occasion much more shedding of 
blood, peace was happily made up by the grave exhor- 
tation of Archbishop Theodore, a pecuniary fine only 
paid to Ecfrid, as some satisfaction for the loss of his 
brother's life. Another adversity befel Ecfrid in his 
family, by means of Ethildrith his wife, king Anna's 
daughter, who having taken him for her husband, and 
professing to love him above all other men, persisted 
twelve years in the obstinate refusal of his bed, thereby 
thinking to live the purer life. So perversely then 
was chastity instructed against the apostle's rule. At 
length obtaining of him with much importunity her 
departure, she veiled herself a nun, then made abbess 
of Ely, died seven years after of the pestilence ; and 
might with better warrant have kept faithfully her un- 
dertaken wedlock, though now canonized St. Audrey 
of Ely. In the mean while Ecfrid had sent Berlus 
with a power to subdue Ireland, a harmless nation, 
saith Bcda, and ever friendly to the English ; in both 
which they seem to have left a posterity much unlike 
them at this day; miserably wasted, without regard 
had to places hallowed or profane ; they betook them- 
selves partly to their weapons, partly to implore divine 
aid ; and, as was thought, obtained it in their full 
avengement upon Ecfrid. For he the next year, against 
the mind and persuasion of his sagest friends, and es- 
pecially of Cudbert a famous bishop of that age, 
marching unadvisedly against the Picts, who long be- 
fore had been subject to Northumberland, was by them 
feigning flight, drawn unawares into narrow straits, 
overtopped with hills, and cut off with most of his 
army. From which time, saith Bed a, military valour 
began among the Saxons to decay, not only the Picts 
till then peaceable, but some part of the Britons also 
recovered by arms their liberty for many years after. 
Yet Alfrid elder, but base brother to Ecfrid, a man said 
to be learned in the Scriptures, recalled from Ireland, 
to which place in his brother's reign he had retired, 
and now succeeding, upheld with much honour, though 
in narrower bounds, the residue of his kingdom. Ked- 
walla having now with great disturbance of his neigh- 
bours reigned over the West-Saxons two years, besides 
what time he spent in gaining it, wearied perhaps 
with his own turbulence, went to Rome, desirous there 
to receive baptism, which till then his worldly affairs 
had deferred ; and accordingly, on Easter-day, six 
hundred and eighty-nine, 11 he was baptized by Sergius 
the pope, and his name changed to Peter. All which 
notwithstanding, surprised with a disease, he outlived 
not the ceremony so far sought much above the space 
of five weeks, in the thirtieth year of his age, and in 
the church of St. Peter was there buried, with a large 
epitaph upon his tomb. Him succeeded Ina of the 
royal family, and from the time of his coming in for 



n Post Christ. 689. 
p Post Christ. 69». 
s_Pust Christ. 704. 



o Malms. Sax. an. Ethel werd. 
q Post Christ. 697. r Post Christ. 69B. 

t Post Christ. 705, u Post Christ. 7u9. 



many years oppressed the land with like grievances, 
as Kedwalla had done before him, insomuch that in 
those times there was no bishop among them. His 
first expedition was into Kent, to demand satisfaction 
for the burning of Mollo: Victred, loth to hazard all, 
for the rash act of a few, delivered up thirty of those 
that could be found accessory, or as others say, pa- 
cified Ina with a great sum of money. Meanwhile, 
at the incitement of Ecbert, a devout monk, Wil- 
brod, a priest eminent for learning, passed over sea, 
having twelve others in company, with intent to 
preach the gospel in Germany.p And coming to 
Pepin chief regent of the Franks, who a little before 
had conquered the hither Frisia, by his countenance 
and protection, promise also of many benefits to them 
who should believe, they found the work of conversion 
much the easier, and Wilbrod the first bishopric in 
that nation. But two priests, each of them Hewald 
by name, and for distinction surnamed from the colour 
of their hair, the black and the white, by his example 
piously affected to the souls of their countrymen the 
Old Saxons, at their coming thither to convert them 
met with much worse entertainment. For in the house 
of a farmer, who had promised to convey them, as they 
desired, to the governour of that country, discovered 
by their daily ceremonies to be christian priests, and 
the cause of their coming suspected, they were by him 
and his heathen neighbours cruelly butchered ; yet not 
unavenged, for the governour enraged at such violence 
offered to his strangers, sending armed men slew all 
those inhabitants, and burnt their village, q After 
three years in Mercia, Ostrid the queen, wife to Ethel- 
red, was killed by her own nobles, as Beda's epitome 
records; Florence calls them Southimbrians, negli- 
gently omitting the cause of so strange a fact. r And 
the year following, Bethred a Northumbrian general, 
was slain by the Picts. s Ethelred, seven years after 
the violent death of his queen, put on the monk, and 
resigned his kingdom to Kenrid the son of Wulfer his 
brother. tThe next year Alfrid in Northumberland 
died, leaving Osred a child of eight years to succeed 
him. u Four years after which, Kenred, having a 
while with praise governed the Mercian kingdom, 
went to Rome in the time of pope Constantine, and 
shorn a monk spent there the residue of his days. 
Kelred succeeded him, the son of Ethelred, who had 
reigned the next before. With Kenred went Offa the 
son of Siger, king of the East-Saxons, and betook him 
to the same habit, leaving his wife and native country; 
a comely person in the prime of his youth, much de- 
sired of the people ; and such his virtue by report, as 
might have otherwise been worthy to have reigned. 
x Ina the West-Saxon one year after fought a battle, 
at first doubtful, at last successful, against Gerent king 
of Wales, y The next year Bertfrid, another Northum- 
brian captain, fought with the Picts, and slaughtered 
them, saith Huntingdon, to the full avengement of 
Ecfrid's death. z The fourth year after, Ina had an- 
other doubtful and cruel battle at Woodnesburgh in 



x Post Christ. 710. Sax. AnnaJL 
z Bed. Epid. Post Christ. 715. 



y Huntingd. Post Christ. 7U. 



524 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



Wiltshire, with Kenred the Mercian, who died the year 
following- a lamentable death : a for as he sat one day 
feasting 1 with his nobles, suddenly possessed with an 
evil spirit, he expired in despair, as Boniface arch- 
bishop of Mente, an Englishman, who taxes him for a 
denier of nuns, writes by way of caution to Ethelbald 
his next of kin, who succeeded him. Osred also a 
young Northumbrian king 1 , slain by his kindred in the 
eleventh of his reign for his vicious life and incest 
committed with nuns, was by Kenred succeeded and 
avenged ; he reigning two years left Osric in his room. 
b In whose seventh year, if Beda calculate right, Vic- 
tred king of Kent deceased, having* reigned thirty-four 
years, and some part of them with Suebbard, as Beda c 
testifies. He left behind him three sons, Ethelbert, 
Eadbert, and Alric his heirs. (i Three years after which 
appeared two comets about the sun, terrible to behold, 
the one before him in the morning, the other after him 
in the evening, for the space of two weeks in January, 
bending their blaze toward the north ; at which time 
the Saracens furiously invaded France, but were ex- 
pelled soon after with great overthrow. The same year 
in Northumberland, Osric, dying or slain, adopted 
Kelwulf the brother of Kenred his successor, to whom 
Beda dedicates his story ;e but writes this only of him, 
that the beginning and the process of his reign met 
with many adverse commotions, whereof the event was 
then doubtfully expected. Meanwhile Ina, seven 
years before having slain Kenwulf, to whom Florent 
gives the addition of Clito, given usually to none but 
of the blood royal, and the fourth year after overthrown 
and slain Albright another Clito, driven from Taunton 
to the South-Saxons for aid, vanquished also the East- 
Angles in more than one battle, as Malmsbury writes, 
but not the year; whether to expiate so much blood, 
or infected with the contagious humour of those times, 
Malmsbury saith, at the persuasion of Ethelburga his 
wife, went to Rome, and there ended his days; yet this 
praise left behind him, to hive made good laws, the 
first of Saxon that remain extant to this day, and to 
his kinsman Edclard bequeathed the crown, no less 
than the whole monarchy of England and Wales. For 
Ina, if we believe a digression in the laws of Edward 
Confessor, was the first king crowned of English and 
British, since the Saxons' entrance ; of the British by 
means of his second wife, some way related to Cad- 
wallader last king of Wales, which I had not noted, 
being unlikely, but for the place where I found it. 
'After Ina, by a surer author, Ethelbald king of Mer- 
cia commanded all the provinces on this side Humbcr, 
with their kings: the Picts were in league with the 
English, the Scots peaceable within their bounds, and 
"! tli<' Britons part were in their own government, 
put subject to the English. In which peaceful state 
of the land, many in Northumberland, both nobles and 
Commons, laving aside the exercise of arms, betook 
them to the cloister : and not content so to do at home, 
many in the days of Ina, clerks and laics, men and 
iromeu, basting to Home in herds, thought themselves 



Hunlingd. Post Christ. 710. 



b I' • ' lirut. 7IK. 
<i Post Christ. 728. 



c I.. 5. c. 9. Post Christ. 7?5. 
e Bed. I. 5. c. 24. 



no where sure of eternal life till they were cloistered 
there. Thus representing the state of things in this 
island, Beda surceased to write. Out of whom chiefly 
has been gathered, since the Saxons' arrival, such as 
hath been delivered, a scattered story picked out here 
and there, with some trouble and tedious work, from 
among his many legends of visions and miracles ; 
toward the latter end so bare of civil matters, as 
what can be thence collected may seem a calendar 
rather than a history, taken up for the most part with 
succession of kings, and computation of years, yet 
those hard to be reconciled with the Saxon annals. 
Their actions we read of were most commonly wars, 
but for what cause waged, or by what councils carried 
on, no care was had to let us know ; whereby their 
strength and violence we understand, of their wis- 
dom, reason, or justice, little or nothing, the rest 
superstition and monastical affectation ; kings one 
after another leaving their kingly charge, to run their 
heads fondly into a monk's cowl ; which leaves us 
uncertain whether Beda was wanting- to his matter, or 
his matter to him. Yet from hence to the Danish in- 
vasion it will be worse with us, destitute of Beda. Left 
only to obscure and blockish chronicles ; whom Malms- 
bury, and Huntingdon, (for neither they nor we had 
better authors of those times,) ambitious to adorn the 
history, make no scruple ofttimes, I doubt, to interline 
with conjectures and surmises of their own ; them rather 
than imitate, I shall choose to represent the truth 
naked, though as lean as a plain journal. Yet William 
of Malmsbury must be acknowledged, both for style 
and judgment, to be by far the best writer of them all: 
but what labour is to be endured turning over volumes of 
rubbish in the rest, Florence of Worcester, Huntingdon, 
Simeon of Durham, Hoveden, Matthew of Westmin- 
ster, and many others of obscurer note, with all their 
monachisms, is a penance to think. Yet these are our 
only registers, transcribers one after another for the 
most part, and sometimes worthy enoug'h for the things 
they register. This travail, rather than not know at 
once what may be known of our ancient story, sifted 
from fables and impertinences, I voluntarily undergo ; 
and to save others, if they please, the like unpleasing 
labour; except those who take pleasure to be all their 
lifetime raking the foundations of old abbeys and ca- 
thedrals. But to my task now as it befalls. e In the 
year seven hundred and thirty-three, on the eighteenth 
kalends of September, was an eclipse of the sun about 
the third hour of day, obscuring almost his whole 
orb as with a black shield. h Ethelbald of Mercia be- 
sieged and took the castle or town of Somerton : J and 
two years after Beda our historian died, some say the 
year before. k Kelwulf in Northumberland three years 
after became monk in Lindisfarne, yet none of the se- 
verest, for he brought those monks from milk and water 
to wine and ale; in which doctrine no doubt but they 
were soon docile, and well might, for Kelwulf brought 
with him good provision, great treasure and revenues 
of bind, recited by Simeon, yet all under pretence of 



f Rp<Ip. Post Christ. 731. 
h Ethelwenl. 

k Post Christ. 738. Malms. 



g Post Christ. 733. Sax. an. 
i Post Christ. 735. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



525 



following- (I use the author's words) poor Christ, by 
voluntary poverty : no marvel then if such applause 
were given by monkish writers to kings turning- monks, 
and much cunning- perhaps used to allure them. To 
Eadbert his uncle's son, he left the kingdom, whose 
brother Ecbert, archbishop of York, built a library 
there. 1 But two years after, while Eadbert was busied 
in war ag-ainst the Picts, Ethelbald the Mercian, by 
foul fraud, assaulted part of Northumberland in his 
absence, as the supplement to Beda's epitome records. 
In the West-Saxons, Edelard, who succeeded Ina, 
having been much molested in the beginning of his 
reign, with the rebellion of Oswald his kinsman, who 
contended with him for the right of succession, over- 
coming at last those troubles, died in peace seven hun- 
dred and forty-one, m leaving Cuthred one of the same 
lineage to succeed him ; who at first had much war 
with Ethelbald the Mercian, and various success, but 
joining with him in league two years after," made war 
on the Welsh ; Huntingdon doubts not to give them a 
great victory. ° And Simeon reports another battle 
fought between Britons and Picts the year ensuing. 
Now was the kingdom of East-Saxons drawing to a 
period, for Sigeard and Senfred the sons of Sebbi hav- 
ing reigned a while, and after them young Offa, who 
soon quitted bis kingdom to go to Rome with Kenred, 
as hath been said, the government was conferred on 
Selred son of Sigebert the Good, who having ruled 
thirty-eight years,P came to a violent death; how or 
wherefore, is not set down. After whom Swithred was 
the last king, driven out by Ecbert the West-Saxon : 
but London, with countries adjacent, obeyed the Mer- 
cians till they also were dissolved. °i Cuthred had now- 
reigned about nine years, when Kinric his son, a va- 
liant young prince, was in a military tumult slain by 
his own soldiers. The same year Eadbert dying in 
Kent, his brother Edilbert reigned in his stead. r But 
after two years, the other Eadbert in Northumberland, 
whose war with the Picts hath been above mentioned, 
made now such progress there, as to subdue Kyle, so 
saith the auctarie of Bede, and other countries there- 
about, to his dominion ; while Cuthred the West-Saxon 
had a fight with Ethelhun, one of his nobles, a stout 
warrior, envied by him in some matter of the common- 
wealth, 8 as far as by the Latin of Ethel werd can be 
understood, (others interpret it sedition,) and with much 
ado overcoming, took Ethelhun for his valour into fa- 
vour, by whom faithfully served in the twelfth or thir- 
teenth of his reign, he encountered in a set battle with 
Ethelbald the Mercian at Beorford, now Burford in 
Oxfordshire, * one year after against the Welsh, which 
was the last but one of his life. Huntingdon, as his 
manner is to comment upon the annal text, makes a 
terrible description of that fight between Cuthred and 
Ethelbald, and the prowess of Ethelhun, at Beorford, 
but so affectedly, and therefore suspiciously, that I 
hold it not worth rehearsal : and both in that and the 






1 Post Christ. 740. m Post Christ. 741. Malmsb. Sax. an. 

n Post Christ. 743. Sim. Dun. 

o Post Christ. 741. Hoved. Malms. Sax. an. p Post Christ. 746. 

q Post Christ. 748. Sax. an. Huntingd. r Post Christ. 750. 

s Huntingd. Post Christ. 752. Camd. t Post Christ. 753. 

u Sax. an. Post Christ. 754. Malms. x Post Christ. 755. 



latter conflict gives victory to Guthred ; after whom 
Sigebert," uncertain by what right, his kinsman, saith 
Florent, stepped into the throne, whom, hated for his 
cruelty and other evil doings, Kinwulf, joining with 
most of the nobility, dispossessed of all but Hamshire ; 
that province he lost also within a year, x together with 
the love of all those who till then remained his adhe- 
rents, by slaying Cumbran, one of his chief captains, 
who for a long time had faithfully served, and now dis- 
suaded, him from incensing the people by such tyran- 
nical practices, y Thence flying for safety into Andrew's 
wood, forsaken of all, he was at length slain by the 
swineherd of Cumbran in revenge of his master, and 
Kinwulf, who had undoubted right to the crown, joy- 
fully saluted king, z The next year Eadbert the Nor- 
thumbrian, joining forces with Unust king of the Picts, 
as Simeon writes, besieged and took by surrender the 
city of Alcluith, now Dimbritton in Lennox, from the 
Britons of Cumberland ; and ten days after, a the whole 
army perished about Nivvanbirig, but to tell us how, he 
forgets. In Mercia, Ethelbald was slain at a place 
called Secandune, now Seckington in Warwickshire, 
the year following, 5 in a bloody fight against Cuthred, 
as Huntingdon surmises, but Cuthred was dead two or 
three years before ; others write him murdered in the 
night by his own guard, and the treason, as some say, 
of Beornred, who succeeded him ; but ere many months 
was defeated and slain by Offa. Yet Ethelbald seems 
not without cause, after a long and prosperous reign, 
to have fallen by a violent death ; not shaming, on the 
vain confidence of his many alms, to commit unclean- 
ness with consecrated nuns, besides laic adulteries, as 
the archbishop of Mentz in a letter taxes him and his 
predecessor, and that by his example most of bis peers 
did the like; which adulterous doings he foretold him 
were likely to produce a slothful offspring, good for 
nothing but to be the ruin of that kingdom, as it fell 
out not long after. c The next year Osmund, accord- 
ing to Florence, ruling the South-Saxons, and Swithred 
the East, Eadbert in. Northumberland, following the 
steps of his predecessor, got him into a monk's hood ; 
the more to be wondered, that having reigned worthily 
twenty-one years, d with the love and high estimation 
of all, both at home and abroad, still able to g-overn, 
and much entreated by the kings his neighbours, not 
to lay down his charge ; with offer on that condition 
to yield up to him part of their own dominion, he could 
not be moved from his resolution, but relinquished his 
regal office to Oswulf his son ; who at the year's end, e 
though without just cause, was slain by his own ser- 
vants. And the year after died Ethelbert, son of Vic- 
tred, the second of that name in Kent. After Oswulf, 
Ethelwakl, otherwise called Mollo, was set up king; 
who in his third year f had a g-reat battle at Eldune, by 
Melros, slew Oswin a great Lord, rebelling, and gain- 
ed the victory. But the third year after s fell by the 
treachery of Alcred, who assumed his place. h The 

y Huntingdon. z Post Christ. 756. Camd. a Camd. 

b Post Christ. 757. Sax. an, Epit. Bed. Sun. Dun. 

c Post Christ. 758. d Sim. Dun. Eccles. 1. C. 

e Post Christ. 759. f Post Christ. 762. Sim. Dun. Mat. West. 

g Post Christ. 765. Sim. Dun. 

h Post Christ. 76y. 



526 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



fourth year after which, Cataracta an ancient and fair 
city in Yorkshire, was hurnt by Arned a certain tyrant ; 
who the same year came to like end. » And after five 
years more, Alcred the kino-, deposed and forsaken by 
all his people, fled with a few, first to Bebba, a strong- 
city of those parts, thence to Kinot, king- of the Picts. 
Ethel red, the son of Mollo, was crowned in his stead. 
Meanwhile Offa the Mercian, growing powerful, had 
subdued a neighbouring- people by Simeon, called 
Hastings ; and fought, successfully this year with 
Alric king of Kent, at a place called Occanford : the 
annals also speak of wondrous serpents then seen in 
Sussex. Nor had Kinwulf the West-Saxon given 
small proof of his valour in several battles against the 
Welsh heretofore; but this year seven hundred and 
seventy-five, k meeting with Offa, at a place called Be- 
sington, was put to the worse, and Offa won the town 
for which they contended. 'In Northumberland, Ethel- 
red having- caused threeof his nobles, Aldulf, Kinwulf, 
and Ecca, treacherously to be slain by two other peers, 
was himself the next year driven into banishment, 
Elfwald the son of Oswulf succeeding in his place, yet 
not without civil broils; for in his second yearm Os- 
bald and Athelheard, two noblemen, raising forces 
against him, routed Bearne his general, and pursuing- 
burnt him at a place called Seletune. I am sensible 
how wearisome it may likely be, to read of so many 
bare aud reasonless actions, so many names of kings 
one after another, acting little more than mute persons 
in a scene : what would it be to have inserted the long 
bead-roll of archbishops, bishops, abbots, abbesses, 
and their doings, neither to religion profitable, nor to 
morality, swelling my authors each to a voluminous 
body, by me studiously omitted ; and left as their pro- 
priety, who have a mind to write the ecclesiastical 
matters of those ages ? Neither do I care to wrinkle 
the smoothness of history with rugged names of places 
unknown, better harped at in Camden, aud other cho- 
rographers. n Six years therefore passed over in silence, 
as wholly of such argument, bring us to relate next 
the unfortunate end of Kinwulf the West-Saxon ; who 
having laudably reigned about thirty-one years, yet 
suspecting that Kineard, brother of Sigebert the former 
king, intended to usurp the crown after his decease, or 
revenge his brother's expulsion, had commanded him 
into banishment :° but he lurking here and there on 
the borders with a small company, having had intelli- 
gence that Kinwulf was in the country thereabout, at 
Merantnn, or Merton in Surrey, at the house of a wo- 
man whom he loved, went by night and beset the 
place. Kinwulf, over confident either of his royal pre- 
or personal valour, issuing forth with a few 
about bim, runs fiercely at Kineard, and wounds him 
sore; but by his followers hemmed in, is killed among 
them. r l he report of so great an accident soon running 
to a place not far off, where many more attendants 
awaited the king's return, Osric and Wifert, two earls, 
basted with a great number to the house, where Kine- 

!'"•" i • 774 Sim.Dan. k Post Christ. 775. Sax. an. 

"," v n. Duo. m Post Christ. 7»(». Sin.. Dun. 

" •'"-' ( bnst.786. Ethel werd, Malms. o Sax an. Camd. 

p Po*l Christ. 788. SiOI. Dun. Malms. q Camd. 



ard and his fellows yet remained. He seeing- himself 
surrounded, with fair words and promises of great gifts 
attempted to appease them ; but those rejected with 
disdain, fights it out to the last, and is slain with all 
but one or two of his retinue, which were nigh a hun- 
dred. Kinwulf was succeeded by Birthric, being- both 
descended of Kerdic the founder of that kingdom. p 
Not better was the end of Elfwald in Northumber- 
land, two years after slain miserably by the con- 
spiracy of Sig-gan, one of his nobles, others say of 
the whole people at Scilcester by the Roman wall ; 
yet undeservedly, as his sepulchre at Hagustald, now 
Hexam upon Tine, and some miracles there said to 
be done, 4 ! are alleged to witness, and Sig-gan five years 
after laid violent hands on himself. 1 " Osred son of 
Alcred advanced into the room of Elfwald, and within 
one year driven out, left his seat vacant to Ethelred 
son of Mollo, who after ten years of banishments 
(imprisonment, saith Alcuin) had the sceptre put again 
into his hand. The third year of Birthric king of 
West-Saxons, gave beginning from abroad to a new 
and fatal revolution of calamity on this land. For 
three Danish ships, the first that had been seen 
here of that nation, arriving in the west ; to visit these, 
as was supposed, foreig-n merchants, the king's g-a- 
therer of customs taking horse from Dorchester, found 
them spies and enemies. For being commanded to 
come and give account of their lading at the king's 
custom house, they slew him, and all that came with 
him ; as an earnest of the many slaughters, rapines, 
and hostilities, which they returned not long after to 
commit over all the island. l Of this Danish first 
arrival, and on a sudden worse than hostile aggression, 
the Danish history far otherwise relates, as if their 
landing had been at the mouth of Humber, and their 
spoil ful march far into the country; though soon re- 
pelled by the inhabitants, they hasted back as fast to 
their ships: but from what cause, what reason of state, 
what authority or public council the invasion proceed- 
ed, makes not mention, and our wonder yet the more, 
by telling us that Sigefrid then king in Denmark, and 
long after, was a man studious more of peace and quiet 
than of warlike matters. u These therefore seem rather 
to have been some wanderers at sea, who with public 
commission, or without, through love of spoil, or hatred 
of Christianity, seeking booties on any land of Chris- 
tians, came by chance, or weather, on this shore. x The 
next year Osred in Northumberland, who driven out 
by his nobles had given place to Ethelred, was taken, 
and forcibly shaven a monk at York, y And the year 
after, Oelf, and Oelfwin, sons of Elfwald, formerly 
king, were drawn by fair promises from the principal 
church of York, and after by command of Ethelred 
cruelly put to death at Wonwaldremere, 2 a village by 
the great pool in Lancashire, now called Winander- 
mere. a Nor was the third year less bloody; for Osred, 
who, not liking- a shaven crown, had desired banish- 
ment and obtained it, returning from the Isle of Man 

r Malms. s Sim. Dun. Post Christ. 789. t Pontan, 1. 3. 

u I bid. 1.4. x Sim. Dun. Post Christ. 790. 

y Post Christ. 791. Sim. Dun. z Camd. 

a Post Christ. 792. Sim. Dun. Eccles. 1. 2. 



Book IV. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



527 



with small forces, at the secret but deceitful call of 
certain nobles, who by oath had promised to assist him, 
were also taken, and by Ethelred dealt with in the 
same manner : who, the better to avouch his cruelties, 
thereupon married Elfled the daughter of OfFa; for in 
OfFa was found as little faith or mercy. He the same 
year, having drawn to his palace Ethelbrite king- of 
East-Angles, with fair invitations to marry his daugh- 
ter, caused him to be there inhospitably beheaded, and 
his kingdom wrongfully seized, by the wicked counsel 
of his wife,saith Mat. Westm. annexing thereto along 
unlikely tale. For which violence and bloodshed to 
make atonement, with friars at least, he bestows the 
relics of St. Alban in a shrine of pearl and gold. b Far 
worse it fared the next year with the relics in Lindis- 
farne ; where the Danes landing pillaged that monas- 
tery ; and of friars killed some, carried away others 
captive, sparing neither priest nor lay : which many 
strange thunders and fiery dragons, with other impres- 
sions in the air seen frequently before, were judged to 
foresignify. This year Alric third son of Victred ended 
in Kent his long reign of thirty-four years ; with him 
ended the race of Hengist: thenceforth whomsoever 
wealth or faction advanced took on him the name and 
state of a king. The Saxon annals of seven hundred 
and eighty-four name Ealmund then reigning in 
Kent; but that consists not with the time of Alric, and 
I find him no where else mentioned. The year fol- 
lowing was remarkable for the death of Offa the Mer- 
cian, a strenuous and subtile king; he had much in- 
tercourse with Charles the Great, at first enmity, to the 
interdicting of commerce on either side, at length 
much amity and firm league, as appears by the letter 
of Charles himself yet extant, procured by Alcuin a 
learned and prudent man, though a monk, whom the 
kings of England in those days had sent orator into 
France, to maintain good correspondence between them 
and Charles the Great. He granted, saith Hunting- 
don, a perpetual tribute to the pope out of every house 
in his kingdom, d for yielding perhaps to translate the 
primacy of Canterbury to Litchfield in his own do- 
minion. He drew a trench of wondrous length be- 
tween Mercia and the British confines from sea to sea. 
Ecferth the son of OfFa, a prince of great hope, who 
also had been crowned nine years before his father's 
decease, restoring to the church what his father had 
seized on, yet within four months by a sickness ended 
his reign ; and to Kenulf, next in the right of the same 
progeny, bequeathed his kingdom. Meanwhile the 
Danish pirates, who still wasted Northumberland, 
venturing on shore to spoil another monastery at the 
mouth of the river Don, were assailed by the English, 
their chief captain slain on the place ; then returning 
to sea, were most of them shipwrecked ; others driven 
again on shore, were put all to the sword. Simeon 
attributes this their punishment to the power of St. 
Cudbert, offended with them for the rifling his convent. 
e Two years after this died Ethelred, twice king, but 
not exempted at last from the fate of many of his pre- 



b Post Christ. 793. Sim. Dun. 
d Asser. Men. Sim. Dun. 



c Post Christ. 794. Malms. 
e Post Christ. 796. Sim. Dun. 



decessors, miserably slain by his people, some say de- 
servedly, as not inconscious with them who trained 
Osred to his ruin. Osbald a nobleman exalted to the 
throne, and, in less than a month, deserted and expel- 
led, was forced to fly from Lindisfarne by sea to the 
Pictish king, and died an abbot. Eadhulf, whom 
Ethelred six years before had commanded to be put to 
death at Rippon, before the abbey-gate, dead as was 
supposed, and with solemn dirge carried into the church, 
after midnight found there alive, I read not how, then 
banished, now recalled, was in York created king. In 
Kent Ethelbert or Pren, whom the annals call Ead- 
bright, (so different they often are one from another, 
both in timing and in naming,) by some means having 
usurped regal power, after two years reign contending 
with Kenulf the Mercian, was by him taken prisoner, 
and soon after out of pious commiseration let go : but 
not received of his own, what became of him Malms- 
bury leaves in doubt. Simeon writes, that Kenulf com- 
manded to put out his eyes, and lop off his hands ; but 
whether the sentence were executed or not, is left as 
much in doubt by his want of expression. The second 
year after this, they in Northumberland, who had con- 
spired against Ethelred/ now also raising war against 
Eardulf, under Wada their chief captain, after much 
havoc on either side at Langho, by Whaley in Lanca- 
shire, the conspirators at last fleeing, Eardulf returned 
with victory. The same year London, with a great multi- 
tude of her inhabitants, by a sudden fire was consumed. 
The year eight hundred s made way for great alteration 
in England, uniting her seven kingdoms into one, by 
Ecbert the famous West-Saxon ; him Birthrick dying 
childless left next to reign, the only survivor of that 
lineage, descended from Tnegild the brother of king Ina. 
h And according to his birth liberally bred, he began 
early from his youth to give signal hopes of more than 
ordinary worth growing up in him ; which Birthric 
fearing, and withal his juster title to the crown, secretly 
sought his life, and Ecbert perceiving, fled to OfFa, the 
Mercian : but he having married Eadburgh his daugh- 
ter to Birthric, easily gave ear to his embassadors 
coming to require Ecbert : ' he, again put to his shifts, 
escaped thence into France ; but after three years' 
banishment there, which perhaps contributed much to 
his education, Charles the Great then reigning, he was 
called over by the public voice, (for Birthric was newly 
dead,) and with general applause created king of West- 
Saxons. The same day Ethelmund at Kinnersford 
passing over with the Worcestershire men, was met by 
Weolstan another nobleman with those of Wiltshire, 
between whom happened a great fray, wherein the 
Wiltshire men overcame, but both dukes were slain, no 
reason of their quarrel written ; such bickerings to re- 
count, met often in these our writers, what more worth 
is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows, flock- 
ing and fighting in the air ? k The year following, Ear- 
dulf the Northumbrian leading forth an army against 
Kenwulf the Mercian for harbouring certain of his 
enemies, by the diligent mediation of other princes and 



f Post Christ. 798. Sim. Dun. 
h Malms. i Sax. an. 



g Post Christ. 800. 
k Post Christ. 801. Sim. Dun. 



528 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book IV. 



prelates, arms were laid aside, and amity soon sworn 
between them. l But Eadburga, the wife of Birthric, 
a woman everyway wicked, in malice especially cruel, 
could not or cared not to appease the general hatred 
justly conceived against her ; accustomed in her hus- 
band's day, to accuse any whom she spighted;" 1 and 
not prevailing to his ruin, her practice was by poison 
secretly to contrive his death. It fortuned, that the 
king her husband, lighting on a cup which she had 
tempered, not for him, but for one of his great favour- 
ites, whom she could not harm by accusing, sipped 
thereof only, and in a while after, still pining away, 
ended his days ; the favourite, drinking deeper, found 
speedier the operation. She, fearing* to be questioned 
for these facts, with what treasure she had, passed over 
sea to Charles the Great, whom, with rich gifts coming 
to his presence, the emperor courtly received with this 
pleasant proposal : " Choose, Eadburga, which of us 
two thou wilt, me or my son," (for his son stood by him,) 
" to be thy husband." She, no dissembler of what she 
liked best, made easy answer : " Were it in my choice, 
I should choose of the two your son rather, as the 
younger man." To whom the emperor, between jest 
and earnest, " Hadst thou chosen me, I had bestowed 
on thee my son ; but since thou hast chosen him, thou 
shalt have neither him nor me." Nevertheless he as- 
signed her a rich monastery to dwell in as abbess ; 
for that life it may seem she chose next to profess : but 
being a while after detected of unchastity with one of 
her followers, she was commanded to depart thence : 
from that time wandering poorly up and down with 
one servant, in Pavia a city of Italy, she finished at 
last in beggary her shameful life. In the year eight 
hundred and five n Cuthred,whom Kenulf the Mercian 
had, instead of Pren, made king in Kent, having ob- 
scurely reigned eight j r ears, deceased. In Northum- 
berland, Eardulf the year following was driven out of 
his realm by Alfwold, who reigned two years in his 
room; after whom Eandred son of Eardulf thirty-three 
years ; but I see not how this can stand with the sequel 
of story out of better authors : much less that which 
Buchanan relates, the year following,P of Achaius king 
of Scots, who having reigned thiity-two years, and 
dying in eight hundred and nine/i had formerly aided 
(but id what year of his reign tells not) Hungus king 
of Picts with ten thousand Scots, against Athelstan a 
Saxon or Englishman, then wasting the Pictish bor- 
ders ; that Hungus by the aid of those Scots, and the 
help of St. Andrew their patron, in a vision by night, 
and the appearance of his cross by day, routed the 
astonished English, and slew Athelstan in fight. Who 
thi> Athelstan was, I believe no man knows ; Buchanan 
supposes him to have been some Danish commander, 
on vs bom king Alured or Alfred had bestowed Northum- 
I)' rland ; but of this I find no footstep in our ancient 
writers; and if any such thing were done in the time 
of Alfred, it must be little less than a hundred years 
after: this Athelstan therefore, and this great over- 
throw, seems rather to have been the fancy of some 

1 Malms. I. g. m Post Christ. 802. Sim. Dun. 

' hrist. B05, Malms. Sax. an. o Post Christ. 806. Tluntincd. 

Son. Duu. p Post Christ. 806. Mat. 'West. cj Post Christ, buy. 



legend than any warrantable record. r Meanwhile 
Ecbert having with much prudence, justice, and cle- 
mency, a work of more than one year, established his 
kingdom and himself in the affections of his people, 
turns his first enterprise against the Britons, both them 
of Cornwall and those beyond Severn, subduing both. 
In Mercia, Kenulf, the sixth year after, s having reigned 
with great praise of his religious mind and virtues both 
in peace and war, deceased. His son Kenelm, a child 
of seven years, was committed to the care of his elder 
sister Quendrid : who, with a female ambition aspiring 
to the crown, hired one who had the charge of his 
nurture to murder him, led into a woody place upon 
pretence of hunting. l The murder, as is reported, 
was miraculously revealed ; but to tell how, by a dove 
dropping a written note on the altar at Rome, is a long- 
story, told, though out of order, by Malmsbury, and 
under the year eight hundred and twenty-one by Mat. 
West., where I leave it to be sought by such as are 
more credulous than I wish my readers. Only the note 
was to this purpose : 

Low in a mead of kine under a thorn, 

Of head bereft, lieth poor Kenelm kingborn. 

Keolwulf,the brother of Kenulf, after one year's reign, 
was driven out by one Bernulf an usurper;" who in 
his third year, x uncertain whether invading or invaded, 
was by Ecbert, though with great loss on both sides, 
overthrown and put to flight at Ellandune or Wilton : 
yet Malmsbury accounts this battle fought in eight 
hundred and six ; a wide difference, but frequently 
found in their computations. Bernulf thence retiring 
to the East-Angles, as part of his dominion by the late 
seizure of Offa, was by them met in the field and slain : 
but they, doubting what the Mercians might do in re- 
venge hereof, forthwith yielded themselves both king 
and people to the sovereignty of Ecbert. As for the 
kings of East-Angles, our annals mention them not 
since Ethelwald ; him succeeded his brother's sons, y as 
we find in Malmsbury, Aldulf (a good king, well ac- 
quainted with Bede) and Elwold who left the kingdom 
to Beorn, he to Ethelred the father of Ethelbrite, whom 
Offa perfidiously put to death. Simeon and Hoveden, 
in the year seven hundred and forty-nine, write that 
Elfwald king of East-Angles dying, Humbeanna and 
Albert shared the kingdom between them ; but where 
to insert this among the former successions is not easy, 
nor much material : after Ethelbrite, none is named of 
that kingdom till their submitting now to Ecbert : he 
from this victory against Bernulf sent part of his army 
under Ethclwulf his son, with Alstan bishop of Shir- 
burn, and Wulferd a chief commander, into Kent. Who, 
finding Baldrcd there reigning in his eighteenth year, 
overcame and drove him over the Thames; whereupon 
all Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and lastly Essex, with her 
king Swithred, became subject to the dominion of Ec- 
bert. Neither were these all his exploits of this year; 
the first in order set down in Saxon annals being his 
fight against the Devonshire Welsh, at a place called 



r Sim. Dun. Post Christ. 813. Sax. an. 
t Malms. u Po.it Christ. 820. Ingulf. 

y 1'Iorent. Genealog. Bed. 1. 2. c. 15. 



s Post Christ. 819. Sax. an. 
x Post Christ. 823. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



529 



Gafulford, now Camelford in Cornwall. z Ludiken the 
Mercian, after two years preparing- to avenge Bernulf 
his kinsman on the East-Angles, was bj them with his 
five consuls, as the annals call them, surprised and put 
to the sword : and Withlaf his successor first vanquished, 
then upon submission, with all Mercia, made tributary 
to Ecbert. Meanwhile the Northumbrian kingdom of 
itself was fallen to shivers ; their kings one after another 
so often slain by the people, no man daring, though 
never so ambitious, to take up the sceptre, which many 
had found so hot, (the only effectual cure of ambition 
that I have read,) for the space of thirty-three years 
after the death of Ethelred son of Mollo, as Malmsbury 
writes, there was no king : many noblemen and pre- 
lates were fled the country. Which misrule among 
them the Danes having understood, ofttimes from their 
ships entering far into the land, infested those parts 
with wide depopulation, wasting towns, churches, and 
monasteries, for they were yet heathen : the Lent be- 
fore whose coming, on the north side of St. Peter's 
church in York was seen from the roof to rain blood. 
The causes of these calamities, and the ruin of that 
kingdom, Alcuin, a learned monk living in those days, 
attributes in several epistles, and well may, to the gene- 
ral ignorance and decay of learning, which crept in 
among them after the death of Beda, and of Ecbert the 
archbishop ; their neglect of breeding up youth in the 
Scriptures, the spruce and gay apparel of their priests 
and nuns, discovering their vain and wanton minds. 
Examples are also read, even in Beda's days, of their 
wanton deeds: thence altars defiled with perjuries, 
cloisters violated with adulteries, the land polluted with 
the blood of their princes, civil dissensions among the 
people ; and finally, all the same vices which Gildas 
alleged of old to have ruined the Britons. In this es- 
tate Ecbert, who had now conquered all the south, 
finding them in the year eight hundred and twenty- 
seven," 1 (for he was marched thither with an army to 
complete his conquest of the whole island,) no wonder 
if they submitted themselves to the yoke without re- 
sistance, Eandred their king becoming tributary. 
n Thence turning his forces the year following he sub- 
dued more thoroughly what remained of North-Wales. 



THE FIFTH BOOK. 

The sum of things in this island, or the best part 
thereof, reduced now under the power of one man, 
and him one of the worthiest, which, as far as can be 
found in good authors, was by none attained at any 
time here before, unless in fables; men might with 
some reason have expected from such union, peace and 
plenty, greatness, and the flourishing of all estates and 
degrees : but far the contrary fell out soon after, inva- 
sion, spoil, desolation, slaughter of many, slavery of 
the rest, by the forcible landing of a fierce nation; 



z Camden. Post Christ. 825. Ingulf. 
n Post Christ. 828. Mat. West. 



mPost Christ. 827. 
a Calvisius. 



Danes commonly called, and sometimes Dacians by 
others, the same with Normans ; as barbarous as the 
Saxons themselves were at first reputed, and much 
more : for the Saxons first invited came hither to dwell ; 
these unsent for, unprovoked, came only to destroy.a 
But if the Saxons, as is above related, came most of 
them from Jutland and Anglen, a part of Denmark, 
as Danish writers affirm, and that Danes and Normans 
are the same ; then in this invasion, Danes drove out 
Danes, their own posterity. And Normans afterwards 
none but ancienter Normans. b Which invasion per- 
haps, had the heptarchy stood divided as it was, had 
either not been attempted, or not uneasily resisted ; 
while each prince and people, excited by their nearest 
concernments, had more industriously defended their 
own bounds, than depending on the neglect of a de- 
puted governour,sent ofttimes from the remote residence 
of a secure monarch. Though as it fell out in those 
troubles, the lesser kingdoms revolting from the West- 
Saxon yoke, and not aiding each other, too much con- 
cerned for their own safety, it came to no better pass ; 
while severally they sought to repel the danger nigh 
at hand, rather than jointly to prevent it far off. But 
when God hath decreed servitude on a sinful nation, 
fitted by their own vices for no condition but servile, 
all estates of government are alike unable to avoid it. 
God hath purposed to punish our instrumental punish- 
ers, though now christians, by other heathen, accord- 
ing to his divine retaliation ; invasion for invasion, 
spoil for spoil, destruction for destruction. The Saxons 
were now full as wicked as the Britons were at their 
arrival, broken with luxury and sloth, either secular or 
superstitious ; for laying aside the exercise of arms, and 
the study of all virtuous knowledge, some betook them 
to overworldly or vicious practice, others to religious 
idleness and solitude, which brought forth nothing but 
vain and delusive visions ; easily perceived such by 
their commanding of things, either not belonging to 
the gospel, or utterly forbidden, ceremonies, relics, 
monasteries, masses, idols ; add to these ostentation of 
alms, got ofttimes by rapine and oppression, or inter- 
mixed with violent and lustful deeds, sometimes pro- 
digally bestowed as the expiation of cruelty and blood- 
shed. What longer suffering could there be, when 
religion itself grew so void of sincerity, and the greatest 
shows of purity were impured ? 

ECBERT. 

Ecbert in full height of glory, having now enjoyed 
his conquest seven peaceful years, his victorious army 
long since disbanded, and the exercise of arms perhaps 
laid aside; the more was found unprovided against a 
sudden storm of Danes from the sea, who landing in 
the c thirty-second of his reign, wasted Shepey in Kent. 
Ecbert the next year, d gathering an army, for he had 
heard of their arrival in thirty-five ships, gave them 
battle by the river Carr in Dorsetshire ; the event 
whereof was, that the Danes kept their ground, and 

b Pontan. Hist. Dan c Post Christ. 832. Sax. annal. 

d Post Christ. 833. Sax. an. 



530 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



encamped where the field was fought ; two Saxon 
leaders, Dudda and Osmund, and two bishops, as some 
say, were there slain. This was the on\y check of for- 
tune we read of, that Ecbert in all his time received. 
For the Danes returning- two years e after with a great 
navy, and joining forces with the Cornish, who had 
entered league with them, were overthrown and put to 
flight. Of these invasions against Ecbert the Danish 
bistory is not silent; whether out of their own records 
or ours may be justly doubted : for of these times at 
home I find them in much uncertainty, and beholden 
rather to outlandish chronicles, than any records of 
their own. The victor Ecbert, as one who had done 
enough, seasonably now, after prosperous success, the 
next f year with glory ended his days, and was buried 
at Winchester. 

ETHELWOLF. 

Ethelwolf the son of Ecbert succeeded, by Malms- 
bury described a man of mild nature, not inclined to 
war, or delighted with much dominion; that therefore 
contented with the ancient West-Saxon bounds, he 
gave to Ethelstan his brother, or son, as some write, 
the kingdom of Kent and Essex, s But the Saxon an- 
nalist, whose authority is elder, saith plainly, that both 
these countries and Sussex were bequeathed to Ethel- 
stan by Ecbert his father. The unwarlike disposition 
of Ethelwolf gave encouragement no doubt, and easier 
entrance to the Danes, who came ag-ain the next year 
with thirty-three ships ; h but Wulfherd, one of the 
king's chief captains, drove them back at Southamp- 
ton with great slaughter ; himself dying the same year, 
of age, as I suppose, for he seems to have been one of 
Ecbert's old commanders, who was sent with Ethelwolf 
to subdue Kent. Ethelhelm, another of the king's cap- 
tains, with the Dorsetshire men, had at first like suc- 
cess against the Danes at Portsmouth ; but they rein- 
forcing stood their ground, and put the English to 
rout. Worse was the success of earl Herebert at a place 
called Mereswar, slain with the most part of his army. 
' The year following in Lindsey also, East-Angles, and 
Kent, much mischief was done by their landing ; k 
where the next year, emboldened by success, they came 
on as far as Canterbury, Rochester, and London itself, 
with no less cruel hostility : and giving no respite to 
the peaceable mind of Ethelwolf, they yet returned 
with the next year 1 in thirty-five ships, fought with 
him, as before with his father at the river Carr, and 
made good their ground. In Northumberland, Ean- 
dred the tributary king deceasing left the same tenure 
to his son Etheldred, driven out in his fourth year," 1 
and succeeded by Readwulf, who soon after his coro- 
nation hasting forth to battle against the Danes at 
Alvetheli, fell with the most part of his army; and 
Ethelred, like in fortune to the former Ethelred, was 
rcexaltrd to his seat. And, to be yet further like him in 
fate, waa slain the fourth year after. Osbert succeeded 
in hii room. Jim more southerly, the Danes next year n 

f.8».8ax. an. Pontan. Hist. Dan. 1. 4. 

-.. an. f. Mat West 

r.8&.! a ai:£S: 'Post Christ. 8m Sax. an. 



after met with some stop in the full course of their out- 
rageous insolencies. For Earnulf with the men of 
Somerset, Alstan the bishop, and Osric with those of 
Dorsetshire, setting upon them at the river's mouth of 
Pedridan, slaughtered them in great numbers, and ob- 
tained a just victory. This repulse quelled them, for 
aught we hear, the space of six years; then also re- 
newing their invasion with little better success. For 
Keorle an earl, aided with the forces of Devonshire, 
assaulted and overthrew them at Wigg-anbeorch with 
great destruction ; as prosperously were they fought 
the same year at Sandwich, by king Ethelstan, and 
Ealker his general, their great army defeated, and nine 
of their ships taken, the rest driven off; however to ride 
out the winter on that shore, Asser saith, they then 
first wintered in Shepey isle. Hard it is, through the 
bad expression of these writers, to define this fight, 
whether by sea or land ; Hoveden terms it a sea-fight. 
Nevertheless with fifty ships (Asser and others add 
three hundred) they entered the mouth of the Thames,P 
and made excursions as far as Canterbury and London, 
and as Ethelwerd writes, destroyed both ; of London, 
Asser signifies only that they pillaged it. Bertulf also 
the Mercian, successor of Withlaf, with all his army 
they forced to fly, and him beyond the sea. Then pass- 
ing over Thames with their powers into Surrey, and the 
West-Saxons, and meeting there with king Ethelwolf 
and Ethelbald his son, at a place called Ak-Lea, or 
Oke-Lea, they received a total defeat with memorable 
slaughter. This was counted a lucky year 9 to Eng- 
land, and brought to Ethelwolf great reputation. Bur- 
hed therefore, who after Bertulf held of him the Mer- 
cian kingdom, two years after this, imploring his aid 
against the North Welsh, as then troublesome to his 
confines, obtained it of him in person, and thereby re- 
duced them to obedience. This done, Ethelwolf sent 
his son Alfred, a child of five years, well accompanied 
to Rome, whom Leo the pope both consecrated to be 
king afterwards, and adopted to be his son; at home 
Ealker with the forces of Kent, and Huda with those 
of Surrey, fell on the Danes at their landing in Tanet, 
and at first put them back ; but the slain and drowned 
were at length so many on either side, as left the loss 
equal on both : which yet hindered not the solemnity of 
a marriage at the feast of Easter, between Burhed the 
Mercian, and Ethelswida king Ethelwolf's daughter. 
Howbeitthe Danes next year 1 " wintered again in Shepey. 
Whom Ethelwolf, not finding human health sufficient 
to resist, growing daily upon him, in hope of divine 
aid, registered in a book and dedicated to God the 
tenth part of his own lands, and of his whole kingdom, 
eased of all impositions, but converted to the main- 
tenance of masses and psalms weekly to be sung for 
the prospering of Ethelwolf and his captains, as it ap- 
pears at large by the patent itself, in William of 
Malmsbury. Asser saith, he did it for the redemption 
of his soul, and the souls of his ancestors. After which, 
as having done some great matter to shew himself at 

1 Post Christ. 840. Sax. an. Sim. Dun. Mat. West. 

in Post Christ. 844. u Post Christ. 815. Sax. an. 

o Post Christ. 851. Sax. an. Asser. p Huntingd. Mat. West. 

q Post Christ. 85'J. Sax. an. Asser. r Malms. Post Christ. 854. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



531 



Rome, and be applauded of the pope ; he takes a long 
and cumbersome journey thither with young- Alfred 
again, s and there stays a year, when his place required 
him rather here in the field against pagan enemies 
left wintering in his land. Yet so much manhood he 
had, as to return thence no monk ; and in his way 
home took to wife Judith daughter to Charles the Bald, 
king of France.* But ere his return, Ethelbald his 
eldest son, Alstan his trusty bishop, and Enulf earl of 
Somerset conspired against him : their complaints 
were, that he had taken with him Alfred his youngest 
son to be there inaugurated king, and brought home 
with him an outlandish wife ; for which they endea- 
voured to deprive him of his kingdom. The disturb- 
ance was expected to bring" forth nothing less than 
war: but the king abhorring civil discord, after many 
conferences tending to peace, condescended to divide 
the kingdom with his son : division was made, but the 
matter so carried, that the eastern and worst part was 
malignly afforded to the father; the western and best 
given to the son : at which many of the nobles had 
great indignation, offering to the king their utmost as- 
sistance for the recovery of all ; whom he peacefully 
dissuading 1 , sat down contented with his portion as- 
signed. In the East-Angles, Edmund lineal from the 
ancient stock of those kings, a youth of fourteen years 
only, but of great hopes, was with consent of all but his 
own crowned at Bury. About this time, as Buchanan 
relates," the Picts, who not long- before had by the 
Scots been driven out of their country, part of them 
coming to Osbert and Ella, then kings of Northumber- 
land, obtained aid against Donaldus the Scottish king-, 
to recover their ancient possession. Osbert, who in 
person undertook the expedition, marching into Scot- 
land, was at first put to a retreat; but returning soon 
after on the Scots, oversecure of their supposed victory, 
put them to flight with great slaughter, took prisoner 
their king, and pursued his victory beyond Stirling 
bridge. The Scots unable to resist longer, and by em- 
bassadors entreating- peace, had it granted them on 
these conditions : the Scots were to quit all they had 
possessed within the wall of Severus : the limits of 
Scotland were beneath Stirling bridge to be the river 
Forth, and on the other side, Dunbritton Frith ; from 
that time so called of the British then seated in Cum- 
berland, who had joined with Osbert in this action, 
and so far extended on that side the British limits. If 
this be true, as the Scots writers themselves witness, 
(and who would think them fabulous to the disparage- 
ment of their own country ?) how much wanting- have 
been our historians to their country's honour, in letting 
pass unmentioned an exploit so memorable, by them 
remembered and attested, who are wont oftener to ex- 
tenuate than to amplify aught done in Scotland by 
the English ; Donaldus, on these conditions released, 
soon after dies, according to Buchanan, in 858. Ethel- 
wolf, chief king in England, had the year before ended 
his life, and was buried as his father at Winchester.* 
He was from his youth much addicted to devotion ; so 



s Post Christ. 855. 
x Mat. West. 



Asser. t Asser. u Post Christ. 857. 

y Malms. Suithine. 
2 M 



that in his father's time he was ordained bishop of 
Winchester; and unwilling-ly, for want of other legi- 
timate issue, succeeded him in the throne ; managing 
therefore his greatest affairs by the activity of two 
bishops, Alstan of Sherburne, and Swithine of Win- 
chester. But Alstan is noted of covetousness and op- 
pression, by William of Malmsbury ;y the more vehe- 
mently no doubt for doing- some notable damage to 
that monastery. The same author writes, z that Ethel- 
wolf at Rome paid a tribute to the pope, continued to 
his days. However he were facile to his son, and se- 
ditious nobles, in yielding up part of his kingdom, yet 
his queen he treated not the less honourably, for whom- 
soever it displeased. "The West-Saxons had decreed 
ever since the time of Eadburga, the infamous wife of 
Birthric, that no queen should sit in state with the 
king, or be dignified with the title of queen. But 
Ethelwolf permitted not that Judith his queen should 
lose any point of regal state by that law. At his death 
he divided the kingdom between his two sons, Ethel- 
bald and Ethelbert ; to the younger Kent, Essex, 
Surrey, Sussex, to the elder all the rest ; to Peter and 
Paul certain revenues yearly, for what uses let others 
relate, who write also his pedigree, from son to father, 
up to Adam. 

ETHELBALD and ETHELBERT. 

Ethelbald, unnatural and disloyal to his father^ 
fell justly into another, though contrary sin, of too 
much love for his father's wife ; and whom at first he 
opposed coming into the land, her now unlawfully 
marrying, he takes into his bed; but not long enjoy- 
ing died at three years end, c without doing aught 
more worthy to be remembered ; having reigned 
two years with his father, impiously usurping, and 
three after him, as unworthily inheriting. And his 
hap was all that while to be unmolested with the 
Danes ; not of divine favour doubtless, but to his 
greater condemnation, living the more securely his 
incestuous life. Huntingdon on the other side much 
praises Ethelbald, and writes him buried at Sher- 
burn, with great sorrow of the people, who missed 
him long after. Mat. Westm. saith, that he repent- 
ed of his incest with Judith, and dismissed her : but 
Asser, an eyewitness of those times, mentions no such 
thing. 

ETHELBERT alone. 

Ethelbald by death removed, the whole kingdom 
came rightly to Ethelbert his next brother. Who, 
though a prince of great virtue and no blame, had as 
short a reign allotted him as his faulty brother, nor that 
so peaceful ; once or twice invaded by the Danes. But 
they having landed in the west with a great army, and 
sacked Winchester, were met by Osric earl of South- 
ampton, and Ethelwolf of Berkshire, beaten to their 
ships, and forced to leave their booty. Five years 



z Sigron. de regn. Ttal. 1. 
Sim. Dun. 



a Asser. b Asser. Malms. 

c Post Christ. 800. Sax. an. 



532 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



after, d about the time of his death, they set foot again 
in Tanet ; the Kentishmen, wearied out with so fre- 
quent alarms, came to agreement with them for a cer- 
tain sum of money ; but ere the peace could be ratified, 
and the money gathered, the Danes, impatient of de- 
lay, by a sudden eruption in the night soon wasted all 
the East of Kent. Meanwhile, or something before, 
Ethelbert deceasing was buried as his brother at Sher- 
buru. 

ETHELRED, 

Ethelred, the third son of Ethelwolf, at his first 
coming to the crown was entertained with a fresh in- 
vasion of Danes, e led by Hinguar and Hubba, two 
brothers, who now had g-ot footing among the East- 
Angles ; there they wintered, and coming to terms of 
peace with the inhabitants, furnished themselves of 
horses, forming by that means many troops with riders 
of their own : these pagans, Asser saith, came from the 
river Danubius. Fitted thus for a long expedition, 
they ventured the next year 1 to make their way over 
land and over Humber as far as York: them they 
found to their hands embroiled in civil dissensions ; 
their king Osbert they had thrown out, and Ella leader 
of another faction chosen in his room; who both, 
though late, admonished by their common danger, 
towards the year's end with united powers made head 
against the Danes and prevailed ; but pursuing them 
overeagerly into York, then but slenderly walled,^ the 
Northumbrians were every where slaughtered, both 
within and without; their kings also both slain, their 
city burnt, saith Malmsbury, the rest as they could 
made their peace, overrun and vanquished as far as the 
river Tine, and Egbert of English race appointed king 
over them. Bromton, no ancient author, (for he wrote 
since Mat. West.) nor of much credit, writes a particu- 
lar cause of the Danes coming to York ; that Bruern a 
nobleman, whose wife king Osbert had ravished, called 
in Hinguar and Hubba to revenge him. The example 
is remarkable, if the truth were as evident. Thence 
victorious, the Danes next year h entered into Mercia 
towards Nottingham, where they spent the winter. 
Burhed then king of that country, unable to resist, 
implores the aid of Ethelred and young Alfred his 
brother; they assembling their forces and joining with 
the Mercians about Nottingham, offer battle: 4 the 
Danes, not daring to come forth, kept themselves 
within that town and castle, so that no great fight was 
hazarded there; at length the Mercians, weary of long 
suspense, entered into conditions of peace with their 
enemies. After which the Danes, returning back to 
York, made their abode there the space of one ycar, k 
committing, some say, many cruelties. Thence em- 
barking to Lindsey, and all the summer destroying 
that country, about September' they came with like 
fury into Kestei en, another part of Lincolnshire; where 
Algar, die earl of Ifowland, now Holland, with his 
forces, and two hundred stout soldiers belonging to the 
abbey of Croiland, three hundred from about Boston, 



<\ Post f hrisf. 865. Sax. an. 
t Post Christ. 867. Sax. ao, 



e Post Christ. 806. Sax. an. Hunting!, 
g Asser. li Post Christ. 808. 



Morcard lord of Brunne, with his numerous family, 
well trained and armed, Osgot governor of Lincoln 
with five hundred of that city, all joining together, 
gave battle to the Danes, slew of them a great multi- 
tude, with three of their kings, and pursued the rest to 
their tents ; but the night following, Gothrun, Baseg, 
Osketil, Halfden, and Hamond, five kings, and as 
many earls, Frena, Hinguar, Hubba, Sidroc the elder 
and younger, coming in from several parts with great 
forces and spoils, great part of the English began to 
slink home. Nevertheless Algar with such as forsook 
him not, all next day in order of battle facing the 
Danes, and sustaining unmoved the brunt of their 
assaults, could not withhold his men at last from pur- 
suing their counterfeited flight ; whereby opened and 
disordered, they fell into the snare of their enemies, 
rushing back upon them. Algar and those captains 
forenamed with him, all resolute men, retreating to a 
hill side, and slaying- of such as followed them, mani- 
fold their own number, died at length upon heaps of 
dead which they had made round about them. The 
Danes, thence passing on into the country of East-An- 
gles, rifled and burnt the monastery of Ely, overthrew 
earl Wulketul with his whole army, and lodged out 
the winter at Thetford ; where king Edmond assailing 
them was with his whole army put to flight, himself 
taken, bound to a stake, and shot to death with arrows, 
his whole country subdued. The next year" 1 with 
great supplies, saith Huntingdon, bending their march 
toward the West-Saxons, the only people now left in 
whom might seem yet to remain strength or courage 
likely to oppose them, they came to Reading, fortified 
there between the two rivers of Thames and Kenet, and 
about three days after sent out wings of horse under 
two earls to forage the country ; n but Ethelwolf earl 
of Berkshire, at Englefield a village nigh, encountered 
them, slew one of their earls, and obtained a great vic- 
tory. Four days after came the king himself and his 
brother Alfred with the main battle ; and the Danes 
issuing forth, a bloody fight began, on either side 
great slaughter, in which earl Ethelwolf lost his life ; 
but the Danes, losing no ground, kept their place of 
standing to the end. Neither did the English for this 
make less haste to another conflict at Escesdune or 
Ashdown, four days after, where both armies with their 
whole force on either side met. The Danes were em- 
battled in two great bodies, the one led by Bascai and 
Halfden, their two kings, the other by such earls as 
were appointed ; in like manner the English divided 
their powers, Ethelred the king stood against their 
kings; and though on the lower ground, and coming 
later into the battle from his orisons, gave a fierce on- 
set, wherein Bascai (the Danish history names him 
Ivarus the son of Regnerus) was slain. Alfred was 
placed against the earls, and beginning the battle ere 
his brother came into the field, with such resolution 
charged them, that in the shock most of them were 
slain ; they are named Sidroc elder and younger, Os- 
bern, Frean, Harald : at length in both divisions the 



l Asser. 

1 Post Christ. 870. Ingulf. 



k Post Christ. 869. Sim. Dun. 
m Post Christ. 871. Sax, an. n Asser. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



533 



Danes turn their backs ; many thousands of them cut 
off, the rest pursued till night. So much the more it 
may be wondered to hear next in the annals, that the 
Danes, fourteen days after such an overthrow fighting 
again with Ethelred and his brother Alfred at Basing, 
(under conduct, saith the Danish history, of Agnerus 
and Hubbo, brothers of the slain Ivarus,) should ob- 
tain the victory ; especially since the new supply of 
Danes mentioned by Asser arrived after this action. 
But after two months, the king and his brother fought 
with them again at Mertun, in two squadrons as before, 
in which fight hard it is to understand who had the 
better ; so darkly do the Saxon annals deliver their 
meaning with more than wonted infancy. Yet these 
I take (for Asser is here silent) to be the chief fountain 
of our story, the ground and basis upon which the 
monks later in time gloss and comment at their plea- 
sure. Nevertheless it appears, that on the Saxon part, 
not Heamund the bishop only, but many valiant men- 
lost their lives, p This fight was followed by a heavy 
summer plague ; whereof, as is thought, king Ethel- 
red died in the fifth year of his reign, and was buried at 
Winburn, where his epitaph inscribes that he had his 
death's wound by the Danes, according to the Danish 
history 872. Of all these terrible landings and devas- 
tations by the Danes, from the days of Ethelwolf till 
their two last battles with Ethelred, or of their leaders, 
whether kings, dukes, or earls, the Danish history of 
best credit saith nothing ; so little wit or conscience it 
seems they had to leave any memory of their brutish 
rather than manly actions; unless we shall suppose 
them to have come, as above was cited out of Asser, 
from Danubius, rather than from Denmark, more pro- 
bably some barbarous nation of Prussia, or Livonia, not 
long before seated more northward on the Baltic sea. 

ALFRED. 

Alfred, the fourth son of Ethelwolf, had scarce per- 
formed his brother's obsequies, and the solemnity of his 
own crowning, when at the month's end in haste with 
a small power he encountered the whole army of Danes 
at Wilton, and most part of the day foiled them; but 
unwarily following the chase, gave others of them the 
advantage to rally ; who returning upon him now 
weary, remained masters of the field. This year* as is 
affirmed in the annals, nine battles had been fought 
against the Danes on the south side of Thames, besides 
innumerable excursions made by Alfred and other 
leaders ; one king, nine earls were fallen in fight, so that 
weary on both sides at the year's end, league or truce 
was concluded. Yet next year^ the Danes took their 
march to London, now exposed to their prey; there 
they wintered, and thither came the Mercians to renew 
peace with them. The year following they roved back 
to the parts beyond Humber, but wintered at Torksey 
in Lincolnshire, where the Mercians now the third time 
made peace with them. Notwithstanding which, re- 
moving their camp to Rependune in Mercia, 1 " now 



o Pontan. Hist. Dan. 1. 4. 
q Post Christ. 872. Sax. an. 
s Post Christ. 874. Sax. an. 



p Camden, 
r Post Christ. 873. Sax. an. Camd. 
t Post Christ. 875. Sax. an. 



Repton upon Trent in Derbyshire, and there winter- 
ing, they constrained Burhed the king to fly into 
foreign parts, making seizure of his kingdom; he run- 
ning the direct way to Rome, s (with better reason than 
his ancestors,) died there, and was buried in a church 
by the English school. His kingdom the Danes farmed 
out to Kelwulf, one of his houshold servants or officers, 
with condition to be resigned them when they com- 
manded. * From Rependune they dislodged, Hafden 
their king leading part of his army northward, wintered 
by the river Tine, and subjecting all those quarters, 
wasted also the Picts and British beyond : but Guth- 
run, Oskitell, and Anwynd, other three of their kings, 
moving from Rependune, came with a great army to 
Grantbrig, and remained there a whole year. But Al- 
fred that summer proposing to try his fortune with a 
fleet at sea, (for he had found that the want of shipping 
and neglect of navigation had exposed the land to these 
piracies,) met with seven Danish rovers, took one, the 
rest escaping ; an acceptable success from so small a 
beginning : for the English at that time were but little 
experienced in sea-affairs. The next u year's first mo- 
tion of the Danes was towards Warham castle, where 
Alfred meeting them, either by policy, or their doubt 
of his power, Ethelwerd saith, by money brought them 
to such terms of peace, as that they swore to him upon 
a hallowed bracelet, others say upon certain x relics, (a 
solemn oath it seems, which they never vouchsafed be- 
fore to any other nation,) forthwith to depart the land : 
but falsifying that oath, by night with all the horse 
they had (Asser saith,y slaying all the horsemen he 
had) stole to Exeter, and there wintered. In Nor- 
thumberland, Hafden their king began to settle, to di- 
vide the land, to till, and to inhabit. Meanwhile they 
in the west, who were marched to Exeter, entered the 
city, coursing now and then to Warham; but their 
fleet the next 2 year, sailing or rowing about the west, 
met with such a tempest near to Swanswich or Gnave- 
wic, as wrecked one hundred and twenty of their 
ships, and left the rest easy to be mastered by those 
galleys, which Alfred had set there to guard the seas, 
and straiten Exeter of provision. He the while be- 
leaguering a them in the city, now humbled with the 
loss of their navy, (two navies, saith Asser, the one at 
Gnavewic, the other at Swanwine,) distressed them so, 
as that they give him as many hostages as he required, 
and as many oaths, to keep their covenanted peace, 
and kept it. For the summer coming on, they departed 
into Mercia, whereof part they divided among them- 
selves, part left to Kelwulf their substituted king. The 
twelfth tide following, 5 all oaths forgotten, they came 
to Chippenham in Wiltshire, dispeopling the countries 
round, dispossessing some, driving others beyond the 
sea; ^Alfred himself with a small company was forced 
to keep within woods and fenny places, and for some 
time all alone, as Florent saith, sojourned with Dun- 
wulf a swineherd, made afterwards for his devotion 
and aptness to learning bishop of Winchester. Hafden 
and the brother of Hinguar c coming with twenty-three 

x Florent. 



u Post Christ. 876. Sax. an. 
z Post Christ. 877- Sax. an. 
b Post Christ. 878. Sax. an. 



y Florent. 
a Asser. 
c Sim. Dun. 



)34 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



ships from North Wales, where they had made great 
spoil, landed in Devonshire, nigh to a strong castle 
named Kinwith ; where, by the garrison issuing forth 
unexpectedly, they were slain with twelve hundred of 
their men. d Meanwhile the king about Easter, not 
despairing of his affairs, built a fortress at a place 
called Athelney in Somersetshire, therein valiantly 
defending himself and his followers, frequently sally- 
ing forth. The seventh week after he rode out to a 
place called Ecbryt-stone in the east part of Selwood : 
thither resorted to him with much gratulation the So- 
merset and Wiltshire men, with many out of Hamp- 
shire, some of whom a little before had fled their 
country ; with these marching to Ethandune, now 
Edindon in Wiltshire, he gave battle to the whole 
Danish power, and put them to flight. e Then be- 
sieging their castle, within fourteen days took it. 
Malmsbury writes, that in this time of his recess, 
to go a spy into the Danish camp, he took upon him 
with one servant the habit of a fiddler; by this means 
gaining access to the king's table, and sometimes to 
his bed chamber, got knowledge of their secrets, their 
careless encamping, and thereby this opportunity of 
assailing them on a sudden. The Danes, by this 
misfortune broken, gave him more hostages, and re- 
newed their oaths to depart out of his kingdom. 
Their king Gytro or Gothrun offered willingly to 
receive baptism/ and accordingly came with thirty 
of his friends to a place called Aldra or Aulre, near 
to Athelney, and were baptized at Wedmore; where 
Alfred received him out of the font, and named him 
Athelstan. After which they abode with him twelve 
days, and were dismissed with rich presents. Where- 
upon the Danes removed next g year to Cirences- 
ter, thence peaceably to the East-Angles; which 
Alfred, as some write, had bestowed on Gothrun 
to hold of him ; the bounds whereof may be read 
among the laws of Alfred. Others of them went to 
Fulham on the Thames, and joining there with a great 
fleet newly come into the river, thence passed over into 
France and Flanders, both which they entered so far 
conquering or wasting, as witnessed sufficiently, that 
the French and Flemish were no more able than the 
English, by policy or prowess, to keep off that Danish 
inundation from their land. h Alfred thus rid of them, 
and intending for the future to prevent their landing ; 
three years after (quiet the mean while) with more 
ships and better provided puts to sea, and at first met 
with four of theirs, whereof two he took, throwing the 
men overboard, then with two others, wherein two 
were of their princes, and took them also, but not 
without some loss of his own. 1 After three years an- 
other fleet of them appeared on these seas, so huge 
that one part of them thought themselves sufficient to 
enter upon East- France, the other came to Rochester, 
and beleaguered it; they within stoutly defending 
themselves, till Alfred with great forces, coming down 
upon the Danes, drove them to their ships, leaving for 
•ill their horses behind them. k The same year 

■ ■ . „. - e Camden, f Camden. 

ax. an. h Post Christ. 882. Sax. an. 

IX. an. k Sim. Dun. 



Alfred sent a fleet toward the East-Angles, then inha- 
bited by the Danes, which, at the mouth of Stour, 
meeting with sixteen Danish ships, after some fight 
took them all, and slew all the soldiers on board ; but 
in their way home lying careless, were overtaken by 
another part of that fleet, and came off with loss : 
whereupon perhaps those Danes, who were settled 
among the East-Angles, erected with new hopes, vio- 
lated the peace which they had sworn to Alfred, 1 who 
spent the next year in repairing London (besieging, 
saith Fluntingdon) much ruined and unpeopled by the 
Danes ; the Londoners, all but those who had been led 
away captive," 1 soon returned to their dwellings, and 
Ethred, duke of Mercia, was by the king appointed 
their governour. n But after thirteen years respite of 
peace, another Danish fleet of two hundred and fifty 
sail, from the east part of France, arrived at the mouth 
of a river in East-Kent, called Limen, nigh to the 
great wood Andred, famous for length and breadth ; 
into that wood they drew up their ships four miles 
from the river's mouth, and built a fortress. After 
whom Haesten, with another Danish fleet of eighty 
ships, entering the mouth of Thames, built a fort at 
Middleton, the former army remaining at a place call- 
ed Apeltre. Alfred, perceiving this, took of those 
Danes who dwelt in Northumberland a new oath of 
fidelity, and of those in Essex hostages, lest they 
should join, as they were wont, with their countrymen 
newly arrived. And by the next year having got to- 
gether his forces, between either army of the Danes 
encamped so as to be ready for either of them, who 
first should happen to stir forth ; troops of horse also 
he sent continually abroad, assisted by such as could 
be spared from strong places, wherever the countries 
wanted them, to encounter foraging parties of the 
enemy. The king also divided sometimes his whole 
army, marching out with one part by turns, the other 
keeping intrenched. In conclusion rolling up and down, 
both sides met at Farnham in Surrey ; where the Danes 
by Alfred's horse troops were put to flight, and crossing 
the Thames to a certain island near Coin in Essex, or 
as Camden thinks by Colebrook, were besieged there 
by Alfred till provision failed the besiegers, another 
part staid behind with their king wounded. Mean- 
while Alfred preparing to reinforce the siege of Colney, 
the Danes of Northumberland, breaking faith, came 
by sea to the East-Angles, and with a hundred ships 
coasting southward, landed in Devonshire, and be- 
sieged Exeter; thither Alfred hasted with his powers, 
except a squadron of Welsh that came to Lon- 
don : with whom the citizens marching forth to 
Beamflet, where Haesten the Dane had built a strong- 
fort, and left a garrison, while he himself with the main 
of his army was entered far into the country, luckily 
surprise the fort, master the garrison, make prey of all 
they find there; their ships also they burnt or brought 
away with good booty, and many prisoners, among 
whom the wife and two sons of Haesten were sent to 
the king, who forthwith set them at liberty. Where- 

I Post Christ. 886. Sax. an. m Sim. Dun. n Post Christ. 

893- Sax. an. o Post Christ. 894. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



535 



upon Haesten gave oath of amity and hostages to the 
king ; he in requital, whether freely or by agreement, 
a sum of money. Nevertheless, without regard of faith 
given, while Alfred was busied about Exeter, joining 
with the other Danish army, he built another castle in 
Essex at Shoberie, thence marching westward by the 
Thames, aided with the Northumbrian and East-Ang- 
lish Danes, they came at length to Severn, pillaging 
all in their way. But Ethred, Ethelm, and Ethelnoth, 
the king's captains, with united forces pitched nigh to 
them at Buttingtun, on the Severn bank in Mont- 
gomeryshire,P the river running between, and there 
many weeks attended ; the king meanwhile blocking 
up the Danes who besieged Exeter, having eaten part 
of their horses, the rest urged with hunger broke forth 
to their fellows, who lay encamped on the east side of 
the river, and were all there discomfited with some loss 
of valiant men on the king's party; the rest fled back 
to Essex, and their fortress there. Then Laf, one of 
their leaders, gathered before winter a great army of 
Northumbrian and East-Anglish Danes, who leaving 
their money, ships, and wives with the East-Angles, 
and marching - day and night, sat down before a city 
in the west called Wirheal near to Chester, and took it 
ere they could be* overtaken. The English after two 
days' siege, hopeless to dislodge them, wasted the 
country round to cut off from them all provision, and 
departed. <i Soon after which, next year, the Danes 
no longer able to hold Wirheal, destitute of victuals, 
entered North Wales; thence laden with spoils, part 
returned into Northumberland, others to the East-An- 
gles as far as Essex, where they seized on a small 
island called Meresig. And here again the annals re- 
cord them to besiege Exeter, but without coherence of 
sense or story. r Others relate to this purpose, that re- 
turning by sea from the siege of Exeter, and in their 
way landing on the coast of Sussex, they of Chichester 
sallied out and slew of them many hundreds, taking 
also some of their ships. The same year they who 
possessed Meresig, intending to winter thereabout, 
drew up their ships, some into the Thames, others into 
the river Lee, and on the bank thereof built a castle 
twenty miles from London; to assault which, the Lon- 
doners aided with other forces marched out the summer 
following, but were soon put to flight, losing four of 
the king's captains. s Huntingdon writes quite the 
contrary, that these four were Danish captains, and the 
overthrow theirs : but little credit is to be placed in 
Huntingdon single. For the king thereupon with his 
forces lay encamped nearer the city, that the Danes 
might not infest them in time of harvest; in the mean 
time, subtilely devising to turn Lee stream several 
ways, whereby the Danish bottoms were left on dry 
ground : which they soon perceiving, marched over 
land to Quatbrig on the Severn, built a fortress, and 
wintered there ; while their ships left in Lee were either 
broken or brought away by the Londoners ; but their 
wives and children they had left in safety with the 
East- Angles. tr The next year was pestilent, and be- 



sides the common sort, took away many great earls, 
Kelmond in Kent, Brithulf in Essex, Wulfred in 
Hampshire, with many others; and to this evil the 
Danes in Northumberland and East-Angles ceased not 
to endamage the West Saxons, especially by stealth, 
robbing on the south shore in certain long galleys. 
But the king causing to be built others twice as long 
as usually were built, and some of sixty or seventy oars 
higher, swifter and steadier than such as were in use 
before either with Danes or Frisons, his own invention, 
some of these he sent out against six Danish pirates, 
who had done much harm in the Isle of Wight, and 
parts adjoining. The bickering was doubtful and in- 
tricate, part on the w T ater, part on the sands ; not with- 
out loss of some eminent men on the English side. 
The pirates at length were either slain or taken, two 
of them stranded ; the men brought to Winchester, 
where the king then was, were executed by his com- 
mand ; one of them escaped to the East-Angles, her 
men much wounded : the same year not fewer than 
twenty of their ships perished on the south coast with 
all their men. And Rollo the Dane or Norman land- 
ing here, as Mat. West, writes, though not in what 
part of the island, after an unsuccessful fight against 
those forces which first opposed him, sailed into France 
and conquered the country, since that time called Nor- 
mandy. This is the sum of what passed in three years 
against the Danes, returning out of France, set down 
so perplexly by the Saxon annalist, ill-gifted with ut- 
terance, as with much ado can be understood sometimes 
what is spoken, whether meant of the Danes, or of the 
Saxons. After which troublesome time, Alfred enjoy- 
ing three years of peace, by him spent, as his manner 
was, not idly or voluptuously, but in all virtuous em- 
ployments both of mind and body, becoming a prince 
of his renown, ended his days in the year nine hun- 
dred," the fifty-first of his age, the thirtieth of his reign, 
and was buried regally at Winchester : he was born 
at a place called Wauading in Berkshire, his mother 
Osburga, the daughter of Oslac the king's cupbearer, 
a Goth by nation, and of noble descent. He was of 
person comelier than all his brethren, of pleasing 
tongue and graceful behaviour, ready wit and memory; 
yet through the fondness of his parents towards him, 
had not been taught to read till the twelfth year of his 
age ; but the great desire of learning, which was in 
him, soon appeared by his conning of Saxon poems 
day and night, which with great attention he heard by 
others repeated. He was besides excellent at hunting, 
and the new art then of hawking, but more exemplary 
in devotion, having collected into a book certain pray- 
ers and psalms, which he carried ever with him in his 
bosom to use on all occasions. He thirsted after all 
liberal knowledge, and oft complained, that in his 
youth he had no teachers, in his middle age so little 
vacancy from wars and the cares of his kingdom ; yet 
leisure he found sometimes, not only to learn much 
himself, but to communicate thereof what he could to 
his people, by translating books out of Latin into 



p Camden. 

r Sim. Dun. Florent. 



q Post Christ. 895. Sax. an. 



s Post Christ. 896. Sax. an. 
u Post Christ. 900. Asser. 



t Post Christ. 897. Sax. an. 



536 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



English, Orosius, Boethius, Beda's history and others; 
permitted none unlearned to bear office, either in court 
or commonwealth. At twenty years of age, not yet 
reigning, he took to wife Egelswitha the daughter of 
Ethelred a Mercian earl. The extremities which befel 
him in the sixth of bis reign, Neotban abbot told him, 
were justly come upon him for neglecting in his 
younger days the complaint of such as injured and op- 
pressed repaired to him, as then second person in the 
kingdom, for redress ; which neglect, were it such in- 
deed, were yet excusable in a youth, through jollity of 
mind unwilling perhaps to be detailed long with sad 
and sorrowful narrations ; but from the time of his un- 
dertaking regal charge, no man more patient in hearing 
causes, more inquisitive in examining, more exact in 
doing justi-ce, and providing- good laws, which are yet 
extant; more severe in punishing unjust judges or ob- 
stinate offenders. Thieves especially and robbers, to 
the terrour of whom in cross ways were hung upon a 
high post certain chains of g*old, as it were daring' any 
one to take them thence; so that justice seemed in his 
days not to flourish only, but to triumph : no man than 
he more frugal of two precious things in man's life, 
his time and his revenue ; no man wiser in the disposal 
of both. His time, the day and night, he distributed by 
the burning- of certain tapers into three equal portions ; 
the one was for devotion, the other for public or private 
affairs, the third for bodily refreshment ; how each 
hour passed, he was put in mind by one who had that 
office. His whole annual revenue, which his first care 
was should be justly his own, he divided into two equal 
parts ; the first he employed to secular uses, and sub- 
divided those into three, the first to pay his soldiers, 
household servants and guard, of which divided into 
three bands, one attended monthly by turn ; the second 
Avas to pay his architects and workmen, whom he had 
got together of several nations ; for he was also an ele- 
gant builder, above the custom and conceit of English- 
men in those days : the third he had in readiness to 
relieve or honour strangers according to their worth, 
who came from all parts to see him, and to live under 
him. The other equal part of his yearly wealth he de- 
dicated to religious uses, those of four sorts; the first 
to relieve the poor, the second to the building and main- 
tenance of two monasteries, the third of a school, where 
lie had persuaded the sons of many noblemen to study 
sacred knowledge and liberal arts, some say at Oxford ;* 
tbe fourth was for the relief of foreign churches, as far 
as India to the shrine of St. Thomas, sending thither 
Sigelm bishop of Sherburn, who both returned safe, 
and brought with him many rich gems and spices; 
gifts also and a letter he received from the patriarch at 
Jerusalem; sent many to Rome, and from them re- 
eeived relics. Thus far, and much more might be said 
of his noble mind, which rendered him the mirror of 
princes; his body was diseased in his youth with a 
gnat soreness in the siege, and that ceasing of itself, 
with another inward pain of unknown cause, which 
i ■ U liim by frequent fits to his dying day: yet not 



Malms. y ibid, 

an. 



2 Hunting, 
b Post Christ. 902. 



disenabled to sustain those many glorious labours of 
his life both in peace and war. 

EDWARD the Elder. 

Edward the son of Alfred succeeded,? in learning 
not equal, in power and extent of dominion surpassing 
his father. The beginning of his reign had much dis- 
turbance by Ethelwald an ambitious young man, 2 son 
of the king's uncle, or cousin german, or brother, for 
his genealogy is variously delivered. He vainly avouch- 
ing to have equal rig'ht with Edward of succession to 
the crown possessed himself of Winburn in Dorset,* 
and another town diversly named, giving out that there 
he would live or die ; but encompassed with the king's 
forces at Badbury a place nigh, his heart failing aim, 
he stole out by night, and fled to the Danish army be- 
yond Humber. The king sent after him, but not 
overtaking, found his wife in the town, whom he had 
married out of a nunnery, and commanded her to be 
sent back thither. b About this time the Kentish men 
against a multitude of Danish pirates fought prosper- 
ously at a place called Holme, as Hoveden records. 
Ethelwald, aided by the Northumbrians with shipping, 
three years after, sailing to the East-Angles, persuaded 
the Danes there to fall into the king's territory, who 
marching with him as far as Crecklad, and passing the 
Thames there, wasted as far beyond as they durst ven- 
ture, and laden with spoils returned home. The king 
with his powers making speed after them, between the 
Dike and Ouse, supposed to be Suffolk and Cam- 
bridgeshire, as far as the fens northward, laid waste all 
before him. Thence intending to return, he com- 
manded that all his army should follow him close 
without delay; but the Kentish men, though often 
called upon, lagging behind, the Danish army pre- 
vented them, and joined battle with the king: where 
duke Sigulf and earl Sigelm, with many other of the 
nobles were slain ; on the Danes' part, Eoric their 
king, and Ethelwald the author of this war, with others 
of high note, and of them greater number, but with 
great ruin on both sides ; yet the Danes kept in their 
power the burying- of their slain. Whatever followed 
upon this conflict, which we read not, the king two 
years after with the Danes, d both of East-Angles and 
Northumberland, concluded peace, which continued 
three years, by whomsoever broken : for at the end 
thereof** king Edward, raising great forces out of 
West-Sex and Mercia, sent them against the Danes 
beyond Humber; where staying five weeks, they made 
great spoil and slaughter. The king offered them 
terms of peace, but they rejecting all entered with 
the next year into Mercia/ rendering no less hostility 
than they had suffered; but at Tetnal in Staffordshire, 
saith Florent, were by the English in a set battle over- 
thrown. King Edward, then in Kent, had got toge- 
ther of ships about a hundred sail, others gone south- 
ward came back and met him. The Danes, now sup- 
posing that his main forces were upon the sea, took 



c Post Christ. 905. Sax. an. 
e Post Cluist. 910. Sax. an. 



cl Post Christ. O07. Sax. an. 
t Post Christ. 911. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



537 



liberty to rove and plunder up and down, as hope of 
prey led them, beyond Severn, s The king- guessing 
what might embolden them, sent before him the lightest 
of his army to entertain them ; then following with 
the rest, set upon them in their return over Cantbrig 
in Gloucestershire, and slew many thousands, among 
whom Ecwils, Hafden, and Hinguar their kings, 
and many other harsh names in Huntingdon ; the place 
also of this fight is variously written, by Ethel werd and 
Florent called Wodensfield. hThe year following, 
Ethred the duke of Mercia, to whom Alfred had given 
London, with his daughter in marriage, now dying, 
King Edward resumed that city, and Oxford, with the 
countries adjoining, into his own hands; and the year 
after * built, or much repaired by his soldiers, the town 
of Hertford on either side Lee ; and having a sufficient 
number at the work, marched about middle summer 
with the other part of his forces into Essex, and en- 
camped at Maldon, while his soldiers built Witham ; 
where a good part of the country, subject formerly to 
the Danes, yielded themselves to his protection. k Four 
years after (Florent allows but one year) the Danes 
from Leicester and Northampton, falling into Oxford- 
shire, committed much rapine, and in some towns 
thereof great slaughter ; while another party wasting 
Hertfordshire, met with other fortune: for the country 
people, inured now to such kind of incursions, joining 
stoutly together, fell upon the spoilers, and recovered 
their own goods, with some booty from their enemies. 
About the same time Elfled the king's sister sent her 
army of Mercians into Wales, who routed the Welsh, 1 
took the castle of Bricnan-mere by Brecknock, and 
brought away the king's wife of that country, with 
other prisoners. Not long after she took Derby from 
the Danes, and the castle by a sharp assault. m But 
the year ensuing brought a new fleet of Danes to Lid- 
wic in Devonshire, under two leaders, Otter and Roald ; 
who sailing thence westward about the land's end, came 
up to the mouth of Severn ; there landing wasted the 
Welsh coast, and Jrchenfield part of Herefordshire ; 
where they took Kuneleac a British bishop, for whose 
ransom King Edward gave forty pound : but the men 
of Hereford and Gloucestershire assembling put them 
to flight; slaying Roald and the brother of Otter, with 
many more, pursued them to a wood, and there beset 
compelled them to give hostages of present departure. 
The king with his army sat not far off, securing from 
the south of Severn to Avon; so that openly they durst 
not, by night they twice ventured to land ; but found 
such welcome that few of them came back ; the rest 
anchored by a small island, where many of them fa- 
mished ; then sailing to a place called Deomed, they 
crossed into Ireland. The king with his army went 
to Buckingham, staid there a month, and built two 
castles or forts on either bank of Ouse ere his departing ; 

tand Turkitel a Danish leader, with those of Bedford 
and Northampton, yielded him subjection. "Where- 
upon the next year, he came with his army to the town 
of Bedford, took possession thereof, staid there a month, 

S Ethel weed 2 an. h Post Christ. 917- Sax. i Post Christ. 913. Sax. an. 
k Post Christ. 917- Sax. an. 1 Huntingd. Catnd. 



and gave order to build another part of the town, on 
the south side of Ouse. ° Thence the year following 
went again to Maldon, repaired and fortified the town. 
Turkitel the Dane having' small hope to thrive here, 
where things with such prudence were managed 
against his interest, got leave of the king, with as 
many voluntaries as would follow him, to pass into 
France, p Early the next year King Edward reedified 
Tovechester now Torchester ; and another city in the 
annals called Wigingmere. Meanwhile the Danes in 
Leicester and Northamptonshire, not liking perhaps 
to be neighboured with strong towns, laid siege to 
Torchester; but they within repelling the assault one 
whole day till supplies came, quitted the siege by 
night; and pursued close by the besieged, between 
Birnwud and Ailsbury were surprised, many of them 
made prisoners, and much of their baggage lost. Other 
of the Danes at Huntingdon, aided from the East- 
Angles, finding that castle not commodious, left it, 
and built another at Temsford, judging that place more 
opportune from whence to make their excursions; and 
soon after went forth with design to assail Bedford : 
but the garrison issuing out slew a great part of them, 
the rest fled. After this a greater army of them, ga- 
thered out of Mercia and the East-Angles, came and 
besieged the city called Wigingmere a whole day ; but 
finding it defended stoutly by them within, thence 
also departed, driving away much of their cattle : 
whereupon the English, from towns and cities round 
about joining forces, laid siege to the town and castle 
of Temsford, and by assault took both ; slew their king 
with Toglea a duke, and Mannan his son an earl, 
with all the rest there found ; who chose to die rather 
than yield. Encouraged «by this, the men of Kent, 
Surrey, and part of Essex, enterprise the siege of Col- 
chester, nor gave over till they won it, sacking the 
town and putting to sword all the Danes therein, ex- 
cept some who escaped over the wall. To the succour 
of these a great number of Danes inhabiting ports and 
other towns in the East- Angles united their force ; but 
coming too late, as in revenge beleaguered Maldon : 
but that town also timely relieved, they departed, not 
only frustrate of their design, but so hotly pursued, 
that many thousands of them lost their lives in the 
flight. Forthwith King Edward with his West-Saxons 
went to Passham upon Ouse, there to guard the pas- 
sage, while others were building a stone wall about 
Torchester ; to him their earl Thurfert, and other lord 
Danes, with their army thereabout, as far as Weolud, 
came and submitted. Whereat the king's soldiers joy- 
fully cried out to be dismissed home : therefore with 
another part of them he entered Huntingdon, and re- 
paired it, where breaches had been made ; all the people 
thereabout returning* to obedience. The like was done 
at Colchester by the next remove of his army; after 
which both East and West-Angles, and the Danish 
forces among them, yielded to the king, swearing al- 
legiance to him both by sea and land : the army 
also of Danes at Grantbrig, surrendering themselves, 



m Post Christ. 919. Sax. an. 
o Post Christ. 920. Sax. an. 



n Post Christ. 919. Sax. an. 
p Post Christ. 921. Sax. an. 



538 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



took the same oath. The summer following" q he 
came with his army to Stamford, built a castle there 
on the south side of the river, where all the people 
of these quarters acknowledged him supreme. During 
his abode there, Elfled his sister, a martial woman, 
who after her husband's death would no more many, 
but gave herself to public affairs, repairing and 
fortifying many towns, warring sometimes, died at 
Taimvorth the chief seat of Mercia, whereof by gift 
of Alfred her father she was lady or queen ; where- 
by that whole nation became obedient to King Ed- 
ward, as did also North Wales, with Howel, Cle- 
daucos, and Jeothwell, their kings. Thence passing 
to Nottingham, he entered and repaired the town, 
placed there part English, part Danes, and received 
fealty from all in Mercia of either nation. r The next 
autumn, coming with his army into Cheshire, he built 
and fortified Thelwell ; and while he staid there, call- 
ed another army out of Mercia, which he sent to repair 
and fortify Manchester. s About midsummer following 
he marched again to Nottingham, built a town over 
against it on the south side of that river, and with a 
bridge joined them both ; thence journeyed to a place 
called Bedecanwillin in Pictland ; there also built 
and fenced a city on the borders, where the king of 
Scots did him honour as to his sovereign, together with 
the whole Scottish nation ; the like did Reginald and 
the son of Eadulf, Danish princes, with all the Nor- 
thumbrians, both English and Danes. The King also 
of a people thereabout called Streatgledwalli (the 
North-Welsh, as Camden thinks, of Strat-Cluid in 
Denbighshire, perhaps rather the British of Cumber- 
land) did him homage, and not undeserved. t For, 
Buchanan himself confesses, that this king Edward, 
with a small number of men compared to his enemies, 
overthrew in a great battle the whole united power 
both of Scots and Danes, slew most of the Scottish no- 
bility, and forced Malcolm, whom Constantine the 
Scotch king had made general, and designed heir of 
his crown, to save himself by flight sore wounded. Of 
the English he makes Athelstan the son of Edward 
chief leader; and so far seems to confound times and 
actions, as to make this battle the same with that 
fought by Athelstan about twenty-four years after at 
Bruncford, against Anlaf and Constantine, whereof 
hereafter. But here Buchanan u takes occasion to in- 
veigh against the English writers, upbraiding them 
with ignorance, who affirm Athelstan to have been su- 
preme king of Britain, Constantine the Scottish king 
with others to have held of him : and denies that in the 
annals of Marianus Sootus any mention is to be found 
thereof; which I shall not stand much to contradict, 
for in Marianus, whether by surname or by nation 
Scotus, will be found as little mention of any other 
Scottish affairs, till the time of king Dunchad slain by 
Machetad, or Macbeth, in the year 1040 : which gives 
cause of suspicion, that the affairs of Scotland before 
that time were so obscure, as to be unknown to their 
own countrymen, who lived and wrote his chronicle 

■ Christ. 021. Sax. an. r Post Christ. 923. Sax. an. 

t Buch.l 6. u Bnch. 1.0. 

x Post Christ. 9'-ij. Sax. an. Huutingd. Mat. West. y Sim. Dun 



not long after. But King Edward thus nobly doing, 
and thus honoured, the year x following died at Faren- 
don ; a builder and restorer even in war, not a de- 
stroyer of his land. He had by several wives many 
children ; his eldest daughter Edgith he gave in mar- 
riage to Charles king of France, grandchild of Charles 
the Bald above mentioned : of the rest in place con- 
venient. His laws are yet to be seen. He was buried 
at Winchester, in the monastery, by Alfred his father. 
And a few days after him died Ethelward his eldest 
son, the heir of his crown. He had the whole island 
in subjection, yet so as petty kings reigned under him.y 
In Northumberland, after Ecbert whom the Danes 
had set up and the Northumbrians, yet unruly under 
their yoke, at the end of six years had expelled, one 
Ricsig was set up king, and bore the name three 
years ; then another Ecbert, and Guthred ; the latter, 
if we believe legends, of a servant made king by com- 
mand of St. Cudbert, in a vision ; and enjoined by an- 
other vision of the same saint, to pay well for his 
royalty many lands and privileges to his church and 
monastery. But now to the story. 

ATHELSTAN. 

Athelstan, next in age to Ethelward his brother, 
who deceased untimely few days before, though born 
of a concubine, yet for the great appearance of many 
virtues in him, and his brethren being yet under age, 
was exalted to the throne at Kingston upon Thames, 2 
and by his father's last will, saith Malmsbury, yet 
not without some opposition of one Alfred and his ac- 
complices; who not liking he should reign, had con- 
spired to seize on him after his father's death, and to 
put out his eyes. But the conspirators discovered, 
and Alfred, denying the plot, a was sent to Rome, to 
assert his innocence before the pope ; where taking his 
oath on the altar, he fell down immediately, and car- 
ried out by his servants, three days after died. Mean- 
while beyond Humber the Danes, though much awed, 
were not idle. Inguald, one of their kings, took pos- 
session of York ; Sitric, who some years b before had 
slain Niel his brother, by force took Davenport in 
Cheshire ; and however he defended these doings, 
grew so inconsiderable, that Athelstan with great so- 
lemnity gave him his sister Edgith to wife : but he 
enjoyed her not long, dying ere the year's end ; nor 
his sons Anlaf and Guthfert the kingdom, driven out 
the next d year by Athelstan : not unjustly saith Hun- 
tingdon, as being first raisers of the war. Simeon calls 
him Gudfrid a British king, whom Athelstan this year 
drove out of his kingdom ; and perhaps they were both 
one, the name and time not much differing, the place 
only mistaken. Malmsbury differs in the name also, 
calling him Adulf a certain rebel. Them also I wish 
as much mistaken, who write that Athelstan, jealous of 
his younger brother Edwin's towardly virtues, lest 
added to the right of birth they might some time or 
other call in question his illegitimate precedence, 



7. Post Christ. 920. 
c Malms. Mat. West. 



a Malms. b Sim. Dun. 

d Post. Christ, 927. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



539 



caused him to be drowned in the sea; e exposed, some 
say, with one servant in a rotten bark, without sail or 
oar; where the youth far off land, and in rough wea- 
ther despairing-, threw himself overboard ; the ser- 
vant, more patient, got to land, and reported the 
success. But this Malmsbury confesses to be sung in 
old songs, not read in warrantable authors : and Hun- 
tingdon speaks as of a sad accident to Athelstan, that 
he lost his brother Edwin by sea; far the more credible, 
in that Athelstan, as it is written by all, tenderly loved 
and bred up the rest of his brethren, of whom he had 
no less cause to be jealous. And the year f following 
he prospered better than from so foul a fact, passing 
into Scotland with great puissance, both by sea and 
land, and chasing his enemies before him, by land as 
far as Dunfeoder and Wertermore, by sea as far as 
Cathness. The cause of this expedition, saith Malms- 
bury, was to demand Guthfert the son of Sitric, thither 
fled, though not denied at length by Constantine, who 
with Eugenius king of Cumberland, at a place called 
Dacor or Dacre in that shire, surrendered himself and 
each his kingdom to Athelstan, who brought back with 
him for hostage the son of Constantine. s But Guth- 
fert escaping in the mean while out of Scotland, and 
Constantine, exasperated by this invasion, persuaded 
Anlaf, the other son of Sitric, then fled into Ireland, 
li others write Anlaf king of Ireland and the Isles, his 
son-in-law, with six hundred and fifteen ships, and the 
king of Cumberland with other forces, to his aid. This 
within four years 1 effected, they entered England by 
Humber, and fought with Athelstan at a place called 
Wendune, others term it Brunanburg, others Brune- 
ford, which Ingulf places beyond Humber, Camden in 
Glendale of Northumberland on the Scotch borders ; 
the bloodiest fight, say authors, that ever this island 
saw : to describe which the Saxon annalist, wont to be 
sober and succinct, whether the same or another writer, 
now labouring under the weight of his argument, and 
overcharged, runs on a sudden into such exfravagant 
fancies and metaphors, as bear him quite beside the 
scope of being understood. Huntingdon, though him- 
self peccant enough in this kind, transcribes him word 
for word as a pastime to his readers. I shall only sum 
up what of him I can attain, in useful language. The 
battle was fought eagerly from morning to night ; 
some fell of King Edward's old army, tried in many a 
battle before; but on the other side great multitudes, 
the rest fled to their ships. Five kings, and seven of 
Anlaf s chief captains, were slain on the place, with 
Froda a Norman leader; Constantine escaped home, 
but lost his son in the fight, if I understand my author; 
Anlaf by sea to Dublin, with a small remainder of his 
great host. Malmsbury relates this war, adding many 
circumstances after this manner: that Anlaf, joining 
with Constantine and the whole power of Scotland, 
besides those which he brought with him out of Ire- 
land, came on far southwards, till Athelstan, who had 
retired on set purpose to be the surer of his enemies, 
enclosed from all succour and retreat, met him at 



e Post Christ. 933. Sim. Dun. 

f Post Christ. 934. Sax. an. Sim. Dun. 



Bruneford. Anlaf perceiving the valour and resolution 
of Athelstan, and mistrusting his own forces, though 
numerous, resolved first to spy in what posture his 
enemies lay : and imitating perhaps what he heard 
attempted by King Alfred the age before, in the habit 
of a musician, got access by his lute and voice to the 
king's tent, there playing both the minstrel and the 
spy: then towards evening dismissed, he was observed 
by one who had been his soldier, and well knew him, 
viewing earnestly the king's tent, and what approaches 
lay about it, then in the twilight to depart. The sol- 
dier forthwith acquaints the king, and by him blamed 
for letting go his enemy, answered, that he had given 
first his military oath to Anlaf, whom if he had betray- 
ed, the king might suspect him of like treasonous mind 
towards himself; which to disprove, he advised him to 
remove his tent a good distance off: and so done, it 
happened that a bishop, with his retinue coming that 
night to the army, pitched his tent in the same place 
from whence the king had removed. Anlaf, coming 
by night as he had designed, to assault the camp, and 
especially the king's tent, finding there the bishop in- 
stead, slew him with all his followers. Athelstan took 
the alarm, and as it seems, was not found so unpro- 
vided, but that the day now appearing, he put his men 
in order, and maintained the fight till evening; wherein 
Constantine himself was slain with five other kings, 
and twelve earls; the annals were content with seven, 
in the rest not disagreeing. Ingulf abbot of Croyland, 
from the authority of Turketul a principal leader in 
this battle, relates it more at large to this effect: That 
Athelstan, above a mile distant from the place where 
execution was done upon the bishop and his supplies, 
alarmed at the noise, came down by break of day upon 
Anlaf and his army, overwatched and wearied now 
with the slaughter they had made, and something out 
of order, yet in two main battles. The king, therefore 
in like manner dividing, led the one part, consisting 
most of West Saxons, against Anlaf with his Danes 
and Irish, committing the other to his chancellor Tur- 
ketul, with the Mercians and Londoners, against Con- 
stantine and his Scots. The shower of arrows and 
darts overpassed, both battles attacked each other with 
a close and terrible engagement, for a long space nei- 
ther side giving ground. Till the chancellor Turketul, 
a man of great stature and strength, taking with him 
a few Londoners of select valour, and Singin who led 
the Worcestershire men, a captain of undaunted 
courage, broke into the thickest, making his way first 
through the Picts and Orkeners, then through the 
Cumbrians and Scots, and came at length where Con- 
stantine himself fought., unhorsed him, and used all 
means to take him alive ; but the Scots valiantly de- 
fending their king, and laying load upon Turketul, 
which the goodness of his armour well endured, he had 
yet been beaten down, had not Singin his faithful 
second at the same time slain Constantine ; which once 
known, Anlaf and the whole army betook them to 
flight, whereof a huge multitude fell by the sword. 



g Florent. 

i Post Christ. 938. Sax. an. Malms 



h Florent. Sim. Dun. 



540 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



This Turketul, not long- after leaving- worldly affairs, 
became abbot of Croyland, which at his own cost he 
had repaired from Danish ruins, and left there this 
memorial of his former actions. Athelstan with his 
brother Edmund victorious thence turning into Wales, 
with much more ease vanquished Ludwal the king, 
and possessed his land. But Malmsbury writes, that 
commiserating human chance, as he displaced, so he 
restored both him and Constantine to their regal state : 
for the surrender of King Constantine hath been above 
spoken of. However the Welsh did him homage at 
the city of Hereford, and covenanted yearly payment 
of gold twenty pound, of silver three hundred, of oxen 
twenty-five thousand, besides hunting dogs and hawks. 
He also took Exeter from the Cornish Britons, who till 
that time had equal right there with the English, and 
bounded them with the river Tamar, as the other 
British with Wey. Thus dreaded of his enemies, and 
renowned far and near, three years k after he died at 
Gloucester, and was buried with many trophies at 
Malmsbury, where he had caused to be laid his two 
cousin germans. Elwin and Ethelstan, both slain in the 
battle against Anlaf. He was thirty years old at his 
coming to the crown, mature in wisdom from his child- 
hood, comely of person and behaviour; so that Alfred 
his grandfather in blessing him was wont to pray he 
might live to have the kingdom, and put 'him yet a 
child into soldier's habit. He had his breeding in the 
court of Elfled his aunt, of whose virtues more than 
female we have related, sufficient to evince that his 
mother, though said to be no wedded wife, was yet such 
of parentage and worth, as the royal line disdained not, 
though the song went in Malmsbury's days (for it 
seems he refused not the authority of ballads for want 
of better) that his mother was a farmer's daughter, 
but of excellent feature ; who dreamed one night she 
brought forth a moon that should enlighten the whole 
land : which the king's nurse hearing of took her home 
and bred up courtly; that the king, coming one day 
to visit his nurse, saw there this damsel, liked her, and 
by earnest suit prevailing, had by her this famous 
Athelstan, a bounteous, just, and affable king, as 
Malmsbury sets him forth, nor less honoured abroad 
by foreign kings, who sought his friendship by great 
gifts or affinity ; that Harold king of Noricum sent 
him a ship whose prow was of gold, sails purple, and 
other golden things, the more to be wondered at, sent 
from Noricum, whether meant Norway or Bavaria, the 
one place so far from such superfluity of wealth, the 
other from all sea: the embassadors were Helgrim and 
Offrid, who found the king at York. His sisters he 
gave in marriage to greatest princes; Elgif to Otho 
son of Henry the emperor; Egdith to a certain duke 
about the Alps; Edgiv to Ludwic king of Aquitain, 
sprung of Charles the Great; Ethilda to Plugo king 
of France, who sent Aldulf son of Baldwin earl of 
Flanders to obtain her. From all these great suitors, 
especially from the emperor and king of France, came 
rich presents, horses of excellent breed, gorgeous trap- 



it Post Christ. 941. Sax. an. Malms. Ingulf. 



Post Christ. 942. Sax. an 



in Post Christ. 944. Sax. an. 



pings and armour, relics, jewels, odours, vessels of 
onyx, and other precious things, which I leave poeti- 
cally described in Malmsbury, taken, as he confesses, 
out of an old versifier, some of whose verses he recites. 
The only blemish left upon him was the exposing his 
brother Edwin, who disavowed by oath the ti*eason 
whereof he was accused, and implored an equal hear- 
ing. But these were songs, as before hath been said, 
which add also that Athelstan, his anger over, soon 
repented of the fact, and put to death his cupbearer, 
who had induced him to suspect and expose his brother ; 
put in mind by a word falling from the cupbearer's 
own mouth, who slipping one day as he bore the king's 
cup, and recovering himself on the other leg, said 
aloud fatally, as to him it proved, one brother helps 
the other. Which words the king laying to heart, 
and pondering how ill he had done to make away his 
brother, avenged himself first on the adviser of that 
fact, took on him seven years' penance, and as Mat. 
West, saith, built two monasteries for the soul of his 
brothei-. His laws are extant among the laws of other 
Saxon kings to this day. 

EDMUND. 

Edmund not above eighteen years l old succeeded his 
brother Athelstan, in courage not inferior. For in the 
second of his reign he freed Mercia of the Danes that 
remained there, and took from them the cities of Lin- 
coln, Nottingham, Stamford, Derby, and Leicester, 
where they were placed by King' Edward, but it seems 
gave not good proof of their fidelity. Simeon writes, 
that Anlaf setting forth from York, and having wasted 
southward as far as Northampton, was met by Edmund 
at Leicester; but that ere the battles joined, peace was 
made between them byOdo and Wulstan the two arch- 
bishops, with conversion of Anlaf; for the same year 
Edmund received at the fontstone this or another An- 
laf, as saith Huntingdon, not him spoken of before, 
who died this year, (so uncertain they are in the story 
of these times also,) and held Reginald another king' of 
the Northumbrians, while the bishop confirmed him : 
their limits were divided north and south by Watling- 
street. But spiritual kindred little availed to keep 
peace between them, whoever gave the cause ; for we 
read him two years m after driving Anlaf (whom the 
annals now first call the son of Sitric) and Suthfrid son 
of Reginald out of Northumberland, taking the whole 
country into subjection. Edmund the next n year 
harassed Cumberland, then gave it to Malcolm king of 
Scots, thereby bound to assist him in his wars, both 
by sea and land. Mat. West, adds, that in this action 
Edmund had the aid of Leolin prince of North Wales, 
against Dummail the Cumbrian king, him depriving 
of his kingdom, and his two sons of their sight. But 
the year ° after, he himself by strange accident came to 
an untimely death : feasting- with his nobles on St. 
Austin's day at Puclekerke in Gloucester, to celebrate 
the memory of his first converting the Saxons ; he spied 



n Post Christ. 945. Sax. an. 
o Post Christ. 946. Sax. an. 



Book V. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



541 



Leof a noted thief, whom he had banished, sitting 
among his guests : whereat transported with too much 
vehemenee of spirit, though in a just cause, rising- from 
the table he run upon the thief, and catching his hair, 
pulled him to the ground. The thief, who doubted 
from such handling- no less than his death intended, 
thought to die not unrevenged ; and with a short dag- 
ger struck the king, who still laid at him, and little 
expected such assassination, mortally into the breast. 
The matter was done in a moment, ere men set at table 
could turn them, or imagine at first what the stir 
meant, till perceiving the king deadly wounded, they 
flew upon the murderer and hewed him to pieces; who 
like a wild beast at bay, seeing himself surrounded, 
desperately laid about him, wounding some in his fall. 
The king was buried at Glaston, whereof Dunstan was 
then abbot; his laws yet remain to be seen among the 
laws of other Saxon kings. 

EDRED. 

Edreo, the third brother of Athelstan, the sons of 
Edmund being yet but children, next reigned, not de- 
generating from his worthy predecessors, and crowned 
at Kingston. Northumberland he thoroughly subdued, 
the Scots without refusal swore him allegiance ; yet 
the Northumbrians, ever of doubtful faith, soon after 
chose to themselves one Eric a Dane. Huntingdon 
still haunts us with this Anlaf, (of whom we gladly 
would have been rid,) and will have him before Eric re- 
called once more and reign four years, p then again put 
to his shifts. But Edred entering into Northumberland, 
and with spoils returning, Eric the king fell upon his 
rear. Edred turning about, both shook off the enemy, 
and prepared to make a second inroad : which the 
Northumbrians dreading rejected Eric, slew Amancus 
the son of Anlaf, and with many presents appeasing 
Edred submitted again to his government ;<J nor from 
that time had kings, but were governed by earls, of 
whom Osulf was the first. r About this time Wulstan 
archbishop of York, accused to have slain certain men 
of Thetford in revenge of their abbot, whom the towns- 
men had slain, was committed by the king to close 
custody; but soon after enlarged, was restored to his 
place. Malmsbury writes, that his crime was to have 
connived at the revolt of his countrymen : but King 
Edred two years after, s sickening in the flower of his 
youth, died much lamented, and was buried at Win- 
chester. 

EDWI. 

Edwi, the son of Edmund, now come to age, 4 after 
his uucle Edred's death took on him the government, 
and was crowned at Kingston. His lovely person sur- 
named him the fair, his actions are diversely reported, 
by Huntingdon not thought illaudable. But Malms- 
bury and such as follow him write far otherwise, that 
he married, or kept as concubine, his near kinswoman," 

p Post Christ. 950. Sim. Dun. q Hoved 

r Post Christ. 953. Sim. Dun. s Post Christ. 955. Sim. Dun. 

t Ethelwerd. u Mat. West. x Post Christ. 956. 



some say both her and her daughter ; so inordinately 
given to his pleasure, that on the very day of his coro- 
nation he abruptly withdrew himself from the company 
of his peers, whether in banquet or consultation, to sit 
wantoning in the chamber with his Algiva, so was her 
name, who had such power over him. Whereat his 
barons offended sent bishop Dunstan, the boldest among 
them, to request his return : he, going to the chamber, 
not only interrupted his dalliance, and rebuked the 
lady, but taking him by the hand, between force and 
persuasion brought him back to his nobles. The king 
highly displeased, x and instigated perhaps by her who 
was so prevalent with him, not long after sent Dun- 
stan into banishment, caused his monastery to be rifled, 
and became an enemy to all monks and friars. Where- 
upon Odo archbishop of Canterbury pronounced a se- 
paration or divorce of the king from Algiva. But that 
which most incited William of Malmsbury against him, 
he gave that monastery to be dwelt in by secular priests, 
or, to use his own phrase, made it a stable of clerks : 
at length these affronts done to the church were so re- 
sented by the people, that the Mercians and Northum- 
brians revolted from him, and set up Edgar his bro- 
ther^ leaving to Edwi the West-Saxons only, bounded 
by the river Thames ; with grief whereof, as is thought, 
he soon after ended his days, z and was buried at Win- 
chester. Meanwhile a Elfin, bishop of that place, after 
the death of Odo ascending by simony to the chair of 
Canterbury, and going to Rome the same year for his 
pall, was frozen to death in the Alps. 

EDGAR. 

Edgar by his brother's death now b king of all Eng- 
land at sixteen years of age, called home Dunstan out 
of Flanders, where he lived in exile. This king had 
no war all his reign ; yet always well prepared for 
war, governed the kingdom in great peace, honour, and 
prosperity, gaining thence the surname of peaceable, 
much extolled for justice, clemency, and all kingly 
virtues, the more, ye may be sure by monks, for his 
building so many monasteries ; as some write, every 
year one: for he much favoured the monks against se- 
cular priests, who in the time of Edwi had got posses- 
sion in most of their convents. His care and wisdom 
was great in guarding the coast round with stout ships 
to the number of three thousand six hundred. Mat. 
West, reckons them four thousand eight hundred, di- 
vided into four squadrons, to sail to and fro, about the 
four quarters of the land, meeting each other; the first 
of twelve hundred sail from east to west, the second of 
as many from west to east, the third and fourth be- 
tween north and south ; himself in the summer time 
with his fleet. Thus he kept out wisely the force of 
strangers, and prevented foreign war, but by their too 
frequent resort hither in time of peace, and his too 
much favouring them, he let in their vices unaware. 
Thence the people, saith Malmsbury, learned of the 
outlandish Saxons rudeness, of the Flemish daintiness 

y Hoved. z Post Christ. 955. Sax. an. 

a Post Christ. 958. Mat. West. 

b Post Christ. 959. Malms. c Mat. West. 



&12 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book V. 



and softness, of the Danes drunkenness ; though I 
doubt these vices are as naturally homebred here as in 
any of those countries. Yet in the winter and spring" 
time he usually rode the circuit as a judge itinerant 
through all his provinces, to see justice well adminis- 
tered, and the poor not oppressed. Thieves and rob- 
bers he rooted almost out of the land, and wild beasts 
of prey altogether; enjoining- Ludwal, king of Wales, 
to pay the yearly tribute of three hundred wolves, 
which he did for two years together, till the third year 
no more were to be found, nor ever after ; but his laws 
may be read yet extant. Whatever was the cause, 
he was not crowned till the thirtieth of his age, but 
then with great splendour and magnificence at the 
city of Bath, in the feast of Pentecost. This year a 
died Swarling a monk of Croyland, in the hundred 
and forty-second year of his ag*e, and another soon 
after him in the hundred and fifteenth ; in that fenny 
and waterish air the more remarkable. King Edgar 
the next e year went to Chester, and summoning 1 to 
his court there all the kings that held of him, 
took homage of them : their names are Kened king 
of Scots, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccuse of the 
Isles, five of Wales, Dufwal, Huwal, Grifith, Jacob, 
Judethil ; these he had in such awe, that going one 
day into a galley, he caused them to take each man 
his oar, and row him down the river Dee, while he 
himself sat at the stern ; which might be done in mer- 
riment, and easily obeyed ; if with a serious brow, 
discovered rather vain-glory, and insulting haughtiness, 
than moderation of mind. And that he did it seriously 
triumphing, appears by his words then uttered, that 
his successors might then glory to be kings of England, 
when they had such honour done them. And perhaps 
the divine power was displeased with him for taking 
too much honour to himself; since we read, that f the 
year following he was taken out of this life by sick- 
ness in the height of his glory and the prime of his 
age, buried at Glaston abbey. The same year, as 
Mat. West, relates, he gave to Kened, the Scottish 
king, many rich presents, and the whole country of 
Laudian, or Lothien, to hold of him on condition, that 
he and his successors should repair to the English 
court at high festivals when the king sat crowned ; 
gave him also many lodging places by the way, which 
till the days of Henry the second were still held by 
the kings of Scotland. He was of stature not tall, 
of body slender, yet so well made, that in strength he 
chose to contend with such as were thought strongest, 
and disliked nothing more, than that they should spare 
him for respect, or fear to hurt him. Kened king of 
Scots, then in the court of Edgar, sitting one day at 
table, was heard to say jestingly among his servanls, 
he wondered how so many provinces could be held in 
subjection by such a little dapper man: his words 
were brought to the king's ear; he sends for Kened 
as about some private business, and in talk draw- 
ing him forth to a secret place, takes from under 
his garment two swords, which he had brought with 
him, gave one of them to Kened ; and now, saith he, 

d Post Christ. 973. Sax.un. Ingulf. e Post Christ. 974. Sax. an. 



it shall be tried which ought to be the subject ; for it 
is shameful for a king to boast at table, and shrink in 
fight. Kened much abashed fell presently at his feet, 
and besought him to pardon what he had simply 
spoken, no way intended to his dishonour or disparage- 
ment ; wherewith the king was satisfied. Camden, 
in his description of Ireland, cites a charter of King 
Edgar, wherein it appears he had in subjection all the 
kingdoms of the isles as far as Norway, and had sub- 
dued the greatest part of Ireland with the city of Dub- 
lin : but of this other writers make no mention. In 
his youth having heard of Elfrida, daughter to Ordgar 
duke of Devonshire much commended for her beauty, 
he sent Earl Athelwold, whose loyalty he trusted most, 
to see her ; intending, if she were found such as answer- 
ed report, to demand her in marriage. He at the first 
view taken with her presence, disloyally, as it oft hap- 
pens in such employments, began to sue for himself; 
and with consent of her parents obtained her. Re- 
turning therefore with scarce an ordinary commenda- 
tion of her feature, he easily took off the king's mind, 
soon diverted another way. But the matter coming to 
light how Athelwold had forestalled the king, and El- 
frida's beauty more and more spoken of, the king now 
heated not only with a relapse of love, but with a deep 
sense of the abuse, yet dissembling his disturbance, 
pleasantly told the earl, what day he meant to come 
and visit him and his fair wife. The earl seemingly 
assured his welcome, but in the mean while acquaint- 
ing his wife, earnestly advised her to deform herself 
what she might, either in dress or otherwise, lest the 
king, whose amorous inclination was not unknown, 
should chance to be attracted. She, who by this time 
was not ignorant, how Athelwold had stepped between 
her and the king, against his coming arrays herself 
richly, using whatever art she could devise might ren- 
der her the more amiable ; and it took effect. For the 
king, inflamed with her love the more for that he had 
been so long defrauded and robbed of her, resolved not 
only to recover bis intercepted right, but to punish the 
interloper of his destined spouse ; and appointing with 
him as was usual a day of hunting, drawn aside in a 
forest now called Harewood, smote him through with 
a dart. Some censure this act as cruel and tyrannical, 
but considered well, it may be judged more favourably, 
and that no man of sensible spirit but in his place, 
without extraordinary perfection, would have done the 
like : for next to life what worse treason could have been 
committed against him ? It chanced that the earl's 
base son coming by upon the fact, the king sternly 
asked him how he liked his game ; he submissly an- 
swering, that whatsoever pleased the king, must not 
displease him; the king returned to his wonted tem- 
per, took an affection to the youth, and ever after 
highly favoured him, making amends in the son for 
what he had done to the father. Elfrida forthwith he 
took to wife, who to expiate her former husband's 
death, though therein she had no hand, covered the 
place of his bloodshed with a monastery of nuns to 
sing over him. Another fault is laid to his charge, no 

f Post Christ. 975. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



543 



way excusable, that he took a virgin Wilfrida by force 
out of the nunnery, where she was placed by her 
friends to avoid his pursuit, and kept her as his concu- 
bine : but lived not obstinately in the offence ; for 
sharply reproved by Dunstan, he submitted to seven 
years penance, and for that time to want his corona- 
tion : but why he had it not before, is left unwritten. 
Another story there goes of Edgar fitter for a novel 
than a history ; but as I find it in Malmsbury, so I re- 
late it. While he was yet unmarried, in his youth he 
abstained not from women, and coming on a day to 
Andover, caused a duke's daughter there dwelling, re- 
ported rare of beauty, to be brought to him. The 
mother not daring flatly to deny, yet abhorring that 
her daughter should be so deflowered, at fit time of 
night sent in her attire one of her waiting maids : a 
maid it seems not unhandsome nor unwitty ; who sup- 
plied the place of her young lady. Night passed, the 
maid going to rise but daylight scarce yet appearing, 
was by the king asked why she made such haste; she 
answered, to do the work which her lady had set her; 
at which the king -wondering, and with much ado 
staying her to unfold the riddle, for he took her to be 
the duke's daughter, she falling at his feet besought 
him, that since at the command of her lady she came 
to his bed, and was enjoyed by him, he would be 
pleased in recompence to set her free from the hard 
service of her mistress. The king a while standing in 
a study whether he had best be angry or not, at length 
turning all to a jest, took the maid away with him, ad- 
vanced her above the lady, loved her, and accompanied 
with her only, till he married Elfrida. These only are 
his faults upon record, rather to be wondered how they 
were so few, and so soon left, he coming at sixteen to 
the licence of a sceptre ; and that his virtues were so 
many and mature, he dying before the age wherein 
wisdom can in others attain to any ripeness : however, 
with him died all the Saxon glory. From henceforth 
nothing is to be heard of but their decline and ruin 
under a double conquest, and the causes foregoing; 
whieh, not to blur or taint the praises of their former 
actions and liberty well defended, shall stand severally 
related, and will be more than long enough for another 
book. 



THE SIXTH BOOK. 

Edward the Younger. 

Edward, the eldest son of Edgar by Egelfleda his 
first wife, the daughter of duke Ordmer, was according 
to right and his father's will placed in the throne; 
Elfrida, his second wife, and her faction only repining, 
who laboured to have had her son Ethelred, a child of 
seven years, preferred before him ; that she under that 
pretence might have ruled all. Meanwhile comets 
were seen in heaven, portending not famine only, 

a Florent. Sim. Dun. b Post Christ. 978. Malms. 



which followed the next year, but the troubled state of 
the whole realm not long after to ensue. The troubles 
begun in Edwin's days, between monks and secular 
priests, now revived and drew on either side many of 
the nobles into parties. For Elfere duke of the Mer- 
cians, with many other peers, corrupted as is said with 
gifts, a drove the monks out of those monasteries where 
Edgar had placed them, and in their stead put secular 
priests with their wives. But Ethelwin duke of East- 
Angles, with his brother Elfwold, and earl Britnortb, 
opposed them, and gathering an army defended the 
abbeys of East-Angles from such intruders. To ap- 
pease these tumults, a synod was called at Winchester ; 
and, nothing there concluded, a general council both 
of nobles and prelates was held at Cain in Wiltshire, 
where while the dispute was hot, but chiefly against 
Dunstan, the room wherein they sat fell upon their 
heads, killing some, maiming others, Dunstan only 
escaping upon a beam that fell not, and the king ab- 
sent by reason of his tender age. This accident quiet- 
ed the controversy, and brought both parts to hold with 
Dunstan and the monks. Meanwhile the king ad- 
dicted to a religious life, and of a mild spirit, simply 
permitted all things to the ambitious will of his step- 
mother and her son Ethelred : to whom she, displeased 
that the name only of king was wanting, practised 
thenceforth to remove King Edward out of the way; 
which in this manner she brought about. Edward on 
a day wearied with hunting, thirsty and alone, while 
his attendants followed the dogs, hearing that Ethelred 
and his mother lodged at Corvesgate, (Corfe castle, 
saith Camden, in the isle of Purbeck,) innocently went 
thither. She with all show of kindness welcoming 
him, commanded drink to be brought forth, for it seems 
he lighted not from his horse ; and while he was drink- 
ing, caused one of her servants, privately before in- 
structed, to stab him with a poniard. The poor youth, 
who little expected such unkindness there, turning 
speedily the reins, fled bleeding; till through loss of 
blood falling from his horse, and expiring, jet held 
with one foot in the stirrup, he was dragged along the 
way, traced by his blood, and buried without honour 
at Werham, having reigned about three years : but the 
place of his burial not long after grew famous for 
miracles. After which by duke Elfere (who, as 
Malmsbury saith, b had a hand in his death) he was 
royally interred at Skepton or Shaftsbury. The mur- 
deress Elfrida, at length repenting, spent the residue 
of her days in sorrow and great penance. 

ETHELRED. 

Ethelred, second son of Edgar by Elfrida, (for 
Edmund died a child,) his brother Edward wickedly 
removed, was now next in right to succeed, and ac- 
cordingly crowned at Kingston : reported by some, fair 
of visage, comely of person, elegant of behaviour ; d but 
the event will show, that with many sluggish and ig- 
noble vices he quickly shamed his outside ; born and 
prolonged a fatal mischief of the people, and the ruin 
c Post Christ. 979. Malms. d Florent. Sim. Dun. 



544 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



of his country ; whereof he gave early signs from his 
first infancy, bewraying the font and water while the 
bishop was baptizing- him. Whereat Dunstan much 
troubled, for he stood by and saw it, to them next him 
broke into these words, " By God and God's mother, 
this boy will prove a sluggard." Another thing- is 
written of him in his childhood ; which argued no bad 
nature, that hearing - of his brother Edward's cruel 
death, he made loud lamentation ; but his furious 
Mother, offended therewith, and having* no rod at hand, 
beat him so with great wax-candles, that he hated the 
sight of them ever after. Dunstan though unwilling- 
set the erown upon his head ; but at the same time 
foretold openly, as is reported, the great evils that were 
to come upon him and the land, in avengement of his 
brother's innocent blood. e And about the same time, 
one midnight, a cloud sometimes bloody, sometimes 
fiery, was seen over all England ; and within three 
years f the Danish tempest, which had long surceased, 
revolved again upon this island. To the more ample 
relating whereof, the Danish history, at least their 
latest and diligentest historian, as neither from the first 
landing of Danes, in the reign of West-Saxon Brithric, 
so now again from first to last, contributes nothing; 
busied more than enough to make out the bare names 
and successions of their uncertain kings,- and their 
small actions, at home : unless out of him I should 
transcribe what he takes, and I better may, from our 
own annals ; the surer and the sadder' Wtnesses of their 
doings here, not glorious, as they vainly boast, but 
most inhumanly barbarous, s For the Danes well un- 
derstanding that England had now a slothful king to 
their wish, first landing at Southampton from seven 
great ships, took the town, spoiled the country, and 
carried away with them great pillage ; nor was De- 
vonshire and Cornwall uninfested on the shore, 11 pirates 
of Norway also harried the coast of West-chester :' and 
to add a worse calamity, the city of London was burnt, 
casually or not, is not written. k It chanced four years 
after, that Ethelred besieged Rochester; some way or 
other offended by the bishop thereof. Dunstan, not 
approving the cause, sent to warn him that he provoke 
not St. Andrew the patron of that city, nor waste his 
lands; an old craft of the clergy to secure their 
church-lands, by entailing them on some Saint: the 
king not hearkening, Dunstan, on this condition that 
the <\< ge might he raised, sent him a hundred pounds, 
the money was accepted and the siege dissolved. Dun- 
stan, reprehending his avarice, sent him again this 
word, "because thou hast respected money more than 
religion, the evils which I foretold shall the sooner 
come upon thee; but not in my days, for so God hath 
•poken." The next year was calamitous, 1 bringing 
strange fluxes upon men, and murrain upon cattle, 
m Dunstan the year following died, a strenuous bishop, 
zealous without dread of person, and for aught appears, 
the best of many ages, if he busied not himself too 
munch in secular affairs. He was chaplain at first. to 
King Athelstan, and Edmund who succeeded, much 



e Sim. Dun. 

u Kadmer. Florent. h Ilovt 

k Poit Christ. 9B6. Malms. Ingulf. 



f Post Christ. 982. Malms. 

Sim. Dun. Hovcd. 

J Post Christ. 987- Malms. 



employed in court affairs, till envied by some who laid 
many things to his charge, he was by Edmund forbid- 
den the court; but by the earnest mediation, saith In- 
gulf, of Turketul the chancellor, received at length to 
favour, and made abbot of Glaston ; lastly by Edgar 
and the general vote, archbishop of Canterbury. Not 
long after his death, the Danes arriving- in Devonshire 
were met by Goda lieutenant of that "country, and 
Strenwold a valiant leader, who put back the Danes, 
but with loss of their own lives. n The third year fol- 
lowing, under the conduct of Justin and Guthmund 
the son of Steytan, they landed and spoiled Ipswich, 
fought with Britnoth duke of the East- Angles about 
Maklon, where they slew him ; the slaughter else had 
been equal on both sides. These and the like depre- 
dations on every side the English not able to resist, by 
council of Siric then archbishop of Canterbury, and 
two dukes Ethel ward and Alfric, it was thought best 
for the present to buy that with silver, which they 
could not gain with their iron ; and ten thousand 
pounds was paid to the Danes for peace. Which for 
a while contented ; but taught them the ready way 
how easiest to come by more. ° The next year but one, 
they took by storm and rifled Bebbanburg, an ancient 
city near Durham : sailing thence to the mouth of 
Humber, they wasted both sides thereof, Yorkshire 
and Lindsey, burning and destroying all before them. 
Against these went out three noblemen, Frana, Frithe- 
gist, and Godwin ; but being all Danes by the father's 
side, willingly began flight, and forsook their own 
forces betrayed to the enemy. ?No less treachery was 
at sea ; for Alfric, the son of Elfer duke of Mercia, whom 
the king for some offence had banished, but now recall- 
ed, sent from London with a fleet to surprise the Danes, 
in some place of disadvantage, gave them over night 
intelligence thereof, then fled to them himself; which 
his fleet, saith Florent, perceiving, pursued, took the 
ship, but missed of his person ; the Londoners by 
chance grappling with the East-Angles made them 
fewer, saith my author, by many thousands. Others 
say,i that by this notice of Alfric the Danes not only 
escaped, but with a greater fleet set upon the English, 
took many of their ships, and in triumph brought them 
up the Thames, intending to besiege London : for Aii- 
laf king of Norway, and Swane of Denmark, at the 
head of these, came with ninety-four galleys. The 
king, for this treason of Alfric, put out his son's eyes; 
but the Londoners both by land and water so valiantly 
resisted their besiegers, that they were forced in one 
day, with great loss, to give over. But what they 
could not on the city, they wrecked themselves on the 
countries round about, wasting- with sword and fire all 
Essex, Kent, and Sussex. Thence horsing their foot, 
diffused far wider their outrageous incursions, without 
mercy either to sex or age. The slothful king, instead 
of warlike opposition in the field, sends ambassadors 
to treat about another payment ; r the sum promised 
was now sixteen thousand pounds ; till which paid, 
the Danes wintered at Southampton ; Ethelred in- 



in Post Christ. 988. Malms. 
o Post Christ. 993. Sim. Dun. 
cj Post Christ. 994. Sim. Dun. 



n Post Christ. 991. Sim. Dun. 
p Florent. Huntingii. 
r Malms. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



545 



viting Anlaf to come and visit him at Andover,s where 
he was royally entertained, some say baptized, or 
confirmed, adopted son by the king-, and dismissed 
with great presents, promising by oath to depart and 
molest the kingdom no more ; t which he performed ; 
but the calamity ended not so, for after some inter- 
mission of their rage for three years," the other navy 
of Danes sailing about to the west, entered Severn, 
and wasted one while South Wales, then Cornwall 
and Devonshire, till at length they wintered about 
Tavistock. For it were an endless work to relate 
how they wallowed up and down to every par- 
ticular place, and to repeat as oft what devasta- 
tions they wrought, what desolations left behind 
them, easy to be imagined. x In sum, the next year 
they afflicted Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and the Isle of 
Wight ; by the English many resolutions were taken, 
many armies raised, but either betrayed by the false- 
hood, or discouraged by the weakness, of their leaders, 
they were put to the rout or disbanded themselves. For 
soldiers most commonly are as their commanders, with- 
out much odds of valour in one nation or other, only as 
they are more or less wisely disciplined and conducted. 
yThe following year brought them back upon Kent, 
where they entered Medway, and besieged Rochester; 
but the Kentish men assembling gave them a sharp 
encounter, yet that sufficed not to hinder them from 
doing as they had done in other places. Against these 
depopulations the king* levied an army; but the un- 
skilful leaders not knowing what to do with it when 
they had it, did but drive out time, burdening and im- 
poverishing* the people, consuming the public treasure, 
and more emboldening the enemy, than if they had sat 
quietly at home. What cause moved the Danes next 2 
year to pass into Normandy, is not recorded ; but that 
they returned thence more outrageous than before. 
Meanwhile the king", to make some diversion, under- 
takes an expedition both by land and sea into Cumber- 
land, where the Danes were most planted ; there and 
in the Isle of Man, or, as Camden saith, Anglesey, 
imitating his enemies in spoiling and unpeopling. The 
Danes from Normandy, arriving in the river Ex, laid 
siege to Exeter ; a but the citizens, as those of London, 
•valorously defending- themselves, they wrecked their 
anger, as before, on the villages round about. The 
country people of Somerset and Devonshire assembling 
themselves at Penho, shewed their readiness, but want- 
ed a head ; and besides being then but few in number, 
were easily put to flight; the enemy plundering all at 
will, with loaded spoils passed into the Isle of Wight; 
from whence all Dorsetshire and Hampshire felt 
again their fury. Ihe Saxon annals write, that before 
their coming to Exeter, the Hampshire men had a 
bickering with them, b wherein Ethelward the king's 
general was slain, adding other things hardly to be 
understood, and in one ancient copy ; so end. Ethel- 
red, whom no adversity could awake from his soft and 
sluggish life, still coming by the worse at fighting, by 
the advice of his peers not unlike himself, sends one of 



s Malms. t Huntingd. 

x Post Christ. 998. Sim. Dun. 
z Post Christ. 1000. Sim, Dun. 



ti Post Christ. 997- Sim. Dun. 
y Post Christ. 999. Sim. Dun. 
a Post Christ. 1001. Sim, Dun. 



his gay courtiers, though looking loftily, to stoop 
basely, and propose a third tribute to the Danes : they 
willingly hearken, but the sum is enhanced now to 
twenty-four thousand pounds, and paid ; the Danes 
thereupon abstaining from hostility. But the king, to 
strengthen his house by some potent affinity, marries 
Emma, c whom the Saxons call Elgiva, daughter of 
Richard duke of Normandy. With him Ethelred for- 
merly had war, or no good correspondence, as appears 
by a letter of pope John the fifteenth,* 1 who made peace 
between them about eleven years before ; puffed up 
now with his supposed access of strength by this affi- 
nity, he caused the Danes all over England, though 
now living peaceably , e in one day perfidiously to be 
massacred, both men, women, and children ; sending 
private letters to every town and city, whereby they 
might be ready all at the same hour; which till the 
appointed time (being the ninth of July) was concealed 
with great silence/ and performed with much unani- 
mity ; so generally hated were the Danes. Mat. West, 
writes, that this execution upon the Danes was ten 
years after; that Huna, one of Ethelred's chief cap- 
tains, complaining of the Danish insolences in time of 
peace, their pride, their ravishing of matrons and vir- 
gins, incited the king to this massacre, which in the 
madness of rage made no difference of innocent or no- 
cent. Among these, Gunhildis the sister of Swane was 
not spared, though much deserving not pity only, but 
all protection : she, with her husband earl Palingus 
coming to live in England, and receiving Christianity, 
had her husband and young son slain before her face, 
herself then beheaded, foretelling and denouncing 
that her blood would cost England dear, s Some say 
this was done by the traitor Edric, to whose custody 
she was committed ; but the massacre was some years 
before Edric's advancement; and if it were done by 
him afterwards, it seems to contradict the private cor- 
respondence which he was thought to hold with the 
Danes. For Swane, breathing revenge, hasted the next 
year into England, h and by the treason or negligence 
of Count Hugh, whom Emma had recommended to the 
government of Devonshire, sacked the city of Exeter, 
her wall from east to west-gate broken down : after 
this wasting Wiltshire, the people of that county, and 
of Hampshire, came together in great numbers with 
resolution stoutly to oppose him ; but Alfric their gene- 
ral, whose son's eyes the king had lately put out, madly 
thinking to revenge himself on the king, by ruining 
his own country, when he should have ordered his 
battle, the enemy being at hand, feigned himself taken 
with a vomiting ; whereby his army in great discon- 
tent, destitute of a commander, turned from the enemy: 
who straight took Wilton and Salisbury, carrying the 
pillage thereof to the ships. j Thence the next year 
landing on the coast of Norfolk, he wasted the country, 
and set Norwich on fire; Ulfketel duke of the East- 
Angles, a man of great valour, not having space to 
gather his forces, after consultation had, thought it 
best to make peace with the Dane, which he breaking 

b Post Christ. 1002. Sim. Dun. c Malms. d Calvis. 

e Florent. Huntingd. f Calvis. g Mat. West, 

h Post Christ. 1003. Sim. Dun. i Post Christ. 1004. Sim. Dun. 



546 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



within three weeks, issued silently out of his ships, 
came to Thetford, staid there a night, and in the morn- 
ing- left it flaming-. Ulfketel, hearing- this, command- 
ed some to go and break or burn his ships ; but they 
not daring or neglecting, he in the mean while with 
what secresy and speed was possible, drawing together 
his forces, went out against the enemy, and gave them a 
fierce onset retreating to their ships : but much inferi- 
our in number, many of the chief East-Angles there 
lost their lives. Nor did the Danes come off without 
great slaughter of their own; confessing- that they 
never met in England with so rough a charge. The 
next year, k whom war could not, a great famine drove 
Swane out of the land. But the summer following, 1 
another great fleet of Danes entered the port of Sand- 
wich, thence poured out over all Kent and Sussex, 
made prey of what they found. The king levying an 
army out of Mercia, and the West-Saxons, took on him 
for once the manhood to go out and face them ; but 
they, who held it safer to live by rapine, than to hazard 
a battle, shifting lightly from place to place, frustrated 
the slow motions of a heavy camp, following their 
wonted course of robbery, then running to their ships. 
Thus all autumn they wearied out the king's army, 
which gone home to winter, they carried all their pil- 
lage to the Isle of Wight, and there staid till Christ- 
mas ; at which time the king being in Shropshire, and 
but ill employed, (for by the procurement of Edric, he 
caused, as is thought, Alfhelm, a noble duke, treacher- 
ously to be slain, m and the eyes of his two sons to be 
put out,) they came forth again, overrunning Hamp- 
shire and Berkshire, as far as Reading and Walling- 
ford : thence to Ashdune, and other places thereabout, 
neither known nor of tolerable pronunciation ; and re- 
turning by another way, found many of the people in 
arms by the river Kenet ; but making their way 
through, they got safe with vast booty to their ships. 
"The king and his courtiers wearied out with their last 
summer's jaunt after the nimble Danes to no purpose, 
which by proof they found too toilsome for their soft 
bones, more used to beds and couches, had recourse to 
their last and only remedy, their coffers; and send now 
the fourth time to buy a dishonourable peace, every 
time still dearer, not to be had now under thirty-six 
thousand pound (for the Danes knew how to milk such 
easy kine) in name of tribute and expenses: which out 
of the people over all England, already half beggared, 
was extorted and paid. About the same time Ethelred 
advanced Edric, surnamed Streon, from obscure con- 
dition to be duke of Mercia, and marry Edgitha the 
king's daughter. The cause of his advancement, 
Florent of Worcester, and Mat. West, attribute to his 
great wealth, gotten by fine policies and a plausible 
tongue : he proved a main accessory to the ruin of 
England, as his actions will soon declare. Ethelred 
the next year, somewhat rousing himself, ordained 
that every three hundred and ten hides (a hide is so 
much land as one plow can sufficiently till) should set 
out a ship or galley, and every nine hides find a corslet 



k Post Christ. 1005. Sim. Dun. 
m Horent. 



1 Post Christ. 1006. Sim. Dun. 
n Post Christ. 10U7. Sim. Dun. 



and headpiece : new ships in every port were built, 
victualled, fraught with stout mariners and soldiers, 
and appointed to meet all at Sandwich. A man might 
now think that all would go well ; when suddenly a 
new mischief sprung up, dissension among the great 
ones ; which brought all this diligence to as little suc- 
cess as at other times before. Birthric, the brother of 
Edric, falsely accused Wulnoth, a great officer set over 
the South-Saxons, who, fearing the potency of his ene- 
mies, with twenty ships got to sea, and practised piracy 
on the coast. Against whom, reported to be in a place 
where he might be easily surprised, Birthric sets forth 
with eighty ships ; all which, driven back by a tempest 
and wrecked upon the shore, were burnt soon after by 
Wulnoth. Disheartened with this misfortune, the 
king returns to London, the rest of his navy after him ; 
and all this great preparation to nothing. Whereupon 
Turkill, a Danish earl, came with a navy to the isle of 
Tanet,P and in August a far greater, led by Heming 
and Ilaf, joined with him. Thence coasting to Sand- 
wich, and landed, they went onward and began to 
assault Canterbury ; but the citizens and East-Kentish 
men, coming to composition with them for three thou- 
sand pounds, they departed thence to the Isle of Wight, 
robbing- and burning- by the way. Against these the 
king levies an army through all the land, and in seve- 
ral quarters places them nigh the sea, but so unskilfully 
or unsuccessfully, that the Danes were not thereby 
hindered from exercising their wonted robberies. It 
happened that the Danes were one day gone up into 
the country far from their ships ; the king having notice 
thereof, thought to intercept them in their return ; his 
men were resolute to overcome or die, time and place 
advantageous; but where courage and fortune was not 
wanting, there wanted loyalty among them. Edric 
with subtile arguments, that had a show of deep policy, 
disputed and persuaded the simplicity of his fellow 
counsellors, that it would be best consulted at that time 
to let the Danes pass without ambush or interception. 
The Danes, where they expected danger finding none, 
passed on with great joy and booty to their ships. 
After this, sailing about Kent, they lay that winter in 
the Thames, forcing Kent and Essex to contribution, 
ofttimes attempting the city of London, but repulsed 
as oft to their great loss. Spring begun, leaving their 
ships, they passed through Chiltern wood into Oxford- 
shire/! burnt the city, and thence returning with di- 
vided forces, wasted on both sides the Thames ; but 
hearing that an army from London was marched out 
against them, they on the north side passing the river 
at Stanes, joined with them on the south into one 
body, and enriched with great spoils, came back through 
Surrey to their ships ; which all the Lent-time they 
repaired. After Easter sailing to the East-Angles they 
arrived at Ipswich, and came to a place called Ring- 
mere, where they heard that Ulfketel with his forces 
lay, who with a sharp encounter soon entertained them; 
but his men at length giving back, through the sub- 
tlety of a Danish servant among them who began the 

o Post Christ. 1008. Sim. Dun. p Post Christ. 1009. Sim. Dun. 

q Post Christ. 1010. Sim. Dun. Florent. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



547 



flight, lost the field ; though the men of Cambridge- 
shire stood to it valiantly. In this battle Ethelstan, 
the king's son-in-law, with many other noblemen, were 
slain; whereby the Danes, without more resistance, 
three months together had the spoiling of those coun- 
tries and all the fens, burnt Thetford and Grantbrig, 
or Cambridge; thence to a hilly place not far off, called 
by Huntingdon, Balesham, by Camden, Gogmagog 
hills, and the villages thereabout, they turned their 
fury, slaying all they met save one man, who getting 
up into a steeple, is said to have defended himself 
against the whole Danish army. They [therefore so 
leaving him, their foot by sea, their horse by land 
through Essex, returned back laden to their ships left 
in the Thames. But many days passed not between, 
when sallying again out of their ships as out of savage 
dens, they plundered over again all Oxfordshire, and 
added to their prey Buckingham, Bedford, and Hert- 
fordshire ; r then like wild beasts glutted returning to 
their caves. A third excursion they made into Nor- 
thamptonshire, burnt Northampton, ransacking the 
country round ; then as to fresh pasture betook them 
to the West-Saxons, and in like sort harassing all 
Wiltshire, returned, as I said before, like wild beasts 
or rather sea monsters to their water-stables, accomplish- 
ing by Christmas the circuit of their whole year's good 
deeds ; an unjust and inhuman nation, who, receiving 
or not receiving tribute where none was owing them, 
made such destruction of mankind, and rapine of their 
livelihood, as is a misery to read. Yet here they ceased 
not ; for the next year s repeating the same cruelties on 
both sides the Thames, one way as far as Huntingdon, 
the other as far as Wiltshire and Southampton, soli- 
cited again by the king for peace, and receiving their 
demands both of tribute and contribution, they slighted 
their faith ; and in the beginning of September laid 
siege to Canterbury. On the twentieth day, by the 
treachery of Almere the archdeacon, they took part of 
it and burnt it, committing all sorts of massacre as a 
sport ; some they threw over the wall, others into the 
fire, hung some by the privy members ; infants, pulled 
from their mothers' breasts, were either tossed on spears, 
or carts drawn over them ; matrons and virgins by the 
hair dragged and ravished. tAlfage the grave arch- 
bishop above others hated of the Danes, as in all coun- 
sels and actions to his might their known opposer, 
taken, wounded, imprisoned in a noisome ship ; the 
multitude are tithed, and every tenth only spared. 
u Early the next year before Easter, while Ethelred 
and his peers were assembled at London, to raise now 
the fifth tribute amounting to forty-eight thousand 
pound, the Danes at Canterbury propose to the arch- 
bishop, 5 ' who had been now seven months their prisoner, 
life and liberty, if he paid them three thousand pound : 
which he refusing as not able of himself, and not will- 
ing to extort it from his tenants, is permitted till the 
next Sunday to consider; then hauled before the coun- 
sel, of whom Turkill was chief, and still refusing, they 
rise, most of them being drunk, and beat hirn with the 



r Huntingd. 

t Eadmer. Malms. 



s Post Christ. 1011. Sim. Dun. 
u Post Christ. 1012. Sim. Dun. 

2n 



blunt side of their axes, then thrust forth deliver him 
to be pelted with stones ; till one Thrun a converted 
Dane, pitying him half dead, to put him out of pain, 
with a pious impiety, at one stroke of his axe on the 
head dispatched him. His body was carried to Lon- 
don, and there buried, thence afterward removed to 
Canterbury. By this time the tribute paid, and peace 
so often violated sworn again by the Danes, they dis- 
persed their fleet ; forty-five of them, and Turkill their 
chief, staid at London with the king, swore him allegi- 
ance to defend his land against all strangers, on condi- 
tion only to be fed and clothed by him. But this 
voluntary friendship of Turkill was thought to be de- 
ceitful, that staying under this pretence he gave intel- 
ligence to Swane, when most it would be seasonable 
to come, y In July therefore of the next year, King 
Swane arriving at Sandwich, made no stay there, but 
sailing first to Humber, thence into Trent, landed and 
encamped at Gainsburrow ; whither without delay re- 
paired to him the Northumbrians, with Uthred their 
earl; those of Lindsey also, then those of Fisburg, and 
lastly all on the north of Watlingstreet (which is a 
highway from east to west-sea) gave oath and hostages 
to obey him. From whom he commanded horses and 
provision for his army, taking with him besides bands 
and companies of their choicest men ; and committing 
to his son Canute the care of his fleet and hostages, he 
marches towards the South-Mercians, commanding his 
soldiers to exercise all acts of hostility ; with the terrour 
whereof fully executed, he took in few days the city of 
Oxford, then Winchester; thence tending to London, 
in his hasty passage over the Thames, without seeking 
bridge or ford, lost many of his men. Nor was his 
expedition against London prosperous ; for assaying 
all means by force or wile to take the city, wherein 
the king then was, and Turkill with his Danes, he 
was stoutly beaten off as at other times. Thence back 
to Wallingford and Bath, directing his course, after 
usual havoc made, he sat a while and refreshed his 
army. There Ethelm, an earl of Devonshire, and 
other great officers in the west, yielded him subjec- 
tion. These things flowing to his wish, he betook, 
him to his navy, from that time styled and accounted 
king of England ; if a tyrant, saith Simeon, may be 
called a king. The Londoners also sent him hostages, 
and made their peace, for they feared his fury. Ethel- 
red, thus reduced to narrow compass, sent Emma his 
queen, with his two sons had by her, and all his trea- 
sure, to Richard II, her brother, duke of Normandy ; 
himself with his Danish fleet abode some while at Green- 
wich, then sailing to the Isle of Wight, passed after 
Christmas into Normandy; where he was honourably 
received at Roan by the duke, though known to have 
born himself churlishly and proudly towards Emma his 
sister, besides his dissolute company with other women. 
Meanwhile Swane 2 ceased not to exact almost insup- 
portable tribute of the people, spoiling them when he 
listed ; besides, the like did Turkill at Greenwich. The 
next year beginning, 3 Swane sickens and dies ; some 



x Eadmer. 
z Malms. 



y Post Christ. 1013. Sim. Dun. 
a Post Christ. 1014. Sim. Dun. Mat. West. 



AS 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



say terrified and smitten by an appearing* shape of St. 
Edmund armed, whose church at Bury he had threat- 
ened to demolish ; but the authority hereof relies only 
upon the legend of St. Edmund. After his death the 
Danish army and fleet made his son Canute their 
king : but the nobility and states of England sent mes- 
sengers to Ethelred, declaring that they preferred none 
before their native sovereign, if he would promise to 
govern them better than he had done, and with more 
clemency. Whereat the king rejoicing sends over his 
son Edward with embassadors, to court both high and 
low, and win their love, promising largely to be their 
mild and devoted lord, to consent in all things to their 
will, follow their counsel, and whatever had been done 
or spoken by any man against him, freely to pardon, 
if they would loyally restore him to be their king. To 
this the people cheerfully answered, and amity was 
both promised and confirmed on both sides. An em- 
bassy of lords is sent to bring back the king honour- 
ably ; he returns in Lent, and is joyfully received of 
the people, marches with a strong army against Ca- 
nute; who having got horses and joined with the men 
of Lindsey, was preparing to make spoil in the coun- 
tries adjoining; but by Ethelred unexpectedly coming 
upon him, was soon driven to his ships, and his con- 
federates of Lindsey, left to the anger of their country- 
men, executed without mercy both by fire and sword. 
Canute in all haste sailing back to Sandwich, took the 
hostages given to his father from all parts of England, 
and with slit noses, ears cropped, and hands chopped 
off, setting them ashore, departed into Denmark. Yet 
the people were not disburdened, for the king raised 
out of them thirty thousand pound to pay his fleet of 
Danes at Greenwich. To these evils the sea in Oc- 
tober passed his bounds, overwhelming many towns in 
England, and of their inhabitants many thousands. 
b The year following, an assembly being at Oxford, 
Edric of Streon having invited two noblemen, Sigeferth 
and Morcar, the sons of Earngrun of Seavenburg, to 
his lodging, secretly murdered them; the king, for 
what cause is unknown, seized their estates, and caused 
Algith the wife of Sigeferth to be kept at Maidulfs- 
burg, now Malmsbury ; whom Edmund the prince 
there married against his father's mind, then went and 
possessed their lands, making the people there subject 
to him. Mat. Westm. saith, that these two were of 
the Danes who had seated themselves in Northumber- 
land, slain by Edric under colour of treason laid to 
their charge. They who attended them without, 
tumulting at the death of their masters, were beaten 
back; and driven into a church, defending themselves 
were burnt there in the steeple. Meanwhile Canute 
returning from Denmark with a great navy, d two hun- 
dred ships richly gilded and adorned, well fraught 
with arms and all provision ; and, which Encomium 
Emmce mentions not, two other kings, Lachman of 
Sweden, Olav of Norway, arrived at Sandwich : and, 
as the same author then living writes, sent out spies to 
discover what resistance on land was to be expected ; 



rift 10)5. Sim. Dun. 
d Leges Edw. Con!. lit. deduct. Norm. 



c Malms. 



who returned with certain report, that a great army of 
English was in readiness to oppose them. Turkill, 
who upon the arrival of these Danish powers kept faith 
no longer with the English, but joining now with Ca- 
nute, 6 as it were now to reingratiate himself after his 
revolt, whether real or complotted, counselled him 
(being yet young) not to land, but to leave to him the 
management of this first battle : the king assented, and 
he with the forces which he had brought, and part of 
those which arrived with Canute, landing to their wish, 
encountered the English, though double in number, at 
a place called Scorastan, and was at first beaten back 
with much loss. But at length animating his men 
with rage only and despair, obtained a clear victory, 
which won him great reward and possessions from 
Canute. But of this action no other writer makes 
mention. From Sandwich therefore sailing about to 
the river Frome, and there landing, over all Dorset, 
Somerset, and Wiltshire he spread wasteful hostility.*' 
The king lay then sick at Cosham in this county ; 
though it may seem strange how he could lie sick there 
in the midst of his enemies. Howbeit Edmund in one 
part, and Edric of Streon in another, raised forces by 
themselves ; but so soon as both armies were united, 
the traitor Edric being found to practise against the 
life of Edmund, he removed with his army from him ; 
whereof the enemy took great advantage. Edric easily 
enticing the forty ships of Danes to side with him, re- 
volted to Canute : the West-Saxons also gave pledges, 
and furnished him with horses. By which means the s 
year ensuing, he with Edric the traitor passing the 
Thames at Creclad, about twelfthtide, entered into 
Mercia, and especially Warwickshire, depopulating all 
places in their way. Against these prince Edmund, 
for his hardiness called Ironside, gathered an army ; 
but the Mercians refused to fight unless Ethelred with 
the Londoners came to aid them ; and so every man 
returned home. After the festival, Edmund, gathering 
another army, besought his father to come with the 
Londoners, and what force besides he was able ; they 
came with great strength gotten together, but being 
come, and in a hopeful way of good success, it was told 
the king, that unless he took the better heed, some of 
his own forces would fall off and betray him. The 
king daunted with this perhaps cunning whisper of the 
enemy, disbanding his army, returns to London. Ed- 
mund betook him into Northumberland, as some thought 
to raise fresh forces ; but he with earl Uthred on the 
one side, and Canute with Edric on the other, did little 
else but waste the provinces; Canute to conquer them, 
Edmund to punish them who stood neuter : for which 
cause Stafford, Shropshire, and Leicestershire, felt 
heavily his hand ; while Canute, who was ruining the 
more southern shires, at length marched into Northum- 
berland ; which Edmund hearing dismissed his forces, 
and came to London. Uthred the earl hasted back to 
Northumberland, and finding no other remedy, submit- 
ted himself with all the Northumbrians, giving hostages 
to Canute. Nevertheless by his command or connivance, 



e Encom. Em. 

g Post Christ. 1016. Sim. Dun. 



f Camd. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



549 



and the hand of one Tuvebrand a Danish lord, Uthred 
was slain, and Iric another Dane made earl in his 
stead. This Uthred, son of Walteof, as Simeon writes, 
in bis treatise of the siege of Durham, in his youth ob- 
tained a great victory against Malcolm, son of Kened 
king of Scots, who with the whole power of his king- 
dom was fallen into Northumberland, and laid siege to 
Durham. Walteof the old earl, unable to resist, had 
secured himself in Bebbanburg, a strong town ; but 
Uthred gathering an army raised the siege, slew most 
of the Scots, their king narrowly escaping, and with 
the heads of their slain fixed upon poles beset round 
the walls of Durham. The year of this exploit Simeon 
clears not, for in 969, and in the reign of Ethelred, as 
he affirms, it could not be. Canute by another way 
returning southward, joyful of his success, before 
Easter came back with all the army to his fleet. 
About the end of April ensuing, Ethelred, after a 
long, troublesome, and ill governed reign, ended his 
days at London, and was buried in the church of 
St. Paul. 

EDMUND IRONSIDE. 

After the decease of Ethelred, they of the nobility 
who were then at London, together witb the citizens, 
chose h Edmund his son (not by Emma, but a former 
wife the daughter of Earl Thored)in his father's room ; 
but the archbishops, abbots, and many of the nobles 
assembling together, elected Canute ; and coming to 
Southampton where he then remained, renounced be- 
fore him all the race of Ethelred, and swore him 
fidelity : he also swore to them, in matters both religi- 
ous and secular, to be their faithful lord. j But Ed- 
mund, with all speed going to the West-Saxons, was 
joyfully received of them as their king, and of many 
other provinces by their example. Meanwhile Canute 
about mid May came with his whole fleet up the river 
to London ; then causing a great dike to be made on 
the Surrey side, turned the stream, and drew his ships 
thither west of the bridge; then begirting the city 
with a broad and deep trench, assailed it on every 
side; but repulsed as before by the valorous defend- 
ants, and in despair of success at that time, leaving" 
part of his army for the defence of his ships, with the 
rest sped him to the West-Saxons, ere Edmund could 
have time to assemble all his powers ; who yet with 
such as were at hand, invoking divine aid, encountered 
the Danes at Pen by Gillingham in Dorsetshire, and 
put him to flight. After midsummer, increased with new 
forces, he met with him again at a place called Sheras- 
tan, now Sharstan; but Edric, Almar, and Algar, with 
the Hampshire and Wiltshire men, then siding with 
the Danes, he only maintained the fight, obstinately 
fought on both sides, till night and weariness parted 
them. Daylight returning renewed the conflict, where- 
in the Danes appearing inferiour, Edric to dishearten 
the English cuts off the head of one Osmer, in counte- 
nance and hair somewhat resembling the king, and 
holding it up, cries aloud to the English, that Edmund 

h Florent. Aelred in the life of Edvv. Conf. i Florent. Sim. Ban. 



being slain, and this his head, it was time for them to 
fly; which fallacy Edmund perceiving, and openly 
showing himself to his soldiers, by a spear thrown at 
Edric, that missing him yet slew one next him, k and 
through him another behind, they recovered heart, and 
lay sore upon the Danes till night parted them as be- 
fore : for ere the third morn, Canute, sensible of his 
loss, marched away by stealth to his ships at London, 
renewing there his leaguer. Some would have this 
battle at Sherastan the same with that at Scorastan be- 
fore mentioned, but the circumstance of time permits 
not, that having been before the landing of Canute, 
this a good while after, as by the process of things ap- 
pears. From Sherastan or Sharstan Edmund returned 
to the West-Saxons, whose valour Edric fearing lest it 
might prevail against the Danes, sought pardon of his 
revolt, and obtaining it swore loyalty to the king, who 
now the third time coming with an army from the 
West-Saxons to London, raised the siege, chasing Ca- 
nute and his Danes to their ships. Then after two 
days passing the Thames at Brentford, and so coming 
on their backs, kept them so turned, and obtained the 
victory; then returns again to his West-Saxons, and 
Canute to his siege, but still in vain; rising therefore 
thence, he entered with his ships a river then called 
Arenne ; and from the banks thereof wasted Mercia; 
thence their horse by land, their foot by ship came to 
Medway. Edmund in the mean while with multiplied 
forces out of many shires crossing again at Brentford, 
came into Kent, seeking Canute ; encountered him at 
Otford, and so defeated, that of his horse they who 
escaped fled to the isle of Sheppey ; and a full victory 
he had gained, had not Edric still the traitor by some 
wile or other detained his pursuit: and Edmund, 
who never wanted courage, here wanted prudence to 
be so misled, ever after forsaken of his wonted for- 
tune. Canute crossing with his army into Essex, 
thence wasted Mercia worse than before, and with 
heavy prey returned to his ships : them Edmund with 
a collected army pursuing overtook at a place called 
Assandune or A^seshill, 1 now Ashdown in Essex; the 
battle on either side was fought with great vehemence ; 
but perfidious Edric perceiving the victory to incline 
towards Edmund, with that part of the army which 
was under him fled, as he had promised Canute, and 
left the king overmatched with numbers : by which de- 
sertion the English were overthrown, duke Alfric, duke 
Godwin, and Ulfketel the valiant duke of East-Angles, 
with a great part of the nobility slain, so as the Eng- 
lish of a long time had not received a greater blow. 
Yet after a while Edmund, not absurdly called Iron- 
side, preparing again to try his fortune in another field, 
was hindered by Edric and others of his faction, advis- 
ing him to make peace and divide the kingdom with 
Canute. To which Edmund overruled, a treaty ap- 
pointed, and pledges mutually given, both kings met 
together at a place called Deorhirst in Gloucestershire; 
m Edmund on the west side of Severn, Canute on the 
east, with their armies, then both in person wafted into 
an island, at that time called Olanege," now Alney, in 
k Malms. 1 Camd. m Camd. n Camd, 



>.30 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



the midst of the river ; swearing- amity and brother- 
hood, they parted the kingdom between them. Then 
interchanging arms and the habit they wore, assessing 
also what pay should be allotted to the navy, they de- 
parted each his way. Concerning this interview and 
the cause thereof others write otherwise ; Malmsbury, 
that Edmund grieving at the loss of so much blood 
spilt for the ambition only of two men striving who 
should reign, of his own accord sent to Canute, offering* 
him single combat, to prevent in their own cause the 
effusion of more blood than their own ; that Canute, 
though of courage enough, yet not unwisely doubting 
to adventure his body of small timber, against a man 
of iron sides, refused the combat, offering to divide the 
kingdom. This offer pleasing both armies, Edmund 
was not difficult to consent ; and the decision was, that 
he as his hereditary kingdom should rule the West- 
Saxons and all the South, Canute the Mercians and 
the North. Huntingdon followed by Mat. Westm. re- 
lates, that the peers on every side wearied out with con- 
tinual warfare, and not refraining to affirm openly that 
they two who expected to reign singly, had most rea- 
son to fight singly, the kings were content; the island 
was their lists, the combat knightly ; till Knute, find- 
ing himself too weak, began to parley, which ended as 
is said before. After which the Londoners bought their 
peace of the Danes, and permitted them to winter in 
the city. But King Edmund about the feast of St. An- 
drew unexpectedly deceased at London, and was buried 
near to Edgar his grandfather at Glaston. The cause 
of his so sudden death is uncertain ; common fame, 
saith Malmsbury, lays the guilt thereof upon Edric, 
who to please Canute, allured with promise of reward 
two of the king's privy chamber, though at first ab- 
horring the fact, to assassinate him at the stool, by 
thrusting a sharp iron into his hinder parts. Hunting- 
don, and Mat. Westm. relate it done at Oxford by the 
son of Edric, and something vary in the manner, not 
worth recital. Edmund dead, Canute meaning to reign 
sole king of England, calls to him all the dukes, ba- 
rons, and bishops of the land, cunningly demanding 
of them who were witnesses what agreement was made 
between him and Edmund dividing the kingdom, whe- 
ther the sons and brothers of Edmund were to govern 
the West-Saxons after him, Canute living ? They who 
understood his meaning, and feared to undergo his 
anger, timorously answered, that Edmund they knew 
had left no part thereof to his sons or brethren, living 
or dying; but that he intended Canute should be their 
guardian, till they came to age of reigning. Simeon 
affirms, that for fear or hope of reward they attested 
what was not true : notwithstanding which, he put 
many of them to death not long after. 

CANUTE, or KNUTE. 

Canute having thus sounded the nobility, and by 
them understood, received their oath of fealty, they the 
pledge of his hare hand, and oath from the Danish no- 
bles; whereupon the house of Edmund was renounced, 

o Post Christ. 1017. Sim. Dun. Sax. an. p Encom. Em. Ingulf. 



and Canute crowned. Then they enacted, that Edwi 
brother of Edmund, a prince of great hope, should be 
banished the realm. But Canute, not thinking himself 
secure while Edwi lived, consulted with Edric how to 
make him away ; who told him of one Ethelward a de- 
cayed nobleman, likeliest to do the work. Ethelward 
sent for, and tempted by the king in private with 
largest rewards, but abhorring in his mind the deed, 
promised to do it when he saw his opportunity ; and so 
still deferred it. But Edwi afterwards received into 
favour, as a snare, was by him, or some other of his 
false friends, Canute contriving it, the same year slain. 
Edric also counselled him to dispatch Edward and Ed- 
mund, the sons of Ironside; but the king doubting 
that the fact would seem too foul done in England, 
sent them to the king of Sweden, with like intent ; but 
he, disdaining the office, sent them for better safety to 
Solomon king of Hungary; where Edmund at length 
died, but Edward married Agatha daughter to Henry 
the German emperor. A digression in the laws of Ed- 
ward Confessor under the title of Lex Noricorum saith, 
that this Edward, for fear of Canute, fled of his own 
accord to Malesclot king of the Rugians, who received 
him honourably, and of that country gave him a wife. 
Canute, settled in his throne, divided the government 
of his kingdom into four parts ; the West-Saxons to 
himself, the East-Angles to earl Turkill, the Mercians 
to Edric, the Northumbrians to Iric ; then made peace 
with all princes round about him, and, his former wife 
being dead, in July married Emma, the widow of king- 
Ethelred. The Christmas following was an ill feast to 
Edric, of whose treason the king having now made use 
as much as served his turn, and fearing himself to be the 
next betrayed, caused him to be slain at London in the 
palace, thrown over the city wall, and there to lie un- 
buried ; the head of Edric fixed on a pole, he commanded 
to be set on the highest tower of London, as in a double 
sense he had promised him for the murder of King Ed- 
mund to exalt him above all the peers of England. 
Huntingdon, Malmsbury, and Mat. Westm. write, that 
suspecting the king's intention to degrade him from 
his Mercian dukedom, and upbraiding him with his 
merits, the king enraged caused him to be strangled 
in the room, and out at a window thrown into the 
Thames. Another writes,p that Eric at the king's 
command struck off his head. Other great men, though 
without fault, as duke Norman the son of Leofwin, 
Ethelward son of duke Agelmar, he put to death at 
the same time, jealous of their power or familiarity 
with Edric: and notwithstanding peace, kept still his 
army; to maintain which, the next year q he squeezed 
out of the English, though now his subjects, not his 
enemies, seventy-two, some say, eighty-two thousand 
pound, besides fifteen thousand out of London. Mean- 
while great war arose at Carr, between Uthred son of 
Waldef, earl of Northumberland, and Malcolm son of 
Kened king of Scots, with whom held Eugenius king 
of Lothian. But here Simeon the relater seems to have 
committed some mistake, having slain Uthred by Ca- 
nute two years before, and set Iric in his place : Iric 

q Post Christ. 1018. Sim. Dun. Iluntingd. Mat. West. 



Book VI.' 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



551 



therefore it must needs be, not Uthred, who managed 
this war against the Scots. About which time at a 
convention of Danes at Oxford, it was agreed on both 
parties to keep the laws of Edgar ; Mat. Westm. saith 
of Edward the elder. The next r year Canute sailed 
into Denmark, and there abode all winter. Hunting- 
don and Mat. Westm. say, he went thither to repress 
the Swedes ; and that the night before a battle was 
fought with them, Godwin, stealing out of the camp 
with his English, assaulted the Swedes, and had got 
the victory ere Canute in the morning knew of any 
fight. For which bold enterprise, though against dis- 
cipline, he had the English in more esteem ever after. 
In the spring, at his return into England, s he held in 
the time of Easter a great assembly at Chichester, and 
the same year was with Turkill the Dane at the dedi- 
cation of a church by them built at Assendune, in the 
place of that great victory which won him the crown. 
But suspecting his greatness, the year following ban- 
ished him the realm, and found occasion to do the like 
by.Iric the Northumbrian earl upon the same jealousy. 
*Nor yet content with his conquest of England, though 
now above ten years enjoyed, he passed with fifty 
ships into Norway, dispossessed Olave their king, and 
subdued the land, u first with great sums of money sent 
the year before to gain him a party, then coming with 
an army to compel the rest. Thence returning king of 
England, Denmark, and Norway, yet not secure in his 
mind, x under colour of an embassy sent into banish- 
ment Hacun a powerful Dane, who had married the 
daughter of his sister Gunildis, having conceived some 
suspicion of his practices against him : but such course 
was taken, that he never came back ; either perishing 
at sea, or slain by contrivance the next y year in Ork- 
ney. Canute therefore having thus established himself 
by bloodshed and oppression, to wash away, as he 
thought, the guilt thereof, sailing z again into Denmark, 
went thence to Rome, and offered there to St. Peter 
great gifts of gold and silver, and other precious things ; 
besides the usual tribute of Romscot, giving great alms 
by the way, a both thither and back again, freeing many 
places of custom and toll with great expense, where 
strangers were wont to pay, having vowed great amend- 
ment of life at the sepulchre of Peter and Paul, and to 
his whole people in a large letter written from Rome 
yet extant. At his return therefore he built and dedi- 
cated a church to St. Edmund at Bury, whom his an- 
cestors had slain, b threw out the secular priests, who 
had intruded there, and placed monks in their stead ; 
then going into Scotland, subdued and received hom- 
age of Malcolm, and two other kings there, Melbeath 
and Jermare. Three years d after, having made Swane, 
his supposed son by Algiva of Northampton, duke 
Alfhelm's daughter, (for others say the son of a priest, 
whom Algiva barren e had got ready at the time of her 
feigned labour,) king of Norway, and Hardecnute, his 
son by Emma, king of Denmark ; and designed 
Harold, his son by Algiva of Northampton, king of 



r Post Christ. 1019. Sim. Dun. 

s Post Christ. 1020. Sim. Dun. 

t Post Christ. 1021. Sim. Dun. Malms. 

u Post Christ. 1028. Sim. Dun. 



x Post Christ. 1029. Sim. Dun. 



England ; died f at Shaftsbury, and was buried at 
Winchester in the old monastery. This king, as ap- 
pears, ended better than he began ; for though he 
seems to have had no hand in the death of Ironside, 
but detested the fact, and bringing the murderers, 
who came to him in hope of great reward, forth 
among his courtiers, as it were to receive thanks, after 
they had openly related the manner of their killing 
him, delivered them to deserved punishment, yet he 
spared Edric, whom he knew to be the prime author 
of that detestable fact ; till willing to be rid of him, 
grown importune upon the confidence of his merits, 
and upbraided by him that he had first relinquished, 
then extinguished, Edmund for his sake ; angry to be 
so upbraided, therefore said he with a changed coun- 
tenance, " traitor to God and me, thou shalt die ; 
thine own mouth accuses thee, to have slain thy master 
my confederate brother, and the Lord's anointed." 
g Whereupon although present and private execution 
was in rage done upon Edric,yet he himself in cool blood 
scrupled not to make away the brother and children of 
Edmund, who had better right to be the Lord's anoint- 
ed here than himself. When he had obtained in Eng- 
land what he desired, no wonder if he sought the love 
of his conquered subjects for the love of his own quiet, 
the maintainers of his wealth and state for his own 
profit. For the like reason he is thought to have mar- 
ried Emma, and that Richard duke of Normandy her 
brother might the less care what became of Alfred and 
Edward, her sons by King Ethelred. He commanded 
to be observed the ancient Saxon laws, called after- 
wards the laws of Edward the Confessor, not that he 
made them, but strictly observed them. His letter 
from Rome professes, if he had clone aught amiss in his 
youth, through negligence or want of due temper, full 
resolution with the help of God to make amends, by 
governing justly and piously for the future; charges 
and adjures all his officers and viscounts, that neither 
for fear of him, or favour of any person, or to enrich 
the king, they suffer injustice to be done in the land; 
commands his treasurers to pay all his debts ere his re- 
turn home, which was by Denmark, to compose mat- 
ters there ; and what his letter professed, he performed 
all his life after. But it is a fond conceit in many 
great ones, and pernicious in the end, to cease from no 
violence till they have attained the utmost of their am- 
bitions and desires; then to think God appeased by their 
seeking to bribe him with a share, however large, of 
their ill-gotten spoils ; and then lastly to grow zealous 
of doing right, when they have no longer need to do 
wrong. Howbeit Canute was famous through Europe, 
and much honoured of Conrade the emperor, then at 
Rome, with rich gifts and many grants of what he 
there demanded for the freeing of passages from toll 
and custom. I must not omit one remarkable action 
done by him, as Huntingdon reports it, with great 
scene of circumstance, and emphatical expression, to 
shew the small power of kings in respect of God ; 

y Post Christ. 1030. Sim. Dun. z Post Christ. 1031. Sim. Dun. 

a Hunting. . b Post Christ. 1032. Sim. Dun. 

c Huu'tingd. 'I Post Christ. 1035. Sim. Dun. 

e Florent. f Florent. g Malms. 






THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VL 



which, unless to court-parasites, needed no such la- 
borious demonstration. He caused his royal seat to be 
set on the shore, while the tide was coming- in ; and 
with all the state that royalty could put into his coun- 
tenance, said thus to the sea ; " Thou sea belongest to 
me, and the land whereon I sit is mine ; nor hath any 
one unpunished resisted my commands : I charge thee 
come no further upon my land, neither presume to wet 
the feet of thy sovereign lord." But the sea, as before, 
came rolling on, and without reverence both wet and 
dashed him. Whereat the king- quickly rising- wish- 
ed all about him to behold and consider the weak 
and frivolous power of a king-, and that none in- 
deed deserved the name of a king, but he whose 
eternal laws both heaven, earth, and sea obey. A 
truth so evident of itself, as I said before, that unless 
to shame his court-flatterers, who would not else be 
convinced, Canute needed not to have gone wetshod 
home : the best is, from that time forth he never would 
wear a crown, esteeming earthly royalty contemptible 
and vain. 

HAROLD. 

Harold for his swiftness surnamed Harefoot," the 
son of Canute by Algiva of Northampton, (though 
some speak doubtfully as if she bore him not, but had 
him of a shoemaker's wife, as Swane before of a priest ; 
others of a maidservant, to conceal her barrenness,) in 
a great assembly at Oxford was by duke Leofric and 
the Mercians, with the Londoners, according to his 
father's testament, elected king; 1 but without the i-e- 
gal habiliments, which iElnot, the archbishop, having 
in his custody, refused to deliver up, but to the sons of 
Emma, for which Harold ever after hated the clergy ; 
and (as the clergy are wont thence to infer) all religion. 
Godwin earl of Kent, and the West-Saxons with him, 
stood for Hardecnute. Malmsbury saith, that the con- 
test was between Dane and English ; that the Danes 
and Londoners grown now in a manner Danish, were 
all for Hardecnute: but he being then in Denmark, 
Harold prevailed, yet so as that the kingdom should be 
divided between them ; the west and south part reserv- 
ed by Emma for Hardecnute till his return. But Ha- 
rold, once advanced into the throne, banished Emma 
his mother-in-law, seized on his father's treasure at 
Winchester, and there remained. k Emma, not hold- 
ing it safe to abide in Normandy while duke William 
the bastard was yet under age, retired to Baldwin earl 
of Flanders. In the mean while Elfrcd and Edward 
sons of Ethelred, accompanied with a small number of 
Norman soldiers in a few ships, coming to visit their 
mother Emma not yet departed the land, and perhaps 
to see bow the people were inclined to restore them 
their right, Elfrcd was sent for by the king then at 
London ; but in his way met at Guilford by earl God- 
win, who with all seeming friendship entertained him, 
\\;i- in the night surprised and made prisoner, most of 
►mpany put to various sorts of cruel death, deci- 



I. I !',rrnt. Hrompton. Huntingd. Mat. West. 
i Encom. Em, 



mated twice over; then brought to London, was by the 
king sent bound to Ely, had his eyes put out by the 
way, and delivered to the monks there, died soon after 
in their custody. Malmsbury gives little credit to this 
story of Elfred, as not chronicled in his time, but ru- 
moured only. Which Emma however hearing sent 
away her son Edward, who by good hap accompanied 
not his brother, with all speed into Normandy. But 
the author of" Encomium Emmse," who seems plainly 
(though nameless) to have been some monk, yet lived, 
and perhaps wrote within the same year when these 
things were done ; by his relation, differing from all 
others, much aggravates the cruelty of Harold, that 
he, not content to have practised in secret (for openly 
he durst not) against the life of Emma, sought many 
treacherous ways to get her son within his power; and 
resolved at length to forge a letter in the name of their 
mother, inviting them into England, the copy of which 
letter he produces written to this purpose. 

" EMMA in name only queen, to her sons Edward 
and Elfred imparts motherly salutation. While we 
severally bewail the death of our lord the king, most 
dear sons ! and while daily you are deprived more and 
more of the kingdom your inheritance; I admire what 
counsel ye take, knowing that your intermitted delay 
is a daily strengthening to the reign of your usurper, 
who incessantly goes about from town to city, gaining 
the chief nobles to his party, either by gifts, prayers, 
or threats. But they had much rather one of you 
should reign over them, than to be held under the 
power of him who now overrules them. T entreat 
therefore, that one of you come to me speedily, and 
privately, to receive from me wholesome counsel, and 
to know how the business which I intend shall be ac- 
complished. By this messenger present, send back 
what you determine. Farewel, as dear both as my 
own heart." 

These letters were sent to the princes then in Nor- 
mandy, by express messengers, with presents also as 
from their mother; which they joyfully receiving, re- 
turn word by the same messengers, that one of them 
will be with her shortly; naming both the time and 
place. Elfred therefore the younger (for so it was 
thought best) at the appointed time, with a few ships 
and small numbers about him appearing on the coast, 
no sooner came ashore but fell into the snare of earl 
Godwin, sent on purpose to betray him ; as above was 
related. Emma greatly sorrowing for the loss of her 
son, thus cruelly made away, fled immediately with 
some of the nobles her faithfullest adherents into Flan- 
ders, had her dwelling assigned at Bruges by the earl ; 
where having remained about two years,! she was 
visited out of Denmark by Hardecnute her son ; and 
he not long had remained with her there, when Harold 
in England, having done nothing the while worth 
memory, save the taxing of every port at eight marks 
of silver to sixteen ships, died at London, some say at 



k Post Christ. K)30. Sim. Dun. 

1 Post Christ. 1030. Sim. Dun. Huntingd. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



553 



Oxford, and was buried at Winchester. m After which, 
most of the nobility, both Danes and English now 
agreeing-, send embassadors to Hardecnute still at 
Bruges with his mother, entreating him to come and 
receive as his right the sceptre; who before midsum- 
mer came with sixty ships, aud many soldiers out of 
Denmark. 

HARDECNUTE. 

Hardecnute received with acclamation, and seated 
in the throne, first called to mind the injuries done to 
him or his mother Emma in the time of Harold ; sent 
Alfric archbishop of York, Godwin, and others, with 
Troud his executioner, to London, commanding them 
to dig up the body of King Harold, and throw it into a 
ditch ; but by a second order, into the Thames. Whence 
taken up by a fisherman, and conveyed to a churchyard 
in London belonging to the Danes, it was interred 
again with honour. This done, he levied a sore tax, 
that eight marks to every rower, and twelve to every 
officer in his fleet, should be paid throughout England: 
by which time they who were so forward to call him 
over had enough of him ; for he, as they thought, had 
too much of theirs. After this he called to account 
Godwin earl of Kent, and Leving bishop of Worcester, 
about the death of Elfred his half brother, which Alfric 
the archbishop laid to their charge ; the king deprived 
Leving of his bishopric, and gave it to his accuser : but 
the year following, pacified with a round sum, restored 
it to Leving. n Godwin made his peace by a sump- 
tuous present, a galley with a gilded stem bravely rig- 
ged, and eighty soldiers in her, every one with brace- 
lets of gold on each arm, weighing sixteen ounces, 
helmet, corslet, and hilts of his sword gilded ; a Danish 
curtaxe, listed with gold or silver, hung on his left 
shoulder, a shield wuth boss and nails gilded in his left 
hand, in his right a lance; besides this, he took his 
oath before the king, that neither of his own counsel 
or will, but by the command of Harold, he had done 
what he did, to the putting out Elfred's eyes. The like 
oath took most of the nobility for themselves, or in his 
behalf. °The next year Hardecnute sending his 
house-carles, so they called his officers, to gather the 
tribute imposed ; two of them, rigorous in their office, 
were slain at Worcester by the people; whereat the 
king enraged sent Leofric duke of Mercia, and Seward 
of Northumberland, with great forces and commission 
to slay the citizens, rifle and burn the city, and waste 
the whole province. Affrighted with such news, all 
the people fled : the countrymen whither they could, 
the citizens to a small island in Severn, called Bever- 
ege, which they fortified and defended stoutly till 
peace was granted them, and freely to return home. 
But their city they found sacked and burnt; where- 
with the king was appeased. This was commendable 
in him, however cruel to others, that towards his half- 
brethren, though rivals of his crown, he shewed him- 
self always tenderly afFectioned ; as now towards Ed- 
ward, who without fear came to him out of Normandy, 

m Post Christ. 1040. Sim. Dun. Malms. n Malms, 



and with unfeigned kindness received, remained safely 
and honourably in his court. PBut Hardecnute the 
year following, at a feast wherein Osgod a great Dan- 
ish lord gave his daughter in marriage at Lambeth to 
Prudon another potent Dane, in the midst of his mirth, 
sound and healthful to sight, while he was drinking 
fell down speechless, and so dying, was buried at 
Winchester beside his father. He was it seems a great 
lover of good cheer; sitting at table four times a day, 
with great variety of dishes and superfluity to all comers. 
Whereas, saith Huntingdon, in our time princes in 
their houses made but one meal a day. He gave his 
sister Gunildis, a virgin of rare beauty, in marriage to 
Henry the Alman emperor; and to send her forth pom- 
pously, all the nobility contributed their jewels and 
richest ornaments. But it may seem a wonder, that our 
historians, if they deserve that name, should in a mat- 
ter so remarkable, and so near their own time, so much 
differ. Huntingdon relates, against the credit of all 
other records, that Hardecnute thus dead, the English 
rejoicing at this unexpected riddance of the Danish 
yoke, sent over to Elfred, the elder son of Emma by 
King Ethelred, of whom we heard but now that he 
died a prisoner at Ely, sent thither by Harold six years 
before; that he came now out of Normandy, with a 
great number of men, to receive the crown ; that earl 
Godwin, aiming to have his daughter queen of Eng- 
land, by marrying her to Edward a simple youth, for 
he thought Elfred of a higher spirit than to accept her, 
persuaded the nobles, that Elfred had brought over too 
many Normans, had promised them land here, that it 
was not safe to suffer a warlike and subtle nation to 
take root in the land, that these were to be so handled 
as none of them might dare for the future to flock 
hither, upon pretence of relation to the king: there- 
upon by common consent of the nobles, both Elfred 
and his company were dealt with as was above related ; 
that they then sent for Edward out of Normandy, with 
hostages to be left there of their faithful intentions to 
make him king, and their desires not to bring over 
with him many Normans; that Edward at their call 
came then first out of Normandy ; whereas all others 
agree, that he came voluntarily over to visit Hardec- 
nute, as is before said, and was remaining then in 
court at the time of his death. For Hardecnute dead, 
saith Malmsbury, Edward, doubting greatly his own 
safety, determined to rely wholly on the advice and fa- 
vour of earl Godwin ; desiring therefore by messengers 
to have private speech with him, the earl a while deli- 
berated: at last assenting, prince Edward came, and 
would have fallen at his feet; but that not permitted, 
told him the danger wherein he thought himself at pre- 
sent, and in great perplexity besought his help, to con- 
vey him some whither out of the land. Godwin soon 
apprehending' the fair occasion that now as it were 
prompted him how to advance himself and his family, 
cheerfully exhorted him to remember himself the son 
of Ethelred, the grandchild of Edgar, right heir to the 
crown at full age; not to think of flying, but of reign- 
ing, which might easily be brought about, if he would 



o Post Christ. 1041. Sim. Dun. 



P Post Christ. 1012. Sim. Dun. 



554 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



follow his counsel ; then setting- forth the power and 
authority which he had in England, promised it should 
be all his to set him on the throne, if he on his part 
would promise and swear to be for ever his friend, to 
preserve the honour of his house, and to many his 
daughter. Edward, as his necessity then was, con- 
sented easily, and swore to whatever Godwin required. 
An assembly of states thereupon met at Gillingbam, 
where Edward pleaded his right ; and by the power- 
ful influence of Godwin was accepted. Others, as 
Brompton, with no probability write, that Godwin at 
this time was fled into Denmark, for what he had done 
to Elfred, returned and submitted himself to Edward 
then king-, was by him charged openly with the death 
of Elfred, and not without much ado, by the interces- 
sion of Leofric and other peers, received at length into 
favour. 

EDWARD the Confessor. 

Glad were the English delivered so unexpectedly 
from their Danish masters, and little thought how near 
another conquest was hanging over them. Edward, 
the Easter following,"! crowned at Winchester, the same 
year accompanied with earl Godwin, Leofric, and Si- 
ward, came again thither on a sudden, and by their 
counsel seized on the treasure of his mother Emma. 
The cause alleged is, that she was hard to him in the 
time of his banishment; and indeed she is said not 
much to have loved Ethelred her former husband, and 
thereafter the children by him ; she was moreover noted 
to be very covetous, hard to the poor, and profuse to 
monasteries. r About this time also King Edward, ac- 
cording to promise, took to wife Edith or Egith earl 
Godwin's daughter, commended much for beauty, mo- 
desty, and beyond what is requisite in a woman, learn- 
ing. Ingulf, then a youth lodging in the court with 
his father, saw her oft, and coming from the school, 
was sometimes met by her and posed, not in grammar 
only, but in logic. Edward the next year but one s 
made ready a strong navy at Sandwich against Mag- 
nus king of Norway, who threatened an invasion, had 
not Swane king of Denmark diverted him by a war at 
home to defend his own land; 1 not out of good will to 
Edward, as may be supposed, who at the same time 
expressed none to the Danes, banishing Gunildis the 
niece of Canute with her two sons, and Osgod by sur- 
name Clapa, out of the realm. u Swane, overpowered 
by Magnus, sent the next year to entreat aid of King 
Edward ; Godwin gave counsel to send him fifty ships 
fraught with soldiers ; but Leofric and the general 
a die gainsaying, none were sent. x The next year Ha- 
rold Harvager, king of Norway, sending embassadors, 
made peace with King Edward ; but an earthquake at 
Worcester and Derby, pestilence and famine in many 
places, much lessened the enjoyment thereof, y The 
next year Benry the emperor, displeased with Bald- 
win (ail of Flanders, had straitened him with a great 
army by land; and sending to King Edward, desired 



"in. Sim. Dun. 

i i.V Sim. Dun. 

u Post Christ. Id)?, him. Dun. 



r Malms. 
t Post Christ. 1016. Sim. Dun. 



him with his ships to hinder what he might his escape 
by sea. The king therefore, with a great navy, coming 
to Sandwich, there staid till the emperor came to an 
agreement with earl Baldwin. Mean while Swane 
son of earl Godwin, who, not permitted to marry Ed- 
giva the abbess of Chester by him deflowered, had left 
the land, came out of Denmark with eight ships, feign- 
ing a desire to return into the king's favour; and Beorn 
his cousin german, who commanded part of the king's 
navy, promised to intercede, that his earldom might be 
restored him. Godwin therefore and Beorn with a few 
ships, the rest of the fleet gone home, coming to Pe- 
vensey, (but Godwin soon departed thence in pursuit of 
twenty-nine Danish ships, who had got much booty on 
the coast of Essex, and perished by tempest in their re- 
turn,) Swane with his ships comes to Beorn at Pevensey, 
g'uilefully requests him to sail with him to Sandwich, 
and reconcile him to the king, as he had promised. 
Beorn mistrusting' no evil where he intended good, went 
with him in his ship attended by three only of his ser- 
vants : but Swane, set upon barbarous cruelty, not re- 
conciliation with the king, took Beorn now in his 
power, and bound him ; then coming to Dartmouth, 
slew and buried him in a deep ditch. After which the 
men of Hastings took six of his ships, and brought 
them to the king at Sandwich ; with the other two he 
escaped into Flanders, there remaining till Aldred 
bishop of Worcester by earnest mediation wrought his 
peace with the king. About this time King Edward 
sent to pope Leo, desiring absolution from a vow which 
he had made in his younger years, to take a journey to 
Rome, if God vouchsafed him to reign in England ; 
the pope dispensed with his vow, but not without the 
expense of his journey given to the poor, and a monas- 
tery built or re-edified to St. Peter ; who in vision to a 
monk, as is said, chose Westminster, which King Ed- 
ward thereupon rebuilding endowed with large privi- 
leges and revenues. The same year, saith Florent of 
Worcester, certain Irish pirates with thirty-six ships 
entered the mouth of Severn, and with the aid of Grif- 
fin prince of South Wales, did some hurt in those parts: 
then passing the river Wye, burnt Dunedham, and 
slew all the inhabitants they found. Against whom 
Aldred bishop of Worcester, with a few out of Glou- 
cester and Herefordshire, went out in haste : but Griffin, 
to whom the Welsh and Irish had privily sent messen- 
gers, came down upon the English with his whole 
power by night, and early in the morning suddenly- 
assaulting them, slew many, and put the rest to flight. 
a The next year but one, King Edward remitted the 
Danish tax which had continued thirty-eight years 
heavy upon the land since Ethelred first paid it to the 
Danes, and what remained thereof in his treasury he 
sent back to the owners : but through imprudence laid 
the foundation of a far worse mischief to the English ; 
while studying gratitude to those Normans, who to him 
in exile had been helpful, he called them over to public 
offices here, whom better he might have repaid out of 
his private purse; by this means exasperating either 



x Post Christ. 1048. Sim. Dun. 
y Post Christ. JO 19. Sim. Dun. 
a Pest Christ. 1051. Sim. Dun. Ingulf. 



Malms. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



555 



nation one against the other, and making- way by de- 
grees to the Norman conquest. Robert a monk of that 
country, who had been serviceable to him there in time 
of need, he made bishop, first of London, then of Can- 
terbury ; William his chaplain, bishop of Dorchester. 
Then began the English to lay aside their own ancient 
customs, and in many things to imitate French man- 
ners, the great peers to speak French in their houses, 
in French to write their bills and letters, as a great 
piece of gentility, ashamed of their own : a presage of 
their subjection shortly to that people, whose fashions 
and language they affected so slavishly. But that 
which gave beginning to many troubles ensuing hap- 
pened this year, and upon this occasion. b Eustace 
earl of Boloign, father of the famous Godfrey who won 
Jerusalem from the Saracens, and husband to Goda the 
king's sister, having been to visit King Edward, and 
returning by Canterbury to take ship at Dover, one of 
his harbingers, insolently seeking to lodge by force in 
a house there, provoked so the master thereof, as by 
chance or heat of anger to kill him. The count with 
his whole train going to the house where his servant 
had been killed, slew both the slayer and eighteen 
more who defended him. But the townsmen running 
to arms requited him with the slaughter of twenty more 
of his servants, wounded most of the rest; he himself 
with one or two hardly escaping, ran back with clamour 
to the king ; whom, seconded by other Norman 
courtiers, he stirred up to great anger against the citi- 
zens of Canterbury. Earl Godwin in haste is sent for, 
the cause related and much aggravated by the king 
against that city, the earl commanded to raise forces, 
and use the citizens thereof as enemies. Godwin, sorry 
to see strangers more favoured of the king than his 
native people, answered, that " it were better to summon 
first the chief men of the town into the king's court, to 
charge them with sedition, where both parties might 
be heard, that not found in fault they might be acquit- 
ted ; if otherwise, by fine or loss of life might satisfy 
the king, whose peace they had broken, and the count 
whom they had injured : till this were done refusing to 
prosecute with hostile punishment them of his own 
country unheard, whom his office was rather to defend." 
The king displeased with his refusal, and not knowing 
how to compel him, appointed an assembly of all the 
peers to be held at Gloucester, where the matter might 
be fully tried ; the assembly was full and frequent ac- 
cording to summons: but Godwin mistrusting his own 
cause, or the violence of his adversaries, with his two 
sons, Swane and Harold, and a great power gathered 
out of his own and his sons' earldoms, which contained 
most of the south-east and west parts of England, 
came no farther than Beverstan, giving out that their 
forces were to go against the Welsh, who intended an 
irruption into Herefordshire; and Swane under that 
pretence lay with part of his army thereabout. The 
Welsh understanding this device, and with all dili- 
gence clearing themselves before the king, left Godwin 
detected of false accusation in great hatred to all the 
assembly. Leofric therefore and Sivvard, dukes of great 



power, the former in Mercia, the other in all parts be- 
yond Humber, both ever faithful to the king, send 
privily with speed to raise the forces of their provinces* 
Which Godwin not knowing sent bold to King Ed- 
ward, demanding count Eustace and his followers, 
together with those Boloignians, who, as Simeon 
writes, held a castle in the jurisdiction of Canterbury. 
The king, as then having but little force at hand, 
entertained him a while with treaties and delays, till 
his summoned army drew nigh, then rejected his de- 
mands. Godwin, thus matched, commanded his sons 
not to begin fight against the king; begun with, not 
to give ground. The king's forces were the flower of 
those counties whence they came, and eager to fall on : 
but Leofric and the wiser sort, detesting civil war, c 
brought the matter to this accord ; that hostages given 
on either side, the cause should be again debated at 
London. Thither the king and lords coming with 
their army, sent to Godwin and his sons (who with 
their powers were come as far as South wark) command- 
ing their appearance unarmed with only twelve at- 
tendants, and that the rest of their soldiers they should 
deliver over to the king. They to appear without 
pledges before an adverse faction denied ; but to dis- 
miss their soldiers refused not, nor in aught else to 
obey the king as far as might stand with honour and 
the just regard of their safety. This answer not 
pleasing the king, an edict was presently issued forth, 
that Godwin and his sons within five days depart the 
land. He, who perceived now his numbers to dimin- 
ish, readily obeyed, and with his wife and three sons, 
Tosti, Swane, and Gyrtha, with as much treasure as 
their ship could carry, embarked at Thorney, sailed 
into Flanders to earl Baldwin, whose daughter Judith 
Tosti had married : for Wulnod his fourth son was then 
a hostage to the king in Normandy ; his other two, 
Harold and Leofwin, taking ship at Bristow, in a 
vessel that lay ready there belonging to Swane, passed 
into Ireland. King Edward, pursuing his displeasure, 
divorced his wife Edith earl Godwin's daughter, send- 
ing her despoiled of all her ornaments to Warewel 
with one waiting-maid ; to be kept in custody by his 
sister the abbess there. d His reason of so doing was as 
harsh as his act, that she only, while her nearest rela- 
tions were in banishment, might not, though innocent, 
enjoy ease at home. After this, William duke of 
Normandy, with a great number of followers, coming 
into England, was by King Edward honourably enter- 
tained, and led about the cities and castles, as it were 
to shew him what ere long was to be his own, (though 
at that time, saith Ingulf, no mention thereof passed 
between them,) then, after some time of his abode here, 
presented richly and dismissed, he returned home, 
e The next year Queen Emma died, and was buried at 
Winchester. The chronicle attributed to John Bromp- 
ton a Yorkshire abbot, but rather of some nameless 
author living under Edward III, or later, reports that 
the year before, by Robert the archbishop she was ac- 
cused both of consenting to the death of her son Elfred, 
and of preparing poison for Edward also; lastly of too 

d Malms. e Post Christ. 1052. Sim. Dun. 



556 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



, 



much familiarity with Alwin bishop of Winchester: 
that to approve her innocence, praying - overnight to 
St. Swithune, she offered to pass blindfold between 
certain ploughshares redhot, according to the ordalian 
law, which without harm she performed ; that the king- 
thereupon received her to honour, and from her and the 
bishop, penance for his credulity; that the archbishop, 
ashamed of his accusation, fled out of England : which, 
besides the silence of ancienter authors, (for the bishop 
fled not till a year after,) brings the whole story into 
suspicion, in this more probable, if it can be proved, 
that in memory of this deliverance from the nine 
burning ploughshares, Queen Emma gave to the abbey 
of St. Swithune nine manors, and bishop Alwin other 
nine. About this time Griffin prince of South Wales 
wasted Herefordshire ; to oppose whom the people of 
that country, with many Normans, garrisoned in the 
castle of Hereford, went out in arms, but were put to 
the worse, many slain, and much booty driven away 
by the Welsh. Soon after which Harold and Leofwin, 
sons of Godwin, coming into Severn with many ships, 
in the confines of Somerset and Dorsetshire, spoiled 
many villages, and resisted by those of Somerset and 
Devonshire, slew in a fight more than thirty of their 
principal men, many of the common sort, and returned 
with much booty to their fleet. f King Edward on the 
other side made ready above sixty ships at Sandwich 
well stored with men and provision, under the conduct 
of Odo and Radulf two of his Norman kindred, en- 
joining them to find out Godwin, whom he heard to 
be at sea. To quicken them, he himself lay on ship- 
board, ofttimes watched and sailed up and down in 
search of those pirates. But Godwin, whether in a 
mist, or by other accident, passing by them, arrived in 
another part of Kent, and dispersing several messengers 
abroad, by fair words allured the chief men of Kent, 
Surrey, and Essex, to his party ; which news coming 
to the king's fleet at Sandwich, they hasted to find him 
out; but missing of him again, came up without effect 
to London. Godwin, advertised of this, forthwith 
sailed to the Isle of Wight ; where at length his two 
sons Harold and Leofwin finding him, with their united 
navy lay on the coast, forbearing other hostility than 
to furnish themselves with fresh victuals from land as 
they needed. Thence as one fleet they set forward to 
Sandwich, using all fair means by the way to increase 
their numbers both of mariners and soldiers. The king 
then at London, startled at these tidings, gave speedy 
order to raise forces in all parts that had not revolted 
from him ; but now too late, for Godwin within a few 
days after with his ships or galleys came up the river 
Thames to Southwark, and till the tide returned 
bad conference with the Londoners ; whom by fair 
speeches (for he was held a good speaker in those 
times) be brought to his bent. The tide returned, 
and none upon the bridge hindering, he rowed up 
in his galleys along the south bank ; where his land- 
army, now come to him, in array of battle now stood on 
the shore ; then turning toward the north side of the 
river, where the king's galleys lay in some readiness, 
f Malms. a Post Christ. 1053. Sim. Dun. 



and land forces also not far off, he made shew as offer- 
ing to fight; but they understood one another, and the 
soldiers on either side soon declared their resolution not 
to fight English against English. Thence coming to 
treaty, the king and the earl reconciled, both armies 
were dissolved, Godwin and his sons restored to their 
former dignities, except Swane, who, touched in con- 
science for the slaughter of Beorn his kinsman, was 
gone barefoot to Jerusalem, and, returning home, died 
by sickness or Saracens in Lycia ; his wife Edith, God- 
win's daughter, King Edward took to him again, dig- 
nified as before. Then were the Normans, who had 
done many unjust things under the king's authority, 
and given him ill counsel against his people, banished 
the realm; some of them, not blamable, permitted to 
stay. Robert archbishop of Canterbury, William of 
London, Ulf of Lincoln, all Normans, hardly escaping 
with their followers, got to sea. The archbishop went 
with his complaint to Rome ; but returning, died in 
Normandy at the same monastery from whence he 
came. Osbern and Hugh surrendered their castles, 
and by permission of Leofric passed through his coun- 
tries with their Normans to Macbeth king of Scotland. 
s The year following, Rhese, brother to Griffin, prince 
of South Wales, who by inroads had done much damage 
to the English, taken at Bulendun, was put to death 
by the king's appointment, and his head brought to 
him at Gloucester. The same year at Winchester, on the 
second holy day of Easter, earl Godwin, sitting with the 
king at table, sunk down suddenly in his seat as dead: 
his three sons, Harold, Tosti, and Girth a, forthwith car- 
ried him into the king's chamber, hoping he might re- 
vive : but the malady had so seized him, that the fifth 
day after he expired. The Normans who hated God- 
win give out, saith Malmsbury, that mention happen- 
ing to be made of Elfred, and the king thereat looking 
sourly upon Godwin, he, to vindicate himself, uttered 
these words: " Thou, O king, at every mention made 
of thy brother Elfred, lookest frowningly upon me; 
but let God not suffer me to swallow this morsel, if I 
be guilty of aught done against his life or thy advan- 
tage;" that after these words, choaked with the mor- 
sel taken, he sunk down and recovered not. His first 
wife was the sister of Canute, a woman of much in- 
famy for the trade she drove of buying up English 
youths and maids to sell in Denmark, whereof she 
made great gain ; but ere long was struck with thun- 
der and died. h The year ensuing, Siward earl of 
Northumberland, with a great number of horse and 
foot, attended also by a strong fleet at the king's 
appointment, made an expedition into Scotland, van- 
quished the tyrant Macbeth, slaying many thousands 
of Scots with those Normans that went thither, and 
placed Malcolm son of the Cumbrian king in his stead ; 
yet not without loss of his own son, and many other 
both English and Danes. Told of his son's death,' he 
asked whether he received his death's wound before or 
behind. When it was answered, before; " I am glad," 
saith he, " and should not else have thought him, 
though my son, worthy of burial." In the mean while 

h Post Christ. 1051. Sim. Dun. i Hunlingd. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



557 



King 1 Edward, being" without issue to succeed him, sent 
Aldred bishop of Winchester with great presents to the 
emperor, entreating him to prevail with the king of 
Hungary, that Edward, the remaining son of his bro- 
ther Edmund Ironside, might be sent into England. 
Siward, but one year surviving his great victory, died 
at York ; k reported by Huntingdon a man of giant like 
stature ; and by his own demeanour at point of death 
manifested, of a rough and mere soldierly mind. For 
much disdaining to die in bed by a disease, not in the 
field fighting with his enemies, he caused himself com- 
pletely armed, and weaponed with battleaxe and shield, 
to be set in a chair, whether to fight with death, if he 
could be so vain, or to meet him (when far other wea- 
pons and preparations were needful) in a martial bra- 
very ; but true fortitude glories not in the feats of war, 
as they are such, but as they serve to end war soonest 
by a victorious peace. His earldom the king bestowed 
on Tosti the son of earl Godwin : and soon after, in a 
convention held at London, banished without visible 
cause, Huntingdon saith for treason, Algar the son of 
Leofric ; who, passing into Ireland, soon returned with 
eighteen ships to Griffin prince of South Wales, re- 
questing- his aid against King Edward. He, assem- 
bling his powers, entered with him into Herefordshire; 
whom Radulf a timorous captain, son to the king's 
sister, not by Eustace, but a former husband, met two 
miles distant from Hereford ; and having horsed the 
English, who knew better to fight on foot, without 
stroke he with his French and Normansbeginning to fly, 
taught the English by his example. Griffin and Algar, 
following the chase, slew many, wounded more, enter- 
ed Hereford, slew seven canons defending the minster, 
burnt the monastery and reliques, then the city ; kill- 
ing some, leading captive others of the citizens, re- 
turned with great spoils ; whereof King Edward hav- 
ing notice gathered a great army at Gloucester under 
the conduct of Harold, now earl of Kent, who strenu- 
ously pursuing Griffin entered Wales, and encamped 
beyond Straddale. But the enemy flying before him 
farther into the country, leaving there the greater part 
of his army with such as had charge to fight, if occa- 
sion were offered, with the rest he returned, and fortified 
Hereford with a wall and gates. Meanwhile Griffin 
and Algar, dreading the diligence of Harold, after 
many messages to and fro, concluded a peace with him. 
Algar, discharging his fleet with pay at West-Chester, 
came to the king, and was restored to his earldom. 
But Griffin with breach of faith, the next year 1 set 
upon Leofgar the bishop of Hereford and his clerks 
then at a place called Glastbrig, with Agelnorth vis- 
count of the shire, and slew them ; but Leofric, Harold, 
and King Edward, by force, as is likeliest, though it be 
not said how, reduced him to peace. m The next year, 
Edward son of Edmund Ironside, for whom his uncle 
King Edward had sent to the emperor, came out of 
Hungary, designed successor to the crown ; but within 
a few days after his coming died at London, leaving 
behind him Edgar Atheling his son, Margaret and 



k Post Christ. 10.55. Sim. Dun. 
m Post Christ. 1057. Sim. Duu. 
o Post Christ, lufly. 



\ Post Christ. 10.56. Sim. Dun. 
n Post Christ. 1058. Sim. Dun. 
p Post Christ. 1061. Sim. Dun. 



Christiana his daughters. About the same time also died 
earl Leofric in a good old age, a man of no less virtue 
than power in his time, religious, prudent, and faithful 
to his country, happily wedded to Godiva, a woman of 
great praise. His son Algar found less favour with King 
Edward, again banished the year after his father's death, 11 
but he again by the aid of Griffin and a fleet from 
Norway, maugre the king", soon recovered his earldom. 
The next year Malcolm king of Scots, coming to visit 
King Edward, was brought on his way by Tosti the 
Northumbrian, to whom he swore brotherhood : yet the 
next year but one,P while Tosti was gone to Rome 
with Aldred archbishop of York for his pall, this sworn 
brother, taking advantage of his absence, roughly 
harassed Northumberland. The year passing to an 
end without other matter of moment, save the frequent 
inroads and robberies of Griffin, whom no bonds of 
faith could restrain, King Edward sent against him 
after Christmas Harold now duke of West-Saxons,'* 
with no great body of horse, from Gloucester, where 
he then kept his court ; whose coming heard of Griffin 
not daring to abide, nor in any part of his land holding 
himself secure, escaped hardly by sea, ere Harold, 
coming to Rudeland, burnt his palace and ships there, 
returning to Gloucester the same day. r But by the 
middle of May setting out with a fleet from Bristow, 
he sailed about the most part of Wales, and met by his 
brother Tosti with many troops of horse, as the king- 
had appointed, began to waste the country; but the 
Welsh giving pledges, yielded themselves, promised 
to become tributary, and banish Griffin their prince ; 
who lurking somewhere was the next year s taken and 
slain by Griffin prince of North Wales ; his head with 
the head and tackle of his ship sent to Harold, by him 
to the king, who of his gentleness made Blechgent and 
Rithwallon, or Rivallon, his two brothers, princes in 
his stead ; they to Harold in behalf of the king swore 
fealty and tribute. * Yet the next year Harold having" 
built a fair house at a place called Portascith in Mon- 
mouthshire, and stored it with provision, that the king 1 
might lodge there in time of hunting, Caradoc, the son 
of Griffin slain the year before," came with a number of 
men, slew all he found there, and took away the pro- 
vision. Soon after which the Northumbrians in a tu- 
mult at York beset the palace of Tosti their earl, slew 
more than two hundred of his soldiers and servants, 
pillaged his treasure, and put him to fly for his life. 
The cause of this insurrection they alleged to be, for 
that the queen Edith had commanded, in her brother 
Tosti 's behalf, Gospatric a nobleman of that country to 
be treacherously slain in the king's court; and that 
Tosti himself the year before with like treachery had 
caused to be slain in his chamber Gamel and Ulf, two 
other of their noblemen, besides his intolerable exac- 
tions and oppressions. Then in a manner the whole 
country, coming up to complain of their grievances, 
met with Harold at Northampton, whom the king at 
Tosti's request had sent to pacify the Northumbrians ; 
but they laying open the cruelty of his government, 



q Post Christ. 106?. Sim. Dun. 
s Post Christ. 1064. Sim. Dun. 
t Post Christ. 10C5. Sim. Duu. 



r Post Christ. 1063. Sim. Dun. 
u Camden. 



553 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



and their own birthright of freedom not to endure the 
tyranny of any governor whatsoever, with absolute re- 
fusal to admit him again, and Harold hearing- reason, 
all the accomplices of Tosti were expelled the earldom. 
He himself, banished the realm, went into Flanders ; 
Morcar the son of Algar made earl in his stead. 
Huntingdon tells another cause of Tosti's banishment, 
that one day at Windsor, while Harold reached the 
cup to King Edward, Tosti, envying to see his younger 
brother in greater favour than himself, could not for- 
bear to run furiously upon him, catching hold of his 
hair ; the scuffle was soon parted by other attendants 
rushing between, and Tosti forbidden the court. He 
with continued fury riding to Hereford, where Harold 
had many servants, preparing an entertainment for the 
king, came to the house and set upon them with his 
followers ; then lopping off hands, arms, legs of some, 
heads of others, threw them into buts of wine, meath, 
or ale, which were laid in for the king's drinking: and 
at his going away charged them to send him this word, 
that of other fresh meats he might bring with him to 
his farm what he pleased, but of souse he should find 
plenty provided ready for him : that for this barbarous 
act the king pronounced him banished ; that the Nor- 
thumbrians, taking advantage at the king's displeasure 
and sentence against him, rose also to be revenged of 
his cruelties done to themselves. But this no way 
agrees ; for why then should Harold or the king so 
much labour with the Northumbrians to readmit him, 
if he were a banished man for his crimes done before ? 
About this time it happened, that Harold putting to 
sea one day for his pleasure," in a fisherboat, from his 
manor at Boseham in Sussex, caught with a tempest 
too far off lands was carried into Normandy ; and by 
the earl of Pontiew, on whose coast he was driven, at 
his own request brought to duke William; who, enter- 
taining him with great courtesy, so far won him, as to 
promise the duke by oath of his own accord, not only 
the castle of Dover then in his tenure, but the kingdom 
also after King's Edward's death to his utmost endea- 
vour, thereupon betrothing the duke's daughter then 
too young for marriage, and departing richly presented. 
Others say, that King Edward himself, after the death 
of Edward his nephew, sent Harold thither on purpose 
to acquaint duke William with his intention to be- 
queath him his kingdom : y but Malmsbury accounts 
the former story to be the truer. Ingulf writes, that 
King Edward now grown old, and perceiving Edgar 
his nephew both in body and mind unfit to govern, 
especially against the pride and insolence of Godwin's 
sons, who would never obey him ; duke William on 
the other side of high merit, and his kinsman by the 
mother, bad sent Robert archbishop of Canterbury, to 
acquaint the duke with his purpose, not long before 
Harold came thither. The former part may be true, 
that King Edward upon such considerations had sent 
one or other; but archbishop Robert was fled the land, 
and dead many years before. Eadmer and Simeon 
write, that Harold went of his own accord into Nor- 
mandy, by the king's permission or connivance, to get 

x Malms. y Leges Ed. Conf. Til. Lex Noiicor. 



free his brother Wulnod and nephew Hacun the son of 
Swane, whom the king had taken hostages of Godwin, 
and sent into Normandy; that King Edward foretold 
Harold, his journey thither would be to the detriment 
of all England, and his own reproach ; that duke Wil- 
liam then acquainted Harold, how Edw T ard ere his 
coming to the crown had promised, if ever he attained 
it, to leave duke William successor after him. Last of 
these Matthew Paris writes, that Harold, to get free of 
duke William, affirmed his coming thither not to have 
been by accident or force of tempest, but on set pur- 
pose, in that private manner to enter with him into 
secret confederacy : so variously are these things re- 
ported. After this King Edward grew sickly, 2 yet as 
he was able kept his Christmas at London, and was 
at the dedication of St. Peter's church in Westminster, 
which he had rebuilt ; but on the eve of Epiphany, or 
Twelfthtide, deceased much lamented, and in the 
church was entombed. That he w T as harmless and 
simple, is conjectured by his words in anger to a pea- 
sant, who had crossed his game, (for with hunting and 
hawking he was much delighted,) " by God and God's 
mother," said he, " I shall do you as shrewd a turn if 
I can ;" observing that law maxim, the best of all his 
successors, " that the king of England can do no 
wrong." The softness of his nature gave growth to 
factions of those about him, Normans especially and 
English ; these complaining, that Robert the archbishop 
was a sower of dissension between the king and his 
people, a traducer of the English ; the other side, that 
Godwin and his sons bore themselves arrogantly and 
proudly towards the king, usurping to themselves equal 
share in the government, ofttimes making sport with 
his simplicity ; a that through their power in the land, 
they made no scruple to kill men of whose inheritance 
they took a liking, and so to take possession. The 
truth is, that Godwin and his sons did many things 
boisterously and violently, much against the king's 
mind ; which not able to resist, he had, as some say, 
his wife Edith Godwin's daughter in such aversation, 
as in bed, never to have touched her; whether for this 
cause, or mistaken chastity, not commendable ; to in- 
quire further, is not material. His laws held good and 
just, and long after desired by the English of their 
Norman kings, are yet extant. He is said to be at 
table not excessive, at festivals nothing puffed up with 
the costly robes he wore, which his queen with curious 
art had woven for him in gold. He was full of alms- 
deeds, and exhorted the monks to like charity. He is 
said to be the first English king that cured the disease 
thence called the king's evil ; yet Malmsbury blames 
them who attribute that cure to his royalty, not to his 
sanctity; said also to have cured certain blind men 
with the water wherein he hath washed his hands. A 
little before his death, lying speechless two days, the 
third day, after a deep sleep, he was heard to pray, that 
if it were a true vision, not an illusion which he had 
seen, God would give him strength to utter it, other- 
wise not. Then ho related how he had seen two de- 
vout monks, whom he knew in Normandy to have 

z Post Christ. 1006. Sim. Dun. a Huntingd. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



559 



lived and died well, who appearing 1 told hira they were 
sent messengers from God to foretel, that because the 
great ones of England, dukes, lords, bishops, and ab- 
bots, were not ministers of God, but of the devil, God 
had delivered the land to their enemies ; and when he 
desired, that he might reveal this vision, to the end 
they might repent, it was answered, they neither will 
repent, neither will God pardon them : at this relation 
others trembling, Stigand the simonious archbishop, 
whom Edward much to blame had suffered many years 
to sit primate in the church, is said to have laughed, 
as at the feverish dream of a doting old man ; but the 
event proved it true. 

HAROLD, son of Earl Godwin. 

Harold, whether by King Edward a little before his 
death ordained successor to the crown, as Simeon of 
Durham and b others affirm ; or by the prevalence of 
his faction, excluding Edgar the right heir, grandchild 
to Edmund Ironside, as Malmsbury and Huntingdon 
agree ; no sooner was the funeral of King Edward 
ended, but on the same day was elected and crowned 
king : and no sooner placed in the throne, but began 
to frame himself by all manner of compliances to gain 
affection, endeavoured to make good laws, repealed 
bad, became a great patron to church and churchmen, 
courteous and affable to all reputed good, a hater of 
evildoers, charged all his officers to punish thieves, rob- 
bers, and all disturbers of the peace, while he himself 
by sea and land laboured in the defence of his country: 
so good an actor is ambition. In the mean while a 
blazing star, seven mornings together, about the end 
of April was seen to stream terribly, not only over 
England, but other parts of the world; foretelling here, 
as was thought, the great changes approaching: plain- 
liest prognosticated by Elmer, a monk of Malmsbury, 
who could not foresee, when time was, the breaking of 
his own legs for soaring too high. He in his youth 
strangely aspiring, had made and fitted wings to his 
hands and feet ; with these on the top of a tower, spread 
out to gather air, he flew more than a furlong; but the 
wind being too high, came fluttering down, to the 
maiming of all his limbs ; yet so conceited of his art, 
that he attributed the cause of his fall to the want of a 
tail, as birds have, which he forgot to make to his hinder 
parts. This story, though seeming otherwise too light 
in the midst of a sad narration, yet for the strangeness 
thereof, I thought worthy enough the placing, as I 
found it placed in my author. But to digress no farther: 
Tosti the king's brother coming from Flanders, full of 
envy at his younger brother's advancement to the 
crown, resolved what he might to trouble his reign ; 
forcing therefore them of Wight Isle to contribution, 
he sailed thence to Sandwich, committing piracies on 
the coast between. Harold, then residing at London, 
with a great number of ships drawn together, and of 
horse troops by land, prepares in person for Sandwich: 
whereof Tosti having notice directs his course with 
sixty ships towards Lindsey, c taking with him all the 
b Hoved. Florent. c Malms. 



seamen he found, willing or unwilling ; where he burnt 
many villages, and slew many of the inhabitants; but 
Edwin the Mercian duke, and Morcar his brother, the 
Northumbrian earl, with their forces on either side, soon 
drove him out of the country. Who thence betook him 
to Malcolm the Scottish king, and with him abode the 
whole summer. About the same time duke William 
sending embassadors to admonish Harold of his promise 
and oath, to assist him in his plea to the kingdom, he 
made answer, that by the death of his daughter be- 
trothed to him on that condition, he was absolved of 
his oath ; d or not dead, he could not take her now an 
outlandish woman, without consent of the realm; that 
it was presumptuously done, and not to be persisted in, 
if without consent or knowledge of the states, he had 
sworn away the right of the kingdom ; that what he 
swore was to gain his liberty, being in a manner then 
his prisoner ; that it was unreasonable in the duke, to 
require or expect of him the foreg'oing of a kingdom, 
conferred upon him with universal favour and acclama- 
tion of the people. To this flat denial he added con- 
tempt, sending the messengers back, saith Matthew 
Paris, on maimed horses. The duke, thus contemptu- 
ously put off, addresses himself to the pope, setting 
forth the justice of his cause ; which Harold, whether 
through haughtiness of mind, or distrust, or that the 
ways to Rome were stopped, sought not to do. Duke 
William, besides the promise and oath of Harold, al- 
leged that King Edward, by the advice of Seward, 
Godwin himself, and Stigand the archbishop, had 
given him the right of succession, and had sent him 
the son and nephew of Godwin, pledges of the gift : 
the pope sent to duke William, after this demonstration 
of his right, a consecrated banner. Whereupon he 
having with great care and choice got an army of tall 
and stout soldiers, under captains of great skill and 
mature age, came in August to the port of St. Valerie. 
Meanwhile Harold from London comes to Sandwich, 
there expecting his navy; which also coming, he sails 
to the Isle of Wight ; and having heard of duke Wil- 
liam's preparations and readiness to invade him, kept 
good watch on the coast, and foot forces every where 
in fit places to guard the shore. But ere the middle 
of September, provision failing when it was most 
needed, both fleet and army return home. When on a 
sudden, Harold Harvager king of Norway, with a navy 
of more than five hundred great ships, e (others lessen 
them by two hundred, others augment them to a thou- 
sand,) appears at the mouth of Tine ; to whom earl 
Tosti with his ships came as was agreed between them ; 
whence both uniting set sail with all speed, and entered 
the river Humber. Thence turning into Ouse, as far 
as Rical, landed, and won York by assault. At these 
tidings Harold with all his power hastes thitherward ; 
but ere his coming, Edwin and Morcar at Fulford by 
York, on the north side of Ouse, about the feast of St. 
Matthew had given them battle ; successfully at first, 
but overborn at length with numbers ; and forced to 
turn their backs, more of them perished in the river, 
than in the fight. The Norwegians taking with them 

d Eadmer. e Malms. Matt. Paris. 



560 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



Book VI. 



five hundred hostages out of York, and leaving- there 
one hundred and fifty of their own, retired to their 
ships. But the fifth day after, King- Harold with a 
great and well-appointed army coming - to York, and 
at Stamford bridge, or Battle bridge on Darwent, as- 
sailing the Norwegians, after much bloodshed on both 
sides, cut off the greatest part of them, with Harvager 
their king, and Tosti his own brother/ But Olave the 
king's son, and Paul earl of Orkney, left with many 
soldiers to g - uard the ships, surrendering - themselves 
with hostages, and oath given never to return as ene- 
mies, he suffered freely .to depart with twenty ships, 
and the small remnant of their army, g One man of 
the Norwegians is not to be forgotten, who with incre- 
dible valour keeping the bridge a long hour against 
the whole English army, with his single resistance 
delayed their victory ; and scorning offered life, till in 
the end no man daring to grapple with him, either 
dreaded as too strong - , or contemned as one desperate, 
he was at length shot dead with an arrow ; and by his 
fall opened the passage of pursuit to a complete victory. 
Wherewith Harold lifted up in mind, and forg'etting 
now his former shows of popularity, defrauded his sol- 
diers their due and well-deserved share of the spoils. 
While these things passed in Northumberland, duke 
William lay still at St. Valerie ; his ships were ready, 
but the wind served not for many days; which put the 
soldiery into much discouragement and murmur, 
taking this for an unlucky sign of their success ; at last 
the wind came favourable, the duke first under sail 
awaited the rest at anchor, till all coming forth, the 
whole fleet of nine hundred ships with a prosperous 
gale arrived at Hastings. At his going out of the boat 
by a slip falling on his hands, to correct the omen, h a 
soldier standing by said aloud, that their duke had 
taken possession of England. Landed, he restrained 
his army from waste and spoil, saying that they ought 
to spare what was their own. But these things are 
related of Alexander and Cfesar, and I doubt thence 
borrowed by the monks to inlay their story. The 
duke for fifteen days after landing kept his men quiet 
within the camp, having taken the castle of Hastings, 
or built a fortress there. Harold secure the while, and 
proud of his new victory, thought all his enemies now 
under foot : but sitting jollily at dinner, news is brought 
him that duke William of Normandy with a great 
multitude of horse and foot, slingers and archers, be- 
sides other choice auxiliaries which he had hired in 
France, was arrived at Pevensey. Harold, who had 
expected him all the summer, but not so late in the 
year as now it was, for it was October, with his forces 
much diminished after two sore conflicts, and the de- 
parting of many others from him discontented, in great 
haste marches to London. Thence not tarrying for 
supplies, which were on their way towards him, hurries 
into Sussex, (for he was always in haste since the day 
of his coronation,) and ere the third part of his army 
could be well put in order, finds the duke about nine 
miles from Hastings, and now drawing nigh, sent spies 
before him to survey the strength and number of his 

f Camd. p Malms. 



enemies: them discovered, such the duke causing to 
be led about, and after well filled with meat and drink, 
sent back. They not otherwise brought word, that the 
duke's army were most of them priests ; for they saw 
their faces all over shaven ; the English then using to 
let grow on their upper lip large mustachios, as did 
anciently the Britons. The king laughing answered, 
that they were not priests, but valiant and hardy sol- 
diers. Therefore said Girtha his brother, a youth of 
noble courage and understanding above his age, " For- 
bear thou thyself to fight, who art obnoxious to duke 
William by oath, let us unsworn undergo the hazard 
of battle, who may justly fight in the defence of our 
country ; thou, reserved to fitter time, mayst either 
reunite us flying, or revenge us dead." The king not 
hearkening to this, lest it might seem to argue fear in 
him or a bad cause, with like resolution rejected the 
offers of duke William sent to him by a monk before 
the battle, with this only answer hastily delivered, 
" Let God judg - e between us." The offers were these, 
that Harold would either lay down the sceptre, or hold 
it of him, or try his title with him by single combat in 
sight of both armies, or refer it to the pope. These re- 
jected, both sides prepared to fight the next morning, 
the English from singing and drinking all night, the 
Normans from confession of their sins, and communion 
of the host. The English were in a strait disadvanta- 
geous place, so that many, discouraged with their ill 
ordering, scarce having room where to stand, slipped 
away before the onset, the rest in close order, with their 
battleaxes and shields, made an impenetrable squadron: 
the king himself with his brothers on foot stood by the 
royal standard, wherein the figure of a man fighting 
was inwoven with gold and precious stones. The 
Norman foot, most bowmen, made the foremost front, 
on either side wings of horse somewhat behind. The 
duke arming, and his corslet given him on the wrong 
side, said pleasantly, " The strength of my dukedom 
will be turned now into a kingdom." Then the whole 
army singing the song of Rowland, the remembrance 
of whose exploits might hearten them, imploring lastly 
divine help, the battle began ; and was fought sorely 
on either side : but the main body of English foot by 
no means would be broken, till the duke, causing - his 
men to feign flight, drew them out with desire of pur- 
suit into open disorder, then turned suddenly upon 
them so routed by themselves, which wrought their 
overthrow ; yet so they died not unmanfully, but turning 
oft upon their enemies, by the advantage of an upper 
ground, beat them down by heaps, and filled up a great 
ditch with their carcasses. Thus hung the victory 
wavering on either side from the third hour of day to 
evening; when Harold having maintained the fight 
with unspeakable courage and personal valour, shot 
into the head with an arrow, fell at length, and left 
his soldiers without heart longer to withstand the un- 
wearied enemy. With Harold fell also his two bro- 
thers, Leofwin and Girtha, with them greatest part of 
the English nobility. His body lying dead a knight or 
soldier wounding on the thigh, was by the duke pre- 

h Sim. Dun. 



Book VI. 



THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



561 



sently turned out of military service Of Normans and 
French were slain no small number ; the duke himself 
that day not a little hazarded his person, having had 
three choice horses killed under him. Victory ob- 
tained, and his dead carefully buried, the English also 
by permission, he sent the body of Harold to his mother 
without ransom, though she offered very much to re- 
deem it ; which having received she buried at Waltham, 
in a church built there by Harold. In the mean while, 
Edwin and Morcar, who had withdrawn themselves 
from Harold, hearing of his death, came to London ; 
sending Aldgith the queen their sister with all speed 
to West-chester. Aldred archbishop of York, and many 
of the nobles, with the Londoners, would have set up 
Edgar the right heir, and prepared themselves to fight 
for him ; but Morcar and Edwin not liking the choice, 
who each of them expected to have been chosen before 
him, withdrew their forces, and returned home. Duke 
William, contrary to his former resolution, (if Florent 
of Worcester, and they who follow him, 1 say true,) 
wasting, burning, and slaying all in his way ; or rather, 
assaith Malmsbury, not in hostile but in regal manner, 
came up to London, met at Barcham by Edgar, with 
the nobles, bishops, citizens, and at length Edwin and 
Morcar, who all submitted to him, gave hostages and 
swore fidelity, he to them promised peace and defence ; 
yet permitted his men the while to burn and make 
prey. Coming to London with all his army, he was 
on Christmas-day solemnly crowned in the great church 
at Westminster, by Aldred archbishop of York, having 
first given his oath at the altar, in presence of all the 
people, to defend the church, well govern the people, 
maintain right law, prohibit rapine and unjust judg- 

i Sim. Dun. 



ment. Thus the English, while they agreed not about 
the choice of their native king, were constrained to 
take the yoke of an outlandish conqueror. With what 
minds and by what course of life they had fitted them- 
selves for this servitude, William of Malmsbury spares 
not to lay open. Not a few years before the Normans 
came, the clergy, though in Edward the Confessor's 
days, had lost all good literature and religion, scarce 
able to read and understand their Latin service ; he 
was a miracle to others who knew his grammar. The 
monks went clad in fine stuffs, and made no difference 
what they eat ; which though in itself no fault, yet to 
their consciences was irreligious. The great men, 
given to gluttony and dissolute life, made a prey of 
the common people, abusing their daughters whom 
they had in service, then turning them off to the stews ; 
the meaner sort tippling together night and day, spent 
all they had in drunkenness, attended with other vices 
which effeminate men's minds. Whence it came to 
pass, that carried on with fury and rashness more than 
any true fortitude or skill of war, they gave to William 
their conqueror so easy a conquest. Not but that some 
few of all sorts were much better among them ; but 
such was the generality. And as the long-suffering of 
God permits bad men to enjoy prosperous days with 
the good, so his severity ofttimes exempts not good 
men from their share in evil times with the bad. 

If these were the causes of such misery and thral- 
dom to those our ancestors, with what better close can 
be concluded, than here in fit season to remember this 
age in the midst of her security, to fear from like vices, 
without amendment, the revolution of like calamities? 



TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION ; 



AND WHAT BEST MEANS MAY BE USED 



AGAINST THE GROWTH OF POPERY. 



[FIRST PUBLISHED 1673.] 



It is unknown to no man, who knows aught of con- 
cernment among- us, that the increase of popery is at 
this day no small trouble and offence to greatest part 
of the nation ; and the rejoicing 1 of all good men that 
it is so : the more their rejoicing, that God hath given 
a heart to the people, to remember still their great and 
happy deliverance from popish thraldom, and to esteem 
so highly the precious benefit of his gospel, so freely 
and so peaceably enjoyed among them. Since therefore 
some have already in public with many considerable 
arguments exhorted the people, to beware the growth 
of this Romish weed ; I thought it no less than a com- 
mon duty, to lend my hand, how unable soever, to so 
good a purpose. I will not now enter into the laby- 
rinth of councils and fathers, an entangled wood, which 
the papists love to fight in, not with hope of victory, 
but to obscure the shame of an open overthrow : which 
yet in that kind of combat, many heretofore, and one 
of late, hath eminently given them. And such manner 
of dispute with them to learned men is useful and very 
commendable. But I shall insist now on what is 
plainer to common apprehension, and what I have to 
say, without longer introduction. 

True religion is the true worship and service of God, 
learnt and believed from the word of God only. No 
man or angel can know how God would be worshipped 
and served, unless God reveal it: he hath revealed and 
taught it us in the Holy Scriptures by inspired minis- 
ters, and in the gospel by his own Son and his apos- 
tles, with strictest command, to reject all other tra- 
ditions or additions whatsoever. According to that 
of St. Paul, " Though we or an angel from heaven 
preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we 
have preached unto you, let him be anathema, or ac- 
cursed." And Deut. iv. 2 : "Ye shall not add to the 
word which I command you, neither shall you dimi- 
nish aught from it." Rev. xxii. 18, 19: " If any man 
shall add, Sec. If any man shall take away from the 
word-," &c. With good and religious reason therefore 
all protectant churches with one consent, and particu- 



larly the church of England in her thirty-nine articles, 
artic. 6tb, 19th, 20th, 21st, and elsewhere, maintain 
these two points, as the main principles of true reli- 
gion ; that the rule of true religion is the word of God 
only : and that their faith ought not to be an implicit 
faith, that is to believe, though as the church believes, 
against or without express authority of Scripture. And 
if all protestants, as universally as they hold these two 
principles, so attentively and religiously would ob- 
serve them, they would avoid and cut off many debates 
and contentions, schisms and persecutions, which too 
oft have been among" them, and more firmly unite 
against the common adversary. For hence it directly 
follows, that no true protestaut can persecute, or not 
tolerate, his fellow-protestant, though dissenting from 
him in some opinions, but he must flatly deny and re- 
nounce these two his own main principles, whereon 
true religion is founded ; while he compels his brother 
from that which he believes as the manifest word of 
God, to an implicit faith (which he himself condemns) 
to the endangering of his brother's soul, whether by 
rash belief, or outward conformity : for " whatsoever is 
not of faith, is sin." 

I will now as briefly shew what is false religion or 
heresy, which will be done as easily : for of contraries 
the definitions must needs be contrary. Heresy there- 
fore is a religion taken up and believed from the tra- 
ditions of men, and additions to the word of God. 
Whence also it follows clearly, that of all known sects, 
or pretended religions, at this day in Christendom, po- 
pery is the only or the greatest heresy : and he who is 
so forward to brand all others for heretics, the obsti- 
nate papist, the only heretic. Hence one of their own 
famous writers found just cause to style the Romish 
church " Mother of errour, school of heresy." And 
whereas the papist boasts himself to be a Roman Ca- 
tholic, it is a mere contradiction, one of the pope's bulls, 
as if he should say, universal particular, a catholic 
schismatic. For catholic in Greek signifies universal : 
and the christian church was so called, as consisting of 



OF TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 



563 



all nations to whom the gospel was to be preached, in 
contradistinction to the Jewish church, which consisted 
for the most part of Jews only. 

Sects may be in a true church as well as in a false, 
when men follow the doctrine too much for the teach- 
er's sake, whom they think almost infallible ; and this 
becomes, through infirmity, implicit faith ; and the 
name sectary pertains to such a disciple. 

Schism is a rent or division in the church, when it 
comes to the separating of congregations; and may 
also happen to a true church, as well as to a false ; yet 
in the true needs not tend to the breaking of commu- 
nion, if they can agree in the right administration of 
that wherein they communicate, keeping their other 
opinions to themselves, not being destructive to faith. 
The Pharisees and Sadducees were two sects, yet both 
met together in their common worship of God at Jeru- 
salem. But here the papist will angrily demand, What ! 
are Lutherans, Calvinists, anabaptists, Socinians, Ar- 
minians, no heretics ? I answer, all these may have 
some errours, but are no heretics. Heresy is in the 
will and choice professedly against Scripture ; errour 
is against the will, in misunderstanding the Scripture 
after all sincere endeavours to understand it rightly : 
hence it was said well by one of the ancients, " Err I 
may, but a heretic I will not be." It is a human frailty 
to err, and no man is infallible here on earth. But so 
long as all these profess to set the word of God only 
before them as the rule of faith and obedience ; and 
use all diligence and sincerity of heart, by reading, by 
learning, by study, by prayer for illumination of the 
Holy Spirit, to understand the rule and obey it, they 
have done what man can do : God will assuredly par- 
don them, as he did the friends of Job ; good and pious 
men, though much mistaken, as there it appears, in 
some points of doctrine. But some will say, with 
Christians it is otherwise, whom God hath promised by 
his Spirit to teach all things. True, all things abso- 
lutely necessary to salvation : but the hottest disputes 
among protestants, calmly and charitably inquired into, 
will be found less than such. The Lutheran holds con- 
substantiation ; an errour indeed, but not mortal. The 
Calvinistis taxed with predestination, and to make God 
the author of sin; not with any dishonourable thought 
of God, but it may be overzealously asserting his ab- 
solute power, not without plea of Scripture. The 
anabaptist is accused of denying infants their right to 
baptism ; again they say, they deny nothing but what 
the Scripture denies them. The Arian and Socinian are 
charged to dispute against the Trinity : they affirm to 
believe the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to 
Scripture and the apostolic creed ; as for terms of trinity, 
triniunity, coessentiality, tripersonality, and the like, 
they reject them as scholastic notions, not to be found 
in Scripture, which by a general protestant maxim is 
plain and perspicuous abundantly to explain its own 
meaning in the properest words, belonging to so high 
a matter, and so necessary to be known ; a mystery 
indeed in their sophistic subtilties, but in Scripture a 
plain doctrine. Their other opinions are of less mo- 
ment. They dispute the satisfaction of Christ, or 
2 o 



rather the word " satisfaction," as not scriptural: but 
they acknowledge him both God and their Saviour. 
The Arminian lastly is condemned for setting up free 
will against free grace ; but that imputation he dis- 
claims in all his writings, and grounds himself largely 
upon Scripture only. It cannot be denied, that the 
authors or late revivers of all these sects or opinions 
were learned, worthy, zealous, and religious men, as 
appears by their lives written, and the same of their 
many eminent and learned followers, perfect and 
powerful in the Scriptures, holy and unblamable in 
their lives : and it cannot be imagined, that God would 
desert such painful and zealous labourers in his church, 
and ofttimes great sufferers for their conscience, to 
damnable errours and a reprobate sense, who had so 
often implored the assistance of his Spirit ; but rather, 
having made no man infallible, that he hath pardoned 
their errours, and accepts their pious endeavours, sin- 
cerely searching all things according to the rule of 
Scripture, with such guidance and direction as they can 
obtain of God by prayer. What protestant then, who 
himself maintains the same principles, and disavows all 
implicit faith, would persecute, and not rather charit- 
ably tolerate, such men as these, unless he mean to ab- 
jure the principles of his own religion ? If it be asked, 
how far they should be tolerated : I answer, doubtless 
equally, as being all protestants ; that is, on all occa- 
sions to give account of their faith, either by arguing, 
preaching in their several assemblies, public writing, 
and the freedom of printing. For if the French and 
Polonian protestants enjoy all this liberty among 
papists, much more may a protestant justly expect it 
among protestants; and yet sometimes here among us, 
the one persecutes the other upon every slight pretence. 
But he is wont to say, he enjoins only things indif- 
ferent. Let them be so still ; who gave him authority 
to change their nature by enjoining them ? if by his 
own principles, as is proved, he ought to tolerate con- 
troverted points of doctrine not slightly grounded on 
Scripture, much more ought he not impose things in- 
different without Scripture. In religion nothing is 
indifferent, but, if it come once to be imposed, is either 
a command or a prohibition, and so consequently an 
addition to the word of God, which he professes to dis- 
allow. Besides, how unequal, how uncharitable must 
it needs be, to impose that which his conscience cannot 
urge him to impose, upon him whose conscience for- 
bids him to obey ! What can it be but love of conten- 
tion for things not necessary to be done, to molest the 
conscience of his brother, who holds them necessary to 
be not done ? To conclude, let such a one but call to 
mind his own principles above mentioned, and he must 
necessarily grant, that neither he can impose, nor the 
other believe or obey, aught in religion, but from the 
word of God only. More amply to understand this, 
may be read the 14th and 15th chapters to the Romans, 
and the contents of the 14th, set forth no doubt but 
with full authority of the church of England : the 
gloss is this ; " Men may not contemn or condemn 
one the other for things indifferent." And in the 6th 
article above mentioned, " Whatsoever is not read in 



56 1 



OF TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 



Holy Scripture, nor may be proved thereby - , is not to be 
required of any man as an article of faith, or necessary 
to salvation." And certainly what is not so, is not to 
be required at all ; as being an addition to the word of 
God expressly forbidden. 

Thus this long- and hot contest, whether protestants 
ought to tolerate one another, if men will be but rational 
and not partial, may be ended without need of more 
words to compose it. 

Let us now inquire, whether popery be tolerable or 
no. Popery is a double thing to deal with, and claims 
a twofold power, ecclesiastical and political, both 
usurped, and the one supporting the other. 

But ecclesiastical is ever pretended to political. The 
pope by this mixed faculty pretends right to kingdoms 
and states, and especially to this of England, thrones 
and unthrones kings, and absolves the people from their 
obedience to them ; sometimes interdicts to whole na- 
tions the public worship of God, shutting up their 
churches : and was wont to drain away greatest part 
of the wealth of this then miserable land, as part of his 
patrimony, to maintain the pride and luxury of his 
court and prelates : and now, since, through the infi- 
nite mercy and favour of God, we have shaken off his 
Babylonish yoke, hath not ceased by his spies and 
agents, bulls and emissaries, once to destroy both king 
and parliament ; perpetually to seduce, corrupt, and 
pervert as many as they can of the people. Whether 
therefore it be fit or reasonable, to tolerate men thus 
principled in religion towards the state, I submit it to 
the consideration of all magistrates, who are best able 
to provide for their own and the public safety. As for 
tolerating the exercise of their religion, supposing their 
state-activities not to be dangerous, I answer, that tole- 
ration is either public or private ; and the exercise of 
their religion, as far as it is idolatrous, can be tolerated 
neither way : not publicly, without grievous and unsuf- 
ferable scandal given to all conscientious beholders ; 
not privately, without great offence to God, declared 
against all kind of idolatry, though secret. Ezek. viii. 
7, 8 : " And he brought me to the door of the court, 
and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. Then 
said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall : and 
when I had digged, behold a door; and he said unto 
me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that 
they do here." And ver. 12; " Then said he unto me, 
Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the 
house of Israel do in the dark ?" &c. And it appears 
by the whole chapter, that God was no less offended 
with these secret idolatries, than with those in public; 
and no less provoked, than to bring on and hasten his 
judgments on the whole land for these also. 

1 1.'\ ing shewn thus, that popery, as being idolatrous, 
is not to be tolerated either in public or in private; it 
uiii^t be now thought how to remove it, and hinder the 
growth thereof, I mean in our natives, and not foreign- 
ers, privileged by the law of nations. Are we to punish 
them by corpora] punishment, or fines in their estates, 
upon account of their religion ? I suppose it stands not 
with the clemency of the gospel, more than what ap- 
pertains to the security of the slate : but first we must 



remove their idolatry, and all the furniture thereof, 
whether idols, or the mass wherein they adore their 
God under bread and wine : for the commandment 
forbids to adore, not only " any graven image, but the 
likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath, or in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not 
bow down to them, nor worship them, for I the Lord 
thy God am a jealous God." If they say, that by re- 
moving their idols we violate their consciences, we 
have no warrant to regard conscience which is not 
grounded on Scripture : and they themselves confess 
in their late defences, that they hold not their images 
necessary to salvation, but only as they are enjoined 
them by tradition. 

Shall we condescend to dispute with them ? The 
Scripture is our only principle in religion ; and by that 
only they will not be judged, but will add other prin- 
ciples of their own, which, forbidden by the word of 
God, we cannot assent to. And [in several places of the 
gospel] the common maxim also in logic is, " against 
them who deny principles, we are not to dispute." Let 
them bound their disputations on the Scripture only, 
and an ordinary protestant, well read in the Bible, may 
turn and wind their doctors. They will not go about 
to prove their idolatries by the word of God, but turn 
to shifts and evasions, and frivolous distinctions : idols 
they say are laymen's books, and a great means to stir 
up pious thoughts and devotion in the learnedest. I 
say, they are no means of God's appointing, but plainly 
the contrary: let them hear the prophets; Jer. x. 8; 
" The stock is a doctrine of vanities." Hab. ii. 18 ; 
" What profiteth the graven image, that the maker 
thereof hath graven it ; the molten image and a teacher 
of lies?" But they allege in their late answers, that 
the laws of Moses, given only to the Jews, concern not 
us under the gospel ; and remember not that idolatry 
is forbidden as^ expressly: but with these wiles and 
fallacies " compassing sea and land, like the Pharisees 
of old, to make one proselyte," they lead away privily 
many simple and ignorant souls, men and women, 
" and make them twofold more the children of hell 
than themselves, ' Matt, xxiii. 15. But the apostle 
hath well warned us, I may say, from such deceivers 
as these, for their mystery was then working'. " I be- 
seech you, brethren," saith he, " mark them which 
cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine 
which ye have learned, and avoid them; for they that 
are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own 
belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive 
the heart of the simple," Rom. xvi. 17, 18. 

The next means to hinder the growth of popery will 
be, to read duly and diligently the Holy Scriptures, 
which, as St. Paul saith to Timothy, who had known 
them from a child, " are able to make wise unto salva- 
tion." And to the whole church of Colossi; " Let the 
word of Christ dwell in you plentifully, with all wis- 
dom," Col. iii. 16. The papal antichristian church 
permits not her laity to read the Bible in their own 
tongue: our church on the contrary hath proposed it 
to all men, and to this end translated it into English, 
with profitable notes on what is met with obscure, 



OF TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 



565 



though what is most necessary to be known be still plain- 
est ; that all sorts and degrees of men, not understand- 
ing- the original, may read it in their mother tongue. 
Neither let the countryman, the tradesman, the lawyer, 
the physician, the statesman, excuse himself by his 
much business from the studious reading thereof. Our 
Saviour saith, Luke x. 41, 42: " Thou art careful and 
troubled about many things, but one thing is needful." 
If they were asked, they would be loth to set earthly 
things, wealth or honour, before the wisdom of salva- 
tion. Yet most men in the course and practice of their 
lives are found to do so ; and through unwillingness to 
take the pains of understanding their religion by their 
own diligent study, would fain be saved by a deputy. 
Hence comes implicit faith, ever learning and never 
taught, much hearing and small proficience, till want 
of fundamental knowledge easily turns to superstition 
or popery : therefore the apostle admonishes, Eph. iv. 
14: " That we henceforth be no more children, tossed 
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness 
whereby they lie in wait to deceive." Every member 
of the church, at least of any breeding or capacity, so 
well ought to be grounded in spiritual knowledge, as, 
if need be, to examine their teachers themselves, Acts 
xvii. 11 : " They searched the Scriptures daily, whether 
those things were so." Rev. ii. 2 : " Thou hast tried 
them which say they are apostles, and are not." How 
should any private Christian try his teachers, unless he 
be well grounded himself in the rule of Scripture, by 
which he is taught. As therefore among papists, their 
ignorance in Scripture chiefly upholds popery; so among 
protestant people, the frequent and serious reading 
thereof will soonest pull popery down. 

Another means to abate popery, arises from the con- 
stant reading of Scripture, wherein believers, who agree 
in the main, are every where exhorted to mutual for- 
bearance and charity one towards the other, though 
dissenting in some opinions. It is written, that the 
coat of our Saviour was without seam ; whence some 
would infer, that there should be no division in the 
church of Christ. It should be so indeed ; yet seams 
in the same cloth neither hurt the garment, nor mis- 
become it ; and not only seams, but schisms will be 
while men are fallible : but if they who dissent in 
matters not essential to belief, while the common ad- 
versary is in the field, shall stand jarring and pelting 
at one another, they will be soon routed and subdued. 
The papist with open mouth makes much advantage of 
our several opinions ; not that he is able to confute the 
worst of them, but that we by our continual jangle 
among ourselves make them worse than they are in- 
deed. To save ourselves therefore, and resist the com- 
mon enemy, it concerns us mainly to agree within 
ourselves, that with joint forces we may not only hold 
our own, but get ground: and why should we not? 
The gospel commands us to tolerate one another, 
though of various opinions, and hath promised a good 
and happy event thereof; Phil. iii. 15 : " Let us there- 
fore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded ; and if 
in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal 



even this unto you." And we are bid, 1 Thess. v. 21 : 
" Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." St. 
Paul judged, that not only to tolerate, but to examine 
and prove all things, was no danger to our holding fast 
that which is good. How shall we prove all things, 
which includes all opinions at least founded on Scrip- 
ture, unless we not only tolerate them, but patiently 
hear them, and seriously read them ? If he who thinks 
himself in the truth professes to have learnt it, not by 
implicit faith, but by attentive study of the Scriptures, 
and full persuasion of heart ; with what equity can he 
refuse to hear or read him, who demonstrates to have 
gained his knowledge by the same way ? Is it a fair 
course to assert truth, by arrogating to himself the only 
freedom of speech, and stopping the mouths of others 
equally gifted ? This is the direct way to bring in that 
papistical implicit faith, which we all disclaim. They 
pretend it would unsettle the weaker sort ; the same 
groundless fear is pretended by the Romish clergy. At 
least then let them have leave to write in Latin, which 
the common people understand not; that what they 
hold may be discussed among the learned only. We 
suffer the idolatrous books of papists, without this fear, 
to be sold and read as common as our own : why not 
much rather of anabaptists, Arians,Arminians, and Soci- 
nians ? There is no learned man but will confess he 
hath much profited by reading controversies, his senses 
awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which 
he holds more firmly established. If then it be profit- 
able for him to read, why should it not at least be 
tolerable and free for his adversary to write ? In logic 
they teach, that contraries laid together more evidently 
appear: it follows then, that all controversy being per- 
mitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the 
more true ; which must needs conduce much, not only 
to the confounding of popery, but to the general con- 
firmation of unimplicit truth. 

The last means to avoid popery is, to amend our 
lives : it is a general complaint, that this nation of late 
years is grown more numerously and excessively vicious 
than heretofore ; pride, luxury, drunkenness, whoredom, 
cursing, swearing, bold and open atheism every where 
abounding: where these grow, no wonder if popery 
also grow apace. There is no man so wicked, but at 
some times his conscience will wring him with thoughts 
of another world, and the peril of his soul; the trouble 
and melancholy, which he conceives of true repentance 
and amendment, he endures not, but inclines rather to 
some carnal superstition, which may pacify and lull his 
conscience with some more pleasing doctrine. None 
more ready and officious to offer herself than the 
Romish, and opens wide her office, with all her facul- 
ties, to receive him; easy confession, easy absolution, 
pardons, indulgences, masses for him both quick and 
dead, Agnus Dei's, relics, and the like : and he, instead 
of " working out his salvation with fear and trembling," 
straight thinks in his heart, (like another kind of fool 
than he in the Psalms,) to bribe God as a corrupt judge ; 
and by his proctor, some priest, or friar, to buy out his 
peace with money, which he cannot with his repent- 
ance. For God, when men sin outrageously, and will 



566 



OF TRUE RELIGION, HERESY, SCHISM, TOLERATION. 



not be admonished, gives over chastizing" them, perhaps 
by pestilence, fire, sword, or famine, which may all turn 
to their good, and takes up his severest punishments, 
hardness, besottedness of heart, and idolatry, to their 
final perdition. Idolatry brought the heathen to hein- 
ous transgressions, Rom. ii. And heinous transgres- 
sions ofttimes bring the slight professors of true religion 
to gross idolatry : 1 Thess. ii. 11, 12 : " For this cause 
God shall send them strong delusion, that they should 
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who be- 



lieve not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous- 
ness." And Isaiah xliv. 18, speaking of idolaters, 
" They have not known nor understood, for he hath 
shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts 
that they cannot understand." Let us therefore, using- 
this last means, last here spoken of, but first to be done, 
amend our lives with all speed ; lest through impeni- 
tency we run into that stupidity which we now seek 
all means so warily to avoid, the worst of superstitions, 
and the heaviest of all God's judgments, popery. 






BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA, 

AND OF OTHER LESS KNOWN COUNTRIES LYING EASTWARD OF RUSSIA AS 

FAR AS CATHAY. 

GATHERED FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEVERAL EYEWITNESSES. 

[first published 1682.] ., 



THE PREFACE. 

The study of geography is both profitable and delightful ; but the writers thereof, though some of them exact 
enough in setting down longitudes and latitudes, yet in those other relations of manners, religion, government, 
and such like, accounted geographical, have for the most part missed their proportions. Some too brief and 
deficient satisfy not ; others too voluminous and impertinent cloy and weary out the reader, while they tell long 
stories of absurd superstitions, ceremonies, quaint habits, and other petty circumstances little to the purpose. 
Whereby that which is useful, and only worth observation, in such a wood of words, is either overslipped, or 
soon forgotten ; which perhaps brought into the mind of some men more learned and judicious, who had not the 
leisure or purpose to write an entire geography, yet at least to assay something in the description of one or two 
countries, which might be as a pattern or example to render others more cautious hereafter, who intended the 
whole work. And this perhaps induced Paulus Jovius to describe only Moscovy and Britain. Some such 
thoughts, many years since, led me at a vacant time to attempt the like argument, and I began with Moscovy, 
as being the most northern region of Europe reputed civil ; and the more northern parts thereof first discovered 
by English voyagers. Wherein I saw I had by much the advantage of Jovius. What was scattered in many 
volumes, and observed at several times by eyewitnesses, with no cursory pains I laid together, to save the reader 
a far longer travail of wandering through so many desert authors ; who yet with some delight drew me after 
them, from the eastern bounds of Russia, to the walls of Cathay, in several latejournies made thither overland 
by Russians, who describe the countries in their way far otherwise than our common geographers. From pro- 
ceeding further other occasions diverted me. This Essay, such as it is, was thought by some, who knew of it, 
not amiss to be published ; that so many things remarkable, dispersed before, now brought under one view, 
might not hazard to be otherwise lost, nor the labour lost of collecting them. 



MOSCOVIA 



OR, 



RELATIONS OF MOSCOVIA, 



AS FAR AS HATH BEEN DISCOVERED BY ENGLISH VOYAGES ; 

GATHERED FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEVERAL EYEWITNESSES: 

AND THE OTHER LESS KNOWN COUNTRIES LYING EASTWARD OF RUSSIA AS FAR AS CATHAY, 
LATELY DISCOVERED AT SEVERAL TIMES BY THE RUSSIANS. 



CHAR I. 

A brief description. 

The empire of Moscovia, or as others call it Russia, 
is bounded ou the north with Lapland and the ocean ; 
southward by the Crim Tartar; on the west by Lithu- 
ania, Livonia, and Poland ; on the east by the river Ob, 
or Oby, and the Nag-ay an Tartars on the Volga as far 
as Astracan. 

The north parts of this country are so barren, that 
the inhabitants fetch their corn a thousand miles ; a and 
so cold in winter, that the very sap of their woodfuel 
burning on the fire freezes at the brand's end, where it 
drops. The mariners, which were left on shipboard in 
the first English voyage thither, in going up only from 
the cabins to the hatches, b had their breath so congealed 
by the cold, that they fell down as it were stifled. The 
bay of St. Nicholas, where they first put in, c lieth in 
sixty-four degrees; called so from the abbey there built 
of wood, wherein are twenty monks, unlearned, as then 
they found them, and great drunkards: their church is 
fair, full of images and tapers. There are besides but 
six houses, whereof one built by the English. In the 
bay over against the abbey is Rose Island, d full of 
damask and red roses, violets, and wild rosemary ; the 
isle is in circuit seven or eight miles ; about the midst 
of May, the snow there is cleared, having two months 
been melting ; then the ground in fourteen days is 
dry, and grass knee-deep within a month ; after Sep- 
tember frost returns, and snow a yard high : it hath a 
house built by the English near to a fresh fair spring. 
North-cast of the abbey, on the other side of Duina, is 
the castle of Archangel, where the English have an- 
other house. The river Duina, beginning about seven 



a Hack. 0/51. 
c Ibid. 376. 



b Ibid. vol. i. <2J8. 
d Ibid. 365. 



hundred miles within the country, having first re- 
ceived Pinega, falls here into the sea, very large and 
swift, but shallow. It runneth pleasantly between 
hills on either side ; beset like a wilderness with high 
fir and other trees. Their boats of timber, without any 
iron in them, are either to sail, or to be drawn up with 
ropes against the stream. 

North-east beyond Archangel standeth Lampas, e 
where twice a-year is kept a great fair of Russes, Tar- 
tars, and Samoeds ; and to the landward Mezen, and 
Slobotca, two towns of traffic between the river Pecho- 
ra, or Petzora, and Duina : to seaward lies the cape of 
Candinos, and the island of Colgoieve, about thirty 
leagues from the bar of Pechory in sixty-nine degrees/ 

The river Pechora or Petzora, holding his course 
through Siberia, how far the Russians thereabouts 
know not, runneth into the sea at seventy-two mouths, 
full of ice ; abounding with swans, ducks, geese, and 
partridge, which they take in July, sell the feathers, 
and salt the bodies for winter provision. On this river 
spreading to a lake stands the town of Pustozera in 
sixty-eight degrees,e having some eighty or a hundred 
houses, where certain merchants of Hull wintered in 
the year sixteen hundred and eleven. The town Pe- 
chora, small and poor, hath three churches. They 
traded there up the river four days' journey to Oustzil- 
ma a small town of sixty houses. The Russians that 
have travelled say, that this river springs out of the 
mountains of Jougoria, and runs through Permia. Not 
far from the mouth thereof are the straits of Vaigats, 
of which hereafter: more eastward is the point of 
Naramzy, the next to that the river Ob ; h beyond which 
the Moscovites have extended lately their dominion. 
Touching the Riphsean mountains, whence Tanais was 
anciently thought to spring, our men could hear no- 
thing ; but rather that the whole country is champaign, 



e [bid. 284. 
g Ibid, Pure. 



f Pure, part 3, 533. 
Pure. 54y, 445, 551. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



569 



and in the northernmost part huge and desert woods of 
fir, abounding- with black wolves, bears, buffs, and an- 
other beast called rossomakka, whose female bringetb 
forth by passing 1 through some narrow place, as be- 
tween two stakes, and so presseth her womb to a 
disburdening. Travelling southward they found the 
country more pleasant, fair, and better inhabited, corn, 
pasture, meadows, and huge woods. Arkania (if it be 
not the same with Archangel) is a place of English 
trade, from whence a day's journey distant, but from 
St. Nicholas a hundred versts, 1 Colmogro stands on the 
Duina; a great town not walled, but scattered. The 
English have here lands of their own, given them by 
the emperor, and fair houses : not far beyond, Pinega, 
running between rocks of alabaster and great woods, 
meets with Duina. From Colmogro to Ustiug are five 
hundred versts or little miles, an ancient city upon the 
confluence of Juga and Sucana into Duina, k which 
there first receives his name. Thence continuing by 
water to Wologda, a great city so named of the river 
which passes through the midst; it hath a castle walled 
about with brick and stone, and many wooden churches, 
two for every parish, the one in winter to be heated, 
the other used in summer; this is a town of much 
traffic, a thousand miles from St. Nicholas. All this 
way by water no lodging is to be had but under open 
sky by the river side, and other provision only what 
they bring with them. From Wologda by sled they go 
to Yeraslave on the Volga, whose breadth is there at 
least a mile over, and thence runs two thousand seven 
hundred versts to the Caspian sea, 1 having his head 
spring out of Bealozera, which is a lake, amidst whereof 
is built a strong tower, wherein the kings of Moscovy 
reserve their treasure in time of war. From this town 
to Rostove, then to Pereslave, a great town situate on 
a fair lake ; thence to Mosco. 

Between Yeraslave and Mosco, which is two hun- 
dred miles, the country is so fertile, so populous and 
full of villages, that in a forenoon seven or eight hundred 
sleds are usually seen coming with salt-fish, or laden 
back with corn. m 

Mosco the chief city, lying in fifty-five degrees, dis- 
tant from St. Nicholas fifteen hundred miles, is reputed 
to be greater than London with the suburbs, but rudely 
built ; n their houses and churches most of timber, few 
of stone, their streets unpaved ; it hath a fair castle 
four-square, upon a hill, two miles about, with brick 
walls very high, and some say eighteen foot thick, six- 
teen gates, and as many bulwarks ; in the castle are 
kept the chief markets, and in winter on the river, being 
then firm ice. This river Moscua on the south-west side 
encloses the castle, wherein are nine fair churches with 
round gilded towers, and the emperor's palace ; which 
neither within nor without is equal for state to the 
king's houses in England, but rather like our buildings 
of old fashion, with small windows, some of glass, some 
with lattices, or iron bars. 

They who travel from Mosco to the Caspian, go by 
water down the Moscua to the river Occa ;° then by 



i Hack. 376. 

m Ibid. 251.335. 



k Ibid. 312. 
• n Ibid. 313. 



1 Ibid. 377, 248. 



certain castles to Rezan, a famous city now ruinate ; 
the tenth day to Nysnovogrod, where Occa falls into 
Volga, which the Tartars call Edel. From thence the 
eleventh day to Cazan a Tartar city of great wealth 
heretofore, now under the Russian ; walled at first with 
timber and earth, but since by the emperor Vasiliwich 
with freestone. From Cazan, to the river Cama, falling 
into Volga from the province of Permia, the people 
dwelling on the left side are Gentiles, and live in woods 
without houses :*> beyond them to Astracan, Tartars of 
Mangat, and Nagay: on the right side those of Crim- 
me. From Mosco to Astracan is about six hundred 
leagues. The town is situate in an island on a hill-side 
walled with earth, but the castle with earth and tim- 
ber; the houses, except that of the governor, and some 
few others, poor and simple ; the ground utterly bar- 
ren, and without wood: they live there on fish, and 
sturgeon especially; which hanging up to dry in the 
streets and houses brings whole swarms of flies, and 
infection to the air, and oft great pestilence. This island 
in length twelve leagues, three in breadth, is the Rus- 
sian limit toward the Caspian, which he keeps with a 
strong garrison, being- twenty leagues from that sea, 
into which Volga falls at seventy mouths. From St. 
Nicholas, or from Mosco to the Caspian, they pass in 
forty-six days and nights, most part by water. 

Westward from St. Nicholas twelve hundred miles is 
the city.q Novogrod fifty-eight degrees, the greatest 
mart town of all this dominion, and in bigness not in- 
ferior to Mosco. The way thither is through the western 
bottom of St. Nicholas bay, and so along the shore full 
of dangerous rocks to the monastery Solofky, wherein 
arc at least two hundred monks ; the people thereabout 
in a manner savages, yet tenants to those monks. 
Thence to the dangerous river Owiga, wherein are wa- 
terfalls as steep as from a mountain, and by the violence 
of their descent kept from freezing : so that the boats 
are to be carried there a mile over land ; which the te- 
nants of that abbey did by command, and were guides 
to the merchants without taking any reward. Thence 
to the town Povensa, standing within a mile of the 
famous lake Onega three hundred and twenty miles 
long, and in some places seventy, at narrowest twenty- 
five broad, and of great depth. Thence by some mo- 
nasteries to the river Swire ; then into the lake Ladis- 
cay much longer than Onega ; after which into the river 
Volhusky, which through the midst of Novogrod runs 
into this lake, and this lake into the Baltic sound by 
Narva and Revel. Their other cities toward the western 
bound are Plesco, Smolensko, orVobsco. 

The emperor exerciseth absolute power: if any man 
die without male issue, his land returns to the empe- 
ror. 1 " Any rich man, who through age or other impo- 
tency is unable to serve the public, being informed of, 
is turned out of his estate, and forced with his family 
to live on a small pension, while some other more de- 
serving is by the duke's authority put into possession. 
The manner of informing the duke is thus : Your grace, 
saith one, hath such a subject, abounding with riches, 



o Tbid. 325. 
q Ibid. 365. 



p Tbid. 334. 
r Ibid. 210. 



570 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



but for the service of the state unmeet ; and y6u have 
others poor and in want, hut well able to do their coun- 
try good service. Immediately the duke sends forth to 
inquire, and calling' the rich man before him, Friend, 
saith he, you have too much living, and are unservice- 
able to your prince ; less will serve you, and the rest 
maintain others who deserve more. The man thus 
tailed to impart his wealth repines not, but humbly 
answers, that all he hath is God's and the duke's, as if 
he made restitution of what more justly was another's, 
than parted with his own. Every gentleman hath rule 
and justice over his own tenants : if the tenants of two 
gentlemen agree not, they seek to compose it; if they 
cannot, each brings his tenant before the high judge 
of that country. They have no lawyers, but every man 
pleads his own cause, or else by bill or answer in 
writing delivers it with his own hands to the duke: 
yet justice, by corruption of inferior officers, is much 
perverted. Where other proof is wanted, they may try 
the matter by personal combat, or by champion. If a 
debtor be poor, he becomes bondman to the duke, who 
lets out his labour till it pay the debt ; till then he re- 
mains in bondage. Another trial they have by lots. s 

The revenues of the emperor are what he list, and 
what his subjects are able; and he omits not the 
coarsest means to raise them: for in every good town 
there is a drunken tavern, called a Cursemay, which 
the emperor either lets out to farm, or bestows on some 
duke, or gentleman, 1 in reward of his service, who for 
that time is lord of the whole town, robbing- and spoil- 
ing at his pleasure, till being well enriched, he is sent 
at his own charg'e to the wars, and there squeezed of 
his ill-got wealth ; by which means the waging of war 
is to the emperor little or nothing chargeable. 

The Russian armeth not less in time of war than 
three hundred thousand men, u half of whom he takes 
with him into the field, the rest bestows in garrisons 
on the borders. He prcsseth no husbandman or mer- 
chant but the youth of the realm. He useth no foot, 
but such as are pioneers, or gunners, of both which sort 
thirty thousand. The rest being horsemen, are ail 
archers, and ride with a short stirrup, after the Turkish. 
Their armour is a coat of plate, and a skull on their 
heads. Some of their coats are covered with velvet, or 
cloth of gold ; for they desire to be gorgeous in arms, 
but the duke himself above measure ; his pavilion 
covered with cloth of gold or silver, set with precious 
stones. They use little drums at the saddle-bow, in- 
stead of spurs, for at the sound thereof the horses run 
more swiftly. 

They fight without order;" nor willingly give battle, 
but by stealth or ambush. Of cold and hard diet mar- 
vellously patient ; for when the ground is covered with 
snow frozen a yard thick, the common soldier will lie 
in the field two months together without tent, or cover- 
ing over bead ; only hangs up his mantle against that 
part from whence the weather drives, and kindling a 
little fire, lies him down before it, with his back under 
the wind : his drink, the cold stream mingled with 



s Ilac. 309. 

X Ibid. 314. 250. 



t Ibid. 314. n Ibid. 239. 250. b Ibid. 320. 

y Ibid. 31G. z Ibid. 253. a Ibid. 242, 321. e Ibid. 322. 



oatmeal, and the same all his food : his horse, fed with 
green wood and bark, stands all this while in the open 
field, yet does his service. The emperor gives no pay 
at all, but to strangers; yet repays good deserts in war 
with certain lands during life ; and they who oftenest 
are sent to the wars, think themselves most favoured/ 
though serving without wages. On the twelfth of 
December yearly, the emperor rides into the field, 
which is without the city, with all his nobility, on jen- 
nets and Turkey horses in great state ; before him five 
thousand harquebusiers, who shoot at a bank of ice, till 
they beat it down ; the ordnance, which they have very 
fair of all sorts, they plant against two wooden houses 
filled with earth at least thirty foot thick, and begin- 
ning with the smallest, shoot them all off thrice over, 
having beat those two houses flat. Above the rest six 
great cannon they have, whose bullet is a yard high, 
so that a man may see it flying : then out of mortar- 
pieces they shoot wildfire into the air. Thus the em- 
peror having- seen what his gunners can do, returns 
home in the same order. 

They follow the Greek church, but with excess of 
superstitions : z their service is in the Russian tongue. 
They hold the ten commandments not to concern them, 
saying, that God gave them under the law, which 
Christ by his death on the cross hath abrogated : the 
eucharist they receive in both kinds. They observe 
four lents, have service in their churches daily, from 
two hours before dawn till evening ; a yet for whore- 
dom, drunkenness, and extortion none worse than the 
clergy. 

They have many great and rich monasteries,^ where 
they keep great hospitality. That of Trojetes hath in 
it seven hundred friars, and is walled about with brick 
very strongly, having many pieces of brass ordnance 
on the walls ; most of the lands, towns, and villages 
within forty miles belong to those monks, who are also 
as great merchants as any in the land. During Easter 
holydays when two friends meet, they take each other 
by the hand ; one of them saying, The Lord is risen ; 
the other answering, It is so of a truth ; and then they 
kiss, whether men or women. The emperor esteemeth 
the metropolitan next to God, after our lady, and St. 
Nicholas, as being his spiritual officer, himself but his 
temporal. d But the Muscovites that border on Tarta- 
ria are yet pagans. 

When there is love between two,e the man, among 
other trifling gifts, sends to the woman a whip, to sig- 
nify, if she offend, what she must expect ; and it is a 
rule among them, that if the wife be not beaten once a 
week, she thinks herself not beloved, and is the worse; 
yet they are very obedient, and stir not forth, but at 
some seasons. Upon utter dislike, the husband di- 
vorces; which liberty no doubt they received first with 
their religion from the Greek church/ and the imperial 
laws. 

Their dead they bury with new shoes on their feet, g 
as to a long journey ; and put letters testimonial in 
their hands to St. Nicholas, or St. Peter, that this was 



C Ibid. 310. 
f Ibid. 314. 



d Ibid. 320. 254. 
g Ibid. 242, 254, 323. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



671 



a Russe or Russes, and died in the true faith ; which, 
as they believe, St. Peter having read, forthwith admits 
him into heaven. 

They have no learning-, 11 nor will suffer to be among 
them; their greatest friendship is drinking-; they are 
great talkers, liars, flatterers, and dissemblers. They 
delight in gross meats and noisome fish ; their drink is 
better, being- sundry sorts of meath ; the best made 
with juice of a sweet and crimson berry called Maliena, 
growing also in France ; j other sorts with blackcherry, 
or divers other berries : another drink they use in the 
spring drawn from the birch-tree root, whose sap after 
June dries up. But there ai'e no people that live so 
miserably as the poor of Russia; if they have straw 
and water they make shift to live ; for straw dried and 
stamped in winter time is their bread ; in summer grass 
and roots ; at all times bark of trees is good meat with 
them ; yet many of them die in the street for hunger, 
none relieving or regarding them. 

When they are sent into foreign countries, 1 * or that 
strangers come thither, they are very sumptuous in 
apparel, else the duke himself goes but meanly. 

In winter they travel only upon sleds, 1 the ways 
being hard, and smooth with snow, the rivers all 
frozen : one horse with a sled will draw a man four 
hundred miles in three days; in summer the way is 
deep, and travelling ill. The Russe of better sort goes 
not out in winter, but on his sled ; in summer on his 
horse : in his sled he sits on a carpet, or a white bear's 
skin ; the sled drawn with a horse well decked, with 
many fox or wolf tails about his neck, guided by a boy 
on his back, other servants riding on the tail of the 
sled. 

The Russian sea breeds a certain beast which they 
call a morse ; m who seeks his food on the rocks, climb- 
ing up with help of his teeth ; whereof they make as 
great account as we of the elephant's tooth. 



CHAP. II. 

Of Samo'edia, Siberia, and other countries north-east, 
subject to the Muscovites. 

North-east of Russia lieth Samoedia by the river 
Ob. This country was first discovered by Oneke a 
Russian ; who first trading privately among them in 
rich furs, got great wealth, and the knowledge of their 
country; then revealed his discovery to Boris protector 
to Pheodor, shewing how beneficial that country gain- 
ed would be to the empire. Who sending embassadors 
among them gallantly attired, by fair means won their 
subjection to the empire, every head paying yearly two 
skins of richest sables. Those messengers travelling 
also two hundred leagues beyond Ob eastward, made 
report of pleasant countries, abounding with woods and 
fountains, and people riding on elks and loshes ; others 

^ H? f- tAb 314 - T . ■ , ' lbid - 32? - k IMd. 239. 

l Ibid. .314. m Ibid. 252. a Purch. part .3. p. 543, 510. 



drawn on sleds by rein-deer; others by dogs as swift 
as deer. The Samoeds that came along with those mes- 
sengers, returning to Mosco, admired the stateliness of 
that city, and were as much admired for excellent 
shooters, hitting every time the breadth of a penny, as 
far distant as hardly could be discerned. 

The river Ob is reported a by the Russes to be in 
breadth the sailing of a summer's day; but full of 
islands and shoals, having neither woods, nor, till of late, 
inhabitants. Out of Ob they turn into the river Tawze. 
The Russians have here, since the Samoeds yielded 
them subjection, two governors, with three or four 
hundred gunners; have built villages and some small 
castles ; all which place they call Mongozey or Mol- 
gomsay. b Further upland they have also built other 
cities of wood, consisting chiefly of Poles, Tartars, and 
Russes, fugitive or condemned men ; as Vergateria, 
Siber, whence the whole country is named, Tinna, 
thence Tobolsca on this side Ob, on the rivers Irtis, 
and Tobol, chief seat of the Russian governor; above 
that, Zergolta in an island of Ob, where they have a 
customhouse. Beyond that on the other side Ob, Na- 
rim, and Tooina, now a great city. c Certain churches 
also are erected in those parts; but no man forced to 
religion ; beyond Narim eastward on the river Telta is 
built the castle of Comgoscoi, and all this plantation 
began since the year 1590, with many other towns like 
these. And these are the countries from whence come 
all the sables and rich furs. 

The Samoeds have no towns or certain place of abode, 
but up and down where they find moss for their deer;d 
they live in companies peaceably, and are governed by 
some of the ancientest amongst them, but are idolaters. 
They shoot wondrous cunningly ; their arrow-heads 
are sharpened stones, or fish bones, which latter serve 
them also for needles ; their thread being the sinews 
of certain small beasts, wherewith they sow the furs 
which clothe them; the furry side in summer outward, 
in winter inward. They have many wives, and their 
daughters they sell to him who bids most; which, if 
they be not liked, are turned back to their friends, the 
husband allowing only to the father what the marriage 
feast stood him in. Wives are brought to bed there by 
their husbands, and the next day go about as before. 
They till not the ground ; but live on the flesh of those 
wild beasts which they hunt. They are the only guides 
to such as travel Jougoria, Siberia, or any of those 
north-east parts in winter ; e being drawn on sleds with 
bucks riding post day and night, if it be moonlight, 
and lodge on the snow under tents of deer-skins, in 
whatever place they find enough of white moss to feed 
their sled-stags, turning them loose to dig it up them- 
selves out of the deep snow : another Samoed, stepping 
to the next wood, brings in store of firing : round about 
which they lodge within their tents, leaving the top 
open to vent smoke ; in which manner they are as warm 
as the stoves in Russia. They carry provision of meat 
with them, and partake besides of what fowl or veni- 
son the Samoed kills with shooting by the way ; their 



b Ibid. 524, 526. 
d Ibid. 522. 555. 



c Purch. part .3. p. 526, 527- 
e Ibid. 548, 



572 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



driuk is melted snow. Two deer being- yoked to a sled, 
riding 1 post, will draw two hundred miles in twenty- 
four hours without resting", and laden with their stuff, 
will draw it thirty miles in twelve. 



CHAP. III. 

Of Tingoesia, and the countries adjoining eastward, 
as far as Cathay. 

Beyond Narim and Comgoscoi a the soldiers of those 
garrisons, travelling- by appointment of the Russian 
governor in the year 1605, found many goodly coun- 
tries not inhabited, many vast deserts and rivers ; till 
at the end of ten weeks they spied certain cottag-es and 
herds, or companies of people, which came to them with 
reverent behaviour, and signified to the Samoeds and 
Tartars, which were guides to the Russian soldiers, 
that they were called Tingoesi; that their dwelling 
was on the great river Jenissey. This river is said to 
be far bigger than Ob, b distant from the mouth thereof 
four days and nights sailing; and likewise falls into 
the sea of Karamzie : it hath high mountains on the 
east, some of which cast out fire, to the west a plain and 
fertile country, which in the spring-time it overflows 
about seventy leagues ; all that time the inhabitants 
keep them in the mountains, and then return with their 
cattle to the plain. The Tingoesi are a very gentle 
nation, they have great swoln throats,c like those in 
Italy that live under the Alps ; at persuasion of the 
Samoeds they forthwith submitted to the Russian go- 
vernment : and at their request travelling the next year 
to discover still eastward, they came at length to a river, 
which the savages of that place called Pisida/ 1 some- 
what less than Jenissey; beyond which hearing* ofttimes 
the tolling of brazen bells, and sometimes the noise of 
men and horses, they durst not pass over; they saw there 
certain sails afar off, square, and therefore supposed to 
be like Indian or China sails, and the rather for that they 
report that great guns have been heard shot off from 
those vessels. In April and May they were much de- 
lighted with the fair prospect of that country, reple- 
nished with many rare trees, plants, and flowers, beasts 
and fowl. Some think here to be the borders of Tan- 
gut in the north of Cathay. e Some of those Samoeds, 
about the year 1610, travelled so far till they came in 
riew of a white city, and heard a great din of bells, 
and report there came to them men all armed in iron 
from head to foot. And in the year 1611, divers out 
of Cathay, and others from Altcen Czar, who styles 
himself the golden king, came and traded at Zergolta, 
or Surgoot, on the river Ob, bringing with them plates 
of silver. Whereupon Michael Pheodorowich the Rus- 
sian fin prior, in t lie year 1619, sent certain of his people 
fromTooma toAlteen, and Cathay, who returned with 
embassadors from those princes. These relate/ that 
from Toema in ten days and a half, three days whereof 
over a lake, where rubies and sapphires grow, they 

% Purch. part 3. p. 527. b Ibid. 527,551, 516, 527- c Ibid. 



came to the Alteen king, or king- of Alty; through his 
land in five weeks they passed into the country of 
Sheromugaly, or Mugalla, where reigned a queen 
called Manchica ; whence in four days they came to 
the borders of Cathay, fenced with a stone wall, fifteen 
fathom high; along the side of which, having on the 
other hand many pretty towns belonging to Queen 
Manchica, they travelled ten days without seeing any 
on the wall, till they came to the gate ; where they saw 
very great ordnance lying, and three thousand men in 
watch. They traffic with other nations at the gate, and 
very few at once are suffered to enter. They were 
travelling from Tooma to this gate twelve weeks ; and 
from thence to the great city of Cathay ten days. 
Where being conducted to the house of embassadors, 
within a few days there came a secretary from King 
Tarn bur, with two hundred men well apparelled, 
and riding on asses, to feast them with divers sorts 
of wine, and to demand their message; but having 
brought no presents with them, they could not be 
admitted to his sight; only with his letter to the 
emperor they returned, as is aforesaid, to Tobolsca. 
They report, that the land of Mugalla reaches from 
Boghar to the north sea,° and hath many castles built 
of stone, foursquare, with towers at the corners covered 
with glazed tiles ; and on the gates alarm-bells, or 
watch-bells, twenty pound weight of metal ; their 
houses built also of stone, the ceilings cunningly 
painted with flowers of all colours. The people are 
idolaters ; the country exceeding fruitful. They have 
asses and mules, but no horses. The people of Cathay 
say, that this great wall stretches from Bog'har to the 
north sea, four months journey, with continual towers 
a slight shot distant from each other, and beacons on 
every tower ; and that this wall is the bound between 
Magulla and Cathay. In which are but five gates ; 
those narrow, and so low, that a horseman sitting up- 
right cannot ride in. Next to the wall is the city Shi- 
rokalga; it hath a castle well furnished with short 
ordnance and small shot, which they who keep watch 
on the gates, towers, and walls, duly at sun-set and 
rising discharge thrice over. The city abounds with 
rich merchandise, velvets, damasks, cloth of gold, and 
tissue, with many sorts of sugars. Like to this is the 
city Yara, their markets smell odoriferously with spices, 
and Tayth more rich than that. Shirooan yet more 
magnificent, half a day's journey through, and exceed- 
ing populous. From hence to Cathaia the imperial 
city is two days journey, built of white stone, four- 
square, in circuit four days going, cornered with four 
white towers, very high and great, and others very fair 
along the wall, white intermingled with blue, and loop- 
holes furnished with ordnance. In the midst of this 
white city stands a castle built of magnet, where the 
king dwells, in a sumptuous palace, the top whereof is 
overlaid with gold. The city stands on even ground 
encompassed with the river Youga, seven days journey 
from the sea. The people are very fair but not war- 
like, delighting most in rich traffick. These relations 
are referred hither, because we have them from Rus- 

d Ibid. 528. e Ibid. 543, 54G. f Ibid. 797- g Ibid. 799. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



573 



sians; who report also, that there is a sea beyond h Ob, 
so warm, that all kind of seafowl lire thereabout as 
well in winter as in summer. Thus much briefly of the 
sea and lands between Russia and Cathay. 



CHAP. IV. 

The succession of Moscovia dukes and emperors, taken 
out of their chronicles by a Polac, with some later 
additions? 

The great dukes of Moscovy derive their pedigree, 
though without ground, from Augustus Caesar: whom 
they fable to have sent certain of his kingdom to be 
governors over many remote provinces ; and among 
them, Prussus over Prussia; him to have had his seat 
on the eastern Baltic shore by the river Wixel ; of 
whom Rurek, Sinaus, and Truuor descended by the 
fourth generation, were by the Russians, living then 
without civil government, sent for in the year 573, to 
bear rule over them, at the persuasion of Gostomislius 
chief citizen of Novogrod. They therefore, taking 
with them Olechus their kinsman, divided those coun- 
tries among themselves, and each in his province 
taught them civil government. 

Ivor, son of Rurek, the rest dying* without issue, be- 
came successor to them all ; being left in nonage un- 
der the protection of Olechus. He took to wife Olha 
daughter to a citizen of Plesco, of whom he begat Sto- 
slaus; but after that being slain by his enemies, Olha 
his wife went to Constantinople, and was there bap- 
tized Helena. 

Stoslaus fought many battles with his enemies ; but 
was at length by them slain, who made a cup of his 
skull, engraven Avith this sentence in gold ; " Seeking 
after other men's, he lost his own." His sons wereTe- 
ropulchus, Olega, and Volodimir. 

Volodimir, having slain the other two, made himself 
sole lord of Russia ; yet after that fact inclining to 
christian religion, had to wife Anna sister of Basilius 
and Constantine Greek emperors; and with all his 
people, in the year 988, was baptized, and called Ba- 
silius. Howbeit Zonaras reporteth, that before that 
time Basilius the Greek emperor sent a bishop to them ; 
at whose preaching they not being moved, but requir- 
ing a miracle, he after devout prayers, taking the book 
of gospel into his hands, threw it before them all into 
the fire ; which remaining there unconsumed, they 
were converted. 

Volodimir had eleven sons, among whom he divided 
his kingdom ; Boristus and Glebus for their holy life 
registered saints ; and their feast kept every year in 
November with great solemnity. The rest, through 
contention to have the sole government, ruined each 
other ; leaving only Jaroslaus inheritor of all. 

Volodimir, son of Jaroslaus, kept his residence in the 
ancient city Kiow upon the river Boristhenes. And 

h Purch. p. 806. 



after many conflicts with the sons of his uncles and 
having subdued all, was called Monomachus. He 
made war with Constantine the Greek emperor, wasted 
Thracia, and returning home with great spoils to pre- 
pare new war, was appeased by Constantine ; who sent 
Neophytus bishop of Ephesus, and Eustathius abbot of 
Jerusalem, to present him with part of our Saviour's 
cross, and other rich gifts, and to salute him by the 
name of Czar, or Ceesar : with whom he thenceforth 
entered into league and amity. 

After him in order of descent Vuszevolod us, George, 
Demetrius. 

Then George his son, who in the year 1237 was slain 
in battle by the Tartar prince Bathy, who subdued 
Muscovia, and made it tributary. From that time the 
Tartarians made such dukes of Russia, as they thought 
would be most pliable to their ends ; of whom they re- 
quired, as oft as embassadors came to him out of Tar- 
tary, to go out and meet them ; and in his own court 
to stand bareheaded, while they sate and delivered their 
message. At which time the Tartars wasted also Po- 
lonia, Selesia, and Hungaria, till pope Innocent the 
Fourth obtained peace of them for five years. This 
Bathy, say the Russians, was the father of Tamerlane, 
whom they call Temirkutla. 

Then succeeded Jaroslaus, the brother of George, 
then Alexander his son. 

Daniel, the son of Alexander, was he who first made 
the city of Mosco his royal seat, builded the castle, and 
took on him the title of great duke. 

John, the son of Daniel, was surnamed Kaleta, that 
word signifying a scrip, out of which, continually car- 
ried about with him, he was wont to deal his alms. 

His son Simeon, dying' without issue, left the king- 
dom to John his next brother ; and he to his son De- 
metrius, who left two sons, Basilius and George. 

Basilius reigning had a son of his own name, but 
doubting lest not of his own body, through the suspicion 
he had of his wife's chastity, him he disinherits, and 
gives the dukedom to his brother George. 

George, putting his nephew Basilius in prison, 
reigns; yet at his death, either through remorse, or 
other cause, surrenders him the dukedom. 

Basilius, unexpectedly thus attaining his supposed 
right, enjoyed it not long in quiet ; for Andrew and 
Demetrius, the two sons of George, counting it injury 
not to succeed their father, made war upon him, and 
surprising him on a sudden, put out his eyes. Not- 
withstanding which, the boiarens, or nobles, kept their 
allegiance to the duke, though blind, whom therefore 
they called Cziemnox. 

John Vasiliwich, his son, was the first who brought 
the Russian name out of obscurity into renown. To 
secure his own estate, he put to death as many of his 
kindred, as were likely to pretend ; and styled himself 
great duke of Wolodimiria, Moscovia, Novogardia, 
Czar of all Russia. He won Plesco, the only walled 
city in all Muscovy, and Novogrod, the richest, from 
the Lithuanians, to whom they had been subject fifty 
years before ; and from the latter carried home three 

a Hac. vol. i. p. 221. 



574 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



hundred waggons laden with treasure. He had war 
with Alexander king of Poland, and with the Livoni- 
ans; with him, on pretence of withdrawing* his daugh- 
ter Helena, whom he had to wife, from the Greek 
church to the Romish ; with the Livonians for no other 
cause, but to enlarge his bounds: though he were often 
foiled by Plettebergius, great master of the Prussian 
knights. His wife was daughter to the duke of Ty- 
versky ; of her he begat John ; and to him resigned 
his dukedom; giving him to wife the daughter of Ste- 
ven, palatine of Moldavia ; by whom he had issue 
Demetrius, and deceased soon after. Vasiliwich, there- 
fore, reassuming the dukedom, married a second wife 
Sophia, daughter to Thomas Paleeologus : who is said 
to have received her dowry out of the pope's treasury, 
upon promise of the duke to become Romish. 

This princess, of a haughty mind, often complaining 
that she was married to the Tartar's vassal, at length by 
continual persuasions, and by a wile, found means to 
ease her husband and his country of that yoke. For 
whereas till then the Tartar had his procurators, who 
dwelt in the very castle of Mosco, to oversee state 
affairs, she feigned that from heaven she had been 
warned, to build a temple to saint Nicholas on the 
same place where the Tartar agents had their house. 
Being therefore delivered of a son, she made it her re- 
quest to the prince of Tartary, whom she had invited 
to the baptizing, that he would give her that house, 
which obtaining, she razed to the ground, and removed 
those overseers out of the castle ; and so by degrees 
dispossessed them of all which they held in Russia. 
She prevailed also with her husband, to transfer the 
dukedom from Demetrius the son of John deceased, to 
Gabriel his eldest by her. 

Gabriel, no sooner duke, but changed his name to 
Basilius, and set his mind to do nobly; he recovered 
great part of Mosco vy from Vitoldus duke of Lithu- 
ania; and on the Boristhenes won Smolensko and 
many other cities in the year 1514. He divorced his 
first wife, and of Helena daughter to duke Glinski be- 
gat Juan Vasiliwich. 

Juan Vasiliwich, being left a child, was committed 
to George his uncle and protector; at twenty-five years 
of age he vanquished the Tartars of Cazan and Astra- 
can, bringing home with him their princes captive ; 
made cruel war in Livonia, pretending right of inherit- 
ance. He seemed exceedingly devout ; and whereas 
the Russians in their churches use out of zeal and re- 
verence to knock their heads against the ground, his 
forehead was seldom free of swellings and bruises, and 
very often seen to bleed. The cause of his rigour in 
government he alleged to be the malice and treachery 
of his subjects. But some of the b nobles, incited by 
his cruelty, called in the Grim Tartar, who in the year 
1571 broke into Russia, burnt Mosco to the ground. 
He reigned fifty- four years, had three sons, of which 
the eldest, being strook on a time by his father, with 
grief thereof died ; his other sons were Pheodor and 
Demetrius. In the time of Juan Vasiliwich the Eng- 
lish came first by sea into the north parts of Russia. 

b Ilorsey's Obiervationj. c Ilac. vol. -JG6. 



Pheodor Juanowich, being under age, was left to 
the protection of Boris, brother to the young empress, 
and third son by adoption in the emperor's will. c After 
forty days of mourning, the appointed time of corona- 
tion being come, the emperor issuing out of his palace, d 
the whole clergy before him, entered with his nobility 
the church of Blaveshina or blessedness; whence after 
service to the church of Michael, then to our lady 
church, being the cathedral. In midst whereof a chair 
was placed, and most unvaluable garments put upon 
him ; there also was the imperial crown set on his head 
by the metropolitan, who out of a small book in his 
hand read exhortations to the emperor of justice and 
peaceable government. After this, rising from his chair 
he was invested with an upper robe, so thick with 
orient pearls and stones, as weighed two hundred 
pounds, the train born up by six dukes ; his staff im- 
perial was of a unicorn's horn three foot and a half 
long - , beset with rich stones; his globe and six crowns 
carried before him by princes of the blood ; his horse 
at the church door stood ready with a covering of em- 
broidered pearl, saddle and all suitable, to the value of 
three hundred thousand marks. There was a kind of 
bridge made three ways, one hundred and fifty fathom 
long, three foot high, two fathom broad, whereon the 
emperor with his train went from one church to another 
above the infinite throng of people making loud accla- 
mations: at the emperor's returning from those churches 
they were spread underfoot with cloth of gold, the 
porches with red velvet, the bridges with scarlet and 
stammel cloth, all which, as the emperor passed by, 
were cut and snatched by them that stood next; be- 
sides new minted coins of gold and silver cast among 
the people. The empress in her palace was placed be- 
fore a great open window in rich and shining robes, 
among her ladies. After this the emperor came into 
parliament, where he had a banquet served by his no- 
bles in princely order; two standing on either side his 
chair with battleaxes of gold ; three of the next rooms 
great and large, being set round with plate of gold 
and silver, from the ground up to the roof. This tri- 
umph lasted a week, wherein many royal pastimes 
were seen ; after which, election was made of the no- 
bles to new offices and dignities. The conclusion of 
all was a peal of one hundred and seventy- brass ord- 
nance two miles without the city, and twenty thou- 
sand harquebuzes twice over; and so the emperor with 
at least fifty thousand horse returned through the city 
to his palace, where all the nobility, officers, and mer- 
chants brought him rich presents. Shortly after the 
emperor, by direction of Boris, conquered the large 
country of Siberia, and took prisoner the king thereof; 
he removed also corrupt officers and former taxes. In 
sum, a great alteration in the government followed, yet 
all quietly and without tumult. These things reported 
abroad strook such awe into the neighbour kings, that 
the Crim Tartar, with his wives also, and many nobles 
valiant and personable men, came to visit the Russian. 
There came also twelve hundred Polish gentlemen, 
many Circassians, and people of other nations, to offer 

d Horsey. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



575 



service ; embassadors from the Turk, the Persian, Geor- 
gian, and other Tartar princes ; from Alman y, Poland, 
Sweden, Denmark. But this glory lasted not long, 
through the treachery of Boris, who procured the death 
first of Demetrius, then of the emperor himself, where- 
by the imperial race, after the succession of three hun- 
dred years, was quite extinguished. 

Boris adopted, as before was said, third son to Juan 
Vasiliwich, without impeachment now ascended the 
throne ; but neither did he enjoy long what he had so 
wickedly compassed, divine revenge rising up against 
him a counterfeit of that Demetrius, whom he had 
caused to be murdered at Ouglets. e This upstart, 
strengthened with many Poles and Cossacks, appears 
in arms to claim his right out of the hands of Boris, 
who sent against him an army of two hundred thou- 
sand men, many of whom revolted to this Demetrius : 
Peter Basman, the general, returning to Mosco with 
the empty triumph of a reported victory. But the 
enemy still advancing, Boris one day, after a plentiful 
meal, finding himself heavy and pained in the stomach, 
laid him down on his bed ; but ere his doctors, who 
made great haste, came to him, was found speechless, 
and soon after died with grief, as is supposed, of his ill 
success against Demetrius. Before his death, though 
it were speedy, he would be shorn, and new christened. 
He had but one son, whom he loved so fondly, as not 
to suffer him out of sight; using to say he was lord 
and father of his son, and yet his servant, yea his slave. 
To gain the people's love, which he had lost by his ill 
getting the empire, he used two policies ; first he caused 
Mosco to be fired in four places, that in the quenching 
thereof he might shew his great care and tenderness of 
the people; among whom he likewise distributed so 
much of his bounty, as both new built their houses, 
and repaired their losses. At another time the people 
murmuring, that the great pestilence, which had then 
swept away a third part of the nation, was the punish- 
ment of their electing him, a murderer, to reign over 
them, he built galleries round about the utmost wall of 
Mosco, and there appointed for one whole month twenty 
thousand pound to be given to the poor, which well nigh 
stopped their mouths. After the death of Boris, Peter 
Basman, their only hope and refuge, though a young 
man, was sent again to the wars, with him many Eng- 
lish, Scots, French, and Dutch ; who all with the other 
general Goleeche fell off to the new Demetrius, whose 
messengers, coming now to the suburbs of Mosco, were 
brought by the multitude to that spacious field before 
the castle gate, within which the council were then sit- 
ting, many of whom were by the people's threatening 
called out, and constrained to hear the letters of Deme- 
trius openly read : which, long ere the end, wrought so 
with the multitude, that furiously they broke into the 
castle, laying violence on all they met ; when straight 
appeared coming towards them two messengers of De- 
metrius formerly sent, pitifully whipped and roasted, 
which added to their rage. Then was the whole city in 
an uproar, all the great counsellors' houses ransacked, 
especially of the Godonovas, the kindred and family of 

e Post Christ. 1604. Purth. part 3. p. 750. 



Boris. Such of the nobles that were best beloved by en- 
treaty prevailed at length to put an end to this tumult. 
The empress, flying to a safer place, had her collar of 
pearl pulled from her neek ; and by the next message 
command was given to secure her, with her son and 
daughter. Whereupon Demetrius by general consent 
was proclaimed emperor. The empress, now seeing 
all lost, counselled the prince her son to follow his 
father's example, who, it seems, had dispatched himself 
by poison ; and with a desperate courage beginning 
the deadly health, was pledged effectually by her son; 
but the daughter, only sipping, escaped. Others as- 
cribe this deed to the secret command of Demetrius, 
and self-murder imputed to them, to avoid the envy of 
such a command. 

Demetrius Evanowich, for so he called himself, who 
succeeded/ was credibly reported the son of Gregory 
Peupoloy a Russe gentleman, and in his younger years 
to have been shorn a friar, but escaping from the mo- 
nastery, to have travelled Germany and other coun- 
tries, but chiefly Poland : where he attained to good 
sufficiency in arms and other experience; which raised 
in him such high thoughts, as, grounding on a common 
belief among the Russians that the young Demetrius 
was not dead, but conveyed away, and their hatred 
against Boris, on this foundation, with some other cir- 
cumstances, to build his hopes no lower than an empire ; 
which on his first discovery found acceptation so gene- 
rally, as planted him at length on the royal seat : but 
not so firmly as the fair beginning promised ; for in a 
short while the Russians finding themselves abused 
by an impostor, on the sixth day after his marriage, 
observing when his guard of Poles were most secure, 
rushing into the palace before break of day, dragged 
him out of his bed, and when he had confessed the 
fraud, pulled him to pieces ; with him Peter Basman 
was also slain, and both their dead bodies laid open in 
the market-place. He was of no presence, but other- 
wise of a princely disposition ; too bountiful, which 
occasioned some exactions; in other matters a great 
lover of justice, not unworthy the empire which he had 
gotten, and lost only through greatness of mind, neg- 
lecting' the conspiracy, which he knew the Russians 
were plotting. Some say their hatred grew, for that 
they saw him alienated from the Russian manners and 
religion, having made Bucbinskoy a learned protestant 
his secretary. Some report from Gilbert's relation, 
who was a Scot, a captain of his guard, that lying on 
his bed awake, not long before the conspiracy, he saw 
the appearance of an aged man coming toward him, at 
which he rose, and called to them that watched ; but 
they denied to have seen any such pass by them. He 
returning to his bed, and within an hour after, troubled 
again with the same apparition, sent for Buchinskoy, 
telling him he had now twice the same night seen an 
aged man, who at his second coming told him, that 
though he were a good prince of himself, yet for the 
injustice and oppression of his inferiour ministers, his 
empire should be taken from him. The secretary coun- 
selled him to embrace true religion, affirming that for 

f Purch.part 3. p.7G4. 



576 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



lack thereof his officers were so corrupt. The emperor 
seemed to be much moved, and to intend what was 
persuaded him. But a few days after, the other secre- 
tary, a Russian, came to him with a drawn sword, of 
which the emperor made slight at first ; but he after bold 
words assaulted him, straight seconded by other con- 
spirators, crying liberty. Gilbert, with many of the guard 
oversuddenly surprised, retreated to Coluga, a town 
which they fortified ; most of the other strangers were 
massacred, except the English, whose mediation saved 
also Buchinskoy. Shusky, who succeeded him, reports in 
a letter to King James otherwise of him ; that his right 
name was Gryshca the son of Boughdan ; that to escape 
punishment for villanies done, he turned friar, and fell 
at last to the black art ; and fearing that the metropo- 
litan intended therefore to imprison him, fled into Let- 
tow ; where by counsel of Sigismund the Poland king, 
he began to call himself Demetry of Onglitts ; and by 
many libels and spies privily sent into Mosco, gave out 
the same; that many letters and messengers thereupon 
were sent from Boris into Poland, and from the patri- 
arch, to acquaint him who the runagate was: but the 
Polanders giving them no credit, furnished him the 
more with arms and money, notwithstanding the 
league ; and sent the palatine Sandamersko and other 
lords to accompany him into Russia, gaining also a 
prince of the Crim Tartars to his aid ; that the army of 
Boris, hearing of his sudden death, yielded to this 
Gryshca, who, taking to wife the daughter of Sanda- 
mersko, attempted to root out the Russian clergy, and 
to bring in the Romish religion, for which purpose 
many Jesuits came along with him. Whereupon 
Shusky with the nobles and metropolitans, conspiring 
against him, in half a year gathered all the forces of 
Moscovia, and surprising him, found in writing under 
his own hand all these his intentions ; letters also from 
the pope and cardinals to the same effect, not only to 
set up the religion of Rome, but to force it upon all, 
with death to them that refused. 

Vasily Evanowich Shusky,s after the slaughter of 
Demetry or Gryshca, was elected emperor, having not 
long before been at the block for reporting to have seen 
the true Demetrius dead and buried ; but Gryshca not 
only recalled him, but advanced him to be the instru- 
ment of his own ruin. He was then about the age of 
fifty; nobly descended, never married, of great wis- 
dom reputed, a favourer of the English : for he saved 
them from rifling in the former tumults. Some say 11 
lie modestly refused the crown, till by lot four times 
together it fell to him ; yet after that, growing jealous 
of his title, removed by poison and other means all the 
nobles, that were like to stand his rivals; and is said 
to have consulted with witches of the Samoeds, Lap- 
pians, and Tartarians, about the same fears ; and being 
•earned of one Michalowich to have put to death three 
of that name, yet a fourth was reserved by fate to suc- 
ceed him, being then a youth attendant in the court, 
one of those that held the golden axes, and least sus- 
\» 'I'd. But before that time he also was supplanted 



i Post Christ, l&yj. 



h Purcli. part 3. p. 769, &c. 



by another reviving Demetrius brought in by the 
Poles ; whose counterfeited hand, and strange relating 
of privatest circumstances, had almost deceived Gilbert 
himself, had not their persons been utterly unlike ; but 
Gryshca's wife so far believed him for her husband, as 
to receive him to her bed. Shusky, besieg'ed in his 
castle of Mosco, was adventurously supplied with some 
powder and ammunition by the English; and with two 
thousand French, English, and Scots, with other forces 
from Charles king of Sweden. The' English, after 
many miseries of cold and hunger, and assaults by the 
way, deserted by the French, yielded most of them to 
the Pole, near Smolensko, and served him against the 
Russ. k Meanwhile this second Demetrius, being now 
rejected by the Poles, with those Russians that sided 
with him laid siege to Mosco ; Zolkiewsky, for Sigis- 
mund king of Poland, beleaguers on the other side with 
forty thousand men ; whereof fifteen hundred English, 
Scotch, and French. Shusky, despairing success, be- 
takes him to a monastery; but with the city is yielded 
to the Pole; who turns now his force against the coun- 
terfeit Demetrius ; he seeking to fly is by a Tartar 
slain in his camp. Smolensko held out a siege of two 
years, then surrendered. Shusky the emperor, carried 
away into Poland, there ended miserably in prison. 
But before his departure out of Moscovy, the Polanders 
in his name sending for the chief nobility, as to a last 
farewel, cause them to be entertained in a secret place 
and there dispatched : by this means the easier to sub- 
due the people. Yet the Poles were starved at length 
out of those places in Mosco, which they had fortified. 
Wherein the Russians, who besieged them, found, as 
is reported, sixty barrels of man's flesh powdered, be- 
ing the bodies of such as died among them, or were 
slain in fight. 

1 After which the empire of Russia broke to pieces, 
the prey of such as could catch, every one naming him- 
self, and striving to be accounted, that Demetrius of 
Ouglitts. Some chose Uladislaus King Sigismund's 
son, but he not accepting, they fell to a popular govern- 
ment; killing all the nobles under pretence of favour- 
ing- the Poles. Some overtures of receiving them were 
made, as some say, to King James, and Sir John Meric 
and Sir William Russell employed therein. Thus 
Russia remaining in this confusion, it happened that a 
mean man, a butcher, dwelling in the north about 
Duina, inveighing against the baseness of their nobi- 
lity," 1 and the corruption of officers, uttered words, that 
if they would but choose a faithful treasurer to pay well 
the soldiers, and a good general, (naming one Pozarsky, 
a poor gentleman, who after good service done, lived 
not far off retired and neglected,) that then he doubt- 
ed not to drive out the Poles. The people assent, and 
choose that general; the butcher they make their trea- 
surer; who both so well discharged their places, that 
with an army soon gathered they raise the siege of 
Mosco, which the Polanders had renewed ; and with 
Boris Licin, another great soldier of that country, fall 
into consultation about the choice of an emperor, and 



k Purch. 770. 

m Purch. part 3. 790. 



1 Post Christ. 1612. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



577 



choose at last Michalowich, or Michael Pheodorowich, 
the fatal youth, whose name Shusky so feared. 

n Michael Pheodorowich thus elected by the valour of 
Pozarsky and Boris Licin, made them both generals of 
his forces, joining* with them another great commander 
of the Cossacks, whose aid had much befriended him ; 
the butcher also was made a counsellor of state. Fi- 
nally, a peace was made up between the Russians and 
the Poles ; and that partly by the mediation of King 
James. 



CHAP. V. 

The first discovery of Russia by the north-east, 1553, 
with the English embassies, and entertainments at 
that court, until the year 1604. 

The discovery of Russia by the northern ocean, a 
made first, of any nation that we know, by English- 
men, might have seemed an enterprise almost heroic ; 
if any higher end than the excessive love of gain and 
traffic had animated the design. Nevertheless, that in 
regard that many things not unprofitable to the know- 
ledge of nature, and other observations, are hereby come 
to light, as good events ofttimes arise from evil occa- 
sions, it will not be the worst labour to relate briefly 
the beginning and prosecution of this adventurous 
voyage ; until it became at last a familiar passage. 

When our merchants perceived the commodities of 
England to be in small request abroad, and foreign 
merchandise to grow higher in esteem and value than 
before, they began to think with themselves, how this 
might be remedied. And seeing how the Spaniards and 
Portugals had increased their wealth by discovery of 
new trades and countries, they resolved upon some new 
and strange navigation. At the same time Sebastian 
Chabota, a man for the knowledge of sea affairs much 
renowned in those days, happened to be in London. 
With him first they consult; and by his advice conclude 
to furnish out three ships for the search and discovery 
of the northern parts. And having heard that a cer- 
tain worm is bred in that ocean, which many times 
eateth through the strongest oak, they contrive to cover 
some part of the keel of those ships with thin sheets of 
lead; and victual them for eighteen months; allowing 
equally to their journey, their stay, and their return. 
Arms also they provide, and store of munition, with 
sufficient captains and governors for so great an enter- 
prise. To which among many, and some void of ex- 
perience, thatoffered themselves, Sir Hugh Willoughby, 
a valiant gentleman, earnestly requested to have the 
charge. Of whom before all others both for his goodly 
personage, and singular skill in the services of war, 
they made choice to be admiral ; and of Richard Chan- 
celor, a man greatly esteemed for his skill, to be chief 
pilot. This man was brought up by Mr. Henry Sid- 
ney, afterwards deputy of Ireland, who coming where 
the adventurers were gathered together, though then a 

n Post Christ. 1613. a Hac. vol. i. 243, 234. 



young man, with a grave and elegant speech com- 
mended Chancelor unto them. 

After this, they omitted no inquiry after any person, 
that might inform them concerning those north-easterly 
parts, to which the voyage tended ; and two Tartarians 
then of the king's stable were sent for ; but they were 
able to answer nothing to purpose. So after much de- 
bate it was concluded, that by the twentieth of May 
the ships should depart. Being come near Greenwich, 
where the court then lay, presently the courtiers came 
running out, the privy council at the windows, the rest 
on the towers and battlements. The mariners all ap- 
parelled in watchet, or skycoloured cloth, discharge 
their ordnance ; the noise whereof, and of the people 
shouting, is answered from the hills and waters with 
as loud an echo. Only the good King Edward then 
sick beheld not this sight, but died soon after. From 
hence putting into Harwich, they staid long and lost 
much time. At length passing by Shetland, they 
kenned a far offiEgelands, being an innumerable sort 
of islands called Rost Islands in sixty-six degrees. 
Thence to Lofoot in sixty-eight, to Seinam in seventy 
degrees; these islands belong all to the crown of Den- 
mark. Whence departing Sir Hugh Willoughby set 
out his flag, by which he called together the chief men 
of his other ships to counsel ; where they conclude, in 
case they happened to be scattered by tempest, that 
Wardhouse, a noted haven in Finmark, be the appoint- 
ed place of their meeting. The very same day after- 
noon so great a tempest arose, that the ships were some 
driven one way, some another, in great peril. The 
general with his loudest voice called to Chancelor not 
to be far from him ; but in vain, for the admiral sailing 
much better than his ship, and bearing all her sails, 
was carried with great swiftness soon out of sight; but 
before that, the ship-boat, striking against her ship, 
was overwhelmed in view of the Bonaventure, whereof 
Chancelor was captain. b The third ship also in the 
same storm was lost. But Sir Hugh Willoughby 
escaping that storm, and wandering on those desolate 
seas till the eighteenth of September, put into a haven 
where they had weather as in the depth of winter; and 
there determining to abide till spring, sent out three 
men south-west to find inhabitants; who journied three 
days, but found none ; then other three went westward 
four days journey, and lastly three south-east three 
days ; but they all returning without news of people, 
or any sign of habitation, Sir Hugh with the company 
of his two ships abode there till January, as appears 
by a will since found in one of the ships ; but then 
perished all with cold. This river or haven was Arzina 
in Lapland, near to Kegor, c where they were found dead 
the year after by certain Russian fishermen. Whereof 
the English agent at Mosco having notice, sent and 
recovered the ships with the dead bodies and most of 
the goods, and sent them for England ; but the ships 
being unstauncb, as is supposed, by their two years 
wintering in Lapland, sunk by the way with their 
dead, and them also that brought them. But now 
Chancelor, with his ship and company thus left, shaped 

b Hac. 235. c Ibid. 404. 



678 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



his course to Wardhouse, the place agreed on to ex- 
pect the rest ; where having' staid seven days without 
tidings of them, he resolves at length to hold on his 
voyage ; and sailed so far till he found no night, but 
continual day and sun clearly shining on that huge 
and vast sea for certain days. At length they enter 
into a great bay, named, as they knew after, from St. 
Nicholas ; and spying a fisherboat, made after him to 
know what people they were. The fishermen amazed 
with the greatness of his ship, to them a strange and 
new sight, sought to fly; but overtaken, in great fear 
they prostrate themselves, and offer to kiss his feet ; 
but he raising them up with all signs and gestures of 
courtesy, sought to win their friendship. They no 
sooner dismissed, but spread abroad the arrival of a 
strange nation, whose humanity they spake of with 
great affection ; whereupon the people running toge- 
ther, with like return of all courteous usage receive 
them ; offering them victuals freely, nor refusing to 
traffic, but for a loyal custom which bound them from 
that, without first the consent had of their king. After 
mutual demands of each other's nation, they found 
themselves to be in Russia, where Juan Vasiliwich at 
that time reigned emperor. To whom privily the go- 
vernor of that place sending notice of the strange 
guests that were arrived, held in the mean while our 
men in what suspense he could. The emperor well 
pleased with so unexpected a message, invites them to 
his court, offering them post horses at his own charge, 
or if the journey seemed over long, that they might 
freely traffic where they were. But ere this messenger 
could return, having lost his way, the Muscovites 
themselves loath that our men should depart, which 
they made shew to do, furnished them with guides and 
other conveniences, to bring them to their king's pre- 
sence. Chanc-elor had now gone more than half his 
journey, when the sledman sent to court meets him on 
the way; delivers him the emperor's letters; which 
when the Russes understood, so willing they were to 
obey the contents thereof, that they quarrelled and 
strove who should have the preferment to put his horses 
to the sled. So after a long and troublesome journey 
of fifteen hundred miles he arrived at Mosco. After 
he had remained in the city about twelve days, a mes- 
senger was sent to bring them to the king's house. 
Being entered within the court gates, and brought into 
an outward chamber, they beheld there a very honour- 
able company to the number of a hundred, sitting all 
apparelled in cloth of gold down to their ancles : next 
conducted to the chamber of presence, there sat the em- 
peror on a lofty and very royal throne; on his head a 
diadem of gold, his robe all of goldsmith's work, in his 
hand a chrystal sceptre garnished and beset with pre- 
cious stones; no less was his countenance full of ma- 
j(-tv. Beside him stood his chief secretary ; on his 
other side the great commander of silence, both in cloth 
of gold; then sat his council of a hundred and fifty 
round about on high seats, clad all as richly. Chan- 
celor, nothing abashed, made his obeisance to the em- 
peror after the English manner. The emperor having 

d II ac. 258, 203, 405. 



taken and read his letters, after some inquiry of King 
Edward's health, invited them to dinner, and till then 
dismissed them. But before dismission the secretary 
presented their present bareheaded ; till which time 
they were all covered ; and before admittance our men 
had charge not to speak, but when the emperor de- 
manded aught. Having sat two hours in the secretary's 
chamber, they were at length called in to dinner; where 
the emperor was set at table, now in a robe of silver, 
and another crown on his head. This place was called 
the golden palace, but without cause, for the English- 
men had seen many fairer ; round about the room, but 
at distance, were other long- tables ; in the midst a cup- 
board of huge and massy goblets, and other vessels of 
gold and silver; among the rest four great flaggons 
nigh two yards high, wrought in the top with devices 
of towers and dragons' heads. The guests ascended to 
their tables by three steps ; all apparelled in linen, and 
that lined with rich furs. The messes came in without 
order, but all in chargers of gold, both to the emperor, 
and to the rest that dined there, which were two hun- 
dred persons ; on every board also were set cups of 
gold without number. The servitors, one hundred 
and forty, were likewise arrayed in gold, and waited 
with caps on their heads. They that are in high favour 
sit on the same bench with the emperor, but far off. 
Before meat came in, according to the custom of their 
kings, he sent to every guest a slice of bread ; whom 
the officer naming, saith thus, John Basiliwich, em- 
peror of Russ, &c.j doth reward thee with bread, at 
which words all men stand up. Then were swans in 
several pieces served in, each piece in a several dish, 
which the great duke sends about as the bread, and so 
likewise the drink. In dinner-time he twice changed 
his crown, his waiters thrice their apparel; to whom 
the emperor in like manner gives both bread and drink 
with his own hands ; which they say is done to the 
intent that he may perfectly know his own household ; 
and indeed when dinner was done, he called his nobles 
every one before him by name ; and by this time can- 
dles were brought in, for it grew dark ; and the Eng- 
lish departed to their lodgings from dinner, an hour 
within night. 

In the year fifteen hundred and fifty-five, d Chancelor 
made another voyage to this place with letters from 
Queen Mary ; had a house in Mosco, and diet ap- 
pointed him ; and was soon admitted to the emperor's 
presence in a large room spread with carpets; at his 
entering and salutation all stood up, the emperor only 
sitting, except when the queen's name was read, or 
spoken ; for then he himself would rise : at dinner he 
sat bareheaded ; his crown and rich cap standing on a 
pinnacle by. e Chancelor returning for England, Osep 
Napea, governor of Wologda, came in his ship embas- 
sador from the Russe; but suffering shipwreck in Pet- 
tislego, a bay in Scotland, Chancelor, who took more 
care to save the embassador than himself, was drowned, 
the ship rifled, and most of her lading made booty by 
the people thereabout. 

In the year fifteen hundred and fifty-seven/ Osep 

e Ibid. 286. f Ibid. 310, &c. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



579 



Napea returned into his country with Anthony Jen- 
kinson, who had the command of four tall ships. He 
reports of a whirlpool between the Rost Islands and 
Lofoot called Malestrand ; which from half ebb to half 
flood is heard to make so terrible a noise, as shakes the 
door-rings of houses in those islands ten miles off; 
whales that come within the current thereof make a 
pitiful cry; trees carried in and cast out again have 
the ends and boughs of them so beaten, as they seem 
like the stalks of bruised hemp. About Zeiuam they 
saw many whales very monstrous, hard by their ships ; 
whereof some by estimation sixty foot long" ; they 
roared hideously, it being then the time of their en- 
gendering. At Wardhouse, he saith, the cattle are fed 
with fish. Coming to Mosco, he found the emperor 
sitting aloft in a chair of state, richly crowned, a staff 
of gold in his hand wrought with costly stone. Dis- 
tant from him sat his brother, and a youth the empe- 
ror's son of Casan, whom the Russe had conquered ; 
there dined with him diverse embassadors, christian 
and heathen, diversely apparelled : his brother with 
some of the chief nobles sat with him at table : the 
guests were in all six hundred. In dinner-time came 
in six musicians ; and standing in the midst, sung 
three several times, but with little or no delight to our 
men; there dined at the same time in other halls two 
thousand Tartars, who came to serve the duke in his 
wars. The English were set at a small table by them- 
selves, direct before the emperor; who sent them diverse 
bowls of wine and meath, and many dishes from his 
own hand : the messes were but mean, but the change 
of wines and several meaths were wonderful. As oft 
as they dined with the emperor, he sent for them in 
the mornin-g, and invited them with his own mouth. 
s On Christmas day being invited, they had for other 
provision as before, but for store of gold and silver 
plate excessive ; among which were twelve barrels of 
silver, hooped with fine gold, containing twelve gal- 
lons apiece. 

In the year fifteen hundred and sixty was the first 
English traffic to the Narve in Livonia, till then con- 
cealed by Danskers and Lubeckers. 

Fifteen hundred and sixty-one. The same Anthony 
Jenkinson made another voyage to Mosco ; and arrived 
while the emperor was celebrating his marriage with 
a Circassian lady; during which time the city gates 
for three days were kept shut; and all men what- 
soever straitly commanded to keep within their houses ; 
except some of his household ; the cause whereof is not 
known. 

Fifteen hundred and sixty-six. He made again the 
same voyage ; h which now men usually made in a 
month from London to St. Nicholas with good winds, 
being seven hundred and fifty leagues. 

Fifteen hundred and sixty-eight. Thomas Randolf, 
Esq. went embassador to Muscovy, 1 from Queen Eliza- 
beth ; and in his passage by sea met nothing remark- 
able save great store of whales, whom they might see 
engendering together, and the spermaceti swimming 
on the water. At Colmogro he was met by a gentle- 

g Hac. 317- h Ibid. 311, 

2P 



man from the emperor, at whose charge he was con- 
ducted to Mosco : but met there by no man ; not so 
much as the English ; lodged in a fair house built for 
embassadors; but there confined upon some suspicion 
which the emperor had conceived ; sent for at length 
after seventeen weeks' delay, was fain to ride thither 
on a borrowed horse, his men on foot. In a chamber 
before the presence were sitting about three hundred 
persons, all in rich robes taken out of the emperor's 
wardrobe for that day ; they sat on three ranks of 
benches, rather for shew than that the persons were of 
honour; being merchants, and other mean inhabitants. 
The embassador saluted them, but by them unsaluted 
passed on with his head covered. At the presence door 
being received by two which had been his guardians, 
and brought into the midst, he was there willed to 
stand still, and speak his message from the queen ; at 
whose name the emperor stood up, and demanded her 
health : then giving the embassador his hand to kiss, 
fell to many questions. The present being delivered, 
which was a great silver bowl curiously graven, the 
emperor told him, he dined not that day openly because 
of great affairs; but, saith he, I will send thee my 
dinner, and augment thy allowance. And so dismiss- 
ing him, sent a duke richly apparelled soon after to his 
lodging, with fifty persons, each of them carrying meat 
in silver dishes covered ; which himself delivered into 
the embassador's own hands, tasting first of every dish, 
and every sort of drink ; that done set him down with 
his company, took part, and went not thence unrewarded. 
The emperor sent back with this embassador another of 
his own called Andrew Savin. 

Fifteen hundred and seventy-one. Jenkinson made 
a third voyage; but was staid long at Colmogro by 
reason of the plague in those parts ; at length had 
audience where the court then was, near to Pereslave ; 
to which place the emperor was returned from his 
Swedish war with ill success : and Mosco the same 
year had been wholly burnt by the Crim : in it the 
English house, and diverse English were smothered in 
the cellars, multitudes of people in the city perished, 
all that were young led captive with exceeding spoil. 

Fifteen hundred and eighty-three. k Juan Basiliwich 
having the year before sent his ambassador Pheodor 
Andrewich about matters of commerce, the queen made 
choice of Sir Jerom Bowes, one of her household, to go 
into Russia; who being attended with more than forty 
persons, and accompanied with the Russe returning 
home, arrived at St. Nicholas. The Dutch by this 
time had intruded into the Muscovy trade, which by 
privilege long before had been granted solely to the 
English ; and had corrupted to their side Shalkan the 
chancellor, with others of the great ones ; who so 
wrought, that a creature of their own was sent to meet 
Sir Jerom at Colmogro, and to offer him occasions of 
dislike : until at Vologda he was received by another 
from the emperor ; and at Heraslave by a duke well 
accompanied, who presented him with a coach and ten 
geldings. Two miles from Mosco met him four gen- 
tlemen with two hundred horse, who, after short salut- 



j Ibid, 373. 



k Ibid. vol. i. 458, 



580 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



atiou, told him what they had to say from the emperor, 
willing him to alight, which the embassador soon re- 
fused, unless they also lighted; whereon they stood 
long debating; at length agreed, great dispute fol- 
lowed, whose foot should first touch the ground. Their 
message delivered, and then embracing, they conducted 
the embassador to a house at Mosco, built for him pur- 
posely. At his going to court, he and his followers 
honourably mounted and apparelled, the emperor's 
guard were set on either side all the way about six 
thousand shot. At the court gate met him four noble- 
men in cloth of gold, and rich fur caps, embroidered 
with pearl and stone ; then four others of greater de- 
gree, in which passage there stood along- the walls, 
and sat on benches, seven or eight hundred men in 
coloured satins and gold. At the presence door met 
him the chief herald, and with him all the great officers 
of court, who brought him where the emperor sat : there 
were set by him three crowns of Muscovy, Cazan, and 
Astracan ; on each side stood two young noblemen, 
costly apparelled in white, each of them had a broad 
axe on his shoulder; on the benches round sat above 
an hundred noblemen. Having given the embassador 
his hand to kiss, and inquired of the queen's health, he 
willed him to go sit in the place provided for him, nigh 
ten paces distant; from thence to send him the queen's 
letters and present. Which the embassador thinking 
not reasonable stepped forward ; but the chancellor 
meeting him, would have taken his letters; to whom 
the embassador said, that the queen had directed no 
letters to him ; and so went on and delivered them to 
the emperor's own hands ; and after a short withdraw- 
ing into the council-chamber, where he had conference 
with some of the council, he was called in to dinner : 
about the midst whereof, the emperor standing up, drank 
a deep carouse to the queen's health, and sent to the 
embassador a great bowl of Rhenish wine to pledge 
him. But at several times being called for to treat 
about affairs, and not yielding aught beyond his com- 
mission, the emperor not wont to be gainsaid, one day 
especially broke into passion, and with a stern counte- 
nance told him, he did not reckon the queen to be his 
fellow ; for there are, quoth he, her betters. The em- 
bassador not holding it his part, whatever danger 
might ensue, to hear any derogate from the majesty of 
his prince, with like courage and countenance told him 
that the queen was equal to any in Christendom, who 
thought himself greatest; and wanted not means to 
offend her enemies whomsoever. Yea, quoth he, what 
! thou of the French and Spanish kings ? I hold 
her, quoth the embassador, equal to either. Then what 
to the German emperor ? Her father, quoth lie, had the 
ror in his pay. This answer mislikcd the duke 
>o far, ;is that he told him, were he not an embassador, 
he would throw him out of doors. You may, said the 
embassador, do your will, for I am now fast in your 
country; but the queen, I doubt not, will know how 
to In rev< aged of any injury offered to her embassador. 
Win reat tin: ( mperor in great sudden bid him get 
home ; and he u ith no more reverence than such usage 
required, saluted the emperor, and went his way. 



Notwithstanding this, the Muscovite, soon as his mood 
left him, spake to them that stood by many praises of 
the embassador, wishing he had such a servant, and 
presently after sent his chief secretary to tell him, that 
whatever had passed in words, yet for his great respect 
to the queen, he would shortly after dispatch him with 
honour and full contentment, and in the mean while he 
much enlarged his entertainment. He also desired, 
that the points of our religion might be set down, and 
caused them to be read to his nobility with much ap- 
probation. And as the year before he had sought in 
marriage the lady Mary Hastings, which took not effect, 
the lady and her friends excusing it, he now again re- 
newed the motion to take to wife some one of the queen's 
kinswomen, either by sending an embassage, or going 
himself with his treasure into England. Now happy 
was that nobleman, whom Sir Jerom Bowes in public 
favoured ; unhappy they who had opposed him : for 
the emperor had beaten Shalkan the chancellor very 
grievously for that cause, and threatened not to leave 
one of his race alive. But the emperor dying soon 
after of a surfeit, Shalkan, to whom then almost the 
whole government was committed, caused the embas- 
sador to remain close prisoner in his house nine weeks. 
Being sent for at length to have his dispatch, and 
slightly enough conducted to the council-chamber, he 
was told by Shalkan, that this emperor would conde- 
scend to no other agreements than were between his 
father and the queen before his coming : and so dis^ 
arming both him and his company, brought them to 
the emperor with many affronts in their passage, for 
which there was no help but patience. The emperor, 
saying but over what the chancellor had said before, 
offered him a letter for the queen : which the embassa- 
dor, knowing it contained nothing to the purpose of 
his embassy, refused, till he saw his danger grow too 
great ; nor was he suffered to reply, or have bis inter- 
preter. Shalkan sent him word, that now the English 
emperor was dead ; and hastened his departure, but 
with so many disgraces put upon him, as made him 
fear some mischief in his journey to the sea : having 
only one mean gentleman sent with him to be his con- 
voy ; he commanded the English merchants in the 
queen's name to accompany him, but such was his 
danger, that they durst not. So arming himself and 
his followers in the best wise he could, against any 
outrage, he at length recovered the shore of St. Nicho- 
las. Where he now resolved to send them back by his 
conduct some of the affronts which he had received. 
Ready therefore to take ship, he causes three or four 
of his valiantest and discreetest men to take the empe- 
ror's letter, and disgraceful present, and to deliver it, 
or leave it at the lodging of his convoy, which they 
safely did ; though followed with a great tumult of 
such as would have forced them to take it back. 

Fifteen hundred and eighty-four. At the coronation 
of Pheodor the emperor, Jerom Horsey being then 
agent in Russia, and called for to court with one John 
de Wale, a merchant of the Netherlands and a subject 
of Spain, some of the nobles would have preferred the 
Fleming before the English. But to that our agent would 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



581 



in no case agree, saying- he would rather have his leg's 
cut off by the knees, than bring- his present in course 
after a subject of Spain. The emperor and prince Boris 
perceiving the controversy, gave order to admit Horsey 
first : who was dismissed with large promises, and 
seventy messes with three carts of several meath sent 
after him. 

Fifteen hundred and eighty-eight. Dr. Giles 
Fletcher went embassador from the queen to Pheodor 
then emperor; whose relations being judicious and 
exact are best read entirely by themselves. i This em- 
peror, upon report of the great learning of John Dee 
the mathematician, invited him to Mosco, with offer of 
two thousand pounds a year, and from prince Boris one 
thousand marks ; to have his provision from the emperor's 
table, to be honourably received, and accounted as one 
of the chief men in the land. All which Dee accepted 
not. 

One thousand six hundred and four. Sir Thomas 
Smith was sent embassador from King James to Boris 
then emperor; and staid some days at a place five miles 
from Mosco, till he was honourably received into the 
city; met on horseback by many thousands of gentle- 
men and nobles on both sides the way; where the em- 
bassador alighting from his coach, and mounted on 
his horse, rode with his trumpets sounding before him; 
till a gentleman of the emperor's stable brought him a 
gennet gorgeously trapped with gold, pearl, and stone, 
especially with a great chain of plated gold about his 
neck, and horses richly adorned for his followers. Then 
came three great noblemen with an interpreter offering 
a speech ; but the embassador deeming it to be cere- 
mony, with a brief compliment found means to put it 
by. Thus alighting all, they saluted, and gave hands 
mutually. Those three, after a tedious preamble of the 
emperor's title thrice repeated, brought a several com- 
pliment of three words a piece, as namely, the first, To 
know how the king did ; the next, How the embassa- 
dor; the third, That there was a fair house provided 
him. Then on they went on either hand of the embas- 
sador, and about six thousand gallants behind them ; 
still met within the city by more of greater quality to 
the very gate of his lodging : where fifty gunners were 
his daily guard both at home and abroad. The pres- 
taves, or gentlemen assigned to have the care of his 
entertainment, were earnest to have had the embassa- 
dor's speech and message given them in writing, that 
the interpreter, as they pretended, might the better 
translate it ; but he admonished them of their foolish 
demand. On the day of his audience, other gennets 
were sent him and his attendants to ride on, and two 
white palfreys to draw a rich chariot, which was par- 
cel of the present ; the rest whereof was carried by his 
followers through a lane of the emperor's guard ; many 
messengers posting up and down the while, till they 
came through the great castle, to the uttermost court 
gate. There met by a great duke, they were brought 
up stairs through a stone gallery, where stood on each 
hand many in fair coats of Persian stuff, velvet, and da- 



mask. The embassador by two other counsellors being 
led into the presence, after bis obeisance done, was to 
stay and hear again the long title repeated ; then the 
particular presents ; and so delivered as much of his 
embassage as was then requisite. After which the em- 
peror, arising from his throne, demanded of the king's 
health; so did the young prince. The embassador then 
delivered his letters into the emperor's own hand, 
though the chancellor offered to have taken them. He 
bore the majesty of a mighty emperor; his crown and 
sceptre of pure gold, a collar of pearls about his neck, 
his garment of crimson velvet embroidered with pre- 
cious stone and gold. On his right side stood a fair 
globe of beaten gold on a pyramis with a cross upon 
it ; to which, before he spake, turning a little he cross- 
ed himself. Not much less in splendour on another 
throne sate the prince. By the emperor stood two no- 
blemen in cloth of silver, high caps of black fur, and 
chains of gold hanging to their feet; on their shoul- 
ders two poleaxes of gold ; and two of silver by the 
prince ; the ground was all covered with arras or tapes- 
try. Dismissed, and brought in again to dinner, they 
saw the emperor and his son seated in state, ready to 
dine ; each with a skull of pearl on their bare heads, 
their vestments changed. In the midst of this hall 
seemed to stand a pillar heaped round to a great height 
with massy plate curiously wrought with beasts, fishes, 
and fowl. The emperor's table was served with two 
hundred noblemen in coats of gold; the prince's table 
with young dukes of Casan, Astracan, Siberia, Tarta- 
ria, and Circassia. The emperor sent from his table to 
the embassador thirty dishes of meat, to each a loaf of 
extraordinary fine bread. Then followed a number 
more of strange and rare dishes piled up by half do- 
zens, with boiled, roast, and baked, most part of them 
besauced with garlic and onions. In midst of dinner 
calling the embassador up to him he drank the king's 
health, who receiving it from his hand, returned to his 
place, and in the same cup, being of fair chrystal, 
pledged it with all his company. After dinner they 
were called up to drink of excellent and strong meath 
from the emperor's hand ; of which when many did but 
sip, he urged it not ; saying he was best pleased with 
what was most for their health. Yet after that, the 
same day he sent a great and glorious duke, one of 
them that held the golden poleaxe, with his retinue, 
and sundry sorts of meath, to drink merrily with the 
embassador, which some of the English did, until the 
duke and his followers, lightheaded, but well rewarded 
with thirty yards of cloth of gold, and two standing- 
cups, departed. At second audience the embassador 
bad like reception as before : and being dismissed, had 
dinner sent after him with three hundred several dishes 
offish, it being Lent, of such strangeness, greatness, 
and goodness, as scarce would be credible to report. 
The embassador departing was brought a mile out of 
the city with like honour as he was first met; where 
lighting from the emperor's sled, he took him to his 
coach, made fast upon a sled ; the rest to their sleds, 
an easy and pleasant passage. 



582 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOSCOVIA. 



Names of the Authors from whence these Relations 
have been taken ; being all either Eyewitnesses, or 
immediate Relaters from such as were. 

The journal of Sir Hugh Willoughby. 

Discourse of Richard Chancelor. 

Another of Clement Adams, taken from the mouth of 

Chancelor. 
Notes of Richard Johnson, servant to Chancelor. 
The Protonotaries Register. 
Two Letters of Mr. Hen. Lane. 
Several voyages of Jenkinson. 



Southam and Sparks. 

The journal of Randolf the embassador. 

Another of Sir Jerom Bowes. 

The coronation of Pheodor, written by Jerom Horsey. 

Gourdon of Hull's voyage to Pechora. 

The voyage of William Pursg'love to Pechora. 

Of Josias Logan. 

Hessel Gerardus, out of Purchas, part 3. 1. 3. 

Russian relations in Purch. 797. ibid. 806. ibid. 

The embassage of Sir Thomas Smith. 

Papers of Mr. Hackluit. 

Jansonius. 



A DECLARATION 

OR 

LETTERS PATENTS, 
FOR THE ELECTION OF THIS PRESENT KING OF POLAND, 

JOHN THE THIRD, 

ELECTED ON THE 22nd OF MAY LAST PAST, A. D. 1674 

CONTAINING THE REASONS OF THIS ELECTION, THE GREAT VIRTUES AND MERITS OF THE SAID SERENE ELECT, HIS EMINENT SER- 
VICES IN WAR, ESPECIALLY IN HIS LAST GREAT VICTORY AGAINST THE TURKS AND TARTARS, WHEREOF MANY PARTICULARS 
ARE HERE RELATED, NOT PUBLISHED BEFORE. 

NOW FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN COPY. 



In the name of the most Holy and Individual Trinity, 
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

We Andrew Trezehicki, bishop of Cracovia, duke of 
Severia, John Gembicki of Uladislau and Pomerania, 
&c. ; bishops to the number of ten. 

Stanislaus Warszycki, Castellan of Cracovia ; Alex- 
ander Michael Lubomirski of Cracovia, &c, ; palatines 
to the number of twenty-three. 

Christopherus Grzymaltouski of Posnania, Alex- 
ander Gratus de Tarnow of Sandimer ; castellans to the 
number of twenty-four. 

Hiraleus Polubinski, high marshal of the great 
dukedom of Lithuania, Christopherus Pac, high chan- 
cellor of the great dukedom of Lithuania, senators and 
great officers, to the number of seventy -five. 

WE declare by these our present letters unto all and 
single persons whom it may concern : our common- 
wealth, being again left widowed by the unseasonable 
death of that famous Michael late king of Poland, who, 
having scarce reigned full five years, on the tenth day 
of November, of the year last past, at Leopolis, chang- 
ed his fading crown for one immortal ; in the sense of 
so mournful a funeral and fresh calamity, yet with un- 
daunted courage, mindful of herself in the midst of 
dangers, forebore not to seek remedies, that the world 
may understand she grows in the midst of her losses ; 
it pleased her to begin her counsels of preserving her 
country, and delivering it from the utmost chances of 
an interreign, from the divine Deity, (as it were by the 
only motion of whose finger, it is easy that kingdoms 
be transferred from nation to nation, and kings from 



the lowest states to thrones ;) and therefore the business 
was begun according to our country laws, and ances- 
tors' institutions. After the convocation of all the states 
of the kingdom ended, in the month of February, at 
Warsaw, by the common consent of all those states, on 
the day decreed for the election the twentieth of April: 
at the report of this famous act, as though a trumpet 
had been sounded, and a trophy of virtue erected, the 
wishes and desires of foreign princes came forth of their 
own accord into the field of the Polonian liberty, in a 
famous strife of merits and goodwill towards the com- 
monwealth, every one bringing their ornaments, ad- 
vantages, and gifts to the commonwealth : but the com- 
monwealth becoming more diligent by the prodigal 
ambition used in the last interreign, and factions, and 
disagreeings of minds, nor careless of the future, con- 
sidered with herself whether firm or doubtful things 
were promised, and whether she should seem from the 
present state to transfer both the old and new honours 
of Poland into the possession of strangers, or the mili- 
tary glory, and their late unheard of victory over the 
Turks, and blood spilt in the war, upon the purple of 
some unwarlike prince ; as if any one could so soon 
put on the love of the country, and that Poland was 
not so much an enemy to her own nation and fame, as 
to favour strangers more than her own; and valour 
being found in her, should suifer a guest of new power 
to wax proud in her : therefore she thenceforth turned 
her thoughts upon some one in her own nation, and at 
length abolished (as she began in the former election) 
that reproach cast upon her, under pretence of a secret 
maxim, " That none can be elected king of Poland,. 



584 



DECLARATION FOR THE ELECTION 



but such as arc born out of Poland ;" neither did she 
seek long among 1 her citizens whom she should pre- 
fer above the rest; (for this was no uncertain or sus- 
pended election, there was no place for delay ;) for al- 
though in the equality of our nobles many might be 
elected, yet the virtue of a hero appeared above his 
equals : therefore the eyes and minds of all men were 
willingly, and by a certain divine instinct, turned upon 
the hig-h marshal of the kingdom, captain of the army, 
John Sobietski. The admirable virtue of the man, the 
hig-h power of marshal in the court, with his supreme 
command in arms, senatorial honour, with his civil mo- 
desty, the extraordinary splendour of his birth and for- 
tune, with open courtesy, piety towards God, love to 
his fellow-citizens in words and deeds ; constancy, 
faithfulness, and clemency towards his very enemies, 
and what noble things soever can be said of a hero, 
did lay such golden chains on the minds and tongues 
of all, that the senate and people of Poland and of the 
great dukedom of Lithuania, with suffrages and agree- 
ing voices named and chose him their king ; not with 
his seeking or precipitate counsel, but with mature de- 
liberations continued and extended till the third day. 

Certainly it conduced much for the honour of the 
most serene elect, the confirmation of a free election, 
and the eternal praise of the people electing, that the 
great business of an age was not transacted in one day, 
or in the shadow of the night, or by one casual heat : 
for it was not right that a hero of the age should in a 
moment of time (and as it were by the cast of a die) 
be made a king, whenas antiquity by an ancient pro- 
verb has delivered, " that Hercules was not begot in 
one night;" and it hath taught, that election should 
shine openly under a clear sky, in the open light. 

The most serene elect took it modestly, that his 
nomination should be deferred till the third day, plainly 
shewing to endeavour, lest his sudden facility of assent 
being suspected, might detract from their judgment, 
and the world might be enforced to believe by a more 
certain argument, that he that was so chosen was 
elected without his own ambition, or the envy of cor- 
rupted liberty ; or was it by the appointed counsel of 
God, that this debate continued three whole days, from 
Saturday till Monday, as if the Cotimian victory (be- 
gun on the Saturday, and at length on the third day 
after accomplished, after the taking of the Cotimian 
castle) had been a lucky presage of his royal reward ; 
or, as if with an auspicious omen, the third day of 
election had alluded to the regal name of JOHN the 
Third. 

The famous glory of war paved his way to the crown, 
and confirmed the favour of suffrages to his most 
sen ne elect. He the first of all the Polonians shewed 
that the Scythian swiftness (troublesome heretofore to 
all the monarchies in the world) might be repressed by 
a standing fight, and the terrible main battalion of the 
Turk might be broken and routed at one stroke. That 
we may pass by in silence the ancient rudiments of 
warfare, which lie stoutly and gloriously managed 
under the conduct and authority of another, against 
the Swedes, Moscovites, Borussians, Transylvanians, 



and Cossacks : though about sixty cities taken by him 
from the Cossacks be less noised in the mouth of fame ; 
yet these often and prosperous battles were a prelude 
to greatest victories in the memory of man. Myriads 
of Tartars had overrun within this six years with their 
plundering troops the coast of Podolia, when a small 
force and some shattered legions were not sufficient 
against the hostile assault, yet our general knowing 
not how to yield, shut himself up (by a new stratagem 
of war) in Podhajecy, a strait castle, and fortified in 
haste, whereby he might exclude the cruel destruction, 
which was hastening into the bowels of the kingdom ; 
by which means the Barbarian, deluded and routed, 
took conditions of peace; as if he had made his inroad 
for this only purpose, that he might bring to the most 
serene elect matter of glory, victory. 

For these four last years the famous victories of So- 
bietski have signalized every year of his warlike com- 
mand on the Cossacks and Tartarians both joined 
together; the most strong province of Braclavia, as far 
as it lies between Hypanis and Tyral, with their cities 
and warlike people, were won from the Cossack 
enemy. 

And those things are beyond belief, which two years 
ago the most serene elect, after the taking of Camenick 
(being undaunted by the siege of Laopolis) performed 
to a miracle by the hardness and fortitude of the Polo- 
nian army, scarce consisting of three thousand men, in 
the continual course of five days and nights, sustaining 
life without any food, except wild herbs; setting upon 
the Tartarians, he made famous the names of Narulum, 
Niemicrovia, Konarnum, Kalussia, obscure towns be- 
fore, by a great overthrow of the Barbarians. He slew 
three sultans of the Crim Tartars, descended of the 
royal Gietian family, and so trampled on that great 
force of the Scythians, that in these later years they 
could not regain their courage, nor recollect their 
forces. But the felicity. of this last autumn exceeded 
all his victories; whenas the fortifications at Choci- 
mum, famous of old, were possessed and fortified by 
above forty thousand Turks, in which three and forty 
years ago the Polonians had sustained and repressed 
the forces of the Ottoman family, drawn together out 
of Asia, Africa, and Europe, fell to the ground within 
a few hours, by the only (under God) imperatorious 
valour and prudence of Sobietski; for he counted it his 
chief part to go about the watches, order the stations, 
and personally to inspect the preparations of warlike 
ordnance, to encourage the soldiers with voice, hands, 
and countenance, wearied with hunger, badness of 
weather, and three days standing in arms ; and he 
(which is most to be admired) on foot at the head of 
the foot forces, made through, and forced his way to 
the battery, hazarding his life devoted to God and his 
country; and thereupon made a cruel slaughter within 
the camp and fortifications of the enemy; while the 
desperation of the Turks whetted their valour, and he 
performed the part of a most provident and valiant 
captain : at which time three bashaws were slain, the 
fourth scarce passed with difficulty the swift river of 
Tyras; eight thousand janizaries, twenty thousand 



OF JOHN III, KING OF POLAND. 



585 



chosen spachies, besides the more common soldiers, 
were cut off; the whole camp with all their ammunition 
and great ordnance, besides the Assyrian and Phrygian 
wealth of luxurious Asia, were taken and pillaged ; 
the famous castle of Cotimia, and the bridge over Ty- 
ras, strong fortresses, equal to castles on each side the 
river, were additions to the victory. Why therefore 
should not such renowned heroic valour be crowned 
with the legal reward of a diadem ? All Christendom 
have gone before us in example, which, being arrived 
to the recovery of Jerusalem under the conduct of 
Godfrey of Bulloin, on their own accord gave him that 
kingdom, for that he first scaled the walls of that city. 
Our most serene elect is not inferiour, for he first 
ascended two main fortresses of the enemy. 

The moment of time adorns this victory unheard of 
in many ages, the most serene king Michael dying- the 
day before, as it were signifying thereby that he gave 
way to so great valour, as if it were by his command 
and favour, that this conqueror might so much the more 
gloriously succeed from the helmet to the crown, from 
the commander's staff to the sceptre, from his lying in 
the field to the regal throne. 

The commonwealth recalled the grateful and never 
to be forgotten memory of his renowned father, the 
most illustrious and excellent James Sobietski, cas- 
tellan of Cracovia, a man to be written of with sedulous 
care ; who by his golden eloquence in the public 
councils, and by his hand in the scene of war, had so 
often amplified the state of the commonwealth, and 
defended it with the arms of his family. Neither can 
we believe it happened without Divine Providence, that 
in the same place wherein forty years ago his renowned 
father, embassador of the Polonian commonwealth, had 
made peace and covenants with Cimanus the Turkish 
general, his great son should revenge with his sword 
the peace broke, Heaven itself upbraiding the perfidious 
enemy. The rest of his grandsires and great grand- 
sires, and innumerable names of famous senators and 
great officers, have as it were brought forth light to 
the serene elect by the emulous greatness and glory of 
his mother's descent, especially Stanislaus Zelkievius, 
high chancellor of the kingdom, and general of the 
army, at whose grave in the neighbouring fields, in 
which by the Turkish rage in the year sixteen hundred 
and twenty he died, his victorious nephew took full re- 
venge by so remarkable an overthrow of the enemy : 
the immortal valour and fatal fall of his most noble 
uncle Stanislaus Danilovitius in the year sixteen hun- 
dred and thirty-five, palatine of Russia, doubled the 
glory of his ancestors ; whom desirous of honour, and 
not enduring the sluggish peace wherein Poland then 
slept secure, valour and youthful heat accited at his 
own expense and private forces into the Tauric fields ; 
that by his footing, and the ancient warlike Polonian 
discipline, he might lead and point the way to these 
merits of Sobietski, and being slain by Cantimiz the 
Tartarian Cham, in revenge of his son by him slain, 
he might by his noble blood give lustre to this regal 
purple. Neither hath the people of Poland forgot the 
most illustrious Marcus Sobietski, elder brother of our 



most serene elect, who, when the Polonian army at 
Batto was routed by the Barbarians, although occasion 
was offered him of escape, yet chose rather to die in 
the overthrow of such valiant men, a sacrifice for his 
country, than to buy his life with a dishonourable re- 
treat ; perhaps the divine judgment so disposing, whose 
order is, that persons pass away and fail, and causes 
and events happen again the same ; that by the repeated 
fate of the Huniades, the elder brother, of great hopes, 
removed by a lamented slaughter, might leave to his 
younger brother surviving the readier passage to the 
throne. That therefore which we pray may be happy, 
auspicious, and fortunate to our orthodox commonwealth, 
and to all Christendom, with free and unanimous votes, 
none opposing, all consenting and applauding, by the 
right of our free election, notwithstanding the absence 
of those which have been called and not appeared ; 
We being* led by no private respect, but having only 
before our eyes the glory of God, the increase of the 
ancient catholic church, the safety of the common- 
wealth, and the dignity of the Polish nation and name, 
have thought fit to elect, create, and name, JOHN in 
Zolkiew and Zloczew Sobietski, supreme marshal 
general of the kingdom, general of the armies, gover- 
nor of Neva, Bara, Strya, Loporovient, and Kalussien, 
most eminently adorned with so high endowments, 
merits, and splendour, to be King of Poland, grand 
duke of Lithuania, Russia, Prussia, Mazovia, Samo- 
gitia, Kyovia, Volhinia, Padlachia, Podolia, Livonia, 
Smolensko, Severia, and Czerniechovia, as we have 
elected, created, declared, and named him : I the afore- 
said bishop of Cracovia (the archiepiscopal see being 
vacant) exercising the office and authority of primate, 
and by consent of all the states, thrice demanded, op- 
posed by none, by all and every one approved, con- 
clude the election ; promising faithfully, that we will 
always perform to the same most serene and potent 
elect prince, lord John the Third, our king, the same 
faith, subjection, obedience, and loyalty, according to 
our rights and liberties, as we have performed to his 
blessed ancestor, as also that we will crown the same 
most serene elect in the next assembly at Cracovia, to 
that end ordained, as our true king* and lord, with the 
regal diadem, with which the kings of Poland were 
wont to be crowned ; and after the manner which the 
Roman Catholic church beforetime hath observed in 
anointing and inaugurating kings, we will anoint and 
inaugurate him: yet so as he shall hold fast and observe 
first of all the rights, immunities both ecclesiastical 
and secular, granted and given unto us by his ancestor 
of blessed memory ; as also these laws, which we our- 
selves in the time of this present and former interreign, 
according to the right of our liberty, and better pre- 
servation of the commonwealth, have established. 
And if, moreover, the most serene elect will bind him- 
self by an oath, to perform the conditions concluded 
with those persons sent by his majesty before the ex- 
hibition of this present decree of election, and will 
provide in best manner for the performance of them 
by his authentic letters ; which decree of election we, 
by divine aid desirous to put in execution, do send by 



.86 



DECLARATION FOR THE ELECTION, &c. 



common consent, to deliver it into the hand of the 
most serene elect, the most illustrious and reverend 
lord bishop of Cracovia, together with some senators 
and chief officers, and the illustrious and magnificent 
Benedictus Sapieha, treasurer of the court of the great 
dukedom of Lithuania, marshal of the equestrian order ; 
committing" to them the same decree of intimating an 
oath, upon the aforesaid premises, and receiving his 
subscription ; and at length to give and deliver the 
same decree into the hands of the said elect, and to act 
and perform all other things which this affair requires ; 
in assurance whereof the seals of the lords senators, 
and those of the equestrian order deputed to sign, are 
here affixed. 

Given by the hands of the most illustrious and re- 
verend father in Christ, the lord Andrew Olszonski, 
bishop of Culma and Pomisania, high chancellor of 
the kingdom, in the general ordinary assembly of the 
kingdom, and great dukedom of Lithuania, for the 
election of the new king. Warsaw, the twenty-second 
day of May, in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred 
and seventv-four. 



In the presence of Franciscus Praskmouski, provost 
of Guesna, abbot of Sieciethovia, chief secretary 
of the kingdom ; Joannes Malachowski, abbot of 
Mogila, referendary of the kingdom, &c; with 
other great officers of the kingdom and clergy, to 
the number of fourscore and two. And the rest, 
many great officers, captains, secretaries, cour- 
tiers, and inhabitants of the kingdom, and great 
dukedom of Lithuania, gathered together at War- 
saw to the present assembly of the election of the 
kingdom and great dukedom of Lithuania. 

Assistants at the solemn oath taken of his sacred 
majesty on the fifth day of the month of June, in 
the palace at Warsaw, after the letters patents de- 
livered upon the covenants, and agreements, or 
capitulations, the most reverend and excellent 
lord Francisco Ronvisi, archbishop of Thessaloni- 
ca, apostolic nuncio; count Christopherus a Scaff- 
gotsch, Csecareus Tussanus de Forbin, de Jason, 
bishop of Marseilles in France, Joannes free-baron 
Hoverbec, from the marquis of Brandenburg, 
embassadors, and other envoys and ministers of 
state. 



LETTERS OF STATE 



TO MOST OF 



THE SOVEREIGN PRINCES AND REPUBLICS OF EUROPE, 

DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORS OLIVER AND 

RICHARD CROMWELL. 



LETTERS WRITTEN IN THE NAME OF THE PARLIAMENT. 



The Senate and People of England, to the most noble 
Senate of the City o/Hamborough. 

For how long" a series of past years, and for what 
important reasons, the friendship entered into by our 
ancestors with your most noble city has continued to 
this day, we both willingly acknowledge, together 
with yourselves ; nor is it a thing displeasing to us, 
frequently also to call to our remembrance. But as to 
what we understand by your letters dated the twenty- 
fifth of June, that some of our people deal not with 
that fidelity and probity, as they were wont to do in 
their trading and commerce among ye ; we presently 
referred it to the consideration of certain persons well- 
skilled in those matters, to the end they might make a 
more strict inquiry into the frauds of the clothiers, and 
other artificers of the woollen manufacture. And' we 
farther promise, to take such effectual care, as to make 
you sensible of our unalterable intentions, to preserve 
sincerity and justice among ourselves, as also never to 
neglect any good offices of our kindness, that may re- 
dound to the welfare of your commonwealth. On the 
other hand, there is something likewise which we not 
only required, but which equity itself, and all the laws 
of God and man, demand of yourselves ; that you will 
not only conserve inviolable to the merchants of our 
nation their privileges, but by your authority and 
power defend and protect their lives and estates, as it 
becomes your city to do. Which as we most earnestly 
desired in our former letters ; so upon the repeated 
complaints of our merchants, that are daily made be- 
fore us, we now more earnestly solicit and request it : 
they complaining, that their safety, and all that they 
have in the world, is again in great jeopardy among 
ye. For although they acknowledge themselves to 
have reaped some benefit for a short time of our former 



letters sent you, and to have had some respite from the 
injuries of a sort of profligate people; yet since the 
coming of the same Coc~m to your city, (of whom we 
complained before,) who pretends to be honoured with a 
sort of embassy from , the son of the lately deceas- 
ed king, they have been assaulted with all manner of ill 
language, threats, and naked swords of ruffians and 
homicides, and have wanted your accustomed protec- 
tion and defence; insomuch, that when two or three 
of the merchants, together with the president of the so- 
ciety, were hurried away by surprise aboard a certain 
privateer, and that the rest implored your aid, yet they 
could not obtain any assistance from you, till the mer" 
chants themselves were forced to embody their own 
strength, and rescue from the hands of pirates the per- 
sons seized on in that river, of which your city is the 
mistress, not without extreme hazard of their lives. 
Nay, when they had fortunately brought them home 
again, and as it were by force of arms recovered 
them from an ignominious captivity, and carried the 
pirates themselves into custody ; we are informed, that 
Coc~m was so audacious, as to demand the release of 
the pirates, and that the merchants might be delivered 
prisoners into his hands. We therefore again, and 
again, beseech and adjure you, if it be your intention, 
that contracts and leagues, and the very ancient com- 
merce between both nations should be preserved, (the 
thing which you desire,) that our people may be able 
to assure themselves of some certain and firm support 
and reliance upon your word, your prudence, and au- 
thority; that you would lend them a favourable au- 
dience concerning these matters, and that you would 
inflict deserved punishment as well upon Coc--m, and 
the rest of his accomplices in that wicked act, as upon 
those who lately assaulted the preacher, hitherto un- 
punished, or command them to depart your territories ; 



588 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



nor that you would believe, that expelled and exiled 
Tarquins are to be preferred before the friendship, and 
the wealth, and power of our republic. For if you do 
not carefully provide to the contrary, but that the ene- 
mies of our republic shall presume to think lawful 
the committing- of any violences against us in your 
city, how unsafe, how ignominious the residence of 
our people there will be, do you consider with your- 
selves ! These thing's we recommend to your prudence 
and equity, yourselves to the protection of Heaven. 
Westminster, Aug. 10, 1649. 

To the Senate o/Hamborough. 

Your conspicuous favour in the doubtful condition 
of our affairs is now the reason, that after victory and 
prosperous success, we can no longer question your 
good-will and friendly inclination towards us. As for 
our parts, the war being almost now determined, and 
our enemies every where vanquished, we have deemed 
nothing more just, or more conducing to the firm 
establishment of the republic, than that they who by 
our means (the Almighty being* always our captain 
and conductor) have either recovered their liberty, or 
obtained their lives and fortunes, after the pernicious 
ravages of a civil war, of our free gift and grace, 
should testify and pay in exchange to their magistrates 
allegiance and duty in a solemn manner, if need re- 
quired : more especially when so many turbulent and 
exasperated persons, more than once received into pro- 
tection, will make no end, either at home or abroad, of 
acting perfidiously, and raising new disturbances. To 
that purpose we took care, to enjoin a certain form of 
an oath, by which all who held any office in the com- 
monwealth, or, being fortified with the protection of 
the law, enjoyed both safety, ease, and all other con- 
veniencics of life, should bind themselves to obedience 
in words prescribed. This we also thought proper to 
be sent to all colonies abroad, or wherever else our 
people resided for the convenience of trade ; to the end 
that the fidelity of those, over whom we are set, might 
be proved and known to us, as it is but reasonable and 
necessary. Which makes us wonder so much the more 
at what our merchants write from your city, that they 
are not permitted to execute our commands by some or 
other of your order and degree. Certainly what the 
most potent United Provinces of the Low Countries, 
most jealous of their power and their interests, never 
thought any way belonging to their inspection, namely, 
whether the English foreigners swore fidelity and 
allegiance to their magistrates at home, cither in these 
or those words, how that should come to be so sus- 
pected and troublesome to your city, we must plainly 
acknowledge, that we do not understand. But this 
proceeding from the private inclinations or fears of 
some, whom certain vagabond Scots, expelled their 
country, are said to have enforced by menaces, on pur- 
pose to deter our merchants from swearing fidelity to 
US, we impute not to your city. Most earnestly there- 
fore we in treat and conjure ye (for it is not now the 
interest of trade, but the honour of the republic itself 



that lies at stake) not to suffer any one among ye, who 
can have no reason to concern himself in this affair, to 
interpose his authority, whatever it be, with that su- 
premacy which we challenge over our own subjects, not 
by the judgment and opinion of foreigners, but by the 
laws of our country; for who would not take it amiss, 
if we should forbid your Hamburghers, residing here, 
to swear fidelity to you, that are their magistrates at 
home ? Farewel. 
Jan. 4, 1649. 

To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Philip the 
Fourth, King of Spain : the Parliament of the Com- 
monwealth of England, Greeting. 

We send to your majesty Anthony Ascham, a person 
of integrity, learned, and descended of an ancient fa- 
mily, to treat of matters very advantageous, as we 
hope, as well to the Spanish, as to the English nation. 
Wherefore in friendly manner we desire, that you 
would be pleased to grant, and order him a safe and 
honourable passage to your royal city, and the same 
in his return from thence, readily prepared to repay 
the kindness when occasion offers. Or if your majesty 
be otherwise inclined, that it may be signified to him 
with the soonest, what your pleasure is in this par- 
ticular, and that he maybe at liberty to depart without 
molestation. 

Feb. 4, 1649. 

To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Philip the 
Fourth, King of Spain : the Parliament of the Com- 
monwealth of England, Greeting. 

What is the condition of our affairs, and by what 
heinous injuries provoked and broken, at length we 
began to think of recovering our liberty by force of 
arms ; what constituted form of government we now 
make use of, can neither be concealed from your ma- 
jesty, nor any other person, who has but cast an impar- 
tial eye upon our writings published on these occasions. 
Neither ought we to think it a difficult thing, among 
fit and proper judges of things, to render our fidelity, 
our equity, and patience, manifest to all men, and 
justly meriting their approbation; as also to defend 
our authority, honour, and grandeur, against the infa- 
mous tongues of exiles and fugitives. Now then, as to 
what is more the concern of foreign nations, after hav- 
ing subdued and vanquished the enemies of our coun- 
try, through the miraculous assistance of Heaven, we 
openly and cordially profess ourselves readily prepared 
to have peace and friendship, more desirable than all 
enlargement of empire, with our neighbour nations. 
For these reasons we have sent into Spain, to your 
majesty, Anthony Ascham, of approved dexterity and 
probity, to treat with your majesty concerning friend- 
ship, and the accustomed commerce between both na- 
tions ; or else, if it be your pleasure, to open a way for 
the ratifying of new articles and alliances. Our request 
therefore is, that you will grant him free liberty of 
access to your majesty, and give such order, that care 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



589 



may be taken of his safety and honour, while he resides 
a public minister with your majesty ; to the end he 
may freely propose what he has in charge from us, for 
the benefit, as we hope, of both nations ; and certify to 
us with the soonest, what are your majesty's sentiments 
concerning these matters. 
Westminster, Feb. 4, 1649. 

To the most Serene Prince, John the Fourth, King of 
Portugal : the Parliament of the Commonwealth of 
England, Greeting. 

After we had suffered many, and those the utmost, 
mischiefs of a faithless peace, and intestine war, our 
being reduced to those exigencies, that if we had any 
regard to the safety of the republic, there was a neces- 
sity of altering for the chiefest part the form of govern- 
ment; is a thing which we make no question is well 
known to your majesty, by what we have both publicly 
written and declared in justification of our proceedings. 
To which, as it is but reason, if credit might be rather 
given than to the most malicious calumnies of loose 
and wicked men ; perhaps we should find those persons 
more amicably inclined, who now abroad have the 
worst sentiments of our actions. For as to what we 
justify ourselves to have justly and strenuously per- 
formed after the example of our ancestors, in pursuance 
of our rights, and for recovery of the native liberty of 
Englishmen, certainly it is not the work of human force 
or wit to eradicate the perverse and obstinate opinions 
of people wickedly inclined concerning what we have 
done. But after all, in reference to what is common 
to us with all foreign nations, and more for the general 
interest on both sides, we are willing to let the world 
know, that there is nothing which we more ardently 
desire, than that the friendship and commerce, which 
our people have been accustomed to maintain with all 
our neighbours, should be enlarged and settled in the 
most ample and solemn manner. And whereas our 
people have always driven a very great trade, and 
gainful to both nations, in your kingdom ; we shall 
take care, as much as in us lies, that they may not 
meet with any impediment to interrupt their dealings. 
However, we foresee that all our industry will be in 
vain, if, as it is reported, the pirates and revolters of 
our nation shall be suffered to have refuge in your 
ports, and after they have taken and plundered the 
laden vessels of the English, shall be permitted to sell 
their goods by public outcries at Lisbon. To the end 
therefore that a more speedy remedy may be applied to 
this growing mischief, and that we may be more clearly 
satisfied concerning the peace which we desire, we 
have sent to your majesty the most noble Charles Vane, 
under the character of our agent, with instructions and 
a commission, a plenary testimonial of the trust we 
have reposed, and the employment we have conferred 
upon him. Him therefore we most earnestly desire 
your majesty graciously to hear, to give him credit, 
and to take such order, that he may be safe in his per- 
son and his honour, within the bounds of your domi- 
nions. These things, as they will be most acceptable 



to us, so we promise, whenever occasion offers, that the 
same offices of kindness to your majesty shall be 
mutually observed on all our parts. 
Westminster, Feb. 4, 1649. 

To the most Serene Prince, John the Fourth, King of 
Portugal : the Parliament of the Commonwealth of 
England, Greeting. 

Almost daily and most grievous complaints are 
brought before us, that certain of our seamen and offi- 
cers, who revolted from us the last year, and treacher- 
ously and wickedly carried away the ships with the 
command of which they were entrusted, and who, 
having made their escape from the port of Ireland, 
where, being blocked up for almost a whole summer 
together, they very narrowly avoided the punishment 
due to their crimes, have now betaken themselves to 
the coast of Portugal, and the mouth of the river Ta- 
gus : that there they practise furious piracy, taking and 
plundering all the English vessels they meet with sail- 
ing to and fro upon the account of trade ; and that all 
the adjoining seas are become almost impassable, by 
reason of their notorious and infamous robberies. To 
which increasing mischief unless a speedy remedy be 
applied, who does not see, but that there will be a 
final end of that vast trade so gainful to both nations, 
which our people were wont to drive with the Portu- 
guese ? Wherefore we again and again request your 
majesty, that you would command those pirates and 
revolters to depart the- territories of Portugal : and 
that, if any pretended embassadors present themselves 
from ******* y that you will not vouchsafe to give them 
audience; but that you will rather acknowledge us, 
upon whom the supreme power of England, by the 
conspicuous favour and assistance of the Almighty, is 
devolved ; and that the ports and rivers of Portugal 
may not be barred and defended against your friends 
and confederates fleet, no less serviceable to your emo- 
lument than the trade of the English. 

To the most Serene Prince Leopold, Archduke of 
Austria, Governor of the Spanish Low Countries, 
under King Philip. 

So soon as word was brought us, not without a most 
grievous complaint, that Jane Puckering, an heiress of 
an illustrious and opulent family, while yet by reason 
of her age she was under guardians, not far from the 
house wherein she then lived at Greenwich, was vio- 
lently forced from the hands and embraces of her at- 
tendants ; and of a sudden in a vessel to that purpose 
ready prepared, carried off into Flanders by the trea- 
chery of one Walsh, who has endeavoured all the 
ways imaginable, in contempt of law both human and 
divine, to constrain a wealthy virgin to marriage, even 
by terrifying her with menaces of present death : We 
deeming it proper to apply some speedy remedy to so 
enormous and unheard of piece of villany, gave orders 
to some persons to treat with the governors of Newport 
and Ostend (for the unfortunate captive was said to be 



590 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



landed in one of those two places) about rescuing the 
freeborn lady out of" the hands of the ravisher. Who, 
both out of their singular humanity and love of virtue, 
lent their assisting aid to the young virgin in servi- 
tude, and by downright robbery rifled from her habita- 
tion : so that to avoid the violence of her imperious 
masters, she was as it were deposited in a nunnery, 
and committed to the charge of the governess of the 
society. Wherefore the same Walsh, to get her again 
into his clutches, has commenced a suit against her in 
the ecclesiastical court of the bishop of Ypre, pretend- 
ing a matrimonial contract between him and her. Now 
in regard that both the ravisher and the ravished per- 
son are natives of our country, as by the witnesses upon 
their oaths abundantly appears ; as also for that the 
splendid inheritance, after which most certainly the 
criminal chiefly gapes, lies within our territories; so 
that we conceive, that the whole cognizance and de- 
termination of this cause belongs solely to ourselves ; 
therefore let him repair hither, he who calls himself 
the husband, here let him commence his suit, and de- 
mand the delivery of the person, whom he claims for 
his wife. In the mean time, this it is that we most 
earnestly request from your hig'bness, which is no 
more than what we have already requested by our 
agent residing" at Brussels, that you will permit an af- 
flicted and many ways misused virgin, born of honest 
parents, but pirated out of her native country, to re- 
turn, as far as lies in your power, with freedom and 
safety home again. This not only we, upon all oppor- 
tunities offered, as readily prepared to return the same 
favour and kindness to your highness, but also huma- 
nity itself, and that same hatred of infamy, which 
ought to accompany all persons of virtue and courage 
in defending the honour of the female sex, seem alto- 
gether jointly to require at your bunds. 
Westminster, March 28, 1650. 

To the most Serene Prince, John the Fourth, King of 
Portugal. 

Understanding that your majesty had both ho- 
nourably received our agent, and immediately given 
him a favourable audience, wc thought it became us 
to assure your majesty without delay, by speedy let- 
ters from us, that nothing could happen more accept- 
able to us, and that there is nothing which we have de- 
creed more sacred, than not to violate by any word or 
deed of ours, not first provoked, the peace, the friend- 
ship, and commerce, now for some time settled between 
us and the greatest number of other foreign nations, 
and among the rest with the Portuguese. Nor did we 
send the English fleet to the mouth of the river Tagus 
with any other intention or design than in pursuit of 
enemies bo often put to flight, and for recovery of our 
i, which being carried away from their owners by 
force and treachery, the same rabble of fugitives con- 
dncted to your coasts, and even to Lisbon itself, as to 
th<- mosl certain fairs for the sale of their plunder. But 
we are apt to believe, that by this time almost all the 
Portuguese are abundantly convinced, from the flagi- 



tious manners of those people, of their audaciousness, 
their fury, and their madness. Which is the reason we 
are in hopes, that we shall more easily obtain from 
your majesty, first, that you will, as far as in you lies, 
be assistant to the most illustrious Edward Popham, 
whom we have made admiral of our new fleet, for the 
subduing those detested freebooters ; and that you will 
no longer suffer them, together with their captain, not 
guests, but pirates, not merchants, but the pests of 
commerce, and violaters of the law of nations, to har- 
bour in the ports and under the shelter of the fortresses 
of your kingdom ; but that wherever the confines of 
Portugal extend themselves, you will command them 
to be expelled as well by land as by sea. Or if you 
are unwilling to 'proceed to that extremity, at least 
that with your leave it may be lawful for us, with our 
proper forces to assail our own revolters and sea rob- 
bers; and if it be the pleasure of Heaven, to reduce 
them into our power. This, as we have earnestly de- 
sired in our former letters, so now again with the great- 
est ardency and importunity we request of your ma- 
jesty. By this, whether equity, or act of kindness, 
you will not only enlarge the fame of your justice 
over all well-governed and civil nations, but also in a 
greater measure bind both us and the people of Eng- 
land, who never yet had other than a good opinion of the 
Portuguese, to yourself and to your subjects. Farewel. 
Westminster, April 27, 1650. 

To the Hamburghers. 

More than once we have written concerning the 
controversies of the merchants, and some other things 
which more nearly concern the dignity of our repub- 
lic, yet no answer has been returned. But under- 
standing that affairs of that nature can hardly be de- 
termined by letters only, and that in the mean time 
certain seditious persons have been sent to your city by 
*******, authorized with no other commission than 
that of malice and audaciousness, who make it their 
business utterly to extirpate the ancient trade of our 
people in your city, especially of those whose fidelity 
to their country is most conspicuous ; therefore we 
have commanded the worthy and most eminent 
Richard Bradshaw, to reside as our agent among ye; 
to the end he may be able more at large to treat and 
negotiate with your lordships such matters and affairs, 
as are interwoven with the benefit and advantages of 
both republics. Him therefore we request ye with the 
soonest to admit to a favourable audience; and that in 
all things that credit may be given to him, that honour 
paid him, as is usual in all countries, and among all 
nations paid to those that bear his character. 

Westminster, April 2, 1650. 

To the Hamburghers. 



Most Noble, Magnificent, and Illustrious, 
our dearest Friends ; 
That your sedulities in the reception of our agent 
were so cordial and so egregious, we both gladly un- 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



591 






derstand, and earnestly exhort ye that you would per- 
severe in your goodwill and affection towards us. And 
this we do with so much the greater vehemence, as 
being informed, that the same exiles of ours, concern- 
ing whom we have so frequently written, now carry 
themselves more insolently in your city than they were 
wont to do, and that they not only openly affront, but 
give out threatening language in a most despightful 
manner against our resident. Therefore once more by 
these our letters we would have the safety of his per- 
son, and the honour due to his quality, recommended 
to your care. On the other side, if you inflict severe and 
timely punishment upon those fugitives and ruffians, as 
well the old ones as the new-comers, it will be most accept- 
able to us, and becoming your authority and prudence. 
Westminster, May 31, 1650. 

To Philip the Fourth, King of Spain. 

To our infinite sorrow we are given to understand, 
that Anthony Ascham, by us lately sent our agent to 
your majesty, and under that character most civilly and 
publicly received by your governors, upon his first 
coming to your royal city, naked of all defence and 
guard, was most bloodily murdered in a certain inn, 
together with John Baptista de Ripa his interpreter, 
butchered at the same time. Wherefore we most 
earnestly request your majesty, that deserved punish- 
ment may be speedily inflicted upon those parricides, 
already apprehended, as it is reported, and committed 
to custody; who have not only presumed to wound 
ourselves through his sides, but have also dared to stab, 
as it were, to the very heart, your faith of word and 
royal honour. So that we make no question, but what 
we so ardently desire would nevertheless be done effec- 
tually, by a prince of his own accord so just and pious, 
though nobody required it. As to what remains, we 
make it our further suit, that the breathless carcass 
may be delivered to his friends and attendants to be 
brought back and interred in his own country, and that 
such care may be taken for the security of those that 
remain alive, as is but requisite ; till having obtained 
an answer to these letters, if it may be done, they shall 
return to us the witnesses of your piety and justice. 

Westminster, June 28th, 1650. 

To Philip the Fourth, King of Spain. 

How heinously, and with what detestation, your ma- 
jesty resented the villanous murder of our agent, An- 
thony Ascham, and what has hitherto been done in the 
prosecution and punishment of his assassinates, we 
have been given to understand, as well by your ma- 
jesty's own letters, as from your ambassador don Al- 
phonso de Cardenos. Nevertheless so often as we con- 
sider the horridness of that bloody fact, which utterly 
subverts the very foundations of correspondence and 
commerce, and of the privilege of embassadors, most 
sacred among all nations, so villanously violated with- 
out severity of punishment ; we cannot but with utmost 
importunity repeat our most urgent suit to your ma- 



jesty, that those parricides may with all the speed ima- 
ginable be brought to justice, and that you would not 
suffer their merited pains to be suspended any longer 
by any delay or pretence of religion. For though most 
certainly we highly value the friendship of a potent 
prince ; yet it behoves us to use our utmost endeavours, 
that the authors of such an enormous parricide should 
receive the deserved reward of their impiety. Indeed, 
we cannot but with a grateful mind acknowledge that 
civility, of which by your command our people were 
not unsensible, as also your surpassing affection for us, 
which lately your ambassador at large unfolded to us : 
nor will it be displeasing to us, to return the same good 
offices to your majesty, and the Spanish nation, when- 
ever opportunity offers. Nevertheless, if justice be not 
satisfied without delay, which we still most earnestly 
request, we see not upon what foundations a sincere 
and lasting friendship can subsist. For the preserva- 
tion of which, however, we shall omit no just and laud- 
able occasion ; to which purpose we are likewise apt 
to believe, that the presence of your embassador does 
not a little conduce. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 

Most Excellent Lord, 

The council of state, so soon as their weighty affairs 
would permit them, having carried into parliament the 
four writings, which it pleased your excellency to im- 
part to the council upon the nineteenth of December 
last, have received in command from the parliament, to 
return this answer to the first head of those writings, 
touching the villanous assassinates of their late agent, 
Anthony Ascham. 

The parliament have so long time, so often, and so 
justly demanded their being brought to deserved punish- 
ment, that there needs nothing further to be said on a 
thing of so great importance, wherein (as your excel- 
lency well observed) his royal majesty's authority itself 
is so deeply concerned, that, unless justice be done upon 
such notorious offenders, all the foundations of human 
society, all the ways of preserving friendship among* 
nations, of necessity must be overturned and abolished. 
Nor can we apprehend by any argument drawn from 
religion, that the blood of the innocent, shed by a pro- 
pensely malicious murder, is not to be avenged. The 
parliament therefore once more most urgently presses, 
and expects from his royal majesty, according' to their 
first demands, that satisfaction be given them effectually 
and sincerely in this matter. 

To the most Excellent Lord Anthony John Lewis 
de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Celi, Governor of 
Andalusia : the Council of State constituted hy Au- 
thority of Parliament, Greeting. 

We have received advice from those most accom- 
plished persons, whom we lately sent with our fleet 
into Portugal, in pursuit of traitors, and for the reco- 
very of our vessels, that they were most civilly received 
by your excellency, as often as they happened to touch 



592 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



upon the coasts of Gallsecia, which is under your go- 
vernment, and assisted with all things necessary to 
those that perform long voyages. This civility of yours, 
as it was always most acceptable to us, so it is now 
more especially at this time, while we are sensible of 
the illwill of others in some places towards us without 
any just cause given on our side: therefore w r e make 
it our request to your illustrious lordship, that you will 
persevere in the same good-will and affection to us, 
and that you would continue your favour and assist- 
ance to our people, according to your wonted civility, 
as often as our ships put in to your harbours : and be 
assured, that there is nothing' which we desire of your 
lordship in the way of kindness, which we shall not 
be ready to repay both to you and yours, whenever the 
like occasion shall be offered us. 

Sealed with the seal of the council, 

J. Bradshaw, President. 
Westminster, Nov. 7th, 1650. 

To the Illustrious and Magnificent Senate of the City 
of Dantzick. 

Magnificent and most Noble Lords, 
our dearest Friends ; 

Many letters are brought us from our merchants 
trading upon the coast of Borussia, wherein they com- 
plain of a grievous tribute imposed upon them in the 
grand council of the Polanders, enforcing them to pay 
the tenth part of all their goods for the relief of the 
king of Scots, our enemy. Which in regard it is 
plainly contrary to the law of nations, that guests and 
strangers should be dealt withal in such a manner ; and 
most unjust, that they should be compelled to pay 
public stipends in a foreign commonwealth to him from 
whom they are, by God's assistance, delivered at home ; 
we make no question, but that out of respect to that 
liberty, which as we understand you yourselves enjoy, 
you will not suffer so heavy a burden to be laid on 
merchants in your city, wherein they have maintained 
a continual amity and commerce, to the extraordinary 
advantage of the place for many years together. If 
therefore you think it convenient, to undertake the 
protection of our merchants trading among ye, which 
we assuredly expect, as well from your prudence and 
equity, as from the dignity and grandeur of your city; 
we shall take that care, that you shall be sensible from 
time to time of our grateful acceptance of your kind- 
ness, as often as the Dantzickers shall have any deal- 
ings within our territories, or their ships, as frequently 
it happens, put into our ports. 

Westminster, Febr. 6, 1650. 

To the Portugal Agent. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
We received your letters dated from Hampton the 
fifteenth of this month, wherein you signify, that you 
are sent by the king of Portugal to the parliament of 
the commonwealth of England ; but say not under 
what character, whether of embassador, or agent, or 



envoy, which we would willingly understand by your 
credential letters from the king, a copy of which you 
may send us with all the speed you can. We would 
also further know, whether you come with a plenary 
commission, to give us satisfaction for the injuries, and 
to make reparation for the damages, which your king 
has done this republic, protecting our enemy all the 
last summer in his harbours, and prohibiting the 
English fleet, then ready to assail rebels and fugitives, 
which our admiral had pursued so far ; but never re- 
straining* the enemy from falling upon ours. If you 
return us word, that you have ample and full commis- 
sion to give us satisfaction concerning all these matters, 
and send us withal a copy of your recommendatory 
letters, we shall then take care, that you may with all 
speed repair to us upon the Public Faith : at which 
time, when we have read the king's letters, you shall 
have liberty freely to declare what further commands 
you have brought along with you. 

The Parliament, of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the most Serene Prince D. Ferdinand, Grand Duke 

of Tuscany, Sfc. 

We have received your highness's letters, dated 
April twenty-two, sixteen hundred and fifty-one, and 
delivered to us by your resident, Signor Almeric Sal- 
vetti, wherein we readily perceive how greatly your 
highness favours the English name, and the value you 
have for this nation ; which not only our merchants, 
that for many years have traded in your ports, but also 
certain of our young nobility, either travelling through 
your cities, or residing there for the improvement of 
their studies, both testify and confirm. Which as they 
are things most grateful and acceptable to us, we also 
on our parts make this request to your highness, that 
your serenity will persevere in your accustomed good- 
will and affection towards our merchants, and other 
citizens of our republic, travelling through the Tuscan 
territories. On the other side, we promise and under- 
take, as to what concerns the parliament, that nothing 
shall be wanting, which may any way conduce to the 
confirmation and establishment of that commerce and 
mutual friendship, that now has been of long con- 
tinuance between both nations, and which it is our 
earnest wish and desire should be preserved to perpe- 
tuity, by all offices of humanity, civility, and mutual 
observance. 

Sealed with the seal of the parlia- 
ment, and subscribed by Wil- 
Westminster, liam Lenthall, speaker of 

Jan. 20, 1651. the parliament of the common- 

wealth of England. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the Illustrious and Magnificent Senate of the City 
o/'Hamborough. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Illustrious, 
our dearest Friends ; 
The parliament of the commonwealth of England, 
out of their earnest desire to continue and preserve the 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



593 



ancient friendship and mutual commerce between the 
English nation and jour city, not long since sent 
thither Richard Bradshaw, esq., with the character of 
our resident ; and among other instructions tending to 
the same purpose, gave him an express charge to de- 
mand justice against certain persons within your juris- 
diction, who endeavoured to murder the preacher be- 
longing to the English society, and who likewise laid 
impious hands upon the deputy president, and some of 
the principal merchants of the same company, and 
hurried them away aboard a privateer. And although 
the aforesaid resident, upon his first reception and 
audience, made known to your lordships in a particular 
manner the commands which he received from us ; 
upon which it was expected, that you would have made 
those criminals ere this a severe example of your justice ; 
yet when we understood our expectations were not 
answered, considering with ourselves what danger both 
our people and their estates were in, if sufficient pro- 
vision were not made for their security and protection 
against the malice of their enemies, we again sent 
orders to our aforesaid resident, to represent to your 
lordships our judgment upon the whole matter; as also 
to exhort and persuade ye, in the name of this repub- 
lic, to be careful of preserving the friendship and alli- 
ance contracted between this commonwealth and your 
city, as also the traffic and commerce no less advan- 
tageous for the interest of both : and to that end, that 
you would not fail to protect our merchants, together 
with their privileges, from all violation, and more par- 
ticularly against the insolences of one Garmes, who 
has carried himself contumeliously toward this repub- 
lic, and publicly cited to the Chamber of Spire certain 
merchants of the English company residing in your 
city, to the great contempt of this commonwealth, and 
trouble of our merchants ; for which we expect such 
reparation, as shall be consentaneous to equity and 
justice. 

To treat of these heads, and whatever else more 
largely belongs to the common friendship of both re- 
publics, we have ordered our resident aforesaid to 
attend your lordships, requesting that ample credit 
may be given to him in such matters, as he shall pro- 
pose relating to these affairs. 

Westminster, Sealed with the parliament seal, 

March 12, 1651. and subscribed, Speaker, &c. 

The Parliament of the Commoniuealth of England, fo 
the most Serene Christiana, Queen of the Swedes, 
Goths, and Vandals, &c, Greeting. 

Most Serene Queen; 
We have received and read your majesty's letters to 
the parliament of England, dated from Stockholm, the 
twenty-sixth of September last, and delivered by Peter 
Spering Silvercroon ; and there is nothing which we 
more vehemently and cordially desire, than that the 
ancient peace, traffic, and commerce of long continu- 
ance between the English and Swedes may prove diu- 
turnal, and every day increase. Nor did we question, 
but that your majesty's embassador was come amply 



instructed to make those proposals chiefly, which should 
be most for the interest and honour of both nations, and 
which we were no less readily prepared to have heard, 
and to have done effectually that which should have 
been thoug'ht most secure and beneficial on both sides. 
But it pleased the Supreme Moderator and Governor 
of all thing's, that before he had desired to be heard as 
to those matters, which he had in charge from your 
majesty to propound to the parliament, he departed 
this life, (whose loss we took with that heaviness and 
sorrow, as it became persons whom it no less behoved 
to acquiesce in the will of the Almighty,) whence it 
comes to pass, that we are prevented hitherto from 
knowing your majesty's pleasure, and that there is a 
stop at present put to this negotiation. Wherefore we 
thought we could do no less than by these our letters, 
which we have given to our messenger on purpose sent 
with these unhappy tidings, to signify to your majesty, 
how acceptable your letters, how grateful your public 
minister were to the parliament of the commonwealth 
of England ; as also how earnestly we expect your 
friendship, and how highly we shall value the amity 
of so great a princess ; assuring your majesty, that we 
have those thoughts of increasing the commerce be- 
tween this republic and your majesty's kingdom, as 
we ought to have of a thing of the highest importance, 
which for that reason will be most acceptable to the 
parliament of the commonwealth of England. And so 
we recommend your majesty to the protection of the 
Divine Providence. 

Westminster, Sealed with the parliament seal, 

March — , 1651. and subscribed, Speaker, &c. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the most Serene and Potent Prince, Philip the 
Fourth, King of Spain, Greeting. 

The merchants of this commonwealth, who trade in 
your majesty's territories, make loud complaints of ex- 
traordinary violence and injuries offered them, and of 
new tributes imposed upon them by the governors and 
other officers of your ports and places where they traf- 
fic, and particularly in the Canary islands, and this 
against the articles of the league solemnly ratified by 
both nations on the account of trade ; the truth of 
which complaints they have confirmed by oath. And 
they make it out before us, that unless they can enjoy 
their privileges, and that their losses be repaired ; lastly 
that except they may have some certain safeguard and 
protection for themselves and their estates against those 
violences and injuries, they can no longer traffic in 
those places. Which complaints of theirs being duly 
weighed by us, and believing the unjust proceedings 
of those ministers either not at all to have reached your 
knowledge, or else to have been untruly represented to 
your majesty, we deemed it convenient to send the 
complaints themselves, together with these our letters, 
to your majesty. Nor do we question, but that your 
majesty, as well out of your love of justice, as for the 
sake of that commerce no less gainful to your subjects 
than our people, will command your governors to de- 



594 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



sist from those unjust oppressions of our merchants, 
and so order it, that they may ohtain speedy justice, 
and due satisfaction for those injuries done them by 
don Pedro de Carillo de Guzman, and others; and that 
your majesty will take care, that the merchants afore- 
said may reap the fruit of those articles; and be so far 
under your protection, that both their persons and their 
estates may be secure and free from all manner of in- 
jury and vexation. And this they believe they shall 
for the greatest part obtain if your majesty will be 
pleased to restore them that expedient, taken from 
them, of a judge-conservator, who may be able to de- 
fend them from a new consulship more uneasy to them; 
lest if no shelter from injustice be allowed them, there 
should follow a necessity of breaking off that com- 
merce, which has hitherto brought great advantages 
to both nations, while the articles of the league are 
violated in such a manner. 
Westm. Aug. — , 1651. 

To the most Serene Prince, the Duke of Venice, and 
the most Illustrious Senate. 

Most Serene Prince, most Illustrious Senate, 
our dearest Friends ; 
Certain of our merchants, by name John Dickins, 
and Job Throckmorton, with others, have made their 
complaints to us, that upon the twenty-eighth of No- 
vember, sixteen hundred and fifty-one, having seized 
upon a hundred butts of caviare in the vessel called the 
Swallow, riding in the Downs, Isaac Taylor master, 
which were their own proper goods, and laden aboard 
the same ship in the Muscovite Bay of Archangel, 
and this by the authority of our court of admiralty ; 
in which court, the suit being there depending, they 
obtained a decree for the delivery of the said butts of 
caviare into their possession, they having first given 
security to abide by the sentence of that court : and 
that the said court, to the end the said suit might be 
brought to a conclusion, having written letters, accord- 
ing to custom, to the magistrates and judges of Venice; 
wherein they requested liberty to cite John Piatti to 
appear by his proctor in the English court of admiralty, 
where the suit depended, and prove his right : never- 
theless, that the said Piatti and one David Rutts a 
Hollander, while this cause depends here in our court, 
put the said John Dickins, and those other merchants, 
to a vast deal of trouble about the said caviare, and 
solicit the seizure of their goods and estates as forfeited 
for debt. All which things, and whatever else has 
hitherto been done in our foresaid court is more at large 
set forth in those letters of request aforementioned ; 
which after we had viewed, we thought proper to be 
transmitted to the most serene republic of Venice, to 
the end they might be assistant to our merchants in 
this cause. Upon the whole therefore, it is our earnest 
request to your highness, and the most illustrious 
senate, that not only those letters may obtain their due 
force and vreigbt; but also, that the goods and estates 
of the merchants, which the foresaid Piatti and David 
Rutts have endeavoured to make liable to forfeiture. 



may be discharged ; and that the said defendants may 
be referred hither to our court, to try what right they 
have in their claim to this caviare. Wherein your 
highness and the most serene republic will do as well 
what is most just in itself, as what is truly becoming 
the spotless amity between both republics : and lastly, 
what will gratefully be recompensed by the goodwill and 
kind offices of this republic, whenever occasions offer. 
Sealed with the seal of the council, 
Whitehall, and subscribed President of the 

Feb. — , 1652. council. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 

Most Excellent Lord, 

The council of state, according to a command from 
the parliament, dated the second of March, having 
taken into serious deliberation your excellency's paper 
of the fifteenth of February, delivered to the commis- 
sioners of this council, wherein it seemed good to your 
excellency to propose, that a reply might be given to 
two certain heads therein specified as previous, returns 
the following answer to your excellency. 

The parliament, when they gave an answer to those 
things which were proposed by your excellency at your 
first audience, as also in those letters which they wrote 
to the most serene king of Spain, gave real and ample 
demonstrations, how grateful and how acceptable that 
friendship and that mutual alliance, which was offered 
by his royal majesty, and by yourself in his name, 
would be to them ; and how fully they were resolved, 
as far as in them lay, to make the same returns of 
friendship and good offices. 

After that, it seemed g*ood to your excellency, at 
your first audience in council upon the nineteenth 
of December old style, to propound to this council, as 
a certain ground or method for an auspicious com- 
mencement of a stricter amity, that some of their body 
might be nominated, who might hear what your excel- 
lency had to propose ; and who having well weighed 
the benefit, that might redound from thence, should 
speedily report the same to the council. To which 
request of yours that satisfaction might be given, the 
council appointed certain of their number to attend 
your excellency, which was done accordingly. But 
instead of those thing's, which were expected to have 
been propounded, the conference produced no more 
than the above mentioned paper : to which the answer 
of the council is this. 

When the parliament shall have declared their minds, 
and your excellency shall have made the progress as 
above expected, we shall be ready to confer with your 
excellency, and to treat of such matters as you shall 
propose in the name of the king your master, as well 
in reference to the friendship already concluded, as the 
entering into another more strict and binding ; or as 
to any thing else, which shall be offered by ourselves 
in the name of this republic : and when we descend to 
particulars, we shall return such answers as are most 
proper, and the nature of the thing proposed shall re- 
quire. 

Whitehall, March 21, 1652. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



595 



The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the most Serene Prince Frederick the Third, King 
of Denmark, Sfc. Greeting. 

Most Serene and Potent King, 
We have received your majesty's letters, dated from 
Copenhagen the twenty-first of December last, and 
delivered to the parliament of the commonwealth of 
England by the noble Henry Willemsem Rosenwyng 
de Lynsacker, and most gladly perused them, with that 
affection of mind, which the matters therein propounded 
justly merit, and request your majesty to be fully per- 
suaded of this, that the same inclinations, the same 
desires of continuing and preserving the ancient friend- 
ship, commerce, and alliance, for so many years main- 
tained between England and Denmark, which are in 
your majesty, are also in us. Not being ignorant, that 
though it has pleased Divine Providence, beholding 
this nation with such a benign and favourable aspect, 
to change for the better the received form of the former 
government among us ; nevertheless, that the same 
interests on both sides, the same common advantages, 
the same mutual alliance and free traffic, which pro- 
duced the former leagues and confederacies between 
both nations, still endure and obtain their former force 
and virtue, and oblige both to make it their common 
study by rendering those leagues the most beneficial 
that may be to each other, to establish also a nearer 
and sounder friendship for the time to come. And if 
your majesty shall be pleased to pursue those counsels, 
which are manifested in your royal letters, the parlia- 
ment will be ready to embrace the same with all ala- 
erity and fidelity, and to contribute all those things to 
the utmost of their power, which they shall think may 
conduce to that end. And they persuade themselves, 
that your majesty for this reason will take those coun- 
sels in reference to this republic, which may facilitate 
the good success of those things propounded by your 
majesty to ourselves so desirous of your amity. In the 
mean time, the parliament wishes all happiness and 
prosperity to your majesty and people. 



Westminster, 
April — , 1652. 



Under the seal of the parlia- 
ment, and subscribed in 
its name, and by the au- 
thority of it, Speaker, &c. 



'The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the most Illustrious and Magnificent, the Proconsuls 
and Senators of the Hanse Towns, Greeting. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Illustrious, 
our dearest Friends ; 
The parliament of the commonwealth of England 
has both received and perused your letters of the six- 
teenth of January last, delivered by your public mi- 
nister Leo ab Aysema, and by their authority have 
given him an audience ; at what time he declared the 
cordial and friendly inclinations of your cities toward 
this republic, and desired that the ancient friendship 
2 a 



might still remain on both sides. The parliament 
therefore, for their parts, declare and assure your lord- 
ships, that they deem nothing more grateful to them- 
selves, than that the same friendship and alliance, 
which has hitherto been maintained between this na- 
tion and those cities, should be renewed, and firmly ra- 
tified ; and that they will be ready, upon all occasions 
fitly offered, what they promise in words solemnly to 
perform in real deeds; and expect that their ancient 
friends and confederates should deal by them with the 
same truth and integrity. But as to those things, 
which your resident has more particularly in charge 
in regard they were by us referred entire to the coun- 
cil of state, and his proposals were to be there consi- 
dered, they transacted with him there, and gave him 
such answers, as seemed most consentaneous to 
equity and reason, of which your resident is able 
to give you an account; whose prudence and con- 
spicuous probity proclaim him worthy the public cha- 
racter by you conferred upon him. 



Westminster, 
April—, 1652. 



Under the seal of the parlia- 
ment, in the name, and by 
the authority of it, sub- 
scribed, Speaker, &c. 



The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, to 
the Illustrious and Magnificent Senate of the City of 
Hamborough, Greeting. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Illustrious, 
our dearest Friends ; 
The parliament of the commonwealth of England 
has received and perused your letters, dated from Ham- 
borough the fifteenth of January last, and delivered 
by the noble Leo ab Aysema, yours and the rest of the 
Hanseatic cities resident, and by their own authority 
gave him audience; and as to what other particular 
commands he had from your city, they have referred 
them to the council of state, and gave them orders to 
receive his proposals, and to treat with him as soon as 
might be, concerning all such things as seemed to be 
just and equal : which was also done accordingly. 
And as the parliament has made it manifest, that they 
will have a due regard to what shall be proposed by 
your lordships, and have testified their singular good- 
will toward your city, by sending their resident thither, 
and commanding his abode there ; so on the other side 
they expect, and deservedly require from your lord- 
ships, that the same equity be returned to them, in 
things which are to the benefit of this republic, either 
already proposed, or hereafter to be propounded by our 
said resident in their name to your city, anciently our 
friend and confederate. 



Westminster, 
April—, 1652. 



Under the seal of the parlia- 
ment, in the name, and by 
the authority of it, sub- 
scribed, Speaker, &c. 



596 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



The Council of State of the Republic of England, to 
the most Serene Prince Ferdinand the Second, 
Grand Duke a/Tuscany, Greeting. 

The council of state being informed by letters from 
Charles Long-land, who takes care of the affairs of the 
English in your highness's court of Leghorn, that 
lately fourteen men of war belonging to the United 
Provinces came into that harbour, and openly threat- 
ened to sink or burn the English ships that were riding 
in your port; but that your Serenity, whose protection 
and succour the English merchants implored, gave 
command to the governor of Leghorn, that he should 
assist and defend the English vessels : they deemed it 
their duty to certify to your highness how acceptable 
that kindness and protection, which you so favourably 
afforded the English nation, was to this republic; and 
do promise your highness, that they will always keep 
in remembrance the merit of so deserving a favour, and 
will be ready upon all occasions to make the same re- 
turns of friendship and good offices to your people, and 
to do all things else, which may conduce to the preser- 
vation and continuance of the usual amity and com- 
merce between both nations. And whereas the Dutch 
men of war, even in the time of treaty offered by them- 
selves, were so hig'hly perfidious as to fall upon our 
fleet in our own roads, (in which foul attempt, God, as 
most just arbiter, showed himself offended and oppo- 
site to their design,) but also in the ports of foreigners 
endeavoured to take or sink our merchant vessels ; we 
thought it also necessary to send this declaration also 
of the parliament of the commonwealth of England to 
your highness, the publishing of which was occasioned 
by the controversies at present arisen between this re- 
public and the United Provinces. By which your 
highness may easily perceive how unjust and contrary 
to all the laws of God and of nations those people have 
acted against this republic ; and how cordially the 
parliament laboured, for the sake of public tranquillity, 
to have retained their pristine friendship and alliance. 
In the name, and by the autho- 

Whitehall, rity of the Council, subscribed, 

July 29, 1652. President. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 

Most Excellent Lord, 
The council of state, upon mature deliberation of 
that paper which they received from your excellency, 
Jane! 1652, as also upon that which your excellency 
at your audience the t'f of this month delivered to the 
council, return this answer to both those papers: that 
the parliament, &c. was always very desirous of pre- 
serving the firm friendship and good peace settled at 
'i between this republic and his royal majesty of 
Spain, from the time that first your excellency signified 
the tendency of his majesty's inclinations that way, 
and was always ready to ratify and confirm the same 
to the benefit and advantage of both nations. And 
Ihifl the council of state in the name, and by command 



y such pro- 
irpose. At 
)roposals, it 
) nronound 



of the parliament, in their papers ofttimes made known 
to your excellency; and particularly, according to 
your excellency's desire, made choice of commissioners 
to attend and receive from your excellency such pro- 
posals as might conduce to the same pur 
which meeting, instead of making such propc 
seemed good to your excellency only to propound 
some general matters, as it were previous to a future 
conference, concerning which it seemed to the council 
that the parliament had in former papers fully made 
known their sentiments. Nevertheless for more ample 
and accumulative satisfaction, and to remove all scru- 
ples from your excellency concerning those matters 
which they at that time proposed, the council in that 
paper, dated io Aprfl,' declared themselves ready to come 
to a conference with your excellency, concerning those 
things which you had in charge from his royal majesty, 
as well in reference to the pristine amity, as to any 
farther negotiation ; as also touching such matters as 
should be exhibited by us, in the name of this repub- 
lic ; and when we came to such particulars as were to 
the purpose, and the nature of the thing required, then 
to give convenient answers. To which it seemed good 
to your excellency to make no reply, nor to proceed 
any farther in that affair for almost two months. 
About that time the council received from your excel- 
lency your first paper, dated % Ymle, wherein you only 
made this proposal, that the articles of peace and league 
between the late King Charles and your master, dated 
the tV of November, 1630, might be reviewed, and 
that the several heads of it might be either enlarged or 
left out, according to the present condition of times and 
things, and the late alteration of government. Which 
being no more than what we ourselves briefly and 
clearly signified in our foresaid paper of the fo April 1 / 
the council expected, that some particular articles 
Avould have been propounded out of that league, with 
those amplifications and alterations of which you made 
mention ; since otherwise it is impossible for us to re- 
turn any other answer concerning this matter, than 
what we have already given. And whereas your ex- 
cellency in your last paper seems to charge us with 
delay, the council therefore took a second review of the 
foresaid paper of the ^ june^ and of what was therein 
propounded, and are still of opinion, that they have 
fully satisfied your excellency in that former paper : 
to which they can only farther add, that so soon as 
your excellency shall be pleased, either out of the 
leagues already made, or in any other manner, to frame 
such conditions as shall be accommodated to the pre- 
sent state of things and times, upon which you desire to 
have the foundations of friendship laid on your side, 
they will immediately return you such answers as by 
them shall be thought just and reasonable, and which 
shall be sufficient testimonials, that the parliament still 
perseveres in the same desires of preserving an untaint- 
ed and firm amity with the king your master, and that 
on their parts they will omit no honest endeavours, and 
worthy of themselves, to advance it to the highest 
perfection. 

Furthermore, the council deems it to be a part of 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



597 



their duty, that your excellency should be put in mind 
of that paper of ours, dated January 30, 1651, to which 
in regard your excellency has returned no answer as 
yet, we press and expect that satisfaction be given to 
the parliament, as to what is therein mentioned. 

TJie Answer of the Council of State to the Reply of 
the Lords Embassadors Extraordinary from the 
King of Denmark and Norway, delivered to the 
Commissioners of the Council, to the Answer which 
the Council gave to their fourteen Demands. 

To the end that satisfaction may be given to the 
foresaid lords embassadors in reference to the answer 
of the council to the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and 
ninth article, the council consents, that this following 
clause shall be added at the end of their answers : that 
is to say, besides such colonies, islands, ports, and 
places, under the dominion of either party, to which it 
is by law provided that nobody shall resort upon the 
account of trade or commerce, unless upon special 
leave first obtained of that party to which that colony, 
island, port, or places belong. 

The receiving of any person into any ship, that shall 
be driven in by stress of weather into the rivers, ports, 
or bays, belonging to either party, shall not render that 
vessel liable to any trouble or search, by the answer of 
the council to the eleventh article, as the foresaid lords 
embassadors in their reply seem to have understood, 
unless it be where such a receiving shall be against 
the laws, statutes, or custom of that place where the 
vessel put in, wherein it seems to the council, that 
there is nothing of seventy ordained, but what equally 
conduces to the security of both republics. 

As to the proving the property of such ships and 
goods as shall be cast ashore by shipwreck, the coun- 
cil deems it necessary that an oath be administered in 
those courts which are already, or shall hereafter be 
constituted, where the cl aimers may be severally heard 
and every body's right be determined and adjudged ; 
which cannot be so clearly and strictly done by writ- 
ten certificates, whence many scruples and doubts may 
arise, and many frauds and deceits creep into that sort 
of proof, which it concerns both parties to prevent. 
The council also deems it just, that a certain time be 
prefixed, before which time, whoever does not prove 
himself the lawful owner of the said goods, shall be 
excluded, to avoid suits. But as to the manner of put- 
ting perishable goods to sale, that are cast ashore by 
shipwreck, the council thinks it meet to propose the 
way of selling by inch of candle, as being the most 
probable means to procure the true value of the goods 
for the best advantage of the proprietors. Neverthe- 
less, if the foresaid lords embassadors shall propose 
any other method already found out, which may more 
properly conduce to this end, the council will be no 
hindrance, but that what is just may be put in prac- 
tice. Neither is it to be understood, that the considera- 
tion of this matter shall put any stop to the treaty. 

As to the punishment of those, who shall violate the 
propounded treaty, the council has made that addition, 



which is mentioned in their answer to the fourteenth 
article, for the greater force and efficacy of that article, 
and thereby to render the league itself more firm and 
lasting. 

As to the last clause of the fourteenth article, we 
think it not proper to give our assent to those leagues 
and alliances, of which mention is made in the afore- 
said answers, and which are only generally propound- 
ed, before it be more clearly apparent to us what they 
are. But when your excellencies shall be pleased to 
explain those matters more clearly to the council, we 
may be able to give a more express answer to those 
particulars. 

A Reply of the Council of State to the Answer of the 
foresaid Lords Embassadors, which was returned to 
the six Articles propounded by the Council aforesaid, 
in the Name of the Republic o/*England. 

The council, having viewed the commissions of the 
foresaid lords embassadors, giving them power to trans- 
act with the parliament or their commissioners, concern- 
ing all things expedient to be transacted in order to the 
reviving the old leagues, or adding new ones, believed 
indeed the foresaid lords to have been furnished with 
that authority, as to be able to return answers, and nego- 
tiate all things, as well such as should be propounded by 
this republic, as on the behalf of the king of Denmark 
and Norway, and so did not expect the replies, which 
it has pleased the foresaid lords embassadors to give to 
the first, second, third, and fifth demand of the coun- 
cil, whereby of necessity ?. stop will be put to this 
treaty, in regard it is but just in itself, and so resolved 
on in council, to comprehend the whole league, and 
to treat at the same time as well concerning those 
things which regard this republic, as those other mat- 
ters, which concern the king of Denmark and Norway. 
Wherefore it is the earnest desire of the council, that 
your excellencies would be pleased to return an answer 
to our first, second, third, and fifth demand. 

As to the fourth article concerning the customs of 
Gluckstadt, in regard they are now abolished, as your 
excellencies have mentioned in your answer, the coun- 
cil presses that their abrogation may be ratified by this 
treaty, lest they should be reimposed hereafter. 

As to the sixth article concerning piracy, the council 
inserted it, as equally appertaining to the benefit of 
both, and to the establishing of trade in common, which 
is much disturbed by pirates and searobbers. And 
whereas the answer of the lords embassadors, as to this 
article, relates only to enemies, but makes no mention 
of pirates, the council therefore desires a more distinct 
reply to it. 

And whereas the foresaid lords embassadors in their 
reply to the answer of the council have passed over 
both their tenth article, and the answer of the council 
to it; the council have thought it necessary to add this 
following article, to their following demands. 

That the people and inhabitants of the republic of 
England trading into any kingdoms, regions, or terri- 
tories of the king of Denmark and Norway, shall not 



598 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



for the future pay any more customs, tribute, taxes, 
duties, or stipends, or in any other manner, than the 
people of the United Provinces, or any other foreign 
nation, that pays the least, coming in or going out of 
harbour; and shall enjoy the same, and as equally 
ample freedom, privileges, and immunities, both com- 
ing and going, and so long as they shall reside in the 
country, as also in fishing, trading, or in any other 
manner which any other people of a foreign nation 
enjoys, or may enjoy in the foresaid kingdoms, and 
throughout the whole dominions of the said king of 
Denmark and Norway : which privileges also the sub- 
jects of the king of Denmark and Norway shall equally 
enjoy throughout all the territories and dominions of 
the republic of England. 

The Council of State of the Republic of England, to 
the most Serene Prince, Ferdinand the Second, 
Grand Duke of Tuscany, Greeting. 

Most Serene Prince, our dearest Friend, 
The council of State understanding, as well by your 
highness's agent here residing, as by Charles Long- 
land, chief factor for the English at Leghorn, with 
what affection and fidelity your highness undertook 
the protection of the English vessels putting into the 
port of Leghorn for shelter, against the Dutch men of 
war threatening- them with nothing but ransack and 
destruction, by their letters of the twenty-ninth of July 
(which they hope are by this time come to your high- 
ness's hands) have made known to your highness how 
grateful and how acceptable it was to them ; and at the 
same time sent to your serenity a declaration of the par- 
liament of the commonwealth of England, concerning 
the present differences between this Republic and the 
United Provinces. And whereas the council has again 
been informed by the same Charles Longland, what 
further commands your highness gave for the security 
and defence of the English vessels, notwithstanding 
the opposite endeavours of the Dutch, they deemed 
this opportunity not to be passed over, to let your 
highness understand once more, how highly they es- 
teem your justice and singular constancy in defending 
their vessels, and how acceptable they took so great a 
piece of service. Which being no mean testimony of 
your solid friendship and affection to this republic, your 
highness may assure yourself, that the same offices of 
kindness and goodwill towards your highness shall 
never be wanting in us; such as may be able to de- 
monstrate how firmly we are resolved to cultivate both 
long and constantly, to the utmost of our power, that 
friendship which is between your serenity and this re- 
public. In the mean time, we have expressly com- 
manded all our ships, upon their entrance into your 
ports, not to fail of paying the accustomed salutes by 
firing their guns, and to give all other due honours to 
your highness. 

Whitehall, Sealed with the Council-Seal, and 

Sf)>t — 1652 subscribed, President. 



To the Spanish Embassador, Alphonso De Car- 
denas. 
Most Excellent Lord, 

Your excellency's letters of the 7-7 of November 
1652, delivered by your secretary, together with two 
petitions enclosed, concerning' the ships, the Sampson 
and San Salvadore, were read in council. To which 
the council returns this answer, That the English man 
of war meeting with the aforesaid ships not in the 
Downs, as your excellency writes, but in the open sea, 
brought them into port as enemies' ships, and therefore 
lawful prize ; and the court of admiralty, to which it 
properly belongs to take cognizance of all causes of 
this nature, have undertaken to determine the right in 
dispute; where all parties concerned on both sides 
shall be fully and freely heard, and you may be as- 
sured that right shall take place. We have also sent 
your excellency's request to the judges of that court, 
to the end we may more certainly understand what 
progress they have made in their proceeding to judg- 
ment. Of which, so soon as we are rightly informed, 
we shall take care that such orders shall be given 
in this matter, as shall correspond with justice, and 
become the friendship that is between this republic and 
your king. Nor are we less confident, that his royal 
majesty will by no means permit the goods of the ene- 
mies of this commonwealth to be concealed, and escape 
due confiscation under the shelter of being owned by 
his subjects. 

Sealed with the Council-Seal, 

Whitehall, and subscribed, 

Nov. 11, 1652. William Masham, President. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 
Most Excellent Lord, 
But lately the council has been informed by cap- 
tain Badiley, admiral of the fleet of this republic in 
the Straits, that after he himself, together with three 
other men of war, had for two days together engaged 
eleven of the Dutch, put into Porto Longone, as well 
to repair the damages he had received in the fight, as 
also to supply himself with warlike ammunition ; where 
the governor of the place performed all the good offices 
of a most just and courteous person, as well towards 
his own, as the rest of the men of war under his con- 
duct. Now in regard that that same place is under 
the dominion of the most serene king of Spain, the 
council cannot but look upon the singular civility of 
that garrison to be the copious fruit of that stricter 
mutual amity so auspiciously commenced ; and there- 
fore deem it to be a part of their duty, to return their 
thanks to his majesty for a kindness so opportunely 
received, and desire your excellency to signify this to 
your most serene king, and to assure him, that the par- 
liament of the commonwealth of England will be al- 
ways ready to make the same returns of friendship and 
civility upon all occasions offered. 

Sealed with the Council-Seal, 
Westminster, and subscribed, 

Nov. 11, 1652. William Masham, President. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



599 



The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
to the most Serene Prince Ferdinand the Second, 
Grand Duke of Tuscany, Greeting. 

Most Serene Prince, our dearest Friend, 
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England 
has received your letters dated from Florence, August 
17, concerning the restitution of a certain ship laden 
with rice, which ship is claimed by captain Cardi of 
Leghorn. And though the judges of our admiralty 
have already pronounced sentence in that cause against 
the aforesaid Cardi, and that there be an appeal de- 
pending before the delegates ; yet upon your high- 
ness's request, the parliament, to testify how much 
they value the goodwill and alliance of a prince so 
much their friend, have given order to those who are 
entrusted with this affair, that the said ship, together 
with the rice, or at least the full price of it, be re- 
stored to the aforesaid captain Cardi ; the fruit of which 
command his proctor here has effectually already reap- 
ed. And as your highness by favourably affording your 
patronage and protection to the ships of the English in 
your port of Leghorn, has in a more especial manner 
tied the parliament to your serenity; so will they, on 
the other side, take care, as often as opportunity offers* 
that all their offices of sincere friendship and good- 
will towards your highness may be solidly effectual 
and permanent ; withal recommending your high- 
ness to the divine benignity, and protection of the 
Almighty. 

Sealed with the Seal of the Com- 
Westminster, monwealth, and subscribed, 

Nov. 1652. Speaker, &c. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
to the most Serene and Potent Prince, King of Den- 
mark, Sfc. 

Most Serene and Potent King, 
The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England 
have received information from their admiral of that 
fleet so lately sent to Copenhagen, your majesty's port, 
to convoy our merchants homeward bound, that the 
foresaid ships are not permitted to return along with 
him, as being detained by your majesty's command ; 
and upon his producing your royal letters, declaring 
your justifications of the matter of fact, the parliament 
denies, that the reasons laid down in those letters for 
the detaining of those ships are any way satisfactory 
to them. Therefore that some speedy remedy may be 
applied in a matter of so great moment, and so highly 
conducing to the prosperity of both nations, for pre- 
venting a greater perhaps ensuing mischief, the par- 
liament have sent their resident at Hambrough, Richard 
Bradshaw, esquire, a person of great worth and known 
fidelity, with express commands to treat with your 
majesty, as their agent also in Denmark, concerning 
this affair : and therefore we entreat your majesty, to 
give him a favourable audience and ample credit in 
whatever he shall propose to your majesty, on our 



behalf, in reference to this matter; in the mean time 
recommending your majesty to the protection of Di- 
vine Providence. 

Under the Seal of the Parliament, 
Westminster, and in their Name, and by their 

Nov. 6, 1652. Authority, subscribed, Speaker, 

&c. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
to the most Serene Prince, the Duke of Venice, 
Greeting. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England 
has received your highness's letters, dated June 1, 1652, 
and delivered by Lorenzo Pallutio, wherein they not 
only gladly perceive both yours, and the cordial in- 
clination of the senate towards this republic, but have 
willingly laid hold of this opportunity to declare their 
singular affection and goodwill towards the most Serene 
Republic of Venice; which they shall be always ready 
to make manifest both really and sincerely, as often as 
opportunity offers. To whom also all the ways and 
means, that shall be propounded to them for the pre- 
serving or increasing mutual friendship and alliance, 
shall be ever most acceptable. In the mean time we 
heartily pray, that all things prosperous, all things 
favourable, may befall your highness and the most 
serene Republic. 

Sealed with the Parliament 
Westminster, Seal, and subscribed, 

Dec. 1652. Speaker, &c. 

The Parliament of the Republic of England, to the 
most Serene Prince, Ferdinand the Second, Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, Greeting. 

Although the parliament of the republic of Eng- 
land some time since redoubled their commands to all 
the chief captains and masters of ships arriving in the 
ports belonging to your highness, to carry themselves 
peacefully and civilly, and with becoming observance 
and duty to a most serene prince, whose friendship 
this republic so earnestly endeavours to preserve, as 
having been obliged by so many great kindnesses; an 
accident altogether unexpected has fallen out, through 
the insolence, as they hear, of captain Appleton, in the 
port of Leghorn, who offered violence to the sentinel 
then doing his duty upon the mole, against the faith 
and duty which he owes this republic, and in contempt 
of the reverence and honour which is justly owing to 
your highness : the relation of which action, as it was 
really committed, the parliament has understood by 
your letters of the seventh and ninth of December, 
dated from Florence; as also more at large by the 
most worthy Almeric Salvetti, your resident here. And 
they have so sincerely laid to heart jonr highness's 
honour, which is the main concern of this complaint, 
that they have referred it to the Council of State, to 
take care that letters be sent to capt. Appleton, to come 
away without stop or stay by land, in order to his giv- 
ing an account of this unwonted and extraordinary act, 



000 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



(a copy of which letters is sent herewith enclosed,) who 
so soon as he shall arrive, and be accused of the fact, 
we promise, that such a course shall be taken with 
him, as may sufficiently testify that we no less heinously 
brook the violation of your right than the infringement 
of our own authority. Moreover, upon mature debate 
concerning- the recovered ship, called the Phcenix of 
Leg-horn, which affair is also related and pressed by 
your highness and your resident here, to have been 
done by captain Appleton, contrary to promise given, 
■whereby he was obliged not to fall upon even the Hol- 
landers themselves within sight of the lantern ; and 
that your highness, trusting- to that faith, promised 
security to the Hollanders upon your word ; and there- 
fore that we ought to take care for the satisfaction of 
those, who suffer damage under the protection of your 
promise ; the parliament begs of your excellency to be 
assured, that this fact, as it was committed without their 
advice or command, so it is most remote from their 
will and intention, that your highness should undergo 
any detriment or diminution of your honour by it. 
Rather they will make it their business, that some ex- 
pedient may be found out for your satisfaction, accord- 
ing to the nature of the fact, upon examination of the 
whole matter. Which that they may so much the 
more fully understand, they deem it necessary, that 
captain Appleton himself should be heard, who was 
bound by the same faith, and is thought by your ex- 
cellency at least to have consented to the violation of 
it; especially since he is so suddenly to return home. 
And so soon as the parliament has heard him, and 
have more at large conferred with your resident con- 
cerning this matter of no small moment, they will pro- 
nounce that sentence that shall be just, and consenta- 
neous to that extreme goodwill, which they bear to 
your highness, and no way unworthy the favours by 
you conferred upon them. Of which that your high- 
ness might not make the least question in the mean 
time, we were willing to certify your highness by this 
express on purpose sent, that we shall omit no oppor- 
tunity, to testify how greatly we value your friend- 
ship. 

Westminster, Sealed with the Parliament Seal, 

Dec. 14, 1652. and subscribed, Speaker, 

&c. 

The Council of State of the Republic of England, to 
the most Serene Prince, Frederick, Heir of Nor- 
way, Duke of Sleswick, Holsatia, Stormaria, 
Ditmabsh, Count in Oldenburgh and Delmen- 
HORST, Greeting. 

Though it has pleased the most wise God, and most 
merciful Moderator of all things, besides the burden 
which he laid upon us in common with our ancestors, 
to vrage most just wars in defence of our liberty against 
tyrannical usurpation, signally also to succour us with 
those auspices and that divine assistance, beyond what 
he afforded to our predecessors, that we have been able 
not only to extinguish a civil war, but to extirpate the 
cau-es of it for the future, as also to repel the unex- 



pected violences of foreign enemies ; nevertheless, with 
grateful minds, as much as in us lies, acknowledging 
the same favour and benignity of the Supreme Deity 
towards us, Ave are not so puffed up with the success of 
our affairs, but that rather instructed in the singular 
justice and providence of God, and having had long 
experience of ourselves, we abominate the thoughts of 
war, if possible to be avoided, and most eagerly em- 
brace peace with all men. Therefore, as hitherto we 
never were the first that violated or desired the viola- 
tion of that friendship, or those ancient privileges of 
leagues, that have been ratified between us and any 
princes or people whatever; so your highness, in 
consideration of your ancient amity with the English, 
left us by our ancestors, may, with a most certain 
assurance, promise both yourself and your people all 
things equitable, and all things friendly from us. 
Lastly, as we highly value, which is no more than 
what is just and reasonable, the testimonies of your 
affection and good offices offered us, so we shall make 
it our business, that you may not at any time be sen- 
sible of the want of ours, either to yourself or yours. 
And so we most heartily recommend your highness to 
the omnipotent protection of the Almighty God. 

Whitehall, Sealed with the Council Seal, 

July — , 1653. and subscribed, President. 

To the Count of Oldenburgh. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
The parliament of the commonwealth of England 
have received an extraordinary congratulation from 
your excellency, most kindly and courteously delivered 
to us by word of mouth by Herman Mylius, your 
counsellor and doctor of laws : who wished all things 
lucky and prosperous, in your name, to the parliament 
and English interest, and desired that the friendship 
of this republic might remain inviolable within your 
territories. He also desired letters of safe conduct, to 
the end your subjects may the more securely trade and 
sail from place to place ; together with our orders to 
our public ministers abroad, to be aiding and assisting 
to your excellency and your interests with their good 
offices and counsels. To which requests of his we 
willingly consented, and granted both our friendship, 
the letters desired, and our orders to our public minis- 
ters under the seal of the parliament. And though it 
be some months ago since your public minister first 
came to us, however that delay neither arose from any 
unwillingness on our part to assent to the request made 
in your excellency's name, or that your deputy was at 
any time wanting in his sedulity, (whose solicitations 
were daily and earnest with all the diligence and im- 
portunity that became him, to the end he might be 
dispatched,) but only it happened so, that at that time 
the greatest and most weighty affairs of the republic 
were under debate and serious negotiation. Of which 
we thought meet to certify your illustrious lordship, 
lest any body, through a false construction of this de- 
lay, should think those favours unwillingly or hardly 
obtained, which were most gladly granted by the par- 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



601 



liament of the commonwealth of England. In whose 
name these are commanded to be signed. 

Henry Scobel, clerk of the parliament. 

To the most Illustrious and Noble Senators, Scultets, 
Landam, and Senators of the Evangelic Cantons 
of Switzerland, Zurick, Bern, Glaris, Bale, 
Schaffhusen, Appenzel, also the Confederates of 
the same Religion in the country of the Grisons, of 
Geneva, St. Gall, Malhausen, and Bienne, our 

■ dearest friends ; 

Your letters, most illustrious lords and dearest con- 
federates, dated December twenty-four, full of civility, 
goodwill, and singular affection towards us and our 
republic, and what ought always to be greater and 
more sacred to us, breathing fraternal and truly chris- 
tian charity, we have received. And in the first place, 
we return thanks to Almighty God, who has raised 
and established both you and so many noble cities, not 
so much intrenched and fortified with those enclosures 
of mountains, as with your innate fortitude, piety, most 
prudent and just administration of government, and 
the faith of mutual confederacies, to be a firm and in- 
accessible shelter for all the truly orthodox. Now then 
that you who over all Europe were the first of mortals, 
who after deluges of barbarous tyrants from the north, 
Heaven prospering your valour, recovered your liberty, 
and being obtained, for so many years have preserved 
it untainted, with no less prudence and moderation ; 
that you should have such noble sentiments of our 
liberty recovered ; that you, such sincere worshippers 
of the gospel, should be so constantly persuaded of our 
love and affection for the orthodox faith, is that which 
is most acceptable and welcome to us. But as to your 
exhorting us to peace, with a pious and affectionate 
intent, as we are fully assured, certainly such an ad- 
monition ought to be of great weight with us, as well 
in respect of the thing itself which you persuade, and 
which of all things is chiefly to be desired, as also for 
the great authority, which is to be allowed your lord- 
ships above others in this particular, who in the midst 
of loud tumultuous wars on every side enjoy the sweets 
of peace both at home and abroad, and have approved 
yourselves the best example to all others of embracing 
and improving- peace ; and lastly, for that you per- 
suade us to the very thing, which we ourselves of our 
own accords, and that more than once, consulting as 
well our own, as the interest of the whole evangelical 
communion, have begged by embassadors, and other 
public ministers, namely, friendship and a most strict 
league with the United Provinces. But how they 
treated our embassadors sent to them to negotiate, not 
a bare peace, but a brotherly amity and most strict 
league; what provocations to war they afterwards gave 
us ; how they fell upon us in our own roads, in the 
midst of their embassador's negotiations for peace and 
allegiance, little dreaming any such violence; you 
will abundantly understand by our declaration set 
forth upon this subject, and sent you together with 
these our letters. But as for our parts, we are wholly 



intent upon this, by God's assistance, though prosper- 
ous hitherto, so to carry ourselves, that we may neither 
attribute any thing to our own strength or forces, but 
all things to God alone, nor be insolently puffed up 
with our success ; and we still retain the same ready 
inclinations to embrace all occasions of making a just 
and honest peace. In the mean time yourselves, illus- 
trious and most excellent lords, in whom this noble and 
pious sedulity, out of mere evangelical affection, exerts 
itself to reconcile and pacify contending brethren, as 
ye are worthy of all applause among men, so doubtless 
will ye obtain the celestial reward of peace-makers 
with God ; to whose supreme benignity and favour, we 
heartily recommend in our prayers both you and yours, 
no less ready to make returns of all good offices both 
of friends and brethren, if in any thing we may be 
serviceable to your lordships. 

Westminster, Sealed with the Parliament Seal, 

Octob. 1653. and subscribed, Speaker, &c. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
Upon grievous complaints brought before us by 
Philip Noel, John Godal, and the society of merchants 
of Foy in England, that a certain ship of theirs called 
the Ann of Foy, an English ship by them fitted out, 
and laden with their own g-oods, in her return home to 
the port of Foy about Michaelmas last, was unjustly 
and without any cause set upon and taken by a certain 
privateer of Ostend, Erasmus Bruer commander, and 
the seamen unworthily and barbarously used : the 
council of state wrote to the marquis of Leda concern- 
ing it, (a copy of which letter we also send enclosed 
to your excellency,) and expected from him, that with- 
out delay orders would have been given for the doing 
of justice in this matter. Nevertheless after all this, 
the foresaid Noel, together with the said company, 
make further heavy complaint, that although our 
letters were delivered to the marquis, and that those 
merchants from that time forward betook themselves to 
Bruges to the court there held for maritime causes, 
and there asserted and proved their right, and the 
verity of their cause, yet that justice was denied them; 
and that they were so hardly dealt with, that, though 
the cause had been ripe for trial above three months, 
nevertheless they could obtain no sentence from that 
court, but that their ship and goods are still detained, 
notwithstanding the great expenses they have been at 
in prosecuting their claim. Now your excellency well 
knows it to be contrary to the law of nations, of traffic, 
and that friendship which is at present settled between 
the English and Flemings, that any Ostender should 
take any English vessel, if bound for England with 
English goods; and that whatever was inhumanly 
and barbarously done to the English seamen by that, 
commander, deserves a rigorous punishment. The 
council therefore recommends the whole matter to your 
excellency, and makes it their request, that you would 
write into Flanders concerning it, and take such speedy 
care, that this business may no longer be delayed, but 



602 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



that justice may be done in such a manner that the 
foresaid ship, tog-ether with the damages, costs, and 
interest, which the English have sustained and been 
out of purse, by reason of that illegal seizure, may be 
restored and made good to them by the authority of 
the court, or in some other way ; and that care be 
taken, that hereafter no such violence be committed, 
but that the amity between our people and the Flem- 
ings may be preserved without any infringement. 

Signed in the name, and by the command 
of the council of state, appointed by 
authority of parliament. 

To the Marquis of Led a. 

Great complaints are brought before us by Philip 
Noel, John Godal, and the company of Foy merchants, 
concerning a ship of theirs, called the Ann of Foy, 
which being an English vessel by them fitted out, and 
laden with their own goods, in her return home to her 
own port about Michaelmas last, was taken unawares 
by a freebooter of Ostend, Erasmus Bruer commander. 
It is also further related, that the Ostenders, when the 
ship was in their power, used the seamen too inhu- 
manly, by setting lighted match to their fingers, and 
plunging the master of the ship in the sea till they 
almost drowned him, on purpose to extort a false con- 
fession from him, that the ship and goods belonged to 
the French. Which though the master and the rest 
of the ship's crew resolutely denied, nevertheless the 
Ostenders carried away the ship and goods to their 
own port. These things, upon strict inquiry and ex- 
amination of witnesses, have been made manifest in 
the admiralty court in England, as will appear by the 
copies of the affidavits herewith sent your lordship. 
Now in regard that that same ship, called the Ann of 
Foy, and all her lading- of merchandise and goods, 
belong truly and properly to English, so that there is no 
apparent reason why the Ostender should seize by force 
cither the one or the other, much less carry away the 
master of the ship, and use the seamen so unmer- 
cifully : and whereas according to the law of nations, 
and in respect of the friendship between the Flemings 
and the English, that ship and goods ought to be re- 
stored : we make it our earnest request to your excel- 
lency, that the English may have speedy justice done, 
and that satisfaction may be given for their losses, to 
the end the traffic and friendship, which is between 
the English and Flemings, may be long and inviolably 
preserved. 

To the Spanish Embassador. 

The parliament of the commonwealth of England, 
understanding- that several of the people of this city 
daily resort to the house of your excellency, and other 
embassadors and public ministers from foreign nations 
here residing, merely to hear mass, g-ave order to the 
council of state, to let your excellency understand, that 
whereas such resort is prohibited by the laws of the 
nation, and of very evil example in this our republic, 



and extremely scandalous ; that they deem it their 
duty to take care that no such thing- be permitted 
henceforward, and to prohibit all such assemblies for 
the future. Concerning which, it is our desire, that 
your excellency should have a fair advertisement, to 
the end that henceforth your excellency may be more 
careful of admitting- any of the people of this republic 
to hear mass in your house. And as the parliament 
will diligently provide that your excellency's rights 
and privileges shall be preserved inviolable, so they 
persuade themselves, that your excellency during your 
abode here, would by no means, that the laws of 
this republic should be violated by yourself or your 
attendants. 

A Summary of the particular real Damages sustained 
by the English Company, in many places of the 
East-Indies, from the Dutch Company in Hol- 
land. 

1. The damages comprehended in the sixteen ar- 
ticles, and formerly exhibited, amounting to 298,555 
royals -J, of which is of our money 74,638/. 15s. 00c?. 

2. We demand satisfaction to be given for the in- 
comes of the island of Pularon, from the year sixteen 
hundred and twenty-two, to this time, of two hundred 
thousand royals -|, besides the future expense, till the 
right of jurisdiction over that island be restored in the 
same condition, as when it was wrested out of our 
hands, as was by league agreed to, amounting of our 
money to 50,000/. 00.?. OOrf. 

3. We demand satisfaction for all the merchandise, 
provision, and furniture taken away by the agents of 
the Dutch company in the Indies, or to them deliver- 
ed, or to any of their ships bound thither, or returning 
home; which sum amounts to 80,635 royals, of our 
money 20,158/. 00s. 00c/. 

4. We demand satisfaction for the customs of Dutch 
merchandise laden on board their ships in Persia, or 
landed there from the year sixteen hundred and 
twenty-four, as was granted us by the King of Persia, 
which we cannot value at less than fourscore thousand 
royals 20,000/. 00s. 00c/. 

5. We demand satisfaction for four houses maliciously 
and unjustly burnt at Jocatra, together with the ware- 
houses, magazines, and furniture, occasioned by the 
Dutch governor there, of all which we have informa- 
tion from the place itself, after we had exhibited our 
first complaints : the total of which damage we value 
at 50,000/. 00s. 00c?. 

We demand satisfaction for thirty-two thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-nine pound of pepper, 
taken out of the ship Endymion in sixteen hundred 
and forty-nine, the total of which damage amounts 
to 6,000/. 00s. 00c/. 



220,796/. 15s. 00c/. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



603 



A Summary of some particular Damages sustained also 
from the Dutch East -India Comjmny. 

1. For damages sustained by those who besieged 
Bantam, whence it came to pass, that for six years to- 
gether we were excluded from that trade, and conse- 
quently from an opportunity of laying out in pepper 
six hundred thousand royals, with which we might have 
laden our homeward-bound ships ; for want of which 
lading they rotted upon the coast of India. In the mean 
time our stock in India was wasted and consumed in 
mariners' wages, provision, and other furniture ; so that 
they could not value their loss at less than twenty hun- 
dred and four thousand royals . 600,000/. 00s. 00c?. 

2. More for damages by reason of our due part lost 
of the fruits in the Molucca islands, Banda and Am- 
boyna, from the time that by the slaughter of our men 
we were thence expelled, till the time that we shall be 
satisfied for our loss and expenses ; which space of time, 
from the year sixteen hundred and twenty-two, to this 
present year sixteen hundred and fifty, for the yearly 
revenue of 250,000 lib. amounts in twenty-eight years 
to 700,000/. 00s. 00c/. 



3. We demand satisfaction for one hundred and two 
thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine royals, taken from 
us by the Mogul's people, whom the Dutch protected 
in such a manner, that we never could repair our losses 
out of the money or goods of that people, which lay in 
their junks, which we endeavoured to do, and was in 
our power, had not the Dutch unjustly defended them. 
Which lost money we could have trebled in Europe, 
and value at .... 77,200/. 00s. 00c/. 

4. For the customs of Persia, the half part of which 
was by the king of Persia granted to the English, anno 
sixteen hundred and twenty-four. Which to the year 
sixteen hundred and twenty-nine, is valued at eight 
thousand royals ; to which add the four thousand lib. 
which they are bound to pay since sixteen hundred and 
twenty-nine, which is now one and twenty years, and 
it makes up the sum of . . 84,000/. 00s. 00c/. 



From the first account 



Sum total 



220,796/. 15s. 00c/. 



1,681,996/. 15s. 00c/. 



The interest from that time will far exceed the 
principal. 



LETTERS 



IN THE NAME OF OLIVER THE PROTECTOR. 



To the Count o/Oldenburgh. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
By your letters dated January twenty, sixteen hun- 
dred and fifty-four, I have been given to understand, 
that the noble Frederic Matthias Wolisog and Chris- 
topher Griphiander were sent with certain commands 
from your illustrious lordship into England ; who when 
they came to us, not only in your name congratulated 
our having taken upon us the government of the 
English republic, but also desired, that you and your 
territories might be comprehended in the peace which 
we are about to make with the Low Countries, and 
that we would confirm by our present authority the let- 
ters of safe conduct lately granted your lordship by 
the parliament. Therefore in the first place we return 
your lordship our hearty thanks for your friendly con- 
gratulation's it becomes us; and these will let you 
know that we have readily granted your two re- 
quests. Nor shall you find us wanting upon any 



opportunity, which may at any time make manifest 
our affection to your lordship. And this we are apt 
to believe you will understand more at large from 
your agents, whose fidelity and diligence in this affair 
of yours, in our court, has been eminently conspicu- 
ous. As to what remains, we most heartily wish the 
blessings of prosperity and peace, both upon you and 
your affairs. 

Your illustrious lordship's most affectionate, 
OLIVER, protector of England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, &c. 

To the Count o/*Oldenburgh. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
We received your letters, dated May the second, 
from Oldenburgh, most welcome upon more than one 
account; as well for that they were full of singular 
civility and goodwill towards us, as because they were 
delivered by the hand of the most illustrious count An- 
thony, your beloved sou ; which we look upon as so 



604 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



much the greater honour, as not having trusted to re- 
port, but with our own eyes, and by our own observation, 
discerned his virtues becoming such an illustrious ex- 
traction, his noble maimers and inclinations, and lastly, 
his extraordinary affection toward ourselves. Nor is 
it to be questioned but he displays to his own people 
the same fair hopes at home, that he will approve him- 
self the son of a most worthy and most excellent father, 
whose signal virtue and prudence has all along so ma- 
naged affairs, that the whole territory of Oldenburgh 
for many years has enjoyed a profound peace, and all 
the blessings of tranquillity, in the midst of the raging 
confusions of war thundering on every side. What 
reason therefore why we should not value such a 
friendship, that can so wisely and providentially shun 
the enmity of all men ? Lastly, most illustrious lord, 
it is for your magnificent* present that we return you 
thanks ; but it is of right, and your merits claim, that 
we are cordially, 

Your illustrious lordship's most affectionate, 

Westminster, OLIVER, &c. 

June 29, 1654. 

Superscribed, To the most Illustrious Lord, Anthony 
Gunther, count in Oldenburgh and Delmenhorst, 
lord in Jehvern and Kniphausen. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/*England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, Sfc, To the most Serene 
Prince, Charles Gustavtjs King of the Swedes, 
Goths, and Vandals, Great Prince of Finland, 
Duke of Esthonia, Carelia, Breme, Verden, 
Stettin in Pomerania, Cassubia, and Vandalia ; 
Prince of Rugia, Lord of Ingria, Wismaria, as 
also Count Palatine of the Rhine, and Duke of 
Bavaria, Cleves, and Monts, fyc, Greeting. 

Most Serene King, 
Though it be already divulged over all the world, 
that the kingdom of the Swedes is translated to your 
majesty with the extraordinary applause and desires of 
the people, and the free suffrages of all the orders of 
the realm ; yet that your majesty should rather choose, 
that we should understand the welcome news by your 
most friendly letters, than by the common voice of 
fame, we thought no small argument both of your 
goodwill towards us, and of the honour done us among 
the first. Voluntarily therefore and of right we con- 
gratulate this accession of dignity to your egregious 
merits, and the most worthy guerdon of so much virtue. 
And that it may be lucky and prosperous to your ma- 
jesty, to the nation of the Swedes, and the true chris- 
tian interest, which is also what you chiefly wish, with 
joint supplication we implore of God. And whereas 
your majesty assures us, that the preserving entire the 
league and alliance lately concluded between this re- 
public and the kingdom of Sweden shall be so far your 
care, that the present amity may not only continue 
firm and inviolable, but, if possible, every day increase 

• The horses which threw him out of the coach-box. 



and grow to a higher perfection, to call it into question, 
would be a piece of impiety, after the word of so great 
a prince once interposed, whose surpassing" fortitude 
has not only purchased your majesty an hereditary 
kingdom in a foreign land, but also could so far pre- 
vail, that the most august queen, the daughter of Gus- 
tavus, and a heroess so matchless in all degrees of 
praise and masculine renown, that many ages back- 
ward have not produced her equal, surrendered the 
most just possession of her empire to your majesty, 
neither expecting nor willing to accept it. Now 
therefore it is our main desire, your majesty should 
be every way assured, that your so singular affection 
toward us, and so eminent a signification of your 
mind, can be no other than most dear and welcome 
to us; and that no combat can offer itself to us more 
glorious, than such a one wherein we may, if pos- 
sible, prove victorious in outdoing your majesty's 
civility by our kind offices, that never shall be want- 
ing. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
OLIVER, protector of the com- 
Westminster, monwealth of England, Scot- 

July 4, 1654. land, and Ireland, &c. 

To the most Illustrious Lord, Lewis Mendez de 
Hardo. 

What we have understood by your letters, most il- 
lustrious lord, that there is an embassador already no- 
minated and appointed by the most serene king of 
Spain, on purpose to come and congratulate our hav- 
ing undertaken the government of the republic, is not 
only deservedly acceptable of itself, but rendered much 
more welcome and pleasing' to us by your singular 
affection, and the speed of your civility, as being- de- 
sirous we should understand it first of all from your- 
self. For, to be so beloved and approved by your lord- 
ship, who by your virtue and prudence have obtained 
so great authority with your prince, as to preside, his 
equal in mind, over all the most important affairs of 
that kingdom, ought to be so much the more pleasing 
to us, as well understanding that the judgment of a sur- 
passing person cannot but be much to our honour and 
ornament. Now as to our cordial inclinations tow aid 
the king of Spain, and ready propensity to hold friend- 
ship with that kingdom, and increase it to a stricter 
perfection, we hope we have already satisfied the pre- 
sent embassador, and shall more amply satisfy the 
other so soon as he arrives. As to what remains, most 
illustrious lord, we heartily wish the dignity and fa- 
vour, wherein you now nourish with your prince, per- 
petual to your lordship ; and whatever affairs you carry 
on for the public good, may prosperously and happily 
succeed. 

Your illustrious lordship's most affectionate, 
Whitehall, Sept. 1654. OLIVER, &c. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



605 



To the most Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus 
Adolphus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, fyc. 

Being so well assured of your majesty's goodwill to- 
wards me by your last letters, in answer to which I 
wrote back with the same affection, methinks I should 
do no more than what our mutual amity requires, if 
as I communicate my grateful tidings to reciprocal 
joy, so when contrary accidents fall out, that I should 
lay open the sense and grief of my mind to your ma- 
jesty, as my dearest friend. For my part, this is my 
opinion of myself, that T am now advanced to this de- 
gree in the commonwealth, to the end I should consult 
in the first place and as much as in me lies, for the 
common peace of the protestants. Which is the reason, 
that of necessity it behoves me more grievously to lay 
to heart what we are sorry to hear concerning the 
bloody conflicts and mutual slaughters of the Breme- 
ners and Swedes. But this I chiefly bewail, that being 
both our friends, they should so despitefully combat 
one against another, and with so much danger to the 
interests of the protestants ; and that the peace of Mun- 
ster, which it was thought would have proved an asy- 
lum and safeguard to all the protestants, should be the 
occasion of such an unfortunate war, that now the arms 
of the Swedes are turned upon those, whom but a little 
before, among the rest, they most stoutly defended for 
religion's sake ; and that this should be done more 
especially at this time, when the papists are said to 
persecute the reformed all over Germany, and to return 
to their intermitted for some time oppressions, and 
their pristine violences. Hearing therefore, that a 
truce for some days was made at Breme, I could not for- 
bear signifying to your majesty, upon this opportunity 
offered, how cordially I desire, and how earnestly I 
implore the God of peace, that this truce may prove 
successfully happy for the good of both parties, and 
that it may conclude in a most firm peace, by a 
commodious accommodation on both sides. To which 
purpose, if your majesty judges that my assistance may 
any ways conduce, I most willingly offer and promise 
it, as in a thing, without question, most acceptable to 
the most holy God. In the mean time, from the bot- 
tom of my heart, I beseech the Almighty to direct and 
govern all your counsels for the common welfare of 
the christian interest, which I make no doubt but that 
your majesty chiefly desires. 

Whitehall, Your majesty's most affectionate, 
Octob. 26, 1654. OLIVER, &c. 

To the Magnificent and most Nolle, the Consuls and 
Senators of the City of Breme. 

By your letters delivered to us by your resident 
Henry Oldenburgh, that there is a difference kindled 
between your city and a most potent neighbour, and 
to what straits you are thereby reduced, with so much 
the more trouble and grief we understand, by how 
much the more we love and embrace the city of Breme, 



so eminent above others for their profession of the or- 
thodox faith. Neither is there any thing which we 
account more sacred in our wishes, than that the whole 
protestant name would knit and grow together in bro- 
therly unity and concord. In the mean time, most 
certain it is, that the common enemy of the reformed 
rejoices at these our dissensions, and more haughtily 
every where exerts his fury. But in regard the con- 
troversy, which at present exercises your contending 
arms, is not within the power of our decision, we im- 
plore the Almighty God, that the truce begun may ob- 
tain a happy issue. Assuredly, as to what you desired, 
we have written to the king of the Swedes, exhorting 
him to peace and agreement, as being most chiefly 
grateful to Heaven, and have offered our assistance in 
so pious a work. On the other side, we likewise ex- 
hort yourselves to bear an equal mind, and by no means 
to refuse any honest conditions of reconciliation. And 
so we recommend your city to Divine Protection and 
Providence. 

Your lordship's most affectionate, 
Whitehall, OLIVER, protector of the common- 

Oct. 26, 1654. wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Republic of England, to the 
most Illustrious Prince o/"Tarentum. 

Your love of religion apparently made known in 
your letters to us delivered, and your excelling piety 
and singular affection to the reformed churches, more 
especially considering the nobility and splendour of 
your character, and in a kingdom too, wherein there 
are so many and such abounding hopes proposed to all 
of eminent quality that revolt from the orthodox faith, 
so many miseries to be undergone by the resolute and 
constant, gave us an occasion of great joy and conso- 
lation of mind. Nor was it less grateful to us, that we 
had gained your good opinion, upon the same account 
of religion, which ought to render your highness most 
chiefly beloved and dear to ourselves. We call God 
to witness, that whatever hopes or expectations the 
churches according to your relation had of us, we may 
be able one day to give them satisfaction, if need re- 
quire, or at least to demonstrate to all men, how much it 
is our desire never to fail them. Nor should we think 
any fruit of our labours, or of this dignity or supreme 
employment which we hold in our republic, greater 
than that we might be in a condition to be serviceable 
to the enlargement, or the welfare, or which is more 
sacred, to the peace of the reformed church. In the 
mean time, we exhort and beseech your lordship, 
to remain stedfast to the last minute in the orthodox 
religion, with the same resolution and constancy, as 
you profess it received from your ancestors with piety 
and zeal. Nor indeed can there be any thing more 
worthy yourself, or your religious parents, nor in con- 
sideration of what you have deserved of us, though we 
wish all things for your own sake, that we can 
wish more noble or advantag'eous to your lordship, 
than that you would take such methods, and apply 
yourself to such studies, that the churches, especially 



606 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



of your native country, under the discipline of which 
your birth and genius have rendered you illustriously 
happy, may be sensible of so much the more assured 
security in your protection, by how much you excel 
others in lustre and ability. 
Whitehall, April—, 1654. 

Oliver, the Protector, §rc, To the most Serene Prince, 
Immanuel Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piemont, 
Greeting. 

Most Serene Prince, 
Letters have been sent us from Geneva, as also 
from the Dauphinate, and many other places bordering" 
upon your territories, wherein we are given to under- 
stand, that such of your royal highness's subjects, as 
profess the reformed religion, are commanded by your 
edict, and by your authority, within three days after 
the promulgation of your edict, to depart their native 
seats and habitations, upon pain of capital punishment, 
and forfeiture of all their fortunes and estates, unless 
they will give security to relinquish their religion 
within twenty days, and embrace the Roman catholic 
faith. And that when they applied themselves to 
your royal highness in a most suppliant manner, 
imploring a revocation of the said edict, and that 
being received into pristine favour, they might be 
restored to the liberty granted them by your predeces- 
sors, a part of your army fell upon them, most cruelly 
slew several, put others in chains, and compelled the 
rest to fly into desert places, and to the mountains 
covered with snow, where some hundreds of fami- 
lies are reduced to such distress, that it is greatly 
to be feared, they will in a short time all miserably 
perish through cold and hunger. These things, when 
they were related to us, we could not choose but 
be touched with extreme grief and compassion for 
the sufferings and calamities of this afflicted people. 
Now in regard we must acknowledge ourselves 
linked together not only by the same tie of hu- 
manity, but by joint communion of the same religion, 
we thought it impossible for us to satisfy our duty to 
God, to brotherly charity, or our profession of the same 
religion, if we should only be affected with a bare sor- 
row for the misery and calamity of our brethren, and 
not contribute all our endeavours, to relieve and suc- 
cour them in their unexpected adversity, as much as in 
us lies. Therefore in a great measure we most earn- 
estly beseech and conjure your royal highness, that 
you would call back to your thoughts the moderation 
of your most serene predecessors, and the liberty by 
them granted and confirmed from time to time to their 
subjects the Vaudois. In granting and confirming 
which, as they did that which without all question was 
most grateful to God, who has been pleased to reserve 
the jurisdiction and power over the conscience to him- 
self alone, so there is no doubt, but that they had a due 
consideration of their subjects also, whom they found 
stout and most faithful in war, and always obedient in 
peace. And as your royal serenity in other things 
most laudably follows the footsteps of your immortal 



ancestors, so we ag'ain and again beseech your royal 
highness, not to swerve from the path wherein they 
trod in this particular; but that you would vouchsafe 
to abrogate both this edict, and whatsoever else may 
be decreed to the disturbance of your subjects upon the 
account of the reformed religion ; that you would ratify 
to them their conceded privileges and pristine liberty, 
and command their losses to be repaired, and that an 
end be put to their oppressions. Which if your royal 
highness shall be pleased to see performed, you will do 
a thing most acceptable to God, revive and comfort the 
miserable in dire calamity, and most highly oblige all 
your neighbours, that profess the reformed religion, 
but more especially ourselves, who shall be bound to 
look upon your clemency and benignity toward your 
subjects as the fruit of our earnest solicitation. Which 
will both engage us to a reciprocal return of all good 
offices, and lay the solid foundations not only of esta- 
blishing*, but increasing, alliance and friendship be- 
tween this republic and your dominions. Nor do we 
less promise this to ourselves from your justice and 
moderation ; to which we beseech Almighty God to 
incline your mind and thoughts. And so we cordially 
implore just Heaven to bestow upon your highness and 
your people the blessings of peace and truth, and pros- 
perous success in all your affairs. 
Whitehall, May — , 1655. 

Oliver, Protector of the Republic o/England, to the 
most Serene Prince o/'Transilvania, Greeting. 

Most Serene Prince, 
By your letters of the sixteenth of November, sixteen 
hundred and fifty-four, you have made us sensible of 
your singular goodwill and affection towards us; and 
your envoy, who delivered those letters to us, more 
amply declared your desire of contracting alliance and 
friendship with us. Certainly for our parts we do not 
a little rejoice at this opportunity offered us, to declare 
and make manifest our affection to your highness, and 
how great a value we justly set upon your person. But 
after fame had reported to us your egreg'ious merits 
and labours undertaken in behalf of the christian re- 
public, when you were pleased that all these things, 
and what you have farther in your thoughts to do in 
the defence and for promoting the christian interest, 
should be in friendly manner imparted to us by letters 
from yourself, this afforded us a more plentiful occa- 
sion of joy and satisfaction, to hear that God, in those 
remoter regions, had raised up to himself so potent and 
renowned a minister of his glory and providence: and 
that this great minister of heaven, so famed for his 
courage and success, should be desirous to associate 
with us in the common defence of the protestant re- 
ligion, at this time wickedly assailed by words and 
deeds. Nor is it to be questioned but that God, who 
has infused into us both, though separated by such a 
spacious interval of many climates, the same desires 
and thoughts of defending the orthodox religion, will 
be our instructor and author of the ways and means 
whereby we may be assistant and useful to ourselves 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



607 



and the rest of the reformed cities ; provided we watch 
all opportunities, that God shall put into our hands, 
and he not wanting- to lay hold of them. In the mean 
time we cannot without an extreme and penetrating 
sorrow forbear putting- your hig-hness in mind, how 
unmercifully the duke of Savoy has persecuted his own 
subjects, professing- the orthodox faith, in certain val- 
leys, at the feet of the Alps : whom he has not only 
constrained by a most severe edict, as many as refuse 
to embrace the catholic religion, to forsake their native 
habitations, goods, and estates, but has fallen upon 
them with his army, put several most cruelly to the 
sword, others more barbarously tormented to death, 
and driven the greatest number to the mountains, there 
to be consumed with cold and hunger, exposing their 
houses to the fury, and their goods to the plunder, of 
his executioners. These things, as they have already 
been related to your highness, so we readily assure 
ourselves, that so much cruelty cannot but be griev- 
ously displeasing to your ears, and that you will not be 
wanting to afford your aid and succour to those miser- 
able wretches, if there be any that survive so many 
slaughters and calamities. For our parts, we have 
written to the duke of Savoy, beseeching him to re- 
move his incensed anger from his subjects ; as also to 
the king - of France, that he would vouchsafe to do the 
same ; and lastly, to the princes of the reformed re- 
ligion, to the end they might understand our sentiments 
concerning- so fell and savage a piece of cruelty. 
Which, though first begun upon those poor and help- 
less people, however threatens all that profess the same 
religion, and therefore imposes upon all a greater ne- 
cessity of providing for themselves in general, and 
consulting the common safety ; which is the course 
that we shall always follow, as God shall be pleased to 
direct us. Of which your highness may be assured, 
as also of our sincerity and affection to your serenity, 
whereby we are engaged to wish all prosperous success 
to your affairs, and a happy issue of all your enter- 
prises and endeavours, in asserting the liberty of the 
gospel, and the worshippers of it. 
Whitehall, May — , 1655. 

Oliver, Protector, to the most Serene Prince, Charles 
Gustavus Adolphus, King of the Swedes, Greeting. 

We make no question, but that the fame of that most 
rigid edict has reached your dominions, whereby the 
duke of Savoy has totally ruined his protestant subjects 
inhabiting the Alpine valleys, and commanded them 
to be exterminated from their native seats and habita- 
tions, unless they will give security to renounce their 
religion received from their forefathers, in exchange 
for the Roman catholic superstition, and that within 
twenty days at farthest : so that many being killed, 
the rest stripped to their skins, and exposed to most 
certain destruction, are now forced to wander over de- 
sert mountains, and through perpetual winter, tog-ether 
with their wives and children, half dead with cold and 
hunger: and that your majesty has laid it to heart, 
with a pious sorrow and compassionate consideration, 



we as little doubt. For that the protestant name and 
cause, although they differ among themselves in some 
things of little consequence, is nevertheless the same 
in general, and united in one common interest ; the 
hatred of our adversaries, alike incensed against pro- 
testants, very easily demonstrates. Now there is no- 
body can be ignorant, that the kings of the Swedes 
have always joined with the reformed, carrying their 
victorious arms into Germany in defence of the protest- 
ants without distinction. Therefore we make it our 
chief request, and that in a more especial manner to 
your majesty, that you would solicit the duke of Savoy 
by letters; and, by interposing your intermediating 
authority, endeavour to avert the horrid cruelty of this 
edict, if possible, from people no less innocent than 
religious. For we think it superfluous to admonish 
your majesty whither these rigorous beginnings tend, 
and what they threaten to all the protestants in gene- 
ral. But if he rather choose to listen to his anger, 
than to our joint entreaties and intercessions; if there 
be any tie, any charity or communion of religion to be 
believed and worshipped, upon consultations duly first 
communicated to your majesty, and the chief of the 
protestant princes, some other course is to be speedily 
taken, that such a numerous multitude of our innocent 
brethren may not miserably perish for want of succour 
and assistance. Which, in regard we make no question 
but that it is your majesty's opinion and determination, 
there can be nothing in our opinion more prudently 
resolved, than to join our reputation, authority, coun- 
sels, forces, and whatever else is needful, with all the 
speed that may be, in pursuance of so pious a design. 
In the mean time, we beseech Almighty God to bless 
your majesty. 

Oliver, Protector, Sfc. to the High and Mighty Lords, 
the States of the United Provinces. 

We make no question, but that you have already 
been informed of the duke of Savoy's edict, set forth 
against his subjects inhabiting the vallejs at the feet 
of the Alps, ancient professors of the orthodox faith ; 
by which edict, they are commanded to abandon their 
native habitations, stripped of all their fortunes, unless 
within twenty days they embrace the Roman faith ; 
and with what cruelty the authority of this edict has 
raged against a needy and harmless people, many being 
slain by the soldiers, the rest plundered and driven 
from their houses, together with their wives and chil- 
dren, to combat cold and hunger among desert moun- 
tains, and perpetual snow. These things with what 
commotion of mind you heard related, what a fellow- 
feeling of the calamities of brethren pierced your 
breasts, we readily conjectured from the depth of our 
own sorrow, which certainly is most heavy and afflict- 
ive. For being engaged together by the same tie of 
religion, no wonder we should be so deeply moved 
with the same affections upon the dreadful and unde- 
served sufferings of our brethren. Besides, that your 
conspicuous piety and charity toward the orthodox, 
wherever overborn and oppressed, has been frequently 



608 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



experienced in the most urging straits and calamities 
of the churches. For my own part, unless my thoughts 
deceive me, there is nothing wherein I should desire 
more willingly to be overcome, than in goodwill and 
charity toward brethren of the same religion, afflicted 
and wronged in their quiet enjoyments ; as being one 
that would be accounted always ready to prefer the 
peace and safety of the churches before my particular 
interests. So far therefore as hitherto lay in our power, 
we have written to the duke of Savoy, even almost to 
supplication, beseeching him, that he would admit 
into his breast more placid thoughts and kinder effects 
of his favour toward his most innocent subjects and 
suppliants ; that he would restore the miserable to their 
habitations and estates, and grant them their pristine 
freedom in the exercise of their religion. Moreover, 
we wrote to the chiefest princes and magistrates of the 
protestants, whom we thought most nearly concerned 
in these matters, that they would lend us their assistance 
to entreat and pacify the duke of Savoy in their be- 
half. And we make no doubt now but you have done 
the same, and perhaps much more. For this so dan- 
gerous a precedent, and lately reuewed severity of ut- 
most cruelty toward the reformed, if the authors of it 
meet with prosperous success, to what apparent dangers 
it reduces our religion, we need not admonish your 
prudence. On the other side, if the duke shall once 
but permit himself to be atoned and won by our united 
applications, not only our afflicted brethren, but we 
ourselves shall reap the noble and abounding harvest 
and reward of this laborious undertaking. But if he 
still persist in the same obstinate resolutions of reducing' 
to utmost extremity those people, (among whom our 
religion was either disseminated by the first doctors of 
the gospel, and preserved from the defilement of su- 
perstition, or else restored to its pristine sincerity long 
before other nations obtained that felicity,) and deter- 
mines their utter extirpation and destruction ; we are 
ready to take such other course and counsels with 
yourselves, in common with the rest of our reformed 
friends and confederates, as may be most necessary 
for the preservation of just and good men, upon the 
brink of inevitable ruin; and to make the duke him- 
self sensible, that we can no longer neglect the heavy 
oppressions and calamities of our orthodox bi-ethren. 
Farewel. 

To the Evangelic Cities of Switzerland. 

We make no question, but the late calamity of the 
Piedmontois, professing our religion, reached your 
ears before the unwelcome news of it arrived with us : 
who being a people under the protection and jurisdic- 
tion of the duke of Savoy, and by a severe edict of their 
prince commanded to depart their native habitations, 
unless within three days they gave security to embrace 
the Roman religion, soon after were assailed by armed 
violence, that turned their dwellings into slaughter- 
houses, while others, without number, were terrified 
into banishment, where now naked and afflicted, with- 
out house or home, or any covering from the weather, 



and ready to perish through hunger and cold, they 
miserably wander thorough desert mountains, and 
depths of snow, together with their wives and children. 
And far less reason have we to doubt, but that so soon 
as they came to your knowledge, you laid these things 
to heart, with a compassion no less sensible of their 
multiplied miseries than ourselves ; the more deeply 
imprinted perhaps in your minds, as being next neigh- 
bours to the sufferers. Besides, that we have abundant 
proof of your singular love and affection for the ortho- 
dox faith, of your constancy in retaining- it, and your 
fortitude in defending it. Seeing then, by the most 
strict communion of religion, that you, together with 
ourselves, are all brethren alike, or rather one body 
with those unfortunate people, of which no member 
can be afflicted without the feeling, without pain, 
without the detriment and hazard of the rest ; we 
thought it convenient to write to your lordships con- 
cerning this matter, and let you understand, how much 
we believe it to be the general interest of us all, as 
much as in us lies, with our common aid and succour 
to relieve our exterminated and indigent brethren ; and 
not only to take care for removing their miseries and 
afflictions, but also to provide, that the mischief spread 
no farther, nor encroach upon ourselves in general, en- 
couraged by example and success. We have written 
letters to the duke of Savoy, wherein we have most 
earnestly besought him, out of his wonted clemency, 
to deal more gently and mildly with his most faithful 
subjects, and to restore them, almost ruined as they are, 
to their goods and habitations. And we are in hopes, 
that by these our entreaties, or rather by the united in- 
tercessions of us all, the most serene prince at length will 
be atoned, and grant what we have requested with so 
much importunity. But if his mind be obstinately 
bent to other determinations, we are ready to commu- 
nicate our consultations with yours, by what most pre- 
valent means to relieve and re-establish most innocent 
men, and our most dearly beloved brethren in Christ, 
tormented and overlaid with so many wrongs and op- 
pressions; and preserve them from inevitable and un- 
deserved ruin. Of whose welfare and safety, as I am 
assured, that you, according to your wonted piety, are 
most cordially tender ; so for our own parts, we cannot 
but in our opinion prefer their preservation before our 
most important interests, even the safeguard of our own 
life. Farewel. 

Westminster, O. P. 

May 19 th y 1655. 

Superscribed, To the most Illustrious and Potent 
Lords, the Consuls and Senators of the Protes- 
tant Cantons and Confederate Cities of Swit- 
zerland, Greeting. 

To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, King 
of France. 

Most Serene and Potent King; 
By your majesty's letters, which you wrote in an- 
swer to ours of the twenty-fifth of May, we readily un- 
derstand, that we failed not in our judgment, that the 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



609 



inhuman slaughter, and barbarous massacres of those 
men, who profess the reformed religion of Savoy, per- 
petrated by some of your regiments, were the effects 
neither of your orders nor commands. And it afforded 
us a singular occasion of joy, to hear that your majesty 
had so timely signified to your colonies and officers, 
whose violent precipitancy engaged them in those in- 
human butcheries, without the encouragement of law- 
ful allowance, how displeasing they were to your ma- 
jesty; that you had admonished the duke himself to for- 
bear such acts of cruelty ; and that you had interposed 
with so much fidelity and humanity all the high vene- 
ration paid you in that court, your near alliance and 
authority, for restoring to their ancient abodes those 
unfortunate exiles. And it was our hopes, that that 
prince would in some measure have condescended to 
the good pleasure and intercessions of your majesty. 
But finding not any thing obtained, either by your 
own, nor the entreaties and importunities of other 
princes in the cause of the distressed, we deemed it not 
foreign from our duty, to send this noble person, under 
the character of our extraordinary envoy, to the duke 
of Savoy, more amply and fully to lay before him, how 
deeply sensible we are of such exasperated cruelties, 
inflicted upon the professors of the same religion with 
ourselves, and all this too out of a hatred of the same 
worship. And we have reason to hope a success of 
this negotiation so much the more prosperous, if your 
majesty would vouchsafe to employ your authority 
and assistance once again with so much the more ur- 
gent importunity ; and as you have undertaken for 
those indigent people, that they will be faithful and 
obedient to their prince, so you would be graciously 
pleased to take care of their welfare and safety, that 
no farther oppressions of this nature, no more such 
dismal calamities, may be the portion of the innocent 
and peaceful. This being truly royal and just in it- 
self, and highly agreeable to your benignity and cle- 
mency, which every where protects in soft security 
so many of your subjects professing the same religion, 
we cannot but expect, as it behoves us, from your 
majesty. Which act of yours, as it will more closely 
bind to your subjection all the protestants throughout 
your spacious dominions, whose affection and fidelity 
to your predecessors and yourself in most important 
distresses have been often conspicuously made known : 
so will it fully convince all foreign princes, that 
the advice or intention of your majesty were no way 
contributory to this prodigious violence, whatever 
inflamed your ministers and officers to promote it. 
More especially, if your majesty shall inflict deserv- 
ed punishment upon those captains and ministers, 
w ho of their own authority, and to gratify their own 
wills, adventured the perpetrating such dreadful acts 
of inhumanity. In the mean while, since your majesty 
has assured us of your justly merited aversion to these 
most inhuman and cruel proceedings, we doubt not 
but you will afford a secure sanctuary and shelter 
within your kingdom to all those miserable exiles, that 
shall fly to your majesty for protection; and that you 
will not give permission to any of your subjects, to 



assist the duke of Savoy to their prejudice. It remains 
that we make known to your majesty, how highly we 
esteem and value your friendship : in testimony of 
which, we farther affirm, there shall never be wanting 
upon all occasions the real assurances and effects of our 
protestation. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
Whitehall, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

July 29, 1655. monwealth of England, &c. 

To the most Eminent Lord, Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord Cardinal, 

Having deemed it necessary to send this noble per- 
son to the king with letters, a copy of which is here 
enclosed, we gave him also farther in charge, to salute 
your excellency in our name, as having intrusted to 
his fidelity certain other matters to be communicated 
to your eminency. In reference to which affairs, I 
entreat your eminency to give him entire credit, as 
being a person in whom I have reposed a more than 
ordinary confidence. 

Your eminency's most affectionate, 

Whitehall, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

Jult/29, 1655. monwealth of England. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/England, 
To the most Serene Prince, Frederic III., King of 
Denmark, Norway, &c. 

With what a severe and unmerciful edict Immanuel 
duke of Savoy has expelled from their native seats his 
subjects inhabiting the valleys of Piedmont, men other- 
wise harmless, only for many years remarkably famous 
for embracing the purity of religion ; and after a 
dreadful slaughter of some numbers, how he has ex- 
posed the rest to the hardships of those desert moun- 
tains, stripped to their skins, and barred from all relief, 
we believe your majesty has long since heard, and 
doubt not but your majesty is touched with a real com- 
miseration of their sufferings, as becomes so puissant a 
defender and prince of the reformed faith : for indeed 
the institutions of christian religion require, that what- 
ever mischiefs and miseries any part of us undergo, it 
should behove us all to be deeply sensible of the same : 
nor does any man better than your majesty foresee, if 
we may be thought able to give a right conjecture of 
your piety and prudence, what dang-ers the success and 
example of this fact portend to ourselves in particular, 
and to the whole protestant name in general. We 
have written the more willingly to yourself, to the end 
we might assure your majesty, that the same sorrow, 
which we hope you have conceived for the calamity of 
our most innocent brethren, the same opinion, the same 
judgment you have of the whole matter, is plainly and 
sincerely our own. We have therefore sent our letters 
to the duke of Savoy, wherein we have most impor- 
tunately besought him, to spare those miserable people, 
that implore his mercy, and that he would no longer 
suffer that dreadful edict to be in force : which if your 
majesty and the rest of the reformed princes would 



610 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



vouchsafe to do, as we are apt to believe they have 
already done, there is some hope, that the anger of the 
most serene duke may be assuaged, and that his indig- 
nation will relent upon the intercession and importuni- 
ties of his neighbour princes. Or if he persist in his 
determinations, we protest ourselves ready, together 
with your majesty, and the rest of our confederates of 
the reformed religion, to take such speedy methods, as 
may enable us, as far as in us lies, to relieve the dis- 
tresses of so many miserable creatures, and provide 
for their liberty and safety. In the mean time we 
beseech Almighty God to bless your majesty with all 
prosperity. 
Whitehall, May — , 1655. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the most Noble the Consuls and Senators of 
the City of Geneva. 

We had before made known to your lordships our 
excessive sorrow for the heavy and unheard of cala- 
mities of the protestants, inhabiting the valleys of 
Piedmont, whom the duke of Savoy persecutes with 
so much cruelty ; but that we made it our business, that 
you should at the same time understand, that we are 
not only affected with the multitude of their sufferings, 
but are using the utmost of our endeavours to relieve 
and comfort them in their distresses. To that pur- 
pose we have taken care for a gathering of alms to be 
made throughout this whole republic ; which upon 
good grounds we expect will be such, as will demon- 
strate the affection of this nation toward their brethren, 
labouring under the burden of such horrid inhumani- 
ties ; and that as the communion of relig'ion is the same 
between both people, so the sense of their calamities 
is no less the same. In the mean time, while the col- 
lections of the money go forward, which in regard they 
will require some time to accomplish, and for that the 
wants and necessities of those deplorable people will 
admit of no delay, we thought it requisite to remit be- 
fore-hand two thousand pounds of the value of England 
with all possible speed, to be distributed among such 
as shall be judged to be most in present need of com- 
fort and succour. Now in regard we are not ignorant 
how deeply the miseries and wrongs of those most 
innocent people have affected yourselves, and that you 
will not think amiss of any labour or pains where you 
can be assisting to their relief, we made no scruple to 
commit the paying and distributing this sum of money 
to your care ; and to give you this farther trouble, that 
according to your wonted piety and prudence, you 
would take care, that the said money may be distri- 
buted equally to the most necessitous, to the end that 
though the sum be small, yet there may be something 
to refresh and revive the most poor and needy, till we 
can afford them a more plentiful supply. And thus, 
not making any doubt but you will take in good part 
the trouble imposed upon ye, we beseech Almighty 
God to stir up the hearts of all his people professing 
the orthodox religion, to resolve upon the common 
defence of themselves, and the mutual assistance of 



each other against their imbittered and most implaca- 
ble enemies: in the prosecution of which, we should 
rejoice that our helping hand might be any way ser- 
viceable to the church. Farewel. 

Fifteen hundred pounds of the foresaid two thousand 
will be remitted by Gerard Hench from Paris, and the 
other five hundred pounds will be taken care of by 
letters from the lord Stoup. 

June 8, 1655. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/*England, 
Sfc, To the most Serene Prince, the Duke ©/"Venice. 

Most Serene Prince, 
As it has been always a great occasion of rejoicing 
to us, whenever any prosperous success attended your 
arms, but more especially against the common enemy 
of the Christian name; so neither are we sorry for the 
late advantage gained by your fleet, though, as we 
understand, it happened not a little to the detriment of 
our people : for certain of our merchants, William and 
Daniel Williams, and Edward Beale, have set forth in 
a petition presented to us, that a ship of theirs, called 
the Great Prince, was lately sent by them with goods 
and merchandise to Constantinople, where the said 
ship was detained by the ministers of the Port, to carry 
soldiers and provisions to Crete ; and that the said ship 
being constrained to sail along with the same fleet of 
the Turks, which was set upon and vanquished by the 
galleys of the Venetians, was taken, carried away to 
Venice, and there adjudged lawful prize by the judges 
of the admiralty. Now therefore in regard the said 
ship was pressed by the Turks, and forced into their 
service without the knowledge or consent of the owners 
directly or indirectly obtained, and that it was impos- 
sible for her, being shipped with soldiers, to withdraw 
from the engagement, we most earnestly request your 
serenity, that you will remit that sentence of your 
admiralty, as a present to our friendship, and take such 
care, that the ship may be restored to the owners, no 
way deserving the displeasure of your republic by any 
act of theirs. In the obtaining of which request, more 
especially upon our intercession, while we find the 
merchants themselves so well assured of your clemency, 
it behoves us not to question it. And so we beseech 
the Almighty God to continue his prosperous blessings 
upon your noble designs, and the Venetian republic. 

Your serenity's and the Venetian repub- 
lic's most affectionate, 

Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

Decemb. — , 1655. monwealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/"England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, Lewis, King of 
France. 

Most Serene King, 
Certain of our merchants, by name Samuel Mico, 
William Cockain, George Poyner, and several others, 
in a petition to us have set forth, That in the year 1650, 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



they laded a ship of theirs, called the Unicorn, with 
goods of a very considerable value ; and that the said 
ship being- thus laden with silk, oil, and other merchan- 
dise, amounting- to above thirty-four thousand of our 
pounds, was taken by the admiral and vice-admiral of 
your majesty's fleet in the Mediterranean sea. Now it 
appears to us, that our people who were then in the 
ship, by reason there was at that time a peace between 
the French and us, that never had been violated in the 
least, were not willing to make any defence ag-ainst 
your majesty's royal ships, and therefore, overruled be- 
sides by the fair promises of the captains Paul and 
Terrery, who faithfully engaged to dismiss our people, 
they paid their obedience to the maritime laws, and 
produced their bills of lading. Moreover, we find that 
the merchants aforesaid sent their agent into France, to 
demand restitution of the said ship and goods : and then 
it was, that after above three years slipped away, when 
the suit was brought so far, that sentence of restitution 
or condemnation was to have been given, that his emi- 
nency cardinal Mazarine acknowledged to their factor 
Hugh Morel, the wrong" that had been done the mer- 
chants, and undertook that satisfaction should be given, 
so soon as the league between the two nations, which 
was then under negotiation, should be ratified and 
confirmed. Nay, since that, his excellency M. de 
Bourdeaux, your majesty's embassador, assured us in 
express words, by the command of your majesty and 
your council, That care should be taken of that ship 
and goods in a particular exception, apart from those 
controversies, for the decision of which a general pro- 
vision was made by the league : of which promise, the 
embassador, now opportunely arrived here to solicit 
some business of his own, is a testimony no way to be 
questioned. Which being true, and the right of the 
merchants in redemanding- their ship and goods so 
undeniably apparent, we most earnestly request your 
majesty, that they may meet with no delay in obtain- 
ing what is justly their due, but that your majesty will 
admit the grant of this favour, as the first fruits of our 
revived amity, and the lately renewed league between 
us. The refusal of which as we have no reason to 
doubt, so we beseech Almighty God to bless with all 
prosperity both your majesty and your kingdom. 
Your majesty's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
Westminster, wealth of England, Scotland, 

Dec. — , 1655. and Ireland, &c. 

To the Evangelic Cities of Switzerland. 

In what condition your affairs are, which is not the 
best, we are abundantly informed, as well by your 
public acts transmitted to us by our agent at Geneva, 
as also by your letters from Zuric, bearing date the 
twenty-seventh of December. Whereby, although we 
are sorry to find your peace, and such a lasting league 
of confederacy, broken ; nevertheless since it appears 
to have happened through no fault of yours, we are in 
hopes that the iniquity and perverseness of your ad- 
versaries are contriving new occasions for ye to make 
2 R 



known your long ago experienced fortitude and resolu- 
tion in defence of the Evangelic faith. For as for 
those of the canton of Schwitz, who account it a capital 
crime for any person to embrace our religion, what 
they are might and main designing, and whose insti- 
gations have incensed them to resolutions of hostility 
against the orthodox religion, nobody can be ignorant, 
who has not yet forgot that most detestable slaughter 
of our brethren in Piedmont. Wherefore, most be- 
loved friends, what you were always wont to be, with 
God's assistance still continue, magnanimous and re- 
solute ; suffer not your privileges, your confederacies, 
the liberty of your consciences, your religion itself to 
be trampled under foot by the worshippers of idols ; 
and so prepare yourselves, that you may not seem to 
be the defenders only of your own freedom and safety, 
but be ready likewise to aid and succour, as far as in 
you lies, your neighbouring brethren, more especially 
those most deplorable Piedmontois; as being certainly 
convinced of this, that a passage was lately intended 
to have been opened over their slaughtered bodies to 
your sides. As for our part be assured, that we are no 
less anxious and solicitous for your welfare and pros- 
perity, than if this conflagration had broken forth in 
our republic ; or as if the axes of the Schwitz Canton 
had been sharpened for our necks, or that their swords 
had been drawn against our breasts, as indeed they 
were against the bosoms of all the reformed. There- 
fore so soon as we were informed of the condition of 
your affairs, and the obstinate animosities of your ene- 
mies, advising with some sincere and honest persons, 
together with some ministers of the church most emi- 
nent for their piety, about sending to your assistance 
such succour as the present posture of our affairs would 
permit, we came to those results which our envoy Pell 
will impart to your consideration. In the mean time 
we cease not to implore the blessing of the Almighty 
upon all your counsels, and the protection of your most 
just cause, as well in war as in peace. 

Your lordships and worships most affectionate, 
Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Corn- 

Jaw. — , 1655. monwealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus, 
hy the Grace of God King of the Swedes, Goths, 
and Vandals, Great Prince of Finland, fyc. 

Most Serene King, 
Seeing it is a thing well known to all men, that 
there ought to be a communication of concerns among 
friends, whether in prosperity or adversity ; it cannot 
but be most grateful to us, that your majesty should 
vouchsafe to impart unto us by your letters the most 
pleasing and delightful part of your friendship, which 
is your joy. In regard it is a mark of singular civility, 
and truly royal, as not to live only to a man's self, so 
neither to rejoice alone, unless he be sensible that his 
friends and confederates partake of his gladness. Cer- 
tainly then, we have reason to rejoice for the birth of 
the young prince bora to such an excellent king, and 



612 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



sent into the world to be the heir of his father's glory 
and virtue ; and this at such a lucky season, that we 
have no less cause to congratulate the royal parent with 
the memorable omen that befell the famous Philip of 
Macedon, who at the same time received the tidings of 
Alexander's birth, and the conquest of the Illyrians. 
For we make no question, but the wresting of the 
kingdom of Poland from papal subjection, as it were a 
horn dismembered from the head of the beast, and the 
peace, so much desired by all good men, concluded 
with the duke of Brandenburgh, will be most highly 
conducing to the tranquillity and advantage of the 
church. Heaven grant a conclusion correspondent to 
such signal beginnings ; and may the son be like the 
father in virtue, piety, and renown, obtained by great 
achievements. Which is that we wish may luckily 
come to pass, and which we beg of the Almighty, so 
propitious hitherto to your affairs. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

Feb. — , 1655. monwealth of England, &c. 

To the King o/Denmark. 
Most Serene and Potent Prince, 
John Freeman and Philip Travess, citizens of this 
republic, by a petition presented to us, in their own 
and the name of several other merchants of London, 
have made a complaint, That whereas about the month 
of March, in the year 1653, they freighted a certain 
ship of Sunderburg, called the Saviour, Nicholas 
Weinskinks master, with woollen cloth, and other 
commodities to the value of above three thousand 
pound, with orders to the master, that he should sail 
directly up the Baltic for Dantzic, paying the usual 
tribute at Elsenore, to which purpose in particular 
they gave him money : nevertheless that the said mas- 
ter, perfidiously and contrary to the orders of the said 
merchants, slipping by Elsenore without paying the 
usual duty, thought to have proceeded in his voyage, 
but that the ship for this reason was immediately 
seized and detained with all her lading. After due 
consideration of which complaints, we wrote in favour 
of the merchants to your majesty's embassador residing 
at London, who promised, as they say, that as soon as 
he returned to your majesty, he would take care that 
the merchants should be taken into consideration. 
But he being sent to negotiate your majesty's affairs 
in other countries, the merchants attended upon him 
in vain, both before and after his departure; so that 
they were forced to send their agent to prosecute their 
right and claim at Copenhagen, and demand restitution 
of the ship and goods ; but all the benefit they reaped 
by it was only to add more expenses to their former 
damages, and a great deal of labour and pains thrown 
away; the goods being condemned to confiscation, 
and still detained : whereas by the law of Denmark, 
u they set forth in their petition, the master is to be 
punished for his offence, and the ship to be condemned 
but not the goods. And they look upon this misfor- 
tune to lie the more heavy upon them, in regard the 
duty which is to be paid at Elsenore, as they tell 



us, is but very small. Wherefore seeing our mer- 
chants seem to have given no cause of proscription, 
and for that the master confessed before his death, 
that this damage befell them only through his neglect; 
and the father of the master deceased, by his petition 
to your majesty, as we are given to understand, by 
laying- all the blame on his son, has acquitted the 
merchants ; we could not but believe the detaining of 
the said ship and g-oods to be most unjust; and there- 
fore we are confident, that so soon as your majesty 
shall be rightly informed of the whole matter, you 
will not only disapprove of these oppressions of your 
ministers, but give command that they be called to an 
account, that the goods be restored to the owners or 
their factors, and reparation made them for the losses 
they have sustained. All which we most earnestly 
request of your majesty, as being no more than what 
is so just and consentaneous to reason, that a more 
equitable demand, or more legal satisfaction cannot 
well be made, considering the justice of our merchants' 
cause, and which your own subjects would think, but 
fair and honest upon the like occasions. 



To the most Serene Prince, John the Fourth, King of 
Portugal, Sec. 



Most Serene King, 
The peace and friendship which your majesty de- 
sired, by your noble and splendid embassy sent to us 
some time since, after certain negotiations begun by 
the parliament in whom the supreme power was vested 
at that time, as it was always most affectionately wished 
for by us, with the assistance of God, and that we might 
not be wanting in the administration of the govern- 
ment which we have now taken upon us, at length we 
brought to a happy conclusion, and as we hope, as a 
sacred act, have ratified it to perpetuity. And therefore 
we send back to your majesty your extraordinary em- 
bassador, the lord John Roderigo de Sita Meneses, 
count of Pennaguiada, a person both approved by your 
majesty's judgment, and by us experienced to excel in 
civility, ingenuity, prudence, and fidelity, besides the 
merited applause which he has justly gained by accom- 
plishing the ends of his embassy, which is the peace 
which he carries along with him to his country. But 
as to what we perceive by your letters dated from 
Lisbon the second of April, that is to say, how highly 
your majesty esteems our amity, how cordially you 
favour our advancement, and rejoice at our having 
taken the government of the republic upon us, which 
you are pleased to manifest by singular testimonies of 
kindness and affection, we shall make it our business, 
that all the world may understand, by our readiness 
at all times to serve your majesty, that there could be 
nothing more acceptable or grateful to us. Nor are 
we less earnest in our prayers to God for your majesty's 
safety, the welfare of your kingdom, and the prosperous 
success of your affairs. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
OLIVER, &c. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



613 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
fyc, To the High and Mighty States of the United 
Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest Friends ; 

Certain merchants, our countrymen, Thomas Bas- 
sel, Richard Beare, and others their copartners, have 
made their complaints before us, that a certain ship of 
theirs, the Edmund and John, in her voyage from the 
coast of Brazil to Lisbon, was set upon by a privateer 
of Flushing, called the Red Lion, commanded by 
Lambert Bartelson, but upon this condition, which the 
writing signed by Lambert himself testifies, that the 
ship and whatsoever goods belonged to the English 
should be restored at Flushing : where when the vessel 
arrived, the ship indeed with what peculiarly belonged 
to the seamen was restored, but the English merchants' 
goods were detained and put forthwith to sale: for the 
merchants who had received the damage, when they 
had sued for their goods in the court of Flushing, after 
great expenses for five years together, lost their suit 
by the pronouncing of a most unjust sentence against 
them by those judges, of which some, being interested 
in the privateer, were both judges and adversaries, and 
no less criminal altogether. So that now they have 
no other hopes but only in your equity and uncorrupted 
faith, to which at last they fly for succour : and which 
they believed they should find the more inclinable to 
do them justice, if assisted by our recommendation. 
And men are surely to be pardoned, if, afraid of all 
things in so great a struggle for their estates, they 
rather call to mind what they have reason to fear from 
your authority and high power, than what they have 
to hope well of their cause, especially before sincere 
and upright judges : though for our parts we make 
no question, but that induced by your religion, your 
justice, your integrity, rather than by our entreaties, 
you will give that judgment which is just and equal, 
and truly becoming yourselves. God preserve both 
you and your republic to his own glory, and the defence 
and succour of his church. 

Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
April 1, 1656. wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, Sfc, To the most Serene 
Prince, Charles Gustavus, King of the Swedes, 
Goths, and Vandals, Great Prince of Finland, 
Duke of Esthonia, Carelia, Breme, Verden, 
Stettin, Pomerania, Cassubia, and Vandalia, 
Prince of Rugia, Lord of Ingria and Wismaria, 
Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, 
Juliers, Cleves, and Monts. 

Most Serene Prince, 
Peter Julius Coict having accomplished the affairs 
of his embassy with us, and so acquitted himself, that 
he is not by us to be dismissed without the ornament 
of his deserved praises, is now returning to your ma- 
jesty. For he was most acceptable to us, as well and 



chiefly for your own sake, which ought with us to be 
of high consideration, as for his own deserts in the di- 
ligent acquittal of his trust. The recommendation 
therefore which we received from you in his behalf, 
we freely testify to have been made good by him, and 
deservedly given by yourself; as he on the other side 
is able with the same fidelity and integrity, to relate 
and most truly to declare our singular affection and 
observance toward your majesty. It remains for us 
to beseech the most merciful and all powerful God, to 
bless your majesty with all felicity, and perpetual course 
of victory over all the enemies of his church. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
April 17, 1656. wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/England, 
Sfc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, 
King o/Trance. 

Most Serene Prince, 
John Dethic, mayor of the city of London for this 
year, and William Wakefield, merchant, have made 
their addresses to us by way of petition, complaining, 
that about the middle of October, sixteen hundred and 
forty-nine, they freighted a certain ship called the Jo- 
nas of London, Jonas Lightfoot master, with goods 
that were to be sent to Ostend ; which vessel was taken 
in the mouth of the river Thames, by one White of 
Barking, a pirate, robbing upon the seas by virtue of a 
commission from the son of King Charles deceased, 
and carried to Dunkirk, then under the jurisdiction of 
the French. Now in regard that by your majesty's 
edict in the year sixteen hundred and forty-seven, re- 
newed in sixteen hundred and forty-nine, and by some 
other decrees in favour of the parliament of England, 
as they find it recorded, it was enacted, that no vessel 
or g'oods taken from the English, in the time of that 
war, should be carried into any of your majesty's ports 
to be there put to sale ; they presently sent their factor 
Hugh Morel to Dunkirk, to demand restitution of the 
said ship and goods from M. Lestrade then governor 
of the town ; more especially finding them in the place 
for the most part untouched, and neither exchanged or 
sold. To which the governor made answer, that the 
king had bestowed that government upon him of his 
free gift or service done the king- in his wars, and there- 
fore he would take care to make the best of the reward of 
his labour. So that having little to hope from an an- 
swer so unkind and unjust, after a great expense of 
time and money, the factor returned home. So that 
all the remaining hopes, which the petitioners have, 
seem wholly to depend upon your majesty's justice and 
clemency, to which they thought they might have the 
more easy access by means of our letters ; and there- 
fore that neither your clemency nor your justice may 
be wanting to people despoiled against all law and 
reason, and contrary to your repeated prohibitions, we 
make it our request. Wherein, if your majesty vouch- 
safe to gratify us, since there is nothing required but 
what is most just and equitable, we shall deem it as 



014 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



obtained rather from your innate integrity, than any 
entreaty of ours. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

filay — f 1656. monwealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/*England, 
S,-c, To the High and Mighty Lords, the States of 
the United Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest Friends ; 

John Brown, Nicholas Williams, and others, citi- 
zens of London, have set forth in their petitions to us, 
that when they had every one brought in their propor- 
tions, and freighted a certain ship called the Good 
Hope of London, bound for the East Indies, they gave 
orders to their factor, to take up at Amsterdam two 
thousand four hundred Dutch pounds, to ensure the 
said ship ; that afterwards this ship, in her voyage to 
the coast of India, was taken by a ship belonging to 
the East India Company; upon which they who had 
engaged to ensure the said vessel refused to pay the 
money, and have for this six years by various delays 
eluded our merchants, who with extraordinary dili- 
gence, and at vast expenses, endeavoured the recovery 
of their just right. Which in regard it is an unjust 
grievance, that lies so heavy upon the petitioners, for 
that some of those who obliged themselves are dead or 
become insolvent; therefore that no farther losses may 
accrue to their former damages, we make it our earnest 
request to your lordships, that you will vouchsafe your 
integrity to be the harbour and refuge for people tossed 
so many years, and almost shipwrecked in your courts 
of justice, and that speedy judgment may be given ac- 
cording to the rules of equity and honesty in then- 
cause, which they believe to be most just. In the mean 
time we wish you all prosperity to the glory of God, 
and the welfare of his church. 

Your high and mighty lordships most affectionate, 

Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

May — , 1656. monwealth of England, Sec. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the High and Mighty Lords, the States of 
the United Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest Friends ; 

The same persons in whose behalf we wrote to } r our 
lordships in September the last year, Thomas and Wil- 
liam Lower, the lawful heirs of Nicholas Lower de- 
ceased, make grievous complaints before us, that they 
are oppressed either by the favour or wealth of their 
adversaries, notwithstanding the justice of their cause ; 
and when that would not suffice, although our letters 
wt n often pleaded in their behalf, they have not been 
able hitherto to obtain possession of the inheritance 
left them by their father's will. From the court of 
Holland, where the suit was first commenced, they 
were sent to your court, and from thence hurried 
away into Zealand, (to which three places they carried 
our letters,) and now they are remanded, not unwill- 



ingly, back again to your supreme judicature; for 
where the supreme power is, there they expect supreme 
justice. If that hope fail them, eluded and frustrated, 
after being so long tossed from post to pillar for the 
recovery of their right, where at length to find a rest- 
ing- place they know not. For as for our letters, if 
they find no benefit of these the fourth time written, 
they can never promise themselves any advantage 
for the future from slighted papers. However, it 
would be most acceptable to us, if yet at length, after 
so many contempts, the injured heirs might meet with 
some relief by a speedy and just judgment, if not 
out of respect to any reputation we have among 
ye, yet out of a regard to your own equity and jus- 
tice. Of the last of which we make no question, and 
confidently presume you will allow the other to our 
friendship. 

Your high and mighty lordships most affectionate, 
Westminster, OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

May — , 1656. monwealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince John, King o/Por- 

TUGAL. 

Most Serene King, 

Whereas there is a considerable sum of money ow- 
ing from certain Portugal merchants of the Brasile 
company to several English merchants, upon the ac- 
count of freightage and demorage, in the years sixteen- 
hundred and forty -nine and sixteen-hundred and fifty, 
which money is detained by the said company by your 
majesty's command, the merchants before mentioned 
expected, that the said money should have been paid 
long since according to the articles of the last league, 
but now they are afraid of being" debarred all hopes 
and means of recovering their debts ; understanding 
your majesty has ordered, that what money is owing 
to them by the Brasile company shall be carried into 
your treasury, and that no more than one half of the 
duty of freightage shall be expended toward the pay- 
ment of their debts; by w r hich means the merchants 
willreceiveno more than the bare interest of their money, 
while at the same time they utterly lose their principal. 
Which we considering to be very severe and heavy 
upon them, and being overcome by their most reason- 
able supplications, have granted them these our letters 
to your majesty ; chiefly requesting this at your hands, 
to take care that the aforesaid Brasile company may 
give speedy satisfaction to the merchants of this repub- 
lic, and pay them not only the principal money which 
is owing to them, but the five years interest ; as being 
both just in itself, and conformable to the league 
so lately concluded between us ; which on their be- 
half in most friendly manner we request from your 
majesty. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our Palace OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

at Westminster, monwealth, &c. 

July — , 1656. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



61, 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth a/England, 
§-c., To the most Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus, 
King of the Swedes, Goths, awe? Vandals, fyc. 

Most Serene King", 
As it is but just that we should highly value the 
friendship of your majesty, a prince so potent and so 
renowned for great achievements ; so is it but equally 
reasonable that your extraordinary embassador, the 
most illustrious lord Christiern Bond, by whose sedu- 
lity and care a strict alliance is most sacredly and so- 
lemnly ratified between us, should be most acceptable to 
us, and no less deeply fixed in our esteem. Him there- 
fore, having" now most worthily accomplished his em- 
bassy, we thought it became us to send back to your 
majesty, though not without the high applause which 
the rest of his singular virtues merit; to the end, that 
he, who was before conspicious in your esteem and 
respect, may now be sensible of his having reaped still 
more abundant fruits of his sedulity and prudence from 
our recommendation. As for those things which yet 
remain to be transacted, we have determined in a short 
time to send an embassy to your majesty for the settling 
of those affairs. In the mean time, Almighty God 
preserve in safety so great a pillar of his church, and 
of Swedland's welfare. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our palace OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

at Westminster, monwealth of England, &c. 

July — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the most Serene Prince Lewis, King of 
France. 

Most Serene King", our most dear Friend 
and Confederate ; 
Certain merchants of London, Richard Baker and 
others, have made their complaint in a petition to us, 
that a certain hired ship of theirs, called the Endeavour, 
William Jop master, laden at Teneriff with three hun- 
dred pipes of rich Canary, and bound from thence for 
London, in her voyage between Palmaand that island, 
upon the twenty-first of November, in the year sixteen 
hundred and fifty-five, was taken by four French ves- 
sels, seeming ships of burden, but fitted and manned 
like privateers, under the command of Giles de la 
Roche their admiral ; and carried with all their freight, 
and the greatest part of the seamen, to the East Indies, 
whither he pretended to be bound, (fourteen excepted, 
who were put ashore upon the coast of Guiney,) which 
the said Giles affirmed he did with that intent, that 
noue of them might escape from so remote and bar- 
barous a country to do him any harm by their testi- 
mony. For he confessed he had neither any commis- 
sion to take the English vessels, neither had he taken 
any, as he might have done before, well knowing 
there was a firm peace at that time between the French 
and our republic: but in regard he had designed to 
revictual in Portugal, from whence he was driven by 



contrary winds, he was constrained to supply his ne- 
cessities with what he found in that vessel ; and 
believed the owners of his ships would satisfy the mer- 
chants for their loss. Now the loss of our merchants 
amounts to sixteen thousand English pounds, as will 
easily be made appear by witnesses upon oath. But 
if it shall be lawful, upon such trivial excuses as these, 
for pirates to violate the most religious acts of princes, 
and make a sport of merchants for their particular be- 
nefits, certainly the sanctity of leagues must fall to the 
ground, all faith and authority of princes will grow 
out of date, and be trampled under foot. Wherefore 
we not only request your majesty, but believe it mainly 
to concern your honour, that they, who have ventured 
upon so slight a pretence to violate the league and 
most sacred oath of their sovereign, should suffer the 
punishment due to such perfidiousness and daring in- 
solence ; and that in the mean time the owners of those 
ships, though to their loss, should be bound to satisfy 
our merchants for the vast detriment, which they have 
so wrongfully sustained. So may the Almighty long- 
preserve your majesty, and support the interest of 
France ag'ainst the common enemy of us both. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our palace 

at Westminster, OLIVER, Protector, &c. 

Aug. — , 1656. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/"England, 
To his Eminency Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord, 
Having an occasion to send letters to the king, we 
thought it likewise an offered opportunity to write to 
your eminency. For we could not think it proper to 
conceal the subject of our writing from the sole and 
only person, whose singular prudence governs the most 
important interests of the French nation, and the most 
weighty affairs of the kingdom with equal fidelity, 
counsel, and vigilance. Not without reason we com- 
plain, in short, to find that league by yourself, as it 
were a crime to doubt, most sacredly concluded, al- 
most the very same day contemned and violated by 
one Giles a Frenchman, a petty admiral of four ships, 
and his associates, equally concerned, as your eminency 
will readily find by our letters to the king, and the 
demands themselves of our merchants. Nor is it un-< 
known to your excellency, how much it concerns not 
only inferior magistrates, but even royal majesty itself, 
that those first violators of solemn alliances should be 
severely punished. But they, perhaps, by this time 
being arrived in the East Indies, whither they pre- 
tended to be bound, enjoy in undisturbed possession 
the goods of our people as lawful prize won from an 
enemy, which they robbed and pillaged from the 
owners, contrary to all law, and the pledged faith of 
our late sacred league. However, this is that which 
we request from your eminency, that whatever goods 
were taken from our merchants by the admiral of those 
ships, as necessary for his voyage, may be restored by 
the owners of the same vessels, which was no more than 



616 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



what the rovers themselves thought just and equal ; 
which, as we understand, it lies within your power to 
do, considering- the authority and sway you bear in the 
kingdom. 

Your eminency's most affectionate, 
From our palace OLIYEPv, Protector of the Com- 

at Westminster, monwealth, &c. 

Aug. — , 1656. 

Oliver, Protector of tlie Commonwealth of England, 
eye, To the most High and Mighty Lords, the States 
of the United Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest 
Friends and Confederates ; 
We make no doubt but that all men will bear us 
this testimony, that no considerations, in contracting 
foreign alliances, ever swayed us beyond those of de- 
fending the truth of religion, or that we accounted any 
thing more sacred, than to unite the minds of all the 
friends and protectors of the protestants, and of all 
others who at least were not their enemies. Whence 
it come to pass, that we are touched with so much the 
more grief of mind, to hear that the protestant princes 
and cities, whom it so much behoves to live in friend- 
ship and concord together, should begin to be so jealous 
of each other, and so ill disposed to mutual affection ; 
more especially, that your lordships and the king of 
Sweden, than whom the orthodox faith has not more 
magnanimous and courageous defenders, nor our re- 
public confederates more strictly conjoined in interests, 
should seem to remit of your confidence in each other ; 
or rather, that there should appear some too apparent 
signs of tottering friendship and growing discord be- 
tween ye. What the causes are, and what progress 
this alienation of your affection has made, we protest 
ourselves to be altogether ignorant. However, we 
cannot but conceive an extraordinary trouble of mind 
for these beginnings of the least dissension arisen among 
brethren, whieh infallibly must greatly endanger the 
protestant interests. Which if they should gather 
strength, how prejudicial it would prove to protestant 
churches, what an occasion of triumph it would afford 
our enemies, and more especially the Spaniards, can- 
not be unknown to your prudence, and most industri- 
ous experience of affairs. As for the Spaniards, it has 
already so enlivened their confidence, and raised their 
courage, that they made no scruple by their embassa- 
dor residing in your territories, boldly to obtrude their 
counsels upon your lordships, and that in reference to 
the highest concerns of your republic ; presuming 
partly with threats of renewing the war, to terrify, 
and partly with a false prospect of advantage to solicit 
your lordships, to forsake your ancient and most faith- 
ful friends, the English, French, and Danes, and enter 
into a strict confederacy with your old enemy, and 
"in- domineering tyrant, now seemingly atoned; 
but, what is most to be feared, only at present treacher- 
ously fawning to advance his own designs. Cerlainly 
he who of an inveterate enemy lays hold of so slight 
an occasion of a sudden to become your counsellor, 



what is it that he would not take upon him? Where 
would his insolency stop, if once he could but see with 
his eyes, what now he only ruminates and labours in 
his thoughts ; that is to say, division and a civil war 
among the protestants ? We are not ignorant that 
your lordships, out of your deep wisdom, frequently re- 
volve in your minds what the posture of all Europe is, 
and what more especially the condition of the protes- 
tants : that the cantons of Switzerland adhering to the 
orthodox faith are in daily expectation of new trou- 
bles to be raised by their countrymen embracing the 
popish ceremonies ; scarcely recovered from that war, 
which for the sake of religion was kindled and blown 
up by the Spaniards, who supplied their enemies both 
with commanders and money : that the councils of the 
Spaniards are still contriving to continue the slaughter 
and destruction of the Piedmontois, which was cruelly 
put in execution the last year: that the protestants un- 
der the jurisdiction of the emperor are most grievously 
harassed, having much ado to keep possession of their 
native homes : that the king of Sweden, whom God, as 
we hope, has raised up to be a most stout defender 
of the orthodox faith, is at present waging with all the 
force of his kingdom a doubtful and bloody war with 
the most potent enemies of the reformed religion : that 
your own provinces are threatened with hostile confe- 
deracies of the princes your neighbours, headed by the 
Spaniards : and lastly, that we ourselves are busied in 
a war proclaimed against the king of Spain. In this 
posture of affairs, if any contest should happen between 
your lordships and the king of Sweden, how miserable 
would be the condition of all the reformed churches 
over all Europe, exposed to the cruelty and fury of 
unsanctified enemies ! These cares not slightly seize 
us ; and we hope your sentiments to be the same ; 
and that out of your continued zeal for the common 
cause of the protestants, and to the end the present 
peace between brethren professing the same faith, the 
same hope of eternity, may be preserved inviolable, 
your lordships will accommodate your counsels to those 
considerations, which are to be preferred before all 
others ; and that you will leave nothing neglected, that 
may conduce to the establishing tranquillity and union 
between your lordships and the king of Sweden. 
Wherein if we can any way be useful, as far as our 
authority, and the favour you bear us will sway your 
lordships, we freely offer our utmost assistance, pre- 
pared in like manner to be no less serviceable to the 
king of Sweden, to whom we design a speedy embassy, 
to the end we may declare our sentiments at large con- 
cerning these matters. We hope moreover, that God 
will bend your minds on both sides to moderate coun- 
sels, and so restrain your animosities, that no provoca- 
tion may be given, either by the one or the other, to 
fester your differences to extremity ; but that on the 
other side both parties will remove whatever may give 
offence or occasion of jealousy to the other. Which if 
you shall vouchsafe to do, you will disappoint your 
enemies, prove the consolation of your friends, and in 
the best manner provide for the welfare of your repub- 
lic. And this we beseech you to be fully convinced of, 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



617 



that we shall use our utmost care to make appear, upon 
all occasions, our extraordinary affection and goodwill 
to the states of the United Provinces. And so we most 
earnestly implore the Almighty God to perpetuate his 
blessings of peace, wealth, and liberty, upon your re- 
public ; but above all things to preserve it always 
flourishing in the love of the christian faith, and the 
true worship of his name. 

Your high and mightinesses most affectionate, 
From our palace OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

at Westminster, monwealth of England, &c. 

Aug. — , 1656, 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of Eng- 
land, 8fc. To the most Serene Prince, John, King of 
Portugal. 

Most Serene Prince, 
Upon the eleventh of July last, old style, we receiv- 
ed by Thomas Maynard the ratification of the peace 
negotiated at London by your extraordinary embassa- 
dor; as also of the private and preliminary articles, all 
now confirmed by your majesty: and by our letters 
from Philip Meadows, our agent at Lisbon, dated the 
same time, we understand that our ratification also of 
the same peace and articles was by him, according* to 
our orders sent him, delivered to your majesty : and 
thus the instruments of the forementioned ratification 
being mutually interchanged on both sides in the be- 
ginning of June last, there is now a firm and settled 
peace between both nations. And this pacification has 
given us no small occasion of joy and satisfaction, as 
believing it will prove to the common benefit of both 
nations, and to the no slight detriment of our common 
enemies, who as they found out a means to disturb the 
former league, so they left nothing neglected to have 
hindered the renewing of this. Nor do we question in 
the least, that they will omit any occasion of creating 
new matter for scandals and jealousies between us. 
Which we however have constantly determined, as 
much as in us lies, to remove at a remote distance from 
our thoughts ; rather we so earnestly desire, that this 
our alliance may beget a mutual confidence, greater 
every day than other, that we shall take them for our 
enemies, who shall by any artifices endeavour to mo- 
lest the friendship by this peace established between 
ourselves and both our people. And we readily per- 
suade ourselves, that your majesty's thoughts and in- 
Itentions are the same. And whereas it has pleased 
your majesty, by your letters dated the twenty-fourth 
of June, and some days after the delivery by our agent 
of the interchanged instrument of confirmed peace, to 
mention certain clauses of the league, of which you 
desired some little alteration, being of small moment to 
this republic, as your majesty believes, but of great 
importance to the kingdom of Portugal ; we shall be 
ready to enter into a particular treaty in order to those 
proposals made by your majesty, or whatever else may 
conduce, in the judgment of both parties, to the farther 
establishment and more strongly fastening of the 



league : wherein we shall have those due consider- 
ations of your majesty and your subjects, as also of our 
own people, that all may be satisfied ; and it shall be 
in your own choice, whether these things shall be ne- 
gotiated at Lisbon, or at London. However, the league 
being now confirmed, and dulj' sealed with the seals of 
both nations, to alter any part of it would be the same 
thing as to annul the whole; which we are certainly 
assured your majesty by no means desires to do. We 
heartily wish all things lucky, all things prosperous to 
your majesty. From our palace at Westminster, Aug. 
— , 1656. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, John, King of Por- 
tugal. 

Most Serene King, 
We have received the unwelcome news of a wicked 
and inhuman attempt to have murdered our agent 
Philip Meadows, residing with your majesty, and by 
us sent upon the blessed errand of peace ; the heinous- 
ness of which was such, that his preservation is only 
to be attributed to the protection of Heaven. And we 
are given to understand, by your letters dated the 
twenty-sixth of May last, and delivered to us by Tho- 
mas Maynard, that your majesty, justly incensed at 
the horridness of the fact, has commanded inquiry to 
be made after the criminals, to the end they may be 
brought to condign punishment: but we do not hear 
that any of the ruffians are yet apprehended, or that 
your commands have wrought any effect in this par- 
ticular. Wherefore we thought it our duty openly to 
declare, how deeply we resent this barbarous outrage 
in part attempted, and in part committed: and there- 
fore we make it our request to your majesty, that due 
punishment may be inflicted upon the authors, associ- 
ates, and encouragers of this abominable fact. And to 
the end that this maybe the more speedily accomplished, 
we farther demand, that persons of honesty and sin- 
cerity, wellwishers to the peace of both nations, may 
be entrusted with the examination of this business, that 
so a due scrutiny may be made into the bottom of this 
malicious contrivance, to the end both authors and 
assistants may be the more severely punished. Unless 
this be done, neither your majesty's justice, nor the 
honour of this republic, can be vindicated ; neither can 
there be any stable assurance of peace between both 
nations. We wish your majesty all things fortunate 
and prosperous. From our palace at Whitehall, 
August — , 1656. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 



618 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Illustrious Lord, the Conde 
d'Odemira. 

Most Illustrious Lord, 
Your singular goodwill towards us and this republic 
lias laid no mean obligation upon us, nor slightly tied 
us to acknowledgment. We readily perceived it by 
your letters of the twenty-fifth of June last, as also by 
those which we received from our ag'ent Philip Mea- 
dows, sent into Portug-al to conclude the peace in 
agitation, wherein he informed us of your extraordi- 
nary zeal and diligence to promote the pacification, of 
which we most joyfully received the last ratification; 
and we persuade ourselves, that your lordship will 
have no cause to repent either of your pains and dili- 
gence in procuring this peace, or of your goodwill to 
the English, or your fidelity towards the king, your 
sovereign ; more especially considering- the great hopes 
we have that this peace will be of high advantage to 
both nations, and not a little inconvenient to our ene- 
mies. The only accident that fell out unfortunate and 
mournful in this negotiation, was that unhallowed 
villany nefariously attempted upon the person of our 
agent, Philip Meadows : the concealed authors of 
which intended piece of inhumanity ought no less 
diligently to be sought after, and made examples to 
posterity, than the vilest of most openly detected assas- 
sinates. Nor can we doubt in the least of your king's 
severity and justice in the punishment of a crime so 
horrid, nor of your care and sedulity to see, that there 
be no remissness of prosecution, as being a person 
bearing due veneration to the laws of God, and sanctity 
among- men, and no less zealous to maintain the peace 
between both nations, which never can subsist if such 
inhuman barbarities as these escape unpunished and 
unrevenged. But your abhorrence and detestation of 
the fact is so well known, that there is no need of in- 
sisting any more at present upon this unpleasing sub- 
ject. Therefore, having thus declared our goodwill 
and affection to your lordship, of which we shall be 
always ready to give apparent demonstrations, there 
nothing remains, but to implore the blessings of Divine 
favour and protection upon you, and all yours. From 
our palace at Westminster, Aug. — , 1656. 

Your lordship's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
8rc, To the most Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus, 
King of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals, Sfc. 

Most Serene King, our dearest Friend 
and Confederate ; 
Being assured of your majesty's concurrence both in 
thoughts and counsels for the defence of the protestant 
faith against the enemies of it, if ever, now at this time 
most dangerously vexatious; though we cannot but 
rejoice at your prosperous successes, and the daily 



tidings of your victories, yet on the other side we can- 
not but be as deeply afflicted, to meet with one thing 
that disturbs and interrupts our joy; we mean the bad 
news intermixed with so many welcome tidings, that 
the ancient friendship between your majesty and the 
States of the United Provinces looks with a dubious 
aspect, and that the mischief is exasperated to that 
height, especially in the Baltic sea, as seems to bode 
an unhappy rupture. We confess ourselves ignorant 
of the causes ; but we too easily foresee, that the events, 
which God avert, will be fatal to the interests of the 
protestants. And therefore, as well in respect to that 
most strict alliance between us and your majesty, as 
out of that affection and love to the reformed religion, 
by which we all of us ought chiefly to be swayed, we 
thought it our duty, as we have most earnestly exhorted 
the States of the United Provinces to peace and mode- 
ration, so now to persuade your majesty to the same. 
The protestants have enemies every where enow and 
to spare, inflamed with inexorable revenge; they never 
were known to have conspired more perniciously to our 
destruction : witness the valleys of Piedmont, still reek- 
ing with the blood and slaughter of the miserable ; 
witness Austria, lately turmoiled with the emperor's 
edicts and proscriptions ; witness Switzerland. But 
to what purpose is it, in many words to call back the 
bitter lamentations and remembrance of so many cala- 
mities ? Who so ignorant, as not to know, that the 
counsels of the Spaniards, and the Roman pontiff, for 
these two years have filled all these places with confla- 
grations, slaughter, and vexation of the orthodox? If 
to these mischiefs there should happen an access of 
dissension among protestant brethren, more especially 
between two potent states, upon whose courage, wealth, 
and fortitude, so far as human strength may be relied 
upon, the support and hopes of all the reformed churches 
depend ; of necessity the protestant religion must be in 
great jeopardy, if not upon the brink of destruction. 
On the other side, if the whole protestant name would 
but observe perpetual peace among themselves with 
that same brotherly union as becomes their profession, 
there would be no occasion to fear, what all the arti- 
fices or puissance of our enemies could do to hurt us 
which our fraternal concord and harmony alone would 
easily repel and frustrate. And therefore we most 
earnestly request and beseech your majesty, to harbour 
in your mind propitious thoughts of peace, and incli- 
nations ready bent to repair the breaches of your pris- 
tine friendship with the United Provinces, if in any 
part it may have accidentally suffered the decays of 
mistakes or misconstruction. If there be any thing 
wherein our labour, our fidelity, and diligence may be 
useful toward this composure, we offer and devote all 
to your service. And may the God of heaven favour 
and prosper your noble and pious resolutions, which 
together with all felicity, and a perpetual course of 
victory, we cordially wish to your majesty. 
Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our palace OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
at Westminster, monwealth of England, &e. 

Aug. — , 1656. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



619 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
#t., To the States of Holland. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest Friends; 

It has been represented to us, by William Cooper, 
a minister of London, and our countryman, that John 
le Maire of Amsterdam, his father-in-law, about three 
and thirty years ago devised a project, by which the 
revenues of your republic might be very much ad- 
vanced without any burden to the people, and made 
an agreement with John Vandenbrook, to share be- 
tween them the reward, which they should obtain for 
their invention ; which was the settling of a little seal 
to be made use of in all the provinces of your territories, 
and for which your High and Mightinesses promised 
to pay the said Vandenbrook and his heirs the yearly 
sum of three thousand gilders, or three hundred English 
pounds. Now although the use and method of this 
little seal has been found very easy and expeditious, 
and that ever since great incomes have thereby accrued 
to your High and Mightinesses, and some of your pro- 
vinces, nevertheless nothing of the said reward, though 
with much importunity demanded, has been paid to 
this day; so that the said Vandenbrook and le Maire 
being tired out with long delays, the right of the said 
grant is devolved to the foresaid William Cooper our 
countryman ; who, desirous to reap the fruit of his 
father-in-law's industry, has petitioned us, that we 
would recommend his just demands to your High and 
Mightinesses, which we thought not reasonable to deny 
him. Wherefore, in most friendly wise, we request 
your High and Mightinesses favourably to hear the 
petition of the said William Cooper, and to take such 
care, that the reward and stipend, so well deserved, 
and by contract agreed and granted, may be paid him 
annually from this time forward, together with the 
arrears of the years already passed. Which not doubt- 
ing but your High and Mightinesses will vouchsafe to 
perform, as what is no more than just and becoming 
your magnificence, we shall be ready to shew the 
same favour to the petitions of your countrymen upon 
any occasions of the same nature, whenever presented 
to us. 

Your High and Mightinesses most affectionate, 
From our palace at OLIVER, Protector of the 

Whitehall, Sep- Commonwealth, &c. 

tcmber — , 1656. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
$fc, To the most Serene Prince, Lewis, King of 
France. 

Most Serene King, our dearest Friend 
and Confederate ; 
Against our will it is, that we so often trouble your 
majesty with the wrongs done by your subjects after a 
peace so lately renewed. But as we are fully per- 
suaded, that your majesty disapproves their being com- 
mitted, so neither can we be wanting to the complaints 
of our people. That the ship Anthony of Dieppe was 



legally taken before the league, manifestly appears by 
the sentence of the judges of our admiralty court. 
Part of the lading, that is to say, four thousand hides, 
Robert Brown, a merchant of London, fairly bought of 
those who were entrusted with the sale, as they them- 
selves testify. The same merchant, after the peace 
was confirmed, carried to Dieppe about two hundred 
of the same hides, and there having sold them to a 
currier, thought to have received, his money, but found 
it stopped and attached in the hands of his factor ; and 
a suit being commenced against him, he could obtain 
no favour in that court ; wherefore, we thought it 
proper to request your majesty, that the whole matter 
maybe referred to your council, that so the said money 
may be discharged from an unjust and vexatious ac- 
tion. For if acts done and adjudged before the peace 
shall after peace renewed be called into question and 
controversy, we must look upon assurance of treaties to 
be a thing of little moment. Nor will there be any end 
of these complaints, if some of these violators of leagues 
be not made severe and timely examples to others. 
Which we hope your majesty will speedily take into 
your care. To whom God Almighty in the mean time 
vouchsafe his most holy protection. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our palace OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
et* Whitehall, monwealth of England, &c. 
Sept. — , 1656. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, John, King of 
Portugal. 

Most Serene King, 
The peace being happily concluded between this 
republic and the kingdom of Portugal, and what refers 
to trade being duly provided for and ratified, we deemed 
it necessary to send to your majesty Thomas Maynard, 
from whom you will receive these letters, to reside in 
your dominions, under the character and employment 
of a consul, and to take care of the estates and inter- 
ests of our merchants. Now in regard it may fre- 
quently so fall out, that he may be enforced to desire 
the privilege of free admission to your majesty, as well 
in matters of trade, as upon other occasions for the in- 
terest of our republic, we make it our request to your 
majesty, that you will vouchsafe him favourable access 
and audience, which we shall acknowledge as a sin- 
gular demonstration and testimony of your majesty's 
goodwill towards us. In the mean time we beseech 
Almighty God to bless your majesty with all prosperity. 
From our court at Westminster, Octob. — , 1656. 
Your majesty's most affectionate, 
OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of England, &c. 

To the King of the Swedes. 

Most Serene and Potent King% 
Although 3 r our majesty's wonted and spontaneous 
favour and goodwill toward all deserving men be such, 



620 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



that all recommendations in their behalf may seem 
superfluous, jet we were unwilling' to dismiss without 
our letters to your majesty this noble person, William 
Vavassour, knight, serving under your banners, and 
now returning" to your majesty : which we have done 
so much the more willingly, being" informed, that for- 
merly following- your majesty's fortunate conduct, he 
had lost his blood in several combats, to assert the noble 
cause for which you fight. Insomuch, that the suc- 
ceeding kings of Swedeland, in remuneration of his 
military skill, and bold achievements in war, rewarded 
him with lands and annual pensions, as the guerdons 
of his prowess. Nor do we question, but that he may 
be of great use to your majesty in your present wars, 
who has been so long" conspicuous for his fidelity and 
experience in military affairs. It is our desire there- 
fore, that he may be recommended to your majesty 
according- to his merits ; and we also further request, 
that he may be paid the arrears due to him. This, as 
it will be most acceptable to us, so we shall be readv 
upon the like occasion, whenever offered, to gratify 
your majesty, to whom we wish all happiness and 
prosperity. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of England, Sec. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/'England, 
Sfc., To the most Sei-ene Prince, John, King of 
Portugal. 

Most Serene King, our dearest Friend 
and Confederate ; 
Thomas Evans, a master of a ship, and our coun- 
tryman, has presented to us a petition, wherein he sets 
forth, that in the years 1649 and 1650 he served the 
Brasile company with his ship the Scipio, being a ves- 
sel of four hundred tons, and of which he was master; 
that the said ship was taken from him, with all the 
lading and furniture, by your majesty's command ; by 
which he has received great damage, besides the loss 
of six years gain arising out of such a stock. The 
commissioners by the league appointed on both sides 
for the deciding controversies valued the whole at 
seven thousand of our pounds, or twice as many mil- 
reys of Portugal money, as they made their report to 
us. Which loss falling so heavy upon the foresaid 
Thomas, and being constrained to make a voyage to 
Lisbon for the recovery of his estate, he humbly be- 
sought us. that we would grant him our letters to your 
majesty in favour of" his demands. — We, therefore, 
(although we wrote the last year in the behalf of our 
merchants in general to whom the Brasile company 
was indebted, nevertheless that we may not be want- 
ing to any that implore our aid,) request your majesty, 
in regard to that friendship which is between us, that 
consideration may be had of this man in particular, 
and that your majesty would give such orders to 
all your ministers and officers, that no obstacle may 
hinder him from demanding and recovering without 
delay what is owing to him from the Brasile company, 



or any other persons. God Almighty bless your ma- 
jesty with perpetual felicity, and grant that our friend- 
ship may long endure. 

From our palace at Westminster, Octob. — , 1656. 
Your majesty's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
&c, To the Illustrious and Magnificent Senate of 
Hamborough. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Right Worshipful; 

James and Patrick Hays, subjects of this common- 
wealth, have made grievous complaint before us, That 
they, being lawful heirs of their brother Alexander who 
died intestate, were so declared by a sentence of your 
court pronounced in their behalf against their brother's 
widow; and the estates of their deceased brother, toge- 
ther with the profits, only the widow's dowry except- 
ed, being adjudged to them by virtue of that sentence; 
nevertheless, to this very clay they could never reap 
any benefit of their pains and expenses in obtaining 
the said judgment, notwithstanding their own declared 
right, and letters formerly written by King Charles in 
their behalf; for that the great power and wealth of 
Albert van Eyzen, one of your chief magistrates, and 
with whom the greatest part of the goods was depo- 
sited, was an opposition too potent for them to sur- 
mount, while he strove all that in him lay that the 
goods might not be restored to the heirs. Thus disap- 
pointed and tired out with delays, and at length re- 
duced to utmost poverty, they are become suppliants to 
us, that we would not forsake them, wronged and op- 
pressed as they are in a confederated city. We there- 
fore, believing it to be a chief part of our duty, not to 
suffer any countryman of ours in vain to desire our pa- 
tronage and succour in distress, make this request to 
your lordships, which we are apt to think we may 
easily obtain from your city, That the sentence pro- 
nounced in behalf of the two brothers may be ratified 
and duly executed, according to the intents and pur- 
poses for which it was given ; and that you will not 
suffer any longer delay of justice, by an appeal to the 
chamber of Spire, upon any pretence whatever: for we 
have required the opinions of our lawyers, which we 
have sent to your lordships fairly written and sig'ned. 
But if entreaty and fair means will nothing avail, of 
necessity (and which is no more than according to the 
customary law of nations, though we are unwilling to 
come to that extremity) the severity of retaliation must 
take its course; which we hope your prudence will 
take care to prevent. From our palace at Westmin- 
ster, Octob. 16, 1656. 

Your lordship's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



621 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ^England, 
Sfc.j To the most Serene and Potent Lewis, King of 
France. 

Most Serene and Potent King", our clearest 
Friend and Confederate ; 
We are apt to believe, that your majesty received 
our letters dated the 14th of May, of the last year, 
wherein we wrote that John Dethic, mayor of London 
that year, and William Waterford, merchant, had by 
their petition set forth, That a certain vessel called the 
Jonas, freighted with goods upon their account, and 
bound for Dunkirk, then under the jurisdiction of the 
French, was taken at the very mouth of the Thames, 
by a searover, pretending a commission from the son 
of the late King Charles : which being directly con- 
trary to your edicts and the decrees of your council, 
that no English ship, taken by the enemies of the par- 
liament, should be admitted into any of your ports, 
and there put to sale, they demanded restitution of the 
said ship and goods from M. Lestrade, then governor 
of the town, who returned them an answer no way be- 
coming a person of his quality, or who pretended obe- 
dience to his sovereign ; That the government was 
conferred upon him for his good service in the wars, 
and therefore he would make his best advantage of it, 
that is to say, by right or wrong ; for that he seemed 
to drive at: as if he had received that government of 
your majesty's free gift, to authorize him in the rob- 
bing your confederates, and contemning your edicts 
set forth in their favour. For what the King of France 
forbids his subjects any way to have a hand in, that 
the king's governor has not only suffered to be com- 
mitted in your ports, but he himself becomes the pi- 
rate, seizes the prey, and openly avouches the fact. 
With this answer therefore the merchants departed, 
altogether baffled and disappointed ; and this we sig- 
nified by our letters to your majesty the last year with 
little better success; for as yet we have received no re- 
ply to those letters. Of which we are apt to believe 
the reason was, because the governor was with the 
army in Flanders ; but now he resides at Paris, or ra- 
ther flutters unpunished about the city, and at court, 
enriched with the spoils of our merchants. Once more 
therefore we make it our request to your majesty, 
which it is your majesty's interest in the first place to 
take care of, that no person whatever may dare to jus- 
tify the wrongs done to your majesty's confederates by 
the contempt of your royal edicts. Nor can this cause 
be properly referred to the commissioners appointed for 
deciding common controversies on both sides; since in 
this case not only the rights of confederates, but your 
authority itself, and the veneration due to the royal 
name, are chiefly in dispute. And it would be a won- 
der, that merchants should be more troubled for their 
losses, than your majesty provoked at encroachments 
upon your honour. Which while you disdain to brook, 
with the same labour you will demonstrate, that you 
neither repent of your friendly edicts in favour of our 
republic, nor connived at the injuries done by your 



subjects, nor neglected to give due respect to our de- 
mands. From our court at Westminster, Novemb. — , 
1656. 

Your majesty's most bounden by goodwill, 
by friendship and solemn league, 
OLIVER, Protector of the Commonwealth, See. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Frede- 
ric III., King of Denmark, Norway, the Vandals, 
and Goths ; Duke of Sleswic, Holsatia, Stor- 
matia, and Dithmarsh ; Count in Oldenburgh 
and Delmenhorst ; fyc. 

Most Serene and Potent King, our dearest 
Friend and Confederate; 
We received your majesty's letters dated the 16th of 
February, from Copenhagen, by the most worthy Si- 
mon de Pitkum, your majesty's agent here residing. 
Which when we had perused, the demonstrations of 
your majesty's goodwill towards us, and the impor- 
tance of the matter concerning- which you write, affected 
us to that degree, that we designed forthwith to send 
to your majesty some person, who being furnished with 
ample instructions from us, might more at large declare 
to your majesty our counsels in that affair. And though 
we have still the same resolutions, yet hitherto we have 
not been at leisure to think of a person proper to be 
entrusted with those commands, which the weight of 
the matter requires ; though in a short time we hope to 
be more at liberty. In the mean while we thought it 
not convenient any longer to delay the letting your 
majesty understand, that the present condition of affairs 
in Europe has employed the greatest part of our care 
and thoughts; while for some years, to our great grief, 
we have beheld the protestant princes, and supreme 
magistrates of the reformed republics, (whom it rather 
behoves, as being engaged by the common tie of reli- 
gion and safety, to combine and study all the ways 
imaginable conducing to mutual defence,) more and 
more at weakening variance among themselves, and 
jealous of each other's actions and designs; putting- 
their friends in fear, their enemies in hope, that the 
posture of affairs bodes rather enmity and discord, than 
a firm agreement of mind to defend and assist each 
other. And this solicitude has fixed itself so much the 
deeper in our thoughts, in regard there seems to appear 
some sparks of jealousy between your majesty and the 
kino- of Sweden; at least, that there is not that con- 
junction of affections, which our love and goodwill in 
general toward the orthodox religion so importunately 
requires : your majesty, perhaps, suspecting that the 
trade of your dominions will be prejudiced by the king 
of Sweden ; and on the other side, the king of Sweden 
being jealous, that by your means the war which he 
now wages is made more difficult, and that you oppose 
him in his contracting those alliances which he seeks. 
It is not unknown to your majesty, so eminent for 
your profound wisdom, how great the danger is that 
threatens the protestant religion, should such suspicions 
long continue between two such potent monarchs ; 



622 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



more especially, which God avert, if any symptom of 
hostility should hreak forth. However it he, for our 
parts, as we have earnestly exhorted the king of Swe- 
den, and the states of the United Provinces to peace, 
and moderate counsels, (and are heyond expression 
glad to behold peace and concord renewed between 
them, for that the heads of that league are transmitted 
to us by their lordships the states-general,) so we 
thought it our duty, and chiefly becoming our friend- 
ship, not to conceal from your majesty what, our senti- 
ments are concerning these matters, (more especially 
being affectionately invited so to do by your majesty's 
most friendly letters, which we look upon, and embrace, 
as a most singular testimony of your goodwill towards 
us.) but to lay before your eyes how great a necessity 
Divine Providence has imposed upon us all that profess 
the protestant religion, to study peace among ourselves, 
and that chiefly at this time, when our most embittered 
enemies seem to have on every side conspired our de- 
struction. There is no necessity of calling to remem- 
brance the valleys of Piedmont still besmeared with 
the blood and slaughter of the miserable inhabitants ; 
nor Austria, tormented at the same time with the em- 
peror's decrees and proscriptions; nor the impetuous 
onsets of the popish upon the protestant Switzers. Who 
can be ignorant, that the artifices and machinations of 
the Spaniards, for some years last past, have filled all 
these places with the confused and blended havoc of 
fire and sword ? To which unfortunate pile of miseries, 
if once the reformed brethren should come to add their 
own dissensions among themselves, and more espe- 
cially two such potent monarchs, the chiefest part of 
our strength, and among whom so large a provision of 
the protestant security and puissance lies stored and 
hoarded up against times of danger, most certainly the 
interests of the protestants must go to ruin, and suffer 
a total and irrecoverable eclipse. On the other side, if 
peace continue firmly fixed between two such powerful 
neighbours, and the rest of the orthodox princes; if we 
Mould but make it our main study, to abide in bro- 
therly concord, there would be no cause, by God's 
assistance, to fear neither the force nor the subtilty of 
our enemies ; all whose endeavours and laborious toils 
our union alone would be able to dissipate and frus- 
trate. Nor do we question, but that your majesty, as 
you are freely willing, so your willingness will be con- 
stant in contributing your utmost assistance, to procure 
this blessed peace. To which purpose we shall be 
most ready to communicate and join our counsels with 
your majesty ; professing a real and cordial friendship, 
and not only determined inviolably to observe the 
amity so auspiciously contracted between us, but, as 
(i'xl shall enable us, to bind our present alliance with 
a more >trict and fraternal bond. In the mean time, 
the Bame eternal God grant all things prosperous and 
Bora ssful to your majesty. 

Yowr majesty's most closely united by friendship, 
alliance, and goodwill, 
From our court OLIVER, Protector of the 

at Whi (hull, Commonwealth of Eng- 

Dcc. — , 1666. land, ^cc. 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
<§"£., To the most Serene and Illustrious Prince and 
Lord, the Lord William, Landgrave of Hesse, 
Prince o/Herefeldt, Count in Cutzenellebogen, 
Decia Ligenhain, Widda, and Schaunburg, Sfc. 

Most Serene Prince, 
We had returned an answer to your letters sent us 
now near a twelvemonth since, for which we beg- your 
highness's pardon, had not many, and those the most 
important affairs of the republic under our care, con- 
strained us to this unwilling silence. For what letters 
could be more grateful to us, than those which are 
written from a most religious prince, descended from 
religious ancestors, in order to settle the peace of re- 
ligion, and the harmony of the church ? which letters 
attribute to us the same inclinations, the same zeal to 
promote the peace of Christendom, not only in your 
own but in the opinion and judgment of almost all the 
christian world, and which we are most highly glad to 
find so universally ascribed to ourselves. And how 
far our endeavours have been signal formerly through- 
out these three kingdoms, and what we have effected 
by our exhortations, by our sufferings, by our conduct, 
but chiefly by divine assistance, the greatest part of our 
people both well know, and are sensible of, in a deep 
tranquillity of their consciences. The same peace we 
have wished to the churches of Germany, whose dis- 
sensions have been too sharp, and of too long endur- 
ance ; and by our agent Dury for many years in vain 
endeavouring the same reconciliation, we have cordially 
offered whatever might conduce on our part to the 
same purpose. We still persevere in the same deter- 
minations, and wish the same fraternal charity one 
among' another, to those churches. But how difficult 
a task it is to settle peace among- those sons of peace, 
as they give out themselves to be, to our extreme grief 
we more than abundantly understand. For that the 
reformed, and those of the Augustan confession, should 
cement together in a communion of one church, is 
hardly ever to be expected : it is impossible by force 
to prohibit either from defending their opinions, whether 
in private disputes, or by public writing's ; for force 
can never consist with ecclesiastical tranquillity. This 
only were to be wished, that they who differ, would 
suffer themselves to be entreated, that they would dis- 
agree more civilly, and with more moderation ; and 
notwithstanding- their disputes, love one another; not 
embittered against each other as enemies, but as bre- 
thren dissenting only in trifles, though in the funda- 
mentals of faith most cordially agreeing. With incul- 
cating and persuading- these things, we shall never be 
wearied ; beyond that, there is nothing allowed to 
human force or counsels: God will accomplish his own 
work in his own time. In the mean while, you, most 
serene prince, have left behind you a noble testimony 
of your affection to the churches, an eternal monument 
becoming the virtue of your ancestors, and an exem- 
plar worthy to be followed by all princes. It only then 
remains for us to implore the merciful and great God 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



623 



to crown ycur highness with all the prosperity in other 
things which you can wish for; but not to change 
your mind, than which you cannot have a better, since 
a better cannot be, nor more piously devoted to his 
glory. 

Westminster, March — , 1656. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
§-c, To the most Serene Prince, the Duke of Cour- 
land. 

Most Serene Prince, 

We have been abundantly satisfied of your affection 
to us, as well at other times, as when you kindly enter- 
tained our embassador in his journey to the duke of 
Muscovy, for some days together making a stop in 
your territories : now we are no less confident, that 
your highness will give us no less obliging testimonies 
of your justice and equity, as well out of your own 
goodnature, as at our request. For we are given to 
understand, that one John Johnson, a Scotsman, and 
master of a certain ship of yours, having faithfully dis- 
charged his duty for seven years together in the service 
of your highness, as to your highness is well known, 
at length delivered the said ship, called the Whale, in 
the mouth of the river, according as the custom is, to 
one of your pilots, by him to be carried safe into har- 
bour. But it so fell out, that the pilot, being ignorant 
of his duty, though frequently warned and admonished 
by the said Johnson, as he has proved by several wit- 
nesses, the said ship ran aground and split to pieces, 
not through any fault of the master, but through the 
want of skill, or obstinacy of the pilot. Which being 
so, we make it our earnest request to your highness, 
that neither the said shipwreck may be imputed to the 
forementioned Johnson the master, nor that he may 
upon that account be deprived of the wages due to 
him; by the only enjoyment of which, he having lately 
suffered another misfortune at sea, he hopes however 
to support and comfort himself in the extremity of his 
wants. 

From our court at Westminster, 
March — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ^England, 
fyc, To the most Noble the Consuls and Senators of 
the Republic o/Dantzick. 

Most Noble and Magnificent, our dearest Friends ; 

We have always esteemed your city flourishing in in- 
dustry, wealth, and studious care to promote all useful 
arts and sciences, fit to be compared with any the most 
noble cities of Europe. Now in regard that in this 
war, that has been long hovering about your confines, 
you have rather chosen to side with the Polanders, 
than with the Swedes ; we are most heartily desirous, 
that for the sake of that religion which you embrace, 
and of your ancient commerce with the English, you 
would chiefly adhere to those counsels, which may 
prove most agreeable to the glory of God, and the 
dignity and splendour of your city. Wherefore we en- 



treat ye, for the sake of that friendship which has been 
long established between yourselves and the English 
nation, and if our reputation have obtained any favour 
or esteem among ye, to set at liberty Count Conis- 
mark, conspicuous among the principal of the Swedish 
captains, and a person singularly famed for his con- 
duct in war, but by the treachery of his own people 
surprised at sea; wherein you will do no more than 
what the laws of war, not yet exasperated to the 
height, allow; or if you think this is not so agreeable 
to your interests, that you will however deem him wor- 
thy a more easy and less severe confinement. Which 
of these two favours soever you shall determine to 
grant us, you will certainly perform an act becoming 
the reputation of your city, and highly oblige besides 
the most famous warriors and most eminent captains 
of all parties : and lastly, lay upon ourselves an obli- 
gation not the meanest; and perhaps it may be worth 
your interest to gratify us. 

From our Court at West- Your lordship's affection- 
minster, April — , 1656. ate, OLIVER, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, Sfc, To the most Serene 
and Potent Prince and Lord, Emperor and Great 
Duke of all Russia; sole Lord of Volodomaria, 
Moscow and Novograge ; King o/Cazan, Astra- 
can, and Siberia ; Lord of Vobscow, Great Duke 
o/Smolensko, Tuerscoy, and other Places ; Lord 
and Great Duke of Novogrod, and the Lower Pro- 
vinces o/'Chernigoy, Rezansco, and others; Lord 
of all the Northern Climes; also Lord of Ever- 
sco, Cartalinsca, and many other Places. 

All men know how ancient the friendship, and how 
vast the trade has been for a long train of years be- 
tween the English nation and the people of your em- 
pire : but that singular virtue, most August Emperor, 
which in your majesty far outshines the glory of your 
ancestors, and the high opinion which all the neigh- 
bouring princes have of it, more especially moves us to 
pay a more than ordinary veneration and affection to 
your majesty, and to desire the imparting of some 
things to your consideration, which may conduce to 
the good of Christendom and your own interests. 
Wherefore, we have sent the most accomplished 
Richard Bradshaw, a person of whose fidelity, inte- 
grity, prudence, and experience in affairs, we are well 
assured, as having been employed by us in several 
other negotiations of this nature, under the character 
of our agent to your majesty ; to the end he may more 
at large make known to your majesty our singular 
goodwill and high respect toward so puissant a mo- 
narch, and transact with j r our majesty concerning the 
matters abovementioned. Him therefore we request 
your majesty favourably to receive in our name, and 
as often as shall be requisite to grant him free access 
to your person, and no less gracious audience; and 
lastly, to give the same credit to him in all things 
which he shall propose or negotiate, as to ourselves, if 
we were personally present. And so we beseech Al- 



G24 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



mighty God to bless your majesty and the Russian em- 
pire with all prosperity. 

Your majesty's most affectionate, 
From our Court OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

at Westminster, monwealth of England, &c. 

April — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
fyc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Charles 
Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, §*c. 

Most Serene and Potent King*, our dearest 
Friend and Confederate ; 
The most honourable William Jepson, colonel of 
horse, and a senator in our parliament, who will have 
the honour to deliver these letters to your majesty, will 
make known to your majesty, with what disturbance 
and grief of mind we received the news of the fatal 
war broke out between your majesty and the King of 
Denmark, and how much it is our cordial and real en- 
deavour, not to neglect any labour or duty of ours, as 
far as God enables us, that some speedy remedy may 
be applied to this growing mischief, and those calami- 
ties averted, which of necessity this war will bring 
upon the common cause of religion ; more especially 
at this time, now that our adversaries unite their forces 
and pernicious counsels against the profession and pro- 
fessors of the orthodox faith. These and some other 
considerations of great importance to the benefit and 
public interest of both nations, have induced us to send 
this gentleman to your majesty, under the character of 
our extraordinary envoy. Whom we therefore desire 
your majesty kindly to receive, and to give credit to 
him in all things, which he shall have to impart to your 
majesty in our name; as being a person in whose fide- 
lity and prudence we very much confide. We also 
farther request, That your majesty will be pleased 
fully to assure yourself of our goodwill and most un- 
doubted zeal, as well toward your majesty, as for the 
prosperity of your affairs. Of which we shall be rea- 
dily prepared with all imaginable willingness of mind 
to give unquestionable testimonies upon all occasions. 
From our court at Westminster, August — , 1657. 
Your majesty's friend, and most strictly 
counited confederate, 
OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver. Protector of the Commonwealth o/'England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, the Lord Frederic 
William, Marquis of Braxdeubvrgh, High Cham- 
berlain of the Imperial Empire, and Prince Elector, 
I), ike of Magdeburg, Prussia, Juliers, Cleves, 
BfoNTS, Stettin, Pomerania, of the Cassiubians 
and Vandals, as also o/'Silesia, Crosna, and Car- 
no; i a, Burgrave of Norrinburg, Prince of Hal- 
Bl ustadt and Minda, Count o/Mark and Ravens- 
berg, Lord in Ravenstein. 



Most Serene Prince, our dearest Friend 
and Confederate ; 
Such is the fame of your highness's virtue and pru- 
dence both in peace and war, and so loudly spread 
through all the world, that all the princes round about 
are ambitious of your friendship ; nor does any one de- 
sire a more faithful or constant friend and associate : 
therefore to the end your highness may know, that we 
are also in the number of those that have the highest 
and most honourable thoughts of your person and me- 
rits, so well deserving of the commonwealth of Chris- 
tendom ; we have sent the most worthy colonel Wil- 
liam Jepson, a senator in our parliament, in our name 
to kiss your highness's hands; and withal to wish the 
continuance of all prosperity to your affairs, and in 
words at large to express our goodwill and affection to 
your serenity ; and therefore make it our request, That 
you will vouchsafe to give him credit in those matters 
concerning which he has instructions to treat with your 
highness, as if all things were attested and confirmed 
by our personal presence. From our court at White- 
hall, August — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Sfc, To the most Noble the Consuls and Senators of 
the city o/'Hamborough. 

Most Noble, most Magnificent, and Worthy, 

The most accomplished colonel William Jepson, a 
senator in our parliament, being sent by us to the most 
serene king of Sweden, is to travel through your city ; 
and therefore we have given him in command, not to 
pass by your lordships unsaluted in our name ; and 
withal to make it our request, That you will be ready 
to assist him upon whatsoever occasion he shall think 
it requisite to crave the aid of your authority and coun- 
sel. Which the more willingly you shall do, the more 
you shall find you have acquired our favour. 
From our court at Westminster, Aug. — , 1657. 

To the most Noble, the Consuls and Senators of the 
city o/Breme. 

How great our affection is toward your city, how 
particular our goodwill, as well upon the account of 
your religion, as for the celebrated splendour of your 
city, as formerly you have found ; so when occasion 
offers, you shall be further sensible. At present, in re- 
gard the most accomplished colonel William Jepson, a 
senator in our parliament, is to travel through Bremen 
with the character of our envoy extraordinary to the 
king of Sweden, it is our pleasure that he salute your 
lordships lovingly and friendly in our name ; and that 
if any accident fall out, wherein your assistance and 
friendship may be serviceable to him, that he may 
have free admission to desire it, upon the score of our 
alliance. Wherein we are confident you will the less 
be wanting, by how much the more reason you will 
have to be assured of our singular love and kindness 
for your lordships. From our court at Whitehall, 
Aug. — , 1657. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



625 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Sfc. To the most Noble the Senators and Consuls of 
the City o/Lubeck. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Right 

Worshipful, our dearest Friends ; 

Colonel William Jepson, a person of great honour, 
and a senator in our parliament, is to pass with the 
character of a public minister from your city to the 
king of Sweden, encamping not far from it. Where- 
fore we desire your lordships, that if occasion require, 
upon the account of the friendship and commerce be- 
tween us, you will be assistant to him in his journey 
through your city, and the territories under your juris- 
diction. As to what remains, it is our farther pleasure, 
that you be saluted in our name, and that you be as- 
sured of our goodwill and ready inclinations to serve 
your lordships. From our court at Westminster, Au- 
gust — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the City o/Hamborough. 

Most Noble, Magnificent, and Right Worshipful ; 

Philip Meadows, who brings these letters to your 
lordships, is to travel through your city with the cha- 
racter of our agent to the king of Denmark. Therefore 
we most earnestly recommend him to your lordships, 
that if any occasion should happen for him to desire it, 
you would be ready to aid him with your authority and 
assistance : and we desire that this our recommenda- 
tion may have the same weight at present with your 
lordships as formerly it wont to have ; nor shall we be 
wanting to your lordships upon the same opportunities. 
From our court at Whitehall, August — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, Frederic, Heir of 
Norway, Duhe of Sleswic, Holsatia, and Dit- 
marsh, Count in Oldenburgh and Delmenhorst. 

Most Serene Prince, our dearest Friend ; 
Colonel William Jepson, a person truly noble in 
his country, and a senator in our parliament, is sent by 
us, as our envoy extraordinary to the most serene king 
of Sweden ; and may it prove happy and prosperous 
for the common peace and interests of Christendom ! 
We have given him instructions, among other things, 
that in his journey, after he has kissed your serenity's 
hands in our name, and declared our former goodwill 
and constant zeal for your welfare, to request of your 
serenity also, that being guarded with your authority, 
he may travel with safety and convenience through 
your territories. By which kind act of civility, your 
highness will in a greater measure oblige us to returns 
of answerable kindness. From our court at Westmin- 
ster, Aug. — , 1657. 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
§*c, To the most Serene Prince, Ferdinand, Great 
Duke of Tuscany. 

Most Serene Great Duke, our dearest Friend ; 
The company of our merchants trading to the eastern 
coasts of the Mediterranean sea, by their petition to us, 
have set forth, that William Ellis, master of a ship 
called the Little Lewis, being at Alexandria in Egypt, 
was hired by the Basha of Memphis, to carry rice, 
sugar, and coffee, either to Constantinople or Smyrna, 
for the use of the Grand Seignior ; but that contrary 
to his faith and promise given, he bore away privately 
from the Ottoman fleet, and brought his ship and Jading 
to Leghorn, where now he lives in possession of his 
prey. Which villanous act being of dangerous exam- 
ple, as exposing the Christian name to scandal, and 
the fortunes of our merchants living under the Turks 
to violence and ransac ; we therefore make it our 
request to your highness, that you will give command, 
that the said master be apprehended and imprisoned, 
and that the vessel and goods may remain under 
seizure, till we shall have given notice of our care for 
the restitution of those goods to the sultan : assuring 
your highness of our readiness to make suitable re- 
turns of gratitude, whenever opportunity presents itself. 
From our court at Westminster, September — , 1657. 
Your highness's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, the Lord Frederic- 
William, Marquis o/Brandenburgh, fyc. 

Most Serene Prince, our most dear 
Friend and Confederate ; 
By our last letters to your highness, either already 
or shortly to be delivered by our embassador William 
Jepson, we have imparted the substance of our em- 
bassy to your highness ; which we could not do with- 
out some mention of your great virtues, and demonstra- 
tion of our own goodwill and affection. Nevertheless, 
that we may not seem too superficially to hare gilded 
over your transcending deservings of the protestant 
interests; we thought it proper to resume the same 
subject, and pay our respect and veneration, not 
more willingly, or with a greater fervency of mind, 
but somewhat more at large to your highness : and 
truly most deservedly, when daily information reaches 
our ears, that your faith and conscience, by all man- 
ner of artifices tempted and assailed, by all manner of 
arts and devices solicited, yet cannot be shaken, or by 
any violence be rent from your friendship and alliance 
with a most magnanimous prince and your confederate : 
and this, when the affairs of the Swedes are now 
reduced to that condition, that in adhering to their 
alliance, it is manifest, that your highness rather con- 
sults the common cause of the reformed religion, than 
your own advantage. And when your highness is 



626 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



almost surrounded and besieged by enemies either pri- 
vately lurking-, or almost at your gates; yet such is 
your constancy and resolution of mind, such your con- 
duct and prowess becoming a great general, that the 
burthen and massy bulk of the whole affair, and the 
event of this important war, seems to rest and depend 
upon your sole determination. Wherefore your high- 
ness lias no reason to question, but that you may rely 
upon our friendship and unfeigned affection ; who 
should think ourselves worthy to be forsaken of all 
men's good word, should we seem careless in the least 
of your unblemished fidelity, your constancy, and the 
rest of your applauded virtues ; or should we pay less 
respect to your highness upon the common score of 
religion. As to those matters propounded by the most 
accomplished John Frederic Schlever, your counsellor 
and agent here residing, if hitherto we could not re- 
turn an answer, such as we desired to do, though with 
all assiduity and diligence laboured by your agent; 
we entreat your highness to impute it to the present 
condition of our affairs, and to be assured, that there 
is nothing which we account more sacred, or more 
earnestly desire, than to be serviceable and assisting 
to your interests, so bound up with the cause of reli- 
gion. In the mean time we beseech the God of 
mercy and power, that so signal a prowess and for- 
titude may never languish or be oppressed, nor be 
deprived the fruit and due applause of all your pious 
undertakings. From our court at Westminster, Sep- 
tember — , 1657. 

Your highness's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Common- 
wealth of England, &c. 

To the most Excellent Lord, M. De Bordeaux, Ex- 
traordinary Embassador from the most Serene King 
of France. 

Most Excellent Lord, 
Lucas Lucie, merchant of London, has made 
his complaint to the most serene lord protector, con- 
cerning a certain ship of his, called the Mary; which 
in her voyage from Ireland to Bayonne, being driven 
by tempest into the port of St. John de Luz,was there 
detained by virtue of an arrest, at the suit of one Mar- 
tin de Lazan : nor could she be discharged, till the 
merchants had given security to stand a trial for the 
property of the said ship and lading. For Martin 
pretended to have a great sum of money owing to 
him by the parliament for several goods of his, which 
in the year 1642 were seized by authority of parlia- 
ment, in a certain ship called the Sancta Clara. But 
it is manifest, that Martin was not the owner of the 
said goods, only that he prosecuted the claim of the 
true owner Richald and Iriat, together with his part- 
ner, whose name was Antonio Fernandez ; and that 
upon the said Martin and Antonio's falling out among 
themselves, the parliament decreed, that the said goods 
should be stopped till the law should decide to which 
of the two they were to be restored. Upon this, An- 
thony was desirous, that the action should proceed ; on 



the other side, neither Martin, nor any body for him, 
has hitherto appeared in court : all which is evidently 
apparent by Lucas's petition hereto annexed. So that 
it seems most unreasonable, that he who refused to 
try his pretended title with Antonio, to other men's 
goods, in our own courts, should compel our people, 
and the true owners, to go to law for their own in a 
foreign dominion. And that the same is apparent to 
your excellency's equity and prudence, the most serene 
lord protector makes no quest on ; by whom I am 
therefore commanded in a particular manner, to recom- 
mend this fair and honest cause of Lucas Lucie to your 
excellency's consideration ; to the end that Martin, 
who neglects to try his pretended right here, may not 
under that pretence have an opportunity in the 
French dominions to deprive others of their rightful 
claims. 

Westminster, Your excellency's most affectionate. 
October — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the most Serene Duke and Senate of the Re- 
public o/*Venice. 

Most Serene Duke and Senate, our dearest Friends ; 

So numerous are the tidings brought us from your 
fortunate successes against the Turks, that there is no- 
thing wherein we have more frequent occasion to em- 
ploy our pens, than in congratulating your serenities 
for some signal victory. For this so recently obtained, 
we give ye joy, as being not only most auspicious and 
seasonable to your republic ; but, which is more glori- 
ous, so greatly tending to the deliverance of all the 
Christians groaning under Turkish servitude. More 
particularly we recommend to your serenity and the 
senate Thomas Galily, formerly master of the ship 
called the Relief, who for these five years together has 
been a slave ; though this be not the first time we have 
interceded in his behalf, yet now we do it the more 
freely, as in a time of more than ordinary exultation. 
He having received your commands, to serve your re- 
public with his ship, and engaging alone with several 
of the enemies' galleys, sunk some, and made a great 
havoc among the rest : but at length his ship being 
burnt, the brave commander, and so well deserving of 
the Venetian republic, was taken, and ever since for 
five years together has endured a miserable bondage 
among the barbarians. To redeem himself he had not 
wherewithal ; for whatsoever he had, that he makes 
out was owing to him by your highness and the senate, 
upon the account either of his ship, his goods, or for 
his wages. Now in regard he may not want relief, 
and for that the enemy refuses to discharge him upon 
any other condition, than by exchange of some other 
person of equal value and reputation to himself; we 
most earnestly entreat your highness, and the most se- 
rene senate ; and the afflicted old man, father of the 
said Thomas, full of grief and tears, which not a little 
moved us, by our intercession begs, that in regard so 
many prosperous combats have made ye masters of so 
many Turkish prisoners, you will exchange some one 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



627 



of their number, whom the enemy will accept for so 
stout a seaman taken in your service, our countryman, 
and the only son of a most sorrowful father. Lastly, 
that whatsoever is due to him from the republic, upon 
the score of wages, or upon any other account, you 
will take care to see it paid to his father, or to whom 
he shall appoint to receive it. The effect of our first 
request, or rather of your equity, was this, that the 
whole matter was examined, and upon an exact stating 
of the accounts the debt was agreed ; but perhaps by 
reason of more important business intervening, no pay- 
ment ensued upon it. Now the condition of the mise- 
rable creature admits of no longer delay ; and therefore 
some endeavour must be used, if it be worth your while 
to desire his welfare, that he may speedily be delivered 
from the noisome stench of imprisonment. Which, as 
you flourish no less injustice, moderation, and prudence, 
than in military fame and victorious success, we are 
confident you will see done, of your own innate hu- 
manity and freewill, without any hesitation, without 
any incitement of ours. Now that you may long flou- 
rish, after a most potent enemy subdued, our daily 
prayers implore of the Almighty. From our court at 
Westminster, October — , 1657. 

Your highness's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of England, &c. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
4*c, To the High and Mighty Lords, the States of 
the United Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest 
Friends and Confederates; 
The most illustrious William Nuport, your extraor- 
dinary embassador for some years residing with us, is 
now returning to your lordships ; but with this condi- 
tion, that after this respite obtained from your lordships, 
he shall return again in a short time. For he has re- 
mained among us, in the discharge of his trust, with 
that fidelity, vigilance, prudence, and equity, that 
neither you nor we could desire greater virtue and 
probity in an embassador, and a person of unblemished 
reputation ; with those inclinations and endeavours to 
preserve peace and friendship between us, without any 
fraud or dissimulation, that while he officiates the duty 
of your embassador, we do not find what occasion of 
scruple or offence can arise in either nation. And we 
should brook his departure with so much the more 
anxiety of mind, considering the present juncture of 
times and affairs, were we not assured, that no man 
can better or more faithfully declare and represent to 
your lordships, either the present condition of affairs, 
or our goodwill and affection to your government. 
Being therefore every way so excellent a person, and 
so very deserving both of yours and our republic, we 
request your lordships to receive him returning, such 
as we unwillingly dismiss him, laden with the real 
testimonials of our applauses. Almighty God grant 
all prosperity to your affairs, and perpetuate our 
2 s 



friendship, to his glory, and the support of his orthodox 
church. 

Your high and mightinesses most devoted. 
From our Court at Westminster, 
Nov. — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Src, To the High and Mighty Lords, the States of 
the United Provinces. 

Most High and Mighty Lords, our dearest 

Friends and Confederates ; 
George Downing is a person of eminent quality, 
and, after a long trial of his fidelity, probity, and dili- 
gence, in several and various negotiations, well ap- 
proved and valued by us. Him we have thought fit- 
ting to send to your lordships, dignified with the 
character of our agent, and amply furnished with our 
instructions. We therefore desire your lordships, to 
receive him kindly, and that so often as he shall signify 
that he has any thing" to impart in our name to your 
loi'dships, you will admit him free audience, and give 
the same credit to him, and entrust him with whatso- 
ever you have to communicate to us, which you may 
safely do, as if ourselves were personally present. And 
so we beseech Almighty God to bless your lordships, 
and your republic with all prosperity, to the glory of 
God and the support of his Church. 

Your high and mightinesses most affectionate, 
From our court at Whitehall, OLIVER, &c. 

December — , 1657. 

To the States of Holland. 

There being an alliance between our republic and 
yours, and those affairs to be transacted on both sides 
that without an agent and interpreter, sent either by 
yourselves, or from us, matters of such great moment 
can hardly be adjusted to the advantage of both na- 
tions, we thought it conducing to the common good of 
both republics, to send George Downing, a person of 
eminent quality, and long in our knowledge and esteem 
for his undoubted fidelity, probity, and diligence, in 
many and various negotiations, dignified with the 
character of our agent, to reside with your lordships, 
and chiefly to take care of those things, by which the 
peace between us may be preserved entire and diutur- 
nal. Concerning which we have not only written to 
the States, but also thought it requisite to give notice 
also of the same to your lordships, supreme in the go- 
vernment of your province, and who make so consider- 
able a part of the United Provinces ; to the end you 
may give that reception to our resident which becomes 
him, and that whatever he transacts with your High 
and Mighty States, you may assure yourselves, shall 
be as firm and irrevocable, as if ourselves had been 
present in the negotiation. Now the most merciful 
God direct all your counsels and actions to his glory, 
and the peace of his church. 

Westm. Decemb. — , 1657. 



628 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
(Vc, To the most Serene Prince, Ferdinand, Great 
Duke of Tuscany. 

Most Serene Great Duke, our much 
honoured Friend, 
Your highness's letters, bearing date from Florence 
the 10th of November, gave us no small occasion of 
content and satisfaction ; finding therein your goodwill 
towards us, su much the more conspicuous, by how 
much deeds than words, performances than promises, 
are the more certain marks of a cordial affection. For 
what we requested of your highness, that you would 
command the master of the Little Lewis, William Ellis, 
(who most ignominiously broke his faith with the 
Turks,) and the ship and goods to be seized and de- 
tained, till restitution should be made to the Turks, lest 
the christian name should receive any blemish by 
thieveries of the like nature ; all those things, and that 
too with an extraordinary zeal, as we most gladly un- 
derstood before, your highness writes that you have 
seen diligently performed. We therefore return our 
thanks for the kindness received, and make it our 
farther request, that wiien the merchants have given 
security to satisfy the Turks, the master may be dis- 
charged, and the ship, together with her lading, be 
forthwith dismissed, to the end we may not seem to 
have had more care perhaps of the Turks' interest, than 
our own countrymen. In the mean time, we take so 
kindly this surpassing favour done us by your highness, 
and most acceptable to us, that we should not refuse to 
be branded with ingratitude, if we should not ardently 
desire a speedy opportunity, with the same promptitude 
of mind, to gratify your highness, whereby we might be 
enabled to demonstrate our readiness to return the same 
good offices to so noble a benefactor upon all occasions. 

Your highness's most affectionate, 
From our court at Westminster, OLIVER, &c. 

December — , 1657. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/"England, 
fyc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince Charles 
Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, fyc. 

Most Serene and Potent Prince, our most 
Invincible Friend and Confederate; 
Bv your majesty's letters, dated the 21st of February 
from your camp in Seland, we found many reasons to 
be affected with no small joy, as well for our own par- 
ticular, as in regard of the whole christian republic in 
general. In the first place, because the King of Den- 
mark, being become an enemy, not induced thereto, as 
we are apt to believe, by his own inclinations or interests, 
bat deluded by the artifices of our common adversaries, 
is reduced to that condition by your sudden eruption 
into the very heart of his kingdom, with very little 
bloodshed on either side, that, what was really true, he 
will at length he persuaded, that peace would have 
been more beneficial to him, than the war which he 



has entered into against your majesty. Then again, 
when he shall consider with himself, that he cannot 
obtain^it by any more speedy means, than by making 
use of our assistance, long since offered him to procure 
a reconciliation, in regard your majesty so readily en- 
treated by the letters only delivered by our agent, by 
such an easy concession of peace, most clearly made it 
apparent how highly you esteemed the intercession of 
our friendship, he will certainly apply himself to us ; 
and then our interposition in so pious a work will 
chiefly require, that we should be the sole reconciler 
and almost author of that peace, so beneficial to the 
interests of the protestants; which, as we hope, will 
suddenly be accomplished. For when the enemies of 
religion shall despair of breaking your united forces 
by any other means than setting both your majesties at 
variance, then their own fears will overtake them, lest 
this unexpected conjunction, which we ardently desire, 
of your arms and minds, should turn to the destruction 
of them that were the kindlers of the war. In the 
mean time, most magnanimous king, may your 
prowess go on and prosper ; and the same felicity 
which the enemies of the church have admired in the 
progress of your achievements, and the steady career 
of your victories against a prince, now your con- 
federate, the same by God's assistance, may you en- 
force them to behold once more in their subversion. 
From our palace at Westminster, 
March 30, 1658. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth o/*England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, Ferdinand, Great 
Duke of Tuscany. 

Most Serene Prince, 
The answer which we have given to your agent 
here residing, we believe, will fully satisfy your high- 
ness as to our admiral, who but lately put into your 
ports. In the mean time, John Hosier, master of a 
ship called the Owner, has set forth in a petition to us, 
that in April, 1656, he hired out his ship by a charty- 
party agreement, to one Joseph Arman, an Italian, who 
manifestly broke all the covenants therein contained ; 
so that he was enforced, lest he should lose his ship 
and lading, together with his whole principal stock, 
openly to set forth the fraud of his freighter, after the 
manner of merchants; and when he had caused it to 
be registered by a public notary, to sue him at Leg- 
horn. Joseph, on the other side, that he might make 
good one fraud by another, combining with two other 
litigious traders, upon a feigned pretence, by perjury, 
seized upon six thousand pieces of eight, the money of 
one Thomas Clutterbuck. But as for his part, the said 
Hosier, after great expenses and loss of time, could ne- 
ver obtain his right and due at Leghorn : nor durst he 
there appear in court, being threatened as he was, and 
waylaid by his adversaries. We therefore request your 
highness, that you would vouchsafe your assistance 
to this poor oppressed man, and according to your 
wonted justice, restrain the insolence of his adversary. 
For in vain are laws ordained for the government of 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



629 



cities by the authority of princes, if wrong- and vio- 
lence, when they cannot abrogate, shall be able by 
threats and terrour to frustrate the refuge and sanc- 
tuary of the laws. However, we make no doubt, but 
that your highness will speedily take care to punish a 
daring boldness of this nature; beseeching Almighty 
God to bless your highness with peace and prosperity. 
From our court at Westminster, 
April 7, 1658. 

To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, King 
of France. 

Most Serene and Potent King, and most 
August Friend and Confederate ; 
Your majesty may call to mind, that at the same 
time, when the renewing the league between us was in 
agitation, and no less auspiciously concluded, as the 
many advantages from thence accruing to both nations, 
and the many annoyances thence attending the com- 
mon enemy, sufficiently testify; those dreadful butche- 
ries befel the Piedmontois, and that we recommended, 
with great fervency of mind and compassion, their 
cause, on all sides forsaken and afflicted, to your com- 
miseration and protection. Nor do we believe that 
your majesty of yourself, was wanting in a duty so 
pious, that we may not say, beseeming common huma- 
nity, as far as your authority, and the veneration due 
to your person, could prevail with the duke of Savoy. 
Certain we are, that neither ourselves, nor many other 
princes and cities, were wanting in our performances, 
by the interposition of embassies, letters, and entrea- 
ties. After a most bloody butchery of both sexes, and 
all ages, at length peace was granted, or rather a cer- 
tain clandestine hostility covered over with the name 
of peace. The conditions of peace were agreed in 
your town of Pignerol ; severe and hard, but such as 
those miserable and indigent creatures, after they bad 
suffered all that could be endured that was oppressive 
and barbarous, would have been glad of, had they 
been but observed, as hard and unjust as they were. 
But by false constructions, and various evasions, the 
assurances of all these articles are eluded and vio- 
lated ; many are thrust out from their ancient abodes ; 
many are forbid the exercise of their religion, new 
tributes are exacted, a new citadel is imposed upon 
them ; from whence the soldiers frequently making 
excursions, either plunder or murder all they meet. 
Add to all this, that new levies are privately preparing 
against them, and all that embrace the protestant reli- 
gion are commanded to depart by a prefixed day ; so 
that all things seem to threaten the utter extermination 
of those deplorable wretches, whom the former massacre 
spared. Which I most earnestly beseech and conjure 
ye, most Christian king, by that Right Hand which 
signed the league and friendship between us, by that 
same goodly ornament of your title of MOST CHRIS- 
TIAN, by no means to suffer, nor to permit such 
liberty of rage and fury uncontrolled, we will not say, 
in any prince, (for certainly such barbarous severity 
could never enter the breast of any prince, much less 



so tender in years, nor into the female thoughts of his 
mother,) but in those sanctified cut-throats, who, pro- 
fessing themselves to be the servants and disciples of 
our Saviour Christ, who came into the world to save 
sinners, abuse his meek and peaceful name and pre- 
cepts to the most cruel slaughter of the innocent. 
Rescue, you that are able in your towering- station, 
worthy to be able, rescue so many suppliants prostrate 
at your feet, from the hands of ruffians, who, lately 
drunk with blood, again thirst after it, and think it 
their safest way to throw the odium of their cruelty 
upon princes. But as for you, great prince, suffer not, 
while you reign, your titles, nor the confines of your 
kingdom, to be contaminated with this same Heaven- 
offending scandal, nor the peaceful gospel of Christ to 
be defiled with such abominable cruelty. Remember, 
that they submitted themselves to your grandfather 
Henry, most friendly to the protestants, when the vic- 
torious Lesdiguieres pursued the retreating Savoyard 
over the Alps. There is also an instrument of that 
submission registered among the public acts of your 
kingdom, wherein it is excepted and provided among 
other things, that from that time forward the Piedmon- 
tois should not be delivered over into the power of any 
ruler, but upon the same condition upon which your in- 
vincible grandfather received ihem into his protection. 
This protection of your grandfather these suppliants 
now implore from you as grandchild. It is your ma- 
jesty's part, to whom those people now belong, to give 
them that protection which they have chosen, by some 
exchange of habitation, if they desire it, and it may be 
done : or if that be a labour too difficult, at least to 
succour them with your patronage, your commisera- 
tion, and your admittance into sanctuary. And there 
are some reasons of state, to encourage your majesty not 
to refuse the Piedmontois a safe asylum in your king- 
dom : but I am unwilling that you, so great a king, 
should be induced to the defence and succour of the 
miserable by any other arguments than those of your 
ancestor's pledged faith, your own piety, royal benig- 
nity, and magnanimity. Thus the immaculate and 
in tire glory of a most egregious act will be your own, 
and you will find the Father of mercy, and his Son, 
King Christ, whose name and doctrine you have vin- 
dicated from nefarious inhumanity, so much the more 
favourable and propitious to your majesty, all your 
days. The God of mercy and power infuse into your 
majesty's heart a resolution, to defend and save so 
many innocent Christians, and maintain your own 
honour. 

Westminster, May — , 1658. 

To the Evangelic Cities of the Switzers. 

Illustrious and most Noble Lords, our 
dearest Friends ; 
How heavy and intolerable the sufferings of the 
Piedmontois, your most afflicted neighbours, have 
been, and how unmercifully they have been dealt with 
by their own prince, for the sake of their religion, by 
reason of the fellness of the cruelties, we almost trem- 



630 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



ble to remember, and thought it superfluous to put you 
iu mind of those things, which are much better known 
to your lordships. We have also seen copies of the 
letters which your embassadors, promoters and wit- 
nesses of the peace concluded at Pignerol, wrote to 
the duke of Savoy, and the president of his council at 
Turin ; wherein they set forth, and make it out, that 
all the conditions of the said peace are broken, and 
were rather a snare than a security to those miserable 
people. Which violation continued from the conclu- 
sion of the peace till this \ery moment, and still grow- 
ing" more heavy every day than other; unless they 
patiently endure, unless they lay themselves down to 
be trampled under foot, plashed like mortar, or abjure 
their religion, the same calamities, the same slaughters 
hang over their heads, which three years since made 
such a dreadful havoc of them, their wives, and chil- 
dren ; and which, if it must be undergone once more, 
will certainly prove the utter extirpation of their whole 
race. What shall such miserable creatures do ? in 
whose behalf no intercession will avail, to whom no 
breathing time is allowed, nor any certain place of 
iefuge. They have to do with wild beasts, or furies 
rather, upon whom the remembrance of their former 
murders has wrought no compassion upon their coun- 
trymen, no sense of humanity, nor satiated their raven- 
ous thirst after blood. Most certainly these things are 
not to be endured, if we desire the safety of our brethren 
the Piedmontois, most ancient professors of the ortho- 
dox faith, or the welfare of our religion itself. As for 
ourselves so far remote, we have not been wanting to 
assist them as far as in us lay, nor shall we cease our 
future aid. But you, who not only lie so near adjoin- 
ing, as to behold the butcheries, and to hear the out- 
cries and shrieks of the distressed, but are also next 
exposed to the fury of the same enemies ; consider for 
the sake of the immortal God, and that in time, what 
it behoves ye now to do : consult your prudence, your 
piety, and your fortitude ; what succour, what relief 
and safeguard you are able, and are bound to afford 
your neighbours and brethren, who must else undoubt- 
edly and speedily perish. Certainly the same religion 
is the cause, why the same enemies also seek your per- 
dition ; why, at the same time the last year, they me- 
ditated your ruin, by intestine broils among your- 
selves. It seems to be only in your power next under 
God, to prevent the extirpation of this most ancient 
scion of the purer religion, in those remainders of the 
primitive believers; whose preservation, now reduced 
to the very brink of utter ruin, if you neglect, beware 
that the next turn be not your own. These admoni- 
tions, while we give ye freely, and out of brotherly 
love, we arc not quite as yet cast down : for what lies 
only in our power so far distant, as we have hitherto, 
so shall we still employ our utmost endeavours, not 
only to procure the safety of our brethren upon the 
precipice of danger, but also to relieve their wants. 
May the Almighty God vouchsafe to both of us, that 
peace and tranquillity at home, that settlement of times 
and affairs, that we may be able to employ all our 
wealth and force, all our studies and counsels in the 



defence of his church against the rage and fury of her 
enemies. 

From our court at Whitehall, May — , 1658. 

To his Eminency, Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord, 
The late most grievous cruelties, and most bloody 
slaughters perpetrated upon the inhabitants of the val- 
leys of Piedmont, within the duke of Savoy's do- 
minions, occasioned the writing- of the enclosed letters 
to his majesty, and these other to your eminency. And 
as we make no doubt but that such tyranny, and inhu- 
manities, so rigorously inflicted upon harmless and in- 
digent people, are highly displeasing and offensive to 
the most serene king ; so we readily persuade ourselves, 
that what we request from his majesty in behalf of those 
unfortunate creatures, your eminency will employ your 
endeavour and your favour to obtain, as an accumula- 
tion to our intercessions. Seeing there is nothing 
which has acquired more goodwill and affection to the 
French nation, among all the neighbouring professors 
of the reformed religion, than that liberty and those 
privileges, which by public acts and edicts are granted 
in that kingdom to the protestants. And this among" 
others was one main reason, why this republic so ar- 
dently desired the friendship and alliance of the 
French people. For the settling of which we are now 
treating with the king's embassador, and have made 
those progresses, that the treaty is almost brought to a 
conclusion. Besides that, your eminency's singular 
benignity and moderation, which in the management of 
the most important affairs of the kingdom you have 
always testified to the protestants of France, encou- 
rages us to expect what we promise to ourselves from 
your prudence and generosity; whereby you will not 
only lay the foundations of a stricter alliance between 
this republic and the kingdom of France, but oblige us 
in particular to returns of all good offices of civility 
and kindness : and of this we desire your eminency to 
rest assured. 

Your eminency's most affectionate. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, 
King of France. 

Most Serene and Mighty King, our most 
August Friend and Confederate ; 
It being the intention of Thomas viscount Falcon- 
bridge, our son-in-law, to travel into France, and no 
less his desire, out of his profound respect and venera- 
tion to your majesty, to be admitted to kiss your royal 
hands ; though by reason of his pleasing conversation 
we are unwilling to part with him, nevertheless not 
doubting but he will in a short time return from the 
court of so great a prince, celebrated for the resort of 
so many prudent and courageous persons, more nobly 
prepared for great performances, and fully accomplish- 
ed in whatsoever may be thought most laudable and 
virtuous, we did not think it fit to put a stop to his ge- 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



63* 



nerous resolutions. And though he be a person, who, 
unless we deceive ourselves, carries his own recom- 
mendations about him, wheresoever he goes; yet if he 
shall find himself somewhat the more favoured by your 
majesty for our sake, we shall think ourselves honour- 
ed and obliged by the same kindness. God Almighty 
long preserve your majesty in safety, and continue a 
lasting peace between us, to the common good of the 
christian world. 

From our court at Whitehall, 
May — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
6)'c, To the most Eminent Lord, CardinalMAZARiSE. 

Most Eminent Lord, 

Having recommended to the most serene king Tho- 
mas viscount Falconbridge our son-in-law, desirous to 
see France ; we could not but acquaint your eminency 
with it, and recommend him in like manner to your- 
self, not ignorant of what moment and importance it 
will be to our recommendation first given him. For 
certainly, what benefit or advantage he shall reap by 
residing in your country, which he hopes will not be 
small, he cannot but be beholden for the greatest part of 
it to your favour and goodwill ; whose single prudence 
and vigilancy supports and manages the grand affairs 
of that kingdom. Whatever therefore grateful obliga- 
tion your eminency shall lay upon him, you may be 
assured you lay upon ourselves, and that we shall num- 
ber it among your many kindnesses and civilities 
already shown us. 

Westminster, May — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protector, fyc, To the most Eminent Lord, 
Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord, 

Having sent the most illustrious Thomas Bellasis, 
viscount Falconbridge, our son-in-law, to congratulate 
the king upon his arrival in the camp at Dunkirk; I 
gave him order to attend and wish your eminency lono- 
life and health in our name, and to return thanks to 
your eminency, by whose fidelity, prudence, and vigi- 
lancy, it chiefly comes to pass, that the affairs of France 
are carried on with such success in several parts, but 
more especially in near adjoining Flanders, against 
our common enemy the Spaniard ; from whom we 
hope that open and armed courage now will soon ex- 
act a rigorous account of all his frauds and treacheries. 
Which that it may be speedily done, we shall not be 
wanting, either with our forces, as far as in us lies, or 
with our prayers to Heaven. 

From our court at Whitehall, 
May — , 1658. 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth ©/"England, 
fyc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, 
King of France. 

Most Serene and Potent Prince, our most 
August Friend and Confederate ; 

So soon as the news was brought us, that your ma- 
jesty was arrived in your camp, and was sate down 
with so considerable an army before Dunkirk, that in- 
famous nest of pirates, and place of refuge for searob- 
bers, we were greatly overjoyed, in certain assurance 
that in a short time now, with God's assistance, the 
seas will be more open and less infested by those plun- 
dering" rovers; and that your majesty, by your mili- 
tary prowess, will now take speedy vengeance of the 
Spanish frauds ; by whom one captain was by gold cor- 
rupted to the betraying of Hesden, another treacher- 
ously surprised at Ostend. We therefore send the most 
noble Thomas viscount Falconbridge, our son-in-law, 
to congratulate your majesty's arrival in your camp so 
near us, and that your majesty may understand from 
his own lips, with what affection we labour the pros- 
perity of your achievements, not only with our united 
forces, but our cordial prayers, that God would long 
preserve your majesty, and perpetuate our established 
friendship, to the common good of the christian word. 

From our court at Westminster, 
May — , 1658. 

To the most Serene Prince, Ferdinand, Grand Duke 
of Tuscany. 

Most Serene Great Duke, 
In regard your highness in your letters has ever 
signified your extraordinary affection toward us, we 
are not a little grieved, that either it should be so ob- 
scurely imparted to your governors and ministers, or 
by them so ill interpreted, that we can reap no benefit 
or sign of it in your port of Leghorn, where your friend- 
ship towards us ought to be most clearly and truly 
understood : rather, that we should find the minds of 
your subjects daily more averse and hostile in their de~ 
meanour toward us. For how unkindly our fleet was 
lately treated at Leghorn, how little accommodated 
with necessary supplies, in what a hostile manner twice 
constrained to depart the harbour, we are sufficiently 
given to understand, as well from undoubted witnesses 
upon the place, as from our admiral himself, to whoso 
relation we cannot but give credit, when we have 
thought him worthy to command our fleet. Upon his 
first arrival in January, after he had caused our letters 
to be delivered to your highness, and all offices of ci- 
vility had passed between our people and yours ; when 
he desired the accommodation of Porto Ferraro ; an- 
swer was made, it could not be granted, lest the king 
of Spain, that is to say our enemy, should be offended. 
And yet what is there which a prince in friendship 
more frequently allows to his confederate, than free en- 
trance into his ports and harbours ? Or what is there 
that we can expect from a friendship of this nature, 



632 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



more ready to do us unkindness than befriend us, or 
aid us with the smallest assistance, for fear of provok- 
ing the displeasure of our enemies ? At first indeed, 
prattic was allowed, though only to two or three of our 
seamen out of every ship, who had the favour to go 
ashore. But soon after, it being noised in the town, that 
our ships had taken a Dutch vessel laden with corn 
for Spain, that little prattic we had was prohibited ; 
Longland the English consul was not permitted to go 
aboard the fleet; the liberty of taking in fresh water, 
which is ever free to all that are not open enemies, was 
not suffered, but under armed g-uards, at a severe rate; 
and our merchants, which reside in the town to the vast 
emolument of your people, were forbid to visit their 
countrymen, or assist them in the least. Upon his last 
arrival, toward the latter end of March, nobody was 
suffered to come ashore. The fifth day after, when our 
admiral had taken a small Neapolitan vessel, which 
fell into our hands by chance, above two hundred great 
shot were made at our feet from the town, though with- 
out any damage to us. Which was an argument, that 
what provoked your governors without a cause, as if 
the rights of your harbour had been violated, was done 
out at sea, at a great distance from your town, or the 
jurisdiction of your castle. Presently our long boats, 
sent to take in fresh water, were assailed in the port, 
and one taken and detained ; which being redemand- 
ed, answer was made, that neither the skiff nor the 
seamen should be restored, unless the Neapolitan vessel 
were dismissed ; though certain it is, that she was 
taken in the open sea, where it was lawful to seize her. 
So that ours, after many inconveniences suffered, were 
forced at length to set sail, and leave behind them the 
provision, for which they had paid ready money. These 
things, if they were not done by your highness's con- 
sent and command, as we hope they were not, we de- 
sire you would make it appear by the punishment of 
the governor, who so easily presumed to violate his 
master's alliances ; but if they were done with your 
highness's approbation and order, we would have your 
highness understand, that as we always had a singular 
value for your friendship, so we have learnt to distin- 
guish between injuries and acts of kindness. 

Your good friend, so far as we may, 
From our court OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 

at Whitehall, monwealth of England, &c. 

May — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, 
King ^/"France. 

Most Serene and Potent Prince, our most 
August Confederate and Friend ; 
Bv so speedily repaying our profound respect to your 
majesty, with an accumulation of honour, by such an 
illustrious embassy to our court; you have not only 
made known to us, but to all the people of England, 
your singular benignity and generosity of mind, but 
also how much you favour our reputation and dignity: 
for which we return our most cordial thanks to your 



majesty, as justly you have merited from us. As for 
the victory which God has given, most fortunate, to 
our united forces against our enemies, we rejoice with 
your majesty for it ; and that our people in that battle 
were not wanting to your assistance, nor the military 
glory of their ancestors, nor their own pristine fortitude, 
is most grateful to us. As for Dunkirk, which, as your 
majesty wrote, you were in hopes was near surrender: 
it is a great addition to our joy, to hear from your 
majesty such speedy tidings, that it is absolutely now 
in your victorious hands ; and we hope moreover, that 
the loss of one city will not suffice to repay the twofold 
treachery of the Spaniard, but that your majesty will 
in a short time write us the welcome news of the sur- 
render also of the other town. As to your promise, 
that you will take care of our interest, we mistrust it 
not in the least, upon the word of a most excellent 
king, and our most assured friend, confirmed withal 
by your embassador, the most accomplished duke of 
Crequi. Lastly, we beseech Almighty God to prosper 
your majesty and the affairs of France, both in peace 
and war. 

Westminster, June — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protect or of the Commonwealth o/*England, 
fyc, To the most Eminent Lord, Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord, 
While we are returning thanks to the most serene 
king, who to honour and congratulate us, as also to 
intermix his joy with ours for the late glorious victory, 
has sent a splendid embassy to our court; we should 
be ungrateful, should we not also by our letters pay 
our due acknowledgments to your eminency ; who, to 
testify your goodwill towards us, and how much you 
make it your study to do us all the honour which lies 
within your power, have sent your nephew to us, a 
most excellent and most accomplished young gentle- 
man ; and if you had any nearer relation, or any person 
whom you valued more, would have sent him more 
especially to us, as you declare in your letters ; adding 
withal the reason, which, coming from so great a per- 
sonage, we deem no small advantage to our praise and 
ornament ; that is to say, to the end that they, who are 
most nearly related to your eminency in blood, might 
learn to imitate your eminency, in shewing respect and 
honour to our person. And we would have it not to 
be their meanest strife to follow your example of civil- 
ity, candour, and friendship to us ; since there are not 
more conspicuous examples of extraordinary prudence 
and virtue to be imitated than in your eminency ; from 
whence they may learn with equal renown to govern 
kingdoms, and manage the most important affairs of 
the world. Which that your eminency may long and 
happily administer, to the prosperity of the whole realm 
of France, to the common good of the whole christian 
republic, and your own glory, we shall never be want- 
ing in our prayers to implore. 

Your excellency's most affectionate. 
From our court at Whitehall,. June — , 1658. 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



633 



Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
§•<?., To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Charles 
Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, fyc. 

Most Serene and Potent Prince, our dearest 
Confederate and Friend ; 
As often as we behold the busy counsels, and various 
artifices of the common enemies of religion, so often do 
we revolve in our minds how necessary it would be, 
and how much for the safety of the christian world, 
that the protestant princes, and most especially your 
majesty, should be united with our republic in a 
most strict and solemn confederacy. Which how ar- 
dently and zealously it has been sought by ourselves, 
how acceptable it would have been to us, if ours, and 
the affairs of Swedeland, had been in that posture and 
condition, if the said league could have been sacredly 
concluded to the good liking of both, and that the one 
could have been a seasonable succour to the other, we 
declared to your embassadors, when first they entered 
into treaty with us upon this subject. Nor were they 
wanting in their duty ; but the same prudence which 
they were wont to shew in other things, the same wis- 
dom and sedulity they made known in this affair. 
But such was the perfidiousness of our wicked and 
restless countrymen at home, who, being often received 
into our protection, ceased not however to machinate 
new disturbances, and to resume their formerly often 
frustrated and dissipated conspiracies with our enemies 
the Spaniards, that being altogether taken up with the 
preservation of ourselves from surrounding dangers, we 
could not bend our whole care, and our entire forces, 
as we wished we could have done, to defend the com- 
mon cause of religion. Nevertheless what lay in our 
power we have already zealously performed : and what- 
ever for the future may conduce to your majesty's in- 
terests, we shall not only shew ourselves willing, but 
industrious to carry on, in union with your majesty, 
upon all occasions. In the mean time we most gladly 
congratulate your majesty's victories, most prudently 
and courageously achieved, and in our daily prayers 
implore Almighty God long to continue to your ma- 
jesty a steady course of conquest and felicity, to the 
glory of his name. 
From our court at Whitehall, June — , 1658. 

Oliver, Protector of the Commonwealth of En gl and, 
Sfc, To the most Serene Prince, the King of Por- 
tugal. 

Most Serene King, our Friend and Confederate ; 

John Buffield, of London, merchant, hath set forth 
in a petition to us, that in the year 1649, he delivered 
certain goods to Anthony, John, and Manuel Ferdi- 
nando Castaneo, merchants in Tamira, to the end that 
after they had sold them, they might give him a just 
account, according to the custom of merchants : after 
which, in his voyage for England, he fell into the 
hands of pirates ; and being plundered by them, re- 



ceived no small damage. Upon this news, Anthony 
and Manuel, believing he had been killed, presently 
looked upon the goods as their own, and still detain 
them in their hands, refusing to come to any account ; 
covering this fraud of theirs with a sequestration of 
English goods, that soon after ensued. So that he 
was forced the last year, in the middle of winter, to 
return to Portugal and demand his goods, but all in 
vain. For that the said John and Anthony could by 
no fair means be persuaded, either to deliver the said 
goods or come to any account; and which is more to 
be admired, justified their private detention of the 
goods by the public attainder. Finding therefore that 
being a stranger, he should get nothing by contending - 
with the inhabitants of Tamira in their own country, he 
betook himself for justice to your majesty : humbly 
demanded the judgment of the conservator, appointed 
to determine the causes of the English ; but was sent 
back to the cognizance of that court, from which he 
had appealed. Which though in itself not unjust, yet 
seeing it is evident, that the merchants of Tamira make 
an ill use of your public edict to justify their own pri- 
vate cozenage, we make it our earnest request to your 
majesty, that according to your wonted clemency you 
would rather refer to the conservator, being the proper 
judge in these cases, the cause of this poor man afflicted 
by many casualties, and reduced to utmost poverty; to 
the end he may recover the remainder of his fortunes 
from the faithless partnership of those people. Which 
when you rightly understand the business, we make 
no question, but will be no less pleasing to your ma- 
jesty to see done, than to ourselves. From our court 
at Westminster, Aug. 1658. 

To the most Serene Prince, Leopold, Archduhe of 
Austria, Governor of the Low Countries under 
Philip King of Spain. 

Most Serene Lord, 
Charles Harbord, knight, has set forth in his 
petition to us, that having sent certain goods and 
household-stuff out of Holland to Bruges under your 
jurisdiction, he is in great danger of having them ar- 
rested out of his hands by force and violence. For that 
those goods were sent him out of England in the year 
1643, by the earl of Suffolk, for whom he stood bound 
in a great sum of money, to the end he might have 
wherewithal to satisfy himself, should he be compelled 
to pay the debt. Which goods are now in the pos- 
session of Richard Greenville, knight, who broke open 
the doors of the place where they were in custody, and 
made a violent seizure of the same, under pretence of 
we know not what due to him from Theophilus earl of 
Suffolk, by virtue of a certain decree of our court of 
chancery, to which those goods, as being the earl's, 
were justly liable ; whereas by our laws, neither the 
earl now living, whose goods they are, is bound by 
that decree, neither ought the goods to be seized or 
detained ; which the sentence of that court, now sent 
to your serenity, together with these letters, positively 
declares and proves. Which letters the said Charles 



(334 



LETTERS OF STATE. 




Harbord has desired of us, to the end we would make 
it our request to your highness, that the said goods 
may be forthwith discharged from the violent seizure, 
and no less unjust action of the said Richard Green- 
ville, in regard it is apparently against the custom and 
law of nations, that any person should be allowed the 
liberties to sue in a foreig*n jurisdiction upon a plaint, 
wherein he can have no relief in the country where 
the cause of action first arose. Therefore the reason of 



justice itself, and , your far celebrated equanimity en- 
couraged us to recommend this cause to your highness; 
assuring your highness, that whenever any dispute 
shall happen in our courts concerning the rights and 
properties of } r our people, you shall ever find us ready 
and quick in our returns of favour. Westminster, — 
Your highness's most affectionate, 

OLIVER, Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of Enoland. 



LETTERS 



IN THE NAME OF RICHARD, PROTECTOR. 



Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
fyc, To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Lewis, 
King of France. 

Most Serene and Potent King, our Friend 

and Confederate ; 
So soon as our most serene father, Oliver, Protector 
of the Commonwealth of England, by the will of God 
so ordaining, departed this life upon the third of Sep- 
tember, we being lawfully declared his successor in 
the supreme magistracy, though in the extremity of 
tears and sadness, could do no less than with the first 
opportunity by these our letters make known a matter 
of this concernment to your majesty ; by whom, as 
you have been a most cordial friend to our father and 
this republic, we are confident the mournful and unex- 
pected tidings will be as sorrowfully received. Our 
business now is, to request your majesty, that you 
would have such an opinion of us, as of one who has 
determined nothing more religiously and constantly, 
than to observe the friendship and confederacy con- 
tracted between your majesty and our renowned fa- 
ther: and with the same zeal and goodwill to confirm 
and establish the leagues by him concluded, and to 
carry on the same counsels and interests with your 
majesty. To which intent it is our pleasure that our 
ambassador, residing at your court, be empowered by 
the same commission as formerly ; and that you will 
give the same credit to what he transacts in our name, 
as if it had been done by ourselves. In the mean time 
we wish your majesty all prosperity. 
From our court at Whitehall, 

Sept. 5, L668. 



To the most Eminent Lord Cardinal Mazarine. 

Though nothing could fall out more bitter and 
grievous to us, than to write the mournful news of our 
most serene and most renowned father's death ; never- 
theless, in regard we cannot be ignorant of the high 
esteem which he had for your eminency, and the great 
value which you had for him ; nor have any reason to 
doubt, but that your eminency, upon whose care the 
prosperity of France depends, will no less bewail the 
loss of your constant friend, and most united confeder- 
ate; we thought it of great moment, by these our 
letters, to make known this accident so deeply to be 
lamented, as well to your eminency as to the king; 
and to assure your eminency, which is but reason, that 
we shall most religiously observe all those things, 
which our father of most serene memory was bound by 
the league to see confirmed and ratified : and shall 
make it our business, that in the midst of your mourn- 
ing for a friend so faithful and flourishing in all vir- 
tuous applause, there may be nothing wanting to 
preserve the faith of our confederacy. For the conser- 
vation of which on your part also, to the good of 
both nations, may God Almighty long preserve your 
eminency. 

Westminster, Sept. 1658. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth ^England, 
8fc, To the most Serene Prince, Charles Gustavus, 
King of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals, fyc. 

Most Serene and Potent King, our 
Friend and Confederate; 
When we consider with ourselves that it will be a 
difficult matter for us to be imitators of our father's 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



635 



virtues, unless we should observe and endeavour to 
hold the same confederacies which he by his prowess 
acquired, and out of his singular judgment thought 
most worthy to be embraced and observed ; your ma- 
jesty has no reason to doubt, that it behoves us to pay 
the same tribute of affection and goodwill, which our 
father of most serene memory always paid to your 
majesty. Therefore, although in this beginning of our 
government and dignity I may not find our affairs in 
that condition, as at present to answer to some particu- 
lars which your embassadors have proposed, yet it is 
our resolution to continue the league concluded by our 
father with your majesty, and to enter ourselves into a 
stricter engagement ; and so soon as we shall rightly 
understand the state of affairs on both sides, we shall 
always be ready on our part to treat of those things, 
which shall be most chiefly for the united benefit of 
both republics. In the mean time, God long preserve 
your majesty to his glory, and the defence and safe- 
guard of his orthodox church. 
From our court at Westminster, 
October, 1658. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth of Eng- 
i land, 8fc. To the most Serene and Potent Prince, 

Charles GvsTA\vs,Kingofthe Swedes, Goths, awe? 

Vandals, fyc. 

Most serene and potent King, our 
Friend and Confederate ; 
We have received two letters from your majesty, the 
one by your envoy, the other transmitted to us from 
our resident Philip Meadows, whereby we not only 
understood your majesty's unfeigned grief for the death 
of our most serene father, in expressions setting forth 
the real thoughts of your mind, and how highly your 
majesty esteemed his prowess and friendship, but also 
what great hopes your majesty conceived of ourselves 
advanced in his room. And certainly, as an accumu- 
lation of paternal honour in deeming us worthy to suc- 
ceed him, nothing more noble, more illustrious, could 
befall us than the judgment of such a prince; nothing 
more fortunately auspicious could happen to us, at our 
first entrance upon the government, than such a con- 
gratulator ; nothing, lastly, that could more vehemently 
incite us to take possession of our father's virtues, as 
our lawful inheritance, than the encouragement of so 
great a king. As to what concerns your majesty's in- 
terests, already under consideration between us, in 
reference to the common cause of the protestants, we 
would have your majesty have those thoughts of us, 
that since we came to the helm of this republic, though 
the condition of our affairs be such at present, that they 
chiefly require our utmost diligence, care, and vigi- 
lancy at home, yet that we hold nothing more sacred, 
and that there is not anything more determined by us, 
than, as much as in us lies, never to be wanting to the 
league concluded by our father with your majesty. 
To that end, we have taken care to send a fleet into 
the Baltic sea, with those instructions which our agent, 
to that purpose empowered by us, will communicate 



to your majesty ; whom God preserve in long safety, 
and prosper with success in defence of his orthodox 
religion. 

From our court at Westminster, 
October 13, 1658. 

Richard, Protector, To the most Serene and Potent 
Prince, Charles Gustavus, King of the Swedes, 
Goths, and Vandals, fyc. 

Most serene and potent King 1 , our 
Friend and Confederate ; 

We send to your majesty, nor could we send a pre- 
sent more worthy or more excellent, the truly brave 
and truly noble Sir George Ascue, knight, not only 
famed in war, and more especially for his experience 
in sea-affairs, approved and tried in many desperate 
engagements ; but also endued with singular probity, 
modesty, ingenuity, learning, and for the sweetness of 
his disposition caressed by all men ; and which is the 
sum of all, now desirous to serve under the banners of 
your majesty, so renowned over all the world for your 
military prowess. And we would have your majesty 
be fully assured, that whatsoever high employment 
you confer upon him, wherein fidelity, fortitude, expe- 
rience, may shine forth in their true lustre, you cannot 
entrust a person more faithful, more courageous, nor 
easily more skilful. Moreover, as to those things we 
have given him in charge to communicate to your 
majesty, we request that he may have quick access, 
and favourable audience, and that you will vouchsafe 
the same credit to him as to ourselves if personally 
present: lastly, that you will give him that honour as 
you shall judge becoming a person dignified with his 
own merits and our recommendation. Now God 
Almighty prosper all your affairs with happy* success 
to his own glory, and the safeguard of his orthodox 
church. 

From our court at Whitehall, 
October, 1658. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
8fc. t To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Charles 
Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, 8fc. 

Most serene and potent King, our dearest 
Friend and Confederate ; 
Samuel Piggot of London, merchant, in a petition 
delivered to us, sets forth, that he lately sent from 
London into France, upon the account of trade, two 
vessels, the one called the Post, Tiddie Jacob master, 
the other the Water-Dog, Garbrand Peters master. 
That from France, being laden with salt, they sailed 
for Amsterdam ; at Amsterdam the one took in ballast 
only ; the other laden with herrings, in copartnership 
with one Peter Heinbergh, sailed away for Stettin in 
Pomerania, which is under your jurisdiction, there to 
unlade her freight; but now he hears that both those 
vessels are detained somewhere in the Baltic sea by 
your forces ; notwithstanding that he took care to send 



636 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



a writing- with both those ships, sealed with the seal 
of the admiralty-court, by which it appeared that he 
alone was the lawful owner of both the vessels and 
goods, that part excepted which belonged to Hein- 
bergh. Of all which, in regard he has made full proof 
before us, we make it our request to your majesty, (to 
prevent the ruin and utter shipwreck of the poor man's 
estate, by the loss of two ships at one time,) that you 
would command your officers to take care for the 
speedy discharge of the said vessels. God long pre- 
serve your majesty to his ow T n glory, and the safeguard 
of his orthodox church. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, 
Src, To the high and mighty Lords, the States of 
Westfriezland. 

Most high and mighty Lords, our dearest 
Friends and Confederates; 

Mary Grinder, widow, in a petition presented to 
us, has made a most grievous complaint, that whereas 
Thomas Killegrew, a commander in your service, has 
owed her for these eighteen years a considerable sum 
of money, she can by her agents neither bring him to 
pay the said money, nor to try his title at law to the 
same, if he has any. Which that he may not be com- 
pelled to do by the widow's attorney, he has petitioned 
your highnesses, that nobody may be suffered to sue 
him for any money that he owes in England. But 
should we signify no more than only this to your 
highnesses, that she is a widow, that she is in great 
want, the mother of many small children, which her 
creditor endeavours to deprive of almost all that little 
support they have in this world, we cannot believe we 
need make use of any greater arguments to your lord- 
ships, so well acquainted with those divine precepts 
forbidding the oppression of the widow and the father- 
less, to persuade ye not to grant any such privilege, 
upon a bare petition, to the fraudulent subverter of the 
widow's right; and which for the same reason we 
assure ourselves you will never admit. 

From our court at Westminster, 
January 27, 1659. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth o/England, 
<§-c, To the most Serene Prince, Lewis, King of 
France. 

Most Serene and Potent Prince, our most 
august Confederate and Friend ; 
We have been given to understand, and that to our 
no small grief, that several protestant churches in Pro- 
vence were so maliciously affronted and disturbed by 
a certain turbulent humourist, that the magistrates at 
Grenoble, who are the proper judges of such causes, 
thought him worthy of exemplary punishment; but 
that the convention of the clergy, which was held not 
far from those places, obtained of your majesty, that 
the whole matter should be removed up to Paris, there 
to be heard before your royal council. But they not 
having as yet made any determination in the business, 



those churches, and more especially that of Yvoire, are 
forbid to meet for the worship of God. Most earnestly 
therefore we request your majesty, that in the first 
place you would not prohibit those from preaching in 
public, whose prayers to God for your safety and the 
prosperity of your kingdom you are so free to suffer ; 
then, that the sentence given against that impertinent 
disturber of divine service, by the proper judges of 
those causes at Grenoble, may be duly put in execution. 
God long preserve your majesty in safety and pros- 
perity ; to the end that, if you have any good opinion 
of our prayers, or think them prevalent with God, you 
may be speedily induced to suffer the same to be pub- 
licly put up to heaven by those churches, now forbid 
their wonted meetings. 

Westminster, Feb. 18, 1659. 

To the most Eminent Lord Cardinal Mazarine. 

Most eminent Lord Cardinal ; 

The most illustrious lady, late wife of the deceased 
duke of Richmond, is now going into France, together 
with the young duke her son, with an intention to re- 
side there for some time. We therefore most earnestly 
request your eminency, that if any thing fall out, 
wherein your authority, favour, and patronage may be 
assisting to them, as strangers, you would vouchsafe 
to protect their dignity, and to indulge the recommen- 
dation of it not the meanest, in such a manner, that if 
any addition can be made to your civility towards all 
people, especially of illustrious descent, we may be 
sensible our letters have obtained it. Withal, your 
excellency may assure yourself, your recommendation, 
whenever you require the like from us, shall be of 
equal force and value in our esteem and care. 

Westminster, Feb. 29, 1659. 

Rich ard, Protector of the Commonwealth o/"England, 
<§rc, To the most Serene Prince, John, King ^Por- 
tugal. 

Most Serene and potent Prince, our 
Friend and Confederate ; 
Although there are many things which we are 
bound to impart by writing to a king our friend, and 
in strict confederacy with our republic, yet there is 
nothing which we ever did more willingly, than what 
we do at this present, by these our letters to congratu- 
late this last victory, so glorious to the kingdom of 
Portugal, obtained against our common enemy the 
Spaniard. By which, how great an advantage will 
accrue not only to your own but to the peace and re- 
pose of all Europe, and that perhaps for many years, 
there is nobody but understands. But there is one thing- 
more, wherein we must acknowledge your majesty's 
justice, the most certain pledge of victory : that satis- 
faction has been given by the commissioners appointed 
at London, according to the 24th article of the league, 
to our merchants, whose vessels were hired by the Bra- 
zil company. Only there is one among them still re- 
maining Alexander Bence of London, merchant, whose 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



637 



ship called the Three Brothers, John Wilks master, 
being hired and laden, and having- performed two 
voyages for the said company, yet still they refuse to 
pay him his wages according to their covenants ; when 
the rest that only performed single voyages are already 
paid. Which why it should be done, we cannot un- 
derstand, unless those people think, in their judgment, 
that person more worthy of his hire, who did them only 
single service, than he who earned his wages twice. 
We therefore earnestly request your majesty, that satis- 
faction may be given, for his service truly performed, 
to this same single Alexander, to whom a double sti- 
pend is due ; and that, by virtue of your royal author- 
ity, you would prefix the Brazil company as short a 
day as may be, for the payment of his just due, and 
repairing his losses; seeing that their delays have been 
the occasion, that the loss sustained by the merchant 
has very near exceeded the money itself which is 
owing for his wages. So God continue your majesty's 
prosperous successes against the common enemy. 
From our court at Westminster, 
Feb. 23, 1659. 

Richard, Protector of the Commonwealth of Eng- 
land, #"c, To the most eminent Lord Cardinal 
Mazarine. 

Most Eminent Lord ; 

By letters to your eminency, about eight months 
since, dated June 13, we recommended to your emi- 
nency the cause of Peter Pet, a person of singular pro- 
bity, and in all naval sciences most useful both to us 
and our republic. His ship called the Edward, in the 
year 1646, as we formerly wrote, was taken in the 
mouth of the Thames by one Bascon, and sold in the 
port of Boulogne ; and though the king in his royal 
council the 4th of November, 1647, decreed, that what 
money the council should think fitting to be given in 
recompense of the loss, should be forthwith paid in 
satisfaction to the owner; nevertheless, as he sets forth, 
he could never reap the benefit of that order. Now in 
regard we make no question but that your eminency, 
at our desire, gave strict command for the speedy exe- 
cution of that decree; we make it therefore our renewed 
request, that you would vouchsafe to examine where 
the impediment lies, or through whose neglect or con- 
tumacy it came to pass, that in ten years time the 
king's decree was not obeyed ; and employ your au- 
thority so effectually, that the money then decreed, 
which we thought long since satisfied, may be speedily 
demanded and paid to our petitioner. Thus your 
eminency will perform an act most grateful to jus- 
tice, and lay moreover a singular obligation upon 
ourselves. 

From our court at Westminster, 
Feb. 25, 1659. 



The two following Letters, after the Deposal of 
Richard, were written in the Name of the Par- 
liament Restored. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
Sfc. To the most Serene and Potent Prince, Charles 
Gustavus, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Van- 
dals, 8fc. 

Most Serene and Potent King, our dearest Friend ; 

Since it has pleased the most merciful and omnipo- 
tent God, at whose disposal only the revolutions of all 
kingdoms and republics are, to restore us to our pris- 
tine authority, and the supreme administration of the 
English affairs ; we thought it convenient in the first 
place to make it known to your majesty; and to sig- 
nify moreover as well our extraordinary affection to 
your majesty, so potent a protestant prince, as also our 
most fervent zeal to promote the peace between your 
majesty and the king of Denmark, another most power- 
ful protestant king, not to be reconciled without our 
assistance, and the good offices of our affection. Our 
pleasure therefore is, that our extraordinary envoy, 
Philip Meadows, be continued in the same employ- 
ment with your majesty, with which he has been 
hitherto intrusted from this republic. To which end 
we impower him by these our letters to make proposals, 
act, and negotiate with your majesty, in the same 
manner as was granted him by his last recommenda- 
tions : and whatsoever he shall transact and conclude 
in our name, we faithfully promise and engage, by 
God's assistance, to confirm and ratify. .The same 
God long support your majesty, the pillar and support 
of the protestant interests. 

Westminster, William Lenthal, 

May 15, 1659. Speaker of the Parliament of the 
Commonwealth of England. 

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, 
fyc, To the most Serene Prince, Frederick, King of 
Denmark. 

Most serene King, and most dear Friend ; 

Seeing it now is come to pass, that by the will and 
pleasure of the most merciful and powerful God, the 
supreme moderator of all things, we are restored to our 
pristine place and dignity, in the administration of the 
public affairs, we thought it convenient in the first 
place, that a revolution of this government should not 
be concealed from your majesty's notice, a prince both 
our neighbour and confederate ; and withal to signify 
how much we lay to heart your ill success : which you 
will easily perceive by our zeal and diligence, that 
never shall be wanting in us to promote and accom- 
plish a reconciliation between your majesty and the 
king of Sweden. And therefore we have commanded 
our extraordinary envoy with the most serene king of 
Sweden, Philip Meadows, to attend your majest} r , in 
our name, in order to these matters, and to impart, 
propound, act, and negotiate such things as w T e have 



638 



LETTERS OF STATE. 



given him in charge to communicate to jour majesty : 
and what credit }ou shall give to him in this his em- 
ployment, we request your majesty to believe it given 
to ourselves. God Almighty grant your majesty a 
happy and joyful deliverance out of all your difficulties 
and afflicting troubles, under which you stand so un- 



dauntedly supported by your fortitude and magna- 
nimity. 

Westminster, William Lenthal, 

May 15, 1659. Speaker of the Parliament of the 
Commonwealth of England. 



MANIFESTO OF THE LORD PROTECTOR 



COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, &c. 



PUBLISHED BY CONSENT AND ADVICE OF HIS COUNCIL. 



WHEREIN IS SHEWN THE REASONABLENESS OF THE CAUSE OF THIS REPUBLIC AGAINST 
THE DEPREDATIONS OF THE SPANIARDS. 



[AVritten in Latin by John Milton, and first printed in 1655; Translated into English in 1738.] 



That the motives whereby we have been lately induced 
to make an attack upon certain islands in the West In- 
dies, which have been now for some time in the hands of 
the Spaniards, are exceeding- just and reasonable, every 
one will easily see, who considers in what a hostile 
manner that king- and his subjects have all along, in 
those parts of America, treated the English nation ; 
which behaviour of theirs as it was very unjust at the 
beginning, so ever since with the same injustice they 
have persevered in it, in a direct contrariety to the 
common law of nations, and to particular articles of 
alliance made betwixt the two kingdoms. 

It must indeed be acknowledged, the English for 
some years past have either patiently borne with these 
injuries, or only defended themselves; which may pos- 
sibly give occasion to some to look upon that late 
expedition of our fleet to the West Indies, as a war 
voluntarily begun by us, instead of considering that 
this war was first begun and raised by the Spaniards 
themselves, as in reality it will be found to be, and 
(though this republic have done all that lay in their 
power to establish peace and commerce in those parts) 
hitherto kept up and carried on by them with the 
greatest eagerness. 

That the Spaniards themselves are the occasion of 
this war, will evidently appear to every one who con- 
siders how, as oft as they find opportunity, without any 
just cause, and without being provoked to it by any 
injury received, they are continually murdering, and 
sometimes even in cold blood butchering, any of our 
countrymen in America they think fit; while in the 
mean time they seize upon their goods and fortunes, 
demolish their houses and plantations, take any of their 
ships they happen to meet with in those seas, and treat 
the sailors as enemies, nay, even as pirates. For they 
give that opprobrious name to all, except those of their 
own nation, who venture to sail in those seas. Nor do 



they pretend any other or better right for so doing, than 
a certain ridiculous gift of the pope on which they rely, 
and because they were the first discoverers of some 
parts of that western region : by virtue of which name 
and title, which they arrogate to themselves, they main- 
tain that the whole power and government of that 
western world is lodged only in their hands. Of which 
very absurd title we shall have occasion to speak more 
fully, when we come to consider the causes assigned 
by the Spaniards for their thinking themselves at liberty 
to exercise all sorts of hostilities against our country- 
men in America, to such a degree, that whoever are 
driven upon those coasts by stress of weather or ship- 
wreck, or any other accident, are not only clapt in 
chains by them as prisoners, but are even made slaves ; 
while they, notwithstanding all this, are so unreason- 
able as to think, that the peace is broken, and very 
much violated by the English ; and that even in 
Europe, if they attempt any thing against them in 
those parts, with a view to make reprisals, and to de- 
mand restitution of their goods. 

But though the king of Spain's ambassadors in our 
country, depending on a Spanish faction which had 
always a very considerable influence in the last king's 
council, as well as his father's, did not scruple to make 
a great many unreasonable complaints and ridiculous 
demands upon the most trivial accounts, whenever the 
English did any thing of this kind ; yet those princes, 
though too much attached to the Spaniards, would by 
no means have the hands of their subjects bound up, 
when the Spaniards thought they should have the free 
use of theirs. On the contrary, they allowed their sub- 
jects to repel force by force, and to consider such of the 
Spaniards, as could not be brought at any rate to keep 
the peace in those parts, as enemies. So that about 
the year 1640, when this affair was debated in the last 
king's council, and when the Spanish ambassador de- 



640 



A MANIFESTO OF THE LORD PROTECTOR 



sired that some ships bound for America, lying- in the 
mouth of the river, and just ready to weigh anchor, 
should be stopt, as being- capable of doing- mischief to 
the Spaniards in that part of the world ; and when at the 
same time he refused the Eng-lish, who asked it of him 
by some members of the council appointed for that pur- 
pose, the privilege of trading- to the West Indies, it was 
nevertheless resolved upon, that these ships should pur- 
sue their intended voyage, which accordingly they 
did. 

Thus far the aforesaid princes were not wanting- to 
their subjects, when they made war in those places 
privately for their own interest, thoug-h, by reason of 
the power of the above-mentioned Spanish faction, 
they would not espouse their cause publicly, in the 
way they ought to have done, and in a manner suit- 
able to the ancient g'lory of the Eng-lish nation. And 
certainly, it would have been the most unbecoming- 
and disgraceful thing in the world for us, who by the 
kind providence of God had in our possession so many 
ships equipped and furnished with every thing- requisite 
to a war by sea, to have suffered these ships rather to 
have grown worm-eaten and rot at home for want of 
use, than to have been employed in aveng-ing- the blood 
of the English, as well as that of the poor Indians, 
which in those places has been so unjustly, so cruelly, 
and so often shed by the hands of the Spaniards : since 
God has made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined 
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their ha- 
bitation. And surely God will one time or other take 
vengeance on the Spaniards, who have shed so much 
innocent blood, who have made such terrible havoc 
among the poor Indians, slain so many thousands of 
them with the utmost barbarity, done them so many 
injuries, and harassed and persecuted them in such a 
miserable manner, whatever time that may happen, 
and by whose hand soever it may be executed. 

But in order to justify our conduct, there is no need 
of having recourse to the common relation that men 
have to one another, which is no other than that of 
brethren, whereby all great and extraordinary wrongs 
done to particular persons ought to be considered as in 
a manner done to all the rest of the human race ; since 
their having so often robbed and murdered our own 
countrymen was cause sufficient of itself, for our hav- 
ing undertaken that late expedition, and has given us 
abundant reason to avenge ourselves on that people ; 
to pass by at present a great many other reasons, and 
to take into consideration our own safety for the future, 
and likewise that of our allies, especially those among 
them who are of the orthodox religion ; and to omit 
several other causes, whereby we were prompted to this 
expedition, of which we have no need at present to 
give a particular enumeration, since our principal de- 
sign at this time is to declare and shew to the world 
the justice and equity of the thing itself, and not 
to reckon up all the particular causes of it. And that 
we may do this with the greater perspicuity, and ex- 
plain generals by particulars, we must cast our eyes 
back a little upon things that are past, and strictly 



examine all the transactions betwixt the English and 
Spaniards, consider what has been the state of affairs 
on both sides, so far as may respect the mutual rela- 
tion of the two kingdoms, both since the first discovery 
of America, and since the reformation : which two 
great events, as they happened much about the same 
time, so they produced every where vast changes and 
revolutions, especially among-st the English and Spa- 
niards, who since that time have conducted and ma- 
naged their affairs in a very different, if not quite con- 
trary, way to what they did formerly. For though the 
last king and his father, against the will of almost all 
their subjects, patched up any way two leagues with 
the Spaniards ; yet the different turns of the two na- 
tions, proceeding from the difference of their religious 
principles, and the perpetual dissensions that were in 
the West Indies, together with the jealousies and sus- 
picions which the Spaniards had all along of the Eng- 
lish, (being always mightily afraid of losing their 
treasures in America,) have not only frustrated all the 
late attempts made by this commonwealth to obtain a 
peace upon reasonable and honourable terms, but were 
likewise the principal reasons why Philip II, in Queen 
Elizabeth's reign, broke that ancient league, that had 
subsisted so long, without any violation, betwixt this 
nation and his ancestors of the house of Burgundy and 
Castile ; and having made war upon that queen, pro- 
posed to subdue this whole nation : which very thing 
in the year 1588 he attempted with all his might, 
while in the mean time he was treating about the es- 
tablishment of a peace ; which certainly cannot but be 
still deeply rooted in the minds of the English, and 
will not easily be extirpated. And though after that 
there was some kind of peace and commerce in Europe, 
(and it was of such sort, that no Englishman durst pro- 
fess his own religion within any part of the Spanish 
dominions, or have the Holy Bible in his house, or 
even aboard a ship,) yet in the West Indies the Spa- 
niard from that time has never allowed them either to 
enjoy peace, or to have the privilege of trading ; con- 
trary to what was expressly stipulated concerning both 
these things in that league of the year 15-12, concluded 
between Henry VIII, king of England, and the em- 
peror Charles V, in which peace and free commerce 
were expressly established between these two princes 
and their people, throug'h every part of their respective 
dominions, through all their ports and territories, with- 
out any exception of the West Indies, which was then 
subject to that emperor. 

But as to that article, of a peace to be maintained 
on the part of both nations through all the countries of 
the world ; this is indeed plainly contained in all the 
treaties of peace that were ever betwixt them, nor is 
there any exception relating to commerce in any of 
these treaties, till that which was made in the year 
1604, with which that in the year 1630 does perfectly 
agree. In which two last treaties it was resolved upon, 
that both nations should have a privilege of trading in 
every part of one another's dominions, in all those 
places, where, before the war between Philip II, king 
of Spain, and Elizabeth queen of England, there was 



OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



641 



any commerce, according' to what was usual and cus- 
tomary in ancient alliances and treaties made before 
that time. These are the very individual words of 
those treaties, which do plainly leave the matter du- 
bious and uncertain, and so King James was satisfied 
to make peace with Spain any how, since he only re- 
newed the very same treaty which had been concluded 
a little before the death of Queen Elizabeth, who 
charged her deputies when it was in agitation, among 
other things, to insist warmly on having a privilege 
of trading to the West Indies. 

But King James, who was mightily desirous of 
making peace with the Spaniards, was content to leave 
that clause so expressed, as both parties might explain 
it in their own way, and as they judg-ed would be most 
for their own advantage ; though these words, " Ac- 
cording to what is usual and customary in ancient al- 
liances and treaties," are so to be understood as it is 
reasonable they should, according to what in justice 
ought to be done, and not according to what has been 
done on the part of the Spaniards, to their manifest 
violation, (which has afforded perpetual matter of com- 
plaint to the English, and has been an occasion of 
continual quarrels betwixt the two nations,) it is most 
evident from the express words of ancient treaties, that 
the English had a privilege both of peace and com- 
merce, through all the Spanish dominions. 

Moreover, if the way of observing ancient treaties 
and agreements is to be taken from their manifest 
violation, the Spaniards have some pretence for ex- 
plaining that clause, in the last treaties, as debarring 
the English from all manner of commerce in these 
parts. And for all that, during one half the time that 
intervened betwixt the foresaid treaty in the year 1542, 
and the beginning of the war betwixt Philip II, and 
Elizabeth, so far as we can judge from the manner in 
which things were carried on, it would appear that 
trading in these places was as much allowed as pro- 
hibited. But when the Spaniards would permit no 
commerce at all, they and the English came from the 
exchange of goods to that of blows and wounds ; and 
this not only before the war broke out betwixt Philip 
and Elizabeth, but likewise after a peace was made in 
the year 1604 by King James, and another by his son 
in 1630, and yet so as not to stop the course of trade 
through Europe. However, the king of Spain, after 
this late interruption of our trade, has now judged that 
the contests in America may be extended to Europe 
itself. 

But we neither insist on the interpretation of treaties, 
nor the right of commerce by virtue of these treaties, 
or on any other account, as if this contest of ours with 
Spain were necessarily to be founded on these. This 
is built on the clearest and most evident reasons in the 
world, as will presently appear. Nevertheless, there 
are some things of such a nature, that though it be not 
so necessary to found a war upon them, yet they may 

• William Stephens of Bristol and some other London merchants, in the 
years 1606 and 1607, trading with those people who live on the coast of 
Morocco, with three vessels, some ships belonging to the king of Spain that 
were pirating along these coasts, having' come upon them in the bay of 
Saffia and the harbour of Santo Cruz, while they were lying at anchor, 



very justly be obstacles to the establishing of a peace, 
or at least to the renewing of an alliance, in which 
these things are not granted, which have either been 
granted in former pactions, or may reasonably be ex- 
pected. And this may serve as an answer to that ques- 
tion ; Why, since we have renewed the ancient treaties 
we had formerly made with all other nations, we have 
not done the same with Spain ? And may serve to con- 
vince the world, that in the articles of alliance we have 
not, as is objected, demanded his right eye, far less both- 
eyes, by our refusing to be liable to the cruel and 
bloody inquisition in those places where we have 
been allowed to traffic, but have only insisted upon 
having such a privilege of carrying on trade, as we 
were not to be deprived of, either by ancient treaties, 
or the law of nature. For though the king of Spain 
has assumed to himself a power of prescribing us the 
laws and bounds of commerce, by authority of a law 
made by the pope, whereby he discharges all traffic 
with Turks, Jews, and other infidels :* and though 
under this pretence, even in time of peace, his ships of 
war, in other places besides the West Indies, have 
taken and plundered our ships; and though by the 
same authority of the pope, and under pretence of a 
certain gift he has from him, he claims the Indians for 
his subjects, as if forsooth they also were subject unto 
him, who are neither under his authority nor protec- 
tion : yet we maintain, that neither the pope nor the 
king of Spain is invested with any such power, as either 
to rob them of their liberty, or us of the privilege of 
conversing and trading with them, which we have by 
the law of nature and nations, but especially with those 
who, as we formerly observed, are not under the power 
and government of the king of Spain. 

Another obstacle to our renewing an alliance with 
Spain is sufficiently manifest, and at the same time 
very remarkable ; which is this, that any of our am- 
bassadors and public ministers who are sent into that 
kingdom, either for the sake of cultivating a good un- 
derstanding, or about any other business, betwixt the 
two commonwealths, are altogether uncertain of their 
lives, the king being tied down to such opinions, as 
hinder him from providing for their safety against 
murderers, so as they may not be always in the most 
imminent danger; whose privileges, in order to keep 
up and preserve friendship between princes and com- 
monwealths, have by the law of nations been always 
considered as inviolable, and as a thing much more 
sacred than those altars of refuge, whose privileges, 
built on the authority of the pope and the church 
of Rome, have been hitherto applied to elude the 
force of laws and justice, which we demanded should 
be put in execution against the murderers of Mr. 
Anthony Ascham, who was sent by this republic into 
Spain, to procure and establish friendship betwixt the 
two nations. For which barbarous murder there has 
never as yet been any satisfaction made, nor punishment 

plundered them, without giving any other reason for their doing it than 
this, that the king their master would not allow of any commerce with in- 
fidels ; and the loss these merchants sustained at that time was computed 
at more than 2000/. 



642 



A MANIFESTO OF THE LORD PROTECTOR 



inflicted on the authors of it, nor could this ever be ob- 
tained, though it was demanded by the parliament; * 
and in their name several times urged with the great- 
est warmth by the council of state. And this has been 
hitherto one continued obstacle, and a very just one 
too, to the renewing of an alliance betwixt the two na- 
tions ; nay, if we consider how other nations have fre- 
quently acted in like cases, it may be considered as a 
very just cause for a war. 

But as to the disputes that have arisen in the West 
Indies, though we, both in the continent itself, and in 
the islands, have plantations as well as they, and have 
as good, nay, a better right to possess them, than the 
Spaniards have to possess theirs, and though Ave have 
a right to trade in those seas, equally good with theirs; 
yet without any reason, or any damage sustained, and 
that when there was not the least dispute about com- 
merce, they have been continually invading our colo- 
nies in a hostile way, killing our men, taking our ships, 
robbing us of our goods, laying waste our houses and 
fields, imprisoning and enslaving our people : this 
they have been doing all along till these present times, 
wherein they have of late engaged in an expedition 
against them. 

For which reason, contrary to what used to be done 
formerly in the like case, they have detained our ships 
and merchants, and confiscated their goods almost 
every where through the Spanish dominions ; so that 
whether we turn our eyes to America or Europe, they 
alone are undoubtedly to be considered as the authors 
of the war, and the cause of all the inconveniences and 
all the bloodshed with which it may possibly be at- 
tended. 

There are a great many instances of the most cruel 
and barbarous treatment, the English have perpetually 
met with from the Spaniards in the West Indies; and 
that even in time of peace, both since the year 1604, 
when the peace was patched up by King James, till 
the time that the war broke out again, and since that 
last peace, which was concluded in the year 1630, to 
this very day. We shall only mention a few of 
tbem.f 

After a peace was concluded in the year 1605, a ship 
called the Mary, Ambrose Birch commander, was 
trading on the north coast of Hispaniola: the master 
being allured with promises of a safe and free commerce, 
by one father John and six of his accomplices, to go 
ashore to see some goods, twelve Spaniards in the 
mean time while going aboard to see the English goods, 
while the English suspecting no frauds were shewing 

* This is evident from the parliament's letter, signed by the hand of the 
Speaker, to the King of Spain, in the month of January, 1650, the words 
whereof areas follow. "We demand of your majesty, and insist upon it, 
" that public justice be at length satisfied for the barbarous murder of An- 
il tliony Ascham our resident at your court, and the rather, that after we 
" have seen condign punishment inflicted on the authors of such a detest- 
" able crime, we may be in no fear hereafter to send our ambassador to 
" your royal court, to lay before you such things as may be equally ad- 
vantageous to your majesty and our commonwealth. On the contrary, 
'I if we should suffer that blood, the shedding whereof was a thing in many 
" respects so remarkably horrible, to pass unrevenged, we must of neees- 
" sity be partakers in that detestable crime in the sight of God, our only 

deliverer and the eternal fountain of our mercies, and in the eye of the 
' whole English nation; especially if ever we should send any other of 
|| our countrymen into that kingdom, where murder is allowed togo quite 

unpunished. But we have so great an opinion of your majesty, that we 
" will not easily be brought to believe that your royal authority is sub- 
jected to any other power superior to it within your own dominions." 

t As a ship called the Ulysses was trading along the coast of Guiana, 
the merchants and sadors happened to go ashore, by the persuasion of 



them their wares, the priest giving a signal from the 
shore, the Spaniards every man drew his dagger, and 
stabbed all the English that were in the ship, except 
two who leaped into the sea, and the rest ashore were 
put to death with an unparalleled cruelty; the master 
himself stript of his clothes, and fastened to a tree, was 
exposed naked to be bit by the flies and vermin. And. 
after he had continued in this miserable case for the 
space of twenty hours, a negro hearing his groans 
came to the place, and as he was just on the point of 
expiring-, stabbed him with a spear. This ship with 
her goods was valued at 5400/. 

Another ship called the Archer was taken at St. Do- 
mingo, and all the sailors put to death. She was reck- 
oned worth 1300/. 

Another ship, called the Friendship of London, with 
her loading, was taken by Lodowic Fajard, admiral of 
the Spanish fleet, all her goods confiscated, and the 
merchants and mariners thrown into the sea, except 
one boy who was reserved for a slave. This ship with 
her loading was estimated at 1500/. 

The sailors going ashore out of another ship, called 
the Scorn, (the Spaniards having solemnly sworn they 
would do them no prejudice,) were all nevertheless 
bound to trees and strangled. The ship with all her 
goods was seized, and the merchants, to whom she be- 
longed, lost at this time 1500/. 

In the year 1606, a ship called the Neptune, was 
taken atTortuga, by the Spanish guarda costas, valued 
at 4300/. J 

The same year, another ship, called the Lark, was 
taken by Lodowic Fajard, and confiscated with all her 
loading, valued at 4570/. 

Another, called the Castor and Pollux, was taken by 
the Spaniards at Florida, by whom she was confiscated, 
and all her sailors either killed or made slaves ; for 
they were never heard of afterwards. This vessel with 
her loading was valued at 15000/. § 

In the year 1608, a Plymouth ship called the 
Richard, commanded by Henry Challins, fitted out at 
the expense of Lord Popham, lord chief justice of 
England, Ferdinand Gorges knight, and others, to go 
to Virginia, happening to be driven by stress of weather 
upon the southern part of the Canary Islands, in her 
way from thence to the coast of Virginia, she chanced 
to fall in with eleven Spanish ships returning from St. 
Domingo, who seized her; and though the captain, to 
rescue himself out of their hands, produced a royal 
passport, yet the ship with all her goods was confis- 
cated, the captain himself barbarously used by them 

Berry, governor of that place, who had promised, nay, even sworn that 
they should receive no hurt ; nevertheless there were thirty of them taken 
and committed to prison. Upon which the governor writes a letter to the 
merchant, acquainting him, that he had indeed taken thirty of his men, 
and that because some foreigners, who had come there to trade with them, 
had defrauded him of 20,000 ducats, which, if he would send him, he swore 
he would restore all his men, and allow him the liberty of commerce. 1 he 
merchant sent him the sum he demanded, part in ready money, part in 
goods, which after the governor had received, he ordered all the thirty 
men to be fastened to trees and strangled, except the chirurgeon, who was 
reserved, to cure the governor of a certain disease. This ransom, together 
with other damages sustained there, was computed at 7000/. 

1 John Davis lost two ships with all their goods, and the Spaniards slew 
all (he men that were aboard of them, to the entire Joss of that voyage, and 
this was computed at 3500/. 

§ Another ship belonging to some London merchants, John Lock com- 
mander, was taken by the Spanish fleet, at the isle of Tortuga, because she 
had ben trading there, and had felled some trees; for this she was 
confiscated, most of the sailors put to death, and the rest condemned to 
the galleys. This was esteemed a loss of 5300/. 



OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



643 



and sent to the galleys. This was a damage of more 
than 2500/. 

A ship, called the Aid, was served much the same 
way by Lodowic Fajard, having been taken under pre- 
tence of friendship ; she too with her goods was con- 
fiscated, and all the sailors sent to the galleys, where 
some were cudgelled to death for refusing to ply the 
oars. Which vessel with her goods, by the Spaniards' 
own estimation, was worth 7000/. 

The same year another ship, called the gallant Anne, 
William Curry commander, as she was trading at His- 
paniola, was likewise confiscated with all her goods, 
and all the sailors hanged ; each of them, by way of 
ridicule, having a piece of paper sewed to his coat, 
which had these words written upon it, " Why came ye 
hither ?" This ship with her burden was valued at 
8000/. These instances do sufficiently shew what kind 
of peace the Spaniards maintained with us during the 
reign of King James, who was always very much 
afraid of breaking the peace with them. And we may 
also plainly discover the same acts of hostility and 
barbarous treatment ever since the last peace, which 
was made in the year 1630, to this very day. For this 
end we will first speak a little of those colonies, that 
were planted by some noblemen of this nation, in the 
isle of Catelina, which they call the isle of Providence, 
and the island of Tortuga, by them called the island of 
Association. These islands about the year 1629, being 
then quite uninhabited, having- neither men nor cattle 
in them, were seized by the English, who at that time 
were at war with the Spaniards. The year following, 
when peace was established betwixt the two nations, 
the Spaniards having made no exception about these 
islands, King Charles, in a charter under the great 
seal of England, declared himself master of the isle of 
Providence and some other islands adjacent to it, which 
he thought no way inconsistent with his peace, and 
gave them in possession to some noblemen and their 
heirs, and next year he extended this grant to the isle 
of Tortuga. 

And though the above-mentioned planters had got 
possession of these islands by the king's grant, and 
though this grant was exceeding well founded, first on 
the law of nature, since neither the Spaniards, nor any 
other people whatever, were in possession of these 
places when they seized them ; and secondly, on the 
right of war, since they were taken possession of in 
time of war, and were not excepted in the articles of 
peace, whence it follows from the second article of the 
last treaty, that the title of the Spaniards to these 
islands (even supposing they had had one) was made 
null by their own consent : and though likewise, neither 
the aforesaid company of planters in general, nor any 
one of them in particular by any action of theirs, had 
given any just cause of offence, either to the king of 
Spain or to any of his subjects, till they had first in 
a violent manner attacked our ships and colonies, and 
had slain several of the English, and set fire to their 
houses : yet the Spaniards, being firmly resolved to 
break the peace in these places, about the twenty-se- 
cond of January 1632, without any the least provoca- 
2 T 



tion, betwixt the isle of Tortuga and the cape of Flo- 
rida, in a hostile manner fell upon a certain ship be- 
longing to the company, called the Sea-Flower, on her 
return from the isle of Providence, in which engage- 
ment they slew some of the men aboard that ship, and 
wounded others. 

After this, about the year 1634, the isle of Tortuga 
was attacked by four ships belonging to the Spaniards, 
without any injury done on the part of the English, in 
which attack upwards of sixty were slain, many wound- 
ed and taken prisoners, their houses burnt down and 
quite demolished, their most valuable g'oods carried off 
by the Spaniards, and the English almost wholly 
driven out of that island ; of whom some were hanged, 
others carried to the Havanna, and detained in the 
most abject slavery. One Grymes, who had been a 
gunner in Tortuga, was distinguished from the rest, by 
a death remarkably cruel. Some of them flying for re- 
fuge to a certain desart island called Santa Cruz, were 
again set upon by the Spaniards, who even pursued 
them thither with three galleys in the month of March 
1636, of whom forty were killed, and the rest taken 
prisoners, and used with the utmost barbarity. 

In the year 1635, July 24th, the Spaniards, with two 
great ships and one galley, made likewise an attack 
upon the isle of Providence, and they fought for se- 
veral hours, but at that time they were repulsed and 
forced to give over their enterprise. However, they 
attempted the same thing a second time, about the 
year 1640, with twelve ships, some large, and some of 
a lesser size, whereof the admiral's ship was called the 
Armadillo of Carthagena, one of the greater galleys of 
the royal plate-fleet, and having sent a great number 
of soldiers ashore, they were confident of making them- 
selves masters of the whole island ; but yet were re- 
pulsed with a great deal of damag'e, and forced to re- 
treat. Nevertheless, having equipped another fleet, 
they returned a little after, when the planters, at vari- 
ance among themselves, did not so much employ their 
thoughts about what method they should take to de- 
fend themselves, as about the terms upon which they 
might most advantageously surrender; which terms, 
upon their giving* up the island, they found no diffi- 
culty to obtain. But the island was by this means 
wrested out of the hands both of the planters and the 
commonwealth, of whom the former sustained the loss 
of more than 80,000/. and the latter, besides the loss of 
the island, hereby received a very open and public af- 
front. After the Spaniards had thus made themselves 
masters of the isle of Providence, a ship bringing some 
passengers hither, who wanted to transport themselves 
to this place from New-England, the Spaniards by 
stratagem having found means to get her brought 
within gun-shot, (the people in the ship knowing no- 
thing of their late conquest of that island,) she was in 
great danger of being taken, and with very much diffi- 
culty rescued herself; the master of the ship, a very 
honest and worthy man, was killed by a bullet-shot 
from the island. 

Nor were the Spaniards content to confine the acts 
of hostility, which they have exercised upon the people 



644 



A MANIFESTO OF THE LORD PROTECTOR 



of that colony, within the boundaries of America, but 
have also treated them in the same hostile manner in 
Europe. For in the year 1638, December 25th, a ship 
belonging- to that same company, called the Providence, 
Thomas Newman commander, two leagues from 
Dungeness on the very coast of England, was as- 
saulted and taken by Spreugfeld, captain of a privateer 
belonging- to Dunkirk, to which place this ship was 
brought, and her cargo detained, which even by the 
computation of many persons in that place, was reck- 
oned to amount to the sum of 30,000/. As for the 
sailors, some were slain, some wounded, and the rest, 
after having been treated with the greatest inhumanity 
in their own ship, were hurried away to Dunkirk, 
where they met with much the same usage, till they 
found some waj^to make their escape; and though the 
owners demanded satisfaction in the most earnest man- 
ner, and the last king by his resident Mr. Balthasar 
Gerber, and both by letters written with his own hand, 
and the hand of secretary Coke, asked reparation on 
their behalf; yet they could neither procure the resti- 
tution of their goods, nor the least compensation for 
these losses. 

But there are other examples of the Spanish cruelty, 
which are of a later date, and still more shocking ; 
such as that of their coming from Porto-Rico and at- 
tacking Santa Cruz about the year 1651, an island that 
was not formerly inhabited, but at that time possessed 
by an English colony governed by Nicol. Philips, who 
with about an hundred more of the colony was barba- 
rously murdered by the hands of the Spaniards, who 
besides this attacked the ships in the harbour, plundered 
their houses and razed them from the very foundation ; 
and when they could find no more to sacrifice to their 
fury, (the rest of the inhabitants having fled to the 
woods,) returning to Porto-rico, they gave the miser- 
able remnant, who were well nigh famished, time to 
remove from Santa Cruz, and to betake themselves to 
some other neighbouring islands. But a little time 
thereafter, they returned in quest and pursuit of those 
who sculked in the woods ; but they had the good for- 
tune to find a way of making their escape, and stealing 
away privately to other islands. 

In the same year 1631, a ship belonging to John 
Turner being driven into the harbour of Cumanagola 
by tempestuous winds, was seized by the governor of 
that place, and confiscated with all her lading. 

The same was done to captain Cranley's ship and 
her goods.* 

And in the year 1650, a certain vessel pertaining to 
Samuel Wilson, loaden with horses, was taken on the 
high seas in her way to Barbadoes, and carried to the 
Ilavanna. Both the ship and her goods were confis- 
cated, most of the sailors imprisoned, and like slaves 
obliged to work at the fortifications. 

The same hardships were endured by the sailors 
aboard a certain ship of Barnstable about two years 

•And also to one belonging to John Bland, commanded by Nicol. 
Pinups, in the very same harbour. 

I But Swanky, our admiral, was not so civilly treated in Sicily, in the 
harbour of Drepano, when in the year 1653, about the month of June, his 
■hip called the Henry Bonaventure, together with a large and very rich 



since, which in her return from some of our plantations 
in the Carribee islands, springing a leak hard by His- 
paniola, the sailors to save themselves, being oblig'ed 
to get into the long boat, got ashore, where they were 
all made slaves, and obliged to work at the fortifica- 
tions. 

By these, and many more examples of the same 
kind too long to be reckoned up, it is abundantly evi- 
dent, the king of Spain and his subjects think they are 
no way bound by any condition of peace to be per- 
formed to us on their part in these places, since they 
have habitually exercised all sorts of hostilities against 
us, nay have even done such things as are more insuf- 
ferable, and more grievous, than open acts of hostility ; 
and since that cruelty, with which they usually treat 
the English in America, is so contrary to the articles of 
peace, that it does not so much as seem suitable to the 
laws of the most bloody war : however, in that embargo 
of the king of Spain, by which he orders our merchant 
ships and their g'oods to be seized and confiscated, the 
whole blame is laid upon the English, whom he brands 
with the odious names of treaty-breakers and violators 
of the most sacred peace, and likewise of free com- 
merce, which he pretends to have so religiously main- 
tained on his part, and gives out that we have violated 
the laws of peace and commerce with such strange and 
professed hostility, that we attempted to besiege the 
town of St. Domingo in the isle of Hispaniola. Which 
is the only cause he offers, why the goods of the Eng- 
lish are confiscated in Spain, and the trading people 
confined ; though this is likewise aggravated by his 
boasted humanity ; for he maintains that he in the 
most friendly way received our fleets into his harbours,f 
where it could be of any advantage for them to enter, 
and that his ministers did not at all require of us a 
strict observance of the articles of peace, that were 
agreed to by the two crowns, which forbid both parties 
to enter a harbour with more than six or eight ships of 
war. 

But as he, by talking in this strain, acquits our fleets 
of all trespasses and violations of treaty in these har- 
bours, since if any such thing- as is objected has been 
done and passed over, it has been done by the allow- 
ance of himself and his ministers ; and as it is exceed- 
ing manifest, that he has not been so favourable for 
nought, if he will but reflect with himself what vast 
profits he has received from our fleets, so on the other 
hand, that the king and his ministers have not at all 
in fact observed the agreements he speaks of, in the 
twenty-third article of which, the following provision 
is made in the most express terms ; " That if any dif- 
" ferences should happen to arise betwixt the twocom- 
" mon wealths, the subjects on both sides should be 
" advertised, that they should have six months from 
" the time of the advertisement to transport their effects, 
" during which time there should be no arrest, inter- 
" rupting, or damaging, of any man's person or goods." 



Dutch ship called the Peter, which he had taken, was by the treachery of 
the Spanish governor in that place, taken by seven Dutch ships, under the 
command <.f the younger Trump in the very harbour, no further than a 
small {run's shot from the bulwarks, whereby the merchauts, to whom that 
ship belonged, lost more than G3,000/. 



OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. 



645 



In which affair, the king truly has shown but very 
little regard to those contracts, which he charges us 
with having broken, as appears from that late confis- 
cation of our goods. But what he declares in that 
edict concerning the acts of hostility committed in the 
West Indies, their being to be considered as a viola- 
tion of peace and free commerce in these parts, is a 
new and quite different explanation from what has 
ever been propounded hitherto by either of the two 
republics, though both parties have frequently had 
occasions to declare their judgment about this mat- 
ter. 

But seeing the king of Spain has declared both by 
word and deed, that the articles of peace ought to be 
thus understood, it follows, that by so many acts of 
hostility committed against the English in these parts, 
and which first began on his side, and have been 
continued from the very time of the last concluded 
treaty, as was formerly observed, to this very day; 
hence I say it follows, that he seems to be convinced, 
that the sacred bonds of friendship have been first 
broken on his side. Which thing is so clear and ma- 
nifest, that our adversaries themselves in this contro- 
versy are ashamed to deny the fact, and choose rather 
to dispute with us concerning the right of possession; 
which must be in the following manner : as the king 
of Spain, among his other titles, has assumed that of 
king of the Indies, so they affirm, that the whole Indies 
and Indian sea, both south and north, belong to him, 
and that they are all enemies and pirates, who approach 
these places without his commission. Which if it were 
true, both we and all other nations ought to leave and 
restore to him all our possessions there, and having 
brought back whatever colonies we have sent thither, 
should beg his pardon for the injury we have done him; 
but if we consider a little more narrowly the truth and 
reasonableness of this title, we shall find that it is built 
upon a very slender and weak foundation, to have such 
a vast pile of war and contentions erected upon it, as 
the present is likely to be. They pretend to have a 
double title, one founded upon the pope's gift, and an- 
other upon their having first discovered those places. 
As to the first, we know the pope has been always very 
liberal in his gifts of kingdoms and countries, but in 
the mean time we cannot but think, that in so doing, 
he acts in a very different manner from him, whose 
vicar he professes himself, who would not so much as 
allow himself to be appointed a judge in the dividing 
of inheritances, far less give any one whole kingdoms 
at his pleasure, like the pope, who has thought fit to 
make a present of England, Ireland, and some other 
kingdoms. 

But we deny his being invested with any such au- 
thority, nor do we think there is any nation so void of 
understanding, as to think that so great power is lodg- 
ed in him, or that the Spaniards would believe this or 
acquiesce in it, if he should require them to yield up 
as much as he has bestowed. But if the French and 
others, who acknowledge the pope's authority in ec- 
clesiastical matters, have no regard to this title of the 
Spaniards, it cannot be expected we should think of it 



any otherwise. And so we leave this point, as not de- 
serving a fuller answer. 

Nor is the other title of any greater weig-ht, as if the 
Spaniards in consequence of their having first discover- 
ed some few parts of America, and given names to 
some islands, rivers, and promontories, had for this 
reason lawfully acquired the government and dominion 
of that new world. But such an imaginary title 
founded on such a silly pretence, without being in pos- 
session, cannot possibly create any true and lawful 
right. The best right of possession in America is that 
which is founded on one's having planted colonies 
there, and settled in such places as had either no inha- 
bitants, or by the consent of the inhabitants, if there 
were any ; or at least, in some of the wild and uncul- 
tivated places of their country, which they were not 
numerous enough to replenish and improve ; since 
God has created this earth for the use of men, and or- 
dered them to replenish it throughout. 

If this be true, as the Spaniards will be found to hold 
their possessions there very unjustly, having purchased 
all of them against the will of the inhabitants, and as 
it were plucked them out of their very bowels, having 
laid the foundations of their empire in that place, in 
the blood of the poor natives, and rendered several large 
islands and countries, that were in a tolerable case 
when they found them, so many barren desarts, and 
rooted out all the inhabitants there ; so the English 
hold their possessions there by the best right imagin- 
able, especially those islands where the Spaniards have 
fallen upon their colonies, and quite demolished them ; 
which islands had no other inhabitants at all, or if they 
had, they were all slain by the Spaniards, who had 
likewise deserted these places, and left them without 
any to improve or cultivate them : so that by the law 
of nature and nations they belong to any who think fit 
to take possession of them, according to that common 
and well-known maxim in law, " Such things as be- 
long" to none, and such as are abandoned by their for- 
mer possessors, become his property who first seizes 
them." Although, granting that we had beat the 
Spaniards out of those places where we have planted 
our colonies, out of which they had at first expelled 
the inhabitants, we should have possessed them with 
better right, as the avengers of the murder of that peo- 
ple, and of the injuries sustained by them, than the 
Spaniards their oppressors and murderers. But since 
we have settled our colonies in such places as were 
neither possessed by the natives nor the Spaniards, they 
having left behind them neither houses nor cattle, nor 
any thing' that could by any means keep up the right 
of possession, the justness of our title to these places 
was so much the more evident, and the injuries done 
us by the Spaniards so much the more manifest, espe- 
cially our right to those places that were seized while 
the two nations were at war with each other, such as 
the isles of Providence and Tortuga, which if the Spa- 
niards could have shewn to be theirs, by any former 
title which they have not yet produced, yet since they 
have not done it in the last treaty of peace, by the se- 
cond article of this treaty, they have for the future cut 



G4G 



A MANIFESTO OF THE LORD PROTECTOR. 



themselves off from all such pretence, and if they had 
any right, have now lost it. It is unnecessary to talk 
any further upon this argument. 

There is no intelligent person but will easily see how 
empty and weak those reasons are, that the Spaniard 
has for claiming to himself alone an empire of such a 
vast and prodigious extent. But we have said this 
much, in order to shew the weakness of those pretences, 
whereby the Spaniards endeavour to justify themselves 
for having treated us with so much cruelty and bar- 
barity in the West Indies, for having enslaved, hang- 
ed, drowned, tortured, and put to death our country- 
men, robbed them of their ships and goods, and de- 
molished our colonies, even in the time of profound 
peace, and that without any injury received on their 
part : which cruel usage and havoc, made among- 
our people, and such as were of the same orthodox 
faith with them, as oft as the English call to remem- 
brance, they cannot miss to think that their former 
glory is quite gone, and their ships of war become en- 
tirely useless, if they surfer themselves to be any longer 
treated in such a disgraceful manner: and moreover, 
to be not only excluded from all free commerce in so 
great and opulent a part of the world, but likewise to 
be looked upon as pirates and robbers, and punished in 
the same manner as they, if they presume to sail those 
seas, or so much as look that way ; or, in fine, have 
any intercourse or dealing even with their own colo- 
nies that are settled there. 

Concerning the bloody Spanish inquisition we shall 
say nothing, this being a controversy common to all 
protestants, nor shall we speak of the many seminaries 
of English priests and Jesuits nestling under the pro- 
tection of the Spaniards, which is a perpetual cause of 
stumbling, and very great danger to the common- 
wealth ; since what we principally propose is, to shew 
the grounds and reasons of the controversies in the 
West Indies, and we are confident we have made it 
plain to all, who weigh things fairly and impartially, 
that necessity, honour, and justice, have prompted us 
to undertake this late expedition. First, we have been 
prompted to it by necessity ; it being absolutely neces- 
sary to go to war with the Spaniards, since they will 
not allow us to be at peace with them : and then 
honour, and justice, seeing we cannot pretend to either 
of these, if we sit still and surfer such unsufferable in- 
juries to be done our countrymen, as those we have 
shewn to have been done them in the West Indies. 

And truly they see but a very little way, who form 
their notion of the designs and intentions of the Span- 
iards, according to that friendly aspect, with which the 
present declension of their affairs has obliged them to 
look upon us in these parts of the world, (that face 
which they have put on being only a false one,) for it 
is certain they have the same mind, and the very same 
desires, which they had in the year 1588, when they 
endeavoured to subdue this whole island ; nay, it is 
certain their hatred is more inflamed, and their jealous- 
ies and suspicions more increased by this change of the 



state of our affairs, and of the form of our republic. 
But if we omit this opportunity, which by reason of 
some things that have lately happened, may perhaps 
give us an occasion to fall upon some way, whereby 
through the assistance of God we may provide for our 
safety, against this old and implacable enemy of our 
religion and country ; it may happen, he will recover 
such a degree of strength, as will render him as formi- 
dable and hard to be endured as before. One thing is 
certain, he always will and cannot but have the great- 
est indignation against us. Meanwhile, if we suffer 
such grievous injuries to be done our countrymen in 
the West Indies, without any satisfaction or revenge ; 
if we suffer ourselves to be wholly excluded from that 
so considerable a part of the world ; if we suffer our 
malicious and inveterate enemy (especially now, after 
he has made peace with the Dutch) to carry off with- 
out molestation, from the West Indies, those prodigious 
treasures, whereby he may repair his present damages, 
and again bring his affairs to such a prosperous and 
happy condition, as to deliberate with himself a second 
time, what he was thinking upon in the year 1588 ; 
namely, whether it would be more adviseable to begin 
with subduing England, in order to recover the United 
Provinces, or with them, in order to reduce England 
under his subjection ; without doubt he will not find 
fewer, but more, causes why he should begin with 
England. And if God should at anytime permit those 
intentions of his to have their desired effect, we have 
good ground to expect, that the residue of that cruel 
havoc, he made among our brethren at the foot of the 
Alps, will be first exercised upon us, and after that 
upon all protestants ; which, if we may give credit to 
the complaints that were made by those poor orthodox 
Christians, was first designed and contrived in the 
court of Spain, by those friers whom they call mis- 
sionaries. 

All these things being considered, we hope the time 
will come, when all, but especially true Englishmen, 
will rather lay aside their private animosities among" 
themselves, and renounce their own proper advantages, 
than through an excessive desire of that small profit to 
be made by trading to Spain, (which cannot be obtained 
but upon such conditions as are dishonourable and in 
some sort unlawful, and which may likewise be got 
some other way,) expose, as they now do, to the ut- 
most danger, the souls of many young traders, by those 
terms upon which they now live and trade there, and 
suffer the lives and fortunes of many christian brethren 
in America, and in fine, the honour of this whole na- 
tion, to be exposed, and, what of all is the most 
momentous and important, let slip out of their hands 
the most noble opportunities of promoting the glory of 
God, and enlarging the bounds of Christ's kingdom : 
which, we do not doubt, will appear to be the chief end 
of our late expedition into the West Indies against the 
Spaniards, to all who are free of those prejudices which 
hinder people from clearly discerning the truth. 



JOANNIS MILTONI OPERA 



OMNIA LATINA. 



VIZ. 

I. DEFENSIO PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, CONTRA CLAUDII SALMASII DEFENSIONEM REGIAM. 

II. DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM ECCLESIASTEN. 

III. DEFENSIO PRO SE, CUI ADJUNGITUR JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM 
TENEBRIONIS PRO REGE ET POPULO ANGLICANO INFANTISSIMAM. 

IV. LITERS, SENATUS ANGLICANI, NECNON CROMWELLI, &c. NOMINE AC JUSSU CONSCRIPTS. 

V. ARTIS LOGICS INSTITUTIO AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 

VI. EPISTOLARUM FAMILIARIUM LIBER UNUS, QUIBUS ACCESSERUNT EJUSDEM, JAM OLIM IN COLLEGIO 
ADOLESCENTIS, PROLUSIONES QUSDAM ORATORIS. 

VII. SCRIPTUM DOMINI PROTECTORIS, CONTRA HISPANOS. 



DEFENSIO PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



CLAUDII SALMASII DEFENSIONEM REGIAM.* 



[fikst published 1651.] 



PILEFATIO. 



Tametsi vereor, si in defendendo populo Anglicano 
tam sira profusus verborum, vacuus rerum, quam est 
plevisque visus in defensione regia Salmasius, ne ver- 
bosissimi simul et ineptissimi defensoris nomen meritus 
esse videar; tamen cum in mediocri quavis materia 
tractanda nemo sibi adeo properandum esse existimet, 
quin exordio saltern aliquo pro dignitate suscepti a se 
operis uti soleat, id ego in re omnium fere maxima 
dicenda si non omittam, neque nimis astringam, spero 
equidem, duas propemodum res, quas magnopere vel- 
lem, assecuturum me esse; alteram, ut causae huic no- 
bilissimae, et seculorum omnium memoria dignissimae 
nulla ex parte, quantum in me est, desim ; alteram, ut 
reprehensam in adversario futilitatem et redundantiam, 
devitasse tamen ipse nihilo minus judicer. Dicam enim 
res neque parvas neque vulgares; regem potentissimum, 
oppressis legibus, religione afflicta, pro libidine reg- 
nantem, tandem a suo populo, qui servitutem longam 
servierat, bello victum ; inde in custodiam traditum ; et 
cum nullam omnino melius de se sperandi materiam 
vel dictis vel factis prseberet, a summo demum regni 
concilio capite damnatum ; et pro ipsis regiae foribus 
securi percussum. Dicam etiam, quod ad levandos 
magna superstitione hominum animos multum contu- 
lerit, quo jure, praesertim apud nos, judicatum hoc at- 
que peractum sit; meosque cives fortissimos et integer- 
rimos, deque universis orbis terrarum civibus ac popu- 
lis egregie meritos, ab improbissimis maledicorum, sive 
nostratium, sive exterorum calumniis, turn imprimis ab 
hujus inanissimi sophistae maledictis, qui pro duce et 
coryphaeo caeterorum se gerit, facile defendam. Quse 
enim ullius regis alto solio sedentis majestas unquam 
tanta eluxit, quanta turn populi Anglicani effulgebat, 
cum, excussa ilia veteri superstitione, quse diu inva- 
luerat, ipsum regem, seu potius de rege hostem, qui 
solus mortalium impunitatem sibi divino jure vendica- 
bat, suis legibus irretitum judicio perfundere, et quo is 
quemcunque alium supplicio affecisset, eodem sontem 

* Printed from an edition in folio, corrected by the author. 



ipsum afficere non vereretur. At quid ego haec tanquam 
populi facta praedico ? quas ipsa per se pene vocem 
edunt, et preesentem ubique testantur Deum. Qui, 
quoties suae sapientissimae menti complacitum est, su- 
perbos et effraenatos reges, supra humanum modum sese 
attollentes, solet deturbare, et tota saepe cum domo fun- 
ditus evertit. Illius nos manifesto numine ad salutem 
et libertatem prope amissam subito erecti, ilium ducem 
secuti, et impressa passim divina vestigia venerantes, 
viam, haud obscuram sed illustrem, illius auspiciis 
commonstratum et patefactam ingressi sumus. Haec 
ego omnia digne satis explicare, et quod omnes fortasse 
gentes legant atque setates, monumentis tradere, si di- 
ligentia solum mea, cujusmodicunque est, meis tantum 
viribus sperem me posse, frustra sim. Quae enim oratio 
tam augusta atque magnifica, quod tam excellens in- 
genium, huic oneri subeundo par esse queat, ut, cum 
illustrium virorum aut civitatum res gestas vix reperia- 
tur tot seculis qui luculente possit scribere, opinetur 
quisquam haec, non hominum, sed omnipotentis plane 
Dei, gloriose et mirabiliter facta ullis se verbis aut stylo 
assequi posse? Quod quidem munus ut susciperem, 
tametsi summi in republica nostra viri sua authoritate 
perfecerunt, mihique hoc negotium datum esse volue- 
runt, ut quae illi, Deo ductore, magna cum gloria ges- 
sere, ea, quod certe proximum est, contra invidiam et ob- 
trectationem, quas in res ferrum et apparatus belli nihil 
potest, alio genere armorum defenderem ; quorum ego 
quidem judicium magno mihi ornamento esse existimo, 
me scilicet eorum suffragiis eum esse prae caeteris, qui 
banc patriae meae fortissimis liberatoribus haud poeniten- 
dam operam navarem : quin et ipse ab ineunte adolescen- 
tia iis eram studiis incensus, quae me ad optima quaeque 
si minus facienda, at certe laudanda, incitatum ferebant. 
His tamen diffisus adminiculis, ad divinam opem re- 
curro ; Deumque Opt. Max. donorum omnium largito- 
rem invoco, ut quam prospere quamque pie nostri illi 
ad libertatem clarissimi duces regios fastus, et domina- 



650 



PILEFATIO. 



turn impotentem, acie fregerunt, dein memorabili tan- 
dem supplicio extinxerunt, quamque facili negotio 
miper unus de raultis ipsum regem veluti ab inferis re- 
surgentem, inque illo libro post mortem edito novis 
argutiis, et verborum lenociniis, populi se venditantem 
redarguit atque summovit, tarn ego feliciter tamque 
vere declamatoris hujus exotici petulantiam et menda- 
cia refellam atque discutiam. Qui alienigena ciim sit, 
et quamvis id millies neget, grammaticus, non ea stipe 
contentus quam boc nomine meretur, magnus ardelio 
esse maluit; non reipub. solum immiscere se ausus, 
sed alienee : cum neque modestiam, neque judicium, 
neque aliud quicquam afFerat, quod oporteret sane tan- 
tum arbitrum, praetur arrogantiam et grammaticam. 
Et sane haec quae jam latine utcunque scripsit, si inter 
Anglos et nostro sermone protulisset, vix esset, credo, 
qui de responso laboraudum esse judicaret; sed par- 
tim trita, et refutationibus jam crebris explosa, negli- 
gent, partim tyrannica et foeda, vilissimo quovis man- 
cipio vix ferenda, quamvis alioqui regias secutus ipse 
partes, aversaretur. Nunc cum inter exteros, et nos- 
trarum rerum penitus ignaros grand i pagina turgescat, 
sunt illi quidem, qui res nostras perperam intelligunt, 
edocendi ; bic suo more, (quandoquidem tanta maledi- 
cendi aliis libidine fertur,) suo inquam more ac modo, 
erit tractandus. Quod siquis miretur forte, cur ergo 
tam diu intactum et ovantem, nostroque omnium si- 
lentio inflatum volitare passi simus, de aliis sane ne- 
scio, de me audacter possum dicere, non mihi verba aut 
argumenta, quibus causam tuerer tam bonam, diu quae- 
renda aut investiganda fuisse, si otium et valetudinem 
(quae quidem scribendi laborem ferre possit) nactus 
essem. Qua cum adhuc etiam tenui admodum utar, 
carptim haec cogor, et intercisis pene singulis boris, 
vix attingere, quae continenti stylo atque studio perse- 
quidebuissem. Undeboc si minus dabitur, cives meos 
prsestantissimos, patriae conservatores digno laudum 
praeconio celebrare, quorum immortalia facinora jam 
toto orbe claruerunt; defendere tamen, et ab hujus im- 
portuni literatoris insolentia, et professoriee linguae in- 
temperiis, vindicare hand mihi difficile futurum spero. 
Pessime enim vel naturavel legibus comparatum foret, 
si arguta servitus, libertas muta esset; et haberent ty- 
ranni qui pro se dicerent, non haberent qui tyrannos 
debellare possunt : miscrum esset, si hoec ipsa ratio, 
quo utimur Dei munere, non multo plura ad homines 
conservandos, liberandos, et, quantum natura fert, in- 
ter se oequandos, quam ad opprimendos et sub unius 
imperio male perdendos, argumenta suppeditarct. 
Causam itaque pulcherrimam hac certa fiducia laeti 
aggrcdiamur ; illinc fraudem, fallaciam, ignorantiam, 
atque barbariem ; hinc lucem, veritatem, rationem, et 
seculorum omnium optimorum studia, atque doctrinam 
nobiscum stare. 

Age nunc jam, satis prsefati, quoniam cum criticis 
res est, tam culti voluminis titulum imprimis videamus 
quid ait; 'Defensio regia pro Carolo I. ad Car II.' 
Magnum sane pracstas, O quisquis es ! patrem defcndis 
ad filium; minim ni causam obtineas. Verum ego te 
falso alias sub nomine, nunc sub nullo latitantem, Sal- 
masi, ad alia voco subsellia, ad alios judiecs, ubi tu 



illud euge et sophws, quod in palaestra tua literaria 
captare misere soles, fortasse non audies. Sed cur ad 
regem filium defensio haec regia? non opus est tortore, 
confitentem habemus reum ; " Sumptibus inquit re- 
giis." O te venalem oratorem et sumptuosum ! Siccine 
defensionem pro Carolo patre, tua sententia, rege opti- 
mo, ad Carolum filium regem pauperrimum noluisti, 
nisi sumptibus regiis ? Sed veterator etiam haud irri- 
diculus esse voluisti, qui regiam defensionem dixeris ; 
non enim amplius tua quam vendidisti, sed legitime 
jam regia defensio est; centenis nimirum Jacobaeis 
emta, ingenti pretio ab egentissimo rege : non enim 
ignota loquimur; novimus qui illos aureos domum at- 
tulit tuam, qui crumenam illam tessellisvitreis variatam, 
novimus qui te avaras maims porrigentem vidit, in spe- 
ciem quidem ut Sacellanum regis missum cum munere, 
re vera ut ipsum munusamplecterere; et unatantummer- 
cede accepta totum pene regis aerariumexinanires. Sed 
eccum ipsum, crepant fores, prodithistrio in proscenium. 
Date operam et cum silentio animadvertile, 
Ut pernoscatis quid sibi Eunuchus velit. 

Nam quicquid est, praeter solitum cotburnatus incedit. 
' Horribilis nuper nuntius aures nostras atroci vulnere> 
sed magis mentes, perculit, de parricidio apud Anglos 
in persona regis sacrilegorum hominum nefaria con- 
spiratione admisso.' Profecto nuntius iste horribilis 
aut gladium multo longiorem eo quern strinxit Petrus 
habuerit oportet, aut aures istae auritissimas fuerint, 
quas tam longinquo vulnere perculerit : nam aures non 
stolidas ne offendisse quidem potuit. Ecqua enim vo- 
bis fit injuria, ecquis vestrum laeditur, si nos hostes et 
perduelles nostros, sive plebeios, sive nobiles, sive re- 
ges, morte multamus? At ista mitte, Salmasi, quae ad 
te nihil attinent : ego enim de te etiam horribilem ha- 
beo quern apportem nuntium ; quique omnium gramma- 
ticorum et criticorum aures, modo teretes habent et 
doctas, atrociori vulnere si non perculerit, mirabor; de 
parricidio apud Hollandos in persona Aristarchi, nefa- 
ria, Salmasii audacia, admisso: te magnum scilicet cri- 
ticum sumptibus regiis conductum, ut defensionem re- 
giam scriberes, non solum putidissimo exordio, praefl- 
carum funebribus nugis et naeniis simillimo, nullius 
non fatui mentem miseratione permovisse, sed prima, 
statim clausula risum pene legentibus multiplici bar- 
barismo concitasse. Quid enim, quaeso, est parricidi- 
um in persona regis admittere, quid in persona regis ? 
quae unquam latinitas sic locuta est? nisi aliquem no- 
bis forte Pseudopbilippum narras, qui personam regis 
indutus, nescio quid parricidii apud Anglos patrave- 
rit; quod verbum verius opinione tua ex ore tibi exci- 
disse puto. Tyrannus enim, quasi histrionalis quidam 
rex, larva tantum et persona regis, non verus rex est. 
Cacterum ob hujusmodi noxas Gallicolatinas, quibus 
passim scates, non tam mihi, neque enim est otium, 
quam ipsis tuis grammatistispoenas dabis; quibus ego 
tederidendumet vapulandum propino. Hoc multo atro- 
cius; quod asummis magistratibusnostrisde regestatu- 
tum est, id sacrilegorum hominum nefaria conspiratione 
admissum ais. Tune, furcifer, potentissimi nuper reg- 
ni, nunc reipub. eo potentioris, acta et consulta sic no- 
minas? quorum de factis ne rex quidem ullus ut quic- 



PR^FATIO. 



651 



quam gravius pronuntiaret, aut scriptum ederet, addu- 
ci adhuc potuit. Merito itaque amplissimi Ordines Hol- 
landiae, liberatorum olim patriae vera progenies, defensi- 
onem hanctyrannicam,populorum omnium libertatipes- 
tilentissimam, edicto suo tenebris damnarunt ; cujus et 
ipsum authorem omnis libera civitas suis prohibere fini- 
bus, autejicere,deberet: eaque praecipue quae tam ingra- 
tumtamque tetrumreipublicashostem suo stipendio alit; 
cujus ille reipublicse, baud seciis atque nostras, funda- 
menta ipsa atque causas oppugnat; necnon utramque 
una et eadem opera labefactare et subruere conatur ; 
praestantissimosque illic libertatis vindices nostrorum 
sub nomine maledictis proscindit. Reputate jam vo- 
biscum, illustrissimi foederatorum Ordines, et cum 
animis vestris cogitate, quis hunc regiae potestatis 
assertorem ad scribendum impulerit, quis nuper apud 
vos regie se gerere incceperit, quae consilia, qui conatus, 
quae turbae denique per Hollandiam secutae sint, quae 
nunc essent, quam vobis parata servitus, novusque do- 
minus erat, atque ilia vestra tot annorum armis atque 
laboribus vindicata libertas, quam prope extincta apud 
vos nunc foret, nisi opportunissima nuper temerarii 
juvenis morte respirasset. Sed pergit iste noster am- 
pullari, et mirabiles tragoedias fingere, " Quoscunque 
infandus hie," parricidialis nimirum barbarismi Salma- 
siani, " rumor attigit, haud seciis ac si fulmine afflati 
essent, derepente his arrectaeque horrore comae et vox 
faucibushaesit." Quod nunc primitus auditum discant 
physici, comas fulmine arrectas. Verum quis hoc 
nescit, viles et imbelles animos, magni cujuspiam faci- 
noris vel rumore, obstupescere ; quodque prius fuerunt, 
turn se maxime stipites indicare. Alii " lacrymas non 
tenuerunt," mulierculae credo aulicae, aut siqui his mol- 
liores; inter quos et ipse Salmasius nova quadam me- 
tamorphosi Salmacis factus est ; et fonte hoc suo lacry- 
marum fictitio, et nocte parato, viriles animos emollire 
conatur. Moneo itaque et cavere jubeo, 

infamis ne quem male fortibus undis 

Salmacis enervet. ne vir ciim venerit, exeat indt 

Semivir, et tactis subito mollescat in undis. 

" Fortius vero," inquit, " animati," (nam fortes puto et 
animosos ne nominare quidem nisi putide potest,) tanta 
" indignatiouis flamma exarserunt, ut vix se caperent." 
Furiosos illos non flocci facimus ; vera fortitudine 
suique compote istos minaces pellere, et in fugam ver- 
tere, consuevimus. " Nemo certe non diras imprecatus 
est tanti sceleris authoribus." Vox tamen, ut tu modo 
aiebas, " faucibus ha?sit;" atque haesisset utinam in 
hunc usque diem, si de nostris duntaxat perfugis hoc 
vis intelligi, quod nos etiam pro comperto habemus, 
nihil illis frequentius in ore esse, quam diras et impre- 
cationes, omnibus bonis abominandas quidem, non 
tamen metuendas. De aliis credibile vix est, cum 
supplicii de rege sumti fama illuc pervenisset, reper- 
tum in libero praesertim populo fuisse ullum, tam ad 
servitutem natum, qui nos dicto laederet, aut factum 
nostrum crimini daret; immo potius omnes bonos om- 
nia bona dixisse ; quinetiam Deo gratias egisse, qui 
exemplum justitiae tam illustre et excelsum edideret, 
quodque caeteris regibus tam salutari docu»mento esse 



possit. Istos itaque " feros ac ferreos caedem," nescio 
cujus, "miserabilem ac mirabilem" plorantes, cum suo 
tinnulo oratore, " post regium in orbe nomen natum 
notumque," frigidissimo, etiam atque etiam plorare 
jubemus. At quis interim e ludo fere puer, aut e coe- 
nobio quovis fraterculus, casum hunc regis non multo 
disertius, immo latiniiis, hoc oratore regio declamitas- 
set? Verum ego ineptior sim, si infantiam hujus et 
deliramenta hunc in modum toto volumine accurate 
persequar; quod tamen libens facerem, (quoniam super- 
bia et fastidio, ut feruut, supra modum turget,) ni mole 
tantum libri inconcinna atque incondita se protegeret, 
et veluti miles ille Terentianus post principia lateret: 
callido sane consilio, ut defessus singula notando etiam 
acerrimus quisque, taedio prius conficeretur, quam om- 
nia redargueret. Nunc ejus quoddam specimen dare 
hac veluti prolusione duntaxat volui; et cordatis lec- 
toribus a principio statim degustandum hominem prae- 
bere, ut in hac paginae unius promulside experiamur 
quam laute nos et luculenter cseteris ferculis excepturus 
sit; quantas ineptias atque infantias toto opere conges- 
serit, qui tam densas, ubi minime decuit, in ipsa fronte 
collocavit. Exinde multa garrientem, et scombris con- 
cionantem, facile praetereo ; ad nostras autem res quod 
attinet, haud dubitamus quin ea, quae authoritate par- 
lamenti scripta publice et declarata sunt, apud omnes 
bonos et prudentes exteros plus ponderis habitura sint, 
quam unius impudentissimi homuncionis calumniae, et 
mendacia; qui ab exulibus nostris, patriae hostibus, 
pretio conductus, quolibet eorum dictante quibus operam 
suam locaverat, aut rumusculum spargente, falsissima 
quaeque corradere, et in chartam conjicere, non dubita- 
vit. Utque plane intelligant omnes quam non illi reli- 
gio sit, quidlibet scribere, verum an falsum, pium an 
impium, haud alius mihi testis adhibendus erit, quam 
ipse Salmasius. Scribit is in Apparatu contra prima- 
tum Pap^, " maximas esse causas cur ecclesia redire 
ab episcopatu debeat ad apostolicam ' presbyterorum ' 
institutionem; longe majus ex episcopatu introductum 
in ecclesiam esse malum, quam ilia schismata quae 
prius metuebantur : pestem illam, quae ex eo ecclesias 
invasit, totum ecclesiae corpus miserabili tyrannide 
pessundedisse; immo ipsos reges ac principes sub ju- 
gummisisse; majorem in ecclesiam utilitatem redun- 
daturam hierarchia tota extincta, quam solo capite 
Papa." p. 169. " Posse episcopatum cum papatu tolli 
cum summo bono ecclesiae; sublato episcopatu ruere 
ipsum papatum, super illo utpote fundatum." p. 171. 
" Cur removeri debeat in illis regnis, quae jam papatui 
renuntiarunt, proprias habere causas. Cur ibi episco- 
patus retineatur se non videre ; non integram videre 
reformationem quae hac in parte imperfecta sit; nihil 
afFerri posse rationis aut causae probabilis, cur sublato 
papatu retineri debeat aut possit episcopatus." p. 197. 
Hoec et multo plura cum ante annos quatuor scripserit, 
tanta nunc vanitate et impudentia est, ut parlamentum 
Angliae graviter incusare hoc loco audeat, quod episco- 
patum "non solum senatu ejiciendum, sed etiam peni- 
tus abjiciendum, censuerint." Quid ? quod ipsum 
etiam episcopatum suadet atque defendit, iisdem usus 
argumentis et rationibus, quas libro illo priore magno 



652 



PRJSFATIO. 



impetu coufutaverat ; " necessarios" nempe " fuisse 
episcopos, et omuino retinendos, ne mille pestiferae 
sectae et hereses in Anglia pullularent." O vafrum et 
versipellein ! adeone te etiam in sacris non puduit de- 
sultorem agere, prope dixeram, ecclesiam prodere; 
cujus tu ideo sanctissima instituta tanto strepitu asseru- 
isse videris, ut quoties tibi comraodum esset, eo majore 
cum infamia ea ipsa ludificari atque subvertere posses. 
Ncminem hoc latet, cum regni ordines, ecclesias nos- 
tras, ad exemplum caeterarum, reformandae studio fla- 
grantes, episcopatum fundi tus tollere statuissent, primo 
regem intercessisse, dein bellum nobis ea potissimum 
causa intulisse ; quod ipsi tandem in perniciem vertit. I 
nunc, et te defensorem regium esse gloriare, qui, ut re- 
gem gnaviter defendas, susceptam a temetipso ecclesiae 
causam nunc palam prodis atque oppugnas : cujus 
gravissima quidem censura esses notandus. De forma 
autem reipub. nostroe, quoniam tu, professor triobolaris 
et extraneus, remotis capsulis atque scriniis tuis nuga- 
rum refertissimis, quas melius in ordinem redigere po- 
teras, in aliena repub. satagere et odiosus esse mavis, 
sic breviter tibi, vel cuivis potius te prudentiori, re- 
spondeo ; earn formam esse quam nostra tempora atque 
dissidia ferunt ; non qualis optanda esset, sed qualem 
obstinata improborum civium discordia esse patitur. 
Quce autem respublica factionibus laborat, atque armis 
se tuetur, si sauae et integrae tantum partis rationem 
habet, caeteros sive plebeios sive optimates praeterit aut 
excludit, satis profecto aequa est ; quamvis regem et 
proceres, suis ipsa malis edocta, ampliiis nolit. " Con- 
cilium" autem illud " supremum," quod insectaris, 
atque etiam " concilii praesidem," nae tu ridiculus es; 
concilium enim illud, quod somnias, non est supremum, 
sed parlamenti autboritate ad certum duntaxat tempus 
constitutum, quadraginta virorum ex suo fere numero, 
quorum quilibet, caeterorum sufFragiis, praeses esse po- 
test. Semper autem hoc usitatissimum fuit, ut par- 
lamentum, qui noster senatus est, delectos ex suorum 
numero pauciores, quoties visum erat, constitueret: iis 
unum in locum ubivis conveniendi, et veluti minoris 
cujusdam habendi senatus, potestas delata est. Iisdem 
res saepe gravissima?, quo celerius et majori cum silen- 
tio transigerentur, commissae atque creditae; classis, 
cxercitus, aerarii cura aut procuratio, quaevis denique 
pacis aut belli munia. Hoc, sive concilium nominetur, 
sive quid aliud, verbo forte novum, re antiquum est; 
et sine quo nulla omnino respub. recte administrari 
])otest. De regis autem supplicio, et rerum apud nos 
Cf>nversione, mitte vociferari, mitte virus illud tuum 
acerbitatis evomere; donee ista " qua lege, quo jure, 
quo judicio" facta sint, te licet repugnante, singulis 
capitibus ostendam, et pedem conferam. Si tamen in- 
stas " quo jure, qua lege," ea, inquam, lege quam Deus 
ipse et natura sanxit, ut omnia, quae reipub. salutaria 
i sent, legitima et justa haberentur. Sic olim sapi- 
cntes tui similibus respondcrunt. " Leges per tot an- 
nos ratas rcfixisse" nos crimiuaris; bonasne an malas 
non dicis, nee si diceres audiendus esses, nam nostrae 
leges ole quid ad te ? Utinam plures refixissent turn 
leges, tum leguleios; rectius sane et rei christianae et 
populo consuluisscnt. Frendes quod " haec, Manii, 



ten-ae-filii, vix domi nobiles, vix suis noti, licere sibi 
crediderint." Meminisses quae te non solum libri 
sacri, sed etiam 1 vricus doceat. 

Valet ima summis 

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus 
Obscura promens 

Sic etiam habeto ; eorum, quos tu vix nobiles esse ais, 
alios nulli vestrarum partium vel generis nobilitate 
cedere; alios ex se natos per industriam atque virtutem 
ad veram nobilitatem iter affectare, et cum nobilissimis 
quibusque posse conferri ; se autem malle " filios ter- 
ras " dici, modo suae, et domi strenue facere, quam sine 
terra et lare fumos vendendo, quod tufacis, homonihili 
et stramineus eques, in aliena terra dominorum nutu et 
stipend io famem tolerare : ab ista, mihi crede, peregri- 
natione ad agnatos potius et gentiles deducendus, nisi 
hoc unum saperes, quod frivolas quasdam praelectiones 
et nugamenta scis tanta mercede apud exteros effutire. 
Reprehendis quod magistratus nostri " colluviem om- 
nium sectarum recipiant;" quid ni recipiant? quos ec- 
clesiae est e ccetu fidelium ejicere, non magistratuum e 
civitate pellere ; siquidem in leges civiles non peccant. 
Primo homines, ut tuto ac libere sine vi atque injuriis 
vitam agerent, convenere in civitatem ; ut sancte et 
religiose, in ecclesiam ; ilia leges, haec disciplinam ha- 
bet suam, plane diversam : hinc toto orbe christiano 
per tot annos bellum ex bello seritur, quod magistratus 
et ecclesia inter se officia confundunt. Quapropter et 
papisticam minime toleramus; neque enim earn tarn 
esse religionem intelligimus, quam obtentu religionis 
tyrannidem pontificiam civilis potentiae spoliis ornatam, 
quae contra ipsum Christi institutum ad se rapuit. 
" Independentes," quales a te solo finguntur, nulli 
apud nos unquam visi ; praeter eos duntaxat qui, cum 
classes et synodos supra ecclesiam quamque singularem 
esse non agnoscant, eas omnes velut hierarchiae par- 
ticulas quasdam, aut certe truncum ipsum, eradicandas 
esse tecum sentiunt. Hinc nomen Indepcndentium 
apud vulgus obtinuit. Quod restat ; video te id agere, 
ut regum omnium et monarcharum non invidiam solum, 
sed etiam bellum atrocissimum, in nos concitcs. Olim 
rex Mithridates, quamvis causa dissimili, omnes reges 
in Romanos concitabat, eadem prope calumniatus; 
Romanis consilium esse, omnia regna subvertere, iis 
nulla humana neque divina obstare, a principio nihil 
nisi partum armis babuisse, latrones, regnorum max- 
ime bostes : haec Mithridates regi Arsaci : te vero in 
ilia tua exedra infantissime rhetoricantem quae fiducia 
proxevit, ut ad bellum hortando, et licet nolis videri, 
" classicum canendo," ullum vel inter pucros regem 
commovere te posse animum induceres; isto praesertim 
ore tam exili et rancidulo, ut ne mures quidem Ho- 
mericos, te buccinatore, bellum unquam ranunculis 
illaturos fuisse credam ? Tantum abest ut metuam 
quid tu belli nobis aut periculi, homo ignavissime, apud. 
exteros reges ista tua rabida et insulsa simul facundia 
conflare possis : qui ad illos, ac si " rcg'um capita" 
quasi " pilas habeamus, de coronis quasi trocho luda- 
mus,sceptraimperialianon pluris faciamus quam bacula 
morionum capitata," lusorie sane nos defers. At tu 



PRiEFATIO. 



653 



interea, stultissimum caput, raorionis ipse baculo dig- 
nissimus es, qui reges ac principes tam puerilibus argu- 
mentis ad bellum suaderi putes. Omnes deinde popu- 
los inclamas, dicto audientes tuo, sat scio, minime 
futuros. Hibernorum etiam consceleratam illam ac 
barbaram colluviem regiis partibus in auxilium vocas. 
Quod unicum indicio esse potest, quam scelestus sis et 
vaecors, quam omnes pene mortales impietate, audacia, 
et furore, superes, qui devotee gentis fidem atque 
opem implorare non dubitas, cujus ab impia societate, 
tot civium innocentissimorum sanguine perfusa, etiam 
rex ipse aut abhorruit semper, aut abhorrere se si- 
mulavit. Et quam ille perfidiam, quam ille crudeli- 
tatem occultare, quantum potuit, atque ab se longe 
amovere, summo studio contendit, earn tu, bipedum 
nequissime, quo minus ultro atque palam suscipias, 
neque Deum neque homines vereris. Agedum ; 
Hibernis igitur fautoribus ac sociis ad defensionem re- 
gis jam te accinge. Caves imprimis, quod cauto me- 
hercule opus erat, nequis te Tullio fortasse aut Demos- 
theni omnem eloquentise laudem praereptum ire suspi- 
caretur; et praedicis, " oratorio more non tibi agendum 
videri." Nae tu haud stulte sapis ; id quod non potes, 
non videtur tibi esse agendum ; oratorie autem ut tu 
ageres, quis, qui te satis novit, unquam expectavit ? 
qui nihil elaborate, nihil distincte, nihil quod sapiat, 



in lucem emittere aut soles aut potes ; sed veluti Cris- 
pinus alter, aut Tzetzes ille graeculus, modo ut multum 
scribas, quam recte, non laboras ; neque si labores 
valeas. " Agetur," inquis, " haec causa, toto orbe au- 
diente, et quasi ad judicandum sedente." Id adeo 
nobis pergratum est, ut adversarium non cerebrosum et 
imperitum, qualis tu es, sed cordatum et intelligentem 
dari jam nobis optemus. Perorans plane tragicus es, 
immo Ajax ipse Lorarius : " Horum ego injusritiam, 
impietatem, perfidiam, crudelitatem, proclamabo coelo 
et terras, ipsosque authores convictos posteris tradam, 
reosque peragam." O Flosculos ! Tune igitur sine 
sale, sine genio, proclamator et rabula, bonis authori- 
bus divexandis tantiim aut transcribendis natus, quic- 
quam de tuo quod vivat producere te putas posse ? 
quem una cum scriptis tuis futilissimis abreptum aetas, 
mihi crede, proxima oblivioni mandabit. Nisi si de- 
fensio haec regia suo fortasse responso aliquid debitura 
est, si neglecta jam pridem et consopita, in manus ite- 
rum sumatur. Idque ego ab iliustrissimis Hollandiae 
Ordinibus peterem, ut earn e fisco protinus dimissam, 
neque enim thesaurus est, pervagari, quo velit, sinant. 
Si enim qua vanitate, inscitia, falsitate, referta sit, 
planum omnibus fecero, quo latiiis excurrit, eo arctiiis, 
mea quidem sententia, supprimitur. Jam nos quern- 
admodum " reos neragat," videamus. 



DEFENSIO PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



CLAUDII SALMASII DEFENSIONEM REGIAM. 



CAPUT I. 



Quoniam tibi, vano homini et ventoso, multum hinc 
forsitan superbiae, Salmasi, multum spiritus accessit, 
magnae scilicet Britanniae regem fidei defensorem esse, 
tevero regis, ego quidem et ilium regi titulum,et hunc 
tibi jure pari ac merito concedam : cum sane rex fidem, 
tu regem sic defenderis, ut causam uterque suam ever- 
tisse potiiis videatur. Quod cum passim infra, turn 
hoc primo capite ostendam. Dixeras tu quidem prae- 
fationis pagina duodecima " ornari pigmentis rhetoricis 
tam bonam et justam causam non debere : nam sim- 
pliciter rem, ut gesta est, narrare, regem defendere est." 
Quando igitur toto hoc capite, in quo narrationem illam 
siraplicem futuram pollicitus eras, neque rem simplici- 
ter, ut gesta est, narras, neque non pigmentis, quantum 
in eo genere consequi potes, rhetoricis ornas, profecto 
vel tuo judicio si stand urn esset, causa regia neque 
bona neque justa erit. Quanquam hoc cave tibi sumas 
quod dat nemo, posse te quicquam rhetorice narrare ; 
qui neque oratoris, neque historici, immo ne caussidici 
quidem partes narrando sustincre potes ; sed quasi cir- 



culator quispiam, arte circumforanea, magnam de te 
in prooemio, velut in posterum diem, expectationem 
concitabas, non tam ut rem promissam turn demiim 
narrares, quam ut pigmenta ilia misera, et ampullas 
fuco refertas, lectoribus quam plurimis divenderes. 
Nam " de facto dicturus tot novitatum monstris te cir- 
cundari ac terreri sentis, ut quid primum exequaris, 
quid deinde, quid postremo, nescias." Hoccine est 
simpliciter narrare? Dicam quod res est, tot tuorum 
ipse mendaciorum monstris primum terreri te sentis, 
deinde tot nugis, tot ineptiis levissimum illud caput 
non " circundari" solum, sed circumagi, " ut quid pri- 
mum, quid deinde, quid postremo" dicendum ullo tem- 
pore sit, non modo nunc " nescias," sed nunquam antea 
non nesciveris. " Inter difficultates quae occurrunt 
ad exprimendam tam incredibilis flagitii immanitatem 
hoc unum facile dictu suppetit, quod iterum iterumque 
repeti debet," nempe " solem ipsum atrocius factum 
nunquam adspexisse alterum." Multa sol aspexit, 
bone magister, quae Bernardus non vidit. Solem autem 



654 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



iter am atque iterum repetas licebit, id tu quidem pru- 
denter feceris, quod non nostra flagitia, sed defensionis 
tuae frigus vehementissime postulabit. " Regum," 
inquis, " origo cum sole novo coepit." Dii te, Dama- 
sippe, deteque solstitio donent, quo te calfacias, qui ne 
pedem sine " sole ;" nequis fortasse te umbvaticum 
doctorem esse dicat. At hercle etiam in tenebris es, 
qui jus natrium a regio non distinguis : et cum reges 
patriae patres nominaveris, ea statim metaphora per- 
suasisse credis, ut quicquid de patre non negaverim, 
id continuo de rege verum esse concedam. Pater et 
rex diversissima sunt. Pater nos genuit ; at non rex 
nos, sed nos regem creavimus. Patrem natura dedit 
populo, regem ipse populus dedit sibi ; non ergo prop- 
ter regem populus, sed propter populum rex est ; feri- 
mus patrem, morosum etiam et durum, ferimus et 
regem ; sed ne patrem quidem ferimus tyrannum. 
Pater si filium interficit, capite poenas dabit : cur non 
item rex eadem justissima lege tenebitur, si populum, 
id est, filios suos, perdiderit ? prsesertim cum pater, ut 
ne pater sit, efficere non possit, rex facile possit, ut ne- 
que pater sit neque rex. Quod si " de facti qualitate," 
quod ais, "inde" cestimandum est, tibi dico, peregrine, 
et rebus nostris alienissime, testis oculatus et indigena 
tibi dico ; nos regem neque " bonum," neque " justum," 
neque " clementum," neque " religiosum," neque 
" pium," neque " pacificum ;" sed hostem prope decen- 
nalem ; nee parentem patriae, sed vastatorem, " de 
medio sustulisse." " Solet hoc fieri," fateris, inficias 
enim ire non audes, " sed non a reformatis, regi re- 
formato." Siquidem reformatus is dici potest, qui, 
scriptis ad papam literis, sanctissimum appellaverat pa- 
trem, qui papistis aequior semper quam ortbodoxis fuit. 
Talis cum fuerit, ne suaa quidem families primus a re- 
formatis est " de medio" sublatus. Quid? ejus avia 
Maria nonne a reformatis exuto regno solum vertere 
coacta est, supplicio demum capitis affecta, ne Scotis 
quidem reformatis segre ferentibus ? immo si operam 
contulisse dicam, baud mentiar. In tanta autem regum 
" reforniatorum " paucitate, nihil hujusmodi accidisse, 
ut eorum aliquis morte plecteretur, non est quod mire- 
mur. Licere autem regem nequam, sive tyrannum, 
regno pellere, vel supplicio quovis, prout meritus erit, 
punire, (etiam summorum sententia theologorum, qui 
ipsi reformanda3 ecclesiae authores fuere,) aude tu modo 
negare. Concedis quam plurimos reges non sicca 
morte periisse, bunc " gladio," ilium " veneno," alium 
squalore " carceris," aut " laqueo." Omnium tamen 
hoc tibi miserrimum videtur, et monstri quiddam si- 
mile, regem in judicium adduci, " causam capitis dicere 
coactum, condemnatum, securi percussum." Die mibi, 
homo insipientissime, annon humanius, annon sequins, 
annon ad legis omnium civitatum accommodatius est, 
cujuscunque criminis reum in judicio sistere, sui de- 
fendendi copiam facere, lege condemnatum ad mortem 
haud immeritam ducere, ita ut damnato vel poenitendi, 
vel se colligendi. spatiurn detur, quam statim ut pre- 
bensos est, indicta causa, pecudis in modum mactare ? 
Qaotasquuque est reorum, qui, si optio detur, non illo 
pntius quam hoc modo puniri se maluerit ? Quie ratio 
igitur animadvertendi in civem moderatior est babita, 



cur non eadem in regem quoque moderatior, et vel ipsi 
regi acceptior, fuisse existimanda est ? Tu secreto et 
sine arbitris extinctum regem malebas, vel ut exempli 
tarn boni salubritate omnis memoria careret, vel ut facti 
tam preeclari conscientia defugisse lucem, aut leges 
atque ipsam justitiam minime sibi amicam babuisse, 
videretur. Exaggeras deinde rem, quod neque per 
turn ul turn aut factionem optimatium, aut rebellium 
furorem, sive militum sive populi ; non odio, non metu, 
non studio dominandi, non caeco animi impetu, sed 
consilio et ratione, meditatum diu facinus peregerint. 
O merito quidem ex te jurisconsulto grammaticum ! 
qui ab accidentibus causae, ut loquuntur, quae per se 
nihil valent, vituperationes instituis, cum nondum do- 
cueris illud facinus in vitio an in laude ponendum sit: 
jam vide quam in te facile incurram. Si pulchrum et 
decorum fuit ; eo magis laudandi quod, nullis affecti- 
bus occupati, solius honestatis causa fecerint; si ar- 
duum et grave, quod non cacco impetu, sed consilio et 
ratione. Quanquam ego base divino potiiis instinctu 
gesta esse crediderim, quoties memoria repeto, quam 
inopinato animorum ardore, quanto consensu totus 
exercitus, cui magna pars populi se adjunxerat, ab 
omnibus pene regni provinciis una voce regem ipsum 
suorum omnium malorum authorem ad supplicium 
deposcebat. Quicquid erat, sive magistrum sive po- 
pulum spectes, nulli unquam excelsiore animo, et, quod 
etiam adversarii fatentur, sedatiore, tam egregium fa- 
cinus et vel heroicis aetatibus dignum, aggressi sunt: 
quo non leges tantum et judicia, dehinc mortalibus ex 
aequo restituta, sed ipsam justitiam nobilitarunt, seque 
ipsa illustriorem dehinc, seque ipsa majorem post hoc 
insigne judicium, reddidere. Jam tertiam prope hujus 
capitis paginam exantlavimus, nee tamen ilia simplex 
narratio, quam promisit, usquam apparet. Queritur 
nos docere, " quoties rex moleste et odiose regnat, im- 
pune posse regno exui : ab bac," inquit, " doctrina 
inducti, si mille rebus meliorem regem habuissent, non 
ei vitam conservassent." Spectate hominis acumen ; 
nam istuc aveo ex te scire, quo pacto hoc sequitur, nisi 
tu nobis concesseris, nostro rege mille rebus meliorem 
moleste et odiose regnare; unde in eum deductus es 
locum, ut hunc quern defendis, iis regibus qui moleste 
et odiose regnant mille rebus deteriorem facias; id est 
tyrannorum omnium fortasse immanissimum. Macti 
estote reges tam strenuo defensore. Nunc narrare in- 
cipit. " Torserunt eum variis crucibus." Die quibus. 
" De carcere in carcerem traduxerunt." Nee injuria, 
quippe ex tyranno hostem bello captum. " Custodiis 
saepe mutatis :" ne ipsae mutarent fidem. " Libertatis 
interdum spe ostensa, interdum et restitutionis per pac- 
tionem." Vide quam non antea meditatum nobis fuerit, 
quam non " tempora et modos " diu captavimus regis 
abdicandi. Quas res ab eo turn propemodum victore 
multo ante postulavimus, quae nisi concederentur, nulla 
libertas, nulla salus populo speranda erat, easdem a 
captivo suppliciter, haud semel, immo tcr et amplius 
petivimus; toties repulsam accepimus. Cum nulla de 
rege spes reliqua esset, fit parlamenti consultum illud 
nobile, nequa deinceps ad regem postulata mitterentur ; 
non ex quo is tyrannus esse, sed ex quo insanabilis 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



655 



esse, ccepit. Postea tamen quid am ex senatorum nu- 
mero nova sibi consilia capientes, et idoneum tempus 
nacti, conditiones iterum regi ferendas decernunt; pari 
sane scelere atque dementia ac Romanus olim senatus, 
reclamante Marco Tullio et cum eo bonis omnibus, le- 
gatos decrevit ad Antonium : pari etiam eventu, nisi 
Deo immortali visum aliter fuisset, illos in servitutem 
tradere, nos in libertatem vindicare. Nam cum rex 
nihilo plus quam antea concessisset, quod ad firm am 
pacem et compositionem revera spectaret, illi tamen 
satisfactum sibi a rege esse statuunt. Pars itaque 
sanior, cum se remque publicam prodi videret, fidem 
fortissimi et semper reipub. fidissimi exercitus implorat. 
In quo mihi quidem hoc solum occurrit quod nolim 
dicere, nostras legiones rectiora sensisse quam patres 
conscriptos: et salutem reipub. armis attulisse, quam 
illi suis suffragiis prope damnaverant. Multa deinde 
flebiliter narrat, venim tarn inscite, ut luctum emendi- 
care, non commovere, videatur. Dolet, quod " eo modo, 
quo nullus unquam, rex supplicium capitis passus sit :" 
cum saepius affirmaverit, nullum unquam regem sup- 
plicium capitis omnino esse passum. Tune, fatue, mo- 
dum cum modo conferre soles, ubi factum cum facto 
quod conferas non habes ? " Supplicium," inquit, 
" capitis passus est, ut latro, ut sicarius, ut parricida, 
ut proditor, ut tyrannus." Hoccine est regem de- 
fendere, an sententiam de rege ferre, ea sane quae a 
nobis lata est, multo severiorem ? quis te tam subito 
pellexit ut nobiscum pronuntiares ? Queritur " person- 
atos carnifices regi caput amputasse." Quid hoc no- 
mine facias ? questus est supra " de parricidio in per- 
sona regis admisso," nunc in persona carnificis admis- 
sum queritur. Quid reliqua percurram, partim falsis- 
sima, partim frivola " de pugnis et calcibus " militum 
gregariorum, et licentia " spectandi cadaveris quatuor 
solidis taxata," quae frigidissimi literatoris inscitiam et 
pusillitatem animi clamitant ; legentem certe neminem 
pilo tristiorem reddere possunt : satius mehercule 
fuisset Carolo filio, quemvis ex eo balatronum grege 
conduxisse, qui ad coronam in triviis elegidia cantant, 
quam oratorem hunc, (luctificabilem dicam, an perridi- 
culum ?) deplorando patris infortunio adhibuisse ; tam 
iusipidum et insulsum, ut ne ex lacrymis quidem ejus 
mica salis exiguissima possit exprimi. Narrare jam 
desiit ; et quid deinde agat, dictu sane difficile est; 
adeo lutulentus et enormis fluit; nunc fremit, nunc 
oscitat, nullum quidlibet garriendi modum sibi statuit, 
vel decies eadem repetendi, qusene semel quidem dicta 
non sordescerent. Et certe nescio, an blateronis cujus- 
piam extemporales quaelibet nugae, quas ille uno pede 
stans versiculis forte effuderit, non digniores multo sint 
quae charta illinantur ; adeo indignissimas esse reor 
quibus serio respondeatur. Prostereo quod regem 
" religionis protectorem " laudat, qui ecclesiae bellum 
intulit, ut episcopos religionis hostes et tyrannos in 
ecclesia retineret. " Puritatem autem religionis " qui 
potuit is conservare, ab impurissimis episcoporum tra- 
ditionibus et caeremoniis ipse sub jugum missus ? 
" Sectarum " vero, quibus tu " sacrilegos suos ccetus 
tenendi licentiam " ais " dari," quam ipsa Hollandia 
non dat, errores velim enumeres : interim nemo te 



magis sacrilegus, qui perpetuo maledicendi pessimam 
omnium licentiam tibi sumis. " Non poterant gra- 
vius rempubl. laedere quam ejus dominum tollendo." 
Disce, verna, disce, mastigia, nisi dominum tollis, tollis 
rempublicam : privata res est, non publica quae domi- 
num habet. " At pastores facinus eorum abominantes 
cum summa injustitia persequuntur." Pastores illos ne- 
quis forte nesciat quales sint, breviter dicam ; iidem 
sunt qui regi resistendum armis esse, et verbo et scriptis 
docuerunt; quiomnes tanquam Merozum indesinenter 
execrari non destiterunt, quotquot huic bello aut arma, 
aut pecuniam, aut vires, non suppeditassent ; quod illi 
non contra regem, sed contra tyrannum Saule quovis 
aut Achabo, immo Nerone ipso, Neroniorem susceptum 
esse in concionibus sacris vaticinabantur. Sublatis 
episcopis et sacerdotibus, quos pluralistarum et non re- 
sidentium nomine insectari vehementissime solebant, 
in eorum amplissima sacerdotia, hie bina, ille trina, 
quam ocyssime irruebant: unde suos greges quam 
turpiter negligant pastores isti merito egregii nemo 
non videt : nullus pudor, nulla numinis reverentia, de- 
mentes cupiditate et furiatos cobibere potuit, donee 
pessimo ecclesiae publico eadem ipsi infamiaflagrarent, 
quam paulo ante sacerdotibus inusserant. Nunc quod 
avaritia eorum nondum satiata est, quod inquies ambi- 
tione animus turbas concire, pacem odisse, consuevit, 
in magistratus qui nunc sunt, id quod priiis in regem 
fecerant, seditiose concionari non desinunt; regem 
scilicet pium crudeliter sublatum ; quern modo ipsi 
diris omnibus devotum, omni authoritate regia spo- 
liandum, et bello sacro persequendum, in manns 
parlamento, quasi divinitus, tradiderant ; sectas scilicet 
non extirpari, quod certe a magistratibus postulare per- 
absurdum est, qui avaritiam et ambitionem, quas duae 
in ecclesia haereses perniciosissimae sunt, ex ipsorum 
ordine pastorum ac tribu,nullo adhuc modo autratione 
extirpare valuerunt. Quas illi sectas apud nos insectan- 
tur, obscuras esse scio, quas ipsi sequuntur, famosas, et 
ecclesiae Dei longe periculosiores ; quarum principes 
Simon ille Magus et Diotrephes fuere. Hos tamen, 
nequissimi cum sint, adeo non persequimur, ut factiosis, 
et res novas quotidie molientibus nimium indulgeamus. 
Offend it jam te Galium et errabundum, quod Angli 
" suis molossis," quos tua canina facundia est, " fero- 
ciores," nullam " legitimi successoris et hosredis " 
regni, nullam " natu minimi," nullam " reginae Bohe- 
mias" rationem habuerint. Tute respondebis tibi, non 
ego. " Ubi reipub. forma mutatur ex monarchica in 
aliam, non datur successio inter differentis regiminis 
curatores." Apparat. de Primatu. " Minima," inquis, 
" regni unius pars " haec omnia " per tria regna " ef- 
fecit : et digni quidem, si hoc verum esset, quibus in 
caeteros imperium sit, viris in foeminas. "Isti sunt 
qui regimen regni antiquum in alium qui a pi u rib us 
tyrannis teneatur, mutare praesumpserunt ;" recte qui- 
dem illi et feliciter ; quos tu reprehendere non potes, 
quin simul foedissime barbarus et soloecus sis, non mo- 
ribus solum, sed syntaxi etiam, grammaticorum oppro- 
brium. "Angli maculam hanc nunquam deleverint." 
Immo tu, licet omnium literatorum litura ipse sis, et 
vere macula, Anglorum tamen famam et sempiternam 



656 



PRO POPULO ANGLIC A NO DEFENSIO. 



gloriam nimquam valueris commaculare. Qui tanta 
animi magnitudine, quanta omni memoria vix audita 
est, non liostes tantum armatos, sed hostiles intus, id 
est, superstitiosas vulgi opiniones eluctati atque super- 
gressi, liberatorum cognomen posthac per omnes gentes 
in commune sibi pepererunt : populariter id ausi, quod 
apud alias nationes heroicae tantum virtutis esse ex- 
istimatur. " Reform ati et antiqui christiani " quid hac 
in parte fecerint, aut facturi essent, turn respondebi- 
mus, ciim de jure tecum suo loco agetur ; ne tuo vitio 
laboremus, qui gerrones omnes et battos loquacitate vin- 
cis. Quaeris quid sis in nostra causa Jesuitis responsurus. 
Tuas res age, trausfuga; pudeat te facinorum tuorum, 
quando ecclesiam tui pudet ; qui primatum papa?, et 
episcopos, tam jactanter modo et ferociter adortus, nunc 
episcoporum assecla factus es. Fateris "aliquos refor- 
matorum," quos non nominas, (ego tamen nominabo, 
quoniam tu eos " Jesuitis longe pejores esse " ais, Lu- 
therum nempe, Zuinglium, Calvinum, Bucerum, Pa- 
vteum, cum aliis multis,) docuisse, "amovendum esse" 
tyrannum : " quis autem sit tyrannus ad judicium 
sapientium et doctorum se retulisse. Isti vero qui ? an 
sapientes, an docti, an virtute nobiles, an nobilitate il- 
lustres." Liceat, quaeso, populo, qui servitutis jugum 
in cervicibus grave sentit, tam sapienti esse, tam docto, 
tamque nobili, ut sciat quid tyranno suo faciendum sit, 
etiamsi neque exteros, neque grammaticos sciscitatum 
mittat. Tyrannum autem fuisse hunc, non Angliae so- 
lum et Scotiae parlamenta cum verbis turn factis diser- 
tissimis declaraverunt, sed totus fere utriusque rcgni 
populus assentitus est; donee episcoporum technis et 
fraudibus in duas postea factiones discessit. Quid si 
Deus, quemadmodum eos qui lucis evangelicae parti- 
cipes fiant, ita eos qui decreta ejus inreges hujus mun- 
di potentissimos exequantur, non multos sapientes aut 
doctos, non multos potentes, non multos nobiles esse 
voluit? ut per eos qui non sunt aboleret eos qui sunt; 
ut ne glorietur caro coram eo. Tu quis es qui oblatras ? 
an doctus ? qui spicilegia, qui lexica et glossaria ad 
senectutem usque trivisse potius videris, quam authores 
bonos cum judicio aut fructu perlegisse ? unde nil prae- 
ter codices, et varias lectiones, et luxatum et mendo- 
sum, crepas; doctrinae solidioris ne guttulam quidem 
bausisse te ostendis. An tu sapiens ? qui de minutiis 
minutissimis rixari et mendicorum bella gerere soles, 
qui nunc astronomis, nunc medicis, in sua arte creden- 
di.s, imperitus ipse et rudis, convitia dicis; qui, siquis 
tibivoculae unius aut literulos in exemplari quovis ab 
te restitutee gloriolam praeripere conaretur, igni et aqua, 
si posses, ill i interdiceres ? Et tamen stomacbaris, et 
tamen ringeris, quod omnes te grammaticum appellant. 
Hamondum, nupcr regis hujus sacellanum imprimis 
dilectissimum, in libro quodam nugatorio, nebulonem 
appellas, quod is te grammaticum appellavisset: idem, 
credo, esses ipsi regi convitium facturus, etdefensionem 
hanc totam retractaturus, si sacellani sui de te judicium 
approbasse audivisses. Jam vide quam te Anglorum 
unus, quos tu " fanaticos, indoctos, obscures, improbos," 
vocitare audes, contemnam et ludibrio habeam, (nam 
nationem ipsam Anglicanam de te quicquam publice 
cogitare curculiunculo, indignissimum esset,) qui sur- 



sum, deorsiim, quoquoversum versatus et volutatus, 
nihil nisi grammaticus es : immo ac si Deo cuilibet 
votum ipso Mida stultius nuncupasses, quicquid attrec- 
tas, nisi cum soloecismos facis, grammatica est. Quis- 
quis igitur " de faece ilia plebis," quam tu exagitas, 
(illos enim vere optimates nostros, quorum sapientiam, 
virtutem, et nobilitatem, facta inclyta satis testantur, 
non sic dehonestabo, ut te illis, aut tibi illos componere 
velim,) quisquis, inquam, de faece ilia plebis hoc tan- 
tummodo sibi persuaserit, non esse se regibus natum, 
sed Deo et patriae, multo sane te doctior, multo sapi- 
entior, multo probior, et ad omnem vitam utilior, ex- 
istimandus erit. Nam doctus ille sine literis, tu litera- 
tus sine doctrina; qui tot linguas calles, tot volumina 
percurris, tot scribis, et tamen pecus es. 



CAPUT II. 

Quod argumentum pro se " indubitatum " esse, supe- 
riore capite perorans dixerat Salmasius, " rem ita se 
habere ut creditur, cum omnes unanimiter idem de ea 
sentiant;" quod tamen is " de facto" falsissime affir- 
mabat, id ego nunc, de jure regio disceptaturus, potero 
in ipsum verissime affirmare. Cum enirn regem defi- 
niat, " cujus suprema est in regno potestas, nulli alii 
nisi Deo obnoxia, cui quod libet licet, qui legibus solu- 
tus est," siquidem id definiri dicendum est, quod infi- 
nitum in terris ponitur : evincam ego contra, non meis 
tantum, sed vel ipsius testimoniis, et rationibus, nullam 
gentem aut populum, qui quidem ullo numero sit, nam 
omnem penetrare barbariem necesse non est, nullam, in- 
quam, gentem istiusmodi jura aut potestatem regi con- 
cessisse, " ut legibus solutus esset, ut quod libet liceret, 
ut omnes judicaret, a nemine judicaretur;" nee vero 
ullum, cujuscunque gentis tam servili ingenio exsti- 
tisse puto, praeter unum Salmasium, qui tyranno- 
rum immania quaeque flagitia regum jura esse asseve- 
rarit. Eorum plerique apud nos, qui regi maxime 
favebant, ab hac tam turpi sententia semper abhorruere; 
quinetiam ipse, nondum pretio corruptus, his de rebus 
longe aliter sensisse aliis jampridem scriptis facile de- 
prehenditur. Adeo ut hose non ab homine libero in 
libera civitate, nedum in repub. nobilissima, et Bata- 
vorum academia celeberrima, sed in ergastulo quovis 
aut catastra, tam servili vernilitate scripta esse videan- 
tur. Etenim, si quicquid regi libet, id jure regio lici- 
tum erit, (quod teterrimus ille Antoninus Caracalla, ab 
Julia noverca per incestum edoctus, non statim ausus 
est credere,) nemo profecto est, aut unquam fuit, qui 
tyrannus dici debeat. Cum enim divina omnia atque 
humana jura violavit, nihilo tamen minus rex, jure re- 
gio insons erit. Quid enim peccavit homo aequissimus? 
jure suo usus est in suos. Nihil rex tam horrendum, 
tam crudele, tamque furiosum, committere in suos po- 
test, quod praeter jus regium fieri quispiam possit queri 
aut expostularc. Hoc " tu jus regium a jure gentium, 
vel potius naturali, originem habere" statuis, bellua? 
Quid enim bominem te dicam, qui in omne hominum 
genus adeo iniquus et inhumanus es; quique omnem 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



657 






gentem humanam, Deo simillimam, sic deprimere at- 
que projicere conaris, ut quos nunc superstitio, nunc 
scelus aut ignavia quorundam, aut denique perfidia, 
tam feros atque immites dominos gentibus imposuit, eos 
a natura matre mitissima comparatos atque impositos 
esse doceas. Qua tu nefaria doctrina multo jam fero- 
ciores factos, non solum ad proterendos omnes mortales, 
et posthac miseriorem in modum conculcandos, immit- 
tis, sed jure naturali, jure regio, ipsis etiam populi legi- 
bus, in populum armare, quo nihil simul stultius et 
sceleratius esse potest, contendis. Dignus profecto qui, 
contra atque olim Dionysius, ex grammatico tyrannus 
ipse sis ; non quo tibi in alium quemvis detur ilia re- 
gia licentia male faciendi,sed ilia altera male pereundi : 
qua sola, ut inclusus ille Capreis Tiberius, a temetipso 
perditus quotidie te sentias perire. Verum jus illud 
regium paulo accuratius quale sit consideremus. " Sic 
oriens totus," inquis, " judicavit, sic occidens." Non 
reponam tibi quod Aristoteles et Marcus Cicero, autho- 
res, si qui alii, cordatissimi, ille in Politicis, hie in ora- 
tione de provinciis scripsit, gentes Asiaticas facile ser- 
vitutem pati, Judaeos autem et Syros servituti natos 
fuisse : fateor paucos fere libertatem velle, aut ea posse 
uti, solos nempe sapientes, et magnanimos ; pars longe 
maxima justos dominos mavult, sed tamen justos; in- 
justos et intolerabiles ferendi, neque Deus unquam 
universo generi humano tam infensus fuit, neque ullus 
unquam populus tam ab omni spe et consilio derelic- 
tus, ut necessitatem hanc atque legem, omnium duris- 
simam, in se atque in suos liberos ultro statueret. Pro- 
fers imprimis " verba regis in Ecclesiaste sapientia 
clari." Nos itaque ad legem Dei provocamus, de rege 
posterius videbimus ; cujus exinde sententiam rectius 
intelligemus. Audiatur ipse Deus, Deut. 17. " Cum 
ingressus fueris in terram, quam Jehova Deus dat 
tibi, et dices, statuam super me Regem, sicut omnes 
gentes quae sunt circa me:" Quod ego omnes velim 
etiam atque etiam animadvertant, teste hie ipso Deo, 
penes populos omnes ac nationes arbitrium semper 
fuisse, vel ea, quae placeret, forma reipub. utendi, 
vel banc in aliam mutandi : de Hebrteis diserte hoc 
dicit Deus, de reliquis haud abnuit : deinde for- 
mam reipub. monarchia perfectiorem, ut sunt res bu- 
manae, suique populi magis ex usu Deo visam esse : 
cum hanc ipse form am instituerit; monarchiam non 
nisi sero petentibus, idque aegre, concederet. Sin re- 
gem plane vellent, ut ostenderet Deus id se liberum 
populo reliquisse, ab uno an a pluribus respub. ad- 
ministraretur, modo juste, regi etiam futuro leges con- 
stituit, quibus cautum erat, ut " ne multiplicet sibi 
equos, ne uxores, ne divitias ;" ut intelligent nihil sibi 
in alios licere, qui nihil de se statuere extra legem po- 
tuit. Jussus itaque est " omnia legis illius praecepta," 
etiam sua manu perscribere ; perscripta " observare ; 
ne efferatur animus ejus prae fratribus suis." Ex quo 
perspicuum est, regem aeque ac populum istis legibus 
astrictum fuisse. In hanc ferme sententiam scripsit 
Joseph us, legum suae gentis interpres idoneus, in sua 
repub. versatissimus,mille aliis tenebrionibus Rabbinis 
anteponendus. Antiquitat. lib. 4. 'ApiGToicpaTia /xhovv 
KpariGTOv, Sec. " Optimum est," inquit, " optimatium 



regimen ; nee vos alium reipub. statum requiratis ; satis 
enim est Deum habere praesidem. Attamen si tanta 
vos regis cupido ceperit, plus legibus et Deo tribuatis, 
quam suae sapientiae ; prohibeatur autem, si potentior 
fieri studet, quam rebus vestris expedit." Haec et 
plura Josephus in istum Deuteronomii locum. Alter, 
Philo Judaeus, gravis author, Josephi coaetaneus, legis 
Mosaicae studiosissimus, in quam universam diffusa 
commentatione scripsit, cum in libro de creatione prin- 
cipis hoc caput legis interpretatur, non alio pacto re- 
gem legibus solvit, atque hostisquilibetsolutus legibus 
dici possit, rovg ini Xvfiy icai £»j/iip rutv vtttjkoojv, Sec. 
" qui," inquit, " ad perniciem et detrimentum populi 
magnam sibi acquirunt potentiam, non reges sed hostes 
appellandi sunt; ea facientes, quae hostes nulla pace re- 
conciliandi faciunt; nam qui per speciem gubernandi 
faciuntinjuriam, apertis hostibus pejores sunt; hos enim 
facile est propulsare, illorum autem malitia haud facile 
detegitur." Detecti igitur, quid obstat quo minus hos- 
tium loco habendi sint ? Sic libro secundo Allegoriarum 
legis, " rex et tyrannus contraria sunt ;" et deinde, " rex 
non imperat tantiim, sed paret." Vera sunt ista, dicet 
aliquis ; regem oportet quidem leges, ut qui maxime, 
observare; verum si seciis fecerit, qua lege puniendus ? 
eadem, inquam, lege qua caeteri; exceptiones enim nul- 
las reperio. Sed nee de sacerdotibus, sed nee de infimis 
quidem magistratibus, puniendis lex ulla scribitur ; qui 
omnes, cum de iis puniendis nulla lex scripta sit, pari 
certe jure et ratione possentimpunitatem scelerum om- 
nium sibi vendicare ; quam tamen neque eorum quis- 
quamvendicavit, neque ullum iisarbitroridcirco esse da- 
turum. Hactenus ex ipsa Dei lege didicimus regem le- 
gibus obtemperare debuisse ; nee se prae caeteris efferre, 
qui etiam fratres ejus sunt. Nunc an quid aliud Eccle- 
siastes moneat videamus. Cap. 8. ver. 1, &c. " Man- 
datum regis observa ; vel propter juramentum Dei, ne 
perturbate a facie ejus abito, ne persistito in re mala, 
nam quicquid volet faciet. Ubi verbum regis, ibi 
dominatio ; et quis dicat ei, quid facis ?" Satis constat 
Ecclesiasten hoc in loco non synedrio magno, non 
senatui, sed privato cuique prsecepta dare. Jubet man- 
data sua observare, vel propter juramentum Dei ; at 
quis jurat regi, nisi rex vicissim in leges divinas atque 
patrias juratussit? Sic Reubenitae et Gaditae obedien- 
tiam suam Jehosuae pollicentur, Jos. 1. "Ut dicto au- 
dientes Mosi fuimus, ita erimus tibi, modo ut Deus te- 
cum sit, quemadmodum fuit cum Mose." Conditionem 
vides expressam. Alioquin ipsum audi Ecclesiasten, 
cap. 9. " Verba sapientum submissa potius audienda 
esse, quam clamorem dominantis inter stolidos." Quid 
porro monet ? " Ne persistito in re mala, nam quicquid 
volet faciet," in malos nimirum faciet authoritate legum 
armatus, namleniter, aut severe agere, prout volet, po- 
test. Nihil hie tyrannicum sonat, nihil quod vir bonus 
extimescat. " Ubi verbum regis, ibi dominatio, et 
quis dicat ei, quid facis ?" Et tamen legimus qui regi 
dixerit non solum, quid fecisti, sed etiam, stulte fecisti. 
1 Sam. 13. At Samuel extraordinarius. Tuum tibi 
regero, licet infra dictum pag. 49. " quid," inquis, 
" extraordinarium in Saule et Davide ?" itidem ego, 
quid, inquam, in Samuele ? Propheta fuit: sunt et illi 



658 



PRO POPULO ANGLIC ANO DEFENSIO. 



hodie, qui ejus exemplo faciuut; ex voluntate enim 
Dei vel " expressa" vel " tacita" agunt : quod etiam 
ipse infra concedis, pag. 50. Prudenter igitur Eccle- 
siastes hoc in loco monet privatos, ne cum rege con- 
tendant : nam etiam cum divite, cum potenti quovis, 
ut plurimum damnosa couteutio est. Quid ergo ? an 
optimates, an omnes reliqui magistratus, an populus 
universus, quoties delirare libet regi, ne hiscere quidem 
audebunt? an stolido, impio, furenti, bonis omnibus 
perniciem macliiuanti non obstabunt,non obviam ibunt, 
ne divina omnia atque humana pervertere occupet, ne 
rapinis, ne incendiis, ne caedibus, per omnes reg'ni fines 
grassetur, ita " legibus solutus, ut quod libet liceat ?" 
O de Cappadocis eques catastris ! quern omnis libera 
natio (si unquam post hoc in natione libera pedem 
ponere audebis) aut in ultimas terras veluti portentum 
exportandum ejicere, aut servitutis candidatum dedere 
in pistrinum debebit, ea lege atque omine, ut si te inde 
exemerit, ipsa sub aliquo tyranno, eoque stultissimo, 
pro te molat. Quid enim poterit dici, aut ab aliis dic- 
tum peti, tam truculentum, aut ridiculum, quod in te 
non cadat ? Perge modo : " Israelitae regem a Deo 
petentes eodem jure se ab eo g'ubernari velle dixerunt, 
quo omnes aliae nationes, quae hoc regimine uterentur. 
At orientis reges summo jure, et potestate non circum- 
scripta regnabant, teste Yirgilio. 

Regem non sic yEgyptus et ingens 

Lydia, nee populi Parthorum, et Medus Hydaspes 
Observant. " 

Primum, quid nostra refert qualem sibi regem Israelites 
Toluerint, praesertim Deo irato, non solum quod regem 
vellent ad exemplum gentium, et non suae legis, sed 
plane quod vellent regem ? Deinde regem injustum, 
aut legibus solutum, petivisse credibile non est, qui 
Samuelis filios legibus obstrictos ferre non potuerunt, 
et ab eorum tantiim avaritia ad regem confugerunt. 
Postremo, quod ex Virgilio recitas, non probat reges 
orientis " absoluta potestate" regnasse ; Apes enim illae 
Virgilianae, quae vel iEgyptiis et Medis observantiores 
regum sunt, teste tamen eodem poeta — " Magnis agi- 
tant sub legibus aevum." — Non ergo sub regibus omni 
lege solutis. At vide quam tibi minime velim male ; 
cum plerique te nebulonem esse judicent, ostendam te 
personam tantiim nebulonis mutuam sumpsisse. In 
apparatu ad prirnatum papae, doctores quosdam Tri- 
dentinos exemplo apium usos ais, ut monarchiam papae 
probarent: ab his tu pari malitia hoc mutuum cepisti. 
Quod illis itaque respondisti cum probus esses, jam 
factus nebulo lute respoudebis tibi, tuaque tibi manu 
personam nebulonis detrahes. " Apium respub. est; 
atque ita physici appellant: Regem habent, sed inno- 
coam ; ductor est potius quam tyrannus; non verberat, 
non vellicat, non necat apes subditas." Minime igitur 
minim, m ita observant. Istas mehercule apes mala 
.i\c tibi tactio erat; Tridentinoe enim licet sint, fucuni 
te < sse indicant. Aristoteles autrmi, rerum politicarum 
scriptor diligentissimus, monarchiae genus Asiaticae, 
quod et barbaricum vocat, Karavofiov, id est, secundum 
|< gem, fui>se affirmat. Pol. 3. Immo cum monarchiae 
qninque species enumeret, quatuor secundum legem, 



et suffragante populo, fuisse scribit, tyrannicas autem, 
quod iis tanta potestas, volente licet populo, data erat ; 
regnum vero laconicum maxime regnum videri, quod 
non omnia penes regem erant. Quinta, quam is 7rn/i- 
(3am\kav vocat, et ad quam solam id refert, quod tu 
regum omnium jus esse scribis, ut ad libitum regnent, 
ubinam g'entium, aut quo tempore unquam obtinuerit, 
non dicit : nee aliam ob caussam fecisse mentionem 
ejus videtur, quam ut absurdam, injustam, et maxime 
tyrannicam, esse demonstraret. Samuelem ais, cum 
eos ab eligendo rege deterreret, " jus illis regium" ex- 
posuisse. Unde haustum, a leg*e Dei? at ilia lex jus 
regium, ut vidimus, longe aliud exhibuit : an ab ipso 
Deo per Samuelem loquente? at improbavit, vitupera- 
vit, vitio dedit: non igitur jus regium divinitus datum, 
sed morem regnandi pravissimum, superbia regum et 
dominandi libidine arreptum exposuit propheta ; nee 
quid debebant reges, sed quid volebant facere; rationem 
enim reg'is populo indicavit,sicut antea rationem sacer- 
dotum Eliadarum eodem verbo (quod tu p. 33, Hebraico 
etiam soloecismo nSWD vocas) supra indicaverat. C. 2. 
" ratio sacerdotum istorum cum populo haec erat, v. 13." 
impia videlicet, odiosa, et tyrannica: ratio itaque ilia 
nequaquam jus erat, sed injuria. Sic. etiam patres 
antiqui hunc locum exposuerunt; unus mini erit mul- 
torum instar, Sulpitius Severus, Hieronymi aequalis, 
eique charus, et Augustini judicio vir doctrina et sapi- 
entia pollens. Is in historia sacra Samuelem ait domi- 
nationem regiam, et superba imperia, populo exponere. 
Sane jus regium non est dominatio et superbia ; sed jus 
atque imperium regium, teste Sallustio, conservandae 
libertatis atque augendae reipub. causa datum, in su- 
perbiam dominationemque se convertit. Idem theologi 
omnes orthodoxi, idem jurisconsulti, idem rabbini ple- 
rique, ut ex Sichardo didicisse potuisti, de explicatione 
hujus loci sentiunt; ne rabbinorum enim quisquam jus 
regis absolutum isto loco tractari dixit. Ipse infra 
cap. 5. pag. 106. "non Alexandrinum Clementem solum* 
sed omnes hie" quereris "errare," te unum ex omnibus 
rem acu tetigisse : Jam vero cujus vel impudentia) est 
vel socordiae, contra omnes, praesertim orthodoxos, mores 
regum ab ipso Deo damnatissimos in jus regium con- 
vertere; et honesta juris praescriptione defendere : cum 
jus tamen illud in rapinis, injuriis, violentiis, contume- 
liis, saepius consistere fatearis. An quisquam sic " sui 
juris" unquam fuit, ut rapere, agere, prosternere, per- 
miscere omnia sibi liceret? an Latini, quod affirmas, 
htec " suo jure ab aliquo fieri unquam dixerunt?" 
Dixerat apud Sallustium C. Memmius tribunus plebis, 
in superbiam et impunita flagitia nobilitatis invectus, 
" impune quaelibet facere, id est, regem esse;" arrisit 
hoc tibi, et statim in lucro ponis, nequicquam sane, si 
paulum evigilaveris. An jus hie regium asseruit? 
annon plebis ignaviam potius increpuit, quae nobiles 
impune dominari sineret, eosque mores regios jam rur- 
sus pateretur, quos jure suo majores illorum cum rege 
ipso finibus expulerant. Marcum Tullium saltern con- 
suluisses; is te et Sallustium, et Samuelem etiam rectius 
inlerpretari docuisset. Qui, pro C. Rabirio, " nemo," 
inquit, " nostrum ignorat consuetudincm regiam ; re- 
gum sunt haec imperia, animadverte et dicto pare;" 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



659 



aliaque hujusmodi ex poetis ibidem recitat, quae non 
jus, sed " consuetudinem regiam" vocat, eaque legere 
et spectare nos ait debere, non " ut delectemur solum, 
sed ut cavere etiam et effugere discamus." Vides quam 
te male multaverit Sallustius, quern tjrannis inimicis- 
simum, juris tyrannici patronum attulisse te putabas. 
Nutare, mihi crede, et suum sibi occasum accelerare 
jus regium videtur, dum ruentis in modum tenuissima 
quaeque sic arripit, seque sustinere iis testibus atque 
exemplis conatur, quae tardiiis fortasse alioqui ruitu- 
rum vehementius proturbant. " Summum," inquis, 
"jus, summa injuria est, id in regibus maxime locum 
habet ; qui cum summo jure utuntur, ea faciunt in 
quibus Samuel dicit jus regis esse positum." Miserum 
jus; quod tu jam ad extrema perductus, nisi per sum- 
mam injuriam defendere ulterius non potes ! Summum 
jus id dicitur, cum quis formulas legum sectatur, sin- 
gulis pene Uteris immoratur, aequitatem non servat ; 
autscriptum jus callide nimis et malitiose interpretatur, 
ex quo illud proverbium Cicero ortum esse ait. Cum 
autem jus omne de fonte justitice manare certum sit, im- 
pius sis necesse est, qui " regem injustum esse, iniquum, 
violentem, raptorem esse, et quales esse solebant" qui 
pessimi erant, jus regis esse dicis, idque " prophetam 
populo insinuasse." Quod enim jus summum aut re- 
missum, scriptum aut non scriptum, ad maleficia per- 
petranda esse potest ? Id ne tibi de aliis concedere, de 
rege pernegare, in mentem veniat, habeo quern tibi op- 
ponam, et puto regem, qui istiusmodi jus regium et 
sibi et Deo invisum esse profitetur : Psal. 49. " an con- 
sociaretur tibi solium serumnarum, formantis molestiam 
per statutum." Noli igitur Deo hanc atrocissimam 
injuriam facere, quasi is regum pravitates et nefaria 
faciuora jus esse regium doceret, qui etiam hoc nomine 
societatem cum improbis regibus se detestari docet, 
quod molestiam et serumnas omnes populo juris regii 
titulo creare soleant. Noli prophetam Dei falsd insi- 
mulare ; quem, tu dum juris regii isto loco doctorem 
habere putas, non verum nobis afFers Samuelem ; sed, 
ut venefica ilia, inanem umbram evocas ; quamvis et 
ilium ab inferis Samuelem non adeo mendacem fuisse 
credam, quin illud quod tu jus regium vocas, impoten- 
tiam potius tjrannicam dicturus fuisset. Jus datem 
sceleri legimus, tuque " licentise jure concessse reges 
minus bonos uti coiisuevisse " a'is. At jus hoc, ad per- 
niciem humani generis abs te introductum, non esse a 
Deo datum probavimus ; restat, ut sit a Diabolo ; quod 
infra clariiis liquebit. " Haec," inquis, " licentia dat 
posse, si velis ; " et authorem hujus juris habere 
Ciceronem pras te fers. Nunquam segre facio ut tes- 
timonia tua recitem, tuis enim ipse testibus conficere 
te soles. Audi igitur verba Ciceronis in 4ta Philipp. 
" Quae causa justior est belli gerendi, quam servitutis 
depulsio? in qua etiamsi non sit molestus dominus, 
tamen est miserrimum posse si velit," posse vi scili- 
cet ; nam de jure si loqueretur, repugnantia diceret, et 
ex justa belli causa injustam faceret. Non est igitur 
jus regium quod tu describis, sed injuria, sed vis, et 
violentia regum. Transis ab regia licentia ad priva- 
tam : " licet privato mentiri, licet ingrato esse." Licet et 
regibus; quid inde efficis? licebit ergo regibus impune 
2 u 



rapere, occidere, stuprare ? Quid interest ad injuriae 
gravitatem rex an latro, an aliunde hostis, populum 
occidat, diripiat, in servitutem agat? eodem certe jure, 
et hunc et ilium human ae societatis inimicum, et pestem, 
propulsare atque ulcisci debemus ; immo regem eo 
justius, quod is tot beneficiis et honoribus nostris 
auctus commissam sibi sub juramento publicam salutem 
prodat. Concedis postremo " leges dari a Mose, se- 
cundum quas rex ille quandoque eligendus imperare 
debebat, quamvis diversas ab illo jure quod Samuel 
proposuit." Quod cum assertione tua dupliciter pug- 
nat ; cum enim regem legibus omniuo solutum posueris, 
nunc obstrictum dicis : dein jus juri contrarium ponis 
Mosis et Samuelis, quod est absurdum. At " servi," 
inquit Propheta, " vos eritis regi." Ut servos fuisse 
non abnuerim ; non jure tamen regio servi fuerunt, 
sed regum fortasse plurimorum usurpatione et injustitia. 
Illam enim petitionem obstinatam non jure regio, sed 
suo merito, in poenam illis cessuram propheta proemo- 
nuit. At vero si regi legibus soluto quicquid libet licu- 
erit, profecto rex longe plus quam dominus erit, populus 
infra omnium servorum infimos plus quam infimus. 
Servus enim vel alienigena legem Dei vindicem inju- 
riosum in dominum habebat; populus universus, libera 
nimirum gens, vindicem in terris neminem, nullam 
legem habebit, quo laesus, afflictus, et spoliatus confu- 
giat : a servitute regum iEgyptiorum ideo liberatus, 
ut uni ex fratribus suis, duriore si libeat servitute, op- 
primendus traderetur. Quod cum neque divinae legi 
nee rationi consentaneum sit, dubium nemini esse 
potest, quin propheta mores enarraverit, non jus regum, 
neque mores prorsus regum omnium, sed plurimorum. 
Descendis ad rabbinos, duosque adducis eadem, qua 
prius, infelicitate : nam caput illud de rege, in quo 
R. Joses jus regium aiebat contineri, Deuteronomii 
esse, non Samuelis, manifestum est. Samuelis enim 
ad terrorem duntaxat populo injicieudum pertinere 
rectissime quidem et contra te dixit R. Judas. Per- 
niciosum enim est id jus nominari atque doceri, quod 
injustitia plane est, nisi abusive forsitan jus nominetur. 
Quo etiam pertinet versus 18. " Et exclamabitis die 
ilia propter regem vestrum, sed non exaudiet vos Je- 
hovah;" obstinatos nimirum ista poena manebat, qui 
regem nolente Deo dari sibi voluerunt. Quanquam ista 
verba non prohibent, quo minus et vota et quidvis aliud 
tentare potuerint. Si enim clamare ad Deum contra 
regem populo licebat, licebat proculdubio omnem etiam 
aliam inire rationem honestam sese a tyrannide expe- 
diendi. Quis enim, quovis malo cum premitur, sic ad 
Deum clamat ut caetera omnia quas officii sunt sui neg- 
ligat, ad otiosas tantum preces devolutus ? Verum ut- 
cunque sit, quid hoc ad jus regium, quid ad jus nos- 
trum ? qui regem nee invito Deo unquam petivimus, 
nee ipso dante accepimus, sed jure gentium usi, nee 
jubente Deo nee vetante, nostris legibus constituimus. 
Quae ciim ita se habeant, non video quamobrem nobis 
laudi atque virtuti tribuendum non sit, regem abjecisse ; 
quandoquidem Israelitis crimini est datum regem pe- 
tisse. Quod etiam res ipsa comprobavit; nos enim qui 
regem, cum haberemus, deprecati sumus, tandem ex- 
auditos Deus liberavit ; illos, qui cum non haberent, 



660 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



a Deo efflagitabant, servire jussit ; donee Babylone 
redeuntes ad pristinum reipub. statum reversi sunt. 
Ludum Talmudicum deinde aperis; quin et hoc sinis- 
tra augurio tentatum. Dum enim regem non judicari 

cu])is ostenderc, ostendis ex codice Sanhedrim " regem 
nee judicari ncc judicare;" quod cum petitione istius 
populi pugnat, qui idco regem petebant, ut judicaret: 
id frustra resarcire studes; intelligi nempe id de regi- 
bus Postbabylonicis debere. At ecce tibi Maimonides, 
qui " banc inter reges Israelitas et Juclaeos difFerentiam 
ponit : Davidis enim posteros judicare et judicari;" 
Israeliticis neutrum concedit. Occurris tibi, tecum 
enim litigas, aut cum rabbinis tuis; meam rem agis. 
Hoc " primis in regibus locum non babuisse," quia 
dictum est v. 17. " vos eritis ei servi : " cousuetudine 
scilicet, non jure; aut si jure, poenas petendi regis, 
quamvis non sub hoc forte vel sub illo, at sub pleris- 
que, luebant, quod nosnon attingit. Tibivero adversario 
opus non est, adeo semper tibi adversaris. Narras enim 
pro me, ut primo Aristobulus, post Jannceus cognomen- 
to Alexander, jus illud regium non a synedrio, juris 
custode et interprete, acceperint, sed paulatim sibi 
assumpscrint, et senatu renitente usurpaverint : quorum 
in gratiam bella ilia fabula de primoribus synedrii " a 
Gabriele exanimatis" adiuventa est, jusque hoc mag- 
nificum, quo niti maxime videris, "regem" scilicet 
" non judicari," ex ilia fabula plusquam anili, utpote 
rabbinica, conflatum esse fateris. Reges autem He- 
broeoruni "judicari posse, atque etiam ad verbera dam- 
nari," fuse docet Sichardus ex libris rabbinicis, cui tu 
hose omnia debes, et tameu obstrepere non erubescis. 
Quinimmo legimus ipsum Saulem cum filio Jonathane 
sortis judicium atque etiam capitale subiise, suoque ip- 
sum edicto paruisse. Uzzias quoque a sacerdotibus 
templo deturbatus, leprae judicio, tanquam unus e po- 
pulo, se submisit, rexque esse desiit. Quid si templo 
excedere, quid si magistratu abire, et seorsim habitare, 
noluisset, jus illud regium legibus solutum sibi asse- 
ruisset, an passuros fuisse censes Judaeos et sacerclotes 
tempi um contaminari, leges violari, populum univer- 
suin contagione periclitari? In leprosum ergo regem 
-vigebunt leges, in tyrannum nihil poterunt ? Ecquis 
tain demens aut stultus est, ut existimet, cum rex mor- 
bosus ni' populum contagione laedat, cautum atque pro- 
■wsuin legibus sit, si rex impius, iniquus, crudelis, po- 
pulum diripiat, excruciet, occidat, rempub. funditus 
cvertat, nullum his malis longe gravioribus remedium 
legibus repertum esse? Vcrum "exemplum ullius regis 
afferri non potest, qui judicium capitis subieritinjus vo- 
catus." Ad illud Sichardus baud absurde respondet, pcr- 
inde esse, ac si quis ad hunc modum dissercret. Caesar 
nunquam citatus est coram Elcctore ; ergo si Palatinus 
diem Caesari dixerit, non tenctur Caesar in judicio rc- 
spondere. Cum tamen doccat bulla aurea Carolum 4tum 
Beetsuccessoressuosbuic cognitionisubjecisse. Quid in 
eorrupto populi statu regibus adeo indultum fuisse mira- 
mur, ubi totprivati aut opibus suis aut gratia impunita- 
tem vel giavissimorum scelerum assequuntur? Illud 
autem Avv-kivQwov, id est, " a nemine pendcre, nulli 
mortalium rationem reddere," quod tu regircmajestatis 
maxime proprium esse ais, Aristoteles Polit. 4. c. 10. 



fliaxime tyrannicum, et in libera natione minime feren- 
dum, esse affirmat. Tu vero Antonium tyrannum im- 
manissimum, Romanae reipub. eversorem, idoneum 
sane authorem producis, non esse justum reposci a rege 
factorum suorum rationem : et tamen Herodem caedis 
reum ad causam dicendam in Parthos proficiscens ac- 
cersivit ad se Antonius : et animadversurus etiam in 
regem fuisse creditur, nisi rex eum auro corrupisset. 
Ita ab eodem fonte profluxit regiae potestatis Antoni- 
ana assertio, et tua " regia defensio." At non sine ra- 
tione, inquis, " nam reges ab alio non habent quod 
regnant, sed soli Deo acceptum referunt." Die sodes 
quinam ? nam istiusmodi reges extitisse unquam, nego. 
Primus enim Saul, nisi populus refragante etiam Deo 
regem voluisset, nunquam rex fuisset; et quamvis rex 
renuntiatus esset Mispae, vixit tamen pene privatus, 
armentum patris secutus, donee Gilgale rex a populo 
secundum creatus est. Quid David ? quamvis unctus 
a Deo, nonne iterum unctus est ab Judaeis Chebrone, 
deinde ab omnibus Hebraeis, pacto tamen prius foe- 
dere ? 2 Sam. 5. 1 Chron. 11. Fcedus autem obligat 
reges, et intra certos fines continet. Sed it Salomon, 
inquis, " super solium Domini et cunctis placuit," 
1 Paralip. 29. ergo et placuisse populo aliquid erat. 
Constituit Jehoiadas regem Joasum, fcedus tamen eo- 
dem tempore pepigit inter regem et populum. 2 Reg. 
11. Hos reges, necnon et reliquos Davidis posteros, 
et a Deo et a populo constitutos fateor; caeteros omnes, 
ubicunque gentium, a populo tantiim constitutos esse 
affirmo; tu ostende constitutos esse a Deo; nisi ea, 
solum ratione qua omnia, cum maxima turn mini- 
ma, a Deo fieri et constitui dicuntur. Solium itaque 
Davidis, peculiari quodam jure, solium Jehovae dici- 
tur; solium aliorum regum non alio, atque caetera 
omnia, Jehovae sunt. Quod tu ex eodem capite di- 
dicisse potuisti, v. 11. 12. "tua sunt omnia in ccelo 
et in terra, tuum est, Jehova, regnum; divitiae et 
gloria a facie tua sunt, vis et potentia, &c." Dici- 
turque hoc toties, non ut intumescant reges, sed ut 
moneantur, quamvis deos se esse putent, Deum ta- 
men supra se esse, cui debent omnia* Unde ilia 
Essenorum et poetarum doctrina, reges " non sine 
Deo, et ab Jove esse," facile intelligitur ; omnes enim 
homines a Deo itidem sumus, Deique genus. Jus igi- 
tur hoc universum Dei non tollit jus populi; quo mi- 
nus omnes costeri regies, non a Deo nominati, regnum 
suum soli populo acceptum referant; cui propterea ra- 
tionem reddere tenentur. Quod quanquam vulgus as- 
scntari regibus solct, ipsi tamen reges sive boni, ut 
Homcricus ille Sarpedon, sive mali, ut iili apud Lyri- 
cum tyranni, agnoscunt. 

FXavKs, t'vh\ Srj van re TiixrjfieaQa fxaXira, Sec. 

Glauce, cur nos maximo honore amcimur 

In Lycia, omnes autem nos tanquam deos intuentur? 

Ipse sibi respondet ; quia virtute caeteris proalucemus : 
quare fortitcr pugncmus, inquit, ne Lycii nobis igna- 
viam objiciant : qua voce et honores regios a populo 
acceptos, et bellicae administrationis rationem populo 
reddendam esse, innuit. Mali autem reges, ut rnetum 
populo incutiant, Deum imperii rcgii authorem palam 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



661 



praedicant: tacitis autem votis nullum numen praeter 
Fortunam venerantur. Juxta illud Horatii : 

Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythse, 
Regumque matres barbarorum, et 
Purpurei metuunt tyrannic 
Injurioso ne pede proruas 
Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens 
Ad arma cessantes, ad arma 
Concitet, imperiumque frangat. 

Si ergo regis hodie per Deum regnant, etiam populi 
per Deum in libertatem se vindicant, quandoquidem 
omnia a Deo et per Deum flunt. Utrumque etiam 
seque testatur Scriptura, et reges per eum regnare, et 
per eum solio dejici ; ciim tamen id utrumque longe 
saepius a populo fieri perspiciamus, quam a Deo. Jus 
itaque populi pariter ac regis, quicquid est, a Deo est. 
Populus ubicunque sine Deo manifesto regem creavit, 
potest eodem jure suo regem rejicere. Tyrannum sane 
tollere quam constituere divinius est; plusque Dei 
cernitur in populo, quoties injustum abdicat regem, 
quam in rege qui innocentem opprimit populum. Immo 
reges noxios Deo authore judicat populus : hoc enim 
ipso honore dilectos suos decoravit Deus, Psal. 149. ut 
Christum regem suum laudibus celebrantes, gentium 
reges, quales sub evangelio sunt omnes tjranni, "vin- 
culis coercerent, inque eos jus scriptum exercerent," 
qui jure omni scripto atque legibus solutos se esse 
gloriantur. Ne quis tarn stolide, ne quis tam impie, 
credat tanti esse apud Deum reges, fere mortalium ig- 
navissimos, ut eorum nutu orbis terrarum totuspendeat 
et gubernetur; eorum ut gratia, praeque illis, divinum, 
ut ita dicam, hominum genus eodem quo bruta et vi- 
lissima quaeque animalia loco atque numero habendum 
sit. Age nunc, ne nihil enim agas, M. Aurelium, quasi 
tjrannis faventem, in medium profers; at satius tibi 
fuit Marcum Aurelium non attigisse. Ille an Deum de 
principibus solum judicare dixerit nescio. Xiphilinus 
certe, quern citas, de avrapxiq, loquitur; 7repi avrapx^ciQ o 
Qebc, fiovog icpiveiv dvvarai. dvrapxiav autem monarchiae 
synonymum illic esse non assentior ; eoque minus quo 
saepius pr83cedentia lego ; nam qui cohaereat, aut quid 
sibi velit aliena ilia sententia subito insititia, qui le- 
gerit miretur ; presertim cum Marcus Aurelius, impe- 
ratorum optimus, non aliter cum populo egerit, ut Ca- 
pitolinus tradit, quam est actum sub civitate libera ; 
jus autem populi quin supremum tunc fuerit nemo du- 
bitat. Idem Thraseam, Helvidium, Catonem, Dio- 
nem, Brutura, tyrannicidas omnes, aut istam gloriam 
semulantes coluisse, sibique reipublicae form am propo- 
suisse, in qua aequis legibus parique jure, omnia admi- 
nistrarentur, in primo libro de vita sua profitetur: in 
quarto, non se, sed legem, dominum esse. Agnovit 
etiam omnia senatus populique esse: nos, inquit, adeo 
nihil proprium habemus, ut in vestris aedibus habitemus. 
Haec Xiphilinus. Tantum abfuit ut quicquam jure 
regio sibi arrogaret. Moriens, filium suum regnaturum 
ea lege Romanis commendavit, si dignus esset : jus 
itaque illud regnandi absolutum atque fictitium, tan- 
quam a Deo per manus traditum, illam denique dvrap- 
xiav prae se non tulit. " Plena" tamen " omnia Grae- 
cerum et Latinorum monumenta esse" ais : at nusquam 



visa; " plena Judasorum," et tamen addis " Judaeos in 
plerisque regies potestati minus sequos fuisse :" immo 
Graecos et Latinos multo minus tyrannis aequos et re- 
peristi et reperies ; multo minus Judaeos, si liber ille 
Samuelis in quo is, 1 Sam. 10. jus regni descripserat, 
exstaret; quem librum doctores Hebraeorum a regibus 
discerptum aut combustum esse tradiderunt, quo im- 
puniiis tyrannidem in suos exercerent. Circumspice 
jam, numquid captare possis : occurrit tibi rex David 
postremo torquendus, Psal. 17. " a facie tua judicium 
meum prodeat:" ergo, inquit Barnachmoni, " nullus 
judicat regem nisi Deus." Et tamen similius veri vi- 
detur, Davidem haec scripsisse, cum a Saule vexatus, 
ne Jonathanis quidem judicium, quamvis jam turn unc- 
tus a Deo, detractabat. " Si est in me iniquitas, tu me 
affice morte," inquit, 1 Sam. 20; deinde ut quivis alius 
ab hominibus falso accusatus, ad judicium Dei provo- 
cat ; id sequentia declarant, " tui occuli vident quae 
recta sunt, ciim exploraveris cor meum," &c. Quid 
hoc ad judicium regium, aut forense ? Sane jus regium 
illi maxime labefactant atque destruunt, qui funda- 
mentis tam fallacibus niti, atque exaedificari, produnt. 
En tritum illud tandem, et aulicorum nostratium argu- 
mentum palmarium. " Tibi soli peccavi," Psal. 51. 6. 
quasi vero rex David in mcerore et lacrymis pceniten- 
tiam agens, sordidatus et squalidus in terra jacens, 
misericordiam a Deo suppliciter petens, quicquam de 
jure regio cogitaverit haec loquutus; cum se vix jure 
mancipii dignum esse arbitraretur. An omnem Dei 
populum, fratres suos, usque adeo prae se contempsit, 
ut caedibus, adulteriis, rapinis, peccare in eos non se 
posse censeret ? absit a rege tam sancto tanta superbia, 
tamque foeda ignoratio vel sui vel proximi. " Tibi " 
igitur " soli peccavi" proculdubio intelligendum est, 
tibi praecipue. Utcunque sit, profecto verba psallentis, 
et sententiae affectibus plenae, haudquaquam sunt ad 
jus explicandum aceommodatae, aut eo trahendae. At 
" non est in jus vocatus, nee coram synedrio causam 
capitis dixit." Esto ; qui enim potuit id resciri, quod 
adeo sine arbitris, et secreto peractum fuit, ut per ali- 
quot fortasse annos (cnjusmocli aulae arcana sunt) vix 
unus aut alter conscius fuisse videatur, 2 Sam. 12. 
" Tu hoc clam fecisti." Deinde quid si in privatis 
etiam puniendis cessaret synedrium ? an quis incle pu- 
niendos non esse argumentabitur ? Sed ratio obscura 
non est ; ipse se condemnaverat, ver. 5. " reus capitis 
vir ille qui fecit hoc ;" cui statim subjecit propheta, 
" tu vir ille es ;" prophetae etiam judicio capitis reus. 
Veruntamen Deus pro suo jure atque in Davidem ex- 
imia dementia, et peccato absolvit regem, et ipsa mor- 
tis sententia, quam is in semetipsum pronuntiaverat, 
v. 13. " non es moriturus." Nunc in advocatum nescio 
quem sanguinarium debaccharis, et in eo totus es ut 
perorationem ejus re fellas : de qua ipse viderit; ego 
quod propositum mihi est, id ago, ut quam paucissimis 
absolvam. Quaedam tamen praeterire non possum; 
primum, insignes repugnantias tuas : qui p. 30. haec 
habes: " Israelitae non deprecantur injustum regem, 
violentem, raptorem, et quales esse solerent qui pessimi. 
A p. 42. advocatum vellicas quod Israelitis tyrannum 
petisse arguerat. " An de fumo," inquis, " in flammam 



662 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



ire praecipites malucrunt, id est, saevitiam pessimorum 
tyraiinorum experiri, potius quam judices malos pati, 
quibus jam ass u ever ant ?" Illic Hebraeos maluisse a'is 
tyrannos quam judices, hie judices maluisse quam ty 
rannos; et " nihil minus quam tyrannum voluisse." De 
tuo igitur respondebit tibi advocatus, juxta enim te om- 
nis rex jure regio tyrannus est. Quod sequitur bene 
habet, " authoritatem in populo maximam tunc fuisse, 
quod judices repudiarunt, regem optarunt." Memineris, 
cum hoc ego a te reposcam. Negas " Deum iratum 
Israelitis reg-em tanquam tyrannum autpcenam attribu- 
isse, sed ut rem salutarem et bonam." Quod tamen facile 
refellitur. Cur enim exclamarent propter reg-em ilium 
quern elegerant, nisi quod res mala erat imperium re- 
gium ; noil quidem per se, sed quod plerunque, sicut 
Propheta hie monet, in superbiam et dominationem se 
convertit. Si adhuc non satisfacio, ag-nosce jam tua, 
syngrapham agnosce tuam,eterubesce. Apparat. adpri- 
matum, " Tratus Deus reg-em illis dedit, offensus eorum 
peccatis, quod Deum habere reg-em renuissent. Ita 
ecclesia quasi in poenam ejus delicti, quod a puro Dei 
cultu desciverat, in unius mortalis monarchic plusquam 
regium dominatum data est." Tua igitur similitudo si 
sibi constat, aut dedit Deus regem Israelitis in poenam, 
et tanquam rem malam, aut dedit papam ecclesise in 
bonum, et tanquam rem bonam. Quid hoc homine 
levius, quid insanius ? Quis huic in re minima fidem 
habeat, qui tantis in rebus quid asserat, et mox neget, 
nihil pensi habet. Affirmas, p. 29. " regem legibus 
solutum esse apud omnes gentes, sic Oriens judicavit, 
sic Occidens." At, p. 43. " omnes reges Orientis Kara 
vbpov et legitimos fuisse ; immo iEgypti reges in max- 
imis minimisque rebus legibus obstrictos," cum initio 
capitis hoc te probaturum pollicitus sis, omnes reges 
" solutos legibus-" esse, " leges dare, non accipere." 
Equidem non irascor tibi ; aut enim insanis, aut stas a 
nobis. Hoc certe oppugnare est, non defendere, hoc 
regem est ludos facere. Sin minus, Catullianum pro- 
fecto illud * in te aptissime quadrat, sed inversum; nam 
quanto quis unquam optimus poeta fuit,tanto tu pessi- 
mus omnium patronus. Certe nisi stupor ille, quo 
advocatum esse " demersum" a'is, te potius obcaecavit, 
jam tute " obrutuisse" te senties. Nunc " omnibus 
quoque gentium regibus leges datas fuisse" fateris; 
" non tamen ut iis tenerentur, judiciorum metu et poe- 
nae capitis." Quod nequedum ex scriptura, neque ex 
ullo authore fide digno, ostendisti. Tu igitur paucis 
accipe : leges civiles iis dare qui legibus non tenentur, 
stultum et ridiculum est; omnes alios punire, uni dun- 
taxat omnium scelerum impunitatem dare, ciim lex 
neminem excipiat, iniquissimum est. Quae duo in sa- 
pientes legumlatores minime cadunt, multo minus in 
Deum. Ut omnes autem videant te nullo modo ex 
Hebraeorum scriptis id probare, quod probandum hoc 
eapite suscepcras, esse ex magistris tuasponte confiteris, 
" qui negant alium suis majoribus regem agnoscendum 
fuisse pneter Deum, datum autem in pcenam fuisse." 
Quorum ego in sententiam pedibus eo. Non decet 
enim, neque dignum est regem esse, nisi qui ceteris 

* I anto pessimus omnium Poela, 
Quanto tu optimus omnium Patronus. 



omnibus longe antecellit ; ubi multi sunt cequales, ut 
sunt in omni civitate plurimi, imperium ex aequo atque 
per vices dandum esse arbitror : tequali, aut plerunque 
deteriori, ac ssepissime stulto, servire omnes, quis non 
indignissimum putet? Nee "ad commendationem re- 
galis imperii" plus "facit," quod Christus a regibus 
originem duxit, quam facit ad pessimorum regum com- 
mendationem, Christum eos hahuisse nepotem. " Rex 
est Messias:" agnoscimus, gaudemus, et quam citis- 
sime veniat oramus ; dignus enim est, nee ei quisquam 
similis aut secundus : interim regia gubernatio com- 
missa indignis et immerentibus, ut plerumque fieri 
solet, plus mali quam boni attulisse humano generi 
recte existimatur. Nee continuo sequitur omnes reges 
tyrannos esse. Verum ita esto : do tibi hoc, ne me 
nimis tenacem putes; utere tu jam dato. " Hsec duo 
sequuntur," inquis, " Deus ipse rex fuerit tyraiinorum 
dicendus, et quidem tyrannus ipse maximus." Horum 
alterum si non sequitur, sequitur profecto illud quod 
toto libro tuo semper fere sequitur, te non scripturae 
solum, sed tibimet, perpetuo contradicere, ut qui proxi- 
ma periodo supra dixeras, " unum Deum regem esse 
omnium rerum, quas et ipse creavit." Creavit autem 
et tyrannos et dsemonas; eorum itaque rex vel tua 
ipsius sententia. In alterum despuimus, et blasphemum 
illud tibi os obturatum volumus, qui Deum affirmes 
tyrannum esse maximum, si tyraiinorum, quod ipse 
saepius dicis, rex et dominus dicatur. Sed nee rem 
regiam multo plus adjuvas, dum ostendis, Mosen etiam 
cum " summa potestate regem fuisse." Nam fuerit sane 
vel quivis alius, dummodo is sit qui res nostras, quem- 
admodum Moses, " ad Deum referre" possit. Exod. 
xviii. 19. Verum neque Mosi, quamquam is Dei quasi 
sodalis fuit, licuit in Dei populo quicquid libuit facere. 
Quid enim ille ? " Venit ad me hie populus," inquit, 
" ad consulendum Deum;" non ergo ad mandata Mo- 
sis accipienda. Turn suscipit Jethro, " esto tu pro 
hoc populo erga Deum, et commonefacias eos de legi- 
bus Dei." Et Moses, Deut. iv. 5. " docui vos statuta 
et judicia, quemadmodum praecepit mihi Deus." Un- 
de " fidelis " dicitur " in tota domo Dei." Num. xii. 
Rex itaque Jehova turn populi fuit ; Moses veluti in- 
terpres tantum Jehovae regis. Impium igitur et sacri- 
legum te esse oportet, qui summam hanc potestatem a 
Deo ad hominem injussus ausis transferre, quam ipse 
Moses non summam, sed vicariam tantum et interme- 
diam sub praesenti numine, obtinuit. Accedit etiam cu- 
mulus ad improbitatem tuam, quod Mosen hie summa 
potestate regem fuisse dicas ; cum in Apparatu ad pri- 
matum," p. 230. " Eum in commune cum lxx senio- 
ribus populum rexisse ; et primum populi, non domi- 
num fuisse" dixeris. Si igitur rex fuit, ut erat certe, 
et regum optimus^ idque sicut ipse a'is, cum " potestate 
plane summa et regia," nee tamen dominus, neque so- 
lus populum regebat, vel te authore ; necessario sequi- 
tur, reges, quamvis summa potestate praeditos, jure ta- 
men regio atque summo, non esse dominos, neque so- 
los populum regere debere ; quanto minus ad libitum 
suum. Jam vero qua impudentia Dei mandatum 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



663 



ementiris, " de rege statim atque ingressi essent ter- 
rain sanctam sibi constituendo." Deut. xvii. Suppri- 
mis enim veteratorie quod praecedit, "sidixeris, sta- 
tuara super me regem ;" tuque memento quid a te jam 
reposcam ; cum dixeris, p. 42. " Uberrima tunc potes- 
tate populus erat praeditus." Nunc iterum fanaticus 
an profanus esse velis, ipse videres. " Deus," inquis, 
" cum tanto ante determinaverit regium regimen insti- 
tuendum tanquam optimum populi illius regendi sta- 
tum,quomodo haec conciliabuntur ? Propheta repug- 
navit, Deus sic egit cum propheta, ut quasi nollet." 
Tidet se illaqueatum, videt se impeditum : jam atten- 
dee quanta cum malitia ad versus prophetam, impietate 
adversus Deum, expedire se quaerat : " cogitandum in 
his est," inquit, " Samuelem esse, cujus filii populum 
tunc judicabant; eos populos repudiabat ob corrupta 
judicia ; Samuel igitur noluit filios suos a populo reji- 
ci ; Deus ut gratificaretur prophetae suo, innuit non 
valde sibi placere, quod populus desideraret." Die uno 
verbo, improbe, quod per ambages dicis ; Samuel po- 
pulo fucum fecit, Samueli Deus. Non advocatus ergo, 
sed tu " ceritus" ille et "lymphaticus" es, qui modo ut 
regem honores nil Deum revereris. Isne tibi Samuel 
videtur, qui saluti aut charitati patriae filiorum avari- 
tiam et ambitionem praeposuerit, qui populo recta et sa- 
lutaria petenti, tarn callido consilio, tamque vafro, illu- 
serit, falsa pro veris docuerit ? Isne tibi Deus, qui in re 
tarn turpi cuivis gratificaretur, aut cum populo simulate 
ageret? Aut ergo jus regium non erat quod Propheta 
populo exposuit, aut jus illud, teste Deo et Propheta, 
malum, molestum, violentum, inutile, sumptuosum rei- 
pub. erat ; aut denique, quod nefas est dicere, et Deus 
et Propheta populo verba dare voluerunt. Passim 
enim testatur Deus valde sibi displicuisse quod regem 
petissent. ver. 7. " Non te sed me spreverunt ne reg- 
nem super ipsos, secundum ilia facta quibus derelique- 
runt me, et coluerunt Deos alienos :" acsi species q use- 
dam idololatrise videretur regem petere, qui adorari se, 
et honores prope divinos tribui sibi postulat. Sane, qui 
supra omnes leges terrenum sibi dominum imponit, 
prope est ut sibi Deum statuat alienum; Deum utique 
baud saepe rationabilem, sed profligata saepius ratione 
brutum, et belluinum. Sic 1 Sam. x. 19. "Vos spre- 
vistis Deum vestrum, qui ipse servat vos ab omnibus 
malis et augustiis vestris, ciim dixistis ei, regem prse- 
pones nobis :" et cap. xii. 12. " Yos regem petistis, 
cum Jehova sit rex vester:" et ver. 17. " Videte ma- 
lum vestrum magnum esse coram Jehova, petendo vo- 
bis regem." Et contemptim Hosea de rege, xiii. 10, 
11. " Ubi rex tuus, ubinam est ? servet te jam in ci- 
vitatibus tuis. Ubi vindices tui ? quoniam dixisti, da 
mihi regem et proceres : dedi tibi regem in ira mea." 
Hinc Gedeon ille heros rege major, " Non dominabor 
in vos, neque filius meus in vos dominabitur, sed domi- 
nabitur in vos Jehova," Jud. viii. plane ac si simul do- 
cuisset, non hominis esse dominari in homines, sed solius 
Dei. Hinc Hebraeorum rempublicam, in qua Deus prin- 
cipatum solus tenuit, 6eoKpariav vocat Josephus, contra 
ApionemgrammaticumiEgyptium, et maledicumtui si- 
milem. Populus denique resipiscens, apud Isaiam, xxvi. 
13. calamitosum hoc sibi fuisse queritur, quod alios pree- 



ter Deum dominos habuerat. Indicio sunt liaec omnia 
regem, irato Deo, Israelitis fuisse datum. In historia 
tyranni Abimelechi quis est cui non risum moveas? de 
quo dicitur, cum is partim saxo a muliere, partim 
armigeri gladio, interfectus fuerit, " reddidit Deus 
malum Abimelechi. Haec," inquis, " historia potentis- 
sime adstruit Deum solum regum judicem esse et vin- 
dicem :" immo tyrannorum, nebulonum, nothorum, si 
hoc valebit : quicunque per fas aut nefas tyrannidem 
occupaverit, is jus regium statim in populum adeptus 
erit, poenas effugit; confestim arma magistratui de 
manibus fluent, mussare deinceps populus non aude- 
bit. Veriim quid si magnus aliquis latro hoc modo 
in bello periisset, an Deus ergo solus latronum vin- 
dex ? Quid si carnificis manu lege damnatus, an 
ideo minus illi Deus malum reddidisset ? Ne ju- 
dices quidem eorum unquam legisti lege postula- 
tes ; tamen " in optimatum statu vel principem, si 
quid committat, posse ac debere judicari," ultro fateris, 
p. 47. cur non item tyrannus in regno ? quia Deus red- 
didit malum Abimelechi. At reddidit quoque mulier 
ilia, reddidit etiam armiger, in quos ille ambos jus re- 
gium habere prse se tulit. Quid si reddidisset magis- 
trates, annon is idcirco Dei gladium gerit, ut malum 
malis reddat? Ab hoc " potentissimo" de morte Abi- 
melechi argumento ad verborum contumelias more suo 
seconvertit; nil nisi " ccenum et lutum" ore funditat; 
cum eorum, quae promisit se probaturum, nihil vel ex 
sacris libris, vel ex rabbinicis, probaverit. Nam neque 
regem legibus solutum esse, nee cur puniri, si delin- 
quat, solus mortalium non debeat, quicquam ostendit. 
Immo suis ipse testibus se induit, et sententiam suae 
contrariam esse veriorem suomet ipse opere demonstrat. 
Ciimque argumentis pariim proficiat, criminationibus 
atrocissimis omnium in nos odium excitare conatur, 
quasi rege optimo et innocentissimo crudeliter sublato. 
" An Solomon," inquit, " meliorrex Carolo primo fuit?" 
Sunt, ut verum fatear, qui patrem ejus Jacobum cum 
Solomone comparare non dubitarunt, et natalibus 
quidem anteferre. Solomon Davidis filius; is primo 
Saulis musicus erat; Jacobus Darlii comitis filius, qui 
Davidem musicum, reginae uxoris thalamos nocte in- 
gressum,cumostiopessulumobdidissedeprehendit,haud 
multo post interfecit, ut narrat Buchanan us. Natali- 
bus ergo illustrior Jacobus, et secundus Solomon saepe 
dictus, quamvis Davidis musici filius an fuerit dubium 
sit. At Carolum conferre cum Solomone qui tibi in 
mentem venire potuerit non video. Quern enim tu 
Carolum tot laudibus tollis, ejus pervicaciam, avari- 
tiam, crudelitatem, et saevum in omnes pios atque bo- 
nos dominatum, ejus bella, incendia, rapinas, et mise- 
rorum civium caedes innumeras, dum haec scribo, Caro- 
lus ipse filius in ilia publicae poenitentiae sedecula apud 
Scotos coram populo confitetur atque deplorat : immo 
tuum illud regium jus ejurat. Veriim si parallelis tau- 
topere delectaris, Carolum cum Solomone conferamus. 
Solomon a meritissimo "fratris" supplicio " regnuni 
auspicatus est:" Carolus a patris funere ; non dico a 
nece, quamvis indicia veneni omnia in corpore patris 
mortui conspecta sint ; ista enim suspicio in Bucching- 
hamio constitit ; quem tamen Carolus, et regis inter- 



664 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



fectorem et sui patris, non solum in comitiis omni culpa 
exemit, sed, ue omnino res ea senatus cognitioni subji- 
eeretur, comitia dissolvit. Solomon " gravissimis tribu- 
tis populum pressit:" ut ille in templum Dei et aedifi- 
cia publica impendit, Carol us in luxum. Solomon a 
plurimis uxoribus ad idolorum cultum pellectus est, hie 
ab una. Pellectus in fraudem Solomon, pellexisse alios 
non legitur; hie alios, non solum uberrimis corruptee 
ecclesia? praemiis pellexit, sed etiam edictis et canoni- 
bus ecclesiasticis coegit, ut invisa reformatis omnibus 
altaria statuerent, et pictos in pariete crucifixos altari- 
bus imminentes adorarent. At non est ideo " Solomon a 
populo capitis damnatus." Nee inde, inquam, sequitur 
damnari a populo non debuisse ; multa enim incidere 
potuerunt, cur id turn expedire populo non videretur. 
Populns certe quid sui juris esset haud multo post et 
verbis et factis patefecit : cum Solomonis filium decern 
tribus expulerunt; et nisi mature se in fugam conje- 
cisset, etiam lapidibus regem tantummodo minacem 
obruturos fuisse credibile est. 



CAPUT III, 

Cum satis jam disputatum atque conclusum sit, re- 
ges Mosaicos, ex praescripto Dei, omnibus obstrictos 
legibus pariter cum populo fuisse, nullas legum excep- 
tiones perscriptas inveniri, ut reges " quod vellent, 
impune possent," aut ut " a populo puniri ne possint; 
Deum" proinde " vindictam de his tribunali suo reser- 
vasse" falsissimum esse, sine authore, sine ratione dic- 
tum, videamus an id suadeat evangelium, quod dis- 
suasit lex, non imperavit: videamus an evangelium, 
divinum illud libertatis preecouium, nos in servitu- 
tem addicat regibus et tyrannis, quorum ab impotenti 
imperio etiam servitutis cujusdam magistra lex vetus 
populum Dei liberavit. Prim urn argumentum ducis a 
persona Christi, quern quis nescit non privati solum, sed 
etiam scrvi personam ideo sumpsisse, ut nos liberi esse- 
mus. Neque hoc de interna tantum libertate intelligen- 
dum est, non de civili; quam enim aliena sunt ista quae 
Maria, mater Christi, ejus in aventu cecinit, " superbos 
dissipavit cogitatione cordis ipsorum, detraxat dynastas 
e thronis, humiles evexit," si adventus ejus tyrannos po- 
tius in solio stabiliret, Cbristianos omnes eorum saevis- 
simo imperio subjiceret. Ipse sub tyrannis nascendo,ser- 
viendo, patiendo, omnem honestam libertatem nobis ac- 
quisivit : ut posse servitutem, si necesse est, aequo animo 
pati, sic posse ad libertatem honeste aspirare non ab- 
slulit Christus, sed majorem in modum dedit. Hiuc 
Paulus, 1 Cor. vii. non de evangelica solum, sed de 
civili libertate, sic statuit : " Servus vocatus es ? ne sit 
tibi curaj ; sin autcm potes liber fieri, potius utere ; 
pretio empti estis, ne estote servi hominum." Frustra 
igitur ab excmplo Christi ad servitutem nos hortaris, 
qui Base servitutis pretio libertatem nobis etiam civilem 
confinnavit. Et formam quidem servi nostra vice sus- 
cepit, animum vero liberatoris nunquam non retinuit : 
undejas region] quid sit, longe alitor docuisse osten- 
'lam, atque tu doccs; qui non regii, sed tyrannici juris, 



idque in republica novus professor, siqua gens tyran- 
num sive haereditarium, sive adventitium, sive fortui- 
tum, sortita erit, earn non solum necessitate, sed etiam 
religione, servam esse statuis. Tuis autem, ut soleo, 
in te utar testimoniis. Interrogavit Petrum Christus, 
ctim ab eo coactores quidam Galilcei didrachma exige- 
bant, Mat. xvii. a quibus acciperent reges terras tributa, 
sive censum, a filiis suis, an ab alienis ? respondet ei 
Petrus, ab alienis. Ergo, inquit Christus, " liberi sunt 
filii; sed ne offendamus illos, da iis pro me et pro te." 
Varie hie locus interpretes exercet, cuinam persolve- 
rentur haec didrachma, alii sacerdotibus in sanctuarium, 
alii Caesari : ego quidern Herocli persoluta, interverso 
sanctuarii reditu, sentio fuisse. Varia enim ab Herode 
et filiis ejus exacta tributa, ab Agrippa tandem remissa, 
narrat Joseph us. Hoc autem tributum per se exiguum, 
multis aliis adjunctum, grave erat: gravia autem fue- 
rint oportet de quibus hie Christus loquitur, alioqui, in 
republica etiam, pauperes capite censi fuerunt. Hinc 
itaque Christus Herodis injustitiam arguendi, cujus 
sub ditione erat, occasionem cepit. Qui, cum caeteri 
reges terras (siquidem patriae parentes dici se cupiant) 
non filiis, id est, civibus suis, sed alienis, bello nempe 
subactis, graviora tributa imperare soleant, hie contra 
non alienos, sed filios opprimeret. Utcunque sit, sive 
filios hie, cives regum proprios, sive filios Dei, id est, 
fideles et in universum Christianos intelligi concedas, 
ut intelligit Augustinus, certissimum est, si filius fuit 
Petrus, et proinde liber, nos etiam authore Christo 
liberos esse : vel ut cives, vel ut Christianos : non esse 
ergo juris regii a filiis et liberis tributa graviora exi- 
gere. Testatur enim Christus persolvisse se, non quod 
deberet, sed ne illos ofFendenclo qui exigebant negoiium 
sibi privatus exhiberet: cum officium ac munus lon- 
gissime diversum in illo vitas suae curriculo explendum 
sibi esset. Dum igitur negat Christus jus regium esse, 
graviora vectigalia liberis imponere, certe spoliare, 
diripere, occidere, excruciare proprios cives, et praeser- 
tim Christianos, jus esse regium multo evidentius 
negat. Hunc in modum de jure regio cum et alias 
disputasse videatur, venire in suspicionem quibusdam 
ccepit, non se tyrannorum licentiam pro jure regio ha- 
bere. Non enim de nihilo erat, quod Phariseei interro- 
gatione hujusmodi animum ejus tentarent, quod de 
jure regio percontaturi, eum neminem curare, non re- 
spicere personam hominum, dixeriut; neque de nihilo, 
quod is proposita sibi istiusmodi questione irasceretur, 
Mat. xxii. An te quispiam si insidiose aggredi, si lo- 
quentem captare vellet, si elicere ex te quod fraudi 
futurum tibi sit, de jure regio sub rege interrogaret ? 
an tu cuipiam de istoc interroganti irascerere ? non 
opinor. Vel hinc ergo perspicias, non id eum de jure 
regio sensisse quod regibus gratum erat. Idem ex re- 
sponso ejus apertissime colligitur, quo ille percontatores 
amandare a se potius quam docere videtur. Poseit 
numisma census; " Cujus," inquit, " imago ista est? 
Caesaris. Reddite ergo Caesari quae sunt Caesaris, quae 
Dei sunt Deo." Immo quae populi sunt populo red- 
denda esse quis nescit? Reddite omnibus quod debetis, 
inquit Paulus, Rom. xiii. non ergo Caesari omnia. 
Libertas nostra non Coesaris, vcrum ab ipso Deo natale 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



665 



nobis donum est; earn Caesari cuivus redclere, quam 
ab eo non accepimus, turpissimum esset, et humana 
origine indignissimum. Si enim os hominis et vul- 
tnm aspiciens interrogaret quisquam, cujus ista imago 
esset, annon facile quivis responderet Dei esse ? Cum 
igitur Dei simus, id est, vere liberi, ob eamque causam 
soli Deo reddendi, profecto Caesari nos, id est, homini, 
et praesertim injusto, improbo, tyranno, in servitutem 
tradere, sine piaculo, et quidem maximo sacrilegio non 
possumus. Interim quae Caesaris sint, quae Dei, in 
medio relinquit. Quod si idem erat hoc numisma, quod 
didracbmum illud Deo pendi solitum, ut certe postea 
sub Vespasiano fuit, turn sane controversiam non mi- 
nuit Christus, sed implicavit: cum impossibile sit Deo 
et Caesari idem simul reddere. At enim ostendit quae 
Cessans essent; numisma nempe illud Caesaris imagine 
signatum. Quid igitur inde lucraris prater denarium 
vel Ceesari vel tibi ? Aut enim Ceesari Christus praeter 
denarium illud nihil dedit, csetera omnia nobis asseruit, 
aut si quicquid pecuniae Caesaris nomine inscriptum 
esset, id Caesari dedit, contrarius jam sibi, nostra fere 
omnia Caesari dabit, qui duo modo didrachma regibus 
non se ex debito persolvere, et suo et Petri nomine 
professus est. Ratio denique infirma est qua niteris; 
non enim principis effigiem habet moneta, ut principis 
esse, sed ut probam se esse, moneat; atque se principis 
nomine insignitam ne quis audeat adulterare. Sin 
autem ad jus regium inscriptio tantum valerat, reges 
profecto nostras omnium facultates, uti essent suae, 
sola nominis inscriptione statim perficerent ; aut si 
nostra omnia jam sua sunt, quod tuum dogma est, 
non idcirco Caesari numisma illud reddendum erat, 
quia Caesaris nomen aut imaginem praetulit, sed quia 
Caesaris jam antea jure erat, nulla licet imagine sig- 
natum. Ex quo manifestum est, Christum hoc in 
loco non tam nos officii nostri erga reges aut Cas- 
sares ita perplexe atque ambigue admonere voluisse, 
quam Pharisaeos hypocritas improbitatis et militiae ar- 
guere. Quid ? rursus cum ei nuntiarent Pharisaei He- 
rodem ejus vitae insidias parare, an humile aut demis- 
sum ab eo responsum, tyranuo reddendum, tulerunt ? 
Immo " ite," inquit, " et dicite vulpi illi;" inuuens 
reges non jure regio, sed vulpino, civibus suis insidiari. 
Atqui " sub tjranno supplicium mortis subire sustinuit." 



Enimvero qui potuit nisi sub tyranno 



ippli 



sub tyranno passus est;" ergo ad injustissima quaevis 
juris regii testis et assertor: egregius tu quidem offi- 
ciorum ratiocinator es. Verum Christus quamvis nostri 
liberaudi, non sub jugum mittendi, causa servum se 
fecerit, tamen ad hunc modum se gessit ; nee juri quic- 
quam regio praeter aequum et bonum concessit. Nunc 
ad praecepta ejus hac de re aliquando veniamus. Ze- 
bedaei filios maximam in regno Christi, quod mox in 
terris futurum somniabant, dignitatem affectantes, sic 
Christus corripuit, ut omnes simul Christianos com- 
monefaceret, quale jus magistratus et imperii civilis 
apud eos constitui voluerit. " Scitis," inquit, " prin- 
cipes gentium in eas dominari, et magnatus authorita- 
tem exercere in eas, verum non ita erit inter vos. Sed 
quicunque volet inter vos magnus fieri, esto vester 
minister; et quicunque volet inter vos primus esse, esto 



vester servus." Haec tu nisi mente captus tecum facere 
credidisses ? hisne te argumentis vincere, ut reges nos- 
tras rerum dominos existimemus ? Tales in bello hostes 
nobis contingant, qui in castra hostium (quanquam et 
armatos vincere sat scimus) uti tu soles, caeci atque in- 
ermes tanquam in suos incidant: ita semper, quod tibi 
maxime adversatur, id demens, veluti firmissimum 
causae tuae subsidium, comparare consuevisti. Petebant 
Israelites regem, " ut habebant omnes istae gentes:" 
dissuasit Deus multis verbis, quae Christus hie sum- 
matim complexus est, " scitis principes gentium in eas 
dominari : " petentibus tamen iis dedit regem Deus, 
quamvis iratus : Christus, ne petcret omuino Chris- 
tianus populus more gentium dominaturum, adhibita 
cautione antevertit; " inter vos non ita erit." Quid 
hoc clarius dici potuit ? non erit inter vos ista regum 
superba dominatio, tametsi specioso titulo euergetae et 
benefici vocentur; sed qui magnus inter vos fieri vult, 
(quis autem principe major ?) " esto vester minister :" 
et qui primus sive " princeps, (Luc. xxii.) esto vester 
servus." Non erravit itaque Advocatus ille quern in- 
sectaris, sed authorem habuit Christum, si regem Chris- 
tianum populi ministrum esse dixit, uti est certe* omnis 
bonus magistratus. Rex autem inter Christianos aut 
omnind non erit, aut erit servus omnium ; si plane vult 
esse dominus, esse simul Christianus non potest. Quin 
et Moses, legis quodammodo servilis institutor, non 
populo tamen superbe dominabatur, sed onus ipse 
populi ferebat; ferebat in sinu populum, ut nutricius 
lactantem ; Num. xi. Nutricius autem servus est. Plato 
non dominos, sed servatores et adjutores, populi appel- 
landos esse magistratus docuit; populum non servos, sed 
altores, magistratuum, ut qui alimenta et stipendia ma- 
gistratibus etiam regibus praebeant. Eosdem Aristoteles 
custodes et ministros legum vocat, Plato et ministros et 
servos. Ministros Dei Apostolus quidem appellat, quod 
tamen nequaquam obstat quo minus sint et legum et 
populi ; tam leges enim quam mag*istratus propter po- 
pulum sunt. Et tamen banc tu " Fanaticorum Angliae 
Molossorum opinionem" esse clamitas. Molossos esse 
Anglos certe non putarem, nisi quod tu illos, hybrida, 
latratu tam degeneri oblatras ; Lupi, si diis placet, 
Sancti Dominus : Lupus nimirum sanctus queritur 
Molossos esse fanaticos. Germanus olim, cujus ille 
Lupus Trecassinus collega fuit, incesto apud nos regi 
Vortigerno authoritate sua regnum abrogavit. Sanctus 
itaque Lupus talem te Lupi non sancti, sed famelici 
cujuspiam et latrunculi, dominum,illo apud Martialem 
viperarum domino viliorem, aspernatur : qui et latrau- 
tem ipse domi, ut ferunt, Lyciscam habes, quae tibi 
misere dominatur; cujus partim impulsu etiam scrip- 
sisse haec diceris ; unde mirum non est velle te regiam 
dominationem aliis obtrudere, qui foemineum ipse domi 
dominatum ferre tam serviliter assuevisti. Sis itaque 
Lupi Dominus, sit Lupa tui domina, sis Lupus ipse, sis 
Lycanthropus, molossis mehercule Anglicanis ludi- 
brium debes. Verum lupos venari nunc non est otium; 
sylvis itaque egressi, in viam regiam redeamus. Qui 
contra oinnem in ecclesia primatum nuper scripsisti, 
nunc " Petrum Apostolicae coronae principem appellas." 
Quis tibi authoritate tam fluxa homunculo fidem ha- 



666 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



beat ? Quid Petrus ? " subject! estote omni humanae 
ordinationi propter Dominum, sive regi ut superemi- 
nenti, sive praesidibus, ut qui per eum mittantur, ad 
ultiouem quidem facinorosorum, laudem vera benefa- 
eientium ; quoniam ita est voluntas Dei." Scripsit 
haec Petrus non solum privatis, sed etiam advenis per 
Minorem fere Asiam dispersis, atque dispalatis ; qui, 
in iis ubi degebant locis, nullius juris praeterquam hos- 
pitalis capaces erant. An tu incolas, liberos, nobiles, 
indigenarum conveutus, comitia, parlamenta idem in 
sua patria, quod sparsos et peregrinos in aliena, decere 
putas ? an idem privatos decere in sua, quod senatores 
et magistratus, sine quibus ne reges quidem esse pos- 
sunt? fac tamen indigenas fuisse, fac non privatos, sed 
senatum ipsum Romanum, cui haec scripta sunt. Quid 
inde assequeris? cum nullum praeceptum cui ratio 
aliqua adjuncta est, quenquam ultra illam prascepti 
rationem obligare aut soleat aut possit. " Estote sub- 
jecti, vTTOTayrjTe, id est, si vim verbi spectes, subordinati, 
seu legitime subjecti, ■>) yap tclIiq vofiog, inquit Aristo- 
teles; lex est ordo. " Subjecti estote propter Domi- 
num." Quamobrem ? quia cum rex, turn praeses, con- 
stituitur a Deo ad ultionem facinorosorum, laudem be- 
nefacientium. " Quoniam ita voluntas est Dei." Vi- 
delicet ut talibus obsequamur, quales hie describuntur ; 
de aliis nullum bic verbum. Vides quam optime hu- 
jus praecepti constet ratio; addit, v. 16. " ut liberi," 
non ergo ut mancipia. Quid si versa vice ad crucem 
et perniciem bonorum, ad impunitatem et laudem et 
proemia facinorosorum, regnent? an in perpetuum sub- 
jecti erimus non privati solum, sed primores, sed magis- 
tratus omnes, ipse deuique senatus ? Annon bumana 
ordiuatio dicitur ? cur ergo potestas humana, ad con- 
stituendum quod hominibus bonum et salubre est, va- 
lebit, ad tollendum quod iisdem malum et exitiosum 
est, non valebit? Atqui rex ille, cui subjecti esse ju- 
bentur, erat Romae ea tempestate Nero tyrannus ; ergo 
tyrannis etiam subjecti esse debemus. At, inquam, et 
dubiuni hoc est, Nero an Claudius tunc temporis rerum 
potiretur, et illi qui subjecti esse jubentur, advenae, 
dispersi, privati, non consules, non prsetores, non sena- 
tus Romanus, erant. Nunc Paulum adeamus (quoniam 
tu quod nobis de regibus licere non vis, id tibi de 
Apostolis licere autumas, ut principatum Petro modo 
des, modo eripias): Paul us haec ad Romanos, c. xiii. 
" omnis anima potcstatibus supereminentibus subjecta 
esto ; non est enim potestas nisi a Deo, quae autem 
sunt potestates a Deo sunt ordinatse :" Romanis haec 
scribit, non, ut Petrus, advenis, dispersis, sed pri- 
vatis tamen potissimum et plebeiis ; ita etiam scribit, 
ut totam reipub. administrandae rationem, originem, 
finem, luculentissime doceat. Quo magis obedientise 
quoque nostras vera ac distincta ratio, ab omni servi- 
tute disjuncta, eluceret. " Omnis anima," hoc est, 
qtrisqae homo, " subjectus esto." Quid sibi Apostolus 
proponat hoc capite satis explanavit Chrysostomus, 
TToili tovto ctiKvvg, &c. " facit hoc," inquit, " ut osten- 
dat Christum leges suas non ad hoc induxisse, ut com- 
manem politiam evertcret, sed ut in melius statucret." 
Non ergo ut Xeronem, aut tyrannum quemvis alium 
supra oninem legem et pamam constituendo, crude- 



lissimum unius imperium in omnes mortales consta- 
biliret. " Utque simul doceret superflua et inutilia 
bella non esse suscipienda," non ergo bella damnat 
contra tyrannum, hostem patriae intestinum, atque adeo 
periculosissimum, suscepta. " Pervulgatus tunc erat 
hominumsermotraducensApostolos tanquamseditiosos, 
et novatores, quasi omnia ad evertendum leges com- 
munes et facerent et dicerent ; his nunc ora obstruit." 
Non ergo tyrannorum defensiones conscripserunt 
Apostoli, quod tu facis, sed ea fecerunt, ea docuerunt, 
quae suspecta omnibus tyrannis defensione apud illos 
potius, et interpretatione quadam, eg-ebant. Propositum 
Apostolo quid fuerit ex Cbrysostomo vidimus; nunc 
verba scrutemur. " Omnis anima potestatibus super- 
eminentibus subjecta esto ;" quae tamen istae sint non 
statuit: non enim jura atque instituta omnium nation urn 
abolere, unius libidini omnia permittere, in animo erat. 
Certe optimus quisque imperator authoritatem legum 
et senatus authoritate sua longe superiorem semper 
agnovit. Idem apud omnes nationes non barbaras jus 
semper sanctissimum fuit. Unde Pindarus apud 
Herodotum, vo/xov 7rdvru)v f3aai\sa, legem omnium re- 
gem esse, dixit ; Orpheus in hymnis non mortalium 
solum, sed immortalium etiam, regem appellat; 

'AS'avaVwr icaXso) nal SrvriTtSv ayvbv avctKTa 
Ovpdviov vo/xov. 

Reddit rationem. Avrbg yap fiovog Z,6nov ovyKa tcparvvei, 
" Lex enim sola viventium g'ubernaculum tenet." Plato 
in legibus to /eparsV kv ry 7r6Xsi, id quod in civitate plu- 
rimum debet posse, legem esse ait. In epistolis earn 
maxime rempub. laudat, ubi lex, et domina et rex ho- 
minum, non homines tyranni legum sunt. Eadem 
Aristotelis sententia in Politicis, eadem Ciceronis in 
Legibus, ita leges praeesse magistratibus, ut magistra- 
tus praesunt populo. Cum itaque sapientissimorum 
virorum judicio, prudentissimarum civitatum institutis, 
lex semper potestas summa atque suprema habita sit, 
nee evaugelii doctrina cum ratione aut cum jure gen- 
tium pugnet, is utique potestatibus supereminentibus 
verissime subjectus erit, qui legibus, et magistratibus 
juxta leges rempub. g-ubernantibus, ex animo paret. 
Non ergo solum populo subjectionem banc, sed regibus 
etiam, praecipit; qui supra leges nequaquam sunt. 
" Non est enim potestas nisi a Deo ; id est, nulla reipub. 
forma, nulla homines regendi legitima ratio. Antiquis- 
simae etiam leges ad authorem Deum olim refereban- 
tur ; est enim lex, ut Cicero in Philipp. 12. nihil aliud 
nisi recta et a numine deorum tracta ratio, imperans 
honesta, prohibens contraria. A Deo igitur est magis- 
tratuum institution ut eorum administratione gens hu- 
mana sub legibus viveret : banc autem vel illam admi- 
nistrations formam, hos vel illos magistratus, eligendi 
optio proculdubio penes liberas hominum nationes sem- 
per fuit. Hinc Petrus et regem et presides dv9p(jJ7rivrjv 
Krimv, humanam creationem, vocat; et Hosea c. 8. 
" constituunt reges, at non ex me ; praeficiunt principes 
quos non agnosco." In ista enim sola Hebraeorum 
repub. ubi Deum variis modis consulere poterant, de 
regis no)ninatione ad Deum referri ex lege oportebat : 
cteterai gentes mandatum a Deo nullum istiusmodi 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



667 



accepimus. Aliquando aut ipsa regiminis forma, si 
vitiosa sit, aut illi qui potestatem obtinent, et ab homi- 
nibus, et a diabolo, sunt. Luc. 4. " Tibi dabo potesta- 
tem hanc omnem, nam mihi tradita est, et cui volo do 
illam." Hinc princeps hujus mundi dicitur, et Apoca- 
lyp. 13. dedit Bestiae Draco potentiam suam, et thro- 
num suum, et potestatem magnam. Propterea necesse 
est hie intellig-i non potestates quascunque, sed legiti- 
mas, prout etiam infra describuntur ; necesse est in- 
telligi potestates ipsas, non semper eos qui imperium 
obtinent. Hinc dilucide Chrysostomus, " Quid ais ?" 
inquit ; " omnis ergo princeps a Deo constitutus est ? 
non dico : non enim de quovis principe, sed de ipsa 
re, loquitur Apostolus ; non dicit, non est princeps nisi 
a Deo, sed non est potestas." Haec Chrysostomus. 
" Quae autem potestates sunt, a Deo sunt ordinatae." 
Legitimas ergo vult hie intellig-i Apostolus; malum 
enim et vitium, cum ataxia sit, non est ut possit ordi- 
nari, et esse simul vitiosum. Hoc enim duo simul con- 
traria ponit, taxin et ataxian. " Quae autem sunt," ita 
interpretaris ac si diceretur, " qua? nunc sunt ;" quo 
facilius probare possis etiam Neroni, qui, ut opinaris, 
tunc " imperavit," Romanos obtemperare debuisse ; 
nostra sane bona venia: quam enim voles de Anglicana 
repub. male sentias, in ea tamen Anglos acquiescere 
debere, quoniam " nunc est," et " a Deo ordinatur," ut 
Neronis olim imperium, necesse habebis concedere. 
Neque enim Nero minus quam Tiberius " artibus ma- 
tris imperium nihil ad se pertinens" occupaverat, ne 
legitime partum fuisse respondeas. Quo sceleratior et 
doctrinas retractator ipse tuae, Romanos potestati quae 
tunc fuit subjectos esse vis, Anglos potestati quae nunc 
est subjectos esse non vis. Verum nulla? in hoc orbe 
terrarum res duae magis e regione adversae sibi sunt, 
quam tu nequissimus nequissimo semper fere adversus 
es tibi. Quid autem facies miser ? acumine hoc tuo 
regem adolescentem plane perdidisti; ab ipsa enim 
tua sententia extorquebo ut fatearis, hanc potestatem 
in Anglia, quae nunc est, a Deo ordinatam esse ; atque 
omnes proinde Anglos intra ejusdem reipublicoe fines 
eidem potestati subjectos esse debere. Attendite igitur, 
critici, et manus abstinete; Salmasii nova haec emen- 
datio est, in epistola ad Romanos; non quae sunt 
potestates, " sed quae nunc existunt" reddi debere adin- 
venit ; ut Neroni tyranno tunc scilicet imperanti sub- 
jectos esse omnes oportuisse demonstraret. At 6 bone, 
XrjicxjOiov dirukevag : ut regem modo, ita nunc interpre- 
tamentum hoc tam bellum, perdidisti. Quam tu epis- 
tolam sub Nerone scriptam esse ais, sub Claudio scrip- 
ta est, principe simplici, et non malo : hoc viri docti 
certissimis argumentis compertum habent ; quinquen- 
nium etiam Neronis laudatissimum fuit, unde argu- 
mentum hoc toties inculcatum, quod multis in ore est, 
multis imposuit, tyranno parendum esse, eo quod Pau- 
lus hortatus est Romanos ut Neroni essent subjecti, 
callidum indocti cujuspiam commentum esse reperi- 
tur. " Qui obsistit potestati," scilicet legitimae, " Dei 
ordinationi obsistit." Astringit etiam reges praeceptum 
hoc, qui legibus et senatui obsistunt. At vero qui po- 
testati vitiosae, aut potestatis non vitiosae corruptori et 
eversori, obsistit, an is Dei ordinationi obsistit ? sanus, 



credo, non dixeris. Tollit omnem dubitationem sequens 
versiculus, de legitima tantum potestate Apostolum hie 
loqui. Definiendo enim explicat, nequis errare, et 
opiniones hinc stolidas aucupari, possit, qui sint magis- 
tratus potestatis hujus] ministri, et quam ob causam 
subjectos esse nos hortetur; " Magistratus non sunt 
timori bonis operibus, sed malis ; boni a potestate hac 
laudem adipiscentur; magistratus minister est Dei 
nostro bono datus ; non frustra gladium gerit, vindex 
ad iram ei qui malum facit." Quis negat, quis recusat, 
nisi improbus, quin hujusmodi potestati aut potestatis 
administro libens se subjiciat ? non solum ad vitandam 
" iram" et offensionem, aut poenae metu, sed etiam 
" propter conscientiam." Sine magistratibus enim et 
civili gubernatione, nulla respublica, nulla societas 
humana, nulla vita, esse potest. Quae autem potestas, 
qui magistratus, contraria his facit, neque ilia, neque 
hie, a Deo proprie ordinatus est. Unde neque tali vel 
potestati, vel magistratui, subjectio debetur aut prasci- 
pitur, neque nos prudenter obsistere prohibemur: non 
enim potestati, non magistratui, obsistemus, qui hie 
optime depingitur, sed praedoni, sed tyranno, sed hosti; 
qui si magistratus tamen dicendus erit, eo duntaxat 
quod habet potestatem, quod ad pcenam nostram ordi- 
nari a Deo videri potest, etiam diabolus hoc modo ma- 
gistratus erit. Sane unius rei una vera definitio est : 
si ergo Paulus hie magistratum definit, quod quidem 
accurate facit, eadem definitione, iisdem verbis tyran- 
num, rem maxime contrariam, definire non potuit. 
Unde quem ipse magistratum definivit atque descrip- 
sit, ei duntaxat subjectos nos esse voluisse, non ejus 
contrario tyranno, certissime colligitur. " Propter hoc 
tributa solvitis ;" ration em adjun git ad praeceptum; 
unde Chrysostomus, " Cur," inquit, " vectigalia regi 
damus ? annon tanquam nobis prospicienti, cime ac 
tuitionis mercedem solventes ? atqui nihil illi solvis- 
semus, nisi ab initio utilem nobis talem esse praefectu- 
ram cognovissemus." Quapropter illud repetam quod 
supra dixi ; quandoquidem subjectio haec non simpli- 
citer, sed cum adjuncta ratione, a nobis requiritur, ilia 
profecto ratio quae adjungitur, subjectionis nostrse vera 
norma erit: Cum ista ratione non subjecti, rebelles ; 
sine ista ratione subjecti, servi erimus et socordes. "At 
Angli," inquis, " nihil minus quam liberi, quia mali, 
quia flagitiosi." Nolo ego Gallorum vitia commemo- 
rare, quamvis sub regibus sint ; neque Anglorum ni- 
mis excusare ; dico tamen ilia esse flagitia, quae sub 
regibus, tanquam in iEgypto didicerunt ; neque dum 
in deserto ; licet Dei sub imperio, dediscere statim po- 
tuerunt. Spes est tamen de plerisque bona; ut ne 
sanctissimos hie optimosque viros et veritatis studiosis- 
simos collaudare incipiam ; quorum apud nos non mi- 
norem credo esse numerum, quam ubitu maximum esse 
existimas. At " jugum Anglis durum imponitur." Quid 
si illis, qui jugum caeteris civibus imponere studebant? 
quid si suo deinde merito subactis ? nam caeteri puto 
non moleste ferunt, exhausto civilibus bellis aerario, 
sumptibus propriis suam se tolerare libertatem. Re- 
labitur jam ad rabbinos nugivendos. Regem legibus 
astrictum esse negat, ex iis tamen probat " laesae ma- 
jestatis reum esse posse, si jus suum patiaturimminui:" 



66S 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



astrictus itaque et non astrictus, reus et non reus rex, 
erit : adeo frequenter enim solet repugnare sibi, ut ipsa 
repugnantia huic homini germ an a atque g-emella esse 
vidcatur. Atqui Deus, inquis, multa regna Nebu- 
chadnezzari in servitutem dedit. Fateor ad certum 
tempus dedisse, Jer. 27. 7. Anglos in servitutem Ca- 
role- Stuarto ad semihorulam dedisse ostende ; permi- 
sisse non uegaverim, dedisse nunquam audivi. Aut si 
Deus in servitutem dat populum, quoties tyrannus plus 
populo potest, cur non idem liberare dicendus erit, 
quoties plus potest populus tyranno ? an is Deo tyran- 
nidem suam, nos Deo libertatem nostram, acceptam 
non feremus? Non est malum in civitate quod Deus 
non immittat, Amos 3. famem,pestilentiam,seditionem, 
hostem ; ecquod nam horum civitas ab se non totis 
viribus amolietur? faciet profecto, si possit, quamvis ab 
ipso Deo immissa baec esse seiat ; nisi e coelo ipse secus 
jusserit. Cur non tyrannos pariter amovebit, si plus 
polleat? an ejus unius impotentiam ad commune ma- 
lum esse magis a Deo credemus, quam potentiam totius 
civitatis ad commune bonum ? Absit k civitatibus, ab- 
sit ab ornni ccetu bominum ingenuorum, doctrinos tarn 
stupidre, tamque pestiferoe, labes, quoe vitam omnem 
civilem funditus delet, gentem humanam universam, 
propter unum atque alterum tyrannum, ad quadrupe- 
dum prope conditionem detrudit : cum illi supra omnem 
legem excelsi par in utrunque genus et pecudum et 
hominum jus atque imperium obtinebunt. Mitto jam 
stulta ilia dilemmata, in quibus et te jactes, nescio quern 
fingis, " potestatem illam supereminentem de populo 
velle intellig'ere;" tametsi affinnare non dubito omnem 
magistrates authoritatem a populo proficisci. Hinc 
Cicero pro Flacco, " Illi nostri sapientissimi et sanctis- 
simi inajores, qute scisceret plebs, quae populusjuberet, 
juberi vetarique voluerunt." Hiuc Lucius Crassus, 
orator eximius, et senatus eo tempore princeps, cujus 
turn causam agebat ad populum. " Nolite," inquit, 
" sinere nos cuiquam servire, nisi vobis universis, qui- 
bus et possumus et debemus." Quamvis enim senatus 
populum rcgeret, populus tamen illam moderancli et 
rcgendi sui potestatem senatui tradiderat. Unde 
majestatem populo Romano frequentius quam regibus 
olim attributam lcgiums. Idem Marcus Tullius pro 
Plancio ; " Est enim conditio libcrorum populorum, 
pracipucque hujus principispopuli et omnium gentium 
domini, posse sufTYagiis vel dare vel detrabere quod 
relit cuique; nostrum est ferre modice populi volun- 
tatcs : bonores si magni non putemus, non servire 
populo; sin eos expetamus, non defatigari supplicaudo." 
Egone ut regem populi servum dicere metuam, cum 
senatus Romanus, tot rcgum dominus, servum se populi 
professus sit ? Vera sunt baec, inquics, in populari statu ; 
nondum enim lex regia potestatem populi in Augus- 
iiiiu, et successores ejus, transtulerat. Hem tibi ergo 
Tiberium illam, quem tu " tyrannum, plus vice sim- 
plici," f'uisse ai's, ut revera fuit; is tamen dominus, 
etiam post legem illam regiam, a])pcllatus a. quodam, 
ut tradit Suetonius, denuntiavit ne se amplius con- 
tumelifle causa nominarct. Audisne ? tyrannus iste 
domino* dici contumelise sibi duxit. Idem in senatu. 
M Dixi et nunc, et ssepe alias, patrcs conscripti, bonum 



et salutarem principem, quem vos tanta et tarn libera 
potestate instruxistis, senatui servire debere, et univer- 
sis civibus srepe, et plerunque etiam singulis ; neque 
id dixisse me poenitet ; et bonos et sequos et faventes 
vos babui dominos, et adbuc habeo." Nee simulata 
hsee ab eo si dixeris, ut erat simulandi callidissimus, 
quicquam proficies ; quis enim id videri se cupit, quod 
esse non debet ? Hinc ille mos non Neroni solum, 
quod scribit Tacitus, sed cseteris etiam imperatoribus 
fuit, populum in circo adorandi. De quo Claudianus, 
VI. " Cons. Honorii. 

O quantum populo secreti numinis addit 
Imperii preesens species, quantamque rependit 
Majestas alterna vicem, cum regia circi 
Connexum gradibus veneratur purpura vulgus, 
Consensuque cavae sublatus in Eethera vallis 
Plebis adoratee reboat fragor. " 

Qua adoratione quid aliud imperatores Romani,nisi uni- 
versam plebem, etiam post legem regiam, suos esse do- 
minos fatebantur? Atque illud est, quod initio statim 
suspicatussum,te glossariispervolutandis, et tricis qui- 
busdam laboriosis magnifice divulgandis, operam potius 
dedisse, quam bonis autboribus attente et studiose perle- 
gendis; qui veterum scriptorum sapientia neleviter qui- 
dem imbutus, rem praestantissimorum opinionibusphilo- 
sophorum, et prudentissimorum in republica principum, 
dictis celebratissimam, novam esse prorsus, et " enthu- 
siastarum" tantummodo " deliriis" somniatam, censes. 
I nunc, Martinum ilium sutorem, et Gulielmum Pel- 
lionem, quos adeo despicis, ignorantiae collegas et 
mystagogos tibi sume : quanquam erudire te poterunt 
illi, et illos tibi gryphos dissolvere stolidissimos, " An 
in democratia serviat populus, cum serviat rex in mo- 
narcbia; utrum totus an pars ejus?" Ita illi, cum tibi 
(Edipi vice fuerint, tu illis Sphinx in malam rem prae- 
ceps abeas licebit ; alioquin fatuitatum tuarum et aenig- 
matum finem nullum fore video. Rogas, " Cum reges 
Apostolus nominat, an de populo eos intelligemus ?" 
Pro regibus quidem orandum esse Paulus docet, 1 Tim. 
ii. 2. at prius pro populo orandum esse docuerat, " v. 1. 
Sunt tamen et de regibus, et de populo nonnulli, pro 
quibus orare etiam vetamur. Pro quo non orem, eumne 
ex lege non puniam ? quid vetat ? Atqui " cum haec 
scriberet Paulus, imperabant vel pessimi;" hoc etiam 
falsum est, scriptam enim sub Claudio et banc episto- 
lam fuisse ccrtissimis arg'umentis evincit Ludovicus 
Capcllus. De Ncrone cum mentionem facit Paulus, non 
regem, sed " leoncm," id est belluam immanem, vocat, 
cujus ex ore creptum se gaudet, 2 Tim. iv. Pro regibus 
itaque, non pro belluis, " orandum, ut vitam tranquil- 
lam et quietam transigamus, cum pietate " tamen 
" omni et bonestate." Vides non tarn regum hie quam 
tranquillitatis, pietatis, bonestatis, etiam rationem esse 
babendam. Quis autem populus non se suosque liberos 
tuendo (contra tyrannum an contra hostem nihil inte- 
rest) vitam " sollicitam, inquictam," bcllicosam, hones- 
tarn, agere, quam sub hoste vel tyranno, non solum 
aequo" sollicitam et inquictam, sed turpem etiam, ser- 
vilem, et inhonestam. Teipsum testcm adhibebo, non 
quo tanti sis, sed ut perspiciant omnes quam sis duplex, 
et fraudulentus, et mancipium regis mercenarium. 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



669 



" Quis," inquis, " non perferre mallet in repub. aristo- 
cratica ex optimatura aemulatione dissensiones oriri 
solitas, quam ex uno monarcha, tyrannico more im- 
perare consueto, certam miseriam ac perniciem ? Popu- 
lus Romanus praetulit statum ilium reipub. quantum- 
libet discordiis agitatae jugo Caesarunf intolerabili. 
Populus, qui vidandae seditionis causa monarchicum 
statum praeoptavit, ubi expertus est levius esse malum 
quod vitare voluit, ad priorasaepe redire expetit." Haec 
ct plura tua verba sunt in ilia de episcopis dissertatione, 
sub Walonis Messalini adscititio nomine edita, p. 412. 
contra Petavium Loiolitam, cum ipse magis Loiolita 
sis, et eo de grege pessimus. Quid hac de re Scriptura 
sacra statuerit, et vidimus et omni diligentia investi- 
gasse non poenitet : unde quid senserint patres antiqui 
per tot ingentia volumina exquirere pretium fortasse 
operae non erit. Si quid enim afferunt, quod Scriptura 
non exhibuit, eorum authoritatem, quantacunque sit, 
meritd repudiamus. Quod autem ex Irenaeo profers, 
" reges Dei j ussu constitui aptos his qui in illo tempore 
ab iis reguntur," cum Scriptura pugnat evidentissime. 
Cum enim judices ad regendum populum suura ap- 
tiores regibus esse palam significasset Deus, id tamen 
totum voluntati atque arbitrio populi permisit, ut ap- 
tiorem sibi sub optimatibus formam reipub. deteriore 
sub regibus, si vellent, permutarent. Legimus etiam 
saepe regem malum bono populo datum, et contra, re- 
gem bonum populo malo. Virorum itaque sapientis- 
simorum est perspicere quid populo aptissimum et uti- 
lissimum sit: constat enim neque omni populo, neque 
eidem semper, eundem reipub. statum convenire, sed 
vel hunc vel ilium, prout civium virtus et industria 
nunc augescit, nunc minuitur. Qui tamen potestatem 
adimit populo eligendi sibi quam velit reipub. formam, 
adimit profecto id in quo civilis libertas tota fere con- 
sistit. Citas deinde Justinum Martyrem, Antoninis 
imperatorum optimis obsequium deferentem; quisnam 
iis tarn egregiis et moderatis non detulisset ? " At 
quantd, inquis, nos hodie pejores Christiani? tulerunt 
illi principem diversae religionis." Privati scilicet, et 
viribus longe* inferiores. " Nunc sane pontificii regem 
non ferrent reformatum," nee " reformati pontificium." 
Facis tu quidem prudenter, ut ostendas te nee pontifi- 
cium esse, nee reformatum ; facis etiam liberaliter; ultrd 
enim largiris quod nunc non petivimus, omnes hodie 
Christianos inhocplane consentire, quod tu sojus insigni 
audacia atque scelere oppugnas, patrum etiam quos lau- 
das dissimillimus; illi enim pro Christianis, ad profanos 
reges, defensionis conscribebant, tu pro rege pontiflcio 
atque deterrimo contra Christianos et Reformatos. 
Multa deinde ex Athenagora, multa ex Tertulliano> 
futiliter depromis, quae ab ipsis Apostolis multo clarius 
et explanatius dicta jam sunt. Tertullianus autem 
longissime a te dissentit, qui regem vis esse dominum: 
quod tu aut nescivisti, aut nequiter dissimulasti. Is 
enim christianus ad imperatorem ethnicum in Apolo- 
getico ausus est scribere, non oportere imperatorem 
appellari dominum. "Augustus," inquit, " imperii for- 
mator, ne dominum quidem dici se volebat, hoc enim 
Dei est cognomen : dicam plane imperatorem domi- 
num ; sed quando non cogor ut dominum Dei vice di- 



cam : caeterum liber sum illi, Dominus meus Deus 
unus est," &c; et ibidem " qui pater patriae est, quo- 
modo dominus est?" Gratulare nunc tibi de Tertulli- 
ano, quem sane praestabat missum fecisse. "At parri- 
cidas appellat qui Domitianum interfecerunt.'' Recte 
appellat ; uxoris enim et famulorum insidiis, aParthe- 
nio, et Stephano interceptarum pecuniarum reo, est 
interfectus. Quod si senatus populusque Romanus 
hostem judicatum, ut Neronem prius judicabant, et ad 
supplicium queerebant, more majorum punivissent, eos 
parricidas appellaturum fuisse censes ? immo si ap- 
pellasset, dignus ipse supplicio fuisset; uti tu furca 
jam dignus es. Origeni responsum idem quadrabit 
quod Irenseo. Athanasius reges terrse ad humana tri- 
bunalia vocare nefarium esse dicit. Quis hoc dixit 
Athanasio ? verbum enim Dei nullum hie audio. Cre- 
dam itaque ego imperatoribus potius et regibus, de 
se falsum hoc esse fatentibus, quam Athanasio. Ad- 
fers deinde Ambrosium ex proconsule et catechumeno 
episcopum, verba ilia Davidis, " tibi soli peccavi," im- 
perite, ne dicam assentatorie, interpretantem. Volebat 
is omnes alios imperatori subjectos esse, ut imperato- 
rem ipse subjiceret sibi. Quam enim superbe, et fastu 
plusquam pontiflcio, Theodosium imperatorem Medio- 
lani tractaverit, ccedis Thessalonicensis reum ipse judi- 
caverit, ingressu ecclesiee prohibuerit, quam se deinde 
novitium et rudem evangelicse doctrinse ostenderit, 
omnibus notum est. Imperatorem ad pedes ejus pro- 
volutum excedere salutatorio jussit; sacris tandem 
restitutum, etpostquam obtulisset, altari adstantem his 
vocibus extra cancellos exegit. " O imperator, inte- 
riora loca tantum sacerdotibus sunt attributa, quae cas- 
teris contingere non licet." Doctorne hie evangelii, 
an Juda'icorum pontifex rituum fuit ? Hie tamen (quse 
omnium fere ecclesiasticorum artes sunt) imperatorem 
coeteris dominum imposuit, ut imperatoris ipse domi- 
nus esset. His itaque verbis Theodosium tanquam 
sibi subjectum repulit; " Coaequalium homiuum es 
imperator et conservorum ; unus enim omnium domi- 
nus rex et Creator." Belle profecto ; quam veritatem 
calliditas et assentatio episcoporum obscuravit, earn 
iracundia unius, et ut mollius dicam, zelus ineruditus, 
protulit in lucem. Ambrosii imperitire tuam subjungis 
ignorantiam aut haeresin, qui diserte negas "sub ve- 
teri foedere remissionem peccatorum per sanguinem 
Christi locum tunc habuisse, cum David Deo confite- 
batur ei soli se peccavisse." p. 68. Orthodoxi, non 
nisi per sanguinem agni mactati ab initio mundi, pec- 
cata unquam remissa fuisse credunt; te novum haere- 
ticum cujusnam discipulus sis nescio ; certe summi 
Theologi discipulus ille, quem exagitas, a, vero non 
aberravit, cum dixit potuisse quemvis e populo pari 
jure cum Davide Deum his verbis inclamasse, " tibi 
soli peccavi." Augustinum deinde ostentas; clericos 
Hipponenses nescio quos producis; nam Augustini 
quse sunt abs te allata nobis non obsunt. Quidni enim 
fateamur cum propheta Daniele, Deum tempora mu- 
tare, regna dare, et regna auferre, per homines tamen. 
Si regnum Deus solus Carolo dedit, idem Carolo abstu- 
lit, optimatibus et populo dedit. Si ea de causa praestan- 
dam Carolo obedientiam fuisse dicis, eandem nunc 



670 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



magistratibus nostris praestandam esse dicas necesse est. 
Nam Deura et nostris etiam magistratibus eandera de- 
disse potestatem, quam dat malis regibus u ad casti- 
ganda populi peccata," ipse concedis; nostros itaque 
a Deo pariter constitutos removcre a magistratu nemo, 
vel tuo judicio, nisi Deus potest. Atque ita, uti soles, 
tuura tibi ipse mucronem in temet vertis, tuus tibi 
ipse sicarius es; neque injuria, cum eo improbi- 
tatis et impudentiae processeris, eo stuporis et in- 
saniae, ut quos digito violaudos non esse tot argumen- 
ts probas, eosdem omnium suorum bello persequendos 
esse idem aftirmes. Ismaelem, Godoliae praefecti in- 
terfectorem, ab Hieronymo parricidam esse nomina- 
tum a'is, et merito; prsesidem enim Judaeae, virum bo- 
num, sine ulla causa interemit. Idem Hieronymus in 
Ecclesiasten, praeceptum illud Solomonis, " Os regis 
observa," cum praecepto Pauli concordare dixit; et 
laudaudus quidem, quod locum istum caeteris sui tem- 
poris moderatius exposuit. " Ad inferiora tempora post 
Augustinum non descendes, ut doctorum sententiam 
exquiras." Ut omnes tamen intelligant facilius mentiri 
te posse quam tacere, si quos adbuc haberes tuae sen- 
tential fautores, post unam statim period um non tem- 
peras tibi, quo minus ad Hispalensem Isidorum, Gre- 
gorium Turonensem Ottonem, Frinsingensem etiam in 
mediam barbariem, descendas. Quorum autboritas 
quam nullius apud nos pretii sit si modo scivisses, non 
hue eorum obscurum testimonium per mendacium ad- 
duxisses. Vultis scire cur ad haec tempora descendere 
non audet, cur abdit se, cur subito evanescit ? diram : 
quot sunt Ecclesiae Reformatae prasstantissimi doctores, 
tot videt acerrimos sibi adversarios fore. Faciat modo 
periculum, sentiet quam facile reluctantem, omnes in 
unum vires conferentem, Lutheris, Zuingliis, Calvinis, 
Buceris, Martyribus, Paraeis, in aciem eductis fundam 
atque obruam. Leidenses etiam tuos tibi opponam, 
quorum academia, quorum respub. florentissima, liber- 
tatis olim domicilium, isti denique literarum humani- 
orum fontes atque rivi, servilem illam aeruginem tuam, 
et innatam barbariem, eluere non potuerunt. Qui cum 
tbeologum ortbodoxum habeas neminem tibi faventem, 
quern tuo commodo nominare possis, omnium praesidio 
rcforrnatorum nudatus, confugere ad Sorbonam non 
erubescis : quod tu collegium doctrinae pontificiae ad- 
dictissimum nullius apud orthodoxos autboritatis esse 
non ignoras. Sorbonae igitur absorbendum tarn scele- 
ratum tyrannidis propugnatorem tradimus ; tarn vile 
mancipium nostrum esse nolumus; qui " populum 
universum regi ignavissimo parem esse" negat. Frus- 
tra id in papam deonerare atque transferre contendis, 
quod omnes liberae nationes, omnis religio, omnes 
ortbodozi, sibi summit, in se suscipiunt. Papa quidem 
earn episcopis suis, dum tenuis et nullarum virium 
f rat, tuee lmjus fcedissimae doctrinae author primus ex- 
titit: iis demiim artibus magnas opes, magnamque 
potf ntiaii), paulatim adeptus, tyrannorumipsemaximus 
< -\a>it. Quos tamen omnes sibi firmissime devinxit, 
ciim populis, quorum animos jamdiu superstitione op- 
presses tenuerat, suaderet, non posse regibus quamlibet 
p< Bdmis, nisi Be /idelitatis sacramentum solveute, im- 
perium abrogari. Verum tu scriptores orthodoxos de- 



vitas, et quae communis et notissima ipsorum sententia 
est, earn a papa introductam esse causatus, veritatem 
in invidiam rapere conaris. Quod nisi astute faceres, 
appareret te neque papanum esse neque reformatum, 
sed nescio quern semibarbarum Edomaeum Herodi- 
anum, qui tyrannum quemque immanissimum, tanquam 
Messiam coelo demissum, colas atque adores. " De- 
monstrate te" hoc dicis " ex doctrina patrum, pri- 
morum quatuor saeculorum, quae sola evangelica et 
Christiana censeri debet." Periit huic homini pudor ; 
quam multa sunt ab ilJis dicta atque scripta, quae Chris- 
tus et Apostoli neque docuerunt neque approbarunt ? 
quam multa in quibus reformati omnes a patribus dis- 
sentiunt? Quid autem ex patribus demonstravisti ? 
" reges etiam malos a Peo constitui." Fac esse con- 
stitutos, ut omnia etiam mala quodammodo a Deo con- 
stituuntur: " eos proinde Deum solum habere judicem, 
supra leges esse, nulla lege scripta, non scripta, naturali, 
neque divina, posse reos fieri a subditis, neque apud 
subditos suos." Quare ? certe nulla lex vetat, nulla 
reges excipit : ratio, et jus, et fas omne, animadverti in 
omnes qui peccant indiscriminatim jubet. Neque tu 
legem ullam scriptam, non scriptam, naturalem, aut 
divinam, protulisti quae vetaret. Cur ergo non in 
reges quoque animadvertendum ? " quia sunt etiam 
mali a Deo constituti." Nebulonem te magis an bar- 
dum et caudicemesse dicam ? nequissimus sis oportet, 
qui doctrinam perniciosissimam in vulgus disseminare 
audeas, stupidissimus, qui ratione tarn stolida maxime 
nitaris. Dixit Deus, Isaiae 54. " Ego creavi inter- 
fectorem ad perdendum;" ergo interfector supra leges 
est; excute haec, et pervolve quantum voles, parem 
utrobique consequentiam invenies. Nam et papa 
etiam eodem modo, quo tyrannus, a Deo est consti- 
tute, et ecclesiae in pcenam datus, quod supra ex 
scriptis etiam tuis ostendimus; tamen " quia in fas- 
tigium potestatis non ferendum, tyraunidi non ab- 
similis, primatum suum evexit, cum eum, turn episco- 
pos, meliori jure tollendos esse" affirmas " quam fuere 
constituti." Wal. Mes. p. 412. Papam et episcopos, 
quamvis ab irato Deo constitutos, ex ecclesia tollendos 
esse a'is, quia sunt tyranni ; tyrannos ex repub. tollen- 
dos esse negas quia sunt ab irato Deo constituti. Inepte 
prorsus et absurde : cum enim papa ipsam conscien- 
tiam, quae sola regnum ejus est, invito quoquam laedere 
non possit, eum, qui revera tyrannus esse non potest, 
quasi tyrannum gravissimum tollendum esse clamas; 
tyrannum autem verum, qui vitam et facultates nostras 
omnes in potestate sua habet, et sine quo papa in ec- 
clesia tyrannus esse nequit, eum in repub. omnino fe- 
rendum esse contendis. Haec tua sibi invicem collata 
tam imperitum te tamque puerilem sive falsi sive veri 
argutatorem produnt, ut levitas tua, inscitia, temeri- 
tas, incogitantia, neminem posthac latere queat. At 
ratio subest altera, " rerum vices inversae viderentur," 
quippe in melius; actum enim esset de rebus humanis, 
si quae res pessimo loco sunt, in eodem semper sta- 
rent : in melius inquam ; authoritas enim regia ad po- 
pulum rediret, ab cujus voluntate atque suffragiis pro- 
fecta primo, atque in unum ex suo numero derivata 
erat: potestas ab eo qui injuriam intulit, ad eum qui 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



671 



injuriam est passus, aequissima lege transiret; cum 
tertius nemo inter homines idoneus esse possit, alieni- 
genam enim judicare quis ferret? omnes aeque homines 
legibus tenerentur, quo nihil justius esse potest: deus 
mortalis nemo esset. Quern qui inter homines consti- 
tuit, non minus in rempub. scelestus est, quam in ec- 
clesiam. Tuis iterum in te armis utar. " Maximam 
haeresin esse" ais"qua crediturunum hominem in loco 
Christi sedere : duae has notse antichristum signant, 
infallibilitas in spiritualibus, et omnipotentia in tem- 
poralibus," Apparat. ad Primat. p. 171. An reges in- 
fallibiles? Cur ergo omnipotentes ? aut si hoc sunt, 
cur minus exitiales rebus civilibus quam papa spiritu- 
alibus ? An vero Deus res civiles prorsus non curat ? 
si non curat, certe nos curare non prohibet ; si curat, 
eandem in republica reformationem atque in ecclesia 
vult fieri ; prsesertim si infallibilitatem et omnipoten- 
tiam attributam homini easdem malorum omnium 
utrinque causas esse exploratum sit. Non enim in 
negotiis civilibus earn patientiam praecepit, ut saevissi- 
mum quemlibet tyrannum respublica ferret, ecclesia 
non ferret ; immo contrarium potius praecepit : et ec- 
clesiae quidem nulla arma pra&ter patientiam, innocen- 
tiam, preces, et disciplinam evangelicam, reliquit; 
reipublicae et magistratibus simul omnibus non pati- 
entiam, sed leges et gladium, injuriarum et violentiae 
vindicem, in manus tradidit. Unde hujus hominis 
perversum et praeposterum ingenium aut mirari subit 
aut ridere ; qui in ecclesia Helvidius est et Thraseas 
et plane tyrannicida ; in republica commune omnium 
tyrannorum mancipium et satelles. Cujus sententia si 
locum habeat, non nos solum rebellavimus, qui regem, 
sed reformati etiam omnes, qui papain dominum invitis 
regibus, rejecerunt. Jamdiu autem est quod suis ipse 
telis concisus jacet. Sic enim homo est, modo manus 
adversarii ne desit, ipse in se tela abunde suppeditat : 
nee quisquam ad refutandum se, aut irridendum, com- 
modiores ansas ministrat. Defessus etiam csedendo 
citius quis absedat, quam hie terga prsebendo. 



CAPUT IV. 

Magnam a regibus iniisse te gratiam, omnes prin- 
cipes et terrarum dominos demeruisse, defensione hac 
regia te forte putas, Salmasi, cum illi, si bona sua, 
remque suam, ex veritate potius quam ex adulationi- 
bus tuis vellent sestimare, neminem te pejus odisse, 
neminem a se longius abigere atque arcere, debeant. 
Durn enim regiam potestatem supra leges in immen- 
sum extollis, admones eadem opera omnes fere popu- 
los servitutis sua? nee opinatse ; eoque vehementius im- 
pellis ut veternum ilium, quo se esse liberes inaniter 
somniabant, repente excutiant; moniti abs te, quod 
non putabant, servos se esse regum. Eoque minus 
tolerandum sibi esse regium imperium existimabunt, 
quo magis tu iis persuasum reddideris tarn infinitam 
potestatem non sua patientia crevisse, sed ab initio ta- 
lem atque tantam ipso jure regio natam fuisse. Ita 



te, tuamque hanc defensionem, sive populo persuase- 
ris, sive non persuaseris, omnibus posthac regibus fu- 
nestam, exitialem, et execrabilem, fore necesse erit. 
Si enim populo persuaseris, jus regium omnipotens 
esse, regnum ampliusnon feret; si non persuaseris, non 
feret reges, dominationem tuam injustam pro jure 
usurpantes. Me si audiant, quibus integrum hoc est, 
seque circumscribi legibus patiantur, pro incerto, im- 
becillo, violento, imperio quod nunc habent, curarum 
atque formidinum pleno, firmissimum, pacatissimum, 
ac diuturnum, sibi conservabunt. Consilium hoc sibi, 
suisque regnis, adeo salutiferum si propter autborem 
contempserint, sciant non tarn esse meum, quam regis 
olim sapientissimi. Lycurgus enim Spartanorum rex, 
antiqua regum stirpe oriundus, cum propinquos videret 
sues Argis et Messense rerum potitos, regnum quemque 
suum in tyrannidem convertisse, sibique pariter suisque 
civitatibus exitio fuisse, ut patriae simul saluti consule- 
ret, et dignitatem in familia sua regiam quam diutissime 
conservaret, consortem imperii senatum, et ephororum 
potestatem in ipsum regem quasi censoriam, firma- 
mentum regno suo, indixit. Quo facto regnum suis 
nepotibus firmissimum in multa secula transmisit. Sive, 
ut alii volunt, Theopompi, qui centum amplius annis 
post Lycurgum Lacedaemone regnabat, ea moderatio 
fuit, ut popularem ephororum potestatem superiorem 
quam suam constitueret, eoque facto gloriatus est sta- 
bilivisse se regnum, multoque majus ac diuturnius filiis 
reliquisse ; exemplum profecto haud ignobile hodierni 
reges ad imitandum habuerint, eundem etiam consilii 
tutissimi authorem egregium. Majorem enim legibus 
dominum, ut perferrent homines hominem omnes 
unum, nulla lex unquam sanxit; ne potuit quidem 
sancire. Quae enim lex leges omnes evertit, ipsa lex 
esse non potest. Cum itaque eversorem te, et parrici- 
dam legum omnium, rejiciant ab se leges, exemplis 
redintegrare certamen, hoc capite, conaris. Faciamus 
itaque periculum in exemplis: ssepe enim, quod leges 
tacent, et tacendo tantiim innuunt, id exempla eviden- 
tius docent. Ab Judseis auspicabimur, voluntatis di- 
vinae consultissimis ; " postea ad Christianos" tecum 
" descendemus." Initium autem altius petitum ab eo 
tempore faciemus, quo Israelites, regibus quocunque 
modo subjecti,jugumillud servile cervicibus dejecerunt. 
Rex Moabitarum Eglon Israelitas bello subegerat ; 
sedem imperii inter ipsos Hierichunte posuerat : nu- 
minis contemptor non erat, facta enim Dei mentione, e 1 
solio surrexit : servierant Israelitas Egloni annos duo- 
deviginti ; non ut hosti, sed ut suo regi, munus mise- 
rant. Hunc tamen dum publice munerantur ut regem 
suum, interficiunt per insidias ut hostem. Verum 
Ehudes, qui interfecit, Dei monitu id fecisse creditur. 
Quid factum hujusmodi commendare magis potuit? 
Ad honesta enim quaeque et laudcabilia hortari solet 
Deus, non ad injusta, infida, truculenta. Expressum 
autem Dei mandatum habuisse nusquam legimus, 
" clamarunt filii Israelis ad Jehovam;" clamavimus et 
nos : excitavit iis Jehova servatorem; excitavit et no- 
bis. Ille ex vicino domesticus, ex hoste rex, factus 
erat ; noster ex rege hostis : non ergo rex erat ; nam 
neque civis ullo modo esse potest, qui reipublicae est 



672 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 




hostis; neque consul habebatur Antonius, neque Nero 
imperator, ex quo uterque hostis k senatu estjudicatus. 
Quod Cicero quarta Philippica de Antonio clarissime 
docet : " Si consul Antonius, Brutus hostis ; si conser- 
vator reipublicae Brutus, hostis Antonius. Quis ilium 
consulem, nisi latrones, putant?" Pari ego jure, quis 
tyrannum, inquam, regem, nisi hostes patriae, putant ? 
Fuerit itaque Eglon externus, fuerit noster domesticus 
necne, quandoquidem uterque hostis et tyrannus, pa- 
rum refert. Si ilium Ehudes jure trucidavit, nos nos- 
trum supplicio jure affeciinus. Quin et heros ille Samp- 
son, incusautibus etiam popularibus suis, (Jud. 15.) 
" An nesciebas Phelisthaeos dominium habere in nos ?" 
suis tamen dominis bellum solus intulit, neque unum sed 
multos simul patriae suae tyrannos, sive Dei, sive pro- 
priae virtutis instinctu, occidit ; conceptis prius ad Deum 
precibus ut auxilio sibi esset. Non impium ergo sed 
pium Sampsoni visum est, dominos, patriae tyrannos 
occidere; cum tamen pars major civium servitutem non 
detrectaret. At David, rex et propheta, noluit Saulem 
interimere " unctum Dei." Non quicquid noluit 
David, continuo nos obligat ut nolimus ; noluit David 
privatus ; id statim nolle synedrium, parlamentum, 
totum populum, necesse erit ? noluit inimicum dolo 
occidere, nolet ergo magistratus noxium lege punire ? 
noluit regem occidere, timebit ergo senatus tyrannum 
plectere ? religio erat illi unctum Dei interficere, an 
ergo religio erit populo unctum suum capitis damnare? 
praesertim qui unctionem illam, vel sacram vel civilem, 
totus cruore civium delibutus, tarn longa hostilitate 
aboleverat? Equidem reges, vel quos Deus per pro- 
phetas unxit, vel quos ad certum opus, sicuti olim Cy- 
rum, nominatim destinavit, Isa. 44. unctos Domini 
agnosco ; caeteros vel populi, vel militum, vel factionis 
tantummodo suae, unctos esse arbitror. Verum ut con- 
cedam tibi omnes reges esse unctos Domini ; esse ta- 
men idcirco supra leges, non esse ob scelera quaecunque 
puniendos, nunquam evinces. Quidenim? et sibi et 
privatis quibusdam interdixit David, ne extenderent 
mantis suas in unctum Domini. At regibus interdixit 
ipse Dominus, Psal. 105. ne attingerent unctos suos, 
id est, populum suum. Unctionem sui populi praetulit 
anctioni, siqua crat, rcgum. An ergo fideles punire, si 
quid contra leg-es commiserint, non licebit? Unctum 
Domini sacerdotem, Abiatharem, prope erat ut rex So- 
lomon morte multaret; neque illi, quod unctos Domini 
csset, pepercit, sed quod patris fuerat amicus. Si ergo 
summum sacerdotem, summum eundem in plerisque 
magistratum, unctio ilia Domini, et sacra et civilis, ex- 
imere supplicio non potuit, cur unctio tantum civilis ty- 
rannum eximeret? At " Saul quoque tyrannus erat, et 
morte dignus ;" esto : non inde enim sequetur, (lignum 
aut idoneum fuisse Davidem, qui sine populi authori- 
tate, autmagistratuum jussu, Saulem regem quocunque 
in loco iuterficcret. Itane vero Saul tyrannus erat? 
( tiiiaui diceres; quinimmo dicis; ciim tamen supra 
dixeris, cap. 2. pag. 32. " Tyrannum non fuisse, sed 
bonum et electum." Ecquid causae est nunc cur in 
foro qoadruplatoraut falsarius quispiam stigmate note- 
tur, tu eadem careas ignominiae nota ? cum meliori 
profecto fide sycophantari solcant illi, quam tu scribere, 



et res vel maximi momenti tractare. Saul igitur, si id 
ex usu est tuo, bonus erat rex ; sin id minus tibi ex- 
pedit, repente non rex bonus, sed tyrannus erit; quod 
certe mirum non est ; dum enim potentiae tyrannicae 
tam impudenter lenocinaris, quid aliud facis quam ex 
bonis regibus tyrannos omnes. At vero David, quam- 
vis regem socerum multis de causis, quae ad nos nihil 
attinent, interimere nollet, sui tamen tuendi causa co- 
pias comparare, Saulis urbes vel occupare vel insidere, 
non dubitavit ; et Cheilam oppidum contra Saulem etiam 
praesidio tenuisset, nisi oppidanos erga se male anima- 
tos cognovisset. Quid si Saul, urbe obsessa, scalis 
muro admotis, primus ascendere voluisset, an censes 
Davidem arma protinus abjecturum, suos omnes 
uncto hosti proditurum fuisse ? non existimo. Quidni 
enim fecisset quod nos fecimus, qui, rationum suarum 
necessitate coactus, Phelisthaeis patriae hostibus ope- 
rant prolixe suam pollicitus, id fecit contra Saulem, 
quod nos in nostrum tyrannum credo nunquam fe- 
cissemus? Pudet me, et jam diu pertaesum est, men- 
daciorum tuorum ; " Inimicis potius parcendum quam 
amicis," Anglorum esse dogma fingis ; " seque regi 
suo parcere non debuisse, quia amicus erat." Quis 
unquam hoc prius audivit, quam a te confictum esset, 
hominum mendacissime ? Verum ignoscimus : deerat 
nempe huic capiti praestantissimum illud et tritissimum 
orationis tuae pigmentum, jam quintd, et ante finem 
libri decies, ex loculis tuis et myrotheciis expromen- 
dum, " molossis suis ferociores." Non tam Angli suis 
molossis ferociores sunt, quam tu cane quovis rabido 
jejunior, qui ad illam, quam toties evomuisti, cramben 
duris ilibus identidem redire sustines. David denique 
Amalechitam interfici jussit, Saulis, ut simulavit ipse, 
interfectorem ; nulla hie neque facti neque personarum 
similitudo. Quod nisi David ad Phelisthaeos defecisse, 
et pars eorum exercitus fuisse visus, eo diligentius 
omnem a se suspicionem maturandae regi necis amovere 
studuit, non erat, meo quidem judicio, cur virum ilium 
tam male exciperet, qui moribundum jam regem, et 
aegre morientem, opportuno vulnere se confecisse 
nuntiavit. Quod idem factum in Domitiano, qui 
Epaphroditum similiter capite damnavit, eo quod 
Neronem in adipiscenda morte adjuvisset, ab omnibus 
reprehenditur. Nova deinde audacia quern tyrannum 
modo dixeras, et " malo spiritu agitatum," hunc non 
jam satis habes unctum Domini, sed " Christum Do- 
mini "vocare; adeo tibi vile Christi nomen videtur, ut 
illo tam sancto nomine vel daemoniacum tyrannum im- 
pertire non metuas. Venio nunc ad cxemplum illud, in 
quo, qui jus populi jure regis antiquius esse non videt, 
caecus sit oportet. Mortuo Solomone, populus de con- 
stituendo ejus filio Sechemi comitia habebat ; profectus 
est eo Roboamus candidatus, ne regnum tanquam haere- 
ditatem adire, ne populum liberura tanquam paternos 
boves possidere, videretur: proponit populus condi- 
tiones regni futuri; ad deliberandum rex triduum sibi 
dari postulat; consulit seniores; nihil illi de jure re- 
gio, sed ut populum obsequio et pollicitationibus con- 
ciliet sibi, suadent, penes quern erat, vel ilium creare 
regem vel praeterire. Consulit deinde aequales suos, 
sccum a pueris educatos; illi, Salmasiano quodam 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



673 



oestro perciti, nil praeter jus regium intonare, scuticas 
et scorpiones ut minitetur hortari. Horum ex consilio 
respondit Roboamus populo. Videns itaque totus 
Israel regem " non auscultasse sibi," suam protinus 
libertatem et populare jus liberis pal am vocibus testa- 
tur. " Quae nobis portio cum Davide ? ad tentoria tua, 
Israel; jam ipse videris de domo tua, David." Missum 
deinde a rege Adoramum lapidibus obruerunt ; exem- 
plum fortasse aliquod etiam in regem edituri, nisi 
maxima celeritate se in fugam contulisset. Parat in- 
gentem exercitum, quo in suam ditionem Israelitas re- 
digeret: probibet Deus ; " ne ascendite," inquit, " ne 
pugnate contra fratres vestros, filios Israelis, nam a me 
facta est res ista." Adverte jam animum ; populus an- 
tea regem volebat, displicuit id Deo; eorum tamen 
juri noluit intercedere : nunc populus Roboamum non 
vult regem, id Deus non solum penes populum esse 
sinit, sed regem eo nomine bella moventem vetat ac 
reprimit : nee ideo rebelles, sed nihilo minus fratres, 
eos qui desciverant appellandos esse docet. Collige te 
nunc jam ; sunt omnes, inquis, reges a Deo, ergo 
populus vel tjrannis resistere non debet. Vicissim 
ego, sunt, inquam, populi conventus, comitia, studia, 
suffragia, plebiscita pariter a Deo, teste hie ipso ; ergo 
et rex itidem resistere non debet populo, authore etiam 
eodem Deo. Quam enim certum est, esse hodie reges 
a Deo, quamque hoc valet ad imperandam populo obe- 
dientiam, tarn est certam esse a Deo etiam hodie libera 
populi concilia, tamque hoc valet vel ad cogendos in 
ordinem reges, vel ad rejiciendos ; neque magis prop- 
terea bellum populo inferre debebunt, quam debuit 
Roboamus. Quoeris cur ergo non defecerint Israelites 
a Solomone? quis praeter te tarn stulta interrogaret, 
cum defecisse constet impune a tyranno ? In tia 
quoedam lapsus est Solomon ; non idcirco statim ty- 
rannus : sua vitia magnis virtutibus, magnis de repub. 
meritis, compensabat: fac tyrannum fuisse; saepe est 
ut populus nolit tyrannum tollere, saepe est ut non 
possit: satis est sustulisse cum potuerit. At "factum 
Jeroboami semper improbatum fuit, et apostasia ejus 
detestata, successores ejus pro rebellibus semper habi- 
ti." Apostasiam ejus non a Roboamo, sed a, vero cultu 
Dei, reprehensam ssepius lego ; et successores quidem 
ejus saepe reprobos, rebelles nusquam, dictos memini. 
" Si quid fiat," inquis, "juri et legibus contrarium, ex 
eo jus fieri non potest." Quid quaeso turn fiet juri re- 
gio ? Sic tuus ipse perpetuo refutatores. " Quotidie," 
inquis, " adulteria, homicidia, furta, impune commit- 
tuntur." An nescis nunc te tibi respondere quaerenti 
cur toties tyrannis impune fuerit ? " Rebelles fuerunt 
isti reges, prophetae tamen populum ab eorum subjec- 
tione non abducebant." Cur ergo, sceleste, et pseudo- 
propheta, populum Anglicanum a, suis magistratibus, 
tuo sint licet judicio rebelles, abducere conaris? " Al- 
legat," inquis, " Anglicani latrocinii factio, se ad id 
scelus, quod tam nefarie suscepit, nescio qua voce cos- 
litus missa impulsos fuisse." Primum delirasse te cum 
haec scriberes plane video, neque mentis neque latini- 
tatis compotem satis fuisse : deinde Anglos hoc un- 
quam allegasse, de innumeris mendaciis et figmentis 
tuis est unum. Sed pergo exemplis tecum agere ; 



Libna, urbs validissima, ab Joramo rege defecit, quia 
dereliquerat Deum ; defecit ergo rex, non urbs ilia, 
neque defectione ista notatur; sed si adjectam ratio- 
nem spectes, approbari potiiis videtur. " In exemplum 
trahi non debent hujusmodi defectiones." Cur ergo 
tanta vaniloquentia pollicitus es, exemplis te nobiscum 
toto hoc capite decertaturum, cum exempla ipse nulla 
prseter meras negationes, quarum nulla vis est ad 
probandum, afferre possis : nos quae certa et solida at- 
tulimus, negas in exemplum trahi debere? Quis te 
hoc modo disputantem non explodat? Provocasti 
nos exemplis ; exempla protulimus ; quid tu ad haec ? 
tergiversaris, et diverticula quaeris ; pregredior itaque. 
Jehu regem a propheta jussus occidit, etiam Achaziam 
suum regem legitimum occidendum curavit. Si noluis- 
set Deus tyrannum interimi a cive, si impium hoc, si 
mali exempli fuisset, cur jussit fieri ? si jussit, certe lici- 
tum, laudabile, praeclarum fuit. Non tamen tyrannum 
perimi, quia Deus jussit, idcirco bonum erat et licitum, 
sed quia bonum et licitum erat, idcirco Deus jussit. Jam 
septem annos regnantem Athaliam Jehoiada sacerdos 
regno pellereettrucidarenon estveritus. "Atregnum," 
inquis, " non sibi debitum sumpserat." Annon Tibe- 
rius multo postea " imperium ad se nihil pertinens?" 
illi tamen, et id genus tyrannis aliis, ex doctrina Christi 
obediendum esse supra, amrmabas : ridiculum plane 
esset, si potestatem regiam non rite adeptum interficere 
liceret, pessime gerentem non liceret. At per leges reg- 
nare non potuit utpote fcemina, " constitues autem supra 
te regem," non re gin am. Hoc si sic abibit, constitues, 
inquam, super te regem, non tyrannum. Pares ergo 
jam sumus. Amaziam regem ignavum et idololatrum 
non conjurati quidam, sed principes et populus, quod 
verisimiliusest,morteaffecerunt: nam fugientem Hiero- 
solymis, et adjutum a, nemine, Lachisum usque perse- 
cuti sunt. Hoc consilium iniisse dicuntur " ex quo is 
Deum" deseruerat, neque ullam ab Azaria filio de 
morte patris quaestionem habitam fuisse legimus. Mul- 
tum rursus nugaris ex rabbinis, ut regem Judaicum 
supra synedrium constituas ; ipsa regis verba Zedechiae 
non attendis, Jer. 38. " Non is est rex, qui possit con- 
tra vos quicquam." Sic principes alloquitur ; fassus se 
plane suo senatu inferiorem ; " Fortasse," inquis, " ni- 
hil negare illis ausus metu seditionis." At tuum illud 
" fortasse" quanti quaeso est, cujus asseveratio firmis- 
sima non est pili ? quid enim te levius, quid inconstan- 
tius, quid instabilius ? quoties te varium et versicolorem, 
quoties tibimet discordem, dissidentem a temetipso, et 
discrepantem, offendimus? Rursus comparationes in- 
stituis Caroli cum bonis Judoeae regibus. Davidem 
imprimis quasi contemnendum aliquem nominas ; 
" Sume tibi Davidem," inquis, " adulterii simul et ho- 
micidii reum ; nihil tale in Carolo. Solomon ejus 
filius qui sapiens audiit vulgo." Quis non indignetur 
maximorum et sanctissimorum virorum nomina ab im- 
purissimo nebulone et vappa hunc in modum jactari? 
Tune Carolum cum Davide, regem et prophetam reli- 
giosissimum cum superstitioso et Christianae doctrinae 
vix initiate, sapientissimum cum stolido, fortissimum 
cum imbelli, justissimum cum iniquissimo, conferre sus- 
tinuisti? castimoniam tu ejus et contineutiam laudes, 



674 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



quem cuni Duce Bucchingamio flagitiis omnibus co- 
opertum novimus? secretiora ejus et recessus perscru- 
tari quid attiuet, qui in theatro medias mulieres petu- 
lanter amplecti, et suaviari, qui virginum et matrona- 
rum papillas, ne dicam caetera, pertractare in propatulo, 
consueverat ? Te porro moneo, Pseudoplutarche, ut 
istiusmodi parallelis iueptissimis dehinc supersedeas, 
ne ego quae tacerem alioqui libens de Carolo, necesse 
Jbabeam enuntiare. Contra tyrannos quid tentatum a 
populo aut peractura fuerit, et quo jure, per ea tempora 
quibus ipse Deus Hebraeorum rempub. suo nutu ac 
verbo quasi praesens regebat, hactenus liquet. Quae 
sequuntur aetates non nos sua authoritate ducunt, sed, 
ad majorum suorum normam et rationem omnia diri- 
gentes, imitatione sua nostram tantummodo confirmant. 
Ciim itaque Deus post captivitatem Babylonicam nul- 
lum iis de repub. mandatum dedisset novum, quamvis 
regia soboles extincta non esset, ad antiquam et Mo- 
sa'icam reipub. form am reverterunt. Antiocbo Syriae 
regi, cui erant vectigales, ejusque praesidibus, quod is 
vetita imperaret, per Maccabaeos pontifices restiterunt; 
seque armis in libertatem vindicarunt ; dignissimo 
deinde cuique principatum dederunt : donee Hyrcanus 
Simonis Judae Maccabaei fratris filius, expilato Davidis 
sepulcro, militem externum alere, et regiam quandam 
potestatem adjicere sacerdotio, coepit ; unde filius ejus 
Aristobulus diadema sibi primus imposuit. Nihil in 
eum populus quamvis tyrannum movit aut molitus est; 
neque mirum, annum tantummodo regnantem. Ipse 
etiam morbo gravissimo correptus, et suorum facinorum 
poenitentia ductus, mortem sibi optare non destitit, donee 
inter ea vota expiravit. Ejus frater Alexander proxi- 
mus regnabat. " Contra bunc," a'is, " neminem in- 
surrexisse," tyrannus cum esset. O te secure menda- 
cem, si periisset Joseph us, restaret tantum Josippus 
tuus, ex quo pharisaeorum quaedam nullius usus apo- 
phthegmata depromis. Res itaque sic se habet; Alex- 
ander, cum et domi et militiae rempub. male adminis- 
traret, quamvis magna Pisidarum et Cilicum manu 
conductitia se tutaretur, populum tamen cohibere non 
potuit, quin ipsum etiam sacrificantem, utpote indig- 
num eo munere, thyrsis palmeis et citreis pene obrue- 
ret ; exinde per sexennium gentis fere totius gravi 
bello petitus est; in quo Judaeorum multa millia cum 
occidisset, et pacis tandem cupidus interrogaret eos 
quid vellent a se fieri, responderunt uno ore omnes, 
ut moreretur ; vix etiam mortuo se veniam daturos. 
Hanc historian), tibi incommodissimam, quoquo modo 
avertere ut posses, fraudi tuae turpissimae pharisa'icas 
quasdam sententiolas obtendisti; cum exemplum hoc 
aut omnino praetermisisse, aut rem, sicuti gesta erat, 
fideliter narrasse, debuisses, nisi veterator et lucifugus 
mendaciis longe plus quam causae confideres. Quin- 
etiam Pharisaei illi octingenti, quos in crucem tolli 
jussit, ex eorum numero erant, qui contra ipsum arma 
ceperant: quique omnes ciim caeteris una voce testati 
sunt, se rcgem morte affecturos fuisse, si bello victus in 
suam potestatem venisset. Post maritum Alexandrum 
Alexandra regnum capessit; ut olim Athalia, non le- 
gitime, nam rcgnare foeminam leges non sinebant, quod 
ipse modo fassus es, sed partim vi, (extraneorum enim 



exercitum ducebat,) partim gratia; nam Pharisaeos, 
qui apud vulgus plurimum poterant, sibi conciliaverat 
hac lege, ut nomen imperii penes illam, imperium ipsum 
penes illos, foret. Haud aliter atque apud nos nuper 
Scoti presbyteri nomen Regis Carolo concesserunt, ea 
mercede ut regnum sibi reservare possent. Post Alex- 
andras obitum, Hyrcanus et Aristobulus ejus filii de 
regno contendunt; hie, viribus et industria potior, fra- 
trem natu majorem regno pellit. Pompeio deinde in 
Syriam a Mithridatico bello divertente, Judaei nactos 
se jam aequissimum libertatis suae arbitrum Pompeium 
rati, legationem pro se mittunt ; fratribus utrisque re- 
gibus renuntiant ; ad servitutem se ab iis adductos 
queruntur ; Pompeius Aristobulum regno privavit ; 
Hyrcano pontificatum reliquit, et principatum more 
patrio legitimum ; exinde pontifex et ethnarcha dictus 
est. Iterum sub Archelao Herodis filio Judaei, missis 
ad Augustum Caesarem quinquaginta legatis, et He- 
rodem mortuum et Archelaum graviter accusarunt ; 
regnum huic pro sua virili parte abrogarunt, Caesarem 
orant ut populum Juda'icum sine regibus esse permit- 
teret. Quorum Caesar precibus aliquantum permotus, 
non regem eum, sed ethnarcham duntaxat, constituit. 
Ejus anno decimo, rursus eum populus per legatos ad 
Caesarem tyrannidis accusat ; quibus Caesar benigne 
auditis, Romam accersitum, et judicio damnatum, Vi- 
ennam in exilium misit. Jam mihi velim respondeas; 
qui suos reges accusatos, qui damnatos, qui punitos 
volebant, annon ipsi, si potestas facta, si optio data sibi 
esset, annon ipsi, inquam, judicio damuassent, ipsi 
supplicio affecissent ? Jam in Romanos praesides, avare 
et crudeliter provinciam administrantes, populum et 
primores etiam saepius arma sumpsisse non negas ; 
causas more tuo stultissimas affingis, " nondum jugo 
erant assueti ;" sub Alexandro scilicet, Herode, ejusque 
flliis. At C. Caesari, et Petronio " bellum inferre" 
noluerunt. Prudenter illi quidem, non poterant. Vis 
ipsorum audire verba ? Troktfiuv fxev ov (3s\6fisvoi did to 
Urid' av hvvaaOai. Quod ipsi fatentur imbecillitatis esse 
suae, hoc tu hypocrita ad religionem refers. Magno 
dein molimine prorsus nihil agis, dum ex patribus 
probas, quod et antea tamen pari oscitatione feceras, 
pro regibus orandum esse. Nam pro bonis quis negat ? 
pro malis quoad spes est; pro latronibus etiam et pro 
hostibus ; non ut agros depopulentur, aut nos occisione 
occidant, sed ut resipiscant. Oramus pro utrisque ; 
illos tamen legibus, hos armis, vindicare quis vetat ? 
" Liturgias ^Egyptiacas" nil moror; sacerdos autem 
ille qui orabat, uti a'is, ut " Commodus patri succede- 
ret," meo quidem judicio non orabat, sed Romano im- 
perii) pessima imprecatus est. " Fidem," a'is, " fre- 
gisse nos, de authoritate et majestate regis conservanda 
solenni conventione non semel interpositam." Expecto 
te fusius ista de re infra, illic te rursus conveniam. 
Rcdis ad patrum commentationes, de quibus hoc sum- 
matim accipe; Quicquid illi dixerint, neque ex libris 
sacris, aut ratione aliqua satis idonea confirmaverint, 
perinde mihi erit, ac si quis alius e vulgo dixisset. 
Primum adfers Tertullianum, scriptorem haud ortho- 
doxum, multis erroribus notatum, ut si tecum sen- 
tiret, pro nihilo tamen hoc esset. Quid autem ille ? 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



675 



daranat tumultus, damnat rebelliones; damnamus et 
nos, neque hinc statim de jure omni populorum, de 
privileges, et snatus consultis, de potestate magis- 
tratuum omnium caeterorum praeterquam unius regis, 
praejudicatum esse volumus : loquuntur isti de se- 
ditionibus temere conflatis, et multitudinis insania, 
non de magistratibus, non de senatu, aut parla- 
mento ad legitima arma populum contra tyrannos 
convocante. Unde Ambrosius quern citas, " Non re- 
pugn are, fl ere, gemere, haec sunt munimenta sacerdotis; 
et quis est qui potest vel unus vel inter paucos dicere 
imperatori, Lex tuamibi non probatur? non permittitur 
hoc dicere sacerdotibus; permitteturla'icis?" Vides jam 
plane de quibus bic loquatur de sacerdotibus, de laicis 
privatis, non de magistratibus: vides quam infirmata- 
men etpraeposteraratione usus,dissentioni inter laicoset 
sacerdotes,delegibus etiam civilibus,postmodum futures 
facem praetulit. Sed quoniam primorum Cbristianorum 
exemplis urgeri nos maxime,et redargui, putas,quod illi 
omnibus modis vexati "bellum in Caesares non move- 
rent," ostendam primo non potuisse, deinde quoties pote- 
rant movisse, postremo etiamsi cum possent non movis- 
sent, non esse tamen caeteroquidignos, quorum ex vita 
et moribus, tantis in rebus, exempla sumamus. Primum 
ignorare hoc nemo potest, ex quo Romana respublica 
nulla fuit, omnes imperii vires rerumque summam ad 
unum Caesarem rediisse; omnes legiones sub uno Cae- 
sare stipendia meruisse : adeo ut senatus ad unum 
omnis, totus ordo equester, plebs universa, si novis re- 
bus studuisset, poterant se quidem internecioni obje- 
cisse, ad libertatem tamen recuperandam nihil prorsus 
effecissent; nam imperatorem si forte sustulissent, im- 
perium tamen mansisset. Jam vero Christiani, innu- 
meri licet, at sparsi, inermes, plebeii et plerunque 
infimi, quid potuerunt ? quantam eorum multitudinem 
una legio in officio facile continuisset ? Quod magni 
saepe duces cum interitu suo, et veteranorum exerci- 
tuum deletione, incassum tentarunt, isti e plebecula 
fere homuli posse se ad exitum perducere sperarent? 
cum annis a Christo nato prope trecentis, ante Con- 
stantinum plus minus viginti, imperante Diocletiano, 
sola Tbebaea legio Christiana esset; eoque ipso no- 
mine a reliquo exercitu in Gallia, ad Octodurum oppi- 
dum, caesa est. " Cum Cassio, cum Albino, cum Ni- 
gro" non conjurarunt: idne illis gratiae vult apponi 
Tertullianus, quod sanguinem pro infidelibus non pro- 
fuderunt ? Constat igitur Christianos ab imperato- 
rum imperio liberare se non potuisse : cum aliis con- 
jurare non Christianis nequaquam sibi expedivisse, 
quamdiu imperatores ethnici regnabant. Bellum au- 
tem tyrannis postea intulisse Christianos aut armis se 
defendisse, aut tyrannorum facta nefaria saepe ultos 
esse, nunc ostendam. Primus omnium Constantinus, 
jamChristianus, consortem imperii Licinium, Orienta- 
libus Christianis gravem,bello sustulit; quo facto illud 
simul declaravit, posse a magistratu in magistratum 
animadverti ; cum is Licinium pari jure secum reg- 
nantem, subditorum ejus causa, supplicio affecerit, nee 
Deo soli poenam reliquerit : poterat enim Licinius 
Constantinum, si Constantinus populum sibi attribu- 
tum iis modis oppressisset, eodem supplicio affecisse. 
2 x 



Postquam igitur a Deo ad homines redacta res est, 
quod Licinio Constantinus erat, cur non idem Carolo 
senatus? Constantinum enim milites, senatum jura 
constituent regibus parem, immo superiorem. Con- 
stantio imperatori Ariano Byzantini, quoad poterant, 
armis restiterunt; missum cum militibus Hermoge- 
nem, ad pellendum ecclesia Paulum orthodoxum epis- 
copum, facto impetu repulerunt, et inceusis aedibus, 
quo se receperat, semiustum et laniatum interfecerunt. 
Constans fratri Constantio bellum minatur, ni Paulo 
et Athanasio episcopis sedes suas restituat; videsne ut 
istos sanctissimos patres, de episcopatu cum agitur, 
bellum fraternum in regem suum concitare non pu- 
duit? Haud multo post Christiani milites, qui tunc 
temporis quos volebant imperatores creabant, Constan- 
tem Constantini filium, dissolute et superbe regnan- 
tem, interfecerunt, translato ad Magnentium imperio. 
Quid? qui Julianum nondum apostatam, sed pium et 
strenuum, invito Constantio imperatore suo, imperato- 
rem salutarunt, annon ex illis Christianis fuerunt, 
quos tu exemplo nobis proponis ? Quod factum Con- 
stantius cum suis Uteris ad populum recitatis acriter 
prohiberet, clamarunt omnes, fecisse se ut provincialis, 
et miles, et reipublicae authoritas, decreverat. Iidem 
bellum Constantio indixerunt, et, quantum in se erat, 
imperio ac vita spoliarunt. Quid Antiocheni, homines 
apprime Christiani? orarunt, credo, pro Juliano jam 
apostata, quern palam adire, et convitiis proscindere, 
solebant, cujus barbam illudentes promissam, funes ex 
ea conficere jubebant. Cujus morte audita, supplica- 
tiones, epulas, et laetitiam, publice indixerunt, ejus 
pro vita et incolumitate preces fudisse censes? Quid ? 
quod eundem etiam a. Christiano commilitone interfec- 
tum esse ferunt. Sozomenus certe scriptor ecclesiasticus 
non negat; immo, siquis ita fecisset, laudat. ov yap 

CLTTHKOQ TIVO. tS)V TOTS ^paTiVO^lVWV , &C. " Noil est 

mirum," inquit, " aliquem ex militibus hoc secum co- 
gitasse; non Graecos solum, sed omnes homines ad banc 
usque aptatem tyrannicidas laudare solitos esse, qui 
pro omnium libertate mortem oppetere non dubitant; 
nee temere quis hunc militem reprehendat, Dei et reli- 
gionis causa tam strenuum." Haec Sozomenus, ejus- 
dem aetatis scriptor, vir bonus et sanctus ; ex quo, quid 
reliqui ea tempestate viri boni hac de re senserint, fa- 
cile perspicimus. Ipse Ambrosius ab imperatore Valen- 
tiniano minore jussus urbe Mediolano excedete, parere 
noluit, sed circumseptus armato populo se, atque basili- 
cam suam, contra regios prasfectos armis defendit ; et 
summae potestati resistere, contra quam docuit ipse, est 
ausus. Constantinopoli haud semel, propter exilium 
Chrysostomi, contra Arcadium imperatorem seditio 
maxima commota est. In tyrannos igitur quid antiqui 
Christiani fecerint, non milites solum, sed populus, sed 
ipsi patres, vel resistendo, vel gerendo bellum, vel con- 
citando, usque ad Augustini tempora, quoniam tibi 
ulterius progredi non libet, breviter exposui. Valen- 
tinianum enim Placidiae filium interfectum a Maximo 
patricio, ob stuprum uxori ejus lllatum, taceo: Avitum 
etiam imperatorem, dimissis militibus suis, luxuria 
diffluentem a senatu Romano confestim exutum impe- 
rio non memoro : quia annos aliquot post Augustini 



676 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



obitum ista acciderunt. Veriim dono tibi hoc omne, tu 
nihil horum exposuisse me finge, paruerint per omnia 
suis regibus veteres Chvistiani, quicquara contra tyran- 
nos ne fecerint, aut fecisse voluerint, non esse tamen eos 
quorum authoritate niti debeamus, aut a quibus exem- 
pla petere salutariter possimus; quod superest, nunc 
docebo. Jamdiu ante Constantinum populus Chris- 
tianus multum de primaeva ilia sanctimonia et since- 
ritate cum doctrinae turn morum deperdiderat. Post- 
quam immensis opibus ditata ab eo ecclesia honores, 
dominatum, et potentiam civilem, adamare ccepit, sta- 
tim omnia in praeceps ruere. Primo luxus et segnities, 
errorum deinde omnium et vitiorum caterva, veluti so- 
lutis aliunde carceribus, in ecclesiam immigravit ; hinc 
invidentia, odium, discordia, passim redundabat; tan- 
dem baud mitius inter se charissimo religionis vinculo 
fratres quam hostes acerrimi dissidebant ; nullus pudor, 
nulla officii ratio, restabat; milites, et copiarum prse- 
fecti, quoties ipsis visum erat, nunc imperatores novos 
creabant, nunc bonos pariter ac malos necabant. Quid 
Vetranniones et Maximos, quid Eugenios, a militibus 
ad imperium subitd evectos, quid Gratianum optimum 
priucipem, quid Valentiniauum minorem non pessimum, 
occisos ab iis, commemorem ? Militum haec quidem 
facinora et castrensium, sed tamen Christianorum illius 
aetatis, quam tu maxime evangelicam et imitandam 
esse a'is. Jain ergo de ecclesiasticis pauca accipe : pas- 
tores et episcopi, et nonnunquam illi, quos admiramur, 
patres, sui quisque gregis ductores, de episcopatu non 
secus quam de tyrannide certabant: nunc per urbem, 
nunc in ipsa ecclesia, ad ipsum altare, sacerdotes et la'ici 
promiscue digladiabantur ; ceedes faciebant, strages 
utrinque magnas nonnunquam ediderunt. Damasi et 
Ursicini, qui cum Ambrosio floruerunt, potest memi- 
nisse. Longum esset Bjzantinos, Antiochenos, et 
Alexandrinos, illos tumultus, sub Cyrillo praesertim, 
quem tu laudas obediential praedicatorem, duce ac pa- 
tre; occiso paene a monachis, in illo urbico praelio, 
Oreste Theodosii praefecto. Jam tua quis vel impu- 
dentia vel supinitate non obstupescat ? " Usque ad 
Augustinum," inquis, " et infra ejus setatem, nulla cu- 
jusquam privati aut prasfecti, aut plurium conjuratorum 
cxtat in historiis mentio, qui regem suum necaverint, 
aut contra eum armis pugnarint:" nominavi ego ex 
historiis notissimis et privatos, et proceres, qui non 
malos tantiim, scd vel optimos reges, sua manu truci- 
daverint; totos Christianorum cxercitus, multos cum 
iis episcopos, qui contra suos imperatores pugnaverint. 
Adfers patres, obedicutiam erga regem, multis verbis 
aut suadentes aut ostentantes ; adfero ego partim 
cosdem, partim alios patres haud paucioribus factis 
obedientiam, etiam licitis in rebus, detrectantes, armis 
se contra impcratorem defendentes, alios prresidibus 
• jus vim et vulnera inferentes, alios, episcopatus com- 
pctitorcs, civilibus prteliis inter se dimicantes; scilicet 
de episcopatu Christianos cum Christianis, cives cum 
embus, confligerc fas erat, de libcrtate, dc liberis et 
conjugibus, de vita, cum tyranno, nefas. Quem non 
poeniteat hujosmodi patrum? Augustinuminducis "de 
potestate domini in servos, et regis in subditos" idem 
pronuntiaiitem ; rcspondeo, ista si dicat Augustinus, ca 



dicere, quae neque Christus, neque ejus Apostoli, un- 
quam dixerunt; cum eorum tamen sola authoritate rem 
alioqui apertissime falsam commendare videatur. Qua? 
supersunt hujus capitis tres vel quatuor paginae, aut 
mera esse mendacia, aut oscitationes identidem repe- 
titas, ex iis quae a nobis responsa jam sunt, per se 
quisque deprehendet. Nam ad papam quod attinet, in 
quem multa gratis peroras, facile te patior ad ravim 
usque declamitare. Quod tamen ad captandos rerum 
imperitos tam prolixe adstruis, " regibus, sive justis 
sive tyrannis, subjectum fuisse omnem Christianum, 
donee potestas papae regali major agnosci coepta est, et 
subjectos sacramento fidelitatis liberavit," id esse fal- 
sissimum plurimis exemplis" et usque ad Augustinum, 
et infra ejus aetatem," prolatis demonstravimus. Sed 
neque illud, quod postremo dicis, " Zachariam pon- 
tificem Gallos juramento fidelitatis absolvisse," multo 
verius esse videtur. Negat Franciscus Hotomanus, et 
Gallus, et jurisconsultus, et vir doctissimus, in Franco- 
gallia sua, cap. 13, abdicatum authoritate papae Chil- 
pericum, aut regnum Pipino delatum ; sed in magno 
gentis concilio pro sua pristina authoritate transactum 
fuisse id omne negotium, ex annalibus Francorum 
vetustissimis probat. Solvi deinde illo sacramento 
Gallos omnino opus fuisse, negant ipsa Gallorum 
monumenta, negat ipse papa Zacharias. Monumentis 
enim Francorum traditur, teste non solum Hotomano, 
sed Girardo historiarum illius gentis notissimo scrip- 
tore, veteres Francos ut eligendi, sic abdicandi, si vide- 
retur, suos reges jus sibi omne antiquitus reservasse ; 
neque aliud sacramentum regibus, quos creabant, dicere 
consuevisse, quam se illis hoc pacto fidem et officium 
praestituros, si vicissim illi, quod eodem tempore jurati 
etiam spondent, praestiterint. Si ergo reges, rempub- 
licam sibi commissam male gerendo, fidem jusjurandi 
fregerint priores, nil opus est papa, ipsi sua perfidia 
populum sacramento solverunt. Papa denique Zacha- 
rias, quam tu authoritatem sibi a'is arrogasse, earn in 
epistola ilia ad Francos abs te citata ipse sibi derogavit, 
populo attribuit. Nam " si princeps populo, cujus 
beneficio regnum possidet, obnoxius est, si plebs regem 
constituit, et destituere potest," quae ipsius verba sunt 
papae, verisimile non est voluisse Francos de antiquo 
jure suo, ullo postmodum jurejurando, prayudicium 
facere ; aut unquam ita sese obstrinxisse, quin semper 
sibi liccret, quod majoribus suis licuit, reges bonos 
quidem colere, malos amovere ; nee earn praestare 
fidem tyrannis, quam bonis regibus dare sese arbitrati 
sunt. Tali obstrictum juramento populum, vel tyran- 
nus ex rege factus, vel ignavia corruptus, suo ipse per- 
jurio solvit, solvit ipsa justitia, solvit naturae lex ipsa : 
unde pontifex quod solveret, etiam ipsius pontificis 
judicio nihil prorsus erat. 



CAPUT V. 

Quanquam in ea sum opinione, Salmasi, semperque 
fui, legem Dei cum lege naturae optime consentire, 
adeoque, si satis ostendi quid divina lege sit de regibus 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



677 



statutum, quid a populo Dei factum et Judaico et 
Ohristiano, ostendisse me, eodem tempore eademque 
opera, quid legi naturali maxime consentaneum sit; 
tamen quia " confutari nos lege naturae validissime 
nunc posse " arbitraris, quod supervacuum esse modo 
existimabam, id nunc ultro necessarium fatebor ; ut 
contra te hoc capite planum faciam, nihil congruentius 
naturae etiam legibus esse, quam tyrannos plecti. Id 
nisi evincam, non recuso quin, Dei quoque legibus pu- 
nirinon posse, e vestigio tibi concedam. Non est con- 
silium de naturajam, deque origine civilis vitae, long-am 
orationem contexere ; istud enim argumentum viri di- 
sertissimi cum Graeci, turn Latini, copiose pertractarunt; 
ipse et brevitati, quantum licet, studeo, et huic rei do 
operam, ut non tarn ego, qui labori huic parcissem 
libens, sed tute te redarguas, teque subvertas. Ab eo 
igitur quod ipse ponis incipiam, et disputationis hujus 
futures fundamenta jaciam. " Lex," inquis, " naturae 
est ratio omnium hominum mentibus insita, bonum 
respiciens universorum populorum, quatenus homines 
inter se societate gaudent. Bonum illud commune 
non potest procurare, nisi etiam, ut sunt quos regi 
necesse est, disponat quoque qui regere debeant." 
Ne scilicet, ut quisque fortior est, debiliorem opprimat; 
atque itaquos mutua salus ac defensio unum in locum 
congregaverat, vis atque injuria distrahat, et ad vitam 
agrestem redire cog'at. Estne hoc quod volebas, etsi 
verbosius ? " Ex ipsorum" itaque " numero qui in 
unum convenere, deligi" a'is " oportuisse quosdam sa- 
pientia aut fortitudine caeteris praestantes, qui vel vi 
vel persuadendo male morigeros in officio continerent; 
saepe unum id praestare potuisse, cujus excellens sit 
virtus et prudentia ; interdum plures, qui mutuis con- 
siliis id faciant. Caeterum cum unus omnia providere 
et administrare non possit, necesse est ut consilia cum 
pluribus participet, et in societatem regiminis alios 
admittat. Ita sive ad unum revocetur imperium, sive 
ad universum redeat populum, quia nee omnes simul 
rempub. gubernare possunt, nee unus omnia, ideo re- 
vera penes plures semper regimen consistit." Et in- 
fra. " Tpsa autem regendi ratio, sive per plures, sive 
per pauciores, sive per unum, dispensetur, aeque na- 
turalis est, cum ex naturae ejusdem principiis descen- 
dat, quee non patitur ita unius singularitatem guber- 
nare, ut non alios socios imperandi habeat." Hae cum 
ex Aristotelis tertio politicorum decerpsisse potueram, 
malui abs te decerpta trauscribere, quae tu Aristoteli, 
ut ignem Jovi Prometheus, ad eversionem monarcha- 
rum, et perniciem ipsius tuam, surripuisti. Jam enim 
prolatam a temetipso naturae legem excute quantum 
voles; nullum juri regio, prout tu jus illud explicas, 
in natura locum, nullum ejus vestigium, prorsus inve- 
nies. " Lex," inquis, " naturae, cum disponeret qui 
regere alios deberent, universorum populorum bonum 
respexit." Non igitur unius, non monarchae. Est 
itaque rex propter populum : populus ergo rege potior 
et superior; superior cum sit et potior populus, nullum 
jus regis existere potest, quo populum is affligat, aut in 
servitute habeat, inferior superiorem. Jus male faci- 
endi cum sit regi nullum, manet jus populi natura 
supremum ; ut quo jure homines consilia et vires mu- 



tuae defensionis gratia, ante reges creatos, primo con- 
sociavere, quo jure ad communem omnium salutem, 
pacem, libertatem, conservandam unum vel plures 
caeteris praefecerunt, eodem jure, quos propter virtutem 
et prudentiam caeteris praeposuerant, possent eosdem 
aut quoscunque alios rempub. male gerentes, propter 
ignaviam, stultitiam, improbitatem, perfidiam, vel 
coercere vel abdicare : cum natura non unius vel pau- 
corum imperium, sed universorum salutem, respexerit 
semper et respiciat. Jam vero populus quosnam dele- 
git ? " sapientia" inquis " aut fortitudine caeteris prae- 
stantes," nempe qui natura maxime regno idonei visi 
sunt, " cujus excellens virtus, et prudentia praestare id" 
muneris "potuit." Jus igitur successionis natura nul- 
lum, nullus natura rex, nisi qui sapientia et fortitudine 
caeteris omnibus praecellit : caeteri vel vi, vel factione, 
contra naturam reges sunt, cum servi potius esse debe- 
rent. Dat enim natura sapientissimo cuique in minus 
sapientes imperium, non viro malo in bonos, non sto- 
lido in sapientes : his igitur imperium qui abrogant, 
omnino convenienter naturae faciunt. Cui fini sapien- 
tissimum quemque natura constituat regem, ex temet- 
ipso audi ; ut vel naturae vel legibus " male morigeros 
in officio contineat." Continere autem in officio po- 
testne is alios, officium qui negligit, aut nescit, aut 
pervertit, ipse suum ? Cedo jam quod vis naturae prae- 
ceptum, quo jubeamur instituta naturae sapientissima 
in rebus publicis et civilibus non observare, non cu- 
rare, pro nihilo habere, cum ipsa in rebus naturalibus 
et inanimatis, ne suo fine frustretur, saepissime res 
magnas atque miras efficere soleat. Ostende ullam 
vel naturae vel naturalis justitiae regulam, qua opor- 
teat reos minores puniri, reges et malorum omnium 
principes impunitos esse, immo inter maxima flagitia 
coli, adorari, et Deo proximos haberi. Concedis " ip- 
sam regendi rationem, sive per plures, sive per pau- 
ciores, sive per unum, dispensetur, aeque naturalem 
esse." Non est ergo rex vel optimatibus vel populi 
magistratibus natura sanctior, quos cum punire posse 
ac debere, si peccant, supra sis largitus, idem de regi- 
bus, eidem fini ac bono constitutis, fateare necesse est. 
" Non" enim "patitur natura," inquis, " ita unius sin- 
gularitatem gubernare, ut non alios socios imperandi 
habeat." Minime ergo patitur monarcham, minime 
unum ita imperare, ut caeteros omnes sui unius im- 
perii servos habeat. Socios autem imperandi qui 
tribuis regi, " penes quos semper regimen consistat" 
das eidem collegas, et aequales ; addis qui punire, addis 
qui abdicare possint. Ita, uti semper facis, dum po- 
testatem regiam non jam exauges, sed tantummo- 
do natura constituis, aboles : adeo ut nihil putem 
inauspicatius accidere regibus potuisse, quam te de- 
fensorem. O infelicem ac miserum ! quae te mentis 
caligo in hanc impulit fraudem, ut latentem antehac 
diu, et quasi personatum, improbitatem atque inscitiam 
tuam nunc tanto conatu insciens nudares ipse, et om- 
nibus patefaceres : tuoquemet opprobrio operam ipse 
tuam locares, tuo ipse ludibriotam gnaviter inservires? 
Quae te ira numinis quasve poenas luentem, in lucem 
et ora hominum ev.ocavit, ut tanto apparatu causam 
teterrimam impudentissime simul et stolidissime de- 



678 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



fenderes, atque ita defendendo invitus, perque inscitiam, 
proderes ? Quis te pejus perditum vellet, quis miseri- 
orem ? cui jam sola imprudentia, sola vaecovdia, saluti 
esse potest, ne sis miserrimus, si tyrannos, quorum 
causam suscepisti, imperita ac stulta defensione tantd 
niagis invisos ac detestabiles omnibus, contra quam 
sperabas, reddideris, quanto iis majorem malefaciendi 
et impune dominandi licentiam de industria attribueris; 
eoque plures eorundem hostes inconsulto excitaveris. 
Sed redeo ad tua tecum dissidia. Cum tantum in te 
scelus admiseris, ut tyrannidem natura fun dare studeas, 
prae coeteris gubernandi rationibus monarchiam primo 
laudandam tibi esse vidisti; id, uti soles, incceptare 
sine repug*nantia nequis. Cum enim modo dixeras, 
*' ipsam regendi rationem, sive per plures, sive per 
pauciores,sive per unum, aeque naturalem esse," statim 
" earn, quae per unum exercetur, ex his tribus, magis 
naturalem esse" ais, immo qui etiam recens dixeras, 
" non patitur natura unius singularitatem gubernantis." 
Jam tyrannorum necem objice cui voles, qui et mon- 
arcbas omnes, et monarchiam ipsam, tua fatuitate 
jugulasti. Verum quae sit melior administrandi rem- 
pub. ratio, per unum an per plures, non est nunc dis- 
serendi locus. Et monarchiam quidem multi celebres 
viri laudarunt, si tamen is, qui solus regnat, vir om- 
nium optimus, et regno dignissimus, sit ; id nisi con- 
tiugat, nihil monarchia proclivius in earn tyrannidem, 
quoe pessima est, labitur. Jam quod ad unius " exem- 
plar Dei expressam esse " dicis, quis potentiam divinae 
similem in terris obtinere dignus est, nisi qui, caetero- 
rum omnium longe praestantissimus, etiam bonitate ac 
sapientia est Deo simillimus ; is autem solus, mea qui- 
dem sententia, expectatus ille Dei Alius est. Quod 
regnum in familiam rursus contrudis, ut patrifamilias 
regem assimiles, pater certe suae familiae regnum me- 
retur, quam omnem vel generavit, vel alit : in rege 
nihil est hujusmodi, sed plane contra sunt omnia- 
Animalia deinde nobis gregalia, imprimis " aves," et 
in iis " apes," siquidem te physiologo aves istae sunt, 
imitandas proponis. " Apes regem habent." Triden- 
tinae scilicet, annon meministi ? caeterarum, te teste, 
" respub. est." Verum tu desine de apibus fatuari ; 
musarum sunt, oderunt te scarabaeum, et, ut vides, re- 
darguunt. " Coturnices sub ortygometra." Istos 
onocrolalis tuistcnde laqueos; nos tarn stolido aucupio 
non capimur. Atqui jam tua res agitur, non nostra. 
" Gallus gallinaceus," inquis, " tarn maribus quam 
foeminis imperitat." Qui potest hoc fieri ? Cum tu 
ipse gallus, et, ut ferunt, vel nimium gallinaceus, non 
tuae galliiue, sed ilia tibi imperitet, et in te regnum ex- 
erceat: si gallinaceus ergo plurium fceminarum rex est, 
tu gallinse mancipium tuos, non gallinaceum te, sed 
stercorarium quendam esse gallum,oportet. Pro libris 
certe nemo te majora edit sterquilinia, et gallicinio tuo 
Btercoreo omnes obtundis; hoc unicum galli gallinacei 
bain b. Jam ego multa hordei grana daturum me tibi 
promitto, si, totum hoc vertcndo sterquilinium tuum, 
vel imam mihi gemmam ostenderis. Sed quid ego tibi 
hordeum ? qui non hordeum, ut ^Esopicus ille, simplex 
ct frugi gallus, sed aurum, ut Plautinus ille nequam, 
scalptnriendo quaesisti ; quamvjs cxitu adhuc dispari ; 



tu enim centum Jacobaeos aureos inde reperisti, cum 
Euclionis fuste potiiis, quo misellus ille Plautinus, ob- 
truncari dignior sis. Sed pergendum est. " Eadem 
utilitatis et incolumitatis omnium ratio naturalis pos- 
tulat, ut qui semel ad gubernandum constitutus est, 
conservetur." Quis negat, quatenus ejus conservatio 
cum incolumitate omnium consistit ? ad perniciem 
autem omnium conservari unum, quis non videt 
alienissimum a natura esse ? At " malum etiam re- 
gem conservari, immo pessimum " omnino vis, " eo 
quod non tantum mali civitati procurat male guber- 
nando, quantum creatur cladium ex seditionibus, quae 
ad eum tollendum suscitantur." Quid hoc ad jus 
regum naturale ? An, si natura me monet, ut latro- 
nibus diripiendum me permittam, ut captum me totis 
facultatibus redimam potius, quam ut dimicare de vita 
cogar; latronum tu inde jus naturale constitues? Sua- 
det natura populo, ut tyrannorum violentiae nonnun- 
quam cedat, cedat temporibus; tu ista populi necessi- 
tate ac patientia jus etiam naturale tyrannorum funda- 
bis ? Quod ilia jus populo sui conservandi causa dedit, 
tu illam tyranno, perdendi populi causa, jus idem de- 
disse affirmabis? Docet natura, ex duobus malis eligen- 
dum esse minus; et quandiu necesse est tolerandum : 
an tu hinc tyranno, utpote minori fortasse interdum 
malo, jus impune malefaciendi exoriri naturale statues? 
Recordare saltern ea, quae jam pridem ipse de episcopis 
contra Loiolitam scripsisti, a. me supra tertio capite re- 
citata his plane contraria; Illic " seditiones, dissen- 
tiones, discordias optimatium et populi, longe levius 
esse malum," affirmas, " quam sub uno monarcha ty- 
ranno certam miseriam ac perniciem." Et vera tu 
quidem affirmabas; nondum enim insaniebas, nondum 
Carolinis Jacobaeis delinitus et deauratus in morbum 
regium incideras. Diceram fortasse, nisi is esses qui 
es, pudeat te tandem praevaricationis tuae turpissimae ; 
tibi vero dirumpi facilius est quam erubescere, qui, ut 
rem faceres, pudorem jamdiu amisisti. Annon ipse 
memineras Romanos florentissimam et gloriosissimam 
rempub. post exactos reges babuisse ? potuit fieri ut 
Batavorum obliviscere ? quorum respub. Hispaniarum 
rege pulso post bella diutina, feliciter tamen gesta, li- 
bertatem fortiter et gloriose consequuta est, teque 
grammaticastrum equitem stipendio alit suo, non ut 
juventus Batavica te praevaricatore et sophista tarn 
nihil sapere discat, ut acl servitutem Hispanicam redire 
mallet, quam paternae libertatis ac gloriae haeres esse; 
istam doctrinae pestem ad Riphaeos ultimos, et glacia- 
lem oceanum, quo te in malam rem abire par est, tecum 
auferas licebit: Exemplo denique sunt Angli, qui Ca- 
rolum tyrannum bello captum, et insanabilem, obtrun- 
carunt. At " insulam beatam sub regibus, et luxu 
affluentem, discordiis deformarunt." Immo luxu pene 
perditam, quo tolerantior servitutis esset, extinctis 
deinde legibus, et maneipata religione, servientem libe- 
rarunt. En autem Epicteti cum Simplicio editorem, 
Sto'icum gravissimum, cui " luxu affluens insula" beata 
essevidetur! Ex porticu Zenonis nunquam tale, sat 
scio, documentum prodiit. Quid refert, an te doctore quic- 
quid libct regibus licebit, tibi ipsi non licebit lupi do- 
mino ex lupanari tuo, tanquam ex novo quodam Jyceo, 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



679 



quamcunque libet emittere pliilosophiam ? Sed resume 
nunc quam suscepisti personam. " Nunquam sub ullo 
rege tantum cruoris haustum est, tot families desolatae;" 
Hoc totum Carolo imputandum est, non Anglis; qui 
exercitum Hibernicorum priiis in nos paraverat, omnes 
Hibernos conjurare contra Anglos suo ipse diplomate 
jusserat; per illos ducena circiter millia Anglorum 
una in provincia Ultonia occiderat; de reliquis nihil 
dico : binos exercitus in exitium parlamenti Anglicani 
urbisque Londini sollicitaverat ; multa alia hostiliter 
fecerat, priusquam a populo aut magistratibus, tuendae 
reipub. causa, vel unus miles conscriptus esset. Quae 
doctrina, quae lex, quae unquam religio, sic homines 
instituit, ut otio consulendum, ut pecuniae, ut sanguini, 
ut vitae, potius parcendum esse ducerent, quam hosti 
obviam eundum ? Nam externo an intestino, quid 
interest? cum interitus reipub. sive ab hoc, sive ab 
illo, funestus aeque et acerbus impendeat. Vidit totus 
Israel non posse se sine multo sanguine Levitae ux- 
erem stupro enectam ulcisci; an igitur quiescendum 
sibi esse duxit, an bello civili, quamvis truculen- 
tissimo, supersedendum ? an imam igitur muliercu- 
lam mori inultam est passus ? Certe si natura nos 
docet quamvis pessimi regis dominatum potius pati, 
quam, in recuperanda libertate, plurimorum civium 
salutem in discrimen adducere, doceret eadem non 
regem solum perferre, quern tamen solum perferen- 
dum esse contendis, sed optimatium, sed paucorum, 
quoque potentiam ; latronum etiam nonnunquam et 
servorum rebellantium multitudinem. Non Fulvius 
aut Rupilius ad bellum servile post caesos exercitus 
praetorios, non Crassus in Spartacum post deleta con- 
sularium castra, non Pompeius ad piraticum bellum, 
exiisset. Romani vel servis, vel piratis, ne tot civium 
sanguis effunderetur, hortante scilicet natura, succu- 
buissent. " Hunc" itaque " sensum," aut hujusmodi 
ullum " gentibus impressisse naturam" nusquam osten- 
dis : et tamen non desinis male ominari, et vindictam 
divinam, quam in te augurem tuique similes avertat 
Deus, nobis denuntiare; qui nomine tantum regem, 
re hostem acerbissimum, debito supplicio ulti sumus; 
et innumerabilem bonorum civium caedem authoris 
poena expiavimus. Nunc magis naturalem esse mo- 
narchiam ex eo probari ais, quod " plures nationes et 
nunc et olim regium statum receperint, quam optima- 
tern et popularem." Respondeo primum neque Deo 
neque natura suadente id factum esse ; Deus, nisi in- 
vitus, populum suum sub regio imperio esse noluit; 
natura quid suadeat et recta ratio, non ex pluribus, 
sed ex prudentissimis nationibus, optime perspicitur. 
Graeci, Romani, Itali, Carthaginienses, multique alii, 
suopte ingenio, vel optimatium vel populi imperium 
regio praetulerunt ; atque hoe quidem nationes caetera- 
rum omnium instar sunt. Hinc Sulpitius Severus, 
" regium nomen cunctis fere liberis gentibus semper 
invisum" fuisse, tradit. Verum ista non jam hue per- 
tinent, nee quae sequuntur multa, inani futilitate a te 
soepius repetita : ad illud festino, ut quod rationibus 
firmavi, id exemplis nunc ostendam, esse vel maxime 
secundum naturam, tyrannos quoquo modo puniri ; id 
omnes gentes, magistra ipsa natura, saepius fecisse; ex 



quo impudentia tua prasdicanda, et turpissima men- 
tiendi licentia, omnibus innotescere dehinc poterit. 
Primos omnium inducis iEgyptios ; et certe quis te per 
omnia iEgyptizare non videat ? " Apud hos," inquis, 
"nusquam mentio extat ullius regis a populo per se- 
ditiones occisi, nullum bellum illatum, aut quicquam 
factum a populo, quo e solio dejiceretur?" Quid ergo? 
Osiris rex iEgyptiorum fortasse primus, annon a fratre 
Typhone, et viginti quinque aliis conjuratis, interemp- 
tus est ? quos et magna pars populi secuta magnum 
cum Iside et Oro, regis conjuge et filio, praelium com- 
misit ? Praetereo Sesostrin a fratre per insidias pene 
oppressum ; Chemmin etiam et Cephrenem, quibus 
populus merito infensus, quos vivos non poterat, mor- 
tuos se discerpturum minatus est Qui reges optimos 
obtruncare sunt ausi, eosne putas, naturae lumine aut 
religione aliqua retentos, a pessimis regibus manus ab- 
stinuisse? qui reges mortuos, et turn demum innocuos, 
sepulchro eruituros se minitabantur, ubi etiam pauper- 
culi cuj usque corpus inviolatum esse solet, vivosne illi 
et nocentissimos propter naturae legem punire, si modo 
viribus valerent, vererentur? Affirmares haec, scio, 
quamlibet absurda; at enim ego, ne affirmare audeas, 
elinguem te reddam. Scito igitur, multis ante Ce- 
phrenem soeculis, regnasse apud iEgyptos Ammosin ; 
et tyrannum, ut qui maxime, fuisse ; eum .-Egyptii 
aequo animo pertulerunt. Laetaris ; hoc enim est quod 
vis. At reliqua audi, vir optime et veracissime ; Diodori 
enim verba sunt quae recito ; jusxP 1 fj-sv tlvoq aicaprip-iv 
ov dwdfiEvoi, Sec. tolerabant aliquandiu oppressi, quia 
resistere potentioribus nullo modo poterant. Quam- 
primum vero Actisanes, iEthiopum rex, bellum gerere 
cum eo coepit, nacti occasionem plerique defecerunt, 
eoque facile subacto, iEgyptus regno iEthiopum ac- 
cessit. Vides hie iEgyptios, quamprimum poterant, 
arma contra tyrannum tulisse, copias cum externo rege 
conjunxisse, ut regem suum ej usque posteros regno pri- 
varent, bonum et moderatum regem, qualis erat Acti- 
sanes, maluisse externum, quam tyrannum domesti- 
cum. JidemiEgyptii, consensu omnium maximo,Aprien 
tyrannum suum, conductitiis copiis praesidentem, duce 
Amasi, praelio victum strang-ularunt ; Amasi viro nobili 
regnumdederunt. Hoc etiam adverte; Amasis captum 
regem ad tempus in ipsa regia honeste asservabat: in- 
cusante demum populo, injuste eum facere qui suum et 
ipsorum hostem aleret, tradidit populo regem ; qui eum 
preedicto supplicio affecit. Haec Herodotus et Diodo- 
rus. Quid amplius tibi quaeris ? ecquam tyrannum 
censes non maluisse vitam securi quam laqueo fiuire? 
Postea sub Persarum imperium " redacti iEgyptii 
fideles," inquis, " exstitere;" quod falsissimum est; in 
fide enim Persarum nunquam permansere ; sed quarto 
post anno quam subacti a Cambyse fuerant, rebellarunt. 
Domiti deinde a Xerxe, baud multo post ab ejus filio 
Artaxerxe defecerunt, regem Inarum quendam sibi ad- 
sciverunt. Quo occiso iterum fidem mutant, et, con- 
stitute rege Tacho, Artaxerxi Mnemoni bellum indicunt. 
Sed, neque suo regi fideliores, ablatum patri regnum filio 
Nectanebo tradunt : donee tandem ab Artaxerxe Ocho 
in ditionem Persarum rediguntur. Sub Macedonian 
etiam imperio, quantum in se erat, tyrannos coercen* 



680 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



dos esse factis indicarunt; statuas et imagines Ptole- 
iutei Physcouis dejecerunt, ipsum mercenario exercitu 
praepollentem iuterficere nequiverunt. Alexander, ejus 
filius, ob caedem matris concursu populi in exilium agitur : 
fjlium item ejus Alexandrum, insoleutius dominantem, 
Alexandrinus populus vi abreptum ex regia in gymna- 
sio publico interfecit : Ptolemeeum denique Auleten ob 
multa flagitia regno expulit. Haec tarn nota cum non 
possit nescire vir doctus, non debuerit qui bsec docere 
profiteatur, qui fidem tantis in rebus haberi sibi postu- 
let ; quis non pudendum et indignissimum esse dicat, 
hunc, vel tam rudem et indoctum, tanta cum infamia 
bonarum literarum, pro doctissimo circumferre se tumi- 
dum, etstipendia regum et civitatum ambire, vel tam 
improbum et mendacem, non insigni aliquaignominia 
notatum, ex omnium communitate et consortio turn 
doctorum turn bonorum exterminari. Postquam iEgyp- 
tum lustravimus; ad iEthiopes jam proximos visamus. 
Regem a Deo electum, ut credunt, quasi Deum quen- 
dam adorant : quoties tamen eum sacerdotus damnant, 
ipse mortem sibi consciscit. Sic enim, Diodoro teste, 
omues alios maleficos puniunt; non ipsi morte affici- 
unt, sed ipsos reos lictore misso mori jubent. Ad As- 
syrios deinde et Medos et Persas, regum observantissi- 
mos, accedis : "jusillic regium summa cum licentia 
quidlibet faciendi conjunctum fuisse" contra omnium 
bistoricorum fidem afHrmas. Narrat imprimis Daniel 
ut regem Nebucbadnezzarem, plus nimio superbientem, 
bomines a se depulerint, et ad bestias ablegaverint. 
Jus eorum non regium, sed Medorum et Persarum, id 
est populi jus, appellatur; quod cum irrevocabile esset, 
reges etiam obligavit. Darius itaque Medus eripere 
manibus satraparum Danielem, quauquam id maxime 
agcbat, non potuit. " Populi," inquis, " nefas esse turn 
credebant regem repudiare, quod illo jure abuteretur." 
Inter ipsa tamen haec verba adeo misere obtorpes, ut 
dum istorum populorum obedientiam et modestiam 
laudas, ereptum Sardanapalo regnum ab Arbace tua 
sponte commemores. Eripuit autem is non solus, sed 
partim a sacerdotib us juris peritissimis, partim a popu- 
lo, adjutus, atque hoc prsesertim nomine eripuit, quod 
is jure regio, non ad crudelitatem,sed ad luxuriamtan- 
tummodo et mollitiem, abuteretur. Percurre Herodo- 
tum, Ctesiarn, Diodorum, intelliges omnino contra esse 
quam dicis, "asubditis ut plurimum earegna destructa 
fuisse, non ab externis : " Assyrios reges a Medis, Me- 
dos a Persis, utrisque turn subditis, sublatos fuisse. 
" Cyrum " ipse " rebellasse, et arreptas tyrannides in 
diversis imperii locis" fateris. Hoccine est jus regium 
apud Medos et Persas, etobservantiam eorum in reges, 
quod instituisti, asserere ? Quae te Anticyra tam delirum 
sanare potest? " Persarum reges quali jure regnarint 
ex Herodoto," inquis, " liquet." Cambyses, cum soro- 
rem in matrimonio habere cupcret, judices rcgios con- 
sulit, delcctos " ex populo viros," legum interpretes, ad 
quo- omnia referri solebant. Quid illi ? negant se in- 
venire legem, quae jubeat fratrem secum in matrimoni- 
uin BOrorem jungcrc; aliam tamen invenisse, qua liccat 
Persarum regi facere quae libeat. Primum si rex 
omnia pro suo jure poterat, quid alio legum interprete 
quam ipso rege opus erat ? supervacanei isti judices 



ubivis potius quam in regia mansissent. Deinde si 
regi Persarum quidvis licuit, incredibile est id adeo 
nescivisse Cambysem, dominationis cupidissimum, ut 
quid licitum esset judices illos percontaretur. Quid 
ergo ? vel " gratificari" volentes " regi," ut fateris ipse, 
vel a tyranno sibi metuentes, ut ait Herodotus, facilem 
quandam se reperisse legem simulant, palpum regi ob- 
trudentes: quod in judicibus et legum peritis, hae 
etiam aetate, novum non est. At vero " Artabanus 
Persa dixit ad Themistoclem, nullam legem apud 
Persas esse meliorem ilia qua sancitum fuerat, regem 
esse honorandum et adorandum." Prseclaram tu qui- 
dem legem de adoratione regum introducis, etiam a 
patribus antiquis damnatam ; prseclarum etiam legis 
commendatorem Artabanum, qui ipse haud multo 
postea sua manu Xerxem regem suum trucidavit. 
Probos regem defensores regicidas nobis adfers: suspi- 
cor te regibus insidias quasdam moliri. Claudianum 
citas poetam, Persarum obedientise testem. At ego te 
ad res eorum gestas et annales revoco, defectionibus 
Persarum, Medorum, Bactrianorum, Babyloniorum, 
etiam csedibus regum, refertissimos. Proximus tibi 
author est Otanes Persa, ipse etiam Smerdis inter- 
fector sui regis, qui cum odio potestatis regiee, injurias 
et facinora regum exponat, violationes legum, caedes 
indemnatorum, stupra, adulteria, hoc tu jus regium 
vis appellari, et Samuelis iterum calumniandi in men- 
tem tibi venit. De Homero, qui reges esse ab Jove 
cecinit, supra respondi : Philippo regi, jus regium in- 
terpretanti, tam credam quam Carolo. Ex Diogenis 
deinde Pythagorsei fragmento quaedam producis, at 
quali is de rege dicat taces. Accipe igitur quo ille usus 
est exordio; ad quod referri quse sequuntur cuncta de- 
bent. BaaiXtvg k' iirj 6 ducaioraTog, &c. " Rex ille 
fuerit, qui justissimus est, justissimus autem, qui max- 
ime legitimus ;" nam sine justitia nullus "rex esse 
poterit, neque justitia sine lege." Haec cum jure tuo 
regio e regione pugnant. Eadem abs te recitatus Ec- 
phantas philosophatur. Aa de teat tov dg clvtclv Kara- 
cravTa, &c. " oportet qui regnum suscipit purissimum et 
lucidissimum natura esse :" et infra, o /car' aptraV h.%ap- 
X^v, &c. " ille qui imperat secundum virtutem, nomi- 
natur rex, et est." Quern tu igitur regem vocas, Py- 
thagoreorum judicio rex non est. Jam tu vicissim 
Platonem audi in epistola octava, apxn yiyvsaOu) innv- 
Qvvoq /8«(TtXt(c?7, &c. ; " sit regia potestas reddendae 
rationi obnoxia ; leges dominentur et aliis civibus et 
ipsis etiam regibus, si quid praeter leges facerint." 
Addo Aristotelem Polit. 3. lv /xiv roi ofxoioig kcu Igoiq ofjre 
av/Kpepov lortv, &c. " inter similes et aequales neque 
utile est neque justum, esse unum omnium dominum, 
neque ubi leges non sunt, neque ut ipse lex sit, neque 
ubi sunt leges ; neque bonum bonorum, neque non 
bonum non bonorum dominum esse." Et lib. quinto, 
" Quern populus non vult, statim is non rex, sed ty- 
rannus est," c. 10. Hem tibi etiam Xenophontem in 
Hierone, avri rov Tin<x)pelv ai 7r6\eig auroTg, &c. " tantum 
abest ut tyrannorum necem civitates ulciscantur, ut 
magnis honoribus afficiant eum, qui tyrannum inter- 
fecerit, imagines etiam tyrannicidarum in templis sta- 
tuunt." Testem occulatum adjiciam MarcumTullium 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



681 



pro Milone. " Graeci homines deorum honores tribu- 
unt iis viris qui tyrannos necaverunt : quae ego vidi 
Athenis, quae aliis in urbibus Graeciae, quas res divinas 
talibus institutas viris, quos cantus, quae carmina ? 
prope ad immortalitatem, et religionem, et memoriam 
consecrantur." Polybius denique, author gravissimus, 
Historiarum 6to. tote U tcliq irnOvn'iaig kirontvoi, &c. 
" cum principes," inquit, " cupiditatibus obsequi ccepe- 
runt, turn de regno facta est tyrannis, et conspiratio in 
caput dominautium inibatur; cujus quidem authores 
erant non deterrimi civium, sed generosissimi quique 
et maximi animi." Longe plura ciim mihisuppeterent, 
haec pauca delibavi: obruor enim copia. Aphilosophis 
ad poetas jam provocas; eo te libentissime sequimur. 
" Potestatem nullis legibus, nullis judiciis, obnoxiam 
in Graecia reges obtinuisse vel unus,"inquis,"iEscby- 
lus potest docere ; qui in tragoedia, Supplices, regem 
Argivorum anpiTov Trpvraviv vocat, non judicabilem 
rectorem." Verum tu scito, (praecipitem enim te et 
nullius judicii esse, quocunque te vertis, eo magis per- 
spicio,) scito, inquam, non quid poeta, sed quis apud 
poetam quidque dicat, spectandum esse : variae enim 
personae inducuntur, nunc bonae, nunc malae, nunc 
sapientes, nunc simplices, non semper quid poetae vide- 
atur, sed quid cuique maxime conveniat, loquenf.es. 
Danai filiae quinquaginta, ex iEgypto profugoe, ad 
Argivorum regem supplices pervenerant; orant uti se 
contra vim iEgyptiorum, classe insequentium, defen- 
dat; respondet rex non posse se, nisi rem prius cum 
populo communicet. 

'Ey(o 5' dv ov Kpaivoifi vttocxsgiv rcdpog 
AoTuiv de Ttacn TOiade Kotvuxrag Tckpi. 

Mulieres peregrinae et supplices, incerta populi suffra- 
gia Veritas, regem denuo blandius compellant. 

2w toi rroXig, av de to drjfiiov, 

TIpvTavig aicpiTog iov. 

"Tu instar urbis es et populi, praetor injudicatus." 

Rursus rex, 

~E?nrov de Kai Trpiv, ovk dvev fir/fin race 
Upd^aifx' dv ovdkinp Kparwv. 

" Dixi antea, non sine populo haec faciam, ne si 
possem quidem." 

De re itaque tota ad populum refert, 



J 
i 



'£yw de \dag gvvkol\lov ky^coping 

Ut'lCFb) TO K01V0V. 

Populus itaque decernit opem Danai filiabus ferendam ; 
unde ilia senis Danai laetantis. 

QapaiiTe 7raldeg, ev rd tu>v ty^wpi'wv 
Aj7jU8 dedoKTai rravTeXij lprjfiaixaTa. 
" Bono estote animo filia?, bene decreverunt 
" Indigenarum, in conventu populari, perfectissima 
sutTragia." 

Haec nisi protulissem, quam temere statuisset sciolus 
iste de jure regio apud Groecos ex ore mulierum, et 
peregrinarum, et supplicum ; cum et ipse rex, et ipsa 
res gesta, longe aliud nos doceat. Idem etiam docet 



Euripidis Orestes, qui, mortuo patre, Argivorum ipse 
rex, ob caedem matris a populo in judicium vocatus, 
ipse causam dixit, et suffragiis populi capite damnatus 
est. Athenis regiam potestatem legibus obnoxiam 
fuisse testatur idem Euripides etiam in Supplicibus, 
ubi haec Theseus Athenarum rex — 

ov yap apteral 
'Evbg Ttpbg dvdpbg, dW eXevSepa 7ro\ig, 
Arjfiog ^' dvdaaei — 

" non regitur 
" Ab uno viro, sed est libera haec civitas, 
" Populus autem regnat — " 

Sic ejus filius Demophoon, rex item Atheniensium, 
apud eundem poetam in Heraclidis. 

Ou yap Tvpavvitf {bare /3ap/3apwx/ t^w, 

'AXX' rjv diKaia ^pa>, diicaia TreiffOfiai. 

" Non enim iis tyrannice tanquam barbaris impero, 

" Sed si facio justa quae sunt, justamihi rependentur." 

Non aliud Thebis jus regium antiquitus fuisse testatur 
Sophocles in CEdipo tyranno, unde et Tiresias et Creon 
jEdipo ferociter responsant, ille 

ov yap ti ffoi %u> dovXog 
" Non servus tibi sum." 

Hie, Kdfiol TcSXeiog \xeTtGTi rrjg, £' ov adl fiovcp. 

" Est et mihi jus in hac civitate non tibi solum." 

Et iEmon Creonti in Antigone. 

HoXig yap ovk £<t^', r\Tig dvdpbg £<r3' kvoc. 
" Non est civitas, quae unius est viri." 

Jam vero Lacedoemoniorum reges in judicium saepe 
adductos, et interdum morte multatos, nemo ignorat. 
Atque haec quidem antiquum in Graecia jus regium 
quale fuerit satis declarant. Ad Romanos veniamus. 
Tu ad illud imprimis recurris non Sallustianum, sed 
C. Memmii apud Sallustium, " impune quidvis fa- 
cere :" cui supra responsum est. Sallustius ipse di- 
sertis verbis author est, "Romano imperium legitimum, 
nomen imperii regium, habuisse :" quod cum " se in 
dominationem convertit," ut nosti, expulerunt. Sic 
M. Tullius in Pisonem, " ego consulem esse putem, 
qui senatum esse in repub. non putavit ? et sine eo 
consilio consulem numerem, sine quo Romae ne reges 
quidem esse potuerunt?" Audin' regem Romae sine 
senatu nihil fuisse ? "At Romulus, ut libitum, Roma- 
nis imperitaverat, ut ait Tacitus." Nondum enim 
fundata legibus, colluvies potius convenarum quam 
respub. erat : omnes olim mortales sine legibus vive- 
bant, cum respublicoe nondum essent. Post Romulum 
autem, authore Livio, etsi regem omnes volebant, li- 
bertatis dulcediue nondum experta, " Populo tamen 
summa potestas permissa est, ut non plus darent juris 
quam detinerent; jus illud" a Caesaribus " vi ademp- 
tum fuisse" idem ait. Servius Tullius dolo primum, 
quasi Tarquinii Prisci vicarius, regnabat ; postea vero 
ad populum ipse retulit, " vellent juberentne se reg- 
nare ;" tandem ut ait Tacitus, " sanctor legum fuit, 
queis etiam reges obtemperarent." Fecissetne hanc 
sibi et posteris injuriam, si supra leges prius fuisse jus 



GS2 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



regiam sensisset ? Ultimus illorum regum Tarquinius 
Supcrbus " moreni de omnibus senatum consulendi 
primus solvit;" ob hrec et alia flagitia populus L. 
Tarquinio regi imperium abrogavit ; exulemque esse 
cum conjuge ac liberis jussit. Haec fere ex Livio et 
Cicerone ; quibus alios juris regiiapud Romanos baud 
tu interpretes attuleris meliores. Ad dictaturam quod 
attinet, temporaria tantum fuit, nunquam adhibita ni 
difficillimis reipub. temporibus, et intra sex menses de- 
poncnda. Jus autem imperatorum quod vocas, non jus 
illud, sed vis, plane erat; imperium nullo jure praeter- 
quam armis partum. At " Tacitus," inquis " qui sub 
imperio floruit," ista scripsit. " Principi summum re- 
rum arbitrium dii dederunt, subditisobsequii gloria re- 
licta est." Nee dicis quo loco ; tibi conscius nimirum 
insigniter lectoribus imposuisse ; quod mihi quidem sta- 
tim suboluit, quamvis locum ilium non statim reperi. 
Non enim Taciti haec verba sunt, scriptoris boni, et ty- 
rannis adversissimi, sed apud Taciturn M. Terentii cu- 
jusdam equitis Romani, qui capitis reus, inter alia, quae 
metu mortis ab eo dicta sunt, sic Tiberium adulatur, an- 
naliLim6to. "Tibi summum rerurn judicium dii dederunt, 
nobis obscquii gloria relicta est." Hanc tu quasi Taciti 
sententiam profers, qui sententias tibi commodas non 
ex pistrina solum, aut tonstrina,sed ex ipsa carnificina, 
oblatas non respueres : ita omnia vel ostentationis 
causa, vel imbecillitatis conscieutia, undecunque cor- 
radis. Taciturn ipsum silegere maluisses, quam alicubi 
decerptum negligentius transcribere, docuisset te is, 
jus illud imperatorum unde ortum sit. " Post Actiacam 
victoriam, verso civitatis statu, nihil usquam prisci aut 
integri moris ; omnes exuta eequalitate jussa principis 
aspectare ;" docuisset idem, annalium 3tio, unde tuum 
omne jus regium; " Postquam exui aequalitas, et pro 
modestia ac pudore ambitio et vis incedebat, provenere 
dominationes; multosque apud populos aeternum man- 
sere." Idem ex Dione poteras didicisse, si innata le- 
vitas et inconstantia tua quicquam te altiiis percipere 
pateretur. Narrat enira is 1. 53. abs te citato, ut partim 
armis, partim dolo et simulatione Octaviani Claris, 
effectum sit, ut imperatores legibus soluti essent; dum 
enim pro concione pollicetur se principatu abiturum, 
legibus et imperiis etiam aliorum obtemperaturum, per 
causam belli in provinciis suis gerendi, retentis apud 
se semper legionibus, dum simulate renuit imperium, 
sensim invasit. Non est hoc legibus rite solutum esse, 
sed legum vincula, quod gladiator ille Spartacus po- 
tuit, vi solvere; nomen deinde principis aut imperatoris 
et dvTOKpdropog sibi arrogare, quasi Deus aut nature 
lex omnes et homines et leges illi subjecisset. Vis 
altius paulo juris Caesarei originem cognoscere ? Mar- 
cus Antonius, jussu Caesaris, qui, armis in rempublicam 
nefarie sumptis, turn plurimum poterat, consul factus, 
cum Lupercalia Romae celebrarentur, ex composito, ut 
videbatur,diadema capiti Caesaris cum gemitu et plan- 
gore populi imposuit: ascribi deinde jussit in fastis ad 
Lupercalia, C. Caesari Antonium consulem, jussu 
populi, rrgnum detulisse. Qua de re Cicero in secunda 
Philippica; " Ideone L. Tarquinius exactus, Spurius 
Cassias, Sp. Melius, M. Manlius nccati, ut multis post 
Bfficujis a M. Antonio, quod fas non est, rex Romas 



constitueretur ?" Tu vero omni malo cruciatu atque 
infamia sempiterna etiam ipso Antonio dignior es ; 
quanquam tu hinc noli superbire, non enim te, homi- 
nem despicatissimum, ulla re alia quam srelere cum 
Antonio conferendum putem, qui, in hisce tuis Luper- 
calibus nefandis, non uni tantum, sed omnibus tyrannis, 
diadema cunctis legibus solutum, nulla solvendum, im- 
ponere studuisti. Certe si ipsorum Cassarum oraculo 
credendum est, sic enim appellant Christiani impera- 
tores Theodosius et Valens edictum suum, cod. 1. 1. tit 
14. de authoritate juris imperatorum pendet authoritas. 
Majestas ergo regnantis, vel ipsorum Caesarum sive 
judicio sive oraculo, submittenda legibus est, de qui- 
bus pendet. Hinc, adulta jam potestate imperatoria, 
ad Trajanum Plinius in Pan egy rico ; " Diversa sunt 
natura dominatio et principatus. Trajanus regnum 
ipsum arcet ac summovet, sedemque obtinet principis, 
ne sit domino locus." Et infra, " omnia, quoe de aliis 
principibus a me dicta sunt, eo pertinent ut ostendam, 
quam longa consuetudine corruptos, depravatosque, 
mores principatus parens noster reformet, et corrigat." 
Quod depravatos principatus mores Plinius, id tene 
pudet jus regium perpetud vocitare ? Verum hactenus 
de jure regio apud Romanos breviter. Quid illi in 
tyrannos suos, sive reges, sive imperatores, fecerint, 
vulgo notum est. Tarquinium expulerunt. Sed " quo- 
modo," inquis, " expulerunt; an in jus vocarunt? ne- 
quaquam ; portas venienti clauserunt." Ridiculum 
caput ! quidni clauderent advolanti cum parte copi- 
arum? quid refert exulare jussus fuerit an mori, modo 
poenas dedisse constat? Ca. Ccesarem tyrannum ex- 
cellentissimi ejus aetatis viri in senatu interfecerunt ; 
id factum M. Tullius et ipse vir optimus, et pater patriae 
publice dictus, miris laudibus, cum alibi passim, turn 
in 2da Philippica, celebravit. Pauca recitabo. " Omnes 
boni, quantum in ipsis fuit, Ceesarem occiderunt; aliis 
consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio, defuit, voluntas 
nemini." Et infra. " Quae enim res unquam, proh 
sancte Jupiter, non modo in hac urbe, sed in omnibus 
terris est gesta major, quae gloriosior, quae commenda- 
tior hominum memorise sempiternas ? in hujus me 
consilii societatem, tanquam in equum Trojanum, in- 
cludi cum principibus non recuso." Illud Senecas 
tragici et ad Graecos referri potest, et ad Romanos : 

Victima haud ulla amplior 

Potest, magisque opima mectari Jovi, 

Quam rex iniquus. 

Nam si ad Herculem spectes, cujus htec sententia in- 
ducitur, quid senserint ilia aetate Graecorum summi viri 
ostendit: si ad poetam, qui sub Nerone floruit (et sen- 
sum fere suum poetae personis optimis afHngere solent) 
significabat et quid ipse, et quid omnes viri boni, aetate 
etiam Neronis, faciendum tyranno censuerint; quam- 
que pium, quamque diis gratum, esse duxerint tyran- 
nicidium. Sic optimi quique Romanorum, quantum 
in se erat, Domitianum occiderunt. Palam hoc pro- 
fitetur Plinius secundus in illo ad Trajanum imperato- 
rem Panegyrico. " Juvabat illidere solo superbissin)os 
vultus, instare ferro, saevire securibus, ut si singulos 
ictus sanguis dolorque sequeretur: nemo tarn tempe- 
rans gaudii, quin instar ultionis videretur cernere lace- 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



683 



ros artus, truncata membra, postremo truces horrendas- 
que imagines abjectas excoctasque flammis." Et deinde, 
" non satis am ant bonos principes, qui malos satis non 
oderint." Turn inter flagitia Domitiani ponit, quod 
is Epaphroditum, Neronis utcunque interfectorem, tru- 
cidaverit. " An excidit dolori nostro modo vindicatus 
Nero, permitteret credo famam vitamque ejus carpi, 
qui mortem ulciscebatur ?" Plane quasi sceleri proxi- 
mum esse judicaret, non interfecisse Neronem, scelus 
gravissimum vindicasse interfectum. Ex his manifes- 
tum est, Romanorum praestantissimos quosque viros 
non solum tyrannos quoquo modo, quoties poterant, 
occidisse, sed factum illud, ut Graeci olim, in maxima 
laude posuisse : vivum enim tyrannum quoties judicare 
non poterant viribus inferiores, mortuuni tamen et ju- 
dicabant, et lege Valeria damnabant. Valerius enim 
Publicola, Junii Bruti collega, cum videret non posse 
stipatos suis militibus tjrannos ad judicium perduci, 
legem tulit, qua indemnatum quovis modo occidere 
liceret; deinde facti rationem reddere. Hinc C. Cali- 
gulam, quern Cassius ferro, omnes votis interfecerunt ; 
Valerius Asiaticus, vir consularis, cum non adesset, ad 
milites tamen ob necem ejus tumultuantes exclamat, 
" utinam ego interfecissem ; " senatus eodem tempore 
abolendam Caesarum memoriam, ac diruenda templa, 
censuit; tantum abfuit ut Cassio irasceretur ; Clau- 
dium, a militibus imperatorem mox salutatum vetant 
per tribunum plebis principatum capescere ; vis autem 
militum vicit. Neronem senatus bostem judicavit, et, 
ut puniretur more majorum, quaerebat ; id genus poenae 
erat, ut nudi cervix insereretur furcae, corpus virgis ad 
necem caederetur. Vide quanto mitius et moderatius 
Angli cum tyranno egerint suo, qui multorum judicio 
plus ipso Nerone sanguinis fundendi author fuerat. Sic 
Domitianum mortuum senatus damnavit; quod potuit, 
imagines ejus coram detrabi, et solo affligi, jussit. Corn- 
modus a suis interfectus, non vindicatus a senatu aut 
populo, sed hostis judicatus est, qui etiam cadaver ejus 
ad supplicium quoerebant. Ea de re senatusconsultum 
extat apud Lampridium ; " Hosti patriae honores de- 
trahantur, parricida trahatur, in spoliario lanietur, 
iiostis deorum, carnifex senatus unco trahatur," Sec. 
lidem Didium Julianum imperatorem frequentissimo 
senatu capitis damnarunt ; et, misso tribuno, occidi in 
palatio jusserunt. Iidem Maximino imperium abroga- 
runt, hostemque judicarunt. Juvat ipsum senatuscon- 
sultum ex Capitolino recitare. " Consul retulit ; Pa- 
tres Conscripti, de Maximinis quid placet?" responsum 
est, " hostes, hostes; qui eos occiderit, praemium mere- 
bitur." Vis scire populus Roman us et provinciae Maxi- 
mino imperatori an senatui paruerint? audi eundem 
Capitolinum. " Literas mittit senatus" ad omnes pro- 
vincias, ut communi saluti libertatique subveniant; quae 
auditae sunt ab omnibus. Ubique amici, administrators, 
duces, tribuni, milites, Maximini interfecti sunt : paucue 
civitates fidem hosti publico servaverunt. Eadem tradit 
Herodianus. Quid plura de Romanis? Jam apud fini- 
timas nationes quale jus regum ilia aetate fuerit videa- 
mus. Apud Gallos rex eorum Ambiorix " sua ejusmodi 
esse imperia" fatetur, " ut non minus haberet in se juris 
multitudo,, quam ipse in multitudinem." Judicabatur 



ergo non minus quam judicabat. Rex item Vercinge- 
torix proditionis insimulatus est a suis ; tradit haec 
Caesar, bellum Gallicum scribens. Nee " Germanorum 
regibus infinita aut libera potestas " erat ; " de minoribus 
rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes. Rex 
aut princeps auditur authoritate suadendi magis quam 
jubendi potestate ; si displicuit sententia, fremitu asper- 
nantur." Haec Tacitus. Tu vero, quod inauditum 
prorsus esse modd exclamabas, nunc saepiiis factum 
concedis, " quinquaginta" nimirum " Scotorum reges 
aut expulsos, aut incarceratos, aut necatos, quosdam 
etiam in publico capitali supplicio affectos." Quod in 
ipsa Britannia factitatum est, cur tu, tyrannorum ves- 
pillo, infandum, inauditum, esse tanta ejulatione vo- 
ciferaris ? Pergis Judaeorum et Christianorum erga 
tyrannos suos religionem extollere, et meudacia ex 
mendaciis serere, quae jam toties refutavimus. Modo 
Assyriorum et Persarum obedientiam late praedicabas, 
nunc eorum rebelliones enumeras ; et quos nunquam 
rebellasse paulo ante dixeras, nunc cur iidem toties 
rebellaverint multas causas aflfers. Ad narrationem 
deinde sumpti de rege supplicii, tamdiu intermissam, 
revertis, ut, si tunc forte satis sedulo ineptus et ridi- 
culus non eras, nunc esses. " Per aulae suae membra 
ductum" narras. Quid per aulae membra intelligas 
scire gestio. Romanorum calamitates ex regno in 
rempub. verso recenses, in quo te tibimet turpissime 
mentiri supra ostendimus. Qui ad Loiolitam, " sediti- 
ones tantum sub optimatibus et populo, certam sub 
tyranno perniciem esse," demonstrabas, nunc, hominum 
vanissime et corruptissime, " ob reges olim ejectos 
seditionum ilia mala tanquam supplicia illos hausisse" 
audes dicere ? scilicet quia centum Jacobaeis donavit 
te postea rex Carolus, idcirco reges expulsos luent Ro- 
mani. At male cessit Julii Caesaris interfectoribus. 
Sane si cui unquam tyranno, huic parcitum vellem ; 
quamvis enim regnum in repub. violentiiis invadebat, 
erat tamen regno fortasse dignissimus : nee ideo quen- 
quam magis putem interfecti Caesaris pcenas pepen- 
disse, quam deleti Catilinae Caium Antonium Ciceronis 
collegam : quo postea de aliis criminibus damnato, ut 
inquit Cicero pro Flacco, " sepulchrum Catilinae flori- 
bus ornatum est." Fautores enim Catilinae tunc ex- 
ultabant, " justa Catilinae turn facta esse dictitabant," 
ad invidiam caeteris conflandam, qui Catilinam sus- 
tulerant. Hae sunt improborum artes, quibus viros 
praestantissimos a. supplicio tyrannorum, et puniendis 
etiam saepe facinorosissimis, deterreant. Dicerem ego 
contra, quod facile esset, quoties bene cessit et prospere 
tyrannorum interfectoribus, si quid certi de eventu re- 
rum colligere quis posset. Objectas, quod " regem 
haereditarium Angli non illo affecerint supplicio, quo 
tvranni solent mactari, sed eo, quo latrones et pro- 
ditionis rei." Primiim haereditas ad maleficiorum im- 
punitatem quid conferat nescio : conferre quicquam ut 
credat sapiens, fieri vix potest. Quod tu deinde ad 
" immanitatem" refers, in eo lenitas potiiis Anglorum, 
et moderatio, praedicanda erat; qui, cum tyrannum 
esse omnes in patriam impietates, latrocinia, proditiones, 
perduelliones, in se complectatur, satis habebant sup- 
plicium baud gravius de tyranno sumere, quam de 



684 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSKX 



simplici latrone quovis, aut proditore vulgar!, sumere 
solebant. Speras " exorituros esse aliquos Harmodios 
et Thrasybulos, qui, nostrorum caede, tyranni raanibus 
parentent." At tu citius animum despondebis, et 
vitam de dignam, omnibus bonis execrandus, ante sus- 
pendio finieris, quam Harmodios Harmodiorum san- 
guine litantes tjranno videas. Tibi enim illud accidere 
verisimillimum est, deque te tarn scelerato quis augu- 
rari rectiiis possit : alterum est impossibile. Tyran- 
norum triginta mentionem facis qui sub Gallieno re- 
bellarunt. Quid si tyrannus tyrannum oppugnat, an 
omnes ergo qui oppugnant tyrannum, aut tollunt, ty- 
ranni erunt ipsi ? haud tu id persuaseris, mancipiurn 
equestre ; neque is qui author tibi est, Trebellius Pol- 
lio, historicorum prope ignobilissimu.s. " Si qui hostes," 
inquis, "a senatu judicati sunt, factio id fecit, non jus." 
Nobis in memoriam revocas quid fecit imperatores ; 
factio nempe, et vis, et, ut planius dicam, furor An- 
tonii, non jus, fecit, ut contra senatum populumque 
Romanum ipsi prius rebellarent. " Dedit," inquis, 
" pcenas Galba, qui contra Neronem insurrexit." Die 
etiam quas poenas dedit Vespasianus, qui contra Vi- 
tellium. " Tantum," inquis, " abfuit Carolus a Ne- 
rone, quantum isti laniones Anglicani a senatoribus 
illius temporis Romanis." Trifurcifer, a quo laudari 
vituperium est, vituperari laus magna: paucis modo 
periodis interpositis, bac ipsa de re scribens, " senatum 
sub imperatoribus togatorum mancipiorum consessum 
fuisse" a'iebas, nunc eundem " senatum" a'is " con- 
sessum regum fuisse :" hoc si ita est, quid obstat quin 
reges, te authore, togata mancipia sint ? Beatos hoc 
laudatore reges ! quo inter homines nihil nequius, in- 
ter quadrupedes nihil amentius : nisi si hoc illi pecu- 
liare dicam esse, quod nemo literatius rudit. Senatum 
Anglise Neroni vis esse similiorem quam senatui Ro- 
mano : cogit me cacoethes hoc tuum ineptissimas con- 
glutinandi similitudines, ut corrigam te ; et quam 
similis Neroni fuerit Carolus, osteudam. " Nero," in- 
quis, " matrem suam" ferro " necavit." Carolus et 
patrem et regem veneno ; nam, ut alia omittam indicia, 
qui ducem veneficii reum legibus eripuit, fieri non po- 
tuit quin ipse reus quoque fuerit. Nero multa millia 
Christianorum occidit, Carolus multo plura. Non de- 
fuerunt, teste Suetonio, qui Neronem mortuum lauda- 
rent, qui desiderarent, qui per longum tempus, " vernis 
acstivisque floribus tumulum ejus ornarent," ejus ini- 
micis omnia mala ominarentur : non desunt qui Caro- 
lum cadem insania desiderent, et summis laudibus 
extollant, quorum tu, patibularis eques, chorum ducis. 
" Milites Angli molossis suis ferociores novum et inau- 
ditum tribunal instituerunt." En acutissimum Salmasii 
s;\ i » symbolum sive adagium, jam sexies inculcatum, 
"Molossis suis ferociores;" adeste rhetores, vosque 
ludimagistri, dclibate, si sapitis, flosculum hunc ele- 
gantissinnirn, qui tarn Salmasio in deliciis est; codicil- 
lis vestris et capsulis mandate copiosissimi hominis 
pigmentum, ne intereat. Adeone etiam verba tua con- 
sumpsit rabies, ut, cuculi in modum, eadem identidem 
occinere cogaris ? Quid hoc monstri esse dicam ? Ra- 
bies, ut fabulautur, vertit Hecubam in canem, te S i 
Lupi dominum vertit in cuculum. Jam novas exordiris 



repugnantias : supra p. 113. affirmaveras " Principem 
legibus solutum esse, non cogentibus" solum, sed "di- 
rigentibus, nullas esse omnino quibus teneatur;" nunc 
dicturum te a'is " infra de regum differentia, quatenus 
potestate, alii minore, alii majore,in regnando fuerunt." 
Vis probare, "reges non potuisse judicari, nee damnari 
a subjectis suis argumento," ut ipse a'is, " firmissimo," 
revera stolidissimo ; " nihil," inquis, " aliud inter ju- 
dices et reges discrimen fuit : atqui Judaei judicum 
taedio odioque adducti reges postulabant." An quia 
judices illos magistratum male gerentes judicare et 
damnare poterant, ideone putas taedio odioque eorum 
adductos postulasse reges, quos jura omnia violantes 
punire, aut in ordinem cogere, non poterant ? quis, 
excepto te uno, tarn fatue ratiocinari solet ? Aliud igi- 
tur quiddam erat cur regem peterent, quam uthaberent 
dominum legibus superiorem; de quo nunc divinare 
nihil attinet: quicquid erat, haud prudenti consilio 
factum et Deus et propheta ejus testatus est. Iterum 
rabbinis tuis, ex quibus probasse te supra asserebas 
regem Judaeorum non judicari, nunc litem acerrimam 
intendis, quod regem et judicari et verberari posse tra- 
diderint : quod idem plane est acsi faterere ementitum 
te tunc esse, quod ex rabbinis probasse dixeras. Eo 
demum descendis ut de numero equilium Solomonis, 
quot " is equorum prsesepia habuerit," oblitus regiae 
defensionis, controversias putidulas concites. Tandem 
ab agasone ad equitem redis aretalogum et tautologum, 
vel potius ad id monstri quod prius eras, cuculum ra- 
biosum. Quereris enim "postremis" hisce " saeculis 
disciplinae vigorem laxatum, regulam corruptam ;" 
quod uni scilicet tyranno, cunctis legibus soluto, disci- 
plinam omnem laxare, mores omnium corrumpere, im- 
pune non liceat. Hanc doctrinam " Brunistas inter 
reformatos" introduxisse a'is. Ita Lutherus, Calvinus, 
Zuinglius, Bucerus, et Orthodoxorum quotquot cele- 
berrimi theologi fuere, tuo judicio Brunistae sunt. Quo 
aequiore animo tua maledicta perferunt Angli, cum in 
ecclesise doctores praestantissimos, totamque adeo eccle- 
siam reformatam, iisdem prope contumeliis debacchari 
te audiant. 



CAPUT VI. 

Post legem Dei et naturae agitatam abs te frustra, 
et pessime tractatam, unde nihil piaster ignorantias 
simul et improbitatis ignominiam retulisti,quid deinde, 
in hac causa regia, praeter nugas agere possis, non vi- 
deo. Cum autem omnibus et bonis et doctis viris huic 
etiam causae nobilissimse abunde me satisfecisse spe- 
rcm, etiamsi hoc loco finem respondendi facerem, ta- 
men ne interea videaraliis varietatem potius et acumen 
tuum, quam immodicam loquacitatem, defugisse, quo 
voles usque progrediar: ea tamen brevitate, ut facile 
appareat, me iis omnibus perfunctum, si minus quae 
dignitas, at saltern quae necessitas, causae requirebat, 
nunc hominum quorumvis expectationi, vel etiam curi- 
ositati, morem gerere. " Hinc alius," inquis, " et major 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



685 



argumentorum mihi surget ordo." An major eo argu- 
mentorum ordine quern lex Dei et naturae suppedi- 
tabat ? Fer opem, Lucina ; parturit Mons Salmasius ; 
non de nihilo nupsit uxori; foetum aliquem ingentem 
exspectate, mortales. " Si is, qui rex est ac dicitur, 
postulari posset apucl aliam potestatem, earn omnino 
regia majorem esse oporteret; quae autem major statu- 
etur, hanc vere regiam dici, et esse, necesse esset. Sic 
enim definienda potestas regia: quae summa est in re- 
pub, et singularis, et supra quam nulla alia agnos- 
citur." O murem vere montanum et ridiculum ! Suc- 
currite, grammatici, grammatico laboranti ; actum est 
non de lege Dei aut naturae, sed de glossario. Quid 
si sic responderem tibi ? cedant nomina rebus, non est 
nostrum nomini cavere, qui rem sustulimus ; curent id 
alii quibus cordi sunt reges ; nos nostra utimur liber- 
tate : responsum sane haud iniquum auferres. Veriim 
ut me per omnia ex aequo et bono tecum agere intelli- 
gas, non ex mea solum, sed ex optimorum olim et pru- 
dentissimorum virorum sententia, respondebo, qui et 
noraen et potestatem regiam cum potestate legum 
etpopuli majore posse optime consistere judicarunt. 
Lycurgus imprimis, vir sapientia clarissimus, cum vel- 
let maxime potestati regiae consulere, ut author est 
Plato, nullam aliam ejus conservandae rationem inve- 
nire potuit, quam ut senatus et ephororum, id est, 
populi potestatem regia majorem in sua patria consti- 
tuent. Idem sensit Theseus Euripidaeus, qui cum 
Atbenarum rex esset, populo tamen Atheniensi in 
libertatem cum magna sua gloria vindicato, et potes- 
tatem popularem extulit supra regiam, et regnum ni- 
hilo secius in ilia civitate suis posteris reliquit. Unde 
Euripides in Supplicibus ita loquentem inducit. 

Arjfxov KaTSffTTj^ dvrbv rig /xovapx^v 
'EXevStpwoag Trivff iao\pr](j)ov 7r6Xiv. 

" Populum constitui ipsum in monarchiam, 
Liberans hanc urbem aequale jus suffragii habentem." 

Et rursus ad praeconem Thebanum. 

Uptorov [xkv i'ip%(i) rov Xoya -ipevdiog, £ev£, 
Ztjtojv Tvpavvov lvBdb\ ov yap apxtTai 
1 Evbg irpbg dvdpbg, aW kXsvSepa noXig, 
Arjfxog 5' avaaasi. 

" Primum incoepisti orationem falso, hospes, 
Quoerens tyrannum hie, non enim regitur 
Ab uno viro, sed est libera haec civitas, 
Populus autem regnat. 

Haec ille ; cum tamen rex in ilia civitate et esset, et 
dictus esset. Testis est etiam divinus Plato in epistola 
octava, " Induxit Lycurgus senatum et ephororum 
potestatem, rijg (SaGtXiKrjg apxrjg aojTrjpiov, potestati regiae 
maxime salutarem, quae hac ratione per tot saecula 
magna cum laude conservata est ; postquam lex domina 
rex facta est hominum." Lex autem rex esse non po- 
test, nisi sit qui in regem quoque, si usus venerit, lege 
possit agere. Sic temperatam potestatem regiam Sici- 
liensibus commendat, IXevSrepla yiyveaBoj fitra fiamXiKrjg 
dpxVG, & c - " sit libertas cum regia potestate ; sit regia 
potestas vnivSvvog reddendae rationi obnoxia ; domine- 



tur lex etiam regibus, siquid prseter legem fecerint." 
Aristoteles denique, Politicorum tertio, " In repub. 
Spartanorum videtur," inquit, " regnum esse maxime, 
eorum regnorum quae sunt secundum legem :" omnes 
autem regni species secundum legem f'uisse ait, praeter 
unam, quam vocat iraixfiaoiXdav, neque talem usquam 
extitisse meminit. Tale itaque regnum maxime om- 
nium proprie et dici et esse regnum sensit Aristoteles, 
quale apud Spartanos fuit; talem proinde regem non 
minus proprie et dici et esse regem, ubi tamen populus 
supra regem erat, negare non potuit. Ciim tot tau- 
tique authores et nomen et rem regiam sua fide salvam 
regi praestiterent, etiam ubi populus penes se summam 
potestatem, tametsi exercere non solet, tamen, quoties 
opus est, obtinet, noli tarn ang'usto animo summae re- 
rum grammaticalium, hoc est vocabulorum, sic timere, 
ut potiiis quam glossarii tui ratio turbetur, aut detri- 
ment quid capiat, prodere libertatem omnium, et 
rempub. velis. Scito etiam dehinc, nomina rebus ser- 
vire, non res nominibus ; ita plus sapies, nee " in in- 
finitum," quod metuis, " ibis. Frustra ergo Seneca 
tria ilia genera statuum ita describit." Frustretur Se- 
neca, nos liberi simus ; et nisi fallor, non ii sumus quos 
flores Senecae in servitutem reducant. Seneca autem, 
si summam in uno potestatem esse dicit, " populi," 
tamen " earn" dicit" esse," commissam videlicet regi ad 
salutem omnium, non ad perniciem ; nee mancipio, sed 
usu duntaxat, a populo datam. " Non jam ergo per 
Deum reges regnant, sed per populum." Quasi vero 
Deus non ita regat populum, ut cui Deus vult, regnum 
tradat populus ; cum in ipsis institutionibus imperator 
Justinianus palam agnoscat, exinde Caesares regnasse, 
ex quo " lege regia populus iis et in eos omne imperium 
suum, et potestatem, concessit." Sed quousque ista re- 
coquemus, qua3 jam toties refutavimus? Rursus, quod 
ingenium tuum importunum et agreste, mores odiosis- 
simos indicat, in nostra repub. quae ad te nihil pertinet, 
alienigena et peregrinus curiosum te infers. Accede 
igitur, ut te tanto ardelione dignum est, cum insigni 
solcecismo. " Quicquid," inquis, " illi perditi homines 
dicunt, ad populum decipiendum pertinent." O scele- 
rate ! hoccine erat, quod diminutus capite grammaticus 
in nostram rempub. te ingerere cupiebas, ut soloecismis 
nos tuis et barbarismis oppleres ? Verum tu die, popu- 
lum quo modo decepimus ? " Forma regiminis quam 
introduxere non popularis est, sed militaris." Ista 
scilicet grex ille perfugarum mercedula conductum 
jussit te scribere : non tibi igitur, qui ea blatis, quorum 
nihil intelligis, sed iis qui te pretio conduxerunt, re- 
spondebitur. Quis " ordinenx procerum e parlamento 
ejecit? an populus?" Immo populus; eoque facto ser- 
vitutis jugum a. cervicibus suis haud ferendum dejecit. 
Ipsi milites, a quibus hoc factum dicis, non exteri, sed 
cives, et magna pars populi fuere; idque caetero fere 
consentiente populo et cupiente, nee sine parlamenti 
etiam authoritate, fecerunt. " An populus," inquis, 
" plebeium ordinem domus inferioris mutilavit, alios 
fugando, &c." Populus inquam ; quod enim senatus 
pars potior, id est sanior, fecit, in quo vera populi po- 
testas residebat, quid ni id populum fecisse dicam ? 
Quid si servire, quid si vaenum rempub. dare, in senatu 



686 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO 



plures maluerint, annon id impedire, et libertatem re- 
tinere, si in manu est sua, paucioribus licebit ? " At 
duces hoc fecerunt cum militibus suis." Habenda igitur 
gratia est ducibus, quod operas et tabernarios Loudi- 
nenses, qui paulo ante, veluti faex ilia Clodiana, ipsam 
curiam obsederaut, ferocientes repulerint, reipub. non 
defueriut. Tune idcirco jus parlameuti primarium ac 
proprium, at libertati imprimis populi sive pace sive 
bello prospiciat, " militarem dominationem" appella- 
bis ? Verum hoc a. perduellibus dici, qui tibi ista dicta- 
runt, non est mirum ; sic enim perditissima olim Anto- 
niorum factio senatum Romanum, contra hostes patriae 
ad saga euntem, " Castra Pompeii" appellare solebat. 
Jam vero fortissimo nostri exercitus ductori Cromuello, 
quod is amicorum laeto agmine stipatus, non sine fa- 
vore populi secundo, votis etiam bonorum omnium pro- 
sequentibus, in bellum Hibernicum Deo gratissimum 
proficisceretur, invidisse tuos gaudeo ; auditis enim 
postea tot ejus victoriis, jam arbitror eos livore conta- 
buisse. Multa praetereo, quae de Romanis militibus 
prolixe nugaris : quod sequitur a veritate remotissimum 
esse quis non videt? " Populi," inquis, " potestas esse 
desinit, ubi regis esse incipit." Quo tandem jure? cum 
satis constet, omnes fere ubique gentium reges sub 
certis conditionibus traditum sibi regnum a populo ac- 
cipere : quibus si rex non steterit, cur ilia potestas, 
qua; fiduciaria tantiim fuit, ad populum redire non de- 
beat, tarn a. rege quam a consule, vel ab alio quovis 
magistratu, tu velim doceas : nam quod " salutem 
reipub. id " ais " postulare," ineptias dicis ; cum salutis 
ratio eadem omnind sit, sive a reg"e, sive ab optimatibus, 
sive a triumviris, imperio sibi tradito perperam utenti- 
bus, "potestas ilia ad populum revertatur ; " posse 
autem a magistratibus quibuscunque, praeterquam a 
rege solo, ad populum reverti ipse concedis. Sane si 
neque regi, neque ullis magistratibus, imperium in se 
populus mentis compos dederit, nisi tantummodo com- 
munis omnium salutis causa, nihil potest obstare quo 
minus, ob causas plane contrarias, ne interitus omnium 
sequatur, baud secus regi quam aliis magistratibus, quod 
dedit imperium adimere possit : quid quod uni etiam faci- 
lius quam pluribus ademerit? et potestatem in se plus- 
quam fiduciariam cuiquam mortalium tradere summae 
esset insaniae: neque credibile est ullumaborbe terrarum 
condito populum, qui quidem suae spontis esset, adeo 
misere desipuisse, ut vel omnem prorsus potestatem ab 
se alienaret, aut suis magistratibus concreditam, sine 
causis gravissimis, ad se revocaret. Quod si discor- 
diae, si bella intestina, inde oriantur, regium certe jus 
nullum inde oritur illius potestatis per vim retinen- 
doe, quam populus suam sibi vendicat. Ex quo effi- 
citur, quod ad prudentiam populi, non ad jus regis, 
referendum est, quodque nos non negamus, " rectorcm 
non facile mutandum esse:" nunquam ergo aut nulla 
prorsoa de causa, nullomodo sequitur : neque tu adhuc 
quicquam allegasti, neque jus ullum regis expromp- 
sisti, quo minus liceat consentienti populo regem baud 
idoneum regno privare ; siquidem id, quod etiam in 
Gallia tua saepiiis factum est, sine tumultu ac civili 
hello fieri possit. Cum itaque salus populi suprema 
lex sit, non salus tyranni, ac proinde populo in tyran- 



num, non tyranno in populum, prodesse debeat, tu, 
qui tam sanctam legem, tarn augustam, tuis praestigiis 
pervertere es ausus, qui legem inter homines supremam, 
et populo maxima salutarem, ad tyrannorum duntaxat 
impunitatem valere voluisti, tu inquam scito, quando- 
quidem Angli " enthusiastae, et enthei, et vates," toties 
tibi sum us, me vate scito, Deum tibi atque homines 
tanti piaculi ultores imminere : quanquam universum 
genus humanum subjicere tyrannis, id est, quantum in 
te fuit, ad bestias damnare, hoc ipsum scelus tam im- 
mane sua partim in te ultio est, suis te furiis quocun- 
que fugis terrarum, atque oberras, vel citius vel seriiis 
insequetur ; et pejore etiam ea, quam nunc insanis, 
insania agitabit. Venio nunc ad alteram argumentum 
tuum, prioris baud dissimile; si populo resumere liceret 
potestatem suam, " nihil turn esset discriminis inter 
popularem et regalem statum, nisi quod in hoc singuli 
rectores constituuntur, in illo plures :" quid si nihil 
aliud interesset, numquid inde respub. detrimenti ca- 
peret ? Ecce autem aliae differentiae a temetipso alla- 
tae, " temporis" nimirum " et successionis ; cum popu- 
lares magistratus annui fere sint," reges, nisi quid 
committant, perpetui ; et in eadem plerunque familia. 
Differant ergo inter se aut non differant, de istis enim 
minutiis nihil laboro, in hoc certe conveniunt, quod 
utrobique populus, quoties id interest reipub., potest 
quam alteri potestatem, salutis publicas causa, tradide- 
rat, earn ad se rursus nee injuria, eandem ob causam, 
revocare. " At ]ege regia Romae sic appellata, de cjua 
in institutis, populus Romanus principi, et in eum, omne 
imperium suum et potestatem concessit." Nempe vi Cae- 
sarumcoactus,qui honestolegis titulo suam tantummodo 
violentiam sanxerunt ; de quo supra, id quod ipsi juris- 
consulti in hunc locum non dissimulant. Quod igitur 
legitime, et volente populo, concessum non est, id re- 
vocable quin sit non dubitamus. Veruntamen rationi 
maxime consentaneum est, populum Romanum non 
aliam potestatem transtulisse in principem, atque priiis 
concesserat suis magistratibus ; id est imperium legiti- 
mura et revocabile, non tyrannicum et absurdum ; quo- 
circa et ccnsularem et tribunitiam potestatem Caesares 
recepere ; dictatoriam nemo post Julium; populum in 
circo adorare etiam solebant, ut ex Tacito Claudiano 
supra meminimus. Verum ut " multi olim privati se 
in scrvitutem alteri vendiderunt, sic potest populus 
universus." equitem ergastularium et mangonem, 
patriae etiam tuos aeternum opprobrium ! quem servitu- 
tis tam foedum procuratorem ac lenonem publicum 
etiam servitia infima cujusvis catastrae abhorrere at- 
que conspuere deberent! Sane si populus hunc in mo- 
dum se regibus mancipasset, posset et reges eundem 
populum alteri cuivis domino mancipare, aut pretio 
addicere ; et tamen constat regem ne patrimonium 
quidem coronae posse alienare. Qui igitur coronae, 
quod a'iunt, et patrimonii regii, usum fructum solum a 
populo concessum habet, is populi ipsius manceps 
erit ? Non si pertusis auribus utrisque perforatus eques, 
non si gypsatis pedibus cursitares, tam esses omnium 
servorum vilissimus, quam nunc es, hujus tam puden- 
dae author sententiae. Perge poenas tuorum scelerum 
invitus, quod nunc facis, de temetipso sumere. Multa 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



687 



postremo de jure belli balbutis, quag hie locum non 
babent; nam neque Carolus nos bello vicit, et majores 
ejus, etsi maxime vicissent, isti tamen juri saepius re- 
nuntiaverant ; nee vero tam unquam victi fui'mus, ut 
nos in eorum nomen, illi in nostras leges, non vicissim 
jurarent; quas cum Carolus insigniter violasset, vel 
olim victorem, vel nunc regem perjurum, prius ab ipso 
lacessiti armis debellavimus : ex tua autem sententia 
" quod armis quseritur, transit in ejus dominium qui 
acquisivit." Sis itaque deinceps bac in parte quam 
voles verbosus, sis, quod in Solino dudum fuisti, exer- 
citator Plinianus, blateronum omnium verbosissimus, 
quicquid exinde argutaris, quicquid turbas, quicquid 
rabbinicaris, quicquid rauces, ad finem usque hujus 
capitis, id totum non jam pro rege devicto, sed pro 
nobis divina ope victoribus, contra regem desudare te 
scias. 



CAPUT VII. 

Propter duo incommoda sane maxima, et pro tuo 
pondere gravissima, potestatem populi esse regia ma- 
jorem proximo capite negasti : quippe, si concederes, 
quserendum regi aliud nomen esset, translato in popu- 
lum regis vocabulo ; et partitiones qusedam politicae 
conturbarentur : quorum alterum vocabularii dispen- 
dium foret, alterum tuorum crux politicorum. Ad ea 
sic a nobis responsum est, ut primum salutis et liber- 
tatis nostra?, deinde etiam nomenclature? tuae et poli- 
tices, babita nonnulla ratio esset. Nunc " aliis rati- 
onibus evincendum esse" a'is, " regem a sibi subjectis 
judicari non posse, quarum base erit maxime potens et 
valida, quod rex parem in suo regno non habeat." 
Quid a'is ? non babet rex in suo regno parem ? quid 
ergo illi duodecim vetustissimi Franciae pares? an 
fabulae sunt et nugae ? an frustra et ad ludibrium sic 
nominati ? Cave istam viris Gallia3 principibus con- 
tumeliam dixeris. An quia inter se pares? quasi vero 
nobilitatis totius Gallicee duodenos tantum inter se 
pares esse, aut dicendos idcirco Franciae pares, existi- 
mandum sit. Quod nisi revera sint regis Franciae pares, 
quod cum eo rempub. pari jure atque consilio adminis- 
tret, vide ne in Franciae regno potius quam in nostra 
repub. quod unicum tua interest, glossario illudatur. 
Age vero, fac planum, non esse regi in regno suo pa- 
rem. " Quia," inquis, " populus Romanus post reges 
exactos, duos constituit consules, non unum ; ut si 
unus peecaret, coerceri a collega posset." Vix fingi 
quicquam potuit ineptius : cur igitur unus duntaxat 
consulum fasces apud se habuit, non uterque', si ad 
alterutrum coercendum alter datus erat ? quid si etiam 
uterque contra rempub. conjurasset, an meliore loco res 
fuisset, quam si collegam alteri nullum dedissent ? 
Constat autem et ambos consules, et magistratus omnes, 
obtemperare senatui semper debuisse, quoties id e re- 
pub, esse patribus et plebi visum est. Hujus rei Mar- 
cum Tullium in oratione pro Sestio locupletissimum 
testem habeo : a quo simul brevissimam Romanae 



civitatis descriptionem accipe ; quam is et " sapientis- 
sime constitutam," et omnes bonos cives nosse earn 
oportere, dicebat, quod idem et nos dicimus. " Majores 
nostri, ciim regum potestatem non tulissent, ita magis- 
tratus annuos creaverunt, ut consilium senatus reipub. 
praeponerent sempiternum : deligerentur autem in id 
consilium ab universo populo; aditusque in ilium sum- 
mum ordinem omnium civium industriae ac virtuti 
pateret: senatum reipub. custodem, praesidem, propug- 
natorem, collocaverunt : bujus ordinis authoritate uti 
magistratus, et quasi ministros gravissimi consilii esse, 
voluerunt." Exemplo illustri esse poterunt Decemviri; 
qui cum potestate consulari et summa pruediti essent, 
eos tamen omnes simul, etiam renitentes, patrum au- 
thoritas in ordinem coegit ; consules etiam nonnullos, 
antequam magistratum deposuerant, hostes judicatos 
et contra eos sumpta arma esse legimus : hostilia enim 
facientem, esse consulem nemo putabat. Sic bellum 
contra Antonium consulem senatus authoritate est 
gestum : in quo victus poenas capitis dedisset, nisi 
Octavianus Caesar, regnum afFectans, evertendae reipub. 
consilium cum eo iniiset. Jam quod " hoc proprium 
esse " a'is " majestatis regalis, ut imperium penes 
unicum sit," baud minus lubricum est, et a te quidem 
ipso statim refellitur : " Judices," enim " Hebraeorum 
et singuli, et toto vitae spatio, imperium obtinebant ; 
scriptura quoque reges eos vocat ; et tamen a syne- 
drio magno" judicabantur. Ita fit, dum dixisse om- 
nia vis videri, ut nihil fere nisi pugnantia loquaris. 
Quaero deinde qualem tu formam regiminis esse 
dicas, cum Romanum imperium duo simul tresve 
imperatores habuerunt ; an imperatores tibi, id est 
reges, an optimates, an triumviri, videntur fuisse ? 
An vero dices Romanum imperium sub Antonio et 
Vero, sub Diocletiano et Maximiano, sub Constantino 
et Licinio, non unum imperium fuisse ? Jam ista tua 
" statuum tria genera " tuismet ipsius argutiis peri- 
clitantur, si reges isti non fuere : si fuere, non est 
ergo proprium imperii regii. ut penes unicum sit. 
" Alter," inquis, " horum si deliquat, potest alter de 
eo referre ad populum vel ad senatum, ut accusetur 
et condemnetur." Annon ergo judicat vel populus 
vel senatus ad quos alter ille refert? Si quid igitur 
ipse tribuis tibi, collega opus non erat ad judicandum 
collegam. Heu te defensorem, nisi execrabilis potius 
esses, plane miserandum ! undiquaque ictibus adeo 
opportunum, ut si forte per lusum destiuare quis vellet 
quovis te loco punctim ferire, vix esse credo ubi temere 
possit aberrare. " Ridiculum" esse statuis, " regem in 
se judices dare velle, a quibus capite damnaretur." 
Atqui ego non ridiculum, sed optimum, tibi oppono 
imperatorem Trajanum ; qui praefectum praetorio Sa- 
buranum, ciim ei insigne potestatis, uti mos erat, pu- 
gionem daret, crebro sic monuit: "Accipe bunc gladi- 
um pro me, si recte agam, sin aliter, in me magis, quod 
moderatorem omnium vel errare minus fas sit." Haee 
Dion et Aurelius Victor. Vides ut judicem in se sta- 
tuerit imperator egregius quamvis non parem. Hoc 
idem Tiberius per simulationem et vaniloquentiam for- 
tasse dixisset; Trajanum autem virum optimum et 
sanctissimum non id ex animo dixisse quod verum, 



688 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



quod jus et fas, esse sentiebat, scelestus pene sit qui 
arbitretur. Quanto justiiis ergo seuatui, cum viribus 
superior potuerit non parere, plane ex officii ratione 
paruit; et jure superiorem est fassus. De quo Plinius 
in panegyric©. " Senatus ut susciperes quartum con- 
sulatum et rogavit et jussit; imperii hoc verbum, non 
adulationis esse, obsequio tuo crede :" et paulo post, 
" hoec nempe intentio tua, ut libertatem revoces ac re- 
ducas." Quod Trajauus de se, idem senatus de Tra- 
jauo seusit, suamque authoritatem revera esse supre- 
mam ; nam qui imperatorem jubere potuit, potuit 
eundem et judicare. Sic Marcus Aurelius imperator, 
cum praefectus Syriae Cassius regmum ei eripere cona- 
retur, obtulit se in judicium vel senatui vel populo Ro- 
mano; paratus regno cedere, siquidem iis ita videretur. 
Jam vero quis rectius aut melius de jure regio existi- 
mare et statuere queat, quam ex ore ipso regum opti- 
morum. Profecto, jure naturali, rex quisque bonus vel 
senatum vel populum habet sibi semper et parem et 
superiorem: Tyrannus autem cum natura infimus om- 
nium sit, nemo non illi par atque superior existimandus 
est, quicunque viribus plus valet- Quemadmodum 
enim a vi olim ad leges, duce natura, deventum est, 
ita, ubi leges pro nihilo babentur, necessario, eadem 
etiam duce, ad vim est redeundum. " Hoc sentire," 
iuquit Cicero pro Sestio, " prudentiee est; facere, forti- 
tudiuis ; et sentire vero et facere, perfectoe eumulateeque 
virtutis." Maneat hoc igitur in natura, nullis parasi- 
torum artibus concutiendum, rege sive bono,sive malo, 
vel senatum vel populum esse superiorem. Quod et 
ipse confiteris, cum potestatem regiam a populo in 
regem transiisse dicis. Quam enim regi potestatem 
dedit, earn natura, ac virtute quadam, vel ut ita dicam 
virtualiter, etiam cum alteri dederit, tamen in se habet : 
Quae enim causae naturales isto modo per eminentiam 
quandam quidvis efficiunt, plus semper suae retinent 
virtutis quam impertiunt; nee impertiendo se exhauri- 
unt. Vides, quo propius ad naturam accedimus, eo 
evidentius potestatem populi supra regiam eminere. 
Illud etiam constat, populum, modo id ei liberum sit, 
potestatem regi suam simpliciter et mancipio nunquam 
dare, neque natura posse dare; sed tantiim salutis et 
libertatis publicae causa, quam cum rex procurare de- 
stiterit, intelligitur populum nihil dedisse ; quia certo 
fini tantummodo dedit, monente ipsa natura ; quem 
finem si neque natura, neque populus assequitur, non 
erit magis ratum quod dedit, quam pactum quodvis aut 
fcedus irritum. His rationibus firmissime probatur 
superiorem rege esse populum; unde argumentum hoc 
tuum, " maxime potens et validum, non posse regem 
judicari, quia parem in suo regno non habet, nee supe- 
riorem," diluitur. Id enim assumis, quod nullo modo 
conccdinius. " In populari statu," inquis, "magistra- 
tus, a populo positus, ab eodem ob crimen plecti potest ; 
i i statu aristocratico optimates, ab iis quos habent col- 
lcgas ; sed pro monstro est, ut rex in regno suo cogatur 
causam capitis dicere." Quid nunc aliud concludis, 
quam miserrimos esse omnium et stultissimos, qui re- 
gem sibi constituunt? Sed quamobrem, quseso, non 
poterit populus tarn regem punirc reum, quam popula- 
rem magistratum, aut optimates:' An putts omncs po- 



pulos, qui sub regibus vivunt, amore servitutis usque 
eo deperiisse, ut, liberi cum essent, servire maluerint, 
seque omnes, seque totos, in unius dominium viri saepe 
mali saepe stulti ita tradere, ut contra dominum, si sors 
ferat, immanissimum, nullum in legibus, nullum in 
natura ipsa, praesidium salutis, aut perfugium, sibi re- 
liquerint? Cur ergo regibus primo regnum ineuntibus 
conditiones ferunt ; cur leges etiam dant regnandi ? an 
ut sperni se eo magis atque irrideri paterentur ? adeone 
populum universum se abjicere, se deserere, sibi deesse, 
spem omnem in uno homine, eoque fere vanissimo, col- 
locare? Cur item jurant reges nihil se contra legem 
facturos? ut discant nempe miseri mortales, suo maxi- 
mo malo, solis licere regibus impune pejerare. Id quod 
haec tua nefanda consectaria demonstrant. " Si rex 
qui eligitur, aliqua vel cum sacramento piomiserit, 
quae nisi promisisset, fortasse nee sumptus esset, si 
stare nolit conventis, a. populo judicari non potest. Im- 
mo si subditis suis juraverit in electione, se secundum 
leges regni justitiam administraturum, et nisi id faciat, 
eos sacramento fidelitatis fore solutos, et facto ipso 
abiturum esse potestate, a Deo non ab hominibus 
poena in fallentem exposcenda est." Descripsi haec, 
non ob elegantiam, sunt enim incultissima ; nee quod 
amplius refutations iudigeant, etenim ipsa se refu- 
tant, se explodunt, se damnant apertissima falsitate sua, 
atque turpitudine ; sed eo feci, ut ob merita tua egregia 
commendarem te regibus : qui inter officia aulas tarn 
multa aliquem dignitatis locum, aut munus idoneum 
tibi, prospiciant : cum enim alii sint a rationibus, alii 
a poculis, alii a voluptatibus, tu iis commodissime sane 
eris a perjuriis; tu regiae non elegantiae, nam inscitus 
nimium es, sed perfidiae, summus arbiter eris. Veriim 
ut summam in te stultitiam summa improbitate con- 
junctam esse omnes fateantur, expendamus paulo ac- 
curatius praeclara ilia, quae proxime affirmasti : " Rex," 
inquis, " etsi subditis juraverit in electione, se secun- 
dum leg'es regnaturum," et ni faciat, " eos sacramento 
fidelitatis solutos fore, et se facto ipso abiturum potes- 
tate," abdicari tamen aut puniri ab iis non poterit. 
Qui minus, quseso, rex quam popularis magistratus ? 
quia in eo regimine populus non omnem transfundit 
potestatem suam ad magistratum. An hie igitur in re- 
gem ? cui regnum in se non diutius tradunt, quam id 
bene gesserit. Tarn itaque rex, juratus in leges, reus 
abjici aut punire poterit, quam popularis magistratus. 
Nam argumento illo pancratico omnis in regem trans- 
latae potestatis amplius uti non potes, quod tuis ipse 
machinis imprudens arietasti. Cognoscite nunc " aliam 
potentissimam et invictam ejus rationem cur subditi re- 
gem "judicare nequeant" quia legibus solutus est, quia 
leges solus rex omnes fert;" quae cum falsissima esse 
jam toties probaverim, haec etiam invicta tua ratio cum 
priore ad nihil um recidit. Caeterum rex ob delicta 
quaevis privata, utpote stuprum, adulterium, et similia, 
si raro plectitur, non tam justitia quam aequitate id fit, 
ne plus turbarum ex morte regis, et rerum mutatione, 
populo eveniat, quam boni ex uno atque altero vindi- 
cato. Ex quo vero omnibus gravis et intolerandus esse 
incipit, turn quidem, quoquo possunt modo, judicatum 
vel injudicatum omncs nationes tyrannum occidere fas 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO, 



689 



esse semper credidere. Unde Marcus Tullius in se- 
cunda Philippica de Caesaris interfectoribus. " Hi 
primi cum gladiis non in regnum appetentem, sed in 
regnantem, impetum fecerunt: quod cum ipsum factum 
per se praeclarum atque divinum est, turn est positum 
ad imitandum." Quam hujus tu dissimilis! " Homi- 
cidium, adulterium, injuria, non haec crimina regia 
sunt, sed privata." Euge, parasite, lenones jam omnes 
et propudia aulica hac voce demeruisti ; O quam lepide 
simul et parasitaris, et eadem opera lenocinaris ! " Rex 
adulter bene potest regnare, et bomicida, ideoque vita 
privari non debet, quia cum vita regno quoque exuere- 
tur; at nunquam hoc fuit probatum legibus divinis 
aut humanis, ut duplex vindicta de uno crimine su- 
meretur." Os impurum et infame ! eadem ratione nee 
populares magistratus, nee optimates, ne duplici poena 
afficerentur, ne judex quidem, aut senator, flagitiosus 
poenas capite ullas persolvere debebit ; cum vita enim et 
ipsi suo magistratu privarentur. Ut potestatem, sic 
majestatem etiam, populo adiraere et in regem conferre 
studes ; vicariam si vis et translatitiam, primariam 
certe non potes, uti nee potestatem. " Crimen," in- 
quis, " majestatis non potest committere rex adversus 
populum suum ; potest autem populus adversus re- 
gem." Et tamen rex propter populum duntaxat rex 
est, non populus propter regem. Populus igitur uni- 
versus, aut pars major, plus semper rege debet posse : 
negas, et calculos ponis, " plus potest quam singuli, 
bini, terni, deni, centeni, milleni, decies milleni." Esto. 
" Plus quam dimidia pars populi." Non repugno. 
" Quid si alterius dimidiae pars altera accedat, annon 
adhuc plus poterit ?" Minime. Progredere ; quid au- 
fers abacum, peritissime logista, an progressionem arith- 
meticam non calles ? Vertit rationes, et " annon rex 
cum optimatibus plus potestatis habeat," quaerit ; ite- 
rum nego, Vertumne, si pro optimatibus proceres in- 
telligas; quoniam accidere potest, ut nemo inter eos 
optimatis nomine sit dignus : fit etiam saepius, ut multo 
plures de plebe sint, qui virtute et sapientia proceres 
antecellant; quibus ciim pars populi major vel potior 
accedit, eos universi populi instar esse haud verear 
dicere. " At si plus quam universi non potest, ergo 
rex erit tantum sing-ulorum, non omnium universim 
sumptorum :" recte ; nisi ipsi voluerint. Rationes jam 
subducito ; comperies te imperite supputando sortem 
perdidisse. " Dicunt Angli penes populum jus majes- 
tatis ex origine et natura residere, hoc vero est omnium 
statuum eversionem inducere." Etiamne aristocratiae, 
et democratiae ? Credibile sane narras : quid si etiam 
gynaecocratiae, sub quo statu ferunt te domi propemo- 
dum vapulare, annon bearent te Angli, O perpusilli 
homo animi ? sed hoc frustra speraveris ; aequissime 
enim est comparatum, ut qui tyrannidem foris imponere 
omnibus cupias, ipse domi tuae servitutem servias tur- 
pissimam, et minime virilem. " Doceamus te oportet," 
inquis, " quid nomine populi intelligi velimus." Per- 
multa sunt, quae te doceri potius oporteret ; nam quae 
te propius attingunt, videris ea penitus nescire, et 
praeter literulas nihil unquam didicisse, ne percipere 
quidem potuisse. Hoc tamen scire teputas, nos populi 
nomine plebem solum intelligere quod " optimatum 



consessum abrogavimus." At illud est ipsum, quod 
demonstrat nos populi vocabulo omnes ordinis cujus- 
cunque cives comprehendere ; qui unam tantummodo 
populi curiam supremam stabilivimus, in qua etiam 
proceres, ut pars populi, non pro sese quidem solis, ut 
an tea, sed pro iis municipiis, a quibus electi iuerint, 
suffragia ferendi legitimum jus habent. Inveheris 
deinde in plebem, " caecam" earn et " brutam, regendi 
artem non habere; nil plebe ventosius, vanius, levins, 
mobilius:" Conveniunt in te optime haec omnia; et de 
infima quidem plebe sunt etiam vera, de media non 
item ; quo ex numero prudentissimi fere sunt viri, et 
rerum peritissimi : caeteros bine luxus et opulentia, 
inde egestas et inopia, a virtute et civilis prudentiae 
studio plerunque avertit. " Plures" nunc esse"modos" 
asseris " regum constituendorum, qui nihil populo 
debent hoc nomine," et imprimis illi, " qui regnum 
habent haereditarium." At vero servae sint istae na- 
tiones oportet, et ad servitutem natae, quae talem agnos- 
cant dominum, cui se sine assensu suo haereditate ob- 
venisse credant : pro civibus certe, aut ingenuis et 
liberis, haberi non possunt; nee rempub. habere ullam 
censendae ; quinimmo inter facultates, et possessiones 
quasi heri sui, et heiilis filii, numerandae sunt : nam 
quod ad jus dominii, quid distent a. servitiis etpecoribus 
non video. Secundo, " qui armis sibi regnum fecit, 
populum," inquis, " non potest authorem agnoscere 
imperii prolati vel usurpati." At nobis non de victore, 
sed de subacto rege, sermo nunc est ; quid victor pos- 
sit alias disputabimus; tu hoc age. Quod autem regi 
jus patrisfamilias antiquum toties attribuis, ut inde 
" absolutae potestatis in regibus exemplum" petas, dis- 
simillimum id esse jam saepius ostendi: Aristoteles etiam 
ille, quem crepas, vel initio politicorum, si legisses, idem 
te docuisset : ubi ait male eos judicare, qui inter pa- 
trem familias et regem parum interesse existimant ; 
" regnum enim a, familia, non numero solum, sed specie 
differre." Postquam enim pagi in oppida et urbes cre- 
vere, evanuit paulatim jus illud regale familice, et ag- 
nosci desitum est. Hinc scribit Diodorus, 1. 1. regna 
antiquitus dari non regum filiis, sed iis quorum maxima 
in populum beneficia extiterunt. Et Justinus, " Prin- 
cipio rerum, gentium nationumque imperium penes 
reges erat; quos ad fastigium hujus majestatis, non 
ambitio popularis, sed spectata inter bonos moderatio, 
provehebat." Unde perspicuum est, in ipso gentium 
principio, imperium paternum et haereditarium virtuti 
et popularistatimjuri cessisse. Quae origo imperii regii 
et ratio et causa maxime naturalis est. Ob earn enim 
ipsam causam primo homines in unum convenere, non 
ut unus omnes insultaret, sed ut, quocunque alterum 
laadente, ne lex deesset, neve judex inter homines, quo 
laesus aut defendatur aut saltern vindicetur. Dispersos 
olim homines et dispalatos disertus aliquis, et sapiens, ad 
vitam civilem traduxit: tu " hoc maxime consilio," in- 
quis, " ut in congregatos imperium haberet." Nim- 
brotum fortasse intelligis, qui tyrannorum primus fu- 
isse dicitur: vel haec tua solius malitia est, quae in illos 
olim magnos et excelsi animi viros cadere non potuit ; 
tuum solius commentum, a nemine, quod sciam, ante 
te traditum ; cum utilitatem et salutem generis humani, 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 






non sua conimoda, suumque domiuatum, respexisse 
illos primos urbium conditores antiquorum omnium 
monumentis proditum sit. Unum praeterire non pos- 
sum, quo tu veluti emblemate quodam exornare credo 
caetera hujus capitis voluisti : si " consulem," inquis, 
in judicium venire oportuisset, priusquam magistratu 
abisset, dictator ad boc creandus fuisset," cum initio 
dixeris, " ideo collegam ei fuisse datum." Sic tua sem- 
per inter se congruunt, et quid de quaque re dicas, 
quidve scribas, quam nullius momenti sit, paginis fere 
sing-ulis declarant. " Sub antiquis regibus Anglo- 
saxonicis plebem," a'is, " ad comitia regni nunquam 
vocari solitam esse." Si quis nostrorum boc affirmas- 
set, possem eum baud multo negotio erroris arguere ; 
tua ista peregrina affirmatioue res nostras ballucinante 
minus moveor. Et de communi regum jure quae ha- 
buisti ha?c fere sunt. Reliqua multa, nam et saepissime 
devius esse soles, praeterinitto, vel quae fundamento ni- 
tuntur nullo, vel qua? extra causam posita sunt : non 
euim id operamdo, ut tibi par esse loquacitate videar. 



CAPUT VIII. 



Si de communi regum jure, Salmasi, quae sentires, 
ea sine contumelia cujusquam protulisses, quamvis in 
bac rerum apud Anglos mutatione, tamen, cum libertate 
scribendi uterere tua, neque erat cur quisquam Anglo- 
rum tibi succenseret, neque in asserenda, quam tueris, 
senteutia minus effecisses. Nam si boc et Mosis et 
Christi praeceptum est, " omnes regibus suis tarn bonis 
quam malis subjici, sive Hispanos, sive Gallos, sire 
Italos, sive Germanos, sive Anglos, sive Scotos," quod 
supra (p. 127.) affirmabas, quid attinebat te, exterum 
et ignotum, jura nostra balbutire, eaque velle nobis e 
cathedra quasi schedulas tuas, et miscellanea, praelegere, 
quae utcunque legibus divinis debere cedere multis 
antea verbis docueras. Nunc satis constat non tarn 
tuopte ingenio ad causam regiam adjecisse te animum, 
quam partim pretio, pro ejus, qui te conduxit, copia 
maximo, partim spe praemii cujusdam majoris, conduc- 
tum fuisse, ut Anglos vicinorum nemini molestos, re- 
rum tantummodo suarum arbitros, libello infami lace- 
rares. Hoc nisi esset, quenquamne tanta credibile est 
impudentia esse autinsania, ut longinquus etextraneus 
immergere se gratis in res nostras, ad partes etiam se 
adjungere, non dubitaret? Nam quid tua, malum, re- 
fert, quid rerum Angli inter se gerant? Quid tibi vis, 
Ole, quid tibi quaeris? nihilne domi habes quod ad te 
pertinet? Utinam eadem haberes, quae habuit ille no- 
tissimus in epigrammate Olus; et fortasse habes; dig- 
nus profecto es. An uxor tua stimulatrix ilia, quae ut 
in gratiam exulis Caroli ha?c scriberes etiam currentem 
incitasse fcrtur, ampliores forte in Anglia professiones, 
et honoraria nescio quae, redeunte Carolo, ominata tibi 
est ? At scitote, foemina virque, non esse locum in An- 
glia neque lupo neque lupi domino. Unde mirum non 
• st te totiea in molossosnostrostantam rabiem efTudisse. 
Qnin redis ad illustres illos in Gallia titulos tuos, et 



imprimis ad famelicum ilium lupi dominatum, deinde 
ad consistorium illud regis Cbristianissimi sacrum ; ni- 
mis longo intervallo consiliarius peregre abes a patria. 
Verum ilia, quod plane video, neque te desiderat neque 
consilia tua; ne cum redires quidem paucis ab bine 
annis, et culinam cardinalitiam olfacere et sectari 
coepisses : sapit mehercule, sapit, teque oberrare semi- 
virum Galium cum uxore viro, et refertissimis inaniarum 
scriuiis, facile sinit; donee stipem sive equiti gram- 
matistae, sive illustri Hippocritico, satis largam alicubi 
gentium inveneris ; si cui fert animus regi vel civitati, 
doctorem erraticum et venalem mercede maxima liceri. 
Sed eccum tibi licitatorem ; vendibilis necne sis, et 
quanti, jam statim videbimus. " Pertendunt," inquis, 
" parricidae, regni Anglicani statum mixtum esse, non 
mereregium." Pertendit idem sub Edvardo6to Smithus 
noster, jurisconsultus idem bonus, et politicus, quern 
fuisse parricidam non dices, ejus libri fere initio, quern 
de repub. Anglicana scripsit ; neque id de nostra solum, 
sed de omni pene repub. idque ex Aristotelis sententia 
verum esse affirmat ; neque aliter ullam rempub. stare 
posse. At enim, quasi piaculum esse crederes quic- 
quam dicere sine repugnantiis, ad priores illas et jam 
tritissimas foede revolveris. " Nullam gentem" a'is 
" esse, nee fuisse unquam, quae regis appellatione non 
intellexerit earn potestatem quae solo Deo minor est, 
quaeque solum Deum judicem baberet;" et tamen paulo 
post fateris, " nomen regis datum vel olim fuisse ejus- 
modi potestatibus et magistratibus, qui plenum et libe- 
rum jus non haberent, sed a populi nutu dependens," 
ut " sufFetes Carthaginiensium, judices Hebraeorum, 
reges Lacedaemoniorum," et postremo " Arrag'onen- 
sium." Satisne belle tibi constas !' Turn quinque mo- 
narchic species ex Aristotele recenses, quarum una 
tan turn jus illud obtinuit, quod tu regibus commune 
omnibus esse dicis. De qua baud semel jam dictum est, 
nullum ejus exemplum vel ab Aristotele allatum, vel 
usquam extitisse : quatuor reliquas, et legitimas, et le- 
gibus fuisse minores, dilucide ostendit. Primum horum 
erat regnum Laconicum, et maxime quidem, ejus sen- 
tentia, regnum eorum quatuor quae legitima erant. 
Secundum erat barbaricum, hoc solo diuturnum quia 
legitimum, et volente populo : nolente autem, omnis 
rex continuo non erit rex sed tyrannus, si invito populo 
regnum retinuerit, eodem teste Aristotele, J. 5. Idem 
de tertia regum specie dicendum est, quos ille aesym- 
netas vocat, electos a. populo, et ad certum plerunque 
tempus, certasque causas, quales fere apud Romanos 
fuere dictatores. Quarta species eorum est, qui heroicis 
temporibus regnabant, quibus ob egregia merita rear- 
num ultro a populo delatum erat, sed legitimum tamen; 
neque vcrd hi nisi volente populo regnum tenebant, 
nee alia re magis differre has quatuor regni species a 
tyrannide ait, quam quod illic volente, hie invito, po- 
pulo regnetur. Quiuta denique regni species, quae 
iranfiaoCkua dicitur, et est cum summa potestate, quale 
tu jus regum omnium esse vis, a philosopho plane dam- 
natur, ut neque utile, neque justum, neque naturale, 
nisi sit ut populus ferre possit istiusmodi regnum, 
iisque deferat qui virtute aliis omnibus longe praelu- 
cent. Haec, 3tio politicorum, cuivis obvia sunt. Verum 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



691 



tu, credo, lit vel serael ingeniosus et floridus esse vide- 
rere, " has quinque monarchies species quinque zonis" 
mundi assimilare gestiebas ; " Inter duo extrema poten- 
tia regalis tres aliae species interpositae mag-is tempe- 
ratas videntur, ut inter zonas torridam et frigidam, quae 
mediee jacent." Festivum caput ! quam pulchras nobis 
similitudines semper concinnas ! Tu igitur, quo reg- 
num " absolutas potestatis" ipse damnas, ad zonam 
frigidam hinc ocjus amolire ; quae post adventum illic 
tuum plus duplo frigebit : nos interim a te novo Archi 
mede sphaeram illam, quam describis, mirabilem ex- 
pectamus, in qua duae sint extremae zonae, una torrida, 
altera frigida, tres mediae temperatas. " Reges," in- 
quis, " Laced aemoniorum in vincula conjici fas erat, 
morte multari fas non erat." Quare ? an quia damna- 
tum capite Agidem lictores et peregrini milites, rei no- 
vitate perculsi, regem ducere ad mortem non esse fas 
existimabant ? Et populus quidem Spartanus ejus mor- 
tem eegre tulit, non quod rex capitali supplicio affectus 
fuerit, sed quod bonus, et popularis, factione divitum 
judicio illo circumventus esset. Sic itaque Plutarch us, 
"primus rex Agis ab ephoris est morte multatus;" 
quibus verbis non quid fas, sed quid factum sit, tan- 
tummodo narrat. Nam qui regem in jus ducere, vel 
etiam in vincula possunt, illos non posse eundem sup- 
plicio ultimo afficere, puerile est credere. Accingeris 
jam tandem ad jus regum Anglicorum. " Rex," in- 
quis, " in Anglia unus semper fuit." Hoc eo dicis, quia 
modo dixeras, " rex non est nisi unus sit et unicus." 
Quid si ita est, aliquot sane quos credebam Angliae 
reges fuisse, non erant : nam ut multos omittam Sax- 
onicorum, qui consortes imperii vel filios vel fratres 
habuere, constat Henricum 2dum e stirpe Normanica 
cum filio regnasse. " Ostendant," inquis, " aliquod 
regnum sub unius imperio, cui non potestas absoluta 
adjuncta fuerit, in quibusdam tamen magis remissa, in 
aliis magis intenta." Ostende tu potestatem absolutam 
remissam, asine ; annon absoluta est summa ? Quomo- 
do ergo summa et remissa simul erit ? quoscunque 
fateberis reges cum remissa potestate esse, eos non esse 
cum absoluta facile 1 vincam ; inferiores proinde esse 
populo natura libero, qui et suus ipse legislator est, et 
potestatem regiam vel intendere, vel remittere, potest. 
Britannia an tota olim regibus paruerit, incertum : 
verisimilius est, prout tempora ferebant, nunc hanc, 
nunc illam, reipub. formam adhibuisse. Hinc Tacitus, 
" Britanni olim regibus parebant, nunc per principes 
factionibus et studiis trahuntur." Deserti a Romanis, 
xl circiter annos sine regibus fuere: " regnum" ita- 
que " perpetuum," quod affirmas, antiquitus non fuit ; 
fuisse autem haereditarium praecise nego ; quod et re- 
gum series, et mos creandi, eorum demonstrat : disertis 
enim verbis petuntur populi suffragia. Postquam enim 
rex consuetum j uramentum dedit, accedens archiepis- 
copus ad quatuor partes exstructi suggesti, toties rogat 
populum universum his verbis, " Consentire vultis de 
habendo ipsum regem ?" plane ac si Romano more 
dixisset, Vultis, jubetis, hunc regnare ? quod opus non 
foret, si regnum jure esse haereditarium; verum apud 
reges usurpatio pro jure saepissime obtinet. Tu Caroli 
bello toties victi jus regium jure belli fundare adniteris : 
2 y 



Gulielmus scilicet cognomento " Conquaestor" nos sub- 
jugavit. At sciunt qui in nostra historia peregrini non 
sunt, Anglorum opes uno illo praelio Hastingensi non 
adeo attritas fuisse, quin bellum facile instaurare po- 
tuissent. Sed regem accipere, quam victorem et tyran- 
num pati, malebant. Dant itaque jusjurandum Guli- 
elmo, se fidem ei servaturos : dat pariter Gulielmus 
j uramentum illis, admotus altari, se omnia, quae per est 
bonum regem, iis esse vicissim praestiturum. Cum 
falleret fidem, et rursus Angli arma caperent, diffisus 
ipse suis viribus, juravit denuo, tactis Evangeliis, anti- 
quas se leges Angliae observaturum. Si postea igitur 
Anglos misere afflixit, non id jure belli, sed jure per- 
jurii, fecit. Certum est, praeterea, jam multis ab hinc 
saeculis victos et victores in unam gentem coaluisse ; 
ut jus illud belli, si quod unquam fuit, antiquari jam- 
diu necesse sit. Ipsius verba morientis, quae ex libro 
Cadomensi fide dignissimo descripta reddimus, omnem 
dubitationem tollunt. " Neminem," inquit, " Anglici 
regni constituo haeredem." Qua voce jus illud belli, 
simulque illud haereditarium, cum ipso mortuo Guli 
elmo conclamatum atque sepultum est. Video nunc 
aliquam te in aula dignitatem, quod praedixi fore, esse 
adeptum; summus nimirum aulicae astutiae quaestor 
regius et procurator es factus. Unde hoc quod sequi- 
tur videris ex officio scribere, vir magnifice. " Siquis 
praedecessorum regum factionibus procerum, vel se- 
ditionibus plebis, coactus, aliquid de suo jure remiserit, 
id non potest successori obesse, quin id iterum sibi vin- 
dicet." Recte mones : itaque si quo tempore majores 
nostri aliquid de jure suo per ignaviam amisere, an id 
oberit nobis, eorum posteris ? Pro se illi quidem servi- 
tutem spondere, si vellent, pro nobis certe non poterant; 
quibus idem semper jus erit nosmet liberandi, quod illis 
erat in servitutem se cuilibet tradendi. Miraris " quid 
faciat," ut " rex Britanniae hodie debeat haberi pro 
magistratu tantiim regni, qui autem alia regna in 
Christianitate obtinent, plena et libera potestate polle- 
ant." De Scotia remitto te ad Buchananum, de Gallia 
etiam tua, ubi hospes esse videris, ad Francogalliam 
Hotomani, et Girardum Francise historicum, de caeteris 
ad alios, quorum nulli quod sciam independentes erant: 
ex quibus de jure regio longe alia poteras didicisse, 
quam quae doces. Cum jure belli tyrannidem regibus 
Angliae asserere nequiveris, facis jam periculum injure 
parasitico. Edicunt reges se regnare " Dei gratia :" 
quid si Deos se esse edixissent ? te, credo, flaminem 
facile erant habituri : sic pontifex Cantuariensis " Dei 
providentia" archiepiscopari prae se tulit. Tune ista 
fatuitate papam non vis esse regem in ecclesia, ut re- 
gem constituere plusquam papam in repub. possis ? At 
in regni statutis appellatur " rex dominus noster." 
Mirus tu quidem statutorum nostrorum nomenculator 
repente evasisti ; nescis tamen multos dici dominos qui 
non sunt ; nescis quam iniquum sit ex titulis honorariis, 
ne dicam adulatoriis, de jure et veritate rerum statuere. 
Eodem refer quod " parlamentum regis" dicitur : nam 
et fraenum regis vocatur; adeoque non magis rex par- 
lamenti est dominus, quam equus est sui dominus fraeni. 
At " cur non regis parlamentum, cum ab eo convoce- 
tur." Dicam tibi, quia convocatur etiam senatus a 



692 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



consule, neque propterea dominus illius concilii erat. 
Quod itaque rex pail amentum convocat, id facit pro 
officio suo ac munere, quod a populo accepit, ul etiam, 
quos convocat, eos de arduis reg-ni neg'otiis consuleret, 
non de suis : aut siqua dici sua possunt, de iis postremo 
semper loco agi solitum erat; ad arbitrium etiam par- 
lamenti, non suum. Nee vero ignorant, quorum id in- 
terest scire, parlameutum sive vocatum, sive non voca- 
tum, bis intra vertentem annum antiquitus ex lege 
potuisse convenire. At " regis etiam leges nuncupan- 
tur." Suntistae quidem ad regem pbaleras; rex autem 
Angliae legem ferre per se potest nullam ; neque enim 
ad leges ferendas, sed ad custodiendas a populo latas, 
constitutus erat. Tuque hie fateris " congregari" id- 
circo " parlamentum, ut leges conderet." Quapropter 
et lex terrae vocatur, et lex populi : unde Ethelstanus 
rex in praefatione legum, ubi omnes alloquitur, " vo- 
bis," inquit, " lege vestra" omnia largitus sum : et in 
formula juramenti, quo reges Angliae autequam crea- 
rentur obstringere se solebant, sic populus a rege stipu- 
latur. " Concedis justas leges quas vulgus elegerit?" 
respondet rex, " Concedo." Erras etiam tota Anglia, 
" qui regem, quo tempore parlamentum non habetur, 
plene planeque totum regni statum regio jure guber- 
nare" ais. Nam neque de bello, neque de pace, quod 
magni sit momenti, quicquam decernere, ne in jure 
quidem dicundo curiarum decretis intercedere potest. 
Jurant itaque judices nihil sein judiciis exercendis nisi 
ex lege facturos, etiamsi rex ipse dicto, aut mandato, 
vel etiam Uteris proprio annulo obsignatis, aliter impe- 
raret. Hiuc saepius in nostro jure rex " infans" dici- 
tur ; nee sua jura aut dignitates, nisi pueri aut pupilli 
in modum, possidere. Spec. Just. c. 4. sect. 22. Hinc 
etiam illud apud nos crebro dici solitum, " rex non 
potest facere injuriam." Quod tu hoc modo scelerate 
interpretaris, " non est injuria quam facit rex, quia in 
eo non punitur." Admirabilem hominis impudentiam 
et improbitatem vel hoc solo interpretamento quis non 
perspiciat ? " Capitis est imperare," inquis, " non 
membrorum ; rex parlamenti caput est." Siccine nu- 
garere, si cor tibi saperet ? erras iterum (sed quis finis 
errorum est tuorum ?) in quo regis consiliarios a parla- 
menti ordinibus non distinguis ; nam neque illos qui- 
dem omnes, horum vero nullos reliquis non probatos, 
eligere debebat rex ; in plebeium autem ordinem ut 
quenquam eligeret, id sibi ne sumebat quidem unquam. 
Quibus id muneris populus delegabat, per municipia 
singuli sufTVagiis omnium eligebantur; notissima lo- 
quor, eoque brevier sum. " Falsum" autem " esse" ais, 
" quod sanctae independentiae cultores asserunt, parla- 
mentum a populo fuisse institutum." Video jam quid 
sit cur papatum tanto impetu evertere contendas : alium 
ipse papatum in alvo, quod aiunt, gestas : quid enim 
aliud uxor uxoris, lupus ex lupa gravidus, nisi aut por- 
tentum, aut papatum aliquem novum, parturire te 
oportebat ? certe papa germanus quasi jam esses, sanc- 
tos et sanctas pro arbitrio facis; reges etiam omni pec- 
cato absolvis, ct, quasi strato jam hoste, ejus exuviis 
opimum te ornas. Verum, quia papa nondum per te 
plane cecidit, dum libri illius tui " de primatu," sc- 
unda et tertia, et fortasse quarta ct quinta, pars prodi- 



erit, qui multos mortales taedio prius enecabit, quam 
tu papam eo libro subegeris, sit satis interea, quoeso, ad 
antipapatum saltern aliquem posse ascendere; est altera, 
quam tu, prseter illam independentiam abs te irrisam, 
sanctorum in numerum serio retulisti, tyrannis regia : 
sanctae erg'd tvrannidis regiae tu pontifexerismaximus; 
et nequid desit tibi ad papales titulos, " servus etiam 
servorum" eris, non Dei, sed aulas; quoniam ilia Che- 
naani maledictio adhoesisse tibi ad praecordia videtur. 
" Bestiam " appellas " populum." Quid interim es 
ipse ? Non enim sacrum illud consistorium, neque 
sanctus ille lupus, te dominum suum aut populo ex- 
emerit autvulgo; neque effecerit, quin,sicuti es, teter- 
rima ipse bestia sis. Certe libri sacri prophetici mag- 
norum regum monarchiam et dominationem immanis 
bestiae nomine ac specie adumbrare solent. " Sub re- 
gibus ante Gulielmum," inquis, " nulla parlamenti 
mentio exstat." De vocabulo Gallicano altercari non 
libet: res semper fuit : et Saxonicis temporibus " Con- 
cilium Sapientum" vocari solitum concedis. Sapientes 
autem tam sunt plebis quam procerum ex numero. At 
" in statuto Mertonensi, vigesimo Hen. tertii, comitum 
et baronum tantum fit mentio." Ita te semper nomina 
decipiunt, qui tantum in nominibus aetatem omnem 
contrivisti ; nobis enim satis constat, et Quinque-por- 
tuum curatores, et decuriones urbicos, nonnunquam et 
mercatores, illo saeculo baronum nomine appellatos 
fuisse; neque dubium omnino est, quin parlamenti 
quosque senatores, quantumvis plebeios, aetas ilia jure 
multo potiore barones nuncupaverit : nam et anno 
ejusdem regis 52 tam nobiles, quam plebeios, fuisse 
convocatos, Marlbrigii statutum, sicut et reliqua fere 
statuta omnia, disertis verbis testantur : quos etiam 
plebeios comitatuum magnates Edouardus tertius in 
praefatione Statuti Stapli, quam perdocte pro me reci- 
tas, vocavit; eos nimirum " qui de singulis civitatibus 
pro toto comitatu venerant ;" qui quidem plebeium 
ordinem constituebant, neque erant proceres, aut esse 
poterant : Tradit etiam liber statutis illis vetustior, qui 
inscribitur, " Modus habendi j>arlamenta," licere regi 
cum plebe sola parlamentum habere, legesque ferre, 
quamvis comites et episcopi non adsiut ; non itidem 
licere regi cum comitibus et episcopis, si plebs non 
aderit. Hujus rei ratio quoque adjicitur; quia cum non- 
dum comites aut episcopi constituti essent, reges cum 
populo tamen parlamenta et concilia peragebant: deinde 
comites pro se tantum veniunt; plebeii pro suo quis- 
que municipio. Ex quo iste ordo universi populi no- 
mine adesse intelligitur; eoque nomine et potiorem, et 
nobiliorem, ordine patricio, omnique ex parte antepo- 
nendumesse. Sed" judicandi potestas," inquis, "penes 
domum plebeiam nunquam fuit." Neque penes regem 
Angliae fuit unquam : illud tamen memineris, principio 
omnem potestatem a populo fluxisse, et etiamnum pro- 
ficisci. Quod et Marcus Tullius de lege agraria pul- 
cherrime ostendit. " Cum omnes potestates, imperia, 
curationes, ab universo populo proficisci convenit, turn 
eas profecto maxime, quae constituuntur ad populi 
fructum aliquem, et commodum; in quo et universi 
deligant, quern populo maxime consulturum putent, et 
unusquisque studio et suffragio suo viam sibi ad bene- 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



693 



ficium impetrandum munire possit." Vides parlamen- 
torum veram originem, illis Saxonicis archivis longe 
vetustiorem. Dum in hac luce veritatis et sapientiae 
versari licebit, frustra nobis obscuriorum aetatum tene- 
bras ofFundere conaris. Quod non eo dici a me quis- 
quam existimet, quasi ego de authoritate et prudentia 
majorum nostrorum detrahi quicquam velim; qui in 
legibus bonis ferendis plus sane praestiterunt, quam vel 
ilia saecula, vel illorum ingenium et cultus, tulisse 
videatur : et quamvis leges raro non bonas irrogarent, 
ignorantiae tamen, et imbecillitatis humanae, sibi con- 
scii, hoc veluti fundamentum legum omnium posteris 
tradi voluerunt, quod et nostri jurisperiti omnes agnos- 
cunt, ut si qua lex aut consuetudo legi divinae aut 
naturali, aut rationi denique, repugnaret, ea ne pro lege 
sancita habeatur. Unde tu, etiamsi edictum fortasse 
aliquod aut statutum injure nostro, quo regi tyrannica 
potestas attribuatur, invenire posses, id, ciim et divinae 
voluntati, et naturae, et rationi, contrarium sit, intelli- 
gito, ex generali et primaria ista lege nostra quam at- 
tuli, rescindi apud nos, et ratum non esse ; verum tu 
jus nullum tale regium apud nos invenies. Cum enim 
judicandi potestas primitus in ipso populo fuisse con- 
stet, Anglos autem earn ab se in regem nulla lege re- 
gia tinquam transtulisse, (neminem enim judicare aut 
solet aut potest rex Anglise, nisi per leges provisas jam 
et approbatas: Fleta 1. 1. c. 17.) sequitur eandem ad- 
huc integram atque totam in populo sitam esse; nam 
parium domui aut nunquam traditam, aut recuperari 
jure posse, non negabis. At, " regis est," inquis, " de 
vico municipium," de eo " civitatem facere ; ergo illos 
creat qui constituunt domum inferiorem." At inquam, 
oppida et municipia regibus antiquiora sunt ; etiam 
in agris populus est populus. Jam Anglicismis tuis 
magnopere delectamur; Countfe Court, ®&e 'STu^n, 
fjunUreDa; mira nempe docilitate centenos Jacobaeos 
tuos Anglice numerare didicisti. 

" Quis expedivit" Salmasio suam Hundredam, 
Picamque '* docuit nostra verba conari? " 
" Magister artis venter," et Jacobaei 
Centum, exulantis viscera marsupii regis. 
" Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi," 
Ipse Antichristi qui modo primatum papae 
Minatus uno est dissipare sufflatu, 
" Cantabit" ultro cardinalitium " raelos." 

Longam deinde de comitibus et baronibus disserta- 
tionem subtexis; ut ostendas regem esse eorum omnium 
creatorem, quod facile concedimus, eoque nomine re- 
gibus plerunque serviebant ; ideoque ne gentis liberae 
deinceps judices essent recte providimus. " Potestatem 
convocandi parlamentum quoties libet, et quando vult 
dissolvendi, ex omni temporis memoria penes regem 
esse" affirmas. Tibiue igitur, balatroni mercenario et 
peregrino, perfugarum dictata exscribenti, an disertis 
legum nostrarum verbis, fides habenda sit, infra vide- 
bimus. " At," inquis, " reges Angliae parlamento ma- 
jus imperium habuisse alio argumento probatur, eoque 
invincibili; regis potestas perpetua est et ordinaria, 
quae per se sine parlamento regnum administrat; par- 
lamenti extraordinaria est authoritas, et ad certas tan- 
tum res, nee sine rege quicquam validi statuere ido- 



nea." Ubinam dicamus vim magnam latere hujus 
argumenti ? an in "ordinaria et perpetua?" Atqui 
minores multi magistratus habent potestatem ordina- 
riam et perpetuam, quos irenarcbas vocamus; an sum- 
mam ergo habent? Supra etiam dixi potestatem regi 
idcirco traditam a, populo fuisse, ut videret authoritate 
sibi commissa ne quid contra legem fiat; utque leges 
custodiret nostras, non ut nobis imponeret suas : regis 
proinde potestatem, nisi in regni curiis et per eas, esse 
nullam : immo populi potiiis ordinaria est omnis, 
qui per duodecim viros de omnibus judicat. Atque 
hinc est quod interrogans in curia reus, " Cui te per- 
mittis judicandum ?" respondet semper ex more atque 
lege, " Deo et populo," non Deo et regi, aut regis vi- 
cario. Parlamenti autem authoritas, quae, re et veri- 
tate, summa populi potestas in ilium senatum collata 
est, si extraordinaria est dicenda, id tantum propter 
ejus eminentiam dicitur ; alioqui, ut notum est, ipsi 
ordines appellantur, non extra ordinem ergo ; et si non 
actu, quod a'iunt, virtute tamen, perpetuum habent in 
omnes curias et potestatesordinarias jus atque authori- 
tatem ; idque sine rege. Gffendunt nunc limatulas, 
opinor, aures tuas nostrorum barbarae locutiones : 
cujus ego, si vacaret, aut operae pretium esset, tot bar- 
barismos hoc uno libro notare possem, quot, si pro 
merito lueres, profecto omnes puerorum ferulas in te 
frangi oporteret, nee tot aureos tibi dari, quotilli quon- 
dam pessimo poetae; colaphos longe plures. "Prodi- 
gium esse" a'is, " omnibus portenti sopinionum monstro- 
sius, quod fanatici personam regis a potestate ejus se- 
jungant." Equidem dicta singulorum non praestitero : 
personam autem si pro homine vis dici, separari a 
potestate ejus nee absurde posse Chrysostomus, haud 
fanaticus, docere te potuit; qui praeceptum Apostoli de 
potestatibus ita explanat, ut potestatem ibi et rem, non 
hominem, intelligi asserat. Quidni dicam regem, qui 
contra leges quid facit, id agere ut privatum vel ty- 
rannum, non ut regem legitima potestate proeditum ? 
Tu si uno in homine posse plures esse personas, easque 
ab ipso homine sensu et cogitatione separabiles, non 
intelligis, et sensus communis et latinitatis plane expers 
es. Sed hoc eo dicis, ut reges peccato omni absolvas, 
utque erepto papae primatu indutum te esse existime- 
mus : " Rex," inquis, " non posse peccare intelligitur, 
quia peccatum ejus pcena non consequitur." Quisquis 
ergo non punitur, non peccat; non furtum, sed poena, 
facit furem ; Salmasius grammaticus non facit soloecis- 
mos, quia manum ferulae subduxit : post eversum a, te 
papam sint isti sane pontificatus tui canones, vel certe 
indulgentiaa tuas, sive sanctae tyrannidis, sive sanctae 
servitutis, pontifex dici mavis. Congesta extremo 
capite maledictatua in " Anglicanas reipub. etecclesiae 
statum" praetereo : hoc enim habent tui similes, homo 
contemptissime ; ut quidque plurima dignum est 
laude, id solent per calumniam maxime vituperare. 
Sed de jure regio apud nos, seu potiiis de jure populi 
in regem, ne quid temere affirmasse videar, proferre ex 
ipsis monumentis non gravabor, quamvis pauca qui- 
demde multis, ea tamen quibus liquido satis constabit, 
Anglos ex lege et institute, et more etiam majoru.m 
suorum, regem nuper judicavisse. Post Romanorum 



694 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 






ex insula discessum, sui juris Britanni circiter annos 
40, sine regibus fuere ; quos pvimos crearunt, eorum 
nonnullos supplicio arFecere. Britannos eo nomine 
Gildas, contra quam tu facis, reprehendit, non quod 
reges necavere, sed quod injudicatos, vel ut ejus ver- 
bis utar, " non pro veri examinatione." Vortigernus 
ob incestas cum filia nuptias, teste Nennio bistorico- 
rum nostrorum post Gildam antiquissimo, damnatur 
"a beato Germano, et omni concilio Britonum," ejus- 
que filio Guortbemiro regnum traditur. Haud multo 
luec post Augustini obitum gesta sunt : unde vanitas 
tua facile redarguitur, qui supra asseruisti, primum 
omnium papam, et nominatim Zachariam, docuisse, 
judicari reges posse. Circa annum Christi 600, Mor- 
cantius, qui tunc temporis in Cambria regnabat, prop- 
ter csedem patrui ab Oudoceo Landavise episcopo in 
exilium damnatur ; quanquam is exilii sententiam, 
latifundiis quibusdam ecclesise donatis, redemit. Ad 
Saxones jam veniamus ; quorum jura cum reperien- 
tur, facta prsetermittam. Saxones Germanis oriundos 
memineris ; qui nee infinitam aut liberam potestatem 
regibus dedere, et de rebus majoribus consultare 
omnes solebant ; ex quibus intelligere est, parla- 
mentum, si solum nomen excipias, etiam apud Sax- 
onum majores summa authoritate viguisse. Et ab 
iis quidem concilium sapientum passim nominatur ; 
ipsis Etbelberti temporibus, quern " decreta, judiciorum 
juxta exempla Romanorum, cum concilio sapientum 
constituisse" memorat Beda; sic Edwinus Northanym- 
brorum, Inas occidentalium Saxonum, rex, " habito 
cum sapientibus et senioribus concilio," novas leges 
promulgavit; alias Aluredus edidit " ex concilio" item 
"prudentissimorum ; atque iis," inquit, " omnibus pla- 
cuit edici earum observationes." His atque aliis multis 
bujusmodilocis luce clarius est, delectos etiam ex plebe 
conciliis maximis interfuisse ; nisi siquis proceres solos 
sapientes esse arbitratur. Extat etiam apud nos peranti- 
quus legum liber, cui titulus " Speculum Justiciario- 
rum," in quo traditur primos Saxones, post Britanniam 
subactam, cum reges crearent, ab iis jusjurandum exi- 
gere consuevisse, se, ut quemvis alium e populo, legibus 
acjudiciis subjectos fore, cap. 1. sect. 2. Ibidem ait jus 
esse et aequum ut rex suos in parlamento habeat pares, 
qui de injuriis, quas vel rex vel regina fecerit, cognos- 
cerent ; regnante Aluredo sancitum legibus fuisse, ut 
singulis annis parlamentum bis Londini, vel eo saepius, 
si opus esset, haberetur. Quae lex cum pessimo juris 
neglectu in desuetudinem abiisset, duabus sub Edouar- 
do 3 ti0 sanctionibus renovata est. In alio etiam antiquo 
rnanuscripto, qui " Modus Parlamenti" inscribitur, base 
ltgimus; si rex parlamentum prius dimiserit, quam ea 
omnia transigantur quorum causa concilium indictum 
erat, perjurii reus erit; et juramentum illud, quod reg- 
num initurus dederat, violasse censebitur. Quomodo 
r nirij, quod juratus est, justas leges concedit, quas po- 
pulus elegerit, si earum cligendi facultatem petenti 
populo non dat, vel rarius parlamentum convocando, 
vel citius dimittendo, quam res populi ferunt ? Jus 
.lutein illud jurandum, quo rex Angliae se obligat, 
nostri jurisperiti pro sanctissima lege semper babuerc. 
Quod autem maximis reipub. periculis remedium in- 



veniri potest (qui solus convocandi parlamenti finis 
erat) si conventus ille magnus et augustissimus ad re- 
gis libitum stultissimi saepe et pervicacissimi dissolve- 
tur ? Posse a parlamento abesse, proculdubio minus est, 
quam parlamentum dissolvere : at rex per leges nos- 
tras, illo Modorum libro traditas, abesse a parlamento, 
nisi plane aegrotaret, neque potuit, neque debuit: et 
ne turn quidem nisi inspecto ejus corpore a duodecim 
regni paribus, qui de ad versa regis valetudine testimo- 
nium perhibere in senatu possent: solentne servi cum 
domino sic agere ? Contra vero plebeius ordo, sine quo 
parlamentum haberi non potest, etiam a rege convoca- 
tus potuit non adesse, et secessione facta, de repub. 
male gesta cum rege expostulare : quod et praedictus 
liber testatur. Verum, quod caput est, inter leges 
Edouardi regis vulgo Confessoris, una est eximia, quas 
de regis officio tractat; cui rex officio si desit, " nomen 
regis in eo non constabit." Hoc quid esset, ne non satis 
intelligeretur, Chilperici Francorum regis exemplum 
subnectit, cui idcirco regnum a populo abrogatum erat. 
Puniri autem malum regem ex legis hujus sententia 
oportere, significabat ille S. Edouardi gladius, cui no- 
men Curtana erat, quern in regum creatione et pompa 
gestare comes palatii solebat ; " in signum," inquit 
noster Matthasus Paris, " quod et regem, si oberret, ha- 
beat de jure potestatem cohibendi:" gladio autem ne- 
mo fere nisi capite punitur. Hanc legem, cum aliis boni 
illius Edouardi, Gulielmus ipse conqueestor, anno regni 
quarto, ratam babuit : et frequentissimo Anglorum con- 
cilio prope Verulamium religiosissime juratus confir- 
mavit: quo facto non solum jus omne belli, si quod in 
nos habuit, ipse extinxit, sed etiam hujus legis judicio 
atque sententiae se subjecit. Ejus etiam Alius Henri- 
cus cum in omnes Edouardi leges, turn in hanc quoque, 
juravit; atque iis duntaxat conditionibus, vivente ad- 
huc fratre Roberto natu majore, in regem est electus. 
Jurarunt eadem omnes deinceps reges, antequam insig- 
nia regni acciperent. Hinc Celebris ille et antiquus 
noster jurisconsultus Bractonus, 1. 1. c 8. " Non est 
rex, ubi dominatur voluntas, et non lex." Et 1. 3. c. 9. 
" rex est dum bene regit; tyrannus, dum populum 
sibi creditum violenta opprimit dominatione." Et 
ibidem, " exercere debet potestatem juris, ut vicarius et 
minister Dei: potestas autem injuria? diaboli est, non 
Dei: cum declinat ad injuriam rex, diaboli minister 
est." Eadem ferme habet vetustus alter jurisconsultus, 
libri illius author qui Fleta inscribitur, memor nempe 
uterque et legis illius Edvardinae, vere quidem regise, 
et regular illius in jure nostro primariae, a me supra 
dictae, qua nihil Dei legibus et rationi contrarium 
haberi pro lege potest ; uti nee tyrannus pro rege, 
nee minister diaboli pro ministro Dei. Cum itaque 
lex maxime ratio recta sit, siquidem regi, siquidem 
Dei ministro, obediendum est; eadem prorsus et ra- 
tione et lege, tyranno et diaboli ministro erit resis- 
tendum. Et quoniam de nomine saepius quam de 
re ambigitur, tradunt iidem, regem Angliae, etiamsi 
nomen regis nondum perdiderit, judicari tamen, ut 
quilibct e vulgo, et posse et debere. Bracton. 1. 1. 
c. 8. Fleta, 1. 1. c. 17. " non debet esse rege major 
quisquam in exhibitione juris ; minimus autem esse 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



695 



debet in judicio suscipiendo, si peccat," alii legunt, 
" si petat." Judicari igitur ciim debeat rex noster, sive 
tjranni sub nomine, sive regis, quos habeat item judices 
legitimos dictu difficile non debet esse. Eosdem con- 
sulere authores haud pejus erit. Bracton. 1. 2. c. 16. 
Fleta. 1. I.e. 17. " In populo regendo rex habet supe- 
riores, legem, per quam factus est rex, et curiam suam, 
videlicet comites et barones : comites dicuntur quasi 
socii regis, et qui habet socium, habet magistmm ; et 
ideo si rex fuerit sine fraeno, id est sine lege, debent ei 
frsenum ponere." Baronum autem nomine plebeium 
ordinem comprehendi supra ostendimus ; quin et pares 
etiam parlamenti eosdem fuisse dictos, libri legum nos- 
trarum antiqui passim tradunt : et imprimis liber ille, 
cui titulus Parlamenti Modus ; " Eligentur " inquit 
" de omnibus regni paribus 25," quorum erunt " quin- 
que milites, quinque cives," id est urbium delegati, 
" quinque municipes : et duo milites pro comitatu raa- 
jorem vocem habent in concedendo et contradicendo 
quam major comes Angliae;" et merito quidem ; illi 
enim pro tota aliqua provincia aut municipio suffragia 
ferunt, isti pro se quisque duntaxat. Comites autem 
illos " codicillares," quos vocas, et " rescriptitios," cum 
feudales jam nulli sint, ad judicandum regem a quo 
creabantur minime omnium idoneos esse, quis non vi- 
det ? Cum itaque jus nostrum sit, ut est in illo speculo 
antiquo, regem habere pares, qui in parlamento cog- 
noscant et judicent, " si quid rex in aliquem populi sui 
peccaverit," si notissimum sit licere apud nos cuivis e 
populo in minoribus quibusque curiis injuriarum ac- 
tionem regi intendere; quanto justius est, quantoque 
magis necessarium, si rex in universos peccaverit, ut 
habeat qui eum non refraenare solum et coercere, sed 
judicare et punire, possint. Pessime enim et ridicule 
institutam esse earn necesse est rempub. in qua de mi- 
nimis regum injuriis etiam privato cuivis cautum sit, 
de maximis nihil in commune provisum, nihil de salute 
omnium, quo minus liceat ei universos sine lege per- 
dere, qui ne unum quidem leedere per legem poterat. 
Comites autem esse regis judices, ciim ostensum sit 
neque decere neque expedire, sequitur judicium illud 
totum ad plebeium ordinem, qui et pares regni, et ba- 
rones, et populi totius potestate sibi delegata preediti 
sunt, jure optimo pertinere. Cum enim, (ut in nostro 
jure scriptum est, quod supra attuli,) plebs sola cum 
rege sine comitibus aut episcopis parlamentum consti- 
tuat, quia rex cum sola plebe, etiam ante comites aut 
episcopos natos, parlamenta peragere solebat, eadem 
prorsus ratione plebs sola supremam et sine rege, et 
regem ipsum judicandi, potestatem habebit, quod etiam 
ante ullum regem creatum, ipsa universi populi nomine 
concilia et parlamenta peragere, judicare, ferre leges, 
ipsa reges creare, solita erat; non ut populo domina- 
rentur, sed ut rem populi administrarent. Quem si rex 
contra injuriis afficere, et servitute opprimere, conatus 
fuerit, ex ipsa legis nostras sententia nomen regis in eo 
non constat, rex non est ; quod si rex non sit, quid est 
quod ei pares amplius quaeramus ? Tjrannum enim 
jam re ipsa ab omnibus bonis judicatum nulli non satis 
pares atque idonei sunt, qui supplicio mactandum esse 
pro tribunali judicent. Hoec cum ita sint, tot testimo- 



niis, tot legibus prolatis, abunde hoc demiim, quod erat 
propositum, evicisse arbitror, ciim judicare regem penes 
plebem jure optimo sit, cumque plebs regem de repub. 
deque ecclesia, sine spe ulla sanitatis, pessime meritum 
supplicio ultimo affecerit, recte atque ordine, exque re- 
pub, suaque fide, dignitate, legibus denique patriis, 
fecisse. Neque possum hie non gratulari mihi de ma- 
joribus nostris, qui non minore prudentia ac libertate, 
quam Romani olim, aut Graecorum praestantissimi, 
hanc rempub. instituerunt ; neque poterunt illi, siquid 
nostrarum rerum sentiunt, non sibi etiam gratulari de 
posteris suis ; qui tarn sapienter institutam, tanta liber- 
tate fundatam, ab impotenti regis dominatione, cum 
redacti pene in servitutem essent, tarn fortiter, tamque 
prudenter, vindicarunt. 



CAPUT IX. 

Satis jam arbitror palam esse, regem Angliae etiam 
Anglorum legibus judicari posse; suos habere judices 
legitimos; quod erat probandum. Quid tu porro ? 
(nam quae tu repetis, ad ea non repetam mea :) " ex 
rebus nunc ipsis propter quas comitia indici solent, pro- 
clive," inquis, " est ostendere regem esse supra parla- 
mentum." Sit sane proclive quantum voles, in quo 
praecipitem te dari jam statim senties. " Parlamen- 
tum," inquis, " congregari solet ad majoris momenti 
negotia, in quibus regni salus et populi versatur." Si 
rex parlamentum convocat ad procurandas res populi, 
non suas, neque id nisi assensu eorum atque arbitrio 
quos convocat, quid aliud est, obsecro, nisi minister 
populi et procurator? ciim, sine suffragiis eorum quos 
populus mittit, ne tantillum quidem, neque de aliis, 
neque de seipso, decernere possit. Quod etiam argu- 
mento est, officium esse regis, to ties parlamentum con- 
vocare, quoties populus id petit : quandoquidem et res 
populi, non regis, iis comitiis tractantur, idque populi 
arbitrio. Quamvis enim regis quoque assensus honoris 
causa peti soleret, quem in rebus minoris momenti ad. 
privatorum duntaxat commoda spectantibus poterat non 
praebere, poterat pro ilia formula dicere, " rex delibera- 
bit," de iis tamen, quae ad salutem omnium communem 
et libertatem pertinebant, prorsus abnuere nullo modo 
poterat; ciim id et contra juramentum regium esset, 
quo veluti lege firmissima tenebatur, et contra praeci- 
puum Magna3 Chartse articulum, c. 29. " Non negabi- 
mus, non differemus, cuiquamjus aut justitiam." Non 
negabit rex justitiam, negabit ergo j.ustas leges ? non 
cuiquam, an ergo omnibus? ne in curia quidem ulla 
minori, an ergo in senatu supremo ? an vero rex ullus 
tantum sibi arrogabit, ut quid justum sit, quid utile, se 
unum universo populo scire melius existimet? Ciim 
" ad hoc creatus et electus sit, ut justitiam faciat uni- 
versis," Bracton. 1. 3. c. 9. per eas nimirurn leges " quas 
vulgus" elegerit. Unde illud in archivis nostris 7. H. 
4. Rot. Pari. num. 59. " non est ulla regis praerogativa, 
quae ex justitia et aequitate quicquam derogat." Et 
reges olim acta parlamenti confirmare recusantes. Char- 



696 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



tarn videlicet Magi] am et hujusmodi alia, majores nostri 
sirpenumero armis coegere; neque propterea minus 
valere illas leges, aut minus legitimas esse, juvisperiti 
nostri statuunt : quandoquidem assensum rex iis decretis 
coactus praebuit, quibus jure atque sponte assentiri de- 
bebat. Tu dum contendis aliarum etiam gentium reges 
in potestate vel synedrii vel senatus, vel concilii sui 
teque fuisse, non nos in servitutem asseris, sed eas in 
libertatem : in quo idem facere pergis, quod ab initio 
fecisti, quodque faciunt pragmaticorum stultissimi, ut 
incauti seipsos in lite saepius contra veniant. At nos 
scilicet fatemur "regem, ubicunque absit, in parlamento 
tamen censeri praesentem vi potestatis : ergo quodcun- 
que illic agitur a rege ipso actum intelligi." Turn 
quasi bolum aliquem nactus esses aut mercedulam, 
illorum recordatioue Caroleorum delinitus, " accipi- 
mus," inquis, " quod dant:" accipe igitur, quo dignus 
es, magnum malum ; non eniin damus, quod sperabas, 
inde sequi " curiam illam non alia potiri potestate 
quam a rege delegata." Si enim dicitur, potestas regis, 
quaecunque ea sit, a parlamento abesse non potest, an 
suprema continuo dicitur? annon potius transferri in 
parlamentum potestas regia videtur, utque minor raa- 
jore contineri ? sane si parlamentum potest, nolente et 
invito rege, acta ejus et privilegia quibusvis data re- 
vocare atque rescindere, si ipsius regis praerogativas, 
prout videtur, circumscribere, si proventus ejus annuos 
et impensas aulas, si famulitium ipsum, si totam denique 
rem domesticam regis moderari, si vel intimos ejus con- 
siliarios atque amicos amovere, vel etiam e sinu abripere 
ad supplicium, potest, si cuivis denique de plebe a rege 
ad parlamentum quacunque de re provocatio est lege 
data, non itidem a parlamento ad regem, quse omnia et 
posse fieri, et fuisse saepius facta, ciim monumenta pub- 
lica, turn legum nostrarum consultissimi testantur, ne- 
miuem esse arbitror, modo mens ei sana sit, qui par- 
lamentum supra regem esse non fateatur. Nam in 
interregno etiam parlamentum viget; et quod historiis 
nostris testatissimum est, nulla haereditatis ratione ha- 
bita, saepe, quem sibi visum est, sutTragiis liberrimis 
regem creavit. Ut summatim dicam quod res est, par- 
lamentum est supremum gentis concilium, ad hoc ip- 
sum a populo plane libero constitutum, et potestate 
plena instructum, ut de summis rebus in commune con- 
sulat; rex ideo erat creatus, ut de consilio et sententia 
illorum ordinum consulta omnia exequenda curaret. 
Quod cum parlamentum ipsum edicto nuper suo pub- 
lice dcclararet, neque enim pro aequitate sua recusabat 
vel externis gentibus actionum suarum rationem ultro 
ac sponte reddere, ecce tibi, e gurgustio nullius homo 
authoritatis, aut fidei, aut rei, Burgundus iste Verna, 
(|iii summum Angliae senatum, jus patrium atque 
suuiii scripto asserentem, " detestandae et horribilis 
imposture" insimulat. Patriam mehercule tuam pu- 
debit, verbero, se tantae impudentiae homuncioncm 
genuisse. Sed habes fortasse quae salutariter monitos 
nos velis ; agedum, auscultamus. " Quas," inquis, 
"leges sancire potest parlamentum, in quo nee praesu- 
lom ordo comparetl'" Tune ergo, furiosc, praesules ex 
ecclesia extirpatum ibas, ut in parlamenta induceres? 
O bominem impium, et Satanae tradendum, quem neque 



ecclesia non ejicere hypocritam et atheum, neque ulla 
respub. recipere communem libertatis pestem atque 
labem, deberet ; qui etiam, quod nequit ex Evangelio, 
id ex Aristotele et Halicarnassaeo, deinde ex statutis 
papisticis pravissimorum temporum, probare adnititur, 
regem Angliae caput esse Anglicanae ecclesiae, ut epis- 
copos, compransores suos et necessarios nuper factos, 
quos ipse Deus exturbavit, novos iterum praedones et 
tyrannos, pro virili sua parte, sanctae Dei ecclesiae im- 
ponat; quorum universum ordinem, tanquam religioni 
Christianae perniciosissimum, eradicandum esse stir- 
pitus, editis autea libris clamose contenderat. Quis 
unquam apostata, non dico a sua, quae nulla certa est, 
sed a Christiana doctrina, quam ipse asseruerat, defec- 
tione tam fceda atque nefaria descivit ? " Episcopis de 
medio sublatis, qui sub rege, et ex ejus arbitrio de cau- 
sis ecclesiae cognoscebant,"quaeris " ad quos redibit ea 
cognitio." perditissime, verere tandem vel consci- 
entiam tuam ; memineris dum licet ; nisi si hoc sero 
nimis te moneo, memineris quam non impune tibi erit, 
quam inexpiabile demum sit, sanctum Dei spiritum sic 
illudere. Subsiste aliquando, et pone aliquem furori 
modum, ne te accensa ira numinis repente corripiat ; 
qui Christi gregem, unctosque Dei minime tangendos, 
iis bostibus et saevissimis tyrannis obterendos iterum et 
persultandos tradere cupis, a quibus elata modo et 
mirifica Dei manus eos liberavit : tuque ipse, nescio 
eorumne ad fructum ullum, an ad perniciem et obdura- 
tionem tuam, liberandos esse docuisti. Quod si jus 
nullum dominandi in ecclesiam est episcopis, certe 
multo minus est regibus ; quicquid hominum statuta 
edicunt. Sciunt enim, qui labris aliquanto plusquam 
primoribus evangelium gustarunt, ecclesiae guber- 
nationem divinam esse totam ac spiritualem, non civi- 
lem. " In secularibus " autem, quod a'is " supremam 
jurisdictionem habuisse regem Angliae," id falsum esse 
jura nostra ubertim declarant. Curias omnes ubi ju- 
dicia exercentur, non rex, sed parlamenti authoritas, 
vel constituit,vel tollit; in quibus tamen minimo cuivis 
e plebe licebat regem in jus vocare ; neque raro judices 
contra regem pronuntiare solebant ; id si rex vel inter- 
dicto, vel mandato, vel scriptis Uteris, impedire conare- 
tur, ex juramento et lege non parebant judices, sed 
ejusmodi mandata rejiciebant, et pro nihilo habebant : 
non poterat rex quenquam in vincula conjicere, aut 
ullius bona in publicum addicere ; poterat neminem 
supplicio punire,nisi in aliquam curiam prius citatum, 
ubi non rex sed consueti judices sententias tulere ; idque 
saepe, ut supra dixi, contra regem. Hinc noster Brac- 
tonus, 1. 3. c. 9. " regia potestas juris est, non injuriae; 
et nihil aliud potest rex, nisi id solum quod de jure 
potest." Aliud tibi suggerunt causidici tui, qui nuper 
solum verterunt; ex statutis nempe quibusdam haud 
antiquis sub Edvardo 4to, Heurico 7timo, Edvardo 6to, 
promulgatis : neque viderunt, quamcunque regi potes- 
tatem statuta ilia concedunt, earn a parlamento con- 
ccssam esse omnem et quasi precariam ; quam et eadem 
authoritas poterat revocare. Cur sic passus es nasuto 
tibi imponi, ut quo maxime argumento regis potestatem 
ex decretis parlamenti pendere demonstratur, eo abso- 
lutam esse et supremam probare te crederes ? Nam et 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



697 



monumenta nostra sanctiora testantur, reges nostros 
lion haereditati, non armis, non successioni, sed populo, 
suam omnem potestatem debere. Talis potestas regia 
Henrico quarto, talis ante eum Richardo secundo, a 
plebeio ordine concessa legitur ; Rot. Parlament. 
1 Hen. 4. num, 108. haud seciis atque rex aliquis 
praesidibus suis praefecturas et provincias edicto et 
diplomate solet concedere. Id nempe Uteris publicis 
consignari diserte jussit communium domus, " conces- 
sisse se regi Richardo, ut tali bona libertate" frueretur, 
" qualem ante eum reges Angliae habuere ; " qua cum 
rex ille " contra fidem sacramenti sui " ad eversionem 
legum abuteretur, ab iisdem orbatus regno est. Iidem 
etiam, quod et eadem rotula testatur, in parlamento 
edicunt, se, prudentia et moderatione Henrici 4ti 
confisos, " velle ac jubere ut in eadem magna liber- 
tate regia sit, quam ejus progenitores obtinuere." 
Ilia autem nisi fiduciaria plane fuisset, quemadmodum 
haec fuit, neresse est profecto et parlamenti illius or- 
dines, qui concederent quod suum non erat, ineptos ac 
vanos, et reges illos qui, quod suum jam erat, con- 
cessum ab aliis vellent accipere, et sibi et posteris in- 
jurios nimis fuisse : quorum utrumvis credibile non 
est. " Tertia pars," inquis, " regiae potestatis versatur 
circa militiam ; banc partem reges Anglise sine pari et 
semulo tractarunt." Neque hoc verius quam caetera quae 
perfugarum fide scripsisti. Primum enim pacis et 
belli arbitrium penes magnum regni senatum semper 
fuisse, et histories passim nostras, et exterorum, quot- 
quot res nostras paulo accuratiiis attigere, testantur. 
Sancti etiam Edvardi leges, in quas jurare nostri reges 
tenebantur, certissimam fidem iaciunt, capite de here- 
tochiis, " fuisse quasdam potestates per provincias et 
singulos comitatus regni constitutas, qui heretoches 
vocabantur, latine ductores exercitus," qui provincia- 
libus copiis praeerant, non " ad honorem coronae" so- 
lum, sed " ad utilitatem regni." Isti vero eligebantur 
"per commune concilium, et per singulos comitatus in 
pleno conventu populari, sicut et vicecomites eligi de- 
bent." Ex quo facile perspicitur, et copias regni et 
copiarum ductores in potestate populi, non regis, et 
antiquitus fuisse, et esse oportere : illamque legem 
aequissimam nostro in regno haud minus valuisse, 
quam olim in populari Romanorum statu valebat. De 
qua et M. Tullium audire non abs re fuerit. Philipp. 
10. " Omnes legiones, omnes copiae quce ubique sunt, 
Populi R. sunt. Neque enim legiones, quae Antoni- 
um consulem reliquerunt, Antonii potius quam reipub. 
fuisse dicuntur." Sancti autem Edouardi legem illam, 
cum aliis illius legibus Gulielmus ille conquaestor dic- 
tus, populo sic volente ac jubente, juratus confirmavit; 
sed et hanc insuper adjecit, c. 56. " Omnes civitates, 
burgos, castella, singulis noctibus ita custodiri, prout 
vicecomes, et aldermanni, caeterique praepositi per 
commune concilium ad utilitatem regni, melius provi- 
debunt;" et lege 62, " ideo castella, burgi, civitates 
aedificatce sunt ad tutionem gentium et populorum 
regni, idcirco et observari debent cum omni libertate, 
integritate, et ratione. " Quid ergo ? custodientur 
arces et oppida in pace contra fures et maleficos non 
nisi per commune concilium ejusdem loci, non custo- 



dientur in maximo belli metu contra hostes sive exter- 
nos sive intestinos, per commune concilium totius 
gentis ? sane illud nisi concedatur, neque " libertas," 
neque " integritas," nee " ratio" denique, in iis custo- 
diendis ulla essepoterit; neque earum rerum quicquam 
assequemur, quarum causa fundari primum urbes et 
arces lex ipsa dicit. Majores certe nostri quid vis po- 
tius regi quam sua arma et oppidorum praesidia tradere 
solebant; idem esse rati ac si libertatem ipsi suam 
ferocitati regum et impotentiae proditum irent. Cujus 
rei exempla in historiis nostris uberrima ciim sint, et 
jam notissima, inserere huic loco supervacaneum esset. 
At " protectionem rex debet subditis; quomodo eos 
protegere poterit, nisi arma virosque habeat in sua po- 
testate ?" At, inquam, habebat haec omnia ad utilita- 
tem regni, ut dictum est, non ad civium iuteritum et 
regni disperditionem : quod, et. Henrici 3tii temporibus, 
prudenter Leonardus quidam vir doctus, in episcoporum 
conventu, respondit Rustando papae nuntio et regis 
procuratori : " omnes ecclesise sunt domini papae, ut 
omnia principis esse dicimus, ad tuitionem, non ad 
fruitionem vel proprietatem," quod a'iunt; ad defensi- 
onem, "non ad dispersionem :" eadem et praedictae 
legis Edouardi sententia erat ; quid est hoc aliud nisi 
potestate fiduciaria; non absoluta ? qualem cum impe- 
rator bellicus fere habeat, id est delegatam, non plane 
propriam, non eo segnius populum, a quo eligitur, sive 
domi sive militiae defendere solet. Frustra autem par- 
lamenta, et impari sane congressu de legibus sancti 
Edouardi et libertate olim cum regibus contendissent, 
si penes regem solum arma esse oportere existimassent; 
nam et leges quamlibet iniquas ipse dare si voluisset, 
frustra se " charta" quantumvis " magna" contra fer- 
rum defendissent. " At quid proderit," inquis, " par- 
lamento militiae magisterium habere, cum ne teruncium 
quidem ad earn sustinendam queat, nolente rege, de 
populo cogere." Ne sit ea tibi cura : primum enim 
hoc falso ponis, parlamenti ordines il non posse sine 
rege tributa populo imponere," a quo et ipsi missi sunt, 
et cujus causam suscipiunt. Deinde non potest te fu- 
gere, tarn sedulum de alienis rebus percontatorem, sua 
sponte populum, vasis aureis atque argenteis con- 
flatis, magnam vim pecuniae in hoc bellum contra 
regem impendisse. Amplissimos exinde regum nos- 
trorum annuosreditus recenses : nil nisi " millies quin- 
genties quadragies" crepas ; " ex patrimonio regis 
maximas largitiones" fieri solitas ab iis " regibus, qui 
liberalitatis laudibus emicuerunt," avidus audieras: hac 
te illecebra, veluti Balaamum ilium infamem, proditores 
patriae ad suam causam perduxere; ut Dei populo male- 
dicere,etdivinisjudiciisobstrepere,auderes. Stulte; quid 
tandem regi injusto ac violento tarn immensse opes pro- 
fuere? Quid etiam tibi? ad quern nihil prorsus eorum, 
quae spe ingenti devoraveras, pervenisse audio, praeter 
unam illam crumenulam,vitreis globulis vermiculatam, 
et centenis aureolis confertam. Cape istam, Balaame, 
quam adamasti, iniquitatis mercedem, ac fruere. Pergis 
enim desipere ; " Erectio standarcli," id est " vexilli, 
ad regem solum pertiuet." Quapropter ? quia 

Belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce 

Extulit. 



G98 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



Tune vero nescis, grammatice, hoc idem cujusvis im- 
peratoris bellici munus esse ? At " ait Aristoteles, 
necesse est regi presidium adsistere, quo leges tueri 
possit; ergo oportet regem plus armis posse quam 
populum universum." Tales hie homo consequentias 
torquere solet, quales Ocnus funes apud inferos; quae 
nulli sunt usui, nisi ut comedantur ab asinis : aliud 
enim est praesidium a populo datum, aliud armorum 
omnium potestas, quam Aristoteles hoc ipso, quem pro- 
tulisti, loco a regibus abjudicat. Oportet, inquit, ha- 
beat rex tantam circa se manum armatorum, " quanta 
singulis Tel compluribus fortior sit, populo vero mi- 
nor; eivai 8e To<savTt\v 'usyyv wore eKaars /xev Kai ivbg icat 
avfXTrXuovwv Kparrw, tov Be irXrjS&g tjttio. Polit. 1. 3. C. 11. 
Alioqui sane, sub specie tuendi, possit statim et popu- 
lum et leges sibi subjicere. Hoc autem rexet tyrannus 
interest ; rex a senatu, et populo volente ac libente, 
quid satis est praesidii circa se habet contra hostes et 
seditiosos : tyrannus, invito senatu ac populo, vel hos- 
tium, vel perditorum civium, presidium sibi quam 
maximum comparare studet, contra senatum ipsum et 
populum. Concessit itaque parlamentum regi, ut alia 
omnia, sic standardi erectionem ;" non ut infesta patriae 
signa iuferret, sed ut populum contra eos defenderet, 
quos parlamentum hostes judicat ; si secus fuisset, ipse 
hostis judicandus erat ; cum juxta ipsam sancti Edou- 
ardi, vel, quod sanctius est, ipsam naturae legem, 
nomen regis perdiderit. Unde in praedicta Philippica, 
" amittit is omne exercitus et imperii jus, qui eo impe- 
rio et exercitu rempub. oppugnat." Neque licebat regi 
" feudales " illos "equites" ad " bellum " evocare, 
quod parlamenti authoritas non decrevisset; id quod 
ex statutis pluribus manifestum est. Idem de vecti- 
galibus et censu navali censendum ; quem imperare 
embus sine senatusconsulto rex non potuit : atque ita 
gravissimi legum nostrarum interpretes, annis abhinc 
plus minus duodecim, turn cum adhucfirmissimum erat 
regium imperium, publice statuerunt. Sic diu ante 
eos Fortescutius, Henrici 6ti cancellarius, juris nostri 
consultissimus; rex Angliae, inquit, neque leges mutare 
potest, neque tributa, nolente populo, imponere. Sed 
nee probaverit quisquam ullis testimoniis antiquorum 
" regni Angliae statum mere" esse " regalem. Habet 
rex," inquit Bractonus, " jurisdictionem super omnes." 
Id est in curia ; ubi regis quidem nomine, nostris au- 
tem legibus, jus redditur. " Omnis sub rege est;" id 
est singuli : atque ita se explicat ipse Bractonus locis 
a me supra, citatis. Ad ea quoe restant, ubi eundem 
vol vis lapidem, in quo vales ipsum, credo, Sisyphum 
delassare, ex supra dictis abunde respondetur. De 
caetero, si quando parlamenta suum regibus bonis ob- 
scquium amplissimis verbis citra assentationem et 
scrvitutem detulcre, id, quasi eodem modo tyrannis 
delatum esset, intelligi, aut populo fraudi esse, non 
debet; neque enim justo obsequio libcrtas imminuitur. 
Quod autem ex Edvardo Coco et aliis citas, " Angliae 
regmim absolutum est imperium," id est si ad ullum 
regem externum, aut Caesarem, respicias ; vel, ut 
Cambdenus ait, " quia in imperii clientela non est:" 
alioqui adjicit uterque imperium hoc consistere non 
" ex rege " solo, sed " ex corpore politico." Unde 



Fortescutius, de laud, legum Angl. c. 9. " rex," inquit, 
"Angliae" populum gubernat "non mera potestate 
regia, sed politica : populus enim iis legibus guberna- 
tur, quas" ipse fert. Externos hoc etiam scriptores 
non latebat. Hinc Philippus Cominaeus, author gra- 
vissimus, commentariorum quinto ; " inter omnia orbis 
terrae regna, quorum ego notitiam habeo, non est, mea 
quidem sententia, ubi publicum moderatius tractetur, 
neque ubi regi minus liceat in populum, quam in 
Anglia." Postremo " ridiculum est," inquis, " argu- 
mentum, quod afferunt, regna ante reges fuisse, quasi 
dicas lucem ante solem extitisse." At nos, 6 bone vir, 
non regna, sed populum, ante reges fuisse dicimus. 
Quem interim te magis ridiculum dicam, qui lucem 
ante solem extitisse, quasi ridiculum, negas. Ita dum 
in alienis curiosus esse vis, elementa dedidicisti. Mi- 
raris denique, " eos qui regem in comitiis regni vide- 
runt solio sedentem, sub aureo et serico ccelo, potuisse 
in dubium vocare, utrum penes regem an penes parla- 
mentum majestas sit." Tncredulos profecto homines 
narras, quos tam lucidum argumentum, e coelo ipso 
petitum, nihil movit. Quod tu ccelum aureum homo 
stoicus adeo es religiose et unice contemplatus, ut et 
coeli Mosaici et Aristotelici oblitus esse penitus videare : 
cum in illo " lucem ante solem exstitisse" negaveris, 
in hoc tres zonas temperatas esse supra docueris. Quot 
zonas in illo regis aureo et serico ccelo observaveris, 
nescio : hoc scio, te zonam unam, centum stellis aureis 
bene temperatam, ex ilia tua coelesti contemplatione 
abstulisse. 



CAPUT X. 

Cum hsec omnis controversia de jure, sive generatim 
regio, sive separatim regis Angliae, obstinatis partium 
contentionibus, quam ipsa rei natura difficilior facta 
sit, spero, qui studium veritatis factionibus anteponunt, 
iis ea me ex lege Dei, jureque gentium, ex institutis 
denique patriis, copiose attulisse, quae regem Angliae 
judicari posse, atque etiam capite puniri, indubitatum 
reliquerint. Cum caeteris, quorum animos aut super- 
stitio occupavit, aut mentis aciem anticipata regii splen- 
doris admiratio ita perstrinxit, ut nihil in virtute ac 
libertate vera illustre ac splendidum videre possint, sive 
ratione et argumentis agamus, sive exemplis, frustra 
contendimus. Tu vero, Salmasi, ut reliqua omnia, ita 
hoc etiam absurde admodum facere videris, qui cum 
omnes independentes omnibus probris onerare non de- 
sinas, regem ipsum quem defendis, maxime omnium 
independentem fuisse statuis : neque " regnum populo, 
sed generi, debuisse : deinde quem " capitis causam 
diccre coactum" initio graviter dolebas, eum nunc 
" inauditum periisse" quereris. At vero totam causae 
dictioncm ejus, fide summa Gallice editam, inspicere si 
libet, persuasum tibi aliud fortasse erit. Carolo certe 
cum per aliquot dies continuos amplissima loquendi 
facta copia esset, non ille quidem est ea usus ad objecta 
sibi crimina diluendum, sed ad judicium illud, ac ju- 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



699 



dices, omnind rejiciendum. Qui autem reus aut tacet, 
aut aliena semper respondet, eum non est injuria, si 
manifestus criminum sit, vel inauditum condemnari. 
Carolum si " mortem" a'is " plane egisse vitae respon- 
dentem," assentior : si dicis pie et sancte et " secure" 
vitam finiisse, scito aviam ejus Mariam, infamem foe- 
minam, pari in speciem pietate, sanctitate, constantia, 
in peg-mate occubuisse : ne animi praesentiae, quae in 
morte quibusvis e vulgo maleficis permagna saepe est, 
nimium tribuas: saepe desperado aut obfirmatus animus 
fortitudinis quandam speciem et quasi personam induit ; 
saepe stupor tranquillitatis : videri se bonos, intrepidos, 
innocentes, interdum et sanctos, pessimi quique non 
minus in morte quam in vita cupiunt ; inque ipsa scele- 
rum suorura capitali poena solent ultimam simulationis 
suae et fraudum, quam possunt speciocissime, pompam 
ducere ; et, veluti poetae aut histriones deterrimi, plau- 
sum in ipso exitu ambitiosissime captare. Nunc " ad 
istam quaestionem pervenisse te" a'is, " qua tractandum 
est, quinam fuerint illius regiae condemnationis prae- 
cipui autbores." Cum de te potius inquirendum sit, 
quomodo tu, homo exterus, et Gallicanus erro, ad quaes- 
tionem de rebus nostris, tibi jam alienis, babendam 
perveneris ? quo pretio emptus ? venim de eo satis 
constat. Te vero percontantem de rebus nostris quis 
demiim docuit? ipsi nimirum perfugae, & perduelles 
patriae, qui te hominem vanissimum nacti, mercede 
ad maledicendum facile adduxerunt. Data deinde 
tibi est aliqua aut furibundi cujuspiam sacellani semi- 
papistae, aut servientis aulici, de statu rerum scriptiun- 
cula; earn ut latine. verteres negotium tibi dabatur: 
hinc istae narrationes confectee, quas, si videtur, pau- 
lum excutiamus. " In hanc condemnationem non cen- 
tena-millesima pars populi consensit." Quid ergo 
caeteri, qui sese nolentibus tantum facinus fieri sunt 
passi ? an stipites, an trunci hominum, an forte quales 
illi in scena Yirgiliana, 

Purpurea intexti tollunt aulaea Britanni ? 

Non enim veros tu quidem Britannos, sed pictos ne- 
scio quos, vel etiam acupictos, videris mibi velle dicere. 
Cum itaque incredibile sit gentem bellicosam a tarn 
paucis, iisque infimis de plebe sua, sub jugum mitti, 
quod in narratione tua primum occurrit, id esse falsis- 
simum apparet. " Ordo ecclesiasticus erat ab ipso 
senatu ejectus." E6 miserior itaque tua est insania, 
necdum enim te sentis insanire, qui eos e parlamento 
quereris ejectos, quos tute ex ecclesia ejiciendos esse, 
libro longissimo scribis ? " Senatus alter ordo qui in 
proceribus consistebat, ducibus, comitibus, vicecomi- 
tibus, statione sua dejectus est." Et meritd, a nullo 
enim municipio missi pro se tantum sedebant, nihil 
juris in populum babebant, juri tamen ejus et libertati, 
suo quodam instituto, refragari in plerisque consueve- 
rant ; erant a rege constituti, ejus comites, et famuli, et 
quasi umbrae, quo amoto, ipsi necesse est ad plebem, 
unde orti sunt, redigerentur. " Una et deterrima por- 
tio parlamenti potestatem sibi vindicare non debuit re- 
ges judicandi." At plebeius ordo, quod te supra docui, 
non solum parlamenti pars erat potissima, etiam sub 
regibus, sed per se ipse parlamentum omnibus numeris 



absolutum et legitimum, etiam sine comitibus, nedum 
ecclesiasticis, constituebat. Atqui " ne tota quidem 
haec ipsa pars ad sententiam de regis capite ferendam 
admissa est." Pars ilia nempe non admissa, quern 
verbo regem, re bostem toties judicaverat, ad eum ani- 
mis atque consiliis palam defecerat. Parlamenti or- 
dines Anglicani cum iis qui a Scotiae itidem parlamento 
missi erant legati, idibus Januarii 1645, rescripserant 
regi, dolosas inducias et habenda secum Londini collo- 
quia petenti, non posse se eum in urbem admittere, 
donee is de bello civili tribus jam regnis ejus opera 
excitato, de caedibus tot civium ejus jussu factis reipub. 
satisfecisset; deque pace firma atque sincera iis con- 
ditionibus cavisset, quas ei utriusque regni parlamenta 
et tulerant saepius, et latura essent : ipse e contrario 
postulata eorum aequissima jam septies humillime ob- 
lata, responsionibus aut surdis repudiaverat, aut am- 
biguis eluserat. Ordines tandem post tot annorum 
patientiam ut ne fraudulentus rex, quam debellare 
rempub. in acie non valebat, earn in vinculis per dila- 
tiones everteret, et jucundissimum ex nostris dissidiis 
fructum capiens, de victoribus etiam suis restituris hos- 
tis insperatum sibi triumph um ageret, decern unt, se 
regis deinceps rationem non habituros, nullas se ei 
postulationes amplius esse missuros, aut ab eo accep- 
turos : post haec tamen decreta reperti sunt ex ipso or- 
dinum numero, qui invectissimi exercitus odio, cujus 
maximis rebus gestis invidebant, quemque, post ingen- 
tia merita, dimittere cum ignominia cupiebant, et 
ministris aliquot seditiosis, quibus misere serviebant, 
morem gerentes, opportunum sibi tempus nacti, cum 
eorum multi, quos a, se longe dissentire sciebant, ad 
sedandos presbjterianorum gliscentes jam tumultus, 
missi ab ipso ordine, in provinciis abessent, mira levi- 
tate, ne dicam perfidia, decernunt, inveteratum hostem, 
verbotenus duntaxat regem, nulla pene ab eo satisfac- 
tione prius accepta, aut cautione facta, ad urbem esse 
reducendum; in summam dignitatem atque imperium 
aeque esse restituendum, ac si de repub. praeclare mc- 
ritus esset. Ita religioni, libertati, foederi denique illi 
a se toties jactato regem praeponebant. Quid illi in- 
terea qui integri tam pestifera agitari consilia vide- 
bant ? An ideo deesse patriae, saluti suorum non pros- 
picere debuerant, eo quod istius mali contagio in 
ipsorum ordinem penetraverat ? At quis istos exclusit 
male sanos ? " Exercitus," inquis, " Anglicanos," id 
est, non externorum,sed fortissimorum et fidissimorum 
civium ; quorum tribuni plerique senatores ipsi erant, 
quos illi boni exclusi patria ipsa excludendos, et in 
Hiberniam procul ablegandos esse censuerant; dum 
Scotia interim dubia jam fide quatuor Angliae provin- 
cias suis finibus proximas magnis copiis insidebant, 
firmissima earum regionum oppida praesidiis tenebant, 
regem ipsum in custodia habebant: dum ipsi etiam 
factiones suorum atque tumultus, parlamento plusquam 
minaces, et in urbe et in agris passim fovebant, qui 
tumultus paulo post in bellum non civile solum, sed et 
Scoticum illud erupere. Quod si privatis etiam consiliis 
aut armis subvenire reipublicae laudatissimum semper 
fuit, non est certe cur exercitus reprehendi possit, qui 
parlamenti authoritate ad urbem accersitus imperata 



700 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



fecit; et regiorum factionem atque tumultum ipsi curiae 
saepius minitantem facile compescuit. In id autem 
discrimen adducta res erat, ut ant nos ab illis, aut illos 
a nobis opprimi necesse esset. Stabant ab illis Lon- 
dinensium plerique institores atque opifices, et minis- 
trorum factiosissimi quique; a nobis exercitus magna 
fide, modestia, virtute cognitus. Per hos cum retinere 
libertatem, rempub., salutem Iiceret, an haec omnia 
per ignaviam et stultitiam prodenda fuisse censes? 
Debellati regiarum partium duces arma quidem inviti. 
animum hostilem non deposuerant: omnibus belli re- 
novandi occasionibus intend ad urbem se receperant. 
Cum his, quamvis inimicissimis, quamvis sanguinem 
eorum avide sitientibus, presbjteriani, postquam non 
pennitti sibi in omnes tarn civilem quam ecclesias- 
ticam dominationem viderunt, clandestina consilia, et 
prioribus turn dictis turn factis indignissima consociare 
cceperaut: eoque acerbitatis processere, ut mallent se 
regi denuo mancipare, quam fratres suos in partem 
illam libertatis, quam et ipsi suo sub sanguine acqui- 
siverant, admittere; mallent tyrannum tot civium cru- 
ore perfusum, ira in superstites, et concepta jam ultione 
ardentem rursus experiri dominum, quam fratres, et 
amicissimos aequo jure ferre sibi pares. Soli indepen- 
deutes qui vocantur, et ad ultimum sibi constare, et sua 
uti victoria sciebant: qui ex rege hostem se fecerat, 
eum ex hoste regem esse amplius, sapienter, meo qui- 
dem judicio, nolebant: neque pacem idcirco non vole- 
bant, sed involutum pacis nomine aut bellum novum, 
aut aeternam servitutem prudentes metuebant. Exer- 
citum autem nostrum quo fusius infamare possis, nar- 
rationem quandam rerum nostrarum inconditam et 
strigosam exordiris : in qua tametsi multa falsa, multa 
frivola reperio, multa abs te vitio data, quae laudi du- 
cenda essent, buic tamen alteram ex adverso narra- 
tionem opponere nihil arbitror attinere. Rationibus 
enim hie non narrationibus certatur; atque illis utro- 
bique, non his fides habebitur. Etsane sunt ejusmodi 
res istae, ut nisi justa historia dici pro dignitate neque- 
ant. Melius itaque puto, quod de Carthagine Sallus- 
tius, silere tantis de rebus, quam pariim dicere. Neque 
committam ut non solum virorum illustrium, sed Dei 
praecipue maximi laudes, in hac rerum seri mirabili 
saepissime iterandas, tuis hoc libro intexam opprobriis. 
Ea igitur duntaxat, quae argumenti habere speciem vi- 
dentur, pro more decerpam. " Anglos et Scotos" quod 
ais " solenni conventione promisisse, se regis majes- 
tatem conservaturos," omittis quibus id conditionibus 
promisere; si salva nimirum religione et libertate id 
fieri posset : quibus utrisque ad exlremum usque spiri- 
tuni iniquus adeo et insidiosus rex iste erat, ut, vivente 
illo, et rcligionem periclitaturam, et libertatem interi- 
turam esse, facile appareret. Sed redis jam ad illos 
regii Bupplicii authores. " Si res ipsa ponderibus suis 
et momentis rccte aestimetur, exitus facti nefandi ita 
independentibiis imputari debet, ut principii et pro- 
gresses gloriam presbyteriani sibi possent vindicare." 
Audite, presbyteriani, ecquid nunc juvat, ecquid con- 
fert ad innoeentiae et fidelitatis opinionem vestrae, quod 
a rege puniendo abhorrcrc tantopere videremini? Vos 
isto regis actore verbosissimo, accusatore vestro, " plus- 



quam dimidium itineris confecistis ;" vos " ad quartum 
actum et ultra in dramate hoc desultando frigultientes 
spectati estis :" vos " merito regis occisi crimine notari 
debetis; ut qui viam ad ipsum occidendum muniistis;" 
vos "nefariam illam securim cervicibus ejus inflixistis, 
non alii." Vae vobis imprimis, si unquam stirps Caroli 
regnum posthac in Anglos recuperabit: in vos, mihi 
credite, cudetur haec faba. Sed Deo vota persolvite, 
fratres diligite liberatores vestros, qui illam calami- 
tatem atque certam perniciem ab invitis etiam vobis 
hactenus prohibuere. Postulamini vos item, quod 
" aliquot annos ante per varias petitiones jus regis im- 
minuere moliti estis, quod voces contumeliosas regi 
illis ipsis libellis quos nomine senatus regi porrexistis, 
insertas publicastis ; " videlicet " in ilia declaratione 
dominorum et communium, Maii 26, 1642, aperte quid 
sensistis de regis authoritate aliquot perduellionem spi- 
rantibus et insanis positionibus fassi estis. Hulloe op- 
pidi portas Hothamus, tali mandato a senatu accepto, 
venienti regi occlusit;" vos " quid rex pati posset, hoc 
primo rebellionis experimento cognoscere concupivis- 
tis." Quid hoc dici potuit accommodatius ad concili- 
andos inter se Anglorum animos, atque a rege penitiis 
abalienandos ? cum intelligere hinc possint, si rex re- 
vertatur, se non solum regis mortem, sed etiam peti- 
tiones quondam suas, et frequentissimi parlamenti acta 
de liturgia et episcopis abolendis, de triennali parla- 
mento, et quaecunque summopopuli consensu acplausu 
sancita sunt, tanquam seditiosas atque " insanas pres- 
byterianorum positiones" luituros. Sed repente mu- 
tat animum homo levissimus; et quod modo " rem 
ipsam recte aestimanti " sibi videbatur solis presbyteri- 
anis deberi, id nunc " rem " eandem " ab alto revol- 
venti" independentibiis totum deberi videtur. Modo 
presbyterianos " vi aperta atque armis contra regem 
grassatos esse," eumque ab iis " bello victum, captum, 
in carcerem conjectum" affirmabat, nunc omnem " hanc 
rebellionis doctrinam" independentium esse scribit. O 
hominis fidem et constantiam ! quid aliam jam opus est 
narrationem comparare contra tuam, quae ipsa sibi tarn 
turpiter decoxit? Veriim de te siquis dubitat, albusne 
an ater homo sis, tua legat quae sequuntur. " Tem- 
pus est," inquis, " pandere unde et quando proruperit 
inimica regibus secta: belli isti sane puritani sub reg- 
no Elisabethae prodire tenebris Orci, et ecclesiam inde 
turbare primum cceperunt, immo rempub. ipsam : non 
enim sunt minoresreipub. pestes quam ecclesiae." Nunc 
te vere Balaamum vox ipsa sonat ; ubi enim virus omne 
acerbitatis evomere cupiebas, ibi insciens atque invitus 
benedixisti. Hoc enim tota Anglia notissimum est, si 
qui ad cxemplum ecclesiarum vel Gallicarum vel Ger- 
manicarum, ut quasque reformatiores esse judicabant, 
puriorem cultus divini rationem sequi studebant, quam 
pene omnem episcopi nostri caeremoniis et superstitioni- 
bus contaminaverant, si qui tandem pietate erga Deum, 
aut vitae integritate caeteris praestabant, eos ab episco- 
porum fautoribus puritanos fuisse nominatos. Hi sunt 
quorum doctrinam regibus inimicam esse clamitas ; ne- 
que hi solum, nam " plerique reform atorum," inquis, 
" qui in alios disciplinae ejus articulos non jurarunt, 
hunc tamen unum videntur approbasse, qui regiae ad- 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



701 



versatur dominationi." Ita independentes, dum gra- 
vissime insectaris, laudas ; qui eos ab integerrima 
Christianorum familia deducis; et quam doctrinam in- 
dependentium esse propriam ubique asseris, earn nunc 
" reformatorum plerosque approbasse" confiteris ; eo 
usque demiim audacise, inipietatis, apostasiae provectus 
es, ut etiam episcopos, quos tanquam pestes et Anti- 
cbristos ex ecclesia radicitus evellendos, atque exter- 
minandos esse nuper docuisti, eos nunc " a, rege tuendos 
fuisse" affirmas, ne quid " sacramento" scilicet " in- 
augurations derogatum iret." Nihil est ulterius jam 
sceleris aut infamiae quo possis procedere, quam, quod 
solum superest, ut reformatam, quam polluis, religio- 
nem quamprimum ejures. Quod autem nos ais " om- 
nes sectas et haereses tolerare," id noli accusare ; quan- 
diu te impium, qui Christianorum sanctissimos, et ple- 
rosque etiam reformatos tibi adversos " e tenebris Orci 
prodire" audes dicere, te vanum, mendacem, et con- 
ductitium calumniatorem, te denique apostatam ecclesia 
tamen toleret. Tuas autem exinde sycophantias, quibus 
magnam reliqui capitis partem iusumis, et quae mon- 
strosa dogmata independentibus, ad cumulandam iis 
invidiam, affingis, quidni omittam ? cum neque ad 
causam hanc regiam omnino pertineant, et ea fere sint 
quae risum potius aut contemptum cujusvis quam refu- 
tationem mereantur. 



CAPUT XI. 

Ad undecimum hoc caput videre mihi, Salmasi, quam- 
vis nullo cum pudore, cum aliqua tamen conscientia 
futilitatis tuae accedere. Cum enim hoc loco perquiren- 
dum tibi proposueris " qua authoritate" pronuntiatum 
de rege fuerit, subjungis, quod a te nemo expectabat; 
" frustra id quaeri;" scilicet " quaestioni huic vix locum 
reliquit qualitas hominum qui id fecere." Cum igitur, 
quam es importunitatis et impudentiae in hac causa 
suscipienda compertus, tarn sis nunc etiam loquacitatis 
tibi conscius, eo a me brevius responsum feres. Quae- 
rentijam tibi " qua authoritate" ordo plebeius vel ju- 
dicavit ipse regem, vel aliis id judicium delegavit, re- 
spondeo suprema: supremam quemadmodum habuerit, 
docebunt te ea qua? tunc a, me dicta sunt, cum te supra 
hac ipsa de re graviter ineptientem redarguerem. Quod 
si tibi saltern crederes, posse te ullo tempore quod satis 
est dicere, non eadem toties cantare odiosissime soleres. 
Aliis autem delegare suam judicandi potestatem ordo 
plebeius eadem sane ratione potuit, qua tu regem, qui 
et ipse omnem potestatem a populo accepit, eandem 
aliis delegare potuisse dicis. Unde in ilia solenni con- 
ventione, quam nobis objecisti, cum Angliae turn Sco- 
tiae summi ordines religiose profitentur ac spondent, ea 
se supplicia de perduellibus esse sumpturos, " quibus 
utriusque gentis potestas judiciaria suprema, aut qui ab 
ea delegatam potestatem accepturi erant," plectendos 
judicarent. Audis hie utriusque gentis senatum una 
voce testantem se posse suam authoritatem judiciariam, 
quam " supremam" ipsi vocant, aliis delegare : vanam 



ergo et frivolam de ista potestatis delegatione contro- 
versiam moves. At " cum his," inquis, "judicibuse 
domo inferiori selectis juncti etiam judices fuere ex co- 
hortibus militaribus sumpti; nunquam autem militum 
fuit civem judicare." Paucissimis te retundam ; non 
enim de cive nunc, sed de hoste memineris nos loqui : 
quem si imperator bellicus cum tribunis militaribus 
suis, bello captum, et e vestigio, si ita videretur, oc- 
cidendum,pro tribunali judicare voluerit, an quicquam 
praeter jus belli aut morem censebitur fecisse? qui au- 
tem hostis reipublicae, et bello captus est, ne pro cive 
quidem is, nedum pro rege in ea repub. haberi potest. 
Hanc ipsa lex regis Eduardi sacrosancta sententiam 
tulit; quae negat malum regem aut esse regem, aut 
oportere regis nomine appellari. Ad illud autem quod 
ais non " integram " plebis domum, sed " mancam et 
mutilam de regis capite judicasse," sic habeto; eorum, 
qui regem plectendum esse censebant, longe majorem 
fuisse numerum, quam qui res quascunque in parla- 
mento transigere, etiam per absentiam caeterorum, ex 
lege debebant : qui cum suo vitio atque culpa abessent 
(defectio enim animorum ad communem hostem pes- 
sima absentia erat) nullam iis, qui in fide permanserant, 
afferre moram conservandae reipub. poterant ; quam 
vacillantem, et ad servitutem atque interitum prope 
redactam, populus universus eoruin fidei, prudentiae, 
fortitudini, primo commiserat. Atque illi quidem 
strenue rem gessere ; exulcerati regis impotentiae, fu- 
rori, insidiis sese objecere ; omnium libertati atque 
saluti suam posthabuere ; omnia antehac parlamenta, 
omnes majores suos prudentia, magnanimitate, con- 
stantia supergressi. Hos tamen populi magna pars, 
quamvis omnem illis fidem, operam, atque auxilium 
pollicita, ingratis animis in ipso cursu deseruit. Pars 
haec servitutem et pacem cum ignavia atque luxuria 
ullis conditionibus volebat : pars altera tamen liber- 
tatem poscebat, pacem non nisi firmam atque honestam. 
Quid hie ageret senatus ? partem hanc sanam, et sibi 
et patriae fidelem defenderet, an desertricem illam se- 
queretur? Scio quid agere oportuisse dices? non enim 
Eurylochus, sed Elpenor es, id est vile animal Circae- 
um, porcus immundus, turpissima servitute etiam sub 
foemina assuetus; unde nullum gustum virtutis et, quae 
ex ea nascitur, libertatis habes ; omnes esse servos cu- 
pis, quod nihil in tuo pectore generosum aut liberum 
sentis, nihil non ignobile atque servile aut loqueris aut 
spiras. Injicis porro scrupulum quod " et Scotiae rex 
erat, de quo statuimus," quasi idcircoin Angliaimpune 
quidvis illi facere liceret. Ut hoc caput denique prse 
cseteris elumbe atque aridum aliquo saltern facetedicto 
queas concludere, " duae," inquis, " sunt voculae iisdem 
ac totidem elementis constantes, solo literarum situ 
differentes, sed immane quantum significatione differ- 
entes, Vis, et Jus." Minime profecto mirum est, te 
trium literarum hominem tarn scitam ex tribus literis 
argutiolam exculpere potuisse ; hoc magis mirandum 
est quod toto libro asseris, duas res tam inter se caete- 
roqui " differentes," in regibus unum atque idem esse. 
Quae enim vis est unquam a regibus facta, quam non 
jus regium tu esse affirmasti ? Haec sunt quae novem 
paginis bene longis responsione digna animadvertere 



702 



PRO POPULO ANGLTCANO DEFENSIO. 



potui ; caetera sunt ea, quae aut identic! em repetita 
baud semel refutavimus, aut ad hanc causam discep- 
tandam nullum habent momentum. Itaque solito nunc 
brevior si sum, id non meae diligentiae, quam in hoc 
summo tasdio languescere non patior, sed tuae loquaci- 
tati, rerum et ration um tam cassae atque inani, impu- 
tandum erit. 



CAPUT XII. 

Yellem equidem, Salmasi, ne cui forte videar in 
regem Carolum, suo fato atque supplicio defunctum, 
iniquior esse aut acerbior, ut totum hunc de " crimini- 
bus ejus " locum, quod et tibi et tuis consultius fuisset, 
silentio praeteriisses. Nunc verd quoniam id mag-is 
placuit, ut de iis praefidenter et verbose diceres, faciam 
profecto ut intelligas, nihil a, te fieri incogitantius po- 
tuisse, quam ut deterrimam causae tuae partem, nempe 
ejus crimina, ad extremum refricanda et accuratius in- 
quirenda reservares ; quae, cum vera et atrocissima 
ostendero fuisse, et ejus memoriam omnibus bonis in- 
gratam atque invisam, et tui defensoris odium quam 
maximum in animis legentium novissime relinquant. 
" Duae," inquis, " partes ejus accusationis fieri pos- 
sunt; una in reprehensione vitae versatur, altera in 
delictis quae tanquam rex potuit committere. Et vitam 
quidem ejus inter convivia, et ludos, et foeminarum 
greges dilapsam facile tacebo : quid enim habet luxus 
dignum memoratu ? Aut quid haec ad nos, si tantum 
privatus fecisset? postquam voluit rex esse, ut nee sibi 
vivere, ita ne peccare quidem sibi solum potuit." Pri- 
mum enim exemplo suis vehementissime nocuit; se- 
cundo loco, quod temporis libidinibus et rebus ludicris 
impendit, quod erat plurimum, id totum reipub., quam 
susceperat gubernandam, subduxit ; postremd im- 
mensas opes, innumerabilem pecuniam non suam, sed 
publicam luxu domestico dilapidavit. Itaque domi 
rex malus primum esse coepit. Verum ad ea potius 
crimina " quae male regnando commisisse arguitur" 
transeanius. Hie doles " tyrannum" eum, " prodito- 
rem," et " homicidam" fuisse judicatum. Id non inju- 
ria factum demonstrabitur. Tyrannum autem prius, 
non ex vulgi opinione, sed ex Aristotelis et doctorum 
omnium judicio definiamus. Tyrannus est qui suam 
duntaxat, non populi utilitatem spectat. Ita Aristoteles 
ethicorum decimo, et alibi, ita alii plerique. Suane 
commoda an populi spectarit Carolus, pauca haec de 
multis, quae tantummodo perstringam, testimonio erunt. 
Cum aulas sumptibus patrimonium et proventus regii 
non sufficerent, imponit gravissima populo tributa ; 
iisr|uc absumplis, nova excogitavit ; non ut rempub. 
vel augeret, vel ornaret, vel defenderet, sed ut populi 
non unius opes vel unam in domum congerendas in- 
farct, rel una in domo dissiparet. Hunc in modum 
sine lege cum pen olaret omnia, quod unicum sciebat 
sibi frseno fore, parlamentum aut funditus abolere, aut 
convocatum baud siepius quam id suis rationibus con- 
duceret, sibi soli reddere obnoxium conatus est. Quo 



fraeno sibi detracto, aliud ipse populo fraenum injecit : 
Germanos equites, pedites Hibernos per urbes, perque 
oppida quasi in praesidiis, ciim bellum esset nullum, 
collocandos curavit : parumne tibi adhuc tyrannus vi- 
detur? In quo etiam, ut in aliis multis rebus, quod 
supra per occasionem abs te datam ostendi (quanquam 
tu Carolum Neroni crudelissimo conferri indignaris) 
Neroni perquam similis erat : nam et senatum ille e 
repub. se sublaturum persaepe erat minatus. Interea 
conscientiis religiosorum hominum supra modum gra- 
vis, ad caeremonias quasdam et superstitiosos cultus, 
quos e medio papismo in ecclesiam reduxerat, omnes 
adigebat ; renuentes aut exilio aut carcere multabat ; 
Scotos bis earn ob causam bello adortus est. Hue 
usque simplici saltern vice nomen tyranni commeruisse 
videatur. Nunc cur adjectum in accusatione proditoris 
nomen fuerit exponam. Cum huic parlamento saepius 
pollicitis, edictis, execrationibus confirmasset, se nihil 
contra rempub. moliri, eodem ipso tempore aut papis- 
tarum delectus in Hibernia babebat, aut legatis ad re- 
gem Daniae clanculum missis, arma, equos, auxilium 
diserte contra parlamentum petebat, aut exercitum 
nunc Anglorum nunc Scotorum pretio sollicitabat ; 
illis urbem Londinum diripiendam,his quatuor provin- 
cias Aquilonares Scotorum ditioni adjungendas pro- 
misit, si sibi ad parlamentum quoquo modo tollendum 
commodare suam operam vellent. Cum haec non suc- 
cederent, cuidam Dillonio perduelli dat secretiora ad 
Hibernos mandata, quibus juberentur omnes Anglos 
ejus insulae colonos repente armis adoriri. Haec fere 
proditionum ejus monumenta sunt, non vanis rumoribus 
collecta, sed ipsis literis ipsius manu subscripts atque 
signatis comperta. Homicidam denique fuisse, cujus 
acceptis mandatis Hiberni arma ceperint, ad quinquies 
centena millia Anglorum in summa pace nihil tale 
metuentium exquisitis cruciatibus occiderint, qui etiam 
tantum reliquis duobus regnis bellum civile conflarit, 
neminem puto negaturum. Addo enim quod in illo 
Vectensi colloquio hujus belli et culpam et crimen rex 
palam in se suscepit, eoque omni parlamentum notissi- 
ma confessione sua liberavit. Habes nunc breviter 
quamobrem rex Carolus et tyrannus et proditor et 
homicida judicatus fuerit. At " cur non prius," inquis, 
neque in illo " solenni faedere," neque postea cum de- 
dititius esset, vel " a presby terianis" vel " ab independen- 
tibus" sic judicatus est, sed potius," ut regem decuit 
accipi, omni reverentia est exceptus ?" Vel hoc solo 
argumento persuaderi cuivis intelligenti queat, non 
nisi sero tandem, et postquam omnia sustinuerant, om- 
nia tentaverant, omnia perpessi erant, deliberatum 
ordinibus fuisse regem abjicere. Tu id solus malitiose 
nimis in invidiam rapis, quod summam eorum patien- 
tiam, aequanimitatem, moderationem, fastusque regii 
tolerantiam nimis fortasse longam apud omnes bonos 
testabitur. At " mense Augusto qui praecessit ejus 
supplicium, domus communium, quae sola jam turn 
rcgnabat et independentibus erat obnoxia, scripsit literas 
ad Scotos, quibus testabatur, nunquam sibi in animo 
fuisse mutare statum, qui hue usque in Anglia obtiiiuerat 
sub rege, domo dominorum et communium." Vide jam 
quam non doctrinae independentium abrogatio regis 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



703 



attribuenda sit. Qui suam dissimulare doctrinam non 
solent, etiam potiti rerum profitentur " nunquam sibi 
in animo fuisse statum regni mutare." Quod si id 
postmodum in mentem venit, quod in animo non fuit, 
cur non licebat quod rectius, et e repub. mag-is esse 
videbatur, id potissimum sequi ? praesertim cum Carolus 
neque exorari, neque flecti ullo modo potuerit, ut jus- 
tissimis eorum postulatis, quaeque semper eadem ab 
initio obtulerant, assentiretur. Quas initio de religione, 
quas de jure suo sententias perversissimas tuebatur, 
nobisque adeo calamitosas, in iisdem permanebat : ab 
illo Carolo nihil mutatus, qui et pace et bello tanta 
nobis omnibus mala intulerat. Siquid est assensus, id 
et invite facere, et quamprimum sui juris foret, pro ni- 
hilo se babiturum haud obscuris indiciis significabat : 
idem aperte filius, abducta secum per eos dies classis 
parte, scripto, idem ipse per literas ad suos quosdam in 
urbe declarabat. Interea cum Hibernis Anglorum 
hostibus immanissimis, reclamante parlamento, fcedis 
conditionibus occulte pacem coagmentaverat, Anglos 
ad repetita inutiliter colloquia et pacem quoties invita- 
bat, toties contra eos omni studio bellum coquebat. 
Hie illi quibus concredita respub. erat, quo se verte- 
rent ? an commissam sibi nostram omnium salutem in 
manus bosti acerbissimo traderent ? An alterum belli 
prope internecini septennium, nequid pejus ominemur, 
gerendum nobis iterum, et exantlandum relinquerent ? 
Deus meliorem illis mentem injecit, ut prioribus de 
rege non movendo cogitationibus, non enim ad decreta 
pervenerant, rempub., religionem, libertatem ex ipso 
illo foedere solenni auteponerent ; quae quidem stante 
rege constare non posse, tardius illi quidem quam 
oportuit, sed aliquando tamen viderunt. Sane parla- 
mento nunquam non liberum atque integrum esse de- 
bet, ex re nata quam optime reipub. consulere ; neque 
ita se prioribus addicere sententiis, ut religio sit in 
posterum, etiamsi Deus dederit, vel sibi, vel reipub. 
plus sapere. At " Scoti non idem sentiunt, quinimo 
ad filium Carolum scribentes, sacratissimum regem 
appellant parentem ejus, et sacerrimum facinus quo 
necatus est." Cave plura de Scotis, quos non novisti ; 
nos novimus, cum eundem regem " sacerrimum," et 
homicidam et proditorem ; facinus quo tyrannus neca- 
retur, " sacratissimum" appellarent. Nunc regi quam 
dicam scripsimus, quasi parum commode scriptam 
cavillaris, et" quid opus fuerit ad elogiumilludtyranni 
addere proditoris et homicidae titulos," quaeris : " cum 
tyranni appellatio omnia mala comprehendat :" turn 
quis tyrannus sit grammatice et glossematice etiam 
doces. Aufer nugas istas, literator, quas una Aristote- 
lis definitio modo allatanullonegotiodifflabit; quaeque 
te doctorem docebit nomen tyranni, quoniam tua nihil 
interest praeter nomina intelligere, posse citra pro- 
ditionem et homicidium stare. Atqui " leges Angli- 
canae non dicunt proditionis crimen regem incurrere si 
procuraverit seditionem contra se vel populum suum." 
Neque dicunt, inquam, parlamentum laesae majestatis 
reum esse, si malum regem tollat, aut unquam fuisse, 
cum saepius olim sustulerit : posse autem regem suam 
majestatem laedere atque minuere, immo amittere, clara 
voce testantur. Quod enim in ilia lege sancti Edouardi 



legitur, " nomen regis perdere," nihil aliud est quam 
regio munere ac dignitate privari ; quod accidit Chil- 
perico Franciae regi, cujus exemplum illustrandae rei 
causa eodem loco lex ipsa ponit. Committi autem 
summam perduellionem tam in regnum, quam in re- 
gem, non est apud nos jurisperitus qui inficias ire pos- 
sit. Provoco ad ipsum, quern profers Glanvillanum. 
" Siquis aliquid fecerit in mortem regis, vel seditionem 
regni, crimen proditionis esse." Sic ilia machinatio, 
qua papistae quidem parlamenti curiam cum ipsis ordi- 
nibus uno ictu pulveris nitrati in auras disjicere 
parabant, non in regem solum, sed in parlamentum et 
regnum, ab ipso Jacobo et utraque ordinum domo 
" summa proditio " judicata est. Quid plura attinet 
in re tam evidenti, quae tamen facile possem, statuta 
nostra allegare ? cum ridiculum plane sit et ratione 
ipsa abhorrens, committi perduellionem in regem 
posse, in populum non posse, propter quem et cujus 
gratia, cujus, ut ita dicam, bona venia, rex est id 
quod est. Frustra igitur tot statuta nostra deblateras ? 
frustra in vetustis legum Anglicarum libris exerces te 
atque volutas; ad quas vel ratas vel irritas habendas 
parlamenti authoritas semper valuit ; cujus etiam so- 
lius est, quid sit perduellio, quid laesa majestas, inter- 
pretari : quam majestatem nunquam sic a populo in 
regem transiisse, ut non multo celsior atque angustior 
in parlamento conspiciatur, jam saepius ostendi. Te 
vero vappam et circulatorem Galium jura nostra in- 
terpretantem quis ferat ? Vos vero Anglorum per- 
fugae, tot episcopi, doctores, j urisconsulti, qui literaturam 
omnem et eruditionem vobiscum ex Anglia aufugisse 
praedicatis, adeone ex vestriim numero nullus causam 
regiam atque suam defendere satis strenue satisque 
latine sciebat, gentibusque exteris dijudicandam expo- 
nere, ut cerebrosus iste et crumenipeta Gallus mercede 
accersendus in partes necessario esset, qui regis inopis. 
tot doctorum et sacerdotum infantia stipati, patrocinium 
susciperet? magna, mihi credite, infamia etiam hoc 
nomine apud exteras nationes flagrabitis ; et merito 
vos utique cecidisse causa omnes existimabunt, quam 
ne verbis quidem, nedum armis aut virtute sustinere 
valuistis. Sed ad te redeo, vir bone, dicendi perite, si 
tute modo ad te rediisti ; nam sternentem te tam prope 
finem et de " morte" voluntaria nescio quid abs re 
somniantem offendo ; turn statim negas " cadere in 
regem suae mentis compotem, ut populum seditionibus 
distrahat, exercitus suos hostibus debellandos tradat, ut 
factiones contra se suscitet." Quae omnia cum et alii 
multi reges, et Carolus ipse fecerit, dubitare non potes, 
praesertim Stoicus, quin ut omnes improbi, sic omnes 
quoque tyranni prorsus insaniant. Flaccum audi. 

Quem mala stultitia, et qusecunque inscitia veri 
Ccecum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex 
Autumat, hsec populos, haec magnos formula reges, 
Excepto sapiente, tenet. — 

Si igitur insani cujuspiam facti crimen a rege Carolo 
amovere cupis, debebis improbitatem ab eo prius amo- 
vere quam insaniam. At enim " rex non potuit pro- 
ditionem in eos committere, qui vassalli ipsius et sub- 
jecti fuere." Primum, c^m aeque atque ulla gens 



•04 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



hominum liberi simus, nullum barbarum morem fraudi 
nobis esse patiemur: fac deinde " vassalos" fuisse nc-s 
regis, ne sic quidem tyrannum perferre dominum tene- 
mur. Omnis ea subjectio, ut ipsce leges nostra loquun- 
tur, " honesto et utili" definita est. Leg. Hen. 1. c. 
55. Fidem earn esse " mutuam," jurisconsulti omnes 
tradunt, si dominus " ligeam," quod aiunt, " defen- 
sionem" prastiterit : sin e contrario minium saevus 
fuerit, aut atrocem aliquam injuriam intulerit, " dis- 
solvi et penitus extingui omnem homagii connexio- 
nem." Hsec ipsa Bractoni verba et Fletse sunt. Unde 
vassallum est ubi lex ipsa in dominum armat; eumque 
singulari certamine a vassalo, si accident, interimen- 
dum tradit. Idem si universse civitati aut nationi in 
tyrannum non licuerit, deterior liberorum hominum con- 
ditio quam servorum erit. Nunc Caroli homicidia alio- 
rum regum partim homicidiis, partim juste factis excu- 
sare contendis. De laniena Hiberniensi " remittis lecto- 
rem ad opus illud regium Iconis Basilicse;" et ego te 
remitto ad Iconoclastem. " Captam Rupellam,"proditos 
Rupellenses, " ostentatam potius quam datam opem," 
imputari Carolo non vis : imputetur necne merito, non 
habeo dicere ; satis superque ab eo peccatum est domi, 
ne externa persequi curem : omnes interim ecclesias 
protestantium, quotquot ullo tempore se contra leges 
religionis hostes armis defenderunt, eodem nomine re- 
bellionis damnas. Quam contumeliam ab alumno suo 
sibi illatam quanti inter sit ad disciplinam ecclesias- 
ticam, suamque tuendam integritatem, non negligere, 
secum ipsi cogitent : nos etiam Anglos ea expeditione 
proditos acerbe tulimus. Qui enim regnum Angliae in 
tyrannidem convertere diu meditatus erat, non, nisi 
extincto prius militari civium robore ac flore, cogitata 
perficere se posse arbitrabatur. Aliud erat crimen 
regis quod ex jurejurando a regibus regnum capes- 
sentibus dari solito verba quaedam ejus jussu erasa 
fuerint, antequam jurasset. facinus indignum et 
execrandum ! impium qui fecit, quid dicam qui de- 
fendit ? nam quae potuit, per Deum immortalem, quae 
perfidia, aut juris violatio esse major? quid illi sanc- 
tius post sacratissima religionis mysteria illo jurejuran- 
do esse debuit ? Quis quasso sceleratior, isne qui in 
legem peccat, an qui, secum legem ipsam ut peccare fa- 
ciat, dat operam ? aut denique ipsam legem tollit, ne 
pcccasse videatur? Agedum, jus hoc religiosissime ju- 
randum rex iste violavit ; sed ne palam tamen violasse 
videretur, turpissimo quodam adulterio per dolum cor- 
rupit; et ne pejerasse diceretur, jus ipsum jurandum in 
perjurium vertit. Quid aliud potuit sperari, nisi injus- 
tissime, versutissime, atque infelicissime regnaturum 
esse eum, qui ab injuria tarn detestanda auspicatus 
regnum est; jusque illud primum adulterare auderet, 
quod solum impedimento sibi fore, ne jura omnia per- 
verteret, putebat. At enim " sacramentum" illud, 
sic enim defendis, " non magis obligare reges potest, 
quam leges; legibus autem se devinciri velle prae se 
ferunt, et secundum eas vivere, cum tamen re vera iis 
soluti sint." Quemquamne tarn sacrilcgo tamque in- 
cesto ore esse, ut sacramentum religiosissimum, tactis 
Evangeliis datum, quasi per se leviculum, solvi sine 
causa posse asserat? Te vcro, scelus atque portentum, 



ipse Carolus redarguit; qui ciim sacramentum illud 
non esse per se leve quidpiam existimaret, idcircd ejus 
religionem aut subterfugere, aut fallacia quavis eludere 
satius duxit, quam aperte violare; et corruptor jusju- 
randi bujus et falsarius esse maluit, quam manifeste 
perjurus. At vero "jurat quidem rex populo suo, ut 
populus vicissim regi, sed populus jurat regi fidelita- 
tem, non populo rex." Lepidum sane hominis com- 
mentum ! annon quijuratus promittit atque spondet, se 
quidpiam fideliter praestiturum, fidem suam iis obligat, 
qui jusjurandum ab eo exigunt? Rex sane omnis quoad 
prastanda ea quae promittit, et " fidelitatem," et " ob- 
sequium," et " obedientiam populo" jurat. Hie ad 
Gulielmum Conquaestorem recurris, qui ipse, non quod 
sibi collibitum erat, sed quod populus ab eo et mag- 
nates postulabant, id omne haud semel jurare est coac- 
tusse praestiturum. Quod si multi reges " coronam" 
solenni ritu non " accipiunt," et proinde non jurant, et 
tamen regnant, idem de populo responderi potest; cu- 
jus pars magna fidelitatem nunquam juravit. Si rex 
ob earn causam solutus erit, erit et populus. Quae 
autem pars populi jurabat, non regi solum, sed regno 
et legibus jurabat, a quibus rex factus est, et quidem 
eatenus tantum regi, quoad is leges observaret, " quas 
vulgus," id est, communitas sive plebeius ordo " elege- 
rit." Stultior enim sit, qui legum nostrarum loquelam 
ad puriorem semper latinitatem exigere velit. Hanc 
clausulam, " quis vulgus elegerit," Carolus, antequam 
coronam acciperet, ex formula juramenti regii eraden- 
dam curavit. At, inquis, " sine regis assensu nullas 
leges vulgus elegerit;" eoque nomine duo statuta 
citas, unum anni xxxvii. Hen. 6. c. xv. alterum " de- 
cimo-tertio" Edouardi iv. c. viii. Tantum autem abest, 
quo minus eorum alterutrum in libro statutorum usquam 
appareat, ut annis abs te citatis, neque rex iste neque 
ille ullum omnino statutum promulgaverit. Tu fidem 
jam perfugarum, statuta tibi dictantium, elusus que- 
rere; dum alii tuam admirantur impudentiam simul et 
vanitatem, quern non pudebat iis in libris versatissimum 
videri velle, quos inspexisse nunquam^ ne vidisse qui- 
dem tarn facile argueris. Clausulam autem istam jus- 
jurandi, quam tu perfricti oris balatro " commentitiam" 
audes dicere, " regis," inquis, " defensores fieri posse 
a'iunt," ut in aliquot antiquis exemplaribus extiterit, 
" sed in desuetudinem abiise, quod commodam signi- 
ficationem non baberet. Verum ob id ipsum majores 
nostri illam clausulam in hoc regis jurejurando posuere, 
ut significationem tyrannidi semper non commodam 
haberet. In desuetudinem autem si abierat, quod ta- 
men falsissimum est, quis neget multo meliori jure 
revocandam fuisse ? frustra, si te audiam : quippe " in 
regibus" mos ille "jurandi, qui hodie receptus est, 
cacremonialis est tantum." Atqui rex, cum episcopos 
aboleri oportuit, per illud jusjurandum non licere sibi 
causatus est. Atque ita sacramentum illud sanctissi- 
mum, quoties ex usu est regis, vel solidum quiddam et 
firmum erit, vel inane tantum et " cseremoniale." Quod 
ego vos obtestor, Angli, etiam atque etiam animadver- 
tatis : et qualem estis regem babituri, si redierit, vobis- 
cum rcputetis : non enim in mentem venisset unquam 
huic grammatico sceleroso et extraneo de jure regis 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



705 



Anglorum velle scribere, aut posse, nisi Carolus ille 
extorris, disciplina patria imbutus, unaque iili moni- 
tores ejus profligatissimi, quid hac de re scribi vellent 
omni studio suggessissent. Dictabant huic illi, "totum 
parlamentum proditionis in regem insimulari posse," 
vel ob hoc solum, quod " sine assensu regis declaravit 
omnes esse proditores qui arma contra parlamentum 
Angliae sumpserunt; vassallum scilicet regis esse par- 
lamentum;" jusjurandum vero regium " ceeremoniale 
tantum" esse, quidni " vassallum" etiam ? Ita neque 
legum ulla sanctitas, neque sacramenti ulla fides, aut 
religio, quicquam valebit ad cobibendam a, vita atque 
fortunis vestrum omnium vellibidinem effrsenati regis, 
vel ultionem exacerbati : qui ita institutus a pueritia est, 
ut leges et religionem, ipsam denique fidem vassallari 
sibi, et servire suis libitis arbitretur debere. Quanto 
prsestabilius esset, vobisque dignius, si opes, si liber- 
tatem, si pacem, si imperium vultis, a virtute, indus- 
tria, prudentia, fortitudine vestra indubitanter petere 
hoec omnia, quam sub regio dominatu incassum spe- 
rare ? Certe" qui sine rege ac domino parari haec posse 
non putant, dici non potest, quam abjecte, quam non 
honeste, non dico quam indigne, de se ipsi statuant : 
quid enim aliud nisi se inertes, imbecillos, mentis in- 
opes atque consilii, corpore atque animo ad servitium 
natos, fatentur esse ? Et servitus quidem omnis homini 
ingenuo turpis est; vobis autem post libertatem Deo 
vindice, vestroque marte recuperatam, post tot fortia 
facinora, et exemplum in regem potentissimum tarn 
memorabile editum, velle rursus ad servitutem, etiam 
praeter fatum, redire, non modo turpissimum, sed et 
impium erit, et sceleratum : parque vestrum scelus il- 
lorum sceleri erit, qui, servitutis olim iEgyptiacse desi- 
derio capti, multis tandem cladibus ac variis divinitus 
absumpti, liberatori Deo pcenas tarn servilis animi de- 
dere. Quid tu interim, servitutis conciliator? " Potuit," 
inquis, " rex proditionis et delictorum aliorum gratiam 
facere; quod satis evincit legibus eum solutum fuisse." 
Proditionis quidem, non quae in regnum, sed quae in 
se commissa erat, poterat rex, ut quivis alius, gratiam 
facere : poterat et quorundam aliorum fortasse malefi- 
ciorum, quanquam non id semper: an ideo qui malefi- 
cum servandi nonnunquam jus quoddam habet, idem 
continuo omnes bonos perdendi jus ullum habebit ? 
Citatus in curiam, eamque inferiorem, respondere non 
tenetur, nisi per procuratorem, rex, uti nee de populo 
quidem ullus ; an ideo in parlamentum citatus ab uni- 
versis non veniet? non ipse respondebit ? " Conari" 
nos, a'is, " Batavorum exemplo factum nostrum tueri," 
atque hinc, stipendio scilicet metuens, quo te Batavi 
luem atque pestem alunt, ne Anglos infamando etiam 
Batavos altores tuos infamasse videaris, demonstrare 
cupis quam "dissimile sit quod hi et quod illi fecerunt." 
Quam ego collationem tuam, quanquam in ea qusedam 
sunt falsissima, alia, ne salario fortasse tuo non satis 
litares, palpum olent, omittam. Negant enim Angli 
opus sibi esse, ut exterorum quorumvis exemplo facta 
sua tueantur. Habent leges, quas secuti sunt, patrias, 
hac in parte, sicubi terrarum aliae sunt, optimas : habent 
quos imitentur, majores suos, viros fortissimos, qui im- 
moderatis regum imperiis nunquam cessere ; multos 



eorum intolerantiiis se gerentes per supplicium necavere. 
In libertate sunt nati,sibi sufficiunt, quas volunt leges 
possunt sibi ferre; unamprae caeteris colunt antiquissi- 
mam, a natura ipsa latam, quae omnes leges, jus omne 
atque imperium civile, non ad regum libidinem, sed ad 
bonorum maxime civium salutem refert. Jam proeter 
quisquilias et rudera superiorum capitum restare nihil 
video ; quorum quidem acervum cum satis magnum in 
fine congesseris, nescio quid aliud tibi volueris, nisi 
hujus tuae fabricae ruinam quasi praesagire. Tandem 
aliquando post immensam loquacitatem rivos claudis ; 
" Deum testatus, te hanc causam tuendam suscepisse, 
non tantum quia rogatus, sed quia meliorem nullam te 
potuisse defendere, conscientia tibi suggessit." Roga- 
tus tu in res nostras tibi alienissimas, nobis non rogan- 
tibus, te interponas ? Tu populi Anglicani summos 
magistratus pro authoritate proque imperio sibi com- 
misso quod suum munus est in sua ditione agentes, 
nulla injuria lacessitus (neque enim natum te esse 
sciebant) indignissimis verborum comtumeliis laceres, 
libroque infami edito proscindas ? A quo autem roga- 
tus? An ab uxore, credo, quas jus regium, ut perhibent, 
in te exercet ; quaeque tibi, quoties libet, ut ilia Ful- 
via, cujus, ex epigrammate obscoeno, centones modo 
consuisti (p. 320.) "aut" scribe " aut pugnemus" ait: 
unde tu, ne sigma canerent, scribere malebas. An ro- 
gatus fortasse a Carolo minore, et perditissimo illo 
peregrinantium aulicorum grege, quasi alter Balaamus 
ab altero Balacco rege accersitus, ut jacentem regis 
causam, et male pugnando amissam maledicendo eri- 
gere dignarere ? Sic sane fieri potuit; nisi quod hoc 
fere interfuit ; ille enim vir sagax asino insidens locu- 
tuleio ad execrandum venit ; tu asinus loquacissimus 
insessus a foemina, et senatis, quos vulneraveras, epis- 
coporum capitibus obsitus, apocalyptical illi us bestise 
parvam quandam imaginem exprimere videris. Sed 
ferunt poanituisse te hujus libri, post paulo quam 
scripsisses. Bene profecto habet ; tuam itaque ut tes- 
tere omnibus poenitentiam, nihil tibi prius faciendum 
erit, quam ut pro libro tam longo unam tantummodo 
literam adhuc longam ex te facias. Sic enim poenituit 
Iscarioten ilium Judam, cui similis es ; idque novit puer 
Carolus, qui crumenam idcirco tibi, insigne illud Judae 
proditoris, dono misit, quod primum audierat, et postmo- 
dern sciebat, te apostatam esse et diabolum. Judas ille 
Christum prodidit, tu Christi ecclesiam ; episcopos Anti- 
cbristos esse docueras, ad eos defecisti : quos Inferis dam- 
naveras, eorum causam suscepisti : Christus omnes homi- 
nes liberavit, tu omnes ad servitutem redigere conatus 
es : ne dubita, postquam in Deum, in ecclesiam, in 
omne genus hominum tam impius fuisti, quiu te etiam 
idem exitus maneat,ut desperatione magis quam poeni- 
tentia ductus, tuique pertaesus, ab infelici tandem 
arbore pendens, sicut et par ille tuus olim, medius cre- 
pes; illamque malefidam et fallacem conscientiam, bo- 
norum et sanctorum insectatricem, ad destinatas tibi 
quandoque supplicii sedes praemittas. Hactenus, quod 
initio institueram ut meorum civium facta egregia con- 
tra insanam et lividissimam furentis sophistae rabiem, 
et domi et foris defenderem, j usque populi commune 
ab injusto regum dominatu assererem, non id quidem 



706 



PRO POPULO ANGLICANO DEFENSIO. 



regum odio, sed tyrannorum, Deo bene juvante videor 
jam mihi absolvisse : neque ullum sineresponso vel ar- 
gumentum, vel exemplum, vel testimonium ab adver- 
sario allatum sciens praetermisi, quod quidem firmitatis 
in se quidquam, aut probationis vim ullam habere vide- 
retur ; in alteram fortasse partem culpae propior, quod 
saepiuscule ineptiis quoque ejus, et argutiis tritissimis, 
quasi argumentis, respondendo, id iis tribuisse videar, 
quo dignse non erant. Unum restat, et fortasse maxi- 
mum, ut vos quoque, 6 cives, adversarium hunc vestrum 
ipsi refutetis; quod nulla alia ratione video posse fieri, 
nisi omnium maledicta vestris optime factis exuperare 
perpetud contendatis. Vota vestra et preces ardentis- 
simas Deus, cum servitutis haud uno genere oppressi, 
ad eum confugistis, benigne* exaudiit. Quae duo in 
vita bominum mala sane maxima sunt, et virtuti dam- 
nosissima, tyrannis et superstitio, iis vos gentium pri- 
mos gloriose liberavit ; earn animi magnitudinem vo- 
bis injecit, ut devictum armis vestris et dedititium re- 
gem judicio incly to judicare, et condemnatum punire, 
primi mortalium non dubitaretis. Post hoc facinus 
tarn illustre, nihil humile aut angustum, nihil non mag- 
num atque excelsum et cogitare et facere debebitis. 
Quani laudem ut assequamini, hac sola incedendum 
est via, si ut hostes bello domuistis, ita ambitionem, 
avaritiam, opes, et secundarum rerum corruptelas, 



quae subigunt caeteras gentes hominum, ostenderitis 
posse vos etiam inermes media in pace omnium morta- 
lium fortissime debellare : si, quam in repellenda ser- 
vitute fortitudinem preestitistis, earn in libertate con- 
servanda justitiam, temperantiam, moderationem prae- 
stiteritis. His solis argumentis et testimoniis evincere 
potestis, non esse vos illos, quos hie probris insequitur, 
" Perduelles, latrones, sicarios, parricidas, fanaticos;" 
non vos ambitionis aut alieni invadendi studio, non se- 
ditione, aut pravis ullis cupiditatibus, non amentia aut 
furore percitos, regem trucidasse, sed amore libertatis, 
religionis, justitiae, honestatis, patriae denique chari- 
tate accensos, tyrannum puniisse. Sin autem, quod, 
bone Deus, ne unquam siveris, aliter in animum in- 
duxeritis, si in bello fortes, in pace turpes eritis, qui 
manifestum sensistis numen vobis tam propitium, hos- 
tibus tam grave, neque exemplo tam insigni et memo- 
rando ante oculos posito, Deum vereri, et justitiam co- 
lere didiceritis ; quod ad me attinet, concedam sane et 
fatebor, neque enim potero negare, ea omnia, quae 
nunc maledici et mendaces de vobis pessime aut lo- 
quuntur aut sentiunt, vera esse : vosque multo iratio- 
rem brevi tempore experturi estis Deum, quam aut in- 
fensum inimici vestri, aut vos benignum et faventem 
et paternum, prae caeteris omnibus ten-arum orbis gen- 
tibus hodiernis, experti estis. 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



INFAMEM LTBELLUM ANONYMUM, 



CUI TITUI.US, 



REGII SANGUINIS CLAMOR AD CCELUM, ADVERSUS PARRICIDAS ANGLICANOS. 



[first published 1654. 



Quod in omni vita hominum, omnique genere officii 
est primum, ut grati semper erga Deum, ej usque rae- 
mores beneficiorum simus, turn praesertim, si qua supra 
spem votumque evenerint, uti, ob ea, singulares atque 
solennes gratias quamprimum referamus, id mihi nunc 
in ipso limine orationis tribus potissimum de causis 
video esse faciendum. Primum iis me natum tempori- 
bus patriae, quibus civium virtus eximia, et supergressa 
omnes majorum laudes magnitudo animi atque con- 
stantia, obtestata prius Deum, eundemque sequuta 
manifestissimum ducem, editis post orbem conditum 
exemplis factisque fortissimis, et gravi dominatione 
rempublicam, et indignissima servitute religionem libe- 
ravit. Deinde, cum extitissent subito multi, qui, ut 
est fere ingenium vulgi, egregie facta odiose crimina- 
rentur, unusque, pras caeteris, literatorio fastu, et con- 
cepta de se gregalium suorum opinione inflatus ac 
fidens, conscripto in nos libro admodum infami, tyran- 
norum omnium patrocinium nefarie suscepisset, me 
potius quam alium quemvis, neque tanti nominis ad- 
versario, neque tantis rebus dicendis visum imparem, 
ab ipsis patriae liberatoribus has partes accepisse com- 
muni omnium consensu ultro delatas, ut causam et 
populi Anglicani, et ipsius adeo libertatis, siquis un- 
quam alius, publice defenderem. Postremo, in re tarn 
ardua et expectationis plena, neque civium meorum de 
me sive spem, sive judicium illud fefellisse, neque ex- 
terorum quamplurimis cum doctis viris, turn rerum 
peritis non satisfecisse ; adversarium vero, quamvis au- 
dacissimum. ita profligasse, ut animo simul et existi- 
matione fracta cederet ; triennioque toto, quo postea 
vixit, multa licet minatus ac fremens, nullam tamen 
amplius molestiam nobis exhiberet, nisi quod vilissi- 
morum quorundam hominum obscuram operam subsidio 
sibi corrogaret, et laudatores nescio quos iueptos atque 
immodicos, ad inopinatam ac recentem infamiam, siquo 
modo posset, sarciendam subornaret; quod statim pate- 
bit. Hobc ego divinitus mihi accidisse bona, et magna 
quidem ratus, appositissima denique non modd ad per- 
2 z 



solvendas numini ex debito gratias, sed ad auspicium 
quoque optimum instituti operis capiendum, cum vene- 
ratione, ut facio, imprimis commemoranda esse duxi. 
Nam quis est qui patriae decora non arbitretur sua ? 
quid patriae cujusquam esse magis decori aut gloriae 
potest, quam libertas, non civili tantum vitas, sed divino 
etiam cultui restituta ? quae gens, quae civitas, aut fe- 
licius aut fortius hanc sibi utrobique peperit ? Etenim 
fortitudo, cum non tota in bello atque armis eniteat, 
sed contra omnes aeque formidines diffundat vim suam 
atque intrepida sit, Graeci quidem illi, quos maxime 
admiramur, et Romani, ad tollendos ex civitatibus ty- 
rannos nullam fere virtutem, praeter studium libertatis, 
expedita arma, promptasque manus attulere; caetera 
omnia in proclivi, inter laudes omnium et plausus, et 
laeta omnia, peragebant ; nee tarn ad discrimen et am- 
biguum facinus quam ad certameu virtutis gloriosissi- 
mum atque pulcherrimum, ad praemia denique et coro- 
nas spemque immortalitatis certissimam properabant. 
Nondum enim tyrannis res sacra erat ; nondum tyranni, 
Christi scilicet proreges atque vicarii repente facti, cum 
benevolentia non possent; caeca vulgi superstitione 
sese munierant : nondum clericorum malis artibus 
attonita plebs, ad barbariem ea foediorem, quae stoli- 
dissimos mortalium infamat Indos, degeneraverat. Illi 
enim noxios sibi daemonas, quos abigere non possunt, 
pro diis coluut; haec tyrannos ne liceret tollere cum 
posset, impotentissimos creabat in se deos ; et humani 
generis pestes in suam perniciem cousecrabat. At con- 
tra has omnes traditarum diu opinionum, religionum, 
calumniarum, atque terrorum densissimas acies, hoste 
ipso vehementius ab aliis formidatas, decertandum An- 
glis erat. Quae omnia, edocti melius, et proculdubio 
coelitus imbuti, tanta causae fiducia, tanta animorum 
firmitate ac virtute superarunt, ut cum numero populus 
sane magnus essent, animis tamen tarn erectis tamque 
excelsis, vulgus esse desierint; Britanniaque ipsa post- 
hac, quae tyrannorum terra ferax dicta olim est, nunc 
liberatorum long& feracior, perpetua saeculorum om- 



'OS 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO. 



nium celebratione dici meruerit. Quos non legum 
eontemptus aut violatio in effrasnatam licentiam efTudit; 
non virttitis et g'loriae falsa species, aut stulta veterum 
a?mulatio inani nomine libertatis incendit, sed inno- 
centia vitae, morumque sanctitas rectum atque solum 
iter ad libertatem veram docuit, legum et religionis 
justissima defensio necessario armavit. Atque illi qui- 
dem Deo perinde confisi, servitutem honestissimis armis 
pepulere : cujus laudis etsi nullam partem mihi ven- 
dico, a reprehensioue tamen vel timiditatis vel ignavise, 
siqua infertur, facile me tueor. Neque enim militias 
labores et pericula sic defugi, ut non alia ratione, et 
operam, multo utiliorem, nee minore cum periculo meis 
civibus navarim, et animum dubiis in rebus neque de- 
missum unquam, neque ullius invidiae, vel etiam mortis 
plus aequo metuentem praestiterim. Nam cum ab ado- 
lescentulo humanioribus essem studiis, ut qui maxime 
deditus, et ingenio semper quam corpore validior, post- 
habita castrensi opera, qua me gregarius quilibet ro- 
bustior facile superasset, ad ea me contuli, quibus plus 
potui ; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non 
deteriore, ad rationes patriae, causamque hanc praestan- 
tissimam, quantum maxime possem momentum acce- 
derem. Sic itaque existimabam, si illos Deus res ge- 
rere tam praeclaras voluit, esse itidem alios a quibus 
gestas dici pro dignitate atque ornari, et defensam ar- 
mis veritatem, ratione etiam, (quod unicum est presi- 
dium vere ac proprie humanum,) defendi voluerit. 
Unde est, ut dum illos invictos acie viros admiror, de 
mea interim provincia non querar ; immo mihi gratuler, 
et gratias iusuper largitori munerum coplesti iterum 
summas agam obtigisse talem, ut aliis in videnda multo 
magis, quam mihi ullo modo poenitentia videatur. Et 
me quidem nemini vel infimo libens confero ; nee ver- 
bum de me ullum insolentius facio; ad causam vero 
omnium nobilissimam, ac celeberrimam, et hoc simul 
defensores ipsos defendendi munus ornatissimum ip- 
sorum mihi sufFragiis attributum atque judiciis, quoties 
animum refero, fateor me mihi vix temperare, quin 
altius atque audentius quam pro exordii ratione in- 
surgam ; et grandius quiddam, quod eloqui possim, 
quaeram : quandoquidem oratores illos antiquos et in- 
signes, quantum ego ab illis non dicendi solum sed et 
loquendi facilitate, (in extranea praesertim, qua utor 
necessario, lingua, et persaepe mihi nequaquam satis- 
facio,) haud dubie vincor, tantiim omnes omnium seta- 
turn, materiae nobilitate et argumento vincam. Quod 
et rei tantam expectationem ac celebritatem adjecit, ut 
jam ipse me sentiam non in foro aut rostris, uno dun- 
taxat populo, vel Romano, vel Atheniensi circumfusum ; 
sed attenta, et confidente quasi tota pene Europa, et 
judicium ferente, ad universos quacunque gravissi- 
morum hominum, nrbium, gentium, consessus atque 
conventus, et priore defensione, dixisse, et bac rursus 
dicturum. Jam videor mihi, ingressus iter, transma- 
rinos tractus et porrectas late regiones, sublimis perlus- 
trare ; vultus innumeros atque ignotos, animi sensus 
mecum conjunctissimos. Hinc Germauorum virile et 
infestum servituti robur, inde Francorum vividi dig- 
nique nomine liberales impetus, hinc Hispanorum con- 
sulta virtus, Italorum inde scdata suique compos mag- 



nanimitas ob oculos versatur. Quicquid uspiam libe- 
rorum pectorum, quicquid ingenui, quicquid magna- 
nimi aut prudens latet aut se palam profitetur, alii tacite 
favere, alii aperte suffragari, accurrere alii et plausu 
accipere, alii tandem vero victi, dedititios se tradere. 
Videor jam mihi, tantis circumseptus copiis, ab Her- 
culeis usque columnisad extremosLiberi patristerminos. 
libertatem diu pulsam atque exulem, longo intervallo 
domum ubique gentium reducere : et, quod Triptolemus 
olim fertur, sed longe nobiliorem Cereali ilia frugem 
ex civitate mea gentibus importare ; restitutum nempe 
civilem liberumque vitae cultum, per urbes, per regna, 
perque nationes disseminare. Sed nee ignotus plane, nee 
fortasse non gratus rursum advenero; si sum idem, qui 
pugnacissimum tjrannorum satellitem, et opinione ple- 
rorumque, et sui fiducia insuperabilem antea creditum, 
cum nos nostrasque acies contumeliose lacesseret, et 
optimates nostri me primum intuerentur, singulari cer- 
tamine congressus, adacto convitiantis in jugulum hoc 
stylo, immo suismet ipsius telis, collocavi ; et nisi velim 
tot undique lectorum intelligentium calculis atque sen- 
tentiis, neutiquam addictis mihi aut obnoxiis diffidere 
prorsus etderogare, opima spolia retuli. Haec sine ulla 
vaniloquentia ita esse re vera, vel illud maxime argu- 
mento esse potest, quod ego nee sine Dei nutu reor ac- 
cidisse, quod, cum a regina Suedorum serenissima, qua 
vivit opinor nemo, aut olim vixit, vel optimarum artium, 
vel doctorum hominum studiosior, honorifice sane esset 
invitatus, venissetque et Salmasius et Salmasia, (uter 
enim horum is erat, uxoris palam dominatus cum fama 
turn domi incertum admodum reddiderat,) quo in loco 
peregrinus magno in honore degebat, ibi eura nostra 
defensio nihil tale metuentem occupavit. Qua statim 
a pluribus perlecta, regina quidem, quae et ipsa cum 
primis perlegerat, de sua pristina benignitate ac muni- 
ficentia, id solum spectans quod se dignum erat, in hos- 
pitem nihil remisit: de caetero, si audita saepius et quae 
arcana non sunt, licet referre, tanta animorum facta 
subito mutatio est, ut qui nudiustertius summa gratia 
froru erat, nunc pene obsolescent ; nee ita multo post 
discedens cum bona venia hoc unum in dubio permul- 
tis relinqueret, honoratiorne advenerit, an contemptior 
abierit. Sed neque aliis in locis detrimentum levius 
fecisse famae satis constat. Verum haec omnia non 
eo attuli; quo me cuiquam venditarem, neque enim est 
opus; sed quo id duntaxat latius ostenderem, quod 
initio institui, quas ob causas, et quam non leves, ab 
agendis Deo Optimo Maximo gratiis potissimum sim 
exorsus; mihique procemium hoc fore honestissimum 
atque pulcberrimum, in quo praeeipue, tot argumen- 
tis enumeratis, demonstrare liceat, me, haud exper- 
tem licet calamitatum humanarum, me tamen, resque 
meas Deo curae esse ; me maximis prope de rebus, et 
ad patriae necessaria tempora accommodatis, et civilis 
vitae religionisque ex usu maxime futuris, non uno pro 
populo, nedum uno pro reo, sed pro universo potius 
hominum genere, contra humanae libertatis hostes, 
quasi in communi omnium gentium et frequentissimo 
concursu disserentem, divino favore et auxilio adjutum 
atque auctum : quo ego majus aut gloriosius quicquam 
mihi tribuere, neque possim ullo tempore neque cu- 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



709 



piam. Eundem proinde immortalem Deum oro, ut con- 
sueta ejus ope ac benignitate sola fretus, qua integri- 
tate, diligentia, fide, feJicitate etiam, fortissime justis- 
simeque simul facta baud ita pridem defendi, eadem, 
vel ea amplius, authores ipsos, meque tantis viris igno- 
miniae causa, non honoris additum ab immeritis oppro- 
briis, atque calumniis vindicare sufficiam. Quod si est, 
qui contemni haec satius arbitretur potuisse, fateor 
equidem, si apud eos qui nos recte nossent baec spar- 
gerentur : caeteris qua tandem ratione constabit non 
esse verum quicquid adversarius noster est mentitus? 
cum autem, data, quae par est, opera, a nobis erit, ut 
quo prsecessit calumnia, eodem vindex quoque Veritas 
sequatur, et illos de nobis perperam sentire opinor de- 
situros, et istum fortasse mendaciorum pudebit: si non 
puduerit, turn demum, satius contempserimus. Huic 
interea responsum pro meritis celerius expedivissem, 
nisi se falsis rumoribus hactenus muniisset; dum sae- 
pius denuntiaret, an incudem sudare Salmasium, nova 
volumina in nos fabricare, jam jamque editurum : ex 
quo hoc solum est consequutus, ut maledicentiae poenas 
aliquanto serius daret : expectandum enim duxi potius, 
ut potiori viribus adversario, integrum me servarem. 
Sed cum Salmasio debellatum jam puto mihi esse, ut- 
pote mortuo; et quemadmodum mortuo, non dicam : 
non enim ut ille mihi caecitatem, sic ego illi mortem 
vitio vertam. Quanquam sunt, qui nos etiam necis 
ejus reos faciunt, illosque nostros nimis acriter strictos 
aculeos ; quos dum repugnando altius sibi infixit, dum 
quod prae manibus habebat opus, vidit spissius proce- 
dere, tempus responsionis abiisse, operis gratiam per- 
iisse, recordatione amissae famae, existimationis, prin- 
cipum denique favoris, ob rem regiam male defensam, 
erga se imminuti, triennali tandem moestitia, et animi 
magis aegritudine, quam morbo confectum obiisse. Ut- 
cunque sit, si iterum cum hoste satis mihi cognito, si 
bella etiam posthuma gerenda sunt, cujus feroces ac 
strenuos impetus facile sustinui, ejus languentes et 
moribundos conatus non est ut reformidem. 

Nunc vero ad hoc quicquid est hominis, qui nos in- 
clamat, aliquaudo veniamus : clamorem quidem audio, 
non regii sanguinis, ut pree se fert titulus, sed obscuri 
cujuspiam nebulonis; clamantem enim nusquam repe- 
rio. Eho! quis es ? homone an nemo? hominum certe 
infimi, ne mancipia quidem, sine nomine sunt. Sem- 
perne ergo mihi cum anonymis res erit ? at vero hi re- 
gios haberi se vel maxime volunt : mirorsi regibus sic 
persuaserint. Regum sequaces atque amicos regum 
non pudet ; quo pacto igitur sunt isti regibus amici ? 
non dant munera ; immo vero libentius multo accipi- 
unt: res suas non impendunt, qui ne nomina qui- 
dem causae regiae dare audent: quid ergo? verba 
dant, sed nee verba gratis dare suis regibus, vel satis 
benevoli in animum inducunt, vel satis constantes no- 
mine adscripto audent. Me quidem, <J avdpsg avuvvpoi, 
fas enim sit Greece quos Latine quid nominem non re- 
perio, me inquam, cum vester ille Claudius de jure re- 
gio, materia sane gratiosissima, sine nomine tamen 
orsus esset scribere, et exemplo possem uti, usque adeo 
neque mei, neque causae puditum est, ut ad rem tan tarn 
accedere, nisi nomen palam professus, turpe ducerem. 



Quid ego in republica palam videor contra reges, cur 
vos in regno, vel regum sub patrocinio, non nisi furtim 
etclanculum, contra rempublicam audetis? cur in tuto 
pavidi, cur in luce nocturni, summam potentiam, sum- 
mam gratiam, timiditate invidiosa plane atque suspecta 
obscuratis? satisne vobis ut praesidii sit in regibus vere- 
mini ? sic tecti, sic obvoluti non vos mehercule ad 
asserendum jus regium defensores, sed ad aerarium 
compilandum fures potiiis videmini venisse. Equidem 
quod sum, profiteor; quod regibus nego jus esse, vel 
in regno quovis legitimo pernegare ausim : nemo me 
lasserit monarch a, quin se priiis damuet, tyrannum fas- 
sus. Si tyrannos insector, quid hoc ad reges? quos 
ego a tyrannis longissime sejungo. Quantum a viro 
malo distat vir bonus, tantundem a tyranno discrepare 
regem contendo : uude efficitur, tyrannum non modo 
non esse regem, sed regi quidem adversissimum semper 
imminere. Et sane qui monumenta rerum percurrit, 
plures a tyrannis quam apopulo oppressos reges, atque 
sublatos inveniet. Qui igitur tollendos affirmat tyran- 
nos, non reges, sed inimicissimos regibus, immo infes- 
tissimos regum hostes tollendos affirmat. Vos contra, 
quod regibus jus datis, ut quicquid libeat jus sit, non 
est jus, sed injuria, sed scelus, sed ipsa pernicies : ve- 
nenata isto munere, non salutari, quos supra omnem 
vim atque periculum fore praedicatis, eos ipsi occiditis ; 
regem et tyrannum idem esse, siquidem idem utrobique 
jus est, statuitis. Nam si isto suo jure, rex non utitur 
(utetur autem nunquam quamdiu rex, non tyrannus, 
erit) non hoc regi, sed viro assig'nandum est. Quid 
autem absurdius illo jure regio fingi queat, quo si quis 
utatur, quoties rex vult esse, toties esse vir bonus de- 
sinat; quoties vir esse bonus maluerit, toties se arguerit 
non esse regem ? quo quid in reges dici contumeliosius 
potest? Hoc jus qui docet, ipse sit oportet injustissi- 
mus, atque omnium pessimus : pejor autem quo pacto 
fiat, quam si quales format ac fingit alios, talis ipse 
imprimis fuerit? Quod si omnis vir bonus, ut anti- 
quorum secta quaedam magnifice sane philosophatur, 
est rex, pari ratione sequitur, omnem virum malum pro 
suo quemque modulo tyrannum esse : neque enim 
magnum, ne hoc nomine intumescat, sed iufimum 
quiddam est tyrannus; et quanto omnium maximus, 
tan to omnium vilissimus, et maxime servilis. Alii 
enim suis tantum vitiis volentes serviunt ; hie non modo 
suis, sed minis trorum etiam atque satellitum importu- 
nissimis flagitiis etiam nolens cogitur servire ; et suas 
quasdam tyrannides abjectissimo cuique suorum con- 
cedere : tyranni igitur servorum infimi, suis serviunt 
etiam servitiis. Quamobrem recte hoc nomen vel in 
minimum quemque tyrannorum pugilem, vel in hunc 
etiam clamatorem poterit convenire ; qui in hac causa 
tyrannica cur tam strenue vociferetur, ex his quee dicta 
sunt, quaeque mox dicentur, satis liquebit: uti etiam cur 
anonymus : aut enim turpiter conductus, clamorem hunc 
suum regio sanguini, Salmasium sequutus, vendidit ; aut 
infamis doctrinae conscientia pallens, aut vita flagitiosus 
ac turpis, latere si cupit, mirum non est : aut fortassis 
ita se parat, ut sicubi spem quaestus uberiorem odoretur, 
desertis quandoque regibus integrum sibi sit, ad quam- 
libet etiam futuram rempublicam transfugere; ne tunc 



710 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



quidem sine exemplo magni sui Salmasii, qui affulgente 
lucro captus, ab orthodoxis ad episcopos, a popularibus 
ad regios, etiam senex defec't. Tu igitur iste e gur- 
g'ustio clamator, qui sis non fallis ; frustra tibi ista la- 
tibula quaesisti: extrabere mihi crede, neque Plutonis 
ista galea diutius te teget : dejerabis, quoad vixeris, me 
aut caecum non esse, aut tibi saltern non connivere. Quis 
igitur sit, quod genus hominis, qua spe adductus, qui- 
bus illecebris, quibus lenociniis delinitus, ad hanc cau- 
sam regiam accesserit, (Milesia propemodum, aut 
Baiana fabula est,) si vacat nunc audite. 

Est " Morus" quidam, partim Scotus, partim Gallus ; 
ne tota hominis infamia, gens una, aut regio nimiiim 
laboraret; homo improbus, et cum aliorum, turn, quod 
gravissimum est, amicorum, quos ex intimis inimicissi- 
mos sibi fecit, testimoniis quamplurimis infidus, men- 
dax, ingratus, maledicus, et virorum perpetuus obtrec- 
tator et fceminarum, quarum nee pudicitiae plus unquam 
parcere, quam famae consuevit. Is, ut primae. aetatis 
obscuriora praeteream, primiim Genevae Graecas literas 
docuit ; verum, saepius licet nomen suum Greece 
Morum discipulis interpretatus, stultum et nequam 
ipse dediscere nequivit ; quin eo potiiis furore est 
agitatus cum tot scelerum esset sibi conscius, quamvis 
fortasse nondum compertus, ut pastoris in ecclesia 
munus ambire, atque istis moribus inquinare non hor- 
resceret. Verum haud diu presbyterorum censuram 
effugere potuit, mulierarius ac vanus, multisque aliis 
criminibus notatus, multis ab orthodoxa fide erroribus 
damnatus, quos et turpiter ejuravit, et ejuratos impie 
retinuit, tandem adulterii manifestus. Hospitis ancil- 
lam quandam forte adamaverat; earn paulo post etiam 
alteri nuptam sectari non destitit; tuguriolum quoddam 
intrare hortuli, solum cum sola, vicini saepe animad- 
verterant. Citra adulterium, inquis ; poterat enim 
quidvis aliud : sane quidem ; poterat confabulari, 
nimirum de re hortensi, praelectiones quasdam suas 
sciolae fortasse fceminae et audiendi cupidae expromere 
de hortis, Alcino'i puta vel Adonidis ; poterat nunc 
areolas laudare, umbram tantummodo desiderare, liceret 
modo ficui morum inserere, complures inde sjcomoros 
quam citissime enasci, ambulationem amcenissimam ; 
modum deinde insitionis mulieri poterat monstrare : 
haec et plura poterat, quis negat? Veruntamen pres- 
byteris satisfacere non poterat, quin ilium tanquam 
adulterum censura ferirent, et pastoris munere indig- 
num prorsus judicarent: harum et hujusmodi accusa- 
tionum capita in bibliotheca illius urbis publica etiam- 
num asservantur. Interea, dum haec palam nota non 
essent, ab ecclesia, quae Middleburgi erat Gallica, 
procurante Salmasio, in Hollandiam vocatus, magna 
cum offensione Spanhemii, viri sane docti, et pastoris 
rategerrimi, qui eura Genevae antea probe noverat, 
I iff i as testimoniales, quas vocant, dum alii non feren- 
dum existimarent, ut homo istiusmodi eeclesiae testi- 
i/ionio ornaretur, alii quidvis potius ferendum, quam 
ipram bominem, aegre a Genevensibus, et non alia 
qo&m sui discessus conditione, atque illas quidem fri- 
gidulas, tandem unpetravit In Hollandiam ut venit, 
ilatandom Salmasium profectus, domi ejus in 
■xorii ancilhm,coi Pontile nomen erat, oculosnequiter 



conjecit : semper enim in ancillis prolabitur libido 
hominis ; hinc summa assiduitate Salmasium coepit 
colere, et quoties licuit Pontiam. Nescio an ille corn- 
mod itate hominis et assentatione captus, an hie optabi- 
lem excogitasse se conveniendae eo saepius Pontiae 
occasionem ratus, prior sermones injecerit de responso 
Miltonii ad Salmasium. Utut fuit, Morus propugnan- 
dum suscipit Salmasium: et Salmasius quidem theo- 
logicam in ea urbe cathedram sua opera pollicetur 
Moro; Morus et hanc et aliud insuper suaviculum, 
furtivos Pontias concubitus pollicetur sibi. Per causam 
consulendi de hoc opere Salmasium, dies ac noctes 
earn domum frequentat. Jamque ut olim Pyramus 
in morum, ita nunc repente morus in Pjramum trans- 
mutatus sibi videtur, Genevensis in Babylonium ; 
verum illo juvene quanto improbior, tan to fortunatior, 
nunc suam Thisben, facta sub eodem tecto copia, ut 
libitum est, Pontiam alloquitur ; rimam in pariete 
conquirere opus non erat : spondet matrimonium ; 
ea spe pellectam vitiat ; eodemque scelere, horreo 
dicere, sed dicendum est, sacrosanct! evangelii mi- 
nister, hospitalem etiam domum constuprat. Ex 
hoc demum congressu, mirum quiddam, et praeter 
solitum naturae prodigiosum accidit, ut et foemina 
et mas etiam conciperet, Pontia quidem Morillum, 
quod et Plinianum exercitatorem diu postea exer- 
cuit Salmasium ; Morus ovum hoc irritum et ven- 
tosum, ex quo tympanites iste clamor regii san- 
guinis prorupit. Quod quidem primo regiis nos- 
tris in Belgio esurientibus pergrata admodum sorbitio 
fuit ; nunc rupto putamine, vitiosum ac putridum 
repertum aversantur. Nam Morus hoc suo fcetu 
haud mediocriter inflatus, et Arausiacam factionem 
totam demeruisse se sentiens, jam integras professionum 
cathedras spe improba devoraverat, et suam Pontiam 
utpote ancillam et pauperculam, jam gravidam scele- 
ratus deseruerat. Ilia despectam se atque delusam 
querens, et synodi fidem et magistratus imploravit. Sic 
tandem evulgata haec res, et conviviis pene omnibus, 
ac circulis diu risum et cachinnos praebuit. Unde 
aliquis, et lepidi sane, quisquis erat, ingenii, hoc dis- 
tich on, 

Galli ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, 
Quis bene moratam, morigeramque neget ? 

Sola Pontia non visit ; sed nee querendo quicquam 
profecit; clamor enim regii sanguinis clamorem stupri, 
et stupratae mulierculae ploratum facile obruerat; Sal- 
masius quoque illatam sibi hanc totique familiae et in- 
juriam et labem aegre ferens, seque ab amico et lauda- 
tore suo sic ludos factum, sic adversario rursus obnox- 
ium, accedente ad priores ejus in causa regia in felici- 
tates forsitan hoc etiam infortunio, haud ita multo post 
supremum diem obiit. Verum aliquanto haec posterius. 
Interim Salmasius, Salmacidis quodam fato, ut enim 
nomen, ita et fabula non abludit, nescius hermaphro- 
ditum se adjunxisse sibi Morum tam gignendi quam 
pariendi compotem, quid is domi genuisset ignarus, 
quod peperit exosculatur ; librum nempe istum in quo 
sentit se Magnum toties dici, et suo forte judicio digne, 
aliorum ccrte stulte atque ridicule laudatum. Itaque 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



711 



typographum festinanter quserit ; et fugientem ab se 
jaradiu famam, retinere frustra conatus, quas laudes, 
quas potiiis foedas sui adulationes per hunc atque alios 
misere concupiverat, iis etiam divulgandis obstetricatur 
ipse atque subservit. Ad hancoperam Vlaccus quidam 
est visus omnium maxime idoneus ; huic facile per- 
suadet, non modo ut librum ilium excudendum curaret, 
quod nemo reprehendisset ; sed etiam ut epistolse ad 
Carolum videlicet missce, multis in me, qui hominem 
nunquam noram, probris et contumeliis refertae, sub- 
script© nomine se profiteretur authorem. Nequis igitur 
miretur cur se exorari tarn facile sit passus, ut me tarn 
impudenter nulla de causa lacesseret, et alienas etiam 
intemperies in se transferee atque prsestare tarn pro ni- 
hilo duceret, erga omnes etiam alios quemadmodum se 
gesserit, sicuti ego compertum babeo, ostendam. Est 
Vlaccus unde gentium nescio, vagus quidam librariolus, 
veterator atque decoctor notissimus ; is Londini ali- 
quandiu bibliopola fuit clancularius ; qua ex urbe, post 
innumeras fraudes, obeeratus aufugit. Eundem Parisiis 
fide cassum et male agendo insignem, vita tota Jacobsea 
cognovit : unde olim quoque profugus ne multis qui- 
dem parasangis audet appropinquare ; nunc si cui opus 
est balatrone perditissimo atque venali, prostat Hagae- 
comitis typographus recoctus. Nunc ut intelligatis, 
quid dicat, quidve agat, quam nibil pensi habeat, nihil 
esse tarn sanctum, quod non lucro vel exiguo posterius 
putet, seque non causa publica, quod quis putasset, sic 
in me esse debaccbatum, fatentem ipsum in se testem 
producam. Is cum vidisset quod in Salmasium scrip- 
seram, nonnullis librariis sera meruisse, scribit ad ami- 
cos quosdam meos mecum agerent, ut siquid haberem 
excudendum, sibi committeretur ; se typis longe meli- 
oribus, quam qui prius excudisset, mandaturum : re- 
spondi per eosdem, non habere me in praesentia, quod 
excuso esset opus. Ecce autem ! cui suam operam tarn 
officiose modo detulerat, in eum haud ita multo post, 
scripti contumeliosissimi non excusor solum sed et au- 
thor, subdititius licet, prodit. Indignantur amici ; re- 
scribit impudentissimus, mirari se simplicitatem eorum, 
et rerum imperitiam, qui officii rationem aut honesti ab 
se exigant aut desiderent, cum videant quibus rebus 
qusestum facia't : se ab ipso Salmasio illam epistolam, 
cum libro accepisse ; qui rogabat, id uti sua gratia, 
vellet facere quod fecit ; si Miltonio, vel cuivis alteri 
visum esset respondere, nullum sibi esse scrupulum ; 
siquidem eadem sua opera uti voluerint : id est, vel in 
Salmasium vel in Carolum; namque id erat solum 
quod in responso ejusmodi futurum expectare poterat. 
Quid plura? Hominem videtis ; ad reliquos nunc 
pergo, non enim unus est duntaxat, qui hanc in nos 
regii clamoris quasi tragcediam adornavit. En igitur 
initio, ut solet, dramatis personae : clamor prologus, 
Vlaccus balatro, aut si mavultis, Salmasius Vlacci 
balatronis persona et lacernis involutus, duo poetastri 
cerevisiali vappa temulenti, Morus adulter et stuprator. 
Mirificos sane tragcedos! bellum certamen mihi para- 
tum ! Verum qualescunque sortiti, quoniam alios atque 
hujusmodi adversarios vix est ut causa nostra habere 
possit, nunc singulos aggrediamur; hoc t.antum prse- 
fati, si cui minus gravitatis nostra alicubi refutatio ha- 



bere videbitur, cogitare eum debere, non cum gravi 
adversario, sed cum grege histrionico, nobis rem esse ; 
ad quern dum refutationis genus accommodandum erat, 
non semper quid magis decuisset, sed quid illis dignum 
esset, spectandum duximus. 

Regii sanguinis clamor ad coelum adversus parricidas 
Anglicanos. 

Siquidem non jure fusum ostendisses, More, istum san- 
guinem, haud incredibile narrares : nunc, quemadmo- 
dum primis restituti evaugelii temporibus, monachi, 
cum argumentis minus valerent, ad spectra nescio quae, 
et ficta monstra decurrere solebant; sic vos, postquam 
omnia defecere, ad clamores nusquam auditos, et obso- 
letas fraterculorum artes revertimini. Voces e ccelo 
audire quemquam nostrorum, longe abest ut credas; 
ego te clamores ab inferis audisse, quod postulas, facile 
crediderim. Verum hunc regii sanguinis clamorem die 
sodes quis audivit ? Te a'is : nugae : primum enim male 
audis: ad ccelum autem qui clamor perveniat, si quis 
praeter Deum, justi puto soli et integerrimi quique au- 
diunt, ut qui possint, immunes ipsi, iram Dei consciis 
denuntiare. Tu vero quorsum audires, an ut satyram 
cinaedus scriberes ? Videris enim eodem tempore, et 
ementitus hunc clamorem ad ccelum, et cum Pontia 
furtim libidinatus esse. Multa te impediunt, More, 
multa, intus forisque circumsonant, quas te res istius- 
modi ad ccelum perlatas audire non sinunt; et si nihil 
aliud, certe qui contra ipsum te ad coelum quam pluri- 
mus fit clamor. Clamat contra te, si nescis, mcecha 
ilia tua hortensis, tuo maxime pastoris sui exemplo, de- 
ceptam se esse questa; clamat contra te maritus, cujus 
torum violasti ; clamat Pontia, cui pactum nuptiale 
temerasti; clamat, siquis est, quem probro genitum, 
infantulum abdicasti; horum omnium clamores ad coe- 
lum contra te, si non audis, neque ilium regii sangui- 
nis audiveris : interea libellus iste, non regii sanguinis 
clamor ad ccelum, sed lascivientis Mori hinnitus ad 
Pontiam, rectius inscribetur. Quae sequitur epistola, 
prolixa quidem, et bene putida, partim Carolo, partim 
Miltonio, alteri amplificando, alteri infamando, dedica- 
tur. Ab ipso statim initio authorem discite : " Caroli 
regna,"inquit, "in sacrilegamparricidarum,et (quia ver- 
ba desunt idonea, Tertullianaea voce abutimur) Deicida- 
rum potestatem venerunt." Haec sive Salmasiasa, sive 
Moraea, sive VlaccDea sartago sit, praetereamus. Hoc vero 
aliis ridendum, Carolo indignandum profecto est, quod 
paulo post, " neminem," ait, " vivere felicitatis Caroli 
studiosiorem." Quine eandem et epistolandi, et excu- 
dendi operam Caroli hostibus detulisti, te vivit nemo 
felicitatis ejus studiosior? Miserum profecto dicis re- 
gem sic ab amicis omnibus derelictum, ut qui intimi 
restant, iis vappa typographus comparare se audeat. 
Miserrimum, cujus fidelissimis, Vlaccus perfidus fide ac 
studio non cedat: quo quid insolentius de se, contemp- 
tius de rege amicisque regiis pronunciare potuit ? Ne- 
que hoc minus ridiculum, induci idiotam et operarium 
de rebus gravissimis ac regiis virtutibus pbilosophan- 
tem, eaque dicentem, qualiacunque sunt, quibus nee 
Salmasius ipse, nee Morus meliora dixisset. Equidem 
Salmasium, ut sacpe alias, ita hoc loco haud obscure, 



712 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



si mulla lectione, judicio tamen puerili et nullius usus 
hominem deprehendi ; qui cum legere potuisset sum- 
iuos in Spartana civitate optime iustituta magistratus, 
si quid forte viro malo excidisset sapienter dictum, id 
ei adimi jussisse, et in virum aliquem bonum ac frugi 
sortitione conferri, adeo id omne quod decorum dicitur 
ig'norarit, ut e contra, quas probum atque prudentem 
decere sententias arbitraretur, eas homini nequissimo 
attribui sustineret. Bono es animo, Carole: veterator 
Vlaccus, " quae sua est in Deum fiducia," bono animo 
te esse jubet. " Noli tot mala perdere :" Vlaccus de- 
coctor perditissimus, qui bona omnia, siquahabuit, per- 
didit, author tibi est, perdere ut nolis mala : " Fruere 
novercante fort una : " potin'es ut ne fruare, hortatore 
praesertim tali, qui alienis etiam fortunis frui per fas et 
nefas tot annis consuevit ? " In sapientiam penitus in- 
gurgitasti, et ingurgita :" sic monet, sic prsecipit regum 
institutor sane optimus Vlaccus gurges, qui arrepta atra- 
mentosis manibus, coriacea lagena, inter combibones 
operas, ingenti haustu, sapientiam tibi propinat. Hsec 
audet tuus Vlaccus, tarn praeclara monita, nomine etiam 
conscripto, quae Salmasius, quas Morus, caeterique pugiles 
tui aut timidi non audent, aut superbi non dignantur; 
nimirum quoties te monito est opus aut defenso, alieno 
semper nomine, atque periculo, non suo, sapientes aut 
fortes sunt. Desinatergo, quisquis hie est, "strenuam et 
animosam facundiam"ipse suam inaniter jactare ; dum 
" vir," si diis placet, " insignis, decoro ingenio nomen 
suum celeberrimum" edere metuit ; librum quo regium 
sanguinem ulcisci se ait, ne dicare quidem Carolo nisi 
per Vlaccum interpretem et vicarium ausus, verbis 
typographi misere contentus significare, " librum " se, 
sine nomine, " si pateris, O rex, tuo no mini dicatum 
ire." Sic functus Carolo in me impetum parat minita- 
bundus: " Post haec prooemia, tubam terribilem inflabit 
6 Sravfidcjiog " ille Salmasius." Salubritatem praedicis 
et concentus musici novum genus futurum : isti enim 
tubae terribili, ciim inflabitur, nulla aptior excogitari 
sympbonia poterit, quam si affatim oppedetur. Buccam 
vero Salmasius nimis inflatam ne afferat moneo : quo 
enim attuleritinflatiorem,e6mihi crede, opportuniorem 
ad colaphos praebebit ; qui thaumasii Salmasii rhyth- 
niicum hunc sonum, quo delectaris, buccis ambabus 
resonantibus, numerose reddent. Pergis cornicari. 
" Qui nee parem nee secundum habet, in universo lite- 
rarum et scientiarum orbc." Vestram fidem ! Eruditi, 
quotquot estis, vestram fidem ! Siccine vobis omnibus 
anteferri cimicem grammaticum, cujus res atque spes 
omnis in glossario vertebatur ? Quern vel extremum 
merito occupet scabies, si cum viris vere doctis compa- 
retur. Haec autem, nisi ab infimo quopiam et infra 
Vlaccum ipsum vaecorde affirmari tarn fatue nequive- 
runt. " Quiquejam stupendam et inflnitam eruditionem 
coelesti junctam ingenio ad causam tuo3 majestatis con- 
tulit." Si meministis quod supra narravi, ipsum Sal- 
masium attulisse banc epistolam cum libro excu- 
dendarn, vel ab ipso scriptam, vel ab anonymo quovis, 
vernarnque typographum exorasse, ut quod author nol- 
let, ipse suum nomen adscriberet, cognoscetis profecto 
])iisilli omnino, et abjectissimi hominem ingenii suis 
laudibus tam misere velificantem, et immensa encomia 



tam stolidi laudatoris aucupantem. " Opus seternum 
frustra sugillantibus nonnullis,jurisconsulti mirari satis 
nequeunt quod homo Gallus ita subito res Anglicas, 
leges, decreta, instrumenta, ita teueat, enodet, &c." 
Immo quam ineptierit in nostris legibus et psittacus 
fuerit, nostris etiam jurisconsultis testibus, abunde 
ostendimus. " Sed ipse mox altera, quam in rebelles 
molitur, impressione, simul Theonum ora comprimet, 
simul Miltonum nobis pro eo ac mereturconcastigatum 
dabit." Tu igitur ut pisciculus ille anteambulo, prse- 
curris balaenam Salmasium, impressiones in haeclittora 
minitantem ; nos ferramenta acuimus, expressuri si 
quid habent impressiones et concastigationes illae sive 
olei sive gari. Bonitatem interea magni viri mirabimur 
plusquam Pythagoricam, qui animalia quoque miser- 
atus, et praesertim pisces, quorum carnibus, ne quadra- 
gesima quidem parcit, iis tam decenter involvendis tot 
voluminadestinarit, tot pauperum millibus, thunnorum, 
credo, aut scombrorum, chartaceas in singulos tunicas 
testamento legarit. 

Gaudete scombri, et quicquid est piscium salo, 
Qui frigida hyeme incolitis algentes freta, 
Vestrum misertus ille Salmasius eques 
Bonus amicire nuditatem cogitat '; 
Chartseque largus apparat papyrinos 
Vobis cucullos prseferentes Claudii 
Insignia nomenque et decus Salmasii, 
Gestetis ut per omne cetarium forum 
Equitis clientes, scriniis mungentium 
Cubito virorum, et capsulis gratissimos. 

Hasc habui in editionem diu exspectatam tam nobi- 
lis libri ; cujus impressionem, dum, ut ais, molitur Sal- 
masius, tu ejus domum, More, fcedissima compressione 
Pontile contaminasti. Et videtur sane, ad hoc opus 
absolvendum, Salmasius diu multumque incubuisse ; 
paucis enim ante mortem diebus, cum vir quidam 
doctus, a quo hoc ipsum accepi, misisset, qui ex eo 
quasreret, ecquando apparatus partem secundam in 
primatum papse editurus esset, respondit, ad illud opus 
non ante reversurum se, quam absolvisset quod adhuc 
commentaretur adversiis Miltonium. Ita ego etiam 
papas refutand us praeferor; et quem illi primatum in 
ecclesia negavit, eum mihi ultro in inimicitia sua con- 
cedit ; sic ego primatui papae jam jam evertendo salu- 
tem attuli; ego redivivum hunc Catilinam, non in toga, 
ut consul olim Tullius, ne per somnum quidem, sed 
aliud omnino agens, Romanis mcenibus averti ; non 
unus profecto cardinalatus mihi hoc nomine debebitur; 
vereor, ne translato in me regum nostrorum titulo, 
defensor fidei ab Romano pontifice appellandus sim. 
Videtis quantus invidiae artifex in me concitandae 
Salmasius fuerit; verum ipse viderit, qui, tam honesta 
provincia turpiter relicta, alienis se controversiis im- 
miscuerit, ab ecclesiaa causa, ad civiles et externas, 
quarum sua nihil intererat, se traduxerit ; cum papa 
inducias fecerit ; et, quod foedissimum fuit, cum epis- 
copis, post bellum apertissimum, in gratiam redierit. 
Veniamus nunc ad mea crimina : estne quod in vita aut 
moribus reprehendat? Certe nihil: Quid ergo ? Quod 
nemo nisi immanis ac barbarus fecisset, formam mihi 
ac caecitatem objectat. 
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum. 



CONTRA 1NFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



*13 



Nunquam existimabam equidern fore, ut de forma cum 
Cyclope certamen mihi esset ; verum statim se revocat. 
" Quanquam nee ingens, quo nihil est exilius, exsan- 
guius, contractius." Tametsi virum nihil attinet de 
forma dicere, tandem quando hie quoque est, unde 
gratias Deo agam, et mendaces redarguam, ne quis 
(quod Hispanorum vulgus de haereticis, quos vocant, 
plus nimio sacerdotibus suis credulum, opinatur) me 
forte cynocephalurn quempiam, aut rhinocerota esse 
putet, dicam. Deformis quidem anemine, quod sciam, 
qui modo me vidit, sum unquam habitus ; formosus 
necne, minus laboro ; statura fateor non sum procera : 
sed quae mediocri tamen quam parvae propior sit : sed 
quid si parva, qua et summi saepe turn pace turn bello 
viri fuere, quanquam parva cur dicitur, quae ad vir- 
tutem satis magna est. Sed neque exilis admodum, 
eo sane animo iisque viribus ut cum aetas vitaeque ratio 
sic ferebat, nee ferrum tractare, nee stringere quotidiano 
usu exercitatus nescirem ; eo accinctus, ut plerumque 
eram, cuivis vel multo robustiori exaequatum me puta- 
bam, securus quid mihi quis injuriae vir viro inferre 
posset. Idem hodie animus, eoedem vires, oculi non 
iidem ; ita tamen extrinsecus illaesi, ita sine nube clari 
ac lucidi, ut eorum qui acutissimum cernunt : in hac 
solum parte, memet invito, simulator sum. In vultu, 
quo " nihil exsanguius" esse dixit, is rnanet etiamnum 
color exsangui et pallenti plane contrarius, ut quadra- 
genario major vix sit cui non denis prope annis videar 
natu minor ; neque corpore contracto neque cute. In 
his ego si ulla ex parte mentior, multis millibus popu- 
larium meorum, qui de facie me norunt, exteris etiam 
non paucis, ridiculus merito sim : sin iste in re minime 
necessaria, tarn impudenter et gratuito mendax com- 
perietur, poteritis de reliquo eandem conjecturam 
facere. Atque haec de forma mea vel coactus : de tua 
quanquam et contemptissimam accepi, et habitantis in 
te improbitatis atque malitiae vivam imaginem, neque 
ego dicere, neque ullus audire curat. Utinam de cse- 
citate pariter liceret inhumanum hunc refellere adver- 
sarium ; sed non licet ; feramus igitur : non est 
miserum esse cascum ; miserum est caecitatem non 
posse ferre : quidni autem feram, quod unumquemque 
ita parare se oportet, ut si acciderit, non aegre ferat, 
quod et humanitus accidere cuivis mortalium, et prse- 
stantissimis quibusdam, atque optimis omni memoria 
viris accidisse sciam : sive illos memorem, vetustatis 
ultimae priscos vates, ac sapientissimos ; quorum calam- 
itatem, et dii, ut fertur, multo potioribus donis com- 
pensarunt, et homines eo honore affecerunt, ut ipsos 
inculpare maluerint deos, quam caecitatem illis crimini 
dare. De augure Tiresia quod traditur, vulgo notum. 
De Phineo sic cecinit Apollonius in Argonauticis : 

'OvS' baaov ottiZ.zto tcai Aibg dvrov 

Xptiov aTpticeojg Upbv voov dv2rpdi)Troicn. 
T(p mi bi yrjpag \ikv tiri brjvaibv laWev 
'Ek d' IeXst btp^aX/Jiaiv y\vicepbv (paog. 

neque est veritus Jovem ipsum 

Edens veraciter mentem divinam hominibus : 
Quare et senectam ei diuturnam dedit, 
Eripuit autem oculorum dulce lumen. 



Cseterum Deus et ipse Veritas est : in qua homi- 
nes edocenda quo quis veracior eo similior Deo 
acceptiorque sit, oportet. Non est pium veritatis in- 
videntem Deum credere; aut nolle hominibus quam 
liberrime impertitam : ob nullam igitur noxam, di- 
vinus vir, et humani generis erudiendi studiosis- 
simus, ut philosophorum etiam complures, caruisse 
luminibus videtur. Sive illos commemorem civili pru- 
dentia gestisque rebus admirabiles olim viros; primum 
Timoleontem Corinthium, et civitatis suae, et Sicilrae 
totius liberatorem ; quo virum meliorem, aut in repub- 
lica sanctiorem, nulla setas tulit; turn Appium Clau- 
dium, cujus in senatu pulchre dicta sententia, Italiam 
Pyrrbo, gravi hoste, seipsum caecitate non liberavit ; 
turn Caecilium Metellum pontificem, qui non urbem 
solum, sed et fatum urbis Palladium, et penitissima 
sacra dum ab incendio servavit, suos oculos perdidit ; 
quanquam alias certe Deus pietati tarn egregiae favere 
se, etiam inter gentes, testatus est : quod tali igitur viro 
usu venit, ponendum in malis esse vix putem. Quid 
alios recentiorum temporum adjungam, vel ilium Ve- 
netiarumprincipem Dandulum longe omnium praestan- 
tissimum ; vel Boemorum Ziscam ducem fortissimum, 
orthodoxse fidei propugnatorem ? Quid summi nominis 
theologos Hieronymum Zanchium, nonnullosque alios? 
cum et ipsum Isaacum patriarcham, quo nemo unquam 
mortalium Deo charior fuit, annos haud paucos, caecum 
vixisse constet; aliquot fortasse Jacobum etiam ejus 
fjlium, et ipsum Deo haud minus dilectum : cum de- 
nique Christi servatoris nostri divino testimonio com- 
pertissimum sit, ilium hominem ab se sanatum, neque 
ob suum, neque ob parentum suorum aliquod peccatum, 
etiam ab utero caecum fuisse. Ad me quod attinet, te 
testor, Deus, mentis intimae, cogitationumque omnium 
indagator, me nullius rei, (quanquam hoc apud me 
saepius, et quam maxime potui, serid quaesivi et reces- 
sus vitae omnes excussi,) nullius vel recens vel olim 
commissi, mihimet conscium esse, cujus atrocitas hanc 
mihi prae caeteris calamitatem creare, aut accersisse 
merito potuerit. Quod etiam ullo tempore scripsi 
(quoniam hoc nunc me luere quasi piaculum regii ex- 
istimant atque adeo triumphant) testor itidem Deum, 
me nihil istiusmodi scripsisse, quod non rectum et ve- 
rum, Deoque gratum esse, et persuaserim turn mihi, et 
etiamnum persuasus sim ; idque nulla ambitione, lucro, 
aut gloria ductus ; sed officii, sed honesti, sed pietatis 
in patriam ratione sola; nee reipublicae tantum, sed 
ecclesiae quoque liberandae causa potissimum fecisse : 
adeo ut cum datum mihi publice esset illud in defen- 
sionem regiam negotium, eodemque tempore et adversa 
simul valetudine, et oculo jam penes altero amisso, con- 
flictarer, praedicerentque diserte medici, si hunc laborem 
suscepissem, fore, ut utrumque brevi amitterem, nihil 
ista praemonitione deterritus, non medici, ne iEsculapii 
quidem Epidaurii ex adyto vocem, sed divinioris cu- 
jusdam intus monitoris viderer mihi audire ; duasque 
sortes, fatali quodam natu, jam mihi propositas, hinc 
caecitatem, inde officium ; aut oculorum jacturam ne- 
cessario faciendam, aut summum officium deserendum: 
occurrebantque animo binailla fata, quae retulisse Del- 
phis consulentem de se matrem, narrat Thetidis filius. 



714 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



Ai^9aSiag Krjpag <ptp£j.itv Savaroto reXoads, 

Ei fxev k avSt pevwv Tpwwv ttoXiv afMbtfidxiapai, 

"QXtTO flkv flOl VOffTOQ' CtTCtp kXeOQ CL<p0lTOV tOTCd. 

Ei Se Ktv oi/cao' "iKtofiai 0iX?)v kg Trarpida yaiav, 
"QXiro fxoi kXeoq kaOXov £7ri ^pov Se poi alwv 

"Eaaerai. 

Iliad. 9. 

Duplicia fata ducere ad mortis finem : 
Si hie manens circa Troiim urbem pugnavero, 
Amittitur mihi reditus ; sed gloria immortalis erit: 
Si domuin revertor dulce ad patrium solum, 
Amittitur mihi gloria pulchra, sed diuturna vita 
Erit. 

Unde sic mecum reputabam, multos graviore malo 
minus bonum, morte gloriam, redemisse ; mihi contra 
majus bonum minore cum malo proponi : ut possem cum 
caecitate sola vel honestissimum officii munus implere; 
quod ut ipsa gloria per se est solidius, ita cuique opta- 
tius atque antiquius debet esse. Hac igitur tam brevi 
luminum usura, quanta maxima quivi cum utilitate 
publica, quoad liceret, fruendum esse statui. Videtis 
quid praetulerim, quid amiserim, qua inductus ratione : 
desinant ergo judiciorum Dei calumniatores maledicere, 
deque me somnia sibi fingere : sic denique habento ; 
me sortis meae neque pigere neque poenitere ; immotum 
atque fixum in sententia perstare; Deum iratum neque 
sentire, neque habere, imnid maximis in rebus cle- 
mentiam ejus et benignitatem erg'a me paternam expe- 
riri atque agnoscere; in hoc praesertim, quod solante 
ipso atque animum confirmante in ejus divina voluntate 
acquiescam ; quid is largitus mihi sit quam quid nega- 
verit saepius cogitans : postremo nolle me cum suo 
quo vis rectissime facto, facti mei conscientiam permu- 
tare,aut recordationem ejus gratam mihi semper atque 
tranquillam deponere. Ad caecitateni denique quod 
attinet, malle me, si necesse est, meam, quam vel suam, 
More, vel tuam. Vestra imis sensibus immersa, nequid 
sani videatis aut solidi, mentem obcaecat: mea, quam 
objicitis, colorem tantummodo rebus et superficiem de- 
mit; quod verum ac stabile in iis est contemplationi 
mentis non adimit. Quam multa deinde sunt quae videre 
nollem, quam multa quae possem libens non videre, 
quam pauca reliqua sunt quae videre cupiam. Sed ne- 
que ego caecis, afflictis, moerentibus, imbecillis, tametsi 
vos id miserum ducitis, aggregari me discrutior ; quan- 
doquidem spes est, eo me propiiis ad misericordiam 
sunirai patris atque tutelam pertinere. Est quoddam 
per imbecillitatem, praeeunte Apostolo, ad maximas 
vires iter: sim ego debilissimus, dummodo in mea de- 
bilitate immortalis ille et melior vigor eo se efficacius 
exerat ; dummodo in meis tenebris divini vultus lumen 
eo clarius eluceat ; turn enim infirmissimus ero simul et 
validissimus, caecus eodem tempore et perspicacissimus; 
hac possim ego infirmitate consummari, hac perfici, pos- 
sim in hac obscuritale sic ego irradiari. Et sane haud 
ultima Dei cura cceci sumus; qui nos, quo minus quic- 
quam aliud praeter ipsum cernere valemus, eo clemen- 
tius atque benignius respicere dignatur. Vae qui illu- 
dit nos, vae qui laedit, execratione publica devovendo ; 
nos ab injuriis hominuni non modo incolumes, sed pene 



sacros, divina lex reddidit, divinus favor; nee tam ocu- 
lorum hebetudine, quam coelestium alarum umbra has 
nobis fecisse tenebras videtur, factas illustrare rursus 
interiore ac longe praestabiliore lumine haud raro solet. 
Hue refero, quod et amici officiosius nunc etiam quam 
solebant, colunt, observant, adsunt; quod et nonnulli 
sunt, quibuscum Pyladeas atque Theseas alternare 
voces verorum amicorum liceat. 

Opear. 'Epftt vvv bia£ 7rodog fiot. Uv. (piXa y' e%wv Krjdtv- 

juara. 
Orest. Vade gubernaculum mei pedis. Py. pergratam 

mihi habens curam. Eurip. in Orest. 

Et alibi, 
Aids %£'P v7Ti}pETy 0i\y. 
Da manum ministro amico. 

Ai8n dkpy ar\v \Cip\ oSijyijau) S } sy(d. 
Da collo manum tuam, ductor autem viae ero tibi ego. 
Id. in Her. furent. 

Non enim hoc casu factum me omnino nullum ; non 
quicquid est probi aut cordati hominis, positum in ocu- 
lis putant esse. Quin et summi quoque in republica 
viri, quandoquidem non otio torpentem me, sed impi- 
grum et summa discrimina pro libertate inter primos 
adeuntem oculi deseruerunt, ipsi non deserunt; verum 
humana qualia sint, secum reputantes, tanquam emerito 
favent, indulgent, vacationem atque otium faciles con- 
cedunt ; si quid est ornamenti, non detrahunt; si quid 
publici muneris, non adimunt ; si quid ex ea re com- 
modi, non minuunt; et quamvis non eeque nunc utilis, 
praebendum nihilo minus benigne censent ; eodem 
plane honore, acsi, ut olim Atheniensibus mos erat, in 
Prytaneo alendum decrevissent. Sic mihi et apud Deum 
etapud homines caecitatem solari meam quandiu licuerit, 
amissos honesti causa oculos, nemo meos lugeat; absit 
quoque ut ipse lugeam, aut vel animi satis ut ne habeam 
quo caecitatis convitiatores facile possim contemnere, 
vel veniae ut ne possim facilius condonare. Ad te, 
quisquis es, redeo, qui parum tibi constans, nunc pumi- 
lionem me, nunc Antaeum vis esse : " Non aliud " post- 
remo optas " libentius foederatis Belgii Provinciis, quam 
ut tam facile, tamque feliciter defungantur, hoc bello, 
quam defungetur Salmasius Miltonio." Cui ego voto 
facile assensero, arbitror me nostris successibus reique 
Anglicanae nee ominari male nee male precari. 

En vero iterum clamorem, alienum quendam et stri- 
dulum ! anseres puto alicunde advolare: jam sentio 
quid sit; memini clamoris haud esse tragcediam ; pro- 
dit chorus : en duo poetastri; vel duo vel unus, biformi 
sane specie et bicolore ; Sphingemne dicam an Hora- 
tianum illud monstrum Poeticum, capite muliebri, cer- 
vice asinina variis indutum plumis, undique collatis 
membris : id profecto ipsissimum est. Rhapsodus vide- 
licet quispiam, centonibus et pannis obsitus; unusne 
an duo incertum, nam et Anonymus quoque est. Poe- 
tas equidem vere dictos et diligo et colo, et audiendo 
saepissime delector; illorum etiam plerosque tyrannis 
esse scio inimicissimos, si vel aprimis exorsus ad Buch- 
ananum usque nostrum rccenserem : istos vero versicu- 
lorum nugivendos, quis non oderit ? quo genere homi- 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



715 



nura nihil stultius, aut vanius, aut corruptius, aut 
mendacius. Laudant, vituperant, sine delectu, sine 
discrimine, judicio, aut modo, nunc principes, nunc 
plebeios, doctos juxta atque indoctos, probos an impro- 
bos, perinde habent; prout Cantharus, aut spes num- 
muli, aut fatuus ille furor infl at ac rapit; congestris 
undique et verborum et rerum tot discoloribus ineptiis 
tamque putidis, ut laudatum longe praestet sileri, et 
pravo, quod a'iunt, vivere naso, quam sic laudari : vitu- 
peratus vero qui sit, baud mediocri sane honori sibi 
ducat, se tam absurdis, tam stolidis nebulonibus displi- 
cere. Primus qui est, si modo bini sunt, dubito poeta 
sit an caementaris ; ita Salmasio os oblinit, immo totum 
quasi parietem dealbat atque incrustat. Curru nempe 
" triumphantem " inducit, heroem gigantomachum, 
" hastilia et csestus," et nescio quae nugamenta armo- 
rum vibrantem, doctos omnes pedibus quadrigam se- 
quentes, sed post terga ejus innumeris spatiis relictos, 
utpote " quem numen rebus trepidis salutem orbis ad- 
moverit; tandem ergo tali tempus erat tegi umbone 
regies, parente" nimirum "juris et imperii." Delirus 
necesse est fuerit et bis puer Salmasius, qui bis laudibus 
non solum tantopere sibi placuerit, sed excudendas 
etiam quam primum de se tam sedulo euraverit: Mi- 
sellus etiam poeta atque indecorus, qui grammaticum, 
quod genus hominum poetis ministrum semper atque 
subserviens fuit, tam immodicis laudibus dignetur. 
Alter verd non versos facit, sed plane insanit enthusi- 
astarum omnium quos tam rabide insectatur, ipse amen- 
tissimus: hie Salmasii carnifex quasi sit, Syri damae 
filius, Lorarios invocat et Cadmum ; veratro deinde 
ebrius, totam, quicquid ubique est, servulorum et bal- 
lionum sentinam, ex Indice Plautino evomit; credas 
lingua Oscum non latine loquentem, aut inferarum, 
quas natat, paludum coaxare ranam. Turn ut intelli- 
gatis, quantus sit iamborum artifex, duabus sjllabis 
una in voce peccat, altera producta, altera perperam 
correpta. 

Hi trucidato rege per horrendum nefas. 

Aufer istas, asine, " vacivitatum" tuarum clitellas; 
et tria verba, si potes, sani ac sobrii tandem hominis 
aflfer; si tua ista cucurbita et " blennum caput" vel 
ad punctum temporis potest sapere : interea te ego 
puerorum " virgidemiis" tuis caedendum trado Orbi- 
lium. Tu mihi sic perge maledicere, ut " Cromuello 
pejor" tibi sim, qua nulla majore me laude afficere po- 
tuisti. Te vero benevolumne dicam, an stolidum, an 
hostem insidiosum ? benevolus certe non es, verba enim 
hostem indicant; cur ergo tam stolidus fuisti vitupera- 
tor, ut anteferre me tanto viro in buccam tibi venerit ? 
ecquid tu non intelligis, an me putas non intelligere, 
quo graviora vestra in me esse odia ostenditis, eo vos 
ampliora mea in rempublicam merita praedicare, vestra 
tot opprobria, tot mea esse apud meos praeconia ? Nam 
si vos me omnium maxime odistis, sane ego vos om- 
nium maxime* exulceravi, vos ego maxime afflixi, cau- 
saeque vestrae nocui : id si ita est, idem ego de meis 
civibus optime quoque merui; hostis enim vel testimo- 
nium vel judicium, etsi alias leve admodum, de suo ta- 
men dolore longe est gravissimum. An poeta non 



meministi, cum de Achillismortui armis, Ajax et Ulysses 
contenderent, non Graecos populares sed Trojanos hostes 
ex sententia Nestoris judices datos ? 

TovvsKa Tpuxrlv k(pu>nev tvcppoai rrjvde liKaaai. 

Quapropter Trojanis permittamus prudentibus banc 
litem judicandam. 

Et paulo post, 

Ot pa diKrjv i&Ziav Itti crcpicn 7roirj<TOVTai, 

Ov tivi ijpa QspovTtg, eirel fxdXa 7rdvrag 'A^atoi^ 

"Icov a7Tf%0ai|O8ffi KaKrjg [iSfivrj/JLCvoi a.Ti\q. 

Qui justum judicium de iis fecerint, 

Nemini gratificantes, cum vehementer omnes Achivos 

iEque oderint, mali memores damni. 

Haec Smyrnaeus ille, sive Calaber. Insidiosus itaque sis 
oportet, meque in invidiam conjicere labores, qui quod 
judicium in hoste rectum atque sincerum esse solet, id 
dolo malo et gravius laedendi animo corrumpis atque de- 
pravas, ita non vir modo, sed et hostis depravatissimus 
es. Verura ego nullo negotio frustrabor te, vir bone; 
quanquam enim Ulyssem, id est, quam optime de patria 
meritum me esse sane perquam vellem, tamen Achilleia 
arma non ambio ; coelum in clypeo pictum, quod alii, non 
ego, in certamine aspiciant, praeferre, onus non pictum 
sed verum, humeris portare, quod ego, non alii sentiant, 
non quaero : equidem cum nullas omnino simultates 
aut iuimicitias ullo cum homine privatas g'eram, neque 
ullus, quod sciam, mecum gerat, tot in me maledicta 
jactari, tot probra torqueri, reipublicae duntaxat causa, 
non mea, eo aequiore animo fero : nee praemii et com- 
modorum inde provenientium, partem longe minimam, 
ignominiae longe maximam pervenisse ad me queror ; 
contentus quae honesta factu sunt, ea propter se solum 
appetisse, et gratis persequi : id alii viderint, tuque 
scito, me illas " opimitates " atque " opes," quas mihi 
exprobas, non attigisse, neque eo nomine quo maxime 
accusas, obolo factum ditiorem. Hie rursus in fit Morus, 
et secunda epistola causas scribendi refert ; cuinam ? 
" Lectori Christiano " nempe moechus et stuprator 
Morus salutem : piam sane epistolam promittis ; jam 
causas incipe. " Excitati sunt Europaearum gentium 
animi, maxime omnium Galli nostri reformati, ut par- 
ricidium et parricidas, &c. cognoscerent." Galli et ipsi 
reformati contra leges bella gesserunt ; quid ulterius 
fuissent facturi, paribus usi rerum successibus, affirmari 
non potest: certe reg*es ipsorum, si qua earum rerum 
monumentis fides, ab illis haud minus metuebant sibi, 
quam a nobis noster : neque injuria, quoties meminis- 
sent quae etiam illi scriptitarunt, et minati saepe sunt : 
Nolint igitur, quicquid tu causare, splendide nimis de 
se polliceri, iniquius de nobis sentire. Pergit in causis. 
" Equidem ea Anglorum melioris notae consuetudine 
sum usus." Qui tibi sunt melioris notae, viris bonis 
sunt pessimae. " Ut ausim dicere me ista hominum 
monstra nosse intus et in cute." Putabam te moechas 
tantummodo tuas et scorta ; tu etiam monstra intus et 
in cute. " Ut nomen meum premerem, facile impe- 
trarunt Angli quibuscum consuevi." Et astute quidem 
illi: sic enim sperabant etse impudentia tuaeo largiore 
fruituros, et te tua fama, etiam turn mala, eo minus 



716 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLIGANO, 



causae nociturum. Noveraut enim te, et quam esses 
olim bonus hortorum custos, et nunc rasus licet et 
pumicatus sacerdos, ut a Pontia ne Pilata quidem ab- 
stinere nianus potueris ; nee de nihilo sane, si enim a 
conficienda came carnifex dictus putatur, cur minus tu 
conficiendo Pontiam Pontifex factus ex sacerdote tibi 
videare ? Haec cum de te non nescirent alii, cum non 
posses ipse quin tibimet conscires, tamen incredibili, et 
execranda quadam impietate palam audes profiteri, te 
" Dei gloriam unice quaerere, et vindicare :" et dum 
ipse turpissima quaeris, simul accusare alios, quod 
" pietatis larvam criminibus imponant:" cum id nemo 
manifestius ac sceleratius quam tu ipse facis, unquam 
fecerit. " Ad rerum " a'is " gestarum seriem magno " 
tibi " fuisse adjumento cum alios scriptores turn raax- 
ime elencbum motuum nuperorum in Anglia." Nae tu 
ineptus bomo es, qui tan to clamore facto, quod tuum 
sit nihil afFeras ; sed scriptores tan turn, regiis partibus 
addictos eoque merito suspectos authores contra nos 
adducere potuisti, quorum tides si elevabitur, progredi 
nequeas. Nos igitur scriptores illos, si opus erit et 
elencbum elencbo refutabimus, non il lis per te, sed tibi 
per illos, cum visum erit respondebimus ; tibi quae de 
tuo protuleris, videndum interea, ut tueri queas ; quae 
cujusmodi sint, ab impio et plane atheo nomine pro- 
fecta, audiant nunc omnes pii et horrescant. " Jubet 
amor Dei, et inj arias sa.ncto ejus nomini factae sensus 
acerrimus cogit supplices manus ad Deum attollere." 
Abde, abde obsccenas illas manus, quas libidine et am- 
bitione supinatus attollere non vereris, ne ccelum ipsum 
quoque audeas iis manibus incestare, quibus sacra re- 
ligionis mjsteria contrectando polluisti. Quam enim 
divinam ultionem aliis temerarius et vaecorsimprecaris, 
earn in ipsius tuum impurissimum caput devocasse te 
olim intelliges. 

Hactenus clamoris quasi praeludia fuere ; nunc, (sum- 
mas enim, et prope solas in hoc dramate partes clamor 
obtinet,) quam potest maximo hiatu, rictum diducit: in 
cesium scilicet iturus ; quo si ascendent, in neminem 
profecto acrius clamabit quam in ipsum clamatorem 
Morum. " Cum omnibus seculis sacra fuerit regum 
majestas, Sec." Multa tu quidem, More, vulgariter, 
multa malitiose in nos declamas, quas nihil attinent : 
regis enim caedes, et tyranni supplicium non sunt idem, 
More, non sunt, inter se distant longissime, atque dis- 
tabunt, dum sensus et ratio, jus atque fas, rectique et 
obliqui judicium homiuibus concedetur. Veriim de 
his satis jam saepiiis dictum, satis defensum est: non 
patiar qui lot diris inanibus laedere non potes, ut repe- 
tita crambe nos demum occidas. De patientia, deinde 
et pietatc, belle disputas: sed 

de virtute loquutus 

Clunetn agitas : ego te ceventem more verebor ? 

" Omnes " ai's " reformatos, prassertim Belgas et Gal- 
los, factum nostrum horraisse ;" et statim, " bonis 
abiqoe non licuisse, idem sentire et loqui." Sed te tibi 
repugnare lcviculum est; hoc multo indignius atque 
■trocioa : " prae nostro," inquia, " scelere, nihil fait 
Judaeorum scelus, Christum crucifigentium, sive homi- 
num mentem,sivesceleriserTcctus compares." Furiose! 



tune Christi minister perpetratum facinus in Christum 
tarn leviter fers, quacunque demum " mente " vel 
" effectu," ut pari scelere interfectum quemlibet regem 
audeas dicere ? Judaei certe clarissimis indiciis Dei 
filium agnovisse poterant; nos Carolum non esse ty- 
rannum, nulla ratione potimus intelligere. Eventus 
autem, ad minuendum scelus, ineptissime facis men- 
tionem : verum semper animadverto regios, quo quis- 
que acrior est, eo levius ferre quicquid committitur in 
Christum, quam si quid in regem: cui tamen ciim 
Christi praecipue causa obediendum doceant, facile 
ostendunt se neque Christum vere colere,neque regem: 
sed aliud quiddam sibi quaerentes, incredibilem banc 
erga reges fideni ac religionem suam, vel ambitioni, 
vel occultis quibusdam aliis cupiditatibus obtendere. 
" Prodiit ergo magnus literarum princeps Salmasius." 
Desine toties magnum illud, More ; quod millies licet 
ingesseris, baud cuiquam profectd intelligenti persua- 
seris magnum esse Salmasium, sed minimum esse Mo- 
rum, et nullius pretii homulum, qui, quid deceat igna- 
rus, magni cognomine tarn imperite abutatur. Nos 
grammaticis atque criticis, quorum summa laus aut in 
alienis lucubrationibus edendis, autlibrariorummendu- 
lis corrigendis versatur, industriam quidem ac literarum 
scientiam, doctrinae etiam haud contemnendae laudem, 
ac praemia libenter concedimus, magni cognomen haud 
largimur. Is solus magnus est appellandus, qui res 
magnas aut gerit, aut docet, aut digne scribit : res au- 
tem magnae sunt solae, quae vel vitam hanc nostram 
efficiunt beatam, aut saltern cum honestate commodam 
atque jucundam, vel ad alteram ducunt beatiorem. 
Horum vero Salmasius quid egit? egit vero nihil : quid 
autem docuit aut scripsit magnum ? nisi forte contra 
episcopos, et primatum papae, quod ipse postea et suis 
moribus, et aliis in nos pro episcopatu scriptis, recan- 
tatum penitus evertit. Magnus ergo scriptor dici non 
debet, qui aut nihil magnum, aut quod optimum in 
vita scripserat, ei foedissime renunciavit. " Literarum 
princeps" ut sit, et alphabeti per me licet ; at vero tibi 
non " princeps" modo " literarum" est, sed " patronus 
regum," et " patronus quidem dignus tantis clientibus." 
Pulcbre tu quidem regibus consuluisti, ut post alios 
insignes titulos, Claudii Salmasii clientes appellentur. 
Ea nimirum lege solvimini cunctis aliis legibus reges, 
ut in clientelam grammatico tradatis vos Salmasio, 
sceptra ferulae submittatis : " Debebunt ei reges, dum 
stabit orbis, dignitatis et salutis suae vindicias." Audite 
principes ; qui pessime vos defendit, immo ne defendit 
quidem, nemo enim oppugnavit, dignitatem et salu- 
tem vestram sibi imputat. Hoc nempe solum con- 
sequuti sunt, qui superbissimum grammaticum susti- 
nendis regum. rationibus et tinearum et blattarum foro 
advocarunt. " Cui quantum res regia, tantundem 
etiam ecclesia debebit ;" non laudem sane, sed meri- 
tissimam desertae suae causae notam. Nunc in laudes 
erTunderis defensionis regiae ; " ingenium, doctrinam, 
infinitum prope rerum usum, et intimam sacri et pro- 
fani juris penum, concitatae orationis vigorem, elo- 
quentiam, facundiam aurei illius operis" admiraris, 
quorum cum nihil affuisse homini contendo (quid 
enim Salmasio cum eloquentia?) turn aureum fuisse 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



717 



illud opus vel centies fateor; tot enim Carolus aureos 
numeravit, ne dicam quid Arausiacus etiam princeps 
in idem opus profuderit. " Nunquam major surrexit 
vir mag-nus, nunquam mag-is Salmasius :" et tanto 
quidem major ut se ruperit, quam magnus enim fuerit 
in illo opere jam vidimus; et siquid ejusdem argu- 
ment^ ut fertur, posthumum reliquit, fortasse videbimus. 
Non equidem inficior, edito illo libro, Salmasium in 
ore omnium fuisse, regiis mire placuisse ; " ab augus- 
tissima Sueciae regina, amplissimis praemiis invitatum; 
quinimo tota ilia contentione Salmasio secunda omnia, 
adversa mihi pene omnia fuere. Primum de illius eru- 
ditione, erat hominum summa opinio, quam multis ab 
annis jam diu collegerat, libros conscribendo multos, 
et bene magnos, non eos quidem plerumque utiles, sed 
abstrusissimis de rebus, et summorum authorum citati- 
unculis differtos ; quo nihil citius literatorum vulgus 
in admirationem rapit ; me vero quis essem, nemo in 
iis fere regionibus norat; magnam ille sui expectatio- 
nem concitarat, attentior operi quam solebat alias, ut 
in re tanta ; ego mei nullam potui movere : immo vero 
multi me ab illo dehortabantur, tjronem cum veterano 
congressurum, partim invidentes, ne utcunque mihi 
gloriae foret cum tanto hoste decertasse ; partim et mihi, 
et causae metuentes, ne utriusque gravi cum ignominia 
victus discederem; causa denique speciosa atque plau- 
sibilis, inveterata vulgi opinio, sive superstitio dicenda 
potius est, et propensus in regium nomen favor Salmasio 
vires et spiritus addiderat ; eadem omnia contra me 
fecere, quo magis est mirandum, quampnmum responsio 
nostra prodiit, non si a plerisque avide arriperetur, 
videre gestientibus ecquis tarn praeceps animi esset ut 
auderet cum Salmasio confligere, sed tarn esse placitam 
multis atque gratam, ut, non authoris, sed ipsius veri- 
tatis ratione habita, qui modo summo in honore fuerat 
Salmasius, nunc quasi detracta, sub qua latuerat, per- 
sona, et existimatione, et animo repente caderet; seque 
asserere, tametsi omnibus nervis id agens, quoad vixit 
postea non valuerit. Te vero, serenissima Suecorum 
regina, tuumque illud acre judicium fallere baud diu 
potuit ; tu veritatis partium studiis anteferendee, prin- 
ceps atque author prope dicam ccelestis extitisti. 
Quamvis enim ilium hominem eximiae doctrinae fama, 
causaeque regiae patrocinio tunc temporis longe omnium 
celeberrimum, a te invitatum, multis honoribus affecis- 
ses, tamen prodeunte illo responso, et singulari aequa- 
nimitate abs te perlecto, postquam vanitatis et apertis- 
simae corruptelae redargutum Salmasium, multaleviter, 
multa immoderate, falsa quaedam, adversus seipsum 
alia, et prioribus sententiis contraria disseruisse ani- 
madverteras, ad quae, coram accitus,ut ferunt, quod satis 
responderet nihil habuit, ita palam animo affecta es, ut 
ab illo tempore neque hominem, ut antea, colere, neque 
ejus ingenium aut doctrinam magni facere, et, quod 
erat plane" inopinatum, ejus adversario propensius 
favere, omnes te intelligerent. Quod enim erat in tj- 
rannos dictum, negabas id ad te ullo modo pertinere : 
unde et apud te fructum, et apud alios famam rectissi- 
mae conscientiae adepta es. Cum enim tua facta satis 
declarent, tjrannum te non esse, haec tua tarn aperta 
animi significatio adhuc clarius demonstrabat, te ejus 



rei ne omnino quidem tibi esse consciam. O me sjie 
mea omni feliciorem ! (eloquentiam enim, nisi quae in 
ipsa veritate Suada est, nullam mihi sumo ;) qui, cum 
in ea patriae tempora incidissem, ut necesse esset in 
causa tam ardua tamque invidiosa versari, ut jus omne 
regium impugnare viderer, tam illustrem, tam vere 
regiam nactus sim integritatis meae testem atque inter- 
pretem, nullum me verbum fecisse contra reges, sed 
contra regum labes ac pestes, duntaxat tyrannos. Te 
vero magnanimam, Augusta, te tutam undique divina 
plane virtute ac sapientia munitam ! quae quod in jus 
tuum ac dignitatem poterat videri scriptum, non solum 
tam aequo animo atque sedato, tam incredibili mentis 
candore, vultusque vera serenitate perlegere sustinuisti; 
sed contra ipsum patronum tuum ejusmodi sententiam 
ferre> ut ejus adversario palmam etiam adjudicare a 
plerisque existimeris. Quo te honore, qua te venerati- 
one, regina, prosequi semper debuero, cujus excelsa 
virtus ac magnitudo animi non tibi solum gloriosa, sed 
mihi etiam tam fausta atque fortunata, et suspicione 
me omni atque infamia apud alios reges liberavit, 
et praeclaro ac immortali hoc beneficio tibi in per- 
petuum devinxit. Quam bene de cequitate tua, de- 
que justitia et sentire exteri, et sentire et sperare 
semper tui populi debebunt, qui, cum tua res ac 
majestas ipsa agi videretur, tam nihil turbatam te 
de tuo baud minus placide, quam de populi jure soles, 
judicantem viderunt. Jam tu quidem baud temere, tot 
conquisita undique volumina, tot literarum monumenta 
congessisti, non quasi te ilia quicquam docere, sed 
ut ex illis tui cives te discere, tuasque virtutis ac sapi- 
entiae praestantiam contemplaripossint; cujus ipsa divae 
species, nisi tuo animo penitus insedisset, et quasi oculis 
conspiciendam se tibi praebuisset, haud ulla profecto li- 
brorum lectione, tam incredibiles amores excitasset in 
te sui : quo magis ilium mentis tuae vigorem plane 
aethereum et quasi purissimam divinae auras partem in 
illas ultimas regiones delapsam admiramur; quam ne- 
que ccelum illud triste ac nubilosum ullis frigoribus ex- 
tinguere aut gravare, neque solum illud horridum ac 
salebrosum,quod etingeniaquoque incolarum haud raid 
indurat, quicquam in te inaequale aut asperum creare po- 
tuit: quin et ipsa terra ilia, tot metallis foecunda, si 
aliis noverca, tibi certe alma parens, te summis enixa 
viribus totam auream produxisse videtur. Dicerem 
Adolphi filiam invicti atque inclyti regis unicam pro- 
lem, nisi tu illi," Christina," tantum preeluceres, quan- 
tum viribus sapientia, belli artibus pacis studia prae- 
cellunt. Jam inde profecto regina austri haud sola 
celebrabitur : habet nunc et septentrio reginam suam, 
et dignam sane quae non modo sapientissimum ilium 
Judaeorum regem, aut siquis unquam similis futurus 
esset, auditum proficisceretur, sed ad quam alii tan- 
quam ad clarissimum regalium virtutum exemplar, et 
visendam omnibus heroinam, undique concurrant: nul- 
lumque in terris fastigium par esse ejus laudibus ac 
meritis fateantur, in qua minimum hoc esse videant, 
quod sit regina, tot gentium monarcha. Non autem 
hoc minimum, quod etiam hoc esse decorum suorum 
minimum ipsa sentiat, aliudque longe majus atque 
sublimius meditetur, quam regnare ; hoc ipso nomine 



718 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



innumeris regibus prsepouenda. Potest itaque, si ea 
manet Suecorum gentem calamitas, regnum abdicare, 
reginam deponere nunquam potest, non Sueciae sed 
totius orbis terrarum dignam se imperio testata. 

In has digressum me reginae meritissimas laudes 
nemo est, opinor, qui non collaudet, nedum reprehen- 
dat ; quas ego quidem sine summa ingratitudinis 
culpa, vel aliis tacentibus, praetermittere non potui ; 
qui nescio qua mea sorte, sane felicissima, aut si quis 
est occultus vel siderum, vel animorum, vel rerum con- 
sensus aut moderamen, tantam arbitram quam omnium 
minime sperabam, omnium maxime optabam,tam mihi 
aequam et faventem in ultimis terris repererim. Nunc 
ad relictum opus, longe quidem diversissimum, rede- 
undum tamen est. " Infremuisse,"a'is, " nos ad defen- 
sionis regise famam ; dispexisse igitur grammaticas- 
trum aliquem famelicum, qui venalem calamum parri- 
cidii patrocinio vellet commodare." Haec abs te ma- 
litiosissime ficta sunt, ex quo memineras, regios, cum 
suis mendaciis ac maledicentiae praeconem dispicerent, 
adiisse grammaticum, si non famelicum, certe auri plus 
niraio sitientem Salmasium ; qui non solum praesentem 
operam suam, sed bonam quoque mentem, si quam 
prius habuit, illis libentissime vendidit ; ex quo memi- 
neras Salmasium, fama jam deplorata atque perdita, 
cum dispiceret, qui existimationem afflictam atque ob- 
tritam, quoquo modo reparare quiret, te invenisse justo 
Dei judicio, non, unde excussus es, ministrum Gene- 
vensem, sed episcopum Lampsacenum, id est, ex horto 
Priapum, suae domiis constupratorem ; unde et insul- 
sissimas laudes, tanto cum dedecore emptas aversatus, 
et ex amico inimicissimus factus, tibi laudatori suo, 
multa moriens imprecatus est. " Unus inventus est, 
magnus scilicet heros, quern Salmasio opponerent, Jo- 
annes Miltonus." Ego heroem me esse nesciebam, tu 
hcro'is cujuspiam forte Alius per me sis licet; totus 
enim noxa es. Atque unura me esse inventum, qui 
causam populi Anglicani tuear, si reipublicae rationes 
cogito, sane quam doleo, si laudem, ejus participem 
habere me neminem facile patior. Quis et unde sim 
dubium ais esse. Tarn olim erat dubium quis Ho- 
merus, quis Demosthenes. Equidem tacere diu, et 
posse non scribere, quod nunquam potuit Salmasius, 
didiceram ; eaque in sinu gestabam tacitus, quae si turn 
proferre libuisset, aeque ac nunc,inclaruisse jamdudum 
potcram : sed cunctantis famae avidus non eram, ne 
haec quidem, nisi idonea data occasione unquam prola- 
turus ; nihil laborans etsi alii me qusecunque nossem 
scire nesciebant; non enim famam sed opportunitatem 
cujusque rei praestolabar ; unde factum est, ut multo 
ante plurimis essem notus, quam Salmasius notus esset 
sibi ; nunc Andremone notior est caballo. " Homone 
an vermis." Equidem malim me vermem esse, quod 
fatetur de se etiam rex Davides, quam tuum vermem 
in pectore nunquam moriturum intus celare. " Aiunt," 
inquis, " hominem Cantabrigiensi academia obflagitia 
pulsum, dedecus et patriam fugisse, et in Italiam com- 
migrassc." Vel hinc licebit conjicere quam veraces illi 
fuerint, ex quibus res nostras auditione accepisti ; hie 
enim et te et illos impudentissime mentiri et norunt 
omnes qui me norunt, et statim amplius ostendam. Pul- 



sus vero Cantabrigia, cur in Italiam potius quam in 
Galliam aut Hollandiam commigrarem ? ubi tu tot fla- 
gitiis coopertus, minister Evangelii, non modo impune 
vivis, sed concionaris, sed sacra etiam ministeria, summo 
cum illius ecclesiae opprobrio, inquinatissimis manibus 
conspurcas. Cur vero in Italiam, More? novus credo 
Saturnus, utalicubi laterem,in Latium scilicet profugi. 
Veriim ego Italiam, non, ut tu putas, facinorosorum la- 
tibulum aut asylum, sed humanitatis potius, et civilium 
doctrinarum omnium hospitium et novercam antea, et 
expertus sum. " Reversus librum de divortiis conscrip- 
sit." Non aliud scripsi atque ante me Bucerus de regno 
Christi copiose, Fagius in Deuteronomium, Erasmus in 
Epistolam primam ad Corinthios dedita opera in Anglo- 
rum gratiam, aliique multi percelebres viri, in commune 
bonum scripserunt. Quod in illis nemo reprehendit, 
cur id mihi prae caeteris fraudi esset, non intelligo : vel- 
lem hoc tantum, sermone vernaculo me non scripsisse ; 
non enim in vernas lectores incidissem ; quibus solenne 
est sua bona ignorare, aliorum mala irridere. Tene 
vero, turpissime, de divortiis obstrepere, qui cum Pon- 
tia ancilla tibi desponsata, post stuprum eo obtentu 
illatum, immanissimum omnium divortium fecisti ? Et 
tamen erat ilia Salmasii famula, Anglica, ut fertur, 
foemina, regiis partibus apprime dedita ; nempe hoc 
erat, scelerate, adamasti ut rem regiam, reliquisti ut rem 
publicam, cujus tamen conversionis, quam odisse adeo 
vis videri, vide ne ipse author fueris ; vide inquam ne 
subversa funditus dominatione Salmasiana Pontiam ipse 
in rem publicam converteris. Et hoc modo multas tu 
quidem una in urbe res publicas, regius licet, aut fun- 
dasse diceris aut ab aliis fundatas minister publicus 
administrare. Haec tua sunt divortia, seu mavis, diver- 
ticula, unde in me Curius prodiisti. Ad mendacianunc 
redis. " Cum de regis capite inter conjuratos ageretur, 
scripsit ad eos, et nutantes in malam partem impulit." 
Ego vero neque ad eos scripsi, neque impellere attinebat, 
quibus id omnino agere sine me deliberatum jam erat : 
veriim ea de re quid scripserim, infra dicetur, uti etiam 
de Iconoclaste. Nunc quoniam iste (hominem an dicam 
heereo, purgamentum potius hominis) ab ancillarum 
adulteriis, ad adulterandam omnem veritatem progres- 
sus, congestis in me tot una serie mendaciis, apud ex- 
teros infamem reddere conatus est, peto ne quis rem 
secus interpretetur, aut in invidiam trahat, neve mo- 
leste ferat, si de me plura quam vellem et dixi supra, 
et porro dicam : ut si oculos a caecitate, nomen ab ob- 
livione aut calumnia non possum, vitam tamen possim 
ab ea saltern obscuritate quae cum macula sit, in lucem 
vindicare. Idque non unam ob causam mihi erit neces- 
sarid faciendum. Primum ut tot viros bonos atque 
doctos, qui per omnes vicinas gentes nostra jam legunt, 
deque me haud male sentiunt, ne propter hujus male- 
dicta mei poeniteat; verum ita sibi persuadeant non eum 
esse me, qui honestam orationem inhonestis moribus, 
aut libere dicta serviliter factis, unquam dedecorarim ; 
vitamque nostram, Deo benejuvante, ab omni turpitu- 
dine ac flagitio remotam longe semper fuisse: deinde, 
ut quos laudandos mihi sumo viros illustres ac laude 
dignos, hi sciant nihil me pudendum magis existimare, 
quam si ad eorum laudes vituperandus ipse ac nequam 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



719 



accederem ; sciat denique populus Anglicanus, quern 
ut defenderem, meum sive fatum sive ofRcium, sua vir- 
tus impulit, si vitam pudentur atque honeste semper egi, 
meam defensionem, nescio an honori aut ornamento, 
certe pudori aut dedecori nunquam sibi fore : qui igitur, 
et unde sim, nunc dicam. Londini sum natus, genere 
houesto, patre viro integerrimo, matre probatissima, et 
eleemosynis per viciniam potissimum nota. Pater me 
puerulum humaniorum literarum studiis destinavit ; 
quas ita avide arripui, ut ab anno setatis duodecimo 
vix unquam ante mediam noctem a, lucubrationibus 
cubitum discederem ; quae prima oculorum pernicies 
fuit : quorum ad naturalem debilitatem accesserant et 
crebri capitis dolores ; quae omnia cum discendi impe- 
tum non retardarent, et in ludo literario, et sub aliis 
domi magistris erudiendum quotidie curavit : ita variis 
instructum linguis, et percepta hand leviter philosophise 
dulcedine, ad gymnasium gentis alterum, Cantabrigiam 
misit: Illic disciplinis atque artibus tradi solitis sep- 
tennium studui: procul omni flagitio, bonis omnibus 
probatus, usquedum magistri, quem vocant, gradum, 
cum laude etiam adeptus, non in Ttaliam, quod impu- 
rus ille comminiscitur, profugi, sed sponte mea domum 
me contuli, meique etiam desiderium, apud collegii 
plerosque socios a, quibus eram haud mediocriter cultus, 
reliqui. Paterno rure, quo is transigendae senectutis 
causa concesserat, evolvendis Graecis Latinisque scrip- 
toribus summum per otium totus vacavi ; ita tamen 
ut nonnunquam, rus urbe mutarem, aut coemendo- 
rum gratia librorum, aut novum quidpiam in mathe- 
maticis, vel in musicis, quibus turn oblectabar, add is- 
cendi. Exacto in hunc modum quinquennio, post 
matris obitum, regiones exteras, et Italiam potissi- 
mum, videndi cupidus, exorato patre, uno cum famulo 
profectus sum. Abeuntem vir clarissimus Henricus 
Woottonus, qui ad Venetos orator Jacobi regis diu 
fuerat, et votis et praeceptis, eunti peregre sane" uti- 
lissimis, eleganti epistola perscriptis, me amicissime 
prosequutus est. Commendatum ab aliis nobilissimus 
vir Thomas Scudamorus vicecomes Slegonensis, Caroli 
regis legatus, Parisiis humanissime accepit ; meque 
Hugoni Grotio viro eruditissimo, ab regina Suecorum 
tunc temporis ad Galliae regem legato, quem invisere 
cupiebam, suo nomine, et suorum uno atque altero de- 
ducente, commendavit: Discedenti post dies aliquot 
Italiam versus, literas ad mercatores Anglos, qua iter 
eram facturus, dedit, ut quibus possent officiis mihi 
preesto essent. Nicaea solvens, Genuam perveni ; mox 
Liburnum et Pisas, inde Florentiam. Ilia in urbe, 
quam prae caeteris propter elegantiam cum linguae turn 
ingeniorum semper colui, ad duos circiter menses sub- 
stiti ; illic multorum et nobilium sane et doctorum 
hominum familiaritatem statim contraxi; quorum etiam 
privatas academias (qui mos illic, cum ad literas huma- 
niores, turn ad amicitias conservandas laudatissimus 
est) assidue frequentavi. Tui enim Jacobe Gaddi, 
Carole Dati, Frescobalde, Cultelline, Bonmatthaei, 
Clementille, Francine, aliorumque plurium memoriam, 
apud me semper gratam atque jucundam, nulla dies 
delebit. Florentia Senas, inde Romam profectus, post- 
quam illius urbis antiquitas et prisca fama me ad bi- 



mestre fere spatium tenuisset, (ubi et Luca Holstenio, 
aliisque viris cum doctis turn ingeniosis, sum usus hu- 
manissimis,) Neapolim perrexi : Illic per eremitam 
quendam, quicum Roma iter feceram, ad Joannem 
Baptistam Mansum, marchionem Villensem, virum 
nobilissimum atque gravissimum, (ad quem Torquatus 
Tassus insignis poeta Italus de amicitia scripsit,) sum 
introductus ; eodemque usus, quamdiu illic fui, sane 
amicissimo ; qui et ipse me per urbis loca et proregis 
aulam circumduxit, et visendi gratia haud semel ipse 
ad hospitium venit : Discedenti serid excusavit se, 
tametsi multo plura detulisse mihi officia maxime 
cupiebat, non potuisse ilia in urbe, propterea quod no- 
lebam in religione esse tectior. In Siciliam quoque et 
Graeciam trajicere volentem me, tristis ex Anglia belli 
civilis nuntius revocavit : Turpe enim existimabam, 
dum mei cives domi de libertate dimicarent, ne animi 
causa otiose peregrinari. Romam autem reversurum, 
monebant mercatores se didicisse per literas parari 
mihi ab Jesuitis Anglis insidias, si Romam reverterem ; 
eo quod de religione nimis libere loquutus essem. Sic 
enim mecum statueram, de religione quidem iis in locis 
sermones ultro non inferre ; interrogatus de fide, quic- 
quid essem passurus, nihil dissimulare. Romam itaque 
nihilominus redii : Quid essem, si quis interrogabat, 
neminem celavi ; si quis adoriebatur, in ipsa urbe pon- 
tificis, alteros prope duos menses, orthodoxam religio- 
nem, ut antea, liberrime tuebar : Deoque sic volente, 
incolumis Florentiam rursus perveni ; haud minus mei 
cupientes revisens, ac si in patriam revertissem. Illic 
totidem, quot priiis, menses libenter commoratus, nisi 
quod ad paucos dies Luccam excucurri, transcenso 
Apennino, per Bononiam et Ferraram, Venetias con- 
tendi. Cui urbi lustrandae cum mensem unum impen- 
dissem, et libros, quos per Italiam conquisiveram, in 
navem imponendos curassem, per Veronam ac Medio- 
lanum, et Paeninas Alpes, lacu denique Lemanno, 
Genevam delatus sum. Quae urbs, cum in mentem 
mihi hinc veniat Mori calumniatoris, facit ut Deum 
hie rursus testem invocem, me his omnibus in locis, 
ubi tam multa licent, ab omni flagitio ac probro inte- 
grum atque intactum vixisse, illud perpetuo cogitantem, 
si hominum latere oculos possem, Dei certe non posse. 
Genevee cum Joanne Deodato, theologize professore 
doctissimo, quotidianus versabar. Deinde eodem itin- 
ere, quo prius, per Galliam, post annum et tres plus 
minus menses in patriam revertor ; eodem ferme 
tempore quo Carolus cum Scotis, rupta pace, bellum 
alterum quod vocant episcopale, redintegrabat ; in 
quo fusis primo congressu regiis copiis, cum vide- 
ret etiam omnes Anglos, et merito quidem, in se 
pessime animates, malo coactus, non sponte, par- 
lamentum haud ita multo post convocavit. Ipse, 
sicubi possem, tam rebus turbatis et fluctuantibus, 
locum consistendi circumspiciens, mihi librisque meis, 
sat amplam in urbe domum conduxi ; ibi ad inter- 
missa studia beatulus me recepi; rerum exitu Deo im- 
primis, et quibus id muneris populus dabat, facile per- 
misso. Interea parlamento rem strenue gerente, episco- 
porum fastus detumuit. Ut primiim loquendi saltern 
coepta est libertas concedi, omnia in episcopos aperiri ora ; 



720 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLIC ANO, 



alii de ipsorum vitiis, alii de ipsius ordinis vitio con- 
queri; iniquum esse, se solos ab ecclesiis omnibus, 
quotquot reformatae sunt, discrepare ; exemplo fratrum, 
sed maxime ex verbo Dei, gubernari ecclesiam conve- 
nire. Ad haec sane experrectus, cum veram affectari 
viam ad libertatem cernerem, ab bis initiis, bis passi- 
bus, ad liberandam servitute vitam omnem mortalium, 
rectissime procedi, si ab religione disciplina orta, ad 
mores et instituta reipublicae emanaret, ciim etiam me 
ita ab adolescentia parassem, ut quid divini, quid 
humani esset juris, ante omnia possem non ignorare, 
meque consuluissem ecquando ulliususus essem futurus, 
si nunc patriae, inmo vero ecclesiae totque fratribus 
evangelii causa, periculo sese objicientibus deessem, 
statuti, etsi tunc alia quaedam meditabar, hue omne in- 
genium, omnes industriae vires transferre. Primiim 
itaque de reformanda ecclesia Anglicana, duos ad ami- 
cum quendam libros conscripsi : Deinde, cum duo prae 
caeteris magni nominis episcopi suum jus contra minis- 
tros quosdam primarios assererent, ratus de iis rebus, 
quas amore solo veritatis,et ex officii Christianiratione 
didiceram, haud pejus me dicturum, quam qui de suo 
quaestu et injustissimo dominatu contendebant, ad 
hunc, libris duobus, quorum unus de episcopatu prae- 
latico, alter de ratione discipline ecclesiasticae inscri- 
bitur, ad ilium, scriptis quibusdam animadversionibus, 
et mox apologia, respondi ; et ministris facundiam bo- 
minis, ut ferebatur, aegre sustinentibus, suppetias tuli ; 
et ab eo tempore, si quid postea responderent, interfui. 
Cum petiti omnium telis episcopi tandem cecidissent, 
otiumque ab illis esset, verti alio cogitationes ; si qua 
in re possem libertatis verse ac solidae rationem promo- 
vere ; quae non foris, sed intus quaerenda, non pug- 
nando, sed vitam recte instituendo recteque adminis- 
trando, adipiscenda potissimiim est. Cum itaque tres 
omnino animadverterem libertatis esse species, quae 
nisi adsint, vita ulla transigi commode vix possit, ec- 
clesiasticam, domesticam seu privatam, atque civilem, 
deque prima jam scripsissem, deque tertia magistratum 
seduld agere viderem, quas reliqua secunda erat, do- 
mesticam mihi desumpsi ; ea quoque tripartita, cum 
videretur esse, si res conjugalis, si liberorum institutio 
recte se haberet, si denique libere philosophandi potestas 
esset, de conjugio non solum rite contrahendo, veriim 
etiam, si necesse esset, dissolvendo, quid sentirem ex- 
plicui ; idque ex divina lege quam Christus non sus- 
tulit, nedum aliam, toto lege Mosaica graviorem, civil- 
iter sanxit; quid item de excepta solum fornicatione 
sentiendum sit, et meam aliorumque sententiam ex- 
prompsi, et clarissimus vir Seldenus noster, in uxore 
Hebraea plus minus biennio post edita, uberiiis demon- 
stravit. Frustra enim libertatem in comitiis et foro 
crepat, qui domi, servilutem viro indignissimam, infe- 
riori etiam servit ; ea igitur de re aliquot libros edidi ; 
co piiiisertim tempore cum vir saepe et conjux hostes 
inter se accrrimi, hie domi cum liberis, ilia in castris 
hostium materfamilias versaretur, viro caedem atque 
perniciem minitans. Institutionem deinde liberorum 
\ino opusculo brevius quidem tractabam ; sed quod satis 
arbitrabar iis fore, qui ad earn rem, qua par esset dili- 
gentia, incumbercnt; qua quidem re, nihil ad imbu- 



endas, unde vera atque interna oritur libertas, virtute 
hominum mentes, nihil ad rempublicam bene gerendam, 
et quam diutissime conservandam majus momentum 
potest afferre. Postremo de typographia liberanda, ne 
veri et falsi arbitrium, quid edendum, quid premendum, 
penes paucos esset, eosque fere indoctos, et vulgaris 
judicii homines, librorum inspectioni praepositos, per 
quos nemini fere quicquam quod supra vulgus sapiat, 
in lucem emittere, aut licet aut libet, ad justas orationis 
modum Areopagiticam scripsi. Civilem, quae pos- 
trema species restabat, non attigeram ; quam, magis- 
tratui satis curae esse cernebam : Neque de jure regio 
quicquam a me scriptum est, donee rex hostis a senatu 
judicatus, belloque victus, causam captivus apud ju- 
dices diceret, capitisque damnatus est. Turn vero tan- 
dem, ciim presbyteriani quidam ministri, Carolo prius 
infestissimi, nunc independentium partes suis anteferri, 
et in senatu plus posse indignantes, parlamenti sen- 
tential de rege latae (non facto irati, sed quod ipsorum 
factio non fecisset) reclamitarent, et quantum in ipsis 
erat, tumultuarentur, ausi affirm are protestantium doc- 
trinam, omnesque ecclesias reformatas ab ejusmodi in 
reges atroci sententia abhorrere, ratus falsitati tam 
apertae palam eundum obviam esse, ne turn quidem de 
Carolo quicquam scripsi aut suasi, sed quid in genere 
contra tyrannos liceret, adductis haud paucis sum- 
morum theologorum testimoniis, ostendi ; et insignem 
hominum meliora profitentium, sive ignorantiam sive 
impudentiam prope concionabundus incessi. Liber iste 
non nisi post mortem regis prodiit, ad componendos 
potius hominum animos factus, quam ad statuendum 
de Carolo quicquam quod non mea, sed magistratuum 
intererat, et peractum jam turn erat. Hanc intra pri- 
vatos parietes meam operam nunc ecclesias, nunc rei- 
publicae gratis dedi ; mihi vicissim vel haec vel ilia 
praeter incolumitatem nihil ; bonam certe conscientiam, 
bonam apud bonos existimationem, et honestam hanc 
dicendi libertatem facta ipsa reddidere : Commoda alii, 
alii honores gratis ad se trahebant : Me nemo ambien- 
tem, nemo per amicos quicquam petentem, curiae foribus 
affixum petitorio vultu, aut minorem conventuum ves- 
tibulis haerentem nemo me unquam vidit. Domi fere 
me continebam, meis ipse facultatibus, tametsi hoc 
civili tumultu magna ex parte saepe tetentis, et censum 
fere iniquius mihi impositum, et vitam utcunque frugi 
tolerabam. His rebus confectis, cum jam abunde otii 
existimarem mihi futurum, ad historiam gentis, ab ul- 
tima origine repetitam, ad haec usque tempora, si pos- 
sem, perpetuo filo deducendam me con verti: Quatuor 
jam libros absolveram, cum ecce nihil tale cogitantem 
me, Caroli regno in rempublicam redacto, concilium 
status, quod dicitur, turn primum authoritate parlamenti 
constitutum, ad se vocat, meaque opera ad res praeser- 
tim externas uti voluit. Prodiit haud multo post attri- 
butus regi liber, contra parlamentum invidiosissime sane 
scriptus: Huic respondere jussus, Iconi Tconoclasten 
opposui ; non " regiis manibus insultans," ut insimu- 
lor, sed reginam veritatem regi Carolo anteponendam 
arbitratus; immo cum praeviderem hanc calumniam 
cuivis maledico in promptu fore, ipso exordio, et saepe 
alias, quoad licuit, a me istam invidiam sum amolitus. 



CONTRA TNFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



721 



Prodiit deinde Salmasius ; cui quis responderet, adeo 
non diu, quod ait Morus, dispiciebant, ut me in concilio 
turn etiam prsesentem statim omnes ultro nominarent. 
Hactenus ad obturandum os tuum, More, et mendacia 
redarguenda bonorum maxime virorum in gratiam, qui 
me alias non norint, mei rationem reddidi. Tu igitur, 
More, tibi dico immunde, <pi[A,u)Qr]Ti, obmutesce inquam ; 
quo enim magis mibi maledixeris, eo me rationes meas 
uberius explicare coegeris ; ex quo aliud lucrari nihil 
poteris, quam ut tibi mendaciorum opprobrium adbuc 
gravius concilies, mihi ad integritatis commendationem 
eo latiiis viam aperias. Reprehenderam ego Salmasium, 
quod extraneum se et alienigenam rebus nostris immis- 
cuisset : Tu instas, " ad eos, qui ad Angliam non per- 
tinent, hanc defensionem maxime pertinere." Quid 
enim ? " Possint," inquis, " Angli existimari studio 
partium acrius agere ; G alios vero consentaneum est 
rei, non hominum, rationem habuisse." Ad haec eadem 
quae prius regero ; externum et longinquum, qualis tu 
es, in alienas res praesertim turbatas, immersurum se 
neminem nisi corruptum; Salmasium prius demonstravi 
mercede conductum ; te constat per Salmasium et Arau- 
sionenses professoriam cathedram petiise ; deinde, quod 
foedius est, exagitas parlamentum, et subagitas Pon- 
tiam. Quam autem affers rationem, cur hsec ad exteros 
potius pertinerent, deridicula prorsus est; si enim Angli 
partium studiis feruntur, quid vos aliud, qui illos solos 
sequimini, quam eorum affectus duntaxat in vos trans- 
fertis? Adeo ut, si Anglis illis credendum in sua causa 
non est, vobis profecto sit multo minus ; qui rerum 
nostrarum nihil intelligitis, aut saltern creditis, nisi 
quas ab ipsis accepistis, quibus, vestra quoque senten- 
tia, vix est credendum. Hie rursum effundis te in lau- 
dem magni Salmasii : Magnus sane tibi fuit, quem tu 
quasi pro lenone habuisti ancillas suae; laudas tamen; 
at is te non laudat, immo ante mortem palam est abo- 
minatus, seque ipse millies incusavit, quod Spanhemio 
gravissimo theologo, de te, quam impius esses, non cre- 
didisset. Nunc totus in rabiem versus rationi quasi re- 
nuntias ; " Jamdudum ratione" scilicet " defunctus est 
Salmasius." Tu clamandi tantum et furendi partes 
tibi deposcis, et tamen primas in maledicendo etiam 
tribuis Salmasio ; " non quia verbis s&evit, sed quia 
Salmasius/' Q arspucXoyt ! Has nempe argutias 
morigeranti debemus Pontiae. Hinc clamor tuus 
argutari atque etiam minurizare didicit; hinc mini- 
tabundus quoque, " experiemini," inquis, " aliquando, 
foedissimse belluae, quid styli potuerint." Tene expe- 
riemur, ancillariole, tene moeche, aut stylum tuum, 
ancillis tantummodo metuendum ? Cui si quis rapha- 
num aut mugilem solum intenderit, actum mehercule 
praeclare tecum putes, si nate non fissa, et incolumi 
stylo isto salaci tuo, queas aufugere. " Equidem 
non adeo sum," inquis, " vacui capitis, ut provinciam 
a Salmasio susceptam aggrediar :" Quam ille qui- 
dem sine capite admodum vacuo, nunquam aggres- 
sus fuisset ; festive tu quidem vacuitate capitis, mag- 
num Salmasium tibi anteponis. "At regii sanguinis 
elamorem ad ccelum tollere," quod " ineruditi" etiam 
" debent :" hoc nempe tuum esse ais. Clama, vocife- 
rare, boa; perge bypocritari, sancta verba usnrpare, et 



Priape'ia vivere : Exurget, mihi crede, aliquando quem 
inclamas toties ultionum Deus ; exurget, teque impri- 
mis eradicabit, diaboli ministrum, et reform atoe eccle- 
sise infandum dedecus et luem. Inculpantibus Salmasii 
maledicentiam quamplurimis, respondes, " Sic cum 
parricidis monstrorum omnium turpissimis, fuisse agen- 
dum." Laudo ; telis enim nos instruis : et quo te pacto, 
tuosque perduelles tractari conveniat, commodus doces, 
nosque ipse absolvis. Nunc quando ratione nihil potes, 
ne audes quidem occupatum ab Salmasio jus omne re- 
gium, et quicquid est in eo rationis causatus, a cou- 
tumeliis et rabie ad narrationes quasdam miserabiles 
conversus, expers rationis, institutos ab initio clamores 
tantum persequeris : quas partim Salmasianas recoxisti, 
partim ex elencho illo tXey^tTw anonymo, qui non pa- 
tria solum, sed nomine etiam profugit, descriptas inter- 
polasti : quarum ad praecipua capita, vel in Iconoclaste, 
vel in Salmasianis ita jam respondi, ut citra modum 
historise, responderi amplius posse non putem. Sem- 
perne ego ut identidem eandem orbitam teram, et ad 
balatronis cujusque stridorem dicta toties cogar iterare? 
non faciam ; neque mea sic abutar vel opera vel otio. 
Si quis conductitios ejulatus, et compositos venalissimi 
hominis ploratus, si quis declamatiunculas, quas etiam 
ancillaris concubitus, adulterinas edixit et spurias, Mo- 
rilli nothi gemellas, fide satis locupletes, arbitraturesse, 
ad me quod attinet, nihil quidem moror, quo minus 
ita existimet; neque enim est ut ab ejusmodi credulo 
ac temerario metuendum nobis quicquam sit : attingam 
tamen pauca, multorum instar, ex quibus tam quis 
ipse, quam quid dicat, et quid de reliquo judicandum 
sit, summatim intelligetis. Postquam de camera ple- 
bis et camera procerum ad imam redigenda, multa 
exoticus deblateravit (quod postulatum nemo sanus 
reprehenderet) " ut cequalitate," inquit, " in rem- 
publicam invecta, ad eandem in ecclesiam introdu- 
cendam procederetur; tunc enim adhuc stabant epis- 
copi : hie nisi sit purus putus anabaptismus, nihil 
video." Quis hoc a theologo et ministro Gallico spe- 
rasset unquam? sane qui anabaptismus quid sit, nisi 
hoc sit, non videt, eum ego crediderim haud magis vi- 
dere quid sit baptismus. Sed si res propriis vocabulis 
appellare malimus, sequalitas in republica non est ana- 
baptismus, sed democratia, longe antiquior : in ecclesia 
praesertim constituta, est disciplina apostolica. At 
enim " stabant episcopi." Fatemur, stabant et Genevse ; 
cum ilia civitas et episcopum et eundem legitimum 
principem religionis causa expulit; quod illis laudi, 
cur id nobis probro ducitur? scio quid tibi vis, More, 
Genevensium suffragia ultum is; quibus dimissus cum 
ignominia, an ejectus ex ilia ecclesia fueris, in dubio 
est. Te ergo cum Salmasio tuo ab evangelico hoc in- 
stituto descivisse, et ad episcopos transfugisse, si modo 
refert quo tu transfugeris, apparet. " Deinde ad minis- 
trorum," inquis, " nostratium sequalitatem respublica 
transiit, ut palam sit eundem spiritum tunc viguisse 
qui octavo demum anno nefando regis parricidio rem 
peregit." Ergo idem ut videtur spiritus et ministros 
constituit vestrates, et parricidium peregit: Perge ut 
occepisti, quas par est apostatam, eructare insanias. 
" Non plures," inquis, u tribus libellis supplicibus con- 



72\ 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO- 



fecerunt, qui in regera animadverti postulabant." Quod 
notum est, et ipse memini falsissimum esse. Sane qui 
has res apud nos memorise mandarunt, non tres tantum- 
modo libellos istiusmodi, sed multos ex diversis Angliae 
provinciis, exercitusque legionibus unius fere mensis 
spatio, tres uno die allatos fuisse memorant. Vides 
quanta cum gravitate hac de re deliberaverit senatus, 
cujus cunctationem populus lenitatis nimiae suspectam 
tot supplicibus libellis eximendam putavit. Quot reris 
millia hominum fuisse idem sentientium, qui senatum 
ad id hortari, quod jam turn serio agitabat, vel impor- 
tunum existimarent vel supervacaneum ? quorum ex 
numero et ipse fui, qui tamen quid voluerim obscurum 
non est. Quid si conticuissent omnes rei magnitudine 
perculsi, eone minus habuisset senatus in re tanta 
quod statueret, expectandusne populi nutus erat, ex 
quo tantorum exitus consiliorum penderet? enimvero 
supremum gentis concilium, ab universo populo ea 
mente adhibitum, ut impotentem regis dominatum 
coerceret, posteaquam efFeratum et repuguantem bello 
cepisset, si recurrere ad jussa populi deberet, velit ju- 
beatne de captivo hoste supplicium sumi, profecto qui 
rempublicam fortissime recuperassent, quid aliud fecisse 
viderenter quam in laqueos tjranni a populo, si fors ita 
ferret, absoluti sese praecipites dedisse ? aut si accepta 
maximis de rebus decernendi summa potestate, de iis 
quas prsesertim vulgi captum superant, non dico ad 
populum (nam cum hac potestate ipsi populus jam 
sunt) sed ad multitudinem rursus referre cogerentur, 
quae, imperitiae suee conscia, ad eos prius omnia retule- 
rat, quis ultro citroque referendi finis esset? quis tan- 
dem in hoc Euripo consistendi locus ? quod firma- 
mentum inter libellos istiusmodi tot capitum levissimo- 
rum, quae salus quassatis rebus hominum foret? quid 
si restituendum regno Carolum postulassent? cujus- 
modi libellos extitisse aliquot non supplices sed minaces 
fatendum est seditiosorum hominum, quorum nunc 
odium, nunc miseratio aeque stulta aut malitiosa esse 
solebat ; horumne ratio habenda fuit ? qui " ut cum 
rege colloquium institueretur, ingenti," inquis, " nu- 
mero pagis relictis ad parlamenti fores accurrebant; 
quorum senatores, immisso milite, plurimos trucida- 
runt." Et Surrienses dicis paganos, qui nescio alio- 
rumne malitia, agrestes ipsi, an sua improbitate impulsi, 
cum libello supplice bene poti, et comessabundi potius, 
quam aliquid petituri, per urbem ibant; mox curias 
fores, facto agmine, ferociter obsederunt; collocatos ibi 
milites statiouibus deturbarunt, unum ad ipsas curias 
fores occiderunt, priusquarn illos vel dicto vel facto 
quisquam lacessisset; inde merito pulsi ac male mul- 
tati, haud ultra duos tresve occisi, vinolentiam potius 
quam " libertatem spirantes." Passim concedis " po- 
tiores fuisse independentium partes, non numero, sed 
consilio et virtute militari." Unde ego et jure et 
merito superiores quoque fuisse contendo : nihil enim 
est naturas convenientius, nihil justius, nihil humano 
generi utilius aut melius, quam ut minor majori, non 
numerus numero, sed virtuti, consilium consilio cedat; 
qui prudenlia, qui rerum usu, industria, atque virtute 
pollent, hi mea quidem sententia, quantumvis pauci, 
quantovis numero, plures erunt, et suffragiis ubique 



potiores. Multa sparsim inseris de " Cromuello," quae 
cujusmodi sint infra videbimus; de reliquis responsum 
jampridem Salmasio est. Judicium quoque regis non 
prsetermittis, quamvis et illud a mago tuo rhetore 
miserabiliter sit declamatum. Proceres, id est, regis 
purpuratos, et ministros fere aulicos, a judicando rege 
ais abhorruisse : Nos id parum referre, altero libro 
ostendimus. " Deinde curiarum judices erasos ; quippe 
qui responderant esse contra Anglise leges, regemjudicio 
sisti." Nescio quid tunc responderint, scio quid jam 
approbent atque defendant: non est novum, judices, 
quos minime decet, meticulosos esse. " Praeficitur ergo 
sordidae et sceleratoe curias par praeses, obscurissimus 
et petulantissimus nebulo." Te vero tot vitiis et scele- 
ribus obstrictum, immo meram spurcitiem, merum sce- 
lus, usque adeo obduxisse menti et sensibus callum, 
nisi tua mens potius tota callus est, ut in Deum atheus, 
et sacrorum contaminator, in homines inhumanus, cu- 
j usque optimi calumniator esse ausis, quid aliud est 
esse quam germanum Iscariotam atque diabolum ? 
Quamvis autem tua vituperatio laus summa sit, tamen 
prsestantissimo viro cui oblatras, necnon amico mihi 
semper plurimum colendo, nequaquam deero ; quomi- 
nus ab improbissimis perfugarum et Mororum Unguis, 
quas, nisi causa reipublicae nunquam sensisset, vin- 
dicem. Est Joannes Bradscianus, (quod nomen libertas 
ipsa, quacunque gentium colitur, memoriae sempiternae 
celebrandum commendavit,) nobili familia, ut satis 
notum est, ortus ; unde patriis legibus addiscendis, 
primam omnem aetatem sedulo impendit; dein consul- 
tissimus causarum ac disertissimus patronus, libertatis 
et populi vindex acerrimus, et magnis reipublicae 
negotiis est adhibitus, et incorrupti judicis munere ali- 
quoties perfunctus: Tandem uti regis judicio praesidere 
vellet, a senatu rogatus, provinciam sane periculosissi- 
mam non recusavit. Attulerat enim ad legum scien- 
tiam ingenium liberale, animum excelsum, mores in- 
tegros ac nemini obnoxios; unde illud munus omni 
prope exemplo majus ac formidabilius, tot sicariorum 
pugionibus ac minis petitus, ita constanter, ita graviter, 
tanta animi cum praesentia ac dignitate gessit atque 
implevit, ut ad hoc ipsum opus, quod jam olim Deus 
edendum in hoc populo mirabili providentia decreverat, 
ab ipso Numine designatus atque factus videretur ; et 
tyrannicidarum omnium gloriam tantum superaverit, 
quanto est humanius, quanto justius, ac majestate ple- 
nius, tyrannum judicare, quam injudicatum occidere. 
Alioqui nee tristis, nee severus, sed comis ac placidus, 
personam tamen quam suscepittantam, aequalis ubique 
sibi, ac veluti consul non unius anni, pari gravitate 
sustinet : ut non de tribunali tantum, sed per omnem 
vitam judicare regem diceres. In consiliis ac laboribus 
publicis maxime omnium indefessus, multisque par 
unus ; domi, si quis alius, pro suis facultatibus hospi- 
talis ac splendidus, amicus longe fidelissimus, atque in 
omni fortuna certissimus, bene merentes quoscunque 
nemo citius aut libentius agnoscit, neque majore be- 
nevolentia prosequitur; nunc pios, nunc doctos, aut 
quavis ingenii laude cognitos, nunc militares etiam et 
fortes viros ad inopiam redactos suis opibus sublevat; 
iis si non indigent, colit tamen libens atque amplec- 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



723 



titur ; alienas laudes perpetuo praedicare, suas tacere, 
solitus ; hostium quoque civilium, si quis ad sanitatem 
rediit, quod experti sunt plurimi, nemo ignoscentior. 
Quod si causa oppressi cujuspiam defendenda palam, 
si gratia aut vis potentioruin oppugnanda, si in quen- 
quam bene meritum, ingratitudo publica objurganda 
sit, turn quidem in illo viro, vel facundiam vel constan- 
tiam nemo desideret, non patronum, non amicum, vel 
idoneum magis et intrepid um, vel disertiorem alium 
quisquam sibi optet; habet, quem non mince dimovere 
recto, non metus aut munera proposito bono atque 
officio, vultusque ac mentis firmissimo statu dejicere 
valeant. Quibusvirtutibus, et plerisque merito charus, 
et inimicissimis non contemnendus, gestarum egregie 
rerum in republica laudem, dirupto te, More, tuique 
similibus, apud omnes turn exteros turn posteros, in 
omne aevum propagabit. Sed pergendum: Rex capite 
damnatus est : " contra hanc vesaniam Londini pulpita 
fere omnia detonare." Ligneo isto tonitru haud mul- 
tum terres; istos Salmoneas nihil veremur, qui fic- 
titium illud fulmen et arrogatum sibi, aliquando luent; 
graves profecto authores et sinceri, qui paulo ante ex 
iisdem pulpitis contra pluralistas et nonresidentes stre- 
pitu asque horribili detonabant ; paulo post, raptis hie 
sibi ternis, ille quaternis praelatorum sacerdotiis, quos 
tonando abeg'erant, atque inde nonresidentes necessario 
facti, eodem ipsi crimine tenebantur in quod detona- 
bant, et sui quisque tonitrus bidental factus est: neque 
ullus adhuc pudor; nunc in vindicandis sibi decimis 
toti sunt ; et sane si decimarum tanta sitis est, ceuseo 
afFatim decimandos : non terrae fructus tan turn, sed et 
maris fluctus sibi habeant decumanos. Iidem primo 
belJura suadebant in regem, ut in hostem exitio de- 
votum ; mox capto hosti, et imputatae a semetipsis 
toties caedis ac sanguinis effusi damnato, parci volebant 
utpote regi. Ita in pulpitis tanquam in taberna qua- 
dam meritoria, quae volunt mercimonia, quae volunt 
scruta, vendunt popello; et quod miserius est, qua?, jam 
vendidere, quoties volunt reposcunt. At " Scoti regem 
sibi reddi flagitabant, commemorant senatus promissa 
quando Anglis regem tradiderant." Atqui ego vel 
Scotos etiam fatentes habeo, nulla omnino promissa 
publica intercessisse, cum rex traderetur ; et turpe sane 
fuisset Anglis, regem suum a Scotis in Anglia conduc- 
titiis, reddendum non fuisse nisi per conditiones : quid? 
quod ipsa parlamenti responsio ad Scotorum cartulas 
id. Mart. 1647, edita, ullam hac de re interpositam ab 
se fidem, quo pacto rex tractandus esset, dilucide ne- 
gat; indignum quippe censuisse, non nisi ea lege sua 
jura obtineri a Scotis potuisse. Attamen " regem 
reddi sibi flagitabant." Mites, credo, homines frange- 
bantur animo, desiderium sui regis ferre diutiiis non 
poterant : immo vero iidem illi, ciim ab initio horum in 
Britannia motuum, de jure regio haud semel in parla- 
mento retulissent, essetque ab omnibus assensum, ob 
ties maxime causas regem privari regno posse, si ty- 
rannus existat, si fundum regium alienet, si suos deserat, 
circa annum 1645. Parlamento Perthes habito sen- 
tentias rogare cceperunt; sitne rex, quem Sanctis infes- 
tum esse constet, communione ecclesiae interdicendus ? 
verum antequam ea de re quicquam decerneretur, Mon- 
3 a 



trossius ad earn urbem cum copiis accedens con veil turn 
disturbavit. Iidem, in suo quodam ad Cromuellum 
imperatorem responso, An. 1650, fatentur punitum jure 
regem, juris tantummodo formam fuisse vitiosam, eo 
quod ipsi in illius judicii consortium non vocarentur. 
Hoc ergo facinus sine illis atrox, cum illis egregium 
fuisset, ex eorum quippe nutu fas atque nefas pendebat, 
justum atque injustum definiendum erat: quid isti, ob- 
secro, rege sibi reddito lenius in eum statuissent ? At 
" Delegati Scotici a senatu Anglico responsum hoc 
prius tulerant, nolle se regni Anglicani formam immu- 
tare, postea tamen respondere se tunc noluisse, nunc 
velle, prout sal us reipublicse postularet." Et recte 
quidem responderunt: quid tu nine? "haec stropha," 
inquis, " omnia fcedera, commercium, ipsumque sensum 
communem evertit." Tuum quidem evertit, qui nescis 
inter libera promissa, et pactam foederis fidem quid in- 
tersit : Angli de forma reipublica? suas futura, cujus 
rationem Scotis redderc necesse non erat, quod turn 
ipsis videbatur, libere quidem respondent ; nunc salus 
reipublica? aliud suadebat ; si fidem, si jusjurandum 
populo datum violare nollent. Utrum sanctius obli- 
gare putas, liberumne de forma reipublica? futura 
datum Scoticis legatis responsum, an necessarium de 
salute reipublica? procuranda datum suo populo jusju- 
randum et summam fidem ? Licere autem parlamento 
vel senatui, prout expedit, consilia mutare, quoniam 
quicquid nos affirmamus, anabaptisticum tibi est et 
monstrosum, malo ex Cicerone audias pro Plancio. 
' Stare omnes debemus tanquam in orbe aliquo reipub- 
' licas ; qui quoniam versetur, earn deligere partem de- 
' bemus, ad quam nos illius utilitas salusque converterit. 
' Et statim. Neque enim inconstantis puto, sententiam, 
• tanquam aliquod navigium atque cursum, ex reipub- 
' licas tempestate moderari. Ego vero base didici, hose 
' vidi, hasc scripta legi, hasc de sapientissimis et claris- 
' simis viris et in hac republica, et in aliis civitatibus 
' monumenta nobis literas prodideruut, non semper 
' easdem sententias, ab iisdem, sed quascunque reipub- 
' licae status, inclinatio temporum, ratio concordia? pos- 
' tularet, esse defendendas.' Haec Marcus Tullius : 
sed tu, More, Hortensium mavis; hasc illae astatis 
quas civile maxime prudentia floruerunt; qua? si se- 
quuntur anabaptistae, mea quidem sententia sapiunt. 
Quam multa alia possem pro ferre, quae a ministerculis 
hisce et suo Salmasio, si res non verba spectemus, plane 
indocto, pro anabaptisticis damnantur. At " nihilo," 
inquis, " plus potuerant potentissimi Belgii fcederati 
ordines, qui per oratores suos et piece et pretio oblato 
strenue allaborarunt sacrum regis caput redimere." 
Velle profecto justitiam sic redimere, idem erat atque 
regem salvum nolle : verum didicerunt, non omnes 
esse mercatores ; non adeo vendacem esse senatum 
Anglicanum. Quod autem ad judicium regis, " ut 
plurima," inquis, " Christo similia Carolus pateretur, 
milites in eum ingeminant ludibria." Plura quidem 
passus est similia Christus maieficis, quam Carolus 
Christo ; et multa istiusmodi jactabantur vulgo ab iis 
quibus ad invidiam facti majorem excitandam, quidvis 
fingere aut fictum referre studium erat : fac tamen 
gregarios milites insolentius se gessisse ; non id continuo 



•24 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



in causam est conferendum. " Mactatum vero esse 
quempiam ad pedes regis praetereuntis apprecantera ut 
Deus ejus misereretur," nee an tea audivi unquam, nee 
convenire quenquam adhuc potui qui audivisset : quin 
immo tribunum ipsum, qui toto illius judicii tempore 
custodiis praefuit, regisque a latere vix discessit, inter- 
rogandum hac de re curavi : is denique nee audisse se 
hoc antea, et pro certo scire falsissimum id esse, con- 
stanter asseverabat. Ex quo intelligi potest tuarum 
narrationum fides, etiam in reliquis quam firma sit. 
Nam in benevolentia quoque et adoratione, si posses, 
Carolo post mortem procuranda, quam in odio nobis 
vel iniquissime conflando haud multo veracior inveni- 
eris. " Auditum," ais, " fuisse reg'em in fatali pegmate 
episcopo Londinensi ingeminantem, memento, memen- 
to." Id regis judices anxios nempe habuit, quid ilia 
ultimum iterata vox sibi voluisset ; accersitur, ut ais, 
episcopus, et illud geminum " memento" quid sibi 
quaesivisset, additis minis, enuntiare jubetur. Is primo 
(sic enim fingi expediebat) ex composito nimirum deli- 
cias fecit, et, quasi arcanum quoddam, prodere recusavit. 
Cum illi vehementius instarent, id quasi metu sibi ex- 
pressum, et nolenti extortum, aegre tandem edidit, quod 
revera quovis pretio divulgatum vellet. " Jusserat 
me," inquiens, " rex, ut si possem ad filium pervenire, 
hoc supremum morientis patris mandatum ad eum per- 
ferrem, ut regno et potestati suae restitutus, vobis suae 
necis authoribus ignosceret : hoc me meminisse, rex 
iterum atque iterum jussit." O magis, regemne dicam 
pietatis, an episcopum rimarum plenum ! qui rem tarn 
secreto in pegmate suae fidei commissam ut eflfutiret, 
tam facile expugnari potuit. At 6 taciturne ! jampri- 
dem Carolus hoc idem inter alia praecepta filio man- 
daverat, in ilia Icone Basilica ; quem librum ideo 
scriptum satis apparet, ut omni cum diligentia nobis 
vel invitis secretum illud, qua ostentatione simulatum 
erat, eadem paulo] post evulgaretur. Sed video plane 
decrevisse vos Carolum quendam absolutissimum, si 
non Stuartum hunc, at saltern hyperboreum ali- 
quem et fabulosum, fucatis quibuslibet coloribus de- 
pictum, imperitis rerum obtrudere : ita fabellam hanc 
velut acroama quoddam, diverbiis et sententiolis pul- 
chre distinctum, nescio quem ethologum imitatus, 
ad inescandas vulgi aures putide concinnasti. Ego 
vero, ut non negaverim interrogatum fortasse obi- 
ter ab uno vel altero concessorum hac de re episco- 
pum, ita accersitum, dedita opera vel a concilio vel ab 
illo judicum collegio, quasi id omnes curassent, aut 
sollicite quaesivissent non comperio. Sed demus inde 
qua? vis : dederit in pegmate suprema haec episcopo man- 
data, ut suae necis authoribus ignosceretur, perferenda 
ad filium Carolus : quid tam egregium aut singulare 
praeter casteros eo loci; deductos fecit? quotusquisque 
est morientium in pegmate, qui peracturus jam vita 1 , 
fabulam, cum haec mortalia quam vana sint videt, non 
idem faciat ; et inimicitias, iras, odia, tanquam ex scena 
quadam jam exiturus, libens non deponat, aut saltern 
•imulet, ut vel misericordiam, vel innocentiaeopinionem 
sine in animis hominum relinquat ? Simulasse Ca- 
rolum, Deque unquam ex animo, et sincero mentis pro- 
posito tale mandatum dedisse filio, " ut suae necis 



authoribus ignosceret," vel si hoc palam aliud tamen 
clanculum mandasse, argumentis non levibus demon- 
strari potest : nam Alius, alioqui plus satis patri obse- 
quens, patris gravissimo atque ultimo praecepto tam 
religiose sibi per episcopum tradito, haud dubie paruis- 
set: qui autem paruit, cujus vel jussu vel authoritate 
duo legati nostri, alter in Hollandia, alter in Hispania, 
et hie ne suspicione quidem ulla regiae necis reus, tru- 
cidati sunt ? qui denique haud semel scripto publico 
edixit atque omnibus palam fecit, se nolle patris sui 
interfectoribus ullo pacto veniam concedere ? Hanc 
igitur narratiunculam tuam vide an veram esse velis; 
quae quo magis collaudat patrem, eo magis vituperat 
filium. Nunc instituti oblitus, non regii sanguinis ad 
ccelum, sed populi senatum clamores ementiris, odio- 
sissimus post Salmasium in republica aliena pragma- 
ticus et ardelio, qui tam fcede praesertim res tuas domi 
agas. Tuane voce, impurissime, populus pro se utatur, 
cujus halitum ipsum oris lue venerea foetidum purus 
omnis aversaretur ? tu vero perfugarum ac perditorum 
voces populo attribuis; et quod agyrta peregrinus ad 
coronam solet, vilissimorum duntaxat animalium voces 
imitaris. Quis autem negat ea posse tempora saepius 
accidere, in quibus civium longe major numerus im- 
proborum sit ; qui Catilinam vel Antonium, quam sa- 
niorem senatus partem sequi malint ; neque idcirco 
boni cives obniti contra, et fortiter facere non debebunt, 
sui magis officii, quam paucitatis rationem ducentes: 
tuam erg'o tam bellam pro nostro populo oratiunculam, 
ne charta omnino pereat, in annales Volusi suadeo 
inseras ; nobis rhetorculo tam hircoso atque olido, non 
est usus. Dehinc injuriarum in ecclesiam postulamur. 
" Exercitus est omnium haeresewn Lerna." Qui non 
maledicunt, exercitum nostrum ut fortissimum, ita mo- 
destissimum ac religiosissimum esse confitentur: aliis 
in castris fere potatur, variis libidinibus indulgetur, 
rapitur, alea luditur, juratur et perjuratur : in his nos- 
tris quod datur otii, disquirendae veritati impenditur, 
sacrse scripturae invigilatur; nee quisquam pulchrius 
existimat hostem ferire, quam se atque alios ccelestium 
cognitione rerum erudire, aut bellicam magis quam evan- 
gelicam militiam exercere. Et sane si proprium belli 
usum consideramus, quid aliud magis deceat milites? 
qui ideo constituti sunt atque conscripti, ut essentlegum 
defensores, paludati justitiae satellites, ecclesiae propug- 
natores: quid illis, non ferocius aut truculentius, sed 
civilius aut humanius esse oporteat? qui non bellum 
serere ac metere, sed pacem et incolumitatem humano 
generi arare, vero ac proprio fine laborum suorum de- 
bent. Quod siquos ad haec praeclara instituta aspirantes 
vel alienus error, vel sua animi infirmitas transversos 
abducit, in eos, non ferro saeviendum, sed rationibus ac 
monitis precibus quoque ad Deum fusis enitendum, 
cujus est solius omnes animo errores dispellere, et coeles- 
tem veritatis lucem, cui volet impertire. Haereses 
quidem, sic vere dictas, nos nullas approbamus, ne 
omnes quidem toleramus; extirpatas etiam volumus, 
sed quibus convenit modis, praeceptis nimirum et sa- 
niore doctrina, ut in mente sitas, non ferro ac flagris 
quasi ex corpore evellendas. " Altera," inquis, " par 
nostra injuria est in temporali, quod vocant, ecclesiae 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



725 



fundo." Percontare Belgas vel etiam Germanise su- 
perioris protestantes, numquid ab ecclesiae bonis ab- 
stinuerint; in quos Caesar Austriacus quoties bellum 
movet, vix alium quaerit belli titulum, quam ut bona 
ecclesiae restitui jubeat. Verura ilia profecto non 
ecclesiae, sed ecclesiasticorum duntaxat bona fuere, qui 
hoc maxime sensu clerici, vel etiam holoclerici, ut qui 
sortem totam invasissent, rectius nominari poterant ; 
iramo lupi verius plerique eorum, quam aliud quidvis 
erant dicendi ; luporum autem bona, vel congestas po- 
tius praedas majorum ex superstitione partas, quam per 
tot saecula quaestui habuerunt, in usus transferre belli 
a semetipsis conflati, nefas non erat, quando aliud non 
erat reliquum, unde sumptus belli tarn gravis ac diu- 
turni suppeterent. Atqui " expectabatur, ut episcopis 
ereptae opes in pastores ecclesiarum erogarentur." Ex- 
pectabant, scio, illi, et avebant omnia in se transfundi : 
nulla enim est vorago tam profunda, quae non expleri 
citius quam clericorum avaritia possit. Aliis fortasse 
in locis, haud aeque ministris provisum ; nostris jam 
satis superque bene erat ; oves potius appellandi quam 
pastores, pascuntur magis quam pascunt; pinguia illis 
plerumque omnia, ne ingenio quidem excepto ; decimis 
enim saginantur, improbato ab aliis omnibus ecclesiis 
more; Deoque sic diffidunt, ut eas malint per magis- 
tratum atque per vim suis gregibus extorquere, quam 
vel divinae providentiae, vel ecclesiarum benevolentiae 
et gratitudini debere; atque inter haec tamen et apud 
discipulos et apud discipulas, tam crebro convivantur, 
ut quid domicoenium sit, aut domiprandium pene ne- 
sciant : hinc itaque luxuriant plerique, non egent ; libe- 
rique eorum et conjuges luxu et lautitiis, cum divitum 
liberis atque conjugibus certant: hanc novis latifundiis 
adauxisse luxuriam, idem prorsus fuisset, ac si quis 
novum venenum (quam olim pestem sub Constantino 
vox missa coelitus, deflevit) in ecclesiam infudisset. 
Proximum est ut de injuriis in Deum, quarum tres 
maxime nominantur, de fiducia nimirum divinae opis, 
" de precibus etiam atque jejuniis," reddenda nobis 
ratio sit. Vcrara ex ore tuo, hominum corruptissime, 
te redarguo ; illudque apostoli abs te prolatum in te 
retorqueo, Quis es tu qui " alienum servum judicas?" 
coram domino nostro sine stemus vel cadamus. Illud 
insuper addam Davidis prophetae, cum flens affligo je- 
junio animam meam, turn hoc vertitur in summum 
probrum mihi. Caeteras hac de re tuas garritiones 
febriculosas, quas nemo bis legat, minutim persequi si 
vellem, haud levius profecto ipse peccem. Nee minus 
aliena sunt quae de successibus prolixe oscitas : Cave 
tibi, More, et vide, ne post Pontianos sudores, grave- 
dinem forte contraxeris aut polypum; metuendum, ne, 
ut Salmasius ille magnus nuper, thermas refrigeres. 
Equidem de successu sic paucis respondeo ; causam 
successu neque probari bonam, neque argui malam : 
nos causam nostram non ex eventu, sed eventum ex 
causa judicari postulamus. Jam rationes politicas 
desumis tibi tractandas, mancipium cathedrarium, 
immo cathedralitium ; injurias nimirum nostras, in 
omnes reges ac populos. Quas? nobis enim nihil tale 
propositum erat; res nostras tantummodo egimus, ali- 
orum missas fecimus; siquid ad vicinos ab exemplo 



nostro boni redundavit, haud invidemus; si quid secus 
non nostra id culpa, sed abutentium even ire credimus. 
Regis aut populi,te balatronem suarum injuriarum in> 
terpretem, quinam tandem constituerunt ? certe oratores 
eorum ac legates, alii in senatu, ipse in concilio cum 
audirentur saepe audivi non solum de suis injuriis nihil 
querentes, sed amicitiam nostram ac societatem ultro 
petentes ; quinetiam regum suorum ac principum no- 
mine, de rebus nostris nobis gratulantes, etiam bene 
precantes, pacem ac diuturnitatem, atque eosdem felices 
successus, in perpetuum exoptantes. Non inimicorum 
hoe voces, non eorum qui odissent, ut tu praedicas ; aut 
tu mendacii, quod in te levissimum est, aut reges ipsi 
fraud um ac malarum artium, quod illis inhonestis- 
simum foret, damnentur necesse est. Verum scripta 
nostra objectas confitentium, " dedisse nos exemplum 
populis omnibus salutare, tyrannis omnibus formidan- 
dum." Immane crimen profecto narras ; idem fere 
atque si dixisset quispiam, 

Discite justitiam moniti^ et non temnere Divos. 

Numquid dici potuit perniciosius ? " haec Cromuellius 
ad Scotos post Dumbarrense praelium scripsit." Et se 
quidem et ilia nobili victoria digne. " Ejusmodi sesamo 
et papavere conspersae sunt infames Miltoni paginae." 
Illustrera tu quidem collegam semper mihi adjungis, 
et in hoc facinore parem plane facis, nonnunquam et 
superiorem ; quo ego nomine cohonestari me maxime 
abs te putem, siquid a te honestum posset proficisci. 
" Crematae vero," inquis, " sunt istae pnginae a carnifice 
Parisiensi supremi senatus authoritate." Nequaquam 
id comperi a senatu factum, sed ab officiario quodam 
urbico, locotenente civili nescio an incivili, cui clerici 
quidam, ignavissima animalia, autbores fuere ; tam ex 
dissito atque longinquo, abdomini suo, quod aliquando 
precor evenire possit, augurantes. Censes non potuisse 
nos vicissim Salmasii defensionem regiam cremasse ? 
potuissem sane vel ipse a magistratibus nostris hoc 
facile impetrasse, nisi illam contumeliam contemptu 
potius ulciscendam existimassem : vos ignem igne pro- 
perantes extinguere, Herculeum praebuistis rogum, 
unde clarior exurgerem ; nos consultius, defensionis 
regiae frigus calfaciendum non censuimus. Illud miror, 
tam esse majorum dissimiles factos Tolosates (nam et 
Tolosae combustos nos accepimus) ut qua in urbe sub 
Raimundis comitibus, et libertas et religio defensa 
olim tam insigniter est, in ea nunc et libertatis et re- 
ligionis defensio combureretur. " Utinam et Scriptor," 
inquis. Itane ergastulum ? et ego parem ne reddam 
tibi salutem, More, tu egregie cavisti ; ut qui nigriori- 
bus multo ignibus jamdudum pereas : urunt te adul- 
teria tua, urunt stupra, urunt perjuria, quorum ope 
desponsatam tibi stupro fceminam perfidus excussisti ; 
urunt perditissimi furores, qui impulerunt te, ut sacro- 
sancta munia facinorosus concupisceres, et imperspec- 
tum Domini eorpusincestismanibussacerdospollueres; 
sanctitatem etiam simulans, in sanctitatis simulatores, 
dira omnia hoc tuo clamore denunciares ; tuumque ex- 
ecrabile caput, tuamet ipsius damnatum sententia irre- 
tires: his tu sceleribus et infamiis totus flagras, his tu 
flammis furialibus dies atque noctes torreris, dasque 



'26 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



nobis poenas quibus graviores imprecari tibi nullus 
hostis potest. Me interim concremationes vestrae non 
laedunt, non tangunt, et istis ignominiis habeo com- 
plura quae opponam grata meo animo atque jucunda. 
Una me curia, unus forte lictor Parisiensis, malarum 
avium impulsu, combussit ; at quamplurimi per totam 
Galliano viri boni atque docti nihilo minus legunt, ap- 
probant, amplectuntur ? quamplurimi per immensum 
Germanise totius tractum, libertatis fere domicilium, per 
cseteras quoque regiones, quacunque ejus vestigia ulla 
adhuc manent; quin et ipsa Graecia, ipsae Atbenae At- 
ticae, quasi jam redivivae, nobilissimi alumni sui Phi- 
larae voce, applausere. Hoc etiam vere possum dicere, 
quo primiim tempore nostra defensio est edita, et leg'en- 
tium studia incaluere, nullum vel principis vel civitatis 
legatum in urbe turn fuisse, qui non vel forte obvio 
mihi gratularetur, vel conventum apud se cuperet vel 
domi inviseret. Tuos vero nefas sit praeterire manes, 
Adriane Pauui, qui legatus ad nos summo cum honore 
missus, Hollandiae decus atque ornamentum, summam 
in me ac singularem benevolentiam tuarn, etiamsi vi- 
dere nunquam contigerit, multis saepe nuntiis signifi- 
candam curasti. Hoc vero etiam siepius recolere me- 
moria juvat, quod sine Dei propitio numine accidere 
arbitror nunquam potuisse ; mihi, qui contra reges, ut 
videbatur, scripseram, majestatem ipsam regiam placide 
annuisse ; meaeque iutegritati, necnon sententiae, ut 
veriori, testimonium divino proximum perhibuisse. 
Quid enim verear hoc dicere, quoties augustissimam 
reginara illam, quantis cum laudibus in ore omnium 
versetur, mecum cogito. Equidem Atheniensem ilium 
sapientissimum, cui me tamen non confero, ne ipsius 
quidem Pytbii testimonio, quam me illius judicio 
ornatiorem existimem. Quod si mihi quidem haec 
scribere adolescenti contigisset, et oratoribus idem 
quod poetis liceret, haud dubitassem profecto sortem 
meam deorum sorti nonnullorum anteferre : quippe 
illos de forma duntaxat aut de musica deos, humano 
sub judice, contendisse ; me hominem in certamine 
longe omnium praeclarissimo, dea judice, superiorem 
discessisse. Sic me cohonestatum, nemo nisi carnifex 
ignominiose audeat tractare, tarn qui jusserit, quam 
qui fecerit. Hie vehementer laboras, ut ne facta nos- 
tra Belgicorum pro libertate facinorum exemplo tueri 
queamus ; quod a Salmasio quoque frustra laboratuin 
est : cui quod tunc respondi, idem tibi nunc respon- 
sum volo; Falli qui nos opinatur cujusquam exemplo 
niti ; Belgarum pro libertate facinora adjuvisse ssepius 
ac fovisse, aemulari necesse nunquam habuisse ; siquid 
pro libertate fortiter faciendum est, authores ipsi 
nobis sumus, praeire, non sequi alios assueti. Tu 
vero etiam ad bellum contra nos tressis orator, stul- 
tissimis argumentis, et te verberone dignis, Gallos 
liorturis : " Nostros," inquis, " legatos excipere Gal- 
licus spiritus nunquam sustinebit." Sustinuit, quod 
plus est, suos jam ter et amplius ad nos ultro mittere : 
Galli igitur generosi, ut solent ; tu degener et spu- 
rius, politicarum rationum rudis ac falsus deprehen- 
deris. Hinc id agis ut demonstres, " a fnederatis ordi- 
nibus ex composite rem in longum duci, eosque nobis- 
cum nee feci us nee bellum velle." Atqui interest pro- 



fecto ipsorum ordinum, non pati consilia sua sic nudari, 
et, ut ita dicam, vitiari a Genevense perfuga apud se sta- 
bulante, qui si diutius toleretur, non ancillis modo, sed 
consiliis etiam publicis stuprum videtur illaturus; cum 
ipsi fraterna atque sincera omnia prae se ferant ; nunc 
pacem, quae vota sunt bonorum omnium, perpetuam 
nobiscum redintegraverint. " Jucundum erat," inquit, 
" videre quibus ludibriis, quibus periculis furciferi illi 
legati," Anglorum scilicet, " quotidie conflictarentur, 
non modo ab Anglis regiis, &c. sed maxime omnium a 
Batavis." Nisi exploratum nobis jam diu esset quibus- 
nam et prioris legati Dorislai caedes, et duorum postea 
acceptae injuriae referendae sint, en delatorem, qui hos- 
pites et al tores suos etiam falso deferat : Hunccine apud 
vos, Balavi, non modo venereum in ecclesia ministrum, 
sed sang-uinarium etiam, nee violandi solum juris omnis 
hortatorem, sed violati quoque falsum indicem ac pro- 
ditorem ali? 

Ultimus accusation um titulus est " nostra injuria in 
reformatas ecelesias." At vero qui magis nostra in illas 
quam illarum in nos ? si exemplo instes, certe si ab 
ipsis Valdeusibus et Tolosanis, ad Rupellanam usque 
famem monumenta repetas, nos omnium ecclesiarum 
ultimi reperiemur contra tyrannos arma sumpsisse, at 
primi capite damnasse. Sane quia nobis hoc primis in 
manu adhuc fuit : quid illi, si data similis facultas fuis- 
set, fuissent facturi, opinor ne ipsos quidem satis nosse. 
Equidem in ea sum sententia : contra quem bellum 
g-erimus, eum, siquis rationis aut judicii usus sit, hostem 
a nobis judicari; hostem autem tarn interficere quam 
oppugnare eodem semper jure licuisse : Tyrannus igitur 
cum non noster solum, sed totius prope generis humani 
publicus hostis sit, eum quo jure armis oppugnari, 
eodem posse et interfici. Nee vero haec mea unius sen- 
tentia est, aut nova ; eandem et aliis olim sive prudentia 
sive sensus communis dictavit. Hinc pro Rabirio M. 
Tullius : " Si interfici Saturninum nefas fuit, arma 
sumptaesse contra Saturninum sine scelerenon possunt; 
si arma jure sumptaconcedis, interfectum jure concedas 
necesse est." Plura hac de re et supra dixi, et saepe 
alias, et per seres obscuranon est: Ex quibus quid Galli 
etiam, eadem data occasione fuissent facturi, ipse queas 
divinare. Addo et hoc amplius: quicunque armis ty- 
rannurn oppugnant, iidem, quantum in se est, et inter- 
ficiunt: immo, quicquid vel sibi vel aliis inepte satis 
persuadere cupiunt, jam interficere. Sed et doctrina 
haec nobis haud magis quam Gallis, quos tu hoc piaeulo 
cupis eximere, debetur: unde enim Francogallia ilia, 
nisi ex Gallia, unde Vindiciae contra tyrannos? qui 
liber etiam Bezae vulgo tribuitur; unde alii, quorum 
meminit Thuanus ? tu tamen, quasi ego solus, " id 
satagit," inquis, " Miltonus, cujus ego piacularem ve- 
saniam pro meritis excepissem." Tu excepisses, furci- 
fer? cujus nefaria flagitia si ecclesia ilia Middelbur- 
gensis, te pastore infamis et infelix, pro meritis exce- 
pisset, jamdudum te Satanae mandasset; si pro meritis 
excepisset magistratus, jamdudum adulteria patibulo 
pendens luisses: Et luiturus propediem sane videris; 
evigilavit enim, ut audio nuper, tua ilia ecclesia Mid- 
delburgensis, suaeque famae consuluit, teque caprimul- 
gum pastorem, immo hircum potius olentissimum, able- 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



727 



gavit ab se in malara crucem ; Line et magistratus 
Amsterodamensis puJpitum quoque interdixit tibi, or- 
chestram tuam ; tu unique illud os impudicum eo ex loco 
ad suraraam omnium bonorum offensionem conspici, 
illam impiam vocem vetuit in sacro publice audiri: re- 
stat jam tibi sola Graecarum literarum professio ; et 
haec quoque brevi eripienda, praeter imam illam lite- 
ram, cujus non professor, sed discipulus mox pensilis 
meritd futurus es. Neque haec iratus tibi ominor, sed 
duntaxat j us dico : maledicis enim tantum abest uttalibus 
offendamur qualis tu es, ut tales semper nobis vel ex- 
optemus ; immo divina plane benevolentia fieri arbitre- 
mur, ut qui nos acerrime clamitarunt, tales potissimum 
semper extiterint; qui maledicendo non infamant, sed 
honestant, sed laudant, non laudando certe maledixis- 
sent. Sed irruentem modo quid te retinuit tarn fortem 
homuncionem ? " Nisi mihi," inquis, " religio fuisset in 
magni Salmasii provinciam excurrere, cui solida de 
magno scilicet adversario victoria relinquetur." Siqui- 
dem et ille et ego nunc magnus tibi videor, eo difficilior 
provincia, praesertim mortuo, fortassis ero ; de victoria, 
modo Veritas vincat, parum solicitus. Interim tu clami- 
tas; " parricidium in doctrinam vertunt, eamque refor- 
matarum ecclesiarum consensione cupiunt quidem, non 
audent aperto ore defendere; fuit, inquit Miltonus, 
etiam summorum haec sententiatheologorum, qui ipsire- 
formandae ecclesiae authores fuere." Fuit, inquam, etid 
fusius docui in eo libro qui nostro idiomate Tenor sive 
Tenura Regum et Magistratuum inscriptus est, secun- 
dum editus, et alibi : nunc actum toties, agendi fasti- 
dium cepit : illic ex Lutbero, Zuinglio, Calvino, 
Bucero, Martyre, Paraeo, citantur ipsa verbatim loca ; 
ex illo denique Cnoxo, quem " unum," me, " Scotum" 
ais " innuere, quemque hac in re reformatos omnes, 
praesertim Gallos, ilia estate condemnasse." Atqui ille 
contra, quod ibi narratur, se illam doctrinam nominatim 
a Calvino, summisque aliis ea tempestate tbeologis, 
quibuscum familiariter consueverat, bausisse affirmat : 
plura etiam illic nostrorum, reg'nante Maria et Eliza- 
betha, sinceriorum tbeologorum in eandem sententiam 
deprompta reperies. Tu vero tandem conceptis ad 
Deum precibus maleprolixisperoras impius abominan- 
dis; et os illud adulterum, obduratus coelo offers: sino 
te facile, neque interpello ; major enim cumulus ad 
impietatem tuam accedere non potuit. Revertor nunc 
ad id quod supra pollicitus sum, et objecta Cromuello 
prascipua crimina quae sunt, in medio hie ponam ; ut 
sparsa quam fuerint levia possit intelligi, quae collecta 
nullum pondus in se babent. " Coram pluribus testibus 
pronunciavit sibi in animo esse, monarcbias omnes 
evertere, reges omnes exitio dare." Quae tua sit nar- 
rationum fides, jam aliquoties vidimus ; dixit fortasse 
tibi perfugarum aliquis Cromuellum ita dixisse ; ex 
illis multis testibus nullum nominas: quod itaque sine 
autbore maledicis, suopte vitio ruit. Non is est Crom- 
uellus, quem de suis jam factis ullus unquam vanilo- 
quum audierit ; tantum abest ut infecta quae sunt, 
tamquedifficilia, de iis insolentius quicquam promittere 
ac minitari consueverit : sane ista tibi qui narrarunt, 
nisi voluntate atque natura magis quam consilio men- 
daces essent, hoc saltern quod ab ingenio ejus alienis- 



simum est non afRnxissent. Regibus autem, quos ut 
sibi caveant frequenter mones, licebit cum saluti pro- 
spexerint suae, spreto te monitore tam imperito, non ser- 
in unculos ex trivio ampere, sed rationes se dignas inire, 
quibus quid sua intersit facilius perspexerint. Alterum 
est crimen persuasisse regi Cromuellum, " ut in insu- 
lam Vectim clanculum se subduceret." Constat regem 
Carolum rem suam multis alias rebus, ter fuga perdi- 
disse ; primum cum Londino Eboracum fugit, deinde 
cum ad Scotos in Anglia conductitios, postremd cum ad 
insulam Vectim. At hujus postremae suasor erat Cro- 
muellus. Optime; sed tamen ego regios illos primum 
miror, qui Carolum toties affirmare non dubitant fuisse 
prudentissimum, et eundem simul vix unquam suae 
spontis ; sive apud amicos sive inimicos, in aula vel in 
castris, in aliena fere potestate semper fuisse; nunc 
uxoris, nunc episcoporum, nunc purpuratorum, nunc 
militum, denique hostium : pejora plerumque consilia, 
et pejorum ferme sequutum ; Carolo persuadetur, 
Carolo imponitur, Carolo illuditur, metus incutitur, 
spes vana ostenditur, velut praeda omnium communis, 
tam amicorum quam hostium, agitur et fertur Carolus. 
Aut haec e scriptis suis tollant, aut sagacitatem Caroli 
praedicare desistant. Fateor deinde, quamvis prudentia 
atque consilio prsestare pulchrum sit, tamen ubi res- 
publica factionibus laborat, suis incommodis baud ca- 
rere ; et consultissimum quemque eo magis obnoxium 
calumniis utriusquepartisreddere: hocsaepe Cromuello 
obfuit ; bine presbyteriani, inde bostes quicquid in se 
durius fieri putant, non id communi senatus consilio, 
sed Cromuello soli imputant; immo siquid per impru- 
dentiam ipsi male gerunt, id dolis etfraudibus Cromuelli 
assignare non erubescunt; culpa omnis in eum deriva- 
tur, omnis in eum faba cuditur. Et tamen certissimum 
est, fugam ad Vectim regis Caroli, absenti turn aliquot 
milibus passu urn Cromuello, tam novum accidisse et 
inopinatum, quam cuilibet ex senatu turn in urbe ver- 
santi, quem ut de re inopinatissima sibi receus allata 
per literas certiorem fecit. Res autem ita se habuit; 
exercitiis universi vocibus rex territus, qui eum nullis 
officiis suis aut pollicitis factum meliorem, ad suppli- 
cium poscere jam tunc coeperat, statuit cum duobus 
tantummodo consciis nocturna fuga sibi consulere : 
verum fugiendi certior, quam quo fugeret, per comi- 
tum suorum vel imperitiam vel timiditatem, inops 
consilii quo se reciperet, Hamundo Vectis insulae 
praesidi se ultro dedidit; ea spe, facilem sibi ex ea 
insula, parato clam navigio, transitum in Galliam aut 
in Belgium fore. Haec ego de fuga regis in Vec- 
tim ex iis comperi, quibus rem totam pernoscendi 
quam proxima facultas erat. Sed et hoc quoque cri- 
minosum est, quod per Cromuellum, " Angli ingentem 
de Scotis parti sunt victoriam." Non " parti sunt," 
More, sed sine soloecismo claram sibi pepererunt ; tu 
vero cogita, quam Scotis cruentum illud praelium fuerit, 
cujus tu mentionem tantummodo facerenequivisti, quin 
instabile prae metu professorium caput tuum ad Pris- 
ciani pluteum nutando allideres. Sed videamus porro 
quantum flagitium Cromuelli fuerit, Scotos irrum- 
pentes, imperium sibi in Anglos jam pollicentes, nobilis- 
simo post multas aetates praelio vicisse. " Inter has 



728 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGL1CANO, 






turbas, dum Cromuellus cum exercitu abest:" Immo 
dum bostem in Angliae viscera jam progressum, jam 
parlamento ipsi imminentem Cromuellus, etiam defici- 
entes Cambros ad fidem reducendo, et obsidione longa 
defessus, ut vidit, ut vicit, ut gloriosissime fudit, pres- 
bjterianos " taedium Cromuelli ceperat :" Hie verum 
dicis; dum is communem hostem cum vitae discrimine 
propulsat, hi militantem pro sese et in acie fortiter di- 
micantem confictis criminibus accusant domi ; et Huh- 
tingtonum centurionem quendam in ejus caput sub- 
ornant. Quis tantse ingratitudinis fceditatem sine 
fremitu vel audire possit ? Eorundem instinctu, nequis- 
simum genus homuncionum ac petulantissimum, ty- 
rones tabernarum maximo numero curiae fores obsident : 
senatum, quicquid ipsis videtur (quo quid indignius ?) 
clamore suo ac minis cogunt decernere : jamque re- 
ducem a Scotis victorem fortissimum, aut exulantem, 
aut poenas indignissimas dantem vidissemus Camillum 
nostrum ; nisi Fairfaxius imperator, invictissimi legati 
sui tantum dedecus perferendum non censuisset ; nisi 
cunctus exercitus, et is quoque satis ingrate habitus, 
tarn atrocia prohibuisset. Urbem itaque ingressus, 
urbicos nullo negotio repressit ; Scotorum hostium 
partibus addictos meritd senatu movit : pars reliqua, 
insolentiis tabernariorumjam liberata, colloquium Vec- 
tense, contra senatus consultum edictumque publicum 
cum rege initum, rescindit : Huntingtonus autem ille 
accusator, impunis et sui juris relictus, tandem poeni- 
tentia ductus, ipse sua sponte a Cromuello veniam 
petiit, et a quibus esset subornatus ultro fassus est. 
Haec fere sunt quae fortissimo patriae liberatori, nisi ad 
quae supra respondi, crimina objiciuntur; quae quid 
valeant videtis. Verum ego tantum virum, deque hac 
republica tarn insignite meritum, si duntaxat nihil mali 
commisisse defendam, nihil egero ; cum praesertim non 
reipublicae solum, sed et mea quoque intersit, ut qui 
eadem infamia tam prope sim conjunctus, quam op- 
timum eum, atque omni laude dignissimum, gentibus, 
quoad possum, omnibus atque sseculis demonstrare. 
Est " Oliverius Cromuellus" generenobili atque illustri 
ortus : nomen republica olim sub regibus bene adminis- 
trata clarum, religione simul orthodoxa vel restituta 
turn primiim apud nos vel stabilita clarius : Is matura 
jam atque firmata aetate, quam et privatus traduxit, 
nulla re magis quam religionis cultu purioris, et in- 
tegritate vitae cognitus, domi in occulto creverat; et 
ad sum-ma quaeque tempora fiduciam Deo fretam et 
ingentem animum tacito pectore aluerat. Parlamento 
ab rege ultimum convocato, sui municipii suffragiis 
lectus senatorium munus obtinuit; illic rectissimis sen- 
tentiis consiliisque firmissimis statim innotuit : ubi ad 
arma deventum est, delata sua opera, equitum turmae 
praeficitur ; sed bonorum virorum concursu, ad ejus 
signa undique confluentium, auctus copiis, et gestarum 
rerum magnitudine et celeritate conficiendi summos 
fere duces brevi superavit. Nee mirum ; sui enim 
noscendi exercitatissimus miles, quicquid intus hostis 
crat, spes vanas, metus, cupiditates, apud se prius aut 
deleverat, aut subactas jam habuerat; in se prius im- 
perator, sui victor, de se potissimum triumphare didice- 
rat ; itaque ad externum hostem, quo primum die in 



castra venit, veteran us, et in ilia omni castrensi militia 
consummatus, accessit. Non est ut in his possim ora- 
tionis carceribus, tot urbes captas, tot praelia et quidem 
maxima, in quibus nunquam victus aut fusus, Britan- 
nicum orbem totum continuis victoriis peragravit, pro 
dignitate rerum exequi ; quae justae sane historiae 
grande opus, etiterum quasi campum quendam dicendi, 
et exaequata rebus narrandi spatia desiderant. Sufficit 
hoc unicum singularis et prope divinae virtutis in- 
dicium, tantam in eo viguisse sive animi vim atque 
ingenii, sive discipline non ad militarem modo, sed ad 
Christianam potius normam et sanctimoniaminstitutae, 
ut omnes ad sua castra tanquam ad optimum non mili- 
taris duntaxat scientiae, sed religionis ac pietatis gym- 
nasium, vel jam bonos et fortes undique attraheret, vel 
tales, ipsius maxime exemplo, efficeret: eosque toto 
belli, pacis etiam nonnunquam intermediae tempore, per 
tot animorum et rerum ticissitudines, non largitionibus 
et militari licentia, sed authoritate et solo stipendio, 
adversantibus licet multis, in officio contineret et adhuc 
contineat: qua quidem laude neque Cyro, neque Epa- 
minondae, neque antiquorum ulli excellentissimo im- 
peratori laus ulla major attribui solet. Hiuc enim 
exercitum, quo nemo minori spatio majorem aut in- 
structiorem, sibi comparavit, et per omnia dicto audi- 
entem, et civibus gratum atque dilectum ; et hostibus, 
armatis quidem formidolosum, pacatis admirabilem, 
quorum in agris atque sub tectis ita non gravis, et sine 
omni maleficio versabatur, ut cum regiorum suorum 
vim, vinolentiam, impietatem, atque libidines, cogita- 
rent, mutata sorte laeti, non nunc hostes, sed hospites 
advenisse crederent; praesidium bonis omnibus, ter- 
rorem malis, virtutis etiam omnis et pietatis hortatores. 
Sed neque te fas est praeterire, Fairfaxi, in quo cum 
summa fortitudine summam modestiam, summam vitae 
sanctitatem, et natura et divinus favor conjunxit: Tu 
harum in partem laudum evocandus tuo jure ac merito 
es ; quanquam in illo nunc tuo secessu, quantus olim 
Literni Africanus ille Scipio, abdis te quoad potes ; nee 
hostem solum, sed ambitionem, et quae praestantissimum 
quemque mortalium vincit, gloriam quoque vicisti ; 
tuisque virtutibus et praeclare factis, jucundissimum et 
gloriosissimum per otium frueris, quod est laborum 
omnium et human arum actionum vel maximarum finis; 
qualique otio cum antiqui heroes, post bella et decora 
tuis haud majora, fruerentur, qui eos laudare conati 
sunt poetae, desperabant se posse alia ratione id quale 
esset digne describere, nisi eos fabularentur, coelo re- 
ceptos, deorum epulis accumbere. Verum te sive vale- 
tudo, quod maxime crediderim, sive quid aliud retraxit, 
persuasissimum hoc habeo, nihil te arationibus reipub- 
licae divellere potuisse, nisi vidisses quantum libertatis 
conservatorem, quam firmum atque fidum Anglicanae 
rei columen ac munimentum in successore tuo relin- 
queres. Te enim salvo, Cromuelle, ne Deo quidem 
satis confidit, qui rebus Anglorum, satis ut salvae sint, 
metuat ; cum videat tam faventem tibi, tam evidenter 
opitulantem ubique Deum. Verum tibi turn soli de- 
certanda alia bellorum palaestra erat. 

Quid autem multa ? res maximas, qua tu celeritate 
soles, eadem si possum brevitate expediam. Amissa 



CONTRA TNFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



729 



Hibernia praeter unara urbem tola, tu, exercitu trans- 
misso, uno statim praelio Hiberniconim opes fregisti . 
reliqua indies conficiebas ; cum repente ad bellum 
Scoticum revocaris. Hinc contra Scotos irruptionem 
cum rege suo in Angliam parantes, indefessus proficis- 
ceris ; regnum illud, quod omnes reges uostri octingen- 
tis annis non poterant, uno circiter anno perdomuisti, 
et Anglorum ditioni adjecisti; reliquas eorum copias, 
validissimas tamen et expeditas, per summam despera- 
tionem in Angliam turn fere praesidiis nudatam, inopina 
impressione facta, Vigornium usque progressas, mag- 
nisitineribus assecutus, uno praelio delevisti; captapene 
tota gentis nobilitate. Hinc altapaxdomi: turn te, 
sed neque turn primiim, non minus consiliis, quam belli 
artibus valere sensimus; id quotidie in senatu agebas, 
vel ut cum boste pacta fides servaretur, vel uti ea, quae 
ex republica essent, mature decernerentur. Cum videres 
moras necti, privatae quemque rei, quam publicae, atten- 
tionem, populum queri delusum se sua spe, et potentia 
paucorum circumventum esse, quod ipsi toties moniti 
nolebant, eorum dominationi finem imposuisti. Parla- 
mentum aliud convocatur novum ; concessa iis dun- 
taxat, quibus par erat, eligendi potestate ; conveniunt 
electi ; nihil agunt ; ciim se invicem dissidiis et alter- 
cationibus diu defatigassent, animadvertentes plerique 
se rebus tantis exequendis, neque pares esse, neque 
idoneos, ipsi sese dissolvunt. Deserimur Cromuelle; 
tu solus superes, ad te rerum summa nostrarum rediit ; 
in te solo consistit; insuperabili tuae virtuti cedimus 
cuncti, nemine vel obloquente, nisi qui aut asquales in- 
sequalis ipse bonores sibi quaerit, aut digniori concessos 
invidet, aut non intelligit nihil esse in societate homi- 
num magis vel Deo gratum, vel rationi consentaneum, 
esse in civitate nihil asquius, nihil utilius, quam potiri 
rerum dignissimum. Eum te agnoscunt omnes, Cro- 
muelle, ea tu civis maximus et gloriosissimus, dux 
publici consilii, fortissimorum exercituum imperator, 
pater patriae gessisti : sic tu spontanea bonorum om- 
nium et animitus missa voce salutaris : alios titulos 
te dignos tua facta non norunt, non ferunt, et superbos 
illos, vulgi licet opiuione magnos, merito respuunt. 
Quid enim est titulus, nisi definitus quidam dignitatis 
modus ? tuae res gestae cum admirationis, turn certe 
titulorum modum omnem excedunt; et velut pyrami- 
dum apices coelo se condunt, populari titulorum aura 
excelsiores. Sed quoniam summis etiam virtutibus, qui 
honos habetur, humano quodam fastigio finiri ac ter- 
minari, non dignum est, sed tamen expedit, assumpto 
quodam titulo patris patriae simillimo, non evehi te 
quidem, sed tot gradibus ex sublimi descendere, et ve- 
lut in ordinem cogi, publico commodo, et sensisti et 
sustinuisti ; regium nomen majestate longe majore 
aspernatus. Et merito quidem : quod enim nomen, 
privatus sub jugum mittere, et ad nihilum plane redi- 
gere potuisti, eo si tantus vir factus caperere, idem 
pene faceres, atque si gentem aliquam idololatram Dei 
veri ope cum subegisses, victos abs te coleres deos. Tu 
igitur, Cromuelle, magnitudine ilia animi macte esto; 
te enim decet : tu patriae liberator, libertatis auctor, cus- 
tosque idem et conservator, neque graviorem personam, 
neque augustiorem suscipere potes aliam ; qui non modo 



regum res gestas, sed heroum quoque nostrorum fabulas 
factis exuperasti. Cogita saepiiis, quam caram rem, ab 
quam caraparente tua, libertatem a patria tibi commen- 
datam atque concreditam, apud te depositam habes ; quod 
ab electissimis gentis universse viris, ilia modd expecta- 
bat, id nunc a te uno expectat, per te unum consequi 
sperat. Reverere tantam de te expectationem, spem 
patriae de te unicam ; reverere vultus et vulnera tot 
fortium virorum, quotquot, te duce, pro libertate tarn 
strenue decertarunt ; manes etiam eorum qui in ipso 
certamine occubuerunt : reverere exterarum quoque 
civitatum existimationem de nobis atque sermones; 
quantas res de libertate nostra, tam fortiter parta, de 
nostra republica, tam gloriose exorta sibi polliceantur : 
quae si tam cito quasi aborto evanuerit, profecto nihil 
aeque dedecorosum huic genti, atque pudendum fuerit: 
teipsum denique reverere, ut pro qua adipiscenda liber- 
tate, tot aerumnas pertulisti, tot pericula adiisti, earn 
adeptus, violatam per te, aut ulla in parte imminutam 
aliis, ne sinas esse. Profecto tu ipse liber sine nobis 
esse non potes ; sic enim natura comparatum est, ut 
qui aliorum libertatem occupat, suam ipse primus om- 
nium amittat; seque primum omnium intelligat ser- 
viri : atque id quidem non injuria. At vero, si patronus 
ipse libertatis, et quasi tutelaris deus, si is, quo nemo 
justior, nemo sanctior est habitus, nemo vir melior, 
quam vindicavit ipse, earn postmodum invaserit, id non 
ipsi tantum, sed universae virtutis ac pietatis rationi 
perniciosum ac lethale propemodum sit necesse est : 
ipsa honestas^ipsa virtus decoxisse videbitur, religionis 
angusta fides, existimatio perexigua in posterum erit, 
quo gravius generi humano vulnus, post illud primum, 
infligi nullum poterit. Onus longe gravissimum sus- 
cepisti, quod te penitus explorahit, totum te atque in- 
timum perscrutabitur atque ostendet, quid tibi animi, 
quid virium insit, quid ponderis ; vivatne in te vere ilia 
pietas, fides, justitia, animique moderatio, ob quas evec- 
tum te prae caeteris Dei numine ad banc summam dig- 
nitatem credimus. Tres nationes validissimas consilio 
regere, populos ab institutis pravis ad meliorem, quam 
ante hac, frugem ac disciplinam velle perducere, remo- 
tissimas in partes, sollicitam mentem, cogitationesque 
immittere, vigilare, praevidere, nullum laborem accu- 
sare, nulla voluptatum blandimenta non spernere, divi- 
tiarum atque potentiae ostentationem fugere, haec sunt 
ilia ardua, prae quibus bellum ludus est; haec te venti- 
labunt atque excutient, haec virum poscunt divino 
fultum auxilio, divino pene colloquio monitum atque 
edoctum. Quae tu, et plura, saepenumero quin tecum 
reputes atque animo revolvas, non dubito : uti et illud, 
quibus potissimum queas modis et ilia maxima perficere, 
et libertatem salvam nobis reddere et auctiorem. Quod 
meo quidem judicio, baud alia ratione rectius effeceris, 
quam si primum quos laborum atque discriminum co- 
mites habuisti, eosdem, quod facis, conciliorum socios 
cum primis adhibueris; viros sane et modestissimos, et 
integerrimos, et fortissimos ; quos tot mortes conspectae, 
tot strages ante ora editae, non ad crudelitatem, aut 
duritiem animi ; sed ad justitiam, et numinis reveren- 
tiam, et humanae sortis miserationem, ad libertatem 
denique eo acrius retinenclam erudierunt, quo gravio- 



730 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO, 



ribus ejus causa, periculis ipsi suum caput objecere : 
Non illi quidem ex colluvione vulgi, aut ad?enarum, 
non turba collectitia, sed melioris plerique notae cives, 
genere vel nobili, vel non inhonesto, fortunis vel am- 
plis, vel mediocribus ; quid si ipsa paupertate aliqui 
commendatiores ? quos non praeda convocavit, sed 
difficillima tempora, rebus maxime dubiis, saepe ad- 
versis, ad liberandam tyrannide rempubl. excitarunt; 
non in tuto aut curia sermones inter se atque senten- 
tias tantum, sed manus cum hoste conserere paratos. 
Quod nisi spes semper infinitas, atque inanes per- 
sequemur, in quibus tandem mortalium sisti aut 
confidi possit non video, si his horuuique similibus 
fides non habebitur. Quorum fidelitatis certissimum 
pignus, et indubitatum habemus, quod pro republica 
vel mortem oppetere, si ita sors tulisset, non recusarint; 
pietatis, quod implorato suppliciter dei auxilio, totiesque 
ab eo insigniter adjuti, a quo auxilium petere, eidem 
gloriam tribuere omnem rerum prospere gestarum 
consueverint ; justitise, quod etiam regem in judicium 
adduxerint, damnato parci noluerint : moderationis, 
quod et earn experti jam diu sumus, et, quam ipsi sibi 
peperere pacem, si eorundem per iujuriam rumpatur, 
quae mala inde oritura sunt, ipsi primi sint persensuri, 
ipsi prima vulnera suis corporibus excepturi, deque suis 
omnibus fortunis atque ornamentis feliciter jam partis 
rursus dimicaturi ; fortitudinis denique, quod nulli un- 
quam libertatem felicius aut fortius recuperaverint; 
ne arbitremur ullos alios posse diligentius conservare. 
Gestit clarorum virorum nomina commemorare oratio 
mea: te primum, Fletuode, quern ego abipsis tjrociniis 
ad bos usque militiae honores, quos nunc obtines a 
summis proximos, humanitate, mansuetudine, benigni- 
tate animi eundem novi; hostis fortem et imperterri- 
tum, sed et mitissimum quoque victorem sensit : Te, 
Lamberte, qui vix modicae dux manus, ducem Hamil- 
tonum juvenis, totius Scotia? juventutis flore ac robore 
circumseptum, et progredientem retardasti, et retar- 
datum sustinuisti: Te, Desboroe, te, Hualei, qui atro- 
cissimas hujus belli pugnas vel audienti mihi vel 
legenti, inter hostes confertissimos expectati semper 
occurristis : Te, Overtone, mihi multis abhinc annis, et 
studiorum similitudine, et morum suavitate, concordia 
plusquam fraterna conjunctissime ; te Marstonensi 
praelio illo memorabili, pulso sinistro cornu nostro, re- 
spectantes in fuga duces stantem cum tuo pedite, et 
hostium impetus propulsantem inter densas ulrinque 
caedes videre : Scotico deinde bello, ut primum Cromu- 
elli auspiciis, tuo marte occupata Fifa? littora, et pate- 
factus ultra Sterlinium aditus est, te Scoti occidentales, 
te Boreales humanissimum hostem, te Orcades extremae 
domitorem fatentur. .Addam et nonnullos, quos toga 
celebres et pacis artibus, consiliarios tibi advocasti, vel 
amicitia vel fama mihi cognitos ; Huitlochium, Piche- 
ringum, Striclandium, Sidnamum, atque Sidneium, 
(quod ego illustre nomen nostris semper adhaesisse par- 
tibus ketor) Montacutium,Laurentium, summo iugenio 
ambos, optimisque artibus expolitos ; aliosque permul- 
tos eximiis mentis cives, partim senatorio jampridem 
munere, partim militari opera insignes. His et orna- 
tissirnis viris et spectatissimis civibus libertatem nos- 



tram proculdubio recte commiseris ; immo quibus tutius 
committi possit aut concredi, baud facile quis dixerit. 
Deinde si ecclesiam ecclesiae reliqueris, teque ac magis- 
tratus eo onere, etdimidio si mill et alienissimo, prudens 
levaveris ; nee duas potestates longe diversissimas, 
civilem et ecclesiasticam, siveris inter se scortari; seque 
invicem promiscuis ac falsis opibus in speciem quidem 
firm are re autem vera labefactare ac demum subvertere: 
si vim omnem ab ecclesia sustuleris; vis autem nun- 
quam aberit; quandiu pecunia, ecclesia? toxicum, veri- 
tatis angina, enuntiandi evangelii merces, vi etiam ab 
nolentibus coacta, erit; ejeceris ex ecclesia nummula- 
rios illos, non columbas sed columbam, sanctum ipsum 
spiritum, cauponantes. Turn si leges non tot rogaveris 
novas, quot abrogaveris veteres; sunt enim sa?pe in 
republica, qui multas leges ferendi, ut versificatores 
multa carmina fundendi, impetigine quad am pruriunt : 
sed leges quo sunt plures, eo fere sunt deteriores ; non 
cautiones sed cautes,tu necessariasduntaxat retinueris, 
alias tuleris, non qua? bonos cum malis eodem jugo 
subjiciant, aut quibus, dum improborum fraudes pra?- 
caventur, quod bonis liberum esse debet, vetatur, sed 
quae in vitia tantum animadvertant, res per se licitas 
abutentium ob noxam, non prohibeant. Leges enim 
ad fraenandam maliciam solum sunt comparata?, virtu- 
tis libertas formatrix optima atque auctrixest. Deinde 
sijuventutis institutioni ac moribus melius prospexeris, 
quam est adhuc prospectum, uec dociles juxta atque 
indociles, gnavos atque ignavos, impensis publicis ali 
a?quum senseris, sed jam doctis, jam bene mentis doc- 
torum pra?mia reservavevis. Turn si libere philosophari 
volentibus permiseris, quae babent, sine magistelli cu- 
juspiam privato examine, suo periculo in lucem pro- 
ferre : ita enim maxime Veritas effloruerit ; nee semi- 
doctorum semper sive censura, siveinvidia, sive tenuitas 
animi, sive superstitio aliorum inventa, omnemque sci- 
entiam suo modulo metietur, suoque arbitrio nobis im- 
pertiverit. Postremo si ipse neque verum neque fal- 
sum, quicquid id est, audire metueris : eos autem 
minime omnium audieris, qui sese liberos esse non 
credunt, nisi aliis esse liberis, per ipsos non liceat; nee 
studiosius aut violentius quicquam agunt, quam ut 
fratrum non corporibus modo sed conscientiis quoque 
vincula injiciant; pessimamque omnium tyrannidem, 
vel pravarum consuetudinum vel opinionum suarum et 
in rempublicam et in ecclesiam inducant; tu ab eorum 
parte semper steteris, qui non suam tantummodo sectam 
aut factionem, sed omnes aeque cives, aequali jure libe- 
ros esse in civitate arbitrantur oportere. Ha?c si cui 
satis libertas non est, qua? quidem a magistratibus ex- 
hiberi potest, is mihi ambitionis atque turbarum, quam 
libertatis ingenua? studiosior videtur; praesertim cum 
agitatus tot factionibus populus, ut post tempestatem, 
cum fluctus nondum resederunt, statum ilium rerum 
optabilem atque perfectum, ipse non admittat. 

Nam et vos, 6 cives, quales ipsi sitis ad libertatem 
vel acquirendam vel retinendam haud parvi interest : 
nisi libertas vestra ejusmodi sit, quae neque parari ar- 
mis, neque auferri possit, ea autem sola est, quie pie- 
tate, justitia, temperantia, vera denique virtute nata, 
altas atque intimas radices animis vestris egerit, non 



CONTRA INFAMEM LIBELLUM ANONYMUM. 



731 



deerit profecto qui vobis istam, quam vi atque armis 
quaesivisse gloriamini, etiam sine armis cito eripiat. 
Multos bellura auxit, quos pax minuit ; si perfuncti 
bello, pacis studia neglexeritis, si bellum pax vestra 
atque libertas, bellum tantummodd vestra virtus est, 
vestra summa gloria, invenietis, mibi credite, ipsam 
pacem vobis infestissimam ; pax ipsa vestrum bellum 
longedifficillimum,etquam putastislibertatem,servitus 
vestra erit. Nisi per veram atque sinceram in Deum 
atque homines pietatem, non vanam atque verbosam, 
sed efBcacem et operosam, superstitiones animis, religi- 
onis verse ac solidee ignoratione ortas, abegeritis, babe- 
bitis, qui dorso atque cervicibus vestris, tanquam ju- 
mentis insidebunt; qui vos etiam victores bello suam 
veluti prsedam sub basta non bellica nundinabuntur : 
et ex ignorantia et superstitione vestra, uberem quaestum 
facient. Nisi avaritiam, ambitionem, luxuriam menti- 
bus, immo familiis quoque vestris luxum expuleritis, 
quem tyrannum foris et in acie quserendum credidistis 
eum domi, eum intus vel duriorem sentietis, immo 
multi indies tyranni ex ipsis praecordiis vestris intole- 
randi pullulabunt. Hos vincete in primis, haec pacis 
militia est, hae sunt victoria?, difficiles quidem, et in- 
cruentse, illis bellicis et cruentis longe pulcbriores ; nisi 
hie quoque victores eritis, ilium modo in acie hostem 
atque tyrannum, aut non omnino aut frustra vicistis : 
nam pecuniae vim maximam in serarium inferendi ra- 
tiones posse calidissimas excogitare, pedestres atque 
navales copias impigre posse instruere, posse cum le- 
gatis exterorum caute agere, societates et foedera perite 
contrahere, si qui majus atque utilius ac sapientius in 
republica existimavistis esse, quam incorrupta' populo 
judicia praestare, afflictis per injuriam atque oppressis 
opem ferre, suum cuique jus expeditum reddere, quanto 
sitis in errore versati, turn sero nimis perspicietis, cum 
ilia magna repente vos fefellerint, haec parva vestro 
nunc judicio et neglecta ad versa turn vobis et exitio 
fuerint. Quin et exercituum et sociorum, quibus con- 
fiditis, fluxa fides, nisi justitiae sola authoritate retine- 
atur : et opes atque honores, quos plerique sectantur, 
facile dominos mutant: ubi virtus, ubi industria, et 
laborum tolerantia plus viget, eo transfugiunt, et igna- 
vos deserunt. Sic gens gentem urg-et, aut sanior pars 
gentis corruptiorem proturbat : sic vos regios dejecistis. 
Si vos in eadem vitia prolabi, si illos imitari, eadem 
sequi, easdem inanitates aucupari ceperitis, vos profecto 
regii istis, vel eisdem adhuc hostibus, vel aliis vicissim 
opportuni; qui iisdem ad Deum precibus, eadem pati- 
entia,integritate,solertia freti,qua vos primo valuistis, 
depravatos nunc, et in regium luxum atque socordiam 
prolapsos, merito subjugabunt. Turn ver6, quod mise- 
rum est, videbimini, plane quasi Deum vestri poenitu- 
isset, pervasisse ignem ut fumo pereatis : quantae nunc 
admirationi, tantae tunc omnibus contemptioni eritis ; 
hoc solum quod aliis fortasse, non vobis, prodesse in 
posterum queat, salutare documentum relicturi, quantas 
res vera virtus et pietas efficere potuisset, cum ficta et 
adumbrata, duntaxat belle simulando, et aggredi tan- 
tas, et progressus in iis tantos per vos facere valuerit. 
Non enim, si propter vestram sive imperitiam, sive in- 
constant! am, sive improbitatem tarn praedare facta 



male cesserunt, idcirco viris melioribus minus post haec 
vel licebit vel sperandum erit. Sed liberare vos denuo 
tam facile corruptos nemo, ne Cromuellus quidem, nee 
tota, si revivisceret, Brutorum natio liberatorum, aut 
si velit, possit, aut si possit, velit. Quid enim quis- 
quam vobis libera suffragia et eligendi quos vultis 
in senatum potestatem turn assereret, an ut suae quis- 
que factiones hominis per urbes, aut qui conviviis unc- 
tius vos, et majoribus poculis per municipia colonos ac 
rusticos exceperit, eum quantumvis indignum eligere 
possitis ? ita non prudentia, non authoritas, sed factio 
et sagina, aut ex tabernis urbicis caupones et insti- 
tores reipublicae, aut ex pagis bubulcos, et vere pe- 
cuarios senatores, nobis creaverit. Illis nempe rem- 
publicam commendaret, quibus vel rem privatam nemo 
committeret ; illis aerarium et vectigalia qui rem suam 
turpiter prodegere ? illis publicos reditus, quos depecu- 
lentur, quos ex publicis privatos reddant? an legisla- 
tors ut illi extemplo gentis universae fiant, qui ipsi 
quid lex, quid ratio, quid fas aut jus, rectum aut cur- 
vum, licitum aut illicitum sit, nunquam intellexerint ? 
qui potestatem omnem in violentia, dignitatem in su- 
perbia atque fastidio positam existiinent ? Qui in senatu 
nihil prius agant, quam ut amicis prave gratificentur, 
inimicis memores adversentur? qui propinquos sibi ac 
necessarios, tributis imperandis, bonis proscribendis, 
per provincias substituant, homines plerosque viles ac 
perditos, qui suarum ipsi auctionum sectores, grandem 
exinde pecuniam cogant, coactam intervertant, rem- 
publicam fraudent, provincias expilent, se locupletent 
ad opulentiam atque fastum ex mendicitate hesterna 
ac sordibus repentini emergant? quis tales ferat servos 
furaces, dominorum vicarios ? quis ipsos furura dominos 
ac patronos, libertatis idoneos fore custodes crediderit, 
aut illiusmodi curatoribus reipublicae (quingenti licet 
consueto numero sint ex municipiis omnibus hunc in 
modum electi) pilo se factum liberiorem putet, cum et 
libertatis ipsi custodes et quibus custoditur, tam pauci 
turn sint futuri, qui libertate uti atque frui vel sciant 
vel dignisint? Libertate autem indigni, quod omitten- 
dum postremd non est, erga ipsos primum liberatores 
ingratissimi fere existunt. Quis nunc talium pro liber- 
tate pugnare, aut vel minimum adire periculum velit ? 
non convenit, non cadit in tales esse liberos ; utut li- 
bertatem strepant atque jactent, servi sunt et domi et 
foris, nee sentiunt; et cum senserint tandem, et velut 
ferocientes equi fraenum indignantes, non veras liberta- 
tis amore (quam solus vir bonus recte potest appetere) 
sed superbia et cupiditatibus'parvis impulsi, jugum ex- 
cutere conabuntur, etiamsi armis rem saspius tentave- 
rint, nihil tamen proficient; mutare servitutem fortasse 
poterunt, exuere non poteruut. Id quod Homanis etiam 
antiquis luxu jam fractis ac diffluentibus persaepe ac- 
cidit; recentioribus multo magis ; cum longo post tem- 
pore Crescentii Nomentani auspiciis, et postea duce 
Nicolao Rentio, qui se tribunum plebis nominaverat, 
antiquam renovare gloriam, et rempublicam restituere 
affectarent. Scitote enim, ne forte stomachemini, aut 
quemquam praeter vosmetipsos inculpare possitis, sci- 
tote, quemadmodum esse liberum idem plane est atque 
esse pium, esse sapientem, esse justum ac temperantem, 



732 



DEFENSIO SECUNDA PRO POPULO ANGLICANO. 



suiprovidum, alieni abstinentem, atque exinde demum 
magnanimum ac fortem, ita his contrarium esse, idem 
esse atque esse servum ; solitoque Dei judicio et quasi ta- 
lione justissima fit, ut quae gens se regere seque mode- 
rari nequit, suisque ipsa se libidinibus in servitutem 
tradidit, ea aliis, quibus nollet, dominis tradatur; nee 
libens modo, sed invita quoque serviat. Quod etiam 
et jure et natura ipsa sancitum est, ut qui impos sui, 
qui per inopiam mentis aut furorem suas res recte ad- 
ministrare nequit, in sua potestate ne sit ; sed tanquam 
pupillus, alieuo dedatur imperio ; nedum ut alienis ne- 
gotiis, aut reipublicae prasficiendus fit. Qui liberi igitur 
vultis permanere, aut sapite imprimis, aut quamprimum 
resipiscite : si servire durum est, atque nolitis, rectee 
rationi obtemperare discite, vestrum esse compotes ; 
postremo factionibus, odiis, superstitionibus, injuriis, 
libidinibus ac rapinis invicem abstinete. Id nisi pro 
virili vestra parte feceritis, neque Deo neque hominibus, 
ne vestris quidem jam nunc liberatoribus, idonei pote- 
ritis videri, penes quos libertas et reipublicae guberna- 
tio, et imperandi aliis, quod tarn cupide vobis arrogatis, 
potestasrelinquendasit: cum tutorepotiusaliquorerum- 
que vestrarum fideli ac forti curatore tanquam pupilla 
gens, turn quidem indigeatis. Ad me quod attinet, quo- 
cunque res redierit, quam ego operam meam maxime 
ex usu reipublicse futuram judicavi, baud gravatim 
certe, et ut spero, haud frustra impendi ; meaque arma 
pro libertate, non solum ante fores extuli, sed etiam iis 
ita late sum usus, ut factorum minime vulgarium jus 
atque ratio, et apud nostros et apud exteros explicata, 



defensa, atque bonis certe omnibus probata, et ad me- 
orum civium summam laudem, et posterorum ad ex- 
emplum praeclare constet. Si postrema primis non 
satis responderint, ipsi viderint ; ego quae eximia, quae 
excelsa, quee omni laude prope majora fuere, iis testi- 
monium, prope dixerim monumentum, perhibui, haud 
cito interiturum ; et si aliud nihil, certe fidem meam 
liberavi. Quemadmodum autem poeta is qui epicus 
vocatur, si quis paulo accuratior, minimeque abnormis 
est, quern heroem versibus canendum sibi proponit, 
ejus non vitam omnem, sed unam fere vitae actionem, 
Achillis puta ad Trojam, vel Ulyssis reditum, vel iEnese 
in Italiam adventum ornandum sibi sumit, reliquas 
praetermittit ; ita mihi quoque vel ad officium, vel ad 
excusationem satis fuerit, unam saltern popularium 
meorum heroice rem gestam exornasse ; reliqua prse- 
tereo, omnia universi populi praestare quis possit ? si 
post tarn forti a facinora foedius deliqueritis, si quid vo- 
bis indignum commiseritis, loquetur profecto posteritas, 
et judicium feret ; jacta strenue fimdamenta fuisse, 
praeclara initia, immo plusquam initia ; sed qui opus 
exaedificarent, qui fastigium imponerent, non sine 
commotione quadam animidesiderabit; tantis incceptis, 
tantis virtutibus, non adfuisse perseverantiam dolebit ; 
ingentem glorise segetem, et maximarum rerum ge- 
rendarum materiam prsebitam videbit, sed materise 
defuisse viros : non defuisse qui monere recta, hortari, 
incitare qui egregie turn facta, turn qui fecissent, con- 
decorare, et victuris in omne aevum celebrate laudibus 
potuerit. 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



ALEXANDRUM MORUM ECCLESIASTEN, 



L1BELLI FAMOSI, CUI TITULUS, " REGII SANGUINIS CLAMOR AD CCELUM ADVERSUS PARRICIDAS ANGLICANOS, 

AUTHOREM RECTE DICTUM. 



[first published 1654. 



Nihil eqiridem aut antea inauditum, aut mea turn ex- 
pectatione alienum, cum libertatis causam primo accepi 
defendendam, usu venturum mihi arbitratus sum, si 
liberatores Patriae, cives meos,unus prse caeteris publice 
laudassem, tyrannorum jus infinitum atque injurium 
coarguissem, ut improborum omnium in me prope 
unum ferentur odia, atque redundarent. Praevidebam 
etiam turn bellum vobis, Angli, cum hostibus haud 
diuturnum, mihi cum perfugis, et eorum mercenariis 
sempiternum propemodum fore : ut quorum vos tela de 
manibus eripuissetis, eorum in me maledicta atque con- 
vitia eo acriiis conjicerentur. In vos ergo furor hos- 
tium atque impetus deferbuit: mihi, ut videtur, soli 
hujus belli reliquiae supersunt; contemptissimae qui- 
dem illae, sed ut fere sunt infirmorum impetus anima- 
lium, satis infestae. Non perditorum duntaxat civium, 
sed exterorum etiam ut quisque alienarum rerum plus 
nimio curiosus, ut quisque importunissimus, corruptis- 
simusque est, in me involat, officii tantummodo mei 
satagentem ; in me omne virus et aculeos diriget. Quo 
fit, ut quod plerique ad commendationem operis, et 
audientiam sibi faciendam praefari initio solent, se ab 
exili atque humili rerum materia ad res dictu gravis- 
simas atque maximas aspirare, id mihi in praesentia 
nequaquam concessum sit; ut cui nunc contra vel in- 
vito atque nolenti a rebus maximis et gloriosissimis 
dicendis ad res obscuras, anonymorum latebras, et ad- 
versarii turpissimi per sequenda lustra atque flagitia 
necessario sit descendendum. Quod etsi parum exor- 
dienti honorificum et ad reddendos lectorum animos 
attentiores minus accommodatum esse videatur, habet 
tamen quod exemplo haud absimili, cum viris optimis 
et praestantissimis idem contigerit, consolari possit : 
siquidem et Africanus ipse Scipio, postquam ea gesserat 
quibus nihil in eo laudis genere felicius aut majus po- 
tuit, inclinatione rerum suarum perpetua et decrescente 
semper suae virtutis materia usus esse videtur : et primo 
dux quidem summus, atque Hannibale superior, mox 



contra hostem Syrum et imbellem legatus, tribunorum 
deinde impotentia vexatus, suam tandem communire 
villam Liternensem contra fures atque latrones coactus 
est : in hac tamen rerum suarum declivitate atque de- 
scensu par ipse semper sibi et sequalis dicitur fuisse. 
Unde ego, utque aliis aliunde monitis, quicquid sortis 
aut provinciae dederit modo Deus, multo licet priore 
angustius, atque tenuius, id non aspernari erudior. 
Sed quemadmodum dux bonus, (quidni enim bonos in 
omni genere liceat imitari ?) contra hostem qualem- 
cunque boni ducis officium explebit ; vel si hoc nimis 
invidiosum est, ut sutor bonus, ita enim vir sapiens 
olim philosophatus est, ex eo quodcunque est ad manum 
corio ealceamentum quam potest optimum conficiet, sic 
ego ex hoc calceamento (argumentum enim cum insti- 
tuissem dicere puduit) trito praesertim jam antea atque 
dissuto, siquid concinnare quod legentium auribus tan- 
tum non fastidio sit potero, experiar. Parsurus utique 
omnino huic operae, nisi accusationes mihi nescio quas 
falsas, et mendacia objecisset adversarius, quam ego 
maculam aut suspicionem adhaerere mihi minime volo. 
Quando hoc necessario tollendum mihi onus est, dabit 
quisque veniam, uti spero, si populo qui non defui pri- 
dem et reipublicae, mihimet nunc non defuero. 

Quoniam itaque " tuam fidem," More, quam in ipso 
libelli titulo tu " publicam " vocas, ego publicatam 
jamdudum et perditam scio, ita ultro statim nobis ob- 
stringis, ut " siquid eorum in te agnosceres," quae de 
te ego scripserim, " majorem in modum irascerere," ex 
ore imprimis tuo, quo laqueo solet improbus irretiri 
semper et capi, judicandum te omnibus atque damnan- 
dum addico. Cum enim et ex perpetua calumnia,qua 
meum omne dictum aut factum in deterrimam partem 
trahis, meque obruere invidia quseris, et ex contumeliis 
quas semper iniquissimas undique in me arripis jacien- 
das, ex omnibus denique signis atque indiciis irse 
facile appareat vehementissime te, quamvis id usque 
neges, et apertissime irasci, effugere non potes quin 



"3-i 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



arguaris agnoscere in te ea, quae vel "affinxisse" tibi 
me ais, vel in lucem protulisse. 

Duae sunt res quarum ego te postulabam : altera in- 
juriarum, altera flagitiorum. Injuriarum, quod libelli 
in nos clamosissimi author extitisses; nam quod popu- 
lum Anglicanum satis loedere existimares te non posse, 
nisi me eximie praeter caeteros laesisses, id ego honori 
mihi potius, quam contumeliae duco. Flagitia vero 
tua commemorare, ut dignum erat, idcirco non grava- 
bar, ut ostenderem, siquidem is est habendus clamoris 
author, qui edidit, et alius certe praeter te nemo hacte- 
nus comparuit, quamcasto ex ore clamor ille prorupisset. 
Quid tu ad haec ? negas te authorem illius libelli ; et 
ita seduld, ita prolixe negas, ciim tamen liber ille ne- 
quaquam tibi displiceat, ut magis mihi pertimuisse 
videare, ne ilium librum scripsisse, quam ne ilia in te 
tot probra admisisse reperiaris; de quibus sic leviter et 
timide, sed simul versute ac veteratorie te purgas, ut 
nemo non subesse ulcus perspiciat. Haud incallido 
fortasse consilio ; nam quis unum libellum scripserit, 
quam quis multa stupra fecerit, difficilior longe est pro- 
batio ; libellus sine arbitris confici potuit; haec sine 
sociis, et scelerum consciis non potuerunt : illic vestigia 
pene nulla necessario apparent; hie plurima indicia et 
praecedunt, et una adsunt, et subsequuntur. Itaque, 
si pernegasses ad te librum ilium pertinere, arbitrabaris 
eadem opera et fidem meam de reliqua tua vita saltern 
apud louginquos infirmari, et mea credulitate atque in- 
juria, qua te scilicet temere violassem. tuam magna ex 
parte levari infamiam : sin ire inficias de libello non 
posses, restare tibi hoc solum praevidebas, quo nihil 
difficilius erat aut acerbius, ut de moribus et flagitiis 
haud perfunctorie respondendum tibi esset. Verum 
ego nisi hoc doceo, nisi planum facio aut te authorem 
illius libelli famosissimi in nos esse, aut te satis causae 
prsebuisse cur pro authore merito haberi debeas, non 
recuso quin abs te victus in hac causa cum dedecore 
atque pudore turpiter discedam ; nullam a me culpam 
neque imprudentiae, neque temeritatis, neque maledi- 
centiae deprecor. 

Prodiit hoc biennio anonjmus et probrosus liber, 
" Regii sanguinis clamor ad coal urn ad versus Parricidas 
Auglicanos" inscriptus ; in quo libro, cum Respublica 
Anglorum tota, turn nominatim " Cromuellus," eo qui- 
dem tempore nostrorum exercituum imperator, nunc 
totius reipublicae vir summus, omni verborum contu- 
melia laceratur : secundum eum, sic illi anonymo 
visum est, maledictorum pars maxima in me conjicitur. 
Vix suis integer schedulis liber iste in consilio mihi est 
traditus ; ab eo mox consessu, qui quaestionibus turn 
priefuit, alter mittitur : significatum quoque est, ex- 
pectari a me banc operam reipub. navandam, ut huic 
importuno clamatori os obturarem. Verum me, turn 
maxime, et infirma simul valetudo, et duorum funerum 
luctus domesticus, et defectum jam penitus oculorum 
lumen diversa longe sollicitudine urgebat : foris quo- 
que adversarius ille prior, isti longe prseferendus, im- 
pendebat ; jamjamque se totis viribus incursurum 
indii a mioitabatur: quo derepente mortuo levatum me 
parte aliqua laboris ratus, et valetudine partim despe- 
rata, partim rcstituta, utcunque confirmatus, ne omnino 



vel summorum hominum expectationi deesse,vel oranera 
inter tot mala abjecisse curam existimationis viderer, 
ut primum de isto clamatore anonymo certum aliquid 
comperiendi facultas data est, hominem aggredior. 
De te, More, dictum hoc volo: quern ego (quamvis tu 
nunc, quasi insons omnium atque insciens falso te ac- 
cusari vocifereris) nefandi illius clamoris vel esse au- 
thorem, vel esse pro authore haud injuria habendum 
statuo. Et cur sic statuam nunc audies. Primum 
ego, neque hoc leve putaveris, famam communem, 
consentientem, constantem sum sequutus; neque earn 
solum quae populi vox, et ab antiquis Dea credita est, 
et a nobis hodie vox Dei nuncupatur, sed earn etiam, 
ut legitime tecum agi intellig'as, quam jurisperiti ab 
authoribus et probis et bene notis exortam, fidem adji- 
cere testimonio docent. Vere hoc dico et religiose, 
me toto biennio nullum neque popularem, neque pere- 
grin urn convenisse, cum quo de isthoc libello sermones 
mihi fuissent, quin omnes una voce te ejus authorem 
dici consentirent, neminem praeter te alium nomina- 
rent. Ita universim obtinuit haec fama, ut te possim 
ipsum hujus rei testem producere. Recita tuum ipse 
testimonium. 

Testimonium Mori, pag. 10. 

"Neque vero tacui, si cui forte subiit aliquid ejusmodi 
" suspicari, sed paiam et exerte respondi reclamans, con- 
" questusque sum invito supponi mihi foetum alienum, 
"siquidem illius auctor libri vel ex parte vel in totum 
"existimarer." 

Quamvis hoc falsum sit tacuisse te, aut reclamasse 
quod plurimi testantur, qui te de eo libro et confitentem 
et gloriantem audierunt, dum hoc tutum tibi, aut lucro 
aut honori credidisti fore, hie tamen vides, quam haec 
fuerit concepta alte, nee sine causa proculdubio, homi- 
num opinio, ut ne familiaribus quidem tuis persuadere 
potueris, quo minus " reclamantem" te et " conque- 
rentem" atque "invitum" illius libri authorem " vel ex 
parte vel in totum existimarint." Quid si ego, qui te 
nostris partibus inimicissimum esse, et de republica 
nostra pessime solere loqui intelligerem, hac plusquam 
fama nixus, hac hominum non vulgarium communi 
opinione atque consensu adductus, hoc pro certo sump- 
sissem, te hunc libellum composuisse ? Tu contra quid 
affers, quamobrem tantae hominum, etiam amicorum 
tuorum consensioni de inimico nostro facile habere 
fidem non debuerim ? Factum negas. At quotusquis- 
que est reorum, qui multis etiam testibus in judicio 
convictus atque damnatus in ipso supplicii loco, ubi 
etiam poena capitali jamjam plectendus est, pernegare 
crimen suum non soleat; immosecretum quodvis ante- 
actae vitae facinus suum proferre in lucem non malit, 
cujus poenas meritas dare se nunc dicat, quam de illo 
crimine confiteri de quo sit condemnatus ? Accedit 
quod is turn negat, cum sententia jam lata, cum expe- 
dita et imminente jam securi, nihil juvat neque prodest 
negare : tu propterea, quod prodest, quod est cur me- 
tuas, quod manendum tibi in iis provinciis si faterere 
non esset, idcirco negas. Pacis articulos inter nos et 
Foederatas Provincias " Latine conditos " vertisse te 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



735 



dicis. Legito itaque nonum, decimum, et undecimum, 
quos tu cum vevtebas, solum vertere debuisti. 

Articulus pads nonus. 

Quod neutra dictarum rerump. hostes alterius rei- 
pub. declaratos vel declarandos, in ejus dominia re- 
cipiet, neque eorum alicui in prasdictis locis vel alio 
quocunque, etiam extra sua dominia auxilium, con- 
silium, hospitium, concedet, nee istiusmodi hostibus 
ullum auxilium, consilium, hospitium, favorem, pecu- 
nias praestari permittet. 

Articulus decimus. 

Quod si alterutra dictarum rerumpub. aliquem suum 
fuisse et esse hostem, et in sua dominia receptum esse, 
aut ibidem commorari per literas suas publicas alteri 
significaverit, tunc ilia resp. quae- hujusmodi literas re- 
ceperit, intra spatium viginti octo dierum tenebitur 
dicto hosti mandare, ut extra sua dominia exeat. Et 
siquis praedictorum hostium intra quindecimum diem 
non exiverit, singuli morte et amissione bonorum mul- 
tabuntur. 

Articulus undecimus. 

Quod nullus hostis publicus reip. Angliae in aliqua 
oppida, vel alia loca recipietur; neque Domini Ordines 
Generales alicui hujusmodi hosti publico in locis pras- 
dictis, pecuniis, commeatu, aut alio quocunque modo 
auxilium, consilium, aut favorem dari permittent. 

Hasccine audis ? quam diligenter, quam severe ab 
utraque republica tribus continuis articulis cautum at- 
que provisum sit, nequis alterius hostis ab alterutra 
hospitio vel tecto recipiatur; qui hostis declaratus vel 
declarandus ab alterutra sit, ei ut aqua et igni ab altera 
sitinterdicendum, ut morte etiam multandus sit, ni intra 
dies quindecim post denunciatum sibi discessum sar- 
cinas collegerit ? Hasccine, inquam, sine metu ac tre- 
pi'datione audis ? qui si hostis esse aut fuisse deprehen- 
deris, nosque ut viros fortes decet, in sententia per- 
sistemus, neque articulos otiosos ad numerum duntaxat 
composuimus, ubi tua ilia stipendia, et sacrarum histo- 
riarum professiones ? cui de tota ilia ditione intra pau- 
cos dies decedendum erit ; et relictis historiis, ilia vitas 
tuas fabula nequissima nescio quibus in terris peragenda. 
Quis enim hostis noster magis publicus est dicendus, 
quam is, qui libro famosissimo in vulgus edito totam 
Angliae rempub. inhumanissimis verborum contumeliis 
proscindit atque dilaniat? latrocinii, casdis, perduellio- 
nis, impietatis, parricidii, immo novo prorsus vocabulo 
deicidii demum incusat ; omnes principes, populos, 
nationes in nos, tanquam in monstra ac pestes generis 
humani ad arma, quantum in se est, concitat; et quasi 
ad commune atque sacrum bellum nobis inferendum 
hortatur ? Hunc tu confecisse librum nisi pertinaciter 
negares, nullus nunc locus consistendi iis in locis tibi 
esset. Cum igitur tibi tam sit omnino periculosum 
fateri, cum incolumitatis et commodorum tuorum, ac 
prope salutis tam vehementer intersit librum istum 
ejurare, cur tua inimici et improbissimi hominis nega- 
tio contra famam constantem, immo vero quod plus est, 
contra tot hominum satis perspicacium, et amicorum 



aliquot tuorum opinionem valere debeat, non video. 
At enim dicis, non te solum negasse ; testem habere 
" reverendum antistitem Ottonum," qui clarissimum 
Durseum " admonuerit te illius libri non esse auctorem, 
sibi probe notum auctorem longe alium." Itaque ex 
ipsis Duroei literis ostendam, neque probe hoc novisse 
Ottonum, neque testem omnino esse, vel siquid testatur, 
ex eo reddi te multo quam antea suspectiorem. 

Ex Literis Duraei, Haga, April £|- 1654. 

Quod ad responsum Miltoni ad eum librum, cui titu- 
lus Regii Sanguinis Clamor : equidem a ministro 
quodam Midelburgensi, qui Mori perfamiliaris est, 
certior sum factus, Morum non esse illius libri author- 
em, sed ministrum quendam Gallic um, quem Morus 
sub conditione silentii eidem nominavit. 

Et ex alteris Amsterodamo, April £-|, 1654. 

Cum D. Ottono colloquutus sum ; hie quidem acer- 
rime regius est, et Moro perquam intimus; idque mihi 
dixit, quod superioribus literis ad te scripsi, Morum 
non esse " Clamoris Regii Sanguinis" authorem. 

Ex quibus hoc in primis nemo non intelligit, Ottono, 
ut qui partibusregiis addictissimus, nobis inimicissimus, 
Moro asecretis sit, ne si sua quidem fide quicquam af- 
ferat, credendum esse. Nunc autem ciim aperte fatea- 
tur Ottonus, quicquid hac de re sciat, abs te hausisse, 
tua sola authoritate niti, tuum hoc apud se depositum 
arcanum esse, non hoc Ottoni testimonium, sed tua 
adhuc sola negatio est: immo vero potius tua clara 
confessio dicenda erit, illius te libelli vel componendi 
vel procurandi cum paucissimis esse conscium ; si non 
authorem, at certe socium et administrum ; vel tua 
opera vel tuo consilio librum ilium fuisse editum. 
Quod si ita est, ut est sane per tuum testem, ex tuomet- 
ipsius ore verisimillimum, equidem baud metuo, ne te 
falso insimulasse dicar, si vel authorem ipsum affirma- 
verim te, vel eodem numero babuerim. Quis non jam 
plane perspiciat, quam penitus ex sinu tuo liber iste 
prodierit? quam non denihiloconstantissima de te ista 
fama invaluerit? verum adhuc clarius hoc idem statim 
perspicere cuivis licebit. Jam enim a fama, quod 
postmodum apparebit, minime fallaci, ne vocis invidia 
contra me utaris, ad justam probationem et compertis- 
simos mihi testes transeo. Accipe in primis literarum 
partem, quas haud ita multo post Lugduno Batavorum 
sunt datas, quam libellus iste clamosus Hagas-Comitis 
est editus. Missae sunt hae literas ad amicum quendam 
meum ab homine et docto et prudente, et rerum peri- 
tissimo, mihi satis noto, et in Hollandia notissimo : in 
quibus libelli cujusdam famosi facta mentione, haec 
statim verba subjungit. 

Literas Leidenses, Septemb. 27, stilo novo, 1652. 
" Nee majoris momenti est iste Mori liber, cui titulus 
Clamor Regii sanguinis ad Coelum : satisque vendibi- 
lis fuit, donee author illius vitiata Salmasii uxoris an- 
cilla, ipse suam existimationem commaculavit." Has 
literas, eodem puto mense, integras sunt evulgata?, 
inque actis diurnis apud nos quinto quoque die hebdo- 
madas prodire solitis, palam extant ; ej usque authoritate 



-36 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



vel qui misit eas, vel qui edidit, fidem facile suam tu- 
entur, meam absolvunt. Haec habui neque levia, 
neque ullo modo contemnenda, cur hunc Regii Sangui- 
nis Clamorem opus tuum esse crediderim : famam con- 
stantem, non vulgi, sed amplissimorum hominum per 
biennium totum opinionem atque consensum, literas 
viri intelligentissimi atque honestissimi vicina ex urbe 
missas, quibus an quid certius in re praesertim longin- 
qua de inimico et extraneo homine, et omni infamia 
jamdudum cooperto, expectandum fuerit aut requiren- 
dum, baud scio. Age vero; ne tu me tristem nimis et 
obstinatum queraris, aliquanto laxius te habebo, quo 
deinde fortius teneam atque constringam : quoniam 
attributum tibi librum elegantulum sic aversaris atque 
horres, contra haec omnia quas afferre hactenus potui 
tarn valida, tuam valere singularem et suspectissimam 
negationem patiar ; remittam tibi hoc totum atque 
largiar, non esse te hujus libelli, qui Regii Sanguinis 
Clamor inscribitur, authorem ; et tamen, quod jam for- 
sitan expectas, non sic abibis. Constat iste liber et 
coagmentatur prooemiis quibusdam et epilogis, epistola 
ad Carolum, altera ad lectorem, clauditur carmine, al- 
tero in Salmasium " Eucharistico," altero in me difFa- 
matorio : si ullam hujus libri paginam, si versiculum 
forte unicum scripsisse aut contulisse, si edidisse, aut 
procurasse, aut suasisse, si denique edendo praefuisse, 
aut vel operas tantillum accommodasse te reperero, 
quandoquidem nemo alius existit, tu mihi solus totius 
operis reus, et author, et clamator eris. Neque vero 
meam banc severitatem, aut vehementem animum esse 
dixeris; idem apud omnes fere gentes jure et aequis- 
simis legibus est comparatum. Quod ab omnibus re- 
ceptissimum est adducam, jus civile imperatorium. 

Legito Institut. Justiniani, 1. 4, de injuriis, tit. 4. 

Siquis ad infaraiam alicujus libellum, aut carmen 
(aut historiam) scripserit, composuerit, ediderit, dolove 
malo fecerit, quo quid eorum fieret, &c. Adjiciunt alias 
leges ; " Etiamsi alterius nomine ediderit, vel sine no- 
mine." Et omnes decernunt eum pro authore haben- 
dum esse atque plectendum. Quaero nunc ex te, non 
utrum Regii Sanguinis Clamorem, sed an praamissam 
Clamori epistolam Carolo dicatam, ullamve ejus par- 
ticulam fcceris, scripseris, edideris, edendamve curave- 
ris ? quoero an alteram ad lectorem, quaaro denique an 
illud infame carmen condideris, aut vulgandum cura- 
veris? nihildum ad haec respondisti; si Clamorem ip- 
sum tantummodo abdicasses, omnemque ejus particu- 
lam gnaviter ej masses, salva fide evasisse te putabas, 
nosque probe ludificasse; epistolam videlicet ad Caro- 
lum filium, aut ad lectorem, carmen etiam iambum, 
Regii Sanguinis Clamorem non esse. Tu itaque sic 
breviter habeto, ne tergiversari in posteram queas, aut 
praevaricari ; ne diverticulum ullum, aut latibulum 
sperare ; ut jam sciant omnes quam non mendax, sed 
veriloqua, aut saltern non de nihilo ista fama de te in- 
crebuerit,tu,inquam, sic habeto: menon fama solum, sed 
eo tcstimonio, quo nullum certius esse potest comperisse, 
te et libelli totius cui Regii Sanguinis Clamor est titulus, 
editionem administrasse, et operam typographical?) cor- 
rexisse, et epistolam illam ad Carolum secundum, 



Vlacci nomen proferentem, vel solum, vel " cum uno 
atque altero" composuisse. Td quod tuum ipsum nomen 
Alexander Morus exemplis aliquot illius epistolae sub- 
scriptus, multis ejus rei testibus ocularis clariiis indica- 
vit, quam tu negare aut expedire te ullo pacto queas. 
Si dicis, importunitati quorundam amicorum te hoc de- 
disse, ut epistolae nomen tuum apponeres, non aliunde 
quam ex ore tuo sic excusanti tibi occurro. Qui solen- 
niter affirmas, et eo praesertim loco paginae 39, in quo, 
ut credatur tibi enixe flagitas " tueri te tua, aliena tunc 
demum forte curaturum cum excussus propriis fueris." 
Teipso itaque flagitante, credendum non est te nomen 
tuum illi epistolae fuisse subscripturum, tua nisi esset : id 
quod sequente pagina pene confiteris,tuamque ipsefrau- 
dem detegis et fallaciam, qua fretus clamoris authorem te 
esse toties negas. " Nam quis non misereatur," inquis, 
" hallucinationis tuae cum praefatiouem typographo 
tribuis modo, modo adimis : Clamorem totum in me 
confers, qui ne particulam quidem ullam ejus extuli." 
Hoc cui non suboleat ? cum preefationis seu epistolae 
simul et Clamoris mentionem facis, Clamoris ne ullam 
quidem particulam conferri in te sinis ; praefationis 
nullam respuis, nullam inficiaris: immo quasi errorem 
meum videris propemodum ridere, quod satis constan- 
ter non dixerim tuam esse. Si insciente te et prorsus 
ignaro factum hoc dicis, ut nomen tuum subscribere- 
tur, primum credibile non est quenquam esse ausum 
mittendae ad Regem epistolae cum dedicato libro ex- 
cusae, alienum nomen ipso inconsulto subscribere. 
Complures deinde sunt, qui ex te ipso audierunt, cum 
tuam esse illam epistolam vel interrogantibus fate- 
rere, vel ultro ipse praedicares. Verum tua necne 
fuerit, non admodum laboro ; tune solus an " cum 
uno aut altero" earn composueris ; quod et hie pag. 41 
subindicare ludibundus prope videris. Te istius ego 
non epistolae duntaxat, sed et libelli infamissimi solum 
prope conscium, te ejusdem editorem aut edendi ad- 
ministrum, te epistolae ad Carolum aliquam multis 
exemplaribus divulgatae subscriptorem notissimum, te 
scriptorem etiam confessum, te ergo omnium legum 
consensu atque sententia totius operis authorem ipsum 
tuo ore convictum atque constrictum teneo. Haec quo 
dicam testimonio tam remotus, ft unde mihi tam liquido 
constare potuerint, si quaeris, non fama, inquam, sola 
sed partim testibus religiosissimis qui coram haec mihi 
sanctissime asseverarunt, partim Uteris vel ad alios vel 
ad me scriptis. Literarum verba ipsa expromam, scri- 
bentium nomina non edam; propterea quod in rebus 
alioqui notissimis necesse non habeo. Hem tibi im- 
primis ab homine probo, et cui ad banc rem pervesti- 
gandam haud mediocris facultas fuit, literas Haga 
Comitis ad me datas. 

Ex Literis Hag. Com. 

Exploratissimum mihi est, Morum ipsum Clamoris 
Regii Sanguinis exemplar nonnullis aliis imprimen- 
dum obtulisse, antequam Vlaccus illud accepisset; ip- 
sum corrigendis operarum erratis praefuisse ; ab ipso 
exemplaria, ut primum quodque absolutum est, com- 
pluribus impertita ac dissipata. 

Viden' ut haec dilucida, atque distincta sint, ut non 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



737 



(lubiis rumoribus collecta, sed data opera ac diligentia 
bominis iis in locis ac rebus versatissimi, pervestigata 
et inquisita, certissimis indiciis comprobata atque com- 
|)erta ? Atqui testem, inquies, unum jus omne rejecit : 
en itaque ex ore duorum testium, quo testimonio neque 
sacrum, neque civile jus quicquam amplius aut locu- 
pletius desiderat, firmatum a me omne verbum, ut di- 
citur, et corroboratum habebis. Accipe nunc sis quae 
vir honestissimus idemque intelligentissimus et certo 
sibi cognita, et illic testatissima Amsterodamo sic scribit. 

Ex Literis Amsterodamo. 

Certissimum est omnes fere per haec loca Morumpro 
authore illius libri habuisse, qui " Regii Sanguinis 
Clamor" inscribitur; nam et schedas a praelo exceptas 
ipse correxit, et aliqua exemplo subscriptum dedica- 
toriae nomen Mori praeferebant, cujus et ipse author 
erat; dixit enim ipse amico cuidam meo, se illius epis- 
tolae authorem fuisse : immo nihil certius est, quam 
illam sibi Morum vel attribuisse, vel agnovisse pro sua. 

Verum requiris adhuuc tertium : non id quidem 
cogit lex, attamen iudulget. Esto ; largissima per me 
lege utere : potest fieri, ut terni opus sint testes : coarc- 
tatum tibi a me juris quicquam non dices. Addo jam 
tertium. 

Ex alteris literis Haga Comitis. 

Dixit mihi Hagae Comitis vir quidam primarius, 
habere se Regii Sanguinis Clamorem, cum ipsa Mori 
epistola. 

Vides quam largiter tibi admetiar : clara enim haec 
sunt, quis neget? tu tamen scito clariora apud me esse, 
quae datee fidei causa reticeo, quam quae nunc palam 
exhibeo. Quod si adhuc tamen vis cumulum, fortassis 
accedet. Interea nunc libero ac soluto animo ad re- 
liqua proficiscor; quandoquidem id quod Deum Opt. 
Max. precatus sum, adeptum me esse spero, ut nemini 
videar, viro prsesertim bono et intelligenti, incertis 
rumoribus elatus temere, accusationem contra te falsam 
instituisse, nee fictis criminibus innocentem, quod que- 
reris, et immeritum perfudisse, sed tectum atque du- 
plicem veris redarguisse, latentem atque sectantem 
tenebras in lucem protraxisse : quod quidem et ex ipsa 
testimonii claritate perspicuum esse reor, et in ipsis 
plurimorum hominum non conscientiis modo, sed et 
sermonibus, ubi haec gesta sunt, clarius elucere. Qui- 
bus si ego testimonium denuntiare possem, obruerere, 
mihi crede, multitudine tot testium : quos tamen ali- 
quando sponte sua veritati tam illustri, si opus erit, sua 
nomina palam daturos esse confido. Quod si hanc pro- 
bationis vim atque evidentiam, quam ne judex quidem 
severissimus repudiasset, tu falsam tamen esse, id quod 
incredibile est, contendere audebis, erit fortasse cur de 
tuo queraris atque deplores infortunio, aut iratum tibi 
atque infensum agnoscas Deum, qui per aliorum vel 
errorem vel mendacium assign ati tibi hujus libelli ilia 
alia tua dedecora in ecclesia diutius non ferenda, latius 
patefieri, et personam illam ecclesiasticam, quam cir- 
cumfers impudentissime, detrahi tibi voluerit ; me cur 
incuses deinceps aut reprehendas non erit, immo nee 
unquam fuit, velles modo tua in nos commissa recog- 



noscere ; verum ilia mordiciis inficiari nimium tibi ex- 
pedit, et simul pergis lacessere. Noli igitur, quod jam 
iterum moneo, me inculpare, si rursus quae nolis nunc 
vicissim audieris. Sed videamus quid sit. Primum 
occurrit mihi, nee opinato, mea pro Pop. Anglicano De- 
fensio secunda, tjpis Vlacci malevoli mendosissime ac 
malitiosissime excusa ; omissis nonnunquam verbis in- 
tegris, non sine structural totius atque sententiae vel de- 
pravatione vel interitu. Quod ego omnes volo monitos, 
qui mea curant legisse, nequid meum ex ofricina homi- 
nis inimici et veteratoris exire integrum aut sincerum 
existiment. Huic accessio est, Vlacci itidem mala merx, 
" Alexandri Mori fides publica." Ita ego quos a. me 
longissime summovisse ac protelasse sum ratus, eos vel 
invitus sub iisdem pellibus conjunctissimos mihi repe- 
rio. Sic est profecto ; qui liberrime riserit hos homines, 
sibi devinxerit. Cavendum sane et procul fugiendum 
erit cui putaverint isti nasum esse aduncum ; ne ali- 
quando satis irrisi, irridentis naribus duntaxat uncis 
ipsi sese tanquam uniones hinc atque inde suspendant. 
Cognoscite vero nunc adversarium, siquis unquam fuit, 
degenerem,iniquum,odiosum. Nam ut primum, nescio 
quo casu per amicum meum, non id agentem ut ab isto 
gratiam iniret ullam, intellexit me ad Clamorem Regii 
Sanguinis responsum in se edere, aestuare mens homi- 
nis conscia, et omnes in partes versare se coepit. Inter 
alia trepidantis atque degeneris animi indicia, qui libel- 
lum modo famosum tam cupide, tamque improbe in 
alios edidisset, libellum nunc supplicem ad legatum 
foederatorum ordinum apud nos commorantem scribit, 
orans atque obsecrans, uti cum Dom. Protectore quam 
instantissime de supprimenda mea defensione ageret. 
Cum responsum tulisset impetrari nequaquam id posse, 
exire nihilominus in lucem, jamque adnavigare animad- 
versorem in se librum cum spicilegio quodam et collec- 
taneis facinorum suorum conturbatus, et hue, illuc 
cursitans, circumspectissimus deinde homo, totus in 
speculis est; oculos ab litore dimovere vix audet; ubi 
advenisse librum cognovit, suumque statim indicem 
sensit, prece nescio an pretio exorat librarium, ut ex- 
emplum illius libri ullum ne divenderet, donee ipse re- 
sponsum suum confecisset; id est, ut commercii fidem 
violaret, donee iste "fidem publicam" conflasset. Ita 
bonus ille vir quingenta plus minus exempla recte et 
emendate edita suo arbitratu premit, dum Vlaccus in- 
terim jacturam alienam suum ratus compendium, quot 
sibi videtur mendosa imprimit. Bene agis, Vlacce, ut 
consuevisti ; sed auctarium hoc damni quid sibi vult 
adjectum? cur appendices vos ipsos adjunxistis mihi, 
hominum importunissimi ? nemone ut possit me velle, 
quin vos quoque vel ingratissimum unus una ferre co- 
gatur ? Ergo ego, ut videtur, non caecus, sed caecias. 
quos volebam propellere nebulones, attraxi. Tu vero, 
adeone tibi, More, tuoque sive genio sive ingenio diffi- 
sus es, ut victurum te, et in manus hominum perven- 
turum desperares, nisi te mihi asseclam quocunque 
irem, male conciliatum agglutinares, et emptoribus 
etiam nolentibus te obtruderes ? verum expertus jam 
didici quid sit picem attrectare ; et erat hoc, opinor, 
haud minus Vlacci astutia provisum, qui non typogra- 
phies solum, sed arithmeticus, quod jam fateor, vetulus, 



738 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 






metuebat ne " Alexandri Mori" neglecta " fides pub- 
lica" jaceret, seque asoricibus aegre tueretur, nisi hanc 
artem aligationis, vere cauponariam, adbibuisset, et 
vile ac vitiosum vendibili miscuisset. Age vero, quo- 
niam necesse est cum Defensione pro Pop. Anglicano, 
Alexandri Mori fidem publicam coemere, quanquam 
parva haec, utcunque nummulorum jactura erit, discere 
ex te avemus, quid sit " Mori fides publica?" utrura 
confessionem tuae fidei publicam nobis exbibes, an quid 
in symbolum ? Haec enim tua fides publica est, opinor ; 
privata an sit dicant, qui te Spir. Sanctum non agnos- 
cere accusant. Quid ergo est ? tuamne dicamus fidem 
esse publicam, an fidem publicam esse tuam ? Tuam 
fidem sicut et pudicitiam esse publicam, non est diffi- 
cile ut credamus. Qui enim alienas uxores et ancillas 
vis esse publicas, quidni tua omnia, pudorem etiam ac 
fidem publicam esse velis ? An vero hoc est quod di- 
cis, fidem publicam esse tuam ? at hoc qui potest fieri ? 
Tune fidem publicam pro scorto abduxisse te putas, 
tua ut simul esset et publica ? aut captiosus hie titulus 
est, aut sensu vacuus. Si tua fides fasec est, quemad- 
modum est publica ? si publica est, quemadmodum 
est tua? Relinquitur ut vel imprudens hoc titulo sig- 
nificasse videare cum Alexandri Mori fides publica 
sit, adeoque non tua; rursus cum tua sit, ideoque non 
publica, hanc quam affers fidem repugnantem et im- 
plicitam, nee publicam esse nee tuam. Quid ergo ? 
aut dubiam, aut inanem, aut denique nullam. Quod 
si contendis hanc fidem omnino esse publicam, quae 
tua tanta impudentia est, More, ut cum fidem ipse 
nullam habeas quam pro te afferas, tot flagitia perpe- 
trare fide publica existimes tibi licere? ut nunquam 
alias dici veriiis, quam de te versiculus iste videatur, 
quicquid peccat Morus, plectitur fides publica. Haec 
tibi uni licentia si concedatur, non tu Alexander Mo- 
rus, sed Alexander ille Phrygius mea quidem sententia 
nominaberis. Beatum interim te, cui militet fides 
publica. Contra quem autem ? contra meas nempe 
" calumnias." Quas tandem illas? an quod infamis 
libelli Clanioris Regii authorem te affirmaverim, nunc 
etiam justa probatione arguerim ? at verbum de isto 
Clamore in tua fide publica nullum. An quod hor- 
tensem te adulterum, domesticum Pontiae stupratorem 
euarraverim ? at horti percaute tu quidem ac timide 
mentionem f'acis ; facta utrobique flagitia aut non om- 
nino, aut oblique tantum et frigide negas. Quid ergo 
fidem publicam sollicitare opus erat iis de rebus, quas 
audacter ipse negare non potes ? nihil sane, nisi quod 
circumforanei pharmacopolae et vanissimi circulatoris 
hoc solum tibi defuit, ut elogiis ac testimoniis, nescio 
quo pacto adscitis atque correptis, et ostentata fide 
publica te venditares. Tibi igitur si "scurra"sum, 
minus commoveor; quandoquidem is, qui ab oraculo 
sapientissimus, ab tui similibus scurra Atticus est dic- 
tus. Cur autem scurra tibi videor, More ? an quod 
nequitias tuas interdum false perstrinxerim ? ne tu stul- 
tior sis, More, et adhuc magis ridendus, si quenquam 
putas, modo emunctae nan's sit, ad tuos foetores, nisi 
sale conspersos, posse appropinquare. Sed vide, quam 
tibi temperaverim, quam lenitcr tecum egerim : Cum 
enim in ipsa fronte libri nullo negotio potuerim tibi 



paria retulisse, et affixo tibi cognomento appositissimo 
atque meritissimo ita scripsisse, " Contra Alexandrum 
Morum adulterum et cinaedum," cohibui me; partim 
tui misertus, partim ut legentium oculis atque auribus 
nonnihil consulerem, ne subito occursu tantae fceditatis 
atque offensione averterentur. 

Sed de his plus satis; infantissimo nunc titulo ad 
librum ipsum veniamus: id quod te, ut video, non de- 
lectat; nam recta eunti viam obstruis; et aegrotantem 
doctorculum nescio quem Crantzium cum lectulo et 
culcitra, tanquam aggerem aut vallum obdis tibi et 
transversum extrudis. Qui " aeger," ut ipse ait, et ni 
fallor aegerrimus, id est maledicendi cupidissimus, baud 
scio an ventilata lodice vix se in cubitum erexerit, ut 
haec sua febriculosa somnia deliraret. Mox quasi tes- 
tamento jam facto subjicit, " Scripsi propria manu et 
subsignavi licet aeger corpore." Age jam tu, si vis, 
animam ; nos resignemus ; et lectori imprimis quid 
legaveris inspiciamus : multam, opinor, salutem ; ne 
unciolam quidem; quid ergo? plorare : " Lege si potes 
et luge." Me vero, qudd ignotus minime expectabam, 
secundum haeredem quincunce toto maledictorum 
aspergis. " Lege," inquis, " et luge saeculi vicem, in 
quo maledicentiae tantum licet :" Luge potius tot in- 
sipientes doctorculos, quos nisi mature caveat hoc 
sseculum, vereor ne propediem et lugeat et luat. Tu 
vero turn luxisses, cum inaudita audacia Salmasius 
homo privatus, extraneus, nulla injuria lacessitus, in 
universam Anglicanam remp. atque senatum foedissi- 
mis contumeliis bacchatus est : turn luxisses, cum pro- 
brosus ille anonymus Clamorem Regii Sanguinis in 
nos eructavit, nee acerbissimis modo verborum contu- 
meliis ad rabiem usque furit ac stevit, sed nobiscum si 
agi oportere, decere, conveuire, rationibus et argu- 
mentis, ut ipse putat, Christianis defendere conatur. 
Cognosce nunc, si potes, tuam ipse iniquitatem : ciim 
externi, ad quos nostra nihil pertinent, nobis vel acer- 
bissime maledicunt, et maledicentiam ipsam defendunt, 
vis omnes " legant :" cum ego et pro meo in patriam 
officio, et magistratuum jussu, meos cives ac populares, 
me denique ipsum probris omnibus laesum defendo, vis 
omnes " lugeaut." Turn cavere lectorem jubes, ne 
me " credat historicum." At neque tu Albertus es 
Crantzius; et hoc tibi edico caveas, ne ego antequam 
peroravero te citius mendacem, quam tu me " fabula- 
torem " coarguas. " Quis et qualis sit iste Miltouus," 
inquis, " ignoro." Non displicet ; neque enim tanti 
est tuum nosse aut non nosse : Ego vero te statim novi 
et morbum tuum. " Quis sit," inquis, " ignoro ; 
libelli ejus satis docent." Indocilis ergo Crantzius, qui 
ignorat; temerarius item atque injurius, qui ignotum 
illaesus laedis, qui per calumniam ac maledicendi prae- 
properam libidinem ex libro de divortiis, loco non citato, 
verbis aut non plene aut perperam adscriptis, blas- 
phemiae falso insimulas. Tu ante, quisquis es Crantzi, 
in malam pestem abieris, quam dixisse me " Doctrinam 
Evangelii et Dom. nostri Jesu Christi de divortio esse 
diabolicam,"usquam inveneris. Quod si dixi fortasse, 
quam inde conficiunt vulgares interpretes doctrinam, 
qua post divortium necessario factum, omne aliud ma- 
trimonium interdicunt, esse diabolicam, id esse bias- 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



739 



phemiam quo tu pacto evincis? nisi si forte theologorum 
dictatis quibusvis contradicere, nunc primum blasphemia 
est credenda. Quod autem affirmas doctrinam de di- 
vortiis " ab omnibus patribus a theologis veteribus et 
hodiernis, ab omnibus academiis et ecclesiis Britannicis, 
Hollandieis, Gallicis" eodem modo explicavi, scito te 
vehementer hallucinari : et ignorantiam doctori tibi et 
praesertim reprehensori turpem prodere : quam si vacat, 
in eo libro, qui a me " Tetrachordon " est inscriptus, 
exues. Poteris ibi, si libet, discere, quam ego tueor 
sententiam earn et patrum aliquot, et summorum postea 
theolog-orum Buceri, Fagii, Martyris, Erasmi fuisse ; 
quorum hie justo tractatu Phimostomum quendam doc- 
torem, tui comparem, eademque fere blaterantem refel- 
lit. Interea non miror laborare te tantopere de inhiben- 
dis divortiis, ciim animadverto etiam domi tuae haud 
leve accidere divortium solere ; nimirum sensus com- 
munis ab loquacitate tua. Quis enim mentis compos 
ant sententiae suae sic loquitur? " In Salmasio vix ipsi 
inimici aliud requirunt, quam quod fuerit iracundior, et 
male conjugatus." Patere te doceri, doctorcule, quod 
pueruli sciant. Non requirebant illi quod fuit, sed quod 
non fuit. Ais me " Eunuchum dixisse Salmasium," 
quod nunquam dixi ; duos tantummodo versus ex Eu- 
nuchi Terentiani prologo desumpsi, ut scenicum plo- 
rantis exordium, et lamentabile ridiculum risu, ut par 
erat, exciperem. " Nihil minus quam Eunuchum" 
fuisse affirmas : id mea nihil refert. Tu tamen, quid 
hac in parte solus tarn audacter pronuncies, cave. 
Adeone legum nescius ac rudis es, ut ullam rem diffi- 
cilius probare te posse sine duobus testibus arbitreris ? 
Sed minitaris deinde ; " siquando prodibit viri summi 
posthumus liber, Miltonius sentiet mortuos quoque 
mordere." Vos ipsi existimare potestis, qui vivum non 
pertirnui, eundem mortuum quam non reformidem. 

iEternura latrans exangues terreat umbras, 

Si mordacem in me mortuum emiseritis, scitote neque 
melle neque mulso placatum a me iri. Cognoscetis an 
et ego \6yov kniTCHbiov commode possim scribere. " Dii 
boni," inquis, "quam niger est Miltonius, si fides Sal- 
masio ?" at ipsam inferorum fuliginem si secum trahat, 
me, Deo bene juvante, denigrare non poterit. Tu 
Salmasii in me convitia ut loete nunc refers ! quasi pul- 
mentum aegroto tibi hoc esset : contra ilia convitia cum 
ego me, ut par atque aequum est, defendam, tunc tuum 
illud triste et querebundum rursus audiemus, "Lege et 
luge ;" et illi " Dii boni" tui tunc rursus fortasse im- 
plorabuntur. Sed die, quaeso, sacrosanct* theologiae 
doctor, quos tu Deos honos colis ? vereor ne catechu- 
menus hie potius, quam doctor dicendus sis. Docent 
sacroe literae unum esse bonum Deum. Tibi si Dii 
boni sunt, erit fortassis et bona Dea ; cujus tu sacerdos 
et mystagogus Corybantem in me nunc agis. Ego 
quae in Morum attuli, quanquam tu "falsissima esse" 
prsefidenter affirmas, sciunt illi esse vera, qui rebus 
omnibus interfuere, quique nullum Genevae Crantzium 
eo tempore cognoverunt. Hoc sane miretur quispiam 
si haec Mori fides publica est, quo pacto, quove nomine 
tua ista privata fides hue nobis ex grabatulo in praefa- 
tionem irrepsit. Iniquitas certe in me tua fidem de 

o 3 



illo quam infercis hie tuam in dubium vocat, qui me 
accusas, quod "innocentissimo typographo parcere non 
potuerim." Ergo Vlaccus qui me sibi prorsus ignotum 
petulantissimis convitiis adscripto nomine palam ap- 
petivit, tibi " innocentissimus" est. Audi ergo iterum, 
theologe, cui tu sacrae scientiae vix initiatus mihi videris, 
audi quam te tuosque mores theologia sacra et sapien- 
tissimus praeceptor dedoceat : qui absolvit improbum, 
et qui condemnat justum, abominationi Jehovae sunt 
aeque ambo. Verum haud scio utrum in me ex ignoto 
factum modo inimicum iniquior, an in amicum ipsum 
ineptior sis Morum: cujus predicatas virtutes tot vitiis 
interpunctas, et prope alternas introducis, ut non 
ornatum, sed maculis tantummodo variatum, non 
Morum, sed morionem demisisse abs tuis laudi- 
bus videaris. Pictor sane eximius primam laudis 
lineam cum litura ducis ; " semper magnas inimicitias 
exercuit cum aemulis." Vitium narras, Crantzi, in mi- 
nistro evangelii quam minime tolerandum; praesertim 
cum " iis inimicitiis ipse," quod fateris, " nimia lo- 
quendi libertate, locum saepe praebuerit." Deinde est 
arrogans et Gallice " Altierus," et Spanhemii judicio 
et tuo. Hactenus nigro lapillo ; nunc vario : " Foelix 
ingenium, nisi crabrones irritasset." iEmulos nimirum 
suos, non ipse aquila, sed ut muscas olim scarabeus ille 
vespae filius. " Nullum novit Salmasius nobiiiorem 
genium, si laboris tolerantior fuisset :" Ignavus igitur 
Morus; et tamen semper genio satis indulsit. Additque 
ipse Salmasius " varie Iaesisse uxorem suam :" Unde 
protervus in matronas etiam Morus ; " praeter incon- 
siderationem" quoque " tali homine indignam:" Sal- 
masio itaque judice, quid est Morus nisi morus ? Hie 
autem fateor satis causae fuisse, cur " aegrum" te sub- 
scriberes ; manifesto enim febricitas. Qui sic tibi dix- 
isse Salmasium ais, " siquid in" Pontia "peccavit" 
Morus, " ego sum leno et uxor mea lena." Festive tu 
quidem in hoc dramate personarum numerum auxisti, 
et uberem ridendi ansam, sicui otium esset, porrexisti. 
Verum siquid hujusmodi Salmasius amico tibi et pri- 
vatim, siquid incommodius de se vel de uxore familiar- 
iter locutus est, id tu, nisi plane delirares, amicitiam 
saltern reveritus et arcanum domesticum, non tarn sto- 
lide hoc in loco efFutisses. Sed redis ad laudes, 
" acutum judicium Mori ;" adjunge " inconsidera- 
tionem" illam " tali homine indignam," res duas inter 
se conjunctissimas. " Fo3licitatem in concionando ;" 
et infoelicitatem in scortando : par alterum in Mori 
laudibus appositissimum. Accedit corollari loco " trium 
linguarum peritia :" quae professorem hunc tandem 
consummat nobis trilinguem ; id est, cum supradictis 
virtutibus paulo plus quam triobolarem. Cum voto 
deuique finem facis ineptiendi ; ut " Deus Christian- 
orum" (modo enim reliquisse " Deos bonos" tuos vide- 
ris) "hanc mentem inspiret potestatibus, ut hanc scrip- 
turiendi licentiam Christianis infamem compescant." 
Vos itaque priores compescant, a quibus haec omnis 
licentia primo exorta est : mihi mei defendendi jus ac 
potestatem adversus contumelias vestras, uti spero, non 
eripient. Intelliges turn ipse, quam ego libens omni 
hoc genere contentionum supersedeam. Atque tibi 
jam, ut puto, satisfactum est : idque eo amplius feci, 



740 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



quod doctorem te sacrosanctae theologian cum amplis- 
simo phylacterio agnoscerera ; doctoribus autem miri- 
fice d elector. 

Nunc Vlaccum paucis dignemur : nam et Vlaccus 
responsat, typographic meus, et necessarius jam factus. 
Responsa hominis breviter collegam, ut perspiciatis 
quam belle quadrent. Es veterator, inquam, Vlacce. 
Sum bonus, inquit, " arithmeticus." Et tamen que- 
runtur, qui tibi expensum tulerunt, pessime te nume- 
rare. Ego ad probitatis normam te exigo. Hem tibi, 
inquit, " canonem logarithmicum ! Sophistica haec 
est, Vlacce, non logistica : perinde quasi idcirco solum 
arithmetical!) didicisses, quod in ea falsi regulam doceri 
audiveras. Clancularius es, inquam, et obaeratus aufu- 
gisti. Tu mihi " sinuum tabulas," et " tangentium," 
et " secantium " crepas. At quibus tecum ratio est, 
expensi tabulis te urgent : idque ipsum est quod sinu- 
osum te nimis, et alieni cupidius tangentem, et male 
secantem queruntur. " Trigonometriam," inquis, 
" conversis sinubus in logarithmos artificialem absolvi." 
At artificia interim tua et versutias creditores luunt: 
Non trigonometram, sed tetragonum sine fraude cum 
illis te esse oportuit ; non angulos et obliquitates, sed 
suum cuique metiri ac reddere. De caetero, ad tuam 
te confessionem ipsam rejicio. Londini, Parisiis, iniqui 
librarii, iniquum judicium, iniqui judices ; tu solus in- 
teger et castus : at illi contra te unura omnes cum 
audientur, vera esse ea quae de te dixi, nemo non 
fatebitur. In me autem quam scelestus fueris, facile 
evincam. Prinium scripsisti ad Hartlibium, petens, ut 
mea, siquid haberem, posses excudere; et simul de mea 
oculorum calamitate, essemne omnino orbus luminum, 
sedulo et quasi dolens quassivisti : mox proditorie, cum 
iutelligeres nihil tibi a me excudendum venire, caecita- 
tem mihi, quam quasi sollicite modd et dolenter in- 
quirebas, earn statim scelerate insultans palam expro- 
brasti. Nam typographus, inquis, sum ; " quid ad 
typographos tam magnae controversiae, nisi ut operam 
suam ?" Acutum sane et typographicum ! Non alius 
quisquam typographis plus hac in parte quam ego con- 
cesserim. Num ergo tu famosissimo libello tuum sub- 
scribere professum nomen quasi author esses, debuisti ? 
et cujus ex libris lucrari cupiebas,neque nunc primum, 
ut audio, lucratus es, ejus nomen turpissimis contumeliis 
maculare, cum privilegio scilicet, licere tibi existi- 
masti? " Bellum," inquis, " erat;" et simul miratur 
tua vastitas, quod, facta pace, bacchationes in me priva- 
tim tuas et siugularcm insolentiam impune tibi esse 
noluerim. Nescis enim, vappa, quid belli ratio, in 
causa etiam longissime diversa, ab temulenta tua 
rabie discrepet. An siquis existimationem meam priva- 
tes per causam belli famoso libro violaverit, ea mihi 
injuria devoranda est, ut ne possim, cum visum erit, me 
justa etexpectata defensione vindicare? " Non me pu- 
duit," inquis, " quanquam ignominiose accusatum, al- 
teram editionem adornare." At non omnes tibi similes 
sunt, Vlacce, ut non pudeat fidem, pudorem, omnia lucro 
postponere ; cujus fceda cupiditas adeo vilem tibi et ab- 
jectum animum ingeneravit, ut tuis ipse typis teipsum 
graphics n< bulonem depinxisse non erubescas; eodem- 
que tempore mihi maledicere, et mcis ex libris qurcs- 



tum facere. In quo quid cani similius fieri abs te po- 
tuit? cujus ego allatrantis capiti, ciim os illud vehe- 
menter inflixissem, exclamas tu quidem et quaeritaris; 
mox ut esculentum esse comperisti, reversus blandule, 
rodis simul et liguris. Tu vero mea ut non omnino 
attigisse debuisti, aut non corrupisse ; nunc inimicus 
librum meum non solum excudisti, sed ultione vilissima 
deformatum ac mutilatum et adversariis hinc inde ob- 
sessum exposuisti : quorum alterum rapacissimam lu- 
celli cujusvis aviditatem tuam, alterum et tuam singu- 
larem militiam et tuarum mercium improbitatem decla- 
rat. Haec tua sunt, Vlacce. Nunc remoto te circumpede 
herum tuum aggredi tandem ab latere aperto liberius 
licebit. Qui quamvis non modo intus turpis, et sibi 
conscius, sed foris jam pene omnibus manifestus atque 
perspicuus sit, tamen cum in audacia positam sibi esse 
spem unicam statuerit, absterso ore, ut in proverbio 
sacro scortum illud, et assumpta non solum viri sancti 
oratione atque persona, sed sapientissimi quoque titulo 
Ecclesiastes novus cum mala cruce, et sacrarum litera- 
rum professor profanus incedit. Adeo ut mirentur 
omnes in quo summa esse tot vitia reperirentur, in eo 
ilia omnia potuisse ab impudentia tam longe superari. 
Ego vero eorum quae de te scripsi, More, ciim " af- 
finxerim" sane nihil, affirmaverim autem ea quae et cre- 
berrima passim fama, et mihi privatim testibus idoneis 
essent cognita, utrius hoc nostri " ad sempiternura dede- 
cus" futurum sit, non id tuum, quod tamen tibi arrogas, 
judicium erit, sed, Dei voluntate, hominum integrorum 
sententiis dirimetur. Tu interim praefationis mihi (quid 
enim " tui praefatio" si nondum assequor) vel " va- 
nissimi" vel " mendacissimi," quanquam uberrima tibi 
mendaciorum copia est, mitte " comparare." Testimo- 
nialium ut sis tibimet callidissimus aeruscator, praefa- 
tionum tamen coactorem te mihi nolo. Nam quod ais 
quae de te protuli " ejusmodi esse, nemo ut sit eorum 
quibus paulo propius innotuisti, quamvis iniquior esset, 
quin falsitatis perpetuae coarguat," id usque eo veritati 
plane contrarium est, ut eorum qui te " propius" no- 
runt, multi nuntiis, non nemo Uteris questus mecum 
sit huic me argumento facinorum tuorum tam uberi et 
copioso parum satisfecisse ; tantum abesse, quicquam 
ut finxerim, ut permultas, praeclaras etiam, tuas res 
gestas silentio praeterierim : se, si adfuissent, quod et 
optabant quoque nonnulli, largiore me palmarum tua- 
rum accessione et copia facile fuisse instructuros. Tuum 
ergo illud " miserere," quo tu et operarius tuus, par 
biped ura odiosissimum, " misereri meam vicem" vultis 
ridicule videri, vobis vestrisque vicibus moneo reserve- 
tis, ego a me procul arceo : miserationes improborum 
cujusmodi sint, didici. Nam quid est, obsecro, quod 
miserationem hauc vestram inhumanam tandem com- 
moverit ? quod " in te" nempe " hominem immeritum 
grassatus sim." At 6 gemina impudentia, et conscio- 
rum par callosissimum ! vosne ut audeatis vos " imme- 
ritos" asseverare, nisi forte vocis ambiguo colluditis, 
quorum alter Clamorem ilium infamem atque iiifandum 
edidit, alter excudit, uterque divulgavit? Discant hinc 
omnes, quae vos " cum bono Deo" affirmare soleatis, 
quam sint pro nihilo habenda. Nee precationem feli- 
cius, quam miserationem adscivisti; ut ad "justam no- 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN 



741 



minis tui defensionem aggredienti veram et verecun- 
dam suggerat tibi Deus orationem, ab omni mendacio 
et obscoenitate prorsus abhorrentem :" Alteram enim 
nunquam es praestiturus, ut mendaciis abstiueas; alte- 
rum iniquissime precaris, ut cum tua facta obscoenissi- 
ma sint, orationem sug-g-erat tibi Deus factis abhorren- 
tem : quod contra precari debuisses, ut suggereret tibi 
Deus non verecundam, sed obscoenam : sic enim tua 
facta verbis saltern propriis et non mendacibus Deo at- 
que hominibus confessus esses ; sic non hypocritam 
eg-isses ; quod Deo longe gratius fuisset. Nunc non 
Deus te, sed tua ilia Dea audit Cotytto, sive ea Laverna, 
sive utraque est, labra tacite moventem : 

" Da mihi fallere ; da justo sanctoque videri : 
" Noctera peccatis,et stupris objice nubem." 

Quaeris qui sciam quae tu tecum ? Dicam. Vocale 
quiddam, si nescis, omnis, totusque homo est : non lin- 
gua, non vox hominis sola loquitur ; vita ipsa, mores, 
facta, quid quisque velit, tacente saepius lingua, clamant 
atque testantur. Tu itaque haec tacite ; ilia clare ; 
" Orationem videlicet ob omni mendacio et obscoenitate 
prorsus abhorrentem, hoc est inquis dissimillimam 
tuse." De hoc utroque sigillatim a me tuo ordine re- 
spondebitur. A mendaciis exordiris : " nam ut hinc," 
inquis " ordiar, quid mendacius ipsa fronte libelli tui ? 
quem," nescis quare, Defensionem Secundam pro Populo 
Anglicano vocem ; " re quidem vera" inquis " teterri- 
mam contra me satyram et ventosissimum panegyricum 
a, te dictum tibi." Nas tu mendacia jejunus admodum 
et esuriens, sed inani morsu captas, si toto libro nihil 
mendacius ipsa fronte invenire potes : Quam ego et 
veracem esse, et per omnia libro consentaneam facile 
demonstrabo ; quid enim appositius, quid accommoda- 
tius ad defensionem populi Anglicani, quam si ejus 
vitam et mores turpissiraos esse convincam,quiprobro- 
sissimo libello edito populum Anglican um tan ta injuria 
lacessisset ? eum te esse confirmo. Quid si digressus 
aliquoties essem, et in materia prsesertim tarn trita et 
saepe tristi lectoris nonnunquam recreare animum ali- 
unde experirer ? Tune adeo pressus et minime laxus 
homo es, ut latum unguem ab argumenti cancellis dis- 
cedere quoquam licere non putes ? quae lex rhetorum 
tuorum digressiones istiusmodi reprehendit? Ego si 
exemplis, quod possem,oratorum illustrium explicarem 
quid hae in parte liceat et usitatum sit, efficerem ut 
appareret statim facili negotio, quam tu harum rerum 
rudis atque ignarus sis. Nee solam satyram, quod ais, 
in te scripsi, sed ut perspicerent omnes, libentius me et 
multo studiosius bonos collaudare, quam malos vitupe- 
rare, clarissimorum aliquot nominum laudes, qui vel 
patriam armis et consilio egregie liberassent, vel mihi 
saltern facta eorum defendenti favissent, (cum id etiam 
causam cohonestaret,) et passim admiscui, et plenius 
introduxi. Atque adeo ne hoc quidem, qudd serenis- 
simae Suecorum Reginae gratias potius. quam laudes 
persolverim, tu unquam ostenderis a defensione pop. 
Anglicani, cui ilia impense existimata est favisse, ali- 
enum fuisse. Quid si, quod objectas, me denique lau- 
dassem aliquantisper digressus? quis ea tempora, eas 
persaepe causas incidere non fateatur, utpropriae laudes 



etiam sanctissimis modestissimisque viris indecorae non 
sint, nee unquam fuerint ? hunc etiam locum uberri- 
mum exemplorum illustrare copia si vellem, equidem 
me omnibus facile probarem tu obmutesceres. Sed me 
nusquam laudavi; nee, quod criminaris, panegyricum 
a me mihimet dictum usquam invenies : Singulare 
quidem in me divini numinis beneficium, quod me ad 
defendendam libertatis tarn fortiter vindicatae causam 
praeter caeteros evocasset, et agnovisse fateor, et nun- 
quam non ag-noscere debere : et praeclaram hinc mini- 
meque culpandam, ut ego quidem arbitror, exordiendi 
materiam sumpsisse. Petitus deinde ab illo Clamore 
Regio convitiis omnibus atque calumniis, et infimorum 
numero habitus, non me laudibus, quanquam id nefas 
non erat, contra adversarios despectores, sed nuda ac 
simplici rerum mearum narratione contentus, tuebar : 
id populi Anglicani quem defendebam, quanti inter- 
esset, uti ego meani existimationem non plane abjicerem 
nee obtrectandam quibusvis et obculcandam relin- 
querem, praefatus antequam mei facerem mentionem 
sedulo ostendi ; offensionem denique si cujus forte hac 
in re incurrissem, haud negligenter sum deprecatus. 
Haec tu si propter invidentiam et livorem aut non 
legere aut meminisse non vis, quid est reliqui nisi ut 
crepes ? nullum enim in fronte libri mendacium, nisi 
abs te per malitiam atque calumniam conflatum reperi- 
etur. Quanto mendacior " Alexandri Mori fides pub- 
lica ?" an te omnia in illo libro ex fide publica scrip- 
sisse audes dicere ? atqui aut hoc tibi necessario dicen- 
dum, aut libri illius fronti nulla fides est. Ita tu duni 
in titulo tuo putidus, in meo malitiosus es, aut fides 
publica frontem per te, aut tua frons fidem perdidit. 
Pergis de mendaciis. " Alterum est," inquis, " au- 
thorem esse me libri, cui titulus, Clamor Sanguinis 
Regii." Quod cum ego verum esse firmissimis testi- 
moniis jam supra, demonstraverim, teque illius libri 
certissimum curatorem atque editorem, omnium jure 
gentium et legibus pro authore habendum esse, sequi- 
tur ut quae mei fallendi spe nixus hoc loco vociferaris, 
quasi author non esses, tametsi infirma per se, atque 
inania sunt, nunc fundamento illo fallaci subruto, sua 
sponte corruant atque subsidant : simulque ut totum 
illud mendacium, ilia omnis " temeritas, impudentia, 
immanitas," qua me per summam impudentiam hinc 
oneras, in teipsum recidat. Exclamantem itaque et 
frigentem et tuo laqueo impeditum, te hie praetereo : 
nugas autem quasdam tuas sine risu non possum ; per 
quas acutius et miserabiliiis exclamare te putas. " Nam 
licet," inquis, " ea crimina quae in me conjicis vera 
essent, tamen contra jus et fas omne esset, quod nullius 
in nos authoritatis, quoddam tribunal excitas, crimina- 
tiones publice spargis." An nescis ergo, hominum 
ineptissime, idem hoc tribunal esse, eandem sellam 
atque authoritatem, jus idem criminandi etjudicandi, 
quod ego vestro primum Salmasio, mox Clamatori Re- 
gio defensione justissima eripui ? vestrum ego nunc 
exemplum atque judicium in vos converto, vestro jure 
utor; vestrum ipsum tribunal, vestra subsellia, quae in 
nos parastis, de vestris erepta manibus in vosjustissime 
statuo. " Deinde," inquis, " tametsi libri author illius 
essem, non tibi tamen integrum fuisset tot scommata 



4-2 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



nihil ad causam pertinentia huic propinare saeculo." 
Yidete, quaeso, sequitatem hominis : Sibi et Salmasio 
licere vult omnia, calumnias, mendacia, contumelias ; 
nobis vera in illos crimina retorquere, quasi ad causam 
scilicet minus pertiuentia, non licebit. Sane qui res, 
rationesque rerum recto judicio ponderare solent, non 
dubito quin mecum sentiant, nihil vehementius ad cau- 
sam peitinere, quam quali quis vita atque moribus sit 
qui earn acerrime defendat. Ego causam Regiam, qui 
vehementissime defenderit, si aut corruptum esse aut 
facinorosum arguo, baud levi argumento impugnasse 
me causam Regiam satis intelligo : Si mendacem, si 
turpem, si perfidum per omnem vitam crimiuatorem 
nostrum esse ostendo, eundem quoque in nos esse eo 
faciliiis fidem facio. Tu interim cum duo tibi propo- 
sueris; " alterum," ut ostenderes "nee esse te libri 
autorem illius, nee id fuisse mihi persuasum ;" alterum, 
" falsa esse quae in te conjecta sunt probra," nihil ho- 
rum efficis; sed dissolutus ac fluens, modo hue, modo 
illuc vagando, turn eadem inculcando, ignarus quam in 
propinquo tibi effuse nunc, pabulanti latens a tergo 
atque intactus hostis instet, dum nescire me putas quid 
sit libelli authorem esse, aut quid tu feceris, in eadem 
perstas vel futilitate vel fallacia. " Quid commerui ? 
quid peccavi ? quando populum tuumlaesi?" Cavil- 
laris etiam ; " quando boves tuos aut equos abegi?" 
Xon tu boves meos abegisti, cacus pastor ut sis ; sed 
alienas oves abduxisti, tuam deseruisti Phryx novus 
Alexander, vel etiam Cataphryx Moms. At " sciscitari 
ex amicis" credo poteram, quos isthic apud nos habes, 
nee " paucos nee vulgaris notae." Quasi vero ego, 
qui " divinus," ut ais, " non sum," tuos amicos quinam 
essent, scirem, qui ante hunc Clamorem belluinum abs 
te editum, ne vagiisse quidem adhuc te aut infantem 
natum sciebam. Aut tu plane sensu, vel saltern logica 
destitutus es, aut ejus rudimenta non sic didicisses, 
relationes in sensum non incurrere. Itaque et inimicos 
esse tibi tam multos eosque tua non pietate, sed turpi- 
tudine quaesitos necdum audieram ; neque ut " ludi- 
briis" tam esses " opportunus," neque ut tu, Veneris 
nepos, " Junonem" sic iratam tibi haberes : quae tibi 
essent infensa numina aeque ignorabam, et qui essent 
Crantzio " Dii boni." " Anni duo sunt," inquis, " ex 
quo tuum hoc drama exornas." Quanquam hoc perri- 
diculum est, quod optasses nunquam editum, id sero 
editum queri, et sum ego qui elaboratum recte atque 
limatum siquid est, id diu accurasse si dicor, non repre- 
hendendum me magis quam scriptores quosque optimos 
putcm, qui tarditatem scribendiimputatamsibiasciolis 
facile contempsere,tamen et hoc esse falsissimum expro- 
cemio superioris libri intelligitur, ubi cur maturius non 
respondissem causam reddidi, et errare te vehementer 
scito, si operis tam ardui fuisse credis vel inanem cla- 
morem refutare, vel te cuivis obnoxium ludos facere. 
Nee mihi tot subcisivis horulis " dicta ilia Floralia," quae 
vocas,quottibi furtivis noctibus atque dieculis facta ilia 
Fescennina stetere. Et " periisset" sane, hie enim tecum 
sentio, paradisus ille tuus, et ficus et morus et sycomo- 
rus, quibus ncquitiam tuam, quantum potuit fieri, 
honeste adumbratam, quoniam sunt qui rem oculis non 
visam, factam crcdi nolint, istius defensionis inanitatcm 



ridens, vel argute vel contemptim exposui: pcriissent, 
inquam, illi omnes non sane flosculi, sed arbusculae, nisi 
tu in horto moechatus esses : ex hortensi et suburbana 
cultione tua, non ex urbanitate mea amoenitas ista 
omnis effloruit. Quod autem " in frontispicio satyrae 
in te meoe" (qua; non magis satyra est, quam quae est 
Marci Tullii in Vatinium quemvis oratio) " tanquam 
propylaeum operis illustre collocasse" me ais, " quid 
Morus Graece significet, " frustra tu quidem propylaea 
somnias ; non ita eram decori nescius, ut sublime quic- 
quam aut tragicum in historia tua ponerem : Ego tugu- 
riolum illud tuum in horto, tu Palatium illud vetus, in 
quo hortus ille erat, fortasse cogitabas ; et in ilia olitoris 
cellula, haud dubie Palatinus adulter tibi videbaris. 
Id ipsum autem Graece significare te dixi quod etsi 
lingua nulla esset, reipsa te esse nunc dico. Illud 
tamen negaverim,quoties te tuo nomine Morum appello, 
"invidiam me velle," quod quereris, "ex nomine fa- 
cere," et moriam tibi objicere ; mihi enim id fere in 
mentem non venit; sed professori Graecae linguae Grae- 
cum etymon Mori ita perpetuo salire per cerebrum tibi 
solet, ut nemo salutare te possit More, quin tu ab eo te 
stultum appellari morose admodum suspiceris. Haec 
sunt et hujusmodi quae tu paginis paulo minus viginti* 
cum authorem te non esse Clamoris Regii probare de- 
buisses, nugatus es : in quibus singulis si otiari tecum 
diutius et morari vellem, ipse Morus essem. Nunc 
tandem serio videris velle agere. " Non rum ores, non 
sermones, sed literas testes dabis, admonitum me fuisse 
ne in hominem innoxium incurrerem." Literas ergo 
inspiciamus, quas in medium affers " amplissimi viri 
D. Nieuportii foederati Belgii legati" ad te scriptas ; 
quas tu, ut videtur, literas non ad probationis vim, quam 
nullam habent, sed ad ostentationem solum legendas 
proposuisti. Is, quod singularem " viri amplissimi" 
humanitatem declarat (quid enim is non viri boni, qui 
tui indignissimi causa tantopere laboraret ?) ad Dom. 
Thurloium secretarium adit, tuas literas communicat. 
Cum nihil se proficere videret, ad me duos viros nobiles, 
amicos meos, cum literis iisdem tuis allegat. Quid 
illi ? Literas illas Mori recitant, rogant, et legatum 
Nieuportium idem rogare aiunt, uti literis tuis, quibus 
authorem Clamoris Regii negares te esse, fidem babe- 
rem. Respondi non esse aequum quod postularent ; 
neque tanta fide Morum, neque id fieri solere, ut contra 
famam communem et rem alioqui satis compertam ne- 
gantis de se rei et adversarii solis literis crederetur. 
Illi, cum aliud e contra nihil quod dicerent haberent, 
pugnare desinunt. Si haec non credis, tute percurre 
legati literas, quibus ego nunc testibus in te utor. 
" Optabat eum non invulgare librum :" verum id mei 
juris erat et potestatis. " Ne tibi hanc injuriam facerem, 
ut illud tibi opus imputarem :" At liqueresibi, aut unde 
sibi liqueret, injurium tibi hoc esse quod imputassem, 
non scribit. Saltern ut " nihil vellem inserere, quod te 
tangeret." Quidni vero te tangeret quod ad te pertinet, 
nisi id ad te non pertinere demonstrasset ? demonstrare 
autem non potuisse, argumento firmissimo est, quod 
cum Dom. Thurloio secretario idem denuo persuadere 
vellet, nihil habuit quod mitteret, prae.terquam idem 
illud excmplum litcrarum tuarum ; ex quo et illud 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



743 



facile perspicuum est, "rationes" illas ad me allatas 
" ob quas optabat," ne vellem eum libruni evulgare, 
nihil conjunctum cum reipubl. vationibus habuisse. 
Noli itaque tu literas legati corrumpere : nihil illic de 
" hostili spiritu," nihil de " importuno tempore :" tan- 
tum " dolere" se scribit " noluisse me rogatu suo tantil- 
lum moderationis ostendere : " id est, noluisse me suo 
privatim rogatu tibi adversario publico rem gratam fa- 
cere; opus excusum et jam pene editum revocare et de 
integro retexere. Excusatum me habeat " vir amplis- 
simus,"et praesertim legatus, si injurias publicas priva- 
tis intercessionibus condonare noluerim, nee sane 
potuerim ; multoque minus eas injurias Clamoris 
Regii, quae neque ad bellum neque ad pacem recens 
factam ullo modo spectarent. Bellum illud contra 
Anglos non contra rempubl. fuit: bellum vestrum non 
contra Anglos, sed contra rempubl. est. An siquis re- 
giarum parti um per bellum Regium quicquam in nos 
commisit, id per pacem Batavicam a nobis non erit 
vindicandum ? siquis in rempubl. nostram contumeliose 
quid scripsit, id post pacem cum Batavis factam non 
erit refellendum ? an per alienum bellum plus Regiis 
in nos, quam per nostram pacem nobis in Regios lice- 
bit ? At non nos cum Regiis ut eorum Clamatoribus, 
sed cum iis provinciis pacem fecimus, a quibus causa 
Regia longissime sejuncta est; eamque pacem in qua de 
hostibus nostras reipubl. non modo non favendis,sed ne 
tecto quidem recipiendis nominatirn exceptum est. At 
enim hoc " intempestivum," et " a7r«tpo;ca\ov fuit quod 
alienissimo tempore cum omnia hie et isthic festis ob 
pacem ignibus collucerent," tu solus gelida perfunderis. 
Equiclem non in eo positam aTreipoKaXiav existimabam 
tu lautus homo ista melius : doleo non satis perpensa a 
me officii momenta in te mei. At graviter peccatum 
est ; turn enim " laetis clamoribus nostrum vestrumque 
ccelum consonabat." Quasi vero te ardelione et incen- 
diario bene multato, non multo laetius illi ignes pacifici 
et sociales relucerent: quasi etiam " vestrum nostrum- 
que coelum" faustis clamoribus non multo loetius con- 
sonet ; cum infaustus et feralis inimicorum clamor com- 
pescitur. Quod tu itaque alienissimum tempus, id ego 
opportunissimum fuisse contendo: nee " obstrepuisse" 
me, quod ais, " Pacis articulis," sed acclamasse et plau- 
sisse. Postremo et me prorsus ignoras, et tibimet intra 
paucos versiculos manifesto mendax deprehenderis. 
" Abs te," inquis, " quo factum sit animo non inter- 
pretor:" Et statim, quod " depositis armis, animum 
retineres armatum." Mirum ni ex eo bello qusestum 
feci, aut stipendium aliquocl navale, qui factam pacem 
usque eo moleste tulerim. Dicam igitur quod me di- 
cere neque ullum obsequium, neque necessitas cogit. 
Falleris tu quidem magnopere, si quenquam esse An- 
glorum putas, qui Fcederatis Provinciis me uno sit 
amicior, aut voluntate conjunction qui prseclarius de 
republ. ilia sentiat; qui eorum industriam, artes, inge- 
nium, libertatem aut pluris faciat, aut ssepius collaudet ; 
qui bellum incoeptum cum iis minus voluerit, suscep- 
tum pacatius gesserit, compositum serio magis trium- 
phant ; qui denique obtrectatoribus eorum minus un- 
quam crediderit. Unde tu nullam in me calumniam 
mendaciorem aut minus congruentem affingerepotuisti. 



" At ilium rerum cardinem aucupatus esse videor, ut 
prodeuntibus demum articulis pacis obstreperem." Tu 
scilicet cardo rerum ; in te pacis articuli vertuntur ; hunc 
si attingas, actum de pace est. At quern hominem ? quo 
numero ? civem credo egregium, senatorem primarium, 
ornamentum curiae : immo ne civem quidem, sed in- 
quilinum, alienigenam, etScoto-Gallum impurissimum, 
odiosum omnibus atque offensum, reipubl. hostem, qui 
si quo expulsus, ejectus, et in rem malam amandatus 
esset, ne tantillum quidem articulis pacis noceretur ; 
immo satisfieret potius. Tu itaque desine, si sapis, 
politicari; et pacis articulos cave dehinc mussites, ne- 
quis te ex pacis articulis Regii Clamoris editorem ad 
supplicium poscat. Pollicitus sum, inquis, legato, " nihil 
indecens exiturum e calamo meo." Neque fefelli; vel 
siquid omnino ilia in parte commisi, in me solum com- 
misi, dum tuos excutere putores, tua tractare inquina- 
menta sustinui: et, quod illic etiam praefatus sum, non 
tarn quid me magis decuisset, quam quid te dignum 
esset spectabam. Nee tamen indecentius aut acerbius 
in te ego, quam olim viri gravissimi in improbum quem- 
que ac perditum et concionibus honestissimo quoque 
civitatis in loco atque conventu habitis, et scriptis pa- 
lam editi's invecti sunt. Verum ad illud nunc venio 
quod virum sanctissimum et hujus setatis longe castis- 
simum ofTendit Morum ; " illoto" scilicet " sermone 
utor, verbis nudis et prsetextatis. Propudium hominis 
et prostibulum ! Tene illota verba reprehendere, qui 
facta turpissima patrare non erubuisti ? Jam non pceni- 
teret profectd, siquid in hoc genere liberius paulo dix- 
issem ; etiamsi aliud inde nihil assequutus essem, nisi 
ut elicerem ex te dissimulationem banc improbissimam, 
teque personatum omnibus vel hinc palam educerem 
bypocritarum omnium deterrimum. Quod autem tu 
mihi dictum libro toto ostenderis, quod verbum illotius, 
quam hoc ipsum Morus ? sed non in verbo neque in re, 
sed in te vitium omne atque obsccenitas tota est. Tu 
fauno quovis aut nudo satyro turpior, bona verba uti 
nuda essent tuis moribus effecisti. Tuam nulla umbra, 
ne ficus ipsa quidem, velare turpitudinem potuit. Qui. 
te dicit, tuaque flagitia, eum necesse est obsco3na di- 
cere. Itaque si in tuum opprobrium vel nuda verba 
exeruissem, facile me etiam gravissimorum authorum 
exemplo defendissem. Qui ita semper existimarunt, 
verba nuda atque exerta cum indignatione prolata, non 
obsco3nitatem, sed gravissimce reprehensionis vebemen- 
tiam significare. Quis unquam Pisoni annalium scrip- 
tori, qui propter virtutem et pudicos mores Frugi d.ictus 
est, vitio vertit, quod in annalibus questus est " adole- 
scentes peni deditos esse." Quis unquam Sallustium 
scriptorem gravissimum reprehendit, quod etiam in 
historia dixit ; 

" Ventre, manu, pene, alea, bona patria dilacerari." 

Quid Herodotum, Senecam, Suetonium, Plutarchum, 
authores omnium gravissimos adducam ? quos tu si ne- 
gas verba etiam plusquam prsetextata, resque satis turpes 
rebus gravioribus aliquoties immiscuisse, satis declaras 
te iis in authoribus versatum non esse. Hoc si omni tem- 
pore et loco indecens est, quoties tu Erasmo doctissimo 
qui Roterodami stat sereus, quoties Tbomce Moro nos- 



744 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



tro, cujus tu nomen tuo commaculas, quoties denique 
ipsis ecclesiae patribus antiquis, Alexandrino Clementi, 
Arnobio, Lactantio, Eusebio, dum obscoena veterum re- 
ligionum mysteria vel denudant, vel derident, indecen- 
tiae et obscoenitatis dicam scribere debebis ? Verum tu 
fortasse, ut sunt fere hypocritae, verbis tetrici, rebus 
obscceni, ne ipsum quidem Mosen ista noxa immunem 
abs te dimiseris ; cum alibi ssepius, turn etiam ubi 
Phinue basta qua parte mulierem transfixerit, siqua 
fides Hebraeis, aperte narrat. Ne ipsum quidem Jobum 
pudentissimum ac patientissimum, dum meretricem 
sibi uxorem nudato et prisco sermone imprecatur, si 
ipse alienee uxori insidiatus unquam fuisset. Non te 
Salomonis Eupbemismi censorem, non prophetarum 
scripta tuam turpiculi immo nunnunquam plane ob- 
scceni censuram effugerint, quoties Masoretbis et Ra- 
binis, pro eo quod diserte scriptum est, suum libet Keri 
adscribere. Ad me quod attinet, fateor malle me cum 
sacris scriptoribus evQvpprjuova, quam cum futilibus Ra- 
binis tvffxwuova esse. Tuque frustra Marcum Tullium 
inclamas; qui si " in aureo" illo quem citas, " de Offi- 
ciis libro," illud jocandi genus elegans, urbanum, in- 
geniosum, facetum arbitratur, quo g-enere non modo 
Plautus et Atticorum antiqua comcedia, sed etiam phi- 
losophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt, id quod illic 
legisse poteras, non ille mihi quidem nimis angustos, 
non nimis severos decori statuisse fines videtur, ut cui- 
quam difficile sit intra eos fines sese continere ; nedum 
ut ego me non continuerim. Noli itaque tu mibi bomo 
inquinatissimus, de bonesto et decoro ineptire ; non est 
tuum, mibi crede ; immo tu sic habeto, nihil minus de- 
cere, nihil ab ratione ipsa decori magis abhorrere, quam 
te talem, qualis es, lautum sermonem usurpare, aut 
illotum reprehendere. Sed videris nunc velle rem om- 
nem in pauca redigere : " Non sum," inquis, " autor 
Clamoris." Non suades. " Res patet, dilucet, eamque 
pluribus argumentis affirmare tam sit ineptum, quam 
in clarissimum solem mortale lumen inferre." Desine 
ampullas ; die tandem aliquid. " Ipse ego quantum 
possum reclame." Nempe nunc denuo ; minaciter modo 
et regie; nunc misere. " Amici non tacent." Ex ore 
tuo. " Ecclesiastae admonent." Fide tua. " Legati 
confimant." Ex Uteris tuis. Quid hoc omne aliud est, 
nisi ilia initio tua singularis negatio, " Non sum au- 
thor ?" Verum tu, antequam ad hunc locum pervenisti, 
jamdiu intelligis miser quo loco res tuse sint; quos in 
laqueos te indueris; quibus a me vinculis obses tenea- 
ris : nunc quantum voles clama, te non authorem Cla- 
moris esse ; cum omnium gentium leges atque jura, 
prteconem te mihi pro clamatore, procuratorem pro au- 
thore tradiderint. Quid nunc authore fiat, aut ubi 
terrarum degat, nihil moror : vixerit sane in Gallia, et 
simul in Hollandia "jucundum fuerit videre," quod 
narrat ipse, " quibus ludibriis, quibus periculis legati 
nostri" eo tempore couflictarentur : sit vel Satanicce 
minister synagogae, non laboro; hoc saltern unumbene 
fecit, quod te tam diligentem sibi tamque fidelcm dia- 
conum, non Evangelii, sed inf'amissimi libelli rninis- 
trum reliquit. Ago nunc tnumphos de me istos, quos 
ego Mobiles tibi efficiarn : profcr in medium, si potes, 
mea ilia " mendacia, meam iliam imprudentiam, teme- 



ritatem, audaciam, pertinaciam et impudentiam," meum 
illud ingens piaculum quod te Regii Clamoris affirma- 
verim authorem. Clama quantum potes e longinquo 
ad populum Anglicanum quem illo antea nefario cla- 
more edito tam indigne lsesisti : nam accedere non 
audes. Vociferare, inquam, si satis in tuto es ; " Quan- 
tum te, popule Anglicane, tua de Miltono fefellit opi- 
nio !" Haec enim ipsa dum clamas, dum plaudis tibi, 
et tanquam elapso gratularis, nescis me lustra tua, et 
sylvas anonymas indagasse, nescis in plagis te meis 
esse: sentit pop. Anglicanus me non poenitendum vel 
defensorem juris sui, vel venatorem ferarum suarum. 
En ego te reluctantem obtorto collo, traductum per 
ora omnium, pestem populi, in ecclesia verrem, cauda 
non minus, quam obliquo dente maleficum, in con- 
spectum omnium protraho. Teque belluam pop. An- 
glicano inspectandam, non aedilitatis, sed defensionis 
meae gratissimum munus edo. Tu interea, nequid de- 
sit ad triumphum, quem de me, ut putas, deluso atque 
decepto agis, quod authorem Clamoris te dixerim, ad- 
hibes, ut solet, jocos. Et. " frontem," inquis, " imme- 
rito perfricare diceris, tota enim jamdudum frons tibi 
periit." Noli nunc de me queri ; noli " sarcasmos," et 
" sannas " et scommata," simulata rursus gravitate, re- 
prehendere : memineris ut hi ludi a teipso instaurati et 
introducti nunc sint; ut reprehensos modo et damnatos 
ipse nunc revoces. Facetus esse cupis ; non succurrit 
in praesentia : suggeram itaque ego jocos quosdam 
tuos ; et quod triumphum maxime deceat, militares : 
quique admoneant te temporis cujusdam, in quo frons 
tua tam valide " perfricta " est, ut tibi turn multo ma- 
luisses totam frontem periisse. Meministi fortasse illius 
diei, immo vero diei, credo, et horae et loci meministi, 
cum tu Pontiam in domo Salmasii ultimum, ut opinor, 
convenisti: tu illam, ut copulas renunciares; ilia te, ut 
nuptiis diem diceres. Quae ubi e contrario pactum 
stupro conjugium dissolvere in animo tibi esse videt, 
turn vero tua innuba, non enim dicam Tisiphone, im- 
patiens tantae injuriae in faciem tibi atque oculos, non 
sectis unguibus, furens involavit. Tu qui teste Crant- 
zio (praestat enim non sine tua fide publica tantum cer- 
tamen exordiri) qui teste, inquam, Crantzio " Gallice 
Altier," Latine feroculus esses, teste Deodato, " terri- 
biles ungues ad tui tutelam haberes," pro virili tua 
parte ad foemineum hoc genus pugnae te comparas. 
Stat arbitra certaminis Juno Salmasia. Ipse Salmasius 
in conclavi proximo decumbens pedibus aeger, ut prae- 
lium commissum audiit, risu pene moritur. At heu 
nefas ! imbellis noster Alexander, et Amazoni congres- 
sus impar, succumbit. Ilia inferiorem nacta, in frontem 
et supercilia nasumque hominis turn primum superne 
peccat : miris capreolis et Phrygiano opere totum ja- 
centis vultum percurrit : nunquam tibi More lineamenta 
Ponti33 minus placuere. Ipse plena jam utraque mar- 
gine genarum, scriptus et in mento necdum finitus, 
aegre tandem surgis : sed ne poeniteat te, homo ad un- 
guem factus ; non jam professor, sed tamen Doctor 
Pontificius : jure enim poteras tanquam in picta tabula 
scripsisse, " Pontia fecit." Quid autem ? Doctor ? 
immo codex jam factus, in quo ultrix Pontia sua ad- 
versaria exaravit stilo novo. Sensisti puto Vlacci tabu- 






CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



745 



las tangentium et secantium ad radium ciirarum nescio 
quot lugubrium in pelle tua excudi. Tu turn More 
" facie non integra" domum te proripuisti ; fronte qui- 
dem exporrecta, quara vix contrahere jam poteras ; 
superciliosus tamen et caperatus, quippe derepente 
multo literatior; et quantum potes, abdis te quoque, 
reconditae ut posses dici homo literature. Eho noster 
Ecclesiastes ! ubi es? quid lates? expectant te jam 
nunc, qui " tibi aures e superiore loco dicenti accom- 
modare " solebant. Sed tibi misero nunc Pontia e 
superiore loco dixit, tuisque auribus ungues accommo- 
davit. Redde nunc tuum vultum nobis, Ecclesiastes, 
antiquum sane et rugis venerandum; cur apocryphus 
vis esse ? cum ipsa Pontia pontifice canonicus jam 
maxime sis et rubricatus. Quin etiam hinc critici, 
inde antiquarii ad fores te inclamant; tui videndi desi- 
derio ardent. Emanavit, nescio quo pacto, novas 
quasdam inscriptiones Gruterianas apud te esse ; alii 
Arabicas, alii Copticas aiunt; qui verius, Ponticas ex 
terra Taurica. Omnes uno ore consentiunt pulcherri- 
mas esse oportere, utpote in sere frontis tuae tam gra- 
phice, Pontiano praesertim onyche, insculptas. Nemini 
respondet Morus, omnibus negatur, spernit omnium 
desideria; etdelibutus unguentis domi, literas dediscere 
Pontianas mavult. Haec habui, More, quoniam te 
mecum jocandi cupidum animadverti, quo ego tuum 
de me triumph um velut militari carmine exornatum 
volebam. Quidni enim pugnas tuas turn maxime com- 
memorarem ? quanquam palma quidem erat Pontiae ; 
ilia tibi lemniscos tantummodo reliquit. Etenim quod 
tuum non est, tibi non attribuo ; tametsi tu id toto 
libro, quasi absurdum meum insectaris, oblitus te pro- 
curatione et chirographo tuo jfidejussorem mihi factum; 
oblitus, quod aes alienum tu esse dicis, id nunc legitime 
non minus tuum esse, quam cujum tu esse dicis. Tu 
itaque caecitatem cyclopeam mihi exprobrasti ; et quod 
impudentius est, dum id negas fecisse, iterum facis : 
Qui nulli turn fuerant oculi, nunc " exemptiles " et 
"Lamiarum" sunt. "Narcissus" nunc sum; quia 
te depingente nolui Cyclops esse ; quia tu effigiem 
mei dissimillimam, " prrefixam poematibus" vidisti. 
Ego vero si impulsu et ambitione librarii, me imperito, 
scalptori, propterea quod in urbe alius eo belli tempore 
non erat, infabre scalpendum permisi, id me neglexisse 
potius earn rem arguebat, cujus tu mihi nimium cultum 
objiciis. Tu itidem is es, qui clarissimum virum, Con- 
silii Status turn praesidem, contumeliis incessisti; de 
quo iratior, quam de meipso, quoesivi ex te quid aliud 
esset calumniari perpetuo bonos, quam esse diabolum. 
Hinc tu pulchram nactus hypocritandi occasionem ex 
Crantziana videlicet calumnia, quasi ego " Christi 
doctrinam de divortio quemadmodum a theologis expli- 
cari solet, diabolicam " dixissem, qui ater modo eras et 
maledicentissimus, nunc albus repente factus, et mitis et 
patiens " agis gratias," quod " te communi cum ccelesti 
doctrina convitio honestem." — Hyaena! aut siqua alia 
est bellua, tam tetra fraude noxia atque infamis; tune 
coelestem doctrinam tot tuorum facinorum asylum atque 
perfugium speras fore ? Sed perge quo tendis : si enim 
theologorum quasvis explicationes pro coelesti doctrina 
amplecteris, toto coelo, ut te dignum est, erras. Quin 



et Apostoli gloriosum illud cum bestiis pugnandi mar- 
tyrium tibimet tribuis nequissime; qui nuper non 
homo cum bestia, sed ipse bestia cum homine, id est 
cum foemina, de fide connubiali abs te rupta pugnam 
tam inhonestam pugnasti. Reversus deinde ad mores 
pristinos, solitamque jactantiam, dicendo me provocas. 
" Neque vero," inquis, " mihi tantum derogo, quan- 
quam nihil arrogo, ut te commodiiis aut facilius quam 
me putem posse dicere." Concedo equidem, si tibi 
istum in modum furari licet: haec enim ipsa verba, 
quibus copiam tuam venditas, ex oratione MarciTullii 
pro Roscio Amerino apertissime furatus es. Atque 
hinc puto est, quod Francofurtanas nundinas librorum 
tuorum catalogo tam copioso nobis obtrudas ciim edi- 
torum turn edendorum : ex quibus aliqui sunt quos 
videre gestiam ; et imprimis ilium " de gratia et libero 
arbitrio," ad amicam praesertim illam si scriptus est, 
cujus tu nunc gratiam, rejecta pro arbitrio Pontia, 
accommodato forsitan argumento ambis : turn ilium 
" de Scriptura sacra," quorum scrip tores multa huma- 
nitus et imprudenter scripsisse ferunt te affirmare : 
illam deinde " pro Calvino," quem tu veluti pro- 
phetam extructo monumento Pharisaeus exornas, vita 
et moribus jugulas: nam quae "prodibunt" opera tua, 
quae " premis et retractas, et ad umbilicum spectantia 
moliris," ea merito suspicantur omnes esse turpissima. 
Illam " de piis fraudibus dissertationem" sane ex- 
pecto : nam de impiis abs te factis fraudibus abunde 
audivimus: enim vero " Commentarius ille tuus," qui- 
nam sit in quintum " Evangelium" futurus demiror ; 
nam ilia quatuor priora jamdudum factis abnegasti : 
unde et " Theoremata ilia practica" mire desidero, 
nam tu in practicis egregius homo sine controversia es; 
id quod de te tot fabulae non fabulae testantur. Ad ilia 
autem " loca Novi Fo3deris, et axiomata quibus ex Yeteri 
Novum Fcedus illustratur," Pontiae quoque notas vel- 
lem simul ederes. Et postremo isthuc memineris, te 
alterum volumen operum tuorum, quod Genevae in 
bibliotheca publica etiamnum extat, totum omisisse : 
uti etiam inscriptiones illas, cum frontispicio mirabili, 
quas quamvis opus Pontianum, in tua tamen membrana 
tuas esse, adstipulante etiam Justiuiano, recte dixerim: 
nam noctes tuas, nescio an Atticas cum Pontia, sive 
dialogum morillum, alii spurium, alii duntaxat embry- 
onem, qui subtilius non inter libros, sed inter liberos 
tuos numerandum existimant. Sed properabas credo 
ad alteram instituti operis partem, calumnias meas. 
Nam mendacia, id nempe unicum, quod te authorem 
Clamoris dixerim, partem tui operis longe maximam 
tandem aliquando confecissete significas. Cum autem 
leve hoc merito cuiquam videri possit, etiamsi falsa 
aliqua persuasione imbutus attribuissem tibi librum 
istum, alioqui nee improbatum tibi, nee tua existima- 
tione indignum, cur unara tantummodo noxam tam 
verbose tam iracunde summa cum invidia rei per se 
levissimae sic exaggeres atque exagites, perinde quasi 
in se omnes impietates et crimina complecteretur, nisi 
jam antea docuissem, id magis mirandum possit cui- 
quam videri. Sed ea nimirum arx erat unica, in qua 
spem omnem collocaveras ; si persuasisses plerisque te 
authorem Clamoris non esse, meque mentitum, in altera 



746 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



parte quam de calumniis vocas, de quibus quod pro te 
dicas nihil prorsus habes, sperabas tc facili defensione 
usurum contra me scilicet mendacem jam antea com- 
pertum, teque omnes vitae maculas apud longinquos et 
iguotos hac arte gratis eluiturum. Verum ego cum 
praeter spem opinionemque tuam te authorem Clamoris 
tergiversantem licet et reclamantem legitime argue- 
rini, non dubito quin ad flagitia quoque tua, et quas 
tu calumnias dici mavis, accuratius prout res feret exe- 
quendas apud omnes rerum aequos aestimatores fidem 
integram attulero. Nunc quam frigide, quam invite, 
quam plane sontis in morem vafri ac vetuli has abs te 
dictas calumnias trades, quamque infoeliciter amoliri 
abs te coneris, reliquum est ut ostendam. Primum 
cunctabundus, et incerto pede a prioribus castris in haec 
altera cum multis impediments aegre et ne vix quidem 
transis : quippe a mendacio non ad alterum mendacium, 
id enim non audes dicere, sed ad " calumnias" dun- 
taxat et " rumusculos." Itaque ad mendacium illud 
toties jactatum, modo dimissum atque praeteritum per- 
petuo recurris, cum praesens arguere, siquod esset, de- 
beres : et adversaiii quod miserum est, quam tui secu- 
rior, in illo errore, quemadmodum credi vis meo, quam 
in tua nunc apud te recta conscientia multo plus repo- 
situm tibi spei atque praesidii declaras. Atqui non 
meo, siquod fuit, mendacio, sed tua de veritate, siqua 
fuit, munire debuisti. At enim " authoritate propria 
meras calumnias intento, quas nullo argumento probo, 
nullo teste con firmo." Vis ig'itur dicam apertius rem 
ipsam ? nam te, ut video, prae ista mollitie frontis non 
perfrictae, sed inscriptae modo, pudet dicere ; qui ne 
stuprum quidem aut adulterium toto responso nominare 
homo pudentissimus et flos castitatis ausus es, ne " va- 
nissimam fabulam" scilicet et obscoenam, id est tua 
facta " retexeres." Dicam ergo, et quia non abnuis, 
rerum ordinem sequar. 

Est Claudia Pelletta quasdam, pellicem posthac nomi- 
nemus licet, nescio an tuam solum; quas, cum anciila 
in eadem domo honestissimi viri Genevensis esset, in 
qua tu hospes eras turpissimus, cum calone et rhedario 
communis tibi fuit. Ea muliercula, postmodum nupta, 
quod stupri tecum habuerat conimercium adulterio con- 
tinuavit. Cedo " testes," inquis, et " argumenta." Nu- 
gator! quid tu testes ex me ubi non sunt, queer is, quas 
ubi erant, fugisti ? Genevam revertere, ubi horum cri- 
minum jam diu reus factus es. Die velle te modo abo- 
lendae calumnias causa judicium hisde rebus legitimum 
fieri ; invenies qui tecum libentissime his de criminibus 
experiri lege velint; qui vadari, qui sponsionem facere 
non recusent. Nee testes deerunt. Aderit imprimis 
Hortulanus ille qui te vidit, cum in illud tuguriolum 
cum faemina solus intrares; vidit, cum ilia Claudia tua 
clauderet fores ; vidit postea egressum te, amplexantem 
palam cum muliere impudica, et usque eo petulantem, 
ut ilium veterem hortorum custodem obsccenum, non 
ex ficu, ut olim, sed ex moro factum conspexisse ex- 
istimaret. Aderunt et alii quos viri gravissimi, qui 
tuum nomen detulerunt, testes in promptu habent. Cu- 
jus tu testimonii vim veritus cum dimanasse rem illam 
sentircs quam in occulto patrasse te arbitrabaris, ut in- 
famis ille reus Siciliensis, non jam quid responderes, 



sed quemamodum non responderes, cogitare coepisti . et 
paulo ante ferox judiciique cupidus (nam de aliis quo- 
que multis rebus et antea et turn etiam deferebaris) de- 
missus repente et consternatus, abeundi licentiam (id 
quod plerique maxime volebant, ne in rem tarn fioedam 
de pastore suo inquirere cogerentur) quasi jamjam 
abiturus petisti. Per hanc tu rationem liberatus judicii 
metu, cum alibi non haberes quo te reciperes, omni 
munere cum Ecclesise turn Scholae, omnique stipendio 
privatus, octo circiter vel decern menses in eadem urbe 
foedis factis notatus detrectata causae dictione vixisti : 
quo nullum majus argumentum contra te esse potuit. 
Nunc posteaquam oblatum tibi certamen defugisti, 
tuisque commodis carere omnibus, quam judicium de 
ilia re pati maluisti, posteaquam tuo ipsius judicio 
temet ipse damnasti, a me homine longinquo testes et 
argumenta ridicule sane quaeris. Quinimmo, ut dixi, 
Genevam revertere; et quando vadimonium illud tarn 
male obiisti, i sodes ad supplicium quod te illic manet 
adulterio debitum ; si pristina illius urbis religiosissi- 
mos disciplina nondum refrixit. Ad ilia vero sponsalitia 
stupra tu quod attinet cum Pontia, quae te ubique de- 
cantatum et digito monstratum insignem hominem illis 
in provinciis reddidere, multo minus est cur a me 
" testes" et " argumenta'' postules. Famam ipsam 
communem, constantem, et ilia centum vel potius mille 
ora, si vis, in judicium voca : haec totidem sunt testes 
quibus si in foro saepe creditum est, cur ego de adver- 
sario publico non crederem? cur ego solus quae in ore 
omnibus et sermone sunt, adversarius tacerem ? sed 
nee testes hie mihi, nee justo numero, nee literae desunt ; 
in quibus Uteris et libidines tuae et ilia perjuria quorum 
ope elapsus ex judicio es, cum horrore ac detestatione 
maxima narrantur. Sunt et muti testes qui etiam sine 
voce testantur; ilia nocturna itinera quae Hagacomitis 
Leidam cucurristi ; illi nocturni et furtivi congressus 
cum Pontia ; cum qua tu muliere per causain, ut aiunt, 
impudicitiae divortium fecisti. Si tu earn parum pudice 
versatam interdiu cum aliis credidisti, cur alii te conti- 
nentiorem noctu cum eadem consuevisse crederent? an 
expectasdum servulum tuum in te producam,nequitia- 
rum tuarum diu conscium, donee, nondum plane amisso 
pudore, aufugere abs te in bonam frugem conspectae 
ipsis oculis libidines tuae pudefactum coegerunt? Opus 
utique non erit servum ilium ad quaestionem poscere : 
Ipse detestatus tanta in Ecclesiastico homine flagitia, 
late praedicat. Tu interim ut lectorum, si non aures, 
at saltern oculos invitare possis, oratiunculam nescio 
quam infercis hie putidissimam, historicorum more, 
lunulis adnotatam, quasi acutissimam nimirum et lectu 
dignissimam : non orationem, sed chorum quendam 
Battologorumintroductum abs te aliquis putet; amico- 
rum scilicet tuorum, hortantium ut " teipsum reverea- 
ris ;" ut " ungues tuos," quos tibi fatentur " non deesse," 
ad necessaria magis tempora, Pontianam credo alteram 
dimicationem, velis potius reservare : mecum ne velis 
" in arenam descendere." Sed perdunt suam operam 
amici verbosissimi, sua monita praeclara, tot curta 
adagia, triviorum symboln, oleum nempe tuum Batto- 
logiae professor : illis posthabitis me potius usus es con- 
sultore adversario, ut responderes cum tuo magno malo. 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



747 



Non ut " tuum" ego " silentium in conscientiam ne 
verterern," sed ut conscientiam tuam suo, quod optat, 
silentio frui ne sinerem. Nam attendite quosso, et 
cognoscite nunc, si unquam alias, hjpocritam numeris 
omnibus absolutum. Videt necesse sibi esse aliquid 
pro se dicere; se intuetur, quamvis invitus; videt in 
turpi praeter turpe nihil esse quod possit responderi ; 
circumspectat ecquid foris prope se refugii sit, ecquid 
adminiculi quoinniti possit; ecquid quo se tegere, sub 
quo latitare ; ecquos in societatem et communionem 
scelerum suorum possit attrahere, ecquem ordinem aut 
genus hominum suis privatis rationibus illigare, ut 
causam suam quasi communem eommuni periculo et 
aliorum existimatione defenderet ; nihil magis idoneum 
invenire potuit, in quod omne suum dedecus transferred 
nihil in quod deonerare spurcitiam suam commodius 
posset, quam ipsam Ecclesiam Dei : " Si mea," inquit, 
" proprie tantum res ageretur, imponere fibulam ori 
meo et obmutescere poteram exemplo Domini mei : 
sed universus ordo noster, et Ecclesia Dei per meum 
petitur latus." O scortum et ganearum antistes ! cujus 
non ori magis, quam inguini fibulam impositam opor- 
tuit; quanto tibi pnestitisset obmutuisse, "exemplo 
Domini tui," cui Christus Dominus silentium cum ca- 
pistro imperavit, quam ecclesiam Dei hac tanta igno- 
minia affecisse ? Ais " universum ordinem vestrum a 
me licet oblique stigmate notari." A me ais? die ubi; 
recita, si potes, locum; nisi forte quod ego in mercena- 
ries, id tu in ministros Evangelii dictum putas. Erras 
More; et aliud fortasse multo justius haud absimile 
conquestus esses ; non ego vestrum ordinem oblique, 
sed te extra ordinem tua pontifex et obliquo et directo 
et transverso stigmate notavit. " Ecclesia," inquis, 
" Dei, cui mea omnia tempora consecravi, per meum 
petitur latus." Per tuumne latus turpissime ? qui tan- 
tum abest, ut omnia tua tempora Ecclesiae consecrave- 
ris, ut ipsa Ecclesiae tempora, omisso nonnunquam 
matutino concionandi munere, furtivis libidinibus con- 
secrasse haud semel dicaris. Ne repetam quid etiam 
temporis famosis libellis Ecclesiastes consecraveris. 
Per tuumne latus ? at nihil omnino est quod graviore 
cum vulnere Ecclesiam petat, quam tuum ipsum impu- 
rissimum, Ecclesiae tarn male contiguum latus. Hoc 
si vis intelligi per tuum latus, id est, per tuam turpitu- 
dinem, propter tua scelera Ecclesiam opprobriis impio- 
rum peti, macula aspergi, infamiam contrahere, hoc 
quidem verum esse non diffiteor. Itaque universus 
ordo tuus, et ministri praesertim Gallici, qui te optime 
norunt, ne tuo illo pestifero latere diutius periclitentur, 
teipsum quantum possunt, tuiquecontagionem amovere 
ab se atque depellere conantur : causam ullam aut ra- 
tionem tuam communicatam sibi nolunt ; ne scelerum 
tuorum atque dedecorum participes fiant : ejectum te 
ex suo ordine, et exturbatum, ut meritus es, cupiunt ; 
et illam, quam ais " fibulam" ori tuo impudicissimo 
affigere conantur. Macte estote integritate vestra at- 
que constantia, viri Ecclesia digni ; prospicite, ut insti- 
tuistis, Ecclesiae puritati, existimationi, discipline ex- 
emplo : amovete a lateribus vestris immundum illud et 
verrinum latus, cujus non solum ictu Ecclesia lseditur, 
sed afFrictu etiam polluitur. Nolite hanc indignissimam 



contumeham pati, ut is, cum flagitiorum suorum nomine 
mentis conviciis atque infamia petitur, non se peti, sed 
quasi is, quia ccenum hominis est, idcirco murus et 
munimentum Ecclesiae esset,per suum latus Ecclesiam 
peti dicat. Abigite procul ab Ecclesiae septis concion- 
antem lupum; vocem illam bircinam tot stupris et 
adulteriis impuratam, populo verba dantem, imo ven- 
dentem, idque e superiore, quod jactat, loco, ne siveritis 
in sacro coetu amplius audiri. Profecto si Ethnicorum 
legibus, verbi gratia Solonis cautum est, nequis rhetor 
turpitudine vitae notatus, civilem concionem habendi 
ad populum, ne Atticorum quidem si disertissimus fu- 
isset, jus haberet, additaque proeclara ratio est, plus 
exemplo nocere turpcm, quam oratione quamvis castis- 
sima atque sanctissima prodesse, quo etiam nomine 
Timarchus, vir inter primos illius reipub. accusante 
iEschine, damnatus est, quanto est indignius scorta- 
torem atque adulterum tanquam Dei nuntium et minis- 
trum, ad Christianum populum sacras habendi con- 
ciones jus in Ecclesia perniciosissimum obtinere. 
Nolite committere, ut magistratus Ethnicus, Deique 
expers, religiosior atque sanctior in foro fuisse, quam 
Christi sacra synod us in Ecclesia esse videatur. Nolite 
vereri, quern iste scrupulum callidus injecit, si eum 
quern approbastis, cui sanctas manus imposuistis, cui 
gregem Dei commisistis, perspectum nunc adulterinum 
et spurium ejeceritis, nequis vestrum judicium aut pru- 
dentiam desideret; neque enim Paulus hac in parte, 
ut nostis, vidit omnia: illud veremini, si pastoris in 
munere talem retinueritis, ne omnes non judicium modo 
et prudentiam, sed religionem quoque et pietatem et 
gregis denique curam in vobis requirant. Haec ad 
pastores de te, More ; nunc ad greg'em pro me pauca 
dicam. " Patriae," inquis, " mese greges quipascuntur 
inter lilia, nescio quam in invidiam vocas." Utinam 
ne ista lilia, spinas esse aliquandosentiant; veriimnon 
ego tuae patriae greges in invidiam, sed tuus Clamor 
Regius ad societatem sui furoris vocare cupiebat. Quern 
enim non irritassent istiusmodi opprobria ? " maxime 
omnium Galli nostri reformati, non modo horrendo 
facto perculsi, sed ejusdem injusta infamia pressi, plu- 
rimum allaboraverunt, ut parricidium et parricidas 
cognoscerent." Hoec et multa alia acerba quidem et 
plane hostilia Clamor iste Gallorum sub nomine refor- 
matorum, in nos clamitavit: ad quae omni respondi 
solum, Gallis etiam reformatis impositam eandem olim 
necessitatem fuisse, ut suum quoque Regem hostis nu- 
mero haberent. Verum ego incogitantior (quid enim 
de me non fatear potius, aut non indictum velim, quod 
Ecclesias Galliae reformatas, quas esse scio nobis om- 
nibus charissimas, in invidiam vocare possit) incogi- 
tantior, inquam, fui, qui isti insanissimo Clamori vocem 
ullam Ecclesiarum aut fratrum interjectam esse credi- 
dissem. Scimus eos quo sub regno vivant, quibus in 
periculis, quibus in angustiis Evangelii causa versen- 
tur; et tamen amplum hoc sibi esse, si tueri sua que- 
ant. Nos ut vel minimam nostra causa invidiam apud 
suos reges aut ofFensionem susciperent, nunquam peti- 
vimus ; ut de nostris factis aut consiliis suum sensum 
declararent, tametsi fratrum judicia plurimi semper 
fecimus, tamen ne hoc iis periculum crearet, nunquam 



748 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 






postulavimusj preces eorum, non sententias aut suffra- 
gia prodesse nobis censuimus, suam autem erga reges 
fidem ex suo in nos odio verborumque acerbitate per- 
spici aut probari non arbitramur. Multa deinde prae- 
teris, " rjuae nimis meum in religione animum pro- 
dunt;" et sapis : fac et illud quoque praetereas, quod 
" te bominem sacris addictum " Cotyttiis, credo, aut 
Isiacis, non Evangelicis (nisi addictum ita ut devotum 
intelligis) " adversarium," quod ego mihi honestissi- 
mum duco, nactus sum. At enim illi " qui diversum 
a nobis in religione sentiunt,"sic enim tibi prospiciens, 
Ecclesiae prospicere videri velles, " ex ista fabula Ec- 
clesiis nostris insultandi ansam arripiunt, quasi pati- 
antur, ipsae qualia vulgo turpia dictu sacrificulis ob- 
jiciuntur suis :" et merito quidem, si patiantur, verum 
spes est, non esse passuras : salus certe unica rerum 
est, si pati noluerint. Si enim patiantur, quae tu in 
me tela levissime conjecisti, ea in te ego acutissima re- 
torqueo. " Satanee triumphus paratur, scandalum in- 
firmioribus creatur, inimicis gaudium, sociis dolor, 
fidei damnum." Haec vera sunt non me accusante, 
sed te impunito. Talem esse quenquam in reformata 
videlicet Ecclesia ministrum adversarii gaudent : accu- 
sat aliquis? multum, mihi crede, de isto gaudio pro- 
tinus remittunt: damnatur isincorruptis et integerrimis' 
Ecclesiarum suffragiis ? Nihil asque dolent: nam qui 
presbyterum reformatum flagitiorum incusat, accusat 
idem sacerdotes omnes et sacrificulos eorundem facino- 
rum sibi conscios : qui ilium absolvit, hos multo faciliiis 
absolvat necesse est. Frustra nos quidem opinionum 
quarundam et dogmatum, frustra etiam fidei reforma- 
tionem gloriamur, nisi morum sancta censura pariter 
quoque vigeat. Non doctrinam tan turn reformatam, 
sed doctores reformatos esse convenit, si ereptam " sa- 
crificulis," ereptam " Satanoe insultandi ansam" cupi- 
mus. " Magnum," ais, " honorem habere me ordi- 
nibus Foederati Belgii, quos indigere putem notore 
me:" monitore opinor volebas dicere. Immo vero tu 
illLs quern honorem habuisti? quorum existimatio gra- 
vissima tam apud te parum potuit, ut eorum de te 
opinionem fallere turpissime malueris, quam flagitiosam 
vitae tuo3 licentiam refraenare ; quique ejusmodi homo 
cum sis, arrogare tibi tantum potes, ut existimes tot 
viros graves atque prudentes te "notore," etiam "e 
superiore loco" indigere; tuo "admonitu" posse un- 
quam sapere ; ut idcirco os tuum e suggesto importu- 
nissimum tantae gravissimorum hominum frequentiae, 
et praesertim sacrae concioni offerendum sit. Qui 
denique apud quos tanto te in pretio esse dicis, iis 
nihil aliud nisi aut minimum judicium, aut maximam 
doctorum penuriam rclinquis. Minimum profecto ipsi 
sibi honorem habent, qui abs te doctore et Ecclesiaste 
meliores discedere se posse crediderint. Verum tu 
nihilominus buccam inflas : "Quid nunc, inquis, me- 
morem tot illustres ac principes viros, tot proceres, tot 
Ecclesias, tot academias, quae me fovent et ornant, vel 
optant et exambiunt." Et ego, quid, inquam, nunc 
memorem tot agyrtas, tot empiricos, tot seplasiarios, 
tot circnlatores, quos Romae aut Vcnetiis iisdem pene 
verbis suas pyxides et pharmaca vendentes, praeteriens 
audivi. Atqui " dum haec scribo," inquis, "litems 



accipio quibus ad Ecclesiastae ordinarii munus et sacrae 
theologiae professionem invitor in urbe nobilissima." 
Nam hoc certe habes, in quo omnes doctores circum- 
foraneos ventalitios ambitione superas. Primum per 
amicos tui similes occultam das operam, ut quot potes 
ex locis inviteris : posteaquam id difficile repertum est, 
ex quo jam passim notus es, hoc solum (quae tuaanimi 
egestas atque mendicitas vera est) misere contendis, et 
nonnunquam perficis ut omnino inviteris, quamvis ea 
diserta lege et pactu interposito, ut omnino ne venias. 
Hoc modo invitatum te nuper in Galliam, et ni fallor, 
Montalbanum, invitatum et Franekeram, vel Groning- 
ham intelligo : Harum utram in urbem sane nescio, in 
alterutram sat scio : de loco enim fateor nondum satis 
liquere, de re satis. Hanc demum rationem excogitare 
coacti sunt homines importunitate tua fatigati et victi, 
qua et abs te simul tanquam a peste sibi caverent, et 
tuae miserae gloriolae multo cum risu vela panderent; 
teque erratioum sophistam et planum tuismet ventis 
ludibrium commendarent. Sed ne cui forte vanior 
quam mendacior esse videaris, in illud nunc incidimus 
usitatissimum tibi et impudentissimum artificium quod- 
dam tuum maledicendi simul et maledicentiam vitupe- 
randi. Quoties enim strenue conviciando vel ad ino- 
piam vel ad ravim, quasi ad incitas redactus es exhausto 
penu, dum novum virus colligis, subito bonus et bellus 
abhorrere te fingis a conviciis omnibus: nolle te scili- 
cet " luto ludere," nolle " sordes mihi regerendo manus 
tuas coinquinare; non placere tibi de cane latrante 
victoriam; " malle te " omittere latrantem caniculam." 
Quid haec quaeso nisi convicia sunt? quae dum depo- 
nere te dicis, totis viribus intorques; ita caudam atte- 
rere et simul riugere idem tibi est: idque ipsum agis, 
dum agere te negas ; usque eo totus ex mendacio con- 
flatus, ut ne verax quidem utrovis modo sine mendacio 
esse possis: si enim negas te nunc maledicere, quod tu 
negas, verba ipsa, te invito, fatentur ; si fateris, tua 
eadem verba id ipsum, quocl fateris, negant. Quid est, 
si haec non est "maledicendi ars" ilia, quam tu 
" Daemonum Rhetoricam" infamis libelli editor " vo- 
care te" ais " solere ?" Sic tu nimirum homo sanctus et 
veriloquus, " Christum didicisti et doces:" id est, dum 
latrare te negas, mordes. Tibimet tam aperte mendax, 
in me ut sis religiosior, non expecto : tentas, ut video, 
omnia, captas omnia; siquem forte rumusculum, aut 
susurrum aquilones cum fugitivis famigerantibus ad 
vos perferunt, aures arrigis : Hinc illud, " non is es," 
inquis, " de quomentiri fama vereatur;" minus quidem 
tu hie subdolus es, quam soles. Famam etiam men- 
dacem mihi minitaris ; dici nempe "me aliorum in- 
genia ex moribus meis sestimare, nulli non vitio quod 
insequor obnoxium." Ergo ego scortator, ut fama men- 
titur, ergo adulter; haec enim in te crimina insector. 
Fac sane periculum famae ; age, insimula, die, si- 
quid habes, audacter et clare ; tempus, locum, no- 
mina simul ede ; quod ego in te facio. Die cum qua 
Claudia Pelletta, die cum qua Pontia, die siquo in horto, 
siqua in domo, noctu an interdiu, siquod in judicium 
adductus unquam sim, siquod unquam recusaverim : 
haec tibi omnia dicenda sunt, haec ego in te omnia de- 
monstravi. Invenies profecto me ad injurias meas 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



749 



tuaque crimina persequenda attulisse hanc dicendi li- 
bertatem, et anteactae vitae meae certissimum indicium 
atque fructum, et agendas posthac firmissirnum propo- 
situm. Nunquam me libertatis hujus poenitere audies, 
ut Lucium Crassum poenituisse olim ferunt, quod Caium 
Carbonem unquam in judicium vocavisset; cum hac 
sua severitate prascisam sibi aut circumscriptum in 
posterum liberius vivendi veniam apud omnes arbitrare- 
tur. Is Caium Carbonem civem improbum in judicium 
senatus populique Rorn. vocavit : ego te, More, et meo 
et pop. Anglicani nomine, quern tu infami Clamore 
edito prior lacessisti, illo Carbone multo nigriorem, 
judicia patria detrectantem, sasculorum omnium judi- 
ciis trado. Quid tui interim famigeruli de me mussi- 
tent aut loquantur, unice securus. Tu senties earn 
esse vitae meae et apud me conscientiam, et apud bonos 
existimationem, earn esse et praeteritas fiduciam et reli- 
quse spem bonam, ut nihil impedire me aut absterrere 
possit, quo minus flagitia tua, si pergis lacessere, etiam 
liberius adhunc et diligentius persequar ; teque simul 
tuasque etiam famae quas meditaris corruptelas et per- 
spexero facile et risero. Tnterea, ne cui dubium sit, 
quin tu omnia pervestigando nihil prorsus in me ha- 
beas quod verum crimen sit, aut si haberes, quin ad 
cupidissime statim et malitiosissime diceres modisque 
omnibus amplificares, videamus quam non crimina quas 
sint, des crimini ; etiam recte facta quam odiose calum- 
nieris. Primum " cur Clamori autoris anonymi respon- 
derim" quaeris, " et non tot aliis qui nomen ediderunt 
suum." Quis adversario tarn aliena et inepta interro- 
ganti rationem redderet ? ego tamen ut quam asquani- 
miter tecum agam, videas, reddam. Cur Clamoris 
authori responderim, rogas? quia jussus, inquam, pub- 
lice ab iis quorum authoritas apud me gravis esse de- 
buit : vix alioqui manum admoturus. Deinde quia 
nominatim laesus : nam et tu hie, quamvis id minime 
velis ut existimationis aliquam meae quoque rationem 
ducam, veniam vel invitus dabis, quam omnes boni 
dant, scio, libentissime. At cur " non aliis," inquis, 
respondisti ? " Clamant et illi, nee minus fortiter : " 
rursus respondeo, ut prius, quia ad rationes publicas 
non vocatus non accedo. Deinde, quia non laesus; nam 
et hoc, quamvis tu id maxime velles ut impune tibi 
quenquam laedere liceret, non est leve. Deinde quia 
ex vestro ipsorum judicio tantum Salmasio tribuinms 
(quern defensorem Regium, quasi solus is esset et in- 
star omnium, nominare soletis) ut post ilium posse 
quenquam alium dicere quod momenti esset non exis- 
timaremus. Visplura? quia liberum erat; quia non 
vacabat; quia denique homo sum, humana mihi latera 
sunt, non ferrea, tu licet Alexander aerarius sis. AHud 
quiddam opus est, ut mihi videtur, quo tot importunis 
Clamatoribus ora melius ob'turentur. Quam multa tuus 
ille Stentor anonymus clamitabat, quae a Salmasio cla- 
mata prius et conclamata erant ? quibus ego toties 
repetitis, quamvis cunrmiseria ac taedio saspius respon- 
dissem, tamen quia cum isto vociferatore verboso cer- 
tare ubique non libuit, " languet" tibi scilicet " oratio 
mea, quoties pro populo dico : " tibi, inquam, cui " Gal- 
lica nive frigidius est" non esse tautologum. De me 
si accuratiiis dixi, non eo id feci, quo ego minus po- 



pulo quam mihi studerem, sed propterea quod tuus Cla- 
mor turn quidem novum aliquid suppeditabat, unde 
possem ab odiosa crambe vestra nonnunquam respirare. 
Quod itaque facete inquis " non immerito Defensio pro 
Populo secunda dicitur;" quoniam id faustum est, ex 
ore praesertim adversarii, omen accipio. Tu licet no- 
vum quotannis clamorem edideris, rumpas te prius 
licebit, quam Clamorem secundum edidisse dicaris. 
Alterum meum crimen est quod in laudes Reginae Sue- 
corum serenissimae per occasionem ab adversario ipso 
datam, digressus sum : et inter alia dixeram (satis mo- 
deste quidem ut opinor) nequid adtribuerem mihi quod 
Reginam contra Regiam, ut videbatur, causam, tam 
mihi faventem reperissem, nescire me plane qua mea 
sorte id evenisset : malebam ad sortem, ad sidera, ad, 
siquis est occultus vel animorum vel rerum, consen- 
sum aut moderamen, quam ad meum quicquid erat vel 
ingenii, vel acuminis, vel copiae referre videri. Hanc 
tu calumniandi simul et parasitandi materiam nactus, 
fremere exemplo, quasi indignum hoc esset; et " lu- 
tum" illud in visceribus tuis concretum, in ore mox 
tibi, ut frequentissime solet, fluitare. Age, despue ; 
quid est? "earn," inquis, " propterea tam importune" 
laudabas, ut cum ea te componeres lutum." Tune 
Morus es an Momus? an uterque idem est? utro te 
nomine appellem dubito : quis enim praeter Morum aut 
Momum tam sinistre ac perperam interpretatus haec 
esset? quod ullum dictum modestissimum haec tanta 
malitia non depravaret atque perverteret ? Turn illud 
simul depromis ex peculio tuo servile et parasiticum ; 
" nesciebat Christina se tibi esse tam familiarem." Te- 
ne scabellum hominis ex tuis loculis et immunditiis 
Christinas suggerere quid nesciat, aut quid dicat ? atqui 
sciebatse ilia pro suasingulari in literatosbenevolentia 
Salmasio familiarem ; cui me tamen arbitrio suo liber- 
rimaque sententia baud semel dicta est prastulisse. 
Sed " hoc unum," inquis, " Regina non meruit abs te 
laudari." Abs te ergo illaudatissime ? concedo libens ! 
quis enim obstare potest, si tibi modo libeat vel invitis- 
simi cujusvis laudes contaminare ? experire sane ; per- 
sequere modo istud, quod veluti specimen laudationum 
tuarum egregium hoc loco inseruisti ; " quam supra 
mortalitatis modum inusitata naturae vis, et stupendum 
ingenii lumen evexit." Perge, inquam, et macte isto 
ore : ab isto exorsu quantum vis in sublime evoles per 
me licet : isto enim tenore, si perrexeris, mirificum tu 
quidem fastigium ac prope nubiferum tam altis sub- 
structionibus impositurus videris. Mihi, fateor, non 
placet sic alte insurgere ; unde statim necesse erit, vel 
ridicule ruam, vel inter nubes frigescam. Attamen 
"iis," inquis, " dotibus insignis es, quae possunt etiam 
heroibus animum laxantibus placere." Esto; sunt et 
tua dotes et praesertim scripta, quae heroibus placere 
quiddam aliud laxantibus, possint. Et in primis ista 
tua quae sequitur sapientissima et ministello te digna ad 
typographos conciuncula ; quam idcirco praetereo : 
nam ad tertium jam crimen meum perveni; quod 
dixerim nimirum, uno cum famulo me peregre fuisse. 
Crimen grave; quo ego nomine baud uno in loco per- 
stringor : id scilicet nefas erat meminisse, ne versifica- 
tores vestri, qui ex egestate nescio qua emersisse me per 



750 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



hanc rerum apud nos conversionem versificabant, ceci- 
nisse falsa reperirentur. Jocum vero hie tuum, quando 
haec tam rara avis est, non possum praetermiltere. 
Non equidem vobis " typographis litem unquam inten- 
derim, non certe mag-is quam illi servo qui Miltonum 
euntem peregre comitabatur." O longe et misere pe- 
titum ! quid hac capitis cucurbita facias, ex qua, ut id 
maxime labores, nullam salis micam potis es extundere. 
Sed quietus homo et fugitans litium es ; itaque non 
meo sed ne tuo quidem servo intendis, qui domesticae 
tiirpitudinis tuae fugitivus, secretioraflagitia et nefarias 
libidines tuas divulgavit. Quartum est, siquidem id 
crimen dici meum debet, quod tuum est mendacium, 
"in eodem" scilicet " libro, quern scatere," ais, " dis- 
cinctorum nepotum festivitatibus, ausum me censuram 
agere, et graviter concionari de republ. deque civium 
officio." • Quis non germanum te nunc dicat epicureum ? 
cujus neque in moribus honestas, neque in scriptis 
urbanitas ulla reperiatur. Minim non est si hoc nomine 
facetiis omnibus infensior sis, cum quia negantur tibi, 
turn quia te pungunt : non mirum est, inquam, si tibi 
tam ulceroso sal omnis inimicus est. Id mirum, pro- 
fessor cum sis, cur mibi succenseas qui sic diligenter 
salarium tibi euro. At vero quos tu "jocos e lustro 
popinaque desumptos" falsd ais (nisi desumptos ex Jus- 
tris idcirco dicis, quod te illic latitantem extraxerint) 
eos si caeteri omnes non inhonestos aut illiberales, sed 
honestos atque urbanos, tuamque putredinem perfricanti 
sales concessos non negaverint, turn quidem tuaprofes- 
soris insulsi ignorantia, ut perseepe alias, hinc satis 
manifesta est, qui id parum convenire dicas, quod Mar- 
cus Tullius in oratore summum esse statuit, ubi de 
oratione L. Crassi in Cn. Domitium summa cum admi- 
ratione sic loquitur. Nee enim concio major unquam 
fuit, nee apud populum gravior oratio, quam hujus 
contra collegam in censura nuper, neque lepore et festi- 
vita'te conditior. Et paulo infra, id uni Crasso conti- 
gisse ait, ut non solum venustissimus et urbanissimus, 
sed et omnium gravissimus et severissimus et esset et 
videretur. Quin etiam Platoni et Socraticis nihil 
magis convenire aut decuisse visum est, quam rebus 
interdum severissimis intermistus atque inspersus lepos. 
Ha3C ego viris doctis et intelligentibus quin et supra et 
nunc denuo satis probaverim, non dubito. Te interim 
non reprehendo, qui " mollior," inquis "debuit esse 
transitus anaso ad supercilium :" nam digitorum Pon- 
tiae credo adhuc meministi, quam iste transitus abs 
tuo naso ad supercilia minime mollis fuerit. Foe- 
licem te quidem, si hoc turn mulierculae persuasis- 
ses : sed de oratorum transitionibus, More, judicium 
longe aliud faciendum est. "At leges scribo," hoc 
quintum crimen est, " quibus se teneat non populu^ 
modo, sed illi etiam qui me praeceptore nihil egent." 
Quid tu milii quo quis egcat, homo levissime et arro- 
gantissime? tene " superiore ex loco" egent Foederati 
Ordines concionatore, me ex inferiore, quod omnibus 
ex aequo civibus licet, nostri non tam egeant libero 
bortatore? non est, More, cur ego me natum in mea 
patria tam inutilem existimem, cum te in aliena tam 
arrogantom videam; non est, quam ob rem te mercede 
concionantem, quam me gratis monentem rectiora putem 



posse suadere. Hsec mea quinque sunt peccata mor- 
tifera; nam ilia septem, opinor, conficere nequisti. Ex 
quo intelligitur, inania quam fuerint quoe " condonasse" 
mihi te dicis, cum sint tam levia, quae crimineris. 
Nisi et illud forte criminosum mihi vis esse, quod Deum 
testem invocarim ; et certe parum abest ut istud quoque 
in criminibus meis numeres. "Hinc ilia," inquis, 
" nimium sane sollicita protestatio." Qusenam ista 
fuit, More ? audies vel invitus ; nee illam nunc recito, 
sed iisdem conceptis verbis (neque enim poenitet, et hie 
etiam peregrinationem meam calumniaris) rursus Deum 
testem invoco, me illis omnibus in locis, ubi tammulta 
licent, ab omni flagitio ac probro integrum atque in- 
tactum vixisse, illud perpetuo cogitantem, si hominum 
latere oculos possem, Dei certe non posse. Hoec tibi 
" nimium sollicita protestatio" est, More : cui non 
magis sollicitum est, Deum testem iuvocare, quam in- 
vocatum pejerare. Quam multi et quam multis de 
rebus te accusent, non iguoras : aude modo, siquid in 
te integri, siquid incorrupti est, iisdem quibus ego nunc 
prseivi tibi verbis, teipsum defendere. Die age in haec 
verba : Deum testem invoco me ab omnibus illis flagitiis 
quorum insimulor, integrum atque intactum semper 
vixisse ; me neque Claudiae, neque Pontiae, neque ullius 
omnino fceminee stupratorem esse aut adulterum. Non 
audebis, opinor, tametsi facile perjurus esse diceris, in 
haec verba praeeuntem me sequi. Verum si Dei non 
audes, hominum saltern fidem implora. Genevam, in- 
quam redi, permitte te illic magistratibus et populo ; 
die illis ut castum et innocentem hominem, falso insi- 
mulatum, deceat : Viri Genevenses, mul torn m apud vos 
et gravissimorum criminum accusor ; si ita vixi,si inter 
vos ita versatus sum, ut heec per idoneos testes et argu- 
menta probari vobis possint, en sisto me ; legitimum 
pati judicium, quod antea recusavi, nunc non recuse 
Hoc multo minus audebis, sat scio : malis tergiversari, 
ut supra dixi, malis aliunde perfugia et latebras et di- 
verticula veterani scortatoris in modum queerere. Ve- 
runtamen " honestam" fuisse illam " orationem" meam 
fateris; sed " praecedenti pariim consentientem." Cui- 
nam prsecedenti obsecro ? vellem recitasses : ego enim 
aliquot retro paginis pro certo habeo, ne minimum 
quidem obscoeni vestigium inveniri posse, quia tanto 
intervallo de te nulla fit mentio. Quod siquem alium 
locum intelligis, ubi in tua vitia salse animadversum 
est, velim te scire, quicquid tu ex " Platone" detorsisti, 
neque alienum esse neque inverecundum eodem in 
libro cum acrimonia et sale (" profligati" enim " pu- 
doris" verba nusquam illic reperies) etturpia insectari, 
et de " Deo cogitare." Sane si oratoris pneceptum hoc 
verum atque honestum est, in eodem vultu convenire et 
pudorem et acrimoniam, quidni itidem in eodem ore 
conveniant ? Nullius enim pudentis pudorem minuit 
vehemens et falsa turpitudinis exprobratio vel etiam 
irrisio, sed pudorem, in quo prius non erat, impudenti 
reo nulla res efficacius incutere videtur. Tu vide, ut 
cum pudore et " cogitatione Dei" tua stare perpetua 
possint mendacia, Ecclcsiastes adulterine; qui scrip- 
sisse me ais " Rom;e martyrii fuisse candidatum ; 
slructas ab Jesuitis vitoe mese insidias." Ad quod 
utrumque mendacium diluendum opus est nihil aliud. 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



751 



nisi ut quis locum ipsum libri inspiciat : et cur ea de 
re aliquid omnino scripserim, conjee tura perse assequi 
nemo facile non poterit, cui id modo credibile non sit 
eum " ob flagitia in Ttaliam profugisse," qui religionis 
ibidem confitendas periculum toties adierit. Nugaris 
deinde multa, et " machasras etlegiones" garris Pontiae 
mastigia. Verum base satis risimus : nunc luculentam 
et insignem calumniam quasso attendite ; ut cognos- 
catis qua fide vel in sacris etiam Uteris, quas cum sum- 
ma ecclesias ignominia profitetur, versari soleat ; quam 
nulla isti falsario Ecclesiastas religio sit verbum ipsum 
Dei sacrosanctum corrumpere, si id commodum sibi 
fore crediderit. Ego ut refellerem eos, qui gramma- 
tistae aut critico magni titulum et cognomen largiri 
ineptissime solent, sic scripseram : Is solus magnus est 
appellandus, qui res magnas aut gerit aut docet, 
aut digne scribit. Quis hac verissima sententia 
ofFendatur, nisi grammatista? Quid hie noster pro- 
fessor? id est, inquit, qui res magnas docet, " ut 
Miltonus de Divortiis," aut digne scribit " ut Mil- 
tonus idem pro Populo, bis magnus." Lepidum sane 
interpretamentum, More ! et ejusdem plane artificii, 
quo Evangelii etiam locum ilium de divortiis non 
verbo, sed factis interpretatus es. Licet ob scorta- 
tionem dimittere vel uxorem vel sponsam : Morus cum 
desponsata sibi Pontia scortatus est, ergo, licet Moro 
sponsam ob scortationem dimittere. Vos " O tot Prin- 
cipes, tot Proceres, tot Ecclesias, tot Academias, quae 
hunc hominem fovetis et ornatis, vel optatis et exam- 
bitis," evocate nunc certatim hunc vobis, qua sacrarum, 
qua profanarum literarum interpretem tam fidum et 
religiosum ; ut sacras profanare literas apud vos qua 
actis, qua commends suis possit. Vel si id minime 
vultis, nam doctorem hunccommentitiumlongelateque 
olfecisse jamdiu videmini, date saltern et concedite hoc 
palpum tumori hominis et gloriolss : evocate quaeso per 
literas quam honorificas ludionem hunc cathedrarium ; 
sed cum hac cautione, si salvi esse vultis, clam inter- 
posita, cum hoc urbanissimo interdicto, ut nullo modo 
accedat. Miros profecto reddet ludos inter tot cathe- 
dras, dum professiones et praelectiones et murmura et 
plausus et Pontias novas sibi somniat. Sed dimitto 
nunc hominem, quia me prope dimittet. Alio se ver- 
tit ; imo vero " quo se vertat," non habet. Simulat 
velle nunc de vita et moribus suis causam pro se dicere. 
Exordiri jam putares hominem, et velle aliquid prasfari; 
cum in ipso statim praefationis vestibulo, elusa omnium 
expectatione perorat. Tam tenue se esse argumentum, 
tarn turpe etiam dum reperit, vel ipsa rerum inopia 
subito exarescit, vel ipsa foeditate perculsus et quasi 
sideratus obmutescit: Vultus, vox, latera deficere vi- 
dentur ; animus tamen veteratorius, et ut dixi antea, 
indurati utroque jamdiu foro veteris et crebri sontis 
artes non deficiunt. " Quo me vertam ?" quo te ver- 
tas, miselle ? quis unquam nocens reus demissa barba 
sordidatus et squalens tam miserabili procemio depre- 
catus unquam judices est? quo te, si innocens, si in- 
sons, si tutus undique tibi esses, quo te, inquam, nisi 
ad te verteres ? tecum loquerere, te consuleres, extra te 
ne quaereres ? Sed heu miserum te ! discordia tibi 
tecum gravissima jamdiu est. Nihil tibi invisum 



magis, quam tecum habitare, apud te esse ; neminem 
libentius, quam te ipsum fugis. Frustra: tecum enim 
fugis miser, te sequeris : Quod agitat intus est, intus 
et flagellum et tortor argus ille tuus, qui te semper non 
" Junoniis," quod quereris, " artibus," sed piaculorum 
tuorum oestro agitatum, cinctus mille oculis ac testibus 
persequitur. Quid nunc agas ? nam asstuantem te 
misere et pendentem video. An " tuas ipse laudes 
vesanus decantares ?" vesanus profecto sis, si id sus- 
cipias; vesanus, si id unquam cogitabas. " Vitamne 
conscribas et facinora omnia tua ?" pervellem equidem ; 
sed vereor ne non " Morus," sed " Florus" nimium in 
tuis floralibus, id est, multo brevior quam par esset, 
futurus sis. Vereor ne invideas nobis tot lepidas fabel- 
las, qui unam solum " retexere," hortensem nimirum 
illam, tantopere gravatus sis. Sane qui illas lites Ju- 
nonias omnes, qui ilia jurgia Salmasii praetermiseris, 
qui praslium illud nobile Pontianum mini tantis rebus 
parum idoneo reliqueris, qui denique totam illam Pon- 
tias Sestiada sicco pede prasterieris, prasteribis opinor 
silentio Tibaltianam quoque illam, et illius nuper do- 
mus calamitatem, ubi tu procax in ancillam, proditor 
in herum extitisti : nam ancillis, ut videtur, quocunque 
vadis, nullum abs te refugium est. Tacebitur et vidua 
ilia quam tu, solatii turn plenus, nunc inops, cum de 
marito recens mortuo velle consolari prse te ferebas, ejus 
pudicitiam tentasse diceris : Nee dices credo qua domo 
egredientem te cum scorto intempesta nocte Amstero- 
dami ilia mulier vidit; quae delinita primum pollicita- 
tionibus tuis, mox decepta, novissime nomen tuum ad 
presbyteros detulit; qui tuum nomen recipere, quod ob 
priora facinora ejiciendum ex suo ordine et circumscri- 
bendum statuebant, ne aucto scelere, cum augeri posna 
tua non posset, augeretur ordinis infamia, recusarunt. 
Quid ergo ? " an quae fecisses uno cum servo itinera " 
nocturna ilia nempe Hage Leidam " posteris nar- 
rares ?" ne hoc quidem sat scio, voles : verum ilia ser- 
vus ipse passim copiose narrat, et permulta alia prae- 
clare abs te gesta : castera jam tritissima plurimisque 
per ea loca testibus confirmata. Age vero; post dubi- 
tationem sane miseram quas te perplexum tamdiu atque 
suspensum tenuit, post tui fugam, quo tandem fugis ? 
quo ad extremum te recipis ? " fidei," inquis, " publican 
monumenta consulamus." Acta tua credo jam publica, 
quas in bibliotheca Genevensium enumerata centum 
prope articulis, tuorum scelerum monumenta posteritati 
servantur. " A Geneva exorsus," inquis, " fabellam 
nescio quam poetarum authoritate subnixam instituis." 
Ferax tu quidem sasculum poetarum dicis, qui tot una 
in urbe, tibique omnes infestos quasraris ; nigrum te 
aliquem oportet esse, ipsoque moro nigriorem, quern 
tot poetas oderint ; festivum quoque hominem, qui 
quorum authoritas testium te jugulavit, eorum nunc 
poeticam iniquiorem in te causeris. Veriim ista te fes- 
tivitas nihil in hoc tempore adjuvabit. Permulti sunt 
in ilia civitate viri honestissimi, nonnulli presbyteri, 
doctores, ministri, nescio an poetas, qui fabellam tibi 
hanc in foro agere cupiunt ; qui non sua carmina re- 
citare, sed tua crimina pro testimonio dicere parati jam- 
pridem sunt. Nemo sic unquam poetam recitantem, ut 
tu hos omnes contra te testantes et fugisti et fugies. 



752 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



Adeone vero singuTari impudentia occaluisti, ut insti- 
tutam in te legitime accusationem testatissimam, cujus 
vim atque authoritatem cum sustinere non posses, dis- 
cedendi, et veluti in exilium abeundi licentiam exo- 
rasti, hanc tu quasi " fabellam nescio quam" eludere 
et uno verbo leviculo sic amoliri abs te posse, existimes ? 
At " permulti sunt," inquis, " in hoc Belgio, qui me 
Genevse familiariter usi optime omnium norunt quam 
non ibi nullo in pretio fuerim." Audi igitur quae sint 
honestissimorum hominum de te judicia primo Genevae, 
deinde in Belgio. Duorum verba ipsa ex Uteris de- 
sumpta, in medium proferam. 

Literae Genevae dates pridie Id. Octob. 1654. 

Mirari certe nostrates satis non possunt, ita te interiora 
ignoti alias hominis nosse, tam nativis coloribus depinx- 
isse, ut ne ab illis quidem, quibus familiarissim& usus 
est, tota hominis histrionia vel certius vel feliciiis po- 
tuisset adumbrari : unde haerent merito et ego cum 
illis, qua fronte avaiaxwroq licet homo et oris improbi, 
in publicum rursus theatrum prodire sit ausurus. Illud 
enim summum foelicitatis tuae hac in parte compendium, 
quod non vel ficta vel ignota alias hominis scelera at- 
tuleris, sed quae omnium et amicissimorum etiam ore 
decantata, integri coetus authoritate et assensu, immo 
plurium adhuc scelerum accessione luculenter possint 
corroborari. 

Et infra. Credas velim vix ullum hie reperiri am- 
plius, ubi multos annos publico munere, sed cum summo 
hujus Ecclesiae dedecore functus est, qui prostituti 
pudoris homini patrocinium suum vel audeat vel sus- 
tiueat amplius commodare. 

Hasc sunt eorum voces, qui penitissime te norunt: 
quam turpem tui memoriam Genevae reliqueris, hae lite- 
rae, aliaeque bene multae si proferrentur, docerent. Nunc 
in Belgio aliisque locis qua fama sis, " quo in pretio," 
cognosce. Viri probatissimi tibique noti non literas so- 
lum, sed quoniam abs te priiis nominatus, idque in tua 
causa, atque laudatus est, nomen quoque edam. Is est 
vir gravissimus Joannes Duraeus ; qui dum Ottoni sola 
fide nixus interponit se, mecumque agit, ut innocentem 
te scilicet missum facerem, non potest non fateri simul 
quam longe alia de te caeterorum pene omnium ex- 
istimatio, aliusque sermo sit. 

Ex literis Duraei Basilia, Octob. 3. 1654. 

Quod ad Mori vitia improbitatemque attinet, non 
videtur Ottonus ita de eo sentire : scio tamen alios pes- 
sime de eo loqui, manus ejus in omnes pene, manus 
omnium in eum esse, plerosque etiam Gallicae synodi 
ministros dare operam ut ei pastoris munus abrogetur. 
Neque hie aliam Basileae reperio de eo hominum opi- 
nionem, quam quae in Belgio est eorum qui eum mi- 
nime amant. 

O pulchrum elogium ! quo tu omnium pene morta- 
lium judicio Ismaeli hosti Ecclesiae, quam ministro 
pacis ct evangelii similior judicaris. Hunc tuae ubique 
gentium existimationis testem integerrimum, si potes, 
rejice. Mihi credulitatem desine objectare : "Nemo 
omnes, neminem omnes fefellerunt," tua tibi verba re- 
gero. Haec cum ita sint, perficiam baud multo nego- 



tio, ut intelligas, quam exiguum tibi in aliis praesi- 
dium sit, cum tam exiguum tibi in teipso fuerit. Quod 
enim potest aliena fides testimonium de te aliis per- 
hibere, cum tua fides perhibere nullum quod juvet 
aut cui confidas, de temetipso possit tibi P Et videte 
quaeso quam dissoluto animo, quam abjecto desertor 
sui et perfuga ad patrocinium alienae fidei ab se trans- 
fugiat. " Neque vero," inquit, " tempus teram in eo- 
rum sollicitarefutatione, quaecunque tu garris." Laudo 
te laeti animi atque jucundi, nihil tu magis sollicite, 
quam sollicitudinem ipsam vitas. Mea modo " nimis 
sollicita" tibi fuit ad Deum " protestatio :" nunc tuam 
non minus " sollicitam" putas tuorum criminum " refu- 
tationem." Atque ego si duntaxat " garrio," haud 
multam sane sollicitudinem tua refutatio desiderabit. 
Ignavissimus profecto sis, aut male conscius necesse est, 
cui tam facilis tuimetipsius defensio, tam gravis et 
" sollicita" videatur : ineptus plane et ridendus, qui 
nullum tempus inutilius terere te putes, quam in eo 
ipso quod ad rem, siquid vides, et ad causam maxime 
pertineat. Nam " quid proficiam," inquis, " si fabulam 
hancpenitus retexuero ? statim aliam ordieris." Sane 
quidem difficile id esset nemini ; neque de nihilo te urit 
ista suspicio. Tanta enim tu solus fabularum sylva es, 
ut ex tuis unius rebus gestis atque nequitiis suppeditare 
centum triviis atque circulis unde multos in dies rideant 
satis fabularum unuspossis. Atque adeo hujus fabulae 
actum jam quartum peregimus : exit Morus; aliam 
credo vult personam induere. " Ut semel," inquit, 
" defungamur, quod fuerit Ecclesiae Genevensis, quod 
civitatis illius de me judicium haedocebunt literae testi- 
moniales, alia occasione datae." Ita est ; ad elogia nunc 
transit sua ; actus quintus incipit ; nova plane persona, 
sed eodem tamen subtus latente Moro, prodit cornicula, 
sed et ea quoque personata : miris nescio quot repente 
plumis adscititiis atque coloribus ita indutus, ut phoeni- 
copterus nescio quis potius, et exornati quiddam monstri 
simile videatur. Aves Aristophanicas expoliasse homi- 
nem diceres ; sed mala ave, ni fallor; cum se non jam 
fabulam agere, sed apologum iEsopicum in se verum 
demonstrare nudatus intelliget. Cum enim hasce plu- 
mas nee tuas esse, More, et partim obsoletas, quaeque 
sua sponte mox defluant, partim falsis coloribus fucatas, 
partim dolo, malisque artibus surreptas docuero, dubium 
non est, quin delusus abs te olim grex avium, nunc 
factus certior qui sis, de repetundis plumis jure tecum 
sit acturus; et ablato quisque suo, obscoenam sub phoe- 
nice upupam non deplumem te modo, sed depygem 
demum relinquat: Primae omnium " literae Genevensi- 
um testimoniales" cristam tibi erigunt : quas illi multo 
mallent, sat scio, aut nunquam tibi datas, qualis postea 
evasisti, aut abs te nunquam prolatas. Semper ego 
quidem de Genevensi civitate, pro eo ac debeo, honesta 
omnia et sentire soleo et loqui : religionis cultum 
purioris, primumque studium, in republica deinde 
prudentiam, aequalitatem, moderationem, constantiam 
prope admiror; qua se tam arctis finibus, inter vicinos 
hinc inde potentissimos et imminentes, summa in pace 
ac libertate per tot jam annos conservat et tuetur: rec- 
tiusque in re vix mediocri et melius id agit quod civilis 
vitce omnisprincipium atque finis est, idque populo suo 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



753 



foelicius prsestat, quam summis opibus instructi, summis 
opinione hominum adjuti consiliis reges maximi servi- 
entibus praestant suis. De Genevensibus igitur, quod 
eorum laudem, et existimationem possit imminuere, 
non est ut quicquam velim aut queam dicere, etiamsi* 
de bis Uteris testimonialibus ea dicerem, quseet ab aliis 
dicta olim ipsi fatentur, et ad me recentius allata sunt. 
Sed necesse non est ; non dicam igitur qua occasione 
sint datae ; propterea quod ipse non hac, sed " alia oc- 
casione" datas esse ait. Non quasram, utrum summa 
Ecclesise senatusque voluntas honorarium hoc Moro 
testimonium sua sponte concesserit, an impudentissima 
hominis postulatio, cum accusatus gravissimorum cri- 
minum nequisset se defendere, ab iis duntaxat abstulerit 
qui Ecclesise pastorumque communi existimationi per- 
peram metuentes, amandare ab se hominem quoquo 
modo malebant, quam haec publico judicio severius 
perquiri, nee sine offensa fortassis infirmiorum palam 
agitari. Non dicam, id quod multitamen dicuntmihi- 
que confirmant, nee conventu frequenti, nee solito 
conveniendi die datas hasce literas : ne id quidem di- 
cam scribenti adstitisse Morum ; unde illud fortasse 
" tralatitium," et " exambire" ex elegantiis Mori selec- 
tioribus tarn in promptu erant ; et " rupta concionante 
Moro subsellia, gemmseque illae clarissimse ;" quae 
omnia usque eo vel cupiditatem scribentis vel judicium 
non grave significant, ut non solum nimio laudandi 
studio laudes ipsas corrupisse, quod vitium ab eo qui to- 
tius nomine Ecclesiae scripsit, quam maxime abesse debu- 
it, sed indignissimum ornare dum studet, non tam vivum 
decorare, quam mortuum et putentem illis odoribus dif- 
fertum funerasse videatur. Non dicam denique ilia no- 
mina in conventu subscripta non esse, circum vicos 
cursasse Morum, et pastores domi sing-ulos adortum, 
quo sibi faciliiis hasce subscriptiones expugnaret ; 
propterea quod erant in conventu qui reclamare, qui 
intercedere, qui obsistere non desinebant, qui sese non 
audiri graviter conquesti sunt. Nihil horum dicam ; 
quod nonnulli tamen dicunt, etiam qui illo tempore 
Genevae rebus illis omnibus interfuere ; multi aliis in 
locis " Deum hominumque fidem implorantes atque 
jurati" nulla se " simultate, sed officii" religione com- 
motos, haec dicere : adeoque illis literis fidem se ad- 
jungere non posse; quorum inter primos virum sanc- 
tissimum Fredericum Spanhemium, theologiae profes- 
sorem et pastorem reverendum fuisse intelligo : Hoc 
solum dico, hasce literas, quod idem de literis reveren- 
dissimi viri Joannis Deodati est dicendum, ante sex- 
en nium datas, multis postea maleficiis ab ipso Moro 
obliteratas jampridem esse et antiquatas. Nondum 
increbuerat Claudia, nondum hortus, et ilia, ad Clau- 
diam nescio an cum Claudia, Mori suavissima cohor- 
tatio : 

— Poma alba ferebat, 

Qui post nigra tulit Morus : — 

Id quod viris proculdubio integerrimis et honestissimis, 
harum literarum subscriptoribus, quin imposuerit non 
dubito. At postquam ilia cum muliere, primo ancilla, 
deinde nupta, occultari diutiiis consuetudo istius nefaria 
non potuit, factus iterum reus, cum honestam rationem 



defendendi sui nullam inveniret, et manifestis in rebus 
teneretur, fractus jam animo, atque id maxime veritus, 
si judicium fieret, nequid in se gravius consuleretur, 
quo ipso die pronuncianda de se sententia presbytero- 
rum, deinde magistratuum erat, judicium declinat, 
licentiam abeundi petit, llli necessitatem hanc rati 
se hoc modo effugisse, quam impositam sibi minime 
volebant, ut Ecclesiae ministrum tantorum scelerum 
damnare, et in homine Ecclesiastico tam triste exem- 
plum statuere cogerentur, libenter assensere. Petit 
insuper literas impudentissimus homo commendatitias. 
Id vero postulare ab judicibus suis reum indigne fe- 
rentes, prorsus recusant : ita bonus ille tabellarius per- 
manere sine literis ilia in urbe, omni munere exutus, 
circiter decern menses coactus est : Etesiis credo sacri- 
ficans, ut aliquam saltern auram commendatitiam im- 
petrare aliquo posset : Donee multi gravissimi viri ne 
moram quidem ejus ilia in urbe ferendam rati, rursus 
rem adducere in judicium coeperunt. Id autem cum 
ad novas lites, et, ut supra dixi, offensionem infirmorum 
spectare videretur, consultius tandem visum est, quoquo 
modo hominem ablegare : rursus itaque dant literas ; 
" non frigidulas," quod antea dixisse me queritur, sed, 
quod nunc dico, frigidissimas ; non ut commendare 
cuiquam mortalium,sed amandare abse hominem plane 
viderentur. Hoc si ita non est, More, postulo mihi re- 
spondeas, cur superiores illas Genevensium literas, baud 
uuo nomine jam obsoletas, quaeque recentiora facinora 
tua a me tibi potissimum objecta, ne attingunt quidem ; 
quae ego vix attigi, ut minus mihi comperta, " blas- 
phemias" nempe" tuas in Spiritum Sanctum," aliaque 
opinionum monstra uberiiis commemorant, cur et illas 
in quibus parum sibi de te credi a plerisque subscrip- 
tores tui queruntur, cur, inquam, illas utrasque in me- 
dium protuleris, has novissimas de medio removeris ? 
Cedo proximas hasce literas post alteram in te accusa- 
tionem illam gravissimam ab aliis aegerrinie, ab aliis 
facile, sed eodem tui removendi animo ab omnibus 
concessas. Sapies opinor, non exhibebis ; non delec- 
tant te istee literae ; ex quibus mutatam de te Geneven- 
sium opinionem, refrigerata amicissimorum studia 
manifesto perspicere possimus ; eosque his literis non 
te laudatum, sed ab se, dummodo longissime remotum, 
quasvis in terras exportatum cupiisse. Haec Mori fides 
publica est; qua se in Ecclesiam credere, quam in Spi- 
ritum Sanctum planius facit. Quae reliqua a me dicta 
in eum sunt neque diluit, neque refellit, ne oppugnat 
quidem. Sed quoniam, Vlacco fidejussore, tomum in- 
super alterum fidei publicae promittit, in quo " virorum 
aliquot insignium, senatusque et ecclesiae Midelbur- 
gensis, et Amstelodamensis testimonia" dicentur, dum 
volumen illud, cudendum,puto, in Gallia, excudendum 
Hagae-Comitis a Vlacco expectamus, aut ne expec- 
tamus quidem, visum est de toto hoc genere testimoni- 
orum pauca disserere. 

Magnum ego ornamentum quidem virtutis testimo- 
nium publicum esse fateor ; argumentum perinde cer- 
tum atque firmum longe abest ut existimem ; nam ut 
illud omittam quod virtutis multo difficilior quam num- 
morum spectatio est, hoc sane constat, privatorum pri- 
vatos mores, et proesertim vitia ad aures gravissimas, 



754 



AUTHORIS PRO SE DEFENSIO, 



tot alioqui negotiis occupatas, rarissime perferri. Et 
testimonium publicum tam qui petunt, quam qui dant, 
boni juxta malique fere sunt; et petunt quidem mali 
soepius quam boni, falsa specie proborum induti. Ut 
quisque optimus est, ita minime testimonio eget alieno: 
neque enim facit quicquam vir bonus ut noscatur, seipso 
contentus. Si commendato est opus, virtutem semper 
apud se habet commendatricem optimam; si defenso, 
obtrectationibus nimirum et calumniis baud raro appe- 
titus, eandem circundat sibi integritatem suam, et in- 
victam recte factoruin conscientiam ; quo veluti muni- 
rnento atque praesidio firmissimo, improborum hominum 
et impetus vanos excipit, et tela frustratur. Contra 
hie noster omnia : non enim virtutem, sed opinionem 
duntaxat ejus integumentum vitiorum, sibi compara- 
verat : ut retectus, ut deprehensus, abscondere diutius 
improbitatem suam non potest, exors ipse fidei et nau- 
fragus ad alienam fidem se confert : quorum oculis 
antea servierat, eorum nunc manus commendatitias 
implorat ; et singulari quadam atque inaudita hactenus 
impudentia, quorum judicium experiri non audet, 
eorum postulat testimonium. Propterea quod meamet 
ipsius sententia damnatus turpissime discedo, quod 
sententias vestras horreo atque defugio, "literas" 
quaeso date innocentiae, pietatis, pudicitiae apud vos 
meae, " testimoniales." Si haesitatur, si ambigitur, si ad 
aliis denique reclamatur rei vehementissime commotis, 
quo non demittit se ? quo non descendit ? circumcur- 
sare, ambire, prensare, obtestari, et quo adire non au- 
det, eo amicorum alleg-ationes dimittere. Aguntur 
fortunae hominis, agitur caput, existimatio, immd Ec- 
clesiae, totius et sacri ordinis existimatio agitur. Ex- 
pugnantur multi, partim fatigati, partim inducti, partim 
veriti nequid istius ignominiae in publicum redundaret, 
partim delictis ignoscere, literato parcere, laboranti 
consulere suae bonitatis esse arbitrati. Ita tandem 
victor iste laureatas literas aufert ; ita emendicata 
quovis tempore vel occasione, non jam testimonia de se 
publica, quae si fuissent ipse abolevit, sed sua de pub- 
lico reportata spolia ad coronam venditat ; nee tam 
laudes videtur suas, quam poenitentiam publicam cir- 
cumferre. Quern enim non poeniteat praeconem sese 
laudum ejus fuisse, qui ad omnes postea libidines tam 
turpem sui auctionem fecerit: nunc ejusdem sese raan- 
gonem fieri, qui servus omnium nequissimus ministrum 
se licitanti cuivis Ecclesiae ex hac laudum catasta ven- 
dibiliorem, et sacrarum literarum miseris emptoribus 
venalem se pretii quantivis professorem profitetur. 
Nam viderint per Deunj immortalem, qui ex istius vel 
commendatione vel impunitate iguoscentes et bonos 
haberi se postulant, ne ista bonitas in malum desinat; 
viderint ne ipsis bonis fraudi sit. Cum necesse sit, 
serpat latius, serpat ocyiis ista contagio pastoris in 
gregem, doctoris in scholam ; atque in ipsos fortasse 
bonorum istorum liberos, qui sophistae huic errabundo 
et infami in discipliuam traduntur. Viderint ne tot 
pigmentis illita atque ornata turpitudo, tanta bonarum 
laudum jactura atque dispendio dealbata labes, spem 
faciat et aliis, eamque mentem injiciat, posse se quoque 
tutissimo hoc exemplo, eandem scholis, eandem eccle- 
siis iuferre personam, sine suo periculo cum summa 



etiam commendatione improbissimam. Cogitent, qui 
celari adversarios nostras maculas putant oportere, non 
celando sed eluendo maculas purgari : celando apparere 
multo manifestius, etmajorem indies fceditatem contra- 
here. Postremo viderint, ne Ecclesiastas hujusmodi 
amovere ab Ecclesia tamdiu negligant, donee ipsa Ec- 
clesia cum Ecclesiastis una amoveatur. Sane cum 
apostoli praeceptum de Episcopo notissimum sit, eum 
ab extraneis etiam bonum habere testimonium oportere, 
quid adversariis laetius aut triumphandum magis potest 
accidere, quam cum legerint atque audierint, qui non 
levi atque incerta, sed constante fama, summeque con- 
sentiente, multis testibus, multis in locis flagitiosus 
atque nefarius compertus sit, eum quasi Ecclesiae lu- 
men unicum et ornamentum collatitiis presbyterorum 
laudibus, et multiplici commendatione publica decorari. 
Quod hostibus nostris gaudium ne diuturnum sit, pro- 
videri non alia ratione potest, nisi siquis poterit ex- 
emplo, reque ipsa demonstrare, nullum esse pestibus 
hujusmodi in Ecclesia reformata consistendi locum : 
haec testimonia, has laudes turn olim datas, cum is, cui 
dabantur, longe alius affectaret videri, atque esse nunc 
perspicitur, ipsum nunc irritas et nequaquam suas 
usurpasse sibi fraude pessima; et amicorum de se elogia 
suo ipsius vitio abrogata, non ad vilissimas merces in- 
volvendas, quo fato mala scripta solent fere perire, 
sed ad foedissimas flagitiorum ipsius sordes integen- 
das, pro involucris abusum esse. Ego certe in priore 
ilia defensione, et publice jussus et privatim laesus, nisi 
siquam dicendo peperissem mihi honestam existima- 
tionem, earn silendo amittere, et quasi vacuam posses- 
sore, occupandam mendaciis et opprimendam relin- 
quere maluissem, et patriae, et mihi simul, ciim una 
eademque causa esset, communem operam summo 
studio impendi. Nunc accusatis graviter ab eodem 
quasi immeritum et innoxium hominem per calumnias 
et mendacia infamassem, ut impudentiam illius redar- 
guerem, innocentiam tuerer meam, et siquid vel antea 
jam dixi commode, vel in posterum quod ex usu sit 
dicturus sum, si non doctrinae et ingenii laudem, fa- 
mam saltern integram, etcolendae veritatis fidem afferre 
possem, ad contentionem hanc per se minime gratam, 
sed necessariam tamen, denuo descendi. Neque vero 
est, si haec non essent, cur hujus operae aut pcenitere 
me, aut pigere quenquam alium, si ni conscium sibi- 
met, debeat. Sane improbos vituperare, et bonos lau- 
dare,quandoquidem hoc praemii nobilissimi,illud poenae 
gravissimae rationem habet, et aeque justum et justitiae 
prope summa est: quin et ad vitam bene instituendam 
par fere momentum utriusque cernimus. Ita denique 
cognatae inter se hae duae res sunt, unoque et eodem 
opere absolvuntur, ut improborum vituperatio, probo- 
rum dici laudatio quodammodo possit. Veriim ut jus 
et ratio atque usus utrobique par sit, non itidem est par 
gratia : nam qui alterum vituperat, duarum is uno 
tempore gravissimarum rerum onus atque invidiam 
sustinet, et accusandi alterum, et de se bene sentiendi. 
Itaque laudant facile nunc boni, nunc mali dignos 
juxta atque indignos ; accusare nemo libere atque in- 
trepid e, nisi solus integer, vel audet vel potest. Nos 
qui adolescentes tot sub magistris exudare in umbra 



CONTRA ALEXANDRUM MORUM, ECCLESIASTEN. 



755 



eloquentiam solemus, vimque ejus demonstrativam in 
vituperatione baud minus, quam in laude arbitramur 
esse positam, tyrannorum antiqua nomina fortiter sane 
ad pluteum concidimus. Et Mezentium, si fors ferat, 
putidis rursum antithetis enecamus ; aut Agrigentinum 
Phalarim tristi enthymematum mugitu, quam in suo 
tauro, exquisitius torremus. In xysto nimirum aut in 
palaestra, nam in republica plerumqiie tales adoramus 
potius et colimus, et potentissimos et maximos et au- 
gustissimos appellamus. Atqui oportuit aut non in 
ludicro primam fere aetatem umbratiles consumpsisse, 
aut aliquando cum patriae, cum reipublicae est opus, re- 
lictisrudibus,in solemac pulverem atque aciem audere; 
aliquando veros lacertos contendere, vera arma vibrare, 
verum hostem petere. Parte alia Suffenos et Sopbistas ; 
alia Pbarisaeos et Simones et Hymenaeos et Alexan- 
dros, veteres quidem illos, multo mucrone insectamur: 
hodiernos et in Ecclesia redivivos collatis elogiis lau- 
damus, professionibus et stipendiis et cathedris, incom- 
parabiles videlicet et doctissimos et sanctissimos viros, 
ornamus. Ad censuram si forte ventum est, sicui forte 
persona et speciosa pellis detrahitur, si turpis introrsum, 



immd vero si palam atque aperte facinorosus arguitur, 
sunt qui hunc malint, nescio quo studio, quove metu 
adducti, testimoniis publice defensum, quam animad- 
versione debita notatum. Mea ab his fateor, quod ali- 
quoties res ipsa jam docuit, satis longe disjuncta ratio 
est : ut siquid adolescens in illo otio literarum vel prae- 
ceptis doctorum vel meis lucubrationibus profeci, id 
omne ad usum vitae generisque humani, siquid tarn 
late possem, pro infirma parte mea conferrem. Quod 
si etiam ex privatis nonnunquam inimicitiis delicta 
publica animadvert! et saepe corrigi solent, et adversa- 
rium nunc non modo meum, sed pene omnium commu- 
nem, hominem nefarium, reformatae religionis et sacri 
maxime ordinis opprobrium, literatorum labem, juven- 
tutis perniciosissimum praeceptorem, immundum in 
sacris Ecclesiasten, impulsus omnibus causis justissima 
vituperatione prosecutus sum, eo necne cum fructu, 
quo oporteat, viderint illi, quorum potissimum interest 
exemplum in isto edere, me quidem spero (cur enim 
diffidam?) rem nequo Deo ingratam, neque Ecclesiae 
insalubrem, neque reipublicae inutilem praestitisse. 



AUTHORIS AD ALEXANDRI MORI 



SUPPLEMENTUM RESPONSIO. 



Hanc ego defensionem meam cum ante duos menses 
hactenus parassem, ne consumptum forte biennium al- 
terum in se profligando clamitet Morus, tanto cum de- 
siderio Supplementum illud fidei publicae contra me 
promissum expectabam, ut nihil mihi longius videretur. 
Didiceram enim ex Vlacco perorante, recessisse quiderr> 
in Galliam Morum, non tamen quiescere : sed vel uitri- 
sum viribus Genevensium attritis, vel quod manu tarn 
exigua vix satis sibi instructus ad decernendum uno 
praelio videretur, novum contra me exercitum, et quod 
mirandum sit, Medioburgicorum et Amsterodamensium 
in Gallia conscribere : Consules etiam et Scabinos mag- 
na cum manu signisque infestis adventare. Sero tan- 
dem erepsere novae copiae ; sine quibus prima acies, 
opihor, labare atque dehiscere videbatur. Sed cur tarn 
sero, cur ab extemporali homine tarn tarde advenerint 
siquis miratur, erant scilicet literae quaedam mortuorum 
longo situ eruendae; erant quoque subsidia haec con- 
sularia tarn gravis armaturae, mira itinerum ratione 
" ex Gallia," teste Vlacco, " transmittenda : " Quid si 
etiam ibidem conficienda ? quibus cum ipse Vlaccus, 
homo aequissimus, ut habeatur fides non postulet, sed 
quod " aequum et justum cuique videbitur," id ut " ju- 
dicetur," sic omnino faciamus. " Sufficit Vlacco," 
Supplementi hujus collectitii legato, lectorum " curi- 
3 c 



ositati," non incredulitati " satisfecisse," nempe fidei 
pubHcse, ex Gallia in Hollandiam, quasi postliminio 
quodam reversae, fidem defore uniuscuj usque privatam, 
haud ab re sane suspicabatur. Primum hoc velim uni- 
cuique in mentem veniat, quod supra demonstratum 
est, publica testimonia qua ambitione fere comparentur; 
in re privata quid valeant ; quam saepe hallucinentur : 
me deinde non ficta crimina in Morum, non ignota, 
non obscura, sed vera, sed jam vulgata atque testata, 
in foro denique et judicio agitata haud semel, atque 
versata protulisse. Non igitur calumniatores nos, 
non testes in se, sed suos esse judices intelligat Mo- 
rus : id jure aequissimo ; quoniam ipse in nos prior 
has partes sibi sumpsit ; nos ipse prior judicavit ; 
suam in nos sententiam iniquissimam edidit. Pro- 
latis autem utrinque testimoniis cur secundum eos 
merito pronuntiemus, qui Morum gravissime accusant, 
in causa est cum ipsius comperta in nos audacia atque 
improbitas singularis, turn ipsius testimonii quamvis 
" publica," tamen ambigua fides ; quae consuetis atque 
tritissimis laudandi formulis prosequitur Morum, ob- 
jecta illi crimina ab accusatoribus tarn multis non diluit. 
Quid enim affert vel hoc supplementum, More, quod ad 
rem pertineat ? Accusabant te Genevae gravissimi viri 
Theodorus Troncinus pastor ettheolcgiae professor, duo 



7oG 



AUTHORIS AD ALEXANDRI MORI 



alii pastores Mermilliodus et Pittetus multis opinor 
testibus adductis ; accusabant multorum criminum, et 
commissi prtEsertim in horto quodam probri turpissimi. 
Tu bic contra literas producis Deodati senis; qui ve- 
nire in convention jamdiu desierat; nee quid ibi ge- 
reretur, nisi ex te tuisque fautoribus audire consueve- 
rat. Literas deinde Sartorii, ne non sarsisse omni ex 
parte causam tuam viderere; turn Gothofridi juriscon- 
sulti, ne non satis cavisse; has omnes literas jam ante 
scriptas, quam haec tua flag-ilia vel ad Ecclesiam delata, 
vel amicis, ut solet, omnium ultimis, credibilia essent. 
Quae igitur a me tibi objiciuntur, horum nihil negant. 
Fac autem disertis verbis negasse : haudquaquam tamen 
istorum negatio afrirmatione potior tot hominum probis- 
simorum erit, quorum praesertim testium vim ac verita- 
tem cum sustinere non posses, petita subito abeundi 
licentia, non absolutus judicio, sed elapsus, evasisti. 
Literis deinde Genevensium non sine multorum gravi 
intercessione atque etiam indignatione, ut supra dixi, 
concessis, tu quasi Rheno amne lustratus (quo " devec- 
tum te in Belgium" ais) et noxa omni ablutus, utcun- 
que commendatus, mirum non erat si, convocata illic 
forte synodo Gallo-Belgica, tanquam Mercurius quidam 
novus Gallo-Belgicus, non tu quidem illuminatus, sed 
combustus, ut fit, in synodo, ad tempus latuisti. Eas 
autem literas cum supra dixerim fore, ut in medium 
nullo modo proferres, ne prioribus hie positis quanto 
essent frigidiores perspiceremus, lepide tu quidem 
" exemplar earum nancisci te non potuisse " causaris. 
Quod autem dixi ad tempus, non semper latuisse te, id 
facile constat, primum quod in ilia ipsa synodo " tra- 
jecti" ad Mosam habita, quo primum appulisti rumores 
quosdam " contra doctrinam" tuam et " conversatio- 
nem" illis in regionibus jam esse " sparsos," et sus- 
piciones haud leves de te passim vel novas haberi, vel 
veteres recruduisse, neque ita te iis absolutum, quin ad 
alteram postea synod um nova rursus commendatione 
opus tibi f'uerit, declarat, quae sequitur Ecclesise Medio- 
burgenae ad Campensem synodum epistola, declarat 
etiam illius epistolae subscriptor primarius Joannes 
Longus ejusdem ecclesiag pastor, qui tua turn quidem 
larva inter alios deceptus, perspectis nunc demum et 
exploratis moiibus tuis, nunquam te nisi maximae con- 
tumeliae dctestationisque causa dicitur nominare. Immo 
verba ipsa tua declarant quibus fateris post seditionem 
Midelburgi ortam,in qua amicus quidam tuus potentis- 
simus dignitate excidit eos, qui post eum rerum potiti 
sunt, in te non " aeque propensa fuisse voluntate :" id 
tu eorum ignorantiae assignatum vis, quibus tu theo- 
logiae professor celeberrimus " non aeque familiariter 
innotuisses ;" cum ad suspectos jam mores tuos revera 
sit referendum. Quid enim ad te advenam seditio ? 
qui suffrages omnium publice accersitus non studiis 
partium, sed bona faina ac diligentia in isto munere 
theologico tueri existimationem tuam notus aeque om- 
nibus debebas. Hie tamen quasreris quod " ejectum" 
te dixerim " ab Ecclesia ilia." Ego vero non " ejec- 
tum " te dixi, sed tantummodo ablegatum ; idque non 
de ipsa cjiciendi vel ablegandi formula, sed de volun- 
tate eorum abs te jam alienata intellectum volui. In 
hoc non admodum errasse me testis esse potest vir, ut 



audio, probatissimus, quem supra appellavi, Joannes 
Longus ejusdem ecclesias pastor, qui nunc, inquam, 
longe secus de te sen tit et loquitur, atque primo sensit, 
cum in tuam commendationem " omnium nomine" sub- 
scripsit; Testis est vir spectatissimus Joannes Duraeus, 
qui non unara Ecclesiam Midelburgensem ejecisse te, 
sed universam pene synodum Gallo-Belgicam ejectum 
velle scribit. Frustra igitur synodi Groudensis actum 
illud subjungis, quod factis recentioribus irritum fe- 
cisti; frustra, inquam, actum illud quod apertissimi te 
mendacii coarguit : etenim illius synodi authoritatem 
idcirco adhibuisse te ais, ut " sciam omnia rite et 
solemniter" in synedrio Midelburgensi de te " acta :" 
ipsa synodus non rite, non solenniter haec esse acta, sed 
" nonnullos defectus in modo agendi" notat. Vellem 
scire illos defectus cujusmodi fuerint, cur tu Midelbur- 
gensium testimonia sine nonnullis defectibus in modo 
agendi auferre non potueris. Illud interea tenendum 
memoria est, quibus cum " defectibus" Genevensium 
testimonia adeptus sis : quanto revera cum dedecore, 
quanto in speciem cum honore illi te dimiserint. Pror- 
sus, quasi id unum sibi reliquum necessario decrevis- 
sent, laudandum te esse atque tollendum. Verum, ut 
dixi, laudes illas qualescunque perspecta postmodum 
et cognita vitae tuae turpitudo antiquavit jamdiu atque 
delevit : ut ad infamiam potiiis tuam haec omnia con- 
ducere videantur, qui tarn praeclaram de te olim homi- 
num opinionem, admissis in te postea tot probris, tam 
fcede fefelleris. Ventum tandem ad Pontiam est; 
quam sic a me falso nominatam contendis. Ego vero 
authorem Batavum et notissimum illud de te distichon, 
quo me facile defendam, recito : 

Galli ex concubitu gravidam te Pontia Mori, 
Quis bene moratam morigeramque neget ? 

Bontiam, fateor, aliud apud me manuscriptum babet. 
Sed prima utrobique litera, quae sola variat, ejusdem 
fere apud vos potestatis est. Alterum ego nomen ut 
notius, ut elegantius salvo jure criticorum praeposui. 
Satis de nomine ; nunc rem ipsam consideremus. Quis 
tam est reus, quis tam omni genere criminationum 
oblitus, qui, si solus audiatur, causam suam vel Cas- 
sianis judicibus probare non queat? Tu quam attulisti 
hujus rei narrationem, ejusmodi est, ut nemo sit, modo 
integer atque attentus accedat, quin te, etiam inau- 
ditis accusatoribus tuis, vel plane condemnandum, vel 
suspicione gravissima non absolvendum arbitretur. 
" Uxorem" ais " Salmasii graviter tibi infensam, et 
ob eas rationes quas commemorare " non vis, " nihil 
intentatum reliquisse, ut te in nassam infaustissimi 
matrimonii compingeret." Primum illud suspiciosis- 
simum est quod eclas; illud nempe arcanum quod tibi 
tam modesto homini et ministro uxorem amici sic ini- 
micam potuit reddere. Mirum deinde inimicitia? genus 
narras, quo impulsa uxor amici tui famulam sibi dilec- 
tissimam nuptum tibi dare cupiebat. Nassa autem 
illud matrimonium qui potuit dici? nisi tute earn vel 
sponsione aliqua tibi induisses, vel escam avide nimis 
appetisses, atque itameritd infaustissimum, quod stupro 
auspicatus esses, matrimonium reddidisses. " Nihil," 
inquis, " intentatum reliquit." Quid ergo inter alia 



SUPPLEMENTUM responsio. 



757 



tentaverit ut ipse nobis divinandum relinquis; iramo 
ipse non taces, ipse effutire non erubescis ; et illud su- 
pra dictum a. Crantzio, paulo infra quasi palmarium 
quiddam pro te ex ore Salmasii repetis; " Siquid in 
Pontia peccavit Morus, ego sura leno, et uxor mea 
lena." Hanc scilicet pulcherrimam fore defensionem 
tibi apud omnes amens credidisti, si ostendisses lenone 
Salmasio, ejusque uxore lena, te non ignobile stuprum 
fecisse ; et non nisi dominis perductoribus ancillam 
vitiasse. "Hoc vulgo innotuit;" tu vero " palam 
vehementissimeque reluctari." Euge corculum pudo- 
ris, deliciae castitatis ! Tune reluctari vero ? virgin ali, 
ut videtur, verecundia homo nassa muliebri indutus. 
Nam piscis, nisi captus, non reluctatur : ilia profecto 
mulier nisi thunnum te perspexisset, nisi facilem, nisi 
opportunum, nisi obnoxium ancillae suae deprehendis- 
set, nunquam tibi istos laqueos ita elimasset, nunquam 
tibi Vulcanios illos casses tua Juno tam facile adaptas- 
set ; nunquam in virum gravem, Ecclesiastem, doctum, 
celebrem, qui mariti domum inter amicissimos fre- 
quentasset, nunquam nisi in mulierosum et notae in- 
con tinentiae hominem tale quicquam moliri aut ten tare 
ausa esset. At, inquis, " cum factione quadam se 
conjunxit, quae qualis fuerit, aperire tibi nolo." Ergo 
hoc etiam non minus suspitiosum nobis relinquis, quod 
tua multum interfuit aperuisse, quae ista factio, quo in 
loco te tot Ecclesiarum, tot synodorum, tot magistra- 
tuum testimoniis ac sigillis loricatum hominem et 
cataphractum tam acriter oppugnarit. Si ob vitas 
sanctimoniam, concionandi assiduitatem, professoriae 
facultatis praestantiam te odio habuisset, nihil aeque 
tibi laudi ac defensioni esse potuit : nunc cum in re 
omnium potissimum explicanda tectus atque astutus 
esse malueris, credendum est non factionem, sed bene 
magnum bonorum virorum numerum ob impuros mores 
tuos, vitamque offensam merito te odisse. Deinde, si 
Midelburgi, si Amsterodami, ubi tanto in pretio atque 
honore apud omnes fuisse te praedicas, tam numerosa 
te factio adorta est, claudicare tua fides publica vide- 
tur; eosque demum esse factionem qui te tantopere 
laudarunt. Sin Hagae aut Lugduni primum ista factio 
in te tam acriter est concitata, nihil profecto obstat quo 
minus appareat deseruisse te tandiu et pastoris et pro- 
fessoris munus utrobique sacrum, ut Hagae libellos 
famosos, ministerium tui Evangelii ministrares ; Lug- 
duni Pontiam ancillam, id est Nassam ipse tuam secta- 
rere ; tuosque illos, post diurnum saepe discessum, tot 
nocturnos ad earn vicina ex urbe reditus, tot cum ea 
furtivos, inscientibus dominis, congressus vicinitati 
notissimos, tantum in te odium plurimorum commo- 
visse. Hos tu " admissarios " uxoris Salmasii vocas ; 
et ignominiam defuncti amici tui matronae, ejusque 
propinquis non ferendam inuris. Haec scilicet cum 
" Ruffino " et factione ilia, " horrenda criminationum 
tonitrua displosit, et totum insanis clamoribus Belgium 
implevit." I nunc, et a meconficta haec esse clamita; 
die meas has esse calumnias; quas ego non calumnias, 
sed criminationes ab universo pene Belgio, te confi- 
tente, accepi. Has ego tacerem ? his non crederem ? 
proque tua in nos nostramque rempubl. injuria, scelere, 
audacia veras esse non judicarem ? quam tu fac- 



tionem, earn ego probissimorum hominum multitu- 
dinem, testimonium, judicium esse non arbitrer? 
Hoccine divina animadversione factum non putem, 
ut dum aliis famosos libellos tam diligenter adornares, 
famosus ipse passim libellus fieres ? Tu vero cum 
" existimationem" tuara " haerere," ut ais, " ad me- 
tas" videres, et " linguis omnium vapulares," haud 
insolita audacissimi cuj usque concilio, potentiorum 
studiis fretus, quos afFectatis concionibus, et Corinthii 
aeris tinnitu illo tibi forte conciliaveras, " prior Pon- 
tiam in jus vocas." Contra Salmasius, non insa- 
niam, ut tu appellas, sed " causam se uxoris destituere 
non posse" per amicos tibi denuntiat. Quod eum 
fuisse facturum nisi justam quoque causam credidisset, 
tibi verisimile esse non debet. Tu, " non sine consilio 
summorum et sapientissimorum totius Belgii capitura," 
quorum nimirum patrocinium vel adulando, vel sup- 
pliciter ambiendo ad omnes nequitiarum tuarum even- 
tus tibi comparaveras, " litem in suprema Hollandiae 
curia prosequeris." Quo in loco potentiam quorundam, 
ut dixi, non innocentiam tuam preesidio tibi maximo 
fuisse, si vel teipsum audiamus causam hie tuam quanto 
potes cum artificio et cautione dicentem, obscurum non 
est. " Desperabant" adversarii " fore se" ilia in curia 
" superiores :" tuam " afrlicturos" se esse " famam" 
non desperabant. Quid ita ? quia paucorum vim atque 
opes in foro dominari, caeteros poene omnes favere sibi 
videbant. At vero non tuam, sed suam ipsi famam 
accusatores tui afflixissent, si tu aequo judicio superior 
ipsorum opinione futurus videbaris. "Omnes," in- 
quis, "omni ope me unum oppugnabant;" non " de- 
fuisse" tamen "amicos" tibi "agnoscis:" paucos 
igitur et potentes fuisse illos necesse est: id quod 
etiam " miratos et conquestos esse inimicos tuos" usque 
eo non diffiteris, ut ne noceret tibi ista gratia tam aperta 
ac manifesta veritus, haud semel subirasci te simules 
amicis tuis, cumque iis expostulare, quasi pariim pru- 
denter tibi et non satis caute favissent. Itaque " su- 
prema capita, quae tibi suum in hac causa praesidium 
obtulere, enixe rogasti, siquid valeres gratia, ne quid 
eorum autoritas de victoria innocentiae tuae delibaret." 
Illius judicii exitus qui demum fuerit, non dicis ; Ad- 
versarii certe, tantum abfuit ut jure aut aequitate victos 
se esse arbitrarentur, ut quos tu reos modo feceras, hi 
nunc petitores ad synodum provocarent ; et quod ob- 
tinere a magnatibus jus suum non poterant, id impe- 
trare per Ecclesiam facile, se posse sperarent. Verum 
et in ilia synodo nimis multum valuissegratiam gratis, 
ut aiunt, id est nullis omnino mentis tuis datam, etiam 
ex iis quae pergis ipse narrare, satis constat. " Adsunt 
delegati Lugdunenses ; saccum producunt oppletum 
foedissimis criminationibus : " satis amplum, opinor, si 
tua omnia flagitia contineret, ut induendo etiam tibi, 
si egisses forte poenitentiam, sufficere potuerit. " Ur- 
gent delegati, ut praelegerentur omnia, quae secum 
sacco illo gerebantur : " vel ut latiniiis dixisses, porta- 
bantur in sacco ; a, te enira puto, gerebantur in sindone. 
Sed synodi pars magna " reluctari, famosos esse libel- 
los." Animadvertite quaeso novam ac singularem ju- 
dicum aequitatem atque prudentiam ; qui criminationes 
cum testimoniis in judicium allatas, neque dum per 



758 



AUTHORIS AD ALEXANDRI MORI 



lectas, tanquam famosos libellos, rejiciendas esse con- 
tendunt. Horum vicit sententia : excurrit confestim 
unus eorum, gratulabundus Moro, et " bonum factum, 
inquit; nihil contra te legetur." En iterum severos 
judices! quorum sententia in Mori gratiam sic mani- 
festo lata est, ut unus eorum pati non possit quin ex- 
ipso judicio de sella prosiliret, gratulatum reo. Puduit 
Morum ipsum tarn dissolutae sententiae : perturbari 
denuo se simulat, et aegre ferre, non perlegi ilia volu- 
mina criminum suorum. Objurgatus itaque bonus ille 
judex et acriter ab ipso reo increpitus, redit in coetum ; 
eaeterisque facile persuadet, ut mutata priore sententia 
statueretur omnia legenda esse. At verd, quae isti 
judices primum legenda non esse, ad arbitrium deinde 
rei, conversis eadem hora sententiis, legenda esse de- 
creverant, de iis tandem perlectis quam non attente, 
quam non severe, quam denique in reum propense 
judicaverint, intellectu difficile non est. Consurgunt 
judices ; ream frequentes adeunt; " amplectuntur ;" et 
cui palam modo gratificare, ei nunc aperte gratulari 
non dubitant. Quamquam ego in hoc toto judicio non 
tarn Mori, quam ejus persons atque ordinis habitam 
esse rationem crediderem. Synodi praeses ipse Rive- 
rius complexus te, "nunquam iEtbiops, inquit, ita 
dealbatus est, quemadmodum hodie tu fuisti." Tune 
verd adeo obesa nare homo es, ut irrisum te potius, 
quam absolutum hoc proverbio non sentias ? Riverius 
cum iEthiopem te lavando et operam et laticem frustra 
perdidisset, dealbavit. Tu jam salve nobis, iEtbiops, 
aut, si mavis, paries dealbate ; quandoquidem quo 
Paulus Ananiam, eodem te synodi praeses titulo deco- 
ravit. Nunc ipsum decretum synodi perpendamus. 
" Lectis cbartisiis quae allatae fuerunt a delegatis Lug- 
dunensibus circa litem illam quae in suprema Hollandiae 
curia mutilabatur, nihil in iis repertum est, quod valeret 
adimendae ecclesiis libertati, qua Morum ad sacras con- 
ciones habendas cum occasio se dabat, invitare sole- 
bant." Haec, etiamsi tua sola fide accipiamus, quam 
obscura, quam tepida, quam aegre absolvant reum, aut 
ne absolvant quidem, quis non videt ? qui te olim maxi- 
mis cumulare laudibus solebant, nunc multis criminibus 
insimulatum, ne uno quidem verbo tenuissimo purum 
autinsontem pronuntiant. Non commendant te eccle- 
siis ; " libertatem" tantummodo iis non " adimunt" qua 
te, non ad pastoris assiduum munus, sed " cum occasio 
se dabat," ad concionandum fortuito " invitare sole- 
bant." Ista autem occasio si se nunquam daret, id 
sibi displicere aut detrimenti quicquam inde capturam 
esse eeclesiam, haudquaquam ostenduiit. Tibi interim 
pro ara pulpitum est ; ilia in aula te jactas bucca notis- 
sima; et quo turpior domi, eo clamosior in coetu es: 
quicquid in occulto, quicquid in "sacco" illo peccas, 
hie tua cymbala, tua aera concrepare strenue non desi- 
nis ; et tuum illud rostrum nusquam impudentius, 
quam in rostris offers. " I nunc," inquis, " et stupra et 
spurioa tibi finge." Imm6, ito tu, inquam, et stupra 
tua si audes vel uno verbo diserte nega : id quod toto 
hoc libro facere non es ausus. "Consulantur acta 
publica;" imrnd consulantur acta privata, acta furtiva, 
acta DOCturna tua, quae vulgatissima istis regionibus 
jarndiu innotuere. Undo spurii si non cxtiterint, non 



continuo tu castus, sed eo fortasse nequior fuisti. Hac- 
tenus quae tu testimonia attulisti aut male parta, aut 
jam exoleta,id est aliquanto prius data, quam patefacta 
ea fuerint facinora quae a. me tibi potissimum objiciun- 
tur, ostendi. Quibus testimoniis si ab innumeris passim 
viris bonis quos nunquam nominatim laeseras non est 
creditum, id quod ipsi subscriptores tui queruntur, de 
me nostrisque hominibus, quos injuriis maximis ultro 
irritasti, si non credamus, non est merito quod queri 
quisquam possit. Postremas omnium literas Amstero- 
damensium consul um et rectorum, nescio cujus opera, 
quove pacto comparatas, ex Gallia transmittis : neque 
ad tempus omni ex parte satis accommodatus, et ad rem 
certe minime appositas. Ego quae tu ipse flagitiosa 
feceris, coarguo ; tu quid magistratus in te non fecerit 
hoc testitnonio duntaxat ostendis. Scripsi equidem, 
et, quod turn palam testatus sum, non pro certissimo, sed 
utnuper audiveram,idque etiam per literas fide dignas, 
magistratum Amsterodamensem tibi pulpitum interdix- 
isse. Tu literas fateris " per omnes gentes" contra te 
ab " adversariis" tuis " missitatas." Et eos adversarios 
nunc scribis esse tuos ; ego et bonos viros esse eos ac- 
ceperam, et te adversarium sciebam esse meum. Ex 
ipsis quaero magistratibus Amsterodamensium, num 
istiusmodi quippiam allatum ad se de adversario non 
tantum suo, sed civitatis etiam suae, silentio praetermit- 
tendum censuissent ? Hoc igitur si verum non sit, est 
quoque levissimum; de quo etego minime laborare, et 
tu minime exultare debeas. Numquid est aliud quod 
testentur tibi hae literae ? est aliud. Te " ex quo tem- 
pore apud se in publico munere versatus es, nihil ad- 
misisse quod justum praedictis calumniis locum dare 
potuerit." Quid si ante admiseris, quam ad eos ve- 
nisti ? Nam quibus consulibus admissa abs te quaeque 
fuerint, cujus in scabinatum pruritiones tuae inciderint, 
si ex ratione fastorum non habeo dicere, id non dices, 
arbitror, ita magni referre. Quid, inquam, si ante ad- 
miseris ? quod ego quidem pro certo habeo. Turn sane 
et hoc quoque testimonium, ancile tuum, haud multo 
plus ponderis, quam alterius cujusquam habuerit; ut, 
quod de iis, quae auditione tantum acceperat ab aliis, 
testificetur. Quod autem adjungitur te " extra culpam 
notamve fuisse," id adeo liquido non ita se habet, ut 
etiam reliqua in dubium vocare videatur. Non alium 
igitur atque teipsum tuis Consulibus opponam ; qui te 
culpatum, notatum, vexatum, linguis omnium toto 
Belg'io vapulasse, haud semel, pluribusque verbis con- 
fessus es. Commodum itaque interserunt, " ut ad nos 
relatum est." A quibus autem ? nam et ad nos longe 
alia et a. plurimis relata sunt: utrorum qui haec tarn 
varie referunt anteponenda fides sit, ipsi nostram aeque 
ac suam existimationem esse sciunt. At vero non ad se 
omnia quamvis consules, relata esse utdoceam, respon- 
deat mihi rog-o libellus iste in nos famosus, a Moro 
editus, relatusne ad se fuerit? quern libellum edidisse 
in nostram rempubl. non ministri erat Evangelici, 
sed ardelionis et calumniatoris, et nebulonis male- 
dicentissimi. Si negant de hoc libello quicquam sibi 
perlatum, posse et multa alia etiam improbissima 
non perferri ad se de hoc Moro velim existiment. 
Sin fateantur allatum sibi esse illius libri editorem fu- 



supplement™ responsio. 



'59 



isse Morum, suum tamen illi testimonium tanquam 
homini reverendo, probo, inculpato perhibuerint, sci- 
ant nos istiusmodi testimonium etiam consulum et 
scabinorum tanquam levissimum, et nullius plane 
authoritatis repudiare. Horum, inquis, rectorum " gra- 
vitatem, fidem, autoritatem si nosses, sexcentis mil- 
lenorum Miltonorum libellis retundendis parem agno- 
sceres." Ergo vero, mi homo, id nescio an ita facile 
agnoscerem ; quandoquidem et id nescio, apirivdrjv, an 
irXsrivdriv, virtute an censu magistratum ilium in civi- 
tate sua obtineant. Neque me latet consules, et prae- 
tores, illustriora longe quam nunc sunt nomina, etiam 
Verrem, reorum omnium Romse perditissimum, studiose 
defendisse, cum provincia tota, virique boni universi 
gravissime A accusarent. Hoc summum fidei tuae pub- 
lico propugnaculum, eademque basis et firmamentum 
maximum, quam nullo tamen negotio labefactetur et 
corruat, vides. Sequitur ecclesiae Amsterodamensis 
Gallo-Belgicse testimonium, subscriptore imprimis Hot- 
tono, Mori intimo, et quod supra demonstravimus, Re- 
gii Clamoris conscio. Valde nobis probatum sit necesse 
est hujusmodi testimonium, cujus subscriptions prin- 
ceps est Hottonus. Sed tamen quid aflferat, videamus. 
" Tantum abesse," ait, " uteorum criminum eum reum 
esse sciamus aut agnoscamus, quorum a quodam Miltone 
Anglo accusatur." — Hujus fidei vis maxima, ut video, in 
ignorantiae professione posita est. Quid hoc testimonio 
faciamus ? quid hac fide ? quae sua se potissimiim ig- 
norant La commendat. Reum esse nescimus, non agno- 
scimus : hoc quis praeterea toto propemodum Belgio 
ignorat, quae illi praecipue crimina objicio, eorum ipsum 
in utroque foro, non reum modo diuturnum fuisse, sed 
plurimorum judicio damnatissimum ; nee nisi poten- 
tium quorundam studiis, utque sacro potius ordini quam 
ipsi consuleretur, fuisse absolutum. Tantum abest ut 
reum esse sciamus, " ut contra potius ab illo aliquoties 
conciones sacras rogaverimus." Contenti nempe hoc 
forensi judicio, ubi gratia plus justo potuit ; et sua- 
dente praesertim Hottono, quoties ipse respirare et 
suis parcere lateribus decrevisset. Verum hoc quid 
efficit? aut quis est nescius multos in concionibus satis 
esse placitos, satis suaves ac tinnulos, qui in omni 
vita reliqua offensioni maximae fuerint? Etenim qui 
suis libidinibus explendis dat operam, quid obstat quo 
minus idem titillandis alienis auribus commode servire 
possit. Quod reliquum est, index potius operis, quam 
testimonium dici meretur: quando enim aliud quod 
dicat non habet, " satis superque testantur," inquit, 
" de ipso aliarum ecclesiarum in quibus vixit diutiiis 
quam apud nos, publica documenta ad quae nos iis con- 
sentiendo referimus." Quae vox detrectantium pene, 
et libenter hoc negotio expedire se cupientium prorsus 
videtur ; facitque ut non immerito suspicemur, testimo- 
nium hoc, tametsi plane friget, non sine sudore tamen 
Mori, allaborante etiam Hottono, multis repugnantibus, 
impetratum aegre fuisse. Epilogi loco est " curatorum 
scholae'' testimonium. Verum in schola quid tu decla- 
mites, quid recites, aut quemamodum te geras, neque 
tanti esse reor ut cognoscere curemus, neque ad hanc 
causam pertinet. Vitam et mores tuos excutimus : quos 
cum isti vix attingere, et ad literas superiores malle 



nos remittere videantur, quod ad eorum testimonium 
infirmandum satis sit, superius quoque dictum putemus. 
Ad finem aliquando pervenimus tuae Fidei publicae; 
quae ex Gallico fere sermone in Gallico-latinum " trala- 
titia" inanissimi libri maximam partem occupat. Co- 
pias jam omnes tuas cum supplemento etiam lustra- 
vimus : peramplas quidem eas, sed ad pompam sane 
potius, quam ad verum robur comparatas. Hae sunt 
plumse tuae, sub quibus corniculam latitare te dixi. Haec 
vestis ilia multicolor qua Morum revera, id est moiio- 
nem te induisti : his tu phaleris ne populum quidem fe- 
felleris : tuque si sapuisses, aut ullo rerum usu praedi- 
tus fuisses, nullius fore usus tibi haec omnia, quod ad 
tuam attinet causam, facile intellexisses. Potest for- 
tasse quispiam, cujus nomen alioqui nunquam audis- 
semus, tarn sui venditandi causa quam tui, phalerata 
verba tibi dedisse : potest aliorum pudor et bonitas 
flagitanti ac sudanti, et agi jam tuam existimationem 
misere querenti, hoc tantulum non denegasse. Potes 
tu per interpretes Hottonos multa confecisse : et tamen 
post haec omnia scito te nihil quod ad rem pertineat in 
medium protulisse. Quid juverit, qiiceso, vel in foro 
testimonia generatim dicta, quid elogia de tuis " doti- 
bus," quid incertas blandientium amicorum laudes 
proferre, si ego te certorum criminum accuso ? Accu- 
sarunt te adulterii Genevae olim viri graves; tempus, 
locum, adulterum nominarunt : multorum praeterea 
criminum te detulerunt. Quid si istam farraginem 
pro testimonio Judicibus turn tuis ostendisses ? accep- 
turosne putas fuisse eos, teque absolvendum istis cri- 
minibus fuisse continuo judicaturos ? immo vero jus- 
sissent te, ablatis hisce nugis, apposite respondere ; 
ullamne cum ista fcemina rem, rationemve habueris ; illo 
in horto eamne conveneris ; illo in tugurio, clausis fori- 
bus, solusne cum sola fueris. Haec et hujusmodi multa 
ex te requisissent ; ad quae singula, neque in illo turn 
judicio, quod te jure absolvere vel suspicione posset 
(judicium enim illud petita abeundilicentia commodum 
praevertisti) neque in hoc libro, tot alioqui ineptiis re- 
fertissimo, quicquam respondes. Facis idem prorsus 
in causa quoque Pontiana: quid in foro transactum sit, 
quantopere tua gratia ad praejudicium miserae mulier- 
culae post Salmasii obitum valuerit, suspiciose ad- 
modum ipse narras. De illis nocturnis Haga Leidam 
itineribus, de illis cum Pontia clandestinis atque noc- 
turnis congressibus, quanquam haec et multo plura 
hujusmodi omnibus in ore sunt, nullum verbum facis. 
Quid heec prorsus alienissima nobis obtrudis ? immo 
quid omnino hanc tantam literarum ac testimoniorum 
congeriem tibi ullo tempore comparasti ? an quod tuae- 
met ipse conscientiae satis probatus apud te non eras? 
an quod de te nee tibi ipsi, nee spontaneis hominum 
sermonibus credere audebas, nisi tot coactis nominibus 
ac testimoniis tibimet confirmatum hoc esset atque tes- 
tatum, id quod alioqui nunquam credidisses, te virum 
bonum aut tolerabilem posse cuiquam videri ? An vero 
tot criminibus accusatus, cum de te homines ubiqne 
pessime loquerentur, commendationibus totidem sanare 
ilia vulnera posse te existimasti ? atqui vides quo sae- 
pius ex mala valetudine ad inanem medicinam, ex 
novis maleficiis et rumoribus inde natis ad novas per- 



760 



AUTHORIS AD ALEXANDRT MORI 



petud commendationes recurris, earum authoritatem eo 
semper minorem abs te reddi atque indies leviorem : 
aegrotare nimirum existimationem tuam et morbosissi- 
111 am esse, quae tot purgationibus, tot medicamentis in- 
digeat commendationuiii quis est quin suspicetur ? Sed 
fortasse longinquas in urbes quemadmodum praedicas, 
ad professiones amplissimas persaepe invitatus, hoc te 
quasi commeatu, iter facturus, instruxisti. Optime : 
quaero itaque an proficisci in animo tibi fuerit ad eos 
homines quite ignorassent, qui an satis nossent? si ad 
illos, venustus profecto homo necesse est tibi fueris, qui 
ab illis invitatum iri te unquam credideris, qui te igno- 
rassent: Si ad hos qui te jam satis norant, quid hoc 
tanto commendationum instrumento ac sarcina ad eos 
opus erat, quibus jam antea commendatissimum te esse 
ex eo ipso, quod invitassent, sciebas. Perspicuum 
igitur est, nullam ob rem aliam, tantam vim testimo- 
niorum commendatitiam sic te studiose congessisse et 
in promptu semper habuisse, nisi vel ad ostentationem 
quandam circulatoriam, ad quam artem factum te 
praecipue atque natum existimarim, vel impendentis 
ignominiee metu, quam ex flagitiis nondum patefactis 
certissimam tibi expectabas. Ut haberes nimirum 
speciosum aliquid et publicum et foris partum, quod 
privatae atque domesticse 'et erumpenti interdum ex 
latebris opponeres infamiae ; utque procerum atque 
doctorum splendidis testimoniis, in quibus consequendis 
gratia atque ambitio nunc fere plurimum possunt, con- 
tra populi veras voces te communires. Verum ista te 
spes ut dixi, et frustrata jam est, et frustrabitur ; cum 
quia tuam obtegere improbitatem atque nequitiam, 
neque lux ulla neque tenebrae possunt, turn quia hoc 
ipsum quicquid est munimenti, quo te circumsepsisti, 
per se satis infirmum atque rimosum est. Id planius 
adhuc fiet, si testimonia haec tua, quemadmodum per 
se singula consideravimus, ita nunc postrema primis, 
prima mediis conferamus; et doctores proceresque tuos 
inter se paulisper committamus. Ut intelligi tandem 
possit, quas fides illius fidei publicae, illorum testium 
sit, ubi aut alii ab aliis tarn longe dissentiunt, aut ple- 
rique tam multa vel dissimulant vel nesciunt, quae sua 
sponte alii fatentur. Illud imprimis exemplo sit, quod 
in iis literis occurrit quae Genevensis esse ecclesiae di- 
cuntur. " Nihil utique illi," id est Moro, " vel ab in- 
fensissimis hostibus merito objici queat, quod justae sit 
reprehensioni obnoxium." Ego contra non quae 
hostes objiciunt Moro, sed quae amici ejus, quae testes 
ejus et " justae reprehensioni obnoxia" fatentur, et ipsi 
in eo reprehend unt, ex his iisdem testimoniis depro- 
mam. — Quid enim Deodatus ? "Non provocat qui- 
dem " Morus, " sed terribiles ungues habet ad sui tute- 
lam." Quos ungues? nam istiusmodi quicquam inter 
Evangelici ministri arma non reperio ; et eloquentiam 
nolim a viro docto atque humano, tam truci metaphora 
significari : Reliquum est, ut ungues illos, feritatem 
atque ferociam hominis interpretemur, quos non ad 
tutelam sui, sed ad injuriam aliorum, in nos certe ni- 
mium ezpeditoa atque acres ferae similior quam pastori 
erercuit. Apertiora faaud paulo sunt quae Georgius 
Crantziiis, Alberti aemulus, ne ab avunculo forte suo 
historica fide superetur, et quanto ae.grior tanto fortasse 



veracior ultro nobis largitur. " Ego Mori notitiam habui 
et Genevas et in Belgio ; semper magnas inimicitias 
exercuit cum aemulis, quibus ipse locum saepe praebuit 
nimia libertate loquendi." Et hoc teste, contra quam 
ab altero dictum modo est, et " ungues habet" et pro- 
vocat Morus. " Ferox" atque " fldens, crabronum irri- 
tator" infestissimus : Beelsebubem prope alterum dicas, 
nisi quod ille muscas : Laboris alioqui " intolerantior," 
teste etiam laudatore Salmasio ; cujus et " uxorem 
varie laeserat," et alia quaedam commiserat " inconsi- 
deratione tali homine indigna." Haec ab amicis ac tes- 
tibus tuis vis ipsa veritatis expressit; quae quamvis 
favore et studio dicentium in molliorem partem flectan- 
tur, ejusmodi tamen sunt quae ingenium tuum palam 
omnibus faciant, et hujus testimonii totius fidem infir- 
mare baud mediocriter atque infringere videantur: 
cujus altera pars probum, inoffensum, sanctum, omni 
labe ac vitio carentem, altera contentiosum, turbulen- 
tum, arrogantem, garrulum, ignavum,injurium, incon- 
sideratum denique et stultum nobis exhibet Morum. 
Sic fuit tua fides publica, id est, nulla: reverteris nunc 
iterum ad privatam, quae nulla minor est. "At vides 
interea," inquis, " quam non tralatitio me dignentur 
aflfectu, quos tu vis mihi furcas comparare." Immd tu 
vide, si potes, ira atque amentia impeditus, quam ve- 
hementer hallucineris, quam nihil attente agas, Non 
ego hoc " de Batavis," sed Genevensibus intelligi vo- 
lebam ; nee quid hi statuissent, sed quid tu meruisses. 
"Verba," inquis, "tua recognosce, Orestis aemule." 
Recog'nosco, inquam, Orestis aemule! Cujus flagitiasi 
pro meritis excepisset magistratus, jamdudum adulteria 
patibulo pendens luisses : nimirum Genevae, ubi adul- 
terii delatus eras ; ad alios magistratus cognitio illius 
facti pertinere non potuit. Quae sequuntur porro et 
luiturus propediem videris, et haec non iratus tibi omi- 
nor, sed duntaxat jusdico, facile demonstrant, non turn 
praedixisse me quid sis passurus, sed pronuntiasse quid 
esses meritus; idque (cum de nobis ipse prior judi- 
casses) pari jure meo fecisse. I nunc non conscientiae 
integritate, non justa defensione, sed scelerum impuni- 
tate quod facis eflfer te et gloriare. " Huic," inquis, 
" fungo, nuper e terra nato quern aut quos opposui?" 
Erras More, et me non nosti : mihi lente crescere, et 
velut occulto aevo satius semper fuit. Tu ille fungus 
qui ex ephebis modo Genevam profectus, Graecarum 
literarum professor subito emersisti ; et tot viris natu 
" grandioribus ecclesiastis, jureconsultis, medicis, ilia 
ingenii tunc primum efflorescentis gratia," ut tu satis 
fungose narras, "palmam" praeripuisti : mox inter 
fungos, et olera, et armamenta olitoria, fungo recens 
tuberante, non tu quidem Claudium extinxisti, sed 
Claudiam supinasti. Nunc "conciliare" me jubes 
mea " dicta," si possum, "et fabulas," cum magistra- 
tuum " dictis atque judiciis" abs te scilicet emendicatis : 
Ego vero mea dicta cum tuis factis facile conciliavero ; 
de ipsorum dictis atque judiciis ipsi viderint: nos ut non 
porticibus, ita nee iisdem judiciis fruimur. Tu tecum 
si potes temetipsum concilia; qui totum illud Gene- 
vense negotium, et gravissimum in te crimen adulterii, 
quasi fabulam de infenso erga te magistratuum ani- 
mo, summa cura, summoque studio refellere conaris. 



SUPPLEMENTUM RESPONSIO. 



761 



Cur illam quae vehementissime ad te pertinuit, 
tarn facile praetermittis, hanc quae te minirne attingit 
corrogatis tot testibus tanta mole refutare contendis ? 
Sane si ipse tibimet constare vis videri, nosque tuum 
institutum et respondendi rationem intuemur, qui fa- 
bulas confutatione indignas esse censes, aut illud in te 
verum crimen, aut hoc de te non verum magistrates 
judicium credamus oportebit. — At non omni ex parte 
vituperandus est Morus ; habet suas laudes ; magna 
vitia magnis virtutibus compensat ; facit quod in ho- 
mine ecclesiastico laudatissimum simul et rarissimum 
est, ut gratis concionetur. "Nullo," inquit, " stipen- 
dio auctoratus gratuitam ecclesiae operam rogatus 
prsesto : " immo vero fortuitam ; ex quo videlicet am- 
pliore mercede proposita, relicto pastoris munere, sa- 
crarum bistoriarum professor factus es ; id est revera, ex 
sacrario in scholam ad stipendium uberius emigrasti : 
turn si cujus rogatu forte concionaris, hoc tanquam be- 
neficii loco imputas ; cum assiduum pastoris ministe- 
rium deserueris, ut hanc subcisivam operam desertae 
abs te ecclesiae non sine maximo compendio tuo gratis 
impertire videaris. Tu vero More, si ecclesiam Medio- 
burgensem, qua3 te, ut ais, tatn honorifice invitasset, 
tanto cum fructu audisset, tam aegre dimisisset, sine 
gravissima causa reliquisses, et ad alium gregem, idem- 
que munus pastoris te contulisses, reprehendendum 
merito et levitatis arguendum existimarim. Nunc cum 
" Attalicis," ut ipse ais, " conditionibus" non Christi- 
anis, et " emolumenti fructu " longe uberiore adductus, 
non de grege in gregem desultorius tantummodo pastor 
transieris, sed illo munere longe potiore posthabito, ex 
Evangelii ministro mutatus in professorem et histori- 
cum, ex ipsis ecclesiae adytis ad promceria regressus 
sis, non mercenarii solum, sed defectoris prope numero 
habendum te esse, si habenda vetcris et sanctissimae 
discipline ulla ratio est, affirm are non vereor. At con- 
cionaris tamen : et strenue quidem, nunquam "majore 
cum fructu" Attalico, ad Pergamenos puta, non tuum 
ad gregem ; quibus si forte aures vix satis teretes pru- 
riunt, tu, vitio cantorum plane converso, rogatus nun- 
quam desistis : et velut sacerdos Phiygiae matris non- 
dum exsectus, aut Curetum aliquis, moves libenter 
tua crotala; non ut vagitum quempiam fabulosum, 
sed ut rumores flagitiorum tuorum plus nimio veraces 
fanatica vociferatione obruas. Hoc tu septenario stre- 
pitu et doctrina fortuita, ut quivis olim cyclicus aut 
sophista, si rogatus recitas, desertum Pastoris munus 
assiduum explere te putas? At concionator est bellus 
et facundus. Ita, credo, ut est orator : cui proverbia 
si demas, et insutos versiculorum centones, orationis 
ipso filo atque contextu nihil inornatius, nihil incom- 
positius, nihil verbosius atque putidius ; nihil ubi 
venustatem, numerum, atque nervos paulo disertiore 
homine dignos magis requiras. Unum est in quo 
graviter titubatum a me esse fateor : Graecarum litera- 
rum professorem dixi, quem sacrarum historiarum 
dixisse debui : enimvero incredibile mihi prorsus, et 
portento simile videbatur, historiarum sacrarum eum 
esse professorem, qui tot profanarum argumentum ipse 
atque materies esset. Tu vero mihi rectius, More, non 
historiarum, sed calumniarum professor deinceps nomi- 



naberis. Quod ne quis a me secus atque res ipsa se 
habet dictum arbitretur, mea ipsa verba abs te prolata 
in medio ponam ; tuam deinde horum interpretatio- 
nem, quam dico esse calumniam : ut quam impudenter 
et malitiose agas, quod et supra idque saepius demon- 
stravi, et hinc qualem te sacrae etiam literae tortorem 
proculdubio sentiant, praeterire neminem possit. Re- 
statjam tibi sola Graecarum literarum professio : ergo 
hoc ego "crimini" tibi do, quod Graecas literas es 
professus : ergo ego " Graecas literas earumque pro- 
fessores cogo in ordinem." Ergo ego " Graecas literas 
ad imasubsellia relego." Quis horum quicquam sequi 
praeter te dixerit ? ipsa malitia si operam tibi suam 
locasset, tale quippiam ex meis verbis ullam in partam 
torquendo exprimere qui tandem potuisset? tu hoc non 
solum pro verissimo tibi sumis, verum etiam ut non 
nasutum minus conjectorem te, quam navum esse ca- 
lumniatorem intelligamus, " cur Graecas " inquis " lite- 
ras, earumque professores cogas in ordinem, nisi me 
fallit animus, olfeci fucum : " Nempe Salmasius cum 
esset Graecae linguae callentissimus, et hujus ego au- 
thoritatem elevare statuissem, id ut quoquo modo pos- 
sem, Graecas literas, " ejus," si diis placet, " regna, ad 
ima subsellia relegavi." Quis calumniari solertius, 
quam hariolari te nunc dicat? Atqui non meus ille 
fucus, vir sagacissime, sed tuus mucus quem olfecisti, 
tantummodo erat. Mihi enim cum Salmasio de Grae- 
cis non magis Uteris quam calendis contestata lis erat; 
non ilium Uteris vel Graecis vel Latinis, sed authorita- 
tum et ration urn ponderibus, affligendum atque ster- 
nendum esse intelligebam. Hinc tu, propterea quod 
omnes cupide ambages quaeris, nequid ad rem dicere 
cogaris, ut olim paupertatis, ita nunc Graecarum lite- 
rarum in laudes ridicule sane transcurris. Quas ego 
cum neque nesciam, et, siquis alius, plurimi faciam, 
nihil profecto ineptius, nihil alienius fingere potuisti, 
quam despectas a me esse Graecas literas : cum non 
tibi illas, sed te illis probro esse dixerim. Sed heec tua 
perpetua fere ratio est ; ubi non fictis criminibus urge- 
ris, ut ne obmutuisse plane videaris, data tibi esse a 
me crimini quaelibet fingis, aut absurda quoevis et fal- 
sissima de me inseris eaque in primis qua? dicta nun- 
quam sunt, refutanda irripis : Hie strepis, hie tumul- 
tuaris, hie te jactas. Si adulterii te postulo, pauper- 
tatem scilicet contemno ; paupertas tibi contra me toto 
penu loculorum tuorum defendenda est : Si stupri 
arguo, Graecas literas nimirum vellico ; Graecarum 
literarum obtrectator oppugnandus tibi sum : Sic tu 
vera fictis eludere conaris, ut hoc fumo excitato oc- 
cultare turpem fugam et convictissimi sontis pu- 
dorem atque silentium possis. Vide autem, dum 
Graecas literas tam veteratorie laudas, ut irascantur 
tibi literae Latinae ; tuumque " jecur latinum," ut satis 
sanum non sit. " Quota pars haec est, inquis, spu- 
torum et alaporum ?" Nae tu masculum tibi alapum 
hoc soloscismo meruisti : nam fcemineas esse alapas 
quas tot sensisti, mirum non est si invitus agnoscas. 
Veriim haec missa faciamus ; levia sunt, Vetera sunt ; 
alius repente homo jam factus est Morus; ad sanita- 
tem jamjamque est rediturus; gradum unum atque al- 
terum fecit ; paulo veracior, paulo candidior ab rlieto- 



762 



AUTHORIS AD ALEXANDRI MORI SUPPLEMENTUM RESPONSIO. 



rica Diaboli (sic enim calumniam supra nominat) ad 
rhetoricam transit Juliani. " Vicisti," inquis, " Mil- 
tone." Hanc nempe vocem, ut ille olim (ne non Apos- 
tata satis germanus per omnia videaris) veritate victus 
emisisti. Sed vide, ne sincerum quod est, cauponum 
more, mendatio statim diluas. " Confitentem," inquis, 
" babes reum." Ego vero reum quidem habeo; con- 
fitentem non habeo: nisi si id pro confesso est haben- 
dum quicquid tu silentio praeteriisti : sic enim et libel- 
lum in nos famosum edidisse, et hosti nostro dicasse, 
et Anglicanam Rempublicam indignissimis modis, me- 
que nominatim illaesus laesisse, totam denique fabulam 
Genevensem confiteris. Ab hac prsevaricatione ad pre- 
cationem quandam artificiose compositam te confers ; 
sive ea tuas fidei publicae extrema confessio dicenda 
est; ad quam Deum testem invocas, tremendum fateor 
et testem et judicem. Multa confiteris, multa ploras, 
peccata quidem " longe gravissima," sed quae ad nos 
nihil attineant, quia penitus latent, et etiamnum incon- 
fessa nobis sunt. Et ista quidem si in occulto, clausis- 
que foribus, ut peccare antea, ita nunc precari in ani- 
nium induxisses, laudassem equidem te, deque benig- 
nitate et dementia divina bene sperare jussissem : nunc 
cum in platea media orantem te hie reperiam, ad ho- 
mines potiiis quam ad Deum concinnatas has esse pre- 
ces, et quasi ultima jacentis tuse fidei publicae suspiria 
judicarim. " Te Deus, te testem invoco, an non videant 



homines in corde isto quae tu non vides." O confes- 
sionem claram atque simplicem ! immo vero quid ob- 
scurius, quid cautius, quid jurecousultius composuisse 
poteras, ut decern causidicos vel adhibuisse viderere, vel 
pertimuisse? Nam quid hoc est, obsecro ? " an non vi- 
deant homines in corde isto." Quid vident homines in 
corde? Urinatore hie opus est Delio. Verum quid quis 
in corde videat, viderit. Ego facta palam, audita, visa, 
testata refero : quas nemo meas esse calumnias sine 
maxima calumnia dixerit. " Longe turpior sum," in- 
quis, " re quidem vera quam illi fingunt; ob ilia tot 
abscondita, quorum apud te reus vere sum." Sic tu 
nota ignotis, clara absconditis delere atque eluere co- 
naris : occulta, incerta, latentia confiteris, ut explorata, 
certa, manifesta eo impudentiiis negare possis : ad ex- 
tremum eo descendis, ut confessionem hanc, quasi 
libellum famosum de temetipso conscribas, quo facilius 
veram accusationem aliorum possis evadere. Tu hasc 
atque hujusmodi valere apud Deum cave existimes; 
apud homines certe" vel mediocriter sagaces, minimd 
valebunt. Quod si linguis, ut ipse ais, atque conviciis 
omnium jamdiu verberatus, resipuisti aliquando revera, 
et ad bonam frugem revertisti, gaudeo. Nos te sic 
veram egisse poenitentiam arbitrabimur, si tuarum in 
nos injuriarum et maledicentise famosaa poenituisse 
tandem intelligemus. 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI ANGLI 
RESPONSIO 

AD 

APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS PRO REGE ET POPULO ANGLICANO INFANTISSIMAM. 

[First published 1655.] 



Contra famosum anonymi cujusdam libellum, in quo 
senatus populusque Anglicanus turpissimis convitiis 
lacerabatur, quern jam vulgo notum est, Salmasii gram- 
matici infarne opus fuisse, prodiit nuper Joannis Miltoni 
Angli pro patria sua defensio. Liber sane probus, 
omniumque doctorum virorum judicio domi forisque 
multiim approbatus. Quiciim talis esset, expectabatur 
quidera vel Salmasii ipsius, vel alius alicujus viri lite- 
rati responsio. Illarum certe partium magni intererat 
electum aliquem et disertum virum ad causam suam 
jam diu laborantem et ruentem adhibuisse. Cum ecce 
demum ex omnibus illis rumorem montibus, quos assi- 
due fama nostras ad aures afferebat, tandem prorepit 
exiguus iste mus, qui misere stridens rodit tantummodo, 
aliud quidem nihil agit ; vel, ut verius dicam, inanes 
quasdam mortiunculas captat, dentemque in dente fati- 
gat, authorem certe non laedit, ejus autem argumento- 
rum vim et acumen ne assequitur quidem. Mirati 
primiim sumus quis esset; nomen enim ignobile, futili- 
tatis certe suae conscius, celat. Cum vero libellus ejus, 
macri nescio cujus etjejuni ingenii indicium, perlectus 
esset, in eo statim, tanquam in speculo, virum conspex- 
imus. Quis igitur sit, post videbimus. Hoc vero jam 
tacere non possum, hominem quendam valde obscurum 
et vilem eum esse apparere ; qui tamen arrogantia sua 
mendaciisque fretus, ut morientem et pene defunctam 
regis sui causam aliquantulum resuscitare videretur^ 
hominumque animos jam sedatos, et judiciis Dei statim 
acquieturos, iterum commoveret atque irritaret, Dei 
Omnipotentis voluntati,summaeque justitiae se opponere 
(quam ille tarn insignibus et mirandis irae suae exem- 
plis in regem, regisque fautores editis, omnibus vult 
esse notam) et supremos reipublicae nostras Magistratus 
accusare,convitiisque indignissimis infamare ausus est. 
Veruntamen ita obtorpescit, tam insulsus est, tamque 
somniculosum se glirem praebet, ut certissimum causae 
suae jam languentis, et in totum pene perditae omen 
prae se fert. Omnium enim debilissimam atque iniquis- 
simam certe causam illam necesse est esse, qua in de- 
fend enda fautores ejus non solum armis, verum etiam 
ratione et argumentis inferiores sint. Merito igitur 



cum talis esset, ab ipso Miltono neglectus et contemptus 
est. Multo enim indignior ab omnibus existimabatur, 
quam ut spectata jam facundia limati illius atque culti 
autboris ad eruenda sterquilinia, rabidamque loquacita- 
tem tam effrsenis atque stulti blateronis refutandam 
descenderet. Verum ne inter suos perfugas inanis iste 
rabula se venditaret et aliquid magnum, vel quod uno 
sane prandiolo dignum sit, se scripsisse crederet, equi- 
dem cum in patriam pietate, turn instauratae nuper 
libertatis apud nosamore ductus, necnon illi etiam viro 
mihi semper observando, quern iste insectatur, multis 
officiis devinctus, pati non poteram, quin hujus ineptis- 
simi nebulonis petulantiam retundendam mihi, ne ro- 
gatus quidem, susciperem. Quemadmodum igitur 
Romani olim tirones in palum se primo gladiis et pilis 
exercebant, ita ego in hunc caudicem stylum acuere et 
ingenii vixdum pubescentis rudimenta deponere haud 
incommode me posse confido. Cum adversario enim 
tam insipido et vulgari, exiguo saltern quivis ingenio, 
et eruditione quantumvis leviter imbutus, etiam de im- 
proviso congredi sine periculo poterit. Prius igitur 
quam opus ipsum aggrediar, operae pretium videtur, au- 
thorem hujus Apologiae illustrem, si diis placet, et diser- 
tum, in occulto tamen latentem, investigare. Sunt 
qui dicunt nomen illi Jano esse, obscuro homini 
et bonarum literarum rudi, ex illo grege leguleiorum 
quos pragmaticos vocant. Verum cum meminissem 
bifrontem esse Janum, alterum sincipitium in ejus oc- 
cipitio quaerendum mihi esse statui. Itaque alteri sin- 
cipitio nomen, uti ego indiciis quibusdam comperi, Bram- 
malo est. Is librum nuper stylo atque sensu huic pene 
geminum scripsit Anglice Eiko vok\cl? rjv, cujus et hunc 
fcetum esse haud temere plures autumant. Virum 
igitur, quanquam et hie vultum in occipitio gerit, si 
libet, cognoscite. Nam, ut ipse profitetur, theologiae 
doctor est, et episcopus Hiberniensis. Is cum ab 
ineunte astate homo discinctus etebriosus, episcoporum, 
qui tunc in Anglia dominabantur, luxum, opes, am- 
bitionem ante oculos haberet, inedia pressus et latrantis 
stomachi instinctu, nihil sibi utilius esse duxit, quam 
ut sacerdotis munere indutus, Ecclesiam, tunc quidem 



764 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO 



lupis omnibus patentem, invaderet ; et conciunculis 
aliquot ad illorum temporum pravitatem compositis in- 
structs, quas de scripto recitandas circumferre solebat, 
nobilium hominum mensas, et sacellani pinguem ali- 
quam mercedem, siqua ejusmodi ofFa se obtulisset, 
ambiebat ; ubi coenis quam lautissimis, precibus quam 
brevissimis uterentur. Inter alios Derbiae comiti se 
clanculiim ofFerebat. — Tandem vero nequitiis coopertus, 
benevolentiam et favorem comitis Strafford iae, proregis 
in Hibernia, quern multipliers nomine perduellionis 
totus populus ad supplicium tandem poscebat, assenta- 
tionibus et impudentia turpiter aucupatus est. Tile 
hominem se nactum esse ratus ad omnia facinora pa- 
ratum, quique populum adulatoriis et aulicis concio- 
nibus suis ad suscipiendum servitutis jugum paratiorem 
redderet, episcopum eum Derriensem in Hibernia cre- 
avit. Jam vero post expulsos reges et praelatos, ad 
priorem vitas inopiam redactus, rursus esuriens, " Cu- 
rium" nunc " simulat" qui " Bacchanalia" modo vixit; 
utque pietatis obtentu cunctam rabiem in eos effun- 
deret, qui et ipsum et caeteros istiusmodi latrones ovili- 
bus Ecclesias opimis expulerunt, spe etiam nonnulla 
ampliorem aliquem episcopatum, mendaciorum suorum 
et audaciae praemium sub minore Carolo devorandi, pel- 
lem ovinam induit, nil praeter pietatem et sanctimo- 
niam prae se fert ; ita tamen. ut oblonga lupi cauda 
infra institam sacerdotalem facile appareat. 

En virum egregium prae caeteris qui apologiam pro 
rege et populo Anglicano scribendam sibi sumit! Age 
vero, pro " rege " ut libet. Sed quid tu pro " populo 
Anglicano," qui Dominum tuum Straffordium, hostem 
populi acerrimum meritis poenis affecit, teque pessimum 
ejus in Ecclesia Hiberniensi ad omnia scelera miiiis- 
trum pari supplicio affecisset, nisi aut fuga aut obscu- 
ritas tua eorum manibus, qui Dominum plectebaut, te 
furem eripuisset. Cur etiam apologiam " pro populo?" 
An pro iis qui regem puniverunt? baud credo; dices, 
pro iis qui regi favebant periodus ? At illi id non re- 
quiruut, ut qui, facta pace, modice multati, sua jam 
bona secure possideant, suamque fidem reipublicae nos- 
tras obstrinxerint. Unde tua ista apologia autabsurda 
plane est, aut nimium intempestiva. Veriim tu is 
homo es, qui titulum istum libri tui, utpote speciosum, 
vel cum maxima quavis absurditate ampere voluisti : 
Contra " Joannis" scilicet " Polypragmatici " defen- 
sionem. Sic ejus nimirum contra Claudium Anony- 
mum, satis concinne quidem dictum, si Claudium cum 
Anonymo conjunxeris, insulse imitaris. Veriim non is 
polypragmaticus est, qui libcrtatem laudat, tyrannos 
damnat, civium suorum recte et decore facta defendit; 
sed tu potius, tuique similes vere sic dici debent, qui 
cum ecclcsiasticos esse vos profiteamini, et Ecclesiam 
vestra polypragmatica perdidistis, et rerum civilium 
admiuistrationem nihil ad vos pertinentem perpetuo 
conturbatis. Sed causa suberat gravis cur scriberes, 
credo, contra " defensioneni " Miltoni " destructivam." 

Brammale die nobis cujum pecus ? anne latinum ? 
Non, verum monachorum, illi sic rure loquuntur. 

Cognoscite jam hominem in ilia nempe barbarie scho- 
lasticorurn quam in clarorum authorum puritate et 



sapientia versatiorem, quorum lucem vespertilio iste 
ferre nunquam potuit. Unde demum prodeat apologia 
ista videamus. " Antverpia;" hoc enim solum prae- 
clarus iste protestantium episcopus, asylum, ut videtur, 
invenire sibi potuit, inter jesuitarum et monachorum 
catervas, quib'uscum tales pseudepiscopi libentissime 
esse solent. Recte igitur meo judicio et se digne 
faciunt protestantes exteri, qui turbatores istiusmodi 
errabundos suis coetibus abigunt. Saltern non ausus 
est apud ullam Batavorum civitatem hoc suum opuscu- 
lum typis mandare, veritus ne illustrissimi foederatorum 
ordines, ut Salmasii nuper sui libellum publice dam- 
narunt, ita se quoque extorrem et erraticum nebulo- 
nem multo severius punirent. Quod illis quidem in 
laudem atque honorem, huic merito in opprobrium 
cedere debet. 

Jam ad lectorem quaedam proefatur, et pauca sane, sed 
quae stultitiam hominis et ignorantiam illiteratam plus 
nimio prodant. Queritur " unam tantum " Salmasii 
" impressionem," idque ; ' magna cum diflicultate in 
lucem erupisse;" ejus autem libri quem Miltonus 
scripsit " tot esse exemplaria, ut " nesciat " cui lectorem 
remitteret." Itaque nihil hie reperio, cur non amico 
nostro gratulemur, Salmasium salse rideamus. Annon 
haec satis ad arguendam causae tuae fceditatem visa 
sunt? Miltonum omnes cum favore et plausu teipso 
teste legunt ; Salmasium abjiciunt, nihili faciunt. His 
tua pervicacia adeo non movetur, ut omnes idcirco 
" mortales veritatem odisse, mendaciorum et convitio- 
rum amore flagare," impudentissime accuses, ipse in- 
terim non apostolus, non propheta, neque evangelista, 
sed scortator et helluo satis notus, et ganeonum dun- 
taxat episcopus. Vos vero lectores, quos non huma- 
niter appellat, sed in ipso exordio tarn petulanter per- 
stringit, tam docti reprehensoris vestri imprimis sen- 
sum, deinde literas vereri jam discite ; primum enim 
ait Miltoni defensionem " invidiose elaboratam," de- 
inde tot excusis exemplaribus approbatissimam esse 
fatetur ; haec sane apud omnes qui Latine intelligunt 
pugnantia sunt. Turn " tot sunt," inquit, " illius ex- 
emplaria, ut nescio cui lectorem remitterem." Satiiis 
tu quidem, qui vel prima pagina soloecismos evitare 
non potes, ad Orbilii cujusvis flagra remittendus es, 
apud quem nulla poteris apologia uti, quin omnes te 
pueri virgis et ferulis pulchre depexum atque ornatum 
dimittant. Verum te jam primo auguror hac in parte 
hand raro peccaturum, qui tam rem mane incipis. 
Neque lectorem stulte alloqui satis babes, sed eo etiam 
ulterius audaciae processisti (quo vitio ignorantia max- 
ime laborare solet) ut Leidensi Academiae celeberrimae 
ineptias tuas foetidissimas epistola etiam stultissime 
scripta dedicare ausus sis. " Alumnum " te academias 
"quondam" fuisse affirmas. Tunc vero academiae 
ullius unquam alumnus, cujus infantiae propemodum 
illiteratoe quemlibet vel in agris ludum literarium pu- 
deret ? Leidensem autem " alumuum " fuisse unquam 
te dicere audere, dubium tibi ne sit, quin ilia academia 
vehementissime indignetur ; majori enim contumelia 
urbem illam afficere non potes, cujus te " quondam 
alumnum" fuisse praedicas ; quanquam illud " quon- 
dam," si unquam fait, multorum postea annorum era- 



AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



765 



pula in lustris atque popinis jam diu proluisti. Sed et 
tu " eorum tutelam expetis." Hominum stupidissime, 
tutelam tu tuae barbariae in musarum domicilio quaeris, 
quarum hoc ipsum munus est, vinctam barbariem 
catenis in terras ultimas exterminare : nescis medios 
dilapsus in hostes. Saltern dum academicos.alloqueris, 
simula te literatum quempiam esse, vel ad punctum 
temporis, si potes. " Salmasius," ais, " mihi ansam 
praebuit qui tamen omnibus arripuit:" qusenam ista 
balbuties est? Fac modo academia, quam interpellas, 
te intelligat alumnum suum, vix credo annotinum. 
" Nee calamum," inquis, " in manum sumere aude- 
rem " (sapuisses tu quidem si ausus non fuisses) " nisi 
Miltoni amentia me invitum provocasset." At ille te 
non magis provocavit, quam qui praetereunt importu- 
num et improbissimi oris canem, quern inani latratu 
insequentem ita contemnit, ut vix fuste te dignetur aut 
calce. " Quid vero," inquis, " ab extero qui inter in- 
hospitales Caucasos vitam degit, expectari poterit ? " 
Nihil sane : Expectationem tu nostram miuime fefel- 
listi : neque certe erat opus ut te inter Caucasos vitam 
degere faterere, lingua te tua ipsique mores barbarum 
clamitant: Tuaque ilia Caucasea "poma" si dare 
velles, scito omnes Alcinoos magnopere aspernari. Ad 
academiam quereris inter alia quod " Banausi et Me- 
chanici in pulpitam ascenderunt." Perdoctus tu qui- 
dem et idoneus, qui Banausos, et Mechanicos in pul- 
pitum ascendentes insecteris, qui pariter atque illi 
grammaticae rudis, haud illismagis pulpitum declinare 
potes. Postremo " Alienigenam " te " Anglum " ap- 
pellas. " Id" quidem rectissime : Alienaenim sentis, 
aliena loqueris, quidni alienigenam te Anglum esse 
dicas, id est spurium, quem Angli veluti purgamentum 
suae patriae atque piaculum jure quidem ad Caucasos 
ablegarunt. 



IN PR^LUDIUM AD 
PR^EFATIONEM. 

Tn prseludiis esse se existimat vir gravis; ludos ut 
videtur episcopales mox editurus. Favete spectatores 
Ludioni episcopo. Verum putaret quis hominem non 
prologum agere, sed in ipso prooemio Orestem insanum 
aut Athamanta saltare. " Ne insaniens cacodaernon 
Johannes Miltonus, &c." O mitem et mansuetum ! 
quam non iracunde, quam humaniter exorditur! quod 
aliis, quamlibetfurentibus, extremum maledicentiee est, 
id huic pro levi tantum praeludio habetur. Sed hoc 
novum non est : sic enim Pharisaei olim, veri ejus pro- 
genitores, Christum ipsum a cacodaemone agitari dice- 
bant; ut nemo vel hoc vel pejus in se dici, praesertim 
ab hoc episcopo vere diabolico, moleste ferat. Offen- 
ditur imprimis quod Miltonus reipubl. insignia, quem- 
admodum Salmasius regis in fronte libri posuit. Haec 
ille posita ibi ait tanquam foenum in cornu, " ut cuncti 
sibi caverent;" quod hoc ad alios nescio. Te vero 
Brammale non miror foenum in cornu usque adeo hor- 



rescere, quoties tot tua adulteria animo revolvis. Omitto 
deinde quae de cruce furcifer atque etiam de lyra stul- 
tissime deliras : et certe praeludia professus, nihil aliud 
nisi nugas agis. " Parlamentum et concilium satis 
aetatis habent seipsos armis defendere." Atqui tuum 
erat potiiis cogitare, satisne aetatis haberes Latine ut 
possis ad ipsum scribere. " Sed ringit ilium Salma- 
sius," vel ut postea perdocte sane emendavit, " ringit 
ille pro Salmasio," (menda an emendatio vitiosior sit, 
lectorum esto judicium,) "peregrinos veretur: num tu 
credis quod tot nefanda, &c." Vae tibi Prisciane ! nam 
soloecismos hie non singulos, sed turmatim eflTundit. 
Quam vero peregrinos vereatur Miltonus, et imprimis 
ilium Tbrasybombomachidem Salmasium, qui libros 
ejus perlegerit abunde norit. " Ego," inquis, " liber- 
tatem peto a libero suo populo Anglicano, ut quod in 
re tanti ponderis libere proferre possim." Tunc ut 
quicquam quod liberum sit libere proferre possis, man- 
cipium aulae foedissimum, Straffordii famulus et minis- 
ter, gulae etiam atque inguini turpissime serviens epis- 
copus ? Quem populus opinor universus de libertate 
concionantem veluti obscoenum portentum abomina- 
retur ; vel etiam lapidibus obrueret, aut siquid mitius, 
ecquis hue vincula et compedes, exclamarent; ut Ro- 
mani olim, Claudii quodam aulico ad concionandum 
misso, " Io, Saturnalia!" repente clamabant. Nam 
servis Romae, nisi festis Saturnalibus, libere loqui non 
licebat. " Nos," inquis, " super dejectos cantandoepi- 
niceia triumphamus." Recte quidem super hostes qui 
propter commoda quaedam sua cum tyranno conjurati, 
patriam ad servitutem redigere conabantur: et epinicia 
nos quidem minime omnium superbe cantamus, Deo 
semper gloriam tribuimus. Verum quid sibi volunt 
" epiniceia" tua, Bardocuculle ? An quiatam strenue- 
pergraecari solitus es, Greece idcirco intelligere te putas? 
"Angit" Miltonum, inquis, "quod Salmasius extra- 
neus aliquam notitiam caperetillarum rerum, quae nunc 
fiunt in Anglia : " non quod "notitiam caperet," sed 
quod rerum nihil ad se pertinentium arbitrum se faceret, 
veritatem turpissimis mendaciis perverteret, quos non 
norat, in eos convitiis et contumeliis inveheretur. 
" Fures," inquis, " lucem timent." Tu igitur fur om- 
nium pessimus, qui lucem times et nomen celas. Sacra 
etiam impuris manibus attrectas. Prov. 29. Cum 
boni regnant, populus gaudet ; cum mali dominantur, 
populus dolet : ea de causa cum Carolus dominabatur, 
populus dolebat. Quod omnes satis meminerunt. Ne- 
que leve signum est, eos jam gaudere, bonis remp. ge- 
rentibus; Carolum enim filium, etiam cum exercitu 
jam venientem,etlibertatem, quaincedit, omnibus pol- 
licentem, tanquam hostem aversantur ubique, et fu- 
giunt, vi etiam et armis cum summa alacritate propul- 
sant. 

Quam autem sis ineptus nunquam clarius perspi- 
citur, quam cum de te loqueris, ut hie. " Fateor," in- 
quis, " ut huic veteratori respondeam, me multo infe- 
riorem bonis omnibus et adjumentis vitae spoliatum." 
Quibusnam bonis ? Si bonis animi, doctrina et ingenio 
sis inferior, cur non parem tubi congressum potius 
quaesivisti ? Sed is puto es, qui esse doctum, esse 
eloquentem nihil aliud nisi esse divitem existimes: 



766 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO 



ut bonis extern is et vitae adju mentis spoliatus si 
sis, doctrina quoque et ingenio spoliatus tibi vide- 
are. Ain' vero tu " bonis omnibus spoliatum te 
esse?" Callidus nimis es et vafer, cupis celare divitias 
tuas, verum non potes. Indicabo eg\> te et facilitates 
tuas. Praster ilia bona, quae erepta tibi esse dicis, re- 
stat ad hue tibi, non enim celabis, ingens, eoque ingen- 
tius, quod nemo tibi eripiet, solcecismorum peculiam ; 
in eo gen ere divitiarum, neminem te locupletiorem 
cognovi. Extorrem praeterea te esse queritaris; vah 
quam indigne ! Ut perspicias igitur quam sum pro te 
sollicitus, est in Cilicia oppidum Soli antiquum, ut per- 
bibent, et satis amplum ; illuc omnes qui soloecismos 
tam strenue facere solent, coloniam ducunt; sarcinas 
igitur quam primum collige, eo enim te, tuasque 
omnes facilitates suadeo transferas. Permagna ibi 
te latifundia, mihi crede, manent, immo, nisi fallor, 
Soloecorum omnium principatum facile unus obtinebis. 
Verum quod nullum tibi unquam fuit (si ingenium di- 
cis quo inferiorem te factum fateris) id tibi nos scilicet 
eripuisse insimulas. Cum te contra ab adversario 
multas dictiones, et apte usitata ab eo verba inepte suf- 
furari non pudeat. " Superbire" Miltonum ais, " no- 
minibus suis et titulis in frontispicio suspensis." Quae 
ille nomina praeter suum, quos ille titulos in froute libri 
suos posuit ? An ideo superbus, quia se sui neque no- 
minis neque causes pudebat? Haeccine tibi " phylac- 
teria" sunt? " Salmasium," inquis, Miltonus, " tan- 
quam anonymum commitiiset scommatibus scurrilibus 
persequitur :" multo certe sermonis lepore et facetiis in 
bominem jocatur, tu scurrile quicquam ab eo dictum 
nequis ostendere. " Sed seculo venturo omnes Miltoni 
hoc nomine misere vapulabunt, ne forte" (id est ejus 
loquela, nisi forte) " judicet mundus, &c." Quicquid 
de Miltonis seculo venturo fiat, tu vates ventriloquus 
et infantissimus fide nulla es dignus. " Sed nil novi 
viros optimos nomina sua reticuisse." Nempe quia tu 
ita facis. " Sic sanctus Paulus ad Hebraeos;" scripsit 
enim ad nationem suo nomini infensissimam, de rebus 
admodum novis et parum creditis; tu vero populo An- 
glicano, tu exteris tibi et causae tuoe, ut ipse ais, mi- 
nime iniquis, de re notissima, et apud omnes gentes, ut 
idem ais, receptissima, et tamen male tibi conscius no- 
men occultas. " Sic Beza." Recte meministi, scrip- 
sit enim " Vindicias contra Tyrannos," quas tu inter 
" veritates" illas, " quae, ut nunc temporis, vix biscere 
audebant," recenses. " Virtus," inquis, apud nos " vitio 
vertitur." Quia Brammali scilicet virtutes, ebrietas, 
voracitas, alea, scortatio, vitia habentur. " Sed Canta- 
brigia et Oxonium suis invictis declaration] bus se ab 
hoc crimine liberarunt." At invictae illse declarationes 
fatuitatis et vaecordiae facile evincuntur : academiarum 
enim non erant, sed praelatorum factionis, quos ibi re- 
liqua erat. Rectius nunc sapiunt academiae. " Gene- 
van!," inquis, " Deodatus" hoc crimine " liberavit." 
Solus fortasse sensum ille suum, non totius academiae 
judicium explicavit. " Leydam quoque Salmasius." 
Non Leydensis tamen, sed externus. Leydenses liber- 
tate prius recuperata, quam literis clari erant. 

" Tot ergo doctorum et bonorum agmine circumval- 
latus," vix uno videlicet atque altero, " faciam rem non 



difficilem, causam Dei omnipotentis dicturus," Dei 
nimirum tui, hoc est ventris, aut Bacchi, qui tibi om- 
nipotens est; cujus auspiciis Brammalus 

Grammaticus, geometra, minister, alipta, sacerdos, 
Augur, sccenobates, medicus, magus, omnia novit. 
Brammalus esuriens, in coelum, jusseris, ibit. 

Sed eodem credo successu, quo grammaticatur. Nam 
" in tantam crevit audaciam, ut quicquid libet dicere, 
licet:" haec ejus syn taxis est. " Sed" Miltonus " mo- 
narchiam e mundo tollere laborat." Die ubi ? Omni- 
bus enim populis semper hoc liberum reliquit, sive mo- 
narchiam vellent, sive aliam regiminis formam ; tan- 
tummodo nolentibus imponi noluit. Ad soloecismos 
tuos redeo, qui jam vix intermittunt; " Quidni Salma- 
sio non pepercit rabula ? Videtur tamen sua canina fe- 
rocia catenis vinctus vel potius vinciendus, qui omnes 
undique mordit." Unde tibi isti nitores orationis et 
lumina, Brammale? Fieri non potest, quin omnes ob- 
scurorum virorum epistolas et locuios expilaveris. Cri- 
mini das Miltono, " quod is in partem adjutorii" (ejus 
enim barbarismis utor) " Deum vocet." Facis ut te 
decet episcopum atheum et prophanum. Sed miraris 
" qua fronte" Miltonus " ausus est dicere," se " haec, 
jubente parlamento, evulgasse." Primum Miltonus 
hoc nusquam dicet; sed dixisse finge, ut certe fingis, 
quid tu contra? " Si vera," inquis, " narrat, ubi Brown, 
vel Elsing, vel Scobel, clerici parlamentariorum ? " 
Nae tu homo vere minutulus es, et nullius pretii : ni- 
hilne putas jubente atque etiam libente parlamento 
prodire in lucem posse, nisi cui nomen clerici parla- 
mentarii adscribatur ? Mirum est tot tibi nugas cogi- 
tanti non hoc etiam in mentem venisse, quod vulgo 
dicitur, 

Clericus in libro non valet ova duo. 

Praesertim cujus tu farinae clericus es, qui mediocriter 
saltern Latine non intelligis ; si enim intellexisses, non 
hasc ejus verba, " quae authoritate parlamenti scripta 
et declarata sunt," de ejus libro dicta existimares, veriim 
de publicis parlamenti scriptis, et declarationibus pas- 
sim editis. Neque te quicquam ex verbis ejus lucra- 
tum esse censisses, quamvis quod dixisse eum falso ac- 
cusas, " factionem" rempubl. dixisset; factionem enim 
tam in bonam quam in malam partem olim dici vel 
pueris notum est. Progrederis deinde. " Una factio 
erat et armis se tuetur (non jure) tui." Quid tu hie 
tibi velis ? Si capis ipse, bene est, ego quidem non 
capio. Ut nee sequentia tua de " parlamento supremo, 
concilio summo, de grammatica" denique " comparandi 
gradibus laborante." Id te angit potius quod hierar- 
chia tua gradibus laborat. " Hunc," inquis, " honorem 
Deo ceditis, ut dum vos vestris mundanis gaudeatis, 
ne minimam religionis aut animarum curam suscipere 
velle, palam profitemini." En iterum foede soloecum ! 
Sed sane dignum est, et tu, qui animarum cura quid 
sit, nunquam scivisti, earn civili gladio commissam cre- 
deres. Nos vero, ais, " magno impetu prosternimus 
verae religionis cultores." Hostes quidem civiles et 
proditorcs, religionis autem cultores, religionis causa 
non prosternimus. " Salmasium" deinde crepas: tace 



AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



767 



de Salmasio, iile suos patitur manes, et in Suecorum 
aula jam diu friget. Sed Miltonus, ut omnes respub- 
licas et " illustrissimos etiam Hollandiae ordines " in 
partes suas pelliceret, " illorum principi " oblatrat. 
Advertite Hollandi,principem nupermortuum, vestrum 
principem appellat, nee vosquidem liberos esse patitur. 
Cavete, dum licet, ne pervagante hujusmodi aulicorum 
doctrina elatus, alter quispiam apud vos princeps ac 
dominus succrescat. Tandem " prseludium" hoc grandi 
solaecismo pene claudit, " haereditarium regis imperium, 
cui totus populus per multos annos juratus consen- 
tierunt." Vos lectores eruditi, quotquot literas huma- 
niores amatis, praefantem hunc Bavium, immo barba- 
rum, odio quo dignus est, et sibilo prosequimini. 



CAP. I. 

Pr^ludiis amotis fabulam expectabamus, promissas 
nimirum illas Miltoni confutationes. Et certe hoc 
sensu revera fabulam agit ; eorum enim quae promisit, 
nihil praestat ; sed partim maledictis, partim insulsis 
regiae fortunae miserationibus totum hoc caput exhau- 
rit. " Non sum," inquit, " tam auclax Phormio, ut 
Salmasio me compararem, quam Miltonus, qui se Sal- 
masio opponere auderet." Na3 tu Phormio quis fuerit 
in comoedia parum videris intelligere. At quid ais ? 
" Milton um Salmasio opponere se audere," grammati- 
corum Pyrgopolynici? Facinus ingensnarras. "Nam 
si authoritate," inquis, " dirimenda lis sit, plus fidei 
uni Salmasio, quam mille millenis Miltonis omnes in- 
genui et docti darent." At vero qui authoritatem vel 
Salmasio vel Miltono dant, nisi quam eorum alteruter 
ratione et argumentis sibi acquirit, ipsi neque docti, 
neque ingenui sunt. Miltonum exteris antehac ig- 
notum Veritas et ratio commendavit: Salmasium inane 
nomen, et multae lectionis opinio commendare sine 
ratione non valuit, quin ab amicis etiam ejus, et fautor- 
ibus longe inferior in hoc certamine sit judicatus. Tu 
totam de patribus disputationem satis callide abs te 
amoves, et quos nunquam consulueris. " Miltonum in 
plurimis Salmasio castigandum relinquis." Munus pro- 
fecto satis arduum Salmasio reliquisti, qui Miltoni re- 
sponsum cum legeret, ita, ut videtur, perculsus est et 
quatefactus, ut, soluta alvo, in latrinam putem coufu- 
gisse : unde scripsit ad amicos, cacabundus in base verba : 
" Ego istum Miltonum permerdabo et permingam." 
Balistam satis validam in postico geras oportet, Salmasi, 
qua merdas tam longe contorquere aut explodere te 
posse putas. Hinc est quod tam foetida meditantem jam 
diu in aula Suecise fcetere te dicant : neque mirum est, si 
Sueciae regina, quamvis opinione vulgi primiim decepta, 
nunc suo acri judicio compertum te et cognitum tam 
olentem Moevium a se abjecerit. Ferunt alii, cum pa- 
ginam unam atque alteram responsi illius percurrisset, 
furore correptum sic subito rodomontari caepisse. " Ego 
perdam istum nebulonem et totum parlamentum." Haec 
verba ipsius ad nos delata retuli ; et sane si istiusmodi 
homo est, non is idoneus qui castiget alios, sed qui ipse 



castigetur, in phreneticorum potius gymnasium depor- 
tandus. Progredere, " praetermissis," ut ais, " oratoriis 
et verisimilibus et Cicerone, Aristotele, Euripide, So- 
phocle, et aliis ethnicorum scriptis. Non enim Christi- 
anis necessario recurrendum est ad ethnicos." Nescis 
ergo Salmasium tuum banc prius afFectasse viam ? 
Miltonus eo tantum adversarium secutus est provocan- 
tem. Tu vero interim hypocrita ignavise tuae consulis, 
qui cum nullum sane bonum, aut facundum authorem 
unquam attigeris, id studio pietatis non fecisse te simu- 
las. Miltonus aiebat, " pater nos genuit, non rex." 
Tu inde nomen patris a specie ad numerum detorques, 
ut captiones hincquasdam et amphibolias frigidissimas 
consuere possis; quas ne recitatione quidem dignas exis- 
timo, adeo sunt ineptae et mucosas. " Si vero," inquis, 
"rex juvenis uxorem ambiens papam patrem sanctissi- 
mum appellaverit, non tam acri censura perstrigendus." 
Sic Zimri juvenis Moabissam uxorem ambiens a religio- 
ne vera defecit ; an excusatior idcirco est ? " Probabile," 
vero, ais, " esse quod literam secretariis suis scribendam 
commisit." E6 magis culpandus, qui rem tanti mo- 
menti, quaeque religionem atque honorem suum in dubi- 
um vocare poterat, secretariis tam minime probis com- 
miserit. Veriim et nos " regem Hispaniarum regem 
Catholicum" appellamus. Istarum literarum exemplar 
aequum est te proferre, si potes, sicuti nos regis ad 
papam protulimus. " Et quidni," inquis, " papam 
patrem sanctissimum appellaveritis, si in poliiicis vobis- 
cum sentiret." Sic scurrae solent deprebensi ; quod se 
fecisse constat, id alios facere velle calumniantur. 
Hos mores scurrarum lepidissime depingit Plautus : 

Nihil est profecto stultius atque stolidius, 
Neque mendaciloquius, neque perjurius, 
Quam urbani assidui cives, quos scurras vocant ; 
Qui omnia se simulant scire, nee quicquam sciunt, 
Quod quisquam in animo habet, aut habiturus est, sciunt, 
Quse neque futura, neque facta sunt, tamen illi sciunt. 

" Si hos vermes," ais, " regum auribus insidiantes, et 
velut intus existentes, prohibent alienum, ut neminem 
sibi fidelem audire poterat, rex radicitus extirpasset, 
&c." Credo istos vermes et auribus et cerebro tuo in- 
sidiantes, grammaticae rudimenta, siqua tibi insculpta 
erant, penitus exedisse. Rursus " Deodatum " aflfers, 
" qui regem nostrum unicum reformatae religionis de- 
fensorem insignivit." At, inquam, longius abfuit 
Deodatus, quam ut Carolum in cute nosse posset; ne 
dicam clausisse oculos, si post Rupellenses reformatos 
tam a Carolo praeclare defensos hoc dixerit. Sed pergis, 
" vobis qui Carolum e mundo sustulistis, tandem rede- 
undi patetvia in ^Egyptum, ex quo aegre detinemini." 
Eja solorum decus, quam te jam in municipio tuo so- 
lensi oblectas, a quo nemo te possit detinere, ne si 
furca quidem expelleret. Miltonus, ais, " nee locum, 
nee librum, ubi a se prolata" e summorum theologorum 
libris " inveniemus, exhibet." At ista loca Miltonus 
facile protulisset, uisi ipse Salmasius adversos sibi 
plerosque reformatos theologos haud uno in loco fassus 
esset ; quae tamen loca eorum scripta legentibus ita 
passim occurrunt, ut hinctua potius ignorantiaconstet, 
qui neque illos, neque ipsum Salmasium praelegisse 
videris. Jam " Davidis" exemplum omnibus notum 



7G8 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO 



narras. Rationes autem illas, quas attulit Miltonus ; 
cur exeraplura illud ad causam hanc non pertineret, 
non attingis ; tantummodo unctum Domini, unctum 
Domini ingeminas. Die sodes ergo, estne omnis rex 
unctus Domini ? Omnis, ais, praesertim Christianus. 
Cur ergo dux Josua quinque unctos Domini uno die 
suspendit? Nam Christianos si dices non fuisse, ridicu- 
him est; quandoquidem Christianum profiteri, cum sit 
maleficus, neminem supplicio debito eximere potest. 
" David," inquis, " viam nobis monstravit tolerantiae, 
ut Deo judici relinquetur, qui impoenitentem percutiet, 
ut morietur." Quid me cogis ? defessus jam pene 
sum, solenses tuas delitias perambulando. Ad David- 
em recurris; Salmasioresponsum erat eadem inculcanti, 
Davidem privatum privatas injurias ulcisci noluisse. 
Tu parlamentum omne privatum esse dicis, regem Ca- 
rolum, unctum Domini fuisse; nihil tamen horumpro- 
bas ; nihil ab adversario dictum cum ratione oppugnas. 
" Si ex aura populari," inquis, " diademata regibus 
auferenda, quis non vellet se ex infima plebe terrae 
filium potius esse quam regem?" Id noli timere ; ut- 
cunque non deessent reges. Neque te, credo, hoc de- 
terrebat, quo minus episcopatum turpiterambires, quam- 
vis populo invisum. " At Miltonus," ais, " dum potes- 
tatem populi in reges suos imprudenter praedicat, reges 
omnes esse tyrannos instruit." Sic sane ut lex instruit 
homicidas, quia vetat. 

" Jam Troja maneret," ais, 

" Consilio Priami si foret usa senis." 

At vero noster Priamus, vel Paris potius, non Trojae 
usus consilio, sed Helenoe suae, et se perdidit et regnum 
suum. Jam ordine perrupto ad nonum puto vel deci- 
mum caput excurris. Miltonum, ais, asseruisse, " nul- 
lum membrum parlamenti absque proprio consensu in 
judicium vocari posse, regem" autem tu saltern " mem- 
brum " parlamenti esse dicis. Praspropere tu quidem 
id ibas petitum, quod nusquam erat, neque a quoquam, 
quod memini, unquam dictum. Hoc etiam responsum 
tulisse regem, cum quinque membra posceret falsissi- 
mum est, quod ex ilia re gesta satis liquet. " Nosti," 
inquis, " quod nisi a sicariis vestris impeditus populus 
esset, regem e vestris manibus eripuissent." Verum 
quos tu populum esse existimas, nos non putamus. An 
vero regiorum gregem ilium perditum, totiesque domi- 
tum, populum appellas? Nos ita non existimamus : 
victi bello, quod ipsi intulerant, jus populi amiserunt. 
Miltonum gravitur accusas, quod dixerit, Salmasium 
regis mortem inepte plorantem, legentium neminem 
pilo tristiorem reddidisse. Non ergo in Miltonum, sed 
in stolidissimas conducti ploratoris naenias culpam con- 
ferre debes. 

Men' moveat quippe, et cantet si naufragus, assem 

Protulerim. Verura : nee nocte paratum 

Plorabit, qui me volet incurpasse querela. 

" Majori patientia," inquis, " ferunt episcopi convitia 
tua." Episcoporum sane patientia omnibus nota est. 
Hie vero quasi interno dolore perculsus, magno fervore 
et conatu, episcoporum caeremonias et ambitiones as- 
serere contendis. Unde apertius licet conjicere, te 



Brammalum lurconem ilium quern antea diximus esse, 
qui episcopos combibones, et commessatores tuos, belli 
civilis faces, tam gnaviter defendis. " Quot duxerit 
Hippia moecnos," inquis, " innumerabiles sunt." At 
multo magis innumerabiles, quot Brammulus fecerit 
moechas. " Sed rex noster," ais, " templa nostra de- 
center ornavit et honoravit in honorem Dei, nunquam 
in equorum stabulos convertebat." Nunquam, mihi 
crede, templa vestra tam " decenter ornavit," quam tu 
Solorum templa egregiis tuis ornasti soloecismis, quo- 
rum monumenta sane sempiterna nunquam interibunt. 
Te Deum omnes solceci, te patronum tam praeclare de 
illo municipio meritum coleut posthac in secula, et invo- 
cabunt ; in memoriam etiam eloquentiae tuce tam asi- 
ninae, non scholas discipulis tuis, sed " stabulos " dica- 
bunt. Regem autem vestrum aio minime omnium 
" templa" ornasse, sed ipsum potius in equorum stabula, 
atque in haras etiam convertisse, dum tot immundos 
praelatos, tot porcos episcopos, te denique spurcissimum 
in Ecclesiam introduxit. — " Regias" jam " partes agi," 
dicis, si Presbyterianos graviiis incusemus. Nee tamen 
Christus ipse et Apostoli, falsos Evangelii doctores, 
fratres subdititios, religionis praetextu Ecclesiae insidi- 
antes, mitius olim increpabant. — An ergo dicta eorum 
aut scripta " digladiari in se invicem" dices, quod 
suos vel libentes, vel deficientes a fide atque integri- 
tate liberrime reprehenderent ? " Ubi mutatur forma 
reipublicae ex monarchia in aliam, non datur successio, 
&c." Non hunc Miltonus solum, sed Salmasius " obi- 
cem Carolo secundo" posuit; ejus enim verba sunt, si 
advertisses. Verum tu, aut coecus aut demens, in socios 
pariter ac hostes incurris. " Tanta," inquis, " illorum 
astutia omnia obliterata sunt, ut conclamatum est de 
viribus humanis ; sed nos qui per fidem in Deum ex- 
pectamus resurrectionem futuram, &c." Apage sis 
temulente. Quid tibi aut vinolentiis tuis cum fide, 
quem si porcula tua majora ita consopirent, ut resurgere 
nunquam posses, felicius profecto consultum tibi foret. 
" Scires libenter quid per populum" velimus. Scirem 
ego vicissim, quid Romani per senatum populumque 
Romanum volueriut. Quoeris " quod remedium restat 
populo contra tyrannidem parlamenti." Turn id quo- 
que dicam, cum causae quid erit; nunc supervacua ne 
quaere. 



CAR II. 

Definierat Salmasius regem " Deo solo minorem, 
legibus solutum ; si nostram rempub. sic definiret ali- 
quis," consensuros nos esse ais, qui tamen regis illam 
definitionem oppugnavimus. Institutum hoc tuum 
esse video, cum refutare nihil possis, posse saltern ca- 
lumniari. " Et qui penetrabit" Miltoni "scripta," 
inquis, "nil praeter barbariem et insaniam inveniet." 
Dirumpi ergo necesse est te, qui tot viros doctos et 
probos de Miltoni scriptis longe aliter sentire, invitus 
quotidie cernis. Barbariem vero tu cuiquam impu- 
dentissime ? quem praeter linguae fatuitatem, cum 






AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



769 



sensus belluini et stupor, turn etiam mores in ipsa 
vastitate barbariae natum atque nutritum clamant. 
Utcunque tamen siquid affers audiamus. " Petrus su- 
premum vocat regem." Supereminentetn quidem 
vocat; idque vulgari potius loquendi more, quam vere 
politico, pro eorum captu ad quos scripsit. Sic consul 
Romanus v-rrarog est vocatus, id est supremus, quo modo 
et Polonite rex, et dux Venetiarum supremus vocari 
potest; qui tamen, si politicas rationes accuratius inire 
volumus, et multorum instituta regnorum, supremi non 
sunt. Ita igitur supremum vocasse regem Apostolus 
censendus est, ut tamen leges cuj usque gentis, et jura, 
et reipub. formam inviolatam esse vellet. — Et certe non 
tam supremus quis sit, docet aut disputat, quam quas 
ob causas et quatenus obedientiam sive supremis, sive 
praesidibus praestare debeamus : id Miltonus copiose 
explicuit; tu nescio an tuae conscientia vecordiae, con- 
sulto praetermittis. " Quasi," inquis, " triginta Atbe- 
nis tjranni non plus poterantin damnum populi, quam 
unus si maxime tjrannus esse voluerit." At inquam 
ego contra, nullus unquam fuit unus, " si maxime tj- 
rannus esse voluerit," quin tyrannos non triginta solum, 
sed trecentos, atque etiam multo plures in damnum 
populi constituere soleret : frustra igitur sub uno sive 
monarchia, tyranno melius populo fore speras: nullus 
enim in republica tyrannus unquam unus fuit, quin 
plurimos sibi adsciscere tyrannos necesse habuerit. 
" Rex si abutetur," inquis, " potestate sua in regni de- 
trimentum, a suis subditis impediri potest et debet." 
Recte concedis: sed quousque impediri possitac debeat 
non dicis. Potest enim tyrannus eousque procedere in 
detrimentum regni, ut nisi vim vi repellamus, eumque 
pro hoste habeamus, impedire nullo modo possimus. 
Concedis igitur ipse, et frustra contendis veritate victus, 
sed videri concedere non vis, pertinaciae studiosior, 
quam veritatis ; nam quod impediri ais tyrannum de- 
bere, " non in judicium trabi et capite plecti" vel " ab 
uno" vel " ab omnibus," sed " Dei judicio relinquen- 
dum esse," nugae sunt, et gratis dictae; quae singula, 
non affirmanda, sed probanda tibi restant. Vis mo- 
narchiam reipublicae forma esse perfectiorem. Id nos 
in praesentia non agimus. Tua tamen argumenta, quo- 
niam vacat, videaraus. " Introductam a Deo" dicis 
"in ultimum et praestantissimum remedium populo 
toties ab inimicis subacto sub judicibus." — Primum cur 
illud praestantissimum remedium non primo potius, 
quam ad ultimum adhibitum fuerit, cum Deus rempub. 
suam quam praestantissimis legibus formaret; deinde 
cum Israelitae regem peterent, post annos circiter 
quadringentos sub judicibus exactos, si monarcbia prae- 
stantissimum illud remedium Deo visum est, cur ab ea 
dissuaserit populum suum ac deterruerit, solum. Cur 
denique petentes eos peccati gravissimi reos fecerint, 
fac quaeso intelligamus : " quod Theocratiam," inquis, 
" rejicerent," nempe sub judicibus. At vero illi non 
minus in monarcbia theocratiam retinere poterant, ac 
debebant; sin minus, tu monarchiam dum praestantis- 
simam esse dicis, non theocratiam sed atheocratiam 
cave dixeris ; in qua Deus tam prcesens regere suum 
populum quam sub judicibus non potuit. Certe si 
gubernantibus illis theocratiam in republica fuisse 



dicis, ut certe fuit, haud aliam gerendae reipublicae 
formam praestantiorem, ut sunt res mortalium, invenire 
quisquam poterit. "Respondeat mihi," inquis, "tuus 
populus Anglicanus, utrum ligneo Caroli jugo excusso, 
aliquam miseriarum relaxationem inveniant." Re- 
spondet itaque jugum se Caroli ferreum a conscientiis 
suisdepulisse,jugum idem episcoporum; sua vectigalia, 
suosque census non nunc aulicae luxuriae, et libidinibus, 
sed vincendis hostibus et propagandis imperii finibus 
ultro se impendere. " Leges," ais, " Mosi et regibus a Deo 
datas quibus regant populum ; num populo lex data, ut 
reges regeret ? " Immo aperte leges tam Mosi et regibus, 
quam caetero populo sunt datae, ut tam se, quam popu- 
lum regerent ; sin minus, ita ut regerentur ab aliis, ut 
ne lex Dei cuivis mortalium frustra daretur. " Quis 
gerit," inquis, " gladium ? populus?" Immo populus 
per magistratum, quem sive unum sive plures ex omni 
suo numero elegerit. Neque ullas propterea confu- 
siones, quas metuis, excitari necesse erit. " Si vel 
pedem," inquis, " fig'eres," de regibus actum erit Sog 
7rov frjauj Kal tt]v yrjv Kivrjffu). Utinam pedem ipse 
tandem figeres, Silene, si Brammalus es. Nam nos 
locum, ubi stes ebrius, dare non possumus, quin ea 
quae fixissima sunt et firmissima, tibi in gyrum moveri, 
et cum cerebro tuo semper madente circumnatare vide- 
antur. " Quis te" inquis, "juramento regi praestito 
liberare potuit?" Juramentum ipsum, quo regi non 
propter regem, sed reipubl. causa, obstricti fuimus; 
quam cum perditum iret, et suum ipse prius jusjuran- 
dum violavit, et nostrum solvit. Nihil enim naturae, 
nihil rationi aut gentium juri contrarium magis esset, 
quam si regi jusjurandum suum violare ad libidinem 
liceret, populus servare fidem ad perniciem suam tene- 
retur. " Ut dicto audientes Mosi fuimus, ita erimus 
tibi, modo Deus tecum sit, quemadmodum fuit cum 
Mose." Sic Reubenitae ad Jehosuam. " Conditionem 
hie nullam" vides " expressam." Ad Anticyras ergo 
naviga, aut domi crapulam edormisce; eras, mihi crede, 
nihil expressius videbis, neque tam stulte interrogabis, 
" quid si Deus Josuam desereret," sed quid si Josua 
Deum desereret : turn enim quid facturi essent Reu- 
benitae, tibi respondebimus. " Nutare mihi crede jus 
regium videtur." Hoc de jure regio, prout Salmasius 
describit, dictum est. Neque est hoc " monarchiam 
legitimam in Carolo trucidare," quod tu toties invidiose 
et parasitice vociferaris. Nunc quod minime es, vatem 
scilicet et concionatorem piissimum multis deinceps 
verbis agere cupis ; dumque adulterum videri te 
metuis, profers adulterinum. " Digitum Dei agnosci- 
mus et veneramur punientem ingratum populum." 
At populo bene est et prospere, quem tu nequicquam 
ingratitudinis accusas ; tu potius Dei digitum agnosce, 
te tuosque una cum omnibus tyranni fautoribus insig- 
niter punientem. " Nondum," ais, " Hispania et Pon- 
tificii velum abduxerunt." Quid nobis Hispaniam et 
Pontificios toties immerito objicis ; qui non iguoremus 
Carolum tuum minorem in Belgio commorantem lega- 
tes ad Papam misisse, ut vel ab ipso Antichristo rex 
reformatio contra patriam et reformatos auxilium im- 
ploraret ? " Persecutio," inquis, "jam in Anglia max- 
ima est, quae fuerat a tempore quo populus aliquis 



770 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO 



inhabitabat." An major ea quam Brammalus in 
Hibernia nuper excitavit, qui curiam inquisitionis, con- 
scientiis hominum tam infestam et tyrannicam, primus 
omnium in Hiberniam introduxit. Te vero ilium 
ipsum fuisse sequentia clarius ostendunt. In hoc enim 
jam totus es, ut Ecclesiasticam tyrannidem defendas. 
" Nam quod tanla," inquis, "jam patimur, baec est 
ratio prcecipua, quod in aliquibus Anabaptistarum et 
caeterorum omnium schismaticorum clamoribus viam 
concedentes, uno dato absurdo sequuntur infinita." 
Ipsissimus hie Brammalus ille antiquum obtines, qui re- 
formatis omnibus schismaticorum nomine infamatisom- 
nem conscientire libertatem adimere perpetuo studebas. 
Nunc illorum importunitati, id est, conscientiae, etiam 
nonnulla unquam concessa fuisse graviter doles. 
" Reges Anglorum judicari posse a suis subditis," Mil- 
tonum ais docere, " exemplo pravorum temporum, et 
jure a sapientibus damnatis chartis obsoletis, et ob 
multas corruption es merito explosis." Quid isto ho- 
minum genere absurdius aut impudentius ? quaerunt 
modo quo jure, qua lege factum quidque a nobis sit, 
si leges non recitamus, contra eas fecisse nos judicant ; 
si leges nostras proferimus antiquas, ratas, atque notis- 
simas, hi statim " obsoletas et merito explosas " esse 
aiunt: nee tamen quo tempore explosas aut abrogatae 
fuerint, usquam ostendunt. Ita, dum tyrannidem sine 
autoritate asserere cupiunt, et vetera et nova pariter 
rejiciunt. " Quidni," inquis, Uzzias rex leprosus " a 
sacerdotibus templo deturbaretur, cum Deus leprae pro- 
bendae, et leprosi omnis excludendi potestatem et 
mandatum sacerdotibus dederat." At vero idem 
Deus, lex eadem omnis malefici puniendi potesta- 
tem et mandatum magistratibus dederat, neque ma- 
gis tamen leprosi regis exturbandi, quam malefici 
regis puniendi vel hie vel illic mentio facta est. Si 
leprae judicio regem eximi non vis, quia nominatim 
non excipitur, eadem certe ratione neque ullis aliis 
legibus aut judiciis regem exemeris. Sed video 
quid agitis, ut regem quamvis vestra sententia supre- 
mum, vobis tamen sacerdotibus subjiciatis, utque rex in 
populum absoluto atque supremo dominaretur imperio, 
vos sacrificuli supremo superiores eodem imperio domi- 
naremini in regem. " Consensus," inquis, " populi et 
inauguratio tantiim adjuncta necessaria fuere." Hoc 
in Saulc, Davide, ej usque posteris concedo, de quibus 
nominatim creandis Dei mandatum preecesserat : tu 
idem de Carolo aut ullis ejus majoribus ostende. 
" Rex," ais, " nunquam pepigit cum populo, ut illi 
eum castigarent si aliter quam bene regeret." Neque 
populus cum rege pepigit, se illi, quicquid collibitum 
est facienti,in perniciem suam obtemperaturos. Neque 
vero in privato quovis syngrapho, ullus unquam pepigit 
ut creditoribus liceret, si is debitum non solveret, lege 
in eum agere, et in carcerem conjicere, ejusque bona 
possidere, quoad plene sibi satisfactum esset. Haec et 
istiusmodi quae accidere nollemus, in pactionibus et 
foederibus vel honoris causa vel boni ominis consulto 
non exprimimus; quia cum paciscimur, talia nunquam 
eventura optamus; quae etiam sine monitis intelligere 
per se quisque et cavere debet. Tu hie tritum illud 
ingeris ; " per me reges regant;" fatemur, sicut et per 



eum sunt, agunt, et moventur omnia : tu " modo pecu- 
liari," inquis. Tu, inquam, de tuo hoc dicis, autori- 
tatem verbi divini nullam affers. Subjicis, " alioqui 
cui fini ilia praecepta obedientiae in Novo Testamento." 
Quoties tibi respondebitur, obedientiam absurdam et 
irrationabilem in Novo Testamento non praecipi ; sed 
qualis ea, et quibus, et quam ob causam prsestanda sit, 
luculentissime doceri. Qui habet aures, audiat. " Qui 
repugnant," inquis, " damnabuntur, quod proculdubio 
nunquam minaretur Apostolus, si privatorum tantiim 
rationem vel paucorum habuerat." Quasi vero multi 
privati sine magistratuum authoritate seditiosi esse non 
possint; quid hoc ad populum cum magistratibus et 
Parlamento contra tyrannos arma sumentem ? " Hoc 
honore Deus dilectos suos decoravit, ut gentium reges 
viuculis coercerent, &c." Id fieri dicis " Evangelicis 
non legalibus catenis." Insipide prorsus. An vindicta 
ergo sic exercetur in gentes? An ferreae compedes 
Evangelii vincula sunt, quas Psalmus ille regibus et 
proceribus minatur ? Tu hoc, ut soles, de sacerdotibus, 
non de bonis magistratibus et populo intelligi vis, qui 
pontificale quoddam regnum tuorum in omnes Laicos 
futurum somnias, " Israelitee," inquis, " quia regem 
rejecere, a Salmansore in captivitatem sunt abducti. 
Judsei, qui regi Rehoboamo fideles manserant, sub 
illius tutela securi vivebant." Historiam sacrae Scrip- 
turae si consuluisses, non nescires Hierosolymas sub 
ipso statim Rehoboamo a Sesako iEgyptiorum rege 
captas, et thesauris suis spoliatas, longe prius quam 
Israelites in captivitatem abducerentur. " Jeroboamo 
Deus decern tribus assignavit, quod de vestra repub. 
nobis non constat." Tam nobis, inquam, de nostra 
repub. quam vobis de vestro Carolo : immo longe plus. 
" Vestros," inquis, " Capnomantes et Entheos pro Dei 
vatibus non recipimus." Neque nos te praesertim 
aleatorem, ebriosnm, et scortatorem episcopum : cujus 
vaticinia hoc capite soloecorum floribus ornatissima in 
gratiam tui studiosorum, nequid tam emuncti authoris 
desideraretur, hue in fine congessimus. " Aristocratia 
nonnunquam cachistocratia dicenda." Tam orthogra- 
phice hoc abs te quam etymologice est dictum, siqui- 
dem duo contraria simul vera esse possunt. " Spes 
nulla restat ut in pristinam felicitatem restituamur. 
Nee dubitamus quin plus apud Deum valebunt miseriae 
nostras. Regibus potius mandasset Apostolus populo 
obedire, ne solio suo dejiciantur. Non dicimus quin 
reges tenentur. Velut defessi reformatae religionis ; 
in aliquibus illis viam concedentes, uno dato absurdo 
sequuntur infinita, &c." 



CAP. III. 

" Duobus capitibus a tergo relictis." Etiamne a 
fuga incipis, tergiversator ? At nos non tergum, sed 
frontem, sed nomen etiam tuum fronti inscriptum 
maluimus. Manedum igitur, obverte faciem illam 
insignem Brammaleam, non ferri, sed vini vulneribus 
sauciam, gemmulis coeruleis, rubeolis, purpureis et 



AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



771 



purulentissimis bullatam atque distinetam ; nam quibus 
te quisquam telis, nisi si raphanis fugientem insequatur 
moechum, nescio. Sed fortasse more Partbico fugiens 
soles tela conjicere : conjice ergo. " Qui populo," in- 
quis, " potestatem gladii ascribit, populum impunem re- 
linquerenecessehabet; quisenim populum puniret leges 
transgredientem ?" Fateor, siquidem universus peccat, 
nam universum punire populum, ne rex quidem aut 
solet aut potest. Non magis ergo necesse est populum 
impunem relinquere, si populus, quam si rex potestatem 
gladii solus habeat; ciim in statu populari poems aeque 
obnoxius quisque sit atque in monarchia. " Liturgiam 
profligavimus." Missale scilicet Papisticum, paucis 
admodum mutatis, ex Latino duntaxat Anglice editum, 
una cum episcopis qui tarn fraudulenter earn et pa- 
pistice concinnarunt, quid ni profligaremus ? nam et 
aliam, ut fateris ipse, substituimus, magis videlicet or- 
thodoxam, et verbo Dei consentaneam, ut, quirequirit, 
habeat, si necesse est, qua salubriter possit uti. " Sub- 
jecti estote propter dominum, quamobrem ? quia con- 
stituitur potestasa Deo ad ultionem facinorosorum, &c." 
At " Rex, cui subjecti esse jubentur, erat Nero vel 
Claudius." Generalem doctrinam de magistratu, quis 
sit aut esse debeat, tradit Apostolus, deque obedientia, 
quare magistratui prsestanda sit, quod tibi satis sit. 
Nero an Claudius regnaverit, nihil refert ; desine tan- 
dem nugis istis nos obtundere. " Judaeorum," inquis, 
" caeremoniis et lege judiciaria liberamur." Incassum 
igitur tu tantopere laboras, ut nos regii apud illos im- 
perii exemplo in servitutem regibus addicas. ; ' Utcun- 
que," inquis "de Dei instinctu gloriamini, ad tribunal 
divinum sistendi, respondebitis, &c." Quid alii tunc 
responsuri sint, ne sit tibi curse. Tu, quid de alea, de 
scortis, de ebrietate episcopali respondebit Brammalus, 
ipse cogita. Potestates non legitimas, sed quascunque 
intelligi, ais, ab Apostolo, quia Deus praefecit Saulem 
fet caeteros malos reges Judaeis. At vero Paulus de 
& ^testate loquitur, quam et summe legitimam descri- 
cu * non loquitur de viro, qui, a Deo licet electus, si 
van ea nequissimus evadit, et potestatem exercet longe 
oim n, atque a Deo accepit, et cui duntaxat nos illic 
obedire jubemur, id sibi, non Deo imputandum erit. 
" Verisimilius," inquis, " quod Anglia Carolo filio de- 
bellandi, tandem in crepitum putidissimum et ridiculum 
erupturi sint." Videsne jam ut Deus, omnium rerum 
arbiter, omen hoc tuum, ventriloque, in te tuosque 
avertit ? Videsne ut ipse tuus Carolus in crepitum eva- 
nuit, immo ipse crepitus fieri putidissimus optaret, 
dummodo ex hostium manibus hoc pacto elabi queat. 
" Supponemus," inquis, "tuam rempubl. in tjrannidem 
degenerare, non teneris obedire illorum potestati?" 
Concede tu prius, si rex in tyrannum degeneraret, non 
teneri te regi obedire ; turn nos satis mature tibi de re- 
publica respondebimus. " Potuit," inquis, " Apostolus 
dixisse bonos magistratus." At vero ita dixisse, ex 
descriptione magistratus quamibi posuit, aperte liquet. 
" Sed nullo," inquis, " argumento fortius evincitur 
regis potestas, quam quod Apostoli mandant nullis con- 
ditionibus limitatam." At rursus inquam, ipsa potes- 
tatis descriptio, qu83 copiosissima ibi est, conditiones 
sapienti abunde suppeditat. "Rex," inquis, "a Deo 
3 n 



missus quantumvis malus ferendus, caetera mala in 
pamam veniunt." Quasi vero rex etiam malus in 
pcenam non veniret, quod tibi toties in ore est, " re- 
mediis" idcirco vel tuo judicio " auferendus. Multum," 
inquis, " Miltono debent orthodoxi, quod tarn ridi- 
culam opinionem iis assignaret, populum scilicet uni- 
versum regi ignavissimo esse parem." Magno sane 
acumine mendacium hoc vibras; sed parum inde lu- 
craris. Miltonus enim populum non solum parem regi, 
sed superiorem semper affirmavit. Hoc loco sententiam 
suam non profert, Salmasium tantummodo perstringit, 
quod ex Sorbonistarum scriptis populum regi vel parem 
esse negaverit, quern superiorem dixisse oportuerit. 
Verum ita misere caecutire soles, ut in Salmasium pro 
Miltono impetum saepiuscule facias. Haec praeter in- 
eptias densissimas, quas infra omne responsum esse 
judico, confutationum tuarum in hoc capite summa est; 
unde otium nobis hie etiam tarn pingue accidit, ut 
rursus vacet elegantias hominis nitidissimas gleba so- 
lorum ubere natas ad ornandas Soloecorum porticus et 
spatia decerpere. " Tuba sonitum incertum edit, ut 
nemo se ad colendum Deum praeparare potest. Non 
dubitamus quin multi religionem Christianam amplexi 
sint. Tanquam nulla erat malorum principum po- 
testas. Non quin Deus omnia ita disposuit. Si enim 
ad populum provocandum (ut vos primo fecistis ut 
omnia confundaretis) nemo per diem integrum imperare 
poterat. Omnes patres nullius aestimat. Sed utinam 
tam humaniter cum Carolo agere voluistis. Populum 
contra regem defendere suscipis." Et alia hujusmodi. 



CAP. IV. 

"In proecedentibus Miltonus leo rugiens, qui reges 
omnes devoraret, hie draco occulte insidians, et vulpe- 
culam agit, nam quo lapidem non potest, vota jacit." 
Aut insanit hie homo, aut versus facit, novas chimaeras, 
novas metamorphotras fingit sibi lympbatus. Certe 
Miltonus si leo rugiens vobis est visus, facitis haud ab- 
surde, ut id sponte fateamini. Te contra asinum ruden- 
tem prima voce agnovimus, teque risu perinde et fustibus 
excipimus. " Semper," inquis, " populum in adjutori- 
um vocat Priapus in horto." Quod Priapus in horto, 
id Brammalus in sacello. Verissimum hoc esse tota 
fere Hibernia non ignorat. " Quos populus," inquis, 
" creat, si nulla Dei ratio habeatur, potius obedientiam 
ab iis postularet, quam illis prseberet." Praeter ilia 
quae prius respondi, qualem requirat obedientiam Apos- 
tolus, scias insuper, Apostolos non toti Romano senatui 
et consulibus, neque magno ullius gentis concilio, aut 
ullius regni ordinibus conventus legitimos peragentibus 
obedientiam praecepisse, sed privatis et singulis. Rex 
vero, ut nosti, singulis quidem major, universis vero 
minor est. Beneficia deinde Caroli in populum enume- 
ras, quae nulla unquam exstitere, sed damna potius et 
detrimenta, et summa plane dedecora. " Unctum 
Domini," inquis, " vel Christum Domini si dicas Chris- 
tianum non tam interest." Atqui Salmasius Saulem 
Christum Domini nuncupaverat. Tibi ut videtur, Saul 
non solum inter prophetas sed inter Christianos est. 



772 



JOANNIS PHTLIPPI RESPONSIO 



Dicitur autem, 1 Reg-. 11. Salomon obdormivit, et Re- 
hoboamus regnavit loco ejus. Et hoc, inquis, dicitur, 
"antequam populusSechem venit ut ilium regem face- 
rent." Hoc vero non aliter dictum fuisse, quam ut 
histories series manifestior esset, ex primo sequentis 
capitis versu apparet. Populus enim Sechemum venit, 
ut Rehoboamum regem constituerent, vel regnare face- 
rent, ut est Hebra'ice ; ergo antea certe aut non regna- 
vit, aut in Judaea tantum. " Populum," inquis, "per 
incendiarios fuisse incitatum, videlicet Jeroboamum et 
comites suos." At vero Jeroboam us non populum, sed 
populus ilium incitavit. Jeroboamus enim, audita 
Salomonis morte, adhuc in iEgypto morabatur. Sed 
Israelitas mittentes accersiverunt eum, 1 Reg. 12. Mira- 
ris " impudeutiam" ejus qui affirm aret, "non vocari 
rebelles qui in Roboamum arma sumpserunt." Tuam 
potius non impudentiam solum, sed impietatem demiror, 
qui eos rebelles appellare ausus sis, quos Deus eo ipso 
loco fratres sui populi nominavit. At instas, ibidem 
etiam dictum esse, " sic rebellavit domus Israel a 
domo David." At vero verbum hie " rebellavit " mitius 
intelligi pro quacunque defectione, neque in malum 
sensum rapi debet. Propterea vertunt alii " defecit," 
non " rebellavit ;'" cujus enim defectionis authorem se 
Deus ipse profitetur, scriptura malam et illicitam pro- 
culdubio non dicit. Sic Ezechia verbo non minus 
duro rebelasse in regem Assyriae dicitur ; quod tamen 
ejus factum Deus etiam auxilio coelitus misso approba- 
vit. Deus Israelitis regem petentibus graviter iratus 
est, quamvis regis petendi, si vellent,ex lege Mosis jus 
habuerit? Tu, "num irascitur Deus," inquis, "populo 
petenti quod ad illos jure pertinet." Id, inquam, 
facile potest fieri ; nihil enim obstat quo minus id ad 
populum jure pertineret, et tamen irasci Deus illis 
merito potuit, quod cum in eo quod optimum erat ac- 
quievisse penes ipsos esset, deterius quod erat antepone- 
bant. Affirmas " Deum graviore poena puniise rebelles 
Israelitas," quippe u veram sui cognitionem ab iis abs- 
tulisse." At ubi id unquam legi^ti, nugator, Israelitas 
illam defectionem idololatria luisse, cum Deus ipse 
Jeroboamo mox rebellaturo bona omnia pollicitus sit, 
seque illi Israelitas traditurum esse, si ejus praeceptis 
auscultasset, 1 Reg. 11. Sed orthodoxi, inquis, " semper 
cum Carolo fuere, nam quicquid moribus peccant non- 
nulli, inopia coacti, religionem tamen reformatam non 
deseruerunt." Num vero vestros orthodoxos, cum rege 
suo, inopia coegit gentes vicinas ebrio agmine,blasphe- 
mo, libidinosissimo ac ferocissimo oberrare, omnique im- 
pietatis genere omnes Anglos, tanquam sui similes, infa- 
mes reddere ? " Nobiscum" tua sententia " vitulae aureas; 
vobiscum mensa dominica, oratio dominica, symbol um 
Apostolorum, decern mandata." Atqui ea ipsa sacra quos 
apud vos solos esse inaniter jactas, vobis, pro more vestro, 
superstitiose et hypocritice abutentibus, nihil aliud pro- 
fecto quam vituloe aureas sunt. u Deum," inquis, " sibi 
contrarium statuimus." Quidni? An quod argumen- 
tum Salmasii nihil valere ostendit Miltonus, idcirco 
ne Deum sibi contrarium statuit. Dixerat Salmasius, 
omnes reges esse a Deo; Miltonus non omnes rcges, 
sed omnes regendi formas, sal litis causa adhibitas, cujus 
etidfm causa populi conventus, comitia, et consilia ha- 



bentur. Ergo vel ipsius argumento non magis regi 
licet resistere populo propter rempubl. convocato, 
quam populo licet resistere regi a Deo ordinate, quan- 
doquidem et populi conventus legitimi a Deo quoque 
sunt ut Sechemi olim contra Roboamum fuisse testifi- 
catur ipse Deus. " Utrum," inquis, " ille tyrannus, 
qui viginti tribus annis regnans, neminem pro sua 
voluntate mori coegit ; an vos qui inter decern annos 
regem ipsum et plus quam quingentos mille hominum 
trucidastis ? " Quid ais, mille quingentos ? numerum 
sane perexiguum narras ; neque ullus unquam, credo 
minori jactura bellum tarn sasvum confecit. Profecto 
si tarn scires latine quam sis malitiose loqui, non 
quingentos mille, sed quingenta millia, opinor te 
dicere voluisse. Quis vero Carolo pejor tyrannus, 
quis poena dignior, qui per tria regna plus decies 
centena hominum millia partim laniena ilia Hiber- 
nica, partim bello iniquissimo occidit. Negas quod 
superiore argumento dictum est, regem non debere 
populo resistere : negas populum quicquam posse 
in regem, quia populus " inferior est," rex " supe- 
rior." At memineris regem natura superiorem non 
esse, sed consensu tantum est suffragiis populi ad earn 
esse dignitatem evectum, publicas salutis causa ; quo 
ab officio si plane desciveret, superior esse desinit ; 
quia cur esset superior causa nulla amplius est. Ciim 
munus regium perperam administraverat, ob quod 
munus duntaxat, cum unus e multis primo fuerit, fac- 
tus omnium supremus est. Ad id quod dixerat Mil- 
tonus, non quod Deus jussit tyrannum interimi, ideo 
bonum erat, sed quod bonum erat, idcirco Deus jussit, 
tu respondes, " cujus contrarium verum est. Nam 
quicquid Deus jubet, bonum est, et ideo bonum, quod 
Deus jubet." Doctum vero neminem hoc latet, bonum 
in positivum et morale divisum esse. Positivum est, 
quod ante indifferens, bonum tunc incipit esse, cum a 
Deo jubetur. Morale vero bonum, seternum et iramu- 
tabile manet, sive Deus jusserit, sive non jusserit 
bonum hujusmodi est tyrannum perimi: ad quod faa 
nus prseclarum ducem ilium Jehu, turn forte nihil ra- 
cogitantem, pras ceteris incitavit. Quod autem ji- , 
" bonitatem a divina voluntate pendere," erras, ut cae- 
tera; bonitas enim non minus de essentia Dei est, 
quam ipsa Dei voluntas. Verum de his nimis multa 
cum stolido et idiota. Percurrimus in hoc capite 
quicquid argumenti vim ullam in se habere videatur, 
ut bonis viris et intelligentibus quam maxime satisfiat : 
casteris ejus ineptiis et nugamentis qui movetur, eum 
neque moramur, neque retinemus quo minus in castra 
adversarii nostri tarn diserti atque eruditi transire pos- 
sit; his etiam floribus, sapientia? et judicii ejus causa, 
coronatus, quos hortorum Solensium custos iste ficul- 
neus suorum fautorum capiti nectendos largiter paravit. 
Olfaciant modo prius quam suave olent. " Nil tarn, 
horrendum excogitari possit quin laudabile fiet. Po- 
puli conventus, comitia, plebiscitus pariter a Deo. 
Non dicimus quin tyrannus impedire debet. Tu ad 
Antipodas ablegandus, Londini Constantinopolim. 
Coronam ad sejure pertinentem poposcivisse. Passa 
marem, miramur hyaenam. Quos tamen rectius sen- 
tiisse judicas," cum multis aliis. 



AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMT CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



773 



CAP. V. 

Omissis quae initio hujus capitis trita jam et toties 
refutata stupidissime regeris, venio nunc ad id, in quo 
levitatis arguis qui dixerit, jus successionis natura 
nullum esse, eo quod " lex Dei primogeniturae legem 
tulit;" cum divina autem lege consentire legem na- 
turae dictum est. Tuum vero erat, non nescivisse 
quantum inter se differant successio in regnum, et 
successio in patrimonium : principio enim regnorum, 
regnandi successio non filio sed dignissimo cuique 
semper delata est; mox regum usurpatio, non populi 
consensus filios regum dignioribus praetulit. Hoc 
etiam turpe et servile est, libera hominum capita 
inter possessiones numerare, qui profectd dum liberi 
sUnt, hssreditate nemini obvenire possunt. Tuque 
jus haereditarium, quicquid garris, ex lege Dei 
nunquam ostenderis. Nam quod soli testatur Deus 
Davidi ejusque posteris dedisse se, id universis ac- 
cornmodari regnis aut regibus nullo jure potest. 
" Jus," inquis, " successionis pacem et concordiam 
inter homines nutrit ; est maxime naturale, ne con- 
tinuis litibus mundus flagraret." Historias ergo om- 
nium gentium percurre ; invenies in monarchia dis- 
cordias tetriores, bella saeviora, idque saepius accidisse, 
quam in repub. Haud raro ipsi regum filii de summa 
rerum inter se bello acerrimo, mutuaque caede conten- 
dunt. Unde apud Turcas, ubi jus successionis absolu- 
tissimum est, nihil ad pacem publicam magis condu- 
cere putatur, quam filio natu maximo regnum ineunte, 
caeteros fratres interfici. Nonnunquam de successionis 
jure manifesto non constat, hiuc etiam bella saevissima 
et maxime diuturna, quarum sub regno calamitatum 
nostra imprimis Anglia testis esse potest. Ita neque 
monarchia per se neque respub. concordiae parens est; 
sed moderatus ubique civium animus et ambitione va- 
cuus. Sed summa authoritas " uni contigit ordinis ser- 
vandi gratia." At si tyranno, pessimus ille ordo qui 
omnem ordinem, jura omnia divina et humana perver- 
tit. " Christus," inquis, " suos deputatos et vicege- 
rentes in terris reges posuit." Fatemur, si bonos, ty- 
ranni autem quo possunt modo Christi vicem gerere ? 
Interea non nos " contumaciae," quod ais, sed tu im- 
pietatis tuae Christum vindicem expecta; qui regnum 
Christi in terris violentum et tyrannicum blasphemus 
audes existimare : Vicarius enim, non Christi, qui ejus 
exemplum non imitatur, sed diaboli est. Quod regem 
deinde confers cum patrefamilias, satis clare ostensum 
est a Miltono, jus patris diversissimum esse, et longe 
antiquius. Cum autem non solum reges mali, sed mala 
omnia " in scelerum poenam, vel ad probandam pati- 
entiam nostram a Deo data sint:" eaque omnia justis 
remediis ab hominibus summa cum prudentise laude 
amoveri et possint et debeant, solos reges vel poenae 
causa, vel patientiae ferre, et turpe et ridiculum et ex- 
tremae esset insaniae. " Sed variis morbis laborantibus 
rex manus imposuit et sanavit ; angelum aureum cuili- 
bet segroto dedit." Sive sanavit, sive excantavit nihil 
nunc refert ; medendi enim dono nunc infideles, ut Ves- 
pasianus olim, saepius hypocritce praediti fuere. Ilium 



angelum aureum, quern singulis aegrotis dedit, nou 
ilium fuisse, qui Betbesdae aquas commovit; nee sa- 
nandi vim ullam habuisse, sat scio ; quo te aureo scilicet 
angelo sic opinor stupere, ut ante te Salmasius ccelum 
illud Caroli aureum et sericum obstupuit, neque hoc 
coelo quicquam altius cernere uterque videmini, aut de 
eo quicquam sublimius cogitare, quam aureum esse. 
" Florentissima," inquis, " Romanorum respubl. exactis 
regibus, nunquam subsistere potuit donee in monar- 
chiam redintegrata fuerit." Quod contra omnium his- 
toriarum fidem plane est; quae testantur omnes, Ro- 
manam rempub. sub consulibus et senatus authoritate 
ad illam magnitudinem crevisse : sub imperatorum 
vero luxuria, tyrannide, atque inertia statim conse- 
nuisse, imperiumque simul et gloriam belli atque jus- 
titise in ilia libera civitate olim partam sub imperato- 
ribus cito amisisse. " Sed quod Anglia," inquis, " nimio 
luxu et libertate perdita fuit, non Caroli tyrannidi, sed 
vestrae nequitiae attribuendum est." Immo aulas foe- 
dissimae, regisque voluptarii atque ignavissimi exemplo 
recte attribuimus, ad cujus vitas rationem quamplurimi 
sese composuere. Jam regem defendis, qui Ducem 
Buckinghamiae veneficii suspectum " legibus eripuit ; 
quasi," inquis, " hoc regibus crimini datetur, quod om- 
nibus natura concedit, ut suos familiares amarent." 
Itane carnifex ? satisne regem excusari putas, quod 
familiarem ilium et amicissimum habuerit, qui patris 
ejus veneno sublati a supremo regni concilio postulatus 
esset ? At quid poteras in regem atrocius dixisse ? 
" Sed credibile non fuit ducem Buckinghamiae Jacobo 
insidias struere velle, qui ilium in tantam potestatem 
evexit." Quin immo satis notum est, mores Bucking- 
hamii Jacobo tandem graviter displicuisse, unde is 
magnum malum sibi metuens, duas maxime res dein- 
ceps agere instituit, ut et patri necem strueret, et filio 
os subliniret, ejusque gratiam omni studio captaret ; 
quod sane, objectis juveni mollissimo voluptatum om- 
nium illecebris, statim perfecit. Reprehendis, quod 
Carolus Neroni collatus sit. " Nam," inquis, " Metro- 
polim vestram non diripuit,' 1 scilicet quia non potuit; 
at qui nunc Scotis, nunc sicariis suis, morem sibi modo 
gererent, haud semel diripiendam obtulit. Restat ut 
rosarum hujus Solensium fasciculum in fine exhiberem ; 
et possem quidem ubertim, sed cum viam jam toties 
digito monstraverim, ubi germinant, ubi crescunt, ju- 
cundius fortasse cuique erit proprio ung-ue decerpere. 



CAP. VI. 

" Regum et bonorum omnium hoste prostrato (suis 
telis in faciem suam resilientibus) recurrere coactus est 
ad elumbes aliquot argutias, et trita argumenta." Pros- 
trato hoste, quis sodes est coactus, egregie soloecista ? 
nomen enim licet attuleris nullum, cognomen certe hoc 
apud omnes in posterum reportabis. Ain' vero " suis 
telis in faciem resilientibus ?" Si sua sponte, Dedalea 
pro facto narras, aut Vulcaniaquaedam nova automata? 
An vero, te retorquente, resiliunt tela ilia ? Tene ergo 



774 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPONSIO 



ilium prostravisse hostem, asine, cujus argunientum vel 
levissinium omni mole concutere, aut movere loco non 
vales ? Ex id tan tern asiuum in apologo herus verberibus 
male multavit, quid triumphante hoc asino faciamus ? 
praesertim qui neque purpuram indutus, neque pellem 
leoninam, sed propria palam scabritie notus, rictu isto 
asinino, istoque miserrimo clangore atque ridiculo trl- 
umphum canere audeat. " Omnes," inquis, " in suis 
regnis monarches absoluti 7ran(3a<ji\uae exercent, quod 
et Galli de suo rege multum gloriantur." Ad scrip- 
tores Gallos si recurrisses, Girardum, Hottomannum, 
Sesellium, pluriraosque alios, nunquam id affirmares. 
Galli liberos se, et vere Francos passim gloriantur: ab 
omni memoria penes se fuisse, regum salutis omnium 
causa, vel eligere vel abjicere. Hac ratione Pipino, 
necnon post eum aliis imperium Galliae delatum: quod 
vulgo notum est. Hac etiam estate cum multae civi- 
tates, turn etiam Burdegalenses idem sentire sese factis 
ostenderunt, dum vi et armis vel sui regis vel ejus 
praesidum ira^aaiXeiav et tyrannidem strenue propul- 
sant. " Si cui Deus vult," inquis, " populus regnum 
tradit, jam die aliud de tribus capellis, unde tot quaes- 
tiones et lites ?" Unde nisi a te, tuique similibus, qui 
id perpetuo contenditis, ut regnum iis tradatur, quibus 
populus non vult, ac proinde nee Deus. Deus enim, 
si cui regnum vellet, facile perficeret, ut regnum illi 
traderet populus. Jam tu die aliquid de tribus capellis. 
" Quantumvis," inquis, " nummi nobis desint, nun- 
quam tamen deerunt parati ad tuendam veritatem." 
Nummi quidem vobis et merito desunt, et tamen longe 
major apud vos virtutis, honestatis, sapientiae, pudoris 
penuria est, quam nummorum. Id quod mores vestri 
perditissimi exteris jam passim graves et odiosi testan- 
tur. Deesse autem non magis nummos quam ad cau- 
sam vestram tuendam paratos, argumento ipse maximo 
es, qui homo indoctissimus cum sis et inertissimus, pri- 
mus omnium et adhuc fere solus, ad hoc te munus ac- 
cinxeris. Dixerat Salmasius, quamvis id falso, " re- 
giminis Anglorum formam non popularem sed milita- 
rem esse." Tu hoc Miltonum " concedere coactum 
esse," dicis : " nee tamen ab Aristotele talem regiminis 
formam recensitam usque meministi." Vel hinc con- 
stat te neque Miltonum attente satis, neque Aristotelem 
omnino forsan legisse. Apud Miltonum enim conees- 
sionem illam nusquam invenies. Apud Aristotelem 
^rnctTriyio dicis, id est " ducis perpetui," qui in quibus- 
dam civitatibus summae rerumpraeficeretur, mentionem 
saepe factam esse meminisses. Jam de " diabolo por- 
cos tondente" stolide nugaris, " ubi ingens clamor, sed 
nulla lana ;" parcius itaque diabolus porcos suos 
tondebat, quam Brammalus oves Hibernicas deglubere 
consuevit ; a quibus et lanam et pellem multo cum 
clamore populi detrahere solebat. " Scoti," inquis, 
" inaudito ostracismo Montisrossanum interfecere." 
Inauditus ille quidem ostracismus quipatibulo homines 
affigit. Nam vel sciolos non fugit, ostracismum non 
mortis, sed relegationis genus fuisse. " Reges," in- 
quis, " sub potestate populi collocates pejori conditione 
nobis rcpraesentas, quam ex populo universo perditissi- 
mus." At vel ista conditione noli metuere ne qui reges 
in postcrum esse velint; utcunque enim non deerunt 



reg-es. Csetera hujus capitis, qua seria, qua Iudicra, 
insulsa adeo et inficeta sunt, ut quamvis nihil mini 
tribuam, quod non admodum exiguum sit, posniteat 
tamen nonnunquam et pene suppudeat, cum adversario 
tamen nihili manus conseruisse. Postremo casus sui 
regis graves sane et tragicos ad comoediam redigit. 
" Jovem " adulterum, " Amphytrionem " maritum, 
" Mercurium et Sosiam" servos, " super mundi the- 
atrum" agit. Nil possum rectius facere quam ut istius- 
modi phrases praeteream : nam in bominem tam stultum 
et nullius pretii quicquid aut serid dixeris aut joco, et 
operam perdideris et salem. Preestat tamen hunc vel 
incassum defricare, quam responsione licet indignum, 
nostro tamen silentio tumentem et jactabundum dimit- 
tere. 



CAP. VII. 

Hactenus opusculi tui futilissimi dimidium percur- 
rimus, et quanquam te plus satis indoctum,insipidum, 
soloscum, arrogantem, et languidum jamdudum iuve- 
nimus, tamen quo longius procedimus, eo inanior, eoque 
jejunior semper occurris, et praeter adagia quaedam et 
disticha vulgata, quae memoriter, credo, elementarius 
puer didiceras, quaeque ne negent forte lectores vel se- 
midoctulum te esse, per fas et nefas inserere laboras, 
caeteram omnem argumentorum, sensus, Latinitatis 
perpusillam annonam exhausisse videris. Nihil est 
igitur in hoc capite quod agam, quam ut captiunculas 
quasdam tuas, et gryphos dissolvam, quibus dum ad- 
versarium capere te existimas, teipsum capi ostendam. 
Dixerat Miltonus jure naturali regem quemque bonum 
senatum vel populum habere sibi semper et parem et 
superiorem. Ad haec tu, " quis unquam," inquis, 
" talia ctav^ara audivit ? Si par est, non est superior : 
si superior, non par." Quis plumbeo potuit gladio 
quicquam acutius ? At nescin' quid Laelius ille sapiens 
apud Ciceronem ? Maximum est in amicitia superiorem 
parem esse inferiori. Quin hie quoque vociferare, 
" quis unquam talia aav^ara audivit ? " Disputatum 
est a multis, sitne par regi populus vel senatus. Infit 
Miltonus, utrumlibet regi et parem esse et superiorem. 
Cur ista negas posse consistere ? Certe si juxta regu- 
lam, omne majusin se continet minus, superior qui est, 
nihil obstiterit, quo minus idem par sit. Jam eccum 
tibi "nodum hunc sine (Edipo solutum," Dave. Nunc 
ad secundam hominis tendiculam venio. " Si Davidi 
private non licuit Saulem tyrannum interficere, quo- 
medo jam unicuique concedis, si viribus plus valet." 
Sumis quae nemo est largitus, tyrannum fuisse Saulem. 
Non enim qui facta quaedam tyrannica in unum atque 
alterum per iram aut libidinem perpetrat, is statim est 
tyrannus; ut nee injustus, qui injusta quaedam. Sed qui 
consilio, institute, viribus, dolis hoc solum studet atque 
molitur, ut potentiam legibus majorem sibi arripiat, jus 
omnc populi et libertatem subvertat, vindicare se co- 
nantibus vim atque bellum inferat, is vere atque propne 
tyrannus est; quo in genere nullus unquam Carolo 
pejor fuit. Qui igitur Davidem privatas adversum se 



AD APOLOGIAM ANONYMI CUJUSDAM TENEBRIONIS. 



775 



regis injurias ulcisci noluisse dixit, potuit idem nihil 
sibi repugnans dicere, tyranuum interficere cuivis licere 
qui viribus plus valeat. Dixerat Miltonus ad servitu- 
tem natas istas nationes quae talem dominum agnos- 
cant, cui se sine assensu suo haereditate obvenisse cre- 
dant. " Ergo," inquis, " tu ad servitutem natus qui 
Carolum haereditarium multos annos agnoscebas, aut 
cum multis aliis dissimulabas." Hanc tu sententiam 
detruncas, ejus loco subdititia ponis, " quae regem 
haereditarium agiioscunt." Parlamenta autem Angliae, 
praeterito saepe haereditatis obtentu, diadema, cui visum 
est, suisliberis suffragiis, imponere consueverunt; quod 
multis exemplis demonstrari potest. Non ergo Angli 
ad servitutem nati, quod tu nequiter probare niteris, 
verna Canopi. Quartum hoc est, in quo adversarium 
cepisse te somnias. Ob earn causam affirmaverat ille, 
homines in unum primo convenisse, non ut unus omnes 
insultaret, sed ut quocunque alterum leedente, ne lex 
deesset neve j udex inter homines, quo laesus defendatur, 
aut vindicetur. Ad haec tu, " Nemo," inquis, " a te 
plus petiit quam tu per lucida intervalla tua sponte 
concedis." Lucidum certe intervallum vel ad punctum 
temporis contigisse unquam tibi vix reor, ita semper 
falleris. Quae enim petis, non regibus solum sed ma- 
gistratibus omnibus concessimus ; quorum nihil est 
quod in tyrannum convenire possit. Leg*em enim 
primo constituimus, deinde judicem ex lege rectum et 
incorruptum. Horum quodcunque petis et impetra- 
veris, tuam causam minime juvabit. 



CAP. VIIT. 

Quod superiiis praedixi fore, ut post tritas argutias 
quasdam potius quam argumenta & aulicorum velita- 
tiones toties profligatas, ad summam inopiam homuncio 
iste redigeretur, neque reliquum ei quicquam fore 
praeter maledicta et rabiem, id hoc capite manifestius 
liquet. Et sane ad priora ilia quae attulit, quamquam 
primo statim conspectu sensus et ingenii inanissima 
ubique apparuere vestigia, tamen quia quandam ratio- 
nis et argumenti speciem prae se ferebant, utcunque 
paucis respondimus. In hoc autem capite cum Milto- 
nus antiquas Anglorum leges ac monumenta regiae 
causae passim tarn adversa diligentissime protulisset ; 
iste e contra, cum neque doctrinam, neque antiqui- 
tatem, neque acumen, neque authoritatem ullam, qua 
suam tueatur causam, afferre possit, hoc tantum ha- 
bet quod respondeat, misere balbutiens jura ilia nos- 
tra notissima, vetustissima, et maxime rata, " obsoleta 
jam et tineis comesta esse.'' Verum non tarn dubito 
quin omnes docti et intelligentes viri huic fatuanti non 
responderi oportere judicent, quam vereor ne reprehen- 
dant, si insanienti et rabioso operam dedero. Qui vero 
hujus mendaciis et maledicentia a veritate abduci se 
patiuntur, eos profecto lam parvi pendimus, ut quam- 
cunque ad partem accesserint, susque deque nobis sit; 
immo contra nos isto animo quam nobiscum stare ma- 
lumus. 



CAP. IX. 

Huic etiam capiti prions haud absimili responsum 
prorsus idem conveniet. Nam qui contra legem Dei 
et naturae dilucide explicatam, contra rationes eviden- 
tissimas, juraque gentium plurimarum, turn nostras 
etiam firmissima, contra testimonia denique optimorum 
virorum uberrima nihil praeter commenta tantum sua, 
atque deliria opponere, aut in medium proferre potest, 
ejus profecto ita disputantis rationem ullam siquis ha- 
buerit, certe non doctus, non disertus, non diligens, 
non acutus, sed male feriatus duntaxat merito videatur. 
Quod autem nos impudentissime accusare non dubitat, 
quasi Papae authoritatem in Angliam reducere medite- 
mur, a quo et dictis et factis abhorruisse semper nos tarn 
palam omnibus existit, id sane et ridendum maxime 
est, turn etiam ostendit quanta caeteroqui cum malitia, 
quam nulla cum fide in accusandis nobis versetur, qui 
crimen omnium judicio a nobis alienissimum, cunctis 
absolventibus, imputare atque affigere non vereatur. 



Ad CAP. X. XI. 

De duobus quae sequuntur capitibus, idem quod de 
praecedentibus duobus dicendum est. Tenuissimus 
modo et inanissimus qui fuit, nunc est plane nullus, 
aut siquid nihilo minus est : hujus igitur inanitati re- 
spondere si vellem, responderem certe nemini : quidni 
igitur conticescam ? 



CAP. XII. 

Jam ad metam enervis et languid us properans soloe- 
cista, tamen ut ultimo conatu erigere se paululiim vi- 
deatur, ad priorem verborum sine rebus prolixitatem et 
taedium redit. Quare ne quis nos propter virium aut 
rationis defectum priora capita tanta brevitate percur- 
risse existimet, aut per ignaviam quicquam remisisse, 
quae alicujus modo momenti videantur, non sum arbi- 
tratus praetereunda esse, " Parlamentum," inquis, " per- 
petuum est instar nullius parlamenti ; hoc enim est 
funditus parlamentum tollere." Ecquem tu jam nisi 
Carolum ipsum criminaris ? Qui ipse parlamentum hoc 
perpetuum esse jussit, et facto gloriatus, inter ea quae 
vocare acta gratiae solebat, saepissime recensuit, non ut 
populum beneficio aliquo afficeret, sed arte quadam ty- 
rannica dum perpetuum esse juberet, ut quod ex temet- 
ipso jam accipimus, funditus tolleret. Cum autem 
" catharticum remedium sit," quemadmodum ais, tolli 
certe aut dissolvi non debet; donee morbi, quorum re- 
medium est, tollantur, et libertati sua nrmitas bonaque 
valetudo redeat. Siquid nos Carolum peccasse dicimus; 
tu verbis totidem, velut amoebaea canens lyturgica, 
paria commisisse parlamentum accusas, deque Carolo 
nihil non verum esse concedis, dummodd idem de par- 
lamento occinere tibi liceat: verum hoc non est Caro- 



77G 



JOANNIS PHILIPPI RESPQNSIO, &c. 



him purgare, aut noxa eximere, quo minus meritas 
pcenas dederit. " Sed antequam parlamentum hoc 
inccepit, ne verbum," inquis, " vel minima scintilla 
de Caroli scilicet malefactis eluxit." At vero populi 
clamores, gemitus et suspiria, partim propter gravissi- 
mas tributorum exactiones, partim propter episcoporum 
persecutiones, tarn acerbas, ut multi patriam deserere 
cogerentur, regia item consilia, edicta, facta, ab ipsis 
regni ejus initiis, et parlamentorum omnium quee con_ 
vocavit intempestiva semper et infensa dissolutio rem 
longe aliter se habere declarant ; adeo ut hac de causa 
populus, sive prudentiae regis', sive voluntati diffisus, 
unicam sibi in parlamento spem, praesidiam, refugium, 
salutem reliquam esse palam testaretur; unde rex ira 
et livore prorsus tyrannico exardescens, ut populi 
gemitus per vim etiam comprimeret, crudelissimo edicto 
sanxit, nequis parlamenti convocandi mentionem fa- 
ceret, donee tandem metu populi ob bsec minime qui- 
escentis parlamentum invitissimus convocaret. Multa, 
inquis, " a vobis fingi quis non credet ut crimen ves- 
trum in regem exonerare possitis, numquid tale apparet 
in ejus libro divinitus scripto ?" Malo te libri illius 
admiratorem esse, quam me ; quid enim habet preeter 
fucos et jactationes inanissimas? Diceres & tu idem, 
si epistolas ejus pr&elio Nasibiensi captas,manu propria 
scriptas et obsignatas, incorrupto et integro judicio 
perlegisses, ubi se suasque artes tyrannicas non celat. 
" Independentes" Jesuitis similes esse ais, " qui regem 
abrogarunt, statum reipub. mutarunt, et tamen professi 
sunt nunquam sibi in animo fuisse haec facere." Quid 
ad nos Jesuitae ? Quasi vero prudential non esset, non 
Jesuitismi, posteriora saepe consilia prioribus anteferre, 
siquidem meliora esse postmodum didiceris. Primo 
nobis prodire tenus aliquid visum est, immo magnum 
tarn ad ecclesiae quam reipub. restitutionem ; cum a 
Deo ultra dari sentiremus, an ejus nos prassentiam, et 
providentiam ad facta tarn egregia prseeuntem asper- 
naremur, aut sequi nollemus, ne progressus nostros 
felices et plane inopinatos, hostis et invidus levitatis et 
inconstantiae nomine perstringeret ? Sa?pe arguis quod 
parlamentum pro " corpore solo" sine capite sumamus. 
Verum si metaphoras amovere malles, rectius continuo 
saperes, sciresquc parlamentum ejusmodi corpus esse, 
cui caput adjungi non sit necesse; neque enim vel 
caput vel cauda, sed commune ac liberum gentis con- 
cilium facit, ut parlamentum sit atque dicatur. " Vi," 
inquis, " hanc infamiam et calumniam apud exteras 
nationes nobis exulantibus amovcam," scilicet eorum 
ex numero non esse qui causam regiam latine sciret 
defendere, " huic rabuloe respondeo." Egrcgium sane 
responsorem ! Tune vero lucifuga verberabilissime 
pras ceteris electus, qui nos ex latebris aggrederere, et 
pro tuis omnibus unus responderes ? Doctum procul- 
dubio gregem, praeclara ingenia necesse est esse, quo- 
rum tu ductor es, tam grandis non Arcadicus aut Rea- 
tinus, sed solcecus asinus. Latine tu ut responderes, 
cujus barbarismis et soloecismis omnes paginse, ut pri- 
orum capitum, sic hujus ultimi, refertae sunt ? " Tam 
castus ut exemplum praebuit. Tu hasc refricas ut regi 
convitiare. A famulis rimari. Nisi fulcientur. Tanta 
caligine, ut justitiam causa? metiuntur. Ne millesima 



pars petitionum ad earn deferrerentur. Toties purgatum 
ut nil praeter nomen manere potest. Tanto acumine 
ut maxima pars mundi mirantur ac stupent. Tanto 
strepitu ut caetera theatra pro tempore silent. Non 
quin indies precamur. Non mitius eorum consilium 
interpretarer. Carolum filium reum causatis." Digni 
profecto regii tam stupido propugnatore, qui, cum cau- 
sam nequissimam susceperis tuendam et literas profes- 
sus, tam illiteratus sis, ab ipsis clientibus tuis quos tui 
pudeat, ad ilia gurgustia et tenebras, unde tam stolide 
emersisti cum sibilo et flagris reducendus es ; aut certe 
carnifici potiiis in disciplinam crucis tradendus, ut cum 
nihil aliud percipere possis, elemeuta discas patibularia. 
" Quicquid," inquis, " erravero in hac apologia meae 
tenuitati imputandum est." Ita prorsus existimo : at ; 
pessime interim meo quidem judicio consuluit tibi 
tenuitas tua, qua3 te impulit, ut, cui par non eras, oneri 
succedere auderes, sub quo praetumidum et inflatum eo 
faciliiis comminui te et frangi necesse erat. Ego certe 
tenuem te magis an crassum dixerim vixdum scio, ita 
omni plane dimensione et forma rudis indigestaque 
moles, vacare mihi videris. Jam te aulici, qui " regis 
auro vescuntur," si prius neglexerint, quod misere 
quereris, et fame perire sinant, post causam eorum tam 
male et ridicule abs te defensam multo justius oderint, 
atque contempserint ; nisi forte periscelide ilia regia, 
quam tanti facis, fauces tuas de rege tam nequiter 
meritas elidendas potiiis quam offis aulicis, quas esuris, 
farciendas putant. Jam praesertim cum a regis laude 
ad regis et regiorum gravem vituperationem transeas, 
et nobis ex adversario percommodus repente homo 
factus sis ; testis enim ipse novus accedis, regem suo 
officio vel imparem fuisse, vel minime intehtum, quod 
" petitiones" nimirum subditorum raro legeret. " Quod 
nemo ausus esset de proditoribus queri, proditorum 
metu," quibus maxime auscultabat : quod " cameraris 
et famulis " omnia crederet, otio ipse deditus. Unde 
libet profecto exclamare cum illo sene in fabula : 

iC Ita me dii amabunt ut hunc ego ausculto lubens; 
Nimis lepide facit verba" de regiis suis. 
" Neque compellare volo ilium, ne desinat 
Memorare mores" regis et regiorum. 

Eorum enim plurimos qui quidem regis gratia maxime 
pollebant, eos fatetur fuisse qui commodorum potissi- 
mum suorum et libidinum causa regem sequerentur, 
vel mente captum potius, quo vellent, ducerent. Si- 
nam itaque et praeteribo, ut et regis perjuria hand 
minori impietate atque inscitia excusantem, et statim 
tam acriter damnantem. Neque occurrit praeterea 
quod refutatione ilia indigeat. Ad ultimum enim, 
consumptis in nos maledictis, diris execrationibus, cha- 
ritatem nescio quam suam ostentare cupit. Verum 
nos cujus convitia et imprecationesnon veremur, etiam 
vota pro nobis et preces haud pluris aestimamus, Fi- 
niam itaque certamen hoc, haud libenter quidem a me 
cum isto nugigerulo susceptum; solum hoc est in quo 
si non aliis, at mihimet saltern aliqua ex parte placeo, 
earn mihi scribendi occasionem prirnam oblatam esse, 
ex qua et patria in se rectum atque pium, et amici 
gratum senscrint. 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICANI; 



C ROM WE L L I I, &c. 



NOMINE AC JUSSU CONSCRIPTS. 



Senatus Populusque Anglicanus Amplissimo Civi- 
tatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem. 

Quam diu, quamque multis de causis instituta a raa- 
joribus nostris cum amplissima vestra civitate amicitia 
in hunc usque diem permanserit, et vobiscum una li- 
benter agnoscimus, et ssepiiis etiam recolere non est 
molestum. De eo autem quod ex Uteris vestris 25 
Junii datis intelligimus, homines quosdam nostros non 
ea qua soliti sunt fide ac probitate in suis apud vos 
negotiis versari, nos quidem ad certos ejusmodi rerum 
peritos statim retulimus, ut in lanarios, caeterosque 
panni opiflces acrius inquirerent ; eamque porro ope- 
rant daturos nos esse pollicemur, ut et sequi bonique 
studium apud nos, et nostra omnia erga vos officia 
constare sentiatis. Verum et quiddam est quod etiam 
a vobis vicissim non nos duntaxat, sed ipsum jus et fas 
omne postulat; ut nostrae gentis mercatoribus, vestris 
hospitibus et sua privilegia conservare, eteorum vitam, 
atque fortunas, prout ea civitate dignum est, vestris 
opibus defendere velitis. Quod, ut prioribus Uteris 
enixe petivimus, ita nunc etiam ut vehementius effla- 
gitemus, faciunt quotidiance mercatorum querela?, 
quas ad nos deferunt ; suam nimirum salutem atque 
rem omnem rursus apud vos in dubio esse Quamvis 
enim literarum nostrarum quas pridem ad vos dedi- 
mus fructum aliquem ad tempus percepisse se fate- 
antur, et ab injuriis nef'ariorum hominum aliquantum 
respirasse, nunc tamen post adventum Cocbrani illius 
in urbem vestram (de quo etiam prius questi sumus) 
qui mandatam jam sibi a Carolo defuncti nuper regis 
filio legationem nescio quam praedicat, se omnibus con- 
tumeliis, minis, armis etiam Sicariorum petitos solita 
vestra defensione atque tutela caruisse. Adeo ut cum 
unus atque alter e mercatoribus cum ipso etiam socie- 
tatis praefecto, in navem quandam praedatoriam per in- 
sidias abducti essent, cseterique vestram fidem implo- 
rarent, a vobis tamen nullum auxilium impetrare 
potuerint, donee ipsi suo marte mercatores, non sine 
magno suorum discrimine captos in eo flumine, cujus 
vestra urbs domina est, ex latronum manibus eripere 
cogerentur. Quos cum ill! bonis auspiciis domum re- 



duxissent, et ab indigna servitute veluti manu asseruis- 
sent, captos etiam piratas ipsos in custodiam dedissent, 
Cochranum ilium perfugam et perduellem eo audacise 
processisse accipimus, ut et prredatores dimitti liberos, 
et mercatores tradi sibi vinctos postulet. Vos autem 
etiam atque etiam hortamur etobtestamur, si pactiones, 
et foedera, et pervetustum utriusque gentis commercium, 
id quod petitis, inviolate servari studetis, ut nostri cer- 
tum aliquod atque firmum sibi presidium in vestra fide, 
prudentia, authoritate collocare demum possint ; vos 
autem uti eos his de rebus benigne audiatis ; tarn de 
Cochrano, cseterisque sceleris illius sociis, quam de iis 
qui nuper in concionatorem, impune adhuc, impetum 
fecerunt supplicium sumere velitis, aut e finibus exire 
jubeatis. Neque pulsos atque exules Tarquinios ami- 
citiae atque opibus populi Anglicaui anteferendos exis- 
timetis. Si enim per vos non steterit quo minus reipub. 
nostras hostes quidvis licere sibi contra nos in. urbe 
vestra confidant, quam non tuta aut honesta amplius 
nostrorum ibi commoratio sit, vos cum animis vestris 
cogitate. Haec vestrre prudentias et aequitati ; vos ipsos. 
Divino Numini commendatos volumus. Valete. 
Westmonasterio, dat. Aug. 10, 1649. 

Senatui Hamburgensi. 

Perspecta nobis sequanimitas vestra dubiis in rebus 
nostris, facit nunc ut sane prosperis, ac bene gestis, 
de vestra voluntate, et amico in nos animo nequaquam 
dubitemus. Nos quidem, confecto jam paene bello, et 
profiigatis ubique patriae hostibus, nihil sequius, aut 
ad pacem, remque publicam stabiliendam firmius esse 
duximus, quam ut illi qui vel libertatem, ductore sem- 
per Deo, per nos adepti sunt, vel vitam atque fortunas 
post belli civilis facinora, nostro dono atque gratia 
receperunt, nobis vicissim suis magistratibus fidem et 
officium, solenni, si opus esset, more testarenter, atque 
praastarent. Praesertim cum tot homines inquieti et 
inimici, semel atque iterum in fidem accepti, nullum 
neque domi neque foris perfidiose agendi, novasque 
turbas excitandi finem faciant. Itaque form u lam 
quandam sponsionis perscribendam curavimus, qua 



778 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICANI. 



ora nes qui aut munus aliquod in repub. sustineretit, 
aut legum praesidio muniti incolumitate, otio, caeteris- 
que vitae commodis fruerentur, conceptis verbis se 
obstringerent. Hanc etiain per omnes Colonias et 
quacuuque gentium nostri cives negotiandi causa 
agerent, mittendam censuimus ; ut eorum quibus prae- 
ficimur, fidem, prout decet atque necesse est, explora- 
tam et cognitam babeamus. Quo magis mirari subit 
quod ex urbe vestra mercatores nostri scribunt, sibi 
mandata nostra per unum atque alterum vestri ordinis 
exequi non licere. Sane quod potentissimae foedera- 
torum in Belgio provinciae suarum rerum et rationum 
coiisultissima?, nihil ad se pertinere existimaverunt, si 
peregrini scilicet Angli debitam suis domi magistrati- 
bus in haecvel ilia verba fidem astringant, id quo pacto 
vestrae civitati suspectum aut molestum esse possit, 
fatemur plane nos nescire. Verum hoc a privato quo- 
rundam sive studio sive formidine profectum, quos 
errabundi quidam et pulsi patria Scoti, minis dicun- 
tur impulisse, ut mercatores r nostros a fide sua nobis 
obliganda deterrerent, civitati non imputamus. Inter- 
ea tamen summo vos opere hortamur atque etiam 
rogamus (non enim mercatura jam, sed respub. ipsa 
agitur) ut ne quenquam apud vos patiamini, cujus 
hoc nihil potest interesse, authoritati quam nos in 
nostros populares, non exterorum arbitrio aut judicio, 
sed jure patrio obtinemus, suam quamcunque authori- 
tatem interponere. Quis enim non aegre ferat, si nos 
vestris hie Hamburgensibus sua erga vos fide interdi- 
ceremus. Valete. 
Dat. Jan. 4. 1649. 

Serenissimo ac potentissimo Principi Philippo Quarto 
Hispaniarum Rec/i, Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic, 
Salutem. 

Antonium Aschamum virum probum, eruditum, et 
luculenta familia ortum, de rebus in commune, tam 
Hispanorum, quam Anglorum genti, ut spes est, valde 
utilibus, ad majestatem vestram legamus. Quamobrem 
ut ei honestum iter, atque tutum in urbem regiam, sicut 
moris est, necnon et reditum concedere, et praestare 
velis, parem referre gratiam parati, officiose petimus. 
Sin id minus placuerit, ut quae vestra hac in parte sit 
voluntas, ei quam primum significetur, utque tuto quo 
volet abeundi potestas fiat. 

Dat. Feb. 4. 1049. 

Serenissimo ac potentissimo Principi Philippo Quarto 
Hispaniarum Rec/i, Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic, 
Salutem. 

Quis rerum nostrarum status sit, quamque atrocibus 
injuriis subacti, sumptis tandem armis, capessendae 
libcrtatis consilium ceperimus, constituta qua nunc 
utimur republicae forma, neque majestatem vestram 
potest latere, neque alium quern vis, qui evulgata super 
hac re scripta nostra aequo animo perlcgerit. Nobis 
profecto fidem nostram, aequitatem, patientiam, testa- 
tarn cu ctis et probatam reddere, authoritatem etiam, 
honorcm et decus nostrum adversus infancies exulum et 
perfugarum linguas tueri, apud idoneos rerum aestima- 



tores difficile non debet esse. Nunc quod exterarum 
nationum magis interest, deletis, aut depressis patriae 
hostibus, Deo nempe mirifice adjuti, ad pacem et ami- 
citiam omni imperio potiorem cum vicinis gentibus ha- 
bendam, paratos nos esse palam atque ex animo pro- 
fitemur. Has ob causas spectatae solertiae et probitatis 
virum Antonium Aschamum in Hispaniam ad majes- 
tatem vestram misimus ; qui de amicitia deque solito 
inter utramque gentem commercio cum majestate ves- 
tra agat ; vel etiam ad novas pactiones, si ita visum 
fuerit, de integro sanciendas viam muniat. Huic 
igitur vestrae majestatis adeundi copiam ut faciatis, 
ej usque incolumitati, necnon etiam honori, quoad isto 
apud vos munere perfuncturus est, velitis prospicere 
rogamus : ut et ea quae a nobis mandata habet, utrique 
genti, ut speramus, profutura, libere exponat ; et men- 
tis vestrae qui sensus his de rebus sit, nos quam primum 
certiores faciat. 

Westmonasterio, dat. Feb. 4. 1649. 

Serenissimo Principi Joanni Quarto Lusitanle Regi, 
Parlamentum Reipub. Anglle, Salutem. 

Multa nos et infidae pacis, et intestini belli mala 
ultima perpessos, eo demum loci redactos fuisse, ut si 
salvam rempubl. vellemus, ejus administrandi ratio 
magna ex parte immutandi esset, ex iis quae a nobis 
hac de re scripta publice et declarata sunt, majestati 
vestrae jam pridem notum esse arbitramur. Quibus, ut 
par est, si fides potius haberetur, quam improbissimis 
perditorum hominum calumniis, sane qui foris de re- 
bus nostris pessime jam sentiunt, iis fortasse multo 
aequioribus uteremur. Nam quod nos jure nostro, pro- 
que gentilitia Anglorum libertate, recte et majorum 
more fortiter fecisse contendimus, de eo pravas et ob- 
stinatas nequissimorum hominum opiniones ex animis 
evellere, bumanae opis aut ingenii certe non est. Nunc 
autem quod nobis cum nationibus externis commune, 
et in rem utrinque magis existit, amicitiam et com- 
mercium quod nostris hominibus, cum vicina quacum- 
que gente consuevit esse, non imminutum, sed auctum 
atque ratum magnopere cupimus. Cumque vestro in 
regno populares nostri permagna et per utrique genti 
quaestuosa babeant negotia, iis ne impedimentum ali- 
quod aut incommodum afferatur, quantum in nobis est, 
curabimus. Id vero praedicimus frustra fore, dum piratis 
et defectoribus nostris perfugium sibi vestris in portubus 
reperire, et onerariis Anglorum navibus, vi captis atque 
direptis, bona civium nostrorum sub hasta vendere 
Olissipone, ut nuntiatur, permissum est. Huic malo 
quo maturius occuratur, et de ea, quam petimus, ami- 
citia clarius ut constet, nobilissimum virum Carolum 
Vane, oratoris munere praeditum, cum mandatis atque 
diplomate, commissi sibi muneris teste, ad majestatem 
vestram legavimus. Eum itaque benigne audire, 
fidem ei adhibere, ejus denique incolumitati atque 
honori, per omnes regni vestri fines, ut velis consulere 
obtestamur. Haec omnia et nobis pergrata, et ma- 
jestati vestrae, si forte usus venerit, nostra omnium 
officia mutua fore pollicemur. 

Westmonasterio, dat. Feb. 4. 1649. 



LTTERiE SENATtJS ANGLICAN!. 



779 



Serenissimo Principi Joanni Quarto Lusitani^e Regi, 
Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic, Salutem. 

Quotidiani fere, et perquam graves afferentur ad 
nosnuntii, classiarios quosdam nostros, et gubernatores, 
qui, abductis per scelus atque proditionem, quibus 
praeerant, navibus, superiore anno a nobis defecerant, 
elapsos demum ex eo porta Hiberniae, in quo aestate 
ferme tota obsessi, vix poenam suis flagitiis dignam 
effugerant, ad Lusitaniae nunc oram, Tagique fluminis 
ostium se yecepisse : Ibi captis atque direptis quae ad 
mercaturam ultro citroque commeant Anglorum na- 
vigiis, piraticam strenue facere, et vicina quaeque 
maria, fretumque omne Gaditanum latrociniis infestum 
atque infame reddidisse. Cui malo nisi primo quoque 
tempore obviam eatur, actum esse de commercio, quod 
nostris hominibus cum Lusitanis peramplum et per 
utrique genti quaestuosum est, quis non videt? Quam- 
obrem a vestra majestate etiam atque etiam petimus, 
tit piratas nostros et defectores, Portugalliae finibus 
exire jubeas; et siqui a Carol o Stuarto pseudolegati 
adsunt, eorum uti rationem ne habere digneris ; nosque 
potius agnoscas, ad quos Anglicarum jam summa re- 
rum, Deo plane aspirante, rediit; utque nostrae amico- 
rum classi, non minus vestris quam Anglorum com- 
modis inservienti, Lusitaniae portus, atque flumina 
praecludi ne sinas. * * * 

Philippo Quarto Hispaniarum Regi. 

Quam graviter quamque acerbe tulerit majestas 
vestra nefariam illam Antonii Aschami oratoris nostri 
caedem, et quid puniendis ejus interfectoribus hactenus 
efFectum sit cum ex literis vestris, turn ex Domino 
Alphonso de Cardenas legato vestro percepimus. Ve- 
runtamen facinoris illius atrocitatem quoties nobiscum 
reputamus quae et ipsam vel habendi vel conservandi 
commercii rationem funditus tollit, si legatorum jus 
apud omnes nationes sanctissimum impune tanto scelere 
violabitnr, non possumus quin majestatem vestram 
summa instantia iterum efflagitemus ut supplicium de 
illis parricidis primo quoque tempore debitum sumatur, 
utque justitiam ulla mora aut obtentu religionis frus- 
trari diutius ne sinat. Et quanquam potentissimi regis 
amicitiam plurimi cert£ facimus, tamen ut tarn infandi 
parricidii authores dignas suo scelere poanas persolvant 
omnem dare operam debemus. Humanitatem quidem 
illam, quam jussu vestro in Hispaniae portubus nostri 
homines persensere, praeclaram etiam vestrse majestatis 
in nos voluntatem, quam nuper amplissimis verbis 
vestro nomine legatus nobis exposuit, grato animo 
agnoscimus, neque non voluptati nobis erit eadem pa- 
riter officia, si quis usus venerit, vestrse majestati et 
Hispanorum genti reddere. At nisi justitise sine mora 
satisfiat quod jamdiu petimus, quo niti fundamento 
amicitia sincera ac diuturna possit non videmus, cujus 
tamen conservandae a nobis quidem nulla honesta oc- 
casio facile omittetur, cui etiam fini prcesentiam legati 
apud nos vestri conducere existimamus. 



Legato Hispanico. 

Excellentissime Domine, 

Concilium Status, quam primum per gravissima 
reipub. negotia licuit, in parlamentum attulit quatuor 
ilia scripta quae visum est excellentiae vestrae undevi- 
gesimo proximi Decembris cum concilio communicare, 
concilium a parlamento in mandatis habet, quod ad pri- 
mum scriptorum illorum caput, de nuperi scilicet resi- 
dents sui Dom. Aschami nefariis interfectoribus, re- 
sponsum hoc reddere : 

Parlamentum tamdiu, toties, tamque merito, debitum 
eorum supplicium postulasse ut ampliiis dicere opus 
non sit in re tanta, ubi (ut excellentia vestra pulchre 
meminit) regiae majestatis ipsa agitur authoritas: Et 
sine qua re omnis ratio societatis humanae et conser- 
vandae inter gentes amicitiae tolli necesse erit. Neque 
sane ullo ab religione petito argumeuto intelligere 
possumus, innocentium sanguinem scelestissima csede 
effusum non esse vindicandum. Etiamnum itaque 
instat parlamentum et ab regia majestate expectat, ut, 
juxta priora sua postulata, satisfactio sibi re ipsa atque 
effectu detur. 

Serenissimo Principi Leopoldo Austria Archiduci, 
Provinciarum in Belgio sub Philippo rege Prcesidi. 

Ut primum ad nos non sine gravissima querela 
perlatum est, Janam Puccheringam illustri et opu- 
lenta familia puellam haeredem, cum adhuc propter 
aetatem sub tutoribus esset, haud procul ea domo, in 
qua turn forte Grenovici agebat, de manibus et com- 
plexu famularum raptam fuisse, et parato ad id na- 
vigio in Flandriam subito deportatam, Walcii cujusdam 
insidiis, qui per fas et nefas omni molitus est, ut pu- 
pillam locupletem, vel ostenso mortis metu, ad nuben- 
dum sibi adigeret, huic tam atroci tamque inaudito 
sceleri primo quoque tempore occurrendum esse rati, 
dedimus quibusdam negotium, ut cum praefectis Neo- 
porti et Ostendae (nam in ea forte loca infelix ilia dice- 
batur appulsa) agerent de ingenua raptoris manibus 
eripienda. Qui utrique pro sua singulari humanitate 
et honesti studio, captivae, perque latrocinium domo 
abductas opem libenter tulerunt; ilia verd ut praeda- 
torum vim quoquo modo effugeret, in coenobium vota- 
rum virginum veluti sequestro deposita est. Quam ut 
ille Walcius inde abduceret, actionem in foro eccle- 
siastico Iprensis episcopi de contracto secum matrimo- 
nio instituit. Veruntamen, cum et raptor et rapta nos- 
trates omnino sint, ipsum etiam facinus in nostra 
ditione perpetratum, quod juratis testibus abunde li- 
quet, haereditas denique tam lauta, quam ilium im- 
primis inhiasse constat, in nostra potestate sit, hujus 
propterea causae cognitionem totam, atque judicium 
ad nos duntaxat pertinere arbitramur. Veniat hue 
igitur qui se sponsum nominat, suam hie litem instruat, 
quamque jure suam contendit esse uxorem, tradi sibi 
postulet. Hoc interim a vestra celsitudine vehemen- 
ter petimus, quod et per nostrum internuntium Brux- 
ellis commorantem jam aliquoties petivimus, ut afflic- 



80 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLTCANI. 



tarn et ind ignis modis habitam puellam, honestis 
parentibus ortam, sua ex patria praedatorium in rao- 
dum abductam, quoad potes, liberam et incolumem 
redire domum sinas. Hoc abs te non nos tantiim, 
siquam vestrae celsitudini parem a nobis gratiam, 
parque beneficium reddi posse accident, sed ipsa etiam 
humanitas, ipse pudor qui ad tuendum sexus illius 
honorem et pudicitiam viris bonis atque fortibus inesse 
debet, junctis una precibus afflagitare videntur. Vale. 
Westmonasterio, Martii 28, 1650. 

Serenissimo Principi Joanni Quarto Lusitani^e 
Regi. 

Quod Oratorem nostrum et honorifice acceperit ma- 
jestas vestra, et benigne statim audierit, nullam inter- 
ponendam esse moram statuimus, quin alteris quam 
primum Uteris nostris intelligeres, gratissimum id 
nobis accidisse ; nosque nihil sanctius decrevisse, quam 
pacem, amicitiam, commercium, quod nobis cum na- 
tionibus plerisque exteris, et inter eas cum Lusitanis 
jam diu est, nullo nostro dicto aut facto, non prius 
lacessiti, violare ; nee alia mente aut consilio classem 
Anglicanam Tagi fluminis ad ostium misisse, quam 
hostes jam toties fugatos persequendi, resque nostras 
repetendi, quas per vim et proditionem suis dominis 
ablatas, colluvies ista perfugarum vestras in oras, ip- 
samque etiam Olissiponem, tanquam ad certissimas 
latrocinii sui nundinas, asportavit. Verum isti homi- 
nes cujus audaciae, furoris, et insaniae sint, ex ipsorum 
moribus flagitiosissimis omnes jam pene Lusitanos 
abunde pcrspexisse arbitramur. Quo faciliusa majes- 
tate vestra impetraturos nos esse confidimus, primum 
ut illustrissimo viro Odoardo Poppamo, quem huic 
novae classi praefecimus, quibus potes rebus ad praeda- 
tores hosce debellandos adjumento esse velis, utque eos 
cum duce suo, non hospites, sed piratas, non merca- 
tores, sed commercii pestes, jurisque gentium viola- 
tores, intra regui vestri portus, et munimenta diutius 
consistere ne sinas; sed qua patent Lusitaniae fines, 
terra marique pelli jubeas: sin hoc minus, ut nobis 
saltern pace vestra liceat defectores nostros, et praedones 
propriis duntaxat viribus aggredi, et, si Deus dederit, 
in nostram potestatem redigcre. Hoc ut prioribus 
Uteris vehementur petivimus, sic jam idem studio 
maximo atque opere ab maj estate vestra contendimus. 
Hac sive aequitate, sive beneficio, non justitiae solum 
tuae famam per omnes gentes bene moratas adauxeris, 
sed et nos imprimis, populumque Anglicanum Lusi- 
tanis jam ante a minime adversum, tibi tuoque populo 
majorem in modum devinxeris. Vale. 

Westmonasterio, dat. 27 Aprilis, 1650. 

Hamburgensibus. 

De controversiis mercatorum, nonnullis etiam aliis 
de rebus quae Reipubl. nostrae dignitatem aliquanto 
proprius attingere videntur, scriptum inter nos baud 
semel, atque responsum est. Cum vcro istiusmodi 
negotia solis literis confici vix posse intelligamus, esse 
autem a Carolo Stuarto immissos in urbem vestram 



seditiosos quosdam, nulla re magis quam scelere atque 
audacia instructos, qui id agunt, ut nostrorum homi- 
num, quorum praesertim fides in patriam perspectior sit, 
commercium tam vetustum in civitate vestra funditus 
tollant, idcirco virum nobilem et spectatissimum Rich- 
ardum Bradshaw nostrum apud vos internuntium esse 
jussimus: qui secundum ea quae a nobis mandatahabet, 
de rebus iis atque negotiis quae cum utriusque reipubl. 
utilitatibus conjuncta sunt, vobiscum uberius commu- 
nicare, et transigere possit. Hunc igitur ut benevole 
quam primum audiatis rogamus ; utque ei per omnia 
fides ea, isque honos habeatur, qui hujusmodi munus 
recte obeuntibus ubique gentium haberi solet. Valete. 
Westmonasterio, dat. 2 Aprilis, 1650. 

Hamburgensibus. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles Viri, 
Amici charissimi; 

Studia vestra quibus venientem ad vos residentem 
nostrum accepistis, tam propensa, tamque egregia ex- 
titisse, et libenter intelligimus, et in eadem erga nos 
voluntate atque animo perseverare velitis magnopere 
hortamur. Idque eo vehementius, quod perlatum ad 
nos est, exules illos nostros, de quibus jam ssepe scrip- 
simus, efferre se solito insolentius in urbe vestra, nee 
contumelias solum, sed et minas quasdam atrocissimas 
in oratorem nostrum palam projicere. Hujus itaque 
salutem atque etiam debitum honorem hisce rursus 
literis commendatissimum vobis esse volumus. In illos 
autem perfugas et sicarios, tam veteres quam recentes, 
si maturius animadvertetis, et nobis gratissimum, et au- 
thoritate vestra atque prudentia dignum feceritis. Valete. 

Westmonasterio, dat. 31 Maii, 1650. 

Philippo Quarto Hispaniarum Regi. 

Antonium Aschamumanobis ad majestatem vestram 
nuper missum oratorem, eoque nomine a prsefectis ves- 
tris perhumaniter et publice acceptum, post itineris 
pericula tam longinqui, primo statim adventuin urbem 
regiam, omni praesidio nudatum, tam foedo parricidio 
confossum in diversorio quodam, et cum Joanne Bap- 
tista de Ripa ejus interprete mactatum esse, magno 
sane cum dolore accepimus. De illis autem parricidis 
jam comprehensis, ut fertur, et in custodiam datis, qui 
non nos duntaxat per illius latera, sed vestram quoque 
fidem atque honorem consauciare ac paene transfigere 
sunt ausi, deque eorum quibuscunque hortatoribus ac 
sociis ut supplicium tanto scelere dignum primo quoque 
tempore sumatur, opere quam maximo a majestate 
vestra petimus. Quanquam id nihilo minus factum 
iri, quod petimus, utpote a rege sua sponte pio atque 
justo, etiamsi nemo peteret, non dubitamus. Quod re- 
liquum est, ut corpus exanime amicis suis atque famulis 
in patriam deportandum tradatur, utque eorum saluti 
qui supersunt ea,quse par est, ratione consultum atque 
provisum tantisper sit rogamus, donee responso ad 
hasce literas, si fieri potest, secum ablato, vestrae pieta- 
tis atque justitiae testes ad nos quam primum redierint. 

Westmonasterio, Dat. 28 Junii, 1650 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICANI. 



781 



Excellent issimo Domino Antonio Ludovico de la 
Cerda, Medina Celi Duci, Andaliti^e Prcesidi ; 
Consilium Status Parlamenti Anglije authoritate 
constitutum, Salutem. 

Accipimus ab ornatissimis viris quosnuper in Portu- 
galliam ad persequendos proditores, resque nostras 
repetendas cum classe misiraus, se ab Amplitudine 
Vestra, quoties contigit ut Gallaeciae oram legerent, 
quae praefectura vestra est, et perhumaniter illis portu- 
bus exceptos fuisse, et iis rebus omnibus adjutos, quae 
navigantibus usui solent esse. Ei vestra humanitas, 
cum pergrata nobis omni tempore fuisset, turn est nunc 
praficipue, cum aliorum iniquum in nos animum nullo 
merito nostro aliquibus in locis experimur. Petimus 
itaque abs te, " Illustrissime Domine," ut in eadem erga 
nos voluntate ac benevolentia permanere velis : utque 
nostris hominibus, quoties ad ea littora naves appule- 
rint, pro solita humanitate tua, favere et adjumento esse 
pergas ; tibique persuadeas nihil nos beneficii loco abs 
te petere quod non eodem studio vel tibi vel tuis red- 
dere, si quando similis occasio nobis dabitur, parati 
erimus. 

Westmonasterio, Dat. 7 Novemb. 1650. 

Signat. Consilii sigillo, 

Jo. Bradshaw Praeses. 

Illustriet Magnifico Civitatis Gedanensis Senatui. 

Magnifici atque Amplissimi Domini, AmiciCharissimi; 
Frequentes ad nos literae mercatorum nostrorum, qui 
Borussiae per oram negotiantur, allatae sunt, quibus 
tributum grave quoddam et insolitum nuper in magno 
Polonorum concilio imponi sibi queruntur : ut decimam 
scilicet facultatum suarum omnium partem sublevando 
Scotorum regi, nostro hosti, suppeditarent. Quod cum 
juri gentium contrarium plane sit, tractari bunc in 
modum hospites et mercatores, iniquissimum etiam, ut 
cujus tyrannide sint domi, divina ope, liberati, iidem in 
aliena republica stipendia persolvere cogerentur, non 
dubitamus quin pro ilia libertate, qua frui vos intelligi- 
mus, tam grave onus mercatoribus imperari in urbe 
vestra pati nolitis ; in qua amicitiam et commercium, 
nee sine magno vestrae civitatis emolumento, per tot 
annos habuere. Si est igitur ut nostrorum hominum 
apud vos mercaturam faciendum tutelam suscipere 
velitis, quod quidem cum ab asquitate et prudentia 
vestra, turn etiam a. dignitate splendidissimae urbis haud 
dubitanter expectamus, earn operam dabimus, ut gra- 
tissimum id esse nobis omni tempore sentiatis ; quoties 
in ditione nostra Gedanenses vel negotia habuerint, vel 
naves, quod saepe fit, ad portus nostros appulerint. 
Westmonasterio, Dat. 6 Feb. 1650. 

Internuntio Portugallico. 

Illustris Domine, 
Literas tuasbujus mensisquintodecimo Hamptona 
ad nos datas accepimus. In quibus significas te a rege 
Portugallia3 ad Parlamentum Reipublicae Anglise mis- 



sum esse : quo autem muneris titulo, sive legati, sive 
agentis, sive internuntii non dicis ; id quod ex literis 
quas a rege babes commendatitias sive credentiales in- 
telligere velimus ; quarum exemplar ad nos poteris 
quam primum mittere ; simul et illud scire, satisne plena 
potestate instructus venias ad eas injurias expiandas, 
damnaque earesarcienda, quas a rege vestro illata huic 
reipublicae sunt : dum hostem nostrum tota restate 
proxima suis portubus tutatus classem Anglicanam in 
rebelles et perfugas quos eo usque insecuta erat, impe- 
tum facere parantem cohibuit, hostem ab invadendis 
nostris non cohibuit. De his omnibus ut satisfacias, si 
ampla et libera mandata accepisse te scripseris, et ilia- 
rum quas diximusliterarum exemplar una miseris, dein- 
ceps curabimus, ut ad nos fide publica primo quoque 
tempore tuto commeare possis : ubi cum regis literae 
perlectas fuerint, tibi, quae mandata porro attulisti ea 
libere exponendi facultas dabitur. 

Parlamentum Reipitb. Anglic Serenissimo Principi 
D. Ferdinando Secundo, Magno Duci Etruri^:, 
fyc. Salutem. 

Literas celsitudinis vestrae 22 Aprilis 1651, Flo- 
rentise datas, et a residente vestro domino Almerico 
Salvetti nobis redditas accepimus, in quibus Anglico 
nomini quantopere faveat celsitudo vestra gentemque 
earn quanti faciat, facile perspicimus, id quod non so- 
lum mercatores nostri, qui in portubus vestris multos 
jam annos negotiantur, verum etiam adolescentes qui- 
que nostras nationis nobilissimi, atqne honestissimi, qui 
vestras per urbes aut iter fecere, aut excolendi ingenii 
causa commorati sunt, testantur atque confirmant, quas 
cum nobis pergrata sane sint, et acceptissima, turn hoc 
etiam atque etiam petimus, ut quo animo, quoque 
studio in nostros mercatores, aliosque nostrae reipublicae 
cives Hetruscam ditionem peragrantes, serenitas vestra 
consuevit esse, in eo velit perseverare : nosque vicissim 
pollicemur atque recipimus, quod ad Parlamentum at- 
tinet, nihil defuturum, quod et commercio et amicitiae 
mutuae, quae inter utramque gentem jam diu invetera- 
vit, firmandae ac stabiliendae possit conducere; quam 
quidem omnibus utrinque humanitatis officiis, mutua- 
que observantia, in perpetuum conservari cupimus at- 
que optamus. 

Westmonasterio, 20 Januarii, 1651. 
Subscripsit et Parlamenti sigillum apponi fecit 

GrjLIELMUS LENTHALL, 

Prolocutor Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic Illustri et magnifico 
Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, etspeclabiles viri, 
Amici charissimi; 
Parlamentum Reipublicas Angliae cum antiquam 
amicitiam, mutuumque commercium, quae inter gentem 
Anglicam vestramque civitatem est, continuatum mag- 
nopere vellet et conservatum, haud ita pridem Richard- 
um Bradshaw, armigerum, residentis munere praeditum 
illuc misit, eique inter alia mandata eo spectantia di- 



782 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICAN!. 



sertis verbis mandavit, ut contra quosdam vestrae ditionis 
justitiam efflag'itaret, qui societatis Ang-licae conciona- 
torera interficere sunt conati, quique deputatoillius so- 
cietatis impias maims injecere, et mercatoribus quibus- 
dam ejus societatis praecipuis impias manus injecere, 
eosque in navem praedatoriam abduxerant, et quamvis 
praedictus residens, cum exciperetur primum et audi- 
retur, accepta ab hac republica mandata ilia sigillatim 
vobis nota fecerit, quibus justitiae vestrae exemplum in 
maleficos illos edendum expectabatur, tamen cum ex- 
pectation! nostrae responsum non esse intelligeremus, 
illud nobiscum cogitantes quanto in periculo et nostri 
homines et illorum facultates versarentur, si de incolu- 
mitate illorum et tutela adversus hostium malitiam et 
iniquos oppugnatores non satis provisum esset, rursus 
praedicto residenti in mandatisdedimus, ut nostrum ejus 
rei sensum representaret : utque hujus reipublicae no- 
mine vos ut amicitiam et necessitudinem inter banc 
rempub. vestramque civitatem initam magnumque 
usum qui huic reipub. cum vestra civitate intercedit 
conservare, adeoque mercatores nostros cum eorum pri- 
vileges sine ulla violatione protegere velitis hortare- 
tur; utque nominatim in quemdam, cui nomen Garmes 
est, qui se in banc rempublicam contumeliose gessit, 
certosque ex societate mercatorum Anglica, vestra in 
urbe commorantes, ad contumeliam hujus reipublicae 
magnamque nostrorum mercatorum molestiam, in Spi- 
rensem cameram publice citavit: quare reparationem 
ejusmodi expectamus quae aequitati et justitiae consen- 
tanea est. 

De hisce capitibus, et si quid amplius ad hujus rei- 
pub. cum vestra civitate amicitiam pertinuerit, praedic- 
tum residentem hujus reipublicae nomine ad vos jussi- 
musaccedere: cui, ut fidem amplam in iis quae hue 
spectantia proposuerit habeatis, rogamus. 

Westmonasterio, dat. 12 Martii, 1651. 
Subscripsit, et Parlamenti sigillum imprimendum 
curavit, Prolocutor, &c. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic serenissimce Chris- 
tians, SuECORUM, GOTHORUM, VaNDALORUMQUE 
Regince, fyc. Salutem. 

Serenissima Regina; 

Majestatis vestrae literas ad parlamentum reipub. 
Angliae 26 proxime elapsi Septembris Stockholma da- 
tas per Petrum Spiering Silvercroon accepimus, et per- 
legimus: et veterem quidem amicitiam, nee non com- 
mercium magnumque usum, qui Anglis cum Suecorum 
gente antiquitiis intercedit, permanere atque indies au- 
gere vehementer atque ex animo cupimus: Neque du- 
bitamus, quin legatus a majestate vestra ampliter in- 
structus venerit ad ea maxime proponenda, quae in rem 
atque decus genti utrique futura imprimis fuissent, 
quaeque nos audire ex eo paratissimi f'uissemus, et quod 
utrinque potissimum salubre atque utile videretur, id 
primo quoque tempore efFectum reddidisse. Verum 
summo rerum moderatori Deo ita visum est, ut is ante- 
quam audiri se petiisset de iis quae parlamento expo- 
nenda ab majestate vestra in mandatis habebat, evenit 



ut ex hac vita excederet (cujus quidem desiderium ita 
aegr£ atque acerbe tulimus, ut qui simul in divina vo- 
luntate acquiescere debeamus) unde et majestatis ves- 
trae quae mens esset adhuc scire nequeamus, ej usque 
rei progressibus in presens injecta mora sit: quocirca 
optimum nobis visum est hisce literis, quas, misso hac 
ipsa de re nuntio nostro, dedimus, significare vestrae 
majestati, quam gratae literae vestrae quamque accep- 
tus vester publicus minister parlamento reipub. Angliae 
fuerit ; simulque vestrae majestatis amicitiam quanto- 
pere expectamus ; quamque etiam, ut par est, tantae 
principis amicitiam plurimi faciemus : deque illo quod 
inter hanc rempub. et majestatis vestrae regnum est 
commercio exaugendo, ita existimabimus quemadmo- 
dum de re maximi utrobique momenti existimare de- 
bemus : quod et ea de causa parlamento reipub. An- 
gliee acceptissimum erit. Adeoque vestram majestatem 
divinae tutelae recommendare volumus : Quorum no- 
mine et authoritate. 

Datis Westmonasterio die Martis aim. Dom. 1651. 
Subscripsit et Parlamenti Sigillum imprimendum 
curavit Prolocutor Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 

Parlamentum Reipublica Anglic Serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Ferdinando Secundo Hetrurus Macjno Duci, 
Salutem. 

Literas celsitudinis vestrae 22 Aprilis 1651, Floren- 
tia datas, et a, residente vestro domino Almerico Salvetti 
nobis redditas accepimus ; in quibus Anglico nomini 
quantopere faveat celsitudo vestra, gentemque earn 
quanti faciat, facile perspicimus : id quod non solum 
mercatores nostri, qui in portubus vestris multos jam 
aunos negotiantur, verum etiam adolescentes quique 
nostrae nationis nobilissimi atque honestissimi, qui ves- 
tras per urbes autiter fecere, aut excolendi ingenii causa 
commorati sunt, testantur atque confirmant. Quae 
cum nobis pergrata sane sunt et acceptissima, turn hoc 
etiam atque etiam petimus, ut quo animo quoque studio 
in nostros mercatores, aliosque nostrae reipublicae cives 
Hetruscam ditionem peragrantes serenitas vestra con- 
suevit esse, in eo velit perseverare : nosque vicissim 
pollicemur atque recipimus, quod ad parlamentum at- 
tinet, nihil defuturum, quod et commercio et amicitiae 
mutuae, quae inter utramque rempub. tarn diu invete- 
ravit, firmandae ac stabiliendae possit conducere: quam 
quidem omnibus utrinque humanitatis ofBciis, mutua- 
que observantia, in perpetuum conservari cupimus at- 
que optamus. 

Westmonasterio, Maii 22, 1651. 

Parlamentum Reipublicce Anglic serenissimo ac po- 
tentissimo Principi Philippo Quarto Hispaniarum 
Regi, Salutem. 

Permagnas nobis querelas deferunt hujus reipub. 
mercatores, qui in ditionibus vestrae majestatis merca- 
turam f'aciunt, de vi multa atque injur iis sibi allatis, 
deque novis etiam tributis sibi impositis a prefectis 
aliisque officialibus vestrorum portuum et locoruin, ubi 
negotia habent, et nominatim in insulis Canariis, 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICANI. 



783 



idque contra foederis articulos, quos commercii causa 
utraque natio inter se sanxit. Quas eorum querelas 
veras esse jurejurando confiruiavere. Nobisque demon- 
strant, nisi jus suum obtinere possint, suaque damna 
resarciantur, nisi denique contra vim istiusmodi atque 
injurias praesidiuni aliquod certum, atque tutelam et 
sibi et fortunis suis babituri sint, non posse se amplius 
iis in locis negotiari. Quibus eorum querelis graviter 
a nobis perpensis, cumque facta illorum ministrorum 
iniqua, aut non omnino aut secus quam res se habet ad 
notitiam vestrae majestatis pervenisse existimemus, 
visum est nobis ipsas eorum querelas cum hisce litteris 
ad majestatem vestram una mittere ; nee dubitamus 
quin majestas vestra, cum ipsius justitias amore, turn 
etiam commercii causa, quod vestris baud minus quam 
nostris bominibus fructuosum est, suis praecipere velit, 
ut ab iniquis illis nostrorum vexationibus abstineant, 
utque bujus gentis mercatores expeditam justitiam ob- 
tinere queant, necnon debitam earum injuriarum repa- 
rationem, quae a domino Petro de Carillo de Guzman, 
atque aliis, allatae sibi sunt, contra praedictos foederis 
articulos, utque perficere velit majestas vestra, ut prae- 
dicti mercatores fructum illorum articuloruui percipere 
queant, in eaque vestra tutela sint, ut tarn ipsi quam 
fortune suae ab omni injuria liberae et incolumes esse 
possint. Hoc autem magna ex parte consecuturos se 
esse putant, si ademptam sibi illam de judice conser- 
vatoire schedulam, qui eos a novo quodam consulatu in 
se quidem iniquiore defendat, majestas vestra rursus 
concesserit; ne si nullum ab injuria refugium sibi de- 
tur, abrumpi illud commercium, quod utrique g - enti 
commoda baud parva attulit, violatis bunc in modum 
foederis articulis, necesse sit. 
Westmonasterio, Augusti, 1651. 

Serenissimo Principi Venetiarum Duci, Senatuique 
Celsissimo, Concilium Status Parlamenti Reipub. 
Anglic Authoritate constitution, Salutem. 

Serenissime Princeps, celsissime Senatus, 
Amici charissimi ; 
Mercatores quidam nostri, quorum alteri Joannes 
Dickons, alteri Job Throckmorton nomen est, simulque 
alii apud nos questi sunt, quod cum Novembris octavo 
et vigesimo 1651, ex jure et authoritate curias nostras 
ammiralatus occupassent in navi Hirundine vulgo 
nuncupata, cui in Dunis consistent Isaacus Taylor 
magister erat, centum dolia caveari vulgo dicti, quae 
sua propria bona essent, inque sinu Moscovitico Arch- 
angeli dicto eadem in navem imposita; atque in ea 
curia, prout lege agitur, decretum obtinuissent, quo 
dicta caveari dolia sibi traderentur, fide sua priiis inter- 
posita, se in illius curiae sententia acquieturos; quodque 
eadem curia, quo lis ilia ad exitum perduceretur, cum 
pro more scripsisset ad magistratus judicesque Venetos, 
literas, quibus petebant uti Joannem Piattum (Veneta 
sub ditione digentem, qui cavearum ilium sibi vendi- 
cat) citarent quo re per procuratorem in ammiralatus 
curia Anglica se sisteret, ubi lis ista pendet, j usque 
suum probaret, tamen idem Piattus, et quidam David 
Rutts Hollandus, dum causa baec in nostro hie foro 



pendet, multum supradicto Joanni Dickons, aliisque 
illis mercatoribus de cavearo isthoc negotium facessit ; 
eorumque bona et facultates nexu occupandas Venetiis 
curat: quae omnia singulatim, et quid hactenus in 
predicta nostra curia sit actum in literis illis requisito. 
riis fusius exponitur; quas postquam a nobis inspectas 
essent, ad serenissimam Venetiarum rempub. ut mer- 
catoribus in hac causa adjumento esse possint, trans- 
mittendas censuimus ; atque ab ea vehementer peti- 
mus, ut non solum illae literas vim suam atque pondus 
illic habere queant, sed etiam ut bona ilia et facultates 
mercatorum, quas praedictus Piattus et David Rutts 
nexu illigandas curarunt, liberentur ; dictique rei ad 
nostram hie curiam remittantur, quid sui sit juris in 
hoc cavearo sibi vendicando lege experturi. Qua in 
re celsitudo vestra et serenissima respub. feceritet quod 
eequissimum in se est, et quod illibata utriusque reipub. 
amicitia est dignum, quod denique, oblata quavis oc- 
casione, pari hujus reipub. benevolentia atque ofliciis 
compensabitur. 

Datis ab Alba Aula, die Feb. 1652. 

Siibscripsit et Concilii Sigillum imprimendum 
curavit, Consilii Praeses. 

Ad legatum Hispanicum. 

Excellentissime Domine, 

Concilium Status cum ex mandate parlamenti secun- 
do die mensis Martii accepto de cbarta excellentiae ves- 
tra?. 17 Feb. commissariis hujus concilii exhibita delibe- 
rationem seriam babuerit, in qua excellentiae vestrae 
visum est, proponere uti duobus capitibus illis nominatis 
quasi praeviis responderetur, responsum hoc excellentiae 
vestrae reddendum censet. 

Parlamentum, ubi ad ea respondit, quas ab excellentia 
vestra cum primum audiretur proposita sunt, turn etiam 
in iis literis quas ad Serenissimum Hispaniarum Regem 
scripsit, quam sibi grata quamque accepta ilia fuerit 
amicitia, ususque mutuus qui et ab illius regia majes- 
tate et a vobis ejus nomine oblatus est, quam denique 
deliberatum sibi fuerit, parem amicitiam quod ad se at- 
tinet, pariaque officia reddere uberius declaravit. 

Exinde visum vestrae excellentiae, cum primum au- 
dita in concilio est Decembris 19 styli veteris, huic 
concilio proponere, veluti rationem quandam auspican- 
dae arctioris hujus amicitiae, cujus facta turn a. vobis 
mentio erat, uti certi ex suo corpore nominarentur, qui 
ea quae attulisset excellentia vestra audirent, iis per- 
pensis de eorum utilitate ad concilium referre quam 
primum possint, cuivestro postulate utsatisfieret certos 
ex suo numero concilium nominavit, qui excellentiam 
vestram convenirent, quod et proinde factum est eorum- 
que loco quae proponenda expectabantur, chartam illam 
supradictam congressio ea protulit, ad quam responsum 
hoc concilii est. 

Cum parlamentum ea declaraverit, vestraque excel- 
lentia progressum eum fecerit qui supradictus est, para- 
tos nos esse, cum excellentia vestra in colloquium venire 
iis de rebus, quas domini regis vestri nomine proposue- 
ritis, tarn de amicitia jam pridem inita, quam de arctiore 
ineunda, aut si quid a nobis hujus reipub. nomine in 



784 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLTCANI. 



medium proferetur ; cumque ad singula ventum erit, 
ita respondebimus, ut par est, naturaque rei postulabit. 
Alba Aula, Martii 12, 1652. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglle, serenissimo Principi 
Frkderico Tertio Danije Regi, Sfc. Salutem. 

Sereuissime et potentissime Rex ; 

Literas vestrae majestatis, undevigesimo proximi 
Decembris ad parlamentum reipub. Angliae ab arce 
regia Haphnise datas, per virum nobilem Henricum 
Willemsen Rosenwing de Ljsacker accepimus, eoque 
animi aflfectu, quem res illic propositae merentur, liben- 
tissime perlegimus, vestraeque majestati persuasum hoc 
esse cupimus, eundem animum,eadem veteris amicitiae, 
commercii, ac necessitudinis, quas Angliae cum Dania 
per tot annos intercessit, continuandae et conservandae 
studia, quas in majestate vestra sunt, in nobis quoque 
esse ; baud nescientes, quamvis divinae Providentiae 
visum sit, gentem hanc tarn benigne et placide respici- 
enti receptam apud nos prioris regiminis formam in 
melius mutare, easdem tamen utrinque rationes, eadem 
in commune commoda, eundem mutuo usum atque 
liberum commercium, quae pactiones priores et foedera 
inter utramque nationem pepererunt, etiamnum du- 
rare vimque priorem obtinere, utrasque etiam obligare, 
ut communem dent operam, foedera ilia quam utilissima 
sibi mutuo reddendo, ut amicitiam quoque propriorem 
ac stabiliorem indies reddant ; cumque vestrae majestati 
placuerit ea persequi consilia, quas in Uteris vestris 
regiis scripta sunt, parlamentum eadem amplecti cum 
alacritate omni ac fide paratum erit, eaque omnia pro 
virili sua parte conferre, quae ilium ad finem conducere 
arbitrabuntur ; sibique persuadent, majestatem vestram 
bac de causa, ea itidem consilia captarum esse ad hanc 
rempub. spectantia (cui etiam provisum pactis priori- 
bus est) quas ad hasce res facere possint ab majestate 
vestra nobis tarn cupientibus propositas. Parlamentum 
interea majestati vestra? ac populo foelicitatem prospera 
que omnia precatur. 

Datis Westmonasterio, die April. An. Dom. 1652. 
Sub Sigillo Pari am en ti subscripsit ejus 
nomine atque autboritate Prolocutor 
Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic illustribus et magnificis 
Hanseaticarum Civitatum Proconsulibus ac Sena- 
toribus, Salutem. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles Viri, 
Amici charissimi ; 
Parlamentum Reipubl. Angliae literas vestras sexto 
decimo Januarii proxime elapsi datas, perque vestrum 
publicum ministrum Leonem ab Aisema allatas, accepit 
atque perlegit, eumque ex earum autboritate audivit, 
qui et vestrarum civitatum erga hanc rempub. propen- 
sum et amicum animum exposuit, et antiqua ilia inter 
easdem amicitia ut porro maneat petivit. Parlamen- 
tum itaque pro se testatur atque confirmat pergratum 
sibi esse, pristinam illam amicitiam ac necessitudinem, 
quae huic genti cum il lis civitatibus intercessit,-et rc- 



novari ratamque permanere, seque fore paratum qua- 
vis occasione commodum oblata quod verbis in se 
recipit id reipsa solide prestare, eademque fide et in- 
tegritate antiqui illi amici et foederati sui ut secum 
agant expectat: quae autem praeterea residens vester 
speciatim in mandatis habuit, cum ea ad concilium 
status integra a nobis remissa fuerint, quaeque propo- 
suisset ibidem consultata, responsum illic atque trans- 
actum cum eo ita fuit, prout quidque maxime cum 
aequalitate et ratione consentire visum est, quod et 
residens vester renunciare ad vos poterit : cujus pru- 
dentia et spectata probitas collata in eum a vobis pub- 
lici muneris nota dignum praedicat. 

Datis Westmonast. die April. An. Dom. 1652. 

Sub Sigillo Parlamenti subscripsit, ej usque 
nomine et autboritate, Prolocutor Parla- 
menti Reipub. Angliae. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic ilhistri et magnifico 
Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles Viri, 
Amici charissimi ; 
Parlamentum Reipub. Angliae literas vestras quinto 
decimo Januarii proxime elapsi Hamburgo datas, per- 
que nobilem virum Dominum Leonem ab Aisema 
vestrum et caeterarum civitatum Hanseaticarum resi- 
dentem allatas, accepit atque perlegit, eumque ex 
earum autboritate audivit, et quae amplius ab vestra 
civitate mandata speciatim habuit, de iis ad concilium 
status remisit, quibus ut exciperent quae ab eo propo- 
nerentur, deque iis quae justa et aequa viderentur, cum 
eo quam primum transigerent, authores fuimus; quod 
etiam exinde factum est. Utque parlamentum earum 
rerum quae a vobis afFerentur debitam rationem sem- 
per se esse habiturum ostendit, suumque erga vestram 
civitatem singulare studium, misso illuc residente suo, 
ibique manere jusso, testatum reddidit; ita vicissim 
expectat, et merito quidem postulat, a vobis aequa reddi 
iis in rebus quae hujus reipub. ex usu, ab suo dicto 
residente suoque nomine vestrae civitati, antiquitus 
amicae nobis et foederatae, vel jam exposita vel in pos- 
terum exponenda erunt. 

Westmonasterio, dat. die April. An. Dom. 1652. 

Sub Sigillo Parlamenti subscripsit ejus no- 
mine atque autboritate Prolocutor Parla- 
menti Reipub. Angliae. 

Concilium Status Reipublicce Anglic Serenissimo 
Principi D. Ferdinando Secundo Magno Duci 
HetrurIjE, Salutem. 

Concilium Status cum a Carolo Longlando, qui 
in portu celsitudinis vestrae Liburnensi mercatorum 
Anglicorum negotia procurat, certius per literas fie- 
ret, quatuordecim naves praesidiarias Foederatorum 
Belgarum in eum portum nuper venisse, qui naves 
Anglorum in ipso portu vestro aut incensuros se esse 
aut depressuros minati palam sunt, vestramque sere- 
nitatem, cujus fidem atque opem Angliae mcrca- 
tores ibi commorantes imploraverant, Liburniensis 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLTCANI. 



785 



praesidii praefecto mandasse, uti illis Anglorum na- 
vibus auxilio esset, sui muneris atque officii judicavit 
esse, uti celsitudinem vestrara certiorem faceret, 
quam huic reipublicae gratissima sit benevolentia ilia 
atque tutela, quam mercatoribus Anglis tam benigne 
praebuistis, vestraeque celsitudini promittit atque in 
se recipit mansuram apud se in omne tempus hu- 
jus bene meriti gratiara, paratumque se omni occa- 
sione fore parem amicitiam pariaque officia vestro 
populo reipsa praestare, omniaque facere, quae conser- 
vandae inter hanc gentem atque vestram solitae benevo- 
lentiae, atque commercio possint conducere. Cumque 
naves Fcederatarum Belgii Provinciarum inter ipsa de 
fcedere colloquia a semetipsis oblata in classem nostram 
summa cum perfidia non solum in ipsis stationibus 
hostilia inceptaverint (quoin facinore DEUS, tanquam 
arbiter justissimus, adversum se illis atque infensum 
ostendit) verum etiam in exterorum portubus naves 
mercatorum nostrorum capere aut demergere conatae 
sint, necessarium etiam censuimus scriptum hoc parla- 
menti reipublicae Angliae ad celsitudinem vestram una 
mittere ; cujus emittendi occasionem dedere controver- 
siae inter banc rempub. et Belgii provincias in praesen- 
tia coortae. Ex quo celsitudo vestra facile perspiciat, 
quam iniqua, quam contra fas omne atque jus gentium 
facta illius populi in hanc rempub. extiterint, et quam 
ex animo parlamentum studuerit, publicae pacis causa, 
amicitiam eorum et societatem pristinam retinuisse. 
Datis ab Alba Aula, Julii 29, 1652. 

Subscripsit Concilii Nomine atque Authoritate 
Concilii Praeses. 

Ad Legatum Hispanicum. 

Excellentissime Domine, 
Concilium Status, deliberatione habitade ilia char- 
tula quam 2 J 'j£j£ 1652, ab excellentia vestra accepit, 
turn etiam de ilia quam in concilio status cum audiretur 
Te hujus mensis vestra exhibuit excellentia, ad binas 
illas chartulas responsum hoc reddit : parlamentum 
reipubl. Anglife firmam amicitiam bonamque pacem, 
quae huic repub. est cum Hispaniarum regiamajestate, 
conservandi percupidum, ex quo idem primum regis 
praedicti animum eodem inclinare excellentia vestra 
significavit, paratum semper fuisse earn utriusque gen- 
tis bono quam maxime firmare ac stabilire. Idque 
concilium status parlamenti nomine atque mandato 
suis chartulis aliquoties excellentiae vestrae demonstra- 
vit; et speciatim, prout excellentia vestra petiverat, 
commissarios delegit, quae et excellentiam vestram 
convenirent, ab eaque acciperent, quse ad predictum 
finem conducentia proponerentur ; quo in conventu 
eorum loco proponendorum visum est nobis generatim 
quaedam, quasi futuro praevia colloquio", exhibere, de 
quibus concilio videbatur, parlamentum qui suus esset 
sensus chartis prioribus planum fecisse : tamen quo 
cumulatius satisfieret, utque excellentiae vestrae nequa 
dubitatio restaret iis de rebus quae turn proposuerat, 
concilium in ea chartula quae ?o AprUis, data est, paratum 
se' esse ostendit cum excellentia vestra in colloquium 
venire iis de rebus quae a parte regiae majestatis prae- 



dictse in mandatis haberet, tam de pristina amicitia 
quam de actione futura, de iis etiam quae a nobis hujus 
reipub. nomine exhiberentur; cumque ad singula veni- 
retur ea, quae par esset, resque postularet, responsa 
dare: ad quae visum est excellentiae vestrae nihilum 
respondere neque per duos pene menses in ea re ulterius 
progredi. Vestramque chartulam 2 e jw', 1652, datam 
concilium ex eo tempore primam ab excellentia vestra 
accepit, in eaque hoc solum proponitis, uti pacis atque 
foederis articuli inter Carolum regem nuperum ves- 
trumque Dominum T \ Novembris 1630, pacti denud 
percurrantur, utque ejus capita quaeque vel amplifi- 
centur vel immutenter pro temporum et rerum alio 
nunc statu, necnon regendas reipublicae forma immu- 
tata, quod cum nihil amplius esset, quam quod et nos 
in praedicta nostra chartula fo ApriiL summatim atque 
dilucide significaveramus, expectabat concilium quos- 
dam speciatim articulos ex eo foedere ab excellentia 
vestra propositum iri, cum ea amplificatione, iisque 
mutationibus, quarum facitis mentionem, cum alioqui 
nobis impossible sit ullum aliud responsum hac de re 
dare, quam quod jam dedimus. Verum cum excel- 
lentia vestra ex charta sua novissima dilationem in 
nos conferre videatur, concilium idcirco chartulam ves- 
tram praedictam %j U nii datam, quodque in ea pro- 
positum erat denuo inspexit, seque de eo quod illic 
est propositum, priore ilia chartula excellentiae vestrae 
plene satisfecisse arbitratur, cui et hoc solum potest 
adjicere, se, cum excellentiae vestrae videbitur, vel ex 
foederibus jam factis vel alio quovis modo ejusmodi ferre 
conditiones, quae ad praesentem rerum ac temporum 
statum erunt accommodatae, quibus a parte vestra fun- 
dari amicitiam vultis, ea vobis responsa exinde redditu- 
rum, quae ab se ad ea reddi aequum erit, quaeque parla- 
mentum in eodem perseverare studio testentur, illibatam 
atque firmam cum rege vestro domino amicitiam con- 
servandis. Eaque ut augescat etiam, parlamentum 
omnem honestam seque dignam operam pro se quidem 
dabit. 

Concilium praeterea sui officii ducit esse, excellen- 
tiam vestram illius nostrae chartulae Januarii 30, 1651, 
ad vos datae admoneri, cui cum excellentia vestra re- 
sponsum nondum dederit, instamus proinde atque ex- 
pectamus, ut parlamento, de qua illic re facta mentio 
est, satisfactio detur. 

Responsum Concilii Status ad Replicationem Domi- 
norum Legatorum Extraordinariorum serenissimi 
Regis Dani^e et NorwegIjE, Commissariis Concilii 
traditam, ad Responsum Mud quod reddidit Conci- 
lium ad quatuordecim eorum postulationes. 

Pr2edictis Dominis Legatis ut satisfiat de responso 
concilii ad quintum, sextum, septimum, octavum, et 
nonum articulum, assentitur concilium huic sequenti 
clausulas suo responsorum fine adjiciendae. Videlicet, 
praeter illas colonias, insulas, portus et loca in partis 
alterutrius ditione, ad quae loca ne quis negotiandi aut 
commercii habendi causa accedat, lege cautum est, nisi 
impetrata prius ejus partis licentia speciali, ad quam 
ilia colonia, insula, portus, aut loca pertinuerint. 



786 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLIC ANI. 



Receptio cujusquam in navera quae in flumina,portus, 
aut sinus alterutrius partis compulsa erit navem illam 
ulli exhibendue molestiae aut perscrutationi ex responso 
concilii ad articulum undecimum obnoxiam non faciet, 
quemadmodum prasdicti domini legati in replicatione 
sua videntur intellexisse, praeterquam ubi ilia receptio 
contra leges, statuta, aut morem illius loci est, in quo 
ilia navis portum capesserit, qua in re videtur concilio 
nihil statui quod durius sit, sed quod utriusque reipub. 
saluti sit aeque conducibile. 

Quod ad probandum cujusnam proprie naves et bona 
ilia erunt, quae in naufragio ejici acciderint, concilium 
existimat necesse esse jusjurandum dari in illis curiis, 
quae ad hujusmodi causas aut jam sunt constitute aut 
erunt constituendas, ubi qua ilia sibi vendicant audiri 
singuli possint, et cuj usque jus cognosci ac dijudicari, 
quod scriptis testimoniis, quae vulgo " certificata" 
nuncupantur, tarn clare atque distincte fieri non potest, 
unde multi scrupuli ac dubitationes existere poterunt, 
multae etiam fraudes ac doli in illud genus probationis 
irrepere, quod ne eveniat utriusque partis interest pro- 
videre. Concilium etiam aequum esse arbitratur, definiri 
certum ternpus, ante quod tempus qui justum earum 
rerum dominum se esse non probaverit, excludetur ad 
evitandas sine fine lites. Quod autem ad modum venun- 
dandi ea bona quae ejecta in naufragio facile corrum- 
puntur, visum est concilio eum modum proponere qui 
ad lucernam dicitur, ut qui sit modus maxime probabilis 
verum bonorum pretium eliciendi ad dominorum emo- 
lumentum ; tamen si praedicti domini legati inventam 
aliam rationem attulerint quae huic fini magis condu- 
cere videbitur, per concilium non stabit quo minus id 
fiat quod aequum erit: neque intelligitur ob hanc rem 
huic tractationi moram afferendi occasio ulla praebeatur. 

Quod autem ad eorum supplicium qui propositum 
fcedus ruperint, concilium id adjecit, cujus in responso 
suo ad articulum quartum decimum fit mentio ad majo- 
rem ejus articuli efficaciam, ipsumque f'oedus eo firmius 
atque diuturnius reddendum. 

Ad clausulam articuli quarti decimi extremam quod 
attinet respondere, non expedire censemus illis fcede- 
ribus ac societatibus, quarum in praedictis responsis 
facta est mentio, quaeque generatim duntaxat propo- 
nuntur assensum nostrum exhibere antequam quales 
ilbe sint, exploratius nobis fuerit, de quibus cum ex- 
cellentiis vestris visum erit concilium certius facere, re- 
sponsum expressius ad id reddere poterimus. 

Rcplicatio Concilii Status ad responsum prcedictornm 
Dominorum Legatorum (/nod ad senos articulos a 
prcedicto Concilio nomine Reipub. Anglic exhibitos 
est redditum. 

Concilium, inspectis praedictorum dominorum lega- 
torum diplomatis quibus collata in eos potestas est trans- 
igendi cum parlamento aut ejus commissariis de iis 
omnibus quae transigi expediverit, foederaque vetusta 
renovandi novaque jungendi, existimabat quidem prse- 
dictos dominos legatos ea authoritate esse prasditos, ut 
et responsa dare possent, et omnia transigere, tarn quae 
a parte hujus reipub. quam quae a parte Regis Daniae 



et Norvvegiae ferrentur, adeoque responsa quae praedictis 
dominis legatis ad primam, secundam, tertiam et quin- 
tam concilii postulationem dare libuit haud expectabat, 
quo factum erit, ut huic praesenti tractationi necessario 
more afferatur, cum et in se aequissimum sit, et in con- 
cilio deliberatum, foedus integrum tractando simul 
complecti tarn de iis quae ad hanc rempublicam quam 
quae ad regna Daniae et Norvvegiae spectant. Qua- 
propter concilium enixe flagitat, ut excellentiae vestrae 
respondere ad predictum nostrum primum, secundum, 
tertium, et quintum postulatum velint. 

Ad quartum articulum de portoriis Gluckstadii cum 
ea jam antiquata sint, quemadmodum excellentiae 
vestrae in responso meminerunt, instat concilium uti 
eorum ilia antiquatio etiam per hoe foedus rata habea- 
tur, ne forte in posterum revocentur. 

Quod ad sextum articulum, qui de pyratica est, eum 
quidem inseruit concilium ut qui ad utriusque com- 
moda aeque pertineret, et ad commercium in commune 
stabiliendum, quod a pyratis atque praedonibus per- 
quam turbatur atque interrumpitur ; cumque responsum 
dominorum legatorum de hoc articulo ad hostes tan- 
tum referatur, mentionem piratarum nullam faciat, 
concilium idcirco expressius responsum ad id petit. 

Cumque praedicti domini legati in sua replicatione 
ad responsum concilii et decimum suum articulum, et 
ad eum concilii responsum praetermiserint, concilio ne- 
cessarium visum est prioribus suis postulatis sequentem 
hunc articulum adjungere. 

Populum et incolas reipub. Angliae, qui negotia aut 
commercium per ulla regna, regiones, aut ditionem 
Regis Daniae et Norvvegiae habuerint portorii, tributi, 
census, vectigalis aut stipendii cujusvis plus in poste- 
rum non solvere aut alio quovis modo atque populus 
foederatarum Belgii Provinciarum, aliave quaevis na- 
tio externa minimum illic solvens mercaturamque fa- 
ciens, si solvit aut solutura est, parique frui et aeque 
ampla libertate privileges et immunitatibus, cum in 
adventu, turn in reditu, et quamdiu illic commorabun- 
tur, in piscatu etiam, mercatura, atque alio quocunque 
modo, quo ullius exterae gentis populus in praedictis 
regnis totaque ditione dicti Regis Daniae et Norwegias 
fruitur aut frui queat; quibus itidem privilegiis popu- 
lares Regis Daniae et Norvvegiae per omnes provincias 
ac ditionem Reipublicae Angliae pariter fruentur. 

Concilium Status Reipub. Anglic serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Domino Ferdinando Secundo, Magno Dnci 
HETRURiiE, Salutem. 

Serenissime Princeps, Amice Charissime, 
Consilium Status, cognito tam per oratorem celsitu- 
dinis vestrae hie commorantem, quam per Carolum 
Longlandum mercatorum Anglicorum negotia Liburni 
procurantem, quanta cum benevolentia ac fide celsitudo 
vestra navium Anglicarum in Liburniensem portum se 
recipiendum tutelam susceperit, contra Belgarum naves 
praedatorias exitium illis atque direptionem minitantes, 
Uteris undetrigesimo Julii datas (quas ad celsitudinem 
vestram, jamdudum pervenisse sperat) significavit 
quam id sibi gratum acceptumque accidisset, eodem- 



LITERS SENATUS ANGLICANI. 



787 



que tempore scriptum parlamenti reipublicae Angliae de 
controversiis inter hanc rempublicam et Foederatas 
Belgii Provincias in prsesentia exortis ad serenitatera 
vestram una misit. C unique rursus per eundem Caro- 
lum Longlandum concilium intellexerit, quae ulterius 
mandata dederit celsitudo vestra de incolumitate atque 
tutela navibus Anglicis praestanda, etiam Belgis, ne id 
fieret, importune contra nitentibus, ne hanc quidem oc- 
casionem praetereundam esse censuit, significandi rur- 
sus celsitudini vestrae se vestram justitiam et singula- 
rem in tutandis navibus suis constantiam cum plurimi 
facere turn sibi etiam gratissimam habere. Quod cum 
solidse amicitiae studiique vestri in hanc rempub. haud 
leve indicium sit, persuadere sibi poterit celsitudo ves- 
tra paria officia atque studia in nobis erga vestram cel- 
situdinem nunquam se esse desideraturam. Quaeque 
declarare possint quam nobis deliberatum sit earn ami- 
citiam, quae huic reipub. cum vestra serenitate est, 
quam constantissime atque diutissime pro virili nostra 
parte conservare. Nos interim navibus nostris omni- 
bus, quae vestros portus intraverint, disertis verbis man- 
davimus, ut salutationes explosione tormentorum con- 
suetas, omnemque honorem debitum vestrae celsitudini 
exhibere meminerint. 

Datis Alba Aula, Septcmb. 1652. 

Et concilii sigillo deinde consign and is subscripsit 

Concilii Prseses. 

Ad Legatum Hispanicum Alphonsum de Cardenas. 

Excellentissime Domine, 
Liters excellentiae vestrae 1% Novembris 1652 datae, 
ct a secretario vestro Novembris 8 redditae, una cum 
duobus libellis supplicibus simul involutis, in concilio 
recitatae sunt de navibus nimirum Samsone et San 
Salvadore vulgo nominatis ; ad quas concilium respon- 
sum hoc reddit : navem Anglicam praesidiariam, cum 
in praedictas naves non in Dunis, ut scribit excellentia 
vestra, sed in alto incidisset, tanquam hostium navem 
preedae habitam in portum adduxisse; curiamque Am- 
miralatus, ad quam proprie de causis hujusmodi attinet 
cognoscere, illius causae cognitionem pro jure sibi 
sumpsisse ; ubi singuli partis utriusque quorum id 
interest ampliter et libere audientur, j usque suum 
quisque obtinebit : vestrae porro excellentiae rogatum 
ad illius curiae judices misimus, quo certiiis intelliga- 
mus quousque iis de navibus in judicio processerint. 
Quod simul ac nobis compertum erit, ea dari mandata 
hac de re curabimus,quae et aequum erit, eteadignum 
amicitia, quae huic reipublicae cum rege vestro inter- 
cede, nee minus confidimus, regiam ejus majestatem 
minime passurum esse, hujus reipublicae hostium bona 
sub nomine ejus subjectorum elabi aut delitescere. 
Subscripsit et concilii sigillum apponendum curavit 
Gulielmus Masham, Concilii Praeses. 
Datis ab Alba Aula, 11 Novemb. an. Dom. 1652. 

Legato Hispaniensi. 
Excellentissime Domine, 
Allatum nuperad concilium est ab navarcho nostro 
Bodileo navium hujus reipublicae ad Gaditanum mare 
3 E 



praefecto, se cum tribus aliis navibus praesidiariis post- 
quam undecim Belgicarum impetum continuato bidui 
certamine sustinuisset, ad portum Longonem vulgo 
dictum ad sarcienda qusedam in eo praelio accepta 
incommoda, easque res comparandas quae sibi ad pug- 
nam opus essent, in portum Longonem vulgo dictum 
se recepisse, ubi ejus loci prsefectus in eum caeterasque 
sub ejus ductu naves omnia et justissimi et humanis- 
simi simul viri officia implevit; cumque is locus in 
ditione serenissimi regis Hispaniarum sit, concilium 
certe singularem presidii illius humanitatem reipsa 
cognitam arctioris amicitiae mutuae tarn auspicato 
coeptae fructum uberem esse existimat ; suique adeo 
officii ducit esse, ob acceptum tam opportuno benefi- 
cium ejus majestati gratias agere, vestramque rogat 
excellentiam, ut hoc regi suo serenissimo velit primo 
quoque tempore significare, eique persuasum reddere, 
parlamentum reipub. Angliae paratum semper fore, 
paria amicitiae atque humanitatis officia oblata quavis 
occasione referre. 

Hat. Westmonasterio, 11 Nov. An. Dom. 1652. 

Subscripsit et concilii sigillum apponendum curavit 
Gulielmus Masham, Concilii Praeses. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Angliae, Serenissimo Principi 
D. Perdinando Secundo, Magno Duci Hetruri^e, 
Salutem. 

Serenissime Princeps, Amice Charissime, 

Parlamentum reipub. Angliae literas vestrae celsi- 
tudinis Augusti septimo decimo, Florentia datas, acce- 
pit : in quivus de restitutione navis cujusdam agitur 
oryza onustae, quae navis a capitaneo Cardio Liber- 
niensi vendicatur. Et quamvis in nostra ammiralatus 
curia contra predictum Cardium in ea causa sententia 
judicum lata jam sit, et apud delegatos provocatio 
turn penderet, tamen cum hoc celsitudo vestra petat, 
parlamentum, quo tam amici principis benevolentiam 
ac necessitudinem quanti faciat testificari possit, man- 
davit quibus curae ea res est, ut navis ilia cum oryza, 
vel saltern ejus justum pretium praedicto capitaneo Car- 
dio reddatur; cujus mandati fructum procurator ejus 
apud nos re ipsa jam percepit. Et quemadmodum cel- 
situdo vestra, suum navibus Anglorum in portu Libur- 
niensi patrocinium atque tutelam benigne prsebendo, 
parlamentum sibi magnopere devinxit (cujus rei gestae 
narratio tam ab oratore hie vestro, quam a Carolo 
Longland mercatorum nostrorum illic procuratore, de- 
lata nuper ad nos est) ita parlamentum summo vicissim 
studio dabit operam, quotiescunque occasio dabitur, ut 
sua omnia sincerae amicitice atque benevolentias officia 
in celsitudinem vestram solide constare possint ; quam 
adeo divinae benignitati atque tutelae commendatissi- 
mam vult esse. 

Datis Westmonasterio, die Novemb. 1652. 

Subscripsit et sigillum reipub. apponendum curavit 
Prolocutor Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 



788 



LITERiE SENATUS ANGLIC ANI. 



Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic Serenissimo et Poten- 
tissimo Principi Danijb Regi, fyc. 

Serenissime et Potentissime Rex, 
Parlamentum reipublicae Angliae postquam accepit 
ab illius classis praefecto quae nuper ad Hafniam majes- 
tatis vestrae portum missa est, ut navibus mercatorum 
nostrorum inde redeuntibus domum praesidio esset; 
praedictis navibus permissum non esse secum discedere ; 
vemm illic majestatis vestrae jussu retineri; productis 
etiam ab eo Uteris regis vestram ea in re sententiam 
declarantibus, negat explicatas in iis Uteris rationes 
cur naves illee retineantur ulla in parte sibi satisfacere : 
ut igitur in re tanti plane momenti, quaeque ad pros- 
perum utriusque gentis statum tantopere conducit, 
sequuturo fortasse majori cuipiam incommodo maturius 
occurratur, misit parlamentum virum illustrissimum et 
spectatae fidei Richard una Bradshaw armigerum, Ham- 
burgi oratorem, qui itidem ad majestatem vestram ora- 
toris munus impleat, cum iis diserte mandatis, ut de 
praedicto negotio agat : vestramque aded rogamus ma- 
jestatem eidem velit viro et aurem benignam et fidem 
amplam perhibere, quicquid super hoc negotio vestrae 
majestati nostro nomine proposuerit : quam nos divinae 
tutelae et providentiee commendatam volumus. 

Datis Westmonasterio, 6 die Novemb. an. Dom. 1652. 

Sub sigillo parlamenti ej usque nomine atque au- 
thoritate subscripsit Prolocutor Parlamenti Rei- 
publicae Anglite. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic Serenissimo Principi 
Venetiarum Duci, Salutem. 

Parlamentum reipublicae Angliae literas celsitudinis 
vestrae, primo Junii 1652 datas, per Laurentium Palu- 
tium accepit, ex quibus cum et vestrum, et senatus 
propensum in hanc rempublicam animum prospiciat, 
occasionem hanc suum vicissim erga serenissimam 
rempublicam Venetam singulare studium ac benevo- 
lentiam declarandi, libenter arripuit, quam et re ipsa 
idque ex animo, demonstrare quoties usus venerit, 
haudquaquam gravabitur, cui et omnes vel conser- 
vandae vel etiam augendae amicitiae ususque mutui ra- 
tiones in medium allatae erunt itidem acceptissimae, 
vestraeque adeo celsitudini et Reipublicae Serenissimae 
fausta omnia ac prospera exoptat atque precatur. 

Datis Westmonasterio •, die Decemb. an. Dom. 1652. 
Subscripsit et parlamenti sigillum imponendum 
curavit Prolocutor Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic Serenissimo Principi 
Ferdinando Secundo, Hetrurle Magno Duci, Sa- 
lutem. 

Cum parlamentum reipub. Angliae antehac suis na- 
varchiis atque praefectis navium ad loca sub vestrae 
celsitudinis ditione appellentibus, etiam atque etiam 
mandaverit, ut se pacate atque modeste gererent, 
eaque qua decet observantia erga principem sere- 
nissimum, cujus haec respub. et conservare amici- 



tiam tantopere studeat, et tantis beneficiis affecta sit, 
prorsus inopinatum sibi quidem accidit, quod a na- 
varcho Appletono in Liburniensi portu insolentius 
factum esse accepit ; eum nimirum ab eo vigili dum in 
molestationem ageret, vim attulisse, idque turn con- 
tra fidem atque obsequium huic reipublicae ab eo debi- 
tum, turn contra observantiam atque honorem qui ves- 
trae celsitudini sua in ditione jure optimo debetur: quam 
rem totam sicuti gesta est, ex Uteris vestris 7 et 9 De- 
cembris, Florentia datis, parlamentum intellexit; ube- 
rius etiam per spectatissimum virum Almericum Sal- 
vettum, vestrum hie residentem; atque vestrae celsitu- 
dinis honorem, qui hac in re agi videtur, usque adeo 
sibi commendatum habet, ut concilio status id negotii 
dederit, uti literas navarcho Appletono quam primum 
scribendas curaret, quibus is terrestri itinere confestim 
hue advolare juberetur, insoliti hujus facti et extraor 
dinarii rationem redditurus (quarum exemplum litera- 
rum his inclusum una mittitur) qui ubi advenerit et 
facti postulabitur, de eo id statutum iri pollicemur, 
quod testificari possit se vestri juris violationem baud 
minus moleste ferre, quam si ipsum jus suum violaretur. 
Quinetiam de nave dicta Phcenice Liburni recuperata 
consultatione habita, quae res a celsitudine vestra nec- 
non ab oratore suo narratur atque urgetur, contra datam 
a navarcho Appletono fidem f'uisse, qua obstrictus erat 
ne Hollandos intra conspectum portus aut lanternae ado- 
riretur, vestramque celsitudinem ea fiducia nixam, Hol- 
landis fide data de incolumitate promisisse, debere 
proinde eorum satisfactioni prospicere, quibus vestra 
sub fide damnum datum est, parlamentum ab excellen- 
tia vestra petit, ut hoc sibi persuasum habeat, hanc 
rem, quemadmodum sine suo consilio aut mandato est 
gesta, ita hoc etiam ab sua voluntate ac mente lon- 
gissime abesse, ut celsitudo vestra ullo incommodo aut 
honoris imminutione ex illo facto afficiatur: quin imo 
se operam daturum, ut vobis satisfaciendi aliqua ratio 
ineatur, prout sibi quaestione habita de re tota consti- 
terit : quam ut plenius intelligere possit, ipsum navar- 
chum Appletonum ab se audiri necessarium esse judi- 
cat ; qui et eadem fide obstrictus erat, et ab excel- 
lentia vestra creditur, ejusdem violationi saltern assen- 
sisse ; praesertirn cum is tarn brevi sit ad nos reversu- 
rus, atque ilium postquam parlamentum audiverit, 
et cum dicto oratore vestro rationes amplius contulerit, 
hac de re baud exigui sane momenti, earn sententiam 
feret, quae et aequa erit, summaeque benevolentiae qua 
celsitudinem vestram prosequitur consentanea, collatis 
denique a vobis in se beneficiis haud indigna. De qua 
ne interim dubitaret celsitudo vestra, literis per eundem 
hunc tabellarium statim missis certiorem factam primo 
quoque tempore volebat ; seque nullam occasionem 
esse praetermissurum, qua possit re ipsa testari, vestram 
amicitiam quanti faciat. 

Datis Westmonasterio, 14 die Decembris, 
an. Dom. 1652. 

Subscripsit et parlamenti sigillum imprimendum 
curavit, Prolocutor Parlamenti Reipub. Angliae. 



LITERS SENAT US ANGLICANI. 



789 






Concilium Status Reip. Anglicans Serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Frederico, Hceredi Norwegian, Duci Slesvici, 
Holsatice, Starmatice, Ditmarsice, Comiti in Olden- 
burgh et Delmenhorst, Salutem. 

Quanquam sapientissimo Deo visum est rerum om- 
nium moderatori clementissimo, praeter illud onus quod 
nobis cum majoribus nostris commune imposuit, utpro 
libertate nostra contra tyrannos honestissima bella gere- 
remus, iis nos etiam auspiciis eaque divina ope prae illis 
insigniter adjuvare, ut non solum civile bellum restrin- 
guere,sed et causas ejus in futurum praecidere,nec non et 
hostium externorum inopinatos impetus propulsare va- 
luerimus, eundem tamen supremi numinis in nos favo- 
rem ac benignitatem gratissimis quantum possumus 
animis agnoscentes, non ita rerum nostrarum successi- 
bus efFerimur, ut non singularem potius Dei justitiam 
ac providentiam edocti, atque nosmet largiter experti, 
et bellum omne quantum licet aversemur, et pacem 
cum omnibus cupidissime amplectamur. Quemadmo- 
dum igitur quae amicitia quaeque foederum jura nobis 
cum populis quibuscunque ac principibus antiqua in- 
tercessere, ea bactenus cuiquam nee violavimus priores, 
nee violata voluimus, ita et celsitudo vestra, pro vetusta 
sua cum Anglis et a majoribus accepta amicitia, pote- 
nt certissima animi persuasione de nobis aequa omnia 
atque arnica, et sibi et suis polliceri. Denique ut de- 
lata a celsitudine vestra nobis sua studia atque officia 
plurimi ut par est facimus, ita operam dabimus ut ne- 
que nostra ullo tempore vel sibi vel suis deesse sentiat: 
vestramque adeo celsitudinem omnipotentiae numini- 
que Dei omnipotentis quam maxime commendatam 
cupimus. 

Datis in Alba Aula, die Julii, an. 1653. 

Subscripsit et consilii sigillum imprimendum curavit, 

Concilii Prasses. 

Comiti Oldenburgico. 



Illustrissime Domine, 
Parlamentum reipub. Angliae plurimam salutem ab 
amplitudine vestra officiosissime atque humanissime 

i sibi dictam, per Hermannum Mylium, jurisconsultum 
deputatum et consiliarium vestrum accepit : qui et fausta 

i omnia parlamento reique Anglicae, vestro nomine pre- 
catus est, et hujus reipub. amicitiam ut vobis sarta tecta 
permaneret simul expetivit : literas etiam liberi comme- 
atus, quibus vestrae ditionis populus eo tutius negotia- 

i retur, navigaret, et commercia exerceret, nee non et 
nostra ad publicos foris ministros mandata uti amplitu- 
dini vestrae rebusque vestris, suis officiis atque consiliis 
opifularentur, idem a nobis petivit. Nos et petitis 
hisce libenter annuimus, et cum amicitiam, turn etiam 
literas illas expetitas, illaque ad ministros publicos 
mandata sub parlamenti sigillo concessimus. Et quan- 
quam aliquot jam menses abierunt, ex quo vester pub- 
licus minister ad nos primum accessit, ea tamen dilatio 
neque ex eo orta est, quo nos petitioni, amplitudinis 
vestrae nomine factae, assentiri gravaremur, neque quo 
vester deputatus nos assidue sollicitare ullo tempore 



destiterit, (qui certe omni cum diligentia, nee non offici- 
osa simul instantia, ut confecto negotio, compos voti 
dimitteretur, quotidie nos efflagitavit,) verura ex eo solum 
accidit, quod maxima quidem et gravissima reipub. 
negotia, quaeque ad earn vebementer pertinere, aut agi- 
tarentur per boc totum fere tempus, aut transigerentur. 
Qua de re dignitatem vestram illustriss. certiorem faci- 
endam esse censuimus, ut ne quisdilationem hancseciis 
interpretando, gravatim aut aegre impetratum hoc esse 
existimet, quod a parlamento reipub. Angliae libentis- 
sime concessum est. Cujus nomine consignare haec 
jussus est, 

Henricus Scobell, Clericus Parlam. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglic Illustribus et Amplissi- 
mis Consulibus, Scultetis, Landam. et Senatoribus 
Cantonum Helvetia Evangelicorum, Tigurini, Ber- 
nensis, Glaronensis, Basileensis, Schaffusiensis y Ab- 
batiscellani, nee 7ion ejusdem Religionis Confcedera- 
torum in Rhcetia, Geneves, Sanctogalli, Multusii, et 
Sienna,, Amicis nostris charissimis, Salutem. 

Literas vestras, illustres domini atque amici charis- 
simi, Decembris 24, 1652, ad nos datas, accepimus, 
omni humanitate, benevolentia, studioque erga nos 
nostramque rempub. egregio refertas; quodque nobis 
semper majus et antiquius debet esse, charitatem frater- 
nam et vere christianam spirantes. Deoque imprimis 
optimo maximo gratias agimus, qui vos totque vestras 
civitates nobilissimas, non tam illis montium claustris 
quam insita vestra fortitudine,pietate,et prudentissima 
aequissimaque rerum civilium administratione, mutua 
denique foederum fide circumvallatas atque munitas, 
firmissimum universis ortbodoxis praesidium illis in locis 
excitavit atque constituit : vos deinde, qui per omnem 
Europam primi fere mortalium post invectas ab Aqui- 
lone barbarorum regum tyrannidos, Deo vestram virtu- 
tem prosperante, libertatem vobis peperistis, partam 
haud minore prudentia ac moderatione, tot per annos 
illibatam conservastis ; de nobis nostraque libertate 
nuper vindicata tam praeclare sentire, tamque sinceros 
evangelii cultores de nostro in orthodoxam fidem amore 
ac studio, tam constanter persuaderi, id quidem longe 
nobis gratissimum est. Quod autem ad pacem nos pie 
sane et affectu, ut nobis est persuasissimum, vere chris- 
tiano adhortamini, permagnum certe pondus apud nos 
ea adhortatio habere debet; cum propter ipsam rem, 
quam suadetis, maxime expetendam, turn propter sum- 
mam etiam authoritatem, quae vobis prae caeteris hac in 
parte merito tribuenda est, qui inter maximos circum- 
quaque bellorum tumultus, et ipsi summam pacem 
domi forisque tamdiu colitis, et aliis omnibus pacis co- 
lendae simul hortatores et exemplum optimum extitistis; 
cum id denique suadeatis, quod nos dedita opera, idque 
haud semel, non tam nostris rationibus, quam univer- 
sal rei evangelicae prospicientes, per legatos aliosque 
publicos ministros petivimus, amicitiam nimirum et 
arctissimum foedus cum foederatus Belgarum provinciis 
feriendum. Veriim illi (sive ilia perpetuo nobis infesta, 
regiis addicta partibus, tyrannidis et ipsa apud suos 
affectatae comperta Arausiana factio potius dicenda est) 



'90 



LITERJE SENATUS ANGLICANI. 



quo pacto legatos nostros, non de pace, sed de fraterna 
amicitia ac foedere arctissimo venientes acceperint, quas 
postea belli causas praebuerint, ut nos, inter ipsa lega- 
torum suorum de foedere colloquia, instructa classe ni- 
hil tale cogitantes, in ipsis navium stationibus nostris, 
ultro lacesserint, ex illo a nobis ea de republice scripto, 
et nunc una cum hisce literis ad vos misso, abunde in- 
telligetis. Nos autem in id sedulo incumbimus, Deo 
bene juvante, quamvis re bactemis tarn prospere gesta, 
ut neque nostris quicquam viribusaut copiistribuamus, 
sed uni omnia Deo, neque successibus insolenter effe- 
ramur: eundemque animum retinemus conficiendae 
justae atque honestae pacis omnes occasiones amplecti 
paratissimum. Vos interim, illustres ac prnestantissimi 
domini, quibus pium atque praeclarum hoc studium est, 
solo evangelico amore impulsis, fratres inter se cer- 
tantes componere atque conciliare, et omni apud ho- 
mines laude digni, ccelestis illius pacificorum praemii 
apud Deum baud dubie compotes futuri, cujus summae 
benignitati atque gratiae vos vestrosque omnes ex animo 
commendatos volumus, si qua in re vobis usui esse 
possumus, ad omnia cum amicorum turn fratrum officia 
promptissimi. 

Datis Westmonasterio,die Octobris, an. Dom. 1653. 
Subscripsit et parlamenti sigillum imprimendum 
curavit Prolocutor parlamenti reipub. Anglioe. 

Legato Hispanico. 

Illustrissime Domine, 
Cum graves ad nos allatae essent querelas Philippi 
Noelli, Joannis Godalli, et societatis mercatorum in 
Anglia Foyensium, navem quandam suam Annam 
Foyensem dictam, navem Anglicam a sese instructam, 
suis mercibus onustam, cum domum suam ad portum 
Foyensem cursum teneret, circa festum Michaelis Arcb- 
angeli, a nave quadam presidiaria Ostendensi, cui 
praefuit Erasmus Bruerus, oppressam injuste et sine 
causa captam fuisse, inque ea nautas indigne et barbare 
tractatos, consilium status ea de re ad Marcbionem 
Ledae scripsit, (quarum literarum exemplar amplitudini 
vestrae una cum his mittimus) expectabatque ab eo sine 
mora mandatum iri, ut ex jure et aequo ista in re quam 
primum ageretur. Verum cum denuo praedictus No- 
ellus una cum ilia societate graviter queratur, quamvis 
literae nostrae Marchioni redditae fuerint, et mercatores 
illi ab eo tempore se Brugas ad maritimarumcausarum 
curiam contulerint, ibique jus suum suaeque causae 
veritatem probaverint, justitiam tamen sibi denegari, 
tamque inique secum agi, ut quamvis per tres amplius 
menses cognitioni matura res fuerit, tamen ab ilia curia 
se impetrare non posse ut sententiam tandem ferat; 
quin navis eorum et bona nihilo minus retineantur, 
seque per hanc moram in persequendo jure suo magnos 
sumptus fecisse. Non ignorat amplitudo vcstra et juri 
gentium et commercii et amicitiae, quae inter Anglos 
et Flandros est, contrarium esse, ut navis aliquaOsten- 
dcnsis navem aliquam Anglicam caperet, si quidem 
mercibus Anglicis onusta Angliam petat ; quaeque ab 
illo praefecto in nautas Anglicos inhumaniter ac barbare 
commissa sunt poenam gravem mereri. Concilium 



itaque hanc rem amplitudini vestrae commendat, petit- 
que ut de ea in Flandriam scribere velitis, eamque 
operam primo quoque tempore dare, ut ne hoc nego- 
tium diutiiis extrahatur, sed uti ea justitia fiat, utprae- 
dicta navis et bona, una, cum damnis, sumptibus et 
fcenore quae Angli isti propter illam injustam intercep- 
tionem sustinuerunt, authoritate curiae maritimae Bru- 
gensis, aut alio modo bono iis reddantur, utque curetur 
nequa ejusmodi interceptio deinceps fiat, quin amicitia 
quae nostris hominibus cum Flandris intercedit sine 
ulla violatione conservetur. 

Obsignatum nomine et jussu concilii status parla- 
menti authoritate constituti. 

Marchioni JjEDM. 

Illustrissime Domine, 
Graves ad nos allatae sunt querelas, a Philippo 
Noello, et Joanni Godallo, et societate mercatorum 
Foyensium, de nave quadam sua, cui nomen Anna 
Foyensis, quae cum esset navis Angelica, ab illis in- 
structa, et ipsorum solummodo mercibus onusta, circiter 
festum Michaelis Archangeli ad portum suum renavi- 
gans, a nave praesidaria quae ad Ostendam pertinebat, 
cujus erat praefectus Erasmus Bruerus, de improvise 
capta f bit. Nuntiatum porro est, Ostendenses, cum in 
sua potestate navis esset, nautas omnes nimis inhuma- 
niter tractasse, accenso fune digitis admoto, et navis 
magistrum undis immersisse, atque pcene suffocasse, 
ut minime veram ab ipso confessionem extorquerent, 
de navi atque mercimoniis illis, quasi Gallorum essent. 
Quod tametsi magister ille caeterique socii navis firmi- 
ter pernegabant, Ostendenses tamen, et navim et mer- 
cedes in portum suum abduxerunt. Haec in curia 
navali Angliae, inquisitione facta, testibusque adhibitis, 
vera esse apparuere, ut ex autographis testimoniorum 
quae cum his literis simul misimus manifesto liquebit. 
Cum itaque ilia navis, Anna Foyensis dicta, atque 
mercimonia omnia peculiariter vere ac proprie ad An- 
glos pertineant, adeo ut nulla causa appareat cur 
Ostendenses vel illam vel ea vi caperent, multo miniis 
auferrent navis magistrum, aut societatem tarn dure 
tractarent ; cumque secundum leges nationum atque 
amicitiam inter Anglos Flandrosque, navim illam at- 
que mercimonia reddi oporteat, magnopere petimus ab 
excellentia vestra, ut jus suum Anglicani mature obti- 
neant, atque illis satisfiat qui damnum acceperunt, 
utque commercium, et amicitia quae inter Anglos Flan- 
drosque est, diu atque firmiter conservetur. 

Legato Hispanico. 

Parlamentum reipublicae Angliae cum intelligat, 
plurimos ex populo in hac urbe tarn excellentiae vestrae, 
quam aliorum legatorum et ministrorum ab exteris 
regionibus publicorum his versantium domos missae 
audiendae causa frequentare, concilio status mandavit, 
uti excellentiae vestrae significaret, cum hoc gentis 
hujus legibus damnatum, ac in hac nostra republica 
mali admodum exempli sit, offensionisque plenum, 
ccnscre se, sui plane officii esse, ne quid tale dehinc 



LITERJE SENATUS ANGLICANL 



791 



fiat providere; coetusque ejusraodi in futurum prorsus 
interdicere. Qua de re excellentiam vestram admoni- 
tam nunc esse cupimus, ut ne quem ex populo hujus 
reipublicae missae audiendae causa suam in domum 
postbacvelit admittere. Et quemadmodum parlamen- 
tum diligenter curabit, ut legati jus et privilegia quae- 
que vestrae excellentiae inviolata serventur, ita hoc sibi 
persuasissimum habet, excellentiam vestram, quamdiu 
hie commoratur, leges hujus reipub. perse suosve nolle 
ullo modo violatas. 

Summarium damnorum sinyulorum et haud fictorum 
quibus Societas Anglicana multis Orientalis India 
locis a Bclgica Societate affecta est. 



I. 



d. 



1. Damna ilia sedecim articulis com- 
prehensa et pridem exhibita, quorum 
summa est 298555 regiorum -§ quae est 

monetae nostras .. _ _ _ 74638 15 

2. De Pularonis insulae fructibus 
satisfactionem dari postulamus ab 
anno 1622, ad hoc usque tempus, du- 
centies millenum reg-iorum -§- praeter 
dispendium futurum donee jus ditionis 
in illam insulam nobis restituatur eo 
rerum statu in quo fuit cum erepta 
nobis est, prout feed ere sancitum erat : 

quod est nostras monetae - 50000 

3. Satisfactionem postulamus de om- 
nibus illis mercimoniis cibariis et ap- 
paratibus, qui ab agentibus societatis 
Belgiae apud Indos ablati sunt, aut iis 
traditi, aut ulli ex eorum navibus eo 
cursum tenentibus aut inde redeunti- 
bus, quorum summa est 80635 regio- 

rum : nostras monetae - 20158 

4. Satisfactionem postulamus ob 
portoria mercium Belgicarum quae in 
Perside aut navibus impositae sunt, aut 
in terram expositae ab anno 1624, prout 
nobis a rege Persarum concessum erat, 
quae minoris aestimare non possum us 

quam octogies millenis regiis - - 20000 

5. Satisfactionem postulamus ob 
quatuor aedes malitiosissime et ini- 
quissime Joccatrae incensas, una cum 
mercium apothecis repositoriis et appa- 
ratibus, cui rei praetor illic Belgicus 
occasionem dedit, de quibus omnibus ex 
eo ipso loco certiores postea facti sumus 
quam priores querelas exhibueramus ; 
cujus damni summa est ducenties mil- 
lenum regiorum - 50000 

6. Satisfactionem postulamus ob 
32899 libras piperis ex nave Endi- 
mione vi ablatas anno 1649, cujus 

damni summa est - - - 6000 



220796 15 



Summarium damnorum aliquot particidarium quibus 
etiam a Belgica Orientalis Indies Societate affecti 
sumus. 



I. 



t. d. 



1. Propter damna quae per eosfeci- 
mus qui Bantamum obsederunt, unde 
factum est ut per sex annos continuos 
eo commercio exclusi simus, et conse- 
quenter occasione sexcenties mille re- 
gios in coemendo pipere locandi pro 
rata nostra portione, quo multas naves 
nostras in reditu onerare potuissemus, 
quo onere cum carerent passim per In- 
diae littora cariem traxere : interea sors 
nostra apud Indos quae vel pecuniae 
vel bonorum erat stipendio nautico 
commeatu alioque apparatu imminuta 
et exhausta est, adeo ut praedictae jac- 
turae haud minoris sestimari queant 
vicies centies et quater millenis regiis, 

id est nostrae monetae - 600000 

2. Plura etiam propter damna ex 
amissa parte nostra debita fructuum in 
insulis Moluccis, Banda et Amboyna, 
ex quo tempore per caedem nostrorum 
ibi factam pulsi inde sumus ad usque 
illud tempus quo de jactura hac atque 
dispendio nobis satisfiat, quod spatium 
temporis ab anno 1622, ad hunc annum 
praesentem 1650, pro reditu anno 25000 

librarum, annis 28, summam conficit 700000 

3. Reparationem insuper postula- 
mus centies et bis millenum nongento- 
rum quinquaginta novem regiorum 
Surattae, a. populo Mogulli nobis abla- 
torum, quos Belgae eum in modum tu- 
tati sunt, ut neque ex pecuniis neque 
ex bonis ejus populi quoe in ipsorum 
juncis seu navibus erant damna nostra 
resarcire possemus, quod quidem per- 
ficere et conati sumus et in manu 
nostra situm erat, nisi eos Belgae ini- 
quissime defendissent, quae pecunia 
amissa ad impensas faciendas jamdu- 
dum in Europa triplum peperisset: 

quod nos aestimamus - - - 77020 

4. Ob portoria Persidis quorum di- 
midia pars ab rege Persarum Anglis 
concessa est anno 1624, quae usque ad 
annum 1629 supputata aestimatur oc- 
ties millenis regiis, quemadmodum 
prius exponitur qua ratione subducta 
quatuor mille librarum in annos sin- 
gulos praebere tenentur ab anno 1629, 
a quo unus et viginti anni sunt, atque 

inde summa conficietur - 84000 

Ab altero summario - 220796 15 



Summa totalis - 1681816 15 



Locus figurae Q 

regii 
Debitum ab eo tempore fcenus sortem ipsam longe superabit. 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS 



NOMINE SCRIPTVE. 



Comiti Oldenburgico. 

Illustrissime Domine; 

Per literas vestras Januarii die vigesimo 1654 datas, 
certior sum factus, nobilem virum Fridericum Matthiam 
Wolisogum seeretarium vestrum, et Christophorum 
Griphiandrum, cum certis mandatis ab illustrissima 
dignitate vestra in Angliam missos fuisse. Qui ciim 
ad nos accessissent, et susceptam Anglicanas reipublicae 
administrationem nobis vestro nomine gratulati sunt ; 
et uti vos vestraque ditio in hanc pacem, quam cum 
foederatis Belgii ordinibus proxime fecimus, assumere- 
mini : ut denique salvam-guardiam ill am quam vulgo 
vocant, a parlamento nuper vobis concessam, nostra 
nunc autboritate confirmaremus, petiverunt: ob istam 
itaque gratulationem tarn amicam maximas, ut aequum 
est, gratias agimus : et ilia duo postulata libenter con- 
cessimus ; nulli etiam occasioni in posterum defuturi, 
quae studium in vos nostrum poterit ullo tempore de- 
clarare. Idque ex supradictis oratoribus vestris plenius 
vos arbitror intellecturos; quorum fides, ac diligentia, 
in hoc vestro apud nos negotio praeclare constitit. Quod 
reliquum est, vobis, rebusque vestris felicitatem, atque 
ex voto pacem omnem exopto. 

Westmonaste?'io, Jun. 27, 1654. 

Illustrissimse dignitatis vestra? studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Anglioe, Scotias, Hiberniae, &c. 
Protector. 

Comiti Oldenburgico. 

Illustrissime Domine; 
Literas vestras Maii secundo die Oldenburgo datas 
accepi baud uno nomine gratissimas ; cum quod essent 
ipsas singular! erga me humanitate ac benevolentia re- 
fertae; turn quod illustrissimi Domini Comitis Antonii 
perdilecti filii vestri nianu redditas. Id quod e6 magis 
honorificum mihi duco, ex quo illius virtutes tanta 
stirpe dignas, moresque eximios, studium denique in 
me egregium, non tarn acceptum ab aliis, quam re ipsa 
cognitum atque perspectum, jam habeo. Neque du- 
bium esse potest, quin eandem quoque suis donii spem 
faciat, fore se patris optimi prasstantissimique similli- 
mum; cuj us praeclara virtus atque prudentia perfecit, 
ut tota ilia ditio Oldcnburgica permultia ab annis, ct 



summa pace frui, et pacis commoda percipere, inter 
saevissimos undique circumstrepentium bellorum tu- 
multus, potuerit. Talem itaque amicitiam quidni ego 
quam plurimi facerem, qua? potest inimicitias omnium 
tam sapienter ac provide cavere ? Pro munere denique 
illo magnifico est, Illustrissime Domine, quod gratias 
habeo ; pro jure est ac merito tuo, quod ex animo sum 
Ulustrissiime dignitatis vestras studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Anglias, Scotias, Hibernioe, &c. 
Protector. 
Westmonasterio, 29 Junii, 1654. 
Illustrissimo Domino Antonio Gunthero, Comiti 
in Oldenburgh, et Delmenhorst, Domino in Jeh- 
vern, et Kniphausen. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, Scotice, Hiber- 
nian, fyc. Serenissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo 
Succorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Regi, Magno 
Principi Finlandice, Duci Esthonia, Carelice, Bre- 
mtz, Verdte, Stctini, Pomerania, Cassubice et Vanda- 
li&, Principi Rugice, Domino Ingrics, Wissmarice, 
necnon Comiti Palatino Rheni, Bavaria, Jul. Clivice 
et Montium Duci, fyc. Salutem. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Cum Suecorum regnum per bosce dies summis populi 
studiis, omniumque ordinum suffragiis liberrimis, trans- 
latum ad vos esse, toto orbe terrarum percrebuerit, id 
maluisse majestatem vestram suis Uteris amicissimis, 
quam vulgata fama nos intelligere, et summae benevo- 
lentioa erga nos vestras, et honoris inter primos attributi, 
argumentum baud leve esse ducimus. Mam itaque 
vestris meritis egregiis accessionem dignitatis, prasmi- 
umque virtute tanta dignissimum, et sponte et jure 
vobis gratulamur : idque ut majestati vestras, Sueco- 
rurnque genti, reique toti christianoe, bonum atque 
f'austum sit, quod et vobis maxime in votis est, junctis 
precibus Deum oramus. Quod autem foederis inter 
hanc rempublicam Sueciasque regnum recens icti con- 
servationem majestas vestra, quod ad se attinet inte- 
gerrimam, usque eo curas sibi fore confirmat, ut quae 
nunc intercedit amicitia, non permanere solum, sed, si 
id fieri potest, augescere etiam indies possit, id vel in 
dubium vocare nefas esse, tua tanti principis fide inter- 
posita, cujus eximia virtus non solum in peregriua terra 
regnum tibi luereditarium peperit, sed tantum etiam 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



793 



potuit, ut augustissima regina, Gustavi filia, cui parem 
omni laude heroinam multa retro secula non tulere, 
possessione imperii justissima inopinanti tibi ac nolenti 
ultro cederet. Vestrum denique tam singulare erga 
nos studium, tamque praeclarain animi significationem 
nobis esse gratissimam, omni ratione persuasum esse 
vobis cupimus ; nullumque nobis pulcbrius certamen 
fore, quam ut vestram bumanitatem nostris officiis nullo 
tempore defuturis, si id potest fieri, vincamus. 

TTr . . j. Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

W estmonasterio, die -' . . ' 

ATI- la-A Oliverius, Reip. Angliae, Scotiae, 

Hibernian, &c. Protector. 

Illustrissimo Domino Ludovico Mendezio de Haro. 

Quod accepi ex literis suis, iilustrissime Domine, 
constitutum ac nominatum jam esse ab serenissimo 
Hispaniarum rege legatum, qui de suscepta a me An- 
glicana republica gratulatum hue primo quoque tempore 
veniret; cum est merito per se gratum, turn tu id, qui 
exte imprimis hoc me cognoscere voluisti, ut esset mibi 
aliquanto gratius atque jucundius, singulari tuo studio 
atque officii celeritate effecisti. Sic euim diligi atque 
probari me abs te, qui virtute tua atque prudeutia tan- 
tam apud regem tuum authoritatem tibi conciliasti, ut 
vel maximis illius regni negotiis par animo prassis, 
haud minori profecto mihi voluptati debet esse, quam 
judicium praestantissimi viri ornamento mihi intelligo 
fore. De meo autem in serenissimum Hispaniarum 
regem propenso animo, et ad amicitiam cum isto regno 
couservandam, atque etiam indies exaugendam,promp- 
tissimo, et huic qui nunc adest legato satisfecisse me 
spero, et alteri, cum advenerit, cumulate satisfacturum. 
De caetero, iilustrissime Domine, qua nunc flores apud 
reg'em tuum dignitate ac gratia, earn tibi perpetuam 
exopto; quasque res geris bono publico et administras, 
volo tibi prospere feliciterque evenire. 

Amplitudinis tuae ill ustrissimae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, Scotiae, 
Hiberniae, &c. 

Alba Aula, Septembris die, 1854. 

Serenissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo Adolpho, Sue- 
corum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Regime. 

Cum de voluntate vestrae majestatis in me singulari 
ex vestris sim nuper literis persuasus, quibus et ipse 
pari studio rescripserim, videor mihi ex ratione prorsus 
amicitiae nostras deinceps facturus, si quemadmodum 
qua? grata accideriut ad laetitiam mutuam communicem, 
ita quae contraria, de iis vobis tanquam amicissimis, 
animi mei sensum doloremque aperiam. De me equi- 
dem sic existimo, eo me in loco reipub. jam esse consti- 
tutum, ut communi Protestautium paci imprimis, et 
quantum in me est, consulere debeam. Quo gravius 
necesse est feram quae de Bremensium et Suecorum 
prseliis mutuisque cladibus ad nos perferuntur. Illud 
primum doleo, amicos utrosque nostros tam atrociter, 
tamque Protestantium rationibus periculose, inter se 
decertare ; pacem deinde illam monasteriensem, quae 
reformats omnibus summo presidio credebatur fore, 



ejusmodi peperisse infoelix bellum : ut nunc arma Sue- 
corum in eos conversa sint, quos inter ceeteros paulo 
ante religionis causa acerrime defenderent : idque po- 
tissimum hoc tempore fieri, cum pontificii per totam 
fere Germaniam reformatos ubique rursus opprimere, 
et ad intermissas paulisper injurias, vimque pristinam, 
redire palam dicantur. Cum itaque intelligerem di- 
erum aliquot inducias ad Bremam urbem jam esse fac- 
tas, non potui sane quin majestati vestrae, occasione 
hac data, significarem quam cupiam ex animo, quam- 
que enixe Deum pacis orem, uti istae induciee utrique 
parti feliciter cedant ; utque in pacem firmissimam ex 
compositione utrinque commodapossintdesinere: quam 
ad rem si meam operam conferre quicquam, aut usui 
fore,majestas vestrajudicaverit, earn vobis libentissime, 
ut in re Divino Numini proculdubio acceptissima, pol- 
liceor atque defero. Interea majestatis vestrae consilia 
omnia ut ad communem christianoe rei salutem dirigar. 
Deus atque gubernet, quod idem non dubito quin et 
vos maxime velitis, animitus exopto. 
Alba Aula, Oct. Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

26, 1653. Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Magnificis amplissimisque Consulibus ac Senatoribus 
Civitatis Breinensis. 

Ex literis vestris per oratorem vestrum Henricum 
Oldenburgum ad nos datis, coortum civitati vestrae 
cum vicino potentissimo dissidium, quasque exinde ad 
angustias redacti sitis, eo majore cum molestia ac do- 
lore intellig'o, quo magis Bremensem civitatem, praeter 
caeteras orthodoxa religione prsestantem, diligo atque 
amplector; neque in votis quicquam habeo antiquius, 
quam ut universum Protestantium nomen fraterno 
consensu atque concordia in unum tandem coalescat. 
Laetari interim communem reformatorum hostem hisce 
nostris contentionibus, et ferocius passim instare, certis- 
simum est. Ipsa autem controversia, cum decisiouis 
nostrae non sit quae vos jam nunc exercet, Deum itaque 
oro ut quae coeptae sunt induciaepossintfoelicem exitum 
sortiri. Equidem quod petistis, ad Suecorum regem ea 
de re scripsi suasor pacis atque concordiae, Deo niini- 
rum imprimis gratoe, meamque operam ut in re tam 
pia libens detuli, vos uti sequum animum, neque ab 
ullis pacis conditionibus, honestis quidem illis, abhor- 
rentem suadeo geratis; vestramque civitatem divinae 
tutelae ac providentiae commenclo. 
Alba Aula, Get. Amplitudinis vestrae studiosissimus, 
26, 1654. Oliverius Prot. Reipub. Angliae, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice Illustrissimo 
Principi Tarentino, S. P. D. 

Perspectus ex literis tuis ad me datis religionis 
amor tuus, et in ecclesias reformatas pietas eximia, 
studiumque singulare, in ista praesertim generis nobili- 
tate ac splendore, eoquesub regno in quo deficientibus 
ah orthodoxa fide tot sunt nobilissimis quibusque spes 
uberes propositae, tot firmioribus incommoda subeunda, 
permagno me plane gaudio ac voluptate affecit. Nee 
minus gratum erat placuisse me tibi eo ipso religionis 



794 



LITERJE OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



nomine, quo tu raihi dilectus atque chains imprimis 
esse debes. Deum autem obtestor ut quam de me 
spem ecclesiarum et expectationem esse ostendis, pos- 
sim ei aliquando vel satisfacere, si opus erit, vel de- 
monstrare omnibus, quam cupiam non deesse. Nullum 
equidem fructum laborum meorum, nullum hujus quam 
obtineo in repub. mea sive dignitatis sive muneris, nee 
ampliorem existimarem, nee jucundiorem, quam ut 
idoneus sim, qui ecclesiae reformatae vel amplificationi 
vel incolumitati, vel quod maximum est, paci inser- 
viam. Te vero hortor magnopere ut religionem ortho- 
doxam, qua pietate ac studio a majoribus acceptam 
profiteris, eadem animi firmitate atque constantia ad 
extremum usque retineas. Nee sane quicquam erit te 
tuisque parentibus religiosissimis dignius, nee quod pro 
tuis in me mentis quanquam tua causa cupio omnia, 
optare tibi melius aut prseclarius queam, quam si sic 
te pares atque instituas, ut ecclesiae, praesertim patriae, 
quarum in disciplina tarn felici indole tamque illustri 
loco natus es, quanto caeteris praeluces, tanto firmius 
in te presidium suis rebus constitutum esse sentiant. 
Vale. 
Alba Aula, die Aprilis, 1655. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice Serenissimo 
Principi Immanueli Sabaudice, Duci Pedemontii 
Principi, Salutem. 

Serenissime Princeps ; 
Redditje sunt nobis Geneva, necnon ex Delphinatu 
aliisque multis ex locis ditioni vestrae finitimis literse, 
quibus certiores facti sumus, reg-alis vestras celsitudinis 
subditis reformatam religionem profitentibus, vestro 
edicto atque authoritate imperatum nuper esse, uti tri- 
duo quam hoc edictum promulgatum erit suis sedibus 
atque agris excedant poena capitis, et fortunarum 
omnium amissione proposita, nisi fidem fecerint se, dere- 
licta religione sua, intra dies viginti catholicam religi- 
onem amplexuros : Cumque se supplices ad celsitudi- 
nem vestram regalem contulissent, petentes uti edictum 
illud revocetur, utque ipsi, pristinam in gratiam recepti, 
concessas a serenissimis majoribus vestris libertati resti- 
tuantur, partem tamen exercitus vestri in eos impetum 
fecisse, multos crudelissime trucidasse, alios vinculis 
mandusse, reliquos in deserta loca montesque nivibus 
coopertos expulisse, ubi familiarum aliquot centuriae 
eo loci rediguntur, ut sit metuendum ne frigore et fame 
brevi sint misere omnes periturae. Haec cum ad nos 
perlata essent, baud sane potuimus quin, hujus afrlic- 
tissimi populi tantacalamitate audita, summo dolore ac 
miseratione commoveremur. Cum autem non humani- 
tatis modo, sed ejusdem religionis communione, adeoque 
fraterna penitus necessitudine cum iis conjunctos nos 
esse fateamur, satisfieri a nobis neque nostro erga Deum 
officio, neque fraternoe charitati, neque religionis ejus- 
dem profes^ioni posse existimavimus, si in hac fratrum 
nostrorum calamitate ac miseria solo sensu doloris affi- 
ceremur, nisi etiam ad sublevanda eorum tot mala 
inopinata, quantum in nobis est situm, omnem operam 
nostram conferamus. Itaque a vestra imprimis celsi- 
tudine regali majorcm in modum enixe pelimus et ob- 



testamur, ut ad instituta serenissimorum majorum 
suorum, concessamque ab iis omni tempore et confir- 
matam subditis suis Vallensibus libertatem, velit ani- 
mum referre. In qua concedenda atque confirmanda, 
quemadmodum id praestiterunt, quod Deo per se gra- 
tissimum proculdubio est, qui conscientiae jus inviola- 
bile ac potestatem penes se unum esse voluit, ita dubium 
non est quin subditorum etiam suorum meritam rati- 
onem habuerint, quos et in bello strenuos ac fidelissi- 
mos, et in pace dicto semper audientes, experti fuissent. 
Utque serenitas vestra regalis in caeteris omnibus et 
benigne et gloriose factis avorum suorum vestigiis 
optime insistit, ita in hoc nolit ab iisdem discedere 
etiam atque etiam obsecramus ; sed et hoc edictum, 
et si quod aliud inquietandis reformatae religionis causa 
subditis suis rogatum sit, uti abroget ; ipsos patriis se- 
dibus atque bonis restituat ; concessa jura ac libertatem 
pristinam ratam iis faciat; accepta damna sarciri, et 
eorum vexationibus finem imponi jubeat. Quod si fe- 
cerit regalis eelsitudo vestra, etrem Deo acceptissimam 
fecerit, miseros illos et calamitosos erexerit et recrearit, 
et a suis omnibus vicinis, quotquot reformatam religi- 
onem colunt, maximam gratiam inierit; nobisque po- 
tissimum, qui vestram in illos benignitatem atque cle- 
mentiam obtestationis nostrae fructum arbitrabimur. 
Quod et ad omnes officiorum reddendas vices nos obli- 
gaverit; nee stabiliendse solum verum etiam augendae 
inter hanc remp. vestramque ditionem necessitudinis 
et amicitise fundamenta firmissima jecerit. Neque vero 
hoc minus ab justitia vestra et moderatione animi nobis 
pollicemur : quam in partem Deum Opt. Max. oramus 
uti mentem vestram et cogitationes flectat : vobisque 
adeo vestroque populo pacem, ac veritatem, et successus 
rerum omnium felices, ex animo precamur. 
Alba Aula, Maio, 1655. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Transylvania, Salutem. 

Serenissime Princeps ; 
Ex Uteris vestris sexto-decimo Novembris 1654, ad 
nos datis, singularem erga nos benevolentiam veslram 
atque studium perspeximus; et internuntius vester, 
qui illas nobis literas dedit, de contrahenda nobiscum 
societateet amicitiavoluntatem vestram amplius coram 
exposuit. Nos certe occasionem hanc esse datam, uude 
nostrum quoque erga vos animum, et quanti celsitu- 
dinem vestram merito faciamus, declarare atque osten- 
dere possimus, haud mediocriter sane gaudemus. Cum 
autem vestra in rempublicam christianam praeclara 
merita laboresque suscepti ad nos usque fama perve- 
nerint, et hasc omnia certius, et quae amplius rei chris- 
tianae vel defendendos vel promovendae causa in animo 
habcatis, eelsitudo vestra suis literis communicata no- 
bis amicissime voluerit, ea uberiorem insuper laetandi 
materiam nobis attulere : Deum nempe iis in regioni- 
bus excitasse sibi tarn potentem atque egregium suae 
glorias ac providenthe ministrum ; qui, cum virtute at- 
que armis tantum possit, de religione communi Protes- 
tantium tuenda, cui nunc undique male et dictum et 
factum est, nobiscum una sociare consilia cupiat. Deus 



LITER/E OLIVERII PROTECTORY. 



?95 



autem, qui utrisque nobis, tametsi locorum intervallo 
tarn longe disjunctis, eundem religionis orthodoxse de- 
fendendce studium atque animum injecit, dubium non 
est quin earum prsecipue rationum author nobis futurus 
sit, unde et nobis, et inter nos, et reformatorum reliquis 
principibus ac civitatibus, bac in re maximo esse adju- 
mento atque usui possimus, occasionibus certe omnibus 
intenti, si quas Deus obtulerit, iis quod ad nos attinet, 
eodem Deo bene juvante, non deerimus. Interea celsi- 
tudini vestrae sine summo dolore commemorare non 
possumus, quanta inclementia dux Allobrogum subditos 
suos Alpinarum quarundam vallium incolas, ortho- 
doxam religionem retinentes, persequutus sit. Quos non 
solum severissimo edicto, quotquot Romanam religio- 
nem suscipere recusarunt, sedes avitas bonaque omnia 
relinquere coegit; veriim etiam suo exercitu adortus 
est, qui multos crudelissime concidit, alios barbare per 
exquisitos cruciatus necavit, partem vero maximam in 
montes expulit fame et frigore absumendam, exustis 
domibus, et siqua eorum bona ab illis carnificibus non 
sint direpta. Haec ut ad vos jamdudum nuntiata sunt, 
et celsitudini vestrao tantam crudelitatem graviter dis- 
plicuisse, et vestram opem atque auxilium, quantum in 
vobis est, illis miserrimis, siqui tot ccedibus atque misei iis 
adbuc supersunt, non defuturum, nobis facile persuade- 
tur. Nos literasduci Sabaudiae, ad deprecandum ejus 
infensum in suos animum, jam scripsimus; sicut et 
Gallorum regi, idem ut is etiam velit facere ; vicinis 
denique reformatas religionis principibus, uti de ilia 
seevitia tarn immani quid nos sentiamus intelligere pos- 
sint: quse quanquam in illos inopes primum coepta est, 
idem tamen omnibus eandem religionem profitentibus 
minatur : eoque majorem illis prospiciendi sibi in com- 
mune suisque omnibus consulendi necessitatem impo- 
nit : quam et nos eandem rationem, prout Deus nobis 
in animum induxerit, semper sequemur. Id quod cel- 
situdo vestra persuadere sibi poterit quemadmodum et 
de singulari nostro erga se studio atque atTectu, quo 
prosperos rerum omnium successus vobis animitiis ex- 
optamus; et vestra incoepta omnia atque conatus, qui- 
bus Evangelii cultorumque ejus libertati studetis, foeli- 
cem exitum sortiri volumus. 
Alba Aula, Maio, 1655. 

Oliverius Protect. Serenissimo Principi Carolo 
Gustavo Adolpho, Suecorum Regi, Salutem. 

Pervenisse nupe-r in regna vestra illius edicti acer- 
bissimi famam, quo dux Sabaudiae subjectos sibi Alpi- 
nos incolas, reform atam religionem profitentes, fundi- 
tus afflixit, et nisi religione Romana suam mutare 
fidem a majoribus acceptam intra dies viginti velint, 
patriis sedibus exterminari jussit, unde multis inter- 
fectis, caeteri spoliati, et ad interitum certissimum ex- 
positi, per incultissimos montes byememque perpetuam, 
fame et frigore confecti, cum conjugibus ac parvulis 
jam nunc aberrant; et haec graviter tulisse majestatem 
vestram nobis persuasissimum est. Nam Protestantium 
nomen atque causam, tametsi inter se de rebus non 
maximis dissentiunt, communem tamen et pene unam 
esse, adversariorum par in omnes Protestantes odium 



facile demonstrat. Et Suecorum reges suam cum re- 
formatis conjunxisse semper causam, illatis etiam in 
Germaniam armis ad Protestantium religionem sine 
discrimine tuendam, nemo est qui ignoret : petimus 
imprimis igitur, idque majorem in modum, a majes- 
tate vestra (nisi id jam fecerit, quod et reformato- 
rum alias respublicae et nos fecimus) ut cum Sabau- 
diae duce per literas velit agere; suaque authoritate 
interposita, et hanc tantam edicti atrocitatem ab homi- 
nibus cum innocuis turn religiosis deprecando, si 
fieri potest, avertere conetur : etenim baec initia tarn 
saeva quo spectent, quid nobis omnibus minentur, ad- 
monere vestram majestatem supervacuum esse arbitra- 
mur. Quod si is irae suae, quam nostris omnium preci- 
bus, auscultare maluerit : nobis profecto, siquod est 
vinculum, siqua religionis charitas aut communio cre- 
denda atque colenda est, communicate prius vestra cum 
maj estate caeterisque reformatorum primoribus consiiio, 
alia quamprimum ineunda ratio erit, qua provider! 
mature possit, ne tantainnocentissimorum fratrum nos- 
trorum multitudo omni ope destituta miserrime pereat. 
Quod idem quin majestati vestrae visum jam sit atque 
decretum cum nullo modo dubitemus, nihil consultius, 
ut nostra quidem fert sententia, esse poterit quam ut 
gratiam, authoritatem, consilia, opes, et siquid aliud 
necesse est, in hanc rem primo quoque tempore confe- 
ramus. Interea majestatem vestram Deo Opt. Max. 
commendatarn ex animo volumus. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Excehis et 
Prcepotentibus Dominis Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus. 

Edictum ducis Sabaudiae nuperrimum in subjectos 
sibi Alpinos incolas, orthodoxam religionem antiquitus 
profitentes, quo illi edicto, ni intra dies viginti fidem 
Romanam amplectantur, exuti fortunis omnibus, pa- 
trias quoque sedes relinquere jubentur, et quanta crude- 
litate in homines innoxios atque inopes, nostrosque, 
quod maxime refert, in Christo fratres, illius edicti 
auctoritas grassata sit, occisis permultis ab exercitus 
parte contra eos missa, direptis reliquis atque domo ex- 
pulsis, unde illi cum conjugibus ac liberis fame et 
frigore conflictari inter asperrimos montes nivesque 
perpetuas jamdiu coacti sunt, rumoreet vicinis undique 
ex locis creberrimis Uteris ac nunciis cognovisse vos 
jamdudum existimamus. Qua autem animi commoti- 
one, quo sensu fraternae calamitatis, baec vos affecerint, 
facile ex dolore nostro qui certe est gravissimus intelli- 
gere videmur. Qui enim eodem religionis vinculo con- 
juncti sum us, quidni iisdem plane affectibus in tarn 
gravi atque indigna fratrum nostrorum commoveremur? 
Et vestra quidem in ortbodoxos, ubicunque locorum 
disjectos atque oppressos, spectata pietas atque in multis 
ecclesiarum difficultatibus et adversis rebus jam ssepe 
cognita est. Ego certe, nisi me fallit animus, quavis 
in re potius, quam studio et charitate erga fratres reli- 
gionis causa violatos atque afflictos, vinci sustineam : 
quandoquidem ecclesiarum salutem atque pacem in- 
columitati etiam proprise libens praatulerim. Quod 
igitur bactenus potuimus, ad Sabaudiaa ducem scripsi- 
mus; suppliciter pene rogantes, ut in hos homines in- 



796 



LITERS OLIVER!! PROTECTORIS. 



nocentissimos et subditos et supplices suos placatiorem 
animum ac voluntatem suscipiat, suas sedes atque for- 
tunas miseris reddat, pristinam etiam in religione liber- 
tatem concedat. Scripsimus praeterea ad sumraos 
Pro testan tiu m principes et magistratus, ad quos haec 
maxime pertinere judicavimus, ut in Sabaudiae duce 
exorando suam conferre operam nobiscum una velint. 
Haec eadem, et plura, forsitan vos quoque fecistis. 
Nam exemplum hoc tam periculosum, et instaurata 
nuper in reformatos tanta crudelitas, si auctoribus bene 
cedat, quantum in discrimen adducta religiositvestram 
commonefacere prudentiam nihil attinet. Et is quidem 
si flecti nostris omnium precibus et exorari se passus 
erit, praeclarum nos atque uberem susceptihujuslaboris 
fructum ac praemium reportabimus. Sin ea in sententia 
perstiterit, ut apud quos nostra religio vel ab ipsis 
evangelii primis doctoribus tradita per manus et in- 
corrupte servata, vel multo ante quam apud caeteras 
gentes sinceritati pristinae restituta est, eos ad summam 
desperationem redactos, deletos funditiis ac perditos 
velit, paratos nos esse commune aliquod vobiscum 
caeterisque reformatis fratribus ac sociis consilium ca- 
pere, quo etsaluti pereuntium justorum consulere com- 
modissime queamus, et is demum seutiat orthodoxorum 
injurias atque miserias tam graves non posse nos neg- 
ligere. Valete. 

Civitatibus Helvetiorum Evangelicis. 

Non dubitamus quin ad aures vestras aliquanto citius 
quam ad nostras ilia nuper calamitas pervenerit Alpi- 
norum hominum religionem nostvam profitentium, qui 
Sabaudiae ducisin fide acditione cumsint, suiprincipis 
edicto patriis sedibus emigrare jussi, ni intra triduum 
satisdedissent se Romanam religionem suscepturos, 
mox armis petiti et ab exercitu ducis sui occisi, etiam 
permulti in exilium ejecti, nunc sine lare, sine tecto, 
nudi, spoliati, afflicti, fame et frigore moribundi, per 
montes desertos atque nives cum conjugibus ac liberis 
miserrime vagantur. Multo est minus cur dubitemus 
quin h?ec, ut primum vobis nuntiata sunt, pari atque 
nos tantarum miseriarum sensu, eoque fortasse graviore 
quo illorum finibus propiores estis, dolore affecerint. 
Vestrum enim in primis orthodoxa? fidei studium egre- 
gium, summamque in ea cum retinenda constantiam 
turn defendenda fortitudinem, abunde novimus. Cum 
itaque religionis arctissima communione fratres, vel 
potius unum corpus, cum his miseris vos pariter nobis- 
cum sitis, cujus membrum nullum affligi sine sensu, 
sine dolore, sine detrimento atque periculo reliquorum 
potest, scribendum ad vos hac de re et significandum 
censuimus, quanti nostrum omnium interesse arbitre- 
mur, ut fratres nostros ejectos, atque inopes communi 
ope atque auxilio, quoad fieri potest, juvemus et con- 
solemur; nee eorum tantummodo malis et miseriis re- 
movendis, verum etiam nequid serpat latins, nequid 
periculi exemplo atque eventu vel nobis omnibus creari 
possit, mature prospiciamus. Literas nos quidem ad 
Sabaudiae ducem scripsimus, quibus, uti cum subditis 
suis fidelissimis pro dementia sua lenius agat, eosque 
jam prope perditos suis sedibus ac bonis restituat, vche- 



menter petivimus. Et his quidem nostris, vel nostrum 
potius omnium conjunctis precibus, exoratum iri prin- 
cipem serenissimum, quodque ab eo tanto opere peti- 
vimus, facile concessurum speramus. Sin illi in men- 
tern secus venerit, communicare vobiscum consilia 
parati sumus, qua potissimum ratione oppressos tot in- 
juriis atque vexatos innocentissimos homines, nobisque 
charissimos in Christo fratres, sublevare atque erigere, 
et ab interitu certissimo atque indignissimo conservare, 
possimus. Quorum salutem atque incolumitatem pro 
vestra pietate vobis quam maxime cordi esse confido : 
Ego earn certe vel gravissimis meis rationibus, immo 
incolumitate propria, potiorem habendam esse ex- 
istimem. Valete. 

Westmonasterio, Mail 19, 1655. O. P. 

Superscript. 

Illustribus atque amplissimis Dominis, Helve- 
ticorum Pagorum Protestantium et Confoede- 
ratarum Civitatum Consulibus ac Senatoribus, 
Salutem. 

Serenissimo potentissimoque Principi Ludovico Gallice 
Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex ; 
Ex literis majestatis vestrae, quibus ilia ad meas 
quinto et vigesimo Maii proximi datas rescribit, facile 
intelligo nequaquam fefellisse me earn opinionem, qua 
mihi quidem persuasum erat, caedes illas immanissimas, 
barbaramque eorum hominum stragem, qui religionem 
reformatam in Sabaudia profitentur, a cohortibus qui- 
busdam vestris factam, neque jussu vestro neque man- 
dato accidisse. Quae quantum majestati vestrae dis- 
plicuerit, id vos vestris militum tribunis, qui haec tam 
inhumana suo solo irapetu injussi perpetraverant, ita 
mature significasse, deque tanta crudelitate ducem ip- 
sum Sabaudise monuisse, pro reducendis denique istis 
miseris exulibus unde pulsi sunt, vestram omnem gra- 
tiam, necessitudinem, authoritatem tanta cum fide atque 
humanitate interposuisse, majorem equidem in modum 
sum la3tatus. Ea nempe spes erat, ilium principem 
voluntati ac precibus majestatis vestree aliquid saltern 
hac in re fuisse concessurum. Verum cum neque 
vestro, neque aliorum principum rogatu atque instantia, 
in miserorum causa quicquam esse impetratum per- 
spiciam, baud alien um ab officio meo duxi, ut hunc 
nobilem virum, extraordinarii nostri commissarii mu- 
nere instructum, ad Allobrogum ducem mitterem ; qui 
tantae crudelitatis in ejusdem nobiscum religionis cul- 
toves, idque ipsius religionis odio adhibitos, quo sensu 
afficiar, uberiiis eidem exponat. Atque hujus quidem 
legationis eo feliciorem exitum speravero, si adhibere 
denuo et adhuc majore cum instantia suam authorita- 
tem atque operam majestati vestrae placuerit ; et quem- 
admodum fideles fore illos inopes dictoque audientes 
principi suo ipsa in se recepit, ita velit eorundem inco- 
lumitati atque saluti cavere, ne quid iis hujusmodi in- 
juriae et calamitatis atrocissimae innocentibus et pacatis 
deinceps inferatur. Hoc cum in se justum ac vere re- 
gium sit, necnon benignitati vestrae atque clementiae, 
quae tot subditos vestros eandem illam religionem se- 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORY. 



797 



quentes ubique salvos et incolumes prsestat, summe 
consentaneum, a majestate vestra, ut par est, non pos- 
sumus quin expectemus. Quae hac simul opera, 
cum universos per sua regna Protestantes, quorum 
studium erga vos summaque fides maximis in rebus 
perspecta jam saspe et cognita est, arctius sibi de- 
vinxerit, turn exteris etiam omnibus persuasum red- 
diderit, nihil ad hoc facinus contulisse regis con- 
silium, quicquid ministri regii atque praefecti con- 
tulerunt. Praesertim si majestas vestra poenas ab iis 
ducibus ac ministris debitas repetiverit, qui authoritate 
propria, suaque pro libidine, tarn immania patrare 
scelera sunt ausi. Interea cum majestas vestra factum 
hoc inhumanissimum, quo dignum est odio, aversari se 
testetur, non dubito quin miseris illis atque aerumnosis 
ad vos confugientibus, tutissimum in regno suo recep- 
tum atque perfugium sit prasbitura; nee subditorum 
suorum cuiquam, ut contra eos duci Allobrogum aux- 
ilio adsit, permissura. Extremum illud est, ut majes- 
tatem vestram, quanti apud me sua amicitia sit, certi- 
orem faciam : Cujus rei neque fructum ullo tempore 
defuturum confirmo. 
Alba Aula, Julii Majestatis vestrce studiosissimus, 
29, 1655. Olive rius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Eminentissimo Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine Cardinalis ; 
Cum nobilem hunc virum cum literis, quarum exem- 
plar hie inclusum est, ad regem mittere necessarium 
statuissem, turn ei, ut eminentiam vestram meo nomine 
salutaret, simul in mandatis dedi, certasque res vobis- 
cum communicandas ejus fidei commisi : Quibus in 
rebus eminentiam rogo vestram, uti summam ei fidem 
habere velit, utpote in quo ego summam fiduciam re- 
posuerim. 
Alba Aula, Julii Eminentiae vestrae studiosissimus, 

29, 1655. Oliverius, Prot. Reipub. Angliae. 

Olive ri us Protector Reip. Anglice, Serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Frederico III. Danice, Norwegits, §*c. Regi, 
Salutem. 

Quam severo nuper et inclementi edicto, Allobrogum 
dux Immanuel suos ipse subditos Alpinarum vallium 
incolas, innoxios homines et religionis cultu purioris 
jam multis ab seculis notos ac celebres, religionis causa 
finibus patriis exegerit, et, occisis permultis, reliquos 
per ilia desertissima loca malis omnibus et miseriis in- 
opes ac nudos exposuerit, et audisse jamdudum arbi- 
tramur majestatem vestram, et gravissimum ex ea re, 
prout tantum reformatae fidei defensorem ac principem 
decuit, dolorem percepisse. Siquidem pro institutis 
christianae religionis quae mala atque miserias pars ali- 
qua nostrorum patitur, earum sensu penitus eodem 
tangi omnes debemus ; et sane omnibus nobis et uni- 
verso Protestantium nomini hujus facti eventus atque 
exemplum, quid periculi ostendat, nemo vestra majes- 
tate, si nos ejus pietatem atque prudentiam recte novi- 
mus, melius videt. Scripsimus itaque libenter, ut 
quern dolorem ob hanc fratrum iimocentissimorum ca- 



lamitatem, quam sententiam, quod judicium de re tota 
vestrum esse speramus, idem plane et nostrum esse sig- 
nificemus. Itaque ad ducem Sabaudiae literas dedi- 
mus, in quibus uti miseris atque supplicibus parcat, 
illudque atrox edictum porrd esse ratum ne sinat, mag- 
nopere ab eo petivimus. Quod si majestas vestra caste 
rique reformatorum principes fecerint, ut jam fecisse 
credimus, spes est leniri posse serenissimi ducis animum, 
et hanc iram suam tot saltern vicinorum principum in- 
tercession! atque instantiae condonaturum ; sin perse- 
verare in instituto suo maluerit, paratos nos esse tes- 
tamur, cum majestate vestra, caeterisque religionis re- 
formatae sociis, earn inire rationem, qua tot miserorum 
hominum subvenire quamprimum inopiae, providere 
saluti ac libertati, pro virili parte nostra possimus. 
Vestra? interea majestati bona omnia atque fausta a 
Deo Opt. Max. precamur. 
Westmonasterio, Maio, 1655. 

Oliverius Prot. Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Amplissimis 
Consulibus et Senatoribus Civitatis Genevensis, Sa- 
lutem. 

Summum dolorem nostrum quern ex maximis et 
inauditis Protestantium calamitatibus valles quasdam 
Pedemontanas incolentium percepimus, quos Allobro- 
gum dux tanta crudelitate persequutus est, jampridem 
vobis exposuissemus, nisi id magis operant dedissemus, 
ut eodem tempore intelligeretis tantis eorum miseriis 
non affici nos solum, verum etiam de sublevandis iis 
atque solandis, quantum in nobis est, prospicere. 
Quapropter eleemosynas per hanc totam rempublicam 
colligendas curavimus : quas ejusmodi fore haud im- 
merito expectamus, quae nationis hujus affectum erga 
fratres suos tarn immania perpessos demonstrare pos- 
sint, et quemadmodum religionis eadem utrinque com- 
munio est, ita sensum quoque eundem calamitatum 
esse; interea dum pecuniae collectio maturatur, quod 
sine spatio temporis fieri nequit, et miserorum istorum 
egestas atque inopia pati moram non potest, necessa- 
rium duximus duo millia librarum Anglicarum, quanta 
fieri potuit celeritate, prasmittere inter eos distribuenda 
qui praesentissima ope atque solatio indigere maxime 
videbuntur. Cum autem nescii non simus innocentis- 
simorum hominum miseriae atque injuriae quantopere 
vos affecerint, nee vobis quicquam labori aut molestiae 
fore quod illis adjumento atque auxilio esse possit, 
praedictam pecuniae summam illis calamitosis curan- 
dam ac numerandam ad vos transferre non dubitavimus ; 
idque vobis negotii dare, ut pro vestra pietate ac pru- 
dentia providere velitis qua ratione sequissima quam 
primum ilia pecunia egentissimis quibusque distribui 
queat, ut quamvis summa sane exigua sit, aliquid 
tamen sit saltern, quo illi inopes recreari ac refici in 
praesens aliquantum possint, donee uberiorem iis co- 
piam suppeditare poterimus : vos hanc vobis datam 
molestiam asqui bonique consulturos esse cum non 
dubitemus, turn etiam Deum Opt. Max. oramus, uti 
populo suo religionem orlhodoxam profitenti det ani- 
mum sui in commune defendendi, sibique mutuo opem 
ferendi contra hostes suos immanissimos ; qua in re 



798 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



nostram quoque operam ecclesioe utcunque usui fore 
laetaremur. Valete. 

Mille quingentae librae de praedictis 

bis millibus a Gerardo Hensh 

Junii 8, 1655. Parisiis, quingentae reliquae per 

literas a Domino Stoupio, cura- 

buntur. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, Serenissimo 
Principi Venetiarum Duel. 

Serenissime Princeps; 

Cum rebus vestris omnibus contra hostem praesertim 
christiani nominis prospere gestis lastari semper con- 
suevimus, turn et illo navalis praelii novissimo successu 
nequaquam sane dolemus, quamvis id aliquo nostro- 
rum cum detrimento accidisse intelligamus. Ostend- 
erunt enim nobis, per libellum supplicem, negotiatores 
quidam nostri, Gulielmus et Daniel Gulielmi necnon 
Edoardus Bealus, navem suam, cui nomen Princeps 
Magnus, Constantinopolim ab se commercii causa 
missam nuper fuisse : earn navem ab aulae Turcicae 
ministris ad commeatum et milites in Cretam insulam 
deportandos retentam, dum in ilia classe Turcarum 
coacta eo navigaret, quae a classe Venetorum oppug- 
nata in itinere et superata est, captam et Yenetias 
abductam, ab maritimarum causarum judicibus adjudi- 
catam publico fuisse. Cum itaque, inscientibus domi- 
nis et nullo modo probantibus, navis ilia Turcis operam 
dare invitissima coacta sit, seque ex ea pugna expli- 
care militibus referta non potuerit; serenitatem ves- 
tram magnopere rogamus, ut sententiam illam mari- 
timae curiae velit nostrae amicitiae condonare.navemque 
illam suis dominis, de vestra republica nullo suo facto 
male meritis, restituendam curare. Qua in re impe- 
tranda, nobis praesertim petentibus, cum mercatores 
ipsos de vestra dementia bene sperare videamus, nos 
utique de ea dubitare non debemus : quiet praeclara 
vestra concilia remque Venetam terra marique maxime 
uti pergat fortunare Deus omnipotens ex animo op- 
tamus. 

Serenitatis vestrae Venetaeque Reip. studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Westmonasterio, Decemb. 1655. 

Oliverius Prot. Reip. Anglioe, fyc. Serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Ludovico Galliarum Regi. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Mercatores aliquot nostrates, quorum nomina sunt 
Samuel Mico, Gulielmus Cocainus, Georgius Poy- 
nerus, aliique complures, per libellum supplicem 
nobis ostenderunt se, anno 1650, in navem quandam, 
cui insigne unicornus erat, permagnas rationes suas 
contulisse: earn navem bombyce, oleo, aliisque mer- 
cibus onustam, quae, plus minus, triginta quatuor milli- 
bus librarum nostrarum ab iisdem scstimata sunt, ab 
nave praetoria et propraetoiia majestatis vestreein Medi- 
terraneo Mari Orientali oppressam atque captam fuisse : 
nostros autem ilia in navi, propterea quod nobis co 
tempore cum Gallis illibata pax erat, cum contra naves 



regias vi se defendere noluissent, promissis Pauli et 
Terrerii navarcborum inductos, qui velle se nostros 
dimittere aiebant, prolatis onerum libellis, marilimis 
legibus paruisse : mercatores proinde supra dictos pro- 
curatorem suum, qui navem illam ac bona restituenda 
sibi peteret, in Galliam misisse : ibi post triennium 
eoque amplius consumptum, cum ad sententiam de re- 
stitutione ferendam perventum jam esset, cardinalis 
Mazarini eminentiam eorum procuratori Hugoni Mo- 
rello factam mercatoribus istis injuriam agnovisse ; 
datumque iri satisfactionem, ut primum confirmata 
pax inter utramque gentem, fcedusque, quod turn agi- 
tabatur, confectum atque ratum esset, in se recepisse : 
immo recentius majestatis vestrae apud nos legatum 
excellentissimum dominum de Bordeaux, ex mandato 
vestro vestrique concilii, disertis verbis confirmasse, 
bujus navis atque bonorum peculiari exceptione ha- 
bitum iri rationem, etiam seorsim ab iis controversiis, 
de quibus in commune decidendis ex foedere provisum 
est: hujus promissi legatum ipsum, qui nunc percom- 
mode negotiorum quorundam suorum causa ad vos 
transmeavit, testem esse posse locupletem. Quae cum 
ita sunt, j usque horum mercatorum in repetendis rebus 
suis tarn praeclare constet, a majestate vestra majorem 
in modum petimus, ut in eo obtinendo nulla iis mora 
diutius afferatur, velitque nostro rogatu has nobis 
redintegratae amicitiae et instaurati recens foederis esse 
primitias. Quod et fore confidimus, vobisque fausta 
omnia vestroque regno a Deo Opt. Max. precamur. 
Westmonasterio, Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Decemb. 1655. Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Civilatibus Helvetiorum Evangelicis. 

Ex vestris ad nos tarn actis publicis per commissarios 
nostros Geneva transmissis, quam Uteris 27 Decembris 
Tyguri datis, quo in loco res vestrae sint, cum non sin t 
optimo, satis superque intelligimus : In quo etsi pacem 
vestram, tamque diuturnum sociale foedus ruptum, dole- 
mus, tamen cum id vestra culpa nequaquam accidisse 
appareat, novam hinc vobis ex adversariorum iniquitate 
et pertinacia illustrandae fortitudinis, constantiaeque 
vestrae in evangelica fide jam olim cognitse, parari 
rursus materiem confidimus. Nam Suitenses, qui, re- 
ligionem nostram si quis amplectatur, capitale censent, 
quid moliantur, quibus hortatoribus tarn bostiles spiritus 
in orthodoxam religionem susceperint, latere neminem 
potest, cui modo indignissima ilia fratrum nostiorum 
in Pedemontio facta strages animo nondum excidit. 
Quapropter, dilectissimi amici, quod soletis esse, aspi- 
rante Deo fortes estote; jura vestra atque fcEdera,immo 
conscientiae libertatem, religioncmque ipsam idolorum 
cultoribus obculcandam, concedere nolite ; vosque ita 
parate, ut non propriae duntaxat libertatis atque salutis 
propugnatores esse videamini, sed ut fratribus quoque 
vicinis, Pedemontanis praesertim illis oerumnosissimis, 
quibus potestis rebus, opitulari atque adesse possitis: 
hoc ccrto persuasi per illorum corpora ac neces ad ves- 
tra latcra ilium nuper aditum fuisse patefactum. De 
me scitote, incolumitatem vestram resque prosperasnon 
minus mibi curie ac solicitudini esse, quam si in hac 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORY. 



799 



nostra Rep. coortum hoc incendium, quam si in nos- 
tras cervices expeditse Suitensium secures illae (sicuti 
revera sunt in omnes reformatos) strictique enses essent. 
Ut primum itaque a vobis de statu rerum vestrarum, et 
obstinato bostium animo, certiores facti sumus, adhibitis 
in concilium viris quibusdam honestissimis, et ecclesiee 
aliquot ministris pietate spectatissimis, de subsidio 
vobis mittendo, quantum quidem rationes nostras in 
prcesentia ferre possunt, ea decrevimus, quae commissa- 
rius noster Pellus vobiscum communicabit. De cgetero 
vestra omnia consilia, causamque imprimis hanc ves- 
tram justissimam sive pace sive bello tuendam, Deo 
Opt. Max. fautori commendare non desinimus. 

Vestrarum amplitudinum ac dig- 
Westmonasterio, nitatum studiosissimus, 

Jan. 1655. Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglics, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Carolo Gustavo, Dei Gratia Suecoi-um, 
GotJwrum, Vandalorumque Regi, Magno Principi 
Fitilandicz, fyc. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Cum amicorum inter se mutua omnia, tarn adversa 
quam prospera, atque communia debere esse nemo non 
intelligat, quod jucundissimam amicitiae partem majes- 
tas vestra, gaudium nempe suum impertitum nobis, per 
suas literas voluerit, non potest id quidem nobis non 
esse longe gratissimum : quandoquidem et hoc singu- 
laris indicium bumanitatis vereque regise est, ut nee 
vivere, ita ne gaudere quidem sibi soli velle nisi amicos 
quoque et foederatos eadem, qua se, lsetitia affectos esse 
sentiat. Itaque regi tarn praestanti et natum esse filium 
principem, quem paternse virtutis atque gloriae spere- 
mus haeredem, merito gaudemus, et idem quod regi 
olim fortissimo, Pbilippo Macedoni, sive felicitatis sive 
decoris, domi simul et foris, contigisse gratulamur : 
Cui eodem tempore et natus Alexander filius, et Illyri- 
corum gens potentissima subacta, memoratur. Nam et 
Polonioe regnum vestris armis ab imperio papano, quasi 
cornu quoddam, avulsum, et cum duce Brandenburgico 
pax piorum votis omnium exoptata, frendentibus licet 
adversariis, facta, quin ad ecclesiae pacem atque fruc- 
tum permagnum sit momentum babitura non dubita- 
mus. Detmodo finem Deus tam praeclaris initiis dig- 
num ; det modo filium, virtute, pietate, rebusque gestis 
patri similem : id quod et aug;uramur sane, et a Deo 
Opt. Max. tam vestris rebus jam ante propitio, ex ani- 
mo precamur. 

Westmonasterio, Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Feb. 1655. Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Danicc Regi. 

Serenissime ac potentissime Princeps ; 
Questi sunt per libellum supplicem, suo aliorumque 
mercatorum Londinensium nomine nobis exhibitum, 
Joannes Fremannus et Philippus Travesius, hujus reip. 
cives, se circiter mensem Octobris 1653, cum in navem 
quandam Sunderburgensem, cui nomen Salvatori, Ni- 
colao Weinsbinks magistro, merces varias, pannum 



laneum, aliamque vestem textilem ac mercimonia plus 
tribus millibus librarum aestimata impo3uissent, magis- 
tro mandasse, ut per fretum Balticum recto cursu Dan- 
tiscum navigaret, utque ad Elsenorum vectigalsolveret, 
eique etiam pecuniam ad earn rem curasse : supradictum 
tamen magistrum perfidiose, et contra quam ipsi a merca- 
toribus mandatum erat, prsetervectum Elsenorum nullo 
portorio soluto Balticum pernavigasse. Navisque per 
banc causam cum toto onere, non sine magno mercato- 
rum damno, publicata atque retenta est. Quorum in 
gratiam jampridem ad legatum majestatis vestrae, Lon- 
dini tunc temporis commorantem, scripsimus; qui, ut 
ipsi aiunt, pollicitus est, ut primum ad majestatem 
vestram rediisset daturum operam, uti ratio mercato- 
rum haberetur. Yerum cum is postea aliis in regioni- 
bus majestatis vestrae negotia obiret, et ante discessum 
ejus et postea frustra se eum adiise ostendunt: unde 
procuratovem suum mittere coacti sunt, qui jus suum 
Hafnise persequeretur, navemque illam ac bona liberari, 
sibique reddi, flag'itaret : verum exinde nullum se fruc- 
tum percepisse, nisi ut ad damna Vetera novas impen- 
sas, et susceptum frustra laborem, adjungerent: cum 
fisco damnata, et retenta bactenus sint bona, tametsi 
ex lege Danise, quemadmodum ipsi in libello suo de- 
monstrant, magister quidem navis ob suum delictum 
est ipse puniendus, navisque, non bona proscription! 
sunt obnoxia : eoque gravius accidisse sibi hoc malum 
existimant, quod, sicuti nobis perlatum est, vectigal 
illud, quod Elsenorae solvere debuisset, est admodum 
exiguum. Quapropter, cum mercatores nostri nullam 
proscriptioni causam prasbuisse videantur, confessusque 
ipse magister paulo ante obitum sit, suo solum delicto 
illatum hoc mercatoribus detrimentum esse, cumque 
pater defuncti jam magistri ipse per libellum supplicem 
majestati vestree exhibitum, sicuti nos accepimus, cul- 
pam omnem in filium suum contulerit, mercatores absol- 
vent, haud sane potuimus quin navis illius bonorumque 
retentionem iniquissimam esse arbitraremur; adeoque 
confidimus, simulatque majestas vestra hac de re certior 
facta erit, fore ut non modo has ministrorum suorum in- 
jurias improbet, verum etiam ipsos rationem reddere, 
bonaque ilia suis dominis eorum ve procuratoribus quam- 
primum restitui, damnaque inde data sarciri, jubeat. 
Quod et nos a majestate vestra majorem in modum pe- 
timus, utpote rem usque adeo sequam et rationi consen- 
taneam, ut sequiorem petere aut expectare in causa 
tam justa nostrorum civium non posse videamur, haud 
minus sequa vestris subditis, quoties data occasio erit, 
reddituri. 

Serenissimo Principi Joanni Quarto Lusitania, frc. 
Regi. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Quam pacem et amicitiam cum Angiicana republica 
majestas vestra, legatione amplissima ac splendidissima 
jampridem ad nos missa, expetivit, earn a parlamento, 
quae turn potestas rebus praefuit, inchoatam, et a nobis 
summo semper studio exoptatam, Deo imprimis fa- 
vente, proque ea quam accepimus reipublicfe adminis- 
tratione, feliciter tandem confecimus, et in perpetuum, 



800 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



uti spes est, sanximus. Itaque legatum vestrura ex- 
traordinarium dominum, Joannem Rodericum de Saa 
Meneses, comitem Pennaguiadanum, virura cum ma- 
jestatis vestrae judicio comprobatum, turn humanitate, 
ingenio, prudentia, fide, praestantissimum a nobis re- 
pertum, cum expleti muneris egregia laude, et reportata 
secura pace, vobis reddimus. Quod autem, per literas 
secundo die Aprilis Uljssipone datas, majestas vestra 
quauti nos faciat, quamque impense dignitati nostrae 
faveat, nosque rempublicam suscepisse gubernandam 
quantopere laetata sit, baud obscuris indiciis singularis 
benevolentiae testatur, id vero mihi gratissimum esse, 
ex meis in majestatetn vestram paratissimis omni tem- 
pore officiis, dabo operam ut facile postbac omnes in- 
telligant. Neque segniiis interea pro incolumitate 
vestra, vestrique regni felici statu, rerumque prospero 
successu, conceptis ad Deum precibus contendo. 
Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Reipub. Angliae, Scoriae, 
Hiberniae, &c. Protector. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Excelsis et 
Preepotcntibus Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus, S. D. 

Excelsi et praepotentes Domini, amici charissimi ; 

Ostendunt nobis mercatores quidam, cives nostri, 
Thomas Busselus, Richardus Bearus, aliique socii, na- 
vem quandam suam, Edmundi et Joannis nomine in- 
signitam, dum ab ora Brasiliana Olyssiponem conten- 
deret, ab navi quadam praedatoria Flissengensi, cui 
nomen Rubro Leoni, magister Lambertus Bartelsonus, 
oppugnatam se dedidisse ; verum ea lege et pacto (id 
quod ipsum Lamberti chirograph um obsignatum testa- 
bitur) ut navis, et quaecunque in ilia fuissent Anglorum 
bona, Flissingae restituerentur : eo cum appulsum est, 
navem quidem et nauticorum peculia reddita, merca- 
torum Anglicorum bona adempta, eorumque auctionem 
statim esse factam : se, mercatores nempe quibus hoc 
damni datum est, cum in foro Flissingensium suas res 
repeterent, iniquissima sententia lata, litem cum gran- 
dibus impensis post quinquennium perdidisse, ab iis 
nimirum judicibus abjudicatam, quorum nonnulli, cum 
in ilia navi prsedatoria suas rationes collatas habuissent, 
et judices et adversarii et rei simul erant: nihil jam 
sibi superesse spei nisi in vestra aequitateet incorrupta 
fide, ad quam nunc demum confugiunt : earn sibi fore 
propensiorem existimarunt, si nostra commendatio ac- 
cessisset. Et hominibus condonandum hoc sane est, 
si in hac tanta fortunarum suarum dimicatione omnia 
timentibus, quid ab summa auctoritate atque potentia 
vestra sibi metuendum, quam quid apud integros prae- 
sertim judices de sua causa sit bene sperandum,saepius 
in mentem veniat: nos quin religione, justitia, inte- 
gritate vestra potius quam rogatu nostro adducti, quod 
aequum, quod justum, quod vobis denique dignum est 
judicaturi sitis, non dubitamus. Deus vos vestramque 
rempub. ad gloriam suam, suaequeecclesiae praesidium, 
conservet ! 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Westmonasterio, April. 1, 1656. 



Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Carolo Gustavo, Suecorum, Gothorum, 
Vandalorumque Regi, Magno Principi. Finlandice, 
Duel Esthonice, CarelicB, Bremce, Verdce, Stetini, 
Pomeranice, Cassubice et Vandalia, Principi Rugics, 
Domino Ingria, Wismarice, necnon Comiti Palatino 
Rheni, Bavarice, Jul. Clivice et Montium Duci } fyc. 

Serenissime Princeps ; 

Perfunctus legatione sua apud nos Petrus Julius 
Coictus, atque ita perfunctus ut sua debita laude non 
inornatus a nobis dimittendus sit, ad majestatem ves- 
tram revertitur. Fuit enim cum vestro praecipue nomine, 
quod jure apud nos plurimi esse debet, nobis gratissi- 
mus, turn suo etiam merito, suo nempe munere diligen- 
tissime obito, haud parum acceptus. Quam igitur 
commendationem vestram de eo accepimus, earn (si 
quid ad earn accedere testimonio ullo potest) et ab ipso 
impletam, et a vobis meritissime datam, libentes utique 
testamur : quemadmodum et is poterit nostrum erga 
majestatem vestram singulare studium et observantiam, 
eadem fide atque integritate ad vos referre, verissimeque 
exponere. Extremum illud est ut majestati vestrae 
felicitatem omnem victoriarumque cursum contra omnes 
hostes ecclesiae perpetuum, a Deo Opt. Maximoque 
optemus. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Westmonasterio, April. 17, 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo ac 
potentissimo Principi Ludovico Gallice Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime Princeps ; 
Adierunt ad nos, per libellum supplicem, Joannes 
Dethic urbis Londini in hunc annum praefectus, et 
Gulielmus Wakefield mercator, conquesti, se anno 
1649, Calendas circiter Octob. navem quandam, cui 
nomen Jonae Londinensi, Jona quoque cognomento 
Lighthaghe magistro, suis mercibus, quae Ostendam 
mitterentur, onerasse : earn navem a praedone quodam 
Barkingensi, cui nomen White, (is filii regis Caroli 
defuncti nomine piraticam faciebat,) in ipso Thamesis 
ostio oppressam, atque inde Dunkirkam, quae eo tem- 
pore in ditione Gallorum erat, fuisse abductam : cum 
autem edicto majestatis vestrae ann. 1647, et ann. rursus 
1649, aliquot etiam consilii regii decretis, in gratiam 
parlamenti Anglicani, cautum esse intelligerent, ne 
naves ullae aut merces, illius belli tempore, quoquo 
obtentu Anglis ereptae, in majestatis vestrae portus 
quoscunque asportarentur, venalesve essent, misisse se 
statim Dunkirkam procuratorem ' suum, Hugonem 
Morellum negotiatorem, qui a domino Lestrado, illius 
oppidi per id tempus praefecto, reddi sibi suam navem 
cum mercibus postularet, cum eas praesertim magna ex 
parte adhuc integras, neque dum permutatas aut diven- 
ditas, in ipso oppido deprehendisset. Respondit prae- 
fectus, se regis Galliae dono, ob navatam reipub. operam, 
praefecturam earn accepisse : curaturum proinde, uti ea 
sibi pretium operae sit. Hoc responso frustratus, post 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



801 



magnum cum temporis turn pecuniae dispendium, pro- 
curator domum revertitur. Petitores, quae restat sibi 
spes, earn in vestra sola dementia atque justitia reposi- 
tam esse vident; ad quam per nostras literas faciliorem 
sibi aditum fore crediderunt: ea ne desit hominibus, 
contra jus omne et repetita vestra interdicta spoliatis, 
rogamus. Quod tamen si impetrabimus, quandoquidem 
hoc sane sequissirnum videtur, ab insita sequitate 
vestra, potius quam rogatu nostro, impetratum id esse 
statuemus. 

Majestatis vestra?, studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Protector Reip. Anglise, &c. 
Westmonasterio, Maio, 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, fyc.Excelsis etprce- 
potentibus Dominis Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus, S. D. 

Excelsi et pnepotentes Domini, amici charissimi ; 

Demonstrarunt nobis, per libellumsupplicem, Joan- 
nes Brunus, Nicolaus Gulielmus, aliique Londinenses, 
se, cum in navem, cui Bonae Esperantzae Londinensi 
nomen inditum erat, in Orientalem Indiam navigatu- 
ram, sortem quisque suam contulisset, procuratori suo 
negotium dedisse Februario mense 1644, ut bis mille 
quadringentaslibras Belgicas ad illiusnavis periculum 
praestandum Amsterodami curaret : ea navis cum in 
itinere, ad oram ipsam India?,, ab Hollandica quadam, 
quae ex navibus orientalis illius societatis erat, capta 
esset; qui praestando periculo se obligaverant, pactam 
pecuniam numerare recusasse ; et sextum jam annum 
posse nostros, qui summa cum assiduitate maximisque 
impensisjus suum persecuti sunt, dilationibus variis 
eludere. Quod cum petitoribus grave admodum atque 
iniquum videatur, et nonnulli ex iis qui se obligarunt 
vel jam diem obierint vel solvendo non sint, nequid 
forte ad priora damnasummi discriminis accedat, mag- 
nopere a vobis petimus, ut per totannos in foro jactatis 
ac proprie naufragis istis vestram aequitatem portum 
esse atque perfugium velitis ; utque de causa sua, quam 
illi justissimam esse confldunt, primu quoque tempore 
judicium fiat. Vobis interim omnia ad Dei g'ioriam, 
ecclesiaeque praesidium, fauste atque feliciter evenire 
volumus. 

Excelsarum et praepotentium dominationum 
vestrarum studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Prot. Reip. Anglise, &c. 

Westmonasterio, Maio, 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglia, fyc. Excelsis et 
prcepotentibus Dominis Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus, 
S. D. 

Excelsi et praepotentes Domini, amici charissimi ; 

Conqueruntur apud nos graviter iidem, de quibus 
antea circa idus Septemb. superioris anni literas ad vos 
dedimus, Thomas et Gulielmus Lower, defunctiNicho- 
lai Lower haeredes legitimi, se adversariorum suorum 
sive gratia sive opibus oppressos, quamvis causa sua 
imprimis optima, et, cum id satis non esset, literis etiam 
nostris ter deinceps commendati fuissent, impetrare 
hactenus nullo modo posse ut relictam testamento 



haereditatem adire sibi liceat : Ab Hollandiae foro, ubi 
primum actio instituta erat, vestram ad curiam rejecti, 
indein Zelandiam transmissi, (quae tria in loca totidem 
nostras literas attulerunt,) ab Zelandia nunc rursus ad 
vestrum summum judicium baud inviti remittuntur : 
ubi enim potestas summa est, ibi aequitatem quoque 
summam esse sperant: si ea spes fallat, elusi atque 
irriti, post hanc tantam juris obtinendi causa concursa- 
tionem suam, quem demum consistendi locum habituri 
sint, nesciunt : nam de literis nostris, si his jam quartis 
nos viderint nihil proficere, non est ut in posterum quic- 
quam sibi polliceantur. Nobis certe gratissimum erit, 
si post tot rejectiones, facto sine mora judicio, haeredes 
plurimum quidem in aequitate atque justitia vestra, ali- 
quid etiam in authoritate apud vos nostra praesidii sibi 
fuisse intellexerint. Quorum de altero non dubitamus, 
alterum vel amicitiae nostras daturos vos esse confi- 
dimus. 

Excelsarum et praepotentium dominationum 
vestrarum studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 
Westmonasterio, Maio, 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Joanni Lusitanice Regi. 

Serenissime Rex; 

Cum mercatoribus quibusdam Anglis, a nonnullis 
mercatoribus Lusitanis ex societate Brasiliensi, vecturae 
commorationisque nomine, ann. 1649, et 1650, grandis 
pecunia debeatur, quae pecunia a supradicta societate 
jussu majestatis vestrae retinetur, expectabant quidem 
dicti mercatores uti ea pecunia ex conditionibus prox- 
imi foederis jampridem sibi numerata esset. Verara ne 
amputetur sibi spes omnis ac ratio recuperandi sua de- 
bita verentur, ex quo intelligunt statuisse majestatem 
vestram ut quam pecuniam Brasiliensis societas ipsis 
debuisset in aerarium vestrum inferretur, utque portorii 
dimidia pars solvendis iis debitis impenderetur; atque 
hoc pacto mercatores legitimum duntaxat lucrum, sive 
foenus pecuniae suae, accepturi essent; ipsa forte interim 
funditus intereunte. Quod nos nobiscum reputantes 
quam durum sit, eorumque justissimis precibus victi, 
has nostras ad majestatem vestram literas ipsis con- 
cessimus: hoc potissimum a vobis postulantes, uti 
praestandum curetis, ut supradicta societas Brasili- 
ensis hujus reipub. mercatoribus quamprimum satis- 
faciat, tarn de summa pecuniae cuique eorum debita, 
quam de foenore quinquennali : cum hoc et per se jus- 
tum sit, et foederi nuper vobiscum inito consentaneum : 
quod et nos eorum nomine a maj estate vestra peramice* 
petimus. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterio, 
die Julii, 1656. 



802 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIES. 



Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Carolo Gustavo, Suecorum, Gothorum, 
Vandalor unique Regi, Sfc. 

Serenissime Rex; 

Cum amicitiam majestatis vestrae, tanti principis re- 
busque gestis tarn clari, merito plurimi faciamus, turn 
is, cujus opera foedus inter nos arctissimum sancitum est, 
illustrissimus dominus Christiernus Bondus, legatus 
vester extraordinarius necesse est gratus nobis et com- 
mendabilis hoc nomine imprimis fuerit. Hunc itaque 
hac leg'atione laudatissime perfunctum, non sine summa 
caeterarum etiam virtutum egregiarum laude, ad vos 
dimittendum censuimus: ut qui antea in pretio apud 
vos atque honore fuit, nunc uberiores assiduitatis atque 
prudentiae suae fructus ex hac nostra commendatione 
percepisse se sentiat. Qua? reliqua transigenda sunt, de 
iis legationem brevi mitten dam ad majestatem vestram 
decrevimus: quam interim Deus incolumem defendendae 
ecclesiae suae reique Sueciae columen conservet. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
Julii An. Bom. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Ludovico Gallia Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime Rex, amice ac foederate charissime ; 

Detulerunt ad nos, per libellum supplicem, mer- 
catores quidam Londinenses, Richardus Baker ejusque 
socii, navem quandam Anglicanam ab se conductam, 
cui nomen vernaculum The Endeavour, magister Gu- 
lielmus Joppus, trecentis atque tredecim vini optimi 
culeis ex Tenariffa insula Londinum advehendis onus- 
tam, dum inter Palmam et supradictam insulam cur- 
sum teneret, a. quatuor navibus Gallicis, in speciem 
quidem onerariis, sed praedatorium in modum armatis, 
quibus iEgidius de la Roche navarchus erat, primo ac 
vigesimo Novembris die, An. Dom. 1655, occupatam 
fuisse, atque in Orientalem Indian), quo is iter sibi 
esse praedicabat, cum omni onere ac plerisque nautarum 
abductam; reliquis quatuordecim ad Guineam Nigri- 
tarum in littus quoddam expositis. Quod eo consilio 
yEgidius fecisse se dictitabat, nequis eorum, ex terra 
tam longinqua et inhumana forte elapsus, testimonio 
loederet. Fatebatur enim, se neque mandatis instructum, 
ut Anglorum naves caperet, neque alias quas poterat 
antea cepisse, ut propterea quod inter Gallos nostram- 
que remp. per eos ipsos dies convenisse pacem non ig- 
norabat: sed cum in Portugallia constitutum sibi esset 
commeatus accipere, et a,b adversis ventis rejectus at- 
tingere ea loca non potuisset, coactum se, ad supplen- 
dum quae opus sibi essent, iis uti quae in ista nave re- 
perisset : credere se proinde, illarum navium domlnos 
de damno satisfacturos. Damnum autem constat supra 
sedecim mihe libras Anglicas, id quod ex juratis testi- 
bus facile apparebit, mercatoribus nostris datum. Ve- 
riim si tam levibus de causis temerare acta principum 
religiosissima, et quasi ludibrio habere, negotiatoribus 



quibusvis ob sua commoda licuerit, concidet profecto 
omnis postbac foederum sanctitas, omnis principum fides 
atque authoritas obsolescet, proque nihilo habebitur. 
Quapropter non rogamus tan turn, sed majestatis ves- 
trae quam maxime interesse arbitramur, ut qui regis 
sui foedus, jusque jurandum sanctissimum, primi om- 
nium tam facile violare sunt ausi, quamprimum dent 
pcenas tantae perfidiae atque audaciae debitas ; utque 
illarum interea navium domini de damno, etiam ipso 
suorum praejudicio, mercatoribus nostris summam per 
injuriam illato, satisfaciant. Deus majestatem vestram 
diutissime conservet, remque Gallicam contra commu- 
nem utriusque nostrum hostem tueatur atque sustineat. 
Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reip. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Augusti An. Dom. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice Eminentissimo 
Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine ; 

Cum dandae mihi literae ad regem essent, eandem 
quoque ad eminentiam vestram scribendi occasionem 
arbitrabar mihi oblatam: cujus enim unius viri pru- 
dentia singularis Gallorum res maximas, summaque 
regni negotia, pari fide, consilio, ac vigilantia, modera- 
tur, eum celari qua de re scriberem non convenire ex- 
istimabam. Foedus enim a vobis, quod dubitare nefas 
esset, sanctissime percussum, eodem pene die spretum 
ac violatum a Gallo quodam yEgidio, quatuor navium 
praefecto, ejusque sociis nequaquam inscientibus, que- 
rimur : quemadmodum et ex Uteris nostris ad regem 
datis, et ex ipsis mercatorum nostrorum postulatis, 
facile poterit cognoscere eminentia vestra ; quam praeter 
caeteros non fugit, quanti non magistratuum duntaxat, 
verum etiam ipsius regiae majestatis, intersit violatores 
foederum primos eos severius puniri. Verum illi for- 
tasse, quo tendebant, in Orientalem Indiam jam nunc 
appulsi, nostrorum bona, contra jus omne atque fidem 
in recentissimo foedere erepta, veluti praedam ab hos- 
tibus captam sibi habent Mud est interea quod emi- 
nentiam vestram rogamus, ut quae ab navium praefecto, 
tanquam itineri suo necessaria, nostris ablata sunt, ea 
ab illarum navium dominis, id quod ipsi praedatores 
aequum esse censebant, restituantur : qua in re vestram 
eminentiam, qua valet authoritate, plurimum posse in- 
telligimus. 

Eminentiae vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Augusti An. 1656. 

Oliverius Prot. Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Excelsis et prce- 
potentibus Dominis Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus, S. D. 

Excelsi et praepotentes Domini, amici 
ac fcederati charissimi ; 
Non dubitamus nos quidem quin omnes testimonium 
hoc nobis perhibituri sint, nullas in contrahendis ex- 
ternis amicitiis rationes defendenda religionis ventute 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



803 



potiores unquam nobis fuisse, nee conjungendis eorum 
animis, qui Protestantium vel amici ac defensores, vel 
saltern non hostes essent, antiquius nos quicquam 
Labuisse. Quo graviore animi dolore commovemur, 
quoties annuntiatum est, Protestantium principes ac 
civitates, quae sibi mutuo amicissimae summeque Con- 
cordes esse debercnt, suspectos inter se esse et non op- 
time animates; vos praesertim regemque Sueciae, qui- 
bus fortiores orthodoxa fides defensores non babet, neque 
socios nostra respub. sibi conjunctiores, videri non 
seque ac consuevistis vobis invicem confidere, immo 
indicia qusedam vel nascentis inter vos dissidii, vel 
vacillantis amicitioe, baud obscura apparere. Causae 
qu£e fuerint utrinque, et usque quo progressa animorum 
alienatio sit, ignotum esse nobis profitemur : verun- 
tamen baud potuimus quiu gravem sane molestiam 
animo caperemus ex ipsis initiis vel minimae dissen- 
sionis inter fratres coortae, ex qua tantum creari Protes- 
tantium rebus discrimen necesse sit; quoeque si ingra- 
vescent (quod Deus ne siverit) quantum inde Reformatis 
Ecclesiis periculum impenderet, quanta triumpbandi 
materies inimicis nostris, et Hispanis potissimum, dare- 
tur, latere vestram prudentiam usumque rerum solertis- 
simum non potest. Hispano certe tantum hinc fiduciae, 
tantum spiritus, accessit, ut non dubitaverit, per legatum 
suum apud vos commorantem, sua vobis consilia, idque 
de summa Reip. vestra?, audacissime obtrudere : etpar- 
tim injecto renovandi belli metu terrere,partim ostentata 
utilitatis falsa specie sollicitare vestros animos est ausus, 
ut relictis ejus hortatu amicis vetustis ac fidelissimis, 
Gallo, Anglo, atque Sueco, arctissimam cum hoste ac 
tyranno quondam vestro, pacato nunc scilicet, et, quod 
maxime metuendum est, blandiente, coire societatem 
velletis. Sane qui ex hoste inveteratissimo, arrepta tarn 
levi occasione pro consiliario repente vestro se g'erit, 
quid est quod iste sibi non sumeret, quo non audaciae 
progrederetur, si cernere id semel oculis posset, quod 
nunc animo duntaxat concipit atque molitur, discordi- 
ara nempe inter Protestantes ac bellum intestinum. 
Nescii non sumus, vos, pro sapientia vestra, qui sit 
Europae universae status, quae Protestantium prsesertim 
conditio, saepius cum animis vestris cogitare ; Helveti- 
orum pagos, orthodoxam fidem sequentcs, ncvorurn 
motuum apopularibussuis fidcm papaesequentibus jam 
jamque ciendorum expectatione suspensos teneri, ex 
co vix dum bello emersos, quod religionis plane causa 
ab Hispano, qui hostibus eorum et duces dederat et 
pecuniam suppeditaverat, conflatum est atque accen- 
sum; vallium Alpinarum incolis consilia Hispanorum 
eandem rursus macbinari caedem atque perniciem, quam 
superiore anno crudelissime intulerunt ; Protestantes 
Germanos sub ditione Caesaris gravissime vexari, sedes- 
que patrias aegre retinere; regem Sueciae quern Deus, 
uti speramus, fortissimum religionis orthodoxae propug- 
11 atorem excitavit, cum potentissimis reformats fidei hos- 
tibus bellum anceps atque asperrimum totis regni 
viribus gerere ; vestris provinciis infesta vicinorum 
papistarum, quorum princeps Hispanus est, nuper icta 
focdera minitari; nos denique indicto Hispanorum regi 
bello esse occupatos. In hac rerum inclinatione siqua 
inter vos regemque Sueciae discordia existeret, reforma- 
3 F 



tarum totius Europae ecclesiarum quam miseranda con- 
ditio esset, quae immanium hostium crudelitati ac furori 
objicerentur? Haec nos cura haud leviter tangit ; eun- 
demquevestrum esse sensum confidimus,proque vestro 
in communi Protestantium causa praeclaro semper 
studio, utque pax inter fratres eandem fidem, eandem 
spem sequentes intemerata servetur, vos vestra consilia 
ad has rationes esse accommodaturos, quae caeteris 
quibuscunque anteponendae sunt, nee quod paci inter 
vos Sueciaeque regem stabiliendae possit conducere, 
quicquam esse omissuros. Qua in re si nos usiis ullius 
esse possumus, quantum apud vos vel authoritate vel 
gratia valemus, nostram vobis operam libentissime pro- 
fitemur, Sueciae quoque regi eandem deferre paratissimi, 
ad quem etiam legationem quamprimum mittere in 
animo habemus, quae hac de re quid nostras sentential 
sit exponat. Deumque vestros utrinque animos ad 
moderata consilia flexurum esse speramus, vosque co- 
hibiturum, nequid ab alterutra parte fiat quod irritare 
possit, remque ad extrema deducere: sed ut, contra, 
pars utraque removere velit quicquid alterutri offensum 
aut suspiciosum esse queat. Id si feceritis, et hostes 
frustrabimini, et amicis solatio eritis, et vestrae denique 
sal uti reipubl. quam optime prospicietis. Hoc etiam 
uti persuasissimum sit vobis rogamus, daturos nos esse 
operam, quoties facultas oblata erit, uti nostrum erga 
foederatas Belgii provincias summum studium benevo- 
lentiaque appareat. Deum proinde assiduis precibus 
obtestamur, ut vestram remp. pace, opibus, libertate, 
atque imprimis Christiana? fidei amore ac vero cultu, 
florentissimam conservare perpetuo velit. 

Vestrarum celsitudinum potentium studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglise, &c. 

Ex Palatio nostro Westmon. die Aug. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Joanni Lusitanice Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Die undecimo Julii proximi, stylo veteri, sanctionem 
pacis a majestate vestra jam ratae, a legato vestro extra- 
ordinario Londini transactae, necnon arcanorum et prae- 
liminarium articulorum, per Thomam Maynardum 
accepimus : perque literas a Philippo Meadow, nostro 
Olyssipone internuntio, eodem tempore datas, nostram 
etiam dictae pacis et articulorum sanctionem, pro iis 
mandatis quae a. nobis ea de re acceperat, majestati 
vestrae ab ipso redditam intelligimus : cum supra- 
dicta sanctionis instrumenta ineunte Junio proximo 
vicissim data acceptaque fuissent, adeo ut nunc inter 
utramque gentem pax firmissima sancita sit. Qua 
ex pace nos quidem voluptatem haud mediocrem per- 
cipimus ; propterea quod earn et communi utrius- 
que gentis utilitati fore arbitramur, hostiumque com- 
munium haud levi detrimento : qui ut prioris foederis 
turbandi rationem aliquam primd invenerunt, ita nunc, 
ne idem instaurari foedus posset, intentatum nihil re- 
liquerunt. Neque dubium nobis est, quin suspicionurn 
utrinque offensionumque inter nos materiam creandi 
occasionem nullam praetermissuri sint. Quas nos qui- 
dem, quantum in nobis est, quam longissime amovere 



804 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 






ammo nostro ita constanter decrevimus, imrao at ma- 
jorem indies mutuam fiduciam haec nostra pariat neces- 
sitndo, tam vehementer cupimus, ut eos pro hostibus 
habituri simus, qui ullis artibus amicitiam nostram im- 
minuere conabuntur, inter nos nostrosque populos hac 
pace stabilitam ; eundemque esse majestatis vestrae 
animum ac voluntatem facile nobis persuademus : 
Cumque placuerit majestati vestrae suis in literis ad 
nos quarto ct vigesimo Junii, stylo novo, datis, et die- 
bus aliquot post instrumentuin confirmatae pacis datum 
atque acceptum nostro internuntio traditis, clausularum 
quarundam hujus foederis mentionem facere, quas ali- 
quantumiramutatas velit, ut quaehuicreipublicae,quem- 
admodum majestas vestra censet, levis admodum sint 
momenti, Portugalliae regno raaximi, peculiari tracta- 
tione agere iis de rebus quae a majestate vestra propo- 
nuntur, et si quidpraetereafoederi stabiliendo, vel etiam 
arctius obstringendo, conducere alterutri parti videbi- 
tur, parati erimus: in qua majestatis vestrae, suique 
populi baud secus atque nostri, ut utrisque aeque sa- 
tisfiat, rationem babebimus : atque haec omnia Olyssi- 
pone an Londini agitanda ac transigenda sint, vestra 
optio erit. Veriim hoc fcedere jam rato, signisque 
gentis utriusque rite obsignate, date denique vicissim 
atque accepto, immutare partem ejus ullam idem esset 
atque totum rescindere ; quod majestatem vestram mi- 
nime velle pro certo habemus. Majestati vestrae fausta 
omnia ac prospera exoptamus. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Ex Palatio nostra Westmonasterii, 
Augusti die 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Joanni Lusitanice Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Perlatum ad nos est facinus illud inhumanum ac 
nefarium, quo csedes Philippi Meadowes, internuntii 
apud vos nostri, transigendas pacis causa a nobis missi, 
attentata est : cujus atrocitas tantafuit, ut divino plane 
numini atque tutelae ejus conservatio attribuenda sit. 
Nosque ex litteris majestatis vestra?, sexto et vigesimo 
Maii proximi ad nos datis, perque Thomam Maynardum 
nobis redditis, permotam facti indignitatc majestatem 
vestram de authoribus jussisse quacri intelligimus, ut 
suppliciura de iis, pro eo ac meriti sunt, sumatur. 
Vcrum comprehensos esse ullos ex iis, aut jussa vestra 
hac in parte quicquam effecisse, nondum accepimus. 
Quapropter nostrum esse duximus palam significare, 
tentatum illud facinus barbarum, et partim commissum, 
quam indigne feramus : atque adeo k majestate vestra 
postulamus, ut ab illius facinoris authoribus, sociis, ad- 
ministris, supplicium debitum repetatur : Et quo hoc 
maturius fiat, ut honestissimi integerrimique viri, qui- 
que gentis utriusque paci quam maxime student, buic 
quaestioni praeficiantur, quo res penitus investigari, 
tamque in authores sceleris quam in ministros severius 
animadverti possit. Id nisi fiat, neque majestatis 
vestra? justitia, neque nostra hujusque reipub. existi- 
matio, viudicari, neque conservandce inter utramque 



gentem amicitiae ulla ratio firma esse, poterit. Majes- 
tati vestrae foelicia faustaque omnia precamur. 
Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 
Ex Palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
Aug. die 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, 8fc. Illustrissimo 
Domino Comiti Mirano, S. D. 

Illustrissime Domine ; 

Singulare tuum erga me atque hanc rempub. stu- 
dium haud mediocriter nos demeruit, tibique devinxit: 
id vestris ex literis, 25 Junii proximi ad me scriptis, 
facile perspexi, turn etiam ex iis, quas ab internuntio 
nostro Philippo Meadowes, conficiendae pacis causa ad 
Lusitaniae regem a nobis misso, accepi : quibus is de 
eximio vestro studio atque opera in hac pace transi- 
genda abunde nos docuit: hujus novissimam sanctionem 
et accepi libentissime, mihiquepersuadeo fore, ut neque 
collate? in hanc pacem operae tuae, neque in Anglos be- 
nevolentia?, neque fidei erga regem hac in re spectatse, 
unquam te poeniteat: quandoquidem, annuente Deo, 
sperandum est, hanc pacem et utrique genti permagna 
emolumenta, et hostibus incommoda haud exigua, esse 
allaturam. Quod solum in hoc negotio triste atque in- 
faustum accidit, fuit illud facinus in internuntium nos- 
trum Philippum Meadowes nefarie susceptum atque 
tentatum : Cujus in occultos auctores haud segnius in- 
quiri oportuit, quam in manifestos sceleris ministros : 
neque de regis vestri justitia ac severitate in tanto 
scelere puniendo, neque de tua cum primis ad earn rem 
opera, ut qui fas piumque colas, et pacis inter utram- 
que nationem studiosus fueris, dubitare possum : quae 
quidem stare nullo modo potest, si facta hujusmodi ne- 
faria impunita atque inultaibunt. Veriim tua facinoris 
illius nota detestatio facit, ut necesse mihi non sit plura 
de hac re in praesentia dicere. Cum itaque de mea erga 
te benevolentia, quam et rebus omnibus demonstrare 
paratissimus ero, certiorem te fecerim, extremum illud 
est, ut te tuaque omnia divinae benignitati ac tutelae 
a me scias esse commendatissima. 

4mplitudinis vestrae studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
Aug. die 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Carolo Gustavo Suecorum, Gothorum, 
Vandalorumque Regi, 8fc. 

Serenissime Rex, amice ac foederate charissime ; 

Cum eundem nobiscum animum, idem consilium, in 
majestate vestra inesse animadvertam, Protestantium 
fidei defendendae contra hostes ejus, hoc tempore, si 
unquam alias, infestissimos, unde est quod tam prosperis 
successibus vestris victoriarumque nuntiis pene quoti- 
die laetemur, turn illud sane vehementer doleo, quod 
unum laetitiam hanc nostram turbat atque corrumpit, 
perfcrri ad nos, inter laeta caetera, vestram cum foedera- 
tis Belgii provinciis amicitiam pristinam non satis con- 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



805 



stare ; remque eo deductam inter vos, in mari praeser- 
tim Baltico, ut ad discordiam spectare videatur. Cujus 
causas quidem ignorare me fateor; eventum certe (nisi 
Deus avertat) Protestantium summae rei periculosissi- 
mum fore facile perspicio. Quapropter pro ilia artissi- 
ma necessitudine, quae cum utrisque vestram nobis in- 
tercede, proque eo, quo duci omnes imprimis debemus, 
religionis reformatae studio atque amore, nostrum esse 
censuimus, quemadmodum foederatos Belgii ordines ad 
pacem et aequanimitatem magnopere hortati sumus, ita 
nunc majestatem vestram hortari. Satis superque hos- 
tium Protestantibus ubique est: nunquam acrioribus 
odiis inflammati conspirasse in exitium nostrum un- 
dique videntur. Testes Alpinee valles, haud ita pridem 
miserorum csede ac sanguine redundantes ; testis Aus- 
tria, edictis nuper et proscriptionibus Caesariis con- 
cussa; testis Helvetia; quid enim attinet pluribus ver- 
bis tot calamitatum recentium memoriam luctumque 
revocare ? Haec omnia loca quis nescit Hispanorum et 
Romani pontificis consilia incendiis, cladibus, vexationi- 
bus orthodoxorum, per hoc biennium miscuisse ? Si ad 
haec tot mala Protestantium fratrum inter se dissensio 
accesserit, inter vos praesertim, quorum in virtute, opi- 
bus, constantia, presidium ecclesiis reform atis consti- 
tutum est maximum, quantum humanae opis est, peri- 
clitari religionem ipsam reformatam, atque in summo 
discrimine versari, necesse erit. Quod contra, si uni- 
versum Protestantium nomen ea qua decet inter se 
fraterna consensione perpetuam pacem coluerit, nihil 
omnino erit quod pertimescamus, quid bostium vel artes 
vel vires incommodare nobis possint, quos sola nostra 
concordia vel propulsabit vel frustrabitur. Quapropter 
majestatem vestram majorem in modum oro atque ob- 
secro, ut ad confirmandam cum fcederatis provinciis 
amicitiam pristinam, si qua in parte collapsa est aut 
imminuta, propensum atque benignum animum afferre 
velit. Siquid est in quo mea opera, fides, diligentia, 
ad compositionem usui esse possit, earn omnem vobis 
profiteor atque defero. Deus modo aspiret, faustumque 
esse jubeat, quod cum summa felicitate cursuque per- 
petuo rerum prosperarum majestati vestrae exopto. 
Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, die Aug. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Ordinibus 
Hollandice. 

Excelsi et praepotentes Domini, amici charissimi ; 

Demonstratum est nobis a Gulielmo Coopero, pas- 
tore Londinensi, civeque nostro, Joannem le Maire 
Amsterodamensem, socerum suum, ante annos circiter 
triginta-tres rationem quandam excogitasse, qua reip. 
vestrae reditus, sine ullo populi onere, multo auctiores 
fierent ; factaque cum Joanne Van den Brook societate 
partiendi inter se praemii, quod ex illo invento suo re- 
portassent, (id autem erat parvi sigilli in provinciis 
constitutio,) ob hoc cclsitudines vestras praepotentes 
supradicto Van den Brook ej usque posteris tria millia 
geldricorum (quae trecentas libras valent) in singulos 
annos pensitanda spospondisse : jam vero, etsi inventa 



ilia parvi sigilli ratio facilis admodum et expedita re- 
perta est, magnosque ex eo tempore reditus celsitu- 
dinibus praepotentibus vestris, nonnullisque vestris pro- 
vinciis, retulit, tamen ad hodiernam usque diem, quam- 
vis multa sollicitatione petitum, illius pacti praemii 
nihildum adnumeratum esse: unde postquam supra- 
dictis Van den Brook et le Maire longarum dilationum 
pertaesum est, actionem illam in supradictum Guliel- 
mura Cooperum civem nostrum jure esse translatam : 
qui, cum fructum industriae soceri sui percipere cupiat, 
ad nos per libellum supplicem se contulit, ut banc ejus 
postulationem celsitudinibus vestris praepotentibus com- 
mendare vellemus ; quod ei non esse denegandum 
censuimus. Quapropter celsitudines vestras praepotentes 
amice rogamus, uti petitionem supradicti Gulielmi 
Cooperi ea de re benigne audire velitis, pactumque in- 
dustriae prasmium, atque stipendium tarn justum, et pro 
numero tot annorum praeteritorum et annua deinceps 
pensione solvendum curare. Quod cum non dubitemus 
quin celsitudines vestrae praepotentes libenter facturae 
sint, utpote et justum, et munificentia vestra dignum, 
parati et nos vicissim erimus, vestris quoque populari- 
bus in postulatis suis, quoties nobis edentur, aeque pro- 
penso animo favere. 

Vestrarum celsitudinum praepotentium studiosissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Septemb. an. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Ludovico Gallice Regi. 

Serenissime Rex, amice ac federate cbarissime; 

Inviti facimus ut majestatem vestram de suorum in- 
juriis, post pacem instauratam, toties interpellemus : 
verum et vos factas nolle confidimus, et nos nostrorum 
querimoniis deesse non possumus. Navem Antonium 
Diepensem ante fcedus jure captam ex judicumsenten- 
tia, curiae nostrae maritimae praesidentium, facile con- 
stat. Ejus prsedae partem, quatuor millia plus minus 
coriorum, Robertus Brunus, mercator Londinensis, ab 
iis qui auctioni praefuerunt, quod et ipsi testantur, co- 
emit : ex iis circiter ducenta cum Diepam advecta post 
ratam pacem coriario cuidam Diepensi vendidisset 
pecuniamque redegisset, ea pecunia in manibus procu- 
ratoris sui occupata atque retenta, litem sibi impingi, 
suumque jus illo in foro se obtinere non posse, queritur. 
Quocirca majestatem vestram rogandum censuimus, ut 
ad consilium suum de re totareferri velit, pecuniamque 
illam iniquissima lite extricari. Etenim si ante pacem 
facta et judicata, post pacem rursus in controversiam 
atque judicium vocabuntur, quis sit fructus foederum 
futurus, non videmus. Verum hujusmodi querelarum 
nullus finis erit, nisi in foedifragos hosce tarn frequentes 
exemplum aliquod severitatis mature statuatur ; id 
quod majestativestraequamprimum curae fore speramus: 
Quam Deus interim tutela sua sanctissima dignetur. 
Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Septemb. an. 1656. 



800 



LITER.E OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, ^c. Serenissimo 
Principi Joanni Lusitanice Regi. 

Serenissime Rex ; 
Transacta jam feliciter inter banc rempub. Lusita- 
niaeque regnum pace, necnon ad commercium quod 
attinet recte atque exordine cautum atque sancitum cum 
sit, necessarium esseduximus Thomam Maynardum, a 
quo hie literae perferuntur, ad raajestatem vestram mit- 
tere; qui cousulis munere negotiatorio, vestra in di- 
tione, ad mercatorum res rationesque ordinandas, fun- 
gatur. Cum autem hoc saepius usu venire possit, ut 
adeundi majestatem vestram fieri sibi copiam nonnun- 
quam postulet, tarn de commercio quam aliis de rebus 
quae nostra buj usque reip. interesse possint, a majestate 
vestra petimus, ut illi, quoties audito opus sit, benignum 
velitis aditum atque aurem prcebere; id vestrae erga 
nos benevolentiae pro argumento singulari atque in- 
dicio habebimus : interim majestati vestrae Deum Opt. 
Max. fortunare omnia volumus. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius, Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 
Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterii, 
die Octob. 1050. 

Suecorum Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex ; 

Tametsi ea est solita majestatis vestrae et spontanea 
in viros bene meritos benevolentia, ut omnis eorum 
commendatio supervacanea possit videri, tamen nobi- 
lem bunc virum Gulielmum Yavasorem, equitem aura- 
tum, majestatis vestrae sub signis merentem, et ad vos 
jam proficiscentem, noluimus sine nostris ad majesta- 
tem vestram Uteris dimittere. Quod eo libentius feci- 
mus, posteaquam significatum nobis est, jampridem 
eum, majestatis vestrae auspicia secutum, multis in 
praeliis vestra causa suum sanguinem profudisse : adeo 
ut Suecorum reges proximi ob militarem ejus peritiam, 
operamque saepe in bellostrenuenavatam, eum agro et 
annuis pensionibus, veluti virtutis praemio, remunera- 
verint. Neque vero dubitamus quin majestati vestrae 
in hodiernis bellis permagno sit usui futurus, cum sit 
fide ac bellicarum rerum scientia jamdiu spectata. 
Eum itaque majestati vestrae, pro eo ac meritus est, 
commendatum cupimus ; simulque rogamus, ut quae illi 
praetcrita stipendia processerint solvantur. Hoc nobis 
erit gratissimum ; nee gratificari vicissim majestati 
vestrae, quoties facultas erit, gravabimur ; cui fausta 
omnia ac prospera exoptamus. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Octob. an. 1050. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliae, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Jo axni Lusitanice Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime Rex, amice ac federate charissimc; 

Exhibuit nobis libellum supplicem Thomas Evans 
nauclerus, civis noster, in quo ostendit, se an. 1049, et 



1050, cum navi sua, cui nomen Scipioni, quadringen- 
tarum amphorarum, et cui ipse praefuit, societati Bra- 
siliensi operam navasse : earn navem, cum onere toto 
et apparatu, majestatis vestrae jussu ereptam sibi esse: 
unde damnum homini factum, praeter amissum ex 
tanta sorte sexennii lucrum, commissarii, ex foedere ad 
decidendas controversias utrinque dati, plus septem 
millibus librarum nostrarum, sive bis totidem milreis 
Lusitanicis, aestimarunt; quemadmodum et ad nos re- 
tulerunt. Quod detrimentum tarn grave cum supra- 
dictum Thomam vehementer afflixerit, coactus ad re- 
petendas ex foedere res suas Oljssipponem navigare, 
petiit suppliciter a nobis, ut literas nostras hac de re 
ad majestatem vestram sibi daremus : nos, tametsi in 
communi causa mercatorum, quibus a societate Brasi- 
liensi debebatur, superiore anno scripsimus, tamen ne 
cui nostram opem poscenti defuisse videamur, majes- 
tatem vestram pro amicitia rogamus, nt hujus nomina- 
tim hominis ratio habeatur; utque velitmajestas vestra 
suis omnibus ita praecipere, ut ne quid obstare possit, 
quo minus is in ea urbe, quod sibi a societate Brasi- 
liensi vel aliunde debetur, sine ullo impedimento exi- 
gere, et sine mora possit recuperare. Deus majestatem 
vestram perpetua felicitate augeat ; nostramque amici- 
tiam faxit quam diuturnam. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 

die Octob. an. 1050. 

Oliverius Protect. Reipub. Angliae, Sec. Illustri et 
Magnifico Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, S. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles 
viri, amici charissimi ; 
Gravem detulerunt ad nos querimoniam Jacobus et 
Patricius Hays, cives hujus reip. se, sui fratris Alex- 
andri, qui intestatus diem obiit, haeredes legitimi cum 
sint, atque ita ipsius curiae vestrae sententia, ante annos 
duodecim secundum se lata, contra fratris viduam pro- 
nuntiati fuissent, bonaque defuncti fratris cum fructi- 
bus, excepta solum viduae dote, adjudicata sibi ex eo 
judicio essent, non potuisse tamen hactenus, neque pro 
suo jure, neque Uteris Caroli olim regis eadem de re 
scriptis, ullum laborum suorum ac sumptuum ex ea 
sententia fructum consequi : obesse sibi scilicet poten- 
tiam atque opes Alberti van Eizen, decurionis apud 
vos primarii, apud quern bonorum pars maxima de- 
posita est; eum agere omnia, ne ea bona baeredibus 
restituantur. Elusi, ac dilationibus confecti, summam 
denique ad inopiam redacti, supplicant nobis ne se 
negligamus tantis injuriis, foederata in civitate, oppres- 
sos. Quod nos cum officii imprimis nostri intelligamus 
esse, ut nequis civis noster praesidium suis rebus, atque 
susceptum patrocinium in nobis requirat, petimus quod 
a civitate vestra videamur facile impetrare posse, ut 
sententiam ipsimet vestram hisce fratribus ratam esse 
velitis ; neque per causam provocationis ad Spirensem 
Cameram, vel primo simulatae vel nunc irritae, moram 
justitioe fieri diutius patiamini. Nam dc summa ipsius 
causaejurisperitorumnostrorumsententiasrequisivimus; 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORY. 



807 



unaque descriptas obsignatasque ad vos misimus. Quod 
si rogando nihil proficitur, erit necessario, idque ex 
consueto jure gentium, quod tamen minime vellemus, 
ad reciproca deveniendum : id ne accidat, vos pro ves- 
tra prudeutia provisuros esse confidimus. 

Amplitudinum vestrarum studiosissiraus, 
Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglian, &c. 
Ex palatio nostro Westmonasterii, 
die Octob. 16. an. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglia, Serenissi?no ac 
potentissimo Principi Ludovico Gallice Regi, S. D. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac 
federate charissime ; 

Pervenisse ad majestatem vestram literas nostras 
arbitramur, Maii quarto-decimo superioris auni datas : 
in quibus Joannem Dethicum, eodem anno Londini 
urbispraafectum, et Gulielmum Wakefeild,mercatorem, 
per libellum supplicem nobis ostendisse scripsimus, 
navem Jonam suis mercibus onustam, quas Ostendam 
veherentur, Dunkirkam, quae turn temporis in Gallica 
ditionc erat, a preedone quodam Caroli Stuarti filii 
auspiciis piraticam faciente ex ipso Thamesisostio fuisse 
abreptam : se, cum ex edictis vestris vestrique consilii 
decretis, quibus erat cautum, nequa navis Anglorum, ab 
hostibus parlamenti capta, vestris portubus reciperetur, 
venalisve esset, a domino Lestrado, illius oppidi prae- 
fecto, postulassent, ut reddi sibi navem suam atque bona 
juberet, responsum ab eo tulisse, sane neque viro pri- 
mario dignum, neque eo qui regi suo satis dicto audiens 
videretur, se scilicet ab rege Galliae, ob navatam in bello 
operam, hanc prcefecturani praemio accepisse; curatu- 
rum proinde uti ca quam maxime qusestui sibi sit; per 
fas videlicet ac nefas: id enim minime laborare vide- 
batur. Quasi vero hanc prsefecturam atque provinciam 
majcstatis vestrae dono accepisset, ut socios juxta spo- 
liaret, vestraque edicta in eorum gratiam promulgata 
pro nihilo haberet. Quod enim rex Galliae, si maxime 
ab hostibus factum contra nos voluisset, facti tamen 
participes suos esse vetuit, id regius prsefectus, contra 
regium interdictum, non modo fieri est passus, ut nos 
vestris in portubus diriperemur, praedaeque essemus, 
verum etiam ipse diripuit, ipse prsedae habuit, seque facti 
authorem palam professus est. Hoc itaquc responso 
mercatores, inf'ecto negotio, irriti atque elusi discessere: 
nosque hsec itidem superiore anno majestati vestrae per 
literas significavimus, successu licet haud multo meli- 
ore ; nihildum enim responsi ad eas literas habuimus. 
Quod non habuerimus accidisse id credimus, prop- 
terea quod eo tempore prsefectus ille apud exercitum 
in Flandria fuit ; nunc in urbe ipsa Parisiorum degit, 
vel potius per urbem, perque aulam, uostrorum spoliis 
locupletatus impune volitat. A majestate igitur vestra 
nunc denuo id petimus, quod ipsius majestatis vestrse 
interest in primisprovidere,nequis ad sociorum injurias 
edictorum regiorum contemptionem audeat adjun- 
gere : sed neque ad legatos sive commissarios de con- 
troversiis communibus utrinque dandos rcjici proprie 
haec causa potcrit ; quandoquidem hie non sociorum 
jus duntaxat, sed auctoritas ipsa vestra, regiique no- 



minis reverentia, agitur. Ulud enim mirum sit, si 
mercatores damna sua molestiiis quam majestas vestra 
sui ferat imminutionem. Earn si non ferat, cadem 
opera simul perficiet, ut neque amicissimorum derepub. 
nostra edictorum poenituisse, neque in suorum injuriis 
connivisse, neque nostrse postulationi non tribuisse quod 
par sit, videatur. 

Majestati vestne voluntate, amicitia, foedcre, 
devinctissimus, 
Oliverius Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 
Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio, 
die Novemb. an. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
potentissimogue Principi Frederico III. Danicc, 
Norvcgice, Vandalorum, Gothorumque Regi; Duci 
Slcsvici, Holsatiee, Stormarice, et Dithmarsicc ; Co- 
mitiin Oldenburgh et Delmenhorst, fyc. S. D. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac foederate 
charissime ; 

Literas majestatis vestne sexto-decimo Februarii 
Hafnia datas ab ornatissimo viro Simone de Petkum, 
oratore apud nos vestro, accepimus. lis perlectis, ct 
voluntatis erga nos vestrte prseclara significatio, et ipsius 
rei, de qua scriptum erat, pondus usque eo nos permovit, 
ut statim ad majestatem vestram mittere qui, mandatis 
nostris instructus, nostra consilia vobis hac de re ple- 
nissime exponeret, in animo haberemus. Etquanquam 
idem nobis etiamnum animus manet, hactenus tamen 
idoneum aliquem cum iis mandatis dimittere, quai 
gravissimumhujusmodi neg^otium postularet, non potu- 
imus ; quemadmodum jam brevi facturos nos esse spe- 
ramus. Interea non omittendum diutius existimavimus 
majestatem vestram certiorem facere, prassentem reruni 
inEuropastatumhaud mediocri noscuraac cogitatione 
sollicitos tenuisse : cum ab aliquot jam annis summo 
cum dolore videamus Protestantium principes, ac civi- 
tatum primores, (quos, ex communi religiouis atque 
salutis vinculo, omnem sese mutuo confirmandi ac de- 
fendendi inire rationem oporteret,) inter se indies magis 
magisque infirm e animatos, quid quisque moliatur, 
quidve struat, suspectum habere ; metum amicis, spem 
hostibus praebentes, inimicitias atque dissidia potius 
hac rerum inclinatione portendi, quam firmum inviccm 
animorum cousensum, ad pnesidium mutuum ac defen- 
sionem. Atque hasc quidem sollicitudo eo altiiis animo 
nostro insedit, quo magis in majestate vestra regeque 
Suecios adhuc aliquid residere mutuaa suspicionis vide- 
tur; vel saltern non earn existere voluntatum conjunc- 
tionem, quam communis nostrum omnium in orthodox- 
am religionem amor ac studium flagitaret ; dum 
majestati vestras injecta forte aliqua suspicio est, fore 
ut ab rege Suecise detrimentum aliquod ditiouis vestrie 
commerciis afferatur; suspicante vicissim Suecorum 
rege, ne, per vos, et bellum quod nunc gerit difficilius 
et coutrahendarum societatum ratio imped itior, sibi 
reddatur. Non prasterit majestatem vestram, pro ea 
summa prudentia, quam adhibere suis omnibus in rebus 
solet, quantum discriminis Protestantium summtE rei 
impendat, si istiusmodi suspicioues inter vos diu verseu- 



808 



LITERiE OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



tur; quantoniagis, quod Deusavertet, siquod hostilita- 
tis indicium erumperet. Utcunque haec se babeant, 
nos, quemadmodura et Suecorum regem, et fbederati 
Belgii ordines, ad pacem et moderata consilia magno- 
pere bortati sumus, (adeoque redintegrari inter eos pa- 
cem atque concordiam vehementer gaudemus, nam et 
capita quoque illius foederis a dominis Ordinibus trans- 
missa ad nos sunt,) ita nostras esse partes duximus, nos- 
traeque amicitiae quam maxime convenire, ut qui sensus 
noster bis de rebus sit, majestatem vestram ne celaremus, 
(prassertim cum, ut ita faciamus, majestatis vestrae literis 
amicissimis tam studiose invitemur ; id quod etiam 
benevolentiae erga nos vestrae pro argumento singu- 
lari sane habemus atque amplectimur,) vestraeque 
majestati ante oculos poneremus, quantum nobis ne- 
cessitatem, qui Protestantium religionem sequimur, di- 
vina providentia imposuerit colendi inter nos pacem, 
idque nunc maxime, cum hostes nostri acerrime, si un- 
quam alias, rem gerere, et conjurasse undique in per- 
niciem nostram, videntur. Valles Alpinas, miserorum 
nuper incolarum caede ac sanguine madentes, comme- 
morare nihil attinet ; nee conquassatam per eosdem 
dies Caesareis proscriptionibus atque edictis Austriam; 
nee denique contra Helvetios Protestantes Helvetiorum 
Papistarum infestos impetus. Quis nescit Hispanorum 
dolos ac machinationes per hosce aliquot annos haec 
loca omnia incendiis, ruinis, cladibus Protestantium, 
permiscuisse ? Si ad baec mala refonnatorum fratrum 
inter se dissensio velut cumulus accedat, inter vos prae- 
sertim, qui nostrarum virium tanta pars estis, et in qui- 
bus tantum praesidii ac roboris Protestantium dubiis 
temporibus comparatum atque repositum est; quod ad 
opem humanam attinet, pessum ire Protestantium res, 
et in extremo discrimine atque occasu versari, necesse 
erit. Quod contra, si pax constet inter vos vicinos, cae- 
terosque orthodoxos principes, si concordiae fraternae 
omni ex parte studeatur, non erit cur, Deo bene juvante, 
vel vim vel versutiam nostrorum hostium pertimesca- 
mus; quorum con atus nostra sola consensio vel dissipabit 
vel frustrabitur. Neque vero dubitamus quin majestas 
vestra ad banc pacem beatam impertiri suam operam, 
quam potes maximam, et libens velit, et velle desitura 
non sit. Qua in re ipse etiam communicare consilia cum 
majestate vestra, atque conjungere, paratissimus ero ; 
utpote et veram amicitiam professus, et cui non solum 
pactam inter nos tam auspicato servare pacem delibe- 
ratum omnino sit, verum etiam necessitudinem hanc, 
quae nunc intercedit, prout Deus facultatem dabit, arc- 
tiori vinculo constringere. Idem Deus interim majes- 
tati vestrae secunda ac prospera omnia concedat. 

Majestati vestrae amicitia, fcedere, ac voluntate, 
conjunctissimus, 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 

Dabantur ex Aula nostra Westmonasterii, 
Decern, an. 1656. 



Oliverius Protect. Reipub. Anglic?, fyc. Serenissimo 
illustrissimoque Principi ac Domino, Domino Gu- 
lielmo, Hassice Langravio, Principi Herefeldice, 



Comiti in Cattimeliboco, Decia Ligeuhain, Nidda et 
Schaumburgo, fyc. 

Serenissime Princeps; 

Ad literas celsitudinis vestrae non sic altero post 
anno, quod prope jam pudet, rescripsissemus, nisi nos 
admodum invitos permulta sane, eaque gravissima, 
quorum curam, pro nostro in repub. munere, differre 
non potuimus, interpellassent. Quae enim literae de- 
bebant esse nobis gratiores, quam quae a principe reli- 
giosissimo, majoribus quoque religiosissimis orto, de 
pace religionis, deque concordia ecclesiarum concilianda, 
sunt scriptae ; quae etiam literas eundem plane animum, 
idem pacis christianae promovendae studium, non solum 
suo, verum etiam universi fere orbis christiani opinione 
ac judicio, et ips&e nobis tribuunt, et universim attribu- 
tum esse gratulantur ? Et nos quidem per tria base olim 
regna quid hac in parte simus conati, quidque hortando, 
ferendo, praseundo, divino maxime auxilio, efFecerimus, 
et norunt nostri plerique, et in summa conscientias 
tranquillitate sentiunt. Eandem prassertim Germaniae 
totius ecclesiis, ubi acrius fcr^, jamque diu nimis dis- 
sidetur, pacem optavimus ; perque nostrum Duraeum, 
hoc idem multos jam annos frustra molientem, siquid 
earn in rem nostra opera conferre posset, ex animo de- 
tulimus. In eadem nos etiamnum sententia permane- 
mus ; eandem illis ecclesiis fraternam inter se charita- 
tem optamus: sed quam sit boc arduum conciliandae 
pacis negotium inter ipsos pacis, ut pree se ferunt, 
filios, summo cum dolore satis superque intelligimus. 
Nam, ut utrique Reformati nempe et Augustani in unius 
ecclesiae communionem aliquando coalescant, speran- 
dumvixest; suam utrique sententiam ne possint vel 
voce vel scriptis defendere, prohiberi sine vi non pote-, 
runt ; vis autem cum pace ecclesiastica consistere non 
potest : hoc tantum se sinant exorari qui dissentiunt, 
ut bumanius saltern et moderatius velint dissentire, ni- 
hiloque minus inter se diligere ; utpote non hostes, sed 
fratres in levioribus licet dissentientes, in summa tamen 
fidei conjunctissimos. Haec nos inculcando, haec sua- 
dendo nunquam defatigabimur; quod ultra est, humanis 
neque viribus neque consiliis datur: Deus quod suum 
solius est suo tempore perficiet. Tu interim, serenis- 
sime princeps, praeclaram in ecclesias declarationem 
animi tui, sempiternum sane monumentum et majori- 
bus tuis dignum et omnibus posthac principibus imi- 
tandum reliquisti. Nos celsitudini vestras, pro eo ac 
merita est, felicitatem caeteris in rebus quantum ipsa 
cupit, mentem, ea quam nunc habes, haud meliorem 
(quid enim potest esse melius?) a Deo optimo maximo 
precamur. 

Westmonasterio, die Martii, an. 1656. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Seirnissimo 
Principi Duci Curlandice. 

Serenissime Princeps ; 

De benevolentia celsitudinis erga nos vestrae et alias, 

et turn quidem aliunde nobis constitit cum orationcm 

nostram ad Moscovioe Ducem iter facientem, et in 

ditione vestra per aliquot dies commorantem hospitio 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



809 



benigne accepisti: nunc justitise et aequitatis suae baud 
leviora indicia daturam esse celsitudinem vestram et 
suopte^ingenio et nostro rogatu confidimus. Cum 
enira Joannes Jaraesonus, Scotus, navis cujusdam ves- 
trae magister, fidelem naucleri operam septennioque 
cognitam vobis navaverit, seque illam navem Balenam 
sibi commissam, in ostio fluminis, ut mos est, guber- 
natoi*i vestro appellendara in portum tradidisset, eumque 
iraperite suo munere fungentem quod solum potuit 
saepius monuisse multis testibus probaverit, non ejus 
profecto culpa, sed gubernatoris vel imperitia vel per- 
vicacia fractam esse navem nemini non liquet. Quod 
cum ita sit, a celsitudine vestra majorem in modum 
petimus, ut supradicto Joanni magistro neque illud 
naufragium imputare, neque earn idcirco stipendio de- 
bito velit privare ; cujus spe sola jam altero naufragio 
bonis omnibus amissis, se utcunque in extrema inopia 
sustinet et solatur. 

Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio 
die Martii, An. 1657. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc, Amplis- 
simis Consulibus ac Senatoribus Reip. Gedanensis, 
S. P. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici viri, amici cbarissimi ; 

Urbem vestram industria, opibus et optimarum ar- 
tium studiis florentem cum nobilissimis quibusque 
urbibus semper esse duximus conferendam : nunc pos- 
teaquam in hoc bello, quod vestris jamdiu in finibus 
geritur, Polonorum sequi partes quam Suecorum malu- 
istis, sane et religionis causa quam colitis, etcommercii 
quod cum Anglis vetustum jam habetis, optavimus ut 
ea vobis maxime consilia placerent, quae cum Dei glo- 
ria urbisque vestrae dignitate ac splendore viderentur 
esse conjunctissima. Quocirca petimus pro amicitia, 
quae vobis cum Anglorum gente multo usu firmata 
jamdiu constat, et siqua in gratia apud vos nostrum 
quoque nomen est, ut insignem inter primos Suecorum 
duces Conismarcum, egregium praesertim bello virum, 
casu et suorum proditione mari interceptum belli lege, 
non acerbissime adhuc gesti, dimittere velitis, sin id 
minus vestris rationibus convenire arbitramini, ut leni- 
ore saltern ac liberiore custodia habendum censeatis. 
Utrum horum vobis faciendum decreveritis, id profecto 
imprimis quod existimatione urbis vestrae dignum est 
decernetis ; deinde ab omnibus praeclaris belli ducibus 
magnam gratiam inibitis ; nos denique, quicquid id 
vestra interesse putatis, haud mediocri sane beneficio 
devincietis. 

Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio, 
Aprilis, an. 1657. 
Vestrarum amplitudinum studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Protector Reipub. Angliae, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglian, Scotia, Hiber- 
nice, Sfc. Serenissimo ac Potentissimo Principi ac 
Domino Imperatori Ducique magno univcrscc Russia, 
Soli Domino Voladomteri, Moschoce, Novogrodi, 
Regi Cazani, et Astracani, Sgberia, Domino Vobs- 
coce, Magno Duci Smolenchi,'Tuerscoice et aliarum, 



Domino ac Magno Duci Novogrodce, Inferiorumque 
Regionum Chcrnigoi, Rezanscoce et aliarum, Domino 
omnis plagce Septentrionalis, item Domino Everscoce, 
Cartalinsca aliarumque permultarum ; S. P. D. 

Anglorum genti cum imperii vestri populis vetus 
amicitia magnusque usus, id quod nemo nescit, amplis- 
simumque commercium jamdiu fuit ; ilia vero virtus 
singularis, Imperator Augustissime, qua majoribus suis 
majestas vestra longe pr&elucet, et quae de ea est vici- 
norum omnium principum opinio, potissimum nos 
movet, ut majestatem vestram et eximio studio cola- 
mus, etque communicata cupiamus, quae et rei christi- 
anae et rationibus vestris haud parum conducere, nee 
minus nominis vestri gloria? serviare posse existime- 
mus. Quapropter ornatissimum virum Dominum 
Richard um Bradsbaw, summa fide, integritate, pru- 
dentia, usuque rerum, ex aliis etiam legationibus, nobis 
cognitum, ad majestatem vestram misimus oratorem ; 
qui et singulare erga vos nostrum studium, summam- 
que observantiam vobis exponat, et supradictis de rebus 
agere cum majestate vestra possit. Eum itaque ut 
benigne nostro nomine accipiatis, eique ut, quoties 
commodum erit, liberum aditum, auresque benignas, 
fidem denique in iis omnibus quae proposuerit aut 
transegerit, eandem atque nobismetipsis, si coram ad- 
fuissemus, praebere velitis rogamus ; adeoque majes- 
tati vestrae atque imperio Russico fausta omnia a Deo 
opt. max. precamur. 

Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterii, die 
April, an. Dom. 1657. 

Majestatis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius, Protector Reip. Angl. &c. 

Oliverius, Protector Reipub. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo, Sueco- 
rum, Gotliorum, Vandalorumque Regi, Magno Prin- 
cipi Finlandia, Duci Esthonice, Carelice, Bremce, 
Verda, Stetini, Pomeranice, Cassubice et Vandalice, 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, 
amice ac foederate charissime, 
Vir nobilissimus Gulielmus Jepsonus, militum tri- 
bunus, et parlamenti nostri senator, cui hoc munus ho- 
nori erit, quod majestati vestrae hasce literas dabit, cer- 
tiorem earn faciet, quanta cum perturbatione ac dolore 
nuntium accepimus belli illius funcsti inter majestatem 
vestram Daniaeque regem coorti; quamque nobis cordi 
ac studio sit, nullam nostram operam aut officium prae- 
termittere, quoad Deus facultatem dederit; ut huic 
ingruenti malo remedium aliquod mature arTeratur, 
eaeque simul calamitates avertantur, quas inferricx hoc 
bello religionis causae communi necesse erit; hocprae- 
sertim tempore, quo adversarii nostri contra orthodoxae 
fidei professionem et professores cum consilia perni- 
ciosissima turn vires arctissime conjungunt. Haec 
atque alia nonnulla permagna ad utriusque gentis 
commoda rationesque publicas momenti adduxere nos, 
ut hunc virum ornatissimum internuntii extraordinarii 
praedictum munere ad majestatem vestram mittercmus: 



810 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS 



Quern nil amice recipiatis, eique, iis in rebus quas cum 
majestate vestra nostro nomine communicaverit, sum- 
mam fidcm adhibeatis rogamus ; cum is sit cujus fidei 
atque prudentiae nos quoque plurimum tribuamus. 
Simul et illud petimus, ut majestas vestra nostram erga 
se resque suas benevolentiam singularem, atque studium 
persuasissimum sibi habeat; cujus nos argumenta cer- 
tissimam per omnem occasionem et propenso animo et 
officiis paratissimis pra?bebimus. 
Ex Aula nostra Westynonasterii, 
Aug. an. Dom. 1657. 
Majestatis vestrce amicus et foederatus conjunctissimus, 
Oliverius Protector Reip. Angl. &c. 

Excellentissimo Domino, Domino de Bourdeaux, Se- 
renissimi Regis Oalliarum Legato extraor dinar io. 

Excellentissime Domine, 
Mercatores quidem Londino-derrienses Samuel 
Dausonus, Joannes Campsejus, et Joannes Nevinus, 
per libellum supplicem, Serenissimo Domino protectori 
ediderunt, se, posteaquam fcedus inter hanc rempub. 
regnumque Galliee redintegratum intellexerant, an. 
Dom. 1655 navem quandam, cui nomen Anglice The 
Speedwell, melioris ominis causa, quam eventus ferebat, 
impositum, cujus Joannes Ker magister erat, mercibus 
quibusdam ex portu Derriensi Burdegalam convehen- 
dis onerasse ; earn navem illic onere exposito, vinoque 
aliisque mercibus inde impositis, captam in reditu die 
24 Novembris anni supra dicti a duabis Brestensum 
navibus armatis, quarum alteri Adrianus Vindmian 
Swart, alteri Jacobus Jonsonus, prsefuit, ab iisdem etiam 
in portum Brivatem, vulgo Brestensem, fuisse abductam ; 
ibique et jure captam judicatam esse, et auctione ven- 
ditam, cum mille centumque libras nostras aestimatione 
justa valuisset, extra damnum mille librarum praeterea 
datum : de quibus recuperandis omni se honesta ratione 
cum illius loci prasfectis egisse: id sibi hactenus frus- 
tra fuisse : se etiam moribus edictum curiae maritimae 
consecutos esse, quo ckarentur in judicium qui navem 
illam ccpissent, autem jure esse captam defendere sta- 
tuissent. Edictum hoc et recte atque ordine promul- 
gatum et redditum : idque ab ejusdem curiae ministris 
publicis mature Domino legato Galliae signification 
esse : cum nemo contra comparuisset, testes aliquot 
juratos de re judicanda interrogates esse. Quae res 
cum a petitoribus ad celsitudincm Domini protectoris 
delata sit, ab eaque cognitioni atque sententiae concilii 
mandata, cumque de facto et testimoniis juratis libello 
supplici adjunctis abunde constet, petitoribusque libe- 
rum commercium Burdegalse sit datum, mercesque 
illic emptae atque impositae vi sint in reditu ercptae et 
occupatas contra foederis fidem, ut supra demonstration 
est, quis non videt hoc esse aequissimum, aut navem 
cum onere petitoribus restitui, aut de damno cum cap- 
tae navis turn juris persequendi plene satisfied ? Peto 
igitur ab cxcellentia vestra, atque etiam serenissimi 
domini protectoris nomine peto, omnem velit operam 
dare, omnique operae authoritatem etiam sui muneris 
adjungere, ut primo quoque tempore horum alterutrum 
fiat. Cum neque in causa oequiore laborare possit, ne- 



que mihi gratiore ; qui eo diligentius curasse quod 
mandatum mihi est videbor. quo excellentia vestra 
maturius quod suum est praestiterit. 

Ex Alba Aula, Augusti an. Dom. 1657. 

Olive rius Protector Rcip. Anglia, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi D. Frederico Wilhelmo Marchioni 
Brande7iburgcnsis, Sacri Romani Imperii Archi- 
Camerario, ac Principi E lectori Magdeburgi, Prus- 
sia, Julia, Clivia, Montium, Stctini, Pomeranice, 
Cassubiorum Vandalorumque,necnon in Silesia Cros- 
nce et Carnovice Duci, Burggravio Norinbergensi, 
Principi Halbcrstadii et Mindce, Comiti Marcos et 
Ravensbe^gi, Domino in Ravenstein : S. P. D. 

Serenissime Princeps, amice ac federate charissime, 

Cum ea sit celsitudinis vestra? singularis virtus et 
pace et bello terrarum orbe toto jam clara, ea magni- 
tudo animi atque constantia, ut amicitiam vestram 
omnes fere principes vicini ambiant, amicum et socium 
nemo fideliorem sibi aut constantiorem cupiat, ut nos 
quoque in eorum numero esse intelligatis, qui de vobis 
vestrisque egregiis de rep. christians meritis quam 
optime quamque prseclare sentiunt, nobilissimum virum 
Gulielmum Jepsonum, tribunum militum et Parlamenti 
nostri senatorem, ad vos misimus, qui vobis nostro no- 
mine et plurimam salutem dicat, et rebus vestris f el i- 
citatem omnem ominetur atque exoptet ; nostram deni- 
que benevolentiam summumque studium erga vestram 
serenitatem verbis amplissimis exponat; eique proinde 
fidem, iis in rebus de quibus vobiscum egerit, eandem 
habeatis rogamus, ac si a nobismetipsis testata omnia 
atque confirmata coram esscnt. 

Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio Augusti 
an. Dom. 1657. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Amplissimis 
civitatis Hamburgensis Consulibus ac Senatoribus : 
S. P. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles viri, 

Amici charissimi ; 
Cum vir ornatissimus Gulieimus Jepsonus, tribunus 
militum, et parlamenti nostri senator, ad Suecorum 
rcgem serenissimum a nobis missus vestram per urbem 
iter faciat, in mandatis dedimus, uti vos quoque ne 
praeteriret nostro nomine insalutatos; neque non roga- 
tos, ut si qua in re vestra authoritate, consilio aut prae- 
sidio opus sibi esse judicaverit, ei quibus rebus potestis 
praesto esse velitis. Id quo libentius feceritis eo ma- 
jorem a. nobis iniise vos gratiam intelligitis. 
Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio, die Aug. 

an. Dom. 1657. 

Amplissimis Civitatis Bremensis Consulibus ac Sena- 
toribus. S. P. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles Viri, 
Amici charissimi ; 
Qui noster animus erga vestram civitatem, quaeque 
bencvolentia, cum propter puriorem apud vos religio- 



LITERS 0LIVER1I PROTECTORY. 



8U 



nis cultum, etiam propter urbis celebritatem, sit, et 
sensistis alias, et quoties facultas dabitur sentietis. 
Nunc, cum ornatissimus vir Gulielmus Jepsonus, tri- 
bunus militum, et parlamenti nostri senator, ad serenis- 
simum regem Sueciae per urbem vestram oratoris rau- 
nere instructus iter faciat, hoc tantum in praesentia 
voluimus, ut et vos ille perarnanter pcrque amice nostro 
nomine salutet, et siquid accident in quo vestra ope 
atquc amicitia usus sibi esse possit, id uti a vobis pro 
nostra necessitudine peteret. Qua in re non magis de- 
futuros vos esse confido, quam de nostro erga vos amore 
singulari ac studio dubitare debetis. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra die Aug. 
an. Dom. 1657. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, 8fc. Amplissimis 
Civitaiis Luhecensis Consulibus ac Senatoribus, 
S. P. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles viri, 
amici charissimi, 

Gulielmus Jepsonus, vir nobilissimus, militum tribu- 
nus, et parlamenti nostri senator, ad serenissimum 
Suecorum regem ab urbe vestra baud longe castra 
habentem publico munere ornatus proficiscitur, qua- 
propter ei per urbem vestram aut ditionem iter facenti 
ut omni adjumento, si opus erit, atque praesidio, pro 
nostra amicitia atque commercio, adesse velitis roga- 
mus. De caetero et salutatos vos esse nostro nomine 
peramice volumus, deque nostro erga vos propenso 
animo ac voluntate esse persuasissimos. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, die Aug. 
an. Dom. 1657. 

Oliverius Protect. Reipubl. Anglice, Sfc. Amplissimis 
Civitatis Hamburgensis Consulibus ac Senatoribus, 
S. P. D. 

Amplissimi, magnifici, et spectabiles viri, 
amici charissimi, 

Qui hasce ad vos literas perfert, Philippus Meadovves, 
oratoris munere a nobis instructus ad serenissimum 
Daniae regem per urbem vestram proficiscitur. Eum, 
siquid erit, in quo vestram authoritatcm adjumento sibi 
fore aut praesidio existimaverit, commendatum vobis 
magnopere volumus. Nostraque commendatio, quo 
solet esse apud vos pondere, eodem uti nunc sit roga- 
mus : vobis vicissim. siquid ejusmodi occurrit non de- 
futuri. 

Ex Aula nostra Westmonasterio, die Aug. an. 1657. 

Oliverius Protector Reipub. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
Principi Frederico Hceredi Norwegice, Duci Sles- 
vici, Holsatice, Stormarice, Ditmarsia, Comiti in 
Oldcnburgh et Delmenhorst. 

Serenissime princeps, amice cbarissime, 
Missus a nobis vir domi nobilis Gulielmus Jepsonus, 
militum tribunus, et parlamenti nostri senator, ad sere- 
nissimum Suecorum regem, quod paci communi reique 
Christianas felix faustumque sit, legationem obit. Ei 



inter alia negotium dedimus, utcum in itinere salutem 
plurimam serenitati vestrae nostro nomine, dixisset, 
pristinamque nostram benevolentiam et constantissima 
studia significasset, ab eo quoque peteret, ut authoritate 
vestra munitus iter tutum atque commodum habere per 
vestram ditionem possit. Quo beneficio cclsitudo ves- 
tra nos nostraque vicissim officia majorem in modum 
demerebitur. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, die Aug. an. 1657 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Angliec, Serenissimo Prin- 
cipi Ferdinando Magno Duci Hctrurice. 

Serenissime Dux magne, amice charissime, 
Ostendit nobis per libellum supplicem societas 
mercatorum nostrorum, qui ad oras Mediterranei maris 
orientalis negociantur, praefectum quendam navis Lo- 
doviculi, sive Anglice The Little Lewis, nomine Guli- 
elmum Ellum, cum Alexandras in Egypto esset, con- 
ductum a Satrapa Memphitico ut oryzam, saccharum 
et caphiam, ipsius Turcarum principis in usum, Con- 
stantinopolim aut Smyrnam comportaret, classi se Otto- 
raanicae in itinere subduxisse, et, contra datam fidem, 
navis totum onus Liburnum avertisse : ibi praeda poti- 
tum nunc agere. Quod facinus, pessimi sane exempli, 
cum Christianum nomen probro, mercatorum fortunas 
degentium sub Turca direptionis periculo objiciat, 
petimus a celsitudine vestra, ut ilium hominem com- 
prehend i et in custodiam tradi, navemque et bona re- 
tineri, jubeat, quoad significatum a nobis erit curasse 
nos res illas Turcarum principi reddendas. Vestrae 
celsitudini sicubi nostris officiis usus vicissim erit, para- 
tissima omni tempore fore profitemur. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
die Scptemb. an. 1657. 

Celsitudinis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius Protector reip. Angliae, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglia, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi ac Domino D. Frederico Wilhelmo, 
Marchioni Brandenburgensi, Sacri Romani Imperii 
Archi-Camerario, ac Principi E lectori Magdeburgi, 
Prussian, Julia, Clivice, Montium, Stetini, Pomera- 
nice, Cassubiorum Vandalorumque, necnon in Sile- 
sia, Crosnce et Carnovice Duci, Burggravio Norin- 
bergensi, Principi Halberstadii et Mindce, Comiti 
Marcce et Ravensbergi, Domino in Ravenstein. 

Serenissime Princeps, amice ac fcederate charissime, 

Alteris ad celsitudinem vestram literis per oratorem 
nostrum, Gulielmum Jepsonum, aut redditis aut brevi 
redditis leg'ationis ipsi a nobis mandatae fidem fecimus; 
idque sine vestrarum virtutum aliqua mentione, nos- 
trapque erga vos benevolentiae, significatione facere non 
potuimus. Verum nequis vestra de rebus Protestan- 
tium egregie merita, quae summa omnium praedicatione 
celebrantur, nos obitu tetigisse tantum videamur, re- 
sumendum nobis nunc idem argumentum, nostraque 
officia non libentius quidem aut animo propensiore, 
aliquanto tamen prolixius deferenda serenitati vestrae, 
censuimus. Et mcrito sane, cum ad aures nostras 



812 



LITERS OLIVER!! PROTECTORIS. 



quotidie perferatur, fidem vestram atque constantiam 
omnibus tentatam machinis, solicitatam technis, labe- 
factari tamen, et ab amicitia fortissimi regis ac socii, 
nullo modo posse dimoveri ; idque cura eo loco Sueco- 
rura res nunc sint, ut in retineuda eorum societate cel- 
situdinem vestram reformatae potius religionis causa 
communi, quam suis commodis duci manifestum sit; 
cumque hostibus vel occultis vel jam prope imminen- 
tibus cincta undique et pene obsessa sit, copiae ut sint 
validce non tamen sint maximae, ea tamen firmitate 
animi ac robore esse, eo consilio ac virtute imperatoria, 
et una vestra voluntate niti totius rei summa ac moles, 
bellique faujus maximi exitus pendere videatur. Qua- 
propter nihil est quod dubitet celsitudo vestra, quin de 
amicitia nostra summoque studio polliceri omnia sibi 
possit: qui vel ipsi ab omni laude derelicti nobis vide- 
remur, si prseclara ista fide atque constantia caeterisque 
vestris laudibus minus delectaremur, aut vobis ipsis 
communi religionis nomine minus deberemus. Quod si 
rebus ab ornatissimo viro Joanne Frederico Scblezer 
consiliario et oratore apud nos vestro propositis respon- 
dere, pro co ac studemus, hactenus non potuimus 
(quanquam is omni assiduitate ac diligentia id agit 
atque contendit) conditioni rerum nostrarum hoc velit 
imputare celsitudo vestra rogamus; sibique imprimis 
persuadere nihil nobis esse antiqnius aut optatius, 
quam ut vestris rationibus cum religionis causa tam 
conjunctis usui quam plurimum atque subsidio esse 
possimus. Interim tam clara virtus ac fortitudo ne 
ullo tempore deficiat aut opprimatur, dignave laude 
aut fructu careat Deum opt. max. precamur. 
Ex aula nostra, Westmonasterio, die Sept. an. 1657. 
Celsitudinis vestrae studiosissimus, 

Oliverius, Protector Reip. Angliae, &c. 

E xcellentissimo Domino, Domino de Bourdeaux, Se- 
renissimi Galliarum Regis Legato extraor dinar io. 

Excellentissime Domine, 
Postulavit a serenissimo Domino protectore, Lucas 
Lucius mercator Londinensis de sua quadam navi, cui 
nomen Maria, qure cum ab Hibernia Bajonam peteret, 
vi tempestatis ad fan urn Divi Joannis de Luz, appulsa, 
ibi retenta et occupata est actione Martini cujusdam de 
Lazon ; nee restituta donee a procuratoribus mercatoris 
illius satisdaretur, se de ilia navi atque onere cum 
Martino lege expertmos. Tulitenim prae se Martinus 
deberi sibi grandem a parlamento Angliae pecuniam, 
mercium quarundam suarum nomine, quae in navi qua- 
dam Sancta Clara anno 1642 parlamenti auctoritate 
sunt retentae. Verum cum satis constaret, Martinum 
ilium earum mercium verum dominum non esse, sed 
cum Antonio quodam Fernandez verorum dominorum 
Richaldi et Iriati jus persequi, dissidentibusque inter 
se Martino et Antonio, decreverit parlamentum uti 
merces ills retinerentur quoad lege esset decisum utri 
eorum reddendae essent, paratusque fuerit semper An- 
tonius lege agere ; contra, neque Martinus neque pro 
eo quisque in judicio hactenus comparuerit, quae omnia 
ex Lucae petitoris libellis libello supplici annexis li- 
quet] t; iniquissimum sane est, ut is, qui jus suum sup- 



posititium cum Antonio collega suo de aliems bonis 
experiri apud nos recusat, cog-eret nostros homines ve- 
rosque dominos de suis bonis in aliena ditione conten- 
dere : Quin idem sequitati vestrae atque prudentiae 
videatur, non dubitat serenissimus dominus protector; 
a quo sum jussus, hanc Lucae Lucii causam aequissi- 
mam excellentiae vestrae singularem in modum com- 
mendare: ne Martino, qui jus alienum apud nos per- 
sequi negligit, eo obtentu aliis eripiendi jus suum apud 
vos potestas detur. 

Westmonasterio, die Octob. an. 1657. 

Excellentiae vestrae studiosissimus. 

Oliverius, Protector Reip. Anglia, fyc. Serenissimo 
Duci ac Senatui Reip. Venetce. 

Serenissime Dux atque Senatus, Amici charissimi; 

Nuncii rerum vestrarum contra Turcas felicissime 
gestarum tam crebri ad nos perferuntur, ut nobis non 
saepius ulla de re ad vos scribendum, quam de iusigni 
aliqua victoria gratulandum sit. Hanc recentissimam, 
et reipublicae vestrae quam maxime lagtam atque oppor- 
tunam cupimus, et quod gloriosissimum est, chvistia- 
norum omnium sub Turca servientium quam maxime 
liberatricem. Nominatim Thomam Galileum navis, cui 
nomen The Relief, olim praefectum, serenitati vestrae 
ac senatui, tametsi non nunc primum, nunc tamen eo 
libentius quo latiori tempore, quinquennalem captivam 
commendamus. Ei cum a vobis imperatum esset, ut 
cum navi sua reipublicae vestrae operam navaret, solus 
cum multis hostium triremibus congressus, nonnullas 
depressit, magnamque stragem edidit; tandem com- 
busta navi captus vir fortis, deque Veneta rep. tam 
bene meritus, quintum jam annum in misera servitute 
barbarorum degit. Unde se redimat facultatum nihil 
est ; nam quicquid erat, id a celsitudini vestra et 
senatu, vel navis vel bonorum vel stipendii nomine de- 
bere sibi ostendit. Verum ut facultates non deessent; 
hostes tamen non alia lege dimissuros seeum profiten- 
tur, quam si suorum aliquis, qui illis in pretio aeque sif, 
permutetur. Petimusitaque magnopere a vestra atque 
senatus celsitudineserenissima, petit per nos senex mi- 
serrimus, captivi pater, moeroris et lacbrymarum plenus, 
quae nos quidem permoverunt, ut primum quoniam ex tot 
prosperis praeliis Turcarum tanta copia captorum vobis 
est,unam aliquem ex eo numero, quem illi recipiant,hos- 
tem vestro milite fortissimo, nostro cive, senis moestissi- 
mi filio unico commutare velitis. Deinde, ut quod 
stipendii, vel aliis nominibus ipsi a, repub. debetur, id 
quam primum velitis patri aut-procuratori ipsius annu- 
merandum curare. Priori quidem rogatu nostro, vel 
potius aequitate vestra effectum est, ut statim re cognita, 
putatisque rationibus constitutum esset quid debeatur: 
verum ilium supputationem ingentibus fortasse aliis 
negotiis, nulla solutio secuta est. Nunc miseri conditio 
dilationem salutis diutius non fert : euro, si omnino 
salvum vultis, danda opera est, ut squalore illo carceris 
teterrimo quam primum liberetur. Id sine mora, sine 
hortatu etiam nostro humanissima voluntate vestra 
facturos vos esse confidimus : quandoquidem justitia, 
moderatione, atque prudentia non minus quam belli 



LITER/E OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



813 



gloria victoriisque floretis : atque ut diutissime florea- 
tis, devicto hoste potentissimo, Deum opt. max. pre- 
carnur. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
die Octob. an. 1657. 

Celsitudinum vestrarum studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, Prot. Reip. Angliae, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Excelsis et 
procpotentibus Dominis Fcederati Belgii Ordinibus, 
S. P. D. 

Excelsi et pracpotentes Domini, amici ac 
focderati charissimi ; 

Redit ad vos vir illustrissimus Galielmus Nuport 
legatus vester annis jam aliquot apud nos extraordina- 
rily : sed ita redit, petito ad tempus duntaxat a vobis 
commeatu, ut eum brevi reversurum speremus. Ea 
enim est fide, vigilantia, prudentia, aequitate apud nos 
in suo munere versatus, ut majorem in unoquoque 
genere virtutem ac probitatem neque nos desiderare in 
legato, viroque optimo, neque vos possitis ; eo animo ac 
studio ad pacem inter nos et amicitiam sine fuco et 
fraude conservandam,ut, illo hanc legationem obeunte, 
quid inter nos offensionis aut scrupuli suboriri queat 
aut pullulare, non videamus. Et discessum sane ejus 
molestiore animo ferremus, hac praesertim rerum ac 
temporum inclinatione, nisi persuasissimum nobis hoc 
esset, neminem melius posse aut fidelius vel rerum 
utrobique statum, vel nostram erga celsitudines vestras 
benevolentiam studiumque integrum coram exponere. 
Quapropter hunc ut virum undiquaque praestantissi- 
mum, deque rep. et sua et nostra optime meritum, ac- 
cipere redeuntem velitis rogamus : sicuti et nos veris- 
simo nostrarum laudum testimonio ornatum abeuntem 
dimisimus prope inviti. Deus ad ipsius gloriam eccle- 
siaeque praesidium orthodoxae vestris rebus felicitatem, 
nostrae amicitise perpetuitatem concedat. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
die Nov. an. 1657. 

Celsitudinem vestrarum studiosissimus. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Excelsis et 
prcepo tend bus Dominis Focderati Belgii Ordinibus, 
S. P. D. 

Excelsi et proepotentes Domini, amici nostri ac 
focderati charissimi ; 
Georgius Duningus vir nobilis nobis est multis ac 
variis negotiis, summa fide, probitate ac solertia, per- 
spectus jamdiu et cognitus. Eum ut apud vos oratoris 
munere fungatur, mittendum censuimus, mandatisque 
nostris amplissime instruximus. Eum itaque amico, 
ut consuevistis, animo recipiatis rogamus: et quoties 
habere se significaverit, quod nostro nomine vestrum 
cum excelsis ordinibus agat, amice audire, fidemque 
adhibere ; et quae vos vicissim communicanda nobis 
censebitis, ea omnia, sicuti recte potestis, perinde ac si 
nos ipsi coram essemus, ei committere velitis. De 
csetero vobis vestrceque reip. ad Dei gloriam eccle- 



siceque praesidium secundas res omnes ex animo pre- 
camur. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, die 
Deccmb. an. Dom. 1657. 

Celsitudinum Vestrarum studiossissimus, 
Oliverius, &c. 

Ordinibus Hollandice. 

Cum ea nostras reip. cum vestra intercedat necessi- 
tudo, ea sint utrinque negotia, ut sine oratore atque in- 
terprete vel hinc vel inde misso res tantce ad utilitatem 
utriusque gentis constitui commode vix possint, ex usu 
communi fore arbitrati sumus, ut Georgium Duningum 
virum nobilem, multis ac variis negotiis summa fide, 
probitate ac solertia spectatum, jam diu nobis et cog- 
nitum, eo munere instructum mitteremus : qui nostro 
nomine apud vos maneat, iis maxime officiis intentus, 
quibus nostra amicitia sarta tecta conservari posse 
quam diutissime videatur. Hacde re cum ad excelsos 
et preepotentes ordines scripsimus, turn vos quoque qui 
in Provincia vestra summae rei pragsidetis, et Fcederati 
Belgii tanta pars estis, certiores faciendos per literas 
duximus; ut et nostrum oratorem ea ratione qua con- 
venit accipiatis, et quae ille cum excelsis Dominis ordi- 
nibus transegerit, ea vobis persuadeatis perseque firma 
ac rata nos esse habituros, ac si ipsi rebus transactis 
coram interfuissemus. Deus consilia vestra et facta 
omnia ad gloriam suam et ecclesiae pacem dirigat. 

Westmonasterio, fyc. Decemb. 1657. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Ferdinando Magno Duci Hetrurice. 

Serenissime Dux Magne, amice noster 
plurimum colende, 
Permagnam nobis attulere voluptatem literae celsi- 
tudinis vestrse decimo Nov. Florentia data?; in quibus 
bene^ olentiam erga nos vestram eo vidimus perspecti- 
orem, quanto res ipsje verbis, facta promissis certiora 
benevolentis animi indicia sunt : qua3 nempe rogavi- 
mus celsitudinem vestram, juberet ilium navis Lodovici 
parvi pisefectum Gulielmum Ellum, qui fidem Turcis 
datam turpissime fregerat, et ipsum comprehendi, et 
navem cum mercibus in portu retineri, quoad Tuvca- 
rum qua3 essent redderentur, ne nomen Christianum 
per istiusmodi furta labem aliquam susciperet, ea om- 
nia, et summo quidem studio, quod satis intelligimus, 
scripsit celsitudo vestra se prsestitisse. Nos itaque cum 
pro accepto beneficio gratias agimus, turn hoc porro 
nunc petimus, quandoquidem satisfactum iri Turcis 
mercatores in se receperunt, utetpraefectusille custodia 
liberetur, et navis cum mercibus quamprimum dimit- 
tatur; ne Turcarum forte rationem potiorem, quam 
nostrorum civium habuisse videamur. Interim celsi- 
tudinis vestras spectata voluntate erga nos singulari, et 
sane gratissima sic libenter fruimur, ut ingratitudinis 
notam non recusemus, nisi pari promptitudine vobis 
vicissim gratificandi occasionem quam prim urn dari 
nobis exoptamus, ex qua nostram quoque in reddendis 



814 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



officiis promptitudinem animi rebus ipsis erga vos de- 
monstrare possimus. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
Deceinb. an. 1657. 

Celsitudinis vestrse studiosissimus, 
Oliverius, &c. 

Olive ri us Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
ac potentissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo Sueco- 
rum, Gothorum, Vandalor ■unique Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac 
federate invictissime ; 

Multa simul attulere nobis literge majestatis vestrae 
21 Feb. in castris Selandicis data?, cur, et privatim nos- 
tra, et totius reipub. Christiange causa, lactitia baud 
mediocri afficeremur: primum quod rex Dania?, non 
sua credo voluntate aut rationibus, sed hostium commu- 
niura artibus factus hostis, repentino vestro inintimum 
ejus regnum adventu, sine multo sanguine, eo sit re- 
dactus, ut, quod res erat, utiliorem sibi pacem bello 
contra vos suscepto tandem judicaverit: deinde cum is 
earn nulla se ratione citius posse consequi existimaret, 
quam si delata sibi jamdiu ad conciliandam pacem 
nostra opera uteretur, quod majestas vestra solis inter- 
nuntii nostri literis exorata, tarn facili pacis concessione 
ostenderit, quantum nostra amicitia atque gratia inter- 
posita apud se valeret : meumque imprimis in hoc turn 
pio negotio officium esse voluerit, ut pacis tam saluta- 
ris protestantium rebus, uti spero, mox futuree ipse po- 
tissimum unus conciliator atque auctor propemodum 
essem. Cum enim religionis hostes conjunctas opes 
vestras alio pacto frangere se posse desperarent, quam 
si vos inter vos commisissent, habebunt nunc, profecto 
quod pertimescant, ne armorum animorumque, ut spero, 
vestrorum haec inopiuata conjunctio ipsis belli hujus 
conflatoribus in perniciem vertat. Tu interim, rex 
fortissime, macte tua egregia virtute; et quam felici- 
tatem in rebus tuis gestis victoriarumque cursu contra 
regem nunc socium bostes ecclesise nuper admirati sunt, 
eandem in sua rursus cladc, Deo bene juvante, fac sen- 
tiant. 

Westmonasterio, ex Palatio nostro, 
30 die Martii, 1658. 

Oliverius Protector Rcip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Ferdinando Mac/no Duci Hetrurice. 

Serenissime Princeps, 
Quod satisfacturum arbitramur celsitudini vestroe de 
nostro classis praefecto qui ad portus vestros nuper est 
delatus, vestro apud nos oratori respondimus: interim 
per libellum supplicem nobis ostendit Joannes Hosie- 
rus Londinensis, cujusdam navis, cui Dominse nomen, 
magister, se, cum anno 1656, mense Aprili, navcm 
suam ex syngrapha (chartam partitam jus nostrum vo- 
cat) Josepho Armano Italo cuidam locasset, isque fac- 
tas in syngrapha pactiones ter aperte fregisset, coactum 
esse demum, ne navem suam, totumque onus ejus, sor- 
tem deniquetotam aniitteret, more mercatorio, declarata 
publice ejus fraude, ct in tabulas publicas relata, Li- 



burni in jus eura vocare : eum autem, ut fraudem fraude 
tueretur, adhibitis in societatem duobus aliis negotiato- 
ribus litigiosis, dc pecunia Thomse cujusdam Clutter- 
buxi sex mille octonos, conficto quodam obtentu, peti- 
toris hujus nomine occupasse: se, post multas impensas 
consumtumque tempus, jus suum Liburni obtinere 
non posse ; ne audere quidem, propter adversariorum 
minas atque insidias, in judicio illic comparere. Peti- 
mus itaque a celsitudine vestra, ut ciim huic homini 
oppresso subvenire, turn hujus adversarii insolcntiam 
pro consueta sua justitia velit coercere : frustra enim 
authoritate principurn leges essent civitatibus latae, si 
vis atque injuria, cum, ne omnino sint leges, efficere 
non possint, possint efficere terrore ac minis, ne quis 
ad eas audeat confugere. Verum in hujusmodi auda- 
ciam quin mature animadversura sit celsitudo vestra, 
non dubitamus; cui pacem prosperaque omnia a Deo 
opt. max. precamur. 

Westmonasterio ex Aula nostra, 
die 7 April, an. 1658. 

Serenissimo Potentissimoque Principi Ludovico Gal- 
liarum Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac 
fcederate augustissime ; 
Meminisse potest majestas vestra quo tempore inter 
nos de renovando fosdere agebatur; quod optimis aus- 
piciis initum multa utriusque populi commoda, multa 
hostium communium exinde mala testantur, accidisse 
miseram illam Convallensium occisionem, quorum 
causam undique desertam atque afflictam vestra mise- 
ricordise atque tutelae summo cum ardore animi ac 
miseratione commendavimus. Nee defuisse per se arbi- 
tramur majestatem vestram officio tam pio, immo vero 
tam humano, pro ea qua apud ducem Sabaudiee valere 
debuit vel auctoritate vcl gratia : nos certe aliique 
multi principes ac civitates, legationibus, literis," pre- 
cibus interpositis, non defuimus. Post cruentissimam 
utriusque sexus omnis aetatis trucidationem, pax tan- 
dem data est, vel potius inducti pacis nomine hostilitas 
qutedam tectior : conditiones pacis vestro in oppido 
Pinarolii sunt latae ; dura? quidem illre, sed quibus 
miseri atque inopes dira omnia atque immania perpessi 
facile acquiescerent, moda iis, dura? ct iniquse ut sint, 
staretur; non statur; sed enim earum quoque singula- 
rum falsa interpretatione variisque diverticulis fides 
eluditur ac violatur ; antiquis sedibus multi dejiciuntur, 
rcligio patria multis interdicitur, tributa nova exigun- 
tur, arx nova cervicibus imponitur, unde milites crebro 
erumpentes obvios quosque vel diripiunt vel trucidant: 
ad lmec nuper nova) copiae clanculum contra eos paran- 
tur; quique inter eos Romanam religionem colunt, mi- 
grare ad tempus jubentur; ut omnia nunc rursus vide- 
antur ad illorum internecionem miscrrimorum spectare, 
quos ilia prior lanicna reliquos fecit. Quod ergo per 
dextram tuam, rex christianissime, quae foedus nobis- 
cum et amicitiam percussit, obsecro atque obtestor, per 
illud christianismi tituli decus sanctissimum, fieri ne 
siveris: nee tantam sseviendi licentiam non dico piin- 
cipi cuiquam (neque enim in ullum principem, multo 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



815 



minus in ietatem illius principis teneram, aut in mn- 
liebrem matris animum tanta saevitia cadere potest) sed 
sacerrimis illis sicariis ne permiseris ; qui cum Christi 
servatoris nostri servos atque imitatores sese profitean- 
tur, qui venit in hunc mundum ut peccatores servaret, 
ejus mitissimo nomine atque institutis ad innocentium 
crudelissimas caedes abutuntur: eripe quipotes, quique 
in tanto fastigio dignus es posse, tot supplices tuos 
homicidarum ex manibus, qui cruore nuper ebrii, san- 
guinem rursus sitiunt; suaeque invidiam crudelitatis 
in principes derivare consultissimum sibi ducunt. Tu 
vero nee titulos tuos aut regni fines ista invidia, nee 
evangelium Christi pacatissimum ista crudelitate foe- 
dari te regnante patiaris. Memineris hos ipsos avi tui 
Henrici protestantibus amicissimi dedititios fuisse ; 
cum Diguierius per ea loca, qua etiam commodissimus 
in Italiam transitus est, Sabaudum trans Alpes ceden- 
tem victor est insecutus : deditionis illius instrumentum 
in actis regni vestri publicis etiamnum extat ; in quo 
exceptum atque cautum inter alia est, ne cui postea 
Convallenses traderentur, nisi iisdem conditionibus qui- 
bus eo avus tuus invictissimus in fidem recepit. Hanc 
fidem nunc implorant, avitam abs te nepote supplices 
requirunt : tui esse, quam cujus nunc sunt, vel permu- 
tatione aliqua, si fieri possit, malint atque optarint : id 
si non licet, patrocinio saltern, miseratione atque per- 
fugio. Sunt et rationes regni quae hortari possint ut 
Convallenses ad te confugientes nerejicias: sed nolim 
te, rex tantus cum sis, aliis rationibus ad defensionem 
calamitosorum quam fide a majoribus data, pietate, 
regiaque animi benignitate ac magnitudine permoveri. 
Ita pulcherrimi facti laus atque gloria illibata atque 
integra tua erit, et ipse patrem misericordiae ej usque 
filium Christum regem, cujus nomen atque doctrinam 
ab immanitate nefaria vindicaveris, eo magis faventem 
tibi atque propitium per omnem vitam experieris. 
Deus opt. max. ad gloriam suam, tot innocentissimorum 
hominum christianorum tutandam salutem, vestrumque 
verum decus majestati vestrae hanc mentem injiciat. 
Westmonasterio, Mail, an. 1658. 

Civitatibus Helvctiorum Evangelicis. 

Illustres atque amplissimi Domini, 
amici charissimi ; 
De Convallensibus vicinis vestris afflictissimis, quam 
sint a principe suo gravia et intoleranda religionis 
causa passi, cum propter ipsam rerum atrocitatem hor- 
ret prope animus recordari, turn ad vos ea scribere qui- 
bus notiora multo sunt, supervacuum duximus. Ex- 
empla etiam literarum vidimus quas legati vestri pacis 
jamdudum Pinarolianae hortatores atque testes ad 
Allobrog : um ducem illiusque Taurinensis consilii prae- 
sidem scripserunt ; in quibus ruptas esse omnes pacis 
conditiones, illisque miseris fraudi potius quam securi- 
tati fuisse singulatim, ostendunt atque evincunt. Qua- 
rum violationem ab ipsa statim pace data in hunc usque 
diem continuatam, et indies graviorem nisi eequo 
animo patiuntur, nisi se conculcandos plane et pessum- 
dandos prosternunt atque abjiciunt, religione etiam 
ejurata, impendet cademcalamitas, eadem strages, quae 



ipsos cum conjugibus ac liberis tertio abhinc anno sic 
miserabilem in modum attrivit atque afflixit, et sub- 
eunda iterum si est, funditus eradicabit. Quid agant 
miseri? quibus nulla deprecatio, nulla respiratio, nul- 
lum adhuc certum perfugium patuit; res est cum feris 
aut cum funis, quibus priorum caedium recordatio nul- 
lam pcenitentiam, aut suorum civium miserationem, 
nullum sensum humanitatis aut fundeudi sanguinis sa- 
tietatem attulit. Haec ferenda plane non sunt, sive 
fratres nostros Convallenses orthodoxae religionis cul- 
tores antiquissimos, sive ipsam religionem salvam vo- 
lumus. Et nos quidem locorum iutervallo plus nimio 
disjuncti, quod opis aut facultatis nostrae fuit, et prae- 
stitimus ex animo, et praestare non desinemus. Vos 
qui non modo fratrum cruciatibus ac pene clamoribus, 
verum etiam eorumdem furori hostium proximi estis, 
prospicite per Deum immortalem, idque mature, quid 
vestrarum nunc partium sit; quid auxilii, quid praesidii 
vicinis ac fratribus, alioqui mox perituris, ferre possitis 
ac debeatis, prudentiam vestram ac pietatem, fortitu- 
dinem etiam vestram consulite. Causa certe eadem 
est religio, cur iidem hostes vos quoque perditos velint, 
immo cur eodem tempore, eodem superiore anno, fcede_ 
ratorum vestrorum intestino marte perditos voluerint. 
Vestra duntaxat in manu post opem divinam videtur 
esse, ne purioris ipsa stirps religionis vetustissima in 
illis priscorum fidelium reliquiis excindatur : quorum 
salutem in extremum jam discrimen adductam si neg- 
ligitis, videte ne vosmetipsos paulo post proximae vices 
urgeant. Hsec dum fraterne ac libere hortamur, ipsi 
interea non languescimus : quod solum nobis concedi- 
tur tam longinquis, cum ad procurandam periclitantium 
incolumitatem turn ad sublevandam egentium inopiam, 
omnem operam nostram et contulimus et conferemus. 
Deus det utrisque nobis earn domi tranquillitatem ac 
pacem, eum rerum ac temporum statum, ut omnes nos- 
tras opes atque vires, omne studium ad defendendam 
ecclesiam suam contra hostium suorum furorem ac ra- 
biem, convertere possimus. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
Maii die, an. 1668. 

Eminentissimo Domino Cardinali Mazarino, Salutem. 

Eminentissime Domine, 
Tllat^: nuper protestantibus, qui valles quasdam Al- 
pinas in ditione ducis Sabaudiae incolunt, gravissimae 
calamitates caedesque cruentissimae fecere, ut inclusas 
has literas ad majestatem regiam, hasque alteras ad 
eminentiam vestram scripserim. Et quemadmodum 
de rege serenissimo dubitare non possum, quin hasc 
tanta crudelitas, qua in homines innoxios atque inopes 
tam barbare saevitum est, vehementer ei displiceat atque 
ofFensa sit; ita mihi facile persuadeo, quae ego a majes- 
tate regia illorum causa miserorum peto, ad ea impe- 
tranda vestram quoque operam atque gratiam, velut 
cumulum, accessuram. Cum nihil plane sit, quod 
Francorum genti benevolentiam apud suos omnes vici- 
nos reformatae religionis cultores majorem conciliaverit, 
quam libertas ilia ac privilegia, quae ex edictis suis 
atque actis publicis permissa protestantibus atque con- 



816 



LITEKJE OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



cessa sunt. Et haec quidem respublica cum propter 
alias turn hanc potissimum ob causam Gallorum ami- 
citiam ac necessitudinem majorem in modum expetivit. 
De qua constiluenda jamdiu cum legato regio apud 
nos agitur, ej usque tractatio jam pene ad exitum per- 
ducta est. Quid ! quod etiam singularis benignitas 
emincntise vestrae, ac moderatio, quam in summis regni 
rebus gerendis erga protestantes Galliae semper testata 
est, a prudentia vestra et magnitudine animi ut hoc 
sperem atque expcctem, facit ; qua ex re et fundamenta 
arctioris etiam necessitudinis inter hanc rempublicam, 
regnumque Gallicum eminentia vestra jecerit, meque 
sibi privatim ad officia omnia humanitatis ac benevo- 
lcntiae vicissim reddenda obligaverit: adeoque hoc 
velim eminentia vestra sibi persuasissimum habeat. 
Eminentipe vestrae Studiosissimus. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglian, Serenissimo ac 
Potentissimoque Principi Ludovico Galliarum Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac federate 
augustissime, 
Thomam Vicecomitem Falconbrigium generum 
meum in Galliam proficiscentem, et ad testificandum 
obsequium suum ct observantiam, qua majestatem ves- 
tram colit, venire in conspectum vestrum, regiam ma- 
num osculari cupientem, tametsi propter consuetudinem 
ejus jucundissimam invitus dimitto, tamen cum non 
dubitem quin ab aula tanti regis, in qua tot viri pru- 
dentissimi fortissimique versantur, multo instructior ad 
res quasque laudatissimas, et quasi consummatus ad 
nos brevi sit reversurus, obsistendum esse ejus animo 
ac voluntati non sum arbitratus. Et quanquam is est, 
nisi ego fallor, qui per se satis commendatus, quocunque 
accesserit, videri possit, tamen si se mea gratia majes- 
tati vestrae aliquanto commendatiorem fuisse senserit, 
eodem me quoque beneficio affectum atque devinctum 
arbitrabor. Deus majestatem vestram incolumem, 
nostramque amicitiam firmissimatn communi orbis 
christiani bono quam diutissime conservet. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Mali die, an. 1658. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Eminentissimo 
Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine, 
Cum Thomam Vicecomitem Falconbrigium generum 
mcum proficiscentem in Galliam serenissimo regi com- 
mendavcrim, non potui quin ea de re eminentiam ves- 
tram certiorem facerem, nee non vobis etiam eundem 
commendarem : id quantum ponderis atque mumenti 
ad superiorem quoque commendationem allaturum sit 
non nescius. Quern certe fructum commorationis apud 
vos suae, sperat autem non mediocrem hunc fore, per- 
cepturus est, ejus maximam partem favori \estro ac 
benevolentise non poterit non debere; cujus prope sola 
mens ac vigilantia res tantas eo in regno sustinet ac 
tuetur. Quicquid ei gratum eminentia vestra fecerit, 
id mihi fecisse se cxistimet; id ego in multis vestris 
erga me humaniter et amice factis numerabo. 
Westmonasterio, Mail, an. 1658. 




Oliverius Protect. Reipub. Anglice* <^c. Eminentis- 
simo Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine, 

Cum illustrissimum virum Thomam Bellassisum 
Vicecomitem Falconbrigium generum meum serenis- 
simi regis adventum in castra ad Dunkirkam gratula- 
tum mitterem, eidem prsecepi, ut vestram quoque emi- 
nentiam adiret, meoque nomine et plurimam salutem 
dicat, et gratias vobis agat, cujus potissimum fide, pru- 
dentia, vigilantia perfectum est, ut res Gallica tarn di- 
versis in partibus, et praesertim in vicina Flandria con- 
tra Hispanum hostem communem tam prospere geratur: 
a quo nunc celeriter, uti spero, fraudum et insidiarum, 
quibus se maxime tuetur, aperta atque armata virtus 
posnas reposcet : quod uti fiat quam eitissime, nos certe 
neque copiis, quantum possumus, neque votis deerimus. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Maii, an. 1658. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Ludovico Gallia Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac federate 
augustissime, 

Ut nuntiatum est venisse in castra majestatem ves- 
tram, tantisque copiis infame illud opidum piratarum 
atque asylum Dunkirkam obsedisse, et magnam cepi 
voluptatem, et spem certam, fore nunc brevi, Deo bene 
juvante, ut infestum minus posthac latrociniis mare 
tutius navigetur ; fore ut Hispanicas fraudes, ducem 
alterum ad Hesdenae proditionem auro corruptum, 
alterum ad Ostendam dolo captum, virtute bellica ma- 
jestas vestra nunc brevi vindicet. Mitto itaque nobi- 
lissimum virum Thomam Vicecomitem Falconbrigium 
generum meum, qui et adventum vestrum in tam pro- 
pinqua nobis castra gratularetur, et coram exponat 
quanto nos studio majestatis vestrse res gestas non 
junctis solum viribus nostris, sed votis etiam omnibus 
prosequamur, uti Deus opt. max. et ipsam incolumem, 
et nostram amicitiam firmissimam communi orbis 
Christiani bono quam diutissime conservet. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Maii, an. 1658. 

Serenissimo Principi Ferdinando, Duci Magno He- 
trurice. 

Serenissime Dux Magne, 
Cum celsitudo vestra in omnibus quidem Uteris suis 
summam erga nos benevolentiam suam nobis semper 
significaverit, dolemus id prsefectis vestris ac ministris 
aut tam obscure significatum, aut tam male esse intel- 
lectum, ut in portu Libernensi, ubi maxime quae ves- 
tra sit erga nos benevolentia intelligi oporteret, nos 
nullum ejus fructum aut indicium percipere queamus ; 
immo alienum potius et hostilem vestrorum in nos 
animum indies experiamur. Quam enim non amicis 
nostra classis Liburnensibus usa nuperrime sit, quam 
nullis adjuta rebus, quam hostiliter denique accepta 
bis ab illo oppido discedere coacta sit, cum ex eo ipso 
loco multis testibus fide dignis, turn ex ipso navarcho 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



817 



nostro, cui ciira classera credamus, narrandi fidem de- 
rogare non possumus, satis videraur nobis nimisque 
certo cognovisse. Priore ejus adventu cal. Jan. post 
redditas celsitudini vestrae literas nostras, vestraque 
omnia humanitatis officia nostvis hominibus ultro de- 
lata, petentibus ut portus Ferrarii commoditate uti lice- 
ret, responsum est, id concedi non posse, ne rex His- 
panise scilicet noster liostis offenderetur. Et tamen 
quid est quod princeps amicus arnico prsebere commu- 
nius possit, quam littoris ac portus aditum? quid est 
quod nos expectare ab hujusmodi amicitia possimus, 
quae hostium nostrorum animum ne ofFendat, incom- 
modare nobis quam commodare, ant vel minimis re- 
bus subvenire paratior sit ? Et primo quidem ex sin- 
gulis navibus duobus vel tribus nautis duntaxat excen- 
sus in terram, sive commercium (quam vos practicam 
vocatis) est datum : mox ut auditum est in oppido, na- 
vem quandam Belgicam, quae frumentum in Hispaniam 
portabat, a nostris esse interceptam, quod erat antea 
commercii statim adimitur; Longlandius, qui nostris 
illis mercatoribus praesidet, classem adire non permit- 
titur; aquatio, quaa omnibus non plane hostibus libera 
est, non sibi nisi sub armatis custodibus iniquo pretio, 
et quidem eg'errime praebetur : tot nostris mercatoribus, 
qui non sine maximo vestrorum emolumento illic ver- 
santur, suos ne invisant populares aut ulla re adjuvent 
interdicitur. Posteriore ejus adventu, sub exitum men- 
sis Martii, egressus ex navibus nemini datur: quinto 
post die cum naviculam quandam Neapolitan am prae- 
toria navis nostra incidentem in nos forte excepisset, 
ducenta plus minus tormenta ab oppido classem versus 
disploduntur, quorum nullum ictu nos laesit ne attigit 
quidem : quod argumento esse potest quam longe base 
a portu atque castelli ditione in alto gererentur, quae 
vestros quasi portu violato sic sine causa irritarunt : 
confestim aquatorum nostrorum scapbae intra portum 
oppugnantur ; una capitur, detinetur ; reposcentibus 
neque scapbam neque homines redditum iri responde- 
tur, nisi capta ilia navis Neapolitana reddatur, quam 
constat libero mari captam, ubi capi licuit. Ita nostri 
multis modis incommodati sine illo commeatu, quern 
numerata pecunia coemerant, abire denuo coguntur. 
Haec si celsitudinis vestrae voluntate ac jussu quod spe- 
ramus non fiunt, pctimus id ostendat proefecti illius sup- 
plicio, qui amicitias domini sui violare tarn facile in 
animum induxit : sin est ut sciente ac volente vestra 
celsitudine commissa haec sint, cogitet nos, ut benevo- 
lentiam vestram plurimi semper fecimus, ita apertas 
injurias a benevolentia dignoscere didicisse. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Mail die an. 1658. 
Vester quoad licet bonus amicus 
Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglise, &c. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
Potentissimoque Principi Ludovico Gallice Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice ac federate 
augustissime, 
Quod tarn celeriter illustri missa legatione majestas 
vestra meum officium cumulo rependit, cum singularem 



benignitatem, animique magnitudinem testata est suam, 
turn meo etiam honori ac dignitati quantopere faveat, 
non mihi solum declaravit, verum etiam universo po- 
pulo Anglicano : quo nomine majestati vestrae, pro eo 
ac de me merita est, gratias et ago et habeo maximas. 
De victoria quam conjunctis nostris copiis Deus contra 
hostes felicissimam dedit, vobiscum una lyetor; nostros- 
que in eo praelio neque subsidiis vestris, neque majorum 
suorum bellicae gloriae, neque suae denique virtuti pris- 
tinae defuisse,perquam etiam gratumest. De Dunkirka, 
quam deditioni proximam majestas vestra sperare se 
scribit, earn nunc deditam tarn cito posse me rescribere 
insuper gaudeo : neque unius urbis jactura duplicem 
perfidiam Hispanum propediem esse luiturum spero; 
quod capta urbe altera effectum esse, velim majestas 
etiam vestra tarn cito possit rescribere. Quod reliquum 
pollicetur meas rationes curse sibi fore, de eo regi op- 
timo atque amicissimo pollicenti, ejusque legato ex- 
cellentissimo atque ornatissimo viro duci Crequiensi 
idem confirmanti, non diffido ; Deumque opt. max. 
majestati vestrae reique Gallicae domi bellique propi- 
tium exopto. 

Westmo?iasterio, die Junii, an. 1658. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Eminentissimo 
Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine, 
Cum regi serenissimo per literas gratias agam, qui ho- 
noris et gratulationis reddendae causa, suaeque loetitiae de 
nobilissima recenti victoria mecum communicandae le- 
gationem splendidissimam misit, ingratus tamen sim, 
nisi eminentise quoque vestrae debitas simul gratias per 
literas persolvam ; quae ad testandam suam erga me 
benevolentiam, meique rebus omnibus quibus potest 
ornandi studium, nepotem suum praestantissimum atque 
ornatissimum adolescentem una misit, et siquem ha- 
beret apud se propinquiorem aut quern pluris faceret, 
eum potissimum f uisse missurum scribit : addita etiam 
ratione, quae ab judicio tanti viri profecta ad meam 
baud mediocrem laudem atque ornamentum pertinere 
existimo ; nempe ut qui sanguine conjunctissimi sibi 
sunt in me honorando atque colendo eminentiam suam 
imitarentur. Et humanitatis quidem, candoris, ami- 
citias vestrum in me diligendo exemplum baud postre- 
mum fortasse habuerint ; summae virtutis summaeque 
prudentice alia in vobis longe clariora ; quibus regna 
resque maximas summa cum gloria administrare dis- 
cant. Qua res uti possit eminentia vestra quam diutis- 
sime quamque felicissime gerere ad totius regni Gallici, 
immo totius reip. Christianae commune bonum, ves- 
trumque proprium decus, non defutura mea vota polli- 
ceor. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 
die Junii, an. 1658. 

Eminentiae vestrae studiosissimus. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Potentissimoque Principi Carolo Gustavo, Succo- 
rum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Regi, fyc. 



818 



LITERiE OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



Serenissime potentissimeque Rex, amice ac fuederate 
cbarissime, 

Quoties communium religionis hostium importuna 
consilia variasqiie artes intuemur, toties nobiscum repu- 
tamus, quam uecessarium orbi Christiano, quamque sa- 
lutare sit futurum, quo facilius adversariorum conati- 
bus iri obviam possit, protestantium principes inter se, 
et potissimum majestatem vestram cum repub. nostra 
arctissimo foedere conjungi. Id anobisquantopere fit, 
quantoque studio expetitum, quam denique gratum no- 
bis accidisset, si Suecorum nostrseque res ea conditione 
ac loco fuissent, ut foedus illudex utriusque auimi sen- 
tentia sanciri, alterque alteri opportunissimo auxilio 
esse potuisset, oratoribus vestris, ex quo primum illi 
hoc apud nos egerunt, testatum reddidimus. Neque 
vero illi suo muneri defuerunt; sed quam cseteris in 
rebus consueverunt, eandem bac quoque in parte pru- 
dentiam ac diligentiam adhibuerunt. Venim ea nos 
domi improborum civium perfidia exercuit qui in fidem 
saepius recepti, res novas tamen moliri, et cum exulibus, 
etiam cum hostibus Hispanis discussa jamsaepe et pro- 
fligata consilia repetere non desinunt, ut in propulsan- 
dis periculis propriis occupati, neque curam omnem, 
neque integras opes quod in votis erat, ad communem 
religionis causam tuendam convertere hactenus potue- 
rimus. Quod licuit tamen, quantumque in nobis situm 
erat, et antea studiose praestitimus, et siquid in poste- 
rum majestatis vestrae rationibus conducere videbitur, 
id non velle solum, veriim etiam summa ope vobiscum 
una agere per occasiones non desistemus. Interea 
majestatis vestrae rebus prudentissime fortissimeque 
gestis gratulamur atque ex animo laetamur : eundem- 
que uti velit Deus felicitatis atque victoriae cursum esse 
quam diuturnum ad sui numinis gloriam assiduis pre- 
cibus exoptamus. 

Wcstmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Junii die, an. 1658. 

Oliverius Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Principi Lusitanice JRegi. S. P. D. 

Serenissime Rex, amice ac federate, 

Ostendit nobis per libellum supplicem Joannes 
Buffield, mercator Londinensis, se anno 1649, merces 
quasdam Antonio Joanni et Manueli Ferdinando Cas- 
taneo Tamireusibus tradidisse, ut iis divenditis earum 
rationem mercatorum more sibi redderent: turn in 
Angliam dum navigaret, in piratas incidisse, spolia- 
tunique ab iis damnum baud mediocre accepisse: hoc 
audito, Antonium et Manuelem eo quod hunc interfec- 
tum credebant, traditas sibi merces statim pro suis ha- 
buisse, adhuc etiam retinere, rationemque omnem de 
iis recusare ; atque huic fraudi subsecutam paulo post 
Anglicarum mercium proscriptionem obtendere; co- 
actum se demum superiore anno, hyeme media in Lu- 
sitaniam redire, sua repetere ; sed frustra ; hos enim 
neque bona neque rationem ut reddant adduci posse; 
et quod mirum sane videatur, privatam illarum mer- 
cium possessionem proscriptione publica defendere : 
cum videret se hominem longinquum deteriore condi- 
tione cum Tamircnsibus in sua patria contendere, ad 



majestatem vestram se confugisse; conservatoris judi- 
cium, qui judicandis Anglorum causis constitutus est, 
supplicem poposcisse ; k majestate vestra rursus ad 
forensem ill am cognitionem, unde confugerat, rejectum 
esse. Quod etsi per se iniquum non est, tamen cum 
perspicuum sit Tamirenses istos vestro edicto publico 
ad suam privatam fraudem abuti, a majestate vestra 
majorem in modum petimus, ut causam hujus multis 
casibus afflicti, ad inopiamque redacti, ad conservato- 
rem potius judicem proprium velit pro sua dementia 
integram remittere : quo possit inops fortunarum sua- 
rum quod superest ab illorum hominum infida societate 
recuperare: id, re cognita, quin majestati vestrae no- 
biscum una maxime placeat non dubitamus. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, die Aug. an. 1658. 

Serenissimo Principi Leopoldo Austria Archiduci, 
Provinciarum in Belgio sub Philippo Hispaniarum 
Regi Prcesidi. 

Serenissime Domine, 

Carolus Harbordus, vir equestris apud nos ordinis, 
per libellum supplicem ad nos detulit, se bona quaedam 
et suppellectilem cum ex Hollandia Brugas in ditionem 
vestram asportasset, de iis, ne sibi per vim atque inju- 
riam eripiantur, inopinatd periclitari. Ea nempe, cum 
a Comite Suffolchiensi pro quo se grandi aere alieno 
obstrinxerat, ex Anglia an. 1643. missa ad se idcirco 
fuissent, ut haberet, quo sibi satisfaceret, siquid pro illo 
dissolvere cog-eretur, a Richardo Grenvillo, qui et ipse 
equestris ordinis esse fertur, occupari, et quo in loco 
custodiebantur, eflfractis foribus atque articulis possi- 
deri : hoc solo titulo, deberi sibi nescio quid a Theo- 
philo SufFolchiensi comite defuncto, ex quodam nostras 
curias Can cell ariae decreto, eaque proinde bona quasi 
Theopbili Comitis essent, eique decreto obnoxia,se re- 
ferenda in tabulas curasse : cum ex nostris legibus ne- 
que ipse comes, qui nunc est, et cujus hsec bona sunt, 
eo decreto teneatur, neque bona ejus occupari aut re- 
tineri debeant : id quod ex sententia ejusdem curiae 
una cum hisce literis ad vos missa, declaratur, quas 
quidem literas supradictus Carolus Harbordus a nobis 
petiit, uti per eas celsitudinem vestram rogatam velle- 
mus, ut bona ilia et recensione omni, et iniqua ista 
Richardi Grenvilli actione, primo quoque tempore libc- 
rentur: cum hoc contra morem jusque gentium plane 
sit, at cuiquam in aliena ditione ea de re actio detur, 
quae in ea regione, ubi causa actionis orta est, legitime 
dari non possit. Hanc causam ut celsitudini vestrae 
commendaremus, et ipsa justitke ratio, et prsedicata 
passim vestra aequanimitas permovit. Quod siquo 
tempore usus venerit, ut de jure aut commodis vestro- 
rum apud nos agatur, haud remissa profecto nostra 
studia, immo omni tempore propensissima experturos 
vos esse polliceor. 

Westmonasterio. 

Celsitudinis Vestrse Studiosissimus, 

Oliverius, Protector Reip. Anglias, Sec. 



LITERS OLIVERII PROTECTORIS. 



819 



Supremce Curia Parlamenti Parisiensis. 
Nos commissarii magni sigilli Augliae, &c. supre- 
mam curiam parlamenti Parisiensis rogatam volumus 
curare velit uti Miles, Gulielmus, et Maria Sandys, de- 
functi nuper Gulielmi Sandys et Elizabethae Soamae 
uxoris ejus liberi, natione Angli, aetate nondum adulta, 



Parisiis, ubi nunc in supradictoe curiae tutela sunt, ad 
nos quamprimum redirepossint; eosque liberos Jacobo 
Mowato Scoto, viro probo atque honesto velit commit- 
tere, cui nos hanc curam delegavimus, ut eos et inde 
acciperet, et ad nos hue adduceret: recipimusque, oc- 
casione hujusmodi oblata, jus idem atque sequum sub- 
ditis Galliae quibuscunque ab hac curia redditum iri. 



LITERS RICHARDI PROTECTORIS 



NOMINE SCRIPTS. 



Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Ludovico Galliarum Regi. 

Serenissime ac potentissime Rex, amice ac federate, 

Cum serenissimus pater meus gloriosae memoriae 
Oliverius reip. Ang-liae protector, omnipotente Deo sic 
volente, supremum jam diem tertio Septembris obierit, 
ego successor ejus in hoc magistratu legitime declara- 
tus, tametsi in summo moerore ac luctu, non potui tamen 
quin de re tanta primo quoque tempore majestatem 
vestram per literas certiorem facerem, quam et mei 
patris et hujus reip. amicissimam hoc nuntio repentino 
haud laetaturam esse confido. Meum nunc est a vestra 
majestate petere, de me sic velit existimare, ut qui nihil 
^deliberates in animohabeam, quam societatem et ami- 
citiam qua? gloriosissimo meo parenti vestra cum ma- 
jestate fuit, summa fide atque constantia colere; ejusque 
fcedera, consilia, rationes vobiscum institutas eodem 
studio ac benevolentia observare ratasque habere : le- 
gatum proinde apud vos nostrum eadem qua prius 
potestate preeditum volo : quicquid id nostro nomine 
vobiscum egerit, ita accipere velitis rogo quasi a me 
ipso actum id esset. Vestrae denique majestati compre- 
cor fausta omnia. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 5 Septemb. 1658. 

Eminentissimo Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime Domine, 
Quanquam nihil mihi acerbius accidere potuit, quam 
de serenissimi et praeclarissimi patris mei obitu scribere, 
tamen cum sciam quanti ille fecerit eminentiam vestram, 
quanti vos ilium, neque dubitem quin eminentia vestra, 
cui summa rei Gallicae commissa est, amici ac foederati 
tam constantis tamque conjuncti mortem molestissime 
latura sit, permagni referre arbitratus sum, ut earn 
quoque, simul cum rege, de hoc casu gravissimo per 
literas monerem; vobisque etiam, quoniam id sequum 
est, confirmarem, me ea omnia sanctissime praestiturum 
ad quae praestanda vobis, rataque habenda serenissimas 
memoriae pater meus foedere tenebatur : perficiamque 
ut ilium, utpote vobis amicissimum omnique laude flo- 
rentem, cum amissum merito doletis, quam minime 
3 G 



tamen quod ad servandam societatis fidem attinet, de- 
sideretis : cui etiam ad utriusque gentis commune bonum 
vestra quoque ex parte servandae Deus eminentiam 
vestram quam diutissime" conservet. 
Westmonasterio, Septemb. 1658. 

Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo, Sue- 
corum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Regi, fyc. 

Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice ac foederate, 

Cum videar mihi paternam virtutem vix satis posse 
imitari, nisi easdem quoque amicitias colam et retinere 
cupiam, quas ipse et virtute sibi quaesivit, et sibi esse 
maxime colendas ac retinendas judicio singulari duxit, 
non est quod dubitet majestas vestra, quin eodem se 
prosequi studio ac benevolentia debeam, qua pater 
meus memoriae serenissimae est prosecutus. Tametsi 
igitur in hoc magistratus ac dignitatis initio non eo 
loco res nostras reperiam, ut in praesentia possim ad quae- 
dam capita respondere, quae oratores vestri in medium 
protulerunt, tamen et institutum a patre foedus cum 
majestate vestra continuare, et arctius etiam conjungere, 
mihi quidem magnopere placet; rerumque utrinque 
statum simul ac plenius intellixero, ad ea transigenda 
quae cum utriusque reip. commodis potissimum conjunc- 
ta esse videbuntur, ero equidem semper, ad me quod 
attinet, promptissimus. Deus interim majestatem ves- 
tram, ad gloriam suam et orthodoxae ecclesiae tutelam 
atque praesidium, quam diutissime conservet. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Octob. 1658. 

Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Carolo Gustavo, Sue- 
corum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque Regi, Magno 
Principi Finlandice, Duci Scania, Esthonia, Ca- 
relice, Bremce, Verdcc, Stetini, Pomeranice, Cassubice, 
et Vandalice, Principi Ritgice, Domino Ingrice et 
Wismarice, necnon Comiti Palatino Rhcni, Bavaria, 
Juliaci, Clivice, et Montium Duci. 

Serenissime, potentissime rex, amice ac foederate, 

Binas accepi a majestate vestra literas ; alteras per 
nuncium suum, alteras legato nostro D. Philippo Mea- 



820 



litem: bichardi protectory. 



(lows, ad me transmissas. Ex quibus nou solum do- 
lorem suum de obitu patris mei serenissimi veris animi 
sensibus expressum, deque ipso majestas vestra quam 
preclare senserit, verum etiam de me quoque ejus in 
locum suspecto quantam spem ceperit cognovi. Et ad 
paternae quidem laudis cumulum nihil posthac amplius 
aut illustrius tanto authore accedere potest, meis certe 
in capessenda repub. auspiciis nihil felicius tanto gratu- 
latore, ad virtutes denique patrias tanquam haereditatem 
optimam adeundas nihil quod accendat vehementius 
tanto hortatore potuit accidere. Ad rationes majes- 
tatis vestrae de communi Protestantium causa no- 
biscum initas quod spectat, sic velim existimet, me 
quidem ex quo ad hsec gubernacula accessi, quan- 
quam eo loco res nostrae sunt, ut summam diligenti- 
am, curam, vigilantiam domi potissimum requirant, 
nihil tamen antiquius aut deliberates habuisse aut 
habere, quam paterno foederi cum majestate vestra per- 
cusso quantum in me erit non deesse. Classem itaque 
in mare Balticum mittendam cum iis mandatis curavi, 
quseinternuncius noster, quem ad hoc totum negotium 
amplissime instruximus, majestati vestrae communica- 
bit. Quam Deus opt. max. incolumem, prosperisque 
rerum successibusfortunatissimam, ad orthodoxam fidem 
tutandam diutissime conservet. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula twstra, 
die 13 Octob. 1658. 



Richardus Protector Serenissimo ac Potentissimo 
Principi Carolo Gustavo, Sueco?-um, Gotlwrum, 
Vandalor unique Regi, 8fc. 

Serenissime, potentissimeque rex, amice ac federate, 

Mitto ad majestatem vestram, quo nihil dignius aut 
praestantius possum mittere, virum vere egregium, vere- 
que nobilem Georgium Aiscoum, equitem auratum, non 
solum belli, et navalis praesertim scientia multis ex re- 
bus fortiter gestis cognitum jam saepe atque spectatum, 
verum etiam probitate, modestia, ingenio, doctrina 
praeditum, moribus suavissimis nemini non charum, et, 
quod nunc caput rei est, sub signis majestatis vestrae 
virtute bellica toto orbe terrarum florentissimae jam diu 
mereri cupientem. Velimque sic habeat majestas ves- 
tra, quicquid huic viro muneris commiserit, in quo 
fides, fortitudo, experientia constare vel etiam praelucere 
possit, neque fideliorineque fortiori, nee facile peritiori 
posse se quicquam committere. Quae autem ego illi 
negotia dedero communicanda vestrae majestati, in iis 
expeditum aditum, aurem benignam velit rogo prae- 
bere, eamque fidem, quam nobismetipsis coram fuisset 
habitura; eum denique honorem, quem tali viro et suis 
meritis et nostra commendatione ornatissimo convenire 
judicaverit. Deus res vestras ad gloriam suam et or- 
thodoxae ecclesiae prassidium felici exitu fortunet. 
Westmonasterio ex Aula nostra, 
die Octob. 1658. 

Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
Potentissimoque Principi Carolo Gustavo, Sueco- 
rum, Gotlwrum, V andalorumque Regi, fyc. 



Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice ac fcederate 

charissime, 

Detulit ad nos per libellum supplicem Samuel Pig- 
gottus, Londinensis mercator, se nuper naves duas 
(quarum alteri nomen Postac, magister Tiddeus Jaco- 
bus ; alteri The Water-Dog, magister Garbrand Peters) 
Londiuo in Galliam negotiandi causa misisse ; eas inde 
sale onustas Amsterodamum petisse ; Amsteroclamo 
alteram saburra tantum, alteram halece impositas cu- 
jus cum Petro quodam Heinsbergo societas erat in 
mare Balticum Stetinum usque Pomeraniae, quae in 
vestra ditione est, ad exponendam illic halecem navi- 
gasse ; verum utrasque hasce naves accepisse se alicubi 
maris Baltici a copiis quibusdam vestris detineri ; 
tametsi ut huic malo occurreret cum utraque nave syn- 
grapham sigillo curiae maritimae obsignatam una, cura- 
verit mittendam, qua et navium harum et mercium, 
excepta halecis parte supradicta, unum se esse ac legi- 
timum dominum demonstraret. Cujus rei cum fidem 
apud nos plenam fecerit, peto magnopere a majestate 
vestra (quandoquidem duarum navium jactura sine 
summo hominisdetrimentofortunarumque forte omnium 
naufragio vix posse accidere videtur) uti mandet suis 
atque imperet illarum navium liberam primo quoque 
tempore dimissionem. Deus majestatem vestram, ad 
gloriam suam ecclesiaeque ortbodoxae praesidium, quam 
diutissime servet incolumem. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, Jan. 27. an. 1658. 

Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Celsis et 
Potentibus Dominis Occidentalis Frisicc Potestati- 
bus, S. D. 

Celsi et potentes domini, amici ac fcederati charissimi, 
Gravem ad me detulit querelam per libellum sup- 
plicem Maria Grinderia vidua, ciim sibi a Thoma Kil- 
legraeo vestro milite pecunia bene magna ante annos 
octodecim debeatur, se eum ne nullo modo adducere 
per procuratorem posse, neque ut debitum solvat, neque 
ut de jure suo, si quid sit, velit lege experiri ; id ne a 
procuratore viduae cogi possit, petisse eum a celsitudi- 
nibus vestris per libellum supplicem, ne cui liceat eum 
lege persequi ullius pecuniae ab se in Angliae debitae. 
Ego vero si celsitudinibus vestris hoc tantum signifi- 
cavero, viduam esse, egenam esse, multorum matrem 
parvulorum, cujus iste omnes prope fortunas avertere 
conatur, non committam ut apud vos, quibus divina 
praecepta atque adeo de viduis pupillisque non oppri- 
mendis notissima esse confido, graviore ulla utendum 
cohortatione putem, ne hoc fraudandi privilegium pe- 
titioni istius concedere velitis : id quod nunquam con- 
cessuros vos esse mihi persuadeo. 

Westmonast. ex Aula nostra, Jan. 27. 1658. 

Richardus Protector Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Serenissimo 
Potentissimoque Principi Ludovico Gallia Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice ac fcederate 
augustissime, 
Accepimus, idque non sine dolore, quasdam in pro- 
vincia protestantes ecclesias ab homine quodam male 



LITERS RICHARDII PROTECTORIS. 



821 



feriato ita indigne fuisse in sacris concionibus interpel- 
latas, ut ea res magistratibus, ad quos hujus causae 
cognitio Gratianopoli ex lege pertinebat, gravi animad- 
versione digna censeretur: sed conventum Cleri, qui 
iis in locis proxime habebatur, a majestate vestra im- 
petrasse, ut res integra Parisios ad concilium regium 
revocaretur: a quo dum nihil hactenus decernitur, ec- 
clesias illas et praesertim Aquariensem, convenire ad 
colendum Deum probiberi. Vehementer itaque a 
majestate vestra etiam atque etiam peto, primiim, ut 
quorum preces ad Deum pro salute sua rebusque regni 
prosperis non interdicit, eorum coitus publicos ad pre- 
candum interdicere ne velit : deinde ut in ilium homi- 
nem rei divinae interpellatorem ex sententia illorum 
judicum, quibus hujusmodi causarum legitima atque 
consueta cognitio Gratianopoli data est,animadvertatur. 
Deus majestatem vestram quam diuturnam atque inco- 
lumem conservet ; ut si haec nostra vota vobis accepta 
sunt, Deoque grata esse existimatis, eadem ab illis 
etiam protestantibus ecclesiis quibus nunc interdicitur, 
pro vobis publice fieri, sublato illo interdicto, quam 
primum velitis. 

Westmonasterio, 18 Feb. an. 1658. 

Eminentissimo Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime domine cardinalis, 

Proficiscitur in Galliam, ibique ad tempus com- 
morari cogitat illustrissima domina defuncti nuper du- 
cis Richmondiae uxor cum duce filio adolescentulo. 
Eminentiam itaque vestram magnopere rogo, ut siquid 
accident in quo iis vestra authoritate, favore, patrocinio, 
utpote peregrinis, usus esse possit, ita eorum digni- 
tatem tueri, vobisque baud vulgariter commendatam 
rebus omnibus babere velitis, ut ad vestram humanita- 
tem erga omnes, praasertim tarn illustri genere oriundos, 
eximiam, sentiant nostris literis quod accedere potuit 
cumuli accessisse : simul et hoc sibi persuadeat emi- 
nentia vestra commendationem suam, si quid a me 
hujusmodi postulabit, apud me non minus valituram. 

Westmonasterio, 29 Feb. 1658. 

Richard us Protector Reip. Anglice, fyc. Serenissimo 
ac Potentissimo Principi Joanni Portugallice Regi. 

Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice ac foederate, 

Tametsi multa sunt quae ad regem amicum et reip. 
nostras conjunctissimum necessario scribam, nihil est 
tamen quod faciam libentius quam quod nunc facio, ut 
majestati vestrae, regnoque Portugalliae insignem hanc 
proximam de communi hoste Hispano victoriam gra- 
tuler : qua non ad vestram tantummodo, verum etiam 
ad Europse totius pacem ac respirationem, permagnum, 
atque in multos fortasse annos, allatum esse momentum 
nemo est quin intelligat. Alterum est in quo victori- 
arum certissimum pignus justitiam majestatis vestrae 
agnoscam, qua ex articulo foederis 24, per arbitros Lon- 
dini datos, mercatoribus nostris est satisfactum, quorum 
naves onerarias Brasiliensis societas conduxit. Unus 
est Alexander Bencius, mercator Londinensis, cui, cum 
navis ejus, quae Tres Fratres vulgo nominatur, magistro 



Joanne Wilkio, duas navigationes conducta onerata- 
que navaverit, pactum stipendium persolvere societas 
recusat : cum caeteris qui semel tantum navigarunt, 
jampridem persolutum sit. Quod cur sit factum non 
intelligo, nisi si eorum judicio mercede dignior est, qui 
semel quam qui bis meruerit. Vehementer itaque peto 
a majestate vestra, ut huic uni Alexandro, cui duplum 
debetur, debita navatae operas satisfactio ne defiat; velit- 
que pro authoritate sua quam brevissimum solutionis 
diem damnique simul sarciendi sociis Brasiliensibus 
constituere : quorum dilationibus effectum est, ut datum 
inde mercatori damnum mercedem ipsam jam pene 
superat. Deus majestatem vestram laetis rerum succes- 
sibus contra hostem augere indies et fortunare pergat. 
Westmonasterio, ex Aula nosfra, 23 Feb. an. 1658. 

Richardus Protect. Reip. Anglice, Sfc. Eminentissimo 
Domino Cardinali Mazarino. 

Eminentissime domine, 

Per literas ad eminentiam vestram octo circiter ab- 
hinc mensibus Jun. 13 datas, causam Petri Petti, viri et 
singulari probitate praediti et egregiis artibus in re na- 
vali nobis reique publicae utilissimi, commendavimus. 
Ejus nave Edwardo anno 1646 a quodam Gallo, cui 
nomen Basconi, Thamesis in ostio, ut scripsimus, cap- 
ta, et in portu Bononiensi vendita, quanquam rex in 
concilio regio 4 Novemb. anno 1647 decreverat, ut 
quam censuisset consilium pecuniae summam damni 
acccpti loco dandam, satisfactioni daretur, is tamen ex 
eo decreto nihildum se fructus percepisse ostendit. Cum 
autem dubium mihi non sit, quin eminentia vestra meo 
rogatu id omne mandaverit quod ad decretum illud 
primo quoque tempore exequendum pertineret, denuo 
nunc majoremque in modum peto, ut videre velit quid 
impedimento sit, cujusve negligentia aut contumacia 
factum, ut decreto regio post annos jam decern non ob- 
temperetur ; velitque pro sua authoritate instare, ut 
decreta ilia pecunia, quam irrogatam jamdiu existima- 
mus, et exigatur quamprimum, et petitori nostro solva- 
tur. Ita rem justitiae imprimis gratam eminentia vestra 
fecerit, et a me singularem praeterea gratiam inierit. 

Westmonasterio, ex Aula nostra, 22 Feb. 1658. 



Duae sequentes Literae, Richardo abdicato, Restituti 
Parlamenti nomine scripti sunt. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglice serenissimo potentissi- 
moque Principi Carolo Gustavo, Suecorum, Go- 
thorum, Vandalorumque Regi, fyc. 

Serenissime potentissimeque rex, amice charissime, 

Cum visum sit Deo optimo atque omnipotenti, penes 
quem solum conversiones omnes regnorum, rerumque 
publicarum sunt, nos pristinae auctoritati summaeque 
rerum Anglicarum administrandae restituere, et majes- 
tatem vestram ea de re certiorem esse faciendam im- 
primis duximus, et vobis porro significandum, nos cum 



822 



LITER.E RICHARDI PROTECTORIS. 



majestatis vestraa utpote Protestantium principis poten- 
tissimi turn pacis inter vos Daniaeque regem, et ipsum 
quoque Protestantium principem prrepotentem, non 
sine nostra opera atque officio benevolentissimo recon- 
ciliandse, quantum in nobis situm est, esse studiosissi- 
mos. Volumus itaque ut internuntio nostro extraor- 
dinario, Philippo Meadowes, quo munere ab hac repub. 
apud majestatein vestram hactenus fungitur, idem om- 
nino munus nostro nunc nomine prorogetur : eique 
adco his nostris Uteris potestatem proponendi, agendi, 
transigendi cum maj estate vestra facimus plane 1 ean- 
dem quae ei proximis literis commendatitiis facta est : 
quicquid ab co transactum nostro nomine atque con- 
clusum erit, id omne ratum nos esse habituros, Deo 
bene juvante, nostra fide spondemus. Deus ille majes- 
tatem vestram quam diutissime conservet, rebus Pro- 
testantium columen atque presidium. 

Gruil. Lenthall, Prolocutor Parlamenti 
Reipub. Anglise. 
Westmonasterio, Maii 15, an. 1659. 

Parlamentum Reipub. Anglice Serenissimo Principi 
Frederico Danice Regi. 

Serenissime rex, amice cbarissime, 
Cum voluntateac nutu summi rerum omnium mode- 
ratoris Dei opt. max. factum sit ut nos demum restituti, 



pristinum locum atque munus in republica gerenda ob- 
tineamus, placuit imprimis ea de re nee majestatem 
vestram, utpote vicinum nobis et amicum regem, esse 
celandam, et quem ex adversis rebus vestris capiamus 
doloremsimul essesignificandum: id quod ex eo studio 
eaque diligentia nostra facile perspicietis quam ad pa- 
cem inter majestatem vestram regemque Suecise recon- 
ciliandam et adhibemus nunc, et, quoad opus erit, adhi- 
bebimus. Quapropter internuntio nostro ad serenissimum 
Suecorum regem extraordinario Philippo Meadowes 
negotium dedimus, ut majestatem vestram his de rebus 
nostro deinceps nomine adeat, ea communicet, pro- 
ponat, agat atque transigat, quae commissa sibi a nobis 
et mandata esse ostendet. Quam ei fidem majestas 
vestra hoc in munere habuerit, earn nobismetipsis ha- 
bere se credat, rogamus. Deus majestati vestrae ex 
istis omnibus rerum suarum difficultatibus, in quibus 
tamen forti et magno animo versatur, felicem laetumque 
exitum primo quoque tempore concedat. 

Guil. Lenthall, prolocutor Parlamenti 
Reipub. Angliae. 
Westmonasterio, Maii 15, an. 1659. 



SCRIPTUM 



DOM. PROTECTORIS REIPUBLIC.E ANGLI^E, SCOTLE, HIBERNLE, &c. 



EX CONSENSU ATQUE SENTENTIA CONCILII SUI EDITUM : 



IN QUO HUJUS REIPUBLIC^E CAUSA CONTRA HISPANOS JUSTA ESSE DEMONSTRATOR. 



1655. 



Quibus causis adducti, quasdam insulas in Occiden- 
tal! India, ab Hispanis jam antea occupatos, adorti 
nuper simus, eas et justas esse et rationi quam maxime 
consentaneas nemo est quin facile intelligat, qui modo 
secum reputaverit, quemadmodum rex ille, ejusque 
subditi erga gentem Anglicanam in illo tractu Ameri- 
cano semper se g-esserint ; non aliumnempe ad modum 
nisi perpetud plane bostilem ; qui modus sese gerendi 
ab ipsis et initium habuit injustissimum, et ab eo tem- 
pore contra gentium commune jus, contra foederum 
peculiares inter Anglos atque Hispanos leges eadem 
est prorsus ratione continuatus. 

Fatendum quidem est Anglos, his annis proximis, 
vel iniqua scquo animo fere pertulisse, vel se duntaxat 
defendisse ; unde forsitan potest fieri, ut nonnulli de ilia 
nuper in Occidentalem Indiam nostrae classis profecti- 
one ita sentiant, quasi de bello a nobis ultro inccepto 
atque illato, non quasi de eo, quod re quidem vera ab 
Hispanis ipsis et primo ortum atque conflatum, et (quan- 
quam haec respublica, quod in se erat, confirmandaa 
pacis, et commercii iis in locis babendi causa nihil 
prsetermisit) ab iisdem hactenus continuatum summoque 
studio gestum reperietur: qui quoties oblata sibi oc- 
casio est, nullam omnino justam ob causam, nulla in- 
juria lacessiti, occidere, trucidare, imo sedatis nonnun- 
quam animis obtruncare nostros illic homines, quos 
visum est, bonis etiam atque fortunis direptis, co- 
loniis habitationibusque deletis, navibus, si quas per 
ilia maria offendunt, captis, hostium imo prsedonum in 
numero habere non desinunt. Illius enim nominis op- 
probrio omnes cujuscunque gentis, prseter se solos, afri- 
ciunt, qui ilia maria navigare audeant. Neque hoc 
alio jure aut meliore se facere intelligunt, quam Papas 
nescio qua donatione nixi, et quod partes quasdam 
illius occidentalis plagse ipsi primi omnium scrutati 
sunt: quo nomine ac titulo novi illius orbis jus omne, 
ac ditionem universam ad se solos pertinere conten- 
dunt: de quo titulo sane quam absurdo copiosiiis di- 
cendi locus erit, cum ad expendendas eas causas venie- 



mus, cur Hispani exercere omne genus hostilitatis in 
nostros illic homines usque eo licere sibi arbitrentur, ut 
qui illas in oras aut tempestate appulsi, aut naufragio 
cjecti, aliove simili casu delati sunt, eos non utcaptivos 
ad vincula solum, sed in servitutem etiam redigant, 
ipsi tamen ruptam sibi pacem etiam in Europa, etgra- 
vissime violatam existiment, si Angli vicissim, paria 
reddendi, resque suas repetendi causa, quicquam iis in 
locis contra eos moliuntur. 

Verum, etiamsi Hispanise regis apud nos legati, 
Hispanica factione, quae semper in consilio regis 
proximi, patrisque ejus plurimum potuit, confisi, siquid 
Angli hoc in genere fecissent, levissimis de causis que- 
rimonias et postulationes iniquas et ridiculas afferre 
non dubitarint ; illi tamen reges, Hispanis licet nimium 
addicti,suorum subditorum constringi noluerunt manus, 
ubi Hispani suas esse solvendas existimarunt : imo 
vim vi propulsare, et Hispanos, qui ad pacem iis in 
locis servandam nerduci nullo modo potuerunt, in hos- 
tium numero habere suis permiserunt. Adeo ut anno 
circiter millesimo sexcentesimo et quadragesimo cum 
haec res in concilio regis proximi agitata esset, postu- 
laretque Hispanorum legatus ut naves quaedam in 
American! profecturae, et in ostio fluminis vela jam fa- 
cere paratos prohiberentur, propterea quod hostilitatis 
in Hispanos illic exercendse potestate essent instructse, 
simulque ipse jus commercii in Occidcntali India ha- 
bendi postulantibus per consiliarios quosdam regis, ad 
earn rem constitutes, Anglis denegaret, placuit ut illse 
naves institutum iter suum persequerentur, quod et 
factum est. 

Hactenus praedicti reges subditis suis, bellum iis in 
locis ob rationes suas privatim suscipientibus, non de- 
fuerunt: tametsi, propter potentiam Hispanic83 fac- 
tionis supradictaa, public^, pro eo ac debuerant, et ex- 
istimatione gentis pristin a dignum erat, causam eorum 
suscipere noluerunt. Et nobis certe contumeliosum 
a3que et indignum fuisset, quibus largiente Deo, tot 
naves ad omnem maritimi belli usum ornatsc atque in- 



824 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORIS. 



structae in promptu erant, si eas carie potius corrumpi 
otiosas domi voluissemus, quam ad ulciscendum Ang- 
lorum, quidni etiam dicam, Indorum sanguinem, ab 
Hispanis tarn injuste tam inhumane totiesque fusum, 
illis in locis usui esse : quandoquidem " Deus fecit ex 
uno sanguine totam gentem hominum ut habitaret 
super universa superficie terrae, definitis praestitutis 
temporibus, et positis terminis habitationis eorum." 
Et certe Deus, quocunque id tempore, cujuscunque id 
manii administrandum sit, tanti sanguinis innocentis- 
simi, tantarum caedium, quibus tot millia Indorum ab 
Hispanis tam barbare occisa sunt, tantarum denique 
injuriarum, quibus illse gentes misere sunt ab iisdem 
vexatae atque oppressae, certissimas aliquando poenas 
repetiturus est. 

Verum ad communem bominum inter se necessitu- 
dinem, quae fraterna sane est, quseque facit ut gravis- 
simae et atrocissimas quorumvis mortaJium injuriae ad 
reliquos omnes pertinere quodammodo videantur, ne- 
cesse non est ut recurramus : cum ipsorum hominum 
nostrorum factae caedes ac spoliationes satis causae quam- 
obrem a nobis ilia nuper expeditio suscepta sit, satis- 
que justam vindicandi materiam dederint : ut nequid 
praeterea nostrarum in praesentia rationum, ut ne in 
futurum etiam nostram ipsam sociorumque ineolumi- 
tatem, eorum praesertim qui orthodoxam religionem 
colunt, consideremus ; ut alias denique causas, quae 
illam nobis expeditionem suaserunt, quasque nunc 
sigillatim enumerare consilium non est, omittamus : 
cum non causa? singulae, sed ipsius rei jus atque 
aequitas declaranda nobis proponatur. Quod ut clarius 
faciamus, et generatim dicta particulatim explicemus, 
ad praeterita referre oculos paulisper oportebit : quse- 
que inter Anglos atque Hispanos transacta sint, quo 
statu res eorum utrinque, ad se mutud quod attinet, 
fuerint, ex quo et perlustrata primo Occidentalis Indiae 
ora, et reformata religio est, strictim percurrere. Quae 
duae res maximae, cum eodem fere tempore accidis- 
sent, permagnas ubique conversiones orbis terrarum 
rebus attulere ; ad Anglos praesertim et Hispanos 
quod spectat, qui diversam ab eo tempore et pene 
contrariam res suas agendi rationcm secuti sunt. 
Tametsi enim rex proximus, ejusque pater, adversis 
ferme totius populi Anglicani studiis atque sententiis, 
duo fcedera cum Hispanis quoquo modo sarserunt, di- 
versi tamen illi utvorumque sensus ac studia ex diversa 
religione nata, perpetuseque in Occidentali India con- 
troversies, et Hispanorum simul, dum suis illic thesau- 
ris metuunt, suspiciones de Anglis ab initio conceptae, 
cum hujus reipublicae conatus in assequenda acquis 
atque honestis conditionibus pace inutiles nuper reddi- 
dere, turn praecipuas re vera causas Philippo secundo 
praebuere, ut, regnante Elizabetha, antiquum lllud 
diuquc inviolatum foedus, quod huic genti cum major- 
ibus ejus, tam Burgundici quam Castellani generis 
intercesserat, rumperet, et illato illi reginae bello, na- 
tionem banc totam subigendam sibi proponeret, idque 
ipsum anno supra millesimum quingentesimo octua- 
gesimoque octavo (dum interea de pace stabilienda 
agebatur) omni impetu aggrederetur : quod quidem in 
Anglorum animis necesse est adhuc alte residere, neque 



inde posse facile evelK. Et quanquam postea pax 
quaedam et commercium in Europa fuit (quamvis ejus- 
modi nunquam ut Anglorum quisquam suam profiteri 
religionem in Hispanica ditione, aut sacra Biblia ha- 
bere domi, ne in navi quidem ausus fuerit) in Occiden- 
tali tamen India Hispanus nunquam ex eo tempore, 
aut pacem esse aut commercium est passus; etiamsi in 
illo foedere Henrici octavi regis Angliae, cum Carolo 
quinto imperatore anno millesimo quingentesimo qua- 
dragesimo secundo de utraque ilia re disertis verbis 
convenisset ; in quo foedere nominatim pax atque libe- 
rum commercium inter utrosque et utrorumque populos 
per omnem alterutrius ditionem, portus, et territoria 
quaecunque sancitum est, sine ulla Occidentalis Indiae 
exceptione, quamvis illam tunc temporis imperator ille 
obtineret. 

Quod autem ad articulum pacis per universum ter- 
rarum orbem colendae, is quidem articulus in omnibus 
pacis foederibus, quae inter utramque gentem unquam 
extitere, dilucide coutinetur, neque ulla de commercio 
ullo in foedere exceptio habetur ante illud anni mil- 
lesimi sexcentesimi quarti, cum quo foedus illud postre- 
mum anni millesimi sexcentesimi trigesimi hac de re 
per omnia consentit. In quibus duobus proximis foede- 
ribus, per omnes atque singulos utriusque imperii fines 
commercium convenit, " Quibus in locis ante bellum" 
inter Philippum secundum Hispaniae regem, et Eliza- 
bethan! Angliae reginam " fuit commercium juxta et 
secundum usum et observantiam antiquorum foedcrum 
et tractatuum ante" id tempus initorum. 

Hsec ipsa fosderum verba sunt ; quae rem dubiam 
relinquunt, atque ita rex Jacobus pacem cum Hispanis 
quoquo modo conficere satis habuit, ciim eandem de 
pace tractationem resumeret, quae paulo ante mortem 
Elizabethae inchoata fuerat, in qua etiam tractatione 
suis ilia deputatis inter caetera mandaverat, ut de com- 
mercio libero in Occidentali India habendo instanter 
agerent. 

Verum rex Jacobus (qui pacis cum Hispanis facien- 
dae admodum erat cupidus) ita istam clausulam relin- 
quere contcntus erat, ut utrique parti earn suo modo 
interpretandi facultas esset ; quanquam si ilia verba, 
" usus et observantia antiquorum foederum et tracta- 
tuum," sic intelligenda sunt (ut par est) juxta et secun- 
dum id quod jure fieri debuit, non juxta et secundum 
quod ex parte Hispanorum ad manifestissimam eorum 
violationem factum est, quae Anglis querimoniarum, 
utrisque dissidiorum materia perpetua erat, ex ipsis 
antiquorum foederum disertis verbis clarissimum est, 
per omnem Hispanorum ditionem, quaecunque ilia 
esset, tam commercii quam pacis jus Anglis fuisse. 

Caeterum si antiqua fcedera et pactiones servandi 
ratio ab eorum manifesta violatione petenda est, ha- 
bent Hispani obtentum aliquem sic interpretandi illam 
in postremis foederibus clausulam, quasi commercium 
illis in locis exciperet. Et tamen ad dimidiam usque 
illius temporis partem quod inter supradictum foedus 
1542, et initium belli a Philippo secundo contra 
Elizabetham suscepti intercessit, quantum ipsis ex 
rebus gestis intelligi potest, haud minus permitti illis 
in locis quam prohiberi commercium apparet. At 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORIS. 



825 



posteaquam Hispani commercium omnino recusarunt, a 
permutandis mercibus ad alternandos ictus ac vulnera 
deventum est, tam ante bellum inter Philippum et Eli- 
zabethara ortum, quam post pacem ab Jacobo rege 
anno 1604 factam ; alteramque ab ejus filio anno 1630, 
ita tamen ut hinc commercium per Europam non inter- 
pellaretur; tametsi nunc primum Hispaniae rex, post 
hanc nuper nostrarum rerum retentionem, eorum loco- 
rum controversias ad haec etiam Europse loca propa- 
gandas interpretatus est. 

Verum neque in fccderum interpretatione, neque in 
jure commercii ex illis fosderibus, aliave ratione ha- 
bendi insistimus ; quasi in iis fundamenta hujus dis- 
sidii jacienda necessarid sint, cum id clarissimis atque 
evidentissimis rationibus nitatur, quod statim planum 
faciemus. Sunt tamen ejusmodi nonnulla, quae, etsi 
bellum iis fundari non ita necesse est, possunt, neque 
injuria, impedimenta esse sanciendae pacis, aut instau- 
randi saltern foederis, in quo ea non conceduntur, vel 
quae in prioribus pactis concessa sunt, vel non imme- 
rito expectari queunt. Quod etiam pro responso esse 
potest ad id quod quaeritur, quare, quandoquidem an- 
tiqua foedera cum aliis omnibus populis redintegravi- 
mus, idem cum Hispaniae rege non fecimus ; neque 
continuo nos in conditionibus foederis dextrum ejus 
oculum, multoque minus ambos (quod objicitur) ejus 
oculos postulasse, si crudelissimae inquisitioni obnoxii 
esse, ubi commercium permissum est, noluimus, dan- 
dum que nobis commercium institimus, unde, neque per 
antiqua foedera, neque communijure, excludendisumus. 
Tametsi enim rex Hispanic id sumpsit sibi ut nobis 
commercii leges flnesque praescriberet, Romani ponti- 
ficis lege quadam fretus, qua is omne commercium 
cum Turcis, Judaeis, aliisque infidelibus vetat,* eoque 
nomine etiam pacis tempore naves ejus bellicae aliis 
etiam in locis prasterquam in India Occidentali nostras 
naves eeperunt et expilarunt, et quanquam simili papae 
autboritate ej usque donationis titulo jus in Indos sibi 
vendicat, perinde quasi sibi jure essent subjecti, etiam 
illi, qui neque in potestate neque in fide ejus sunt, nos 
tamen authoritatem ejusmodi nullam neque in papa, 
neque in Hispanise rege agnoscimus, ut possit vel 
Indis jus libertatis suae, vel nobis concessum naturae 
gentiumque legibus jus versandi cum illis, et commer- 
cium babendi adimere, cum iis praesertim, ut supra 
diximus, qui in potestate ac ditione regis Hispaniae 
non sunt. 

Alterum impedimentum renovandi foederis cum His- 
panis manifestum est atque insigne, nee non ejus- 
modi, ut legatis ac ministris publicis in Hispanicam 
ditionem vel de amicitia vel de alio quovis inter utram- 

* Gulielmus Steplianus Bristoleusis, aliique mercatores aliquot Londi- 
nenses anno 1606 et 1607, cum per orani Mauritanias tribus cum navibus 
commercium cum illis populis haberent, Hispanias regis naves, quas per 
illa litora prasdabantur, eas nactas in Saphio et Sanctas Crucis statione, 
dum in anchoris ibi stabant, diripuerunt; hac sola ratione reddita, 
"Nolle regem dominum suum cum infidelibus commercium permittere :" 
quorum damna ampliusduobus millibus librarum asstimata sunt. 

t Hoc constat ex Uteris parlamenti, prolocutoris manu obsignatis, ad 
Hispanias regem mense Januario 1650, his verbis ; " Majestatem tamen 
vestram rogatam volumus insistimusque, uti justitias publicas tandem sa- 
tisfiat super casde Antonii Aschatn residentis nostri flagitiosa, eo magis 
quod post istius modi f'acinoris auctores merito supplicio affectos, in aulam 
vestram regiam oratorem nostrum non dubitabimus delegare, ea expositu- 
rum quas non minus majestati vestrae poterunt inservire, quam rei nostras 
publicse. Ex adverso, si nos sanguinem ilium tot circumstantiis insigni- 
tum inultum pateremur, coram Deo unico liberatore perennique miseri- 
cordiarum nostrarum fonte, et coram natione Anglicanae participes nos 
tore criminis necesse est ; Pracipue si aliuin adhuc Anglum in illud veli- 



que rempublicam negotio missis, fiduciam omnem in- 
columitatis praecidat, ubi rex opinionibus ejusmodi 
obstrictus est, ut per eas legatis et ministris publicis, 
ne in summo vitae periculo versentur, incolumitatem a 
sicariis praestare non possit : quorum jus, ut principum 
rerumque publicarum usus inter se, et amicitia conser- 
vetur, gentium jure semper inviolabile est existimatum, 
iisque asylis multo sanctius, quorum privilegia (autho- 
ritate pontificis et Romanae ecclesiae fuudata) adhibita 
hactenus fuere ad eludendam vim legum atque justitiae, 
quam exequendam subinde poposcimus in interfectores 
Dom. Antonii Ascbami, qui idcirco missus ab hac re- 
publica in Hispaniam fuit, ut usum et amicitiam inter 
utramque gentem procuraret ac stabiliret. Cujus 
barbarae caedis nulla satisfactio, nullum supplicium 
neque sumptum est, neque impetrari unquam potuit, 
quam vis a fparlamento postularetur, ej usque no- 
mine a concilio status vehementer ac saepius esset 
flagitatum. Quod quidem foederis inter utramque 
gentem renovandi continuatum hactenus impedimen- 
tum atque justissimum fuit, immo vero (pro eo quod 
ab aliis nationibus factitatum est) justa belli causa 
censeri potuit. 

Quod autem ad controversias in Occidentali India 
exortas, cum tam in ipsa continente quam in insulis 
coloniae nobis quoque sint Americanae, easque jure non 
deteriore, immo meliore possideamus quam Hispani 
suarum ullas obtineant, parique jure ea maria navigare 
nobis liberum sit, sine ulla tamen causa, nulla prorsus 
injuria laesi (idque ubi de commercio controversia nulla 
versata est) tamen perpetuo colonias nostras hostiliter 
invaserant, nostros homines interfecerunt, naves eepe- 
runt, bona diripuerunt, aedificia stationesque vastarunt, 
nostros populares captivos in servitutem abduxerunt; 
atque haec facere non destiterunt ad illud usque tempus 
in quo hanc nuper ex peditionem contra eos suscepimus. 

Ob quam causam, contra quam antehac in hujusmodi 
occasione fieri consuevit, ubique fere ditionis Hispa- 
nicae naves nostras negotiatoresque omnes retinuerunt, 
eorumque bona proscripserunt ; adeo ut, sive ad Ame- 
ricana, sive ad Europam oculos convertamus, belli au- 
thores ipsi soli existimandi sunt, quaeque ex eo caedes 
atque incommoda sequi poterunt iis omnibus causam 
ipsi praebuisse. 

Exempla perpetuae crudelissimaeque hostilitatis in 
Occidentali India, etiam pacis tempore ab Hispanis in 
Anglos edita, et ab anno 1604, cum ab Jacobo rege 
coagmentata pax est, usque dum rursus bellum erupit, 
et ab ea pace quae anno 1630, proxime facta est, ad 
hanc usque diem permulta sunt perque inhumana et 
cruentarj pauca attulisse satis habebimus. 



mus regnum mittere, ubi fas est impune trucidari. Nos vero tanti assti- 
mamus majestatem vestram, ut non r'acile simus credituri potentiam ves- 
tram regiam in ditionibus ipsi subjectis alienae cuipiam potentiae subjectam 
esse. 

1 Navis quasdam Ulyssis nomine insignita % cum per oram Guianaemer- 
caturam faceret, et mercatores ac nauUe adducti fide ac jurejurando Ber- 
rei illius loci praar'ecti, in terram exissent, eorum tamen triginta capti et 
in custodiam traditi sunt: scribit deinde ad mercatorem praefectus se qui- 
dem triginta ex suis nautis cepisse, ideoquod nonnulli exteri, qui mercan- 
di causa illuc appulerant, viginti millibus ducatis ipsum fraudaverant ; 
quos nummos si sibi misisset, remissurum se ei omnes suos juravit, et com- 
mercii potestatem facturum. ]\lercator partim numerato, partim mercium 
aestimatione optatam ei sumniam mittit: quam cum praer'ectus Berreus 
accepisset, alligatos ad arbores illos homines triginta strangulari jussit, 
excepto solo chirurgo qui ad sanandum praer'ecti morbum asservatus est. 
Haec redemptio aliis cum damnis ibi datis septem millibus librarum aesti- 
mata est. 



826 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORIS. 



Post factam pacem anno 1605, navis Maria dicta, 
Arabrosio Birch mag-istro, ad septentrionalem Hispa- 
niolae orain in Occidentali India mercaturas faciebat; 
magister, cum a sacerdote quodam patre Joanne, sic 
enim nominabatur, cum sex sociis, tuti et liberi com- 
mercii promissis allectus esset ut in terram videndarum 
mercium quarundam causa egrederetur, et Hispani 
duodecim ad Anglicanas merces inspiciendas in navem 
ascenderent, dum Angli suas merces ostendunt nihil 
doli metuentes, dante signum ab littore sacerdote, His- 
pani, educta quisque sica, omnes in navi Anglos jugu- 
larunt, praeter duos duntaxat qui in mare desiluerunt; 
caeteri in terra exquisitis cruciatibus necati sunt ; ma- 
gister ipse exutus vestibus et ad arborem alligatus, 
nudus muscarum morsibus expositus est ; ubi post horas 
viginti Nigrita quidam, audito hominis ejulatu, acce- 
dens, jam ante moribundum lancea transfixit : navis 
haec cum mercibus quinque milibus et quadringentis 
libris aestimata est. 

Alia navis, cui nomen Arcuariae, eodem anno ad Sanc- 
tum Dominicum capta est, nautasque omnes interfecti : 
haec navis mille trecentis libris aestimata est. 

Alia navis dicta Amicitia Londinensis, cum navigio 
suo, a Lodovico Fajardo, classis regiae Hispaniensis 
navarcho, capta est, navis cum bonis omnibus publi- 
cata, mercatores ac nautici in mare demersi, praeter 
unum puerum, qui ad serviendum est servatus: haec 
navis cum navigio quinquies mille et quingentis libris 
aestimata est. 

Ex alia navi, cui nomen The Scorn, cum omnes 
nautae, Hispanorum dejerationibus confisi, in terram 
egressi essent, omnes tamen alligati ad arbores et stran- 
gulati sunt. Ubi mercatores et navem et bona omnia 
amiscrunt, mille quingentis libris aestimata. 

* Anno 1606 navis, cui nomen Neptunus, ad Tortu- 
gam ab Hispanorum navibus praedatoriis capta est, 
quatuor millibus et trecentis libris aestimata. 

Eodem anno navis alia, quae Alauda nominata est, a 
Lodovico Fajardo capta, et cum toto onere publicata 
est; quae quatuor millibus quingentis et septuaginta 
libris est aestimata. 

f Navis alia, cui nomen Castor et Pollux, ab His- 
panis ad Floridam capta est, qui et earn publicarunt, 
nautasque omnes vel necaverunt, vel in servitute re- 
tinuerunt, nihil enim de iis postea est auditum : haec 
navis cum suo onere quindecim mille libris aestimata 
est. 

Anno 1608, navis Plimouthensis Richarda nomina- 
ta, cujus praefectus erat Henricus Challins, domini 
Pophami, summi Angliaejusticiarii, Ferdinandi Gorges, 
ordinis equestris, aliorumque sumptibus instructa, ut 
Virginiam peteret, ad australem Canariarum insularum 
partem vi tempestatum delata, cum inde cursum ad 
destinatam oram tenuisset, sub latitudine 27 graduum 
in undecim naves Hispanicas ab Sancto Dominico re- 
deuntes forte incidit; quae ipsam ceperunt, et quan- 
quam praefectus navis diploma regium protulit, quo se 
expediret, tamen navis cum bonis publica facta est, 

* Joannes Davis duo navigia cum omnibus bonis amisit, interfectis 
eorum omnibus nautis, ad illius navigations interitum, unde trium mil- 
Jinm et quingentarum librarum jacturam fecit. 

\ Alia navis inercatorum quorundam Londinensium, (cujus magister 



ipse crudeliter habitus, et ad triremes missus. Unde 
amplius duo mille et quingentae librae sunt amissae. 

Simile quiddam navi alteri, cui nomen The Ayde, 
factum est a Lodovico Fajardo captae, obtentu amicitiae ; 
haec item cum bonis publicata est, omnesque nautae 
ad triremes abducti; ubi nonnulli fustibus ad necem 
pulsati sunt, quod remigium recusassent. Quae navis 
et boua, Hispanis ipsis aestimantibus, septem millibus 
librarum aestimata sunt. 

Eodem anno navis alia, Anna Gallant appellata, 
magistro Gulielmo Curry, cum ad Hispaniolam merca- 
turas faceret, similiter et navis et bona publica facta 
sunt, omnesque nautae suspendio necati, assutis unicui- 
que ad ludibrium chartulis, in quibus erat scriptum, 
" Cur hue venistis ?" Haec navis cum onere octo milli- 
bus librarum aestimata est. 

Haec exempla satis ostendunt, cujusmodi nobis pa- 
cem Hispani in Occidentali India temporibus Jacobi 
servarunt ; qui rex diligentissime curavit vel potius 
pertimuit ne pax cum iis dirimeretur. Ejusmodi hos- 
tilia plene et cruenta vestigia, ab ilia etiam proxima 
pace, quae anno 1630 confecta est, ad hanc usque diem, 
persequi licet. 

De iis coloniis, quae, ab hujus nationis nobilibus qui- 
busdam viris, in insulam Catelinam (ab his Providen- 
tiae dictam) et in insulam Tortugam (ab iisdem Asso- 
ciations dictam) deductae sunt, primum dicemus. Has 
autem anno circiter 1629, cum essent incolarum et pe- 
corum omnino vacuae, indicto inter Anglos et Hispanos 
tunc temporis bello, ab Anglis occupatae sunt atque 
possessae. Sequente anno pace inter utramque gentem 
facta, cum de iis insulis haudquaquam ab Hispanis in 
feedere exciperetur, Carolus rex, non impediri se hac 
pace arbitratus, suo diplomate, quod et magno sigillo 
Angliae signatum erat, supradictam insulam Providen- 
tiae, simul et alias vicinas ditionis esse suae declaravit ; 
easque nobilibus quibusdam viris eorumque haeredibus 
possidendas concessit; et sequente anno ad Tortugam 
usque insulam concessionem illam extendit. 

Et quanquam supradicti coloni, ejusdem regis con- 
cessione in earum insularum possessionem venerant, 
eaque concessio jure optimo fundata erat, primum na- 
turae, eo quod neque Hispani, neque alii quicunque in 
eorum locorum possessione essent, deinde belli, quan- 
doquidem belli tempore occupatae sunt, et in pacis arti- 
culis nequaquam exceptae, unde extinguijus Hispano- 
rum (si quod illic juris habuissent) ipsorum assensu, ex 
secundo proximi foederis articulo, sequitur ; quanquam 
etiam neque supradicta colonorum societas, nee suorum 
quisqnam ullo suo facto justam offensionis causam vel 
Hispaniae regi, vel Hispanorum cuiquam praebuerat, 
donee priores ipsi naves nostras atque colonias vi in- 
vasissent, et Anglorum haud paucos, incensis etiam 
eorum aedificiis ac sedibus, interfecissent ; Hispani 
tamen, cum nullam iis in locis pacem servare statuis- 
sent, circa 22 Januarii 1632, nulla injuria lacessiti, 
navem quandam societatis, cui nomen Flos Marinus, 
ab insula Providentiae redeuntem, inter Tortugam et 

erat Joannes Lock,) a classe Hispanorum ad insulam Tortugam capta est, 
propterea quod mercaturam fecisset, et arbores cecidisset; oh id navis est 
publicata, et nautuorum plerique morte multati, reliqui ad triremes danv 
nati : hie quinque millium et trecentarum librarum jactura facta est. 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORY. 



827 



Floridae caput hostiliter aggressi sunt, in qua pugna 
nommllos in ea navi occiderunt, alios vulnerarunt. 

Post haec anno circiter 1634, Tortuga insula ab His- 
panis cum quatuor navibus oppugnata est, cum ab 
Anglis nulla injuria exorta esset: in qua oppugna- 
tione sexaginta vel amplius occisi sunt, multi sauciati 
ac capti, sedes deletae, domus incensae, bona haud parvi 
pretii ab Hispanis asportata, Angli penitus ex ea in- 
sula dejecti, quorum alii suspendio sublati, alii Hava- 
nam abducti in servitute miserrima retenti sunt ; unus 
prae caeteris, cui nomen Grymes, qui in Tortuga bom- 
bardarius fuerat, crudeliter est trucidatus ; pars ad de- 
sertam quandam insulam confugiens, cui Sanctae Crucis 
nomen est, ab Hispanis, qui eo etiam cum tribus na- 
vibus longis fugientes persequebantur, oppugnata 
mense Martio 1636, quadraginta occisi, reliqui capti et 
crudelissime accepti. 

Anno 1635 Julii 24, Hispani duabus navibus magnis 
unaque longa advecti in Providentiae quoque insulam 
impetum fecerunt, compluriumque horarum spatio 
praelium ibi commiserunt; et turn quidem rejecti sunt, 
et ab inccepto desistere coacti ; donee idem rursus ten- 
tantes circa annum 1640, cum duodecim navibus mag- 
nis et minoribus, quarum praetoriae Armadillo Cartha- 
ginensi nomen erat, ex majoribus regiae classis argen- 
tariae triremibus, cuni magnum militum numerum in 
terram exposuissent, totius insulae expugnationem 
polliciti sibi sunt, venim, baud parvo accepto incom- 
modo, repulsi denuo recesserunt. Altera tamen classe 
instructa paulo post cum revertissent, coloni dissidiis 
laborantes, non tam qua se ratione defenderent, quam 
quibus conditionibus commodissime se dederent, cogi- 
tarunt, quas, tradita demum insula, facile impetrave- 
runt. Sed insula hoc modo et colonis erepta est, et 
reipublicae, illis octoginta amplius millium librarum 
damno dato, buic detrimento et ignominia publica 
simul accepta. Ita in Hispanorum potestatem cum 
esset redacta, navis quaedam, quae vectores aliquot ab 
Nova Anglia in earn insulam transmigrantes advexerat, 
intra ictum bombardarum callide perducta est (ignora- 
bat enim earn insulam in Hispanorum potestate jam 
esse) nee sine permagno discrimine ac difficultate se 
extricavit, amisso etiam navis magistro, viro probissi- 
mo, quern ictus tormenti ab insula displosi transverbe- 
ravit. 

Nee contend intra fines Americanos bostilitati suos in 
illius colonies socios modum statuere Hispani, in bis 
etiam partibus Europae eandem in eos exercuerunt : 
anno enim 1638 Decembris 25, navis quaedam ejusdem 
societatis, Providentiae nomine insignita, cui Thomas 
Newman praefectus erat a promontorio Dengioleucis 
duabus in ipsa Angliae ora a Sprengfeldio Dunkirkanae 
navis praedatoriae praefecto oppugnata atque capta est ; 
Dunkirkam deinde adducta ; ubi navis onera retenta 
sunt; (quae multorum etiam illic aestimatione triginta 
millium librarum summam conficere existimabantur ;) 
Anglorum autem partim occisi, partim vulnerati, caeteri 
postquam in ipsa navi sua barbare atque inhumane 
essent habiti, Dunkirkam abrepti haud melius accepti 

* Similiter etiam factum fuerat eodem in portu navi cuidam Joannis 



sunt, donee rationem aliquam profugiendi invenissent. 
Et quamvis supradicti socii satisfactionem omnibus 
modis postulassent, rexque proximus per residentem 
suum Dom. Balthasarum Gerberium,perque literas tam 
sua manu, quam a secretario Coco scriptas, eorum no- 
mine reparationem poposcisset, nullam tamen neque 
bonorum restitutionem, neque ob ea ut compensatio ulla 
fieret, impetrare potuerunt. 

Sunt et alia recentioris et acerbioris etiam memoriae 
exempla, illud nempe Sanctae Crucis ab Hispanis a 
Portorico provectis oppugnatae anno circiter 1651, in- 
sulae quidem antea non habitatae ; illo autem tempore 
colonia Anglorum, duce Nicolao Philips, earn tenuit ; 
qui cum centum circiter colonis ab Hispanis crudeliter 
occisus est ; qui etiam naves in portu occuparuut, sedes 
diripuerunt, vastarunt, et funditus exciderunt. Cumque 
plures quos occiderent invenire non possent (cum inco- 
larum pars alia in silvas profugisset) Hispani Portori- 
cum reversi iis miseris et fame propemodum confectis 
reliquiis ad alias vicinas insulas recipiendi sese, illam- 
que Sanctae Crucis penitus deserendi, spatium dedere. 
Sed brevi post tempore Hispani ad pervestigandum et 
quasi venandum eos qui in silvas sese abdiderant, re- 
verterunt: verum illi ex manibus eorum efFugiendi, et 
in alias insulas dilabendi, rationem aliquam invene- 
runt. 

Eodem anno 1651, navis quacdam Joannis Turneri, 
cum esset in portum Cumanag*otae vehementioribus 
ventis appulsa, ab illius loci prasfecto occupata, et cum 
omnionere in fiscum redacta est. 

* Similiter factum est navi et bonis capitanei Cranlei. 

Et anno 1650 navis quaedam Samuelis Wilson, quae 
Barbados insulas petebat, equis onusta, in alto capta et 
Havanam abducta est; navis et bona publicata, nauta- 
rum plerique in custodiam traditi, et mancipiorum 
more in munimentis operas dare coacti. 

Similia experti sunt nautae cujusdam navis Barnsta- 
pulensis, annis abhinc circiter duobus, quae navis cum 
prope Hispaniolam, dum a coloniis quibusdam nostris 
in insulis Caribiis reverteret, rimas agere coepisset un- 
damque accipere, nautae ejus in scapha sibi consulere 
coacti ad littus evaserunt, ubi omnes captivi facti, man- 
cipiorum ritu, in munimentis operas dare cogebantur. 

His, aliisque permultis hujusmodi exemplis, quae 
omnia recitare nimis longum esset, manifestissimum 
est Hispaniae regem eique subjectos arbitrari, se nulla 
pacis conditione nobis praestanda illis in regionibus ob- 
ligari: cum et omne genus hostilitatis in nos exercere, 
immo graviora hostilitate, consueverint, eaque inhuma- 
nitas, qua illic Anglos tractare solent, usque eo a pacis 
legibus aliena sit, ut ne belli quidem legibus non in- 
ternecini convenire videatur. In illo tamen Hispanias 
regis embargo, quo mercatorum nostrorum naves ac 
bona proscribi ac retineri imperat, in Anglos culpa 
omnis confertur ; quasi " fcedifragos" nimirum "et 
sacrosanctae pacis atque commercii liberi violatores, 
tam religiose," ut ipse ait, " ab se servati ; idque tam 
inopinata atque professa hostilitate fecisse nos, ut urbera 
Sancti Dominici in Hispaniola insula oppugnare ado- 

Blaudi.cui picefectus erat Nicolaus Philippus. 



828 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORIS. 



riremur." Quod solum causae affertur, quamobrem 
Anglorum bona in Hispania proscribantur, negotiato- 
resque retineantur: quanquam et boc praedicata ejus 
humanitate exaggeratum est, " Se nostras classes in 
* portus suos, quoscunque ingredi aut attingere com- 
modum nobis fuisset, amice recepisse; neque ministros 
suos exegisse rigide a nobis illos pacis articulos inter 
utramque coronam sancitos, qui cum amplius sex vel 
octo navibus bellicis intrare portus utrinque vetant." 

Verum quemadmodum ipse, dum base dicit, classes 
nostras omni commisso ac foederis violatione illis in 
portubus absolvit, cum, siquid ejusmodi, quod objici- 
tur, factum et condonatum sit, id ipsius et ministrorum 
suorum permissu ac bona venia sit factum, et quemad- 
modum luce clarius est non eum gratuito tam facilem 
fuisse, si, quanta a classibus nostris momenta suis ra- 
tionibus accesserint, secum cogitet, ita e coutrario rex 
ille ej usque ministri, quas ipse commemorat, pactiones 
minime sane observarunt ; quarum articulo vigesimo 
tertio tam diserte cautum est, " Si contingat ut displi- 
centiae" inter utramque rempublicam " oriantur, ut 
subditi bine inde ita ea de re admoneantur ; ut sex 
menses a tempore monitionis babeant ad transportandas 
merces suas, nulla interea arrestatione, interruptione, 
aut damno personarum aut mercium suarum faciendis 
vel dandis." Qua in re rex ille exiguam sane pactio- 
num illarum, quas contra nos profert, in ilia nuper 
nostrarum rerum proscriptione rationem habuit. Quod 
autem in eo edicto declarat, hostilitatem in Occiden- 
tali India exortam, his in partibus violationem pacis 
liberique commercii habendam esse, nova, adeoque alia 
plane interpretatio est, atque hactenus ab utravis re- 
publica in medium unquam allata est: tametsi hocde- 
clarandi occasiones utrinque non defuere. 

Verum cum Hispanise rex ipse et verbis et re ipsa 
declaraverit pacis articulos intelligi sic debere, efficitur 
bine ut tot contra Anglos iis in regionibus hostiliter 
factis et ab ipso primum exortis, et ab ipso tempore 
proxime percussi foederis, ut supradictum est, hue usque 
continuatis, ab se primo soluta sacra amicitiae vincula 
ipse se coarguisse videatur. Quae res tam clara per se 
et manifesta est, ut adversaries nostros certe ipsos pu- 
duerit in hac controversia factum negare, de jure potius 
nobiscum disceptaturos ; quemadmodum scilicet His- 
panioe rex, inter titulos suos, regis Indiarum titulum 
sibi sumpsit, ita universam Indiam, mareque Indicum 
tam Boreale quam Australe suam esse propriam di- 
tionem, hostesque omnes et piratas esse, qui ejus injussu 
illuc accesserint. Quod si ita esset, et nos et omnes 
caoterae nationes, quicquid iis in locis possidemus, ei 
rclinquere ac reddere, et, reductis coloniis nostris, in- 
j jpae sibi faclae veniam petere deberemus. Verum si 
/ationem ac veritatem illius tituli altius inspiciamus, 
tenui admodum atque infirmo eum niti fundamento 
comperiemus, quo tanta contentionum ac belli moles 
superstruenda sit, quantam hanc verisimile estfuturam. 

Duplex titulus praefertur, papam videlicet ea loca do- 
nasse, scque primes omnium perlustrasse : ad primum 

* At vero navarchus noster Swanleius in Sicilia non ita est amice in 
portu Drepani acceptus, ubi anno 1653, circa mensem .lunium navis ejus, 
cui nomen Henricus Bonaventura, una cum Hollandica navi magna et 
opultntissima, cui nomen Petro, quam ceperat, prodttione Hispanici pra> 



quod attinet, scimus papam in donandis regnis ac regi- 
onibus liberalissimum semper fuisse, illi interea dissi- 
millimum cujus vicarium se esse profitetur, qui ne hoc 
quidem tantulum sibi sumere volebat, ut in dividendis 
haereditatibus constitui se judicem pateretur, nedum ut 
suo arbitrio cuiquam donaret, quemadmodum Angliam, 
Hiberniam, aliaque regna papa largitus est. Verum 
nos authoritatem in eo istiusmodi nullam agnoscimus, 
neque gentem ullam usque adeo mentis inopem existi- 
mamus, ut in eo tantam authoritatem inesse credat ; 
vel Hispani ipsi ut credant, aut essent assensuri, si ab 
iis papa tantum abjudicasset quantum largitus est. 
Quod si Galli atque alii, qui authoritatem papalem in 
ecclesiasticis rebus agnoscunt, hunc Hispanorum titu- 
lum pro nihilo habent, nos ut de eo aliter sentiamus non 
est expectandum, adeoque hoc relinquimus, response 
ampliore prorsus indignum. 

Sed neque alter titulus majoris est ponderis; quasi 
vero, si Hispani paucas quasdam Americae partes primi 
perscrutati sunt, insulisque aliquot, fluminibus, ac pro- 
montoriis nomina imposuere, idcirco novi illius orbis 
dominium jure sibi acquisivissent. Verum imaginarius 
ej usmodi titulus tali preescriptione nix us sine possessione 
jus aliquod verum aut legitimum creare non potest. 
Jus optimum tenendi Americanis in locis quod quisque 
habet, est coloniarum deductio, et possessio vel ubi 
nulli omnino incolae fuere, vel, sicubi fuere, eorum as- 
sensu, vel saltern in desertis quibusdam suarum regio- 
num etincultis locis, quibus vel colendis vel habitandis 
ipsi non sufficiant; quandoquidem Deus terram homi- 
num usibus creavit, praecepitque iis ut universam im- 
plerent. 

Hoc si verum est, quemadmodum Hispani iniquis- 
simo jure parta illic obtinere invenientur ; cum omnia 
invitis incolis, et quasi ex ipsis eorum visceribus sibi 
acquisiverint, quorum sanguine suum imperium illic 
fundarunt, magnasque insulas et regiones totas non 
reperere quidem desertas sed reddidere, indigenis om- 
nibus eradicatis, ita Angli, quae illic habent, jure op- 
timo possederint; easque nominatim insulas in quibus 
Hispani colonias eorum oppugnarunt atque delerunt ; 
quae aut incolas omnino non habuere, aut si ab Hispanis 
interfectos, desertae etiam ab iisdem et sine cultoribus 
relictae sunt: adeo ut naturae gentiumque jure occu- 
pantibus quibusvis eas et possidentibus cedant; juxta 
illud in legibus notissimum, " Quae nullius sunt et pro 
derelictis habentur, cedunt occupanti." Quanquam si 
Hispanos expulissemus iis locis in quae nostras colo- 
nias deduximus, unde ipsi priiis incolas radicitus ex- 
turbaverunt, nos tanquam occisionum et injuriarum 
illius populi ultores meliore jure regiones illas obtinu- 
issemus, quam oppressores ejusdem et interfectores. 
Cum autem nostrae coloniae iis in locis fuerint, ubi 
neque indigenae neque Hispani possessionem ullam 
tenuerunt, neque babitationes ullas aut pecora post se 
reliquerant, aliamve rem, quae possitullo modojus pos- 
scssionis retinere, tanto evidentius jus nostrum iis in 
locis fuit, et Hispanorum injuriae nobis illatae tante 

fecti, qui ei loco pracerat, a septem navibus Hollandicis junioris Trumpii 
ductU, in ipso portu, non longiCls a munimentis quamsclopi minoris ictus 
ferri potuit, oppressa est ; unde mercatores, quorum ilia navis fuit, plus 
sexagmta ti ibus milhbus librarum amiserunt. 



SCRIPTUM DOM. PROTECTORY. 



829 



apertiores ; iis praesertim in locis quae indicti utrinque 
belli tempore occupata sunt (quo in genere Providcntiae 
insula atque Tortugae fuit) quas si Hispani suas esse 
ullo priore tituio necdum prolato ostendere potuissent, 
tamen cum in pacis proximae tractatione id non fecerint, 
per secundum ejus articulum talem omnem praetextum 
ipsi sibi in posterum amputarunt, j usque ipsi suum, si 
quod erat, extinxerunt. 

Hoc argumentum copiosius tractare nihil attinet ; 
neque est quisquam rerum peritus quin facile perspiciat, 
quam inanes atque infirmse sint istae rationes, quibus 
innixus Hispanus tam immensi tractus imperium arro- 
gare sibi soli non dubitat. Verum id egimus, ut ob- 
tentuum istorum debilitatem paucis aperiremus, quibus 
Hispani, quicquid in nos indigne atque atrociter in 
Occidentali India commiserunt, defendere conantur ; 
mancipations, suspendia, demersiones, cruciatusque 
nostrorum hominum ac neces, navium ac bonorum 
spoliationes, coloniarum summa in pace depopulations, 
idque nulla prorsus injuria affecti, ut Anglicana gens, 
quoties haec tam acerba atque atrocia in suum sangui- 
nem, et ejusdem orthodoxae fidci cultores, perpetrata 
meminerit, non naves bellicas sed decus suum omne 
obsolescere et interire cogitet, si his indignissimis 
modis tractari sese diutiiis aequo animo patiatur ; neque 
solum tanta ac tam opulenta orbis terrarum parte contra 
jus legesque gentium communes ab omni libero com- 
mercio excludi, verum etiam pro piratis atque praedoni- 
bus haberi, eodemque supplicio plecti, si ilia maria 
navigare, si vel aspicere vel aspirare, si deuique vel 
cum nostris ibi coloniis usum aliquem aut commercium 
habere ausa fuerit. 

De inquisitione Hispanica sanguinaria nihil dicimus, 
inimicitiarum causa universis protestantibus communi; 
neque de tot seminariis sacerdotum ac jesuitarum An- 
glicorum sub Hispanico patrocinio nidulantium, ofFen- 
sionis causa et periculi gravissimi huic reipublicae 
propria; cum propositum nobis potissimum sit contro- 
versiarum in Occidentali India nostrarum causas et 
rationes exponere. Hoc vero aequioribus cunctis et 
incorruptis rerum aestimatoribus planum fecisse confi- 
dimus, necessitatem, existimationem, justitiam ad hanc 
nuper susceptam expeditionem nos evocasse ; necessita- 
tem, bellandum enim necessarid est, si per Hispanos 
pacem colere non licet; existimationem atque j ustitiam, 
neutra enim harum nobis constare poterit, si injurias 
tam inhumanas atque intolerandas impune civibus 
nostris ac popularibus inferri desides patiemur, quales 
in Occidentali India illatas iis esse demonstravimus. 

Et certe parum vident, qui de consiliis ac rationibus 
Hispanicisconjecturamcapiunt exea persona ac specie 
quam in praesentia suarum rerum inclinatio induere 
versus nos in his orbis terras partibus coegit; quasi 
non nunc mens eadem, iidem sensus animorum ac ratio- 
num suarum sint, qui turn fuere, cum anno 1588 subju- 



gare hanc totam insulam suumque sub imperium ac 
ditionem subjungere affectabant, immo quasi ex hoc 
immutato apud nos rerum statu formaque reipublicae 
non accensa potius eorum in nos odia auctaeque sus- 
piciones sint. Quod si haec opportunitas, quae, propter 
nunnulla quacdam quae nuper acciderunt, ineundi rati- 
onem aliquam, qua ab hoc tam vetere et implacato 
religionis nostras ac patriae hoste nobismetipsis (Deo 
bene juvante) consulere possimus, occasionem forte" 
suppeditaverit, praetermissa fuerit, fieri poterit ut eas 
vires facile sit recuperaturus (animus enim certe illi 
neque unquam deerit neque deesse poterit) ex quibus 
intolerandus aeque et formidabilis reddi possit atque 
antea fuerit. Nos interea si injurias tam immanes in 
Occidentali India sine satisfactione ulla aut vindicta 
nostris fieri, si excludi nos omnes ab ilia tam insigni 
orbis terrarum parte, si infestum atque inveteratum 
hostem nostrum (pace praesertim cum Batavis jam 
facta) ingentes illos ab Occidentali India thesauros, 
quibus praesentia incommodasarcire possit, nostra pace 
domum deportare, resque suas in eum rursus locum 
restituere patiemur, quo eandem iterum possit delibera- 
tionem suscipere, quam anno 1588 habuit, " Utrum 
fuisset consultius ad recuperandas Belgii fcederatas 
provincias initium facere ab Anglia, an ab illis ad sub- 
igendam Angliam," proculdubio non minus multas 
immo plures causas excogitabit, cur potius ab Anglia 
initium sit faciendum : Quern finem ut assequantur 
ullo tempore ea consilia, si Deus permitteret, expectare 
merito possemus, ut in nos primos, in omnes denique 
ubicunque protestantes, exerceatur quod restat occidio- 
nis illius immanissimae, quam fratres nostri in Alpinis 
vallibus passi nuper sunt : qua?, si illorum miserorum 
editis querimoniis orthodoxorum credendum sit, per 
illos fraterculos, missionarios quos vocant, Hispanicae 
aulae consiliis informata primitus ac designata erat. 

His omnibus animadversis, speramus quidem fore, 
ut omnes Angli, praesertim sinceri, privatas adversus 
se mutuo inimicitias deposituri sint, suisque propriis 
commodis potius renunciaturi quam propter cupiditatem 
lucri, haud ita multi, ex mercaturis illis faciendi (quod 
non nisi inhonestis conditionibus et quodammodo im- 
probis parari, et aliunde etiam suppeditari poterit) 
multorum adolescentiam negotiatorum animas, ex iis 
conditionibus quibus nunc in Hispania negotiantur et 
degunt, summo periculo, sicuti faciunt, objecturi, vi- 
tamque et fortunas multorum in America fratrum Chris- 
tianorum, hujus denique nationis totius agi existimati- 
onem passuri ; quodque gravissimum est, oblatis sibi 
a Deo ad gloriam ipsius, regnumque Christi amplifi- 
candum opportunitates praeclarissimas ex manibus di- 
missuri. Quae quidem non dubitamus quin, remotis 
quae veritati penitus inspiciendae officiunt, expeditionis 
nuper nostras in Occidentalem Indiam contra Hispanos 
susceptae potissimum fuisse finem appareat. 



AUTORIS EPISTOLARUM FAMILIARIUM 



LIBER UNUS: 



QUIBUS ACCESSERUNT 



EJUSDEM, JAM OLIM IN COLLEGIO ADOLESCENTIS, PROLUSIONES QU^DAM ORATORIO. 



[first published 1674.] 



Thom^; Junio Praceptori suo. 

1. Quanquam statueram apud me (prseceptor optime) 
epistolium quoddam numeris metricis elucubratum ad 
te dare, non satis tamen habuisse me existimavi, nisi 
aliud insuper soluto stylo exarassem ; incredibilis enim 
ilia et singularis animi mei gratitudo, quam tua ex 
debito vendicant in me merita, non constricto illo, et 
certis pedibus ac syllabis augustato dicendi genere ex- 
primenda fuit, sed oratione libera, immo potius, si fieri 
posset, Asiatica verborum exuberantia. Quamvis qui- 
dem satis exprimere quantum tibi debeam, opus sit 
meis viribus longe majus, etiamsi omnes quoscunque 
Aristoteles, quoscunque Parisiensis illedialecticus con- 
gessit argumentorum tottsq exinanirem, etiamsi omnes 
elocutionis fonticulos exbaurirem. Quereris tu vero 
(quod merito potes) literas meas raras admodum et 
perbreves ad te delatas esse ; ego vero non tarn doleo 
me adeo jucundo, adeoque expetendo defuisse officio, 
quam gaudeo et pene exulto eum me in amicitia tua 
tenere locum, qui possit crebras a me epistolas efflagi- 
tare. Quod autem hoc plusquam triennio nunquam 
ad te scripserim, quaeso ut ne in pejus trahas, sed pro 
mirifica ista tua facilitate et candore, in mitiorem par- 
tem interpretari digneris. Deum enim testor quam te 
instar patris colam, quam singulari etiam observantia 
te semper prosecutus sim, quamque veritus chartismeis 
tibi obstrepere. Curo nempe cum primis, cum tabel- 
las meas nihil aliud commendit, ut commendet rari- 
tas. Deinde, ciim ex vehementissimo, quo tui afficior 
desiderio, adesse te semper cogitem, toque tanquam 
praesentem alloquar et intuear, dolorique meo (quod in 
amore fere fit) vana quadam praescntiao tuse imagina- 
tione adblandiar; vereor profecto, simulac literas ad te 
mittendas meditarer, ne in mentem mihi subito veniret, 
quam longinquo a me distes terrarum intervallo; at- 
que ita recrudesceret dolor absentiae tuce jam prope 
consopitus, somniumque dulce discuteret. Biblia 
Hebraea, pergratum sane munus luum, jampridcm 



accepi. Haec scripsi Londini inter urbana diverticula, 
non libris, ut soleo, circumseptus : si quid igitur in hac 
epistola minus arriserit, tuamque frustrabitur expecta- 
tionem, pensabitur alia magis elaborata, ubi primum 
ad musarum spatia rediero. 
Lotidino, Martii 26, 1625. 

Alexandro Gillio. 

2. Accepi literas tuas, et quae me mirifice oblecta- 
vere, carmina sane grandia, et majestatem vere poeti- 
cam, Virgilianumque ubique ingenium redolentia. 
Sciebam equidem quam tibi tuoque genio impossibile 
futurum esset, a rebus poeticis avocare animum, et 
furores illos ccelitus instinctos, sacrumque et sethereum 
ignem intimo pectore eluere, cum tua (quod de seipso 

Claudianus) " totum spirent prsecordia 

Phcebum." Itaque si tua tibi ipse promissa fefelleris, 
laudo hie tuam (quod ais) inconstantiam, laudo, siqua 
est, improbitatem ; me autem tarn praeclari poe- 
matis arbitrum a te factum esse, non minus glorior, 
et honori mihi duco, quam si certantes ipsi dii 
musici ad meum venissent judicium; quod Tmolo 
Lydii montis Deo populari olim contigisse fabu- 
lantur. Nescio sane an Henrico Nassovio plus gra- 
tuler de urbe capta, an de tuis carminibus : nihil 
enim existimo victoriam banc peperisse poematio hoc 
tuo illustrius, aut celebrius. Te vero, cum prosperos 
sociorum successus tarn sonora triumphalique tuba ca- 
nere audiamus, quantum vatem sperabimus, si forte res 
nostras demum feliciores tuas musas poscant gratula- 
trices. Vale, vir erudite, summasque a me tibi gratias 
carminum tuorum nomine haberi scias. 

Londino, Maii 20, 1628. 

IE idem. 

3. Priori ilia epistola mea non tarn rescripsi tibi, 
quam rescribendi vices deprecatus sum, alteram itaque 



EPISTOL^ FAMILIARES. 



831 



brevi secuturam tacite promisi, in qua tibi me amicis- 
sime provocanti latius aliquanto responderem ; verum 
ut id non essem pollicitus, hanc utcunque summo jure 
deberi tibi fatendum est, quandoquidem singulas ego 
literas tuas non nisi meis binis pensari posse existimem, 
aut si exactius agatur, ne centenis quidem meis. Ne- 
gotium illud de quo scripsi subobscurius, ecce tabellis 
hisce involutum, in quo ego, cum tua ad me pervenit 
epistola, districtus temporis angustia magno turn pri- 
mum opere desudabam : quidem enim aedium nostrarum 
socius, qui comitiis his academicis in disputatione 
philosopbica responsurus erat, carmina super quaestio- 
nibus pro more annuo componenda, praetervectus ipse 
jamdiu leviculas illiusmodi nugas, et rebus seriis in- 
tentior, forte meae puerilitati commisit. Heec quidem 
typis donata ad te misi, utpote quern norim rerum poeti- 
carum judicem acerrimum, et mearum candidissimum. 
Quod si tua mibi vicissim communicare dignaberis, 
certe non erit qui magis iis delectetur, erit, fateor, qui 
rectius pro eorum dignitate judicet. Equidem quoties 
recolo apud me tua mecum assidua pene colloquia (qua? 
vel ipsis Atbenis, ipsa in academia, quaero, desideroque) 
cogito statim nee sine dolore, quanto fructu me mea 
fraudarit absentia, qui nunquam a te discessi sine 
manifesta literarum accessione, et siriddoei, plane quasi 
ad emporium quoddam eruditionis profectus. Sane 
apud nos, quod sciam, vix unus atque alter est, qui 
non philologise, pariter et philosophise, prope rudis et 
profanus, ad theologiam devolet implumis ; earn quo- 
que leviter admodum attingere contentus, quantum 
forte sufficiat conciunculse quoquo modo conglutinandee, 
et tanquam tritis aliunde pannis consuendae: adeo ut 
verendum sit ne sensim ingruat in clerum nostrum 
sacerdotalis ilia superioris sseculi ignorantia. Atque 
ego profecto cum nullos fere studiorum consortes hie 
reperiam, Londinum recta respicerem, nisi per justitium 
hoc eestivuin in otium alte literarium recedere cogitarem, 
et quasi claustris musarum delitescere. Quod cum jam 
tu indies facias, nefas esse propemodum existimo diu- 
tius in praesentia tibi interstrepere. Vale. 
Cantabrigia, Julii 2, 1628. 

ThomjE Junio. 

4. Inspectis literis tuis (preceptor optime) unicum 
hoc mihi supervacaneum occurrebat, quod tardee scrip- 
tionis excusationem attuleris ; tametsi enim literis tuis 
nihil mihi queat optabilius accedere, qui possim tamen, 
aut debeam sperare, otii tibi tantum a rebus seriis, et 
sanctioribus esse, ut mihi semper respondere vacet ; 
praesertim cum illud humanitatis omnino sit, officii 
minime. Te vero oblitum esse mei ut suspicer, tarn 
multa tua de me recens merita nequaquam sinunt. 
Neque enim video quorsum tantis onustum beneficiis 
ad oblivionem dimitteres. Rus tuum accersitus, simul 
ac ver adoleverit, libenter adveniam, ad capessendas 
anni, tuique non minus colloquii, delicias; et ab ur- 
bano strepitu subducam me paulisper. Stoam tuam 
Icenorum, tanquam ad celeberrimam illam Zenonis 
porticum, aut Ciceronis Tusculanum, ubi tu in re 
modica regio sane animo veluti Serranus aliquis aut 



Curius in agello tuo placide regnas, deque ipsis divitiis, 
ambitione, pompa, luxuria, et quicquid vulgus homi- 
num miratur et stupet, quasi triumph um agis fortunse 
contemptor. Caeteriim qui tarditatis culpam depreca- 
tus es, hanc mihi vicissim, ut spero, preecipitantiam 
indulgebis; cum enim epistolam hanc in extremum 
distulissem, malui pauca, eaque rudiuscule scribere, 
quam nihil. Vale vir observande. 
Cantabrigia, Julii 21, 1628. 

Alexandro Gillio. 

5. Si mihi aurum, aut caelata pretiose vasa, aut 
quicquid istiusmodi mirantur mortales, dono dedisses, 
puderet certe non vicissim, quantum ex meis faculta- 
tibus suppeteret, te aliquando remunerasse. Cum vero 
tam lepidum nobis, et venustum Hendecasyllabon 
nudiustertius donaveris, quanto charius quidem auro 
illud est merito, tanto nos reddidisti magis solicitos. 
qua re conquisita tam jucundi beneficii gratiam repen- 
deremus ; erant quidem ad manum nostra hoc in genere 
nonnulla, sed quae tuis in certamen muneris eequale 
nullo modo mittenda censerem. Mitto itaque quod 
non plane meum est, sed et vatis etiam illius vere di- 
vini, cujus hanc oden altera fetalis septimana, nullo 
certe animi proposito, sed subito nescio quo impetu 
ante lucis exortum, ad Graeci carminis heroici legem in 
lectulo fere concinnabam : ut hoc scilicet innixus adju- 
tore qui te non minus argumento superat, quam tu me 
artificio vincis, haberem aliquid, quod ad aequilibrium 
compensationis accedere videatur ; si quid occurrit, 
quod tuse de nostris, ut soles, opinioni minus satisfe- 
cerit, scias, ex quo ludum vestrum reliquerim hoc me 
unicum atque primum graece composuisse, in Latinis, 
ut nosti, Anglicisque libentius versatum. Quandoqui- 
dem qui Grsecis componendis hoc saeculo studium 
atque operam impendit, periculum est, ne plerumque 
surdo canat. Vale, meque die lunce Londini (si Deus 
voluerit) inter bibliopolas expecta. Interim si quid 
apud ilium doctorem, annuum collegii praesidem, qua 
vales amicitia, nostrum poteris negotium promovere ; 
cura queeso, ut mea causa quam cito adeas ; iterum 
vale. 

E nostro Suburbano, Decemb. 4. 1634. 

Carolo Diodato. 

6. Jam isthuc demum plane video te agere, ut ob- 
stinato silentio nos aliquando pervincas; quod si ita 
est, euge habe tibi istam gloriolam, en scribimus 
priores : quanquam certe si unquam heec res in conten- 
tionem veniret, cur neuter alteri ovto) Sia %p6vs scripse- 
rit, cave putes quin sim ego multis partibus excusatior 
futurus : St]\ov ort ug fipaSvg mi oicvnpog tiq ojv (pvaei 
irpbg to ypacpsiv, ut probe nosti, cum tu contra sive 
natura, sive consuetudine, ad hujusmodi literarias 
irpoa<ph)vri<y£ig haud segre perduci soleas. Simul et illud 
pro me facit, quod tuam studendi rationem ita institu- 
tam cognovi, ut crebro interspires, ad amicos visas, 
multa scribas, nonnunquam iter facias ; meum sic est 
ingenium, nulla ut mora, nulla quies, nulla ferme illius 



832 



EPISTOLE FAMILIARES. 



rei cura, aut cogitatio distineat, quoad pervadam quo 
feror, et grandem aliquam studiorum meorum quasi 
periodum conficiam. Atque hincomnino, nee aliunde, 
sodes, est factum, uti ad officia quidem ultro defereuda 
spissius accedam, ad respondendum tamen, noster 
Thcodote, non sum adeo cessator ; neque enim commisi 
ut tuam epistolam unquara ullam debita vice nostra 
alia ne clauserit. Quid ! quod tu, ut audio, literas ad 
bibliopolam, ad fratrem etiam saepiuscule ; quorum 
utervis propter vicinitatem satis commode praestitisset, 
mihi, si quae essent, reddendas. Illud vero queror, te, 
cum esses pollicitus ad nos fore ut diverteres cum ex 
urbe discederes, promissis non stetisse : quae promissa 
abs te praeterita si vel semel cogitasses, non defuisset 
prope necessarium scribendi argumentum. Atque haec 
habui quae in te merito, ut mihi videor, declamitarem. 
Tu quae ad hasc contra parabis ipse videris. Verum 
interim quid est quaeso ? recteue vales ? ecquinam iis 
in locis erudituli sunt quibuscum libenter esse, et gar- 
rire possis, ut nos consuevimus? quando redis? quam- 
diu tibi in animo est apud istos inrep(3ope'iHQ commorari? 
tu velim ad haec mihi singula respondeas : sed enim 
ne nescias non nunc demum res tuae cordi mihi sunt, 
nam sic habeto me ineunte autumno ex itinere ad fra- 
trem tuum eo consilio deflexisse, ut quid ageres, scirem. 
Nuper etiam cum mihi temere Londini perlatum esset 
a nescio quo te in urbe esse, confestim et quasi avrofiou 
proripui me ad cellam tuam, at illud aic'iag ovap, nus- 
quam enim compares. Quare quod sine tuo incom- 
modo fiat, advola ocyus et aliquo in loco te siste, qui 
locus mitiorem spem praebeat, posse quoquo modo fieri 
ut aliquoties inter nos saltern visamus, quod utinam no- 
bis non aliter esses vicinus, rusticanus atque es urbicus, 
a\\a tovto &<sntp Qsa> <pi\ov. Plura vellem et de nobis, et 
de studiis nostris, sed mallem coram ; et jam eras sumus 
rus illud nostrum redituri, urgetque iter, ut vix haec 
propere in chartam conjecerim. Vale. 
Londino, Septemb. 2. 1637. 

Eidem. 

7. Quod caeteri in literis suis plerunque faciunt 
amici, ut unicam tantum salutem dicere sat habeant, 
tu illud jam video quid sit quod toties impertias ; ad 
ea enim quae tute prius, et alii adhuc sola afferre pos- 
sunt vota, jam nunc artem insuper tuam, vimque omnem 
medicam quasi cumulum accedere vis me scilicet intel- 
ligere. Jubes enim salvere sexcenties, quantum volo, 
quantum possum, vel etiam amplius. Nae ipsum te 
nuper salutis condum promum esse factum oportet, ita 
totum salubritatis penum dilapidas, aut ipsaproculdubio, 
sanitas jam tua parasita esse debet, sic pro rege te geris 
atque imperas ut dicto sit audiens ; itaque gratulor 
tibi, et duplici proinde nomine gratias tibi agam ne- 
cesse est, cum amicitiae turn artis eximiae. Literas 
quidem tuas, quoniam ita convenerat, diu expectabam; 
verum acceptis neque dum ullis, si quid mihi credis, 
non idcirco vetcrem meam ergo te benevolentiam tan- 
tillum refrigescere sum passus ; immo vero qua tar- 
ditatis excusatione usus literarum initio es,ipsam illam 
te allaturum essejam animo praesenseram, idque recte, 



nostraeque necessitudini convenienter. Non enim in 
epistolarum ac salutationum momentis veram verti 
amicitiam volo, quae omnia ficta esse possunt; sed altis 
auimi radicibus niti utrinque et sustinere se ; cceptam- 
que sinceris, et Sanctis rationibus, etiamsi mutua cessa- 
rent officia, per omnem tamen vitam suspicione et culpa 
vacare : ad quam fovendam non tarn scripto sit opus, 
quam viva invicem virtutum record atione. Nee con- 
tinue), ut tu non scripseris, non erit quo illud suppleri 
officium possit, scribit vicem tuam apud me tua probi- 
tas, verasque literas intimis sensibus meis exarat, 
scribit morum simplicitas, et recti amor; scribit inge- 
nium etiam tuum, haudquaquam quotidianum, et ma- 
jorem in modum te mihi commendat. Quare noli 
mihi, arcem illam medicinas tyrannicam nactus, terrores 
istos ostentare, ac si salutes tuas sexcentas velles, sub- 
ducta minutim ratiuncula, ad unum omnes a me repos- 
cere, si forte ego, quod ne siverit unquam Deus, ami- 
citiae desertor fierem ; atque amove terribile illud tiri- 
Tuxi<r[ia quod cervicibus nostris videris imposuisse, ut 
sine tua bona venia ne liceat aegrotare. Ego enim ne 
nimis rainitere, tui similes impossibile est quin amem, 
nam de caetero quidem quid de me statuerit Deus nescio, 
illud certe ; dstvov /xoi tpwrct, siTrsp rw aXXw, rov koXov 
sv'evTaZe. Nec tanto Ceres labore, ut in fabulis est, 
Liberam fertur quaesivisse filiam, quanto ego hanc tov 
KaXov idsav, veluti pulcherrimam quandam imaginem, 
per omnes rerum formas et facies : (iroWal yap /ioptfai 
tu)v Aaifiovicjv :) dies noctesque indagare soleo, et quasi 
certis quibusdam vestigiis ducentem sector. Unde fit, 
ut qui, spretis quae vulgus prava rerum aestimatione 
opinatur, id sentire et loqui et esse audet ; quod summa 
per omne aevum sapientia optimum esse docuit, illi me 
protinus, sicubi reperiam, necessitate quadam adjun- 
gam. Quod si ego sive natura, sive meo fato ita sum 
comparatus, ut nulla contentione, et laboribus meis ad 
tale decus et fastigium laudis ipse valeam emergere ; 
tamen quo minus qui earn gloriam assecuti sunt, aut eo 
feliciter aspirant, illos semper colam, et suspiciam, nec 
dii puto, nec homines prohibuerint. Caeterum jam 
curiositati tuae vis esse satisfactum scio. Multa solicite 
quaeris, etiam quid cogitem. Audi, Theodote, verum 
in aurem ut ne rubeam, et sinito paulisper apud te 
grandia loquar ; quid cogitem quaeris? ita me bonus 
Deus, immortalitatem. Quid agam vero ? TrTtpotyvw, et 
volare meditor : sed tenellis admodum adhuc pennis 
evehit se noster Pegasus, humile sapiamus. Dicam 
jam nunc serio quid cogitem, in hospitium juridicorum 
aliquod immigrare, sicubi amcena et umbrosa ambulatio 
est, quod et inter aliquot sodales, commodior illic habi- 
tatio, si domi manere, et op/^r/jpiov ivirptirkartpov quo- 
cunque libitum erit excurrere ; ubi nunc sum, ut nosti, 
obscure, et anguste sum ; de studiis etiam nostris 
fies certior. Graecorum res continuata lectione de- 
duximus usquequo illi Graeci esse sunt desiti : Italo- 
rum in obscura re diu versati sumus sub Longobardis, 
et Francis, et Germanis, ad illud tempus quo illis ab 
Rodolpho Germanise rege concessa libertas est; exinde 
quid quaeque civitas suo marte gesserit, separatim le- 
gere praestabit. Tu vero quid ? quousque rebus domes- 
ticis filius familias imminebis urbanarum sodalitatum 



EPISTOL.E FAMILIARES. 



833 



oblitus ? quod, nisi bell urn hoc novercale, vel Dacico, 
vel Sarmatico infestius sit, debebis profecto maturare, 
ut ad nos saltern in hyberna concedas. Interim, quod 
sine tua molestia fiat, Justinianum mibi Venetorum 
historicum rogo mittas ; ego mea fide aut in adventura 
tuum probe asservatum curabo ; aut, si mavis, haud 
ita mul to post ad te remissum. Vale. 
Londino, Septemb. 23. 1637. 

Benedicto Bonmatth,eo Florentino. 

8. Quod novas patriae linguae institutiones adornas 
(Benedicte Bonmatthaee) jam operi fastigium imposi- 
turus, et commune tu quidem cum summis quibusdam 
ingeniis iter ad laudem ingrederis, et earn spem, quod 
video, eamque de te opinionem apud cives tuos conci- 
tasti, ut qui ab aliis quae tradita jam sunt, iis aut lu- 
cem, aut copiam, aut certe limam, atque ordinem tuo 
marte facile sis allaturus. Quo nomine profecto popu- 
lares tuos quam non vulgarem in modum tibi devinx- 
eris, ingrati nempe sint ipsi, si non perspexerint. 
Nam qui in civitate mores hominum sapienter norit 
formare, domique et belli praeclaiis institutis regere, 
ilium ego prae caeteris omni honore apprime dignum 
esse existimem. Proximum huic tamen, qui loquendi 
scribendique rationem et normam probo gentis saeculo 
receptam, praeceptis regulisque sancire adnititur, et 
veluti quodam vallo circummunire ; quod quidem ne 
quis transire ausit, tantum non Romulea lege sit cau- 
tum. Utriusque enim horum utilitatem conferre si 
libet, justum utrique et sanctum civium convictum alter 
ille solus efficere potest ; hie vero solus liberalum, et 
splendid um, et luculentum, quod proxime in votis est. 
Ille in hostem fines invadentem, ardorem credo excel- 
sum, et intrepida consilia suppeditat ; hie barbariem 
animos hominum late incursantem, foedam et intesti- 
nam ingeniorum perduellem, docta aurium censura, 
authorumque bonorum expedita manu, explodendam 
sibi, et debellandam suscipit. Neque enim qui sermo, 
purusne an corruptus, quaeve loquendi proprietas quo- 
tidiana populo sit, parvi interesse arbitrandum est, quae 
res Athenis non semel saluti fuit : immo vero, quod 
Platonis sententia est, immutato vestiendi more habi- 
tuque graves in republica motus, mutationesque por- 
tendi, equidem potius collabente in vitium atque erro- 
rem loquendi usu, occasum ejus urbis, remque humilem 
et obscuram subsequi crediderim : verba enim partim 
inscita et pudita, partim mendosa, perperam prolata; 
quid nisi ignavos et oscitantes, et ad servile quidvis 
jam olim paratos incolarum animos haud levi indicio 
declarant? Contra, nullum unquam audivimus impe- 
rium, nullam eivitatem non mediocriter saltern floru- 
isse, quamdiu linguae sua gratia, suusque cultus con- 
stitit. Tu itaque, Benedicte, hanc operam reipublicae 
tuae navare modo, ut pergas, quam pulchram, quamque 
solidam a civibus tuis necessario gratiam initurus sis, 
vel hinc liquido specta. Quae a me eo dicta sunt, non 
quod ego te quidquam horum ignorare censeam, sed 
quod mihi persuadeam, in hoc te magis multo intentum 
esse, quid tute patriae tuae possis persolvere, quam quid 
ilia tibi j ure optimo sit debitura. De exteris jam nunc 



dicam, quorum demerendi, si tibi id cordi est, persane 
ampla in praesens oblata est occasio ; ut enim est apud 
eos ingenio quis forte floridior, aut moribus amoenis et 
elegantibus, linguam Hetruscam in deliciis habet prae- 
cipes, quin et in solida etiam parte eruditionis esse 
sibi ponendam ducit, praesertim si Graeca aut Latina, 
vel nullo, vel modico tinctu imbiberit. Ego certe istis 
utrisque linguis non extremis tantummodo labris ma- 
didus ; sed siquis alius, quantum per annos licuit, 
poculisinajoribus prolutus, possum tamen nonnunquam 
ad ilium Dantem, et Petrarcham, aliosque vestros com- 
plusculos, libenter et cupide commessatum ire : nee 
me tarn ipsae Athenae Atticae cum illo suo pellucido 
Ilisso, nee ilia vetus Roma sua Tiberis ripa retinere 
valuerunt ; quin saepe Arnum vestrum, et Faesulanos 
illos colles invisere amem. Jam vide, obsecro, num- 
quid satis causae fuerit, quae me vobis ultimum ab 
oceano hospitem per hosce aliquot dies dederit, ves- 
traeque nationis ita amantem, ut non ullius, opinor, 
magis. Quo magis merito potes meminisse, quid ego 
tanto opere abs te contendere soleam ; uti jam inchoatis, 
majori etiam ex parte absolutis, velles, quanta maxima 
facilitate res ipsa tulerit, in nostram exterorum gratiam, 
de recta linguae pronuntiatione adhuc paululum quid- 
dam adjicere. Caeteris enim sermonis vestri consultis 
in hanc usque diem id animi videtur fuiss«, suis tantum 
ut satisfacerent, de nobis nihil soliciti. Quanquam ille 
meo quidem judicio, et famae suae, et Italici sermonis 
gloriae, haud paulo certius consuluissent, si praecepta 
ita tradidissent, ac si omnium mortalium referret ejus 
linguae scientiam appetere : verum per illos non stetit 
quo minus nobis videremini vos Itali, intra Alpium 
duntaxat pomoeria sapere voluisse. Haec igitur laus 
praelibata nemini, tota erit tua, tibi intactam et inte- 
grant hucusque se servat; nee ilia minus, si in tanta 
scriptorum turba commonstrare separatim non grava- 
bere, quis post illos decantatos Florentine linguae auc- 
tores poterit secundas haud injuria sibi asserere : quis 
tragoedia insignis, quis in comoedia festivus et lepidus; 
quis scriptis epistolis aut dialogis, argutus aut gravis ; 
quis in historia nobilis : ita et studioso potiorem quem- 
que eligere volenti non erit difficile, et erit, quoties va- 
gari latius libebit, ubi pedem intrepide possit figere. 
Qua quidem in re, inter antiquos Ciceronemet Fabium 
habebis, quos imiteris; vestrorum autem hominum 
haud scio an ullum. Atque haec ego tametsi videor 
mihi abs te (nisi me animus fallit) jam primo impe- 
trasse, quoties in istius rei mentionem incidimus, quae 
tua comitas est, et benignum ingenium ; nolo tamen id 
tibi fraudi sit, quo minus exquisite, ut ita dicam, atque 
elaborate exorandum te mihi esse putem. Nam quod 
tua virtus, tuusque candor, minimum rebus tuis pre- 
tium, minimamque aestimationem addicit; iis ego, 
justam volo, et exactam, cum rei dignitas, turn adeo 
mea observantia imponat ; et certe hoc aequum est ubi- 
que, quanto quis petenti faciliorem se praebet, tanto 
minus concedentis honori deesse oportebit. De caetero, 
si forte cur in hoc argumento, Latina potius quam 
vestra lingua utar, miraris; id factum ea gratia est ut 
intelligas quam ego linguam abs te mihi praeceptis ex- 
ornandam cupio, ejus me plane meam imperitiam, et 



834 



EPISTOI^E FAMILIARES. 



inopiam Latine confiteri; et hac ipsa ratioue plus me 
valiturum apud te speravi simul et illud, si can am ; et 
venerandam e Latiomatrem,in filiae causa suae mecum 
adjutricem adduxissem, credidi fore ejus authoritati, et 
reverentiae, augustaeque per tot saecula majestati, nihil 
ut denegares. Vale. 

Florentia, Septemb. 10. 1638. 

Luc^: Holstenio Romce in Vaticano. 

9. Tametsi multa in hoc meo Italiae transcursu mul- 
torum in me humaniter et peramice facta, et possum, et 
saepe soleo recordari; tamen pro tam brevi notitia, 
baud scio an jure dicam ullius majora extitisse in me 
benevolentiae indicia quam ea quae mihi abs te profecta 
sunt. Cum enim tui conveniendi causa in Vaticanum 
ascenderem, ig-notum prorsus, nisi si quid forte ab 
Alexandro Cherubino dictum de me prius fuerat, sum- 
ma cum humanitate recepisti ; mox in musaeum comi- 
ter admisso, et conquisitissimam librorum supellectilem, 
et permultos insuper manuscriptos authores Graecos, 
tuis lucubrationibus exornatos, adspicere licuit : quo- 
rum partim nostro saeculo nondum visi, quasi in pro- 
cinctu, velut illae apud Maronem, 



penitus convalle virenti 



Inclusse anirnse superumque ad limen iturse. 

expeditas modo tjpographi manus, et nauvTiicfjv poscere 
Tidebantur; partim tua opera etiamnum editi, passim 
ab eruditis avide accipiuntur ; quorum et unius etiam 
duplici dono abs te auctus dimittor. Turn nee aliter 
crediderim, quam quae tu de me verba feceris ad prae- 
stantissimum Cardin. Franc. Barberinum, iis factum 
esse, ut cum ille paucis post diebus dicpoafia illud musi- 
cum magnificentia vere Romana publice exhiberet, ipse 
me tanta in turba quaesitum ad fores expectans, et pene 
manu prehensum persane honorifice intro admiserit. 
Qua ego gratia cum ilium postridie salutatum ac- 
cessissem, tute idem rursus is eras, qui et aditum mihi 
fecisti, et colloquendi copiam ; quae quidem cum tanto 
viro, quo etiam in summo dignitatis fastigio nihil be- 
nignius, nihil humanius, pro loci et temporis ratione 
largiuscula profecto potius erat, quam nimis parca. 
Atque ego (doctissime Holsteni) utrum ipse sim solus 
tam me amicum, et hospitem expertus, an omnes An- 
glos, id spectans scilicet quod triennium Oxoniae Uteris 
operam dederis, istiusmodi officiis etiam quoscunque 
prosequi studium sit, certe nescio. Si hoc est, pul- 
chre tu quidem Angliae nostras, ex parte etiam tuae, 
$ica<Tied\ia persolvis ; privatoque nostrum cuj usque 
nomine, et patriae publico, parem utrobique gratiam 
promereris. Sin est illud, eximium me tibi prae caete- 
ris habitum, dignumque adeo visum quicum velis 
Ktvlav ttoukjScii, et mihi gratulor de tuo judicio, et 
tuum simul candorem pros meo merito pono. Jam 
illud vero quod mihi negotium dedisse videbare, de in- 
spiciendo codice Mediceo, sedulo ad amicos retuli, qui 
quidem ejus rei efficiendae spem perexiguam in presens 
ostendunt. In ilia bibliotheca, nisi impetrata prius 
venia, nihil posse exscribi, ne stylum quidem scripto- 
rium admovisse tabulis permissum ; esse tamen aiunt 



Romae Joannem Baptistam Donium, is ad legendas 
publice Graecas literas Florentiam vocatus indies ex- 
pectatur, per eum ut consequi possis quae velis facile 
esse; quamquam id sane mihi pergratum accidisset, 
si res tam praesertim optanda quae sit, mea potius 
opella saltern aliquando plus promovisset, cum sit 
indignum tam tibi honesta et preclara suscipienti, non 
omnes undecunque homines, et rationes, et res favere. 
De caetero, novo beneficio devinxeris, si eminentissi- 
raum cardinalem quanta potest observantia meo no- 
mine salutes, cuj us magnae virtutes, rectique studium, 
ad provehendas item omnes artes liberales egregie com- 
paratum, semper mihi ob oculos versantur; turn ilia 
mitis, et, ut ita dicam, summissa animi celsitudo, quae 
sola se deprimendo attollere didicit ; de qua vere dici 
potest, quod de Cerere apud Callimachum est, diversa 
tamen sententia, iOfiara [isv xh au) K£<pct^a ce oi clittet* 
oXvpnru). Quod caeteris fere principibus documento esse 
potest, triste illud supercilium, et aulici fastus, quam 
longe a vera magnanimitate discrepantes et alieni sint. 
Nee puto fore, dum ille vivit, Estenses, Farnesios, aut 
Mediceos, olim doctorum hominum fautores, ut quis 
amplius desideret. Yale, doctissime Holsteni, et si quis 
tui, tuorumque studiorum amantior est, illi me quoque, 
si id esse tanti existimas, ubicunque sim gentium fu- 
turus, velim annumeres. 
Florentice, Martii 30. 1639. 

Carolo Dato Patricio Florentino. 

10. Perlatis inopinato Uteris ad me tuis, mi Carole, 
quanta, et quam nova sim voluptate perfusus, quando- 
quidem non est ut pro re satis queam dicere, volo ex 
dolore saltern, sine quo vix ulla magna hominibus de- 
lectatio concessa est, id aliquantum intelligas. Dum 
enim ilia tua prima percurro, in quibus elegantia cum 
amicitia pulchre sane contendit, merum illud quidem 
gaudium esse dixerim, praesertim cum uti vincat ami- 
citia, operam te dare videam. Statim vero cum incido 
in illud quod scribis, ternas te jam olim ad me dedisse, 
quas ego periisse scio, turn primum sincera ilia infici, 
tristique desiderio conturbari, ccepta est laetitia; mox 
etiam gravius quiddam subit, in quo vicem meam do- 
lere perssepe soleo, quos forte vicini'ae, aut aliqua nullius 
usus necessitudo mecum, sive casu, sive lege conglu- 
tinavit, illos nulla re alia commendabiles assidere quo- 
tidie, obtundere, etiam enecare mehercule quoties colli- 
bitum erit ; quos, mores, ingenium, studia, tam belle 
conciliaverant, illos jam pane omnes, aut morte, aut 
iniquissima locorum distantia invideri mihi, et ita con- 
festim e conspectu plerumque abripi, ut in perpetua 
fere solitudine versari mihi necesse sit. Te, quod ais, 
ex quo Florentia discessi, mea de salute solicitum, sem- 
perque mei memorem fuisse, gratulor mihi sane, par 
illud utrique et mutuum accidisse, quod eg'o me solum 
sensisse meo fortasse merito arbitrabar. Gravis admo- 
dum, ne te celem, discessus ille et mihi quoque filit, 
eosque meo animo aculeos infixit, qui etiam nunc al- 
tius inhaerent, quoties mecum cogito tot simul sodales 
atque amicos tam bonos, tamque commodos una in 
urbc, longinqua ilia quidem, sed tamen charissima, in- 



EPISTOL.& familiares. 



835 



vitum me, et plane divulsum reliquisse. Testor ilium 
mihi semper sacrum et solenne futurum Damonis tu- 
mulum ; in cujus funere ornando cum luctu et moerore 
oppressus, ad ea quae potui solatia confugere, et respi- 
rare paulisper cupiebam, non aliud mihi quicquam 
jucundiusoccurrit, quam vestrum omnium gratissimam 
mihi memoriam, tuique nominatim in mentem revo- 
casse. Id quod ipse jamdiu legisse debes, siquidem 
ad vos carmen illud pervenit, quod ex te nunc primum 
audio. Mittendum ego sane sedulo curaveram, ut 
esset ingenii quantulumcumque, amoris autem adver- 
sum vos mei, vel illis paucis versiculis, emblematis 
ad morem inclusis, testimonium haudquaquam obscu- 
rum. Existimabam etiam fore hoc modo, ut vel te 
vel alium ad scribendum allicerem ; mihi enim si 
prior scriberem, necesse erat, ut vel ad omnes, vel si 
quern aliis praetulissem, verebar ne in caeterorum, 
qui id rescissent, offensionem incurrerem ; cum per- 
multos adhuc superesse istic sperem, qui hoc a me 
officium vendicare certe potuerint. Nunc tu omnium 
primus, et hac amicissima literarum provocatione, et 
scribendi officio ter jam repetito dubitas tibi a me jam- 
pridem respondendi vices reliquorum expostulatione 
liberasti. Quanquam fateor accessisse ad illam silentii 
causam, turbulentissimus iste, ex quo domum reversus 
sum, Britannise nostrae status, qui animum meum 
paulo post ab studiis excolendis, ad vitam et fortunas 
quoquo modo tuendas necessario convertit. Ecquem 
tu inter tot civium commissa praelia, caedes, fugas, 
bonorum direptiones, recessum otio literario tutum dari 
putes posse ? Nos tamen etiam inter haec mala, quo- 
niam de studiis meis certior fieri postulas, sermone 
patrio haud pauca in lucem dedimus ; quae nisi essent 
Anglice scripta, libens ad vos mitterem, quorum judi- 
ciis plurimum tribuo. Poematum quidem quae pars 
Latina est, quoniam expetis, brevi mittam ; atque id 
sponte jamdudum fecissem, nisi quod, propter ea quae 
in pontificem Romanum aliquot paginis asperius dicta 
sunt, suspicabar vestris auribus fore minus grata. 
Nunc abs te peto, ut quam veniam, non dico Aligerio, 
et Petrarchae vestro eadem in causa, sed meae, ut scis, 
olim apud vos loquendi libertati, singulari cum huma- 
nitate, dare consuevistis, eandem impetres (nam de te 
mihi persuasum est) ab caeteris amicis, quoties de ves- 
tris ritibus nostro more loquendum erit. Exequias 
Ludovici regis a te descriptas libenter lego, in quibus 
Mercurium tuum, non compitalem ilium et mercimo- 
niis addictum, quem te nuper colere jocaris, sed facun- 
dum ilium, Musis acceptum, et Mercurialium virorum 
prsesidem, agnosco. Restat ut de ratione aliqua et 
modo inter nos constet, quo literae deinceps nostrae 
certo itinere utrinque commeare possint. Quod non 
admodum difficile videtur, cum tot nostri mercatores 
negotia apud vos, et multa, et ampla habeant, quorum 
tabellarii singulis hebdoraadis ultro citroque cursitant ; 
quorum et navigia haud multo rarius hinc illinc sol- 
vunt. Hanc ego curam Jacobo Bibliopolae, vel ejus 
hero mihi familiarissimo, recte, ut spero, committam. 
Tu interim, mi Carole, valebis, et Cultellino, Francino, 
Fr. snobaldo, Malatestae, Clementillo minori, et si quem 



3 H 



alium nostri amantiorem novisti ; toti denique Gad- 
dianae academioe, salutem meo nomine plurimam dices. 
Interim vale. 

Londino, Aprilis 21. 1647. 

Hermanno Millio, Comitis Oldenburgici Oratori. 

11. Ad literas tuas, nobilissime Hermanne, 17 De- 
cemb. ad me datas, antequam respondeam ; ne me 
silentii tam diutini reum fortassis apud te peragas, 
primum omnium oportet exponam, cur non responderem 
prius. Primum igitur ne nescias, moram attulit, quse 
perpetua jam fere adversatrix mihi est, adversa vale- 
tudo ; deinde valetudinis causa, necessaria quaedam et 
subita in aedes alias migratio, quam eo die forte ince- 
perara, quo tuas ad me literae perferebantur ; postremo 
certe pudor, non habuisse me quicquam de tuo negotio 
quod gratum fore tibi judicabam. Nam cum postridie 
in dominum Frostium casu incidissem, exque eo dili- 
genter quaererem, ecquod tibi responsum etiamnum 
decerneretur ? (ipse enim a concilio valetudinarius 
saepe aberam) respondit, et commotior quidem, nihil 
dum decerni, seque in expedienda re ista nihil profi- 
cere. Satius itaque duxi ad tempus silere, quam id 
quod molestum tibi sciebam fore, extemplo scribere, 
donee, quod ipse vellem, tuque tantopere expetebas, 
libentissime possem scribere ; quod et hodie, uti spero, 
perfeci; nam cum in concilio praesidem de tuo negotio 
semel atque iterum commonefecissem, statim ille retu- 
lit, adeoque in crastinum diem de responso quampri- 
mum tibi dando constituta deliberatio est. Hac de re 
si primus ipse, quod conabar, certiorem te facerem, et 
tibi jucundissimum, et mei in te studii indicium ali- 
quod fore existimabam. 

Westmonasterio. 

Clarissimo Viro Leonardo Philar^e Atheniensi, 
Ducis Parmensis ad Regem Gallia; Legato. 

12. Benevolentiam erga me tuam, ornatissime 
Leonarde Philara, nee non etiam prseclarum de nostra 
pro P. A. Defensione* judicium, ex Uteris tuis ad do- 
minum Augerium, virum apud nos, in obeundis abhac 
republica legationibus, fide eximia illustrem, partim ea 
de re scriptis cognovi: missam deinde salutem cum 
effigie, atque elogio tuis sane virtutibus dignissimo : 
literas denique abs te humanissimas per eundem accepi. 
Atque ego quidem cum nee Germanorum ingenia, ne 
Cymbrorum quidem, aut Suecorum aspernarisoleo, turn 
certe tuum, qui et Athenis Atticis natus, et, literarum 
studiis apud Italos fceliciter peractis, magno rerum usu 
honores amplissimos es consecutus, judicium de me non 
possum quin plurimi faciam. Cum enim Alexander 
ille magnus in terris ultimis bellum gerens, tantos se 
militiae labores pertulisse testatus sit, rrjq Trap X9rjvaiu)v 
kvSoZlag eveica ; quidni ego mihi gratuler, meque ornari 
quam maxime putem, ejus viri laudibus, in quo jam 
uno priscorum Atheniensium artes, atque virtutes illae 
celebratissimae, renasci tam longo intervallo, et reflo- 
rescere videntur. Qua ex urbe cum tot viri disertissimi 

* Pro Populo Anglkano Defensio. 



836 



EPISTOL.E FAMILIARES. 



prodierint, corum potissimum scriptis ab adolescentia 
pervolvendis, didicisse me libens fateor quicquid ego 
in Uteris profeci. Quod si mihi tanta vis dicendi ac- 
cepta ab illis et quasi transfusa inesset, ut exercitus 
nostros et classes ad liberandam ab Ottomannico ty- 
ranno Grecian), eloquentiae patriam, excitare possem, 
ad quod facinus egregium nostras opes pene implorare 
videris, facerera profecto id quo nihil mihi antiquius 
ant in Totis prius esset. Quid enim vel fortissimi olim 
viri, vel eloquentissimi gloriosius aut se diguius esse 
duxerunt, quam vel suadendo vel fortiter faciendo eXev- 
SepgQ teal av-ov6j.isQ TrouivQai rovg "JLWnvag ? Verum et 
aliud quiddam prceterea tentandum est, mea quidem 
sententia longe maximum, ut quis antiquam in animis 
Graecorum virtutem, industriam, laborum tolerantiam, 
antiqua ilia studia dicendo, suscitare atque accendere 
possit. Hoc si quis effecerit, quod a nemine potius 
quam abs te, pro tua ilia insigni erga patriam pietate, 
cum summa prudentia, reique militaris peritia, summo 
denique recuperandae libertatis pristine studio con- 
juncta, expectare debemus; neque ipsos sibi Graecos 
neque ullam gentem Grsecis defuturam esse confido. 
Vale. 

Londino, Jim. 1652. 

ItlCHARDO HETHO. 

13. Si quam eg*o operam, amice spectatissime, vel 
in studiis tuis promovendis, vel in eorum subsidiu com- 
parando, unquam potui conferre, quae sane aut nulla 
plane, aut perexigua fuit; tamen earn in bona indole, 
quamvis serius cognita, tarn bene tamque fceliciter col- 
locatam, baud uno profecto nomine gaudeo; earn etiam 
adeo frugiferam fuisse, ut et ecclesice pastorem probum, 
patriae bonum civem, mihi denique amicum gratissi- 
mum pepererit. Quod equidem, cum ex caetera vita 
tua atque ex eo, quod de religione et simul de repub- 
lica praeclare sentis, turn preecipue ex singulari animi 
tui gratitudine, quae nulla absentia, nullo aetatis de- 
cursu, extingui aut minui potest, facile intelligo. Ne- 
que enim potest fieri, nisi in virtute ac pietate, rerum- 
que optimarum studiis, progressus plusquam mediocres 
fecisses, ut in eos, qui tibi ad ea acquirenda vel mini- 
mum adjumentum attulere, tam grato animo esses. 
Quapropter, mi alumne, hoc enim nomine in te utor li- 
benter, si sinis; sic velim existimes, te cum primis a 
me diligi, nee mihi quicquam optatius fore, quam, si 
tua commoda rationcsque ferrent, quod et tibi etiam in 
votis esse video, ut possis prope me alicubi degere, quo 
frequentior inter nos atque jucundior, et vita? usus et 
studiorum esset. Verum de eo, prout numini visum 
erit, tibique expediverit. Quod scripseris deinceps, 
poteris, si placet, nostro sermone scribere (quanquam tu 
quidem Latinis hand parum profecisti) nequando 
scriptionis labor alterutrum nostrum segniorem forte ad 
scribendum reddiderit, utque sensus animi noster inter 
nos, nullis exteri sermonis vinculis constrictus, eo libe- 
ries expromere se possit. Literas autem tuas cuivis, 
credo, ex ejus famulitio, cujus mentionem fecisti, rec- 
tissime committes. Vale. 

Westmonasterio, Decemb. 13. 1652. 



Henrico Oldenburgo Bremensium ad Sen. A. 
Oratori. 

14. Priores literas tuas, vir ornatissime, turn mihi 
sunt datae, cum tabellarius vester diceretur jamjam re- 
diturus : quo factum est, ut rescribendi eo tempore 
facultas nulla esset : id vero quamprimum facere cogi- 
tantem inopinatse quaedam occupationes excepere ; 
quae nisi accidissent, librum profecto, defensionis licet 
titulo munitum, non ita nudum ad te sine excusatione 
misissem; cum ecce tuae ad me alterae, in quibus pro 
muneris tenuitate satis superque gratiarum sunt acta?. 
Et erat quidem haud semel in animo, Latinis tuis nos- 
tra reponere ; ut qui sermonem nostrum exteris omni- 
bus, quos ego quidem novi accuratius ac fcelicius addi- 
diceris, ne quam occasionem eundem quoque scribendi, 
quod aeque te arbitror accurate posse, amitteres. Verum 
id prout dehinc impetus tulerit, tua perinde optio sit. 
De argumento quod scribis, plane mecum sentis, cla- 
morem istiusmodi ad ccelum sensus omnes humanos 
fugere : quo impudentior sit is, necesse est, qui audisse 
se eum tam audacter affirm av erit. Is autem quis sit, 
scrupulum injecisti : atqui dudum, cum aliquoties hac 
de re essemus inter nos locuti, tuque recens ex Hol- 
landia hue venisses, nulla tibi de authore dubitatio 
subesse videbatur; quin is Moms fuisset : earn nimi- 
rum iis in locis famam obtinuisse, neminem praeterea 
nominari. Si quid igitur hac de re certius nunc de- 
mum habes, me rogo certiorem facias. De argumenti 
tractatione vellem equidem (quid enim dissimulem) abs 
te non dissentire ; id pene ut audeam quid est quod 
persuadere facilius possit, quam virorum, qualis tu es, 
cordatorum sincerum judicium, omnisque expers adu- 
lationis laudatio? Ad alia ut me parem, nescio sane 
an nobiliora aut utiliora (quid enim in rebus humanis 
asserenda libertate nobilius aut utilius esse possit ?) 
siquidem per valetudiuem et banc luminum orbitatem, 
omni senectute graviorem, si denique per hujusmodi 
rabularum clamores licuerit, facile induci potero : ne- 
que enim inersotium unquam mihi placuit, et hoc cum 
libertatis adversariis inopinatum certamen, diversis 
longe, et amcenioribus omnino me studiis intentum, 
ad se rapuit invitum ; ita tamen ut rei gestae, quando 
id necesse erat, nequaquam poeniteat : nam in vanis 
operam consumpsisse me, quod innuere videris, longe 
abest, ut putem. Verum de his alias ; tu tandem, vir 
doctissime, ne te prolixius detineam, vale; meque in 
tuis numera. 

Westmonasterio, Julii 6, 1654. 

Leonardo Philar^e Atheniensi. 

15. Cum sim a pueritia totius Graeci nominis, tua- 
rumque in primis Athenarum cultor, si quis alius, turn 
una hoc semper mihi persuasissimum habebam, fore ut 
ilia urbs proeclaram aliquando redditura vicem esset 
benevolentiae erga se mea?. Neque defuit sane tuae 
patriae nobilissimae antiquus ille genius augurio meo ; 
deditque te nobis et germanum Atticumetnostri araan- 
tissimum : qui me, scriptis duntaxat notum, et locis 



EPISTOL^ FAMILTARES. 



837 



ipse disjunctus, humanissime per literas compellaveris, 
et Londinura postea inopinatus adveniens, visensque 
non videntem, etiam in ea calamitate, propter quam 
conspectior nemini, despectior multis fortasse sim, 
eadem benevolentia prosequaris. Cum itaque author 
mihisis, ut visus recuperandi spem omnem ne abjiciam, 
habere te amicum ac necessarium tuum Parisiis Teve- 
notum medicum, in curandis prsesertim oculis prse- 
stantissimum, quern sis de meis luminibus consulturus, 
si modo acceperis a me unde is causas morbi et symp- 
tomata possit intelligere; faciam equidem quod horta- 
ris, ne oblatara undecunque divinitus fortassis opem 
repudiare videar. Decennium, opinor, plus minus est, 
ex quo debilitari atque hebescere visum sensi, eodem- 
que tempore lienem, visceraque omnia gravari, flati- 
busque vexari : et mane quidem, siquid pro more legere 
ccepissem, oculi statem penitus dolere, lectionemque 
refugere, post mediocrem deinde corporis exercitatio- 
nem recreari ; quam aspexissem lucernam, iris queedam 
visa est redimere : haud ita multo post sinistra in parte 
oculi sinistri (is enim oculus aliquot annis prius altera 
nubilavit) caligo oborta, quae ad latus illud sita erant, 
omnia eripiebat. Anteriora quoque, si dexterum forte 
oculum clausissem, minora visa sunt. Deflciente per 
hoc fere triennium sensim atque paulatim altero quoque 
lumine, aliquot antemensibus quam visus omnis abole- 
retur,quaeimmotusipse cernerem,visa sunt omnia nunc 
dextrorsum, nunc sinistrorsum natare ; frontem totam 
atque tempora inveterati quidem vapores videntur in- 
sedisse ; qui somnolenta quadam gravitate oculos, a 
cibo prsesertim usque ad vesperam, plerunque urgent 
atque deprimunt; ut mihi haud raro veniat in mentem 
Salmydessii vatis Phinei in Argonauticis, 

■ itapoQ dk pnv a[X(psica\inp£v 

7rop(j)vpeOQ' yaiav Se irkpiZ, kSoicrjoa (pepecrScti 
veioSev, a(3\r)xpw <$' ^i K(b[xan /ckXtr' avavdog. 

Sed neque illud omiserim, dum adhuc visus aliquan- 
tum supererat, ut priinum in lecto decubuissem, meque 
in alterutrum latus reclinassem, consuevisse copiosum 
lumen clausis oculis emicare; deinde, imminuto indies 
visu, colores perinde obscuriores cum impetu et fragore 
quodam intimo exilire ; nunc autem, quasi extincto 
lucido, merus nigror, aut cineraceo distinctus, et quasi 
intextus solet se afFundere : caligo tamen quae perpetuo 
obversatur, tarn noctu, quam interdiu, albenti semper 
quam nigricanti propior videtur; et volvente se oculo 
aliquantillum lucis quasi per rimulam admittit. Ex 
quo tametsi medico tantundem quoque spei possit elu- 
cere, tamen ut in re plane insanabili, ita me paro atque 
compono; illudque saepe cogito, cum destinati cuique 
dies tenebrarum, quod monet sapiens multi sint, meas 
adhuc tenebras, singulari Numinis benignitate, inter 
otium et studia, vocesque amicorum, et salutationes, 
illis lethalibus multo esse mitiores. Quod si, ut scrip- 
turn est, non solo pane vivet homo, sed omni verbo pro- 
deunte per os Dei, quid est, cur quis in hoc itidem non 
acquiescat, non solis se oculis, sed Dei ductu an pro- 
videntia satis oculatum esse. Sane dummodo ipse mihi 
prospicit, ipse mihi providet, quod facit, meque per 



omnem vitam quasi manu ducit atque deducit, ne ego 
meos oculos, quandoquidem ipsi sic visum est, libens 
feriari jussero. Teque, mi Philara, quocunque res ceci- 
derit, non minus forti et confirmato animo, quam si Lyn- 
ceus essem, valere jubeo. 

Westmonasierio, Septemh. 28, 1654. 

Leoni ab Aizema. 

16. Pergratum est eandem adhuc memoriam reti- 
nere te mei, quam antea benevolentiam, dum apud nos 
eras, me semel atque iterum invisendo, perhumaniter 
significasti. Ad librum quod attinet de divortiis, quern 
dedisse te cuidam Hollandice vertenclum scribis, mal- 
lem equidem Latine vertendum dedisses : nam vulgus 
opiniones nondum vulgares, quemadmodum excipere 
soleat, in iis libris expertus jam sum. Tres enim ea de 
re tractatus olim scripsi : primum duobus libris, quibus 
doctrina et disciplina divortii, is enim libro titulus est, 
diffuse continetur : alterum qui Tetrachordon inscribi- 
tur, et in quo quatuor praecipua loca scriptures supra 
ea doctrina quas sunt, explicantur : tertium, Colaste- 
rion, in quo cuidam sciolo respondetur. Quern horum 
tractatum vertendum dederis,quamve editionem, nescio; 
nam eorum primus bis editus est, et posteriori editione 
multo auctius. Qua de re nisi certior jam factus sis, 
aut si quid a me aliud velle te intellexero, ut vel edi- 
tionem correctiorem, vel reliquos tractatus tibi mittam, 
faciam sedulo et libenter. Nam mutatum in iis quic- 
quam aut additum non est in praesentia quod velim. 
Itaque si in tua sententia praestiteris, fidum ego mihi 
interpretem, tibi fausta omnia exopto. 

Westmonasterio, Feb. 5, 1654. 

Ezechieli Spanhemio Genevensi. 

17. Nescio quo casu accident, ut literas tuoe post 
paulo minus tres menses mihi sint redditse, quam abs te 
datae : meis profecto expeditiore prorsus ad te com- 
meatu plane est opus; quas dum de die in diem scri- 
bere constituebam, occupationibus quibusdam continuis 
impeditus, in alterum fere trimestre spatium procras- 
tinasse me sentio. Tu vero ex hac mea tarditate re- 
scribendi velim intelligas, benevolentias erga me tuse 
non refrixisse gratiam, sed eo altius insedisse memo- 
riam, quo saepius atque diutius de officio meo vicissim 
tibi reddendo indies cogitabam. Habet hoc saltern 
officii tarda solutio quo se excuset, dum clarius confi- 
tetur deberi, quod tanto post tempore, quam quod 
statim persolvitur. Ilia te imprimis literarum initio 
non fefellit de me opinio ; non mirari si a peregrino 
homine salutor: neque enim rectius de me senseris, 
quam si sic existimes, neminem me verum bonum in 
peregrini aut ignoti numero habere. Talem te esse 
facile mihi persuadetur, cum quod patris doctissimi 
atque sanctissimi es filius, turn quod a viris bonis 
bonus existimaris, turn denique quod odisti malos. 
Cum quibus, quandoquidem mihi quoque bellum esse 
contigit, fecit pro humanitate sua Calandrinus, deque 
mea sententia, ut significant tibi, pergratum mihi fore, 
si contra communem adversarium tua subsidia mecum 



838 



EPISTOL.E FAMILIARES. 



communicasses. Id quod his ipsisliteris perhumaniter 
fecisti, quarum partem, tacito authoris nomine, tuo erga 
me studio confisus, in defensionem meam pro testimo- 
nio inserere non dubitavi. Quern ego librum, ut pri- 
mum in lucem prodierit, si quis erit cui recte possim 
committere, mittendum ad te curabo. Tu interim quas 
ad me Kteras destinaveris, Turrettino Genevensi Lon- 
dini commoranti, cujus illic fratrem nosti, haud frustra, 
puto, inscripseris : per quern ut ad vos hoe nostras, ita ad 
nos vestrae, commodissime pervenerint. De caetero 
scias velim, et te plurimi tuo merito a me fieri, meque 
uti porro abs te diligar, imprimis velle. 
Westmonasterio, Martii 24, 1654. 

Henrico Oldenburgo Bremensium ad Sen. A. 
Oratori. 

18. Occupatiorem repererunt me tuas literas quas 
adolescens Ranaleius attulit, unde cogor esse brevior 
quam vellem : tu vero quas abiens promiseras, eas ita 
probe reddidisti, ut res alienum nemo sanctius ad ca- 
lendas, credo, persolvisset. Secessum istum tibi, 
quamvis mihi fraudi sit, tamen quoniam tibi esse 
voluptati, gratulor; turn illam quoque foelicitatem 
animi tui, quern ab urbano vel ambitione vel otio ad 
sublimium rerum contemplationem tam facile potes at- 
tollere. Quid autem secessus ille conferat, praster li- 
brorum copiam, nescio : et quos illic nactus es studiorum 
socios, eos suopte ingenio potius quam disciplina loci 
tales esse existimem ; nisi forte ob desiderium tui ini- 
quior sum isti loco quia te detinet. Ipse interim recte 
animadvertis, nimis illic multos esse qui suis inanissi- 
mis argutiis tam divina quam humana contaminent, 
ne plane nihil agere videantur dignum tot stipendiis, 
quibus pessimo publico aluntur. Sed tu ista melius 
per te sapis. Tam vetusti a diluvio usque Sinensium 
fasti, quos ab jesuita Marti nio promissos esse scribis, 
propter rerum novitatem avidissime proculdubio expec- 
tantur : verum auctoritatis, aut firmamenti, ad Mosaicos 
libros adjungere quid possint non video. Salutem tibi 
reddit Cyriacus noster, quem salutatum volebas. Vale. 

Westmonasterio, Junii 25, 1656. 

Nobilissimo Adolescenti Richardo Jonesio. 

19. Parantem me semel atque iterum ad proximas 
tuas literas rescribere, subita quasdam negotia, cujus- 
modi mea sunt, ut nosti, prasverterunt: postea excucur- 
risse te in vicina quasdam loca audiveram ; nunc dis- 
cedens in Hyberniam mater tua praestantissima, cujus 
discessu uterque nostrum dolere haud mediocriter de- 
bemus, nam et mihi omnium necessitudinum loco fuit, 
has ad te literas ipsa perfert. Tu vero quod de meo 
erga te studio persuasus es, recte facis; tibique tanto 
plus indies persuadeas velim, quanto plus bonas indo- 
lis, bonaeque frugis in te esse, facis ut intelligam. Id 
quod Deo dante, non solum in te recipis, sed quasi ego 
te sponsione lacessissem, facturum te satisdas atque 
vadaris; et velut judicium pati et judicatum solvere ni 
facias, non recusas : delector sane hac tua de temetipso 
tam bona spe; cui nunc deesse non potes; quin simul 



non promissis modo tuis non stetisse, verum etiani va- 
dimonium ipse tuum deseruisse videare. Quod scribis 
non displicere tibi Oxonium, ex eo profecisse te quic- 
quam aut sapientiorem esse factum, non adducis ut 
credam : id mihi longe aliis rebus ostendere debebis. 
Victorias principum quas laudibus tollis, et res ejus- 
modi in quibus vis plurimum potest, nolim te philoso- 
phos jam audientem nimis admirari. Quid enim mag- 
nopere mirandum est, si vervecum in patria valida nas- 
cantur cornua, quae urbes et oppida arietare valentissime 
possint ? Tu magna exempla non ex vi et robore, sed ex 
justitia et temperantia ab ineunte aetate ponderare jam 
disce atque cognoscere: vale; meoque fac nomine, sa- 
lutem ornatissimo viro Henrico Oldenburgo tuo con- 
tubernali plurimam dicas. 
Westm. Sept. 21, 1656. 

Ornatissimo Adolescenti Petro Heimbachio. 

20. Promissa tua, mi Heimbachi, cseteraque omnia, 
quas tua virtus pras se fert, cumulate implevisti, praster- 
quam desiderium meum reditus tui quem intra duos ad 
summum menses fore pollicebaris ; nunc, nisi me tem- 
poris ratio tui cupidum fallit, trimestris pene abes. 
De Atlante, quod abs te petebam, abunde praestitisti ; 
non ut mihi comparares, sed tantummodo ut pretium 
libri minimum indagares : centum et triginta Florenos 
postulari scribis; montem ilium opinor Mauritanum, 
non librum Atlantem, dicis tam immani pretio coemen- 
dum. Ea nunc etiam typographorum in excudendis 
libris luxuries est, ut bibliothecas non minus quam villae 
sumptuosa supellex jam facta videatur. Mihi certe 
cum pictas tabulas ob cascitatem usui esse vix possint, 
dum orbem terras frustra cascis oculis perlustro, quanti 
ilium librum emissem, vereor ne tanti videar lugere 
potius orbitatem meam. Tu banc insuper impendas 
mihi operam, rogo, ut cum reversus eris, certiorem me 
facere queas, quot sint integri operis illius volumina, 
et duarumeditionum,Blavianas videlicet et Jansenianas, 
utra sit auctior et accuratior: id quod ex teipso jam 
brevi redituro potius quam ex alteris literis, coram au- 
diturum me esse spero. Interim vale, teque nobis 
quamprimum redde. 

Westm. Novemb. 8, 1656. 

Ornatissimo Viro Emerico Bigotio. 



21. Quod in Angliam trajicienti tibi dignus sum 
visus, quem piaster caeteros visendum duceres et salu- 
tandum, fuit sane mihi et merito quidem gratum ; quod 
per literas tanto etiam intervallo nunc denuo salutas, 
id aliquanto fuit gratius. Poteras enim primo aliorum 
fortassis opinione ductus ad me venisse, per literas nunc 
redire, nisi proprio judicio vel saltern benevolentia re- 
ductus, vix poteras. Unde est sane, u t posse videar jure 
mihi gratulari : multi enim scriptis editis floruere, 
quorum viva vox et consuetudo quotidiana nihil fere 
prastulitnon demissum atque vulgare: ego si id assequi 
possum, ut si qua commode scripsi, iis par animo ac 
moribus esse videar ; et pondus ipse scriptis addidero, 
et laudem vicissim, quantulacunque ea est, eo tamen 



EPISTOL^E FAMILIARES. 



839 



majorem ab ipsis retulero ; cum rectum et laudabile 
quod est, id non mag-is ab authoribus praestantissimis 
accepisse, quam ab intimo sensu mentis atque animi 
depromisisse purum atque sincerum videbor. De mea 
igitur animi tranquillitate in hoc tanto luminis detri- 
mento, deque mea in excipiendis exteris hominibus 
comitate ac studio, persuasum tibi esse gaudeo. Orbi- 
tatem certe luminis quidni leniter feram, quod non tarn 
amissum quam revocatum intus atque retractum, ad 
acuendam potius mentis aciem quam ad hebetandam, 
sperem. Quo fit, ut neque literis irascar, nee earum 
studio penitus intermittam, etiamsi me tam male mul- 
taverint : tam enim morosus ne sim, Mysorum regis 
Telephi saltern exemplum erudiit ; qui eo telo, quo vul- 
neratus est, sanari postea non recusavit. Quod ad 
ilium librum de modo tenendi parlamenta quem apud 
te babes, ejus designata loca ex codice clarissimi viri 
Domini Bradsciavi, nee non ex codice Cottoniano, vel 
emendanda, vel dubia si erant, confirmanda curavi ; ut 
ex reddita hie tibi tua chartula perspicies. Quod autem 
scire cupis, num etiam in arce Londinensi autographum 
hujus libri extet, misi qui id quaereret ex feciali, cui ac- 
torum custodia mandata est, et quo ipse utor familiari- 
ter : respondit is, nullum exemplar illius libri iis in 
monumentis extare. Tu vicissim quam mihi operam 
defers in re libraria procuranda, pergratum habeo ; 
desunt mihi ex Bysantinis historiis, Theophanis Chro- 
nographia Graec. Lat. fol. Constant. Manassis Breviari- 
um Historicum, et Codini Excerpta de Antiquit. C. P. 
Graec. Lat. fol. Anastasii Bibliothecarii Hist, et VitaB 
Rom. Pontific. fol. quibus Michaelem Glycam, et Joan- 
nem Sinnamum, Annas Comnenae Continuatorem,exea- 
dem typographia, si modo prodierunt, rogo adjicias : 
quam queas minimonon addo ; cum quod, id ut te rao- 
neam hominem frugalissimum, non est opus, turn quod 
pretium eorum librorum certum esse aiunt, et om- 
nibus notum : nummos D. Stuppius numerato se tibi 
curaturum recepit, nee non etiam de vectura, quae sit 
commodissima, provisurum. Ego vero quae tu vis, 
quaeque optas, cupio tibi omnia. Vale. 
Westmonasterio, Martii 24. 1656. 

Nobili Adolescenti Richardo Jonesio. 

22. Tardius multo accepi literas tuas quam abs te 
datae sunt, post quindecim puto dies quam sepositae 
alicubi apud matrem delituissent. Ex quibus tandem 
studium erga me tuum gratique animi sensum liben- 
tissime cognovi : mea certe erga te benevolentia moni- 
taque fidissima, neque optimae matris tuae de me 
opinioni atque fiduciae, neque indoli tuae unquam 
defuere. Est quidem, ut scribis, amoenitatis atque 
salubritatis eo in loco, quo nunc recessisti, est et libro- 
rum quod academiae satis esse possit ; si ad ingenium 
incolarum tantum conferret ista soli amoenitas quan- 
tum ad delicias confert, ad foelicitatem illius loci nihil 
deesse videretur. Et bibliotheca etiam illic instructis- 
sima est; verum nisi studiosorum mentes disciplinis 
optimis instructiores inde reddantur, apothecam libro- 
rum illam quam bibliothecam rectius dixeris. Opor- 
tere itaque ad haec omnia discendi animum atque in- 



dustriam accedere percommode sane agnoscis. Tu ex 
ista sententia, nequando tecum agere necesse habeam, 
etiam atque etiam vide ; id facillimo negotio evitabis, 
si ornatissimi viri Henrici Oldenburgi qui tibi praesto 
est, gravissimis atque amicissimis praeceptis diligenter 
parueris. Vale mi Richarde dilectissime, et ad virtu- 
tem ac pietatem, matris praestantissimae foeminae ex- 
emplo, veluti Timotheum alterum, sinito te adhorter 
atque accendam. 
Westmonasterio. 

Illustrissimo Domino Henrico de Brass. 

23. Video te, domine, id quod perpauci ex hodierna 
juventute faciunt, qui oras exteras perlustrant, non 
juvenilium studiorum sed amplioris undique compa- 
randae eruditionis causa, veterum exemplo philosopho- 
rum, recte et sapienter peregrinari. Quanquam ea 
quae scribis quoties intueor, ad eruditionem non tam 
aliunde capiendam, quam aliis impertiendam, ad com- 
mutandas potius, quam ad coemendas bonas merces, 
accessisse ad exteros videris. Atque utinam mihi tam 
facile esset, ista tua praeclara studia rebus omnibus 
adjuvare ac promovere, quam est jucundum sane et 
pergratum tuam egregiam indolem id a me petere. 
Quod scribis tamen statuisse te ut ad me scriberes, 
meaque responsa peteres ad eas difficultates enuclean- 
das, circa quas a multis saeculis historiarum scriptores 
videntur caligasse, nihil equidem hujusmodi neque 
unquam mihi sumpsi, neque ausim sumere. De Sal- 
lustio quod scribis, dicam libere, quoniam ita vis plane 
ut dicam quod sentio, Sallustium cuivis Latino histo- 
rico me quidem anteferre ; quae etiam constans fere 
antiquorum sententia fuit. Habet suas laudes tuus 
Tacitus; sed eas meo quidem judicio maximas, quod 
Sallustium nervis omnibus sit imitatus. Cum haec te- 
cum coram dissererem, perfecisse videor, quantum ex 
eo quod scribis conjicio, ut de illo cordatissimo scrip- 
tore ipse jam idem prope sentias: adeoque ex me 
quaeris, cum is in exordio belli Catilinarii perdifficile 
esse dixerit historiam scribere, propterea quod facta 
dictis exaequanda sunt, qua potissimum ratione id 
assequi historiarum scriptorem posse existimem. Ego 
vero sic existimo ; qui gestas res dignas digne scrip- 
serit, eum animo non minus magno rerumque usu prae- 
ditum scribere oportere, quam is qui eas gesserit: ut 
vel maximas pari animo comprehendere atque metiri 
possit, et comprehensas sermone puro atque casto dis- 
tincte graviterque narrare : nam ut ornate, non admo- 
dum laboro; historicum enim, non oratorem requiro. 
Crebras etiam sententias, et judicia de rebus gestis in- 
terjecta prolixe nollem, ne, interrupta rerum serie, 
quod politici scriptoris munus est historicus invadat ; 
qui si in consiliis explicandis, factisque enarrandis, non 
suum ingenium aut conjecturam, sed veritatcm potissi- 
mum sequitur, suarum profecto partium satagit. Ad- 
diderim et illud Sallustianum, qua in re ipse Cato- 
nem maxime laudavit, posse multa paucis absolvere; 
id quod sine acerrimo judicio, atque etiam tempc- 
rantia quadam neminem posse arbitror. Sunt multi 
in quibus vel sermonis elegantiam, vel congestarum 



840 



EPISTOL.E FAMILIARES. 



rerum copiam non desideres ; qui brevitatem cum 
copia conjunxerit, id est, qui multa paucis absolvent, 
princeps raeo judicio Latiuorum est Sallustius. Has 
ego virtutes historico iuesse putem oportere, qui facta 
dictis exsequaturum se speret. Verum quid ego tibi 
ista? ad quce tu ipse, quo es ingenio, per te sufficis; 
quique earn ingressus es viam, in qua si pergis, nemi- 
nem te ipso doctiorem poteris brevi consulere : et uti 
pergas, quanquam tibi hortatu non opus est cujusquam, 
ne omnino tamen nihil pro expectatione tua respon- 
disse videar, quantum valere me auctoritate apud te 
sinis, hortor magnopere atque auctor sum. Vale, 
tuaque virtute et sapientiae acquirendae studio macte 
esto. 

Westmonasterio, Idibus Quint il. 1657. 

Henrico Oldenburgo. 

24. Quod Salmurium pcregrinationis vestroc, ut puto, 
sedem incolumes pervenistis, gaudeo : hoc enim te non 
fefellit, id mihi imprimis gratissimum fore ; utqui et te 
merito tuo diligam, et suscepti itineris causam tam esse 
honestam atque laudabilemsciam. Quod autem audisti 
accersitum ecclesiae tam illustri erudiendee Antistitem 
tam infamem, id mallem quivis alius in Charon tis, 
quam tu in Charentonis cymba audisses : verendum 
enim est valde, ne toto ccelo devius frustretur, quisquis 
tam foedo auspice perventurum se unquam ad superos 
putat. Vae illi ecclesise (Deus modo avertat omen) ubi 
tales ministri aurium causa potissimum placent, quos 
ecclesia, si reformata vere vult dici, ejiceret rectius 
quam cooptaret. Quod scripta nostra nemini nisi pos- 
centi impertisti, recte tu quidem et eleganter, neque ex 
mea solum, sed etiam ex Horatiana sententia fecisti ; 

Ne studio nostri pecces, odiumque libel lis 
Sedulus importes opera vehemente. 

Commorabatur vir doctus quidam, familiaris meus, 
superiore restate Salmurii; is ad me scripsit, librum 
ilium iis in locis expeti : unum exemplar duntaxat 
misi; rescripsit, placitum esse aliquod doctis, quibus- 
cum corumunicaverat, ut nihil supra. Nisi iis rem gra- 
tam facturum me fuisse existimassem, parsissem utique 
et tuo oneri et sumptui meo. Verum, 

Si te forte meoe gravis uret sarcina chartse, 
Abjicito potius, quam, quo perferre juberis, 
Clitellas ferus impingas, 

Laurentio nostro, ut jussisti, salutem nomine tuo dixi: 
de ccetero, nihil est quod abs te prius agi, priusve 
curare velim, quam ut tu atque alumnus tuus recte 
valeatis, votorumque compotes ad nos quamprimum 
rcdeatis. 

Westmonasterio, Calend. Sextil. 1657. 

Nobili Adolescenti Richardo Jonesio. 

25. Confecisse te sine incommodo tam longum iter, 
et spretis Lutetiarum illccebris, tanta ccleritate e6 con- 
tcndisse, ubi literate otio, doctorumq. consuetudine frili 
possis, et magnopere Isetor, et te tuae indolis laudo. 



Illic quoad te continebis in portu eris ; Sjrtes et Sco- 
pulos, et Sirenum cantus alias tibi cavendum. Quin et 
vindemiam, qua oblectare te cogitas, Salmuriensem 
nimium satire te nolim, nisi in animo quoque sit, mus- 
tum illud Liberi liberiore Musarum latice quinta plus 
parte diluere. Verum ad hasc, me etiam tacente, hor- 
tatorem habes eximium, quem si audis, tibimet profecto 
optime consulueris, et prtestantissimam parentem tuam 
summo gaudio, et crescente indies amore tui affeceris. 
Quod uti facere possis, a Deo Opt. Max. petere quoti- 
die debes. Vale, et ad nos quam optimus, bonisque 
artibus quam cultissimus, fac redeas : id mihi prater 
cseteros jucundissimum erit. 
Westm. Calend. Sextil. 1657. 

Illustrissimo Domino Henrico de Brass. 

26. Impeditus per hosce dies occupationibus qui- 
busdam, illustrissime Domine, serius rescribo quam 
volebam. Volebam enim eo citius, quod literas tuas 
multa jam nunc eruditione plenas, non tam prsecipiendi 
tibi quicquam (id quod a me honoris credo mei, non 
usus tui causa postulas) quam gratulandi duntaxat, 
reliquisse mihi locum videbam. Gratulor auemt et 
mihi imprimis foelicitatem meam, qui Sallustii senten- 
tiam ita commode explicasse videar, et tibi tam assi- 
duam illius auctoris sapientissimi tanto cum fructu 
lectionem. De quo idem tibi ausim confirmare quod 
de Cicerone Quintilianus, sciat se haud parum in re 
historica profecisse cui placeat Sallustius. Illud autem 
Aristotelis prseceptum ex rhetoricorum tertio quod 
explicatum cupis, sententiis utendum est in narratione 
et in fide, moratum enim est; non video quid habeat 
magnopere explicandum, modo ut narratio et fides, 
quae et probatio dici solet, ea hie intelligatur, qua 
rhetor, non qua historicus utitur : diversoe enim sunt 
partes rhetoris et historici, sive narrant, sive probant ; 
quemadmodum et artes ipsoe inter se diversse sunt. 
Quid autem conveniat historico, ex auctoribus antiquis 
Polybio, Halicarnassaeo, Diodoro, Cicerone, Luciano, 
aliisque multis, qui eadere prsecepta quaedam sparsim 
tradidere, rectius didiceris. Ego vero et studiis tuis 
et itineribus secunda omnia atque tuta exopto, dignos- 
que successus eo animo ac diligentia, quam rebus 
quibusque optimis adhibere te video. Vale. 

Westm. Decemb . 16, 1657. 

Ornatissimo Viro Petro Heimbachio. 

27. Literas tuas Haga comitis dat. 18 Dec. accepi : 
ad quas, quoniam id tuis rationibus expedire video, 
eodem die, quo mihi sunt redditse, rescribendum putavi. 
In iis post gratias actas ob beneficia nescio quae mea, 
qure vellem sane non essent nulla, ut qui tua causa 
quidvis cupiam, petis ut te per D. Laurentium oratori 
nostro in Hollandiam designate commendarem : quod 
quidem doleo in me situm non esse ; cum propter pau- 
cissimas familiaritates meas cum gratiosis, qui domi 
fere, idque libenter me contineo ; turn quod is credo, 
e portu jam solvit, jamque adventat, secumque habet 
in comitatu quem sibi ab epistolis vult esse, quod tu 



EPISTOL^ FAMILIARES. 



841 



munus apud eum petis. Verum in ipso discessu jam 
tabellarius est. Vale. 

Westmonasterio, Decemb. 18, 1657. 

Joanni BadIjEO Pastori Arausionensi. 

28. Quod tardius ad te rescribo, vir clarissime et 
reverende, non recusabit, credo, noster Durseus, quo 
minus tardioris culpam rescriptionis a me in ipsum 
transferam. Postea enim quam schedulse illius, quam 
mihi recitatam volebas, de iis quae Evangelii causa 
egisses atque perpessus esses, copiam mihi fecit, non 
distuli parare has ad te literas ut ei darem tabellario, 
qui primus discessisset, sollicitus quam in partem silen- 
tiura meum tam diutuinum interpretarere. Maximam 
interim habeo gratiam Molinseo vestro Nemausensi, 
qui suis de me sermonibus et amicissima prsedicatione, 
tot per ea loca bonorum virorum me in gratiam immisit. 
Et sane quanquam non sum nescius, me vel eo quod 
cum adversario tanti nominis publice jussus certamen 
non detrectaverim, vel propter argumenti celebritatem, 
vel denique scribendi genus longe lateque satis inno- 
tuisse ; sic tamen existimo, me tantundem duntaxat 
habere famfe, quantum habeo bonae existimationis apud 
bonos. Atque in eadem te quoque esse sententia, 
plane video ; qui veritatis Christianse studio atque 
amore accensus, tot labores pertuleris, tot hostes susti- 
nueris; eaque quotidie fortiter facias, quibus tantum 
abest, ut ullam ab improbis famam tibi quseras, ut 
eorum certissima odia et maledicta in te concitare non 
verearis. O te beatum ! quern Deus unum ex tot mil- 
libus virorum, alioqui sapientum atque doctorum, ex 
ipsis inferorum portis ac faucibus ereptum, ad tam 
iusignem atque intrepidam Evangelii sui professio- 
nera evocavit. Et habeo nunc quidem cur putem Dei 
voluntate singulari factum, ut ad te citius non rescri- 
berim : cum enim intelligerem ex Uteris tuis, te ab 
infestis undique hostibus petitum atque obsessum, 
circumspicere, et merito quidem, quo te posses in ex- 
tremo discrimine, si itares tulisset, recipere, et Angliam 
tibi in primis placuisse, gaudebam equidem non uno 
nomine, te id consilii cepisse ; cum tui potiundi spe, 
turn te de mea patria tam praeclare sentire : illud dole- 
bam, non turn vidisse me unde tibi hie apud nos prse- 
sertim Anglice nescienti, pro eo ac deceret prospectum 
esset posset. Nunc vero peropportune accidit ut mi- 
nister quidam Gallicus aetate confectus, ante paucos 
dies e vita migraverit. In ista ecclesia qui plurimum 
possunt, teque illis in locis non satis tuto versari intel- 
ligunt (non hoc incertis rumoribus collectum, sed ex 
ipsis auditum refero) cooptatum te illius ministri in lo- 
cum summopere cupiunt, immo invitant; sumptusque 
itineris suppeditandos tibi decreverunt; atque ita tibi 
de re familiari provisum iri pollicentur, ut ministrorum 
apud nos Gallicorum nemini melius ; nee tibi quic- 
quam defore, quod ad munus evangelicum apud se li- 
benter obeundum possit conducere. Quare advola 
quamprimum, si me audis, vir reverende, ad cupidissi- 
mos tui, messem hie messurus, etsi commodorum hujus 
mundi fortasse non ita uberem, tamen, quam tui similis 
potissimum exoptant, animarum, utspcro, numcrosam : 



tibique persuadeas, te viris bonis omnibus expectatis- 
simum esse venturum ; et quanto citius, tanto gra- 
tiorem. Vale. 

Westmonasterio, April. 21, 1659. 

Henrico Oldenburgo. 

29. Silentii, quam petis veniam tui, dabis potius 
mei ; cujus erant, si memini, respondendi vices. Me 
certe non imminuta erga te voluntas, hoc enimpersua- 
sissimum tibi esse velim, sed vel studia, vel curae do- 
mesticse impediverant, vel ipsa fortasse ad scribendum 
pigritia, intermissi officii reum f acit. Quod scire cupis, 
valeo equidem, Deojuvante, ut soleo : ab historia nos- 
trorum motuum concinnanda,quod hortari videris, longe 
absum ; sunt enim silentio digniores quam prseconio : 
nee nobis qui motuum historiam concinnare, sed qui 
motus ipsos componere feliciter possit, est opus: tecum 
enim vereor ne libertatis ac religionis hostibus nunc 
nuper sociatis, nimis opportuni inter has nostras civiles 
discordias vel potius insanias, videamur; verum non 
illi gravius, quam nosmetipsi jamdiu flagitiis nostris, 
religioni vulnus intulerint. Sed Deus, uti spero, prop- 
ter se gloriamque suam, quae nunc agitur, consilia im- 
petusque hostium ex ipsorum sententia succedere non 
sinet, quicquid reges et cardinales turbarum mediten- 
tur aut struant. Synodo interea protestantium Lao- 
dunensi, propediem, ut scribis, convocandre, precor id, 
quod nulli adhuc synodo contigit, foelicem exitum, non 
Nazianzenicum; foelicem autem huic nunc satis futu- 
rum, si nihil aliud decreverit, quam ejiciendum esse 
Morum. De adversario posthumo simul ac prodierit, 
fac me, rogo, primo quoque tempore certiorem. Vale. 

Westmon. Decemb. 20, 1659. 

Nobili Adolescenti Richardo Jonesio. 

30. Quod longo intervallo ad me scribis, modestis- 
sime tu quidem te excusas, qui possis ejusdem delicti 
me rectius accusare : uthaud sciam profecto utrum non 
deliquisse te, an sic excusasse, maluerim. Illud tibi in 
mentem cave veniat ; me gratitudinem tuam, si qua 
mihi abs te debetur, literarum assiduitate metiri : turn 
te gratissimum adversus me esse sensero, cum mea erga 
te quas prsedicas merita, non tam in literis crebris, quam 
in optimis perpetuo studiistuis ac laudibusapparebunt. 
Viam virtutis quidem, in illo orbis terrarum gymnasio 
quod es ingressus, recte fecisti ; sed viam scito illam 
virtutis ac vitii communem ; illuc progrediendum, ubi 
via in bivium se scindit. Teque sic compararejam 
nunc mature debes, ut relicta hac communi, amoena ac 
florida, illam arduam ac difficilem, qui solius virtutis 
clivus est, tua sponte libentius, etiam cum labore ac 
periculo, possis ascendere. Id tu prse aliis multo faci- 
lius, mihi crede, poteris, qui tam fidum ac peritum nac- 
tus es itineris ducem. Vale. 

West. Decemb. 20, 1659. 



842 



EPISTOUE FAMILIARES. 



Oniatissimo Viro Petro Heimbachio, Electoris 
Brandenburgici Consiliario. 

31. Si inter tot funerapopularium meorum, anno tarn 
gravi ac pestilenti, abreptum me quoque, ut scribis, ex 
rumoreprcesertiraaliquo credidisti,mirum nonest; atque 
ille rumor apud vestros, ut videtur, homines, si ex eo 
quod de salute mea soliciti essent, increbuit, non dis- 
plicet ; indicium enim suse erga me benevolentise fuisse 
existimo. Sed Dei benignitate, qui tutum mihi recep- 
tum in agris paraverat, et vivo adhuc et valeo ; utinam 
ne inutilis, quicquid muneris in hac vita restat mihi 
peragendum. Tibi vero tam longo intervallo venisse 
in mentem mei, pergratum est; quanquam, prout rem 
verbis exornas, prsebere aliquem suspicionem videris, 
oblitum mei te potius esse, qui tot virtutum diversarum 
conjugium in me, ut scribis, admirere. Ego certe ex 



tot conjug-iis numerosam nimis prolem expavescerem, 
nisi constaret in re arcta, rebusque duris, virtutes ali 
maxime et vigere : tametsi earum una non ita belle 
charitatem hospitii mihi reddidit : quam enim politicam 
tu vocas, ego pietatem in patriam dictam abs te mal- 
lem, ea me pulchro nomine delinitum prope, ut ita di- 
cam, expatriavit. Reliquarum tamen chorus clare con- 
cinit. Patria est, ubicunque est bene. Finem faciam, 
si hoc prius abs te impetravero, ut, si quid mendose de- 
scriptum aut non interpunctum repereris, id puero, qui 
haec excepit, Latine prorsus nescienti velis imputare; 
cui singulas plane literulas annumerare non sine mise- 
ria dictans cogebar. Tua interim viri merita, quern 
ego adolescentem spei eximiae cognovi, ad tam hones- 
tum in principis gratia provexisse te locum, gaudeo, 
cseteraque fausta omnia et cupio tibi, et spero. Vale. 
Londini, Aug. 15. 1666. 



JOANNIS MILTONII 



PROLUSIONES QU^DAM ORATORIO 



IN COLLEGIO, &c. 



[first published 1674.] 



Utrum Dies an Nox prcestantior sit P 

Scriptum post se reliquere passim nobilissimi qui- 
que rhetoricae magistri, quod nee vos praeteriit, Acade- 
mici, in unoquoque dicendi genere, sive demonstrative, 
sive deliberativo, sive judiciali, ab aucupanda audito- 
rum gratia exordium duci oportere ; alioqui nee per- 
moveri posse auditorum animos, nee causam ex sen- 
tentia succedere. Quod si res ita est, quam sane, ne 
vera dissimulem, eruditorum omnium consensu fixum 
ratumque novi, miserum me! ad quantas ego hodie 
redactus sum angustias ! qui in ipso orationis limine 
vereor ne aliquid prolaturus sim minime oratorium, et 
ab officio oratoris primo et praecipuo necesse habeam 
abscedere. Etenim qui possim ego vestram sperare be- 
nevolentiam, cum in hoc tanto concursu, quot oculis 
intueor tot ferme aspiciam infesta in me capita; adeo 
ut orator venisse videar ad non exorabiles. Tantum 
potest ad simultates etiam in scholis aemulatio, vel di- 
versa studia, vel in eisdem studiis diversa judicia se- 
quentium ; ego vero solicitus non sum, 

Ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem praetulerint ; nugse. 

Veruntamen ne penitus despondeam animum, sparsim 
video, ni fallor, qui mihi ipso aspectu tacito, quam 
bene velint, haud obscure significant; a quibus etiam 
quantumvis paucis, equidem probari malo quam ab 
innumeris imperitorum centuriis, in quibus nihil men- 
tis, nihil rectae rationis, nihil sani judicii inest, ebul- 
lienti quadam et plane ridenda verborum spuma sese 
venditantibus ; a. quibus si emendicatos ab novitiis 
authoribus centones dempseris, Deum immortalem ! 
quanto nudiores Leberide conspexeris, et exhausta inani 
vocabulorum et sententiuncularum supellectile, pride 
ypv <pQayyE<rSai, perinde mutos ac ranuncula Seriphia. 
At 6 quam segre temperaret a risu vel ipse, si in vivis 
esset, Heraclitus, si forte hosce cerneret, si Diis placet, 
oratorculos, quos paulo ante audiverit cothurnato Euri- 



pidis Oreste, aut furibundo sub mortem Hercule gran- 
diora eructantes, exhausto tandem vocularum quarun- 
dam tenuissimo penu, posito incedere supercilio, aut 
retractis introrsum cornibus, velut animalcula quaedam 
abrepere. Sed recipio me paululum digressus. Si 
quis igitur est qui, spreta pacis conditione, aoirovtiov 
7ro\£fiov mihi indixerit, eum ego quidem in praesentia 
non dedignabor orare et rogare, ut semota paulisper 
simultate, aequabilis adsit certaminis hujus arbiter; 
neve oratoris culpa, si qua est, causam quam optimam 
et praeclarissimam in invidiam vocet. Quod si mor- 
daciora paulo haec et aceto perfusa nimio putaveritis, 
id ipsum de industria fecisse me profiteer : volo enim 
ut initium orationis meae primulum imitetur dilucu- 
lum ; ex quo subnubilo serenissima fere nascitur dies. 
Quae an nocte prsestantior sit, haud vulgaris utique 
agitatur controversia, quam quidem mearum nunc est 
partium, auditores, pensique hujus matutini, accurate 
et radicitus excutere ; quam vis et haec prolusioni po- 
eticae, quam decertationi oratorias, magis videatur ido- 
nea : at at noctemne dixi cum die struxisse lites ? 
Quid hoc rei est ? quaenam haec molitio ? numnam 
antiquum Titanes redintegrant bellum, Phlegraei praelii 
instaurantes reliquias ? an terra novam in superos deos 
enixa est portentosae magnitudinis prolem ? an vero 
Typhceus injectam iEtnae montis electatus est molem? 
an denique, decepto Cerbero, catenis adamantinis sub- 
duxit se Briareus ? quid est aliquando tandem, quod 
deos manes ad ccelestis imperii spem jam tertio erexe- 
rit ? adeone contemnendum Jovis fulmen? adeon' pro 
nihilo putanda Palladis invicta virtus, qua tantam olim 
inter terrigenas fratres edidit stragem ? exciditne animo 
insignis ille per coeli templa Liberi patris ex profliga- 
tis gigantibus triumphus ? neutiquam sane : meminit 
ilia probe, nee sine lachrymis, consternates plerosque a 
Jove fratres superstitesque caeteros usque ad penitissi- 
mos inferorum recessus in fugam actos ; et certe jam 
nihil minus quam bellum adornat trepida, querelam 
potius et lites instruit, atque pro more mulierum post 



844 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



rem unguibus et pugnis fortiter gestam ad colloquium 
seu verius ad rixam venit, periclitura, opinor, linguane 
plus an armis valeat. Atvero quam inconsulto, quam 
arroganter, quamque debili causae titulo prae die sum- 
mam rerum ambiat, expedire festino. Video siquidem 
et ipsam diem g-alli cantu expergefactam, cursu solito 
citation adproperasse ad suas laudes exaudiendas. Et 
quoniam unusquisque hoc imprimis ad honores et de- 
cus conferre arbitratur, si ab generosis natal ibus et 
prisco regum vel deorum sanguine oriundum se com- 
pererit. Videndum primo utra genere sit clarior, mox 
quaenam antiquitate honoratior ; dein haec an ilia 
ham an is usibus accommodatius inserviat. Apud ve- 
tustissimos itaque mytbologiae scriptores memoriae 
datum repcrio, Demogorgonem deorum omnium ata- 
vum (quern eundem et Chaos ab antiquis nuncupatum 
hariolor) inter alios liberos, quos sustulerat plurimos, 
Terram genuisse ; hac, incerto patre, noctem fuisse 
prognatam ; quamvis paulo aliter Hesiodus earn chao- 
genitam velit hoc monasticho, 

'E£ x« £0 C ^ 'Epf/36<r£ fxeXaivd ts vv'i lykvovro. 

Hanc, quocunque natam, cum adoleverat ad aetatem 
nuptiis maturam, poscit sibi uxorem Phanes pastor; 
annuente matre, refrag'atur ilia, negatque se ignoti 
viri et nusquam visi, moribusque insuper tarn longe 
diversis concubitum inituram. Repulsam Phanes 
aegre ferens, verso in odium amore, nigellam hanc 
Telluris filiam per omnes orbis terrarum tractus ad 
necem sequitur indignabundus. Ilia vero quem aman- 
tem sprevit, eum hostem non minus tremit ; propterea 
ne apud ultimas quidem nationes, et disjuncta quam 
maxime loca, immo ne in ipso sinu parentis satis se 
tutam rata, ad incestos Erebi fratris amplexus furtim 
et clanculum se corripit; timore simul gravi soluta, 
maritumque nacta proculdubio sui similem. Hoc ita- 
que tarn venusto conjugum pari iEther et Dies perhi- 
bentur editi, ut author est idem,cujus supra mentionem 
fecimus, Hesiodus. 

"Nvktoq 8' avr* ai9r)QT£ Kai rjfjispa e^eyevovro, 
Ovq re KiKvaaa uevrj 'Ep£/3a fiXortjTi fiiyiioa. 

At enim vetant humaniores musae, ipsa etiam prohibet 
philosophia diis proxima, ne minus poetis deorum figulis, 
praesertim Graecanicis, omni ex parte habeamus fidem; 
nee quisquam iis hoc probro datum pulet, quod in re 
tanti momenti authores videantur vix satis locupletes. 
Si quis enim eorum aliquantillum deflexerit a vero, id 
non tam ingeniis eorum assignandum, quibus nihil 
divinius, quam pravaeetcaecutienti ejus aatatis ignoran- 
tiae,qua3 tunc tempestatis pcrvadebat omnia. Abundc 
sane laudis hinc sibi adepti sunt, affatim gloriae, quod 
homines in sylvis atque montibus dispalatos belluarum 
ad instar, in unum compulerint locum, et civitates con- 
stituerint, quodque omnes disciplinas quotquot hodie 
traduntur, lepidis fabellarum involucris obvestitas pleni 
Deo primi docuerint ; eritque hoc solum iisdem ad as- 
scquendam nominis immortalitatem non ignobile sane 
subsidium, quod artium scientiam feliciter inchoatam 
postcris absolvendam reliquerint. 



Noli igitur, quisquis es, arrogantioe me temere dam- 
nare, quasi ego jam veterum omnium poetarum decreta, 
nulla nixus authoritate, perfregerim aut immutaverim ; 
neque enim id mihi sumo, sed ea tantummodo ad nor- 
mam rationis revocare conor, exploraturus hoc pacto 
num rigidoe possint veritatis examen pati. Quocirca 
primo noctem Tellure ortam erudite quidem et eleganter 
fabulata est antiquitas ; quid enim aliud mundo noctem 
obd ucit quam densa et impervia terra, solis lumini 
nostroque horizonti interposita ? quod earn deinde nunc 
patrimam, fuisse negant mythologi, nunc matrimam, 
id quoque festiviter fictum ; inde siquidem recte colli- 
gitur spuriam fuisse aut subdititiam, aut demum pa- 
rentes prolem tam famosam et illiberalem prae pudore 
non agnovisse. At vero cur existimarent Phanetem 
ilium mirifica supra modum humanum facie, noctem 
iEthiopissam et monogrammam etiam in matrimonium 
adamasse, arduum impense negotium videtur e vestigio 
divinare, nisi quod foeminarum insignis admodum id 
temporispaucitasdelectum suppeclitaret nullum. Atqui 
presse agamus et cominus. Phanetem interpretantur 
veteres solera sive diem ; quem dum commemorant 
noctis conjugium primo petiisse, deinde in ultionem 
spreti connubii insecutum, nihil aliud quam dierum et 
noctium vices ostendere volunt. Ad hoc autem quid 
opus erat introduxisse Phanetem noctis nuptias ambi- 
entem, cum perpetua ilia eorum successio et mutuus 
quasi impulsus innato et eeterno odio melius adsignifi- 
cetur; quippe constat sudum et tenebras ab ipso rerum 
principio acerrimis inter se dissedisse inimicitiis. At- 
que ego sane noctem credo, tveppovrjg cognomen hinc 
solum accepisse,quod Phanetis connubio permiscere se 
caute recusarit, nee non cogitate; etenim si ilium 
semel in suos admisisset thalamos, extra dubium radiis 
ejus et impatibili fulgore absumpta vel in nihilum in- 
teriisset, vel penitus conflagrasset, sicuti olim invito 
Jove Amasio arsisse ferunt Semelem. Quapropter 
huic, non improvida salutis suae, Erebum praetulit. 
Unde scitum illud Martialis et perurbanum. 

Uxor pessima, pessiraus maritus, 
Non miror bene convenire vobis. 

Nee tacendum existimo, quam formosa et se digna 
virum auxerit prole, nimirum serumna, invidia, timore, 
dolo, fraude, pertinacia, paupertate, miseria, fame, 
querela, morbo, senectute, pallore, caligine, somno, 
morte, Charonte, qui ultimo natus est partu ; adeo ut 
hie apprime quadret quod in proverbii consuetudinem 
venit, KaKov Kopatcoe tcaichv ubv. Ca j terum nee desunt qui 
etiam aatherem et diem itidem Erebo suo Noctem pepe- 
risse tradunt. At enim quotusquisque est, non impos 
mentis, qui sic philosophantem nonexplodat ac rcjiciat 
tanquam democritica commenta aut nutricularum 
fabulas proferentem ? Ecquam enim veri speciem pros 
se fert, posse obscuram et fuscam noctem tam venus- 
tulum, tam amabilem, tam omnibus gratum acceptum- 
que reddere partum ? Qui etiam ut primum conceptus 
csset, praematuro impetu erumpens utro matrem ene- 
casset, ipsumque Erebum patrem abeg'isset protinus, 
vetul unique coegisset Charontem, ut sub imo Styge 
nocturnos abderet oculos, et si qua sub inferis lati- 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



845 



bula sunt, ut eo se remigio et velis reciperet. Nee 
solum apud Orcum non est natus dies, sed ne unquam 
quidem ibi comparuit; neque potest illuc nisi fatorum 
ingratiis vel per minimam intromitti rimulam ; quid ! 
quod etiam diem nocte antiquiorem audeo dicere, eam- 
que mundum recens emersum e Cbao diffuso lumine 
collustrasse, priusquam nox suas egisset vices ; nisi 
crassam illam et immundam caliginem noctem vel ipsi 
Demogorgoni equoevam velimus perperam nominare. 
Ideoque diem Urani filiam natu maximam arbitror, vel 
filii potius dixeris, quern ille in solatium humanse gen- 
tis et terrorem infernalium deorum procreasse dicitur; 
ne scilicet, occupante tyrannidem nocte, nulloque inter 
terras et Tartara discrimine posito, manes et furioe at- 
que omne illud infame monstrorum genus ad terras 
usque, deserta Barathri sede, seproreperent,misellique 
homines densis obvoluti umbris, et quaquaversum oc- 
clusi, defunctarum animarum poenas etiam vivi experi- 
rentur. Hactenus, academici, obscurant noctis propa- 
ginem atris et profundissimis eruimus tenebris; habe- 
bitis ilicet ut se dignam prsebuerit natalibus suis, sed si 
prius diei laudibus impensam dederim opellam meam, 
quamvis et ilia sane omnium laudatorum eloquentiam 
anteeat. Et certe primo quam omnium animantium 
stirpi grata sit et desiderabilis, quid opere est vobis ex- 
ponere; cum vel ipsae volucres nequeant suum celare 
gaudium, quin egressse nidulis, ubi primum dilucula- 
vit, aut in verticibus arborum concentu suavissimo de- 
liniant omnia, aut sursum librantes se, et quam possunt 
prope Solem volitent, redeunti gratulaturae luci. At 
primus omnium adventantem Solem triumphat insom- 
nis gallus, et quasi prseco quivis, monere videtur bo- 
mines, ut excusso somno prodeaut, atque obviam 
effundant se novam salutatum Auroram : tripudiant in 
agris capellse, totumque genus quadrupedum gestit et 
exultat laetitia. Quinetiam et mcesta Clysie totam 
fere noctem, converso in Orientem vultu, Pboebum 
preestolata suum, jam arridet et adblanditur appropin- 
quanti amatori. Caltha quoque et Rosa, ne nihil ad- 
dant communi gaudio, aperientes sinum, odores suos 
Soli tantum servatos profuse spirant, quibus noctem 
dedignantur impertiri, claudentes se follicuiis suis si- 
mulatque vesper appetat ; cseterique flores inclinata 
paulum, et rore languidula erigentes capita quasi prae- 
bent se Soli, et tacite rogant ut suis osculis abstergat 
lacrymulas, quas ejus absentise dederant. Ipsa quoque 
Tellus in adventum Solis cultiori se induit vestitu, nu- 
besque juxta variis chlamydatae coloribus, pompa so- 
lenni, longoque ordine videntur ancillari surgenti deo. 
Ad summam, nequid deesset ad ejus dilatandas laudes, 
huic Persss, huic Libyes, divinos honores decrevere; 
Rhodienses pariter celeberrimum ilium stupendoe mag- 
nitudinis colossum, Charetis Lyndii miro extructum ar- 
tificio, buic sacrarunt; huic itidem hodie Occidentalis 
Indise populi thure cceteroque apparatu sacrificare ac- 
cepimus. Vos testor, academici, quam jucundum, 
quam optatum diuque expectatum vobis illucescat 
mane, utpote quod vos ad mansuetiores musas revocet, 
k quibus insaturabiles et sitibundos dimiserat ingrata 
Nox. Testor ultimo Saturnum coelo deturbatum in 
Tartara, quam lubens vellet, si modo per Jovem liceret, 



ab exosis tenebris ad auras reverti; quod demum lux 
vel ipsi Plutoni sua caligine longe sit potior, id quidem 
in confesso est, quando coeleste regnum toties affecta- 
vit, unde scite et verissime Orpbeus in hymno ad Au- 
roram : 

"H x ai P H Qvt]T&v fiepoircov ykvog ovSk rig hiv, 
'Og <pivyu Trjv crjv oiptv KaSvTrkpTipov, ovoav 
'Ht/iKa, rov yXvKvv inrvov airo j3\ecpdpujv aTroauar\g. 
Rag Se (5poTog yrftei, irav ip7rsr6v, dWdre (pvXa 
Terpa7r6du)v, 7rrrjvwyrt, /ecu evvaX'uov 7ro\vt6vu>v. 

Nec mirum utique cum Dies non minus utilitatis ad- 
ferat quam delectationis, et sola negotiis obeundis ac- 
commodata sit ; quis enim mortalium lata et immensa 
maria trajicere sustineret, si desperaret affuturum diem ; 
immo non aliter oceanum navigarent quam Lethen et 
Acherontem manes, horrendis nimirum undiquaque 
tenebris obsiti. Unusquisque etiam in suo se contineret 
gurgustio, haud unquam ausus foras prorepere; adeo 
ut necesse esset dissui statim humanam societatem. 
Frustra Venerem exeuntem e mari inchoasset Apelles ; 
frustra Zeuxis Halenam pinxisset, si Nox caeca et ob- 
nubilarestam visendasoculisnostrisadimeret; turn quo- 
que frustra tellus serpentes multiplici et erratico lapsu 
vites, frustra decentissimas proceritatis arbores profun- 
deret, incassum denique gemmis et floribus tanquam 
stellulis interpoliret se, coBlum exprimere conata; turn 
demum nobilissimus ille videndi sensus nullis animali- 
bus usui foret ; ita prorsus, extincto mundi oculo, de- 
florescerent omnia et penitus emorerentur; nec sane 
huic cladi diu superessent ipsi homines, qui tenebrico- 
sam incolerent terram, cum nihil suppeteret unde vic- 
titarent, nihil denique obstaret, quominus in antiquum 
chaos ruerent omnia. Hisce quidem possit quispiam 
inexhausto stylo plura adjicere ; verum non permitteret 
ipsa verecunda Dies ut singula persequatur, et proclivi 
cui-su ad occasura preecipitans, nullo modo pateretur im- 
modice laudantem. Jam igitur declinat in vesperam 
dies, et nocti statim cedet, ne adulta hieme solstitialem 
contigisse diem facete dicatis. Tantum pace vestra 
liceat adjungere pauca quae non possum commode pras- 
terire. Merito igitur poetas Noctem inferis exsurgere 
scriptitarunt ; cum impossibile plane sit aliunde tot 
tantaque mala nisi ex eo loco mortalibus invehi. Obor- 
ta enim nocte sordescunt et obfuscantur omnia, nec 
quicquam tunc profecto interest inter Helenam et Ca- 
nidiam, nihil inter pretiosissimos et viles lapillos, nisi 
quod gemmarum nonnullos etiam noctis obscuritatem 
vincant : hue accedit, quod amoenissima quoeque loca 
tunc quidem horrorem incutiant, qui etiam alto et tristi 
quodam augetur silentio; siquidem quicquid uspiam est 
in ag'ris, aut hominum aut ferarum, vel domum, vel ad 
antra raptim se conferunt; ubi stratis immersi ad as- 
pectus noctis terribiles claudunt oculos. Nullum foris 
conspicies praeterquam fures et laverniones lucifugos, 
qui ceedem anhelantes et rapinas, insidiantur bonis ci- 
vium, et noctu solum vagantur, ne detegantur interdiu ; 
quippe dies nullum non indagare solet nefas, haud 
passura lucem suam istiusmodi flagitiis inquinari ; nul- 
lum habebis obvium nisi lemures et larvas, et empusas 



846 



•ROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



quas secum Nox comiles e locis asportat subterraneis, 
quaeque tota nocte terras in sua ditione esse, sibique 
cum hominibus communes vendicant. Ideoque opinor 
noctem auditum nostrum reddidisse solertiorem, ut um- 
brarum gemitus, bubonum et stygum ululatus, ac ru- 
g'itus leonum, quos fames evocat; eo citius perstringe- 
rent aures, animosque ; graviori metu percellerent. 
Hinc liquido constat, quam sit ille falsus animi qui 
noctu homines a timore otiosos esse, Noctemque curas 
sopire omnes autumat; namque hanc vanam esse et 
nugatoriam opinionem infcelici norunt experientia, qui- 
cunque sceleris cujuspiam conscii sibi fuere ; quos tunc 
sphing-es et harpyiae, quos tunc gorgones et chimaerae 
intentatis facibus insequuntur; norunt miseri, qui cum 
nullus adsit qui subveniat iis et opituletur, nullus qui 
dulcibus alloquiis dolores leniat, ad bruta saxa irritas 
jaciunt querelas, subinde exoptantes oriturum dilucu- 
lum. Idcirco Ovidius poetarum elegantissimus Noc- 
tem jure optimo curarum maximam nutricem appella- 
vit. Quod autem eo potissimum tempore fracta et de- 
fatigata laboribus diurnis corpora recreemus somno et 
refocillemus, id numinis beneficium est non noctis mu- 
nus; sed esto, non est tanti somnus ut ejus ergo noc- 
tem in honore babeamus, enimvero cum proficiscimur 
dormitum, revera tacite fatemur nos imbelles et miseros 
homines, qui minuta hose corpuscula ne ad exiguum 
tempus sine requie sustentare valeamus. Et certe quid 
aliud est somnus quam mortis imago et simulachrum ? 
hinc Homero mors et somnus gemelli sunt, uno gene- 
rati conceptu, uno partu editi. Postremo, quod luna 
caeteraque sidera nocti suas praeferant faces, id quoque 
soli debetur ; neque enim habent ilia quod transfundant 
lumen nisi quod ab illo accipiant mutuum. Quis igitur, 
si non tenebrio, si non effractor, si non aleator, si non 
inter scortorum greges noctem pernoctare perpetem 
integrosque dies ronchos efflare solitus, quis inquam nisi 
talis tarn inbonestam, tamque invidiosam causam in se 
susceperitdefendendam? Atque demiror ego utaspicere 
audeat solem hunc, et etiam cum communi luce impune 
frui, quam ingratus vituperat, dignus profecto quern 
adversis radiorum ictibus veluti Pythonem novum in- 
terimat sol ; dignus qui Cimmeriis occlusus tenebris 
longam et perosam vitam transigat; dignus denique 
cujus oratio somnum moveat auditoribus, ita ut quic- 
quid dixerit non majorem somnio quovis fidem faciat ; 
quique ipse etiam somnolentus, nutantes atque sterten- 
tes auditores annuere sibi et plaudere peroranti decep- 
tus putet. Sed nigra video noctis supercilia, et sentio 
atrasinsurgere tenebras; recedendumest, ne menoxim- 
provisum opprimat. Vos igitur, auditores, posteaquam 
nox nihil aliud sit quam obitus, et quasi morsdiei, nolite 
committere ut mors vitae prasponatur; sed causam dig- 
nemini meam vestris ornare suffrages, ita studia vestra 
f'ortunent musae ; exaudiatque Aurora musis arnica, 
exaudiat et Phoebus qui cuncta videt auditque, quos 
habeat in hoc coetu laudis ejus fautores. Dixi. 



IN SCHOLIS PUBLICIS. 



De SpJicerarum Concentu. 

Si quis meae tenuitati locus Academici, post tot hodie, 
tantosque exauditos oratores, conabor etiam ego jam 
pro meo modulo exprimere, quam bene velim solenni 
hujus lucis celebritati, et tanquam procul sequar hodi- 
ernum hunc eloquentiae triumph urn. Dum itaque trita 
ilia, et pervulgata dicendi argumenta refugio penitus, 
et reformido, ad novam aliquam materiem ardue ten- 
tandam accendit animum, et statim erigit hujus diei 
cogitatio, horumque simul quos digna die loquuturos 
haud injuria suspicabar ; quae duo vel tardo cuivis, et 
obtuso caeteroquin ingenio stimulos, aut acumen addi- 
disse poterant. Hinc idcirco subiit pauca saltern super 
illo coelesti concentu, dilatata (quod aiunt) manu, et 
ubertate oratoria praefari, de quo mox quasi contracto 
pugno disceptandum est; babita tamen ratione tempo- 
ris, quod me jam urget et coarctat. Haec tamen per- 
inde accipiatis velim auditores, quasi per lusum dicta. 
Quis enim sanus existimaverit Pythagoram deum ilium 
philosophorum, cujus ad nomen omnes ejus saeculi 
mortales non sine persancta veneratione assurgebant, 
quis, inquam, eum existimaverit tarn lubrice fundatam 
opinionem unquam protulisse in medium. Sane si 
quam ille sphaerarum docuit harmoniam, et circumac- 
tos ad modulaminis dulcedinem coelos, per id sapienter 
innuere voluit, amicissimos orbium complexus, aequa- 
bilesque in eternum ad fixam fati legem conversiones ; 
in hoc certe vel poetas, vel quod idem pene est, divina 
imitatus oracula, a quibus nihil sacri recondilique 
mysterii exhibetur in vulgus, nisi aliquo involutum 
tegumento et vestitu. Hunc secutus est ille Naturae 
Matris optimus interpres Plato, dum singulis coelis 
orbibus Sirenas quasdam insidere tradidit, quae melli- 
tissimo cantu deos hominesque mirabundos capiant. 
Atque hanc deinque conspirationem rerum universam, 
et consensum amabilem, quern Pythagoras per harmo- 
niam poetico ritu subinduxit, Homerus etiam per 
auream illam Jovis catenam de coelo suspensam insig- 
niter appositeque adumbravit. Hinc autem Aristo- 
teles, Pythagorse, et Platonis aemulus et perpetuus 
calumniator, ex labefactatis tantorum virorum senten- 
tiis viam sternere ad g-loriam cupiens, inauditam hanc 
coelorum sym])honiam, sphaerarumque modulos affinxit 
Pythagoras. Quod si sic tulisset sive fatum, sive sors, 
ut tua in me, Pythagora pater, transvolasset anima, 
haud utique deesset qui te facile assereret, quantumvis 
gravi jamdiu laborantem infamia. At vero quidni 
corpora coelestia, inter perennes illos circuitus, musicos 
efficiant sonos? Annon aequumtibi videtur Aristoteles? 
nae ego vix credam intelligenlias tuas sedentarium 
ilium rotandi coeli laborem potuisse tot saeculisperpeti, 
nisi ineffabile illud astrorum melosdetinuisset abituras, 
et modulationes delinimento suasisset moram. Quam 
si tu coelo adimas sane mentes illas pulchellas, et mi- 
nistros deos plane in pistrinum dedis. et ad molas tl'U- 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



847 



satiles damnas. Quinetiam ipse Atlas ruituro statim 
coelo jampridem subduxisset humeros, nisi dulcis ilia 
concentus anhelantem, et tanto sub onere sudabundum 
laetissima voluptate permulsisset. Ad baec, pertaesus 
astra Delphinus jamdiu coelo sua praeoptasset maria, 
nisi probe calluisset, vocales coeli orbes lyram Arioniam 
suavitate longe superare. Quid ! quod credibile est 
ipsam alaudam prima luce recta in nubes evolare, et 
Lusciniam totam noctis solitudinem cantu transigere, 
ut ad harmonicam coeli rationem, quam attente auscul- 
tant, suos corrigant modulos. Hinc quoque musarum 
circa Jovis altaria dies noctesque saltantium ab ultima 
rerum origine increbuit fabula ; bine Phaebo lyrae 
peritia ab longinqua vetustate attributa est. Hinc 
Harmoniam Jovis et Electrae fuisse filiam reverenda 
credidit antiquitas, quae cum Cadmo nuptui data 
esset, totus coeli chorus concinuisse dicitur. Quid si 
nullus unquam in terris audiverit hanc astrorum sym- 
phoniam ? Ergone omnia supra lunse spbaeram muta 
prorsus erunt, torpidoque silentio consopita ? Quinimo 
aures nostras incusemus debiles, quae cantus et tarn 
dulces sonos excipere aut non possunt, aut non dignae 
sunt. Sed nee plane inaudita est haec coeli melodia; 
quis enim tuas Aristoteles in media aeris plaga tri- 
pudiantes capras putaverit, nisi quod praecinentes 
coelos ob vicinitatem clare cum audiant, non possint 
sibi temperare quo minus agant choreas. At solus in- 
ter mortales concentum hunc audisse fertur Pythago- 
ras; nisi et ille bonus quispiam genius, et coeli indi- 
gena fuerit, qui forte superum jussu delapsus est ad 
animos hominum sacra eruditione imbuendos, et ad 
bonam frugem revocandos : ad minimum certe vir erat, 
qui omnes virtutum numeros in se continebat, quique 
dignus erat cum diis ipsis sui similibus sermones mis- 
cere, et coelestium perfrui consortio : ideoque nihil 
miror, si dii ejus amantissimi abditissimis eum natures 
secretis interesse permiserint. Quod autem nos hanc 
minime audiamus harmoniam sane in causa videtur 
esse furacis Promethei audacia, quae tot mala homini- 
bus invexit, et simul hanc foelicitatem nobis abstulit 
qua nee unquam frui licebit, dum sceleribus cooperti 
belluinis cupiditatibus obrutescimus ; qui enim possu- 
mus coelestis illius soni capaces fieri, quorum animae 
(quod ait Persius) in terras curvse sunt, et coelestium 
prorsus inanes. At si pura, si casta, si nivea gestare- 
mus pectora, ut olim Pythagoras, turn quidem suavis- 
sima ilia stellarum circumeuntium musica personarent 
aures nostrae, et opplerentur; atque dein cuncta illico 
tanquam in aureum illud saeculum redirent; nosque 
turn demum miseriarum immunes, beatum et vel diis 
invidendum degeremus otium. Hie autem me veluti 
medio in itinere tempus intersecat, idque persane op- 
portune vereor enim ne incondito minimeque numeroso 
stylo, huic quam praedico harmoniae, toto hoc tempore 
obstrepuerim ; fuerimque ipse impedimento, quo minus 
illam audiveritis: Itaque Dixi. 



IN SCHOLIS PUBLICIS. 



Contra Philosophiam Scholasticam. 

Qu£:rebam nuper obnixe, academici, nee in postre- 
mis hoc mihi curse erat quo potissimum verborum ap- 
paratu vos auditores meos exciperem, cum subito mihi 
in mentem venit id quod Marcus Tullius (a quo, non 
sine fausto omine exorditur oratio mea) toties commisit 
literis ; in hoc scilicet partes rhetoris sitas esse, ac po- 
sitas, ut doceat, delectet, et denique permoveat. Pro- 
inde istuc mihi tantummodo proposui negotium, ut ab 
hoc triplici oratoris munere quam minime discedam. 
At quoniam docere vos consummates undique homines 
non est quod ego mihi sumam, nee quod vos sustineatis, 
liceat saltern (quod proximum est) monere aliquid for- 
tasse non omnino abs re futurum ; delectare interim, 
quod sane perquam vereor, ut sit exilitatis meae, erit 
tamen desiderii summa, quam si attigero, certe parum 
erit, quin et permoveam. Permovebo autern in praesens 
abunde, ex animi sententia, si vos auditores inducere 
potero, ut immania ilia, et prope monstrosa subtilium, 
quod aiunt, doctorum volumina rariori manu evolvatis, 
utque verrucosis sophistarum controversiis paulo re- 
missius indulgeatis. At vero ut palam flat omnibus 
quam sit tequum atque honestum quod suadeo, strictim 
ostendam, et pro mea semihorula hisce studiis nee ob- 
lectari animum, nee erudiri, nee denique commune 
bonum quicquam promoveri. Et certe in primis ad 
vos provoco, academici, si qua fieri potest ex mea vestri 
ingenii conjectura, quid, quaeso, voluptatis inesse potest 
in festivis hisce tetricorum senum altercationibus, quae' 
si non in Trophonii antro, certe in Monachorum spe- 
cubus natae olent, atque spirant scriptorum suorum 
torvam severitatem, et paternas rugas prae se ferunt, 
quaeque inter succinctam brevitatem plus nimio prolixas 
taedium creant, et nauseam ; at si quando productions 
leguntur,tum quidem aversationem pene naturalem,et 
si quid ultra est innati odii pariunt lectoribus. Saepius 
ego, auditores, cum mihi forte aliquoties imponeretur 
necessitas investigandi paulisper has argutiolas post 
retusam diutina lectione et animi et oculorum aciem, 
saepius inquam ad interspirandum restiti, et subinde 
pensum oculis emensus quaesivi miserum taedii solati- 
um ; cum vero plus semper viderem superesse, quam 
quod legendo absolveram, equidem inculcatis hisce 
ineptis quoties praeoptavi mihi repurgandum Augeas 
bubile, foelicemque praedicavi Herculem, cui facilis 
Juno hujusmodi aerumnam nunquam imperaverat exan- 
tlandam. Nee materiam hanc enervem, languidam, et 
humi serpentem erigit, aut attollit floridior stylus, sed 
jejunus et exsuccus rei tenuitatem adeo conjunctissime 
comitatur, ut ego utique facile crediderim sub tristi 
Saturno scriptam fuisse, nisi quod innocua tunc tem- 
poris simplicitas ignoraret prorsus offucias istas, et di- 
verticula, quorum hi libri scatent ubique. Mihi credite, 
juvenes ornatissimi, dum ego inanes hasce quaestiun- 
culas noununquam invitus percurro, videor mihi per 



84S 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



confragosa tesqua, et salebras, perque vastas solitudiiies, 
et preeruptas montium angustias iter conficere; prop- 
terea nee verisimile est venustulas, et elegantes musas 
pannosis hisce et squalidis prseesse studiis, aut deliros- 
horum sectatores in suum vendicare patrocinium ; im- 
mo existimo nullum unquam fuisse iis in Parnasso 
locum, nisi aliquem forte in imo colle angulum incul- 
tum, inamoenum, dumis et spinis asperum, atque horri- 
dum, carduis, et densa urtica coopertum, a choro et 
frequentia dearum remotissimum, qui nee emittat lauros 
nee fuudat flores, quo deuique Phoebeas citharae nun- 
quam pervenerit son us. Divina certe poesis ea, qua 
coelitus impertita est, virtute obrutam terrena fsece 
animam in sublime exuscitans, inter coeli templa local, 
et quasi nectareo halitu afflans, totamque perfundens 
ambrosia, coelestemquodammodoinstillatbeatitudinem, 
etquoddamimmortale gaudium insusurrat. Rlietorica 
sic animos capit hominum, adeoque suaviter in vincula 
pellectos post se trahit, ut nunc ad misericordiam per- 
movere valeat, nunc in odium rapere, nunc ad virtutem 
bellicam accendere, nunc ad contemptum mortis eve- 
here. Historia pulchre concinnata nunc inquietos 
animi tumultus sedat et componit, nunc delibutum 
gaudio reddit, mox evocat lachrymas, sed mites eas et 
pacatas, et qua? mcestae nescio quid voluptatis secum 
afferant. At vero f utiles hae, nee non strigosse contro- 
versial, verborumque velitationes, in commovendis ani- 
mi affectibus, certe nullum habent imperium ; stuporem 
duntaxat et torpedinem accersunt ingenio ; proinde 
neminem oblectant, nisi qui agrestis, et hirsuti plane 
pectoris est, quique ex arcano quodam impetu ad lites 
et dissidia proclivis, et insuper impendio loquax a recta 
et sana sapientia abhorret semper atque avertitur. 
Amandetur itaque cum suis captiunculis sane, vel in 
montem Caucasum, aut sicubi terrarum creca domina- 
tur barbaries, ibique subtilitatum suarum et preestigia- 
rium ponat officinam, et pro libitu de rebus nihili tor- 
queat et angat se, usque durn nimia solicitudo, veluti 
Prometbeus ille vultur cor exederit, penitusque ab- 
sumpserit. Sed nee minus infrugifera sunt, quam in- 
ucunda hcec studia, et quse ad rerum cognitionem 
nihil prorsus adjutant. Ponamus enim ob oculos 
omnes illos turmatim cucullatos vetulos, harum prae- 
cipue captionum figulos, quotusquisque est qui ullo 
beneficio locupletaverit rem Jiterariam ? Citra dubium 
profecto cultam et nitidam, et mansuetiorem philoso- 
phiam asperitate impexa deformem pene reddidit, et 
veluti malus genius, bumana pectora spinis et sentibus 
implevit, et perpetuam in scholas intulit discordiam, 
quae quidem foelices discentium progressus mirum in 
modum rcmorata est. Quid enim? ultro citroque ar- 
gutantur versipelles pbilosophastri ? hie suam undi- 
que sententiam graviter firmat, ille contra magna 
mole labefactare adnititur, et quod inexpugnabili ar- 
gumento munitum existimes, id statim adversarius baud 
multo negotio amolitur. Haeret interea lector, tanquam 
in bivio, quo divertat, quo inclinet anceps, et incertus 
consilii, dum tot utrinque confertim vibrantur tela, ut 
ipsam lucem adimant, rebusque profundam afferant 
caliginem, adco ut jam lectori tandem opus sit, ut diutur- 
nos Cereris imitatus labores, per universum terrarum or- 



bem accensa face quaerat veritatem, et nusquam inveni- 
at: eo usque demum insanise redactus est, ut se misere 
coecutire putet, ubi nihil est, quod videat. Ad haec non 
rarenter usu venit, ut, qui harum disputationum fuligini 
addicunt se totos et devovent, si forte aliud quidvis ag- 
grediantur a suis deliramentis alienum, mire prodant in- 
scitiam suam, et deridiculam infantiam. Novissime, 
summus hie tarn serio navatae operas fructus erit, ut stul- 
tus evadas accuratior, et nugarum artifex, utque tibi ac- 
cedat quasi peritior ignorantia, nee mirum; quandoqui- 
dem hrec omnia, de quibus adeo afRictim et anxie labo- 
ratum est, in natura rerum nullibi existunt, sed leves 
qua?dam imagines, et simulachra tenuia turbidas ober- 
rant mentes, et rectioris sapientae vacuas. Cseterum ad 
integritatem vitae, et mores excolendos (quod multo 
maximum est) quam minime conducant ha3 nugas, 
etiamsi ego taceam, abunde vobis perspicuum est. At- 
que vel hinc liquido evincitur quod mihi postremo di- 
cendum proposui, scilicet importunam banc Xoyo/jay/av 
nee in publicum cedere commodum, nee ullo modo pa- 
triae vel honori esse, vel utilitati, quod tamen in sci- 
entiis omnes antiquissimum esse ducunt. Siquidem 
his maxime duobus auctam atque exornatam prae- 
cipue patriam animadverti; vel prasclare dicendo, vel 
fortiter agendo ; atque litigiosa haec discrepantium 
opinionum digladiatio, nee ad eloquentiam instruere, 
nee ad prudentiam instituere, nee ad fortia facinora in- 
citare posse videtur. Abeant igitur cum suis formali- 
tatibus arg'utatores versuti ; quibus post obitum hanc 
par erit irrogari poenam, ut cum Ocno illo apud inferos 
torqueant funiculos. x\t quanto satius esset, academici, 
quantoque dignius vestro nomine nunc descriptas cbar- 
tula terras universas quasi oculis perambulare, et calcata 
vetustis heroibus inspectare loca, bellis, triumphis, et 
etiam illustrium poetarum fabulis nobilitatas regiones 
percurrere, nunc aestuantem transmittere Adriam, nunc 
ad iEtnam flammigerantem impuue accedere, dein 
mores hominum speculari, et ordinatas pulchre gentium 
respublicas; hinc omnium animantium naturas perse- 
qui, et explorare, ab his in arcanas lapidum et herba- 
rum vires animam demittere. Nee dubitetis, auditores, 
etiam in ccelos evolare, ibique illamultiformia nubium 
spectra, nivisque coacervatam vim, et unde illae matu- 
tinae lachrymee contemplemini, grandinisque exinde 
loculos introspicite, et armamenta fulminum perscrute- 
mini; nee vos clam sit quid sibi velit aut Jupiter aut 
Natura, cum dirus atque ingens cometa coelo seepe mi- 
nitatur incendium, nee vos vel niinutissimce lateant 
stcllul&e, quotquot inter polos utrosque sparsas sunt, et 
dispalatre; immo solem peregrinantem sequamini co- 
mites, et ipsum tempus ad calculos vocate, aeternique 
ejus itineris exigite ration em. Sed nee iisdem, quibus 
orbis, limitibus contineri et circumscribi se patiatur 
vestra mens, sed etiam extra mundi pomosria divage- 
tur; perdiscatque ultimo (quod adhuc altissimum est) 
scipsam cognoscere, simulque sanctas illas mentes, et 
intelligentias quibuscum post hose sempiternum initura 
est sodalitium. Quid multa nimis ? vobis ad haecomnia 
disciplinos sit ille, qui tantopere in deliciis est, Aristo- 
teles, qui quidem haec prope cuncta scienter et conqui- 
site scripta nobis reliquit addiscenda. Cujus ego ad 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



849 



noraen jam subito permoveri sentio vos, academici, at- 
que in hanc sententiam duci pedetentim, et quasi eo 
invitante proclivius ferri. Quod si ita sit, sane ejus 
rei laudem, cujusquemodi est, illi debebitis et gratiam : 
quod interim ad me attinet, ego certe satis habeo, si 
veniam prolixitatis meae pro vestra humanitate impe- 
travero. Dixi. 



IN COLLEGIO, &c. 



THESIS. 

In rei cujuslihet interitu non datur resolutio ad 
materiam primam. 

Error an e Pandorae pixide, an ex penitissimo eru- 
perit Styge, an denique unus ex Terrae filiis in coalites 
conjuraverit, non est hujus loci accuratius disquirere. 
Hoc autem vel non scrutanti facile innotescat, eum ex 
infimis incrementis, veluti olim Typbon, aut Neptuno 
genitus Epbialtes in tam portentosam crevisse magni- 
tudinem, ut ipsi quidem veritati ab illo metuam. Vi- 
deo enim cum ipsa diva aXrjSreia haud raro aequo marte 
pugnantem, video post damna factum ditiorem, post 
vulnera virescentem, victumque victoribus exultantem. 
Quod de Anteeo Lybico fabulata est antiquitas. Adeo 
ut hincsane non levi de causa carmen istud Ovidianum 
possit quispiam in dubium vocare, an scilicet ultima 
coelestum terras reliquerit Astraea ; vereor etenim ne 
pax et Veritas multis post earn sseculis invisos etiam 
mortales deseruerint. Nam certe si ilia adhuc in terris 
diversaretur, quis inducatur ut credat, luscum et caecu- 
tientem errorem veritatem solis aemulam posse intueri, 
quin plane vincatur oculorum acies, quin etipse rursus 
abigaturad inferos, unde primum emersus est? Atvero 
citra dubium aufugit in ctelum, patriam suam misellis 
hominibus nunquam rcditura ; et jam totis in scholis 
dominatur immundus error, et quasi rerum potitus est, 
non in strenuos utique et non paucos nactus assertores. 
Quarum accessione virium, ultra quam ferri potest in- 
flatus, quaenam est ulla physiologiae particula vel 
minutula,inquam non impetiverit, quam non profanis 
violaverit unguibus, quemadmodum barpias Phinei 
regis Arcadum mensas conspurcasse accepimus ? unde 
sane eo res deducta est, ut lautissima pbilosopbiae cu- 
pedia,ipsis quibus superi vescuntur dapibus non minus 
opipara, nunc suis conviviis nauseam faciant. Con- 
tingit enim saepenumero ingentia philosopborum volu- 
mina evolventi, et diurnis nocturnisque manibus obte- 
renti, ut dimittatur incertior quam fuerit pridem. 
Quicquid enim affirmat hie, et satis valido se putat 
statuminare argumento, refellit alter nullo negotio aut 
saltern refellere videtur, atque ita pene in infinitum 
semper babet hie quod opponat, semper ille quod 
respondeat; dum miser interim lector hinc atque inde 
tanquam inter duas belluas diu divulsus ac discerptus, 
tedioque prope enectus, tandem veluti in bivio relin- 
quitur, hue an illuc inclinet plane anceps animi: ab 



utro autem st'et Veritas, fortasse (ne vera dissimulem) 
non est operae pretium ea, qua expedit, industria ex- 
plorare : quippe saepius de re perquam minimi mo- 
menti maxima inter centurias philosophantium agita- 
tur controversia. Caeterum videor mihi inaudire sub- 
mussitantes quosdam, quo nunc se proripit ille? dum 
in errorem invehitur, ipse toto errat coelo : equidem 
agnosco erratum ; neque hoc fecissem, nisi de vestro 
candore magna mihi pollicitus. Jam igitur tandem 
accingamur ad institutum opus: et his tantis difficul- 
tatibus dea Lua (quod ait Lipsius) me foeliciter expe- 
diat. Quaestioquae nobis hodie proponiturenucleanda 
haec est, an interitu cujuslibet rei detur resolutio usque 
ad materiam primam ? Quod aliis verbis sic proferre 
solent, an ulla accidentia qua? fuere in corrupto mane- 
ant etiam in genito? hoc est, an intereunte forma 
omnia intereant accidentia quae in composito praeex- 
titerant ? Magna quidem est inter multos haudqua- 
quam obscuri nominis philosophos hac de re senten- 
tiarum discrepantia ; hi dari ejusmodi resolutionem 
contendunt acerrime, illi neutiquam dare posse mordi- 
cus defendunt ; hos ut sequar inclinat animus, ab illis 
ut longe lateque dissentiam turn ratione adductus, uti 
opinor, turn etiam tantorum virorum authoritate : hoc 
autem quo pacto probari queat, reliquum est ut pau- 
lisper experiamur ; idque succincte quoad poterimus, 
atque primo hunc in modum. Si fiat resolutio ad 
materiam primam subinfertur inde essentiale istud 
effatum, nempe earn nunquam reperiri nudam, ma- 
teriae primee perperam attribui; occurrent adversarii, 
hoc dicitur respectu formae, verum sic habento scioli 
isti formas substantiales nullibi gentium reperiri 
citra formas accidentarias : sed hoc leve, nee causae 
admodum jugulum petit ; firmiora his adhibenda 
sunt. Atque imprimis videamus ecquos habeamus 
veterum philosopborum nostrarum partium fautores; 
inquirentibus ecce ultro se nobis offert Aristoteles, 
cumque lectissima manu suorum interpretum se no- 
bis agglomerat; quippe velim intelligatis auditores, 
ipso duce et hortatore Aristotele initum hoc praelium, 
et bonis avibus, uti spero, auspicatum. Qui quidem id 
ipsum quod nos arbitramur, innuere videtur, Metaph. 
7, Text. 8, ubi ait quantitatem primo inesse materiae ; 
huic perindesententi&equicunquerefragabitur, possum 
illi dicam haeresewg ex lege omnium sapientium au- 
dacter scribere. Quinimo alibi plane vult quantitatem 
materiae primae proprietatem, quod idem asserunt ple- 
rique ejus sectatores ; proprium autem a suo subjecto 
avellentem quis ferat ipsa vel edititii judicis sententia : 
verum age, cominus agamus, et quod suadeat ratio per- 
pendamus. Assertio itaque probatur primo hinc, quod 
materia habet propriam entitatem actualem ex sua pro- 
pria existentia, ergo potest sustentare quantitatem, earn 
saltern quae dicitur interminata. Quid ? quod nonnulli 
confidenter affirment formam non nisi mediante quan- 
titate in materiam recipi, secundo, si accidens corrum- 
pitur, necesse habet ut his tantum modis corrumpatur, 
vel per introductionem contrarii, vel per disitionem ter- 
mini, vel per absentiam alterius causae conservantis, 
vel denique ex defectu proprii subjecti cui inhaereat: 
priori modo nequit corrumpi quantitas, posteaquam con- 



850 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



trarium non habeat; et quanturnvis habeat qaalitas 
hie tamen introduci non est supponendum : secundus 
modus hue non spectat, utpote qui sit relatorum pro- 
prius; nee per absentiam causae conservantis, ea enim, 
quam assignant adversarii, est forma ; accidentia au- 
tem a forma pendere concipiuntur bifariam, vel in ge- 
nere causa; formalis, aut efficientis ; prior dependentia 
non est immediata, forma enim substantialis non in- 
format accidentia, neque intelligi potest quod aliud 
munus exerceat circa ea in hoc genere causa, ideoque 
tantummodo mediata est, nimirum in quantum materia 
dependet a forma, et haec deinceps a materia ; modus 
dependentiae posterior est in genere causes efficientis, a 
forma tamen an accidentia pendeant in hoc genere 
necne, in ambiguo res est: sed ut donemus ita esse, 
non sequitur tamen, depereunte forma juxta etiam pe- 
rire accidentia, propterea quod causae illi recedenti, 
succedit e vestigio alia similis omnino sufficiens ad con- 
servandum eundem numero effectum absque interrup- 
tione : postremo, quod non ex defectu proprii subjecti 
in nihilum recidit quantitas aliaque id genus acci- 
dentia, probatur quia subjectum quantitatis est aut 
compositum, aut forma, aut materia ; quod compositum 
non sit, ex eo liquet, quod accidens quod est in compo- 
sito attingit simul sua unione et materiam et formam 
per modum unius, at vero quantitas non potest ullo 
modo attingere animam rationalem, dum hose spiritua- 
lis sit, et effectus formalis quantitatis, hoc est exten- 
sions quantitativae minime capax ; porro quod forma 
non sit subjectum ejus, ex supradictis satis est perspi- 
cuum : restatigitur ut materia sola sit subjectum quan- 
titatis, atque ita prseciditur omnis interitus illatio in 
quantitate. Quod pertinet ab id quod vulgo affertur 
de cicatrice, argumentum efficacissimum esse censeo : 
quis enim mihi fidem adeo extorqueat, ut credam earn 
in cadavere plane diversam esse ab ea quae fuit nuper- 
rime in vivo, cum nulla subsit ratio, nulla necessitas 
corrigendi sensus nostri, qui raro quidem hallucinatur 
circa proprium objectum; citiusque ego et facilius au- 
direm de larvis, deque empusis miri commemorantem, 
quam cerebrosos hosce philosophrastos de accidentibus 
suis de novo procreatis stulte et insubide obgannientes. 
Etenim calorem, caeterasque animalis qualitates inten- 
sifies et remissibiles easdem prorsus pernovimus in 
ipso mortis articulo, et post mortem itidem ; quorsum 
enim destruerentur hae, cum aliae similes sunt produ- 
cendae? hue accedit, quod si de novo procrearentur, ad 
tempus non adeo exiguum durarent, neque etiam re- 
pente ad summum pervenirent intensionis gradum, sed 
paulatim et quasi pedetentim. Adde quod vetustissi- 
mum sit axioma, quantitatem sequi materiam, et qua- 
litatem formam. Potui quidem, irnmo ac debui huic 
rei diutius immorari, ac profecto nescio an vobis, mi- 
himet certe ipse maximopere sum taedio. Superest 
ut jam ad adversariorum argumenta descendamus, 
quae faxint musae, ut ego in materiam primam si fieri 
potest, vel potius in nihilum redigam. Quod ad pri- 
mum attinet, Aristotelis testimonium, quod dixerit in 
generatione non manere subjectum sensibile, occur- 
rimus illud intclligi debere de subjecto completo 
et integro (i. e.) de substantiali composito, quod 



testat'ur Philoponus antiquus et eruditus scriptor. 2. 
Quod inquit Arist. materia est nee quid, nee quantum, 
nee quale ; hoc non dicitur quod nulla quantitate aut 
qualitate efficiatur, sed quia ex se, et in entitate sua 
nullam aut quantitatem aut qualitatem includat. Ter- 
tio, ait Arist. destructis primis substantiis destrui omnia 
accidentia, quod sane futurum non inficiamur si ipsi 
corruptee subinde succederet alia. Postremo, formam 
inquit recipi in materiam nudam ; hoc est, nuditate 
formee substantialis. Adhuc incrudescit pugna, et nu- 
tat victoria, sic enim instaurato praelio incursant, mate- 
ria quandoquidem sit pura potentia, nullam habet esse 
praeterquam illud quod cmendicata forma, unde non 
satis ex se valet ad sustentanda accidentia, nisi prius 
ad minimum natura conjungatur formae a qua to thai 
acceptum ferat ; huic errori sic mederi solent, materiam 
primam suum habere proprium esse, quod licet in genere 
substantiae sit incompletum, cum accidente tamen si 
conferatur esse simpliciter haud incommode dici potest. 
Quinetiam objiciunt materiam respicere formam sub- 
stantialem ut actum piimum, at accidentia ut actus se- 
cundarios. Respondeo, materiam respicere formam 
prius ordine intentionis, non generationis aut executio- 
nis. Gliscit jam atque effervescit contentio, et tanquam 
ad internecionem dimicaturi urgent nos acrius hunc ad 
modum: omnis proprietasmanat active ab essentia ejus 
cujus est proprietas ; quantitas autem hoc nequit, quia 
haec dimanatio est aliqua efficientia, materia autem se- 
cundum se nullam habet efficientiam, cum sit mere 
passiva ; ergo, Sec. Respondeo, duobus modis posse 
intelligi naturalem conjunctionem materiae cum quan- 
titate, ratione solum potentiae passivae intrinsecus 
natura sua postulantis talem affectionem ; neque enim 
ulla impellit necessitas, ut omnis innata proprietas sit 
debita subjecto ratione principii activi ; namque inter- 
dum sufficit passivum, quo modo multi opinantur mo- 
tum esse naturalem coelo. Secundo potest et intelligi 
per intrinsecam dimanationem activam, cum in se 
habeat veram et actualem essentiam. Sed nee adhuc 
omnis amissa spes victorias ; iterum enim facto impetu 
adoriuntur, inferentes deo formam media quantitate in 
materiam recipi, quoniam inest materiae prius : nos £ 
contra aperte reclamamus huic sequelae, et nihilominus 
quo omnia possimus salva reddere, hac utimur distincti- 
one, recipi formam in materiam media quantitate ut 
dispositione, sen conditione necessaria, verum nullo 
modo tanquam potentia proxime receptiva formae. 
Ultimo, sic arguunt, si quantitas insit materiae soli se- 
quitur esse ingenerabilem et incorruptibilem ; quod 
videtur repugnare, quia motus per se fit ad quantitatem. 
At nos utique largimur consequentiam, quippe revera 
quantitas est incorruptibilis quoad suam entitatem, 
licet quoad varios terminos possit incipere et desinere 
esse per conjunctionem et divisionem quantitatis, neque 
enim est per se motus ad quantitatis productionem, sed 
ad aceretionem ; et nee eo fit quasi nova quantitas in- 
cipiat esse in rerum natura, sed eo quod una quantitas 
adjungatur alteri, et quae erat aliena fit propria. Pos- 
sem equidem plura argumenta ultra citroque proferre, 
quae tamen taedii levandi gratia praetermitto ; hicigitur 
satius emit receptui canere. 



PROLUSIONES ORATGRLE. 



851 



IN SCHOLIS PUBLICIS. 



Non dantur forma partiales in animali prater totalem. 

Roman i rerum olim domini altissimum imperii fasti- 
gium adepti sunt, quale nee Assyria magnitudo, nee 
virtus Macedonica, unquam potuit attingere, quo nee 
futura regum majestas efferre se olim valebit : sive ipse 
Jupiter annis jam gravior, coeloque contentus suo in 
otium se tradere voluerit, commissis populo Romano 
tanquam diis terrestribus rerum humanarum habenis; 
sive hoc Saturno patri in Italiam detruso ad amissi 
coeli solatium concesserit, ut Quirites, ejus nepotes, 
quicquid uspiam est, terra?, marisque potirentur. Ut- 
eunque certe non ultro largitus est hoc illis beneficium, 
sed per assidua bella, perque longos labores aegre dedit, 
exploraturus opinor, an Romani soli digni viderentur, 
qui summi vices Jovis inter mortalcs gererent; itaque 
parce duriterque vitam degere coacti sunt, quippe in- 
choatas pacis blanditias abrupit semper belli clamor, et 
circumcirca strepitus armorum. Ad ha?c, divictis qui- 
busque urbibus et provinciis pra?sidia imponere et sas- 
pius renovare necesse habuere, omnemque pene juveu- 
tutem nunc in longinquam militiam, nunc in colonias 
mittere. Ca?terum non incruentam semper victoriam 
domum reportarunt, immo ssepe funestis cladibus af- 
fecti sunt. Siquidem Brennus Gallorum dux virescen- 
tem modo Romauam gloriam pene delevit; et parum 
abfuit, quo minus divinitus creditum orbis moderamen 
abripuerit Roma? Carthago urbs nobilissima. Denique 
Gothi et Vandalici sub Arico rege, Hunnique et Pano- 
nii Attyla et Bleda ducibus totam inundantes Italiam, 
florentissimas imperii opes, ex tot bellorum spoliis ag- 
gestas, misere diripuere, Romanos paulo ante reges 
hominum turpi fuga stravere, ipsamque urbem, ipsam 
inquam Romam, solo nominis terrore ceperunt ; quo 
facto nihil dici aut fingi potuit gloriosius, plane quasi 
ipsam victoriam aut amore captant, aut vi et armis ex- 
terrefactum in suas traxissent partes. Satis admirati 
estis auditores, quorsum ha?c omnia protulerim, jam 
accipite. Hsec ego quoties apud me recolo animoque 
colligo, toties cogito quantis viribus de tuenda veritate 
certatum sit, quantis omnium studiis, quantis vigiliis 
contenditur labantem ubique, et profligatam veritatem 
ab injuriis hostium asserere. Nee tamen prohiberi po- 
test, quin fcedissima colluvies errorum invadat indies 
omnes disciplinas, qua3 quidem tanta vi aut veneno 
pollet, ut vel nivea? veritati suam imaginem inducere 
valeat, aut sideream veritatis speciem nescio quo fuco 
sibi adsciscere, qua, ut videtur, arte et magnis philoso- 
phis frequenter imposuit, et honores, venerationemque 
uni veritati debitam sibi arrogavit. Quod in hodierna 
quaestione videre poteritis, quae quidem non instrenuos 
nacta est pugiles, eosque clari nominis, si relictis bisce 
partibus veritatem demereri mallent: itaque nostra? nunc 
erit operae, ut nudatum, plumisque emendicatis exutum 
errorem deformitati nativa? reddamus ; quod ut expedi- 
tes fiat gravissimorum vestigiis authorum insistendum 
3 i 



esse mihi existimo, neque enim expectandum est, ut 
ego quicquam de meo adjiciam, quod utique tot viros 
ingenio pra?stabiles fugit et praeteriit ; idcirco quod 
sufficit ad rem dilucidandam expromam brevi, argu- 
mentoque uno atque altero tanquam aggere vallabo ; 
turn si quid reclamat, atque obstat nostras sententia? 
diluam, ut potero; quae tamen omnia paucis perstrin- 
gam, et quasi extremis alis radam. Contra unitatem 
forma?, quam in una eademque materia statuere semper 
emunctiores philosophi solent, varias opiniones subor- 
tas esse legimus; quidam enim plures in animali for- 
mas totales dari pertinaciter contendunt, idque pro suo 
quisque captu varie defendunt; alii totalem unicam, 
partiales vero multiplices ejusdem materia? hospitio ex- 
cipi importunius asseverant. Cum illis ad tempus more 
bellico paciscemur inducias, dum in hos omnem praclii 
vim atque impetum transferimus. Ponatur prima in 
acie Aristoteles, qui noster plane est, quique sub finem 
primi libri de anima, non occulte favet nostra? asser 
tioni. Huic authoritati aliquot attexere argumenta 
non est longa? disquisitionis opus : prsebet se mihi im- 
primis Chrysostomus Javellus, cujus e stercorario, 
nimirum horrid ulo et incompto stylo, aurum et mar- 
garitas effodere possimus, qua? si quis delicatus asper- 
netur, in ilium sane aliquatenus belle quadrabit ille 
iEsopici Galli apologus. In hunc ferme modum argu- 
mentatur ; distinctio ilia et organizatio partium dissi- 
milarium pra?cedere debet introductionem anima?, ut- 
pote qua? sit actus corporis non cujuslibet, sed physici 
organici ; quapropter immediate ante productionem 
totalis forma? necesse est corrumpi partiales illas nisi 
corruat penitus receptissimum illud axioma, generatio 
unus est alterius corruptio ; quarum productionem non 
sequitur similium pra?sentanea productio; id enim 
frustra foret, et ad naturae matris sapientiam parum 
conveniens. Deinde posteaquam omnis forma, sive 
perfecta sit, sive imperfecta, tribuat esse specificum, 
necesse est, ut quamdiu manet ista forma, tamdiu res 
ilia maneat eadem, non variata secundum substantiam 
suam, proindeque superveniet forma totalis tanquam 
accidens, non per generationem sed per alterationem. 
Sequitur porro animam totalem sive divisibilem, sive 
indivisibilem, non sufficere ad omnes partes animantis 
plene perfecteque informandas, quod ut largiamur 
nulla suadet ratio. Sequitur itidem unam formam 
substautialem esse quasi dispositionem proximam et 
permanentem ad aliam, quod veritatis absonum est, 
quandoquidem unaqua?que forma constituit essentiam 
completam in genere substantia?. Postremo, si in om- 
nibus partibus puta hominis plurificientur forma? par- 
tiales, ex illis certe consurget una integra distincta ab 
anima rationali, unde ilia erit, aut forma inanimati seu 
corporeitatis, aut mistionis (quam pra?ter animam in 
homine dari sane ultra quam credibile est) vel erit 
anima sensitiva, aut vegetativa, hoc autera affirmantem 
nullo modo audiat eruditior chorus philosophantium ; 
cujus rei ampliori probatione supersedeo, quoniam in 
confesso est, nee admodum accedit ad apicem causa?. 
Verum, quod caput est controversia?, objiciunt adver- 
sarii, partem ab animali amputatam remanere acta 
post separationem, non per formam totius cum sit ex- 



852 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



tra totum, uec per formara recens acquisitam, cum nul- 
lum adsit agens, nulla perceptibilis actio, nulla praevia 
alteratio ; ergo, actu existit per form am propriam quam 
prius habebat, dum erat una in toto. Atque hoc argu- 
mento arietare se putant causam nostram et funditus 
evertere : caeterum non minus vere quam vulgariter 
solet responderi, formam de novo genitam, cum vilis- 
sima sit utpote cadaveris, et quasi via ad resolutionem, 
certe nee multum temporis, nee dispositiones multas, 
nee ordinatam alterationem efflagitare. Quid si etiam 
causa aliqua universalis concurrat cum proximo tem- 
peramento ad inducendam qualemcunque formam ne 
materia reperiatur vacua ? Quod autem multiplices 
visantur in animali operationes, id non a formis dis- 
tinctis partialibus petendum est, sed ab animse totalis 
eminentia, quae quidem aequipollet formis specie dis- 
tinctis. Caeteras quae occurrunt, levioris momenti 
objectiones ex composito prseterire libet, neque enim 
jugulant; faciliusque amoveri, et luculentius redargui 
poterunt, si forte inter disputandum prolatae fuerint in 
medium. Quocunque res redeat tametsi ego causa 
cadara, causa non cadet ; satis enim superque suo 
marte valet ad se defendendam invicta semper Veritas ; 
nee ad id alienis indiget adminiculis ; et licet nobis 
aliquando superari, et pessum premi videatur, invio- 
latam tamen perpetud servat se, et intactam ab erroris 
unguibus ; in hoc soli non absimilis, qui saepe invo- 
lutum se, et quasi inquinatum nubibus ostendit huma- 
nis oculis, cum tamen collectis in se radiis, totoque 
ad se revocato splendore purissimus ab omni labe 
colluceat. 



IN FERIIS ^ZSTIVIS COLLEGII, SED CON- 
CURRENTE, UT SOLET, TOTA FERE 
ACADEMIC JUVENTUTE. 



ORATIO. 



Exercitationes nonnunquam ludicras Philosophise 
Studiis non obesse. 

Cum ex ea urbe quae caput urbium est., hue nuper 
me reciperem,academici, deliciarum omnium, quibus is 
locus supra modum affluit, usque ad saginam, prope 
dixerim, satur, sperabam mihi iterum aliquando otium 
illud literarium, quo ego vitae genere etiam coelestes 
animas gaudere opinor; eratque penitus in animo jam 
tandem abdere me in literas, et jucundissimae philoso- 
phiae perdius et pernox assidere ; ita semper assolet 
laboris et voluptatis vicissitudo amovere satietatis tae- 
dium, et efficere, ut intermissa repetantur alacrius. 
Cum his me incalentem studiis repente avocavit, atque 
abstraxit pervetusti moris fere annua celebritas, jus- 
susque ego sum earn operam quam acquirendae sapien- 
tiae primo destinaram, ad nugas transferre, et novas 
ineptias excogitandas : quasi jam nunc non essent 
omnia stultorum plena, quasi egregia ilia, et non minus 



Argo decantata navis stultifera fecisset naufragium, 
plane denique ac siipsi Democrito materia jam ridendi 
deesset. Verum date quaeso veniam, auditores ; hie 
enim hodiernus mos, utut ego liberius paulo sum locu- 
tus, sane quidem non est ineptus, sed impense potius 
laudabilis, quod quidem ego jam mihi proposui statim 
luculentius patefacere. Quod si Junius Brutus secun- 
dus ille rei Romanae conditor, magnus ille ultor regiae 
libidinis, animum prope diis immortalibus parem, et 
mirificam indolem simulatione vecordiae supprimere 
sustinuit; certe nihil est, cur me pudeat aliquantisper 
Hhjpo(To<puJQ nugari, ejus prassertim jussu, cujus interest, 
tanquam aedilis hos quasi solennes ludos curare. Turn 
nee mediocriter me pellexit, et invitavit ad has partes 
subeundas vestra, vos qui ejusdem estis mecum collegii, 
in me nuperrime comperta facilitas, cum enim ante 
praeteritos menses aliquam multos oratorio apud vos 
munere perfuncturus essem, putaremque lucubrationes 
meas qualescunque etiam ingratas propemodum futuras, 
etmitiores habiturasjudices yEacum et Minoa, quam e 
vobis fere quemlibet, sane praeter opinionem meam, 
praeter meam si quid erat speculse, non vulgari secuti 
ego accepi, imo ipse sensi, omnium plausu exceptae 
sunt, immo eorum, qui in me alias propter studiorum 
dissidia essent prorsus infenso et inimico animo : gene- 
rosum utique simultatis exercendse genus, et regio 
pectore non indignum ; siquidem cum ipsa amicitia 
plerumque multa inculpate facta detorquere soleat, 
tunc profecto acris et infesta inimicitia errata forsitan 
multa, et haud pauca sine dubio indiserte dicta, leniter 
et clementius quam meura erat meritum interpretari 
non gravabatur. Jam semel unico hoc exemplo vel 
ipsa demens ira mentis compos fuisse videbatur, et hoc 
facto furoris infamiam abluisse. At vero summopere 
oblector, ctmirum in modum voluptate perfundor, cum 
videam tanta doctissimorum hominum frequentia cir- 
cumfusum me, et undique stipatum : et rursus tamen 
cum in me descendo, et quasi flexis introrsum oculis 
meam tenuitatem secretus intueor, equidem saepius 
mihimet soli conscius erubesco et repentina quacdam 
ingruens moBstitia subsilientem deprimit et jugulat 
laetitiam. Sed nolite, academici, sic me jacentem et 
consternatum, et acie oculorum vestrorum tanquam de 
ccelo tactum, nolite quaeso sic deserere; erigat me 
semianimum, quod potest, et refocillet vestri favoris 
aura, ita fiet, ut, vobis authoribus, non admodum 
grave sit hoc malum ; at remedium mali vobis ex- 
hibentibus, eo jucundius et acceptius ; adeo ut mihi 
fuerit perquam gratum sic saepius examinari, modo 
liceat a vobis recreari me toties et refici. At 6 
interim singularem in vobis vim, atque eximiam vir- 
tutem, quae tanquam hasta ilia Achillea, Vulcani mu- 
nus, vulnerat et rnedicatur! Caeterum nee miretur 
quispiam, si ego tot eruditione insignes viros, totum- 
que pene academiae florem hue confluxisse, tanquam 
inter astra positus triumphem ; vix etenim opinor 
plures olim Athenas adventasse ad audiendum duos 
oratores summos Demosthenem et iEschinem de prin- 
cipatu eloquentiae certantes, nee earn unquam foeli- 
citatem contigisse peroranti Hortensio, nee tot tarn 
cgreg-ie literatos viros condecorasse orantem Cicero- 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



853 



nem ; adeo ut quamvis ego hoc opus minus fceliciter 
absolvcro, erit tamen mihi honori non aspernando in 
tanto concursu conventuque praestantissimorum homi- 
num vel verba fecisse. Atque hercle non possum ego 
nunc, quin mihi blandiuscule plaudam, qui vel Orphco, 
vel Amphione multo sim meo judicio fortunatior: hi 
enim chordulis suavi concentu adsonantibus digitos 
tantum docte et perite admovebant ; eratque in ipsis 
fidibus, et in apto dextroque manuum motu sequalis 
utrinquepars dulcedinis : atqui ego si quid hodie laudis 
hinc reportavero, ea sane et tota erit et vere mea, tan- 
toque nobilior, quanto ingenii opus vincit ac praestat 
manuum artificium. Deinde hi saxa, et feras, sylvas- 
que ad se trahebant, et si quos homines, rudes illos et 
agrestes : at ego doctissimas mihi deditas aures, et ab 
ore meo pendentes video. Novissime agrestes illi, et 
ferae jam satis notam et complures exauditam seque- 
bantur nervorum harmoniam ; vos vero hue rapuit, et 
jam detinet sola expectatio. Sed tamen academici,hic 
vos imprimis commonefactos volo, me non haec glo- 
riosus crepuisse ; utinam enim mihi vel in praesentia 
concederetur melleum illud, seu verius nectareum elo- 
quentiae flumen quicquid unquam Attica vel Romana 
ingenia imbuebat olim, et quasi coelitus irrorabat, uti- 
nam mihi liceret omnem penitus Suadae medullam 
exugere, et ipsius etiam Mercurii scrinia fufFurari, om- 
nesque elegautiarum loculos funditus exinanire, quo 
possim aliquid tanta expectatione, tarn praeclaro coetu, 
tam denique tersis et delicatis auribus dignum adferre. 
Ecce, auditores, quo me raptat et impellit vehementis- 
simus ardor et prolubium placendi vobis, quippe de im- 
proviso me provectum sentio in ambitionem quandam, 
sed earn sane piam, et honestum, si hoc fieri potest, 
sacrilegium. Et certe existimo haudquaquam mihi 
opus esse Musarum auxilium implorare et exposcere, 
iis enim me circumseptum puto, qui Musas omnes spi- 
rant et Gratias, totumque reor Helicona, et qusecunque 
sunt alia Musarum delubra ad hunc diem celebrandum 
omnes suos effudisse alumnos; adeo utcredibile sit jam 
nunc propter eorum absentiam lugere et deflorescere 
Parnassi lauros ; unde profecto frustra erit Musas, et 
Charites, et Libentias usquam terrarum quaeritare, 
quam in hoc loco ; quod si ita sit, necesse est protinus 
ipsam barbariem, errorem, ignorantiam, et omne illud 
musis invisum genus quam celerrime aufugere ad as- 
pectum vestrum, et sub di verso longe coelo abscondere 
sese; atque deinde quidem quid obstat, quo minus 
quicquid est barbarce, incultse, et obsoletae locutionis 
abigatur exempld ab oratione mea, atque ego afrlatu 
vestro, et arcano distinctu disertus et politus subito 
evadam. Utcunque tamen vos, auditoi-es, obtestor, ne 
quern vestrum poeniteat meis paulisper vacasse nugis; 
ipsi enim dii omnes, coelestis politise cura ad tempus 
deposita, depugnantium homunculoruni spectaculo 
saepius interfuisse perhibentur; aliquoties etiam hu- 
miles non dedignati casus, et paupere hospitio excepti, 
fabas et olera narrantur esitasse. Obsecro itidem ego 
vos, atque oro, auditores optimi, ut hoc meum quale 
conviviolum ad subtile vestrum et sagax palatum 
faciat. Verum etiamsi ego permultos noverim sciolos 
quibus usitatissimum est, si quid ignorarunt, id superbe 



et inscite apud alios contemnere, tanquam indignum 
cui operam impendant suam : quemadmodum hie dia- 
lccticam insulse vcllicat, quam nunquam assequi potue- 
rit ; ille philosophiam nihili facit, quia scilicet formo- 
sissima dearum natura nunquam ilium tali dignata est 
honore, ut se nudam illi praebuerit intuendam: ego 
tamen festivitates et sales, in quibus quoque perexi- 
guam agnosco facultatem meam, non gravabor, ut po- 
tero, laudare; si prius hoc unum addidero, quod sane 
arduum videtur, et minime proclive, me jocos hodie 
serio laudaturum. Atque id non immerito quidem, 
quid enim est quod citius conciliet, diutiusque retineat 
amicitias, quam amoenum et festivum ingeniura ? et 
profecto cui desunt sales, etlepores, etpolitulae facetiae, 
baud temere invenietis cui sit gratus ct acceptus. No- 
bis autem, academici, si quotidiani moris esset indor- 
mire et quasi immori philosophise, et inter dumos et 
spinas logicae consenescere citra ullam enim relaxa- 
tionem, et nunquam concesso rcspirandi loco, quid, 
quaeso, aliud esset philosophari, quam in Trophonii 
antro vaticinari, et Catonis plus nimio rigidi sectam 
sectari; immo dicerent vel ipsi rusticani, sinapi nos 
victitare. Adde quod, quemadmodum qui luctoe et 
campestri ludo assuescunt se, multo caoteris valentiores 
redduntur, et ad omne opus paratiores; ita pariter 
usu venit, ut per banc ingenii palaestram corroboretur 
nervus animi, et quasi melior sanguis et succus com- 
paretur, utque ipsa indoles limatior fiat acutiorque, et 
ad omnia sequax et versatilis. Quod si quis urbanus 
et lepidus haberi nolit, ne sis hoc illi stomacho si pa- 
ganus et subrusticus appelletur ; et probe novimus 
illiberale quoddam genus hominum, qui cum ipsi pror- 
sus insulsi sint et infestivi, suam tacite secum aesti- 
mantes vilitatem et inscitiam, quicquid forte urbanius 
dictitatum audiunt, id statim in se dici putant; digni 
sane quibus id vere eveniat, quod injuria suspicantur, 
ut scilicet omnium dicteriis everberantur, pene usque- 
dum suspendium cogitent. Sed non valent istae homi- 
num quisquilise urbanitatis elegantulee licentiam in- 
hibere. Vultis itaque me auditores, rationis funda- 
mento fidem exemplorum superstruere ? ea utique mihi 
abunde suppetunt, primus omnium occurrit Homerus 
ille oriens, et Lucifer cultioris literaturae, cum quo 
omnis eruditio tanquam gemella nata est ; ille enim 
interdum a deorum consiliis et rebus in coelo gestis 
divinum revocans animum, et ad facetias divertens, 
murium et ranarum pugnam lepidissime descripsit. 
Quinetiam Socrates, teste Pjthio, sapientissimus ille 
mortalium, jurgiosam uxoris morositatem saepenumero 
quam urbane perstrinxisse fertur. Omnia deinde ve- 
terum philosophorum diverbia sale sparsa, et lepore 
venusto passim legimus referta : et certe hoc unum 
erat quod antiquos omnes comoediarum et epigramma- 
tum scriptores, et Groecanicos et Latinos, aeternitate 
nominis donavit. Quinimo accepimus, Ciceronis jocos 
et facetias tres libros a Tyrone conscriptos implevisse. 
Et cuique jam in manibus est ingeniosissimum illud 
Moriae encomium non infimi scriptoris opus, multse- 
que aliae clarissimorum hujus memoriae oratorum de 
rebus ridiculis extant baud infacetre prolusioues. Vul- 
tis summos imperatores, et reges, et fortes viros ? Ac- 



854 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



cipite Periclem, Epaminondam, Agesilaum, et Philip- 
pum Macedonem, quos (ut Gelliano more loquar) 
festivitatum et sake dictorum scatuisse memorant his- 
torici : ad hos Caium Laelium, Pub. Cor. Scipionem, 
Cneitim Pompeium, C. Julium et Octavium Caesares, 
quos in hoc genere omnibus praestitisse coaetaneis 
autlior est M. Tullius. Vultis adhuc majora nomina? 
ipsum etiam Jovem reliquosque Coalites inter epulas 
et pocula jucunditati sedantesinducunt poetae sagacis- 
simi veritates adumbratores. Vestra demum, acade- 
mici, utar tutela et patrocinio, quod mihi erit omnium 
ad instar; quippe quam non displiceant vobis sales et 
joculi ; indicat satis tantus hodie vestrum factus con- 
cursus, et hoc sane unumquodque caput mihi annuere 
videtur; nee mirum est mehercle f'estam hanc ut mun- 
dulam urbanitatem omnes probos, simulque claros viros 
sic oblectare, cum et ipsa inter splendidos virtutum 
Aristotelicarum ordines sublimis sedeat, et velut in 
Pantheeo quod am diva cum divis sororibus colluceat. 
Sed forte non desunt quidem barbati magistri tetrici 
oppido et difficiles, qui se magnos Catones, nedum 
Catunculos putantes, vultu ad severitatem stoicam 
composito, obstipo nutantes capite anxie querantur 
omnia nunc dierum commisceri, et in deterius perverti 
et loco priorum Aristotelis ab initiatis recens bacca- 
laureis exponendorum, scommata et inanes nugas in- 
verecunde et intempestive jactari ; hodiernum quoque 
exercitium a majoribus nostris sine dubio recte et fide- 
liter institutum ob insigmem aliquem,sive in rhetorica, 
sive in philosophia fructum inde percipiendum, nunc 
nuper in insipidos sales perperam immutari. At vero 
his quod respondeatur ad manum mihi est, et in pro- 
cinctu ; sciant enim illi, si nesciant, literas, cum leges 
reipub. nostrae literarise primum essent latae, ab exteris 
regionibus vix has in oras fuisse advectas : idcirco cum 
Graecae et Latinse linguae peritia impendio rara esset 
et iusolens, expediebat eo acriori studio, et magis 
assiduis exercitationibus ad eas eniti et aspirare : nos 
autem quandoquidem superioribus nostris pejus sumus 
morati, melius eruditi, oportebit relictis quae haud 
multam habent difficultatem ad ea studia accedere, ad 
quae et illi contulissent se, si per otium licuisset ; nee 
vos praeteriit primos quosque legumlatores duriora 
paulo scita, et severiora quam ut ferri possint semper 
edere solere, ut deflectentes et paululum relapsi homines 
in ipsum rectum incidant. Deniquemutata nunc om- 
nino rerum facie, necesse est multas leges, multasque 
consuetudines si non antiquari et obsolescere coangus- 
tari saltern nee per omnia servari. Verum si leves istius- 
modi nugas palam defensitatae fuerint et approbatae, 
publicamque demeruerint laudem, (sic enim arduis su- 
perciliis solent dicere,) nemo non averso ab sana et solida 
eruditione animo eum ad ludicra statim et histrionalem 
prope levitatem adjunget, adeo ut ipsa philosophorum 
spatiapro doctis et cordatis nugatores emissura sintvel 
rniniis etscurris proterviores. At vero ego existimo eum 
qui jocis insubidis sic solet capi, ut prae iis seria et ma- 
gis utilia plane negligat, eum inquam, nee in hac parte, 
nee in ilia posse admodum proficere: non quidem in 
seriis, quia si fuisset ad res serias tractandas natura 
comparatus, factusque, credo non tarn facile pateretur 



se ab iis abduci ; nee in nugatoriis, quia vix queat ullus 
belle et lepide jocari, nisi et serio agere prius addidi- 
cerit. Sed vereor, academici, ne longius aequo deduxe- 
rim orationis filum ; nolo excusare quod potui, ne inter 
excusandum ingravescat culpa. Jam oratoriis soluti 
legibus prosiliemus in comicam licentiam. In qua si 
forte morem meum, si rigidas verecundiae leges trans- 
versum, quod aiunt, digitum egressus fuero, sciatis 
academici, me in vestram gratiam exuisse antiquum 
meum, et parumper deposuisse : aut si quid solute, si 
quid luxurianter dictum erit, id quidem non mentem et 
indolem meam, sed temporis rationem et loci genium 
mihi suggessisse putetis. Itaque, quod simile solent 
exeuntes implorare comcedi, id ego inceptans flagito. 
Plaudite, et ridete. 

PROLUSIO. 



Laboranti, ut videtur, et pene corruenti stultorum 
rei summae, equidem nescio quo merito meo dictator 
sum creatus. At quorsum ego? cum dux ille, et ante- 
signatus omnium sophistarum et sedulo ambiverit hoc 
munus, et fortissime potuerit administrare ; ille enim 
induratus miles ad quinquaginta pridem sophistas su- 
dibus breviculis armatos per agios Barwellianos strenue 
duxit, et obsessurus oppidum satis militariter aquas- 
ductum disjecit, ut per sitim posset oppidanos ad de- 
ditionem cogere ; at vero abiisse nuper hominem valde 
doleo, siquidem ejus discessu nos omnes sophistas non 
solum oLKKpaksq reliquit, sed et decollates. Et jam fin- 
gite, auditores, quamvis non sint Aprilis calendae, festa 
adesse hilaria, matri deum dicata, vel deo risui rem di- 
vinam fieri. Ridete itaque et petulanti plene sustollite 
cachinnum, exporrigite frontem, et uncis indulgete na- 
ribus, sed naso ad unco ne suspendite ; profusissimo risu 
circumsonent omnia, et solutior cachinnus hilares ex- 
cutiat lachrjmas, ut iis risu exhaustis ne guttulam 
quidem habeat dolor qua triumphum exornet. suum. 
Ego profecto si quern nimis parce diducto rictu riden- 
tem conspexero, dicam eum scabros et cariosos dentes 
rubigine obductos, aut indecoro ordine prominentes ab- 
scondere, aut inter prandendum hodie sic opplevisse 
abdomen, ut non audeat ilia ulterius distendere ad 
risum, ne praecinenti ori succinat, et senigmata quaedam 
nolens affutiat sua non sphinx sed sphincter anus, quae 
medicis interpretanda non Oedipo relinquo ; nolim 
enim hilari vocis sono obstrepat in hoc ccetu posticus 
gemitus: solvant ista medici qui alvum solvunt. Si 
quis strenuum et clarum non ediderit murmur, eum ego 
asseverabo tarn gravem et mortiferum faucibus exha- 
lare spiritum, ut vel iEtna, vel Avernus nihil spiret 
tetrius ; aut certe allium aut porrum comedisse dudum, 
adeo ut non audeat aperire os, ne vicinos quosque foe- 
tido haiku enecet. At vero absit porro ab hoc coetu 
horrendus et tartareus ille sibili sonus, nam si hie au- 
diatur hodie, credam ego Furias et Eumenides inter 
vosocculte latitare, et angues suos colubrosque pectori- 
bus vestris immisisse, et proinde Athamanteos furores 
vobis inspiravisse. At enimvero, academici, vestram 
ego in me benevolentiam demiror atque exosculor, qui 
me audituri per flammas et ignes irrupistis in hunc 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



855 



locum. Hinc enim in ipso limine scintillans ille noster 
Cerberus astat, et fumido latratu horribilis, flammeo- 
que coruscans baculo favillas pleno ore egerit; illinc 
ardens et voracissimus fornax noster luridos eructat 
ig'nes, et tortuosos fumi globos evolvit, adeo ut non sit 
difficilius iter ad inferos vel invito Plutone; et certe 
nee ipse Jason minori cum periculo boves illos Martis 
irvpnrveovrag aggressus est. Jamque auditores, credite 
vos in coelum receptos, posteaquam evasistis Purgato- 
rium, et nescio quo novo miraculo ex fornace calida 
salvi prodiistis, neque sane mihi in mentem venit ullius 
herois cujus fortitudinem commode possim vestras 
aequiparare, neque enim Belleropbontes illeignivomam 
chimseram animosius debellavit, nee validissimi illi 
regis Arthuri pugiles, igniti et flammigerantis castelli 
incantamenta vicerunt facilius et dissiparunt ; atque 
hinc subit, ut puros mihi auditores et lectissimos polli- 
cear, si quid enim fuecis hue advenerit post explora- 
tionem camini, ego statim dixero ignes nostros jani- 
tores esse fatuos. At foelices nos et incolumes perpetuo 
futuros ! Romse enim ad diuturnitatem imperii sempi- 
ternos ignes solliciie et religiose servabant, nos vigili- 
bus et vivis ignibus custodimur: quid dixi vivis et 
vigilibus ? id sane improviso lapsu prsetervolavit, 
quippe nunc melius commemini, eos primo crepusculo 
extinguere sese, et non nisi claro sudo sese resuscitare. 
Attamen spes est, tandem iterum domum nostram posse 
inclarescere, cum nemo inficias iverit duo maxima aca- 
demic luminaria nostro collegio praesidere; quamvis 
illi nusquam majori forent in honore quam Romae ; ibi 
enim vel virgines Vestales inextinctos eos, etinsomnes 
totas noctes servarent, vel forte ordini seraphico initia- 
rentur flammei fratres. In hos denique optime quadrat 
hemistichon illud Virgilianum, igneus est ollis vigor : 
immo pene inductus sum ut credam Horatium horum 
nostrorum ignium mentionem fecisse, major enim ho- 
rum, dum stat inter conjugem et liberos, micat inter 
omnes vclut inter ignes luna minores. Non possum 
autem praeterire faedum Ovidii errorem, qui sic cecinit, 
" Nataque de flamma corpora nulla vides." Videmus 
enim passim oberrantes igniculos hoc nostro igne ge- 
nitos, hoc si negaverit Ovidius, necessum habebit uxovis 
pudicitiam vocare in dubium. Ad vos redeo, auditores ; 
ne vos pceniteat tarn molesti et formidolosi itineris, ecce 
convivium vobis apparatum ! eccas mensas ad luxum 
Persicum extructas, et cibis conquisitissimis onustas, 
qui vel Apicianam gulam oblectent et deliniant! 
Ferunt enim Antonio et Cleopatrae octo integros apros 
in epulis appositos, vobis autem primo forculo hem 
quinquaginta saginatos apros cervisia conditanea per 
triennium maceratos, et tamen adbuc adeo callosos, ut 
vel caninos dentes delassare valeant. Dein totidem 
optimos boves insigniter caudatos famulari nostro igni 
prae foribus recens assos ; sed vereor ne omnem succum 
in patinam exudaverint. Ab his tot etiam en vitulina 
capita, sane crassa et carnosa, sed adeo pertenui cere- 
bro, ut non sufficiat ad condimentum. Turn quidem 
et hoedos plus minus centum, sed puto crebriori Veneris 
usu nimium macros: arietes aliquot expectavimus 
speciosis et patulis cornubus, sed eos coqui nostri non- 
dum secum attulerunt ex oppido. Si quis aves ma- 



vult, habemus innumeras, turundis, et offis, et scobi- 
nato caseo diu altiles : inprimis, nescio quod genus 
avium tarn ingenio quam pluma viride, unde eas e re- 
gione psittacorum suspicor asportatas ; quae quia gre- 
gatim semper volitant, et eodem fere loco nidulantur, 
eodem etiam disco apponentur; iis vero paree velim 
vescamini, quia praeterquam quod admodum crudisint, 
et nihil in se habeant solidi nutrimenti, scabiem etiam 
comedentibus protrudunt (modo vera tradit comestor.) 
Jam vero libere et genialiter epulamini ; hie enim 
praesto est missus quem vobis prae omnibus commendo, 
praegrandis scilicet gallinago, pertriennalem saginam 
adeo unguinosae pinguedinis, ut illi vix satis largum 
sit unum ferculum amplissimum, rostro eosque prae- 
longo et eduro, ut impune possit cum elephante aut 
rhinocerote certamen ingredi ; earn autem in hunc diem 
commode obtruncavimus,propterea quod proagrandium 
simiorum more incepit puellis insidiari, et vim inferre 
mulieribus. Hunc subsequuntur avesquaedam Hiber- 
nicae, nescio quo nomine ; sed incessu et corporis filo 
gruibus persimiles, quamvis utplurimum soleant in 
postremam mensam asservari; hie quidem estnovuset 
rams magis quam salutaris cibus : his itaque abstineatis 
moneo, sunt enim efflcacissimi (modo vera tradit comes- 
tor) ad generandos pediculos inguinales ; has igitur 
arbitror ego agasonibus utiliores futuras ; nam cum 
sint naturae vividae, vegetae, et saltaturientes, si equis 
strigosis per podicem ingerantur, reddent eos protinus 
vivaciores et velociores quam si decern vivas anguillas 
in ventre haberent. Anseres etiam complures aspicite, 
et hujus anni et superiorum argutos valde, et ranis 
Aristophanicis vocaliores ; quos quidem facile dignos- 
cetis; mirum enim est ni se jam prodiderint sibilando, 
statim fortasse audietis. Ova insuper aliquot habemus, 
sed ea kcckov Kopcucog; frugum vero nihil praeterquam 
mala et mespila, eaque infoelicis arboris, nee satis ma- 
tura, praestabit itaque iterum ad solem suspendi. Vi- 
detis apparatus nostros, quaeso vos, quibuspalato sunt, 
commessamini. Verum hariolor dicturos vos, epulas 
hasce, veluti nocturnae ilia?, dapes quae adaemone vene- 
ficis apparantur, nullo condiri sale, vereorque ne disce- 
datis jejuniores quam venistis. Verum ad ea perg'o 
quae ad me propius attinent. Romani sua habuere flo- 
ralia, ruslici sua patilia, pistores sua fornacalia, nos 
quoque potissimum hoc tempore rerum et negotiorum 
vacui, Socratico more ludere solemus. Itaque hos- 
pitia leg'uleiorum suos habent, quos vocant dominos, 
vel hinc indicantes quam sint honoris ambitiosi. Nos 
autem, academici, ad paternitatem quamproxime ac- 
cedere cupientes id ficto nomine usurpare gestimus, 
quod vero non audemus saltern nonuisi in occulto ; 
quemadmodum puellae nuptias lusorias et puerperia 
solenniter fingunt, earum rerum quas anhelant et cupi- 
unt, umbras captantes et amplectentes. Quorsum 
autem eo, qui proxime se circumegit, anno intermissa 
fuerit haec solennitas, ego sane baud possum divinare ; 
nisi quod ii qui patres futuri erant, adeo strenue se ges- 
serint in oppido, ut is cui id negotii dabatur, tantorum 
misertus laborum ultro jusserit eos ab hac cura otiosos 
esse. At vero unde est quod ego tam subito factus sum 
pater ? Dii vestram fidem ! Quid hoc est prodigii 



856 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



Pliniana exuperantis portenta ? numnam ego percusso 
angue Tyresias fatum expertus sum ? ecqua me Thes- 
sala saga magico perfudit unguento? an denique ego 
a dco aliquo vitiatus, ut olim Cnoeeus, virilitatem pac- 
tus sum stupri pretiura, ut sic repente Ik SrjXUag eig 
dppevd dXXa x Qe ' LT J v "" • A quibusdam, audivi nuper 
domina. At cur videor illis parum masculus ? Ecquis 
Prisciani pudor ? itaue propria qua3 maribus foemineo 
generi tribuunt insulsi grammaticastri ! scilicet quia 
scyphos capacissimos nunquam valui pancratice hau- 
rire ; aut quia mantis tenenda stiva non occaluit, aut 
quia nunquam ad meridianum solem supinus jacui sep- 
tennis bubulcus ; fortasse demum quod nunquam me 
virum praestiti, eo modo quo ilie ganeones ; verum 
utinam illi possint tarn facile exuere asinos, quam ego 
quicquid est foemina? ; at videte quam insubide, quam 
incogitate mihi objecerint id, quod ego jure optimo 
mihi vertam gloria?. Namque et ipse Demostbenes 
ab aemulis adversariisque parum vir dictus est. Q. 
itidem Hortensius, omnium oratorum post M. Tullium 
clarissimus, Dionysia Psaltria appellatus est a L. Tor- 
quato. Cui ille, Dionysia, inquit, malo equidem esse, 
quam quod tu Torquate, dfiaaog, dypodiairog, dirpo- 
avrog. Ego vero quicquid hoc domini aut dominae 
est a me longe amolior atque rejicio, nisi in rostris at- 
que subselliis vestris, academici, dominari non cupio. 
Quis jam prohibebit me quin laetar tarn auspicato et 
foelici omine, exultemque gaudio me tantis viris ejus- 
dem opprobrii societate conjunctum! Interea ut bonos 
omnes et prsestantes supra invidiam positos arbitror, 
ita hos lividos adeo omnium infimos puto, ut ne digni 
sint qui maledicant. Ad filios itaque pater me converto, 
quorum cerno speciosum numerum, et video etiam le- 
pidulos nebulones occulto nutu me patrem fateri. De 
nominibus quaeritis ? Nolo sub nominibus ferculorum 
filios meos epulandos vobis tradere, id enim Tantali et 
Lycaonis feritati nimium esset affine; nee membrorum 
insignibo nominibus, ne putetis me pro integris homi- 
nibus tot frusta hominum genuisse ; nee ad vinorum 
genera eos nuncupare volupe est, ne quicquid dixero, 
sit d-rrpoaliovvaov, et nihil ad Bacchum ; volo ad praedi- 
camentorum numerum nominatos, ut sic et ingenuos 
natales et liberalem vitae rationem exprimam ; et eadem 
opera curabo, uti omnes ad aliquem gradum antemeum 
obitum provecti sint. Quod ad sales meos nolo ego 
edentulos, sic enim tritos, et veteres dicatis, et aniculam 
aliquam tussientem eos expuisse : proinde credo ne- 
minem sales meos dentatos inculpaturum, nisi qui ipse 
nullos habet dentes, ideoque reprehensurum, quia non 
sunt ipsius similes. Et certe in prsesens ego exoptarem 
obtigisse mihi Horatii sortem, nempe ut essem salsa- 
mentarii filius, tunc enim sales mihi essent ad unguem, 
vos etiam sale ita pulchre defricatos dimitterem, ut 
nostras milites, qui nuper ab insula Reana capessere 
fugarn, non magis poeniteret salis petiti. Non libet 
mihi in consilio vobis exhibendo, mei gnati, gnavi- 
ter esse operoso, ne plus operee vobis erudiendis quam 
gignendis insumpsisse videar, tantum caveat quisque 
ne ex filio fiat nepos : liberique mei ne colant libc- 
rum, si me velint patrem. Si qua ego alia prsecepta 
dedero, ca lingua vernacula proferenda sentio : co- 



naborque pro viribus ut omnia intelligatis. Cseterum 
exorandi sunt mihi Neptunus, Apollo, Vulcanus, ut 
omnes dii fabri, uti latera mea vel tabulatis corrobo- 
rare, vel ferreis laminis circumligare velint. Quin- 
etiam et supplicanda mihi est dea Ceres, ut quae hume- 
rum eburneum Pelopi dederit, mihi pariter latera pene 
absumpta reparare dignetur. Neque enim est cur mire- 
tur quibuslibet, si post tantum clamorem et tot filiorum 
genituram paulo infirmiora sint. In his itaque sensu 
Neroniano ultra quam satis est moratus sum : nunc 
leges academicas veluti Romuli muros transiliens a 
Latinis ad Anglicana transcurro. Vos quibus istaec 
arrident, aures atque animos nunc mihi attentos date. 



IN SACRARIO HABITA PRO ARTE. 



ORATIO. 

Beatiores reddit Homines Ars quam Ignorantia. 

Tametsi mihi, auditores, nihil magis jucundum sit 
atque optabile aspectu vestro assiduaque togatorum 
hominum frequentia, hoc etiam honorifico dicendi 
munere, quo ego vice una atque altera apud vos non 
ingrata opera perfunctus sum; tamen, si quod res est 
fateri liceat, semper ita fit, ut, cum neque meum inge- 
nium, nee studiorum ratio ab hoc oratorio genere mul- 
tum abhorreat, ego vix unquam mea voluntate, aut 
sponte ad dicendam accedam ; mihi si fuisset integrum, 
vel huic vespertino labori baud illibenter equidem par- 
sissem : nam quoniam ex libris et sententiis doctissi- 
morum hominum sic accepi, nihil vulgare, aut mediocre 
in oratore, ut nee in poeta posse concedi, eumque 
oportere, qui orator esse merito et haberi velit, omnium 
artium, omnesque scientiae circulari quodam subsidio 
instructum etconsummatum esse; id quando mea aetas 
non fert, malui jam prius eamihi subsidia comparando, 
lougo et acri studio illam laudem veram contendere, 
quam properato et praecoci stylo falsam praeripere. 
Qua animi cogitatione et consilio dum aestuo totus 
indies, et accendor, nullam unquam sensi gravius im- 
pedimentum et moram, hoc frequenti interpellationis 
damno; nihil vero magis aluisse ingenium, et, contra 
quam in corpore fit, bonam ei valetudinem conservasse 
erudito et liberali otio. Hunc ego divinum Hesiodi 
somnum, hos nocturnos Endymiouis cum Luna con- 
gressus esse crediderim ; hunc ilium duce Mercurio 
Promethci secessum in altissimas montis Caucasi soli- 
tudincs, ubi sapientissimus deiini atque hominum eva- 
sit, utpote quern ipse Jupiter de nuptiis Thetidis con- 
sultum isse dicatur. Testor ipse lucos, et flumina, et 
dilectas villarum ulmos, sub quibus aestate proxime 
pneterita (si dearum arcana eloqui liceat) summam 
cum musis gratiam habuisse me jucunda memoria re- 
colo ; ubi et ego inter rura et semotos saltus velut 
occulto aevo crescere mihi potuisse visus sum. Hie 
quoque eandem mihi delitescendi copiam utique spe- 
rassem, nisi intempestive prorsus interposuisset se im- 



PROLUSIONES ORATORLE. 



857 



portuna haec dicendi molestia, quae sic ingrate arcebat 
sacros somnos, sic torsit animum in aliis defixum, et 
inter praeruptas artium difficultates sic impedivit et 
oneri fuit, utego amissa omni spe persequendae quietis 
mcestus cogitare coeperim, quam procul abessem ab ea 
tranquillitate quam mihi primo literae pollicebantur, 
acerbam fore inter hos aestus et jactationes vitam, satius 
esse vel omnes artes didicisse. Itaque vix compos 
mei, temerarium coepi consilium laudandae ignorantiae, 
quae nihil prorsus haberat harum turbarum ; proposui- 
que in certamen utra suos cultores beatiores redderet 
Ars an Ignorantia ? Nescio quid est, noluit me meum 
sive fatum, sive genius ab incepto Musarum amore 
discedere ; imo et ipsa caeca sors tanquam derepente 
prudens providensque facta hoc idem noluisse visa est; 
citius opinione mea Ignorantia suum nacta est patro- 
num, mihi Ars relinquitur defendenda. Gaudeo sane 
sic illusum me, nee me pudet vel caecam Fortunam 
mihi restituisse oculos ; hoc illi nomine gratias habeo. 
Jam saltern illam laudere licet, cujus ab amplexu di- 
vulsus eram, et quasi absentis desiderium sermone 
consolari: jam haec non plane interruptio est, quis 
enim interpellari se dicat, id laudando et tuendo quod 
amat, quod approbat, quod magnopere assequi velit. 
Verum, auditores, sic ego existimo in re mediocriter 
laudabili maxime elucere vim eloquentiae ; quae sum- 
mum laudem habent, vix ullo modo, ullis limitibus 
orationis contineri posse, in his ipsa sibi officit copia, 
et rerum multitudine comprimit et coangustat expan- 
dentem se elocutionis pompam; hac ego argumenti 
foecunditate nimia laboro, ipsae me vires imbecillum, 
arma inermem reddunt ; delectus itaque faciendus, 
aut certe enumeranda verius quam tractanda quae tot 
nostram causam validis praesidiis firmam ac munitam 
statuunt; nunc illud mihi unice elaborandum video, 
ut ostendam quid in utraque re, et quantum ha- 
beat momentum ad illam in quam omnes ferimur, 
beatitudinem ; in qua contentione facili certe nego- 
tio versabitur oratio nostra, nee admodum esse puto 
raetuendum quid possit scientise inscitia, arti ignorantia 
objicere ; quamvis hoc ipsum quod objiciat, quod verba 
faciat, quod in hac celebritate literatissimae concionis 
vel hiscere audeat, id totum ab arte precario vel potius 
emendicato habet. Notum hoc esse reor, auditores, et 
receptum omnibus, magnum mundi opificem, caetera 
omnia cum fluxu et caduca posuisset, homini praeter id 
quod mortale esset, divinam quandam auram, et quasi 
partem sui immiscuisse, immortalem, indelebilem,lethi 
et interitus immunem; quae postquam in terris ali- 
quandiu tanquam coelestis hospes, caste, sancteque pe- 
regrinata esset, ad nativum coelum sursum evibraretse, 
debitamque ad sedem et patriam reverteretur : proinde 
nihil merito recenseri posse in causis nostrae beatitudi- 
nis, nisi id et illam sempiternam, et hanc civilem vitam 
aliqua ratione respiciat. Ea propemodum suffragiis 
omnium sola est contemplatio, qua sine administro 
corpore seducta et quasi conglobata in se mens nostra 
incredibili voluptate immortalium deorum aevum imita- 
tur, quae tamen sine arte tota infrugifera est et inju- 
cunda, imo nulla. Quis enim rerum humanarum divi- 
narumque ideag intucri digne possit aut considerare, 



quarum ferme nihil nosse queat, nisi animum per 
avtem et disciplinam imbutum et excultum habuerit; 
ita prorsus ei eui artes desunt, interclusus esse videtur 
omnis aditus ad vitam beatam : ipsam hanc animam 
altoe sapientiae capacem et prope inexplebilem, aut 
frustra nobis Deus, aut in poenam dedisse videtur, nisi 
maxime voluisset nos ad excelsam earum rerum cogni- 
tionem sublimes eniti, quarum tantum ardorem natura 
humanae menti injecerat. Circumspicite quaqua po- 
testis universam hanc rerum faciem, illam sibi in glo- 
riam tanti operis summus artifex eedificavit; quanto 
altius ejus rationem insignem, ingentem fabricam, va- 
rietatem admirabilem investigamus, quod sine arte non 
possumus, tanto plus authorem ejus admiratione nostra 
celebramus, et veluti quodam plausu persequimur, quod 
illi pergratum esse, certum ac persuasissimum habea- 
mus. Ecquid, auditores, putabimus tanta immensi 
oetheris spatia aeternis accensa atque distincta ignibus, 
tot sustinere concitatissimos motus, tanta obire conver- 
sionum itinera ob hoc unum ut lucernam praebeant ig- 
navis et pronis hominibus ? et quasi facem praeferant 
nobis infra torpentibus et desidiosis ? nihil inesse tarn 
multiplici fructuum herbarumque proventui, praeter- 
quam fragilem viriditatis ornatum? Profecto si tarn in- 
justi rerum aestimatores erimus, ut nihil ultra crassum 
sensus intuitum persequamur, non modo serviliter et 
abjecte, sed inique et malitiose cum benigno numine 
egisse videbimur; cui per inertiam nostram, et quasi 
per invidiam titulorum magna pars, et tantae potentiae 
veneratio penitus intercidet. Si igitur dux et incho- 
atrix nobis ad beatitudinem sit eruditio, si potentissimo 
numini jussa et complacita, et ejus cum laude maxime 
conjuncta, certe non potest sui cultores non efficere vel 
summe beatos. Neque enim nescius sum, auditores, 
contemplationem hanc qua tendimus ad id quod summe 
expetendum est, nullum habere posse verae beatitudinis 
gustum sine integritate vitae, et morum innocentia; 
multos autem vel insigniter eruditos homines nefarios 
extitisse, praeterea irae, odio, et pravis cupiditatibus 
obedientes; multos e contra literarum rudes viros pro- 
bos atque optimos se praestitisse ; quid ergo? Num 
beatior ignorantia ? minime vero. Sic itaque est, au- 
ditores, paucos fortasse doctrina praestabiles suae civi- 
tatis corruptissimi mores et illiteratorum hominum col- 
luvies in nequitiam pertraxere, unius perdocti et pru- 
dentis viri industria multos mortales ab arte impolitos 
in officio continuit: nimirum una domus, vir unus arte 
et sapientia praeditus, velut magnum dei munus toti 
reipub. satis esse possit ad bonam frugem. Caeterum 
ubi nullae vigent artes, ubi omnis exterminatur eruditio, 
ne ulluni quidem ibi viri boni vestigium est, grassatur 
immanitas atque horrid a bavbaries; hujus rei testem 
appello non civitatem unam, aut provinciam, non gen- 
tem, sed quartam orbis terrarum partem Europam, qua 
tota superioribus aliquot saeculis omnes bonae artes in- 
terierant, omnes tunc temporis academias praesides diu 
Musae reliquerant; pervaserat omnia, et occuparat caeca 
inertia, nihil audiebatur in scholis praeter insulsa stu- 
pidissimorum monachorum dogmata, togam scilicet 
nacta, per vacua rostra et pulpita, per squalentes ca- 
thedras jactitavit se prophanum et informe monstrum, 



858 



FROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



Iguorantia. Turn prim um lugere pietas, et extingui 
religio et pessum ire, adeo ut ex gravi vulnere, sero 
atque aegre vix in hunc usque diem convaluerit. 
At vero, auditores, hoc in philosophia ratum, et an- 
tiquum esse satis constat, omnis artis, omnisque sci- 
entiae perceptionem solius intellectus esse, virtutum 
ac probitatis domum atque delubrum esse voluntatem. 
Cum autem omnium judicio intellectus humanus cae- 
teris animi facultatibus princeps et moderator praslu- 
ceat, turn et ipsam voluntatem caecam alioqui et ob- 
scuram suo splendore temperat et collustrat, ilia veluti 
luna, luce lucet aliena. Quare demus hoc sane, et 
largiamur ultro, potiorem esse ad beatam vitam virtu- 
tem sine arte, quam artem sine virtute ; at ubi semel 
foelici nexu invicem consociatae fuerint, ut maxime 
debent, et saepissime contiugit, turn vero statim vultu 
erecto atque arduo superior longe apparet, atque emi- 
cat scientia, cum rege et imperatore intellectu in 
excelso locat se, inde quasi humile et sub pedibus 
spectat inferius quicquid agitur apud voluntatem ; et 
deinceps in aeternum excellentiam et claritudinem, 
raajestatemque divinae proximam facile sibi asserit. 
Age descendants ad civilem vitam, quid in privata, 
quid in publica proficiat utraque videamus ; taceo de 
arte quod sit pulcherrimum juventutishonestamentum, 
setatis virilis firmum praesidium, senectutis ornamen- 
tum atque solatium. Praetereo et illud multos apud 
suos nobiles, etiam P. R. principes post egregia faci- 
nora, et rerum gestarum gloriam ex contentione et 
strepitu ambitionis ad literarum studium tanquam in 
portum ac dulce perfugium se recepisse ; intellexere 
nimirum senes praestantissimi jam reliquam vita? par- 
tem optimam optime oportere collocari ; erant summi 
inter homines, volebant his artibus non postremi esse 
inter deos; petierant honores, nunc immortalitatem ; 
in debellandis imperii hostibus longe alia militia usi 
sunt, cum morte maximo generis humani malo con- 
flictaturi, ecce quae tela sumpserint, quas legiones 
conscripserint, quo commeatu instructi fuerint. Atqui 
maxima pars civilis beatitudinis in humana societate 
et contrahendis amicitiis fere constituta est ; doctiores 
plerosque difficiles, inurbanos, moribus incompositis, 
nulla fandi gratia ad conciliandos hominum animos 
multi queruntur: fateor equidem, qui in studiis fere 
seclusus atque abditus est, multo promptius esse Deos 
alioqui quam homines, sive quod perpetuo fere domi 
est apud superos infrequens rerum humanarum et vere 
pcregrinus, sive quod assidua rerum divinarum cogita- 
tione mens quasi grandior facta in tantis corporis 
angustiis difficulter agitans se minus habilis sit ad 
exfjuisitiores salutationum gesticulationes; atsidignae 
atque idoneaBContigerint amicitia? nemo sanctius colit; 
quid enim jucundius, quid cogitari potest beatius illis 
doctorum et gravissimorum hominum colloquiis, qualia 
sub ilia platano plurima saepe fertur habuisse divinus 
Plato, digna certe quas totius confluentis generis hu- 
mani arrecto excipiantur silentio; at stolide confabu- 
lan, alios aliis ad luxum et libidines morem gcrere ea 
demoni ignorantiae est amicitia, aut certe amicitiae 
iguorantia. Quineliam si hose civilis beatitudo in 
bonesta liberaque oblectatione animi consistit, ca pro- 



fecto doctrinoe et arti reposita est voluptas, quae cae- 
teras omnes facile superet; quid omnem coeli siderum- 
que morem tenuisse ? omnis aeris motus et vicissitu- 
dines, sive augusto fulminum sonitu, aut crinitis ardo- 
ribus inertes animos perterrefaciat, sive in nivem et 
grandinem obrigescat, sive denique in pluvia et rore 
mollis et placidus descendat ; turn alternantes ventos 
perdidicisse, omnesque halitus aut vapores quos terra 
aut mare eructat ; stirpium deinde vires occultas, me- 
tallorumque caluisse, singulorum etiam animantium 
naturam, et si fieri potest, sensus intellexisse ; hinc 
accuratissimam corporis humani fabricam et medici- 
nam ; postremo divinam animi vim et vigorem, et si 
qua de illis qui lares, et genii, et dsemonia vocantur 
ad nos pervenit cognitio ? Infinita ad haec alia, quo- 
rum bonam partem didicisse licuerit, antequam ego 
cuncta enumeraverim. Sic tandem, auditores, cum 
omnimoda semel eruditio suos orbes confecerit, non 
contentus iste spiritus tenebricoso hoc ergastulo eous- 
que late aget se, donee et ipsum mundum, et ultra 
longe divina quadam magnitudine expatiata comple- 
verit. Turn demum plerique casus atque eventus 
rerum ita subito emergent, ut ei, qui banc arcem sa- 
pientiae adeptus est, nihil pene incautum, nihil for- 
tuitum in vita possit accidere ; videbitur sane is esse, 
cujus imperio et dominationi astra obtemperent, terra 
et mare obsecundent, venti tempestatesque morigerae 
sint ; cui denique ipsa parens natura in deditionem 
se tradiderit, plane ac si quis deus abdicato mundi 
imperio, huic jus ejus, et leges, administrationem- 
que tanquam praefectori cuidam commisisset. Hue 
quanta accedit animi voluptas, per omnes gentium his- 
torias et loca pervolare regnorum, nationum, urbium, 
populorum status mutationesque ad prudentiam, et 
mores animadvertere : hoc est, auditores, omni astati 
quasi vivus interesse, et velut ipsius temporis nasci 
contemporaneus ; profecto cum nominis nostri glorias 
in futurum prospeximus, hoc erit ab utero vitam retro 
extendere et porrigere, et nolenti fato anteactam quan- 
dam immortalitatem extorquere. Mitto illud cui quid 
potest aequiparari? Multarum gentium oraculum esse, 
domum quasi templum habere, esse quos reges et res- 
publicae ad se invitent, cujus visendi gratia finitimique 
exterique concurrant, quern alii vel semel vidisse quasi 
quoddam bene meritum glorientur; haec studiorum 
praemia, hos fructus eruditio suis cultoribus in privata 
vita praestare, et potest, et saepe solet. At quid in pub- 
lica ? Sane ad majestatis fastigium paucos evexit laus 
doctrinae, nee probitatis multo plures. Nimirum, illi 
apud se reg*no fruuntur, omni terrarum ditione longe 
gloriosiori : et quis sine ambitionis infamia geminum 
affectat regnum ? addam hoc tamen amplius, duos tan- 
tum adhuc fuisse qui quasi ccelitus datum universum 
terrarum orbem habuere, et supra omnes reges et dy- 
nastas aequale diis ipsis partiti sunt imperium, Alex- 
andium nempe Magnum et Octavium Caesarem, eosque 
ambos philosophiae alumnos. Perinde ac si quoddam 
electionis exemplar divinitus exhibitum esset homini- 
bus, quali potissimum viro clavum et habenas rerum 
credi oporteret. At multae resp. sine Uteris, rebus ges- 
tis ct opulentia claruerc. Spartanorum quidem, qui 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



859 



ad literarum studium contulerint se, pauci meinoran- 
tur; Romani intra urbis mcenia philosophiam sero re- 
ceperunt ; at illi legislatore usi sunt Lycurgo, qui et 
philosophus fuit etpoetarum adeo studiosus, ut Homeri 
scripta per loniam sparsa surama cura primus college- 
rit. Hi post varios in urbe motus et perturbationes 
segre se sustentare valentes, ab Athenis ea terapestate 
artium studio florentissimis, leges decemvirales, quae 
et duodecim tabulae dictae sunt, missis legatis emendi- 
carunt. Quid si hodiernos Turcas per opima Asiae 
regna rerum late potitos omnis literature ignaros nobis 
objiciant? Equidem in ea repub. (si tamen crudelissi- 
morum hominum per vim et caedem arrepta potentia, 
quos unum in locum sceleris consensus convocavit, con- 
tinuo respub. dicenda sit) quod in ea ad exemplum in- 
signe sit nil audivi, parere vitae commoda, tueri parta, 
id natures debemus, non arti; aliena libidinose invadere, 
sibi mutuo ad rapinam auxilio esse, in scelus conjurare, 
id naturae pravitati. Jus quoddam apud eos exercetur ; 
nee mirum: caeterae virtutes facile fugantur, justitia 
vere regia, ad sui cultum impellit, sine qua vel injus- 
tissimae societates cito dissolverentur. Nee omiserim 
tamen, Saracenos Turcarum propemodum conditores 
non armis mag-is quam bonarum literarum studiis im- 
perium suum propagasse. Sed si antiquitatem repeta- 
mus, inveniemus non institutas modo ab arte, sed fun- 
datas olim fuisse respublicas. Antiquissimi quique 
gentium indigence in sylvis et montibus errasse dicun- 
tur, ferarum ritu pabuli commoditatem sequuti, vultu 
erecti, caetera proni, putasses praeter formae dignitatem 
nihil non commune cum bestiis habuisse ; eadem antra, 
iidem specus coelum et frigora defendebant; nulla tunc 
urbs, non aedes marmoreae, non arae deorum, aut fana 
collucebant, non illic fas sanctum, nondum jura in foro 
dicebantur, nulla in nuptiis taeda, non chorus, nullum 
in mensa geniali carmen, nullum solenne funeris, non 
luctus, vix tumulus defunctos honestabat; nulla con- 
vivia, nulli ludi, inauditus citharae sonus, ipsa tunc 
omnia aberant, quibus jam inertia ad luxum abutitur. 
Cum repente artes et scientiae agrestia hominum pectora 
coelitus afflabant, et imbutos notitia sui in una moenia 
pellexere. Quamobrem certe quibus authoribus urbes 
ipsae primum conditae sunt, dein stabilitae legibus, 
post consiliis munitae, poterunt iisdem etiam guber- 
natoribus quam diutissime foelicissimeque consistere. 
Quid autem ignorantia ? sentio, auditores, caligat, 
stupet, procul est, effugia circumspicit, vitam brevem 
queritur, artem longam ; immo vero tollamus duo 
magna studiorum nostrorum impedimenta, alterum 
artis male traditae, alterum nostrae ignaviae, pace Ga- 
leni, seu quis alius ille fuit ; totum contra erit, vita 
longa ars brevis ; nihil arte praestabilius, adeoque 
laboriosius, nihil nobis seguius, nihil remissius ; ob 
operariis et agricolis nocturna et antelucana industria 
vinci nos patimur; illi in re sordida ad vilem victum 
magis impigri sunt, quam nos in nobilissima ad vitam 
beatam ; nos cum ad altissimum atque optimum in 
humanis rebus aspiremus, nee studium ferre possumus, 
nee inertiae dedecus; immo pudet esse id, quod non' 
haberi nos indignamur. At valetudini cavemus a 
vigiliis et acri studio : turpe dictu, animum incultum 



negligimus, dum corpori metuimus, cujus vires quis 
non imminuat, quo majores acquirantur animo ? quan- 
quam certe qui haec causantur perditissimi plerique, 
abjecta omni temporis, ingenii, valetudinis cura, comes- 
sando, belluae marinae ad morem potando, inter scorta 
et aleam pernoctando, nihilo se infirmiores factos que- 
runtur. Cum itaque sic se afficiant atque assuescant, 
ut ad omnem turpitudinem strenui atque alacres; ad 
omnes virtutis actiones et ingenii hebetes et languidi 
sint, culpam in naturam aut vitae brevitatem falso et 
inique transferunt. Quod si modeste ac temperanter 
vitam degendo, primos ferocientis aetatis impetus ra- 
tione et pertinaci studiorum assiduitate mallemus edo- 
mare, coelestem animi vigorem ab omni contagione et 
inquinamento purum et intactum servantes ; incredi- 
bile esset, auditores, nobis post annos aliquot respici- 
entibus quantum spatium confecisse, quam ingens 
aequor eruditionis cursu placido navigasse videremur. 
Cui et hoc egregium afferet compendium, si quis norit 
et artes utiles, et utilia in artibus recte seligere. Quot 
sunt imprimis grammaticorum et rhetorum nugae 
aspernabiles ? audias in tradenda arte sua illos bar- 
bare loquentes, hos infantissimos. Quid logica ? Re- 
gina quidem ilia artium si pro dignitate tractetur: at 
heu quanta est in ratione insania! non hie homines, 
sed plane acanthides carduis et spinis vescuntur. O 
dura messorum ilia! quid repetam illam, quam meta- 
physicam vocant peripatetici, non artem, locupletissi- 
mam quippe me ducit magnorum virorum authoritas, 
non artem inquam plerumque, sed infames scopulos, 
sed Lernam quandam sophismatum ad naufragium et 
pestem excogitatara : haec ilia quae supra memini 
togatae ignorantiae vulnera sunt ; hasc eadem cucullo- 
rum scabies etiam ad naturalem philosophiam late per- 
manavit: vexat mathematicos demonstrationum inanis 
gloriola ; his omnibus quae nihil profutura sunt merito 
contemptis et amputatis, admirationi erit quot annos 
integros lucrabimur. Quid ! quod jurisprudentiam 
praesertim nostram turbata methodus obscurat, et quod 
pejus est, sermo nescio quis, Americanus credo, aut ne 
humanus quidem, quo cum saepe leguleios nostros 
clamitantes audiverim, dubitare, subiit quibus non esset 
humanum os et loquela, an et his ulli affectus humani 
adessent ; vereor certe ut possit nos sancta justitia 
respicere, vereor ut querelas ullo tempore nostras aut 
injurias intelligat, quorum lingua loqui nesciat. Qua- 
propter, auditores, si nullum a pueritia diem sine prae- 
ceptis et diligenti studio vacuum ire sinamus, si in 
arte, aliena supervacanea otiosa sapienter omittamus, 
certe intra setatem Alexandri Magni majus quiddam et 
gloriosius illo terrarum orbe subegerimus : tantumque 
aberit quo minus brevitatem vitae, aut artis tcedium in- 
cusemus, ut flere et lachrymari promptius nobis futu- 
rum credam, ut illi olim, non plures superesse mundos 
de quibus triumphemus. Expirat ignorantia, jam 
ultimos videte conatus et morientem luctam; mortales 
praecipue gloria tangi, antiquos illos illustres longa 
annorum series atque decursus eum celebrarit, nos 
decrepito mundi senio, nos properante rerum omnium 
occasu premi, si quid praedicandum aeterna laude reli- 
querimus, nostrum nomen in angusto versari, cujus ad 



860 



PROLUSIONES ORATORIO. 



memoriara vix ulla posteritas succedat, frustra jam tot 
libros et preclara ingenii monumenta edi quae vicinus 
mundi rogus cremarit. Nou inficior illud esse posse 
verisimile ; at vero non morari gloriam cum bene fece- 
ris, id supra omnem gloriam est. Quam nihil beavit 
istos inanis hominum sermo cujus ad absentes et mor- 
tuos nulla voluptas, nullus sensus pervenire potuit? 
nos sempiternum aevum expectemus quod nostrorum 
in terris saltern benefactorum memoriam nunquam 
delebit; in quo, si quid hie pulchre meruimus, prae- 
sentes ipsi audiemus, in quo qui prius in hac vita con- 
tinentissime acta omne tempus bonis artibus dederint, 
iisque homines adjuverint, eos singulari et summa 
supra omncs scientia auctos esse futuros multi gra- 
viter philosophati sunt. Jam cavillari desinant ig- 
navi quaecunque adhuc nobis in scientiis incerta atque 
perplexa sint, quae tamen non tam scientiae, quam 
homiui attribuenda sunt; hoc est, auditores, quod et 
illud nescire Socraticum et timidam scepticorum haesi- 
tationem aut refellit, aut consolatur, aut compensat. 
Jam vero tandem aliquando quaenam ignorantise bea- 
titudo ? sua sibi habere, a nemine laedi, omni cura et 
molestia supersedere, vitam secure et quiete, quoad po- 
test, traduccre ; verum base ferae aut volucris cujuspiam 
vita est, quae in altis et penitissimis sylvis in tuto nidu- 
lum ccelo quamproximum habet, pullos educit, sine 
aucupii metu in pastum volat, diluculo, vesperique 
suaves modulos emodulatur. Quid ad haec desideratur 
sethereus ille animi vigor ? Exuat ergo hominem, dabi- 
tur sane Circaeum poculum, ad bestias prona emigret: 
ad bestias vero ? at illpe tam turpem hospitem excipere 
nolunt, si quidem illae sive inferioris cujusdam rationis 
participes, quod plurimi disputarunt, sive pollenti quo- 
dam instinctu sagaces, aut artes, aut artium simile quod- 
dam apud se exercent. Namque et canes in persequenda 
fera dialecticae non ignaros esse narratur apud Plutar- 
ch um, et si ad trivia forte ventum sit, plane disjuncto uti 
syllogismo. Lusciniamvelutipraeceptaquaedammusices 
pullis suis tradere solere refert Aristoteles ; unaquasque 



fere bestia sibi medica est, multae etiam insignia medi- 
cinae documenta hominibus dedere. Ibis iEgyptia alvi 
purgandae utilitatem, hippopotamus detrahendi san- 
guinis ostendit. Quis dicat astronomiae expertes a qui- 
bus tot ventorum, imbrium, inundationem, serenitatis 
praesagia petantur ? Quam prudenti et severa ethica 
supervolantes montem Taurum anseres obturato lapillis 
ore periculosae loquacitati moderantur; multa formicis 
res domestica, civitas apibus debet ; excubias habendi, 
triquetram aciem ordinandi rationem arsmilitaris gruum 
esse agnoscit. Sapiuntaltius bestiae, quam ut suo ccetu 
et consortio ignorantiam dignentur ; inferius detrudunt. 
Quid ergo ? ad truncos et saxa. At ipsi trunci, ipsa 
arbusta, totumque nemus ad doctissima Orphei carmina 
solutis quondam radicibus festinavere. Saepe etiam 
mysteriorum capaces, ut quercus olim Dodoneae, di- 
vina oracula reddidere. Saxa etiam sacras poetarum 
voci docilitate quadam respondent: an et haec asper- 
nantur a se ignorantiam ? Num igitur infra omne bru- 
torum genus, infra stipites et saxa, infra omnem naturae 
ordinem licebit in illo Epicureorum non esse requies- 
cere? Ne id quidem: quandoquidem necesse est, quod 
pejus, quod vilius, quod magis miserum, quod infimum 
est, esse ignorantiam ? Ad vos venio, auditores intelli- 
gentissimi, nam et ipse si nihil dixissem, vos mihi tot non 
tam argumenta, quam tela video, quae ego in ignoran- 
tiam usque ad perniciem contorquebo. Ego jam clas- 
sicum cecini, vos ruite in praelium ; summovete a vobis 
hostem banc, prohibete vestris porticibus et ambulacris; 
hanc si aliquid esse patiamini, vos ipsi illud eritis, quod 
nostis omnium esse miserrimum. Vestra itaque haec 
omnium causa est. Quare si ego jam multo fortasse pro- 
lixior fuerim, quam pro consuetudine hujus loci liceret, 
prseterquam quod ipsa rei dignitas hoc postulabat, da- 
bitis et vos mihi veniam, opinor, judices, quandoqui- 
dem, tanto magis intelligitis in vos quo sim animo, 
quam vestri studiosus, quos labores, quas vigilias ves- 
tra causa non recusarim. Dixi. 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 

AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 

ADJECTA EST PRAXIS ANALYTICA, ET PETRI RAMI VITA. 

L1BRIS DUOBUS. 

[first published 1672.] 



PRiEFATIO. 

Quanquam philosophorum multi, suopte ingenio freti, contempsisse artem logicam dicuntur, eorura tamen qui vel 
sibi, vel aliis propter ingenium aut judicium natura minus acre ac perspicax utilissimamessesibique diligenterex- 
colendam j udicarunt, optime est de ea meritus, ut ego quidem cum Sidneio nostro sentio, Petrus Ramus. Caeteri 
fere physica, ethica, theologica logicis, effraenata quadam licentia, confundunt. Sed noster dum brevitatem sectatus 
est nimis religiose, non plane luci, sed ubertati tamen lucis, quae in tradenda arte,non parca, sed plena et copiosa esse 
debet, videtur defuisse : id quod tot in eum scriptacommentaria testantur. Satius itaque sum arbitratus, quae ad prae- 
cepta artis pleniusintelligenda,exipsius Ramischoliisdialecticis aliorumque commentariisnecessariopetendasunt, 
ea in ipsum corpus artis, nisi sicubi dissentio, transferre atque intexere. Quid enim brevitate consequimur, si lux 
aliunde est petenda? Praestat una opera, uno simul in loco artem longiusculam cum luce conjungere, quam 
minore cum luce brevissimam aliunde illustrare ; cum hoc non minore negotio multoque minus commode hac- 
tenus fiat, quam si ars ipsa ut nunc suapte copia se fuse explicaverit. Quam artis tradendae rationem uberiorem 
ipse etiam Ramus in arithmetica et geometria aliquanto post a se editis, edoctus jam longiore usu, secutus est ; 
suasque ipse regulas interjecto commentariolo explanavit, non aliis explanandas reliquit. Quorum cum pleri- 
que nescio an nimio commentandi studio elati, certe omnis metbodi quod in iis mirum sit, obliti, omnia permis- 
ceant, postrema primis, axiomata syllogysmos eorumque regulas primis quibusque simplicium argumentorum 
capitibus ingerere soleant, unde caliginem potius discentibus ofFundi quam lucem ullam prasferri necesse est, id 
mihi cavendum imprimis duxi, ut nequid praeriperem, nequid praepostere quasi traditum jam et intellectum, ne- 
quid nisi suo loco attingerem ; nihil veritus ne cui forte strictior in explicandis praeceptis existimer, dum perpen- 
denda magis quam percurrenda proponere studebam. Nee tamen iis facile assenserim, qui paucitatem regularum 
objiciunt Ramo, quarum permultae etiam ex Aristotele ab aliis collectae, nedum quae ab ipsis cumulo sunt ad- 
jectae, vel incertae vel futiles, discentem impediunt atque onerant potius quam adjuvant : ac siquid habent utili- 
tatis aut salis, id ejusmodi est, ut suopte ingenio quivis facilius percipiat, quam tot canonibus memoriae man- 
datis, addiscat. Multoque minus constitui, canones quidvis potius quam logicos, a theologis infercire; quos 
illi, quasi subornatos in suum usum,tanquam e media logica petitos, depromant de Deo, divinisque hypostasibus 
et sacramentis ; quorum ratione, quo modo est ab ipsis informata, nihil est a logica, adeoque ab ipsa ratione, 
alienius. 

Prius autem quam opus ipsum aggredior, quoniam ars logica omnium prima est suisque finibus latissime patet, 
prcemittam quaedam de arte generalia, deque artium distributione ; artem deinde ipsam persequar : ad extremum, 
analytica quaedam exempla, sive usum artis, exercitationis causa, iis quibus opus est, et in eo genere exercere se 
libet, exhibebo : quibus opus est inquam ; quibus enim ingeniumper se viget atque pollet, iis ut in hoc genere 
analytico cum labore nimio ac miseria se torqueant, non sum author. Ad id enim ars adhibetur, ut naturam 
juvet, non ut impediat: adhibita nimis anxie nimisque subtiliter, et praesertim ubi opus non est, ingenium per 
se jam satis acutum, obtundit potius quam acuit; ita plane ut in medicina remediorum usus vel nimius vel 
non necessarius, valetudinem debilitat potius quam roborat. Quod autem Arislotelis aliorumque veterum 
auctoritatem ad singulas fere logicae reg-ulas adjungimus, id quidem in tradenda arte supervacuum fuisset, nisi 



862 ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 

novitatis suspicio, quae Petro Ramo hactenus potissimum obfuit, adductis ipsis veterum authorum testimoniis, 
esset amolienda. 

Artium omnium quasi corpus et comprehensio kyicvicXoTraideLa Graece, i. e. eruditionis circuitus quidam in se re- 
deuntis, adeoque in se absolutce atque perfectae, vel philosophia dicitur. Haec cum sapientiae studium proprie 
significat, turn vulgo artium omnium vel doctrinam, vel scientiam : doctrinam, cum praecepta artium tradit ; 
scientiam, cum ars, quae habitus est quidam mentis, praeceptis illis percipitur, quasique possidetur. Eodem 
modo et artis significatio distinguitur : cum doctrinam significat, de qua nobis potissimum hie est agendum, est 
ordinata praeceptorum exemplorumque comprehensio sive methodus, qua quidvis utile docetur. 

Artis materia praecepta sunt: quae qualia esse debeant, artis log'icae, quam nunc tradimus, proprium est suo 
loco praescribere. 

Forma sive ipsa ratio artis, non tarn est praeceptorum illorum metbodica dispositio, quam utilis alicujus rei 
proeceptio : per id enim quod docet potius, quam per ordinem docendi, ars est id quod est: quod ex cujusque 
artis definitione perspicitur, ut infra ostendetur. 

Praeceptorum artis tria genera sunt: duo praecipua " definitiones et distributiones;" quarum doctrinam ge- 
neralem logica etiam loco idoneo sibi vendicat; tertium, minus principale, " consectarium " nominator; estque 
proprietatis alicujus explicatio, ex definitione fere deducta. 

Exempla sunt quibus prasceptionum Veritas demonstratur, ususque ostenditur: suntque, ut scite Plato, quasi 
obsides sermonum : quod enim praecepto in genere docetur, id exemplo in specie confirmatur. 

Efficiens artis primarius neminem reor dubitare quin sit Deus, author omnis sapientiae : id olim philosophos 
etiam non fugit. 

Causas ministrae fuerunt homines divinitus edocti, ingenioque praestantes; qui olim singulas artes invenerunt. 
Inveniendi autem ratio eadem prope fuit quae pingendi ; ut enim in pictura duo sunt, exemplum sive archetypus, 
et ars pingendi, sic in arte invenienda, archetypo respondet natura sive usus, et exemplum hominum peritorum, 
arti pictoris respondet logica ; saltern naturalis, quae facultas ipsa rationis in mente hominis est; juxta illud 
vulgo dictum, ars imitatur naturam. 

Ratio autem sive logica, primum ilia naturalis, deinde artificiosa, quatuor adhibuit sibi quasi adjutores, teste 
Aristot. Metaphys. 1, c. 1, sensum, observationem, inductionem, et experientiam. Cum enim praecepta artium 
generalia sint, ea nisi ex singularibus, singularia nisi sensu percipi non possunt : sensus sine observatione, quae 
exempla singula memoriae committat, observatio sine inductione, quae singularia quam plurima inducendo gene- 
ralem aliquam regulam constituat, inductio sine experientia, quae singulorum omnium convenientiam in commune 
et quasi consensum judicet, nihil juvat. Hinc recte Polus apud Platonem in Gorgia, " experientia artem peperit, 
imperitia fortunam," i. e. praecepta fortuita, adeoque incerta. Et Aristot. Prior. 1, c. 30, " cujusque rei principia 
tradere, experientiae est: sic astrologica experientia illius scientiae principia suppeditavit." Et Manilius; 

" Per varios usus artem experientia fecit, 
Exemplo monstrante viam " 

Et Cicero ; " omnia quae sunt conclusa nunc artibus, dispersa quondam et dissipata fuerunt, donee adhibita 
htec ars est, quae res dissolutas divulsasque conglutinaret et ratione quadam constringeret." Ea ars logica est, 
vel hoec saltern naturalis, quam ingenitam habemus, vel ilia artificiosa, quam mox tradimus: haec enim praecepta 
artis invenit ac docet. Hactenus de efficientibus causis artium. 

Forma artis, ut supra dixi, non tarn praeceptorum dispositio est, quam j)raeceptio ipsa rei alicujus utilis, eadem- 
quc est finis. Quemadmodum, enim, non tam praeceptorum logicorum methodica dispositio quam ipsum bene 
disserere, et forma logicae et finis est, ut infra docebitur, ita in genere non solum praeceptorum dispositio, sed 
ipsa rei utilis praeceptio, forma artis et simul finis est; quod autem prsecipitur, id esse utile in hominum vita 
debere, quod Graeci ftiojftXeg vocant, omnes consentiunt; indignamque esse artis nomine, quae non bonum ali- 
quod sive utile ad vitam hominum, quod idem quoque honestum sit, sibi proponat, ad quod omnia praecepta 
artis referantur; adeoque formam artis esse rei alicujus utilis praeceptionem, per quam scilicet ars est id quod 
est, necessario sequitur. Verum ad hunc finem perveniri non potest, nisi doctrinam natura commode percipiat, 
exercitatio confirmet, utraeque simul doctrina et exercitatio artem quasi alteram naturam reddant. Sed ingenium 
sine arte, quam ars sine ingenio plus proficere censetur : proficere autem non admodum utrumque nisi accesserit 
exercitatio : unde illud Ovidii: 

Solus, et artificem qui facit, usus erit. 

Exercitatio duplex est; analysis et genesis. Ilia est, cum exempla artis in sua principia quasi resolvuntur: 
dum singulis partibus ad normam, i. e. ad praecepta artis examinantur: haec, cum ex artis praescripto efficimus 
aliquid aut componimus. 

Hactenus causae artium: sequuntur species. Artes sunt generales vel speciales : generales, quarum materia 
subjecta est generalis. Materia autem ilia vel artificis est, vel artis. Artificis materia generalis generalibus 
cunctis artibus est communis; artis autem, singularum est propria: estque artificis quidem generalis materia, 
omne id quod revcra est, aut esse fingitur; artis, quod in eo ornni efficiunt singula?. Id omne vel ratio complec- 
tilur, vel oratio : generalium itaque artium materia generalis, vel ratio est, vel oratio : versantur enim in exco- 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



863 



lenda vel ratione ad bene ratiocinandum, ut logica; vel oratione, eaque vel ad bene loquendum, ut grammatica, 
vel ad dicendura bene, ut rhetorica. Omnium autem prima ac generalissima, logica est ; dein grammatica, turn 
demum rhetorica; quatenus rationis usus sine oratione etiam magnus, hujus sine ilia potest esse nullus. Gram- 
maticae autem secundum tribuimus locum, eo quod oratio pura esse etiam inornata ; ornata esse nisi pura sit 
prius, facile non queat. 

Artes speciales sunt, quae materiam habent specialem; nempe naturam fere vel mores: earum enim accura- 
tior distributio non est hujus loci. 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, &c. 

LIBER PRIMUS. 



CAPUT I. 

Quid sit Logica P 

Logica est ars bene ratiocinandi. Eodemque sensu 
dialectica saepe dicta est. 

Logica autem, i. e. ars rationalis, a \6yoj dicitur: 
quae vox Graece rationem significat ; quam excolen- 
dam logica sibi sumit. 

Ratiocinari autem est rationis uti facultate. Addi- 
tur bene, i. e. recte, scienter, expedite ; ad perfectio- 
nem artis ab imperfectione facultatis naturalis distin- 
guendam. 

Logicam potius, quam cum P. Ramo dialecticam, 
dicendam duxi, quod eo nomine tota ars rationis aptis- 
sime significetur ; cum dialectica a verbo Graeco Siaks- 
ysaSrai, artem potius interrogandi et respondendi, i. e. 
disputandi significet; ut ex Platonis Cratjlo, ex doc- 
trina peripateticorum et stoicorum, Fabio, Suida, aliis- 
que docetur. Ettamen Plato in Alcibiade primo idem 
vult esse to diakeyeaSrai, quod ratione uti. Prior signi- 
ficatio ad rationis usum nimis angusta est ; posterior, 
si inter autbores de ea con convenit, nimis incerta. 

Ratiocinandi autem potius dico quam disserendi, 
propterea quod ratiocinari, non minus late quam ipsa 
ratio, idem valet proprie quod ratione uti ; ciim dis- 
serere, prseterquam quod vox non plane propria, sed 
translata sit, non latius plerumque pateat, quam dis- 
putare. 

Addunt nonnulli in definitione subjectum dialecticae, 
i. e. de re qualibet: sed hoc cum grammatica et rheto- 
rica commune dialecticae fuit, ut in procemio vidimus ; 
non ergo hie repetendum. 



CAP. II. 

De partibus Logicce, deque Argumenti Generibus. 

Ratiocinatio autem fit omnis, rationibus vel solis 
et per se consideratis, vel inter se dispositis ; quae ar- 
gumenta etiam saepius dicta sunt. 



Logicae itaque partes duae sunt; rationum sive ar- 
gumentorum inventio, eorumque dispositio. 

Secutus veteres Ramus, Aristotelem, Ciceronem, 
Fabium, dialecticam partitur in inventionem et judi- 
cium. Verum non inventio, quae nimis lata est quo- 
cunque modo sumatur, sed argumentorum inventio? 
pars prima logicae dicenda est; dispositio autem eorum, 
cur sit secunda, non judicium, secundi libri initio 
respondebimus. Sed neque haec partitio suis auctori- 
bus vel iisdem vel aliis caret : Plato, in Phaedo, dispo- 
sitionem inventioni addidit ; Aristoteles ral.iv ; Top. 8. 
1 . quod idem est. Et Cicero, de Orat, fatetur, inven- 
tionem et dispositionem, non orationis esse, sed ra- 
tionis. 

Inventionem autem et dispositionem quarum tan- 
dem rerum nisi argumentorum. 

Argumentorum itaque inventio topica Graece nomi- 
natur, quia tottsq continet, i. e. locos unde argumenta 
sumuntur, viamque docet et rationem argumenta bene 
inveniendi, suo nimirum ordine collocata ; unde vel ad 
genesin expromantur, vel in analysi explorentur, in- 
ventorumque simul vim atque usum exponit. 

" Argumentum est quod ad aliquid arguendum affec- 
tum est." Id est, quod habet affectionem ad arguen- 
dum ; vel ut Cic. in Top. quod affectum est ad id de 
quo quaeritur: id interpretatur Boethius refertur, vel 
aliqua relatione respicit id de quo quaeritur. 

Ista affection e sublata, argumentum non est; mu- 
tata, non est idem ; sed ipsum quoque mutatur. 

Ad arguendum autem, i. e. ostendendum, explican- 
dum, probandum aliquid. Sic juxta illud tritum, 
" degeneres animos timor arguit," iEneid 4 : et illud 
Ovidii ; " Apparet virtus, arguiturque malis." Ex- 
plicare autem et probare etiam simplicis argumenti 
propria atque primaria vis est, unde aliud ex alio se- 
qui, vel non sequi, i. e. uno posito, alterum poni vel 
non poni primitus judicatur: quod de inductione qui- 
dem recte monuit Baconus noster, de Augment. Scient. 
1. 5, c. 4, " uno eodemque mentis opere, illud quod 
quaeritur, et inveniri et judicari;" sed hoc de singulis 
argumentis simplicibus non minus verum est. 

Ex quo etiam sequitur, judicium non esse alteram 
logicae partem, sed quasi effectum utriusque partis 



864 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



communem et ex utraque oriundum ; ex syllogismo in 
re praesertim dubia clarius quidem at secundario tamen 
contra ac plerique docent. 

Aliquid autem, est id quodcunque arguitur: quic- 
quid enim est, aut esse fingitur, subjectum est logicae, 
ut supra deraonstravimus. Argumentum autem pro- 
pria neque vox est neque res ; sed aflfectio quaedam rei 
ad arguendum ; quae ratio dici potest ut supra. 

Tractat igitur logica neque voces, neque res. Voces 
quidem, quamquam et sine vocibus potest ratiocinari, 
tamen, quoties opus est, distinctas et tantum non am- 
biguas, non improprias, ab ipso usu loquendi videtur 
jure sane postulare : res ipsas artib. quasque suis relin- 
quit ; arguendi duntaxat inter se quam habeant affec- 
tionem sive rationem considerat. 

Ratio autem dicitur, voce a matbematicis petita, 
quaterminorumproportionalium inter secerta habitudo 
significatur. 

" Argumentum est artificiale aut inartificiale. Sic 
Aristot. Rbet. 1, 12," quern Fabius sequitur, 1. 5, c. 1. 
Cicero in " insitum " et " assumptum " dividit. Arti- 
ficiale autem dicitur, non quo inveniatur arte magis 
quam inartificiale, sed quod ex sese arguit, i. e. vi 
insita ac propria. 

" Artificiale est primum, vel k primo ortum. Pri- 
mum, quod est suae originis." Id est, afFectionem 
arguendi non modo in se habet, sed etiam a se ; quod 
infra clarius patebit, cum quid sit a " primo ortum " 
docebitur. 

" Primum est simplex aut comparatum. 

" Simplex, quod simpliciter et absolute considera- 
tur." Id est, simplicem babet affectionem arguendi id 
quod arguitur, sine quautitatis aut qualitatis cum eo 
comparatione. 

" Simplex est consentaneum aut dissentaneum." 

Nam quae sine comparatione considerantur, necesse 
est vel consentiant inter se, vel dissentiant. 

" Consentaneum est quod consentit cum re quam 
arguit." Id est, ponit, sive affirmat esse rem quam 
arguit. 

" Estque consentaneum absolute aut modo quodam." 
Absolute, i. e. perfecte ; absolvere enim est perficere. 
Aristotelis quoque haec distributio est. Quae autem 
absolute consentiunt, eorum alterum alterius vi exis- 
tere intelligitur; et sic consentiunt causa et effectus. 
Atque hae sunt argumentorum distributiones gene- 
rales ex afTectionum differentiis desumptae ; suoque 
nunc ordine singulatim tractandae : argumentorum 
autem omnium primum causa est; id quod per se qui- 
vis intelligere potest. 



CAP. III. 

De Efficiente, procreante, et conservante. 

" Causa est, cujus vi res est." Vel, si ex capite 
superiore, quod intelligi memoriaque teneri potest, 
repetito est opus, causa est argumentum artificiale, 



primum, simplex, absolute consentaneum, cujus vi, 
vel facultate, res, i. e. effectum, arguitur esse vel ex- 
istere. Nee male definiatur causa " quae dat esse 
rei." 

Cujus autem vi vel facultate, i. e. a quo, ex quo, per 
quod, vel propter quod res est, id causa esse dicitur. 
"Res" etiam, idem quod "aliquid" in definitione 
argument!, vox generalis adhibetur, quae significaret 
causam, sicut et reliqua argumenta, esse rerum omnium 
quae vel sunt, vel finguntur : nam quae revera sunt, 
veras ; quae finguntur, fictas causas habent. 

Hinc intelligitur " causam sine qua non," quae vulgo 
dicitur, improprie causam, et quasi fortuito, dici : ut cum 
amissio rei alicujus dicitur causa recuperationis ; quam- 
vis amissio recuperationem necessario praecedat. Neque 
enim causa sic intelligi debet, id quod et Cicero docuit, 
1. de Fato, ut quod cuique antecedat, id ei causa sit, sed 
quod cuique efneienter antecedat; i. e.ita ut res vi ejus 
existat. Hinc causa proprie dicta, " principium" quoque 
nominatur k Cic. 1 de Nat Deor.,sed frequentius apud 
Graecos. 

Causa autem est cujus vi res non solum est, verum 
etiam fuit, vel erit. Ut enim prsecepta logica de omni 
re, sic omnium praecepta artium de omni tempore intel- 
ligenda sunt; unde et aeterna esse, veritatesque aeternae 
dicuntur. 

Ex definitione autem causae tertium illud artis prae- 
ceptum, de quo in prsefatione diximus, consectarium 
hoc oritur : " primus hie locus inventionis, fons est om- 
nis scientiae; scirique demum creditur cujus causa 
teneatur." 

Neque aliud est Aristotelis decantata ilia demonstra- 
te, quam quaefFectum arguitur, probatur, cognoscitur, 
ponitur, ex causa posita; quodcunque illud demum 
causae genus sit: ut cum risibile probatur ex rationali, 
quippe, omnis homo est risibilis, quia rationalis: eoque 
erit clarior demonstratio, quo causa certior, propior, 
praestantior. 

" Causa est efficiens et materia, aut forma et finis." 
Cur sic causa dividatur quasi in duo genera anonyma, 
infra in doctrina distributionis facilius intelligetur. 

Quot autem modis alicujus vi res est, tot esse species 
causae statuendum est. Modis autem quatuor alicujus 
vi res est; ut recte Aristot. Phys. 2,7, et nos supra 
diximus ; vel enim a. quo, vel ex quo, vel per quod, vel 
propter quod res unaquaeque est, ejus vi esse recte 
dicitur. His modis nee plures inveniuntur, nee pau- 
ciores esse possunt: recte igitur causa distribuitur in 
causam a qua, ex qua, per quam, et propter quam, i. e. 
efficientem et materiam, aut formam, et finem. 

" Efficiens est causa, k qua res est, vel efficitur." Ab 
efficiente enim principium movendi est; ipsa tamen 
effecto non inest. 

Ciceroni omnis causa "efficiens" nominatur: sic 
enim in Topicis ; " primus est locus rerum efficientium, 
quae causae appellantur :" et de Fato; "causa est quae 
id efficit, cujus est causa." Hinc fit ut "causatum," a 
causis licet omnib. ortum babens, " effectum" tantum- 
modo vocitetur : unde hoc solum intelligitur, efficientem 
esse causam praecipuam atque primariam ; omnera au- 
tem causam aliquo modo efficere. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



865 



" Efficients etsi, vera genera nulla sive species nobis 
apparent, ubertas tamen permagna modis quibusdam 
distinguitur." 

" Primo, quod procreet, aut tueatur." 

Sic pater et mater procreant ; nutrix tuetur. Hue 
quoque omnium rerum inventores, auctores, conditores, 
conservatoires referendi sunt. Procreare igitur et tueri 
duo sunt modi quibus idem saepe efficiens efficere solet : 
procreando quidem id quod nondum est, ut sit; con- 
servando autem id quod jam est, ut porro sit. 



CAP. IV. 

De Efficiente sola, et cum aliis. 

" Secundo, causa efficiens sola efficit, aut cum 
aliis. Earumque omnium ssepe alia principalis, alia 
minus principalis, sive adjuvans et ministra." Quam 
Cicero, in Partit. "causam conficientem" vocat : 
et cujus, inquit, generis vis varia est, et saepe aut 
major aut minor; ut et ilia quae maximam vim 
babet, sola saepe causa dicatur. Hinc, iEneid. 2, Nysus 
ab Euryalo socio transfert in se factae caedis et culpam 
et poenam : quasi solus auctor fuerit, quia fuit prasci- 
puus. Et solitaria causa cum plerisque et principalibus 
et sociis, pro " Marcello," varie adbibetur. Sed haec 
duo exempla vide post finem in praxi analytica. 

Causa minus principalis (ut quidam volunt) vel est 
impulsiva, quae principalem quoquo modo impellit ac 
movet, vel est instrumentalis. 

Impulsiva duplex est Graecisque vocibus receptis, 
"proegumena" dicitur, vel " procatarctica." Ilia in- 
tus, haec extrinsecus movet principalem : et vera si est, 
"occasio;" si ficta, " praetextus " dicitur. 

Sic causa proeg. quae intus movebat infideles ad per- 
sequendum Christianos (exemplis enim receptis hie 
utemur) erat eorum ignorantia aut impietas, causa 
procat. erant nocturni conventus, vel potius quaevis con- 
venticula Christianorum. Olim interficiendi Christi 
causa proeg. erat Judaeorum zelus ignarus : procat. 
objecta sabbathi violatio concionesque seditiosae. No- 
tandum autem est ubi causa proegumena, sive interna, 
non est, ibi causae procatarcticae, sive externae, vim iiul- 
lam esse. 

Ad causam autem procatarcticam, ea saepe referenda 
videtur, si omnino est in causis numeranda, quae supra 
dicta est " causa sine qua non ;" siquidem quovis modo 
causam extrinsecus movere principalem dici potest. 

" Instrumenta etiam in causis adjuvantibus connume- 
rantur." Quo argumento Epicureus, apud Cic. 1, de 
Nat. Deor. disputat mundum nunquam esse factum : 
hoc etiam exemplum ad praxin retulimus. Instrumenta 
autem proprie non agunt, sed aguntur aut adjuvant. 
Et qui causam adjuvantem nullam nisi instrumenta 
habent, potest recte " solitaria causa " dici : quanquam 
lata admodum instrument siguificatio admittitur; ut 
apud Aristot. Polit. 1, 3, " instrumenta sunt animata, 
vel inanimata." Quo sensu omnes fere causae adju- 



vantes et ministrae possunt " instrumentales" nomi- 
nari. 

Ad hunc locum referendus commodissime videtur 
causarum ordo, quo alia dicitur " prima," idque vel ab- 
solute, ut Deus, vel in suo genere, ut sol, et ejusmodi 
quippiam ; alia "secunda;" et sic deinceps, quae a 
prima vel a prioribus pendet, et quasi efFectum est. 
Alia deinde " remota" dicitur, alia "proxima:" quo 
spectat illud vulgo dictum, " quicquid est causa causae, 
est etiam causa causati." Quae regula in causis duntaxat 
necessario inter se ordinatis valet. Sed hae causarum 
divisiones in logica non magnopere sectandae sunt; 
quandoquidem tota vis arguendi in causa proxima con- 
tinetur; deque ea sola generalis definitio causae intel- 
ligitur. 



CAP. V. 

De Efficiente per se, et per Accidens. 

" Tertio, causa efficiens per se efficit, aut per ac- 
cidens." Tertium hoc par modorum efficiendi est, ab 
Aristotele etiam et veteribus notatum. 

" Per se efficit causa, quae sua facultate efficit." Id 
est, quae ab interno principio efFectum producit. 

" Ut quae natura vel consilio faciunt." Naturalis 
efficientia est elementorum, fossilium, plantarum, ani- 
malium. Consilii exemplum est ilia Ciceronis de se ad 
Caesarem confessio: " nulla vi coactus, judicio meo ac 
voluntate, ad ea arma profectus sum, quae erant sumpta 
contra te.'' 

Naturae, appetitum; consilio, artem nonnulli adjun- 
gunt. Sed appetitus aut ad naturam, aut ad naturae 
vitium ; ars ad consilium sine incommodo referetur : 
ars n. et consilium quatenus aliud efficiunt, non ilia ab 
intellectu, hoc a voluntate ; sed ut utrumque ab utroque 
proficisci videtur : etenim ars fere non invita, non prox- 
imae saltern invita; et consilium prudens sciensque 
agit. Hi quatuor modi efficiendi per se, ad eundem 
nonnunquam efFectum concurrunt: ut cum quis loqui- 
tur, natura; hoc vel illud, consilio simul et appetitu ; 
eleganter, arte. 

Videtur itaque hue proprie referenda etiam causa im- 
pulsiva, sive ea proegumena, sive procatarctica sit, de 
quibus capite superiore diximus; quae non tam causae 
sunt principali sociae aut ministrae quam modi efficien- 
tis, quibus vel affectu aliquo impulsus, vel ex occasione 
aliqua oblata, consilio abductus hoc vel illud agit, ut 
ex allatis ibi exemplis intelligi potest. 

Quae autem natura necessario, quae consilio, libere 
agunt ; necessario agit quae aliter agere non potest, sed 
ad unum quidpiam agendum determinatur, idque so- 
lum sua propensione agit quae necessitas naturae dici- 
tur; ex hypothesi nimirum. Nisi Deus aliud voluerit, 
aut externa vis aliorsum impulerit, ut lapidem sursum. 
Libere agit efficiens non hoc duntaxat ut naturale agens, 
sed hoc vel illud pro arbitrio, idque absolute vel ex 
hypothesi. Absolute solus Deus libere agit omnia; 
id est quicquid vult ; et agere potest vel non agere; 



866 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



testantur hoc passim sacraeliteras : libere ex hypothesi, 
illce duntaxat causae quae ratione et consilio faciunt, ut 
angeli et homines ; ex hypothesi nimirum divinae volun- 
tatis, quae iis libere agendi potestatem in principio 
fecit. Libertas enim potestas est agendi vel non agendi 
hoc vel illud. Nempe nisi Deus aliud voluerit, aut vis 
aliunde ingruat. 

" Per accidens efficit causa, quae externa facultate 
efficit." Id est, non sua ; cum principium effecti est 
extra efficientem, externumque principium interno op- 
positum : sic n. efficiens non efficit per se, sed per 
aliud. Hinc vere dicitur, " omne efFectum causae per 
accidens potest reduci ad causam per se." 

" Ut in his quae fiunt coactione, vel fortuna." Duo 
n. haec sunt externa principia internis, naturae nempe 
et voluntati sive consilio, opposita. Sic Aristot. Rhet. 
2, 20, cum dixisset, homines facere quaedam non per 
se, quEedam per se ; subjungit, " eorum quae non per 
se, alia per fortunam, alia ex necessitate." Sed " neces- 
sitas" vox nimis lata est, ut ex supra dictis de efficiente 
naturali patebit. 

Coactione fit aliquid, cum efficiens vi cogitur ad ef- 
fectum. Ut cum lapis sursum vel recta projicitur qui 
suapte natura deorsum fertur. Haec necessitas coacti- 
onis dicitur et causis etiam liberis nonnunquam acci- 
dere potest. Sic necesse est mercatori in tempestate 
merces ejicere, siquidem salvus esse vult. Haec itaque 
necessitas mixtasquasdam actiones produxit, quas facit 
quis volens nolente animo, quod aiunt. 

" Fortuna sive fortuito fit aliquid, cum praeter scopum 
efficientis accidit." Non enim fortuna, sed efficiens, 
quae per fortunam sive fortuito agit, est proprie causa 
per accidens rerum fortuitarum : eo quod earum prin- 
cipium, occulta nimirum ilia causa quam " fortunam" 
dicimus, extra ilium efficientem est: fortuna autem est 
eventuum eorum principium, etsioccultum, non per ac- 
cidens tamen, sed per se. Fortuna itaque apud veteres 
aut nomen sine re esse existimabatur, quo usi sunt 
homines, teste alicubi Hippocrate, cum secundarias 
contingentium causas ignorarent, aut est ipsa latens 
causa : ut Cicero in Top. " ciim enim nihil sine causa 
fiat, hoc ipsum est fortuna, eventus obscura causa, quae 
latenter efficit." Inter fortunam et casum haec volunt 
intcresse Aristot. Phys. 2, 6, et Plutarch, de Placit. et 
de Fato, ut casus quam fortuna latins patcat : fortuna 
in iis duntaxat qui ratione utuntur; casus in omnibus 
tarn animantibus quam inanimatis dominetur: sed lo- 
quendi fere usus fortunae sub nomine casum etiam 
complectitur, quotiescunque praeter scopum sive finem 
efficientis aliquid accidit. " Sic casu fortuito," ait 
Tullius,3, De Nat. Deor. "Pheraeo Jasoni profuit hos- 
tis, qui gladio vomicam ejus aperuit, quam medici 
sanare non potcrant." 

" In hoc genere causarum imprudentia connumerari 
solet." Sic etiam Aristot. Ethic. 3, 1, " videntur non 
voluntaria esse, quae per vim aut iguorantiam fiunt." 
Et Ovid. 2 Trist. 

Cur aliquid vidi? cur noxia lumina feci ? 

Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi est ? 
Inscius Actaeon vidit sine veste Dianam : 

Praeda suiscanibus nee minus ille fuit. 




Scilicet in superis etiam fortuna luenda est : 
Nee veniam,laeso numine, casus habet. 

Durum id esse queritur poeta : nam caeteroqui hiuc 
sumitur plerumque deprecatio ; et excusationi etiam 
nonnunquam locus hie est." Deprecationis exemplum 
est apud Cic. pro Ligario : " ignosce pater : erravit ; 
lapsus est: non putavit: et" paulo post; "erravi: 
temere feci : poenitet ; ad clementiam tuam confugio." 

Fortunae autem nomen, ut supra dictum est, ignoratio 
causarum confixit : cum enim aliquid praeter consilium 
spemque contigerit, fortuna vulgo dicitur. Unde Cice- 
ro, apud Lactantium, Instit. 3, 29, " ignoratio rerum 
atque causarum fortunae nomen induxit." Nee inscite 
Juvenalis : 

Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia : sed te 
Nos facimus, fortuna, deam : cceloque locamus. 

Certe enim et ccelolocanda est; sed,mutato nomine, 
" divina provideutia" dicenda. Unde Arist. Phys. 2, 4, 
" sunt nonnulli quibus fortuna quidem videtur esse 
causa, sed ignota humanae intelligentiae, tanquam divi- 
num quiddam." Et Cic. Acad. 1, " providentiam Dei 
quae ad homines pertinet, nonnunquam quidem fortu- 
nam appellant, quod efficiat multa improvisa nee 
opinata nobis propter obscuritatem ignorationemque 
causarum." Sed provideutia rerum omnium prima 
causa est, sive notae sive ignotae sint earum causae 
secundaria: et providentiae si necessitatem adjungas, 
" fatum " dici solet. Verum de providentia melius 
theologia quam logica disceptabit. Hoc tantiim obi- 
ter; fatum sive decretum Dei cogere neminem male- 
facere ; et ex hypothesi divinae praescientiae certa 
quidem esse omnia, non necessaria. Non excusandus 
itaque Cicero pro Ligario, cum ait, " fatalis quaedam 
calamitas incidisse videtur, et improvidas hominum 
mentes occupavisse ; ut nemo mirari debeat humana 
consilia divina necessitate esse superata." Multo rec- 
tius alibi, " datur quidem venia necessitati ;" sed ne- 
cessitati, quae instituto efficientis repugnat, et vo- 
luntati. 



CAR VI. 

De Materia. 

" Materia est causa ex qua res est." Efficientem 
ordine naturae sequitur materia ; et efficientis efFectum 
quoddam est ; praeparat enim efficiens matcriam, ut sit 
apta ad recipiendam formam. Ut autem efficiens est 
id quod primum movet, ita id materia quod primum 
movetur, hinc efficiens, agendi ; materia, patiendi 
principium appellatur. Haec autem definitio materiae 
apud omnes eadem fere occurrit. " Est causa:" ma- 
teriae enim vi efFectum est. Ilia autem vis particula 
"ex qua" significatur: quanquam haec vulgo non 
materiae solum nota est, sed nunc efficientis, ut, " ex 
ictu vulnus:" nunc partium, ut, " homo constat ex 
anima et corpore;" nunc mutationis cujusvis, ut, " ex 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



867 



candido fit niger, Res:" nempe quam arguit: effec- 
tum scilicet materiatum ; ut intelligamus materiam 
etiam esse omnium entium et non entium communem ; 
non rerum sensibilium et corporearum propriam. Qua- 
les autem res ipsa? sunt, talis materia earum esse debet ; 
sensibilium sensibilis, aeternarum eeternse; et ita in 
reliquis. Sic artium materia sunt praecepta. " Est," 
i. e. efficitur et constat: unde Cic. 1, Acad. " materia 
ea causa est, quae se efficienti praebet, ut ex sese non 
modo effectum fiat, sed etiam postquam effectum est, 
constet." Hoc argumento ficto, apud Ovid. 2Metam. 
solis domus auro, pyropo, ebore, argento componitur. 
" Regia solis erat," &c. Sic Caesar. 1 Bel. Civil, na- 
vium materiam describit : " carina? primum ac statu- 
mina ex levi materia fiebant," &c. 

Dividitur vulgo materia in primam et secundam ; 
secunda in proximam et remotam. Verum haec dis- 
tributio physica potius est. Id enim solum logicus in 
materia spectat, ut res ex ea sit; et potissimum qui- 
dem ut proxime ex ea sit ; proxima enim potissimum 
arguit. 



CAP. VII. 

De Forma. 

" Caus^ primum genus ejusmodi est in efficiente et 
materia : secundum sequitur in forma et fine." Quia 
scilicet ordine temporis est posterius. Efficiens enim 
et materia sub genere priore continentur, quod in 
effecto producendo prascedunt ; forma et finis sub 
posteriore, quod efficientem et materiam sequuntur 
effectumque ipsum comitantur : positis enim effici- 
ente, et materia, non continuo sequuntur forma et 
finis : efficiens enim etsi materia suppetit, forma 
tamen et fine suo nonnunquam frustratur; forma et 
finis si adsit, necesse est efficientem et materiam fu- 
isse. Qui autem in usu observatur ordo causarum, 
idem debet in doctrina quoque observari. Nee ta- 
men ordo iste ad constituenda causarum genera satis 
valet, sed aliud quiddam quod nomine caret. Unde 
meritd non satis accurata videtur ilia causarum dis- 
tributio, quse affertur Aristotelis, in causas vel effec- 
tum praecedentes, ut efficientem et materiam ; vel 
cum effecto simul existentes, ut fortnam et finem : 
tametsi enim haec distributio ordinem causarum 
servat, naturam tamen earum non distinguit; immo 
causae neque convenit, neque propria est: non con- 
venit, quia causa quaelibet, ut causa, non praecedit, sed 
cum effecto simul est. Praecedunt autem utcunque 
efficiens et materia effectum vel naturae ordine, vel tem- 
poris: si naturae, id et cum reliquis causis et cum sub- 
jects omnibus commune habent; si temporis, hoc effi- 
ciente et materia? neque omni commune est (quaedam 
enim cum effecto non nisi simul sunt) neque solis iis 
proprium; nam et subjecta pleraque adjunctis suis 
tempore priora sunt. Nee foelicius ab eodem Aristotele 
dividuntur causae in externas, efficientem et finem ; et 
3 k 



internas, materiam et formam : haec enim distributio 
etsi usus ejus aliquis esse potest, ad leges tamen ar'tis 
minus accommodata est : esse enim externum vel in- 
ternum, non est causis proprium, sed effecto etiam et 
adjuncto commune. Deinde materia et forma cum in- 
tra effectum sunt, non tam causae quam partes effecti 
sunt : quid ? quod finis, qua? perfectio rei est aptitudo- 
que ad usum, interna potius causa diceretur. Postremo, 
baec distributio turbat ordinem causarum, methodi pro- 
inde legem : efficiens enim est principium motus et 
causarum prima; finis, ultima est : si igitur internum 
externo praemittitur, materia et forma, qua? efficientis 
quodammodo effecta sunt, efficienti praeponentur ; 
si externum interno, finis efficienti, i. e. ultima 
primae, adjungetur; mediis, materia? nempe et forma, 
praemittetur. Cautius itaque Ramus atque arti con- 
venientiiis, causarum genera anonyma reliquit: quod 
ut ostenderemus, longiuscule cum venia digressi, 
nunc ad alterum genus causarum, formam et finem, 
redeamus. Formae autem est prior locus concedendus, 
cum finis nihil aliud sit quam fructus quidam forma?. 

" Forma est causa per quam res est id quod est." 
Haec definitio Platonicam et Aristotelicam conjunxit : 
ille enim definit formam esse causam per quam, hie, 
quod quid est esse. Ut autem materia, si etiam forma 
effectum quoddam efficientis quidem est. Formam 
enim efficiens et producit nondum existentem, et indu- 
cit in materiam : forma autem effecti et causa est, et 
praecipua quidem, solaque effectum arguit, quod vi 
formae potissimum existit. Efficiens enim frustrari 
forma, forma effecto non potest. Per quam itaque par- 
ticula earn causam significat eamque vim, qua? rem sive 
effectum informat atque constituit. Res enim nulla est 
quae suam non habeat formam, nobis licet incognitam. 

Res etiam singula?, sive individua, qua? vulgo va- 
cant, singulas sibique proprias formas habent ; differunt 
quippe numero inter se, quod nemo non fatetur. Quid 
autem est aliud numero inter se, nisi singulis formis 
differre ? Numerus enim, ut recte Scaliger, est affectio 
essentiam consequens. Qua? igitur numero, essentia 
quoque differunt; etnequaquam numero, nisi essentia, 
differrent. Evigilent hie theologi. Quod si qua?cunque 
numero, essentia quoque differunt, nee tamen materia, 
necesse est formis inter se differant ; non autem com- 
munibus, ergo propriis. Sic anima rationalis, forma 
hominis in genere est ; anima Socratis, forma Socratis 
propria. " Per quam res est id quod est," i. e. qua? 
dat proprium esse rei. Ciim enim cuj usque fere rei 
essentia partim sit communis, partim propria ; com- 
munem materia constituit, forma propriam. Et per 
alias quidem causas esse res potest dici ; per solam for- 
mam " esse id quod est." 

" Ideoque hinc a ca?teris rebus omnib. res distingui- 
tur." Id est, distinctione, quam vocant essentiali: ex 
sola enim forma est differentia essentialis. Immo qua?- 
cunque inter se quovis modo, eadem etiam formis dif- 
ferunt ; fonsque omnis differentia? forma est ; nee aliis 
argumentis inter se res, nisi formis primario discrepa- 
rent. Et hoc quidem consectarium ex definitione est 
primum, sequitur alterum. 

" Forma simul cum re ipsa ingeneratur." Hinc 



80S 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



illud verissimuni : " posita forma, res ipsa ponitur ; sub- 
lata, tollitur." Ad exernpla nunc veniamus. Anima 
rationalis est forma hominis, quia per earn homo est 
homo, et distinguitur a caeteris omnibus naturis : geo- 
metricarum figurarum in triangulis, quadrangulis sua 
forma est: pbysicaruni, cceli, terras, arborum, pisciuni 
sua. 

" Unde praecipua rerum ut natura est, sic erit explica- 
tio, si possit inveniri." Tertium hoc consectarium est ex 
defiuitione formae. Unde illud quod de causa in com- 
muni supradictum est, nempe fontem esse omnis scientiae, 
formae potissimum convenire intelligitur. Quae enim 
causa essentiam prsecipue constituit, eadem si nota sit, 
scientiam quoque potissimum facit. Sed formam inter- 
nam cuj usque reinosse, asensibus, ut fere fit, remotissi- 
m am, difficile admodum est. In artificiosis autem rebus 
forma, utpote externa, sensibusque exposita, facilius 
occurrit; ut apud Csesarem de Bell. Gall. 1. 7, "muri 
autem omnes Gallici haec fere forma sunt," %tc. Sic 
forma Virgiliani portus explicatur, iEneid. 1, " est in 
secessu longo locus," &c. 

Distributio autem formae nulla vera est. Nam quod 
nonuulli internam vel externam esse volunt, ea distri- 
butio neque ad res omnes, sed tantum ad corporeas per- 
tinebit ; et externa non minus essentialis cuique rei est 
artificiosae, quam interna naturali. 



CAP. VIII. 

De Fine. 

"Finis est causa cuj us gratia res est." Sic etiam 
" Aristoteles, Phil. 1, 3, quarta causa est cuj us et bo- 
n um : hoc enim generationis omnis finis est." Ciim 
enim efficiens assecutus est finem, in eo acquies- 
cit, actionique sua? finem imponit. Finis itaque est 
causarum ultima. Verum ut recte " Aristot. Phys. 2, 
2,non onine ultimum finalis causa est, sed quod est op- 
timum : " Finis enim vel terminum rei significat, vel 
bonum rei ; sicut et terminus est vel durationis, vel 
magnitudinis aut figurse. Finalis autem causa non est 
nisi bonum quid ; eodemque sensu finis et bonum dici- 
tur; verumne an apparens,ad vim causae nihil interest. 
Sic etiam Aristot. Phys. 2, 3, idemque in Eth. passim : 
raali etiam evitatio habet rationem boni. Nonnulli 
tamen inter finem et finalem causam ita distinguunt, 
ut finis sit usus rei, finalis autem causa de usu cogita- 
tio. Atqui non cogitatio, sed res, i. e finis ipse effecti 
causa finalis vera est: nam de materia quoque et de for- 
ma prius cogitatur, sine hac tamen distinctione : cogi- 
tatur etiam de causa impulsiva, eaque movet efficien- 
tcm, nee tamen finalis causa dici potest; ciim earn 
efficiens non appetat, sed saepius aversetur, quoties 
affectus aut habitus aliquis pravus ad bonum aliquod 
apparens consequendum impellit. Idemque finis in 
animo efficientis primus, in opere atque effecto est pos- 
tremus. Dum autem in animo tantum efficientis est, 
et nondum obtinctur, nondum saneexistit; cum non- 



dum existit, causa esse qui potest? Cum itaque vulgo 
dicitur, finis quatenus efficientem quasi suadendo movet 
ut materiam paret, eique formam inducat, non modo 
effecti, verum etiam causarum causa earumque optima 
est, id improprie et per anticipationem quandam dici- 
tur. In opere autem et usu licet saepe sit ultimus, ap- 
titudine tamen ad usum nisi simul cum forma et tem- 
pore et natura esse intelligatur, erit posterior effecto 
per formam jam constituto, et adjunctum potius effecti 
quam causa. Sic non habitatio, sed ad habitandum 
aptitudo, quae cum inducta forma simul et tempore et 
natura est, proprius finis domus est statuendus, reique 
perfectio et formae quasi fructus est. Hinc Graeci non 
modo teXsw perficio, a. reXoe, i. e. finis deducunt, sed 
etiam perfectum tsXuov, a fine, vocant, teste Aristotele, 
Phil. 8, 24. 

Vis autem propria qua finalis causa aliis ab causis 
distinguitur, his verbis, " cuj us gratia," exprimitur; 
ut et aliis etiam particulis, nempe " cujus causa, ad,ob, 
pro, propter, quo, quorsum," et similibus. Ne autem 
est nota illius finis, qui in mali alicujus vitatione ver- 
satur. Finis autem dicitur non eorum solum qui finem 
sibi proponunt, i. e. efficientium rationalium, sed eorum 
quaecunque ad finem referuntur, i. e. quorumvis effec- 
torum. Sic physicis rebus finis homo propositus est, 
homini Deus. Quod nee ignoravit Aristoteles, Phys. 
2, 2, " rebus," inquit, " utimur, quasi nostra causa 
essent omnia : nam et nos quodammodo finis sumus." 
Deum esse omnium finem docet sapiens Hebraeus, 
Proverb. 16, 4, " Deus propter se fecit omnia." Om- 
nium artium est aliquod summum bonum et finis ex- 
tremus; quae et earum forma est : ut grammaticae, bene 
loqui ; rhetoricae, bene dicere ; logicae, bene ratioci- 
nari. 

Quod autem forma finis quoque esse potest, testatur 
haud semel Aristoteles, Phil. 8, 24, et Phys. 2, 7, 8. 
Et Plato in Philebo, essentiam sive formam rei, gene- 
rationis finem statuit: unde Arist. de Part. 1, 1, idem. 
Ut formae, ita et finis distributio vera nulla est ; quae 
vulgo efferuntur, non sunt logici finis distributiones, sed 
specialium finium pro varietate effectorum distinc- 
tiones. Distinguitur ab Aristotele, de Anima, 1. 2, 4, 
" finis cujus, et finis cui:" finis cujus, est finis operae, 
sive operandi ; finis cui, est finis ipsius operis, e. g. in 
domo aedificanda ; finis cujus, sive operae, est domus ; 
finis cui, sive ipsius operis, i. e. domus aedificatae, est 
aptitudo ad habitationem. 

Afferuntur et alias distributionis fines, quae ad finem 
cui pertinent, ut ex Aristot. Mag. Mor. 1, 2, "finis 
alius est perfectus, alius imperfectus ;" vel, quod idem 
est, ex aliis, " finis est summus, aut subordinatus." 
Summus autem est, qui propter se expetitur : estque 
vel universalis, omnib. scilicet rebus communis, vel 
specialis, cuique speciei peculiaris et proprius. Sub- 
ordinates autem non tarn finis est, quam destinatum 
quiddam ad finem : et esse summum vel subordina- 
tum, esse universale vel speciale, ad alia aeque argu- 
menta pertinet, atque ad finem. Postremo, lex distri- 
butionis jubet partes distributionis esse oppositas: at 
inter summum et subordinatum oppositio nulla est. 
Ad omnes igttur omnium rerum fines intelligendos, 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



869 



unica finis definitio satis est ; ut id sit cujus gratia res 
est : utrum autem sit summus an subordinatus, univer- 
salis an specialis, id logica non spectat, sed inferioribus 
quibusvis disciplinis relinquit. 



CAP. IX. 

De Effecto. 

" Effectum est, quod e causis existit.'' Effectum cum 
sit vi omnium causarum, a causa tamen principc, scili- 
cet efficiente, effectum denominatur. Sed quoniam, si 
proprie loquimur, effectum ab efficiente solo cfficitur, 
omnium autem causarum vi est, idcirco non definitur ex 
denominatione quod a causis efficitur, sed ex re potius, 
i. e. ex communi causarum vi, quod e causis est vel 
existit. Jam illud hie monendum est, ex cap. 2, 
quod in causa explicanda monuimus, effectum esse 
argumentum absolute cum causa sive causae consen- 
taneum, i. e. causam absolute arguere ; ita ut quemad- 
modum posita causa, ponitur effectum ; sic posito 
effecto, ponatur causa : ut euim causae dant esse ef- 
fecto, ita effectum esse suum habet a causis, i. e. ab 
efficiente, ex materia, per formam, propter finem ex- 
istit. Effectum igitur causas arguit, et ab iis vicissim 
arguitur ; sed non pari ratione : effectum enim arguit 
causam esse aut fuisse, Graecis oti ; causa autem, quare 
sit effectum demonstrat, Graecis Sion. Causae sunt 
priores et notiores, effectum, ut posterius, ita minus 
arguit. Sic argentum materia poculi, magis arguit 
et manifestum reddit naturam poculi, quam poculum 
argenti. Interdum autem effecta, non per se quidem, 
sed nobis notiora, clarius causas arguunt, quam argu- 
untur a causis. Sic etiam Aristoteles, Post. 1, 10, 
" nihil prohibet eorum quae se reciproce arguunt," ut 
causa et effectum, " id notius nonnunquam esse quod 
non est causa." 

" Sive igitur gignatur, sive corrumpatur, sive modo 
quolibet moveatur quidlibet, hie motus et res motu 
facta effectum dicitur." Ut causarum modi quidem 
fuere, ita nunc effectorum quidam his verbis ostendun- 
tur. Modi effectorum generales sunt, vel speciales. 
Generales sunt vel motus quilibet, quae " operatio et 
actio" dicitur; vel res motu factae, quae sunt opera. 
Modi speciales, sive exempla specialia, sunt " genera- 
tio, corruptio, et similia," a physicis petita. Causa 
enim corrumpens est causa procreans corruptionis. 
Notandum autem est hie rem quamlibet, non motam, 
sed " motu factam, effectum " dici ; nulla enim res 
corrupta corrumpenti contraria est. 

Hujus loci sunt laudes et vituperationes, quarum 
pleni sunt libri sacri et prophani. A factis enim quis- 
que potissimum laudatur et vituperatur. 

Hue etiam dicta scriptaque referenda sunt ; consilia 
item et deliberationes, etiamsi ad exitum perductae 
non fuerint. Neque enim facta solum, sed etiam con- 
sulta et cogitata pro effectis habenda sunt. 

" Sunt etiam effecta virtutum et vitiorum." Hora- 
tius hoc modo ebrietatis effecta describit : 



" Quid non ebnetas designat? operta recludit," &c. 

Volunt hie plerique Rami interpretes motus doc- 
trinam, utpote rei generalis, ad logicam pertinere; sed 
non recte. Quid enim potest logica docere de motu, 
quod naturale et physicum non sit ? " Scientias," in- 
quiunt, ex Aristot. Phys. 8, 3, " et opiniones, motu 
uti omnes." Utuntur quidem, sed ex natura, quam 
physica docet, petito. Sic logica ratione utitur, nee 
tamen rationis naturam, sed ratiocinandi artem docet. 
Omnis quidem causa movet, effectum movetur ; nee ta- 
men quid moveat aut moveatur, sed quid arguat aut 
arguatur logicus considerat. Ipsum etiam " arguere et 
argui" non quatenus motus est, aut res motu facta, sed 
quatenus relatione quadam arguendi vel facultatem 
ratiocinandi juvat vel artem tradit, ad logicam perti* 
net. 

Duos hie canones causae et effecti communes, quam- 
vis in physica potius quam in logica tractandos, ut 
multa alia quae Aristotelici congerere hue solcnt, tamen 
quia ssepe occurrunt et fallaces sunt, appendiculae in 
modum libet cum suis cautionibus hie attingere. Pri- 
mus est, " qualis causa, tale causatum:" ex Aristot. 
2 Top. c. 9. Quod verum non est primo in causis per 
accidens: ut, "hie sutor est vir bonus;" at non ergo 
" bonos consuit calceos;" potest enim esse sutor non 
bonus. Secundo, non in causis universalibus : ut, " sol 
omnia calefacit;" at non " idcirco ipse est calidus." 
Tertio, non in causis voluntariis, nisi velint. Quarto, 
si res in qua effectum est producendum, id per naturam 
suam recipere non potest. 

Canon secundus est, " propter quod unumquodque 
est tale, illud est magis tale;" Arist. 1 Post. c. 2. Sci- 
licet primo rursus in causis per se : ut, " hie est ebrius ; " 
non ergo " vinum magis ebrium." Secundo, si id a, 
quo tales denominantur utrique insit : ut, " cera sit 
mollis a sole ;" non " ergo sol est mollior." Tertio, si 
causa ilia recipiat magis et minus : non " ergo si filius 
est homo propter patrem, pater propterea magis homo." 
Sed canon hie valet praecipue in causis finalibus : ut, 
" hie studiis dat operam propter qutestum ; quaestui 
igitur studet magis." 



CAP. X. 

De Subjecto. 

" Argumentum modo quodam consentaneum suc- 
cedit, ut subjectum et adjunctum." Absoluta enim con- 
sensio causae et effecti banc modo quodam consensionem 
subjecti et adjuncti merito praecessit. Modo quodam 
consentire cum re quam arguunt dicuntur, quae leviter 
et extrinsecus tantum consentiunt, i. e. citra rationem 
essentiae; cum non ut causa effecto, ita subjectum det 
esse adjuncto; neque hoc ab illo essentiam accipiat. 
De subjecto prius est agendum : etenim subjectum 
omne suis adjunctis natura prius est, et quodammodo 
se habet ad adjunctum, ut causa ad effectum. 



870 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



u Subjectura est, cui aliquid adjungitur." Hoc ar- 
gumentum Cicero " rem subjectam " appellat, quia 
niinirura alicui subjicitur; subjici autem id dicitur, 
cui, cum ex causis constitutum jam est, aliquid tan- 
quam additamentum quoddam praeter causas adjungi- 
tur : adjungitur itaque aliquid, quod alteri, nempe 
subjecto, perfecto jam suisque causis constitute, extrin- 
secus sive praeter essentiam accedit. Subjectum ergo 
est quod ad aliquid arguendum est affectum, quod sibi 
praeter illam essentiam, quam e causis habet, insuper 
accedit. 

Ut causa, ita et subjectum suos quosdam habet 
modos : subjici enim aliquid dicitur vel recipiendo 
adjuncta vel occupando. Unde subjectum distingui 
potest in recipiens, quod Greece dacriKov appellant, et 
occupans, quod objectum dici solet, quia in eo adjuncta 
occupantur. Recipiens vel in se recipit adjuncta, vel 
ad se : recipiens in se adjuncta, vel sustinet ea et quasi 
sustentat, quae idcirco insita et inhaerentia appellantur, 
vel continet, ut locus locatum. 

Primus ergo modus est cum subjectum recipit ad- 
juncta insita sive inhaerentia. Sic anima est subjectum 
scientias, ignorantiae, virtutis, vitii ; quia haec animae 
adjunguntur, i. e. praeter essentiam accedunt : corpus 
sanitatis, morbi, roboris, infirmitatis, pulchritudinis, 
deformitatis ; quia corpori quidem insunt, sed praeter 
essentiam. 

Secundus modus est subjecta adjuncta in se conti- 
nentis, i. e. loci. Sic locus est subjectum rei locatoe, 
sive in quo res locata continetur. Sic philosophi di- 
vinis entibus, licet parte et magnitudine carentibus, 
attribuunt locum. Sic geometrae locum locique diffe- 
rentias in rebus geometricis. Phvsici multo etiam 
diligentius in rebus physicis considerant, in mundo, 
in elementis simplicibus, in rebus compositis. Hinc 
nonnulli dialectici suae artis amplificandae studio, ut 
motus, ita loci doctrinam in logica tractandam esse con- 
tendunt. Verum ciim locus externa sit affectio cujus- 
vis naturae sive corporeae sive incorporeae, miror quid 
illis, Rami praesertim discipulis, in mentem venerit, ut 
cum argumenta, i. e. non res, sed rationes subjectum 
esse logicae doceant; res tamen aut rerum naturalium 
affectiones, motum, locum, tempus in logica tractandas 
esse statuerent. Locus inquiunt omnium omnino rerum 
communis est : ergo, inquam, ad artem aliquam non 
corporum duntaxat, sed rerum naturalium omnium sive 
ph ysicam, universalem, non ad logicam pertinet : quae 
non quid sit locus, spatiumne an superficies corporis 
ambientis, sed quomodo arguat rem locatam, id solum 
considerat; nempe ut subjectum arguit adjunctum. 

Tertius modus est subjecti ad vel circa se recipientis 
adjuncta; quae idcirco " adjacentia et circumstantiae" 
appellantur. Sic homo est subjectum divitiarum, pau- 
pertatis, honoris, infamiae, vestitus, comitatus, et eorum 
fere quae dicuntur " antecedentia, concomitantia, con- 
sequential' si quam omnino affectionem inter se habent 
non necessariam ; quae causarum et effectorum quaeque 
ab his orta sunt argumentorum affectio duntaxat esse 
solet. Hactcnus de subjecto recipiente. 

Quartus modus est subjecti occupantis, in quo nimi- 
rum adjunctum occupatur et exercetur : atque hoc 



proprie objectum dicitur. Sic sensilia sensuum, et res 
virtutibus ac vitiis propositae, subjecta vitiorum et vir- 
tutum hoc modo nominantur. Color est subjectum 
visus, sonus subjectum auditus; quia hi sensus in his 
sensilibus occupantur et exercentur. Virtutes et vitia 
declarantur in ethicis hoc argumento : temperantia et 
intemperantia, voluptate ; fortitudo et ignavia, pericu- 
lis ; liberalitas et avaritia, divitiis. Sic res numerabilis 
arithmeticae ; mensurabilis, ut ita dicam, geometriae 
subjicitur. Ejusmodi subjecto Cicero 2 Agrar. dispu- 
tat, inter Campanos nullam contentionem esse, quia 
nullus sit honor : " Non gloriae cupiditate," ait, " effere- 
bantur, propterea quod ubi honos publice non est, ibi 
cupiditas gloriae esse non potest," &c. 



CAR XI. 

De Adjuncto. 

"Adjunctum est cui aliquid subjicitur," vel quod 
affectum est ad arguendum subjectum. Doctrina ad- 
juncti doctrinas subjecti per omnia respondet. Cicero 
hoc argumentum " adjunctum " et " conj unctum " vocat. 
Ab Aristotele, accidens vocatur, nee male. Quicquid 
enim ulli subjecto extrinsecus accidit, sive fortuito sive 
non, adjunctum ejus est. Animi, corporisque, et to this 
hominis bona et mala, quae dicuntur, adjuncta sunt 
animi, corporis, hominis. 

Cum igitur adjunctum subjecto praeter essentiam 
accedat, non mutatur ejus accessione vel decessione es- 
sentia subjecti, nequc aliud inde fit subjectum, sed 
alio duntaxat modo se habet. Unde et modi, qui di- 
cuntur, in adjunctis numerandi sunt. Sic in causis 
" procreare" et " tueri," modi, ut supra dictum est, sive 
adjuncta quaedam vel efficientis vel efficiendi sunt. 

" Hoc argumentum etsi subjecto est levius, attamen 
est copiosius et frequentius." Subjecto suo levius est, 
quia subjectum prius est, et adjuncti sui quodammodo 
causa. Id quod de adjunctis non quibusvis verum esse 
docebitur. Hinc Aristot. Phil. S. 1, "adjunctum sub- 
jecto est posterius ratione, tempore, cognitione et na- 
tura:" quod etiam de omni adjuncto ita duntaxat 
verum est, si de tempore excipias, existentiam enim 
adjuncti non spectat logica, sed mutuam quam cum 
subjecto habet affectionem quae utrobique simul est ; 
ita ut subjectum adjuncto non magis sit tempore prius 
quam adjunctum subjecto ; sublato igitur subjecto, 
tollitur adjunctum, ut "mortuus non est; ergo nee 
miser est." Hinc strepitur in scholis, " ab est secundi 
adjecti, ad est tertii adjecti, valet consequentia negan- 
do." Et posito adjuncto, ponitur necessario subjectum ; 
ut, " si mortuus est miser, certe necessario mortuus 
est." Quod et scholae sic balbutiunt ; " ab est ter- 
tii adjecti, ad est secundi, valet consequentia affirman 
do." Est autem adjunctum subjecto copiosius et 
frequentius, quia unius ejusdemque subjecti plurima 
adjuncta esse possunt. Itaque quod de ejusmodi signis 
ait Ovid. 2, de Remed. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



871 



Forsitan haec aliquis (nam sunt quoque) parva vocabit ; 
Sed quae non prosunt singula, multa juvant. 

Hue itaque referuntur signa, quae ad effecta potius 
referenda sunt; vimque arguendi perinde habent ut 
eorum causae certse sunt et cognitae. Sic tumor uteri 
sig-num est gravidae ; incertum tamen, quia causae tu- 
moris illius aliae esse possunt; lac mammarum multo 
certius, quia causa certior et notior. Ejusdem generis 
sunt signa physiognomonica, prognostica astrologorum 
et medicorum. Itaque ut causae et effecta scientiam, 
sic subjecta et adjuncta conjecturam fere pari unt. Hoc 
genere argumenti Fannium Chaeream Cicero pro Ros- 
cio comoedo cavillatur: et ab adjuncta corporis ba- 
bitudine, signa malitiae colligit: " nonne ipsum caput 
et supercilia ilia penitus abrasa olere malitiam, et cla- 
mitare calliditatem videntur ? nonne ab imis unguibus 
usque ad verticem summum (si quam conjecturam affert 
homini tacita corporis figura) ex fraude, fallaciis, men- 
daciis constare totus videtur ?" Sic Martial. 1. 2, Zoilum 
ludit : 

" Crine ruber, niger ore, brevis pede, lumine luscus, 
Rem magnam praestas, Zoile, si bonus es." 

Subjectorum porro modis, adjunctorum respondent 
modi. Quemadmodum igitur subjectum erat rcci- 
piens vel occupans, ita adjunctum estreceptum vel oc- 
cupation. Receptum vel in subjectum recipitur, vel 
ad subjectum : quod in subjectum recipitur, vel sus- 
tinetur ab eo, vel in eo continetur aut collocatur: 
quod sustinetur, est adjunctum insitum, sive inhaerens. 

Primus ergo modus est adjunctorum inbasrentium 
sive insitorum. Omninoque qualitates (qualitas autem 
est qua res qualis dicitur) subjectis praeter causas, i. e. 
formas externas (quae etiam qualitatibus numerantur) 
adjunctae ; sive propriae sint, quae omni solique subjecto 
semper conveniunt, ut homini risus, equo hinnitus, cani 
latratus; sive communes, quaecunque non sunt eomodo 
propriae. Propria autem quatuor modis vulgo dicuntur: 
soli, sed non omni; ut homini proprium est mathema- 
ticum esse, sed non omni: omni, sed non soli; ut 
bipedem esse homini : omni et soli, sed non semper; ut 
nomini canescere in senectute : omni, soli, et semper ; ut 
risibilem esse homini : hoc demum vere proprium est et 
reciprocum ; ita ut omnishomo sit risibilis, et omne risi- 
bile, proprie dictum, sit homo. Adjunctum itaque propri- 
um etsi natura est posterius subjecto, adeoque levius, 
tempore tamen simul est, nobisque fere notius; positoque 
adjuncto proprio, ponitur subjectum, et contra : subjec- 
tum enim adjuncto proprie estmodo quodamessentiale, 
adjunctumque a forma subjecti fluit: habet igitur a 
forma subjecti, non ab natura sua, quod subjectum ponit 
et tollit. 

Communis etiam qualitas est separabilis vel insepa- 
rabilis : ut aquae frigus, qualitas. est separabilis; hu- 
miditas vero inseparabilis ; utraque autem communis. 
Atque istae qualitatum distinctiones, communium et 
propriarum, separabilium et inseparabilium, ad judi- 
cium faciendum valde sunt utiles, ut secundo libro fa- 
cile perspiciemus. Ad hunc modum refertur etiam 
quantitas, qua res magnos vel parvae, multae vel paucae 



dicuntur; et passio, qua res aliquid pad dieitur ; adeo- 
que motus, ad rem motam si referatur, hujus loci est. 
Hactenus de adjuncto quod in subjecto sustinetur. 

Secundus modus est adjunctorum. quae continetur in 
subjecto, ut locatum in loco: atque hue etiam situs 
locorum refertur; nisi si cui ad primum potius modum 
referendus videatur : cum situs passio sit quaedam rei 
locatae, et ad priorem modum sicpertineat. Atque haec 
de adjunctis quae in subjectum recipiuntur. 

Tertius modus est adjunctorum quae recipiuntur ad 
subjectum ; quae vulgo circumstantiae nuncupantur, 
quia extra subjectum sunt. Hue " tempus" refertur, 
duratio nempe rerum praeterita, praesens, futura. Sic 
etiam Deus dicitur qui est, qui erat, et qui futurus est, 
Apocal. 1, 8, et 4, 8. Deo tamen aevum sive aeternitas, 
non tempus attribui solet: quid autem est aevum 
proprie, nisi duratio perpetua, Greece auov, quasi 
ad &v semper existens. Sed quod superioribus capi- 
tibus de motu et loco, idem nunc de tempore monendum 
est; non pertinere ad logicam quid sit tempus philo- 
sophari, sed quo in genere argumenti ponendum sit, 
hie nempe in adjunctis. Hue etiam referuntur divitiae, 
paupertas, honor, infamia, vestitus, comitatus, et 
ejusmodi quicquid adesse, adjacere, circumstare, aut 
citra vim causae antecedere, concomitari, sequi, ut su- 
pra in subjecto diximus, dici potest; vel, ut Cic. in 
Top. Quicquid ante rem, cum re, post rem, dummodo 
non necessario, evenit. 

Quo circumstantiae genere, " Dido venetum proficis- 
cens, magnifice 4 iEneid. depingitur : 

" Oceanum interea surgens Aurora reliquit. 
It portis, jubare exorto, delecta juventus : 
Retia rara, plagee, lato venabula ferro," &c. 

In hoc exemplo Dido est subjectum: cujus adjuncta 
adjacentia sive circumstantiae variae hie enumerantur: 
1. " Tempus, oceanum interea," &c. 2. " Comitatus," 
nimirum " delecta juventus, equites," principes " Poe- 
norum." 3. Instrumenta (quae quatenus ad habentem 
referuntur) adjuncta ; et hujus quidem modi sunt, 
" retia, plagae, venabula, canes, sonipes." 4. Habitus 
sive vestitus, " Sidonia chlamys, purpurea vestis," &c. 
Atque haec de adjuncto recepto. 

Quartus modus est adjuncti occupati. "Et"enim 
" adjunctorum ad subjecta, quibus occupantur, usus 
item magnus." 

Hoc argumento " Plato miseras civitates auguratur, 
quae medicorum et judicium multitudine indigeant, 
quia multam quoque et intemperantiam et injustitiam 
in ea civitate versari necesse sit." Quia nempe in 
effectis intemperantiae sanandis, medici ; in effectis 
injustitiae vindicandis, judices tanquam adjuncti occu- 
pati in subjecto suo occupante versantur. 

" Sed categoria " sive locus argumentorum " con- 
sentaneorum sic est, unde quid vis alteri consentaneum, 
vel idem vel unum dici possit: omnesque modi uni- 
tatis et (ut ita dicam) identitatis hue sunt tanquam ad 
primas et simplices fontes referendi." 

Ad explicandum consentaneorum in comparationi- 
bus usum heec clausula adjecta est. Namque ut con- 
sensionis omuis duorum in uno tertio, ita et unitatis 



872 



ARTIS LOGICiE PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



modo hinc sunt petendi. Quot autem modis plura 
dicuntur inter se consentire, tot etiam modis dicun- 
tur unum et idem : absolute scilicet aut modo quo- 
dam : absolute unum vel idem causa et effecto; modo 
quodam unum et idem subjecto et adjtincto. Causa 
vel efficiente vel materia vel forma vel fine. Sic plu- 
res stature efficiente sunt eaedem, si ejusdem artificis ; 
materia, si ex eadem, auro scilicet aut ebore ; forma, si 
effigies ejusdem, Alexandri puta vel Caesaris ; fine, si 
ad eundem ornandum. Sic subjecto idem sunt ad- 
juncta duo vel plura in eodem subjecto ; adjuncto idem 
sunt plura subjecta quibus idem adjungitur : ut duae 
vel plures res albae vel nigrae, albedine vel nigredine 
idem sunt. 



CAP. XII. 

De Diversis. 

" Argumentum consentaneum expositum est" in 
causa et effecto, subjecto et adjuncto. 

Altera species argumenti artificialis, primi, simplicis, 
dissentaneum, sequitur. Et sequi debet : ut enim 
affirmatio negatione, sic consensio prior est dissen- 
sione ; prior autem non natura solum, verum etiam usu 
et dignitate. Ab affirmatione enim et consensione, ut 
scientia omnis, ita ars omnis atque doctrina deducitur. 

"Dissentaneum est quod dissentit a re"quamar- 
guit. Ab altero nempe sui generis ac nominis dissen- 
taneo. Nam in hoc genere argumentorum, argumenta 
inter se affecta eodem nomine, ideoque plurali numero 
enunciantur, eademque definitione et doctrina expli- 
cantur. 

" Sunt autem dissentanea inter se aeque manifesta : 
alterumque ab altero aequaliter arguitur ; tametsi sua 
dissensione clarius elucescant." 

Hae duae sunt proprietates dissentaneorum commu- 
nes. Primum n. in consentaneis causae effectis, sub- 
jecta adjunctis, priora, notiora, firmiora, praestantiora 
fuerunt: in dissentaneis alterum altero neque prius 
neque notius; sed natura simul, in ilia nempe dissen- 
sione, et aeque nota, aeque firma inter se sunt: id quod 
necesse est cum eodem nomine ac definitione trac- 
tentur. 

Secunda quoque proprietas, quam Aristoteles con- 
trariis alligat, dissentaneorum est omnium communis; 
nempe " sua dissensione clarius elucescere." Quod 
nisi fieret, argumentum dissentaneorum nullius usus 
esset. Debet enim omne argumentum affectum esse 
ad aliquid arguendum et illustrandum. Quorum autem 
haec est proprietas ut aequo nota et ignota sint, eorum 
alterum ab altero argui autillustrari non potest. Priori 
igitur proprietati secunda haec subvenit: quamvis enim 
dissentanea sint inter se aeque manifesta, ita ut unum 
ab altero tanquam notiori argui non queat, ex dissen- 
sione tamcn sua, sive, ut aliiloquuntur, juxta seposita, 
clarius elucescunt. Sic bonae valetudinis commodaad- 
versae valetudinis incommodis mauifestiora fiunt; vir- 



tutum laudes contrariorum vituperatione vitiorum illus- 
trantur. 

Utiles itaque sunt hi loci dissentaneorum, teste etiam 
Aristotele, Top. 3, 4, non solum ad arguendum et illus- 
trandum, verum etiam ad impellendum ac refutandum : 
ut enim consentaneorum loci valent maxime ad arguen- 
dum, probandum, et confirmandum, sic loci dissentaneo- 
rum ad redarguendum, impellendum, et refutandum: ut 
qui consentaneo argumento docerinon vult, dissentanei 
absurda consecutione eo redigatur, ut nolens etiam non 
possit veritati non assentiri. Hinc Aristot. Rhet. 3, 
17, "refutantia demonstrativis" anteponit. 

"Dissentanea sunt di versa vel opposita. 

" Diversa sunt dissentanea, quae sola ratione dissen- 
tiunt." Nomen hoc videtur aptissimum ad hanc levis- 
simam dissensionem significandam : hac enim voce ea 
significantur, qu83 cum consensionem quandam inter 
se habere videantur, possintque per se suaque natura 
eidem subjecto simul convenire, tamen nee idem sunt, 
nee ei subjecto competunt cujus ratione dissentire 
dicuntur: quae autem dissentiunt in eodem tertio, dis- 
sentiunt etiam inter se. 

Sola igitur ratione dissentiunt, quia non per se sua- 
que natura dissentiunt, sed solummodo ratione attribu- 
tionis, i. e. ratione ac respectu alicujus subjecti, cui 
simul non attribuuntur. Distributio itaque dissenta- 
neorum pro ratione dissensionis recte instituta est : nam 
ut consensio alia arctior est et absoluta, alia remissior 
et imperfecta (unde consentanea divisa sunt in ea quae 
absolute vel modo quodam consentiunt) ita dissensio 
omnis vel remissior est, utin distinctione sive discretione 
diversorum, vel acrior, ut in disjunctione oppositorum: 
ergo dissentanea aut ratione et modo quodam dissen- 
tiunt, ut diversa, aut re et absolute, ut opposita. Verum 
quod de consentaneis etiam objici potuit, speciebus 
aeque communicandum est genus (has enim voces etiam 
com muni usu citra artem vulgo intellectus, pace me- 
thodi nonnunquam anticipare fas sit) respondetur, 
quemadmodum consentanea absolute et modo quodam 
erant aeque consentanea, sed non aeque consentiebant ; 
sic diversa et opposita aeque dissentanea sunt, sed 
non aeque dissentiunt; in diversis tarn est dissensio 
quam in oppositis, sed non tanta : ut in re simili Cic. 
de Fin. 4, " aeque contingit omnib. fidibus, ut incon- 
tentae sint ; illud non continuo, ut aeque incontentse." 
Diversa autem idcirco priore loco tractantur, quod 
propter levissimam dissensionem videntur affinitatem 
quandam cum consentaneis prae se ferre. Quanquam 
autem diversorum doctrina ab omnibus praeter Ramum 
logicis omissa est, constat tamen locum in argumento- 
rum doctrina diversis etiam assignandum, cum ex ar- 
guendi varia affectione argumenta distinguenda sint, 
affectio autem dissensionis in diversis, ut diximus, levior 
sit, in oppositis acrior. Cur diversa logici hactenus 
omiserint, videtur hoc esse; quod ad unum syllogis- 
mum omnia referunt, in quo diversa locum non habent, 
ut 1. 2, ostendetur. 

Diversorum autem notae sunt frequentissime "non 
hoc, sed illud, quanquam, tamen:" ut pro Pompeio ; 
"non victoriam, sed insignia victoriae reportarunt." 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



873 



Victoria et victoriae insignia res admodum affines sunt ; 
possuntque acdebent eidem duci compete re : ad Syllam 
autem et Mursenam si spectas, qui non reportata vic- 
toria triumpharunt, dissentanea sunt, et distinguuntur, 
alteroque affirmato alterum negatur. Sic Ovid. 2, de 
Arte : 

" Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses." 

Et Virg. ^neid. 2. 

" Hie Priamus quanquam in media jam morte tenetur, 
Non tamen abstinuit." 

Ut victoria et victoriae insignia respectu Syllse et 
Muraenae, sic formosum et facundum respectu Ulyssis, 
in media morte teneri et non abstinere a convitiis rati- 
one Priami, diversa adeoque dissentanea sunt. Paulo 
secus in Eunucho : 

" Nam si ego digna hac contumelia 

Sum maxime : at tu indignus qui faceres tamen." 

Sed idem est ac si dictum esset, quanquam ego dig- 
na; tamen tu indignus qui mihi hanc contumeliam 
faceres. Dignam se quidem esse contumelia Thais af- 
firmat; a Chaerea tamen negat. Cic. 5 Tusc. " Quan- 
quam sensu corporis judicantur, ad animum tamen 
referuntur." Hoc affirmato, negatum intelligitur non 
ad corpus. 

Item ilia aliusmodi. Pro Ligario : "scelus tu illud 
vocas, Tubero? cur? isto n. nomine ilia adhuc causa 
caruit : alii enim errorem appellant, alii timorem ; qui 
durius, spem, cupiditatem, odium, pertinaciam; qui 
gravissime, temeritatem : scelus praeter te adhuc nemo." 
In hoc genere exemplorum aliquid conceditur, ut aliud 
vicinum possit negari: cujusmodi et illud est; Veritas 
premi potest, opprimi non potest ; et similia. 

Atque hi modi quidam diversorum sunt: in quibus 
plerunque accidit, ut quae sua natura sunt opposita, 
ratione tamen certi alicujus subjecti sint tantum diver- 
sa ; ut in exemplo superiore error, timor, spes, cupiditas, 
pertinacia, scelus. Sic aurum, argentum, ses opposita 
sunt,ut infra liquebit: ratione tamen attributionis huic 
vel illi subjecto, qui unum vel aliqua horum habet, 
alterum vel reliqua non habet, cum habere simul possit, 
diversa sunt. 



CAP. XIII. 

De Disparatis. 

" Opposita " sunt " dissentanea, quae ratione et re 
dissentiunt." Opposita respondent nomine quidem iis, 
quae ab Aristotele avructifieva dicuntur; sed re etsignifi- 
catione latius patent ; nam avriKUfitva Aristoteli (qui 
disparata non attigit) nihil aliud quam " contraria" 
sunt. Possunt etiam " repugnantia" dici; siquidem 
repugnare ea dicuntur, quae ejusmodi sunt, ut cobee- 
rere nunquam possint; quod Cic. ait in Top. ejusmodi 
enim sunt opposita. " Re " autem " et ratione," est non 



solum ratione certi alicujus subjecti, cui cum tribuun- 
tur, simul non conveniunt, verum etiam reipsa, i. e. per 
se et inter se, sua ipsorum natura dissentire, etiam sub- 
jecto cuivis non attributa; cui si tribuuntur, non solum 
non conveniunt, sed, servata, quae sequitur, oppositorum 
lege, convenire non possunt. Ea lex quae ex ipsa defi- 
nitione oritur, et est oppositorum omnium communis, 
non, ut docuit Aristoteles, contrariorum propria, haec est, 
" Opposita eidem attribui, secundum idem, ad idem, et 
eodem tempore non possunt." " Eidem," i. c. eidem 
numero, rei, sive subjecto. " Secundum idem," i. e. 
eadem parte. " Ad idem," i. e. eodem respectu ; ut, 
"sol et major est terra et minor;" sed non eodem re- 
spectu ; in se quidem, major ; ut nobis videtur, minor. 
Extra has tres conditiones possunt eidem subjecto at- 
tribui opposita. " Sic Socrates, albus et ater non potest 
secundum idem, i. e. eadem parte esse; pater et filius 
ejusdem," sive ad eundem relatus ; "sanus et aeger 
eodem tempore : at albus esse potest alia parte, ater 
alia ; pater hujus, filius illius ; sanus hodie, eras aeger." 

" Itaque ex altero affirmato alterum negatur." 

"Ex quo facile apparet quid intersit inter diversa et 
opposita : in illis enim " altero affirmato ;" in his, " ex 
altero affirmato" alterum negatur: i. e. ex affirmatione 
unius, necessario sequitur negatio alterius. Ut, sumpto 
ex diversis exemplo, " non victoriam, sed insignia 
victoriae reportarunt : " hie insignia victoriae affirman- 
tur, victoria negatur ; non ex his affirmatis negatur 
ilia : at in oppositis, dicta lege servata, Socrates est 
homo, ergo non estequus: juxta illud; " opposita se 
invicem tollunt. 

" Opposita autem sunt disparata aut contraria. 

" Disparata sunt opposita quorum unum multis pari- 
ter opponitur." 

Disparatorum ergo remissior videtur esse oppositio, 
contrariorum acrior. Disparata etiam a Boethio nomi- 
nantur, " quae tantum a se diversa sunt, nulla contra- 
rietate pugnantia," ut vestis, ignis. Apud Ciceronem 
tamen, Invent. 1, et Fabium, 1. 5, c. 10, contradicentia 
significant. Nos verborum inopia coacti, Boethium 
sequimur. Multis, nempe sine ulla certa oppositionis 
lege aut numero : nam et infinitce fere res hoc modo op- 
poni inter se possunt: et sic intelligendum est verbum 
opponitur, juxta illud ; " Vocabula in artibus faculta- 
tem significant:" ut vestis et ignis etsi res duae, inter 
se tamen disparata sunt, eo quod multis pariter opponi 
possunt. Pariter : i. e. aeque pari ratione, eodem dis- 
sensionis modo : ut enim disparata sint, non multis 
tantum, sed pariter opponi debent. Albedo opponitur 
nigredini, flavedini, rubedini, ut unum pluribus; non 
autem singulis ut disparatum, quia non pariter : nigre- 
dini enim opponitur ut contrarium, caeteris rebus om- 
nibus ut disparatum. Viride, cineraceum, rubrum, me- 
dia sunt inter album et nigrum, quae singula extremis, 
et inter se disparata sunt. Sic liberalitas et avaritia 
inter se disparantur. Sic homo, arbor, lapis, et ejus- 
modi res infinitae disparantur; nee eadem res potest 
esse homo, arbor, lapis. Virgil. 1 JEneid. hoc argu- 
mento disputat : 

" O quam te memorem, virgo ! naraque haud tibi vultus 
Mortalis ; nee vox hominem sonat : o dea certe." 



874 



ARTIS LOGICS plenior institutio, 



CAP. XIV. 

De Relatis. 

" Contra ria sunt opposita, quorum unum uni tan- 
tum opponitur." 

Intelligitur autem uuum uni in eodem genere opponi 
contrariorum, ut rclatorum unum uni tantum, et sic in 
reliquis : nam in diversis speciebus contrariorum, plura 
possunt ut contraria, uni eidemque rei opponi; ut " vi- 
denti, non videns, et caecus ; motui, motus contrarius, 
et quies ; servo, dominus, et liber." 

Quae Aristoteles avTiBi/xeva et avriKUfisva, ea Cicero 
in Topicis (quern Ramus sequitur) contraria appellat : 
quas etiam in species quatuor Aristoteles dvriKUfjieva, 
in easdem Cicero contraria distribuit. 

Prius autem quam ad contrariorum distributionem 
in species accedimus, inserenda est distinctio quaedam 
non inutilis, et ad ea quae diximus capite superiore 
clarius intelligenda, et ad eas, quae secundo libro di- 
centur, disjunctiones necessarias a contigentibus diju- 
dicandas. Dictum est superiore capite, viride, cinera- 
ceum, rubrum, media esse inter album et nigrum, quae 
singula extremis et inter se disparata sunt. Sciendum 
itaque est contraria, quasi extrema quaedam, habere 
alia medium, alia medio carere : medium vel est nega- 
tions vel participations; ex Aristotele, Top. 4, 3, et 
Phil. V, 7. Medium negationis est quicquid inter duo 
contraria dici potest, quod sit neutrum eorum : ut inter 
praeceptorem et discipulum, is qui neque est preeceptor 
neque discipulus. Medium participations est, quod 
utriusque extremi naturam participat; ut viride inter 
album et nigrum, tepidum inter calidum et frigidum. 
Contrariorum igitur quae medium habent, non est 
necesse alterutrum affirmari ; potest euim affirmari 
medium : quas autem medio carent, eorum alterum 
necesse est affirmari. Quaenam autem contraria me- 
dium babeant aut non habeant, ex eo dignoscitur quod 
et Gcllius tradit, 1. 16, Noct. Att. c. 8. Contraria 
quorum contradicentia, cum attribuuntur ei subjecto 
cui proprie possunt attribui, sunt etiam inter se contra- 
ria, ea medium non habent. Sanum et aegrum contra- 
ria sunt: eorum contradicentia, non sanum non aegrum, 
si animali attribuas cui soli possunt attribui, contraria 
etiam reperies : non sanum enim, est aegrum : non 
aegrum, sanum ; sanum ergo et aegrum medio carent : 
sic nox et dies, non nox et non dies, aeque sunt inter se 
contraria ; non nox enim, est dies ; non dies, nox ; 
medio igitur carent : sic visu praeditum, et caecum esse, 
si homini tribuis. Quorum vero contradicentia non 
sunt contraria, ea medium habent : ut praeceptor et 
discipulus ; non praeceptor enim, non est discipulus ; 
neque non discipulus, est praeceptor; etenim potest 
alteruter aliquid esse tertium sive medium. Sic album 
et nigrum : namque non album et non nigrum de quo- 
vis colore medio dici possunt. Nunc ad distributionem 
contrariorum veniamus. 

" Contraria sunt affirmantia aut negantia. 

"Affirmantia, quorum utrumque affirmat." Scilicet 
rem, sive veram sive fictam ; vel quorum vox utraque 



rem certam ponit atque significat; quorumque unum 
alteri ut res rei opponitur ; ut pater filio, calor frigori. 
Contraria itaque affirmantia, quod hie notandum est 
distinguendum, sunt quorum utrumque afrirmat rem, 
non affirmatur de re sive subjecto eodem, id enim 
supradictae oppositorum regulae, qua ex altero affirmato 
alterum negatur, plane repugnaret. Quae igitur afrir- 
mat rem aut negat, topica affirmatio aut negatio di- 
citur; quae res de alio affirmatur aut negatur axioma- 
tica, de qua lib. 2. 

" Contraria affirmantia sunt relata aut adversa. 

" Relata sunt, quorum alterum constat ex mutua 
alterius affectione." 

Atque ita quidem ut ex eorum ilia mutua affectione, 
contrarietas ipsa nascatur, ut infra demonstrabitur. 
Quid ergo ; num idcirco relata nunc consentanea nunc 
dissentanea sunt ? Nequaquam, ut relata quidem : sed 
ea tamen quae relata sunt, aliis atque aliis argumento- 
rum generibus possunt subjici ; ipsa interim argumen- 
torum geneia inconfusa et distincta manent. Sic causa 
et effectum, quae arguendo inter se relata sunt, adeo- 
que dissentanea et aeque manifesta, suam tamen vim 
propriam arguendi retinent, qua et consentanea sunt, 
et causa prior notiorque effecto. Relata esse contraria 
ex definitione et consectariis contrariorum liquet; sunt 
enim opposita, quorum unum uni tantum opponitur, ut 
pater et filius. At, inquis, unus multis, pater filiis, 
frater fratribus, praeceptor discipulis, herus famulis, 
opponi potest. Respondetur, opponi patrem filio ut 
relatum; neque aliud quicquam patri quam filium, 
neque filio quam patrem ; et sic de caeteris: sed hunc 
patrem et hunc filium, hunc prseceptorem et hunc dis- 
cipulum, &c. non esse relata, sed disparata: neque 
enim borum alter ex mutua alterius affectione constat; 
neque natura simul sunt, et alter sine altero existere 
potest. Itaque primae substantiae, sive individua et 
singularia, ut ait Aristoteles, Categor. 5, non sunt re- 
lata. Et Categor. 6, ait multa genera "relata esse, 
singularia vero nulla:" sed non video cur relata, quem- 
admodum et alia argumenta, etiam in singularibus 
considerari non possunt ; singularia enim exempla 
sunt fere omnia. Nee magis video cur in uno relato 
singulari non possit ad correlata multa esse multiplex 
relatio; dummodo relatio una numero inter bina tan- 
tummodo sit, totiesque consideretur quot sint correlata ; 
patris nimirum toties quot sunt filii; filii quot sunt 
parentes, pater nempe et mater; fratris, quot sunt fra- 
tres et sorores : nam nisi quicquid de relatis in genere 
dici solet, de singulis quoque relatis vere dicatur. Id 
ne toto quidem de genere vere dici posset. Si reponas 
ex Aristot. Philos. 5, Relata non significare existen- 
tiam, ne caetera quidem argumenta id significant sed 
mutuam tantummodo affectionem. Sunt affirmantia, 
i. e. ut duae voces sunt, ita etiam duae sunt res inter 
se oppositae ; ut pater, filius. Constare autem alterum 
ex mutua alterius affectione, est nullam aliam habere 
essentiam, quatenus relata sunt, praeter mutuam illam 
unius affectionem ad alterum et alterius ad illud. 
" Atque inde nominata sunt relata," quod ad se invi- 
cem refcruntur, totaque illorum natura in relatione 
consistit. Sic patrem esse, est habere filium ; filium 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



875 



esse, est habere patrem. Hinc illud , Omnia relata 
convertuntur: ut pater est filii pater; filius est patris 
filius. Hujus mutua affectionis ratione relata sunt 
mutuae sibi causae et mutui effectus, nam quod quis 
pater est, id habet a filio ; qudd filius, a patre : et ta- 
men hujus mutuse affectionis vi ita sibi invicem oppo- 
nuntur, ut neque unum de altero nee ambo de tertio 
dici possint ; ut iEneas est pater Ascanii, ergo non est 
Ascanii filius; Ascanius est filius iEneae, ergo non est 
iEneae pater. Sed quoniam relatorum unum constat 
ex mutua alterius affectione, mutuaeque sibi, ut dixi- 
mus, causae atque effecta sunt, consectarium hoc inde 
est quod sequitur. 

" Relata simul sunt natura : ut qui alterum perfecte 
norit, norit et reliquum." 

Relata autem simul esse natura docuerunt et veteres 
logici, Aristoteles, Damascenus, et alii; relataque se 
mutuo inferre mutuoque tollere; ut posito patre, po- 
natur filius; sublato,itidem tollatur: etiamsi enim ille 
manet qui filius fuit, non tamen filius manet. Neque 
solum unum existerenequit sine altero, sed ne intelligi 
quidem. Necesse est igitur, quod et meminit Aristot. 
Top. 3, " Ut alterum in alterius definitione compre- 
hendatur;" utque alterum perfecte, i. e. definite, qui 
norit, norit continuo alterius definitionem ; quae sicuti 
et essentia eorum, reciproca est. Supra itaque Ramus 
definivit subjectum, " cui aliud adjungitur ;" non, 
" quod alteri subjicitur," ut alii malebant ; etiamsi his 
verbis non modo essentia subjecti, sed etiam notatio 
contineri videatur : deinde adjunctum definivit, "cui 
aliquid subjicitur," non quod alteri adjungitur, quia 
subjectum et adjunctum relata sunt ; et subjectum ad- 
juncti, adjunctum subjecti, ex qua alterum alterius 
mutua affectione constat, ea erat definiendum, quae 
ipsorum essentia est. Ad exempla nunc veniamus. 

ProMarcello: "Ex quo profecto intelligis quanta 
in dato beneficio sit laus, cum in accepto tanta sit glo- 
ria." Hie dare et accipere relata sunt, quorum unius 
consequens ex consequente alterius intelligi ait Cicero. 
Martialis in Sosibianum, 1. 1, 

ee Turn servum scis de genitum, blandeque fateris ; 
Cum dicis dominum, Sosibiane, patrem." 

Arguebat se servum esse genitum Sosibianus, dum 
negare videbatur, quia dominum vocabat patrem. Sic 
apud Quintilianum, 1. 5, c. 10. " Si portorium Rho- 
diis locare honestum est, et Hermacreonti conducere." 
Quomodo et in Oratore Perfecto Tullius : " Num igitur 
est periculum, ait, nequis putet in magna arte et glo- 
riosa turpe esse docere alios id quod ipsi fuerit ho- 
nestum discere?" Apud Ovidium in aetatis ferreae 
descriptione, Metam. 1, varia relatorum exempla affe- 
runtur: 

" Non hospes ab hospite tutus, 

Non socer a genero : fratrum quoque gratia rara est. 
Imminet exitio vir conjugis, ilia mariti : 
Lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercae : 
Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos." 

" Atqui argumentum talis relationis contrarium nihil 
habet, immo arguit mutuas causas :" ut sum tuus pa- 



ter; tu es igitur meus filius. At quum dico, sum tuus 
pater; non igitur sum tuus filius, turn contraria vere 
sunt; atque ex ipsa quidem hac mutua relatione. 



CAR XV. 

De Adversis. 

" Adversa sunt contraria affirmantia, quae inter se 
velut e regione absolute adversantur." 

Sic etiam a Cicerone appellantur in Topicis. Sunt 
contraria, quia eorum unum uni tantum opponitur; ut 
honestum turpi: duo n. duntaxat possunt sibi invicem 
e regione adversari. Sunt affirmantia; quia unum 
uni opponitur, ut res rei; quod supra demonstratum 
est, et infra clarius patebit. His autem verbis " e re- 
gione absolute adversantur," nihil aliud quam directa 
oppositio, adeoque maxima, intelligitur ; qualis est 
inter duo puncta diametri in eodem circulo. His etiam 
verbis distinguuntur adversa a suis mediis, quae inter 
se et cum extremis disparantur. Absolute ; i. e. om- 
nino, perfecte; ut in cousentaneis, quae absolute con- 
sentiebant. Ramus perpetuo dixerat: sed assentior 
aliis, qui absolute malunt; nam perpetuo opponi, om- 
nib. oppositis etiam relatis, commune est, quatenus 
opposita sunt, i. e. ratione et re dissentiunt. Absolute 
autem additur, ut hac particula distingui adversa pos- 
sint a relatis, in quibus consensio quaedam est, quate- 
nus alterum ex mutua constat alterius affectione, cujus- 
modi hie omnino nulla est. Sic albor et nigror, calor et 
frigus opponuntur. 

Aristoteles, contraria (sic enim adversa vocat Categ. 
G) definit, " quae plurimum inter se distant in eodem 
genere : " et rursus Categ. 8, " Contraria sunt vel in 
eadem specie, vel in eodem genere." Quem Cic. est 
secutus in Top. et Galen de Opt. secta. Verum adversa, 
ut docct idem Arist. cap. de Contrariis, non in eodem 
solum genere plurimum differunt, ut album et nigrum, 
verum etiam in contrariis, ut justitia et injustitia; vel 
ipsa genera, ut bonum et malum, virtus et vitium. Quid 
quod in eodem genere differre, commune videtur adver- 
sis cum relatis : pro eodem igitur genere, rectius in defi- 
nitione ponitur e regione, prout Cicero interpretatur. 
.Eneid. 11. 

" Nulla salus bello ; pacem te poscimus omnes." 

Libertas et servitus apud Tibullum, 1, 2. 

" Sic mihi servitiuin video, dominamque paratam ;" 
Tu mihi libertas ilia paterna vale." 

Sic consilium et casus ; pro Marcello : " nunquam 
enim temeritas cum sapientia commiscetur, nee ad con- 
silium casus admittitur." Et Parad. 1, contra Epicu- 
reos : " illud tamen arete tenent accurateque defendunt, 
voluptatem esse summum bonum : quae quidem mihi 
vox pecudum videtur, non hominum," &c. Pecudem 
et hominem adversa Cicero opposuit : voluptas pecudis 
bonum est, non igitur hominis. Usus enim hujus argu- 



S76 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



menti non in qualitatibus duntaxat, ut vulgo putant, 
verum in substantiis etiam et quantitatibus, immo om- 
nibus in rebus versatur : id quod Aristot. non diffitetur, 
ciim ait Phil. x. 3, " Contraria etiam ad primas entis 
differentias referri :" et rursus; " in omni genere con- 
trarietatem esse." Contrarietas deinde argumentum 
esse logicum ab omnibus agnoscitur: nihil ergo obstat 
quomiuus ad qusevis rerum genera pertineat. Quse- 
dam denique forma; vel maxime substantias sunt : for- 
mas autem specificas omnes sibi invicem adversas esse, 
apud omnes receptissimum est : immo vero major vide- 
tur esse formarum contrarietas quam qualitatum ; qua- 
litates enim commisceri facile possunt, forma; vix un- 
quam. Quod ergo idem Aristot. alibi docet, substantia; 
et quantitati nihil esse contrarium, id non ratione tan- 
tiim, sed ipsius etiam testimonio supra citato refellitur; 
non substantiarum autem pugna etsi non pbysica, lo- 
gica tamen est, dum ex altera substantia singulari 
affirmata, negatur altera. 



CAP. XVI. 

De Contradicentibus. 

" Contraria negantia sunt, quorum alterum ait, 
alterum negat idem." Ab altero negante sic nominan- 
tur : in puris enim negantibus, ut loquuntur, nullus 
est rationis usus. Atque hinc demum nunc clarius pa- 
tet, quaenam essent contraria affirmantia : de quibus 
cum dictum est, de negantibus quoque est dictum quod 
satis sit. 

" Ea sunt contradicentia aut privantia. 

" Contradicentia sunt contraria negantia, quorum 
alterum negat ubique:" ut Justus, non Justus ; animal, 
non animal ; est, non est. 

" Contradicentia sunt contraria," quia una negatio 
uni affirmationi opponitur, et contra; immo sine me- 
dio. Sic etiam Aristot. Post. 1,2, " Contradictio est 
oppositio cujus nullum est medium per se." Quorum 
alterum negat ubique ; i. e. in re qualibet : negare 
enim ubique est de re qualibet dici, de qua affirmatum 
non dicitur; ut de quo videt non dicitur, de eo non 
videt dicitur. Unde illud vulgo dictum, " contradicen- 
tia sunt omnia : " et illud Aristot. 1, Post. 1, 2, " quod- 
vis vere est vel affirmare vel negare : vere affirmare et 
negare simul, impossibile est," et Top. 6, 3, de quali- 
bet re vel affirmatio vel negatio vere dicitur." Alte- 
rum autem negare ubique dicitur, vel expresse vel im- 
plicite. Expresse ut supra, cum negandi particula : 
implicite, cum reipsa non minus contradicit et repug- 
nat alteri, quam si verbo negaret; ut corpus infinitum, 
proprietas communis. Vulgo vocatur contradictio in 
adjecto ; quia id subjecto adjungit quod subjectum 
plane tollit; atque ita contradictionem implicat. At- 
que hinc etiam est quod contradicentia medio carent 
non solum participationis, verum etiam negationis, quia 
necesse est affirmare vel negare unum quodvis de al- 



tero. Sic etiam Boethius in Topicis : " inter affirma- 
tionem et negationem nulla est medietas." Contra- 
dicentium porro exempla hcec sunt. In defensione 
Muraenae contradicitur sententiis Catonis et Ciceronis; 
illius Stoici, hujus Academici. Dialogus est his verbis : 
" nihil ignoveris : immo aliquid, non omnia. Nihil 
gratia; causa feceris: immo ne resistito gratia;, cum 
officium et fides postulabit. Misericordia commotus ne 
sis ; etiam in dissolvenda severitate : sed tamen est 
aliqua laus humanitatis. In sententia permaneto : 
enimverd nisi sententia alia vicerit melior." In hoc 
exemplo quadruplex contradictio est; nihil ignoveris; 
nonnihil ignoveris : nihil gratia; causa feceris ; non- 
nihil gratia; causa feceris, &c. Martial. 1. 1. 

1 ' Bella es ; novimus : et puella ; verum est : 
£t dives ; quis enim potest negare ? 
Sed dum te nimium, Fabulla, laudas, 
Nee dives, neque bella, nee puella es." 

Cicero in Tusc. cogit hoc argumento Atticum Epi- 
cureum fateri mortuos miseros non esse, si omnino non 
sint, ut Epicurei credebant. " Quern esse negas ; 
eundem esse dicis : cum enim miserum esse dicis, turn 
eum qui non sit, esse dicis." Sic Terentianus Pha;dria 
Dori eunuchi dictum elevat, quod affirmasset prius, 
qua 1 post inficiaretur : modo ait, modo negat. 

Sunt qui contradictionem nullam esse statuunt, nisi 
axiomaticam ; de qua lib. 2. Verum si affirmatio et 
negatio topica datur, ut supra demonstravimus, necesse 
est dari quoque topicam contradictionem: qualis est 
ilia Rom. 9, " Vocabo non populum meum, populum 
meum ; et non dilectam, dilectam." In distinctionibus 
etiam frequentissimus est hujus contradictionis usus; 
praasertim ubi alterum distinctionis membrum apta voce 
exprimi non potest : ut dialectic® materia est ens, et 
non ens ; lex est scripta, vel non scripta. Sic ad Cri- 
tonem Socrates ; " videris opportune quidem non exci- 
tasse me." In his exemplis axiomatica contradictio 
nulla est; uti neque in illo quod supra in hoc capite 
ex Martiale allatum est: " bella es ; novimus: et 
puella," &c. Non enim verbum est sive copulatio 
negatur, sed partes. Fabulla est bella, et puella, et 
dives; Fabulla est et non bella, et non puella, et 
non dives. Axiomatica enim contradictio hujusmodi 
fuisset : Fabulla non est et bella et puella et dives : 
quod lib. 2 clarius intelligetur. 



CAP. XVII. 



De Privantibus. 



"Privantia sunt contraria negantia, quorum alterum 
negat in eo tantum subjecto, in quo affirmatum suapte 
natura inest." Atque hie affirmatum dicitur habitus, 
quo quis quid habet, negatum autem privatio, qua quis 
ea re privatur aut caret : ut visus et caecitas, motus et 
quies in iis rebus quae motu conservantur. Sunt con- 
traria, quod unum uni opponitur, habitus privationi ; 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



877 



qua ex parte negantia quoque dicuntur : nam et hie rei 
alicujus affirmationi ejusdem negatio, i. e. entinon ens 
opponitur : privatio enim, ut inquit Aristot. Phys. 2, 
8, " per se est non ens : " et Plut. de primo frigido ; 
privatio est essentiae negatio;" habituique opponitur, 
non ut natura quaedam aut essentia perse existens, sed 
ut ejus corruptio et ademtio. Quorum alterum negat 
in eo tantum subjecto, in quo, &c. His verbis forma 
privantium qua distinguuntur a contradicentibus, ex- 
primitur. In contradicentibus enim negatio infinita 
est, affirmatum suum ubique, i. e. qualibet in re ne- 
gans; ut quicquid non est justum, est non justum, in 
privantibus vero finita est negatio, atque in eo tan- 
tum subjecto affirmatum sive habitum negans, in quo 
affirmatum suapte natura inest: aut inesse potest ; ut 
etiam Aristot. in Categor. Sic caecitas est negatio visus, 
non ubique et in re qualibet, sed in qua solum visus 
inesse natura debuit : nam privari aliquid turn demum 
dicitur, cum eo caret quod natum est habere : non ergo 
quicquid non videt, proprie caecum dicitur. Deinde 
in contradicentibus negatum contradicendo negat, et 
est pura negatio ; ut videns, non videns ; in privan- 
tibus negat privando ; nee solum negatio est, sed pri- 
vans negatio et extinctio habitus alicujus qui inesse 
natura subjecto debuit aut potuit; ut videns, caucus. 
Hinc illse privationis proprietates ex Plut. de primo 
frigido, non inutiles : "privatio iners et agendi impos 
est: non suscipit magis aut minus ;" neque enim quis 
dixerit hunc illo casciorem ; aut tacentem, magis minus- 
ve tacere ; aut defunctum, magis minusve esse mor- 
tuum : habitus enim gradus esse possunt, non entis non 
item : ilia autem Aristot. " a privatione ad habitum non 
datur regressus," incertior est: cum enim habitus quo 
quis habere quid dicitur duo modi sint, potentia et ac^ 
tus, a privatione potentise vel facultatis, idque natura 
duntaxat, regressus negatur. Contradicentia denique 
medio carent non solum participationis, verum etiam 
negationis: privantia vero carent quidem medio par- 
ticipationis, nulla enim est habitus cum privatione per- 
mixtio ; non carent autem medio negationis ; multa 
enim sunt, quae neque vident, neque caeca sunt; ut 
lapis, arbor, &c, nisi cum ei subjecto attribuuntur, cui 
natura inesse debuerunt : turn enim negationis etiam 
medio carent; quippe omnis homo aut videns est aut 
cascus, gnarus aut ignarus. Exempla porro privantium 
sunt dives et pauper : Martial. 1. 5. 

" Semper eris pauper, si pauper es, iEmiliane . 
Dantur opes nullis nunc, nisi divitibus." 

Vita et mors, ut in Miloniana : " bujus mortis sedetis 
ultores, cujus vitam, si putetis per vos restitui posse, 
nolitis." Item loqui et tacere : 1 Catil. " quid expectas 
auctoritatem loquentium, quorum voluntatem tacitorum 
perspicis." Caetera exempla qute Ramus attulit, minus 
quadrant: ut ebrius et sobrius, mortalis et immortalis, 
quae potius adversa sunt. Neque enim " in" praepositio 
in compositis privationem semper, sed adversum habi- 
tum soape significat ; unde nee peccatum privationem 
esse dixerim ; siqui-dem hoc vel illud peccatum sive 
vitium, privatio non est. Atque hae quidem species 
contrariorum sunt. Sed quaeri hie solet, quaenam 



earum sint maxime inter se contrariee. Aristoteles 
maximam contrarietatem nunc adversis tribuit, nunc 
contradicentibus. Sed videtur maximam esse dissen- 
sionem inter privantia : deinde inter adversa; minorem 
adhuc inter contradicentia ; minimam inter relata : 
nam relata propter illam mutuam affectionem, partim 
consentanea sunt : contradicentia pure quidem contra- 
ria negantia sunt, sed tamen propter infinitam illam 
negationem, pro mediis et disparatis crebro accipiuntur, 
ut non calidum non tarn opponitur calido quam frigi- 
dum ; quoniam non calidum potest tepid um esse ; sic 
non bonum, medium quiddam esse potest et adiapho- 
rum : non album de rubro dici aut intelligi potest : 
adversa e regione quidem adversantur; non ita tamen, 
quin commisceri queant: privantia vero mixtionem non 
admittunt ; et privatio fere est habitus extinctio atque 
ereptio aut saltern deficientia; habitusque est ens, pri- 
vatio non ens ; enti autem nihil, aeque ac non ens, con- 
trarium est. 

" Sed dissentaneorum categoria sic est, unde quidvis 
ab altero differre quolibet modo possit." 

Quanquam enim causa omnis essentialis differentiae, 
formaeprimitusest reliquarum, argumenta reliqua con- 
sentanea, ut quot modis consentire totidem dissentire 
res dicantur, causa nempe vel effecto, subjecto vel ad- 
juncto, modi tamen omnes, quib. res inter se differunt 
vel ratione scilicet vel re, non tractantur nisi in dissen- 
taneis, vel si comparantur, in comparatis. Unde illud 
genere vel specie differre, nihil aliud est quam communi 
vel propria forma, quarum ilia symbola sunt, ut infra 
dicetur. 



CAP. XVIII. 

De Paribus. 

"Argumenta simplicia ita fuerunt in consentaneis 
et dissentaneis. 

" Comparata sunt argumenta prima, quae inter se 
comparantur." 

Simplex rerum affectio comparatione prius tractanda 
fuit ; hanc enim si removes, comparata omnia aut consen- 
tanea erunt aut dissentanea. Platonis doctrina et 
Xenophontis ante adjuncta utrique erat, quam compa- 
rata. Sunt argumenta prima non orta, eo quod orta, 
ut patebit infra, eandem habent affectionem cum primis 
unde orta sunt; comparata etsi simplicia prius fuere, 
simplicium tamen affectionem non habent. Inter se 
comparantur; nimirum quae sunt ejusdem generis: 
genera autem distributio mox docebit. Nunc proprie- 
tates comparatorum sunt dicendoe. 

" Comparata etsi ipsa comparationis natura aeque 
nota sunt ; attamen alterum altero alicui notius et 
illustrius esse debet." 

Ubi hoc advertendum, non sua sed comparationis na- 
tura dici aeque nota esse comparata. Ita sunt, inquis, 
et relata vi relationis; immo argumenta omnia quae 



878 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



etiam relata sunt. At, inquam, relatio et comparatio 
non sunt idem ; et reliqua argumenta, et si quatenus 
relata sunt notione logica, aeque nota sunt, sua tamen 
nature, prout quaeque est, vel aeque vel non aeque sunt 
manifesta ; dissentanea quidem aeque, consentanea non 
teque, ut jam supra est dictum. Debet autem ei qui- 
cum disputamus comparatorum id quod arguit suana- 
tura et priusquam comparatio instituitur, notius esse 
atque illustrius eo quod arguitur ; aeque enim obscu- 
rum nihil argueret. Unde in signis comparatorum 
usus elucet; quo fit ut inaequalis rerum notitia compa- 
rationis vi aequalis reddatur. Sic consentanea ad pro- 
bandum, dissentanea ad refellendum, comparata ad il- 
lustrandum aptissima sunt. 

" Comparata autem saepe notis brevius indicantur ; 
aliquando partibus distinguuntur, quae propositio red- 
ditioque nominantur." 

Duplex ergo est comparationis forma: altera con- 
tracta, altera explicata. Contracta est quae uno verbo 
concluditur, ut infra cap. 21. Explicata, quae partibus 
distinguitur ; partesque istae propositio et redditio no- 
minantur. Propositio praecedit saepe, et argumentum 
est : redditio saepe sequitur, estque id quod arguitur : 
si secus occurrit, inversio est. Omnis autem forma 
comparationis contracta, suis partibus explicari potest. 

"Atque omnino comparata etiam ficta arguunt 
fidemque faciunt." 

Arguunt scilicet rem veram ; in quo caeteris argu- 
ments prsecellunt ; quae ficta si sunt, rem fictam dun- 
taxat arguunt; ut materia ficta, fictam solis domum. 
At comparata etiam ficta, non sua quidem natura, sed 
comparationis vi, res veras arguunt fidemque faciunt. 

" Comparatio est in quantitate vel qualitate. 

" Quantitas est qua res comparatae quantae dicuntur. 

" Estque parium vel imparium." Non hie loquimur 
de quantitate solum mathematica, quae magnitudinis 
est aut numeri, sed de quantitate logica, quae ratio 
quaelibet sive affectio est, qua res quaecunque inter se 
comparatae quantae, i. e. aequales vel inaequales, pares 
vel impares dici possint. 

"Paria sunt, quorum est una quantitas." 

Sic enim definit Aristoteles, Phil. 8, 15. Quod idem 
Valet acsi diceretur, quorum par ratio est. " Una," i. e. 
eadem, aequalis : unde in plurali numero eodem nomine 
ac definitione explicantur. 

" Argumentum igitur paris est, cum par illustratur k 
pari." 

Ad exempla veniamus ; atque ad ea primum quae in 
forma, ut diximus, contracta notis brevius indicantur. 
Has autem notae pruecipuae sunt " par, aequale, aequare ;" 
ut in his : 



-Par levibus ventis. 



^Eneid. 2. 



Ubi levitas Creusae umbrae comparatur levitati ven- 
torum. 

"Et nunc aequali tecum pubesceret aevo." ^Eneid. 3. 

" En hujus nate auspiciis, ilia inclyta Roma 
Imperium terris, animos aequabit Olympo." ^Eneid. 6. 

His notis aliae sunt affines, " pariter, aeque, aequa- 
litas, aequaliter, perinde, acsi," et id genus alia. 



Sequitur forma explicata: in qua propositio et red- 
ditio distinguuntur, quae in contracta forma erant impli- 
citae. In hac autem forma explicata par quantitas vel 
notis aperte indicatur, vel sine notis mente et ratione 
concipitur: note istae sunt vel propriae parium: vel 
negationes imparium: parium propriae, " idem quod ; 
tam, quam ; tanto, quanto ; tot, quot." In quibus sin- 
gulis notarum paribus prior quaeque redditioni inservit, 
posterior vero propositioni. Catil. 4, " Cujus res gestae 
atque virtutes iisdem, quibus solis cursus, regionibus 
ac terminis coninentur." 

" Tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri." iEneid 4. 

" Tanto pessimus omnium poeta, 

Quanto tu optimus omnium patronus." 

Catullus 4. 

" Littora quot conchas, quot amoena rosarea flores, 
Quotque soporiferum grana papaver habet, &c. 
Tot premor adversis " Ovid. 4. Trist. 

Negationes imparium sunt; vel majoris et minoris 
seorsim vel utriusque simul " non magis, non minus." 
Philippic. 9, " Neque enim ille magis jurisconsultus 
quam justitiae fuit," &c. "Neque constituere litium 
actiones malebat, quam controversias tollere." Ovid. 
2, de Arte. 

" Non minor est virtus, quam qucerere, parta tueri." 

" Utriusque simul" pro Muraena : " paria cognosce 
esse ista in L. Muraena, atque ita paria, ut neque ipse 
dignitate vinci potuerit, neque te dignitate superarit." 
Observandum est autem negationem majoris vel mi- 
noris seorsim non semper esse notam parium : neque 
enim si " servus non est major domino, ergo est aequa- 
lis;" nee si " dominus non est minor servo, ergo par." 

Hactenus cum notis; nunc sine notis haec quae se- 
quuntur. Atque in hoc potissimum genere exemplo- 
rum sine notis, apparet vis eadem arguendi in utram- 
que partem ; adeo ut si unum, alterum quoque sit; si 
non sit unum, neque alterum. Itaque ex uno eorum 
affirmato, alterum affirmatur ; ex negato, negatur : 2 
Philip. " Quorum facinus commune, cur non eorum 
praeda communis?" Ter. in Adel. 

" Quando ego non euro tuum, ne cura meum." 

" Hujus loci," parium nempe sine notis, " sunt con- 
sectaria ilia e contrariis quidem orta, sed parium col- 
latione tractata." Ut ex adversis ista; Cicero pro 
Sylla " neque vero quid mihi irascare intelligere pos- 
sum ; si, quod eura defendo quern tu accusas, cur tibi 
quoque ipse non succenseo, qui accuses eum quem ego 
defendo? Inimicum,inquis, accuso meum: et amicum, 
inquam, ego defendo meum." Sic 5 Tusc. " quod cum 
fateantur, satis magnam vim esse in vitiis ad miseram 
vitam ; nonne fatendum est eandem vim in virtute esse 
ad beatam vitam ? Contraria enim contrariorum sunt 
consequential' 

Quae tamen regula non est perpetuo vera: primo 
nisi collatio sit vere parium : non ergo sequitur, " mala 
opera damnant ; ergo bona justificant." Mala n. 
opera omnino mala, bona imperfecta bona sunt ; ilia 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



879 



nostra, haec non plane nostra. Secundo, sed in iis 
duntaxat paribus, contrarioruni ex loco petitis, quorum 
parium propositio reciprocatur. Quod in relatis qui- 
dem fit frequentissime : ut apud Martialem. 

fi Turn servum scis de genitum, blandeque fateris, 
Cum dicis dominum, Sosibiane, patrem." 

Pater est filii dominus, et filii dominus est pater : 
pariter ergo Alius est patris servus. Sic ex adversis: 
" bonum est appetendum ; pariter erg-o malum est fu- 
giendum." Nempe quia proprie adeoque reciproce, 
omne appetendum est bonum. Et ex privantibus : 
Ovid. 1 Fast. 

" In pretio pretium nunc est, dat census honores, 
Census amicitias : pauper ubique jacet." 

Dives est in pretio, et quisquis est in pretio, est 
dives; erg-o omnis pauper jacet. 

" Quoties autem collationis propositio non reciproca- 
tur, vel quoties uni parium id quasi proprium tribuitur 
quod utrisque commune est, eorum consequentia con- 
traria non sunt, sed saepe eadem." Fallit ergo hoc ex 
relatis : " pater est dives ; erg-o filius est pauper :" quia 
propositio non est reciproca; omnis enim dives non 
est pater. Et hoc etiam ex adversis : " homo est sensu 
praeditus ; bestia ig-itur sensu caret. Homo mortalis ; 
bestia igitur immortalis : " quippe nee sensu preeditum, 
nee mortale est homini proprium; sed utrique contra- 
rio commune, et homini et bestiae. Hoc etiam ex con- 
tradicentibus : " homo est animal ; ergo non homo est 
non animal." Hoc denique ex privantibus : " videns 
vivit ; ergo caecus est mortuus : " vivere enim et videnti 
et caeco commune est. " Non enim idem non dici de 
contrariis, sed contraria de eodem dici non possunt ; 
immo quod suscipit unum contrariorum, suscipit alte- 
rum; et quod unum non suscipit, neque alterum;" ut, 
" in quo est amor, in eo potest esse odium. Quibus 
nullum est jus, iis nulla fit injuria." 

Est et alius parium sine notis modus, " quo interdum 
lacessiti, par pari reponimus." Qualis est Virgil. Eel. 3, 
in ilia pastorum alterna contentione repetitum illud ; 
" Die quib. in terris," &c. Cujusmodi est et illud Mat. 
21, 23, &c. " Qua authoritate facis ista? &c. Intcr- 
rogabo vos ego etiam quiddam : Baptisma Joannis 
unde erat?" Affine est illud Cic. Off. 2, " Cato, cum 
ab eo quaereretur, quid esset fbenerari ? respondit, quid 
hominem occidere." 

Paria vero ficta quorum esse proprium supra dixi- 
mus rem veram arguere, sunt ilia apud Ciceronem, 
Invent. 1, ex iEschine Socratico ; ubi Aspasia cum 
Xenophontis uxore et Xenophonte ipso sic inducitur 
locuta : " die mini, quaeso, Xenophontis uxor, si vicina 
tua melius habeat aurum quam tu habes, utrum illius an 
tuum malis ? Illius, inquit. Et si vestem ? Illius vero 
respondit. Age vero, si virum ilia meliorem, an illius 
malis." Hie mulier erubuit. Comparatio sic se habet : 
si aurum, si vestem vicinse meliorem habere malles 
quam tuam, malle etiam meliorem vicinse virum argue- 
ris. Non dicit vicinam habere aurum aut vestem me- 
liorem, sed fingit aut ponit, eamque si mallet Xeno- 
phontis uxor, arguitur malle virum quoque vicinae si 
'melior sit. 



CAR XIX. 

De Majoribus. 

" Imparia sunt, quorum quantitas non est una." 
" Non una," i. e. non eadem ; quorum par ratio non 
est : contrariorum enim contraria ratio est. 

" Impar est majus vel minus. 

" Majus est cujus quantitas excedit." 

Major autem vel minor quantitas aestimanda est ex 
rerum quae comparantur, elatione vel summissione, ut 
inquit Cic. in Top. i. e. excessu vel defectu ; quae vel 
notis indicantur, vel, si desunt notae, aliis vocibus, quae 
excessum vel defectum significant, intelliguntur. Ex 
eo autem quod supra de logica quantitate diximus, in- 
telligendum est id logice majus quoque esse, cujus non 
solum magnitudo, mensura, aut numerus, sed etiam 
auctoritas, potentia, praestantia, probabilitas, difficultas, 
aut quid hujusmodi majus est; vel brevius, quod qua- 
vis ratione excessum habet, id majus est; idque non 
solum rei ipsius natura, sed vel opinione disserentis. 
Majus igitur est cujus quantitas excedit id quod minus 
est: majus enim hie adhibetur ad arguendum minus. 

Quemadmodum autem parium, ita argumenti a ma- 
jore, forma alia contracta est, quae notis brevius indi- 
catur ; alia explicata, quae partibus plenius distingui- 
tur. 

Contractions formae notae sunt vel nomina compara- 
tiva et superlativa suos casus regentia, vel verba quae- 
dam ; et ea quidem utraque non solum quae excessum 
significant, ut " major, melior, pejor; praestare, supe- 
rare, vincere, excedere, praeferri," cum referuntur ad 
id quod arguit, verum etiam ea cum nomina turn verba 
quae defectum significant, ut " minor, inferior, postha- 
beo, cedo, vincor, superor," si referuntur ad id quod 
arguitur. 

Explicata autem forma nunc est cum notis, nunc sine 
notis. Notae sunt " non solum, sed etiam ;" non, tarn, 
quam, et comparationes, verbaque, ut supra, non modd 
elationem significantia cum particula " quam/' si ea 
particula tribuatur ei semper quod arguitur, sed etiam 
ea quae summissionem significant, si modo particula 
" quam" referatur ad id quod arguit : ut, " minus est 
amicum pulsare, quam patrem." Sed hoc exemplum 
arguit potius a minori quam grave seel us sit pulsare 
patrem, quam a majori non admodum grave esse 
pulsare amicum. Idem de caeteris hujusmodi est di- 
cendum. 

Exemplum primae notae : Cic. pro Muraena : " Tol- 
litur e medio non solum ista verbosa simulatio pruden- 
tiae, sed etiam ilia domina rerum sapientia. Spernitur 
orator non solum odiosus in dicendo aut loquax, ve- 
rum etiam bonus." In hujusmodi exemplis " sed 
etiam" est propositio, et, ut majus, arguit redditionem 
" non solum," ut minus. 

Huic nota affinis est " immo," vel " immo vero." 
Cujusmodi est illud apud Terent. " Thr. Magnas 
vero agere gratias Thais mihi ? Gn. Ingentes. Thr. 
Ain tu? laeta est. Gn. Non tarn ipso quidem dono, 



880 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



quam abs te datum esse : id vero serio triumphat." 
Hie facile intelligitur " immo ingentes" et " immo id 
serio triumphat." Ingentes gratiae arguunt magnas; 
et triumphare, laetam esse. Sic Catil. 1 : " Hie tamen 
vivit, vivit ? immo vero in senatum venit." Et illud 
Ver. 3: " Non furem, sed raptorem ; non adulterum, 
sed expugnatorem pudicitias," &c. 

Exemplum secundae notae, comparativorum scilicet 
et verborum cum particula " quam," est ex Cic. pro 
Marcello : " Plus admirationishabitura, quam gloriae." 
Sed ambiguum : aut enim plus admirationis arguit 
minus gloriae, et sic argumentum est a majori, aut 
minor gloria si magna sit, arguit maximam admira- 
tionem. 

Verborum elationem significantium cum particula 
"quam" exemplum hoc erit ; " mendicare praestat, 
quam furari." Hie mendicare, quanquam inhonestum, 
ut magis tamen et potius faciendum, arguit multo 
minus esse furandum. 

" Sic malo illud," scilicet quod arguit, " quam hoc," 
scilicet quod arguitur: ut Juvenal Satyra 8, adversus 
gloriosum nobilem : 

" Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, dummodo tu sis 
yEacidae similis, Vulcaniaque arma capessas, 
Quam te Thersitae similem producat Achilles." 

Quod malit ignobilem fortem, quod tamen non est 
ita optandum, ex eo arguit atque ostendit a majori sive 
a potiori quam minime velit nobilem ignavum. Caesar : 
" Malo modestiam in milite, quam virtutem." Mo- 
destia, judicio Caesaris, praestantior et major, arguit 
virtutem sive fortitudinem in milite minus esse quam 
modestia requirendam: vel potius a minori exaggerat 
modestiae laudem in milite prae virtutis laude. 

" Sequitur majorum tractatio sine notis." 

Atque in hoc solum genere id majus est cujus pro- 
babilitas aut difficultas est major. Hie etiam logici 
regulas consequentiae tradere solent non solum ne- 
gando, ut vult Aristot. Rhet. 2, 23, verum etiam affir- 
mando, pro quantitatis diversa vi et consideratione, in 
exemplis diversis: ejusdem enim exempli una tantum 
ratio est. Si majus est probabilius, duntaxat negando, 
in hunc modum: "quod non valet in majore, non 
valebit in minore." Si majus est difficilius aut incre- 
dibilius, duntaxat affirmando : "quod in re majore 
valet, valet in minore," ut inquit Cic. in Top. Hujus 
exemplum est iEneid. 1 : 

" O socii (neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum) 
O passi graviora! dabitdeushis quoque finem." 

Si gravioribus malis dedit deus finem, dabit his 
certe. Sic Cic. pro Muraena : " Noli tarn esse injus- 
tus, ut cum tui fontes vel inimicis tuis pateant, nostros 
rivulos etiam amicis putes clausos esse oportere." 

" Ficta etiam majora idem valent in suis consequen- 
liis vel refutandis vel probandis." 

Refutandi exemplum est Terent. Heaut. 



Satrapas si net 



Amator, nunquam sufFerre ejus sumtus queat : 
Nedum tu possis :"— quasi diceret, finge satrapam esse. 



Et iEneid. 5 : 
" Magnanime ^Enea, non si mihi Jupiter auctor 
Spondeat, hoc sperem Italiam contingere ccelo : 
Mutati transversa fremunt, &c. 
Nee nos.obniti contra, nee tendere tantum 
Sufficimus :" — i. e. multo nunc minus Jove non spondente. 



CAP. XX. 



De Minoribus. 



Majus et minus inter se affecta et relata sunt : adeo- 
que unius definitionem qui norit, norit alterius. 

Ut igitur majus est cujus quantitas excedit, "ita 
minus est cujus quantitas exceditur." Quantitas au- 
tem ut majoris erat in qualibet rerum elatione sive ex- 
cessu, ita nunc minoris est in qualibet rerum summis- 
sione sive defectu. Sententiarum enim minor probabi- 
litas aut difficultas locum non habet, nisi in minorum 
forma explicata ; quod ex majorum quoque explicata 
forma intelligi potest. Minus igitur est cujus quan- 
titas exceditur a majore : argumentum itaque a minore 
est, cum id quod minus est, adhibetur ad arguendum 
id quod est majus. 

Minora etiam vel brevius indicantur notis, vel ple- 
nius distinguuntur partibus. Hujus utriusque formae 
vel propriae sunt minorum notae, vel negationes parium. 

Propriae notae contractioris formae sunt primum, vo- 
ces comparativae grammaticae, cum nomina turn verba, 
elationem utraque significantia, si modo attribuantur 
ei quod arguitur. Ovid. 2 de Trist. " Saevior es tristi 
Busiride." Hie minor saevitia Busiridis arguit majo- 
rem illius in quern poeta invehitur. " Praestat sapientia 
divitiis." " Saevior" et "praestat" elationem signifi- 
cant, et notae sunt majoris ; sed quia tribuuntur ei quod 
arguitur, argumentum utrobique est a minori. Atque 
hoc sedulo advertendum est, ut argumentum majoris a 
minori dijudicare possis : majora enim et minora, con- 
tracts praesertim formae, easdem plerumque notas prae 
se ferunt ; idemque exemplum utramvis in partem vel 
a majori vel a minori arguere potest: ut, " saevior es 
tristi Busiride." Hoc si ad saevitiam cujusvisexagge- 
randam dicatur, ut hoc loco, a minori est: si ad Busi- 
ridis extenuandam, a majori. Si igitur ilia quae elati- 
onem significant, referantur ad id quod arguitur, sunt 
ilia quidem notae majoris, argumentum autem est a mi- 
nori; quoniam majus, cujus ilia notae sunt, est id quod 
arguitur: sin ilia quae summissionem significant, re- 
feruntur ad id quod arguitur, sunt ilia quidem notae 
minoris, sed argumentum est a majori ; quoniam id 
quod arguitur, minus est. 

Secundo, comparationes grammaticae verbaque sum- 
missionem significantia, ut minor, inferior, &c. Post- 
habeo, postpono, cedo, vincor, superor, &c. Si modo 
ad id quod arguit, referatur : ut " cedant arma togae." 
Hie togae dignitas arguitur a minori armorum digni- 
tate, quae cedit. 

Atque hae sunt notae affirmantes contractae formae: 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



881 



quibus annumerandae sunt etiam istae formulae, quae 
fiunt negatione parium. Philip. 9, " Omnes ex omni 
setate, qui in hac civitate intelligentiam juris habue- 
runt, si unum in locum conferantur, cum S. Sulpitio 
non sunt conferendi," i. e. non sequandi, quae nota pa- 
rium fuit. Hactenus contracta forma. 

Explicata forma vel cum notis est, vel sine notis. 
Propriae notae sunt primo, " non modo non, sed ne." 
Cic. 2, Catil. " Nemo non modo Rom&e, sed ne ullo 
in angulo totius Italiae oppressus osre alieno fuit, quern 
non ad hoc incredibile sceleris feedus asciverit." Hie 
posterior nota " sed ne," est propositionis, et nota mi- 
noris ; arguitque " non modo non," quae redditionis est, 
et nota majoris, quod arguitur. Ne ullo in angulo Ita- 
liae non fecit, quod minus utile sibi erat, non modo non 
igitur vel multo magis Romae fecit, quod majus erat, 
vel sibi magis utile. Pro Fonteio : " Non modo nul- 
lum facinus hujus protulerunt, sed ne dictum quidem 
aliquod reprehenderent." Ne minus quidem fece- 
runt ut dictum aliquod reprehenderunt, quae propo- 
situs est et arguit non modo non majus, i. e. ergo 
non majus, ut facinus aliquod proferrent, quae redditio 
est, et arguitur. 

Verum in hujus notae exemplis propositionis nota 
" sed ne," aliquando omittitur. Ad Lent. " Nullum 
meum minimum dictum, non modo factum pro Caesare 
intercessit," i. e. nullum non modo factum, sed ne dic- 
tum quidem. Huic notae affinis est ilia formula, " tan- 
tum abest ab hoc, ut ne illud quidem." Pro Marcello : 
" Tantum abes a perfectione maximorum operum, ut 
fundamenta, quae cogitas, nondum jeceris." Ne hoc 
quidem fecisti quod minus est, abes ergo longe ab illo 
quod est majus. 

Secundae notae sunt comparationes grammaticae et 
verba quaedam cum particula " quam," quae vel elatio- 
nem significant, ut " potius hoc quam illud, raalo hoc 
quam illud," vel summissionem, ut " minor, inferior," 
itaut " quam" utrobique referatur ad id quod arguitur. 
Catil. 1, " Ut exul potius tentare, quam consul vexare 
remp. possis." Quod potius erat Ciceroni ut exul ten- 
taret remp. quam consul vexaret, illud ut minus malum 
arguit hoc esse majus. Hie comparatio grammatica 
"potius," ad id quod arguit, refertur, nempe ad minus 
malum ; particula " quam" ad id refertur quod arguitur, 
nempe ad majus malum ; " Sic maluit Metellus de re- 
pub, quam de sententia sua dimoveri." Hie " maluit," 
verbum elationis, refertur ad id quod arguit, nempe ad 
minus malum, judicio Metelli, de rep. dimoveri; par- 
ticula " quam" ad id refertur quod majus malum argu- 
itur, dimoveri de sententia. Sic in iis notis quae sum- 
missionem significant, particula " quam " refertur 
semper ad majus quod arguitur, non secus atque in iis 
quae significant elationem : ut, " minus est accipere, 
quam dare ; inferior est Caesar quam Scipio." 

His notis affinis est, " antequam," i. e. potius quam. 
Pro Milone : " Utinam Clodius dictator esset, ante- 
quam hoc spectaculum viderem." 

Tertia nota est " ciim turn :" 1 Agr. " quae ciim om- 
nib. est difficilis et magna ratio, turn vero mihi praeter 
caeteros." 

Sequuntur negationes parium in hac forma explicata. 



" Non tam, quam." Catil. 2, " Quanquam illi qui 
Catilinam Massiliam ire dictitant, non tam haec que- 
runtur, quam verentur." Sic "non tot, quot:" pro 
Muraena ; " Quod enim fretum, quem Euripum tot 
motus, tantas, tam varias habere putatis agitationes 
fluctuum ; quantas perturbationes et quantos aestus 
habet ratio comitiorum ?" In hoc exemplo interrogatio 
fortius negat paria. 

Nunc ad exempla formae sine notis explicatas venia- 
mus. Cic. Off. 1, "Ergo histrio hoc videbit in scena, 
non videbit sapiens in vita." Atque hinc etiam conse- 
quentiae ducuntur non solum affirmando et probando, ut 
vult Arist. Rhet. 2, 23, et Cic. in Top. sed etiam negan- 
do et refutando : si quidem hoc de exemplo non eodem 
intelligitur : sin de eodem, turn quidem vel solum affir- 
mando, vel solum negando recte proceditur. Affirmandi 
exemplum est Ovid. 1 de Remed. 

"Ut corpus redimas ferrum patieris et ignes, &c. 
Ut valeas anirao quicquam tolerare negabis?" 

Si corporis causa, multo magis animi quidvis tolera- 
bis ; animus enim dignior. Item pro Archia : " Bestiae 
saepe immanes cantu flectuntur : nos non poetarum 
voce moveamur ?" Sic illud Mat. 6, 26, " Passeres curat 
Deus ; multo magis ergo homines." At negando, nulla 
ex his consequentia deducitur: non ergo sequitur, " si 
corporis causa quicquam non tolerabis, ergo nunc 
animi ;" et sic de caeteris. Recte igitur, si hoc modo 
intelligitur Aristoteles, a minore ad majus affirmando 
solum proceditur. Verum exempla non desunt, in 
quib. a minore arguitur etiam solum negando : cujus- 
modi est illud supra citatum, pro Marcello ; " funda- 
menta nondum jecisti, certe ergo non perfecisti." Nee 
tamen idem affirmando ; " fundamenta jecisti, ergo 
perfecisti." Hie modo cavendum est, ne ponatur nega- 
tio quee affirmationi aequipolleat : ut, " Deus non neg* 
ligit passeres," idem est quod " curat." Sic enim 
utriusque consequentiae idem exemplum prout sententia 
eadem vel affirmando vel negando variatur, dari posset : 
ut, " si fures plectendi, multo magis sacrilegi. Si 
furib. non parcendum, multo minus sacrilegis." Hie 
" plectere" et " non parcere" idem est ; et minus sit nota 
majoris : non igitur notae, sed rerum elatio vel summis- 
sio majus vel minus efficit. Atque haec de consequen- 
tiis minorum sine notis. 

Veriim eaedem consequentiae ducuntur ab explicata 
forma, quae etiam cum notis est, ut ex iis exemplis quae 
supra ponuntur, intelligas licet. In hac forma expli- 
cata sine notis est ubi occurrit minorum quaedam gra- 
datio : ut Ver. 7, " Facinus est vincere civem Roma- 
num ; scelus verberare ; prope parricidium necare : 
quid dicam in crucem tollere?" 

Finguntur etiam minora: Virgil. Eel. 1. 

" Ante leves ergo pascentur in sethere cervi, &c. 
Quam nostro illius labatur pectore vultus." 

Philip. 2, " Si inter coenam in tuis immanibus illis 
poculis hoc tibi accidisset, quis non turpe duceret? In 
coetu vero populi R. negotium publicum gerens, ma- 
gister equitum," &c. 



882 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTTTUTIO, 



CAP. XXI. 

De Similibus. 

Hactenus comparatio in quantitate fuit. Sequitur 
" comparatio in qualitate, qua res comparatae quales 
dicuntur." 

Qualitas enim logica non solum est habitus, aut dis- 
positio, aut potentia, vel impotentia naturalis, aut de- 
nique figura aut forma exterior, quae Aristot. species 
qualitatis sunt, et in aliis artibus tractandae, sed est 
affectio quaelibet sive ratio, qua res inter se comparatae 
quales, nempe similes aut dissimiles dicuntur. Nulla 
autem res est, quae si alteri qualitate conferatur, non 
sit ei similis vel dissimilis. 

" Simiiia sunt quorum eadem est qualitas." 

Sic enim definit Aristoteles, Phil. 8, 15, et Boethius, 
1. 2, in Cic. Top. " similitudo," inquit, " est unitas qua- 
litatis." Argumeutum igitur similitudinis est, quando 
simile explicatur a simili. Magna quidem est affinitas 
parium cum similibus ; verum ut ex definitionibus 
eorum perspicere licet, in hoc maxime differunt, quod 
paria non admittunt elationem aut summissionem, si- 
miiia admittunt: possunt enim etiam simillima majora 
esse vel minora ; quod paria non possunt. 

Similitudo proportio dicitur, Greece fere " analogia;" 
et simiiia proportionalia, Greece " analoga." Proportio 
autem nihil aliud est quam duarum rationum similitudo; 
ratio autem est duorum inter se terminorum sive rerum 
collatio. * Monendum autem est simiiia sive contracts 
forniae sive explicatae urgenda non esse ultra earn qua- 
litatem quam in utrisque eandem esse propositum assi- 
milanti erat ostendere : sic magistratus assimilatur cani, 
sola nimirum fidelitate custodiae : unde ilia in scholis, 
" nullum simile est idem, simile non currit quatuor 
pedibus, omne simile claudicat." 

Simiiia nunc notis brevius indicantur, nunc partibus 
plenius distinguuntur; hoc enim comparatis omnibus 
commune est. Notae similitudinis contractae " quae uno 
verbo concluditur," sunt vel similium propriae vel dis- 
similium negationes. Propriae similium sunt vel no- 
mina, ut "similis, effigies, imago, more, ritu, instar, in 
modum ;" vel adverbia, " tanquam, veluti, quasi, sicu- 
ti ;" vel verba, " imitari, referre," &c. 1 iEneid. " Os 
humerosque deo similis." Philip. 9, " Quanquam nul- 
lum monumentum clarius Servius Sulpitius relinquere 
potuit, quam effigiem morum suorum, virtutis, constan- 
tiae, pietatis, ingenii, filium." 1 Trist. 

" Namque ea vel nemo, vel qui mihi vulnera fecit, 
Solus Achilleo tollere more potest." 

In Pis. " Unus ille dies mihi quidem instar immor- 
talitatis fuit, quo in patriam redii." Verr. 1, " Sed re- 
pente e vestigio ex homine, tanquam aliquo poculo 
Circaeo, factus est Verres." Pro lege Manil. " Itaque 
omnes quidem nunc in his locis En. Pompeium, sicut 
aliquem, non ex hac urbe missum, sed de ccelo delap- 
sum intuentur." Negationes dissimilium sunt, " haud 
secus, non alitor, non absimilis," &c. ^Eneid. 3, " Haud 



secus ac jussi faciunt." Terent. in Phor. " Ego isti 
nihilo sum aliter, ac sui." 

Ad contractam similitudinis formam pertinet etiam 
metaphora: metaphora enim, ut docent rhetores, est ad 
unum verbum contracta similitudo sine notis quidem, 
quae tamen intelliguntur. Pro Sest. " Cujus ego pa- 
trem deum atque parentem statuo fortunae nominisque 
mei," i. e. " tanquam deum." 

" Similitudinis partes deinceps explicantur, et qui- 
dem disjuncte vel continue. 

" Similitudo disjuncta est, quando termini" sive res 
" quatuor reipsa distinguuntur," i. e. quando duo ter- 
mini sive res distinctae in propositione comparantur 
duobus terminis sive rebus distinctis in redditione. 
Occurrit autem haec forma et cum notis et sine notis. 
Notae sunt, " qualis, talis ;" ilia propositions, haec 
redditionis nota est. Ita " quemadmodum, ut, sicut," 
propositionis ; quibus respondent, " sic, eodem modo, 
similiter," redditionis. Eel. 5, 

" Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, 
Quale sopor fessisin gramine." 

Carmen ad auditorem, ut sopor ad fessum, termini 
quatuor distincta sunt. Ad Frat. 1," Quemadmodum 
gubernatores optimi vim tempestatis, sic sapientissimi 
viri fortunae impetum persaepe superare non possunt." 
Hie quatuor sunt item termini, ut gubernator ad tem- 
pestatem, sic sapiens ad fortunam. 1 Trist. 

u Scilicet ut fulvum spectatur in ignibus aurum, 
Tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides." 

Cicero 2 Phil. " Sed nimirum ut quidam morbo et 
sensus stupore suavitatem cibi non sentiunt ; sic libi- 
dinosi, avari, facinorosi, verae laudis gustum non ha- 
bent." In vita Virgil. 

" Hos ergo versiculos, feci, tulit alter honores : 
Sic vos non vobis nidifkatis aves : 
Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes :" &c. 

In hoc exemplo redditio sine nota praecedit. Par- 
ticula autem " sic," quae nota solet esse redditionis, hie 
propositioni attribuitur. 

" Aliquando nulla prorsus est nota." Virg. Ecloga 2, 

" O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori. 

Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur." 

" Continua similitudo est, quando est ut primus ter- 
minus ad secundum, ita secundus ad tertium." Leg. 3. 
" Ut magistratibus leges, ita populo praesunt magis- 
tratus." Hie termini sunt tres; lex, magistratus, po- 
pulus. Sed medius bis adhibetur, et in omni propor- 
tione continua continuatur; estque posterior terminus 
propositionis, prior redditionis. In omni enim pro- 
portione termini esse debent ad minimum quatuor. 
Ordo hujus sic est : ut leges magistratibus, ita magis- 
tratus populo praesunt. 

Quanquam autem simiiia magis ad illustrandum 
quam ad probandum accommodata sunt, et Plato in 
Phaedone, " Ego," inquit, "sermones qui ex similibus 
demonstrationes sumunt, probe novi ad ostentationem 
comparatos esse ; et nisi quis caveat ab iis, facile im- 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



883 



ponunt," quod ad regulas tamen consequentiarum atti- 
liet, ex definitione similium perspicitur, similium 
similem esse rationem ; valere igitur similia in utram- 
que partem. Unde Aristot. Top. 24, " Quod in aliquo 
simili valet, in aliis quoque similibus valebit ; et quod 
non in aliquo, nee in caeteris." 

Quoniam autem similitudo non solum est proposi- 
tionis et redditionis, sed terminorum etiam inter se. 
Idcirco si quaedam similia sunt, inverse quoque similia 
erunt, et alterne. Et inverse quidem duobus modis ; 
inversione scilicet vel propositionis et redditionis quae 
aliorum comparatorum communis est; vel terminorum, 
quae videtur similium propria. Exempli gratia ; ut 
gubernator ad tempestatem, sic sapiens ad fortunam : 
inverse ergo ; ut sapiens ad fortunam, sic gubernator 
ad tempestatem. Haec propositionis et redditionis 
inversio est. Rursus, ut tempestas ad gubernatorem, 
sic fortuna ad sapientem : haec inversio est terminorum. 
Alternatio est quando antecedens propositionis antece- 
denti redditionis et consequens consequenti compara- 
tor. Regula ergo hie est; si quaedam similia fuerint, 
alterne similia erunt. Ut gubernator ad tempestatem, 
sic sapiens ad fortunam : ergo, alterne ; ut gubernator 
ad sapientem, sic tempestas ad fortunam. Inversio- 
num hujusmodi et alternationum in mathematicis pro- 
portionibus usus maximus est : sed proportio non ma- 
thematica solum, verum etiam logica est, ut supradixi- 
mus, rerum omnium communis; ejus ergo regulae non 
erant hie omittendae. 

Ficta similitudo parem vim habet superioribus illis, 
sed prsecipue in hac explicata similitudine iEsopici 
apologi excellunt. 

Horat. 1 Epist. 

" Quod si me populus Romanus forte roget, cur 
Non ut porticibus, sic judiciis fruar iisdem? 
Nee sequar aut fugiam quae deligit ipse vel odit 1 
Olim quod vulpes eegroto cauta leoni 
Respondit, referam : quia me vestigia terrent 
Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum." 

Hue etiam refertur parabola Socratica vulga dicta : 
quae est inductio similium interrogationib. fere con- 
stans. "Ilia autem," inquit Fabius, "hanc habuit 
vim ; ut cum plura interrogasset Socrates, quae fateri 
adversario necesse esset, novissime id, de quo quasre- 
batur, inferret, cui simile adversarius concessisset." 
Vide pag. 882, ad * 



CAP. XXII. 

De Similibus. 

Hactenus similia, quorum qualitas est eadem. " Dis- 
similia sunt comparata, quorum qualitas est diversa." 

Contrariorum enim eadem scientia est. Et Cic. in 
Top. " ejusdem est," inquit, " dissimile et simile inve- 
nire." In hoc differunt dissimilia a diversis, quod dis- 
similitudo sit differentia comparata, et non idem, eodem 
saltern tempore, sed diversis plerumque subjectis attri- 
buatur. Itaque diversorum uno negato, alterum affir- 
3 L 



matur; dissimilia, sive diversa sive opposita, simul 
affirmari aut negari possunt. Diversa autem qualitas 
est non eadem ; sive diversa sit sive opposita : quasi 
dicas dissimilium dissimilis est ratio. Argumentum 
igitur dissimilitudinis est quando dissimile arguitur a 
dissimili. 

Contractae dissimilitudinis notae sunt " dissimile, 
dispar, differens, aliud, secus :" Pro Plane. " Dissi- 
milis est debitio pecuniae et gratiae." Ennius : " O 
domus antiqua, heu quam dispari dominare domino." 
Dispar autem est non impar, sed dissimilis. Caesar 
1 Bell. Gal. " Hi omnes lingua, institutis,legibus inter 
se differunt." 2 Agrar. " Alio vultu, alio vocis sono, 
alio incessu esse meditabatur." Cic. 2 Nat. " Quoniam 
ccepi secus agere, atque initio dixeram." 

Dissimilitudinis notae etiam sunt per negationem si- 
milium, " ut non similis, non talis, non idem, non tan- 
quam," &c. 3 de Orat. " Non est philosophia similis 
artium reliquarum." 2 Eneid. 

"At non ille, satum quo te mentiris, Achilles, 
Talis in hoste fuit Priamo." 

Horat. 1 Epist. " Non eadem est setas, non mens." 
1 ad Frat. " Sit annulus tuus, non tanquam vas ali- 
quod, sed tanquam ipse tu." Hoc argumento pastor 
ille errorem suum confitetur. Eclog. 1, 

" Urbem (quam dicunt Romam) Melibcee, putavi, 
Stultus ego huic nostra: similem." 

Et mox, 

" Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus hcedos 
Noram, sic parvis componere magna solebam." 

Ut nee canibus catuli, nee matribus hoedi, sic nee 
Mantua Romae similis est. In hoc exemplo errons 
confessio pro negatione similium est. 

Explicata dissimilitudo itidem cum notis est vel sine 
notis. Notae sunt hie etiam negationes similium. 3 
Philip. " Certus dies non ut sacrificii sic consilii ex- 
pectari solet." 

" Nota plerumque nulla est, cum dissimilitudo plenius 
explicatur." 

Quintil. 1. 5, c. 11, "Brutus occidit liberos prodi- 
tionem molientes. Manlius virtutem filii morte mulc- 
tavit." 

Catullus. 

" Soles occidere et redire possunt : 
Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, 
Nox est perpetua una dormienda." 

Dissimilitudo est diei et vitae nostras. R^edditio est 
vitam semel amissam non restitui. Illustratur a dissi- 
mili, quae propositio est, soles occidere et redire possunt. 



CAP. XXIII. 
De Conjugates. 

Hactenus prima argumenta sunt exposita: 
tria genera fuere; consentanea, dissentanea, 
parata. 



quorum 
et com- 



884 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



Sequuntur " orta de primis; quae ad id quod arguunt 
perinde sunt ut prima uude oriuntur: ut conjugata et 
uotatio, distriburio et definitio." 

In se itaque habent vim argueudi ut argumenta arti- 
ficialia, et eandem quidem cum iis unde oriuntur: non 
autem a se, quia non prima, ut in capite secundo jam 
dictum est. Definitionem autem vix aliam requirunt 
praeter ipsum nomen, quod naturam eorum satis per se 
explicat : unde illud consectarium, " Orta argumenta 
perinde esse ad id quod arguunt, ut sunt prima unde 
oriuntur." 

Quatuor has species ortorum, in duo genera, anonyma 
licet, distinguuntur, cum propter dichotomiae studium, 
turn quia conjugata et notatio sub eodem genere con- 
tinentur, propter illam quae inter ea intercedit commu- 
nionem. Cicero itaque in Top. locum ex conjugatis 
notationi finitimum esse dixit. Et in multis exemplis 
conjugata a notatione et nomine nihil aut parum diffe- 
runt. Communio autem ilia duplex est : primo quod 
sunt argumenta nominalia sive a nomine petita. Sed 
in hoc differunt, ut etiam tradit Boet. 1. 4, in Top. Cic, 
quod notatio expositione nominis, conjugatio similitu- 
dine vocabuli ac derivatione perficitur. Neque idcirco 
ad grammaticam pertinent : ex vi enim nominum argu- 
menta petere, log-ici est, non grammatici. Secunda 
communio est, quod sunt orta simplicia: neque enim 
ex pluribus primis simul conjunctis, sed ex uno aliquo 
argumento primo singula eorum exempla oriuntur, nisi 
in nominibus compositis : compositorum enim nominum 
composita interdum ex pluribus argumentis notatio est. 
Distvibutio autem et definitio sunt argumenta realia, 
i. e. in rerum explicatione versari solent, et composita, 
i. e. ex pluribus argumentis primis simul conjunctis 
origiuem suam trahunt. Si ergo ortorum genera, 
quae anonyma esse diximus, nominibus distinguere 
lubet, orta erunt vel nominalia et simplicia, ut conju- 
gata et notatio, vel realia et composita, ut distributio 
et definitio : nisi hoc forte excipiamus, quod definitio 
ex uno primo, i. e. ex sola forma nonnunquam constare 
potest. Ex his autem duobus generibus prius tractan- 
dum est illud cui conjugata et notatio subjiciuntur, 
quia fere simplicius est. Atque in hoc genere conju- 
gata priorem sibi locum vendicant, quod ex solis con- 
sentaneis oriantur, cum notatio ex quovis argumento 
primo petatur. Fabius 1. 5, c. 10, conjugata nihili fa- 
cit: Aristoteles autem et Cicero in Topicis suis aliter 
sentiunt; quorum ille 1. 3, c. 4, et 1. 7, c. 2, locos ex 
dissentaneis, conjugatis et casibus plurimum ait valere; 
et ad plurima esse utiles. 

" Conj ugata sunt nomina ab eodem principio varie de- 
ducta. Utjustitia, Justus, juste." Aristoteles et Cicero 
conjugata, ille, nomina ejusdem conjugationis ; hie, 
ejusdem generis esse definiunt : sed neque ille quasi ju- 
gum ipsum conjugatoruni, neque hie genus, neque nos- 
ter prineipium ipsum sive originern et thema conjuga- 
torum numero excludit. Conjugata autem sunt omnia 
non solum nomina tarn substantia quam adjectiva, sed 
etiam verba, et, quae Aristoteles casus vocat, adverbia, 
curn paronuma, i. e. derivata, turn ipsa themata, serva- 
tis tamen istis conditionibus. 1. Si ut idem sonant, sic 
idem etiam significant. 2. Si in eadem significations 



ratione sumantur. Nam si unum significat potentiam 
sive facultatem aut habitum, alterum vero actum, etex 
potentiasive habitu arguatur actus, aut contra, captio est. 
3. Si in iis symbolum sit consentaneorum argumen- 
torum, i. e. si a consentaneis orta sunt : quorum vim et 
affectionem in arguendo aliis nominibus iisque conju- 
gatis referant : quorum etiam ad inventionem nomina- 
lis hujusque conjugationis indicio ducamur : unde 
elucet non contemnendus hujus loci usus, praesertim in 
definitionibus. 

Sequuntur exempla; ut justitia, Justus, juste. Cu~ 
jusmodi in exemplis observandum est, abstractum quod 
vocant, causam esse concreti, et concretum adverbii. 
Ut justitia est causa, cur aliquis sit Justus: et quia 
Justus est, idcirco juste* agit. Quod tamen non est 
ubique verum : sanum enim, i. e. quod efficit aut con- 
servat sanitatem, causa est sanitatis, concretum scilicet 
abstracti, ut notat Aristot. top. 2, 3, Propert. lib. 2, 

" Libertas quoniam nulli jam restat amanti, 
Nullus liber erit, siquis amare velit." 

Hie libertas, quae causa est cur sis liber, quia non 
restat, ergo nullus, &c. Cicero 3, de Nat. Deor. cum 
de Dionysio tj^ranno loquitur : " Jam mensas argenteas 
de omnibus delubris jussit auferri, in quibus quod more 
veteris Graecise inscriptum esset bonorum deorum, uti 
eorum bonitate velle se dicebat : dii boni sunt : eorum 
igitur bonitate est utendum." Hie ex eflfectis ad causas 
est disputatum; ut vult Ramus : utmihi quidem vide- 
tur a causis ad erTecta. Terent. " Homo sum, humani 
a me nihil alienum puto." Ex subjecto est ad adjunc- 
tum. In Pison. " Cum esset omnis ilia causa consula- 
ris et senatoria, auxilio mihi opus fuerat et consulis et 
senatus." Ex adjunctis est ad subjectum. Phil. 2, " Non 
tractabo ut consulem, ne ille quidem me ut consularem." 
Ex efFecto est ad causam : nam esse consulem causa est 
ut quis postea sit consularis : unde sic arguitur; non 
agnoscit is in me effectum, non agnoscam ergo in eo 
causam. Notandum est nonnulla sensu duntaxat, non 
sono esse conjugata : ut "somnus, dormiens; morbus, 
aeger." 



CAP. XXIV. 



De Notatione. 



" Notatio est nominis interpretatio," i. e. reddita 
ratio cur quidvis ita nominatum sit. Definitio autem 
haec est " Boethii, 1. 1, in Cic. Top. Notatio inquit Cic. 
in Top. Graecis etymologia dicitur," i. e. verbum ex 
verbo veroloquium : "nos autem novitatem verbi non 
satis apti fugientes, genus hoc notationem appellamus, 
quia sunt verba rerum notce." Haec ille. Ex iis igitur 
quae supradicta sunt, intelligi potest, notationem esse 
argumentum ortum adedque symbolum alicujus primi; 
esse nominale, i. e. ut Cicero loquitur, argumentum ex 
vi nominis elicitum. 

" Quippe nomina sunt notae rerum et cujuslibet 
nominis vel derivati vel compositi, siquidem notatione 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



885 



vera nomen inditum fuit, ratio reddi potest ex aliquo 
argumento primo." 

" Ut homo ab humo." Haec a materia est notatio. 
Sed linguae, cum prima ilia quam Adamus in Edene, 
turn illae variae atque a prima fortassis ortae, quas con- 
ditores turris Babelicae subito acceperunt, divinitus 
proculdubio datae sunt ; unde vocum primitivarum ratio 
si ignoretur, mirum non est : quae autem voces derivatce 
sunt aut composite, vel earum origines ex aliis linguis 
antiquis jamque obsoletis petendae sunt, vel ipsse vetus- 
tate aut infimae plebis inquinata ferepronuntiatione ita 
immutatae, mendose etiam scribendi consuetudine ita 
quasi obliteratae, ut vera vocum notatio raro admodum 
teneatur. Unde argumentum a notatione, nisi ea forte 
manifestissima sit, fallax admodum et ssepe ludicrum 
est. 

Nunc reliqua exempla videamus. Ovid. 6 Fast. 

" Stat vi terra sua ; vi stando Vesta vocatur." 

Terra dicitur Vesta ab effecto suo naturali, propterea 
quod vi sua stat. 

" At locus a flammis et quod fovet omnia dictus." 

Ex effectis est notatio. Item Verr. 4, " verrea 
praeclara! Quo enim accessisti, quo non attuleris tecum 
istum diem ? Etenim quam tu domum, quam urbem 
adiisti, quod fanum denique, quod non eversum atque 
extersum reliqueris ? Quare appellantur sane ista Ver- 
rea, quae non ex nomine, sed ex moribus naturaque 
tua constituta esse videantur." Ex effectis item est 
notatio. Ovid. 1 Fast. 

" Prima dies tibi, Carna, datur, dea cardinis hsec est. 
Numineclausa aperit, cl audit aperta suo." 

Notatio haec e subjecto est, cardine scilicet, in quo 
rersando dea ilia exercebatur. Hinc ilia cavillatio in 
Antonium generum : " Tuae conjugis, bonae foeminae, 
locupletis quidem certe, Bambalio quidem pater, homo 
nullo numero, nihil illo contemptius; qui propter haesi- 
tantiam linguae stuporemque cordis, cognomen ex 
contumelia traxerit." Ex adjunctis est notatio haec 
Bambalionis, quia balbus et stupidus. E dissentaneis 
autem sunt ilia apud Quintil. 1. 1, c. 6. " Lucus, quia 
umbra opacus parum luceat: et ludus, quia sit longis- 
sime a lusu : et dis quia minime dives." Est etiam e 
comparatis notatio pyropi, quod ignis quondam speciem 
praebeat. 

Atque hactenus de notatione: nunc aliquid de no- 
mine adjiciendum est. " Est enim ut notationi ad 
suum nomen, sic nomini ad notationem sua affectio : " 
'Hoc est, ut notatio arguit nomen, sic nomen vicissim 
arguit notationem. Ut animi plenus, ergo animosus; 
et contra, auimosus, ergo animi plenus. Nam et no- 
men quoque ortum argumentum est; ex quo autem 
fonte oriatur, notatio declarat. Haec autem appendi- 
cule de nomine idcirco est adjecta, quia cum alia argu- 
menta inter se affecta, quot quidem eodem nomine ac 
definitione non sunt comprehensa, sua seorsum capita 
sibi habuerint, et tantillum esset quod de nomine di- 
cendum erat, non videbatur caput novum ob id esse 
instituendum. In hoc igitur capite duo loci inventi- 



onis contmentur, notationis et nominis : inter quos si 
comparatio fiat, potior videtur nominis. Unde tota 
haec categoria ab Aristotele " locus a nomine" dicitur. 
Saepiusque et firmius a nomine quam a notatione argu- 
mentum ducitur; ut homo est, ergo ex humo; focus 
est, ergo fovet. At non eadem vi argumentum a no- 
tatione deducitur; ex humo est, homo igitur; fovet 
omnia, ergo focus est. 



CAP. XXV. 

De Distributione. 

Reliqtjum est ex ortis aliunde argumentis argu- 
mentum distributionis et definitionis. 

" In qua utraque affectio reciprocationis est, illic 
partium omnium cum toto, hie definitionis cum defi- 
nito." 

Reciprocatio autem hoc loco est qua prorsus idem, 
eademque, ut ita dicam, essentia utrinque significatur: 
nam partes omnes simul sumptae, i. e. rite composites, 
idem sunt quod totum, et definitio idem, quod defini- 
tum; quod de nullo praeterea genere argumentorum 
dici potest. Unde nascitur heec regula utrique huic 
argumento communis, utin distributione ac definitione 
" nequid desit, nequid redundet :" nam ubi reciproca- 
tio, ibi quoque aequalitas requiritur. Hinc eximia ilia 
distributionis et definitionis laus effloruit ; ex iis nempe 
artium institutiones maxima ex parte constare. Ciim 
n. omnia artium praecepta constare debeant ex argu- 
mentis reciprocis, reciprocatio autem nusquam alibi 
reperiatur nisi inter formam (quae ipsa in definitioni- 
bus comprehendi solet) et formatum, inter subjectum et 
proprium adjunctum ; hinc factum est ut praecepta 
omnia vel definitiones sint vel distributiones vel regu- 
lae quaedam sive consectaria, quae proprietatum expli- 
cationes dicuntur. 

" Distributio est, cum totum in partes distribuitur. 
Totum est, quod contiuet partes. 
Pars est, quae continetur a toto." 
Totum logice et generaliter dicitur, quicquid quo- 
cunque modo distribuitur et partes continet : pars, quae 
quocunque modo continetur a toto. 

"Atque ut distinctio totius in partes, distributio; 
sic collectio partium ad constituendum totum, inductio 
dicitur." 

Inter banc autem inductionem et distributionem nul- 
lum aliud discrimen est, nisi quod distributio a toto ad 
partes, haec vero a partibus ad totum progreditur. 
Quamobrem, ut supra nomen ad notationem, ita hie 
inductio ad distributionem referenda est ; non ad syl- 
logismos, ut plerique volunt; ciim non alio modo ab 
inductione argumentemur atque a distributione: siqui- 
dem eadem est via Thebis Athenas quae Athenis Thebas. 
Inductionis autem auctorem Aristoteles agnoscit So- 
cratem; ejusque necessitatem tantam esse testatur, ut 
cum scientia universalium sit, universalia cog-noscere 
nequeamus nisi per inductionem. Inductionis ergo ope 



886 



ARTIS LOGIC/E PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



praecepta artium inventa sunt ; ut in proasmio mo- 
nuimus. 

" Distributio sumitur ex argumentis toti quidem con- 
sentaneis, inter se autem dissentaneis." 

Sed dissensio ilia 11011 est distributionis dissensio 
(nunquam n. dissentaneum in dissentaneum distribui- 
tur) sed partium distributarum. 

"Itaque tantoaccuratiorerit distributio, quanto par- 
tium et cum toto consensio et inter se dissensio major 
fuerit." 

Hinc efficitur, earn distributionem accuratissimam 
esse, quae in duas partes fit; eaque "dichotomia" di- 
citur: dissensio enim inter duo maxima est; contra- 
riorum unum uni tantum opponitur. Platonis itaque 
regula est: " oportet in quam proximum fieri potest 
numerum semper dividere." Quod si dicbotomiam in- 
venire non queamus, difficile n. est earn semper inve- 
nire, species bisbinas ponere interdum praestat, quasi 
sub duobus g-eneribus, licet anonymis, quam quatuor 
sub uno. Haec n. distributionis forma, licet non sit 
optima, est tamen optimae proxima. Hac ratione su- 
pra cap. 3, Ramus divisit causas in duo genera ano- 
nyma, nempe " efficientem et materiam, aut formam et 
finem." EfF. Ubi autem dichotomia nullo modo com- 
mode adbiberi potest, " multis protinus differentiis res 
dividenda est," ut Aristoteles monet. Neque enim 
propter dichotomiae studium distributio vel mutilanda 
vel implicanda aut confundenda est. 



CAR XXVI. 

De Distributione ex Causis. 

" Distributio prima est ex absolute consentaneis, 
causis nempe et effectis. Distributio ex causis est, 
quando partes sunt causae totius." 

" Hie distributio integri in sua membra praecipue 
laudatur." 

" Integrum est totum, cui partes sunt essentiales," 
i. e. quod partibus totam suam essentiam complecten- 
tibus constituitur ; ideoque symbolum est efFecti ex 
materia per formam existentis. 

" Membrum est pars integri." 

Nimirum intcgro suo essentialis. Sive ut Aristot. 
Phil. 8, 15, "Membra sunt ex quibus integrum com- 
ponitur." Et membra quidem symbola sunt causarum 
essentialium, materiae nimirum et formae, in quibus tota 
integri essentia consistit: singula n. membra materiam 
continent ; cuncta simul, ipsam quoque formam. " Sic 
grammatica in etymologiam et syntaxin ; rhetorica in 
elocutioncm et actionem ; logica in inventionem et dis- 
positionem argumentorum dividitur. Ab his n. partib. 
artes illae constituuntur ; " non tanquam ex causis, sed 
tanquam ex causarum symbolis. Cum enim essentia 
dialecticse partim communis sit materia scilicet, i. e. 
praecepta, et forma etiam nempe methodica illorum 
praeceptorum dispositio ; partim propria, quae in bene 
disserendo posita est, tota haec dialecticoe essentia in 



inventione et dispositione comprehenditur. Nee tamen 
partes istae sunt ipsa materia, i. e. praecepta, uec ipsa 
forma communis, i. e. methodica praeceptorum dispo- 
sitio, nee propria, i. e. ipsa facilitate disserendi ; sed ex 
prasceptis methodice dispositis conflatae sunt, et ipsa 
facultas disserendi inventionis et dispositionis finibus 
continetur. 

Quae sequuntur apud authorem nostrum exempla duo, 
alterum ex Virgilio, Georg. 1, alterum ex Cicerone pro 
Muraena, objectis utraque distinguuntur, non causis; 
ideoque ad cap. 28, ad distributionem nempe e sub- 
jects, ad quam etiam praemissa ilia annotatio de usu 
pertiuet. 

" Quinetiam aliter tractatur hoc argumenti genus, 
vel a partibus ad totum, vel a. toto ad partes." 

Hac de re Aristoteles Top. 6, 6, reg-ulas quasdam 
tradit. Primo a partibus : " affirmatis partibus cunc- 
tis, affirmatur totum:" et contra; " sublatis partibus 
cunctis, tolli totum." Item ab una parte: " una parte 
sublata, totum tolli." Secundo a toto ad partes : " toto 
affirmato, affirmantur partes." Verum haec omnia 
ex ilia reciprocationis regula superioris capitis initio 
tradita satis intelliguntur. Nam quae reciprocautur, 
eorum alterum ex altero vicissim et necessario affir- 
mate et negate concluditur. Hoc vero, ut Aristoteles 
etiam notavit, non sequitur ; sublato integro, partes 
tolluntur. 

Utriusque generis (nempe affirmationis et negationis a 
partibus ad totum) exemplumhabemus apud Catullum. 

" Quintia formosa est multis : mihi Candida, longa, 
Recta est : haec ego sic singula confiteor : 

Totum illud, formosa, nego. Nam nulla venustas, 
Nulla in tam magno est corpore mica salis. 

Lesbia formosa est : quae cum pulcherrima tota est, 
Turn omnibus una omnes surripuit veneres." 

Est et alia distributio ex causis et merito quidem im- 
perfectior dicta, cum non tam ipsius rei quam ejus cau- 
sarum distributio sit: ut ab efficiente, testimonium est 
divinum vel humanum. Sic statuae veteres aliae factae 
erant a Phydia, aliae a, Polycleto, &c. Distributio haec 
quaedam est totius in partes ; ubi tamen non tam partes 
ipsae ponuntur quam pro iis earum efficientis, quibus 
inter se disting-uuntur. Sic statuae aliae erant aureae, 
aliae argenteae, aliae aeneae, aliae eburne&e, &c. distri- 
butio est ex materia. Aliae ad hominum, aliae ad bru- 
torum effigiem factae ; est distributio a forma externa. 
Aliae factae sunt ad usum religiosum, aliae ad civilem; 
est distributio a. fine. 



CAP. XXVII. 

De Distributione ex Effectis, ubi de Geneve et Specie. 

" Distributio ex effectis est, quando partes sunt 
effecta. 

Distributio generis in species hie excellit." 
Nonnulli ex Cicerone distributionem integri in mem- 
bra " partitionem" vocant ; generis in species " divi- 



AD. PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



887 



sionern." Nee de nihilo sane : membra enim copulari. 
species disjungi solent. 

" Genus est totum partibus essentiale." 
In quo contrarium est integro : illic enim toti partes, 
hie totum partibus est essentiale : unde constat, illam 
ex causis, hanc ex effectis distributionem recte dici. 
Genus autem " est totum partibus essentiale," quia il- 
lam essentiam nempe materiam et formam, quae specie- 
bus omnibus aeque communis est, significatione sua 
complectitur: vel brevius, quia synibolum est commu- 
nis essentia. Neque enim genus proprie essentiam spe- 
ciebus communicat (cum in se extra species revera 
nihil sit) sed earum duntaxat essentiam significet. Quod 
enim essentiale est et speciebus omnibus commune, ejus 
notio genus dicitur. Et idaea seepe a Graecis, non se- 
parata quidem a rebus ilia, ut velunt Platonica, quae 
nugse sunt, teste Aristot. Phil. I, 7, et v. 5. Sed quod 
cogitatione et ratione unum et idem est specieb. multis 
commune in quibus re et natura est singulatim, ut 
Plato in Menone. Stoici etiam Idceas, ut refert Plut. 
de Placit. 1, 10, nostras notiones esse dixerunt. 

" Species est pars generis." 

Sic etiam Aristoteles, Phil. 8, 25. Et Cicero Invent. 
1, " Pars quae generi subest." Ex definitione autem 
generis intelligimus speciem cjusmodi partem esse cu- 
jus essentia communis in generis significatione conti- 
neatur. Propriam autem essentiam species, per quam 
est id quod est, a propria forma babet, quae generis sig- 
nificatione minime continetur." Sic etiam Aristot. Phil. 
£, 12, " Genus non videtur particeps esse differentiarum : 
simul n. contrariorum idem particeps esset; differentiae 
ii. contrariae sunt." Unde illud; plus est in specie 
quam in genere : et illud Porphyrii ; " differentia est 
qua species superat genus." Tota igitur generis es- 
sentia singulis aequaliterinest speciebus; at tota essen- 
tia speciei non est in genere, nisi potentia, ut inquit 
Porpbyrius. Hinc ut species est pars generis, ita 
genus pars esse speciei quodammodo videtur: quod et 
Plato in Politico notavit. Sic animal genus hominis 
et bestiae dicimus. Animal enim est totum, cujus 
essentia, nempe corporea, animata, sentiens, ad homi- 
nem et bestiam communiter attinet. Sic dicimus 
hominem et bestiam species animalis; quia partes sunt 
animali subjectse, quae animalis essentiam communem 
habent. 

" Genus est generalissimum ant subalternum. 

Species subalterna aut specialissima. 

Genus generalissimum, cujus nullum est genus." 

Ut in logica inventione argumentum est genus ge- 
neralissimum artificialium et inartificialium. 

" Subalternum genus, ut subalterna item species, 
quod species hujus, illius autem genus est." 

Id est, quod nunc genus est, nunc species: genus, 
si ad species sibi subjectas referatur; species, si ad 
suum genus. 

Sic causa, genus est materia et forniae ; species, 
argumenti absolute consentanei. Sic homo est genus 
subalternum, sive species subalterna : species quidem, 
si ad animal referas ; genus, si ad singulos homines. 

" Species specialissima est, qua individua est in spe- 
cies alias." 



Ut materia et forma quaeque singularis. Sic homi- 
nes singuli sunt species specialissimse hominis, et sin- 
guli leones leonis. 

Logicorum quidem pars maxima hominem speciem 
specialissimam, singulos homines individua vocant, 
non species. Verum ut animal est totum cujus essen- 
tia communis, nempe corporea, animata, sentiens, ad 
hominem et bestiam communiter attinet ; sic homo est 
totum, cujus communis essentia rationalis communiter 
ad singulos attinet homines ; atque ut homo et bestia 
species sunt animalis, quia partes sunt animali sub- 
jectae, quae animalis essentiam communem habent; ita 
singuli homines species sunt hominis, quia partes sunt 
homini subjectae, quae hominis essentiam communem 
habent : ergo homo non minus est singulorum homi- 
num genus quam animal hominis; homines singuli 
non minus sunt hominis species quam homo animalis. 
Singuli enim homines propria forma differunt: quae 
autem forma differunt propria, differunt et specie ; 
teste Aristot. Phys. 1,7. Deinde, quicquid differt, aut 
genere differt aut specie ; teste eodem Aristot. Phil. 
10, 3. Differre autem genere singulos homines nemo 
dixerit; differunt ergo specie. Nam quod aiunt ho- 
minem esse speciem singulorum hominum, id plane 
absurdum est: species enim pars est ejus cujus est 
species; ut ex ejus definitione constat: genus pond 
et species cum relata sint, genus utique erit speciei 
genus; species, generis erit species. Si igitur homo, 
ut'vulgo volunt, est species sing'ulorum hominum ; 
singuli homines erunt genus hominis; quod nimis ab- 
surdum est. At inquiunt singuli homines numero tan- 
tum differunt, non forma. Veriim quae numero dif- 
ferunt, forma quoque differre, jam supra capite de 
forma satis ostendimus; etsi formae cujusque proprise 
differentia nobis non nisi per externa quaedam effecta, 
et accidentia, quae vocant, dignosci potest. Deinde, 
singuli homines inter se disparantur, ergo opponuntur: 
quae autem inter se opponuntur, eorum eadem forma 
esse non potest; forma ergo differunt non numero tan- 
turn. Itaque apud Laertium,in Zenone, stoici docent, 
Socratem esse speciem specialissimam. Immo Aristot. 
de Part. 1, 4, Socratem et Coriscum species infimas 
vocat Sic jurisconsulti, hominem genus appellant; 
Stichum et Pamphilum species. 

" Genus vero et species notse sunt causarum et effec- 
torum." 

In animali n. est essentia corporea, quae materia est 
ad species communiter attinens: turn facultas vitae et 
sensus, qua forma item communiter ad species spectat. 
Quare " genus continet causas, quae communiter ad 
ipsius species attinent: contra itaque etiam species 
effecta generis sui continent." 

" Hinc universale est insigne ac praestabile : quia 
causam declarat." 

Idem ait Aristot. Poster. 1, 24. 

" Distributio generis in species valde quidem excel- 
lit, sed difficilis est et rarainventu." 

Excellit quidem quia quicquid in artibus ex causis et 
effectis sumitur, id totum fere generis et speciei no- 
tionibus comprehenditur: difficilis est, cum quia formae, 
unde species oriuntur, difficiles itidem inventu sunt; 



888 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



turn etiam propter vocum penuriam, quibus genera et 
species apte nominentur. 

Attamen illustrationis et exempli gratia afferemus 
quod poterimus. Ovidius 1 Metam. dividit animal in 
quinque species, Stellas, aves, bestias, pisces, homines : 
stellis animam tribuens, ut etiam quidam philosophi 
tribuerunt. 

" Neu regio foret ulla suis animalibus orba, 
Astra tenent cceleste solum formeque deorum," &c. 

Sic Cic. Offic. 1, virtutem dividit in species quatuor, 
prudentiam, justitiam, fortitudinem, temperantiam ; 
quae tamen ipsae non ponuntur in distributione, sed, 
quod idem est, earum formae. " Sed omne quod ho- 
nestum est, id quatuor partium oritur ex aliqua: aut 
enim in perspicentia veri solertiaque versatur, aut in 
societate hominum tuenda, tribuendoque suum unicui- 
que, et rerum contractarum fide; aut in animi excelsi 
atque invicti magnitudine ac robore; aut in omnibus 
quae fiunt, quaeque dicuntur, ordine et modo, in quo 
inest modestia et temperantia." 

Haec quidem, ut dixi, est " distributio generis in spe- 
cierum formas ;" quae perinde est ac si in ipsa species 
esset; "quia forma cum genere constituunt suas spe- 
cies." 

" Genus et species non solum tractantur bac simplici 
divisiouis formula, sed etiam separatim alter um ex al- 
tero." 

Hoc est, quod de toto genere, id de omnibus etiam 
speciebus recte affirmatur. Sic Cicero, pro Archia, 
poeticam cum eloquentia comparans, quae sunt species 
artis, cognatas esse ait inter se, quia idem de artibus in 
genere, humanioribus praesertim, affirmatur. " Etenim 
omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent 
quoddam commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione qua- 
dam inter se continentur." 

" Contra genus tractatur per species." 

Hoc est, quod de omnibus speciebus, id de genere 
quoque recte affirmatur. Sic Ovidius probat, virtutem 
in rebus adversis clariorem esse, per inductionem spe- 
cierum : quoniam scilicet virtus militis, nautae, medici, 
rebus adversis spectatur, 4 Trist. 

" Hectora quis nosset, felix si Troia fuisset ? 

Publica virtutis per mala facta via est : 
Ars tua, Tiphy, jacet, si non sit in eequore fluctus : 

Si valeant homines, ars tua, Phoebe, jacet. 
Quae latet, inque bonis cessat non cognita rebus, 

Apparet virtus arguiturque malis." 

Cum itaque genus tractetur etiam per species, ut 
superiore regula docemur, et exempla specialia species 
eorum sint, quorum exempla sunt ; hinc sequitur, " ex- 
empla speciali suo generi accommodata, hujus esse 
loci ;" sive unum solum, sive per inductionem pluraad- 
hibeantur : specialia inquam, exempla enim velsimilia 
sunt, quae similia arguunt; vel specialia, quae arguunt 
suum genus ; qualia fuerunt in singulis argumentorum 
capitibus ex poetis et oratoribus desumpta. Exemplo- 
rum autem spccialium, non solum in artib. ciim inve- 
niendis turn tradendis usus plane est necessarius (nam 
inductione exemplorum praecepta colliguntur. et eorum 



usu illustrantur) verum etiam in omni sermone, quoties 
res lucem desiderat. Cujusmodi est iilud Cic. ad At- 
ticum : " Urbem tu relinquas ? Ergo idem si Galli 
venirent. Non est, inquit, in parietibus respub. at in 
aris et focis: fecit idem Themistocles : fluctum enim 
totius barbariae ferre urbs una non poterat. At idem 
Pericles non fecit, annum fere post quinquag-esimurn, 
quum praeter mcenia nihil teneret: nostri olim, urbe 
reliqua capta, arcem tamen retinuerunt." Hie ab ex- 
emplo speciali in utramque partem disseritur. The- 
mistocles deseruit Athenas ; ergo urbem deserere licet. 
Pericles non deseruit Athenas ; nee Romani Gallis ve- 
nientibus Romam; ergo urbs non est deserenda. Quod 
si hoc modo argumentaretur, Themistocles urbem reli- 
quit, ergo mihi licet; argumentum esset a simili: nam 
exempla, cum ad alia specialia accommodantur, similia 
sunt vel dissimilia. Hujus autem loci ea demum sunt, 
quae generi suo accommodantur. 

Est et alia imperfectior distributio ex effectis, quando 
partes non sunt proprie effecta totius, sed ipsarum par- 
tium. Ut Cic. de Senect. " Nautarum alii malos scan- 
dunt, alii per foros cursitant, alii sentinam exhauriunt; 
gubernator autem clavum tenet in puppi." In hoc exem- 
plo totum est nauta, quod est singulorum nautarum 
genus; partes, malum scandere, cursitare, &c. Quae 
tamen nautae ut totius sive generis partes sive species 
non sunt, sed specierum, i. e. singulorum nautarum 
effecta sive officia, quibus ipsae species, i. e. singuli 
nautae inter se distinguuntur. Verum quanto haec dis- 
tributio imperfectior est, tanto est frequentior. Usus 
autem illius praecipuus est, ut perfections raritatem 
suppleat ; cum distributio generis in species, ut supra- 
dictum est, tam difficilis inventu sit. 



CAP. XXVIII. 

De Distributione e Subjectis. 

"Reliqua distributio est modo quodam consentane- 
orum, ut subjectorum et adjunctorum. Distributio e 
subjectis est, cum partes sunt subjecta." Id est quando 
verae partes intellectae subjectis distinguuntur vel adum- 
brantur. 

Ut apud Catullum : 

" Virginitas non tota tua est : ex parte parentum est. 
Tertia parsmatri data, pars data tertia patri : 
Tertia sola tua est : noli pugnare duobus, 
Qui genero sua jura simul cum dote dederunt." 

Virginitas puellse vel jus potius virginitatis in tres 
partes dividitur subjectis distinctas, matre, patre, et ipsa 
puella. Alterum exemplum ex cap. 26 hue transfertur, 
Virgil. 1 Georg. ubi poeta exorditur opus suum a di- 
visione in quatuor partes, subjectis suis occupantibus 
distinctas, segetes, arbores, pecora, apes. 

" Quid faciat lastas segetes, quo sidere terram 
Vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adjungere vites 
Conveniat : quae cura bourn, qui cultus habendo 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



889 



Sit pecori, atque apibus quanta experientia parcis, 
Hinc canere incipiam." 

Tertium exemplum ex eodem etiam capite hue trans- 
fertur. Cic. pro Muraena : " Intelligo, judices, tres 
totius accusationis partes fuisse: et earum imam in re- 
prehensione vitae, alteram in contentione dignitatis, 
tertiam in criminibus ambitus esse versatam." Hie 
tota accusatio in tria membra distribuitur, subjectis suis 
occupantibus distincta : atque in his tribus exemplis 
totum est integrum. Quartum exemplum est generis 
in species ex Cic. 5 Tuscul. " Sint sane ilia tria genera 
bonorum, dum corporis et externa jaceant humi, et 
tantummodo quia sumenda sunt, appellentur bona. 
Alia autem, divina ilia, longe lateque se pandant, 
coelumque contingant." Hie Cicero bona in tres species, 
quas ille genera vocat, dividit, subjectis suis distinctas; 
nempe animi, corporis, et fortunae. 



CAR XXIX. 

De Distributions ex Adjunctis. 

"Distributio ex adjunctis est, quando partes sunt 
adjuncta." 

Ut hominum alii sani, alii aegri : alii divites, alii 
pauperes. 

Sic Virgil. 1 Georg. mundum dividit in quinque 
partes; mediam torridam, duas extremas frigidas, et 
reliquas duas temperatas : 

" Quinque tenent coelum zonae, quarum una corusco 
Semper sole rubens, et torrida semper ab igni, &c." 

Caesar 1 Belli Gall. " Gallia est omnis divisa in tres 
partes : quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, 
tertiam, qui, ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli, ap- 
pellantur. 

In distributionibus hujusmodi imperfectis adverten- 
dum est id quod videtur distribui. Nam si id totius 
rationem habet, integri vel generis, distributio est ; si 
non habet rationem totius, sed simplex aliquod argu- 
mentum est, ut causa, effectum, subjectum, adjunctum, 
non est distributio sed enumeratio potius, vel causarum 
plurium ejusdem effecti, vel effectorum plurium ejus- 
dem causae, vel subjectorum plurium ejusdem adjuncti, 
vel denique adjunctorum plurium ejusdem subjecti. 
Hoc genere distributionis imperfecto argumenta saepe 
quorum verae species nullae apparent, modis quibus- 
dam distinguuntur, modos autem supra in adjunctis 
posuimus. Sic in causis, " procreans et conservans, 
modi" efficientis, " non species," dicuntur : quia non 
differunt inter se ut species per differentias oppositas, 
sed ita ut uni et eidem efficienti convenire queant; 
quandoquidem quae causa procreat, eadem fere conser- 
vat; potestque efficere idem vel solus, vel cum aliis; 
nonnulla vel per se, vel per accidens. 



CAP. XXX. 

De Definitione. 

Definitio in tradendis artibus est usu quidem prior 
distributione (prius enim definitur unaqueeque res 
quam distribuitur) natura tamen et invenieudi ordine 
est posterior : genus enim, quo non adhibito, si quod 
sit, nulla definitio constitui potest, a distributione, qui 
proprius generis est locus, mutuum accipit. 

" Definitio est, cum explicatur quid res sit." 

Definitio vocatur, eo quod rei cujusque essentiam 
definit, eamque suis quasi finibus circumscribit. 

" Atque ut definitio arguit sive explicat definitum, 
sic vicissim a definito argui potest." Quae quanquam 
argumentorum omnium affectio communis est arguere 
inter se vicissim et argui, hie tamen eandem ob causam 
facta mentio est definiti, ob quam in capite notationis 
facta est nominis ; ne argumentorum numero excludi 
videatur, cum neque ejusdem sit nominis cum defini- 
tione quam arguit, neque caput sibi peculiareobtineat; 
sicut alia argumentorum paria, quae nominis ejusdem 
non sunt. Ad reciprocationem autem quod attinet, 
qua3 definitioni cum distributione communis est, ea 
definitionis et definiti manifestissima est : logica enim 
est ars bene ratiocinandi ; et vicissim, ars bene ratio- 
cinandi est logica. Atque ad hunc modum omnis de- 
finitio, ut nonnulli recte monuerunt, conversione exa- 
minandaest: unde Boethius, Top. 5, "omnis definitio 
rei, quam definit, adaequatur." 

" Definitio est perfecta aut imperfecta : ilia proprie 
definitio, haec descriptio dicitur." 

" Definitio perfecta est, quae constat e solis causis 
essentiam constituentibus." Redundat ergo in defi- 
nitione perfecta quicquid praeterea ponitur. 

" Causae autem illae genere et forma comprehen- 
duntur." 

Genus enim et forma (quae sunt quasi corpus et 
anima definitionis) totam rei essentiam constituunt. 
Non ita tamen necessario requiritur in definitione per- 
fecta genus, ut perfecta non sit nisi genus habeat : 
primum enim, summorum generum, ut argumenti in 
logica inventione, genus nullum est ; sed tota eorum 
essentia sub ipsa forma continetur ; quae etiam mate- 
riam iis convenientem complectitur ; deinde fieri potest 
ut ipsae causae facilius occurrant quam earum symbo- 
lum genus. Itaque si ex ipsis causis definitio constat, 
perfecta erit ; si ex genere, succinctior tantum. Genus 
autem proximum, non remotum, in definitione semper 
est ponendum : qui enim proximum ponit, remotiora 
etiam posuit : nisi proximum forte anonymum sit; 
turn enim et quotiescunque generis, sive anonymum 
sit sive non, paulo ante facta mentio est, abesse genus 
in definitione, et recte subintelligi potest : ut in hac 
ipsa definitionis definitione, genus remotum, nempe 
ortum argumentum ; turn etiam proximum, nempe 
reale et compositum, subintelligi tur. Quam autem hie 
formam in definitione appellamus, plerique differen- 
tiam vocant. Sed differentia formee fructus est : et 
nisi in rerum collatione, quae in definitione nulla est, 



890 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



non apparet; et forma ipsa est unde praecipua rerum 
explicatio sumitur ; pruecipuum ergo in definitione lo- 
cum habet. 

Atque hoc modo definitur homo, animal rationale : 
nempe g^enere, " animal," intelligimus, ut dictum est, 
essentiam corpoream plenum vitae et sensus, quae ma- 
teries hominis est, et pars formae : cui si addas "ra- 
tionale," totam form am hominis comprehendes, vitas, 
sensus, rationis facultate. 

Itaque "perfecta definitio nihil aliud est, quam uni- 
versale symbolum causarum essentiam rei et naturam 
constituentium." 

Tales definitiones sunt artium. Grammatica est ars 
bene loquendi. Rhetorica bene dicendi. Logicabene 
ratiocinandi. Arithmetica bene numerandi. Geome- 
tria bene metiendi. Nam genere " ars " intelligimus 
praeceptorum ordine dispositorum comprehensionem, 
quae materies est cuj usque artis et pars formse, sive 
forma communis, cui si addas formam cuj usque artis 
propriam (quae finem quoque sub se comprehendit, ut 
dictum est cap. 8,) habes totam artis essentiam expli- 
catam, quae perfecta definitio est. 

Ad regulas consequentiae quod attinet, nempe a de- 
finitione ad definitum ; et contra, affirmate vel negate; 
haec omnia reciprocatio, quae distributionis quoque fuit, 
satis clare suo loco exposuit. 



CAP. XXXI. 

De Descriptione. 

Definitiones perfectae propter causarum et prse- 
sertim formarum obscuritatem, difficiles inventu sunt : 
ad supplendam igitur earum raritatem, " descriptio" 
inventa est. 

" Descriptio est definitio imperfecta, ex aliis etiam ar- 
gumentis rem definiens." Id est, ex quibusvis aliis 
rem quoquo modo explicans. 

Ubi itaque forma haberi non potest (nam genera fere 
notiora sunt) proprietas loco formae seu differentiae ac- 
cipienda est: ut, " angelus est substantia incorporea; 
equus est animal hinnibile," &c. Adjuncta sive acci- 
dentia, quae vocantur (quia substantia? sola?, ut inquit 
Aristot. 1. G, Metaph. c. 5, primario definiuntur, acci- 
dentia secundario tantum) propria quidem genere, sub- 
jecto, causaque proxima vel efficiente, vel finali, vel 
utraque definiuntur. Genere et subjecto solo ; ut, " si- 
mitas est curvitas nasi :" subjecto et efficiente ; ut, 
" tonitru est sonus fractae nubis, ob ignem oppressum ; 
quantitas continua est adjunctum corporis, ab exten- 
sionc materiae: " finali ; ut, " sensus est facultas natu- 
ralis in animali, ad judicandum de singularibus :" vel 
utraque; ut, " respiratio est attractio et expulsio aeris 
reciproca a pulnionibus facta, ad cordis refrigeratio- 
nem." Omittitur cnim saepe subjectum in definitione 
propriorum, quippe quod ex g-cnere vel ex causa intel- 
lig-itur : ut, " memoria est sensus internus conservans 



imagines rerum cognitarum." Non dicitur " sensus in 
ternus animalis," addito nempe subjecto, quia id men- 
tione "sensus" intelligitur. Potentiae naturales ac- 
tione sua et causa efficiente definiuntur : ut, " risibilitas 
est facultas ridendi, orta ab anima rationali." Habitus 
vel fine vel objecto qua? saepe coiucidunt definiuntur : 
fine ; ut, " Logica est ars bene ratiocinandi:" objecto; 
ut, " Physica est scientia rerum naturalium." Quali- 
tates patibiles definiuntur subjecto et efficiente : ut, 
" color est qualitas corporis mixti, orta ex contempera- 
tione lucidi et opaci." Actiones fere subjecto efficiente 
et fine definiuntur. Relationes relatis inter se et fun- 
damento sive causa : ut, " paternitas est relatio patris 
ad filium, ex procreatione orta." 

Adjuncta communia objecto, efficiente, finali, vel ex 
his quot sunt ex usu, definiuntur: ut, "albedo est 
color, ortus exlucido opacum superante." 

Illud modo generatim in descriptionibus cavendum, 
ne causa pro genere habeatur: ut cum dubitatio de- 
scribitur, aequalitas ration um; sanitas, symmetria humo- 
rum ; dolor, solutio continui ; eclipsis lunae, interpositio 
terrae: aut subjectum; ut, ventus est aer motus; jus- 
titia est voluntas constans ; vulnus est pars carnis dila- 
cerata ; peccatum originis est natura corrupta, et si- 
milia. 

Caeterum in his certae regulae dari non possunt. 
Aliquando enim ex remoto solum contrario fit de- 
scriptio : ut, 

" Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima 

Stultitia caruisse." Aliquando plane arbitraria est. 

Hinc etsi unica rei definitio, plures tamen descripti- 
ones esse possunt. 

Ut autem definitio definito, quod supra monuimus, 
ita etiam descriptio descripto vicissim argui potest. 
Veriim non affectio solum haec mutua inter descriptio- 
nem et rem descriptam intercedit, sed etiam reciprocatio ; 
juxta communem illam distributionis ac definitionis 
regulam, supra, cap. 25, traditam ; qua descriptio 
quoque propria rei descriptae et reciproca esse debet. 
Quamvis enim in descriptionibus multa saepe cong-e- 
runtur, quorum aliqua forte latius patent, quam id quod 
describitur, juncta tamen aequantur descripto descripti- 
onemque propriam reddunt ; sin minus, vitiosa atque 
inutilis descriptio censenda est. Ut, " homo est animal 
mortale, capax disciplina?." Hie cum aliqua causa 
(materia scilicet et communi forma, quae sub g-enere 
" animal" continetur) miscentur duae circumstantiae 
sive adjuncta, alterum commune, scilicet " mortale," 
alterum proprium, " capax disciplines" At quorsum, 
inquis, illud "mortale," cum nullum animal non sit 
mortale ? Quia nempe Aristot. cuj us haec descriptio est, 
Top. 5, 1, animalia quaedam ait esse immortalia, Top. 
4,2, et in eodem capite, Deum ipsum Zwov aSavarov, 
i. e. "immortale animal," vocat. 

" Sed haec succincta brevitas non est in hac specie 
perpctua; quae saepe illustriorem et copiosiorem expli- 
cationem desiderat." 

Succinctae descriptiones, quae perfectas jemulantur 
definitiones, usum habent praecipue in artibustradendis 
ac disputationibus. Prolixiores illoe, utpote ad aures 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



891 



vulgi magis accommodatse, apud oratoresac poetas fre- 
quentiiis occurrunt. 

Sic gloria describitur in Miloniana : " Sed tamen ex 
omnibus prsemiis vivtutis, si esset habenda ratio prae- 
miorum, amplissimum esse prsemium gloriam : "banc 
unam,qu8ebrevitatem vitae posteritatis memoria conso- 
laretur; quae efficeret, ut absentes, adessemus; rnortui, 
viveremus : banc denique esse, cujus gradibus etiam 
homines in coelum videantur ascendere." Descriptio 
baec glorise constat ex genere, "prsemio" nempe " vir- 
tutis;" adjuncta amplitudine, eaque aucta a minore, 
quod sit omnium amplissima ; quatuor deinde effecta 
ejus adjiciuntur. 

Sic 4 iEneid. fama describitur : 

"Extemplo Lybiae magnasitfama per urbes, 
Fama, malum quo non aliud velocius ullum ; 
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo," &c. 

Describitur fama, 1. a genere, " malum :" 2. ab ad- 
juncta velocitate, quae illustratur a majore negato, 
" quo non aliud velocius :" turn duplici effecto aliarum 
rerum dissimili, quod 

" Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo." 

3. Ab adjuncta varietate, quae ostenditur ex aliis ad- 
juncts, quod sit primd " parva," idque arguitur causa, 
scilicet " metu," et circumstantia temporis, " primo" 
nempe ; turn subito grandior facta incremento exigui 
temporis incredibili, idque ostenditur trib. effectis, quae 
singula sifbjectis suis illustrantur, 

" Mox sese attollit in auras : 

Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit." 

4. A causa procreante, " illam terra parens," 

mater scilicet gigantum ; et efficiendi modo, consilio 
nempe sive impetu naturali, " ira irritata deorum," qui 
gigantes occiderant; causa autem procreans communis 
illustrata tempore adjuncto, et communi testimonio, 

" Extremam, ut perhibent, Caao Enceladoque sororem 
Progenuit." Rursus illustratam ab adjunctis, 

" Pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis, 

Monstrum horrendum, ingens " 

Deinde a partibus corporis et membris, iisque paribus. 

" Cui quot sunt corpore plumae, 

Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu, 

Tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures." 

Turn ab effectis nocturnis, iisque partim affirmatis 
quae subjectis locis illustrantur, 

" Nocte volat coeli medio, terreeque per umbram 

Stridens ;" partim negatis, " nee dulci declinat lumina somno." 

Turn diurnis, eaque illustrantur et subjectis locis, et 
adjuncto situ sedendi, 

" Luce sedet custos, aut summi culmine tecti, 
Turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes." 

Ab adjunctis denique paribus; 

" Tarn ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri." 



Tales sunt descriptiones plantarum, animalium in 
physicis; item fluminum, montium, urbium apud Geo- 
graphos et Historicos; personarum denique apud poe- 
tas et oratores. 



CAP. XXXII. 

De Testimonio divino. 

" Exposito artificiali argumento, sequitur inartifi- 
ciale. 

" Argumentum inartificiale est quod non sua natura, 
sed assumpta artificialis alicujus argumenti vi arguit. 

" Id uno nomine testimonium dicitur." Nempe, ut 
inquit Cic. in Top. " quod ab aliqua externa re sumi- 
tur ad faciendam fidem." 

Inartificiale autem dicitur, non quod artis ope et 
auxilio non inveniatur (siquidem de eo inveniendo, ut 
inquit Cicero, Partit. in arte prsecipitur) sed quod ex se 
suaque natura artis hujus et facultatis arguendi expers 
sit. Potest etiam assumptum dici, quod assumpta vi 
arguit, non sua. Arg'umentum enim inartificiale natu- 
ram rei non attingit, nedum arguit, ut artificiale solet, 
neque rei afFectio, sicut artificiale, est; sed est nuda 
cujuspiam aliqua de re attestatio, sive attestantis affir- 
matio aut negatio. Res autem neque propter afBrma- 
tionem sunt, neque propter negationem non sunt: tes- 
timonium igitur ex se suaque natura non arguit; " sed 
assumpta artificialis alicujus argumenti vi." Vis autem 
haec est testantis auctoritas, a qua omnis testimonii 
fides pendet. Auctoritas autem variis in argumentis 
consistit, sed in effectis testantis et in adjunctis praeci- 
pue cernitur. 

" Itaque cum exquisita rerum Veritas" sive natura 
" subtilius exquiritur, perexiguam probationis vim tes- 
timonium habet." 

Hinc Cic. 1 de Nat. " Non tarn auctores," inquit, 
" in disputando, quam rationum momenta quaerenda 
sunt." 

" In civilibus autem et humanis rebus," ubi de facto 
queritur, " plerumque hoc argumentum preecipuam 
fidem e moribus arguentis efficit, si prudentia, probitas, 
et benevolentia affuerint." 

Horum unum aliquod si deest, vel per imprudentiam 
testis, vel propter improbitatem, vel inimicitiarum de- 
nique aut nimioe gratia? causa, falsum ssepe pro testi- 
monio dicitur. 

Testimonium est divinum vel humanum. 
Et recte quidem in species efficientibus suis causis 
distinctas dividitur. Ab efficientibus enim maxime tes- 
timonium suas vires assumit. Effectum itaque est, si 
ad testem spectas; testimonium, si ad rem testatam. 
Perexiguam autem vim probationis in exquisita veri- 
tate et natura rerum pervestiganda communiter tribui 
testimonio quod tam ad divinum quam ad humanum 
pertinere videatur, id cur quempiam offendat, non video : 
testimonium enim sive divinum sit sive humanum, per- 
aeque vim omnem ab authore, nullam in se habet. Et 



892 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



divinum quidem testimonium affirmat vel negat rem ita 
esse, facitque ut credam; non probat, non docet, non 
facit ut sciam aut intelligam cur ita sit, nisi rationes 
quoque adhibeat. 

Testimonium divinum est quod Deum habet autbo- 
rem. 

In divinis testimoniis numerantur non solum deorum 
oracula, sed etiam responsa vatum et fatidicorum. 

Vera haec sint an ficta, veri numinis an falsi, logicus 
non laborat, sed quam modo vim arguendi unumquod- 
que babeat. Itaque in civilib. etiam et bumanis rebus 
testimonium divinum perinde vim probationis habet, ut 
ejus author verus est aut falsus deus. 

Hujusmodisunt ista Catilin. 3," Nam utillaomittam, 
visas nocturno tempore ab oceidente faces, ardoremque 
coeli ; ut fulminum jactus, ut terras motus, caeteraque, 
quae ita multa, nobis consulibus, facta sunt, ut heec, quae 
nunc fiunt, canere dii immortales viderentur." 



CAP. XXXIII. 

De Testimonio humano. 

Testimonium humanum est, quod authorem habet 
bominem. 

" Estque commune aut proprium." 

Distributio hose proponitur, non ut accurata aliqua 
divisio (neque enim testimonio propria est) sed ut dis- 
tinctio qualiscunque subalternarum specierum, ad quas 
inferiores species testimonii et exempla possint revocari. 
Atque, ut superior ilia distinctio in divinum et huma- 
num, ab efficiente quoque sumitur, qui fit persona pub- 
lica sive communis, aut propria sive privata. 

" Testimonium commune est, ut lex et illustris sen- 
tential' 

Haec enim duo exempla sunt potius quam species; 
quibus adjungi potest fama; quam Cic. in Top. quod- 
dam multitudinis testimonium appellat; alii, consen- 
sum civitatis et publicum testimonium vocant. 

" Leg-is autem etnon scriptae et scriptae testimonium 
est pro Milone : Estenim, judices, non scripta, sed nata 
lex; quam non didicimus, accepimus, legimus ; veriim 
ex natura ipsa arripuimus, hausimus, expressimus: ad 
quam non docti, sed facti ; non instituti, sed imbuti 
sumus : ut, si vita nostra in aliquas insidias, si in vim, 
in tela, aut latronum aut inimicorum incidisset, omnis 
honesta ratio esset expediendae salutis." Et ibidem, 
"Quod si duodecim tabulae nocturnum furem quoquo 
modo, diurnum autem, si se telo defenderit, interfici 
impune voluerunt, quis est, qui," &c. 

Restat illustris sententia; cujus generis sunt pro- 
verbia. Ut pares cum paribus facillime congregantur. 
Spartam nactus es, hanc exorna. Turn dicta sapien- 
tum : ut, nosce teipsum. Ne quid nimis. Sponde, 
praesto est detrimeutum. Quanquam enim haec dicta 
singula a singulis fortasse auctoribus orta sunt, tamen 
quia omnium in ore versantur, quasi omnium fiunt, et 
ad commune testimonium recte referuntur. 



Proprium testimonium est : ut Platonis illud, 1 ad 
Q. fratrem : " Atque ille quidem priuceps ingenii et 
doctrinse, Plato, turn denique fore beatas respub. puta- 
vit, si aut docti et sapientes homines eas regere cce- 
pissent, aut qui regerent, omne suum studium in 
doctrina ac sapientia collocassent." 

Talia sunt in poetis. iEneid. 6. 

" Discite justitiam, moniti ; et non temnere divos." 
Sic Homericis illis versibus : 

A'iag d'etc 1,a\a[xivog dyev dvotcaideica vr/aQ. 
^Trjat 5' ayiov "iv A$r)vaiu)v i=ravro <pd\ayytg. 

Ajax autem ex Salamine duxit duodecim naves. 

Constituit vero ducens, ubi Atheniensium stabant phalanges. 

Victi sunt in judicio Megarenses, quo contenderunt 
cum Atheniensibus de Salamine insula, utrique forte 
civitati aeque vicina. 

Atque haec veterum fuere et absentium testimonia, et 
fere mortuorum ; quae de jure potissimum afferuntur. 

Viventium et praesentium, quae de facto plerunque 
testantur, non tantum sunt " ciim quaeritur de fundo 
aut caede et ejusmodi negotio aliquo, sed etiam obliga- 
tions, confessionis, jurisjurandi testimonia sunt." 

Obligationis exemplum est Philipp. 5, "Promitto, 
recipio, spondeo, P. C. Caesarem talem semper fore 
civem, qualis hodie sit, qualemque eum maxime velle 
et optare debemus." 

Pignus etiam obligatio quaedam est. 

Ut apud Virgil. Eel. 3. 

" Vis ergo inter nos quid possit uterque vicissim 
Experiamur ? Ego hanc vitulam (ne forte recuses, 
Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit ubere foetus) 
Depono : tu die, mecum quo pignore certes." 

" Confessio est vel libera, in qua cujusvis testimo- 
nium pro se levissimum contra se gravissimum cense- 
tur. Vel est expressa tormentis, quae proprie quaestio 
dicitur." 

Tale fuit argumentum contra Milonem, quod a Cice- 
rone deridetur: quia cruciatus non saepius veritatem 
quam mendacium exprimit atque extorquet. " Ag - e 
vero, quae erat aut qualis quaestio: heus, ubi Ruscio? 
ubi Casca? Clodius insidias fecit Miloni? Fecit; certa 
crux. Nullas fecit. Sperata libertas." 

Hue etiam referri potest argumentum, quo utimur 
cum affirmationis nostrae approbationem et experien- 
tiam adversario proponimus. 

Verr. 4. " Ecquis Volcatio, si sua sponte venisset, 
unam libellam dedisset? veniat nunc, experiatur; tecto 
recipiet nemo." 

Terent, Eunuch. 

" Fac periculum in Uteris, 

Fac in palaestra, in musicis ; quae liberum 
Scire aequum est adolescentem, solertem dabo." 

Ovid. 3 Trist. 

" Quod magis ut liqueat, neve hoc ego fingere credar, 
Ipse velim poenas experiare rneas." 

Jusjurandum etiam testimonium est. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



893 



Quale est iEneid. 9. 

" Per superos, et siqua fides tellure sub ima est, 
Invitus, regina, tuo de littore cessi." 

Quamvis autem in juramentis divinum quodammo- 
do testimonium invocetur, juramenti tamen fides autho- 
ritate et moribus jurantis nititur. 



Reciprocatio bic obscurior est ad rem testatam, quod 
est bic alterum argumentum affectum ; ut quia testa- 
tum verum sit, testis sit etiam verax. 

Ut autem non sua vi testimonium, sed auctoritas tes- 
tis arguit rem testatam ; ita vicissim res testata non 
arguit ipsum testimonium, sed authoritatem testis. 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, &c. 



LIBER SECUNDUS. 



DE ARGUMENTORUM DISPOSITIONS. 



CAP. I. 

Quid sit argumentorum dispositio P 

Adhuc prima artis logicse pars fuit in argumentorum 
inventione : pars altera sequitur in eorum dispositione. 

Quemadmodum grammaticas pars prima est de sin- 
gulis vocibus, secunda de syntaxi earum ; sic logicse 
pars prima de argumentis inveniendis fuit, secunda est 
de disponendis, i. e. quae doceat argumenta recte dispo- 
nere: ita dispositio quasi syntaxis quaedam argumen- 
torum est ; non tamen ad bene judicandum duntaxat, 
ut vult Ramus, quod nimis angustum est, sed ad bene 
ratiocinandum, qui finis est logicae generalis, ad quern 
unum finem omnia artis preecepta referenda sunt. lis 
itaque non assentior, qui judicium secundam esse par- 
tem logicse volunt: cum ipsorum sententia judicium 
sit secundoe hujus partis nempe dispositionis finis et 
fructus: non potest autem res eadem esse finis etid cujus 
est finis, fructus quod affectum est et ejus fructus causa, 
quae dispositio est. An inquiunt, judicium utdoctrinaest 
parslogicce; finis est ut habitus bene judicandi. Immo 
vero inquam, dispositionis doctrina suam operam con- 
fert non solum ad bene judicandum, sed ad bene ratio- 
cinandum ; judicium autem et dispositionem pro eodem 
non dixerim cum Ramo : si enim certa, ut ipse Ramus 
ait, dispositionis regula unumquodque judicatur, dispo- 
sitio utique ac judicium si idem erunt, idem erit et 
regula, et id cujus regula est : doctrina deinde judicii 
docet nihil aliud quam bene judicare ; doctrina dispo- 
sitionis pro sua disponendi parte, etiam bene ratiocinari : 
sive id sit intelligere, sive judicare, sive disputare, sive 
meminisse. Certa enim dispositionis regula unum- 
quodque munus ratiocinandi excolitur. 

Cum itaque simplicem argumentorum inter se affec- 
tionem aliquid per se conferre ad judicium rectumque 
ratiocinium initio proposuerim, nunc eorum dispositio- 
nem aliquanto plus, adeoque clarius ad idem conducere 
propono. 



Prius autem quam ad partes dispositionis accedimus, 
generalis quaedam dispositionis affectio, quae crypsis 
dicitur, attingenda est; ut quae ad omnes species dispo- 
sitionis communiter pertineat. Crypsis autem, sive oc- 
cultatio ista, est triplex ; dispositarum scilicet partium 
vel defectus, vel redundantia, vel inversio. Quod 
itaque semel hie monendum est, siqua propter has 
crypses dubitatio contingit, explenda quae desunt, am- 
putanda quae supersunt, et pars quaeque in suum resti- 
tuenda est locum. 



CAP. II. 

De Axiomatis affirmatione et negatione. 

" Dispositio est axiomatica vel dianoetica. 

" Axioma est dispositio argumenti cum argumento, 
qua esse aliquid aut non esse indicatur." 

Axioma saepe Aristoteli significat propositionem sive 
sententiam ita claram, ut quasi digna sit cui propter se 
fides habeatur. Alias axioma et propositionem sive 
sententiam quamlibet pro eodem is habet : et recte 
quidem : ut enim sententia a sentio, i. e. existimo vel 
arbitror, ita axioma a verbo Grseco quod idem signifi- 
cat, derivatur. Atque hujus vocis generalem hanc sig- 
nificationem apud veteres dialecticos receptam fuisse, 
ex Cicerone, Plutarcho, Laertio, Gellio, Galeno lib. 16, 
c. 8, constat. 

Latine " enuntiatum, enuntiatio ; pronuntiatum, pro- 
nuntiatio; effatum" Varroni profatum, et proloquium, 
apud Gellium lib. 16, id est sententia in qua nihil de- 
sideratur. Ex Grceco etiam " oratio" et " propositio" 
dicitur. 

Cur ergo, inquis, Graecanica, et heec prae aliis, vox 
placita est ? Quia, inquam, commodissima. Nam 
" oratio" et "sententia" voces latiores sunt; ideoqne 
Groeci qui Xoyov sive " rationem" vocant, addunt fere 



894 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



" prim am, brevissimam" aut " enuntiativam." Deinde 
"propositio" ambigua vox est; significat enim nunc 
priorem partem plenae comparationis, nunc primam 
partem syllogismi. Latina autem ilia, " enuntiatum, 
enuntiatio," &c, orationis exterioris videntur mag-is 
quam rationis interioris esse : ciim dispositio hsec logica 
rationis omnino sit tarn mente conceptae quam ore pro- 
latae ; utque voces symbola sunt et notse simplicium 
notion um, ita enuntiatum videtur esse symbolum axio- 
matis mente concepti. Sic tamen retineri possunt voces 
Latinse " enuntiatum, enuntiatio," &c, si distinguimus 
cum Aristotele sermonem in exteriorem, qui ore prof'er- 
tur; et interiorem qui mente solum concipitur. 

Genus autem axiomatis recte statuitur dispositio, non 
judicium, quod, ut supra retuli, dispositions effectum 
est, et hie quidem specialiter quo aliquid esse aut non 
esse judicantur. 

Argumentum autem cum argumento est id quod 
arguit cum eo quod arguitur. 

Finis dispositionis est, ut per earn esse aliquid aut non 
esseindicetur, sive ut aliquid dealiquo dicatur aut non 
dicatur. Hinc illud Arist. Phil. 3\ 10, " esse est com- 
poni, et unum esse ; nou esse autem est non componi, 
seel plura esse." Et simplicia quidem argumenta per 
se considerata significant aliquid ; non autem esse, aut 
non esse aliquid, nisi disposita. Solo autem modo in- 
dicativo esse aliquid aut non esse indicatur : non reli- 
quis,nisi ad indicativum reductis : ut " abi," i. e. jubeo 
te abire. " Fiat voluntas tua," i. e. precamur ut fiat. 
" Utinam dissolverer," i. e. cupio dissolvi. " Quid est 
dialectiea," i. e. quaero quid sit. 

Cum autem in axiomate argumentum cum argumento 
disponatur, horumque unum necesse sit antecedere, al- 
terum sequi; hinc partes axiomatis (Aristot. terminos 
vocat) duse sunt, antecedens et consequens: ilia vulgo 
minor terminus, sive subjectum, haec terminus major seu 
praedicatum nominatur ; quia id continet, quod de sub- 
jecto praedicatur sive dicitur. Verum haec nomina 
angustiora sunt, quam ilia, ut infra patebit. 

Axiomatis affectio communis est crypsis ilia triplex, 
de qua deque ejus triplici medelacapite superiore dixi- 
mus: defectus, cum pars aliqua deest ; ut, " excessit, 
erupit, evasit;" Catilina scilicet vel quis alius : "pluit, 
tonat;" deus nempe vel coelum. Redundantia, quae 
et amplificatio dicitur, est, cum argumentum ej usque 
synonym um ponitur; aut ad id illustrandum quidvis 
aliud : prioris exemplum est, logica sive dialectiea est 
" ars bene ratiocinandi: " posterioris est hoc, 

Livor iners vitium mores non exit in altos. 

Inversio est, cum antecedentis loco ponitur conse- 
quens : ut " quaestus magnus est pietas cum animosua 
sorte contento," i. e. pietas cum animo sua sorte con- 
tento est magnus qusestus. 

Duae sunt reliquae axiomatis affectiones; quarum 
altera ex dispositione oritur, altera ad judicium per- 
tinet. Nam intellectus ciim disponit argumenta, vel 
coniponit ea inter se, vel dividit : cornj)ositio autem 
ilia et divisio nihil aliud sunt quam affirm atio et nega- 
tio. Cum vero de dispositione ilia judicium fert, ju- 
dieat earn vel veram esse vel f'alsam. Quemadmodum 



autem dispositio est prior judicio, sic esse et non esse 
prius quiddarn est et simplicius quam affirmare et ne- 
gare, et utrumque hoc quam verum aut falsum judi- 
care. 

" Axioma igitur est affirmatum aut negatum." 

Duplex est hie modus enuntiandi, non duae sunt 
species enuntiati sive axiomatis : contradictione enim 
idem axioma affirmatur et negatur : sed affirmatio et 
negatio enuntiationis, i. e. enuntiandi species sunt, non 
enuntiati; nam et affirmatio et negatio dici potest 
enuntiatio, enuntiatum vero nequaquam ; axiomatis 
igitur utraque est affectio, non axioma. 

" Axioma affirmatum est quando vinculum ejus 
affirmatur: negatum, quando negatur." Vinculum n. 
axiomatis forma est; vinculi vi axiomatis materia dis- 
ponitur et quasi animatur ; vinculo affirmato etnegato, 
axioma ipsum affirmatur aut negatur: affirmatio itaque 
et negatio sunt vinculi affectiones, adeoque axiomatis 
ej usque specierum. Vinculum autem est vel verbum 
vel grammatica conjunctio, utpostmodum patebit, cum 
axioma in species dividetur. 

Affirmatio autem hsec et negatio nihil aliud est, ut 
supra diximus, quam compositio et divisio : affirmatur 
enim axioma, cum ejus consequens per affirmationem 
vinculi cum antecedente componitur; negatur, cum, 
negato vinculo, consequens ab antecedente dividitur. 
Negatio igitur axiomatica non est, quemadmodum erat 
topica non ens, sed entis tantummodo ab ente divisio. 

" Hinc nascitur axiomatum contradictio, quando 
idem axioma affirmatur et negatur." 



CAP. III. 

De vero et falso. 

" Axioma deinde est verum aut falsum." 

Hoc scilicet ex affirmatione et negatione fit judi- 
cium : cum enim affirmantur quse affirmanda sunt, et 
negantur quae neganda, axiomata judicantur vera; et 
contra. Unde Aristot.de Interpret. I, " in coinposi- 
tione et divisione est verum aut falsum." Falsum au- 
tem non docetur hoc modo in arte, sed judicatur : nam 
enuntiatio falsa non minus axioma est, quam vera, 
eadem enim utrobique dispositio est : non idem de syl- 
logismo ac methodo dici poterit. 

"Axioma verum est, quando pronuntiat uti res est: 
falsum, contra." 

Sic enim Plato, in Cratylo. Ad judicium itaque 
faciendum, non modo artis documenta, sed etiam re- 
rum ipsarum cognitio requiritur; quia res ipsa veri- 
tatis norma etmensura est. 

"Axioma verum est contingens aut necessarium. 
Contingens, quando sic verum est, ut aliquando falsum 
esse possit. Ut, ' audentes fortuna juvat.' 

" Itaque veritatis hujus contingentis judicium, opinio 
dicitur." Qua? prseteritorum et presentium homini certa 
esse potest, futurorum per naturam non admodum po- 
test. Deo autem etsi tempora omnia prsesentia non 
sunt, ut vulgo receptum est, praesentia enim mutare 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



895 



potest, praeterita non item ; opinio tamen in Deum non 
cadit, quia per causas aeque omnia cognoscit. 

De contingentibus autem, praeteritis etiam, et prae- 
sentibus humanum judicium certa quidem opinio dici- 
tur, non tamen scientia : ea enim ex argurcientis, quo- 
rum est immutabilis affectio, oritur; cujusmodi in con- 
tingenti axiomate non disponuntur. Neque idcirco 
non est opinio preeteritorum et praesentium, quod mani- 
festa sunt, immo turn maxime opinari contingentia di- 
cimur ; nam dubia si sunt, sive contingentia sive neces- 
saria, ne opinamur quidem, sed dubitamus: et neces- 
sariatametsi sunt atquecertissima, si causam nescimus, 
etiam ea duntaxat opinamur. 

At, inquies, praeterita et praesentia non sunt contin- 
gentia, sed necessaria, quia sunt immutabilia ; nam 
neque factum infectum fieri potest; et quicquid est, 
quandiu est, necesse est esse. Respondendum, necesse 
quidem esse, ut quod fuit, fuerit, et quod jam est, sit; 
nee tamen sequi, ut quod fuit vel est, sit proprie neces- 
sarium. In axiomate enim contingenti, preeterito, vel 
prsesenti quae videtur esse necessitas, absoluta non est, 
neque ex rerum dispositarum natura, sed ex conditione 
duntaxat et lege contradictions pendet : dum enim 
aliquid est, non esse non potest; neque dum verum est, 
esse falsum : et tamen quod nunc verum est, fieri po- 
test ut aliquando salsum fuerit, aut futurum sit. Idem 
de futuris dicendum ; siquid futurum certo est, id ne- 
cesse est fore quidem verum (omne n. axioma verum 
est aut falsum) non tamen necessarium. Id nisi tenea- 
tur, omne contingens futurum erit necessarium, quod 
implicat contradictionem. Hoc etiam monendum, fu- 
tura quidem ipsa neque vera esse neque falsa, neque 
contingentia, neque necessaria, nondum n. sunt, sed 
affirmatio solum de iis aut negatio in futurum, deque 
praeteritis eodem modo sentiendum. 

" Axioma est necessarium, quando semper verum est, 
nee falsum potest esse." 

Nee supervacua posterior haec clausula est: semper 
n. esse verum etiam contingens potest, necessarium 
autem non modo semper est verum, sed falsum esse non 
potest. Sic etiam Aristot. Post. 1, 26. 

" Contra, quod semper falsum est, nee verum potest 
esse, axioma impossible dicitur." Sic etiam Aristot. 
Phil. 8. 12. 

Haec autem immutabilitas veritatis in necessario, et 
falsitatis in impossibili, ab argumentorum quae in iis 
disponuntur vel summa consensione, vel infesta semper 
dissensione pendet. Pari ratione mutabilitas veri aut 
falsi in contingenti et possibili ex levi argumentorum 
in iis dispositorum consensione aut dissidio perspicitur. 

Ex quo doctrina ilia quatuor formularum modalium, 
" necesse est, impossibile est, possibile est, contingens 
est," qukm inutiliter ab Aristot. introducta sit, facile 
apparet : ut, " necesse est hominem esse animal ; im- 
possibile est hominem esse equum ; possibile est So- 
cratem esse divitem ; contingens est Socratem esse 
doctum." Hae quatuor modales dispositionem pura- 
rum enuntiationum quodammodo afficiunt: pura est, 
" omnis homo est animal ; modalis, " necesse est om- 
nem hominem esse animal:" hie " omnem hominem 
esse animal," licet inverso ordine, subjectum est enun- 



tiationis modalis, modus " necesse'* est praedicatum. 
Verum quid attinet quomodo partes axiomatis inter se 
affectae sint, signis aut modis exprimere, cum id ex 
argumentis ipsis in eo dispositis possit rectius judicari, 
et ad hos modos alii complures, " facile, difficile, ho- 
nestum, turpe," &c. non inutiliiis possint adjungi? 

Equidem secundarias, quas vocant modales, prima- 
riis hisce potiores existimem : quibus vulgo dividuntur 
enuntiationes in " exclusivas," quarum notae sunt " so- 
lus, tantum, duntaxat," &c., ut, " sola fides justificat: 
exceptivas," quarum notae sunt " praeter, praeterquam, 
nisi," &c., ut, " nemo praeter te sapit: et restrictivas," 
quarum notae sunt " qua, quatenus, quoad, secundum, 
quid," &c, ut, " homo qua animal, sentit." Et exclusiva 
quidem est vel subjecti vel praedicati : subjecti, quae, 
nota exclusiva praeposita, excludit omnia subjecta alia a 
praedicato. Sed frustra hanc regulam ratio dictarit, si lo- 
gicis quibusdam modernis, et nominatim Keckermanno 
licebit, earn statim, conflato ad id ipsum canone, fun- 
ditus evertere. " Exclusiva," inquit, " subjecti non 
excludit concomitantia : ut, solus pater est verus Deus. 
Hie," inquit, " non excluditur concomitans, filius, et 
spiritus sanctus." At quis non videt subornatum hunc 
canonem, ad locum ilium luculentissimum Joan. 17, 3, 
ludificandum ? Haud paulo utilior est canon ille re- 
strictivae enuntiationis, quern tradit 1. 2, c. 4, (restrictiva 
autem est quae ostendit quatenus subjectum praedicato 
convenit) " praedicatum," inquit, " contradictorium 
nulla limitatione subjecto conciliatur ;" ex Aristot. 2 
Top. c. ult. sect. 4. Quid evidentius dici potuit ? et 
tamen reperti sunt qui interpositis quibusdam distinc- 
tiunculis, " accidens posse existere sine subjecto" 
(quod repugnat) " in caena Domini" contendant : de- 
inde, qui similib. confictis distinctiunculis, "humanam 
naturam Christi adeoque corpus infinitum esse" dispu- 
tantes, parem contradictionem committant. Sed omis- 
sis theologorum paradoxis, ad praecepta logica redea- 
mus. 

" Axioma necessarium afBrmatum appellatur /card 
7ravrog, de omni." 

Id est, cum consequens sive praedicatum, ut vocant, 
axiomatis, de omni et toto antecedente sive subjecto 
semper verum est. Sic etiam Aristot. 1, prior. 1, et 
post. 1, 4, et hoc etiam nonnunquam kolMXh, i. e. de 
toto, vocat, Post. 2, 13. 

" Axiomata artium sic Kara rravrog esse debent." 

Nempe de omni et de toto vera, non falsa ; necessa- 
ria, non fortuita, alioqui non scientiam pariunt, sed 
opinionem; affirmata denique non negata: afBrmatum 
enim est firmum, certum, brevissimum; negatum vero 
est vagum, incertum, infinitum, nihilque docet : ut si 
quis definiret logicam, non esse artem bene loquendi, 
non doceret quid logica sit, sed quid non sit; eaque 
definitio omnibus artibus praeter grammaticam aeque 
ac logicae conveniret. Nonnulli addunt ex hac lege, 
axiomata artium debere etiam esse generalia. Verum 
haec regula non tantum de omni est, sed de toto : et 
multa in artibus praecepta specialibus de rebus occur- 
runt, ut in tbeologia, de Christo ; in astronomia de 
sole et luna reliquisque planetis : in aliis artibus hujus- 
modi alia, in quibus, cum sint specialia, etsi Kara irav- 



896 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



toq dici non possunt, itaSoXs tamen possunt, quod satis 
est. Quod si quis objicit, ne in generalibus quidem 
praecepta artium Kara iravrbg esse posse, propter excep- 
tionum multitudiuem, ut in grammatica videre est ; 
respondendum est, anomalium analogies conjunctam, 
Kara -jravrbg instar esse. 

" Sed prsecepta artium homogenea etiam etreciproca 
esse debent. 

" Axioma homogeneum est, quando partes sunt es- 
sentiales inter se." 

i. e. Vel absolute, ut forma formato, genus speciei, 
membra iutegro, definitio definito ; vel modo quodam, 
ut subjectum proprio adjuncto. 

" Id appellatur kcl& avro, per se." 

Idcirco etiam partes axiomatis essentiales inter se 
esse debent, utpraeceptum artis esse scientificum possit : 
accidentis enim, ut testatur Aristoteles, nulla est scien- 
tia ; nulla nisi per essentiam et causam : idem, rd KaS' 
ai/To, et to. (Tu/i/3f/3??K6ra, i. e. accidentia, opponit, Post. 
1, 4. Itaque non satis est, partes esse inter se consen- 
taneas, sed essentiales : quod cum ex argumentorum 
inter se summa consensione oriatur, ex quanecessarium 
quoque axioma esse ortum supradiximus, non video 
quid per hanc regulam /caS-' avrb ad superiorem illam 
Kara ttcivtoq quod magni sit momenti, accedat ; cum 
nullum axioma necessarium esse queat, quin ejus 
partes inter se sint etiam essentiales. Neque verd 
putem bic praecipi, ne quid heterogeneum sive alienum 
in arte doceatur ; neque enim hue pertinet dispositio 
prsecepti cum praecepto, sed argumenti solum cum ar- 
gumento, quae axiomatis doctrina est, et ex bomogenei 
definitione ipsa ej usque exemplis perspicitur. 

" Axioma reciprocum est, quando consequens semper 
verum est de antecedente, non solum omni et per se, 
sed etiam reciproce." 

Ut homo est animal rationale : numerus est par 
vel impar. Lupus est natus ad ululandum. Id ap- 
pellatur KaSroXa ttquitov, de toto primum. Nempe quia 
de nullo prius dicitur : ideoque proximum est et 
immediatum, proprium et asquale ; unoque verbo, 
reciprocum : ut risibile de homine : omnis enim 
homo est risibilis ; et reciproce, omne risibile est 
homo. Hsec regula nisi observetur, vitari tautologia in 
artibus non potest. Turn enim non reciprocatur axio- 
ma, cum antecedens consequenti non est aequale, aut 
contra; sed vel speciale alicui generi, vel generale ali- 
cui speciei attribuitur : generale autem de specie non 
dicitur primo ; prius enim dicitur de genere. Cum 
autem id quod generis est, speciei attribuitur, idem in 
reliquis speciebus necessario est repeteudum, quod in 
g-enere semel dictum oportuit. Ad hanc itaque regu- 
lam pertinet prieceptum artis illud nobile ytviica yeviKwg, 
" generalia generaliter" et semel docenda sunt. Hsec 
lex brevitati, brevitas autem intelligentiae et memorise 
consulit. 

Atque has tres sunt leges documentorum artium pro- 
priorum. Prima Kara 7ravrbg, lex veritatis ; propterea 
quod necessariam affirmati axiomatis veritatem ex con- 
sentanea partium aflTcctione postulat. Secunda icaS' 
avrb, lex justitiae ; quia justitiam requirit in essentiali 
partium cognationc. Peccant ergo in hanc legem, qui 



rhetoricam in inventionem, dispositionem, memoriam, 
&c, distribuunt, cum rhetorical partes attribuant, quae 
dialecticse proprise sunt. Tertia ica$6Xov wpwrov lex sa- 
pientiae merito dici possit ; cum quia ejus judicium 
verissima scientia est, ut postea dicetur, turn quia vitia 
sapientiae contraria prohibet, insequalitatem sive incon- 
venientiam antecedentis cum consequente et tautolo- 
g'iam. 

Dices, duas illas priores leges comprehendi sub hac 
tertia: et hoc fatendum quidem est: veruntamen ut 
trigonum tetragonus et tetragonum pentagonus com- 
prehendit, neque idcirco tamen distinctae figuras non 
sunt; ita hae leges etiamsi posterior quaequse priorum 
comprehendit, erant tamen perspicuitatis causa distin- 
guendae. 

" Atque hujusmodi axiomatum ita reciprocorum ju- 
dicium verissima et prima scientia est." Prima, quia 
principiorum est, quae per se indemonstrabilia, suaque 
luce manifestissima sunt, neque syllogismi aut ullius 
argumenti clarioris lucem ad scientiam faciendam desi- 
derant : qua3 inde verissima quoque sit necesse est. 



CAR IV. 

De Axiomate simplici. 

" Atque hcec de communibus axiomatis affectioni- 
bus; species sequuntur. 

" Axioma est simplex aut compositum." 
Sic etiam Aristot. de Interpret. 1, 5. Vulgo propo- 
sitio dividitur in categoricam et bypotheticam, eodem 
sensu. Sed categorica affirmatam duntaxat proposi- 
tionem simplicem comprehendit, quae scilicet de sub- 
jecto KCLTriyopeZrai, i. e. preedicatur. 

"Axioma simplex est, quod verbi vinculo continetur." 
Cum enim vinculum, ut supradiximus, axiomatis 
forma et quasi anima sit, hinc efficitur, quemadmodum 
duse sunt species vinculorum, verbum et conjunctio, 
illud simplicis axiomatis, hoc compositi, ut axioma quo- 
que ex ista distributione vinculi, in oppositas formas 
sive species dividatur. Vinculum autem simplicis axio- 
matis, non solum est verbum substantivum, quod dici- 
tur, sed quodvis verbum actionem autpassionem signi- 
ficans, vinculi in se vim inclusam habet; et vel totum 
consequens vel pars consequentis est; ut, Socrates scri- 
bit. Nam quod nonnulli putant, verbum omne in sub- 
stantivum et participium resolvi oportere, ut ea ratione 
verbum substantivum esse vinculum appareat, scilicet, 
Socrates est scribens ; id ssepe ineptissimum esse repe- 
rietur. Ut siquis hoc, Socrates docetur, sic solvat, So- 
crates est doctus: hoc enim aliud longe est. Quidquod 
etiam verbum substantivum nonnunquam et vinculum 
et totum consequens includit; ut, Socrates est; mortui 
non sunt, i. e. non v existunt. Quodsi in uno simplici 
axiomate plura verba occurrunt, ut, imparia sunt com- 
parata, quorum quantitas non est una, sciendum est 
illud verbum axiomatis vinculum esse, quod gramma- 
tici vocant principale. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



897 



" Id si affirmatur, axioma simplex est affirraatum ; 
si negatur, negatum." 

Negatur autem, si negationis nota verbum illud prae- 
cedit : nam si sequitur, negatum non est, sed affirma- 
tum : ut Socrates est leo, non necessario affirmatum 
est, quia negationis nota sequitur verbum ; nee totum 
consequens negatur, sed modus. 

Negationis autem notae non solum sunt adverbia 
negandi, sed etiam particulae exclusivae (cujusmodi 
sunt " unicus et solus ") et verba dissensionem vel 
dirferentiam significantia; ut, " differre, opponi," &c. 

Exempla nunc videamus. Ignis urit ; ignis est ca- 
lidus; ignis est non aqua. Hie " ignis" est antece- 
dens, " urit" consequens. 

" Atque hie est prima inventarum rerum dispositio, 
causae cum affecto, ut in primo exemplo ; subjecti cum 
adjuncto, ut in secundo; dissentanei, cum dissentaneo, 
ut in tertio. 

" Quo modo argumenta quaelibet inter se affecta 
enuntiari possunt, consentanea quidem affirmando, 
dissentanea negando." Exceptis plenis comparatio- 
nibus, in quibus duo plane distincta axiomata sunt, 
propositio, et redditio. Nam distributiones, quas etiam 
excipit Ramus, ut, argumentum est artificiale aut in- 
artificiale, axiomate simplici enuntiari possunt, ut in- 
fra docebitur : possunt et diversa, quae excipiunt alii, 
si sic enuntias, aliquis facundus non est formosus: et 
contraria: ut, virtus non est vitium, &c. 

" Axioma simplex est generale aut speciale." 

Haec distributio est simplicis axiomatis ex adjuncta 
quantitate, quae modos, non species constituit. In 
axiomate autem composito, quantitatis nulla ratio ha- 
betur, sed tantum vinculi, ut infra dicemus. 

" Axioma generale est, quando commune conse- 
quens attribuitur generaliter communi antecedenti." 

Vulgo etiam vocatur " universale." Generaliter 
autem consequens antecedenti attribuitur, quando 
omni totique sive universo antecedenti attribuitur, 
omnibusque iis, quae sub ejus significatione continen- 
tur. Ad axioma igitur generale, tria haec requiruntur; 
consequens, et antecedens generale, et generalis attri- 
butio. Neque enim ex nota sive signo universali 
definiendum fuit axioma generale ; ciim et saepissime 
non adsit nota, et cum adest, non causa sed signum 
tantummodo sit axioma esse generale. Indeflnita 
igitur, quae vulgo vocant, etsi notam non habent gene- 
ralem, generalia tamen sunt ; ut defmitiones et reliqua 
artium praecepta, quae nemo generalia esse inficiabi- 
tur; nee notam tamen generalem praefixam habent. 
Notae axiomatis generalis tam affirmati quam negati 
hae sunt: " omnis, nullus ; semper, nunquam : ubi- 
que, nusquam," &c. 

" Atque hie contradictio non semper dividit verum 
et falsum ; sed contingentium utraque pars falsa potest 
esse:" ut, 

Omnis in urbe locus bajis prselucet amcenis. 
Nullus in urbe locus bajis preelucet amoenis. 

" Item non contingentium." 

Ut, omne animal est rationale ; nullum animal est 
rationale. Haec enim non contingentia sunt, sed 
potius absurda; quia consequens speciale antecedenti 



generali generaliter attribuitur. Falsa igitur pars 
utraque generalis contradictionis esse potest, vera esse 
non potest; falsitas quippe multiplex, Veritas una est. 

" Axioma speciale est, quando consequens non omni 
antecedenti attribuitur." 

Speciale dicitur, quia de specie aliqua enuntiatur. 
Atque ut in generali axiomate consequens generaliter, 
sive omni et universo antecedenti; ita in speciali spe- 
cialiter, sive non omni attribuitur. 

" In hoc axiomate contradictio semper dividit verum 
a falso." 

Id est specialis contradictionis pars una semper vera, 
pars altera semper est falsa. 

" Axioma speciale est particulare aut proprium. 

" Particulare, quando consequens commune antece- 
denti particulariter attribuitur." 

Est axioma speciale quia de specie aliqua, licet ea 
quidem incerta et indeflnita, enuntiatur; particulariter 
autem consequens attribuitur, quando non universo 
antecedenti, sed ejus alicui parti attribuitur. Attribu- 
tions autem particulars notae sive signa sunt, " qui- 
dam, aliquis, aliquando, alicubi;" et negationes gene- 
ralium, nonnulli, nonnunquam, non semper, non om- 
nis, &c. quae particulari aequipollent. Commune 
autem consequens debet esse ; ex ilia regula ; Conse- 
quens nunquam minus est antecedente, sed semper vel 
majus eo vel saltern aequale. Unde Aristoteles, prior. 
1, 28, negat " singulare de alio praedicari." 

Sequitur nunc contradictio particularium. 

" Huic autem axiomata generaliter contradicitur. 

" Aliquid ignoscendum est; nihil ignoscendum est : 
aliqua dementia non est laudanda ; omnis dementia 
est laudanda." Hie particulari affirmato, generale ne- 
gatum ; et particulari negato, generale affirmatum op- 
ponitur. Quodsi utraque pars particularis est, non 
modo nulla est axiomatum contradictio, sed ne opposi- 
tio quidem. Ut, Quidam homo est doctus, quidam 
homo non est doctus. Non enim eidem subjecto attri- 
buuntur, quae lex est oppositorum. Pars igitur utraque 
vera esse potest; sicuti etiam cum utraque affirmataest 
vel negata : ut, Omnis homo est rationalis, quidam 
homo est rationalis : nullus homo est irrationalis, qui- 
dam homo non est irrationalis. In his non modo con- 
tradictio nulla, sed consensio summa est, generis nempe 
et speciei. 

" Axioma proprium " (quod alii singulare vocant) 
" est, quando consequens antecedenti proprio attribui- 
tur." Antecedens autem logice proprium dicitur 
quando rem vel personam singularem designat ; sive 
proprio nomine exprimatur, sive non : qualia sunt etiam 
demonstrativa ; ut, "hie homo." Secundo, quae per 
synecdocben generis dicuntur; ut poeta pro Homero 
aut Virgilio, philosophus pro Aristotele aut Platone, et 
similia. Ad consequens autem hujus axiomatis quod 
attinet, id vel commune esse potest vel proprium. 

Proprii contradictio est quando utraque pars est pro- 
pria: in quo discrepat a particulari, cuj us pars altera 
duntaxat particularis esse debet; consentit cum gene- 
rali, cujus pars utraque generalis; ut, "Fabulla est 
bella:" cujus negatio et contradictio est, "Eabulla 
non est bella." Atque haec de axiomate simplici. 



898 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



APPENDIX. 

Ad has axiomatis simplicis affectiones addunt Aris- 
totelici ecquipollentiam et conversionem. 

iEquipollentia definitur, " enuntiationum verbis dis- 
crepantium convenientia re atque sensu : sic aliquis 
bomo est doctus, et, non omnis homo est doctus," idem 
valent, et similia, ut supra in notis est dictum. iEqui- 
pollentia itaque cum in verbis duntaxat, non in rebus, 
posita sit, ad grammaticam vel ad rhetoricam et ver- 
borum copiam remittenda est. 

Conversio est praedicati unius enuntiationis in locum 
subjecti transpositio ad probandam alteram enuntia- 
tionem, quae ex ea transpositione sive couversione effi- 
citur. Ea triplex afFertur; simplex, per accidens, et 
per contrapositionem. Simplex, quae fit manente eadem 
enuntiationis et quantitate et qualitate : fitque etiam 
tripliciter; in universali negante; ut "nullus homo est 
lapis, ergo nullus lapis est homo : " in particulari affir- 
mante ; ut, "aliquis homo est albus, ergo aliquod al- 
bum est homo:" in affirmante denique universali et 
necessaria ; ut " omnis homo est risibilis, ergo omne 
risibile est homo." Et hsec est una omnium conver- 
sionum verissima, quae et " reciprocatio " dicitur, pro- 
prii scilicet cum suo subjecto, definiti cum sua defini- 
tione. 

Conversio per accidens mutat enuntiationis quanti- 
tatem ; universalem scilicet affirmantem in particula- 
rem : ut, " omnis homo est animal, ergo quoddam 
animal est homo." Per accidens hancdici volunt, quia 
aliud priiis sequitur, nempe, " quidam homo est animal," 
ex quo hoc deinde, simplici conversione, " ergo quod- 
dam animal est homo." 

Conversio per contrapositionem mutat enuntiationis 
qualitatem : universalem scilicet affirmantem in negan- 
tem : vel, in qua loco subjecti et praedicati, ponitur 
utriusque conversi contradictio : ut, " omnis homo est 
rationalis ; ergo quodcunque non est rationale, non est 
homo : omne mortale est genitum ; ergo quod non est 
genitum, non est mortale; vel, quod est non genitum, 
est non mortale : admittendi ad sacramenta, habent 
poenitentiam et fidem ; ergo qui haec non habent, non 
sunt admittendi." Ties hosce modos conversionum ex 
Aristot. petunt : duos priores ex 1 Prior, c. 2, tertium 
ex 2 Top. c. 1, syllogisticae reductionis gratia, cujus 
inutiliter infra ostendetur, ab ipso inventos. 

Conversione autem hac ne decipiamur forte, neque 
enim fidissima est, cautiones quaedam adhiberi solent : 
prima, ne termini sint figurati ; ut, " panis est corpus 
Christi." Secunda,ne quid mutiletur ; ut " quidam cer- 
nit caecum, ergo caecus cernit quendam :" totum enim 
praedicatum non est " caecum," sed " cernit caecum ;" ut 
etiam in hac ; " omnis senex fuit puer, ergo quidam puer 
fuit sencx ;" non enim " puer," sed " fuit puer" totum 
pradicatum est ; conveitendum ergo, "quidam qui fuit 
puer, est senex." Tertia, ut casus obiiqui a conversione 
facti, rcddantur recti ; ut, " aliqua arbor est in agro ; 
ergo aliquod quod est in agro, est arbor," non sic, 
" ercfo alirjuis ager est in arbore." 

Sed,omissis istis cautionibus, expeditior via est, con- 



versionem omnem si dubia sit, tanquam sophisma peti- 
tionis principii rejicere ; ut quae sine medio tennino 
probare rem dubiam conetur : de quo sophismate infra 
monebimus. 



CAP. V. 

De Axiomate copulato. 

" Axioma compositum est quod vinculo conjunctionis 
continetur." 

Hoc genus axiomatis Aristoteles totum praetermisit. 
Vulgo " propositio hypothetica" vocatur; i. e. conditio- 
nalis ; anguste nimis ; cum ea vox compositis non om- 
nibus conveniat, ut suo loco patebit. Compositum 
autem dicitur, quia sententia est multiplex, quae in 
plures resolvi simplices potest : nee tamen dicendum 
est, ex simplicib. axiomatis componi, sed ex argumen- 
ts, quae conjunctionis vinculo composita, multiplicem 
sententiam efficiunt: idcirco autem axioma componitur, 
quia argumenta in eo conjuncta consentiunt et compo- 
sitionem appetunt. Nulla autem hie ratio habetur 
quantitatis, generale sit an speciale, sed tantum com- 
positionis. Ut autem verbum fuit vinculum simplicis, 
itaconjunctio est axiomatis compositi, ejusque proinde 
forma et quasi anima est. 

" Itaque a conjunctione affirmata vel negata, affirma- 
tur vel negatur." Conjunctione non negata, negatum 
axioma non erit, etiamsi partes omnes erunt negatae. 

" Contradictionisque pars vera est, pars falsa." De 
qua vulgus logicorum silet. 

" Enuntiatum compositum est pro sua conjunctione 
congregativum aut segregativum. 

" Congregativum est cujus partes tanquam simul 
verge, conjunctione sua congregantur." Conjunctione 
videlicet non solum ilia grammatica verum etiam sen- 
tentiarum quavis relatione. Cum autem relatio ista, 
sive grammatica sive logica, multiplex sit, essentia 1 , 
consequentiae, sive causae, quantitatis, qualitatis, tem- 
poris, loci, relatio quidem essentiae (cujus notae sunt 
" is qui, id quod") et loci (cujus notae sunt " ubi, ibi") 
ad simplicia axiomata referenda est; de reliquis suo 
loco. 

" Congregativum enuntiat omnia consentanea affir- 
mando, omni dissentanea negando." Hoc est, si unum 
consentaneorum subjecto attribuatur, alterum quoque 
attribuitur ; et contra, uno negato, alterum negatur : 
si unum dissentaneorum de subjecto affirmatur, alte- 
rum negatur ; et contra. Ita semper consentanea 
simul hie affirmanda vel neganda sunt, dissentanea non 
simul. 

" Congregativum vero est copulatum aut connexum. 
Copulatum, cujus conjunctio est copulativa." Ut 
iEneid. 1. 

" Una Eurusque Notusque ruunt, creberque piocellis 
Africus." 

Hie igitur negatio erit et contradictio, negatae con- 
junctione; " non una Eurusque Notusque ruunt," &c. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



899 



" Socrates et doctus erat et formosus : Socrates non et 
doctus erat et formosus." Quddsi hoc modo negaretur, 
" Socrates nee doctus erat nee formosus," (qui modus 
contradictionis est adhibendus cum omnes partes sunt 
falsae,) contradictio non esset axiomatica ; non enim 
vinculum negaretur, sed partes; copulatio enim sig- 
nificat utrumque simul verum esse, ejus negatio 
non utrumque ; at hsec negatio neutrum : ac si dic- 
tum esset, " Socrates et non doctus et non formosus 
erat : " deinde, in axiomate composito contradictio- 
nis pars una vera, altera est falsa; hie autem utra- 
que : hoc ergo axioma, " Socrates nee doctus erat 
nee formosus," est potius axioma copulatum affirma- 
tum, cujus partes negantur. Copulati autem negatio 
per axioma etiam discretum fieri potest, cum partes 
non omnes falsse sunt ; ut infra intelligitur. Con- 
junctio denique hie ssepe non adest, sed intelligitur. 

" Verum autem enuntiati copulati judicium pendet 
ex omnium partium veritate; falsum, ex una saltern 
parte falsa." Hoc est axioma copulatum judicatur 
esse verum, si omnes partes simul verse sunt; falsum, 
si vel una pars erit falsa. Idem tradit Gellius, 1. 16, 
c. 8. In copulato enim axiomate, Veritas omnium par- 
tium spectatur, quia partes omnes absolute enuntian- 
tur tan q nam simul verae. 

" Huic generi affine est enuntiatum relatse qualita- 
tis, cujus conjunctio" logica potius est quam gramma- 
tica, nempe " ipsa relatio." 

Relata autem qualitas est plena similitudo : ut notse 
ipsse testantur; " qualis, talis, quemadmodum, sic." 
Eclog. 3. 

" Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, 
Quale sopor fessis in gr amine. " 

Hie copulatum judicium est tanquam diceretur, 
sopor est fessis gratus, et sic tuum carmen nobis gra- 
tum est : cujus negatio, Non tale tuum carmen, quale 
sopor, &c. 

Ad hunc etiam locum pertinet relatio quantitatis in 
plenis comparationibus : quarum notse sunt, cum a 
pari, " idem quod, tam quam, tanto quanto, tot quot, 
eo quo;" turn a majori, " non solum, sed etiam;" turn 
a minori, " non modo non, sed ne," (quae nota est 
copulati axiomatis affirmati, cujus partes negantur) 
u cum turn." Relatio autem hsec et qualitatis et 
quantitatis, si bypothetice non absolute enuntiatur, ad 
counexum potius referenda est. 

Relationes autem loci ad axioma simplex rectius 
referuntur, utsupraest dictum. Neque enim in hujus- 
modi exemplo, " ubi amici ibi opes," est copulatum 
judicium, sed simplex et quidem generale; scilicet, 
omnem divitem amicos habere. 



CAP. VI. 

De Axiomate connexo. 

" Axioma connexum est congregativum, cujus con- 
junctio est connexiva. 



" Ut, si, nisi" affirmative. Idem enim valet " nisi,'' 
quod " si non :" quo non totum axioma, sed antece- 
dens tantum negatur: ut iEneid. 2, 

" Si miserum fortuna Sinonem 

Finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget." 

Cujus negatio est, negata conjunctione, " Non si 
miserum fortuna Sinonem frnxit, vanum etiam menda- 
cemque improba finget." 

" Conjunctio etiam haec interdum negatur apertiiis, 
negando consequentiam." Ut non continuo, non il- 
licd, non idcirco, non ideo : his enim formulis non 
consequens axiomatis, id n. contradictionem non effi- 
ceret, sed ipsa partium consequentia quoa logica con- 
junctio est apertius negatur: ut pro Amer. " Non con- 
tinuo. si me in sicariorum greg'em contuli, sicarius 
sum." De Fato : " nee si ornne enuntiatum verum 
est aut falsum, sequitur illico causas esse immuta- 
biles." 

" Affirmatio enim significat, si sit antecedens, etiam 
consequens esse. Negatio itaque et contradictio sta- 
tuit, si sit antecedens, non ideo consequens esse. 

Potest et connexo pro axioma discretum contradici : 
ut, " quamvis omne enuntiatum sit verum aut falsum, 
non tamen causae sunt immutabiles ;" quod sequente 
capite liquebit. 

" Sed ciim judicabis connexum absolute," i. e. per 
se suaque natura " verum esse, necessarium quoque 
judicabis; et intelliges hanc necessitatem ex necessa- 
ria partium connexione oriri, quae ipsa potest esse vel 
in falsis partibus." 

" Ut, si homo est leo, est etiam quadrupes," necessa- 
rium connexum est; quia argumentorum, quae hie con- 
nectuntur, leonis scilicet et quadrupedis, connexio est 
necessaria, speciei scilicet cum genere. Unde efficitur 
axioma generaliter verum ac proinde necessarium ; 
" omnis leo est quadrupes :" quod in connexio indicium 
est absolutse veritatis. Sic, si " Socrates est homo, est 
etiam animal," absolute verum est et necessarium, quia 
omnis homo est animal: huj usque connexi consequens 
falsum esse non potest, nisi antecedens quoque falsum 
sit, quod aliud signum est absolutse veritatis. 

Quod si consequens falsum fuerit, falsum item est 
antecedens. " Si illud, hoc : si non hoc, ne illud 
quidem." Atque ita, ut jam demonstravimus, si con- 
nexio absolute vera est, erit quoque necessaria : sin ex 
conditione et pacto, sine quo connexum per se suaque 
natura verum non esset, erit tantummodo contingens. 

" Quod si connexio sit contingens, et pro sua tantum 
probabilitate ponatur, judicium ejus tantum opinio 
fuerit. 

Ut Terent. Andr. 

"Pamphile,si id facis, hodie postremum me vides." 

Hoc est, si Philumenam uxorem ducis, ego hodie 
moriar : quod nemo sequi existimaverit, nisi hoc posito, 
Chariuum, qui hoc dicit, Philumenam perditissime 
amare. Per se enim nulla est connexionis necessitas 
inter nuptias Pamphili et interitum Chariui. Qui 
autem ex amoris vehementia sic existimabit, ejus ju- 
dicium non erit scientia, sed opinio. 



900 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



Ut autem judicare possimus, quae connexio sit abso- 
lute vera, quae non, spectanda argumenta sunt, quae in 
axiomate connectuntur, consentiant inter se nee ne, et 
quo modo. Ut " si dies est, lux est," connexum est 
necessarium, quia dies sive sol ortus est causa lucis. 
" Si dies est, Dio anibulat," connexum est falsum aut 
contingens; quia nulla est affectio absolute consentanea 
inter diem et Dionem. 

" Connexio axiomati affinis est ista consequentiae 
relatio:" quae a nonnullis, " relatio causae" dicitur ; 
et axioma efficit, quod " Stoici causale" nominant; 
Laert. in Zenone : quia nempe antecedens est causa 
consequentis, adeoque vinculum ejus conjunctio causa- 
lis "cum, quia, quoniam;" quibus respondet " ideo," 
vel "etiam : ut, ciim Tullius sit orator, est etiam peri- 
tus bene dicendi." Quanquam autem relata ista con- 
nexis affinia sunt, non nihil tamen discrepant: in ante- 
cedente enim connexi quaedam conditio est, in hoc 
relato nulla : connexum potest ex falsis partibus verum 
esse, relatum hoc sive causale non potest esse verum, 
nisi antecedens verum fuerit : ut, " quia dies est, sol 
est supra horizontem." 

AfTinis est et relatio temporis axiomati connexo, ut 
ait ipse Ramus infra, c. 13. 

Relatio autem temporis has habet notas, " turn ciim, 
donee dum, quamdiu tamdiu :" ut apud Ovid, in epist. 

(C Cum Paris CEnone poterit spirare relicta 
Ad fontem Xanthi versa recurret aqua." 

Sic — " Donee eris felix, multos numerabis amicos." 

Potest etiam connexum enuntiari sine ulla non modo 
relationis, verum etiam connexionis nota ; ut, " posita 
causa, ponitur effectum. Fac hoc, et vives." Ovid, in 
epist. "sume fidern et pharetram, fies manifestus Apol- 
lo." Nonnunquam etiam duob. negativis : Cic. pro 
Milone, " non hoc fragile corpus humanum mente regi- 
tur, et non regitur mente universum mundi corpus." 



CAR VII. 

De Axiomate discreto. 

" Axioma segregativum est, cujus conjunctio est 
segregativa. 

" Ideoque argumenta dissentanea enuntiat. 

" Enuntiatum segregativum est discretum aut dis- 
junctum. 

" Discretum, cujus conjunctio est discretiva." Dis- 
cretum dicitur, quod conjunctione ilia segregativa dis- 
cernuntur et segregantur, ea potissimum quae leviter et 
ratione tantum dissentiunt. 

" Itaque e dissentaneis praecipue diversa enuntiat." 

Praecipue, quia diversorum notae, "non hoc, sed 
illud," ut superiore libro dictum est, in diversis non- 
nunquam solent oppositis inservire. Ut autem diver- 
sorum ita etiam discreti axiomatis doctrina distinc- 
tionibus duntaxat, non conclusionibus, idonea est: eta 
reliquis propterea dialecticis, qui omnia ad syllogism um 



referunt, omissa. Sed rationis usus quicunque in logica 
praetermittendus non erat. Exempli gratia: Tuscul. 
5, " Quanquam sensu corporis judicentur, ad animum 
referri tamen." Cujus negatio et contradictio est, 
"non quanquam corporis sensu judicentur, tamen ad 
animum referri: vel, quanquam sensu corporis judi- 
centur, non tamen ad animum referri." Nam " tamen" 
est hie conjunctio praecipua. Quemadmodum autem 
copulati et connexi axiomatis negatio et contradictio 
discretum esse potest, ita vicissim copulatum vel con- 
nexum discreti : ut, " quanquam culpa vacat, non tamen 
suspicione caret:" cujus per copulatum contradictio 
est, " et culpa vacat, et suspicione caret ;" vel per con- 
nexum, " si culpa vacat, etiam suspicione caret." 

" Discretum enuntiatum judicatur esse verum et le- 
gitirnum, si partes non solum verae, sed etiam discretae 
sint; falsum vel ridiculum contra." 

Ut, " quanquam Ulysses formosus erat, tamen non 
erat infacundus," falsum est, quia antecedens est fal- 
sum. Sed si consequens modo verum est, axioma 
verum erit, etiamsi antecedens verum esse tantummodo 
concedatur. Hoc autem, " quanquam Menelaus for- 
mosus erat, tamen erat facundus," non est discretum, 
sed ne segregativum quidem : omnis enim segregativi 
axiomatis partes tanquam non simul verae segregantur, 
hie vero tanquam simul verae congregantur. " Quan- 
quam Ulysses facundus erat, non tamen erat indiser- 
tus," est ridiculum, quia partes non sunt discretae sed 
oppositae. 



CAP. VIII. 

De Axiomate disjuncto. 

"Axioma disj unctum est axioma segregativum, 
cujus conjunctio est disjunctiva." 

Ut, "aut dies est, aut nox est. Aut vera est haec 
enunciatio, aut falsa/' Nam ut ex Cicerone citatur 
hoc exemplum, " omnis enuntiatio vera est aut falsa," 
videtur esse distributio potius quam disjunctio. Dis- 
tributio autem quatenus de toto diviso partes enuntian- 
tur, axioma simplex et generale est, adeoque non com- 
positum nedum disjunctum. Neque enim distributions 
partes, quamvis inter se oppositae, oppositionem vel dis- 
junctionem ullam faciunt, sed eidem toti subjiciuntur, 
et in ejusdem simplicis axiomatis consequente verbi 
vinculo cum toto, quod antecedens est, consentiunt ; at 
extra distributionem, ubi non de toto, sed de aliqua 
ejus parte vel specie enunciantur, turn demum axioma 
disjunctum efficiunt: ut, quod supra posuimus, " haec 
enuntiatio aut vera est aut falsa," 

" Hie significatur e disjunctis unicum verum esse." 

Nempe quia opposita hie sola disponi debent. At- 
que id semper a differente significatur, tametsi ali- 
quando accidit, ut disjunctorum vel plura uno, vel 
nullum omnino verum sit. Negatio igitur et contra- 
dictio erit, " non aut dies aut nox est." 

" Et contradictione significatur, non necessario al- 
terutrum verum esse." 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



901 



" Nam si disjunctio absolute vera est, est etiam ne- 
cessaria; partesque disjunctae sunt opposita sine ullo 
medio." De quibus vide superioris libri caput de con- 
tradicentibus. 

" Veruntamen quamvis absolute vera disjunctio, ne- 
cessaria quoque sit; tamen nihil necesse est partes 
separatim necessarias esse." 

Ut, " eras aut pluetaut non pluet," disjunctio est ne- 
cessaria, quia ex contradicentibus constat, quae sunt 
contraria sine medio: et tamen, "eras pluet et eras non 
pluet," utrumque contingens axioma est. Sic, " homo 
aut bonus est aut non bonus," &c. 

" Nam disjunctionis necessitas pendet e necessaria 
partium oppositione et disjunctione, non ex earum 
necessaria veritate." 

Hinc argumentum illud dissolvitur Chrjsippi Stoici 
aliorumque veterum, apud Ciceronem de Fato ; quo 
probare sunt conati, futura omnia esse necessaria et 
quasi fatalia, eo quod necesse sit ea aut vera esse aut 
falsa. Disjunctio quidem, ut diximus, necessaria est; 
pars tamen disjunctionis alterutra talis erit, qualis causa 
ejus est; sive necessaria, sive conting-ens, i. e. vel libera 
vel fortuita. 

Atque baec de necessaria disjunctione, cujus judicium 
scientia est. 

" Disjunctio autem saepe est ex conditione." 

" Ut si quoeratur utrum Cleon venerit an Socrates, 
quia ita pactum si alterutrum tantum venturum esse." 

" Itaque si disjunctio sit contingens (contingens 
autem est, si partes medium habent) non est absolute 
vera, sed tantum opinabilis." 

Qualis est frequenter in hominum usu. Ut Caesar 
ad matrem : " hodie me aut pontificem videbis, aut 
exulem." Ovid, in epistola Leandri, 

" Aut mihi continget felix audacia salvo, 
Aut mors solliciti finis amoris erit." 



CAP. IX. 

De Syllogismo et ejus Partibus. 

Atque ejusmodi dispositio est axiomatica sive noe- 
tica axiomatis per se manifesti : sequitur dianoetica. 

" Dianoetica est cum aliud axioma ex alio deduci- 
tur." 

Vox Graeca diavoia, mentis et rationis discursum sig- 
nificat; qui turn fitmaxime cum sententia alia ex alia 
ratiocinando deducitur. 

" Dispositio dianoetica est syllogismus aut metho- 
dus." 

" Syllogismus est dispositio dianoetica qua quaestio 
cum argumento ita disponitur, ut posito antecedente, 
necessario concludatur." 

Est dianoia: est ergo discursus mentis ac rationis 
quo aliud ex alio ratiocinando colligitur : earn ratio- 
cinantis quasi collectionem vox ipsa syllogismi signifi- 
cat: quae quidem collectio sive deductio ab intellectus 
humani imbecilitate profecta est : quae cum rerum ve- 



ritatem et falsitatem primo intuitu perspicere in axio- 
mate non potest, ad syllogismum se confert, in quo de 
consequentia et inconsequentia earum judicare possit. 

" Cum itaque axioma dubium est, quaestio efficitur, 
et ad ejus fidem tertio argumento est opus cum quaes- 
tione collocato." 

Quaestionis partes vulgo termini appellantur; et an- 
tecedens quidem minor terminus, consequens major ter- 
minus dicitur : quia antecedente latius fere est conse- 
quens. Tertium autem argumentum ab Aristot. medium 
et medius terminus dicitur. Non quod semper medius 
inter duos quaestionis terminos in syllogismo collocetur, 
sed eo quod quasi arbiter de consensu eorum inter se 
aut dissensu, disceptat et judicat. Atque haec sunt tria 
ilia argumenta, ex quibus solis omnis syllogismus cou- 
ficitur ; duo scilicet questionis, et tertium argumentum ; 
quae vulgo " tres termini" dicuntur. Termini autem 
isti non semper simplices sunt voces, sed orationes non- 
nunquarn longiuscuiae ; nee semper casibus rectis, sed 
obliquis interdum efferuntur. 

" Partes syllogismi duae sunt; antecedens et conse- 
quens. Antecedens syllogismi pars est, in qua quaestio 
cum argumento disponitur." 

" Syllogismi antecedens partes duas habet, proposi- 
tionem et assumptionem : quae vulgo praemissae nomi- 
nantur. 

" Propositio est prior pars antecedentis, qua quaesti- 
onis saltern consequens cum argumento disponitur." 

"Saltern;" quia nonnunquam tota quaestio cum 
argumento in propositione disponitur, ut infra patebit. 

Propositio vulgo " major" dicitur; vel quia majo- 
rem vim habet (est enim argumentationis quasi basis 
et fundamentum) vel quia major terminus, i. e. conse- 
quens quaestionis in propositione collocatur. 

" Assumptio est secunda pars antecedentis, quae as- 
sumitur e propositione." 

Assumitur enim inde vel tertium argumentum vel 
tota assumptio, ut infra perspicietur. Hinc itaque ar- 
gumentum tertium, sive medius terminus, dignoscitur, 
quod bis ponitur ante conclusionem. Assumptio vulgo 
" minor propositio" dicitur, vel quia minorem vim ob- 
tinet, ex propositione videlicet deductam ; vel quia 
minor terminus, i. e. antecedens quaestionis, in ea saepe 
disponi soleat, non semper, ut infra intelligemus. 

" Syllogismi autem pars consequens est, quae com- 
plectitur partes quaestionis, eamque concludit. Unde 
complectio et conclusio dicitur." 

Hinc sequitur, conclusionem et verbis et terminorum 
ordine, eandem plane esse cum proposita quaestione 
oportere ; alioqui syllogismi fidem claudicare, et quasi 
depositum non reddere. Secundo hinc intelligitur ilia 
regula, "tertium argumentum sive medius terminus 
nunquam ingreditur conclusionem." Ratio est, q u * a 
medium non est id quod concluditur, neque de quo 
quicquam ; sed id, quo adhibito, quaestio concluditur, 
vel duo ejus termini inter se consentire aut dissentire 
judicantur. Medius itaque terminus aut ulla pars ejus 
in conclusione si sit, syllogismum vitiosum facit ; id 
facillime deprehenditur, si non solum quaestio propo- 
sita, sed proeterea aliquid quod bis erat in praemissis 
repetitum, conclusionem intrat. 



902 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



Cum autem in onini syllogismo, ut ex ejus defini- 
tione constat, quaestio cum argumento ita disponatur, 
ut posito antecedente, i. e. concessis praemissis, neces- 
sario concludatur : quao necessitas non consequents, 
sed consequentiae, non materiae, sed formae est ; hinc 
intelligitur, nullani in syllogismi forma difFerentiam 
esse contingentis et necessarii, sed sjllogismum omnem 
necessario concludere, teste etiam Aristot. Prior. 1, 33, 
eamque necessitatem ex legitima dispositione quaes- 
tionis cum tertio argumeuto, non ex necessaria partium 
in antecedente dispositarum veritate pendere. Unde 
et illi redarguuntur, qui vulgo dividunt sjllogismum in 
dialecticum et apodicticum, probabilem scilicet et de- 
monstrativum, sive necessarium, ciim et ilia distinctio 
axiomatum sit, et syllogismi consequentia tarn in con- 
tingenti, immo in falso necessaria sit, quam in vero et 
necessario; immo ex falsis praemissis conclusio nunc 
vera nunc falsa necessario sequatur : ut, " omnis leo 
est quadrupes: Socrates est leo ; ergo Socrates est qua- 
drupes." In quo simile quiddam habet syllogismus 
axiomati connexo, et fortasse originem ab eo ducit: 
nam ut connexum necessarium esse potest ex falsis 
partibus, modo ipsa connexio sit vera ; ut, " si leo est 
quadrupes, et Socrates leo, Socrates necessario est 
quadrupes ; " sic syllogismus necessario concludit ex 
veris quidem partibus nil nisi verum, ex falsis et falsum 
et verum, modo ipsa dispositio sit legitima. 

Quod autem Aristotelici syllogismum dividunt in 
verum et falsum sive apparentem; verum, cujus ma- 
teria vera est; in dialecticum sive probabilem, cujus 
materia contingens est, et apodicticum sive demonstra- 
tivum ac necessarium, eumque vel perfectum, quae vo- 
catur Sion sive a. priori, quo accidens de subjecto per 
causam vel efficientem vel finalem positam quidem 
affirmatur, remotam vero negatur; et in imperfectum 
quae vocatur rov iin sive a posteriori, quo accidens de 
subjecto per effectum probatur ; haec quidem divisio, 
qualiscunque est, cum axiomatis propria sit, et vel ad 
formam syllogismi ut in dialectico et apodictico, vel 
omnino ad artem, ut in falso sive sophistico, nihil per- 
tineat, melius rejicitur. 



APPENDIX. 

De Paraloyismis qui hac generali doctrina syllogismi 
redarguuntur. 

Atque haec syllogismi doctrina generalis fuit. Et 
rectum quidem index est sui et obliqui, et veritatis 
doctrina recte tradita, errorem omnem ipsa per se in- 
dicat atque etiam redarguit. Verum cum non sit ea 
cujusque hominis perspicacia aut ingenii felicitas, ut 
vel omnes technas adversarii animadvertere ex ipsis 
regulis, vel omnes artis regulas memoria tenere semper 
queat, alienum non erit de praecipuis captionibus quae 
committere in hanc generalem syllogismi doctrinam 
solent, seorsim hie aliquid monere. 

Cum itaque syllogismi doctrina generali doceamur, 
tria duntaxat argumenta sive tres terminos in syllo- 
gismo disponi oportere, hinc facile perspicuum est, 



peccare omnem syllogismum in hanc doctrinam gene- 
ralem, in quo termini vel plures ternis disponantur, 
vel pauciores: termini autem non tarn sunt verba, 
quam verborum sensus et significationes. 

Peccatur autem terminis pluribus, vel apertius vel 
tectius. Apertius (ut puerilia de accentu, figura dic- 
tionis, plurium, quae dicitur interrogationum, et similia 
omittam) cum tres termini distincte numerantur in 
propositione : ut, " qui est bonus et dialecticus, is est 
bonus dialecticus ; Cleanthes est bonus et dialecticus ; 
ergo, est bonus dialecticus." Haec fallacia composi- 
tionis dicitur; quia divisa male componit. Contra; 
" qui est bonus dialecticus, is est bonus et dialecticus ; 
Cleanthes," &c. Haec fallacia est divisionis; quia 
composita male dividit; vel quia composita proponit, 
divisa concludit. Idem committitur etiam sine con- 
junctione : ut, "bonus citharaedus est bonus ; Nero est 
bonus citharaedus ; ergo, bonus." Bonus duplici sig- 
nificatione cum " citharaedo " disponitur in proposi- 
tione; quatuor ergo termini. Sic etiam cum non 
iisdem verbis aliud plane proponitur, aliud assumitur : 
ut, " dextera Dei est ubique ; humanitas Christi sedet 
ad dextram Dei; ergo, humanitas Christi est ubique." 

Tectius vero peccatur, vel " homonymia," vel " am- 
phibolia." 

Homonymia sive aequivocatio est, primo, cum sim- 
plicis vocis seu termini unius, significatio duplex poni- 
tur : ut, " leo est bestia ; leo est papa ; ergo, papa est 
bestia." Secundo, cum argumentum in una parte pro- 
pria, in altera tropice ponitur ; vel in una parte pro 
reipsa, in altera pro artificiali aliqua notione rei. 
Hujusmodi sunt artium vocabula : ut, " potens est 
participium ; rex est potens ; ergo, rex est participium." 
" Animal est genus; homo est animal ; ergo, homo est 
genus." 

Amphibolia sive ambiguitas vel in syntaxi est, vel 
in ipsa re. In syntaxi ; ut, " pecunia quae est Caesa- 
ris, possidetur a Caesare ; haec pecunia est Caesaris; 
ergo, possidetur a Caesare." Ambiguitas in ipsa re, 
quae et " prava expositio " vocatur, fit, ciim afFectio rei 
non eadem assumitur quae proponitur; mutata autem 
affectione, mutatur argumentum ; ut, " quas carnes 
emisti, comedisti ; crudas emisti ; ergo, crudas come- 
disti." Hie propositio et de carnibus et de substantia 
carnium loquitur ; assumptio, de qualitate earum : 
dicendum ergo erat, " quales carnes emisti," &c. 
Eadem est fallacia cum id quod in " abstracto," quod 
aiunt, proponitur, in " concrete " assumitur : ut " can- 
didum est disgregativum visus ; paries est candidus; 
ergo, paries est disgregativum visus." Etiam cum in 
ipsa copula quartus terminus latet : ut " fortitudo non 
est dementia ; principis est fortitudo ; ergo, principis 
non est dementia." Hie verbum " est " in majore 
" esse/' in minore " habere " significat ; casuumque 
mutationem rectorum in obliquos inducit; qui quatuor 
esse terminos declarant. " Nullus puer diu vixit : 
Nestor fuit puer ; ergo, Nestor non diu vixit." Hie 
major de eo qui est, minor de eo qui fuit puer loqui- 
tur; qui duo termini sunt. Quatuor denique sunt 
termini cum plus est in conclusione quam in prae- 
missis. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



903 



Pauciores autem termini sunt ternis, ciim tertium 
argumentum deest. Hoc fit quoties vel idem sensu 
vel seque obscurum pro argumento sumitur ; (idem 
enim non est tertium ; seque obscurum non est argu- 
mentum) quae " petitio principii," vel, ejus quod erat 
in principio nominatur; quia postulatur ipsa quaestio 
ut gratis, i. e. sine argumento concedatur: ut, " ensis 
est acutus ; gladius est ensis ; ergo, gladius est acutus." 
"Vel, " quod omnis homo est, id singuli homines sunt; 
omnis homo est Justus; ergo, singuli homines sunt 
justi." Hue refer jactatum illud, " quae non amisisti 
habes, cornua non amisisti, ergo cornua habes." Ha- 
bere et amittere privantia sunt et quidem sine medio 
quatenus talia, ergo non amittere et habere sunt idem, 
null us itaque hie est medius terminus, sed perinde ac 
si diceres ; quae habes, habes, cornua habes, erg'o habes. 
Hujus generis est, ciim tertium argumentum non inte- 
grum e propositione assumitur: ut, " omnes apostoli 
sunt duodecim ; Petrus et Joannes sunt apostoli ; ergo, 
Petrus et Joannes sunt duodecim." Hie " omnes" 
collective sumptum, pars est tertii argumenti, quod 
totum erat in assumptione assumendum. Ad hoc so- 
phisma referrendae sunt denique omnes conversiones 
enuntiationum ; quoties rem dubiam non argumento 
sive medio termino, sed conversione sola probare con- 
tendunt : de qua supra monuimus. Atque his fere 
modis in formam syllogismi generalem peccatur. 

Materia syllogismi vitiosa est, quoties antecedentis 
pars vel altera vel utraque est falsa : id fit tot modis, 
quot sunt argumentorum genera. Quorum ciim Veritas 
turn falsitas quanquam in axiomate judicatur, propterea 
tamen quod argumenta ipsa in syllogismo disponuntur, 
qui modi praecipue nominantur a dialectics vel materia 
sola, vel partim materia, partim forma vitiosi, eos hie 
breviter attingemus. 

Primus est materiae solius; diciturque " non causae 
ut causae." Causae autem nomen hie usurpatur pro 
quovis argumento, etiam non effecti ut efFecti,non sub- 
jecti ut subjecti, et sic deinceps. Hanc captionem 
singulorum argumentorum definitiones facile refellunt. 

Secundus est quae vocatur fallacia " accidentis," sive 
quod idem est, a dicto secundum quid ad dictum sim- 
pliciter : vel contra, a dicto simpliciter ad dictum se- 
cundum quid; quoties id quod adjuncti est, subjecto 
attribuitur ; aut contra quod subjecti, adjuncto : ut, 
"quae non restituendasunt domino furioso, non restitu- 
enda sunt domino ; "arma non restituenda sunt domi- 
no furioso; ergo, non domino:" vel contra: quae 
" restituenda sunt domino, etiam domino furioso ; 
arma domino; ergo, domino fun'oso." In his propositio 
semper falsa est. 

Tertius est " ignoratio elenchi ;" (" elenchus" autem 
est redargutio quaelibet sive vera sive falsa) cum leges 
oppositionis non observantur eidem numero, secundum 
idem, ad idem, et eodem tempore : ut " caeci vident ; 
qui carent visu, sunt caeci ; ergo, qui carent visu, 
vident." Propositio distinguenda est ; nempe, quifue- 
runt caeci, nunc vident. Sic ; " is qui non videt caecus 
est; dormiens non videt; est ergo caecus." Ad idem 
non est : propositio enim de potentia, assumptio de actu 
videndi loquitur ; vel quatuor sunt termini, et prava ex- 



positio dici potest. Aliis ignorautia elenchi est, cum 
vel plane mutatur et torquetur status controversiae, vel 
conclusio adversarii non directe opponitur nostrae thesi 
secundum canones legitimae oppositionis. 

Quartus est fallacia " consequentis," sive comparato- 
rum, quae e contrariis quidem sunt orta, sed parium 
collatione tractata, cum disputatur contraria esse con- 
trariorum consequentia : quam regulam esse fallacem, 
1. l,c. 18, copiose ostenditur: ut, "quae eidem aequalia, 
inter se aequalia ; ergo quae eidem sunt inasqualia, 
inter se sunt inaequalia." Ut, 2, et 2, sunt inaequales 
ad 5; ergo sunt inter se inaequales. Duo latera quad- 
rati symmetra non sunt diagono ; ergo non sunt inter se. 



CAP. X. 

De Syllogismo simplici contracto. 

"Syllogismus est simplex aut compositus. 

" Simplex, ubi pars consequens quaestionis disponitur 
in propositione, pars antecedens in assumptione." 

Ut syllogismi forma generalis erat dispositio quaesti- 
onis cum argumento, ita specialis quaeque dispositio 
quaestionis cum argumento cujusque speciei forma est, 
Ex. gr. " homo est animal : Socrates est homo ; ergo 
Socrates est animal." Hinc facile perspicitur, si 
quaestionis terminus major non disponatur in propo- 
sitione majore, minor in minore, syllogismum non esse 
legitimum. Quod si aliquando usu venit, ut antece- 
dens quaestionis in propositione et consequens in as- 
sumptione disponi videatur, intelligere debemus syllo- 
gismi partes inverti : ut, ," Socrates est homo : homo 
est animal ; ergo Socrates est animal." 

Sequitur jam syllogismi simplicis distinctio in ad- 
junctos modos, qui ex partium, i. e. axiomatum afFec- 
tione oriuntur. 

" Syllogismus simplex est affirmatus e partib. omnib. 
affirmatis. Negatus ex negata antecedentis parte al- 
tera cum complexione." Non ex omnib. negatis, ut 
affirmatus ex omnibus affirmatis ; nisi enim argumen- 
tum tertium cum altera parte quaestionis consentiat, 
nihil probat. 

Ut autem syllogismorum tota ratio intelligatur 
(quod hoc loco fieri commodissime posse arbitror) 
sciendum est earn duab. praecipue legibus fundari ; 
altera parium, altera generis ex loco petita. Ex 
parium loco ; " quae conveniunt in uno aliquo ter- 
tio, conveniunt inter se ; et contra, quae non in 
uno tertio, non inter se." Ex loco generis ; " quod 
generi generaliter attribuitur, id omnibus etiam attri- 
buitur speciebus quae sub eo genere continentur." 
Haec regula vocatur in scholiis, " dictum de omni et 
nullo." Ilia a geometricis primum sensu praeeunte fa- 
cilius inventa est; et praecipitur Aristot. 1, Prior, c. 1. 
Ut enim illic norma, " si duab. lineis aeque couveniat, 
eas lineas demonstrat con venire inter se sive esse 
sequales;" eodem plane modo medius terminus si duob. 
conclusionis terminis conveniat, velut norma demon- 



904 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



strat, convenire duos illos inter se, et contra. Itaque 
si quaestio affirmanda est, quaerendum est per omnes 
inventionis locos argumentum quod utrique parti quaes- 
tionis conveniat : si neganda est, quaerendum quod 
uhi parti conveniat, ab altera dissentiat ; nam si ab 
utraque parte dissentit, tertium argumentum esse non 
poterit, nihil n. probabit. Ex. gr. quaeritur "an 
Socrates sit animal?" Si affirmanda est baec quaestio, 
ad ilia duo argumenta quae in quaestione sunt, " So- 
crates et animal," quaerendum aliquod tertium argu- 
mentum est, quod cum utraque parte quaestionis con- 
sentiat. Ejusmodi autem est homo: nam homo 
convenit cum " animali," ut species cum suo genere ; 
cum Socrate, ut genus cum sua specie ; ergo " Socrates 
et animal" conveniunt inter se; adeoque " Socrates est 
animal." Sin neganda est quoestio, ut, " Socrates non 
est bestia," quaerendum est argumentum tertium, quod 
ab altera tantum parte dissentiat. Hujusmodi autem 
est " homo : homo n. non est bestia, at Socrates est 
homo; ergo Socrates non est bestia." Sin medius cum 
neutro quaestionis termino conveniat, neutrius norma 
esse potest ; neque ostendit, inter se conveniant, necne ; 
neque " de omni " dicit neque " de nullo ; " adeoque 
nee probat quicquam nee refellit. Unde ilia regula ; 
" ex utraque praemissa negata nihil concluditur : Aris- 
tot. 1, Prior, c. 24, ut " nullus lapis est animal; nullus 
homo est lapis, nullus igitur homo est animal." Ex- 
cipitur tamen ab hac regula, si medius terminus sit ne- 
gatus, vel duplex negatio sit in majore : ut, " quod non 
sentit, non est animal : planta non sentit ; ergo planta 
non est animal." Hie enim major, quae videtur 
esse negata, aequipollet affirmatae ; eademque est acsi 
diceret, " omne quod sentit est animal : " negationes- 
que istae topicae potius et infinitae, quam axiomaticoe 
sunt, partiumque negationes non totius axiomatis, hoc 
potius modo enuntiandi, " quod est non sentiens, est 
non animal : " et hoc affirmatum plane axioma est. 
Sed hac de re plura dicemus infra cap. 12, ad secun- 
dam speciem explicati. Cur autem complexio, negata 
antecedentis parte altera, negata quoque esse debet, 
ratio est, trila ilia regula, " conclusio sequitur partem 
debiliorem :" negatumque debilius est affirmato, parti- 
culare generali, contingens necessario. Regulae au- 
tem ratio est, quia conclusio est praemissarum quasi 
effectum : nullum autem efFectum est toto genere dig- 
nius aut fortius sua causa. Fallit ergo hie paralogis- 
mus : " qui non differt a bruto differt a Sophronisci 
filio : Socrates non differt a Sophronisci filio ; ergo non 
a bruto." Htec conclusio non sequitur, uti debuit, as- 
sumptionem negatam, sed propositionem affirmatam : 
et enim " non differt a bruto" non propositionis totius, 
sed antecedentis duntaxat ejus est negatio: idemque 
valet, acsi affirmatum sic esset; "qui idem est cum 
bruto." Sequitur autem conclusio sive consequens 
partem antecedentis negatam non affirmatam, quia si 
partes conclusions non consentiunt in argumento tertio, 
non consentiunt inter se : sequitur partem specialem, 
non generalem, quia genus concludit speciem, non spe- 
cies genus; juxta illud superius dictum " de omni et 
nullo/' 

" Svllogism us simplex (nimirum qui ex simplicibus 



axiomatis constat) est vel generalis, vel specialis, vel 
proprius." 

" Generalis e propositione et assumptione generali- 
bus." 

Non ex generali etiam conclusione, ut patebit infra. 

" Specialis est ex altera tantum generali." 

Haec enim regula firmissima quoque est, " ex utraque 
praemissa particulari nihil concluditur." Exigit enim 
dictum " de omni et nullo " partem antecedentis unam 
saltern generalem : nee non in duabus particularibus 
quatuor sunt termini: cum enim individua, quae vo- 
cant, " vaga," particulares propositiones faciunt, fit ut 
de alio subjecto major, de alio minor fere loquatur: ut, 
"quoddam animal est homo: quoddam animal est 
brutum ; ergo quoddam brutum est homo. Quidam 
sunt divites : quidam sunt docti ; ergo quid am docti 
sunt divites." 

" Proprius est ex utraque propria." 

Cur autem ex utraque propria cum non ex utraque 
particulari, quia nempe haec certa sunt et de eodem 
dicta, ilia vaga " ut supra." 

Hinc liquet, cur ut axioma, ita syllogismus specialis 
in particularem et proprium divida non potuerit, cum 
syllogismus proprius non sit species syllogismi specia- 
lis. Quare autem partes omnes non sint propriae, i. e. 
axiomata propria, infra etiam apparebit. Et syllogis- 
mus quidem proprius, etsi ab Aristotele neglectus, ab 
aliis rejectus sit, usum tamen frequentissimum habet. 

" Simplex syllogismus est contractus partibus, vel 
explicatus." 

Aristoteles in tres figuras dividit syllogismum ; pri- 
mam, secundam, et tertiam. Verum hanc Rami di- 
chotomiam esse commodiorem et naturae ordiui aptius 
respondere res ipsa demonstrabit. 

" Contractus syllogismus est, cum exemplum pro 
argumento ita subjicitur particulari quaestioni, ut utram- 
que ejus partem antecedere et assumptione affirmatum 
esse intelligatur." 

Exempli gratia: " quaedam confidentia est virtus, ut 
constantia. Quaedam confidentia non est virtus, ut au- 
dacia." 

In his, ut cernimus, primo quaestio particularis dun- 
taxat proponitur; generale enim, ut in quit Aristot. pr. 
1, 6, et 2, 7, in hac specie, quae tertia nimirum Arist. 
figura est, concludere non licet : addo etiam, neque 
proprium ; quae ratio est, cur syllogismus generalis non 
ex omnibus generalibus et proprium non ex omnibus 
propriis definitur, cum in hac specie consequens sive 
conclusio debeat semper esse particularis, etiamsi utra- 
que pars antecedentis generalis aut propria fuerit : 
unde sequitur, particulares duntaxat quaestiones in hac 
specie concludi. Deinde exemplum speciale pro argu- 
mento subjicitur sive subjungitur, ut " constantia." 

Hujus autem syllogismi dispositio specialis htec esse 
intelligitur, si contractum explicamus (tametsi nun- 
quam fere nisi contractus in usu occurrit) ut exemplum 
sive argumentum tertium, primo utramque partem 
quaestionis in praemissis, quod aiunt, antecedat, sive 
praemissaa utriusque subjectum sit. 

" Hie autem argumentum sive exemplum utramque 
partem quaestionis antecedere intelligitur," quia quaes- 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



905 



tionis pars utraque argumento sive exemplo attribui- 
tur, i. e. de eo vel affirmatur vel negatur ; perinde quasi 
explicate diceretur, " constantiam esse virtutem, et esse 
confidentiam ; ergo quandam confidentiam esse virtu- 
tem." Item, " audaciam non esse virtutem, et tamen 
esse confidentiam; ideoque quandam confidentiam non 
esse virtutem." Exemplum erg-o sive argumentum ter- 
tium in contracto, etsi quaestioni subjicitur, tamen si 
contractum explicas, et propositions et assumptionis 
antecedens sive subjectum esse reperitur. Est autem 
contractus entbymematis quaedam species, quae, cum 
explicatur, in peculiarem quandam syllogismi formam 
resolvitur, ideoque erat specialiter docenda. Secundo, 
postulat hujus syllogismi dispositio, ut assumptio sem- 
per affirmetur. Cum enim tertium argumentum spe- 
ciale exemplum sit, adeoque species antecedentis sive 
minoris termini quaestionis qui in assumptione semper 
disponitur, atque ita antecedens sit tertii argumenti 
genus; necesse est, genus de specie semper affirm ari. 

" Atque ista expositio quaestionis per exemplum 
quod subjicitur, principium syllogismi partibus expli- 
cati ab Aristot. 1, pr. 6, &c. efficitur, tanquam per se 
pleno syllogismi judicio clarior et illustrior." 

Prior ergo est ordine syllogismus contractus explica- 
to, cum quia clarior, turn quia simplicior: est autem 
ita clarus, ut mens eum, sicuti est contractus, ante per- 
cipiat, quam partibus explicari possit; ideoque usus 
disserendi contracta hac forma contentus, formam ex- 
plicatam rarissime solet adbibere. Claritas autem ejus 
eximia vel bine perspicitur; quod cum duo duntaxat 
hujus speciei sint sopbismata, eorum inanitatem con- 
tracta hujus syllogismi forma facilius detegit quam ex- 
plicata, ut infra ostendetur. 

Ad tollendum itaque dubitationem, non hie supplen- 
dae syllogismi partes, ut in enthymemate, sed contra- 
hendae; contractum quippe explicatio hie est explica- 
tes, et ab judicio syllogismi ad axiomatis clarius judi- 
cium hie est quasi provocandum et regrediendum. 

Quod ad modos attinet bujus speciei, si contractam 
tantummodo formam spectamus, pluribus non est opus 
quam duobus, uno affirmato, altero negato : quia non 
refert, utrum exemplum subalterna sit species an spe- 
cialissima. Sin explicatam hanc speciem spectamus, 
plures habet modos quam species reliquiae : quatuor 
autem sunt affirmati, totidem negati ; quorum duo 
sunt generales, quatuor speciales, duo proprii : quatuor 
autem sunt in hac specie speciales modi, cum in reli- 
quis bini tantum sint ; quia in hac specie propositio 
potest esse vel generalis vel particularis, in reliquis 
vero nunquam particulars est. Exempla haec sunt. 

Primus modus est affirmatus generalis : ut, " con- 
stantia est virtus : constantia est confidentia ; ergo 
quaedam confidentia est virtus." 

Secundus est negatus generalis : ut, " audacia non 
est virtus : audacia est confidentia; ergo quaedam con- 
fidentia non est virtus." 

Affirmatis specialis duplex est; tertius et quartus. 
Tertius, cujus propositio est particulars : ut, " quidam 
sapiens est dives : omnis sapiens est laudabilis ; ergo 
quidam laudabilis est dives." 

Quartus, cujus propositio est generalis : ut, " omnis 



sapiens est laudabilis, quidam sapiens est pauper ; 
ergo quidam pauper est laudabilis." 

Negatus item specialis est duplex; quintus et sex- 
tus. Quintus, cujus propositio est particularis : ut, 
" quidam stultus non est fortunatus : omnis stultus et 
contemptus ; ergo quidam contemptus non est fortu- 
natus." 

Sextus, cujus propositio est generalis: ut, " stultus 
non est beatus : quidam stultus est fortunatus; ergo 
quidam fortunatus non est beatus." 

Reliqui duo proprii sunt, cum exemplum est species 
specialissima sive individuum. Affirmatus est, " So- 
crates est philosophus: Socrates est homo: ergo qui- 
dam homo est philosophus." Negatus est, " Thersites 
non est philosophus: Thersites est homo ; ergo quidam 
homo non est philosophus." 

Contracti syllogismi duo vitia sive sophismata sunt, 
quae definitione praecaventur. Umim, si quaestio sive 
conclusio particularis non sit : ut " omnis homo est 
rationalis : omnis homo est animal ; ergo omne animal 
est rationale," ratio est, quia id quod non generaliter 
attribuitur in assumptione (non enim omne animal est 
homo) non potest esse generale subjectum conclusio- 
nis. Alterum est cum assumptio est negata : ut, 
" homo est animal : homo non est bestia ; ergo bestia 
non est animal." Quae duo sophismata in contracta 
hujus syllogismi forma, facilius, ut supra dixi, dete- 
guntur, et primo statim intuitu ridentur : ut, " omne 
animal est rationale, ut homo : quaedam bestia non est 
animal, ut homo." 



CAP. XI. 

De Prima Specie Syllogismi simplicis explicati. 

Syllogismus explicatus praeter ipsum nomen aliam 
definitionem non desiderat. Dicitur " explicatus," 
non quod semper omnibus occurrat partibus explicatus, 
sic enim vix millesimus quisque syllogismus occurrit, 
sed quod partes non modo in forma integra, verum 
etiam in entbymemate semper distinctas habet. 

" In syllogismo explicato propositio est generalis 
aut propria; et conclusio similis antecedenti aut parti 
debiliori." 

Similis, nempe et qualitate et quantitate : antece- 
denti, utrique scilicet ejus parti, propositioni et assump- 
tioni, si ipsi inter se similes sunt sive aflfirmatae sive 
generales sive propriae, sin dissimiles, parti debiliori, 
ut supra. 

" Syllogismi explicati species duae sunt. Prima ubi 
argumentum semper sequitur, negatum in altera 
parte." 

Haec prima species explicati, " figura secunda" ab 
Aristotele dicitur. Prior autem haec species efficitur, 
quia dispositio ejus est simplicior, ut ex altera specie 
collata comperiemus. Sequitur autem semper argu- 
mentum partem utramque quaestionis, consequentem 
in propositione, antecedentem in assumptione : unde 



906 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



ab Aristot. p. 1,5, " praedicatum de ambabus" dicitur. 
Negatum autem dicitur argumentum in altera parte 
quia pars altera vel propositio nempe vel assumptio 
semper est negata. Unde cum negata etiam conclusio 
semper necessario sit, sequitur, hujus speciei modos 
o nines negates esse, et negatas duntaxat quaestiones 
hac specie concludi, quae omnis in refutationibus est 
posita. 

Modi hujus syllogismi sex sunt ; et omnes quidem, 
ut diximus, negati ; duo generales, duo speciales, duo 
proprii. 

Generalis primus, cuj us propositio negatur: " Tur- 
batus non bene utitur ratione : sapiens bene utitur ra- 
tione; sapiens igitur non est turbatus." Hoc exem- 
plum in sua crypsi sic apud Ciceronem est, 3 Tuscul. 
" Quemadmodum oculus conturbatus non est probe 
affectus ad suum munus fungendum, et reliquae partes 
totumque corpus a statu cum est motum, deest officio 
suo ac muneri ; sic conturbatus animus non est probe 
affectus ad exequendum munus suum. Munus autem 
animi est ratione uti : et sapientis animus ita semper 
affectus est, ut ratione uptime utatur; nunquam igitur 
est perturbatus." Crypsis hie unica redundantia est : 
nam ordo partium rectus est, nee ulla pars deest : pro- 
syllogismus unus est propositionis : illustratur enim 
propositio similitudine plena, cuj us redditio est ipsius 
propositionis sententia. 

Generalis secundus, cuj us assumptio negatur : "Res 
mortalis est composita : animus non est compositus ; 
animus igitur non est mortalis." Hie syllogismus 
crypsi involutus est apud Cic. 1 Tuscul. quo is judicat 
animum immortalem esse. "In animi autem cogni- 
tione," inquit, " dubitare non possumus, nisi forte in 
physicis plumbei sumus, quin nihil sit animis admix- 
tum, nihil concretum, nihil coagmentatum, nihil du- 
plex. Quod cum ita sit, certe nee secerni, nee dividi, 
nee discerpi, nee distrahi potest ; nee interire igitur : 
est enim interitus quasi discessus et secretio ac diremp- 
tus earum partium quae ante interitum junctione aliqua 
tenebantur." In hoc exemplo partium ordo invertitur: 
nam postremo in loco propositionis sententia ponitur, 
interitum esse scilicet rerum compositarum, assumptio 
occurrit prima, " in animi autem cognitione," &c. Et 
ornatur synonymis : conclusio media est atque a causa 
illustratur, " ergo nee secerni, <kc, nee interire igitur." 

Specialis primus est, cujus propositio negatur: " li- 
vidus non est magnanimus, Maximus est: Maximus 
igitur non est lividus." Hoc judicio Ovidius 3 de Pont, 
eleg. 3, concludit. 

"Livor, iners vitium, mores non exit in altos ; 

Utque latensima vipera serpit humo. 
Mens tua sublimis supra genus eminet ipsum. 

Grandius ingenio nee tibi nomen inest. 
Ergo, alii noceant, miseris, optentque timeri, 

Tinctaque mordaci spicula felle gerant. 
At tua supplicibus domus est assueta juvandis ; 

In quorum numero me precor esse velis." 

Hujus etiam exempli crypsis redundantia sola est : 
propositio suos hahet prosyllogismos, et livorpro livido 
ponitur, adjunctum pro subjecto ; et illustratur a con- 



trario abjecto ; isque a simili, "vipera:" assumptio, 
i. e. Maximi magnanimitas, illustratur partim a minori 
totius generis magnanimitate, partim a notatione no- 
minis ejus, i. e. Maximi ; cujus parem esse animi mag- 
nitudinem demonstrat: conclusio negat Maximum esse 
lividum, partim quia dissimilis sit lividorum, quos de- 
scribit ab effectis, "ergo alii noceant," &c. ; partim, 
quia ipse faciat quae magnanimus consuevit, qui dis- 
paratus a livido est; " at tua supplicibus," &c. 

Specialis secundus est, cujus assumptio negatur: 
"saltator est luxuriosus: Mursena non est luxuriosus; 
Muraena igitur non est saltator." Cic. pro Mureen. 
" Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanet : ne- 
que in solitudine neque in convivio moderato atque 
honesto. Intempestivi convivii, amoeni loci, multarum 
deliciarum comes est extrema saltatio. Tu mihi arripis 
id quod necesse est omnium vitiorum esse postremum : 
relinquis ilia quibus remotis, hoc vitium omnino esse 
non potest: nullum turpe convivium, non amor, non 
comessatio, non libido, non sumptus ostenditur : et cum 
ea non reperiantur quae voluptatis nomen habent, 
quaeque vitiosa sunt, in quo ipsam luxuriam reperire 
non potes, in eo te umbramluxuriae reperturum putas?" 
Hujus etiam syllogismi partes prosyllogismis exornan- 
tur. Propositionis sententia his verbis continetur, " in- 
tempestivi convivii," &c, quamprosyllogismus praece- 
dens illustrat a contrariis, " nemo fere saltat sobrius," 
&c; assumptio per partes explicatur, "nullum turpe 
convivium," &c, eta minoribus quibusdam illustratur: 
cujus etiam prosyllogismus preecedit, reprehenslo nempe 
Catonis, quod postularet consequens, non probato ante- 
cedente : postremo loco ponitur conclusio, quae negat 
Mureenam esse saltatorem repetendo quaedam quae in 
assumptione praecesserant ; et interrogatione fortius 
negando. 

Hoc judicii modo Ovidius 1 Trist. eleg. 1, tripliciter 
concludit dum carminum suorum excusationem expo- 
nit : 

" Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno ; 

Nubila sunt subitis tempora nostra malis. 
Carmina secessum scribentis et otia quserunt. 

Me mare, me venti, me fera jactat hyems. 
Carminibus metus omnis abest ; ego perditus ensem 

Heesurum jugulo jam puto jamque meo. 
Hcec quoque quse facio, judex mirabitur sequus ; 

Scriptaque cum venia qualiacunque leget." 

Tres hie syllogismi sunt qui in unum sic reduci pos- 
sunt : " Ut quis possit carmina bona scribere, oportet is 
laetus sit, otiosus, securus : ego nee laetus sum, nee 
otiosus, nee securus ; ergo bona carmina non scribo." 
Pro assumptionibus prosyllogismi a dissentaneis et im- 
pedientibus causis ponuntur. Deinde conclusio sequi- 
tur, non ipsa quidem sed ejus consectarium ; mirum 
esse si bona sunt ; sed potius cum venia esse legenda, 
quia non sunt bona. 

Proprius primus est, cujus propositio negatur; ut, 
" Agesilaus non est pictus ab Apelle : Alexander est 
pictus ab Apelle ; Alexander igitur non est Agesilaus." 

Proprius secundus est, cujus assumptio negatur : ut 
" Caesar oppressit patriam : Tullius non oppressit pa- 
triam ; ergo Tullius non est Caesar." 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



907 



Sophismata hie duo sunt : quorum unum utrique 
explicate speciei commune est, alterum primse speciei 
proprium. Commune est, cum propositio est particu- 
laris ; quae ex communi explicatorum regula generalis 
aut propria esse debuit. 

Sophisma prima speciei proprium est, cum argumen- 
tum tertium in altera parte antecedentis non negatur, 
ut definitio primae speciei praecipit : unde illud vulgo 
dictum, Ex duabus affirmatis in secunda figura, nihil 
concluditur. Excipiendum tamen est, si propositio 
forte axioma reciprocum sit : ut, " homo est animal 
rationale: Socrates est animal rationale; ergo Socrates 
est homo." Verum hie potius inversio partium propo- 
sitions intelligenda est ; " animal rationale est homo :" 
atque ita ad sequentem speciem syllogismi refere- 
tur. 



CAP. XII. 

De Secunda Specie Syllogismi simplicis explicati. 

" Secunda species explicati syllogismi est, quando 
argumentum antecedit in propositione, sequitur affirma- 
tum in assumptione." 

Haec species ab Aristotele, "prima figura" dicitur; 
sed naturas ordine est postrema. Cum enim in reli- 
quis speciebus dispositio questionis cum argumento 
tertio simplex et uuiusmodi sit, in hac specie duplex 
est; in propositione enim argumentum antecedit quaes- 
tionis consequentem, utpote specialius; in assumptione 
sequitur quaestionis antecedentem, utpote generalius ; 
unde forte medius terminus in hac solum figura pro- 
prie dicitur. Quod autem propositio nunquam particu- 
laris, conclusio semper antecedenti similis aut parti 
debiliori est, id habet commune cum explicata specie 
priore ; hoc etiam cum contracta, affirmatum esse in 
assumptione; nisi in contracta, quaestionis antecedens 
ut generalius de argumento ; in hac, argumentum de 
antecedente quaestionis affirmatur. 

Haec maxime figura fundatur dicto illo " de omni et 
nullo :" antecedens enim sive subjectum propositions 
continet genus, adeoque est semper generalis, subjec- 
tum assumptions continet speciem quae de illo genere 
afRrmata. Assumptio itaque semper esse debet affirma- 
ta. Ex quo sequitur, quicquid de genere in propositi- 
one dicitur, id de eo quod in assumptione species esse 
illius generis affirmatur, in conclusione rectissime con- 
clude Quod si genus illud subjectum scil. propositio- 
ns termino infinito negante, seu topice contradictorio 
exprimitur, non uegata continuo censendaerit assump- 
tio quamvis esse videatur ; assumit n. tantummodo 
genus ex propositione termino illo topice duntaxat 
contradictorio expressum, ipsa nihil axiomatice negat: 
ut, " quisquis non credit, damnatur: aliquis Judaeus 
non credit; ergo aliquis Judaeus damnatur." Hie pro- 
positions subjectum est genus " quisquis non credit," 
i. e. omnis non credens sive infidelis : Judaeus est ex 
numero sive specie non credentium, id quod assumptio 



non negat, sed arfirmat aeque acsi sic diceret, " aliquis 
Judaeus est non credens." 

Ex hac autem affirmatione sequitur, nullum argu- 
mentum ab antecedente quaestionis dissentaneum, in 
hac secunda specie locum habere. De caetero, haec spe- 
cies neque ad particulares quaestiones, ut contracta, 
neque ad negatas, ut prior species explicati, restringi- 
tur ; sed ad omnia quaestionum genera concludenda 
recte adhibetur. 

Restant huj us speciei modi; qui quanquam partim 
affirmati sunt partim negati, plures tamen non sunt 
quam in altera specie, ubi omnes erant solum negati. 
iEqualitatis ratio est quod assumptionis affirmatio, et 
solius inde propositions negatio negatorum numerum 
minuit. Modi igitur hujus speciei sex itidem sunt; 
tres affirmati, tres item negati; utrique rursum sunt 
generates, speciales, et proprii. 

Primus est affirmatus generalis: ut, " omne justum 
est utile; omne honestum est justum, omne igitur ho- 
nestum est utile." Quod Cic. 2 Off. ita concludit: 
" quicquid justum sit, id etiam utile esse censent : item 
quod honestum, idem justum : ex quo efficitur, ut quic- 
quid honestum sit, idem sit utile." Propositions pro- 
syllogismus a testimonio Stoicorum primo in loco poni- 
tur, deinde omnes partes ordine sequuntur. Partes hujus 
syllogismi sunt axiomata relatae essentiae, quae simpli- 
cium axiomatum vim habent. 

Secundus modus est negatus generalis : " Timidus 
non est liber: avarus est timidus; avarus itaque non 
est liber." Hoc ita concluditur et judicatur ab Horatio, 
epist. 1. 1, 16 : 

" Quo melior servo, quo liberior sit avarus, 
In triviis fixum, cum se demittit ob assem, 
Non video. Nam qui cupiet, metuet quoque : porro 
Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam." 

In hoc exemplo duplex est crypsis, inversio partium 
et prosyllogismus. Primo in loco ponitur conclusio, 
eaque duabus prosyllogismis illustratur; primo a pari, 
quod " avarus" non " sit liberior servo :" secundo ab 
efFectis, quod " se demittit ob assem." Turn ponitur 
assumptio " qui cupiet, metuet quoque." Propositio 
postremo in loco ponitur, 

ef Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam." 

Sic Terent. in Eunuch, concludit et judicat: " con- 
silii expers, consilio regi non potest : amor est consilii 
expers; consilio itaque regi non potest." Syllogismus 
his verbis sequitur: 

" Here, quae res in se neque consilium neque modum 
Habet ullum, earn consilio regere non potes. 
In amore heec omnia insunt vitia; injuriae, 
Suspiciones, inimicitiae, induciae, 
Bellum, pax rursum : incerta haec si tu postules 
Ratione certa. facere, nihilo plus agas, 
Quam si des operam, ut cum ralione insanias." 

In hoc exemplo propositio suo loco est " quae res in 
se, &c." Pro assumptione ponitur ejus prosyllogismus 
variorum amorisadjunctorum quae consilium impediunt; 
amor consilii expers est, " quia in amore haec insunt 
vitia, &c." Conclusio sequitur " incerta haec, &c." Cu- 



908 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



jus sententia comparatione pariura comprehend itur, 
erg"o si ainorem consilio regere vis, " nihilo plus," &c. 

Tertius modus est affirmatus specialis : " Consules 
propter virtutem facti, studiose remp. tueri debent : 
Cicero est propter virtutem factus consul ; Cicero igitur 
studiose remp. tueri debet." Sic orator diligentiam 
suam, Agr. 2, concludit et judicat: " Nam cum om- 
nium consilium," ait, " gravis in repub. custodienda, 
cura ac diligentia debet esse, turn eorum maxime, qui 
non in incunabulis, sed in campo sunt consules facti. 
Nulli populo Rom. pro me majores nostri sposponde- 
runt mihi creditum est: a me petere quod debeo, me 
ipsum appellare debetis. Quemadmodum cum pete- 
bam, nulli me auctores generis mei vobis commenda- 
runt: sic siquid deliquero, nulla? sunt imagines, quae 
me a vobis deprecentur. Quare modo ut vita sup- 
petat (quanquam ego sum is qui earn possim ab isto- 
rum scelere insidiisque defendere) polliceor vobis, Qui- 
rites, bona fide, remp. vigilanti homini, non timido, 
diligenti, non ignavo, commisistis." Partes hujus 
syllogism] prosjllogismis ornantur. Propositio a mi- 
nori illustratur: cujus sententia est comparationis red- 
ditio, diversis illustrata: " nam cum omnium consulum 
gravis, &c. turn eorum maxime :" diversa sunt, " non 
in incunabulis, sed in campo." Assumptio sequitur, 
" nulli populi Rom. &c," quae iisdem rursus diversis 
illustratur, et a simili; meis, non majorum meritis ; in 
campo, non in incunabulis : similitudo his verbis con- 
tinetur ; " quemadmodum ciim petebam, &c." Tan- 
dem conclusionis sententia sequitur illustrata, primum 
testimonio promissi, obligationis vim habentis, " polli- 
ceor, &c. ;" deinde diverso et disparato ; " quare 
modo, &c." Ergo Cicero erit vigilans, non timidus; 
diligens, non ignavus. 

Aliud exemplum : " quod optatum redierit, gratum 
est: Lesbia Catullo optata rediit ; grata igitur est." 

" Si quicquam cupidoque optantique obtigit unquam et 

Insperanti, hoc gratum est animo proprie. 
Quare hoc est gratum, nobis quoque charms auro, 

Quod te restituis, Lesbia, mi cupido. 
Restituis cupido atque insperanti ipsa refers te 

Nobis ; 6 lucem candidiore nota ! 
Quis me uno vivit felicior, aut magis hac quid 

Optandum vita dicere quis poterit? " 

In hoc exemplo propositio videtur esse composita, 
simplex tamen est, et syllogismus simplex ; quia sim- 
plex est dispositio argumenti cum partibus quaestionis. 
Duplex hie crypsis est, reversio et redundantia. Primo 
loco est propositio "si quicquam cupido, &c."i. e. quic- 
quid cupido ; " si " enim non semper connexi nota est. 
Assumptio est in quarto et quinto versu, Lesbia Catullo 
optata rediit. Conclusio est versu tertio illustrata a 
minori, " quare hoc est gratum et auro charius." Tri- 
bus postremis versibus iteratur sententia conclusionis, 
primum ab adjuncto tempore, "6 lucem:" deinde a 
pari, " nemo me felicior, aut magis hac quid, &c." 

Quartus modus est negatus specialis : " deceptor 
amantis puellae non est laudandus: Demophoon est 
deceptor amantis puellae ; Demophoon igitur non est 
laudandus." Phyllis apud Ovidium ita judicat Demo- 
phoontem laudandum non esse. 



" Fallere credentem non est operosa puellam 
Gloria : simplicitas digna favore fuit. 
Sum decepta tuis et amans et fcemina verbis ; 
Dii faciant laudis summa sit ista tuee." 

Propositio suum obtinet locum cum prosyllogismo 
adjunctae simplicitatis, ut causae cur deceptor non sit 
laudandus. Assumptio sequitur, sum " decepta tuis," 
&c. Conclusionis sententia imprecatione continetur, 
" dii faciant, &c." 

Quintus modus est affirmatus proprius : ut, " Octa- 
vius est haeres Caesaris : ego sum Octavius ; sum igitur 
haeres Caesaris." 

Sextus modus est negatus proprius: ut, " Antonius 
non est filius Caesaris: tu es Antonius; non es igitur 
fiJius Caesaris." 

Hujus itaque speciei laus est prae caeteris, quod om- 
nia quaestionum genera concludat ; nempe generales, 
speciales,vel proprias,easquevel affirmatasvel negatas; 
et praesertim generales affirmatas : ob quam potis- 
simum causam Aristoteles speciem hanc et reliquis an- 
teposuit, quod primus ejus modus nempe " affirmatus 
generalis" sit maxime scientificus, post. 1. 11, cum 
praecepta artium solus demonstret, et reductionem 
reliquarum ad hanc figuram sive speciem laboriose 
et subtiliter excogitavit, verum non sic praestat haec 
species caeteris duabus, ut earum idcirco ad hanc re- 
ductio cum tanta ut sit, alphabeti vexatione elaboranda 
fuerit, quandoquidem et reliquae species non imperfeptae 
sunt, nee minus necessario concludunt, id enim syllo- 
gismi speciebus commune cunctis est, quaestiones de- 
nique illas, quae ad ipsarum judicium recte referun- 
tur, interdum aptius concludunt, quam in hac specie 
concludi queunt. Merito itaque Galenus, 1. 2, de 
placit. Hippoc. et Plat, reductionem hanc omnemque 
ejus supellectilem abecedariam tanquam vanissimse 
subtilitatis doctrinam inanem ac futilem post Antipa- 
trum et Chrysippum explodit. EtKeckermannus ipse, 
in P. Ramum fere iniquior, reductionem tamen illam 
quam vocant " per impossibile," ad eos duntaxat refu- 
tandos inventam, homines sane absurdos et raro admo- 
dum repertos, qui utraque praemissa concessa, conclu- 
sionem negent, fateturse potius propter consuetudinem 
scholarum, quam propter magnum ejus usumretinuisse. 
At consuetudo certe gnaviter nugandi ejicienda e 
scholis potius, quam retinenda erat. 

Ties hie paralogismi refellendi sunt; quorum duo 
sunt utrique speciei explicatae communes, propositio 
nimirum particularis, et conclusio partis non debilioris: 
utriusque exemplum hoc esse potest: "quoddam 
animal est rationale : bestia est animal ; ergo bestia est 
rationalis." Et praeterea totum medium, nempe 
" quoddam animal," non assumitur. 

Proprius in hac specie paralogismus est argumenti 
negatio in assumptione : ut, " omnis homo est animal : 
equus non est homo ; ergo equus non est animal." 

Hie etiam " solus et unicus" pro negandi particulis 
habendi sunt; pariterque reddunt assumptionem cap- 
tiosam : ut, " quicquid est in mea domo, est in oppido : 
unicus fons est in mea domo; ergo unicus fons est in 
oppido." Sic, " quicquid est risibile, est animal : solus 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



909 



homo est risibilis: ergo solus homo est animal." Tam 
enim hae particulae quam negaiio in minore, ostendunt 
non reciprocum esse majorem ; adeoque conclusionem 
ex majore per minorem, vel generale ex proprio non 
sequi. 

Expendenda porro hie definitionis verba sunt ; quae 
non tam assumptionem ipsam quam arg'umentum in 
assumptione affirmatum significant. Cum enim pro- 
positionis antecedens (quod tertium argumentum est) 
neg'atione infinita topica duntaxat exprimatur, assump- 
tionis consequens (quod etiam tertium argumentum est) 
eandem negationem retinere debet; alioqui non se- 
queretur argumentum affirmatum in assumptione, sed 
contradictione sublatum. Negatio autem haec non 
dicenda est vel assumptionis vel argumenti negatio, sed 
argument! infiniti affirmatio : turn enim demum nega- 
tur in assumptione argumentum, cum illius negatio 
propositionis affirmationi opponitur. Exempli gratia: 
" qui non est dives, contemnitur. Posthumus non est 
dives; ergo Posthumus contemnitur/' Assumptionem 
hie non negari probat affirmatio conclusionis : sed 
perinde est acsi hoc modo argumentaretur : " omnis 
homo qui non est dives, contemnitur: Posthumus est 
homo qui non est dives; ergo Posthumus contemni- 
tur." Vel hoc modo: "omnis non dives contemnitur: 
Posthumus est non dives ; ergo contemnitur." Sed hcec 
ex iis etiam quas supra ad definitionem ipsam hujus 
speciei diximus, puto non esse obscura. 

Praeterea in quibusdam exemplis, quorum propositio 
est reciproca, videtur interdum syllogismus iste habere 
assumptionem negatam ; cum dicendum sit potius, 
partes propositionis inverti, quas si in ordinem revocen- 
tur, syllogismus erit in prima specie explicati: ut, 
"Joan. 8, 47. Qui ex Deo est, verba Dei audit: vos 
ex Deo non estis ; ergo verba Dei non auditis." Pro- 
positio invertenda est : " qui verba Dei audit, is ex Deo 
est : vos non estis ex Deo ; ergo verba Dei non auditis." 



CAP. XIII. 

De Syllogismo connexo primo. 
Adhuc simplex Syllogismus fuit. 

" Syllogismus compositus est syllogismus ubi tota 
quaestio est pars altera propositionis affirmatse et com- 
positae ; argumentum est pars reliqua." 

Negat Aristoteles ullam esse syllogismi speciem prse- 
ter tres figuras ; et tamen ipse ssepe utitur composito, 
qui ad nullam ex tribus figuris referri potest: Verum 
usus, optimus magister docet, saepius in communi ho- 
minum sermone ac disputationibus, compositos adhi- 
beri syllogismos, quam simplices : ut qui multas quses- 
tiones, multa argumenta commode satis disponant, quae 
syllogismi simplices respuunt. Theophrastus etiam et 
Eudemus, Aristotelis discipuli, quin etiam Stoici, et post 
eos Cicero et Boethius, usum praeceptorem secuti, com- 
positos non omiserunt. Syllogismus autem compositus 



dicitur non tam quod ex compositis axiomatis, nam et 
simplex potest ex compositis, nimirum relatis constare, 
sed a composita dispositione quaestionis totius cum tertio 
argumento in propositione ; unde assumptio tota etiam 
assumitur ; et conclusio non parlim ex propositione 
partim ex assumptione, sed tota ex propositione dedu- 
citur: propositio enim cum sit composita, duas reliquas 
syllogismi partes (quae axiomata simplicia sunt) con- 
junctionis vinculo conjunctas complectitur : pars ilia 
efficit assumptionem quae argumentum continet, altera 
conclusionem. Propositio autem debet esse affirmata, 
quia negata si esset, composita esse desineret, ipsa enim 
compositio negatione dissolveretur. Propositionem 
autem negatam efficit, ut de axiomate composito supra 
dictum est, non partium sed conjunctionis negatio : ut, 
" si non est animal, non est homo ;" haec propositio 
ex omnibus etiam partibus negatis affirmata est; recte 
igitur inde assumitur atque concluditur, " at non est 
animal, ergo neque homo." Sin hoc modo dicerem, 
" non si non est animal, idcirco non est homo," ex hac 
negata propositione nihil omnino deduci aut concludi 
posset. In syllogismis itaque compositis ex ipsa con- 
junctionis vi deducuntur assumptio et conclusio. Ex 
duobus enim quae propositione conjunguntur, aut unum 
assumitur ut alterum concludatur, aut unum tollitur ut 
alterum tollatur. 

" Tollere autem in syllogismo composito, non est 
negare, sed specialem contradictionem ponere." 

Specialis autem contradictio, ut in axiomate simplici 
jam diximus, particulars est aut propria. Tollere 
igitur propositionis partem aliquam in assumptione 
aut conclusione, est ejus contradictionem particularem 
aut propriam ponere. Particulari autem generaliter 
contradici, generali particulariter, ibidem etiam do- 
cemur. Exemplis rem planam suo quamque loco 
faciemus. 

Sequitur nunc compositi syllogismi*'distributio : cu- 
jus genera ex propositionum compositione oriuntur: 
propositiones axiomata composita semper sunt : ex 
quatuor autem axiomatum compositorum generibus 
copulatum si affirmatum sit, non habet locum in com- 
posito syllogismo ; si negatum, aequipollet interdum 
disjuncto : discretum syllog'ismi expers est, quia di- 
versa ex quibus constat, nee plane consentiunt, et 
tamen ita leviter dissentiunt, ut uno posito vel remoto, 
non tamen sequatur alterum poni vel removeri ; aut 
vim habet connexi. 

" Syllogismus itaque compositus est connexus aut 
disjunctus." 

" Syllogismus connexus est syllogismus compositus 
propositionis connexae." Vel cujus propositio est ax- 
ioma connexum. 

Cum autem axiomati connexo affine sit relatum 
temporis, ut ibidem ostendimus, etiam syllogismi con- 
nexi propositio poterit relata esse temporis : nam quan- 
titatis, qualitatis, loci propositiones relatae in simplici- 
bus syllogismis locum habent ; qui in iis propositioni- 
bus quaestionis duntaxat consequens cum argumento 
disponitur. Relatum denique consequentiae, de quo 
supra cap. 6, syllogismus idoneus non est. 

" Syllogismus connexus est duorum modorum. 



910 



ARTIS LOGICS PLEN10R INSTITUTIO, 



" Primus modus sjllogismi connexi est, qui assumit 
antecedens et consequens concludit." 

Quo modo Cicero judicat et concludit 1. 2, de divi- 
natione : "si dii sunt, divinatio est: sunt autem dii; 
divinatio est igitur." 

Aliud ex 3, Offic. " Atque si etiam hoc natura prae- 
scribit, ut homo homini, quicunque sit, ob earn ipsam 
causam, quod is homo sit, consultum velit, necesse est 
secundum eandem naturam, omnium utilitatem esse 
communem. Quod si ita est, una continemur omnes 
et eadem lege naturag. Idque ipsum si ita est, certe 
violare alterum leg-e naturae prohibemur. Verum 
autem primum ; verum igitur et extremum." 

Propositio hujus syllogismi est sorites (de quo infra) 
trium graduum, " si hoc natura prcescribit, ut, &c." 

" Frequenter hie non assumitur idem sed majus." 

Ut 1 Catil. " Si te parentes odissent, discederes : 
nunc patria te odit (quae communis est omnium nos- 
trum parens) multo magis ergo discedes." Sed " ma- 
jus illud" facile contineri in propositione poterit hoc 
modo ; si propter odium parentum discederes, multo 
magis propter odium patriae. " At illud; ergo hoc 
multo magis." 

Simili ratione concluditur etiam majus vel minus : 
ut Cic. pro Quint. " Etsi vadimonium deseruisset, non 
debuisses tamen ad extrema jura descendere:" at non 
deseruit; multo minus ergo debuisti, vel multo magis 
non debuisti. 

" Coucludendi modus," ut supradiximus, " hie idem 
estquando propositio est relata temporis." 

Ut, " cum Paris (Enonem deseret, Xanthus recurrit ; 
Paris (Enonem deseret ; Xanthus ergo recurrit." 

Sed tamen relata temporis ut et reliqua axiomata 
composita, id quod supra monuimus, ad sjllogismum 
simplicem pertinebunt quoties non tota qusestio in pro- 
positione disponitur: quod quidem semper fit, cum de 
certo et defiuito tempore qusestio est: ut si quaeratur 
an hoe tempore sit aestas, hujusmodi erit syllogism us : 
" cum sol est in Cancro, sestas est : at hoc tempore sol 
est in Cancro ; ergo hoc tempore sestas est." 



CAP. XIV. 

De. Syllogismo connexo secundo. 

" Secundus modus connexi tollit consequens, ut 
tollat antecedens." 

Hiec enim vis connexi axiomatis est, si consequens 
non sit, nee esse antecedens. Sic Cicero 4 de Fin., 
" docent nos," inquit, " dialectici, &c. Si illud, hoc: 
non autem hoc; igitur ne illud quidem." 

Sequuntur exempli: " si ulli rei sapiens assentietur 
unquam, aliquando etiam opinabitur: nunquam autem 
opinabitur; nulli igitur rei assentietur." Hie conse- 
quens contradictione speciali in assumptione tollitur, 
" aliquando, nunquam ;" conclusio etiam antecedenti 
spccialiter contradicit ; " ulli rei, nulli rei." 



Eodem syllogismo Ovid. 2 de Trist. stultitiam suam 
judicat: 

" Si saperem doctas odissem jure sorores, 

Numina cultori perniciosa suo. 
At nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo) 

Saxa memor refero rursus adicta pedem." 

Propositio est, " si saperem, Musas odissem :" cujus 
prosyllogismus est ab adjuncta pernicie. Assumptio, 
at non odi; quse a simili exprimitur, " at nunc saxa 
memor, &c," erg'o non sapio : cujus conclusionis sen- 
tentia in parenthesi est ; " tanta meo, &c." Atque in 
hoc exemplo est contradictio propria. 

" Hae duee syllogismi species sunt omnium usitatis- 
simse." 

Non enim ea solum argumenta quae in simplicibus 
et disjunctis syllogismis disponi non possunt, in con- 
nexis facile disponuntur, sed etiam ex iis quse possunt 
aliis formis concludi, multa in his speciebus facilius et 
promptius concluduntur : immo nullum omnino argu- 
mentum, quod in syllogismum usum habet, has con- 
nexi species respuit. 

Proeter hos duos connexi syllogismi modos nonnulli 
duos alios adjiciunt; quorum prior tollit antecedens ut 
tollat consequens, posterior assumit consequens ut con- 
cludat antecedens. In quos modos etsi communis forte 
sermo, boni etiam authores nonnunquam incidunt, ta- 
men cum in syllogismo non Veritas partium sed ueces- 
sitas consequential spectetur, tenendum est, vitiosos esse 
eos modos qui ex veris verum juxta et falsum possunt 
concludere. Prior ergo hie modus qui tollit antecedens 
est prioris legitimi modi paralogismus, affinis negatae 
assumptioni in secunda specie explicati : ut, " si homo 
est leo, sentit : non est leo ; ergo non sentit." Et hoc : 
" si Dio est equus, est animal: at non est equus; ergo 
non est animal. Si orator est, homo est : non est orator; 
ergo nee homo." Hoc si sic resolvas in secundam spe- 
ciem explicati, " omnis orator est homo," fallacia pate- 
bit. Immo sine ista reductione per se etiam patet : 
tollit enim antecedens, quod minus est, ut tollat con- 
sequens, quod majus est: a minore autem ad majus 
nulla est hujusmodi consequentia. 

Modus posterior, qui assumit consequens ut conclu- 
dat antecedens, est captio posterioris legitimi modi, 
affinis paralogismo ex omnibus affirinatis in prima 
specie explicati: ut, " si homo est leo, sentit : at sen- 
tit; ergo est leo." Utrumque hunc paralogismum Aris- 
toteles appellat fallaciam consequentis; quae toties fit 
quoties propositio non est reciproca. 

Sed est etiam aliud sophisma secundi modi, cum as- 
sumptio non tollit contradictione speciali ; id est, quando 
consequenti vel generali generaliter, vel particulari 
particulariter contradicit. Generalis contradictionis 
exemplum est, "si omne animal est irrationale, omnis 
etiam homo est irrationalis : at nullus homo est irra- 
tionalis: nullum ergo animal est irrationale." Parti- 
culars hoc : " si homo est rationalis, aliquod animal est 
rationale : sed aliquod animal non est rationale ; ergo 
nee homo." 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



911 






CAP. XV. 

De Syllogismo disjnncto primo. 

" Syllogismus disjunctus est syllogismus composi- 
tus propositionis disjunctae. 

" Modi duo sunt." Sic etiam Cic. in Top. et Stoici 
apud Laertium. 

" Primus tollit unum, et reliquum concludit. 

" Ut, aut dies est, aut nox: atdiesnon est ; ergo nox 
est. Vel, nox non est; dies ergo est." 

Ciceronis pro Cluentio judicium tale est : " sed cum 
esset haec illi proposita conditio, ut aut juste pieque ac- 
cusaret, aut acerbe indigneque moreretur ; accusare 
quoquo modo posset, quam illo modo mori maluit." 
Disjunctio clarior sic erit: " aut accusandum aut mo- 
riendum : non moriendum; accusandum igitur." In 
hoc exemplo, ut est apud Cic, est partium inversio, to- 
tusque syllogismus in axiomate relato consequentiae 
involvitur. Propositio non est absolute" vera, sed ex 
conditione. Assumptio et conclusio per comparationem 
minoris ponuntur; ita, ut conclusio praecedat. 

Sic idem 2 Phil, ratiocinatur : "nunquamne intel- 
liges tibi statuendum esse, utrum illi qui istam rem 
gesserunt, homicidae sint an vindices libertatis? At- 
tende, &c. Nego quicquam esse medium. Confiteor 
illos nisi liberatores populi Rom. conservatoresque reip. 
sint, plus quam sicarios, plus quam homicidas, plus 
quam parricidas esse : siquidem est atrocius patriae pa- 
rentem, &c. Si parricidae, cur honoris causa a te sunt 
et in hoc ordine et apud populum Rom. semper appel- 
lati ? Cur, &c. Atque haec acta per te. Non igitur 
homicidae. Sequitur ut liberatores tuo judicio sint; 
quandoquidem tertium nihil potest esse." Quaestio hie 
proponitur initio de Caesaris interfectoribus, " utrum," 
&c. Propositio proponitur axiomate connexo, " confi- 
teor illos nisi," &c, quod aequipollet disjuncto; "aut 
vindices sunt libertatis aut plusquam homicidae : " il- 
lustratur enim ea pars disjunctionis a majori : et prae- 
cedit prosyllogismus, quo ostenditur disjunctionem 
hanc esse sine medio, et proinde necessarian). Assump- 
tio sequitur, " non sunt homicidae ; " idque confirmatur 
prosyllogismo a testimonio et factis ipsius Antonii. 
Prosyllogismus concluditur in secundo connexo, si par- 
ricidae, cur, &c. ? " at haec acta per te ; non igitur ho- 
micidae." Conclusio denique sequitur, " ut liberatores 
fuerint; " idque repetito propositionis prosyllogismo 
confirmatur, " quandoquidem tertium sive medium ni- 
hil potest esse." 

" Si partes disjunctae propositionis sint duabusplures, 
judicandi concludendique ars erit eadem." 

Quam vis autem disjunctionis partes esse possint 
saepenumero plures quam duae, id quod in disparatis 
accidit, ipsius tamen propositionis duae tantummodo 
partes sunt; quarum una est quaestio, altera est argu- 
mentum. In hoc modo ubi quaestio semper concludi- 
tur, tertium argumentum plura opposita comprehendit, 
quae omnia in assumptione tollenda sunt, ut quaestio 
concludatur : nam oppositorum plura simul affirmari 
nequeunt, negari plura simul queunt. 



Sic Cic. judicat " Rabirium cum consulibus esse 
oportuisse. Aut enim cum consulibus, aut cum sedi- 
tiosis, aut latuisse : at nee cum seditiosis fuisse, nee 
latuisse : fuisse ergo cum consulibus. Pro Rabir. At- 
qui videmus ait haec in rerum natura tria fuisse, ut aut 
cum Saturnino esset, aut cum bonis, aut lateret. Latere 
autem, mortis erat instar turpissimac : cum Saturnino 
esse, furoris et sceleris ; virtus et honestas et pudor cum 
coss. esse cogebat." Propositio per se clara est. As- 
sumptions partes prosyllogismis illustrantur, primo a 
simili, deinde ab adjunctis. Conclusio prosyllogismo 
ab efficiente illustratur. 

Notandum est in hoc modo non ita exigi specialem 
contradictionem, ut in reliquis ; neque enim ad conse- 
quentiae necessitatem pertinet in hoc modo, ut in reli- 
quis, sed ad assumptionis solius veritatem. Si ergo 
assumptio generalem contradictionem ferre potest, per 
consequentiam licebit uti : ad consequentiae enim ra- 
tionem sufficit, alterum quovis modo tolli, ut reliquum 
concludatur, eademque conclusio erit, sive specialis 
sive generalis in assumptione contradictio fuerit, in 
altero vero modo secus erit, ubi contradictio in ipsam 
conclusionem cadit. 



CAP. XVI. 

De Syllogismo disjuncto secundo. 

" Disjunctus secundus e propositione partibus om- 
nibus affirmata assumit unum et reliquum tollit." 

Secundus efficitur, quia minus generalis est primo, 
utpote proprietatibus quibusdam astrictus, quibus prior 
immunis erat. Proprietates autem hae sunt, 1. partium 
omnium propositionis affirmatio, non totius modo pro- 
positionis, id enim syllogismis omnibus compositis 
commune est; et affirmari quidem propositio vel omni- 
bus negatis partibus potest. 2. Assumptio affirmatur, 
quoniam in propositione affirmata fuerat. 3. In con- 
clusion semper est negatio, eaque specialis contra- 
dictio : in primo quidem conclusio nonnunquam nega- 
tur; sed hoc turn sit cum pars propositionis quae con- 
cluditur negata fuit. Exempli gratia : " aut dies est, 
aut nox : dies est ; ergo nox non est." 

" Ejusmodi syllogismus efficitur e propositione co- 
pulata negata, quae negata complexio," vel, quod 
Greecis idem est, negata copulatio dicitur, " et disjunc- 
tionis affirmatae vim obtinet." 

" Non et dies, et nox est : at dies est ; non igitur 
nox est." De hac negata copulatione sic Cic. in 
Top. " non et hoc, el illud: hoc autem; non igitur 
illud." 

Pertinet autem ad hunc secundum duntaxat modum 
negata copulatio ; quod cum in hujusmodi propositione 
quae vis opposita disponi possint, ex uno eorum negato, 
nisi in iis qui medio carent, non necessario alterum 
affirmatur et concluditur, quod fit in primo modo, sed 
ex altero affirmato alterum negatur, quae communis est 
regula omnium oppositorum, et fit duntaxat in hoc 
secundo. 



912 



ARTIS LOGICiE PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



Ad sophismata quod attinet horum modorum, primi 
quidem nullum occurrit. Secundi quae sunt, ex defi- 
nitione redarguuntur. Primum est, si aliqua pars pro- 
j)Ositionis negata erit: ut, "leo aut animal est, aut non 
est homo ; at non est homo, ergo nee animal." Se- 
cundum est, si assumptio sit negata; ut in exem- 
plo superiore. Tertium est, si specialis contradictio 
non erit in conclusione : ut hoc ; " aut homo est ani- 
mal, aut omne animal est irrationale; sed homo est 
animal, ergo nullum animal est irrationale." 

APPENDIX. 

De Enthymemate, Dilemmate, et Sorbite. 

Expositis omnibus cum simplicis turn compositi 
syllogismi speciebus, sequitur axiomatis et syllogismi 
communis affectio, vel potius anomalia, de qua ante- 
diximus, crypsis. Quae in omni ciim loquendi usu 
turn scr.bendi genere tam frequens est, idque brevita- 
tis plerumque causa, ut nemo fere syllogismos integros 
sine crypsi aliqua vel loquatur vel scribat. 

Sed quoniam crjpsis ejusque triplex modus s}dlo- 
gismorum omnes species afficiunt, ea re dicendi locus 
de syllogismi crypsibus ante non erat, quam de syllo- 
gismi speciebus cunctis dictum esset. 

" Si qua pars syllogismi defuerit, enthymema dici- 
tur." 

Ut ab exemplo : " Themistocli licuit urbem relin- 
quere; ergo mihi.'' Addatur propositio; "quod The- 
mistocli licuit, licet et mihi." Ab inductione: " in- 
ventio et dispositio in argumentis versantur ; ergo 
Logica tota." Addatur assumptio ; " logica tota est 
eorum inventio et dispositio." 

Hoc etiam perpetuo observandum est, si conclu- 
sionis praedicatum deest, deesse majorem; si subjec- 
tum, miuorem : si utrumque, syllogismi compositi 
majorem vel potius majoris antecedentem, quae cum 
tota queestione ut cum consequente disponitur ; quod 
indicat plenum syllogismum fore compositum, et 
antecedens pars enthymematis erit antecedens majo- 
ris ; totumque enthymema convertetur in majorem 
propositionem syllogismi connexi : ut " virtus reddit 
beatos; vitium ergo miseros." In antecedente hujus 
enthymematis nee antecedens nee consequens quaestio- 
nis apparet : totum igitur converte in axioma connexum 
aut disjunctum, plenum syllogismum compositum esse 
intelliges ; ut, " si virtus reddit beatos, vitium reddit 
miseros; at illud; hoc igitur. Non est nox ; ergo est 
dies." Totum converte in axioma disjunctum, majorem 
supplebis, et syllogismum plenum disjunctum confici- 
es : " aut dies est, aut nox ; non nox, ergo dies." 

" Si quid ad tres illas syllogismi partes accesserit, 
prosyllogismus dicitur." Est enim ad partem aliquam 
syllogismi addita probatio. 

" Partium etiam ordo sa?pe confunditur." Quod 
utrumque accidit in dilemmate et sorite. 

Dilemma est specialis qucedam crypsis non syllogis- 
mi, sed syllogismorum ; a duplici propositione dictum, 
quam "lemma Stoici" vocant, vulgo " disjunctivus bi- 
formis et syllogismus cornutus," quasi cornibus feriens ; 



cujus vis in duobus axiomatis connexis citra syllogismi 
formam satis manifesta est : ut illud Martialis ; 

" Haec, si displicui, fuerint solatia nobis ; 
Haec fuerint nobis praemia, si placui." 

Et illud in evangelio : " si bene locutus sum, cur me 
caedis ? si male, testare de malo." Et reciprocum illud 
insigne Protagoras magistri ad Euathlum discipulum, 
apud Gellium, 1. 5, c. 10, et 11 : "si contra te lis data 
erit, merces mihi ex sententia ilia debebitur, quia ego 
vicero ; sin vero secundum te judicatum erit, merces 
mihi ex pacto debebitur, quia tu viceris." Cui contra 
Euathlus; " et ego, bone magister, utrovis modo vicero," 
&c. Hujusmodi est etiam illud apud Aristot. Rhet. 3, 
23, " non agendum esse cum populo ; quia, si justa 
dixeris, hominibus invisus eris ; si injusta, Deo." 
Immo agendum esse cum populo : " nam, si injusta 
dixeris, hominibus gratus eris ; si justa, Deo." 

Explicatur autem haec crypsis axiomate disjuncto ; 
tot deinde syllogismis connexis vel etiam categwieis, 
quot erant disjuncti axiomatis membra : ut illud Biantis 
consilium de uxore non ducenda : " aut formosam 
duces, aut deformem ; si formosam, communem ; si de- 
formem, pcenam : neutrum autem bonum ; non est 
igitur ducenda uxor." Vel categorice sic ; "communis 
non est ducenda; formosa erit communis; ergo, &c. : 
poena non est ducenda ; deformis erit poena ; ergo, &c." 
Sed axioma illud disjunctum partes omnes disjunctas 
non enumerat : est enim media quae nee formosa nee 
deformis est ; et neutrius connexi consequens est vera ; 
fieri enim potest, ut nee formosa communis, nee defor- 
mis poena sit futura. 

Sorites et syllogismus crypticus multarum propositio- 
num continua serie ita progredientium, ut praedicatum 
prsecedentis propositionis perpetuo sit subjectum se- 
quentis, donee tandem consequens propositionis ultima 
concludaturde antecedente primae : ut, " homo est ani- 
mal ; animal est corpus sentiens ; corpus sentiens est 
vivens ; vivens est substantia ; ergo homo est substan- 
tia." Greece autem sorites, " acervalis Latine a Cice- 
rone" dicitur ; quia minutatim addit, et quasi acervum 
efficit. 

Adhibetur fere vel ad summum genus de infima 
specie, vel ad causam primariam, licet remotam, effecto 
attribuendam ; et illud quidem per genera subalterna, 
ut in exemplo superiore ; hoc per causas medias, ut in 
exemplo sequente : "quos Deus praenovit, eos praedes- 
tinavit; quos praedestinavit, eos vocavit ; quos vocavit, 
eosjustificavit; quos justificavit, eos glorificavit; ergo, 
quos praenovit, eos glorificavit." 

Utitur autem sorites et subalternis generibus et sub- 
ordinatiscausis quasi tot mediis terminis ad probandum 
conclusionem ; tot nempe quot sunt termini inter sub- 
jectum primae propositionis et praedicatum conclusio- 
ns : quot autem termini medii, tot sunt syllogismi. 

Est itaque progressio enthymematica syllogismos 
uno pauciores continens quam propositiones. Syllo- 
gismus principalis habet pro majore propositionem 
conclusioni proximam ; pro minoris terrnino minore, 
subjectum conclusionis pro terrnino majore ; subjectum 
propositionis majoris: ex. gr. "quos justificavit, glori- 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



913 



ficavit ; quos praenovit, justificavit ; quos ergo praeno- 
vit, glorificavit." Reliqui sunt minorum prosyllogis- 
mi, et praecedens quisque probatio sequentis. 

Unde intelligitur soritae crypsis triplex, et defectus, et 
redundantia, et inversio. Si igitur partium, sive species 
sive causae sint, non erit recta subordinatio firmaque 
connexio. sorites probus non erit : ut, " ex malis mori- 
bus existunt bonae leges; ex bonis legibus salus reip. ; 
ex reip. salute bona omnia ; ergo ex moribus malis 
bona omnia." Hie causae per se male subordiuantur 
causae per accidens. 

Fallit hie etiam : " Si nullum tempus esset, nox non 
esset; si nox non esset, dies esset; si dies esset, ali- 
quod tempus esset; ergo, si nullum tempus esset, ali- 
quod tempus esset." Nam si nullum tempus esset, 
certe nee dies esset : fallit ergo in propositione se- 
cunda; quae non verecontinuatur; sed ponit effectum, 
sublata causa. Caetera sorites vitia habet cum aliis 
syllogismi speciebus communia. 



CAP. XVII. 

De Methodo. 

" Methodus est dispositio diauoetica variorum axi- 
omatum homogeneorum pro naturae suoe claritate prae- 
positorum, unde omnium inter se convenientia judica- 
tur, memoriaque comprehenditur." 

Methodi permagnus est in omni vita usus, magna 
proinde laus. Hanc Plato, in Pbilebo, esse ait " do- 
num hominibus divinitus datum." Aristoteles etiam 
" ordinem in maximis bonis" numeravit. Fabius, 
" Nee mihi," inquit, " errare videntur, qui ipsam rerum 
naturam stare ordiue putant : quo confuso, peritura 
suut omnia." 

Est autem metbodus dispositio variorum axiomatum 
homogeneorum, i. e. eorum quae ad eandem rem per- 
tinent, eandemque ad finem referuntur. Homogenea 
nisi fuerint, subordinata sibiinvicem esse non poterunt, 
adeoque ne ordinata quidem. Itaque arithmeticum in 
gcometria, geometricum in arithmetica veluti hetero- 
genium et alienum methodus excludit. Pro naturae 
autem suae claritate axiomata quaeque praeponenda 
sunt, prout argumenta priora, notiora, illustriora com- 
plectuntur. Prima autem prascedant an orta a primis 
parum refert, ciim utrorumque eadem affectio sit. 

" Atque ut spectatur in axiomate Veritas aut falsitas, 
in syllogismo consequentia et inconsequentia ; sic in 
methodo consideratur, ut per se clarius praecedat, ob- 
scurius sequatur; omninoque ordo et confusio judica- 
tur. Sic disponetur ex homogeneis axiomatis primo 
loco absoluta notione primum, secundo secundum, 
tertio tertium, et ita deinceps." 

Prius autem sicut et posterius quinque modis dici- 
mus: tempore, ut senem juvene; natura, ut causam 
effecto, genus specie; quicquid denique existendi con- 
secutione est prius ; i. e. quod alio posito, ponitur ; et 
quo posito, aliud non ponitur, ut unitas binario: non- 



nunquam etiam ubi consecutio reciproca est, quod 
simul est tempore, natura tamen est prius, ut sol suo 
lumine. Bifariam etiam dicitur prius natura ; gene- 
rante scilicet, ut partes toto, simplex composito, media 
fine ; vel intendente, ut totum partibus, compositum 
simplici, finis mediis. Prius dispositione sive loco 
dicitur, quod initio est proprius ; ut in dicendo, narra- 
tio confirmatione. Prius dignitate ; ut magistratus 
cive, aurum argento, virtus auro. Prius denique cog- 
nitione, quod cognitu facilius est: idque vel in se, vel 
nobis: in se quod natura est prius; nobis, quod poste- 
rius est, et sensibus objectum : ilia perfectior est cog- 
nitio, haec imperfectior. 

" Ideoque methodus ab universalibus, ut quae causas 
contineant, ad singularia perpetuo progreditur." Ad- 
eoque ab antecedentibus omnind et absolute notioribus 
ad consequentia ignota declarandum. 

Unde intelligitur agi hie de methodo tradendi sive 
docendi, quae analytica recte dicitur, non inveniendi. 
Methodus n. inveniendi quae a Platone dicitur " syn- 
thetica," procedit a singularibus quae tempore sunt 
priora, sensibusque se prius offerunt; quorum induc- 
tione generales notiones colliguntur : methodus autem 
docendi sive inventa et judicata disponendi, dequa hie 
agitur ; contraria via, ut etiam docet Arist. 1 Metaph. 
c. 1, et 2, procedit ab universalibus, quae natura sunt 
priora et notiora; non quo prius aut facilius cognos- 
cantur, sed quod posteaquam sunt cognita, praecedunt 
notionis natura et claritate quanto sunt k sensibus re- 
motiora. Sic generales rerum species (ut optici etiam 
docent) citius in sensus incurrunt : et advenientem 
aliquem, judico prius animal esse quam hominem, et 
hominem quam Socratem. Atque hanc solam metho- 
dum Aristot. passim docuit. 

" Sed methodi unitatem exempli doctrinarum et 
artium praecipu^ demonstrant, praecipueque vindicant. 

" Quibus quamvis omnes regulae generales sint et 
universales, tamen earum gradus distinguuntur : quan- 
toque unaquaeque generalior erit, tanto magis prae- 
cedet. 

" Generalissima loco et ordine prima erit, quia lumine 
et notitia prima est. 

" Subalternae consequentur, quia claritate sunt prox- 
imce : utque ex his naturae notiores praeponentur, 
minus notae substituentur. 

" Tandemque specialissima constituentur. 

" Definitio itaque generalissima prima erit;" causas 
n. continet definitioni consectaria subjungentur, sive 
proprietatum si quae sunt et ex definitione per se non 
patent, explicationis distributio sequetur. 

"Quae si multiplex fuerit, praecedet in partes integras 
partitio, sequetur divisio in species. Partesque ipsae 
et species eodem ordine sunt rursus tractandae ac de- 
finiendae, quo distributee fuerint. 

" Et transitionum vinculis si longior inter eas inter- 
sit explicatio, colligandae sunt : id. n. auditorem reficit 
ac recreat." 

Trausitio autem vel perfecta est vel imperfecta. 
Perfecta, quae breviter et quid dictum sit et quid se- 
quatur, ostendit : qualis ilia hujus libri secundi initio 



914 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR INSTITUTIO, 



" adhuc prima artis logicse pars fuit," &c. Imperfecta 
est quae alterutrum duntaxat osteudit vel quid dictum 
sit, vel quid sequatur : qualis ilia 1. 1, c. 18, " argu- 
menta simplicia ita fuerunt," &c. 

Exemplo sit grammatica. Hujus definitio, ut quae 
generalissima sit, ex lege methodi primo loco statuatur ; 
ars scilicet bene loquendi : secundo loco erit grammar 
ticoe partitio, in etymologiam et syntaxin ; turn etymo- 
logia, quae de vocibus agit, definiatur ; dein voces 
partes in Uteris et syllabis, speciesque in vocibus numeri 
et sine numero subsequantur, exituumque transitiones 
suis locis collocentur: atque ita omnium etymologiae 
partium definitiones, distributiones, colligationes, ex- 
empla denique specialissima in singulis disponentur : 
idcmque in syntaxi fiet. Hanc viam omnes artes sibi 
proposuerunt. 

Moderni quidem duplicem methodum instituunb 
" syntheticam et analyticam : illam scientiis theoreticis 
tradendis, physicoe puta vel mathematical magis ac- 
commodatam ; qua partes scientiae ita disponuntur, ut 
a subjecto contemplations universal! ad particularia, 
a simplicibus ad composita progressus fiat : sic pbysica 
exorditur a corporis naturalis definitione ; ad ejus 
deinde causas vel partes affectionesque generales ad 
species denique progreditur. Method um analyticam 
definiunt, qua ita disponuntur partes scientise practice 
ut a notione finis fiat progressus ad notitiam principi- 
orum vel mediorum, ad ilium finem assequendum : sic 
in etbicis a fine, scilicet beatitudine, ad media, nempe 
virtutes proceditur: Verum ciim hac utraque methodus 
una eademque via, a definitione scilicet generalissima, 
sive ilia subjectum sive finem generalem contineat, ad 
minus generalia, anotioribus ad minus nota, a simplici- 
bus ad composita aeque utrobique dividend o progredia- 
tur, non videtur ob diversam in definitione generali, 
illic subjecti, hie finis mentionem, duplicem esse me- 
thodum constituendam ; sed unam potius, artiurn qui- 
dem tradendarum, eamque analyticam esse dicendam. 

" Atqui methodus non solum in materia artium et 
doctrinarum adhibetur, sed in omnibus rebus quas 
facile et perspicue docere volumus. 

" Ideoque poetae, oratores, omnesque omnino scrip- 
tores, quoties docendum sibi auditorem proponunt, hanc 
viam sequi volunt, quamvis non usquequaque ingredi- 
antur atque insistant." 

Sic Virgilius, in Georgicis, distribuit propositam 
materiam in quatuor partes, ut antedictum est : primo- 
que libro res communes persequitur, ut astrologiam, 
meteorologiam, deque segetibus et earum cultu dis- 



sent, quse pars operis prima erat, tumque transitio ad- 
hibetur initio secundi libri. 

" Hactenus arvorum cultus," &c. 

Dein scribit generaliter de arboribus, turn specialiter 
de vitibus. Sic toto opere, generalissimum, primo ; sub- 
alterna, medio; specialissima, extremo loco ponere stu- 
duit. 

Eandem Ovidius, in Fastis, dispositionis hujus gra- 
tiam sequitur. Proponit initio summam operis. 

" Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum," &c. 

Mox imploratione facta, partitionem anni statuit. 
Turn communes differentias interpretatus diei fasti, ne- 
fasti, &c. Tandem unumquemque mensem suo loco 
persequitur, et ordinis hujus a generalibus ad specialia 
studium suum praefatione indicat. 

" Hacc mihi dicta semel, totis hserentia fastis, 
Ne seriem rerum scindere cogar, erunt." 

"Oratores in prooemio; narratione, confirmatione, 
peroratione hunc ordinem affectant, eumque artis et 
naturae et rei ordinem appellant, et interdum studiosis 
assectantur." 

Ut in Verrem, Cicero primum proponendo turn par- 
tiendo. " Quaestor," inquit, " Cn. Papyrio cos. fuisti 
abhinc annos quatuordecim, etex ilia die ad hanc diem 
quae fecisti, in judicium voco," &c. Propositio hie et 
definitio summae rei est, tanquam in hoc judicio gene- 
ralissima. Partitio sequitur : " hi sunt anni, &c, quare 
hsec eadem erit quadripartita distributio totius accusa- 
tionis meae." Quas partes quatuor earumque partium 
particulas deinceps suo quamque ordine et loco tractat, 
et transitionibus copulat ; tres primas tertio libro ; et sic 
deinceps. 

" Haec igitur in variis axiomatis homogeneis suo vel 
syllogismi judicio notis methodus erit, quoties perspi- 
cue res docenda erit." 

At cum delectatione motuve aliquo majore ab oratore 
quovis aut poeta, ut quibuscum vulgo potissimum res 
est, ducendus erit auditor, crypsis methodi fere adhibe- 
bitur; homogeneaquosdamrejicientur, ut definitionum, 
partitionum, transitionumque lumina. Quaedam assu- 
mentur heterogenea, velut digressiones a re, et in re 
commorationes. Et prsecipue rerum ordo invertetur. 

Sed oratoribus et poetis sua methodi ratio relin- 
quenda est; vel saltern iis, qui oratoriam et poeticam 
docent. 



AD PETRI RAMI METHODUM CONCINNATA. 



915 



PRAXIS LOGICS 



ANALYTICA EX DOUNAMO. 



AD CAPUT TERTIUM RAMIS DIALECTICS. 



" Exemplum primum est causae procreantis et con- 
servantis ex Ovidii prirao de Remed. 

" Ergo ubi visus eris nostra medicabilis arte, 

Fac monitis fugias otia prima meis. 
Haec, ut ames, faciunt : haec quae fecere tuentur ; 

Haec sunt jucundi causa, cibusque mali. 
Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus, 

Contemptaeque jacent & sine luce faces." 

In singulis, quae ad efficientis doctrinara illustran- 
dam afferuntur, exemplis, tria consideranda sunt, effi- 
ciens, effectum, efficiendi modus. In hoe exemplo 
effectum est amor, efficiens est otium, quod amorem 
efficit duplici modo, turn procreando, turn conservando, 
ut in secundo disticho poeta docet. Dispositio autem 
hujus exempli (ut pleniorem ejus analysin instituam) 
syllogistica est. Quaestio, quam poeta concludendam 
proponit, haec est; fugiendum esse otium ei, qui ab 
amore immunis esse velit: eaque duobus syllogismis 
concluditur: in priori argumentum tertium ducitur ab 
effectis quidem otii, amoris vero causa procreante et 
conservante, hoc modo : amoris procreans et conservans 
causa vitanda est ei, qui ab amore ipso liber esse velit; 
otium vero amoris procreans et conservans causa est ; 
otium igitur fugiendum est ei, qui ab amore liber esse 
velit. Propositio deest. Assumptio in secundo disti- 
cho primo simpliciter proponitur, deinde altera ejus 
pars de conservante per similitudinem cibi illustratur. 
Conclusio praecedit in primo disticho. Secunda ratio 
est consectarium ex assumptione prioris syllogismi de- 
ductum. Otium est causa procreans et conservans 
amoris; erg-o sublato otio, amor tollitur. C uj us propo- 
sitio et fundamentum est logicum illud axioma; sub- 
lata causa, tollitur effectum, quae propositio si addatur, 
plenus erit syllogism us. 

Exemplum secundum ibid, ex iEneid. 4. 






Non tibi diva parens, generis nee Dardanus auctor, 
Perfide ; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens 
Caucasus, Hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres." 






Hie effectum est ^Eneas. Causae efficientes, pater, 
mater, nutrix ; modus autem efficiendi non unus : pa- 
rentes enim liberos efficiunt procreando, nutrix vero 
conservando. Disponitur autem hoc exemplum axio- 
mate discreto. Anchises et Venus non suntiEneae pa- 
rentes, ut Didoni placet, sed horrens Caucasus et durae 
cautes : Hyrcanee autem tigres ut nutrices ubera ad- 
moverunt. 

3 N 



Exemplum tertium est solitariae causae, cap. 4, ex 
^Eneid. 9. 

" Me, me adsum, qui feci, in me convertite ferrum : 
O Rutuli : mea fraus omnis : nihil iste nee ausus 
Nee potuit." 

In hoc exemplo effectum estcsedes Rutulorum. Effi- 
ciens hujus caedis Nysus. Quod autem ad modum at- 
tinet efficiendi, effecit, ut ipse de se ait, solus. Dispo- 
sitio autem hujus exempli syllogistica est. Qui solus 
auctor est caedis, is solus est occidendus. Eg'o vero, 
inquit, solus auctor caedis sum; ergo, &c. Propositio 
deest : assumptio continetur versu 2. Mea fraus, i. e. 
culpa omnis, quam probat remotione sociae causae, nihil 
iste nee ausus est, &c. Conclusio versu 1. Me, me 
scilicet occidite, in me convertite ferrum, &c. 

Ejusdem causae exemplum aliud, in oratione Cicero- 
nis pro Marcello. " Nam bellicas laudes solentquidam 
extenuare verbis, easque detrahere ducibus et commu- 
nicare cum multis, ne propriae sint imperatorum : et 
certe in armis militum virtus, locorum opportunitas, so- 
ciorum auxilia, classes, commeatus multum juvant: 
maximam vero partem, quasi suo jure, fortuna sibi 
vendicat, et quicquid est prospere gestum, id pene 
omne ducit suum. At vero hujus gloriae, Caesar, quam 
es paulo ante adeptus, socium habes neminem : totum 
hoc quantumcunque est, quod certe maximum est, to- 
tum inquam, est tuum. Nihil tibi ex ista laude cen- 
turio, nihil praefectus, nihil cohors, nihil turma de- 
cerpit : quin etiam ilia ipsa rerum humanarum domina 
fortuna in istius se societatem gloriae non offert : tibi 
cedit, tuam esse totam ac propriam fatetur." Hoc ex- 
emplum continet plenam comparationem a minore ad 
majus, ad amplificandam Caesaris laudem clementiae. 
In proto exemplum est causarum, quae cum aliis effi- 
ciunt. Effectum est victoria ; efficiens imperator, non 
quidem solus, sed cum aliis, quarum alia principalis est, 
et imperatori quasi socia fortuna: aliae adjuvantes et 
ministrae, cujusmodi quinque recensentur, militum for- 
titudo, locorum opportunitas, sociorum auxilia, classes, 
commeatus. In apodosi exemplum habemus solitariae 
causae : effectum est dementia in Marcellum, praestita, 
cujus causa et quidem sola est ipse Caesar; eaque 
illustratur remotione causarum adjuvantium. Scopus 
Ciceronis est, ut ostendat Caesarem plus laudis ob cle- 
mentiam mereri, quam propter res gestas: idqueosten- 
dit ex collatis inter se efficiendi modis, quod nimirum 
rerum gestarum Caesar non solus auctor fuerit, clemen- 



916 



ARTIS LOGICS PLENIOR TNSTITUTIO, &c. 



tiae vero praestitae solus. Jam vero efficiens pluslaudis 
vel vituperationis meretur, quae sola quid facit ; quae 
vero cum aliis, minus. Sic igitur haec ratio potest 
concludi. Cujus Caesar solus auctor est, id plus mere- 
tur laudis, quam cujus solus non est auctor. Rerum in 
bello gestarum solus auctor non est; clementiae vero in 
Marcellum praestitae solus ; proinde dementia Caesaris 
plus meretur laudis, quam res in bello gestae. Hujus 
syllogismi assumptio tantum in hoc exemplo proponi- 
tur; ejusque prior pars enumeratione causarum adju- 
vantium, posterior remotione earundem illustratur. 
Ibidem exemplum causae instrumentalis primo de 



Nat. Deor. " Quibus oculis animi intueri potuit vester 
Plato fabricam illam tanti operis, qua construi a Deo 
atque aedificari nondum facit ? Quae molitio ? quae 
ferramenta? qui vectes ? quae macbinae ? qui ministri 
tanti operis fuerunt?" Syllogismus sic sese habet. 
Qui instrumenta non habuit, is mundum non creavit: 
Deus instrumenta non habuit ; erg-o, &c. Hujus sjl- 
logismi propositio falsissima deest; conclusio prapcedit; 
assumptio sequitur: eaque per inductionem quandam 
specierum illustratur. Utraque autem turn assumptio 
turn conclusio per interrogationem ln^ariKcorepov ne- 
gatur. 



PETRI RAMI VITA, 



JOANNE THOMA FREIGIO, 



RECTSTS DIGRESSIONIBUS, DESCRIPTA. 



Petrus Ramus natus est anno millesimo quingentes- 
imo decimo quinto. Ejus avus, ut ipse in prsefatione 
suae Regiae Professionis memorat, in Eburonum gente, 
familia imprimis illustri fuit: sed patria a Carolo, Bur- 
gundionum duce, capta et incensa, in Veromanduorum 
agrum profugus, ac spoliatus, carbonarium facere coac- 
tus est: hinc Ramo "carbonarius pater" probri loco 
objectus : sed pater agricola fuit. Puer vix e cunis 
egressus, ut ipse in Sheckiano epilogo de se narrat, 
duplici peste laboravit. Juvenis invita modisque om- 
nibus repugnante fortuna, Lutetiam ad capessendas 
artes ingenuas venit. Erat statura corporis grandi ac 
generosa, vultu mitissimo, moribus integerrimis, vale- 
tudine firma ac robusta, quam perpetua abstinentia 
continentiaque et continuo labore etiam firmiorem red- 
didit. Lutetiae magisterii titulum suscepturus, proble- 
ma hoc sumpsit ; " quaecunque ab Aristotele dicta 
essent, commentitia esse." Attoniti novitate atque 
insolentia problematis examinatores ac magistri, per 
diem integrum, sed irrito conatu, magistrandum, ut 
vocant, oppugnarunt. Ex hoc fortuito successu, 
ansam deinceps serio et libere in Aristotelem animad- 
vertendi et inquirendi arripuit. Logicamque impri- 
mis, utpote instrumentum reliquarum artium expolire 
instituit (ut ipse pluribus persequitur in epilogo, 1. 5, 
Scholarum Dialecticarum) sed annum agens aetatis 
primum etvigesimum haec moliri incoeperat. Sepiimo 



post, primam, ut putatur, Dialecticam et Aristotelicas 
Animadversiones ad academiam Parisiensem edidit : 
sequente anno Euclidem Latine, quam et praefatione 
commendavit. Exeo tempore multos adversarios con- 
tra se irritavit, et praesertim duos homines, quos Talaeus 
in academia sua dum contentionem totam enarrat, non 
nominat tamen. Vix, inquit, Aristotelicae Animadver- 
siones lectae erant, cum P. Ramus repente ad praetorii 
tribunalis capitalem contentionem per certos homines 
falso academiae nomine rapitur, novique criminis accu- 
satur, quod scilicet, Aristotelem oppugnando, artes 
enervaret : hac enim oratione Aristotelea actio instituta 
est. Hinc Aristoteleorum clamoribus agitatus, ad 
summum Parisiensis curiae concilium traducitur. Id 
cum ex adversariorum sententia non procederet, novis 
artibus a senatu Parisiensi ad regiam cognitionem 
res defertur : constituuntur judices quinque bini ab 
utraque parte, quintus a rege nominatur; causam de 
singulis animadversionum capitibus dicere jubetur 
Ramus: qui tametsi de quinque judicibus tres infen- 
sissimos habebat, tamen ut mandato regio obtempera- 
ret, ad diem constitutam adfuit ; scriba unus aderat ; 
qui rationes Rami et judicum sententias exciperet. 
Biduo magna contentione de dialecticae artis defini- 
tione et partitione, quae in logici organi libris nullae 
essent, concertatum est. Tres Aristotelei judices primo 
die, contra omnes bene descriptae artis leges, judica- 



PETRI RAMI VITA. 



917 



runt ad dialectics artis perfectionem definitione nihil 
opus esse. Qui duo judices a Ramo lecti erant, con- 
tra censuerunt. Postridie tres judices Aristotelei vehe- 
menter conturbati, de partitione assentiuntur, causara- 
que in aliam diem rejiciunt. Veriirn ne non damna- 
retur Ramus, novum concilium initur, ut ab initio tota 
disputatio retexatur, judicata pridie, pro nihilo habea- 
tur. Ab ista judicum inconstantia provocat Ramus; 
sed frustra ; judicium n. sine provocatione tribus illus 
judicibus datur ; condemnantur triumvirali ilia sen- 
tentia non soliim Animadversiones Aristotelicae, sed 
Institutiones etiam Dialecticae : auctori interdicitur, 
ne in posterum vel docendo vel scribendo, ullam phi- 
losophise partem attingeret : ludi etiam mag-no appa- 
ratu celebrantur, in quibus Ramus et Ramea Diabe- 
tica ludibrio habetur. Ab his difficultatibus unus 
omnium Carolus Lotharingus Ramum liberavit: Hen- 
rico enim regi persuaserat, philosophiam semper libe- 
ram esse oportere. Hinc Ramus pristinse docendi ac 
scribendi libertati restitutus, per annos quatuor summa 
in pace studiis operam dedit. Anno setatis trigesimo 
primo orationem de studiis philosophise et eloquentiae 
conjungendis habuit : cum Talceo fratre (sic eum per- 
petuo vocat) professionis partes ita divisit, ut Talaeus 
matutinis horis philosophiam, ipse pomeridianis elo- 
quentiam doceret : in poetis, oratoribus, philosophis 
omnisque generis authoribus explicandis, usum dialec- 
tics demonstravit : id Ramo postea crimini datum est, 
quod in philosophico studio non philosophos, sed, con- 
tra leges academiae, pro philosophis poetas explicaret : 
purgat se Ramus; petitque ut gymnasium suum Prse- 
leum per probos et doctos homines invisatur. Sed 
judex quidam, nobilis adolescens, datus, discipulos 
Rami indicta causa, condemuat ; publicis et scholis et 
sigillis et tabulis prohibet ; omnibus denique academiae 
muneribus et praemiis excludit. Ab hac sententia tarn 
nova discipuli Rami ad Julianense philosophorum co- 
mitium provocant, et absolvuntur, modo praeceptor 
eorum jurejurando confirmet, libros, academiae legibus 
definitos, a se esse praelectos. Confirma Ramus : 
paulo tamen post ab eodem judice adolescente, non 
discipuli, ut antea, sed magistri eorum oppugnantur: 
Ramo injungitur, ut in publicis scholis disciplinam 
suam ipse detestaretur et ejuraret. Is ad superiores 
academiae ordines secundo provocat : sed cum vitandi 
tumultus causa, scripto se absens, defenderet, ado- 
lescens ille judex, etsi duabus appellationibus rejectus, 
tertio judicat ac damnat. Quarto provocat Ramus : 
cum provocations diem accusator antevertisset, co- 
actus est Ramus subito in senatum venire : hie ite- 
rum Carolus Lotharingus unico praesidio fuit: ac- 
cusationem cujusdam audiit gravissimam Ramum 
Academicum nominantis, qui de humanis divinisque 
legibus dubitaret, qui lubricos D. Augustini locos ad 
effrsenatam atque impiam libertatem suis auditoribus 
proponeret, et quo facilius incautis animis abutere- 
tur, omnes logicas disputationes tolleret. Contra has 
calumnias facile se defendit Ramus. Decretum est 
itaque in senatu, uti Ramus discipulique ejus in pristi- 
num atque integrum statum restituerentur. Ipse anno 
setatis trigesimo sexto cum Blessiis Carolus Lotha- 



ringus ad Henricum regem de disciplina Ramea. retu- 
lisset, in numerum atque ordinem regiorum professorum 
per literas regias honorifice ad se scriptas, est cooptatus. 
Gratias itaque et regi Henrico et Carolo Lotharingo 
publice egit; sibique persuasit, se a rege in praestan- 
tissima reip. parte esse collocatum ; sibique adeo dies 
ac noctes esse summo studio enitendum, ne tanto mu- 
neri ac professioni eloquentiae simul et philosophiae. 
deesset: unde animos adolescentium tanta audiendi et 
proficiendi cupiditate inflammavit, utschola regia, licet 
ad audiendum amplissima, plerumque tamen auditorum 
concursum frequentiamque capere minime potuerit. 
Adversariorum petulantiam summa constantia tulit at- 
que pervicit ; symbolumque ejus hoc fuit, "Labor 
omnia vincit." Anno 1552, cum in Cameracensi schola 
frequentissimis auditoribus dialecticam suam auspica- 
retur, inter strepitus, clamores, sibilos nihil commotus, 
per intervalla clamorum, incredibili constantia perexit 
et peroravit : qua ejus virtute consternati inimici, in 
posterum minus ei molestise exhibuerunt. In Heidel- 
bergensi etiam academia, principis authoritate ad pro- 
fitendum adductus, consimiles asmulorum clamores in* 
victo animo pertulit Adversus doctos aliquot homines 
Goveanum, Gallandium, Perionium, Turnebum, Me- 
lancthonum, pari silentio est usus. Vigiuti annis ab- 
stemius fuit, donee sanitatis causa medici vino uti 
suaserunt : vini enim fastidium ceperat ex quo infans 
in cellam vinariam clam parentibus irrepens, se tarn 
immodice ingurgitavit, ut mortuo similis humi reperi- 
retur. Pro lectulo stramentis ad senectutem usque 
usus est. Coelebs tota vita permansit. Praelei gym- 
nasii labore (qui ipsi sine ullo publico stipendio erat 
mandatus) contentus fuit. A discipulis suis oblata 
munera, quamvis debita, tamen non accepit. Anno 
1556, Ciceronianum edidit de optima juventutis insti- 
tuendae ratione. Pronuntiationem Latinae linguae in 
academia Parisiensi tunc temporis inquinatissimam, 
corrigendi author cumprimis fuit, reclamantibus licet 
Sorbonistis, pravarum omnium consuetudinum propug- 
natoribus tam obstinatis, ut sacerdotem quendam no- 
vatae pronuntiationis coram senatu Parisiensi insimula- 
tum, quasi ob haeresin, ut aiebant, grammaticam, 
amplissimis proventibus ecclesiasticis privandum con- 
tenderent : et lite quidem superiores videbantur dis- 
cessuri, nisi P. Ramus caeterique professores regii ad 
curiam convolantes, judicii tam alieni insolentiam dis- 
suasissent. Verum illius temporis tam crassa igno- 
rantia fuit, ut libris editis, proditum sit, in ea academia 
doctores extitisse, qui mordicus defenderent, " ego 
amat" tam commodam syntaxin esse, quam "ego 
amo;" ad eamque pertinaciam comprimendam, autho- 
ritate publica opus fuisse. In mathematicis quid efFe- 
cerit Ramus, Scholae Mathematicae aliaque ejus opera 
testantur. Ea meditantem, belli civilis calamitas in- 
terpellavit ; acceptis igitur a rege Uteris, ad regiam 
Fontisbelaquei bibliothecam profectus, mathematicas 
praelectiones ad initio plenius et uberius retractavit. 
Turn in Italiam cogitabat, quo ipsum Bononia honori- 
fice invitarat; vel saltern in Germaniam : sed viis om- 
nibus terror mortis intentatus, rumor etiam Praelei sui 
indignis modis direpti ac bibliothecae spoliatae, ad re- 






918 



PETRI RAMI VITA. 



giam Vincennarum proprius urbem revocarunt. Sed et 
alia vis etiam gravius urgebat, ut e Vincennis per invia 
itinera profugiendum esset, et subinde variis in locis 
delitescendum: in fuga tamen et latebris otium hospi- 
tesque sui cupidissimos reperit ; in eoque otio Scholas 
Physicas conscripsit, vel potius inchoavit. Erumpente 
rursus bello civili, in optirnatum castra profugit: eo 
tumultu post sex menses sedato, reversus, nihil in 
bibliotheca praeter inania reperit scrinia ; mathematicas 
tantiim commentationes Resnerus (qui Parisiis per- 
raansit) direptoribus commodum eripuit. Impendente 
jam tertium civili bello, impetravit a rege Carolo ad 
invisendas exteras academias annuam dimissionem, 
quasi legationem liberam. In extremis regni finibus, 
vix militum quorundam manus, nisi prolato in medium 
diplomate regio, effugisset. Ter dimissus, ter repeti- 
tus, tandem velocitate summa eo pervenit, ubi sicariis 
licentia nequaquam pareat. Adventus ejus in Germa- 
niam bonorum ac doctorum omnium singulari humani- 
tate et gratulatione exceptus est. Argentorati Joannes 
Sturmius, ejus academise author simul et rector, pera- 
mantereum accepit deindeacademiatoto adj unctis etiam 
quibusdam ad ampliorem gratulationem comitibus etba- 
ronibus, liberalissime tractavit : quo die, denique, nobi- 
lissimae nuptiae in eo loco celebrabantur, in prytaneum 
summus urbis magistratus, publicae gratulationis gratia 
cum Sturmio eum adduxit. Bernam praeteriens, tantum 
vidit, nee tamen sine consulis Stegeri honorifica libe- 
ralitate, atque Halleri, Aretii, aliorumque doctissimo- 
rum hominum arnica gratulatione discessit. Tiguri, 
Henricus Bullengerus simulatque in urbem ingressus 
est Ramus, gratulator primus affuit, coenamque ei 
apparavit, eruditissimis convivarum, Josiae Simleri, 
Rodolphi Gualteri, Lodovici Lavalteri sermonibus 
longe gratissimam. Postridie cum ab eodem Bullin- 
gero in aulam publicam deduceretur,miratus quid sibi 
vellet in eum locum frequentissimus civium cuj usque 
ordinis conventus, quaesivit ex eo, ecquae illic etiam, 
ut Argentines, nobiles nuptiae celebrarentur. Cui 
Bullingerus, tibi, inquit, nostra civitas nuptias illas 
celebrat. Praebuit ei Heidelberga amicum Ursinum, 



Olevitanum, hospitem etiam Immanuelem Tremellium, 
fautorem denique ipsum Electorem Palatinum, qui 
discedentem Ramum, aurea imagine sua donavit. 
Inde Francofurtum pergens, a primariis aliquot civibus 
honorifice est acceptus : deinde Noribergam ad prae- 
stantissimos opifices et mechanicos aliosque viros doc- 
tos et prassertim Joachimum Camerarium, profectus 
est: hie jurisconsultorum collegio mandatum a senatu 
est, ut P. Ramo convivium publico urbis nomine in- 
struerent. Inde Augustam perexit ubi urbis consul 
primarius eum liberalissime tractavit, adhibitis in con- 
vivium eruditis variae doctrinae convivis, sed imprimis 
Hieronimo Wolfio, et Tichone Bracheo, cum quo post 
prandium in suburbanum consulis deductus, varios 
sermones de studiis mathematicis habuit. Rumore 
tandem restitutae pacis revocatus, Lausannam conten- 
dit : hie a viris doctis exoratus, logicam aicpoamv dies 
aliquot maximo concursu exhibuit. Geneva cum doc- 
tissimis hominibus turn de caeteris liberalibus studiis, 
turn de logicis collocutio illi assidua fuit, maxime cum 
Francisco de Cretensi et Andrea Melvino, Scoto. 
Cum aliis multis eruditissimis viris, in Italia Com- 
mandino et Papio, in Anglia Dio et Acontio, in Ger- 
mania Chytreo, aliisque permultis amicitiam per literas 
jaxante coluerat. Nobiles et inclytae civitates eum 
magnis et honorificis muneribus, et sexcentorum coro- 
natorum oblato stipendio appetiverunt. Joannes elec- 
tus rex Pannoni amplissimo stipendio Albae Juliae 
regendam academiam illi obtulit. Cracoviam libera- 
lissime, immo in Italiam mille ducatorum stipendio 
Bononiam invitatus, patriam tamen deserere noluit : 
itaque Carolus ix, petitum undique calumniis domi, 
invidorumque morsibus, non solum praesenti ope sub- 
levavit, sed honore auxit et amplificabit, eique vaca- 
tionem a laboribus concessit. Tandem, anno 1572, in 
ilia Parisiensi Christianorum ac civium internecione, 
indignissime periit. Necis causam sunt qui in aemu- 
los ejus conferant: plerique eandem quae ceteris ea 
nocte trucidatis fuisse existimant. Legatum annuum 
mathematico professori in Parisiensi academia lucu- 
lentum testamento reliquit. 



THE SECOND 



DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, 



AGAINST AN ANONYMOUS LIBEL 



THE ROYAL BLOOD CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE ON THE ENGLISH PARRICIDES. 






TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN, 



BY ROBERT FELLOWES, A. M. OXON. 



A grateful recollection of the divine goodness, is the 
first of human obligations ; and extraordinary favours 
demand more solemn and devout acknowledgments ; 
with such acknowledgments I feel it my duty to begin 
this work. First, because I was born at a time, when 
the virtue of my fellow-citizens, far exceeding that of 
their progenitors in greatness of soul and vigour of en- 
terprize, having invoked heaven to witness the justice 
of their cause, and been clearly governed by its direc- 
tions, has succeeded in delivering the commonwealth 
from the most grievous tyranny, and religion from the 
most ignominious degradation. And next, because 
when there suddenly arose many who, as is usual with 
the vulgar, basely calumniated the most illustrious at- 
chievcments, and when one eminent above the rest, 
inflated with literary pride, and the zealous applauses 
of his partizans, had in a scandalous publication, which 
was particularly levelled against me, nefariously un- 
dertaken to plead the cause of despotism, I who was 
neither deemed unequal to so renowned an adversary, 
nor to so great a subject, was particularly selected by 
the deliverers of our country, and by the general suf- 
frage of the public, openly to vindicate the rights of 
the English nation, and consequently of liberty itself. 
Lastly, because in a matter of so much moment, and 
which excited such ardent expectations, I did not dis- 
appoint the hopes nor the opinions of my fellow- 
citizens ; while men of learning and eminence abroad 
honoured me with unmingled approbation ; while I 
obtained such a victory over my opponent, that not- 
withstanding his unparalleled assurance, he was obliged 
to quit the field with his courage broken and his repu- 
tation lost; and for the three years which he lived af- 
terwards, much as he menaced and furiously as he 
raved, he gave me no further trouble, except that he pro- 



cured the paltry aid of some despicable hirelings, and 
suborned some of his silly and extravagant admirers, to 
support him under the weight of the unexpected and 
recent disgrace which he had experienced. This will 
immediately appear. Such are the signal favours 
which I ascribe to the divine beneficence, and which I 
thought it right devoutly to commemorate, not only 
that I might discharge a debt of gratitude, but par- 
ticularly because they seem auspicious to the success 
of my present undertaking. For who is there, who 
does not identify the honour of his country with his 
own ? And what can conduce more to the beauty or 
glory of one's country, than the recovery, not only 
of its civil but its religious liberty? And v/hat na- 
tion or state ever obtained both, by more successful 
or more valorous exertion ? For fortitude is seen re- 
splendent, not only in the field of battle and amid the 
clash of arms, but displays its energy under every diffi- 
culty and against every assailant. Those Greeks and 
Romans, who are the objects of our admiration, em- 
ployed hardly any other virtue in the extirpation of 
tyrants, than that love of liberty which made them 
prompt in seizing the sword, and gave them strength 
to use it. With facility they accomplished the un- 
dertaking, amid the general shout of praise and 
joy ; nor did they engage in the attempt so much, 
as an enterprize of perilous and doubtful issue, as in a 
contest the most glorious in which virtue could be sig- 
nalized ; which' infallibly led to present recompence ; 
which bound their brows with wreaths of laurel, and 
consigned their memories to immortal fame. For as 
yet, tyrants were not beheld with a superstitious reve- 
rence ; as yet they were not regarded with tenderness 
and complacency, as the vicegerents or deputies of 
Christ, as they have suddenly professed to be ; as yet 



920 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



the vulgar, stupified by the subtle casuistry of the 
priest, bad not degenerated into a state of barbarism, 
more gross than that which disgraces the most senseless 
natives of Hindostan. For these make mischievous 
demons, whose malice they cannot resist, the objects of 
their religious adoration ; while those elevate impo- 
tent tyrants, in order to shield them from destruction, 
into the rank of gods ; and to their own cost, consecrate 
the pests of the human race. But against this dark 
array of long received opinions, superstitions, obloquy, 
and fears, which some dread even more than the enemy 
himself, the English had to contend ; and all this, 
under the light of better information, and favoured by 
an impulse from above, they overcame with such sin- 
gular enthusiasm and bravery, that, great as were the 
numbers engaged in the contest, the grandeur of con- 
ception, and loftiness of spirit which were universally 
displayed, merited for each individual more than a me- 
diocrity of fame ; and Britain, which was formerly 
styled the hot-bed of tyranny, will hereafter deserve to 
be celebrated for endless ages, as a soil most genial to 
the growth of liberty. During the mighty strug'gle, 
no anarchy, no licentiousness was seen ; no illusions 
of glory, no extravagant emulation of the antients in- 
flamed them with a thirst for ideal liberty ; but the rec- 
titude of their lives, and the sobriety of their habits, 
taught them the only true and safe road to real liberty; 
and they took up arms only to defend the sanctity of 
the laws, and the rights of conscience. Relying on 
the divine assistance, they used e\ery honourable ex- 
ertion to break the yoke of slavery; of the praise of 
which, though I claim no share to myself, yet I can 
easily repel any charge which maybe adduced against 
me, either of want of courage, or want of zeal. For 
though I did not participate in the toils or dangers of 
the war, yet I was at the same time engaged in a ser- 
vice not less hazardous to myself, and more beneficial 
to my fellow-citizens ; nor, in the adverse turns of our 
affairs, did I ever betray any symptoms of pusillanimity 
and dejection ; or shew myself more afraid than be- 
came me, of malice or of death : For since from my 
youth I was devoted to the pursuits of literature, and 
my mind had always been stronger than my body, I 
did not court the labours of a camp, in which any com- 
mon person would have been of more service than my- 
self, but resorted to that employment in which my ex- 
ertions were likely to be of most avail. Thus, with the 
better part of my frame, I contributed as much as 
possible to the good of my country, and to the success 
of the glorious cause in which we were engaged ; and 
I thought, that if God willed the success of such glorious 
atchievements, it was equally agreeable to his will, 
that there should be others by whom those atchieve- 
ments should be recorded with dignity and elegance ; 
and that the truth, which had been defended by arms, 
should also be defended by reason ; which is the best 
and only legitimate means of defending it. Hence, 
while I applaud those who were victorious in the field, 
I will not complain of the province which was assigned 
me ; but rather congratulate myself upon it, and thank 
the author of all good for having placed me in a sta- 



tion, which may be an object of envy to others, rather 
than of regret to myself. I am far from wishing to 
make any vain or arrogant comparisons, or to speak 
ostentatiously of myself, but, in a cause so great and 
glorious, and particularly on an occasion when I am 
called by the general suffrage to defend the very de- 
fenders of that cause ; I can hardly refrain from as- 
suming a more lofty and swelling tone, than the 
simplicity of an exordium may seem to justify : and 
much as I may be surpassed in the powers of eloquence, 
and copiousness of diction, by the illustrious orators of 
antiquity ; yet the subject of which I treat, was never 
surpassed in any age, in dignity or in interest. It has 
excited such general and such ardent expectation, that 
I imagine myself not in the forum or on the rostra, 
surrounded only by the people of Athens or of Rome ; 
but about to address in this as I did in my former de- 
fence, the whole collective body of people, cities, states, 
and councils of the wise and eminent, through the 
wide expanse of anxious and listening Europe. I seem 
to survey as from a towering height, the far extended 
tracts of sea and land, and innumerable crowds of spec- 
tators, betraying in their looks the liveliest interest, 
and sensations the most congenial with my own. Here 
I behold the stout and manly prowess of the Germans,, 
disdaining servitude ; there the generous and lively 
impetuosity of the French ; on this side, the calm and 
stately valour of the Spaniard ; on that, the composed 
and wary magnanimity of the Italian. Of all the 
lovers of liberty and virtue, the magnanimous and the 
wise, in whatever quarter they may be found, some 
secretly favour, others openly approve ; some greet me 
with congratulations and applause ; others, who had 
long been proof against conviction, at last yield them- 
selves captive to the force of truth. Surrounded by 
congregated multitudes, I now imagine, that, from the 
columns of Hercules to the Indian ocean, I behold the 
nations of the earth recovering that liberty which they 
so long had lost; and that the people of this island are 
transporting to other countries a plant of more benefi- 
cial qualities, and more noble growth, than that which 
Triptolemus is reported to have carried from region 
to region ; that they are disseminating the blessings of 
civilization and freedom among cities, kingdoms, and 
nations. Nor shall I approach unknown, nor per- 
haps unloved, if it be told that I am the same person 
who engaged in single combat that fierce advocate of 
despotism; till then reputed invincible in the opinion 
of many, and in his own conceit ; who insolently 
challenged us and our armies to the combat ; but 
whom, while I repelled his virulence, I silenced with 
his own weapons ; and over whom, if I may trust to 
the opinions of impartial judges, I gained a complete 
and glorious victory. That this is the plain unvar- 
nished fact appears from this ; that, after the most noble 
queen of Sweden, than whom there neither is nor ever 
was a personage more attached to literature and to 
learned men, had invited Salmasius or Salmasia (for 
to which sex he belonged is a matter of uncertainty) 
to her court, where he was received with great dis- 
tinction, my defence suddenly surprized him in the 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



921 



midst of his security. It was generally read, and by 
the queen among" the rest, who, attentive to the dig- 
nity of her station, let the stranger experience no di- 
minution of her former kindness and munificence. 
But, with respect to the rest, if I may assert what has 
been often told, and was matter of public notoriety, such 
a change was instantly effected in the public senti- 
ment, that he, who but yesterday flourished in the 
highest degree of favour, seemed to day to wither in 
neglect ; and soon after receiving permission to depart, 
he left it doubtful among many, whether he were more 
honoured when he came, or more disgraced when he 
went away ; and even in other places it is clear, that 
it occasioned no small loss to his reputation ; and all 
this I have mentioned, not from any futile motives of 
vanity or ostentation, but that I might clearly show, as 
I proposed in the beginning, what momentous reasons 
I had for commencing this work with an effusion of 
gratitude to the Father of the universe. Such a preface 
was most honourable and appropriate, in which I might 
prove, by an enumeration of particulars, that I had not 
been without my share of human misery; but that I 
had, at the same time, experienced singular marks of 
the divine regard ; that in topics of the highest con- 
cern, the most connected with the exigencies of my 
country, and the most beneficial to civil and religious 
liberty ; the supreme wisdom and beneficence had in- 
vigorated and enlarged my faculties, to defend the 
dearest interests, not merely of one people, but of the 
whole human race, against the enemies of human li- 
berty ; as it were in a full concourse of all the nations 
on the earth : And I again invoke the same Almighty 
Being, that I may still be able with the same integrity, 
the same diligence, and the same success, to defend 
those actions which have been so gloriously atchieved; 
while I vindicate the authors as well as myself, whose 
name has been associated with theirs, not so much for 
the sake of honour as disgrace, from unmerited igno- 
miny and reproach ; but if there are any, who think 
that it would have been better to have passed over 
these in silent contempt, I should agree with them, if 
they had been dispersed only among those who were 
thoroughly acquainted with our principles and our 
conduct ; but, how were strangers to discover the false 
assertions of our adversaries ? When proper pains have 
been taken to make the vindication as extensive as the 
calumny, I think that they will cease to think ill of us, 
and that he will be ashamed of the falsehoods which 
he has promulgated ; but, if he be past the feeling of 
shame, we may then well leave him to contempt. I 
should sooner have prepared an answer to his invective, 
if he had not entrenched himself in unfounded rumours 
and frequent denunciations that Salmasius was labour- 
ing* at the anvil, and fabricating new libels against us, 
which would soon make their appearance ; by which 
he obtained only a short delay of vengeance and of 
punishment ; for I thought it right to reserve my whole 
strength unimpaired against the more potent adversary. 
But the conflict between me and Salmasius is now 
finally terminated by his death ; and I will not write 
against the dead ; nor will I reproach him with the 



loss of life as he did me with the loss of sight; though 
there are some, who impute his death to the penetrating 
severity of my strictures, which he rendered only the 
more sharp by his endeavours to resist. When he saw 
the work which he had in hand proceed slowly on, the 
time of reply elapsed, the public curiosity subsided, his 
fame marred, and his reputation lost; the favour of the 
princes, whose cause he had so ill-defended, alienated, 
he was destroyed after three years of grief rather by 
the force of depression than disease. However this 
may be, if I must wage even a posthumous war with 
an enemy whose strength I so well know, whose most 
vigorous and impetuous attacks I so easily sustained, 
there seems no reason why I should dread the languid 
exertions of his dying hour. 

But now, at last, let us come to this thing, whatever 
it may be, that provokes us to the combat ; though I 
hear, indeed, the cry not of the royal blood, as the title 
pretends, but that of some skulking and drivelling mis- 
creant. Well, I beseech, who are you ? a man, or no- 
body at all ? Certainly one of the dregs of men, for 
even slaves are not without a name. Shall I always 
have to contend with anonymous scribblers ? though 
they would willingly indeed pass for kings' men, but I 
much doubt whether they can make kings believe that 
they are. The followers and friends of kings are not 
ashamed of kings. How then are these the friends of 
kings ? They make no contributions ; they more 
willingly receive them ; they will not even lend their 
names to the support of the royal cause. What then ? 
they support it by their pen; but even this service they 
have not sufficient liberality to render gratuitously to 
their kings ; nor have they the courage to affix their 
names to their productions. But though, anonymous 
Sirs ! I might plead the example of your Claudius, 
who composed a plausible work concerning the rights 
of kings, but without having respect enough either for 
me or for the subject to put his name to the production, 
I should think it scandalous to undertake the discussion 
of so weighty a subject, while I concealed my name. 
What I, in a republic, openly attempt against kings, 
why do you in a monarchy, and under the patronage of 
kings, not dare to do except clandestinely and by stealth ? 
Why do you, trembling with apprehension in the midst 
of security, and seeking darkness in the midst of light, 
depreciate the power and the majesty of sovereigns by a 
cowardice, which must excite both hatred and distrust? 
Do you suspect that you have no protection in the 
power of kings? But surely, thus skulking in obscu- 
rity and prowling in disguise, you seem to have come 
not so much as advocates to maintain the right of 
kings as thieves to rob the treasury. What I am, I 
ingenuously profess to be. The prerogative which I 
deny to kings, I would persist in denying in any legi- 
timate monarchy ; for no sovereign could injure me 
without first condemning himself by a confession of 
his despotism. If I inveigh against tyrants, what is 
this to kings ? whom I am far from associating with 
tyrants. As much as an honest man differs from a 
rogue, so much I contend that a king differs from a 
tyrant. Whence it is clear, that a tyrant is so far from 



922 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



being- a king-, that he is always in direct opposition to 
a king. And he who peruses the records of history, 
will find that more king's have been subverted by 
tyrants than by their subjects. He, therefore, who 
would authorise the destruction of tyrants, does not 
authorise the destruction of kings, but of the most in- 
veterate enemies to kings. But that right, which you 
concede to kings, the right of doing what they please, 
is not justice, but injustice, ruin and despair. By that 
envenomed present you yourselves destroy those, whom 
you extol as if they were above the reach of danger 
and oppression ; and you quite obliterate the difference 
between a king- and a tyrant, if you invest both with 
the same arbitrary power. For, if a king- does not 
exercise that power, (and no king will exercise it as 
long as he is not a tyrant,) the power must be ascribed, 
not to the king, but to the individual. For, what can 
be imagined more absurd than that regal prerogative, 
which, if any one uses, as often as he wishes to act 
the king, so often he ceases to be an honest man; and 
as often as he chooses to be an honest man, so often 
he must evince that he is not a king-? Can any more 
bitter reproach be cast upon kings ? He who main- 
tains this prerogative, must himself be a monster of 
injustice and iniquity; for how can there be a worse 
person than him, who must himself first verify the 
exaggerated picture of atrocity which he delineates? 
But if every good man, as an ancient sect of philo- 
sophers magnificently taught, is a king-, it follows 
that every bad one is, according to his capacity, 
a tyrant ; nor does the name of tyrant signify any 
thing soaring or illustrious, but the meanest reptile 
on the earth ; for in proportion as he is great, he is 
contemptible and abject. Others are vicious only for 
themselves : but tyrants are vicious, not only for them- 
selves, but are even involuntarily obliged to partici- 
pate in the crimes of their importunate menials and 
favourites, and to entrust certain portions of their 
despotism to the vilest of their dependants. Tyrants 
are thus the most abject of slaves, for they are the 
servants of those who are themselves in servitude. 
This name therefore may be rightly applied to the 
most insignificant pugilist of tyranny, or even to this 
brawler; who, why he should strenuously clamour 
for the interests of despotism, will sufficiently appear 
from what has been said already, and what will be 
said in the sequel ; as also why this hireling chooses 
to conceal his name. Treading in the steps of Salma- 
sius, he has prostituted his cry for the royal blood, and 
either blushing for the disgrace of his erudition, or the 
flagitiousness of his life, it is not strange that he should 
wish to be concealed; or perhaps he is watching- an 
opportunity, wherever he may scent some richer odours 
of emolument, to desert the cause of kings, and trans- 
fer his services to some future republic. This was the 
manner of Salmasius, who, captivated by the love of 
gain, apostatised, even when sinking in years, from 
the orthodox to the episcopalians, from the popular 
party to the royalists. Thou brawler, then, from the 
stews, who thou art thou in vain endeavourest to con- 
ceal ; believe me, you will be dragged to light, nor 



will the helmet of Pluto any longer serve you for a 
disguise. And you will swear downright, as long as 
you live, either that I am not blind, or that I was 
quicksighted enough to detect you in the labyrinth of 
imposture. Attend then, while I relate who he is, 
from whom descended, by what expectations he was 
led, or by what blandishments soothed to advocate the 
royal cause. 

There is one More, part Frenchman and part Scot, 
so that one country, or one people, cannot be quite 
overwhelmed with the whole infamy of his extraction; 
an unprincipled miscreant, and proved not only by the 
general testimony of his enemies, but even by that of 
his dearest friends, whom he has alienated by his in- 
sincerity, to be a monster of perfidy, falsehood, ingra- 
titude, and malevolence, the perpetual slanderer, not 
only of men, but of women, whose chastity he is no 
more accustomed to regard than their reputation. To 
pass over the more obscure transactions of his youth, 
he first made his appearance as a teacher of the Greek 
language at Geneva; where he could not divest him- 
self either of the knave or fool ; but where, even while 
secretly conscious, though perhaps not yet publicly 
convicted of so many enormities, he had the audacity 
to solicit the office of pastor in the church, and to pro- 
fane the character by his crimes. But bis debauch- 
eries, his pride, and the general profligacies of his con- 
duct, could not long escape the censure of the Presby- 
ters; after being condemned for many heresies, which 
he basely recanted, and to which he still as impiously 
adhered, he was at last openly found guilty of adul- 
tery. He had conceived a violent passion for the 
maid-servant of his host, and even after she was mar- 
ried to another, did not cease to solicit the gratification 
of his lust. The neighbours often observed them 
together in close converse under a shed in the garden. 
But you will say this might have no reference to any 
criminal amours ; he might have conversed upon hor- 
ticulture, and have read lectures on the art, to the 
untutored and curious girl ; he might one while have 
praised the beauty of the parterres, or regretted the 
absence of shade ; he might have inserted a mulberry 
in a fig, and thence have rapidly raised a progeny of 
sycamores ; a cooling bower ; and might then have 
taught the art of grafting to the fair. All this and 
more he might, no doubt, have done. But all this 
would not satisfy the Presbyters, who passed sentence 
on him as an adulterer, and judged him unworthy of 
the ecclesiastical functions. The heads of those, and 
other accusations of the like kind, are still preserved 
in the public library at Geneva. But, even after this 
had become matter of public notoriety, he was invited, 
at the instance of Salmasius, to officiate in the French 
church at Middleburgh. This gave great offence to 
Spanheim, a man of singular erudition and integrity ; 
who was well acquainted with his character at Gene- 
va, though at last, but not without the most violent op- 
position, he succeeded in obtaining letters testimonial 
from the Genevese, but these only on the condition that 
he should leave the place, and couched in expressions 
rather bordering on censure than on praise. As soon 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



923 



as he arrived in Holland, he went to pay his respects 
to Salmasius ; where he immediately cast his libidinous 
looks on his wife's maid, whose name was Pontia; for 
the fellow's lust is always inflamed by cooks and wait- 
ing-maids ; hence he began to pay assiduous court to 
Salmasius, and, as often as he had opportunity, to Pontia. 
I know not whether Salmasius, taken by the busy at- 
tentions and unintermitted adulation of More, or Move 
thinking- that it would favour his purpose of meeting 
Pontia, which first caused their conversation to turn on 
the answer of Milton to Salmasius. But, however this 
might be, More undertook to defend Salmasius, and 
Salmasius promises to obtain for More the divinity- 
chair in that city. Besides this, More promises him- 
self other sweets in his clandestine amour with Pontia; 
for, under pretext of consulting Salmasius in the pro- 
secution of this work, he had free admission to the house 
at all hours of the night or day. And, as formerly 
Pyramus was changed into a mulberry tree, so More* 
seems suddenly transformed into Pyramus ; but in pro- 
portion as he was more criminal, so he was more fortu- 
nate than that youth. He had no occasion to seek for 
a chink in the wall ; he had every facility of carrying 
on his intrigue with his Thisbe under the same roof. 
He promises her marriage ; and, under the lure of this 
promise, violates her chastity. O shame ! a minister 
of the gospel abuses the confidence of friendship to 
commit this atrocious crime. From this amour no com- 
mon prodigy accrued ; for both man and woman suffer- 
ed the pains of parturition : Pontia conceived a morill,f 
which long afforded employment to the natural disqui- 
sitions of Salmasius ; More, the barren and windy egg ; 
from which issued that flatulent cry of the royal blood. 
The sight of this egg indeed, at first, caused our mo- 
narchy-men, who were famishing in Belgium, to lick 
their chops; but the shell was no sooner broken, than 
they loathed the addle and putrid contents; for More, 
not a little elated with his conception, and thinking 
that he had obliged the whole Orange faction, had be- 
gun to anticipate a new accession of professorships and 
chairs, when he deserted his poor pregnant Pontia, as 
beneath his notice, to indigence and misfortune. She 
complained to the synod and the magistrates, of the 
injuries and the treachery which she had experienced. 
Thus the matter was brought to light, and afforded 
subject for merriment and observation in almost all 
places and companies. Hence some ingenious person 
wrote this distich, 

Galli ex concubitu gravidam te, Pontia, Mori, 
Quis bene moratam morigeramque negat '.' J 

O Pontia, teeming with More's Gallic seed, 
You have been Mor'd enough, and no more need. 

Pontia alone was not seen to smile; but she gained 
nothing by complaint; for the cry of the royal blood 
soon overwhelmed the clamour about the rape, and the 
cries of the ruined fair. Salmasius deeply resented the 
injury and insult which were thus offered to himself 
and his family; and the derision to which he was ex- 

" Mortis, the Latin name for mulberry, 
t A little More, or mulberry. 



posed by his courteous and admiring friend ; and per- 
haps this misfortune, added to his other mishaps in the 
royal cause, might have contributed to accelerate his 
end. But on this hereafter. In the mean time, Salma- 
sius, with the fate of Salmasia, (for the fable is as ap- 
propriate as the name,) little thinking" that in More he 
had got an hermaphrodite associate, as incapable of 
parturition as of procreation, without knowing what he 
had begot for him in the house, fondles the fruit of his 
travail, the book in which he was styled Great; justly 
perhaps in his own opinion, but very unfitly and ridi- 
culously in that of other people. He hastens to the 
printer ; and, in vain endeavouring to keep possession 
of the fame which was vanishing from his grasp, he 
anxiously attends as a midwife the public delivery of 
those praises, or rather vile flatteries, which he had so 
rapaciously sought this fellow and others to bestow. 
For this purpose Flaccus seemed the most proper per- 
son that could be found ; him he readily persuades, not 
only to print the book, which nobody would have 
blamed, but also publicly to profess himself the author 
of a letter to Charles, filled with the most calumnious 
aspersions against me, whom he had never known. 
But when I shew, as I can from good authority, how 
he has acted towards others, it will be the less astonish- 
ing why he should so readily be prevailed on to com- 
mence such a wanton and unprovoked attack upon me; 
and with so little consideration, to father another's ex- 
travagance of slander and invective. Flaccus, whose 
country is unknown, was an itinerant bookseller, a no- 
torious prodigal and cheat ; for a long time he carried 
on a clandestine trade in London ; from which city, 
after practising innumerable frauds, he ran away in 
debt. He afterwards lived at Paris, during the whole 
reign of James, an object of distrust and a monster of 
extortion. From this place he made his escape ; and 
now does not dare to approach within many miles ; at 
present he makes his appearance as a regenerated book- 
seller at the Hague, ready to perform any nefarious 
and dirty work to which he may be invited. And as a 
proof how little he cares what he says or what he does, 
there is nothing so sacred which a trifling bribe would 
not tempt him to betray ; and I shall bring forward his 
own confession to shew that his virulence against me was 
not prompted, as might be supposed, by any zeal for 
the public good. When he found that what I had writ- 
ten against Salmasius had a considerable sale, he writes 
to some of my friends to persuade me to let any future 
publication of mine issue from his press ; and promises a 
great degree of elegance in the typographical execution. 
I replied, that I had, at that time, no work by me ready 
for the press. But lo ! he, who had lately made me 
such an officious proffer of his services, soon appears, 
not only as the printer, but the (suborned) author of a 
most scandalous libel upon my character. My friends 
express their indignation ; he replies with unabashed 
effrontery, that he is quite astonished at their simplicity 
and ignorance of the world, in supposing that he should 
suffer any notions of right or wrong to disturb his cal- 

1 It is impossible to give a literally exact rendering of this ; I have 
played upon the name as well as I could in English. — R. F. 



924 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



dilations of profit and his speculations of gain : that he 
had received that letter from Salmasius tog-ether with the 
book; that he begged him to publish it on his own ac- 
count, in the way he had done ; and that, if Milton or 
any other person thought fit to write an answer, he 
should have no hesitation in printing it, if they would 
employ him in the business. This was nothing else 
than to say that he would readily publish an invective 
against Salmasius, or King Charles ; for the reply 
could relate to no other persons. It is needless to say 
more. I have unmasked the man; I proceed to others; 
for be is not the only one who has served to embellish 
this tragic cry of the royal blood. Here then are the 
actors in the drama. The brawling prolocutor, the 
profligate Flaccus, or, if you had rather, Salmasius, 
habited in the mask and cloak of Flaccus, two poetas- 
ters drunk with stale beer, and More famed for adultery 
and rape. A marvellous company of tragedians! and 
an honest set for me to engage! But as such a cause 
was not likely to procure adversaries of a different 
stamp ; let us now proceed to the attack of the individ- 
uals, such as they are ; only first premising that, if any 
one think my refutation wanting in gravity, he should 
recollect, that I have not to contend with a weighty foe, 
but only a merry-andrew host ; and that in such a 
work, instead of labouring to give it throughout the 
highest polish of elegance, it was right to consider 
what diction might be most appropriate to such a crew. 

The Royal Blood crying to heaven for vengeance on the 
English parricides. 

Your narrative, O More, would have had a greater 
appearance of truth, if you had first shewn that his 
blood was not justly shed. But as in the first dawn 
of the reformation, the monks, from their dearth of ar- 
gument, had recourse to spectres and other impositions, 
so you, when nothing else will stand you in any stead, 
call in the aid of voices which were never heard, and 
superstitious tricks that have long been out of date. 
You would not readily give any of us credit for having 
heard a voice from heaven; but T could with little dif- 
ficulty believe that you did actually hear a voice from 
hell. Yet, I beseech you, who heard this cry of the 
royal blood ? Yourself? Mere trash ; for first you 
never hear any thing good.* But that cry which 
mounts to heaven, if any but God hear, it can only be 
the upright and the pure; who, themselves, unstained 
witli crimes, may well denounce the divine vengeance 
against the guilty. But how could you possibly hear 
it ? or, as a catamite, would you write a satire against 
lust? For you seem, at the same time, to have fabricated 
this miraculous cry to heaven and to have consummated 
your amour with Pontia. There are not only many 
impediments in your sense, but many evil incrustations 
about your heart, which would for ever prevent such 
cries from reaching your ears; and if nothing else did, 
the many cries which are continually ascending to 
heaven against your own enormities would be sufficient 
for the purpose. The voice of that harlot, whom you 

* Latin, male audis. There is a play upon the words. 



debauched in the garden, and who complains that you, 
her religious teacher, was the author of her seduction 
demands vengeance against you. Vengeance is de- 
manded against you by the husband, whose nuptial 
bed you defiled ; it is demanded by Pontia, to whom 
you perjured your nuptial vow; it is demanded by that 
little innocent whom you caused to be born in shame, 
and then left to perish without support. — All these 
different cries for vengeance on your guilty head are 
continually ascending to the throne of God ; which if 
you do not hear, it is certain that the cry of the royal 
blood you could never have heard. Thus your book, 
instead of the royal blood crying to heaven, might 
more fitly be entitled " More's lascivious neighing for 
his Pontia." Of that tiresome and addle epistle, which 
follows, part is devoted to Charles, part to Milton, to 
exalt the one, and to vilify the other. Take a speci- 
men from the beginning: K The dominions of Charles," 
he says, " were thrown into the sacrilegious hands of 
parricides and Deicides." I shall not stay to consider 
whether this rant be the product of Salmasius, of 
More, or of Flaccus. But this, which makes others 
laugh, may well make Charles rave ; for a little after 
he says that " no one was more devoted to the interests 
of Charles." What truly ! was there no one more de- 
voted to his interests than you, who offered to publish 
and to circulate the invectives of his enemies ? How 
wretched and forlorn must be the situation of Charles, 
if a scoundrel of a printer dare to rank himself among 
his most confidential friends ? Wretched indeed must 
he be, if the perfidious Flaccus equal his dearest friends 
in fidelity and affection ! But could the fellow have 
spoken any thing either more arrogantly of himself, 
or more contemptuously of the king' and the king's 
friends ? Nor is it less ridiculous that a low-lived me- 
chanic should be brought upon the stage to philosophise 
on the principles of government, and the virtues of 
kings ; and to speak in a tone as lofty as even Salma- 
sius or More. But indeed on this as well as other oc- 
casions I have discovered evident indications that Sal- 
masius, notwithstanding the multiplicity of his reading, 
was a man of puerile judgment, and without any know- 
ledge of the world ; for though he must have read 
that the chief magistrates, in the well-arranged 
government of Sparta, were always wont to ascribe to 
some virtuous citizen the merit of every good saying 
which the worthless and the profligate might occasion- 
ally pronounce, he has shewn himself so utterly igmo- 
ratit of all that is called propriety, as to ascribe to the 
vilest of men, sentiments which could become only the 
good and wise. Keep up your spirits, Charles ; for the 
old rogue Flaccus, whose faith in providence is so 
great, tells you not to be depressed. Do not succumb 
under so many sufferings. Flaccus, the most unprin- 
cipled prodigal, who so soon lost all that he ever had, 
tells you not to despond when all is lost. Make the 
best of your ill-starred fortune. And can you help 
making the best of it when he advises, who, for so 
many years, by every species of peculation and iniquity, 
has been wont to subsist on the fortunes of others ? 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



925 



" Drink deep of wisdom, for you are plunged in wis- 
dom's pool." So counsels, so directs jolly Flaccus, the 
unrivalled preceptor of kings, who, seizing the leathern 
flaggon with his ink-smeared hands, drinks among his 
fellow workmen a huge draught to the success of your 
philosophy. This dares Flaccus, your incomparable 
partizan, who signs his name to admonitions, which 
Salmasius, which More, and your other advocates, have 
too little courage, or too much pride, to own. For, as 
often as you have any need of admonition or defence, 
they are always anonymously wise or brave; and at 
another's hazard rather than their own. Let this fel- 
low therefore, whoever he may be, cease to make a 
barren boast of his vigorous and animated eloquence; 
for the author truly " fears to divulge his name, which 
has become so renowned by the exertions of his genius." 
But he had not the courage, even in that work which 
was to avenge the royal blood, to prefix a dedication to 
Charles without the vicarious aid of Flaccus, in whose 
words he was contented to say that, "if it might be 
permitted, he would dedicate the book to his majesty 
without a name." Thus having done with Charles, he 
next puts himself in a menacing posture against me. 
"After this proscmium" the wonderful "Salmasius 
will make the trumpet blow a deadly blast." You an- 
nounce a new kind of harmony ; for to the terrors of 
that loud-sounding instrument no symphony bears so 
close a resemblance as that which is produced by ac- 
cumulated flatulency. But I advise Salmasius not to 
raise the notes of this trumpet to too high a pitch ; for, 
the louder the tones, the more he will expose himself 
to a slap on the chops; which, while both his cheeks 
ring, will give a delightful flow to his well-propor- 
tioned melodies. You chatter on, "who has not his 
equal, nor near his equal, in the whole literary and 
scientific world." What assurance ! Ye men of eru- 
dition, scattered over the world, can you think it pos- 
sible that a preference over you all should be given to 
a grammatical louse, whose only treasure of merit, and 
hope of fame, consisted in a glossary ; and who would 
at last be found to deserve nothing but contempt, if a 
comparison were instituted between him and men 
really learned. But this would not be affirmed by any 
except the lowest driveller, more destitute of under- 
standing than even Flaccus himself. " And who has 
now employed in the service of your majesty, a stu- 
pendous mass of erudition, illuminated by a genius 
quite divine." If you recollect what I said above, that 
Salmasius took this letter, which was either written by 
himself or one of his creatures, to the printer, and in- 
treated the servile artificer to affix his own name to the 
publication, you will discover the indisputable marks 
of a mind truly grovelling and contemptible; basely 
wooing a panegyrick on itself, and sedulously procur- 
ing, even from a fool, an unbounded prodigality of 
praise. " An incomparable and immortal work, which 
it is fruitless to revile, and in which it must astonish 
even the regular practitioners of the law, how a French- 
man should so soon bring himself to understand and to 
explain the English history, the laws, statutes, records, 
&c." Indeed how little he understood our laws, and 



how much he spoke at random on the subject, we have 
produced abundant evidence to shew. " But he will 
soon, in another impression which he is preparing 
against the rebels, stop the mouths of rcvilers, and 
chastise Milton according to his deserts." You, there- 
fore, as that little avant courier of a fish, run before the 
Salmasian whale, which threatens an attack upon our 
coast ; we sharpen our harpoons to elicit any oil or gall 
which his impetuous vengeance may contain. In the 
mean time we admire the more than Pythagorean ten- 
derness of this prodigy of a man, who compassionating 
animals, and particularly fish, to whose flesh even Lent 
shews no indulgence, destined so many volumes to the 
decent apparelling of myriads of poor sprats and her- 
rings, and bequeathed by will a paper coat to each. 

Rejoice, ye herrings, and ye ocean fry, 
Who, in cold winter, shiver in the sea ; 
The knight, Salmasius, pitying your hard lot, 
Bounteous intends your nakedness to clothe. 
And, lavish of his paper, is preparing 
Chartaceous jackets to invest you all. 
Jackets resplendent with his arms and fame, 
Exultingly parade the fishy mart, 
And sing his praise with checquered livery, 
That well might serve to grace the lctter'd store 
Of those, who pick their noses and ne'er read. 

This I wrote on the long expected edition of his far- 
famed work ; in printing which he was strenuously en- 
gaged, while you, sir, were polluting his house by your 
scandalous amour with Pontia. And Salmasius appears 
to have long and industriously applied himself to the 
execution ; for, only a few days before his death, when 
a learned person, from whom I received the information, 
sent to ask him when he would publish the second part 
of his argument against the supremacy of the Pope; 
he replied, that he should not return to that work till 
he had completed his labours against Milton. Thus 
I was preferred before the Pope ; and that supremacy 
which he denied to him in the church, he gratuitously 
bestowed on me in his resentment. Thus I seem to 
have furnished a timely succour against his subversion 
of the papacy ; and to have saved the Roman capital 
from the irruption of a second Catiline, not indeed like 
the Consul Tully, by the fasces of office, or the pre- 
monitions of a dream, but by very different means. 
Surely many cardinals' caps will be due to me on this 
account; and I fear lest the Roman Pontiff, by the 
transfer of a title, which lately belonged to our kings, 
should salute me with the appellation of Defender of 
the Faith. You see under what a cloud of disgrace 
Salmasius laboured to depress me. But ought he to 
have relinquished a post of honourable exertion to 
mingle in foreign controversies, or to have deserted the 
service of the church for political and external dis- 
cussions, in which he had no knowledge and no con- 
cern ? Ought he to have made a truce with the Pope ? 
and, what was most base of all, after the utmost bitter- 
ness of hostility, to have sought a reconciliation with 
the Bishops? Let us now come to the charges which 
were brought against myself. Is there any thing re- 
prehensible in my manners or my conduct? Surely 



926 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



nothing-. What no one, not totally divested of all ge- 
nerous sensibility, would have done, he reproaches me 
with want of beauty and loss of sight. 

A monster huge and hideous., void of sight. 

I certainly never supposed that I should have been 
obliged to enter into a competition for beauty with 
the Cyclops ; but he immediately corrects himself, and 
says, " though not indeed huge, for there cannot be a 
more spare, shrivelled, and bloodless form." It is of 
no moment to say any thing of personal appearance, 
yet lest (as the Spanish vulgar, implicitly confiding- in 
the relations of their priests, believe of heretics) any 
one, from the representations of my enemies, should be 
led to imagine that I have either the head of a dog, or 
the horn of a rhinoceros, I will say something- on the 
subject, that I may have an opportunity of paying- my 
grateful acknowledgements to the Deity, and of refut- 
ing the most shameless lies. I do not believe that I 
was ever once noted for deformity, by any one who 
ever saw me ; but the praise of beauty I am not 
anxious to obtain. My stature certainly is not tall; 
but it rather approaches the middle than the diminu- 
tive. Yet what if it were diminutive, when so many 
men, illustrious both in peace and war, have been the 
same? And how can that be called diminutive, which 
is great enough for every virtuous achievement ? Nor, 
though very thin, was I ever deficient in courage or 
in strength ; and I was wont constantly to exercise 
myself in the use of the sword, as long- as it comported 
with my habits and my years. Armed with this 
weapon, as I usually was, I should have thought my- 
self quite a match for any one, though much stronger 
than myself; and I felt perfectly secure against the 
assault of any open enemy. At this moment I have 
the same courage, the same strength, though not 
the same eyes; yet so little do they betray any exter- 
nal appearance of injury, that they are as unclouded 
and bright as the eyes of those who most distinctly 
see. In this instance alone I am a dissembler against 
my will. My face, which is said to indicate a total 
privation of blood, is of a complexion entirely opposite 
to the pale and the cadaverous ; so that, though I am 
more than forty years old, there is scarcely any one to 
whom I do not appear ten years younger than I am ; 
and the smoothness of my skin is not, in the least, 
affected by the wrinkles of age. If there be one par- 
ticle of falsehood in this relation, I should deservedly 
incur the ridicule of many thousands of my country- 
men, and even many foreigners to whom I am per- 
sonally known. But if be, in a matter so foreign to 
his purpose, shall be found to have asserted so many 
shameless and gratuitous falsehoods, you may the 
more readily estimate the quantity of his veracity on 
other topics. Thus much necessity compelled me to 
assert concerning my personal appearance. Respect- 
ing yours, though I have been informed tfiat it is most 
insignificant and contemptible, a perfect mirror of the 
worthlessness of your character and the malevolence 
of your heart, I say nothing, and no one will be 
anxious that any thing should be said. I wish that I 



could with equal facility refute what this barbarous 
opponent has said of my blindness ; but I cannot do 
it; and I must submit to the affliction. It is not so 
wretched to be blind, as it is not to be capable of en- 
during blindness. But why should I not endure a 
misfortune, which it behoves every one to be prepared 
to endure if it should happen ; which may, in the com- 
mon course of things, happen to any man ; and which 
has been known to happen to the most distinguished 
and virtuous persons in history. Shall I mention 
those wise and ancient bards, whose misfortunes the 
gods are said to have compensated by superior endow- 
ments, and whom men so much revered, that they 
chose rather to impute their want of sight to the in- 
justice of heaven than to their own want of innocence 
or virtue ? What is reported of the Augur Tiregias is 
well known; of whom Apollonius sung thus in his 
Argonauts ; 

To men he dar'd the will divine disclose, 
Nor fear'd what Jove might in his wrath impose. 
The gods assigned him age, without decay, 
But snatch' d the blessing of his sight away. 

But God himself is truth ; in propagating which, as 
men display a greater integrity and zeal, they approach 
nearer to the similitude of God, and possess a greater 
portion of his love. We cannot suppose the Deity en- 
vious of truth, or unwilling that it should be freely 
communicated to mankind. The loss of sight, there- 
fore, which this inspired sage, who was so eager in 
promoting knowledge among men, sustained, cannot 
be considered as a judicial punishment. Or shall I 
mention those worthies who were as distinguished for 
wisdom in the cabinet, as for valour in the field ? And 
first, Timoleon of Corinth, who delivered his city and 
all Sicily from the yoke of slavery ; than whom there 
never lived, in any age, a more virtuous man, or a more 
incorrupt statesman : Next Appius Claudius, whose dis- 
creet counsels in the senate, though they could not re- 
store sight to his own eyes, saved Italy from the for- 
midable inroads of Pyrrhus : then Csecilius Metellus 
the high priest, who lost his sight, while he saved, not 
only the city, but the palladium, the protection of the 
city, and the most sacred relics, from the destruction of 
the flames. On other occasions Providence has indeed 
given conspicuous proofs of its regard for such singular 
exertions of patriotism and virtue ; what, therefore, hap- 
pened to so great and so good a man, I can hardly 
place in the catalogue of misfortunes. Why should I 
mention others of later times, as Dandolo of Venice, 
the incomparable Doge; or Boemar Zisca, the bravest 
of generals, and the champion of the cross; or Jerome 
Zanchius, and some other theologians of the highest 
reputation ? For it is evident that the Patriarch Isaac, 
than whom no man ever enjoyed more of the divine 
regard, lived blind for many years ; and perhaps also 
his son Jacob, who was equally an object of the divine 
benevolence. And in short, did not our Saviour him- 
self clearly declare that that poor man whom he re- 
stored to sight, had not been born blind, either on ac- 
count of his own sins or those of his progenitors ? And 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



927 



with respect to myself, though I have accurately ex- 
amined my conduct, and scrutinized my soul, I call 
thee, O God, the searcher of hearts, to witness, that I 
am not conscious, either in the more early or in the 
later periods of my life, of having- committed any 
enormity, which might deservedly have marked me out 
as a fit object for such a calamitous visitation. But 
since my enemies boast that this affliction is only a re- 
tribution for the transgressions of my pen, I again in- 
voke the Almighty to witness, that I never, at any time, 
wrote any thing which I did not think agreeable to 
truth, to justice, and to piety. This was my persua- 
sion then, and I feel the same persuasion now. Nor 
was I ever prompted to such exertions by the influence 
of ambition, by the lust of lucre or of praise ; it was 
only by the conviction of duty and the feeling of pa- 
triotism, a disinterested passion for the extension of 
civil and religious liberty. Thus, therefore, when I 
was publickly solicited to write a reply to the defence 
of the royal cause, when I had to contend with the 
pressure of sickness, and with the apprehension of soon 
losing the sight of my remaining eye, and when my 
medical attendants clearly announced, that if I did en- 
gage in the work, it would be irreparably lost, their 
premonitions caused no hesitation and inspired no dis- 
may. I would not have listened to the voice even of 
Esculapius himself from the shrine of Epidauris, in pre- 
ference to the suggestions of the heavenly monitor 
within my breast; my resolution was unshaken, though 
the alternative was either the loss of my sight, or the 
desertion of my duty; and I called to mind those two 
destinies, which the oracle of Delphi announced to the 
son of Thetis. 

Two fates may lead me to the realms of night ; 

If staying here, around Troy's wall I fight. 

To my dear home no more must I return ; 

But lasting glory will adorn my urn. 

But, if I withdraw from the martial strife, 

Short is my fame, but long will be my life. II. ix. 

I considered that many had purchased a less good by a 
greater evil, the meed of glory by the loss of life ; but 
that I might procure great good by little suffering ; 
that though I am blind, I might still discharge the 
most honourable duties, the performance of which, as it 
is something more durable than glory, ought to be an 
object of superior admiration and esteem; I resolved, 
therefore, to make the short interval of sight, which 
was left me to enjoy, as beneficial as possible to the 
public interest. Thus it is clear, by what motives I 
was governed in the measures which I took, and the 
losses which I sustained. Let then the calumniators 
of the divine goodness cease to revile, or to make me 
the objectof their superstitious imaginations. Letthem 
consider, that my situation, such as it is, is neither an 
object of my shame or my regret, that my resolutions 
are too firm to be shaken, that I am not depressed by 
any sense of the divine displeasure ; that, on the other 
hand, in the most momentous periods, I have had full 
experience of the divine favour and protection; and 
that, in the solace and the strength which have been 



infused into me from above, T have been enabled to do 
the will of God ; that I may oftener think on what he 
has bestowed, than on what he has withheld ; that, in 
short, I am unwilling to exchange my consciousness of 
rectitude with that of any other person ; and that I feel 
the recollection a treasured store of tranquillity and de- 
light. But, if the choice were necessary, I would, Sir, 
prefer my blindness to yours ; yours is a cloud spread 
over the mind, which darkens both the light of reason 
and of conscience ; mine keeps from my view only the 
coloured surfaces of things, while it leaves me at liberty 
to contemplate the beauty and stability of virtue and of 
truth. How many things are there besides, which I 
would not willingly see ; how many which I must see 
against my will; and how few which I feel any 
anxiety to see! There is, as the apostle has remarked, 
a way to strength through weakness. Let me then be 
the most feeble creature alive, as long as that feeble- 
ness serves to invigorate the energies of my rational 
and immortal spirit ; as long as in that obscurity, in 
which I am enveloped, the light of the divine presence 
more clearly shines ; then, in the proportion as I am 
weak, I shall be invincibly strong; and in proportion 
as I am blind, I shall more clearly see. ! that I 
may thus be perfected by feebleness, and irradiated by 
obscurity ! And indeed, in my blindness, I enjoy in no 
inconsiderable degree the favour of the Deity ; who 
regards me with more tenderness and compassion in pro- 
portion as I am able to behold nothing but himself. Alas ! 
for him who insults me, who maligns and merits public 
execration ! For the divine law not only shields me 
from injury, but almost renders me too sacred to at- 
tack; not indeed so much from the privation of my 
sight, as from the overshadowing of those heavenly 
wings, w T hich seem to have occasioned this obscurity ; 
and which, when occasioned, he is wont to illuminate 
with an interior light, more precious and more pure. 
To this I ascribe the more tender assiduities of my 
friends, their soothing attentions, their kind visits, 
their reverential observances ; among whom there are 
some with whom I may interchange the Pyladean and 
Thesian dialogue of inseparable friends. 

Orest. Proceed, and be rudder of my feet, by shewing me 
the most endearing love. 

Eurip. in Orest. 
And in another place, 

Lend your hand to your devoted friend, 
Throw your arm round my neck, and I will conduct you 
on the way. 

This extraordinary kindness which I experience, can- 
not be any fortuitous combination ; and friends, such 
as mine, do not suppose that all the virtues of a man 
are contained in his eyes. Nor do the persons of prin- 
cipal distinction in the commonwealth suffer me to be 
bereaved of comfort, when they see me bereaved of 
sight, amid the exertions which I made, the zeal which 
I shewed, and the dangers which I run for the liberty 
which I love. But, soberly reflecting on the casualties 
of human life, they shew me favour and indulgence as 
to a soldier who has served his time ; and kindly con~ 



928 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



cede to me an exemption from care and toil. They do 
not strip me of the badges of honour which I have once 
worn ; they do not deprive me of the places of public 
trust to which I have been appointed ; they do not 
abridge my salary or emoluments ; which, though I 
may not do so much to deserve as I did formerly, they 
are too considerate and too kind to take away; and in 
short they honour me as much, as the Athenians did 
those whom they determined to support at the public 
expence in the Prytaneum. Thus, while both God 
and man unite in solacing* me under the weight of my 
affliction, let no one lament my loss of sight in so 
honourable a cause. And let me not indulge in un- 
availing grief; or want the courage either to despise 
the revilers of my blindness, or the forbearance easily 
to pardon the offence. T return to you, Sir, whoever 
you may be, who, with a remarkable inconsistency, 
seem to consider me at one time as a giant, and at an- 
other as a dwarf. You end with expressing your wish, 
that the United Provinces may with as much ease, 
and as much success, put an end to this war, as Sal- 
masius will put an end to Milton. To which wish, if 
I were cheerfully to assent, I think that I should not 
omen ill, nor ill implore for our success, or for the 
English interest. 

Butlo! again a dissonant and hissing cry ! It seems 
as if a flock of geese were passing' through the air. I 
now perceive what it is ; the cry has no tragic tones ; 
the chorus makes its appearance ; when lo ! two poe- 
tasters, if two there be, as diverse in colour as in form. 
Shall I call it a Sphinx, or that poetical monster of 
Horace, with a woman's head and an ass's neck, co- 
vered with motley plumes, and made up of limbs taken 
from every species of animals ? Yes, that is the very 
thing! It is surely some rhapsodist or other, dressed 
out in scraps of verses with poetic rags ; though it is 
uncertain whether there be one or two ; for there is not 
the mention of a name. True poets are the objects 
of my reverence and my love ; and the constant sources 
of my delight. I know that the most of them, from 
the earliest times to those of Buchanan, have been the 
strenuous enemies of despotism ; but these pedlars and 
milliners of verse, who can bear ? They applaud and 
they revile as it may happen, as gain, or passion, or 
the bottle may incite, without choice, discrimination, 
judgment, or moderation, princes and plebeians, the 
literate and illiterate, honest men and knaves. They 
heap together such a motley, indigested, and putrid 
mass of adulation, that it would be better to be pro- 
secuted with contempt, than loaded with such praise. 
And he, whom they revile, should think it no small 
honour, that he has incurred the displeasure of such 
absurd and foolish miscreants. I doubt whether the 
first, if there be two, be a poet or a mason; for he so 
bedaubs the face of Salmasius, that he hardly leaves 
the space of a hair without a coating of plaster. He 
represents the giant-warring hero, riding in his tri- 
umphal car, brandishing the spear, the cestus, and all 
the foppery of war, attended by all the learned who 
walk on foot, but at an awful distance behind his cha- 
riot ; since he is feigned to " have been commissioned 



by the Deity to heal the distractions of the world, and 
with an impenetrable shield, to protect kings in the 
possession of their rights, and in the splendour of their 
sovereignty." Salmasius must surely have been doating 
in a state of second infancy, when he could be so much 
taken by this encomium, as to cause it immediately to 
be published to the world. The poet must have been 
a miserable drudge, and without any feeling of pro- 
priety, to lavish such a prodigality of praise on a gram- 
marian ; a race of men who have been always thought 
to act as a sort of subordinate and menial part to the 
bard. The other does not make verses, but is stark 
mad; himself more raving than all the enthusiasts, who 
are the objects of his furious invective. As if he 
were the hangman in the employ of Salmasius, like the 
son of Dama, he invokes the Horatii and Cadmus; 
then, intoxicated with hellebore, he disgorges a whole 
cistern of abuse, which an index to Plautus shows him 
where to pilfer from the mouths of mountebanks and 
slaves. You would suppose, that his language was 
rather Oscan than Latin ; or that he was croaking like 
the frog of a slimy pool. Then to shew you how much 
he is a master of iambics, he makes two false quanti- 
ties in a single word ; making' one syllable long, where 
it ought to be short, and another short, where it ought 
to be long. 

Hi trucidato rege per horrendum nefas. 

Take away, O ass ! those panniers of airy nothingness ; 
and speak, if you can, three words that have an affinity 
to common sense ; if it be possible for the tumid pump- 
kin of your skull to discover for a moment any thing 
like the reality of intellect. In the mean time, I aban- 
don the pedagogue to the rods of his scholars. Do you 
go on to revile me as worse than Cromwell, since you 
cannot pay me a higher compliment. But shall I call 
you a friend, a fool, or an insidious foe ? Friend you 
cannot be, for your language is that of an enemy. How 
then could you be such an egregious fool, as, in the 
orgasms of your virulence, to assign me the post of 
pre-eminence above so great a personag'e ? For do you 
not perceive, or do you think me too dull to discern, 
that the violence of your hostility only serves to aug- 
ment the splendor of my patriotism ; and that the to- 
pics of my panegyric must be as numerous as your 
subjects of reproach. If I am most the object of your 
aversion, it is because you have most felt the force of 
my blows; because I have been the greatest obstacle 
in the way of your success. This proves that I have 
deserved well of my country; for the testimony of an 
enemy, however suspicious on other occasions, may be 
safely trusted with respect to his own sensations of re- 
sentment. Do you not remember that the poet, in the 
context which ensued between Ajax and Ulysses, for 
the arms of Achilles, leaves the matter according to 
the opinion of Nestor, to the decision, not of their Gre- 
cian friends, but of their Trojan foes. 

To the cool Trojans let us leave the cause. 
And a little after, 

What sober justice dictates they'll decree, 

From love and ev'ry partial bias free ; 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



929 



For all the Greeks alike incur their hate, 
Alike the authors of their ruin'd state. 

Thus says Q. Calaber. You must therefore be insidi- 
ously studious to oppress me with the public indigna- 
tion ; and thus you corrupt and pervert the open and 
manly vigour of an enemy, by the treacherous and in- 
veterate indignity of your disposition ; and you shew 
yourself, not only the worst of men, but the basest of 
enemies. But, good Sir, I will by no means frustrate 
your endeavours : for, though I may wish to rival 
Ulysses in the merits of his patriotism, I am yet no 
competitor for the arms of Achilles. I am not solicit- 
ous for an Elysium painted on a shield, which others 
may see me brandish in the contest ; but I desire to 
bear upon my shoulders a real not a painted weight, of 
which I may feel the pressure, but which may be im- 
perceptible to others. For since I cherish no private 
rancour, nor hostility against any man, nor any man 
that I know of against me, I am well contented, for 
the sake of the public interest, to be so much aspersed 
and so much reviled. Nor, while I sustain the greatest 
weight of the disgrace, do I complain because I have 
the smallest share of the profit or the praise; for I am 
content to do what is virtuous, for the sake of the ac- 
tion itself, without any sinister expectations. Let others 
look to that; but do you, Sir, know, that my hands 
were never soiled with the guilt of peculation ; and 
that I never was even a shilling the richer by those ex- 
ertions, which you most vehemently traduce. Here 
More again begins, and in his second epistle assigns 
the reasons for his writing ; to whom ? Why, truly, 
More, the perpetrator of adultery and rape, addresses 
" the lover of Christianity." You promise, Sir, a most 
pious epistle ; but now for the reasons why you wrote. 
" That the anxious and attentive nations of Europe, 
and particularly the members of the reformed religion 
in France, might be made acquainted with the parri- 
cide and the parricides," &c. The French, and even the 
protestants themselves, were up in arms against the 
established laws; what they would have done farther 
if they had met with as much success as we have, can- 
not be known ; but certainly their kings, if we may 
trust the accounts of those transactions, feared as much 
from them as ours did from us ; nor could they help 
doing it, when they considered the tone of their mani- 
festos, and the violence of their threats. Let them not 
therefore, whatever you may pretend, boast too much 
for themselves, nor judge too illiberally of us. He pro- 
ceeds, " Indeed I have been in such habits of intimacy 
with persons of the first character in England." Those 
who are the best in his eyes, will be found the worst 
in those of other people. " That I do not hesitate to 
assert, that I am intimately acquainted with the vices, 
the principles, and the lives of those monsters in the 
shape of men." I thought that you had had acquaint- 
ance with none but bawds and whores ; but you also 
thoroughly know what monsters are. " My English 
friends readily prevailed upon me to suppress my name," 
and this was discreetly done ; for they thus hoped to 
derive more advantage from the effrontery of your as- 
sertions, and less harm from the profligacy of your 



character. They knew you well, they remembered your 
honest custody of the fruit in the garden ; and that, 
even when become a shorn and polished priest, you 
could not keep your hands offPontia. And surely not 
without reason ; for if the word carnifex be derived, a 
conficiendacarne, why may not you, by doing forPontia, 
from a priest become a Pontifex. Though they could 
not but know this, and you could not be ignorant of it, 
yet, with an impiety that merits execration, and an as- 
surance that surpasses belief, you openly assert, that 
you were studious only to vindicate the glory of God ; 
and, at the same time, you inveigh against the hypo- 
crisy of others, when there never was a more notorious 
mercenary, or unprincipled hypocrite, than yourself. 
In narrating the series of transactions, you say that you 
have derived great assistance from other writers, and 
particularly from the exposure of the late disturbances 
in England. Surely, Sir, you must be \ery deficient 
in discretion and capacity ; when after so much parade 
and noise, you bring forward nothing of your own, but 
can deduce against us only some writers among the 
royalists, who may justly be suspected ; but without 
an implicit reliance in whose veracity you cannot pro- 
ceed a step. If there be occasion, we will refute those 
writers, and set aside one confutation by another ; we 
will not answer them by you, but you by them. What 
you have produced of your own, you will find it diffi- 
cult to defend ; which, while it indicates a mind utterly 
void of all religious principles, every good man will 
shudder while he reads. " The love of God, and a 
lively sense of the insult that has been offered to his 
holy name, compels me to lift up my suppliant hands 
to heaven." Hide, hide those hands, so foully stained 
with lust and rapine ; nor, with hands such as those, 
attempt to touch the throne of God, with which you 
have so often polluted the rites of his religion, and the 
altars of his worship. The divine vengeance which 
you so lavishly imprecate on others, you will find at 
last that you have been invoking on yourself. Hither- 
to we have had only the prelude to the cry, but (now 
it is going to occupy the principal and almost sole part 
in the drama) it swells the cheek and strains the jaws 
in the act of mounting to heaven ; whither, if it ascend, 
it will resound most effectually against the brawling 
More. " Since the majesty of kings has in all ages 
been held sacred," &c. You attack me, Sir, with 
much common-place abuse, and many malicious obser- 
vations which are quite irrelevant to the purpose ; for 
the murder of a king, and the punishment of a tyrant, 
are not the same thing; but do differ, and will for 
ever differ, as long as sense and reason, justice and 
equity, the knowledge of right and wrong, shall pre- 
vail among men. But enough, and more than enough, 
has been said on this subject ; nor shall I suffer you, 
who have in vain assaulted me with so many senseless 
imprecations, at last to bring about my end with a 
plethory of disgust ? You then say some fine things on 
patience and on virtue. But, 

You talk on virtue, while on vice you pore, 

And preach most chaste discourses while you whore. 



930 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



You say that "all the protestants, particularly those in 
the Low Countries and France, are struck with horror 
at the crime which we have committed;" and immedi- 
ately after, that " good men would every where think 
and speak differently on the subject." That you 
should be at variance with yourself is a matter of little 
moment; but what follows is of a more shocking" and 
atrocious cast. You say that " the wickedness of the 
Jews, who crucified Christ, was nothing- compared 
with ours, whether you regard the intentions of the 
parties, or the effects of the crime." Maniac; do you, 
a minister of Jesus, think so lightly of his crucifixion, 
as to have the audacity to assert, that the destruction 
of any king", whatever might be the intentions, or the ef- 
fect, is equally atrocious ? The Jews had the clearest and 
most convincing 1 proofs that Jesus was the Son of God ; 
but how could we possibly be led to believe, that 
Charles was not a tyrant ? To diminish the enormity 
of the guilt, you very absurdly make mention of the 
effect ; but I always observe, that the royalists, in pro- 
portion to their bigotry, are ready to depreciate the 
suffering's of Christ, in order to exalt those of their 
king ; yet as they assert, that we ought principally to 
obey him for Christ's sake, they shew that they cherish 
no sincere regard either for Christ or for the king; 
and that they make their irrational and superstitious 
devotion to kings, only a pretext to conceal their am- 
bitious, their sinister and interested , views. " Salmasius, 
therefore, that great sovereign of literature, advanced 
to the combat!" Cease, Sir, I beseech you, to disgust 
us with the application of such an epithet as "great" 
to Salmasius; which you may repeat a thousand times, 
without ever persuading any one that Salmasius was 
great; though you may, that More was little ; a worth- 
less scribbler, who, quite ignorant of propriety, lavished 
the appellation of great without any fitness or discrimi- 
nation. To grammarians and critics, who are princi- 
pally occupied in editing the works of others, or in 
correcting the errors of copyists, we willingly concede 
the palm of industry and erudition ; but we never be- 
stow on them the sirname of great. He alone is 
worthy of the appellation, who either does great things, 
or teaches how they may be done, or describes them 
with a suitable majesty when they have been done ; but 
those only are great things, which tend to render life 
more happy, which increase the innocent enjoyments 
and comforts of existence, or which pave the way to 
a state of future bliss more permanent and more pure. 
But has Salmasius done any thing like this? Nothing 
at all; what, that is great, has he ever either taught 
or related ? unless perhaps you except his writings 
against the bishops, and the supremacy of the pope ; 
the merit of which he entirely effaced by his subsequent 
recantations; by the habits of his life, and his vindica- 
tions of episcopacy. He, therefore, cannot fitly be 
termed a great writer, who either never wrote any 
thing great, or who basely recanted the best work that 
he ever wrote. He is welcome for me, to be " the 
sovereign of literature," and of the A, B, C ; but you 
are not content with having him the " sovereign of 
literature," but must exalt him to be " the patron of 



kings ;" and a patron well fitted to adorn such a station 
of sublimity. You have certainly shewn yourself very 
solicitous to promote the honour of kings, when in 
addition to their other illustrious titles, you would sub- 
join that of " the clients of Claud Salmasius." On this 
condition, O sovereigns of the world, you may be re- 
leased from every restraint upon your power ; if you 
will but do homage to Salmasius the grammarian, and 
make your sceptres bend beneath his rod. " To him 
kings will be indebted, as long as the world lasts, for 
the vindication of their honour, and the existence of 
their power." Attend, ye sovereigns! he who composes 
for you his beggarly defence, and who defends what 
no one attacked, has the arrogance to impute to 
himself the continuance of your dignity and your 
power. Such has been the effect of provoking this 
insolent grammarian from his cabinet of worms and 
moths, to support the cause of kings. " To whom 
the altar will be as much indebted as the throne ;" 
not indeed for the protection, but for the scandalous 
desertion of its interests. Now, you lavish your pane- 
gyric in the defence of the royal cause ; " you admire 
the genius, the erudition, the boundless diversity of 
matter, the intimate acquaintance with sacred and 
profane usages and laws, the impetuous volubility of 
diction, the limpid eloquence, which characterise that 
golden work." Though I contend that the work is 
deficient in all these qualities ; (for what has Salmasius 
to do with eloquence ?) yet that it was a truly golden 
composition, I am willing a hundred times to acknow- 
ledge ; for it cost Charles as many guineas, without 
mentioning the sums which the author received from 
the Prince of Orange. " The great man never ap- 
peared more mighty in his strength ; Salmasius was 
never more himself." He was truly so great that he 
burst ; for we have seen how great he was in his for- 
mer work ; and shall perhaps see in what he may 
have left behind him on the same subject. I do not 
deny that Salmasius, on the first appearance of his 
book, was the general topic of conversation, and that 
he was in high favour with the royalists; that he was 
invited by the most august queen of Sweden, and re- 
ceived the most munificent presents ; and, in short, 
that in the whole dispute, every circumstance was 
favourable to Salmasius and hostile to me. Men in 
general entertained the highest opinion of his eru- 
dition, the celebrity of which, he had been accumulat- 
ing for many years, by many voluminous and massy 
publications, not indeed of any practical utility, but 
relating- to the most abtruse discussions, and crammed 
with quotations from the most illustrious authors. 
Nothing is so apt as this to excite the astonishment of 
the literary vulgar. Who I was, no one in that coun- 
try had ever known ; his work had excited an impa- 
tient curiosity, which was increased by the magnitude 
of the subject. I had no means of exciting a similar 
interest, or a like ardour of expectation. Many indeed 
endeavoured to dissuade me from engaging with such 
a veteran ; some from envy, lest I should, at any rate, 
gather some glory from the conflict with so mighty an 
adversary; others from fear, lest my defeat should 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



931 



prove injurious to myself, and to the cause which I 
had undertaken to defend. Salmasius was invigorated 
and cheered by the specious plausibility of his subject, 
by the inveterate prejudices, or rather rooted super- 
stitions, of the vulgar, in favour of kingly power. All 
these were adverse to my undertaking, and impedi- 
ments to my success; and it is the less surprising, 
that my answer, on its first appearance, should be less 
eagerly read, except by those who were anxious to 
learn, who had the inconsiderate audacity to enter the 
lists with Salmasius. But the work soon excited ge- 
neral approbation and delight ; the author was lost 
sight of in the blaze of truth ; and Salmasius, who had 
so lately been towering on the pinnacle of distinction, 
stripped of the mask which he had worn, soon dwin- 
dled into insignificance and contempt ; from which, as 
long as he lived, he could never afterwards emerge, or 
recover his former consequence. But your penetrating 
mind, O ! Serene queen of Sweden, soon detected his 
imposture ; and, with a magnanimity almost above 
human, you taught sovereigns and the world to prefer 
truth to the interested clamours of faction. For though 
the splendor of his erudition, and the celebrity which 
he had acquired in the defence of the royal cause, had 
induced you to honour him with many marks of dis- 
tinction, yet, when my answer appeared, which you 
perused with singular equanimity, you perceived that 
he had been convicted of the most palpable effrontery 
and misrepresentation ; that he had betrayed the ut- 
most indiscretion and intemperance, that he had uttered 
many falsehoods, many inconsistencies and contradic- 
tions. On this account, as it is said, yon had him 
called into your presence ; but when he was unable to 
vindicate himself, you were so visibly offended, that 
from that time, you neither shewed him the same at- 
tentions, nor held his talents nor his learning in the 
same esteem ; and, what was entirely unexpected, you 
manifested a disposition to favour his adversary. You 
denied that what I had written against tyrants, could 
have any reference to you ; whence, in your own breast 
you enjoyed the sweets, and among others the fame, of 
a good conscience. For, since the whole tenor of your 
conduct sufficiently proves, that you are no tyrant, this 
unreserved expression of your sentiments makes it still 
more clear, that you are not even conscious to your- 
self of being one. How happy am I beyond my ut- 
most expectations ! (for to the praise of eloquence, 
except as far as eloquence consists in the force of truth, 
I lay no claim,) that, when the critical exigences of my 
country demanded that I should undertake the arduous 
and invidious task of impugning the rights of kings, I 
should meet with so illustrious, so truly a royal evi- 
dence to my integrity, and to this truth, that I had 
not written a word against kings, but only against 
tyrants, the spots and the pests of royalty! But you, 
O Augusta, possessed not only so much magnanimity, 
but were so irradiated by the glorious beams of wis- 
dom and of virtue, that you not only read with pa- 
tience, with incredible impartiality, with a serene 
complacency of countenance, what might seem to be 
levelled against your rights and dignity ; but ex- 
3 o 



pressed such an opinion of the defender of those rights, 
as may well be considered an adjudication of the palm 
of victory to his opponent. You, O queen ! will for 
ever be the object of my homage, my veneration, and 
my love; for it was your greatness of soul, so honour- 
able to yourself and so auspicious to me, which served 
to efface the unfavourable impression against me at 
other courts, and to rescue me from the evil surmises of 
other sovereigns. What a high and favourable opinion 
must foreigners conceive, and your own subjects for 
ever entertain, of your impartiality and justice, when, 
in a matter which so nearly interested the fate of sove- 
reigns and the rights of your crown, they saw you 
sit down to the discussion, with as much equanimity 
and composure, as you would to determine a dispute 
between two private individuals. It was not in vain 
that you made such large collections of books, and so 
many monuments of learning ; not indeed, that they 
could contribute much to your instruction, but because 
they so well teach your subjects to appreciate the 
merits of your reign, and the rare excellence of your 
virtue and your wisdom. For the Divinity himself 
seems to have inspired you with a love of wisdom, and 
a thirst for improvement, beyond what any books ever 
could have produced. It excites our astonishment to 
see a force of intellect so truly divine, a particle of 
celestial flame so resplendently pure, in a region so re- 
mote ; of which an atmosphere, so darkened with 
clouds, and so chilled with frosts, could not extinguish 
the light, nor repress the operations. The rocky and 
barren soil, which is often as unfavourable to the 
growth of genius as of plants, has not impeded the ma- 
turation of your faculties ; and that country, so rich 
in metallic ore, which appears like a cruel step-mother 
to others, seems to have been a fostering parent to you ; 
and after the most strenuous attempts to have at last 
produced a progeny of pure gold. I would invoke 
you, Christina ! as the only child of the renowned and 
victorious Adolphus, if your merit did not as much 
eclipse his, as wisdom excels strength, and the arts of 
peace the havoc of war. Henceforth, the queen of 
the south will not be alone renowned in history ; for 
there is a queen of the north, who would not only be 
worthy to appear in the court of the wise king of the 
Jews, or any king of equal wisdom ; but to whose 
court others may from all parts repair, to behold so fair 
a heroine, so bright a pattern of all the royal virtues ; 
and to the crown of whose praise this may well be add- 
ed, that neither in her conduct nor her appearance, is 
there any of the forbidding reserve, or the ostentatious 
parade, of royalty. She herself seems the least conscious 
of her own attributes of sovereignty ; and her thoughts 
are always fixed on something greater and more sub- 
lime than the glitter of a crown. In this respect, her 
example may well make innumerable kings hide their 
diminished heads. She may, if such is the fatality of 
the Swedish nation, abdicate the sovereignty, but she 
can never lay aside the queen ; for her reign has proved, 
that she is fit to govern, not only Sweden, but the world. 
This tribute of praise, to so highly meritorious a 
queen, there is, I trust, no one who will not applaud ; 



932 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



and which if others did not pay, I could not have with- 
held, without the imputation of the most heinous ingra- 
titude. For, whether it be owing to the benign aspects 
of the planets, or to the secret sympathies and affini- 
ties of things, I cannot too much extol my good for- 
tune, in having found, in a region so remote, a patron 
so impartial and so kind, whom of all I least expected, 
but of all the most desired. But now we will return, 
from this digression, to a quite different theme. You 
say, that " we were thrown into the most furious com- 
motion on hearing of the royal defence, and that we 
looked around for some servile pedagogue, who might 
employ his venal pen in the vindication of the parri- 
cides." This is the mere effusion of your spite ; for you 
must recollect, that, when the royalists were in search 
of a hawker for their lies, and a retailer of their malice, 
they applied to the grammarian Salmasius, who if he 
were not a menial, could never resist a bribe ; who not 
only readily sold them his present work, but his good 
intentions for the future. And you must remember, 
that when Salmasius was anxiously ruminating, how 
he might re-establish his ruined character, and oblite- 
rate his shame, he was, by a certain retributive fatality, 
directed to you, who were then not officiating as a mi- 
nister at Geneva, from which place you had been ex- 
pelled, but as a worshipper of Priapus, of whose lasci- 
vious rites you made his house the shrine. Hence, 
nauseating those praises, which you had bestowed 
with so much extravagance, and which he had pur- 
chased with so much disgrace, his friendship was con- 
verted into the most inveterate hostility, and he cursed 
his panegyrist even in his dying" hour. " They fixed 
upon one John Milton, a great hero truly, to oppose 
Salmasius." I did not know that I was a hero, though 
you perchance may be the progeny of some frail heroine, 
for you are nothing but a compound of iniquity. When 
I consider the good of the commonwealth, I may in- 
deed lament, that I alone was selected to defend the 
people of England, though I could not readily have 
endured an associate in the fame. You say, that it is 
a matter of uncertainty who and whence I am. The 
same uncertainty attached to Homer and Demosthenes. 
Indeed, I had been early taught to hold my tongue 
and to say nothing ; which Salmasius never could ; 
and I accordingly buried those things within my breast, 
which if I had pleased to disclose, I could then have 
obtained as much celebrity as I now possess. But I 
was not eager to hasten the tardy steps of fame; nor 
willing to appear in public till a proper opportunity 
offered. For I did not regard the fame of any thing 
so much, as the proper time for the execution. Hence 
it happened, that I had not long been known to many, 
before Salmasius begun to know himself. "Whether 
he be a man or a worm!" Truly, I would rather be a 
worm in the way that David expresses it, (" I am a 
worm and no man,") than that my bosom, like yours, 
should be the seat of a never-dying worm. You say, 
that " the fellow, having been expelled from the uni- 
versity of Cambridge, on account of his atrocities, had 
fled his country in disgrace and travelled into Italy." 
Hence we may discern what little reliance can be 



placed on the veracity of those, from whom you derived 
your information ; for all, who know me, know, that 
in this place, both you and they have uttered the most 
abominable falsehoods ; as I shall soon make more 
fully appear. But, when I was expelled from Cam- 
bridge, why should I rather travel into Italy, than into 
Frauce or Holland? where you, though a minister of 
the Gospel, and yet so vile a miscreant, not only enjoy 
impunity, but, to the great scandal of the church, 
pollute the pulpit and the altar by your presence. But 
why, Sir, into Italy? Was it that, like another Saturn, 
I might find a hiding-place in Latium ? No, it was be- 
cause I well knew, and have since experienced, that 
Italy, instead of being, as you suppose, the general re- 
ceptacle of vice, was the seat of civilization and the 
hospitable domicile of every species of erudition. 
" When he returned, he wrote his book on divorce." I 
wrote nothing more than what Bucer on the Kingdom 
of Christ, Fagius on Deuteronomy, and Erasmus on 
the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which was more 
particularly designed for the instruction of the Eng- 
lish, had written before me, for the most useful pur- 
poses and with the most disinterested views. Why 
what was not reprehensible in them, should constitute 
a charge of criminality against me, I cannot under- 
stand ; though I regret that I published this work in 
English ; for then it would not have been exposed to 
the view of those common readers, who are wont to be 
as ignorant of their own blessings, as they are insensi- 
ble to others' sufferings. But shall you, base miscreant, 
set up a cry about divorce, who, having debauched 
Pontia, under the most solemn assurances of marriage, 
afterwards divorced her in a manner the most unprin- 
cipled and inhuman ? And yet this servant of Salma- 
sius is said to have been an Englishwoman, and a 
staunch royalist; so that you seem to have wooed her 
as a piece of royalty, and to have deserted her as the 
image of a republic (res publica), though you were the 
author of her degradation to that state of publicity, 
and, after having allured her from the service of Sal- 
masius, reduced her to the condition of a public prosti- 
tute. In this manner, devotedly attached as you are 
to royalty, you are said to have founded many repub- 
lics (res publicas) in one city, or to have undertaken 
the management of their concerns, after they have been 
founded by others. Such have been your divorces, or 
rather diversions, after which you proceed, as a ruffian, 
to attack my character. You now return to the invention 
of fresh lies. "When the conspirators were debating on 
the capital punishment of the king, he wrote to them, 
and, while they were wavering and irresolute, brought 
them over to determine on his death." But I neither 
wrote to them, nor could I have influenced the execu- 
tion ; for they had previously determined on the mea- 
sure, without consulting rne. But I will say more on 
this subject hereafter, as also on the publication of the 
Iconoclast. The fellow, (shall I call him a man, or 
only the excrement of a man,) next proceeding from 
his adulteries with servant maids and scullions, 
to the adulteration of the truth, endeavoured, by 
artfully fabricating a series of lies, to render me infa- 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



933 



mous abroad. I must therefore crave the indulgence 
of the reader, if I have said already, or shall say here- 
after, more of myself than I wish to say ; that, if I can- 
not prevent the blindness of my eyes, the oblivion or 
the defamation of my name, I may at least rescue my 
life from that species of obscurity, which is the asso- 
ciate of unprincipled depravity. This it will be neces- 
sary for me to do on more accounts than one; first, that 
so many good and learned men among the neighbour- 
ing nations, who read my works, may not be induced 
by this fellow's calumnies, to alter the favourable 
opinion which they have formed of me; but may be 
persuaded that I am not one who ever disgraced beauty 
of sentiment by deformity of conduct, or the maxims 
of a free-man by the actions of a slave; and that the 
whole tenour of my life has, by the grace of God, hi- 
therto been unsullied by enormity or crime. Next that 
those illustrious worthies, who are the objects of my 
praise, may know that nothing could afflict me with 
more shame than to have any vices of mine diminish 
the force or lessen the value of my panegyric upon 
them; and lastly, that the people of England, whom 
fate, or duty, or their own virtues, have incited me to 
defend, may be convinced from the purity and integrity 
of my life, that my defence, if it do not redound to 
their honour, can never be considered as their disgrace. 
I will now mention who and whence I am. I was 
born at London, of an honest family; my father was 
distinguished by the undeviating integrity of his life ; 
my mother by the esteem in which she was held, and 
the alms which she bestowed. My father destined me 
from a child to the pursuits of literature ; and my ap- 
petite for knowledge was so voracious, that, from twelve 
years of age, I hardly ever left my studies, or went to 
bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of 
sight. My eyes were naturally weak, and I was sub- 
ject to frequent head-achs; which, however, could not 
chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress 
of my improvement. My father had me daily instruct- 
ed in the grammar school, and by other masters at 
home. He then, after I had acquired a proficiency in 
various languages, and had made a considerable pro- 
gress in philosophy, sent me to the University of Cam- 
bridge. Here I passed seven years in the usual course 
of instruction and study, with the approbation of the 
good, and without any stain upon my character, till I 
took the degree of Master of Arts. After this I did not, 
as this miscreant feigns, run away into Italy, but of 
my own accord retired to my father's house, whither I 
was accompanied by the regrets of most of the fellows 
of the college, who shewed me no common marks of 
friendship and esteem. On my father's estate, where 
he had determined to pass the remainder of his days, I 
enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted leisure, which I 
entirely devoted to the perusal of the Greek and Latin 
classics ; though I occasionally visited the metropolis, 
either for the sake of purchasing books, or of learning 
something new in mathematics or in music, in which 
I, at that time, found a source of pleasure and amuse- 
ment. In this manner I spent five years till my mo- 
ther's death, I then became anxious to visit foreign 



parts, and particularly Italy. My father gave me his 
permission, and I left home with one servant. On my 
departure the celebrated Henry Wootton, who had 
been King James's ambassador at Venice, gave me a 
signal proof of his regard, in an elegant letter which 
he wrote, breathing not only the warmest friendship, 
but containing* some maxims of conduct which I found 
very useful in my travels. The noble Thomas Scuda- 
more, King Charles's ambassador, to whom I carried 
letters of recommendation, received me most courte- 
ously at Paris. His lordship gave me a card of intro- 
duction to the learned Hugo Grotius, at that time am- 
bassador from the queen of Sweden to the French 
court; whose acquaintance I anxiously desired, and to 
whose house I was accompanied by some of his lord- 
ship's friends. A few days after, when I set out for 
Italy, he gave me letters to the English merchants on 
my route, that they might shew me any civilities in 
their power. Taking ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa, 
and afterwards visited Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence. 
In the latter city, which I have always more particu- 
larly esteemed for the elegance of its dialect, its geni- 
us, and its taste, I stopped about two months; when I 
contracted an intimacy with many persons of rank and 
learning; and was a constant attendant at their lite- 
rary parties ; a practice which prevails there, and tends 
so much to the diffusion of knowledge and the preser- 
vation of friendship. No time will ever abolish the 
agreeable recollections which I cherish of Jacob Gad- 
di, Carolo Dati, Frescobaldo, Cultellero, Bonomatthai, 
Clementillo, Francisco, and many others. From Flo- 
rence I went to Siena, thence to Rome, where, after I 
had spent about two months in viewing the antiquities 
of that renowned city, where I experienced the most 
friendly attentions from Lucas Holstein, and other 
learned and ingenious men, I continued my route to Na- 
ples. There I was introduced by a certain recluse, with 
whom I had travelled from Rome, to John Baptista 
Manso, Marquis of Villa, a nobleman of distinguished 
rank and authority, to whom Torquato Tasso, the illus- 
trious poet, inscribed his book on friendship. During' 
my stay, he gave me singular proofs of his regard; he 
himself conducted me round the city and to the palace 
of the viceroy; and more than once paid me a visit at 
my lodgings. On my departure he gravely apologized 
for not having shewn me more civility, which he said 
he had been restrained from doing-, because I had 
spoken with so little reserve on matters of religion. 
When I was preparing to pass over into Sicily and 
Greece, the melancholy intelligence which I received, 
of the civil commotions in England, made me alter my 
purpose ; for I thought it base to be travelling for 
amusement abroad, while my fellow citizens were 
fighting for liberty at home. While I was on my way 
back to Rome, some merchants informed me that the 
English Jesuits had formed a plot against me if I re- 
turned to Rome, because I had spoken too freely on 
religion ; for it was a rule which I laid down to my- 
self in those places, never to be the first to begin any 
conversation on religion ; but if any questions were 
put to me concerning my faith, to declare it without 



934 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



any reserve or fear. I nevertheless returned to Rome. 
I took no steps to conceal either my person or my cha- 
racter; and for about the space of two months, I again 
openly defended, as I had done before, the reformed 
religion in the very metropolis of popery. By the fa- 
vour of God, I got safe back to Florence, where I was 
received with as much affection as if I had returned to 
my native country. There I stopped as many months 
as T had done before, except that I made an excursion 
for a few days to Lucca; and crossing the Apennines, 
passed through Bolog'na and Ferrara to Venice. After 
I had spent a month in surveying the curiosities of this 
city, and had put on board a ship the books which I 
had collected in Italy, I proceeded through Verona and 
Milan, and along the Leman lake to Geneva. The 
mention of this city brings to my recollection the 
slandering More, and makes me again call the Deity 
to witness, that in all those places, in which vice meets 
with so little discouragement, and is practised with so 
little shame, I never once deviated from the paths of 
integrity and virtue, and perpetually reflected that, 
though my conduct might escape the notice of men, it 
could not elude the inspection of God. At Geneva I 
held daily conferences with John Deodati, the learned 
Professor of Theology. Then pursuing my former route 
through Fiance, I returned to my native country, after 
an absence of one year and about three months ; at the 
time when Charles, having broken the peace, was re- 
newing what is called the episcopal war with the Scots; 
in which the royalists being routed in the first encoun- 
ter, and the English being universally and justly dis- 
affected, the necessity of his affairs at last obliged him 
to convene a parliament. As soon as I was able, I 
hired a spacious house in the city for myself and my 
books; where I again with rapture renewed my literary 
pursuits, and where I calmly awaited the issue of the 
contest, which I trusted to the wise conduct of Provi- 
dence, and to the courage of the people. The vigour 
of the parliament had begun to humble the pride of the 
bishops. As long as the liberty of speech was no 
longer subject to controul, all mouths began to be 
opened against the bishops ; some complained of the 
vices of the individuals, others of those of the order. 
They said that it was unjust that they alone should 
differ from the model of other reformed churches; that 
the government of the church should be according to 
the pattern of other churches, and particularly the word 
of God. This awakened all my attention and my zeal 
— I saw that a way was opening for the establishment 
of real liberty ; that the foundation was laying for the 
deliverance of man from the yoke of slavery and super- 
stition ; that the principles of religion, which were the 
first objects of our care, would exert a salutary influence 
on the manners and constitution of the republic; and as 
I had from my youth studied the distinctions between 
religious and civil rights, I perceived that if I ever 
wished to be of use, I ought at least not to be wanting 
to my country, to the church, and to so many of my 
fellow Christians, in a crisis of so much danger ; I there- 
fore determined to relinquish the other pursuits in which 
I was engaged, and to transfer the whole force of my 



talents and my industry to this one important object. 
I accordingly wrote two books to a friend concerning 
the reformation of the church of England. Afterwards, 
when two bishops of superior distinction vindicated 
their privileges against some principal ministers, I 
thought that on those topics, to the consideration of 
which I was led solely by my love of truth, and my 
reverence for Christianity, I should not probably write 
worse than those, who were contending* only for their 
own emoluments and usurpations. I therefore answer- 
ed the one in two books, of which the first is inscribed, 
Concerning Prelatical Episcopacy, and the other Con- 
cerning the Mode of Ecclesiastical Government; and 
I replied to the other in some Animadversions, and soon 
after in an Apology. On this occasion it was supposed 
that I brought a timely succour to the ministers, who 
were hardly a match for the eloquence of their oppo- 
nents ; and from that time I was actively employed in 
refuting any answers that appeared. When the bishops 
could no longer resist the multitude of their assailants, 
I had leisure to turn my thoughts to other subjects ; to 
the promotion of real and substantial liberty ; which is 
rather to be sought from within than from without; and 
whose existence depends, not so much on the terror of 
the sword, as on sobriety of conduct and integrity of 
life. When, therefore, I perceived that there were 
three species of liberty which are essential to the hap- 
piness of social life ; religious, domestic, and civil ; 
and as I had already written concerning the first, and 
the magistrates were strenuously active in obtaining 
the third, I determined to turn my attention to the se- 
cond, or the domestic species. As this seemed to in- 
volve three material questions, the conditions of the 
conjugal tie, the education of the children, and the free 
publication of the thoughts, I made them objects of dis- 
tinct consideration. I explained my sentiments, not 
only concerning the solemnization of the marriage, but 
the dissolution, if circumstances rendered it necessary ; 
and I drew my arguments from the divine law, which 
Christ did not abolish, or publish another more grievous 
than that of Moses. I stated my own opinions, and 
those of others, concerning the exclusive exception of 
fornication, which our illustrious Selden has since, in 
his Hebrew Wife, more copiously discussed : for he in 
vain makes a vaunt of liberty in the senate or in the 
forum, who languishes under the vilest servitude, to an 
inferior at home. On this subject, therefore, I publish- 
ea some books which were more particularly necessary 
at that time, when man and wife w r ere often the most 
inveterate foes, when the man often staid to take care 
of his children at home, while the mother of the fa- 
mily was seen in the camp of the enemy, threaten- 
ing death and destruction to her husband. I then 
discussed the principles of education in a sum- 
mary manner, but sufficiently copious for those 
who attend seriously to the subject; than which no- 
thing can be more necessary to principle the minds of 
men in virtue, the only genuine source of political and 
individual liberty, the only true safeguard of states^ 
the bulwark of their prosperity and renown. Lastly, 
T wrote my Areopagitica, in order to deliver the press 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



935 



from the restraints with which it was encumbered ; 
that the power of determining" what was true and what 
was false, what ought to be published and what to be 
suppressed, might no longer be entrusted to a few 
illiterate and illiberal individuals, who refused their 
sanction to any work, which contained views or sen- 
timents at all above the level of the vulgar superstition. 
On the last species of civil liberty, I said nothing; 
because I saw that sufficient attention was paid to it 
by the magistrates ; nor did I write any thing on the 
prerogative of the crown, till the king, voted an enemy 
by the parliament, and vanquished in the field, was 
summoned before the tribunal which condemned him 
to lose his head. But when, at length, some presby- 
terian ministers, who had formerly been the most bitter 
enemies to Charles, became jealous of the growth of 
the Independents, and of their ascendancy in the par- 
liament, most tumultuously clamoured against the sen- 
tence, and did all in their power to prevent the execu- 
tion, though they were not angry, so much on account 
of the act itself, as because it was not the act of their 
party ; and when they dared to affirm, that the doc- 
trine of the protestants, and of all the reformed 
churches, was abhorrent to such an atrocious proceed- 
ing against kings; I thought, that it became me to 
oppose such a glaring falsehood ; and accordingly, 
without any immediate or personal application to 
Charles, I shewed, in an abstract consideration of the 
question, what might lawfully be done against tyrants; 
and in support of what I advanced, produced the 
opinions of the most celebrated divines; while I vehe- 
mently inveighed against the egregious ignorance or 
effrontery of men, who professed better things, and 
from whom better things might have been expected. 
That book did not make its appearance till after the 
death of Charles ; and was written rather to reconcile 
the minds of the people to the event, than to discuss 
the legitimacy of that particular sentence which con- 
cerned the magistrates, and which was already exe- 
cuted. Such were the fruits of my private studies, 
which I gratuitously presented to the church and to 
the state ; and for which I was recompensed by no- 
thing but impunity; though the actions themselves 
procured me peace of conscience, and the approbation 
of the good ; while I exercised that freedom of discus- 
sion which I loved. Others, without labour or desert, 
got possession of honours and emoluments; but no 
one ever knew me, either soliciting any thing myself, 
or through the medium of my friends; ever beheld me 
in a supplicating posture at the doors of the senate, or 
the levees of the great. I usually kept myself secluded 
at home, where my own property, part of which had 
been withheld during the civil commotions, and part 
of which had been absorbed in the oppressive contri- 
butions which I had to sustain, afforded me a scanty 
subsistence. When I was released from these engage- 
ments, and thought that I was about to enjoy an interval 
of uninterrupted ease, I turned my thoughts to a con- 
tinued history of my country, from the earliest times 
to the present period. I had already finished four 
books, when after the subversion of the monarchy, and 



the establishment of a republic, I was surprised by an 
invitation from the council of state, who desired my 
services in the office for foreign affairs. A book ap- 
peared soon after, which was ascribed to the king-, and 
contained the most invidious charges against the par- 
liament. I was ordered to answer it; and opposed the 
Iconoclast to his Icon. I did not insult over fallen 
majesty as is pretended ; I only preferred Queen 
Truth to King Charles. The charge of insult, which 
I saw that the malevolent would urge, I was at some 
pains to remove in the beginning of the work ; and 
as often as possible in other places. Salmasius then 
appeared, to whom they were not, as More says, long 
in looking about for an opponent, but immediately 
appointed me, who happened at the time to be present 
in the council. I have thus, Sir, given some account 
of myself, in order to stop your mouth, and to remove 
any prejudices which your falsehoods and misrepre- 
sentations might cause even good men to entertain 
against me. I tell thee then, thou mass of corruption, 
to hold thy peace ; for the more you malign, the more 
you will compel me to confute ; which will only serve 
to render your iniquity more glaring, and my inte- 
grity more manifest. I had reproved Salmasius, be- 
cause he was a foreigner, for meddling with our affairs; 
but you exclaim " that the defence intimately concerns 
those who are not English." Why ? you say, that 
" the English may be supposed to be governed more 
by the spirit of party ; but that the French will natu- 
rally pay more attention to the measures than the men." 
To which I retort, as before, that no remote foreigner, 
as you are, would have interfered in the distractions of 
our country, if he were not influenced by the most 
sinister considerations. I have already proved, that 
Salmasius was bribed ; it is evident, that you obtained 
the professional chair through the interest of Salmasius, 
and the Orange faction ; and what is worse, you were 
debauching Pontia, at the same moment that you were 
defaming the parliament. But the reason which you 
assign, why foreigners are the best judges in this 
business, is quite ridiculous ; for if the English are 
carried away by party zeal, you, who make them 
your only guides, must certainly be infected by their 
antipathies. And if the English deserve no credit 
in their own cause, you must deserve much less, 
who have no knowledge whatever of our affairs, ex- 
cept what you derive from them, who, according to 
your own confession, ought not to be believed. Here 
again you launch out into the praises of the great 
Salmasius ; great he certainly was, whom you em- 
ployed as a sort of pimp, to procure his servant girl. 
You praise him nevertheless; but he saw reason to 
curse you before his death ; and a thousand times 
blamed himself for not giving more credit to the ac- 
count of your atrocities, which he had received from 
Spanheim, a venerable divine. You are now worked 
into a fury, and assert, that Salmasius had long lost 
the use of his reason. You demand the first post in 
clamour and in rage, and yet assign the precedence in 
obloquy and abuse to Salmasius; "not because he is 
violent in his language, but because he is Salmasius." 



936 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



trifler! you, I suppose, learned this casuistry when 
you courted Pontia. Hence your clamour is taught to 
quibble and to whine; hence, foaming- with menace, 
"you shall experience at last," 3^011 say, " O base brutes, 
what my pen can do." Shall we dread you, O libidi- 
nous adulterer, or your pen, which is an object of dread 
only to cooks and chambermaids ? For if any one 
should hold up only his finger when he detects you in 
jour criminal amours, you would think it well if you 
escaped without your back being broken, or your body 
dismembered. " I am not so foolish," 30U say, " as to 
attempt the execution of a work, that was begun by 
Salmasius," but such a work, if he had not been void 
of understanding - , he would never have attempted ; you 
therefore seem jocosely to give the preference to Sal- 
masius over yourself in want of brains. But you say, 
that " it is your province to invoke the vengeance of 
heaven on the murderers of the king;" which may be 
done by persons without any great share of erudition. 
Cry, shout, and brawl ; continue to act the hypocrite, 
mouth religion, and practise lust. This God of ven- 
geance whom you implore, will, believe me, one day 
arise in wrath, when he will begin with exterminating 
you, who are the servant of the devil, and the disgrace 
and pest of the reformed religion. To many, who 
blame the bitter invectives of Salmasius, you reply, 
that " this was the right way to deal with parricides, 
and such monsters of deformity." I am obliged to you 
for thus teaching me in what manner yourself and your 
associate friends ought to be treated ; and for furnishing 
me with so fair a pretext for severity. Now since you 
have no argument to produce, and the rights of kings, 
with whatever shew of argument, had been already 
defended by Salmasius, your contumely and your rage 
evaporate in some miserable tales, some of which you 
have new-modelled from Salmasius, and interpolated 
others from that most confutable " confutation" of 
some anonymous scribbler who deserted not only his 
country but his name; and to the principal points of 
which, as I have already replied in my Iconoclast and 
my answers to Salmasius, no further reply can be ne- 
cessary. Shall I always be compelled to go the same 
round, and answer every tautology of slanderous abuse? 

1 will not do it; nor will I so misemploy my labour or 
my time. If any one think that his prostituted cries, 
his venal lamentations and frivolous declamation, de- 
serve any credit, he is welcome for me to think so; for 
I have nothing to fear from such precipitate credulity. 
But I will just touch on a few of his points of attack, 
which may serve as a specimen of the rest, and give 
some insight into the character of the man and of the 
work. After having babbled a good deal of his exotic 
ignorance about the incorporation of the House of 
Commons and the House of Peers in one assembly, (a 
measure which no one in his senses would disapprove,) 
he says, that " this equality, introduced into the state, 
would naturally lead to the introduction of the same 
into the church ; for episcopacy still remained, and if 
this be not downright anabaptism, I don't know what 
is." Who would have expected this from a Gallic 
minister and divine? I should hardly think that he 



knew what baptism is, who did not know what ana- 
baptism is, if this were not. But if we will call things 
by their proper names, equality in the state is not ana- 
baptism, but democracy, a far more ancient thing ; and 
equality in the church is the practice of the apostles. 
But " episcopacy still remained." We confess that it 
did; and Geneva still remained, though that city had 
consulted the interests of religion, in expelling both 
her bishop and her lawful chief; and why should we 
be condemned for what they are approved ? But you 
wish, Sir, to take vengeance upon the Genevese, by 
whom it is uncertain whether you were dismissed with 
ignominy, or openly excommunicated on account of 
your impieties. It is clear that you, with your friend 
Salmasius, apostatised from this evangelical form of 
church-government, and took refuge among the epis- 
copalians. " Then," you say, " the republic passed into 
the hands of our levelling crew, so that it is evident that 
the same spirit prevailed at that time, which in the 
eighth year had perpetrated the impious murder of the 
king. Therefore the same spirit, as it seems, constituted 
your ministers, and perpetrated the parricide." Go on, as 
you have begun, to eructate the rage of your apostacy. 
You say that " there were not more than three petitions 
which demanded the punishment of the king." This is 
notoriously false. Those who have written an account 
of these transactions, mention not only three petitions 
of the kind, but many from different counties and from 
the armies in the course of one month ; and three were 
presented in one day. You know how deliberately the 
matter was discussed in the senate, and that the people, 
suspecting them of too much lenity, resorted to petition- 
ing, in order to put an end to their delays. How many 
thousands were there of the same opinion, who consi- 
dered it to be either officious or superfluous to instigate 
the determination of the senate ? I was one of these, 
though I made no secret of my sentiments. But sup- 
pose that the high rank of the accused had awed every 
tongue into silence, ought the parliament to have ab- 
stained from a decision, or have awaited the assent of 
the people, on which depended the issue of such mo- 
mentous deliberations ? For the supreme council of 
the nation was appointed by the people to curb the 
despotism of the king : and if on his capture, after the 
savage war which he had made, they had referred the 
question of his punishment to the decision of the 
people, and if they had acquitted him, what would 
those, who had so courageously restored our liberties, 
seem to have done, but to have furnished the king 
with the means of effecting their own destruction ? 
Or if, after having been invested with full power to act 
as they thought best on the most momentous points, 
they should be compelled to refer to the multitude a 
question which far exceeded their capacity, and which 
they, conscious of their ignorance, had previously re- 
ferred to the determination of the senate, where could 
this alternation of references and appeals have stopped ? 
Where could we have found a place of rest in this tur- 
bulent eddy ? How could we have procured any sta- 
bility amid so much inconstancy, any security amid so 
much distraction ? What if they had demanded the res- 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



937 



toration of Charles to the crown ? And such was the 
drift of some menaces, rather than petitions, which 
were presented by a few seditious persons, whose hatred 
one while, and whose compassion another, was wont 
to be equally senseless and malicious. Were we to 
make any account of these ? " Who," as you say, " in 
order to set on foot a conference with the king", flocked 
from all parts of the country to the doors of the parlia- 
ment-house, where many of them were put to death by 
the soldiery, according" to the order of the senators. 
Some inhabitants of Surry, either incited by the malici- 
ous suggestions of others, or by their own disorderly 
inclinations, paraded the city with a petition, in a state 
of tumult and intoxication. They proceeded in a body 
to assail the doors of the house ; they beat off the guard, 
and, without the smallest provocation, killed one man 
who was stationed at the door. Hence they were de- 
servedly driven by violence ; and two or three of their 
number were slain, breathing" the fumes of intempe- 
rance more than the love of liberty." You every where 
concede, that " the Independents were superior, not in 
numbers, but in discipline and in courage." Hence I 
contend that they well deserved the superiority which 
they acquired ; for nothing is more agreeable to the 
order of nature, or more for the interest of mankind, 
than that the less should yield to the greater, not in 
numbers, but in wisdom and in virtue. Those who 
excel in prudence, in experience, in industry and cou- 
rage, however few they may be, will in my opinion 
finally constitute the majority, and every where have 
the ascendant. You intersperse many remarks on 
Cromwell, which I shall examine below ; the rest I 
have replied to in my answer to Salmasius. Nor do 
you omit to mention the trial of the king, though your 
great rhetorician had made that the theme of his mise- 
rable declamation. You say that the peers, that is, in 
a great measure the pageants and courtiers of the king, 
were averse to the trial. I have shewn in the other 
work the futility of this remark. " Then that the 
judges were erased, because they had given it as 
their opinion, that a king of England could not, 
by the law of England, be put upon his trial." I 
know not what they then answered ; I only know 
what they approve aud vindicate. It is no uncom- 
mon, though a disreputable thing, for judges to be 
swayed by fear. " An obscure and insolent scoun- 
drel was accordingly placed at the head of the base 
and iniquitous commission." It is not surprising that 
you, who are contaminated by so many vices and 
crimes, who are a compound of whatever is most 
impure and vile, whose conscience has become a sort 
of fungus utterly devoid of sensibility, who are so noto- 
rious for atheism, for sacrilege and cruelty, should dare 
to vent your calumnies on the most worthy and illus- 
trious names. But, though } r our abuse is the highest 
praise, yet I will never seem to abandon the excellent 
personage, the friend whom I most revere, to the torrent 
of your defamation. I will vindicate him from the 
unprincipled and intemperate obloquy of the fugitives 
and the Mores, which he would never have incurred, if 
he had not shewn so much zeal for the good of the 



commonwealth. John Bradshaw (a name, which will 
be repeated with applause wherever liberty is cherished 
or is known) was sprung from a noble family. All 
his early life he sedulously employed in making himself 
acquainted with the laws of his country ; he then 
practised with singular success and reputation at the 
bar; he shewed himself an intrepid and unwearied ad- 
vocate for the liberties of the people : he took an active 
part in the most momentous affairs of the state, and 
occasionally discharged the functions of a judge with 
the most inviolable integrity. At last when he was 
intreated by the parliament to preside in the trial of the 
king, he did not refuse the dangerous office. To a 
profound knowledge of the law, he added the most 
comprehensive views, the most generous sentiments, 
manners the most obliging and the most pure. Hence 
he discharged that office with a propriety almost with- 
out a parallel; he inspired both respect and awe; and, 
though menaced by the daggers of so many assassins, 
he conducted himself with so much consistency and 
gravity, with so much presence of mind and so much 
dignity of demeanour, that he seems to have been pur- 
posely destined by Providence for that part which he 
so nobly acted on the theatre of the world. And his 
glory is as much exalted above that of all other tyran- 
nicides, as it is both more humane, more just, and more 
strikingly grand, judicially to condemn a tyrant, than 
to put him to death without a trial. In other respects, 
there was no forbidding austerity, no moroseness in 
his manner ; he was courteous and benign ; but the 
great character, which he then sustained, he with per- 
fect consistency still sustains, so that you would suppose 
that, not only then, but in every future period of his 
life, he was sitting in judgment upon the king. In 
the public business his activity is unwearied ; and he 
alone is equal to a host. At home his hospitality is 
as splendid as his fortune will permit ; in his friendships 
there is the most inflexible fidelity ; and no one more 
readily discerns merit, or more liberally rewards it. 
Men of piety and learning, ingenious persons in all 
professions, those who have been distinguished by their 
courage or their misfortunes, are free to participate his 
bounty ; and if they want not his bounty, they are sure 
to share his friendship and esteem. He never ceases 
to extol the merits of others, or to conceal his own ; 
and no one was ever more ready to accept the ex- 
cuses, or to pardon the hostility, of his political op- 
ponents. If he undertake to plead the cause of the 
oppressed, to solicit the favour or deprecate the 
resentment of the powerful, to reprove the pub- 
lic ingratitude towards any particular individual, 
his address and his perseverance are beyond all praise. 
On such occasions no one could desire a patron or a 
friend more able, more zealous, or more eloquent. No 
menace could divert him from his purpose ; no intimi- 
dation on the one hand, and no promise of emolument 
or promotion on the other, could alter the serenity of 
his countenance, or shake the firmness of his soul. 
By these virtues, which endeared him to his friends 
and commanded the respect even of his enemies, he, 
Sir, has acquired a name, which, while you and such 



938 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



as you are mouldering in oblivion, will flourish in 
every age and in every country in the world. But I 
must proceed ; the king- was condemned to lose his 
head. " Against this atrocity almost all the pulpits in 
London thundered out their censures." We are not to 
be so easily scared by that thunder upon wood. We 
remember the fate of Salmoneus, and trust that these 
persons will one day see cause to repent of their fulmi- 
nating - temerity. These were the very persons, who 
so lately, and with such vehemence, fulminated their 
censures against pluralists and non-residents. But 
some of these persons having grasped three, and others 
four, of the livings, from which they had fulminated the 
episcopal clergy, they hence became non-residents 
themselves, guilty of the very sin against which they 
had inveighed, and the victims of their own fulminating 
rage. Nor have they any longer a spark of shame; 
they are now grown zealous abettors of the divine right 
oftythes; and truly as their thirst fortythes is so insa- 
tiable, they should be quite gorged with the commo- 
dity, and ordered to have, not only a tenth part of the 
fruits of the earth, but of the waves of the sea. They 
were the first to counsel a war of extermination against 
the king; but when the king was made prisoner, after 
having been convicted, according to their own repeated 
declarations, as the author of so much misery and 
bloodshed, they affected to compassionate his situation. 
Thus, in their pulpits, as in an auction room, they re- 
tail what wares and trumpery they please to the people ; 
and what is worse, they reclaim what they have al- 
ready sold. But "the Scots demanded that the king 
should be restored to them, and mention the promises 
of the parliament, when they delivered up the king to 
the English." But I can prove, from the confession of 
the Scots themselves, that no such promise was given 
when the king was delivered up ; and it would have 
been disgraceful for the English to have entered into 
any such stipulations with the Scotch troops, who were 
mercenaries in their pay. Why ? Because the answer 
of the parliament to the representations of the Scotch, 
which was published on the fifteenth of March, clearly 
denies, that any assurances whatever were given re- 
specting the treatment of the king; for they w T ould 
have disdained to have submitted to such limitations 
of their right. But " they demanded that the king 
should be restored to them." These tender-hearted 
persons, I suppose, were melted with compassion, and 
could no longer endure the regrets of royalty ; though 
on several occasions, in which the subject had been 
discussed in parliament, they had unanimously agreed 
that the king might be deprived of his crown for three 
principal reasons ; the despotism of his government, his 
alienation of the royal domains, and the desertion of 
his subjects. In the parliament, which was held at 
Perth, it was asked, Is the king, who is evidently an 
enemy to the saints, to be excommunicated from the 
society of the faithful ? But before they could come to 
any decision on this question, Montrose advanced with 
his troops and dispersed the convention. The same 
persons, in their answer to General Cromwell, 1650, 
confess that he was justly punished, but that there was 



an informality in the proceedings, because they had no 
share in the commission which condemned him. This 
transaction, therefore, which was so atrocious, without 
their participation, would have been highly patriotic 
with it ; as if the distinctions of right and wrong, of 
justice and injustice, depend on their arbitrary disposi- 
tion, or their capricious inclinations. If the king had 
been restored to them, would he have experienced 
greater clemency and moderation? But "the Scotch 
Delegates had first brought this answer from the Eng- 
lish Parliament, that they were unwilling to alter the 
form of the English Government; though they after- 
wards answered that they had changed their former 
determination, and would adopt such measures as the 
public interest seemed to require : " and this answer 
was discreet and wise. What do you infer from hence ? 
" This change of sentiment," you say, " was contrary 
to every engagement, to every stipulation, and to com- 
mon sense." To such common sense as yours it may 
be adverse, who do not know the difference between a 
gratuitous promise and a solemn and positive engage- 
ment. The English freely state to the Scots, what 
they were under no obligation to do, the sentiments 
which they then entertained respecting the future form 
of their government; but the safety of the state soon 
persuaded them to embrace a different policy, if they 
would not violate the solemn assurances which they 
had given to the people. And which, do you think, 
was most binding on their consciences ; their gratuitous 
reply to the Scotch Delegates, concerning the future 
form of their constitution, or the necessary oath which 
they had taken, the solemn engagement into which 
they had entered with the people, to establish the li- 
berties of their country ? But that a parliament or a 
senate may alter their resolutions according to circum- 
stances, as you deem whatever I assert to be mere ana- 
baptistical extravagance, I shall endeavour to shew 
you from the authority of Cicero in his oration for 
Plancius. "We should all stand, as it were, in some 
circular section of the commonwealth ; in which since it 
is liable to a rotatory motion, we should choose that 
position to which the public interest seems to direct us: 
and this immediately, for I do not think it a mark of 
inconstancy to accommodate our measures, as we do 
the course which we steer at sea, to the winds and 
storms of the political horizon. It is a maxim, which 
I have found justified by observation, by experience, 
and by books, by the examples of the wisest and most 
illustrious characters in this and in other countries, 
" that the same men are not always bound to de- 
fend the same opinions, but only such as the cir- 
cumstances of the country, the current of popular 
opinion, and the preservation of peace, seem to render 
necessary." Such were the sentiments of Tully ; 
though you, Sir, would rather prefer those of Horten- 
sius; such were the sentiments of those ages in which 
political wisdom flourished most ; and which I deem 
it wise in the anabaptists to adopt. I could men- 
tion many other practices which are condemned as 
anabaptistical by these stripling teachers, and their 
chief Salmasius, who must be regarded as an illiterate 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



939 



dunce, if we look to things rather than to words. But 
you say that " the high and mighty chiefs of the 
United States of Holland most strenuously laboured, 
though to no purpose, both by supplications and by 
the offer of a ransom, to save the sacred life of the 
king." Thus to wish to buy off justice was the same 
as not to will the safety of the king ; but they soon 
learned that we were not all merchants, and that the 
parliament of England was not a venal crew. With 
respect to the condemnation of the king, you say that 
" in order that the sufferings of Charles might be more 
nearly assimilated to those of Christ, he was exposed 
to the redoubled mockery of the soldiery." The suf- 
ferings of Christ were indeed more like those of male- 
factors, than the sufferings of Charles were like those 
of Christ ; though many comparisons of this kind were 
hawked about by those who were zealous in forging 
any lie, or devising any imposture that might tend to 
excite the popular indignation. But suppose that 
some of the common soldiers did behave with a little 
too much insolence, that consideration does not con- 
stitute the demerit of the execution. I never before 
heard, nor did I ever meet with any person who had 
heard, that " a person, who implored God to have 
mercy on the king as he was passing to the scaffold, 
was instantly put to death in the presence of the mon- 
arch." T caused inquiries on the subject to be made 
of the officer who had the command of the guard dur- 
ing the whole time of the execution, and who hardly 
ever lost sight of the king's person for a moment ; and 
he positively declared that he had never heard this 
before, and that he knew it to be utterly destitute of 
foundation. Hence we may learn what credit is due 
to your narrative in other particulars ; for you will be 
found not to discover much more veracity in your en- 
deavours to procure affection and respect for Charles 
after his death, than in your exertions to make us 
objects of general and unmerited detestation. You 
say that " on the fatal scaffold, the king was heard 
twice to sigh out to the bishop of London, remember ! 
remember ! " The judges were all in anxiety to know 
what the words, so emphatically repeated, meant; the 
bishop, according to your account, was sent for, and 
with a menace ordered to declare to what the reiterated 
admonition might allude. He, at first, with a precon- 
certed dissimulation, pleaded his sense of delicacy, and 
refused to divulge the secret. When they became more 
impatient, he at last disclosed, as if by constraint, and 
under the influence of fear, what he would not for the 
world have had unknown. " The king," said he, 
" ordered me, if I could gain access to his son, to in- 
form him that it was the last injunction of his dying 
father, that, if he were ever restored to bis power and 
crown, he should pardon you, the authors of his death. 
This was what his majesty again and again commanded 
ine to remember." Which shall I say? that the king 
discovered most piety, or the bishop most deceit? who 
with so little difficulty consented to disclose a secret, 
which on the very scaffold was so mysteriously en- 
trusted to him, for the purpose of disclosure? But O ! 
model of taciturnity ! Charles had long since left this 



injunction, among others, to his son, in his " Icon Ba- 
silicon," a book which was evidently written for this 
express purpose, that this secret, which had been so os- 
tentatiously enveloped in obscurity, might be divulged 
with the utmost dispatch, and circulated with the utmost 
diligence. But I clearly see that you are determined 
to obtrude upon the ignorant some paragon of perfec- 
tion, if not quite like Charles Stuart, at least some 
hyperborean and fabled hero, decorated with all the 
shewy varnish of imposture ; and that you tricked out 
this fiction, and embellished it with the effusions of 
sensibility, in order to entrap the attention of the po- 
pulace. But though I do not deny but that one or 
two of the commissioners might perhaps have briefly 
interrogated the bishop on this subject, T do not find 
that he was either purposely called before them, or 
deliberately and scrupulously interrogated, as if it were 
a matter of their general solicitude and care. But let 
us grant that Charles, on the scaffold, did deliver to 
the bishop these dying injunctions to his son to pardon 
the authors of his death ; what did he do more than 
others have done in similar situations? How few per- 
sons are there about to die upon a scaffold, and to close 
for ever the tragedy of life, when they must forcibly 
feel the vanity of every thing human, who would not 
do the same; who would not, when on the point of 
leaving the stage of life, cheerfully lay aside their 
animosities, their resentments, their aversions, or, at 
least, pretend to do it, in order to excite compassion, 
or to leave behind them an opinion of their innocence? 
That Charles acted the hypocrite on this occasion, and 
that he never did sincerely, and from his heart, deliver 
any injunction to his son to pardon the authors of his 
death, or that his private were at variance with his 
public admonitions, may be proved by arguments of 
no small weight. For otherwise the son, who, in other 
respects was sufficiently obsequious to his father, would 
doubtlessly have obeyed this his most momentous and 
dying injunction, so religiously conveyed to him by 
the bishop. But how did he obey it, when two of our 
ambassadors, the one in Holland and the other in 
Spain, neither of whom had any share in the destruc- 
tion of the king, were put to death by his orders 
or his influence? And has he not indeed more than 
once openly declared in his public memorials, that 
nothing should induce him to pardon the murderers 
of his father? Consider, therefore, whether this nar- 
rative of yours be likely to be true, which, the more it 
commends the father, reviles the son. Next, digress- 
ing from your purpose, you not only make the royal 
blood invoke the vengeance of heaven, but the people 
clamour against the parliament. You forget your 
own enormities at home, to engage in foreign con- 
siderations, in which you have no concern. Vile wretch, 
would the people ever employ you to plead their cause, 
whose breath is steaming with the effluvia of venereal 
putrescence ? You ascribe to the people the clamours 
of fugitives and profligates ; and, like a juggler on a 
stage, you imitate the shrieks and cries of the most 
hideous brutes. Who denies that there may be times, 
in which the vicious may constitute the majority of the 



940 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



citizens, who would rather follow Catiline or Antony, 
than the more virtuous part of the senate ? But are not 
good citizens on this account to oppose the bad with 
vigour and decision ? Ought they not to be less de- 
terred by the smallness of their numbers, than they are 
animated by the goodness of their cause ? Your beau- 
tiful scrap of declamation for the people of England, 
that it may not perish beyond recovery, I would advise 
you to insert in the Annals of Volusius ; we do not 
want the savoury effusions of such a lecherous rheto- 
rician. Next we are called to account for our injuries 
to the church. " The army is a Hydra-headed mon- 
ster of accumulated heresies." Those who speak the 
truth, acknowledge that our army excels all others, not 
only in courage, but in virtue and in piety. Other 
camps are the scenes of gambling', swearing, riot, and 
debauchery ; in ours, the troops employ what leisure 
they have in searching the Scriptures and hearing the 
word ; nor is there one, who thinks it more honourable 
to vanquish the enemy than to propagate the truth ; 
and they not only carry on a military warfare against 
their enemies, but an evangelical one against them- 
selves. And indeed if we consider the proper objects 
of war, what employment can be more becoming sol- 
diers, who are raised to defend the laws, to be the sup- 
port of our political and religious institutions? Ought 
they not then to be less conspicuous for ferocity than 
for the civil and the softer virtues, and to consider it as 
their true and proper destination, not merely to sow the 
seeds of strife, and reap the harvest of destruction, but 
to procure peace and security for the whole human 
race? If there be any, who either from the mistakes of 
others, or the infirmities of their own minds, deviate 
from these noble ends, we ought not to punish them 
with the sword, but rather labour to reform them by 
reason, by admonition, by pious supplications to God, 
to whom alone it belongs to dispel all the errors of the 
mind, and to impart to whom he will the celestial light 
of truth. We approve no heresies which are truly such ; 
we do not even tolerate some; we wish them extirpated, 
but by those means which are best suited to the pur- 
pose ; by reason and instruction, the only safe remedies 
for disorders of the mind ; and not by the knife or the 
scourge, as if they were seated in the body. You say 
that " we have done another and equal injury to the 
temporal property of the church." Ask the protestants 
of Holland, and even of Upper Germany, whether they 
ever spared the possessions of the church, against whom 
the Austrian Prince, as often as he makes war, hardly 
ever seeks for any other pretext than the restitution of 
the ecclesiastical domains. But that property did not 
belong to the church so much as the ecclesiastics, who, 
in this sense, might most justly be denominated church- 
men ; indeed they might have been more fully termed 
wolves than any thing else; but could there be any 
impiety in applying to the necessary exigencies of a 
war which they themselves had occasioned, and which 
we had no other resource for carrying on, the property 
of these wolves, or rather the accumulated ravages of 
so many ages of ignorance and superstition ? But it 
was expected that the wealth which was ravished from 



the bishops would be distributed among the parochial 
clergy. They expected, I know, and they desired, that 
the whole should be diffused among them ; for there 
is no abyss so deep which it is not more easy to fill, 
than it is to satiate the rapacity of the clergy. In other 
places there may be an incompetent provision for the 
clergy ; but ours have an abundant maintenance ; they 
ought to be called sheep rather than shepherds ; they 
themselves are fed more than they feed others ; every 
thing is fat around them, so that even their heads seem 
to swim in fat. They are stuffed with tythes in a 
way disapproved by the rest of the reformed churches; 
and they have so little trust in God, that they choose 
to extort a maintenance, rather by judicial force, and 
magisterial authority, than to owe it to divine pro- 
vidence, or the gratitude and benevolence of their con- 
gregations. And, besides all this, they are so frequently 
entertained by their pious auditors of both sexes, that 
they hardly know what it is to dine or sup at home. 
Hence they luxuriate in superfluities, rather than lan- 
guish in want ; their wives and children vie with the 
wives and children of the rich in luxury and refine- 
ment; and to have increased this tendency to prodiga- 
lity, by an addition to their revenue, would have been 
the same as to infuse new poison into the church ; a 
sort of pestilential malady, the introduction of which a 
voice from heaven lamented under Constantino. We 
have next to give an account of our enormities towards 
God, which principally concern our trust in the divine 
assistance, our prayers and fasts. But, vile miscreant! 
I will refute you out of your own mouth ; and retort 
upon you that text of the apostle, " Who art thou that 
judgest another man's servant ?" Before our own mas- 
ter let us stand or fall. I will add also that saying of 
the prophet, " When I afflict my soul with fasting, this 
is turned to my reproach." The rest of your delirious 
effusions on this subject, which no one will take the 
trouble to read twice, I should do wrong to detail. Nor 
are those things more to the purpose, which you brawl 
out concerning our successes. Beware, Sir, beware, 
lest, after your Pontian toils, you should swell into a 
polypus of corpulency ; and we need be under appre- 
hensions, lest as the great Salmasius lately did, you 
should chill the baths. On the nature of success I will 
say a few words. Success neither proves a cause to 
be good, nor indicates it to be bad; and we demand 
that our cause should not be judged by the event, but 
the event by the cause. You now enter on political 
discussions, the injuries Avhich we have done to all 
kings, and to all people. What injuries? for we never 
intended any ; the affairs of our own government 
alone occupied our attention, we neglected those of 
others ; we do not envy the good that may have ac- 
crued from our example, and we can ascribe the evil 
only to the abuse or misapplication of our principles. 
But, what kings or people ever appointed you to pro- 



clf 



tin 



»'J 



uries ? Indeed others have heard their 



orators and ambassadors in the senate, and I have often 
heard them in the council, not only not complaining of 
any grievances, but voluntarily suing for our friend- 
ship and alliance. In the name of their kings and 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



941 



princes, they have often congratulated us on the state 
of our affairs, praying for the stability of our govern- 
ment and the continuance of our prosperity. This was 
not the language of hostility or hatred, as you assert; 
and you must either necessarily be convicted of false- 
hood, at which you never stick, or kings themselves of 
an insincerity and dissimulation, the most humiliating- 
and most base. But you object to our confession, that 
we had set a salutary example to all people, and a for- 
midable one to all tyrants. This is surely as heinous 
a crime as if any one were to say, 

Advis'd, learn justice, and revere the gods. 

Could any thing be uttered more pernicious ? This 
was the language of Cromwell to the Scots after the 
battle of Dunbar. And worthy indeed was it of him 
and of that noble victory. "The infamous pages of 
Milton abound with the same noisome ingredients." 
You always associate me with some illustrious col- 
league ; and, on this occasion, you make me his equal, 
if not his superior; so that I might on this account 
think myself most honoured by you, if any thing hon- 
ourable could proceed from you. " But those pages," 
you say, " were burnt at Paris by the hands of the 
common hangman, and by the orders of the parlia- 
ment." I find that this was by no means done by the 
senate, but by one of the city officers, of what descrip- 
tion I know not, but at the instigation of the clergy, 
those indolent vermin, who saw at a distance the fate 
which menaced, and which, I pray, may one day over- 
take their gluttony and extravagance. Do you im- 
agine that we, in our turn, could not have burnt Sal- 
masius's defence of the king? I could myself easily 
have obtained this permission from the magistrates, if 
I had thought that it merited any thing but contempt. 
You, in your endeavours to extinguish one fire by an- 
other, have only erected an Herculean pile, from which 
I shall rise with more lustre and renown; we with 
more discretion, did not think it right to communicate 
any animating heat to the icy chilliness of the royal 
vindication. But I wonder that the Thoulousians 
should have become so degenerate, that a defence of 
religion and of liberty should be burnt in a city, in 
which, under the Counts of Raymond, religion and li- 
berty were formerly so nobly defended. " And I wish," 
you say, " that the writer had been burned as well." 
Is this your disposition, slave ? But you have taken 
good care that I should not indulge a similar wish to- 
wards you ; for you have been long wasting- in blacker 
flames. Your conscience is scorched by the flames of 
adultery and rape, and of those perjuries, by the help 
of which you debauched an unsuspecting girl, to whom 
you promised marriage, and then abandoned to de- 
spair. You are writhing under the flames of that mer- 
cenary passion, which impelled you, though covered 
with crimes, to lust after the functions of the priest- 
hood, and to pollute the consecrated elements with your 
incestuous touch. While you are acting the hypocrite, 
you utter the most horrid imprecations against hypo- 
crisy; and every sentence of condemnation only serves 



to condemn yourself. Such are the atrocities, such 
the infamy, with which you are all on fire; these are 
the infuriated flames, by which you are tormented 
night and day; and you suffer a punishment, than 
which even your bitterest foe could not invoke one 
more severe. In the mean time, not one hair of my 
head is singed by the conflagrations which you kindle ; 
but those affronts are balanced by much delight, and 
many sweets. One tribunal perhaps, or a single Pari- 
sian executioner, under some unlucky bias, burnt my 
book; but nevertheless, how many good and wise men 
through all France read it, cherished and admired it? 
How many, through the spacious tracts of Germany, 
the domicile of freedom, and wherever any traces of 
freedom yet remain? Moreover Greece itself, and 
Athens, the eye of Greece, mingles its applause in the 
voice of its noble Philyras. And this I can truly say, 
that, as soon as my defence appeared, and had begun 
to excite the public curiosity, there was no public func- 
tionary of any prince or state then in the city, who did 
not congratulate me when we accidentally met, who did 
not desire my company at his house or visit me at mine. 
But it would be wrong not to mention you, O Adrian 
Paul, the honour and the ornament of Holland, who, 
dispatched on a splendid embassy to us, though 1 had 
never the pleasure of seeing you, sent me frequent as- 
surances of your extraordinary predilection and regard. 
This it often delights me to recollect, and which could 
never have happened without the special appointment 
of the Deity, that royalty itself courteously favoured 
me, who had apparently written against kings ; and 
afforded to my integrity and veracity, a testimony next 
to the divine. For, why should I fear to say this, when 
I consider how zealously and how highly all persons 
extol that illustrious queen? Nor do I think, that he 
who was the wisest of the Athenians, and with whom I 
by no means wish to compare myself, was more hon- 
oured by the testimony of tbe Pythian oracle, than I 
am by the approbation of such a queen. If this had 
happened to me, when a young man, and orators might 
have taken the same liberties as poets, I should not 
have hesitated to prefer my fate to that of some of the 
gods themselves; for, while they contended for the 
prize of beauty or harmony before a human judge, I, 
in the most glorious of all contests, had the palm of 
victory adjudged to me by the voice of an immortal. 
Thus honoured and caressed, no one but a common 
hangman would dare to treat me with disrespect; and 
such an one has both done it and caused it to be done. 
Here you take great pains, as Salmasius had done be- 
fore, to prevent us from justifying our struggles for li- 
berty by the example of the Dutch ; but the same 
answer will serve for both. They are mistaken who 
think that we want any example to direct us. We 
often found it necessary to cherish and support, but 
never to rival, the Dutch in their struggles for liberty. 
If any extraordinary courage in the defence of liberty 
be requisite, we are wont, not to follow others, but to 
go before them and to lead the way. But you also 
employ the most paltry oratory, and the most flimsy 
arguments, to induce the French to go to war with us. 



942 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



" The spirit of the French," you say, " will never deign 
to receive our ambassadors." It has deigned, which 
is much more, voluntarily to send ambassadors three 
or four times to us. The French, therefore, are as 
noble minded as usual ; but you are degenerate and 
spurious, and your politics betray as much ignorance 
as falsehood. Hence you attempt to demonstrate that 
" the negotiation of the United States was purposely 
protracted, because they wished neither to treat with 
us, nor to go to war with us." But it certainly behoves 
their High Mightinesses not to suffer their counsels to 
be thus exposed, and, I may say, traduced by a Gene- 
vese fugitive ; who, if they suffer him any longer to 
remain among them, will not only debauch their women 
but their counsels. For they profess the most unfeigned 
amity ; and have lately renewed a peace with us, of 
which it is the wish of all good men that it may be 
perpetual. " It was pleasant," he says, " to see how 
those ruffian ambassadors," he means the English, 
" had to contend with the mockery and the menace of 
the English royalists, but chiefly of the Dutch." If 
we had not thoroughly known to whom the murder of 
our former ambassador, Dorislaus, and the affronts 
which were offered to our two other ambassadors are 
to be ascribed, we might well exclaim, lo ! a slander- 
ous informant, who falsely accuses the very persons 
by whose bounty he is fed ! Will you any longer, O 
Batavians! cherish and support a man, who, not con- 
tented with practising the most infamous debaucheries 
in the church, wishes to introduce the most sanguinary 
butchery into the state ; who not only exposes you to 
violate the laws of nations, but falsely imputes to you 
the guilt of such violations ? 

The last head of his accusations is, " our injuries to 
the reformed churches." But how our injuries towards 
them, rather than theirs towards us ? For if you recur 
to examples, and turn over the annals of history from 
the Waldenses and the Thoulousians to the famine of 
Rochelle, you will find that we, of all churches, have 
been the last to take up arms against tyranny ; but the 
first " to bring the tyrant to a scaffold." Truly, be- 
cause we were the first who had it in our power; and 
I think that they hardly know what they would have 
done if they had experienced similar opportunities. 
Indeed I am of opinion, that he against whom we 
wage war, must necessarily, and as long as we have 
any use of reason, be judged an enemy; but it has 
always been as lawful to put an enemy to death, as to 
attack him with the sword. Since then a tyrant is not 
only our enemy, but the public enemy of mankind ; 
he may certainly be put to death with as much justice 
on the scaffold, as he is opposed with arms in the field. 
Nor is this only my opinion, or one of recent date ; for 
common sense has long since dictated the same to 
others. Hence Tully, in his oration for Rabirius, de- 
clares, " If it were criminal to put Saturninus to death, 
arms could not, without a crime, have been taken up 
against Saturninus; but if you allow the justice of 
taking up arms against him, you must allow the jus- 
tice of putting him to death." I have said a good deal 
on this subject at other times and in other places, and 



the thing is clear enough in itself; from which you 
may conjecture what the French would have done if 
they had the power. I add, moreover, that those who 
oppose a tyrant in the field, do all in their power to 
put him to death ; indeed, whatever sophistry they 
may use, they have already morally put him to death. 
But this doctrine is not to be imputed to us more than 
to the French, whom you wish to exempt from the 
imputation. For whence issued that work of" Franco 
Gallia," except from Gaul, or " the defence against 
tyranny?" A book which is commonly ascribed to 
Beza. Whence others, which Thaunus mentions? 
But, as if I were the only author of the doctrine, you 
say, " Milton makes a pother about that, whose raving 
spirit I would have chastised as it deserves." You 
would have chastised, miscreant? You, whose atrocious 
proceedings, if the church of Middleburgh, which was 
disgraced by your impieties, had punished as they de- 
served, it would long since have committed you to the 
keeping of the devil ; and if the civil power had re- 
warded you according to your desert, you would long 
ago have expiated your adulteries on a gibbet. And 
the hour of expiation seems on the point of arriving ; 
for, as I hear, the church of Middleburgh, awakening 
to a right sense of your enormities and of its own dis- 
grace, has expelled such a priest of lechery from her 
communion, and devoted you to perdition. Hence, 
the magistrates of Amsterdam have excluded you from 
the pulpit, that pious ears may no longer be scanda- 
lized, by hearing the sounds of your profligate effron- 
tery in the bosom of the sanctuary. Your Greek pro- 
fessorship is now all that is left you ; and this you will 
soon lose, except one single letter, of which you will 
not be the professor, but the pupil, pensile from the 
top pTj . Nor do I omen this in rage ; I express 
only the truth ; for I am so far from being offended 
with such revilers as you, that I would always wish for 
such persons to revile me; and I esteem it a mark of 
the divine benevolence, that those, who have most bit- 
terly inveighed against me, have usually been per- 
sons whose abuse is praise, and whose praise is infamy. 
But what served to restrain the irruption of such im- 
potence of rage ? " Unless," you say, " I have been 
fearful of encroaching on the province of the great 
Salmasius, to whom I relinquish the undivided praise 
of victory over his great antagonist." Since indeed 
you now profess to consider me great, as well as him, 
you will find the difficulties of your undertaking in- 
creased, particularly since his death ; though I feel 
very little solicitude about the victory, as long as truth 
prevails. In the mean time you exclaim, that " we are 
converting parricide into an article of faith, to which 
they secretly desire, though they do not openly dare 
to ascribe, the unanimous consent of the reformed 
churches ; and Milton says, that it was the doctrine 
of the greatest theologians, who were the principal 
authors of the reformation." It was, I say; as I have 
more fully shewn in the tenure of kings and magis- 
trates, and in other places. But now we are become 
scrupulous about doing what has been so often done. 
In that work, I have cited passages from Luther, Zuin- 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



943 



glius, Calvin, Bucer, Martyr, Pareeus, and lastly, from 
that Knox, who you say alone countenances the doc- 
trine which all the reformed churches at that time, and 
particularly those of France, condemned. And he 
himself affirms, as I have there explained, that he de- 
rived the doctrine from Calvin and other eminent theo- 
logians of that time, with whom he was in habits of 
familiarity and friendship. And in the same work you 
will find the same opinions supported by the authorities 
of some of our more pure and disinterested divines, dur- 
ing the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. You conclude 
your work with a prolix effusion of your devotional abo- 
minations to the Deity. You dare to lift up your adulter- 
ous eyes and your obdurate heart to heaven ! I will throw 
no impediments in your way, but leave you to yourself; 
for your impiety is great beyond the possibility of in- 
crease. I now return, as I promised, to produce the prin- 
cipal accusations against Cromwell, that I may show 
what little consideration particulars deserve, when the 
whole taken together is so frivolous and absurd. " He 
declared in the presence of many witnesses, that it was 
his intention to subvert every monarchy, and extermi- 
nate every king." We have often seen before what 
credit is due to your assertions; perhaps one of the 
emigrants ascribed this saying to Cromwell. Of the 
many witnesses, you do not mention the name of a 
single one ; but aspersions, so destitute of proof, must 
be destitute of permanence. Cromwell was never found 
to be boastful of his actual exploits : and much less is 
he wont to employ any ostentatiousness of promise or 
arrogance of menace respecting atchievements which 
were never performed, and the performance of which 
would be so difficult. Those, therefore, who furnished 
you with this piece of information, must have been 
liars rather from a spontaneous impulse or a constitu- 
tional propensity, than from deliberate intention, or 
they would never have invented a saying so contrary 
to his character and disposition. But the kings, whose 
trembling apprehensions and vigilant precautions you 
labour to excite, instead of accommodating their policy 
to the opinions which may be casually uttered in the 
street, had better enter on the consideration of the sub- 
ject in a manner more suitable to its dignity, and more 
likely to throw light upon their interests. Another ac- 
cusation is, that Cromwell had persuaded " the king 
secretly to withdraw himself into the Isle of Wight." 
It is well known that the affairs of Charles were often 
rendered desperate in other ways, and thrice by flight ; 
first, when he fled from London to York, next, when 
he took refuge among the Scotch in the pay of Eng- 
land, and lastly, when he retired to the Isle of Wight. 
But " Cromwell persuaded this last measure." This is 
to be sure beyond all possibility of doubt ; but T wonder 
that the royalists should lavish such an abundance of 
praise respecting the prudence of Charles, who seems 
scarce ever to have had a will of his own. For whe- 
ther he was among his friends or his enemies, in the 
court or in the camp, he was generally the mere puppet 
of others ; at one time of his wife, at another of his 
bishops, now of his nobles, then of his troops, and last 
of all, of the enemy. And he seems, for the most part, 



to have followed the worst counsels, and those too of 
the worst advisers. Charles is the victim of persuasion, 
Charles the dupe of imposition, Charles the pageant of 
delusion ; he is intimidated by fear or dazzled by 
hope; and carried about here and there, the common 
prey of every faction, whether they be friends or foes. 
Let them either erase these facts from their writings, 
or cease to extol the sagacity of Charles. Though 
therefore a superior degree of penetration is an honour- 
able distinction, yet when a country is torn with fac- 
tions, it is not without its inconveniencies ; and the 
most discreet and cautious are most exposed to the ca- 
lumnies of opposite factions. This often proved an ob- 
stacle in the way of Cromwell. Hence the presbyte- 
rians, and hence the enemy, impute every harsh treat- 
ment which they experience, not to the parliament but 
to Cromwell alone. They do not even hesitate to ascribe 
their own indiscretions and miscarriages to the fraud 
and treachery of Cromwell ; against him every invec- 
tive is levelled, and every censure passed. Indeed the 
flight of Charles to the Isle of Wight, which took 
place while Cromwell was at a distance, and was so 
sudden and unexpected, that he acquainted by letter 
every member then in the metropolis with the extraor- 
dinary occurrence. But this was the state of the case. 
The king, alarmed by the clamours of the whole army, 
which, neither softened by his intreaties nor his pro- 
mises, had begun to demand his punishment, he deter- 
mined to make his escape in the night with two trusty 
followers. But more determined to fly, than rightly 
knowing where to fly, he was induced, either by the 
ignorance or the cowardice of his attendants, to surren- 
der himself to Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight, 
whence he thought that he might easily be conveyed by 
ship into France or Holland. This is what I have 
learned concerning the king's flight to the Isle of 
Wight, from those who possessed the readiest means 
of obtaining information. This is also one of the cri- 
minal charges ; that " the English under Cromwell 
procured a great victory over the Scots." Not " pro- 
cured," Sir, but, without any solecism, gloriously at- 
chieved. But consider how sanguinary that battle 
must have been, the mere idea of which excited such 
trembling apprehensions, that you could not mention 
it without striking your head against Priscian's pate. 
But let us see w T hat was the great crime in Cromwell 
in having gained such a complete victory over the 
Scots, who were menacing England with invasion, 
with the loss of her independence. " During this 
confusion, while Cromwell is absent with his army:" 
yes, while he was engaged in subduing an enemy, 
who had marched into the very heart of the king- 
dom, and menaced the safety of the parliament : 
while he was employed in reducing the revolted Welsh 
to their obedience, whom he vanquished wherever he 
could overtake, and dispersed wherever he could find ; 
the presbyterians " began to conceive a disgust against 
Cromwell." Here you speak the truth. While he is 
repelling the common enemy at the hazard of his life, 
and bravely defending their interests abroad, they are 
conspiring to ruin his reputation at home, and suborn 



944 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



one Hunting-ton to take away his life. Does not this 
atrocious instance of ingratitude excite our abhorrence 
and our rage ? By their instigation a mob of worth- 
less people, reeking from the taverns and the stews, 
besieges the doors of the parliament, and (O indignity) 
compels them by clamour and intimidation, to vote 
such measures as they chose to dictate. And we 
should now have seen our Camillus, on his return from 
Scotland, after all his triumphs, and all his toils, either 
driven into exile, or put to an ignominious death, if 
General Fairfax had not openly remonstrated against 
the disgrace of his invincible lieutenant ; if the whole 
army, which had itself experienced a good deal of ill- 
treatment, had not interposed to prevent such atrocious 
proceedings. Entering the metropolis, they quelled 
the citizens without much difficulty; they deservedly 
expelled from the senate those members who favoured 
the hostile Scotch ; the rest, delivered from the inso- 
lence of the rabble, broke off the conference which had 
begun with the king in the Isle of Wight, contrary to 
the express orders of the parliament. But Huntington 
the accuser was left to himself; and at last, struck 
with remorse, solicited the forgiveness of Cromwell, 
and confessed by whom he had been suborned. These 
are the principal charges, except those to which I have 
replied above, which are brought forward against this 
noble deliverer of his country. Of how little force they 
are, is very apparent. But, in speaking of such a 
man, who has merited so well of his country, I should 
do nothing, if I only exculpated him from crimes ; par- 
ticularly since it not only so nearly concerns the coun- 
try, but even myself, who am so closely implicated in 
the same disgrace, to evince to all nations, and as far 
as I can, to all ages, the excellence of his character, 
and the splendour of his renown. Oliver Cromwell 
was sprung from a line of illustrious ancestors, who 
were distinguished for the civil functions which they 
sustained under the monarchy, and still more for the 
part which they took in restoring and establishing true 
religion in this country. In the vigour and maturity 
of his life, which he passed in retirement, he was con- 
spicuous for nothing more than for the strictness of his 
religious habits and the innocence of his life; and he 
had tacitly cherished in his breast that flame of piety 
which was afterwards to stand him in so much stead on 
the greatest occasions, and in the most critical exigen- 
cies. In the last parliament which was called by the 
king, he was elected to represent his native town ; when 
he soon became distinguished by the justness of his 
opinions, and the vigour and decision of his counsels. 
"When the sword was drawn, he offered his services, 
and was appointed to a troop of horse, whose numbers 
were soon increased by the pious and the good, who 
flocked from all quarters to his standard ; and in a short 
time he almost surpassed the greatest generals in the 
magnitude and the rapidity of his atchievements. Nor 
is this surprising; for he was a soldier disciplined to 
perfection in the knowledge of himself. He had either 
extinguished, or by habit had learned to subdue, the 
whole host of vain hopes, fears, and passions, which in- 
fest the soul. He first acquired the government of 



Ijhimself, and over himself acquired the most signal vic- 
i tories ; so that on the first day he took the field against 
| the external enemy, he was a veteran in arms, consum- 
ymately practised in the toils and exigencies of war. It 
is not possible for me in the narrow limits in which I 
(circumscribe myself on this occasion, to enumerate the 
many towns which he has taken, the many battles 
which he has won. The whole surface of the British 
empire has been the scene of his exploits, and the 
theatre of his triumphs; which alone would furnish 
ample materials for a history, and want a copiousness 
of narration not inferior to the magnitude and diver- 
sity of the transactions. This alone seems to be a 
sufficient proof of his extraordinary and almost super- 
natural virtue, that by the vigour of his genius, or the 
excellence of his discipline, adapted, not more to the 
necessities of war, than to the precepts of Christianity, 
the good and the brave were from all quarters attracted 
to his camp, not only as to the best school of military 
talents, but of piety and virtue; and that during the 
whole war, and the occasional intervals of peace, amid 
so many vicissitudes of faction and of events, he re- 
tained and still retains the obedience of his troops, not 
by largesses or indulgence, but by his sole authority, 
and the regularity of his pay. In this instance his 
fame may rival that of Cyrus, of Epaminondas, or any 
of the great generals of antiquity. Hence he collected 
an army as numerous and as well equipped as any one 
ever did in so short a time ; which was uniformly obe- 
dient to his orders, and dear to the affections of the 
citizens ; which was formidable to the enemy in the 
field, but never cruel to those who laid down their 
arms; which committed no lawless ravages on the per- 
sons or the property of the inhabitants; who, when they 
compared their conduct with the turbulence, the intem- 
perance, the impiety, and the debauchery of the royal- 
ists, were wont to salute them as friends, and to con- 
sider them as guests. They were a stay to the good, a 
terror to the evil, and the warmest advocates for every 
exertion of piety and virtue. Nor would it be right to 
pass over the name of Fairfax, who united the utmost 
fortitude with the utmost courage; and the spotless in- 
nocence of whose life seemed to point him out as the 
peculiar favourite of heaven. Justly indeed may you 
be excited to receive this wreath of praise; though you 
have retired as much as possible from the world, and 
seek those shades of privacy which were the delight 
of Scipio. Nor was it only the enemy whom you 
subdued ; but you have triumphed over that flame of 
ambition and that lust of g'lory, which are wont to 
make the best and the greatest of men their slaves. 
The purity of your virtues and the splendour of your 
actions consecrate those sweets of ease which you en- 
joy ; and which constitute the wished-for haven of 
the toils of man. Such was the ease which, when 
the heroes of antiquity possessed, after a life of ex- 
ertion and glory, not greater than yours, the poets, 
in despair of finding ideas or expressions better suited 
to the subject, feigned that they were received into 
heaven, and invited to recline at the tables of the gods. 
But whether it were your health, which I principally 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



945 



believe, or any other motive which caused you to re- 
tire, of this I am convinced, that nothing could have 
induced you to relinquish the service of your country, 
if you had not known that in your successor liberty 
would meet with a protector, and England with a stay 
to its safety, and a pillar to its glory. For, while you, 
O Cromwell, are left among us, he hardly shews a 
proper confidence in the Supreme, who distrusts the 
security of England ; when he sees that you are in so 
special a manner the favoured object of the divine 
regard. But there was another department of the war, 
which was destined for your exclusive exertions. 

Without entering into any length of detail, I will, 
if possible, describe some of the most memorable 
actions, with as much brevity as you performed them 
with celerity. After the loss of all Ireland, with the 
exception of one city, you in one battle immediately 
discomfited the forces of the rebels : and were busily 
employed in settling the country, when you were 
suddenly recalled to the war in Scotland. Hence you 
proceeded with unwearied diligence against the Scots, 
who were on the point of making an irruption into 
England with the king in their train : and in about 
the space of one year you entirely subdued, and added 
to the English dominion, that kingdom which all our 
monarchs, during a period of 800 years, had in vain 
struggled to subject. In one battle you almost anni- 
hilated the remainder of their forces, who, in a fit of 
desperation, had made a sudden incursion into Eng- 
land, then almost destitute of garrisons, and got as far 
as Worcester ; where you came up with them by 
forced marches, and captured almost the whole of their 
nobility. A profound peace ensued ; when we found, 
though indeed not then for the first time, that you was 
as wise in the cabinet as valiant in the field. It was 
your constant endeavour in the senate either to induce 
them to adhere to those treaties which they had entered 
into with the enemy, or speedily to adjust others which 
promised to be beneficial to the country. But when 
you saw that the business was artfully procrastinated, 
that every one was more intent on his own selfish in- 
terest than on the public good, that the people com- 
plained of the disappointments which they had ex- 
perienced, and the fallacious promises by which they 
had been gulled, that they were the dupes of a few 
overbearing individuals, you put an end to their domi- 
nation. A new parliament is summoned : and the 
right of election given to those to whom it was expe- 
dient. They meet; but do nothing; and, after having 
wearied themselves by their mutual dissensions, and 
fully exposed their incapacity to the observation of the 
country, they consent to a voluntary dissolution. In 
this state of desolation, to which we were reduced, 
you, O Cromwell ! alone remained to conduct the 
government, and to save the country. We all will- 
ingly yield the palm of sovereignty to your unrivalled 
ability and virtue, except the few among us, who, 
either ambitious of honours which they have not the 
capacity to sustain, or who envy those which are con- 
ferred on one more worthy than themselves, or else 
who do not know that nothing in the world is more 



pleasing to God, more agreeable to reason, more po- 
litically just, or more generally useful, than that the 
supreme power should be vested in the best and the 
wisest of men. Such, O Cromwell, all acknowledge 
you to be; such are the services which you have ren- 
dered, as the leader of our councils, the general of our 
armies, and the father of your country. For this is 
the tender appellation by which all the good among 
us salute you from the very soul. Other names you 
neither have nor could endure ; and you deservedly 
reject that pomp of title which attracts the gaze and 
admiration of the multitude. For what is a title but a 
certain definite mode of dignity; but actions such as 
yours surpass, not only the bounds of our admiration, 
but our titles; and like the points of pyramids, which 
are lost in the clouds, they soar above the possibilities 
of titular commendation. But since, though it be not 
fit, it may be expedient, that the highest pitch of virtue 
should be circumscribed within the bounds of some 
human appellation, you endured to receive, for the 
public good, a title most like to that of the father of 
your country ; not to exalt, but rather to bring you 
nearer to the level of ordinary men ; the title of king 
was unworthy the transcendent majesty of your cha- 
racter. For if you had been captivated by a name 
over which, as a private man, you had so completely 
triumphed and crumbled into dust, you would have 
been doing the same thing as if, after having subdued 
some idolatrous nation by the help of the true God, 
you should afterwards fall down and worship the gods 
which you had vanquished. Do you then, Sir, con- 
tinue your course with the same unrivalled magna- 
nimity ; it sits well upon you ; — to you our country 
owes its liberties, nor can you sustain a character at 
once more momentous and more august than that of 
the author, the guardian, and the preserver of our 
liberties; and hence you have not only eclipsed the 
atchievements of all our kings, but even those which 
have been fabled of our heroes. Often reflect what a 
dear pledge the beloved land of your nativity has en- 
trusted to your care ; and that liberty which she once 
expected only from the chosen flower of her talents 
and her virtues, she now expects from you only, and by 
you only hopes to obtain. Revere the fond expecta- 
tions which we cherish, the solicitudes of your anxious 
country; revere the looks and the wounds of your 
brave companions in arms, who, under your banners, 
have so strenuously fought for liberty; revere the shades 
of those who perished in the contest; revere also the 
opinions and the hopes which foreign states entertain 
concerning us, who promise to themselves so many 
advantages from that liberty, which we have so bravely 
acquired, from the establishment of that new govern- 
ment, which has begun to shed its splendour on the 
world, which, if it be suffered to vanish like a dream, 
would involve us in the deepest abyss of shame ; 
and lastly revere yourself; and, after having endured 
so many sufferings and encountered so many perils for 
the sake of liberty, do not suffer it, now it is obtained, 
either to be violated by yourself, or in any one instance 
impaired by others. You cannot be truly free unless 



946 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



we are free too ; for such is the nature of things, that 
he, who entrenches on the liberty of others, is the first 
to lose his own and become a slave. But, if you, who 
have hitherto been the patron and tutelary genius of 
liberty, if you, who are exceeded by no one in justice, 
in piety, and goodness, should hereafter invade that 
liberty, which you have defended, your conduct must be 
fatally operative, not only against the cause of liberty, 
but the general interests of piety and virtue. Your 
integrity and virtue will appear to have evaporated, 
your faith in religion to have been small ; your cha- 
racter with posterity will dwindle into insignificance, 
by which a most destructive blow will be levelled 
against the happiness of mankind. The work which 
you have undertaken is of incalculable moment, which 
will thoroughly sift and expose every principle and 
sensation of your heart, which will fully display the 
vigour and genius of your character, which will evince 
whether you really possess those great qualities of 
piety, fidelity, justice, and self-denial, which made us 
believe that you were elevated by the special direction 
of the Deity to the highest pinnacle of power. At once 
wisely and discreetly to hold the sceptre over three 
powerful nations, to persuade people to relinquish in- 
veterate and corrupt for new and more beneficial 
maxims and institutions, to penetrate into the remotest 
parts of the country, to have the mind present and ope- 
rative in every quarter, to watch against surprise, to 
provide against danger, to reject the blandishments of 
pleasure and the pomp of power; — these are exertions 
compared with which the labour of Avar is mere pas- 
time ; which will require every energy and employ 
every faculty that you possess; which demand a man 
supported from above, and almost instructed by imme- 
diate inspiration. These and more than these are, no 
doubt, the objects which occupy your attention and 
engross your soul ; as well as the means by which you 
may accomplish these important ends, and render our 
liberty at once more ample and more secure. And this 
you can, in my opinion, in no other way so readily 
effect, as by associating in your councils the compa- 
nions of your dangers and your toils; men of exem- 
plary modesty, integrity, and courage ; whose hearts 
have not been hardened in cruelty and rendered insen- 
sible to pity by the sight of so much ravage and so 
much death, but whom it has rather inspired with the 
love of justice, with a respect for religion, and with the 
feeling of compassion, and who are more zealously in- 
terested in the preservation of liberty, in proportion as 
they have encountered more perils in its defence. They 
are not strangers or foreigners, a hireling rout scraped 
together from the dregs of the people, but for the most 
part, men of the better conditions in life, of families 
not disgraced if not ennobled, of fortunes either ample 
or moderate ; and what if some among them are recom- 
mended by their poverty ? for it was not the lust of 
ravage which brought them into the field; it was the 
calamitous aspect of the times, which, in the most cri- 
tical circumstances, and often amid the most disastrous 
turns of fortune, roused them to attempt the deliver- 
ance of their country from the fangs of despotism. They 



were men prepared, not only to debate, but to fight; 
not only to argue in the senate, but to engage the 
enemy in the field. But unless we will continually 
cherish indefinite and illusory expectations, I see not 
in whom we can place any confidence, if not in these 
men and such as these. We have the surest and most 
indubitable pledge of their fidelity in this, that they 
have already exposed themselves to death in the ser- 
vice of their country; of their piety in this, that they 
have been always wont to ascribe the whole glory of 
their successes to the favour of the Deity, whose help 
they have so suppliantly implored, and so conspicu- 
ously obtained ; of their justice in this, that they even 
brought the king to trial, and when his guilt was proved, 
refused to save his life ; of their moderation in our own 
uniform experience of its effects, and because, if by 
any outrage, they should disturb the peace which they 
have procured, they themselves will be the first to feel 
the miseries which it will occasion, the first to meet the 
havoc of the sword, and the first again to risk their 
lives for all those comforts and distinctions which they 
have so happily acquired ; and lastly, of their fortitude 
in this, that there is no instance of any people who ever 
recovered their liberty with so much courage and suc- 
cess; and therefore let us not suppose, that there can 
be any persons who will be more zealous in preserving 
it. I now feel mysel f irresistibly compelled to comme- 
morate the names of some of those who have most con- 
spicuously signalized themselves in these times : and 
first thine, O Fleetwood ! whom I have known from a 
boy, to the present blooming maturity of your military 
fame, to have been inferior to none in humanity, in 
gentleness, in benignity of disposition, whose intre- 
pidity in the combat, and whose clemency in victory, 
have been acknowledged even by the enemy : next 
thine, O Lambert! who, with a mere handful of men, 
checked the progress, and sustained the attack, of the 
Duke of Hamilton, who was attended by the whole 
flower and vigour of the Scottish youth : next thine, O 
Desborough ! and thine, O Hawley ! who wast alwa}'s 
conspicuous in the heat of the combat, and the thickest 
of the fight; thine, O Overton! who hast been most 
endeared to me now for so many years by the simili- 
tude of our studies, the suavity of your manners, and 
the more than fraternal sympathy of our hearts ; you, 
who, in the memorable battle of Marston Moor, when 
our left wing was put to the rout, were beheld with 
admiration, making head against the enemy with your 
infantry and repelling his attack, amid the thickest of 
the carnage; and lastly you, who in the Scotch war, 
when under the auspices of Cromwell, occupied the 
coast of Fife, opened a passage beyond Stirling, and 
made the Scotch of the west, and of the north, and even 
the remotest Orkneys, confess your humanity, and sub- 
mit to your power. Besides these, I will mention some 
as celebrated for their political wisdom and their civil 
virtues, whom you, Sir, have admitted into your councils, 
and who are known to me by friendship or by fame. 
Whitlocke, Pickering, Strickland, Sydenham, Sydney, 
(a name indissolubly attached to the interests of liberty,) 
Montacute, Laurence, both of highly cultivated minds 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



947 



and polished taste ; besides many other citizens of sin- 
gular merit, some of whom were distinguished by their 
exertions in the senate, and others in the field. To these 
men, whose talents are so splendid, and whose worth 
has been so thoroughly tried, you would without doubt 
do right to trust the protection of our liberties; nor 
would it be easy to say to whom they might more 
safely be entrusted. Then, if you leave the church to 
its own government, and relieve yourself and the other 
public functionaries from a charge so onerous, and so 
incompatible with your functions ; and will no longer 
suffer two powers, so different as the civil and the 
ecclesiastical, to commit fornication together, and by 
their mutual and delusive aids in appearance to strength- 
en, but in reality to weaken and finally to subvert, each 
other; if you shall remove all power of persecution out 
of the church, (but persecution will never cease, so long 
as men are bribed to preach the gospel by a mercenary 
salary, which is forcibly extorted, rather than gratuit- 
ously bestowed, which serves only to poison religion 
and to strangle truth,) you will then effectually have 
cast those money-changers out of the temple, who do 
not merely truckle with doves but with the dove itself, 
with the Spirit of the Most High. Then, since there 
are often in a republic men who have the same itch 
for making a multiplicity of laws, as some poetasters 
have for making many verses, and since laws are 
usually worse in proportion as they are more numerous, 
if you shall not enact so many new laws as you abolish 
old, which do not operate so much as warnings against 
evil, as impediments in the way of good ; and if you 
shall retain only those which are necessary, which do 
not confound the distinctions of good and evil, which, 
while they prevent the frauds of the wicked, do not pro- 
hibit the innocent freedoms of the good, which punish 
crimes, without interdicting those things which are 
lawful, only on account of the abuses to which they 
may occasionally be exposed. For the intention of 
laws is to check the commission of vice, but liberty is 
the best school of virtue, and affords the strongest en- 
couragements to the practice. Then if you make a 
better provision for the education of our youth than has 
hitherto been made, if you prevent the promiscuous in- 
struction of the docile and the indocile, of the idle and 
the diligent, at the public cost, but reserve the rewards 
of learning for the learned, and of merit for the meri- 
torious. Jf you permit the free discussion of truth 
without any hazard to the author, or any subjection to 
the caprice of an individual, which is the best way to 
make truth flourish and knowledge abound, the cen- 
sure of the half-learned, the envy, the pusillanimity, or 
the prejudice which measures the discoveries of others, 
and in short every degree of wisdom, by the measure of 
its own capacity, will be prevented from doling out in- 
formation to us according to their own arbitrary choice. 
Lastly, if you shall not dread to hear any truth, or any 
falsehood, whatever it may be, but if you shall least of 
all listen to those, who think that they can never be 
free, till the liberties of others depend on their caprice, 
and who attempt nothing with so much zeal and ve- 
hemence, as to fetter, not only the bodies but the minds 
3 p 



of men, who labour to introduce into the state the worst 
of all tyrannies, the tyranny of their own depraved 
habits and pernicious opinions ; you will always be 
dear to those, who think not merely that their own sect 
or faction, but that all citizens of all descriptions, should 
enjoy equal rights and equal laws. If there be any 
one who thinks that this is not liberty enough, he ap- 
pears to me to be rather inflamed with the lust of am- 
bition, or of anarchy, than with the love of a genuine 
and well regulated liberty; and particularly since the 
circumstances of the country, which has been so con- 
vulsed by the storms of faction, which are yet hardly 
still, do not permit us to adopt a more perfect or de- 
sirable form of government. 

For it is of no little consequence, citizens, by what 
principles you are governed, either in acquiring liberty, 
or in retaining it when acquired. And unless that li- 
berty, which is of such a kind as arms can neither pro- 
cure nor take away, which alone is the fruit of piety, 
of justice, of temperance and unadulterated virtue, 
shall have taken deep root in your minds and hearts, 
there will not long be wanting one who will snatch 
from you by treachery what you have acquired by 
arms. War has made many great whom peace makes 
small. If after being released from the toils of war, 
you neglect the arts of peace, if your peace and your 
liberty be a state of warfare, if war be your only virtue, 
the summit of your praise, you will, believe me, soon 
find peace the most adverse to your interests. Your 
peace will be only a more distressing war; and that 
which you imagined liberty will prove the worst of 
slavery. Unless by the means of piety, not frothy and 
loquacious, but operative, unadulterated, and sincere, 
you clear the horizon of the mind from those mists of 
superstition, which arise from the ignorance of true re- 
ligion, you will always have those who will bend your 
necks to the yoke as if you were brutes, who notwith- 
standing all your triumphs will put you up to the high- 
est bidder, as if you were mere booty made in war; 
and will find an exuberant source of wealth in your 
ignorance and superstition. Unless you will subjugate 
the propensity to avarice, to ambition, and sensuality, 
and expel all luxury from yourselves and from your 
families, you will find that you have cherished a more 
stubborn and intractable despot at home, than you ever- 
encountered in the field ; and even your very bowels 
will be continually teeming with an intolerable pro- 
geny of tyrants. Let these be the first enemies whom 
you subdue ; this constitutes the campaign of peace ; 
these are triumphs, difficult indeed, but bloodless; and 
far more honourable than those trophies, which are 
purchased only by slaughter and by rapine. Unless 
you are victors in this service, it is in vain that you have 
been victorious over the despotic enemy in the field. 
For if you think that it is a more grand, a more bene- 
ficial, or a more wise policy, to invent subtle expedi- 
ents for increasing the revenue, to multiply our naval 
and military force, to rival in craft the ambassadors of 
foreign states, to form skilful treaties and alliances, 
than to administer unpolluted justice to the people, to 
redress the injured, and to succour the distressed, and 



94 S 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



speedily to restore to every one his own, you are in- 
volved in a cloud of error; and too late will you per- 
ceive, when the illusion of those mighty benefits has 
vanished, that in neglecting these, which you now 
think inferior considerations, you have only been pre- 
cipitating your own ruin and despair. The fidelity of 
enemies and allies is frail and perishing, unless it be 
cemented by the principles of justice ; that wealth and 
those honours, which most covet, readily chang*e mas- 
ters; they forsake the idle, and repair where virtue, 
where industry, where patience flourish most. Thus 
nation precipitates the downfall of nation ; thus the 
more sound part of one people subverts the more cor- 
rupt ; thus you obtained the ascendant over the royal- 
ists. If you plunge into the same depravity, if you 
imitate their excesses, and hanker after the same vani- 
ties, you will become royalists as well as they, and 
liable to be subdued by the same enemies, or by others 
in your turn ; who, placing their reliance on the same 
religious principles, the same patience, the same inte- 
grity and discretion which made you strong, will de- 
servedly triumph over you, who are immersed in 
debauchery, in the luxury and the sloth of kings. 
Then, as if God was weary of protecting you, you will 
be seen to have passed through the fire that you might 
perish in the smoke ; the contempt which you will 
then experience will be great as the admiration which 
you now enjoy ; and, what may in future profit others, 
but cannot benefit yourselves, you will leave a salutary 
proof what great things the solid reality of virtue and 
of piety might have effected, when the mere counter- 
feit and varnished resemblance could attempt such 
mighty atchievements, and make such considerable 
advances towards the execution. For, if either through 
your want of knowledge, your want of constancy, or 
your want of virtue, attempts so noble, and actions so 
glorious, have had an issue so unfortunate, it does not 
therefore follow, that better men should be either less 
daring in their projects or less sanguine in their hopes. 
But from such an abyss of corruption into which you 
so readily fall, no one, not even Cromwell himself, nor 
a whole nation of Brutuscs, if they were alive, could 
deliver you if they would, or would deliver you if 
they could. For who would vindicate your right of 
unrestrained suffrage, or of choosing what representa- 
tives you liked best, merely that you might elect the 
creatures of your own faction, whoever they might be, 
or him, however small might be his worth, who would 
give you the most lavish feasts, and enable you to 
drink to the greatest excess? Thus not wisdom and 
authority, but turbulence and gluttony, would soon 
exalt the vilest miscreants from our taverns and our 
brothels, from our towns and villages, to the rank and 
dignity of senators. For, should the management 
of the republic be entrusted to persons to whom no one 
would willingly entrust the management of his private 
concerns ; and the treasury of the state be left to the 
care of those who had lavished their own fortunes in an 
infamous prodigality ? Should they have the charge of 
the public purse, which they would soon convert into 
a private, by their unprincipled peculations ? Are they 



fit to be the legislators of a whole people who them- 
selves know not what law, what reason, what right 
and wrong, what crooked and straight, what licit and 
illicit means? who think that all power consists in 
outrage, all dignity in the parade of insolence ? who 
neglect every other consideration for the corrupt gra- 
tification of their friendships, or the prosecution of their 
resentments ? who disperse their own relations and 
creatures through the provinces, for the sake of levy- 
ing taxes and confiscating goods; men, for the greater 
part, the most profligate and vile, who buy up for 
themselves what they pretend to expose to sale, who 
thence collect an exorbitant mass of wealth, which 
they fraudulently divert from the public service ; who 
thus spread their pillage through the country, and in 
a moment emerge from penury and rags, to a state of 
splendour and of wealth ? Who could endure such 
thievish servants, such vicegerents of their lords ? 
Who could believe that the masters and the patrons of 
a banditti could be the proper guardians of liberty ? or 
who would suppose that he should ever be made one 
hair more free by such a set of public functionaries, 
(though they might amount to five hundred elected in 
this manner from the counties and boroughs,) when 
among them who are the very guardians of liberty, 
and to whose custody it is committed, there must be 
so many, who know not either how to use or to enjoy 
liberty, who either understand the principles or merit 
the possession ? But what is worthy of remark, those 
who are the most unworthy of liberty, are wont to 
behave most ungratefully towards their deliverers. 
Among such persons, who would be willing either to 
fight for liberty, or to encounter the least peril in its 
defence ? It is not agreeable to the nature of things, 
that such persons ever should be free. However much 
they may brawl about liberty, they are slaves, both at 
home and abroad, but without perceiving it ; and when 
they do perceive it, like unruly horses, that are impatient 
of the bit, they will endeavour to throw off the yoke, not 
from the love of genuine liberty, (which a good man only 
loves and knows how to obtain,) but from the impulses 
of pride and little passions. But though they often at- 
tempt it by arms, they will make no advances to the 
execution; they may change their masters, but will 
never be able to get rid of their servitude. This often 
happened to the ancient Romans, wasted by excess, and 
enervated by luxury : and it has still more so been the 
fate of the moderns; when after a long interval of years 
they aspired under the auspices of Crescentius, Nomen- 
tanus, and afterwards of Nicolas Rentius, who had 
assumed the title of Tribune of the People, to restore 
the splendour and re-establish the government of an- 
cient Rome. For, instead of fretting with vexation, or 
thinking that you can lay the blame on any one but 
yourselves, know that to be free is the same thing as 
to be pious, to be wise, to be temperate and just, to be 
frugal and abstinent, and lastly, to be magnanimous 
and brave ; so to be the opposite of all these is the 
same as to be a slave ; and it usually happens by the 
appointment, and as it were retributive justice, of the 
Deity, that that people which cannot govern them- 



THE SECOND DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 



949 



selves, and moderate their passions, but crouch under 
the slavery of their lusts, should be delivered up to the 
sway of those whom they abhor, and made to submit 
to an involuntary servitude. It is also sanctioned by 
the dictates of justice and by the constitution of nature, 
that he, who from the imbecility or derangement of his 
intellect is incapable of governing himself, should, like 
a minor, be committed to the government of another; 
and least of all, should he be appointed to superintend 
the affairs of others or the interest of the state. You 
therefore, who wish to remain free, either instantly be 
wise, or, as soon as possible, cease to be fools ; if you 
think slavery an intolerable evil, learn obedience to 
reason and the government of yourselves ; and finally 
bid adieu to your dissensions, your jealousies, your 
superstitions, your outrages, your rapine, and your 
lusts. Unless you will spare no pains to effect this, 
you must be judged unfit, both by God and mankind, 
to be entrusted with the possession of liberty and the 
administration of the government ; but will rather, like 
a nation in a state of pupillage, want some active and 
courageous guardian to undertake the management of 
your affairs. With respect to myself, whatever turn 
things may take, I thought that my exertions on the 
present occasion would be serviceable to my country, 
and, as they have been cheerfully bestowed, I hope 
that they have not been bestowed in vain. And I 
have not circumscribed my defence of liberty within 
any petty circle around me, but have made it so gene- 
ral and comprehensive, that the justice and the reason- 
ableness of such uncommon occurrences explained and 
defended, both among my countrymen and among 
foreigners, and which all good men cannot but ap- 



prove, may serve to exalt the glory of my country, and 
to excite the imitation of posterity. If the conclusion 
do not answer to the beginning, that is their concern ; 
I have delivered my testimony, I would almost say, 
have erected a monument, that will not readily be 
destroyed, to the reality of those singular and mighty 
achievements, which were above all praise. As the 
Epic Poet, who adheres at all to the rules of that spe- 
cies of composition, does not profess to describe the 
whole life of the hero whom he celebrates, but only 
some particular action of his life, as the resentment of 
Achilles at Troy, the return of Ulysses, or the coming 
of iEneas into Italy ; so it will be sufficient, either for 
my justification or apology, that I have heroically cele- 
brated at least one exploit of my countrymen ; I pass 
by the rest, for who could recite the atchievements of 
a whole people ? If after such a display of courage and 
of vigour, you basely relinquish the path of virtue, if 
you do any thing unworthy of yourselves, posterity 
will sit in judgment on your conduct. They will see 
that the foundations were well laid ; that the beginning 
(nay it was more than a beginning) was glorious ; but, 
with deep emotions of concern will they regret, that 
those were wanting who might have completed the 
structure. They will lament that perseverance was 
not conjoined with such exertions and such virtues. 
They will see that there was a rich harvest of glory, 
and an opportunity afforded for the greatest atchieve- 
ments, but that men only were wanting for the execu- 
tion ; while they were not wanting who could rightly 
counsel, exhort, inspire, and bind an unfading wreath 
of praise round the brows of the illustrious actors in so 
glorious a scene. 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES, 



TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN, 



BY ROBERT FELLOWES, A. M. OXON. 



To his Tutor Thomas Jure. 

Though I had determined, my excellent tutor, to 
write you an epistle in verse, yet I could not satisfy 
myself without sending* also another in prose. For the 
emotions of my gratitude, which your services so justly 
inspire, are too expansive and too warm to be expressed 
in the confined limits of poetical metre ; they demand 
the unconstrained freedom of prose, or rather the ex- 
uberant richness of Asiatic phraseology. Though it 
would far exceed my power accurately to describe how 
much I am obliged to you, even if I could drain dry 
all the sources of eloquence, or exhaust all the topics 
of discourse which Aristotle or the famed Parisian Lo- 
gician has collected. You complain with truth, that 
ray letters have been very few and very short ; but I 
do not grieve at the omission of so pleasurable a duty, 
so much as I rejoice at having" such a place in your 
regard as makes you anxious often to hear from me. 
I beseech you not to take it amiss, that I have not now 
written to you for more than three years ; but with 
your usual benignity and candour to impute it rather 
to circumstances than to inclination. For, heaven 
knows, that I regard you as a parent, that I have 
always treated you with the utmost respect, and that I 
was unwilling to teaze you with my compositions. 
And I was anxious that if my letters had nothing else 
to recommend them, they might be recommended by 
their rarity. And lastly, since the ardour of my regard 
makes me imagine that you are always present, that I 
hear your voice and contemplate your looks; and as 
thus (which is usually the case with lovers) I charm 
away my grief by the illusion of your presence, I was 
afraid when I wrote to you the idea of your distant 
separation should forcibly rush upon my mind ; and 
that the pain of your absence, which was almost soothed 
into quiescence, should revive and disperse the plea- 
surable dream. I long since received your desirable 
present of the Hebrew Bible. I wrote this at my lodg- 



ings in the city, not as usual, surrounded by my books. 
If therefore there be any thing in this letter which 
either fails to give pleasure, or which frustrates expec- 
tation, it shall be compensated by a more elaborate 
composition as soon as I return to the dwelling of the 
Muses. 

London, March 26, 1625. 



II. 



To Alexander Gill. 

I received your letters and your poem, with which 
I was highly delighted, and in which I discover the 
majesty of a poet, and the style of Virgil. I knew how 
impossible it would be for a person of your genius en- 
tirely to divert his mind from the culture of the Muses, 
and to extinguish those heavenly emotions, and that 
sacred and ethereal fire which is kindled in your heart. 
For what Claudian said of himself may be said of you, 
your " whole soul is instinct with the fire of Apollo." 
If therefore, on this occasion, you have broken your 
own promises, I here commend the want of constancy 
which you mention ; I commend the want of virtue, 
if any want of virtue there be. But, in referring the 
merits of your poem to my judgment, you confer on 
me as great an honour as the gods would if the con- 
tending musical immortals had called me in to adjudge 
the palm of victory ; as poets babble that it formerly 
fell to the lot of Imolus the guardian of the Lydian 
mount. I know not whether I ought to congratulate 
Henry Nassau more on the capture of the city or the 
composition of your poems. For I think that this vic- 
tory produced nothing more entitled to distinction and 
to fame than your poem. But since you celebrate the 
successes of our allies in lays so harmonious and ener- 
getic, what may we not expect when our own successes 
call for the congratulations of your muse ? Adieu, 
learned Sir, and believe me greatly obliged by the fa- 
vour of your verses. 

London, May 20, 1628. 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



951 



III. 



To the same. 

In my former letter I did not so much answer yours 
as deprecate the obligation of then answering it ; and 
therefore at the time I tacitly promised that you should 
soon receive another, in which I would reply at length 
to your friendly challenge. . But, though I had not 
promised this, it would most justly be your due, since 
one of your letters is full worth two of mine, or rather, 
on an accurate computation, worth a hundred. When 
your letter arrived, I was strenuously engaged in that 
work concerning which I had given you some obscure 
hints, and the execution of which could not be delayed. 
One of the fellows of our college, who was to be the 
respondent in a philosophical disputation for his degree, 
engaged me to furnish him with some verses, which 
are annually required on this occasion ; since he him- 
self had long neglected such frivolous pursuits, and 
was then intent on more serious studies. Of these 
verses I sent you a printed copy, since I knew both 
your discriminating taste in poetry, and your candid 
allowances for poetry like mine. If you will in your 
turn deign to communicate to me any of your produc- 
tions, you will, I can assure you, find no one to whom 
they will give more delight, or who will more impar- 
tially endeavour to estimate their worth. For as often 
as I recollect the topics of your conversation, (the loss 
of which I regret even in this seminary of erudition,) 
I cannot help painfully reflecting on what advantages 
I am deprived by your absence, since I never left your 
company without an increase of knowledge, and always 
had recourse to your mind as to an emporium of litera- 
ture. Among us, as far as I know, there are only two 
or three, who without any acquaintance with criticism 
or philosophy, do not instantly engage with raw and 
untutored judgments in the study of theology; and of 
this they acquire only a slender smattering, not more 
than sufficient to enable them to patch together a 
sermon with scraps pilfered, with little discrimination, 
from this author and from that. Hence I fear, lest our 
clergy should relapse into the sacerdotal ignorance of 
a former age. Since I find so few associates in study 
here, I should instantly direct my steps to London, if 
I had not determined to spend the summer vacation in 
the depths of literary solitude, and, as it were, hide 
myself in the chamber of the muses. As you do this 
every day, it would be injustice in me any longer to 
divert your attention or engross your time. Adieu. 

Cambridge, July 2, 1628. 



IV. 

To Thomas Jure. 

On reading your letter, my excellent tutor, I 
find only one superfluous passage, an apology for not 
writing to me sooner; for though nothing gives me 



more pleasure than to hear from you, how can I or 
ought I to expect that you should always have leisure 
enough from more serious and more sacred engagements 
to write to me ; particularly when it is kindness, and 
not duty, which prompts you to write ? Your many 
recent services must prevent me from entertaining any 
suspicion of your forgetfulness or neglect. Nor do I 
see how you could possibly forget one on whom you 
had conferred so many favours. Having an invitation 
into your part of the country in the spring, I shall 
readily accept it, that I may enjoy the deliciousness of 
the season as well as that of your conversation ; and 
that I may withdraw myself for a short time from the 
tumult of the city to your rural mansion, as to the re- 
nowned portico of Zeno, or Tusculan of Tully, where 
you live on your little farm with a moderate fortune, 
but a princely mind ; and where you practise the con- 
tempt, and triumph over the temptations of ambition, 
pomp, luxury, and all that follows the chariot of for- 
tune, or attracts the gaze and admiration of the thought- 
less multitude. I hope that you who deprecated the 
blame of delay, will pardon me for my precipitance ; 
for, after deferring this letter to the last, I chose rather 
to write a few lines, however deficient in elegance, than 
to say nothing at all. 

Adieu, reverend sir. 
Cambridge, July 21, 1628. 



V. 



To Alexander Gill. 

If you had made me a present of a piece of plate, 
or any other valuable which excites the admiration of 
mankind, I should not be ashamed in my turn to remu- 
nerate you, as far as my circumstances would permit. 
But since you, the day before yesterday, presented me 
with an elegant and beautiful poem in Hendecasyllabic 
verse, which far exceeds the worth of gold, you have 
increased my solicitude to discover in what manner I 
may requite the favour of so acceptable a gift. I had 
by me at the time no compositions in a like style which 
I thought at all fit to come in competition with the ex- 
cellence of your performance. I send you therefore a 
composition which is not entirely my own, but the pro- 
duction of a truly inspired bard, from whom I last 
week rendered this ode into Greek Heroic verse, as I 
was lying in bed before the day dawned, without any 
previous deliberation, but with a certain impelling 
faculty, for which I know not how to account. By his 
help who does not less surpass you in his subject than 
you do me in the execution, I have sent something 
which may serve to restore the equilibrium between us. 
If you see reason to find fault with any particular pas- 
sage, I must inform you that, from the time I left your 
school, this is the first and the last piece T have ever com- 
posed in Greek ; since, as you know, I have attended 
more to Latin and to English composition. He who 
at this time employs his labour and his time in writing 
Greek, is in danger of writing what will never be read. 



952 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



Adieu, and expect to see me, God willing, at London 
on Monday among 1 the booksellers. In the mean time, 
if you have interest enough with that Doctor who is 
the master of the college to promote my business, I 
beseech you to see him as soon as possible, and to act 
as your friendship for me may prompt. 
From my villa, Decemb. 4, 1634. 



VI. 

To Carolo Deodati. 

I clearly see that you are determined not to be 
overcome in silence ; if this be so, you shall have 
the palm of victory, for I will write first. Though, 
if the reasons which make each of us so long in writ- 
ing to the other should ever be judicially examined, 
it will appear that I have many more excuses for 
not writing than you. For it is well known, and 
you well know, that I am naturally slow in writing, 
and averse to write ; while you, either from dis- 
position or from habit, seem to have little reluctance 
in engaging in these literary (7rpotT^0i)VT}<ysig) allocutions. 
It is also in my favour, that your method of study is 
such as to admit of frequent interruptions, in which you 
visit your friends, write letters, or go abroad ; but it is 
my way to suffer no impediment, no love of ease, no 
avocation whatever, to chill the ardour, to break the 
continuity, or divert the completion of my literary pur- 
suits. From this and no other reasons it often happens 
that I do not readily employ my pen in any gratuitous 
exertions; but I am not, nevertheless, my dear Deo- 
dati, a very sluggish correspondent ; nor has it at any 
time happened that I ever left any letter of yours un- 
answered till another came. So I hear that you write 
to the bookseller, and often to your brother, either of 
whom, from their nearness, would readily have for- 
warded any communication from you to me. But 
what I blame you for is, for not keeping your promise 
of paying me a visit when you left the city; a promise 
which, if it had once occurred to your thoughts, would 
certainly have forcibly suggested the necessity of 
writing. These are my reasons for expostulation and 
censure. You will look to your own defence. But 
what can occasion your silence ? Is it ill health ? Are 
there in those parts any literati with whom you may 
play and prattle as we used to do ? When do you re- 
turn ? How long do you mean to stay among the Hy- 
perboreans? I wish you would give me an answer to 
each of these questions ; and that you may not suppose 
that I am quite unconcerned about what relates to you, 
I must inform you that in the beginning of the autumn 
I went out of my way to see your brother, in order to 
learn how you did. And lately when I was accident- 
ally informed in London that you were in town, I in- 
stantly hastened to your lodgings; but it was only the 
shadow of a dream, for you were no where to be found. 
Wherefore, as soon as you can do it without any incon- 
venience to yourself, I beseech you to take up your 
quarters where we may at least be able occasionally to 



visit one another ; for I hope that you would not be a 
different neighbour to us in the country than you are 
in town. But this is as it pleases God. I have much 
to say to you concerning myself and my studies, but I 
would rather do it when we meet, and as to-morrow I 
am about to return into the country, and am busy in 
making preparations for my journey, I have but just 
time to scribble this. Adieu. 
London, Sept. 7, 1637. 

VII. 

To the same. 

Most of my other friends think it enough to give 
me one farewell in their letters, but I see why you do 
it so often ; for you give me to understand that your 
medical authority is now added to the potency, and 
subservient to the completion, of those general expres- 
sions of good-will which are nothing but words and 
air. You wish me my health six hundred times, in as 
great a quantity as I can wish, as I am able to bear, or 
even more than this. Truly, you should be appointed 
butler to the house of Health, whose stores you so la- 
vishly bestow ; or at least Health should become your 
parasite, since you so lord it over her, and command 
her at your pleasure. I send you therefore my con- 
gratulations and my thanks, both on account of your 
friendship and your skill. I was long kept waiting in 
expectation of a letter from you, which you had en- 
gaged to write ; but when no letter came my old re- 
gard for you suffered not, I can assure you, the smallest 
diminution, for I had supposed that the same apology 
for remissness, which you had employed in the begin- 
ning of our correspondence, you would again employ. 
This was a supposition agreeable to truth and to the 
intimacy between us. For I do not think that true 
friendship consists in the frequency of letters or in pro- 
fessions of regard, which may be counterfeited ; but it 
is so deeply rooted in the heart and affections, as to 
support itself against the rudest blast ; and when it 
originates in sincerity and virtue, it may remain 
through life without suspicion and without blame, 
even when there is no longer any reciprocal interchange 
of kindnesses. For the cherishing aliment of a friend- 
ship such as this, there is not so much need of letters as 
of a lively recollection of each other's virtues. And 
though you have not written, you have something that 
may supply the omission : your probity writes to me in 
your stead ; it is a letter ready written on the inner- 
most membrane of the heart ; the simplicity of your 
manners, and the rectitude of your principles, serve as 
correspondents in your place; your genius, which is 
above the common level, writes, and serves in a still 
greater degree to endear you to me. But now you 
have got possession of this despotic citadel of medicine, 
do not alarm me with the menace of being obliged to 
repay those six hundred healths which you have be- 
stowed, if I should, which God forbid, ever forfeit your 
friendship. Remove that formidable battery which you 
seem to have placed upon my breast to keep off all 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



953 



sickness but what comes by your permission. But that 
you may not indulge any excess of menace I must in- 
form you, that I cannot help loving- you such as you 
are ; for whatever the Deity may have bestowed upon 
me in other respects, he has certainly inspired me, if 
any ever were inspired, with a passion for the good 
and fair. Nor did Ceres, according to the fable, ever 
seek her daughter Proserpine with such unceasing so- 
licitude as I have sought this tqv koXov ISeav, this per- 
fect model of the beautiful in all the forms and appear- 
ances of things (noXXaiyap fjLop^aircjv Aaifiovidjv, many 
are the forms of the divinities.) I am wont day and 
night to continue my search ; and I follow in the way 
in which you go before. Hence, I feel an irresistible 
impulse to cultivate the friendship of him, who, des- 
pising the prejudiced and false conceptions of the vul- 
gar, dares to think, to speak, and to be that which the 
highest wisdom has in every age taught to be the best. 
But if my disposition or my destiny were such that I 
could without any conflict or any toil emerge to the 
highest pitch of distinction and of praise; there would 
nevertheless be no prohibition, either human or divine, 
against my constantly cherishing and revering those, 
who have either obtained the same degree of glory, or 
are successfully labouring to obtain it. But now I am 
sure that you wish me to gratify your curiosity, and to 
let you know what I have been doing or am meditat- 
ing to do. Hear me, my Deodati, and suffer me for a 
moment to speak without blushing in a more lofty 
strain. Do you ask what I am meditating? by the 
help of heaven, an immortality of fame. But what 
am I doing ? 7rr£po0vw, I am letting my wings grow 
and preparing to fly ; but my Pegasus has not yet 
feathers enough to soar aloft in the fields of air. I 
will now tell 3 T ou seriously what I design ; to take 
chambers in one of the inns of court, where I may have 
the benefit of a pleasant and shady walk ; and where 
with a few associates I may enjoy more comfort when 
I choose to stay at home, and have a more elegant 
society when I choose to go abroad. In my present 
situation, you know in what obscurity I am buried, 
and to what inconveniencies I am exposed. You shall 
likewise have some information respecting my studies. 
I went through the perusal of the Greek authors to 
the time when they ceased to be Greeks; I was long' 
employed in unravelling the obscure history of the 
Italians under the Lombards, the Franks, and Ger- 
mans, to the time when they received their liberty from 
Rodolphus king of Germany. From that time it will 
be better to read separately the particular transactions 
of each state. But how are you employed ? How long- 
will you attend to your domestic ties and forget your 
city connections ? But unless this novercal hostility 
be more inveterate than that of the Dacian or Sarma- 
tian, you will feel it a duty to visit me in my winter 
quarters. In the mean time, if you can do it without 
inconvenience, I will thank you to send me Justinian 
the historian of Venice. I will either keep it carefully 
till your arrival, or, if you had rather, will soon send 
it back again. Adieu. 
London, Sept. 23, 1637. 



VIII. 

To Beneditto Bonomattai, a Florentine. 

I am glad to hear, my dear Bonomattai, that you 
are preparing new institutes of your native language, 
and have just brought the work to a conclusion. The 
way to fame which you have chosen is the same as 
that which some persons of the first genius have em- 
braced ; and your fellow-citizens seem ardently to ex- 
pect that you will either illustrate or amplify, or at 
least polish and methodize, the labours of your prede- 
cessors. By such a work you will lay your country- 
men under no common obligation, which they will be 
ungrateful if they do not acknowledge. For I hold 
him to deserve the highest praise who fixes the prin- 
ciples and forms the manners of a state, and makes 
the wisdom of his administration conspicuous both at 
home and abroad. But I assign the second place to 
him, who endeavours by precepts and by rules to per- 
petuate that style and idiom of speech and composition 
which have flourished in the purest periods of the lan- 
guage, and who, as it were, throws up such a trench 
around it, that people may be prevented from going 
beyond the boundary almost by the terrors of a Romu- 
lean prohibition. If we compare the benefits which 
each of these confer, we shall find that the former alone 
can render the intercourse of the citizens just and con- 
scientious, but that the last gives that gentility, that 
elegance, that refinement, which are next to be desired. 
The one inspires lofty courage and intrepid ardour 
against the invasion of an enemy ; the other exerts 
himself to annihilate that barbarism which commits 
more extensive ravages on the minds of men, which is 
the intestine enemy of genius and literature, by the 
taste which he inspires, and the good authors which 
he causes to be read. Nor do I think it a matter of 
little moment whether the language of a people be 
vitiated or refined, whether the popular idiom be erro- 
neous or correct. This consideration was more than 
once found salutary at Athens. It is the opinion of 
Plato, that chang-es in the dress and habits of the citi- 
zens portend great commotions and changes in the 
state ; and I am inclined to believe, that when the 
language in common use in any country becomes irre- 
gular and depraved, it is followed by their ruin or their 
degradation. For what do terms used without skill 
or meaning, which are at once corrupt and misapplied, 
denote, but a people listless, supine, and ripe for servi- 
tude ? On the contrary, we have never heard of any 
people or state which has not flourished in some de- 
gree of prosperity as long* as their language has re- 
tained its elegance and its purity. Hence, my Bene- 
ditto, you may be induced to proceed in executing a 
work so useful to your country, and may clearly see 
what an honourable and permanent claim you wiP 
have to the approbation and the gratitude of your 
fellow-citizens. Thus much I have said, not to make 
you acquainted with that of which you were igno- 
rant, but because I was persuaded that you are more 



954 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



intent on serving- your country than in considering 
the just title which you have to its remuneration. 
I will now mention the favourable opportunity which 
you have, if you wish to embrace it, of obliging fo- 
reigners, among' whom there is no one at all con- 
spicuous for genius or for elegance who does not make 
the Tuscan language his delight, and indeed con- 
sider it as an essential part of education, particularly 
if he be only slightly tinctured with the literature of 
Greece or of Rome. I, who certainly have not merely 
wetted the tip of my lips in the stream of those lan- 
guages, but, in proportion to my years, have swal- 
lowed the most copious draughts, can yet sometimes 
retire with avidity and delight to feast on Dante, Pe- 
trarch, and many others ; nor has Athens itself been 
able to confine me to the transparent wave of its Ilis- 
sus, nor ancient Rome to the banks of its Tiber, so as 
to prevent my visiting with delight the stream of the 
Arno, and the hills of Fsesolse. A stranger from the 
shores of the farthest ocean, I have now spent some 
days among you, and am become quite enamoured of 
your nation. Consider whether there were sufficient 
reason for my preference, that you may more readily 
remember what I so earnestly importune ; that you 
would, for the sake of foreigners, add something- to the 
grammar which you have begun, and indeed almost 
finished, concerning the right pronunciation of the lan- 
guage, and made as easy as the nature of the subject 
will admit. The other critics in your language seem 
to this day to have had no other design than to satisfy 
their own countrymen, without taking any concern 
about any body else. Though I think that they would 
have provided better for their own reputation and for 
the glory of the Italian language, if they had delivered 
their precepts in such a manner as if it was for the in- 
terest of all men to learn their language. But, for all 
them, we might think that you Italians wished to con- 
fine your wisdom within the pomserium of the Alps. 
This praise therefore, which no one has anticipated, 
will be entirely yours immaculate and pure ; nor will 
it be less so if you will be at the pains to point out who 
may justly claim the second rank of fame after the re- 
nowned chiefs of the Florentine literature; who excels 
in the dignity of tragedy, or the festivity and elegance 
of comedy; who has shown acuteness of remark or 
depth of reflection in his epistles or dialogues ; to whom 
belongs the grandeur of the historic style. Thus it 
will be easy for the student to choose the best writers 
in every department ; and if he wishes to extend his 
researches farther, he will know which way to take. 
Among the antients you will in this respect find Cicero 
and Fabius deserving of your imitation ; but I know 
not one of your own countrymen who does. But though 
I think as often as I have mentioned this subject that 
your courtesy and benignity have induced you to com- 
ply with my request, I am unwilling that those quali- 
ties should deprive you of the homage of a more polish- 
ed and elaborate entreaty. For since your singular 
modesty is so apt to depreciate your own performances ; 
the dignity of the subject, and my respect for you, will 
not suffer me to rate them below their worth. And it 



is certainly just that he who shows the greatest facility 
in complying with a request should not receive the less 
honour on account of his compliance. On this occasion 
I have employed the Latin rather than your own lan- 
guage, that I might in Latin confess my imperfect ac- 
quaintance with that language which I wish you by 
your precepts to embellish and adorn. And I hoped 
that if I invoked the venerable Latian mother, hoary 
with years, and crowned with the respect of ages, to 
plead the cause of her daughter, I should give to my 
request a force and authority which nothing could re- 
sist. Adieu. 

Florence, Sept. 10, 1638. 



IX. 



To Luke Holstein, in the Vatican at Rome. 

Though in my passage through Italy, many per- 
sons have honoured me with singular and memorable 
proofs of their civility and friendship, yet on so short 
an acquaintance I know not whether I can truly say 
that any one ever gave me stronger marks of his regard 
than yourself. For, when I went to visit you in the 
Vatican, though I was not at all known to you, ex- 
cept perhaps from the incidental mention of Alexander 
Cherion, you received me with the utmost affability 
and kindness. You afterwards obligingly admitted 
me into the Museum, you permitted me to see the pre- 
cious repository of literature, and many Greek MSS. 
adorned with your own observations ; some of which 
have never yet seen the light, but seem, like the spirits 
in Virgil, 

In a green valley the pent spirits lay, 
Impatient to behold the realms of day, 

to demand the parturient labours of the press. Some 
of them you have already published, which are gree- 
dily received by the learned. You presented me with 
copies of these on my departure. And I cannot but 
impute it to your kind mention of me to the noble Car- 
dinal Francisco Barberino, that at a grand musical en- 
tertainment which he gave, he waited for me at the 
door, sought me out among the crowd, took me by the 
hand, and introduced me into the palace with every 
mark of the most flattering distinction. When I went 
the next day to render him my acknowledgments for 
this his gracious condescension, it was you who ob- 
tained me an interview, in which I experienced a de- 
gree of civility and kindness greater than I had any 
reason to expect from a person of his high dignity and 
character. I know not, most learned Holstein, whe- 
ther I am the only Englishman to whom you have 
shown so much friendship and regard, or whether you 
are led to show the same to all my countrymen, from a 
recollection of the three years which you passed at the 
university of Oxford. If this be the case, you gener- 
ously pay to our dear England the fees of her edu- 
cation ; and you both deserve the grateful acknow- 
ledgments of each individual in particular, and of our 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



955 



country in general. But if this distinction was shown 
exclusively to me, if you selected me as worthy of your 
friendship, I congratulate myself on your preference, 
while I think your candour greater than my desert. I 
strenuously urged my friends, according to your instruc- 
tions, to inspect the Codex Mediceus ; though they 
have at present but little hope of being able to do it. 
For in that library nothing can be transcribed, nor 
even a pen put to paper, without permission being pre- 
viously obtained ; but they say that there is at Rome 
one John Baptista Donio, who is daily expected at 
Florence, where he has been invited to read lectures on 
the Greek language, and by whom you may easily 
obtain the object of your wishes. It would indeed 
have been far more grateful to me if I could have 
been at all instrumental in promoting those honour- 
able and illustrious pursuits in which you are en- 
gaged; and which it behoves all men, on all occa- 
sions and in all circumstances, to promote. I add 
that you will lay me under new obligations if you 
will express my warmest acknowledgments, and my 
most respectful compliments, to the most noble Car- 
dinal, whose great virtues and whose honest zeal, so 
favourable to the encouragement of all the liberal 
arts, are the constant objects of my admiration. Nor 
can I look without reverence on that mild, and if I 
may so speak, that lowly, loftiness of mind, which is 
exalted by its own humiliation, and to which we may 
apply a verse in the Ceres of Callimachus, 

VQfxara fiav x^P ffW Ke^aXaSe ot airrtT <$Av/j7ro>. ■ 
On th' earth he treads, but to the heavens he soars. 

His conduct may serve to shew other princes that a 
forbidding superciliousness and a dazzling parade of 
power are quite incompatible with real magnanimity. 
Nor do I think that while he lives any one will regret 
the loss of the Esti, the Farnese, or the Medici, who 
formerly espoused with so much zeal the patronage of 
literature. Adieu, most learned Holstein, and if you 
think me worthy of the honour, rank me, I beseech you, 
for the future, wherever I may be, among those who 
are most attached to you and to the studies in which 
you arc engaged. 

Florence, March 30, 1639. 



X. 



To Carolo Deodati, a Florentine Noble. 

I derived, my dear Charles, from the unexpected 
receipt of your letter, a pleasure greater than I can ex- 
press ; but of which you may have some notion from 
the pain with which it was attended; and without a 
mixture of which hardly any great pleasure is con- 
ceded to mankind. While I was perusing the first 
lines of yours, in which the elegance of expression 
seems to contest the palm with the tenderness of friend- 
ship, I felt nothing but an unmingled purity of joy, 
particularly when I found you labouring to make 
friendship win the prize. But as soon as I came to 



that passage in which you tell me that you had previ- 
ously sent me three letters which must have been lost, 
then the simplicity of my joy began to be imbued with 
grief and agitated with regret. But something more 
disastrous soon appears. It is often a subject of sor- 
rowful reflection to me, that those with whom I have 
been either fortuitously or legally associated by conti- 
guity of place, or some tie of little moment, are con- 
tinually at hand to infest my home, to stun me with 
their noise and waste me with vexation, while those 
who are endeared to me by the closest sympathy of 
manners, of tastes and pursuits, are almost all withheld 
from my embrace either by death or an insuperable 
distance of place ; and have for the most part been so 
rapidly hurried from my sight, that my prospects seem 
continually solitary, and my heart perpetually desolate. 
With a lively pleasure do I read your anxious enquiries 
about my health since I left Florence, and your unin- 
termitted recollections of our intimacy. Those recol- 
lections have been reciprocal, though 1 thought that 
they had been cherished by me alone. I would not 
conceal from you that my departure excited in me the 
most poignant sensations of uneasiness, which revive 
with increased force as often as I recollect that I left so 
many companions so engaging, and so many friends 
so kind, collected in one city ; which is, alas, so far re- 
moved ; which imperious circumstances compelled me 
to quit against my inclination, but which was and is to 
me most dear. I appeal to the tomb of Damon, which 
I shall ever cherish and revere ; his death occasioned 
the most bitter sorrow and regret, which I could find 
no more easy way to mitigate than by recalling the 
memory of those times, when, with those persons, and 
particularly with you, I tasted bliss without alloy. 
This you would have known long since, if you received 
my poem on that occasion. I had it carefully sent, 
that whatever poetical merit it might possess, the few 
verses which are included in the manner of an emblem 
might afford no doubtful proof of my love for you. I 
thought that by this means I should entice you or some 
other persons to write ; for if I wrote first it seemed ne- 
cessary that I should write to all, as if I wrote to one 
exclusively I feared that I should give offence to the 
rest; since I hope that many are still left who might 
justly claim the performance of this duty. But you, 
by first addressing me in a manner so truly friendly, 
and by a triple repetition of epistolary kindness, have 
laid me under an obligation to write to you, and have 
exonerated me from the censure of those to whom I do 
not write. Though I must confess that I found other 
reasons for silence in these convulsions which my 
country has experienced since my return home, which 
necessarily diverted my attention from the prosecution 
of my studies to the preservation of my property and 
my life. For can you imagine that I could have lei- 
sure to taste the sweets of literary ease while so many 
battles were fought, so much blood shed, and while so 
much ravage prevailed among my fellow-citizens ? 
But even in the midst of this tempestuous period, I 
have published several works in my native language, 
which if they had not been written in English, I should 



956 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



Lave pleasure in sending- to you, whose judgment I so 
much revere. My Latin poems I will soon send as 
you desire; and this I should have done long ago with- 
out being desired, if I had not suspected that some 
rather harsh expressions which they contained against 
the Roman pontiff would have rendered them less 
pleasing to your ears. Now I request whenever I 
mention the rites of your religion in my own way, that 
you will prevail on your friends (for I am under no ap- 
prehensions from you) to shew me the same indulgence 
not only which they did to Aligerius and to Petrarch on 
a similar occasion, but which you did formerly with 
such singular benevolence to the freedom of my con- 
versation on topics of religion. With pleasure I perused 
your description of the funeral of king Louis. I do 
not acknowledge the inspiration of that vulgar and 
mercenary Mercury whom you jocosely profess to wor- 
ship, but of that Mercury who excels in eloquence, who 
is dear to the Muses and the patron of men of genius. 
It remains for us to hit upon some method by which 
our correspondence may in future be carried on with 
greater regularity and fewer interruptions. This does 
not seem very difficult, when we have so many mer- 
chants who trade so extensively with us ; whose agents 
pass to and fro every week, and whose ships are sailing 
backward and forward almost as often. In the mean 
time, my dear Charles, farewell, and present my kind 
wishes to Cultellino, Francisco, Trescobaldo, Malta- 
testo, the younger Clemantillo, and every other in- 
quiring friend, and to all the members of the Gaddian 
academy. Adieu. 

London, April 21 , 1647. 



XI. 



To Hermann Milles, Secretary to the Count of Ol- 
denburg h. 

Before I return any answer, most noble Hermann, 
to your letter which I received on the 17th of Decem- 
ber, I will first explain the reasons why I did not write 
before, that you may not impute to me the blame 
of a silence which has so long continued. First, the 
delay was occasioned by ill-health, whose hostilities I 
have now almost perpetually to combat ; next, by a 
cause of ill-health, a necessary and sudden removal to 
another house, which had accidentally begun to take 
place on the day that your letter arrived ; and lastly, 
by shame that I had no intelligence concerning your 
business, which I thought that it would be agreeable to 
communicate. For the day before yesterday when I ac- 
cidentally met the Lord Frost, and anxiously enquired 
of him whether any answer to you had been resolved 
on ? (for the state of my health often kept me from the 
council ;) he replied not without emotion, that nothing 
had been resolved on, and that he could make no pro- 
gress in expediting the business. I thought it therefore 
better to be silent for a time, than immediately to write 
what I knew that it would be irksome for you to hear, 
but rather to wait till I should have the pleasure to 



communicate what I was sure it would give you so 
much pleasure to know. This I hope that I have to- 
day accomplished ; for when I had more than once 
reminded the president of your business, he replied that 
to-morrow they would discuss what auswer they should 
give. If I am the first, as I endeavoured, to give you 
intelligence of this event, I think that it will contribute 
greatly to your satisfaction, and will serve as a speci- 
men of my zeal for the promotion of your interests. 
Westminster. 



XII. 

To the renowned Leonard Philara, the Athenian. 

I was in some measure made acquainted, most ac- 
complished Philara, with your good will towards me, 
and with your favourable opinion of my defence of the 
people of England, by your letters to the Lord Auger, 
a person so renowned for his singular integrity in ex- 
ecuting the embassies of the republic. I then received 
your compliments with your picture and an eulogy 
worthy of your virtues ; and, lastly, a letter full of ci- 
vility and kindness. I who am not wont to despise 
the genius of the German, the Dane, and Swede, could 
not but set the highest value on your applause, who 
were born at Athens itself, and who after having hap- 
pily finished your studies in Italy, obtained the most 
splendid distinctions and the highest honours. For if 
Alexander the Great, when waging war in the distant 
East, declared that he encountered so many dangers 
and so many trials for the sake of having his praises 
celebrated by the Athenians, ought not I to congratu- 
late myself on receiving the praises of a man in whom 
alone the talents and the virtues of the antient Atheni- 
ans seem to recover their freshness and their strength 
after so long an interval of corruption and decay. To 
the writings of those illustrious men which your city 
has produced, in the perusal of which I have been oc- 
cupied from my youth, it is with pleasure I confess that 
I am indebted for all my proficiency in literature. Did 
I possess their command of language and their force of 
persuasion, I should feel the highest satisfaction in em- 
ploying them to excite our armies and our fleets to de- 
liver Greece, the parent of eloquence, from the despotism 
of the Ottomans. Such is the enterprise in which you 
seem to wish to implore my aid. And what did for- 
merly men of the greatest courage and eloquence deem 
more noble or more glorious, than by their orations or 
their valour to assert the liberty and independence of 
the Greeks ? But we ought besides to attempt, what is, 
I think, of the greatest moment, to inflame the present 
Greeks with an ardent desire to emulate the virtue, the 
industry, the patience of their antient progenitors ; and 
this we cannot hope to see effected by any one but 
yourself, and for which you seem adapted by the splen- 
dour of your patriotism, combined with so much dis- 
cretion, so much skill in war, and such an unquench- 
able thirst for the recovery of your antient liberty. Nor 
do I think that the Greeks would be wanting to them- 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



957 



selves, nor that any other people would be wanting to 
the Greeks. Adieu. 
London. Jan. 1652. 



XIII. 

To Richard Heth. 

If I were able, my excellent friend, to render you 
any service in the promotion of your studies, which at 
best could have been but very small, I rejoice on more 
accounts than one, that that service, though so long- 
unknown, was bestowed on so fruitful and so genial 
a soil, which has produced an honest pastor to the 
church, a good citizen to our country, and to me a 
most acceptable friend. Of this I am well aware, 
not only from the general habits of your life, but from 
the justness of your religious and political opinions, 
and particularly from the extraordinary ardour of 
your gratitude, which no absence, no change of cir- 
cumstances, or lapse of time, can either extinguish or 
impair. Nor is it possible, till you have made a more 
than ordinary progress in virtue, in piety, and the 
improvement of the mind and heart, to feel so much 
gratitude towards those who have in the least assisted 
you in the acquisition. Wherefore, my pupil, a name 
which with your leave I will employ, be assured that 
you are among the first objects of my regard ; nor 
would any thing be more agreeable to me, if your cir- 
cumstances permit as much as your inclination, than to 
have you take up your abode somewhere in my neigh- 
bourhood, where we may often see each other, and mu- 
tually profit by the reciprocations of kindness and of 
literature. But this must be as God pleases, and as 
you think best. Your future communications may, if 
you please, be in our own language, lest (though you 
arc no mean proficient in Latin composition) the labour 
of writing should make each of us more averse to write ; 
and that we may freely disclose every sensation of our 
hearts without being impeded by the shackles of a 
foreign language. You may safely entrust the care of 
your letters to any servant of that family which you 
mention. Adieu. 

Westminster. December 13, 1652. 



XIV. 

To Henry Oldenburgh, Aulic Counsellor to the 
Senate of Bremen, 

I received your former letters, most accomplished 
sir, at the moment when your clerk was at the point of 
setting out on his return, so that I had no power of re- 
turning you an answer at that time. This some un- 
expected engagements concurred to delay, or I should 
not have sent you my Defence without any compli- 
ment or apology ; and I have since received another 
letter from you in which you return me more ample ac- 
knowledgments than the present deserved. And I 



had more than once an intention of substituting our 
English for your Latin, that you, who have studied our 
language with more accuracy and success than any 
foreigner with whom I am acquainted, might lose no 
opportunity of writing it, which I think that you would 
do with equal elegance and correctness. But in this 
respect you shall act as you feel inclined. With re- 
spect to the subject of your letter you are clearly of my 
opinion, that that cry to heaven could not have been 
audible by any human being, which only serves the 
more palpably to shew the effrontery of him who 
affirms with so much audacity that he heard it. Who 
he was you have caused a doubt, though long since in 
some conversations which we had on the subject just 
after your return from Holland, you seemed to have no 
doubt but that More was the author to whom the com- 
position was in those parts unanimously ascribed. If 
you have received any more authentic information on 
this subject, I wish that you would acquaint me with it. 
With respect to the mode of handling the subject I 
would willingly agree with you, and what could more 
readily persuade me to do it than the unfeigned appro- 
bation of persons so zealously attached to me as you 
are ; if my health, and the deprivation of my sight, 
which is more grievous than all the infirmities of age, 
or of the cries of these impostors, will permit, I shall 
readily be led to engage in other undertakings, though 
I know not whether they can be more noble or more 
useful ; for what can be more noble or more useful than 
to vindicate the liberty of man ? An inactive indolence 
was never my delight, but this unexpected contest with 
the enemies of liberty has involuntarily withdrawn my 
attention from very different and more pleasurable pur- 
suits. What I have done, and which I was under an 
obligation to do, I feel no reason to regret, and I am 
far from thinking, as you seem to suppose, that I have 
laboured in vain. But more on this at another oppor- 
tunity. At present adieu, most learned sir, and num- 
ber me among your friends. 
Westminster, July 6, 1654. 



XV. 

To Leonard Philara, the Athenian. 

I have always been devotedly attached to the lite- 
rature of Greece, and particularly to that of your 
Athens ; and have never ceased to cherish the persua- 
sion that that, city would one day make me ample re- 
compense for the warmth of my regard. The antient 
genius of your renowned country has favoured the com- 
pletion of my prophecy in presenting me with your 
friendship and esteem. Though I was known to you 
only by my writings, and we were removed to such a 
distance from each other, you most courteously ad- 
dressed me by letter; and when you unexpectedly 
came to London, and saw me who could no longer see, 
my affliction, which causes none to regard me with 
greater admiration, and perhaps many even with feel- 
ings of contempt, excited your tenderest sympathy and 



958 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



concern. You would not suffer me to abandon the hope 
of recovering" my sight, and informed me that you had 
an intimate friend at Paris, Doctor Thevenot, who was 
particularly celebrated in disorders of the eyes, whom 
you would consult about mine, if I would enable you to 
lay before him the causes and symptoms of the com- 
plaint. I will do what you desire, lest I should seem 
to reject that aid which perhaps may be offered me by 
heaven. It is now, I think, about ten years since I 
perceived my vision to grow weak and dull ; and, at 
the same time, I was troubled with pain in my kidneys 
and bowels, accompanied with flatulency. In the morn- 
ing, if I began to read, as was my custom, my eyes in- 
stantly ached intensely, but were refreshed after a little 
corporeal exercise. The candle which I looked at, seem- 
ed as it were encircled with a rainbow. Not long after 
the sight in the left part of the left eye (which I lost 
some years before the other) became quite obscured ; 
and prevented me from discerning any object on that 
side. The sight in my other eye has now been gradu- 
ally and sensibly vanishing away for about three 
years; some months before it had entirely perished, 
though I stood motionless, every thing which I looked 
at seemed in motion to and fro. A stiff cloudy vapour 
seemed to have settled on my forehead and temples, 
which usually occasions a sort of somnolent pressure 
upon my eyes, and particularly from dinner till the 
evening. So that I often recollect what is said of the 
poet Phineas in the Argonautics ; 

A stupor deep his cloudy temples bound, 

And when he walk'd he seem'd as whirling round, 

Or in a feeble transe he speechless lay. 

I ought not to omit that, while I had any sight left, as 
soon as I lay down on my bed and turned on either 
side, a flood of light used to gush from my closed eye- 
lids. Then, as my sight became daily more impaired, 
the colours became more faint, and were emitted with 
a certain inward crackling sound ; but at present every 
species of illumination being, as it were, extinguished, 
there is diffused around me nothing but darkness, or 
darkness mingled and streaked with an ashy brown. 
Yet the darkness in which I am perpetually immersed, 
seems always, both by night and day, to approach 
nearer to white than black, and when the eye is roll- 
ing in its socket, it admits a little particle of light as 
through a chink. And though your physician may 
kindle a small ray of hope, yet I make up my mind to 
the malady as quite incurable; and I often reflect, 
that as the wise man admonishes, days of darkness 
are destined to each of us, the darkness which I ex- 
perience, less oppressive than that of the tomb, is, 
owing to the singular goodness of the Deity, passed 
amid the pursuits of literature and the cheering salu- 
tations of friendship. But if, as is written, man shall 
not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
ceeded! from the mouth of God, why may not any one 
acquiesce in the privation of his sight, when God has 
so amply furnished his mind and his conscience with 
eyes. While he so tenderly provides for me, while he 



so graciously leads me by the hand and conducts me on 
the way, I will, since it is his pleasure, rather rejoice 
than repine at being blind. And, my dear Philara, 
whatever may be the event, I wish you adieu with no 
less courage and composure than if I had the eyes 
of a lynx. 

Westminster, September 28, 1654. 



XVI. 

To Leo of Aizema. 

It is with great pleasure I find that you still retain 
the same regard for me which you indicated while 
among us. With respect to the book concerning di- 
vorce, which you say that you had engaged some one 
to turn into Dutch, I would rather that you had en- 
gaged him to turn it into Latin. For I have already 
experienced how the vulgar are wont to receive opi- 
nions which are not agreeable to vulgar prejudice. 
I formerly wrote three treatises on this subject ; one 
in two books, in which the doctrine of divorce is dif- 
fusely discussed ; another which is entitled Tetracbor- 
don, in which the four principal passages in scripture 
relative to the doctrine are explained ; a third, Colas- 
terion, which contains an answer to some vulgar scio- 
list. I know not which of these treatises or which 
edition you have engaged him to translate. The first 
treatise has been twice published, and the second 
edition is much enlarged. If you have not already 
received this information, or wish me to send you the 
more correct edition, or the other treatises, I shall do 
it immediately, and with pleasure. For I do not wish 
at present that they should receive any. alterations or 
additions. If you persist in your present purpose, I 
wish you a faithful translator and every success. 

Westminster, Feb. 5, 1654. 



XVII. 

To Ezechiel Spanheim, of Geneva. 

I know not how it happened that your letters were 
not delivered to me for three months after they were 
written. I hope that mine will have a more expe- 
ditious conveyance : for, owing to various engage- 
ments, I have put off writing from day to day till I 
perceive that almost another three months have elapsed. 
But I would not wish you to suppose that my regard 
for you has experienced any diminution ; but that it 
has rather encreased in proportion as I have more fre- 
quently thought of discharging this epistolary debt. 
The tardy performance of this duty seems to admit of 
this excuse, that when it is performed after so long a 
lapse of time it is only a more clear confession that it 
was due. You are quite right in the supposition that 
I shall not be surprised at receiving the salutations 
of a foreigner, and you may be assured that it is my 
maxim, to consider and to treat no good man as a stran- 



FAMILTAR EPISTLES. 



959 



ger; that you are such I am well persuaded, both be- 
cause you are the son of a father highly celebrated for 
his erudition and his piety; and because all good men 
think you good ; and lastly, because you hate the bad. 
With such persons since it has also been my lot to be 
at war, Calandrinus very obligingly signified to you, 
that it would be highly grateful to me if you would 
lend me your assistance against our common enemy. 
That you have kindly done in your present letter, of 
which I have taken the liberty, without mentioning 
the author's name, to insert a part in my Defence. This 
work I will send you as soon as possible after the pub- 
lication ; in the mean time do you direct your letters to 
me under cover to Turrettin a Genoese, living at Lon- 
don, and through whom we may conveniently carry 
on our correspondence. Be assured that you rank high 
in my esteem, and that I wish for nothing more than 
your regard. 

Westminster, March 24, 1654. 

XVIII. 

To Henry Oldenburgh, Aulic Counsellor to the Se- 
nate of Bremen. 

Your letters which young Ranley brought, found 
me so much employed that I am compelled to be more 
brief than I could wish. You have most faithfully ful- 
filled those promises to write which you made me when 
you went away. No honest man could discharge his 
debts with more rigid punctuality. I congratulate you 
on your retirement, because it gives pleasure to you 
though it is a loss to me ; and I admire that felicity of 
genius, which can so readily leave the factions or the 
diversions of the city for contemplations the most serious 
and sublime. I see not what advantage you can have in 
that retirement except in an access to a multitude of 
books ; the associates in study whom you have found 
there, were I believe rather made students by their own 
natural inclinations, than by the discipline of the place. 
But perhaps I am less partial to the place because it de- 
tains you, whose absence I regret. You rightly observe 
that there are too many there who pollute all learning, 
divine and human, by their frivolous subtleties and bar- 
ren disputations ; and who seem to do nothing to de- 
serve the salary which they receive. But you are not 
so unwise. Those ancient records of the Sinese from 
the period of the deluge, which you say are promised 
by the Jesuit Martinius, are no doubt on account of 
their novelty expected with avidity ; but I do not see 
what authority or support they can add to the books of 
Moses. Our friend to whom you begged to be remem- 
bered sends his compliments. Adieu. 

Westminster, June 25, 1656. 

XIX. 

To the noble Youth Richard Jones. 

As often as I have taken up the pen to answer your 
last letter some sudden interruptions have occurred to 



prevent the completion of my purpose. I afterwards 
heard that you had made an excursion to the adjoining 
country. As your excellent mother is on the eve of 
departing for Ireland, whose loss we have both no small 
occasion to regret, and who has to me supplied the 
place of every relative, will herself be the bearer of 
these letters to you. You may rest assured of my re- 
gard, and be persuaded that it will increase in propor- 
tion as I see an increasing improvement in your heart 
and mind. This, by the blessing of God, you have 
solemnly pledged yourself to accomplish. I am pleased 
with this fair promise of yourself, which I trust you 
will never violate. Though you write that you are 
pleased with Oxford, you will not induce me to believe 
that Oxford has made you wiser or better. Of that I 
require very different proof. I would not have you 
lavish your admiration on the triumphs of the chiefs 
whom you extol, and things of that nature in which 
force is of most avail. For why need we wonder if 
the wethers of our country are born with horns which 
may batter down cities and towns ? Do you learn to 
estimate great characters, not by the quantity of their 
animal strength, but by the habitual justice and tem- 
perance of their conduct. Adieu, and make my best 
respects to the accomplished Henry Oldenburgh, your 
college chum. 

Westminster, Sept. 21, 1656. 



XX. 



To the accomplished Youth Peter He im bach. 

You have abundantly discharged all the promises 
which you made me, except that respecting your return, 
which you promised should take place at farthest with- 
in two months. But if my regard for you do not make 
me err in my calculation, you have been absent almost 
three months. You have done all that I desired respect- 
ing the atlas, of which I wished to know the lowest 
price. You say it is an hundred and thirty florins, 
which I think is enough to purchase the mountain of 
that name. But such is the present rage for typogra- 
phical luxury, that the furniture of a library hardly 
costs less than that of a villa. Paintings and engrav- 
ings are of little use to me. While I roll my blind 
eyes about the world, I fear lest I should seem to la- 
ment the privation of sight in proportion to the exor- 
bitance of the price for which I should have purchased 
the book. Do you endeavour to learn in how many 
volumes the entire work is contained ; and of the two 
editions, whether that of Blaeu or Janson be the most 
accurate and complete. This I hope rather to hear 
verbally from yourself on your return, which will soon 
take place, than to trouble you to give me the informa- 
tion by another letter. In the mean time adieu, and 
return as soon as possible. 

Westminster, Nov. 8, 1656. 



f>60 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



XXI. 

To the accomplished Emeric Bigot. 

I was highly gratified by the distinguished marks 
of attention which you paid me on coming into Eng- 
land, and this gratification is considerably increased 
by your kind epistolary inquiries after so long an in- 
terval. The favourable opinions of others might have 
prompted your first visit, but you would hardly have 
taken the trouble to write if you had not been prompt- 
ed by your own judgment or benevolence. Hence I 
think I may justly congratulate myself; many have 
been celebrated for their compositions whose common 
conversation and intercourse have betrayed no marks 
of sublimity or genius. But, as far as possible, I will 
endeavour to seem equal in thought and speech to what 
I have well written, if I have written any thing well ; 
and while I add to the dignity of what I have written, 
I will, at the same time, derive from my writings a 
greater splendour of reputation. Thus I shall not 
seem to have borrowed the excellence of my literary 
compositions from others so much as to have drawn it 
pure and unmingled from the resources of my own 
mind and the force of my own conceptions. It gives 
me pleasure that you are convinced of the tranquillity 
which I possess under this afflicting privation of sight, 
as well as of the civility and kindness with which I 
receive those who visit me from other countries. And 
indeed why should I not submit with complacency to 
this loss of sight, which seems only withdrawn from 
the body without, to increase the sight of the mind 
within. Hence books have not incurred my resent- 
ment, nor do I intermit the study of books, though 
they have inflicted so heavy a penalty on me for 
my attachment ; the example of Telephus king of 
Micia, who did not refuse to receive a cure from the 
same weapon by which he had been wounded, admo- 
nishes me not to be so morose. With respect to the 
book which you have concerning the mode of holding 
parliaments, I have taken care to have the passages 
which were marked, either amended, or, if they were 
doubtful, confirmed by a MS. of the illustrious Lord 
Bradshaw ; and from one of the Cotton MSS. as you 
will perceive from the paper which I have returned. 
I sent some one to inquire of the keeper of the Re- 
cords in the Tower, who is my intimate friend, whe- 
ther the original of this work be extant in that collec- 
tion, and he replied that there was no copy in the 
repository. I am reciprocally obliged to you for your 
assistance in procuring me books. My Byzantine 
History wants Theophanis Chronographia Grsec. Lat. 
fol. Constant. Manassis Breviarium Historicum, and 
Codini Excerpta de Antiquit. C. P. Graec. Lat. Anas- 
tasii Bibliothecarii Hist, and Vitae Rom. Pontific. fol. 
to which I beg you to add Michael Glycas and John 
Sinnam, and the continuator of Anna Comnena, if 
they have already issued from the same press. I need 
not request you to purchase them as cheap as possible. 
There is no occasion to do this to a man of your dis- 



cretion, and the price of those books is fixed and 
known to all. Dr. Stuppe has undertook to pay you 
the money, and to get them conveyed in the most 
commodious way. Accept my best wishes. Adieu. 
Westminster, March 24, 1658. 



XXII. 

To the noble Youth Richard Jones. 

I did not receive your letter till some time after it 
was written ; it lay fifteen days at your mother's. 
With pleasure I perceive the emotions of your attach- 
ment and your gratitude. I have never ceased to 
promote the culture of your genius, and to justify the 
favourable opinion which your excellent mother enter- 
tains of me, and the confidence she places in me, by 
benevolence the most pure and counsels the most sin- 
cere. In that agreeable and healthy spot, to which 
you have retired, there are books enough for the pur- 
poses of academical education. If beauty of situation 
contributed as much to improve the wit of the inha- 
bitants as it does to please the eye, the felicity of that 
place would be complete. The library there is rich in 
books, but unless the minds of the students be improv- 
ed by a more rational mode of education, it may better 
deserve the name of a book-repository than of a li- 
brary. You justly acknowledge that all these helps 
to learning should be associated with a taste for lite- 
rature, and with diligence in the cultivation. Take 
care that I may never have occasion to blame you for 
deviating from that opinion. And this you will 
readily avoid if you will diligently obey the weighty 
and friendly precepts of the accomplished Henry 
Oldenburgh, your associate and friend. Adieu, my 
dearest Richard, and let me incite you like another 
Timothy to the practice of virtue and of piety, by the 
example of your mother who is the best of women. 

Westminster. 



XXIII. 

To the illustrious Lord Henry de Bras. 

I see, my Lord, that you, unlike most of our modern 
youth who pass through foreign countries, wisely 
travel, like the ancient philosophers, for the sake of 
compleating your juvenile studies, and of picking up 
knowledge wherever it may be found. Though as 
often as I consider the excellence of what you write 
you appear to me to have gone among foreigners not 
so much for the sake of procuring erudition yourself, as 
of imparting it to others, and rather to exchange than 
to purchase a stock of literature. I wish it were as 
easy for me in every way to promote the increase of 
your knowledge and the improvement of your intellect, 
as it is pleasing and flattering to me to have that as- 
sistance requested by talents and genius like yours. I 
have never attempted, and I should never dare to at- 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



961 



tempt, to solve those difficulties as you request, which 
seem to have cast a cloud over the writers of history for 
so many ages. Of Sallust I will speak as you desire 
without any hesitation or reserve. I prefer him to any 
of the Latin historians ; which was also the general 
opinion of the ancients. Your favorite Tacitus deserves 
his meed of praise ; but his highest praise, in my opi- 
nion, consists in his having imitated Sallust with all his 
might. By my conversation with you on this subject 
I seem, as far as I can guess from your letter, to have 
inspired you with sentiments very similar to my own, 
concerning that most energetic and animated writer. 
As he in the beginning of his Catilinarian war asserted 
that there was the greatest difficulty in historical com- 
position, because the style should correspond with the 
nature of the narrative, you ask me how a writer of his- 
tory may best attain that excellence. My opinion is 
I that he who would describe actions and events in a 
way suited to their dignity and importance, ought to 
write with a mind endued with a spirit, and enlarged 
by an experience, as extensive as the actors in the scene, 
that he may have a capacity properly to comprehend 
and to estimate the most momentous affairs, and to re- 
late them, when comprehended, with energy and dis- 
tinctness, with purity and perspicuity of diction. The 
decorations of style I do not greatly heed ; for I re- 
quire an historian and not a rhetorician. I do not 
want frequent interspersions of sentiment, or prolix 
dissertations on transactions, which interrupt the series 
of events, and cause the historian to entrench on the 
office of the politician, who if in explaining counsels, 
and explaining facts, he follows truth rather than his 
own partialities and conjectures, excites the disgust or 
the aversion of his party. I will add a remark of 
Sallust, and which was one of the excellencies which 
he himself commended in Cato, that he should be able 
to say much in a few words ; a perfection which I 
think that no one can attain without the most discrimi- 
nating judgment and a peculiar degree of moderation. 
There are many in whom you have not to regret either 
elegance of diction or copiousness of narrative, who have 
yet united copiousness with brevity. And among these 
Sallust is in my opinion the chief of the Latin writers. 
Such are the virtues which I think that every historian 
ought to possess who would proportion his style to the 
facts which he records. But why do I mention this to 
you ? When such is your genius that you need not my 
advice, and when such is your proficiency that if it 
goes on increasing- you will soon not be able to consult 
any one more learned than yourself. To the increase 
of that proficiency, though no exhortations can be ne- 
cessary to stimulate your exertions, yet that I may not 
seem entirely to frustrate your expectations, I will be- 
seech you with all my affection, all my authority, and 
all my zeal, to let nothing relax your diligence, or 
chill the ardour of your pursuit. Adieu ! and may 
you ever successfully labour in the path of wisdom 
and of virtue. 

Westminster, July 15, 1657. 



XXIV. 

To Henry Oldenburg. 

I rejoice to hear of your safe arrival at Saumur, 
which is, I believe, the place of your destination. You 
cannot doubt of the pleasure which this intelligence 
has given me, when you consider how much I love 
your virtues and approve the object of your journey. 
I had much rather that some other person had heard in 
the boat of Charon than you on the waters of the Cha- 
rent, that so infamous a priest was called in to instruct 
so illustrious a church. For I much fear that he will 
experience the most bitter disappointment who thinks 
ever to get to heaven under the auspices of so pro- 
fligate a guide. Alas ! for that church where the mi- 
nisters endeavour to please only the ear; ministers 
whom the church, if it desires a real reformation, ought 
rather to expel than to choose. You have done right, 
and not only according to my opinion but that of 
Horace, by not communicating my writings to any but 
to those who expressed a desire to see them. 

Do not my works, importunately rude, 
Disgrace by pert endeavours to intrude. 

A learned friend of mine who past the last summer at 
Saumur, informed me that that book was in great re- 
quest in those parts. I sent him only one copy; he 
wrote back that the perusal of it had afforded the high- 
est satisfaction to some of the learned there. If I had 
not thought that I should oblige them I should have 
spared this trouble to you and this expence to myself. 

If my books chance to prove a weary load^ 

Rather than bear them further, leave them on the road. 

I have, as you desired me, presented your kind wishes 
to our friend Lawrence. There is nothing* that I wish 
more than that you and your pupil may have your 
health and return to us soon as possible after having 
effected the object of your wishes. 
Westminster, Aug. 1, 1657. 



XXV. 

To the noble Youth Richard Jones. 

I rejoice to hear that you accomplished so long a 
journey with so little inconvenience, and what redounds 
so much to your credit that, despising the luxuries of 
Paris, you hastened with so much celerity where you 
might enjoy the pleasures of literature and the conver- 
sation of the learned. As long as you please you will 
there be in a haven of security ; in other places you 
will have to guard against the shoals of treachery and 
the syrens' songs. I would not wish you to thirst too 
much after the vintage of Saumur, but resolve to dilute 
the Bacchanalian stream with more than a fifth part of 
the chrystal liquor of the Parnassian fount, But in 
this respect, without my injunctions, you have an ex- 



962 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



cellent preceptor whom you cannot do better than 
obey; and by obeying- whom you will give the highest 
satisfaction to your excellent mother, and daily increase 
in her regard and love. That you may have power to 
do this you should daily ask help from above. Adieu, 
and endeavour to return as much improved as possible, 
both in virtue and erudition. This will give me more 
than ordinary pleasure. 

Westminster, Aug. 1, 1657. 



XXVI. 

To the illustrious Lord Henry de Bras. 

Some engagements, most noble Lord, have prevented 
me from answering" your letter so soon as I could wish. 
I wished to have done it the sooner because I saw that 
your letter, so full of erudition, left me less occasion 
for sending- you my advice (which I believe that you 
desire more out of compliment to me than of any bene- 
fit to yourself) than my congratulations. First, I con- 
gratulate myself on having been so fortunate in cha- 
racterising the merits of Sallust as to have excited you 
to the assiduous perusal of that author, who is so full of 
wisdom, and who maybe read with so much advantage. 
Of him I will venture to assert what Quintilian said of 
Cicero, that he who loves Sallust is no mean proficient 
in historical composition. That precept of Aristotle in 
the third book of his rhetoric, which you wish me to 
explain, relates to the morality of the reflections and 
the fidelity of the narrative. It appears to me to need 
little comment, except that it should be appropriated 
not to the compositions of rhetoric but of history. For 
the offices of a rhetorician and an historian are as 
different as the arts which they profess. Polybius, 
Halicarnassus, Diodorus, Cicero, Lucian, and many 
others, whose works are interspersed with precepts on 
the subject, will better teach you what are the duties 
of an historian. I wish you every success in your tra- 
vels and pursuits. Adieu. 

Westminster, Dec. 16, 1657. 



XXVII. 

To the accomplished Peter Heinbach. 

I received your letter from the Hague the 18th 
December, which, as your convenience seems to require, 
I answer the same day on which it was received. In 
this letter, after returning me thanks for some favours 
which I am not conscious of having- done, but which 
my regard for you makes me wish to have been real, 
you ask me to recommend you, through the medium of 
D. Lawrence, to him who is appointed our agent in 
Holland. This I grieve that I am not able to do, both 
on account of my little familiarity with those who have 
favours to bestow, since I have more pleasure in keep- 
ing myself at home, and because I believe that he is 
already on his voyage, and has in his company a per- 



son in the office of secretary, which you are anxious to 
obtain. But the bearer of this is on the eve of his de- 
parture. Adieu. 

Westminster, Dec. 18, 1657. 



XXVIII. 

To John Badiaus, Minister of the Church of Orange. 

Most excellent and reverend sir, I believe that our 
friend Durius will take upon himself the blame of my 
not writing- to you sooner. After he had shewed me 
that paper which you wished me to read concerning 
what I had done and suffered for the sake of the 
gospel, I wrote this letter as soon as possible, intending 
to send it by the first conveyance, since I was fearful 
that you might consider a longer silence as neglect. 
In the mean time I am under the greatest obligations 
to your friend Molin, for procuring- me the esteem of 
the virtuous in those parts by the zeal of his friendship 
and the warmth of his praise ; and though I am not 
ignorant that the contest in which I was engaged with 
so great an adversary, that the celebrity of the subject 
and the style of the composition had far and wide 
diffused my fame, yet I think that I can be famous only 
in proportion as I enjoy the approbation of the good. 
I clearly see that you are of the same opinion ; so 
many are the toils you have endured, so many are the 
enemies whom you have provoked by your disinter- 
ested zeal in defence of the christian doctrine ; and 
you act with so much intrepidity as to shew, that 
instead of courting the applause of bad men, you do 
not fear to excite their most inveterate hate and their 
most bitter maledictions. Oh happy are you 'whom, 
out of so many thousands of the wise and learned, pro- 
vidence has rescued from the very brink of destruction, 
and selected to bear a distinguished and intrepid tes- 
timony to the truth of the gospel. I have now rea- 
sons for thinking that it was a singular mercy that I 
did not write to you sooner ; for when I understood by 
your letters that, threatened on all sides by the malice 
of your enemies, you were looking round for a place of 
refuge, to which you might fly in the last extremity 
of danger, and that you had fixed on England as the 
object of your wishes, I was considerably gratified, 
because it gave me the hope of enjoying your com- 
pany, and because I was happy to find you think so 
favourably of my country; but I lamented that, parti- 
cularly owing to your ignorance of our language, I 
did not see any chance of a decent provision being 
made for you among us. The death of an old French 
minister has since very opportunely occurred. The 
principal persons of his congregation (from whom I 
have received this communication) anxiously wish, or 
rather invite you to be chosen in his place ; they have 
determined to pay the expences of your journey, to 
provide for you as large a salary as any of the French 
ministers receive, and to let you want nothing which 
can contribute to the cheerful discharge of your eccle- 
siastical function. Fly, I beseech you, as soon as 



FAMILIAR EPISTLES. 



963 



possible, reverend sir, to those who are so desirous of 
seeing- you, and where you will reap a harvest, not 
rich indeed in temporal delights, but in numerous 
opportunities to improve the hearts and to save the 
souls of men ; and be assured that your arrival is 
warmly desired by all good men. Adieu. 
Westminster, April 1, 1659. 



XXIX. 

To Henry Oldenburg. 

The indulgence which you beg" for yourself, you 
will rather have to bestow on me, whose turn, if I 
remember, it was to write. My regard for you has, 
believe me, suffered no diminution ; but either my 
studies or my domestic cares, or perhaps my indolence 
in writing, have made me guilty of this omission of 
duty. I am, by God's help, as well as usual. I am 
not willing, as you wish me, to compile a history of 
our troubles ; for they seem rather to require oblivion 
than commemoration ; nor have we so much need of a 
person to compose a history of our troubles as happily 
to settle them. I fear with you lest our civil dissen- 
sions, or rather maniacal agitation, should expose us 
to the attack of the lately confederated enemies of 
religion and of liberty ; but those enemies could not 
inflict a deeper wound upon religion than we ourselves 
have long since done by our follies and our crimes. 
But whatever disturbances kings and cardinals may 
meditate and contrive, I trust that God will not suffer 
the machinations and the violence of our enemies to 
succeed according to their expectations. I pray that 
the Protestant synod, which you say is soon to meet 
at Leyden, may have a happy termination, which has 
never yet happened to any synod that has ever met 
before. But the termination of this might be called 
happy, if it decreed nothing else but the expulsion of 
More. As soon as my posthumous adversary shall 
make his appearance I request you to give me the 
earliest information. Adieu. 

Westminster, Dec. 20, 1659. 



XXX. 

To the noble Youth Richard Jones. 

You send me a most modest apology for not writing 
sooner, when you might more justly have accused me 
of the same offence ; so that I hardly know whether I 
should choose that you had not committed the offence or 
not written the apology. Never for a moment believe 
that I measure your gratitude, if any gratitude be due 
to me, by the assiduity of your epistolary communi- 
cations. I shall perceive all the ardour of your grati- 
tude, since you will extol the merit of my services, not 



so much in the frequency of your letters as in the 
excellence of your habits, and the degree of your 
moral and intellectual proficiency. On the theatre of 
the world on which you have entered, you have rightly 
chosen the path of virtue ; but know there is a path 
common to virtue and to vice ; and that it behoves 
you to advance where the way divides. Leaving the 
common track of pleasure and amusement, you should 
cheerfully encounter the toils and the dangers of that 
steep and rugged way which leads to the pinnacle of 
virtue. This, believe me, you will accomplish with 
more facility since you have got a guide of so much 
integrity and skill. Adieu. 
Westminster, Dec. 20, 1659. 



XXXI. 

To the accomplished Peter Heinbach, Counsellor to 
the Elector of Brandenburgh. 

It is not strange as you write that report should 
have induced you to believe, that I had perished among 
the numbers of my countrymen who fell in a year so 
fatally visited by the ravages of the plague. If that 
rumour sprung as it seems out of a solicitude for my 
safety, I consider it as no unpleasing indication of the 
esteem in which I am held among you. But by the 
goodness of God, who provided for me a place of re- 
fuge in the country, I yet enjoy both life and health ; 
which, as long as they continue, I shall be happy to 
employ in any useful undertaking. It gives me plea- 
sure to think, that after so long an interval I have 
again occurred to your remembrance ; though, owing 
to the luxuriance of your praise, you seem almost to 
lead me to suspect that you had quite forgotten one in 
whom you say that you admire the union of so many 
virtues ; from such an union I might dread too numer- 
ous a progeny, if it were not evident that the virtues 
flourish most in penury and distress. But one of those 
virtues has made me but an ill return for her hospita- 
ble reception in my breast; for what you term policy, 
and which I wish that you had rather called patriotic 
piety, has, if I may so say, almost left me, who was 
charmed with so sweet a sound, without a country. 
The other virtues harmoniously agree. Our country is 
wherever we are well off. I will conclude after first 
begging you if there be any errors in the diction or the 
punctuation to impute it to the boy who wrote this, 
who is quite ignorant of Latin, and to whom I was, 
with no little vexation, obliged to dictate not the words, 
but, one by one, the letters of which they were com- 
posed. I rejoice to find that your virtues and talents, 
of which I saw the fair promise in your youth, have 
raised you to so honourable a situation under the prince ; 
and I wish you every good which you can enjoy. 
Adieu. 



London, Aug. 15, 1666. 



3q 



AN 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX 



PRINCIPAL MATTERS. 



AARON, his priesthood no pattern to 
ground episcopacy on, 33. 

Abimelech, remarks on the manner of his 
death, 357. 

Abraham, commanded by God to send 
away his irreligious wife, 131. His pay- 
ing tithes to Melchisedec, no authority 
for our paying them now, 426, 430, 435. 

Abramites, allege the example of the an- 
cient fathers for image- worship, 27. 

Accidence, reasons for joining it and gram- 
mar together, 457. 

Acworth, University-Orator, the memory of 
BucerandFagius celebrated by him, 160. 

Adam, left free to choose, 110. Created in 
the image of God, 178. His alliance with 
Eve, nearer than that of any couple since, 
183. 

Adda, succeeds his father Ida in the king- 
dom of Bernicia, 512. 

Adminius, son of Cunobeline, banished his 
country, flees to the emperor Caligula, 
and stirs him up against it, 488- 

Adultery, not the only reason for divorce, 
according to the law of Moses, 125. Not 
the greatest breach of matrimony, 133. 
Punished with death by the law, 206. Our 
Saviour's sentence relating to it, explain- 
ed, 207. 

sEduans, in Burgundy, employ the Britons 
to build their temples and public edifices, 
499. 

Aganippus, a Gaulish king, marries Cor- 
deilla, daughter of King Leir, 480. Re- 
stores her father to his throne, ib. 

Agatha, decree of the council there, con- 
cerning divorce, 214. 

Agricola, son of Severianus, spreads the Pe- 
lagian doctrine in Britain, 505. 

Aidan, a Scotch bishop, sent for by Oswald, 
to settle religion, 519. Has his episcopal 
seat at Lindisfame, ib. Dies for grief of 
the murder of Oswin, 520. 

Alaric, takes Rome from the emperor Ho- 
norius, .501. 

Alban, of Verulam, with others, suffers mar- 
tyrdom under Dioclesian, 499. 

Albanact, one of the three sons of Brutus, 
that has Albania, now Scotland, for his 
share in the kingdom, 478. 

Albert, said to have shared the kingdom of 
the East-Angles with Humbeanna after 
Elfwald, 528. 

Albina, said to be the eldest of Dioclesian's 
50 daughters, 476. From her the name 
Albion derived, ib. 

Albion, the ancient name of this island, 476. 
Whence derived, ib. 

Alciat, his opinion concerning divorce, 218. 

Alcred slaying Ethelwald, usurps the king- 
dom of the Northumbrians, 525. 

Aldfrid, recalled from Ireland, succeeds his 
brother Ecfrid in the Northumbrian king- 
dom, 523. Leaves Osred, a child, to suc- 
ceed him, ib. 

Aldulf, nephew of Etheldwald, succeeds 
king of the East-Angles, 528. 



Alectus, treacherously slays his friend Ca- 
rausius, 498. Is overthrown by Asclepio- 
dotus, and slain, 499. 

Alemannus, reported one of the four sons of 
Histion, descended from Japhet ; of whom 
the Alemanni or Germans, 476. 

Alfage, archbishop of Canterbury, inhu- 
manly used by the Danes, 547. Killed by 
Thrun, a Dane, in commiseration of his 
misery, ib. 

Alfred, the fourth son of Ethelwolf, and 
successor of his brother Ethelred, encoun- 
ters the Danes at Wilton, 533. Routs the 
whole Danish power at Edinton, and 
brings them to terms, 534. He is said to 
have bestowed the East- Angles upon Gy- 
tro, a Danish king, who had been lately 
baptized, ib. A long war afterwards 
maintained between him and the Danes, 
ib. 535. He dies in the 30th year of his 
reign, and is buried at Winchester, 535. 
His noble character, ib. 536. 

Alfwold, driving out Eardulf, usurps the 
kingdom of Northumberland, 528. 

Algar, earl of Howland, now Holland, Mor- 
car, lord of Brunne, and Osgot, governor 
of Lincoln, kill a great multitude of Danes 
in battle, with three of their kings, 532. 
Overpowered by numbers, and drawn into 
a snare, Algar dies valiantly fighting, ib. 

Algar, the son of Leofric, banished by King- 
Edward, joins Griffin prince of South- 
Wales, 557. Unable to withstand Harold 
earl of Kent, submits to the king, and is 
restored, ib. Banished again, he recovers 
his earldom by force, ib. 

Alipius, made deputy of the British pro- 
vince, in the room of Martinus, 499. 

Alia, begins the kingdom of Deira, in the 
south part of Northumberland, 512, 513. 

Alric, king of Kent, after Ethelbert the 2d, 
526. With him dying, ends the race of 
Hengist, 527. 

Ambassador. See French, Spanish, $-c. 

Ambassadors of Christ, who style them- 
selves so, 435. Not to ask maintenance 
of those to whom they are sent, ib. 

Ambrose, his notion of' wedlock, 214. Ex- 
communicated Theodosius, 334. His con- 
duct to that emperor remarked, 365. Re- 
sists the higher powers, contrary to his 
own doctrine, 373. 

Ambrosius Aurelianus, dreaded by Vorti- 
gern, 509. Defeats the Saxons, ib. Un- 
certain whether the son of Constantine 
the usurper, or the same with Merlin, and 
son of a Roman consul, ib. Succeeds 
Vortigern as chief monarch of the isle, ib. 

Ames, Dr. his definition of marriage, 186. 

Anabaptists, accused of denying infants 
their right to baptism, 563. 

Anacletus, the friend of King Pandrasus, 
taken in fight by Brutus, 477. Forced by 
Brutus to betray his countrymen, ib. 

Andragius, one in the catalogue of ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Andrews, bishop, and the primate of Ar- 



magh, maintain that church-government 
is to be patterned from the law, 32. Their 
arguments for episcopacy examined, 34, 
&c. 

Androgens, one of Lud's sons, has London 
assigned him, and Kent, 482. Forsakes his 
claim to the kingdom, and follows Caesar's 
fortune, 488. 

Angels, of the seven Asian churches, whe- 
ther to be taken collectively, or individu- 
ally, 67. 

Anger, and laughter, why first seated in 
the breast of men, 55. 

Animadversions on the Remonstrant's De- 
fence against Smectymnuus, 5-5. 

Anlaf the Dane, with his army of Irish, and 
Constantine king of Scotland, utterly dis- 
comfited by King Athelstan, 539. 

Anna succeeds Sigebert in the kingdom of 
the East- Angles, 520. Is slain in war by 
Penda the Mercian, ib. 

Antigonus, the brother of King Pandrasus, 
taken in fight by Brutus, 477. 

Antinomianism and Familism, considered, 
136. 

Antioch, had not the name of Theopolis, till 
Justinian's time, 24. 

Antiquity, custom, canons, and councils, no 
warrant for superstitious practices, 65. 

Antoninus, sent against the Caledonians, 
by his father Sever us, 498. After whose 
death he takes hostages, and departs to 
Rome, ib. 

Antony, Mark, quoted by Salmasius for 
the prerogative royal, 353. 

Apocalypse, of St. John, the majestic image 
of a stately tragedy, 43. 

Apology for Smectymnuus, 75. 

Apostles, instituted presbyters to govern 
the church, 38. Appointed a number of 
grave and faithful brethren to assist the 
minister of each congregation, 49. Not 
properly bishops, 316. 

Arcadia, Sir Philip Sidney's; K. C.'s prayer 
stolen thence, 279. 

Archigallo, deposed for his tyranny, 482. 
Being restored by his brother, he then 
reigns worthily, ib. 

Archimailus, one in the number of ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Areopagitica, speech for unlicensed print- 
ing under that title, 103. 

Areopagus, judges of, condemn the books 
of Protagoras to be burned, 105. 

Aretius, his opinion concerning divorce, 
218. 

Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, his wife's bold 
reply to the empress Julia, 497. 

A Hans and Socinians, their notions of the 
Trinity, 563. 

Ariminum, synod of more than 400 bishops 
appointed 'to assemble there, by Con- 
stantius, 499. 

Aristotle, his definition of a king, 234. 

Reckons up five sorts of monarchies, 3.50. 

Salmasius' s extract from his third book of 

politics, 375. Commends the kingdom of 

1 



INDEX. 



the Lacedemonians, 385. His definition 
of a tyrant, 406. 

Arminians, their tenets, 563. 

Armorica in France, peopled by Britons 
that fled from the Saxons, 508. 

Army, English, offered the spoil of London, 
if they would destroy the parliament, 284. 
Obedience and fidelity tq. the supreme 
magistrates recommended to them, 439. 

Aron, a British martyr under Dioclesian, 
499. 

Arthur, the victory at Badon-hill, by some 
ascribed to him.Vhich by others is attri- 
buted to Ambrose, 510. Who he was, 
and whether the author of such famous 
acts as are related of him, ib. 511. 

Artis Logicae plenior Institutio, 861. 

Arviragus, engaging against Claudius, 
keeps up the oattle to a victory, by per- 
sonating his slain brother Guiderius, 
489. 

Ascham, Anthony, sent as agent to Spain, 
from the English commonwealth, 588. 
Justice demanded of the king of Spain 
against his murderers, 591. 

Assaracus, a Trojan prince, joins with 
Brutus against Pandrasus, 477. 

Assembly of divines. Tract of divorce ad- 
dressed to them, 120. 

Athanasius, his notion concerning kings, 
365. 

Athelstan, the son of King Edward the 
elder, by a concubine, solemnly crowned 
at Kingston upon Thames, 538. The con- 
spiracy of one Alfred and his accomplices 
against him discovered, ib. He gives his 
sister Edgith to Sitric the Dane, but drives 
Anlaf and Guthfert out of their kingdom, 
ib. The story of his dealing with his 
brother Edwin, questioned as improba- 
ble, ib. 539. He overthrows a vast army 
of Scotch and Irish, under Anlaf and 
Constantine, king of Scotland, 539. He 
dies at Gloucester, and is buried at 
Malmsbury, 540. His character, ib. 

Athens, their magistrates took notice only 
of two sorts of writings, 105. 

Atticots invade the south coast of Britain, 
500. 

Augustus, libels burnt, and the authors 
punished by him, 105. 

Aulus Plautius sent against Britain by the 
emperor Claudius, 488. He overthrows 
Caractacus and Togodumnus, 4S9. Is 
very much put to it by the Britons, ib. 
Sends to Claudius to come over, and 
joins with him, ib. Leaves the country 
quiet, and returns triumphant to Rome, 
ib. 

Aurelius Conanus, a British king, one of 
the five that is said to have reigned to- 
ward the beginning of the Saxon hep- 
tarchy, 513. 

Austin, what he accounted a becoming 
solace for Adam, 181. Allows fornication 
a sufficient cause for divorce, 214. His 
opinion why God created a wife for 
Adam, 22-5. A maintainer of the clergy's 
right to tithes, 429. Sent with others 
from Rome, to preach the gospel to the 
Saxons, 514. Is received by King Ethel- 
bert, who hears him in a great assembly, 
ib. 515. Is ordained archbishop of the 
English, 515. Hath his seat at Canter- 
bury, ib. Summons together the British 
bishops, requiring them to conform with 
him in points wherein they differed, 516. 
Upon their refusal, he stirs up Ethelfrid 
against them, to the slaughter of 1200 
monks, 516. 

Austria, archduke of, see Leopold. 

Autarchy, mentioned by Marcus Aurelius, 
what it is, 354. 

Authorities, for the difference of bishops 
and presbyters, not to be depended on, 23. 



B 



Bacon, Sir Francis, his complaint of the 
bishops' partiality in licensing pamph- 
lets, 57. 

Badiaus, John, letter to, 962. 

Badon-hill, the ill improvement the British 
made of their success there, 512. 

Bangor, monks of, live by their own labour, 
516. Go to a conference with Austin, ib. 

Baptism, sacrament of, seems cancelled by 
the sign added thereto, 46. 

Barclay, traduces the English as to their 
religious tenets, 40. 

Bardus, one of the first race of kings, fabled 
to have reigned in this island, 476. De- 
scended from Samothes, ib. 



Basil, his opinion as to divorce, 214, Calls 
the bishops slaves of slaves, 317. 

Bath, by whom built, 479. Its medicinal 
water's dedicated to Minerva, ib. 

Bees, the government among them quoted 
to prove the pope's supremacy, 350. 

Belfast, representation and exhortation of 
the presbytery there, 260, &c. Remarks 
on them, 266, &c. 

Belgia, Helvetia, and Geneva, their church- 
men remarkable for learning, 71. 

Belinus succeeds his father Dunwallo, 481. 
His contentions with his brother Bren- 
nus, ib. Their reconciliation, ib. Built 
the Tower of London, ib. 

Beorn, precedes Ethelred in the kingdom 
of the East- Angles, 528. 

Bericus, fleeing to Rome, persuades the em- 
peror Claudius to invade this island, 488. 

Berinus, a bishop sent by pope Honorius, 
converts the West-Saxons and their kings 
to Christianity, 519. 

Bernicia, kingdom of, in Northumberland, 
begun by Ida the Saxon, 511. 

Bernulf, usurping the kingdom of Mercia 
from Keolwulf, is overthrown bv Ecbert 
at Ellandune, 528. Fleeing to the East- 
Angles, is by them slain, ib. 

Beza, his interpretation of the word 7rpe<r/3u- 
-reptov, 66. His opinion, of regulating sin 
by apostolic laws, not sound, 148. His 
testimony concerning Martin Bucer, 159. 
His notion concerning divorce, 218. 

Bible, put by the papists in the first rank 
of prohibited books, 108. 

Bigot, Emeric, letter to, 960. 

Birthric, king of the West Saxons after Kin- 
wulf, 526. Secretly seeks the life of Ec- 
bert, 527. Is poisoned by a cup which 
his wife had prepared for another, 528. 

Bishop and deacon, the only ecclesiastical 
orders mentioned in the gospel, 28. 

Bishop and presbyter, two names to signify 
the same order, 27. Equally tyrants over 
learning, if licensing be brought in, 113. 

Bishopric, the author's opinion of it, 91. 

Bishops, have been as the Canaanites and 
Philistines to this kingdom, 13. By their 
opposition to King John, Normandy lost, 
he deposed, and the kingdom made over 
to the pope, ib. No bishop, no king, an 
absurd position, ib. Sometimes we read 
of two in one place, 26. Not an order 
above presbyters, ib. Elected with con- 
tention and bloodshed, 37. St. Paul's de- 
scription of and exhortation to them, 65. 
Not to be compared with Timothy, 67. 
If made by God, yet the bishopric is the 
king's gift, 71. Most potent, when princes 
happen to be most weak, 316. 

Bladud, the son of Rudhuddibras, builds 
Caerbadus, or Bath, 479. 

Bleduno, one in the number of the ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Blegabredus, his excellency in music, 482. 

Blindness, instances of men of worth af- 
flicted with, 926. 

Boadicea, the wife of Prasutagus, together 
with her daughters, abused by the Roman 
soldiers, 491. Commands in chief in the 
British army against the Romans, 492. 
Vanquished by Suetonius, supposed to 
have poisoned 'herself, 493. 

Bodin, though a papist, affirms presbyte- 
rian church-discipline to be best, 48. 

Bonomattai, Benedict, , letters to, 953. 

Bonosus, endeavouring to make himself 
emperor, but vanquished by Probus, 
hangs himself, 498. A sarcasm on his 
drunkenness, ib. 

Books, the heinous crime of killing good 
ones, 104. Some good, some bad ; left to 
each man's discretion, 107. Those of pa- 
pists suffered to be sold and read, 565. 

Bordelloes, author's defence from the ac- 
cusation of frequenting them, 80. 

Boris procures the death of the emperor of 
Russia, and then ascends the throne, 
575. His method to procure the people's 
love, ib. 

Bowes, Sir Jerom, ambassador from Queen 
Elizabeth to Russia, his reception and 
negociations at that court, 579-581. 

Bracton, the power of kings limited, ac- 
cording to him, 400. 

Bradshaw, John, character of, 937- 

Bradshaw, Richard, sent as agent from the 
English commonwealth, to Hamborough, 
590. 

Brandenburgh, Frederic William, marquis 
of, Oliver's letters to him, 624, 625. 

Bras, Lord Henry de, letters to, 960, 962. 

Breme, the Protector's letters to the consuls 
and senators of that city, 605, 624. 



Brennus and Belinus, the sons of Dun- 
wallo Mulmutius, contend about the 
kingdom, 481. After various conflicts, 
reconciled by their mother Conuvenna, 
ib. They turn their united forces into 
foreign parts, but Belinus returns and 
reigns long in peace, ib. 

Britain, history of the affairs thereof alto- 
gether obscure and uncertain, until the 
coming of Julius Caesar, 475. Inhabited 
before the flood probably, ib. By whom 
first peopled, 476. Named first Samothea 
from Samothes, ib. Next Albion, and 
whence, ib. Fruitful of courageous men, 
but not of able governors, 503. 

Britomarus, mentioned by Florus, a 
Briton, 481. 

Britons, about forty years without a king, 
after the Romans quitted the island, 396. 
Stoutly oppose Caesar at his landing, 
484. Offer him terms of peace, ib. Their 
manner of fighting, 485, 486. A snarp 
dispute between the Britons and the 
Romans near the Stour in Kent, 486. De- 
feated by Caesar, and brought anew to 
terms of peace, 487. Their nature and 
customs, ib. 488. Their massacre of the 
Romans, 492. This revenged by the 
Romans, 493. Lived formerly promiscu- 
ously and incestuously, 497. They are 
acquitted of the Roman jurisdiction by 
the emperor Honorius, not able to defend 
them against their enemies, 501. Again 
supplicate Honorius for aid, who spares 
them a Roman legion, 504. And again 
a new supply, ib. Their submissive let- 
ters to JStius the Roman consul, 503. 
Their luxury and wickedness, and cor- 
ruptions of their clergy, 506, 512. Their 
embassy to the Saxons for their aid 
against the Scots and Picts, with the 
Saxons' answer, 507. Miserably harassed 
by the Saxons whom they called in, ib. 
Routed by Kerdic, 510. Bv Kenric and 
Keaulin, 512, 513. By Cuthulf, 513. To- 
tally vanquish Keaulin, ib. Are put to 
flight by Kenwalk, 521. 

Brittenburgh, near Leyden, built or seized 
on by the Britons in their escape from 
Hengist, 508. 

Britto, named among the four sons of His- 
tion, sprung of Japhet, and from him the 
Britons said to be derived, 476. 

Brook, Lord, for toleration, 117. 

Brownists, who are so, according to Sal- 
masius, 385. 

Brutus, said to be descended from iEneas 
a Trojan prince, 476. Retiring into 
Greece after having unfortunately killed 
his father, he delivers his countrymen 
from the bondage of Pandrasus, 477. 
Marries Innogen,"the eldest daughter of 
Pandrasus, ib. Lands upon a desert 
island called Leogecia, ib. Where he 
consults the oracle of Diana, ib. Meets 
with Corineus, 478. Overcomes Goffa- 
rius Pictus, ib. Arrives in this island, ib. 
Builds Troja Nova, now London, ib. Dies 
and is buried there, ib. 

Brutus surnamed Greenshield, succeeds 
Ebranc, and gives battle to Brunchildis, 
479. 

Bucer, Martin, testimonies of learned men 
concerning him, 159, &c. His opinion 
concerning divorce, embraced by the 
church of Strasburgh, 161. His treatise 
of divorce dedicated to Edward VI., 164. 
Remarkable conclusion of his treatise of 
divorce, 173. 

Buchanan, censured as an historian, 501, 
515, 538. 

Buckingham, duke of, accused of poisoning 
King James the first, 277. 

Burhed, reduces the north Welsh to obe- 
dience, 530. Marries Ethelswida the 
daughter of King Ethelwolf, ib. Driven 
out of his kingdom by the Danes, he flees 
to Rome, where dying, he is buried in 
the English school, 533. His kingdom 
let out by the Danes to Kelwulf, ib. 

Burials, reasons against taking of fees for 
them, 430. 



Cadwallon, see Kedwalla. 

Cazsar, the killing him commended as a 
glorious action by M. Tullius, 382, 390. 
See Julius Ccesar. 

Caius Sidius Geta, behaves himself valiant- 
ly against the Britons, 489. 

Caius Volusenus, sent into Britain by Cae- 
sar, to make discovery of the country and 
people, 484. 



INDEX. 



Caligula, a Roman emperor, his expedi- 
tion against Britain, 488. 

Calvin, and Beza, the dissolvers of episco- 
pacy at Geneva, 25 

Calvinists, taxed with making God the 
author of sin, 563. 

Camalodunum, or Maldon, the chief seat 
of Cymbeline, 488. Made a Roman co- 
lony, 490, 491. 

Camber, one of the sons of Brutus, has 
allotted to him Cambria or Wales, 478. 

Cambridge, burnt by the Danes, .547. 

Cambridge University, thought to be 
founded by Sigebert king of the East- 
Angles, 520. 

Cameron, his explanation of St. Paul's 
manner of speaking, 210. 

Canterbury, by whom built, 479. Partly 
taken arid burnt by the Danes, 547. 

Canute, son of Swane, chosen king after his 
fathers death by the Danish army and 
fleet, 548. Driven back to his ships by 
Ethelred, ib. Returns with a great army 
from Denmark, accompanied with Lach- 
man king of Sweden, and Olav of Nor- 
way, ib. Attacks London, but is re- 
pulsed, 549. Divides the kingdom with 
Edmund by agreement, ib. After Ed- 
mund's death reigns sole king, 550. En- 
deavours the extirpation of the Saxon 
line, ib. Settles his kingdom, and makes 
peace with the neighbouring princes, ib. 
Causes Edric, whose treason he had 
made use of, to be slain, and his body to 
be thrown over the city-wall, ib. Sub- 
dues Norway, 551. Goes to Rome, and 
offering there rich gifts, vows amend- 
ment of life, ib. Dies at Shaftsbury, 
and buried at Winchester, ib. His cen- 
sure, ib. His remarkable instance of the 
weakness of kings, 552. 

Cap is, one in the catalogue of the ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Capoirus, another of the same number, 
482. 

Caractacus, the youngest son of Cunobe- 
line, succeeds in the kingdom, 488. Is 
overthrown by Aulus Plautius, 489. 
Heads the Silures against the Romans, 
490. Betrayed by Cartismandua, to 
whom he fled for refuge, ib. Sent to 
Rome, ib. His speech to the emperor, 
ib. By the braveness of his carriage, he 
obtains pardon for himself and all his 
company, ib. 

Carausius, grown rich with piracy, pos- 
sesses himself of this island, 498. He 
fortifies the wall of Severus, ib. In the 
midst of the great preparations of Con- 
stantius Chlorus against him, he is slain 
by his friend Alectus, ib. 

Carinus, sent, by his father Carus the em- 
peror, to govern Britain, is overcome and 
slain by Dioclesian, 498. 

Carlisle, by whom and when built, 479. 

Cartismandua, queen of the Brigantes, de- 
livers Caractacus bound to the Romans, 
490. Deserts her husband Venutius, and 
gives both herself and kingdom to Vello- 
catus, one of his squires, 491. 

Carvilius, the first Roman who sought di- 
vorce, and why, 180. 

Carvilius, a petty king in Britain, with 
three others, assaults the Roman camp, 
487. 

Caryl, Mr. (author of the comment on Job,) 
remarks on his conduct as a licenser, 221, 
222. 

Cassibelan, one of the sons of Heli, gains 
the kingdom by common consent, 482. 
Generosity to his brother's son, ib. 
Heads the Britons against Julius Caesar 
and the Romans, 486. He is deserted by 
the Trinobantes, and why, 487. Yields 
to Caesar, ib. Dies, and is buried at 
York, ib. 

Cassius, how treated for killing Caligula, 

Cataracta, an ancient city in Yorkshire, 
burnt by Arnred a tyrant, 526. 

Catellus, an ancient British king, 482. 

Cathay, description of that country and in- 
habitants, 572. 

Cerdic, a Saxon prince, lands at Cerdic- 
shore, and overthrows the Britons, 509. 
Defeats their king Natanleod in a memo- 
rable battle, 510. Founds the kingdom 
of the West Saxons, ib. See Kerdic. 

Ceremonies, oppose the reason and end of 
the gospel, 45. Frustrate the end of 
Christ's coming in the flesh, 46. 

Chancelor, Richard, his arrival at Moscow, 
and reception there, 578. 

Chaplains, what they are, 324. 



Charity, the fulfilling of the law, 122— and 
mutual forbearance, means to abate 
popery, 565. 

Charles I. censured for dissolving parlia- 
ments, 276. Remarks on his devotion, 
278, 279. How attended to the house of 
commons, 282. His conduct towards the 
Irish rebels, 306. His indecent behaviour 
in the playhouse, &c. 371. Charged with 
poisoning his father, 384. With several 
irregular actions, 400. His flight to the 
Isle of Wight, 943. 

Charles II. declared he would never pardon 
those who put his father to death, though 
this was said to be his father's dying in- 
junction, 939. 

Charles V., how he deceived many German 
cities, 305. 

Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, letters 
from Oliver to, 604, G05, 607, 611, 613, 615, 
618, 619, 624, 628, 633. From Richard the 
protector, 634, 635. From the parliament 
restored, 637. 

Chastity, the defence of it recommended, 
81. 

Chaucer, his character of the priests of his 
time, 10, 12. 

Cheek, Sir John, his testimony concerning 
Martin Bucer, 159. 

Clierin, an ancient British king, 482. 

Christ, his method of instructing men, 83. 
His manner of teaching, 223. Never ex- 
ercised force but once, 421. 

Christenings, reasons against taking fees 
for them^ 430. 

Christiem, king of Denmark, his bloody 
revenge, 242. 

Christian faith, received in Britain by King 
Lucius, 496. Said to have been preached 
by Faganus and Deruvianus, ib. Others 
say long before by Simon Zelotes, or 
Joseph of Arimathea, ib. Upon what oc- 
casion preached to the Saxons, 514. 

Christians, primitive, all things in common 
among them, 203. Their behaviour to 
tyrants, 373. 

Christina, queen of Sweden, letter to her 
from the English commonwealth, 593. 
Her character, 931. 

Chrysanthus, the son of Marcianus a bishop, 
made deputy of Britain by Theodosius, 
500. 

Chrysostom, St. was an admirer of Aris- 
tophanes, 105. His explanation of St. 
Paul's epistle relating to obedience to the 
higher powers, 362, 396. 

Church, of the Reformation of the Disci- 
pline of, in England, and the causes that 
have prevented" it, 1. The likeliest means 
to remove hirelings out of the, 423. 

Church, not to be reformed while governed 
by prelates, 30. Its constitution and 
fabric set out in the prophecy of Ezekiel, 
31. When able to do her great works 
upon the unforced obedience of men, it 
argues a divinity about her, 47. Her 
humility procures her the greatest re- 
spect, ib. Design of the prelates in call- 
ing the church Our mother, 72. Demands 
our obedience when she holds to the rules 
of Scripture, 329. Excommunicates not 
to destruction, 422. Will not cease to 
persecute till it ceases to be mercenary, 
947- 

Church of England, honours and prefer- 
ments should not be the incitements to 
her service, 70, 71. Difference between 
the church of Rome and her, 330. Main- 
tains that the word of God is the rule of 
true religion, and rejects implicit faith, 
562. 

Church-discipline, dangerous to be left to 
man's invention, 31. 

Church-government, its form prescribed in 
the gospel, 29, 31. Not to be patterned 
by the law, 32. Its government by pre- 
lates fosters papists and idolaters, 40. 
Its corrupted estate both the cause of 
tumult and civil wars, 41. Its functions 
to be free and open to any christian man, 
50. 

Churchmen, sometimes preach their own 
follies, not the gospel, 92. Time-servers, 
covetous, &c. ib. Their deficiency in 
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew learning, 
ib. 93. Their weakness, in calling on the 
civil magistrate to assist them, 418. By 
whom to be maintained, 430. Lived at 
first upon the benevolence of their hear- 
ers, 434. 

Cicero, an enemy to tyranny, 350. Ap- 
proves the killing of Caesar, 382, 390. Af- 
firms that all power proceeds from the 
people, 395, 



Cingetorix, a petty king in Britain, assaults 
the Roman camp, 487. Is taken prisoner 
by Caesar, ib. 

Claudius, the emperor, is persuaded by 
Bericus, though a Briton, to invade this 
island, 488. Sends Aulus Plautius hither 
with an army, ib. He comes over him- 
self and joins with Plautius, 489. De- 
feats the Britons in a set battle, and takes 
Camalodunum, ib. Returns to Rome, 
leaving Plautius behind, ib. He has ex- 
cessive honours decreed him by the se- 
nate, ib. 

Clemens Ale.vandrinus, no authority for 
bishops being above presbyters, to be 
found in his works, 26. His counsel to 
the presbyters of Corinth, 39. 

Clerqy, should be patterns of temperance, 
and teach us to contemn the world, 53. 
Advised not to gape after preferments, 
69. Their condition in England, 940. 

Clerqy, British, their bad character by 
Gi'ldas, 512. 

Cliguellius, an ancient British king, 482. 

Clodius Albinus succeeds Pertinax in the 
government of Britain for the Romans, 

497. Is vanquished and slain in a battle 
against Septimus Severus, ib. 

Cloten, reigned king of Cornwall, 480. 

Clotenus, an ancient British king, 482. 

Cloud, one sometimes fiery, sometimes 
bloody, seen over all England, 544. 

Coillus, an ancient British king, 482. 

Coilus, the son of Marius, leaves the king- 
dom to Lucius, 496. 

Colasterion, a defence of the doctrine and 
discipline of divorce, so called, 220. 

Comail, and two other British kings, slain 
by Keaulin, and his son Cuthwin, 513. 

Comet, one seen in August 678, in manner 
of a fiery pillar, 522. Two appear about 
the sun, 524. Portending famine, and the 
troubled state of the whole realm, .543. 
Or blazing star, seen to stream terribly 
over England, and other parts of the 
world, 559. 

Comius of Arras, sent by Csesar to make a 
party among the Britons, 484. 

Commodus, slain by his own officers, de- 
clared an enemy to his country, 383. 

Commons, with the king, make a good par- 
liament, 395, 398. Their grant to K. 
Richard II., and K. Henry IV., 400. 

Commonwealth, of England, more equally 
balanced than any other civil govern- 
ment, 17. Means proposed to heal the 
ruptures in it, 439. A free commonwealth 
delineated, 441. Reasons for establishing 
one, 442, &c. Comes nearest to the go- 
vernment recommended by Christ, 444. 
Preferable to monarchy, 455. 

Conanus, Aurelius, an aiicient British king, 
513. 

Condidan, a British king, vanquished and 
slain, 513. 

Conscience, not to be forced in religious 
matters, 413, &c. 

Constans, the emperor, put to death by the 
christian soldiers, 373. Of a monk made 
emperor, 501. Reduces Spain, ib. Dis- 
placing Gerontius, is opposed by him, 
and slain, ib. 

Constantine, makes war upon Licinius, and 
why, 373. 

Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, 
saluted emperor after his father's death, 
499. His mother said to be Helena the 
daughter of Coilus a British prince, ib. 
His eldest son enjoys this island, ib. A 
common soldier of the same name saluted 
emperor, 501. By the valour of Edebe- 
cus and Gerontius, he gains in France as 
far as Aries, ib. By the conduct of his 
son Constans, and of Gerontius, he re- 
duces all Spain, ib. Gerontius displaced 
by him, calls in the Vandals against him, 
ib. Besieged by Constantius Comes, he 
turns priest, is afterwards carried into 
Italy, and put to death, ib. 

Constantine, the son of Cador, sharply in- 
veighed against by Gildas, 513. He is 
said to have murdered two young princes 
of the blood royal, ib. 

Constantine, king of Scotland, joining with 
the Danes and Irish under Ahlaf, is over- 
thrown by Athelstan, 539. 

Constantius Chlorus sent against Carausius, 

498. Defeats Alectus, who is slain in the 
battle, ib. Is acknowledged by the Britons 
as their deliverer, 499. Divides the em- 
pire with Galerius, ib. Dies at York, ib. 

Constantius, the son of Constantine, over- 
comes Magnentius, who contended with 
him for the sole empire, 499, 



INDEX. 



Consubstantiation, not a mortal error, 563. 

Contention, in ministers of the gospel, 
scarce allowable even for" their own 
rights, 423. 

Copulation, no longer to be esteemed matri- 
monial, than it is an effect of love, 185. 

Cordeilla's sincere answer to her father, 
begets his displeasure, 479. She is mar- 
ried to Aganippus, a king in Gaul, 480. 
She receives her father, rejected by his 
other daughters, with most dutiful af- 
fection, ib. Restores him to his crown, 
and reigns after him, ib. Vanquished, 
deposed, and imprisoned by her two sis- 
ters' sons, ib. 

Cori veus, a Trojan commander, joins forces 
with Brutus, '478. Slays Imbertus, ib. 
Arrives with Brutus in this island, ib. 
Cornwall from him denominated falls to 
his lot, ib. Overcomes the giant Goema- 
gog, ib. 

Corinthians, governed by presbyters, 36. 
Schism among them not remedied by 
episcopacy, ib. 

Coronation-Oath, some words said to be 
struck out of it, 409. 

Covenant, what it enjoined, 268. 

Council, General, what their power and 
employment, 446. Should be perpetual, 
ib. Instances of the perpetuity of such a 
council among other states, ib. 

Council, Saxon, of little authority, 224. 

Council of nobles and prelates at Cain in 
Wiltshire, killed and maimed by the fall- 
ing in of the room, where they sate, 543. 

Council of State, their reply to the Danish 
ambassadors, &c. 597. 

Councils and Fathers, an entangled wood, 
which papists love to fight in, 562. 

Courland, duke of, Oliver's letter to him, 
623. 

Craig, John, his opinion of kings, 238. 

Cranmer, and the other bishops, concur in 
setting aside the princesses Mary and 
Elizabeth, 3. 

Crida, the first of the Mercian kingdom, 
513. 

Criminal, more just to try one by a court 
of justice, than to butcher him without 
trial, 344. 

Crowns, a clerical debate about the right 
shaving them, 521. 

Cromwell, his actions compared with those 
of the earl of Ormond, 265. His state 
letters, 603, 792. His character, 944. 

Cuichelm, the West-Saxon, sends Eumerus 
to assassinate King Edwin, 517. Is bap- 
tized in Dorchester, but dies the same 
year, 519. 

Cullen, council there, voted tithes to be 
God's rent, 429. 

Cunedagius, the son of Regan, deposeth 
his aunt Cordeilla, 480. Shares the king- 
dom with his cousin Marganus, is in- 
vaded by him, meets him arid overcomes 
him, ib. 

Cuneglas, a British king, reigns one of five 
a little before the Saxons were settled, 
513. 

Cunobeline, see Kymbeline. 

Cutha, helps his father Keaulin against 
Ethelbert, 512. 

Cuthred, king of the West-Saxons, joins 
with Ethel bald the Mercian, and gains 
a victory over the Welsh, 525. He has a 
fierce battle with Ethelbald the Mercian, 
which he not long survives, ib. A king 
of Kent of the same name, 528. 

Cuthulf, the brother of Keaulin, vanquishes 
the Britons at Bedanford, and takes seve- 
ral towns, 513. 

Cuthwin, see Keaulin. 

Cyprian, unwilling to act without the as- 
'sent of his assistant laics, 49. Episco- 

Kacy in his time, different from what it 
as'been since, .58. 



Danaus, the story of him and his fifty 
daughters, 380. 

Danes, first appear in the west, 526. They 
slay the king's gatherer of customs, ib. 
Landing at Lindisfarne in Yorkshire, 
they pillage that monastery, 527. At- 
tempting to spoil another monastery, they 
are cut off by the English, ib. Waste and 
destroy Northumberland, 529. They 
waste Shepey in Kent, and engage with 
Ecbert, near the river Carr, ib. Are put 
to flight by Ecbert, .530. Their various 
success in the reign of Ethelwolf, ib. &c. 
Many great battles between them and 



the English in the reign of Ethelred, 
53^2. Their whole army being defeated, 
they are brought to terms by King Alfred, 
534. In the same king's reign, several 
vast fleets of Danes arrive with fresh sup- 
plies, ib. 535. Many thousands destroyed 
at Colchester, and in their retreat from 
Maldon, 537. A vast army of them over- 
thrown by King Athelstan, 539. Massa- 
cred by the English in all parts of the 
land in the reign of King Ethelred, 545. 

Banish ambassadors, answers to them 
from the council of state, 597. 

Danius, reckoned among the ancient Bri- 
tish kings, 481. 

Dantzick, complained of, for imposing a 
tribute on the English merchants, for re- 
lief of the king of Scots, 592. Oliver's 
letter to the consuls and senators of that 
republic, 623 

David, his exclamation in the 51st Psalm 
explained, 234. Absolved by God him- 
self from the guilt of his sin, 355. His 
conduct towards Saul accounted for, 
368. Compared with King Charles, 371. 

Dedication, remarks on one to our Saviour, 
77. 

Dee, John, the mathematician, invited to 
Moscow, 581. 

Defence of the people of England against 
Salmasius, 338. In the original Latin, 
649. Second, against an anonymous 
■writer, 919. In the original Latin, 707. 
Of the author against Alexander More, 
in Latin, 733. 

Deira, kingdom of, in Northumberland, 
set up by Alia, the West-Saxon, 512, 513. 

Demetrius Evanowich, emperor of Russia, 
an impostor, dragged out of his bed, and 
pulled to pieces, 575. 

Denmark, king of, see Frederick III. 

Deodate, Charles, letters to, 952, 954. 

Deruvianus, see Faganus. 

Digression, concerning the affairs of church 
and state, in 1631, 502, &c. 

Dinothus, abbot of Bangor, his speech to 
bishop Austin, 516. 

Dioclesian, a king of Syria, and his fifty 
daughters, said to have been driven upon 
this island, 476. 

Dioclesian, the emperor, persecuted his 
christian subjects, 499. 

Diodorus, his account how the Ethiopians 
punish criminals, 379.~of the succession 
to kingdoms, 391. 

Diogenes, his delineation of a king, 380. 

Dionysius Alexandrinus, commanded in 
a vision to read any books whatever, 
107. 

Dis, the first peopler of this island, as some 
fabulously affirm, the same with Samo- 
thes, 476. 

Disciples of Christ, their saying relating to 
marriage, explained, 207. 

Discipline, in the church, necessary to re- 
move disorder, 29. Its definitive decrees 
to be speedy, but the execution of rigour 
slow, 47. 

Dispensation, what it is, 141. 

Divines, advice to them not to be disturb- 
ers of civil affairs, 242. 

Divorce, arguments for it, addressed to the 
parliament and assembly, 120, &c. In- 
disposition, unfitness, or contrariety of 
mind, a better reason for it than natural 
frigidity, 125. Reasons for it, 126-130, 
133-135. An idolatrous heretic to be di- 
vorced, when no hope of conversion, 130. 
To prohibit divorce sought for natural 
causes, is against nature, 133. Christ 
neither did nor could abrogate the law 
of divorce, 136. Permitted for hardness 
of heart, not to be understood by the 
common exposition, 137. How Moses 
allowed of it, 143. The law of divorce 
not the premises of a succeeding law, 
145. A law of moral equity, 146 Not 
permitted, from the custom of Egypt, 
147. Moses gave not this law unwill- 
ingly, ib. Not given for wives only, 
149. Christ's sentence concerning it, how 
to be expounded, 150. To be tried by 
conscience, 155. Not to be restrained by 
law, 157. Will occasion few inconveni- 
ences, ib. No inlet to licence and con- 
fusion, 189. The prohibition of it avails 
to no good end, 192. Either never esta- 
blished or never abolished, 196. Lawful 
to Christians for many causes equal to 
adultery, 216. Maintained by Wickliff, 
Luther, and Melancthon, 217. By Eras- 
mus, Bucer, and Fagius, ib. By Peter 
Martyr, Beza, and others, 217—219. What 
the ancient churches thought of divorce, 



166. St. Paul's words concerning it, ex- 
plained, 168. Commanded to certain 
men, ib. Being permitted to God's an- 
cient people, it belongs also to Christians, 
ib. Allowed by Christ for other causes 
beside adultery, 170. For what cause 

Eermitted by trie civil law, ib. Allowed 
y christian emperors, in case of mutual 
consent, 172. Why permitted to the Jews, 
224 Why Milton wrote on the subject, 
934. 

Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, 120. 
Judgment of Martin Bucer, concerning, 
159. Defence of that tract, 220, &c. Ar- 
guments against it refuted, 222, &c. 

Domitian, the killing of him commended 
by Pliny, 382. 

Donaldus, said to have headed the Caledo- 
nians against Septimius Severus, 498. 

Donaldus, king of Scotland, brought to 
hard conditions by Osbert and Ella, kings 
of Northumberland, 531. 

Downam, bishop, his opinion of the oppo- 
sers of the episcopal government, 63. 

Druids, falsely alleged out of Caesar to 
have forbidden the Britons to write their 
memorable deeds, 475. Uttering direful 
prayers, astonish the Romans, 491. Their 
destruction in the isle of Anglesey, an- 
ciently Mona, ib. 

Druis, the third from Samothes, fabulously 
written the most ancient king in this 
island, 476. 

Drunkenness, how to be prevented, 193. 

Duina, river, account of its fall into the sea 
at Archangel, 568. 

Dun stan, sent by the nobles to reprove 
KingEdwy, for his luxury, 541. Banished 
by the king, and his monastery rifled, ib. 
Recalled by King Edgar, ib. His mira- 
culous escape when the rest of the com- 
pany were killed by the fall of a house, 
543. His saying of Ethelred, at the time 
of his being baptized, 544. His death and 
character, ib. 

Dunwallo Molmutius, son of Cloten, king 
of Cornwall, reduces the whole island 
into a monarchy, 480. Said to be the first 
British king that wore a crown of gold, 
ib. Establishes the Molmutine laws, ib. 

Durstus, king of the Picts, said to be slain 
by the joint forces of the Britons and 
Romans, 504. 

Dutch, summary of the damages received 
from them by the East-India company, 
602, 603. 



E 



Eadwald falls back to heathenism, 516. 
Runs distracted, but afterwards returns 
to his right mind and faith, 517. By what 
means it happened, ib. He gives his 
sister Edelburga in marriage to Edwin, 
ib. Leaves his son Ercombert to suc- 
ceed, 519. 

Eadbert, shares with his two brothers in 
the kingdom of Kent, 524. His death, 
525. Eadbert, king of Northumberland, 
after Kelwolf, wars against the Picts, ib. 
Joins with Unust, king of the Picts, 
against the Britons in Cumberland, ib. 
Forsakes his crown for a monk's hood, ib. 

Eadbright, usurping the kingdom of Kent, 
and contending with Kenulph the Mer- 
cian, is taking prisoner, 527. 

Eadburga, by chance poisons her husband 
Birthfic, with a cup which she had pre- 
pared for another, 528. The choice pro- 
posed to her by Charles the great, to 
whom she fled, ib. He assigns her a rich 
monastery to dwell in as abbess, ib. De- 
tected of unchastity, she is expelled, ib. 
And dies in beggary at Pavia, ib. 

Eandred, son of Earldulf, reigns 30 years 
king of Northumberland, after Alfwold, 
the usurper, 528. Becomes tributary to 
Ecbert, 529. 

Eanfrid, the son of Edwin, converted and 
baptized, 518. 

Ea if rid, the son of Ethelfrid, succeeds in 
the kingdom of Bernicia, 519. Slain, ib. 

Eardulf, supposed to have been slain by 
Ethelred, 527. Is made king of the Nor- 
thumbrians, in York, after Osbald, ib. 
In a war raised against him by his peo- 
ple, he gets the victory, ib. Driven out 
of his kingdom by Alfwold, 528. 

Earth, whole, inhabited before the flood, 
475. 

East- Angles, kingdom of, by whom erect- 
ed, 510. Reclaimed to Christianity, 519. 

East-India Company, English, sumniary of 
their damages from the Dutch, 602, 603. 



INDEX. 



East-Saxon, kingdom, by whom began, 
510. The people converted by Melitus, 
515. They expel their bishop, and re- 
nounce their faith, 516, 517. Are recon- 
verted by means of Oswi, .520. 

Ebranc, succeeds his father Mempricius, in 
the kingdom of Britain, 479. Builds Caer- 
Ebranc, now York, and other places, ib. 

Ecbert, succeeds his father Ercombert, in 
the kingdom of Kent, 521. Dying, leaves 
a suspicion of having slain his uncle's 
sons, Ecbert and Egelbright, ib. 

Ecbert, of the West-Saxon lineage, flees 
from Birthric's suspicion to Offa, and 
thence into France, 527. After Birthric's 
decease is recalled, and with general ap- 

glause made king, ib. He subdues the 
ritons of Cornwall and beyond Severn, 
528. Overthrows Bernulf at Ellandune 
or Wilton, ib. The East-Angles yield to 
his sovereignty, ib. Drives Baldred, 
king of Kent, out of his kingdom, and 
causes Kent and other provinces to sub- 
mit, ib. Withlaf, of Mercia, becomes 
tributary to him, 529. Gives the Danes 
battle by the river Carr, ib. In another 
battle he puts to flight a great army of 
them, together with the Cornish men, 
530. He dies, and is buried at Winches- 
ter, ib. 

Ecclesiastical Causes, Treatise of Civil 
Power in, 412. 

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, a pure tyranni- 
cal forgery of the prelates, 47. 

Ecferth, the son of Offa, the Mercian, with- 
in four months ends his reign, 527. 

Ecfrid, Oswi's eldest son, succeeds him in 
the kingdom of Northumberland, 521. 
Wins Lindsey from Wulfer the Mercian, 
522. He wars against Ethelred, the bro- 
ther of Wulfer, ib. He sends Bertus with 
an army to subdue Ireland, 523. March- 
ing against the Picts, is cut off with most 
of his army, ib. His death revenged by 
Bertfrid a Northumbrian captain, ib. 

Eclipse of the sun, followed by a pestilence, 
521. Another, obscuring almost his 
whole orb, as with a black shield, 524. 

Edan, a king of the Scots in Britain, put to 
flight by Ethelfrid, 515. 

Edelard, king of the West-Saxons, after 
Ina, molested with the rebellion of his 
kinsman Oswald, 525. Overcoming those 
troubles, dies in peace, ib. 

Edgar, the brother and successor of Edwy, 
in the English monarchy, calls home 
Dunstan from banishment, 541. His 
prosperous reign, and favour towards the 
monks, ib. His strict observance of 
justice, and care to secure the nation 
with a strong fleet, ib. He ishomaged and 
rowed down the river Dee, by eight 
kings, 542. His expostulation with Ke- 
ned, king of Scotland, ib. He is cheated 
by the treacherous duke Athelwold of 
Elfrida, ib. Whom, avenging himself 
upon the said duke, he marries, 542. 
Attempting the chastity of a young lady 
at Andover, is pleasantly deceived by 
the mother, 543. Buried at Glaston ab- 
bey, 542. 

Edgar, surnamed Atheling, his right and 
title to the crown of England, from his 
grandfather Edmund Ironside, 557, 559. 
Excluded by Harold, son of Earl God- 
win, 559. 

Edilhere, the brother and successor of Anna, 
in the kingdom of the East- Angles, slain 
in a battle against Oswi, 521. 

Edilwalk, the South-Saxon, persuaded to 
Christianity by Wulfer, 522. 

Edith, Earl Godwin's daughter, eminent 
for learning, 554. Is married to Edward 
the Confessor, ib. Is harshly divorced 
by him, 555. 

Edmund, crowned king of the East-Angles, 
at Bury, 531. His whole army put to 
flight by the Danes, he is taken, bound to 
a stake, and shot with arrows, 532. 

Edmund, the brother and successor of Athel- 
stan, in the English monarchy, frees 
Mercia, and takes~several towns from the 
Danes, 540. He drives Anlaf and Suth- 
frid out of Northumberland, and Dun- 
mail out of Cumberland, ib. The strange 
manner of his death, ib. 

Edmund, surnamed Ironside, the son of 
Ethelred, set up by divers of the nobles 
against Canute, 549. In -several battles 
against the Danes, he comes off for the 
most part victorious, ib. At length con- 
sents to divide the kingdom with Canute, 
ib. His death thought to have been vio- 
lent, .5.50. 



Edred, third brother and successor of 
Athelstan, reduces the Northumbrians, 
and puts an end to that kingdom, 541. 
Dies in the flower of his age, and buried 
at Winchester, ib. 

Edric, the son of Edilwalk, king of South- 
Saxons, slain by Kedwalla, the West- 
Saxon, 522. 

Edric, a descendant of Ermenred, king of 
the South-Saxons, 522. Died a violent 
death and left his kingdom in disorder, 
ib. 523. 

Edric, surnamed Streon, advanced by King 
Ethelred, marries his daughter Edgitha, 
546. He secretly murders two noblemen 
whom he had invited to his lodging, 548. 
He practises against the life of prince 
Edmund, and revolts to the Danes, ib. 
His cunning devices to hinder Edmund 
in the prosecution of his victories against 
Canute, 549. Is thought by some to have 
been the contriver of King Edmund's 
murder, 550. The government of the 
Mercians conferred upon him, ib. Put to 
death by Canute, and his head stuck upon 
a pole, and set upon the highest tower in 
London, ib. 

Education, of youth, rules for the method 
and progress of it, 98, &c. That of the 
clergy generally at the public cost, 436. 

Edward the Confessor, his law relating- to 
the king's office, 397. Said to be the first 
that cured the king's evil, 558. To have 
cured blindness with the water wherein 
he washed his hands, ib. 

Edward VI. a committee appointed by him 
to frame ecclesiastical laws, 219. Di- 
vorce allowed by those laws for other 
causes beside adultery, ib. Acknow- 
ledges the common-prayer book to be 
chiefly a translation of the mass book, 
314. 

Edward, the elder, son and successor of 
King Alfred, 536. Has war with Ethel- 
wald his kinsman, who stirs up the Danes 
against him, ib. Builds Witham in Es- 
sex, 537. He proves successful and po- 
tent, divers princes and great command- 
ers of the Danes submitting to him, ib. 
538. The king and whole nation of Scot- 
land, with divers other princes and peo- 
ple, do him homage as their sovereign, 
538- Dies at Farendon, ib. And buried 
at Winchester, ib. 

Edward, surnamed the younger, Edgar's 
son, by his first wife Egelfleda, advanced 
to the throne, 543. The contest in his 
reign between the monks and secular 
priests, ib. Great mischief done by the 
falling of a house where the general 
council for deciding the controversy was 
held, ib. Inhumanly murdered by the 
treachery of his step-mother Elfrida, ib. 

Edward, son of Edmund Ironside, heir ap- 
parent to the crown, dies at London, 557. 

Edward, surnamed the Confessor, the son 
of King Ethelred, by Emma, after Hardic- 
nute's death is crowned at Winchester, 
5-54. Seizes on the treasures of his mother 
Queen Emma, ib. Marries Edith, Earl 
Godwin's daughter, ib. Makes prepara- 
tion against Magnus, king of Norway, ib. 
But next year makes peace with Harold 
Harvager, ib. He advances the Normans 
in England, which proves of ill conse- 
quence, ib. He is opposed by Earl God- 
win, in the cause of Eustace of Boloign, 
banishes the earl, and divorces his 
daughter whom he had married, 555. 
Entertains Duke William of Normandy, 
ib. He sends Odo and Radulph, with a 
fleet, against Godwin and his sons exer- 
cising piracy, 556. Reconciliation at 
length made.'he restores the earl, his sons 
and daughter, all to their former digni- 
ties, ib. He is said to have designed 
Duke William of Normandy his suc- 
cessor to the crown, 558. Buried at West- 
minster, ib. His character, ib. 

Edwi, the son and successor of Edmund, is 
crowned at Kingston, 541. He banishes 
bishop Dunstan, for reproving his wan- 
tonness with Algiva, ib. The Mercians 
and Northumbrians set up his brother 
Edgar, ib. With grief whereof he ends 
his days, and is buried at Winchester, ib. 

Edwin, thrown out of the kingdom of Deira, 
by Ethelfrid, 513, 517. Fleeing to Red- 
wal, the East-Angle, for refuge, is defend- 
ed against Ethelfrid, 517. He exceeds in 
EoWer and extent of dominion all before 
im, ib. Marries Edelburga, the sister of 
Eadbald, ib. He is wounded by an as- 
sassin from Cuichelm, ib. The strange 



relation of his conversion to Christianity, 
518. He persuades Eorpwald, the son of 
Redwald, to embrace the christian faith, 
ib. He is slain in a battle against Ked- 
wallay, 519. 

Edwin, duke of the Mercians. See Morcar. 

Egyptians, their conduct toward kings, 
378. 

Eikon Basilike, whether written by King 
Charles, 276. Answers to the several 
heads of that tract: On the king's call- 
ing his last parliament, ib. Upon the 
earl of Strafford's death, 280. Upon his 
going to the house of commons, 282. 
Upon the insolency of the tumults, 284. 
Upon the bill for triennial parliaments, 
287. Upon his retirement from West- 
minster, 289. Upon the queen's depar- 
ture, 293. Upon his repulse at Hull, and 
the fate of the Hothams, ib. Upon the 
listing and raising of armies, 296. Upon 
seizing the magazines, 299. Upon the 
nineteen propositions, 302. On the re- 
bellion in Ireland, 306. Upon the calling 
in of the Scots, 309. Upon the covenant, 
311. Upon the many jealousies, &c. 312. 
Upon the ordinance against the com- 
mon-prayer book, 314. Upon the differ- 
ences in point of church government, 
315. Upon the Uxbridge treaty, &c. 318. 
Upon the various events of the war, 319. 
Upon the reformation of the times, 321. 
Upon his letters taken and divulged, 322. 
Upon his going to the Scots, 323. Upon 
the Scots delivering the king to the Eng- 
lish, 324. Upon denying him the attend- 
ance of his chaplains, ib. Upon his pe- 
nitential vows and meditations at Holm- 
by, 325- Upon the army's surprisal of the 
king at Holmby, 327. To the prince of 
Wales, 328. Meditations on death, 332. 

Eikonoclastes, Baron's preface to that tract, 
271. The author's preface, 273. Reason 
of calling it so, 275. 

Elanius, reckoned in the number of ancient 
British kings, 481. 

Eldadus, 482. 

Eldol, 482. 

Eledaucus, 482. 

Elfled, the sister of King Edward the elder, 
her army of Mercians victorious against 
the Welsh, 537. Takes Derby from the 
Danes, ib. She dies at Tamworth, 538. 

Elf red, the son of King Ethelred, by Emma, 
betrayed by Earl Godwin, and cruelly 
made away by Harold, 552. 

Elfwald, succeeding Ethelred in Northum- 
berland, is rebelled against by two of his 
noblemen, Osbald and Atheiheard, 526. 
He is slain by the conspiracy of Siggan, 
one of his nobles, ib. 

Elf win, slain in a battle between his bro- 
ther Ecfrid and Ethelred,. 523. 

Elidure, his noble demeanour towards his 
deposed brother, 482. After Archigallo's 
death, he resumes the government, ib. 

Eliud, reckoned in the number of ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Elizabeth, Queen, against presbyterian 
reformation, 450. 

Ella, the Saxon, lands with his three sons, 
and beats the Britons in two battles, 509. 
He and his son Cissa take Andredchester, 
in Kent, by force, ib. Begins his king- 
dom of the South-Saxons, ib. 

Ella, a king in Northumberland, 531. 

Elmer, a monk of Malmsbury, fitted wings 
to his hands and feet, with which he flew 
more than a furlong, 559. 

Elwold, nephew of Ethelwald, reigns king 
of the East- Angles, after Aldulf, 528. 

Embassador. See Ambassador, also French, 
Spanish, $-c. 

Emeric, succeeds Otho in the kingdom of 
Kent, 512. 

Emma, the daughter of Richard, duke of 
Normandy, married first to King Ethel- 
red, 545. Afterwards to Canute, 550. Ba- 
nished by her son-in-law Harold, she re- 
tires to Flanders, and is entertained by 
Earl Baldwin, 552. Her treasures seized 
on by her son King Edward, 554. She 
dies, and is buried at Winchester, 555. 
A tradition concerning her questioned, ib. 

Emperors, of Rome, their custom to wor- 
ship the people, 363 

England, history of, 475. 

English nation, their pronunciation of the 
vowels censured, 99. Its character, 115. 
The wits of Britain preferred before the 
French by Julius Agricola, ib. Had been 
foremost in the Reformation, but for the 
perverseness of the prelates, ib. Have 
learnt their vices under kingly govern- 



INDEX. 



merit, 362. When they began to imitate 
the French in. their manners, 555. Their 
effeminacy and dissoluteness made them 
an easy prey to William the Conqueror, 
561. ftreir putting Charles the First to 
death defended, 338, 919. 

Englishmen, to be trusted in the election 
of pastors, as well as in that of knights 
and burgesses, 17. Their noble achieve- 
ments lessened by monks and mechanics, 
43. 

Enniaunus, an ancient British king, de- 
posed, 4S2. 

Eorpwald, the son of Redwald, king of the 
East-Angles, persuaded to Christianity 
by Edwin, 518. He is slain in fight by 
Ricbert, a pagan, 519. 

Epiphanius, his opinion of divorce, 214. 

Episcopacy, answers to several objections 
relating to the inconveniences of abolish- 
ing it, 18, 19. Insufficiency of testimonies 
for it from antiquity, and the fathers, 22. 
Not to be deduced from the apostolical 
times, 28. A mere child of ceremony, 
33. Not recommended to the Corinthians 
by St. Paul, as a remedy against schism, 
36. See Prelacy, and Prelatical Episco- 
pacy. 

Erasmus, writes his treatise of divorce, for 
the benefit of England, 174. 

Erchenwin, said to be the erector of the 
kingdom of the East-Saxons, 510. 

Ercombert, succeeds Eadbald in the king- 
dom of Kent, 519. Orders the destroying 
of idols, ib. The first establisher of Lent 
here, ib. Is succeeded by his son Ecbert, 
521. 

Eric, see Iric. 

Ermenred, thought to have had more right 
to the kingdom than Ercombert, 519. 

Errours, of service to the attainment of 
truth, 107. 

Escwin, and Kentwin, the nephew and son 
of Kinegil, said to have succeeded Ken- 
walk in the government of the West- 
Saxons, 522. Escwin joins battle with 
Wulfer at Bedanhafde, ib. 

Estrildis, beloved by Locrine, 478. With 
her daughter Sabra thrown into a river, 
479. 

Ethelbald, king of Mercia, after Ina, com- 
mands all the provinces on this side 
Humber, 524. He takes the town of 
Somerton, ib. Fraudulently assaults 
part of Northumberland in Eadbert's ab- 
sence, 525. His encounter at Beorford 
Avith Cuthred the West-Saxon, ib. In a 
fight at Secandune is slain, ib. 

Ethelbald, and Ethelbert, share the English 
Saxon kingdom between them after their 
father Ethelwolf, 531. Ethelbald marries 
Judith his father's widow, ib. Is buried 
at Sherbum, ib. 

Ethelbert, succeeds Emeric in the kingdom 
of Kent, 512. He is defeated at Wibban- 
dun by Keaulin and his son Cutha, ib. 
Enlarges his dominions from Kent to 
Humber, 514. Civilly receives Austin 
and his fellow preachers of the gospel, ib. 
Is himself baptized, 515. Moved by Aus- 
tin, he builds St. Peter's church in Can- 
terbury, and endows it, ib. He builds 
and endows St. Paul's church in London, 
and the cathedral at Rochester, ib. His 
death, 516. 

Ethelbert, Eadbert, and Alric, succeed their 
father Victred, in the kingdom of Kent, 
524. 

Ethelbert, or Pren. See Eadbright. 

Ethelbert, the son of Ethelwolf, enjoys the 
whole kingdom to himself, 531. During 
his reign, the Danes waste Kent, ib. Is 
buried with his brother at Sherbum, 
.532. 

Elhelfrid, succeeds Ethelric in the kingdom 
of Northumberland, 514. He wastes the 
Britons, 515. Overthrows Man, king of 
Scots, ib. In a battle at Westchester, 
slays above 1200 monks, 510. 

Ethelmund, and Weolstan, in a fight be- 
tween the Worcestershire men and Wilt- 
shire men, slain, 527. 

Ethelred, succeeding his brother Wolfer in 
the kingdom of Mercia, recovers Lindsey, 
and other parts, 522. Invades the king- 
dom of Kent, ib. A sore battle between 
him and Ecfrid the Northumbrian, 523. 
After the violent death of his queen, he 
exchanges his crown for a monk's cowl, 
ib. 

Ethelred, the son of Mollo, the usurper Al- 
cred being forsaken by the Northum- 
brians and deposed, crowned in his stead, 
526. Having caused three of his noblemen 



to be treacherously slain, is driven into 
banishment, ib. After ten years' banish- 
ment restored again, ib. He cruelly and 
treacherously puts to death Oelf and 
Oelfwin, the sons of Elfwald? formerly 
king, ib. And afterwards Osred, who, 
though shaven a monk, attempted again 
upon the kingdom, ib. He marries Elfied 
the daughter of Offa, 527. And is mise- 
rably slain by his people, ib. 

Ethelred, the son of Eandred, driven out in 
his 4th year, 530. Is reinstated, but 
slain the 4th year after, ib. 

Ethelred, the third son of Ethelwolf, the 
third monarch of the English-Saxons, in- 
fested with fresh invasions of the Danes, 
532. He fights several great battles with 
them, ib. 533. He dies in the 5th year of 
his reign, and is buried at Winburn, 533. 

Ethelred, the son of Edgar by Elfrida, 
crowned at Kingston, 543. Dunstan at 
his baptism presages ill of his future 
reign, 544. New invasions of the Danes, 
and great spoils committed by them in 
his reign, ib. &c. Being reduced to straits 
by the Danes, he retires into Normandy, 
547. Is recalled by his people, and joy- 
fully received, 548. Drives Canute the 
Dane back to his ships, ib. He dies at 
London, 549. 

Ethelric, expels Edwin the son of Alia out 
of the kingdom of Deira, 513. 

Ethelwald, tne son of Oswald, taking part 
with the Mercians, withdraws his forces 
from the field, 521. 

Ethelwald, succeeds Edelhere in the king- 
dom of the East- Angles, 521. 

Ethelwald, surnamed Mollo, set up king of 
the Northumbrians in the room of Os- 
wulf, 525. He slays in battle Oswin, but 
is set upon by Alcred, who assumes his 
place, ib. 

Ethelwolf, the second monarch of the Eng- 
lish Saxons, of a mild nature, not war- 
like, or ambitious, 530. He with his son 
Ethelbald gives the Danes a total defeat 
at Ak-Lea, or Oat-Lea, ib. Dedicates the 
tenth of his whole kingdom towards the 
maintenance of masses and psalms for his 
success against the Danes, ib. Goes to 
Rome with his son Alfred, ib. Marries 
Judith the daughter of Charles the Bald 
of France, 531. He is driven by a con- 
spiracy to consign half his kingdom to 
his son Ethelbald, ib. Dies and is buried 
at Winchester, ib. 

Ethelwolf, earl of Berkshire, obtains a vic- 
tory against the Danes at Englefield, 532. 
In another battle is slain himself, ib. 

Ethildrith, wife of Ecfrid, turns nun, and 
made abbess of Ely, 523. 

Ethiopians, their manner of punishing 
criminals, 379. 

Eumerus attempts to assassinate King Ed- 
win, 517. Is put to death, ib. 

Euripides, introduces Theseus king of 
Athens speaking for the liberty of the 
people, 385. 

Eusebius, thought it difficult to tell who 
were appointed bishops by the apostles, 
23. His account of Papias, and his in- 
fecting Gunaeus and other ecclesiastical 
writers with his errors, 25. 

Eustace, count of Boloign, revenging the 
death of one of his servants, is set upon 
by the citizens of Canterbury, 555. He 
complains to King Edward, who takes 
his part against the Canterburians, and 
commands Earl Godwin against them, 
but in vain, ib. 

Excommunication, the proper use and de- 
sign of it, 19. Left to the church as a 
rough and cleansing medicine, 51. 

Exhortation, to settle the pure worship of 
God in his church, and justice in the 
state, 17. 



Factor for religion, his business, 113. 

Faqanus and Deruvianus said to have 
preached the gospel here, and to have 
converted almost the whole island, 496. 

Faqius Paulus, his opinion concerning 
divorce, 155. Testimonies of learned 
men concerning him, 160. In the same 
sentiments with the author as to divorce, 
162. Agrees with Martin Bucer, 217. 

Famine, discord, and civil commotions 
among the Britons, 505. Swane driven 
by famine out of the land, 546. 

Fashions, of the Romans imitated by the 
Britons, a secret art to prepare them for 
bondage, 494. 



Fathers, primitive, in what manner they 
interpreted the words of Christ concern- 
ing divorce, 212, &c. 

Faustus, incestuously born of Vortimer 
and his daughter, lives a devout life in 
Glamorganshire, 508. 

Fencing and wrestling recommended to 
youth, 101. 

Ferdinand II., grand duke of Tuscany, let- 
ters from the English republic to him, 
592, 596, 598, 599. From Oliver, 625, 628, 
631. 

Fergus, king of Scots, said to be slain by 
the joint forces of the Britons and the 
Romans, 504. 

Ferrex, the son of Gorbogudo, slain in fight 
by his brother Porrex, 480. 

Flaccus, the printer, account of him, 923. 

Flattery, odious and contemptible to a gene- 
rous spirit, 552. 

Fletcher, Dr. Giles, ambassador from Queen 
Elizabeth to Russia, 581. 

Forms of Prayer, not to be imposed, 93. 

Fornication, what it is, 152, 153. A lawful 
cause of divorce, 152. Why our Saviour 
uses this word, 153. The Greek deficient 
in explaining it, 205. To understand 
rightly what it means, we should have 
recourse to the Hebrew, ib. 

Fortescue, his saying of a king of England, 
401. Quotation from his Laud. Leg. Ang. 
402. 

France, see Lewis, king of. 

Francus, named among the four sons of 
Histion, sprung of Japhet, and from him 
the Francs said to be derived, 476. 

Frederic III., king of Denmark, letters to 
him from the council of state, 595, 599 
From Oliver, 609, 612, 621. From the 
parliament restored, 637. 

Frederic, prince, heir of Norway, &c. letter 
from the council of state to him, 600. 
From Oliver, 625. 

Freedom of writing, the good consequences 
of it, 57. Not allowed while the prelates 
had power to prevent it, 85. See Li- 
censing. 

French, according to Hottoman, at the first 
institution of kingship, reserved a power 
of choosing and deposing their princes, 
374. Their manners and language when 
introduced into England, 555. 

French ambassador, Oliver's letter to the, 
626. 

Friars, dying men persuaded by them to 
leave their effects to the church, 65. 

Fulgenius, reckoned among the ancient 
British kings, 4S2. The commander in 
chief of the Caledonians against Septi- 
mius Severus, so called by Geoffrey of 
Monmouth, 498. 



Galgacus, heads the Britons against Julius 
Agricola, 495. 

Galileo, imprisoned by the inquisition, for 
his notions in astronomy, 112, 113. 

Garden and Gardener, an allegorical story 
applied to the prelates, 69. 

Genesis ii. 24. explained, 183. 

Geneva, Oliver's letter to the consuls and 
senators of that city, 610. 

Gentry, reason of their espousing prelates, 
53. 

Geoqraphy, its study both profitable and 
delightful, 567. 

Germanus, in a public disputation at Veru- 
lam, silences the chief of the Pelagians, 
505. He is entreated by the Britons to 
head them against the Picts and Saxons, 
ib. He gains the victory by a religious 
stratagem, ib. His death, 506. 

Gerontius, a Briton, by his valour advances 
the success of Const'antine the usurper in 
France and Spain, 501. Displaced by 
him, he calls in the Vandals against 
him, ib. Deserted by his soldiers, de- 
fends himself valiantly with the slaugh- 
ter of 300 of his enemies, ib. He kills his 
wife Nonnichia, refusing to outlive him, 
ib. Kills himself, ib. 

Geruntius, the son of Elidure, not his im- 
mediate successor, 482. 

Gildas, his account of the Britons electing 
and deposing their kings, 237. His bad 
character of the Britons, 499, 506. After 
two eminent successes, 512. 

Gill, Alexander, letters to, 950, 951. 

Godwin, earl of Kent, and the West-Saxons, 
stand for Hardicnute, 552. He betrays 
prince Elfred to Harold, ib. Being called 
to account by Hardicnute, appeases him 
with a very rich present, 553. Earnestly 



INDEX. 



exhorts Edward to take upon him the 
crown of England, ib. Marries his daugh- 
ter to King Edward, 554. Raises forces 
in opposition to the French whom the 
king favoured, 555. Is banished, ib. He 
and his sons grow formidable, 556. 
Coming up to London with his ships, a 
reconciliation is suddenly made between 
him and the king, ib. Sitting with the 
king at table, he suddenly sinks down 
dead, ib. 

Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, believed 
the first that peopled these west and 
northern climes, 476. 

Gonorill, gai'ns upon her father King Leir, 
by dissimulation, 479. Is married to 
Maglaunus duke of Albania, 480. Her 
ingratitude to her father, ib. 

Gorbogudo, or Gorbodego, succeeds Kin- 
marc us in the kingdom, 480. 

Gorbonian, succeeds Morindus in the king- 
dom, 481. His justice and piety, ib. 

Gospel, more favourable than the law, 139. 
Imposes no subjection to tyranny, £58, 
&c. Not contrary to reason and the law 
of nations, 361. 

Government, the reasons of its first esta- 
blishment, 233. Kingly, the consequences 
of readmitting it, 279. 

Grammar, Latin, what it is, 457. 

Gratianus Funarius, the father of Valen- 
tinian, commander in chief of the Roman 
armies in Britain, 499. 

Gregory, archdeacon of Rome, and after- 
ward pope, procures the sending over of 
abbot Austin and others to preach the 
gospel to the Saxons in this island, 514. 

Griffin, prince of South Wales, committing 
great spoil in Hereford, is pursued by 
Harold earl of Kent, 557. After a peace 
concluded he breaks his faith, and re- 
turns to hostility, ib. Is again reduced, 
ib. Harold brings the Welsh to sub- 
mission, ib. Lurking about the country, 
he is taken and slain by Griffin, prince of 
North Wales, ib. 

Griffith, Dr. brief notes on his sermon, 453, 
&c. Moves to be admitted physician to 
church and state, 453. His address to 
the general, ib. compared to Dr. Man- 
waring, 454. His geographical and his- 
torical mistakes, 455. 

Grotius, his observations concerning di- 
vorce, 150, 152. His opinion concerning 
it, 219. 

Guendolen, the daughter of Corineus, is 
married to Locrine the son of Brutus, 
478. Being divorced by him, gives him 
battle, wherein he is slain, 479. Causes 
Estrildis, whom Locrine had married, to 
be thrown into a river with her daughter 
Sabra, ib. Governs 15 years for her son 
Madan, ib. 

Gueniver, the wife of Arthur, kept from 
him in the town of Glaston, by Melvas 
a British king, 511. 

Guiderius, said to have been the son of 
Cunobeline, and slain in a battle against 
Claudius, 489. 

Guitheline, succeeds his father Gurguntius 
Barbirus in the kingdom, 481. 

Gunhildis, the sister of Swane, with her 
husband Earl Palingus, and her young 
son, cruelly murdered, 545. 

Guorangonus, a king of Kent, before it was 
given to the Saxons, 507. 

Guortimer, the son of Vortigern, endeavours 
to drive out the Saxons, 508. His suc- 
cess against them, ib. Dying he com- 
mands his bones to be buried in the port 
of Stonar, ib. 

Gurguntius Barbirus, succeeds Belinus in 
the kingdom, overcomes the Dane, and 
gives encouragement to Bartholinus a 
Spaniard to settle a plantation in Ireland, 
481. Another ancient British king named 
Gurguntius, 482. 

Gurgustius, succeeds Rivallo in the king- 
dom, 480. 

Gyrtha, son of Earl Godwin, accompanies 
his father into Flanders, together with 
his brothers Tosti and Swane, 555. His 
noble advice to his brother Harold as he 
was ready to give battle to Duke William 
of Normandy, 560. Is slain in the battle, 
with his brother Harold and Leofwin, 
ib. 

Gytro, or Gothrun, a Danish king, baptized 
by the name of Athelstan, and received 
out of the font by King Alfred, 534. The 
kingdom of the East-Angles said to be 
bestowed on him to hold of Alfred, ib. 



H 



Hamborough, letters to the senate of that 
city, 587, 588, 590, 592, 595, 620, 624, 625. 

Hanse Towns, letter to them from the 
English commonwealth, 595. 

Hardicnute, the son of Canute by Emma, 
called over from Bruges, and receive ' as 
king, 553. He calls Godwin and others 
to account about the death of Elfred, ib. 
Enraged at the citizens of Worcester for 
killing his tax-gatherers, he sends an 
army against them, and burns the city, 
ib. Kindly receives and entertains his 
half-brother Edward, ib. Eating and 
drinking hard at a feast, he dies, and is 
buried at Winchester, ib. Was a great 
epicure, ib. 

Hardness of heart, permitted to wicked 
men, 202. 

Harold, surnamed Harefoot, the son of 
Canute, elected king by Duke Leofric 
and the Mercians, 552. He banishes his 
mother-in-law Emma, ib. His perfidious- 
ness and cruelty towards Elfred the son 
of Ethelfred, ib. He dies, and is buried 
at Winchester, 553. 

Harold, son of Godwin, made earl of Kent, 
and sent against prince Griffin of Wales, 
557. He reduces him at last to the ut- 
most extremity, ib. Being cast upon the 
coast of Normandy, and brought to Duke 
William, he promises his endeavours to 
make him king of England, 558. He takes 
the crown himself, 559. Puts off Duke 
William, demanding it, with a slighting 
answer, ib. Is invaded by his brother 
Tosti, ib. By Harold Harfager, king of 
Norway, whom he utterly overthrows 
and slays, together with Tosti, ib. Is 
invaded by Duke William of Normandy, 
560. Is overthrown at the battle of Hast- 
ings, and slain together with his two 
brothers Leofwin and Gyrtha, ib. 

Hartlib, Mr. tract of education addressed 
to him, 98. 

Hayward, his account of the liturgy in 
Edward VI.'s time, 59. 

Heimbach, Peter, letters to, 959, 963. 

Heli, an ancient British king, 482. 

Help-meet, the meaning of that word, 182. 

Helvius, Pertinax, succeeds Ulpius Mar- 
cellus in the government of Britain, 497. 

Hemingius, his definition of marriage, 186. 
His opinion concerning divorce, 218. 

Hengist and Horsa, with an army, land in 
the Isle of Thanet, 507. Hengist gains 
advantages of Vortigern, by marrying 
his daughter to him, ib. Takes on him 
the kingly title, 508. His several battles 
against the Britons, ib. 509. His treache- 
rous slaughter of three hundred British 
grandees under pretence of treaty, 509. 
His death, ib. His race ends with Alric, 
527. 

Henninus, duke of Cornwal, marries Re- 
gan, daughter of King Leir, 480. 

Henry II., reigned together with his son, 
S93. 

Henry VIII., on what account he began 
the reformation in this kingdom, 156. 

Herebert, a Saxon earl, slain with most 
part of his army, by the Danes, at Mere- 
swar, 530. 

Heresy, according to the Greek, not a word 
of evil note, 415. The word explained, ib. 

Heresy, or false religion, defined, 562. 
Popery the greatest heresy, ib. 

Heretic, an idolatrous one ought to be di- 
vorced, after a convenient space allowed 
for conversion, 130. He who follows the 
Scripture, to the best of his knowledge, 
no heretic, 415. Who properly one, ib. 

Herod, a great zealot for the Mosaic law, 
206. Taxed of injustice by our Saviour, 
358. 

Herod and Herodias, the story of them 
from Josephus, 196. 

Herodotus, his account of the behaviour of 
the Egyptians to their kings, 378. 

Hertford, built or repaired by King Ed- 
ward, the son of Alfred, 537. 

Hesse, William, Landgrave of, Oliver's 
letter to him, 622. 

Heth, Richard, 957. 

Hewald, two priests of that name, cruelly 
butchered by the Saxons, whom they 
went to convert, 523. 

Hierarchy, as dangerous to the crown as a 

tetrarchy, or heptarchy, 16. 
Hinguar and Hubba, two Danish brethren, 
how they got footing by degrees in Eng- 
land, 532. 



Hirelings, the likeliest means to remove 
them out of the church, 424, &c. Judas 
the first, Simon Magus the next hireling, 
425. How to be discovered, 436. Soon 
frame themselves to the opinions of their 
paymasters, 437. Are the cause of athe- 
ism, ib. 

Histion, said to be descended of Japhet, 
and to have had four sons who peopled 
the greatest part of Europe, 476. 

Historians, English, defective, obscure, 
and fabulous, 524. 

History, remarks on writing, 961. 

Holland, states of, abjured obedience to 
King Philip of Spain, 238. Letters from 
Oliver to, 619, 627. 

Holstein, Luke, letter to, 954. 

Honorius, the emperor, sends aid twice to 
the Britons, against their northern in- 
vaders, 504. 

Horsa, the brother of Hengist, slain in the 
Saxons' war against the Britons, 508. His 
burial-place gave name to Horsted, a 
town in Kent, ib. 

Horsey, Jerom, agent in Russia, 580. 

Hotham, Sir John, proclaimed a traitor by 
King Charles, 294. Vindicated by the 
parliament, ib. The king's remarks on 
his fatal end, 295. 

Hull, reasons for the parliament's securing 
that place, 294. Petition to remove that 
magazine to London, ib. 

Humbeanna and Albert, said by some to 
have shared the kingdom of the East- 
Angles, after one Elfwald, 528. 

Humber river, whence named, 478- 

Hus and Luther, the reformers before them 
called the Poor Men of Lyons, 431. 

Husband, or wife, whether at liberty to 
marry again, 172. 



Jago, or Lago, succeeds his uncle Gurgus- 
tius in the kingdom, 480. 

James I., his behaviour after the powder- 
plot, 307. Compared with Solomon, 357. 

Icenians, and Trinobantes, rise up in arms 
against the Romans, 492. 

Ida, the Saxon, begins the kingdom of 
Bernicia in Northumberland, 511. 

Idwallo, learns by his brother's ill success 
to rule well, 482. 

Idolatry, brought the heathen to heinous 
transgressions, 566. 

Idols, according to the papists, great means 
to stir up pious thoughts and devotion, 
564. 

Jeroboam's episcopacy, a particoloured and 
party-membered one, 35. 

Jerome, St. his opinion, that custom only 
was the maker of prelaty, 36. Anselm of 
Canterbury, of the same opinion, ib. 
Said to be whipped by the devil for read- 
ing Cicero, 107. His behaviour in rela- 
tion to Fabiola, 166. His explanation of 
Matth. xix. 214. 

Jews, had no more right than Christians to 
a dispensation of the law relating to di- 
vorce, 142. Did not learn the custom of 
divorce in Egypt, 199. Their behaviour 
to their kings, 368, &c. 

Ignatius, epistles attributed to him, full of 
corruptions, 24. Directs honouring the 
bishop before the king, ib. His opinion 
no warrant for the superiority of bishops 
over presbyters, 28. 

Ignorance and ecclesiastical thraldom, cau- 
tion against them, 174. 

Immanuel, duke of Savoy, Oliver's letter to 
him in favour of his protestant subjects, 
606. 

Immanuentius, slain by Cassibelan, 487. 

Immin, Eaba, and Eadbert, noblemen of 
Mercia, throw off Oswi, and set up Wol- 
fer, 521. 

Imprimaturs, the number of them neces- 
sary for the publication of a book where 
the inquisition is established, 106. 

Ina, succeeds Kedwalla in the kingdom of 
the West-Saxons, 523. Marches into Kent 
to demand satisfaction for the burning of 
Mollo, ib. Is pacified by Victred with a 
sum of money, and the delivering up of 
the accessories, ib. Vanquishes Gerent, 
king of Wales, ib. Slays Kenwulf and 
Albright, and vanquishes the East- Angles, 
524. Dies at Rome, ib. 

Independents, their tenets, 342. Commend- 
ed for their firmness, 404 Reflected on 
by Salmasius, ib. Their superiority over 
the other parties, 937. 
Inniaunus, deposed for his ill courses, 482. 



Job, the book of, a brief model of the epic 
poem, 43. 

John, the Baptist, in what sense called an 
angel, 6S. 

John, King-, why deposed by his barons, 
263- 

John III., elected king- of Portugal, his en- 
comium, 583. 

John IV., king of Portugal, letters to him, 
complaining of the taking and plundering 
English vessels, 5S9. Complimented by 
the" council of state for favours received 
from him, .590. Letters to him from Oli- 
ver, 612, 614, 617, 619, 620, 633. From 
Richard the protector, 636. 

John Phillips; his answer to the anony- 
mous apology for the king and people, 
Latin, 763. 

Jones, Colonel Michael, his letter to the 
earl of Ormond, 2-59. 

Jones, Richard, letters to, 959, 960, 961, 963. 

Joseph of Arimathea, said to have first 
preached the christian faith in tins island, 
496. 

Josephus, his opinion that aristocracy is 
the best form of government, 348. 

Jovinus sent deputy into this island by the 
emperor Valentihian, 500. 

Ireland inhabited and named Scotia by the 
Scots, before the north of Britain had that 
name, 500. 

Irenaus, cited to prove that Polycarp was 
made bishop of Smyrna by the apostles, 
25. His testimony, when a' boy, concern- 
ing bishops, as a superior order to pres- 
byters, not to be regarded, ib. His ab- 
surd notions of Eve and the Virgin Mary, 
ib. If the patron of episcopacy to us, he 
is the patron of idolatry to the papists, ib. 

Iric, a Dane, made earl of Northumber- 
land, 550. He is said by some to have 
made war against Malcolm, king of Scots, 
ib. His greatness suspected by Canute, 
he is banished the realm, 551. 

Judgments, for what cause sent, unknown 
to man, 327. 

Julian, the apostate, forbad Christians the 
study of heathen learning, 107. 

Julius Agricola, the emperor's lieutenant 
in Britain, almost extirpates the Ordo- 
vices, 493. Finishes the conquest of the 
Isle of Mona, ib. His justice and pru- 
dence in government, ib. He brings the 
Britons to civility, arts, and an imitation 
of the Roman fashions, 494. He receives 
triumphal honours from Titus, ib. He 
extends his conquests to Scotland, sub- 
dues the Orcades and other Scotch 
islands, ib. In several conflicts, comes 
off victorious, 495. He is commanded 
home by Domitian, 496. 

Julius Ccesar, has intelligence that the 
Britons are aiding to his enemies the 
Gauls, 483. He sends Caius Volusenus 
to discover the nature of the people, and 
strength of the country, 484. After him 
Comius of Arras, to make a party among 
the Britons, ib. The stout resistance he 
meets with from them at his landing, ib. 
He receives terms of peace from them, 
ib. Loses a great part of his fleet, 485. 
Defeats the Britons, brings them anew to 
terms of peace, and sets sail for Belgia, 
ib. The year following he lands his 
army again, ib. He has a very sharp 
dispute with the Britons near the Stowre, 
in Kent, 486. Passes the Thames at 
Coway stakes, near Oatlands, ib. He 
receives terms of peace from the Trino- 
bantes, 487. He brings Cassibelan to 
terms, ib. He leaves the island, ib. Offers 
to Venus, the patroness of his familv, a 
corslet of British pearls, ib. The killing 
him approved of by the best men of that 
age, 382. 

Julius Frontinus, the emperor's lieutenant 
in Britain, 493. Tames the Silures, a 
warlike people, ib. 

Julius Severus, governs Britain under Ha- 
drian the emperor, 496. Divides his 
conquests here by a wall eighty miles 
long, as his usual manner was in other 
frontiers, ib 

Julius of Caerleon, a British martyr under 

Dioclesian, 499. 
Junius, his wrong interpretation of a text, 

187. 
Jure, Thomas, Milton's tutor, letters to, 

950, 951. 
Jurisdiction, in the church, most truly 
named ecclesiastical censure, 47. The 
nature and design of it, 68. 
Justice, how perverted by a train of cor- 
ruptions, 296. Above all other things the 



INDEX. 

strongest, 333. Not in the king's power 
to deny it to any man, 398. 

Justin Martyr, his story of a Roman ma- 
tron, 213. 

Justin, the historian, his account of the 
original of government, 391. 

Justinian's law, the three general doctrines 
of it, 199. 



K 



Kearle, surrenders the kingdom of Mercia 

to his kinsman Penda, 518. 
Keaulin, succeeds his father Kenric, in the 
kingdom of the West-Saxons, 512. He 
and" his son Cuthin slay three British 
kings at Deorham, 513. Gives the Britons 
a very great rout at Fethanleage, ib. 
Route'd by the Britons at Wodensbeorth, 
and chased out of his kingdom, dies in 
poverty, ib. 514. 
Kedwalfay, or Cadwallon, a British king, 
joining with Penda the Mercian, slays 
Edwin in battle, 519. 
Kedwalla, a West-Saxon prince, returned 
from banishment, slays in fight Edelwalk, 
the South-Saxon, and after that Edric his 
successor, 522. Going to the Isle of 
Wight, he devotes the fourth part thereof 
to holy uses, ib. The sons of Arwald, 
king of that isle, slain by his order, ib. 
He harasses the country of the South- 
Saxons, ib. Is repelled by the Kentish 
men, ib. Yet revenges the death of his 
brother Mollo, ib. Going to Rome to be 
baptized, he dies there about five weeks 
after his baptism, 523. 

Kelred, the son of Ethelred, succeeds Ken- 
red in the Mercian kingdom, 523. Pos- 
sessed with an evil spirit, dies in despair, 
524. 

Kelwulf, reigns king of the West-Saxons 
after Keola, 515. Makes war upon the 
South-Saxons, 516. Leaves the kingdom 
to his brother's sons, ib. 

Kelwulf, adopted by Osric the Northum- 
brian, to be his successor in the kingdom, 
524 Becomes a monk in Lindisfarne, ib. 

Kened, king of the Scots, does high honour 
to King Edgar, 542. Receives great 
favours from him, ib. Is challenged by 
him upon some words let fall, but soon 
pacifies him, ib. 

Kenelm, succeeding in the kingdom of 
Mercia, is murdered by order of his sister 
Quendrid, 528. 

Kenred, the son of Wulfer, succeeds Ethel- 
red in the Mercian kingdom, 523. He 
goes to Rome, and is there shorn a monk, 
ib. Another Kenred succeeds in the 
kingdom of Northumberland, 524. 

Kenric, the son of Kerdic, overthrows the 
Britons that oppose him, 509 Kills and 
puts to flight many of the Britons at 
Searesbirig, now Salisbury, 512. After- 
ward at Beranvirig, now Banbury, ib. 

Ken/win, a West-Saxon king, chases the 
Welsh Britons to the sea-shore, 522. 

Kenulf, has the kingdom of Mercia be- 
queathed him by Ecferth, 527. He leaves 
behind him the praise of a virtuous reign, 
528. 

Kenwalk, succeeds his father Kinegils in 
the kingdom of the West-Saxons, 520. 
He is said to have discomfited the Britons 
at Pen, in Somersetshire, 521. And giving 
battle to Wulfer, to have taken him 
prisoner, ib. Leaves the government to 
Sexburga his wife, 522. 

Kemculf, entitled Clito, slain by Ina the 
West-Saxon, 524. 

Kenwulf king of the West-Saxons. See 
Kinwulf. 

Keola, the son ofCuthulf, succeeds his uncle 
Keaulin in the West-Saxon kingdom, 
514. 

Keolwulf, the brother of Kenulf, the Mer- 
cian, after one year's reign driven out by 
Bernulf, a usurper, 52S. 

Keorle, overthrows the Danes at Wiggan- 
beorch, 530. 

Kerdic, a Saxon prince, lands at Kerdic- 
shore, and overthrows the Britons, 509. 
Defeats their king Natanleod in a memo- 
rable battle, 510. Founds the kingdom 
of the West-Saxons, ib. He overthrows 
the Britons twice at Kerdic's Ford, and 
at Kerdic's Leage, ib. 

Kimarus, reckoned among the ancient 
British kings, 481. 

Kinegils and Cuichelm, succeed Kelwulf 
in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, 516. 
They make truce with Penda the Mer- 
cian" 518. Are converted to the christian 



faith, 519. Kinegils leaves his son Ken- 
walk to succeed, 520. 

King, his state and person likened to Sam- 
son, 54. 

King and a tyrant, the difference between 
them, 401, 921, 922. 

King of England, what actually makes one, 
239. Has two superiors, the law and his 
court of parliament, 292. As he can do 
no wrong, so neither can he do right but 
in his courts, 302. 

Kings and Magistrates, tenure of, 231. 

Kings, to say they are accountable to none 
but God, overturns all law and govern- 
ment, 234. Their power originally con- 
ferred on them, and chosen by the people, 
ib. 235. Though strong in legions, yet 
weak at arguments, 274. Their office to 
see to the execution of the laws, 291. 
First created by the parliament, 301. 
Examples of kings deposed by the primi- 
tive British church, 334. Christ no friend 
to the absolute power of kings, 358. 

Kings, Hebrew ones, liable to^be called in 
question for their actions, 352. 

ICings, Scottish, no less than fifty, impri- 
soned or put to death, 3S3. 

Kings, turning monks, applauded by monk- 
ish writers, 525. 

Kings-evil, by whom first cured, 558. 

Kinmarcus, succeeds Sisilius in the king- 
dom, 480. 

Kinwulf or Kenwulf, (Sigebert being 
thrown out, and slain by a swineherd,) 
saluted king of the West-Saxons, 525. 
Behaves himself valorously in several 
battles against the Welsh, 526. Put to 
the worst at Besington, by Offa the Mer- 
cian, ib. Is routed and slain by Kineard, 
whom he had commanded into banish- 
ment, ib. 

Knox, John, his deposing doctrine, 238, 268. 

Kymbeline, or Cunobeline, the successor of 
Tenuantius, said to be brought up in the 
court of Augustus, 488. His chief seat 
Camalodunum, or Maldon, ib. 



Lacedemon, museless and unbookish, mind- 
ed nothing but the feats of war, 105. 

Lactantius, his opinion of divorce, 213. 

Laity, by consent of many ancient prelates, 
did participate in church offices, 49. 

Language, its depravation portends the 
ruin of a country, 953. 

Laughter, the good properties of it, 84. 

Law of God, agreeable to the law of nature, 
375. 

Law, cannot permit, much less enact, per- 
mission of sin, 137. That given by Moses, 
just and pure, 199. Law designed to 
prevent not restrain sin, 200. Superior 
to governors, 361. Nothing to be ac- 
counted law that is contrary to the law 
of God, 397. 

Laws, common and civil, should be set free 
from the vassalage and copyhold of the 
clergy, 18. The ignorance and iniquity 
of the canon law. 127. 

Lawyers, none in Russia, 570. 

Laymen, the privilege of teaching anciently 
permitted to them, 49. 

Learning, what sort recommended to mi- 
nisters, 436. 

Learning and Arts, when began to flourish 
among the Saxons, 521. 

Leda, marquis of, letter from the council of 
state to him, 602. 

Leil, succeeds Brute Greenshield, and 
builds Caerleil, 479. 

Leir, King, his trial of his daughters' af- 
fection, 479. Is restored to his crown by 
his daughter Cordeilla, 480. 

Lent, its first establishment in Britain, 519. 

Leo, emperor, his law concerning divorce, 
215. 

Leo of Aizema, letter to, 95S. 

Leof a noted thief, kills King Edmund, 541. 
Is hewed to pieces, ib. 

Leofric, duke of Mercia, and Siward of 
Northumberland, sent by Hardecnute 
against the people of Worcester, 553. By 
their counsel King Edward seizes on the 
treasures of his mother, Queen Emma, 
.554. They raise forces for the king 
against Earl Godwin, 555. Leofric' s 
death and character, 557. 

Leofwin, son of Earl Godwin, after his 
father's banishment, goes over with his 
brother Harold into Ireland, 555. He and 
Harold assist their father with a fleet 
against King Edward, 556. He is slain 



INDEX. 



with his brothers Harold and Girtha in 
the battle against William duke of Nor- 
mandy, 560. 
Leontius, bishop of Magnesia, his account 

of bishops not to be depended on, 22, 23. 
Leopold, archduke of Austria, letters to 
him from the parliament, 589. From 
Oliver, 633. 
Letters, familiar, from the author to his 
friends, 950—963. The same in Latin, 
830—842. 
Letters of State, in the name of the Parlia- 
ment, 587, 637. The same in Latin, 777, 
821. In the name of Oliver the Protector, 
603. The same in Latin, 792. In the 
name of Richard the Protector, 634. The 
same in Latin, 819. 
Lewis, king of France, Oliver's letters to 
him, 608, 610, 613, 615, 619, 621, 629, 630, 
631, 632. Letters to him from Richard the 
Protector, 634, 636. 
Liberty, fit only to be handled by just and 
virtuous men, 30. True, what, 103. A 
less number may counsel a greater to 
retain their liberty, 450. Can be pre- 
served only by virtue, 94. 
Liberty, Christian, not to be meddled with 

by civil magistrates, 413, 417, 419. 
Libraries, public, recommended, 437. 
Licensers, the inconveniences attending 

their office, 110, 111. 
Licensing, of books, crept out of the inqui- 
sition, 104. Historical account of li- 
censing, 105, 106. Not to be exempted 
from the number of vain and impossible 
attempts, 108. Conduces nothing to the 
end for which it was framed, 109. Not 
able to restrain a weeklv libel against 
parliament and city, 110. Italy and Spain 
not bettered by the licensing of books, 
ib. The manifest hurt it does, 111, &c 
The ill consequences of it, and discou- 
ragement to learning, 113. First put in 
practice by antichristian malice and 
mystery, 114. 
Linceus, said to be the husband of one of 
the feigned fifty daughters of Dioclesian, 
king of Syria, 476. The only man saved 
by his wife, when the rest of the fifty slew 
their husbands, ib. 
Litany, remarks on it, 94. 
Liturgy, confesses the service of God to be 
perfect freedom, 53. Reflections on the 
use of it, 59. Remarks on the arguments 
brought in defence of it, 59—62. Detest- 
ed as well as prelacy, 62. Reason of the 
use of liturgies, ib. Arguments against 
the use of them, 93. The inconveniences 
of them, ib. Taken from the papal church, 
94. Neither liturgy nor directory should 
be imposed, 315. 
Livy, praises the Romans for gaining their 
liberty, 235. A good expositor of the 
rights of Roman kings, 381. 
Locrine, the eldest son of Brutus, has the 
middle part of this island called Lcegria 
for his share in the kingdom, 478. 
Logics, Artis, plenior Institutio, 861. 
Lollius Urbicus, draws a wall of turfs be- 
tween the Frith of Dunbritton and Edin- 
burgh, 496. 
London, first called Troja Nova, afterward 
Trinovantum, and said to be built by 
Brutus, 478. Tower of, by whom built, 
481. Enlarged, walled about, and named 
from King Lud, 482. New named Au- 
gusta, 500. With many of her inhabitants 
by a sudden fire consumed, 527. Danes 
winter there, 533. The city burnt, 544. 
Loneliness, how indulgently God has pro- 
vided against man's, 181, 182. 
Lothair, succeeds his brother Ecbert in the 
kingdom of Kent, 522. Dies of wounds 
received in battle against Edric, ib. 
Love, produces knowledge and virtue, 81. 
The son of Penurv, begot of Plenty, 128. 
How parabled by the ancients, ib. 
Lubec, Oliver's letter to the senators and 

consuls of that city, 625. 
Lucius, a king in some part of Britain, 
thought the first of any king in Europe 
who received the christian faith, 496. Is 
made the second by descent from Marius, 
ib. After a long reign buried at Glou- 
cester, ib. 
Lucifer, the first prelate angel, 32. 
Lucretius, his Epicurism, published the 

second time by Cicero, 105. 
Lud, walls about Trinovant, and calls it 

Caer-Lud, Lud's town, 482. 
Ludgate, whence named, 482. 
Ludiken, the Mercian, going to avenge Ber- 
nulf, is surprised by the East-Angles and 
put to the sword, 529. 



Lupicinus, sent over deputy into this island 

by Julian the emperor, but soon recalled, 

■500. 
Lupus, bishop of Troyes, assistant to Ger- 

manus of Auxerre, in the reformation of 

the British church, 505. 
Luther, a monk, one of the first reformers, 

74. His vehement writing against the 

errors of the Roman church commended, 

84. 
Lutherans, an error charged upon them, 

563. 
Lycurgus, how he secured the crown of 

Lacedemon to his family, 367. Makes 

the power of the people superior to that 

of the king, 385. 



M 



Madan, succeeds his father Locrine, 479. 
Magistrates, civil, to be obeyed as God's 
vicegerents, 34. Should take care of the 
public sports and festival pastimes, 44. 
Their particular and general end, 48. 
Tenure of, 231. Effeminate ones not fit 
to govern, 293. Not to use force ' in re- 
ligious matters, 414, 415, 421. Reasons 
against their so doing, 419. Should see 
that conscience be not inwardly violated, 
421. 

Maglaunus, duke of Albania, marries Go- 
norill eldest daughter of King Leir, 480. 

Maglocune, surnamed the Island Dragon, 
one of the five that reigned toward'the 
beginning of the Saxon heptarchy, 513. 
His wicked character, ib. 

Magus, son and successor of Samothes, 
whom some fable to have been the first 
peopler of this island, 476. 

Maimonides, his difference between the 
kings of Israel and those of Judah, 352. 

Malcolm, son of Kenedking of Scots, falling 
upon Northumberland, is utterly over- 
thrown by Uthred, 549. Some say by 
Iric, 550. 

Malcolm, son of the Cumbrian king, made 
king of Scotland in the room of Macbeth, 
556. 

Malcolm, king of Scotland, coming to visit 
King Edward, swears brotherhood with 
Tosti the Northumbrian, 557. Afterward 
in his absence harasses Northumber- 
land, ib. 

Mandubratius, son of Immanuentius, fa- 
voured bv the Trinobantes against Cas- 
sibelan, 487. 

Manifesto of the lord protector of England, 
&c. against the depredations of the Span- 
iards, 638. In Latin, 823. 

Marcus Aurelius, ready to lay down the 
government, if the senate or people re- 
quired it, 388. 

Marganus, the son of Gonorill, deposes his 
aunt Cordeilla, 480. Shares the kingdom 
with his cousin Cunedagius, invades 
him, but is met and overcome by him, ib. 

Marganus, the son of Archigallo, a good 
king, 482. 

Marinaro, a learned Carmelite, why re- 
proved by Cardinal Pool, 194. 

Marius, the son of Arviragus, is said to 
have overcome the Picts, and slain their 
king Roderic, 496. 

Marriage, not properly so, where the most 
honest end is wanting, 126. The fulfilling 
of conjugal love and happiness, rather 
than the remedy of lust, 127. Love and 
peace in families broke by a forced con- 
tinuance of matrimony, 129. May en- 
danger the life of either party, 134. Not 
a mere carnal coition, 135. Compared 
with other covenants broken for the good 
of men, ib. No more a command than 
divorce, 140. The words of the institu- 
tion, how to be understood, 144. The 
miseries in marriage to be laid on unjust 
laws, 154. Different definitions of it, 185 
— 187. The grievance of the mind more 
to be resarded in it than that of the body, 
ib. Called the covenant of God, 190. 
The ordering of it belongs to the civil 
power, 164. Popes by fraud and force 
have got this power, ib. Means of pre- 
serving it holy and pure, 166. Allowed 
by the ancient fathers, even after the vow 
of single life, 167. Christ intended to 
make no new laws relating to it, 168. 
The properties of a true christian mar- 
riage, 171. What crimes dissolve it, ib. 
Expositions of the four chief places in 
Scripture treating of, 175. A civil ordi- 
nance or household contract, 431. The 
solemnizing of it recovered by the par- 



liament from the encroachment of priests, 
ib. See Divorce. 
Martia, wife of King Guitheline, said to 
have instituted the law called Marchen 
Leage, 481. 
Martin V., pope, the first that excommuni- 
cated for reading heretical books, 105, 
106. 
Martinus, made deputy of the British pro- 
vince, failing to kill Paulus, falls upon 
his own sword, 499. 
Martyr, Peter, his character of Martin 
Bucer, 160. His opinion concerning di- 
vorce, 217. 
Martyrdom, the nature of it explained, 330. 
Martyrs, not to be relied on, 87. 
Mary, queen of Scots, her death compared 

with King Charles's, 402. 
Massacre of Paris, owing to the peace 
made by the protestants with Charles 
IX., 242. Irish, more than 200,000 pro- 
testants murdered in it, 264. 

Matrimony, nothing more disturbs the 
whole life of a Christian than an unfit 
one, 127. See Marriage. 

Matth. xix. 3, 4, &c. explained, 196. 

Maximianus Herculeus, forced to conclude 
a peace with Carausius, and yield him 
Britain, 498. 

Maximus, a Spaniard, usurping part of the 
empire, is overcome at length and slain 
by Theodosius, 500. Maximus, a friend 
of Gerontius, is by him set up in Spain 
against Constantine the usurper, 501. 

Mazarine, Cardinal, Oliver's letters to him, 
609, 615, 630, 631, 632. Richard the Pro- 
tector's, 634, 636, 637. 

Medina Celt, duke of, letter of thanks to 
him for his civil treatment of the Eng- 
lish fleet, 591. 

Mellitus, Justus, and others, sent with Aus- 
tin to the conversion of the Saxons, 515. 
He converts the East-Saxons, ib. St. 
Paul's church in London built for his 
cathedral by Ethelred, as that of Roches- 
ter for Justus, ib. 

Mempricius, one of Brutus's council, per- 
suades him to hasten out of Greece, 477. 

Mempricius and Malim, succeed their father 
Madan in the kingdom, 479. Mem pricius 
treacherously slays his brother, gets sole 
possession of the kingdom, reigns tyran- 
nically, and is at last devoured by wolves, 
ib. 

Mercia, kingdom of, first founded byCrida, 
513. 

Mercian laws, by whom instituted, 481. 

Merianus, an ancient British king, 482. 

Micah, his lamentation for the loss of his 
gods, &c. 324, 325. 

Military skill, its excellence consists in 
readily submitting to commanders' or- 
ders, 29. 

Militia, not to be disposed of without con- 
sent of parliament, 301. 

Milles, Hermann, letter to, 956. 

Milton, the author, his account of himself, 
80, &c. 928, 933. Of his complaint in his 
eyes, 958. 

Mimes, what they were, 77. 

Minister, different from the magistrate, in 
the excellence of his end, 50. Duties be- 
longing to his office, ib. Whether the 
people are judges of his ability, 92. 

Ministers, have the power of binding and 
loosing, 34. Their labours reflected on, 
by licensing the press, 112. How distin- 
guished in the primitive times from other 
Christians, 437. 

3Iinisters, Presbyterian, account of their 
behaviour, when the bishops were preach- 
ed down, 346. 

Minocan, an ancient British king, 482. 

Alithridates, why he endeavoured to stir up 
all princes against the Romans, 342. 

Mollo, the brother of Kedvvalla, pursued, 
beset, and burnt in a house whither he 
had fled for shelter, 522. His death re- 
venged by his brother, ib. 

Molmutine Laws, what and by whom esta- 
blished in England, 480. 

Monarchy, said to have been first founded 
by Nimrod, 336. The ill consequences of 
readmitting it, 448, &c. 

Monk, General, letter to him concerning 
the establishing of a free commonwealth, 
441. 

Monks, invented new fetters to throw on 
matrimony, 161. Dubious relaters in 
civil matters, and very partial in ecclesi- 
astic, 501. One thousand one hundred 
and fifty of them massacred, 516. 

Morcar, the son of Algar, made earl of Nor- 
thumberland in the room of Tosti, 558. 



INDEX. 



He and Edwin duke of the Mercians put 
Tosti to flight, 559. They give battle to 
Harold Harvager, king of Norway, but 
are worsted, 560. They refuse to set up 
Edgar, and at length swear fidelity to 
Duke William of Normandy, 561. 

Mordred, Arthur's nephew, 'said to have 
given him in a battle his death wound, 
513. 

More, Alexander, Defence of the Author 
against, 733. Account of him, 922. 

Morindus, the son of Elanius by Tangues- 
tela, a valiant man, but infinitely cruel, 
4S1. Is devoured by a sea monster, ib. 

Mosco, fertility of the country between this 
city and Yefaslave, 569. Said to be big- 
ger than London, ib. Method of travel- 
ling thence to the Caspian, ib. Siege of 
it raised, and peace made with the Poles, 
by the mediation of King James, 576. 

Moscovia, description of "the empire, 568. 
Excessive cold in winter there, ib. Suc- 
cession of its dukes and emperors, 
573, &c. 

Moses, instructed the Jews from the book 
of Genesis, what sort of government they 
■were to be subject to, 29. Designed for 
a lawgiver, but'Christ came among us as 
a teacher, 70. Offended with the pro- 
fane speeches of Zippora, sent her back 
to her father, 131. Why he permitted a 
bill of divorce, 151. An interpreter be- 
tween God and the people, 3^6. Did not 
exercise an arbitrary power, 360. 

Moulin, Dr. remarks on his argument for 
the continuance of bishops in the English 
church, 74. 

Molmutius. See Dunwallo. 

Music, recommended to youth, 101. 



N 



Nassau, house of, hinted at, as dangerous 
to a commonwealth, 448. 

Natanleod, or Nazaleod, supposed the same 
with Uther Pendragon, 510. 

Nations, at liberty to erect what form of 
government they like, 233, 348. Their 
beginning why obscure, 475. 

Nazianzen, his wish that prelacy had never 
been, 317. 

Nature, her zodiac and annual circuit over 
human things, 208. 

Nero, had no right to the succession, 362. 
Comparison between him and King 
Charles, 384. 

Netherlands, saved from ruin by not trust- 
ing the Spanish king, 242. 

Nonnichia, wife of Gerontius, her resolu- 
tion and death, 501. Is highly praised 
by Sozomen, ib. 

Nimrod, reputed by ancient tradition the 
first that founded monarchy, 336. 

Ninnius, an author reputed to have lived 
above 1000 years ago, 476. 

Norway, prince Frederic heir of, the coun- 
cil of state's letter to him, 600. Oliver's 
letter to him, 625. 

Newgate, when built, 482, note. 



O 



Obedience, defined. 239. 

Octa and Ebissa, Hengist the son and ne- 
phew of, called over by him, 507. They 
possess themselves of Northumberland, ib. 

Odemira, Conde de, Oliver's letter to him, 
618. 

Oenus, one in the catalogue of ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Oeric or Oisc, succeeds his father Hengist 
in the kingdom of Kent, and from him 
the Kentish kings called Oiscings, 509. 
He is otherwise called Esca, 512. 

Offa, the son of Siger, quits his kingdom of 
the East-Saxons to go to Rome and turn 
monk, 523, 52-5. 

Offa, defeating and slaying Beornred, be- 
comes king of Mercia after Ethelbald, 
525. He subdues a neighbouring people 
called Hastings, 526. Gets the victory of 
Alric king of Kent at Occanford, ib. In- 
viting Ethelbrite kintr of the East-Angles 
to his palace, he there treacherously 
causes him to be beheaded, and seizes 
his kingdom, 527. Had at first enmity, 
afterwards league, with Charles the Great, 
ib. He grants a perpetual tribute to the 
pope out of every house in his kingdom, 
ib. He draws a trench of wondrous 
length between Mercia and the British 
confines. His death, ib. 
10 



Oldenburgh, count of, letter from the coun- 
cil of state to him, 600. Letters from 
Oliver to him, 603. 

Oldenburgh, Henry, letters to, 957, 959, 

961, 963. 

Oliver, the Protector, letters written in his 
name to several princes and potentates, 
604. In Latin, 792, &c. His manifesto 
against the depredations of the Spaniards, 
639. In Latin, 823. 

Ordination, whether the order of bishops 
to be kept up to perform it, 68. Preach- 
ing as holy, and far more excellent, ib. 

Origen, while a layman, expounded the 
Scriptures publicly, 49. Permitted wo- 
men to marry after divorce, 167, 213. 

Orestes, condemned to death for killing his 
mother, 334. 

Ormond, earl of, articles between him and 
the Irish, 247. His letter to Colonel 
Jones, 259. His proclamation of King 
Charles II. in Ireland, 260. Remarks on 
the articles, &c. 262. 

Osbald, a nobleman, exalted to the throne 
of the Northumbrians after Ethelred, 527. 

Osbert, reigns in Northumberland after the 
last of the Ethelreds, 530. Helping the 
Picts against Donaldus, king of Scotland, 
defeats the Scots at Stirlingbridge, with 
great slaughter, and takes the king pri- 
soner, 531. 

Osfrid, and Eanfrid, the sons of Edwin, 
converted and baptized, 518. Osfrid 
slain, together with his father, in a battle 
against Kedwalla, 519. 

Osiris, slain by his brother Typhon, 378. 

Oslac and Cneban, two Saxon earls, slain 
by Keaulin at Wibbandun, 512. 

Osmund, king of the South-Saxons, 525. 

Osred, a child, succeeds Alfrid in the Nor- 
thumbrian kingdom, 523. He is slain by 
his kindred, for his vicious life, 524. 

Osred, son of Alcred, advanced to the king- 
dom of Northumberland, after Elfwald, 
is soon driven out again, 526. Is taken 
and forcibly shaven a monk at York, ib. 

Osric, the son of Elfric, baptized by Pau- 
linus, succeeds in the kingdom of Deira, 
519. Turns apostate, and is slain by an 
eruption of Kedwalla, out of a besieged 
town, ib. Another Osric succeeds Ken- 
red the second, 524. 

Osric, earl of Southampton, and Ethelwolf 
of Berkshire, beat the Danes back to their 
ships, 531. 

Ostorius, sent vicepraetor into Britain, in 
the room of Plautius the praetor, 489. 
Routs the Britons, and improves his vic- 
tory to the best advantage, ib. Gives 
the government of several cities to Cogi- 
dunus, a British king, his ally, 490. De- 
feats the Silures under the leading of 
Caractacus, ib. Has afterwards bad 
success, ib. 

Ostrid, the wife of Ethelred, killed by her 
own nobles, 523. 

Oswald, brother of Eanfrid, living exiled in 
Scotland, is there baptized, 519. With a 
small army utterly overthrows Kedwalla, 
ib. Settles religion, and very much en- 
larges his dominions, ib. Overcome and 
slain in battle by Penda, at Maserfield, 
now Oswestre, ib. 

Oswi, succeeds his brother Oswald in the 
kingdom, 520. He persuades Sigebert to 
receive the christian faith, ib. Routs 
Penda's vast army, 521. He subdues all 
Mercia. and the greatest part of the Pict- 
ish nation, ib. shaken off by the Mercian 
nobles, and Wulfer set up in his stead, ib. 
His death, ib. 

Oswin, the nephew of Edwin, shares with 
Oswi in the kingdom of Northumber- 
land, 520. Coming to arms with him, he 
is overmatched, and slain by his com- 
mand, ib. 

Oswulf, has the crown of Northumberland 
relinquished to him by Eadbert, 525. 
Slain by his own servants, ib. 

Otha, succeeds Esca in the kingdom of 
Kent, 512. 

Otter and Roald, two Danish leaders land- 
ing in Devonshire, their whole forces are 
scattered, and Roald slain, 537. 

Owiga, river, steep waterfalls in it, .569. 

Oxford, burnt by the Danes, 546. 



Pandrasus, a Grecian king, keeps the Tro- 
jans in servitude, 477. Is beaten by 
Brutus, ib. 

Paolo, Padre, his judgment concerning the 



hierarchy of England, 13. Observes, that 
books were left to each one's conscience, 
to read or lay by, till after the year 800, 
105. 

Papists, imitating the ceremonial law, fell 
into superstition, 33. Most severe against 
divorce, yet most easy to all licentious- 
ness, 154. 

Parable, in Luke xiv. 16, &c. explained, 
419. 

Parous, his opinion that the gospel re- 
quires perfecter obedience than the law, 
refuted, 143. His objection against di- 
vorce answered, 157. His definition of 
marriage, 185. Accuses the Jesuit Mal- 
donatus, 195. His note on the entertain- 
ment of the young man in the gospel, 

Parallel, between a king and a master of 
a family, very lame, 376. 

Parliament, the absurdity of calling it a 
convocation, 89. Commendation of their 
proceedings, ib. Praised for their cou- 
rage in punishing tyrants, 241. Their 
guard dismissed, and another appointed, 
284. By our old laws, to be held twice a 
year at London, 287. Not to be dissolved 
till grievances are redressed, 288. What 
the name originally signified, 447. Above 
all positive law, 456. Character of the 
long parliament in 1641, 502, &c. Let- 
ters of state written in the name of the, 
587-602, 637. In Latin, 777-791, 821, 822. 
Cautions on the choice of representatives 
in, 948. 

Pastor of Christ's church, his universal 
right to admonish, 59. For his greatest 
labours, requires only common neces- 
saries, 70. 

Pastoral Office, the nature and dignity of 
it, 70. 

Patriarchate, independent of the crown, 
affected by some prelates, 16. 

Paul, St. his instruction to Timothy, for 
church-discipline, 31. Meaning of that 
text, Charity believeth all things, 154. 
His writings touching divorce explained, 
169. His different manner of speaking 
explained, 209. Commands us to pray 
for kings, yet calls Nero a lion, 364. 

Paulinus, with Edelburga, endeavours to 
convert Northumberland to Christianity, 
517. The manner of his making King 
Edwin a convert, ib. 518. He converts 
the province of Lindsey, and Blecca the 
governor of Lincoln, arid builds a church 
in that city, 518. 

Paul's, St. cathedral at London, by whom 
first built, 515. 

Paulus Jovius, his motives for describing 
only Britain and Muscovy, 567. 

Peace, proclamation relating to that be- 
tween the earl of Ormond and the Irish, 
247. Articles of it, &c. ib. Remarks on 
those articles, &c. 262. 

Peada, prince of the Middle- Angles, is bap- 
tized with all his followers, 520. Hath 
South Mercia conferred on him by Oswi, 
521. Slain by the treachery of his wife, 
ib. 

Pechora, a river in Siberia, abounding 
with divers sorts of fowl, which serve for 
winter provision, 568. 

Peers, twelve ancient ones of the kings of 
France, 388. 

Pelagius, a Briton, brings new opinions 
into the church, 501. The Pelagian doc- 
trine refuted by Germanus, 505. Pela- 
gians are judged to banishment by Ger- 
manus, 506. 

Penda, the son of Wibba, king of Mercia, 
has the kingdom surrendered to him by 
Kearle, 518. He joins with Kedwalla 
against Edwin, 519. He slays Oswald in 
battle, ib. In another battle, Sigebert, 
520. In another, Anna, king of the East- 
Angles, ib. He is slain in a battle against 
Oswi, 521. 

Penissel, reckoned in the number of an- 
cientest British kings, 482. 

People of England, Defence of, against Sal- 
masius, 338. In the original Latin, 649. 
Second Defence of, 919. In the original 
Latin, 707. 

Peredure and Vigenius, expel their brother 
Elidure, and share the kingdom between 
them, 482. 

Perjury, an example of divine vengeance 
in Alfred, who conspired against King 
Athelstan, 538. 

Pern, Dr. his testimony concerning Martin 
Bucer, 160. 

Persians, their kings not absolute, 379. 
Frequently murdered their princes, ib. 



INDEX. 



Pestilence, prevents the invasion of the 

Scots and Picts, 506. 
Peter, St. commits to the presbyters only, 
full authority to feed the flock, and to 
episcopate, 32. His epistle concerning 
submission explained, 360. 
Petilius Cerealis, defeated by the Britons, 
492. He commands the Roman army in 
Britain, 493. 
Petronius Turpilianus, commands in chief 
in Britain, after Suetonius Paulinus, 493. 
Pharaoh, the consequences of his fear of 

the Israelites, 315. 
Pharisees, their question concerning' di- 
vorce, 173. Afraid lest Christ should 
abolish the judicial law, 195. 
Pharisees and Sadducees, though different 
sects, yet both met together in their com- 
mon worship of God, 563. 
Philip de Comities, his opinion of the Eng- 
lish government, 402. 
Philip IV., king of Spain, letters to him, 
588. Letter to him complaining of the 
murder of Ascham, 591. Another, de- 
siring speedy punishment may be inflict- 
ed on the murderers, ib. Another, com- 
plaining of the ill treatment of the Eng- 
lish merchants, 593. 
Philo Judteus, his definition of a king and a 

tyrant, 348, 349. 
Piety and Justice, our foundresses, not the 

common or civil law, 19. 
Pir, one of the ancientest race of British 

kings, 482. 
Picts and Scots, harass the south coasts of 

Britain, 500, &c. See Scots. 
Picts and Saxons, beaten by the Britons, 
through the pious conduct of Germanus, 
505. 
Plato, recommended the reading of Aris- 
tophanes to his scholar Dionysius, 105. 
In his book of laws, lays a restraint on 
the freedom of writing, 109. His saying 
of offspring, 180. How he would have 
magistrates called, 360. 
Pliny, his compliment to Trajan, 382. 

Commends the killing of Domitian, ib. 
Plows, a privilege of sanctuary granted 

them, 481. 
Poetasters, the corruption and bane of our 

youth, by their libidinous writings, 44. 
Poets, elegiac, Milton's fondness of them 
in his youth, 80. True ones enemies to 
despotism, 928. 
Poland, declaration for the election of John 

the Third, king of, 583. 
Pool, Cardinal, his reproof of Marinaro, a 

Carmelite, 194. 
Pope, title of Most Holy Father given him 
by a protestant prince, 344. As a tyrant, 
may be lawfully rooted out of the church, 
366. Why accounted Antichrist, 414. 
Popery, as being idolatrous, not to be tole- 
rated either in private or public, 564. 
Means to hinder the growth of it, ib. 
Amendment of life, the best means to 
avoid it, 565. Reasons against tolerating 
it, 417, 564. 
Porrex, slays his Drother Ferrex, 480. 
Whose death is revenged by his mother 
Videna, ib. Another of that name reck- 
oned in the catalogue of kings, 482. 
Portsmouth, denominated from the landing 
of Porta, a Saxon prince, with his two 
sons Bida and Megla, 509. 
Portugal. See John IV. 
Portugal agent, letter from the parliament 

to the, 592. 
Power, civil, not to use force in religious 

matters, 413, 417. 

Prasutagus, king of the Icenians, leaving 

Caesar coheir with his daughters, causes 

the Britons to revolt, 491. 

Prayer, for the true church against her 

prelatical enemies, 20, 21. Forms of 

prayer, not to be imposed on ministers, 

60. The Lord's Prayer no warrant for 

liturgies, ib. 314. Extempore prayer 

commended, 315. 

Preacher, his lips should give knowledge, 

not ceremonies, 46. 
Prelates, their character since their coming 
to the see of Canterbury, 18. Caution 
against their designs, 19, 20. By their 
leaden doctrine, bring an unactive blind- 
ness of mind on the people, 37. Counsel 
f ^ven them, 39. Their negligence in Ire- 
and, notorious in Queen Elizabeth's 
days, 40. Have disfigured true christian 
religion with superstitious vestures, 46. 
Have proclaimed mankind unpurified 
and contagious, 50. Reason of their fa- 
vouring Magna Charta in the time of 
popery, 52. Brand all with the name of 



schismatics, who find fault with their 
temporal dignities, and cruelty, 53. The 
greatest underminers and betrayers of 
the monarch, 54. What fidelity kings 
may expect from them, ib. Glorious 
actions of the peers and commons op- 
posed by them, ib. Motives for abolish- 
ing the prelatical order, ib. More sa- 
voury knowledge in one layman than in 
a dozen prelates, 62. Their wealth, how 
acquired, 65. Their cruelty, 87. More 
base and covetous than Simon Magus, 97. 
Account of their conduct, ib. 
Prelaty or Prelacy, weakens the regal 
power, 12, 13, 14. Its fall cannot affect 
the authority of princes, 14. Not the only 
church-government agreeable to mo- 
narchy, 17. Objections against reform- 
ation from prelaty, answered, 18. No 
more venerable than papacy, ib. Hath 
no foundation in the law or gospel, 32, 33, 
35. Prevents not schism, but rather pro- 
motes it, 36. Wedded with faction, never 
to be divorced, 37. Drew its original 
from schism, ib. A subject of discord 
and offence, 39. No free and splendid 
wit can flourish under it, 44. Opposes 
the reason and end of the gospel, first, in 
her outward form, 45. Secondly, in her 
ceremonious doctrine, ib. Thirdly, in 
her jurisdiction, 46. More antichristian 
than Antichrist himself, 52. The mischief 
it does in the state, ib. A carnal doc- 
trine, ib. Has the fatal gift, to turn every 
thing it touches into the dross of slavery, 
53. A grand imposture, 55. 
Prelatical Episcopacy, whether to be de- 
duced from the apostolical times, 22, &c. 
—Jurisdiction, opposes the end of the 
gospel, 46. 
Presbyterian, the only true church- govern- 
ment, 48. Aims at a compulsive power, 
268. 
Presbyterians, rallied for their conduct 
towards King Charles, 232, &c. Properly 
the men who first deposed, and then kill- 
ed him, 239, &c. Advice to their minis- 
ters, 242. Their claim of tithes animad- 
verted on, 429, 430. 
Press, the liberty of it pleaded for, while 
the bishops were to be run down, 113. 
Method for regulating it, 118. See Li- 
censing. 
Priests, their policy the way to deprive us 
of our protestant friends, 14. Imparity 
among them annulled, 35. 
Printing, unlicensed, speech for the liberty 
of, 103. If to be licensed, all recreations 
to be regulated also, 109. Reasons for 
the free, liberty thereof, 112, &c. 
Priscus Licinius, lieutenant in this isle 

under Hadrian, 496. 
Probus, subdues the usurper Bonosus, 
who falls in the battle, 498. Prevents 
new risings in Britain, ib. 
Professors of true religion, brought to gross 
idolatry by heinous transgressions, 566. 
Prolusiones Oratoriae, Lat. 843. 
Protagorus, his books commanded to be 

burnt by the judges of Areopagus, 105. 
Protestants, exhorted to be thankful for 
reformation, 65. Some of them live and 
die in implicit faith, 113. Assert it law- 
ful to depose tyrants, 347. Not obliged 
to believe as the state believes, 414. 
More criminal than papists, if they force 
tender consciences, 417. Reproved for 
depending too much on the clergy, 438. 
Cannot persecute those who dissent from 
them, without renouncing their own 
principles, 563. Disputes among them 
should be charitably inquired into, ib. 
Ought to allow a toleration, ib. Polonian 
and French protestants tolerated among 
papists, ib. Things indifferent not to be 
imposed by them, ib. 
Puckering, Jane, an heiress, carried into 
Flanders, 589. Reclaimed of the arch- 
duke, ib. 
Punishment, of two sorts, in this world and 
the other, 48. Severe ones in the reigns 
of King James and King Charles, com- 
plained of, 297. 
Purgatory, why rejected by prelaty, 52. 
Puritans, hated by King Charles I., 293. 
Who termed so, by the favourers of epis- 
copacy, 405. 

R 

Ramus, Peter, Life of, in Latin, 916. 

Randolf, Thomas, sent ambassador from 
Queen Elizabeth to Muscovy, 579. Ac- 
count of his audience of the emperor, ib. 



Readwulf, cut off with most of his army by 

the Danes at Alvetheli, 530. 
Reason of Church-government urged 

against Prelaty, 28. 
Reason, the gift of God in one man as well 
as in a thousand, 60. Trusted to man to 
direct his choice, 107. 
Rebellion, in Ireland, should hasten a re- 
formation, 40. 
Recreations, sometimes proper to relieve 

labour and intense thought, 181. 
Rederchius, reckoned among the ancient 

British kings, 482. 
Redion, another British king, 482. 
Redwald, king of the East-Angles, wars 
against Ethelfrid, and slays him, 517. 
Erected an altar to Christ, and another to 
his idols in the same temple, ib. 
Reformation (Of) in England, and the 

causes that have prevented it, 1. 
Reformation, the want of this the cause of 
rebellion, 40. The ready way to quell 
the barbarous Irish rebels, 41. 
Reformations, of the good kings of Judah, 

vehement and speedy, 18. 
Reformed Churches abroad, ventured out 
of popery into what is called precise pu- 
ritanism, ib. Abolished episcopacy, not- 
withstanding the testimonies brought to 
support it, 27. 
Regin, son of Gorbonian, a good king, 482. 
Religion, not wounded by disgrace thrown 
on the prelates, 85. The corrupters of it 
enemies to civil liberty, 90. Not promot- 
ed by force, 417, &c. What is true reli- 
gion, 562. 
Remonstrance, by a dutiful Son of the 
Church, remarks on that author's con- 
duct, 77, &c. 
Remonstrant 1 s Defence against Smectym- 

nuus, Animadversions on, 55. 
Rhee, unfortunate expedition against that 

island, 297. 
Richard II., commons requested to have 
judgment declared against him, 237. How 
the parliament treated him, and his evil 
counsellors, 289. 
Richard the protector, letters of state writ- 
ten in his name, 634. 
Ridley, Bishop, at his degradement, dis- 
liked and condemned ceremonies, 18. 
Rivallo, succeeds his father Cunedagius, 

480. 
Rivetus, his opinion concerning dispensa- 
tion, refuted, 141. 
Roald, a Danish leader, slain near the 

Severn, 537. 
Rochellers, English shipping sent against 

them, 297. 
Rollo, the Dane or Norman, having fought 
unsuccessfully here, turns his forces into 
France, and conquers Normandy, 535. 
Romans, their slaves allowed to speak their 
minds freely once a year, 57. At what time 
they came first to Britain, 483. Land 
there under the conduct of Julius Caesar, 
484. Their sharp conflict with the Britons 
near the Stowre in Kent, 486. The cruel 
massacre of the Britons upon them, 492. 
They leave the island, 500. They come 
and aid the Britons against the Scots and 
Picts, ib. They help them to build a new 
wall, 504. Instruct them in war, and take 
their last farewell, ib. 
Romanus, named among the four sons of 
Histion, sprung of Japhet, and from him 
the Romans fabled to be derived, 476. 
Rome, christian, not so careful to prevent 
tyranny in her church, as pagan Rome 
was in 'the state, 48. 
Rossomakka, a beast so called, strange way 

of bringing forth her young, 569. 
Rowen, the daughter of Hengist, sent for 
over by her father, 507. She presents 
King Vortigern with a bowl of wine by 
her father's command, ib. She is upon 
the king's demand given him in mar- 
riage, ib. 
Rudaucus, king of Cambria, subdued in 
fight, and slam by Dunwallo Molmutius, 
480. 
Rudhuddibras, succeeds his father Leil, 
and founds Canterbury, with several 
other places, 479. 
Runno, the son of Peredure, not immediate 

successor, 482. 
Russia, ceremony and magnificence of the 
emperor's coronation, 574. First dis- 
covery of it by the north-east, 577. The 
English embassies and entertainments at 
that court, 578. One of Queen Elizabeth's 
kinswomen demanded by the emperor 
for a wife, 580. Oliver's letter to the em- 
peror of, 623. 

11 



INDEX. 



Putsia?is, account of their civil govern- 
ment, 569. Their revenues, 570., Mili- 
tary forces and discipline, ib. Ttieir re- 
ligion and marriages, ib. Their burials 
and manners, ib. Their habit, and way 
of travelling-, 571. 



S 



Sabra, thrown into the river, (thence called 
Sabrina,) with her mother Estrildis, by 
Guendolen, 479. 

Sail ust, the chief of the Latin historians, 
961. 

Salmacis, caution against bathing in that 
stream, 340. 

Salmasius, remarks on his defence of the 
king, 338, &c. His opinion of episcopacy, 
341. Was once a counsellor at law, 344. 
His complaint that executioners in vi- 
zards cut off the king's head, 345. His 
definition of a king, 347. Differs from 
himself in ecclesiastics and politics, 367. 
Taxed with receiving a hundred Jaco- 
buses as a bribe, 376, 395. An advocate 
for tyranny, 387. Lord of St. Lou, the 
meaning of that word, 392, note. His 
Anglicisms remarked, 395. See Defence 
of the People of England. 

Samoedia, Siberia, and other countries, 
subject to the Muscovites, described, 571. 
Manners of the inhabitants, ib. 

Samothes, the first king that history or fable 
mentions to have peopled this island, 476. 

Sampson, kings compared to him, 54. 
Counted it no act of impiety to kill the 
enslavers of his country, 368. 

Samuel, deposed for the"misgovernment of 
his sons, 234. His scheme of sovereignty 
explained, 3-50. 

Samulius, recorded among the ancient 
British kings, 482. 

Sardanapalus, deprived of his crown by 
Arbaces, assisted by the priests, 379. 

Saron, the second king named among the 
successors of Samothes, 476. 

Satires, toothless, the impropriety of the 
epithet, 88. 

Saul, a good king or a tyrant, according as 
it suits Salmasius, 369. 

Savoy, duke of See Immanuel. 

Saxons, parliaments in their time had the 
supreme power, 396. Harass the south 
coast of Britain, slay Nectaridius, and 
Bulcobandes, 500. Their character, 507. 
Their original, ib. Invited into Britain 
by Vortigern, aid the Britons against 
the Scots and Picts, ib. They arrive, led 
by Hengist and Horsa, ib. They beat 
the Scots and Picts near Stamford, ib. 
Fresh forces sent them over, and their 
bounds enlarged, ib. They waste the 
land without resistance, 508. Beaten by 
Guortimer in four battles, and driven 
into Thanet, ib. Assassinate three hun- 
dred Britons treacherously, and seize 
Vortigern, 509. Most of them return into 
their own country, ib. The rest defeated 
by Ambrosius Aurelianus, and the Bri- 
tons, ib. 

Saxons and Picts. See Picts. 

Schism, the apostles' way to prevent it, 38. 
Mitres the badges of schism, ib. May 
happen in a true church as well as in a 
false one, 563. 

Schismatics, those only such, according to 
the prelates, who dislike their abomina- 
tions and cruelties in the church, 37, 38. 

Sca?va, a Roman soldier, his extraordinary 
bravery in Britain, 484. Is advanced oh 
that account, ib. 

Scots icriters, their opinion of kings, 238. 
Nation, by whom first mentioned, 498. 

Scots, reasons for their ill-treatment of 
Queen Mary, 238. King Charles a native 
king to them, 286. 

Scots, Picts, and Attacots, harass the south 
coast of Britain, 500. Overcome by 
Maximus, ib. Scots possessed Ireland 
first, and named it Scotia, ib. Scots and 
Picts beaten by the Romans, sent to the 
aid of the Britons, 504. They make spoil 
and havock with little or no opposition, 
•505. 

Scriptures, only, able to satisfy us of the 
divine constitution of episcopacy, 22. 
The only balance to weigh the fathers 
in, 27. To be relied on against all an- 
tiquity, ib. To be admired for their 
clearness, 29. The just and adequate 
measure of truth, 64. Several texts re- 
lating to marriage and divorce explained, 
178, &c. Reading the Scriptures dili- 
12 



gently, a means to prevent the growth 
of popery, 565. 

Sea overwhelms several towns in England, 
with many thousands of inhabitants, 54a 

Sebbi, having reigned 30 years, takes the 
habit of a monk, 522. 

Sebert, the son of Sleda, reigns over the 
East-Saxons by permission of Ethel bert, 
515. 

Sects and schisms, among us, should hasten 

a reformation from prelacy, 39, &c. 

and errours, permitted by God to try our 
faith, ib. Sent as an incitement to re- 
formation, ib. May be in a true church, 
as well as in a false one, 563. Authors 
of them sometimes learned and religious 
men, ib. 

Segonax, one of the four petty kings in 
Britain that assaulted Caesar's camp, 487. 

Seius Saturninus, commands the Roman 
navy in Britain, 496. 

Selden, Mr. according to him, errours are 
of service to the attainment of truth, 107. 

Selred, the son of Sigebert the good, suc- 
ceeds Olfa in the East-Saxon kingdom, 
and comes to a violent end, 52-5. 

Senate, or council of state, proposed, 440, 
441. Not to be successive, 446. Com- 
plaint from the English senate to the city 
of Hamborough, of the ill usage of their 
merchants, 587. 

Seneca, his opinion of punishing tyrants, 
236, 382. Extortions the Britons, 492. 

Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor, 
arrives with an army in this island, 497. 
His ill success against the Caledonians, 
ib. Nevertheless goes on and brings 
them to terms of peace, ib. Builds a wall 
across the island, from sea to sea, ib. 
They taking arms again, he sends his son 
Antoninus against them, 498. He dies at 
York, ib. 

Sermon, remarks on one preached before 
the lords and commons, 176. 

Sesell, Claudius, his saying of the French 
parliament, 233. 

Severn river, whence named, 479. 

Severus, sent over deputy into this island 
by the emperor Valentinian, 500. 

Sexburga, the wife of Kenwalk, driven out 
by the nobles, 522. 

Sexted and Seward, reestablish heathenism 
in East-Saxony, after the death of their 
father Sebert, 516. In a fight against the 
Britons they perish with their whole 
army, 517. 

Shaftesbury, by whom built, 479. 

Shame, or the reverence of our elders, 
brothers, and friends, the greatest incite- 
ment to virtuous deeds, 49. 

Ships, 3600 employed to guard the coasts of 
England, 541. 

Sichardus, his opinion of the power of 
kings, 352. 

Sic/ear d and Senfred, succeed their father 
Sebbi in the East-Saxon kingdom, 525. 

Sigebert, succeeds his brother Eorpwald in 
the kingdom of the East- Angles, 519. He 
founds a school or college, thought to be 
Cambridge, and betakes himself to a mo- 
nastical life, 520. Being forced into the 
field against Penda, is slain with his kins- 
man Egric, ib. 

Sigebert, surnamed the small, succeeds his 
father Seward king of the East-Saxons, 
520. His successor Sigebert the 2d is 
persuaded to embrace Christianity, ib. 
Murdered by the conspiracy of two bre- 
thren, ib. His death denounced by the 
bishop for eating with an excommuni- 
cated person, ib.521. 

Sigebert, the kinsman of Cuthred, succeeds 
him in the West-Saxon kingdom, 525. 

Siger, the son of Sigebert the small, and 
Sebbi the son of Seward, succeed in the 
government of the East-Saxons after 
Swithelm's decease, 521. 

Silures, a people of Britain, choose Carac- 
tacus for their leader against the Romans, 
490. They continue the war against 
Ostorius and others, ib. 

Simonist, who the first in England, 522. 

Simon Zelotes, by some said to have 
preached the christian faith in this island, 
496. 

Sin, not to be allowed by law, 138. Such 
an allowance makes God the author of it, 
140. 

Sisilius, succeeds Jago, 480. 

Sisilius, the son of Guitheline, succeeds his 
mother Martia, 4S1. Another of that 
name reckoned in the number of the an- 
cient British kings, 482. 

Siward, earl of Northumberland, sent by 



Hardecnute, together with Leofric, 
against the people of Worcester, 553. He 
and Leofric raise forces for King Edward 
against Earl Godwin, 555. He makes an 
expedition into Scotland, vanquishes 
Macbeth, and placeth in his stead Mal- 
colm son of the Cumbrian king, 556. He 
dies at York in an armed posture, 557. 

Sleda, erects the kingdom of the East- 
Saxons, 510. 

Smectymnuus, Animadversions upon the 
Remonstrant's Defence against, 55. Au- 
thor's reasons for undertaking its apo- 
logy, 75. 

Smith, Sir Tlwmas, in his commonwealth 
of England, asserts the government to be 
a mixed one, 392. 

Smith, Sir Thomas, sent ambassador from 
King James to the emperor of Russia, 
581. His reception and entertainment at 
Moscow, ib. 

Sobietski, John, elected king of Poland, 
583. Encomium on his virtues and those 
of his ancestors, 584. 

Socinians, their notions of the Trinity, 563. 

Soldiers, their duties, 940. 

Solomon, his song, a divine pastoral drama, 
43. His counsel to keep the king's com- 
mandment, explained, 349. Compared 
with King Charles, 357. 

Songs, throughout the law and prophets, 
incomparable above all the kinds of lyric 
poesy, 44. 

Sophocles, introduces Tiresias complaining 
that he knew more than other men, 42. 

Sorbonists, devoted to the Roman religion, 
quoted by Salmasius, 366. 

South-Saxon kingdom, by whom erected, 
509. South-Saxons, on what occasion 
converted to the christian faith, 522. 

Sozomen, his account of the primitive bi- 
shops, 316. Commends a christian soldier 
for killing Julian the apostate, 373. 

Spain, king of. See Philip IV '. 

prime minister of, letter from Oliver 

to, 604. 

Spalatto, bishop of, wrote against the pope, 
yet afterwards turned papist, 73. 

Spanheim, remarks on his notions of di- 
vorce, 206. 

Spanheim, Ezechiel, letter to, 958. 

Spaniards, Manifesto against their depre- 
dations, 639. In Latin, 823. 

Spanish ambassador, letters from the par- 
liament to the, 591, 594, 596, 598, 601, 602. 

Sparta, kings of, sometimes put to death by 
the laws of Lycurgus, 334. 

Spelman, Sir Henry, condemns the taking 
of fees at sacraments, marriages, and 
burials, 430, 431. 

Spenser, in his eclogue of May, inveighs 
against the prelates, 71. His description 
of temperance, 108. 

States of the United Provinces, treated by 
us in an unfriendly manner, from princi- 
ples instilled by the prelates, 14. Oliver's 
letter to them in favour of the Pied- 
montois, 607. His other letters to them 
on different subjects, 613, 614, 616, 619, 
627. 

Staterius, king of Albany, is defeated and 
slain in fight by Dunwallo Molmutius, 
480. 

Stilicho, represses the invading Scots and 
Picts, 500. 

Strafford, earl of, an account of his be- 
haviour and conduct, 280. Who guilty of 
his death, 282. 

Studies, what sort proper for the education 
of youth, 99, &c. 

Stuff and Withgar, the nephews of Kerdic, 
bring him new levies, 510. They inherit 
what he won in the Isle of Wight, 511. 

Sturinius, John, his testimony concerning 
Martin Bucer, 159. 

Subject of England, what makes one, 239. 

Suetonius Paulinus, lieutenant in Britain, 
attacks the Isle of Anglesey, 491. 

Suidhelm, succeeds Sigebert in the kingdom 
of the East-Saxons, 521. He is baptized 
by Kedda, ib. 

Sulpitius Severus, what he says of a king, 
378. 

Superstition, the greatest of burdens, 122. 

Swane, makes great devastations in the 
west of England, 545. He carries all be- 
fore him as far as London, but is there 
repelled, 546. Styled king of England, 
547. He sickens and dies, ib. 

Swane. the son of Earl Godwin, treache- 
rously murders his kinsman Beorn, 554. 
His peace wrought with the king by 
Aldred bishop of Worcester, ib. Touch- 
ed in conscience for the slaughter of 



INDEX. 



Beorn, he goes barefoot to Rome, and re- 
turning home dies in Lycia, 556. 

Sweden, king of. See Charles Gustavus. 

Swithred, the last king of the East-Saxon 
kingdom, driven out by Ecbert the West- 
Saxon, 525, 528. 

Switzerland, letter to their evangelical 
cantons from the English commonwealth, 
601. From Oliver, 608, 611, 629. 



Tacitus, falsely quoted by Salmasius, 381. 
One of the greatest enemies to tyrants, ib. 

Tarentum, prince of, Oliver's letter to him, 
605. 

Tarquins, enemies to the liberty of Rome, 
447. 

Taximagultis, a petty British king, one of 
the four that assaulted Caesar's camp, 487. 

Tenuantius, one of the sons of Lud, has 
Cornwall allotted him, 482. Made king 
alter the death of Cassibelan, 488. 

Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 231. 

Tertullian, his opinion of divorce, 213. 

Tetrachordon, on the four chief Places in 
Scripture treating of Marriage, or Nulli- 
ties in Marriage, 175. 

Teudric, a warlike king of Britain, said to 
have exchanged his crown for a hermit- 
age, 514. To have taken up arms again 
in aid of his son Mouric, ib. 

Theobald, the brother of King Ethelfrid, 
slain at Degsastan, 515. 

Theodore, a monk of Tarsus, ordained 
bishop of Canterbury, 521. By his means 
the liberal arts and the Greek and Latin 
tongues flourished among the Saxons, ib. 

Theodosius, the emperor, held under ex- 
communication for eight months, by St. 
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, 19. His law 
concerning divorce, 215. Decreed the 
law to be above the emperor, 334. 

Theodosius, sent over by Valentinian, en- 
ters London victoriously, 500. Sends for 
Civilis and Dulcitius, ib. Punishes Va- 
lentinus a Pannonian conspiring against 
him, ib. Returns with applause to Va- 
lentinian, ib. 

Theodosius, the son of the former, preferred 
to the empire, 500. Overcomes and slays 
Maximus, usurping the empire, ib. 

Thurfert, and divers other Danish lords, 
submit to King Edward the elder, 537. 

Tiberius, his cruel wish, 34. Had no right 
to the succession, 362. 

Timothy, received ordination by the hands 
of the presbytery, 34. Not bishop of any 
particular place, 67. 

Tingoesia, discovered by the Russians, 
572. Manners of the Tingoesi, ib. 

Tithes, why to be abolished under the gos- 
pel, 425, &c. Disallowed by foreign pro- 
testants, 425. Authorities brought by 
the advocates for tithes, 426. 

Titilus, succeeds his father Uffa in the 
kingdom of the East- Angles, 510. 

Togodumnus, the second son of Cunobe- 
hne, succeeds in the kingdom, 488. Is 
overthrown by Aulus Plautius, ib. Slain 
in battle, 489. 

Toledo, council of, allow of no cause of di- 
vorce, except for fornication, 224. 

Toleration of differences not fundamental, 
recommended, 117. 

Tosti, the son of Godwin, made earl of 
Northumberland, in the room of Siward, 
557. He swears brotherhood with Mal- 
colm, king of Scotland, ib. Goes to Rome 
with Aldred, bishop of York, ib. The 
Northumbrians expel him, ib. A story 
of great outrage and cruelty committed 
by him at Hereford, 558. Driven out of 
the country by Edwin and Morcar, 559. 
Joining with Harold Harvager, king of 
Norway, against his brother, is slain to- 
gether with Harvager in the battle, 560. 

Tours city, whence named, 478. 

Trade nourishes most in free common- 
wealths, 450. 

Traditions of the church, dissonant from 
the doctrine of the apostles, in point of 
episcopacy, 26. Counted nearly equal to 
the written word in the ancient church, 
194. Strictly commanded to be rejected, 

Trajan, his speech to the general of his 
pretonan forces, 234, 388. Pliny's com- 
pliment to him, 382 

Transilvania, prince of, Oliver's letter to 
him, 606. 

Trebellius Maximus, sent into Britain in 
the room of Petronius Turpilianus, 493. 



Trinity, Arian and Socinian notions of the, 
563. 

Trinobantes, fall off from Cassibelan, sub- 
mit to Caesar, and recommend Mandu- 
bratius to his protection, 487. "With the 
Icenians rise up against the Romans. 492. 

True Religion (Of,) Heresy, Schism, Tole- 
ration, and the best Means against the 
Growth of Popery, 562. 

Truth, the daughter of Heaven, nursed up 
between the doctrine and discipline of 
the Gospel, 25. Love of truth, true elo- 
quence, 96. Errours of service to the at- 
tainment of, 107. Of her coming into the 
world, and her treatment there, 115. 
Needs no stratagem to make her victo- 
rious, 117. According to Zorobabel, the 
strongest of all things, 333. Truth and 
justice compared, ib. 

Tullius Marcus, no friend to kings, 350. 
Extols the killing of Caesar in the senate, 
382, 390. Affirms that all power proceeds 
from the people, 395. 

Tumults, at Whitehall, not so dangerous as 
those at Sechem, 284. Who the probable 
cause of them, ib. The effects of an evil 
reign, ib. 

Turkil, a Danish earl, assaults Canterbury, 
but is bought off, 546. He swears alle- 
giance to King Ethelred, that under 
that pretence he might stay and give in- 
telligence to Swane, 547. He leaves the 
English again, and joins with Canute, 
548. His greatness suspected by Canute, 
he is banished the realm, 551. 

Turkitel, a Danish leader, submitting to 
King Edward, obtains leave of him to go 
and try his fortune in France, 537. 

Turks, what privileges they enjoy, 330. 

Tuscany, great duke of. See Ferdinand. 

Typographical luxury complained of by 
Milton, 959. 

Tyranny, the opposers of it described, 89. 

Tyrants, reasons for punishing them, 231, 
'&c. What they are, 235. Held not only 
lawful, but glorious and heroic, to kill 
them, by the Greeks and Romans, ib. 
236. Instances of several punished in the 
Jewish times, 236. How they have been 
treated in christian times, ib. Fear and 
envy good men, 313. More commenda- 
ble to depose than to set up one, 354. 
Examples of several deposed and put to 
death by Christians, 372, &c. Submitted 
to by necessity only, 377. Divine honours 
ascribed to such as killed them by the 
Grecians, 380. Definition of a tyrant by 
Aristotle, 406. Easily extirpated in 
Greece and Rome, 919. 



Valentinian, his law of divorce, 215. Sends 
over several deputies successively into 
this island, 500. 

Valerius Asiaticus, vindicates the killing 
Caligula, 382. 

Valerius Publicola, for what reason he de- 
vised the Valerian law, 382. 

Vane, Charles, sent as agent from the Eng- 
lish commonwealth to Lisbon, 589. 

Vatablus, his opinion of divorce, 187. 

Vectius Bolanus, sent into Britain in the 
room of Trebellius Maximus, 493. 

Vellocatus, married by Cartismandua, 491. 

Venice, letters to the duke and senate, from 
the English council of state, 594, 599. 
Others from Oliver, 610, 626. 

Venutius, a king of the Brigantes, deserted 
by his wife Cartismandua, 491. He rights 
himself against her by arms, ib. Makes 
war successfully against those taking 
part with his wife, ib. 

Verannius, succeeds A. Didius in the Bri- 
tish wars, 491. 

Vespasian, fighting under Plautius against 
the Britons, is rescued from danger by 
his son Titus, 489. For his eminent ser- 
vices here, he receives triumphal orna- 
ments at Rome, ib. 

Uffa, erects the kingdom of the East-Angles, 
510. From him his successors called 
Uffings, ib. 

Victorinus, a Moor, appeases a commotion 
in Britain, 498. 

Victorinus, of Tolosa, made prefect of this 
island, 501. 

Victred, the son of Ecbert, obtaining the 
kingdom of Kent, settles all things in 
peace, 522, 523. After 34 years reign, he 
deceaseth, 524. 

Videna, slays her son Porrex in revenge of 
her other son Ferrex, 480. 



Vigenius and Peredure, expelling their 
brother Elidure, share the kingdom be- 
tween them, 482. 

Virgil, misquoted for the unlimited power 
of kings, 349. 

Virius Lupus, has the north part of the go- 
vernment assigned him by Severus the 
emperor, 497. 

Virtue, ever highly rewarded by the an- 
cient Romans, 489. The only foundation 
of true liberty, 947. 

Ulfketel, duke of the East- Angles, sets upon 
the Danes with great valour, 546. His 
army defeated through the subtlety of a 
Danish servant, ib. He is slain with 
several other dukes, at the fatal battle of 
Assandune, 549. 

Ulpius Marcellus, sent lieutenant into 
Britain by Commodus, ends the war by 
his valour and prudence, 496. 

United Provinces. See States. 

Vortigern, his character, 506. Advised by 
his council to invite in the Saxons against 
the Scots and Picts, ib. He bestows 
upon Hengist and the Saxons, the Isle of 
Thanet, 507. Then all Kent upon a mar- 
riage with Rowen, Hengist's daughter, 
ib. Condemned in a synod for incest 
with his daughter, he retires to a castle 
in Radnorshire, 508. His son Guortimer 
dead, he resumes the government, ib. 
Drawn into a snare by Hengist, 509. Re- 
tiring again, is burnt in his tower, ib. 

Vortipor, reigns in Demetia, or South 
Wales, 513. 

Vows, remarks on those of King Charles, 
326. 

Urianus, reckoned in the number of an- 
cient British kings, 482. 

Uther Pendragon, thought to be the same 
with Natanleod, 510. 

Uthred, submits himself with the Northum- 
brians to Swane, 547. To Canute, 548. 
He is slain by Turebrand a Danish lord, 
549. His victory over Malcolm king of 
Scots, ib. 

Uxbridge, attack at Brentford, during the 
treaty there, 318. 

Uzziah, thrust out of the temple for his 
opinioned zeal, 310. Thrust out of the 
temple as a leper by the priests, 352. 
Ceased to be king, ib. 



W 



Waldenses, denied tithes to be given in the 
primitive church, 428. Maintained their 
ministers by alms only, 434, 435. 

Wedlock, exposition of several texts of 
Scripture relating to it, 170. When unfit, 
ungodly, and discordant, to be dissolved 
by divorce, 204. See Marriage, <jf-c. 

Wen, fable of the Wen, head and members 
of the body, 13. 

Wesembechius, his opinion concerning di- 
vorce, 218. 

Westfriezland, letter from the Protector 
Richard to the states of that province, 
636. 

Westminster-Abbey, rebuilt and endowed 
by Edward the Confessor, 554. 

West- Saxon kingdom, by whom erected, 
510. West-Saxons and their kings con- 
verted to the christian faith by Berinus, 
519. 

Wibba, succeeds Crida in the Mercian 
kingdom, 514. 

Wickliffe, before the bishops in the reform- 
ation, 74. 

Wilbrod, a priest, goes over with 12 others 
to preach the gospel in Germany, 523. 
Countenanced by Pepin, chief regent of 
the Franks, and made first bishop of that 
nation, ib. 

Wilfred, bishop of the Northumbrians, de- 
prived by Ecfrid of his bishopric, wan- 
ders as far as Rome, 522. Returning, 
plants the gospel in the Isle of Wight, and 
other places assigned him, ib. Has the 
fourth part of that island given him by 
Kedwalla, which he bestows on Bertwin, 
a priest, his sister's son, ib. 

Wilfrida, a nun, taken by force, and kept 
as a concubine by King Edgar, 543. 

William the Conqueror, swears to behave 
as a good king ought to do, 393, 561. Re- 
markable law of Edward the Confessor, 
confirmed by him, 400. Honourably en- 
tertained by King Edward, and richly 
dismissed, 555. He betroths his daugh- 
ter to Harold, who swears 'to assist him 
to the crown of England, 558. Sending 
after King Edward's death, to demand 
13 



INDEX. 



performance of his promise, is put off 
with a slight answer, 5.59. He lands with 
an army at Hastings, 560. Overthrows 
Harold," who, with his two brothers, is 
slain in battle, ib. Crowned at West- 
minster by Aldred, archbishop of York, 
561. 

William of Malmsbury, a better historian 
than any of his predecessors, 524. His 
account'of the dissoluteness of manners, 
both of the English clergy and laity, 561. 

Willowby, Sir Hugh, made admiral of a 
fleet, for the discovery of the northern 
parts, 577. Puts into Arzina in Lapland, 
where he and his company perish with 
cold. ib. 

Winchester, by whom built, 479. 

Wine, if prohibited to be imported, might 
prevent drunkenness, 193. 

Wipped, a Saxon earl, slain at a place call- 
ed Wippedsfieot, which thence took its 
denomination, 508. 

Withgar. See Stuf. 

Withgarbvrgh, in the Isle of Wight, the 
burial place of Withgar, 511. 

Withlaf, the successor of Ludiken, van- 
quished by Ecbert, to whom all Mercia 
becomes tributary, 529. 



Wologda, in Russia, winter and summer 

churches there, 569. 
Wolves, when and by whom rooted out of 

England, 542. 
Woman, that she should give law to man, 

said to be awry from the law of God and 

nature, 481. 
Writing, freedom of it to be allowed, 103, 

113. The restraint of it a discourage- 
ment to learned and religious men, 113, 

114. See Licensing. 

Wulfer, the son of Penda, set up by the 
Mercian nobles, in the room of his bro- 
ther Oswi, 521. Said to have been taken 
prisoner by Kenwalk, the West-Saxon, ib. 
He takes and wastes the Isle of Wight, 
but causes the inhabitants to be bap- 
tized, ib. Gives the island to Ethelwald, 
king of South-Saxons, ib. Sends Jaru- 
m annus to recover the East-Saxons, fallen 
off the second time from Christianity, ib. 
Lindsey taken from him by Ecfrid of 
Northumberland, 522. His death accom- 
panied with the stain of simony, ib. 

Wulfherd, King Ethelwolf's chief captain, 
drives back the Danes at Southampton 
with great slaughter, 530. He dies the 
same year, as it is thought, of age, ib. 



Wulketul, earl of Ely, put to flight with his 
whole army, by the Danes, 532, 



Xenophon, according to him, tyrannicides 
were honoured by the people, 380. 



Ymner, king of Loegria, with others, slain 
in battle by Dunwallo Molmutius, 480. 

Youth, exercise and recreations proper for 
them, 101. 



Zeal, poetical description of it, 83, 84. Re- 
commended by the Scripture, in re- 
proving notorious faults, 84. 

Zipporah, sent away by Moses for her pro- 
faneness, 131. 

Zones, Salmasius's account of them, 392. 

Zorobabel, asserted truth to be the strong- 
est of all things, 333. 



THE END. 



liUNGAY: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. R. AND-C. CH1LDS. 



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